Iceman of Earth
Chapter Three: Stranger Things this way
It was a warm day on the side of the long road, thankfully Akio, Ben and Gwen manage to dodge the burning sun thanks to the ice shop on the road, as Ben and Gwen chat about whatever, Akio stood silent leaning on the wall looking out onto the dusty plains that seem to cover the land like a sheet.
He glanced at Grandpa Max, well not his grandpa but he refuses to be called anything else by the black-haired boy, his emerald eyes found themselves wandering around until finding two-man storming up to Grandpa Max and throwing him to the side letting a dust cloud fly into the sky.
Akio sighed pulling up his hood and with a sideways glance turns to Ben and Gwen; "Stay inside, it's gonna get a bit frosty."
"So cool!" murmurs Gwen with Ben crossing his arms and pouting saying; "I can do that too."
With the ding of the doorbell, Akio stands to the side of bodybuilder like man, Akio slowly approaches the man placing his hands to his pockets and keeping his head down letting the shade cover his face.
Suddenly, he bumps into the man's side who turns around with a glare and gritting teeth; "What the hell do you think you're doing?"
"Cooling off," murmurs Akio as the man begins to grind his teeth.
"SAY IT LOUDER!" he shouts raising a fist.
"Cool off!" says Akio louder as he sidesteps the massive fist.
Quickly, Akio pulls out his hands revealing fists coated in ice, the man isn't fast enough to keep up with the boy's incredible speed only managing to spot the boy's right eye that gave off an icy stare.
Akio slams his right fist into the man's gut letting an ice coat begin spreading, with his second punch he smashes his fist across the man's jaw, letting his shouts freeze silent.
Instantly, Akio whips his leg around letting it crashing into the back of the man's knee sending him crashing to the floor before he is fully sealed in ice.
Akio sighs at the disappointing display the man showed him, he could of at least fought back.
"What did you do to my cousin!" shouts the skinny man with a thick southern accent.
The skinny man pounces from his trunk to reveal a shotgun already locked and loaded, in a split second Akio throws his hand into the air aiming for the skinny man's torso before five shards of ice freeze into existence.
"What the heck is that?" says the puzzled man before being slammed into the ground by the ice shards.
Just like the other man, the skinny guy was frozen to the ground unable to escape from the icy grasp.
However, Gwen lunges onto Akio's side; "You're. So. Cool!"
A sweat droplet forms on Akio's forehead, Grandpa Max begins to call the cops and Ben pouts in the corners still saying; "I could have done that."
The group return to the RV to continue on the journey down the seemingly never-ending dusty road, Ben and Grandpa Max sat in front as Gwen and Akio sat across each other at the table.
As Ben complained about seeing his Auntie, Akio couldn't help but remember what his 'Auntie' said.
Akio was only five at the time when his powers manifested in school during class.
Akio was being chased by an army of fangirls on the playground when he unknowingly falls into the pool of chlorinated water but suddenly he lands onto a slab of ice which formed around him not just shocking him but everyone looking on.
Later at home, his auntie sat him down at the kitchen table as she crouched down in front of him, explaining that he's special and that his parents love him but are on the run so that's why he's there.
Suddenly, Akio is snapped out of his memory as Gwen begins to poke him; "Hey sleepy, there are mentions of you all over the internet and even videos."
"Sloppy," said Akio looking at the webpage of videos which all stared him as the main character.
"Don't be so hard on you're self, after all, it's cool to see that people are noticing that you're doing something to protect people," says Gwen with sparkling eyes and a smile.
Akio grunts in response looking over the comments of the videos and the web articles, one reading as; "The Winter Dragon, a brave soul using his powers to fight those who think themselves above the law!" Akio's eye twitches at this author's overflowing eagerness.
Gwen takes back her laptop and resumed scrolling through the links and text that told their stories of spotting this mysterious man.
"Would they be disappointed?" asked Akio out loud without realising.
"WHAT?! Hell no, I mean you're a real superhero!" says Gwen not realising the question was for the people that watch his videos or read his stories but for his parents that he never met.
The RV suddenly stops throwing the unaware Akio across the table and into Gwen, the two falls to the floor with Akio on top of Gwen, unaware to Akio, Gwen blushes wildly just a few centimetres away from Akio's face. Akio pushes himself off the floor holding out his hand for Gwen; "Sorry, I didn't realise we were stopping."
"N-no, it's fine," says Gwen as the blush deepens in colour.
Noticing an opportunity to torment his cousin, Ben leans forward whispering into Gwen's ear; "Ooohhh, somebody's in love."
This quickly started a shouting match between the two as Akio exited the RV looking around the clean town. The unusual clean town.
Grandpa Max walked towards the front door with Ben, Gwen and Akio following close behind, the four stood at the door in silence for a second until the door opened revealing Ben's and Gwen's Auntie Vera, a woman matching grandpa max's size, puffy silver hair, a purple shirt, a pearl necklace and a dark purple skirt.
She begins pulling both Ben's and Gwen's cheeks to unhuman portions until meeting Akio with a puzzled look; "And who might this young charmer be?"
"A friend of the family's," responds Grandpa Max swiftly giving Akio the hint that he's a good liar at least.
"Oh my, you must be with Gwen then since Ben can't be around people that can rival him in looks," says Vera, leaving Akio confused with a stare which read "Help me."
Eventually, they found themselves at the table with Grandpa Max and Vera sharing stories from the past, with Gwen being the only one caring as both Akio and Ben share a look of boredom, this being the only thing they agree on besides beating criminals up.
Akio managed to worm his way from the old people's death grasp and found himself wandering the streets throwing a ball of ice up and down catching it in one hand; 'There isn't anything to do besides train here. And I can't even do that with the army of peeping toms watching my every movement.' he thought to himself.
Thankfully, he finds a small patch of grass to lay down and for at least a bit, catch his breath, his heavy eyelids slowly take control and force Akio into a comfortable sleep. Until…
Akio feels something slimy stretch it's self across his left arm feeling the goopy substance form around his arm, his eyes snap open to find a light green blob covering his arm.
Instantly, Akio freezes his arm and the goop before it shatters into a million pieces before melting away into the grass, with that Akio thought it's best to enlist the other's help and he broke into a sprint down the streets spotting the blobs from the corner of his eye darting in and out of dark alleyways and corners.
Akio slips through the front door making his way to Gwen's side to whisper; "This place has an alien infestation. Get Max, I'll get Ben."
Gwen nods before moving towards Grandpa Max, Akio manages to catch Ben who seems happy at the mention of aliens, the four met up out on the lawn with Akio quickly spilling everything he knows about the alien creature.
"So we need to find out where this thing lives and kill it!" shouts Ben with a smile.
Gwen facepalms; "It's not that easy. Where would its base even be?"
"I don't know," shrugs Ben letting Gwen stare at him thinking 'how on Earth am I related to him?'
"We should split up into two teams," says Grandpa Max with a smile; "Since there are two people with the ability to transform into aliens they'll be on different teams. Gwen and Akio will search for the alien base, Me and Ben with weed out any alien here."
Everyone nods before walking in opposite directions based on their teams, Akio and Gwen walked side by side on the street; "We should keep the outline before anything else."
Akio nods in agreement, the two begin making a B-line towards the edge of the retirement home complex while glancing around to see any clues or hints to where the gooey aliens may be hiding out.
After a while, Akio sighs as this is his third loop around the damned compound and they found nothing yet, not even a slight hint to where they might have decided to go, the two stop at the entrance.
"I'd thought we would have found something by now," complains Gwen.
Akio grunts in response as he strokes his chine thinking it over; 'If they're not outside of the compound, then we need to think about how would they infiltrate such a place, nothing on the sides, nothing above then what? Wait underneath?!'
"Gwen, we need to find an area of the ground which sounds hollow," says Akio glancing around.
"Errr, Akio the ground isn't hollow," says Gwen with a sweat droplet on her forehead.
"I know but if the aliens feel safe jumping through shadows they must feel safe in general meaning that their home base is nearby and it's not on the sides or above then it's gotta be underneath," explains Akio looking around the surface of the roads trying to spot any subtle difference.
Gwen nods and the two begin tapping at random parts of the path and road trying to find something hollow, however.
Suddenly, the two lookups to find an army of old people swarming the streets like a flood, Akio initially stands ready to fight the army until realising Gern by his side and that he can't just stand and fight or else she'll get frozen too.
Quickly, Akio rotates and slams down his watch letting his body stretch out becoming like a massive dog, Wildmutt.
Instantly, Akio pounces through the army cutting through them like butter, he slices and slashes with his claws as he charges straight through the crowd until reaching the other side, in a flash of brilliant green light Akio takes his normal form and with a small smirk he freezes the entire road which freezes the goo's legs not letting a single escape.
Thankfully, Akio's plan to attract all the aliens to one spot and then freeze them without Gwen being caught in the crossfire worked.
Akio's tired eyes quickly fall upon the one loose alien stumbling towards Gwen, Akio bursts into a sprint sliding across the ice floor in front of him, he quickly fires a volley of icy shards slicing through the puddle of goo, forcing it backwards but having done no damage, Akio creates a small shield of ice and slams into the goo sending it flying backwards before throwing a few more ice shards to nail him into the ground and freezes it there.
"I guess they ere on to us," says Gwen walking over to Akio.
Suddenly, the icy floor broke sending the two down into a dark cavern underneath the road, Akio slams into the rocky floor before having Gwen slam onto his back and he is pretty sure his spine is now in two.
With a quick sorry from Gwen the two try and make their way through the dark tunnel, eventually, they find a large glowing cave with multiple egg-like structures with the old people inside.
"W-What are they doing?" asks Gwen.
"Maybe their harvesting humans for batteries, like the matrix," says Akio poking the soft tissue of the egg-like things.
"Yeah, but humans don't produce that much of electricity," states Gwen turning to Akio.
"That's why the matrix was science-fiction and not just science," replies Akio creating a blade of ice on his hand.
"What are you doing? we don't know if that can cause serious damage," says Gwen jumping in front of Akio.
"If we don't do something, they might be permanently stuck here for the rest of what's left of their lives," says Akio moving out the way and slices through soft tissue letting some liquid flood out as he cuts farther in.
Gwen sighed helping Akio rip the person out from the egg, Akio twists his watch and slams it down morphing him into a giant turtle, Terraspin.
Instantly, Akio began to slice at the eggs while fly letting him free everyone in a matter of seconds, as the familiar green light embraces him and forcing him back into his human form, the two begin carrying them out noticing that a few blobs slurp past and towards the ship as a low hum begins to shake the cave causing some rocks to crash on the fall missing Gwen and Akio by only a few inches.
The two find themselves watching the ship disappear into space, both sigh before high-fiving for a good job, they walk back towards Max and Ben also high-fiving them, the group thankfully make their way back to the RV, Akio slumps in the chair at the table letting the flood of sleep flow through him.
However, the RV stops sending him across the table again but this time landing next to Gwen who just gives him a sympathetic smile.
"Alright lazy bones," announces Grandpa Max with no clear target; "We're gonna put your body to work."
Akio tries to push the sand from his eyes out, he walks outside finding himself in the middle of a timber shop or what Grandpa Max stole from it, Akio's eye twitches at the thought of having to do whatever crazy idea Grandpa Max cooked up just after waking up.
The timber formed a long obstacle course, with about five different areas, Akio looks over at Grandpa Max eagerly waving him over, Ben crosses his arms with a smirk; "You see, I'm too good for this thing."
"Don't worry Ben, you get your turn next," says Max with a smile and a pout from Ben.
Akio stands just behind the start line with Grandpa Max explaining the rules but also that he's timing the boy as well.
"On your mark...Get set...GO!" shouts Grandpa Max.
Suddenly, Akio bursts into a sprint which a cloud of ice forming around his hands ready for anything.
Instantly, a row of targets pop up from the ground leaving Akio to blast the target's with ice shards that seem to miss the centre just by a few centimetres, he's legs began to shake at the sudden sprint that surprised them.
However, Akio stopped at the start of the next area. Flaming Cactus.
He sighs quickly freezing everything in sight, leaving Gwen to give a puzzled look to Grandpa Max; "Was he meant to do that?"
"He was meant to dodge through them but it seems he was other plans," says Grandpa Max.
Quickly, Akio found his self standing in the next area was surrounded in flames with what looks to be a burning structure with Gwen tied up, wait. Why is Gwen tied up? Akio turns to Grandpa Max who shrugs; "It's the area where you need to save the citizen, this helps you to improve..."
Akio ignored Grandpa Max long speech as he tries to make his way towards Gwen but his route is quickly cut off and with the flames almost reaching Gwen. it's time to think fast.
He twists his watch and slams down take the form of Ditto with the height of an average human child. He has white skin, a black and white head and face, and black shoulders. Ditto's hands are large with 4 digits and his feet are merely stubs. He has three fin-like growths on his head, and also gem-like orbs on his arms and three button-like gems on his waist.
He begins to clone himself letting the other clones throw Akio across the area, letting him land safely in front of Gwen and a flash of green light turns to normal, unties her and begins his seemingly endless sprint once more.
Which is where he finds his last change, a swimming pool. Just great more water, Akio couldn't help the twitch in his eye or the shiver that ran laps around his body, Akio bites his lip as he starts ice skating across the lake before his ice begins to run out. Damn, he used too much energy before, with a quick slap of the hand, Akio turns into XLR8 which lets him dash across the lake and over the finish while he transforms into his human form.
"Great work!" says Grandpa Max looking at the stopwatch; "and with five minutes to spare."
Akio slumps over panting like a dog with a waterfall of sweat leaking from his face, Gwen pants him on the back with a smile.
Thankfully, Akio can sit done and watch Ben as he trips and falls all over the obstacle course managing to mess up some areas before finishing with five seconds to spare.
Ben pants with trying to say; "Not...Fair...He has…Powers!"
Akio rolls his eyes letting his head fall back onto the grassy pillow, Akio lets his breathing calm down before throwing himself into the shower with Grandpa Max saying that it's time for a reward, whatever that's meant to mean with him Akio doesn't know.
Eventually, the group found themselves at the local beach which was the first time Grandpa Max's rewards did feel like a reward, huh weird.
Ben began using his aliens to do what even he wanted, whatever made him look cool he did it which Akio can only let his eye twitch, speaking of Akio, he wore black shorts with red lining but also his jacket, he stood just on the shoreline, barely in reach by the ocean's grasp.
Gwen managed to creep up of Akio whispering; "Don't like the ocean?"
Suddenly, Gwen pushes Akio facefirst into the shallow water only for him to freak out waving his arms about until freezing an area around him, leaving Gwen to say; "You don't like the ocean."
To Akio's pleasure, Ben fires a perfect headshot with a water gun; "Sorry, I couldn't resist such a massive target."
Gwen sprinted for her gun while Akio took his time walking over to pick one up for himself, the three start a massive gunfight with Akio unable to hide the small smile that's painted across his face.
However, as Gwen is cornered by both Ben and Akio, leaving her to run into the water but a slimy limb slaps itself around Gwen's waist and lifts her in the air with her screaming in resistance.
Akio and Ben snap their head towards Grandpa Max who's sound asleep with the screams and shouts of everyone else on the beach in the background, Ben begins to wildly glance around thinking for a way to save the day.
Akio sighs and closes his eyes analysing the situations before reopening his eyes; "Ben, yous XLR8 to get everyone out of here, I'll make sure this monster gets iced."
"Fine but stop with the ice puns!" he shouts slamming his watch and taking out with a sandstorm following him.
Slowly, Akio throws his hood over his head before cracking his knuckles.
Instantly, he runs towards the ocean freezing a platform for him to jump on, he throws quick sharp shards stabbing into the monster who is only annoyed at the young boy, Akio begins to dodge the smashing of the monster's many tentacles by creating a small platform for him to jump onto before doing it against so he can slip through the monster's attacks.
"AKIO! HELP!" screams Gwen not enjoying the view.
Akio is quick to realise that his small compact attacks won't do anything, he has to go big or go home, he only has enough energy for one big freeze.
Quickly, Akio takes a deep breath before lunging towards the monster and freezing a square kilometre of the ocean's surface freezing the monster entirely, Akio watches as the monster's eye stares at Akio with fear, all that it is able to see his Akio's right eyes which pours out killer intent, Akio's right fist is covered in ice before he smashes his fist right through the monster killing it in one punch.
Gwen screams as she falls into Akio's arms, still screaming.
"Errr. Gwen?" says Akio looking at Gwen while trying to hide his face from the crowds.
Thankfully, Gwen stops as she realises that she isn't tied up in a slimy tentacle, the two glances around at the happily cheering crowds some even shouts; "It's the Winter Dragon."
Gwen blushes as she and Akio become the centre of attention, Akio walks across the frozen walkway and back on the beach, Akio lets Gwen jump from his arms and slightly tense up from either being wet and cold or just the shock of being a monster's toy thing.
However, to Akio's surprise, Gwen quickly turns to him giving him a small peck on the cheek before retreating to the RV blushing wildly, Ben makes a hand gesture to show his disgust.
Akio sighs as a small red tint tries to make its way across his cheeks, he taps the place she kissed before trying to find something to dry off with.
Then a kid runs up to Akio's side with a printed photo of Akio while fighting crime once; "Could you please sign this Mr Dragon."
"Just Winter Dragon please," says Akio wiping the pen across the paper before he makes a B-line back to the RV hoping to avoid any and all human contact.
End of Chapter Three