03-17-2010, 03:52 AM
Up to this point—massive polar bears, yetis, and ice cracks aside—the trip had been relatively unpleasant without being utterly insufferable. Regrettably, as the peak of the mountain grew larger and larger above the heads of the two climbers, they drew exponentially closer to the breaking point. About ten minutes and a few hundred feet in elevation away from the gorge, the situation slowly began to unravel.
“What?” Piper suddenly inquired aloud as she came to a stop at the foot of a small incline. Looking down at her hands, the woman furrowed her brow as she began to attempt to clench her fingers into fists. Despite how simple the act should have been, she found herself watching as the digits did little more than twitch erratically. Szar, who had spun sharply as if he was expecting another monster to attack them, soon found himself staring at the woman’s strange behavior.
“What’s going on?” The changeling inquired after watching the woman gawk at her hands for a few more seconds. “Yes, you have hands…can we please resume our little wilderness expedition? I’d like to reach the summit before our friend the two tons of furry, white death stalks us down again,” Szar barked as he put his own hands on his hips and turned his rather irritated gaze up to the woman’s face.
“It is me, or does it feel like it’s getting warmer?” Piper asked with a faint smile as she lifted her face to meet the changeling’s gaze. “But why are my hands so unresponsive?” She further questioned as she furrowed her frost-covered eyebrows at her alien companion. There was something different about Szar…
“Did you knock something loose when you stumbled a few minutes ago?” The alien demanded as Piper reached a hand out and pressed it against his face. Instead of irritation, Szar was suddenly wrought with confusion and dread, because he realized he couldn’t feel the mitten pressed against his flesh. “What?” The alien stammered as he pulled back and proceeded to place a hand against his chin. To his horror, the skin was almost ice cold to the touch—far too cold for even his own species. What did that mean for Piper?
“I don’t like that look,” the blonde in the blue parka slurred as she took a stumbling step away from Szar and looked back down at her hands. Grasping at the cuff of her left mitten, she proceeded to wrench the nearly frozen piece of cloth off her hand. Discarding the seemingly useless article of clothing, Piper lifted her exposed hand up to her face and noticed that most of her skin had lost what little pigmentation she’d gained. Even more bizarre, the skin beneath her fingernails had taken on a pleasant shade of blue—as if she’d accidentally applied watered-down nail polish on the wrong side of her nails.
“Well that’s just darling,” Piper muttered incoherently as she twitched her marginally unresponsive digits. The intermittent twitching of her fingers caused a slightly drooping smile to appear on the woman’s face.
“W-w-we nuh-need to hurry,” Szar mumbled as held a palm out and began to concentrate his energy. “The cold is starting to numb our bodies and our minds,” he added with a little more clarity as the orb of sparkling violet energy crackled to life above his ice-caked mitten. Closing his eyes, Szar breathed out slowly and then proceeded to refill his lungs with a deep breath of the frigid mountain air.
“Merp?” The garbled, unintelligible reply fell on deaf ears as Szar clasped his free hand around the wrist of his outstretched hand. As the changeling continued to focus, the orb continued to surge as its strength was gradually augmented by the alien. Lifting her numb hand, the woman extended it toward the swirling sphere of ki and smiled faintly when she felt the warmth of the energy globe tickle at her palm and the undersides of her fingers. “…point,” Piper spoke clearly as she stared into the swirling mass of energy.
“There you two are!” A guttural voice roared from somewhere across the stretch of land the changeling and human had been attempting to traverse for the last few minutes. Despite her excellent vision in the dark, Piper had trouble pinpointing the overgrown white bear amidst the blizzard swirling around their cold, frostnipped bodies.
“Oh no,” Szar shouted as his eyes snapped open. “It’s that bear again,” he grimaced as he let go of his outstretched hand and proceeded to pull the amalgamation of ki a little closer to his body. “Can you see it out there in the storm?” The changeling whispered as he squinted in a vain attempt to scope out the hulking frame of their aggressor.
“No,” Piper spoke softly as she tore off her remaining mitten and began to channel her own energy. As the faint waves of ki began to meld together within the gauntlet’s disc the woman felt the feeling start to return to her extremities. With a smirk, the soldier clenched her fist and watched as an obsidian sphere of energy welled up between her closed fingers. If it hadn’t been for the thunderous gait of the polar bear zeroing in from their right, the Sentinel probably could have stared at the warm, pulsing mass of energy for the indiscernible future.
Instead of that, Piper’s head snapped in the direction of the noise, but before she could launch her attack, Szar beat her to the punch. The scintillating orb of energy rocketed forward, narrowly missing the woman’s head as it rocketed toward its destination. As before, the polar bear did little to evade or defend against the attack, but this time, the highly condescended blast of energy was more than enough to shatter the charging beasts’ equilibrium and cause it to crash sideways into the deep snow.
“Take that,” Szar growled beneath his breath as he glared at the collapsed mass of white fur in the snow. Unfortunately for the arrogance of the changeling, the polar bear let out an irritated groan and began to rise up into a bipedal stance. As it rose up, Piper and her companion both noted that the broken remains of its sunglasses were cradled in one of its gargantuan paws.
“Those were five hundred dollar sunglasses, asshole,” the polar bear spoke with a heavy frown as it discarded the ruined remnants of its shades.
Now! Acting on that screaming voice of desperation, Piper chucked the black mass of energy at the chest of the bear. The small ball smacked the creature’s furry chest and then proceeded to start falling to the ground. With a smug look on its face, the bear crouched down and caught the seemingly solid mass of energy before it struck the ground.
Just as the bear opened its mouth to make a snide comment, the sphere in its hand erupted. The condensed explosions tore through everything in its path, reducing the mountain monster’s arm and a gratuitous portion of its ventral side into chunks of gore. When the light layer of smoke was whisked away by a breeze of wind, Piper and Szar noted that the ivory snow had been painted a vibrant shade of red. At the epicenter of the radius of ensanguined snow, what remained of the bear sat in a ghastly, smoldering heap.
“Beautiful,” the changeling murmured as he shook his exposed hands to keep the blood from freezing up in his capillaries.
“What?” Piper asked—her expression indicative of the confusion she experienced upon hearing the seemingly masochistic remark.
“Strategy,” the alien replied as he glanced over at the woman. “That was a beautiful strategy to catch the bear off guard.”
“Oh,” the solider responded before staving down the urge to confess that she hadn’t expected the condensed orb to explode in that manner. “I, uh, figured it best to prey upon its arrogance,” Piper lied as she stuffed her bare hand into the fold of her parka. Her gauntleted fist, despite being covered in whatever skintight metal the device was made from, was far less affected by exposure to the elements.
“Hey look, the storm is clearing,” the changeling whispered as the snowfall that had plagued the two for most of their ascent began to thin. As the veritable veil of snow cleared and eventually yielded to nothing more than a few free-floating whips, both the human and her alien comrade smiled at what they saw revealed to them—
—the summit.
Their goal was now clearly in sight, and even better, it was only a hundred or so feet above their heads. One way or another, the twosome’s trek up the mountain was drawing to a close. It was that wonderful concept that stirred Piper and Szar to shake the frost and numbness out of their limbs and resume their slog up the frozen, monster-infested peak.
“What?” Piper suddenly inquired aloud as she came to a stop at the foot of a small incline. Looking down at her hands, the woman furrowed her brow as she began to attempt to clench her fingers into fists. Despite how simple the act should have been, she found herself watching as the digits did little more than twitch erratically. Szar, who had spun sharply as if he was expecting another monster to attack them, soon found himself staring at the woman’s strange behavior.
“What’s going on?” The changeling inquired after watching the woman gawk at her hands for a few more seconds. “Yes, you have hands…can we please resume our little wilderness expedition? I’d like to reach the summit before our friend the two tons of furry, white death stalks us down again,” Szar barked as he put his own hands on his hips and turned his rather irritated gaze up to the woman’s face.
“It is me, or does it feel like it’s getting warmer?” Piper asked with a faint smile as she lifted her face to meet the changeling’s gaze. “But why are my hands so unresponsive?” She further questioned as she furrowed her frost-covered eyebrows at her alien companion. There was something different about Szar…
“Did you knock something loose when you stumbled a few minutes ago?” The alien demanded as Piper reached a hand out and pressed it against his face. Instead of irritation, Szar was suddenly wrought with confusion and dread, because he realized he couldn’t feel the mitten pressed against his flesh. “What?” The alien stammered as he pulled back and proceeded to place a hand against his chin. To his horror, the skin was almost ice cold to the touch—far too cold for even his own species. What did that mean for Piper?
“I don’t like that look,” the blonde in the blue parka slurred as she took a stumbling step away from Szar and looked back down at her hands. Grasping at the cuff of her left mitten, she proceeded to wrench the nearly frozen piece of cloth off her hand. Discarding the seemingly useless article of clothing, Piper lifted her exposed hand up to her face and noticed that most of her skin had lost what little pigmentation she’d gained. Even more bizarre, the skin beneath her fingernails had taken on a pleasant shade of blue—as if she’d accidentally applied watered-down nail polish on the wrong side of her nails.
“Well that’s just darling,” Piper muttered incoherently as she twitched her marginally unresponsive digits. The intermittent twitching of her fingers caused a slightly drooping smile to appear on the woman’s face.
“W-w-we nuh-need to hurry,” Szar mumbled as held a palm out and began to concentrate his energy. “The cold is starting to numb our bodies and our minds,” he added with a little more clarity as the orb of sparkling violet energy crackled to life above his ice-caked mitten. Closing his eyes, Szar breathed out slowly and then proceeded to refill his lungs with a deep breath of the frigid mountain air.
“Merp?” The garbled, unintelligible reply fell on deaf ears as Szar clasped his free hand around the wrist of his outstretched hand. As the changeling continued to focus, the orb continued to surge as its strength was gradually augmented by the alien. Lifting her numb hand, the woman extended it toward the swirling sphere of ki and smiled faintly when she felt the warmth of the energy globe tickle at her palm and the undersides of her fingers. “…point,” Piper spoke clearly as she stared into the swirling mass of energy.
“There you two are!” A guttural voice roared from somewhere across the stretch of land the changeling and human had been attempting to traverse for the last few minutes. Despite her excellent vision in the dark, Piper had trouble pinpointing the overgrown white bear amidst the blizzard swirling around their cold, frostnipped bodies.
“Oh no,” Szar shouted as his eyes snapped open. “It’s that bear again,” he grimaced as he let go of his outstretched hand and proceeded to pull the amalgamation of ki a little closer to his body. “Can you see it out there in the storm?” The changeling whispered as he squinted in a vain attempt to scope out the hulking frame of their aggressor.
“No,” Piper spoke softly as she tore off her remaining mitten and began to channel her own energy. As the faint waves of ki began to meld together within the gauntlet’s disc the woman felt the feeling start to return to her extremities. With a smirk, the soldier clenched her fist and watched as an obsidian sphere of energy welled up between her closed fingers. If it hadn’t been for the thunderous gait of the polar bear zeroing in from their right, the Sentinel probably could have stared at the warm, pulsing mass of energy for the indiscernible future.
Instead of that, Piper’s head snapped in the direction of the noise, but before she could launch her attack, Szar beat her to the punch. The scintillating orb of energy rocketed forward, narrowly missing the woman’s head as it rocketed toward its destination. As before, the polar bear did little to evade or defend against the attack, but this time, the highly condescended blast of energy was more than enough to shatter the charging beasts’ equilibrium and cause it to crash sideways into the deep snow.
“Take that,” Szar growled beneath his breath as he glared at the collapsed mass of white fur in the snow. Unfortunately for the arrogance of the changeling, the polar bear let out an irritated groan and began to rise up into a bipedal stance. As it rose up, Piper and her companion both noted that the broken remains of its sunglasses were cradled in one of its gargantuan paws.
“Those were five hundred dollar sunglasses, asshole,” the polar bear spoke with a heavy frown as it discarded the ruined remnants of its shades.
Now! Acting on that screaming voice of desperation, Piper chucked the black mass of energy at the chest of the bear. The small ball smacked the creature’s furry chest and then proceeded to start falling to the ground. With a smug look on its face, the bear crouched down and caught the seemingly solid mass of energy before it struck the ground.
Just as the bear opened its mouth to make a snide comment, the sphere in its hand erupted. The condensed explosions tore through everything in its path, reducing the mountain monster’s arm and a gratuitous portion of its ventral side into chunks of gore. When the light layer of smoke was whisked away by a breeze of wind, Piper and Szar noted that the ivory snow had been painted a vibrant shade of red. At the epicenter of the radius of ensanguined snow, what remained of the bear sat in a ghastly, smoldering heap.
“Beautiful,” the changeling murmured as he shook his exposed hands to keep the blood from freezing up in his capillaries.
“What?” Piper asked—her expression indicative of the confusion she experienced upon hearing the seemingly masochistic remark.
“Strategy,” the alien replied as he glanced over at the woman. “That was a beautiful strategy to catch the bear off guard.”
“Oh,” the solider responded before staving down the urge to confess that she hadn’t expected the condensed orb to explode in that manner. “I, uh, figured it best to prey upon its arrogance,” Piper lied as she stuffed her bare hand into the fold of her parka. Her gauntleted fist, despite being covered in whatever skintight metal the device was made from, was far less affected by exposure to the elements.
“Hey look, the storm is clearing,” the changeling whispered as the snowfall that had plagued the two for most of their ascent began to thin. As the veritable veil of snow cleared and eventually yielded to nothing more than a few free-floating whips, both the human and her alien comrade smiled at what they saw revealed to them—
—the summit.
Their goal was now clearly in sight, and even better, it was only a hundred or so feet above their heads. One way or another, the twosome’s trek up the mountain was drawing to a close. It was that wonderful concept that stirred Piper and Szar to shake the frost and numbness out of their limbs and resume their slog up the frozen, monster-infested peak.
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.