"The…" Ranger stammered. "The Ice Emperor? Are…are you sure?"
"Yes." Everest expressed sorrowfully. "I hate to say it, but, yes, he is."
"But Zane's still in there, right?" Rocky replied with a tremor in his voice. "Right?!"
The Ice Ninja Pup opened her mouth to say something but was suddenly interrupted when Zane—the Ice Emperor—rose to his feet and exclaimed, "My name is not Zane. The one you call Zane was weak—and I have destroyed him!" He suddenly whirled around to face the team standing in shock at what they were witnessing at that very moment. "And now, for your insubordination, I shall destroy you all!"
Everyone let out a collective horrified gasp as Tracker shrieked, "Oy-yoy-yoy!"
"We can't fight him!" Sweetie yelped. "He's our friend! How are we supposed to fight a friend?!"
"Let me SHOW YOU!" the Ice Emperor cried before shifting into a fighting position. His hands suddenly lit up with a cold blue light, and a stream of corrupted Ice Power shot out at the team.
"Scatter!" Everest shrieked, and everyone on the team dove to the ground, the beam missing them by just a few inches.
"No! Kinnituuk!" Chinook cried, a trembling hand stretched out, tears pouring down his face at the horrible realization that his friend was gone, replaced by a monster. Rocky's voice was choked up with sorrow as he cried, "Zane, whatever you're feeling, whatever you're experiencing, FIGHT IT! You've got to fight it!"
"I'd rather fight you!" the Ice Emperor cried before shooting a stream of Ice Power at the Fix-It Ninja Pup so fast he didn't have time to dodge it. He was frozen instantly, his mouth open in horrified fright.
"ROCKY!" Ranger cried, in utter dismay at the loss of his friend.
"Chances of survival are dwindling into single digits now." Fishlegs exclaimed nervously as he and the others stumbled to their feet. But then the Ice Emperor shot out another blast of power, this one even bigger than before.
"Second dose!" Kaiyo shouted. "TO THE DIRT!" Everyone hit the ground a second time, and a second time the blast flew over their heads. But this time, there was a hit.
"MEATLUG!" Fishlegs cried out, as his dragon was suddenly frozen. He turned around to race over to her—big mistake! For then the severely malfunctioning Zane took the open opportunity to shoot a beam of ice power directly at him, freezing him instantly upon contact.
"FISHLEGS!" the pups cried in shock. Snoutlout growled, yelling at the top of his lungs, "No one does that to my friend!" He whistled for Hookfang, who came flying over immediately. As the burly Viking mounted his dragon, he exclaimed, "Let's see how well ice blasts work against Monstrous Nightmare fire!"
Before anyone could protest, he took off, flying ten feet into the air before directing Hookfang to dive. "Snoutlout! No!" Everest cried. "You don't know what you're doing!"
Zane, seeing the overconfident Viking diving towards him on the back of his fiery dragon, turned his beam to face the incoming threat to his authority. There would have been a direct hit if Kipper had not jostled Zane's right arm, causing his beam to veer to the right. But Snoutlout did not, in any way, escape completely unscathed.
The beam shot up at him so fast he didn't have time to dodge it. "Snoutlout! Snoutlout! Oi, oi—oh, COME ON!" he shouted as Hookfang sideswiped the beam, causing his right wing and Snoutlout's right arm to be frozen solid. With his wing frozen, Hookfang could not fly and suddenly plummeted from the air like a stone, with Snoutlout screaming his head off all the way.
"We gotta catch them!" Ranger cried. But before anyone could respond, there was another beam of corrupted Ice power, and a few seconds later, Snoutlout and Hookfang both hit the ground, frozen in a block of ice.
Then the Ice Emperor, seeing that he had the upper hand, raised his hands above his head. Instantly, the strongest ice blast yet shot upward, and a cold, icy-blue dome of corrupted ice began forming above the team.
"What's he doing?!" Tracker shrieked.
"He's doming us in!" Ranger yelled back.
"We have no choice." Everest finished sadly, before pointing one paw at Zane and shouting, "Ninja-GO!"
The entire team—or what was left of it—suddenly rushed forward, ready to fight. But the Ice Emperor was stronger, more powerful than any of them were prepared for. He pulled one hand down and immediately began shooting streams of corrupted ice at them. Chinook and all of the remaining pups really had to scurry to avoid being hit.
As Polaris watched from where he lay on the ground, he quickly realized that whoever these pups and their friends were, they were in trouble. But what could he possibly do to help them? His star-song—if he even still had it—would be of no use against icy blasts of corrupted Elemental Power.
And the dome of ice was still rapidly forming.
Everest struggled to use her own ice powers to combat Zane's. As his connector, she had the best chance of getting through to him. But the CME's toll was even greater than she could have possibly imagined.
For all the conflict was doing was fueling him.
"Zane, I know you're still in there somewhere!" she shouted. "And I'm going to prove it—even if I have to pound it into your thick Nindroid skull!"
Tracker let out a small, almost inaudible gasp. Never in all the time that he'd known Everest had he heard her threaten anyone before—much less one of her own friends.
"There is no Zane!" the Ice Emperor shrieked before shooting another energy blast right at Everest. But then something happened.
For Zane was not the only one changed by the CME.
"Leave her alone!" Kipper shrieked—before running straight at Zane as fast as he could. As he ran, his Photac body suddenly lit up, and as he leaped into the air, he instantly changed form—into a giant brown-coated wolf. When he landed perfectly on the ground, he lifted his head and let out a long, mournful howl.
"What?!" Ranger exclaimed. "No way!"
"¡Increíble!" Tracker replied.
"It's…" Sweetie breathed. "It's like that CME gave him…the Elemental Power of Form!"
In a flash, the now-wolf-like Photac pounced on Zane, knocking him over and pinning him to the ground. But he barely had time to blink before Zane heaved and threw him off with an uncanny strength. He screamed as he flew through the air. And when he hit the ground, he reverted back to his pup-form.
"Get up, Kipper!" Chinook, who'd been frightfully holding back, cried. "Get up!"
But the blow had taken nearly all of Kipper's strength from him, and he was only able to raise one paw weakly—before he too was frozen.
"No! KIPPER!" Kaiyo cried out.
"We're losing!" Everest breathed fearfully. For then came the moment when the dome was complete, and the whole Base Team—and Polaris—were trapped within it.
Then the Ice Emperor turned back to the team, shouting, "There is no escape! Surrender, and your lives will be spared. Resist, and your deaths will be slow and painful!"
"Never! We will never surrender to you!" Everest yelped. "I don't know why you've changed, but as long as I still stand here, with every breath in my body, I'm going to find a way to fix this. You were restored once—and you can be restored again!"
Zane let out an indignant snarl at the Ice Ninja Pup's boldness before shifting into a fighting stance and crying, "You fool! You have nothing! You are nothing! And I will take everything from you—starting with your power!"
Before anyone could blink, a beam of corrupted power suddenly shot out and engulfed Everest! She let out an anguished scream as she was pulled into the air, her Ice powers being torn out of her, every last drop of energy surging out of her petite frame as Zane drained her Mighty Power away. Polaris suddenly leaped to his feet at the horrific sight, tiny gasps of horror emanating from his lips as a lump of sorrow formed in his throat.
"EVEREST!" Ranger shrieked in fright at what he saw.
"Oy-yoy-yoy!" Tracker cried again.
"No, please, please, no!" Sweetie screamed, helplessly watching as the last of her friend's power was ripped away from her and the Ice Ninja Pup fell unconscious to the ground with a sickening thud.
"Everest!" Chinook and the four other unfrozen pups screeched as they dashed over to her still form. But the worst was yet to come. For it was then that Zane let out a malicious cackle as Everest's stolen power engulfed his entire form. Streams of icy-blue energy coursed through his circuits, making its way up from his feet before washing over his upper body and the top of his head.
And it was then that he began to transform. The icy crystals that covered his form suddenly grew bigger, and his eyes glowed an even colder blue than before. He extended his hand, and immediately a sword of pure corrupted ice was forged out of thin air, glowing with a sickly icy blue light, its tip delicately formed yet sharp enough to slash a wooden board in half with one singular stroke.
"Kinnituuk?" Chinook breathed in horror, hot tears springing to his eyes at the change that had come over his friend. There was no longer any trace of the Ice Ninja left. He had now become a mere shadow of what he once was. His heart that had beaten so pure, so true, was now crystallized in shards of cruel, unfeeling ice.
And as Chinook realized this, he slumped weakly to the ground and buried his face in his hands, crying with soft, heartrending tears.
For several minutes, the air was filled with nothing but his heartbroken sobs as he grieved the change of heart in his former friend. But then there came a fiendish chuckle from the Ice Emperor as he realized that Chinook had left himself vulnerable. And as Everest slowly pried her heavy eyelids open, she spotted the figure that had once been Zane suddenly charge Chinook!
The young Dracotaur panicked as he looked up to see Zane heading straight for him, with no intent of stopping. Involuntarily, he sharply flapped his wings hidden underneath his parka so hard he shot up ten feet into the air! The other pups (the ones not frozen) suddenly felt their jaws drop right open, and they stood stock still as Chinook struggled to control his flight, tumbling over and over incessantly in the air.
And then—BANG!—his head suddenly smacked the top of the dome, and he was knocked out. "Oh, no!" all the pups cried out as one as the young unconscious Dracotaur plummeted uncontrollably to the ground. Zane shot another beam of ice up at him—
"Leave him alone!" Everest cried. And before anyone could stop her, she took a great and terrible flying leap right into the power beam's path. Time seemed to slow as the bolt of corrupted Ice Power suddenly hit the Ice Ninja Pup right in the chest, and she let out a yelp of sheer pain as the ice found its way into her heart.
And when she came down again, her legs buckled, and she collapsed to the ground in great weakness and chills. A second later, she let out another yelp as the unconscious Chinook landed right on top of her back before rolling off of her and onto the grass.
"EVEREST!" the others cried out yet again. It was then that Polaris realized just how vulnerable the team was—or what was left of it. If someone didn't do something about this, everyone would be frozen solid by corrupted ice—or worse.
And it was then that he knew what he had to do. Sweeping one foot behind the other, he prepared to make a break for it. He was going to rush right at the enemy and take him down—before disarming him and leaving him for the pups to deal with. A sudden rush of tingling energy that he'd not had before surged through his veins as he counted, Five, four, three, two, one.
And then he took off, his whole body lighting up with a stellar glow, his eyes alight with golden starlight as bright as two flames of fire.
"LET—THEM—GO!" he yelled boldly before leaping high into the air. A beam of pure starlight suddenly burst out from his hands, catching yet another blast of corrupted Ice power and pushing with all its might as Polaris struggled to force it back, away from the pups and the now-conscious Chinook.
"Whoa!" Tracker, Sweetie, Kaiyo, and Ranger breathed in wonder. Then Chinook asked the very question that everyone was thinking—"Who that kid?"
"You cannot defeat me!" the Ice Emperor shouted, his voice trembling with fear even as he tried to intimidate the young, feisty Starborn. "I am the Ice Emperor! I have all the power!"
"Then maybe what you've got isn't enough!" Polaris retorted as he poured every ounce of strength and thought into his beam, thinking all the time, I must protect the ones who cannot protect themselves! That is my mission and my quest! It is my purpose here!
The last thing that Master Hoshiko had told him before the darkness had torn through Cosmia came back to him in that very moment, as the strength of the stars surged through his veins in a tingling wave of pure mighty power—"We are shown no system but our own."
This is my place then. This is where I belong.
I have been started on the right path, but this journey is my own!
And I WILL fulfill MY CALL!
But even all his strength was not enough. For in that moment, the same darkness which had torn through Cosmia eclipsed him again. The cry of anguish he'd sensed before suddenly sounded yet again, and he cried out in raw, excruciating pain before his beam suddenly vanished and he too plummeted unconscious to the ground.
And Zane showed no mercy. As Polaris groggily pried open his eyes, he didn't even have time to blink before he too was frozen.
"NO!" Chinook cried in terror. It was then that Everest too opened her eyes. A frantic chill swept over her—but it was suddenly replaced by a surge of pure horror as she took in the terrible sight of nearly all her friends being frozen in gigantic shards of ice.
"No." she breathed in sheer fright. "No, please. No."
It was then that Zane, having taken down all those who had dared to face him, suddenly set his sights on Everest. And as she staggered to her feet, she gasped in fright as he slowly approached her, sword at the ready. The other pups and little Chinook slunk backwards in fright as the former Ice Ninja gradually came closer and closer to them. But with the ice dome above and around them, there was nowhere for them to run.
They were trapped.
Trapped by shards of ice.