Yana and her sisters were caught in the crossfire of the brutal battle, as Destructo always carried a selection of hyper-tech weaponry everywhere he went, even when he was on vacation. They tried to run for cover, but it turned out no one would be able to avoid the consequences of the fight, for the ship took so much damage that it began to sink. The captain sounded the alarm, and the over two thousand passengers and crew headed for the life boats. Yana, Lynette and Ophelia were just about to get into their boat, when an explosion launched Yana high into the air and then into the Arctic waters. Her sisters screamed for the life-boat driver to go back, but the continuing battle between Icarus Smith and Dr. Destructo, along with massive amounts of debris made it impossible to turn back. As far as they could tell, Yana was gone.

It was actually Dr. Destructo who found her adrift on an iceberg a few hours later. He had managed to fight off Icarus Smith (for the time being, at least), and upon turning on his tracker-tech gear to signal for one of his custom drones to retrieve him, he began detecting traces of blue-energy. Destructo had discovered the cosmic-substance some time ago, and he’d been using it in a number of experiments, including an experiment with the radioactive unicorn that had stabbed Icarus Smith, and subsequently caused his mutation.

This time, the blue matter had engulfed Yana Marisella Crandell, who would have either drowned or frozen to death, if not for the mutation it caused in her anatomy – she had been imbued with the ability to emit blasts of cold and ice, while her body had become resistant to subzero temperatures. The doctor took her back to New Hero Hospital where he helped her learn how to harness and control her abilities, then offered her the opportunity of a lifetime – the chance to travel to mythical and magical worlds with him.

You see, deep beneath New Hero Hospital Dr. Destrcuto had discovered a sort of portal – and thanks to the work he’d done with blue matter, he was able to travel to the kinds of places you can only read about in fairy tale books. Because he could never quantify the physical existence of these places, he surmised that the blue matter portal was actually taking him into dreamscapes. Either way, he wanted Yana to travel with him, and she agreed. She began calling herself SubZeera, and for the next few years the two of them traveled throughout the dreamscapes, encountering all sorts of mythical creatures, such as unicorns, dragons, leviathans, and more. And of course, at times, they would indeed capture one of the beasts, and bring it back into the Core Reality to experiment on it.

SubZeera also ended up in a few battles with Icarus Smith, as he continued to seek revenge on Destructo and the other scientists at New Hero Hospital. Finally, in an epic encounter SubZeera managed to freeze Smith’s wings, then smash them to bits, leaving him defeated and forced to go into hiding until he could recover. Smith wouldn’t be heard from again for many years. During those years, SubZeera decided to leave New Hero Hospital. She soon found work as a cryo-fusion technician at Cryo Facilities Inc., as her ability to withstand harsh conditions allowed her to do and complete assignments at an insane pace. In fact, SubZeera’s work with the company made it possible for its CEO to lay off nearly fifty percent of the workforce. Over three thousand people lost their jobs.

SubZeera’s situation was not unique, however, as several companies had begun to shed much of their human workforces, and replace them with hyper-humans. It was infinitely more economical for business owners, but it was clearly taking a toll on society as a whole. In fact, after several decades of seamlessly incorporating hyper-beings into the working class, their presence was now the direct cause of an exploding unemployment rate.

This was combined with a growing fear of the potential evils of hyper-intelligence, which was embodied in the rise of business shark Edgar Lockhart, and the eventual discovery that he was one of the – if not THE – most dangerous hyper-villain on the planet. Protests led by the Stripes and Stars activist organization began to take place all over the country, including outside SubZeera’s apartment building. Crime also began to rise in her North Chicago neighborhood, as the high employment rates led to an increase in robberies and drug use. Things were getting out of hand and Yana, like other hyper-beings around the country, was growing nervous that she would be forced to use her powers to defend herself.

However, before that could happen, something else extraordinary occurred. She was in her apartment, looking out her window at the protesters on the streets below, when suddenly she felt a jolt of electricity shoot throughout her body. She screamed in pain, then fell unconscious. Moments later, she awoke in a burning bush garden, surrounded by several other hyper-beings, superheroes and supervillains. This was the 5th Oblivion and SubZeera, like the cosmic hero, Ebony Raven, and all the others, had been summoned there by the goddess Sedah to participate in the Empress Wars.

SubZeera was to be a part of a group called the Chainmail Militia, and in order to gain passage back to Earth, she and the other warriors would have to attack a palace there, in the 5th Oblivion, and retrieve a young girl named Slate. Despite the ridiculously diverse group of women, which included heroes, villains, and mortal enemies, they would have to work together to survive the Empress Wars. Ebony Raven was to lead the raid on the palace, but first they would have to figure out a way to escape the burning bush garden that raged around them.

No worries, though, SubZeera was on the job. She took a deep breath, then unleashed a blast of cold which counteracted the flames, and actually began to freeze them in mid-rage. Before long, the Chainmail Militia were surrounded by jagged ice walls, allowing the women to finally fly, climb, or phase out of the now frozen bush garden. On the other side the goddess Sedah was waiting for them. She smiled with delight, then pointed toward the massive palace in the distance in which Slate was being held. It soon became apparent that walls would not be the only thing they’d have to break through, as the other goddess of the 5th Oblivion, Nevaeh, was awaiting them. And she was accompanied by an army of her own…

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