The Lights Shadows

Sub zero

The air around us was becoming frigid and I every breath was visible. This man came from out of nowhere and changed the environment completely. There were icicles hanging from the leaky pipes of the crumbled building. These weren't just any icicles either, they were long and sharp at their points.

The crevices in the ground that had been previously opened by Hellfire were now frozen over. The ground was beginning to form a sort of permafrost that seemed to be spreading all over like a virus. Hellfire himself had steam coming off from his body. He saw this new being enter from stage right and create this frozen wonderland.

Hellfire jumped off the platform he had been standing on. Upon his landing, the ice cover on the ground below him slowly melted away and continued to do so with each step he took. His footsteps were light but they still shook the ground as if a herd of elephants were trampling through. He had a crooked smile on his face as he approached.

"And who the Hell are you?" He said in a smart aleck tone.

The being however had no initial response, instead, his right foot fell back slightly like he had fallen off balance. His arms slightly extended away from his body. The sleeve on his shirt was ripped and pieces of cloth dangled from it. He had relics and symbols all over his arm, but not tattoos. These were etchings in his skin, like birthmarks. They were incomprehensible but seemed to tell some sort of story.

Hellfire continued to walk towards the being without caution or any care whatsoever. He stuck one hand out in front of him and a flame ignited. Within seconds, a ball of magma sat in his palm and without hesitation, he hurled the goop at the mystery man. For a moment, I thought the guy wasn't going to move.

I noticed his hands had opened up now and they began to glow. The ball of molten goop was getting closer and closer. Now the energy from his hands traveled up through his shoulders and dispersed throughout the entirety of his body. Soon after, his entire head full of black hair had been completely consumed by a blue flame. His feet lifted a few inches off the ground and just before the magma reached him, a wall of ice flew up and caught the speeding ball of fire.

The floating man looked in our direction and saw that we were still in our bubbled of shadows. His eyes had been replaced with a blue flame similar to the ones on his head. He opened his mouth to speak but wasn't able to even puff out a single breathe because Hellfire had finally reached him. With a single swing, Hellfire sent the man flying into a slab of concrete.

The slab of concrete instantly turned to ice as the man pushed himself out of the concrete coffin. Hellfire jumped into the air about sixty feet and turned his entire body into molten metal. He then dove straight at the concrete slab and was halted just short by another wall of ice. He returned to his natural form, then proceeded to do the same attack once more. This time he was prepared for a wall to be created so just before he reached the slab, he dispersed into three more balls of magma. But each one was stopped by another wall of ice.

At this point, our new mystery hero was surrounded by his own ice walls. Hellfire stood back and surveyed the area. I looked over at Iona, who was frantically looking for something in her bag. She had beads of sweat falling off her forehead and her eyes were opened wide, like she was scared.

Hellfire glanced back, making sure we were watching because as soon as he did a giant ball of magma collapsed on the ice walls. The hero trapped inside was certainly dead. Without hesitation, Hellfire made his way to the ground and walked over to the pole of rumble.

"I gotta hand to this one, he actually put up a decent fight." He said jokingly.

His attention turned from the ice pile to us once more. We were no longer up in our bubble and Iona was weak. I had to think of something and fast. My spirit walk wasn't going to be enough to get away and sneak attack and Hellfire was too strong for me to go on the offensive path. My only choice was to stand my ground.

I readied my ethereal form to dodge any attacks he sent my way. Hellfire remained in his natural form, rather than consuming himself in molten rock. He kept walking closer to me and eventually stood inches from my face.

"I'm only going to give you one chance Ashton Nox. Run now before I get tired of your presence." His voice sent chills down my spine.

I looked around and Iona was gone. I turned to look back at where Arwen and Gwen had been watching from afar and they were also gone. Hellfire was walking back to the pile of rumble. He left his natural form and took on one that resembled a dragon. He breathed flames that engulfed the pile of ice and parts of the building next to it.

It was just me now. All my thoughts went to the terrible things that had happened to me since my "dad" died and this is where I stood now. My friends had left me to die and one really did die. Then I got what could have been the worst idea in history of bad ideas.

To my left, there was a light pole that was snapped clean in half, but the wires were exposed. They were sparking which meant they were live. That also meant there was a box nearby that controlled the streetlights. I looked around and saw a power box.

I went ethereal and traversed my way to the box. The ground was still cold and iced over so each step was with care. Hellfire was laughing and blowing fire into the air. He remained in the dragon form for several more minutes. I finally reached the power box and opened it up. I hit every switch to on and watched as the street lit up once more.

Hellfire, now in his natural form, was initially very confused but then he saw me and realized I had not left. I disappeared to my ethereal form once more and made my way to the live wires in the street lamp. The pile of assorted materials began moving.

I grabbed the live wires in my ethereal state so I couldn't conduct any electricity. As soon as I did, the mystery man emerged from one of the ice walls. Hellfire was very frustrated now and went for the obvious threat. I ran towards him, as did the mystery hero.

Shards of ice were being flung left and right. One penetrated Hellfire in the shoulder which was exactly where I was going to put the wires. I jumped from the ground to Hellfire's back and latched on. With one swift move I jabbed the live wires into the opened wound left by the ice shards and released my grip to fall to the ground.

Hellfire was stunned. The amount of voltage traveling through his body was immense and it was so much the the streetlights began flickering. Another shard of ice penetrated his thick skin. The mystery hero saw this as a victory and walked away. But it wasn't over yet.

Somehow, through all the pain, he managed to yank the wires out of the wound. Hellfire fell to his knees and regressed back into the original form of Bruno. The body collapsed with a loud thud.  Sirens could be heard in the distance. I looked around and saw three heads poke out from a dark shadow. Arwen, Gwen and Iona all three had been hiding in plain sight. I smiled, although a little frustrated that they had not helped.

The mystery hero was on a ledge above us and spoke, "My name is Heatsink. Do not come looking for me as I will find you in a time of need. Now get out of here."

He vanished into the darkness. I looked at the others who were mindblown by what had just happened. Bruno's body was still twitching from the previous electroshock therapy. I motioned that we should run away and that's exactly what we did.