Chapter 13: Interrogation

The ropes had fused again with her face, showing the full extent of the creepiness the woman had in store for us. Frostbite only said two things to us.

”Be decisive and keep your eyes peeled.”

At that time I thought I understood what she meant. We wanted to wrap this up as quickly as possible so that no more people could be involved until the police got there. We also didn’t really know if she had anything else up her sleeve or why she was even doing this. We didn’t even know who the man she seemed to want to kill was.

Frostbite dashed forward and I followed suit, teleporting behind Tightrope again to trip her up. Danny was running toward us too and threw a piece of debris at her while Frostbite shot out a stream of ice instead of a beam to slow her transformation down and allow the debris to slam into her face. I refused to overthink and jumped onto her back to hopefully pull her down, but I underestimated her strength. She leaned backward and grabbed me with her long rope-hands before lifting me up and then slamming me into the ground. My entire body was aching and I didn’t even have time to think about anything other than surviving. She raised her hands again and I could see her rope-hands growing and getting thicker before she brought them down.

Danny had grabbed me and pulled me just out of reach of the tremor-inducing slam that she was trying to end my life with. Frostbite seized her chance and blasted several frosted beams at her hands, rendering them almost completely immobile. All Tightrope did was smile her wicked smile and reduce the thickness of the rope to escape Frostbite’s classic ice cage.

I coughed while Danny helped me get up and I told myself that maybe thinking wasn’t such a bad thing. So I thought about it and I wanted to test one thing. Tightrope lunged after Danny and I and we evaded with our powers but I grabbed one of her ropes and teleported to a nearby street light and quickly attempted to tie her to the post. Danny and Frostbite held her off while I did the knot and she seemed to be visibly frustrated with our persistence.

I tightened the knot and teleported back to Frostbite. Tightrope was struggling to keep her composure, lashing out and getting more wild as the fight went on. I noticed the street light was coming loose and we had to finish this before any more notable damage was incurred.

Danny went for a punch to the stomach and surprisingly she reeled back in pain without screaming. No one had to say anything because we were all thinking the same thing. The Sun was peeking from the horizon and I knew my abilities would be more limited when it emerged so I teleported to Frostbite and then teleported us both directly in front of Tightrope as she held her stomach with her free hand. Tightrope tried to retaliate but her powers didn’t seem to respond.

“So that weakness isn’t something you knew about before either?” Frostbite said as she grabbed the woman by the shirt, pulling her up from the ground.

“Pfft,” Tightrope scoffed. “If I knew about it I would've done things a lot differently here.”

“We can talk all about what happened here later,” Frostbite said with a scowl on her face.

Tightrope was about to say something before Frostbite headbutted her and knocked her out. After a few minutes the fatigue crept in and I fell on the ground and sighed. Danny sat beside me and patted me on the back, which caused me to yelp in pain because I was just tossed on my back basically five minutes before. Danny laughed at my pain and Frostbite chuckled along while trying to pick Tightrope off the ground.

After a few minutes of walking and avoiding eye-contact with very concerned residents of the area, we made it to the Bastion and Frostbite hauled Tightrope over to a dusty room in the back labelled “Interrogation”. Subsequently, Frostbite planted Tightrope in one of the chairs facing the giant one-sided glass window that Danny and I were watching through.

“She’ll be awake soon enough, don’t worry,” Frostbite said as she exited the room, locking the door behind her. “Wanna play a card game while we wait?”

“Uh…” Danny and I said in unison. “Sure.”

We started playing “go fish” because it was the only card game that Danny actually knew. Frostbite said she knew how to play everything, including poker, but I had my doubts about that. While I said nothing, my mind drifted to the times my parents and my sister and myself used to play cards on Friday nights. Winding down with some music and pizza at the end of a busy yet successful week, almost like a little party. Wendy was younger but smart enough to at least know where the cards should go.

The nostalgia faded away as quickly as it came and Danny started asking the age-old question “Got any aces?”

A few losses for Danny and myself later and we could hear Tightrope coming to.

“Finally,” Danny sighed. “I don’t even play card games.”

“Same, I’d rather play something with a controller.” I got up from the table.

“You’re both just sore losers,” Frost quickly shuffled the cards away. “If you think it's boring, next time we should add some stakes. Maybe I’ll invite Kate?”

I was interested in what she had in mind, especially since Danny’s face started getting redder after Kate got mentioned, but Tightrope was getting an understanding of her surroundings and mumbling things to herself. Frostbite entered the room and took a seat in front of Tightrope, folding her arms and leaning back in the process.

“Good morning Sunshine.” Frost said more cheerily than I was expecting. “Care to tell me what business you had with that man earlier.”

“My good-for-nothing boss? Sure I’ll tell you.” Tightrope scowled.

I couldn’t see the exact look on Frostbite’s face but she looked slightly more tense from what I could tell. Tightrope sighed a heavy sigh before continuing.

“He had me killed.”