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The Everwinter Agenda

Disclaimer: All persons, locations and situations depicted in this story are fictitious and copyrighted to Michael T. Schell 2009 and used with his permission; any similarity to persons and locations in reality are purely coincidental.

A polar bear with a bubble helmet and encased in armor that seals him away from the whole of the world steps out of an armored van in Radiance, New Jersey. Below him as he parked his van at Observation Point/Park he sees the red lights blinking over Kraken Island. On the other side of the van a fiery red and flamboyantly female ant steps out to join him.

"Oh, Doctor Frostbite," the ant coos seductively. "I think I could be running a fever out here in the cold."

"And just what do you need to cool you down, Fire Ant?" Dr. Heinrich Phossbitte a.k.a. Dr. Frostbite inquires in an emotionless monotone that borders on icy in its tone.

"I can think of a few things," Fire Ant continues undaunted as flames arc between her antennae almost in the form of a heart. "What are we doing here anyway? Radiance is Scaletti turf. I don't know about you but tangling with those reps is not what I consider fun."

"Kraken Island has been reactivated." Frostbite answers coldly. "I was a scientist there once, a long time ago, some things belong in cold storage."

"We gonna ice the new squatters?" Fire Ant asks evilly to which Phossbitte just nods which puts fiendish grin on her face. "Do we know who?"

"Not yet," Frostbite says as makes his way back to the van. "Come, Fire Ant, we're going to need some cold hard cash for supplies. Time to make a withdrawal."

"Oh, YEAH!" Fire Ant exclaims. "Money to burn!"

Two biker dogs on Harleys wearing armored leather jump suits complete with helmets but leaving their black and green tails exposed streak along the midnight streets of Radiance on patrol. The female of the pair has a kind of riot shield on her back, black painted impossibillium with a slit for her to see when she need to hide behind and emblazoned with a white star like that on American Military vehicles for identification. She also sports an assault rifle unlike her companion who appears to be unarmed.

"What is it with you and all the '80s music, boys?" Amazon asks in derisive tone over the frequency they share as Twisted Sister's "We're Not Gonna Take It" plays in the background. "Marauder, honey, I know we had some good times back then, but really?"

"You'll be surprised at what's on the queue, Amazon," Marauder says in a jovial tone of voice. "Hey, Stinkbomb, anything on the Police band?"

"Nothing major yet," Stinkbomb says as he watches the monitors back at their base on Kraken Island but the skunk tech wiz is still worried. "Which is what worries me. Dragon's CLAW troops was only last week and the Scalettis sill haven't shown any signs that they're looking for us."

"We haven't made enough of an impact yet, Stinkbomb," Marauder says. "I know the strip club brought in some money but it wasn't a major operation."

"Unless they were hiring a super villain," Amazon relates, "Major hitters in the Scaletti mob tended to avoid Boopsy's. Made scales tend to look down on everyone in the supers community."

An explosion not too far away draws the attention of all three.

"What the fuck!?!" Amazon swears. "Sounded like a bomb going off. Any known Mad Bombers on the loose, Stinkbomb?"

"Not since 9/11 and that was caused by Muslim Extremists." Stinkbomb reports. "But that explosion is in the vicinity of the main branch of the Financial Security of Upstanding Citizens bank chain and their politics are ultra-conservative."

"Don't I know it," Marauder says ruefully. "At least once a month they had some beef against us. Well, they got their wish, the show is canceled, half the team is dead, Mikiko went back to Japan and who knows where Owen went to."

"I still keep in touch with Owen via e-mail." Stinkbomb says. "When Dragon wasn't pulling his strings, Horde can actually be a decent guy."

"Is he sore at me for breaking up the team?" Marauder asks.

"Nah, he blames Dragon and his ego for that," Stinkbomb reports. "He's just afraid of you."

"Great," Marauder sighs. "Ah, well, Amazon and I are going to investigate that explosion. If you can get us any satellite support..."

"I'm on it, good hunting," Stinkbomb says with a snarky tone of voice.

Amazon and Marauder speed into the parking lot of an office building and banking compound that wants to be a modern castle. The security doors have been blown open as the only vehicle in the parking lot is an armored van. Sentry drones are littering the entrance with their remains; half scorched and half frozen.

"Fire and Ice?" Amazon asks incredulously. "Is this one villain or a team?"

"I should have known," Marauder says with a rueful sigh. "Doctor Frostbite and Fire Ant, a double trouble tag team I fought as one of the Amazing Allies of American Amazon."

"Not those two again!?!" Stinkbomb yells with a whine. "I gotta learn to keep my big muzzle shut!"

"Are the cops on their way yet?" Marauder asks. "With all the political weight these conservative clowns throw around I would think they'd qualify for certain privileges."

"Units of police are en route now," Stinkbomb reports. "How do you want to play this?"

"Phossbitte and the bug are too much for ordinary cops to handle." Marauder states. "But most Law Enforcement has a Zero Tolerance policy on vigilantes in the wake of what that bastard did to Tabitha." He heaves a heavy sigh before going on. "We're going in, but recall the bikes. If we can slow them down of weaken them so the cops can capture them, we'll get back through the tunnels."

"Understood," Stinkbomb says with a trace of fatalism in his respectful tone. "Good luck, Gary, Zelda, you're gonna need it."

Back on Kraken Island, the digitized specter of Brom Blackstar, once a badge who was a brilliant scientist but due to an accident is now a virtual ghost haunting the facility, manifests behind Stinkbomb at his monitoring station. Al and Brom are now the best of friends and collaborate to support Garren and Grizelda. Seeing the reflection of Brom's holographic shade in his monitors, Stinkbomb swivels his chair to address his confident.

"What is it, Brom?" Aloicious Einstein inquires to which Brom inquires:

"Did I hear right and Doctor Phossbitte is now the super villain Doctor Frostbite?" Brom asks his question with some surprise. "Heinrich and I were colleagues at one point."

"What was he like to work with?" Al asks. "Or did you two never work on the same project?"

"A few times," Brom admits. "He could be overbearing at times but he was a dedicated scientist. The same accident that necessitated my mind being downloaded into the computer made him what he is today."

"How did THAT happen?" Al inquire alarmingly. "And when? Before Gary became Beowulf Three?"

"After actually," Brom postulates. "We were experimenting with cryogenic weaponry for various effects. Phossbitte was in charge as this was his specialty even back then. Somewhere there was a miscalculation and the whole floor was encased in ice. I was using Virtual Reality gear at the time so my mind was in the computer matrix as my body died. Heinrich was a Ground Zero so he was bombarded with aberrant energies which mutated him into his current form."

"Was Fire Ant here as well or did he meet her later?" Al asks honestly.

"There was a moratorium on hiring potential members of certain terrorist groups." Brom answers honestly, "The Dread Reptilian Army Conquering Organization also known as DRACO and the Radical Army of Insectile Dissidents or RAID were a lot more prominent back then that are now. We had none of their kind here for fear of spies and saboteurs."

"So they must have teamed up after wards," Stinkbomb speculates. "We face them as part of the Amazing Allies."

Watching from a rooftop as Marauder and Amazon enter the building is a canine ninja bitch. When the bikes start up and return to base she throws a spike which lodges itself near the tail lights. While the motorcycles streak away the shinobi monitors them on a palm top to track where they go before donning goggles and making herself invisible.

Inside the bank Fire Ant gathers up bundles of cash as Frostbite takes gems into his custody as the pair raid the vaults. The alarms have already been ices as are many of the security cameras. But this also means that they are ignorant of the fact that they are being hunted.

Following the progress of the two super villains is exceedingly easy for the dogs. It's when they get behind the pair that things get interesting. Amazon makes sure the gun she is using fires cryogenic energy as Marauder selects Electro-Magnetic Pulse grenades to toss at Frostbite.

With a nod to each other the pair go into action unaware of the third party observing them. Marauder tosses grenades to try and disrupt Frostbite's suit long enough for him to hamstring the bear. The beams of cold energy Amazon is using hits and at least temporarily incapacitates Fire Ant before she can burn her way out.

Amazon is trying to wear Fire Ant out while using her shield to keep herself safe. What she didn't count on is Fire Ant really turning up the heat to ignite everything flammable around her. Structures that had already been weakened from Frostbite's liberal use of cold begins to buckle before outright breaking.

Police and fire vehicles arrive as the bank becomes an inferno with the flames giving Fire Ant and Dr. Frostbite a particularly Hellish glow. Frostbite freezes every vehicle save his own and glares at the firefighters before ordering: "Let it burn." The front entrance collapses in on itself as the villains drive away.

"We almost didn't make it!" Fire Ant exclaims. "Who were those two?"

"Once of them was Beowulf of season three of American Amazon and her Amazing Allies." Frostbite says plainly. "I have not seen the female before. But more than likely they are the ones that took up residence at the facility. While they are on ice let get minions and retrieve some things I have in storage."

"The amplified freeze cannon you were talking about?" Fire Ant asks to which Dr. Frostbite just nods. "Then we can send Radiance back to the ice ages and go on a crime spree!"

"An excellent series of events." Frostbite says coldly. "Let us put this plan into action."

Deep under the city, 3 canines: Marauder, Amazon and the invisible ninja bitch, drop into a dimly lit tunnel, one of many crisscrossing the city in particular and the country in general. Amazon blinks and then puts her shield up before making sure her assault blaster has a full clip, Marauder unsheathes his claws as they make their way back to the street and from there back to base unaware of their invisible third shadow hiding in the shadows and staying close to them.

"When was the last time these Morlock tunnels were cleansed?" Amazon fretfully asks. "If our son or any other children accidentally found their way down here..."

"Beyond training exercises there never were and purges." Marauder states. "The things they let loose down here were intended as a security measure against invasion. You know how paranoid the top brass is."

"And of course the city was never told squat," Amazon sighs ruefully. "For fear of creating a panic. Like the fact that they were making monsters wasn't bad enough."

"You know as well as I do," Marauder says with a smirk. "It's bad enough that we know. Hells it wouldn't surprise me if we found out stuff from Area 51 was transferred to the base at some point."

"I still get checks from the same shell corporation that paid up for training," Amazon states in an inquiring tone. "Are we still on the old pay roll?"

"I think we are, or they're back payments," Marauder offers in way of an answer. "I get them a little more frequently."

"You're also getting residuals from the show aren't you?" Amazon asks.

Marauder gets a fiendish grin and relates: "Where do you think the extra money in tips last week came from?"

Amazon just grins and nuzzles her mate which causes the unseen ninja bitch to clench her fists in apparent indignation before she calms herself down. While most of the monsters down here are rubbish eaters some supplement this diet with hunting whatever they can kill. Packs of spider rat things being the foremost of these monstrosities.

Non-morphic rats are fairly prolific even when there are anthropomorphic versions of the same animal. What both Amazon and Marauder and others who went through and survived training here came to call spider rat things or just spider-rats were created in bowel of the facility probably by the same mad genius geneticists that created the kraken. Either somebody had a Lovecraft obsession or someone actually managed to their paws on an authentic copy of THE Necronomicon because these things look like many other creations that could only be spawned by the fevered dreams of he master himself or one of his obsessed fans.

As one might expect the things' main body is that of a spider as are the legs with an alien rat head whose jaws have a trilateral symmetry as well as a rat's tail, the terminus of which contains the spinnerets. Twin tentacles that are lined with extendable barbs set in the suckers like certain cephalopods flank that weird head, one at each shoulder. While the whole is a much more bizarre beast than the sum of its parts the fact that it is as big as a large dog is even more disturbing and the fact that they congregate in packs of ten or more only heightens the threat level they pose.

Despite the fact that they comprise a major potential threat to the city of Radiance if they ever figured out how to escape the tunnels as they can be highly aggressive, the folks at the pentagon in conjunction with certain forces within the government conspiracy theorists call the Shadow Cabinet among their many names would rather keep this a dirty little secret with black ops poised to wraith the city if the beasties ever got loose. Which is the major reason the Alsations are on high alert as they start their journey home. Although the ninja that has managed to elude their notice so far is largely ignorant of all the implications of the monsters that even now watch all three of them, she knows there must be some reason the couple is being so cautious as she knows she is still an unknown to them.

While it can be felt more than seen the tunnels are partially flooded with a foot of largely stagnant water. Neither Amazon nor Marauder have their thermal goggles on as the the light is just barely enough to see and the use of such devices draws the spider-rats to those using such devices like moths to the flame. A fact the ninja is about to learn the hard way.

For whatever odd reason, the spider-rats have been "trained" to especially seek out persons using invisibility and thermal imaging type gadgets to try and give themselves a tactical advantage. No less than five packs of fifty spider-rats each are following the trio. Only two packs attack Marauder and Amazon, the other three go right for the ninja.

They say forewarned is forearmed and in this scenario the better informed pair are Amazon and Marauder who easily slaughter the spider-rats and thank their lucky stars they got off easy. Garren thinks he hears someone curse his name but he shrugs it off and they go on. However, the ninja manages to fight a running battle with the things and manages to fight off roughly half the total number of the things before she runs into a mutated alligator similar to the rats.

An ear piercing scream is heard that Garren can't shake off as imagination. When an Akita ninja runs by firing twin blaster pistols behind her the invisibility screen is off and both Alsations get a good look at her before they see the gator behind them. Marauder and Amazon run for their lives as she's low on ammo and he's not taking on that thing without back-up.

Eventually they manage to reach one of the smaller service tunnels where the huge alien gator can't get to, and electroshock grates and bulwarks keep the spider-rats out. This particular tunnel leads straight to the complex although there is also an access tot he regular sewers above them. And it looks like that's where the ninja bitch went.

"O.K. What the fuck just happened?" Zelda asks of her husband in a growl.

"Hold on a sec, I need to contact Al," Gary says in an annoyed tone as he tries the communications device in his helmet. "Al, Gary, as far as we know, Mikiko is still in a coma back in Japan right? So there is no way she could be here..."

"WHAT!?!" Al asks at full volume which almost deafens both of them."

"Al! Calm the Yiff down! We just saw an Akita ninja bitch go past us in the tunnels."

"But Gary," Al says in a panic. "Her family wants you and me dead! I haven't heard anything and in situations like this I though no news is good news."

"All I know is that I saw Kagekaze marking through tears in the uniform." Gary states as Zelda gives him a "What were YOU looking at?" stare. "In the same places she had them so if it's not her it's a sister or a cousin." Zelda folds her arms over her chest and just glares at her husband. "Hold on, Al, Zelda's giving me the evil eye," then to Zelda in particular. "What!?!" She just keeps glaring. "The ninja on the t.v. show..." She sighs in a manner that does not bode well. "In any case is there anything on Frostbite and/or Fire Ant?"

"Not much and not good," Al answers. "A few storage facilities have been hit. Every last one of them holding caches of equipment of super tech we were developing."

"What was taken?" Gary asks bluntly. "Stuff from Phossbitte's cryogenics program? Didn't he have some crazy idea about a freezing artillery piece to encase a town in perpetual winter?"

"Unfortunately the answer to at least two of those questions is yes," Al says nervously. "Unless I miss my guess, Frostbite is trying to put Project: Everwinter into effect."

"Great," Zelda says sarcastically. "We have a crazy polar bear on the loose trying to put Radiance in the deep freeze while one of my husband's psycho ex-girlfriends is also meandering about."

"If it is Mikiko, I can deal with her," Gary states which garners a glare from Zelda as he continues: "Frostbite is the higher priority. Any local metas we can recruit for this?"

"I'll check the database," Al states. "How far are you from base?"

"We're in one of the service tunnels now near the river," Zelda states. "Any of the old monorail cars available to get us across? It might save us some time since I need to resupply."

"Sending a car now," Al says as the lights in the tunnel flicker.

Observing them from the shadows is indeed Mikiko who glares at Grizelda primarily but also at Garren. When the car arrives, Garren and Grizelda get in and Mikiko looks to see if she can follow. The monorail is electrified and if goes through a reinforced glass tube so she would be spotted if she followed unless she can adapt the stealth aspect of her suit to run on the power in the rail which after a few adjustments and repairs she is fully ready to try and accomplish.

Effortlessly Mikiko skates behind her former lover and his wife until make a sudden stop in the complex itself. The scene she sees is enough to make her cry. Garren, Grizeld and their son Rudolf play together as the unseen Mikiko touches her own bely and silently sobs.

Before she can be discovered Mikiko goes back to her hotel room. She picks up a picture frame of herself, Garren and the now deceased American Amazon and cries. Holding the picture close she looks out the window and sings softly in Japanese.

Something stirs within her. "Not yet, little one," she tells her unborn child in her native tongue. "I need to reconcile with your father."

A ninja frog creeps up behind her and readies a garrote; only to be killed by a casually thrown kunai. "I'm not that distracted," she growls in Japanese.

Meanwhile back in the arsenal, Stinkbomb, Marauder and Amazon go over gadgets to take down both Frostbite and Fire Ant. All to most of the vigilantes in the area went underground according to Al's research so it looks like they are on their own until Al gets a phone all from an old ally that they put on conference. The meta is Owen Money sometimes better know as Horde for his ability to make shadow clones of himself.

"Owen! Long time," Gary says congenially, "no contact. With me at least. I didn't want to kill you, but you supported that bastard who murdered Tabitha."

"Yeah, bad choice supporting him," Owen says in a decidedly New York accent. "I know that now. But I'm not willing to fully get back in the game. But Al tells me Phossbitte is acting up again. What's this gadget he's trying to build?"

"Only Phossbitte understood how it worked," Gary starts to explain, "But it's basically a huge ice maker that can change the weather from summer to winter permanently if properly maintained."

"Wow, how come he never had anything like that on the show?" Owen asks.

"I think a lot of the capers we were involved with for him was leading up to this, Owen," Al speculates on the question. "I got the impression he was looking for something. Looks like this was it."

"More than likely," Garren says with a shake of his head. "From says he has gotten most of the pieces he needs. The only thing left is right here."

"Oh, geez!" Owen whines. "That would be just what we need is Doc Frostbite with a really powerful widget."

"We got incoming!" Zelda shouts. "Looks like a drone bee in a berserk er outfit and a glowing butt?"

"Lightning Bug?" Garren says as he looks at what his wife is watching. "Yup, that's Lightning Bug alright. He's a terrorist and member of RAID along with Fire Ant. His mother is Queen Bee who leads the organization when it's active."

"Didn't we squash them before we disbanded?" Owen asks. "Not that it means much as they spring back periodically."

"True enough," Al says. "I wonder what the Feds will do when they or DRACO rise up and there aren't any superheroes to oppose them?"

"Throw legions of cops and troops at them and hope they can be effective," Zelda says with a smirk. "A lot of police forces like to think they don't need supers."

"Turrets one and five blasted by electrical discharge," Al states. "I'm trying to relay disruptors beams to the rest of the turrets but unless they take..."

"Armored van approaching fast!" Zelda yells excitedly. "It froze the front gate? Uh, honey, does Frostbite have..." Al and Gary nod as one. "And a squadron of wasps?"

"Wasp Amazon Sadistic Partisans!" Al shouts. "Just what we don't need!"

"Activate the launch tubes!" Gary yells as he heads out, claws extended and a pissed look on his face. "Kraken Island will not fall to a RAID raid on MY watch!"

"Frostbite's working for the Radical Army of Insectile Dissidents now?" Asks a confused Zelda.

"I doubt it," Owen answers. "More than likely Fire Ant pulled a few strings."

"Gary you crazy son of a bitch!" Zelda yells angrily. "Are you trying to get yourself killed!?!"

"Calm down, Zelda," Al advises. "He knows what he's doing. Just watch the monitors and enjoy the show."

"Oooooh Kay," Zelda says nervously as she watches fearfully.

Marauder launches from the tube into the midst of the W.A.S.P. squadron slashing them with impunity. Leaping between them he takes them down and causes confusion at the same time. Not wanting to zap randomly Lightning Bug buzzes about angrily.

On the ground Frostbite is less picky about shooting at random. He gets a lucky shot but not as he hoped as one of his blasts encases Lightning Bug in ice. The squadron catches him before he shatters on the ground.

True to the saying about the actual honor between thieves, the squadron turns on Dr. Frostbite. Phossbitte even has to ice Fire Ant to save his own hide. Undone and forced to retreat; Dr. Frostbite swears vengeance on Marauder and his team for this set back to his Everwinter Agenda.

Back at base security robots dismantle Dr. Frostbite's van as Zelda is ready to rip her husband a new one. He calms her down as he knew what he was doing from the beginning. The fact that Phossbitte did what he did comes as no surprise; in fact Garren was counting on it.

In her hotel room, Mikiko eats Chinese food and watches the local news. Footage of a flying Marauder makes her smirk but she just rubs her belly and eats for both of them rather than make a comment. Speaking softly to her unborn child she vows to make Garren aware of what he has done and takes care of them.

Mikiko cradles the picture of her lovers and cries. He cell phone rings and the number is a local one. She answers it in Japanese as it is her cousin on the line.

"What did you learn?" Mikiko asks. "Former lover before me? I see, I'll arrange a meeting with him myself, thanks." Then she closes the connection and speaks to the window facing Kraken Island. "What an interesting life you have lived, Garren, it's almost a pity that I will be making it even more interesting." With that she begins to laugh maniacally.