Coldsnap: Storm's Call

Chapter 13: A Daring Double Detour

We last read Chapter 12, in which Firebird, Keena, and Coldsnap listened to Forgemaster Emberson's secure audio log and discovered that they needed a third active fuel cell—which Emberson had created and hid prior to his death at Firebird's hands—to activate the mysterious sixth portal terminal, while also learning some incredibly unnecessary information about Emberson's crazed fixation on Firebird herself. The trio were just about to activate the portal and go through it, when all of a sudden, Firebird decided to kick over the molten slag vat that Emberson had fallen into, setting the entire workshop ablaze and eventually resulting in its complete destruction, with the portal's fate left unknown. Additionally, the earth mage Geode finally passes his father Sledge's tests and earns his permission to venture out and help Coldsnap with her investigation into the Grand Terminus flood, and Sledge confides in his guards about his sadness over his fellow Sect Leaders' passing and his status as the last original Sect Leader standing. This time, with Sledge asleep, Geode en route to the new Sect Leaders' location, and Emberson's workshop in ruins, we find out what happens next.....

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".....The portal's still intact?!" Keena cried out in surprise once the dust had cleared and she had extinguished all of the surrounding flames. Rather miraculously enough, the sixth portal terminal was arguably one of the only things in the workshop that was still standing after Firebird accidentally unleashed her wrath in a very volatile way. "But.....but how?! .....And how can I become that resilient?!"

"Hell if I know!" Coldsnap responded. "All I know is that we're going through!"

The heroine opened the rectangular compartment on the lower-right side of the computer terminal to reveal the two still-functioning fuel cells, as well as a third outlet for a new one. Once she slotted the new fuel cell into the empty space and sealed the compartment again, the terminal sparked to life and a portal to a completely new region opened up before them; a region like none of the three had ever seen in their lifetimes.

"Whoa....." Keena and Firebird said in perfect unison, before remaining perfectly in sync for a good few sentences. "Jinx! You owe me a soda! What? What the heck? Okay, now it's getting super annoying. Seriously, stop copying me! Ugh!"

Coldsnap looked at the gateway with a triumphant smile on her face, then turned to her two allies while still maintains the same grin. "You girls ready?"

Both her girlfriend and her best friend nodded in agreement, but before any of them could step through, the Firelands portal glowed instead, and Geode and two random ice mages rushed out of it, quickly hustling towards Coldsnap, Firebird, and Keena's position.

"Geode?!" Coldsnap called to the young Earth Sect mage as he got closer, still having trouble believing that he was actually here. The icy hero then slightly lowered herself to the ground and allowed Geode to jump into her arms and give her a big hug, as Keena and Firebird looked on with content smiles.

Geode had quite the history with Coldsnap, especially during the time when Alpin and Flamestar had been plotting to destroy Earth. Specifically, Alpin had kidnapped Geode and used him as a bargaining chip to keep Geode's father, Sledge, from allying with the rest of the Mage Aspects against him. But after Coldsnap and her friends led a mission to storm Aurora Keep, breach the underground dungeon, and save him, she had more than earned his eternal gratitude.

"Geode.....it's really you!" Coldsnap said. "How are you? How have you been?"

"Great!" Geode affirmed. "I would've joined you all sooner, but my dad insisted on teaching me a few things....."