Finn Mercer, as the costumed hero Sandstorm, walked cautiously down an alleyway on Craig Avenue, looking in every direction, searching for something that may tip him off on his enemy, Drop Bear’s, location. The large, grotesque, koala-like beast had been seen stalking a young couple for hours that morning, and the alarmed cries of the two loverbirds had alerted Sandstorm of the killer’s whereabouts. But, upon arriving at the scene, Drop Bear was out of sight, and the couple was reasonably unharmed and fleeing in terror.

Sandstorm walked to the end of the alley; it was a dead end, and the murderous mutant was nowhere to be seen. 

“Bennett! I know you’re here, mate! Come out, you oversized koala!” yelled Sandstorm. Before being transformed into Drop Bear in a freak accident, Harry Bennett was a regular thirty year-old man, working at DSTO, Australia’s version of DARPA. The transformation not only severely changed his physical form, it also damaged his mind. Now only thinking of who to target as prey, Drop Bear actively pursues a vendetta against Sandstorm, who frequently got in the way of him and his prey.

“Look up, boyyyy,” drawled the mutant bear, dropping face-first from above Sandstorm, arms splayed out in front of the himself in an attempt to pin the sand-wielder to the ground. Quick to react, the young Australian hero swept his right arm in an upwards motion, simultaneously creating and flinging tendrils of scorching red sand at his attacker. Drop Bear instinctively put his hands up to guard his eyes from the sand, and, now unable to see, crashed to the ground right next to Sandstorm, who sidestepped to avoid the hulking frame of the man eating brute.

“Bennett, Bennett, Bennett… this is why you don’t support New South Wales. I may be from there, but Queensland will win State of Origin this year. Again. For the tenth time in a row. You gotta pick the right side, mate, and I’m telling you, New South Wales ain’t it,” said Finn in a patronising tone, piling sand down on Drop Bear so he couldn’t move.

“I… lived… in Queenslaaand…” droned the freak of experimentation.

“Oh. Well, then…” said Sandstorm, “Go Queensland!” 

Piling more sand on Drop Bear until he wasn’t visible, Finn proceeded to change out of his costume into civilian clothes, before walking out into the Astro City streets, feeling like an out of place outback boy in an American metropolis.