Journey of the soul chapter 25
Shame on you Hunter, shame on you.
Hunter: I know I know, I screwed up.
Good, you admit it, now wallow in misery while I procrastinate instead of writing this chapter for the next week.
Hunter: But I can't wait that long!
And Spinax can't hold his breath for that long either. Maybe you should've thought about that before you started acting like a t-Rex that just got poked in the eye. I don't own fossil fighters! Enjoy!
Hunter Cloud was never really a loud kid, he had usually kept to himself when other people were around. Right now, however, he wanted to scream so loud that every piece of glass in a five mile radius would shatter into a million pieces. After losing spectacularly to Bullwort and frigisaurus and being encased in ice, Hunter and Rosie were both thrown into a jail cell in the police station. Not that it mattered, he was still trapped in ice and not able to move. The reason Hunter wanted to scream was because of something he just realized: if he froze over just by being near Frigi, what would happen to the water in the Richmond building? More specifically, the dino medal that he had thrown into the water. Spinax would be trapped in ice and all Hunter could do was look like a statue that had fallen over while he stared at the ground.
"You should've been a better friend," He told himself over and over again, "you could've tried to- holy crap what is happening?!" Hunter felt himself being lifted up and put on his frozen feet. Rosie walked into his limited field of vision, she was out of the ice (aside from her eyebrows, which had a fine layer of frost on them) and was holding a her pickax. She looked at the pickax, then at Hunter. Hunter tried to shake his head, but he was immobilized. Rosie brought the pickax above her head. Hunter desperately tried to move. Just as the pickax came down, Hunter tilted the ice prison backwards and let it shatter on the ground. Rosie's pickax hit the ground with a thud, sending a shock through her entire body.
"Cold!" Hunter buried his face in his shirt as he tried to warm himself up. Cold, Heartless, without purpose. The thought of him being similar to the thing that froze him sent chills down his spine, along with the actual chills from being trapped in ice for hours.
"Tell me about it," Rosie said, hunter noticed that her skin, like his, was red from the cold. They were both shivering. Hunter looked around the jail cell. There was a old bed that was falling apart, an old toilet with….something in it, and…bars that were as wide as Hunter was blocking the door.
"Any ideas on how to get out of here?" Rosie asked, "my brain is still numb from being a living igloo." Hunter walked through the bars and stared at Rosie from the other side.
"Y-y-you t-t-tell m-m-me." He said, his teeth clacking together. Rosie smacked herself in the forehead, then joined Hunter on the other side of the both slapped themselves to try and warm up. Suddenly, Hunter heard barking coming from the doorway. He slowly walked forward and saw rex standing in the doorway connecting to the police station. The dog jumped when he saw Hunter.
"You here to fight?" Hunter cracked his knuckles. Rex growled.
"Isn't that the dog from the BB Bandits?" Rosie asked, she crouched down to Rex's level and stared at him. Rex turned around and walked back to the doorway; he barked at them as he walked.
"I think he wants us to follow him." Rosie said.
"Why should we trust him?" Hunter whispered, "he's tried to kill us multiple times if you recall."
"Well, maybe you should start trusting people. They're a lot less likely to kill you if you're not a jerk to them."
"I just had a reforming character arc, don't make me go through another one."
"What are you talking about?"
"….nothing, let's just go with the dog." Rex managed to sneak Hunter and Rosie put of the police station. They kept their heads low as they avoided grunts patrolling the guild area. Hunter took a look back at the Richmond building and stopped. It was right there.
"Hunter!" Rosie whisper-shouted, "come on! We're almost at the fighter area!" Hunter wasn't listening, memories of abandoning his friend filled his head. All because he wasn't strong enough…
"You g-g-gonna wallow in d-d-despair forever, or are y-y-you g-g-gonna help me out ?" Hunter's head shot up at the sound of the familiar voice, "if this place drops two more degrees I'm going to say some very non-kid friendly words." "You still want to talk to me?" Hunter asked.
"Why not?" Spinax sent a mental image of him shrugging, "everyone has off d-d-days kid. Sometimes you g-g-gotta let them have their space."
"…I'm sorry."
"I k-k-know, but can we s-s-speed up the heartfelt reunion? I c-c-can't feel my feet…or head…or tail…or legs…or arms, dear god I have tiny arms." Hunter's feet were moving before he realized it. He heard a shout come from Rosie, but he didn't care. He burst through the doors of the Richmond building. Two grunts turned their heads and adopted sneers when they saw him.
"Well, look who's ba-"
"Outta my way!" Hunter slammed the side of his foldax into the stomach of the grunt and kept running. The Richmond building now had ice lining the walls and floors, but nothing slowed him down. The pond in the center was frozen over too. Hunter clicked the trigger on his foldax and dug the blade into the ice. A rush of fear hit him when he noticed that the pond wasn't just frozen over, all the water had completely turned into ice.
"I expected your return to be later, but I suppose I should congratulate you for exceeding my expectations." A familiar pain entered Hunter's head as Frigi spoke. In his adrenaline rush, Hunter had forgotten that Bullwort and frigisaurus would be ten feet away.
"W-w-who was that?" Spinax's teeth clacked together as he spoke, "is someone trying to do a better accent then me?"
"Ah, you must be the altispinax I've heard so much about," Frigi laughed.
"I haven't said anything f-f-funny…yet."
"Of course, it's just that I expected more from the creature this person considers a friend." Hunter tried to ignore the stabbing pains in his head while he cracked up the ice. BB grunts were running towards him. They called out two vivosaurs, a stygi and an alectro.
"You trying to start something, ice beard?" Spinax growled.
"Of course not, I wouldn't want to crush you now, not when things are so interesting. You should be honored that I would let something so weak survive."
"Weak?" Spinax muttered quietly.
"Uh-oh" Hunter jumped off the pond.
"IM GONNA FREAKIN KILL YOU!" Spinax erupted out of the ice in vivosaur form. Hunter slipped and fell onto the ice floor. As he slipped and slid around the room, spinax started taking down the grunt's vivosaurs as they appeared. Tornadoes erupted out of the ground, spinax fired off multiple cyclonic lasers from his mouth, knocking stygi and alectro to the ground.
"SHOW YOURSELF FREEZEFACE!" Spinax roared, "I'LL BREAK YOU LIKE THIN ICE!"
"Chill out dude." Hunter commented and he spun in circles on the floor.
"YOU GOT A CHAPTER TO BE AN ANGRY BUTTHOLE, SO WHY CANT I HAVE ONE!?"
"Because I need you to cool off so we can get outta here."
"ARE YOU MAKING ICE PUNS?!"
"I don't know, it'd be pretty cool if I were though."
"Leaving already?" Frigi commented, "then I suppose I'll just await your next arrival and crush you then."
"BRING IT ON!" Spinax roared and charged at the door to the Richmond office. Before he took more than two steps forward, a blast of blue energy shot out from the door and hit him in the chest. Spinax was encased in ice once again.
"Oh, COME ON!" Spinax tried to roar, but only succeeded in making a small crack in the ice shell. Hunter returned spinax to his dino medal and slid out the door. Rosie and Rex were both at the doorway.
"Time to go!" Hunter yelled as he jumped down the stairs and sprinted away.
"You moron!" Rosie shot back as she ran after him. Hunter looked down at spinax's dino medal in his hands, it was covered in a layer of frost.
"Ice-covered buttwipe." Spinax kept muttering.
"How do you know what Frigi looks like?"
"Frosty kept stabbing my head with Images of himself. Conceited snowman…"
"You got the headache too?"
"I'll give that melted icicle head trauma next time I see him."
"I'll take that as a yes, you gonna stop with the ice insults?"
"I'll stop when you stop eating raw snakes." Hunter rolled his eyes, but was smiling nonetheless. He would never admit it, but he was happy that he and spinax were friends. Even after their fight.
"You don't have to admit it, I can hear your thoughts. I AM APPRECIATED!" Hunter groaned as he ran to the fossil center, spinax laughed before calling Frigi a "frozen-faced, Frost-footed, abominable snowman with a cold and a bad case of ugly."
"You called out a vivosaur…in my house?!"
"For the record, he popped out on his own." Hunter desperately tried to defend himself as Rosie fumed over the real-estate damage spinax caused on his rampage. They were back at the warehouse with Rex, , and Mr. Richmond. Diggins was busy scrolling through a page on his laptop while Hunter dusted frost off of spinax and ran from Rosie at the same time.
"Apparently, frigisaurus is a vivosaur legend told by the digadig tribe."
"Then you'll have to get someone else." Hunter replied, "I'm not dealing with those hip-shakers ever again."
"I'm not asking you to." Dr. Diggins signaled to Rex and the dog ran out the door, probably to go get something, "it wouldn't do much good anyway."
"Yeah," Rosie nodded her head in agreement, "none of our vivosaurs could even scratch Frigi." Hunter nodded, bitterly remembering how much he got his tail kicked.
"You see what happens why you try to fight without me?" Spinax grunted.
"Didn't you get frozen in place by Frigi?"
"That doesn't count! Frostface didn't even hurt me."
"Suuuuuurrrrrre." Hunter turned back to Dr. Diggins, "so, what's the legend Frigi is in about?"
"Frigi is supposedly an bronto-I mean: apatosaurus fossil that was left in the depths of the ocean (cross: extra credit to whoever understood that dinosaur joke). The freezing temperatures caused Frigi to gain immeasurable power."
"Is there any way to beat it?"
"I didn't think it existed until yesterday, but I suppose if Frigi is real then it must be as well."
"It?"
"Ignosaurus." At the moment dr. Diggins said that name, Hunter got chills sent down his spine, "Igno is the counterpart to Frigi, a t-Rex fossil left in an active volcano, infused with the powers of a raging inferno."
"So…a t-Rex on steroids?"
"A T-Rex who's been to the gym ever day of its life and with no natural limiters on its strength."
"…we need it."
"Yep."
"Doctor," Mr. Richmond interjected, "by an active volcano, do you mean?"
"Mt. Lavaflow."
"But that means that igno's fossil could be submerged in lava!" Hunter felt like a balloon deflating.
"There is still hope, there is a man-made filter system in mt. Lavaflow, a lace valve of sorts."
"Where can we find it?" Hunter asked.
"I don't know."Diggins admitted.
"But we do." Hunter turned towards to source of the voices by the door and then immediately regretted turning. The BB bandit trio, in all their glory, were standing in the doorway.
"Can someone please just stab me in the gut already?" Spinax asked, "what are these clowns doing here?"
"What are you guys doing here?" Rosie seemed to have the same attitude as spinax about the situation. As for Hunter, his hand was already on his foldax.
"Calm down Rosie," gestures towards the trio, "they're here to help."
"Yeah, Bullwort hasn't been himself since he got that new vivosaur," Vivian rolled her eyes, "so we left. Seemed more important to keep the island from turning into an iceberg." Hunter wanted to ask about what they meant, but he already knew. The I side of the Richmond building was already covered In ice, if they were telling the truth, then the same thing would happen to the rest of the island.
"So you know where the lava valve is?" Hunter asked.
"Obviously," Vivian snorted, "we just said so."
"Watch it, I could send all three of you flying in a heartbeat."
"I'd like to see you try, we all know about how you got totally crushed by our boss."
"One loss, how many times have I beat you?"
"Enough!" Mr. Richmond bellowed, "you three! Say what you have to say."
"Well you see," Snivels gestured to Rex, "rex found a path in mount lavaflow with strange carvings on it while digging for bones. Problem is, we're playing both sides right now. We can't be seen heading there."
"I'll go." Hunter stood up and folded his arms, "I don't like being cooped up in here anyway."
"Can we get milkshakes on the way there?" Spinax asked.
"We'll Get milkshakes when we kick Bullwort's tail."
"One problem," Snivels replied, "the only one who knows where the path is is rex, and then only one who can understand rex is me."
"Great Scott!" Diggins yelled, "I have the perfect tool for this!" He ran to the corner of the room, where there was a stack of boxes. He dug in the boxes for a moment before pulling out a small metal contraption that looked like a wireless earbud.
"This is the doglish translator,"he explained, "I used it to know when my puppy needed to use the bathroom. It's name explains what it does." He handed it to Hunter and Hunter curled the device around his ear.
"A load of Posh posh this is." A British voice rang out.
"How do you know spinax?" Hunter challenged.
"That wasn't me!" Spinax seemed shocked. Hunter turned to face rex.
"I say, there is no way on earth this chap could possibly understand me."
"Doc…it works." Hunter muttered.
"It does?...I mean, of course it does!"
"Completely mad, the lot of them." Rex snorted.
"Wouldn't be to sure of that if I were you old bean." Hunter replied. Rex fell off his hind legs.
"I say!" Apparently, spinax is British now, "someone should get that bloke a walking stick."
"This is marvelous!" Rex was halfway out the door, meet me at mt. Lavaflow chap! This old bean still has a spring In his step!" Hunter chased after rex.
"Where are you going?" Rosie asked.
"I'm following a British dog to an active volcano to drain the lava out of it and find basically a dinosaur god. Holy revival machine, my life would be a cool video game."
Done! Bit of an origin story: I came up with the idea for this story while playing a different game entirely, And playing some of my older games has got me thinking. So for the question of the day: should I make another story alongside this one? And if so, what video game should I do a story on? (Know that if this happens, I won't update as frequently but new chapters will go out for both stories.)
Hunter: do a Sherlock Holmes story.
Why?
Spinax: Elementary, my dear Watson! These blokes who read the poppycock you make need some British in their lives!
Blimey. Leave a bloody review if you feel like it! Thanks for reading!