The Frosted Files:Open Eyes

// Chapter 14 \\

    Like any sensible people, we all put our hands up, slowly, as the spears were pointed in our direction. The four spearmen approached, keeping the pointy ends of their weapons trained on us with an almost professional precision.
    Glancing over at Scarlett, I saw she was practically bristling with anxiety, like an animal trapped in a corner, like she may explode at any moment. Her ears were folded back, and I'm sure she would be hissing if she was a cat right now.
    One brief internal moral struggle later, I sighed, and put my hands down. The spearmen all turned towards me, and one lightly jabbed at me without hitting me.
    "So, other than these sticks, do you guys have any offensive magic, or are you all party tricks and do-it-yourself tranquilizing gas?" I asked the leader. That seemed to catch him off guard, because he didn't order his people to impale me. Instead, they hesitantly looked at their leader, unsure what to do. Mindless puppets, they are, without the common sense to at least maim me. All the better for me, at least.
    "Party tricks?" The leader asked, trying to sound threatening, but it came out more inquisitive.
    "Yeah, yeah. That black mist? Even if it was an actual magical sleep spell, which I'm pretty sure is borderline illegal according to the MIASS, you can't do it often. You're holding us at spearpoint; non magical spearpoint, at that. Putting two and two together, I say you have no offensive magical capabilities. Sounds about right?" I tilt my head a little to play into the bluff, hiding my nervousness with a calm smug mask.
    The leader doesn't respond, and a few of the spearmen start to shift from foot to foot.
    "Thought so."
    I spin around and grab one of the spears with my tech hand, which is starting to catch up to my senses and work properly. The spearman tried to pull it from my grasp, but I held tight, the nanotech catching on the barbed head of the spear. I pulled it from his grasp, kicking him in the stomach, and spun the spear around so I could actually use it.
    The other three stood there, stunned.
    Karma and Scarlett both still had their hands up, spears held against their throat, even with their captives momentarily stunned.
    I twist and throw the spear at the leader, and he jerks a hand to the right. One of the spearmen, the one that wasn't actually guarding anyone, jumps in front of the spear, taking it in the collarbone. He lets out a wet sound of pain, and falls to the floor.
    Then two of the spearmen, the one who's spear I stole and the one guarding Karma, rushed towards me.
    Scarlett was kept captive, however.
    Karma looked at me for what to do - I guess I've been declared the leader of this little trio.
    "Get Robes back there, I'll take these two!"
    She nods, and starts towards the leader.
    The spearless cultist swings a hook at me, and I duck, jabbing at his crotch. He grunts and takes it, and the spear of the other cultist slices down on my arm, leaving a red line of blood across my forearm.
    "Motherfucker," I rise up and back to dodge another spear slice, sidestepping another punch from the spearless guy. Let's call these guys Spear and Notspear. During my sidestep to dodge Notspear's hit, Spear got the bright idea to swing his spear at my legs instead of my head. I felt the metal cut my calf, and then he slammed the stiff handle into the back of my knees, and I went down.
    Keep in mind that this whole time I have nothing but my lovely white and red heart boxers on. At least I'm not Karma, in what looks to be only a pair of black lace panties.
    Notspear got in a hit to my head, and I barely caught myself from just falling onto the floor. On my hands and knees, I felt the spear jab into my side, and the barbs, which, mind you, were four inches from the tip, got caught on my flesh as Spear pulled it out.
    In movies and books, whenever a character takes a wound to the torso, they cough up blood, right? No, not always. Not realistically at least. Coughing up blood indicates a respiratory wound, so likely a lung or somewhere near that.
    Blood began to drip from my mouth.
    That wasn't very good.
    At this point, I had blocked out the pain and was focused purely on the logical approach to this situation.
    I slid down from my hands and knees to just laying on the cold concrete, stomach down.
    My nanotech was still on the fritz, so maybe a short rest was in order.
    Scarlett's scream said otherwise.
    I pushed myself up as much as I could, now back to my knees. Spear and Notspear were facing towards their leader now, watching him and Karma brawl. Karma slung various magics at him, but he must have had a shield like mind, because a sickly purple light flashed and blocked the magics.
    I looked over to Scarlett and saw the spear in her throat.
    This was not going as planned at all.
    She saved me, and she may still have a chance - I saw her eyes still moving, her chest rising and falling. She was alive, just hurt.
    I pushed myself to my feet, nearly puking as more blood dripped from my mouth, and tried to form my hand into a knife of some sort. It didn't work, but the fingertips did sharpen ever so slightly. The guy holding the spear in the catgirl's neck, who I shall call Speartwo, had his back to me.
    Scarlett saw me rising, and her eyes widened a little.
    I rushed- or, well, tried to rush- over to them, and threw myself on Speartwo.
    He grunted at the impact, and I shoved my hand into his face, my thumb and pointer in his eyes and my other three fingers in his mouth. He bit down, only to be met by metal, and I squeezed. He screamed, of course, as I felt his eyes get deformed, and my nanotech fingers sink into the roof of his mouth. While holding this guy's face like a bowling ball, I slammed him down as hard as I could in my wounded state, and ended up falling after him. The spear clattered to the side, and I felt the guy's skull cave in a little bit as we landed. His screaming stopped.
    I rolled off the now-corpse of Speartwo and looked up at Scarlett, who was still standing. The wound on her neck was already closed, and she was rubbing it. Fast healing, it seems.
    Logic, logic, logic. I'm sure there's some reason I default to logic in grimm situations, some story or personality trait that a therapist would love to dissect. I haven't told my therapist about this yet, as it hasn't come up much - usually I'm on the winning side.
    Scarlett crouched down next to me. "Dumbass," she called me as she set a hand over my wound.
    I gasped as energy flowed into me, and pushed myself to my elbows, looking down at what she was doing. A subtle orange light, like the colour of fallen leaves in autumn, glowed from her hand. The slash on my leg and forearm had already closed, leaving a scar, and I watched as the one in my side stitched itself together before my very eyes. I spit out the blood in my mouth, and none replaced it.
    Spear and Notspear were coming towards us, and Scarlett raised a hand, palm flat and facing them. They ran into a wall that suddenly appeared of a similar colour, translucent orange. They went to go around it, and Scarlett reformed her hand as if she was holding a softball - the wall reacted, forming a ball around the two.
    She made a fist, and the wall sphere compressed down to the size of a basketball.
    And I thought my ice hand was brutal, back in Locke's office. Damn.
    Scarlett lowered her hand, and removed the one from my side, and fully sat down.
    "Give me a moment, and I'll be back up. Healing is a complicated thing to do."
    I got up. "No worries. Not yet, at least."
    Karma was still holding her own, and had backed the leader into the corner next to the door to our cell. Between two spells, her strange language echoing around the hall, she threw a punch at the guy. Her hand went right through the shield, hitting the guy, before she kept up with her spells.
    I picked up a spear.
    "Karma, dear, fetch the rope." I said. She turned to me, and the cult leader tried to run. I threw the spear, and it hit him in the foot, right on the heel. He falls, and I walk over, resting a foot on his head until Karma gets back with the rope.
    Leaning down, I tell him, "Listen. You're going to lead us to out shit, or you'll get your dick cut off and shoved so far up your ass that you'll be tasting unwashed head for the rest of your pitiful life. Got it?" He tried to nod, so I took that as a yes.
    Karma got back with the rope, and I tied the robe guy up, putting his hands against his neck. That way, any magic he tried to do on us would have to go through him first.
    On his hands was a set of three rings, connected by chain, much like my own. I took them, much to his protest, and put them on my nanotech hand. Slowly, the tech started to embed the rings into the actual hand, like I should have done with my other set of shield rings.
    Karma looked absolutely exhausted - likely from all that spell slinging - so I took lead, again.
    "Remember what I said, bud." I pull the guy to his feet, holding one end of the rope like a leash from around his throat/hands. He started walking, and I motioned for the others to follow. I kept one of the spears, though.
    As we walked, I went over what had happened in my head. From what I know about magic, a few things bugged me, so I decided to address them.
    "So, catgirl, how come you didn't do the hyper compression spell before? Maybe on your captive's head?"
    Scarlett lowered her ears a little. "The spear heads were iron. I couldn't do anything while in contact with it." Karma looked over at Scarlett, then away. Hadn't Karma mentioned iron fucking up her magic?
    "So, is iron a universal magic muffler?"
    "No, only for some."
    "What makes someone one of the 'some'?"
    She crossed her arms. I just noticed, somehow, but she had a tail the same colour as her ears, and it was wrapped around her left leg now. "Blood, usually. In my case, occupation."
    "So your job makes iron mess your magic up?"
    "Something like that."
    Karma also had her arms crossed, likely to cover herself up in front of the catgirl. "Her job makes her fae, Frost."
    Scarlett gasped and looked up at Karma.
    "Fae can't fuck with iron." She continued, looking down to the rope in her hands - the very same rope that had bound us earlier.
    "How did you-" Scarlett started, but was cut off.
    Karma shot her a glare. "Other than that being common knowledge, I thought you looked familiar. My mother knew yours."
    "But my mom only-... oh." She was looking at Karma in a whole new way, now. If I didn't know better, I'd say there was a hint of attraction there - not the sexual attraction she had shown when she first showed up, either.
    As for their conversation, I was lost, and they were not saying anything about anything, so they probably wouldn't if I asked. So instead, I asked a different question.
    "And how come you could cast magic without saying the spells? I mean, my shield ring doesn't need a word, but that's an enchanted item. Do you have some magical bracelet that forms those walls, or does healing?"
    "It.. comes with the job, too."
    "Huh. What's-"
    The robed man kicked at a door on our left. "Storage room. Your stuff's on the top left." he said, and turned to leave. Karma tugged on his rope leash, and he let out a choking sound.
    That reminded me of what Ed had said. I turned to Scarlett. "I appreciate your help, Scarlett." When I said her name, she shivered. I don't know why, and I don't really want to know why.
    She nodded. "Wise choice of words, Frost. Don't thank fae if you can avoid it."
    "So, you're fae by occupation?"
    She winced at my guess, but nodded.
    "How's that function?" I asked, opening the storage door and taking the rope. Karma slipped in, and I let her get dressed first.
    "You'll understand, eventually." She said, looking away. I did not like that, at all, because it sounded like something Adrian would say. Does everyone but me know my future?
    Karma came out, dressed in her previous lovely outfit, and beckoned me in. I passed the rope off to her again, and went in.
    The storage room was roughly five by five, and a shelf lined the left wall. On the top left was a white box with my name scrawled on it. I reached up and grabbed it, retrieving my items, slipping on my clothes.
    As I looked up from buttoning my jeans, I saw, sitting in the corner of the room, was... someone.
    They wore a black facemask with some kind of sigil on the front, and their eyes glowed a dark purple. A hood from a black cloak was pulled low over their face, so I couldn't see their hair, or many details. We locked eyes, and I felt myself start to fall into a Soul Stare, so I jerked my head to the side. When I looked back, they were gone.
    Okay. That was cool.
    That was also a problem for later, because the door hadn't opened, meaning that it was either an illusion, a hologram, or a hallucination.
    I finished getting everything together, setting my glasses back on my nose, and walked out. Finally, my tech was starting to work at full efficiency, so I used my tech hand to form claws, and sliced up the boxes for everything else. Random junk spilled everywhere, from loose paperclips to rubber ducks. It was very satisfying.
    I walked out, happy to have my heavy coat back on, my guns - mine and Locke's - in the pockets. The two were quietly talking, and stopped when I came out. Suspicious.
    "Does anyone have any use for this fucker?" I asked the group. Both magical girls shook their heads, and the guy himself nodded.
    I kicked him in the back of the knees, and pulled my gun out.
    "Have fun in flames, bud." I pulled the trigger, and put the gun back in my pocket.
    "Now, before we leave, I need something from you." I pointed at Scarlett.
    She looked around. "Me?"
    "Yes, you."
    "I can work with deals, Frost. What do y-"
    I grabbed her by the upper arm and pulled her closer to me, pinning her to the wall, and staring into her eyes.
    Her eyes went wide, and I fell inside.
    Scarlett's mind was dark. Not dark as in scary, or grimm, just dark. Lots of shadow, and hidden places. The little bit I could see - a small room with a desk, a PC sitting on it with an orange leaf sticker on the back - was poorly lit. A single candle flickered on the desk, the flame white and much larger than it should be.
    I walked over to the desk, and sat at the chair. It was soft, not plush, but not stiff either. It wasn't good or bad, just kind of there. The computer screen was solid orange, and a single white box, labeled 'PASSWORD'. A sticky note beside the keyboard read 'password: password1', so I went to type that in. As soon as I hit the 'o' key, I felt a wave of primal fear, like when you watch something truly scary at three in the morning by yourself.
    I looked around, the hairs on the back of my neck standing up, my danger sense going crazy.
    From the shadows off to my right stepped Scarlett.
    Or, well, it could have once been Scarlett. It had legs that bent like a cat's, forming a stretched out 'Z', leading up to a black cloak with many layers. Her hands had claws, and her eyes were empty. Nothing there, not even blood - just void. Her cat ears were larger, tipped with extra fur like a lynx's, and her tail was twice as long.
    "Don't." She said. It was a voice so absolute, so terribly powerful, and mixed so very very poorly with the primal fear, that I fell backwards, toppling over the chair. As soon as I hit the ground, I woke back up in my own body. Scarlett came back with me, and I pulled away, feeling myself shake slightly.
    Scarlett was pale and shaking a lot more, though.
    Whatever it was that people saw when they went into my soul, it freaked them out.
    That was concerning.
    "Okay, team," I said, trying to keep my voice from shaking, "Let's go."
    Karma crossed her arms and looked down the hall. "Do you know the way out, or did you kill our only guide?"
    Scarlett rolled her eyes. "And here I was raising my opinion of you, Frost."