May 4th, 1944

Stepping off of the military transport truck, a young twenty-something, Tommy Hawkesby arrived on a secret military base somewhere in the North West Territories. The wide-eyed young cadet, fresh out of training, beamed with delight as he walked past the Canadian Armed Forces troops all marching in a row. The place was active, more so than the the one he was last in, and full of various vehicles he’d never seen before.

The base was located in the middle of nowhere. He remembered asking if he could take off his blind half way to the destination, but the military Sargent explained that if any man did that, they’d be executed on the spot. At first he thought he was kidding. Or so he thought. One man was trying to, as joke, but the sound of a gun pulling the hammer back close to his head made the man think otherwise. Needless to say, the rest of the trip was quiet.

Tommy (or Tom as he liked to be called), headed over to the barracks and reported to the commander. The place was amazing. There were all kinds of strange military craft and prototype creations the engineers were tinkering with. It was like something out of all those comic books he’d been reading. In fact, some of the people walking about looked like they were dressed like it too.

There were a few buildings off in the distance that looked, rounded, almost sculpted into the pavement. The guards surrounding the strange domed structures looked focused and kept a careful watch to anyone coming close to it. Well, he was sure that wasn’t the right direction, and he didn’t want to be the first to find out what happened if you did get too close.

With a look of confusion, he walked over to the first group of people conversing loudly (and laughing from a joke, no doubt) a few feet away from him. “Hey, sorry to intrude, but can you help me?”

The group stopped talking and turned to face him. Tom looked surprised by their type of uniform. They were oddly dressed in tight fitting spandex of various colors, some of it padded to hide their genitalia. There was one man, all in red with a white leaf symbol on his chest, that glared at him for interrupting.

“Can I help you… boy?” He obtusely said with a cocked brow, and gave him the once over.

“Boy?” Tom winced. The offensive term withdrew his friendly smile and he replaced it with a disapproving scowl.

The man snickered at Tom’s reaction and pumped out his chest, as if to make him notice the big white leaf proudly displayed on it. He had deep blue eyes, a well kept head blonde hair and skin so smooth and unblemished, Tom figured that the man had never tanned in his life.

“Look, I sleep in late, but…” The chiselled jawed heroic-looking pompous man chortled. He flicked his blonde hair back and placed a hand on Tom’s shoulder. “If you’re going to serve me breakfast in the morning, don’t do it after I’ve been on a mission. Comprend-o, guy? Me likey big-em breakfast…”

The racial implication was not lost on Tom. Even as the man tried to mimic some of the gestures. He began to feel uncomfortable as the others laughed. Most of them were white, but a few were not, he couldn’t really tell from the masks they had over their faces. He could have made some disparaging remarks about them in return, but he decided to ignore it.

“Yeah, really funny… whatever… Can you just tell me where the head office is? I need to speak to the commander in charge, I just got in here as the newest recruit to something called… uh,” He took a moment to think of the name. “Project: Northern Crew?”

“A new one?” A short man scoffed. He was dressed in blue with white fleur-de-lis dotted all over his suit. He also sported a thin goatee and had a thick Quebecois french accent. “I didn’t think we needed more of you. le docteur must be losing more of you recruits by the day.”

“He’s just another blank.” A sliver clad woman snipped back. She held a large baton in her hand that was as well-chromed as her armour.

“Oh? Right…” The handsome blonde man smiled, his perfect teeth almost glistening from the sun. He gave slight pat to his own leaf symbol and blew out a breath while nodded at him. “And here I thought you were here as my footman. A new recruit, eh? Well, I’m Major Leaf, I’m pretty much in charge over this lot…” He pointed to the others, “This is Silver Baton, Petite Pierre, The Dark Horned Owl and Stretcher Rex. Can’t say where Red Phantom is… nobody seems to know half the time!” The group started laughing at that comment, accept Tom, he wasn’t sure why that was funny.

“Look can you, or can you not, show me the way to the main office?” Tom frustratedly interrupted.

“Well, uh, sure… yeah,” Major Leaf said, his laughter subsiding and giving Tom a crude eye. “Its over to the left, right next to the mess hall over there.” His hands motioned vaguely. Then he strongly patted Tom on the shoulder and practically shoved him over in the direction. “Look forward to seeing what you’ve got…” He looked at the others and finished sotto voce, “if you survive, that is.”

The group laughed again as they alone understood the implication of that quip. A weirdly dressed bunch of guys and gals; they were brazen, pompous and acting way too superior over the other soldiers. Tom was amazed at how strong the Major Leaf guy was, it felt like he shoved him by a few feet.

“I see you’ve met The Northern Crew.” A young officer stated from behind. Tom turned to look at him. The young man looked like he just arrived too. He had his green duffle bag slung around his shoulder and wore his foldable narrow cap off to the side. “The Northern Jerks more like. Major Leaf tends to harass the newbies….”

“Major Leaf, what a catchy name…” Tom lightly scoffed as he started walking with the other soldier. “I’ve never heard of him, or the others… The Northern… uh…”

“Crew, they call themselves The Northern Crew.” The man grinned. “Canada’s greatest superheroes and secret weapon in this goddamn war. I heard they helped to sink a few enemy subs near our arctic circle, though, unofficially of course…”

“Superheroes? Like the comic books?” Tom glared at him. “There’s actually superheroes in this world? We have… Canada, I mean, have actual super powered beings helping fight the war?”

“Damn skippy…” The young man nodded. “I’m here to join them and aid in some experiment they need tested. The name’s Billy Blitzer, I take you’re here for the same thing…”

Tom’s brows raised at that, he looked about and nodded with a smile. “I guess that’s what I volunteered for, did they tell you what the ‘experiment’ was? Are we flying one of those types of planes or helping out the heroes over there?”

If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

“Didn’t really say…” Billy said rubbing his chin in thought. “Just that we were ‘going to help the war’, whatever that translates to…”

“Fantastic!” Tom beamed. “I always wanted to be a sidekick.”

Tom and Billy laughed, they walked side by side and headed to the main office. Before they entered the doors, a ghostly red figure appeared and brushed past them as if they didn’t exist. The apparition solidified and continued to walk on in humanoid form.

The strange being was dressed all in red. He had a hooded cloak and uniform that fitted tightly to his body. All his muscles and features (other than his crotch) looked sculpted and defined by it. The full head mask also was tightly bonded to him. All that could be seen were a pair of glowing yellow eyes that flashed with power as he continued on.

“Who the hell was that?” Tom gawked. He was checking his body to see if he was still in one piece after that encounter.

Billy chuckled at Tom’s look of surprise and held the door open for his new buddy. “That would be The Red Phantom, he tends to do that a lot around here. Just another part of the great Northern Crew team.”

“Wow…” Tom said looking back briefly. “What a super dick that guy is…”

Billy laughed hardily again as they both entered the building together.

* * *

They waited for almost an hour before they got their turn to see the General in charge of this base facility. He took in two sets of soldiers each time as he sized them up and accepted their transfer papers. When it came time for them to enter, they both marched in and handed over their file folders promptly.

The General was thin, elderly and bore a greying moustache with sunglasses that barely showed his eyes underneath. The man looked at them, signed the papers without a second thought and handed it back to them motioning for them to leave. Tom waited for more than just that, but as the General called for the next pair, he told his friend to wait and looked at the General in confusion.

‘Sir, don’t you want to tell us what this is all about? What exactly are we signing up for? How bout a motivational speech or something?”

“Ok hot shot…” The moustached man smirked. “How’s this for size? You won’t believe what you’ve signed up for; adventure, fighting, thrills, chills and not to mention marvellous battles that only few dare to dream about! How’s that? Better?”

“Kinda…” Tom said. He looked at Billy who only shrugged his shoulders in answer.

“Now stop wasting my time, kid. Get out of here and go be a hero.” The General winked and shouted for the next duo to step in.

As they exited the office, Tom seemed bewildered. “Who was that guy?”

“General Lee…” Billy said, shaking his head and looking at his folder in frustration. “I heard he’s a bit of a character. Maybe that’s why he’s here. Didn’t even look at it did he?”

Suddenly there was a commotion in the General’s office. The soldier that entered after them started hugging the man and called him “Uncle Stan”. Billy motioned to Tom they should head out and both casually looked back. The General motioned is fists up in the air and shouted to his apparent nephew, “Excelsior!”

* * *

The night had come fast in the very northernly location, but more so was the lack of darkness. They must have been so far up the territories that daylight and nighttime were kind of getting a bit vague. Tom tried to adjust to his new surroundings, though sleep was almost hard to do, this was a military base after all. And they had constant drills, inspections and weapons detail to perform.

Billy and Tom had separate barracks, but always met up for meal times or hung around on off hours. They were becoming fast friends. Billy never asked or inquired about Tom’s Indigenous background, not that he didn’t care, he was only interested in the friendship. The line of racial barrier didn’t exist for either men. As well it should be regardless of skin, religious or heritage upbringing.

They enjoyed playing a few sports; Baseball, football, for the most part, but most of the time they busy talking about fishing. The two shared a passion for it. Promises were made about going on a trip with one another and which lake would be better for it.

Tom occasionally would seem a bit dismayed that he was the only one of his people on a base like this. Sure, there were a few black soldiers here too, getting the occasional harassment as well, but why were there no other Indigenous men or women around? It made him feel isolated and alone at times. Billy was a good friend, for sure, but sometimes, he yearned for someone of similar heritage to be with.

His mother tried to teach him about their customs and heritage, but she would often tell him he should make a journey back to their community and immerse himself in their culture. Being adopted and not knowing who or where your parents were from often bothered him slightly. One day he would return to Alberta and seek out his true origins.

For now, he had a good friend to be with and was proudly serving in the military. It was with some surprise that Billy blurted out a question he wasn’t sure how to answer.

“Do you think humanity can survive itself?”

“Wow, uh… that’s a deep question.” Tom cocked a brow at him. They were in mid-meal when he asked. Billy wasn’t touching his meal too much and he seemed less than himself of late. “What brought that on? You ok, Bill?”

“Sorry,” He said, pushing his food tray away slightly. “I just think this war, all this military secrecy and… the experimentations….” He gave drawn out sigh and folded his arms in. “It makes me question if we as a species are worth sticking around.”

“What’s going on with you?” Tom glared at him with concern. “Did something happen?”

“It’s nothing…’ Billy passively dismissed. “Forget I said it. Might be the experimental drugs they’re trying on us.”

“Drugs? What drugs?”

“It’s nothing.” Billy shrugged. “Just promise me, when it’s your turn…”

“Yeah… what?” Tom waited for him to finish. But his friend said nothing more.

Billy gave a serious face and then scoffed at the stupidity of what he was talking about. Tom urged him to share that last thought, but Billy told him he was tired and needed to go lie down. They said their goodbyes and even said the common phrase, “Up and out”. It was a term used for mocking the superhero team they watch on a daily basis.

The Northern Crew would demonstrate their powers on the base and on other soldiers when ordered to do so. Major Leaf seemed to use that phrase constantly as he flew off the ground. It got a tad annoying to hear so many times. Tom usually kept his distance from them, but the Red Phantom would repeatedly watch him from a far and nod in his direction. Tom would nod back but felt like he was under constant surveillance by the faceless, all-red cloaked figure.

It was damn creepy to him.

* * *

One morning, Tom was finished early in his regular duties and stopped by to see if Billy wanted to play cards with him. He was informed by one of the soldiers in his barrack that Billy had been next on the list for a new dose of the ‘experiment’ and wouldn’t be coming back that night.

Two days past and Billy was a no show for their meal times. That caused concern for Tom. He quickly headed over to the main office to inquire about his friend, but was left surprised when they said he had been transferred off the base a while ago. Tom was devastated. They had’t known each other for too long, but, Billy would have made an effort to say goodbye. Heck, he would have sent a message through the soldier grapevine to inform Tom of his departure.

He wondered if it had to do something about his emotional attitude. Billy had been down the last time they talked. Maybe he was growing tired of this experimental drug use they kept doing to him. All he had left were unanswered questions and no more friend to talk to anymore.

The loneliness was more apparent to him now than it had ever been. He began to wonder if he should leave the base as well. Being a volunteer to this… whatever it was, just wasn’t worth it. But as he sat on a bench watching the sun set in the distance, thinking about all of this alone, the Red Phantom materialized beside him and sat down.

“You are not alone.” The red cloaked figure said.

Usually, Red Phantom barely spoke at all, to anyone, but Tom nodded in thanks for the assurance. Was it a he? Was it a she? The cloak and featureless face mask made it impossible to know. Even the voice was hard to discern of which gender. Tom continued to look out at the horizon and took a deep breath of the cold northern wind.

“I’ll always be alone.” He said.

“No,” Red Phantom added. “Not anymore…”

The cloaked figure dissolved like a puff of smoke and drifted away in the wind. Cool as that sort of trick was, Tom found it bizarre and down right creepy.