Once we got Jessie out to heal his hand Cold Snap calmed down immensely. I almost immediately regretted that fact, because while he was still helpful (nominally) he also apparently felt comfortable being his normal unbearably smug self. We didn't bring him back to the base, just dragged him out of sight of the tranquilized sleepers just in case, but once we got him to where he was going the smug bastard just sprawled lazily against a tree and acted like he was the one in charge.

He raised an eyebrow challengingly at us. Only Callie and I were questioning him, her being in charge and all, plus we were worried what Cark might do. But Cold Snap wasn't. He wasn't worried about anything. "So you're hoping to get some info on The Prophet from me huh? Well, now that I'm not injured I'm in a better position to bargain from. I'm not against helping you, but I think this little negotiation needs to change tones. Let's see if you can...incentivize me. A little less stick and a little more carrot."

It was impressive really. How stupid he obviously was. His mask was shattered and wed just healed his injuries and now he thought he was somehow the one with the upper hand. It was my turn to raise an eyebrow. "You seem pretty sure we won't do anything else to you. What exactly makes you so certain that you're safe now? I could re burn your hand. Re smash your face. Any number of unpleasant things, knowing how susceptible you are to tactics like that. Seems stupid to be so smug about things."

I almost expected some kind of villain speech from him about how we were heroes and didn't do things like that. Luckily, he wasn't THAT stupid. He knew we would mess him up to get him to talk if needed, heroic cultivators were still cultivators, and there was a certain hunger inherent in that designation that would push most people pretty far. He had another reason, though, and it explained his unbearable smirk. "Hurting me in the heat of battle is one thing, but calculated torture. Let's just say I have some...insurance. Namely my mother. I'm sure you've heard of Frostbite?"

I actually hadn't, I turned to the others, cocking my head to show I was confused. Callie sighed. "She's an E ranker. One of the council members in the local Unity branch. Has a rep for taking care of her own first. Biased as hell. If he's really her kid I can see her trying to cause us problems if we do anything to him. Even if we tried to tell everyone about the Heartrippers I doubt they would believe us given how deeply they're buried. Not with Frostbite shutting everything down to try to make us look like crazy people. Having her as an enemy would make this whole thing much harder."

Cold Snap sneered at us. "That's right. Because in the end you're all just prospective heroes. The higher ups can make things much harder for all of you. Make sure you get assigned to do menial tasks with no reputation gaining potential, strike your name from records and lists. So many ways to make you disappear without even having to life a finger against you directly. So maybe rethink your little strongarm tactic and start making me offers so I don't have a reason to absolutely ruin your lives."

I could have just blown it off. E rank meant she was high enough for Zeke to handle if she came after me. But it wasn't just me, and I could only make so many points a day. I didn't want to effect my friends if I didn't have to. Luckily, we didn't need to really do anything. We just needed to convince Cold Snap we would. Unfortunately for me, he was the kind of delusional little rich boy who genuinely thought he was invincible in his mothers shadow. Unfortunately for HIM, that only applied to people in her sphere of influence.

I turned my head, making a show of looking over at Cark. "Hey Tony, come over here a second?" I called across the clearing and the big bounty hunter lumbered over to stand next to me. "Our new friend was just telling us about his mom, and how powerful she is. She's some big shot in the Unity and he's pretty sure we won't want to offend her. Why don't you introduce yourself to him." We needed to show Cold Snap someone outside his power structure if we wanted to scare him. Unstable bounty hunting pyro with a chip on his shoulder and willing to do anything to find his sister would be perfect.

Cark stared down at him coldly. "My name is Cark. I'm a G ranked bounty hunter from the fifteenth megaplex district." He held up a hand and a white hot ball of flame kindled to life in his cupped palm. "My sister is one of the kids that your 'Prophet' snatched up to train with his little brainwashing skill, and I'd do just about anything to find her. I'm not a member of the Unity. Your mommy can't do shit to me, and even if she could, I wouldn't really care about that fact in either case."

He looked up at me, seemingly checking if I was going to pull him back, and when I didn't he gave Cold Snap a nasty grin. "If you don't tell me what I want to know, I'm going to press this ball of flame into your face. At these temperatures, your flesh will melt like hot wax. It won't be fast, and it will be agonizingly painful, and then when it's done Agria will heal you, and I'll do it again. Every time I'll ask you what you know, and every time you don't tell me I'll melt your face. Until I get bored, and maybe start melting something else."

Cark's eyes were blazing with intensity, rage, and a bit of madness. He's been chasing leads and stewing in worry for weeks, completely incapable of doing anything at all. The frustration and helplessness had been building, along with the anger, and now that he had a chance to both vent that anger and potentially get information on his sister? He really would do pretty much anything. Cold Snap could see it too, because his eyes were wide with terror and he was actually shivering with fear under burning gaze of the incensed pyrokinetic.

I stepped forward and clapped Cold Snap on the shoulder, seemingly ignoring Cark. "But hey, that's not going to be necessary. Tony is just our hired help on this. This is technically part of the hunt, so we don't need to involve him in student business do we? I think you'd much prefer to deal with the two of us. In fact, I think we're all misunderstanding each other. You're a much more helpful person than you let on before I'm betting. How about we all work together and Tony doesn't need to be involved at all?"

Cold Snap swallowed hard. "Sure. Yeah, that sounds...nice. We can work together. I can be helpful. But..." He looked uneasily at Cark. "I don't know how much help I'll be. You knocked out the meat puppets before they saw me go down, especially under that cloud effect, so The Prophet doesn't know exactly, but I was with them and he's aware of it. He'll just assume I got caught too, so any information I have is going to become useless pretty quick." Cark snarled and Cold Snap's eyes widened. "Not that I don't want to help! I do! I just...don't think I'll be able to give you any info you can use."

I chuckled. "Oh don't worry about that. See, that's why we made sure none of the others saw you taken down. Once we finish talking, we're going to let you go. You'll make contact with The Prophet and claim to have escaped, and he'll reassign you based on where he needs you. I assume that since you aren't one of his brainwashed puppets he can't look through your eyes or anything?" That was the biggest hole in this part of the plan. Our understanding of the puppet master's skills were insufficient. We could only hope we'd guessed right.

Luckily Cold Snap nodded in relief. "Yeah, I mean, no, he can't, but yes that's an accurate guess. That might actually work. I would be a great spy, I'd totally make sure he fell into your trap too. And I wouldn't let on that I was working for you either. He'd never know it was coming." I actually believed that for the most part. The bit about him not letting on at least. He seemed like a pretty skilled liar. What I did NOT believe, however, was the part where he said he would work for us. At least not without some incentive.

But I knew how to motivate people like Cold Snap. The same way we'd been doing it. Fear. "Well of course you won't. You're about to tell us detailed information about his plans and secrets. If we don't deal with The Prophet then he would turn his ire on you after this is over, and you would have to deal with Heartrippers trying to kill you. I promise it isn't a pleasant experience at all, and it inspires plenty of healthy paranoia about basically everything and everyone you meet. I wouldn't recommend giving it a try."

Another swallow. "Right. That's...right. I don't know about your sister or anything but I'll definitely make sure to help you take him down. You can count on me." He never took his eyes off Cark, or the white hot fireball still in his hand. "So the plan was simple. Comb the forest with the meat puppets until we found your base and then report. We were ordered not to engage if we could avoid it if we found you in the forest, The Prophet was worried about you getting away before we caught up if we didn't have you pinned down. Do you want me to have him lead me to the other groups se we can take them out one at a time?"

I shook my head. "No. He's here right? He came in person?" Cold Snap hesitated before nodding. "Good, I figured he would. If we hit the other groups one after another he's going to rabbit. We need to get him to where we are, and the fastest way to do that is to tell him. We're going to give him the location of our base and let him converge on us. Do you think he learned anything about our capabilities from that fight?"

Cold Snap didn't even hesitate. "No. That cloud ability was perfectly applied. I had no clue what was going on until you got close. Considering it looked like you just beat them unconscious I can't imagine he was able to pick up any details from the experience. His grasp on their senses is pretty limited. He can ride shotgun in their brains but that comes with all the sensations they feel, so normally he just taps into their hearing or sight. No way he learned any of your abilities or even your numbers from getting thumped in the dark."

I grinned. That was exactly what I wanted to hear. My abilities had improved since he'd seen me fight, not to mention we had two more G rankers than he could possibly account for. It reaffirmed my decision. "You're going to tell him where we are. Claim you escaped and followed us back to our base." We would have scouts in the form of Jessie's ravens out to watch and we could plan accordingly as they approached. It was time for us to finish this Heartripper bullshit once and for all. By the end of the day, I planned to have taken out the puppet master, dismantled the whole operation and gotten back Cark's sister. Then I could focus on the Academy and getting stronger. Just like it should be.