Chapter 2, An old friend
As M.B. and Ryan took off down the hall to investigate the disturbance, Lorna and everybody else resumed with the party preparations. That was all except for Dragon, who stood and stared down the hallway at M.B. just before he disappeared around the corner. He pondered over his expression he had shown earlier. He looked as if he was upset about something. But what?
"Hey, Dragon!" Lorna called out to him.
"Could you come over here for a second?"
"Uh, yeah," He insisted just before he walked over to Lorna, Elsa, Anna, Jack and the others.
"Hey guys, I'm kind of worried about M.B. He seems kind of..."
"Down?" Jack answered.
"Yeah," Dragon insisted.
"He did seem a bit upset when we brought up the dance." Anna said, looking to Elsa who looked back at her.
"Maybe he hasn't found anyone to go with yet?"
The suggestion did seem to ring a bit of truth in regarding M.B.. He did often mention how he wasn't the most sociable back in the real world. Not to mention he didn't exactly had much relationships with girls. Something which he dad had often pressured him about and what became such a priority to him. So much so that it had often caused M.B. so much frustration whenever he tried getting into a relationship with a girl, only to then find out that she is with someone else.
"Well now that I think about it… yeah that does sound right." Dragon said, looking to everyone else.
"What do you mean?" Elsa asked, curiously.
"Well I've known Mack a long time," Dragon explained.
"Thing is he's always wanted to have a girlfriend. But all the times he's tried, no one's ever gave him a chance."
"No one?" Anna asked.
Dragon shook his head.
"Aww, that's sad." Tooth said, hovering beside the King and
Queen.
"Well maybe we could get M.B. a date for tonight." Olaf said, walking into the conversation.
"Hey, yeah." Anna said, snapping her fingers.
"Why don't we find someone M.B. could go to the dance with?"
"But who?" Lorna asked, curiously.
"We all have dates for tonight."
"Unless one of our dates has a friend M.B. could take to the dance?" Dragon suggested.
Lorna thought for a moment. She did have a few friends who would probably like to come to the party. Perhaps one of them could be M.B.'s date?
"Well, I guess I could ask one of my friends." Lorna said.
"Good enough." Dragon said.
"And maybe we could ask around some of the ladies around Arendelle who need a date for the party,"
"Sounds like a plan." Anna said.
"First let's finish up here before we do anything." Elsa insisted.
"Right." Dragon said.
M.B. and Ryan walked through the woods just outside of Arendelle as they made their way to the origin point of the portal energy. Holding out his hollow map before him, Ryan had marked down the location of where it had opened.
"We're getting close." He said, turning to M.B..
"It should be just beyond that ridge."
M.B. didn't utter a word back and instead was facing the other way, continuing to walk along through the woods.
"M.B.?" Ryan asked
Once more M.B. gave him the cold shoulder. It was by then that Ryan had picked up on the apparent harrowed mood he was in. And he had a very good idea as to why.
"You know, you could always go back."
"I'm fine, Ryan." He stated without looking at the A.I..
"That's not what I meant." Ryan said.
M.B. glanced to Ryan.
"Don't think you can hide it from me, M.B.. I was there last night when you were looking through the photos. Your not fooling me."
He sighed as he turned forward, narrowing his eyes.
"It's not that I don't want to," M.B. stated.
"It's just… ever since we came to Arrendelle we've been given so much work and stuff. I've just been so caught with it. I mean, you know what it was like before we came here."
"Yeah, and your story, Captured managed to pull us out." Ryan stated.
"And we've been making hit after hit with Jack and Elsa." M.B. brought up.
"You don't think you can do the same with…"
"I'm not saying that. It's just…."
M.B then stopped as he sighed, turning his head to the side. He felt so guilt ridden at how selfish he sounded. Getting caught up in the fun and the fame of the stories he made and pushing away the friends he had before he came to join Lorna and the others.
"Just what?" Ryan asked.
The writer shook his head, having little excuse for the actions he commited.
"Nothing." M.B. stated.
"You right. Tomorrow, I'll head back and see if we can make up some ideas for stores."
"That's what I was thinking." Ryan said.
"Come on, we should keep moving. We need to find the Imperials."
"Right." M.B. said as they then continued on through the woods
After what had been a short period of time that they walked on through the woods, they saw nothing out of the ordinary for the most part. The forest seemed untouched with only the usual sounds of birds to accompany it. There were no signs of fallen trees or of any AT-ATs or AT-STs, nor the white armor of Stormtroopers. Not even the large engulfing shadow of a Star Destroyer. Nothing that would signify any Imperial presence.
"Okay, somethings up." M.B said.
"We've been walking for an hour now and there's no sign of the Imperials anywhere."
As Ryan then looked about the forest, he could see M.B's analisis did have a hint to truth to it. Imperial walkers would have indeed left a clear trail for anyone to see.
"See if you patch in to nearby Imperial frequencies."
Ryan pressed several buttons of his wrist controls, switching out his hollow map for a communicator. Though upon searching for any imperial signals, he found that none were being picked up.
"Anything?" M.B. asked.
"Nothing." He said, turning to M.B.
"I'm not picking up any Imperial coms."
M.B. narrowed his head as he thought for a moment. None of it was adding up. The Imperials were unaware that M.B. and Ryan were able to detect them and patch in to their com system. At least as far as they knew. Though luckily, there was another thing they could try.
"Okay, new plan," M.B. declared.
"Fly up and see if you can detect any heat signatures."
Ryan nodded before the bottoms of his steel feet lit up like a rocket about to take off. He then launched into the air and came above the forest. He then gazed down below as he activated his heat signature vision. He then proceeded to look about the forest, finding only small signatures of heat which could be distinguished as either a squirrel or even a bird.
"Nothing out of the ordinary here," He said to himself.
"It doesn't look like-"
Ryan then paused as he then spotted several heat signatures close by in the near distance. Turning to face the general direction, he then enhanced his vision. Upon getting a closer look, he came to see one of them looked to be a person. The five others were… wolves!
Ryan dropped down from the air and landed behind M.B..
"We've got a situation!" He said.
"Imperials?" M.B. asked, curiously.
"No, wolves," Ryan explained pointing in the direction.
"They've cornered someone just ahead."
Right at that moment, they heard the faint barks of wolves in the nearby distance. To follow were the gasps of fear of the supposed victim. The voice of which sounded to be that of a women. M.B. and Ryan glanced in complete and utter shock.
"We gotta move!" He said before he dashed off in the direction of the hollowing.
"Ryan, suit me up!"
Ryan ran after M.B. and upon coming up from behind, he jumped up as the front of his steel armored body. M.B. then jumped before the mech suit the engulfed him and sealed him inside.
From inside of the titanium mech suit, M.B. then gained control. Upon landing on his feet, he then continued on through the woods.
"Ryan, activate weapon systems and switch all lasers to stun," M.B. said.
"Actually, I have something else we can use." Ryan stated.
Small schematics of the suit were brought up on the small screen which showed the way. On the arms of the mech suit, he noticed there were speakers found on opposite sides below the blasters.
"I installed a sound pulse generator in both my arms. I programmed them to play a high pitch sound which only dogs will be able to hear."
"Well that's great." M.B. said sarcastically.
"Now we have a weapon we can only use on wolves. That will certainly come in handy with the Terraforms or the Imperials"
"But it can also create pulses of sound which can send someone flying."
"Well I know what we'll be testing first." M.B. said.
"Um, I recommend we try the first option." Ryan advised.
"If anything goes wrong, I'd rather we no risk the life of a civilian."
M.B. groaned.
"Always gonna ruin the fun, don't ya?"
"Yeah, I don't think fun is the word I would use." Ryan stated.
As they stumbled out into the clearing ahead, the two stopped as they were then met with the sight of peril before them.
"Oh boy," M.B. Said.
Five wolves all surrounded a women, who backed away till her back was up against a rock. All the while they growled and snapped their jaws at her.
"We gotta help her!"
"M.B., now's a good time to use that sound generator." Ryan suggested.
"Right." M.B. said as his see through screen showed the activation of his arms sound generators.
From the outside, M.B.'s arm opened as the side speakers then appeared.
"Activating sound generators." Ryan said.
Down below, the wolves who continued to barking at the women were then wincing as they started backing away. The ears fell back as they heard a loud ringing sound.
"It's working!" Ryan stated.
"Move forward."
M. began walking forward toward the wolves, increasing the volume of the sound he couldn't hear. The wolves continued wincing as they started then started backing away. The noise then became too unbearable to the point they then turned and fled into the woods.
"They're gone." M.B. said.
The sound generators then shut down as his arm then transformed back to its normal state. He then turned to the women, who stared in awe back at them. However upon sight of the women, they were quick to notice she wasn't a random citizen of Arrendelle. She looked to be of African descent and her clothing resembled it as well. Her hair was long and black and she was dressed in a tanned shirt and matching skirt which reached all the way to her ankles.
"Uh, Ryan," M.B. said.
"This woman doesn't look like she's from Arendelle."
"I can tell." Ryan stated.
M.B. stepped up to the women before offering her his hand. The woman stared down at it before she glanced back at him.
"It's alright." M.B. insisted to her.
Hesitantly, she reached up and took hold of his metal plated hand. M.B. then pulled her up, helping her onto her feet. Those as she came to stand up, her legs began to wobbled as she struggled to maintain her balance.
"Wow." M.B. said as he was quick to catch her before she fell.
"Don't worry, I got you."
"We got you." Ryan stated.
M.B. then helped her stand straight as she clung to him. She gazed up to him, staring so bewildered at her supposed savors. Yet the moment to follow, her expression was succeeded by a smile.
And to follow that was something neither of them could have been prepared for. She then spoke.
"Mack."
M.B. and Ryan froze in place as they stared wide eye to the woman. She had just said his name. His real Name.
"Did… did she just say...?"
"It's really you!"
"Ryan, unmask me." M.B. said.
Ryan's armor face rose up off of M.B.'s, revealing his to the strange woman. The women laughed as she then nuzzled against his chest.
"I can't believe it's you!" she said.
"I've been looking all over for you!"
M.B. stepped back from the women, who peered curiously to his sudden and unexpected departure from her.
"Who are you and how do you know my name?" M.B. asked.
"Mack it's me… Nala."
(I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, please comment and review)
