Chapter 13: How Can You Mend a Frozen Heart?

The trio scales the innards of the hotel and confronts Garbanzo, but is intercepted by the formidable Cold Blood.

And so without further ado, Xavier, Tequila, and I began the long, daunting "climb" up towards the penthouse. Most of the elevators throughout the building had been shut down or disabled, and the doors to most of the staircases had been locked tightly. So whenever we couldn't make use of either of those options, we had no choice but to break into the ventilation shafts and climb up through those for as long as the infrastructure would allow. These parts of the building were quite dark, but thanks to the night-vision mode in our contact lenses, they weren't difficult to maneuver through.

Occasionally, we'd come across some more armed thugs, which we'd have to take out by putting our gloves into chloroform mode and sneaking up on them. We managed to remain stealthy up until the point where we reached a large room just two or three floors below the penthouse, which contained a spa, an extravagant view of the city outside, and little else. It was also swarming with thugs, which we dispatched in the same fashion. Before we knew it, we were standing right by an elevator that would lead us directly to our destination.

"You ready for this, guys?" I asked my teammates.

"O-ho, I've been ready!" Tequila grinned and crackled her knuckles. "I've got thirty-three years of payback that I can't wait to dish out!"

"Indeed. But if I may be so bold as to give you advice, I'd suggest we find another way up there," Xavier said. "Taking the elevator is about as obvious as it can get."

"Good thinking, X. Looks like it's time to crawl through some vents again," I replied. "...Oh, but there's just one thing I should do first."

I pressed a button to open the elevator, before pressing the penthouse button and quickly stepping out before the doors closed.

"That'll give us some time to catch 'em by surprise." I smirked. "Now let's move!"

---

We managed to arrive in the penthouse's ventilation system with just a little time to spare. I could see Garbanzo sitting patiently at the table as Cold Blood continued to pace around, both of them completely unaware of the fact that we were right under their noses. It was then that the elevator dinged, prompting the latter to walk over towards it. With him distracted, I switched my boots to cleat mode and kicked the cover off the vent we were in as the three of us scrambled out and got to our feet.

"The jig is up, GG!" Tequila snarled.

"Quick, guys! Spread out!" I ordered, prompting my friends to do just that.

While Tequila and Xavier made a beeline for the briefcases and Garbanzo respectively, I charged towards Cold Blood, only to have him uppercut me in the chest, sending me reeling over the table and scattering the refreshments everywhere.

"This type of reckless behavior is the exact reason why your mother is rotting and burning in hell!" he teased in a tone just as chilling as his persona, his face showing little to no emotion.

"You shut the f**k up!" I remained on the ground and dealt a scorpion-kick to his chest, before landing back on my feet. "Maybe once you get to hell, you'll be so cold you freeze the place over."

"Jasper, you'd better cool it with those ice jokes!" Tequila barked back, tug-of-warring with Garbanzo over one of the briefcases. "I watched Batman and Robin for the first time not too long ago, and I've already heard way too many!"

"And you just made an ice pun yourself, you hypocrite!" I sneered, before quickly blocking a punch that would've otherwise hit my face.

Cold Blood and I continued to trade jabs and kicks for a while, until he nailed me with a right hook. The blow from his fist ended up whiffing, but the blade on his gauntlet managed to leave a small, bloody slice mark across my cheek. This left me stunned enough to where he could get in another hit. He punched me in the torso a few times, each blow sending me closer and closer to the massive window behind me. I attempted to block the next hit, but he just kicked me in the legs, sending me reeling through the glass before jumping after me.

"Oh no! Jasper!" I heard Tequila yell right before I fell.

For all I knew, there was nothing I could do as I hurtled down towards a small, extended portion of the building below me with a big skylight on top. Maybe, just maybe, if I was lucky enough, my armor would save my life, as it had several times before. But I also knew that every set of armor has its limits, even if it had been made by Xavier P. Cedric.

Speaking of which, I was suddenly yanked back into reality as he called me through my earpiece.

"Jasper! Quick! There's a feature on our suits that I forgot to mention earlier!" he explained. "Just press the button on the side of the neck to activate glider mode!"

I did as I was told as some black "membranes" sprouted out from under my arms, extending down to my calves. They looked as though they were made from the same material as parachutes. As soon as they appeared, I felt myself start to fall much more slowly than before. I extended my arms and put my legs together, slowing myself down even more. Looking up, I saw Cold Blood still plummeting after me, his arms out as though he was about to grab me. I managed to pick up enough of a breeze to glide upwards a bit, flying in a loop just big enough to avoid my assailant and ending up above him.

Before long, Cold Blood crashed through the glass below us. I managed to glide down through the new hole in the roof without getting cut, before abruptly landing on an ice rink, presumably in the same hotel as before. I skidded just a bit as I struggled to keep my balance on the slick surface, before looking up and watching as my opponent broke his fall by grabbing the top of the rink's wall. He then performed a few flips and landed flawlessly on his feet. I'll admit I was impressed by his athletic prowess, but now was not the time for compliments. He was pursuing a massive bounty on my head, and I wasn't about to let that happen.

I gathered my legs into a horse stance, my arms out like a grappler's as we prepared to continue our fight, but without warning, my vision went dark blue, no thanks to my contacts abruptly switching to heat-vision mode. It was then that I remembered what Xavier had told us before.

Holy crap, is it really that cold in here? I thought to myself.

I wouldn't have been so upset over this abrupt change in scenery if it weren't for one major problem: Cold Blood lacked any sort of heat signature, which effectively rendered me blind and unable to track his movements.

"Let's do this, Collins!" he spat from somewhere in the darkness before me. "I sure as hell hope I get my money's worth!"

At this time, all I could so was strafe around on the smooth ice with my boots in skate mode, all the while listening for any noise coming from my opponent. As the sound of his skates against the frigid rink grew progressively louder with time, I also began to notice a faint blotch of teal, just barely visible against the dark blue background. I guess even the guy with the most abnormally low body temperature had a heat signature to him.

I managed to fend off several of his incoming jabs and kicks, but was caught off guard with a leg-sweep, knocking me onto my a*s. I was then kicked hard by one of his skates, thankful that the blade on the bottom didn't hit me. I slid backwards along the ice for a bit until I bumped into the wall, as Cold Blood quickly hurried after me. Before he could follow up, however, two much warmer heat signatures appeared. One of them flip-kicked him in the back of the head, and while he was stunned, the other landed a karate-chop right on top of his head, bringing him to his knees before roundhouse kicking him away. The heat signature that was closest to me then knelt down.

"Quick, Jasper! Take out those contacts!" I recognized the voice as Xavier's.

"Okay," I did as I was told, blinking a few times as my vision instantly returned to normal.

"Just put 'em in here," Xavier shook his head, holding out the same small black case from before. "What was I thinking making the transitions automatic? I can fix that later, but right now, we've gotta take this guy out!"

Now that I could see everything clearly, I could now make out what was going on. Some drops of blood were littered about the rink, and looking over at Cold Blood, I could tell that the blood had come from him, no thanks to the cut on the back of his head from the kick that Tequila had planted there. At the moment, she was skating in high speed laps around the ice, neck and neck with our target as they constantly rammed their shoulders and elbows into each other.

The former was caught off guard as the latter elbowed her hard in the gut, before roundhouse kicking her with his skate-covered feet, slicing her cheek much like he had mine earlier. Tequila was sent tumbling along the ground for a bit, inadvertently switching her gloves to heat mode in the process. From a distance, I could see her catch herself on her hands and knees, before noticing her heated gloves' effect on the ice. Her amethyst eyes lit up instantaneously.

"Hey guys, I've got an idea," she spoke into her earpiece. "Let's just melt the ice and trap him."

"Good thinking. I'll keep him occupied," Xavier replied, switching his gloves to heat mode as he quickly skated over towards Cold Blood.

I did the same with my own gloves as Tequila and I spread out, briefly squatting at random portions of the rink and pressing our hands onto the slick surface, releasing a bit of steam into the air as the ice melted and crackled a bit. We then briefly switched our boots to cleat mode and stomped the melted spots in order to help speed up the process, before making our way to another area. All the while Xavier kept Cold Blood occupied with some hand-to-hand combat. Occasionally, I'd hear the latter let out a wail of agony, no thanks to the heat of the former's gloves making contact with his severely frostbitten skin. It was then that Cold Blood managed to gain some ground and began to spin around on the ice like a cyclone with his fists out to the sides, before chasing Xavier around the rink and also putting the rest of us in danger.

Within a few more minutes, Tequila and I managed to soften a significant portion of the ice. We slowly and carefully made our way towards the gate, watching as Xavier managed to make Cold Blood crash into the wall before knocking him into the center of the rink. He then hurried over towards us. By the time he managed to get back onto his knees, my friends and I were already standing outside the rink's walls.

"Sorry if our little encounter wasn't enough of an ice-breaker for you, but hopefully we can meet up again soon!" I taunted, switching my boots to cleat mode and landing a single stomp onto the ice.

As a result, the entire rink shattered, revealing a deep pool of below-freezing water underneath. Cold Blood plopped into the water and flailed at the surface in an obvious panic.

"Hey! Hey! Now wait a minute here! I can skate, but I can't swim!" he yelped, his movements becoming slower and slower until he eventually froze and sank into the icy depths.

"Heh, so frigid even he can't take it. Welp, that was cool," I quipped.

"Um, I thought we agreed to stop with the ice jokes." Tequila lightly punched my arm.

"My apologies," I replied. "Oh, wait. There's just one more thing I'd like to do before we get out of here."

I switched my gloves to electric mode and gently pressed my palms onto the water's surface, immediately electrocuting the whole pool and most likely the guy who was trapped within it.

"There, now that's more like it." I grinned. "Sorry if you're freezing to death under there, but hey! You gave us a pretty fun fight if it's any consolation!"

It was then that Tequila looked back across the rink for a second, before starting to stroll towards a door that was over there. Neither Xavier nor myself could tell what exactly she noticed over there.

"Just meet me out front! I've just gotta check something!" she hollered at us.

---

Xavier and I shrugged as we made our way back into the lobby and subsequently out front, where the police cars were still parked and the cops seemingly hadn't moved since we last spoke to them.

"Hotel's been cleared out, officer," I said. "And all the assassins have either left or been defeated."

"Good work, Mr. Collins. You hear him, men. Let's move!" the cop led his troop into the now safe hotel.

As Xavier and I started to walk away from the scene, we spotted a familiar Mexican-American sneaking out of the side-alley, which happened to be the same area where we'd fought Gerald and Patrick. I got into a subtle fighting stance, ready to attack in case he spotted us or made any sudden movement, but then I noticed someone else sneaking up behind him. A redheaded woman dressed in all black was backflipping repeatedly until she catapulted herself into the air and performed a mid-air split, striking him down with a dive-kick to the head.

Turns out that it was just Tequila, having somehow noticed Garbanzo trying to sneak out while we were preoccupied. With him having been knocked unconscious as a result of her sneak-attack, she yanked him up by the back of his shirt and the three of us brought him to the one cop who remained outside.

"Ah, thanks for helping out folks," he said.

"Eh, just another day at the office," I replied.

"Make sure he doesn't break out again, you hear?" Tequila asked.

"Will do, señorita," the cop replied, handcuffing Garbanzo and shoving him into his car's backseat.

"Y'know, now that he's behind bars, that means the bounty has effectively been removed from our heads," I commented.

"True... but I wouldn't be surprised if the rest of the killers are still out there wreaking havoc," Xavier replied.

"Well maybe we can just take them out whenever we spot them," Tequila suggested. "But seeing how the main threat's been taken care of, why don't we do so at our own pace?"

"Not a bad idea." I nodded in reply.