Back to Gatefold
Issue #89 by Travis Hiltz
FEATURING THE WINTER GUARD! February 2017 |
“Lost and Found: Part Two”
Previously: Detecting a signal from a decommissioned research facility, the Russian government sent the Winter Guard to investigate. In the course of searching the Red Guardian and Darkstar have been attacked by giant crimson beetles, while, Major Ursus and the Titanium Man have been attacked by Doctor Doom…
The smoke cleared, as Doctor Doom stepped through the shattered doorway. He swatted aside the remaining door, as he looked down at the two fallen Russia super humans.
Titanium Man lay sprawled on his back, a groan emitting from his thin line of a speaker grill. One of his eyes was flickering.
Major Urivitch staggered to his feet, leaning against the wall for support. He struggled to focus, as his mind and vision slowly cleared and the hope that this was a bad dream faded.
“You would do well to stay down!” The monarch of Latvia bellowed, pointing at the young Soviet soldier. “Interfering in my plans will not be tolerated. Learn from your comrades’ poor judgment.”
He turned, his cape, ragged and singed twirling behind him as he moved.
“I’m going to regret this,” Urivitch muttered, shrugging out of his jacket. He closed his eyes and his brow furrowed in concentration.
His body trembled, his muscles bulged and his clothing began to tear.
Within seconds, the earnest, young soldier was replaced by a massive, humanoid grizzly bear. Mikhail Uriokovitch had been replaced the Russian super hero, Ursa Major!
The bear then lunged forward, landing heavily upon Doom’s back, his claws shredding the green cloak and drawing sparks on the armor beneath. He drove Doctor Doom down to one knee.
The armored monarch planted his hands upon the floor and fired ray blasts, propelling him back to his feet. He drove an elbow into the bear’s solar plexus.
Ursa Major staggered back, then swung at Doom’s head with a massive paw. Doom spun and caught the bears’ wrist in his iron hand.
“Beast, you would dare to challenge…to strike Doom?”
He backhanded the bear across the snout.
“I…would…dare!” The bear growled back, shoving full force and sending the armored monarch stumbling back across the corridor.
He was unsure what seemed to startle Doom, the blow or that a bear had the power of speech.
The bear lunged forward, tackling the monarch of Latveria. The pair toppled backwards, crashing through the wall. The room looked like some kind of large machine shop. They collided with a heavy workbench, causing it to tip and send a rain of tools and bits of equipment to strike the two combatants.
Doom bent backwards, emitting a screech that could have been pain or merely systems within his armor straining to compensate. Sparks flew from his fingertips and a trickle of smoke emerged from the joints in his iron-sheathed arm.
With a visible effort, Doctor Doom threw the bear from him and struggled to his feet.
“You…you….shall pay foooorrrr….laying hands up-up-upon Doom…!”
“Doubtful,” The Titanium Man snapped jetting across the room, punching the monarch in the chest. His over-sized green fist went through Doom’s chest, emerging out his back. “Sookin sin…!”
“What the hell…?” Ursa Major growled, climbing to his feet. “How…?”
“Doom shall-all-all bend you to…zzztt…his will…!” He snarled, more smoke pouring from his limbs and the mouth-grill on his mask. Electricity arced from the wound in his chest, sending Titanium Man into spasms of pain as he struggled to pull his arm free.
Ursa Major ran, driving a shoulder into his teammates’ side and knocking him loose. The two tumbled to the floor, the armored scientist groaned as he struggled to get up, reaching only his hands and knees. The humanoid bear staggered upright, patches of his fur singed, while others stood up straight.
He ducked back down, behind his fallen teammate, seconds before Doctor Doom exploded, showering the pair with shards of metal and scraps of cloth.
“Wha-what just happened…?” Ursa Major stammered, sitting up, his massive back against the wall.
“The idiots somehow got their hands on a Doombot,” Titanium Man grumbled, pushing himself upright. “Then decided to reverse engineer it…unn…and most likely didn’t bother to disassemble or secure it before this place was abandoned…there’s the cream of the crop of Soviet science for you…bunch of simpletons!”
Ursa Major merely shook his head and growled, as he moved over to his teammate and helped him to his feet.
“Was the Doombot what caused the power surge?” He asked, in his guttural voice, tinged with hope that their mission was over and they had faced the worst of it.
“We need to find out, but I doubt it,” Titanium Man reaching his feet. The workbench he was using to prompt himself up began to creak and bend.
He stomped past the remains of the Doombot, perusing the other workbenches. He pushed bits of equipment and tools aside, occasionally picking up a piece and studying it.
“No,” He finally said. ‘This isn’t the cause of the power surge, merely a painful and annoying side effect.”
He turned to face his teammate.
“So, don’t touch anything!”
Ursa Major dropped the robot arm he was holding and shuffled over to the jagged hole that was the doorway.
“We should warn Darkstar and the Guardian then,” He said. “If projects are being activated by the energy surge at random…”
“Yes, fine,” The armored scientist, muttered, turning back to the bench.
Ursa Major walked back out into the corridor, slowly transforming back from humanoid bear to a young Russian soldier, now wearing just a pair of brown briefs. He tapped at his earpiece.
“Darkstar?” He said. “Can you hear me…? Laynia…hello…Red Guardian…?”
The were several seconds of static and then some chaotic noise, voices and what might be the crackle of energy blasts.
“Mikhail…!” Darkstar’s voice said, echoing a bit. “Busy right now! Can you wait…a minute…!”
Then the comm. unit went quiet.
“Oh bother…!” He breathed, shrugging and turning back towards Titanium Man.
“Sounds like they may have encountered another ‘side effect’.”
“I’m sure they can deal with it,” Titanium Man said, absently, not looking up from whatever piece of equipment had grabbed his attention.
Again the major shrugged and found a place to sit while he waited and hoped his teammates were okay.
“They can’t be encountering anything stranger than this,” He muttered.
# # # # #
Several levels away, Darkstar and the Red Guardian were fighting off a pair of ten-foot tall, crimson, mutant beetles.
Chittering anxiously the beetles lunged at the Russian heroine. She raised her hands and created a barrier of black energy to keep them back.
“Guardian!” She shouted over her shoulder. “I need help!”
The Red Guardian blinked and lurched to his feet, picking up his shield and sliding it onto his arm.
“What are they…?” He asked.
“We can ask after we stop them from killing us!” Darkstar replied, through gritted teeth. “I can’t hold them much longer…!”
“All right…fine,” Red Guardian said, shaking his head. “Drop the barrier.”
The second the wall of ebony energy faded, he flung his shield. It struck the nearest beetle, just below the mandibles, ricocheted off and struck the second. The Red Guardian was on the move, as soon as the shield left his hand. He ran across the corridor, grabbed Darkstar around the waist, grabbed his shield on the rebound and then used it to barrel past the staggered giant insects and through the double doors.
“Seal them out!” He shouted, letting go of the young heroine.
Darkstar looked around in vague confusion, shrugged and then threw up a black energy wall against the doors.
The Red Guardian kept his shield on his arm; while he searched the desks, work stations and various bits of scientific equipment, the whole time tapping at the earpiece in his cowl.
“Boloskoy…?” He muttered, as he moved about, rummaging through dusty paperwork and knickknacks. “Come in, Bolosky…! Bolosky…! Great, I can’t get in touch with the man who told me we’d have no trouble with the communicators!”
“Whatever you’re doing,” Darkstar said, her forehead wrinkling with the effort of securing the door. “Could you do it faster or at least tell me what it is? Those things are every bit as strong as they look!”
“I’m trying to figure out what they did in here,” The Guardian replied. “Or what those…things were doing in here…?”
“They are crimson beetles,” Darkstar replied. “They were the creation of a German scientist, during the cold war and several were used in a version of the Winterguard, sponsored by the East German government…”
“What? How?”
“I have a lot of time to read, sitting with my brother between missions,” She replied.
“Do you think they are behind…whatever is going on?” He asked, returning to her side.
“I don’t think so,” She said, shaking her head. “While very smart, by giant monster standards, I can’t see the point of them trying to take over the base.”
“So, we have to subdue them and keep looking,” Red Guardian sighed. ‘Oh well…”
He tilted his head from side to side, causing his neck to crack and then took up a fighting stance, his shield up. “Let them in so we can get this over with…!”
# # # # #
Ursa Major tapped at his earpiece, receiving nothing but static, he frowned and shrugged.
“I can’t reach the others,” He announced. “I hope it’s just that they have gone deep underground, rather than…”
“Yes, yes,” Titanium Man muttered, absently, as he fitted together several components, and held it up, realizing he had built a gun of some kind. “Hmmm…ion pulse…how did they deal with the phase variation issue…?”
He pressed a button and the gun blew up in his face.
“Ah, they didn’t…” he said, waving away the smoke. He rubbed his armored hands together, brushing away bits of circuits and shards of metal and plastic.
Feeling anxious and annoyed, Ursa Major wandered about the lab, peering at the assorted bits of equipment, but cautious enough not to touch any of them. Wedged in-between a dented filing cabinet and a rough wooden table was a stained tarp.
Ursa Major pulled it aside and then flinched back.
Under the tarp was a clunky armored figure sitting on the concrete floor. It resembled a crude version of the Soviet hero, Airstrike.
“Huh…?” The Russian mutant said, running a finger across the dusty helmet. “Must be a prototype…how much of the Winterguard got their start here…?”
He gave the helmet an affectionate pat and then turned back to Titanium Man.
“Proximity alert!” A voice behind him grated. “Security protocols activated!”
“Oh no…!” Ursa Major said, glancing over his shoulder. The eyes on the helmet lit up with flickering red lights and the arms slowly raised up.
“What did you touch?” Titanium Man shouted.
The gauntlets on the armored figure began to glow.
# # # # #
Several levels below, Red Guardian sat on the unconscious body of one of the crimson beetles, rubbing his shoulder. There was a jagged tear across the front of his tunic and his lip was bleeding.
“That could have gone better,” He muttered. He wiped the back of one of his gloves across his mouth, looked in disapproval at the red smear and spat on the floor.
“Don’t be a child,” Darkstar chided, using a scoop made of obsidian energy to push the second, senseless mutated beetle to join its brother in a pile. “You didn’t need to go charging in. I’m quite capable of handling things like this.”
“Things like this…?” Red Guardian muttered, waving a hand at the two enormous bugs.
“Really?”
“I’ve encountered worse,” She replied, absently, while she floated around the lab. “My brother and I went to the moon on one of our early missions…what did they want in here? What were they up to?”
“Why did they move those cabinets?” The Red Guardian added, gesturing to the far side of the room.
# # # # #
Darkstar flew over and looking down notice the recent scratch marks on the floor. She raised her hands and used twin beams of black energy to shove the bulky metal cabinets apart, revealing a narrow door in the wall. Sliding it back, she found a small elevator.
“That must have been a tight fit,” The Guardian mused, joining his teammate, and peering over her shoulder.
“Maybe, it wasn’t for them,” Darkstar suggested.
The duo stepped inside. The Red Guardian studied the panel of buttons inside and pressed the button with the least amount of dust on it. The door slid shut and the elevator descended.
Ursa Major frantically ducked, the crackling energy beams flashing over his head. He smelled burnt hair as he hit the floor. The beams struck the Titanium Man full in the chest. His chest plate sparked.
The armored scientist then rocketed across the room, driving his fists into the huddled armored form.
The broken armor arced and flashed with energy. Titanium struggled to pull his hands free, only to discover he was stuck.
“Oh damnit…!” he muttered, his efforts becoming increasingly frantic.
“It’s…um…starting to smoke…?” Ursa Major said, standing by, unsure how to help his teammate.
“Do something…!” Titanium Man shouted, his voice becoming staticy.
With a burst of effort, the young soldier transformed into his bear-form and grabbed his teammate by the shoulders, gritting his teeth, against the painful sparking, and was able to pull him loose.
Unfortunately not quickly enough to get them clear before the armor suit exploded, causing the floor beneath their feet to collapse.
# # # # #
The elevator door slid open and the two heroes got out.
“There is no way those bugs used that,” Red Guardian said, shaking his head. “Even if they’d used it one at a time.”
“So, what were they up to?” Darkstar asked, looking around.
The corridor was bare concrete walls and floor with exposed pipes lining the ceiling.
“It almost looked like they were moving the furniture to hide the door to this elevator.” He suggested.
“So, they couldn’t use the elevator, but took the stairs in order to hide the elevator?” Darkstar asked. “What are they up to down here that they wanted to hide?”
“Or who is hiding down here that wanted to beetles to keep anyone from finding them?” The
Red Guardian asked, as he unslung his shield and stepped back to his teammate.
They stalked down the corridor, coming across the occasional metal door.
They were mostly storage and maintenance closets.
“Why hide that elevator?” Darkstar frowned, as they came across more cleaning supplies. “There’s nothing down here?”
“Maybe that…?” Red Guardian said, pointing to the end of the corridor. There was a large door, like a plain grey garage door.
The whole corridor hummed with concealed machinery, which seemed to be louder behind that door.
Reaching the large door, they spotted a smaller door set within it.
“What do you think is in there?” Darkstar asked, pressing her ear against the door.
“After the giant beetles,” Red Guardian replied. “I don’t dare guess anymore.”
He couldn’t find a handle or knob, so he jammed the edge of his shield into the groove and pried the door open.
The room beyond was cavernous and jammed with a huge amount of equipment and machinery.
“It’s like a set from ‘Metropolis’…!” Darkstar breathed, peering up at the vast banks of primitive computers. “Or Willy Wonka…!”
“Look!” Red Guardian shouted, running off to the right. He squeezed between two cabinets and was out of sight. Darkstar quickly flew after him and then skidded to a mid-air halt. Like a clearing in a forest, the two heroes came to an open area, surrounded by densely packed machinery of every kind.
Within the clearing was a raised area, like a dais made of concrete. Upon it was an odd framework, like a child’s jungle gym strung with Christmas lights. In the middle of all that was a figure, pulsing with energy. She wore a costume similar to Red Guardian’s. Her cowl had a thin white fin on top and her jet-black hair flowed out from the back.
Her eyes glowed like miniature suns, and her mouth was open in a silent scream from which white-hot energy poured.
She floated within the structure, arms outstretched, like some kind of bizarre religious icon.
“Of course…!” Darkstar breathed. “Project: Starlight…it’s Tanya…!”
“The renegade!” Red Guardian added.
Both turned to face the other.
“You know her…?” They both began to say and then halted.
“How do you…?” They both started again. The Red Guardian frowned in frustration.
“Go!” He snaps, with a ‘you first’ gesture.
“It’s Tanya Belshki,” Darkstar said. “My father turned her into an energy being and they left the planet. When that happened she was re-named Starlight, rather than Red Guardian…”
“She was not a Red Guardian,” Her teammate muttered, angrily. “She was a vigilante! A renegade who took the name Red Guardian and used it in her little crusade against…!”
“Really? Can we not have a political debate in the middle of this…mad scientist laboratory?” She exclaimed. “Weren’t you the one lecturing me earlier about this sort of thing?”
They looked at each other for several breaths, Darkstar sighing impatiently and the Red Guardian glaring.
“Ah, guests,” A voice behind them growled. “Though, I must say, not who I was expecting.”
The two heroes spun and so no one behind them, until they looked down.
# # # # #
The new arrival barely topped three feet in height. He wore a plain green coverall, boots and gloves. His baldhead seemed overlarge for his dwarfish body. The skin around his face was scrunched, while the skin around his bulbous head was pink, shiny and appeared stretched thin to contain the amazing cranium.
In one stubby fingered hand he held an over-sized pistol.
Red Guardian went into a battle-ready crouch, while Darkstar flew forward and with a delighted squeal knelt down and hugged the miss-sharpened little man.
“Gremlin…!” She exclaimed. “You’re alive!”
“Um…yes,” The little man replied, awkwardly patting her back with his free hand. “Hello, Laynia.”
He glared over her shoulder at the Red Guardian.
“Do I want to know what…he is doing here with you?” The Gremlin asked.
“It’s…complicated,” She replied, quietly. Then moved away from the dwarf-ish figure, but stayed kneeling. “But, what about you? We thought you were dead!”
“Really…?” He said. “After all the other times I’ve used that ruse, I was unsure anyone would fall for it, yet again.”
“Have you been here the whole time?” Red Guardian asked.
“Yes, mostly,” Gremlin replied. “I spent a great deal of my…youth in these facilities. Seemed the perfect place for my ‘retirement’.”
“What about the Red…um…Starlight…Tanya?” Darkstar asked. “What happened to her? Is..the…uh…my father here as well?”
“The Presence is, as far as I know, still off planet,” The Gremlin shrugged. “Starlight crashed to Earth several weeks ago. I found her and brought her here, shortly before the military arrived…”
Darkstar turned to glance cynically at the Red Guardian.
“Tanks on maneuver in this area, merely to act as back up for us?’ She asked him. “Did they already know she was here?”
“They were in the area tracking what was believed to be a crashed spy plane or possibly operatives of A.I.M…” The Red Guardian muttered, awkwardly. “ Perhaps S.H.E.I.L.D…”
“Is that the story you were told, or the story you were told to tell us?” Darkstar asked, getting to her feet. Her fists clenched and enveloped in crackling, black energy.
“The Colonel was concerned A.I.M might be attempting to pillage one of the secret cities.” The Red Guardian replied, having difficulty meeting his teammate’s gaze.
“They believed A.I.M. was intent on getting their hands on cold war era secret weapons and that wasn’t considered ‘need to know’ enough for us?” Darkstar snapped. “So, please tell me again how I should put my trust in my teammates?”
The Gremlin holstered his clunky pistol and stood with his hands clasped behind his back, glancing between the two heroes with a studious interest.
“There was some concern about you and Urus should the operatives prove to be from S.H.I.E.L.D., rather than A.I.M.,” The Guardian replied, stiffly. “There were concerns about how you would act if it proved that the Americans were here. I agreed, as I had not worked with either of you in the field.”
“Why, you…!”
“Acted accordingly,” The Gremlin quietly interrupted. “Leave him be, Laynia. He and the military were reacting to a perceived situation. Their guesses were incorrect and we now have more important things to deal with. I may need both your help.”
He walked past them and towards the odd scientific sculpture that contained the glowing Russian heroine.
“I do not know what occurred to Dr. Beleski off world,” He continued, not looking back, assuming the others were following him. “But whatever genetic alterations your father performed on her are unable to contain the current matrix of energy her body now contains. My attempts to stabilize her is what, I believe, gained your…comrades attention. I then pieced together this equipment in order to siphon off as much of the energy as I could.”
“Similar to what they are attempting with Mikhail,” Darkstar said, absently studying the odd mish-mash of equipment containing the other heroine.
“What?” Gremlin asked, looking up at her.
“Another complicated story.” She replied, keeping her attention on Starlight. “Your siphoning off the energy through the city’s power grid?”
“Yes, but these old, neglected systems are not quite up to the task. There have been…situations.
“You mean like a pair of giant beetles running loose?” Red Guardian asked, sarcastically.
“No, they were actually quite reasonable, once I explained…you beat them senseless, didn’t you? Typical…”
He then returned his attention back to Darkstar. Leaving Red Guardian feeling like he’d just been chastised by a particularly stern teacher.
“What did you mean they are doing something similar to your brother?” Gremlin asked Darkstar.
She then explained about Vanguard’s condition and what the Soviet medical teams were attempting to revive him.
“Interesting, “ Gremlin muttered, stroking his chin in thought. “These two problems might be coordinated that they could help each other.”
“You mean channel Starlight’s energy through Mikhail and it might heal both of them?” She asked, surprised.
“Quite possibly. His mutant DNA would be more resistant to the radiation in Tanya’s system, as well as the cosmic energy.” Gremlin explained.
“So, if we bring her to our headquarters,” Red Guardian began. “You could…”
“No, no,” Gremlin interrupted, scowling. “In her condition, moving her would be asking for trouble, and while I’m sure your equipment is a bit more up to date then what I’ve been using, I would no more voluntarily give myself over to the Russian government than I would attempt to swim with sharks while sporting an open wound. If Mikhail were to be brought here…”
“I don’t know if that’s wise,” Red Guardian frowned. “Or even feasible. The Colonel…”
He paused, looked up at the anxious, hopeful expression on Darkstar’s face. “Will be difficult to convince, even with my help.”
Gremlin screwed up his ugly face in what the Russian hero thought might be a smile. He then rubbed his small, gloved hands together.
“Well, I’ll need to get to work adjusting this equipment. Not to mention oversee that no more systems are disrupted. I’ve been lucky in that my efforts have not, so far, activated any of the more dangerous or disruptive projects housed here…”
# # # # #
It was at that point that a section of the ceiling cracked, caved in and the other two members of the Winter Guard, as well as a shower of concrete dust, broken bits of wiring and shards of metal came tumbling into the room.
The others flinched back, Red Guardian moving so that he was in front of the other two, his shield up.
From the pile of bodies, destroyed workbench and assorted debris, there was a hint of movement.
“You…idiot!” Titanium Man grunted, shoving the groggy bear off him.
Ursa Major lurched to his feet, teeth and claws barred, prepared to retaliate both verbally and physically. He then paused, looking around, baffled at their new surroundings and then spotting his teammates.
“Gremlin…?” He growled. “You’re alive!”
“Are all my conversations going to be starting this way for the foreseeable future?” The diminutive genius muttered.
“Gremlin?” Titanium Man said, disdainfully. “I don’t suppose you also saved my armor or is it still at the bottom of the Black Sea?”
“Bolosky,” The Gremlin said, giving the other a curt nod of acknowledgment. “Last I heard you had been reduced to a playing card. Think I preferred you that way.”
Titanium Man took a heavy step forward, his armored fists clenched.
Suddenly, a black energy barrier appeared between the two scientists.
“Enough!” Darkstar snapped, flying over to them. “Gremlin is the cause of the energy signal we were sent to find. He is attempting to help Tanya Beleski…”
“That female Red Guardian?” Titanium Man muttered, puzzled.
Red Guardian gritted his teeth, but stayed quiet.
“It sounds as though the method he is using could possibly help my brother. So, we are going to help him if we can.”
“As well as keeping her from exploding and devastating the countryside,” Gremlin added.
The other members of the Winterguard all turned to stare at him.
“Did I not mention that as a concern as well?” He asked.
“No, this is the first time you’ve mentioned it,” Darkstar chided.
“I can see how that little detail might have slipped your mind.” Titanium Man added, sarcastically.
“How big an explosion?” Red Guardian asked.
“If she starts glowing really brightly, is that a bad thing?” Ursa Major asked.
“Frighteningly large and yes,” Gremlin replied, running past the cluster of heroes to the metal framework that contained the female Red Guardian. The energy she was emitting was white hot, to the point that it was painful to look at directly.
“Bothersome,” Gremlin muttered, climbing a makeshift set of steps to a console and quickly adjusting controls. “Your heavy handed actions must of damaged some thing…doesn’t help that I’m working with thirty year old wiring.”
He looked over his shoulder at the Winterguard.
“Care to help or are you just going to gawk?” He snapped.
“What do you need?” Darkstar asked, flying over to join him.
“Even if there isn’t an earth shattering kaboom, there will be some rather worrying energy flares,” The tiny scientist explained. “So, if you could create some kind of containment structure. I suppose Boloski is competent enough to assist me…”
“Stop it,” Darkstar chided. “You two can call each other names after you prevent us from dying horribly. What do you need from him?”
He gestured towards a bulky computer bank strewn with thick bundles of cable.
Titanium Man glared at the back of his over-sized head for a moment, then stomped over to the indicated area. He popped off his helmet and then removed one of his gauntlets.
He peered down at the computer console, tapping the panel irritably.
“It’s like trying to run a nuclear reactor with a children’s toy,” He grumbled, adjusting and dial and hitting several switches.
“Will the city’s power grid be able to handle such an onrush of power?” He asked, all hostility gone towards the other scientist as he studied the equipment and the situation in general.
“Doubtful,” Gremlin replied. “The siphoning process was interrupted and now her levels are more than her body and the system can handle. It’ll have to be one large transfer and hope the infrastructure can hold up. Hopefully, Laynia can keep her contained.”
No one felt the need to ask what happened if his calculations were wrong.
“What about the Major and I?” Red Guardian asked. “What can we do to help?”
“Someone needs to contact the military,” Gremlin said. “If I am wrong, they need to evacuate. If I’m right, we are going to need a great deal of equipment to stabilize her.”
“Ursa Major laid a massive paw on the Red Guardian’s shoulder.
“You go,” He growled. “The military and Madam X will listen to you and…if things don’t…go well, I want to be with my friends.”
The Red Guardian nodded, slung his shield onto his back and jogged off.
The mutant bear man sighed, shrugged and found a large crate to sit on and wait.
Darkstar floated in front of the metal frame, her hands crackling with energy.
She glanced over her shoulder and the Gremlin nodded at her.
“Wish us luck, Taynia,” She whispered, and raised her arms. Black energy shot from her fingertips and formed into a dense sphere, like enormous ebony pearl surrounded the framework and its volatile occupant.
For several minutes, nothing seemed to happen. Darkstar held the energy sphere in place, the two odd scientists moved about, adjusting controls and jury-rigging broken or burnt out circuits or wiring, while the giant bear sat by, anxiously waiting.
Gradually the whine of the surrounding machinery increased in pitch and volume. The black sphere began to bubble and pulse and beads of sweat broke out on Darkstar’s forehead.
Soon, her arms began to tremble and cracks, streaming white energy, began to form on the surface of the sphere.
“Is it working?” Darkstar asked her voice strained.
“It’s proving difficult,” The Gremlin replied, as though he was trying to program a VCR, rather then prevent a major disaster. “My concern now is we manage help Starlight before the building collapses on our heads.”
Ursa Major climbed to his feet and lumbered over the Darkstar.
“Are you all right?” He asked. “What can I do?”
“I don’t know,” She said through gritted teeth. “It…hurts…must…hold it.”
Ursa Major placed his hands upon her shoulders.
“You can do it.” He murmured.
She gave him a small anxious smile and returned to her task.
“Is it working?” Titanium Man shouted, frantically working the console. Several panels were smoking and most of the connections were sparking. He used a finger laser to wield a panel together. He clamped his gauntlet back on. The others were curious as to whether it was in order to work the system better or in case he needed to make a quick escape.
The energy bubble wobbled and pulsed like a bizarre giant water balloon. Ursa Major could feel a tremor beneath his feet. Darkstar’s whole body was shaking and her face was bathed in sweat.
“Soon…please,” she whispered, before biting her lip.
“Be strong,” Ursa Major told her. He patted her shoulder and the flow of energy caused his fur to stand on end. Despite that, he put his arms around her, for both physical and emotional support.
For several minutes the only sound was the rumbling as the power surge shook the science faculty. Dust and debris began to rain down on the Russian heroes. All went about their tasks, tense and anxious, as they expected any moment the room around them would blow up.
They still all flinched in surprise when it actually happened…
# # # # #
Ursa Major regained consciousness and his first thought was surprise that he was actually regaining consciousness. When the white light hit his eyes he was sure that would be the last thing he saw.
He tried to sit up and noticed that he had reverted to his human form. Then he noticed slabs of charred plastic, metal slates and an unconsciousness blonde woman in a skintight bodysuit pinning him down.
“Laynia,” He muttered, reaching out and giving her shoulder a gentile shake. He attempted to shift and get the two of them up and realized his legs were pinned.
“Laynia,” He said again, a bit louder and more concerned. “Wake up, I need help…!”
He then felt a pair of hands reached under his arms and slowly pulled him loose.
When they let go of him, the young Russian mutant laid back down on the gritty concrete floor and found himself looking up at a beautiful, yet bruised and dirt-smeared naked woman with shoulder-length black hair.
“Uhhh…maybe I did die…?” He muttered, confused.
“Um…hello,” She said. “Could you tell me how I got here…and where my clothes are…?”
A nearby pile of rubble shifted and the Gremlin came crawling out, shaking his over-sized head to clear it of the ringing and muttering to himself.
“Stupid capacitors,” He grumbled. “Russians can’t build a energy transfer matrix capacitor to save their lives…uh…Tanya…you’re better…!”
“Uh…I think so…I’m chilly and not sure how I got here…?”
Gremlin got to his feet and tugged a grimy lab smock loose from the remains of a workbench and handed it to Starlight.
“So, we aren’t dead,” Ursa Major said, sitting up and cradling Darkstar.
Her eyelids fluttered and she looked up at her teammate.
“We aren’t dead?” She whispered.
“No, we aren’t dead.” He told her.
“Good,” She mumbled sleepily and closed her eyes again.
“So, what do we do now?” He asked.
“You could help me!” Titanium Man shouted from beneath a pile of shattered computer banks. He pulled himself free. His armor was cracked and scorched. He yanked off his helmet and spat blood. “Never leaving the lab, ever again…!”
“I don’t understand any of what is going on.” Starlight said, leaning against one of the few still upright computer banks.
“You get used to it,” Ursa Major told her.
“So, we saved the day,” Gremlin said, clasping his hands behind his back and thoughtfully studying the remains of the lab. “And you’ve either gained two new teammates or captured two dangerous renegades.”
“Yes,” Titanium Man grumbled. “We are awash in job satisfaction…”
Author’s note: I always liked the Winter Guard/Soviet Super Soldiers and always felt bad they were generally treated as either bad guys or red shirts. This story gives them an adventure of their own, as well as setting up a new status quo for them.
The smoke cleared, as Doctor Doom stepped through the shattered doorway. He swatted aside the remaining door, as he looked down at the two fallen Russia super humans.
Titanium Man lay sprawled on his back, a groan emitting from his thin line of a speaker grill. One of his eyes was flickering.
Major Urivitch staggered to his feet, leaning against the wall for support. He struggled to focus, as his mind and vision slowly cleared and the hope that this was a bad dream faded.
“You would do well to stay down!” The monarch of Latvia bellowed, pointing at the young Soviet soldier. “Interfering in my plans will not be tolerated. Learn from your comrades’ poor judgment.”
He turned, his cape, ragged and singed twirling behind him as he moved.
“I’m going to regret this,” Urivitch muttered, shrugging out of his jacket. He closed his eyes and his brow furrowed in concentration.
His body trembled, his muscles bulged and his clothing began to tear.
Within seconds, the earnest, young soldier was replaced by a massive, humanoid grizzly bear. Mikhail Uriokovitch had been replaced the Russian super hero, Ursa Major!
The bear then lunged forward, landing heavily upon Doom’s back, his claws shredding the green cloak and drawing sparks on the armor beneath. He drove Doctor Doom down to one knee.
The armored monarch planted his hands upon the floor and fired ray blasts, propelling him back to his feet. He drove an elbow into the bear’s solar plexus.
Ursa Major staggered back, then swung at Doom’s head with a massive paw. Doom spun and caught the bears’ wrist in his iron hand.
“Beast, you would dare to challenge…to strike Doom?”
He backhanded the bear across the snout.
“I…would…dare!” The bear growled back, shoving full force and sending the armored monarch stumbling back across the corridor.
He was unsure what seemed to startle Doom, the blow or that a bear had the power of speech.
The bear lunged forward, tackling the monarch of Latveria. The pair toppled backwards, crashing through the wall. The room looked like some kind of large machine shop. They collided with a heavy workbench, causing it to tip and send a rain of tools and bits of equipment to strike the two combatants.
Doom bent backwards, emitting a screech that could have been pain or merely systems within his armor straining to compensate. Sparks flew from his fingertips and a trickle of smoke emerged from the joints in his iron-sheathed arm.
With a visible effort, Doctor Doom threw the bear from him and struggled to his feet.
“You…you….shall pay foooorrrr….laying hands up-up-upon Doom…!”
“Doubtful,” The Titanium Man snapped jetting across the room, punching the monarch in the chest. His over-sized green fist went through Doom’s chest, emerging out his back. “Sookin sin…!”
“What the hell…?” Ursa Major growled, climbing to his feet. “How…?”
“Doom shall-all-all bend you to…zzztt…his will…!” He snarled, more smoke pouring from his limbs and the mouth-grill on his mask. Electricity arced from the wound in his chest, sending Titanium Man into spasms of pain as he struggled to pull his arm free.
Ursa Major ran, driving a shoulder into his teammates’ side and knocking him loose. The two tumbled to the floor, the armored scientist groaned as he struggled to get up, reaching only his hands and knees. The humanoid bear staggered upright, patches of his fur singed, while others stood up straight.
He ducked back down, behind his fallen teammate, seconds before Doctor Doom exploded, showering the pair with shards of metal and scraps of cloth.
“Wha-what just happened…?” Ursa Major stammered, sitting up, his massive back against the wall.
“The idiots somehow got their hands on a Doombot,” Titanium Man grumbled, pushing himself upright. “Then decided to reverse engineer it…unn…and most likely didn’t bother to disassemble or secure it before this place was abandoned…there’s the cream of the crop of Soviet science for you…bunch of simpletons!”
Ursa Major merely shook his head and growled, as he moved over to his teammate and helped him to his feet.
“Was the Doombot what caused the power surge?” He asked, in his guttural voice, tinged with hope that their mission was over and they had faced the worst of it.
“We need to find out, but I doubt it,” Titanium Man reaching his feet. The workbench he was using to prompt himself up began to creak and bend.
He stomped past the remains of the Doombot, perusing the other workbenches. He pushed bits of equipment and tools aside, occasionally picking up a piece and studying it.
“No,” He finally said. ‘This isn’t the cause of the power surge, merely a painful and annoying side effect.”
He turned to face his teammate.
“So, don’t touch anything!”
Ursa Major dropped the robot arm he was holding and shuffled over to the jagged hole that was the doorway.
“We should warn Darkstar and the Guardian then,” He said. “If projects are being activated by the energy surge at random…”
“Yes, fine,” The armored scientist, muttered, turning back to the bench.
Ursa Major walked back out into the corridor, slowly transforming back from humanoid bear to a young Russian soldier, now wearing just a pair of brown briefs. He tapped at his earpiece.
“Darkstar?” He said. “Can you hear me…? Laynia…hello…Red Guardian…?”
The were several seconds of static and then some chaotic noise, voices and what might be the crackle of energy blasts.
“Mikhail…!” Darkstar’s voice said, echoing a bit. “Busy right now! Can you wait…a minute…!”
Then the comm. unit went quiet.
“Oh bother…!” He breathed, shrugging and turning back towards Titanium Man.
“Sounds like they may have encountered another ‘side effect’.”
“I’m sure they can deal with it,” Titanium Man said, absently, not looking up from whatever piece of equipment had grabbed his attention.
Again the major shrugged and found a place to sit while he waited and hoped his teammates were okay.
“They can’t be encountering anything stranger than this,” He muttered.
# # # # #
Several levels away, Darkstar and the Red Guardian were fighting off a pair of ten-foot tall, crimson, mutant beetles.
Chittering anxiously the beetles lunged at the Russian heroine. She raised her hands and created a barrier of black energy to keep them back.
“Guardian!” She shouted over her shoulder. “I need help!”
The Red Guardian blinked and lurched to his feet, picking up his shield and sliding it onto his arm.
“What are they…?” He asked.
“We can ask after we stop them from killing us!” Darkstar replied, through gritted teeth. “I can’t hold them much longer…!”
“All right…fine,” Red Guardian said, shaking his head. “Drop the barrier.”
The second the wall of ebony energy faded, he flung his shield. It struck the nearest beetle, just below the mandibles, ricocheted off and struck the second. The Red Guardian was on the move, as soon as the shield left his hand. He ran across the corridor, grabbed Darkstar around the waist, grabbed his shield on the rebound and then used it to barrel past the staggered giant insects and through the double doors.
“Seal them out!” He shouted, letting go of the young heroine.
Darkstar looked around in vague confusion, shrugged and then threw up a black energy wall against the doors.
The Red Guardian kept his shield on his arm; while he searched the desks, work stations and various bits of scientific equipment, the whole time tapping at the earpiece in his cowl.
“Boloskoy…?” He muttered, as he moved about, rummaging through dusty paperwork and knickknacks. “Come in, Bolosky…! Bolosky…! Great, I can’t get in touch with the man who told me we’d have no trouble with the communicators!”
“Whatever you’re doing,” Darkstar said, her forehead wrinkling with the effort of securing the door. “Could you do it faster or at least tell me what it is? Those things are every bit as strong as they look!”
“I’m trying to figure out what they did in here,” The Guardian replied. “Or what those…things were doing in here…?”
“They are crimson beetles,” Darkstar replied. “They were the creation of a German scientist, during the cold war and several were used in a version of the Winterguard, sponsored by the East German government…”
“What? How?”
“I have a lot of time to read, sitting with my brother between missions,” She replied.
“Do you think they are behind…whatever is going on?” He asked, returning to her side.
“I don’t think so,” She said, shaking her head. “While very smart, by giant monster standards, I can’t see the point of them trying to take over the base.”
“So, we have to subdue them and keep looking,” Red Guardian sighed. ‘Oh well…”
He tilted his head from side to side, causing his neck to crack and then took up a fighting stance, his shield up. “Let them in so we can get this over with…!”
# # # # #
Ursa Major tapped at his earpiece, receiving nothing but static, he frowned and shrugged.
“I can’t reach the others,” He announced. “I hope it’s just that they have gone deep underground, rather than…”
“Yes, yes,” Titanium Man muttered, absently, as he fitted together several components, and held it up, realizing he had built a gun of some kind. “Hmmm…ion pulse…how did they deal with the phase variation issue…?”
He pressed a button and the gun blew up in his face.
“Ah, they didn’t…” he said, waving away the smoke. He rubbed his armored hands together, brushing away bits of circuits and shards of metal and plastic.
Feeling anxious and annoyed, Ursa Major wandered about the lab, peering at the assorted bits of equipment, but cautious enough not to touch any of them. Wedged in-between a dented filing cabinet and a rough wooden table was a stained tarp.
Ursa Major pulled it aside and then flinched back.
Under the tarp was a clunky armored figure sitting on the concrete floor. It resembled a crude version of the Soviet hero, Airstrike.
“Huh…?” The Russian mutant said, running a finger across the dusty helmet. “Must be a prototype…how much of the Winterguard got their start here…?”
He gave the helmet an affectionate pat and then turned back to Titanium Man.
“Proximity alert!” A voice behind him grated. “Security protocols activated!”
“Oh no…!” Ursa Major said, glancing over his shoulder. The eyes on the helmet lit up with flickering red lights and the arms slowly raised up.
“What did you touch?” Titanium Man shouted.
The gauntlets on the armored figure began to glow.
# # # # #
Several levels below, Red Guardian sat on the unconscious body of one of the crimson beetles, rubbing his shoulder. There was a jagged tear across the front of his tunic and his lip was bleeding.
“That could have gone better,” He muttered. He wiped the back of one of his gloves across his mouth, looked in disapproval at the red smear and spat on the floor.
“Don’t be a child,” Darkstar chided, using a scoop made of obsidian energy to push the second, senseless mutated beetle to join its brother in a pile. “You didn’t need to go charging in. I’m quite capable of handling things like this.”
“Things like this…?” Red Guardian muttered, waving a hand at the two enormous bugs.
“Really?”
“I’ve encountered worse,” She replied, absently, while she floated around the lab. “My brother and I went to the moon on one of our early missions…what did they want in here? What were they up to?”
“Why did they move those cabinets?” The Red Guardian added, gesturing to the far side of the room.
# # # # #
Darkstar flew over and looking down notice the recent scratch marks on the floor. She raised her hands and used twin beams of black energy to shove the bulky metal cabinets apart, revealing a narrow door in the wall. Sliding it back, she found a small elevator.
“That must have been a tight fit,” The Guardian mused, joining his teammate, and peering over her shoulder.
“Maybe, it wasn’t for them,” Darkstar suggested.
The duo stepped inside. The Red Guardian studied the panel of buttons inside and pressed the button with the least amount of dust on it. The door slid shut and the elevator descended.
Ursa Major frantically ducked, the crackling energy beams flashing over his head. He smelled burnt hair as he hit the floor. The beams struck the Titanium Man full in the chest. His chest plate sparked.
The armored scientist then rocketed across the room, driving his fists into the huddled armored form.
The broken armor arced and flashed with energy. Titanium struggled to pull his hands free, only to discover he was stuck.
“Oh damnit…!” he muttered, his efforts becoming increasingly frantic.
“It’s…um…starting to smoke…?” Ursa Major said, standing by, unsure how to help his teammate.
“Do something…!” Titanium Man shouted, his voice becoming staticy.
With a burst of effort, the young soldier transformed into his bear-form and grabbed his teammate by the shoulders, gritting his teeth, against the painful sparking, and was able to pull him loose.
Unfortunately not quickly enough to get them clear before the armor suit exploded, causing the floor beneath their feet to collapse.
# # # # #
The elevator door slid open and the two heroes got out.
“There is no way those bugs used that,” Red Guardian said, shaking his head. “Even if they’d used it one at a time.”
“So, what were they up to?” Darkstar asked, looking around.
The corridor was bare concrete walls and floor with exposed pipes lining the ceiling.
“It almost looked like they were moving the furniture to hide the door to this elevator.” He suggested.
“So, they couldn’t use the elevator, but took the stairs in order to hide the elevator?” Darkstar asked. “What are they up to down here that they wanted to hide?”
“Or who is hiding down here that wanted to beetles to keep anyone from finding them?” The
Red Guardian asked, as he unslung his shield and stepped back to his teammate.
They stalked down the corridor, coming across the occasional metal door.
They were mostly storage and maintenance closets.
“Why hide that elevator?” Darkstar frowned, as they came across more cleaning supplies. “There’s nothing down here?”
“Maybe that…?” Red Guardian said, pointing to the end of the corridor. There was a large door, like a plain grey garage door.
The whole corridor hummed with concealed machinery, which seemed to be louder behind that door.
Reaching the large door, they spotted a smaller door set within it.
“What do you think is in there?” Darkstar asked, pressing her ear against the door.
“After the giant beetles,” Red Guardian replied. “I don’t dare guess anymore.”
He couldn’t find a handle or knob, so he jammed the edge of his shield into the groove and pried the door open.
The room beyond was cavernous and jammed with a huge amount of equipment and machinery.
“It’s like a set from ‘Metropolis’…!” Darkstar breathed, peering up at the vast banks of primitive computers. “Or Willy Wonka…!”
“Look!” Red Guardian shouted, running off to the right. He squeezed between two cabinets and was out of sight. Darkstar quickly flew after him and then skidded to a mid-air halt. Like a clearing in a forest, the two heroes came to an open area, surrounded by densely packed machinery of every kind.
Within the clearing was a raised area, like a dais made of concrete. Upon it was an odd framework, like a child’s jungle gym strung with Christmas lights. In the middle of all that was a figure, pulsing with energy. She wore a costume similar to Red Guardian’s. Her cowl had a thin white fin on top and her jet-black hair flowed out from the back.
Her eyes glowed like miniature suns, and her mouth was open in a silent scream from which white-hot energy poured.
She floated within the structure, arms outstretched, like some kind of bizarre religious icon.
“Of course…!” Darkstar breathed. “Project: Starlight…it’s Tanya…!”
“The renegade!” Red Guardian added.
Both turned to face the other.
“You know her…?” They both began to say and then halted.
“How do you…?” They both started again. The Red Guardian frowned in frustration.
“Go!” He snaps, with a ‘you first’ gesture.
“It’s Tanya Belshki,” Darkstar said. “My father turned her into an energy being and they left the planet. When that happened she was re-named Starlight, rather than Red Guardian…”
“She was not a Red Guardian,” Her teammate muttered, angrily. “She was a vigilante! A renegade who took the name Red Guardian and used it in her little crusade against…!”
“Really? Can we not have a political debate in the middle of this…mad scientist laboratory?” She exclaimed. “Weren’t you the one lecturing me earlier about this sort of thing?”
They looked at each other for several breaths, Darkstar sighing impatiently and the Red Guardian glaring.
“Ah, guests,” A voice behind them growled. “Though, I must say, not who I was expecting.”
The two heroes spun and so no one behind them, until they looked down.
# # # # #
The new arrival barely topped three feet in height. He wore a plain green coverall, boots and gloves. His baldhead seemed overlarge for his dwarfish body. The skin around his face was scrunched, while the skin around his bulbous head was pink, shiny and appeared stretched thin to contain the amazing cranium.
In one stubby fingered hand he held an over-sized pistol.
Red Guardian went into a battle-ready crouch, while Darkstar flew forward and with a delighted squeal knelt down and hugged the miss-sharpened little man.
“Gremlin…!” She exclaimed. “You’re alive!”
“Um…yes,” The little man replied, awkwardly patting her back with his free hand. “Hello, Laynia.”
He glared over her shoulder at the Red Guardian.
“Do I want to know what…he is doing here with you?” The Gremlin asked.
“It’s…complicated,” She replied, quietly. Then moved away from the dwarf-ish figure, but stayed kneeling. “But, what about you? We thought you were dead!”
“Really…?” He said. “After all the other times I’ve used that ruse, I was unsure anyone would fall for it, yet again.”
“Have you been here the whole time?” Red Guardian asked.
“Yes, mostly,” Gremlin replied. “I spent a great deal of my…youth in these facilities. Seemed the perfect place for my ‘retirement’.”
“What about the Red…um…Starlight…Tanya?” Darkstar asked. “What happened to her? Is..the…uh…my father here as well?”
“The Presence is, as far as I know, still off planet,” The Gremlin shrugged. “Starlight crashed to Earth several weeks ago. I found her and brought her here, shortly before the military arrived…”
Darkstar turned to glance cynically at the Red Guardian.
“Tanks on maneuver in this area, merely to act as back up for us?’ She asked him. “Did they already know she was here?”
“They were in the area tracking what was believed to be a crashed spy plane or possibly operatives of A.I.M…” The Red Guardian muttered, awkwardly. “ Perhaps S.H.E.I.L.D…”
“Is that the story you were told, or the story you were told to tell us?” Darkstar asked, getting to her feet. Her fists clenched and enveloped in crackling, black energy.
“The Colonel was concerned A.I.M might be attempting to pillage one of the secret cities.” The Red Guardian replied, having difficulty meeting his teammate’s gaze.
“They believed A.I.M. was intent on getting their hands on cold war era secret weapons and that wasn’t considered ‘need to know’ enough for us?” Darkstar snapped. “So, please tell me again how I should put my trust in my teammates?”
The Gremlin holstered his clunky pistol and stood with his hands clasped behind his back, glancing between the two heroes with a studious interest.
“There was some concern about you and Urus should the operatives prove to be from S.H.I.E.L.D., rather than A.I.M.,” The Guardian replied, stiffly. “There were concerns about how you would act if it proved that the Americans were here. I agreed, as I had not worked with either of you in the field.”
“Why, you…!”
“Acted accordingly,” The Gremlin quietly interrupted. “Leave him be, Laynia. He and the military were reacting to a perceived situation. Their guesses were incorrect and we now have more important things to deal with. I may need both your help.”
He walked past them and towards the odd scientific sculpture that contained the glowing Russian heroine.
“I do not know what occurred to Dr. Beleski off world,” He continued, not looking back, assuming the others were following him. “But whatever genetic alterations your father performed on her are unable to contain the current matrix of energy her body now contains. My attempts to stabilize her is what, I believe, gained your…comrades attention. I then pieced together this equipment in order to siphon off as much of the energy as I could.”
“Similar to what they are attempting with Mikhail,” Darkstar said, absently studying the odd mish-mash of equipment containing the other heroine.
“What?” Gremlin asked, looking up at her.
“Another complicated story.” She replied, keeping her attention on Starlight. “Your siphoning off the energy through the city’s power grid?”
“Yes, but these old, neglected systems are not quite up to the task. There have been…situations.
“You mean like a pair of giant beetles running loose?” Red Guardian asked, sarcastically.
“No, they were actually quite reasonable, once I explained…you beat them senseless, didn’t you? Typical…”
He then returned his attention back to Darkstar. Leaving Red Guardian feeling like he’d just been chastised by a particularly stern teacher.
“What did you mean they are doing something similar to your brother?” Gremlin asked Darkstar.
She then explained about Vanguard’s condition and what the Soviet medical teams were attempting to revive him.
“Interesting, “ Gremlin muttered, stroking his chin in thought. “These two problems might be coordinated that they could help each other.”
“You mean channel Starlight’s energy through Mikhail and it might heal both of them?” She asked, surprised.
“Quite possibly. His mutant DNA would be more resistant to the radiation in Tanya’s system, as well as the cosmic energy.” Gremlin explained.
“So, if we bring her to our headquarters,” Red Guardian began. “You could…”
“No, no,” Gremlin interrupted, scowling. “In her condition, moving her would be asking for trouble, and while I’m sure your equipment is a bit more up to date then what I’ve been using, I would no more voluntarily give myself over to the Russian government than I would attempt to swim with sharks while sporting an open wound. If Mikhail were to be brought here…”
“I don’t know if that’s wise,” Red Guardian frowned. “Or even feasible. The Colonel…”
He paused, looked up at the anxious, hopeful expression on Darkstar’s face. “Will be difficult to convince, even with my help.”
Gremlin screwed up his ugly face in what the Russian hero thought might be a smile. He then rubbed his small, gloved hands together.
“Well, I’ll need to get to work adjusting this equipment. Not to mention oversee that no more systems are disrupted. I’ve been lucky in that my efforts have not, so far, activated any of the more dangerous or disruptive projects housed here…”
# # # # #
It was at that point that a section of the ceiling cracked, caved in and the other two members of the Winter Guard, as well as a shower of concrete dust, broken bits of wiring and shards of metal came tumbling into the room.
The others flinched back, Red Guardian moving so that he was in front of the other two, his shield up.
From the pile of bodies, destroyed workbench and assorted debris, there was a hint of movement.
“You…idiot!” Titanium Man grunted, shoving the groggy bear off him.
Ursa Major lurched to his feet, teeth and claws barred, prepared to retaliate both verbally and physically. He then paused, looking around, baffled at their new surroundings and then spotting his teammates.
“Gremlin…?” He growled. “You’re alive!”
“Are all my conversations going to be starting this way for the foreseeable future?” The diminutive genius muttered.
“Gremlin?” Titanium Man said, disdainfully. “I don’t suppose you also saved my armor or is it still at the bottom of the Black Sea?”
“Bolosky,” The Gremlin said, giving the other a curt nod of acknowledgment. “Last I heard you had been reduced to a playing card. Think I preferred you that way.”
Titanium Man took a heavy step forward, his armored fists clenched.
Suddenly, a black energy barrier appeared between the two scientists.
“Enough!” Darkstar snapped, flying over to them. “Gremlin is the cause of the energy signal we were sent to find. He is attempting to help Tanya Beleski…”
“That female Red Guardian?” Titanium Man muttered, puzzled.
Red Guardian gritted his teeth, but stayed quiet.
“It sounds as though the method he is using could possibly help my brother. So, we are going to help him if we can.”
“As well as keeping her from exploding and devastating the countryside,” Gremlin added.
The other members of the Winterguard all turned to stare at him.
“Did I not mention that as a concern as well?” He asked.
“No, this is the first time you’ve mentioned it,” Darkstar chided.
“I can see how that little detail might have slipped your mind.” Titanium Man added, sarcastically.
“How big an explosion?” Red Guardian asked.
“If she starts glowing really brightly, is that a bad thing?” Ursa Major asked.
“Frighteningly large and yes,” Gremlin replied, running past the cluster of heroes to the metal framework that contained the female Red Guardian. The energy she was emitting was white hot, to the point that it was painful to look at directly.
“Bothersome,” Gremlin muttered, climbing a makeshift set of steps to a console and quickly adjusting controls. “Your heavy handed actions must of damaged some thing…doesn’t help that I’m working with thirty year old wiring.”
He looked over his shoulder at the Winterguard.
“Care to help or are you just going to gawk?” He snapped.
“What do you need?” Darkstar asked, flying over to join him.
“Even if there isn’t an earth shattering kaboom, there will be some rather worrying energy flares,” The tiny scientist explained. “So, if you could create some kind of containment structure. I suppose Boloski is competent enough to assist me…”
“Stop it,” Darkstar chided. “You two can call each other names after you prevent us from dying horribly. What do you need from him?”
He gestured towards a bulky computer bank strewn with thick bundles of cable.
Titanium Man glared at the back of his over-sized head for a moment, then stomped over to the indicated area. He popped off his helmet and then removed one of his gauntlets.
He peered down at the computer console, tapping the panel irritably.
“It’s like trying to run a nuclear reactor with a children’s toy,” He grumbled, adjusting and dial and hitting several switches.
“Will the city’s power grid be able to handle such an onrush of power?” He asked, all hostility gone towards the other scientist as he studied the equipment and the situation in general.
“Doubtful,” Gremlin replied. “The siphoning process was interrupted and now her levels are more than her body and the system can handle. It’ll have to be one large transfer and hope the infrastructure can hold up. Hopefully, Laynia can keep her contained.”
No one felt the need to ask what happened if his calculations were wrong.
“What about the Major and I?” Red Guardian asked. “What can we do to help?”
“Someone needs to contact the military,” Gremlin said. “If I am wrong, they need to evacuate. If I’m right, we are going to need a great deal of equipment to stabilize her.”
“Ursa Major laid a massive paw on the Red Guardian’s shoulder.
“You go,” He growled. “The military and Madam X will listen to you and…if things don’t…go well, I want to be with my friends.”
The Red Guardian nodded, slung his shield onto his back and jogged off.
The mutant bear man sighed, shrugged and found a large crate to sit on and wait.
Darkstar floated in front of the metal frame, her hands crackling with energy.
She glanced over her shoulder and the Gremlin nodded at her.
“Wish us luck, Taynia,” She whispered, and raised her arms. Black energy shot from her fingertips and formed into a dense sphere, like enormous ebony pearl surrounded the framework and its volatile occupant.
For several minutes, nothing seemed to happen. Darkstar held the energy sphere in place, the two odd scientists moved about, adjusting controls and jury-rigging broken or burnt out circuits or wiring, while the giant bear sat by, anxiously waiting.
Gradually the whine of the surrounding machinery increased in pitch and volume. The black sphere began to bubble and pulse and beads of sweat broke out on Darkstar’s forehead.
Soon, her arms began to tremble and cracks, streaming white energy, began to form on the surface of the sphere.
“Is it working?” Darkstar asked her voice strained.
“It’s proving difficult,” The Gremlin replied, as though he was trying to program a VCR, rather then prevent a major disaster. “My concern now is we manage help Starlight before the building collapses on our heads.”
Ursa Major climbed to his feet and lumbered over the Darkstar.
“Are you all right?” He asked. “What can I do?”
“I don’t know,” She said through gritted teeth. “It…hurts…must…hold it.”
Ursa Major placed his hands upon her shoulders.
“You can do it.” He murmured.
She gave him a small anxious smile and returned to her task.
“Is it working?” Titanium Man shouted, frantically working the console. Several panels were smoking and most of the connections were sparking. He used a finger laser to wield a panel together. He clamped his gauntlet back on. The others were curious as to whether it was in order to work the system better or in case he needed to make a quick escape.
The energy bubble wobbled and pulsed like a bizarre giant water balloon. Ursa Major could feel a tremor beneath his feet. Darkstar’s whole body was shaking and her face was bathed in sweat.
“Soon…please,” she whispered, before biting her lip.
“Be strong,” Ursa Major told her. He patted her shoulder and the flow of energy caused his fur to stand on end. Despite that, he put his arms around her, for both physical and emotional support.
For several minutes the only sound was the rumbling as the power surge shook the science faculty. Dust and debris began to rain down on the Russian heroes. All went about their tasks, tense and anxious, as they expected any moment the room around them would blow up.
They still all flinched in surprise when it actually happened…
# # # # #
Ursa Major regained consciousness and his first thought was surprise that he was actually regaining consciousness. When the white light hit his eyes he was sure that would be the last thing he saw.
He tried to sit up and noticed that he had reverted to his human form. Then he noticed slabs of charred plastic, metal slates and an unconsciousness blonde woman in a skintight bodysuit pinning him down.
“Laynia,” He muttered, reaching out and giving her shoulder a gentile shake. He attempted to shift and get the two of them up and realized his legs were pinned.
“Laynia,” He said again, a bit louder and more concerned. “Wake up, I need help…!”
He then felt a pair of hands reached under his arms and slowly pulled him loose.
When they let go of him, the young Russian mutant laid back down on the gritty concrete floor and found himself looking up at a beautiful, yet bruised and dirt-smeared naked woman with shoulder-length black hair.
“Uhhh…maybe I did die…?” He muttered, confused.
“Um…hello,” She said. “Could you tell me how I got here…and where my clothes are…?”
A nearby pile of rubble shifted and the Gremlin came crawling out, shaking his over-sized head to clear it of the ringing and muttering to himself.
“Stupid capacitors,” He grumbled. “Russians can’t build a energy transfer matrix capacitor to save their lives…uh…Tanya…you’re better…!”
“Uh…I think so…I’m chilly and not sure how I got here…?”
Gremlin got to his feet and tugged a grimy lab smock loose from the remains of a workbench and handed it to Starlight.
“So, we aren’t dead,” Ursa Major said, sitting up and cradling Darkstar.
Her eyelids fluttered and she looked up at her teammate.
“We aren’t dead?” She whispered.
“No, we aren’t dead.” He told her.
“Good,” She mumbled sleepily and closed her eyes again.
“So, what do we do now?” He asked.
“You could help me!” Titanium Man shouted from beneath a pile of shattered computer banks. He pulled himself free. His armor was cracked and scorched. He yanked off his helmet and spat blood. “Never leaving the lab, ever again…!”
“I don’t understand any of what is going on.” Starlight said, leaning against one of the few still upright computer banks.
“You get used to it,” Ursa Major told her.
“So, we saved the day,” Gremlin said, clasping his hands behind his back and thoughtfully studying the remains of the lab. “And you’ve either gained two new teammates or captured two dangerous renegades.”
“Yes,” Titanium Man grumbled. “We are awash in job satisfaction…”
Author’s note: I always liked the Winter Guard/Soviet Super Soldiers and always felt bad they were generally treated as either bad guys or red shirts. This story gives them an adventure of their own, as well as setting up a new status quo for them.