To the Aeon Society Board,
In reference to your request for information pertaining to the death of Annabelle Lee "Crackshot" Newfield, and her present status as associate of the Society, I have compiled the following report. My resources for this draft were drawn from the Aeon archives and included:
-One (partially damaged) reel of motion picture film, news-reel grade, labeled New York, New York, October 30th, 1938.
-One typed transcript from an Aeon Society board meeting dated November 1st, 1938.
-Selected non-encrypted passages from Max Mercer's journals.
The meeting at which both Annabelle Lee Newfield and Ferdinando D'Medicci were granted associate status, held on December 19th, 1939, is the second of twelve official meetings held between 1939 and the Society's re-inauguration in 2008 for which we do not have transcripts. Max's journals indicate that this break-down in record keeping occurred in part because the convivial, friendly atmosphere of the Society had been lost following Crackshot's death, and in part because, in a final act of spite, Dr. Primoris destroyed the Chicago office's automated stenographic machine before leaving the premises.
What follows is my report on the circumstances of Annabelle Lee "Crackshot" Newfield's death:
On October 30th, 1938, members of the Aeon Society faced an attempted invasion of Earth by extraterrestrial forces, apparently originating from beneath the Martian surface. The Martian invasion fleet attempted to gain a beach-head on Earth by leveling a decisive assault on the port of New York City. The Aeon Society, in town as special guests at a Broadway opening, met the Martian forces in the sky over (and at one point in the streets of) Manhattan.
Near the close of the battle, Crackshot commandeered an experimental military aircraft, and after dropping Thomas Hyde onto (and into) the colossal Martian Dreadnought, proceeded to dogfight with the remaining Martian attack craft. It is at this point that accounts become disputed.
Dr. Primoris claimed in his statement before the remaining members of the Aeon Board that under the stress of defending the world from certain doom, he lost control of his powers which manifested themselves to an entirely unprecedented degree. Maxwell Mercer's statement, however, indicates that Primoris had long been testing and honing his powers in secret, refusing to discuss their true limits with the rest of the Society despite Max's requests that he do so. Members Hyde and Singh both added that this was not the first time that they had seen Dr. Primoris act without regard to, indeed with blatant contempt for, human life.
Though damaged, the news-reel footage does show a glowing human figure rising aloft on a shaft of bright light and releasing a burst of energy that filled the sky, destroying the entire remaining Martian fleet.
Following the blast, Enkidu and Sam Haine pulled the bodies of Thomas Hyde and Annabelle Lee from the East River. Hyde had survived the blast and the watery crash of the Dreadnought, though just barely; Ms. Newfield, however, was too badly burned for even Haine's magics to restore her. [Haine has not been seen since the day following Newfield's death, and the note which he left for Max at his home in Chicago (not far from the scorch marks on the floor in his study) indicate that the exceptional means which Sam Haine undertook to resurrect Annabelle somehow backfired.]
A meeting of the board was convened at Thomas Hyde's hospital bed on November 1st, 1938. After much one-sided deliberation, argument, and a near-lethal wrestling match between Enkidu and Dr. Primoris, the vote stood 5 for and 1 against the later's expulsion (the only vote in favor of Dr. Primoris was his own). Dr. Primoris departed by burning a hole in the room's outer wall and flying away at a super-sonic speed; the invoice for the cost of repairs to the hospital building remains on file in the Aeon Archives.
In 1940, 1942, 1959 and 1970, Max's journal's make mention of contemporary dealings he had with Crackshot: pieces of information she had delivered, objects of interest he planned to pass on to her, field cases on which she had assisted. No further details as to how she was restored to life (or otherwise restored to active service) are given.
With Respect,
Mary Anne Fenor
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