As the world tuned back into focus I was staring up at the night sky. The outfit this broad was wearing was not great at fostering heat and it was damn cold.

I closed my eyes and began channeling the woman's Power. I didn't use it; I just got ready to use it. Whatever sort of Power she had, it was clear that it had something to do with heat, and most of the time those sorts of abilities came with a nice little side effect.

I could feel the warmth flood my body, the skin heating up. But the brunt of the heat traveled to the hands. I turned them over and saw the callused palms emit a light, reddish-yellow glow.

Better stop now until I am a bit safer situated.

Soon enough her partner, or whatever he was, returned to his post. Unlike her, he was much more reasonably dressed for the weather; A thick hoodie, gloves, bandana over the face.

I did not know a whole lot about the person whose body I was piloting, but the glimpse I got was enough to make an attempt at imitation.

"I swear to god, It's so fucking boring out here. I miss the city already." I said. My victim's voice was a bit gruffer than I had expected. Sore throat, or the result of smoking? If she had cigs on her, whether or not she was also carrying a lighter could give me some insight into her Power.

"I mean....I agree with you there. Too wet out here. Too cold. My embers are dull, man. Can't sleep with all this quiet either." her....friend? Partner?..colleague said as I rifled through her pockets.

"Maybe the Fimbis know were here. If they are dumb enough to attack we get to melt a few snowmen at least." I replied.

Damn. Nothing in her pockets.

"I mean, I hope not. These cold fucks are psychopaths."

I scratched my neck. This may be a good opportunity to scope out their defenses a bit. I rummaged through my...or I guess her brain for a few seconds, trying to recall the vernacular the Midgardsummer's used. Unlike Fimbulwinter, I did not spend a lot of time with them after I turned, but they sure taunted me enough when I was a hero for me to pick up a few of their terms.

"You a kindling or something? The thought of melting Fimbis should be getting your blood boiling."

He was silent for a few minutes. I was just about to make another comment when he lifted his right arm and pulled back his long sleeves. To my surprise, his skin was fully black.

"Oh, dude...." I muttered.

"I was at Katarina when the raid happened. Lost a lotta good friends. One of these subhuman ice monsters grabbed my arm when I was flickering on the ground and held on for a full minute. Looks like this up to my shoulder. Can't feel a thing." His tone was somber, understandably.

"Animals...." I muttered and he nodded, but my sympathy was limited. Shouldn't have joined a temp gang. Everything that happened to them was their own fault. "Think they know we're here?"

He shrugged.

"Probably not. But you never know. The drop that extinguishes the flame can come from all sides."

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I gave him a grunt of affirmation.

"Think they could take us if they attacked?" I asked.

He leaned against the warehouse hall and crossed his arms.

After a minute of thought, he answered.

"I mean....I guess it depends. Max, Annie, and Red are excellent defenses. If they attack with just a few of'em, Ernie, Luca, Chels, and Dean could deal with them pretty well. And if they attack with a large group.....Emma, James, and you have it covered. Just gimme a heads-up before you start doing your thing. I don't wanna lose another arm." he chuckled.

"You ain't lost this one either." I teased. "So, y'think we're safe?"

He shrugged nonchalantly.

"It's hard to say. I mean, I think I'd have a better grasp on the sitch if I knew what the hell we were actually guarding. If it's important enough they may send their top snowmen. If they do, I'm confident the boss could handle them...not so sure about us."

I dismissively waved my hand.

"Don't be so dramatic. We have this in the bag."

He shrugged again.

"I hope so....By Surt, I hope so." He said nothing for a moment before looking at me with a smirk.

"You're pretty talkative all of a sudden. What happened? Sudden onset of boredom-induced delirium?"

I smiled back and hit my fist into the palm of my other hand.

"I told you, man. My blood is boiling for some action. Any objection to me patrolling the perimeter for a bit?" I said as enthusiastically as possible with my voice held low.

He grinned and shook his head.

"Sure. Before you spontaneously combust on me out here. Try to be quick about it though." he said.

I gave him a mock salute and made my way toward the back of the warehouse.

So, at least 3 defenders. That sounded about right. Fimbulwinter would probably have 6 or 7 in this situation, but this didn't seem to be a particularly huge operation, and Defensive fire powers were pretty rare.

4 people good at dealing with single targets. That could be a problem. I didn't really have a good method to find out who of the clowns in red they were, since going around fishing for names would give the game away immediately.

And then there were 3 of them good for crowd control....including myself. Maybe the Power of my puppet would be enough to cause a distraction by itself. But I had to find out what it was first.

As I turned the corner I sighed with relief when I saw that no one was stationed at the back of the warehouse. Beyond this side of the wall were the docks, which was probably where the rear guard was positioned instead.

Good. Time to experiment a bit.

Once more I let the heat flow through my body and gather at my palms. This time I was not holding back. The light shining from my hands got brighter and brighter....but nothing happened.

At its shiniest, the glow could be used in lieu of a flashlight, but I highly doubted 'Let's me find my wrench in the dark' counted as a crowd control Power.

I scaled the energy back a bit until all that was visible was a faint glow. If I were to test this out, I shouldn't start with the dial turned to 11.

I had a few hypotheses. With practiced movements, I looked around for something to use as a potential target.

Not far away from me lay a brick that had broken loose from the wall.

Good enough.

I approached the piece of rubble and touched it with a glowing hand.

Nothing.

I let go and stepped back.

Still nothing.

Alright. No problem. Touch did not work.

Hypothesis 2. Channeling.

I carefully moved my hands until both of my luminous palms were facing each other and brought them closer together.

For the majority of the journey nothing happened, but when my hands were close enough that the fingers were almost touching a spark lit up in the hollow between.

I pressed my fingers against one another and, with a sound similar to that of a movie short circuit, a small, yellow ball appeared between my palms.

I brought my hands closer to my face and observed it.

It wasn't overly bright, but very hot.

Carefully I increased the energy output and the little sphere lit up like a lightbulb. A pressure began building up between my palms and I moved my hands away from each other again.

To my astonishment, the sphere grew the further my hands moved apart. From the marble-size it had before, to a ping-pong-ball, to an orange, to a watermelon....

At that point, I stopped and lessened the energy again. Instead of shrinking, the ball of heat imploded and just fizzled out.

Interesting.

I looked back at the brick and smiled. Time for another test.

I once again formed the tiny ball of energy and knelt down. Slowly, I lowered my hands until the sphere touched the corner of the brick. Light traveled over its surface as if it had been infected with illumination, covering about a third of the stone, but nothing else was happening. As soon as I pulled back, the light retreated as well.

Not enough energy? Or was the brick too big for the small sphere?

I moved my hands toward a pebble lying nearby, but couldn't manage to move my hands low enough for the sphere to touch it.

Thinking about it, I decided to experiment a bit more. Slowly I separated my hands without strengthening the sphere this time. It stayed between them up to a point until it rapidly snapped to the pointer finger of my left hand.

I moved the hand carefully and the ball moved with it. After applying a bit of concentration I found that I was able to direct the movement of the sphere, making it float around my finger and even away from it.

Once again I lowered my hand and willed the ball to approach the pebble. The second they touched the pebble was covered in light, and after a few short moments, it exploded.

The explosion was tiny, minuscule, and barely made a sound. But I had seen enough.

With a smirk, I got back up on my feet.

I could work with that.