SIX

One Day Ago

The Red Raider was drinking a can of beer in his lair, his skull mask pulled up so he could drink. His four henchmen were doing the same. The place is just packed with crates, boxes, wires, machines, monitors, computers. So much they are all sitting on boxlike machines themselves.

“I’d never seen that chick before. She did some pretty superheroic stuff though. Just what this city needs. Another superpowered do-gooder,” The Red Raider said.

“At least she was kinda hot looking,” one of the henchmen piped in.

The Red Raider threw his can at the henchman. “Shut up, idiot!”

The other henchmen chuckled.

“You think this is funny? More and more of these superfreaks are showing up. It is getting harder and harder to raid tech. And all the tech we raid has to go into fighting these bastards. We need to go bigger if we are to survive. We need to ally ourselves with the others.”

“The others?” a henchman questioned.

“Yeah, folks like Doctor Mozart, Speed Metal, King Winter…”

“What about The Balloon Clown?” a henchman suggested.

“You’re lucky I don’t have another can handy,” The Red Raider said.

“I actually heard he gave Johnny Bubblegum a hard time once,” the henchman said.

“That pink clad idiot is as big an idiot as The Balloon Clown. But why not, if the Clown wants to ally himself with us, guess he’s welcome. We’re going to take over this town. In fact, I have an online meeting scheduled with King Winter right now.” With those words he switched on a computer screen. A man clad in blue and white spandex, his face half covered by a mask appeared on the screen. He was wearing a crown that seemed to be made from ice.

“Hello Raider,” the man said.

“King Winter. Good to see you,” The Raider said.

“Same here. Haven’t seen you since we took on The Athlete a few years back. That do-gooder was lucky Godling showed up to break the ice from him.”

“He sure was. We made a pretty good team then, however. On that note… I am thinking about getting a group together. Take out the local heroes and take over the city.”

“That’s a pretty huge plan. Not the kind of stuff we usually do,” Winter King said.

“I’m sick and tired of thinking small and getting defeated by these powered idiots. If we stand together, they won’t stand a chance. You’ve been at this for quite some time… Maybe you can call some of the other guys?”

King Winter thought about that for a moment, then said, “Sure. I can probably get Speed Metal to join. Maximizer. Queen Neanderthal. Balloon Clown.”

“Balloon Clown?”

“Hey, don’t knock him. He’s got some pretty nifty gadgets and held his own against Digi-Man a few months back.”

“All right. Give them a call. We’re going to show these heroes hell.”

“I guess it will be a cold day in hell then,” King Winter joked.

The Red Raider clenched his fist. “Dead cold.”