A/N: Hey everyone! Glad you could join us because Episode Three of "Life is Abominable" had just begun! I hope everyone had a Happy New Year and a Merry Christmas, because I know I sure did. I got Abominable as a stocking stuffer, so it's going to be a big help in writing this story. Max and Chloe's adventure to help get Everest home continues right now! So, enjoy!
Previously on Life is Abominable...
Max, Chloe, and Yi have been caught by Jin and Peng who have discovered Everest on the roof of the apartment. Max freezes Jin in time to stop him from calling the police, but the call went through regardless and Burnish Industries showed up to attempt to recapture the Yeti. Everest runs away from the helicopter with Max, Chloe, and Yi on his back and manage to get away with the help of Max's newest additions to her rewind powers as well as a blinding light show on the Oriental Pearl Tower. After boarding the ship to Eastern China, Jin and Peng also tag along on their journey and hear Max retell the story of what happened back in Arcadia Bay in October 2013. Everest also manages to speak inside Max's thoughts, calling her his 'Mama', and revealing that he is only a child who was taken from his parents by Burnish and their sadistic zoologist friend, Emily Zara...
Somewhere Along the Southern Chinese Shore. 7:23 AM
(Start playing 'On Melancholy Hill' by Gorillaz as you read this next part of the story until it says to stop)
Max slowly opened her eyes to reveal she was still cuddling into Everest's big white fluffy belly with his arms wrapped around her. She didn't mind though, in fact, Everest was comfier and warmer than any bed she had ever slept in. Everest was still soundly sleeping and was breathing through his nose as he slept. Max crept out from underneath the Yeti's large arms and jumped down onto the ship's concrete floor.
"I'll let him rest just a little while longer" said Max to herself before walking over to the edge of the ship and began gazing all the way out to the ocean. Max only smiled at the beautiful sight before taking her Polaroid out of her bag and looked right through the viewfinder. After a minute or two of trying to find the perfect angle, Max pressed the button and took a photo. The sound of the camera printing the photo out was enough to wake the young Yeti up, and he let out a yawn. Max turned around to see Everest was awake and rubbing the sleep out of his eyes as he sat up.
"Oh, hey buddy" Max said as she took the photo and placed it in her bag alongside her Polaroid.
"Did I wake you up?" asked Max in her thoughts. Everest only let out a tired yawn and nodded after he finished.
"Sorry about that. Just couldn't resist taking a picture" said Max in her mind still. The two of them then heard the sound of footsteps approaching and they turned their heads to see Chloe and Yi walking towards them.
"About time you two woke up" Chloe said with her hands on her hips and a smirk on her face.
"Yeah, we were starting to worry that you weren't gonna wake up" Yi said.
"Well, we're up and at 'em now. So, don't worry about it" Max said before giving Everest a gentle pat on his forehead.
"Okay enough sleepy-times. Peng and Jin are awake too, and we need to discuss the path we're gonna take to the Himalayas" Chloe said before walking away. Max looked up to Everest and the Yeti only nodded without his human surrogate-mother having to say anything before they walked over to join the others.
"I had no idea how beautiful it was out here. The world is... so much bigger than I thought it was" Max whispered to herself as she looked out to the small islands she passed while walking alongside Everest. Max then saw Jin was talking on the phone, and Peng's eyes lit up the minute he saw his new fluffy white friend and ran up to Everest, shouting out his name before giving him a hug.
"Yeah, Ma. Beijing is, um, great. The dorms... the dorms are clean" Jin said to his mother who was on the other end of the phone. Max gave a small smile at that, at least Jin was giving a solid and believable alibi instead of just selling them out.
"Peng? Oh, Peng is, uh..." Jin said before pausing in mid-sentence to look at Peng looking inside Everest's mouth and commenting on how much teeth the young Yeti had.
"Yeah, Peng is fine!" Jin concluded. Yi then ran up to Jin and waved her arms at him and pointed at herself to catch his attention.
"Oh, and Yi came to. Yeah, Mm-Hmm. She's uh, checking out the university. And Max and Chloe tagged along too. Yeah, the blue haired girl who played with Peng the other day" said Jin. Max then heard a loud thud and turned behind her to see Peng and Everest looking inside a giant wooden crate full of red Coca-Cola cans. Peng excitedly grabbed a can out of the box and opened it.
"Soda!? Oh, yeah! Mom never lets me have any!" he exclaimed before taking in a large sip. He then grabbed another can and got ready to toss it to Everest.
"Catch!" Peng exclaimed before tossing the can over to the Yeti. Before he could catch it though, Max held out her right hand and turned her wrist to the right, pausing the can in mid-air.
"Peng! We don't know if Everest can have that stuff or not" Max said before walking over and snatching the can out of mid-air and taking it into her hand.
"Come on, Max. One can't won't hurt him" Peng said.
"You don't know that. Human bodies and Yeti bodies have different genetic structures, what's good to us may be bad for them. It's like giving a dog chocolate" Max softly reprimanded the young boy. After hearing a grunt come from Everest, Max turned her head to face him. Everest was whimpering, extending his lower lip out, and giving the widest and saddest eyes she had ever seen.
"Everest? When did you even learn how to do the 'Puppy-Dog Pout'? I haven't used that since Chloe and I were tweens" Max said using her telepathic link with Everest. Everest didn't answer though, and continued his puppy-like pout and whimper technique. Max then just exhaled before giving a small smile to the young Yeti.
"Alright, but you can only have one. Deal?" asked Max with her voice. Everest only reply was a nod, and his puppy-dog face was gone. Max tossed the can over to Everest, whom caught it in his mouth before biting down into the aluminum surface with a tooth and the entire thing exploded into his mouth. Everest's eyes went wide and his pupils shrunk to the size of pebbles.
"Oh Jeebus, what have I done?" Max whispered to herself when she saw Everest acting hyper and running around laughing.
"Hey! Mad-Max! Come over here!" Chloe's voice called out to her.
"Alright, you two behave yourselves. I gotta check in with the others" Max said to Peng and Everest before walking over to speak with Chloe, Yi, and Jin. After Max was no longer within view of the two kids, they looked back to the giant crate full of coke and got wide smiles on their faces before they began treating themselves to more.
(You can stop playing the song now)
"Glad you could join us, Max" Jin said before placing his phone back in his pocket.
"Did your mom buy your alibi?" asked Max.
"Yeah, fortunately. She'd KILL me if she knew where it was Peng and I really were" said Jin.
"I gotta say, Jin, that was a pretty convincing lie. I've had to come up with one or two alibis myself during my Blackwell days. Even when I snuck out of the house to go see that Firewalk concert at the old mill outside of Arcadia Bay. You may be a better liar than I am" said Chloe before she sat down on the floor with her legs crossed.
"Whatever. I cannot believe you made me lie to my mother you blue-haired punk!" Jin scoffed before sitting down across from her.
"Alright, let's come up with our route" Yi piped in.
"Right. Max? I believe we bought a map the day we left, right?" Chloe asked.
"Oh, yeah actually. It's in my bag, I think" Max said.
"Take it out and lay it down on the floor" Chloe gently ordered. Max then reached into her camera-bag and took out the map of China she had purchased while shopping for trip supplies with Chloe. After opening the map up, she laid it flat down onto the surface.
"Perfect, anybody got a pen?" asked Yi. Max then reached into the side pocket of her bag and took out a red sharpie pen.
"Here, I use this for writing in my journal sometimes" Max said as she handed it to the Chinese teen.
"This will do nicely. Thanks" Yi said before she drew a red dot along the shore of Southern China.
"Okay, so this is where the boat stops. And once we land, we need to go over the Yellow Mountain. After that we have to travel along the Yangtze River, so we're going to have to find a boat or anyone who's willing to help us when we get to that point. The river should take us most of the way to the Himalayas, we'll have to walk the rest of the way though until we reach Mt. Everest" Yi said as she drew a thick red line across the map and making big red dots along various locations.
"Sounds like a plan. I like it" Max said.
"Yeah, this can work. We'll take it" Chloe added before standing up. Jin's eyed widened in disbelief and spoke up once he was back on his feet.
"Woah, wait. Mt. Everest? No, no, no. That has to be hundreds of miles away!" Jin exclaimed.
"Actually, it's THOUSANDS!" a new voice piped in and everyone's eyes were on Peng who was balancing a stack of coke cans on his palm.
"Peng! I thought I said no more than one!" Max scolded before running after him and saw Everest was lying down on a large pile of empty red cans.
"Everest! What the Hell is wrong with you? I thought we had a deal!" Max exclaimed in her mind to make sure Everest knew she was mad that he broke their agreement on the soda. Everest then sat up and looked at Max with a look on his face that normally a toddler would get when they knew they did something wrong and were about to be put in a time-out or have a toy taken away from them.
"First you get hyper, then you have a sugar crash. Then, before you know it you're going to have to pee real bad! This is exactly why I said you could only have one!" Max telepathically shouted at Everest. Now Everest felt ashamed of himself and looked sadly down at the floor. When she saw his face, Max immediately regretted shouting at him. The guilt grew more when she heard Everest start to sniffle, and eventually he was bawling.
"Okay okay, calm down, Everest. I'm sorry, I-I-I shouldn't have yelled at you like that" Max said before walking up to Everest and placed her hands under his lower jaw, pulling him closer towards her before nuzzling him in between his eyes. Everest's crying stopped and he began to hum happily at Max's affectionate gesture.
"I'm sorry, sweetheart. But too much of a good thing just isn't good for you. You have to take it easy on the soda, alright?" Max asked in an apologetic tone of voice. Everest nodded in reply before he sent another telepathic message into her head.
"I'm sorry, Mama" the voice said.
"I know you are, honey. I'm sorry too" Max replied in her thoughts. Max then heard the sound of a collective "Aww" behind her, and she turned her head to see Yi, Chloe, and Peng standing there.
"Look at you, Max. You're a bonafide Yeti-Mama" Chloe said with her arms crossed against her chest.
"That is so sweet" Peng said. Yi nodded in agreement before Chloe walked up to the large wooden crate and took four cans of Coke out before signalling Max to follow her. Max and Everest followed Chloe to the middle of the ship, Yi and Peng followed right behind them and Jin joined in as well.
"Max, what you did back when Burnish's goons were chasing us, that was pretty sick. But, you got lucky. As far as I can tell you don't know how to use these extended features of your rewind to it's fullest, right?" Chloe asked.
"You're right. I don't understand why I'm getting all these new abilities, and we'd be captured by now if I didn't know what I was doing. I just got lucky" Max admitted.
"Which is why we're gonna have some superpower practice. Let's start with that pause thing you did with Jin and the bullet" Chloe said while taking a few steps back and holding the can in her hands like it was a baseball.
"Batter up!" said Chloe before tossing the soda can like it was a curve-ball at Max. Max then held out her right hand, and turned her wrist to the right, pausing it in mid air before it could hit her.
"Not bad, Max. Guess you do know what you're doing after all. Now, send it flying back towards me" Chloe instructed. Max nodded and held up her left hand this time, sending it flying back towards Chloe. The blue-haired girl exclaimed "WOAH!" before ducking and the can missed her head before it landed into the water.
"This is the coolest thing I have ever seen!" Peng exclaimed excitedly. Jin just shook his head, thinking this whole day was way too bizarre for him to handle. Yi then got an idea on how Max could test her powers out.
"Alright, let's try something else" Yi said before taking one of the cans from Chloe and shook it up. Yi then placed it on the floor.
"Okay, Max, that can of coke is going to explode and make a huge mess when somebody opens it. Think you can "Un-Shake" it?" Yi asked.
"Hella yeah she can! Max Caulfield: Time-Warrior is about to blow your mind" Chloe said, making Max scoff and roll her eyes slightly with a small smile on her face.
"Just focus, Max" she whispered to herself before holding up her left hand and turned her wrist counter-clockwise. Once her wrist went as far as it could go, Max stopped and lowered her arm.
"Well? Did it work?" Peng asked.
"Only one way to find out" Yi said before picking the can up. Everybody watched nervously, including Everest, fearing the can was going to explode. Yi then opened up the tab, and surprisingly enough, the can didn't explode.
"Wow... it worked" Yi said before drinking the delicious cola inside the can.
"Told you she could do it. Super-Max surprises you each and every time" Chloe exclaimed happily. Max then felt something warm trickle down from her nostril down to her upper lip. She touched it and then looked down at her fingers to see blood sticking to her fingertips.
"Dude, your nose" Chloe said before walking over to Max and placing her hands on her friend's shoulders.
"You alright, Max?" Yi asked worriedly.
"I'm fine. This normally happens whenever I push myself too much" Max said as Chloe handed her an old neckerchief she kept in her back pocket and helped wipe the blood off Max's face. Everest then walked up to Max with a worried look on his face, wondering if she was okay. Max only let out a gentle smile and spoke using her telepathy.
"I'm fine, Everest. But I'm glad to know you worry about me. I'll be okay, sweetie" Max said before hearing a loud foghorn blow. Everyone then ran up to the front of the boat to see people working at the port. This was going to be a problem for them since they wanted to get off the ship without being spotted.
"Look at all those people" Peng said as he looked out at the port.
"We should hide" Yi suggested. Everybody nodded in agreement. Max then got an idea.
"Follow me" Max said before running back towards the large wooden crate of coke cans. Everest and Chloe followed her, and soon, Yi, Peng, and Jin followed suit.
"Get inside, hurry!" Max urged as she got inside the crate. Everyone did as told and soon everyone was inside with her. Max then held out her left arm and twisted her wrist at the crate's wall that Everest tore down. The wall clung itself back onto the crate and it's like it was never even torn off to begin with.
"Quick thinking. Now what?" Yi asked.
"Now, we wait" Max replied.
Ten Minutes Later
A large crane picked up the Coca-Cola crates and placed them on the back of a large flat-bed truck alongside two other crates. Once the last crate was safely placed on board the truck, it began to drive off.
"Wait... why are we still moving?" asked Jin. Max peeked her eyes out from in between the wooden boards of the crate wall and saw they were getting farther and farther away from the port.
"Because we're not at the dock anymore" Max answered.
"What!? Ahh! No!" Jin exclaimed as the truck kept going farther and farther away from the port.
"No, Jin, that's a GOOD thing. The further away we get, the less likely Burnish and Zara will be able to track us. They couldn't possibly know we're inside a giant wooden crate carrying a crap-ton of cola" Chloe told him. Jin just sat back down and crossed his arms with a pout on his face.
"Spoiled little socialite prick" Chloe whispered under her breath before walking back to sit down next to Everest.
"Hey, Everest. Mind sparing one of those cans for Auntie Chloe?" asked the blue-haired girl. Everest nodded and handed her a can before he opened one up for himself. Chloe opened her can up and sat down next to her (somewhat) foster-nephew. Max and Yi just kept their eyes peeking outside the wooden boards of the wall. The two girls saw they were driving through a farming village with tiny little houses that looked they've been there since ancient times.
"You know, I've never been outside the city" Yi said, wanting to break the silence between her and her brunette friend.
"I've only seen places like these in travel guides and photographs. I never thought I'd actually get to see them in person instead of in some photography gallery" Max replied.
"Wow. I can't believe how beautiful it is out here" Yi added.
"I can't believe I haven't eaten in twenty-four hours. I'm starving" Jin piped in before taking a sad duck-face selfie on his phone.
"Oh boo-hoo, poor little popular kid's hungry" Chloe said in reply to Jin's comment.
"Nobody asked you, Price" Jin retorted. Max then turned away from the crack in the wall and faced Jin.
"I'm actually gonna have to side with Chloe on this one. You haven't exactly been giving out positive vibes since we started this journey" said Max.
"Yeah, so? What's your point?" Jin asked, not really getting why Max was telling him these things.
"I get you're used to modern-day technology and city life, but you're not exactly living a life worth remembering. The world's a lot bigger than you think it is, and there are only so many days in our lives that a lot of us don't get the chance to explore it. Take advantage of this opportunity, broaden your horizons a little bit, this could be the adventure of a lifetime for you. And even if you can't share it on instagram or facebook, you'll always have the memories and the stories you'll be able to tell your family and friends when you get back" Max told him. Jin's look went soft at Max's words.
"Uh-Oh" said Peng.
"What's uh-oh?" Chloe asked as she sat up and looked at the nine-year-old.
"Guys, I gotta go!" Peng exclaimed.
"Just hold it" Jin told his little cousin. Everest then let out a large gasp and groan before placing his hands on his crotch.
"Uh, Max? Your Yeti-Child has to pee" said Chloe. Max looked to the Yeti and he began whimpering and stomping his feet.
"I told you this would happen, buddy" Max said out loud as she tried to soothe Everest. Everest tried to remain calm but his aching bladder wouldn't allow it.
"Max, he's REALLY gotta go" Yi said worriedly as she looked at Everest. He then began shaking the crate back and forth with his shoulders until it fell off the left side of the flatbed truck and roll down a steep hill that was close to the left side of the road that was not protected by any metal guard-rails.
"Get me out of here!" Jin exclaimed as they tumbled down the hill.
"I can't!" Yi replied. Everybody else was yelling as they kept on tumbling down, the sound of clanging aluminum cans filled their ears as they kept on going further down the hill. Eventually, the crate came to a complete stop once it hit the bottom, and all the walls came off completely. Everest and Peng sprung out from a giant pile of empty coke cans they were buried under and began running out into the middle of the woods with looks of desperation on their faces.
"Out of my way!" shouted Peng.
"Gotta go! Gotta go!" he added as he ran alongside Everest. Chloe saw Max lying on her back with a hand on her forehead, groaning in pain and ran over to help her up.
"Are you alright, Maxi-Max?" asked Chloe.
"Yeah, I should be" Max replied as she took her friend's hand and stood back up onto her feet.
"You feel like anything's broken? You bleeding anywhere?" Chloe asked.
"I said I'm fine, Chloe" Max said before she heard the sound of flowing water. Max only groaned in annoyance when she heard these noises.
"Urgghh! This is EXACTLY why I said Everest couldn't have more than one!" Max exclaimed as she began walking over to where Peng and Everest were doing their business.
"Hey, nobody said parenting a Yeti was easy, Max. You're gonna hit some points where he's not going to want to listen every now and again" said Chloe as she began chasing after her.
"Ugh, my head" Yi said as she sat up from the pile of empty cans, Jin eventually popped up as well. Once Jin was back onto his feet, he offered to help Yi up but she politely refused. Jin then pulled out his phone again and saw there was only one bar on the reception-meter.
"One bar, that's good enough" said Jin.
"For what?" Chloe and Yi asked in unison.
"To buy tickets home" Jin answered. Max just now had an irritated look on her face.
"Really? After what I said to you on that truck, really?" Max said before continuing to walk over to where Peng and Everest were. Jin just looked confused and shrugged his shoulders.
"What? Seriously, what?" Jin asked. Yi just groaned and rolled her eyes before following Max and Chloe.
A/N: There you guys go! Episode Three part one! I hope you guys enjoyed this new update as well as it was a good start to this episode. Now Everest has a hankering for soda, and Max's job as a temporary parent just got harder than before, because sometimes kids just don't want to listen to their parents. The journey continues in the next update. Please review, thanks!