Frostbite

Summary: Winter raged around Taylor, who was sealed in her locker at freezing temperatures. The cold doesn't bother her anyway.

1.3 Crystalization

In hindsight, this was a mistake.

But I was running high off of my successes all week.

I mean, I've had my share of stumbling, and one or two scares, but hey, I've improved from each and every one! For starters, I got something more conductive to hiding my identity, a featureless black get up that I would then cover with ice, white as virgin snow. I can do that apparently, it's only a small layer of snow, once compacted it stays in place. You would not think ice can be sticky, but water, once frozen in place, can be very stubborn, apparently.

It's slightly more bulky, but not by much, and it's also better for stopping blunt damage. I know this because I was hit by a pipe two days ago and it'd bruised me through the armor, while being hit with a bat yesterday, when I made the modification to my armor, was significantly less painful, because of the snow cushioning the blow.

See? I'm improving!

I'd also given a bit more of a feminine shape to the armor rather than just ice tubes. So what if I'm... exaggerating a bit with the proportions of my chest? More armor means more ice and snow, means more padding between attacks and my body.

Yes, that is totally the justification and it's not because I've been confused with a man every time I've gone out.

I've also gotten very good at tying my hair back. I've been thinking of using a braid so it's less of a problem, but braiding my hair on the quick has proven problematic, so for now, I'll tie it if I need to change out in the street and braid it if I'm going out to patrol from home.

I'm reluctant to do that last one because dad is bound to notice something weird. Instead, I'm pretending to have friends outside school. It's manipulation, and I feel horrible about lying to dad, but it needs to be done - everyone knows that sharing your secret identity with anyone is just asking for something to go wrong. Also, I would not want someone to see me leaving home in costume.

Speaking about which, I've somewhat streamlined my mask, so that it now covers only my face instead of making it as large as it was before. Again, I discovered it was a problem when someone used it like handles to grab the sides of my head. Not fun. It's honestly pathetic just how much I've gotten my ass kicked by common thugs.

That should've been all the proof I needed to take a step back and go into learning and researching and training for a little bit more, but I was antsy.

The Bitch Trio has been incredibly annoying all week. I've been keeping my anger at bay and taming it further by putting criminals away, and I've been improving every day, and... and...

And honestly I'm still not as ready as I should be, to just go out and stop thugs from engaging in thuggish behavior. Most of the time, it wasn't even gang activity.

Today, though, I made the mistake of intruding upon an ABB operation in progress. It seemed to be a snatch and grab, as some goons stepped out of a van and quickly cornered a young blonde. Well, I say young, but she did look older than me. She seemed to recognize the threat but, oddly enough, she didn't seem terrified as I know I would be in her position.

Well, not me now, because, you know, cape and all, but still, I wasted no time and quickly rushed into the scene brandishing a club made of ice. Also important, I streamlined my weaponry into stuff I can actually use, so for the most part, I shaped my ice into clubs, bats and in one instance, a very large knife (for intimidation purposes only, I swear I didn't quote Crocodile Dundee just because it made me feel giddy inside).

"Stop right there, criminal scum!" I shouted.

You have no idea how satisfying it is to ham things up, I swear. I would not be in this business if they forbid that. For reasonable levels of ham anyway.

"Who the fuck is you?" one of the bangers asked, in accented English.

"A corpse," another replied, leveling a black, shiny and metallic handgun at my face.

It was then that I realized... Holy shit guns are scary.

Scared as shit, I brought up my club and in my panic, had it expand and transform into a disk. I heard the crack of gunfire a moment after. The disk cracked and I could feel a slight burn in my arm, as well as a stinging sensation. "Shit that hurt," I said.

"Die!" the gunman shouted, and I concentrated on repairing my shield and making it thicker, while compacting the ice more.

He emptied the rest of his clip, fucking 16 bullets, while the third and fourth bangers went back to the van, apparently intent on grabbing more weapons.

I let the shield fall apart, and my arm fell limp to my side. It was starting to hurt like a motherfucker and, praying it worked, I sent my cold to the area and froze it. The cold might not bother me, but I can still freeze parts of my body, it seems, because it stopped hurting. I couldn't feel it at all, but it didn't hurt anymore, so that was good.

I made another club on my left hand and quickly swung it at the gunman, who was busy reloading rather clumsily. I got him in the arm, making him drop both gun and clip, but had to duck to dodge a swing of a large pipe. I knew how to deal with this, I won't forget I have powers this time. I used my left hand as a guide and sent my cold into his pipe.

It was broken a second later - he didn't let go of it, but when it hit my armored arm, all that happened was that it crashed into a dozen pieces. The snow padding on my armor absorbed the blow, and it only rocked my stance, helping me throw myself to the side to avoid another thug swinging a large knife. Same tactic had him dropping it and the knife shattering. Disarmed, the thugs were at the mercy of someone with a club... but they were still better at fighting than me, and only one guy had taken a blow. I thought quickly and froze the gun to the ground, where the first thug was lunging for it after massaging his arm for a bit.

Hah, take that, motherfucker!

Then I got kicked on the side. Again, the padding on my armor absorbed the blow, but shit, this isn't good. I raised both arms and covered my head, just in time, since a kick just hit my right arm and FUCKING HELL does it hurt!

I screeched in pain and then the thug kicking me took a moment to stop on my wounded arm. I grit my teeth and grabbed at his leg with my left, freezing his pants. That can't be pleasant, but I'm not feeling particularly charitable to these assholes. The guy stumbled and fell, his pants shattered. He screeched in another language and began rubbing his legs, trying to heat them up. Hairy asian legs in boxers is not what I want to see today, so I rolled to the side.

It was a good idea, because someone was about to stomp on my head. I just dodged a bullet, even if my right arm is telling me I did a bad because I rolled on it.

When I got to my feet, I got punched in the face for my trouble, and if that hadn't been enough to throw me back, he probably wouldn't have let up, I really need some sort of face guard, I'll work on that next.

I ducked below his next attack, mostly out of instinct, and when he tried to throw another one, I decided enough was enough and I mentally 'threw' a lance of cold at him. The ice spear formed from behind me and rocketed towards him, impacting on his left shoulder and going through it with a shower of blood.

Shit, I didn't think it'd be that bad. The guy screeched in agony. I'd just thought - no, I don't know what I was thinking, I think I'm losing my composure, I need to calm down.

A cool feeling washed over me, and my nerves stilled, for the time being. I could feel my eyes narrowing as the other thugs started to look scared as they realized that the cape that they'd thought they were pushing around revealed that she'd been holding back.

Okay, I don't want to kill or seriously injure them, I need to think, how to put them down? The guy I stabbed is on the ground, the wound is frozen around the spear. He seems to have passed out from the pain, he's still breathing, that's good.

"Hey," I heard.

It was the blonde that I'd rescued by coming into this situation. Why was she still here? She should've run the moment I proved I couldn't handle this.

"Thank you for that," she continued, "the police should be getting here any moment now, you just have to hold on for a minute or two," she said. "You can do this. I believe in you."

I nodded. It's encouraging that at least the civilian believes in me. Okay, I can do this! Come on, Taylor, just a minute, you have to hold them in place for a minute! How do I keep them from escaping, when they have a getaway vehicle?

Like a lightbulb going off, an idea popped into my head and I knew just what to do. Gathering the cold in my mind, I made a bigger than normal lance and I threw it.

Past the thugs, who scrambled to get out of the way, and into their van, even now still rumbling slightly, its engine active should they need to run quickly.

The large spear of frost was sharper than I expected, digging through the van's front, shredding the engine, and coming out the other side to get imbedded into the pavement.

Contrary to popular belief, cars don't explode if their engines get stabbed.

They shouted in a language I don't know and can't understand, and I used the cold to form a large club on my left hand, throwing myself at the nearest thug while they were distracted and smacking him on the side of the head with my ice club. Probably not a good idea, it could do some serious damage, but it did throw him to the ground where he began to moan in pain. The remaining two seemed pretty spooked, but determined.

I knew why. They knew they couldn't run, so they were probably thinking the only way out was taking me on. They didn't know I probably wouldn't be able to catch up if they cut and ran.

They both rushed me at once, and I discovered that I can only really handle one thug at once, and barely, at that. The two quickly began overwhelming my ability to defend myself, and as they were circling and attacking me with trash they'd grabbed from the street, I realized that I couldn't concentrate long enough to freeze any of their makeshift weaponry.

Deciding that I had to do something, I urged my wounded arm to move and put both arms on one of their shoulders, throwing my full weight at them. Now, normally, this wouldn't be exactly effective, I might be five foot nine, but other than a slight pot belly, I'm rail thin. I kind of look like I'm starving myself. I don't weigh much. However, all the ice and snow on me? That's heavy, and I'm only running around with all of it on because I know it's suicidal not to... and I can cast it off, reduce its thickness so it's only a disguise, when I need to.

Right now, I'd packed as much ice and snow in as I could as I threw myself at the banger, toppling him to the ground. The air was driven out of his lungs by the impact with a grunt, and he was trying to catch it when I used my good arm to punch him in the nose, banging his head against the ground. I hope I didn't break something important... but I don't think I did, since I'm not sure I even actually broke his nose.

No, wait, I did, it's all crooked now.

Behind me, I heard something like a cracking sound, and I heard the sound of a length of pipe hitting the ground as someone gurgled, before crashing to the ground limply.

"Thank you for the save," I said, freezing the trapped banger to the ground by his shirt.

"Thank you for the save," the blonde cheekily replied. "I thought you were the hero here?" she asked.

"Well, you're my hero right now," I admitted, scratching my cheek a bit. "Ah, give me a moment, I'll cuff these guys."

"Let me help you," she said. "You've been shot and require medical attention, don't worry, the police are informed," she said. "How's your arm?"

"I've had worse," I said.

It was a lie. I've never been shot at before.

"You don't need to act tough before me," she said, giving me a smug smile, "even if you're pathetic, you're still my hero tonight, okay?" she said, patting my shoulder.

It was... somewhat disturbing, how she could both insult me and lift my spirits at the same time. Yeah, she was right, my showing was pathetic. All my showings had been, pretty much... but it was working. I was saving people all those times. I'm doing hero work. I stopped some ABB thugs from doing something horrible to a young girl!

"You might want to get a cellphone, though. The police really don't like it when caped vigilantes go around without calling in their, ahem, arrests," she said. "Though you knew that already, didn't you?"

I nodded. The police had been insistent on that. Luckily for me, everyone has cellphones so I usually ask the victims to lend me their phones.

"Well, you can't keep relying on the people you save having intact phones," she explained, "how new are you to this business? Wait, no, I can guess. A week, right? You started a week ago. But you've been planning it for a while longer," she said, beginning to pace, tapping her lower lip as she did. "What's your username on PHO? You don't even have a cape name yet, but that's okay, look, I'll message you. For now, though, the police are just about around the corner, so get ready to give a post-action report."

I nodded. "Why are you... well, being so helpful? I'm... okay, I'm sorry to say it like this, but usually, the victims are, you know, less than calm."

She gave me an almost vulpine smile. "You seem like a good girl," she said. "Don't worry about doing poorly your first few times out, everyone does. Even the Triumvirate probably started out getting their asses kicked by common thugs."

"Somehow I doubt that," I supplied.

If I had powers like Alexandria's, I don't think I would've had as much trouble as I do, since she's invulnerable, can fly and can lift several tons. My power is like a toolbox, I need to find the right tool for each situation. Similar to Legend, I think.

She laughed. It was a nice laugh. "Don't be so pessimistic. Look, you're not doing so bad, are you? I mean, yeah, you got banged up a little, but you probably stopped them from selling me into sex slavery! So cheer up. When you're at the bottom, the only way you can go is up, right?" she asked.

"I guess."

It's not that comforting a thought, but goddammit, she's trying, and she really shouldn't even have to do that.

"Uhm... thank you for trying to cheer me up," I said.

And I was honest about it.

"Think nothing of it," she said. "I think you'll be going places, and if I can play a part in that, all the better."

I smiled at her. I can tell that she's being genuine, and it fills me with warmth to think that there are people out there who think I'm worth something.