We Found Steel! Part 6

"Can't you do that a bit faster Sac?" Devoto complained

"Could you make ice steps into the sky your first time?" I shot back. "Give me a chance." I'd already cut through like twenty of the icing walls in this maze of a place. What did he expect? For me to be an expert after like thirty minutes of using these abilities?

"I've given you twenty-two."

"And I'm getting faster aren't I?" There was only so many icing walls I had to cut through. It just didn't help that the elevators and trap doors slowed our progress. It wasn't like I was taking a month to get through all these barriers, if anything we'd been at this closer to seven minutes.

"You're doing fine, Issac." Steel encouraged, as he leaned against a wall I wasn't cutting through. Again, bad news. Steel didn't lean. What had Surge done to him?

"Sure, fine, if that he's doing fine in taking forever to cut through these while Surge is somewhere in the building."

"If you want to switch me places Devoto that's totally fine with me--ha!" A blast of fresh air met me as another hole disintegrated in front of my glowing hands. The city skyline shown before us. A thrill ran through me. I'd done it! Ha! And no Surge breathing down our backs yet either. "Freedom!" I turned back to Steel. "Now we can just fly out of here and--what's wrong?" They were both looking at me like I'd missed something.

Steel smiled, but it had a sad undertone to it. "I can't fly, Issac."
I nearly fell out of the building. "You can't...what? Of course you can!"
"He can't." Devoto confirmed. "Guess we get to use my ice steps huh?" He brushed past me.
I barely noticed. Steel. Steel could fly. He'd always been able to fly! Unless. "What did Surge do?" I demanded.

"I thought that obvious, Sac." Devoto called out. "Come on, help him out."
"He took my powers." Steel said showing me his right wrist. On it was a bracelet that looked like, like my collar. "With this on, I'm like any other person in the city."
My heart sank. I shook my head, but I recognized it. But even normalized Steel would never be like any other person. "Let me guess." I said limply.  "You can't get it off."
"Not yet." He replied putting on an air of cheerfulness. "Good thing I learned to drive right?"
"Sure, whatever, I'm sure we're still walking most of the way to the tower. Come on Sac, help him down, before I get one of those bracelets around my wrist too."

Layters!

-->Issac