Hey, CloudedLeopard, glad to see you're so ecstatic about the new story! Cor's my favorite character, too, for some reason, so... here's the story!
DISCLAIMER: I own nothing. I am broke. I've even sold my body to science. This is me being broke and not owning City of Heroes. Got it? Good.
Chapter 2: Ice
It was easiest to call through happiness. Cor preferred that way, anyway.
He called it the Ice. He described it as peace through extreme emotion. When he called it, it magnified his current emotion—sadness became depressive sorrow, anger became deep hatred, and happiness became ecstatic joy. In any case, this pure emotion flowed through him in a chill wash, relaxing his muscles, sharpening his mind and senses. It only came when he called for it, and he rarely did. Especially now that there was nothing to do with it.
He and Talia were holed up in a basement of a rundown house in Kings Row. The alien Rikti had already invaded the area, devastating everything in their path. However, once they conquered a place, they ignored it, pausing only to extract natural resources from the area. Cor and Talia were probably safer here than outside.
They had raided the area, found food and drink. They had enough to stay set for some time. They only hoped that the Rikti would soon be beaten back. If the Rikti won...
The basement was full of boxes, old things tucked away because they were no longer used. Talia found a nice flute. She always loved flute music, and she was exceptionally good at it. Turned out she had the Ice, too, and she used it while playing to express the emotion of the song.
Cor found a fairly solid wooden bat, and a stash of small firearms. He and Talia kept a handgun with ammo each, in case the Rikti found them, and Cor practiced with the bat on a punching bag each day.
His skill and power were greatly increased while he called the Ice. It seemed to bring out the deep strength usually reserved by the human body for situations of extreme stress. It frightened him—he was never sure when he would truly push himself past his limits, and he wasn't sure he would even be able to tell if he did until he dropped dead. Thus, most of his practice was outside of the call, and he reserved the use of the Ice for truly dire emergencies.
They lost track of time, measuring its passing only by the amount of food they had left. Thus, they did not know how much time had passed when someone opened the door and came down looking for survivors, barely avoiding a killing blow from Cor's bat before Cor realized it was another human. The news had finally come—the Rikti had been pushed back, and they were safe to come out again.