Peppermint

Chapter 29 - Smart Patrol

***GABE***

I can't be inside my snow tunnel much longer, not without making myself super vulnerable. So I need to get rid of it and take an enemy out at the same time, if at all possible. Can I do this without incapacitating my friends too? That's a challenge I'll just have to see if I can meet without waiting to scan all future timelines for all future consequences.

I could use an Eye of Agamotto right about now.

Or maybe those damn time-viewing space rocks. I could use one of the white ones, especially. The future ones. Even if they give me nightmares about Alex dying all over again.

So, with that in mind, I make my decision.

I throw ice all over the place, blasting Alicia Wahlberg backwards and making her fly into the coffee cart. She's so lucky that little obstacle didn't give her a concertina spine. Just a broken arm. Sorry, lady, but I value my well-being far above yours, so my sympathy's got to stay limited.

Behind the coffee cart, Aditya reaches up to the jukebox and shuts it off. In the middle of a Devo song, no less. Oh well, nobody's perfect. He pokes his head above the surface and asks, "Is it over?"

Alicia jumps back to her feet, lightning spraying from her good arm while she cries out and clutches her broken one close to her chest.

"That's a no," Aditya says.

"Code!" I order him. "Wait, what are you supposed to be doing again?" Seriously, I've already forgotten. Maybe I'm a little too focused on keeping my own person safe above all others. Well, after I all but left Alex to face Elijah alone once - I'm still convinced Fionna died because I wasn't there to help - or the time I jumped onto Leah Cabrera without thinking of the lethal consequences, I've grown a little more self-concerned.

"I shut down all the doors coming in here!" Aditya calls out to me.

Alicia swipes at me with that one lightning arm of hers, and in response, I spray out more ice until she's trapped and frozen. Now she can't get to me, and she's gonna get a little time to heal as well, so that's good for her, I guess. I rejoin Aditya behind the cart, taking the time to run my finger through a little tub full of coffee grounds (why the hell wasn't it cleaned out after business hours ended?) and then lick a bit of espresso dust off the tip. Instant rejuvenation, even if it's just momentary. "Shut the doors?" I repeat. "No, don't do that! What if they-"

"Flood the vents with poison gas until this room has no breathable atmosphere?" Aditya stares at me through narrowed eyes.

"Erm...yeah, that." Note to self - make sure to clarify whether or not this kid really is telepathic.

"I am, and yeah, I already thought to stop them from poisoning us." He looks up for a moment of silent reflection, during which time I see him picture a complex schematic of tubes and vents. "Or whatever it is they'd gas us with. Maybe not poison. Maybe just sleeping gas or some shit."

"Not that it's really important, but did you see which kind it was?"

"No, it didn't say."

I look back over the top of the coffee cart, where Alicia stays, mercifully, still frozen. Further out, Liz and Jackie are still using their unique methods to fight, while Yash and Fionna are forming an unlikely tag team. She burns a guy, and he uses his time powers to trap him in a loop of getting the initial burning over and over and over again.

"He better not sneeze," Aditya says.

"Who, Man on Fire?"

"No, my brother." Aditya's fingers fly across the keyboard. "I think he's been fighting off a cold lately, and if he sneezes, it might end that loop. Probably before the fire-" He stops typing, then curses as he realizes he's made a mistake.