Captain Beyond visited Avengers Mansion and found Hercules and the Black Widow and without even so much as an introduction, whisked them to Skartaris to join Iceman and the Angel.

Bill Foster; Giant Man or as some still referred to him, Black Goliath, found himself whisked off to Skartaris, joining Iceman, Angel, Black Widow and Hercules. He had no idea why.

After that, Captain Beyond transported Johnny Blaze to join all of them for a Champions reunion.

The Howling Commandos stood and looked around. Something told them they weren't in Southwest France anymore.

Reb Ralston, Dino Manelli, Gabe Jones, Izzy Cohen, Percy Pinkerton and Dum Dum Dugan looked around. They were in full battle gear and were wondering where the hell they were. Where was Nick Fury? How did they get here? Was this some kind of trick of the Jerry's?

There weren't any jungles in Europe, especially France.

Yelena Belova, the second Black Widow, saw the milling soldiers and wondered about them. They looked archaic, like they belonged in a different era. She was confused about where she was but she didn't see any reason to trust them. She was armed with a small pistol, her tear gas pellets, a radio transmitter that seemed to be useless wherever this was, a spring loaded cable and a device that emitted a high frequency electrostatic charge.

She decided to follow these soldiers while remaining hidden.

The Howling Commandos huddled together. The jungle they were in was intimidating even for tough war wizened soldiers like them. They cocked their weapons and proceeded cautiously.

The noises they heard were unnerving and they were on edge because they were in an unknown environment. They were supposed to be pushing back against the Third Reich and now; inexplicably, they were not doing that.

Plus they were without their leader. Sgt. Nick Fury was nowhere around.

So now they were worried about the fate of their leader as well as trying to come to terms with their unexpected situation. None of them had any idea that a young Russian spy from a different era was shadowing them, equally confused about what was going on.

Captain America, the Falcon and Sharon Carter emerged from the Quinjet and took a look around. Jungle was everywhere. The Falcon took to the skies to get his bearings.

As he flew above the jungle canopy, he saw Darkstar driving off a Pteranodon that had attacked her and the Falcon flew to her side to lend any support he could muster.

Darkstar was startled but then grateful to see something human, though she knew little about the Falcon.

She followed him back to where Captain America and Sharon Carter waited.

Iceman and the Angel looked over at Hercules and the Black Widow uncomprehendingly but then Bill Foster and the Ghost Rider showed up and things became a little clearer.

For whatever reasons, the Champions were back in business.

Travis Morgan rode his horse through Ba'al forest (which was really a primordial jungle) and he was brought up short when he came face to face with the Red Skull's Light armored vehicle.

He drew up in surprise. It took him a minute but he managed to identify the vehicle from his college studies at the Air Force Academy.

"How could that be here in Skartaris, he wondered?

He cautiously drew his sidearm and waited.

The Red Skull saw Travis Morgan ride up and he was immediately taken by a false Aryan fantasy.

In the Red Skull's eyes, Travis Morgan was the ideal template of what the true idea of what white man should be.

The Red Skull stopped his vehicle so that he could go out and greet what he thought was the vision of the Aryan ideal.

Travis Morgan saw the Red Skull emerge from the vehicle and dismounted, sending his horse put of harm's way.

He approached the Red Skull, who was trying to greet the Warlord with open arms.

Travis approached guardedly.

"Who are you?" he enquired.

"I'm Johann Schmidt. due to an unfortunate accident I'm now known as the Red Skull.

Morgan studied the Red Skull, not liking what he saw.

Darkstar greeted Captain America and Sharon Carter and informed them of her encounter with the Red Skull. Cap realized why he and the other two were brought here.

The Falcon flew off to reconnoiter.

Cap asked Sharon to stay and guard the quinjet while he tried to pick up the Red Skull's trail.

Darkstar flew off to try to spot a sign of the master villain as well.

The Red Skull praised Travis Morgan for being the true Aryan ideal.

Warlord slowly began realizing who and what the Red Skull must be and he didn't like it. He especially didn't like the idea of Nazis invading Skartaris.

Although he had little contact so far with the Marvel Universe other than with Ka-Zar and his friends, he did have long talks with Ka-Zar, Tigra and Jason Woodrue and suspected that this Red Skull was from their reality.

He asked if the Red Skull had ever heard of Ka-Zar.

The Red Skull's eyes narrowed. "Vas do you know of Herr Ka-Zar?"

"I've met him. Seems like he too would be your Aryan ideal. Handsome, blond."

"Bah!" the Red Skull spat. "The Verdammt Britisher has chosen to live as no better than a savage. You! You have the look of a Viking in you! You are better than that dumpkoff!"

"Careful what you say Ratzi! Ka-Zar happens to be a friend of mine! I'm a former SR 71 pilot. I signed up to fight against people like you!"

With that the Warlord and the Red Skull began grappling.

The Howling Commandos were suddenly confronted by a force of the lizard men of the tribe that earlier confronted the Red Skull.

They surrounded the Howlers and pointed their spears at the commandos.

Reb Ralston exclaimed "What the Hell?"

Dum Dum ordered them to hold their fire unless they had no other choice but to defend themselves.

It was a standoff.

Yelena Belova was similarly surrounded just yards away in her hiding place as she stalked the Howling Commandos.

Yelena didn't waste any time. She quickly disarmed the lizard men. causing a commotion that drew the attention of the Lizardmen surrounding the Howling Commandos.

The Howlers took advantage of the distraction and disarmed their own Lizardmen, but found the lizardmen were willing to fight tooth and claw as well.

Yelena Belova didn't stick around to engage the lizardmen further. She took off running.

Captain Beyond was sent to retrieve two more. Since Sgt. Nick Fury was still unavailable, he was ordered to collect Sgt. Frank Rock and retrieve him from the World War Two era.

For reasons that were not explained to him, he was also ordered to bring the Katar Hol Hawkman and deliver both him and Sgt. Rock to the vicinity of the Howling Commandos.

Captain Beyond complied.