Coldsnap: Harbinger of Ice

Chapter 45: Razed in the City

The trio of Aspects, now with Geode in tow, relocated to the city and gathered around a table in the park, setting Firebird's transport puck in the center alongside the bottle of Primordial Juice.

Coldsnap took out her phone and pulled up the instruction document one more time. "Hmm....it says here that we only need to dip it in for about a second......"

Keena did as was ordered, and the circular object began to glow an intense, off-white shade. Once she handed it back to Firebird, the portal that the fire mage managed to open now looked different from the previous ones. The original wormholes had been purple with light-blue lining, but with the power of the Primordial Juice, its appearance had changed to a brown inner vortex with pale yellow lining instead.

"Did it say anything about how long one soak would last?" Keena asked curiously.

Firebird shrugged. "I can't remember.....guess we'd better do this fast, then."

Geode took a deep breath. "Alright, team....let's do this. I can't wait to meet these Earth allies of yours, Coldsnap! Are they any good?"

Coldsnap seemed almost offended by the question. "'Are they any good'? 'Are they any good'? Geode, they practically raised me for the better part of two years, when I was otherwise all alone in an unfamiliar world. In a way.....I would even go as far as to consider them a family, in addition to all of you."

"Oh, 'Snowdust'...." Keena whispered, trying her best to keep the tears of happiness from escaping her eyes.

"I can't wait for you to meet them, Geode," the heroine continued. "They were already accepting of Keena, so I don't see why they wouldn't act the same towards you." She breathed heavily, then looked around at everyone. "Are all of you ready?"

Her group nodded in approval.

"Wonderful. Now, let's head back to Earth."

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Back at Coldsnap's house, Mike, Alexis, Rosie, Kat, Alexa, and Michael had grown bored of awaiting her arrival, and had resorted to playing a large-scale game of UNO in the meantime, all six of them going against each other.

Mike slammed down a red 9, followed by Alexis's red 8. Rosie then placed a blue 8, which allowed Alexa to jump in with her own blue 8, inadvertently skipping Kat.

"Oh, come on!" she complained. "I've barely gotten to do anything since this round started!"

"Well.....here....." Michael mumbled. "Do something......" With that, he smacked a blue +2 card on the discard pile, much to everyone's laughter.

"Okay......I guess I deserve that.....I wasn't really specific on what I wanted to do, anyway....." Kat grumbled as she pulled two cards from the draw pile.

"UNO....." Michael said quietly.

"Awww, crud. Anyone got a 7 or a 0?" Alexa asked, panicked.

At that moment, a wormhole opened up out of thin air nearby, and Coldsnap, Firebird, Keena, and Geode exited it within seconds.

Coldsnap snatched the last card—a blue 4–out of Michael's hand and put it on the discard pile herself. "Boom. Game over. I win. We all need to talk."

Everyone traded smiles at each other. They already knew what was coming next.

"Is it finally time for the battle of battles?" Alexa asked eagerly.

"That depends. Have all of you gotten comfortable with the Aegis Gauntlets?" the heroine inquired in turn.

"Definitely," Mike replied. "You should've seen your sister earlier; she spent the better part of the day in the backyard attempting to snipe down birds with it."