Wizard city was said to be an amazing place full of wonder and magical being, all showcasing their powers. It was said to be a safe haven for magical being, sorcerers, witches, and the like. While it was a place of hectic occurrences, with its tall buildings of Japanese mixed with old English architecture, and all the mages using magic for the most mundane errands. From the stories and rumors, the fabled city was supposed to be a unique place, unlike any other.
However, when the group had walked through the city gates, and began to walk through its streets, the stories were proven to be wrong. The sky seemed to beat down heat, as if it was trapping the citizens, the streets felt dead with people who looked starved and scared. There were officers stationed all around, scouting for some new culprit to arrest and abuse. There was this repugnant smell that hung in the air, it was the undeniable stench of dead bodies.
The group was looking around in a small bazaar located near the city's gates, looking for a place to stay for the time being, and some food. But the bazaar was an even sadder sight. There were children dressed in rags curling up in the gutters, old women begging, and it seemed like thievery was a common occurrence here as on the way, the group witness three thieves run from stand owners.
The princess, more than the other two, wanted to get off the streets and just find some place to stay the night, and she was happy that she managed to bring some money with her. But knowing that she had money on her, she clenched the bag with their stuff tightly to her, making sure no one was going to pickpocket her.
The princess noticed her father was feeling better, he didn't looked so pained, and he was able to walk on his own without getting tired. She was surprised that the fight with Finn had injured her father to that extent, then again she didn't expect Finn to be cursed the way he was. She quickly brushed those thoughts out of her mind and focused on the task on hand. But this was easier said than done, since they entered the city, both Lisa and Snow have felt that the officers have been giving them odd looks. Almost as if they have been keeping tabs on them, like they were expecting them.
"We should really get off the streets, I don't like how people are eyeing us. It's like where the center of attention in this whole town, and that's never good." Lisanna was telling the Ice King, who agreed with her. They were right, Snow had a bad feeling like they had just walked into a trapped. They went up to a group of kids who seemed to be playing and had asked them where some hotels are or inns that they can stay the night.
"They're all over the place, but usually you would have to go through some back alleys. You can only get in through the side doors. The inn people don't like dealing with the officers, so they close down the front door." After the kids had answered Snow, they ran off to continue their game. The information that the kids had given them seemed off. Why did the inn keepers not like dealing with the guards? Was it because they abused their power and extort them? Thought Princess Snowflake. After some walking past the bazaar they saw some signs that pointed to a nearby inn that was "cheap for the everyday man."
On the way to a backstreet, they notice a man wearing a white shirt and ripped jeans sitting on a blanket, wearing a bandana covering his head. He was about Snow's age and had long crimson hair, a large contrast to Princes Snowflakes pure white short hair. As they approached closer the boy began to look up, ready to address them.
"Do you folk have any change to spare? Please, I'm hungry and I have no money on me." He had a look of desperation in his eyes. Snow stared at him for a moment, thinking that he is her same age, and that she could even end up like that. She saw the hurt and pain he had experienced in his eyes. For some reason, she sympathized with him and decided to give him some change.
The Princess had reached into the bag, looking for the sack that had their money, much to the surprise of her Father and Lisanna. She took out some coins, enough to buy him some fruit or one piece of meat. He wanted to thank her for the change so he got up to show his appreciation.
"You are wonderful people, thank you. You have no idea how much this means to me." He flashed a smile and accepted the change, ready to go back to take a nap. But as he was going to sit down he span around and ignited fire in front of Snow, scaring her and causing her to jump back. The young man used the distraction and stole the bag with all of their supplies from her and started to run away.
"Thanks for the patronage!" He ran off with light speed, with his whole demeanor changing. Snow, being fueled by rage after being fooled like she was, ran off after him despite Lisanna trying to catch her and stop her. Snowflake began to fly after him so she can get back at him. When she was at a good distance, she started shooting ice at him.
"The fuck! You have ice powers? This is going to be fun!" The teenage boy turned around, ready to fight off the princess. But as he did he saw her already at his face, with a flying round house kick that he blocked by raised his arm to his head. The Princess then shot a ray of ice at him, that he barely managed to burn away with his fire. He lost sight of her in the second it took to block the ice attack until he looked down in a split second to see she was crouching on the ground coming up to strike his stomach.
She landed her hit, and the young man lost his breath for a moment, kneeling over. She then brought her fist up and punched him straight in the right cheek, knocking him to the side. He managed to roll over and get back up, thinking fast and realizing he needed to end the fight soon. He put down the bag, and got into a fighting stance, it looked like an orthodox boxing stance.
Does this guy know how to seriously fight? Thought the Princess. The young man moved one foot forward and threw a punch, shooting out a stream of fire to Snowflake. She waved her hand in the air as she ducked to make a shield of ice, blocking the fire. But soon two more waves were coming for her, both that she barely managed to roll out the way for.
When she had stopped the roll and got back on her feet she saw that he had already jumped over her and was going to come down with a kick while his whole leg was cloaked with flames. She jumped back, and the young man created a crater in the ground where his kick had landed. Thinking fast, Princess Snowflake had brought out both hands to freeze his foot into the ground to give her an opening to attack. She ran for it but was suddenly stopped by a wall of fire that erupted from the ground.
She jumped back and saw the young man stand back up staring at her with a scowl. She could she the anger in his face, anger showing he was tired of the whole fight. They both turned to the side to see that the bag had been thrown in the middle of the fight, surprisingly still in one piece. The young man began to walk toward Snowflake slowly, still with the scowl.
"HEY YOU TWO STOP RGHT THERE!" Both the teenagers turned and saw three guards approaching them, ready to arrest them for the huge fight they just had. The red haired young man ran and grabbed for the bag, making Snow yell out to him.
"Hey asshole!" But before she could finish her remark, he grabbed her by the wrist and forced her to run with him, away from the guards. They started to run into a back alley, filled with windows and side apartments and entrances to buildings. By this time the sun was setting and the twilight had already set. They saw the guards hot on their tails, with only one way out. Before they could reach it, more guards blocked them off.
"Fuck, any other bright ideas asshole!?" Snowflake asked her partner in crime.
"You know you can call me Asthon, that's my name. Be proud only cute girls can use my real name." Ashton had said with a smug smirk, trying to flirt with the Princess and failing miserably.
"You are so lucky I didn't freeze you to death." Snow said as she tried to survey the scene. She, obviously had no idea what to do and began to panic inside. Her eyes were shifting between the two groups of guards coming after them, as they came closer and closer to her. Ashton, on the other hand was completely calm and was even smiling, as if things were exactly as he planned.
"You know, we went down this alley for a reason. Stay close." Ashton then brought his arms to his chest hunching over, with his body getting hotter and hotter. Even the princes was able to feel the heat emitting from him. Within moments she saw small flares come from his body.
"Listen princess, you might want to use you ice and protect yourself," he paused for a minute, "think of this like some type of nuke." Snowflake connected the dots and back up, realizing what he was doing. She shot her hands to her side, freezing a dome around her in layer upon layer of thick ice.
When Asthon saw that Snowflake had some protection over her he took a deep breath in and breathed out. He yelled out, bringing his arms to his side and straightening out his body, releasing all of the energy he was collecting. He released a massive wave of fire hitting the guards, burning some completely to the bone. None escaped unscathed and were either unconscious or simply dead.
He fell to the ground panting and sweating, completely drained of all of his energy. He was barely able to keep himself conscious as he knelt on the ground with his palms tightly pressed to the ground. The Princess opened her eyes to see the damage he had done to the area, and all the bodies that riddles the alleyway and the streets near the. She saw that the buildings, with their brown stones, were left untouched. She figured that Ashton must've of restrained himself a great amount to not destroy them.
She stepped out of her half melted ice bubble and saw that Asthon was on the floor. She ran to him to try to help him up but he brushed her hand to the side, and after some heavy breathing he managed to pick himself up and wipe the sweat off of his head.
"Don't, I'm good, I can get up." Ashton said in protest to Snow's help. In response to this Snow pouts and retorts. "You know you aren't that convincing when you're on the ground and can barely stand." Ashton, shook his head and never replied to her. Instead he had walked over to a nearby manhole and removed the cover revealing a ladder to the sewers.
"Let's go, we don't have much time, woman." He jumped down, not wasting any precious moments. Princess Snowflake didn't know if she could still trust him. One false move and he can easily kill her in the sewers, and no one will know what happened to her. She saw the bag propped up against a wall in the alleyway and went to retrieve it. I can just make a run for it right now she thought to herself. However, she quickly changed her mind as she heard reinforcements begin to close in on the alleyway. Against her better judgment she jumped down the manhole, with the bag.
She landed seeing Ashton with his back against the sloped wall using his flame as a light. He was still obviously tired but played it off and started to lead the way down the long dark, wet passage. The further they went down this way, the wetter their feet became as the water started to rise. For such an elaborate city, the sewage system was rather plain and simplistic, just doing its supposed jump of preventing floods and such.
Princess Bubblegum started to reflect on how she ended up in the sewers with some guy she was fighting only fifteen minutes ago. All she really knew about him was that he seemed homeless and he steals to survive, but yet somehow he is incredibly strong and has insane magic powers, enough that makes him dangerous to even the Princess. For being homeless, she noticed he has a sturdy body with strong arms. He isn't very big, but his back seems wide and solid, the same goes for his arms. He reminds the Princess of Finn, when she first saw his body; lean, strong, and filled with scars.
"Ashton?" He turned his head in acknowledgement while continuing to walk.
"Who are you really? A regular street thug won't be able to fight like you do, with or without magic. I just ask because you remind me of someone I know." This time Ashton stopped and turned around, sighing before he continued. He looked around and saw a small little protrusion out of the wall and went to sit on it. He removed his headband, brushed back is hair, and tied it again around his forehead.
"I wasn't always homeless; and you guess right, I'm not a regular guy because I do know how to fight. My family was actually a well-known warrior family that's been around since the early history of the city. We invented our own martial art, our own magic, and our own methods to integrate magic and martial arts and such. Usually, the personal guards for the Grand Wizard are people from my family, while the captain of the whole police force and every guard is the head of my family. It was me, my parents, and my two siblings; Natasha and Aiden. Natasha was my little sister and," Ashton hesitated as he tried to hold back his tears and he looked at the ground. The Princess put her hand on his shoulder regretting asking him who he was, but before she could apologize he continued.
"She was always with me, she looked up to me and clung to me. My older brother, Aiden, taught me everything I know, because our father was always busy. He hated how he was busy, but we all understood. My mother was the kindest woman you could ever fine, basically I had the perfect family. Three years ago I had went into the aristocrat district of the city and was with some friends, and spent the whole day with them until the sun went down. When I noticed how late it was I ran home. When I got there, I didn't see anyone around, there was no one training, or making potions, or doing anything in the residence. So when I walked into the house the first thing I saw was my little sister, dead on the floor in a pool of blood with a horrified look on her face." This time Ashton couldn't stop himself and tears ran down his face. His free hand covered his face as he tried to control his emotions to finish his story.
The Princess knelt down inform of him, not think of what to do, and simply held him close to her. She held his head to her chest, and patted his head, not saying anything, but still trying to comfort him. Quickly he pushed the Princess away from her and stood up, turning his back to her and putting his head on the wall, looking at the floor.
"I screamed out of fear and out of horror. I didn't know how long I held her in my arms, with her blood staining my clothes. Something came over me and I thought of my parents and quickly ran to their room, and when I got there, I something that I thought was a nightmare." Ashton turned to look at the Princess, as if he was recreating the whole scene right there in front of him.
"I saw my mother beheaded at the door and my father being stabbed through the heart as he whispered something into his assailant's ear. It was my brother," Ashton paused," and he just threw my father's body to the side and stared me down with a demented smile on his face. He told me the only reason he won't kill me is because I will never be a threat to him. I never saw him after that night and since then I've been homeless. But I never stopped practicing magic or fighting, so that's why I was able to fight like I did back there and use my fire magic."
The Princess didn't know what to say to him, she tried to find the right words to comfort him and decided to keep on walking.
"I really don't know what to say, except I know how it feels to have your world, your happiness taken from you by someone you loved. If you keep me company till we get out of here, I'll tell you my story." Ashton smiled and chuckled to himself, and while smiling confidently, he got up and stood next to Snow.
"Don't, everyone should keep some secret to them. I know you aren't from around here, and the moment I saw you I know you seen some things and done some things. I just thought I needed to tell you that so you can trust me. Right now I'm just worrying about getting you back with your people and getting away from all the police." They went on down the dark wet passageway, not no longer just regular strangers.
The Princess couldn't help but smile to herself and blush slightly, as she saw Ashton in a new light. After some more walking they reached a crossroad; a circular room with five different tunnels to choose from. Although Ashton had led the Princess here, he seemed to be just as lost as she was, not entirely sure which way he was supposed to take.
"Ashton," the Princess said in a very disappointed and slightly annoyed voice, that made Ashton sigh in embarrassment, "You don't know where we are, do you?" Ashton remained silent and looked around the room as if he was looking for something. The Princes got tired of waiting for him, so she made an ice slab to sit on while she watched him pace back and forth.
"Ok um, I think we may be lost," he paused momentarily looking at the different directions," just slightly." Snow looked at him with on raised eyebrow with her arms and legs crossed. Ashton turned away and continued to look for a way out.
"Ok then now what do we do? We are in the middle of the sewers I thought you knew this area." The Princess got up and started to look around the room, looking for some to determine where they were in the city. As she walked around she began to hear a rumbling noise, coming from where they came from. Ashton also felt little drops, slowly hit his head. The rumbling sound kept on getting louder and louder.
"Ashton! Is that fucking rain water!?" Without even responding, Ashton ran past the Princess and filled the hole where they entered from with fire, to try blocking off the water and turn it to steam. The Princess, then filled the other passageways with thick slates of ice. She then replaced Ashton's fire with her ice.
"I didn't need help you know." The Princess just laughed at him and looked around the whole chamber.
"It looks like the only other way is up, I don't know how much water is coming through, so I don't know how long my ice can last if there is too much pressure coming at it. We need to leave now." She was serious and she sensed the urgency, the only way out, that they noticed was through the roof, however they were deep underground at this point. They also had no idea where they would come out.
"If we go through there we could very well end up surrounded by guards you know. There has to be a better decision than that thing." Although Asthon had asked that question he knew the only way out of the chamber was up, that or see how long the ice can last.
"Let's go, whatever we come out to, we can just fight out way out of it, we have been doing that for the past hour." The Princess said impatiently, not wanting to drown to death as she continue to hear the roars of the violent flooding. She didn't know what to do, and it looked like Ashton was completely stumped as to the next move as well. He had made a loud sighed and gave into her suggestion.
"Fine, I guess we're going to go with your idea, just be ready because we might very well have to fight people on the other side." Snow walked up to him and smiled in his face as if to say 'ha I win', and made a frozen circle around them. She then proceeded to use that ice circle to ascend to one of the openings in the ceiling that looked like manholes. The higher the went the more they felt rain drops hit their face they also started to hear screams and people running around in the streets. The unlikely pair looked at each other and they knew something was wrong and something dangerous was going on.
When they had finally reached the manhole, they felt cold, unnatural cold. The pouring rain began to change into a snow flurry. Deep down Snow knew what was going on. She rushed herself to simply freeze the manhole and crush it, much to Ashton's disapproval. When they climbed back into the streets snow was piling on the streets and people were running past them along with gusts of wind.
"Goddamnit! Not this again, please no this again!" Ashton didn't question her. It seemed as if his main concern was still not dying at the moment so he began to run with the other people.
"Hey, wait Ashton! Where are you going?" Snow was mortified to see that he was running. She had thought that he may be a thief but he did seem like he had some honor to him. He was running away now that they were safe, as if he had used Snowflake to help him escape the guards.
"Look, I didn't sign up for," he made a slight pause pointing in the direction where everything was coming from," for whatever that shit is. You're cute and all but fuck that, I'm trying to live." The young man ran off with fear on his face along with the flock of people running away from the source of all of this chaos.
Princess Snowflake, now alone, decided she needed to stop her father and this sudden outburst as fast as she possibly could. She raised herself into the sky to see what was happening above the tall and majestic buildings of the city. She saw, a few blocks away, a flurry of ravenous snow and ice shooting out from the ground in all directions. She cursed under her breath as she knew exactly what was going on, and she needed to prevent another incident like the Candy Kingdom.
She flew over there as fast as she could, and as she flew closer she saw the streets become riddled with the bodies of the guards. Some were completely frozen, others seemed to be unconscious, and the rest were simply mutilated in grotesque forms. She was scared and began to remember the events of the Candy Kingdom Incident and the image of Finn's burnt body formed in her mind.
By the time she got there what she saw horrified her. Her father wasn't fighting guards, but he was actually fighting Lisanna. She was panting hard with one arm lump and bleeding as she held her knife in a ready position to go in for a kill. Her father was simply in front of her laughing with an insane mind. The Princess contorted her face with anger and fear, anger for her father destroying lives once again, and fear out of her friend's harm.
She rushed down and landed in between the two people, stopping the fight. She stared at her father, who seemed as if he was never hurt to begin with. She put her arms up as if to protect Lisanna from any further damage. She looked back to see the damage that was dealt. She saw Lisanna's arm bleeding from the bicep, limp against her body. The left side of her face was swollen causing her left eye to close slightly and with that there was blood coming down her head. She had several cuts around her body, around her legs and the base of her neck. She was barely standing but her good eye still had a look of a killer, she wasn't fighting to defend herself, this was a real death match. She was losing it.
"I wonder where you went honey. You dashed off against that young man and we lost you. There were some guards that tried going after you and I lost my cool! Lisanna tried stopping me," he paused as if catching his breath," she tried stopping me from saving you Snowflake! You were in danger I needed to save you from that thief and the guards! She got in my way so I had to stop her too!"
The Ice King was going insane again, he got lost in his twisted love and his deluded idea of protecting his daughter. He thought everyone was his enemy and everyone was out to hurt his precious daughter that even now is against him. While he was ecstatic to see her ok, she stared at him with eyes of hate and disgust, but the Ice King does not even see this, he simply sees his daughter in front of him.
"Dad," Snow paused, "what the hell is all of this, why are you doing this?" The Princess started to walk towards her father and attempt at calming him down. The Ice King saw this and got overly excited, causing the snowstorm and amplify and the temperature to drop. The Princess was able to handle it but Lisanna was forcing herself to stay awake and not fall to her knees. The Ice King ran to his daughter and hugged her tight, as if he was never going to let go of her.
"Dad, please stop this now!" The Princess tried to make him let her go, but he was too strong, and he was only tightening his grip on her. The demented and mentally broken king began to breathe heavily as he smelt his daughter. Snow felt disgusted from just being near him and was desperate to get him to separate from her. While panicking she noticed that the snow had stopped and the skies had cleared up.
"My daughter, you have come back to me. I am well now, let's leave and go back to the kingdom and leave this world all behind us. I can take care of you like I used to!" The Ice king said. His eyes were filled with broken dreams and demented desires, he was truly broken. There wasn't an ounce of sanity in his being left after all this time.
It was at this time that Snow felt hopeless and powerless, this was the first time she ever looked insanity in the eye. What she found drained her of any feelings of hope or safety. The Princess tried once more to get out of his grip. She started to form piece of ice point out of the ground, aiming directly at her father. When she tried to make them impale the insane king, they wouldn't budge, they just stood there no matter how hard Snow tried, which caused her to panic even more.
"You know, Snowflake, I am stronger than you." The Ice King was taking control of the spikes that were meant to kill him, showing Snow how pointless it was to try to fight him back. The Princess grew a face of defeat, of fear, one of pure hopelessness. The Princess had given up, her whole journey to save Finn had failed, all because she didn't see how dangerous her father actually is.
However, both the Ice King and Snowflake felt a rush of heat appear out of nowhere, causing both of them to look around in confusion, even the battered Lisanna was unaware of what was going on. All the ice and snow was starting to melt, even the people who were incased in their frozen tombs. The Princess was trying to find out where it was coming from, and almost as if it was an angel sent by Glob, she saw her savior and smiled.
"You know, I don't take kindly to people who turn my fucking city into a damn Popsicle. I was told to be patient and let things happen, but this is the perfect time to bring you in." There stood Ashton on the top of a building looking down at the ice king with a fiery aura surrounding him. He jumped down, ready to face the Ice King and to take him down.
As he started to walk slowly towards Ice King, he let go of his daughter and threw her to the side. She immediately rushed over to Lisanna to hold her in her arms, who hugged the Princess right back. The Princess caressed her as she hugged her tight and brought her closer to herself; she looked at her many injuries from her cuts to even her damaged leg and arm, the Ice King was really going to kill her.
"You think you can interrupt a moment I was having with my daughter? Who the fuck do you think you are!?" As the Ice King was going off on Ashton, the Ice King had suddenly seen the young man disappear in a fiery haze right before his eyes. Before he can even react, Ashton appeared right by him, whispering into his ear.
"Shut up old man, and let me take you in." Ashton didn't even give the Ice King a second to attack, as he quickly punched him hard in the stomach. He immediately fell to the floor, gasping for the air that had left his lungs. He was then kicked at the side of his temple, knocking him out cold. Ashton stood over him in disgust and triumph, he wanted to simply murder him but he knew he had to keep him alive…for now.
"Ashton thank you, you saved us. I didn't know what was going to happen. He was going to kill Lisanna" Snow had gotten up to thank Ashton for saving them, but then Lisanna stood up, battered and weak, and stood between them. She was sensing extreme blood lust from the young man and knew he didn't save them…he was worse than the Ice King.
"Princess…please…stay away." The injured girl managed to tell the princess as she readied her knives and was able to stand up without falling down. She stared down Ashton, who was standing in front of them without his usually bravado. Instead it was replaced with a cold stare mixed with pure animosity.
"She is right princess, you should really run away from me. But let's be honest here, you know I'll find you and I will capture you." The Princess was simply staring back at Ashton confused at what was happening. She saw her father on the floor, knocked out cold, and the snow being melted away as a result. She even noticed how Lisanna was ready to fight against Ashton. She just wanted everything to end and she just wanted to go home.
Ashton, now bored of waiting and wanting to get this all done and over with, brought his arm back, which frightened Lisanna. Ashton took a deep breath, and throw a punch which launched a giant fire ball at them. Quick on her feet, Snowflake made a wall of ice to protect them from a fiery death. The fireball was just a feint, Asthon quickly ran up to them behind the dying embers, destroyed the wall and grabbed Lisanna by the throat and slammed her to the ground, causing her to lose wind.
"What the hell are you doing Ashton!?" The Princess rushed at Ashton, swinging with a blade of ice, cutting his cheek slightly. Ashton, without saying anything got ready for another attack. Snowflake swung again, this time wanting to be caught, and she was. She brought up spikes from the ground but Ashton quickly evaded them perfectly. He then kicked one of them, launching it towards Snow. Using her powers over ice, she stopped it and crushed it into tiny shards. Without letting Snow continue, Ashton shot fire at her, to get rid of the shards and to create an opening.
The Princess created a dome of ice around her to protect all of her openings, and it didn't work. Ashton punch a fiery hole into it with one shot, and filled it with a dense flame aimed at the Princess.
"You're lucky I can control my flames." The Princess was knocked out, barely damaged, but out cold. The dome disappeared, and Ashton grabbed her and whistled out a signal. Five royal guards of the Magical City appeared and carried away Lisanna and the Ice King.
I need to wake up the princess thought. It hurts so badly, but I need to get up and figure where I am! She thought. She felt gravel and dirt under her, and the sound of people above her talking and looking down at her. She then heard a faint voice, the voice of a young girl.
"Please Princess you need to wake up!" Finally she recognized that it was Lisanna. Quickly her eyes shot open, and she realized they were in a caged cell with people looking down at them. A large man covered in white hairs seemed to be the one they congregated with.
"I see you all are awake good! If you wish to live, you shall obey me and my orders!" The great and proud looking man bellowed, and by his side was the young man, Ashton.
Ok guys I haven't written in god knows how long. I'm sorry to everyone that followed the story. I lost motivation for a very long time but now I am looking forward to write, I won't make promises that it will be every week, but I will update and finish the story. Some things may be rocky since I have thought about the story in so long, but please everyone accept my apologizes and I know it's too much to ask but continue to follow the story. Thank you.