The young boy couldn’t have been more than five or six years old. Kateri Deseronto held him in her arms as he drifted off to sleep in front of the television set. She was reminded of how her own son, had done the same thing. He had been about the same age as young Robert Tanaka. Before…

With Robert asleep in her arms, Kateri changed the channel. She’d allowed him to drift off while watching cartoons, and now was the time to check on how her plan was progressing. All the networks were talking about Opal Tanaka’s kidnapping at the hands of her partner, Speedfreek. Local pundits were criticizing the Champions for their failure to act at the press conference and the difficulty they’ve had in procuring any sort of leads on the woman’s location. She turned up the volume.

“The real question is did the Champions fail to act, or neglect to act? This young woman was kidnapped moments after she got into a heated argument with one of the Champions. And her criticism is a valid one—she was engaged to one of the founding Champions, Iceman, who is now dead. And none of the Champions have expressed even the slightest bit of interest in finding his killer.

“Jubilee, a member of the new team, started berating Tanaka for her criticism. But what has Ms. Tanaka received as far as compensation? Has she received any benefits after her fiancé’s death?

“The X-Corporation’s official stance on this is that Iceman was killed long after the original Champions disbanded and thus isn’t entitled to any sort of benefits. I guess this is how superheroes take care of each other these days. Property damage, civilian injuries, just what sort of world are we living in where untrained, reckless vigilantes can pick and choose who gets saved and who doesn’t? Why are we sanctioning them, holding events and parades in their honor?”

Kateri smiled at the words being spoken. Everything was going according to plan. The sound of knocking drew her attention from the television over to the door. “Come in.”

Leon Shappe entered the room, still clad in his Speedfreek armor. He glanced down at the boy in Kateri’s arms. “She’s askin’ ‘bout her kid.”

“Tell our friend Opal that we have an arrangement and until our work together is finished, Joey stays with me,” said Kateri. “She’ll get her money once the Champions are disgraced.”

“Why the Champs anyway?” asked Speedfreek. “Thought you only went up against Spider-Man?”

“Media superheroes, Mr. Shappe. Glory-hounds parading themselves in front of the cameras with corporate endorsement,” said Kateri. “More than that, I’m interested in this Goblin character… After what happened with the Thunderbolts, who’s to say the man responsible for the death of my son hasn’t tried to pose as a hero to avoid a jail sentence?”

She looked down at the boy, gently rubbing his head. “I won’t let these so-called heroes hurt anyone else. I’ll see to it that they pay.”

“Right,” said Leon. “Hey, one more thing. I thought the kid’s name was Robbie or something?”

“That’s what I said.”

“You did?” asked Leon with a shrug. “Hunh. Coulda sworn I heard you say Joey…”

COLD-HEARTED FREEKS

Part II

By Dino Pollard

Champion Tower

The gathered team watched as the computer system ran the image of the man who kidnapped Opal Tanaka through facial recognition software. It took only a few moments before a criminal profile came up.

“Speedfreek, real name Leon Shappe,” Justice read off the monitor. “Addicted to a drug called snap, he stole that armor to become an assassin to support his habit.”

“What does this Tanaka woman have that’s worth hiring someone like that to kidnap her?” asked the Goblin.

“Her family,” said Jubilee. “Bobby told me her gramps is yakuza. Tatsu’o I think.”

“The Warriors went up against him once, trying to find out information about the Taylor Foundation,” said Silhouette.

“He tried kidnapping Opal before, maybe he hired this guy?” asked Jubilee.

Silhouette shook her head. “Doesn’t add up. He seemed pretty xenophobic when we ran up against him. Trusting an American, and a drug addict at that, to do this job right seems like too big a risk.”

“I see everyone’s missing the obvious,” said Ketch. “She singled us out at our press conference and then in broad daylight, she gets nabbed.”

“A ruse, mayhaps?” asked Hercules.

“Exactly my thoughts, big guy,” said Ketch. “Notice how people are starting to question the Champions and our media profile? Someone planned this.”

“Explains why they’d hire someone like Speedfreek,” said the Goblin. “Reckless, sloppy, and if he kills anyone in the process, it just adds more fuel to the fire.”

“If we’re going to find who’s pulling the strings, then first step is finding Shappe. Sil and Dan, you two hit up the underworld, start scraping for anyone who might know where he is,” said Justice. “Phil, I want you to review all the info we’ve got on Shappe, find out what that armor of his can do so we know what we’re dealing with. Apparently, this guy went toe to toe with the Hulk and lived, so we should stay on our toes.”

“Hah! Then let him test his might against an Olympian!” boasted Hercules.

Justice grinned. “Patience Herc, you’ll get your chance.”

South Central

In the seedier areas of Los Angeles, the neighborhood was hardly quiet. But even for crime-infested areas, a young gang banger flying through the plate glass window of a bar was a bit unusual.

Inside, the lowlife patrons gave a wide berth to the man responsible—a man dressed in biker gear with a full beard. His eyes burned like hot coals and in his hand was a chain burning with fire. He snapped the chain like a whip.

“I’m going to ask again—where is Leon Shappe?” asked Ketch. “I’m sure one of you scumbags has dealt to him.”

By his side was a woman of mixed race, dressed in a skintight black and gold costume, her eyes like pools of ink. Ketch passed his Hellfire gaze over the patrons, sensing something in a man who sat at the counter. Ketch pointed an accusing finger.

“You.”

The guy wore a beanie and had a bad goatee. He was dressed in baggy jeans and a sleeveless t-shirt. Once Ketch pointed at him, he rabbited for the door. When he opened it, he was shocked to find Silhouette standing right outside. She delivered a punch that knocked him on his back. Despite her slender frame, she packed a punch like a heavyweight boxer.

“Shadow teleportation,” she said to the dealer. “Comes in handy, don’t you think?”

Ketch whipped his chain towards the rafters. It went around one of them and snaked down the other end, wrapping around the dealer’s ankles seemingly of its own willpower. The former Ghost Rider raised the dealer until the two men were eye level. Then Ketch stared into the boy’s brown eyes with his burning pupils. Although he no longer had the Penance Stare of the Ghost Rider, Ketch did have something similar. He could look into a person’s soul and with his eyes, show them just what Hell truly was.

It only took seconds before the boy was wailing like a child, begging for mercy. “I’ll talk, please god just stop, I’ll tell you whatever you want to know!”

“Where’s Shappe?” asked Silhouette.

“He’s got a place up in Crenshaw,” said the dealer.

Champion Tower

Phil Urich rubbed his eyes as he reviewed the specifications of Speedfreek’s armor. Appearances to the contrary, the tech didn’t seem all that sophisticated. But it didn’t mean he should be taken lightly. He was dressed in his street clothes, with his Goblin gear at the other end of the room.

He believed he was the only one in the building. The rest of the team was out trying to find leads on Shappe’s location, leaving Phil to handle the research himself. But as Phil worked on the upper levels, he hadn’t realized that he wasn’t actually alone.

It started to get cold. He accessed the thermostat controls from his computer, but saw that the air conditioner was off. A moment later, a glowing blade was held at his throat and Phil knew where the temperature drop came from. Coldheart stood behind him, gripping his hair with one hand, her other holding one of her twin swords.

“Is this the part where you ask me if I’ve found Jesus?”

Coldheart yanked him from his seat and threw him across the room. Phil was in awe of her strength. The armor she wore must have enhanced her physical attributes.

“You ‘heroes,’ always with your little quips,” she said.

“It’s a coping mechanism, helps keep us from pissing ourselves,” said Phil.

“Were you exchanging quips when you killed my son?”

“…your what?” asked Phil.

Coldheart didn’t give him the opportunity to say anything more. She raised her sword and a ice beam shot off. Phil leaped away just before it could strike. “Look lady, I don’t know who you are or how you got in here, but—”

She fired another blast. Fortunately, the Goblin formula in his bloodstream enabled Phil to move fast enough to avoid her strikes. But without his mask, he couldn’t unlock the full potential of the formula. And he had no way of getting to it just now.

“I used to work for SHIELD, your encryption was nothing,” she said. “And as for who I am, my name’s Coldheart. You killed my son when you and Spider-Man were having one of your little battles!”

“Oh, I see what the problem is,” said Phil. “Look lady, I don’t know where you got your info from, but I’m not the Green Goblin or the Hobgoblin!”

“Right, you just use the same equipment!” said Coldheart.

The next blast caught Phil’s arm, encasing it in ice. “Oh Jesus, that’s cold!”

“It’s only the beginning,” she said as she calmly approached him. “I’m going to make you suffer, Goblin.”

“H-how do you know I’m him?” he asked.

“I’ve been following your team, yours is the only face that doesn’t fit, so stands to reason you’re the one in the mask,” she said.

“Y-you h-hired Sh-Sh-Shappe?”

Coldheart jammed her sword into Phil’s thigh. “That’s right. And the Tanaka woman. Found out about her, and she was all too eager to accept money for publically shaming the Champions.”

“H-how’d you know…I’d be here alone?”

“Didn’t, I was just coming to hack into your files. Thank heaven for happy coincidences, eh?”

“Th-the others…by now…th-they’ll have f-found your partner…”

Coldheart held up a small device and hit the button. “I’m counting on it.”

Crenshaw

“Where is he?”

Shappe was sprawled out on the floor staring at the ceiling. Clad in his armor, save for the helmet, which sat on a nearby table. The face of Opal Tanaka appeared above him. He was strung out on snap, the last fix he had bought with the advance Coldheart gave him.

“Wh-? Where’s who?”

“My son,” said Opal. “Where is he?”

Shappe slowly sat upright, leaning against the couch. “Oh, Joey.”

“His name is Robbie,” said Opal. “And where is he?”

“With the boss, that’s the last time I saw ‘im,” said Shappe.

“And where is she?”

“She’s in the other room.”

“No she isn’t, I checked the whole house,” said Opal. “I can’t find her or Robbie.”

“Oh…then maybe she took ‘im for a walk.”

“At eleven o’clock at night?”

Shappe shrugged.

*THOOM*

The force of Olympian muscles broke through the wall of the home. Hercules stood in the entrance, both fists clenched. Ketch, Jubilee and Silhouette stood on either side of him and Justice hovered behind.

“Should’ve done a better job of hiding yourself, Speedfreek,” said Justice.

Speedfreek donned his helmet and grinned. “Been waitin’ for this!”

Hercules came at Speedfreek, but the rockets on his suit allowed him to easily avoid the first swing of the demigod’s fists. Speedfreek circled around and barreled into Hercules, throwing the two of them through the wall and out onto the street. Speedfreek raised one of his arms and an adamantium blade extended. He brought it down towards Hercules, but was stopped by a flaming chain that wrapped around his forearm.

“Can’t let you hurt my new drinking buddy,” said Ketch.

Speedfreek grabbed the chain and flew through the air, dragging Ketch behind him. Ketch struck the pavement several times as he clutched onto the end of the chain, finally forced to let go. He rolled a few feet from the remaining momentum before coming to rest.

“Sil, I need you to teleport Opal somewhere safe,” said Justice. With the power of his telekinesis, Justice flew towards the battle, latching onto Speedfreek as he circled around for another strike on Hercules. He nudged Speedfreek’s trajectory, sending him crashing into a parked car.

Silhouette went for Opal, with Jubilee behind her. “I have to get you out of here,” said Silhouette.

“You can’t, she’s got my son!” said Opal.

“She?” asked Silhouette.

“Son?” asked Jubilee.

Opal nodded. “My son, Robbie.”

“Robbie as in Robert? Who’s this kid’s father?” asked Jubilee.

Opal stared at Jubilee for a few moments and she could tell the young mutant was beginning to brim with anger. Silhouette intervened, changing the subject. “Opal, you said she’s got your son. She who?”

“The woman who hired Speedfreek, she offered me money if I’d come out against your team in public,” said Opal. “Allow myself to be kidnapped.”

“I need a name,” said Silhouette.

Opal shook her head. “I don’t know her real name, but she called herself Coldheart.”

Silhouette put a hand to her ear. “Phil, I need you to look up someone named Coldheart.” She paused for a moment, waiting for a response but none came. “Phil, do you read me?” She looked at Jubilee. “There’s no answer.”

“Lot of fishy stuff goin’ on around here,” said Jubilee, still glaring at Opal.

“I need to get back to the Tower and check on Phil, you watch Opal,” said Silhouette as she vanished into the shadows.

“Oh great,” muttered Jubilee. She glanced towards the battle as Justice flew towards them, thrown by Speedfreek. Jubilee pulled Opal to the ground so they wouldn’t get struck. Justice’s telekinetic shield protected him and he shook himself off before flying back to the battle.

“Guess I got no choice but saving your life.” Jubilee pulled Opal towards the basement and they descended the steps. But what they found there were two canisters of liquid attached with wires to an electronic device. There was a digital display on it counting down.

“What’s that?” asked Opal.

Jubilee gasped right before she said, “it’s a bomb.”

Champion Tower

Coldheart twisted the sword in Phil’s shivering leg. He stopped himself from screaming, just clenched his jaw. She stared into his eyes. “I saw everything you and your kind did when I worked with SHIELD. Saw how you fight each other in public, without care to how much damage and destruction you cause. And then, when my son was one of your victims, my superiors told me I was too unstable.”

She pulled the sword out and Phil cringed once more. “You believe that? I’m the unstable one because I wanted to see your wanton destruction stopped.”

“So what, you th-think sending a supervillain to kidnap someone i-is gonna help your cause?” asked Phil.

Coldheart grinned. “No, but the heroes causing an explosion in the middle of a neighborhood? That’s another story.”

“H-how do you know they’d cause one?”

Coldheart said nothing and the realization struck Phil. “You’ve m-made sure there will b-be one…you’re c-c-crazy…”

She brought the sword up to his neck. “No, crazy is allowing freaks like you to run around like judge, jury and executioner.”

While Coldheart stared into Phil’s eyes, she didn’t notice his hand slowly move into his pocket and remove a small remote. He pushed a switch and his glider slowly and soundlessly rose from its spot on the other side of the room. It locked onto the tracking beacon Phil activated and in a sudden burst, slammed into Coldheart just as Phil moved to the side to avoid being hit as well.

Coldheart shook it off, getting back to her feet. She looked at Phil, who was struggling with the wounds she inflicted and she smiled. “You’re dealing with frostbitten wounds. You can barely move and it’s going to take more than one hit to get rid of me.”

She aimed both swords at the glider and encased it in ice. Then she stood over Phil once again. But then, shadow tendrils suddenly wrapped around her arms and legs, pulling her to the ground. A shadow rose and slowly took form, shaping itself into Silhouette.

“So you like the cold, huh?” asked Silhouette. “Let’s see how you like spending some time in a different kind of cold.”

The shadows quickly fell over Coldheart as she screamed in terror.

Crenshaw

Speedfreek brought the adamantium blade down, but Hercules clasped it between both his palms, using his strength to keep it from descending further. Speedfreek’s armor was certainly no pushover, it granted him strength that nearly matched that of the Olympian. Hercules moved the blade far enough to the side and took his shot, head-butting Speedfreek and shattering his visor.

Hercules rolled out from under his enemy. He tore the manhole from the middle of the residential street and preceded to bash it repeatedly against Speedfreek’s head. After several strikes, the cover was dented beyond repair and Speedfreek lay motionless on the ground. She saw Justice tending to Ketch’s wounds from his round against Speedfreek and called out to him.

“THERE’S A BOMB DOWN HERE!” she shouted.

Justice didn’t hesitate and flew straight to Jubilee’s side. “It’s in the basement,” she said. “Looks pretty powerful, too.”

“Right, I’m on it.”

With his TK, Justice turned the basement door to splinters. He saw the bomb and encased it in a bubble just as the counter hit zero. Justice strained to keep the explosion contained within the telekinetic field, the force of the bomb pushing up against the shield and causing him to strain himself to keep it from escaping. Blood began to seep from his nose as he fought against it, until he was able to choke the bomb out and the explosion past. He fell to his knees from the strain, and Jubilee helped him get back to his feet.

Champion Tower

In the lobby of the Champion tower, Opal clutched her son Robbie in her arms, tears welling up in her eyes. Jubilee watched them cautiously, especially taking note of the boy’s western features and brown hair.

“After spending some time in Sil’s shadows, Coldheart told them where she stashed him,” said Jubilee. “He’s okay, seems she was actually takin’ pretty good care of him. Think she saw of him as a replacement for her own son.”

“Thank you,” said Opal. “I’m really sorry about all of this, I never meant any of this to happen. I just…I needed the money and I couldn’t very well ask my family for help…”

“The kid, is he…?” Jubilee was afraid to finish the sentence, but she didn’t have to. Opal could tell what she was asking about and she sighed.

“I don’t know. There was someone else I met, not long after coming to LA. He could be the father, but so could Bobby.”

“And you named him after Bobby, too,” said Jubilee.

Opal nodded. “In hindsight, I realize just how good Bobby was to me. And I guess that’s why I named Robbie after him. Even if Bobby isn’t the father, I like to think he is, and I’m too scared to get a DNA test to find out otherwise.”

“I get it,” said Jubilee. “Warren’s tellin’ the media that Coldheart forced you into this, not mentioning that you were hired by her. It’ll stay that way as long as my condition is met.”

“What condition?” asked Opal.

“Disappear,” said Jubilee. “I don’t ever wanna hear about you trying to use Bobby’s death to benefit yourself again. If it does happen, I swear I’ll expose you for the bitch you are.”

Opal bit her lower lip, but then followed it up with a slow nod. “I understand. I’m sorry I put you through all this.”

Jubilee turned away from Opal. “Just get out of here.”