Greg’s eyes snapped open and he sucked in a sharp breath, jumping up to his feet at the same time. His right hand shot up to the back of his head and he grabbed the wires and cables connected to it, ripping them out of their plugs with no care for the harm that might cause.
Only once the connection was severed did the pain assaulting his mind stop.
"Fuck fuck fuck FUCK!!!"
His body, or his Exocore, to be more precise, was on the brink of catching fire. Though he managed to disconnect on time, the damage was already done, leaving him desperate for what little chance he had to minimize it.
As he yelled and cursed, Greg executed several programs and went about fixing the damage done to his Exocore. He then gave several commands to his van, starting its autopilot so it would drive him away from that place.
An ambush of that size couldn’t have been a coincidence. Someone must have noticed his diving attempt and followed him to the hotel’s central processor, waiting until he was done with his job before attacking. They were undoubtedly after the backdoor he had painstakingly created, and since his avatar was destroyed before he could disconnect safely, its key was now in their hands.
Greg had been too focused on the danger posed by the hotel’s security and the Sorcerers guarding Klaus Stahlwölfe that he never considered the chance that someone else might attack him during that dive. He already had a guess as to which faction they belonged to, which is why he felt the desperate need to disappear right away.
"GOD FUCKING DAMN IT!!!"
The van had no passenger seat, with the one behind the steering wheel being much larger than the average. It was facing the back before the enraged land whale sat on it, causing the joints to groan as it turned around.
As he was attempting to infiltrate Blue Ember’s network, Greg chose a nearby parking lot to hide in. The van raced down to the first floor while he opened a messenger app and sent a quick message to Victor, informing him of his failure and that he might have been compromised.
It could be said that the entire heist was done for. Without the backdoor, he wouldn’t be able to get to the central processor. That meant they couldn’t get the layout of the hotel or the mansion on the thirty-seventh floor, nor could they shut down the main AI, overcome the security system, or open any locks.
Trying again later on was out of the question, too. This infiltration attempt took quite a lot, and if his intuition was right, the bunch that attacked him would never give him the chance to make another attempt. But that was something to worry about if he managed to get away.
Instead of going with the bridge connected to the nearby elevated highway, Greg chose to drive down to the ground level and raced through its streets, knowing the traffic would be far less severe. He planned on making use of the complex maze of alleyways and shortcuts to hide his movements and hopefully make it somewhere that would give him a better chance at disappearing before any of his pursuers could catch up.
But that was the thing about hope. Though it promises a better future, it rarely, if ever, delivers on it. Before he could drive a mile from where he was previously parked, something spawned ahead of him and blocked the road. Ice was something one only sees in their drink or on the inside of a fridge, and because of that, it was a little difficult to recognize an entire wall made from it at first sight.
An obstacle was still an obstacle, however, and finding a way around it was Greg’s priority. Deactivating the autopilot with a thought, he grasped the steering wheel, making a 180 and retracing the path he took before rushing into an alleyway he had previously ignored. He cared little about the empty boxes and trash bins he crashed through, but he had to pay attention to the bigger dumpsters, lest he want to crash the van entirely.
The bumpy ride left him bouncing in his seat. It didn’t affect him much, since most of his innards had long since been replaced with bionic implants, but his mind still felt the vibrations and the looming threat of an accident filled with a growing sense of horror.
Another sharp turn brought him into a direct line with the exit only for the light to be snuffed with another pale blue wall. Hitting the brakes, he shifted gears and slammed the gas once more, intending to retreat, but he didn’t move much before the van slammed into something. The feed from the rear view camera showed yet another wall of ice.
Trapped. Just like that, Greg found himself caught between four walls with no route of escape. Something slammed on the front of his ride just then, snapping him out of his momentary daze.
A young man with a handsome face and silver white hair, wearing a blue winter coat and what looked like gray mechanical gauntlets on his arms. His shimmering azure eyes glared through the windshield, sending a chilling wave through the interior of the van. A layer of frost slowly spread from his fingers, and a cloud of white mist seeped from his reddened lips as he exhaled.
Frostbite, one of the heroes active in Edge Valley and part of the superhero team Blizzard Force. Recognizing who he was, Greg knew he had to make his decision right then and there. Sending a command through his NIM, every processor on the van, including the ones inside his body, flared up and overheated in a matter of a single second.
Every piece of data was corrupted with no hope of recovery, and before the same could happen to his NIM, Greg sent a final message to Victor.
The next instant, a wave of cold washed over the entire van, freezing everything it carried. Nothing melted, and nothing exploded, but the damage was already done, and going by the grin on the frozen driver, he still considered it his win even when encased in a frozen shell.