Max was almost on Daisy when she spun and pulled him under. That fucking pink punk was way faster and stronger than she should have been. But the real hocker was the sound of gunfire right behind them. What the hell was that? That shit rag mop shot at him! But the bullets almost seem to surprise the cold grip inside as much as Max. Ice shattered. Like the break of dangling icicles falling from a roof edge the freezing inside him fell to his feet and shattered. 

Or maybe it was the swamp water inside his mouth and nose. Or maybe it was the way this little girl was rolling him around. Trade? Fuck the trade. He was getting smacked. 

When she let go he stumbled up and let a string of useless curses fly, at her, at Semyon, at the damn cold, and soon enough at the new force of heat rushing in their direction. 

Then dead doll did her thing and a wall of water rose up around the new best friends. Funny how fighting bring you together.

“Ok,” Max spit out the water. “Ok. No trade.” Max held his hands up for Semyon to see even more so than Daisy. 

“I don’t know shit but whatever is coming don't want to be here and whatever is here sure the fuck doesn’t want it. There are gona be some big bangs here. Let’s skip the fucking fireworks.”

--

Thad was there, sort of. He wasn’t until some warmth flooded through his veins. He could feel it. It traveled all through his body waking up each little part. Max got the ice fingers and Thad got the warm love. He reached for Veti. Not in any movement at all. He couldn’t move. Max was in the land of the dead again and he was a shell just waiting for life to come back. 

But he had something he didn’t have last time he lay dead for so long. Something Veti gave him. He could taste her in him. He wasn’t sure he understood what but he didn’t care. It was her. It was her fight. It was her strength. And she had given it to him. 

He would gladly take every last drop and suck it up.

Thad couldn’t really see or hear but something was all around him. Energy. The basic stuff of life. There were swirls of negative energy that crackled with never ending absorption. It felt as if it wanted to take all the world inside it’s green and black hole. Take it all. Just pull it in. And once in, it would be gone. But there was positive energy too. Bits of darkness that resisted the life sapping hole. Bright flashes of light kept the hole from expanding. Crimson sparks cut into the side of the green depth. Then a strong line of white light began to thread through all of it, all of them. It pulsed and began to shrink the green light.

They were fighting back. Thad knew the black rips were Syia, and flashes Atticus and the red sparks Veti. He knew them all. He could feel them. But his surprise was the white light and the force behind it. Could that really have the flavor of that song singing shit, Henry? The magnitude of ice boys power only now clear to Thad. 

Give sweet face credit. 

As Thad felt all this not being able to move at all he tried to think of some way to help. He had to help. All he could think of was the warmth flowing through him. Fight negative with positive. Hate with love. Ok, lame, very lame, but it was all he got. So Thad called with what he had, just the sense of things, just his mind, just his heart. He loved these guys. Even that shit Henry. And Veti. The love of his life. More than that, love in his death as well. They were fighting. He would too. Just trying to add more positive, more light to the deep green hole that was swirling around. 

The magic of love.

Shit, don’t tell Max or Daisy. They would most likely split a gut laughing at him.