My excuses made, I fast walk away from the soon-to-be-hole where Saurian is once again drilling into the wall with her claws. Her attention thankfully focused away from me as she just grunts to signal that she’s heard and approves. Even that however is enough to have my heart skip a beat and quicken my already fast pace away from the pair. Eyes glancing quickly away from where Stig is cracking open the top of the metal crate to start pulling out a series of tiny silver canisters from their foam packaging. The ends of each covered in yellow and black tape that he peels off to start pouring powder into the newly made holes.

  My fingers are still shaking slightly as I reach out to press a hand against the cold metal of the Verti-bird’s side. Anger doing a good job of combating the spike of artificial fear but not helping me to think any clearer as I consider how to go about Pocketing what must be several thousand kilograms of weight. The ‘switch’ somewhere sideways of my head that lets me know when I’m trying to Pocket something not covered still solidly ‘lit’.

  ‘I’m going to need a lot of sheets…’

  “Hey. You need any help with this?” I almost don’t bother to glance back at the sound of Schiz’ voice. My teeth already grit painfully tight with the expectation of more bullshit, or more chances for me to look like an idiot. Only the reminder that I need to make new contacts if I ever want to stop being at the mercy of people like Rosch convinces me to not just brush her off with the minimum effort.

  Still, even with just one and a half short conversations between us, I can already say I don’t really want to have another with the girl who stole my friends face. That seeing Amelia forced me to remember all the problems that dad, and by extension I’ve, caused her might also be part of it. I don’t bother to hide my deep sigh, nor force myself to wear another fake smile, as I turn around to shoo off the girl who almost gave me a panic attack on first arriving here and then followed up with a guilt trip I’m still trying to ignore.

  However, that one glance is all I need to know that something has changed. She’s still wearing the ruined suit, odd given I know Saurian’s been able to leave and should’ve had plenty of chances to bring new clothes back, and no new hallucination has given her a friend’s face. No, instead she is wearing makeup to cover the worst of her injuries and has her hair done up in a sensible braid affixed with clips. Yet, the most immediate change is in her eyes.

  The constant shifting of her focus, accompanied by twitches of emotions without a cause, is gone. Replaced with a steady eyed firmness that has my shoulders tensing from the unexpected shift. Her cheeks pulled up into an almost smile I can tell is taking some effort to produce.

  If she didn’t look mostly the same, I could swear this is a different girl entirely.

  “You have an idea?”

  “Would seeing it as something smaller help?”

  “…Probably not.” I have to swallow down my disquiet at her sudden change in attitude before I can answer. Unsure if I even want to continue the conversation and already bracing for my senses to shift. Nothing happens and I feel a little silly as I watch Schiz take a long drink from the bottle of water she’s holding. Her eyes sliding slowly from my face as she turns to stare steadily up at the Verti-bird. Her expression still showing no sign of the constant eye movements or unpredictable moods from earlier.

  ‘Contacts Millie, contacts.’

  “Can you make me see it as something smaller anyway?”

  “Yes, I can do that.”

  My senses swim and the Verti-bird is suddenly a much smaller version of itself. So small I feel certain I should be able to reach down and put it directly into my jacket without any need of my Power. I try to do just that and immediately bang my head against the side of the still very much there vehicle now mostly invisible in front of me. I had been trying to avoid it but, clearly, my spatial-awareness isn’t quite as good as I thought.

  “Sorry.” I wave off the monotone apology from Schiz and get down on my knees to reach out and cover the miniature Verti-bird. From this angle, I can better see the vehicle’s nose where a person shaped dent has been punched deep into the metal. The position and size tickling something in the back of my head that I don’t have time to consider as I try to Pocket the vehicle.

  “No, I can imagine- see myself covering it up but it’s not helping me to Pocket it.” I back up slowly before standing back up, still not entirely sure where the ‘bird is and so moving back until I’m next to the dully staring villain. Schiz blinking rapidly as my senses swim again and the world returns back to normal while she raises a hand to rub at her eyes.

  “Do you really need to cover it?”

  “I always have before. I… can’t Pocket things when they’re being watched. I have a lot of sheets, towels and some old curtains in my Pocket. Can you give me a hand to cover this thing?” I don’t really want to give up more of my Power’s particulars to these people, especially when Rosch has already given them just about everything else, but I do need help with this. Honestly, I might not even have enough to hide it and so I’m expecting that we’ll have to use the sheets from the crew’s sleeping area to get this done.

  ‘Plus, I have school in a few hours and there’s no way I can get this covered in time if I don’t have help.’

  “Hmm, Flipsides looking at the door and the boss has her eyes closed. I’ll turn around and then you try it.”

  “That won’t-” I cut myself off as I see Schiz has already turned around. Not bothering to hold in another sigh at how bad these three all seem to be at communicating, I step forward to place my hand against the Verti-birds side. I’d love it if all I needed was for no one to be looking to put things into or take them from my Pocket. It would make my lacklustre Power a lot stronger. Especially at night. Thoughts over that had been the idea behind why I’d made so many of my knock-off smoke bombs. Unfortunately, as I press my hand against the cold steel of the vehicles side, I feel no change from before. Even closing my own eyes for a moment just to check makes no difference to my Power. Just like usual.

  “No. It needs to be covered. Still want to help? I think you’ll need to climb over the top to get it all.” I hold in the sigh this time. My Power’s limitations are hardly anyone else’s fault and I’m, mostly, over the frustrations that I didn’t get a truly game changing ability.

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  “Alright.”

  It takes the rest of the hour to get the Verti-bird covered. The two of us working separately at first but increasingly together as we first strip away the plants and clods of dirt caught in its gear so as to get the weight down. Then struggling to get the ramp closed before then struggling more to get it to stay closed as the vehicle lacks any power and the mechanism is designed to get stuck open if power fails. Eventually, we use some extra climbing rope I had in my Pocket and soon have the ramp tied to something inside to keep it shut.

  The sword, unfortunately, I have to leave. The gleaming slab of what I think might just be meta-material too well jammed into the engine for Schiz to get out alone. After that, it’s just a matter of positioning the many curtains, sheets and towels I’ve acquired over the last month or so. My own Pocketed coverings not being enough after all and so we have to take apart the living area the crew have been using. Getting the two extra curtains we now have access to over the top being a frustrating process of repeated failures before I remember that I have a number of poles, or pole-like items, in my Pocket that we can use to help. Even then, without our meta-boosted strength to help it would’ve been impossible unless I was willing to climb on top or ask Saurian for help.

  However, with the closing and actual locking of the ramp, after it had fallen a few times, the Verti-bird is finally fully covered. Both Schiz and I pausing a moment to catch our breath or wipe away the worst of the sweat that’s built up from the last half hour or so of hard work. The moment passing in a shared silence only broken by the sound of Saurian drilling more holes into the wall while our own breathing slowly becomes less embarrassingly laboured. The last few days of bedrest, and the month or so of reduced activity beforehand, have been good for recovering but I can’t afford to let myself get out of shape given the line of work I’m now involved in.

  ‘If only I didn’t have to worry about hurting her, I could ask Lilly to teach me a little of how to fight.’

  An ominous creak from the ramp knocks me out of my thoughts and ruins the peaceful moment. My hand reaching down to help pull Schiz to her feet from where she’s still sitting directly in the path of where it would fall. Together, we stumble away with the full expectation that our kludged together solution for the ramp lock is about to fail and slam the few tonnes of metal down onto our toes.

  Thankfully, we’re wrong.

  My own sigh of relief is mirrored from beside me as the creaking comes to a stop and the ramp remains in place. The noise having the two of us glance at each other with a shared grin for the synchronised reaction.

  “Thanks, I really don’t thi-”

  I don’t get to finish my tired thanks before I see Schiz’ eyes widen with fear as she jerks away from my hand with a yelp. A full-body flinch going through the taller girl as her eyes again slide to something just right of my face. My own reaction, first catching myself from a fall and then drawing my axe, cut off as she suddenly calms down. Any signs of fear erased as I watch her freckled cheeks redden while she clenches her teeth and, after a few attempts, refocus on my eyes.

  “Is this enough? We still have the sleeping bags we could rip open but I think every part is covered, right?”

  “…I’ll check.” There’s a long pause before I answer. If not for my meta-reflexes and toughness, as well as my gymnastic training, I’d probably have been knocked over and badly bruised by her sudden movement. The reminder of how she’d acted earlier, and that I have my own problems, making me hesitate to demand an explanation as I instead search her face for any further signs of unpredictability.

  ‘Contacts and creds Millie. That’s all I need out of this. Contacts and creds, no new disasters.’

  Casually, doing my best not to think too hard about what I’ll do if this still doesn’t work, I reach my hand under the nearest sheet to brush up against the Verti-birds side. My smile splitting wider as I immediately feel that I can Pocket it now. Aware of the school bell always approaching, and somewhat irrationally worried that my Power might change its mind, I do so at once.

  Immediately, I realise I’ve made a terrible mistake. I’d thought I could power through the cold. That, at worst, I’d need some time wrapped under a blanket with the heat pads from my Pocket. I’d been an idiot. The cold does not rush up from my hand or spike into my core. It does not flow over me like a frozen sea or crash into my mind like a hale of frozen waste-water. No, the cold that fills every inch of my collapsing body is too great and too sudden for my mind to ascribe any sense of movement to its appearance. The closest my thoughts can assign, in the brief moment before they start to shut down, is the one I’ve just been through and which, technically, does not involve any movement at all.

  I breathe out sweaty exertion and suck down a teleported blizzard of ice that burns my lungs and pulls a total blackness across my sight and mind.

  “-iz! What happened?”

  “I don’t know! She just fell over after taking the ’bird! She- she’s ice cold!” Schiz’ voice has little of the monotone or frustration of before. Tone panicked and flighty as I return to something close to awareness. Barely able to feel my own skin let alone the burning touch of her hands as she tries to slide my rigid body up off the floor. Trying and failing to balance my literally frozen stiff form onto her lap while she pats me down for some sign of injury. My vision still a tunnel of blackened edges as I struggle to follow the conversation going on above me. Watching but not really seeing her head whip back and forth between me and the direction of Saurian’s approaching steps.

  “She did say she might need time to recover.” Flipside’s accent does a lot to pull me out of the stupor overreaching my power has dropped me in. A flame of anger, both at Ceylon and the boys own curtness, restoring some will back into my frame. Only enough to let me curl up into a tight ball though. Each movement feeling like trying to run a marathon after waking up from an all-day gym session of all the muscle groups I hate to train.

  “She’s damn near hypothermic.” Scaled fingers barely brush my forehead before pulling away. A guttural snarl in Saurian’s voice as I sense more than see her looming over me.

  “Wrap her in everything we have. I’ll put her by the fan. Flipside, see if you can get any extra out of them. It’s fine if they break.” I’m too frozen to do more than shiver a little harder at the burden of her attention. The fear doing little to help me warm up as she carries me quickly over to where the fan is putting out a corona of waste heat from its overclocked servo’s. My instinctive attempt to get away from what I know to be a deep pit leading to a living nightmare stopped in its tracks by the feeling of what must be near every sheet we’d used to cover the ‘bird now being wrapped tight around me. Feeling slowly starts to return to my limbs as my vision ceases to be filled with quite so many black spots. A few minutes pass like this before Saurian speaks again.

  “We cannot afford to waste time. Schiz, make her warm.”

  And, all at once, I am warm. Vision not swimming this time as the fuzzy cold that’s swamped me is pushed back by a sudden and entirely false wave of heat. My teeth still shaking uncontrollably while my goose-bumped skin now prickles painfully from what I’d swear is the warmth of an open fire held just inches from my flesh. My numb muscles trying to relax into the imagined heat but finding themselves still bunched up by a cold I can no longer feel. It’s a special kind of discomfort, almost but not quite agony, only slightly helped by knowing that none of it is real.

  ‘Oh fuck, I’m going to have to take that out as well.’

  “Jacket, you are listening?” The sharp alert of Saurian’s partially transformed attention pulls me from my thoughts and I nod before really understanding what she’d asked. My eyes flicking up to be captured by her yellow slits where she’s crouched down just above me. In my slowly returning peripherals, I can see as her almost entirely transformed back nearly brushes against the rooms ceiling. Thankfully, the false warmth of Schiz’ power doesn’t actually do anything to stop my thoughts from sliding back into the safe and unthinking numbness of near hypothermic shock. Thus, solely because of that, I avoid freaking out from the overwhelming deer-in-headlight sensation that her attention brings.

  “This could have killed you.” That however, does pull my focus back into the moment. Driving away the fog from my mind as some part of me instantly recognises the accuracy of what she’s saying. I don’t think I’m truly going into hypothermic shock, already I can feel myself warming up, but I can’t have been too far off.

  “Electricity is the preferred weapon against us but things like acid or, especially in tech heavy environments where collateral damage is a concern, intense cold is also effective. We are tougher and we heal faster but most of us are not much harder to burn or freeze or suffocate than a human. You understand?”

  I nod.

  “Good. I understand wanting to keep a Power’s details secret but is there anything else that you have not told us but that which we need to know?”

  I go to shake my head, hesitate, then nod.

  “Taking it out will be worse.” My throat is more frozen than dry and I taste blood as something crackles in my chest. Likely whatever moisture had been in my lungs. The pain helps to focus me further and I force myself to pull every heat pad I can from out of my Pocket to help myself warm up faster. The shock of cold that comes as a result barely noticeable besides what I’m already feeling.

  “We will figure something out for that. Now, listen. We will go over what is waiting for us on the door’s other side and our plan to deal with it. Warm up quickly though, for every moment we get closer to dawn is more chance of us all getting caught.”

  best only hope) all set in a steampunk/Sci-fi world then give it a look.