Scant months after his nearly mortal defeat at the hands of Sub-Zero, 7HM's Jesse Cottrell had already made an almost complete recovery thanks to the combined might of cinematographer Heikki's biochemical wizardry and the latent healing powers of makeup artist Dawn, as well as a steady dose of chicken soup and excercise. Despite his massive steps in rehabilitation, however, a dark cloud still hung over Jesse's head. Well aware of the fact that his two children had nearly become orphans due to a lack of awareness, countless hours were lost training in the 7HM Danger Room, combat scenario after combat scenario weighing heavily upon his day-to-day activities as sediment congregates upon the shoreline. Indeed, it seemed as if another assault by Sub-Zero would prove unlikely, until Jesse opened up his locker in the gymnasium and found a homemade bomb sitting inside, 3 seconds from detonation.

It was the instinctual activation of his personal force-field that saved Jesse's life once again, though, indeed, the greatest shock would not come from the realization that 7HM Headquarters was still vulnerable, but instead from the aftermath he discovered upon awakening in the 7HM Sick Bay two days later.

"Oh, good, you're awake. I can start pumping out the wendigo saliva now. Don't want another 'accursed one' on our hands, you know," Heikki remarked, a holographic display of Jesse's internal organs ligting up the center of the room. "My kids...", Jesse began to inquire. "Your kids are fine," Heikki explained. "Steiner had the SG1 team guarding them night and day. There's...uh, absolutely nothing to be worried about...(ahem)." Jesse became alarmed by Heikki's perspiring brow upon the utterance of those last words, and so pressed to ascertain if there was something he should be aware of. "No, nothing a man recovering from a near-explosion should concern himself with," Heikki stated firmly.

Of all moments, Elmer then decided to walk into the sick bay, Seventeen magazine in one hand, a leg of mutton of unknown origins in the other. "Oh, hey (*mnnf*) Jesse...what are you doing in the sick bay?" he inquired. "Where have you been? He was nearly exploded two days ago! Did you get lost in the 7HM Labyrinth again?", Heikki asked.

"No, I (*chomp*) I got separated from Dawn in Fairyland, got lost in Tulgey Wood, had to kill me a lone wandering magical glowing sheep just to survive. This is the last of it here (*munch*)."

"Elmer, did it occur to you that the sheep might be glowing for a reason, that it was special?"

"Well, it's Fairyland, so I figured glowing sheep isn't all that (*burp*) excuse me, isn't all that uncommon, right? I mean, from which fairy tale could it possibly be from, right?"

"(sigh) I don't know, Elmer, maybe from Assyria or Chile. Who knows? I just think common sense tells you not to slaughter and eat a lone, wandering, luminescent ewe, considering a.) it proably holds some sort of significance in some folk tale you may have just irreversibly altered, and b.) Fairyland is practically saturated with restaurants and inns."

"That may be so, friend Heikki, but (*scrnch*) sleeping in a room next to quarreling ogre spouses and having them shove a beautiful corpse waiting for her true love's kiss in my closet for safekeeping doesn't strike me as shelter from the storm. Any beer in here? All we have is piss water in the fridge. Aakh!"

"Elmer, I'm going to have to ask you to leave, please."

"Okay, fine, but did you tell him about Melbourne already?"

"Elmer..."

"Wait, what's going on in Melbourne?", Jesse wondered, sitting up in bed. "Nothing, go back to sleep", Heikki advised.

"Oh, after your attack and the lack of action from the government--again--, your little super friends in the Youth Commission decided to capture Sub-Zero themselves," Elmer continued. "They found him a few hours ago in Melbourne, Australia and demanded that the president hand him over for extradition. 'Nothin' doin'' he told them, they insisted to the point of threat, one thing leads to another and now they're in a firefight with the Australian army in the center of a major city. (*cough*)"

"What!? I'm the president of the Youth Commission! Nobody told me? They can't extradite him; he's not a U.S. citizen and he's not under 18. The Commission only governs underage kids! I need to calm them down, I need to get there!"

"Calm down, Jesse," Heikki assured him. "We sent out a 7HM Alert already, to which everyone's responded but Kai. He's in an extradimensional Thought Assembly with his genie, which is too bad, we could've used Lkz today."

"You don't understand, I'm the president, I should be there. Get me the wheelchair with the rockets and nets and fire up the Quinjet. I'm going in."

To be continued...