Avalanche: New Haven

XXII. Hunter and Prey

Dai, Jace, and Lena ran together down another short flight of stairs, frantic.
"Where is this back door?!" Dai exclaimed.
"How should we know?!!" Lena retorted.

The three came to a stop in the middle of an unfamiliar hall to catch their breath.
"Okay..." Jace wheezed, "Can we get these collars off now?"
"Yeah, sure..." Dai panted, and he held up the keys. There were only six on the key ring, two of which matched the metallic grey coloring on the collars.
He tried one on Jace's collar, and after a quick turn, the collar made a "shutting off" sound before clicking open.
Jace pulled the collar off, tossing it to the side, and held his hand up.
Yellow lightning crackling along his fingers, he grinned.
"It's been... so long," he said.
"Great," Lena huffed, "Me now? Please?"
Dai was about to use the other key on Lena's collar, when Leroy rounded a corner, swords in hand.

"There you are," he smiled, running at them.
Dai, thinking fast, shoved the keys into Jace's hands and ran towards Leroy, making his own dual swords in the process.
The two's swords collided loudly, and they began pushing against each other in a lock.
"You think you stand a chance against me, boy?" Leroy taunted, "You may have impressive skills, but I've been training for over thirty years!"
He then stomped on the floor, and Dai jumped back just as a large icicle popped up out of the floor where he once stood.
Leroy then dissipated his swords, and quickly shoved his hands forward, a large, black, icy blast shooting out from his palms.
Dai crossed his arms in front of his face as the blast hit him. He wasn't shoved back by it, but he did feel something nicking at his skin and causing him slight pain. Looking down at his hands, he saw numerous little cuts , and realized there were many on his face as well.

The blast stopped, and Dai dropped to the floor, groaning. His face and hands, the only parts of his body not protected by clothing, were stinging badly.

"Call that move 'Ice Storm'," Leroy boasted, "You know how shooting icicles out of your palms is the most basic attack an ice Gifted can learn? Take that, but make the icicles smaller and plentiful."
Dai groaned and felt the panic settling in as he noticed blood was dripping down over one of his eyes.

Meanwhile, Jace struggled to quickly insert the key into Lena's collar.
"It can't be that hard!" Lena exclaimed.
"I'm trying!" Jace said, and finally her collar shut down and opened up, "There!"
Lena took off the collar, grabbed Jace's, and ran towards where Dai and Leroy were.

Leroy kicked Dai in the chest, right in the injury he had from Millicent. Dai yelped and toppled to the side.
Leroy chuckled, then noticed Lena coming at him.
Lena threw one of the collars at him, Leroy raising a black ice wall to block it. It hit the ice and fell to the floor, shorting out.

Lena then ran around one side and tried to clasp it around his neck.
Leroy raised an ice pillar from underneath her. It pushed her up, through the ceiling, and onto the upper floor. She had dropped the collar on the floor in front of Leroy as she was shoved upward.

"Lena!" Jace shouted.
Leroy dissipated both the pillar and the wall.
Jace looked from the hole in the ceiling, to where Dai lied on the floor. Grimacing, he quickly ran over and stood over Dai, lightning pouring over his arms.
"If you want to kill him, you'll have to get through me," he said, slightly quivering.
Leroy arched an eyebrow, and noticed Dai's eyes were open, and they were glowing blue.
"Healing?" he asked, picking up the functioning collar Lena dropped, "We can't have that."
Jace mustered up courage and blasted rays of lightning from his fingertips.
Leroy raised another ice wall just before the rays hit, and he kept feeding it energy as the lightning chipped away at the ice.

Down the hall behind Leroy, Millicent rounded the corner, gasping. Forming an ice path underneath her feet as she raced towards them.
Leroy noticed a noise coming from behind him, and quickly backflipped over Millicent as she skated toward him, skidding to a stop just before the wall.
Leroy then froze his fist over and punched her across the face, snapping the collar on her neck while she was incapacitated.
Millicent's scythe dissipated away, as did her ice path.
She grabbed at the collar on her neck, glaring at Leroy.
Leroy just shrugged, "Now, this will be much easier."

He started to approach her, backing Millicent up against his own ice wall, when Dai and Jace both jumped out from behind the wall on either side.
Dai blasted an ice beam and Jace fired a lightning ray.
Leroy didn't have time to react, as his torso got frozen over and he got electrocuted at the same time.
He fell back, the ice encasing him shattering as it did, groaning.

Millicent turned to the boys.
"Go help Lena," she said, "Warriors are bound to come here soon."
Jace nodded, and teleported to the upper floor.
Millicent looked to Dai, and noticed the cuts on his face and the blood over his eye.
The cuts were slowly healing up, now as Dai returned to healing, his eyes glowing the bright blue once again.

"Are you alright?" she asked, a concern in her voice.
"I can't fight for the moment," he said, "Seems as though you can't either."
The two noticed Leroy sitting up, grunting frustratedly.
"I'll be fine," she said, "The back door is further down. Once you get out, you'll find the power generator that gives us our electricity and the like. Blow it up."
Dai looked at her, "What?!"
"Do it! We are going to make sure these people never hurt anyone again," Millicent said orderly.
Dai looked from her, to Leroy, who was now completely standing up.

"The keys for the collars are behind this ice wall," Dai said simply, and he hurriedly fast-walked off, back towards the stairs.
Leroy gritted his teeth.
"Why, Millicent? You were my right hand," he said.
"For as long as it suited me," she said, "It doesn't suit me anymore."
Leroy snarled and formed two large black battle axes.

"One way or another, you and the children die today."

❄️

Kai sat in his cell, the two guards watching over him not paying much attention.
He tugged at his collar again, feeling it all over for any kind of weak point.
He then felt what felt like a keyhole on the side of it.
"Hmm," he thought to himself.

Just then, a third warrior came down into the detention block.
"One of you, come with me!" she said, "Something's happening outside. Captain Nylas wants as many hands on deck as possible!"
"I'll go," said one of the guards.
"I guess I'll continue to stand here and do nothing," the other grumbled.
"Shut up, Francis," the first guard retorted, and he left with the one that came down.

Kai listened for the door to close, and then looked at the guard who was still watching him.
He noticed the ring of keys on the back of his belt.
They were all metallic and brassy, though.

"Time to break out of here," he uttered quietly to himself.