Death's Head has finally caught up with G.E.I.S.T. agent Ray Hidalgo as the clock runs out for the U.N./A.I.M. treaty. Is this the end of peace on earth? If Scientist Supreme Varina Goddard has her way, it's the end of Ray Hidalgo as well. ALSO IN THIS ISSUE: Celebrating the 20th Anniversary of THE NEW UNIVERSE, an 8-page bonus story featuring SPITFIRE by Justin Gray and Marshall Rogers.
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 - to which Dr. Swensen says that would happen 'over his dead body'...
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