30. Meltdown
It's eleven a.m by the time I finally get up and let me tell you, nothing feels better than a Sunday morning spent sleeping. No early wake ups, no superhero stuff, nothing but me and this warm bed.
When I do get up, I get dressed really slowly, savouring every moment. Man, if only every morning was like this. You know what I feel like? A vacation week: no school, no superpower stuff -- nothing but eating, sleeping, playing video games with Josh. Can't get much better... Actually, maybe if Julia is on this vacation... Maybe if we were on a tropical island togther, without anybody else... It's really hot and it's, er, an island, so there is a lot of water around, so Julia is wearing nothing but a really tight bikini... yep, now the vacation couldn't be better.
Getting my jeans on ends up being slightly more difficult than other mornings, thanks to that mental image. Cold showers, Tim. Cold showers, cold rain, cold baths. It's raining ice cubes. Ah, what else is a turn off? Lady Gaga. Live in concert. Also, it's outdoors and snowing.
I can barely look Josh in the eye as I eat cornflakes as a late breakfast. Daydreaming about your best friend's sister can do that to you. Luckily, the TV is on, so I don't have look at him. The range of shows on at this time is pretty small, mostly telemarketing, talk-shows and of course, news channels. I'm just about to turn it off and ask Josh what he wants to do today, when a live news report catches my attention.
"Casino robbing in process," I mutter, turning the volume up. "Daylight robbery, eh?"
Josh reads out the next line for me, while I take a big mouthful of cornflakes. "The media is wondering when and if a superhero is coming to save the day." He winks at me.
"Maybe after my cornflakes," I say, before having another mouthful. "I just got up. It's still the morning."
"Well, dude, it's actually almost lunchtime." Josh points to the time in the top left hand corner of the screen. 11.45. Great.
"Who would rob a casino at lunchtime?" I ask Josh and the TV. "Like, wouldn't at night be the best, when they have the most money in circulation and therefore in the vault? Who is the bad guy, anyway?" Neither Josh or the TV presenter has to answer me, the next shot of a man in a dark-blue suit -- freezing a set of doors solid so nobody can escape -- is all the information I need. "Icebreaker." I stand up and quickly put my half-eaten bowl on the bench, flexing my muscles. "That guy is so uncool."
"Well, technically," says Josh, with a slight chuckle, "he is 'cool'." Josh rolls his eyes at my blank look. "Like, 'cool' as in cold."
"Right," I say, not too amused. "Anyway, he is a douche-bag and is going down." After not too much looking, I find my suit where I last placed it, crumpled up on the ground from where I took it off last night. Note to self - make mum wash suit. "I wonder if he will be shocked when a guy, not too unlike the one he knocked out in the cinema, shows up to give him a little take-down."
Josh chuckles. "Ha, shock! That's a good one!"
I groan, as I pull my arms through the red sleeves. "You know what would be good? A power that doesn't come with cheesy puns. Like, maybe, controlling flames?"
"Now that you mention it--" Josh grins and rubs his hands together. "I'm just burning to say all my flame-related phases."
I snort at him, pulling my mask over my head. "You will make a great supervillain one day. But for now, it's Icebreaker's turn."
It takes me a little while to find the casino in question, enough to make me worry that I might have missed my chance to fight Icebreaker. But as I kick in the frozen glass doors and survey the scene, I realise that I would never be so lucky.
I waltz right in, only to see a front-row view of a white-suited girl -- Ghostanna -- spinning around in the air and aiming a kick right at Icebreaker's face. However, he grabs her foot before it can connect and throws her across the room, sending her smashing into a card table. Chips and cards, as well as notes are flung up into the air, falling all around her. Ouch.
If that wasn't bad enough, Icebreaker flings out his hands in her direction -- not unlike how I imagine I look when I shoot electricity -- and blasts a wave of cold air at her, effectively covering her in ice and freezing her to the ground.
I'm guessing they have only been fighting for around five minutes, but in that time, they have already wrecked the place. The tiled floor is covered in melting ice, random debris is scattered around the place: everything from slot machines to bar-stools, to the grand chandelier, which is laying smashed on the ground near my feet, half-covered in ice. The first-floor balconies above have sections ripped off and missing. Looking around I can see a few of what were casual midday gamblers hiding under tables and behind the bar. Heaps of news-reporters and camera-men are already milling about and I'm sure if I look hard enough I'll even see that moustached guy.
I'm starting to think I might go unnoticed as a spectator, when one of the casino-goers cries out and points in my direction. This sets off a chain reaction of turning cameras and excited shouts. As a reflex I wince, not liking all the sudden attention. Icebreaker lets down his hands and turns to me, scowling.
"Great. Now there's two of you." Quickly taking a big breath in, he opens his mouth and roars at me, the force of which actually hurls chairs in its path and sends me flying backwards into a metal rail. I'm guessing said rail, which is right before the doors to the building, exists as some sort of crowd control aid. Whoever put it there mustn't have been anticipating any supers would smash into it, however, as I can feel it bending under me as land. Pain radiates through my back as I quickly jump to my feet, but not the sharp, sudden pain -- instead the throbbing 'you-better-watch-out-because-this-is-gonna-be-a-really-nasty-bruise-in-the-morning' type of pain, which is just as bad, but luckily easier to push out of the way as I focus on facing down Icebreaker.
He turns back to where he left Ghostanna -- half-frozen and smashed through a card table -- and swears. She has disappeared from under his ice-pile, now invisible in the room somewhere (and hopefully about to kick him in the back of the head).
"I hate it when she does that," he growls and begins to turn back to me. Thinking fast, I clench my fists and open the gates holding back my electricity from my hands, pushing as much power into my clenched fingers in the small few seconds I have before Icebreaker throws ice or roars at me again. He looks at me and smirks, before raising his hands up. I leap up into the air, soaring over his blast of ice and throwing my own electricity back at him, which arcs through the air towards him as a pair of forked bolts.
He cries out as they hit him in the stomach, falling to his knees as the electricity surges through him and into the ground. He wobbles as he tries to stand, smoke rising from two fist-sized holes in the fabric of his suit, showing burnt pink skin underneath.
"Ouch, little shit," he hisses. This annoys me and because I've still got heaps of power flowing into my hands, I blast him again. At the same time, Ghostanna appears behind him, aiming a punch right at his kidneys. The bolts from my hands hit him at the same time as her punch does -- which I know from the few of my physics classes I wasn't asleep in -- isn't a good thing. I wince as instead of Icebreaker feeling the pain, most of the current is redirected into her. She jumps away in shock, landing awkwardly on her side and holding her hand in pain. Shit.
I feel a little bit drained from that last blast, the electicity no-longer flowing into my hands as vigorously as it was before. Icebreaker wastes no time in throwing his hands out towards me, sending a shower of ice in my direction. I leap out of the way and almost dodge them all, but one little one succeeds in piercing through my suit and the skin on my calf. The sharp, sudden pain distracts me enough that I muck up my landing, tripping over my feet and falling awkwardly onto the floor.
I land not too far from where Ghostanna is slowly getting up, shaking off her obviously sore hand. Our eyes meet and she scowls at me, a cross between the 'you-are-an-idiot' and 'what-do-you-think-you-are-doing' looks. I wince and mouth the word "sorry". She scowls again before disapearing, while I am left wondering what I did to be so terrible when interacting with the opposite gender.
Ah, whatever. I yank the ice-splinter from my leg and stand up. Icebreaker chuckles at me as I throw the ice down on the ground and crush it with my foot. I glare at him.
"Awwww, don't tell me you are getting all charged up over current events."
Ugh. I look around for the nearest large object -- a slot machine -- and rip it from the ground, hurling it in his direction. He jumps up into the air and flies out of the way, landing gracefully -- at least, much more 'gracefully' than I could ever manage -- at the top of the grand staircase. The slot machine I picked up carries on to destroy a window, adding to the already huge list of things the casino owner will need to replace.
"Damn!" he roars and I quickly grab onto a nearby column to support myself from the shockwave caused by the power of his voice. "I'm good, eh? A double pun. 'Charged up' and 'current'."
I hear a snort beside me and Ghostanna materialises. She rolls her eyes at him.
"Whatever, snow machine."
"You know what?" he asks. "No more mucking around. I'm gonna take you two kids out, and get back to robbing this casino. I've wasted enough time." Of course. Like he wasn't trying to take us out that whole time. Not at all. Icebreaker throws his hands up at the ceiling and creates a shower of ice, gravity quickly bringing small spears of it down towards us on a course of near-certain impalement.
"Great," I hear Ghostanna mutter from beside me, before leaping and grabbing my arm, pulling us both down onto the floor. What the hell is she doing? The ice is still heading straight for us and she wants to what? Make us an easier target? Surely not, that would be stupid. Just as the ice-spears are about to stab us, a feeling of weightlessness washes over me, kinda like flying but more subtle. It feels like I am floating, not touching anything, not even the air, if that is even possible. Only Ghostanna, who is gripping my arm like a vice.
Then the ice hits, except it doesn't, it kinda just tickles my skin and disappears as it connects. However, if the resulting weird-muscle-tingling is anything to go by, I think it all just passed through me... like 'phasing' or something. So thats why she grabbed me. Cool. But then not cool, as I try to breathe in and fail, air refusing to go into my lungs, thanks to whatever she just did. I cough as some sort of natural reflex, but thanks to what I assume is the air just passing through me, like the ice, that doesn't work either and I instead make a stale, choking noise, like a weird hiccup. Smooth.
Ghostanna lets go of my arm and I cough again, properly this time, before taking a deep breath in, grateful for the air.
"Sorry about that," she mumbles, before jumping back to her feet and facing Icebreaker again. I follow, shaking off the weird phasing feeling as I do so.
"No, it's fine," I reply. "Thanks, ah, Gh-" I stumble upon saying her name, as it feels strange to say aloud. Like cheesy, I suppose. "Ghostanna."
She snorts. "Just call me... Ghost."
Ugh. Way to feel like a dork, Tim. I groan to myself, biting my lip as I cringe. I'm really good at this talking, interaction, not looking like an idiot stuff, aren't I? Yep, I'm terrible. Any worse and I'll find myself as the main character in a cheesy superhero book, one that people read for the sole purpose of laughing at me when I do stupid things and make idiotic mistakes. Ugh. Wouldn't that suck?
Whatever. Back to reality. Icebreaker growls at us and throws more ice, but this time I grab her and pull us under the balcony and out of the way before we can be hurt.
"I think we need a plan," she says, quickly glancing around the wrecked casino. Yeah, no shit.
"I'm not really the best at plans, but okay," I answer, using the opportunity to take a quick look at her face. Weird, her eyes are all white like the rest of her outfit, except for the pupils, which are thankfully a normal black colour. Must be contacts. I hope they're contacts. It would be kinda creepy if they weren't.
"Are you being seriou-" She gives me one of those 'you-idiot' looks, so I quickly hold up a finger and interrupt her, trying to save face.
"Okay, what about this? I distract him, you go invisible and whack him in the back of the head." I nod to myself, feeling pretty proud of my impromptu plan.
"Okay." She sighs to herself. "That will do. Just no electricity."
"Good," I say, as she disappears. "Wait, not good! Come on, electricity is like my signature move! Well, pretty much my only move." No response. "Okay, fine." I suppose she doesn't want to be accidentally shocked again, but what else can I do? I walk back out into Icebreaker's line of fire, hoping I can quickly think of a new idea.
"Hey, Icemaker!" I call out and he turns his gaze to me, an evil glare in his eyes.
"About time," he grumbles, before leaping down the stairs and landing in front of me. Ice spreads out from where he lands, covering the tiled floor in a thin, but slippery sheen. Knowing the klutz I am, I'm probably moments from slipping and falling over, so I concentrate and make myself rise a few inches off the ground. That's better.
I didn't fall for the slippery-ice trick, but my partner in anti-crime isn't so lucky, judging by the resulting slipping and crashing noises coming from somewhere behind Icebreaker. Icebreaker looks around for the noise, but Ghost hasn't come out of invisible-mode, so he just shrugs and turns back to me. Hopefully he assumed it was just one of the numerous surrounding media-people who slipped on the ice and not her as she snuck up on him.
Icebreaker raises his hands and a torrent of ice forms at his fingertips, which he throws at the ground. It forms a spiked wall of ice in an arc several metres out from his feet, the spikes quickly growing upwards and towards me. I quickly float higher to avoid them, not particularly in the mood for a painful impalement. It's a pretty cool -- yes, I used that word -- move, but I notice it looks a lot like something I saw Queen Elsa do on the Disney movie Frozen, so I kindly point this out to him. This must have angered him in some way, so he roars and throws a semi-circle of little icicles at me, which I fly back down to avoid.
I open my mouth to tell him to calm down, or maybe 'chill out', but he interrupts me before I can, holding up a finger.
"Hold on," he says, standing still and listening for a second. I'm about to ask him what he is up to, when he suddenly spins around on his heel and aims a random kick in the air that was behind him. The air shimmers and an invisible forces crashes into the staircase. The area of impact flickers and Ghost reappears sprawled on the stairs, dazed and possibly unconscious. Shoot. There goes my epic plan.
"Sorry about that," he says, shrugging in false apology. "But you really need to teach your girlfriend to be less predictable."
"Girlfriend? I only just met her." I growl at him, not having to look down to know my hands are sparking again. "I don't even know who she is."
"Love at first sight, then." Icebreaker takes a deep breath and roars at me, his voice vibrating the air and throwing me back into the railing of the first floor balcony. I roughly slide down and fall back down onto the ground, landing awkwardly on my arm and hip. It hurts a lot, expressly my wrist. Slowly moving my hand as I roll myself over proves it isn't broken, probably just badly sprained. Of course, that doesn't stop it from throbbing with pain and hurting a shitload. I'm pretty sure it should have broken from that height, but I've got no more time to comprehend this thought, as I look up and see Icebreaker standing over me, a semi-bored expression on his face.
He reaches for my arm, probably to pull me back to my feet so he can have a clear shot for punching me in the face, break my nose/knock me out or something of the like, so when he makes skin-contact I throw away the no-electricity rule and do the one thing that really comes easy to me. I twist my wrist around and clamp onto his forearm, so it will be harder for him to let go and blast him full of volts, dredging up all the electricity I can feel flowing through my veins and mentally push them into his arm.
He lets out a whimper and tries to pull away, but my grip is too tight. He collapses and I let go, feeling drained and lightheaded myself. Ghost appears beside me as I slowly struggle to my feet, feeling very-much weakened from giving Icebreaker the mega-shock. Speaking of Icebreaker, I kick him lightly with my foot and he moans as he passes out, his skull making a painful-sounding thump as it hits the ground.
"You did it," she says, her tone neither congratulating or mocking. More like a statement of fact. "Great plan, by the way." Now that was sacarsm, though I'm not quite sure what to think of it. I'm tired, slightly blinded by the flashing cameras -- I'm sure they don't need this many photos -- and feeling weak in general, to the stage where I might have to walk or bus back, as I'm not quite sure if I can manage sustained flight. So I don't put too much effort in and reply with the first thing that comes to mind:
"Thanks, for all the help with that." I didn't even know I was capable of snarky comebacks, but I suppose I'm just not really in the mood for being mocked. She glares at me before disappearing, probably walking out and flying invisibly back to her apartment or house or cave or whatever. I don't really care.
I look down at the unconscious Icebreaker and shake my head, before slowly leaving the wrecked casino, walking out the now-open doors, wrenched open by either the police or the media. A squad of men in police uniforms rush in past me to apprehend Icebreaker. A few give me a slight nod as they pass, but most ignore me. Not even bothering to try and fly, I walk a block on foot before stopping and leaning against the side of a building for support, exhausted and out of breath.
The hot afternoon sun shines down on my face and I sigh, knowing there could be much worse weather to have to walk home in. I should probably stick to back streets and such though, seeing as I'm still in my Lightning Strike costume.
Just when I am starting to think this isn't so bad, I hear footsteps to my side and turn to see a shadowed figure slowly walking out of a nearby alley. For the love of... I breathe a sigh of relief when it just turns out to be my mother, although I am confused as to what she is doing here.
"I thought you probably needed a lift home after that," she says, walking up and standing beside me. I look around for the car, admiring how fast she managed to get down here. Even if she was watching live footage, it would still take her more that ten minutes to drive from home, right into the city centre. Also, I'm not exactly at the casino anymore, so it would have taken more than that to find me. She smiles at me and then it clicks. Teleportation. Nope. Not a chance.
"No way." I shake my head. "It was er, a nice offer, but I can walk."
"Don't be stupid. Tim, you are exhasted." She shakes her head and I groan, realising she is probably right. That I'm going to have to give in.
"Can you at least knock me out first?"
"Don't be stupid," she says, placing a hand on my shoulder.
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