Coldsnap: Harbinger of Ice

Chapter 6: Regaining Confidence

Coldsnap, Firebird, and Leo returned to the ice mage's driveway and entered her house. 

"Whoa.....Alpin sure knows how to pick families, doesn't he?" Leo said. "This place is sick!" 

Coldsnap rolled her eyes. "Yes, I know; you don't have to tell me. Anyways, we're not here to give you a grand tour or anything like that. We're just here to pick up the---" 

"If this is about grabbing the Mage Aspect outfits, you don't have to worry about me," he responded as he unslung his backpack from his shoulder and opened it up to reveal the ensemble inside. "Kept it with me all this time; you never know when it might come in handy. The two of you would be wise to do the same. Anyways.....I'll just 'chill' down here while you ladies get everything else done." 

"Don't let him get under your skin, Coldsnap...." Firebird advised. "Let's just go get our things." 

The two girls headed for Coldsnap's bedroom and opened her sliding-door closet once more. Firebird retrieved her set of red and black armor with gold highlights, dark-gray combat boots, and twin knives while Coldsnap took out her clean white robe with light-blue patterns. 

"I thought you were against using your abilities so openly....?" Firebird said. 

"I changed my mind," the ice mage claimed. "Besides, rescuing others seems like a good opportunity to hone my skills and get more practice, you know?" 

Just then, Leo entered the room, causing both of them to jump slightly. 

"I thought you were going to stay in the living room," Coldsnap said, annoyed. 

But he ignored her. "You know.....I can help you two make all of this a lot easier." 

He reached into his backpack again and pulled out two additional items that looked like the familiar handheld scanners that one might see at the checkout counter of a general store. One was colored red with yellow lining, and the other was colored a dark blue with lighter blue lining. 

"Whoa.....what are those?" Firebird asked, intrigued. 

"Let me ask you a question first," Leo replied. "Are you sure that's the outfit you want to use?" 

He gestured to the ornate armor set as he posed his question. 

"Yep!" 

Leo held the red-and-yellow scanner gun outward and pulled the trigger, causing a wave of lasers to erupt from the frontal emitter and run down the full length of the costume. Once the device had finished scanning her ensemble, an LED on the top of the machine turned green. 

"Perfect! The look has been recorded!" he announced. 

Firebird raised an eyebrow. "What? What do you mean?" 

Leo placed the scanner gun into Firebird's grasp. "Don't pull the trigger; that's for recording and saving outfits. Instead, press the button on the back." 

The female Fire Sect mage did so, and a bright flash of light surrounded her. When it faded, she was instantly decked out in her full Mage Aspect attire, much to her amazement. 

"Wow! That's actually really cool!" she exclaimed. 

Leo then turned towards Coldsnap. "When you left our dimension two years ago, you were still in training, were you not?" 

The ice mage nodded. 

"Yes.....so your costume was still a little bland." 

Coldsnap didn't say anything, but deep down, she agreed with him. There was no doubt that she her abilities had improved during her time on Earth, and it was undoubtedly time for an upgrade.