Codename: Spitfire Issue Guide #1

Untold Tales of the New Universe: Spitfire
Danger Zone

Our story starts today in the mists of bedlam! Mayhem! Sheer terror! Why is everything so fraught with panic, you ask? Well the scene is Chernobyl, in April 1986, and something has just gone horribly, horribly amiss. Technicians on the scene are failing to contain a runaway nuclear reaction, and those who aren't trying to stop a complete meltdown are fleeing for their lives!

Enter Jenny Swensen. Wishing to give the the Mark 1 Man-Amplified Experimental Armor a test run, Doctor Karl Swensen sent his daughter, Jenny to the Soviet Union to observe the complete breakdown of the facility. Things were strained between the two at the moment though, for she insisted on playing way too much Kenny Loggins on the test flight there from the United States.

Turning down that 'racket', Jenny decides that she has no choice but to help the people inside the reactor, even though her father wants her to avoid being seen by the locals - that and he's not too sure the suit could even survive the insane amounts of radiation that he was reading, by proxy, through the M.A.X. suit's sensors. Hardly listening to reason, Jenny busts into the place.

Spying a glowing Russian, she asks him what's going on, and after determining that he does in fact speak English, finds out that he is Dimitri Durovich. He goes on to explain that he was a nuclear technician on site, and that while trying to stop the meltdown his body did not fail, but instead began to absorb astounding amounts of nuclear fallout from the reactor nearby.

Not wanting it to spread, Dimitri begs Jenny to douse him in water, and she finds some in an underground branch of the nearby Pripyat River, flowing nearby beneath the reactor. Tunneling in, she drops Dimitri into the water, but even once cooled, he implored her to bury him to save the nearby area from the terrible energies that were roiling within his body. Reluctantly, she does just that.

Flying home soon after, Jenny is scolded anew by Doctor Swensen, who gave Jenny heck for being so reckless... a Spitfire, even. The two then talk about the intended use of the suit, and Jenny then makes her father promise not to let his employer, Mr. Krotze, use the suit for any sort of military applications - which Dr. Swensen says would happen 'over his dead body'...

Issue 1:
Beginnings

Our tale starts with Doctor Karl Swensen, who is currently under a considerable amount of distress. You see, he's being menaced by a man wearing a powerful exoskeleton of his own design, a man who wants the plans for the suit. Refusing to yield to the man's demands, the doctor is then killed by armor-laden thug via his own welding robots. Making his escape, the murderer takes the plans with him.

Elsewhere, Karl's daughter, Jenny, happens upon some of her students while in the midst of a 'hack'. In the middle of reassembling a tractor in school chairman Dibble's office, these five students, the so-called Troubleshooters, are startled by Jenny's presence. Amused by their antics, she offers to help them, but is waylaid when several men - including Dibble - come looking for her.

Covering for the Troubleshooters while they make their escape, Jenny is then informed by the chairman and two police officers that her father was killed, seemingly in a freak lab accident. Breaking down upon hearing this, Jenny is inconsolable for several days, at least until the actual funeral. Attending the funeral is Fritz Krotze, Dr. Swensen's former boss, who has some bad news for Jenny.

He lets her know that his contract with her father stipulated that, upon Swensen's death, his family only had twenty four hours to clear out any personal property; Dr. Swensen's home was literally on the property of Krotze Industries, you see. He let Jenny know that he'd bend the rules for her, but that she needed to be done removing any personal effects by 10 AM the next morning.

That next morning, Jenny was at her father's home, when the truth of his death finally hit her... and hard. While poking around in his computer, she found a secret message intended for her by her late father about Krotze, but was unable to read it; when ten o'clock rolled around, Krotze's security goons ushered her out. Incensed, Jenny tries to figure out a way to get at that message.

After talking it through with her sensei and her Troubleshooter students, Jenny decides to break in to Krotze Industries to get at that message at all costs, believing perhaps Dr. Swensen's death was no accident. Though she wasn't sure just how to get past the security goons blocking her way in, Jenny was surprised - and mortified at the same time - to see her students had decided to help her out.

When they set off a loud, conspicuous explosion, Jenny used the cover it offered to slip into her father's home - and then the lab connected to the house. Finding the Troubleshooters inside, Jenny gave them a dressing down for risking their futures for her... and then accepted their help since they were there anyway. Returning to her late father's computer, Jenny read his message... only to find her fears justified.

Dr. Swensen had apparently built a new, improved version of his armor, the Mark 2 Man Amplified eXperiment - or M.A.X. - Armor. The Mark 1 suit was originally designed to be beneficial to humanity, the ultimate construction tool he could use to work anywhere on earth. Of course, Krotze had decided to weaponize the technology against Dr. Swensen's wishes, which led to their schism... and ultimately Swensen's murder.

Resolving to complete her father's efforts to keep the Mark 2 out of Krotze's hands, Jenny decided to walk off with it. She then revealed to the Troubleshooters that the lab was actually built upon the flatbeds of three tractor trailers, and that it could be moved at a moment's notice. With their help, she then (literally) trucked off with the M.A.X. suit and the laboratory used to build it!

Meanwhile, Krotze and his crony, Richard Faylen, are testing out their own 'additions' to the Mark 1 M.A.X. suit, when they get word that Swensen's lab has extricated itself from the company grounds. Mobilizing, he sent his man Bronson ahead in the Mark 1 while he and Faylen followed, even as Jenny and her Troubleshooters pulled off to hide in a rock quarry several miles away.

Donning the Mark 2 suit to dig a tunnel with which to hide the laboratory trucks, Jenny is quickly found by the Mark 1, and set upon by it! It takes everything Jenny has to beat the larger, armed M.A.X. suit, but in a knock-down, drag-out fight she ultimately proves triumphant! She then tracks down Krotze, seeing that he'd been watching her from nearby, and gives him a Warning.

She let him know that once she can prove he was behind her father's murder, she'll be coming for him! Jenny then let Krotze flee with his other flunkies, before mobilizing the Troubleshooters again. They decided to hide the trucks out on Andy Meadows' family's land, a large tract of which was mostly empty over in nearby New Hampshire. The trick was simply getting there unseen...!

(Check out Star Brand #2 before reading on!)

Issue 2:
Behemoth

After a highly public appearance while saving a child trapped in a well, not to mention an encounter with the Star Brand, Jenny and the Troubleshooters resumed laying low up in Parker's Hill, New Hampshire. While the others were back in class, Andy was helping Jenny to test out the capabilities of the Mark 2 M.A.X. suit, mostly by lifting boulders and other heavy objects.

Their tests were interrupted by a wayward skunk however, and when the two went to clean the horrible stench off of the M.A.X. suit, the two scientists heard a sudden ruckus coming from the nearby woods. Seeing it to be an out of control truck driven by several hunters, Jenny was forced into action again when they careened off a cliff, and had to use the M.A.X. suit to save them from an untimely demise.

This didn't help the whole 'laying low' thing though, what with the hunters blabbing about the 'giant robot' with 'glowing red eyes' that saved them to the local news. Though they covered the hunters' story as a joke, the story got out onto the television, where everyone could see it. Everyone including the now lead engineer of Krotze Industries, Richard Faylen, who recorded it and showed it to his boss, Fritz.

Krotze had Faylen take another of his experimental weapons out to get 'his' suit back, though preparation and travel from Krotze Industries up to New Hampshire took some time. This allowed the Troubleshooters, who had also seen the news story about Spitfire, time to go check the company out. They wanted to see if Krotze was going to send someone after Jenny, so they decided to snoop around.

Which would of course give Giotti a chance to test out his new device, a set of M.A.X. inspired 'strong arms'. This partial exoskeleton greatly enhanced his strength, allowing him to crush even an industrial ball bearing with just one hand! Arriving in time to see Faylen and several goons loading something big onto a train car, the Troubleshooters were dismayed to see Giotti jumping on top of it!

Following as best as they could in their van, the three saw Giotti get dragged into one of the train cars from below after he tore open its roof. Unable to assist him, they tailed the train until it stopped near Andy's family land. It wasn't until morning that they finally saw what the men from Krotze Industries were hauling that way... it was a tank. A big one!

Meanwhile, Jenny had traveled into town to make a call to her sensei for advice, though she was less than satisfied with what she heard. Before she and Andy could return to the mobile lab's hiding place, they were knocked clean out of their jeep by something immense! A large black tank, the thing rolled right over Jenny and Andy's ride, flattening it in the process and leaving the two techies in serious trouble.

Fleeing the scene, they made for the mobile lab, hoping to get it rolling and out of there in order to avoid another pointless conflict. Upon their arrival, Jenny and Andy met the other Troubleshooters, who told them what had happened to poor, foolish Giotti. Seeing that a fight was inevitable, Jenny suited up in order to buy her students time to free their classmate from Krotze's security goons.

While Jenny did battle with Krotze's tank, the Troubleshooters did indeed managed to spring Giotti, though Jenny was having a hard time of it despite her advantage in maneuverability. While it was slow, Krotze's black Behemoth tank was heavily armed - and apparently being operated by remote control! Though the Troubleshooters couldn't find a frequency to jam, the thing was being operated from afar.

It took a bit, but Jenny managed to find an almost invisible fiber optic cable that led from the tank to the Krotze Industries train. Snipping it, she effectively neutralized the tank, and then shoved it over a cliff in a rage. Her satisfaction was short-lived however, for she learned that Giotti was seriously injured by the Krotze Industries goons, having broken several of his ribs when they beat him down...!

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