September 4th, 2021
The birds danced around the campus trees, singing their favorite tunes as they received the morning sunshine with joy and kindness. The local squirrels left their homes to scout for food to feed themselves and the young ones while the local students took their morning jogs and walked their dogs. Ah what a time to be alive it was in Pi City, the sun smiling among the famous city and stretching his light as far as he could so all the citizens could feel his warmth. Except for G.
The popular Kesha song rang loudly in G’s personal room, letting the famous streamer know that it was time for her to wake up. The memories of the party from the night before came rushing in. She had met some guy named Hugo, kissed some otaku girl, met the guy with the odd name that started with V and Tyrone, something like that. She had given her number out to so many strangers, what was she thinking?
G reached for her phone and turned the alarm off, looking at the time it showed. It was 9 a.m. so she had slept about five hours, which was not so bad. Unfortunately, she had to start her special stream in an hour. Using the amusing low amount of energy she had, G dragged herself out of her room and to the bathroom. A cold shower to wash away what was left of the party from the night before away from her body, a quick breakfast consisting of cold pizza and an energy drink and a quick call to her mom to let her and herself know, everything was fine.
“Time to get into costume.” G stood in front of the bed in her streamer room. Laid in front of her was the cosplay she was to wear for the stream, which had been decided by the fans through a poll she had posted in Twitter a few days back. The blue wig had been the easy part, it was the makeup she had to rush through considering the amount of time that was left. She somehow pulled off though, looking like an almost exact copy of the popular League Of Legends character, Jinx. The outfit was somewhat revealing, but she was in her room and she had uploaded more revealing stuff in her instagram, so the insecurity quickly faded away. With 10 minutes to go, her pc was full on running and had already started transmitting a personalized made banner with light blue letters saying ‘Starting Soon! :3’
“Yo I’m gonna head out.”
G jumped in her seat as she heard a familiar voice at the door of the room. She turned quickly to see Crood standing there with a big smile on his face while his arm was wrapped around a girl G did not recognize.
“Totally dig your costume brah.” Crood said with a wink while the girl next to him waved goodbye and left the room.
G sat there bedazzled, how long had Crood been in her home? She shook her head and got herself together, taking a deep breath, a drink of water and getting into character. The stream started to count down, with 24,000 viewers already present and increasing rapidly. G took the fake gun she had designed a few days prior, pointed it to her head and gave a mischievous smile while biting her tongue. The stream started, with thousands of heart reactions filling up the stream along with hundreds of comments rushing in, complementing G and her good looks.
“Welcome everyone to this special stream, today we will be doing some giveaways, rank a bit in good ol lol and then, thanks to our sponsor Red Bull Energy Drinks, I have a special surprise!” G removed the gun from her head and started pointing at the camera as if threatening her audience. “Seven lucky bastards will get to have a special video call with me today! But it won’t be easy, oh nonono! You need to donate at least 20 dollars to join the raffle that will take place after I am done ranking today. So, without further to do, let’s get this started! First, the giveaways!”
After about two hours of streaming, reaching 245k viewers, G ended the stream after naming the seven lucky fans that get to have a private session with her. The schedule had been set to reunite with them at 10 p.m. that night, which was the best schedule fit for everyone. After a successful stream, G passed out on her bed, sleeping through most of the day until the evening.
Elizabeth woke up about seven in the evening, stretching her arms and legs as far as possible and waking up to her wig and makeup all messy from having slept with them on. She laughed at herself while looking in the morning before removing her cosplay, changing into a shirt and shorts before stopping to look at her Wintry outfit. She had three hours before the stream, maybe she could go patrol a bit before starting? She did miss the power Wintry gave her.
Without thinking it much over, Elizabeth put on her suit and left her apartment, sliding over the city of Pi and making her way to The Ripples, where it was likely she would find something to do. It didn’t take long for her to find what to do, helping a cat stuck on a roof, rushing an injured man to the hospital after he crashed his bike into some bushes and a pocketpicker who just happened to be doing his shenanigans while Wintry was scouting the area. Everything was going well, until the last incident of the night.
“We got a report of gunshots down Alcatraz St.”
Wintry looked down at her helmet, which she had taken off to enjoy a strawberry icee, and sighed, she had just bought her cold beverage too. She set the cold cup down and placed her helmet on, hoping nobody would touch it while she was gone. Gunshots were something serious, special in The Ripples, where that could mean many different scenarios. Hopefully it was something G could handle, and not some sort of gang war. She slid across the sky of the run down neighborhoods, hearing some people pointing towards her as she sped past the small crowd standing outside their homes, where the gunshots began to be heard more clearly.
“Help!” A man waved his arms over his head while looking at the incoming Wintry. He was standing on top of a roof, with a full black outfit, surprisingly clean.
Wintry jumped off her small ice path and landed with a swift slide, ending it close to the man. She took a closer look at him. His clothes were pretty baggy for someone like him, like if he bought oversized clothes on purpose. Still, he seemed to be some sort of body builder or something by the size of his torso. “You that one helping out people right? One of them sups?”
Wintry was a little surprised by his voice, it was filled with panic a few moments ago and now he seemed really sure of himself. “Right, do you need anything? I’m kinda in a hurry.”
“Oh sorry to bother you miss, you see there’s a shootout going on down the street, probably why you were flying or floating, whatever you do, on your way over there, right?”
“That’s right, do you have some information about it? I could pass it on to the police after making sure the situation is under control.”
“That’s the issue, I’m here to make sure nobody puts it under control.” A sly smile appeared on the man’s face.
It took Wintry a few seconds to understand the situation, this man was a look out for whoever was shooting up the city. She was getting ready to spring into action when she felt a sharp pain explode on her right upper arm. She looked to her right and across the street were two man aiming their guns at her, she couldn’t tell what kind of weapon they were, but they had to be strong enough to cause such pain despite having her suit built to protect her. She turned back to the man that had been in front of him, he was running away towards the roof access.
“You sups keep popping up and ruining plans around the city, we had to be prepared just in case!” The man shouted as he slammed the door behind him.
“Shit.” Wintry said as she faced the man across the street.
The guns began to fire, raining bullets in Wintry’s direction. The screams of the people down on the street began to fill the scene while Wintry started making wall after wall of ice, trying to make it as thick as possible to protect herself, she just needed to keep it up until they ran out of bullets. It seemed to take forever though, the bullets kept smashing against the thick ice while Wintry kept her concentration on rebuilding the parts the bullets destroyed, screaming as some bullets flew past her, even feeling one bounce of her helmet, which made her flinch. Finally, after what seemed an eternity, the bullets stopped.
They must be reloading! Wintry took down the ice wall she had made to shield herself and just like she had thought, the thugs on the other side were reloading, but could she make it across in time before they opened fire again? She had to risk it, otherwise it would be another round of trying to avoid getting shot. She took a deep breath and prepared to start running when the air was knocked out of her lungs. She felt something heavy smash against her back, cause her knees to feel weak and collapse.
“Sorry hun, you don’t get to leave until we take ya out, can’t have people like you running around here.” It was the same voice as the man before, but Wintry couldn’t be sure as she received another hit to the back, trying to keep her down. “First some hooded guy took out a whole weapon deal, then we had some TechnoPrimus or something hitting a cartel warehouse. Shit, ya’ll put on a nice fancy suit and start going around thinking yer heroes.” He hit Wintry once again, who seemed to be stunned by the sudden hits from the man’s baseball bat. “But this is as far as you go, once we’re done here, we’ll hang ya up as a message to, oh what the fuck?!” The man cried out as ice traveled up his body and froze him in place.
Wintry struggled to her feet, her hand on her lower back as the pain started to keep her from straightening up. “Did you say techno?” Wintry turned towards the man and rolled her eyes, she had forgotten she had sealed his mouth with ice. She reached out to try and remove it so she could question him, but the bullets began flying towards her again. She felt two bounce of her thighs and one smash against her left shoulder, probably bruising her in the process. She quickly moved out of the way and hid behind the frozen man, they wouldn shoot their own comrade, right? Wrong, the man attempted to scream as bullets began breaking through the ice and piercing his body. Wintry stood behind him, a wave of guilt flooding over her as the man pleading help with his screams of pain as the bullets kept piercing his body. “I need to get out of here.” Wintry turned towards the roof access, the door had been left open and it was her way out.
Wintry took a deep breath and leaped towards the open door, the bullets trying to follow her as she rolled onward and into the stairway. The volley of bullets stopped once she was out of site, resting against a wall after going down some steps, WIntry began to feel emotions build up in her. She had just used a man as a meat shield. She tried to convince herself it wasn’t her fault, but the guilt was taking over. Stay strong, once you’re in the clear you can cry all you want, but not now, you can do this Snowflake. Wintry stood to her feet, it wasn’t over yet. They knew where she was and there was probably one man keeping watch over the roof while the other was probably on his way to her building. That could work, if I get one of them one on one, there’s no way he can take me out. She began going down the stairs, listening for anyone who could be heading her way, but nothing the whole way down the five stories building, nobody showed up, until she reached the main floor at the bottom.
“You thought I would go fight you alone?” One of the gunners from before stood in front of the entrance, his AK-47 hanging from his right shoulder and pointing at a small group of people, a man, a woman and two little boys, probably an innocent family that was caught in the wrong place and wrong time. “Take off your mask, turn around and get on your knees.”
Wintry raised her hands up to her helmet. “Knowing who I am won’t change things, let them go and we can settle this, man to man.”
The armed man laughed in a mocking manner. “You’re no man, you’re just a bitch who thinks too much of herself.”
Wintry placed her hands on her helmet, she couldn’t think of a way to get out of this without hurting the family. She needed a distraction and a distraction she got in the form of a local police officer who burst into the scene. “Freeze!”
Wintry took the opportunity to shoot an icicle spear towards the gunned man, but it didn’t reach in time before he pulled the trigger and bullets flew out of his weapon as the pointy cold spear pierced his torso. The police officer reacted in the same way, shooting the criminal in the head as he tumbled to the side after taking Wintry’s attack. The silence swept in for a moment as Wintry and the officer locked into a stare, not sure if they had successfully won. But the silence was soon broken by a scream from the woman who had been held hostage. Wintry felt a cold chill down her spine as she turned towards the family, the man had used his body to protect his wife and children at the cost of taking several gunshots to the back.
“Freeze!” The officer yelled as he aimed his recently fired weapon at Wintry.
“What?! No, I can help him until he gets to the hospital, please let me help.” Wintry raised her hands, trying to show she meant no harm.
The officer began to sweat as the crying woman and children pleaded for help while he had a possible suspect in front of him that was basically asking for a chance to escape. He gritted his teeth, the man’s life was more important at the moment. “Go go go! What can I do to help?” The office placed his gun down as he rushed over to the wounded victim along with Wintry.
Wintry placed an icy layer over the wounds of the man, trying to keep him alive until he got medical attention. “We need to transport him quickly, what’s the fastest route?”
The office shot a worried look at Wintry and the woman with them. “Like five blocks down, but there’s a gang fight on the streets right now, if we try to go around the roadblocks won’t allow us, the best thing is to find a hospital further away-”
“I’m a doctor!” A man, who had seemed to have come out of nowhere, rushed over to the group. “I can help out while we transfer him to a hospital, I’m Dr. Solo.” He looked over at Wintry, with a confident smile.
Wintry felt an odd feeling of attraction at the doctor. He seemed mature and smart, but had a young aura about him mixed with someone who had plenty of experience in the world. Maybe it was because he arrived during a moment she needed him the most, but she couldn’t help admiring his handsome face. “What can we do?” Wintry said after a few seconds of astonishment.
Dr. Solo turned towards the door leading outside. “Help me get him to my car, just outside, Miss, can you drive?”
“I uh, not really-” Wintry tried to reply but was interrupted by the victim’s wife.
“Yes I can!”
“Good.” Dr. Solo tossed his keys to the woman, who began sprinting outside. “Officer take him towards my car, I’ll get my stuff just on the first floor. Kids, got a neighbor or someone you can go with?”
Wintry tried to raise her hand to volunteer, she could at least watch the kids. But the older one nodded and grabbed his brother’s hand, rushing towards the first apartments in the building. The two men lead the injured one outside, with Wintry following behind and watching how they loaded him into the car. Dr Solo shot Wintry a quick smile, before getting in the back with the patient and they drove off. The officer told Wintry to leave, seeing as he shouldn’t arrest her after trying to help out, but advised her to stop doing what she did.
Wintry looked towards the area where the supposed gang war was going on. Should she just leave and let all the people in the area keep suffering? It seemed they were ready for her, or anyone who tried to help. Anyone like her… like Techno! The thug from the roof had mentioned someone named Techno, but that superhero didn’t exist anymore, had someone taken her father’s hero name? The idea flashed into her mind, only one of the rooftop shooters had gone after her, was the other one still in the building across the street? Wintry looked ahead at the building. It was just another apartment building, would he still be on the roof? Wintry decided to figure things out, rushing towards the building and starting to go up the stairs. Half way she began to hear two voices, making her stop to listen.
“Man Gerlad, I don’t think he’s coming over here.”
“Shut the fuck up! Again with you! He’s going to come here, Harry saw him leaving the building.”
Wintry crept closer, going up the stairs while sticking to the walls to avoid being seen from above. She could hear movements and talking further up, they were probably close to the fifth floor, which she wasn’t far from.
“Come on Gerald, just let me take a quick nap, if that sup shows up, I’ll be ready.”
“Dammit Steve! No, can’t you stay awake for five minutes?!”
Wintry reached the fifth level, finally getting a glimpse of the two thugs. They seemed to be in charge of guarding the doorway leading to the rest of the building from the staircase. They were armed, just like the guy before. Who the hell were these guys and why were they out here hunting superheroes?
“I’m just going to rest my eyes, okay?”
“You know what? Do whatever you want. If the sup kills you, that’s on you.”
“I’m sure they’re not stupid enough to come through here, they probably can fly or something, wasn’t he like running across the sky? *yawn* It sure is getting cold around here.”
“You hear that?”
Before the two guards could figure out what was going on, ice had spread through the floor and up their legs. As they struggled to free themselves, the ice kept spreading, until covering their entire bodies up to their neck. Wintry approached the two, aiming her palms at them, to demonstrate she was ready to attack.
“Who do you two work for and why were you setting up an ambush for any superheroes passing by?” She placed her hand over the one named Steve. “I’ll freeze his eyeballs if you don’t talk.”
Gerlad struggled and gritted his teeth, his face going red with anger. “You stupid son of a bitch, you, you, you.. You’re a girl?!”
Steve looked over at his partner. “You didn’t notice her boobs? It was the first thing I saw.”
“Why did I get teamed up with you?! Fuck it, freeze his eyeballs, I don’t care.”
Wintry was taken back by the lack of worry from the two thugs she was supposed to be threatening. “I’m being serious here, I’ll kill both of you.”
“The eternal nap, not bad eh Gerlad?”
“Stop saying my name you idiot!”
“Enough!” Wintry cried out, slapping the sleepy one. “Just tell me what I need to know and I’ll put you to sleep or whatever.”
“Yeah? Well word got out some super people are going around busting up business ya see, so the boss had us set up around different blocks to catch em before they interrupted his business, eliminating the competition.”
Wintry tried to comprehend how the mind of such an individual worked, before pulling back her fist and punching the man as hard as she could, trying to knock me out.
“Ah! Why?! You said I would sleep! That bloody hurts!”
The one named Gerald burst into laughter. “That’s what ya get you lazy asswipe!”
“Sorry!” Wintry cried out before punching him again, knocking him out that time. “Now, GERALD, how many of you left?”
“I ain’t saying shit.” He spat on Wintry’s helmet.
“Ugh! Why would you spit? You know what? I can freeze any limber of your body until it falls off, ANY limber.”
“It’s seven of us in total, you killed the one on the other roof and I don’t know what happened to the ones that went after you, with us two that’s four, there’s three more ahead.”
“Thank you.” Wintry placed her hand over the man as she freezed him over, leaving just enough for him to breathe.
Wintry made her way through the door those two were guarding, entering a small hallway leading to two doors, one was the roof access and the other seemed to be a room that took up the rest of the floor. She began approaching the door leading to the room, creeping on her toes to try and avoid making any noise. Once she got close enough, she heard a man sneezing inside.
“Damn allergies! Achoo! I hate them.”
“Aw sheesh Saul, you got boogers on meh.” Another voice said.
“Sorry Dupree, I can’t Ah Ah ACHOO! I can’t control it.”
Wintry rolled her eyes, what was up with these characters? She kicked the door open and quickly reached for the floor with her hands, ice traveling quickly through the floor. The man named Saul, who was still sneezing, didn’t realize he had been captured by Wintry’s ice. Dupree however, managed to jump out of the way, the way you do if you see a snake attacking you. Wintry made sure Saul was frozen up to his mouth before standing up and getting ready to freeze the remaining thug.
“Woah! How did you do that? Are you a wizard?” Dupree seemed genuinely confused by the ongoing situation.
“Witch.” Wintry replied. “Wizards are boys, Witches are girls.”
“That’s more scary.”
“If I were a wizard I wouldn’t be scary?”
“Nah, wizards are nice. Witches are evil.”
“I’m not evil.”
“But you just froze my friend.”
“Because you two are evil!”
“Oh yeah.” Dupree let out a loud goofy laugh, which gave Wintry the opportunity she was looking for, freezing him up to his neck before the man could figure out what was going on. “Aw darn it, you got me!”
Wintry noticed this one man was a bit slow in the head, so she approached him carefully with the intention to gather information. “Say, we can make a deal, tell me who you work for and I might let you go.”
“Promise?”
“I promise I might let you go.”
“We don’t know his name, he talks directly to Harry.”
“Who’s Harry?”
“Him.”
Wintry turned around just as a metal bat smashed into her helmet. She stumbled to the side before falling against a wall, trying to regain her balance before the man holding the bat hit her again.
“Looky what we got here! Some bitch in tights thought they could just walk in and take out the Sadistic Seven!”
“But Harry, I thought we were all star gangsters.” Dupree said while giving Harry a sad face.
“Shut the fuck up Dupree, you won’t even remember by tomorrow. Now, where was I? Ah yes, beating this bitch up!” He hit Wintry with the bat again on her side and then danced around as if he hit a home run. “You know why I love this job? We get to keep anything we find, that includes some girl that walked in where she shouldn’t.”
Wintry was breathing loudly, trying to regain composure while using the wall to keep herself up. Harry once again swung his baseball bat, but this time it was stopped by Wintry’s hands. As much as stopping the weapon had hurt her, that gave her the opportunity she needed. Ice quickly moving through the baseball bat. Harry tried to let go, but it was too late, the ice moved quickly up his arms and around his torso. From there it just took a few seconds to freeze what was left of him.
Wintry fell to her knees, feeling strong pain on her wrists while she looked at the situation. Seven, they had mentioned it was seven of them, if she counted the guy on the roof, she had gotten all seven of them. The pain around her body was starting to ache louder, but she wanted to go back, to continue helping those who were possible victims of the so-called gang war. But her body wasn’t willing to allow it.
Wintry began to feel her knees shake as she stood up, the pain on her back, arms and head throbbing as the thrill of the fight began to fade away. She could hear Dupree saying something, but she was having a hard time figuring out what. Not to mention she was starting to see blurry while trying to make her way to the exit of the room. She reached the door and collapsed just as she stepped out of the room. She tried to keep her eyes open, but everything around her slowly faded to black.
The birds danced around the campus trees, singing their favorite tunes as they received the morning sunshine with joy and kindness. The local squirrels left their homes to scout for food to feed themselves and the young ones while the local students took their morning jogs and walked their dogs. Ah what a time to be alive it was in Pi City, the sun smiling among the famous city and stretching his light as far as he could so all the citizens could feel his warmth. Except for G.
The popular Kesha song rang loudly in G’s personal room, letting the famous streamer know that it was time for her to wake up. The memories of the party from the night before came rushing in. She had met some guy named Hugo, kissed some otaku girl, met the guy with the odd name that started with V and Tyrone, something like that. She had given her number out to so many strangers, what was she thinking?
G reached for her phone and turned the alarm off, looking at the time it showed. It was 9 a.m. so she had slept about five hours, which was not so bad. Unfortunately, she had to start her special stream in an hour. Using the amusing low amount of energy she had, G dragged herself out of her room and to the bathroom. A cold shower to wash away what was left of the party from the night before away from her body, a quick breakfast consisting of cold pizza and an energy drink and a quick call to her mom to let her and herself know, everything was fine.
“Time to get into costume.” G stood in front of the bed in her streamer room. Laid in front of her was the cosplay she was to wear for the stream, which had been decided by the fans through a poll she had posted in Twitter a few days back. The blue wig had been the easy part, it was the makeup she had to rush through considering the amount of time that was left. She somehow pulled off though, looking like an almost exact copy of the popular League Of Legends character, Jinx. The outfit was somewhat revealing, but she was in her room and she had uploaded more revealing stuff in her instagram, so the insecurity quickly faded away. With 10 minutes to go, her pc was full on running and had already started transmitting a personalized made banner with light blue letters saying ‘Starting Soon! :3’
“Yo I’m gonna head out.”
G jumped in her seat as she heard a familiar voice at the door of the room. She turned quickly to see Crood standing there with a big smile on his face while his arm was wrapped around a girl G did not recognize.
“Totally dig your costume brah.” Crood said with a wink while the girl next to him waved goodbye and left the room.
G sat there bedazzled, how long had Crood been in her home? She shook her head and got herself together, taking a deep breath, a drink of water and getting into character. The stream started to count down, with 24,000 viewers already present and increasing rapidly. G took the fake gun she had designed a few days prior, pointed it to her head and gave a mischievous smile while biting her tongue. The stream started, with thousands of heart reactions filling up the stream along with hundreds of comments rushing in, complementing G and her good looks.
“Welcome everyone to this special stream, today we will be doing some giveaways, rank a bit in good ol lol and then, thanks to our sponsor Red Bull Energy Drinks, I have a special surprise!” G removed the gun from her head and started pointing at the camera as if threatening her audience. “Seven lucky bastards will get to have a special video call with me today! But it won’t be easy, oh nonono! You need to donate at least 20 dollars to join the raffle that will take place after I am done ranking today. So, without further to do, let’s get this started! First, the giveaways!”
After about two hours of streaming, reaching 245k viewers, G ended the stream after naming the seven lucky fans that get to have a private session with her. The schedule had been set to reunite with them at 10 p.m. that night, which was the best schedule fit for everyone. After a successful stream, G passed out on her bed, sleeping through most of the day until the evening.
Elizabeth woke up about seven in the evening, stretching her arms and legs as far as possible and waking up to her wig and makeup all messy from having slept with them on. She laughed at herself while looking in the morning before removing her cosplay, changing into a shirt and shorts before stopping to look at her Wintry outfit. She had three hours before the stream, maybe she could go patrol a bit before starting? She did miss the power Wintry gave her.
Without thinking it much over, Elizabeth put on her suit and left her apartment, sliding over the city of Pi and making her way to The Ripples, where it was likely she would find something to do. It didn’t take long for her to find what to do, helping a cat stuck on a roof, rushing an injured man to the hospital after he crashed his bike into some bushes and a pocketpicker who just happened to be doing his shenanigans while Wintry was scouting the area. Everything was going well, until the last incident of the night.
“We got a report of gunshots down Alcatraz St.”
Wintry looked down at her helmet, which she had taken off to enjoy a strawberry icee, and sighed, she had just bought her cold beverage too. She set the cold cup down and placed her helmet on, hoping nobody would touch it while she was gone. Gunshots were something serious, special in The Ripples, where that could mean many different scenarios. Hopefully it was something G could handle, and not some sort of gang war. She slid across the sky of the run down neighborhoods, hearing some people pointing towards her as she sped past the small crowd standing outside their homes, where the gunshots began to be heard more clearly.
“Help!” A man waved his arms over his head while looking at the incoming Wintry. He was standing on top of a roof, with a full black outfit, surprisingly clean.
Wintry jumped off her small ice path and landed with a swift slide, ending it close to the man. She took a closer look at him. His clothes were pretty baggy for someone like him, like if he bought oversized clothes on purpose. Still, he seemed to be some sort of body builder or something by the size of his torso. “You that one helping out people right? One of them sups?”
Wintry was a little surprised by his voice, it was filled with panic a few moments ago and now he seemed really sure of himself. “Right, do you need anything? I’m kinda in a hurry.”
“Oh sorry to bother you miss, you see there’s a shootout going on down the street, probably why you were flying or floating, whatever you do, on your way over there, right?”
“That’s right, do you have some information about it? I could pass it on to the police after making sure the situation is under control.”
“That’s the issue, I’m here to make sure nobody puts it under control.” A sly smile appeared on the man’s face.
It took Wintry a few seconds to understand the situation, this man was a look out for whoever was shooting up the city. She was getting ready to spring into action when she felt a sharp pain explode on her right upper arm. She looked to her right and across the street were two man aiming their guns at her, she couldn’t tell what kind of weapon they were, but they had to be strong enough to cause such pain despite having her suit built to protect her. She turned back to the man that had been in front of him, he was running away towards the roof access.
“You sups keep popping up and ruining plans around the city, we had to be prepared just in case!” The man shouted as he slammed the door behind him.
“Shit.” Wintry said as she faced the man across the street.
The guns began to fire, raining bullets in Wintry’s direction. The screams of the people down on the street began to fill the scene while Wintry started making wall after wall of ice, trying to make it as thick as possible to protect herself, she just needed to keep it up until they ran out of bullets. It seemed to take forever though, the bullets kept smashing against the thick ice while Wintry kept her concentration on rebuilding the parts the bullets destroyed, screaming as some bullets flew past her, even feeling one bounce of her helmet, which made her flinch. Finally, after what seemed an eternity, the bullets stopped.
They must be reloading! Wintry took down the ice wall she had made to shield herself and just like she had thought, the thugs on the other side were reloading, but could she make it across in time before they opened fire again? She had to risk it, otherwise it would be another round of trying to avoid getting shot. She took a deep breath and prepared to start running when the air was knocked out of her lungs. She felt something heavy smash against her back, cause her knees to feel weak and collapse.
“Sorry hun, you don’t get to leave until we take ya out, can’t have people like you running around here.” It was the same voice as the man before, but Wintry couldn’t be sure as she received another hit to the back, trying to keep her down. “First some hooded guy took out a whole weapon deal, then we had some TechnoPrimus or something hitting a cartel warehouse. Shit, ya’ll put on a nice fancy suit and start going around thinking yer heroes.” He hit Wintry once again, who seemed to be stunned by the sudden hits from the man’s baseball bat. “But this is as far as you go, once we’re done here, we’ll hang ya up as a message to, oh what the fuck?!” The man cried out as ice traveled up his body and froze him in place.
Wintry struggled to her feet, her hand on her lower back as the pain started to keep her from straightening up. “Did you say techno?” Wintry turned towards the man and rolled her eyes, she had forgotten she had sealed his mouth with ice. She reached out to try and remove it so she could question him, but the bullets began flying towards her again. She felt two bounce of her thighs and one smash against her left shoulder, probably bruising her in the process. She quickly moved out of the way and hid behind the frozen man, they wouldn shoot their own comrade, right? Wrong, the man attempted to scream as bullets began breaking through the ice and piercing his body. Wintry stood behind him, a wave of guilt flooding over her as the man pleading help with his screams of pain as the bullets kept piercing his body. “I need to get out of here.” Wintry turned towards the roof access, the door had been left open and it was her way out.
Wintry took a deep breath and leaped towards the open door, the bullets trying to follow her as she rolled onward and into the stairway. The volley of bullets stopped once she was out of site, resting against a wall after going down some steps, WIntry began to feel emotions build up in her. She had just used a man as a meat shield. She tried to convince herself it wasn’t her fault, but the guilt was taking over. Stay strong, once you’re in the clear you can cry all you want, but not now, you can do this Snowflake. Wintry stood to her feet, it wasn’t over yet. They knew where she was and there was probably one man keeping watch over the roof while the other was probably on his way to her building. That could work, if I get one of them one on one, there’s no way he can take me out. She began going down the stairs, listening for anyone who could be heading her way, but nothing the whole way down the five stories building, nobody showed up, until she reached the main floor at the bottom.
“You thought I would go fight you alone?” One of the gunners from before stood in front of the entrance, his AK-47 hanging from his right shoulder and pointing at a small group of people, a man, a woman and two little boys, probably an innocent family that was caught in the wrong place and wrong time. “Take off your mask, turn around and get on your knees.”
Wintry raised her hands up to her helmet. “Knowing who I am won’t change things, let them go and we can settle this, man to man.”
The armed man laughed in a mocking manner. “You’re no man, you’re just a bitch who thinks too much of herself.”
Wintry placed her hands on her helmet, she couldn’t think of a way to get out of this without hurting the family. She needed a distraction and a distraction she got in the form of a local police officer who burst into the scene. “Freeze!”
Wintry took the opportunity to shoot an icicle spear towards the gunned man, but it didn’t reach in time before he pulled the trigger and bullets flew out of his weapon as the pointy cold spear pierced his torso. The police officer reacted in the same way, shooting the criminal in the head as he tumbled to the side after taking Wintry’s attack. The silence swept in for a moment as Wintry and the officer locked into a stare, not sure if they had successfully won. But the silence was soon broken by a scream from the woman who had been held hostage. Wintry felt a cold chill down her spine as she turned towards the family, the man had used his body to protect his wife and children at the cost of taking several gunshots to the back.
“Freeze!” The officer yelled as he aimed his recently fired weapon at Wintry.
“What?! No, I can help him until he gets to the hospital, please let me help.” Wintry raised her hands, trying to show she meant no harm.
The officer began to sweat as the crying woman and children pleaded for help while he had a possible suspect in front of him that was basically asking for a chance to escape. He gritted his teeth, the man’s life was more important at the moment. “Go go go! What can I do to help?” The office placed his gun down as he rushed over to the wounded victim along with Wintry.
Wintry placed an icy layer over the wounds of the man, trying to keep him alive until he got medical attention. “We need to transport him quickly, what’s the fastest route?”
The office shot a worried look at Wintry and the woman with them. “Like five blocks down, but there’s a gang fight on the streets right now, if we try to go around the roadblocks won’t allow us, the best thing is to find a hospital further away-”
“I’m a doctor!” A man, who had seemed to have come out of nowhere, rushed over to the group. “I can help out while we transfer him to a hospital, I’m Dr. Solo.” He looked over at Wintry, with a confident smile.
Wintry felt an odd feeling of attraction at the doctor. He seemed mature and smart, but had a young aura about him mixed with someone who had plenty of experience in the world. Maybe it was because he arrived during a moment she needed him the most, but she couldn’t help admiring his handsome face. “What can we do?” Wintry said after a few seconds of astonishment.
Dr. Solo turned towards the door leading outside. “Help me get him to my car, just outside, Miss, can you drive?”
“I uh, not really-” Wintry tried to reply but was interrupted by the victim’s wife.
“Yes I can!”
“Good.” Dr. Solo tossed his keys to the woman, who began sprinting outside. “Officer take him towards my car, I’ll get my stuff just on the first floor. Kids, got a neighbor or someone you can go with?”
Wintry tried to raise her hand to volunteer, she could at least watch the kids. But the older one nodded and grabbed his brother’s hand, rushing towards the first apartments in the building. The two men lead the injured one outside, with Wintry following behind and watching how they loaded him into the car. Dr Solo shot Wintry a quick smile, before getting in the back with the patient and they drove off. The officer told Wintry to leave, seeing as he shouldn’t arrest her after trying to help out, but advised her to stop doing what she did.
Wintry looked towards the area where the supposed gang war was going on. Should she just leave and let all the people in the area keep suffering? It seemed they were ready for her, or anyone who tried to help. Anyone like her… like Techno! The thug from the roof had mentioned someone named Techno, but that superhero didn’t exist anymore, had someone taken her father’s hero name? The idea flashed into her mind, only one of the rooftop shooters had gone after her, was the other one still in the building across the street? Wintry looked ahead at the building. It was just another apartment building, would he still be on the roof? Wintry decided to figure things out, rushing towards the building and starting to go up the stairs. Half way she began to hear two voices, making her stop to listen.
“Man Gerlad, I don’t think he’s coming over here.”
“Shut the fuck up! Again with you! He’s going to come here, Harry saw him leaving the building.”
Wintry crept closer, going up the stairs while sticking to the walls to avoid being seen from above. She could hear movements and talking further up, they were probably close to the fifth floor, which she wasn’t far from.
“Come on Gerald, just let me take a quick nap, if that sup shows up, I’ll be ready.”
“Dammit Steve! No, can’t you stay awake for five minutes?!”
Wintry reached the fifth level, finally getting a glimpse of the two thugs. They seemed to be in charge of guarding the doorway leading to the rest of the building from the staircase. They were armed, just like the guy before. Who the hell were these guys and why were they out here hunting superheroes?
“I’m just going to rest my eyes, okay?”
“You know what? Do whatever you want. If the sup kills you, that’s on you.”
“I’m sure they’re not stupid enough to come through here, they probably can fly or something, wasn’t he like running across the sky? *yawn* It sure is getting cold around here.”
“You hear that?”
Before the two guards could figure out what was going on, ice had spread through the floor and up their legs. As they struggled to free themselves, the ice kept spreading, until covering their entire bodies up to their neck. Wintry approached the two, aiming her palms at them, to demonstrate she was ready to attack.
“Who do you two work for and why were you setting up an ambush for any superheroes passing by?” She placed her hand over the one named Steve. “I’ll freeze his eyeballs if you don’t talk.”
Gerlad struggled and gritted his teeth, his face going red with anger. “You stupid son of a bitch, you, you, you.. You’re a girl?!”
Steve looked over at his partner. “You didn’t notice her boobs? It was the first thing I saw.”
“Why did I get teamed up with you?! Fuck it, freeze his eyeballs, I don’t care.”
Wintry was taken back by the lack of worry from the two thugs she was supposed to be threatening. “I’m being serious here, I’ll kill both of you.”
“The eternal nap, not bad eh Gerlad?”
“Stop saying my name you idiot!”
“Enough!” Wintry cried out, slapping the sleepy one. “Just tell me what I need to know and I’ll put you to sleep or whatever.”
“Yeah? Well word got out some super people are going around busting up business ya see, so the boss had us set up around different blocks to catch em before they interrupted his business, eliminating the competition.”
Wintry tried to comprehend how the mind of such an individual worked, before pulling back her fist and punching the man as hard as she could, trying to knock me out.
“Ah! Why?! You said I would sleep! That bloody hurts!”
The one named Gerald burst into laughter. “That’s what ya get you lazy asswipe!”
“Sorry!” Wintry cried out before punching him again, knocking him out that time. “Now, GERALD, how many of you left?”
“I ain’t saying shit.” He spat on Wintry’s helmet.
“Ugh! Why would you spit? You know what? I can freeze any limber of your body until it falls off, ANY limber.”
“It’s seven of us in total, you killed the one on the other roof and I don’t know what happened to the ones that went after you, with us two that’s four, there’s three more ahead.”
“Thank you.” Wintry placed her hand over the man as she freezed him over, leaving just enough for him to breathe.
Wintry made her way through the door those two were guarding, entering a small hallway leading to two doors, one was the roof access and the other seemed to be a room that took up the rest of the floor. She began approaching the door leading to the room, creeping on her toes to try and avoid making any noise. Once she got close enough, she heard a man sneezing inside.
“Damn allergies! Achoo! I hate them.”
“Aw sheesh Saul, you got boogers on meh.” Another voice said.
“Sorry Dupree, I can’t Ah Ah ACHOO! I can’t control it.”
Wintry rolled her eyes, what was up with these characters? She kicked the door open and quickly reached for the floor with her hands, ice traveling quickly through the floor. The man named Saul, who was still sneezing, didn’t realize he had been captured by Wintry’s ice. Dupree however, managed to jump out of the way, the way you do if you see a snake attacking you. Wintry made sure Saul was frozen up to his mouth before standing up and getting ready to freeze the remaining thug.
“Woah! How did you do that? Are you a wizard?” Dupree seemed genuinely confused by the ongoing situation.
“Witch.” Wintry replied. “Wizards are boys, Witches are girls.”
“That’s more scary.”
“If I were a wizard I wouldn’t be scary?”
“Nah, wizards are nice. Witches are evil.”
“I’m not evil.”
“But you just froze my friend.”
“Because you two are evil!”
“Oh yeah.” Dupree let out a loud goofy laugh, which gave Wintry the opportunity she was looking for, freezing him up to his neck before the man could figure out what was going on. “Aw darn it, you got me!”
Wintry noticed this one man was a bit slow in the head, so she approached him carefully with the intention to gather information. “Say, we can make a deal, tell me who you work for and I might let you go.”
“Promise?”
“I promise I might let you go.”
“We don’t know his name, he talks directly to Harry.”
“Who’s Harry?”
“Him.”
Wintry turned around just as a metal bat smashed into her helmet. She stumbled to the side before falling against a wall, trying to regain her balance before the man holding the bat hit her again.
“Looky what we got here! Some bitch in tights thought they could just walk in and take out the Sadistic Seven!”
“But Harry, I thought we were all star gangsters.” Dupree said while giving Harry a sad face.
“Shut the fuck up Dupree, you won’t even remember by tomorrow. Now, where was I? Ah yes, beating this bitch up!” He hit Wintry with the bat again on her side and then danced around as if he hit a home run. “You know why I love this job? We get to keep anything we find, that includes some girl that walked in where she shouldn’t.”
Wintry was breathing loudly, trying to regain composure while using the wall to keep herself up. Harry once again swung his baseball bat, but this time it was stopped by Wintry’s hands. As much as stopping the weapon had hurt her, that gave her the opportunity she needed. Ice quickly moving through the baseball bat. Harry tried to let go, but it was too late, the ice moved quickly up his arms and around his torso. From there it just took a few seconds to freeze what was left of him.
Wintry fell to her knees, feeling strong pain on her wrists while she looked at the situation. Seven, they had mentioned it was seven of them, if she counted the guy on the roof, she had gotten all seven of them. The pain around her body was starting to ache louder, but she wanted to go back, to continue helping those who were possible victims of the so-called gang war. But her body wasn’t willing to allow it.
Wintry began to feel her knees shake as she stood up, the pain on her back, arms and head throbbing as the thrill of the fight began to fade away. She could hear Dupree saying something, but she was having a hard time figuring out what. Not to mention she was starting to see blurry while trying to make her way to the exit of the room. She reached the door and collapsed just as she stepped out of the room. She tried to keep her eyes open, but everything around her slowly faded to black.