I was many things, but a genius inventor was not one of them. The fact that most of the tech I had access to was stolen, not built by myself, should make that much clear, at least. I only knew the basics of technology, mostly centered around bypassing security systems. Creating an entirely new form of super-power blocking prison equipment was well and truly beyond me.

However, that didn’t mean I was just going to give up. After all, I didn’t need to build the technology, myself, so long as SOMEONE built it. I just needed a reliable someone to do the job.

Unfortunately, my Recall Device on my costume was going to take some time to recharge, so that meant I was stuck with finding someone local. That wasn’t exactly a terrible thing, mind you, since New York had a high concentration of supers, but it did limit my options somewhat. In fact, there were only two people who I could rely on for this in the city: Mechana and Silver Knight.

Mechana was a gadgeteer that worked with the New York Knights, the main super-team that protected the New York area. Since I lived in New York, we had bumped heads a few times, and they were usually out on patrol, looking for my lair. Mechana herself was a down-to-earth type, for a gadgeteer, focusing mainly on making devices that could be used by the rest of her team, or even by non-powered people. Sure, she had her mech-suit, but she was more of the behind-the-scenes type, only going out in public when there were serious engineering problems that needed her, like trying to rescue people from the subway lines that collapsed when Earthshock and Magnitude fought.

Silver Knight, on the other hand, was the ‘bigger brain’, according to reports, but his genius was focused primarily around his suit, and other high-level items. He could (and had) create a single-use dimensional teleporter from scraps of other technology, and there was the time where he created a wide-array repulsor that shifted the D-337 comet from its collision course with Earth following the Gel-nak conflict. He could probably do something for specific, high-powered supers, but asking him to make something that could be mass-produced was not a winning proposition.

Actually, now that I thought about it, the reason that the Gel-nak conflict, when the Gel-nak Empire attempted to invade Earth, went so well for humanity could be boiled down to the lack of the System. If the System existed everywhere besides Earth, then aliens coming to Earth would suddenly be at a loss, with their powers not working the same as they always had, and people on Earth being able to do things that they thought were impossible. It was little surprise, then, that the Gel-naks were overwhelmed. It also meant that, if they ever came back, things would not be so easy.

But that was a problem for another time. Right now, I had bigger concerns, and those started with making sure Mechana didn’t shoot me the moment I showed up. She was probably still mad about the last time we met, after all.

That did, however, bring up the question of how I was going to get over to Mechana’s workshop. Focusing on my Cryokinetics power, I brought up the System information. According to this, I could manifest any combination of ice or cold powers, so long as no power had over 70 Active points, and the Real Cost of those powers didn’t go over 70 Points. Fairly simple, when you put it like that, but getting used to it would take work.

I took a breath, and concentrated on making hand signs. When I was younger, I fell into the habit of using hand signs for some of my powers as a focusing tool. Later, I used it to make people believe that hand signs were a limitation of my powers. If they thought immobilizing my hands would make me lose my powers, then that was something I could use to escape, if need be.

Now, the System decided that I needed to use the hand signs whenever I changed the powers in the pool. I didn’t necessarily have to use the gestures when using my powers, though. So, I could still manipulate people into thinking my hands were key to my powers. Not ideal, but I’d take it.

Mist Form

Cost

Power

End

27

Desolidification (Affected by Fire), Reduced Endurance (0 END, +1/2) (60 Active Points). Cannot Pass Through Solid Objects (-1/2), Side Effects (Automatically occurs. Cannot Speak while in mist form, -1/2), Conditional Power (Does not work in High Heat, -1/4)

This allows Iceblade to turn into a cloud of icy mist, like water vapor.

0

9

Increased Arc of Perception (360 degrees, Sound and Hearing Groups) (20 Active Points). Linked (Desolidification, -1/2), Always On (-1/2), Conditional Power (Does not work in High Heat, -1/4)

While in mist form, Iceblade’s sight and hearing are expanded, as every water droplet in the mist is the same as his eyes and ears, allowing him to see and hear things from all directions simultaneously.

0

13

Invisibility to Sight Group Reduced Endurance (0 END, +1/2) (30 Active Points). Linked (Desolidification, -1/2), Only When Not Attacking (-1/2), Conditional Power (Does not work in High Heat, -1/4)

While in mist form, Iceblade can become completely invisible to sight, showing up only if he coalesces enough to make an attack.

0

4

Life Support (Self-Contained Breathing) (10 Active Points). Always On (-1/2), Linked (Desolidification, -1/2), Conditional Power (Does not work in High Heat, -1/4)

While in mist form, Iceblade is a cloud of icy mist, and therefore does not need to worry about little things like breathing.

0

8

Flight 5” Reduced Endurance (0 END, +1/2) (22 Active Points). Linked (Desolidification, -1/2), Conditional Power (Does not work in High Heat, -1/4)

While in his mist form, Iceblade is able to fly through the air, though not terribly quickly.

0

That was as close to my old ‘mist form’ ability as I could get, with the limitations of the System. I could turn to an icy mist, becoming invisible and expanding my sight and hearing at the same time. As a cloud, I could fly through the air, but I couldn’t slip through solid objects. I could force my way through anything that wasn’t airtight, but I could not just walk through walls.

Hmm. That came to a ‘Real Cost’ of 61 points. With my Cryokinetics, that meant I could still add on to that. And, while my mist form was good at preventing damage (due to me having no physical body to hit), that didn’t mean I wanted to walk into a superheroine’s lair without some offense, just to keep her honest.

Cost

Power

End

9

Frost Beam: Energy Blast 5d6+1 (27 Active Points). Extra Time (Full Phase, Delayed Phase, -3/4), Cannot Use Targeting (-1/2), Conditional Power (Does not work in High Heat, -1/4), Beam (-1/4), No Knockback (-1/4).

By concentrating cold energies, and then unleashing them in a beam, Iceblade can injure his foes without even touching them. This beam cannot be used to target specific body parts, and is always aimed center-mass.

3

It wasn’t much. Actually, it was rather weak, all things considered. If someone hit me with that thing, even if it wasn’t cold, I could shrug it off completely unless they got the maximum possible damage. That was not going to win me a fight with a superheroine.

But, I didn’t need it to win me a fight. I just needed it to be something to keep her head down while I got away, if needed. With any luck, this wouldn’t start a fight, but I hadn’t survived this long as a supervillain by relying on luck.

Powers sorted, I shifted into my mist form, and floated up, into the ventilation system, flowing through the familiar vents until I was up, in the air above Hell’s Kitchen, looking at the New York skyline as I got my bearings. The New York Knights were a publicly-known super-team, and they had their base in Brooklyn, on a site just across the water from Governor’s Island. So, I started flying south.

I kept at the level of the rooftops, despite being invisible to sight, and making no sound. While I couldn’t be seen by the human eye, that did not mean that sensors wouldn’t detect me. A patch of cold air against an otherwise pleasant evening would make people wonder, especially when it moved against the wind. By keeping at the level of the rooftops, I minimized my exposure. The first key to stealth was to not be doing things that drew attention to yourself, after all.

My ‘normal’ speed when flying in this mist form was slightly less than my normal walking speed, out of costume. However, I could keep flying until I eventually needed to get some sleep, and flying also meant that I avoided some of the ‘inconveniences’ of walking, like traffic. Also, I still had the speed boosts from my costume, accelerating how quickly I could move. Putting it all together, I was able to cover the roughly six-mile distance in just under twenty minutes.

The Barracks, which is what the Knights called their base, was built on the site of an old warehouse, giving it a sizeable footprint for its location. I couldn’t see the telltale gleam of their defense grid, which meant that they were not at high alert, for the moment. Or that the grid itself was down, due to the System causing troubles. Either way, it meant I had a good chance of sneaking in.

I continued flying, more cautiously, now, and made my way to the roof, where the air circulators were. Even if New York didn’t get as hot as it did in the South, there were still plenty of days where air conditioning was a necessity, and even if there weren’t, big buildings needed some fans to keep the air fresh, or people would start getting health problems. So, there were always big AC units on buildings like this.

Of course, the Knights weren’t stupid. By which I meant Mechana wasn’t stupid. The vents had a series of screens on them, designed to filter out incoming gas attacks, contagions, and the like. However, they couldn’t completely stop the air without being useless, of course, which is why I was able to slip past them, as mist.

I saw a light trip from green to red as I passed through it. That hadn’t been here, the last time I broke into the Knights’ base. Mechana must have figured out that I was using the vents, somehow, and rigged a temperature sensor. I flew quicker, just in case. That’s when I heard vents shutting, and fans began trying to push me along.

Not wanting to see where the security system was trying to herd me, I slipped out of the vent in the first room I could. It was a combat training room, and it was activating. Oh joy. It would seem that Mechana had prepared a trap for me!

I heard the vents shut, the telltale woosh of air as the room went hermetically sealed. The next moment, targeting lasers began sweeping the room. I had to do some fancy flying to keep them from catching me as I made my way to an isolated corner of the ceiling. While the laser itself probably wouldn’t have done anything, I would lay odds that Mechana had set up something that would ruin my day, if they locked down my location.

Not five minutes after I had tripped that sensor, the door of the combat room opened, and in walked Mechana, in her mech suit, with Firebolt and Prohibition at her side. As the door shut behind them, Mechana’s voice came through the speakers of her suit. “The temperature alarm on the vents definitely went off, and the building locked down as I designed. Iceblade has to be in this room!”

Firebolt nodded his head as they took a couple steps into the room. “Sure, Mechana, and between you running the Training Room’s gear and my fire, we should be able to take him down. But what then? You saw the news from Blackreach. The same thing is happening all over.”

“And my powers are no longer reliable in suppressing individuals,” Prohibition said. As the heroine stared out at the room, she shook her head. “This ‘System’ has upset many things. I am unsure of how well my powers will work against Iceblade, or if they even will. Capturing him may be possible, but holding him? I do not believe so.”

“But we can’t just let him go! Not after everything he’s done!”

“I know, Mechana,” Firebolt said, patting her mech. “But what would you have us do, kill him? Without a trial or anything? How would that make us any better than the villains like him? Or the vigilantes like the Executioner?”

Slowly, I flew down, avoiding the beams, until I was behind them, leaning against the very door they entered from. As I turned back solid, Mechana’s sensors picked me up, and she started to whirl in place, causing the others to turn, as well. I simply leaned, with my arms crossed nonthreateningly, and said, “Hello, Knights. It has been a while. I came to speak to Mechana, but I don’t mind if the rest of you hear this. It is about the System, after all.”