“Teamwork is an essential part of what we do. Your team are professionals, and you can trust them.”

–The Superhero Trainee Guide (Third Edition), Chapter Nine.

“Okay you bunch of beautiful incompetents, let’s try and finish this without you getting me killed.”

–Transcript of Ice Blood talking to the ‘A’ class superhero team squad he took command of at the battle of Drifter’s Pass.

I’m waiting in the armory with Bad Day, One Trick and a couple of superheroes called Wrong Answer and Loud Mouth when Firestorm Commando walks in and gives us his most insincere grin.

“Good news, losers, we have been given a mission from The General himself. Satellites have reported saucer activity down south. Way down south.”

My heart sinks. I’m still too weak to take on Firestorm Commando if he tries to go for me, and I have a bad feeling that he will. Wrong Answer shakes her head. She’s older than most of the superheroes, and moves slowly.

“We don’t take orders from The General,” she says, “and that area isn’t our jurisdiction.”

“You take your orders from me, though. Now get into those capsules before I shock you to death.”

Some things don’t change. I had found Firestorm Commando’s file on the computer, and had read it with great interest. Most of the members of the Cerberus Brawlers were sent here after a trial, served their time as a trainee and then were assigned a name, but Firestorm Commando hadn’t technically committed a crime and had never been a trainee. The rumor is that The General had sent him to the Cerberus to keep a watch on our mysterious boss. Technically Firestorm Commando is second in command of the unit, which is an unpleasant thought.

There isn’t much we can do, so we get up and walk to the capsules.

“What a tosser,” says Loud Mouth to me.

He probably meant to whisper, but his voice is so loud that everyone in the armory hears it. A couple of the technicians chuckle, but Firestorm Commando looks furious.

“What did you say?” he demands, but Loud Mouth pretends not to hear.

Bad Day shakes his head and gets in the capsule in front of me. He looks about as annoyed as I feel.

“The boss said that this idiot had been assigned to an administration role only… but the boss only left for England this morning and already this idiot is causing trouble.”

“Might be time for an accident,” I mutter.

I’m not serious, but Bad Day seems to think I am.

“Pet Shark already tried it, but our collars have safety measures in them to prevent that sort of thing.”

“Oh. So we’re screwed?”

“Yep… but I thought you would be used to that by now.”

The capsules launch us half-way across the world, and we land together in snow that stretches from horizon to horizon. The area is covered in low ridges of ice and rock separated by narrow stretches of dirty white snow. I can already feel the cold air leaking into my suit, and I wonder if there is any human life within a hundred miles of us. I double it; this place is a frozen desert, and perhaps it always was. I'm glad: there is no life here, nothing that needs protecting, no fragile city in danger. It's the perfect place for a rumble.

Firestorm Commando waves us into the air and we fly in a loose 'v' formation, each one looking in a different direction. The broken ground passes slowly beneath us, slabs of broken grey rocks like scattered giants’ teeth. There is no sign of a saucer, but we find a tunnel. The entrance is built in such a way that it can't be seen from high in the air, but I can't tell if that was intentional or not. We were lucky to find it from only a few feet off the ground.

“Here we are, boys and girls,” says Firestorm Commando with a cocky grin that makes me hope his weapons also prevent friendly fire.

I've never heard of anyone finding a saucer down a tunnel before. Neither has anyone else, by the sounds of surprise around me.

“This is something big,” says Bad Day, “we should call it in.”

“No. This is my find; I'm not going to let anyone take it off me. Get in there.”

Bad Day stands his ground until Firestorm Commando touches a control on his arm and my whole body spasms in pain. I fall over and roll in the snow until the pain subsides. Firestorm Commando must have hit the collar trigger pretty hard, because that's the worst pain I've ever felt. I get clumsily to my feet and see the other four members of my team doing the same. Firestorm Commando had hit all of us, all at once, just because Bad Day had questioned him.

What a triclops-face.

“Get. In. There,” Firestorm Commando whispers, pointing down the tunnel.

Bad Day shakes his head and Firestorm Commando douses us all with a second round of pain that lasts longer this time. It's enough to convince us to follow orders. We head down the tunnel, our courageous leader bringing up the rear with his finger on the pain trigger.

“I have a bad feeling about this,” Bad Day whispers to himself.

We walk down a dark, narrow tunnel in single file. The rock here has been melted into smooth walls frosted with ice. We shine lights down the tunnel, but we can only see as far as the next turn. I’m feeling pretty claustrophobic but Firestorm Commando forces us forward. He brings up the rear, pushing us further. The tunnel opens up quickly, widening until we can float side by side.

“What is this place?” asks Loud Mouth.

His voice echoes down the tunnel, and we freeze in place.

“Shush,” says One Trick nervously.

“Idiot,” adds Firestorm Commando.

More tunnels join up with ours, but they are narrow and steep. We pass about a dozen of them before we come across an insectoid alien of a type I’ve never seen before. It lunges at my chest, but Bad Day destroys it with a blast from a plasma pistol.

“Looks like a giant red ant,” says Wrong Answer, poking its remains with her foot.

The alien has a dozen long and segmented legs and its head is covered in oval eyes that glitter in the darkness. A cruel hook hangs beneath its head. It looks like an insect that crawled right out of my nightmares and onto the ice.

“We need to call this in,” says Bad Day again, “I can do it and be back here in five minutes.”

“You’re just a coward. Shut up and do what you are told.”

Bad Day isn’t a coward, not at all. It's protocol to call report in whenever a new alien form is found, but we can’t radio out from here. Firestorm Commando pushes us further down the icy tunnels until we enter a huge cave filled with more of the strange alien ants. They are using the hooks beneath their heads to carve out the ice and rock. The hooks pass through the thick ice like butter, carving the tunnel out piece by piece. I have a sudden premonition of what those hooks could do to a person.

I can see hundreds, possibly thousands of the ants. Even I'm not stupid enough to suggest we can take them on. Bad Day waves us back, and we start retreating.

“I order you to go on!” Firestorm Commando hisses from behind us, but we ignore him.

“Do it!” screams Firestorm Commando, and sends a plasma ball right past me and into the hall.

We watch in horror as it hits an ant and melts it in a shower of sparks. That attracts the attention of every ant in the tunnel. They look at the broken ant still steaming in the ice, and then they look at us. Heads shake and hooks snap together, and then the giant ants start moving towards us.

“Retreat?” suggests One Trick, but Firestorm Commando blocks off the tunnel behind us.

“Fight!” he orders.

The ants are too close to argue, so we start shooting. The six of us have a lot of firepower and for a few minutes it seems we might win, but there are too many ants and they are moving too fast. One grabs my foot and I kick it away. Another and grabs Bad Day by the wrist, but I blast is head. Bad Day kills another pair of ants, and for a moment it looks like we might win.

Then one of Bad Day’s pistols misfires and explodes into a fireball that takes most of his armored glove with it. He looks down at his ruined hand in shock and tries to lift it but can't. Blood pours down from his arm and then stops suddenly.

The emergency tourniquet system must have kicked in.

One of the ants lunges at Bad Day, slashing at his armor. He tries to teleport, but the creature stops him. One Trick blasts it off him, but the ants are too close now. Bad Day keeps fighting with his good hand, but his shots start missing their mark and he reloads slowly. Loud Mouth sends a sonic wave of down the tunnel to buy us some time and we retreat. Firestorm Commando is at the back of the group, and he tries to prevent us leaving.

“Behind us!” yells Wrong Answer as ants start attacking Firestorm Commando. The ants are everywhere and the fight becomes a close combat nightmare of hooks and legs as ants drop from holes in the ceiling. An ant grabs One Trick and cuts through her shield and into her leg. She falls, and ants swarm over her.

“Get her and get out, Day!” screams Wrong Answer.

I can tell that Bad Day doesn’t want to leave us, but Loud Mouth pushes him towards One Trick.

“I’ll come back,” says Day, and then he and One Trick are gone.

I expect Firestorm Commando to be angry, but I can’t see him. I don’t know if he has run or died, but I don’t care either way. I blast a dozen ants apart, but it’s not enough.

“We need to get out of here!” shouts Wrong Answer.

A huge worm bursts out of the tunnel wall and grabs Wrong Answer. She screams, and it drags her back the way it came. I try and follow her, but the ants block the tunnel and I lose sight of her in a second.

“Saucer!” I scream.

The ground shakes and part of the ceiling collapses on us, shielding us from the ants. I’m fine, but Loud Mouth is trapped by falling ice. He’s in a bad way, and his shields are gone. I try to pull him free, but I can’t.

“She must have triggered her self-destruct,” he says as I try to pull him free.

He’s weak, and can barely move. I do my best, but I doubt I can get him free.

“I’m not going to make it,” says Loud Mouth suddenly, “I can feel the ants digging near my legs. Get going, kid, save yourself.”

I burn at the ice with my mutiblaster, trying to cut him free.

“Go, kid!” he shouts, but I just work faster.

An ant head breaks through the ice above him, and I blast it. More ants push their way through the hole.

Loud Mouth grabs my suit and pulls me face to face with him. His eyes are beginning to glaze over, and we both know that these will be the last words he ever says.

“Fly!” he whispers.

So I fly. I fly faster than I ever have before, dodging between stalactites and scraping across icy walls. I fly straight, I fly true and I leave this lost battle behind me. I'm hurt, but I'm alive. My alarms ring out in a chorus of waaahs and beeps that merge together, but I’ve grown used to them. I flip past a fallen column of ice and speed past the set of holes cut into the ice walls. It's only a few hundred yards from here to the exit, and I'm flying well. I'm almost there. I'm going to make it.

Bang. Bang.

I’m not worried; nothing can catch me now.

Bang. Bangbangbang.

The beeps, bangs and waaaahs are joined by the tick-tick of a weapons lock. The alarms merge into one overpowering bloop that will probably be the last thing I ever hear. I look back over my shoulder and see a nightmare mouth full of razor teeth and diamond drills like the worm that took Wrong Answer. The mouth is all I can see: it fills the tunnel and it is getting closer.

I clip my arm on a stalactite and the alarms cut out. The only sound I can hear inside my helmet is my desperate hyperventilating. The creature behind me must be getting closer. I never thought I'd miss those damn alarms. Something deep in the tunnel explodes, and air whooshes past me. The tunnel is collapsing around me, huge chunks of ice falling in sheets. I look over my shoulder and see flames approaching.

So close.

My helmet buzzes loudly and I feel my suit's power getting out of control. Sparks arc across my body and I don't try to control them, letting them shoot out as they will. The arcs get longer, burning the ice around me. I clap my hands together and a blue shield envelopes my body, absorbing the worst of the explosion.

“Argh!”

I'm shot out of the tunnel like a bullet from a gun, high into the sky. The worm bursts out of the tunnel after me, its sharp teeth nipping at my heels. I see a set of flashes the corner of my eyes as someone flies toward us, but they are too far away and the worm’s teeth close on my leg as my shields die.

Bad Day grabs me as the worm bites down.

The world spins. I black out and wake up in a snow bank. I'm in a perfectly spherical crater about eight feet wide.

Bleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep!

Ironically it seems that the damage alarm is the only part of my suit still working. My shields took the worst of the landing, but Bad Day isn't as lucky. He hits the ground with a sickening thud. His shields – which are never particularly strong – flicker and die. We are lying next to One Trick, who is breathing but not moving much.

I pull out a rescue flare and throw it downwind. It won't make much difference, because if our rescuers haven't already seen us then we are going to freeze to death.

I limp over to Bad Day and flip his helmet open. His breath comes out in a long, white cloud.

Thank goodness.

Then he stops breathing. I panic, and try to do CPR but his suit is too thick and doesn't bend as I push against it. Bad Day jerks, spasms and starts breathing again. I hear engines and look up to see a big aircraft, a Meteor, landing about ten feet from me. I don't know why I didn't hear it earlier. It's white and red, the colors of Team Mercy.

The back opens and people jump out and run towards me. They place Bad Day and One Trick on the two operating tables in the Meteor. One of the nurses helps me into a seat, and I can see the concern in his face. He asks me a question, but I just shake my head. The jet takes off gently as medics strip away portions of One Trick's armor. She doesn't wake up as they place needles in her arms, doesn't even flinch when one of the medics flips open one of her eyelids. Bad Day is doing even worse: the medical team clears the space around him as his body spasms again.

The time is passing strangely, people moving in blurs as they work. I close my eyes for a second, and when I open them Bad Day is looking right at me. He waves me over, so I unstrap and lurch unsteadily to sit beside him. He has a dozen tubes in his neck and chest. Some are pumping blood into his body, some are removing it. I don't know what the rest are doing, but I hope they are helping.

“Okay, kid?” he says, although his voice sounds like a whisper from far away.

I nod, although I'm not okay and might never be again.

“Wrong Answer and Loud Mouth?” he asks, and all I can do is shake my head.

“Not your fault,” he says, “not your fault. I saw Firestorm Commando coming out of the tunnel as I was trying to get back in. He was trying to collapse the tunnel. That’s why I was late.”

“You shouldn't have come back for me,” I manage, “you could have stayed away and been fine.”

Bad Day cracks a smile, but even that seems to bring him pain. He reaches over and grabs my shoulder, pulling me close.

“Listen, kid, I never had a tenth of the potential you have. You are tough and smart, and we need more like you. If the last thing I ever do is keep you alive... it will be enough. It will be enough.”

One of the medics pulls me gently away as Bad Day's eyes lose focus. She sits me down and straps me into one of the seats. She gives me a worried look and the chair starts to scan me for injuries. A nurse picks up my arm and examines it with soft hands, but I don't feel any pain. She shakes her head and calls a doctor who injects something into my arm. The doctor starts talking to me but I hear nothing, feel nothing, see nothing but Bad Day and the medics working on his broken body.

I am going to kill Firestorm Commando the next time I see him.