A Rumble of Frost chapter 13

February 15th 2001, Claire Temple's condo, 1:00 AM EDT

"So..."  I said lamely. "How do you know Cat?" Claire Temple was...not what I'd  expected. The girl looked like a south american supermodel and had a  mouth like a sailor. She'd cussed me out for about ten minutes when I  came in from my phone call, and seemed to consider me about as likable  as a rattlesnake with Ebola.

She glared at me. "I stick my  tongue in her cunt sometimes. Now will you shut the fuck up and let me  check this kid for a concussion? Based on what Felicia said this shit is  all your fault anyway. I have enough problems trying to get her to stop  risking her life without some big dumb asshole convincing her she's  invincible." Her eyes were blazing as she glared at me, before turning  back to shine a light in Peter's eyes.

Pete, for his part,  furrowed his brow at the comment. "Whoa now. That's not fair. Cataclysm  didn't ask us to do anything we wouldn't have done anyway, and he saved  our lives. Cat hates Kingpin more than anybody, if we hadn't gone with  her she'd have gone alone." He set his jaw stubbornly. "Or do you think  she'd have been able to survive that blast without us there to cover  her?"

Which was a good point. Peter's bullshit cheat sense  had saved their asses from what he'd told us. I held up a hand to  forestall him. "No." I said tiredly. "She's right. I'm too used to being  invincible. Or at least damn hard to kill. I'm a human wrecking ball,  and I plan like a human wrecking ball. 'Sneak up behind them and steal  shit while I break stuff' isn't a plan, it's the plot of a music video  from the nineties. I...I can do better. I will do better."

Her  glare didn't exactly soften per se, but it became less focused on me.  She sighed and rubbed the bridge of her nose. "No, no. He's right. It's  not fair. Felicia does what she wants, no matter who tells her  otherwise. She'd have gone without you, and probably would have died.  I'm just tired and upset. I got off an eighteen hour shift at the  hospital less than four hours ago, and I come home to this. You don't  deserve my bullshit."

Peter cleared his throat. "I...um,  did you mean it earlier. When you said you um..put your..." He trailed  off, and I swear I could see the blush through his mask. The kid really  was too much, but I couldn't bring myself to be anything but relieved,  because it was hard to stay grim with him being a blushing virgin.

Claire  snorted, her severe face cracking into a grin. "You're just adorable  aren't you? Did I mean it when I said I eat her out sometimes? Slurp  that pussy? Munch some platinum rug? Yes. She's cute, and doesn't really  do strings, and my job is stressful. We fuck sometimes. I'm not in love  with her or anything, but I consider her a friend even without the  benefits, and I don't want to see her hurt."

I could  respect that. Ali and I had been like that. It's not like I gave a shit  if Felicia had a fuck buddy. I was certainly planning to get a few of my  own. As long as it was other women she could do what she wanted.  Besides, there were worse people to have on speed dial for a booty call  than a registered nurse, as the current situation proved. I raised an  eyebrow at her. "That have anything to do with the hostility? She and I  kind of have a thing going on."

She laughed in a bitter  enough way that I questioned her earlier comment about not being in love  with Felicia just a bit. "No, kid. I'm in my thirties and I'm married  to my job. Felicia is fun, and I patch her up as thanks for that, but  I'm not looking to keep her waiting at home for mommy. You two do you.  If it means I don't get to hit that anymore whatever, but you better not  fucking hurt her."

It was a testament to the force of her  personality that her demand there at the end was actually slightly  scary. "No plans to." I said firmly. "She's one of mine, and I'll watch  her ass, and not just because of all that pleasant jiggling. I also  don't care about what you two get up to. I have other girls and she  knows it, if she wants to fuck you then good for you." I shot her a  grin. "Though if you two ever want a third I'm down for that too."

That  just got an eyeroll. "Oh wow, the teenage guy is interested in a  threesome with two women he knows fuck on the regular. How shocking.  Sorry kid, I don't mind some sausage on my pizza, but I prefer my love  life uncomplicated. Being booty buddies with a flighty smokeshow is one  thing, but I'm not getting in the middle of superhero days of our lives.  Being the meat in a teen romance sandwich sounds like more drama than  I'd ever sign up for."

I...had no argument for that. Fair  enough. I just shrugged. "Oh well, you change your mind let me know.  You're kind of a smokeshow yourself. I'd hit it."

She put a  hand to her face. "Oh God, there's two of them. Now I see why she likes  you." She clicked off the small light she'd been shining into the eyes  of a now unmasked Peter. He'd been hesitant to show his face, but since  he might have had a concussion she insisted and he eventually gave in  when she swore that as a medical professional she couldn't disclose his  identity. I wasn't sure if that was true or he was just looking for an  excuse, but she seemed like a decent enough person.

"You  never said HOW you met Felicia." I said again. "Like, images of you two  fucking aside, teen cat burglar and thirty something nurse aren't  exactly the duo I'd pick for 'most likely to meet at a kegger'." Our  blonde teammate was in the shower right now, and I felt like it was a  good chance to pry a bit without her knowing. Not that I'd take it too  far, but she definitely had some secrets I was curious about, and if I  could learn some of them without asking directly all the better.

Felicia  was a fascinating girl. She was smart, that much was clear from being a  successful thief, but she liked being underestimated and was willing to  do whatever she had to do to achieve her goals. I could see why Claire  would be attracted to her, but I couldn't imagine how they had actually  become acquainted.

"She saved my life." Said Felicia from  the doorway. We all turned to see her standing with nothing but a towel  wrapped around her and another being used to dry her long hair. "I got  shot by one of Kingpin's goons pulling a heist. I snuck into the  hospital and Claire was the one who found me and patched me up. She  didn't tell security so the next time I got hurt I came directly to her  place. Wasn't hard to get her address from the hospital directory. She  patched me up and I kept coming back, then one thing led to another."  She shrugged, catching the towel before it fell off her body and causing  Peter to look like he was about to have an aneurysm.

She  ignored him. I was pretty sure Peter had officially been put in the  'little brother' category, and I doubted she even noticed he was around.  I tried not to laugh as the kid actually covered his eyes. Felicia  walked calmly through the room and into one of the side bedrooms,  shutting the door behind her after she finished talking, clearly done  with that particular story.

Claire just gestured to the  door. "What she said. Anyway, she mentioned some of this nonsense about  the key to me before when she was asking around about it. If people want  it this bad it probably isn't some random knick knack. If you want to  figure out who took it, just tracking down Fenris won't be enough. You  need to figure out what the hell this thing actually is, and I'm talking  more than just a name."

Felicia opened the bedroom door,  coming out in a large t-shirt and a pair of sweats. It was the least  dramatic and sexual thing I'd seen her in, and after showering her  pretty face clean, combined with the stress and the fear of the night  she looked...raw. Vulnerable. Fragile. It pissed me off seeing her so  obviously unbalanced. It made me want to hurt the people who targeted my  team even more.

She sat down on the couch between Peter  and Claire, head flopping back in exhaustion. "I have some leads. My  source on the key mentioned a guy in town who might be able to help, but  since we didn't have the damn thing yet it didn't seem worth the time.  Since shit is clearly more complicated than we thought we might as well  look into this properly."

Claire gave her a wry smile.  "Hey now, language. You know I don't like when you fucking talk like  that in my house." Felicia winked at her and the older woman laughed,  her eyes softer than they had been at any point up to now. "But jokes  aside, you can lay low here for the night. It'll be safer if you aren't  out and about in your condition. My guest room is open for whoever needs  it, though the little guy should stay up for now. Sleeping with a  possible concussion is a bad idea, and even if it looks like he's fine  I'd rather not take the chance."

"Hey!" Said Peter  indignantly. "I am NOT little. I am proportionately sized for a man my  age. It's not my fault Cataclysm is a humongous giant." It was  impossible to hide the slight whine in his voice, and we all had to  clamp down on smiles at how young he sounded. I knew that wasn't fair  since we were the same age and I'd have been just as offended, but it  just made him seem like such a kid.

I laughed again,  reaching up to pull off my hockey mask. "Billy." I said firmly. "She  already knows the two of you anyway, so it's not like she couldn't  figure out my identity if she needed to. Besides." I said to Claire.  "You've helped us a ton. I don't mind sharing my identity with someone I  trust. My name is William Frost. But like I said, you can really just  call me Billy." I held out a hand, which she took and shook.

"I  mean, cool." She said wryly. "But I'm still not a member of your little  team. In case you were wondering." She trailed off. "But...I guess  since you have Felicia's back I'm not against one of you showing up if  you need a patch job." She winked at Felicia. "But I'm taking my bill  out of her ass." To my shock my platinum maned teammate actually blushed  at the comment, and Claire laughed wickedly as she did.

Honestly,  after the anger of seeing my friends hurt, this whole thing was just  really nice. Bit of banter, bit of relaxing, bit of good news about  Peter's injuries. As Felicia started needling Peter to show Claire a  picture of his 'red haired forever bitch' I grinned to myself. I was  still pissed, sure. I would get revenge for the wrongs done to us, but I  also needed to remember to enjoy the process. All my friends were alive  and fine, and it would be ridiculous to dwell so hard on revenge I lost  sight of the present.

I forced myself to relax. To let  the knot in my stomach loosen as I took a long, deep breath. I wouldn't  let go of the anger. Wouldn't abandon my drive to get even, but dwelling  on it when I couldn't do anything about that rage wasn't healthy. I had  a lot of flaws, but spending all my time seething wasn't one of them. I  preferred to just chill and take things as they came. There would be  time to punch stuff later, and I'd be sure to make those punches plenty  hard.

Which brought up another thing I needed to focus on.  Training. I'd let mine slip. Or at least, let the physical side slip.  My body strength decided how much power I could channel and how durable I  was, while my energy control decided how much of that power I could  actually use safely. I'd been more focused on the latter for a while,  because two tons of strength and the amount of power I had now had  seemed like enough, but now I'd seen first hand that I needed more if I  was going to succeed in New York.

First thing tomorrow,  after I met up with Gwen, I'd start looking for a place to work out and  start building my body up again. I glanced over at Felicia, who looked  fragile and sweet laughing with Peter and Claire, and my eyes strayed to  her abdomen where I knew there were fresh bandages wrapped. I should  probably hit up Betty too. I was feeling a little pent up but I didn't  want to impose on Felicia when she was injured. The older woman could  help relieve some pressure if she was interested.

With a  plan in mind I walked over from where I'd been leaning and dropped down  onto the couch with a thump....and then dropped further as the fucking  couch legs gave out under our combined weight and smashed the whole  fucking piece of furniture into the ground with a crash. I winced and  turned to look at Claire, who was glaring at me furiously. "I can...pay  for that?" I said slowly.

She didn't respond, just glaring  a hole in me, until finally the others couldn't take it and Peter and  Felicia both cracked up. Their cackling set me off and I started  laughing, and finally Claire just rolled her eyes, standing up and  stalking out of the room muttering about giant behemoths. I stood up,  helping Peter and Felicia off the remains of the couch, and silently  thanked the gods that this was a first floor condo.

We  talked for a bit longer, and then Felicia headed for the guest room to  get some sleep while I stayed up to talk with Peter, until, despite the  warnings from Claire, he fell asleep. Despite letting go of my immediate  anger, once I was alone I started to stew about what I would do to the  people responsible for hurting my friends. I shook off the thoughts,  focusing on something more positive. I needed to find a donut place. I  had to go see my girlfriend in a few hours, and I needed to bring  pastries.