Back in Nina's tower, the evil fairy growled as she watched the group still flying towards her.
"Argh!" she turned away from her crystal ball and hissed. "It seems that I underestimated the group gravely,"
"We told you so," Phoenix chuckled.
"Blaze and his friends are powerful, especially when they put their heads together," Flame smirked.
"Mm-Hmm…" Nina glared over at them before twirling her tires, icy blue magic now appearing in the air. "You're right. I shouldn't have underestimated them… so I won't,"
From her magic, ice lions appeared behind her, each with a dark mane as they let out a roar. Phoenix's face fell before growling at the evil fairy.
"Don't you dare, Nina!" she cried out.
"Oh, but I AM daring," Nina scoffed with a snicker. "Now go, my little pets. Freeze those goodie-goods in their place!"
The ice lions gave a bow before disappearing in an icy flash. Flame and Phoenix exchanged worried glances, hoping that their children and their friends could handle what was gonna come to them…
Meanwhile, the group were making their way over the tall, snow-filled mountains when a snow storm came.
"Let's take cover user those trees!" Blaze called out to his friends.
They followed with no complain, even Crusher, who was shivering but still had Pickle close to him under his wing to help him warm up. They landed on a branch under one of the huge, snow-covered trees and huddled around a fire that AJ was able to create.
Watts and Starla wrapped their wings around each other, with Gabby in the middle to help her warm her up since they had the mechanic had no appropriate clothing for the cold. Pickle was in between Crusher's tires and wings, the dark blue truck shivering at the cold but surprisingly not caring as he hugged the green truck. Stripes cuddled up to himself, with Zeg beside him as they both closed their wings on themselves. Blaze held Darington close, a wing over him as the stunt truck shuddered and cuddled up against him. Sparkle was under her brother's other wing, lightly shivering as she rested her wings.
AJ finished up the fire to make sure it didn't evaporate because of the storm before turning to them. He gazed at each of them with sigh. Blaze looked up at him and smiled.
"Come on, AJ. You need to warm up too,"
AJ nodded with a smile before making his way over, squeezing in between Darington and Sparkle. He wrapped his wings around him and sighed in relief.
"Blaze…"
"I know, buddy," Blaze released a heavy sigh. "I'm not sure that this was such a good idea either,"
"To drag them all the way here…" AJ shuddered and spared a glance at Gabby before shaking his head. "I'm just glad that snow storms here don't last long,"
"Yeah, good thing," Blaze nodded in agreement. "I just wish there was a way for us to—"
"ROOOOAAAAAARRRR!"
Everyone jumped at the sudden loud roar from nearby.
"What was that?!" Crusher questioned.
"It's… probably nothing, right?" Pickle laughed nervously, snuggling closer to the other.
Suddenly, there was a blast of ice, and everyone jumped up, hovering up from the branch to find it frosted over. They all gasped and turned to see a group of lions, eyes red as flames but bodies as blue as crystals.
"What are those?!" Darington cried out.
"Ice lions!" AJ flicked his hands, causing flames to appear from them. "A pride of them!"
"Get back!" Blaze called out as one of the ice lions jumped to pounce.
Everyone scattered as the red truck zoomed around the ice lion with his super speed, causing it to burst into crystals, which then disintegrated into black smoke.
Another ice lion pounced, ice blasting from it's roar. AJ melted the ice immediately before throwing a fire blast, causing the lion to evaporate into black smoke.
"Two down!" Sparkle grinned but gulped when she looked down at the pride. "…too many left to take down,"
The other lions growled at them before blasting out more ice. The group began to scatter to avoid getting hit. Pickle flew near the tree and yelped when he saw an ice blast being aimed at him.
"GAH!" He frantically twirled his tires around, forest green magic floating out in attempt to use his magic.
Much to his delight, his magic was able to transform the ice blast into stone. The lion was frustrated and roared out more ice blast, but Pickle had gained confidence and was shooting out his magic, turning the blasts into other things like bubbles, snowflakes and flowers.
"Go Pickle!"
"Wa-hoo!"
The others cheered at their friend as each of the blasts were all transformed into different objects. Pickle turned to them and smiled.
"Aww, thanks, guys— AAH!"
Pickle screamed as one of his wings got hit, causing him to fall on the frozen branch with a hiss. The friends gasped.
"PICKLE!"
They flew down to the green truck, who leaned against the tree bark. AJ headed to his frozen wing and started to de-frost it.
"Are you okay?" Blaze asked.
"A little cold, but okay!" Pickle gave him and everyone else a smile.
Crusher frowned, but before he could say anything, he heard a roar from behind them and turned to find the ice lion preparing a blast. He screamed and tried to fly away, his wings suddenly blasting out a white, transparent force field all around them as his eyes glowed bright lavender.
"Woah!" Stripes gasped. "What's happening?!"
"Crusher's making… a shield?" Watts blinked in surprise.
"It's a force field!" Starla cried out. "And it's blocking out the ice blasts!"
Truth be told, every ice blast hit at them evaporated into black smoke as soon as it touched the force field. The ice lions didn't stop and fired more ice blasts at them, each blast getting bigger than the last.
"The blasts are getting bigger!" Darington pointed out.
"We need to destroy those ice lions before the force field breaks!" Sparkle told them.
"But how?!" Gabby questioned.
"Yeah, I don't think Crusher knows what he's actually doing!" Starla said, pointing at the dark blue truck, who looked really out of it while still holding up the force field. "How are we going to get him to expand the force field?!"
"GAH!" Pickle screamed as a blast heading towards him gave him a shock.
Crusher growled and flapped his wings again, causing the force field to grow larger and larger until it turned into a powerful sonic blast. The ice lions wailed as they were hit before disappearing into crystals and dark smoke.
"Woah…" AJ gasped.
"Crusher!" Pickle cried out as the dark blue truck lowered himself to the tree branch with a groan.
"P-Pickle…?" Crusher weakly got up, eyes back to normal as he felt a shudder down his back. "W-What just happened…?"
"You made a force field!" Sparkle said. "And destroyed the ice lions!"
"Huh, I'm starting to think that Crusher's magic IS creation," AJ thought out loud.
"Well, Pickle's is the magic of transformation," Blaze told them with a smile.
"Transformation? Cool!" Pickle clapped his tires together. "Just like with my wand!"
"We still don't know our magic," Watts sighed, staring up at her wings.
"Don't worry, Watts," Gabby reassured her. "There's still a long way to go! We can still discover our magic,"
"And we better get going," Blaze spoke, concern laced in his voice. "With the fire leopards and the ice lions, it's already pretty obvious that Nina knows that we're coming,"
"What do we do with that, Blaze?" AJ asked, finishing up Pickle's defrosted wings.
"We'll just have to be prepared with whatever she throws at us," Blaze told him before turning. "Come on, everyone. Nina's castle is this way,"