03-17-2010, 03:23 AM
“Do you see the top from there?” Szar asked Piper as the latter reached a hand up over the edge of yet another vertical climb and proceeded to quickly scramble up onto flat ground.
The twosome was at the apex of a nearly one hundred story cliff comprised almost solely of frozen rock and snow. On three separate occasions, the pair of climbers had nearly plunged to their certain doom. Fortunately, Piper and Szar were still clearheaded enough to brace or aid the other when it seemed like one of them was losing their grip or on the verge of slipping off the glistening surface.
“No…” Piper grumbled as she turned around to help the changeling up onto the level surface. Turning away from him, the woman gave a quick scan of their surroundings and found herself relatively amused by that she saw. “But it looks like we found something,” she stated as she pointed to the frozen remains of a campsite.
“That’s…strange,” Szar remarked as he pulled the pink hood of his parka up over his snow-covered skull. The soldier smirked faintly at how awkward her partner looked with the pink fabric stretched over his cone-shaped horns; however, the action triggered her to follow suit a few moments later. After all, the temperature had done nothing but steadily decline since they had begun their ascent from the base of the glacial peak. If the temperature continued to decline at this rate, Piper was certain she’d need to be defrosted at the end of the round.
“Y-yeah,” the Sentinel stammered as she pulled the parka hood tight around her frozen hair. “You think we’re so far behind the other climbers had a camping trip?” She quipped. It was a relatively feeble attempt at humor, but it nevertheless elicited a soft chuckle from her alien compatriot.
“I doubt it,” Szar remarked as he reached out and traced a mitten-clad finger along the outside of the one of the tents. “These are frozen solid, and it looks like they’ve been abandoned for a while,” he added as he walked over to the middle of the circle of tents and kicked some snow away to reveal what looked to be a failed attempt to start a fire. “These logs aren’t burnt in the slightest,” the changeling noted as he crouched down and picked up one of the frostbitten chunks of wood.
“I wonder what happened to them,” Piper whispered as she began to scan her surroundings with fresh paranoia. “The description of this event did make reference to bears.”
“Well if they’re anything like those little yetis than I’m sure we can make due, Piper,” Szar remarked as he relaxed his fingers and let the log roll off his hand back into the snow. “Let’s get going,” he said with a grunt as he returned to a fully vertical position and slowly turned to face Piper. Immediately, the color drained from the changeling’s face and his eyes went wide in horror.
“W-what?” Piper asked as she began to rub her arms in an attempt to generate some warmth in her arms, which were growing increasingly numb the more they stood around and chatted. Rubbing her arms also kept her from shivering, which was something the woman didn’t enjoy.
“Behind you,” Szar stammered as he lifted a trembling hand.
“Oh… great,” the soldier shouted as she turned around to see the fifteen-foot polar bear standing behind her. The anthropomorphic beast was clad in pink shorts and sunglasses, and it sported a large cigar in its tooth-filled mouth. “What the fu—” before Piper could finish, the oversized bear reeled back a giant hand and casually swatted her away like an overgrown toy. Despite the nonchalant look on the animal’s visage, the force of the smack was enough to pluck Piper off the ground and propel her over thirty feet.
“Not good,” Szar managed to spit out before the tether wrenched him off the ground and sent him smashing through one of the abandoned tents, which shattered like glass beneath his parka-clad figure.
“Morons,” the bear said with a malicious cackle as it began to stroll over to the startled changeling. As it reached down with a clawed hand to snatch up Szar, the alien lashed out and sent a rippling blast of ki into the polar bear’s chest. The attack staggered the massive creature just long enough for the deceased warrior to scramble up to his feet. Once up to his feet, Szar erupted forward in a flash of ki that left an image behind that the bear fruitlessly swung at with a meaty fist.
“That was stupid,” the bear remarked as he glanced down at his feet to see that his rather tasty cigar was now half-buried in the snow. The bear’s lips curled up to reveal his yellowed canines as a deep, guttural growl began to seep through his clenched jaw. Throwing his head back, the snow-white bear let out a horrifying, bestial roar that threatened to bring down the ice caps clinging to the peak of the mountain.
“Quick on your feet,” Piper grunted as she leapt up off the ground. “Run!” She added a second later as the anthropomorphic bear dropped to all four legs and began to stampede toward them
“Don’t need to say that twice,” Szar remarked with wide-eyes as gestured to his left and dashed in said direction a beat later. A beat later, the twosome began a mad dash across the snowy clearing. Up ahead of them, there was a narrow passage between two neighboring cliffs that looked a wee bit too narrow for the overgrown apex predator gaining ground behind them.
“Faster!” Piper screamed as Szar erupted ahead of her with a flash of energy. Glancing behind her shoulder, the woman managed to orb away right before the bear’s claws could eviscerate her.
With a shimmer of lights barely visible among the snowy backdrop, Piper popped back into existence a few feet in front of Szar. Turning around, the woman breathed a sigh of relief when the changeling slid into the small passageway. Pivoting sharply, Szar grabbed the few feet of the tether that trailed behind him and reeled it in before the lunging bear could grab it.
“Outsmarted,” Szar snickered as he threw the rope behind his shoulder and extended both hands. Energy began to coalesce in front of the changeling’s open palms as their enraged attacker pressed itself against the opening and tried to grab at him with an outstretched claw. “Enjoy,” the alien rasped as the two spheres of energy erupted forward—slamming into the bears chest and face and forcing it to retreat in lieu of its inability to reach its targets.
“I’ll be back,” the bear growled as the corners of its mouth curved upward in a sinister grin. “And then I’m going to paint the snow and ice red with your blood,” the creature added as its breathing calmed down and it returned to an erect, human-like stance. And just like that, the bear with the sunglasses and the pink shorts turned around and jogged off to from whence it had come.
“Well that was horribly unpleasant,” Piper remarked nonchalantly as she tried to brush the snow off her parka, but despite her best efforts, most of the snow was already frozen solid. “We need to hurry, because this snow isn’t going anywhere…” the soldier added as she began to rub her arms in a futile effort to warm herself.
“We’re almost to the top,” Szar shot back as he lifted his head up and squinted to see through the haze generated by the immense snowfall. “I think I see the opening to this gorge,” he spoke with a certain degree of youthful delight as he smacked his mittens against his legs to shake off the clumps of snow clinging to the leather. Once his hands were sufficiently free of snow, the changeling quickly began to arduous task of scaling the ice-covered wall.
Looking up, Piper verified what Szar had seen and reacted by reaching out and grabbing one of his boots. With a swirl of white and blue light particles, the twosome vanished from the gorge and then popped back into existence on the rim of the small gorge. The normally stoic changeling managed to get in a pair of steps before he fell onto his knees and vomited what little food and liquid there had been swirling about in his stomach.
“It can be very disorientating the first few times,” Piper remarked as she lifted a hand to cup her forehead. The evidence seemed to indicate that having to take people with her when she teleported was a lot more enfeebling than if it was just her.
The headache will pass… stop dallying. Nodding her head at the voice of reason, Piper lowered her hand and patted Szar on his fuzzy, parka-covered shoulder.
“Take your time,” she muttered with a grin.
The twosome was at the apex of a nearly one hundred story cliff comprised almost solely of frozen rock and snow. On three separate occasions, the pair of climbers had nearly plunged to their certain doom. Fortunately, Piper and Szar were still clearheaded enough to brace or aid the other when it seemed like one of them was losing their grip or on the verge of slipping off the glistening surface.
“No…” Piper grumbled as she turned around to help the changeling up onto the level surface. Turning away from him, the woman gave a quick scan of their surroundings and found herself relatively amused by that she saw. “But it looks like we found something,” she stated as she pointed to the frozen remains of a campsite.
“That’s…strange,” Szar remarked as he pulled the pink hood of his parka up over his snow-covered skull. The soldier smirked faintly at how awkward her partner looked with the pink fabric stretched over his cone-shaped horns; however, the action triggered her to follow suit a few moments later. After all, the temperature had done nothing but steadily decline since they had begun their ascent from the base of the glacial peak. If the temperature continued to decline at this rate, Piper was certain she’d need to be defrosted at the end of the round.
“Y-yeah,” the Sentinel stammered as she pulled the parka hood tight around her frozen hair. “You think we’re so far behind the other climbers had a camping trip?” She quipped. It was a relatively feeble attempt at humor, but it nevertheless elicited a soft chuckle from her alien compatriot.
“I doubt it,” Szar remarked as he reached out and traced a mitten-clad finger along the outside of the one of the tents. “These are frozen solid, and it looks like they’ve been abandoned for a while,” he added as he walked over to the middle of the circle of tents and kicked some snow away to reveal what looked to be a failed attempt to start a fire. “These logs aren’t burnt in the slightest,” the changeling noted as he crouched down and picked up one of the frostbitten chunks of wood.
“I wonder what happened to them,” Piper whispered as she began to scan her surroundings with fresh paranoia. “The description of this event did make reference to bears.”
“Well if they’re anything like those little yetis than I’m sure we can make due, Piper,” Szar remarked as he relaxed his fingers and let the log roll off his hand back into the snow. “Let’s get going,” he said with a grunt as he returned to a fully vertical position and slowly turned to face Piper. Immediately, the color drained from the changeling’s face and his eyes went wide in horror.
“W-what?” Piper asked as she began to rub her arms in an attempt to generate some warmth in her arms, which were growing increasingly numb the more they stood around and chatted. Rubbing her arms also kept her from shivering, which was something the woman didn’t enjoy.
“Behind you,” Szar stammered as he lifted a trembling hand.
“Oh… great,” the soldier shouted as she turned around to see the fifteen-foot polar bear standing behind her. The anthropomorphic beast was clad in pink shorts and sunglasses, and it sported a large cigar in its tooth-filled mouth. “What the fu—” before Piper could finish, the oversized bear reeled back a giant hand and casually swatted her away like an overgrown toy. Despite the nonchalant look on the animal’s visage, the force of the smack was enough to pluck Piper off the ground and propel her over thirty feet.
“Not good,” Szar managed to spit out before the tether wrenched him off the ground and sent him smashing through one of the abandoned tents, which shattered like glass beneath his parka-clad figure.
“Morons,” the bear said with a malicious cackle as it began to stroll over to the startled changeling. As it reached down with a clawed hand to snatch up Szar, the alien lashed out and sent a rippling blast of ki into the polar bear’s chest. The attack staggered the massive creature just long enough for the deceased warrior to scramble up to his feet. Once up to his feet, Szar erupted forward in a flash of ki that left an image behind that the bear fruitlessly swung at with a meaty fist.
“That was stupid,” the bear remarked as he glanced down at his feet to see that his rather tasty cigar was now half-buried in the snow. The bear’s lips curled up to reveal his yellowed canines as a deep, guttural growl began to seep through his clenched jaw. Throwing his head back, the snow-white bear let out a horrifying, bestial roar that threatened to bring down the ice caps clinging to the peak of the mountain.
“Quick on your feet,” Piper grunted as she leapt up off the ground. “Run!” She added a second later as the anthropomorphic bear dropped to all four legs and began to stampede toward them
“Don’t need to say that twice,” Szar remarked with wide-eyes as gestured to his left and dashed in said direction a beat later. A beat later, the twosome began a mad dash across the snowy clearing. Up ahead of them, there was a narrow passage between two neighboring cliffs that looked a wee bit too narrow for the overgrown apex predator gaining ground behind them.
“Faster!” Piper screamed as Szar erupted ahead of her with a flash of energy. Glancing behind her shoulder, the woman managed to orb away right before the bear’s claws could eviscerate her.
With a shimmer of lights barely visible among the snowy backdrop, Piper popped back into existence a few feet in front of Szar. Turning around, the woman breathed a sigh of relief when the changeling slid into the small passageway. Pivoting sharply, Szar grabbed the few feet of the tether that trailed behind him and reeled it in before the lunging bear could grab it.
“Outsmarted,” Szar snickered as he threw the rope behind his shoulder and extended both hands. Energy began to coalesce in front of the changeling’s open palms as their enraged attacker pressed itself against the opening and tried to grab at him with an outstretched claw. “Enjoy,” the alien rasped as the two spheres of energy erupted forward—slamming into the bears chest and face and forcing it to retreat in lieu of its inability to reach its targets.
“I’ll be back,” the bear growled as the corners of its mouth curved upward in a sinister grin. “And then I’m going to paint the snow and ice red with your blood,” the creature added as its breathing calmed down and it returned to an erect, human-like stance. And just like that, the bear with the sunglasses and the pink shorts turned around and jogged off to from whence it had come.
“Well that was horribly unpleasant,” Piper remarked nonchalantly as she tried to brush the snow off her parka, but despite her best efforts, most of the snow was already frozen solid. “We need to hurry, because this snow isn’t going anywhere…” the soldier added as she began to rub her arms in a futile effort to warm herself.
“We’re almost to the top,” Szar shot back as he lifted his head up and squinted to see through the haze generated by the immense snowfall. “I think I see the opening to this gorge,” he spoke with a certain degree of youthful delight as he smacked his mittens against his legs to shake off the clumps of snow clinging to the leather. Once his hands were sufficiently free of snow, the changeling quickly began to arduous task of scaling the ice-covered wall.
Looking up, Piper verified what Szar had seen and reacted by reaching out and grabbing one of his boots. With a swirl of white and blue light particles, the twosome vanished from the gorge and then popped back into existence on the rim of the small gorge. The normally stoic changeling managed to get in a pair of steps before he fell onto his knees and vomited what little food and liquid there had been swirling about in his stomach.
“It can be very disorientating the first few times,” Piper remarked as she lifted a hand to cup her forehead. The evidence seemed to indicate that having to take people with her when she teleported was a lot more enfeebling than if it was just her.
The headache will pass… stop dallying. Nodding her head at the voice of reason, Piper lowered her hand and patted Szar on his fuzzy, parka-covered shoulder.
“Take your time,” she muttered with a grin.
Quote:Vad's Whimsical Whimsicalisms: Men. Good stuff there.
![[Image: Viper-Mini-Sig-Piper.png]](http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b318/ThundercatsHO/Viper-Mini-Sig-Piper.png)
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but anyone can start today and make a new ending.