Sliced Bread 2: The Greatest Thing Since Sliced Bread

Maybe I was zonked from being encased in ice, but I couldn't help thinking that I already knew how this was going to play out. I wasn't even scared when Nefario's goons pointed their guns at me. I knew, knew, that Greyghost and Cassie were about to show up and save everybody. I didn't have any basis for knowing this, of course, but I was convinced of it nevertheless.

And I was right. They were just about to pull the triggers on me when the air filled with silver bolts. Nefario's men dropped like flies and there were a couple of big splashes as hovercrafts hit the drink. As Cassie cleared up all the cannon fodder, Greyghost, from nowhere, snagged Nefario with some kind of line from his grappling-hook gun and yanked him back down to earth.

So of course there was a big fight between Greyghost and Nefario. And it was a pretty apocalyptic fight. Or it should have been. I had a hard time watching it, for one thing; I couldn't turn my head and my ice floe kept bobbing in the wrong direction. But, again, I knew Greyghost was going to win anyway.

So what was going on here? Either a) I was getting jaded, b) I was psychic, or c) I was on to something weird. And not for the first time. I was so busy thinking about this I hardly even noticed when Cassie melted me out of the iceberg. I still don't know what to think about it all. But I don't like it.

Not that I got anywhere near the door. Prowl grabbed me and said, "Oh, no. You can't just turn loose a supervillain and hide under a rock. Get on your spy phone and call for help; I'm not facing Nefario alone."

So I did. I was already feeling bad by that time anyway. Nobody picked up their penphones, but I left a bunch of messages with various superheroes explaining the situation. Or the important parts of the situation, anyway, like the fact that Claudia Calhoun was still alive. Meanwhile, Calhoun was on her phone talking to some people from the Table, telling them, I guess, to be on the lookout themselves.'

"They say if we can get to their lab on Horan Island we ought to be all right," Calhoun volunteered after hanging up.

"We can do that," Prowl said. "Let's go now. We can let Nefario and the cavalry fight over an empty apartment." And the three of us headed out. I was toying with the idea of trying to ditch them, but a) I didn't think I could pull it off, and b) I kind of felt guilty anyway. But still mad.

So we were half-walking, half-running down the street (nobody had a car) when Icecap swooped down from four-o'-clock-high. "What's the plan?" he called down, hovering.

"Can you give us a ride to Horan Island?"

He dipped lower. "Hop on."

Calhoun climbed on the back, gingerly, and Prowl turned into a cat and leapt up onto the front. I looked for a place where I'd fit, but it really wasn't much bigger than a motorcycle and there were already about 2.2 people riding it.

"Why is he coming?" Icecap said.

"He was the one who tipped Nefario off," Calhoun said.

Icecap's eyes widened, and he said, with some satisfaction, "Well, we don't want him running around loose, then, do we?" and gestured at me.

Then everything went blue and blurry and erratic. I knew, on some level, that he had just encased me in ice, but it was hard to think about anything. One thing that surprised me was that it wasn't cold.

I could tell that Icecap did something to tow my personal berg behind the Icycle, and I remember us getting to the water, somehow, and then I missed a bunch of details. Obviously that's when Nefario and his guys attacked, and some of the ice was blasted off me, and I wound up bobbing in the water.

When my vision cleared, Claudia Calhoun was clinging to a floe about ten feet from me, and Prowl and Icecap were having a dogfight with a couple of Nefario's hovercrafts. One of the hovercrafts looped down low, towards us, and kicked up a lot of spray as a couple of guys hung over the side, grabbing for Calhoun. I couldn't move.

A giant icebolt from above turned this entire section of harbor into one big mass of ice, encasing the low-flying hovercraft. The men aboard jumped out onto the ice and surrounded Calhoun and me.

From a nearby quay, Nefario, a tall white-haired man, stepped up into the air on a column of golden light and gestured at the Icycle. It fell apart, and Icecap plummeted flailing into the water.

Prowl, flying a stolen hovercraft, aimed directly for Nefario, kamikaze style. He easily floated up out of the way and whirled to kick her as she went by. He probably would have taken her head off if she hadn't changed into a cat and abandoned ship.

The guys who had Claudia Calhoun surrounded were signaling for another hovercraft to come down and pick everyone up. The ones guarding me had given up on chipping me out of the ice and were raising their rifles to finish me off.

"You guys obviously don't know how this is supposed to go," I said through a faceful of ice.