Here come the powers…

ENJOY!

…or not…

I don't know why I had agreed to go with him, but considering I was sitting in the helicopter he had acquired with skis strapped to my feet, poles in my hands, winter apparel covering my body and sitting next to Johnny who was dressed like me but had a snowboard instead of skis; it was too late to turn back now.

In fact, the only way to go back was to ski down the mountain.

I remembered the last time we had done something like this. It was about a month before we got engaged, whenever we had vacation time together, we would go on a vacation rather than stay in New York, cooped up in either one of our apartments.

The last vacation was to go on a snowboarding/skiing on Mammoth Mountain in California. We had spent the time in the mountains as well as some, well a lot, of time in the lodge; especially after I injured my leg when another snowboarder collided into me and sent me hurtling into a tree. That accident left me out of action for the rest of the trip.

Considering the situation, I was amazed that the guy tried to flirt with me in the lodge even after Johnny caused a little 'accident' for him in payback.

A month later, we were engaged.

Six months later, we decided to go on that little break of which we were now 2 months into.

"I think you should stay to the left! The right might give you trouble!" Johnny shouted to me over the roar of the helicopter. He winked before turning to the pilot, "I think we should go ten more feet!"

"You got it!" the pilot nodded.

I couldn't help myself, I turned to Johnny and said what I had said to him the day we went skiing before the accident,

"Last one down pays for room service!"

With those words said, I jumped out of the helicopter.

I was a little ways down the mountain by the time Johnny decided to jump out and catch up to me on his snowboard.

By then, I was well ahead.

"YOU'RE LOSING!" I shouted, smirking in yet-to-achieve victory.

"ALRIGHT, NO MORE KID STUFF!" Johnny scoffed.

That was when the race truly began. Despite the racing frenzy, Johnny made sure that I stayed on the right side of the trail the entire time. I didn't know why the left side would be trouble; however, I had to trust Johnny's instincts on this one. He has more experience than me in this department. He went snowboarding with his friends every winter break. The first year I went with them, one of his friend's girlfriend's taught me how to ski well enough to keep Johnny on his toes.

After we made it over some jumps – with Johnny deciding to show off by doing a flip mid-air – I finally glanced over at him.

What I saw struck me with horror.

There was a trail of thick, black smoke following him. It resembled the smoke one would see from a bush or forest fire during the fire season; but what was worse than that was the flames licking up through his clothes and he was completely unaware.

"YOU'RE ON FIRE!" I called out, urgency thick in my voice.

He seemed to misunderstand my meaning, thinking I was complimenting his performance rather than telling him he actually was on fire.

"THANKS! YOU'RE PRETTY GOOD TOO!" Johnny complimented. I rolled my eyes and shook my head in warning.

Normally, I'd be flattered by the compliment but that was the last thing on my mind.

"NO! YOU'RE ON FIRE! LOOK!" I screamed.

Finally, Johnny looked down at himself and saw that he was, indeed, on fire. He blitzed ahead of me, the flames that were beginning to engulf his body almost acting like a rocket booster. Desperately, he patted himself to try and smother the fire but the flames only seemed to go up in ablaze more than before.

I was so concerned with Johnny that I lost concentration on keeping my balance with the skis and before I knew it I was face planting the snow, tumbling a few feet down the mountain before stopping a few feet from a tree, the snow almost acting like a protective blanket with me. I couldn't help but grouse a little bit at that.

I think I've had enough of crashing into trees.

When I regained my senses, I traced the faint traces of the black smoke that was still visible. Johnny wasn't there.

Then I heard a loud yell.

I pushed away at the snow surrounding me and reattached my skis to my feet, wobbling back on to my feet before pushing off from the tree. I stopped for a moment and looked across and saw Johnny had gone over the edge of a chasm that was near the trail.

So that's why Johnny wanted me to stick to the right side of the trail. It took me a moment to regain my senses before I tread through slow awkwardly with the skis.

"JOHNNY!" I screamed.

What happened next was something I had a hard time believing. His entire body was completely engulfed in orange flames and he seemed to be flying.

That didn't last long, however. Soon enough, I saw him crash into a snowbank that was nearby, and it was a nasty crash.

"JOHNNY!" I yelled again as I turned and raced to where he had landed.

It took me a few minutes but when I got there, I wasn't expecting this.

Johnny was sitting there awkwardly, hands next to his head. He was resting against a wall of ice that was formed behind him. I heard sizzling as the snow melted into water, steam rising slowly around him. His jacket – and his shirt – had disappeared completely.

Good lord, I thought, he's naked in an impromptu hot tub.

He didn't seem to notice my concern – and slight annoyance – as he quipped,

"Care to join me?"

"As nice as that looks," I drawled, unzipping my purple snow jacket and shrugging it off my shoulders before, for some reason, taking my jumper off as well, "I can't go into steaming hot tubs anymore."

I reached in to pull him out of the tub, my hand grazed the boiling hot water as I almost fell in.

Yet where my hand skimmed the water, a frost design appeared, spreading out until all of it was frozen once more.

Good news for me I guess but bad news for Johnny, who was still submerged.

"Allie!" he stammered, shivering from the cold, "Kinda freezing here!"

I barely registered his statement. I was too busy staring in horror at the now frozen pond. In my horror, I examined my hands, where I knew the source of this…power had come from.

How did that happen?

And did this new power have anything to do with the snow protecting me from crashing into that tree?

I suddenly screamed as the flat ice suddenly disappeared from beneath me. Johnny caught me before I could fall into the water. Almost as though I had seen a spider, I clung to him, ignoring what the heat on his skin could potentially do to me.

"I've got you, Snowflake," he panted.

The nickname, the one he first gave me when we started dating. I stared up into his eyes as they slowly darkened with our proximity.

And suddenly, full of alarm as my breathing began to lessen.

"Wait! Your body temperature!" he cried.

How did he know about that? Wait. Reed did say that Johnny was the first of us to wake up. Maybe he found out from the doctors treating me.

Suddenly, he placed me on my back in the snow in front of us. He climbed out of the pond, grabbed my jacket to cover himself (for my sake more than his, I think) and then started patting snow on my arms, trying to cool me down. My breathing began to regulate, but not enough for either of our likings, as my body cooled.

"Stay with me, Allie," he kept muttering, dabbing some light snow onto my forehead.

I closed my eyes, focusing on getting my breathing back to normal before I began to hyperventilate. That would be the last thing I needed.

As he raised my singlet to place snow on my stomach, he seemed to freeze. When I opened my eyes, I saw that he indeed had frozen with a small handful of snow still in his hand. He was staring at my stomach. Horrified. Almost guilty.

When I looked down, I saw why.

There was a suture wound held together by at least ten stitches. The wound appeared to be four days old. And the accident in the space station was four days ago.

Wait. I was stabbed by something during the accident and no one told me?!

"What happened?" I asked.

Johnny didn't answer me. Instead, he pulled down my singlet, disposed of the snow and helped me to my feet.

"Come on. We need to find the others," he muttered.

I wanted an answer to the question. I had a right to know how I was injured, but then I understood why.

If we started exhibiting these…symptoms after being exposed to the cloud during the accident, what could happen to Sue, Ben and Reed?

Yeah. Pretty much it. Hope to have another chapter up soon.

BYE!