#14 - "Cold War"

"The name's not Blizzard, Mister. It's Icicle!" The young mutant took a bead on her target and began to generate another bolt of ice.

Spectrum was quite surprised to see that it was in fact his erstwhile companion from the Genocide experiment. But there she was, here in Los Angeles and in her Icicle costume. "Jennifer? You're alive!" Jim had worried that he would never see her again. He had tried to track her movements, but Icicle disappeared from sight almost six months ago. Before the incident in Denver even took place.

"Jim? Is that really you?" Icicle also was extremely surprised. She hadn't definitely recognized him in his new costume. The ice lance she was generating fell harmlessly to the rooftop.

Spectrum landed nearby and approached in a non-threatening manner. Icicle took a step back, unsure of what to do. "Yes, it's me," Spectrum answered. "What happened? I lost track of everything after the plane crashed."

"I ended up in the hospital. After I got out, I didn't have any money. I really wanted to start over here in LA, but it just didn't turn out that way." Her face clearly showed the disappointment that she felt.

"So you ended up in VIPER?"

"Yeah." She bit her lip before continuing. "I didn't have anywhere else to go, no one to turn to. They took me in and took care of me. Now I have to return the favor."

"I don't know what to say..." Spectrum thought for a moment. "Maybe if I had been there, things would have been different."

"I would like to think so, Jim." She smiled a forced smile. "You seem to have turned things around. I caught your caper up in Seattle on the news. That was you, right? The different costume made me wonder."

"Yeah, that was me. Got tired of looking like the Lifesaver Man. Things can change if you really want them to, Jennifer."

"That sounds easy to say. I don't think VIPER will just let me walk away. They have too much invested in me over the last few months."

"No, they wouldn't be pleased. But it's not like it would be the first time somebody defected from VIPER," Spectrum offered.

"I don't think I could take being on the run from someone else. Seems like that's all I ever do is run away."

"Maybe it's time you quit running?"

The two just looked at each other for a moment, then sirens could be heard coming closer. Finally Icicle said, "I'd better go."

"You don't have to go. You're not a terrorist. You don't belong with VIPER," Spectrum stated. "We can work something out."

"If PRIMUS shows up, they're going to take me away and I can't take that again. I have no choice, Jim." Icicle started to form an ice slide. She stood there silently for a few long moments. Before she zipped away, she turned to face him. "The HART Company doesn't just make clocks these days."

The statement caught Spectrum completely off guard. All he could do was silently watch Icicle glide away. Blizzard slid up and took her place next to Spectrum. "Hey, what's with the icy chick? Nice buns."

"Are all the VIPER agents taken care of?", Spectrum asked, trying to sidestep Blizzard's question.

"Yeah, piece o' cake. Shocky never did find the Shadow guy she was fighting. Wasn't that the other VIPER villain?"

"I'm not sure," Spectrum said quietly. "I thought it was somebody I knew."

Blizzard playfully punched Spectrum in the bicep. "Well, don't let it get you down. Thanks for help. By the way, I'm Blizzard." He extended his hand towards his colorful comrade.

"Spectrum." Jim turned away from the direction Icicle had fled off in and turned to Blizzard. The heroes shook hands briefly. "You're welcome. Good thing I happened to be passing by."

"Spectrum, huh? Well, come on down an' I'll introduce you to Shocky." Blizzard slid away on an ice-slide, making a loop the loop on the way.

"Lead the way, Frosty."

The two heroes quickly located Shockwave standing near the crane. "Hey, Shocky, what's shakin'?", Blizzard said. "This here's Spectrum." Spectrum and Shockwave exchanged introductions.

"Hi," Spectrum said, "Nice to meet you."

"My pleasure," Shockwave responded. "Did the other villain get away too?"

"It looks that way," Spectrum answered. "She caught me off-guard."

"No problem," Blizzard said, slapping both of the heroes on the back as he walked by. "We just made a bunch of cash this evening."

"You have to forgive him," Shockwave apologized. "Sometimes Blizzard thinks with his pocketbook."

"That's not exactly a bad trait," Spectrum pointed out.

Shockwave regarded her new acquaintance for a moment. "Men", she said simply.

"Come on now, Shocky," Blizzard began. "You have to admit that the threads you're wearing cost a pretty penny to maintain. Kind of hard for a superhero to save the world if they're stone cold broke."

"The man does have a point," Spectrum added.

"I'm not arguing that money isn't important. It just shouldn't be the first thing on your mind. I mean, with all the supervillain activity on the increase lately, you'd think that more noble causes might prevail now and again."

"That's very true, but personal survival does factor into it. I mean, it's not like we're on a payroll or something," Spectrum stated.

"Well, actually," Blizzard said sheepishly, "we are. The buildings owners contracted us to watch this place for a few nights. We got a decent advance and even more if we had to repel any attacks."

"Must be something really valuable if they hired guards and VIPER was looking for it," Spectrum concluded.

"I've been trying to figure that out for awhile now," Shockwave answered. "But they didn't tell us. It was a 'need to know' basis."

"And apparently," Blizzard added, "we didn't need to know."

"Well, it was fun while it lasted," Spectrum stated, "but I should be heading off."

Blizzard walked up and shook his hand again. "Thanks again, Specs."

"You know, Blizzard, we really should offer part of the bonus to our new friend here," Shockwave said. He turned and gave her a look, but didn't say anything.

"That's really not necessary...," Spectrum answered innocently.

"That's Shocky!", Blizzard said, putting his arm around her shoulders. "Got a heart a mile wide."

"If there really is something here," Shockwave continued, "we might need the help. Our contract runs through the next three days. If we get another attack, it would be worth about thirteen thousand to you."

Spectrum was about to fly off, but did a double take at hearing that. "Thirteen thousand? Dollars?"

"Give or take. It would be thirteen thousand three hundred thirty-three dollars and thirty-three cents. Minus expenses of course," Shockwave answered. "Are you interested?"

"Look, Shocky, the guy's obviously got more important things to do," Blizzard said. Another hand in the pot was not something that Blizzard found desirable.

"I'm not really that busy," Spectrum quickly responded, much to Blizzard's dismay.

"Great! Welcome aboard." Shockwave exchanged a handshake with Spectrum.

"Thanks! Glad to be here."

The rest of that night passed without incident. It was a struggle, but Jim managed to stay awake the entire night. "Hadn't done anything like this since college," he thought to himself on the matter.

Finally morning came and the workers and daytime security staff arrived. Wearily, Jim flew back to the hotel, pausing only long enough to gather up his notes from his aborted interview with Shockwave and Blizzard. He slept most of the day and didn't rise until late afternoon. Jim had hoped to hear something from Whitney, but no messages waited for him.

Spectrum wasn't due at the construction sight for a few more hours, so Jim looked in to Icicle's odd remark from the night before. The HART actually stood for the Highland Alarm and Regulation Timers. In short, the HART company made various time keeping devices.

"Nothing unexpected there," Jim reasoned. "Icy did say that they make more than clocks these days... But what?"

The HART Company was not overly large, but it was based in Los Angeles. Their products were produced in several spots in California, and then stored in several warehouses near the airport.

"Let's think about this logically. If Icy knows that they make more than clocks, then VIPER must be involved in this. As one of their staff villains, she'd have access to such information. Maybe the HART company is a VIPER front? Guess I'll have to check one of these warehouses out tomorrow."

The next night went smoothly enough. No serious threats presented themselves. There was one odd incident, though. Jim was the first to notice that they were being watched. A dark figure stood on the roof of a nearby building and simply observed. Even stranger, it didn't register on the scanners in Shockwave's armor, other than being visible.

"I'll go check this out," Spectrum said. Since he could fly and his companions could not, he seemed the logical choice to investigate this stranger. Jim rose into the air and flew towards the mystery man.

As he approached, the target simply faded from view.

"Hey! Where did he go?" Spectrum buzzed the area a few times, but turned up nothing. Jim could see just as easily at night as during the day, but he still could not locate the stranger. He gave up the search a few minutes later. Spectrum returned to the yard, as puzzled as he had been before the encounter began.

"What'd ya find?", Blizzard asked.

"Nothing," Spectrum answered. "He just sorta winked out."

"That's odd," Shockwave responded. She considered the situation for a few moments. "Either it's someone who can avoid a wide range of scanning types, or else it's a construct of some kind."

"With some serious stealth modules," Blizzard chimed in.

"I'll have to take a few more precautions," Shockwave replied.

Jim awoke the following afternoon to no messages. He was beginning to worry about Whitney, but resisted initiating contact. "She said she wanted time alone. I'll give her that. At least for now."

That afternoon, Jim decided to scope out the various HART warehouses. The first was a few miles from LAX and didn't seem suspicious at all. The place was busy loading and unloading tractor-trailers. Turning invisible, Spectrum slipped inside to look around. The place was pretty wide open, allowing easy entrance and exit.

Spectrum peaked in a few boxes at random, but found only various types of clocks. "Nothing overly suspicious here," he silently reasoned. "Perhaps one of the other warehouses has VIPER ties?"

The next warehouse appeared as innocent as the one he left. The last of the three HART warehouses was located in an out of the way, seemingly deserted, industrial park. There was no activity at the warehouse, although a single black El Dorado was parked near the entrance.

"Now that is suspicious."

All entrances to the warehouse were currently sealed shut. There was no quick way to get in for Spectrum. He made several passes overhead. Strangely enough, the other warehouses in the area were either deserted or had only a handful of workers present.

"I'll have to check back here again," Spectrum concluded. "I'd bet that this is the VIPER front."

Having to be at the construction site before too long, Jim flew off. He failed to notice a white sports car parked in the lot opposite of the HART Warehouse. Its single lavender clad occupant flicked her long brown hair out of her face and observed the hero through her binoculars.

"What is he doing?", she wondered out loud. "He's going to ruin everything!"

By that night, the Tanghal Tower was now mostly destroyed. Only two outer walls remained and just partially at that. Some of the debris had been hauled away, while more piles filled the yard. Two more days and it should be down and gone.

Blizzard was watching TV in the trailer. The previous night was extremely long, but he was getting used to the late hours. Blinking the sleepiness out of his eyes, Spectrum saw Shockwave perched on a section of the remaining wall. She seemed to be staring out over the surrounding area. Flying up, he landed next to her.

"Penny for your thoughts?"

Shockwave looked up almost absentmindedly. "Oh, hi, Spectrum. I was just listening to some music..."

"Anybody good?"

"Rachmaninoff."

"Gesundheit!"

"No, silly, Rachmaninoff." Seeing the blank expression on Spectrum's face, she added, "Classical music."

"Oh! Why didn't you say so?"

"I thought I had."

Neither hero spoke for a few minutes. Finally Shockwave asked, "Is there something on your mind, Spectrum?"

"Well, not to sound mercenary or anything," Spectrum explained, "but when do we get paid for this little job? My personal finances have been draining like a sieve lately." The cost of his hotel room was not pretty. But this was Los Angeles after all and he was only at a mid-priced hotel!

"I understand," Shockwave answered. "After the contract expires, we will receive our 'hazard pay'. You can stop by our office on Friday to get your share."

"Sounds like a plan." Spectrum was satisfied by that particular answer. Now he could get himself his own place and not have to continue to hand over exorbitant hotel costs. "Oh, one other thing. How are you going know it's me?"

"My armor solves most of those identification problems."

"How so?" High technology was not Jim's forte.

"It's equipped with voice recognition technology and sensors that pick up thermal auras. I'll be able to tell if it's really you or not," Shockwave explained.

"Now that's handy," Spectrum responded. The explanation seemed to cover his concerns. He decided to make another aerial sweep of the construction site and was getting ready to take off.

"By the way," Shockwave added, halting Spectrum's departure, "I have video files of the fight with VIPER, if you want to use them for your article."

"My what?" Spectrum hadn't picked up on the full implication of what Shockwave's identifying him had entailed.

"The interview you're writing about Blizzard and I? I thought you might be able to use some exclusive photos to accompany it."

"You mean you...?" The truth of the situation was beginning to dawn on him.

"I'm afraid so, Jim. Don't worry, I won't tell anyone, not even Bliz. I wasn't trying to figure out your secret identity. It just sort of... happened. Sorry," Shockwave apologized.

"Oh man..." Jim was rather despondent over this revelation.

"I said I was sorry."

"I know..." Somehow, this was becoming a habit of late.

Spectrum took to the air and half-heartedly surveyed the area. "Well, this is another fine mess I've gotten myself into," he thought silently to himself. "What is it with me and women? First I alienate Whitney, then I can't get Icicle to change her spots, and now Shockwave tells me she knows who I really am."

Jim circled the site a few times before settling on the highest point of the wreckage. He let out a heavy sigh. "There are times I wish women would come with instruction manuals." Jim thought he was protecting Whitney. Or maybe he was more concerned about protecting himself? He cared deeply for Whitney, but yet kept her at arms length when it came to his secrets. Maybe she was right. Maybe he really had been a jerk. Maybe...

A signal on Spectrum's communicator interrupted his reflections. It had been given to him by Shockwave, allowing the group to maintain communications with each other. Blizzard's voice came through on the device. "Spectrum! Shocky's picked up eight bogeys coming in from the north."

Spectrum clicked on the transmitter. "I'm on it." He flew into the air and headed in the direction Blizzard had indicated. Overhead a man in a dark costume was floating towards the Tower. He came rapidly into view.

As Spectrum closed in, he could see that the intruder wore a dark blue or black costume. A pattern of three hexes adorned his chest in red, blue and yellow. The man was covered in a glow, which coruscated through the colors of the rainbow. Was he really riding on a giant hex-shaped platform?

"What are you supposed to be?", Spectrum asked derisively. "Hex-man?"

"Why my dear Spectrum, I am your ultimate demise!" The villain postured defiantly and then fired a powerful blast of energy at the bemused hero.

Spectrum barely avoided the attack. The energy beam connected with the remainder of the Tower and it erupted in a tremendous explosion. Debris was thrown everywhere in a tumultuous shower of concrete and steel. Through the fading smoke and dust, Spectrum struggled to see the damage which had been caused, hoping that his partners had avoided being buried. One of the remaining walls had been nearly obliterated. It crumbled to the ground in a deafening roar.

"You may scoff, hero. But that is only a small sampling of our power. The power of Hexmaster!" Spectrum turned to see that where one villain had floated, there were now eight. A multi-colored array of Hex-men.

"You maniac! What do you think you're doing? You could have hurt someone!"

"If you don't understand by now, then you are more foolish than I ever thought. You know why I'm here," the Black colored Hexmaster stated impatiently.

"Mister, I don't know what the.... yeow!" Spectrum barely avoided a blast of fire from the Red-costumed Hexmaster. Seeing that he was seriously outnumbered, Spectrum descended towards the remains of the Tower. Maybe he could get his new teammates into the fight.

Numerous beams of energy zipped past his head, or collided with his force field as he closed in on the 'structure'. Looking back to see if his pursuers were able to keep pace with him, he saw the Blue-costumed Hexmaster suddenly slam into an ice wall and drop from the sky. Blizzard skidded across their path on an ice slide a moment later.

"Awright ya buncha losers! Blizzard's on the scene now." As if to punctuate his proclamation, the cold-wielding hero fired a spray of icicles into the colorful villains, sending them scurrying in every direction.

Spectrum circled around and flew up alongside his icy comrade. "For some reason," Blizzard commented, "I can't help thinking that those guys looked like some kinda rejects from H.R. Pufnstuf."

"Now that is frightening," Spectrum answered with a shudder.

"Ya got that right, Specs. Let's get those jerks!"

"After you..."

From the ground, Shockwave watched the ongoing battle. Being hopelessly grounded, she couldn't do much more. Despite the massive attack that was initially unleashed by this Hexmaster, none of them exhibited such power of that magnitude again. In fact, they all seemed somewhat unimpressive for all their posturing.

"The Black one seems to be the leader," she postulated to herself. "If they take him out, the rest may fall more easily." The green and the yellow colored Hexmasters had now been removed from the fight. Shockwave watched helplessly, as the battle progressed overhead.

Then, one of the Hexmasters, the purple one, was knocked from the sky by a blast from Spectrum. The villain crashed to the ground in a sickening thump right into the pile of steel girders. Shockwave raced over to him, expecting the worst. The man had landed in an impossible position. Every bone in his body must have been broken.

The sight that greeted her surprised her momentarily. Whoever this Hexmaster was, he was not a man at all! Instead of a bloody mess, she found the area covered with metallic parts, wiring, and plastic. It was an android. Nothing more. Shockwave ran some quick tests on the construct and then contacted her teammates.

"Hey, guys!" She said, still scanning the robot. "This purple miscreant is just some kind of robot. A highly sophisticated robot, to be sure, but a robot nonetheless. Our foes are not flesh and blood!"

Up above, the two heroes got wind of what Shockwave was implying. "This means we can really cut loose now, Specs!", Blizzard shouted as he slid towards their foes.

"Sounds good to me." Spectrum wished he had some sort of laser beam at his disposal right about now. His orange blast wasn't bad, but he couldn't rip into the androids like Blizzard could. He could always try that big blast attack of his. Spectrum flew onward after his aggressive partner.

A burst of razor-sharp icicles cut into the green costumed Hexmaster and it sparked and hissed as parts fell from the sky. "Four to go! Your turn, Specs!"

"Alright, how's this?" Spectrum flew up behind the dark blue Hexmaster and exploded in a burst of light. The energy output overloaded the circuits of the robot and it exploded itself a moment later.

The Hexmasters were on the defensive now and virtually on the run. "Not bad," Blizzard answered as he slid after another of the multi-colored Hexmasters. He had singled out the orange one and was following it away from the tower. The android tried to lose the hero by flying quickly through the buildings at street-level, but Blizzard followed with a reckless abandon.

As the orange costumed android approached an oncoming wall, Blizzard coated the mechanical man in a sheath of ice. The momentum of the flying hex carried it forward directly into the wall. The force of the impact shattered not only the ice, but the concrete and the android as well. "I'd say that one gets a bonus for style points," Blizzard commented, very proud of himself.

Back at the remains of the Tower, Spectrum followed quickly behind the red Hexmaster as it tried to loose him close to the ground, blasting as he went. As they turned the corner, Spectrum quickly pulled up at the last second, but the Hexmaster was far too slow. The android came to a sudden and quite unexpected stop as his face collided with the business end of Shockwave's fist. Children would be finding parts of the robot for many weeks.

"Nasty punch," Spectrum said, simply, most impressed by the display.

Shockwave looked at the results of her powerful attack. Actually there wasn't much left. "I just pretended it was Gyro Jim."

"I'll keep that in mind when we finish your interview." Shockwave let out a little chuckle at the comment. She tried to pick up the last of the Hexmasters, but he was no longer on radar.

"Looks like we're done with those guys, whoever they where," she finally said. "Who were they anyway?"

"Some bozo called Hexmaster," Spectrum answered, "and the Rainbow Raiders."

"They really called themselves that?', she asked incredulously.

"I wouldn't be surprised."

"I almost believed you for a second," Shockwave answered back. "I mean, they were each a color of the rainbow, except the black one of course."

Blizzard slid up and joined the conversation. "You know, I hadn't noticed at first, but now that you mention it...," he said. "I wonder what they were after."

"Probably the same thing the VIPER agents were after, I would imagine," Spectrum reasoned.

"I'd really like to know just what that was," Shockwave answered.

Jim awoke the next afternoon and was not surprised to have no messages waiting for him. "When Whitney gets mad, she get's mad."

He thought about checking out the HART warehouse, but decided against it. He'd go there Friday night and check it out under the cover of night.

Instead, Jim decided to visit his father. He hadn't seem him now in several weeks, not since the night where he discovered that Jordan had super powers of his own. Phone calls to the Sculley residence had gone unanswered.

Changing into Spectrum, Jim made the trip out to Van Nuys. Not having a car wasn't that big of a deal when you could fly. An even greater advantage considering the traffic snarls that the LA roadways could become. Spectrum landed a block from the house, changed back to Jim Sculley and walked the remaining distance.

To his surprise, two police cars were parked in front of the house, their lights flashing. Jim ran the remaining distance to his father's house. As he closed in on, one of the officers moved to intercept him.

"Hold it right there, pal."

"What's going on here? This is my father's house," Jim explained.

"You're Mr. Sculley's son?"

"One of them, anyway. The name's Jim. Now please tell me what is going on!"

Before the police officer could explain, a woman's voice cut him off. "It's okay, patrolman. I'll take it from here." Both men turned to see an attractive woman with short dark brown hair and green eyes wearing an understated blouse and skirt. A police badge was clipped on her belt.

"Yes, ma'am." The patrolman moved away.

"Are you in charge here?", Jim asked, keeping an eye on the good looking policewoman.

"Detective Carter," the woman said extending her hand. "You're the son of Jordan Sculley?"

Jim shook the detective's hand and answered, "Yes, I'm Jim Sculley and I'd like some answers."

"As would I, Mr. Sculley." Detective Carter motioned for Jim to follow her. "The neighbors heard sounds of what they thought was a scuffle this afternoon and called the police. When the patrolmen arrived, they found this." The two had reached the front door of the house. Detective Carter led the way in. "Don't touch anything."

Jim followed and looked around in wide-eyed wonder. The place was a mess, as if a fight had taken place. Tables and chairs were overturned and thrown every which way. "My father? What about him?"

The pretty detective turned to face Jim. "I was hoping you could shed some light on that, Jim."

"I'm not sure what you're getting at, Detective Carter."

"Call me, Jackie. The officers arrived on the scene and found the house like this. Your father was nowhere to be found. When was the last time you saw him?"

Stunned, Jim sat down on the side of an overturned chair. "I haven't seen my father in almost three weeks. I've tried to call him, but he didn't answer his phone."

"What brought you down here this afternoon?"

The question caught Jim off guard. "Are you suggesting that I had something to do with this?"

"I'm exploring all the possibilities," Detective Carter stated coolly.

Jim nodded his understanding. Just what was going on? Who would be after his father? And where did he disappear to?

"I had been staying with a girlfriend of mine, but we had a falling out. Since then, I've been staying at the Courtyard Marriott the last few days. My phone calls have gone unanswered, so I decided to come down here myself. Guess I was hoping that dad would agree to let me move in with him."

Jim let out a long sigh. His private life was falling apart all around him and there didn't seem to be a thing he could do about it. "Anything else you want to know?"

"That will cover things for now," Detective Carter answered. "Where can we reach you if something turns up?"

"You can leave a message for me at the hotel. Or stop by here. Someone has to clean up this mess."

Jackie nodded and put her hand on Jim's shoulder. "We'll do everything we can to find your father."

The police finished up their initial investigation a few hours later. Jim locked the house up and took a key for himself. Changing into Spectrum, he flew off to join Shockwave and Blizzard at the construction site.

Thursday night was the last night that the Heroes for Hire were to guard the Tanghal Tower. In truth, there was virtually nothing left to guard. The bulldozers had some cleaning up to do, but little more than the foundation actually remained.

"I can't imagine we'll get much trouble tonight," Blizzard mused.

"Famous last words," Spectrum added in a gloomy tone.

"Oh come on," Blizzard retorted. "Unless something was buried in the foundation, what would anybody want with this place?" He waved his hand over the demolition sight.

"That must be it." Snapping her fingers, Shockwave kicked in her jet-skates and quickly sped away.

Blizzard and Spectrum exchanged puzzled glances and then quickly caught up with the armored heroine. She had some scanning equipment in her hand and was passing it over the foundation's cornerstone.

"I think this is it!", she said excitedly. "Uh oh..."

"Is that a good 'uh oh', or a bad 'uh oh'?" Spectrum asked.

"Who ever heard of a good 'uh oh'," Blizzard answered.

The two heroes saw Shockwave looking off in a different direction and their eyes followed hers. "There's your answer," she said simply.

"End of the line, heroes! Hand over the goods. Or the Thugmaster's Elite will have to hurt you!" Closing in were four villains that Spectrum was remotely familiar with: Hammerhead, Black Hole, the Dash and Titania. All imagines that Shadow Queen had conjured in the strange Arena.

"Talk about deja vu," Spectrum thought to himself...