I don't own "Lois & Clark the new adventures", Ranma 1/2 or Sailor Moon. No copyright infringement is intended by this fanfic.

 Before reading this you need to have read Arthur Hansen's three short stories dealing with GI Jane.

 A Hero Is Born, Of Ash and Despair, ...To True Heroism.

Even True Villains

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 The Valley of Ashes Mystery Island 1999.

 The wind was bitter filled with a hints of the ice found on the mountain's peak far above, it came moaning into the small valley carrying a cargo of sleet that pinged on the aircraft and pelted the six waiting men.  The men shivered and hunched over acting as if the wind was carrying an even heavier load, the fading voices of all who were buried before. Ralph Nilgerson gave an involuntary shiver forcing down the memories of other funerals even as he pulled his dress uniform closer turning his back to the sleet and raising his ornate collar to ward off the cold, if not the memories. After a moment he felt an approaching presence and motioned to an aid holding a plain wooden box.  

Ralph turned from his aid the box now held tightly in his hands and faced into the sleet an instant before the whine of turbines joined the cold wind's moaning voices. He watched as the hover hearst cleared the valley's small pass the turbines shifting frequencies as they skimmed the vehicle over or around  large boulders. The unmarked aircraft flying escort in the high guard position, needed no introduction. Ralph had been feeling Adolf's unshielded crystal skull for several kilometers, the ancient artifact had a unique feel in his senses, like no other from the age of the Silver Queens.

His mood darkening Ralph watched as the family members arrayed themselves Adolf taking charge of each of the young children putting the boy under his right arm and the girl under his left he guided them into the ritualistic death march headed by the Urn held in the widow's hands. He hated this part of a funeral, the procession would take all of five minutes to reach him and it gave him far to much time to think.  Fighting the urge to frown Ralph watched as Adolf and the children took the part of family mourners for the dead following a step behind the widow. Ralph's mind filled with questions and thoughts about the repercussions of Adolf's actions.  Why had he decided to play the part of a family mourner? What was he working at?  Was he trying to dispel some of  the rumours around the highly placed operatives death?  Each question rolled  through his mind and weighed heavily against private knowledge.

Blinking in Ralph managed to suppress his surprise as the Widow seemed to suddenly appear handing the urn to the Aid on Ralph's left. Waiting a heartbeat Ralph placed the ancient wooden box on the waiting arms of the Aid on his right and took a moment to concentrate on the wind and sleet around them. A transparent bubble suddenly formed encompassing Ralph, both Aids and the Widow. It was made visible by the sleet pelting it's surface and sliding slowly to the ground, it silenced the wind and distanced the voices. Returning his attention to the box he opened the box the crude hinges raising their own voice calling to those in the wind. He released the silver netting that covered the pennants and carefully removed them examining each as he refolded it laying each aside on the wooden lid before taking the next.

Finally folding of the fourth pennant Ralph retrieved the first three and turned from the box stepping forward and releasing them, his telekinesis ensuring the cloth kept it's shape and intended trajectory as they dropped into the widow's hands. Taking ceremonial step back he raised his eyes and for the first time met the widow's. His face solemn eyes never leaving the widow's face Ralph made a show of searching her features for any sign of sadness. Instead he actually focused over her shoulder and watched as his long time friend and sometimes rival consoled the operative's children hugging the young girl and her brother.  Their eyes and Adolf's were filled with tears, while in contrast their mother observed the traditional role of a Mc Tvern widow and solemnly completed her part of the ritual. Her husband had died working for the goals of the League and as with all of her clan among the League she would not shed a public tear.

Finally Ralph lowered his head and turning away he released the widow and the family to leave. He watched out of the corner of his eye as the widow quickly lowered a heavy veil as her children were running to her side each taking a arm. They turned to leave slowly following the other family members back to the hearst.  Ralph couldn't quite keep the frown off his face as Adolf broke yet another tradition and lingered by his side not leaving with the operatives family.  Ralph stood waiting his aid still holding the burial urn questions once again buzzing in his mind as he resolved what to ask his sometimes friend.

Adolf sighed as he watched the hover hearse leave carrying the widow and children, turning to his long time rival and sometime friend he was surprised to find him watching his face instead of the departing transport. After several moments spent continuing to silently contemplate Adolf's face Ralph finally spoke saying "What happened Adolf? There hasn't been a teleport accident in the last twenty years and the last teleport related death was nearly fifty years ago. I thought the man was your personal choice to replace you when you finally decide to retire?"

Adolf  returned the stare a flicker of pain and anger crossing his face for a moment as he silently removed a small chunk of blackened and fractured diamond from his pocket, a couple of centimeters of  fused and melted titanium chain poked stiffly from the top of the heat shattered artifact. Tossing what was obviously the remains of a teleport focus to Ralph he finally spoke saying "This along with some ash is all we recovered from my..." After a moments hesitation Adolf continued speaking  saying "My highest rated operative and the man I was grooming to replace me. His work in the Middle East was flawless, the front organization he created and the contacts it has made will serve the League well in the coming decades. His idea to manipulate the..."

His attention no longer focused on Adolf's rant Ralph slowly turned the damaged crystal over examining it closely and marveling at the damage to the synthetic diamond. It wasn't supposed to shatter or shear off this way. Unlike natural diamond the crystalline structure of a teleport focus was packed with carefully tailored molecular level  inclusions and discontinuities that made up the extremely complex circuits that it required. Those inclusions and discontinuities should have prevented it from having any shear planes and yet exactly half the device was missing, victim to an  apparent shear that had split it. The remaining portion of the crystal was a crazy quilt of fractures that had turned what should have been crystal clear gem into a milky white stone.

"Thanks to his work soon we will be able to break Ameri..." Adolf's rant already winding down came to an abrupt halt as he notice Ralph's intense scrutiny of the destroyed crystal. After fuming for an instant at both Ralph's ability to divert him so easily and the man's almost untouchable status conferred by a relationship with the clone of former Lady Callisto's he abruptly switched subjects saying "We aren't certain, but we think that tame alien monster the American military has was probably in the process of crushing the teleport focus when it was activated. I think..." Choking on the dead operatives assumed name Adolf  paused a flicker of emotion crossing his face before he continued saying "I think the operative deliberately activated it in an attempt to kill GI Jane. He is a true hero for humanity and the League."

Continuing to examine the crystal Ralph Silently chided Adolf for letting his hatred blind him again to the more likely possibilities.  He too had read the Metropolis police report and unlike his hate blinded friend he believed the statements GI Jane, Superman and Ultrawoman had given to the police involved with the terror "incident".  Every League psychological study and profile on the alien male had concluded it had a hero complex and was truthful to a fault, while the profiles on it's alien mate characterized her as being honest, but tempered with a far more practical view about such things.

Frowning slightly Ralph wondered if the military's tame alien was also the male's mate. The comings and goings of the kryptonians was more of a mystery that it should be, but there was little they could do about that. The League had quickly learned after Superman's appearance that something about the alien and the other aliens fuzzed their equipment and artifacts. It made tracking an exercise in frustration.  They weren't completely immune to the League's so called magic, as a few discreet attacks had demonstrated, but something about the aliens interfered in odd ways with the ancient Queens technology or "magic" and made getting predictable results with League technology nearly  impossible.

Ralph believed and the tech wizards agreed it was probably GI Jane's direct contact or near direct contact through the shirt that had caused the malfunction of the Teleport focus and been the death of the operative.  Ralph absently handed back the shattered crystal to Adolf silently noting the still tear filled eyes and the careful way he pocketed the shattered stone as he said his good-bye. Adolf seemed to hesitate for a moment almost speaking and it was all Ralph could do not to lean forward in anticipation finally Adolf gave his head a final shake and turned his back quickly crossing the distance and entering his personal hover jet.

Ralph watched as Adolf's jet followed by his personal Aid's aircraft all cleared the ridge vanishing from sight, biding his time Ralph Nilgerson the League's current Knight of War allowed the whining sound of turbines to fade below the voices in the wind. Finally he turned to the setting sun and the round monument framed by it's light. After carefully examining the area using his personal artifact and all six senses Ralph was satisfied he was truly alone and started to speak saying "Randolf He..." pausing in the middle of the operative's true name Ralph pulled a artifact from his pocket and with a moments concentration activated it. To the outside world he vanished replaced by a multidimensional blurry gray sphere that prevented all sound, all light and all magic from entering or leaving.  After several moments the bubble vanished and ash rode the wind followed closely by a stone jar that traveled in a short arc that carried it into the round monument shattering it on the granite surface.

Without a backwards glance Ralph turned from the monument and quickly entered his own personal transport powering up the main engines he mentally  ordered his personal artifact to tap into the Island's power grid and he telekinetically lifted the small one man jet to nearly a hundred meters before allowing the internal jet engine to take over. Taking a final glance at the small valley Ralph thought how like his father the operative had been, surgery and genetic tinkering might have assured that Randolf  looked nothing like his father, but his voice and mannerisms had held the same unquantifiable power that his father's still held.  Pulling his eyes away from the burial valley Ralph thought "Goodby Randolf Hess Hitler."

His jet flying away from the small mountian valley called Ashes Ralph carefully began to implement the mental disciples required to fully hide his knowledge of Hitler's family. It wouldn't do to let that knowledge slip in the next direct mental contact he made, after all Adolf believed that only nine people had known of Randolf Hess Mc Tvern's true origins and eight of those were dead.

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howard melton

 hmeltonATameriwave.net