A Rumble of Frost chapter 12

February 15th 2001, Waterfront, 12:00 AM EDT

Fun fact, five hundred pound men made of solid, hyper-dense muscle, have a  REALLY hard time swimming. If I wasn't absurdly strong physically, its  possible I wouldn't even be able to do it. Luckily I AM that strong,  plus my hands are huge, which kind of helps with propulsion. Still, it  was a bitch keeping myself from sinking more than necessary as I swam down to pick up my friends.

Even knowing where they had  been a second ago, the darkness of the cold water made it nearly  impossible to tell where I was going. I managed to get a hold of them  quickly enough not to lose track, but in the abyssal chill of the  dockside I had trouble figuring out which way was up.

I  could hold my breath for a while considering how strong my lungs were,  but the others were unconscious, and would definitely drown if I was  down here too long. Luckily, I knew my hypocenters could affect physical  matter. Reaching up to put my hands on their heads as best I could, I  gently condensed an orb of the least possible amount of force around  their skulls.

I'd never tried anything as delicate or  intricate as this before, but I'd gotten turned around in the dark and  given how heavy I was they might actually drown before I managed to get  us out of here. As the hypocenters condensed, the water was pushed away  from their heads. The light cast eerie shimmers through the dark water  that somewhat allowed me to get my bearings as I swam for the nearest  shore.

Since the air issue had been taken care of, I  stayed low to the floor of the ocean, trying to avoid whatever the fuck  had blown up the warehouse until I could get a better idea what it was  and what it wanted. Especially with my friends vulnerable I wasn't eager  to get into another fight.

Finally, I saw the sea floor  rise. I'd managed to get myself turned around and avoided the docks by  accident, coming up on a strip of beach not too many miles away. When I  finally found the shore, I dragged the other up out of the water  dropping them in the sand near the waterline as I dropped down,  exhausted at the swim.

Swimming is hard. Swimming as a  five hundred pound six foot nine inch beast of a man is harder. Swimming  while carrying two people as harder, and doing it while maintaining a  pair of delicate energy constructs was downright draining. Even my  stamina had been slightly effected by the effort I'd had to put in to  save those two.

Since they were breathing, I left them  alone to recover. It was lucky they hadn't drowned while I was  recovering them, but Cat had some luck stuff going on from what I  remembered, so maybe she did some shit. Since I had time to recover, I  did, lying back and letting my energy return as I amused myself by  staring at Felicias soaking wet body, since it was there anyway.

It  only took a few minutes for the two of them to sputter awake, coughs  wracking their bodies despite never having stopped breathing. I didn't  know medical shit, but I supposed they might have gotten water somewhere  they shouldn't without drowning. Felicia groaned miserably as she  rolled over, clutching her ribs, and I frowned and moved to her side.  "Cat. Hey, Cat." I waved a hand in her face, forcing her emerald eyes to  focus on me. "Stay with me, are you alright? What happened?"

Despite  not drowning, they'd been in an explosion, and I hadn't thought to  check for concussions or anything. I'd fought Peter before, so I knew he  could take a hit, but my pretty kitty was probably a bit more fragile,  and the way she was holding her midsection made me worry about internal  damage.

"Ribs." She wheezed. "Nothing serious. Just  hurts." I nodded, helping her sit up while moving her middle as little  as possible. "Someone else showed up, A pair of weird twins in suits.  They were throwing around serious firepower, and we barely got clear of  the building before they leveled it. Lucky they needed time to charge up  or we'd be dead." She spoke slowly, pain twisting her face as she tried  to breathe properly.

I was...I was fucking furious. This  had been my team's first mission. Our first time out together. It was  supposed to be a fun heist to tweak Kingpin's nose. Now some random  assholes had blown up two of my team members. Felicia was hurt, Pete was  unconscious. These were MY people. My woman. My buddy. MINE. I felt the  power inside my churn as hypocenters started to condense unconsciously  around my hands, but I closed my eyes and forced the energy down.  Control. Control was important. It wouldn't do them any good if I sank  New York or something.

A hand touched my shoulder, and I  opened my eyes to look down at the bright green ones gazing up at me in  concern. "Hey, I'm sorry." Said Felicia softly. "We were supposed to  have the easy job and we fucked it up. I promise we'll make it right  though." She reached up slowly with a grimace to push a lock of wet hair  behind her air. "Thanks for saving us. Saving me."

I felt  confusion run through my mind as I tried to grasp what she was saying,  before my jaw dropped in dumbfounded realization. "Felicia? Do you think  I'm MAD at you? I'm mad at THEM. How dare they hurt my people? My team?  My girl?" She blushed at the last bit, but I was too worked up too  care, I stood up and started pacing. "I don't know who the fuck these  people are, but I hope that key is worth it. They just bought themself a  fuck ton of trouble."

She giggled slightly, the sound  ending in a grunt as she disturbed her ribs. "Shit. I need to get you  two to a doctor." I'd gotten distracted throwing a fit and forgotten  most people aren't as tough as me. "Do you know anyone who could help  patch you up? Once we have you guys on the mend we can discuss what to  do from here." I reached down to help her to her feet, making sure to  take as much of the pressure off her ribs as I could, almost lifting her  right to her feet.

Swaying slightly, she took a second to  steady herself before shooting me a weak smile. I took off my jacket  and handed it to her, figuring the thicker material would blunt some of  the freezing chill of a February night. She took it gratefully as I  walked over and hoisted Pete up over my shoulder like a sack of  potatoes. I left my mask on until we could get Pete out of his costume,  since being seen with the team as a civvie would be pure stupid.

It  didn't take long to get them back to the car. Felicia had an SUV with  tinted windows we'd used to get here. Between that and the parking  garage at the safehouse we'd completely avoided being noticed mid  transit. "So. Where are we going?" I asked Felicia. I had zero contacts  in town, and Peter still hadn't woken up, which was concerning. I wanted  someone to take a look at both of them as soon as possible.

Felicia  slumped back into the seat next to me with a wince. "I have a friend,  she's a nurse. Her name is Claire. She can help us out, I've gone to her  for medical treatment before." She rattled off an address before  leaning back, closing her eyes to try to focus on something other than  the pain.

I heard a low groan from behind me and my eyes  snapped to the rearview mirror. Sure enough, Pete was waking up. "Ow."  He groaned. "Ow. Ow. Ow." He started to sit up, but fell back down, head  still clearly ringing. "That sucked. I thought my skull cracked for a  second there. Not fun. You guys ok?"

That startled a laugh  out of me. "Us? You're the one doing the snow white impression. We're  fine. Cat got a little banged up, and we're going to see her doctor  friend. I'm glad you're up though. Can you tell me any more about the  twins you two saw? Cat didn't recognize them."

He groaned,  putting a hand to his head. "Weirdly yes. I've never met them, but I do  a pretty decent amount of snooping online. They own a huge global  investment firm called Fenris. Andrea and Andreas von Strucker. WHY they  were there or wanted the key to start with I have no clue." His voice  hardened. "But I sure as hell intend to find out."

"Speaking  of information." I said with a grimace. "What are the chances the  Kingpin doesn't assume we successfully stole the damn key and come after  us for it?" I had no problem fighting him, but I really would have  preferred to do so over something we ACTUALLY stole instead of getting  blamed for some snooty German millionaires going Duke Nukem on our  asses.

Felicia's face went cold. "Definitely. That fat  fuck is prideful as hell. He'll definitely put on a show of hunting us  down to save face after it gets out that he lost something he wanted.  I'm sure he won't tell anyone what that is, but with the destruction of  the warehouse after sending out the enforcers it's going to be clear to  everyone somebody bloodied his nose. We're too convenient of an excuse  to let go of."

I just shrugged. "That Electro guy was kind  of annoying, but other than him none of the others were up to my  standards. If he wants to pick a fight he can fuck around and find out."  Kingpin had dropped on my list of priorities. I was more worried about  finding and pummeling the assholes who had hurt my people. If Fisk  wanted to get in my way I'd crush him into meat paste. I wasn't in the  mood to deal with some sociopathic butterball with an overinflated sense  of self worth.

That got another giggle from Felicia,  which was worth it. When we finally got to the address she gave me, I  had Peter help her inside to talk to her friend Claire while I slipped  out my phone. Which...was ruined. Damn it. Fucking ocean water. Luckily  Felicia was all about that prep work and kept burners in her glove box,  so I popped a fresh one and dialed Gwen from memory.

"Billy?"  Came her tired voice. "It's midnight, why are you calling me? I  everything alright?" Gwen and I had gone out on Valentines and had a  pretty decent time. She was sweet and snarky and fun to talk to, even if  I was pretty sure I wasn't getting in her panties anytime soon. Like I  suspected, despite being such a hardass on the outside, Gwen was a  virgin and kind of old fashioned about sex.

I'd managed to  wriggle her into agreeing we weren't exclusive though, though I could  stuff my pretty kitty to my hearts content once I got a chance, not that  I suspected that would happen anytime soon with her injuries. One more  annoyance to take out on whoever the fuck hired those Germans. "Sorry  babe." I said casually. "Just wanted to check in. Dropped my phone in  the toilet and this is the new number, didn't want you to think I  changed it on you or something."

She giggled sleepily.  "Yeah, I'd have had your balls for that. Still, you could have texted me  or something? Did something happen?" I was about to tell her no when I  realized...yeah. Something had. I was shaken by seeing my friends hurt  and I called to check on her to reassure myself she was alright. I  hadn't even realized why I was doing it until now, but I had been  worried about her.

It was a stupid thing to be concerned  about, Gwen was a civvie, and a police Captain's daughter to boot. You'd  have to be seven different kinds of stupid to try to rob her house,  especially since we had no link between us in my masked identity. I  chuckled to myself. "Nah, just a shitty night. Wanted to make sure you  were ok." I wasn't touchy feely most of the time, but since I had the  impulse I was sure as hell going to admit it. Not having the guts to  admit shit you were feeling was pathetic.

Plus, I could  almost hear her melt a little over the phone, which was a plus. "I'm  fine. If you don't want to talk about it I won't push, but I'm here if  you want...like...talk or some shit." The last part came out a bit  gruff, because Gwen liked to play badass, but she got it out anyway. She  was really pretty damn cute. "Anyway, if not, I'm going back to fucking  sleep. I expect you to bring me donuts tomorrow as compensation for  waking me up."

I rolled my eyes. "Of course you do. You  know, you're lucky all that food you eat goes straight to your ass.  You've got some fat little cheeks for such a tiny girl." Not huge or  anything, but soft and pillowy in the best way. Gwen may not put out,  but she didn't mind some flirting either. She was old fashioned, not  shy.

"Guess you better feed me some more huh?" She said  smugly. "I know how much you love staring at it. Now begone, I'm trying  to fucking sleep." She paused for a second. "And be safe ok? You sounded  stressed, and New York isn't exactly the safest place around."

I  told her I would before hanging up, turning around and jumping as I saw  Felicia leaning against a wall. Her midsection was wrapped in gauze,  which was pretty fast. She also was wearing regular clothes and no mask.  She raised an eyebrow at me. "Your girlfriend?" She said it a little  archly, but not like she was jealous, more like she was reminding me  that I should remember I had her too. It was kind of adorable.

"Yup."  I said, climbing out of the car. "That an issue?" She pouted a bit, but  still shrugged, even though it clearly hurt her to do so. I walked up  to grip her chin, tilting her head back for a kiss. "Don't get all  insecure on me now kitten. I'll make all your dreams come true, just be a  good girl and don't make a fuss." Her cheeks almost glowed red at the  words, but she still nodded.

This was why I liked Felicia.  She was ambitious and knew what she wanted. She needed my help to crush  Kingpin, and she enjoyed my company. She wouldn't endanger that over a  bit of petty jealousy. Still, I saw a spark of competitive fire in her  eyes as she stared at my phone. She wouldn't cause a problem with Gwen,  but I had a feeling once her ribs healed I was going to enjoy her  efforts to convince me she was the better woman.