Standoff

"maybeishouldjustaskhimtoleaveithinkwhatamisupposedtodointhissituationwhenisshazcomingbackgodireallyhatedoingthistypeofstuff-" The girl mutters to herself at high speeds, a clear twinge of panic in her voice.

"Excuse me..." I start to say, my limbs going numb from the casing of ice. Despite her freezing me in place, it looks like none of the cold had reached internally, leaving me a little chilly but completely unharmed.

"Ah!" The girl jumps back and yelps. "Yes? I'm really sorry about freezing you, I know it must be cold, I can make some tea if you'd like. Please don't break out of there." The girl shrivels away behind a crate.

I raise my eyebrows at her reaction. This girl is undoubtedly a Tetsudo but... could it be that she's a complete pushover? I apply force through my arm, trying to test the durability of the ice. Hmm, if I can concentrate enough Anku into my fingers... This might be escapable, although this ice seems a lot stronger than regular ice. Maybe if I could weaken it a little...

"Come to think of it, I would like some hot tea. I am pretty cold." I say, not sure if she would actually do it or not.

"Huh? Oh yea I did say that. Uhh, hold on let me go get a cup." She hops away, clearly not thinking perfectly straight. I clamp down on my top lip as she walks away, until I could taste a small amount of blood.

She comes back with a steaming cup of hot water in her hands.

...

Is a plan as stupid as this really about to work????

"Just lift up my mask a little, just enough so I can drink some."

"Uhh, umm, like this?" She edges my mask very slightly up, bringing the cup of hot water up to my lips.

I pucker out my lips and take a sip.

"Excellent." I say as the tea darkens from the blood diffusing throughout the liquid.

"Now, please don't panic when I break out of here in a couple seconds. I'm not here to hurt anyone." I say.

"Wait what?"

The steaming hot liquid flies out of the cup and splashes onto my hand, immediately eating away at the ice, at the same time I thrust out my thumb, causing the ice around my arm to shatter.

With my expanded range of motion I'm easily able to shatter the rest of the ice and propel myself out of the encasing. I kinda feel bad taking advantage of someone like this... I think this to myself as I immediately flick my wrist, launching a shard of ice at her head, with the goal of knocking her out.

The ice shatters against her forehead, yet nothing seems to happen. She doesn't recoil back, she doesn't flinch, no bruise. It was almost like she didn't notice it.

"Hmm?" Both of us say at the same time.

Wait what the hell? Why is she still standing?! I instantly take a fierce step backwards as I see her raise her arm again, avoiding a jetstream of water. The stream then combusts midair into a giant mist of water vapor. In panic, I immediately divert all Anku into my eyes, slowing time down to a trickle.

A tenth of a second passes, another tenth. Cmon, think! think!

I reach over my shoulder and grab my cloak, whipping it forward to create a small gust of wind blowing the vapor away. The cloak quickly freezes and shatters, at the same time coating my right arm with frost.

Goodbye old friend, it's been a great journey! I watch as the cloak falls to an irreparable state.

I shiver, this time I could feel the cold penetrate inside my body. It didn't quite penetrate to the bone, but I could definitely feel it underneath my skin.

I think... I should be running away right now right? I take a look at the girl pointing her hands at me, then quickly glance over at the door.

Compared to Serim... It's way easier to react to her attacks. Most definitely weaker than him.

But...

A Tetsudo is a Tetsudo, I better not get myself involved; this wasn't the only place marked on that map I stole anyways. I make a beeline for the door, trying to keep the girl in my peripheral vision.

The girl lowers her hands and takes a deep breath. Clear signs of relief. I take a sigh of relief then turn my head back to the front only to slam right into a metal bar, one that just closed on the door.

Ow, wait—

Steel whirrs as black bars of metal sprout from out of the floor and ceiling. I clumsily try to propel myself through over the bars, but stop myself just in time, right before I would have been crushed in between the metal.

Huh? Why is this thing here? You're kidding me right? I stare wide eyed at the cage that seemingly just materialized around me. This world is supposed to behind technologically compared to Earth right?!?!

"Who do I have here at my front entrance?" A voice from the outside says. I turn around to see a tarp draped over the entrance, blocking my view to the outside.

"Nobody important, let me go or I'll bust down this cage."

"Uh huh. Good luck trying to destroy blackmetal."

I bring my Anku away from my eyes and ears and focus. I bring my leg up, direct Anku to the bottom of my leg to the calf. Perfect. I thrust my leg out with incredible speed, driving it right into the metal bars.

Sorry if this is expensive.

BOOM, I fall over as the metal sends shockwaves through my body, shaking me to my core.

"Hmm, two hundred more of those and it might bend a little." The boy amusingly said as he walked through a side entrance.

I look back up at their heads, now that I could see both of their faces, I realized something.

"Weren't you two..." I definitely remembered their faces.

"Why yes, I believe we did pass each other at the library, small world huh." The boy replies, and if I recall correctly, the girl called him Shaz.

"Now... I'm sorry to say this, but we're going to have to kill you. The fact that you're here means our location has been leaked, and that means if you get out then more people are about to come." Shaz says.

I exhale deeply, with the direction this is going, I'm going to have to pick my next words very carefully, I look into his eyes, they were very sharp, someone that could catch every last detail.

"If I could kindly ask, who do you believe I'm working for?" I say with narrowed eyes. I assumed the map I found was for hideouts, but it seems like my second guess was beginning to ring true.

"You don't have the luxury of asking questions right now. In fact, that's the question you're going to answer for us, who are you working for?" Shaz brandishes a small pike, his grip and movements were perfect, but I could feel it in his body, he was an amateur with weapons.

"The Iquen." I say without hesitation.

"I see, and how did you find where we were staying at?"

"By following your trail after we passed by each other, the first encounter was purely by chance." I reply, hoping that this trail of lies would lead somewhere.

"You know this girl can sense everything around her in a 5 kilometer radius right? If her water vapor gets into your body she'll be able to track heart rates, breathing patterns, everything. I heavily doubt that you were able to follow us, so tell me Avery, how many of this boy's answers were truthful?"

I click my tongue.

"Both of them were lies."

"So two lies, equals two frozen fingers."

I suddenly felt an incredibly wrong sensation on my hand. I look down on my left hand, It wasn't particularly painful, it was just... wrong. Fog was coming off my pinky and ring finger, turning them almost pure white from frost. It was like they had simply disappeared from my body. I take a small sniff, the air here was considerably more moist than the outside, so that means I must have already breathed in her water vapor ages ago.

"Now tell me the truth."

I shrug, now that I know that that Tetsudo could kill me at any time, I don't think I'm in the mood for games anymore. "I'm essentially both blind and deaf due to nerve damage unless I have this mask on me, and I was looking for random homes to rob to pay for treatment and by chance I was lead here."

"Really? By chance?"

"Yep, I'd be fine with any other place as long as they have money." I say, technically not lying, but I was still hiding the existence of the map.

"Avery?"

"I mean… Yea, he's telling the truth." Avery shrugs.

"Is there something important you aren't telling us?" Shaz immediately asks after she says that.

… I take a long pause.

"No." I say.

Shaz glances at Avery.

She shakes her head.

I slide my mask off my mouth and smile sarcastically, ear to ear.

"Good job, you answered that very well." Shaz says before putting away his weapon.

"You're very skilled in Anku control, keeping your internal state identical to when you were telling the truth." I keep smiling as he says this, determined not to let him read my expression

"Now let me tell you a bit about myself. I'm a mechanic, I like making things, and I've made a lot of things that would make people a lot of money. So it's natural that I would be targeted by shadier types." I nod, confirming my suspicions that the map was full of targets rather than hideouts.

"So the fact that you know about the Iquen, and you just happened to end up at our doorsteps is too unlikely of a coincidence to be true. So…" Shaz walks up to my cage. "Sit down with me. Take off your mask. Look me in the eyes and tell me that you aren't hiding anything."

Well shit… "If I don't comply I freeze huh…" I murmur as I bend my knees down to the ground. Damn it, I made a bad move mentioning the Iquen. I place my full palm off my hand and then slowly release my mask from my face. Avery gasps the moment I do this.

"What is it?" Shaz turns around.

"I… I can't feel his Anku anymore."

"What?"

"You thought this mask was just to look cool didn't you?" I say.

"I did get the impression that you were a little bit of a cocksure… and I still think so." He says.

"Well, I am a little bit of a fool, that you got right. Here, catch." I casually toss my mask through the bars. Surprised by my sudden move he reaches his hands out and grabs the mask as it's falling.

"What the…?" Shaz starts swaying around the moment he touches it, before his eyes glaze over and he begins walking towards the cell, ensnared by the power of the mask to return to its owner.

I grab him by his shoulder, turning him around, then I reach around his neck with my arm behind the bars, before reclaiming the mask and putting it back on my face.

"Well Avery, now that I have a hostage how are you going to save the day?" I say as Shaz's senses return to him.

"How did you just?!?" Shaz immediately says before realizing the situation he was in.

"If I feel even a little bit cold you'll have two corpses in front of you in an instant. Unless you think you can freeze me faster than I can react, then well, be my guest." I taunt her through the bars.

"What are your demands?" Shaz says calmly in response.

"Nah uh, you're too much of a smooth talker, she will be the one talking." I tighten my grip around his neck as I say this causing him to gag.

Avery's face immediately goes white, she opens her mouth but no words come out; it was very clear to me by now; she was simply a coward.

"Here's the deal, I want to leave this cage and not further involve myself in your problems any longer. Let me tell you a few things about myself to help you decide, make sure I'm telling the truth alright?" I stare directly into her eyes, causing her to glance away.

"One, I've never killed anyone before, and I will only do so to save my own life. Two, I act entirely for myself and nobody else. Three, once I get out of here I will steal some money from the closest place available then move on with my life. Ten, nine, eight…" I begin counting down ominously, trying to apply even more pressure on her. I wasn't really planning to do anything once I reached zero though.

"Alright! Alright! Let him go please!" She lowers her arms and yells. I immediately release my grip from his neck allowing him to stagger away coughing.

"You really think we're going to honor an agreement as shaky as that?" Shaz sputters.

"There's really no better way for me to get out of here is there? Kill me if you want to, although I'm not sure your little girlfriend over there is very experienced at it." I sit down, close my eyes, and cross my arms showing that I'm not interested in any further discussion.

Shaz looks at Avery, then back at me, then sighs. "You'll stay here until we finish preparations to relocate, then I'll let you go. That's the most I can offer you."

I lay down and remove my mask. "Sure, that's what I was thinking too." I yawn.