Cold Snap (Warriors: S1B3)

Chapter 2

Earth date: 10/23/11, 14:13

A few weeks after getting my powers, I stayed after class to talk to Mr. Isotalo, the science teacher. I asked him how cold it would need to be for water to instantly freeze. He leaned back in his chair and tapped his chin as he thought. 

"The easy answer is absolute zero," he said. "But that's almost impossible to achieve. Even liquid nitrogen is almost 80 degrees Fahrenheit above absolute zero. I have heard of really cold winters where people can throw boiling water out of pots and it freezes before it hits the ground." 

For evidence, he clicked around Google until he found a YouTube video where some people in Wisconsin had a -42 winter day, and like Mr. Isotalo said, people threw boiling water at snowbanks and it was ice  before it hit the snow. When he asked why I wanted to know, I suddenly noticed it was time for my next class and moved on.

I thought about all this as I stood on the line at the range. "Are you ready, Margaret?" Will said over the intercom.

I put my hands together. I felt goosebumps rise on my arms as the air around me cooled. "Yeah."

I heard the ka-chunk of a lever, then the sound of rubber against cement as tennis balls fell from the ceiling. I held my hands out in front of me and concentrated the cold into a sliver of air. Blades of ice flew from my hand, spearing tennis balls and pinning them to the back wall. I kept that up until the tennis balls rolled to a stop. 

The door slid open, and Will walked in. "6," he said. "You're getting better."

I nodded. 

"You want to go again, or do something else?"

"I'll move on."

I walked out of the range and down the hall. I stopped as I walked past one of the training rooms. Joey and Max were in the room, scrimmaging. As I watched, Joey dropped into a boxing stance and moved forward in a crouch. Max dropped into a similar position, but didn't move. Joey threw a punch, and Max swung an arm. Max's elbow met Joey's fist.

I groaned, even though I knew it would be alright. The second time I met Joey, I watched him get pinned to a wall with a blast of electricity and then get up. Max was more likely to get hurt than Joey was.

Joey threw more punches, and Max blocked with his elbows, bouncing Joey's jabs away from him. Joey threw a right hook, and Max caught his fist. He twirled his arm and held it at an obtuse angle, trapping Joey's arm between his armpit and his elbow. He kneed Joey in the stomach and swung his leg into the fold of Joey's knee. The two of them went down, with Max flipping Joey over him so Joey landed on the mat on his back.

Max hopped to his feet. "You done?" he said.

Joey got back to his feet. "Unless you tell me what that was," he said.

"Arm trap," he said. He motioned for Joey to step closer. I walked away as Max started showing Joey what he had done.

I went back to the training room I'd come from. Daphne had replaced me, and Will was in the room with her instead of in the observation booth. Both of them had bows, but while Daphne was carrying her arrows on her back, Will had his quiver stood up on the floor next to him.

As I watched, Will handed Daphne a remote. "I'm ready when you are," he said. Daphne took the remote and pushed a button. I heard the ka-chunk of the ceiling mechanism, and tennis balls dropped from the ceiling. Will's arm moved fast as a rattlesnake. He shot arrow after arrow, barely looking down to snatch a new arrow from the quiver. He only stopped when his hands closed around empty air. He lowered his bow.