<em>One year ago, off the coast of California…</em><br/><br/>Water and sky stretched to the horizon as far as the eye could see, an endless empty expanse. There was nothing here… until the stealth generator went down, and the shimmering invisibility cloak dissipated to reveal an entire floating island beneath. It's bottom was the steel hull of an ocean-going vessel, albeit on a gargantuan scale. But on top... it was as though a<em>chateau</em>and its attendant estate had been plucked from the vineyards of Bordeaux, the grapes prospering large and luscious under the tropical sun. Yet no ordinary, or even extraordinary wine grapes were these. No, they were grown for a far more nefarious purpose...<br/><br/>The first attack had occurred in Paris, in the stations of the Paris Metro, releasing a pink gas that almost triggered a stampede for fear of nerve gas. But to the surprise of all involved, the gas proved less harmful than feared, as those exposed to it showed no symptoms worse than an increased sex drive and a need for incessant masturbation, which faded away after several days leaving its victims little the worse for wear other than some painful chafing in sensitive bits. The second attack was less benign, an explosion in Montreal that released the airborne agent and proved its effectiveness in the open air, no longer needing a confined space to work. Its effects were worse than before too, with half its victims hit by such intense carnal lust that they started having a mass orgy in the streets.<br/><br/>It was at this time that the supervillainess Poly Amies went public to the world with her slogan -<em>Liberty, Polygamy, Sodomy</em>- and announced her plan to attain world peace and love by subjecting everyone to her Lust Gas which would make everyone too busy fucking to fight anymore. Even while all the intelligence agencies of the world sought her secret hideout in vain, time was running out - the third attack, on New Orleans, proved that her Lust Gas's formula had been perfected, with a hundred percent success rate on all exposed, and the whole city grinding to a halt with everyone grinding against one another in a city-wide orgy. Poly Amies announced her plan for global release of the Lust Gas to affect the entire world population, and was even kind enough to include a countdown to doomsday...<br/><br/>Fortunately for the whole world, a hacker digitally traced her broadcast while a scientist analysed wind patterns for plausible release locations, and together they triangulated Poly Amies' secret base to the Pacific Ocean, near California. But time was running out with only hours to spare before the Lust Gas was released into the earth's jet stream, at which point it would be too late to bottle the genie. The closest available military assets and supers were thrown haphazardly in an assault on the floating island fortress, whose automated defenses defied the cheese-eating-surrender-monkey stereotype and fought back with Napoleonic fury. But in the end Poly Amies was defeated, the genetically modified grapes from which her Lust Gas was refined were all burned, her forbidden research was deleted, and the stockpile of Lust Gas was captured and locked away never to see the light of day again.<br/><br/>In recognition and gratitude for their efforts, the supers of the operation, among them Scandal, Stryka, Briar Rose, and Daibuster, were inducted into the ranks of the Avengers. All was well - but unbeknownst to anyone, during the battle a single canister of Lust Gas was hit by a piece of shrapnel and knocked overboard, sinking to the bottom of the ocean while pink bubbles of gas leaked out from the rupture in the container...<br/><br/><hr/><br/><em>Present Day</em><br/><br/>It was a normal, unremarkable day with fine weather in San Diego and Las Vegas. But in the middle of nowhere in the Black Rock Desert, it was anything but routine, it was...<br/><br/>Burning Man!<br/><br/>And this year, for some reason, the Tentacle Grape soda was making a comeback... probably because it was rumored to be laced with drugs that made its drinker horny and sex feel awesome - rumors that, judging from the noises in the tent city, seemed to be substantiated. But it was a far cry from the orgies of Poly Amies, whose brief spree of lust-terror was all but forgotten by now. It was shaping up to be another successful year, with the burning of the effigy scheduled for tonight as the culmination of a grand week of cultural expression.