FrostFire rubbed his arms already feeling the power rushing back into them. It was a better feeling than any drug you could find in this city... and that’s a lot of drugs. His left arm felt freezing cold and he saw ice form on his fingernails. His right arm felt burning hot and dark red veins began to show up beneath the blue skin, giving it a very disturbing look.
He turned to Oharan, and said, "there’s a saying among the gangs here in Paragon. You don’t need luck when you can blow shit up!"
They were on the edge of the area the Trolls seemed to be holding. Being low enough to the ground to not need parachutes, FrostFire jumped from the chopper, arms and legs flailing in the air, and then he hit the ground on all fours, followed directly after by 15 SWAT officers.
Of course the Trolls had known they were here when they heard the helicopters, but any other method of approach would have required the team to manuever through the entire length of Faultline on foot, with the half a mile deep canyons and slanted... well, slanted everything. The result was that they had to take the Trolls head on with brute force. Which may not have been a good idea.
Both sides opened fire, although the Trolls outnumbered them only a few had guns so the numbers were about even firearm wise. Although, the SWAT had training and superior equipment, the Trolls without guns proved to be the more deadly ones. "Where in the world are these guys getting guns," FrostFire mused to himself as he opened fire with his left arm for the first time in 20 years. He was surprised at how it felt, he barely remembered the sensation of having elemental forces exit your body. The blast hit a gunning Troll in the shoulder and it did little to deter him. After that FrostFire opened up. He ran directly into the fray, jumping up and kicking a smaller Troll in the chin and then while coming down slammed the poor bastard in the head with a fist encased in ice.
Using his fire arm for the first time he took careful aim and threw a small flare clear across the battle into the face of one of the Trolls on the other side. Feeling exhilarated, he slung his arm into the air and upon bringing it back cooled the air around him. He brandished an immaterial whip of cold, which was not even hardened but he slung the collected, chilled air at a nearby Troll with all the speed and strength he could manage. He hardened and shaped it into a blade at the last second so the force took off the heads of the nearest three Trolls. He continued the motion, now holding the gigantic blade with both hands, and moved his body in a circle clearing the radius of enemies around him. Then he realized that in his attack he had unknowingly beheaded one of the men fighting with him. None of the others had noticed, and continued the fight. But even though the years of hardening that the street life had done to him, dulled it, he still felt despair over killing someone who was not his enemy. The criminal part of his brain attempted to rationalize it, "this guy was a cop, why the hell are you feeling bad for him?" But the moral part of his brain was still there, "my god... this is just like that last time."
Because of his distraction one of the larger, more powerful Trolls, came up and delivered an uppercut to FrostFire’s jaw. Normally, that would have accomplished nothing but to piss him off. But, he had forgotten about the slanted battlefield that they were fighting on, he lost his footing and slid back several feet until he eventually stopped himself. Now the Troll had the high ground and he was coming straight for him, only now quicker than before. Concentrating, the former Outcast leader burst forward, keeping himself low and his arms out as though it were a football tackle. His hands landed on the Trolls stomach and he made the temperature rise higher and higher with the right one, and used the left to keep him in place. The result was that the Troll fell to the ground screaming, a charred hole now apparent in his side. He realized that it had been the Troll’s intention to use the slope of the battlefield to his advantage, and with that he felt himself wonder again, "intelligent Trolls?"
The battle had been in their favor, and the Trolls were dispersing. The SWAT team’s tactical training and surperior weapons had won over the Trolls brute strength and slight advantage in numbers. Not to mention FrostFire’s contribution. The remaining members of the attack force were breaking up to hunt down individual Trolls as they ran among their debris ridden hideout. The SWAT members kept track of each other using their communicators. FrostFire had one at his side too. Chasing a lone Troll into a building he caught him fairly easy trying to crawl out of a broken window. Freezing the Troll in place, FrostFire noticed that they were on the edge of one of those famous, half a mile deep canyons. He gently tipped the Troll-sicle over the edge and was disappointed when it was too far for him to see it shatter at the bottom.
Looking around him he realized that if he was going to make a break for it now would be as good a time as any and so he stepped out the window and began the long trek back to Skyway.
Four hours later Agent Oharan found himself yelling at some anxious subordinate. Of course he had known that FrostFire would break for it, but he had trusted him and now look what happened. This sort of thing didn’t happen on his watch; it just didn’t.
After the last group of Trolls had been rounded up the team realized that FrostFire was missing and after searching the immediate area, they set up men at the Skyway City entrance and told the guards to not let any muscular, blue skinned men through. Apart from, probably, holding up a few heroes because of that order they were assured that they would be able to catch FrostFire.
Meanwhile, FrostFire was just out of sight from the guards at the entrance. Stealth wasn’t really his thing but he could probably knock out one of the guys and slip past them with his uniform and ID. He pulled a passing SWAT officer into a smoldering shell of a building, and after taking the man’s uniform and badge he realized why these men just run around in circles whenever there’s a problem, waiting for a hero to handle it.
In the full body uniform he walked past all the gathered security officers and right up to the guards at the Skyway entrance gate. "My god this is easy," he thought to himself, "no wonder the cops in this city are a joke."
He finally came up to the door guards and he took out his badge hoping to flash it and walk by. Unfortunately one of the guards motioned for him to bring it over and see it.
"So what’re you going into Skyway for?" the guard asked the disguised villain.
In a deep, gruff voice FrostFire responded, "The chief wants me to deliver a message to the Security Chief in Skyway, wants to let him know about the criminal we’ve got on the loose and to be ready. He said it was too important to just call him with so the chief sent me to deliver it personally." FrostFire was operating under the theory that if you act more important than somebody they won’t bother you.
However, the guard decided to continue the conversation. "So, what department you from? Did you go to Frank’s retirement party last week?"
This was getting annoying, and, as subtly as possible. FrostFire brushed his hand through the air, freezing the guy’s lips together long enough for him to grab the badge and, with a quick wave, hurry through the gate. Hopefully, the guard would think that his lips just got stuck together and no suspicion would be aroused.
After changing back into his street clothes behind a dumpster, FrostFire found himself free in Skyway City for the first time in years. This part of the city looked very different from how he remembered it. It was much cleaner and there were less criminals around. Crime had taken a huge hit in Skyway sometime in the past. This was now one of the nicer places to live.
As he walked along the streets, which were still as convoluted as ever, he made a path to the hospital as best as he could remember it. As he was walking along a voice came up behind him, "stop right there, man, now hand over your wallet and I’ll let you go." FrostFire turned around to a rather unexpected sight. A Hellion? Here? In Skyway City? This was what must have happened when the presence of the Trolls evaporated.
Apparently annoyed that his victim wasn’t in the least bit scared, the red-garbed attacker decided to make a lunge with his knife. Carelessly catching the young man’s fist in mid swing, FrostFire proceeded to absentmindedly crush his assailant’s hand, still bewildered of what he was seeing. As the Hellion gasped and yelped in pain FrostFire also took note that this gangster walked right up to a man with blue skin wearing old Outcast gang colors and attempted to mug him, like he was no more dangerous than some grandma with a walker. Back in the old days, some low level Blood Brother would assume that he was a hero, or a member of a street gang and left him alone. A vague realization on the increase in the mutant population occurred to FrostFire.
When he decided to walk away he casually encased the Hellion’s face in a shell of ice. Causing him to fall to the ground and frantically start stabbing at the ice to break it off. Not waiting to see one of the two inevitable outcomes, (either the Hellion stabs himself or the ice suffocates him) FrostFire walked up the steps to Lagrange medical center.
Meanwhile, back at the Faultline entrance to Skyway...
Oharan had found some new people to yell at. "It’s the only way to accomplish something when you screw up this badly," he mused to himself.
"Commander!" he heard one of the men in the tech van shout.
"What’ve you got?" he asked stepping inside of the computer lined van.
The tech geek was hopped up on adrenaline from the situation and he eagerly responded, "we’ve just got a report from the coroner’s office in Skyway. Someone brought in a dead Hellion who had a broken wrist and was strangled with ice encasing his face."
"That’s him," the agent declared without waiting to hear the rest of the explanation. "Let’s move out!"
As FrostFire entered the hospital in Skyway he aimlessly searched around for a bit until he spotted a door that had a handwritten sign on it that read, "Recovering villains support group."
Knowing that the room contained his former gang member he approached the door but stayed just outside, not wanting to burst in and intent on listening to their discussion.
"So, one day some guy on the street tried to sell me some magic amulets, I bought them and I thought I could make a name for myself by going after that famous hero, Synapse. Well he took me out with a punch and when he had me in an electric cage to interrogate me, I started to cry, I felt so ashamed," the voice drifted out from inside.
Then a woman’s voice spoke up, "Its good that you felt that Harry, that’s your conscience letting you know that you did the wrong thing."
When FrostFire recognized the voice as SemiConductor he wanted to scream and incinerate the building with his anger. How could she lower herself to treating people like this? These weren’t even real supervillains. These were some deluded-ass citizens who slapped on some tights and acted like morons. What the hell is wrong with these people?
Soon after the group began to file out of the room. When they had gone, FrostFire approached SemiConductor as she was putting up her notes. She had let her hair grow out he noticed. Due to her blue skin, (almost the same hue as his) her hair was a very dark shade of blue, but in the Outcasts she had shaved it and went around bald like most of the men in the gang.
"Hello, you’ve missed the therapy session," she said as she noticed him beside her.
Restraining the urge to say something more violent, he responded, "Semi, it’s me FrostFire, you used to be an Outcast, what the hell are you doing here?"
Not seeming the least bit surprised by his statement she simply stared at him for a moment before returning back to her papers and saying, quite casually, "I left that all behind years ago, ever since I got out of prison."
"But how did you change so much? You used to be one of the craziest, most violent people I knew, what happened to you to make you decide to start giving group therapy sessions, to losers like this?"
Not looking up she said, "I reformed in prison, that’s all. Now why are you here, you’re supposed to be locked up."
FrostFire wasn’t hurt by this, in fact, he had half expected it, but he felt himself feeling her out, she was different now to be sure, but it was still the same person, and he could get her on his side.
Without realizing it, he unconsciously made the decision to open up to her.
"I’m not really such a bad guy, you know," he began. She looked up at him, with a restrained, tolerating view that only managed to irritate him.
"When I was a kid and I discovered I had powers, the first thing I did was run out and try to save people. You see when I was growing up I always wanted to be a hero." If she was surprised by this she did a good job of hiding it.
He continued. "One day I tried to stop a robbery, and I accidentally burned the place down with my powers. I had so little control over them back then," he paused for a moment. "What is that look on her face now? Is that sympathy?" he thought to himself.
He decided to continue talking, and was surprised to find himself actually wanting to talk about his past. "I thought the jury would let me off because I was young and I was trying to do the right thing, but they convicted me. The judge was lenient and didn’t give me a lot of time, but I felt betrayed by the system and by people in general and so in prison I changed."
Taking a moment to gather his thoughts he pressed on. "When I got out I found a bunch of people a lot like me. They didn’t call themselves Outcasts back then but I brought them all together and that became my gang. I got locked up again 20 years ago and in prison I started to think about my life, and how I really didn’t want it to turn out this way, I just fell into the gang life so easily." He sat down on one of the nearby folding chairs, reflecting on what he just said.
SemiConductor put a hand on his shoulder and said, "you’ve just made a breakthrough."
Although he actually appreciated the sincerity of her words he refused to show any more weakness after spilling his guts like that and said, "that had better be a joke."
She took a step back and looked on at him with understanding and so he decided to ask her.
"So, the cops got me out to fight off some Trolls that popped up again after 20 years, and I want you to help me out with it."
She looked surprised and so he explained, "I don’t want you to fall back into the old life. But if you’re really so much of a good guy now," her transformation still astounded him, "then we can have some good old fashioned legal violence together."
She considered for a moment and then came up to FrostFire and put her hands around his neck as though she were about to kiss him. Expecting a smooch, FrostFire had the wind taken out of him when she slammed a charged fist into his stomach. At first taken aback and thinking she was forcibly declining his offer he remembered how often she did this back when she was in the Outcasts. Mostly as a greeting. "Oh yeah, you’re back." he said.
Then, not preceded by any noise or indication, a fully armed SWAT team burst into the hospital ward all their sights trained on FrostFire. "Wow," he thought to himself, "I never knew I was that dangerous."
From the back of the crowd, a gas canister rolled up to his feet, and before he could do anything about it, he already felt his energy going and he fell to the floor unconcious.
He awoke lying on a bed in a dark room. "Damnit," he thought, "this is the second time I’ve gotten knocked out because of this."
With a start he realized that Agent Rick Oharan was sitting in a chair next to him.
Even though Oharan knew he had awoken neither of them said anything for several moments.
Eventually Oharan spoke up, "I saw that in your cell, there were several books written by yourself. What were those?" He asked in a very casual manner, seeming genuinely curious.
FrostFire considered him for a moment, knowing full well that his situation was probably drastically different at this point. But he responded anyway. "They were about philosophy."
It was barely noticeable that the agent raised his eyebrows over the large, 80's style sunglasses.
"Well yeah, you see in prison they give us all these books, if we’re in there a while, and most of them are on philosophy (for some reason) and after months with no shit to do I decided to read one and who knows? I might have gotten something out of them. Hell, I even read the Bible," FrostFire said explaining himself.
After another moment of silence FrostFire asked, "where’s SemiConductor?" Fearing for her safety after he had been apprehended in the manner he did, the worry was beginning to gnaw at him.
With a sigh Oharan finally spoke up. "She’s fine we’ve got her in another room." Looking at FrostFire he said, "she’s cooperated more than you have."
With a sarcastic shrug FrostFire responded. "Thats fine, now can I see her?"
With another tired sounding sigh Agent Oharan got up and walked to the door. When he opened it SemiConductor stepped through. But, she looked a little different from before. She had tied her shirt into a knot just above her bellybutton, and disappointingly she had shaved her hair off, and went bald like she did back in the gang days. The change both repulsed and attracted FrostFire, just as he both loved and hated the older days of his gang lifestyle.
FrostFire moved to leave the bed and the agent put out his hand as a signal not to. Surprisingly enough FrostFire obeyed.
With this Agent Oharan spoke up, to the both of them, with just a hint of regret in his voice. "If it was up to me, we’d scrap this mission and get a team of heroes on the case, but as it turns out you’re still useful and needed." He paused to look at FrostFire, "we’ve located Grendel."
FrostFire gave no acknowledgment to this, but instead thought about what this meant for him. If he went and defeated the Troll he could probably make a run for it. He might last for a while but chances were that he would get caught again quickly. Or, if he went along with the authorities they could negotiate his sentence, however, after what he’d done so far that didn’t look very promising either. At the moment the idea of going out and fighting for these people did not seem very appealing, nevertheless, he felt he must, despite being unable to figure out why.
Realizing that SemiConductor was still present he asked, "is she coming along too?"
With another one of his antiquated sighs, Agent Oharan acknowledged the question with a haggard nod of his head.
FrostFire grinned as he looked at SemiConductor again and decided that if this is how he was going to go out, at least it would be with the only other surviving Outcast Lieutenant around.
Soon afterwards FrostFire found himself in the familiar setting of a helicopter flying over Skyway on their way to Faultline to encounter the Troll leader, who had resurfaced while FrostFire was looking for SemiConductor. He looked across from him and saw the blue skinned bombshell, quite at ease in their surroundings. He wondered how she would fight after all these years of being "normal."
As they approached the wrecked building in Faultline, where the Trolls had gathered around their leader, Oharan shouted at the over the chopping sound of the helicopter blades. "We know that Grendel is somewhere in that building, all of the Trolls that have gathered so far are in there too." As the helicopter landed he stared at SemiConductor and FrostFire, watching them leave the chopper and approach the demolished building together in silence.
Neither FrostFire nor SemiConductor spoke a word to each other as they entered the building, however, they did give each other a quick glance as the door guards the Trolls had posted caught them by surprise, forcing them to dive for cover. Back in the day, the Trolls never posted door guards. They were quite notorious for it. But as FrostFire got back up and let loose a decently sized fireball into the face of one of the gunning Trolls he decided that they really weren’t that different from where they were before. He encased his fist in ice and quickly brought it around to the side of the second Troll’s head, laying him out cold. Truly, these Trolls acted the same as before, but now they were just as smart as a Hellion on crack.
He was about to torch the last gunner Troll’s head when SemiConductor quickly came up behind it and sent a jolt of electricity down his spinal cord, causing him to fall, paralyzed, on the ground and proving that bringing her along was a good decision.
After exchanging a brief smile that held a certain amount of malevolence in each of their faces, they continued through the building, and the ocean of Trolls that awaited them.
The building was thick with Trolls, all raving, or fighting, or shooting up to the point where the most hardened drug user would be disgusted. The structure had, of course, no working elevators, and they had to stop and search every floor as they didn’t know which one they would find Grendel on.
After about 12 stories of this they began to hear a faint drumming noise coming from one of the floors. As they went higher they realized that the drums must be located with Grendel. They were holding a ceremony, or maybe it was just their way of professing their leader’s power. Being able to skip a few floors they finally stopped at the one where the drumming was loudest and went in.
It was so hopelessly filled with Trolls that they formed a wall throughout the hallways. Not allowing that to stop them however, FrostFire heated up his right arm and put it in front of his face, like a shield. Then he bent low and charged the group. He ploughed through the green skinned gang members, his body heat rising to the point where he could barely even feel the blows that landed on him. SemiConductor targeted the Trolls in front of FrostFire, hoping to weaken and thin the herd in front of him as she flew above.
They turned a corner, and were met with a glowing light emanating from a room, they were right at the source of the drums now and they could also hear a number of Trolls squealing and howling at what appeared to be a ceremonial fight. The glow turned out to be fire, coming from two torches set up in the far two corners of the room, and a line of Troll drummers pounded away at the opposite end. Between the two torches, two Trolls were battling each other. One looked just like all the other Trolls, except he was a little meatier and looked a bit stronger than the others. The other Troll, was even taller, and more muscular. He had tusks that were almost in front of his eyes, and his horns came about a foot out of his skull. He also had long white hair, with a greenish tint to it. None of the Trolls seen before had hair, except for the lowest level members who had only been somewhat exposed.
Without a doubt, this Troll was Grendel.