Episode 91

Chapter 2 of the Winter's Heart Saga

Part II

Previously: The Winter's Heart, a large blue diamond rumoured to have mysterious occult powers, has come to Maple Ridge's Natural History Museum. The amateur wizard Adrian Room schemes to get his hands on it, and enlists his old friend and cat-burglar Sally Kettle to help him break into the Museum. However, during the magic ritual to heal the stone's flaw and unleash it's power, Sally interrupts and touches the stone, triggering a dramatic reaction. As our heroes Deuterium Boy, Helium Girl and Gen X Man watch from outside, the Natural History Museum is transformed into a forbidding fortress of ice. Sally emerges alone from the fortress - possessed by the Ice Witch!

Crikey, Snape's gonna kill us now...

November 2002

Deuterium Boy didn't know exactly what was going on, but it was clear that it wasn't good.

He didn't know who Sally Kettle was (except perhaps as a brief entry in the Hydrogen Computer's Criminal Database) or what she and Adrian Room had been after in the Natural History Museum. He knew little about the Winter's Heart, aside from what he'd heard about it in the news. And he knew absolutely nothing at all about the female figure standing on the steps of the Natural History Museum, giving the assembled defenders a look of frigid curiosity.

Behind him, he heard the senior police officer present tell his corporal to "get the civilians out of here" - largely unnecessary, since all but the Museum's director had already fled. The corporal gently took her arm and asked her to come with him - she did not argue. He led her back behind the line of police cruisers, their lights flashing, now scattered across the street before the Museum. Their numbers had been swelling since the Museum had "erupted". Maybe not such a good idea, he thought - one of these days, their flies-to-honey reaction might see the entire department wiped out in a stroke. He hoped that day would not be today.

To Deuterium Boy's right stood the Angst Avenger himself, Gen X Man. He was staring at the woman on the steps, fearfully biting his lower lip; as if looking at something that nobody else saw, that he found just short of mindlessly terrifying. On DB's other hand, Helium Girl also had the woman locked in an iron gaze, though her expression was more along the lines of "I've been fighting super-powered bitches all day long, so if you want some, come and get it". She stood with her arms crossed tightly over her chest, shivering slightly.

Ignoring the three superheroes, the senior police officer gestured his men forward. They scattered across the ice-encrusted sidewalk in front the steps with their guns drawn. The superheroes hung back and watched.

Police Officer
Get down on the ground and place your hands where we can see them!

The woman simply smiled.

The wave of cold hit first; the temperature dropped twenty-five degrees in the space between thoughts, frosting the windows of the police cruisers and freezing snow and moisture gathered on their clothes and skin. A fraction of a second later came a blast of wind and ice particles. Police and superheroes alike were physically forced back by the hurricane-force gale. Millimetre-sized ice crystals stung and burned like hot sand. The effect was like being driven back by an angry, kinetic wall. Gunshots were lost in the sudden howl of the wind, and the bullets went wild or were blown back.

Deuterium Boy squeezed his eyes shut and concentrated on creating shelter. In a short time a shield of metallic deuterium had formed in front of him. Reaching out blindly, he managed to grab hold of Helium Girl's arm, and pulled her behind the shield with him. Though still incredibly cold, they were protected from the wind and ice as long as Deuterium Boy could keep the unnaturally bound deuterium atoms from dissolving into gas. By leaning hard against the wind pressure, they were able to stand their ground - or at least not slip back more than a few centimetres.

As suddenly as it began, the tempest stopped. Deuterium Boy and Helium Girl nearly stumbled forward at the sudden loss of resistance. Gen X Man was still with them - Deuterium Boy saw the flicker of his telekinetic personal force field (what Gen X Man liked to call his "Emotional Barrier") as it disappeared.

The police had retreated to take cover behind the line of cruisers. The Ice Witch walked daintily down the steps towards the heroes; the MRPD rose from behind their shelter and watched, their guns ready.

The Ice Witch stopped a short ways in front of the three superheroes. She looked them over, and then addressed Deuterium Boy, having decided on him as the leader.

Ice Witch
Whom do you serve?

Her voice and English accent were essentially the same as Sally Kettle's, but her tones were colder and more imperious. Helium Girl thought she sounded like a villainous Mary Poppins.

As if waiting for their cue, the three heroes produced their League ID's and held them up briefly for inspection. She ignored them.

Deuterium Boy
League of Heroes, local 441.

The Ice Witch arched an eyebrow, and the corners of her mouth turned slightly up.

Ice Witch
Heroes? Hm hm. It's good to know, even as strange a place as this is, still has a ready complement of fools. Who is your king, hero?

Gen X Man
Elvis is dead, baby cakes.

Deuterium Boy
Maybe you wouldn't mind telling us who you are.

Ice Witch
My name is not important.

She turned slightly to gaze up at the spectacle behind her. The Natural History Museum had been physically transformed into a palace, or fortress, of ice. From its centre a thundering column of blue white energy shot up to the sky, forming the eye of the thickening snow clouds.

Ice Witch
I am the power of the Winter's Heart. I am the embodiment of the cold and ice, the storms and darkness from Samhain to Beltane which mankind has vainly resisted, huddling together before flickering embers from his earliest days. I am she who has been called the Ice Witch and the Queen of the Frost Giants; and now, I shall be the Queen of all the world, for no hero has the power to stop me now.

Helium Girl
Lady, you are, like, totally buggin'.

Deuterium Boy
Whatever you might think you are, Ms. "Ice Witch", we do have the power to stop you. We've stopped a lot of people who make ambitious speeches and wield some kind of magic or super-powers before. Why don't you turn off the fire-works behind you and stand down before people start getting hurt. Like you, for example.

The Ice Witch laughed. It was not a pleasant sound. Gen X Man looked ready to go into convulsions.

Ice Witch
You're courageous, hero, like so many of your kind. I believe you do have a power, after a fashion. I will need lieutenants in this world, and servants to carry out my will. Join me, heroes. Your power will grow under me, and I will give you all kingdoms to rule if you serve me well.

She stepped closer to Deuterium Boy. She stood a full head shorter than him. He could feel her breath, colder, if possible, than the unnatural chill that surrounded them.

Ice Witch
You are not unattractive, hero. You could easily win my favour.

Deuterium Boy could feel frost forming on his goatee.

Deuterium Boy
No thanks. We already have a queen, and as for myself, I'm not into necro.

Ice Witch
Very well.

She reached up and slowly caressed his cheek; the touch of her hand was like cold metal. As her fingers reached his beard, she snapped off a few hairs which had become frozen and brittle. Deuterium Boy started. She stepped back with an almost girlish giggle, and held out her palm to display her trophies. Five frost covered hairs lay in her palm. Deuterium Boy rubbed his face, partly in annoyance, and partly trying to get feeling back in his cheek.

The Ice Witch gently blew on her palm, and the hairs scattered on the breeze. Ice magically began to nucleate on them; they were now shapes of ice the size of softballs, then basketballs, but still they floated weightlessly like dandelion seed. The ice forms grew rapidly larger and larger, assuming humanoid shape. Within less than thirty seconds, five fully-formed figures, eight feet tall and over four feet across at the shoulders, touched down on the frozen sidewalk around the Ice Witch. Despite a distinctly crystalline appearance, their facial features were reminiscent of Deuterium Boy!

The creatures began to advance.

Ice Witch
Defeat my ice golems, heroes; then perhaps we shall discuss further.

She barked a short command, and the creatures attacked!

Gen X Man barely dodged a punch from one bearing down on him. Its fist struck the ground where he had been stood, shattering a small crater into the ice and concrete. The creature turned and grabbed for him. Gen X Man leapt vertically into the air, executed a telekinetic back flip over its head and landed behind it.

Gen X Man
Okay, popsicle face (no offence DB) - what this party needs is a little ice breaker!

The ice golem groaned ponderously at the hideously cheesy pun. Just because it's a mindless, inhuman slave to an evil enchantress doesn't mean it has to like that sort of thing.

Raising his arm, Gen X Man focused his id into his fist, making it like unto a thing of irony! He swung and hit the golem with a full force punch in the dead centre of its torso, and the creature shattered into hundreds of fragments.

Gen X Man
Bartender, I'll have that one on the rocks!

Helium Girl
Will you just, like shut up and fight these things? Arrghh!

Two of the ice golems had concentrated on Helium Girl. She floated easily out of their grasp, and hung above them blasting holes in them with helium particle beams from her finger-tips. This did not, however, seem to slow them down.

Meanwhile, Deuterium Boy found himself facing the remaining two monsters. Which was fine with him. As they attacked, his super-atomic speed kept him well out of their reach. Concentrating on the deuterium atoms within the ice golems, he accelerated their vibrations to the equivalent of 200 degrees C. The magic animating the creatures wasn't enough to hold them together, and the creatures disintegrated into piles if slush and steam.

As Helium Girl and Gen X Man demolished a headless golem with a power punch/particle beam combination, Deuterium Boy focused his elemental attention on the last one. It dissolved easily as the others had.

He was about to turn to the Ice Witch with a smart comment when Helium Girl and Gen X Man were suddenly encased in crystal-clear blocks of ice!

Deuterium Boy
Let them go!

Ice Witch
It seems I underestimated you, hero.

Deuterium Boy drew his sabre and rushed at her.

Deuterium Boy
I said, let them go!!

A two-handed blade of ice appeared in the Ice Witch's hands, and she easily turned his blind attack with force to spare. Deuterium Boy stumbled and skidded across the icy sidewalk. As he turned, the Ice Witch was standing over him, the blade of the broadsword pointing to his heart. Behind her he could see from the lights of the police cruisers glinting off the ice that the police had also been encased. The two of them were effectively alone.

Ice Witch
Don't worry, Al ma'tal. They are encased in enchanted Living Ice; they live and breathe still. I will not kill them while they still may be of use to me. Don't think of trying to melt them; your fields will disrupt the enchantment and they will suffocate quickly.

Deuterium Boy
What did you call me?

Slowly, she began to circle him, always keeping the tip of the blade trained on him. It was incongruous seeing the small woman wielding a sword as tall as she was as easily as if it were a knitting needle.

Ice Witch
Al ma'tal. That is what you are, isn't it? One of the ancients... and yet... and yet another tells me, an upstart. Older, and younger. It is disorienting... this feeling of belonging to three immeasurably different times at once.

Her expression grew distracted. For a split second, something seemed to go out in her eyes. The hardness was gone, replaced by the terror and confusion of a young woman unfathomably out of her depth. Just as Deuterium Boy thought to take advantage of her weakness, the hardness returned. She tightened her grip on the ice sword.

Ice Witch
So the Al ma'tal have returned. Only they could rival the power of the Winter's Heart, they and the Old Ones, the Terrors... Together we would be unstoppable, hero. Join me.

Deuterium Boy
Go freeze over hell, Ice Witch.

She raised the sword and prepared to strike.

Ice Witch
After you, hero.

She swung the sword, but even before Deuterium Boy could acknowledge his impending death, he was struck in the face with what felt like a pitcher of ice cold water. He re-opened his eyes to find the Ice Witch holding the dissolving stump of the sword and looking surprised.

A disrespectful shout of "Hey lady!" caused them both to look around.

Hydrogen Guy perched on the ice statute of Gen X Man. He held the Ruler of Elendil, glowing brightly, casually down by his knees.

Hydrogen Guy
I've heard of women who like to do in their men with ice picks, but really...

Deuterium Boy leapt to his feet behind her and moved to grab her while she was distracted. She instantly dodged from his grip and he suddenly felt a column of ice slamming into his chest. He was knocked flying back, landing again on the ice and skidding a considerable distance.

The Ice Witch turned to face Hydrogen Guy. The ice sword reformed in her hands.

Ice Witch
So, another Al ma'tal? And whom do you serve, blue one?

Hydrogen Guy hopped lightly off his frozen comrade.

Hydrogen Guy
Truth, Silliness and the Canadian Way. I'd like to speak with you, if you don't mind, about the mess you're making around here. I don't know what kind of strange material you've got my friends locked in here, but why don't we start our discussion with your releasing them? Or do I have to get Ancient Republic on your behind?

She seemed to glide directly at him, and swung the ice sword to cleave him in two. If it had not been for his super-atomic speed and the Ruler of Elendil, she would have succeeded. The Ruler sliced easily through the ice sword, cutting the blade off near the hilt; trying to block with an ordinary sword of the Ruler's size would have broken his arms, at best.

The blade was already regenerating as she brought the sword around for another blow. She swung around, dodging Deuterium Boy's thrust from behind. The broadsword split in two, one half of which flew to her left hand; she now held paired short swords.

Hydrogen Guy
Ambitious, aren't you?

Deuterium Boy
You don't know the half of it, HG.

The battle grew far too complex to describe adequately. She fended off Deuterium Boy with her left as he worried her with his sabre; meanwhile she attacked Hydrogen Guy with her right, regenerating the sword each time the Ruler sliced it to pieces. She was an incredible swords-woman, to put it mildly. Part of it was her perfect motion on the ice; she used its slickness, its rough spots, every aspect of it to her advantage. Her attackers, however, were only human, and tended to slip unless very, very careful.

Perhaps, thought Hydrogen Guy, we can even the odds.

He gave ground, encouraging her to press him. While she concentrated more of her attention on the weakening opponent, Deuterium Boy mounted a strong attack. As she turned to meet it, Hydrogen Guy ducked down, and concentrated on moving the icy hydrogen atoms beneath her feet.

The ice buckled. As she parried Deuterium Boy's blow, the unexpected instability of the ice beneath her cause her to stumble back, and then pitch over Hydrogen Guy's back. As she hit the ground, he slipped out from under her and placed his knee on her chest, and the Ruler of Elendil at her throat.

Hydrogen Guy
Now... as I was saying about our friends, over there...

Ice Witch
You can't kill what's already dead, blue one.

She suddenly grabbed his hand, twisted it, and plunged the Ruler of Elendil into her chest. At that instant, her body seemed to explode into snow and wind, like a blizzard that been kept inside a mason jar. Hydrogen Guy was thrown violently back into Deuterium Boy, and they were both hurled forcefully onto the Museum steps. At the same instant, the Living Ice behind them dissolved. Helium Girl and Gen X Man were buffeted and tossed by the expanding blizzard.

The police came out of it at the same time, but for the most part had already been sheltered behind the cars. Seeing the four heroes in danger, several officers plunged into the worst of the storm and hustled them back behind police lines. They were put into the Tritium Truck II; an officer got behind the wheel and drove it away. One by one, the police cruisers followed.

They had all reached the same conclusion - it's foolhardy, if not impossible, to arrest a force of nature.

Hans-Raoul
I'm waiting, Ms. Cheung...

Robyn Cheung was at a complete loss for words. She stood in the middle of her office, six ICBC special stormtroopers in light armour pointing energy weapons directly at her. Her boss (and not incidentally, lover) Hans-Raoul was leaning on her desk, expecting some sort of explanation after just informing her she'd spent part of her morning in a super-powered battle with Helium Girl in downtown Maple Ridge.

She was at a loss for words because she had no explanation. It was more than the feeling that the situation was slipping out of her control. It was the feeling that the situation had escaped her completely, and she was now watching it getting on a Greyhound bus and riding off into the sunset.

She continued to stare at him with her mouth open. It wasn't helping, either, that every square inch of her hurt like hell...

Hans-Raoul turned to one of the troopers.

Hans-Raoul
Readings?

Trooper #1
Getting nothing on the TK-meters. She reads clean for most conventional super-powers.

Trooper #2 Tesla field still holding steady, sir.

Hans-Raoul
Robyn? Close your mouth, dear, it's un-lady-like.

She shut her mouth and glared at him.

Robyn
If this is your idea of some kind of joke, it's not fucking funny, Hans-Raoul.

Hans-Raoul
Ah good, that sounds more like the Robyn we all know and love. All right, let's make it simple for you. Account to me for your actions today, starting with waking up this morning. Did you wake up alone? What side of the bed did you get up on?

Robyn
Yes, I was alone. Okay... uh, I woke up around 9:30, took a shower, dressed. Ate breakfast and listened to radio at around 10, I remember the deejays talking about this rock at the Museum. Did my make-up, left the house about 11 to do some shopping downtown.

Hans-Raoul
Ah yes, now it threatens to get interesting. Where did you go?

Robyn
Dewdney Trunk, central Haney. I was in the mood for something expensive. I had your card, if you remember.

Hans-Raoul
Right. Did you encounter anything unusual? Anything strike you out of the ordinary at all? Even a small detail?

Robyn
No. At least, not that I can remember... At some point I blacked out. I just woke up, like, an hour ago, back at my place.

Hans-Raoul
You blacked out? When? Where? What's the last thing you can remember?

Robyn
Shut up, okay? It hurts when I try to remember it...

Hans-Raoul
Robyn, try. It's important.

Robyn
I know, I know... okay, it was... maybe just around noon, maybe a little before... I'd bought a few things, then I stopped at this one store... they had something in the window I really liked... a coat?

Her face betrayed her growing headache. Step by step, she recounted how she had entered the store, and then been out-manoeuvred for the last coat in her size by annoying blonde woman.

Robyn
...ow... oh God... then I think I stormed out of the store... ow, I can't go any farther. Then I woke up, and it was past seven and I was at my place.

Hans-Raoul
And you were sick and disoriented, like you are now when you try to remember?

Robyn
Yes... and... my clothes from that morning were lying in a pile on the floor. They looked burnt.

Hans-Raoul
Burnt? By what? Did you examine them?

Robyn
No! I came here, I was going to finish that stupid Navy Square report for you.

Hans-Raoul
Robyn, is this everything you know?

Robyn
Yes.

Hans-Raoul
I don't advise that you lie to me.

Robyn
I'm not, okay?! Jesus Christ... look, I don't know if I have any kind of super powers or not, I just don't know anymore. There was another time this happened, in Boise... I blacked out after I left Malevolent.

Hans-Raoul
What? Why didn't you tell me before?

Robyn
I didn't think you'd care. It wasn't any of your business, I thought I'd just drank too much...

Hans-Raoul watched her carefully. She looked haggard, physically exhausted; she had the moment she came in. He judged it as unlikely that she was intentionally keeping anything from him.

Robyn
So now what? Are you going to torture me, or kill me as a threat, or what?

Hans-Raoul
I'd only torture you if I thought you were lying. I don't think you are. Whether you stay alive for the next twenty-four hours is up to you now... you and whatever it is that you've got in you.

Robyn
What about the Comptroller?

He smiled softly.

Hans-Raoul
I made that up. It takes more than a meta-human tantrum to make him take notice of you. I thought it might be an effective incentive to talk.

Robyn
[softly] Asshole.

He stood up and walked slowly over to her.

Hans-Raoul
I'm not an expert in meta-human early manifestation, so I have no idea if this sort of thing is "normal" or not. I am going to send you to someone who is an expert, within the Corporation. He should be able to tell us what's going on with you. Co-operate with him fully and it will be completely painless.

Robyn
I don't have any choice in this, do I?

Hans-Raoul
Sorry, no... Robyn... I know this sounds preposterous coming from my lips, and we don't really have that kind of relationship anyway, but... trust me. I think this is best for you, me, and the Corporation. You're the most valuable ally I have in this world, and I'd rather not have to replace you.

Robyn
You're a hopeless romantic.

Hans-Raoul
It's my one weakness.

Suddenly, a feeling came over him like all the hair on the back of his neck were standing on end, with such a thing actually happening. It was so sudden and unexpected - and familiar - that he didn't realise what it was, until the voice behind him made his stomach sink to the bottom of his shoes. The troopers swung around immediately and locked their weapons on the interloper.

"Hans-Raoul, there you are, thank the Mists I found you. We have no time to lose, the situation is incredibly dire --"

"HOLD YOUR FIRE!"

Hans-Raoul shouted the order in a supreme mixture of frustration, annoyance, anger, desperation and alarm. He turned just as he was accosted about the shoulders by a thin, elderly man in a dark grey suit jacket and black pants. Both were relics of the late 19th century. His shirt and unravelled tie were of a similar vintage.

Confusion reined. The troopers, utterly confused, continued to train their blasters on the new arrival, who had appeared literally out of thin air behind Robyn's desk. At first Robyn seemed about to lose the last vestige of her sanity, then, remembering Hans-Raoul's origins and abilities, guessed what had happened. It didn't make her any less confused, though.

Hans-Raoul forced himself to be calm. The anachronistic gentleman was babbling incoherently in their native language, occasionally shaking Hans-Raoul's shoulders for emphasis. Hans-Raoul took a deep breath, and spoke in English, cutting through the man's tirade.

"Uncle," he said, "now is not a good time."

The man appeared taken aback. "Time?" he said, continuing in English, "There isn't time! The worst is surely about to befall -- "

"Hold that thought, Uncle." Hans-Raoul stopped him a second time, and then turned to the troopers. "Take her to Phillips. If anything happens, alert me immediately, I don't care if it's with your dying breath. Ms. Cheung's safety is to be your top priority. Understand?"

"Uh... yes, sir." The lead trooper looked quizzically at the visitor. Hans-Raoul looked back at him crossly. "You have your orders, trooper. And one more thing, you will repeat none of what you saw here tonight, is that clear? Dismissed!"

He gently handed Robyn over to the lead trooper. She glanced back briefly as they ushered her out of the room. He followed the procession and closed and locked the door behind them, then breathed a sigh of relief.

"All right," he said, turning to the old man. He continued in the Vallene tongue. "We can speak freely. I swept the place for bugs before all of this started... Now - and I know I'm going to regret asking this - what the hell are you babbling about, Corvath?"

Have our heroes been defeated by the Ice Witch? Well, yes, actually. But what are they going to do about it? What is this Winter's Heart all about, anyway? And what has Hans-Raoul's uncle (!) got his petticoats in a knot about?

Find out in Part III of...

Same Hydrogen Time, Same Hydrogen Website!