Coldsnap: Harbinger of Ice

Chapter 34: Accumulating Armaments

The workshop appeared more like a warehouse; a large, spacious building located a few miles from Coldsnap's home on Earth. Although it had numerous arrays of square panes on each of its four walls to act as windows, there were few doors, and even fewer that were unlocked. Despite Leo having attended to it regularly for the past two years, its appearance on the outside seemed to have degraded significantly; there were spots where the paint chipped here and there, some of the items stocked against the building's sides were obviously disorganized, and the walls had several pronounced areas of mold, rust, and rot, much to everyone's disgust.

".....Wait.....Firebird, how did you even know where this place was? Back when we first met with Leo, you were just as confused to see him on Earth as I was," Coldsnap pointed out.

Firebird smirked. "I have my ways of keeping tabs on people. How do you think I managed to spy on Alpin and Flamestar several times completely undetected?"

Keena was on the verge of throwing up. "This place makes me sick....." she complained. "I hope the inside is better...."

Coldsnap lightly jabbed her in the arm. "Hey.....didn't you voice your support for us coming here in the first place?"

"I guess so...." the water mage sighed. "Guess I've just gotta deal with it, then."

"Just let me know if you start to get too nauseous. If you do, I could probably take you out for some fresh air or something like that," the icy heroine replied. "Somewhere that doesn't stink, you know?"

While she and Keena were chatting, Firebird moved over to a long, rectangular panel on the front wall that strongly resembled a garage door. After opening the nearby keypad and fiddling with the buttons for a few minutes, she managed to type in the correct password, and the door elevated itself into the ceiling, allowing the trio to head inside.

She waved her hands in the air to grab Coldsnap and Keena's attention. "Hey! You guys! I found a way in!"

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Much to the group's surprise, the interior of the building was much cleaner. The four surrounding walls were near-spotless, and the spaces between the workbenches were large enough for multiple people to walk between them without any interference. 

A few shelves containing boxes of technological equipment lined the small entrance nook, but most of the chamber was lined with a series of long tables holding countless amounts of robotic implants and attachments, with several pieces of equipment such as wrenches, hammers, blowtorches, and tape measures littered here and there. 

Seeing the mechanical augmentations scattered around the area brought fond memories back to Coldsnap. Specifically, she recalled Dr. Duncan Drevis's innovation company, Lifeline Industries. She remembered how he had successfully turned his life around and dedicated his work towards improving humanity through scientific advancements. And how could she forget him? After all, he had been the one to cure her vision defect with his Opti-Vis implant. 

Wow..... she thought to herself. Duncan would've been going crazy at a sight like this.....

"Look at all of this!" Keena exclaimed excitedly as she began rushing back and forth across the tables, as if she intended on getting her fingerprints all over every single object in the massive room. "'Snowdust'.....as nasty as Leo may have been, there's no doubt that he did know his stuff." 

"I guess so....." Coldsnap muttered. 

Firebird headed over to an elaborate computer setup at the back of the room; the PC was still logged in, due to Leo making the unfortunate mistake of thinking he would be returning later. Chuckling to herself, she grasped the computer mouse and navigated around his research files for a few minutes while Keena and Coldsnap continued messing around with the sleek, metallic implants.