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  “Guards!” Stinger shouted, stepping out from between the two cars where he and Bauta had fought, waving both of his arms in order to maximize his visibility. “So glad to see you! I just got finished fighting a really bad supervillain here and—”

  “Get down on the ground!” one of the security guards shouted, interrupting Stinger as if he hadn’t been talking at all. “Put your hands behind your head and get down on the ground now!”

  Startled, Stinger nonetheless complied with the officer’s orders, remembering what Mecha Knight had taught him and the other Young Neos about obeying security guard orders in these kinds of situations. He placed his hands on the back of his head and got onto his knees on the harsh concrete floor, figuring that once the guards saw Bauta, they would ask him what happened and Stinger would be able to explain just what happened, hopefully without having to go to prison.

  But the guards didn’t seem to pay any attention to Bauta whatsoever. They swarmed around Stinger and one of the guards even shoved Stinger to the floor. Shocked by this behavior, Stinger was unable to resist or fight back. He just said, “Hey, what’s the meaning of this? I’m a superhero. I’m with the NHA. I have my Young Neos member card in my pocket.”

  “We don’t care,” said the guard who had cuffed him. “And I suggest you keep your mouth shut unless you want a headache.”

  “At least tell me why you’re manhandling me,” said Stinger. “I at least have the right to know that, don’t I?”

  “You are under arrest for the attempted assassination of John Mann,” said the guard. “Don’t move, don’t resist; not unless you want to spend the car trip to prison unconscious, that is.”

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  Rime slid across the stone floor toward Talon, his ice swords flashing before him. Talon just barely managed to raise her claws up in time to block Rime’s incoming blades; however, the swords hit her claws so hard that Talon was sent staggering backwards. She realized, belatedly, that Rime was much taller and stronger than her, a thought she quickly dispelled as his swords came flying toward her neck.

  Talon ducked, narrowly avoiding getting her head cut off, and then slashed at Rime’s wrists, hoping to disarm him. But Rime slid backwards out of her reach, causing Talon’s claws to strike empty air. Over Rime’s shoulder, Talon saw Colombina still standing in the shadows of the nearby hidden entrance, her arms over her chest, her smirk visible even though half-draped in darkness. The sight of that evil woman made Talon want to tear out her throat, but Rime suddenly threw one of his ice swords at Talon.

  Talon dropped to the floor, causing the sword to fly over her head and shatter against the stone wall behind her. She rolled to the side and back to her feet, but Rime stomped his foot on the floor and a wave of ice suddenly appeared on the floor. Taken by surprise, Talon nearly lost her balance; she had to lean against one of the support beams of the underground chamber, as the floor was now very slippery. The presence of the frozen floor had also made the temperature in the room drop a temperature or two, causing Talon to shiver.

  “Cold, Talon?” said Colombina in a mocking voice. “Perhaps you need a hug from a strong man, like Rime. Hugging is a great way to share heat between bodies; then again, Rime isn’t a very warm person, if you know what I mean.”

  Talon smirked. “You think this inconveniences me? You do remember that one of my teammates and training partners is another superhuman with ice powers, right?”

  Talon immediately pushed herself off the pillar and skated toward Rime. Rime looked genuinely taken aback by this development, at least until Colombina snapped, “Don’t just stand there and look like an idiot! Kill her!”

  Rime immediately swung his sword at Talon, but Talon expertly dodged it. She slashed at Rime’s hand; she didn’t quite take it off, but her claws did tear through his skin, causing him to cry out in pain and drop his sword onto the ground. Talon skated past him, but turned around and came to a stop a dozen feet away from Rime, who was now clutching his bleeding hand like he was trying to stop the bleeding.

  Talon was just about to go in for another strike, but then Rime looked at her and his eyes looked almost normal; they were a hazy mix of green and red, as if Colombina’s grip over him was wavering somewhat.

  “T-Talon?” said Rime. “Is that you?”

  “Rime?” said Talon in surprise. “Are you fighting Colombina’s influence?”

  “Colombina?” said Rime. “What do you—argh!”

  Rime suddenly grabbed his head, causing Talon to whip her head in Colombina’s direction. The Venetian had raised a hand toward Rime, scowling deeply as if Rime was a naughty dog who had managed to escape its leash.

  Pain must be able to break Colombina’s hold over a person, Talon thought. So if I hurt Rime enough—

  Her thoughts were interrupted when she noticed Rime had stopped groaning. He stood upright again, his eyes a deep, dark red. Ice appeared around his wounded hand; before Talon’s eyes, Rime’s bloody, wounded hand became cleaner and cleaner until soon it looked completely normal. She looked at Rime again, unable to comprehend what she just saw.

  “I … huh?” said Talon. “I didn’t know you had a healing factor.”

  “Weren’t you just telling me that you trained with another superhuman with ice powers?” said Colombina. “You made it sound like that you were an expert on ice powers. Perhaps you just have a big mouth for being such a little girl.”

  Talon would have responded to that, but Rime chose that moment to rush toward her like a quarterback. Talon just barely managed to spin out of the way of Rime’s rushing body, feeling the cold wind trailing behind him as he rushed past her. She skated to a stop on the other side of the room, watching as Rime also came to a stop and turned around to face her.

  Talon prepared herself for another charge from him, but instead, Rime raised his hands and balled them into fists. Without warning, the whole room was suddenly covered in a huge snowstorm; at least, the part of the room in which Talon stood was. The sudden appearance of so much snow made Talon stumble and fall onto her behind onto the hard ice. The wind blew her hair around, while the snow pelted her from every angle. She tried to get back up on her feet, but the constant wind and snow kept knocking her down, not helped by the fact that the floor was as icy as ever.

  But then a large form burst out of the snow—Rime—and, grabbing her by the neck, slammed Talon against the wall. The snowstorm abruptly ended, leaving piles of snow everywhere, but it didn’t matter because Talon was now pinned to the wall by a very angry, murderous-looking Rime. Talon tried to raise her claws, but Rime just waved his hand and her hands were bound to the walls by thick bands of ice that she couldn’t break. And with Rime’s cold hand on her neck, Talon also couldn’t breathe, especially when he tightened his grip around her windpipes.

  “Yes, Rime, kill the little girl,” said Colombina from somewhere behind Rime. “Show no mercy to the enemies of humanity’s savior.”

  Talon tried to speak to Rime, but his grip on her neck was so tight that she couldn’t even grunt. She just stared into his red eyes, hoping that the real Rime might be able to retake control, but she didn’t see anything except Colombina’s evil, corrupting influence over his mind. That was how Talon knew that she was going to die here, and she would die, she realized, without getting to say goodbye to her mom. She wondered, as darkness began tugging at the edges of her vision, what would become of McCullough Fashion and how Mom would react when she found out about her death.

  I hope that she doesn’t die on the spot herself, Talon thought, finding it harder and harder to maintain consciousness. Once I’m dead, she won’t have anyone else in the world but herself. She will be … will be totally … alone …

  And then, just as Talon resigned to her fate, she smelled ozone in the air a split second before a huge boom rang throughout the room. The boom came with a huge white flash of lightning, briefly blinding Talon and, based on the shocked cry from Colombina, the Venetian as well. Even Rime must have been a
ffected, because she felt his grip tear away from her throat, allowing her to breathe again.

  A second later, the flash went away, allowing Talon to see that the room had changed a lot in that split second she had been blinded.

  For one, much of the ice was either cracked or melted entirely, leaving wet spots on the floor where thick ice had once been. For another, the temperature in the room had gone back up a few degrees; it wasn’t as warm as it had been before, but it was much warmer than it had been just seconds ago. Rime lay on the floor in front of her, apparently unconscious, while Colombina had covered her eyes and was rubbing them as if they were really itchy.

  And there was also someone else in the room, someone who Talon had not expected to see so soon: Electrica, standing in the center of the room underneath some of the lights, in full yellow body suit, her arms crossed in front of her chest, a smile on her face. Electricity sparked off Electrica’s clothes every now and then, but Electrica herself didn’t seem to notice or care.

  “Electrica?” said Talon, her voice weaker than normal due to the pressure that Rime had been putting on her throat. “Is that you?”

  Electrica looked over at Talon, her eyes sparkling. “You don’t sound very grateful to see me again, kitten. But you shouldn’t be so surprised; after all, I did say I was going to join you again, didn’t I?”

  Talon blinked rapidly, unable to believe her luck. “The lobby. What—”

  “Had to run as soon as the guards showed up,” said Electrica with a sigh. “I could take them, but I hate fighting security guards, because ever since the last Pokacu invasion, you never know if they’re carrying powerless pellets or normal bullets. Decided to go through the building’s wiring to get down here and see how you were coming along.” She glanced at the unconscious Rime on the floor. “I see it isn’t going exactly according to plan.”

  “Rime’s innocent,” Talon quickly said. “He was being mind-controlled by that woman there.”

  Electrica frowned and looked over at Colombina, who was still rubbing her eyes. “I see. You’re one of Mann’s lackeys, aren’t you?”

  Colombina stopped rubbing her eyes and looked up at Electrica with a mixture of hate and fear. “You. I knew you were here, too, but I didn’t expect you to come to this girl’s help.”

  “I may be a supervillain, but that doesn’t mean I just abandon my allies when things get tricky,” said Electrica. She held out a hand. “Now, you probably know why I’m here. I want to speak to John Mann about getting the payment for the Five Fingers that I didn’t get last month.”

  Colombina scowled. “Sorry, but Mann doesn’t do business with people who break into his headquarters and set off smoke bombs in his lobby. Even if he did business with you in the past, there’s no way he would pay you now.”

  “If that’s true, then Mann isn’t nearly a good a businessman as I thought,” said Electrica. “But if he really won’t pay … well, I’ll just make it more expensive for him not to pay me.”

  Electrica raised her hand and sent a small bolt of lightning through the air toward Rime. The bolt struck Rime, but instead of killing him, his eyes flew open and he gasped in pain. He immediately sat up and looked around, saying, “W-Who hit me? Wh-What was t-that for?”

  “Good morning to you, too, Rime,” said Electrica. She gestured toward Colombina. “There’s the woman who kidnapped your family and tried to have you murder one of your friends. I recall you mentioning something about how you wanted to tear apart the people who harmed your family or something like that?”

  The parts of Colombina’s face that were visible went deathly pale. She raised a hand, clearly attempting to retake control of Rime’s mind, but Electrica shot a small burst of electricity at her, causing Colombina to jerk her now-smoking hand back to her chest. She slumped against the wall, clutching her wrist while groaning in pain.

  As for Rime, he had risen back to his feet now. He wasn’t speaking; however, the hatred in his eyes burned as hot as fire. He pointed a finger at Colombina and narrowed his eyes.

  Immediately, Colombina began to gasp for air. She clutched her throat, but whatever Rime was doing to her, it was pretty clear that she couldn’t do anything about it. She kept gasping for air, but her skin started to look oddly icy and her movement became slower and awkward until soon she stopped moving entirely. From behind her mask, her eyes looked at Rime with pleading, but Rime showed no mercy toward her whatsoever. Her blue eyes became bluer and bluer, until they were soon covered in ice.

  Then Rime lowered his hand, a look of pure disgust on his face.

  “Um …” Talon wasn’t sure what to say. “What did you do to her?”

  “F-Froze her blood,” said Rime, without looking at Talon. “A p-painful way to die, but she d-deserved it for everything she’s done t-to my family.”

  Talon bit her lower lip. She probably should have stopped Rime from killing Colombina, but given how angry Rime clearly was, she decided that she would worry about that later. Besides, if anyone asked, she could always say that he had killed Colombina in self-defense; it technically wasn’t wrong, after all.

  But it was yet another reminder of how powerful Rime was. Talon had always thought of Blizzard as one of the most powerful members of the team, but she had never seen Blizzard use her ice powers to freeze someone’s blood inside their body. She wasn’t even sure that Blizzard could do that. She wondered if Blizzard could learn it through trial and effort or if it was an ability exclusive to Rime.

  “I’ve never seen someone killed via freezing their blood inside their veins before,” said Electrica. She sounded less disgusted or horrified and more intrigued. “Very unique way to go, I will admit. I just wish that she had not told me that her boss wouldn’t pay me, but at least I now know who to put on my ‘don’t work for again’ list.”

  “Yes, that’s nice and all, but can someone let me down?” said Talon. She struggled against the ice clamps on her arms. “Still stuck here.”

  Rime waved a hand toward Talon and the ice clamps fell off her arms. Talon quickly raised her arms up and started rubbing her forearms, saying, “Thanks!”

  But Rime didn’t seem to be paying her much attention. He was already walking over to the platform upon which his family still lay. He stopped over them, a look of parental worry on his face. “D-Dana? M-Maria? Is that you?”

  “It’s them,” said Talon, nodding. “Colombina told me as much, but they’re unconscious.”

  Relief flooded over Rime’s face, but he didn’t respond to her. He just summoned a sharp ice saw in his hands and began cutting away at the metal clamps holding down his wife and daughter, moving as quickly as he could with his frozen weapon.

  As for Talon, she couldn’t help but glance at Colombina’s corpse. She wasn’t exactly sad about Colombina’s death—after all, that woman had been intending to kill not just her, but her friends, too, and frame Rime for it at the same time—but seeing Colombina’s corpse sitting there like some grotesque puppet did make her stomach crawl. She wondered how Colombina’s frozen blood would affect her body once it started to decompose; would her frozen blood preserve her body like some kind of freaky mummy?

  Talon’s morbid thoughts were interrupted when Electrica stepped next to her and said, “This is a weird place. I’ve always known that Mann had … eccentric tastes, but this is just strange.”

  Shaking her head, Talon looked around the room as well. “Yes, it is weird. It looks like some kind of ancient temple, but I’m not well versed enough in ancient history to be able to identify it. Shell probably could, or maybe Treehugger. They’re both pretty nerdy like that.”

  “Some of it looks familiar, though,” said Electrica, folding her arms across her chest. “I feel like I’ve seen it somewhere before … almost like a distant memory in the back of my head or maybe genetic memory of something that happened a long time ago.”

  Talon looked at Electrica skeptically. “Genetic memory? Are you serious?”

  “Just a thought,
kitten,” said Electrica. She scratched the back of her head. “Still, it feels very familiar, like I’m finally where I am supposed to be. Don’t you feel the same?”

  Talon was about to say no, she didn’t, but when she looked at the strange carvings and hieroglyphs on the walls, she suddenly understood what Electrica was talking about. Even though Talon was certain that she had never entered such a place in her whole life, it did feel familiar, but in a very primal way. It was just like Electrica said; she felt like she had finally come home, as if she had been on a long journey that had finally come to its welcomed end.

  Must just be my nerves, Talon thought. The stress from nearly being murdered by Rime is going away and I’m probably just starting to calm down. That makes sense.

  But, of course, Talon knew that that explanation was unsatisfactory. Whatever Mann had built here, it resonated with her in a way that no other place had. She wondered if this was how some people felt in church, as if they were in a holy place where they could finally find the peace and fulfillment that their souls struggled for so deeply.

  I hate thinking about this stuff, Talon thought, shaking her head. It’s so silly. I’ll let Shell and Treehugger think about it.

  “Anyway,” said Talon, causing Electrica to look at her, “after Rime frees his wife and daughter, I think we should leave. Can we go through the lobby?”

  Electrica laughed. “Of course not. The place is crawling with guards by now. Besides, I don’t want all of us to get caught on camera by Mann’s security. That would be a tad awkward, wouldn’t you say?”