A/N: Thanks to everyone who's followed/favorited and/or is reading but not reviewing!:)
bananas-rule-2015-Oh, it's fine:) Lol, I didn't want to give Anna permanent powers of any kind. I just thought temporary water powers from Elsa would be a fun thing to have in the story.;)
ElsaIsAmazing-Lol, me too.;) Temporary powers seemed like a good 'compromise'. I'd been thinking how to even come up with such a thing, then I thought 'Hey, I wonder what would happen if Anna drinks the water Elsa made' and that's where it came from.:P I hope it seems at least sort of logical...;) No, you weren't rambling, and if you were, I wouldn't care anyway.:) I guess you can see that I didn't tone it down for that chapter now:/ :P
Robert200188-I hope you won't be disappointed that the story's mostly about Elsa and Anna!:) 'Cause Superman IS in the story, but I'm still focusing on Elsa and Anna mostly...:P Thanks for the review!
On to the story!:)
Chapter 35-Day Sixteen, Part 2
After Elsa had requested to take a look under the hood of the police car (and subsequently made a car out of ice large enough to hold her, Anna, their four guards, and the policeman); Elsa asked where she could acquire water to put in the fuel tank.
"You're going to put water in the fuel tank, Queen Elsa? Why?" the policeman asked.
"My newfangled machines run on water instead of kerosene or whatever other substance you put in the fuel tank," Elsa explained. I hope the ice-car works properly…I didn't make blueprints for it…
"Gasoline or diesel," the policeman muttered.
To which Elsa promptly countered, "Well, using water for fuel makes my vehicles non-polluting. Besides, kerosene can be costly."
Anna giggled. Too bad Elsa's machines can't be started without Elsa herself unfreezing the fuel. Because I bet people would pay a ton for something that's completely environmentally friendly.
"What is so funny?" Elsa asked.
"Nothing…just that I bet your ice-car and ice-copter would be best-sellers if it weren't for the fact that nobody can start them but you. You know, 'cause they're completely environmentally friendly." Anna gestured excitedly at Elsa's ice-car and the police car, and a sprinkle of water popped out of her hand.
Elsa's eyes went wide, and she immediately froze the water and dissolved it. The whole incident took about two seconds. She could only hope nobody had seen what happened.
"Well, I think it's starting to rain. How much water do you need?" the policeman asked. "And if you found a way to make your ice vehicles run without freezing and unfreezing the fuel, you could make a fortune off of them, Queen Elsa. Your sister is correct-people will pay high dollar for a green vehicle."
Elsa privately facepalmed. It's SUNNY outside, for goodness sakes! Thank goodness he didn't realize Anna did it though. Hey, wait a second…Anna…water… perfect! And what's a 'green' vehicle? My vehicles are translucent blue ice, not green…must be slang for 'environmentally friendly'. "Just one moment alone with my sister, please." Elsa grabbed Anna's hand and took her around the side of the car to the fuel tank opening. "Anna, can you fill up the fuel tank? Please?"
Anna grinned and obliged. "Yeah, sure!" She sent a stream of water flying into the fuel tank. Soon the tank was full. "Um, Elsa…can you make the water stop?"
"Anna! YOU have to make the water stop! Not me!" Elsa whispered frantically. Argh, why did I ask Anna to do that?! I knew she didn't really know how to control it!
"I can't, Elsa! It isn't working!" Anna whispered back. "And I…um, I think the fuel tank is full…" Anna's eyes grew big as she stared at the water now overflowing out of the fuel tank.
Elsa bit her lip and froze the water in the fuel tank. That left Anna shooting a stream of water at the ground by the curb. What am I supposed to do?! Elsa's eyes fell on the storm drain. "Anna, send the water down that drain thing. Now. Please try to control it. Please! I'm so sorry I stuck you with this!"
"Elsa, it's my fault, not yours…you did say not to drink the water you made…" Anna tried to make Elsa feel better.
"What's going on over there?" the policeman called.
"Nothing! We're almost ready!" Elsa called back. Wait…every time Anna has trouble controlling the water, she's hyper and excited…the opposite of excited is bored… "Anna, I think I know how your powers work! Try to think of something really, really boring."
"What? Well, ok, I'm sure you know more about it than me…" Anna closed her eyes and thought hard. Boring…something boring…ooh, I know! Drawing blueprints. Well, it's boring to me anyways. "Did it work?"
"Yes!" Elsa exclaimed in relief. Thank goodness. "Anna, when you're excited and hyper, the water goes crazy. When you're bored-or, at least, think of something boring-you can easily control it," she explained.
"Wait, what? So I gotta be bored all the time?" Anna asked, frowning. "Can't I just get some gloves or something? They helped you before, at least some."
"No, you may not do any such thing," Elsa almost snapped. "I will not have you doing any of the inane coping skills I did when I was little. We'll figure this out together. And no, you don't have to be bored. Just avoid getting…overly hyper and excited," she finished, realizing that she was asking Anna to avoid a very common feeling of hers. Great. I can't make Anna not be herself… Elsa turned away from her sister, trying to think of a solution to their problem.
Anna took Elsa's shoulders and turned her back around. "Elsa. Listen to me. There is no way I can keep from being hyper or excited, even just until we get home. I really would rather get some gloves. Elsa, please don't blame yourself for this. It isn't your fault one bit."
"But Anna…you'll be concealing and not feeling, and I'm telling you from personal experience it's going to end up exploding at the worst possible time!" Elsa replied in a distressed tone.
Elsa's almost crying, Anna thought when she noticed the tears starting to fill her sister's eyes. She's more upset about this than I am. "Elsa, I…" Anna broke off as the policeman evidently had finally had enough of waiting on them and walked over.
"We…acquired some water," Elsa said as she struggled to pull herself together. I don't need anyone knowing what's going on. "So let's go." She climbed into the ice-car and directed Anna to sit in the passenger seat. The four guards and the policeman piled into the two rows of seats behind them. "Could you give directions to a bank, please?"
"Uh, Elsa…d'you want someone else to drive?" Anna asked.
"You just want to drive yourself," Elsa teased. "And no…since there's just the one steering wheel, I can do it myself." Elsa started the engine and pulled away from the curb onto the street. "Directions, please?"
"Queen Elsa, have you ever driven a car before?" the policeman asked.
"No…I want directions to the bank, please," Elsa replied.
"And the first time she drives, she has a broken arm and she makes an entire car out of ice," the policeman muttered. "Take a right at the stoplight," he said in a normal voice.
"I heard all of that," Elsa replied with just a hint of amusement as Anna started giggling beside her. "What is a stoplight?"
What is a stoplight?! "The pole with the lights on it about a block up the street…Red means stop, green means go…"
"Okay, thank you." Elsa took a right as instructed.
By the time they reached the bank, Elsa felt completely embarrassed. She had had to ask what certain signs were for. She found out she wasn't technically supposed to be driving a car anyway-she didn't have a driver's license. She had nearly caused several accidents because other cars slowed down to look at the ice-car. And worst of all, the ice-car did not work exactly as Elsa intended.
The ice-car's acceleration speed was abnormally fast. Forget 0-60 in five seconds. Elsa's ice-car could do 0-60 in about two seconds flat. When the directions she was given sent them off an exit ramp onto the interstate, Elsa had had to abruptly stop the ice-car when a car in front broke down. Elsa steered around the stopped vehicle, stopped to make sure no one was coming; then all of a sudden the ice-car went zooming onto the interstate at 65 miles an hour and everyone, including Elsa herself, screamed at the sudden acceleration. "ELSAAA! WHAT DID YOU DO?" Anna screeched. Once everyone realized that it was just the simple fact that the ice-car could accelerate unusually quickly, everyone had a good laugh except Elsa, who just wished she could disappear. "I didn't know my ice-car would do that," she apologized.
Then there was the fact that the ice-car's exhaust pipe ended up leaking fuel. This would have been fine, except that the dripping water turned into ice upon hitting the road, which confused Elsa to no end. Why would dripping water turn to ice when it was 78 degrees Fahrenheit outside, according to Elsa's internal thermometer? I'm never going to figure out why my powers do certain things… So there was a slippery trail of ice on the road, which made other cars skid if they had not noticed it. After all, nobody expected ice to be on the road when it wasn't even the end of August yet. Elsa vowed to herself that she would never, ever make anything else complicated without drawing a blueprint of it first. This was an absolute disaster.
Parked in the bank's parking lot, Elsa just said, "Well, that was an…enlightening experience, I daresay." And embarrassing and mortifying and cringeworthy…
In the bank, Elsa and Anna had issues trying to exchange their gold bars for U.S. currency because neither of them were carrying an ID with them.
"Ma'am, I do apologize, but neither my sister nor I brought a form of identification with us. To be quite honest, we don't own one," Elsa tried to explain. "Will this suffice?" Elsa made a snowflake in her left hand and held it out to the teller.
The teller frowned. "What if there is another person besides Queen Elsa of Arendelle that can do that?"
Elsa slammed her palm on the counter in frustration. Seriously?! "Well, excuse me, but I am twenty-one years old, and never, EVER have I even heard of someone besides myself with ice powers. And believe me, I have done a lot of reading. Look, I have gold bars that I would like to exchange for U.S. currency. If you suspect they're counterfeit, why not inspect them for yourself? I assure you they are solid gold through and through. Not pyrite or something."
"The bank has to have a detailed record in its database of transactions this large, and we can't do that without the information off an ID."
"What is a database?" Elsa asked. Frustrating, frustrating, frustrating. Why do I keep having to ask stupid questions? "My sister and I could just tell you our information instead if that's all you need."
The teller gave her a puzzled look. "It's just a structured set of data held in a computer…And how does the bank know that you are saying the correct information without seeing an ID?"
"What's a computer?" Anna piped up.
"Don't bother answering that," Elsa told the teller. "I believe that's some sort of electronic device, correct?"
The teller nodded.
"So you're informing me that you want to put my sister's and my personal information on an electronic device and store it there. I don't think I like that. How do we know that someone won't break into the database thing and steal our information?" Elsa asked. She thought for a moment before adding, "The whole prospect sounds like an invasion of privacy."
"The bank has a lifetime guarantee that it will not give your information out to any third parties."
"And what if a thief breaks into the database?" Elsa pressed. "How do you prevent that from occurring?"
"Some bad person could steal somebody else's identity at that rate!" Anna exclaimed, realizing what Elsa was thinking.
"Wait, I have an ingenious solution. Proceed with the personal information questions, please." Elsa smirked slightly and waited for the first question.
"What are you going to do?" the teller asked.
"Answer your questions…my way," Elsa replied. I'm not giving all my sister's and my personal info to a stranger.
"How do I know you're telling the truth since you two don't have ID's?"
"I think it will be quite obvious if I am lying," Elsa quipped. "We can just do one right now…I will just combine both my sister's transaction and mine. That way you only need one set of information." She turned to Anna and added, "Don't worry-half the money is still yours. It'll just be simpler this way."
Anna immediately agreed. She knew Elsa must have some sort of plan or something.
The teller pushed a form across the counter to Elsa, who immediately started looking it over. Awesome, I think my idea will work. She picked up the pen attached to the skinny chain on the counter (which Elsa thought was strange-who would steal a pen?). Name: Queen Elsa of Arendelle. DOB: "Excuse me, ma'am; what does 'DOB' stand for?"
"Date of birth…"
DOB: 21 years ago. She did not want to put in the exact date. Elsa quickly filled out the form, putting 'N/A' for 'not applicable' every time that was a choice, whether it was technically true or not. The less concrete information she put down, the better. No, she was not part of the U.S. military. No, she did not have a driver's license. Yes, she was 21 years of age or older. Which is a good thing or I wouldn't be able to do this at all, she thought when she read the next question, which said 'If you answered 'No' to the previous question, are your parents present to give permission and signature?' They're dead…I wouldn't be able to get permission at all. Except…I don't think they'd give me permission to do this in the first place. Elsa's mind went off on a tangent as she thought about what her parents might think if they knew where she was and what she was doing right now. I don't know what Mom and Dad would think of me now. Would they be angry with me for using my powers in public? Or would they be proud of me that I finally learned how to control it? The down-to-earth part of Elsa's mind figured that they would probably be disappointed in her for using her powers in public, but be at least a little pleased that she could control it now. Okay, back to the present, Elsa.
Elsa finished filling out the form, sans social security number since she did not have one. She carefully printed her name where she was supposed to give her signature, and then pushed the form back across the counter to the teller. "I'm done with it." The only personal information they're getting is my name, that I'm 21, that I'm not in the U.S. military, and that I don't have a driver's license. If somebody wants to steal that info, I don't care, since I'm sure any random stranger could know those things.
The teller quickly read through Elsa's answers. "You didn't put in a social security number."
Elsa sighed. "I don't have a social security number. What is that anyway? It sounds like you're keeping track of human beings like a herd of animals."
The teller ignored Elsa's comment about what she thought of social security numbers. "And you were supposed to give your signature at the bottom, not just print your name again…"
"I'm actually right-handed…" Elsa blushed and gestured at her broken arm resting in its sling. She probably just assumed I was left-handed and didn't follow the form instructions right… "I can print with my left hand, but I can't do cursive or my usual signature…sorry."
"You filled out this whole form with your non-writing hand? It's awfully neat if that's the case…"
Neat?! She thinks that's neat? I thought it was sloppy and looked like a little kid wrote it! Elsa wasn't sure what to say, so she said nothing.
"Well, can we trade our gold bars for money now?" Anna asked eagerly. "I can't wait to go buy my DC of 'Ready to Go'!"
"I think you mean 'CD'," the teller told her. "And yes…"
"Wait. How do we know that you're giving us a fair exchange?" Elsa asked. The bank could cheat us and not give us enough U.S. currency in exchange and Anna and I wouldn't even know the difference.
"I think that you haven't much room to argue since technically, you are not supposed to be doing this at all without actual ID's."
Elsa pursed her lips in annoyance. "If that's the way it is then." Boy, some people are so rude…
The teller came back with a fat envelope of money.
Elsa said thank you, and turned to leave the bank, her sparkling cape trailing behind her. She ignored all the other people in line staring at her and Anna and held her head high as she strode out of that building. Stupid bank. I never want to go in there again unless I really, really need to. All this for Anna's dumb CD…and I'll bet we need some sort of contraption to play it on, too. Great.
A/N: I had fun picking on our modern world in this chapterXD My dad said you usually wouldn't trade gold bars for U.S. money at a bank, but it's my story, so I say they can.:P Anyway...
Next chapter coming soon!:)