10697/Cold Heart, Warm Hands

Cold Heart, Warm Hands
Date of Scene:	11 January 2020
Location:	Midtown, Manhattan
Synopsis:	A scene goes nowhere.
Cast of Characters:	Killer Frost, Mary Marvel

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Killer Frost has posed:
MIDTOWN, MANHATTAN - UNMARKED WAREHOUSE (A.K.A. A PLACE WHERE SECRET SCIENCE HAPPENS)

Ramsey Hussman had been working in energy tech for years - specifically with regards to storing the stuff, creating stable, empty matrices capable of compressing and releasing energy upon demand, magnifying whatever input they receive a hundredfold. It sounds ridiculous because it *is* ridiculous; thermodynamics dictates that energy can only be LOST in any given transaction, and never CREATED. Besides, the FAA has regulations against travel batteries for a reason. What happens if a flaw in an energy matrix allows it all to leave in the most expedient way possible?

(bombs and fire. it is bad.) Ramsey Hussman has been conducting experiments and prototypical builds in this warehouse for months. Nobody should know about his presence here.

Caitlin Snow has resources, has used those resources, and Ramsey Hussman's day has suffered for it.

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"Ah! I- I DON'T KNOW WHO YOU ARE! Y-you can't TAKE the prototype, it's not-- it's not READY yet!" Ramsey cowers in his workstation, even as a handful of hired guardsmen run through the warehouse entry while a handful of hired lab assistants run *out*. Before him stands one blue-fleshed walking corpse, a menacing-looking cylinder held in her left hand, presumably plucked from the stabilizing field generator to a table at her side. The thing's already starting to glow like Problems are developing.

"I told you already," grates the creature, one hand leveled at the handful of guardsmen barreling in. A plume of blue leaves her outstretched fingers - it crashes into the warehouse entry, blossoms into a cascading sheet of ice and frigid winds. The men it touches are *instantly* frozen in place, eyes and mouths locked in their last vital horror. The creature turns, leans in to leer at the man cowering before her, and smiles.

"I'm Frost. We have a date. You. And. Me. I heard you had some pretty hot toys we could play with." Frost indicates the cylinder in her hand, and gestures to Hussman, places a finger on his quivering chin. Immediately the man makes an inimitable, keening noise - pain.

"Tell me how it works or you'll never breathe a warm breath again - I can already tell your heat's going to be *delicious*."

Mary Marvel has posed:
Whoever invented the quadratic function should be dragged out into the rainy street and shot. Algebra sucked wind, bigtime.
Mary Batson was trying to puzzle out x^2 + 34xy + y^2. Who needed this stuff? For a moment, she was wondering if changing to Mary Marvel would be acceptable. Mary Marvel was SMART...but Mary Marvel was also CHEATING, and she wasn't the one who was going to take this test next Monday. Just had to figure this stuff out as Batson. Being Mary Marvel just for algebra homework was like Harry Potter using magic to make lunch. SEVERE overkill.

Then the police scanner on the desk buzzed to life. "Warehouse, midtown, High alert. Code 66. Proceed with caution."
Mary smiled. THIS was a GOOD reason for Mary Marvel!
She ran out into the backyard and one "SHAZAM!" later, Mary Marvel soared off in the direction of Midtown.
She doesn't have super-hearing, but the scream of pain from the warehouse is audible even through the wall.

The wall in question suddenly blows inward as if a grenade had gone off on the other side, and through it flies Mary Marvel...okay, she's not very famous, but she's working on it!

Killer Frost has posed:
*BLOM* goes the warehouse wall, prompting a second scream from Hussman and a startled intake of air from Frost. Marvel will find her opponent is *fast*; that opening in the warehouse wall exists for maybe a second before ice erupts from the newly-bare ground, recreating the barrier in a half-foot sheet of frost. By the time the metaphorical 'dust' clears, it means Frost and Marvel are able to stare one another down - Frost is fast, but she's not Marvel fast. And Marvel fast gets you in before the 'door' goes back up.

"Already? You're fast... I thought I had a little more time. Prefer *boys* over *girls*, unfortunately..." The frigid creature - crystalline white hair, white eyes, and blue flesh all - sneers at Mary Marvel. Without further preamble, she sets the glowing cylinder in Hussman's lap (another muffled shout), and taps the scientist on the lips.

"Don't go anywhere. I've got questions you haven't answered, and if you're *nice*, I'll show you how *nice* I can be." As she stands, more ice crawls up the seated scientist's body, encasing his chair, legs, lap, and torso in a fast-grown iceblock. By now, the room's temperature is beginning to plummet.

"Who are you? Go home. This man's a terrorist, you're in my way, and I'm *way* above your pay-grade." Killer Frost leaves her prey to approach her would-be predator - air's already crystallizing over one of the creature's shoulders. She's planning *something*.

Mary Marvel has posed:
Mary looks around and...oh, geez. The guard-sicles are flash-frozen, and there is going to be some work to save them. She'd heard from a county coroner, 'You aren't DEAD until you're WARM and DEAD." She hoped that this was true. But right now, those people are dead...and this woman killed them. Negative fifty point for...whoever this is. But the ice suggest ice powers, so she needs to be careful.

"All right, whoever you are...whatever you're doing stops right now. I'm MARY MARVEL, and I'm not going to let you hurt anyone else!" Yeah, she has to presence not to sound like a dork saying that. "So, why don't you lay down on the ground, arms out, and lay there while the cops come? There's more steps, but do we HAVE to go through those?"

Killer Frost has posed:
"H-h-help me! HELP ME! I'M JUST TRYING TO MAKE THE WORLD BETTER!" Ramsey Hussman is screaming because he is more or less up to his neck in ice. It's an uncomfortable position to be in. Eddies of frostbitten wind swirl about the room, bringing with them a constant reminder of plummeting temperature.

"Shut up, _terrorist_," grates Frost - with a wave of her hand towards Hussman, she manufactures a bit more ice - just enough to seal his mouth and save her ears. Her attention turns back to Marvel, now on the approach.

"Hurt anybody else? The man's making bombs." Frost bends the truth a bit, but Mary Marvel's hesitation buys her precious time. The shimmering air over her shoulder finally coalesces into something *solid* - a line of razor-sharp icicles, suspended lazily in the air behind her head, a quartet of frigid spikes angled towards Marvel.

"Let's see if the rest of you bleeds as much as your heart does. I've worked *too hard* for some *nobody* to get in my way." Even as she's speaking, that quartet of icicles shrieks through the air, angled for our erstwhile heroine!

Mary Marvel has posed:
Mary looks at the icicles flying at her. Should she dodge? Hmmm...nah.
The icicles, as hard as permafrost, impact with her body with enough force to pierce a regulat person and pin them to the wall behind her.

What ACTUALLY happens is that the icicles disintegrate against her face, the glowing lightning bolt on her chest, her bare legs...nothing. All that is left is ice chips that drift to the floor ten feet below her.

The guy she has frozen in place is staring, and for pretty good reason. That's because Mary is suddenly standing in front of him, facing Dr. Snow. "Gotta tell ya, Abominable Snow-Woman...the forecast is NOT looking favorable for you."