Chapter 15
June sprinted around the circle of the sparring room, throwing punches at Pop Starsicle’s glacier golems. She knew she had to keep moving to keep her body temperature up, but Pop was creating snowy soldiers faster than June could destroy them. And the room was growing colder.
Ironically, the upbeat pop song that Starsicle sang motivated Skyrocket to keep up her pace. It also kept her mood up. The ice army could have easily overwhelmed June physically and emotionally, but every time Pop Starsicle hit the chorus, June couldn’t help but smile a little and move to the beat. Maybe the songstress had made a mistake choosing this dance bop to sing rather than some break-up ballad.
As she listened to Pop Starsicle’s sickeningly sweet voice, June formulated a plan to fight through dozens of minions to get to the center of the sparring circle where her adversary stood. She wished she could generate enough heat to shift into fireworks completely, but Pop’s thermal control was just too powerful, so it was going to be slow going.
June reconsidered. Just because shifting was her best option didn’t mean it was her only option. Sometimes, the fastest way between two points really is a straight line. June rushed to the middle of the circle, but as she neared, a giant ice foot stomped in, disrupting her path. She looked up to see where this massive frost boot had come from, and as expected, it was Pop Starsicle, now enclosed in a giant mech suit made entirely of ice and holding an enormous broadsword. This fight had become David versus Goliath if Goliath had had an army of warriors that felt no pain and could be resurrected with the snap of a finger.
***
A twelve year old June-Bug stood bound, once again, in front of her mother. “Mooooom. Come on! Give me a hint. We’ve been doing this ‘come at me’ thing for over a month now, and aren’t getting anywhere.
Teaching her daughter perseverance and strategic thinking was one thing, but Summerset felt the effectiveness of the lesson waning the longer it took June to figure out what to do. “Jax!” She called her son. “Come to the gym for a minute, will you?” Summerset knew that as much as Jax hated these training sessions, his curiosity meant that he never strayed too far from the gym during these precious after-school hours. So it only took a minute for the young man to stride in, pop tart in mouth and headphones on with an inquisitive look on his face.
“Whaayou’ant?” he asked, mouth full of crumbly cookie and brown sugar.
“Don’t talk with your mouth full, sweetie. And your sister needs some help. She’s tied up, alone,” she stressed that word to let Jax know he was to give advice, not physically help his sister. “And she needs to figure out a way to stop her attacker from harming her further.”
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Jax walked over and whispered something in June’s ear. After a few seconds, June’s face lit up! Jax stepped away to watch.
Summerset took her place just out of her daughter’s physical reach and said the magic words, “Come at me.”
June did nothing. If one were hyper-aware, they might have noticed her kicks begin to glow mildly, but other than that, nothing. That was until Summerset took a step closer to the young meta…
***
June knew that everyone had a weakness. And right now, Pop’s was obvious. While her golems could move relatively quickly, they were also easily defeated. Also, in the giant ice armor, Pop Starsicle was much slower than June, who was now ready to move onto phase two of her plan.
“Hey, Popsicle! Ever play a game of whack-a-mole where the mole kicked your ass?” she shouted right before starting some truly impressive footwork and throwing powerful explosive jabs at the ice-mech’s ankles. June figured that Pop Starsicle wouldn’t be able to generate as many golems if she was busy using her thermal powers to rebuild the armor. June deftly dodged the sloppy broadsword stabs from above. Seeing the giant weapon chipping small divots out of the concrete floor, June was careful not to allow even a glancing blow. If Pop connected on just one of her broadsword attacks, it would be game over. The problem was, for June’s plan to work, she was going to need to take a hit of some sort.
This issue solved itself, as an ice golem got in a lucky blow from behind. Feeling the contact, June hit the ground like a soccer player in the penalty area. She played dead for a few beats, waiting for Pop to get into a more defensive stance, and then stood up slowly with her hands above her head in the ubiquitous “surrender” stance. “Yo, Pop! You’re gonna have to freeze me solid to end this fight because no matter what you throw at me, I’ll always get back up.”
“In that case…” Pop Starsicle began a sustained whistle note, freezing June in a solid block of ice, not noticing that as she did so, June’s shoes were emitting a small glow.
After encasing her in an impressive layer of ice, Pop felt pretty secure in the fact that Skyrocket wouldn’t be able to escape. She stopped singing, leaped down from her ice mech, and slowly approached her frozen opponent.
“You know, I was on American Sensations a few seasons back. I didn’t win, but I learned an important lesson.” Pop took a few steps closer so that June could hear her clearly through the foot of ice she was wrapped in and looked her dead in the eyes. “You see, Skyrocket, in competitions like this, it isn’t the most well-trained, or the most prepared, or the best singer, or fighter, that wins. It comes down to one thing.” At this point, Pop Starsicle was mere inches from June’s face. “Star power!”
With her opponent’s guard down, June seized her chance and unleashed the explosive energy that had been building up in the divot below her feet, launching her forward like, well, a rocket. She drove herself and the glacier that surrounded her, like a hammer, straight into Pop Starsicle, pushing her across the room and pinning her against the wall. They both fell to the floor, June smiling smugly in her block of ice and Pop Starsicle unconscious, having been knocked out by the force of the attack.