Chapter 93: Chapter Ninety Three

Once we got Jessie out to heal his hand Cold Snap calmed down  immensely. I almost immediately regretted that fact, because while he  was still helpful (nominally) he also apparently felt comfortable being  his normal unbearably smug self. We didn't bring him back to the base,  just dragged him out of sight of the tranquilized sleepers just in case,  but once we got him to where he was going the smug bastard just  sprawled lazily against a tree and acted like he was the one in charge.

He  raised an eyebrow challengingly at us. Only Callie and I were  questioning him, her being in charge and all, plus we were worried what  Cark might do. But Cold Snap wasn't. He wasn't worried about anything.  "So you're hoping to get some info on The Prophet from me huh? Well, now  that I'm not injured I'm in a better position to bargain from. I'm not  against helping you, but I think this little negotiation needs to change  tones. Let's see if you can...incentivize me. A little less stick and a  little more carrot."

It was impressive really. How stupid  he obviously was. His mask was shattered and wed just healed his  injuries and now he thought he was somehow the one with the upper hand.  It was my turn to raise an eyebrow. "You seem pretty sure we won't do  anything else to you. What exactly makes you so certain that you're safe  now? I could re burn your hand. Re smash your face. Any number of  unpleasant things, knowing how susceptible you are to tactics like that.  Seems stupid to be so smug about things."

I  almost expected some kind of villain speech from him about how we were  heroes and didn't do things like that. Luckily, he wasn't THAT stupid.  He knew we would mess him up to get him to talk if needed, heroic  cultivators were still cultivators, and there was a certain hunger  inherent in that designation that would push most people pretty far. He  had another reason, though, and it explained his unbearable smirk.  "Hurting me in the heat of battle is one thing, but calculated torture.  Let's just say I have some...insurance. Namely my mother. I'm sure  you've heard of Frostbite?"

I  actually hadn't, I turned to the others, cocking my head to show I was  confused. Callie sighed. "She's an E ranker. One of the council members  in the local Unity branch. Has a rep for taking care of her own first.  Biased as hell. If he's really her kid I can see her trying to cause us  problems if we do anything to him. Even if we tried to tell everyone  about the Heartrippers I doubt they would believe us given how deeply  they're buried. Not with Frostbite shutting everything down to try to  make us look like crazy people. Having her as an enemy would make this  whole thing much harder."

Cold  Snap sneered at us. "That's right. Because in the end you're all just  prospective heroes. The higher ups can make things much harder for all  of you. Make sure you get assigned to do menial tasks with no reputation  gaining potential, strike your name from records and lists. So many  ways to make you disappear without even having to life a finger against  you directly. So maybe rethink your little strongarm tactic and start  making me offers so I don't have a reason to absolutely ruin your  lives."

I  could have just blown it off. E rank meant she was high enough for Zeke  to handle if she came after me. But it wasn't just me, and I could only  make so many points a day. I didn't want to effect my friends if I  didn't have to. Luckily, we didn't need to really do anything. We just  needed to convince Cold Snap we would. Unfortunately for me, he was the  kind of delusional little rich boy who genuinely thought he was  invincible in his mothers shadow. Unfortunately for HIM, that only  applied to people in her sphere of influence.

I  turned my head, making a show of looking over at Cark. "Hey Tony, come  over here a second?" I called across the clearing and the big bounty  hunter lumbered over to stand next to me. "Our new friend was just  telling us about his mom, and how powerful she is. She's some big shot  in the Unity and he's pretty sure we won't want to offend her. Why don't  you introduce yourself to him." We needed to show Cold Snap someone  outside his power structure if we wanted to scare him. Unstable bounty  hunting pyro with a chip on his shoulder and willing to do anything to  find his sister would be perfect.

Cark  stared down at him coldly. "My name is Cark. I'm a G ranked bounty  hunter from the fifteenth megaplex district." He held up a hand and a  white hot ball of flame kindled to life in his cupped palm. "My sister  is one of the kids that your 'Prophet' snatched up to train with his  little brainwashing skill, and I'd do just about anything to find her.  I'm not a member of the Unity. Your mommy can't do shit to me, and even  if she could, I wouldn't really care about that fact in either case."

He  looked up at me, seemingly checking if I was going to pull him back,  and when I didn't he gave Cold Snap a nasty grin. "If you don't tell me  what I want to know, I'm going to press this ball of flame into your  face. At these temperatures, your flesh will melt like hot wax. It won't  be fast, and it will be agonizingly painful, and then when it's done  Agria will heal you, and I'll do it again. Every time I'll ask you what  you know, and every time you don't tell me I'll melt your face. Until I  get bored, and maybe start melting something else."

Cark's  eyes were blazing with intensity, rage, and a bit of madness. He's been  chasing leads and stewing in worry for weeks, completely incapable of  doing anything at all. The frustration and helplessness had been  building, along with the anger, and now that he had a chance to both  vent that anger and potentially get information on his sister? He really  would do pretty much anything. Cold Snap could see it too, because his  eyes were wide with terror and he was actually shivering with fear under  burning gaze of the incensed pyrokinetic.

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I  stepped forward and clapped Cold Snap on the shoulder, seemingly  ignoring Cark. "But hey, that's not going to be necessary. T0ny is just  our hired help on this. This is technically part of the hunt, so we  don't need to involve him in student business do we? I think you'd much  prefer to deal with the two of us. In fact, I think we're all  misunderstanding each other. You're a much more helpful person than you  let on before I'm betting. How about we all work together and Tony  doesn't need to be involved at all?"

Cold  Snap swallowed hard. "Sure. Yeah, that sounds...nice. We can work  together. I can be helpful. But..." He looked uneasily at Cark. "I don't  know how much help I'll be. You knocked out the meat puppets before  they saw me go down, especially under that cloud effect, so The Prophet  doesn't know exactly, but I was with them and he's aware of it. He'll  just assume I got caught too, so any information I have is going to  become useless pretty quick." Cark snarled and Cold Snap's eyes widened.  "Not that I don't want to help! I do! I just...don't think I'll be able  to give you any info you can use."

I  chuckled. "Oh don't worry about that. See, that's why we made sure none  of the others saw you taken down. Once we finish talking, we're going  to let you go. You'll make contact with The Prophet and claim to have  escaped, and he'll reassign you based on where he needs you. I assume  that since you aren't one of his brainwashed puppets he can't look  through your eyes or anything?" That was the biggest hole in this part  of the plan. Our understanding of the puppet master's skills were  insufficient. We could only hope we'd guessed right.

Luckily  Cold Snap nodded in relief. "Yeah, I mean, no, he can't, but yes that's  an accurate guess. That might actually work. I would be a great spy,  I'd totally make sure he fell into your trap too. And I wouldn't let on  that I was working for you either. He'd never know it was coming." I  actually believed that for the most part. The bit about him not letting  on at least. He seemed like a pretty skilled liar. What I did NOT  believe, however, was the part where he said he would work for us. At  least not without some incentive.

But  I knew how to motivate people like Cold Snap. The same way we'd been  doing it. Fear. "Well of course you won't. You're about to tell us  detailed information about his plans and secrets. If we don't deal with  The Prophet then he would turn his ire on you after this is over, and  you would have to deal with Heartrippers trying to kill you. I promise  it isn't a pleasant experience at all, and it inspires plenty of healthy  paranoia about basically everything and everyone you meet. I wouldn't  recommend giving it a try."

Another  swallow. "Right. That's...right. I don't know about your sister or  anything but I'll definitely make sure to help you take him down. You  can count on me." He never took his eyes off Cark, or the white hot  fireball still in his hand. "So the plan was simple. Comb the forest  with the meat puppets until we found your base and then report. We were  ordered not to engage if we could avoid it if we found you in the  forest, The Prophet was worried about you getting away before we caught  up if we didn't have you pinned down. Do you want me to have him lead me  to the other groups se we can take them out one at a time?"

I  shook my head. "No. He's here right? He came in person?" Cold Snap  hesitated before nodding. "Good, I figured he would. If we hit the other  groups one after another he's going to rabbit. We need to get him to  where we are, and the fastest way to do that is to tell him. We're going  to give him the location of our base and let him converge on us. Do you  think he learned anything about our capabilities from that fight?"

Cold  Snap didn't even hesitate. "No. That cloud ability was perfectly  applied. I had no clue what was going on until you got close.  Considering it looked like you just beat them unconscious I can't  imagine he was able to pick up any details from the experience. His  grasp on their senses is pretty limited. He can ride shotgun in their  brains but that comes with all the sensations they feel, so normally he  just taps into their hearing or sight. No way he learned any of your  abilities or even your numbers from getting thumped in the dark."

I  grinned. That was exactly what I wanted to hear. My abilities had  improved since he'd seen me fight, not to mention we had two more G  rankers than he could possibly account for. It reaffirmed my decision.  "You're going to tell him where we are. Claim you escaped and followed  us back to our base." We would have scouts in the form of Jessie's  ravens out to watch and we could plan accordingly as they approached. It  was time for us to finish this Heartripper bullshit once and for all.  By the end of the day, I planned to have taken out the puppet master,  dismantled the whole operation and gotten back Cark's sister. Then I  could focus on the Academy and getting stronger. Just like it should be.

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