The Everglades, Florida. (9 months after the events of Wood Pulp & Blood)
    It is possible but unlikely that Kane had been less happy since his death. He, Adam, and Eve had gone south to investigate reports of poltergeist/vampiric activity in the Everglades, but it had turned out to be leech-people—possibly part of an ancient offshoot from Atlantis, or else the descendants of Spanish settlers who had foolishly built a town atop an Indian burial ground and used native magic to adapt their forms when their city began to sink. It had taken the three of them a while to figure out what was going on, and now they were in the middle of a fight, having tracked the leeches to their underwater home and dealt out considerable mayhem in the form of shotgun shells packed with rock salt.
    "They don't pay us enough for this," Kane remarked to Adam, the two of them hip-deep in swamp water and dead leeches, the sun unfortunately bright. "Or maybe I need to pay them."
    Out of nowhere Eve screamed and collapsed, in the grip of one of her uncontrollable visions. A leech-person leaped up and attached himself to her abdomen.
    Leech blood didn't taste good, Kane had already decided, but you gotta do what you gotta do, and in this case that meant battening onto the one attacking his teammate while Adam lapsed into gorilla frenzy, wreaking havoc on the remaining creatures. By the time they had vanquished the leech-folk, she didn't look very good.
    Kane radioed the castle's coordinates to the underwater castle to the Navy destroyer waiting offshore, while Adam gathered Eve's unconscious form; the three of them retreated to their waiting swamp boat and headed out at full speed. Eve continued to thrash and moan, the fit lasting far longer than her visions usually went on.
    "The moon is dead," she kept saying, and mentioned the name Jenkins.
    Didn't we already do this? Kane groaned to himself. Next time I'll use a silver woodchipper.
    They took the boat to town and were airlifted to the nearest city with a decent hospital. Sedated, Eve no longer appeared in the grip of the unknown, but her wound remained serious. Hanging about her room worrying, her two teammates heard the elevator down the hall, and the familiar squeak of their director's wheelchair approaching.
    "I've received a transcript of what she's been talking about. Do you have any comments?" he asked without preamble.
    "Trip back to Maine?" Kane sighed. "Leech aliens," was his succinct explanation of the current mission, seeing their superior's glance at Eve.
    "Yes, I saw your paperwork on that. Well done."
    Thank you, Adam replied.
    The man nodded grimly. "It certainly sounds like poltergeist activity on a scale that we haven't seen before. Perhaps a poltergeist alien invasion."
    My god, if they really did team up, that would be horrible, the gorilla commented. Think of the devastation that would ensue.
    "Judging from everything I've heard, the three of you are the best team we have. Strongest, too. But with Eve out of commission, and everything that she's been talking about during her lucid moments—whole clans of werewolves, invisible gorillas, demon-worshippers, some kind of indestructible golem-woman...."
    Definitely poltergeists, Adam nodded.
    "We may have to call in some heavier fire-power on this one. Adam, I think we're going to have to place that phone call that we've been thinking about for a while. Contacting your old friend Astro-Man, see if he'd be willing to pitch in and help out the government."
    Excellent.
    "If you could put together a letter for him, we'll have naval agents out in San Francisco try to get in touch with him.
    I'll compose it immediately, he promised.
    
    Meanwhile, in San Francisco, Professor Miles' research had been interrupted yet again by the appearance of The Exciter, one of his older if not more fearsome foes.
    "I don't understand what makes you people put on costumes, go out into the streets and try to take on the forces of justice," Astro-Man sighed.
    "That's because you do not fully understand the application of power! Feel the force of my Excite-O-Rays!"
    A few moments later, Astro-Man handed over The Exciter and the remains of his ray gun to the police outside the bank the villain had been attempting to rob. I'm starting to lose my passion for this work, he thought. With war looming in Europe, and so much going on in the world of such great importance, here he was fighting... The Exciter. Perhaps it is in fact the threat of war that makes people do these things. Maybe the populace at large will do strange things, like mistake radio plays for reality, a kind of mass mental breakdown....
    A man in a crisply pressed naval uniform approached him. "Astro-Man?"
    "Yes. Can I help you?"
    "I'm Lieutenant Commander Brankowski, U.S. Navy."
    "Nice to meet you."
    "And you. Excellent work on defeating him yet again."
    "Rather routine, actually."
    "I hope that the information in this is something that you find as easy to deal with, sir." He handed over a letter on official letterhead.
    It was from Adam! He had received a few previously, but they had been light updates on the gorilla's progress with the PAA; this on the other hand was a rather chilling description of the realities of his work, with one of his team hospitalized after announcing a precognitive flash about a threat to the entire world erupting in northern Maine. The U.S. government was anxious to call in super-powered assistance, and Astro-Man was the logical choice.
    "Thank you, Lieutenant Commander; I assume you'll be wanting to destroy this."
    "Yes." He burned it right then and there. "I have a flight scheduled out; will you be going out under your own power, or will you join me?"
    "I'll be going with you."
    Before boarding the plane, Brankowski handed over a dossier for Astro-Man to read; it was incomplete to the point of incomprehensibility. On the plane itself was a second dossier, which had been dropped off by someone else at a different time. Holding the two sheets together, up to a light, made it readable. Clever, he thought. It included details from a report Adam and his colleagues had filed the previous year, regarding a dimensional cross-rip around Mt. Katahdin and a werewolf clan.
    
    Maine was better than Florida, even in the summer. Even so, Kane made up his mind to spend his accrued vacation in Sweden this winter.
    "You must be Astro-Man," the PAA director said as the four of them met for a briefing.
    "Yes."
    "I've heard a great deal about you."
    "Good to meet you. Adam Prime, good to see you again. How have you been doing?" He shook the gorilla's hand.
    I've been well, Astro-Man, he signed. Welcome to our adventure.
    "I trust you received the dossier on the flight up?" the director asked.
    "Yes. Glad to be of help."
    "Judging from what Agent Eve has been talking about in her coma, it certainly sounds as if this is going to be a hairy one," the director told him somberly. "Having someone of your power along could be of great assistance, especially since they're too far away for a naval bombardment."
    "Always a problem," Astro-Man agreed politely.
    "We are going to ask that you stay out of sight initially," he went on. "Our two agents that are going up already have established identities with the people in the town, but unless you're willing to not wear your mask, I'm afraid you're going to stand out slightly. I wouldn't ask you to reveal your secret identity to us, I understand that's personal to you."
    "On the way up, I will change into civilian clothing. Adam Prime of course knows my civilian identity, and well, I hope you're trustworthy," he said to Kane.
    

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