Permafrost loomed over Dan, dwarfing his admittedly short stature. "Just what do you think you're doing here?" His voice boomed, echoing despite the lack of nearby buildings.

"I—" Dan stuttered, unable to say anything to finish his sentence. What am I going to say? I was here to murder your right hand man? And I'm after you next?

"Silence," Permafrost said. "I wasn't talking to you." He turned to Polar, still cowering in pain on the ground. "I expected betrayal, only to find you walking straight into a trap. I expected better of you."

Dan shrunk back, though he kept his hand on the button. We already have one massive problem, no need to make it two. A streak of white came hurtling down from a nearby tree. Ash. She plummeted towards the ground, fist out in an attempt at a stereotypical superhero landing, but when the ground finally came up to meet her, her hand caught on a particularly slippery patch of ice and slipped out from under her, causing her to land face first. He heard muffled grunts. "Sparks, why do I always land weird?" And there's our third Epic dramatic entrance, Dan thought. Sorry, Ash, you tried.

"What in Calamity are you?" Permafrost growled.

"Hi, I'm here to kill your subordinate. You don't mind that, right?" Permafrost shot a dagger of ice at Ash, who dodged it by less than an inch. "Yep, I'm guessing you do mind that." She got up, grumbling to herself. "Which means I'm going to have to do something I really didn't want to have to do today." Ash raised her fists, bloody from the fall and scraping on the ice, though Dan knew that below the blood, no injuries remained. "Are you ready? Because I'm getting really cold out here, and I could use a bit of a warm-up."

Permafrost frowned, confused at what Ash was saying. Ash gave a frustrated sigh. "You're the warm-up. Slontze." She jabbed her fist out at the other Epic, only to be blocked by a hastily summoned shield of ice from Permafrost.

Dan's hand inched down towards the gun in his jacket, hoping desperately that Permafrost was distracted enough by Ash's performance. Anna, I swear, I don't care how bad it's looking from your end, take the sparking shot, he thought. He guessed there were some things he had to do himself. He pulled his weapon out, keeping care to not take his hand off the motivator's button, and aimed it at Polar. A gust of wind ripped the transmitter out of his hand. Dan stared at his empty hands in disbelief.

"Cute," Permafrost said, looking away from his confrontation with Ash for a second. "Using one of my rivals as a distraction. I appreciate the effort, but I'm afraid it won't be enough."

Polar stood up, groaning from the lingering effects of the motivator. "You little rat," he said, staring straight at Dan, and bringing several of the sharp pieces of metal he had brought with him to Dan's throat. "And that almost worked, too. Pity."

This was the end. He would become merely the last of his research group to die. Polar would continue on his reign of terror. And Permafrost—Unless Ash got very lucky, Permafrost would freeze even more towns to death. And it would be all his fault. Dan closed his eyes, waiting for the end to come.

The end sounded strangely like Polar screaming. Dan tentatively opened one eye, then looked down at the shards of metal lying motionless on the snow at his feet, and finally at Polar, who was again doubled over in pain. But the transmitter— he thought, looking over at it lying in the snow, inert and likely broken. How in Calamity? Then, the realization came to him, along with the memory of the abandoned lab. Anna, what have you done? A shot rang out, and Polar looked down in horror as blood began to spread on his pristine, white shirt.

Ash spun around, turning away from her fight with Permafrost for a brief moment. "Took you long enough. I thought I was going to have to do all the work here," she snarled. There was not even a trace of humor in her voice. She blocked an icicle from Permafrost, barely even turning to look at it. "We need to get out of this shitshow. Now."

Permafrost fired another icicle at Ash, and this time, it hit her in the arm. She gasped in pain, and looked down in horror at it. In defiance of everything Dan had known about Ash's powers, the wound refused to heal. Permafrost wound up to throw another icicle, and Dan grabbed Ash's sleeve, pulling her out of the way.

Anna came charging up from her hiding spot in the nearby gazebo, apparently not content with using her powers from afar, hands crackling with electricity. Dan gave a quick mental count. One, two, yep, that was three Epics who either were or could easily become massive problems if he didn't manage to get them away from the situation. "Anna, what in Calamity's fires do you think you're doing?" Dan yelled.

"What the sparks do you think I'm doing?" Anna shouted back. "I'm trying to save both of your sorry asses." She hurled a bolt of electricity at Permafrost, who recoiled slightly at the unexpected attack. She was clearly affected too, as much as Dan suspected she would deny it up and down once they managed to get to safety. If they managed to get back to safety. He glanced at the handgun, laying discarded and useless on the snow near Permafrost. Out of reach. If only—No. He should focus on the things he could change. Which—

Dan, yet again feeling ignored in this fight of gods, reached down towards the snow on the ground, and packed the tightest snowball he had ever packed in his life, compressing it to the point where it was hard, sharp ice. This better work, he thought. Or else I am going to die looking extremely stupid. He wound up, hurling the snowball as fast as he could at Permafrost's eyes. Permafrost recoiled in pain, stopping the fight to wipe the snow out of his bleeding eye. "Now's our chance! We need to get out of here," he shouted, desperately hoping there was enough of his friends left for them to listen.

Luckily, there was. Anna nodded and started to retreat, and Ash wasted no time, bolting away from the scene even faster than humanly possible. Dan, for his part, scattered as well, desperately hoping all the time that his distraction would last long enough for him to not get an icicle in the back.

Out of breath from the run, he finally arrived at a bush that he thought was a safe enough location to decide where to go next. The deep prints his running left in the snow meant that he couldn't stay long, but he needed some place where he could catch his breath and try to avoid pondering what the sparks just happened as long as possible. He closed his eyes. I just need to think of the next step. What's the next step? There were large, abandoned buildings nearby that he could go through without leaving as much of a trail, and they had enough exits that it wouldn't be immediately obvious where he had left.

He sighed, left the building through an exit he hoped was inconspicuous enough, and went off towards their rendezvous point.

When he reached it, as he feared, only Anna was there. She looked at him, a mixture of fear, exhaustion, and that strange harshness that always came when she used her powers written all over her face. "So, that happened," she said, not meeting his eyes. "Any idea where Ash went?"

"I saw how she was out there. I'm pretty sure we both know." She was in the other house, the one they had prepared for her to go to if anything like the abandoned house ever happened again. But there was something else that needed to be said.

"Anna, you worried me out there," Dan said.

"I saved your life. Isn't that a cause for a 'thank you?'"

Dan sighed. "It is, and I am grateful you did it. It's just—" His voice wavered a little. "That was the farthest I've ever seen you go with your powers, more even than when you first got them." And I'm worried that not even all your determination will hold you back next time. And that next time would be closer than either of them would like.

"I'm fine," Anna said. "And you have no idea what it's like for me to use my powers, so I'd appreciate if you just shut up about them." Dan shrunk back from her. Her eyes held a hardness to them that, while a pale shadow of what he'd seen out in the park, still terrified him. She was not as in control as she seemed to think she was, and the fact that she didn't seem to notice anything was wrong was even more worrying. "Are we clear?" The question didn't even seem like a question, more like a command. A command to a subordinate.

"All right," Dan said. He didn't have much choice, it seemed. "And I'm glad you did what you did, at least part of it. You saved my life out there. I'm just worried there will be consequences." Dan stopped, seeing Anna's glare. "And I'm not talking about the ones you told me not to talk about. Permafrost knows about you now. Knows about all of us. And he's paranoid, that's why he followed Polar."

"If he sees me as a threat, he's right," Anna said.

"It means we lost an opportunity. He's not going to let you in to repair anything, not now he knows what you're capable of. And if he sees you as a rival trying to usurp him, your aunt might be in danger, from something she doesn't even know about."

"Dan, she's not going to like it if I tell her," Anna said.

"She doesn't have to like it. She's in danger. She deserves to know what's going on."

For a second, the cold expression on Anna's face cracked. "I suppose you do have a point there. But she'll hate me for it."

"Be mad at you for keeping secrets? Probably. Honestly, it'll probably get pretty loud in there. But I know her. We know her. I don't think there is anything you can do that will make her hate you."

"I hope you're right," Anna said. "How do you think Ash is doing?"

And now we're changing the subject, Dan thought. He looked into her hard, frozen eyes. He wouldn't push it. Not today. Not until she'd had a chance to cool off from using her powers, at least. Sparks, he thought. I'm scared of Epics even when they're my own best friend. Especially when the Epic was his own best friend, if he had to be honest. "She'll be okay. I really hope she'll be okay, anyway. She was herself enough to run when we did, anyway."

Dan closed his eyes. "But there was something else I saw. Something with her powers. Anna, she got hit by one of his icicles, and she didn't heal from it."

Anna let out a deep breath. "You think she was lying about her weakness."

"I don't know. Either that, or there's something about Permafrost we don't know about." And both possibilities were equally horrifying. Particularly the first one. Dan shuddered, imagining a scenario where Ash lost control and nothing they could do would help. "I'll ask her about it when she gets back. There might be a good explanation for what happened."

Anna sighed, shaking her head. "There's so much we don't know here."

"There is. But we still have to move forward. And if nothing else, Polar is dead now. That's more than we had before today." Dan looked his eyes, fixed on the frozen distance beyond the window. "I only hope the cost was worth it."