Codename: Spitfire Issue Guide #3

Issue 6:
Grim Tidings

We catch up with Steel Hawk as his Club handler returns to check up on him in his hideout on the outskirts of Boston. This facility, seemingly a Christmas tree lot, was actually riddled with booby traps, and usually people foolish enough to enter the grounds do so as one of their last acts on earth. Sidestepping the traps, the Steel Hawk's handler, Baker, sees that the man's leg has fully healed.

While Steel Hawk cleans himself up after yet another workout and training session, Baker questions Steel Hawk about his plans for his next assignment: the execution of the British Prime Minister upon her imminent visit to Boston. At this point, the Hawk pulls a gun on Baker, and swaggers about how it'll be in a fashion she couldn't possibly expect. Oh, and insists that Baker uses his code name instead of his 'real' name.

Elsewhere, the charges against Jenny have been dismissed, since a large piece of evidence (the M.A.X. suit) has suddenly vanished from the police impound. Though he'd avoided her like the plague while she was in jail, Senator Hurt tries to get back in Jenny's good graces as she walks out of the courthouse, but Jenny isn't having any of this, and after telling the man off, stalks away.

The Troubleshooters, meanwhile, are grumbling about how their own effort to help Jenny blew up in their faces - almost literally. While they talk about how happy they are that she's free, Terry skulks along afterwards, all mad at Giotti for focusing on Jenny - still - even though she was so worried about him. And that she loved him. Though she forgot to mention how insanely catty she'd been acting lately.

Driving off with her ex-boyfriend Bernie, Jenny doesn't realize she's being stalked by the Steel Hawk, who's watching her every move. Of course, the Hawk misses a few details when a meter maid tries to give him a ticket. Breaking her hand, he drives off in his beater van and leaves the Troubleshooters to their fate - at which point a sobbing Terry overhears the district attorney arguing with some policemen.

Realizing that Jenny is going to be hounded by this until Krotze's real killer is brought in, she resolves to quit being such a lump and help Jenny for a change, instead of mewling about Giotti so much. Heading back to the dorms after she collected Giotti, Terry recommends the team do something to bring Steel Hawk in, and after a tiff with Andy about her attitude, she decides to fire up her think tank.

Later, on the 14th of December, the Steel Hawk has slipped past numerous city, state and federal officers somehow to get onto the site where Thatcher will be addressing the people of Boston. While the terrorist wires a huge bomb into the Christmas tree light switch, the Troubleshooters are hacking up the police's database, trying to collect all the information on him that they can get their hands on.

Using her neural interface, Terry swims through the primitive cyber-space of 1986, and easily cracks the police's computer. Gaining information about the Steel Hawk through inference and raw data, she and the other Troubleshooters take what they've learned to Jenny, but she tries to convince them not to take the law into their own hands like she did. After all, look what happened to her when she did?

Unconvinced, the Troubleshooters head to the Steel Hawk's hideout, having found its location after analyzing lots of police data. Of course, the place is rigged for murder, and the five college students have a series of close calls while working their way into the place. Using all of their ingenuity and M.A.X. suits, the team finally defeats the Steel Hawk's traps, and enter his home.

Rooting around, the techies find the apparent place where Krotze was horribly beaten to death. They also find the terrorist's plans to kill the Prime Minister, and call the police to let them know. Of course, nobody takes them seriously, so after a whole lot more angsting, the Troubleshooters take off from this den of butchery, and try to save Thatcher themselves!

Issue 7:
Deadly Resolutions

After the failure of his attempted murder of Margaret Thatcher, the assassin, mercenary and terrorist known as Steel Hawk decided to end the threat of the Troubleshooters. These meddling do-gooders made him look bad to his employers in the Club, and he was intent on dismantling them... horribly! Tracking them down, or so he thought, the Steel Hawk found a cabin they'd been hiding out in for weeks.

Instead of finding the Troubleshooters there however, Steel Hawk encountered a hobo who'd moved in on the abandoned place. After identifying the five high tech would-be heroes to him, said hobo was then killed by Steel Hawk - despite his vague promise to let the man live. Speaking of the Troubleshooters, they interrupted a bizarre nightmare that Jenny was having, breaking into her house to talk to her.

Having been on the run after foiling the Steel Hawk's scheme, the Troubleshooters had decided they'd had enough of playing hero, and were going to quit. They told Jenny that they'd drop off their M.A.X. suits tomorrow, much to Jenny's relief. She'd been having bad dreams about the last couple of months after all, and was more than happy to see her students return to a normal, risk-free life.

After reassuring Giotti that she was perfectly okay with them not sticking their necks out, Jenny bid him farewell - and he left a few minutes after his fellow Troubleshooters. Of course, they were all already gabbing about how much Giotti had a 'thing' for Jenny, which was only making Terry have another bout of drama concerning the situation. Even if Jenny definitely didn't feel the same way about Giotti.

Elsewhere, Steel Hawk was being interrogated by Baker, his Club contact, regarding his failure to eliminate Thatcher. He showed Baker video footage of the event, wherein he was disguised as a very surly-looking Santa Claus nearby, waiting for his target to trigger the bomb that would kill her. But then, at the last minute, something appeared and not only collected said bomb, but threw it into the air to explode harmlessly.

Though the video didn't show anything other than a blur, Steel Hawk took it to a computer graphics studio that he inexplicably had on call, and had them enhance the footage until he could come up with a clear face. He then did a little digging to reveal the identity of Timothy Ferris, and then by proxy his four Troubleshooter friends. Baker didn't care about this too much, until he was told Swensen was involved.

Wanting her M.A.X. technology, Baker was prepared to spare Steel Hawk - if he could acquire these new-fangled Troubleshooter physical enhancement devices. Setting his plan in motion even as Jenny was losing her tenure at M.I.T. due to her recent 'attention', Steel Hawk killed a snow plow driver and almost ran down Timothy Ferris while he was lugging his fast back suit over to Jenny's place.

Doing it again, Steel Hawk goaded Timothy into putting the fast back on, and when he tried to run away from the vehicle, Steel Hawk launched a rocket at him! Elsewhere, Giotti and Terry head to Andy's dorm only to find he's not there. Tracking him down to a nearby wood, they catch him practicing with his beam-splitter. Talking to him, they realize that he's changed his mind; Andy's not giving up the hero thing at all!

Before they can talk him out of it, the three Troubleshooters are attacked with gunfire! Throwing on his suit as the machine gun fire continues, Giotti tries to help Andy take on the Steel Hawk, who has ambushed and is now toying with them in order to gauge their abilities. Finding them wanting, he then grabs Andy after Giotti's assault fails, and kills him with his very own laser cannon!

Oblivious to all the carnage going on around Boston, Jenny is walking with good friend Bernie after a long 'talk', when she assures the man she doesn't need an escort home. Mere moments after Bernie walked away, Jenny was suddenly grabbed by mysterious individuals driving a blue van, who subdue her and drive off to parts unknown. But just who kidnapped Jennifer Swensen? We'll have to tune in next month to find out!

Issue 8:
Down and Dirty

At the hospital as a result of their fatality-laden encounter with the Steel Hawk, Giotti and Terry are hailed by Eric, who asked them how they knew about Timothy. In fact they did not, so they learned the bad news about another wounded friend even before they had dealt with the death of poor Andy just hours before. Exchanging information, they realize that the same freak must be behind both attacks.

As Giotti vows revenge, we move along to parts and times unknown, where we find Jenny Swensen waking up on a cold padded floor. The drugs used on her slowly wearing off, she demanded to know why she'd been abducted. At that precise moment, ominous lights lit up to blind her, and a mysterious voice indicated that they wanted her M.A.X. technology, and that they were only going to ask for it once.

Refusing to help whoever it was, Jenny was then assaulted by a bizarre man known only as Brick. This fellow, while not as adept in the martial arts as Jenny, was far stronger - and able to absorb most of the pain and damage she could inflict. He then proceeded to beat the tar out of Jenny, only stopping when the odd sound of a whistle cut through the sound of her captor's taunting, calling Brick off.

Just then, a wall opened up behind Jenny, one which had been obscuring a large array of computer gear and partially completed equipment. Her captor taunted her with the incomplete M.A.X. technology, and let her know the only thing that would save her from Brick's next attack - due in but twelve hours' time - was if she would build something of the M.A.X. variety to defend herself. Naturally, Jenny refused.

As the Troubleshooters attend the funeral of their fellow, we meet for the first time Edmund Roth, the man who has kidnapped Jennifer Swensen. He is observing her via closed caption video, and discussing her reactions to his prodding - and her ultimate fate - with someone named Slash. As it turns out, the two have a bet regarding said reactions, and this 'Slash' thinks that Roth's new prize is going to fail.

Hours later, we catch up with Terry, who is using her think tank to hack the F.B.I. database at Giotti's request. The idea was to dig up every last scrap of information they had about the Steel Hawk, and use it to get some payback! While Terry wasn't too thrilled with the idea, she would do almost anything to get on Giotti's good side, and though the effort gave her a serious migraine, it bore fruit!

Elsewhere, Jenny's time was up, and she was once again beset by the burly brigand known only as Brick. As he lurched towards her, Jenny revealed that she'd built a taser to flatten her would-be killer. Of course, having been observed while she built this device, Jenny was tased in turn when her foe revealed that he had a device to deflect her electrical attack. But, the trick was that Jenny knew she was being watched...

Given another twelve hours (as she expected), Jenny put her real plan into motion, even as Giotti did his own. Having realized that Steel Hawk was an avid devotee of Rolfing, he decided to head to the only spa in Boston offering the service. Once Steel Hawk appeared to get his deep tissue massage, Giotti had Terry call to distract the masseuse, and then struck - while he was wearing his strong arms!

Catching Steel Hawk unawares, Giotti beat him to within an inch of his life! He would've killed the terrorist too, if not for a mysterious armed female who broke into the destroyed Rolfing room to fire a full magazine at him and escape with Steel Hawk's near-dead body. Luckily, his strong arms deflected most of the bullets' impacts, and Giotti was merely knocked unconscious instead of dead as a result of her assault.

As Giotti's vengeance bore bitter fruit, Jenny's own plan was placed into action, when her deadline was once again reached. As her captors sicced Brick on her a third time, Jenny revealed that she'd recorded the sounds used to activate and deactivate the thug, and used a simple whistle to defuse the threat he posed. Before he could be triggered again, Jenny then beat the snot out of the man, knocking him senseless.

Standing victorious over Brick, Jenny was then surprised when her captor, Edmund Roth, introduced himself to her, stating he worked for the U.S. government...!

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