But Love Is Overrated Anyways

Chapter 7: But Not Because Phil Told Him To

  The city was a strange mixture of hippie and goth; all happy-go-lucky-pro-lifers wearing capes and reeking of missillanious drugs, who'd get in fights on the streets and proudly show off their new black eyes. Okay, so maybe not goth- but Dan didn't know how else to describe them.

  The city itself was huge, and their entire team of mutants- currently nine of them- were wandering about it's streets, looking for new mutants. But it soon became clear that they weren't going to find any walking about freely. There were memorials on just about every block commemorating the cities accomplishments in the War On Mutants.

  Still, they looked. Not all mutants were like Dan and Phil, where their powers radiated off of them. Some were capable of keeping their powers hidden. The leader of their mutant group for example, whom had control over light, could keep his powers relatively hidden, though sometimes when he was in a building the lights would flicker or go off altogether, and he'd be stuck pretending he had no idea what happened.

  And anyways, they'd found plenty of mutants hiding in plain sight before. Especially the younger ones who had spent their entire lives hiding their powers could easily integrate themselves into the ranks of humans, never to be found out.

  But Dan suspected they wouldn't find any like that in this city.

  Someone stepped on his cape, and he tried not to jump. He was too on edge, and despite his face being hidden by the hood of said cape, he worried someone would recognize him. 'The Ice Prince' was becoming more and more well known, and Dan doubted anyone in this city would hesitate taking him down if they so much as suspected him.

  Dan stopped in front of a large statue of a man, and tried to read the inscription below it, but either he was dumb, or it wasn't written in English.

  Large footsteps echoed down the street- the kind made by heavy boots, which 4 out of 5 times meant one thing; soldiers.

  Soldiers who had probably heard of The Ice Prince.

  Dan turned and tried to act casual as he chose a random street and walked down it. He felt a snowflake on his nose, and made himself do deep breathing. It was times like this when he hated his powers. What was the point in having crazy ice powers if every time you got nervous it snowed?

  The air temperature warmed up a bit, back to what it was earlier. No more snow.

  He turned down another street and became eye to eye with a poster requesting any and all mutant sightings be reported immediately. 'For the safety of our peaceful society.'

  Dan couldn't wait to destroy this city.

----

  A few hours and no new mutants later, and the others were trekking down a hill to pack up their camp, and keep walking. The only one remaining was Dan.

  He waited until their footsteps were gone. Then, closing his eyes, Dan conjured up every memory of humans being unfair that he could; his awful childhood as an outcast, the vaccine that caused the mass genocide of so many mutants. Nathan, being murdered for his powers. And now, less than a dozen mutants wandering about the wilderness looking for others, and having little luck. It was unfair. And it made Dan made.

  He opened his eyes, stepping forwards and reaching his hands out to touch the wall. As soon as he made contact, sheets of ice shot over the stone, growing and strengthening, completely encapturing the stone in smooth, solid, ice .

  Dan began to tremble with the force. He braced his feet against the ground as frost shot from his fingertips at an alarming rate, his head filling with images of other mutants, of his group, of Phil, and how this city was a direct danger to them.

  It was snowing, Dan vaguely noticed, not just over him but over the entire city. He heard people cry out from inside the walls, not in pain yet, but in worry, in panic, in fear. Fear of the snow. Fear of the contagious ice covering the walls and leaching onto the floor, leaching onto their houses, leaching onto whatever it could touch.

  "Dan!"

  In that moment of surprise, Dan lost his concentration and the power shot him backwards, his back hitting the trunk of a tree with such force that it was as if his lungs were being given the Heimlich, and Dan was left spluttering for a breath.

  "Dan!" Phil called out again, rushing towards him. Dan sat slumped against the tree, gasping for breath. Surrounding him was a patch of ice unnaturally blue and pigmented, shining a sicken shade of gold in the sun.

  Phil ignored the ice and ran to Dan, crouching next to him. "Are you okay?"

  Dan noticed with a hazy awareness that the city was still intact. He was breathing, but he felt like his throat was closing up, as if someone was choking him. And, at his feet, the ice melted, Phil's heat too strong.

  And for whatever reason, that made Dan mad.

  "How dare you?" he accused, trying to pull himself to his feet shakily. "Phil, you could've killed me!"

  Phil helped him up, their hands hissing when they made contact. He scowled. "You were over exerting yourself. If you died, it wouldn't be because of me."

  Dan hissed louder than their skin had, shoving him away. "I had it under control."

  "Look around!" Phil stepped forwards, and despite acting like such a peaceful guy normally, he looked like he was ready to fight. Dan didn't back up, instead squaring his shoulders and holding his hands by his side, mini cyclones of ice swirling around in his palms. Phil kicked some of the snow that was piling up on the ground, immediately melting it to a puddle. "It's snowing everywhere, and the wall is covered in ice, and your-"

  He stopped, staring at Dan with realization. At his stance, ready to fight, and his hands, swirling with power.

  "Go back to the camp," Dan ordered, growling. "And don't interrupt me again."

  Dan was ready for a fight. All around him, the air was at least 20 degrees miserable. If Phil was anyone else, he'd be miserable. But he wasn't. He was Phil, and the heat radiated off of his body just like the cold radiated off of Dan. Wherever he stepped, the thin layer of snow on the ground melted and- bubbled?

  "I'm not leaving unless your coming with me," Phil decided, and giving one last nervous look at Dan before stepping forwards and raising his hands. The aura of heat radiating off of him became stronger, and a blast of hot air hot enough to melt plastic billowed from his palms.

  But he wasn't aiming at Dan. Instead, he directed the heat the the ice covering the wall.

  "Stop it!" Dan called out, and the cold reacted before he could. The cold hit Phil's wall of heat and sent him stumbling backwards, tripping over his feet and falling to the ground. "Just go away, let me do my job!"

  "I don't want to freeze the city," Phil admitted, angry. "It was a nice place. They didn't do anything to us! Dan, you can't just keep taking out your anger on defenseless humans!"

  "Defenseless?" Dan shouted, the word pounding in his ears. "Were they so defensless when the killed thousands, maybe millions, of mutants? Of our kind Phil, millions."

  "The people in this city didn't do that Dan," Phil corrected, voice stealy as he pushed himself to his feet. "I'm leaving," he decided, "and if you still destroy this city after all I've said, then your pathetic. And you can sleep outside the tent tonight."

  Dan's head was spinning as Phil walked away. What the- he could sleep outside the tent? What were they, married? And who was Phil to say any of that to Dan?

  "Oh yeah?" He called back, though by then Phil was out of sight. "Well I'll just get my own tent!"

  He turned back to the frozen stone walls of the city, back to his task. But his powers seemed to have temporarily shut down on him, his emotions too muddled and confused for any real power. All he could manage was a little puff of snow, which definitely was not enough to freeze over a whole city.

  So Dan ended up sparing the city. But not because Phil told him to.