“Ice King, there appear to be intruders outside,” a young man announced.
“Who is it?” The king demanded.
“One of them appears to be Carumati Baird. The other is a young woman known as Ally Kat.”
“Ally Kat? Oh, ho ho! This could get interesting! Very interesting indeed.”
“What do you mean, Ice King?” the man with the raspy voice asked.
“Ally Kat happens to be one of the twins of.... THAT man.”
“THAT man? But your majesty, if THAT man is involved....”
“I doubt it. THAT man hasn’t been heard of for years. It is said that Ally Kat killed him and went into hiding. Though I heard a rumor that she is traveling with a group called GWANAN and doing good deeds in the world. Such a shame. She was such a talented criminal too. And now she’s turned to the light side. Tsk tsk.”
“But what will you do with her?”
“Capture her, of course! And see if we can’t bring that girl back to the side of evil where she originated. Izo!”
The young boy hanging on the wall groaned and opened his eyes. The ice king let him loose and he landed neatly on the ground.
“Go, Izo. Go and meet your old friend and her comrades. Take them down. You may kill the red head, but do not cause too much damage to the brunet. I shall have her as a new slave. What do you think?”
~*F*~
“Ah, what a pain. For sure, those
girls are going to end up as you say and attack the ice king before
we get there.”
“You know, when Ally’s not
here, you complain more than she does.”
“Well somebody has to do it!”
“....”
“Whaaaa, probably the ice king
will be finished already by the time we get there and I wont get to
join in the fight!”
“So the truth comes out?” Ven
said to himself. “Seriously, though, I hope they’re okay.”
“Ally’s tough. I’m sure
they’ll be fine. And that Carumati knows how to take care of
herself too.”
“Yeah.”
“But what’s with all the trees?
Aren’t we there yet?”
“You’re complaining again.”
“Huh? Wait a sec, what’s that?”
~*~
“Two men to the South, two to the
North.”
“Man, that spy fly sure is handy.
Wish I had that when I was infiltrating the Organization,” Ally
commented as she and Carumati gazed at the little screen on her
scanner device, as her mechanical fly flew around the tree house.
“Izo is on the second floor in
the corridors. We’ll have to meet him to matter what. The ice king
is on the third floor. The power signal is... there! Third floor,
second door down the left side corridor.”
“Right. First things first then.”
Ally pulled on her rubber gloves and adjusted the bell around her
neck. Carumati laced up her running shoes. “Speed’s the key.
First, we both attack the four guards, then I’ll handle Izo, while
you get to the power signal and use your device to disrupt it. This
should also disrupt the device controlling Izo. Then the three of us
will join forces against the ice king. Got it?”
Carumati nodded and the two of them
hurried in the direction of the tree house. Each of them quickly
dispatched the four guards on either side and climbed the ladder to
the first floor. Here they ran through the mazes quickly and came
upon a riddle. “I have power enough to smash ships and crush roofs,
yet I still must fear the sun. What am I?”
“Does he think we’re stupid?
It’s ice of course!” Carumati announced.
“Hmm? It still doesn’t open?”
Ally pondered. She pushed on it and the wall swung open. “Oh. It
was open all along.”
The two then proceeded to the
second floor where they immediately ran into Izo. “Carumati, run!”
Ally pulled out her gun and Carumati tapped her right foot twice on
the floor, activating her running shoes and putting on a burst of
speed. Izo lifted his hand and ice bars formed in Carumati’s path,
causing her to stop short and pull out her odd little gun.
Meanwhile, Ally kept Izo busy,
running circles around him. He threw down bars wherever she went, but
she always managed to evade them just in time. Izo formed his ice
sword and Alameda found herself using her gun more as a shield than
as a weapon, as the corridor they were fighting in was too small to
use her gun to her advantage. She resorted mostly to using martial
arts to attack.
Unable to scrape off a piece of ice
from the bars, Carumati scanned it instead. However, an image on her
screen showed up, reading, “Error: No anti-substance found.”
Carumati grimaced and pressed a few buttons. The screen now showed a
new message: “Analyzing substance components. Please wait....”
Then, a moment later, it changed to a list of the components and at
the bottom, “Unknown. Most likely newly created or undiscovered.
Please update database for further analysis.”
“Darn you!” Carumati cried in
frustration.
“Carumati, switch!” Ally
yelled.
Carumati ran to intercept Izo’s
ice sword, pulling out an antenna and using it as a weapon. “Izo. I
was hoping I wouldn’t have to fight you again.”
“My orders are to kill you,”
Izo lifted his hand again and as Ally tried shooting the ice to break
it, bars formed on the other side, trapping her in a cage.
“I was afraid that if we left you
there, they would come and get you again,” Carumati said, trying to
keep Izo’s attention on her.
“My orders are to kill you.”
“So, that’s all you can say
now? I guess they decided they needed more control over you to keep
what happened before from happening again. It seems your ability has
advanced now too. Could it be you were holding back before?”
Carumati barely managed to block his attack.
“My orders are to kill you.”
“I wish you’d stop saying that.
Izo, you have to remember who you are.”
“My orders are to kill you.”
Izo swung his sword high, but Carumati rolled out of the way.
“Wake up, Izo! This isn’t you!”
“My orders are to... kill you...
so... run....”
“Ah-!” Carumati was surprised.
Izo seemed to be fighting it. Never before had Carumati seen Izo so
determined to fight something. He had always been a coward.
~Flashback~
A little boy huddled on the floor
as two big boys continuously kicked him. “Excuse me,” came a
little girl’s voice. The boys turned to see a little red head with
a metal stick in one hand and a bundle of wires in the other.
“What do you want, little girl,
want to get beat up too?” one boy asked.
“Hey, look, Izo, your girlfriend
wants to join you,” the other boy laughed.
“I need to test this,” the
little girl said and poked the first boy with the metal stick. It
sent an electrical shock through him which caused him to faint and
fall over. “Thanks,” the little girl said, beginning to adjust
some of the wires.
“Hey, little girl! What are you
trying to pull?” the second boy asked reaching for the metal stick
and getting shocked too.
“I really only needed to test it
once,” she said as the boy also fell over. The little girl saw the
little boy huddled in the corner and stared at him. The boy stared
back, afraid that he might get asked to be a test subject too.
“You’re really weird,” the
little girl spoke bluntly.
“I-I’m weird?”
“Yes. Because you still cower in
fear when someone has just saved you.” The girl then walked away,
continuing to readjust the wires in her hand.
“Ah! Wait!”
~A Few Days Later~
“Why do you keep following me?”
the girl asked.
“B-because you scare away the
bullies,” the boy said.
“That’s a really weird reason,”
the girl said.
“Huh?”
“You should just scare away the
bullies yourself.” The girl smiled.
“I-I can’t.”
The girl stared at him for a bit,
then, “Okay,” she said, turning and continuing to walk.
“M-my name is Izo. What’s
yours?”
“Carumati.”
“Carumati? Hey, can I call you
Mati then?”
“Why?”
“Because Carumati is long, and
Mati sounds cool.”
“Carumati... is long?”
“Well, yeah. It’s four
syllables long. Mati is only two.”
“Oh.”
“So, Mati.”
“I like Carumati better.”
“But Mati sounds cooler!”
“How can something sound cool.
It’s a feeling not a sound.”
“Not that kind of cool.”
“Oh? What other kind is there?”
“You’re really weird.”
“I am?”
“You don’t know anything. And
you play with wires and stuff.”
“Playing with wires is weird?”
“Well, it is when you’re a
kid.”
“Oh.”
“Mati.”
“My name is Carumati.”
“But I’m going to call you
Mati.”
“Why?”
“Because....” Izo searched for
something other than being cool or short as reasons. “Because I
thought of it for you. I want it to be the name that only I can call
you.”
The girl thought a moment, then
giggled. “Okay.”
The boy smiled and they continued
walking.
“Why are you following me?”
“I told you, because-” the boy
stopped again and revised his reason. “Because I want to be your
friend.”
“Friend? What’s that?”
“It’s someone you walk around
with and play with and sometimes study with.”
“Oh. ‘Friend’. I would like
to have a friend. Friends... follow each other? Wouldn’t they end
up walking in circles?”
“They don’t follow each other.
They walk beside each other.”
“Oh. Then, will you walk beside
me and not follow me? I don’t like to be followed.”
“Does that mean we’re friends?”
The girl gave out a toothless grin.
“I guess so!”
~End Flashback~
Carumati stood up only to find that
she had twisted her ankle and couldn’t stand on it at all. She
winced, and in that fragment of a second, Izo’s sword came slashing
down, causing the wooden wall to split and scatter splinters
everywhere. Carumati watched fearfully as Izo continued to struggle,
sweat dripping down his pale face. “My orders... run... Mati....”
He looked up at her with determination in his eyes, his brow
furrowed. It was then that Carumati decided what action to take and
quickly formulated a plan. She grabbed his hand which was holding the
sword and pulled it toward her to push up the sleeve. Izo, still
under the ice king’s control, immediately pulled back, but it was
still enough time for Carumati to see the device hidden on his arm.
Carumati, unable to move due to her ankle, decidedly fell forward and
grabbed onto Izo’s leg. He kicked her and tried to shake her off,
but she continued to hold on. Using her teeth, she tied a thick cloth
around her hand which was supposed to give her hand super strength
and as Izo swung down his sword at her, she used her palm to hit the
flat edge and knock it to the ground. Quickly, she grabbed it, stood
up on her good leg and swung with all her might at his arm. As it
hit, a sound, a high-pitched ringing, resounded in their ears and
shock wave after shock wave flew back at her as the device on his arm
cracked and exploded. The last thing any of them could remember was
that high-pitched sound.
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