The man was desperate, anything to get away at this point. The rounds shot off and the first ice clone took the bullet to the chest and turned slightly as it burrowed in before stopping. Nothing happened. It wasn’t the real icemancer, just a clone. Even when one of the bullets hit the X’s armor it stopped before it did anything.

Magic. It was getting ridiculous now. One of the clones dove for Travis and sailed right over as the man slide off to the side. A beam of blue was shot from the real icemancer as he charged eyeing the blade the man was wielding. He had to assume he couldn’t get touched with that either.

Sveta ducked behind the bench in between all of them dodging the bullets. Good, meant if he had to he could get another boost. Ten minutes left, the mental timer was telling him to pick it up a bit.

>>>”Stand down! I’m NYPD and that is an order!”

Everything this man was saying was just adding to the beating Sam was itching to give him. The icemancer was already skeptical of police officers. Even if he worked with them, for them. Even if he saved their lives. This was always a fear of his. He was saving an ***hole like this.

The air around them got colder. Two hands of blue rose and shot a beam of ice behind Travis. A wall of ice spikes exploded upwards from the ground. The message was clear. No escape and no collateral damage. The wall also happened to push some of the onlookers back and giving them some sort of protection from the officer who was firing hipshots.

There was another knife. ”Make me!”

Sam was already in the air though, one of the clones hefted him into the air as he was going in with a flying kick to the man’s chest. One of the other clones was performing a slide tackle of his own aiming low.

It would be a severe understatement to say things were going poorly for Sam. Sveta was yelling and running and icemen were all over the place making his ensorcelled bullets moot.

Before Sam could fire another volley of magic bullets, one of the icemen fired beams of power that sprouted a wall of ice spikes behind Sam.

”Shit…” Sam breathed as he fired at one of the icemen before diving and sliding forward under the flying kick from one of the other icemen. As he slid under Sam lanced out the knife. It was angled to catch and use the force of Sam and the iceman’s opposite movements to drive home. Sam being ready to release it once it was in.

It was his fault. Everything was his fault. He should have just blasted the guy with an ice beam and not even given Svetlana a chance for dialogue. He was rushing this now and the second the man ducked under him he saw the blade dig into the ice. It wasn’t much but with the momentum of both of them there was enough.

The tip of the blade penetrated the icemancer’s flesh and Sam, the X-man dropped to the ground after a bright flash. His vision faded and he felt like his body was being tortured again with electricity. His body locked up and started to seize on the ground. His armor cracked and broke in some points as shards of ice shot up around the downed fighter. Teeth rattled and the temperature around them dropped further and rapidly as Sam started losing control of himself along with his powers that were amplified by Sveta not long before.

The clones however looked to each other, nodded and both ran into action. The first one got up from missing Travis ran over to the icemanacer and tried to pin him to the ground while the other ran in the direction of Svetlana. “Run” was all it said as it tried to stand in between the icemancer and his vigilante friend.

Both clones were acting independently from Sam who was still seizing on the ground. Spikes of ice shot up around him every time his hands or feet flailed. The clone pressed down trying to prevent more movement. Not the best thing to do with someone seizing but they both knew what the icemancer would have wanted. His powers out of control meant he was a danger. If it proceeded too long they knew what to do.

"Dammit!" With Steel's powers in full swing, and Travis doing his sliding trick, Sveta had no clear shot. She had no qualms about shooting the man at this point without trying further diplomacy, but she did not want to miss and hit either Steel or a bystander. Which they still had, because people were dumb. At least the ice wall cut off their view, and made them back up. Sveta did not need any of this live streamed.

And then Travis got a hit in with a knife, and Steel went down. He looked seriously hurt, seizing, powers out of control. Sveta's stomach dropped. Sh*t. An ice clone told her to run, blocking her from Travis' view.

"Oh hell no!" she protested, stepping out from behind the clone, aiming a shot at Travis.

The knife caught and drove in. Sam released in and continued his slide. A few yards past Cold Steel, Sam threw himself back to his feet. A quick scan to see where Sveta and the other icemen were. One was headed toward the one that was downed and having a tonic-clonic. Must have been the real Cold Steel. The other was running for Sveta.

Sam brought up his pistol with one hand and reached for a magazine with the other. As he brought the magazine toward the gun to swap, he noticed Sveta had sidestepped the iceman and had her pistol brought to bear. Sam swore as one magazine dropped from the pistol.

Missing the grab, Sam threw himself to the side and slid. It carried him several yards quickly where he sprang back up, slamming the new magazine home. He fired the first shot, toward Sveta and a few at the seizing iceman before running. The first was magic to mitigate powers. The follow up rounds were from a magazine with regular gold dot hollow points.

Sam had hoped he could use the seizure to break through the ice and then hit Cold Steel with a power restraining round but Sveta was making it difficult. As usual.

“Run!” the clone said again as Svetlana moved around it to return fire at Travis. It was a shootout now. People, the sane ones ran as soon as the shots were fired a few stayed to record the show.

The temperature fluctuations continued as Sam seized on the ground. The clone next to him held him down best it could as it was protecting him from Travis. Who shot some bullets in their direction.

Nothing should be getting close, spikes of ice rose and fell each time his hand twitched. He was out of control. It was random and unpredictable. His teeth clenched as his eye fluttered all over the place.

”Daddy!” the sound of his little girl screaming for help as he was being held back. Images of his house burning and him being powerless to stop it losing the only family he had ever made his own. A frozen tear flickered down Sam’s face as he was seeing images he did his best to repress and forget. He failed them as well.

“Stop!” the clone on top of the icemancer shouted in Sam’s gruff voice. It was a warning to all who were near and to the icemancer himself. A blade of ice formed in one of it’s hands ready to stab the X-leader if it continued. They didn’t want to hurt anyone. No one except Travis.

Sveta felt the shot hit home and she stumbled, hand instinctively going to her mid-section where she'd felt the impact. Shit. No blood was visible. She had been over and over her previous encounters with Travis in her head in the past days. The bullet had to be magic. She felt her familiar coffee buzz ebbing away.

Power dampener.

"F*** you Travis!" she reiterated, seeing Sam seizing on the ground. With her powers shut down, she could have gone to help him, but the ice spikes prevented her. "What the f*** have you done to him?!"

Sam was booking it. Everything had gone poorly and his management of Cold Steel had created a dangerous environment. For everyone. Cold STeel—to his credit—was trying to keep the innocent people away. Sam didn’t want them to get caught in the crossfire but there wasn’t much he could do. The iceman had chosen violence. Any injuries were his fault.

Doging a spike of ice as he moved to get away from the park, Sam could hear Sveta yelling behind him.

”He attacked first. I simply stopped him.” Sam called as he stepped onto the pavement. ”Think of it as an upgraded taser.”

Sam quickly checked his phone and then looked past the crowd of looky-loos. There, a portal had opened. Wasting no time, Sam shoved a man out his way and dove for the portal.

The flashes of history, the future, the life not actually lived. He failed them. He wouldn't fail those here. He was here for Iris, for Gawain/Maya, for Becca. This man hurt his family. he wouldn't get another chance. if he wasn't coming willingly the icemancer was willing to break him. To show all what happens when someone comes after someone he cares about. 'Fight it!' he thought to himself. His thoughts jumbled; his body ached but he was alive he had to fight it.

Teeth clenched. His eye focused. A low grunt exited as the clone got off him and moved back slowly. Bladed hand still at the ready if he couldn’t regain control. More spikes of ice erupted around him though instead of a steep angle ready to puncture anything around him they started to aim upwards. His hand flailed then turned into a fist. His whole body tensed as he fought the effects of the magic that was causing this. Magic... he hated it so much.

The spikes started to slow as they shot out of the ground, they started to shrink in size as they protruded from the ground. He was still fighting it when the clone moved closer, it’s bladed hand now a now a fist. Sam had enough sense to recognize the intent. They both knew he was fighting it. Trying to beat it. He didn’t think he could. ”Do it!” he said through clenched teeth. His muscles tense relaxed after the clone punched Sam right in the forehead knocking the icemancer out.

The clone stood at the ready looking around while the second clone was still pushing people away still saying, “Run!”