"You," Shea started, cracking her knuckles and neck. "Are going to shut down all of the drones and take us back to whoever sent you." She smirked at his terrified expression as she drew a knife from her belt. The room was freezing and the atmosphere was tense. The man kept looking back and forth between Hailstrom, Shea, then the controls to the ship. The dull ache of her powers began to increase once they discovered a potential meal. The powers lashed against her control, begging to be let out to feed of the man, but Shea kept them locked in with a simple thought. Not yet.
Hailstrom tensed when they heard Shea's demand to be taken to who sent the pilot. His heartrate jumped just a bit, then he did his best to calm himself.
"I…" The man kept looking between the two, swallowing. Then, he made a break for it, trying to get to the control panel. If he did, he'd be able to take care of the intruders.
The dagger was hurtled out of Shea's hand and into the back of the man's knee, causing him to fall over just shy of the controls and scream in pain. Shea slowly approached him, grabbing a fistful of his hair and lifting his face off the ground. "That was a mistake," She said with a low laugh. Her fingers curled around the hilt of the dagger, slowly pushing the blade further into the man's flesh. She took another knife from her belt and stuck the tip to his adam's apple. "If you take us to whoever sent you, you might live."
The man was breathing heavily, looking up at Shea. He trembled in fear and pain, sweat slowly falling down his temple despite the freezing cold coming from Hailstrom. It was a moment's hesitation, when the man finally made his decision.
His head rolled to one side, held up by Shea's knife. He had chosen death over betraying his leader.
Hailstrom didn't blame him.
Shea cursed and removed both of the bloodied blades from the man's flesh. She wiped the flats of the daggers on the man's pristine white shirt, wiping them clean. Shea returned the knives to their positions on her belt and walked over the navigation system. Her fingers flew over the keyboard, trying to find the log and potentially find wherever the ship came from.
Hailstrom watched Shea trying to find the logs, making his way over.
"There's nothing worth finding there," The vigilante said quickly. "We should be focusing on deactivating the drones, and making sure there is no one else on the ship." They reached out to stop Shea, giving no indication if she was close to what she wanted to find or not.
"There is nothing we need to do besides that."
"Hold on, Frosty, I think I found 'em." Shea narrowed her gaze as she clicked a few more files. She was almost there…
The mouse hovered over a folder titled "LOG" and she clicked.
"No," Hailstrom said quickly, trying to stop Shea. It was too late, though. Instead, they grabbed Shea's arm, trying to turn her around so she couldn't see.
"We don't need to go there," Hailstrom hissed, his terror bubbling up again.
Shea bit her tongue to choke down a yelp. "Frosty," she hissed, pulling her arm from his grasp. "If you dont want to go, stay here in Ironvein. I'm going to…" she glanced at the moniter. "I'm going to Europe to find whoever the hell sent these. I know your scared so that's why I'm telling you that you can stay here."
"No, you're not getting it," Hailstrom hissed. "You go there, you're not coming back. Not on your own. That man- He's too dangerous. I'd say you'll get yourself killed, but that would be a mercy from him." The man of ice couldn't bring himself to look down at the monitor.
"I think you underestimate my abilities, Hailstrom," Shea spat and jotted down the coordinates from where the aircraft came from. She stuffed the paper into a small pocket in her belt reserved for emergency ammo. "I told you, if you're scared you can stay here. Everyone's afraid of something. You're afraid of this man and I can crack into said man's head with just a little effort." Shea pushed past the other vigilante and stepped over the corpse of the pilot. Her hand rested on the door as she turned back to Hailstrom. "You can either come with me or stay here. What's it gonna be?"
"I think you're underestimating his." Hailstrom spat out the word, pulling back from Shea.
"You're not going to get to crack into his head- he's going to get into your's before you could even think to. Why the hell do you think he's the only thing I'm afraid of?" They looked away, hands clenching some.
"Look," he said, turning back. "I'm coming with you. To make sure you don't get yourself killed."
"Fine," Shea shrugged and walked out of the room. "I'm off to shut down the drones. When we were walking over here, I saw a control room. You search the ship and get rid of anyone you find. We'll go to Europe on a much smaller ship. From what you've given away, whoever this man is is extraordinarily dangerous." An impish smile spread across the woman's face. "This'll be fun."
"No, it won't be." Hailstrom turned from Shea, to stalk through the halls so he could deal with any crew left. There weren't many, the ship automated to reduce the need for them. Hailstrom scowled some to themself as they took out the workers left, no mercy in their eyes. In reality, he saw death as the biggest mercy of all to give these people.
Shea easily found thecontrolroom and shut down all the bots. She watched from a plexiglass window as the drones fell one by one, crashing to the asphalt. After that Shea managed to track down the hangar, slaying about a dozen scientists who dared to challenge her. She found a small aircraft equipped with some firearms and enough room to be discrete but not cramped.
Shea was about to call for the other vigilante when she felt a coldness settle into the room. "You ready, Frosty?"
Hailstrom was silent, only moving to the aircraft Shea had picked out. They sat down, not looking at the vigilante woman and strapping in.
"This is a bad idea," he finally said, still not looking up.
"Bad ideas are often the best ideas, Frosty," Shea retorted, flipping a few random switches and hoping it would do something. She smiled when the engine roared to life and let out a soft laugh when the hangar door opened into the grey sky. Rain was still pouring from heavy clouds, soaking the entire earth below. Shea removed her helmet once more and tossed it into the empty third chair behind her.
"Not when the idea is going to get you mind fucked and turned into a puppet," Hailstrom mumbled to himself. They looked out ad Shea started to figure out the controls, arms folding in front of their chest. He looked away from the front after a moment, to anywhere but Shea.
"Ha, no one can beat me at my own game." Shea focused on figuring out how to steer and fly the ship. She would've asked Hailstrom but she was way to proud to admit that she needed help. "Alright, I think I got it." Shea pressed a few more buttons, smiling wickedly when the aircraft set into motion, rolling and rolling to where the ship dropped off into the clouded sky. The engines roared around her and soon enough they lifted into the air.
"He's been playing it much longer than you have," Hailstrom shot back. They didn't bother trying to speak when the engines started and they were flying, keeping to themselves. This was going to be bad, very, very bad. Shea was a fool.
"Yeah, but I'm better," Shea snorted and found the auto-pilot, setting the course to wherever in Europe. "And before you diss me again, Frosty, keep in mind that if I can crack into your big head o' nothing, I can crack into anyone's." Shea reclined in the chair, putting her hands behind her head of chestnut hair and kicking her purple combat boots up on the control panel where she assumed there wasn't any important buttons.
"From what I could tell, it took quite a bit more to crack into me than others you've faced," Hailstrom pointed out. "And now you're running off to fight the man who made me that scared in the first place. And he has less fear than I do. Not to mention his power…" Hailstrom looked away, lips pursing. He didn't go into detail.
"To be fair," Shea cracked an eye open and glared at Hailstrom. "That wasn't even my full potential. It usually only takes a fraction of my powers to get into people, but you were the exception. I really only used about 75% of my abilities for 15 seconds and that was enough to get to to break." Shea blew a piece of hair out of her face and snuggled deeper into the chair. "So this big, bad boss or whatever will be nothing."
"Well, that's it. Even if it only took that much, with that little time, my fears were already coming up to the surface without any influence from you, and you were able to do so because of that momentary weakening. And this man… he's stronger than me, in the mind, and he's much, much more powerful."
Shea huffed, opening her eyes to observe the GPS built into the controls of the aircraft. She wanted to continue arguing with Hailstrom, but it was clear that it wasn't going to get them anywhere. "We still have six hours before we land in Europe," She noted, bringing her knees to her chest and resting her chin on her kneecaps. "Anything you wanna talk about?" She shot Hailstrom a side glare. "Like maybe why you're connected to this man and why you're so afraid of him?"
