by Chad Kunego
“That,” he said, pausing to dust powdery ice of his sleeve before grabbing his staff, “was not nice.”
Chapter 15
“…surprised they didn’t shut you down after Maelstrom—”
Suddenly, he couldn’t move. The overwhelming blast of cold almost took his breath away, except he couldn’t breathe, either. He tried to turn his head, but it was locked in place.
What the hell just happened?
He tried to look at HellKat but realized he couldn’t see her very well, like looking through water. He suppressed the urge to shiver in the sudden cold.
Ice? I’m encased in ice?
Keeping his growing anger under control, he expanded his awareness, reaching out to sense the location of the cryomancer or cryokineticist. Depending on their ability, what he’d need to do to free himself would be different. To his right, he felt a channel of lowered energy potential flowing from a towering being. Examining the channel, he determined it to be a cryokineticist.
Ok, so if I remember correctly, they consciously have to control their ice formation or it turns back into regular ice. I just need to overpower them. I’ve only got about three minutes before I pass out from cold and lack of oxygen.
He started to suppress another shiver, but it gave him an idea. He allowed himself to shiver, feeding energy into the shaking, causing the ice surrounding him to vibrate. Then he started to vary the pitch the vibrations higher, trying to find the sweet spot. His only chance was to find it and hopefully set up a harmonic vibration in the ice encasing him.
He sensed the block of ice growing thicker while he continued to absorb, remodulate, and reflect the vibrations he was amplifying, drawing on all the kinetic energy he could gather to himself. The ice touching him started sublimating, allowing him more room to vibrate. The first popping sound of the ice cracking gave him hope that he’d be able to break out as darkness started encroaching on the edge of his vision. As more ice sublimated, the pressure started increasing in his little area of freedom. Nearing the point of passing out, he pulsed his energy field outward, sending tendrils into all the cracks he could wedge them into like ice picks.
The ice exploded away from him violently as he sensed the cryokineticist drop to the ground. Taking several deep breaths as steam rolled off him, he drew his energy back as he stood up, using his staff for support. Dusting the fragments of snow left on his duster, he slowly allowed his anger to kindle into a blaze.
“That… was not nice,” he said in a menacing tone. Grabbing his staff, he blurred over to the cryokineticist, touching her with the tip of the staff. With a slight twitch of his hand, he launched the giant backward, throwing her through the building behind them, but not before he surrounded her with a mild kinetic cushion to keep the impact from injuring her too severely.
I’m not here to kill them, but I can’t let them stop me, either…
He sensed the bolt of lightning heading toward him from behind. Spinning his staff behind him, he allowed the staff to absorb the strike. Using the sudden kinetic push of electrons down the staff, he gathered in the energy to boost his nearly depleted well of energy.
Suddenly charged with more energy than he could metabolize, he reversed the current flow, swinging his staff back in front of him as he rushed forward, pausing in front of Hellcat with the tip of his staff nearly touching her stomach. Extending his aura the length of the staff, he nullified her flame aura. Her flames vanished with a slight whuff followed by a look of panic crossing her face.
“Just remember, you started this…” he said, pushing the energy outward.
A small arc of electricity jumped from the end of the staff with a slight pop, launching her backward through the air before hitting the pavement and sliding for several feet before coming to a stop. Expanding his awareness outward, he sensed rapid movement from behind. Shaking his head in disbelief, he readied himself as the runner tried using the same tactic that failed during their last encounter. Deciding to do something different, he waited until an instant before contact before sliding to the side, allowing the speedster to pass by him. Instead of tripping him, he latched onto his kinetic stream. Rick instantly rocketed after him, effortlessly keeping pace. Tapping his opponent on the shoulder, he smiled.
“Didn’t anyone ever tell you that doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting a different outcome is the definition of insanity?”
Rick started draining off the speedster’s momentum, causing him to gradually slow down. A look of terror crossed the other man’s face.
“Before I lay the smack down on you, can I get your name?”
“Uh, yeah uh, Blitz… My name is Blitz.”
“Nice to meet your acquaintance Blitz. Hopefully they’ll give you a nice vacation after this.”
Reaching up, he cuffed Blitz on the back of the head, causing him to lose his balance and go tumbling away, leaving another furrow in the ground.
Three down, one to go.
A sudden roar to the side caught his attention. Charging from the ruined building, the giant woman rushed toward him, changing into a giant ice sculpture as she approached.
Well that’s a neat trick, let’s see what she’s got.
Getting close, she swung at him wildly. Trying to use the same tactic he’d used against Thunderclap, he ducked away from the strike while absorbing some kinetic energy from the swing. Without warning, he suddenly found himself embedded in a thin sheet of ice. Unable to compensate quickly enough, she backhanded him, shattering the ice and launching him into the air. Before he could regain his senses, Jetlag grabbed him, cracking the sound barrier as he did a loop before flying at the ground, releasing him just before impact. He had just enough time to intensify his aura before impact, allowing him to reverse the impact and bounce off the ground like a rubber ball.
Another ball of ice surrounded him as the giant woman created a giant ice hammer and treated him like a nail, jumping into the air and swinging the hammer toward his head in a massive overhead strike. The blow violently slammed into him, shattering the weapon and bouncing him off the ground again. Reforming the hammer, she took another massive swing at his head. This time however, he was fully prepared for the impact. Making contact, he pulled in all the kinetic energy from the swing, immediately stopping it and throwing the giant off balance. Shifting his awareness, he was able to identify how her energy projected from her body.
He watched as she stretched her hands toward him again, sensing the beams of cold extending from her hands toward him. Instead of dodging, he agitated the air in front of him, super-heating the air from the friction generated. Scalding blasts of steam erupted into the air where the cold slammed into his impromptu heat shield while he slowly approached her.
“I… am not… a snowpop missy… So stop freezing me!”
He jabbed toward her with his staff, but she was able to grab it at the last second, keeping it from hitting her.
“Very impressive. Not many people are strong enough to do that. With that being said, see ya later.”
He channeled a pulse down the staff, flinging her through the air again. He watched her slam into another building several blocks away. Her upper body disappeared into the facade before coming to a stop several stories up. Only her legs could be seen dangling out of the hole.
That should slow her down a bit longer this time. Let’s see if I can finish this up quickly so I can get back to tracking down Maelstrom. With all this energy I’m using, they’re probably going to pinpoint any moment.
A sudden blast of flames washed across him, harmlessly being absorbed by his aura. Turning around, he watched HellKat swing around for another pass, a trail of fire following her through the air. Preparing to counter her next attack, he realized where she was headed.
Oh shit!
Pulsing forward, he urged himself to go faster. At the last instant, he leapt at her.
“Look out,” he yelled as he grabbed her, knocking her slightly off course. He screamed in agony as the null void
raked across his back. Ignoring the pain, he used his momentum keep her from flying directly through it. Trying to focus through the pain, he twisted in the air, protecting her as they plowed into the rubble of a building. An already weakened wall made a loud crack before collapsing toward them. Rick braced himself for the impact, positioning HellKat underneath him. He felt her body stiffen in terror as he sensed the massive section of the building falling toward them. Looking into her eyes just before the impact, he whispered, “I surrender.”
Then the world turned into a blur of pain.
§§§§§§§§§§§§
Kaitlyn watched the building collapsed on top of them in seeming slow motion. She looked in Newton’s eyes just before the impact.
“I surrender.”
The statement caught her completely off guard as the light in his eyes flared up, causing the pain on his face to out in stark contrast just as the chunks of building hit. She involuntarily closed her eyes, fully expecting to die.
Wait, I don’t feel anything. Am I already dead?
Hesitantly opening one eye, she noticed for the first time that Newton had a slight glow around him. Around them both, actually. Because of her position, one arm was pinned under the debris to her side while the other one was stuck between them. She felt the slow, even, deep breaths coming from Newton as his body slightly pressed down on her. Concentrating, she could hear muffled shouts in the distance. Suddenly, a loud yell echoed jarringly in the enclosed space.
“
She tried to key her mic, but with both arms pinned, she couldn’t reach it. Trying to wiggle an arm free, she noticed Newton felt a little heavier. Glancing around, she realized the glowing field appeared to be slightly smaller.
Oh shit. His field is giving out and I don’t have a way to let anyone know. Moving might even speed up the collapse. I can’t risk yelling either.
She struggled to keep from panicking as she felt the pressure slowing increasing. With her hand and arm sticking out to the side, it stood to reason that it would be crushed first if his field continued to diminish in size.
Hurry guys. I don’t think I have much longer.
After a few minutes, she gradually started to see a dim light growing above them, but the sudden blinding pain in her arm told her his field was finally giving out. Since it had been a gradual process, the weight hadn’t come crashing down, but the rapidly growing agony meant she probably only had minutes left before her arm was crushed beyond repair.
She felt a bone in her arm snap when the debris shifted. A moment later, a huge chunk of the building above her was lifted away, bathing them in sunlight. Mustering all her willpower, she bit back a scream. Looking up through eyes tearing up with pain, she saw Glaizia looking down at her with concern.
“Kat! Are you alright!”
Through gritted teeth, she tried to keep her voice as soft as possible.
“My right arm is pinned. You need to clear it off as fast as possible or it’s going to get crushed.”
She sucked in a sharp breath as she felt another bone crack.
“Hurry…” she whispered through the pain.
Suddenly, all the building material piled on top of her took on a glittery sheen. After a few seconds, she noticed the pressure on her arm wasn’t getting any worse.
She froze the rubble in place… Fast thinking…
She realized it was getting harder to think as her teeth started chattering.
Must…be… going into… shock…
Feeling the pressure arm suddenly disappear, she let out a scream as the broken bones shifted, plunging her into unconsciousness.
Chapter 16
“She’s coming to.”
The world gradually started to resolve itself into light and shadows.
“Easy now… we had to sedate you to set your arm.”
Slowly becoming aware of her surroundings, she realized she was on a hospital bed.
“How… how long have I been out for?”
“About an hour, hour and a half. You’re lucky to be alive, let alone making it through all that with just a broken arm.”
Memory surged through her mind. She tried sitting up abruptly, but the pain shooting through her body caused her to flop back down.
“Slowly…” the doctor said as he helped her sit up.
Her arm was starting to throb with a dull ache as she tried to swing her legs over the side of the bed.
“Newton…” she said before the doctor finally gave up gently trying to restrain her.
“Unconscious. We have him sedated right now. You really did a number on his back when you took him out. We’re pretty sure he’s going to be paralyzed from the injury since we can see part of the vertebrae missing, but we’re not sure how far into the spinal cord it goes. We’re waiting for the x-rays and MRI scans to come back before we can make that determination.”
“Did a number… what do you mean? My powers weren’t having any effect him. For that matter, none of our powers were. What happened to him?”
She watched as the doctor gave her a questioning look before tapping on his tablet. He turned it so she could see it.
“You mean you didn’t cause this?”
Looking at the screen, she felt a slight wave of nausea start bubbling up, but she forced it back down. Taking the tablet from him she zoomed in on the image. Diagonally across his back was a long track, almost like someone had dragged a red-hot iron across the flesh, starting from just below his left shoulder and extending down to his right hip. The skin and muscle looked like charred meat, and after a minute of examination, she had to hand the tablet back to the doctor before she threw up.
“No, that wasn’t me. He yelled ‘Look out,’ then he screamed just before he grabbed me.”
“Well, if you didn’t cause this, then what did?”
“We need to find out, and fast.”
§§§§§§§§§§§§
“There, did you see it?”
Kaitlyn looked at the rest of the team as she pointed at the screen.
“See what exactly?”
“Rewind the tape to just before he grabbed me, then play it back at one-eighth speed.”
As the video slowly crawled forward, they watched as Newton blurred across the screen before jumping and grabbing her. Just before he made contact, a bright glow etched its way across his back.”
Scattershot whistled as he pointed toward the screen.
“That don’t look none too comfortable. I wonder if that tube he had strapped to his back might a stopped that from happening if it’d been a few inches over.”
Kaitlyn paused, tapping her lower lip while she considered the idea.
“I’d venture to say no.”
She glanced at the technician and nodded.
“Queue up the other footage from just before we got there.”
The view on the screen changed, showing Newton dropping off his staff before lobbing a chunk of rock into the air. Everyone’s eyes widened slightly as the rock came to a gradual stop, hovering in the air and glittering like a sparkler before drifting to the ground and disintegrating into dust.
“What the ‘ell is that?”
“That, Scattershot, is what we need to find out.”
Glaizia spoke up in a soft whisper.
“Does that mean, even after everything we did, he still saved your life?”
“That’s what it’s looking like. Between that and how much effort he put into trying not to hurt us, I don’t think he’s the source of the explosion. While he might not be a friend, he doesn’t appear to be an enemy, either.”
“Good thing, too,” said Blitz.
“He was taking us apart out there like it was a walk in the park. If I never have to face him again, it’ll be too soon.”
Jetlag spoke up.
“Let’s just hope he survives his injuries since he seems to know a lot more about what’s going on than we do.”
Kaitlyn nodded as she backed away from the
monitors, looking her team over before speaking.
“Okay. Glaizia, I’m sending a team out there to investigate this anomaly and I want you go with them. Take Scattershot and Jetlag with you to provide security on-site until we figure this out. We’re still running the story about how it was a gas explosion, so we should be able to keep the site locked down for a few more days, but I suspect this Maelstrom group is going to make another attack soon. While we don’t know what they want, they seem to have a real hard-on for Newton, so be careful.”
She glanced around again.
“Any questions?”
After nobody spoke up, she turned to walk away.
“Dismissed.”
Walking out of the room, she made her way down to the infirmary. She wanted to see first hand what condition Newton was in. Walking in, she saw a bunch of doctors examining all the different scans on a sixty inch touchscreen display.
“What’s his status?”
“It’s what we feared. Whatever caused this, it severed his spine at the L2 vertebrae. He’s never going to be able to walk again.”
Shit!
“Will he be in pain if we wake him? We need to find out if he knows what did this to him.”
The doctors glanced at each other. After a few seconds, they nodded before one of them responded.
“We’d advise against it, but I doubt you’d heed our warning. Yes, we can wake him, provided we give him a local above the injury site to dampen any remaining pain. He might not be very coherent though.”
“Do it.”
§§§§§§§§§§§§
Rick felt something resembling fire burning across his back, immediately snapping him awake. Groggy, he tried to make sense of where he was before a spike of pain lanced through his head. Wincing at the sudden headache, he slowly looked around the room before settling on HellKat.