Great news! I finished the first three seasons of Bleach! Now I can include some of the cool stuff I didn't even know Ichigo could do till now!
Ichigo watched as the strange blue-skinned people took the others and loaded them onto the hovercraft, if that was even what it was. Apparently, only the other four guys could see him. At least he still had that.
He considered going after them, but before he got the chance, a small mound of snow moved near him. He immediately froze (as in stopped moving, not turned into an icicle, though that was a possibility). With that one action, Ichigo missed his window and the vehicles moved off, almost faster than he could follow.
The mound moved again, and Ichigo fixed his eyes on it. Then, it practically exploded, revealing a fluffy lion plush toy. And this particular toy had an attitude.
However, today it was strangely silent.
Ichigo walked over and lifted it by the arm. "Guess I should have figured you'd come up with a way to follow me, Kon. Come on, why so silent? Finally decided to act like a real toy?"
He spun the toy around and stood up, watching the mystery vehicles disappear into the distance. He noticed that they left slightly disturbed rivets of snow in their wake. He was about to start following them when the toy lurched in his hands, and an annoying but familiar voice started yelling.
"Ichigo! Why did you have to spin me? I'm miserable enough as it is! I mean, seriously, whoever decided to drop me in a frozen wasteland is going to be beaten to a pulp when I find them!"
Ichigo tossed the toy, Kon, into the air and caught him by the head. "Shut up! In case you haven't noticed, I'm in the same situation as you, and I'm not whining!"
"Yeah, but you can't feel cold!"
Ichigo sighed and set Kon down, who was so light he hardly broke the surface of the snow. "That may be true, but you shouldn't be able to feel it, either. Now, where is my body?"
Kon shuffled his feet and attempted a smile. "Well, when those weird blue-skinned guys took off with those other guys, they saw me, or you, or whatever, lying there. So they dragged it off."
"But weren't you inside?"
"Yeah, well, you see, I didn't think it would be good for my health to stick around..."
At this point, Ichigo lost what was left of his patience. "So you're saying, you chickened out, and now we have almost NO IDEA WHERE THEY TOOK IT?! OR THE OTHERS?!"
Kon cowered. "Uh, yeah, that basically sums it up..."
"IDIOT!"
Ichigo and Kon followed the ripples left by the vehicles until they found themselves on a bluff overlooking a strange city. Half enclosed, half exposed, it was all cold steel and metal, aircraft that didn't even look aerodynamic somehow flying upwards and disappearing into the clouds.
Without a word, Ichigo ran into the city, Kon riding on his back. Ichigo would gave preferred to leave the toy behind, but Kon had gotten him out of a couple of tough spots before. When Ichigo's soul left his body to be a Soul Reaper, his body would be completely non-functional. Kon was a Mon Soul, and could be moved from his current body into another. Kon could possess all of Ichigo's traits when he wanted to, so by transferring himself into Ichigo's body, they could keep suspicion away from them, and make sure Ichigo kept his grades up in school, while in truth he was killing Hollows. So getting rid of Kon, tempting as it was, wasn't a possibility.
Contrary to what was said before, Ichigo could feel cold. It just didn't effect him. So he could tell people lived here by the fact that the moment he stepped onto a street, he was pillowed by warm air. However, the paths were strangely empty.
As he headed farther into the city, the warm air became constant, and he finally began to get glimpses of life. A security guard here, a military officer there, nothing more. By now, he was in the enclosed area, but life was still sparse.
After what felt like hours of searching, Ichigo was starting to feel like giving up, when Kon tapped his shin (that was about as far as he could reach) and wordlessly pointed down one of the streets.
Turning, they caught sight of vehicles just like the ones that attacked them, stopping in front of a large door at a nearby building. The vehicles hovered for a moment, and then the door began to open, two heavy metal slabs pulling slowly apart.
Ichigo didn't even stop and think, he just grabbed Kon and ran straight through the doors, invisible to anyone who might have been watching.
Once inside, however, he stopped in his tracks, his eyes growing as wide as moons.
"Whoa," he breathed, completely awed by what he saw.
It was like something out of a science fiction movie, all gleaming white walls and floors, not a spot of grime anywhere to be seen. The dull gray hovercraft looked out of place in this white space.
And even better, there were even more of the vehicles in here, rows of them, with blue people walking around almost everywhere. He had finally found where all the population was.
Ichigo chose the most direct path from there: he ran into the first hallway he found.
Once again, he thanked the fact that in his Soul Reaper form, he was invisible, otherwise he never would have made it through there. Compared to the city outside, this place was like a beehive. People came and went, each with a no-nonsense looked on their face, concentrating on individual tasks that all fit together. Ichigo found himself drawn to their eyes, a single red mass, with no pupil or iris.
Who are these people?, he wondered.
It wasn't long before he found his body. They had it in what resembled a surgical room, with strange sticker-like things attached to his chest and forehead. The machines beside the bed were basic enough, one of them reading what was obviously a heartbeat. However, the "doctors" seemed more concerned about the other machine, which wasn't reading anything at all.
"Hey, Ichigo!" Kon whispered, tugging on his pants and pointing farther down the hall.
And there, lined up farther down the hall, was four other occupied rooms. Only, instead of medical personal and equipment, these were built as prisons. And each one of them held one of the other boys.
Natsu and Kajin were unconscious, but Edward was awake and angry. Ichigo was almost glad that the glass was apparently soundproof, because he could bet that whatever the alchemist was saying, it wasn't nice. Ben was simply sitting cross-legged in the middle of the cell, staring into the distance.
Ichigo decided to take his chances and approached Ben's cell. "Hey, ginger, you awake in there?"
If he was hoping for a startled expression, he didn't get one. Ben's gaze simply sharpened as his head moved fractionally to look at Ichigo. "Oh, you. Ichigo, wasn't it?"
Ichigo shrugged. "Who else would I be?"
Ben smiled ever so slightly at this, before peering quizzically into the hall beyond his cell, apparently puzzled by the lack of attention Ichigo was receiving from the blue skinned people. "Are you invisible or something?"
"Or something, and lets just leave it at that for now. From what I understand, each of us uses some kind of special skills, right? Do ya mind letting me in on the secret?"
Ben crossed his arms. "As a Jedi, I have access to the Force, which is something I can explain later. But I basically have access to telekinetic and empathy, I can sense the living beings around us and influence the weak-minded, and occasionally I get visions, not that that would help much. Unfortunately, these people, the Chiss, know I'm a Jedi." He held up his wrists, displaying thin metal bands. "As long as I'm wearing these, I'm powerless."
Ichigo scratched his head. "So you know who these guys are?"
Ben nodded. "The Chiss are a highly militarized race and controls a large portion of the Unknown Regions of the galaxy. They're well known for not being friendly to strangers, though altogether not a bad species themselves."
Ichigo had to process what Ben had just said. "Hang on. You mean in your universe you have space travel?"
Ben looked slightly shocked, but not too surprised. "You don't?"
"It's still only a theory for us. Anyways, you know their race. So how much do you know about their technology?"
He shrugged. "It's basically all the same principles as what we use in the Galactic Alliance."
"In other words, yes." Ichigo said, thinking hard. "So you would know what wires need to be cut and which don't?"
"I guess." Ben said, standing and stretching, making Ichigo wonder how long he had been sitting there. "You have an idea?"
"Something like that." Ichigo reached behind him and drew his sword. "Just tell me what I should cut and what I shouldn't. We need to sabotage it just enough so that you can unlock it from the inside. When I'm done with yours, I can do the other guys. Sound good?"
"Better than nothing" Ben said, then turned and walked towards the slab that served as a bed in the cell, stretching and yawning, his actions completely at odds with his eyes, which were watching every corner of the cell. "Alright, here's what you need to do..."