“Falcon, sir! What’s going on?!”

“Take the crab.”

“What about you? What are you going to do?”

“Catch his friends.”

With that the earpiece went silent. Icy Swallowed gulped. Not her first villain, but the first time Icy Falcon wouldn’t be watching her back.

She winced as the crab-man smashed straight through a solid wall. She frowned, and nodded once.

This was her job now.

She leaned over the edge of the building and thrust her hands out. Cold fog plummeted down the side of the wall, leaving behind a pillar of ice. She stepped onto it and then deconstructed the pillar from the top down, dropping herself onto the street. She thrust out her palm gain, sending a ball of snow into the shoulder of the mutated man.

“Stop now, evildoer! Or this Icy Swallow will make you a snow crab!”

She winced as the words left her mouth.

She really really hoped no one was listening to her.

The crab man turned around and stepped into the street.

“Well well well, if it isn’t the little mini-Falcon. Where’s your father, little girl?”

He snapped his pincers together with a loud clack.

“I’m more than enough for a small fry like you.”

The man’s face twisted into a snarl.

“Don’t you look down on me!”

He leapt off the ground and ran into the street. Icy Swallow raised both hands, launching balls of ice at the charging hulk. The ice shattered on red chitin.

“That won’t work on me anymore!”

The man pulled back his left pincer and thrust it forward. Ice Swallow ducked underneath and then lifted her hands, sending a wall of ice shooting towards the sky. The wall caught the crab man on the chin, sending him stumbling back. He let out a growl and grabbed a parked car, hurling it at the girl. Icy Swallow dove to the side as the car smashed into the street.

She looked up to see the man charging at her, shoulder tucked down and facing her. She placed her hands on the ground, ice freezing the ground in front of her and racing towards the man's legs. The ice began to climb up his shoes but broke as he stepped forward. Still, he began to slip on the frozen ground and Icy Swallow was able to dodge once more.

She grimaced as the man plunged into a car, shattering the window. Ice wasn’t working, the man’s shell was too tough, and he wouldn’t stay still for her to encase him. What else could she try?

The man stood back up and shook his head, then started to lumber towards her once more.

She held up her hand and let out a blast of chilly fog.

The man took a second to wave the fog from his face and then continued his march.

She sent another blast at him. He scowled.

“Stop that!”

He ran towards her, swinging his pincer in a wide arc. She ducked under and shot another blast. He tried to kick her but she moved to the side. She let out another blast.

Dodge, blast, dodge, blast. The pincer caught the tips of her hair but she managed to evade its grasp. Dodge, blast, dodge, blast.

“Stay, still, you little!”

The man swung and swung and swung some more.

But he began to slow down.

A swing moved a little slower. A kick was a few seconds later. The man was breathing heavily, and started to shiver. Icy Swallow kept up the barrage, keeping him veiled in fog.

“Ugh, so…cold…feeling…..sleepy……”

The man’s eyes drifted shut.

And then he fell to the ground with a crash.

Agent Wilson heaved a sigh. Bare-bones autopsies, corpses cremated if not lost entirely. Not a single eyewitness account or camera recording. No clues, no motives, no weapons. Not even a fresh crime scene to visit, as the attacks had died down lately.

Sometimes he missed the KGB. At least he knew who he was looking for back then. And why.

Agent Steve looked up from the paper he was reading at the nearby desk.

“Sounds like it’s going great, Wilson”

Wilson shrugged.

“Redacted CIA docs give more details than these reports, how about you?”

Steve shrugged.

“About the same. Someone’s keeping a real tight lid on things.”

Wilson nodded and glanced up at the TV in the room.

“Breaking news folks! We have word of another super attack! Icy Falcon and his prodigy Icy Swallow are already on the scene and moving to engage.”

“Since when does Icy Falcon have a sidekick? I thought that guy worked alone.”

Steve shrugged.

“She started showing up about two weeks ago or so. Maybe the League introduced them or something.”

“Super-interns?”

“Getting paid in exposure and experience most likely.”

Wilson’s eyes narrowed as he watched the Icy Swallow launch a barrage of icy projectiles at the rampaging crab person.

And then his eyes widened.

He looked back to the photo of the mystery killer’s victim and the autopsy report.

“...crap.”

“What?”

Wilson took a breath.

“I know what this body reminds me of now. Something of a KGB special for winter assassinations. Fill a mold with water, throw it outside, make some spikes out of ice. Stab a guy indoors, ice melts away. No fingerprints, no weapon, no clues. This one is messier but the wound looks similar and what details the autopsy does have match up.”

“That’s pretty messed up you know?”

“Just stabbing someone’s tame for the KGB.”

“Ah, nope, that’s classified Wilson. Can’t tell that to my poor, innocent, civilian ears.”

“Weren’t you on homicides for the FBI?”

“I was hoping supers would be a bit neater.”

“...I guess me too.”

“Well that’s a wonderful, gruesome story, Wilson, but I don’t see how it’s relevant. In case you forgot, we’re in Mexico, so I don’t think anyone’s carrying icicle shanks around.”

Wilson lifted a finger and pointed to the television.

“I can think of two.”

Steve’s eyes widened.

“...No way…that can’t be.”

Wilson took a look at his papers.

“Attacks died down recently…right before she showed up.”

Steve shook his head.

“You’re out of your mind Wilson. This is Icy Falcon we’re talking about. Even if you are right, nothing good will come of that. That’s not just a hero, that’s the hero in Mexico. He’s more likely to get elected el presidente than incarcerated.”

Wilson heaved a sigh.

He really missed the KGB.

A man sprinted down a dark alleyway, sweat drenching his brow. He breathed heavily as he stumbled forward. He glanced behind him.

And ran headlong into a wall.

A frozen wall which hadn’t been there before.

As he backed himself away from the wall he heard a thud behind him. He slowly turned his head.

Icy Falcon stood behind him, arms crossed, a frown on his face.

“S-Señor Falcon, what are you doing here? S-Shouldn’t you be dealing with that monster?”

“The kid can handle it. I have questions for you.”

The man scooted until his back hit a wall and raised his hands in front of him.

“M-Me? W-What could you possible need me for, Señor Falc…”

A spike of ice cracked the wall next to his face.

“I saw you in the alley. You and your buddies were having a smoke. Then one of them turned into that. I want to know how.”

“I-I don’t know what you mean, Señor Falcon. He just came out of nowhere, how am I supposed to know what happened?”

The man screamed as ice filled his vision and shut his eyes. He trembled, his heart pounded. But he didn’t feel any pain.

Slowly, slowly he opened his eyes. A spike of ice hung in the air, almost touching his eye. He whimpered.

“Last. Chance.”

“Ok Ok! I’ll talk!”

The man scrambled to reach inside his pockets, pulling out a bulb.

“I don’t really know, honest! They just gave us these with our usual purchase, said it was a sample of something new! José was the first to try it! We had no idea…”

The man shrieked as Icy Falcon took a step closer.

“...O-Ok, they said…it might give us something…if we were lucky. Just a high if we weren’t. B-But we didn’t mean any harm! Just, who doesn’t want to be a super?! P-Please, we won’t do it again.”

Icy Falcon held out his hand. The man lifted a trembling arm and placed the bulb in it. Icy Falcon looked it over. A normal Adranis bulb by the color and structure.

But it occasionally shimmered with a faint, green-yellow glow.

“Who gave this to you?”

The man trembled and shook his head.

“Who. Gave. It. To. You?”

The man shook his head again.

“Señor Falcon, you know how it goes! They’ll kill me if I talk!”

The man squealed as a small cut appeared on his cheek. Icy Falcon lifted a hand, covered in an icy spike.

“And you think I won’t if you don’t?”

Icy Falcon stood on a rooftop. Icy Swallow rose up on an ice pillar, stepping onto the roof.

“I got him, Icy Falcon, sir! Another evildoer, locked away!”

Icy Falcon’s eyes were closed, and he let out a sigh.

“Good work kid.”

He turned and opened his eyes, looking into hers.

“Now go home.”

She tilted her head.

“Don’t we need to chase the other guys? Or did you get them all already?”

Icy Falcon shook his head.

“You’re going to take a week off.”

“What…What do you mean?”

“I have something to do. I’ll call you when it’s done.”

“Can’t I come with you?”

“It’s too dangerous this time.”

“So is fighting supers! This is what you trained me for, isn’t it?”

Icy Falcon sighed once more.

“Look, kid, this just got a lot more complicated. The cartels are involved. And you know what that means, don’t you?”

The girl’s eyes widened, but then narrowed as she gripped her fist.

“I…I still want to go.”

“Wake up, kid.”

She took a step back.

“It’s one thing to play with supers. It’s another thing to declare war on the cartels. They’re not just going to wait for you to come lock them up. They’re going to go after you. They’re going to go after your home, your friends, your family. You know what they’re capable of, what they’re going to do if you get involved. So you’re not going to.”

She bit her lip. The Icy Falcon turned to go.

“What about you?”

He paused.

“There’s no one left for them to hurt.”

Icy Falcon leapt into the air.

Icy Swallow watched him go. She closed her eyes. She clenched her fists. She opened her eyes again.

She made her decision.