Megavolt sat in a holding cell, Azure watching her through the bars. Her gem couldn't be removed, which meant her powers couldn't be neutralized, which meant Azure had to babysit.
"These cuffs are a little tight." Megavolt said, tilting to the side to show her hands behind her back.
Azure said nothing.
"You know what, you're busy. Allow me."
She made a show of disassembling the cuffs, going so far as to unlink each segment of the chain between them and let them float in the air as she massaged her wrists before reassembling them, this time binding her hands in front of her.
"There, much better."
"Hey, cut that shit out!" The officer who had the misfortune of watching over the holding cells said, and Azure raised her hand to quiet him.
"Don't react. She's not going anywhere, let her play her stupid games."
"Aha! You talked, that means I win my stupid game!"
Azure once again said nothing.
"Anyway, if you want my advice? Zip ties. You can buy them at the dollar store, they're not made of metal. Then all you'd have to worry about is transporting me in any kind of vehicle, the cell itself, me being able to shoot lightning out of my hands, it'd just be a lot safer all around."
"Oh shit."
"I told you to ignore-"
"Not her, come look at this." The officer said, and unmuted the TV in the corner.
"-covered the source of the disturbance, a young woman now traveling on foot further into the city. Citizens are advised to evacuate the area, as we are measuring extreme temperatures exceeding -50 degrees as far as 200 meters from the individual. Under no circumstances should she be approached. The Shining Rangers have been contacted, but have yet to intercept for unknown reasons-"
"Not to uh, tell you your magical business or nothin', but shouldn't you all be dealing with that?"
"Yeah Azure," Said Megavolt, who had left her cell to get a better look at the TV. It was bad, you couldn't see Phoebe through the blizzard surrounding her, but you could see where she had been. The thermal stress warped and cracked her surroundings, and paramedics struggled to keep up with the slew of frostbite victims. "Shouldn't you do something about that?" She added, her innocent smile daring Azure to do anything about it.
Azure took a cigarette from her pocket, held it up to her lips and lit it with a puff of blue flame.
"Hey, you can't-"
Azure glared at the officer.
"...Nevermind."
"Leave us."
"Look lady, I know you're in charge of your magic thing, but-"
"Leave. Now."
"Alright, Jesus." He muttered, and left. "Buncha pissy super-broads telling me how to do my job."
He slammed the door behind him, and Azure huffed.
"I think we can both agree that this-" She jabbed her cigarette towards the TV. "-is a problem."
"Oh, definitely." Megavolt said, wide-eyed and nodding. "Something must be done. But what?"
"I can go get her, take her somewhere she can't hurt anyone."
"Mm, and while you're gone I can keep myself entertained with my new game, 'How fast can I put every gun in this building in its owner's mouth?' It's fun for the whole family."
Azure gritted her teeth. "Fine," She hissed. "I'll send some of the other rangers, they can-"
"You know, I get the feeling she doesn't want to see any of you."
"Goddammit, work with me here."
"I am working with you." Megavolt said, "You think this is bad? This is her walking around. She's probably not even aware she's doing this, the state she must be in. You want to give her a target to focus on, be my guest, but it'll get a lot worse if you do. And that's before I come in, because I promise you if a single Shining Ranger gets close to her I'm tearing this city apart by the foundations."
Azure pinched the bridge of her nose.
"And I presume you think you can fix this."
"This early in the process she's got no control over her powers, she gets upset and her gem goes apeshit." Megavolt said, shrugging. "You let me go, she'll calm down and it'll stop."
"So what, you're saying this is my fault?"
"Now's not the time to assign blame, all I'm saying is that before I was arrested there was a minor weather distortion you couldn't pinpoint the source of, and now there's a zone of frozen death moving through the city."
"You put her up to this-"
"I told her to rest and eat some soup. She's a big girl, she can make her own decisions. Are you going to swallow your pride and let me try to fix the problem, or are you going to whine about how terrible I am?"
Azure sighed.
"Why did I ever let you join my team?" She whined. "I dislike you greatly."
"Let it all out, I'm a captive audience."
Azure was slumped against the wall now, hands covering her face.
"You're such a fucking bitch."
"Mhm."
"Megavolt is a stupid name."
"Ouch."
"Terawatt, it was right there."
"Oh sure, let me just put my social security number in there too. You done?"
"...Yes. Go stop your stupid girlfriend."
"Gladly." Megavolt said, and did not move.
"What are you waiting for? Go."
"I'd love to. But uh," She jingled her handcuffs and clicked her tongue. "Need ya to uncuff me first, boss."
If looks could kill, Azure would have left her a smouldering crater.
Phoebe was cold.
She trudged along through ice and snow, teeth chattering. She had to get to the police station, had to find Tara, but she didn't know where she was and she couldn't see through the blizzard and her head hurt and she was tired and she was cold.
Delirium was setting in. She couldn't hear herself think over the howling wind, or the cacophony of car alarms that seemed to follow her. She didn't know what direction she was going, she just had to keep walking or she would never get Tara back.
"UNIDENTIFIED SUPERHUMAN. HALT AND DISPERSE THE STORM."
Police?
"IF YOU CONTINUE YOUR ADVANCE WE WILL OPEN FIRE."
Police. They had Tara. They had Tara and they were keeping her from her.
She was so cold.
"I REPEAT, STAND DOWN OR WE WILL OPEN FIRE. THIS IS YOUR FINAL WARNING."
They didn't deserve to have Tara.
They didn't deserve to be warm while she suffered.
She reached out and she made that warmth hers, absorbed it into the bottomless pit her heart had become. It soothed her aching body for mere seconds, before the heat drained away again and naught but bitter cold remained.
No further instructions came.
She still felt empty. She kept walking.
It didn't take long for her to come up on the remains of the blockade, a SWAT team perfectly preserved in icy tableau. She toppled an officer and his body shattered, chunks of red sliding away from the impact in a sea of white.
"Fuck," She thought, through the thick fog in her mind. "They could have told me where the police station is."
She approached another officer and pried a radio off him, taking a chunk of clothing and skin with it. With trembling fingers she pressed in the button on the side.
"H-Hello?"
Her voice was hoarse, and the winds nearly drowned her out.
"I... I don't know where I am. I need to get to the police station."
No response.
"You took my girlfriend, I-I need to come rescue her."
Nothing. She dropped the radio and it broke into pieces.
Goddammit she knew where they were holding her, she had been there, if she could just think, if she could just find something to orient herself by in this fucking whiteout.
"Phoebe?"
It was all just so fucking frustrating and the storm was getting worse and she was crying and the tears stung her face as they froze instantly and everything ached and she wanted to stop but she couldn't.
"Phoebe? Phoebe where are you?"
"T-Tara?" She croaked. "Tara!"
"Phoebe!" Tara yelled, and just about bowled Phoebe over with how fast she swooped out of the blinding snow and embraced her. "Oh Phoebe, oh thank god you're okay."
Phoebe just sank into Tara's arms, she was here and she was safe and she was warm.
"I had to come break you out of jail." She murmured into Tara's chest.
"You very much didn't, the idea was I get caught to keep you safe."
"I don't want to be safe, I want you."
"I can see that, babygirl." Tara looked at their surroundings, the blizzard letting up around them revealing the devastation she had wrought. "We need to get out of here, can I carry you?"
"Mhm."
"Okay. Time for us to take a vacation."
Tara opened the door of their motel room magnetically and tossed a take-out bag at Phoebe, who was sitting on the edge of the bed watching as footage from the fourth day of efforts to undo the damage she had done played on the TV.
"Did I really do all of that?"
"Yes, try not to dwell on it. I shouldn't have left you alone."
"I don't remember this at all." Phoebe said, unpacking her meal. "I remember you leaving, and I remember you getting caught, and then it's all a blur until we got here."
"Yeah, first few days are like that. Incredibly volatile and disoriented as you get used to being a conduit of evil."
"I don't feel especially evil. I mean, I want to destroy the Shining Rangers-"
"Obviously."
"-but I kinda feel like I've wanted to do that for a while? And now I'm just, okay with that being what I want."
"Some would say that's what makes us evil."
"I would say that magic gems are very stupid and I should have become a Kitten Crusader." She gestured at the screen. "What the fuck happened there?"
"Oh, that's where they sicced the swat team on you. I dunno what you did to them, but you did it to that entire zip code. They're still working on thawing out the ground so they can replace the water lines."
"I... Vaguely recall a swat team?"
"Do you recall chunking a guy? Because there's a guy who is chunks now."
".....He was in my way?"
"I'm not complaining, how many girls can say their girlfriend chunked a guy for them?"
"Please stop talking about chunks while we eat."
"All I'm saying is that I understand that your horrifying force of nature rampage came from a very loving place, you don't have to beat yourself up over it."
"Oh, I'm not." Phoebe said, levitating the ice cubes out of her drink and melting them, reforming them into a sharp icicle that she then flung into a cardboard target. "This is sick, I'm going to kick some Shining Ranger ass when we get back."
"That's my girl."
