Two weeks had passed since Kimona had temporarily joined the Woodland Warriors. After the incident with Bigfoot, the team were regularly visiting the Pine Barrens to make sure Bigfoot was keeping to the forests and staying away from the towns and hamlets, and when they weren’t doing that, they were playing and hanging out by the lake.

The newly repaired Vulture-One jet came into land in The Lodge’s hanger after checking on Bigfoot again. As they touched down, the alarm sounded in the hanger and through the speakers in Vulture-One.

“Ugh, for real?” moaned Tobias.

“Well, see it this way, it’s something other than boring Bigfoot watch, eh?” Grizzly George reasoned, swiping at the screen.

The message appeared digitally across the inside of their windscreen. “SOS… Flemnora Ice Fields Research Lab, Antarctica. We are under attack!” Tobias read out. “Antarctica?! Why are we being sent out there?!” he cried out in disbelief.

“I don’t know, but we’ll ask those questions when we’re on the move,” George said.

“Err, sorry, but I don’t have any warm weather kit...” Kimona said apologetically.

“Yes, there’s a spare beaver fur cloak in the hanger, I’ll go get it quick,” said Tobias, leaving the jet.

“Sorry, this suit is alright in the deepest of waters, but in the snow and the wind, it’s a different story.”

“Don’t worry,” said George. “It’s not something we really think about.”

“Here it is!” Tobias called, appearing back in the cockpit. “I don’t know why we have it, but it’s a full length wrap around cloak. Do your enhancements even work on snow?”

“Yep! Everything I can do with water I can do with snow. It’s water after all.”

“That’s rad!”

“Buckle up gang!” George said, shifting the jet back up into the air towards the Antarctica.

***

The Warriors arrived outside the Research Lab, with Grizzly George proficiently setting the jet down in a horizontal snow storm with ease.

“I could have done it just as well…” grumbled Boy Beaver as the bear applauded himself.

George, Boy Beaver and Agwé, with Nova nestled in her cloak, trudged through the snow, helped by the fact that she was able to redirect the snow fall away from them as they walked to the entrance of the laboratory.

Boy Beaver pressed the intercom and waited for the door to open. When they did, a harassed and fearful looking young woman appeared.

“Thank God you’re here!” she said, ushering them through. “Come!”

“What’s happened? Why are we here?” Boy Beaver asked.

“Because I sent a distress signal!” she snapped. “And it's an American research lab. We had two scientists go out earlier to the garden and I watched on the cameras as they were attacked… and killed!”

“Hang on, did you say, ‘garden’?” Agwé asked. “What is this place?”

“Yes, garden. I’m part of a project here to test plant growth and life in these conditions,” she explained.

“What’s your name, and how many more of you are here and alive?” Grizzly George asked. “And we’ll need to see the footage.”

“I’m Eden, and-”

“That’s it!” Agwé blurted out. “You’re Greenfingers!” George, Boy Beaver and even Nova from within his fur pocket, looked at her in confusion.

Eden’s shoulders dropped. “Oh, of course. Dylan, right??”

“Yes, he told me all about you after your… run in with him.”

“You know, I don’t actually like Greenfingers as a name…” She led them hurriedly down towards a room where the camera footage was viewable from. “And I’m actually a lot more passive than I was then. Which is why I’m here actually. After the… choices I made in how I used my enhancements to... harm others out of revenge, I was given a few options to right my wrongs and to reduce the consequences that could have been given to me… And I chose to use my enhancements for science and see if we could grow plants in these conditions.” She logged into the computer and brought up the footage from earlier. “So it’s just me left here now. There were five of us. Kojima and Thom are out there somewhere on a supply run, but Abraham and Iveta were here... they went out... and bam! In came the monsters and killed them. Here… look.”

The group watched as Abraham and Iveta indeed tended to the garden they had some how managed to grow in the snow and then three large white creatures appeared and killed them before running off.

“And where are Kojima and Thom?” George asked.

“I have no idea. They should’ve been back by now,” Eden said. “What even are those things?”

“Rewind it again please,” Boy Beaver asked. Eden obliged, pausing it as the monsters appeared on screen. They were large twenty five feet tall, armless, white blobs on legs.

“Dang it,” Boy Beaver said after a beat wracking his brains.

“What? What… are they?” Agwé asked.

“They’re Ningen,” he answered.

Agwé continued to blankly stare at him. “Nope, that means nothing to me.”

“Ningen is Japanese for ‘human’,” the boy began explaining. “But they aren’t. They’re creepy looking whale heads on legs from what I’ve heard, that live in the sea.”

“Except these were walking on land,” said Eden.

“Yes, that’s what their legs are for…” Boy Beaver scoffed.

“Well, you sure know your monsters,” Agwé said.

“You don’t get to look as weird as me and spend your days coming across the creatures that people don’t think actually exist, and not spend some of your evenings researching the strangest and bizarre for fun.”

“But ok, whatever, can we try and find Kojima and Thom?” Eden said irritably.

“Sure,” said George. “We’ll split up. Nova and I will go and look for Kojima and Thom. Agwé and Boy Beaver, you go and check the surrounding area for the Ningen. And Green- I mean Eden… you stay here and watch out on the cameras.”

***

“Any tracks they did make would have long been covered over,” observed Agwé, looking at the sea of white ahead of them.

“We’ll just do a search around the lab and spiral out shall we?” Boy Beaver suggested.

“Agree with you on that! So what else do you know about Ningen? Something that could help us track them down?”

“Not really, no. Except for that they seemingly now kill humans…”

“I think I see some cave entrances over there,” Agwé said having parted the snow fall to give her a good clear view around her.

“Well my gut tells me that I shouldn’t…”

“…but you’re curious to check them out?”

“Oh yeah, absolutely!”

Whilst they were saved from the falling snow by Agwé, the snow on the ground was difficult to get through, and the half a mile to the caves took a long time.

“Do you want to go first?” Boy Beaver asked. “It’s ladies first, isn’t it?”

She gave him an unimpressed look. “We’ll go together.”

***

Meanwhile, out across the fields of snow, Grizzly George and a nestled Nova made it to the supply depot camp, and it was Nova who spotted the blood in the snow first.

“Are you warm enough to be able to get up and fly?” George asked when his attention was drawn to it.

Nova wriggled out of George’s fur and took off, increasing size slightly to have a better chance of enduring the cold.

George took a wander around, sniffing the crates and supply barrels for any sign of what might have happened.

Nova squawked suddenly, but George didn’t react quick enough to see a blood covered Japanese man come screaming at him with a machete. He stabbed George with it into his side, but luckily Nova came in quick enough to prevent him from attacking George again by knocking him over.

George rolled away over on his side to get away and stood back up, roaring in annoyance. Luckily due to his strong skin underneath his fur, the wound was just superficial.

“Oi! What’d you do that for?!” George roared.

“Leave the Ningen!” the man shouted, picking himself up as Nova gained some height.

“We’re just here to look for Thom and Kojima and get them back safely!”

“I’m Kojima!” he shouted back.

“So where’s Thom?”

“...He knew too much.”

“About what? The Ningen? What have they got to do with you?”

“My Government has sent me here to protect them at all costs. Thom threatened that. You now threaten it, and when I get my hands on-” Without letting him finish, Grizzly George swiped at him with his right paw, smacking him in the head and instantly taking him out.

“Well I didn't like where that was going very much.”

Nova came in and morphed into his human spirit form. “Are you ok George? How’s the wound?”

“Meh, it’s nothing. I’ll live. Talking of living, have you found Thom?”

“His body is round the back there,” Nova replied, then switching back to crow form.

“Right, well let’s get back to the lab aaaaannd… What are they Nova?”

Nova switched back to human spirit form again. “Err… hippopotamuses?”

“Here? Hippopotamuses are from Africa.”

“Well I don’t know George. You asked, and I gave my best answer. I’m just a bird.”

“Whatever they are, they don’t seem to like us being here…”

***

“We don’t need to go too deep in do we?” Boy Beaver asked.

It was darker and quieter in the cave tunnel, the roar of the snow kept outside.

“Maybe you know, just have a little look, and then go back out,” he continued.

“Scared?” teased Agwé.

“What? No… I just think we’re better off looking back out there,” he said defensively.

Agwé laughed. “Helloooooooo!” She yelled down the tunnel, much to the shock on Boy Beaver’s face.

“Ssssh! What the heck?”

“We don’t have to go down further, but we can draw them out. C’mon, it’s alright! If nothing comes up then we know we can turn back sooner.”

Boy Beaver nodded, impressed with the plan. “Helloooooo!” he shouted, taking his turn.

They froze in anticipation, and nothing happened.

“See,” Agwé said indicating down into the tunnel, “nothing here. Now we can go.”

They turned to head back up to the cave mouth tunnel. As they got closer, they realised it wasn’t what was in the tunnel they should have worried about. It was what was waiting for them back on the surface.

“Ah.” Boy Beaver said. “Well at least they don’t have arms,” Boy Beaver reasoned as they faced five Ningens.

“Try telling that to Abraham and Iveta…”

***

The two growling monster looking hippos came charging angrily at Grizzly George. Nova immediately switched back to crow form and to unnatural size and stood next to his team mate, ready for the fight. They were unphased by the unusual bear and big bird, their red eyes glowing hungrily.

Grizzly George stood on his hind legs and roared, making himself big and scary, whilst Nova spread his large wingspan.

The monster snow hippos continued and collided into the pair, a mass of scrapping, gnashing, growling and roaring. The hippos swung their huge jaws, whilst George swiped back with his heavy paws. Nova remained on the ground so that George didn’t get ganged up on, and pecked his enormous beak down on the one closest to it.

Meanwhile, across the other side of Flemnora Ice Fields, Boy Beaver and Agwé stared down the Ningens.

“Weren’t there only two on the footage?” Boy Beaver whispered.

“Yes…”

“So at least three of them could be hungry?”

“…Yes.”

“I’m ready when you are Agwé.”

“Let’s go then!” The pair ran at the Ningen, Boy Beaver leaping into the air and Agwé manipulating the snow under foot of two of the closest to her to knock them over. She switched her attention to one that Boy Beaver wasn’t fighting with, and went for a punch into the side of its head.

***

The buzzer of the intercom made Eden jump. Since the Warriors left, she’d locked herself in the laboratory, armed with a pick axe for just in case. At least it wasn’t going to be the armless Ningen using the intercom.

She ran to the door lock switch and watched as a frazzled, tired looking grizzly bear trudged in and a crow flew past to land at her feet.

“Are you ok? Did you find Thom and Kojima? Did you find the Ningen?”

George, who was panting, shook the snow off of his fur coat and licked his nose. “Thom is dead. Kojima killed him. Kojima is dead. I killed him. Just after he tried to kill me. He was going to kill you too.”

“Whaaaat? Why?” she cried out.

“The Ningen. Something to do with the Japanese protecting them and he was there to do it. I stopped him before he said any more really. I’d heard enough.”

“You look like you’ve been fighting though,” she said looking down at Nova who was busy sorting out and rearranging the feathers on his wing with his beak.

“Some monster hippo things found us.”

“Ahh, Kabagons?” Boy Beaver asked, appearing at the open door. “You should have shut the door by the way, anything could have come in.”

“Kab-again?” Eden said.

“Kabagons. Scary monster hippos with red eyes?”

“Yes,” George said.

“Yeah, thought so,” Boy Beaver said smugly. “Can we close the door and get warm for a moment?” They all shuffled in and Eden pressed the button to shut the door.

“What happened to you two?” George asked.

“We beat down five Ningens hungry for some Boy Beaver and Agwé, that’s what,” Boy Beaver proudly explained.

“Okay, so we get out of here now?” Agwé asked.

“Yes, definitely. Eden, will you be coming with us?” Grizzly George said.

“Well, there’s still work to do here. I’ve still got to repay for my actions.”

“At least download the data you have, we can pack your plants up too. But it’s not safe here.” Agwé argued.

Boy Beaver nodded in agreement. “Yeah, there are more ways you can make amends that don’t depend on you being in the Antarctica surrounded by walking whale heads and monster hippos.”

“Liiiiiike... joining the Woodland Warriors!” Agwé blurted out.

“Whaaaaaat?!” Boy Beaver responded immediately. “I didn’t mean that. I just meant, like... do some more plant stuff somewhere else. We have snow in America. Alaska, even! You can go there.”

“Alaska can be just as risky though BB. There’re darker creatures living there, a lot more than here,” Grizzly George said, almost teasing his teenage human team mate as he sensed the panic in his voice at an unknown girl joining the team.

“Wha- No!” he stuttered.

“Do you think I’ll be allowed?” Eden asked, ignoring Boy Beavers blustering.

“We’ve got Agwé, anyway,” the boy said.

“Yes, but we all know it’s not a forever thing, Boy Beaver. I can’t stay. And Ulrika will be back soon... I’ve got to face those things that have upset me head on too. I have loved my time, but it was always a temporary thing. You remember me saying that right?”

He huffed, and looked between George, Agwé and Eden. “Fiiine!” he grumbled. “You’ll only do it anyway.”

“That’s decided then. We’ve loved having Agwé with us, it’s been good having another team member around, you can’t deny that,” George said, looking at the teen with his head cocked. “And by the sounds of it Eden can do some cool things that might be helpful in the woodlands.”

“Do you have a garden?” Eden asked.

“Nope, but you could make them one,” Agwé said.

“Neat. Give me half an hour to get everything together.” Eden ran off to do what she needed.

When she was out of ear shot, Boy Beaver tutted and folded his arms.

“Hey, don’t be miserable. It’s a good thing,” Agwé assured again. “You guys get another team member. You get a human you can hang out with who is more your age…”

“She’s waaay older,” he shot back.

“She’s like eighteen,” Agwé shot back in reply.

“I’d want another boy though.”

“You're being daft, Tobias,” Agwé whispered and in a more serious tone. “Give her a chance. For me.”

He looked at her in the eyes, his chin down and a frown across his brow and stared for a moment. “I said 'fine', didn’t I?”

“Great. That’s good enough for me!” Agwé said clapping.