Chapter 36 Iceman Jill

Casablanca, Morocco. 2014.

Inside a dim repair shop, a young man in a plain white T-shirt bent over an old radio, carefully restoring its circuits. The shopkeeper beside him watched in awe.

“Donnie, your skills are incredible. Stay here, help me run the place. You’re as good as a professional engineer.”

The old man clapped a hand on Donnie Gill’s shoulder, his eyes hopeful.

Donnie smiled faintly, though there was helplessness in his expression. For someone like him, someone hunted, peace was nothing but an illusion. He had been hiding in Morocco for three months now—and those months of calm already felt like a gift.

But the gift ended in an instant.

Bang!

A shot rang out. The shopkeeper’s forehead exploded red. He collapsed at Donnie’s feet, lifeless.

“Damn HYDRA
”

Donnie’s face darkened. The old man had been kind to him, and now he was dead because of him. Rage filled Donnie’s chest.

“Kneel down! Hands where we can see them!”

A squad of HYDRA soldiers stormed into the shop, weapons raised. Yet, despite their numbers, fear flickered in their eyes.

“Easy, pal,” their commander said, raising his hands as if to calm a wild beast. “We don’t want trouble. Just come quietly. No one has to get hurt.”

“Liars,” Donnie spat. “HYDRA bastards—nothing but liars.”

He slammed his palms against the table. Instantly, a wave of ice burst outward. Frost climbed the wood in a heartbeat—then the commander himself froze solid, encased in crystal blue.

“Open fire!”

Panic seized the remaining soldiers. They pulled their triggers—too late. Shards of ice speared across the room, encasing them one by one before the bullets left their guns.

“Son of a bitch!”

Donnie cursed, grabbing what little he owned. He had killed them, but HYDRA was everywhere. He couldn’t outrun them forever.

Clap. Clap. Clap.

Applause echoed through the shop. Donnie stiffened, spinning around.

From the shadows stepped a man in a black robe, sharp-featured and impossibly composed. Beside him walked a woman with sly, catlike eyes and a serpentine smile.

“Donnie Gill,” the man said, his voice smooth and cold. “The S.H.I.E.L.D. prodigy. Brilliant as Simmons and Fitz, until an accident in Project Blizzard gave you
 this gift.”

The woman whispered urgently, her tone full of fear. “Boss, be careful. He can unleash sub-zero temperatures in an instant. HYDRA once used him as an executioner.”

“HYDRA?” Donnie sneered, his hands beginning to frost over. “You with them too?”

But as he reached for his power—nothing. His ice refused to come. His heart skipped.

“What
?!”

The robed man’s eyes hardened. “You think you have a choice?”

Donnie’s body locked in place, frozen not by his own power, but by an invisible force. His limbs refused to move as the stranger raised a single finger.

“Wait!” Donnie gasped, terror flooding him. “Whoever you are, whatever you want—I’ll surrender! Just don’t—”

The finger pressed forward.

A searing line of agony tore across Donnie’s skull. His scream cut short as the robed man slit open his head with inhuman precision.

“Found it.”

The man crouched, his finger tracing a circuit in Donnie’s brain. Cold surged from his palm—an icy blue current flooding the shop, freezing the floor beneath him.

A smile touched his lips. “Yes
 the power of Blizzard. It’s mine now.”

Donnie Gill’s body crystallized, locked forever in ice.

The woman—Raina—watched with wide, glittering eyes. “Boss
 you’ve grown stronger again.” Her voice trembled with awe and something darker.

The man—Allens—rose, flexing his fingers as frost danced across his skin. “Not strong enough. Not yet.”

He flicked his wrist. A bottle of Coke flew across the shop into his hand. With a touch, the liquid chilled to ice.

“All yours.” He tossed it lightly to Raina, who caught it with reverence.

Then, with a ripple of illusion, Allens’ body shifted. His face, his build, his very presence warped—until Donnie Gill stood there once more, alive in appearance if not in truth.

“Come,” Allens said coolly, his false voice now Donnie’s. “Let’s pay HYDRA’s port base a visit.”

Raina shivered, not from the cold—but from excitement.
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