I know, I know. It's been like 4 months since I actually updated this story. Well…oh well. Lol. It's getting updated now because I'm on a roll and wanna keep it going. Anyway, things are going to get really good soon in here, and you'll get to meet new characters soon in here that (of course) will be in the main stories as well. Anyway, on to the chapter!

Chapter 2: Early Present

Small puffs of air drifted from his mouth as Youngblood shook relentlessly from the cold all around him. His entire body hurt from the toes in his boots up to the throbbing headache pounding against his skull, but nowhere more than his back which had taken the full direct impact of the Warlord's attack. Youngblood could tell that his ectoplasm was definitely starting to slow down to a dangerous speed by the numbing sensation he was feeling in his hands and feet.

As much pain as he was in, Youngblood couldn't help but think of the irony of all of this. Slowly, he began to tilt his head down until his eyes rested on the girl wrapped securely in his arms. Never in his afterlife would he have thought that anyone would have had such a big effect on him or his personality. Not even Ember and she treated him like he was family.

Danielle was pressed closely to his chest in a protective manner, her body unmoving and her breathing quiet. Youngblood still wasn't sure how, but he had been able to completely protect her by using his body as a shield, something he was glad he had done even at the cost of his body heat. Unfortunately, with her being unconscious, she was in even more danger then he was, meaning he had to do something soon.

"Dani…" he called weakly, shaking her with what little strength he had. Sadly, however, the girl didn't move or show any signs of waking. "Dani, please, wake up."

Youngblood's desperation was growing in the small prison that they were captured in. If he didn't wake her soon, there was no way he'd have enough energy to get them out, and that's if he could at all.

His mind began to wander, a dangerous thing in his current condition, wondering if there was any way he was going to wake her. Then, like a lightning bolt, it hit him. And he definitely didn't like it.

Her temper.

If there was one thing he knew about her it was that she had the temper of a bear when she was angry, and that if he pissed her off enough, it'd be like throwing stones at a charging rhino.

As much as he hated it, that was his only option. The only problem was how he was going to make her angry enough to wake up from a near comatose state.

A sudden thought entered his mind, causing him to grimace in discomfort. Thinking back to a few months ago, Youngblood recalled making one of the biggest mistakes he'd ever made while hanging out with her. A mistake that every guy has made before, and that she swore up and down he would never make again as she threatened to castrate him on the spot. Though in his defense, she shouldn't have asked the question. He wasn't dating her, why would she be so concerned what he thought anyway.

Youngblood began to weigh his options. On the one hand, if he did this, it could be the literal end of him because she would murder him like it was nothing. On the other hand, if he didn't, they were royally screwed.

"Oh screw it," he mumbled. "I'm a dead man on way or the other." Taking a deep breath and steeling his nerves, Youngblood shouted as loud as he possibly could, "Danielle! Get your fat ass up now!"

The walls became silent as his echo slowly faded away into nothing. Desperation began to shake him to the core at the fact that nothing happened, though somewhere deep down, he felt a small bit of relief that she hadn't woken up. Just as his mind began to formulate all the things that would be said about them if they were ever actually found, his arms began to shake. Violently.

Youngblood didn't think his ectoplasm could turn any colder in his veins until he looked down to see Danielle's body shaking as he aura grew brighter by the second. In an instant, Danielle's eyes shot open, burning in electric green fury as she screamed and sat up, breaking away from his grip. Youngblood flinched as her voice hurt his ears as she pushed away from him, the cold hurting his body, but he still couldn't help the joy he felt at seeing her moving again.

"WHAT THE HELL DID YOU JUST SAY TO ME!?" she screamed.

"Dani! Thank god, you're ok," he said. However, he had little time to celebrate as he barely ducked his head out of the way of her glowing fist which collided with the wall behind him, shaking the thick, clear ice. "What the hell!?"

"I told you to never call me fat! You're a dead man!"

"No kidding. But can we save the sending me into oblivion for after we get out of here?"

Danielle blinked, looking at him in confusion before her eyes began to look around the pillar that they were trapped in.

"Where are we? Jake, what happened?" she asked, turning to look back at him. Seeing the looked of restrained pain on his face caused her to gasp and kneel in front of him. "Oh my god! Are you ok?"

"About as ok as I'm gonna be. By the way," he said, pulling the left side of his jacket away. There, laying on top of his lap, was Cujo, soaking up as much body heat from him as possible. Danielle's eyes grew wide at the site of her injured puppy. Using tender care, Youngblood, he slowly picked Cujo up, holding him out to Danielle who welcomed him into her open arms. "You dropped him after we got trapped inside this pillar by that warlord guy. He kicked the crap out of all of us, but before he could finish us, I jumped in the way and put a shield up to protect you guys. Too bad I couldn't do it faster and keep my back from taking the hit."

Danielle's mouth hung open in stunned silence as she stared at him. He had done all of that, went out of his way, just to protect her. Even going as far as to give her and Cujo what little body heat he had. Danielle couldn't believe it, but he was actually showing how much he cared about her, instead of hiding his feelings behind his fear of being ridiculed.

"You idiot," she said, her features softening up. Tenderly, Danielle placed her hand on his cheek, only to draw it back at the cold touch of his skin on her glove. "Oh my god! Jacob, you big, dumb, stupid idiot! You're freeazing!"

"So I've noticed," he grinned, teeth still chattering. Danielle was about to reprimand him again, but stopped as he shrugged his jacket off.

Leaning forward, Youngblood could feel the peeling of his skin against the ice, and resisted the urge to groan in pain, especially with Danielle looking at him in concern. That's all he'd need to do, scream like a baby and ruin his tough guy image while worrying her.

As he finally pulled away, Youngblood fell forward onto his knees, nearly knocking her over in the small space. Danielle covered her mouth, holding back the terrified gasp as she saw the damage to his back. Ice was deeply embedded from his shoulder blades to the lower dip near the end of his spine. Green ectoplasm ran in small trails down and onto his shirt while his actual skin was a paler blue color then his normal skin.

Youngblood ignored her, taking deep breaths before adjusting his turtle neck and scarf.

"Jake-" Danielle started.

"Save it for when we get out of here," he said. "Now that you're conscious again, we gotta get out of this."

"How? Intangibility won't work in here and it didn't even crack when I punched it," Danielle said. Danielle wasn't surprised to see him sigh before struggling to get to his feet.

"Damn it," he whispered, running a hand over his head, blowing an annoyed gust of wind out of his mouth. "I was really hoping not to have to use this. In fact, I was hoping to wait until Christmas to show it to you."

"Show me what?"

"Well…for a few months now, I've been studying up on my powers. I've been trying to learn the boundaries and understand my powers better," Youngblood explained as he brought his hand up in front of him, his reflection mirroring his actions. Danielle watched in carefully, not really sure what he was getting at, before gasping in surprise as his hand started to glow green, a tiny flame igniting a tiny flame in his palm. Turning his palm outward, he eased it against the ice, watching as a small drop of water slid down the wall and onto the ground. "My powers are linked to whatever I pretend to be. When I'm a pirate, I can summon an army of pirate ghosts at will. When I'm a cowboy, I've got the fastest and best aim possible. Well, all of this got me thinking; what else could I do? I talked to Ember about it, and so she took me to see Amorpho."

"Why would you go to see him?"

"Because he has a Change Core like I do. He can change his appearance and look like anyone he wants to. But mine is a bit different because I can change my appearance which changes my abilities and the tools that I can use. Amorpho explained that my powers are only limited my imagination. And," he paused to turn back and smirk at her as his eyes changed to a vibrant and shining gold. "My imagination is pretty damn big."

With a swift turn, Youngblood slammed his palms together, a loud clap echoing as a large burst of energy shot out from his body, his aura expanding around him before changing into a gust of wind. Danielle back stepped as her hair blew around her wildly in the small space.

"What are you doing!?" she yelled over the wind, but Youngblood remained silent as he focused all his power. Then, in a second burst of light, a ring of green fire formed around his feet.

The ring began to travel upward on his body, changing his appearance. His boots vanished, changing to a dark golden color. His jeans burned away to ashes instantly and were replaced with dark brown silk pants that were held up by a red sash. His green turtle neck was destroyed, as was his scarf. A red short sleeved shirt made of the same silky material replaced them, gripping on tightly to his body. The fire ran across his chest, looping around his torso in an "X" pattern from one shoulder to the next. The end results were two dark brown sashes adorned with golden accents. The final touch were two golden wrist bands that were produced when the fire reached his wrists. As the fire vanished, eating his hat hungrily, Youngblood's hair turned wild as it became shaggy, falling into his eyes.

Danielle blinked in shock, hardly noticing the sudden increase in temperature as she stared at him. Youngblood smirked at her as he flipped his hair out of the way and flexed his muscles a bit at the sensation. Danielle blushed a bit as her mind continuously ran around the fact that she thought he looked hot in that, and instead forced herself to try and understand what the hell just happened.

"You…you look just like Ozora! Only cooler!" Danielle said, her excitement building. "He's my favorite Bender from the Fire Clan!"

"Merry Christmas, Dani," Youngblood said.

"How did you do that? How is that even possible?"

"The same way I do everything else. I just imagined that I was a bender and that I could do it. I know how much you like Element Benders, and since you always played pretend games that I wanted, I decided to try and learn how to do this so that we could do one that you want. Of course, I had to put a bit of personal flare on the costume, but…do you like it?" he asked with a slight blush as he rubbed his arm.

"Oh, Jake," she said, her heart completely touched by his thoughtfulness. "I love it."

"Great. Now, I don't have full control over all the forms yet. The only one I can is the fire one, but even that's kinda shaky and can get out of control."

"Is that why you didn't use it earlier?"

"Yeah," he said, turning away from her and slowing his breathing down. Youngblood stared straight ahead, his mind focusing on the glass in front of him. Holding his palms open, two spheres of green fire ignited, one resting in each hand. "Listen closely. I want you to create a shield around you and Cujo because this is gonna be intense.

"Got it," she said as she shifted Cujo into her right arm while her left one glowed with Ecto-energy.

Youngblood focused solely on the ice, blocking out all things around him while Ember's words echoed around in his head. He could still remember the day he had shown her his fire conjuring powers. He had just figured it out and had started playing around with it and tossing it around like it was nothing, and that pissed Ember off to no end. Without any warning, Ember smacked him, sending him flying into the wall and extinguishing his small flame. Youngblood had peeled himself out of the wall, preparing to yell at her, but the angry calm on her face kept him quiet.

"Fire. Is. Not. A. Toy. Jacob." Ember said through gritted teeth. "Fire is dangerous and deadly. You could seriously hurt someone with it completely by accident. And fire is permanent. You can't undo the damage that's been done because you're left with nothing but ass."

Youngblood remembered the lump that had caught in his throat as Ember lectured him on what could happen if he didn't learn to control it. He didn't want to hurt anyone, especially Danielle all because he was stupid and had no control over it. With that, he begged her to teach him how to use it, how to control it, and how to protect his friend from it. Ember was hesitant at first, but agreed so long as he did everything she said, to which he agreed readily.

The training she put him through was intense and agonizing. He could still remember all the burns his hands had been received just from his first day of practice, but he was determined. By the time Christmas had come around, he had a good handle of his power, but he knew he couldn't control it fully. He was disappointed in himself because of it, but, to his surprise, Ember wasn't.

"I'm proud of you, Jake. You've been doing really well with this, and I know if you keep trying, nothing will ever stop you."

Those words rang strong not just in his mind, but in his heart. And it was those words that gave him the confidence he'd need to do this.

Youngblood nodded his head, giving Danielle the signal. The girl held her hand out, a green dome forming over her and her dog while her best friend clenched his fists. Flames travelled up his arms as they arced into circles while the entirety of his eyes glowed gold, much like his irises.

A deep growl rose from his chest as he drew his right fist back before swinging it through the air. A savage roar ripped from his mouth as he shouted, "Phoenix State!" and slammed his fist into the wall.

Fire erupted from him in a beautiful explosion of power, surrounding the entire surface as it bounced off the reflective surface. The force of the fire pushed hard against Danielle's barrier, the fire licking hungrily at the energy screen. Danielle struggled to hold her shield together, forcing her to push more power into it while also tightening her grip on Cujo. Her eyes never left the spot where Youngblood had once been standing before he had been completely engulfed in flames, and she couldn't help but do a silent prayer that he was ok.

After almost a whole minute of the constant onslaught, she was beginning to get worried that it was all for nothing, but was happily surprised to see a large crack forming and expanding from the front of the pillar. She watched as the fire seemed to give one last large push before a explosion sounded off, shaking everything around her.

Large shards of ice shot forward as the fire pushed forward in a spiraling fireball of raw power. The stream continued forward, stopping only when it hit the adjacent wall, melting some of the ice and snow. The fire slowly began to die down as it flooded out of the pillar allowing Youngblood to come back into site.

The last of the green fire vanished from his fists leaving Youngblood standing and breathing heavily with fatigue as streams of vapor shot from his mouth.

Danielle smiled ecstatically as she dropped the shield around herself.

"Jake, you did it! We're free!" she cheered.

"Yeah…great…" he said as he tried to take a step forward, only to have his knees buckle and send him falling to the frozen ground. Youngblood barely caught himself on his knees as his body lit up in another flash, his clothes turned back to normal as beads of sweat poured down his face. "I…I almost lost control. Guess I need more practice."

"Are you ok?" she asked in serious concern as she ran out and kneeled next to him. Her hand rested on his back, careful of his wounds, but didn't stay long as Danielle jumped in surprise at the contact. "Oh my god! You're even colder than before, Jake! I didn't even think that was possible!"

"Yeah…I guess I just ran out of steam…" he mumbled out, his body going ridge under her hand. Without any warning whatsoever, his body feel slack, crashing to the ground as his eyes rolled into the back of his head.

"Jake!"

To be continued…

Oh snap. Looks like Dani's got a serious problem. On the plus side, we get to see Youngblood use some new powers. I've got to say, this was one of my favorite chapters to write because I finally get to show you all the new powers he gets and will be using in the rest of the story.

So let me know what you guys all think about his new powers and what you think of all this. So until next time.

Laters

Blak-Ice