Deep Freeze

~KUWAHAWI ISLAND~

Callie permitted herself a sigh of contentment as she lay back in her deck chair, clutching the cocktail glass in one hand. Life, she reasoned, could not be any better right now.

Here she was, in a one-piece swimsuit, with sun, sand and surf - natural Inkling territory - all around her, topped off with all the conveniences of the modern world. The gazebo's thatched roof shaded her from the worst of the midday heat, whilst a cooling breeze worked in tandem to soothe her body from the tropical temperatures. Add to that the peach bellini in one hand and the relaxing sound of the waves crashing on the shore... There was no doubt in the squid's mind, as she sipped at her drink, what this was.

"This," she announced aloud, "is living."

"Don't get too comfortable." A turn of the head revealed Marie, slouched in an identical chair next to her with a highball glass of Pimm's in one hand. By contrast to her cousin, the grey-tentacled Squid Sister was wearing a more daring two-piece outfit that was more than likely tailor-made - Marie had always been the one who splashed out the most money.

"It's only for a few more days," she continued. "And then it's on the boat back to Inkopolis and our old jobs at the studio."

Callie gave another sigh as the reality of this situation hit her. "Boy, am I gonna miss this! Tropical drinks, great food, balmy weather, disco-ing until dawn..."

"And the tan," chipped in Marie, pointing at Callie's legs. The black-haired Inkling craned her neck to obseve, and smirked as she noted her skin was a little darker in tone than usual. If only she had the time to keep this up - she'd been going for this bronzed beach babe look she'd read about in Tentacles Weekly, but now it seemed unlikely she'd reach it.

Marie slurped her drink noisly, and continued. "At least we won't have to deal with the Kobbers again. I've had enough of that lot already, Cthulhu knows."

"That was your own fault," was the response. "If you'd just said 'hey, I'm a professional sniper and also I'm a very grumpy squid', you could have avoided all that!"

Marie glared. "Oh, and where were you, when I was getting mixed up in all that Aggie business?"

"Doing my job," was the curt response, followed by another sip of drink. "And besides, we're not always a double act. You seemed to get by just fine on your own, didn't you?"

"Well, it would have been nice to have some backup." Marie was now swirling her drink and staring out to see, the sign that she wasn't comfortable with this conversation anymore. "And I thought you would have enjoyed being part of all that superhero nonsense. You drooled over that Kamen Rider kid enough."

Callie went red in the face at this reminder, and was about to retort when something cold touched her on the nose. She spluttered, lifting one hand to brush away the offending whatever it was, and looked at her own fingers, which became damp and somewhat cold from touching the foreign particle. Utter confusion then took over her mind as she watched the remains of the snowflake dissolve into nothingness, leaving nothing behind but chilly water on her skin.

As she stared, another snowflake suddenly whizzed past her face, followed by another. She looked up, and saw that the things were now falling reguarly - a light drizzle, yes, but still very noticable in a sunny tropical sky. All around her, people were now looking up and pointing, as confused as she was as to the source of this phenomenon. Just what kind of shenanigans were at play to make it start snowing in weather like this? Unless it was volcanic ash, but that was unlikely...

Callie turned to Marie to ask what she thought of it, and saw she was still staring out to sea. Her expression was not one of bored distraction, but intense focus. The expression she wore on her face before she pulled the trigger and splatted some unfortunate newbie who didn't understand why running out into the open was a bad idea. The expression that told the younger cousin, immediately, that something was very wrong.

"Callie," said Marie, slowly.

"Yeah?" Nervous fear was creeping into Callie's body.

"The forecast was set for 'yet another glorious day', right?"

"Right."

Marie lifted a finger and pointed out to sea.

"So what are those clouds...?"

Callie looked. And sure enough, there did seem to be clouds - huge, black ones, slowly drifting over the ocean and flickering with the odd spark of lightning from within. But they were moving at an angle that should have been impossible, pushing against the wind instead of alongside it, as if they were alive and moving with purpose. And, if she squinted hard enough, there was something else in there, a collection of shapes moving in formation, shapes that looked like.

 The fear spiked into cold realization.

"...those aren't clouds."

-------

"Sire! Sire!"

The voice, high-pitched and squawking, broke through the meditative reviere of the one sitting upon the flagship's vast high chair. The heavy, blubbery bulk shifted slightly as the bloated body leaned forward to survey the one who had dared interrupt the owner's private thoughts. Piggy eyes full of malice and ill will bore down upon the speaker, glowing like two bright, sky-blue chips of ice.

"What is it?" came the demand, low and snarling.

"We found it! We found it!" The messenger, a tiny little penguin in a horned helmet, was struggling to stay on his feet, hopping up and down with excitement on a wooden deck slick with frost. "It really exists, just like you said!" And he pointed with one flipper, out towards where the steel towers of a city jutted out from the tropical waters.

At this, a rumbling sound came deep from within the massive being, the heavy moustache hiding a crooked grin of triumph. Muscles disguised by years of accumulated fat shifted and flexed as the arms pushed the bulk out of the chair and onto the ship deck, the hormed helmet wobbling slightly with the movement. The creaking of the wooden slats beneath them drew the attention of all away from their tasks, every hand on deck looking up as Lord Fredrik of the Snowmads stepped forward to speak.

"Bring me the Horn," he commanded.

The command was one that was carried out in short order - not for nothing did this ragtag collection of bandits and misfits serve under this leader for many years. A squadron of penguins, arranged upon the uppermost parts of the deck, sounded the call to arms on brass horns in a dull, ominous note. A retinue of walrus-like beings gathered in a circle, already beating the mighty drums in a slow, deliberate rhythm like the footsteps of a giant. These together were the first and only warning of the catastrophic event to come, and by then it was too late - as it always was.

A box was thrown open, and another set of penguins hauled out from it's depths a huge horn, made of cold-bleached ivory and reinforced with rings of studded iron. It's sheer size alone was impressive, for none could picture what creature it had once belonged to, but even more awe-inspiring was the icy mist that trickled from it's surface - a sign of clear enchantment at work. The bearers heaved and grunted as they carried the thing towards their leader, setting it within a wooden frame bolted into the deck to support it's weight before stepping respectfully back.

Fredrik permitted himself a cruel belly-laugh as he stepped forwards and took the pipe of the Horn in one pudgy paw.

"With this," he boomed, loud enough for all to hear, "we claim the land that is ours by might!"

And saying thus, he blew one deep, low, booming note upon the Horn.

Those who saw it coming were already too late to respond. It came as a dark, churning mass of thick cloud that shifted and changed as it rolled inexorably forwards - sometimes a wolf, sometimes a bear, sometimes a dragon with piercing eyes and awful teeth. What wasn't swept away by the screaming hurricane that lashed across the island like a giant scouring pad was buried under the deluge of white as the blizzard took it's place. People, animals, trees, buildings mechanical things - all were prey to this freak disaster that fell upon them and blanketed them in a freezing grip.

By the time it was over, there was nothing left but ice and snow.

Inkopolis was now a part of the Snowmad Territories.

-------

Callie stared at the mass of white that had once been a city.

Then, as hordes of screaming people began to abandon the beach and their belongings, she turned to Marie, who was clutching her highball glass and visibly shaking.

"Um... D'you think we could get a refund on those tickets?" she tried.

Her only response was a shattering noise and a very loud swear word.

TROPICAL FREEZE
A Steel Komodo Plot 

~Coming Soon to ZFRP 2017~ 

Non-Canon AU: Ghosts

Beck was dead.

This must be clearly understood, or nothing that happens next will make sense.

It had happened last year - suddenly, and from a source that nobody had expected. The question of how Ivan of the Magpies got a hold of the weaponry he'd carted back to his superiors had been a lingering question in everyone's minds, and it was swiftly and horribly answered when Tremor of the Black Dragon appeared as if from nowhere and levelled half of South Vegas. In the resulting skirmish that followed, the Kobbers had been hideously beaten by the geomancer, whose powers had been slowly approaching those of a deity due to past events, and it seemed as though he could just not be brought down by anything that was thrown at him.

The sudden and awful twist ending came when Beck, spitting sparks and furious beyond measure, had leaped at Tremor just as he had been winding up to smash somebody around the head with a fist of solid granite.

The crunch of a shattering AI Core would forever be ingrained in the minds of the people present.

Tremor had then fled, leaving the others to realize what had happened. Then the panic had set in, and Beck's mangled body had been rushed back to the K.O.B. in what basically amounted to a spare wheelbarrow someone had conveniently found lying about. There was a mix of horrible tension and vague hope as the gadgeteers and scientists studied the remains of what had once been their former comrade and spunky, heroic ally. Surely, they reasoned, he could be restored? What were the Kobbers if they couldn't bring someone back from a fate as horrific as this - they'd come back from worse, hadn't they?

All hope died when Doctor Light turned to everyone assembled and shook his head.

There was nothing to recover. The AI Core had been pulverized, and the Xel system had no means of reconstructing the very thing that told them to form a body to begin with. Even if they could recover anything, there wouldn't be anything that was Beck to put in a new body or restore - the same personality, but none of the memory or experience. Doctor Light did not believe in keeping personality backups, as evidenced by his refusal to restore Rush two years ago, and he hadn't the hand-eye co-ordination anymore to recreate the systems he'd forged the body from.

For all intents and purposes... Beck Light was dead.

Permadead.

The realization settled in like sea-fog; slow, but cold and bitter, and everyone took it badly in one way or another. Jewel Man broke down into hysterical sobbing and had to be comforted by an equally tearful Rock, Crash and Splash Woman. Sarah had sobbed quietly, and the rest of her week had been spent in mournful silence, not even touching her pancakes at breakfast. Kevin and Jin had promised to pay tribute to him in a special episode, touched by how he had gone down fighting. And even David, who didn't give a shit about much else, poured himself a drink in memory of the robot - although he immediately forgot why after he'd downed it.

But none took it harder than Ash. Beck had been practically like a second child to him, and the moment he'd heard about what was essentially the murder of a close ally, something dark and shocking erupted from within the Godslayer. A kind of cold, silent rage enveloped him, and he'd turned and left the bar without so much as saying a word. The only news anyone had of him was at the end of that week, when news reports came of an entire army descending upon the south quadrant of Vegas where the Black Dragon made their lair.

There wasn't enough left of Tremor to fill a tuna can.

Ash had been banished to the couch for a month. Even Sam had to admit that it had been rather extreme.

They held a funeral on the next day. It had been so long since they had held a funeral, since barely anyone died amongst the Kobbers like this, that it felt strange and dark. Rock spoke of how proud he was to have a son like Beck, and that he would not wish for any other, not even as a replacement. Ash had quietly spoken of the boy's enthusiasm, willingness to learn and unyielding sense of justice. Melody - the doll - had begun to say something, then broken down and had to be escorted to a back room. Then the single pen drive that contained what remained of Beck's programming was lowered into the dusty earth of Nevada, as all present recited the traditional rites mechanically and dully.

It was going to be a long year. And one of their own wouldn't be around to help.

Latest Update

Hold onto your tentacles, ladies and gentlemen, because it's time for...

INKOPOLIS LUNCHTIME NEWS! With your hosts, Callie aaaaaaand Marie!

"Helloooo, everyone! Hope you're having a good afternoon, viewers - we've decided to take this programme to the Salt-Tea Cafe as we sit down for coffee!"

"Which is what we do every day, but whatever."

"And we start off with the biggest thing to start the Lunchtime news with - the latest in Hero Watch! And whilst most of these brave, selfless types that call themselves the Kobbers are rather elusive and hard to capture on film, our ink-redible team-"

"Oh, my Cod, you actually went there."

"-managed to do what no other news corporation has done until now! That's right - we've finally got exclusive footage of that brave, dashing, very-obviously-handsome-"

"Stick to the script, Callie, jeez."

"...WE GOT FOOTAGE OF OOO!"

"Yes, after actual weeks of trawling around with our hidden cameras, we managed to catch that mystery masked man in action. About time too, I say."

"And this, viewers, is what we saw!"