Episode 9: Wreckage in a Winter Wonderland
Part 6
A lone hook was wedged deeply into the thick layer of ice clinging to the jagged cliff. Hanging desperately from the end of it was a furious, furry figure.
“Yo, dat Carter’s gonna pay!” Drums screamed as stabbing pains shot through his arm. It was ironic in a sense: the severing of his hand, caused by none other than Nick Carter himself, was what had saved him from certain death. It was the very hook Dr. Rough had attached in place of his hand that had kept him from tumbling down through the air and landing on the sharp rocks below like their bobsled. His other hand gripped a rock that protruded from the side of the ledge. Snow stuck to the matted Quatchi suit that he wore, weighing him down more as he tried not to shiver from the stinging cold.
“Drums, we are going to make him suffer for all that he’s caused us. It’s just going to take time; I think we underestimated the blond boy wonder. But you will be rewarded,” Dr. Rough replied in soothing tones.
Drums glanced down at his mentor, who was holding on to his legs, his arms wrapped in a death grip around Drums’s knees. Daring to look a little further down, Drums could see Dr. Twitches clinging to Dr. Rough’s shoe. Dressed cutely in a little beanie and scarf that matched the tiny purple sweater he wore, the ferret let out a terrified squeak as he hung on for dear life.
Suddenly, he heard the whir of a helicopter. Drums swore to himself. “Damn, if dat’s da HimTak suckas, we screwed.”
“No…” Dr. Rough replied in awed wonder. “Look…”
The helicopter came into view, hovering above them. The first thing Drums spotted was the silver and purple FANS logo he had come to know well. Then he saw Dr. Rough’s pet penguin, MJ, perched at the top of the ledge. MJ squawked loudly and waved his wing, summoning the helicopter closer. He had a little barrel strapped around his neck and a headpiece over his ear hole.
“Ohh, I gots mad love for dat mutated bird, yo,” Drums murmured as a rope descended from the helicopter. Gripping it tightly with his right hand, he pried his prosthetic hook free of the frozen ground.
Dave Moffatt, triplet of Clint and Bob, pulled the rope up from the open door of the helicopter. Drums, Dr. Rough, and Dr. Twitches breathed a sigh of relief and let themselves be lifted through the air to safety.
As they rose, Dr. Rough finally looked downward, his eyes scanning for any sight of the infuriating Agent Carter.
“It’s not over, Carter… not by a long shot. IT’S. NOT. OVER!!!!”
***
Cold.
Really cold.
Hella fucking cold.
Really annoyingly fucking cold.
Those were the only thoughts that went through Nick’s mind when he blinked and saw nothing but pure white above him. For a moment, his heart felt like it was about to explode with panic.
“Nick?! If you’re there, respond!” Jay’s voice crackled near his head. Nick took as deep a breath as he could in an attempt to calm himself. The voice was only inches away from his ears, where his arm rested beneath the snow.
Must’ve gotten buried by that avalanche. Shitballs! He attempted to move his arms, forcing them through the snow. Much to his relief, he found he hadn’t been buried too far underneath. After a few minutes, he was able to pull himself completely out of the snowy debris, shaking off as much as he could. He shivered visibly, fighting not to let his teeth chatter.
“I’m alright, Jay,” he replied into his watch, which, to his surprise, still worked. Pearl always thought ahead that way. She would make it snowproof.
“You had me worried, man,” Jay replied in relief. “I saw the avalanche. And not to be punny, but… you were out cold for a while.”
“Hardy-ha-ha,” Nick said sarcastically as he regrouped. He wiped off his frozen face and shook the snow out of his hair.
“Any sign of Styx?” he heard Jay ask.
Nick paused halfway through brushing the snow off his suit. “Wait, you mean you haven’t seen him?”
“Not since that avalanche buried you both. I’m gonna have Pearl see if she can get a signal going from his bug and send it to your watch.”
“Alright, beep me when you got something. And tell K I don’t want any more damn missions in the snow!”
He clicked the feed off, looking around desperately for his protégé. Despite his initial reservations, he was starting to feel a camaraderie with the shadow agent. Styx reminded him a lot of himself when he’d first joined — easygoing, instinctive, and creative, with a fighting style similar to his own. From his first sparring session with Styx, Nick had known that he would make a great Double-0 agent someday. Nick even understood why K had assigned Styx to him. And now, on their first mission together, Nick might have just gotten him killed. He struggled through the deep snow, his eyes searching for any sign of life.
“STYX!” he screamed. A distant rumble reminded him that screaming wasn’t a good idea if he wanted to stay above the snow.
There was no reply. Frustration set in as Nick realized he was essentially searching for a needle in a haystack. He had no idea which direction to go or how deep to dig; Styx could be buried anywhere. “Damn it!” Nick growled, kicking a nearby pine tree as hard as he could.
In the back of his mind, he wondered what had happened to Dr. Rough and Drums. He’d seen them go over the cliff, but even so, they’d probably made it out alive. They always did. They were like zombies that way, always seeming to come back from the dead. How? Nick asked himself. How had Dr. Rough escaped the exploding helicopter? How had Drums survived losing all that blood when Nick had accidentally sliced off his hand? How did they manage to escape again and again? Why did FANS always seem to win? And why did he always fail?
He kicked the tree again. “Motherfucker! Stupid FANS, with all their bullshit. Stupid cold. Stupid fucking snow! This is why global warming is good! To get rid of this freezing-ass snow!”
Nick’s watch beeped before Jay and Pearl’s faces appeared on the tiny screen. Jay flashed a warm, comforting smile. “If K heard you say that, you’d be dead.”
Pearl typed something on her keyboard. “I’ve got Styx’s signal. The cam got wiped out, so I can’t give any sort of visual, though I think it’d be all snow anyway. Luckily, he was testing this new device of mine, and I was able to hone in on the tracking signal. I’m sending the coordinates to your watch, okay?”
Nick sighed with relief. “Thanks, Pearl.”
“Be warned, Nick… I don’t know how deep he got buried, just where his general location is. The signal isn’t the strongest.”
He nodded, ending the connection as a map appeared with a pulsing red dot not too far from a steady blue one. He took a few steps, nodding to himself when he saw the blue dot move. He ran in the direction Styx seemed to be in, knowing he was in a race against time. If Styx ran out of oxygen before Nick reached him, it wouldn’t be the cold that killed him.
Finally, when Nick spotted the two dots on top of each other on the tiny watch map, he flipped the screen shut. Glancing down, he felt momentarily confused. Some part of him had still expected a more evident sign of the agent. Regaining his bearings, he began digging furiously into the snow. His fingers burned with frostbite, and his teeth chattered as the cold aggravated him, but he didn’t stop. He had to save Styx. He couldn’t cause yet another agent’s death. Drums — and consequentially, Shazam — had been enough.
Finally, he uncovered a dark hand poking through the snow. Encouraged, he kept brushing the snow off of Styx, revealing the rest of his arm and then the top of his head. When he finally uncovered Styx’s face, Nick found that his eyes were closed. “No, no, no…” His heart hammered with fear as he frantically cleared the snow from Styx’s mouth and nose. “Breathe, man,” he urged, slapping his cheeks. Styx’s head lolled hopelessly from side to side. “C’mon, breathe!”
Styx’s cracked lips suddenly parted, and he hitched in a sharp, rasping breath. Nick sagged with relief. Styx was still unconscious, but at least he was alive. Hoping he hadn’t suffered any serious injuries, Nick continued to work at freeing him from the snow.
He finally managed to hook his arms under Styx’s and pull him out. As he lay Styx’s still body flat on the surface of the snow, he didn’t see any obvious signs of injury. Maybe he had just been knocked out by the impact of the avalanche. “Hey,” he said, shaking his shoulder. “Styx, you alright? Wake up, man.”
After a few moments, Styx’s brown eyes blinked open. “Oh, Nick Carter, you’re my hero,” he teased, his lips curving into a smile.
Nick grinned back as his racing heart finally began to relax. “Good to see you’re alright.”
Styx sat up, giving Nick a nod as he shivered. “I’m alright, just really goddamn cold.”
“Tell me about it.” Nick raised his wrist to his mouth and spoke clearly into his watch. “Connect me to Diamond.”
Within moments, he could hear her girlish voice. “Nick! We were able to save her! And stop the bomb on the Zamboni! Problems solved. How’d everything go at the lodge?”
“Hey, I need you to pick me and Styx up. We’re stuck on some mountain… It’s a long story. Have Pearl send you our coordinates.”
“No problem.”
“Please hurry,” he added, shivering. “I think I’m getting hypothermia. You may need to help bring my body heat back up at one of the cabins.” He smirked.
He could hear Diamond’s enticing smile in her voice. “I think I need something steamy, too.”
***
Back at the lodge, the agents warmed themselves by a magnificent fireplace. Styx was curled up on one of the overstuffed couches, half-buried in blankets and looking as if he never wanted to feel a hint of cold ever again. Lancy perched on the arm of a chair, laughing and flirting with a young ski instructor. Nick glanced back at them from his place at the bar next to Diamond. The entire scene appeared oddly picturesque to him.
“…So we found the real mascots, poor things.” Diamond continued to fill him in on her part of the mission. “They had been bound and gagged and thrown into some supply closet!”
Nick nodded as the bartender finally noticed them waiting and headed their way. “So all of them were imposters. That sounds about right.”
“The skaters are all shaken by what happened, but we told them that there’s nothing to worry about. The rest of the Games should go as planned now. Lancy’s ecstatic ‘cause he’s gotten so many autographs through this.” Diamond giggled. “As for me, I need a serious spa day. Fighting evil does that to a girl.”
“What can I get for you guys?”
Nick flashed a seductive smirk at the bartender. “Cocoa. Hot cocoa. Shaken, not stirred.” She gave them an odd look but went to prepare the drink as requested. He sighed. “I need a break from all these cold-ass missions. And what the hell happened to make Canada cause all this shit? Canada’s supposed to be ignored, damn it!”
When the bartender handed him a steaming mug of hot chocolate, he held it in front of him, enjoying the warmth that spread through his fingers. He looked around again, feeling grateful for everyone in the room. So what if he hadn’t caught Dr. Rough and Drums? At least his colleagues had managed to save Kim Yuna and prevent an even larger disaster. The world would still be reeling from FANS’ attack on the Winter Olympic Games for weeks to come, but for Nick, it was just another day’s work. He took a long sip from his mug, relishing the taste.
Ahh, bliss.
***