Chapter Thirty-Nine: Presenting the Supercools!

“This is Trish Tilby, WGBY News, with a special report. Earlier today, New York City got its first real glimpse at its newest heroes, the mysterious Supercools who foiled yesterday’s terrorist attack by an all-new Soldiers of Misfortune, and Action Coverage was on-location with the story!
“Everything was quiet this afternoon at Hammer Industries- the men and women inside went about their jobs, suspecting nothing- when from nowhere, a fire sprang up, seeming to explode all throughout the office building at the same time, trapping hundreds of people inside! Here we see the fire roaring out of control... and with the Avengers, the Fantastic Four, and the city’s other defenders mysteriously absent for the past few days, there seemed little anyone could do to stop the senseless destruction.
“Suddenly- watch the upper corner of your screen- two heroes swept in from nowhere. See, the all-black figure with the gold bands flies straight up to the building, dropping his caped companion onto the roof, then disappears into the building itself. As soon as he was gone, presumably fighting the fire, a terrible metal-on-metal shriek was heard from blocks away, as the giant metal hammer adorning the top of the building slipped from its moorings and plummeted to the ground below, headed straight for the crowd gathering outside the building. Imagine leaving the scene of a fire just in time to be crushed by falling debris!
“Thankfully, such an ironic fate was not to befall these passers-by; here comes the third member of the trio, whose name we later learned is “The Scavenger.” You can see him on camera starting... now, and yes, folks, those are roller skates he’s zooming in on. As he approaches, you can see a strange blue light pouring from his hand, coating the falling hammer. Judging by the steam rolling off of the plummeting mass, I would venture to guess he’s using some sort of freeze-ray to cool down the burning metal. You’ll see he keeps firing that beam until he’s right underneath the hammer, then -zip!- his roller skates vanish, and there! he catches the hammer, just before it crashes into any of the helpless civilians! We’re talking tons here, ladies and gentlemen, and he caught it without so much as flinching!
“We can’t tell from here what he said, but it’s obvious by his tone that the Scavenger gave the crowd a command. His presence must be amazing, because watch as the crowd backs up neatly away from the fire, all in unison, with no one pushing or resisting, almost as though the Scavenger cast some hypnotic spell over them. Once the crowds were safely away from the building, the Scavenger just set that hammer down between them, keeping the rubberneckers back. Then, with that, he was gone- vanished! And replaced by his friend and teammate, Mr. Negativity, whom we all saw earlier flying into the blaze!
“This reporter has no idea what Mr. Negativity was doing inside the building earlier, but it seems he was leading those left inside to safety, one floor at a time. Here them come now, pouring out of the building. Watch this woman in the front- she moves through the flames as though they’re not there at all, protected somehow by that eerie black glow surrounding her body. Now, Mr. Negativity will touch her, the aura will vanish, and she’ll fall into the waiting arms of the Fire & Rescue crew. One by one, here they come, all sporting that strange forcefield that seems to come from Mr. Negativity himself! And there’s the Scavenger again, bringing up the rear, seeing everyone is out safely. The two just look at one another and nod, as though words are unnecessary between them, then take off for the roof to join the third of their number, the hero, No Powers Boy.
“What of No Powers Boy, you may ask? According to our cameras, he’s simply been sitting on the roof, legs crossed and eyes closed, as though concentrating. As the Scavenger and Mr. Negativity arrive, sweat is pouring off his brow, and I don’t think it has anything to do with the heat! Now, his eyes snap open and- did you see that little flash of flame in his eyes?- suddenly, the whole building is extinguished! Watch that one more time, viewers.... poof! The whole fire is out! When asked what made such an amazing feat possible, No Powers Boy had only this cryptic response: ‘That wasn’t a natural fire.’”
Does this mean the fire downtown was an arson? Is some sinister villain afoot? Where did these ‘Supercools’ come from, and how long are they staying? Or as some have suggested, citing the Scavenger’s suspiciously familiar coat, are these so-called heroes merely a replay of the sinister Thunderbolts debacle of last year? We were unable to ask these hard-hitting questions, because the Supercools vanished moments after the fire was put out. But something tells me that we haven’t seen the last of the Supercools.”

Joe turned the television off in disgust. “So-called heroes?” he asked. “See if I pull that bitch out of a fire next time.” He and his friends were spending their last night in a hotel with the remainder of their money.
“Hey, Joe, relax,” Charles said. “We did a good thing. That’s it’s own reward, right?”
“No,” Joe said, lighting a cigarette. “Money would be a reward. I mean, as much as I want to help people, don’t you think it’d be nice to eat, too?”
“Charles doesn’t need to eat,” Kyle pointed out. He sounded to Joe and Charles very much like a tattletale.
“Oh, sure, like that’s my fault! I seem to remember losing my ability to eat right around the time I was- wasn’t it?- oh, yes- SAVING THE WORLD. Besides, I’m still hungry all the time in my human form. Maybe if someone could get his stupid powers to track down the mutant arsonist behind the attack on Hammer Industries this morning, we could stop a supervillain and earn the respect and gratitude of a very wealthy entrepreneur at the same time!”
“Hey, I had a lock on the power signature!” Kyle shouted in retaliation. “But I had to sever the link to put out the fire! Trust me, I’ll know the guy that did this when I see him again!”
“If you see him again. And if you do- what? Look for the guy on fire? I can do that!”
Joe cut in. “The Human Torches I and II, Shadraq, Firestrike, Firebrand, Pyro, Toro (though he’s dead), Equinox, that half-ice chick from the fake X-Men (also dead, I believe), the Burning Man, Rusty Collins, and the Molten Man are the possibilities that come to mind off the top of my head. Or I suppose it could be the Man-Thing, if he was evil and everyone in the building simultaneously became very afraid. One way or another, I think it’s probably too many people to try to track down individually. I say we return to the scene of the crime, to do a little investigation.” Charles and Kyle just stared at Joe. “But then first thing tomorrow morning, we look for jobs,” Joe said. “I mean it. Really. Jobs first thing in the morning.”

Three heroic figures, lit by the full moon overhead, zipped this way and that through the city, to their intended destination. Mr. Negativity and the Scavenger landed easily on the roof of the Hammer building. The Scavenger set No Powers Boy down, and the three spread out across the roof.
“No residual power traces,” No Powers Boy reported.
“And I’m not seeing anything that might be a clue,” shrugged the Scavenger.
“Maybe we’ll get lucky,” Mr. Negativity suggested. “After all, the villains always return to the scene of the crime.” Just then, the roof access door flew open, and out stepped costumed villains the Constrictor, Boomerang, and Blizzard. No Powers Boy and the Scavenger looked at Mr. Negativity in amazement. The Scavenger rolled his eyes.

“The villains always return to the scene of the crime!” Blizzard shouted triumphantly. “I knew it was all some kind of trick! Sic ‘em, boys!” Three ice-spears appeared in Blizzard’s hand, and the villain threw them easily at No Powers Boy’s chest. Then, the Scavenger was there, flamethrower blazing, to melt the ice to a dull enough point that they shattered against No Powers Boy’s armor.
“Freakin’ unbelievable!” Boomerang exclaimed. He took to the air via boot-jets as the Constrictor’s electrified whips coiled around Mr. Negativity. The electricity itself couldn’t hurt the hero, but the crushing pressure of the whips did. Mr. Negativity struggled against the attack.
“You’re not suggesting that we started the fire this morning, are you?” As he spoke, the Scavenger fired a few Wonder-Blasts at Boomerang, but the villain flew through the gauntlet with ease. In return, Boomerang tossed a few trick weapons the Scavenger’s way, but all of them turned to chocolate candies before they could trigger.
“Oh, I’m sure it’s just coincidence that you show up here with a flamethrower?” Blizzard snorted, slowly but surely pinning No Powers Boy into a corner with walls of ice. No Powers Boy drew his blaster, and chipped himself an exit.
“Hey, we’re the good guys! We put out the fire, remember?” That last comment was Mr. Negativity’s. As he defended his moral stance, he also defended his physical position, pushing his flight capabilities to their fullest, until Constrictor was forced to remove his whips, or be hoisted into the sky.
“A cheap ploy,” hissed the Constrictor, and no one was quite sure if he meant the flying or the fire-fighting.
“No,” the Scavenger interrupted. “This is a cheap ploy. Change partners!” Without warning, he suddenly ceased his attack on Boomerang, spinning instead to fire at Blizzard. Instinctively, the villain created a field of chilled air around himself, intended to dissipate most laser blasts. In truth, it would have worked, if Joe hadn’t anticipated that maneuver and fired his freeze-beam instead. The ray struck its intended target, trapping Blizzard in a block of solid ice. “See how you like it, smart guy,” the Scavenger boasted.
Boomerang hadn’t had time to think about that yet. All he knew is that the lasers which had been pinning him down had ceased, and so he paused to pull an exploderang from his leg. Suddenly, Mr. Negativity was there, slamming into Boomerang’s back and causing the villain to drop his intended projectile. Once more, Mr. Negativity slipped through the air behind his new opponent, and finished off the mercenary with a well-placed punch.
No Powers Boy didn’t turn to attack the Constrictor at all. Instead, he leapt behind one of Blizzard’s remaining ice barricades. The Constrictor, puzzled, didn’t figure out until it was too late what No Powers Boy was up to. Boomerang’s exploderang fell to the rooftop, and detonated, knocking the Constrictor for a loop.
The Scavenger hoisted the block of ice containing Blizzard high over his head, flew a few yards into the air, then threw the ice to the rooftop below. The ice shattered, leaving a very weak Blizzard sprawled helplessly at the Scavenger’s feet. The Scavenger picked him up by the front of his costume. “Ready to believe us now?” The Scavenger asked. “We didn’t start the fire!”
“I’m sure Billy Joel will be pleased to hear that,” cackled someone from the doorway. A man’s silhouette shone briefly against the light of the door, and then Justin Hammer stepped out into the night air. “Now, Supercools, if you’d be so good as to turn these men loose, and leave?”
“What?” Mr. Negativity exclaimed. “But these guys are villains we-“
“These gentlemen,” Justin Hammer interrupted, “Are my employees. There is nothing illegal about wearing a costume, now is there? You boys, on the other hand, are trespassing. And I want you gone. Now.” As Justin Hammer spoke, the three villains in question picked themselves, woozy, off the ground, and moved to stand behind him.
“Just one moment longer, Mr. Hammer, sir,” The Scavenger pleaded. “We didn’t come here to provoke a fight. We have reason to believe your life is in danger.”
“Oh?” Hammer asked, cocking an eyebrow with a bemused smile.
“We just want to give you something to protect yourself with.” Every jaw on the rooftop dropped as the Scavenger unbuckled the Nega-Bands, and fitted them around Justin Hammer’s wrists.
“Yes, I see!” Hammer exclaimed, firing a power blast into the air. “Such power- it’s exhilarating!”
“Just until we figure out who’s trying to kill you, right?”
“Hmm? Oh, yes, of course. Once that threat to my life is ended, I’ll give these marvelous artifacts right back. I promise.” Hammer showed the Supercools all of his teeth in one big, beaming smile. The Scavenger looked over at Mr. Negativity, who looked about two seconds away from protesting big-time.
“Trust me,” the Scavenger muttered, and of course Mr. Negativity had wanted to anyway. Hoisting one of teammate in each hand, Mr. Negativity flew off into the night sky. Behind him, he heard Hammer speaking.
“There’s a car downstairs, boys. Pile in, and perhaps you’ll be of more use to me there than you were here.”

“Are you fucking crazy?” Charles screamed at Joe the moment they were out of earshot.
“No,” Joe said. He tried shrugging, but it was hard to shrug while being held one-handed in mid-air.
“I’m not stupid,” Charles continued. “I’m not the world’s biggest Iron Man fan, but Justin Hammer is still a villain, right?”
“Oh yeah, definitely,” Joe replied.
“And you gave him the Nega-Bands? You handed an evil billionaire and his three mercenary goons one of the most powerful artifacts in the Marvel Universe?”
“Yes. Now would you grow up? I mean, it’s not like I handed Carnage the Ultimate Nullifier or anything! Now why don’t you stop and concentrate for a minute!”
“That’s it. Explain what the hell you’re talking about right now, or I swear to God I’ll drop you.”
“Jesus, okay! Look: we can guess that maybe Justin Hammer didn’t start the fire in his own building, but I’m not buying that those villains were hired on as extra protection, you know what I mean? The guy’s shady, and he knows more than he would ever tell us.”
“Oh, now I get it! So you gave him one of the most powerful weapons in the universe. It all makes complete sense now!”
“Would you shut up and listen? I’m betting that, at this close range, with your sensitivity to the bands, you can track Hammer to wherever he is and whatever sleazy thing he’s up to!”
“Actually, that’s not a bad plan.”
“I know.”

It takes a brave soul to walk unescorted through the waterfront district at night. The buildings are tragically old, just waiting for a strong gust of wind to knock them inward like a house of cards. The atmosphere is one of sin and vice; here, no one sees anything or hears anything. Anything goes. But maybe you are one of those brave souls who would walk into this criminal oasis without protection. If you are, and if you’d been out walking on one night in particular, you may have been surprised to see something as incongruous as a finely-kept black limousine pull to a deliberate stop in front of one of the dirtiest buildings in the area, a huge metal shack backed right up against the water. But then, if you knew the man inside the limousine, you may not have been surprised at all.
Justin Hammer stepped from his car, the bright gold of the Nega-Bands gleaming in the dank streetlight. From the other doors of the car piled his associates- Blizzard, Constrictor, and Boomerang.
“Project: Earth,” he said with a sneer. “Those tree-loving hippie meddlers were responsible for that costly fire downtown, I’m sure of it. They’ve been sending threatening e-mail to my personal account through an anonymous server since they learned of this building’s existence. Tonight’s the time of the drop, and I know they’ll try to interfere again. But with your help, gentlemen, and the unexpected assistance of those idiot kids, I imagine they’ll meet with quite a bit more resistance than they were expecting.” At a wave of Hammer’s hand, Constrictor stepped forward to pull open the large metal door at the front of the warehouse. Inside, a series of free-hanging light bulbs illuminated a wall piled with wooden crates. Five or six men, dressed in drab green jumpsuits, were hard at work hauling, pushing, or pulling the crates to the edge of the water. Boomerang, Constrictor, and Blizzard stepped inside.
Suddenly, the free wall of the warehouse burst open, and four brightly costumed characters made their way inside. The first inside was a young woman, probably no older than seventeen, dressed in a tight-fitting brown and green bodysuit. She sped quickly into the warehouse, her curly blonde hair flapping behind her. Immediately behind her were two airborne attackers. One, a thin man in a white and blue costume, slid in on a cloud of air. The other, a woman burning in orange and yellow flame, floated on a pillar of flame. Bringing up the rear was an enormous red battlesuit, reminiscent of Robocop’s nemesis, the ED-209. Hydraulics spat and pistons whirred as the beast (presumably with a human operator inside) clunked into the room. The burning woman cried out at their entrance, “Justin Hammer, we avenge ourselves upon you for all the wrongs you’ve committed to our Mother Earth! So swears the Force of Nature!” By the time that short speech was finished, the land-bound attacker had already crossed the width of the warehouse, howling in wordless rage, closing in on Justin Hammer himself. Blizzard, Boomerang, and the Constrictor were all caught unawares.
Justin Hammer was not. He calmly raised his hand, and with technique that seemed practiced, launched a bolt of photonic energy into the girl. The beam knocked Hammer’s would-be assassin backwards, seemingly shocking her much more than hurting her. Still, she was obviously quite shaken, and there was no guarantee that the next blast would not do more. Hammer raised his hand, re-aiming.
And suddenly, another participant entered the fray. Sliding across the roof of the expensive limousine and switching quickly to a diving tackle, the Scavenger flung his arms around Justin Hammer, bringing the old man in for a passionate hug. Mind you, the Scavenger had no loving feelings for the man, but caught unawares, Hammer was completely vulnerable to the attack, which forced his wrists together with a loud CLANG! And then, Mr. Negativity was there in his place, with Justin Hammer more or less safe behind his car. No Powers Boy stepped from the shadows to join his comrades as the men in jumpsuits fled. Boomerang, Blizzard, and Constrictor looked at the Supercools, who looked at the Force of Nature, who looked back at Hammer’s goons. No one was sure where the lines were drawn. And then, the warehouse erupted.

“I see I was not ze only one to escape from ze Masters of Evil after zat disaster with the Thunderbolts,” Cyclone noted aloud as he fired a bolt of concentrated air at the Constrictor. Cyclone’s fellow Master had been trying to grapple his erstwhile teammate with his twin lengths of electrified cable, which snapped and waved helplessly in the suddenly heavy winds. Cyclone pressed his attack, leaving him wide open to a broadside punch from Mr. Negativity. The French villain landed against a cushion of air, then tried to return fire. Mr. Negativity and Cyclone spun around one another in mid-air, each trying not to dip low enough to be within range of Constrictor’s whips.

“I knew I would be able to spot your power signature the second we crossed paths again,” No Powers Boy boasted. “You’re the one who started that fire downtown!”
“Yes,” the woman cackled. “That was Firewall’s doing. I’d renounced the Force of Nature once, but when Project: Earth found me after the Folding Circle’s disband, I knew it was my destiny.” Firewall’s eyes opened suddenly in surprise as her flame was snuffed out, leaving her at No Powers Boy’s mercy. His gun drawn, No Powers Boy was about to finish the job when an enormous block of ice fell upon him, sending his pistol skittering away. Unable to lift Blizzard’s mammoth creation, No Powers Boy quickly lifted his hold on Firewall, letting her power flare to life once more. The ice shattered as waves of pure heat rolled through it, but Blizzard wasn’t to be defeated. He shot his ice once more at Firewall, who had no choice but to block. No Powers Boy looked up, and saw his gun, just below Firewall’s feet. But he couldn’t get to the gun without knocking her out, which would give Blizzard the edge again. And he couldn’t beat Blizzard without the gun. He thought again.

“Okay,” the Scavenger said as he parried the young girl’s poorly-thrown punch (but man- there was a lot of strength behind it!). “I recognize Cyclone, Firewall, and the Sea Urchin there in the corner- oh, and P.S., tell Jeremy that those bullets of his aren’t going to do squat against me- which means you’ve got to be the ‘Earth’ one, but I’m afraid I just don’t recognize you at all.” He threw a punch of his own to the side of the girl’s head, confident she could take it.
“I’m so new to the super-powered scene,” the girl confessed. “It was Hammer’s own poison that did this to me, and that’s while I see him pay. For now, I suppose you can call me Aegaea.”
“Sounds like ‘Asia,’” the Scavenger said. “But I suspect you don’t spell it that way. Is that a clue of some sort?” If his opponent had been willing to respond, her talk was lost beneath the roar of another exploderang, which knocked the two young people to opposite sides of the warehouse.

The blast from Boomerang’s bomb knocked the Scavenger into the Sea Urchin’s waiting grasp, but the continued momentum threw both adventurers into the water with a splash! Inside the Sea Urchin armor, Jeremy Swimming Bear laughed wickedly, and activated the thrusters in his boots, propelling himself and his cargo even further under the water. The Scavenger pulled himself free, and shot upwards, kicking his legs furiously as he swam for the surface. He’d had no time to get a decent breath of air, and knew he was in grave danger of drowning. Sea Urchin, protected by his costume from both drowning and the pressure of the ocean depths, launched a grapple-wire from his arm, ensnaring the Scavenger’s ankles.
The Scavenger knew he’d never make it back in time now.

Meanwhile, Aegaea bounced across the warehouse and into the Constrictor, who was too busy watching the skies to watch his back. With the Constrictor no longer a danger, Mr. Negativity swooped in low to the ground, waiting for Cyclone to dive behind him. As the Constrictor stood to his feet, activating his energy whips, so did Aegaea, drawing on her power reserves. Cyclone fired at Mr. Negativity, who flew upward, and a tremendous gust of wind struck Aegaea and the Constrictor. Both villains flew off the ground in a tangle of arms, legs, and electrified whips. When they landed, neither was awake, and it was clear that at least one of them would be out for a very long time. As Mr. Negativity slipped away from Cyclone’s attack, he counteracted with a Nega-Blast of his own. Cyclone, sensing the attack, was able to twist away at the last second, driving himself hard into the ground. Mr. Negativity was about to finish the job with another Nega-Blast, unaware that Boomerang had just launched an attack from behind. Suddenly, Charles knew- just somehow sensed- that Joe was in danger! He slammed the Nega-Bands together, and the Scavenger appeared in mid-air just instants before Boomerang’s attack crashed into the side of his head. The Scavenger dropped to the ground.

No Powers Boy thought he had the timing down just right. He leapt at Firewall, simultaneously stripping away her powers. Blizzard’s attack came roaring through the breach, coating the young woman in a thin layer of ice and throwing her to the floor, paralyzed. No Powers Boy quickly retrieved his gun, and fired at Blizzard, who blocked with a wall of ice. The two exchanged a few more attacks, neither making any real progress. No Powers Boy looked around, searching for some plan of attack. And then, he heard something burst through the wall of the warehouse.

It was such a relief to hit air, that Joe didn’t so much mind being hit in the side of the head with a boomerang. Joe looked at the weapon, still lying next to him, and his thoughts whirled about inside his head with no sense of structure or reason. As he choked more and more air into his lungs, glad to be alive, he mentally tried his best to run through the inventory of things he was wearing- none seemed to be too adversely affected by their dunking. He had been running through the inventory chronologically, and paused when he got to Cestus, Venus’ girdle. He looked down, and ascertained that he was still wearing it. Then, he looked back over at the boomerang, which vibrated ever so slightly as it lay on the ground. The boomerang is a weapon, so it should’ve been transformed. But it wasn’t transformed, so it must not be weapon. Maybe it wasn’t supposed to hit me, maybe I just bumped into it. There’s no bump on my head, so it clearly couldn’t have hit me that hard. But then why did Boomerang throw it? And why is it vibrating? What if...? The Scavenger closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and regained his composure. The fight was still on, and now, Boomerang was sweeping in very near, brandishing several nasty-looking projectiles. I hope I’m right... The Scavenger curled his Wonder Glove tightly around the metal “S” on his chest, and suddenly, Boomerang’s shriekerang howled back into life. Protected as it were by some of the vibrations, the Scavenger winced in pain as he heard the piercing noise Boomerang’s weapon emitted. Boomerang himself, used to using these weapons from a distance, was somewhat worse for the wear, and crashed into the floor of the warehouse as the shockwave struck him. Every remaining weapon he had equipped flared to life, ensuring that the mercenary would go down, and stay down. The moment Boomerang was finished, the Scavenger vaporized the shriekerang with a Nega-Blast. He stood up, and took a moment to get his bearings. Boomerang was definitely done with, as was Aegaea. The Constrictor was getting to his feet, and so was Cyclone. Firewall was up and around, but nothing was burning, so clearly her powers had yet to come back. No Powers Boy and Blizzard seemed to have one another at a standstill. But where were Mr. Negativity and the Sea Urchin?

When Mr. Negativity appeared completely surrounded by water, his first sensation was one of panic. Then, after a moment’s reflection, he remembered that he no longer needed to breathe. Turning his attention to his opponent, Mr. Negativity aimed a hand to Nega-Blast the cord that tethered the two together. Until he had a better idea. Nearly total darkness extended in every direction after the first few feet of visibility, but Charles was able to still sense the warehouse’s general location by tuning into the Nega-Bands. He flew upward with all his power, dragging a suddenly surprised Sea Urchin along for the ride. Within seconds, first one then the other broke the surface of the water, climbing higher and higher into the night sky. At thirty or forty feet, Mr. Negativity stopped, caught the slack of the cord which appeared as inertia kept the Sea Urchin moving, then “cracked the whip,” pulling all of the looseness taut and lifting the Sea Urchin overhead. Mr. Negativity spun the cord several times, building speed, then used his Negative Zone hands to disintegrate the cord. The Sea Urchin flew first towards, and then through, the warehouse, with Mr. Negativity close behind.

The Sea Urchin crashed through the wall of the warehouse, putting yet another strain on the already weakened architecture. He landed with a bang in the middle of the stack of wooden crates, shifting many of them about and splitting several open. Inside each crate were four large drums of a foul-smelling green liquid, clearly identified on the side of the drum as “Toxic Waste.” The Force of Nature stared in horror as two crates, knocked away by the Sea Urchin’s arrival, shifted toward the water...
...and stopped in mid-air, held aloft by a cushion of super-strong air. From quite a distance away, Cyclone dripped with sweat, obviously straining himself a great deal. And then, he lost control, and the drums plunged into the water. A moment later, they buoyed back to the surface, held above the surface by the large sheath of porous ice which encased them. The Scavenger gave Cyclone a thumbs up. From behind, the Constrictor’s whips cracked upward, but a sudden wall of flame between he and Cyclone kept the mercenary at bay.
“You see!” Firewall cried triumphantly. “Justin Hammer seeks to illegally dump his wastes into New York’s water supply. She no longer feared retribution from Blizzard, who was held tightly in the Sea Urchin’s massive grip. “He would make millions sick, kill much flora and fauna, and despoil the surrounding ecology for generations to come, all to save a little money!”
“Is that right?” Mr. Negativity asked. “Well, I can fix that!” He signaled to the Scavenger, who quickly CLANG!ed, and then, Nega-Bands in place, Mr. Negativity stepped up to the toxic waste. Drawing on the most interior portion of his body, the center of the Negative Zone and it’s portal, Charles unleashed a massive wave of Nega-Energies into our world.. He gritted his teeth, so focused on the action of keeping those energies from spilling any further than he’d let them so far, terrified that they would make contact with positive matter and explode. For what seemed like grueling hours, Charles concentrated, and then, only in truth one minute after he’d begun, he was finished. The toxic waste was completely destroyed.
A cheer went up from the combined forces of the Supercools and the Force of Nature. The cheer was cut short by the sudden wail of a police siren, reminding both groups exactly who were the heroes and who the villains. Cyclone and Firewall lifted themselves into the air, scattering in opposite directions as the Sea Urchin sank once more into the harbor. No one made any effort to stop them, grateful instead to have captured Aegaea, the Constrictor, Boomerang, and Blizzard. Justin Hammer stood to his feet and brushed himself off as the police arrived.
“What’s going on here?” the officer on duty charged.
“A battle seems to have broken out in my warehouse, officers,” Hammer explained, his voice oozing with evil. “I sent my bodyguards here, Blizzard and the Constrictor, to try to stop the fight. Then, these young heroes showed up as well. You can see that they managed to capture this young woman, but I’m afraid they let the other villains get away. Now, if you’ll just have them release my men, and take the girl into custody, I’d like to press charges, please.” Blizzard picked Boomerang, unconscious, off the ground, and joined the Constrictor at Hammer’s side. The villains sneered at the Supercools.
“That’s a lie!” No Powers Boy shouted. “We came here to stop him from polluting the harbor!”
Justin Hammer laughed politely.
“Officer, I’m afraid these young men have been misled. If you check, I’m certain you will find that the young lady currently in your custody is a member of Project: Earth, the terrorist group which just this hour claimed credit for the firebombing of my offices downtown. Surely that’s more than enough evidence to arrest her. As for these preposterous claims of illegal dumping, why I’m absolutely baffled as to how they got started. As you can see, there is clearly nothing in this warehouse at all. I was gong to have it torn down next month.
The officer in charge frowned, sure that more had happened than anyone would let on. But, without proof, Justin Hammer was clearly in the right. He stepped into his car, followed by his three henchmen. Aegaea was lifted into a Vault-sanctioned ambulance for emergency treatment.
“Come on guys,” Mr. Negativity said, torn between having saved the planet from potential environmental disaster and removing the evidence which would’ve convicted Hammer and his goons. “Let’s get out of here.” He wrapped an arm around each of his teammates. The Scavenger motioned for him to wait.
“Hey, Hammer!” he called. Justin Hammer peered out of his window at the Supercools. “I’ll save you the month’s work!” With that, the Scavenger drove an Asgard-backed fist through the nearest wall. It was more than the poor warehouse could take. With a rumble, it crashed to the ground. Hammer sneered as the three heroes took off into the air.

A block away, the three stopped in a deserted alley to change back into their secret identities. They proceeded to walk back towards their hotel, when a bank of televisions, proudly displayed in the front of a department store, caught Kyle’s eye.
“...second appearance of the Supercools today,” Trish Tilby was saying. “A local bar known by the police as a hang-out for known felons was found burned to the ground when police responded to an anonymous tip. In the wreckage, the police found the bodies of at least four wanted criminals, as well as seven other criminals in critical condition. A note carved into the one standing table in the bar read ‘Criminals beware-the Supercools are here to stay!’ The assault, already striking because of its ferocity, is also being investigated as a cover for a robbery. Police say the bar’s night safe was completely emptied, making this a combination vigilantism/theft. It seems New York’s newest, the Supercools, are a bit more roguish than we’d been led to believe. Police are on the case now, scouring the city for any signs of these so-called heroes.
And, in sports today...”
“So-called?” Joe fumed.
“I don’t think we did that,” Kyle said.
“We couldn’t have,” Charles noted. “We’ve been with the Force of Nature all night.”
“And surely the police will remember that, right? I mean, we’ve got witnesses!”
“Maybe,” Charles nodded. “But still, we’re being framed. And I think it’s up to us to see who’s got it in for the Supercools....”
“You’re right,” Joe said. “But after that, we look for jobs.”