[IC] The Superhero Guild

[Adriane]

Her eyes moved down to his ankle, still twisted at a terrible angle between his foot and leg. Her eyebrows gathered together in concern, and she moved over to him and bent down. It was times like these Persephone wished she was a medic, or at least had some knowledge about healing. All she could guess was that it needed ice to reduce swelling - maybe there was a slight upside to being locked in an icebox. She looked back up at Dylan and winced. "I'm sorry, I wish I could fix it or something...I really don't know what to do. I'm sure the others will find us soon, though." she reassured. "Does it hurt?" she asked, and then wished she could go back and smack herself. Of course it hurt, his ankle was broken. And if he wasn't thinking about how much it hurt before, he sure was now. Great.

"Sorry," she apologized again. "I - hey, are you alright?" He was shaking, just slightly. She doubted he was even aware he was...he was shivering, she realized. Distracted by his ankle, she had almost forgotten they were in a room filled with ice, and that he wasn't giving off an uncontrollable and excessive amount of heat like her. Well, hey, this was one problem she could fix for him. She couldn't stop the waves of heat coming off of her no matter what she tried - her body's survival response was simply too strong. So she might as well keep both of them warm as long as she could. "Come here," Per murmured, settling down next to him. She stretched an arm around his shoulders, shifted so the side of her body was pressed against him, and reached for his hands. Her fingers moved around his, rubbing them gently and then wrapping around to hold his hands. "Is that better?" she asked, looking up at him.

[Fatal Error 1337]

Sarthis was surprised at the sudden appearance of the small human, it wasn't often that someone managed to sneak up on him. He quickly assessed her as she made mildly insulting guesses at his name. Clothing was a little too conservative for what he knows heroes to normally wear. And her reference to the other heroes as "ragamuffins" and using the word "they" was peculiar. Oh, and the fact that she just dropped from what he now saw was an open vent in the ceiling. All this was telling him that she either didn't belong here or was new herself. He decided to talk with her more before he jumped to any further conclusions.

"I was finally cleared to enter the facility this morning. I guess one could say I'm the new guy, or more accurately 'a' new guy." He tried not to be too obvious in his observance of her reactions to his words but he doubted she had much experience in reading the facial expressions of his race. "Mostly I'd just like to find a place where I could store my belongings." He said, gesturing to the large pile of metallic crates adorning the hovering Cargo Pad. "Preferably somewhere secure. I don't suppose you would happen to know of such a place? But I forget my manners, my name is Sarthis. What may I call you?"

In Sarthis' experience, nothing set a dishonest person on edge like extreme politeness. They had a habit of hearing it like you were mocking them in some way. Like you knew something they didn't or wasn't falling for a lie they'd told. And if she didn't have some ulterior motive, worst case was that he'd come off as condescending or arrogant.

[Venom]

She smiles at the rather blunt response.

"I would gather that they would have no issue with a garage of some sort. Oh but do be cautious they have radioactive particles and severed limbs littering their halls."

She goes over to the floating lift, and taps against some of the metallic objects. It had a lovely sound, something between valuable and hazardous. "Sarthis was it?" walking away from the crates and back up to the 'man' "I am going to be called many things when they return, mooch, b*tch, psychoticpurplelady, but I would prefer you call me Illos, or Master. I'm partial to the later. I find your mind is a little trippy. I guess, no pun intended, but it feels alien. Not that I would ever be so rude as to invade it without asking first. A democratic way of fixing a problem." She smiles up at him cocking a brow, thinking about where she remembers the workbenches, he may become curious of the hallway of horrors. "Oh and do watch out for Orren's room, he has some....hobbies. You'll know it by the smell of angst and self entitlement. "

With that she turned an about haste and wandered back to the kitchen to see about disposing of all that disgusting coffee. Tea is better for you and soothes the mind anyway.

[Metronome]

Dylan tensed, unsure of what to do. She was actually touching him; it was almost as if she could tolerate him! His cheeks tinted pink and his heart sped up a little. Her hand was warm and soft; his own cold, too-long fingers curled around it. Although Dylan ate like a horse, he remained under his ideal weight. The cold penetrated his slender form with ease. Per, however, was like a heatblanket. Yes, a heatblanket, Dylan theorized; because blankets were soft and sometimes pretty.

When she spoke, he turned to look down at her sheepishly with dark eyes. His stupid, curly hair was all in his face, as usual, and he resembled a scrawny sheepdog.
"Yeah," He said dumbly.

[GrandDM2]

"OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOODDDDDDDDDDDD!"

With a crash, something plummeted from the sky and ploughed a crater into the ground outside.

"...ow."

[Saarebas]

Simon watched Oliver's little charade with unwavering eyes, taking in as many of Oliver's subtle movements he could. Simon had come use to having to interpret for Oliver since he meet the mute hero, mostly just to avoid having to listen to the normal out burst of a frustrated Collin. He couldn't help but raise a brow once Oliver tapped his and Collin's chest, but he made no effort to stop him, then proceeded to began counting. He's taking role? Simon though to himself. It wasn't until his speech impaired friend pointed back at the ally that Simon realized what he was on about. "Pierrot and Firefly are missing." He said rather blandly, but before anyone could reply to him Orren, who seemed to have recovered, joined the small gathering. Simon gave a simple sigh when the crimson crusader began to unleash his usual strings of profanity. Simon approached Orren and placed his hand on his shoulder, similar as he did to Collin. "Calm Ichor. We will find them, but you need to remain calm." He said in his usual cool tone.

[Adriane]

She grinned, glad to be of some help, and watched him. Why was it she always thought he was so scary? The makeup might be a little much, yeah, but it was just his way of wearing a mask. And it wasn't like he had chosen to be scary - he had been saddled with that power just like she was saddled with fire. He wasn't anything but a big puppy in need of a haircut and a hug, and she'd give him both of those just as soon as they were out of there. For now, keeping him warm would have to do.

Per blew out air and looked over at the rest of the room. It was still covered in thick ice. There didn't seem to be any vents in the ceiling blowing in cold air to keep the room the right temperature, which made Per positive this ice had been made from Frosty. The puddle she had woken up in had frozen over again, but where she was sitting now the ice was beginning to melt. She shifted, pulling her legs up so she wouldn't melt the ice around his ankle.

"And now, we wait," she sighed, moving again to get comfortable. She let her arm drop from his shoulders to hang around his waist, and rested her head on his shoulder. God, she was tired, and he was so cozy. Why didn't she get to do this more often? Probably because she only wanted to snuggle up to Orren, and he didn't seem to like being touched. Did Dylan like being touched? Per pulled away abruptly, sitting up to look at Dylan and loosening her hold around him. "Oh, I'm sorry," she said, her green eyes apologetic. "Is this okay? I didn't mean to - I'm sorry, I just assumed - I'm sorry."

[The Incredible John]

"Tell me something we don't know." Collin told Orren sarcastically as he began to freak out.

Collin took one final puff of his smoke and threw it on and ground. He stepped on it to put it out. He pulled out his pack, took a stick out, placed it on his mouth and lit it. His companions were clearly irritated by this but he didn't notice neither did he care. He sniffed the air around the area crawling low and getting his head near the ground.

"I have their scent. The hot weather should keep their scent relatively strong for an hour or so. That means I can track them down for at least a few more hours. I'm pretty sure Fenrir could track them too." Collin said, mostly talking to himself again. He then looked at Orren and then at the rest of the team.

"Me and Fenrir could track down the clown and Firefly but we would need some backup. We saw a demonstration of this guy's ability and he was at least cunning enough to lure two of ours into a trap. We could take Perdu with us but I need somebody to check if their suits still have their tracking devices on, just in case we loss their scent. Ichor and Fallout could do that, specially since Fallout needs to get his suit fixed or this city would end up like Pripyat." He took another deep breath of the intoxicating tobacco stick he held. "If everyone agrees with my plan, then let's get to work."

[Argetlam350]

....

[Maykxor]

At least someone was able to make sense of Olivers' rambling motions. Oliver threw his hands up in the air for a silent shout of hallelujah. Oliver was determined to earn at least somewhat of a small victory in the midst of such a disastrous event. He was glad of that. He was always able to count on Simon to keep a level head about him. One of the reasons Oliver appreciated his company on these sort of assignments.

Though, it really did get him thinking. They were smarter than this! They were far more organized than this. How does an unheard-of villian show up out of the blue, create a boggling snowstorm, the cause of which Oliver was still stumped by, and waltz off with arguably 2 of the stronger units of their team? It just didn't make any sense. He had to have some insider info on them all. It was the only way this joker, no offense to Pierrot, could have set a trap so precisely. And to top it all off, Oliver hadn't even gotten a chance to get a glimpse of this new foe! That was *his* gig, not getting seen, this was just unfair.

Collin's plan seemed like a simple but effective one. A small shiver due to the cold trickled down his back whilst listening to it before glancing over to Orren for the all go. It would seem he had done a miraculous job of patching up his wounds, as always. Of course his blood stained garments made him look far worse than he was. But what would you expect from a blood-phage? Once agreeing in on the plan, Oliver gave an accepting nod. Someone had to take the wounded back home but he gave an "I'm watching you" motion from his eyes to Collin signifying that he'd help out by keeping an eye on the two of from the device locators in the headquarters. Wouldn't want them to go missing as well after all. It only made sense, thinking about it from the foe's point of view. Hero-napping two supers, surely he'd expect the others to figure out a plan to retrieve them giving him yet another opportunity to set a trap. Honestly, he wished he could be out on the field with them. He'd already let the team down by being absent before, he didn't want to let it happen again...

[Metronome]

Orren shrugged off Simon's hand, but seemed to have at least taken the gesture to heart. He took a deep breath in and let it out, ready for business. He proceeded to flip Collin off and turned to Fallout.
"Let's get back to the base and get this over with." He had a iceman to strangle. The thought that the villain may have hurt either one of his friends made his blood boil even more. Per was like a sister to him; any harm done to her was immediately taken personally. And anyone that could hurt sweet, innocent Dylan deserved to be shot.

The trip back to the base was a quick one. Orren went to check the tracking system for Dylan or Per while Fallout changed his suit. It took a little while for the computer to start up, but once he opened the program, it became painfully obvious that this villain was either an idiot, or leading them into a trap. Two blips showed up, plain as day, a few miles from the group. Orren cursed as he got on his comlink.

"Guys, I found them. By the looks of the map, their near the old Grocery store on Fairview. I have a feeling Frosty's expecting us."

=======================================

"Oh, no, it's fine," Dylan stammered when he felt Per shift away from him. The gap was instantly filled with coldness; harsh, bitter coldness. He hesitantly reached out to put an arm around Per. The only person that he really ever got hugs from was Orren, and it was usually because Dylan enforced a strict, daily hug policy. Orren usually grumbled and cursed at him, but he never tried to stop him. He couldn't help but hope that maybe, when they got back home, Per would remain unafraid of him. He really didn't like scaring his friends.

[Maxxorlord]

John hadn't given too much thought to Pierrot and Firefly being in the alley without protection as he rushed after the ice villain. They can handle themselves. Fallout thought. How wrong he had been...

Fallout frowned as he watched the villain's reaction to his blast. That hadn't done the damage he needed it to. Of course, he couldn't expect the laser to do much besides make the icicle angry at such a low power setting. As the ice blast came at Fallout, the radioactive hero instinctively turned his thickest armor towards the blast, shielding the weakened armor on his shoulder. It wasn't likely the attack would land inside the gash, but it was better to be safe. If it did..Well, Fallout has already considered what would happen if such a thing occurred, and he did not wish to go to that realm of thinking right now. He needed to keep a level head, as he failed to do earlier. When the ice landed, Fallout heated the armor using his body's radiation so as to melt it, as Firefly had.

John watched as Orren moved in to engage the villain in close quarters. There wasn't much he could do, what with his ally standing in the way of another blast. So Fallout took this moment to increase the power to his laser, so that when he shot it would burn skin rather nicely. Fallout lifted his shooting arm, and tried to keep track of the ice villain as he danced with Orren. When Orren was struck, his cries had thrown Fallout off and caused him to miss his shot, the laser going wide and hitting the wall of a building. Fallout quickly adjusted himself and fired off a number of shots at the villain as he retreated into the alleyway, missing all of them. John cursed his inaccuracy as the wall of ice went up and blocked them off from giving chase. They had all been beaten by a single man.

With the battle over, Fallout could look at the gash properly. The knife and growing ice had done surprising damage to his armor, and almost succeeded in causing a breach. John gave a silent prayer that it hadn't, and made a mental note to speed up testing on a second suit of more durable armor. While John was busy checking himself over, he hadn't noticed that Orren had been helped to an ambulance or that the others were gathered around. The metal clad warrior moved towards them, slowly and carefully, so he wouldn't put any stress on the armor's integrity. Once John reached them, he began to piece together what they had already figured out through what they were saying. Or what they were motioning to, when it came to Oliver. Fallout listened to Collin's plan, and nodded his agreement. Although the joke about Chernobyl had stirred a small portion of Fallout's anger, he decided against saying anything about it. This was neither the time nor the place to fight against his own teammates, especially over something as trivial as a joke."Yes. I return to base and fix armor. Help Ichor also. I don't think it wise if I come fight the Ice-man until I get better suit." Banister spoke, slightly embarrassed by his momentary forgetfulness when it came to speaking the English language.

Once at the base, Fallout moved swiftly towards his room, giving the two new people a polite 'hello' before rushing past them. After going through the proper cleaning procedures, Fallout entered his room and took his suit off. John, outside of his suit, was a small, skinny man. His head was bald, and his eyes were a strange shade of red. He fixed the gash in his armor rather quickly, though he doubted he would be using it seeing little need to leave his room again until his MK II was finished. Banister took up his tools and moved towards a suit suspended in the air by metal restraints. John lowered the suit, and set to work finishing the last touches that the suit needed to physically operate. He would have to code the machine afterwards, which could take awhile if he wished to apply all the features he wanted. The suit itself appeared to look similar to the original, although it lacked the various Russian symbols upon it. Dominating the center of the is a Red 'fallout shelter' symbol, with his hero name, Fallout, painted also in red under it.

[Saarebas]

Simon was expecting for the evadable shrug off of his attempt to calm Orren, the blood wielding hero was always a bit hot headed even in the most calm of situations, but he at least refrain from spouting more curses. Simon gave another nod to Collin after he explained his plane, seeing it as the most reasonable option at the time, but Simon was a bit worried of Orren out right refusing and rushing off to face their icy foe. Luckily the crimson crusader seemed to agree with Collin, though he did give the sharply sensed man a display of his still foul feelings.

It was when John and Orren began to make their way back to the base that Simon made his way into the ally way. He took a knee next to one of the trails into the snow and began to take a deep inhale, which must of look more than peculiar to any passer by. His senses were sharper than most, no where near the level of his Bloodhound colleague of course but still very potent. He caught the faint scents of what he assumed to be female body wash and clown make up. He stood he looked to Collin, who no doubt already caught the same smells. "Shall we?" He asked as he gestured a hand for the elder hero to lead. It was only a matter of time that the duo's trail lead them to a grocery store and not a moment after that that no one other than Orren spoke up over the Guilds com link. "This is Fenrir. Bloodhound and I have already tracked the trail here." He spoke into his com link. He then turned to Collin and Oliver. "Should we approach or wait for more back up?" He asked in a calm voice.

[Fatal Error 1337]

The moment she spoke being capable of invading his mind Sarthis reflexively began concentrating on the mental barriers he'd been taught over a decade ago whilst he was in officer training. Long before he came to earth, they weren’t capable of stopping more powerful mind readers just annoying them but it prevented passive readings.

Then almost as suddenly she came, the strange little human he now knew as Illos walked away but not before warning Sarthis of a room belonging to someone named Orren. Though her comments on radioactive particles and severed limbs worried Sarthis the most. Either she was trying to color his opinions of the other before he even met them or she was telling the truth.

'Stop being so paranoid.' He berated himself. She's probably just being what humans considered funny. They had this strange habbitt of associating sarcasm with humor. Sarthis, still not knowing exactly where to go, headed down the nearest hallway with his cargo following close behind. Less than a hundred meters down the hall he saw a man wearing dark coveralls, a maintenance worker Sarthis figured. He was standing on a ladder working on a flickering light in the ceiling.

“Excuse me sir. I’m trying to find secure storage for my cargo. I was hoping you could point me in the right direction.”

“Secure storage is down one floor, cargo elevators are back at the entrance down the other hall. I’ll call security for you and they can send…” The worker froze mid-sentence as he looked away from his work and saw Sarthis, his eyes going wide. He was up a couple steps on the ladder but was only just above eye level with Sarthis.

Sarthis had seen this look before on other humans, usually followed shortly by them running away or yelling for help. Usually both. Thankfully having encountered this situation multiple times Sarthis had run into this reaction he’d been working on defusing these situations.

“It’s okay, you don’t need to worry. I was just given security clearance this morning.” He said, raising his hands in front of him with his palms facing the worker in a submissive gesture he’d seen humans often use.

“Uh, o… okay.” He stammered. He body was still tensed in fear.

“You were saying something about security?” Sarthis asked.

“U… uh ya. I can, um, call them. Get them to… to send someone to help, I mean, give you the code for one of the storage areas.” The worker stuttered out.

“Thank you.” Sarthis backed away a couple steps before turning around and walking down the hall. Not wishing to risk an incident. Though he was worried that security hadn’t been briefed on his arrival, he suspected a more violent outcome if they had a similar reaction.

Once he reached the storage area the worker had told he of Sarthis spotted another human, though this one was wearing a vest with the human word for security written on it. The human spotted him at the same time, though this time he approached Sarthis.

“Welcome, you must be Sarthis.” He said, extending his hand.

Sarthis found this an odd method of greeting but accepted the man’s hand, mindful not to squeeze or shake too hard. Accidently dislocating one shoulder was enough. “How is the man upsairs? I’m afraid I startled him somewhat.” Sarthis asked.

“Oh he’s fine, just a little shook up. He’s gonna raise hell at the next meeting though about maintenance staff not being kept in the loop. Truth is we only got your file three hours ago. Your storage unit is this way.” The guard said pointing to a set of metal doors just down the hall. Once they reached the door the guard set Sarthis’ card to activate a glass panel on the wall next to the door. After swiping the card the glass panel began glowing.

“Alright, place your hand here.” The guard said pointing to the panel.

Sarthis placed his hand on the glass, the light blinked twice. “That should do it.” Said the guard. Sarthis removed his hand from the panel, the words ‘ID Saved: Sarthis’ now on the panel. “Okay now you just use your card to activate the panel then you place your hand on the panel to open the door.”

“Okay.” Sarthis repeated the steps. After placing his hand on the panel he heard several loud metallic clunks from the door before the doors parted retreating into the walls. The room on the other side was more than large enough to store his cargo and what he’d left in his ship twice over. “This will do nicely. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome, we should have your personal comlink ready tomorrow. Take care.” The guard said before walking down the hallway.

Sarthis moved the Cargo Pad into the room then shut it down causing it to gently sink to the floor. He removed a crate from the pile, unlocking it and removing a signal booster relayed to his ships’ computer. Once turned on his data pad began beeping, that meant the signal was established. Sarthis grabbed the pad and confirmed the uplink.

“DoT?” Sarthis spoke to his ships’ AI through the pad.

“Yes sir?”

“I want you to search another human under the alias Illos. Compile another dossier and send it to me when you’re done.”

“Aye sir.”

“While you’re at it scan local frequencies, see if you can find the frequency the heroes are using. I’d like to get in contact with them before tomorrow.

“Orders received, working. Signal isolated, transmission decoded, Heroes Guild members en route to current location.”

“Thank you DoT.”

Sarthis headed upstairs to meet his new companions, the first of which was Fallout. Who merely said hello before hurrying onward, Sarthis returned the hello but he didn’t seem to notice. Sarthis noticed some damage to Fallout’s armor, probably the reason for his briefness. Sarthis made his way to the entrance where he planned to meet someone.

“Sir, another transmission.” Sarthis jumped, forgetting he’d taken his data pad with him.

“What does it say?” He asked the AI.

“Guys, I found them. By the looks of the map, their near the old Grocery store on Fairview. I have a feeling Frosty's expecting us. Subject identified as Ichor.” DoT replied.

“Patch me in DoT.”

“You are now transmitting.”

“This is Sarthis, hope I’m not too late to tag in.” Sarthis said, using a human saying he found appropriate.

[Adriane]

He stammered, but it was still an affirmation and in case it wasn't enough, he moved an arm around her. Per smiled, glad her affection was wanted, and snuggled back up to him. She fit under his arm easily and her head nestled onto his shoulder, and she gathered his hands back up and leaned against him. For the few seconds she had let to of him it seemed he had frozen into an icicle, and Per could feel the cold on him even despite the summer heat she was giving off. The puddle beneath her was growing, and in an effort to stay dry she shifted the rest of her body closer to Dylan.

Her eyes were growing heavier, and she had a feeling she was starting to run out of energy to keep herself and Dylan warm. She had an even worse feeling they could be waiting there a while, if help ever came. "I don't suppose you brought cards, huh?" She joked. Anything to keep their minds off of where they were and how cold it was getting and how rescue seemed more unlikely with every second that passed.

[Argetlam350]

Thalesin had joined Simon, Colin, and Oliver on there search for this new villian. While the others had been fighting this new guy, he had been aiding in on another assignment that had come in, a shoot out between several policemen against a group of thugs. It hadn't taken long to clean up but by the time he got word about the fight on the other side of town, and had reached the others, it had been over. He felt guilt for not helping them so now he was devoting his time in finding this villain along with Per and Dylan who had been apparently taken as hostages by the guy. While following the others, he mostly remained silent, trying to stay focus on the task at hand. When the reached the grocery store, he awaited patiently what the next move they would make. As he waited, he created a small acid ball in his hand, having it float in the air a few inches, unsure how his powers would be able to help since judging from the sound of this villain, he knew most of their powers quite well.

[The Incredible John]

"I'll go in and check the situation, then I'll call you if it's safe or not." Collin told Simon, looking at a air conditioning vent as he did so. "If I'm not out or if you don't hear from me by 30 minutes, call for help. The cops shouldn't be that far off our tail. Once they get here, tell them to clear off the area, create a perimeter to make sure the snowman doesn't escape."

The two men nodded at each other and Simon wished Collin good luck as he climbed a dumpster bin and crawled inside the vent. As Simon got inside, he gagged as he smelled the fowl smelling air inside the shaft. He almost threw up as he took a whiff of air. This was one of those times he wished he didn't have his special abilities. He could smell and taste stagnation and decay, even tell what were decaying and stagnating. He cursed under his breathe as he gagged, desperately trying to hold his vomit from spilling out his mouth. Somebody on the coms frantically asked what was going on and if he found them. It was Orren and Collin told him he didn't find anything yet. He kept crawling, fighting the urge to throw up. Then as he made his way through a corner, he saw something that made him wish he didn't crawl up that damn vent. He was suddenly face to face with a dead rat, something he didn't much prefer to see.

"Son of a bitch." he yelled uncontrollably.

Somebody yelled into the coms about what was going on and it knocked Collin to the left side of the shaft. He then heard something giving way and then before he knew it, the entire part of the vent he was in dropped to the floor. He quickly crawled out and found a familiar face to greet him. As he got out, he saw the icy villain, surprised at what just happened. Collin stood up as the man was still in shock and to both of their surprises, threw up on his shoe.

"Sorry." Collin apologized and made a move for his stun gun. By the time he got it out and pointed it at the crook, he was knocked out cold by a slab of ice that the villain materialized out of his fist.

[Metronome]

Once Fallout had changed and was ready, Orren hurried off to the garage to get them a car. The guild had a small slew of vehicles that helped those who couldn't fly or run super fast get from place to place. The numbers always varied due to one getting blown up or destroyed here and there.
"Anyone else who's coming better get their ass in this fucking car like yesterday," Orren shouted as he got in the driver's seat and started the engine. Once everyone had piled in, he sped off towards the abandoned grocery store. He really hoped no one had done anything stupid yet, like go inside alone or anything.

===========================

"No," Dylan said as he reached to dig in his pocket just in case. "Or- I mean Ichor made me stop carrying all my cool stuff on missions a while ago." His 'cool stuff' usually consisted of bicycle horns, spraying flowers, and rubber chickens. Orren had told him that they were completely useless on a crime fighting mission, but Dylan still chose to disagree. Sometimes he still snuck a rubber nose or two with him, but today had not been one of those days. He did, however, have a half eaten candy bar. Dylan took it out and offered it to Per, in case she was hungry.

============================

Frostbite was putting the finishing touches on what he called Project Herotrap. The name had sounded better on paper, to be honest. He turned to yell at his assistant to bring him his water when something suddenly fall from the ceiling. At first, Frostbite thought it may have been another rat, or a faulty support beam. This whole goddamn layer was a piece of a shit; when he got these heroes out his way, he'd live in a fucking palace. An ice palace. A really cold one with sculptures and shit.

However, it was not a rat or faulty support beam, but one of the heroes trying to sneak their way into his midst. It was the one with the dog on his shirt; Frostbite wasn't sure what his powers were, but they probably weren't anywhere as cool as ice powers. Cool ice powers; he was such a clever son of a bitch. The hero stood and promptly lost his guts on Frostbite's boot, earning a disgusted scowl and a brick of ice to the face. Those were his favorite sealskins!

"Assistant!" The villain snapped. "Clean this shit up and get me my water! I told you half an hour ago that I was thirsty!"
"Y-yessir." The meek assistant scurried off to get a mop, and of course the villain's water. Meanwhile, Frostbite loomed over the unconscious hero.
"Now...what to do with you. The freezer's awfully crowded. I suppose I could just kill you now and spare me the extra trouble..." His hand glided over the handle of his blade. "But what fun would that be?" The villain grabbed the hero and tossed him over his shoulder. His used one hand to create ice stairs leading up to the ceiling, where he then stuck the hero, hanging upside down with his feet frozen to the ceiling in a block of ice. As he descended back to the floor, he took his stairs down with him. "I sure hope your friends get here before that ice melts," He said smuggly as he left to change his boots.

[Fatal Error 1337]

...

[Maykxor]

Despite the plan that Perdu would return to base to locate the missing persons, he decided against it, using his knack of turning invisible to choose his own path so Collin wouldn't get upset with him. He never was the type to want more help than he needed, especially from Oliver, but after all that had happened today, well, Oliver wasn't about to let his usefulness atrophy any more today than it already had. Besides, Orren was more than capable of flicking a few switches on a motherboard even in his current condition. Oliver's best bet was to stick on site with Collin and Simon. There was the constant knackering thought in his brain that made him feel like all of this could have been prevented if he had only been there.

Collin's tracking abilities had definitely kicked in once they headed off on the trail to find the two lost heroes. Far better than Oliver could have done, he had to admit. For the longest time, Oliver thought they were completely lost. He was certain they had trekked through the same intersection twice by now and Oliver even materialized officially with the two of them and had half a mind to try giving Collin directions. but Collin kept leading on till eventually the trail turned cold in front of a supermarket 'North Pole Goods'. Oliver couldn't help but roll his eyes at the sight of it. "How cliche of him.' he thought, 'seriously, can't we ever fight a villain with their cheesy-meter disabled?" Oliver immediately started to burn through potential routes of infiltration in his head when Simon suggested back up. After a moment, Oliver concluded that he was right. Mr. Cold Miser had already proven to best two of them. They'd need a lot more force to do this properly. Oliver was just about to nod his agreement when Collin started his mad dash to a ventilation shaft. Oliver couldn't help but throw his arms up in the air in flailment. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?" He wanted to shout out after him, "If anything *I* should be doing recon!" Instead, Perdu merely let out a heavy sigh, turning to Simon. Oliver flashed a quick '3' '0' to re-state Collin's words before vanishing into thin air.

Perdu couldn't let Collin head in there all alone. That was suicide. The first rule of hero work was to always work in pairs. LITERALLY. Not a single one did anything solo. There were safeties in numbers. Orren was going to have a cow when he found out. There was no other choice than for Perdu to go in after him, and as much as Oliver just 'loved' close tight spaces, he wasn't about to jump right in a ventilation shaft with Collin, especially with the subtle smell of processed ham fuming from it. Instead, he rounded the corner and quietly slipped into a maintenance door on the side of the building hoping that nobody was directly inside. It paid off. He was inside a small corridor that ran along side Collin's vent. Oliver smirked to himself imagining what a fun time he must be having up there while he himself strolled silently down the hall. He even gave a minion a curt nod which of course was unseen and un-returned. The hallway opened up into a large warehouse of sorts. A meat processing plant for the supermarket it would seem. Perdu had to clasp his hands over his mouth to keep from regurgitating at the putrid smell of raw frozen mean hanging along the walls. Collin mush have been having a whale of a time himself, having heard his wailing shriek.

Oliver was able to walk about freely in the room, able to pick up right off the bat exactly who was in charge. "Oh you can't be serious..." Oliver groaned quietly to himself as Frostbite snapped at a port panicked assistant. "Typical, of all the possible super villains in the world, they had to get outsmarted by the one with a Hollywood complex." Perdu started pacing around the room looking for where Per and Dylan could be detained, spotting a freezer in the center of the back wall with a door frozen 14 times over. That had to be it. Oliver was just about to type out a com message when a crashing Collin fell through the ceiling right in front of Mr. Hollywood. Oliver's heart raced with panic. What could he do? Would Frostbite kill him instantly? No, no, he was too theatrical for that, that and he was collecting them from what Oliver was able to gather. Still, there had to be something he could do! Alas, Perdu could only stand there helpless as Frostbite added Collin to the rafters like a trophy. Oliver's temper was waning fast and was seriously two seconds away from doing something insanely stupid and rash throwing caution to the wind. Instead, Frostbites' skittish assistant came barreling around the corner with his mop and drink and collided right with the invisible Perdu. The fall happening in slow motion as the two came tumbling down. Frostbites' glass of water arcing perfectly in the air before shattering on the frozen solid ground, freezing instantly among the ice. Oliver's invisibility failed from the lack of concentration, his visible form flickering into existence under the fat fuck.

"Oh I'm so very terribly sorry sir! Really I am!" The dazed minion attempted to apologize.

Oliver merely rolled his eyes for what felt like the millionth time that day.