Blazing Heat (Open)

From nowhere, the fire seemed to extinguish, the place where the flames had once been occupied only by a small trail of ice, and a man wearing blue-and-black garb, with a black hood and blue mask. Vapour literally wafted off of the man's person as the flames licked at him, the only protection from the heat being a thin layer of ice which seemed to reappear as it evaporated.

The ninja, Tundra, looked down at the wannabe hero and huffed, a burst of air billowing from his mask as he did so. "Pathetic." The man said frankly before firing another blast at the beam which Cross had held up, quelling those flames as well and leaving it nothing more than a log of frozen wood and charcoal. Pumping his foot forcefully towards the construct-piece, the object shattered under the force of his strike and relieved Phantom of the weight.

With a roar of intensity, another blast of cold emanated from the man as he pumped both arms outwards, and a number of the flames, but not the totality of the inferno, nearby receded to nothing more than weak flickers. Heading towards a destination where he knew there were several, mutant, civilians, the man began to make his way through.

One specific mutant he located, a small rat-like man, had set Cerebra off quite some time before. He wasn't the individual that had set the mutant-tracker off, the disgusting little creature had been active for years, this fire was caused by a recent activation, likely something that was happening for the first time. Blasting a few stray blazes as he strode through the burning building, the small man stumbling out and scrambling to the nearest safe way out, Tundra's ears picked up the petulant rookie from before, evidently calling to him.

Turning towards the source of the call, Tundra walked forward, eventually reaching the word with the kid inside. Covered in flames, the man chuckled internally, noting the irony of the situation. But then again, an undeveloped kid like this wasn't likely to be able to overpower him, especially given the magnitude of his powers, and the skill with which he'd mastered them over the last two decades. Making his cryonic armour more dense, and thick, with a single thought, Tundra felt his body cool, though still extremely uncomfortable given the nature of the fact that they were surrounded by heat.

Tundra loosed a powerful blast, initially wavering in the air before the child, before being focused into something more strongly resembling a beam, blasting the child in the face, and encasing his head in small layer of frost, before travelling downwards and actually putting the boy in a full block of solid water around his body. Immediately, though, steam began to waft off the kid, much like it did the ninja, as his heat began to immediately evaporate the ice, even with the extinguished flames on his person. Hypothermia would be likely, but Tundra made sure not to actually freeze any part of the boy, but simply surround him in the lower temperature, and possibly give him a chance to "cool off".

By the time the ice had disappeared completely, the boy still had several flames lingering on his clothes, but was too busy shivering with the cold to be upset any longer, that with the fact that his internal temperature had dropped to roughly 94 degrees, from the previous, much higher, value. Stepping forward, Tundra picked the boy up and immediately ran into a wall of flame, which gave way to a busted window.

Shattering the glass pane even further than it already had been, and the two now found themselves in free-fall, as the fire-escape which Tundra had been expecting to land on, was completely absent.

"Fuck...." The man muttered to himself, already charging his body with chi, and creating ice from underneath his feet, making sure to generate small shard-lets, making something akin to a thick snow. As the two plummeted to the ground, they eventually hit the concrete, boy in arms as they landed into a small bank of frozen water and air. To the on-lookers, though, it wasn't extremely clear what precisely had happened, if they had survived, or if the snow had provided insufficient padding.

Tundra landed comfortably in the dune of snow, cushioned from any fatal, or even dangerous amounts, of force via the collection of frozen water droplets. Of course, it did knock the man out for a short time, before his eyes flew open, and the cryomancer blasted an exit from the snow. White chi coming off of him, the mutant looked around to seeing bystanders attempting to dig, and even the pathetic idiot from before, "tch." The man made a sound of distaste, and picked up the child.

Throwing the unconscious boy over his shoulder, the ninja stepped away, not engaging with anyone from the crowd. Upon the approach of the child's human parents, Tundra promptly threw a fist to the man's throat, which sent him collapsing to the ground, and a kick to the mother's stomach forced her next to her husband, doubled over in pain. "Do not touch me, human trash." The mutant instructed coldly, stepping past the pair nonchalantly as he made his way towards a steel-blue motor-bike that he'd taken "on loan" from a bystander that was near the Brotherhood's compound upon Tundra's exit.

That was the lovely part about lifting a target during some sort of disaster, it was almost impossible for most passerby to notice you as you went. And due to this "New Age" of heroism, the police failed to even question a colourfully-costumed man such as himself carrying the child while on a motor-bike, assuming him to be a small-time do-gooder likely taking the kid home. So as he went through the streets, the man spent more effort paying attention to the flow of traffic, so that there was no need to be pulled over and questioned, than to his surroundings, a surprising lapse of judgement on his own part.

But when he felt the strike to his rear wheel, it only took a brief glance and some clear logic to understand that the functionality of the transport had been sabotaged. For any typical driver, this would mean a disastrous wreck. fortunately for the child, Trevor, Tundra was no ordinary man.

As if he'd practised the moves a million times each, Rand hopped from his seated position, to a standing one, on the bike. Managing to maintain the balance briefly, Tundra stepped down from the vehicle, as if he were walking down a staircase, before the motorcycle flipped and landed on top of a cab that had been stopped in front of it.

Still carrying the child, he ignored the "clever" quip, and simply shot back, "Not a very experienced hero yet, are we, boy?" Clearly the other mutant wanted a fight, and while it may have been time-consuming, there wasn't anything Jon would do to turn it down. Deliberately, he strutted towards a nearby street-lamp. Pressing the boy to the pole, he froze the back of the child's shirt, and pants to the fixture, and gave him two small chunks of ice to stand on. "I will return momentarily, brother."

Returning his attention to the raven-haired youth, Tundra replied frankly, "Though I do aim to please in my work, I a saddened to inform you, that this boy is now under the protection of The Brotherhood." Of course, referring to the mutant-rights organization, to whom he had been employed for most of his time over the previous year, "And as a result, I cannot allow you to have him, but in the interest of being a good sport, I will allow you one attempt to strike me."

This was a simple mind-game he'd learned when perfecting assassination, and engaging an unknown foe. Frustrate them through mocking, and they will telegraph to a painful degree. And heroes were a very egotistical lot, meaning it didn't usually take much to deeply wound their pride. He was already clearly frustrated, but Tundra wished to see how far that'd go.

Tundra caught the knife effortlessly, not at all fooled by the weak attempt at a distraction, the well-thrown weapon sliding neatly between his fingers, muttering, "What a waste of a first shot." Quickly tossing the knife so that he caught the weapon's handle in his palm, and readied to put it right in the boy's head, as by the time he'd reached the appropriate range for striking, the boy's sword was far from where it needed to be to get in.

Then the boy was suddenly gone. For a fraction of a second, he thought that not only had he somehow missed a stab to the cranium, but that the boy disappeared, before quickly realizing, the brat could phase. Something that could be done by certain practitioners in K'un L'un, Tundra had fought this once, or twice, but had never been particularly good at it. The theory was to usually predict their timing, and outpace them, but that took some familiarity and extended engagement, to learn another person's timing that precisely. But the most pressing matter was his opponent who had gone in for a coup from the rear.

Chi already flowing through him, Tundra redirected it to become faster, spinning in-place, and catching the boy's sword on the smaller weapon. Expecting a short duel at close-range, Rand was surprised that the young man disengaged, throwing a dart at his feet. By freezing his foot to the ground, by simply pumping out chi through said foot, the rope went taught, and proved futile in sabotage of his footing.

The continuing barrage of thrown weapons proved useless, however, as Tundra continued to deflect them with practically no effort. While his movements were clearly trained, and disciplined, they reeked of sloppiness and inexperience, at least when compared to the much older and more masterfully-trained teacher.

Growing tiredof the little show, Tundra broke his boot free from its icy encasing, and sent forth a blast of pure cold, intent on catching the boy in his chest, and pretty much assuring an end to the fight. However, he was a bit quicker than expected, and managed to mostly avoid the blast, only catching his arm. The projection wasn't powerful enough to make his arm a pure block of frozen cells, but it certainly slowed the blood and froze skin, which would certainly have an impact all of its own on his performance.

"Frostbite’s a bitch." He remarked, not bothering to pay any heed to his taunts. Walking forwards, as the boy armed himself with the same trashcan from earlier as a shield, Tundra shook his head once more, "You need not worry what the Brotherhood desires, as we only wish what is best for our people."

From nowhere, the man suddenly was surrounded in an aura of white energy, and he became a blur of motion, aiming a powerful punch with an ice-encased fist for the boy's stomach, preceded by a masterful strike that would knock the shield wide, his movements had the attributes of several martial arts simultaneously, and even at the high speed, one such as Blake would be able to recognize them.

As soon as he saw the boy stab at the tank, Tundra knew what would come next immediately. Focusing his chi onto himself, the man became covered in a thick coating of ice, enhanced by his chi, he could barely move because of the thick armor, but knew that the protection was imperative to surviving the new conditions, and not getting so far away that the hero brat could snatch the boy. Of course, what the hero didn't realize was that heat didn't beat ice, they simply negate eachother.

The explosion was quick, loud, and powerful, just as one would expect from a gas explosion. It felt like an eternity to Tundra, though. Ice cracking filled his ears, as the sudden burst of heat emanated over him, causing several sizable chunks to fall off from melting alone. Fortunately, not much in the way of metal actually hit the man, one loose piece did pierce a fleshy-part of his back, but most of it was caught by remaining, and falling, ice.

As the flames died, there stood a solitary figure, his face and exposed parts of his arms having gained a few blisters from just the heat, while parts of him that were covered also suffered this. White steam seemed to waft off the man as if he were actively projecting the stuff like a smoke machine. Standing up more fully, his body's chi quickly attempting to cool things down, the man began stepping forward. "That is not the concern of common citizens, such as yourself." The cryopath explained, energy charging into his hands, as he readied to finish this fight, once and for all.

But then the noise of sirens came to his ears. Damn! He had maybe several minutes at best before authorities would come, meaning one final attempt was all he'd be able to comfortably take. Tundra chuckled slightly as he said, "It's been fun playing with you, boy, but now is the part where I have to end this little game." Following that up with a powerful blast of ice, this time looking less like vapour, and more as if it were a beam of blue energy. He cut off his supply to the energy prematurely, in order to run alongside the beam, and move towards the small boy. Rand would have made it to, had it not been for a bullet lodging itself into the ground in front of his feet.

"Damn..." The ninja muttered to himself as he saw police having made it, likely having been the ones he'd passed earlier.

With the same high-speed movement he'd used before, Tundra threw himself to the side of a building, evading several more bullets in the process, and using some ice in order to cling to the nearby building. Within milliseconds, however, Tundra kicked off of that wall and made it to a nearby roof, calling down, "You had better watch that child closely, boy, because we WILL have him!"