Volume 2 Ch 1

"Hey you there, I need tents up stat." A voice had yelled out.

An expedition had been commissioned to the south pole and it was going as bad as can be imagined. Anything that can go wrong had gone wrong. They were plenty off course and could not even ascertain their own positions. At least not until the sky would clear up. Already, the men were getting tired and they were starting to run out of supplies. The supplies that they had available would run out within a fortnight.

Already there was a consensus among the men that it was better to return for now and later on establish another expedition. One that would be more well prepared and hopefully have better luck. For god's sake, they had been hit by 4 category 3 snow storms. It was very fortunate that they had lost no lives yet.

Their job was to set up a few research stations and resupply stations so that it would be easier to penetrate even deeper to the heart of the south pole. Already, they were in a race with the Soviets.

Howard Stark along with the military were funding this expedition. It becomes shitty when you involve national pride within such matters. Already the cold was in full swing and both sides were fighting for every nook and cranny of this world.

Drake was leading this expedition, he was hunched over a map. Looking at the terrain around him. He began to wonder what the fuck did he do wrong to have so many things go wrong at the same time. If there was any solace, it was the fact that the Soviets were worse off then them and finally fucking retreated. This would atleast not lead to too much of a reprimand towards him.

But even he knew that he could not return empty handed. He had to get something, anything done. Moving out, he was glad to see that the shelters and tents were up. The men had been told that this would be rations day. His men would resent him for this sure. Everyone appreciates a hot meal and they could use the morale boost. However, he would rather that they rather live. He had a sixth sense about these sorts of things and he knew that a strong storm was coming.

He told his men such as well and told them to hunker down. At this moment, Drake had reached a decision. He would retreat tomorrow. Orders be damned. The scientists assigned to him for this expedition had agreed with him.

When this storm ends, he would order a retreat.

The storm came and it was worse then anything that they could have ever expected. Wind speed was greater then 60 knots and it was difficult to even see straight at the ground in front of you.

The storm had lasted for fucking 22 hours. An whole day of fucking sitting and hopping for the best. It was not even possible to leave as snow had been deposited around the tent. When the storm had cleared, everyone had proceeded to start shoveling snow and help anyone who was trapped.

It was fortunate that there were no causalities. It was time to make an announcement.

"This journey of ours was cursed from the start." A few nods and grunts of agreement. "Our only solace will be that we made it further then the Soviets." He explained. "We will eat a hot meal and then start our journey home." At that a cheer had went up. A good meal would build up some morale to begin the journey home.

A bon fire was started and for the first time in a long time, they were gonna eat something other then frozen biscuits and dry rations.

Drake had taken a bowl of stew and had started to eat with scientist. John. A pretty old guy, pretty sure that was not his real name.

While they both were savoring their meals, one of his scouts had rushed in.

"Boss, we found something" The boy was panting hard. "Ice..... mountain.....boy."

"Take a deep breath man and tell me what was found." Drake said sharply, his own meal forgotten. The excitement on the scouts face was infectious. Drake was hoping against hope that they would not not have to return empty handed.

"We found a someone trapped inside some ice. We believe that it is old. Very old."

Drake had gotten excited, "Well what are you waiting for. Lead on man." He may not have to return empty handed.

"Doctor, are you coming with us."

Drake had turned to John. "Doctor." He found the seat next to him empty, a sound of footsteps. He turned his head and saw the doctor already outside. "Well come on then let's go" The doctor was definitely excited.

They had reached a large group of people. Surrounding. a part of the ice on a mountain jutting out.

The doctor had pushed everyone out of the way and looked at the ice.

A boy was inside the ice. Hair long and body bare.

"How extraordinary. Subject appears to be between 14 and 18 year of age. Looks to be salvic in nature, maybe a mixed race. Not wearing any clothes, impossible to reach here. Maybe abandoned by the crew and stripped of belongings." The doctor began to say many things to himself and began to record stuff on his notebook.

Now, the problem was that they could not remove the ice without any harm to the body. They were not equipped for this, and if they left. They may not ne able to relocate this point anymore. The captain had reached a decision. He would send 80 percent of the expedition back and the remaining 20 percent would secure the site. Make a base camp here.

Their luck may finally be turning around. The orders had been carried out in excitement and alot of the people had left. They would need to ration for a little bit but that would be fine. They could still supplement their diet by fishing. Mercifully, there were no more storms and within three weeks an excavation team had arrived.

The 'naked viking' as the men had started calling him, had been excavated with the permafrost still around him. It was shown to be a great victory over the Soviet Union.

The boy now nicknamed the 'the naked viking' had been paraded throughout the world. One museum after another. Eventually, interest died down and the naked viking was put on display in a display in Metropolis DC Universe.

Metropolis city was once called Hunter city. It was home to one of the greatest inventor, adventurer and science hero Waldo Glenmorgan. He had started a trend of scientific discoveries in the city that alot of tech and development companies started to move in. It had eventually become the scientific capital of the USA and eventually the whole world. Prompting it to be named Metropolis, the City of Tomorrow.

There 'the naked viking' had found his home for a few decades. But the wheels of fate began to turn once more and a rare artwork had been brought to the museum, 'The Birth of Venus'. It had been greeted with much fanfare and the amount of visits had increased by alot. This also did invite alot of opportunistic thiefs and one night a crew had decided to arrange a heist. They had been payed by a wealthy benefactor.

A power outage was created in the area. The museum had switched to auxiliary power from a few onsite generators. They fortunately had an insider who had mixed sleeping pills within the food. The insider was on leave and had only shown up in the mourning under the pretext of getting some of his stuff. So there would not be much suspicion throw on him. The dogs had been tranquilized. And so they had made their way in. The information they got was that it was by 'The Naked Viking' display. The alarm for the display had been turned off for a limited time window by the arrangement of their benefactor. The clock struck 12 and they had 10 minutes. They had removed the glass and secured the painting. It was time to leave.

In order to muddle the water a little bit, they had replaced the original with a decoy. While leaving they had caused a malfunction which would cause the display for the painting to burn. And keep the fire localized in the special historic display only. 'The naked viking' being the only other display there.

And so they had left.

The first guard had woken up by four and had immediately raised an alarm. A fire had been found in the historic display which had been put out but the damage was already done. A police investigation was called in and it was confirmed from the piece of paper mixed within the ashes that this was not the original painting as the type of paper did not match. A search had been launched.

But that is not important to us. What is important is 'The Naked Viking'. The frost surrounding him had started to melt due to the close proximity to the fire. A curator and police officer were taking survey of the damage when the ice surrounding 'The Naked Viking' started to slowly melt. Soon, a pair of green eyes opened which were staring at them.