Avalanche: New Haven

XXV. Avalanche

Dai slowly limped over to the metal door. Upon reaching it, he grabbed the door handle and tried to turn it, only for it to stop almost immediately.
"Oh... no... no no no," he muttered, his eyes still glowing the bright light blue.
He fiddled with the door handle, pulled on the door, and finally slammed his fist on it.
Sighing, he turned around and stepped into the center of the hall. Turning back around, he groaned as he turned off his healing, his eyes returning to normal.
He formed a big ice war hammer in his hands, its weight partially pulling him down. He grimaced as he felt a slight pain in his chest, where Millicent cut him and where Leroy kicked him.

He mustered his strength and lifted the hammer up, holding it back. Letting out a determined, fierce scream, he spun around with the hammer, finally swinging it into the door.
The impact partially folded the door outward, the outside visible on either side.
The hammer dissipated and Dai collapsed on all fours, feeling dizzy.

At the end of the hall, Lena and Jace raced down to the bottom of the stairs. Jace noticed Dai and hit Lena's arm to point her to him. He then grabbed her arm and the two teleported over to him. Once they did, they got down on either side of him.
"Dai! You feeling okay?" Lena asked as she untied his hoodie from around her waist and wrapped it around him.
"No... I feel terrible," Dai groaned as his eyes started glowing again.
Jace looked over at the bent-in door.
"Millicent said... we have to blow up their power generator... through there," Dai explained, "It'll bring the whole place down..."
"How are we gonna do that??" Lena asked.
"Just go and wreck it, and then teleport out?" Dai suggested weakly.
"That's risky as heck," Jace pointed out, "Plus, wouldn't we be killing everyone in here?"
"Better them than us," Lena muttered.
"B-" Jace started.
"Jace," Dai said, "I know it's... scary... but what other choice do we have in stopping these people?"
Jace paused, uncertainty taking over his thoughts.

"It is the most difficult choice," a familiar voice said from behind them, "Whether or not to take lives in a single act."
Millicent stood before them, ice scythe in hand.
The three looked up at her, surprised.
"What happened to Leroy...?" Dai asked.
"Incapacitated, don't worry," Millicent replied.
She then noticed the bent door, and considered for a moment.
"You three get out of here," she said, "I will destroy this place."
"But, what about you?!" Lena asked, standing up.
Millicent blinked, "I will be fine. It was unwise of me to leave this action upon you kids. Get out of here, I'll be right behind you."
Lena blinked worriedly as Jace helped Dai up.
"I can teleport us outside the main entrance," he said, "I think I remember it..."

"Go, then," Millicent said, tapping the scythe's bottom end against the floor.
Lena looked at her, then avoided eye contact for a second, trying to think of something to say.
Jace grabbed her arm and shut his eyes, concentrating.
"Wait! Milli-" Lena started, just as she was teleported away with Jace and Dai.

Once they were gone, Millicent looked to the door, and held her scythe up.

The three had teleported onto the pathway leading up to the front door, Jace collapsing on the cold snow once they did.
"Jace!" Lena shouted, and immediately dropped to his side.
Clutching his chest, Dai looked up at the large temple.

"We need to go," he said, "Now."

❄️

While the battling outside raged on, Kai and Hunter ran through the hall of the first floor of the police station, and made their way up the stairwell to the second floor.

Upon reaching the second floor, they found a big room filled with office cubicles. The room was dark, with seemingly no one around.
Kai looked to Hunter and put a finger over his lips.
The two carefully crept in, glancing around. Kai lit one of his fingertips alight for better visibility.

Hunter peered into one of the cubicles, as Kai noticed a damaged part of the floor towards the center.
He took another step forward, when suddenly, he felt a sharp kick to his back.
He toppled forward, as Hunter got up and punched the assailant.
The assailant, none other than Nylas Leroy then pulled out a GR collar and tried to clasp it around the tan boy's neck.
Hunter knocked it out of his hand, and forming a vine whip, knocked him down and tied him up.

Kai got up and went over to them, rubbing his nose after hitting his face on the floor.
"Well," he said, "That wasn't much of a fight."
"Yeah," Hunter agreed.
Nylas just glared at the two young Gifted.
Kai eyed him suspiciously.
"You don't have a Gift, do you?"
Nylas said nothing, he just avoided eye contact.
"For real?" Hunter asked, "Talk about sad."
"Let's just show him to everyone," Kai said, "Capturing him, plus revealing he's Giftless, could be enough to get his people to stop fighting."
"Whatever," Hunter grunted, and he roughly pulled Nylas up on his feet, and the two boys went to escort him out.

❄️

Leroy groaned as he found himself lying on the floor in the damaged hallway. He slowly got up, feeling a stinging pain on the side of his head, realizing he had a bruise.
He shook his head, trying to shake away the pain, when he remembered Millicent and the children.

Panicking, he started to try running forward, only to become dizzy and abruptly lean on the wall.
Grunting in simultaneous annoyance and pain, he made his way to the stairs.

Meanwhile, Millicent was outside, having broken the metal back door through. Around her was snow, as well as four massive columns. At the top, was the bottom of what would be the big balcony outside the armory.
Sitting in front of her, was the massive power generator embedded into the side of the mountain.
Dissipating her scythe, she focused icy energy into her palms and fired a large ice beam at it, slowly freezing it solid.
The ice slowly crept around the entire generator until finally, it was covered.

The lighting inside the temple blinked off, Leroy looking around frantically as he heard what he assumed to be warriors panicking from the stairwell.

Millicent then formed a new ice scythe, but shortened the staff. She held it back, closing one eye, aiming for the primary wiring panel.
She then threw it, it twirling in the air until the blade shattered the ice and pierced through it. The generator began sparking, as Millicent ran back inside, forming a new scythe, and raced toward the front door.

Before long, the generator became unstable enough to explode, taking out the columns and causing the balcony above to collapse as well as part of the wall. The entire temple rocked, and Millicent clung to the wall momentarily. She continued running nonetheless, eventually reaching the front door and making a beeline out.

Dai, Jace, and Lena were further down the trail, and stopped walking upon hearing the explosion, looking back.
"She did it...!" Dai uttered.
They then saw Millicent skating towards them on her own ice path, skidding to a stop in front of them.
"Keep moving!" she said urgently.

Back in the temple, Leroy clung to the wall weakly as the temple rocked. Little did he know, the explosion disturbed the massive amount of snow on the mountain, and the bulk of it was starting to torrent down the mountain, disturbing the foundation of the temple.

He desperately tried to make a path of ice to skate away, though no matter how many times he tapped his foot, nothing happened.
"What...?!"
He then tried firing an icicle from his palm.
Nothing.
"My... my Gift?!" he shouted.
A good heaping of snow then crashed into the back of the temple from the mountain, breaking through the walls and doors and smashing the windows.
Leroy didn't see it coming as it barreled straight into him.