Chapter 2: Things are getting Ice Kold

Here's the second chapter to the story, featuring a new OC made by a friend of mines. Hope you like him as much as I liked writing him ^^

Running across the open field, Joe was continuing his travels with his two Wisp buddies at his side. After his last gig in Barricade Town, he stayed there for a few days before deciding to adventure off to another town. He had managed to run a good way off, but after what had been half a day of nonstop running he began to slow down to a stop. He panted heavily as the two Wisps looked at him with concern.

"I'm good guys… don't worry… I'm fine." He assured them both while catching his breath. "Sonic definitely has a heck of a lot of stamina to run so much like he does, even if I'm not as fast as him I definitely made some distance away from where we were. Maybe we can take a little break before starting again."

The Wisps nodded in agreement, Joe found himself a large tree to lay under and looked off at the clear blue sky. "With it being so nice and warm out, it feels good to just let the sun beam down on us." He closed his eyes as he began to relax more, simply enjoying the warmth as he drifted into slumber. Joe could feel the warm breeze blow on his cheek, but then he felt an odd chill crawl down his back; the chill grew stronger to the point it felt like something was freezing him, "Gah! W-W-What the heck!?" He jumped to his feet and quickly zipped up his hoodie. "The sun is still out, so why does it feel like winter all of a sudden?"

The bear suddenly caught the sound of an explosion as the head of an Egg Pawn fell by the tree. "Whoa, did you see where that head came from?" Void answered by flying in the direction it saw the robot fly from. "Alright, let's check it out then."

The three followed in the direction of where the explosions came from, the cold from before growing even stronger, Joe could feel his fur growing stiff and freezing the further they went on. As they climbed up to the highest hill top, the three looked in awe at what had transpired.

A whole field had turned into an icy wonderland, pillars of ice pointed to the sky as the empty bodies of Badniks were impaled upon them. He could see small animals running away from the scene relieved that they weren't frozen in the aftermath, but he saw something else standing in the middle of the ice; their long tail was that of a fox, from the ice blue color of their fur and the tuft of white fur that went around their neck and atop their head, he guessed they were none other than an arctic fox. The fox stood wearing a green sash around their waist, matching the same color of his gloves and boots that had yellow on their sides. Joe wasn't sure why they were there, but he quickly reacted when he noticed a still living Egg Pawn readying its arm cannon.

"Hey, lookout!" Joe warned as he shot his grapple wire towards the icy scene, he flew down fast as it connected to the Egg pawn and managed to smash its head under his feet right on time. A little bird popped out of the machine and flew away from the icy cold. "That was a close one. Hey, are you alright?"

"Did I ask for your help?" The fox scoffed as he walked off from the bear. "I'm not thanking you, so just get lost."

"Wha? Hey, wait a second!" Joe called, following after the fox. "Do you know what happened here? This whole spot is a frozen tundra, were those Badniks using some sort of ice machine?"

"What made you think that? Was it the robots frozen and pierced by ice? Or just your deductive reasoning skills?" He responded bluntly.

"I like to say it's the latter… hey wait!" Joe continued to follow the fox as he walked faster.

"I'm warning you, bear. If you keep following me…"

"Come on, stop being so defensive and let's just-ow!?" The bear winced as a sharp cold hit his hand the moment he touched the fox's shoulder. He looked at his palm and saw small shards of ice on his palm. "What the-!?"

"I warned you, but you didn't listen to me. I guess in the end… you've chosen death." The fox faced Joe with a cold gaze, the ground under his feet began to freeze as he held out his hand. "Don't say I didn't warn you."

Seeing the ice grow in the fox's hand, Joe quickly leaned back as far as he could to dodge a large shard of ice that fired out in front of him. He quickly fired his grapple wire behind him and flew a few feet away as spikes of ice rose up from where he stood. "No way! Do you have ice powers? That's so cool… pun intended!" Joe grinned from ear to ear, only confusing the fox.

"I almost impaled you and you get all giddy over my powers?" He asked. "Honestly, what's your deal?"

"I could tell you if you're done trying to attack me." Joe's response was met by shards of ice floating above the fox's head.

"I'm not."

Joe quickly began to run, dodging and jumping over the ice being fired at him. He quickly regretted the direction he ran as he slid along the frozen field. The ice in front of him began to grow spike pillars, ready to impale him before he fired a wire towards an ice pillar to pull himself away.

"Mind if I ask? Do you know some of Sonic's friends? I heard some have psychic powers just like this." He quickly fired his grapple wire again and flung towards another pillar to dodge an attack. The fox growled as Joe hung against the pillar. "Are you from the future like the silver hedgehog? Or maybe you're friends with the cat girl with fire powers?"

"Is it really that hard for you to shut up and fight?" The fox focused his sight on the pillar Joe hung from, the bear quickly jumped away as a new spike formed on the spot of the pillar he stood on. He smirked however as the moment the bear landed on the ground, he raised his hand to the air and encased him in a cage of ice. "You had enough yet?"

"I wouldn't say that, right Void?" Joe grinned as he pulled out a purple void wispon, the little purple alien flew in just in time to fly into the gun. The bear suddenly disappeared in a flash of purple light.

"A Wispon?" The fox growled as he looked around his surroundings, circling around for where Joe had gone when a chill went down his back and it wasn't from his powers.

"Whew! I know this is a little redundant, but can you please chill out?" Joe sighed in relief from the quick save, he pointed his Wispon at the fox's back to keep him from trying anything. "I gotta say, the way you use those powers is pretty rock… ice solid. I would've been in a deep chill if I didn't have my buddies help out. So, have you cooled off yet?"

"I swear, if anything… I'm gonna kill you just for those ice puns." The fox snarled.

"Sorry. I swear that was the last one then, I'll let'em freeze over now… oh wait." Joe snickered but was quickly silenced by a kick that threw his Wispon out of his hand. The fox performed a handstand and spun, throwing kick after kick as the bear narrowly dodged until he felt a hard boot hit his gut. He fell on his behind and the moment he did a set of ice spikes shot from the ground and held down his hands and feet. "Ngh. Ice powers and good at hand to hand? You're definitely…"

"One more pun, and I freeze your voice box." He cut him off. "I've got some questions before I end this. You had a Wispon, so why didn't you use it sooner? You could've had the advantage sooner."

"I wasn't trying to fight you, I only wanted to talk." Joe explained. "I mean, you don't seem like a bad guy to me."

"Are you blind? Have you noticed the frozen robots impaled by ice?"

"Yes, but all the animals powering them escaped without any harm. You could've frozen them as well but made sure they'd be free and escape without trouble." He smiled at the fox. "So that means behind the cold exterior… you're a nice guy." Joe felt his body stiffen when he saw an ice spear pointed at his face. "Wasn't meant as a pun! I swear!"

"Ngh…" The fox rolled his eyes and quickly dispelled the spear along with the ice holding Joe in place. "Are all bears as annoyingly friendly as you? Or is that just a thing you do?"

"I do think I'm friendlier than the average bear." Joe grinned, jumping back to his feet. "Now then, how about some introductions? I'm Joe the Bear, what's your name?"

"... It's Kold." The fox gave in.

"Well I mean, yeah. All the ice around of course it's…"

"Kold with a K, doofus!"

"Ooooh… makes more sense." The bear chuckled. "So tell me, Kold. What were you doing here with all these robots?"

"And why should I tell you?" He questioned as he walked away, but the bear followed.

"Cause I thought I could help if you're in any danger. Or just get to know you better." Joe smiled.

"And you're not gonna leave me alone until I talk are you?"

"... Yes."

Kold sighed in defeat. "I just saw some random Badniks, so I decided to smash them. They weren't much of a threat, but it's better they don't come near the town west of here."

"There's a town near here? Awesome, I was looking for one to rest in." Joe responded. "But are you sure that was all of them? That was a pretty small amount, and Eggman isn't the type to just leave a small amount of robots like that."

"What point would he need to send an army to a small town?"

The bear was about to answer when a sudden bird's cry rang in their ears, the sound more mechanical than real as something fast flew over them. They looked towards the sky and saw a large robot hawk flying around them, and soon they could see several Egg Pawns dropping around them.

"You should never underestimate that Egghead…" Joe raised his fists to fight when the fox stepped in front of him.

"Nothing I can't handle. Just stay out of the way." Kold waved his hand as he formed spears of ice around them and fired at the Badniks, but the robots raised their cannons and unleashed a blast of fire that melted the ice before they made contact. "What!?"

"Flamethrowers, looks like that last fight gave them your weakness." Joe warned.

"Just great!" The fox quickly raised a wall of ice around them to block the second wave of flames, but the fire was continuous and soon his ice began to melt against the heat. "Ngh! Can't… hold on…"

The ice soon broke as a flash of lightning whipped around them and destroyed the robots in front of them, Kold watched as the bear beside him struck them down with a Lightning Wispon. "You had another one of those?" He questioned in surprise.

"Never said I only had one." Joe grinned as he swung his Wispon behind him, lashing the other Badniks with a lightning whip. "You may not like it, but it looks like you and I are gonna have to work together to get out of this."

"You're right… I do hate this." Kold huffed as more badniks began to drop from above, but they were instantly impaled by spikes of ice that rose from the ground under them. "But I can't be picky right now, can I?"

As more robots dropped down, the two made their attacks. The badniks fired their flamethrowers, but Kold quickly deflected them with another wall of ice; Joe jumped over the wall and fired his grapple wire at a robot, flinging himself towards them in his ball form and smashing one after another as he bounced about like a pinball.

He skidded along the ground, heading right for the Void Wispon he dropped and grabbed it just in time to use its power to warp into the air away from a volley of flames. "Hehe, nice try!" He fired the Wispon and unleashed a ray of light down to the ground. It unleashed a large purple dome that encased the badniks, sucking them towards the center and smashing them together with enough force to destroy them.

"Hah! That took care of them!" Joe exclaimed.

"Don't celebrate yet! There's still that!" Kold pointed back to the robot hawk that dove down at them, he quickly formed a wall of ice as it unleashed a breath of fire down on them before rising into the sky. "We've gotta find a way to get that thing, but it's too high to reach. It'll just melt my ice away."

"I think I have an idea." The bear grinned as he took Kold's hand.

"What are you doing?" Kold questioned as he watched the bear's gaze towards the hawk, the large robot was turning and preparing to dive again. "Hey. Hey! No!"

"Yes."

"No!" The hawk was getting closer.

"Oh yeah, we're doing this!"

The large hawk dove down and flew under them at high speed, as they ducked to avoid it, Joe quickly shot and connected his grapple wire to the bird. The moment it rose to the sky, the two were pulled into the air right behind it. "I HATE THIS PLAN!" Kold yelled as they flew further from the ground.

"Quickly, make a spear of ice. As big as you can! I'm gonna pull us right to it!" Joe began to retract his grapple wire, pulling the two of them towards the hawk as fast as possible. "Do it!"

"Don't rush me!" Kold was annoyed but did as told, creating a massive spear of ice in his hand. And as soon as they got close enough, the spear did its job and pierced straight through the robot's body. The ice pierced right into the robot's power core, causing it to explode on impact. "Do I gotta do everything!?" Kold quickly formed a trail of ice underneath them, the two sliding along the frozen road until they landed safely back on the ground.

"Wahoo! Now that was an awesome finisher, huh?" Joe grinned.

"Seriously? That was begging to get you killed, what would you have done if I didn't save your butt?" The fox argued.

"Probably burned to a crisp… kinda like how you would've been if I wasn't there to save you." He grinned, shooting back the remark. "In the end, we were able to help each other. We make a pretty good team, just like Sonic and Tails."

"Oh, so you're making me the sidekick cause I'm also a fox?"

"What? No way, those two are partners! No sidekicks involved!" Joe's response fell silent at first, but the fox turned away when he distinctly heard the sound of a chuckle. "Hey! Don't think I didn't hear that chuckle of yours!"

"Whatever… After all of that, I think I'm done for today." Kold began to walk off in the direction of the nearest town. "I guess I should thank you for the help… Joe right?"

"That's right! I'm just your average, traveling DJ bear."

"You're a DJ?" He questioned.

"That's right! And what about you?" Joe asked. "Do you travel around too? Or is the town you are heading to your home?"

"You don't know me well enough to ask that." Kold answered bluntly. "Still I… guess I owe you for the help."

"Owe me, huh?"

"Why don't I… I dunno… join you?" He blushed from the suggestion. "At least until you play your next gig? I wanna hear you play."

"Really? So you're gonna join us?" Joe grinned as his Wisp friends flew about in excitement. "Okay, it's a deal! But I bet you're gonna join me even after that!"

"I doubt it… now hurry up will ya?" Kold smiled.

"Aww come on, you can chill out a little if we're gonna be adventuring together."

"If you're gonna keep throwing those puns, I'll be putting you in an icy grave!"

"Hehe, you sure are Ice Kold."

The arctic fox groaned in absolute annoyance, but a small smile grew on his face at the thought of his first ever companion at his side. He just hoped he could handle his antics.