Published at 12th of August 2022 9:14 pm

Book 2: Chapter 51: Sovereign Citizen

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The ice covered almost the entirety of a city block, centered around a large gymnasium. It towered over its surroundings, taller and broader than any building around it. There was no real shape to it, but it clearly hadn’t been formed by nature. There were too many jagged spikes erupting from its center mass, like a porcupine curled into a ball. The cause was not difficult to guess at for people in the know. There had been a raid on Coldeyes’ Crew, and now there was a glacier sitting on dry land.

For the rest of the city, there was the video.

It was emailed to Channel 7, the most watched local news in Austin, a handful of minutes after the glacier’s appearance. Some lucky intern checked it over, and forwarded it to the news desk where it was then broadcasted to just about the entire city.

The video opened up on a man’s face. He was lean, fair skinned, with short-cropped dark hair, a narrow face, and sharp features. His eyes glittered like polar ice on a clear day, a blue so light it was practically white. His voice had an aristocratic tint to it, a pompous self-importance that infected the man’s posture as he spoke.

“Citizens of Austin,” he began. “I am Coldeyes.”

The camera panned away to reveal his surroundings. He was standing inside a building, but only patches of blurry wall and ceiling were visible past the layers of frost. It was dimly lit by a hastily assembled spotlight, that centered on Coldeyes. He sat on a throne formed from ice, and his ass seemed entirely unbothered by that fact. There were shadows in the walls, frozen, unmoving. Their forms were indecipherable, blurred by layers of ice.

Dan’s hands clenched into a fist as he searched for people that he recognized among the murky surroundings, but the camera quickly reoriented on the speaker. Coldeyes rested one leg crossways atop the other, and rested his hands against his thigh. Fog pooled around his ankles. His posture was straight, almost military, but he wore what could only be described as a supervillain outfit.

Black spandex with blue highlights, tight fitting across his body. No mask, villains had seldom worn masks throughout this dimension’s history, but otherwise he was entirely covered. Everything above his head was revealed to the elements. If the room’s temperature, which must be well below freezing to support that much ice, bothered him, he did not show it. His cheeks weren’t even flushed.

His eyes were glowing slightly, Dan noticed. Each word he spoke echoed strangely against the frozen walls, but his voice produced no water vapor. Dan took in these details with purpose, knowing that every hint about this man’s power would be useful to someone, somewhere, someday. Coldeyes was using his power in this video. Was it to shield himself from the elements? To maintain the integrity of the ice around him? Why? Motives mattered almost as much as ability. Dan kept these things in mind as Coldeyes monologued into the camera.

“I am surrounded by the remnants of Austin PD’s SPEAR Teams.” Coldeyes gestured to the bodies around him, suspended in ice. “A few short minutes ago, they chose to attack my holdings, my people, and myself. As you can see, that ended poorly for them.”

And then, he smirked. It was a cold, vicious thing, his thin lips forming little more than a sharp cut across his face. No teeth, and no real humor. It was an empty gesture filled with mockery.

“But I’m sure they tried their best,” he said, his voice dipping into a smooth baritone. “I don’t say this to worry you, fellow citizens. Most of you are not so foolish as to pick fights that you cannot win. I mean you no harm to those of you just trying to live your lives.”

Dan scoffed. But a week ago the man’s gang had slaughtered something like a hundred people and had freed a literal terrorist. While the majority of those injured and killed were members of a rival gang, that was merely a result of proximity. The Crew had no qualms about killing civilians. Dan needed only look at the case of Daniel Webb to know that much. Nobody with a shred of intelligence would buy what Coldeyes was selling, so what was the point of his little speech? All it did was piss Dan off.

“My fight is with those who seek to take what I’ve earned,” Coldeyes continued. “Those who would control me, control all of us, having not earned the right nor possessing the strength! Society has a name for people like me. Villain.” He rolled the word over his tongue like it was a fine wine. “Curious, the things we demonize, simply because I disagree with a few laws. My operations haven’t hurt anyone, yet people condemn me because I ignore words written on paper.”

He shook his head in mock disappointment. “Laws must have teeth. Order requires force. Lacking that, this is the result.” He gestured around him. “Nothing irks me more than a powerless ruler. I intend to address this issue.”

He stood up, eyes flashing. The camera zoomed out, taking in his throne as it dissolved. Coldeyes straightened his sleeves, brushed himself off, and looked into the camera.

“Feel free to collect your public servants, if you can. I shall leave them alive, those who remain, as a testament to their failures. By all means, do try again. I welcome the challenge.”

He turned, walking away from the camera. The ice in front of him melted away, forming a corridor. Coldeyes stopped at the entrance, glancing over his shoulder. Twin spots of blue and white gazed into the camera.

“This is a fine city you have here. It’s my first visit, but I’ve found myself liking it quite a bit.”

His eyes glittered with veiled malice.

“I think I’ll stay.”

The video cut to black. The news room exploded into speculation. Dan muted the channel and pondered what he’d just seen.

It had been a spectacularly unhelpful monologue, the purpose of which Dan couldn’t begin to guess at. That the video had been played at all showed just how discombobulated the APD were from these events. Normally, they would have suppressed any sign of weakness. They’d managed to maintain a perimeter around Coldeyes’ lair. No news crews had managed to sneak more than a peek at the ice fortress. Dan thought that prudent. With the nature of Coldeyes challenge, it was entirely possible that the Natural was simply waiting for some idiot to walk in and get popsicled.

It was a long, sleepless night for Dan. The villain siren cut off after an hour of ringing, once it became apparent that an army of villains wouldn’t come streaming out from the gymnasium’s depths.

Abby had called again, offering comfort but no new information. Her grandmother was apparently monitoring the situation, and had given her consent for Abby to connect their private security firm with the APD. It was a step in the right direction, but too little, too late.

It wasn’t until the early morning that the gym site was declared clear for rescue operations. Surveillance upgrades had tentatively deemed it unoccupied by any but the surviving officers, and attempts were being made to breach. Only attempts, because the ice was proving to be supernaturally dense. The call went out for crisis volunteers, people like Dan whose abilities included excavation, to assist the APD in freeing their fellows.

Dan picked up his bag, chugged an energy drink, and stepped out of the world.

The area around the gym was freezing. Dan stuffed his hands into the pockets of his jacket, silently wishing he’d thought to buy gloves. He took careful steps over the icy ground, following a uniformed officer who led him to a breach location. Both volunteers and officers had been assigned specific points of entry, so that they wouldn’t interrupt each other’s efforts. Whatever upgrade proved most effective would take point, and the others would follow.

He turned a corner, and paused, as the glacier loomed over him. It made it all real, seeing the gigantic block of ice sitting in the middle of the city. It was the size of a small mall, tall enough to cast a shadow over the block, and formed from layers of overlapping ice. It was a deep, murky blue. Dan couldn’t see more than a few feet into the walls.

He could hear the rhythmic hammering of other volunteers and officers beating against the ice. Some used hammers, mechanical or otherwise, some used their fists. He saw flashes of red in the distance, morning dew boiling off the walls of the glacier as someone hit it with a fire upgrade to little effect. Another stood in place, holding their hands outward. The ground beneath their feet trembled but the ice held firm.

Unsurprisingly, Gregoir had made the most progress. He’d carved a path nearly ten feet deep into the ice, using nothing more than his muscles and a massive sledgehammer. Dan could just barely see him in the distance, swapping out his misshapen tool for a new one. He wasn’t surprised at Gregoir’s success, but Dan planned to do better.

“This is your spot,” the officer escorting him said. “Good luck. I’ll leave you to it.”

Dan shook his head. He had friends inside, waiting for rescue. People who might already be dead, and others whose lives would be irrevocably changed by this experience. Dan could only guess at the kind of damage exposure to this cold could do to even an upgrade reinforced body. He wasn’t in the mood to wait, and he knew he could get through this. A Natural created this, and a Natural could break it.

“Stick around,” Dan told the officer, stepping forward. He pulled his hands free, rubbing them together to generate heat.

“This won’t take long.”

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