Frozen Synergy

"The snow itself is lonely or, if you prefer, self-sufficient. There is no other time when the whole world seems composed of one thing and one thing only." - Joseph Wood Krutch

It's been about a year since I left Charles and everyone behind. I was roaming around, state to state, taking in the sights and enjoying the good life. Helping kids get their cats out of trees, sneaking into movies, taking work where I could, life was simple and life was good. I drank all night and partied all day, sometimes. I could honestly do whatever I wanted. And for once in my life, all I wanted was to relax and I was perfectly able to.

During my journey away from the Palace I decided to check out good old Washington, look at the monuments, do a little sight seeing, and more importantly spread my patriotic pride all over that pristine democratic oasis. And, on top of that I wanted to try and forget killing my brother with my own two hands. When I was stuck doing nothing he was all I could think about. So I kept that little boy Kurt at the forefront of my mind, his smiling face in his mother's arms. Always a good way to keep my thoughts away from awful things. They just depressed me, so some relaxation was required. Of course that didn't end up happening. My trip was actually ruined by an assassin of all things.

I don't like assassins. I just don't like them. I never have. They're sneaky and hard to find and don't care who they hurt. So when I ran into some KGB asshole wreaking havoc at some demonstration in D.C., I was so pissed. I was just trying to get out of the whole "saving people" business for, well, the rest of my life. I didn't want to deal with that shit anymore. But when I hear innocent civilians screaming I've just got to act. It's in my genetic code somewhere next to the "kickass" gene. Seriously? Fuck assassins. This one was too busy picking off diplomats with a freaking rifle to really notice me, causing everyone else to break out in pure hysteria. He just kept picking them off and I finally jumped into action.

Midst a crowd of screaming people I shrugged off my jacket, tossing it on the ground and stemming a line of electricity right at the sniper/assassin/piece of shit. Seeing as he was laying on his belly on a rooftop across the way he didn't react that much to my faint electrocution. But he did train his weapon at me in retaliation. I wouldn't have minded, honestly. I wouldn't die from just a bullet. If I wasn't surrounded by screaming innocents I totally wouldn't mind. I quickly threw out my electrical field to protect everyone within sight just as the bullets left his barrel. They stopped right in their tracks upon impact with my shield and dropped straight to the ground. With him slightly confused by my abilities I took full advantage of that moment of hesitation to turn into my electrical form and jump into the air. He quickly got to his feet without removing his crosshairs from me.

Landing in front of him in a fraction of a second, I reverted back to corporal form and started delivering punches and kicks in hopes to delay him so everyone could get to safety. He dropped his rifle and was meeting me punch for punch but better than I thought he would. Unfortunately I didn't account for how strong he'd be. Not only was he built like a brick wall he had massive force behind his punches. It wasn't anything I couldn't handle but it was a struggle. I'm stronger than most humans but his strength far surpassed mine. My only option was to avoid direct hits and try to use his clunky weight against him. Which wasn't proving to be as easy as it sounded.

Throughout our struggle he didn't say a word. I was used to being taunted by my opponents so it was a little unnerving. I was constantly trying to find an opening but his fighting style was way too efficient. Any opening was gone just as soon as it appeared. Ducking and weaving was all I could do. Had I known he was this strong I would've kept my distance. I wouldn't've put myself on the disadvantage. But I was holding my own. I kept my feelers out for the energy of the plaza beneath us, it had leveled out significantly, leading me to believe everyone had cleared out. I decided to pump out the juice, get on the offensive. Just as I did he pulled out a knife and tried to drive it into my throat. I smacked it out of his hand with ease and the struggle continued.

The fight continued on more of an equal ground after that. I could see the anger growing in his eyes. He wasn't the type to lose, I could tell. But neither was I. I doubt he'd ever really lost before that day though. And the only sense that he had lost was that he didn't kill all of his targets. I'm glad I took even that from him. Because it wasn't much later that he got my in face with a left hook. We were both south paw it seemed. The impact of the punch threw me across the roof a ways and with me a significant distance away he pulled his gun out and shot me twice in the heart.

Just as the bullets pierced me my body was already working to push them out. Staggering and clutching my chest I watched the ground beneath me turn red and two small pieces of metal drop from me. I could practically sense the shock exuding from him. Guess his opponents never crapped bullets out of their chests quite like I did. Pulling myself up to standing he repeated the action, hoping he'd be more successful the second time. My body repeated the process and I coughed up a bit of blood onto my shoes.

"Dammit!" I cringed, rubbing my chest. "Buddy, c'mon! It's not going to work!" I managed to get out while the pain still coursed through me. Eventually that too was a thing of the past as the assassin charged at me again.

This time he wasn't playing around. His left hand went right for my throat and began squeezing the life out of me immediately. He was too strong. Too strong to be completely human. I hadn't been living under the assumption that he was, though. Who knew what sort of mutants they had roaming around Russia. He was definitely one tough cookie that was for sure. One tough mean cookie that I disliked greatly.

As a last attempt to keep my life I began to furiously pulse electricity through his arm, hoping he'd weaken and drop me. No such luck. Despite how much harmful energy he had coursing through that limb his grip remained strong. Chilling and deadly.

"What-" I gritted out. "How?!"

Figuring I only had one trick left up my sleeve I returned to my electrical form and phased out of his grip. Gasping for breath I distanced myself from him and watched his cold gaze bore into me. He was quite pissed still that I interrupted him.

That's when it hit me. His strength, his frozen grip, his resistance to the strongest energy I could muster, his left arm wasn't flesh and blood. It was metal. So what is he? A mutant? Or a KGB experiment? Or a bit of both?

I didn't bother thinking about it anymore. I just lunged at him when he used my momentum against me, tossing me off of the roof and watching me fall to the ground. I struck pavement as electricity before I became a pancake, and I was completely unscathed. I looked up, ready to resume the fight when I saw a helicopter come over the rooftop and I watched him fly away with it, dangling on the rope ladder with his gun still trained on me. He'd shoot me down in a second if I tried to follow him. And if he was moving on from his target, then I succeeded. I found my jacket again, pulling it on, and disappearing from sight. Wondering where the hell I should go next.

The End.