Coup de Grace

[Blizzard-Prince]

Chapter 1: A Surprise Guest

Of all the words to call me, every single human being I come across calls me weird. How fantastic.

I should probably tell you more about myself, shouldn't I? It would be better if people knew my name if I were to save the whole world from being nuked to oblivion.

My name is Geist Kessler. I'm just a regular 5'11 18-year-old with irregular 'gifts'. Ever since graduating highschool, I decided to skip college and just live in an old apartment somewhere downtown, doing various odd jobs to make a living.

I have wildly messed up black hair with dark brown highlights, which are pretty normal characteristics for a human, right? My eyes aren't like that. You see, my eyes are sort of odd. Around the edges of my irises, you can see a small hint of aqua blue, but changes to a bright lime greenish color near the center.

Trust me. You've never met a guy like me.

One more thing to note about me; I hate people. I hate my employers, I hate my apartment's landlord and I hate just about everyone else. Yes; even the president of the United States. Strangely, though, I'm somehow less-mean when the person in question is family.

I live near the bustling city of Chicago where more people arrive every single day. Why? People congregate in large places and pretty much freaking stay there; which obviously results in the already-crowded-city getting even more crowded.

I've been hearing about a large event that was going to happen a week from now on August 22nd. Some called it the Midnight Festival or something like that. That's probably why more and more noisy crowds arrive everyday.

Welcome to my life. This is my story.

It all started on the 15th of August, one week before the festival. On some mornings where I don't have work until later, I head over to O'hare and watch the crowds grow. On that particular morning, the sky was dark and cloudy. It had been raining up until a few minutes before I arrived. That's when this strange girl with short semi-spiked hair stepped out of the airport's automatic doors and saw me. I wasn't paying attention so I didn't exactly look straight and recognize her. Boy, I should have.

Next thing I knew, she was running towards where I was standing and nearly tackled me into the wet asphalt of the street. It was only a few seconds later when I realized that the girl, a complete stranger, was hugging me.

"What the he-?!" was all I managed to say before she started talking.

"Wow, they were right!" she exclaimed as though I just did something incredible. "They said I'd be able to see you the moment I got out of the airport."

"Not to sound rude, but I have no idea who you are." I said as the girl let go of me. Her black hair popped up and down with her movements.

Her lime green eyes looked straight at me.

She was wearing a green Nike tank top underneath a black Oakley hoodie. She wore dark capri pants and green Converse sneakers. A sports cap was attached to the belt of her capris. She held a green digital camera in her left hand.

"Ouch. That hurts, Geist." she commented, sounding disappointed.

She knew my name too?! Okay. Why wasn't I getting mad here? There was something familiar about her though. Had I met this girl before?

"Look, either you give me your name or I'm leaving." I told her strongly.

The girl looked really disappointed at this point, so she just said her name.

"Lerene Kessler, the daughter of your dad's cousin." she told me.

"Okay, so do you have any proof of that?" I challenged her.

"No, but I do know a lot about you. You own an apartment in the downtown area, your parents are out in Europe for the next 3 years, you were born on the 2nd of March, you can drive and you have this irrational fear of needles."

"Anything else, stalker?" I asked her. Was she really my relative?

"We could do a blood test if you want." she suggested, amusement showing on her face.

"I don't have time for this." I grumbled as I started to walk away.

"Heading to your Prius?" she stopped me. It's true, though. I did own a black chrome Toyota Prius. It was a parting gift from my parents before they left for Europe. "Uncle Vega did give expensive gifts to people." she said.

She knows my father's nickname. That's only known to family members. The birth certificate she presented to me also helped settle my doubts.

"Okay, okay. I believe you." I told her reluctantly. "Now what do you want?" I asked.

"To be honest, I've got no idea." she sighed. "Grandpa told me to come here and stay at your place until the festival."

"My place?!"

Why was I surprised? Now I have to babysit my newly met cousin who I never knew existed and share my apartment with her.

"Uh, yeah, but before that..." she said as she turned her camera on. She came and stood next to me. Carefully changing the camera setting to 'portrait shots', she snapped a photo of the both of us. "Perfect, noh?" she asked, showing me the photo.

I could've looked better, but there was no way I was saying that. "Yeah, yeah." I said.

"So when are we leaving?" she asked me, looking at my 4-seater car.

"Do I even get a say in this?" I asked back.

"I can cook breakfast, lunch and dinner." she suggested.

True, I do suck at cooking, and every single restaurant here with a little decency takes out a lot of cash from my already half-empty wallet. Cooking my own food would always be out of the question. I was pretty much broke, not counting my car.

I gave her proposal some thought. I walked to my car and hopped into the driver's seat. I pressed a side button and the passenger window slid down. "Hop on." I told Lerene.

"Whoo!" she cheered in a childlike way and sat on the front passenger seat. Somehow I didn't see the black suitcase she now had on her lap a few minutes ago.

I checked my watch and it read 9:13 AM. I had to work on 9:30.

"Alright, Stalker. I'll take you to my apartment, then I gotta head to work." I told her.

"Sure."

"I still have my doubts, so tell me more about yourself, my cousin that I've never met before."

And so we talked a bit, mostly her. I found out she was 17 years old, had twin younger brothers who were both 14, could also drive but preferred not to, lives in LA and loves the Santa Monica beach.

I dropped her off at my apartment, telling her she could rearrange the furniture to extend the sofabed. She got my cell phone number and hopped off my Prius with a smile on her face. I was beginning to trust her, though I still called her Stalker a bit in the car.

I breezed through work pretty quickly, slightly wondering what was happening to my poor apartment. Hopefully, there wasn't any heavy renovation going on there, courtesy of Lerene. Today I had to deliver a package to a house in Brighton Lane in Illinois.

Traffic was the only problem there. It was horrible. This one guy in a silver Volvo almost hit me on the road. By the time I've delivered the package, it was 11:47. Pretty early, actually. I got paid some $70.

I arrived back at my apartment 30-ish minutes later and was met by the smell of freshly grilled chiken. Lerene was probably cooking lunch.

I found that my apartment did get a major overhaul, much to my disappointment. From the ordinary apartment theme that you see around the world, it now had an ultra-modern eastern feel to it. My metal lamps were replaced with some modernized lanterns. For some reason, there were now little bonsai trees of every shape and size scattered around the apartment. The black sofa had been moved to one corner and was extended into a bed, complete with pillows and a blanket. New eastern paintings dotted the once-empty walls.

"Okay, where'd you get all this stuff?" I asked Lerene as I entered the small kitchen that used to smell of burnt food I cooked.

She had taken her jacket off and hung it on one of the two dining chairs I had. Her suitcase was propped up right next to it.

"I sold some junk I found around here and used some of my money." she said, showing me a green wallet. "You live in a pretty dumpy place, you know." she added as she faced the grill.

I let that one slide.

"What's cooking?" I asked even though I knew what was inside the smoking new grill that had magically appeared in the kitchen, replacing the rusty old grill I bought for $20.

"Chicken." she said happily, turning a page on the cookbook beside her. "Its a delicacy they have in Asia. Apparently, people there eat grilled chicken with a lot of soy sauce."

She continued talking about how some people would put a special oil into the rice and eat it with the chicken. It was only a few minutes before she set the table and we both sat down. She had bought some food from the market according to her, so we each got two pieces of grilled chicken.

Lerene was forcing me to pour some sauce and oil on my chicken, so I reluctantly did. I gotta admit, though. It tasted good.

When we were done eating, we both washed our plates and set them in the sink. Lerene had volunteered to clean them again, but with some soap this time.

"Been a while since I got to eat something good." I told her as she soaped the last of the plates.

"Thanks. That means a lot." she blushed, her pale face turning cherry-colored just a bit. "Guess that means you're ready for some training?"

"What are you talking about?" I asked. She couldn't know about my powers, could she?

"I'm no idiot, Geist." she said, regaining her teasing mood.

"How much do you know?" I asked.

"Enough to help before it's too late. We have seven days before the festival. You'll have to learn how to defend yourself using your gifts."

"W-what am I?" I stammered.

"A Medium. You are a human born with unique powers that become more prominent as you progress in life."

"And am I the only one?" I asked.

"Nope. I am too." she replied, looking quite proud. "Only I can't channel my powers through my body. I can manipulate common objects to have different purposes."

She explained to me that her camera could turn anything it flashes on into a crystalline statue of sorts once at the correct setting. Sort of like how Medusa turns people to stone. Her suitcase was also a bottomless pit of clothes. Literally.

"Why are you telling me this?" I asked her.

"Is it that hard to believe that I trust you?" she asked. She put her jacket on and grabbed her suitcase.

"Quite." I told her jokingly.

Lerene made a face and grabbed my left ear.

"You may be older, but you don't know a pinch about fighting using your powers." she said, smiling.

"Alright, alright. Let go." I surrendered.

"We're gonna practice in some of the empty warehouses a few miles away from here." she said without actually letting go.

"And I'm driving?" I asked.

"Great!" she laughed as she dragged me to my car parked just outside the apartment to begin Lerene's Special Gut-Busting Training Session, as she referred to it.

 

[Blizzard-Prince]

Chapter 2: Some Training and an Encounter

Training with my second cousin Lerene was a huge pain. In the warehouse, she would pull out a dozen straw training dummies from her bottomless suitcase and place them in different parts of the building. She'd then tell me to run up to each one and strike, burn, slice, or decapitate them with my powers again and again and again. Man, it really was gut-busting!

My power, by the way, is literally a black, burning substance that I can draw out of my body to allow many of my other body parts to morph into different things that I had to use against the dummies.

The last three targets were lined up against the warehouse wall. I ran up to them with Lerene watching closely, closing my eyes and concentrating on what I wanted for the situation at hand. Almost instantly, there was a warmth inside of my right arm. It got stronger, and then extended out of my arm.

I now had a black swordlike extension of my arm that replaced my hand. It was able to extend and retract at a whim. It felt like I had scales of some sort, but they were tiny, like little serrations in my new limb.

"Nice." Lerene commented as I sliced one of the straw dummies with one swing of my transformed arm. I proceeded with the next two and neatly sliced both in half.

"Can I take a break?" I asked, hoping that my recent performance was good enough for her to allow me a brief resting period. It was already 3:56 PM, more than 3 hours of nonstop training with powers I've only recently learned how to use.

"Sure. We're done for the day anyway." she replied, laughing at the thankful expression on my face just as she said it.

I sighed in relief as she stuffed the dummies I had sliced back into the bottomless suitcase. I let the 'sword' morph back into my ordinary, human hand and felt the warmth slowly fade.

"We'd better go home." Lerene said. I gladly obliged and started to leave the warehouse. I pressed the unlock button on the attachment to my car keys and I heard a soft beep near the exit.

"So is there anything else I should know about the Mediums?" I asked, slightly interested. The sun was higher in the sky now, but occasionally there was a pretty strong gust of wind.

"Well, there is something else you should know about..." she said as she followed behind me.

She waited until we entered my car and locked the doors. She looked as if she was scared of the topic at hand.

"They're called Strays." she continued, shuddering a bit. "People who've died, that neither go to heaven nor hell. It's somehow like purgatory."

"And what happens to them there?" I asked her.

"Um... they turn into monsters that hunt down Mediums." she answered, parting the left part of her bangs to the side.

"So they're gonna-"

"I think we should stop talking about this now." she said quickly, looking away from me and at what was outside the window. I turned my attention back to driving.

Because of the previous topic, the rest of the trip back to my place was pretty quiet, just the occasional comment about the scenery.

"I'm thirsty." Lerene sighed. It kind of startled me when everything was quiet.

"Uh, we'll make a quick stop at Cuanta Vida." I told her, considering the place was only a few yards away.

We made a stop at the cafe and there was a man in a pinstriped vest waiting for us there.

"Can I get you somesing for se road, senorita?" he asked in an unidentifiable accent.

"Yes, please." Lerene answered.

"You do know that coffee only makes you more-" I stopped when Lerene gave me a cold glare.

"You too, amigo?" The man turned to me this time.

"Just her." I said, annoyed a bit at Lerene's stubborn behavior.

She ordered a cheap cup of Spanish coffee which I had to pay for and thanked the store owner, who gave her a 5% discount. Believe me. That discount didn't matter much considering it was only five dollars.

It took her quite a while to finish her drink, so there was plenty of time to survey the place. It was a simple, but fancy corner cafe at a street intersection near the highway. There was a little sign out front with the words 'Cuanta Vida' painted onto it. Next to the front entrance we came in from was a small board with chalk writings on it, listing various snacks and beverages served at the counter. Three ceiling fans were running and spread out across the ceiling of the cafe.

Behind the counter were stairs leading up to a second floor, but a sign was propped up next to it with the words 'Home is where the heart is', written in what seemed to be a black marker. Upon closer inspection, there was a small group of words under the main phrase, but they were too small to be seen. Actually, I think it said 'No really. I live upstairs.' I also thought I heard footsteps coming from the second floor. I could be wrong, though.

The store's owner; Aarón H., at least, that's what the nametag on his tie said, was quite a nice guy, even though I caught him eyeing us with a strange look on his face.

He had a pretty foreign appearance going on. His dark hair was combed down, with a few cowlicks present here and there. He was dressed in a white dress shirt with a pinstriped vest on top. He wore pants with an identical pattern to his vest and white shoes with gray soles. Lerene thought he looked pretty snazzy.

Once Lerene was finished with her coffee, we got up from our seats. She thanked Aarón once more and we both left. He escorted us out the door and let us leave with a quick "Hope we'll be seeing you again, sen!"

The 'we' part sounded strange.

Back in the car, I decided it was time for some tunes, so I turned the radio on. A Black Eyed Peas song was playing. I think it was called Imma Be or something. Sure as heck though, the whole song didn't seem to make any sense.

I decided to stick with it just to get rid of the awkward silence that could possibly happen if I brought up that topic about Strays again. Lerene on the other hand, had another idea.

"Ugh. The Black Eyed Peas? Seriously, I liked them during the early 2000's, but then they just got bad. Just listen to that song," she complained as she got into the seat next to me. "Can't you put on Green Day or something?"

I tried looking through the different radio stations, but all I found was a bunch of talk shows where mothers complained about their kids getting pregnant, cooking advice, a concert ticket giveaway, a bunch of songs Lerene didn't like, and that latest album Paramore released. We stopped at the Paramore one since Lerene said she pretty much liked the band.

"Too bad there's no Green Day. This is pretty good though." Lerene said, shaking her head to the beat of the song.

When we finally got home, I quickly unlocked my apartment door and plopped into the soft couch that Lerene was going use as her bed later tonight.

I grabbed my iPod that was charging in an electrical socket next to where I was sitting and decided to listen to some music. I found my headphones and plugged them in and closed my eyes as a Jesse McCartney song got first pick on shuffle.

Moments later, Lerene stood in front of me.

"Well?" she asked, that dreaded teasing look on her face.

"What do you mean 'Well'?" I asked her, taking off my headphones.

"You like your new bed? You're gonna use that until I get enough cash for my own." she laughed.

It was my house and she was going make me sleep on the couch? Someday, I'll really lose it with this girl.

"Why do I have to sleep here?" I asked her, quite a few questions buzzing into my head. "More importantly, why'd you buy all these decorations instead of a bed?" I gestured to the new lamps, bonsai trees and appliances she bought.

"'Cause your apartment was pretty boring." she laughed again. "Come on. Are you going to let a girl sleep on a couch?"

I wanted to say that yeah, that's what was happening, but I decided against it. There was no way I was gonna get her mad at me as long as 'Lerene's Special Gut-Busting Training Session' existed. I literally had cramps all over when she told me to do three hundred push-ups in the span of five minutes a few hours ago.

"Don't worry. I traded your old mattress for a new one so I don't get any of... whatever's in your bed on myself." she told me.

"You could've just changed the sheets." I said, annoyed. Not that there was anything bad in my bed... There really wasn't...

"I also did that." she said.

"Alright, alright. You get the bed as long as you cook up some dinner tonight." was all I told her before I put my headphones back on.

It looked like she muttered something as she headed towards the kitchen. I closed my eyes once more for a few songs until I heard a scream and a crash.

"FFFFFFFFFF-"

"Don't you dare swear in here!" I yelled. "There's a strict rule about that in this building for some reason!"

"SHUT UP AND SAVE ME! THERE'S A GIANT FROG-MAN IN THE KITCHEN!"

I was sure then that I didn't hear her right. I took my headphones off and looked over to the kitchen. Surprisingly, there really was a frog-man-thing! Lerene was in the far corner without any means of defense.

It was large, around seven feet tall and had a human face with empty eye sockets. A long tongue was sticking out of its large lower jaw. It had a very small torso and no arms and a beer belly, but its legs were huge. And we're talking frog legs here. They made up half its length probably. Large sickly gray bumpy skin covered its backside and its underbelly was white.

It was going into that about-to-jump position normal animals have.

"HURRY UP!" Lerene screamed.

Next thing I knew, I had two black swords where my arms usually were and was running toward the frog-man-thing-WHATEVER as fast as I could.

My last thought was that French people would've been in awe at the sight of this thing. This was the biggest frog I've ever seen.

 

[Blizzard-Prince]

Chapter 3: Premonition

As I closed in on the frog that was trying to attack Lerene, the heat in both my arms shot up. I now had a set of black scaly blades where my arms were. The heat intensified as I fet them both grow sharper, sturdier... stronger.

I charged headlong towards the humanoid frog and slashed down with my left arm, attempting to drive it away from Lerene. The frog easily jumped out of the way. It was surprisingly fast for a beer-bellied armless 7-feet-tall amphibian. It landed on the wooden dining table we were to use for dinner.

"Eugh." Lerene said as she recovered from the shock. "No way we're eating on that now."

That last statement got me wondering if Lerene had a fear of frogs. Either that or a fear of big bellies.

"Don't you have any idea how to kill this thing?" I asked her, keeping my eye on the monster. It made a deep bellowing sound in its throat and reared up again for a jump.

It lunged at both of us but I somehow manage to defend with both my arm-swords. I guess that was a battle reflex or something. The frog jumped back in pain as both my arms made a pair of dark red gashes along its chest area. I saw its blood splash on the floor which I somehow knew I'd have to clean up sooner or later.

Thinking about all the cleaning I'd have to do, I retracted my blades and decided to try something new. I felt the heat disappear and come back seconds after. I can't describe it very well, but the feel of the transformation changed. When I use swords, the heat would be sharp and sudden, but this time, it was slow and kind of made my arms heavier.

Then, I realized I had a pair of hammers or something. They were shaped like a club with several red spikes at the tip. I decided they were a bit heavy for both arms, so I retracted the one on my left and decided to stick with one deadly weapon.

Awesome, I thought as I ran towards the frog, who was inspecting the wounds I gave it. I clubbed it on the head with the hammer and it wailed out in a deep baritone, lashing out its tongue at me. Even though it was just a tongue, heck it hurt! It hit me on my left thigh and I fell over. I got back up and attacked it again.

In the chaos of the frog attack, somehow, the table got knocked over and Lerene was able to grab her camera as it skidded across the floor.

"Close your eyes!" she yelled as she pointed the green camera towards me and the frog. I didn't know what would happen to me, so I did. Right before I could fully close my eyes, I saw the frog looking towards Lerene's voice, possibly surprised.

There were two short beeps, then a flash. I kept my eyes closed.

"You can open them now." Lerene laughed.

I opened them and flinched. The frog was inches from my face, mouth open, teeth exposed. Did normal frogs have teeth? It was different now though. It seemed to be frozen solid, glowing a shining silver.

"Should've seen it." she laughed again. "It was trying to jump at you at the last moment."

That's a nice little tool, I thought as she put her camera into her pocket. I don't think she'll forget that thing anywhere from now on.

"So what're we gonna do with this thing?" I asked her, looking at the obviously-a-Stray, frozen frog.

"Coating wears off in a few days. Best get rid of it." she said, picking up a few broken pieces of glass on the floor.

"Awesome." I said as I made the arm-club bigger and brought it down on the frozen state of the frog-man. It seemed to shatter into a dozen pieces, then the pieces suddenly evaporated into a white light. The frog was gone. Best of all, there weren't any shards or blood. The blood looked like it disappeared with the frog.

Lerene was relieved too about the disappearing blood and shards, but the kitchen was still a mess. We spent our time cleaning and throwing out the broken objects. We were finished by 6:13, spending most of the time wiping the dining table clean. Lerene just refused to eat on it until it was literally sparkling. She prepared dinner, which was a relief since I thought the stove was broken.

We ate some burgers. Lerene cooked up a double serving, which I was grateful for. Heck, who'd not want a juicy homecooked hamburger right after fighting a giant frog?

"So, how'd you like your first fight agaisnt a Stray?" Lerene asked after swallowing a bite of her burger.

I didn't enjoy my first Stray fight. My leg hurt from that tongue-battering.

"Mmm." I shrugged, playing with my fingers, transforming each of them into tiny weapons. One was a smaller version of the club I used earlier.

"I still can't believe I was so defenseless back there." she complained.

"That's the price of sucking, I'm afraid." I chuckled. "Admit it. You would've been toast without me."

"Yeah, yeah." she laughed.

We spent rest of dinner time having teasing arguments between bites of our burgers. I can't recall the last time I laughed with another person I just met.

When it was late in the night, we decided to sleep. I felt like being nice to Lerene (especially since she stopped the frog) so I allowed her to stay in my room. I disappoint myself.

I got ready for bed, changing into some shorts and a shirt. Imagine any design on them if you'd like. It wouldn't really matter what my sleeping clothes looked like, right? Unless you imagine them with llamas or something idiotic on them.

I heard the door in my bedroom close. Soon enough, Lerene was in a nightgown looking at me with her arms crossed.

"You should wake up tomorrow at 5:30." she told me. "Training starts early."

After that, she walked back to the room that used to belong to me. I sighed and looked at the clock. It was 10 in the evening. I decided to get some rest before I experience the wrath of the truly tired. I hopped onto the sofa bed and in a matter of minutes, I dozed off to sleep. Not exactly what you'd expect from a guy who let a strange girl sleep in his house, trained for a long 3 hours, fought a giant humanoid frog and ate half a pound's worth of hamburger meat.

My night wasn't nearly as peaceful as I would've hoped. That night, I had the weirdest dream.

I was in a dark room of some sort. It looked like a cave. The walls glowed a faint hue of bluish-green. The sounds of dripping water could be heard far off as the damp fog surrounding the inside of the cavern started fading away.

"He survived." a young boy's voice said, surprised.

I looked around, but I couldn't see anything yet. Even though the fog started to clear, it was still very hard to see anything.

"Apparently, yes." a female voice added. It sounded like the voice you'd hear from an eleven-year-old girl. There was something sinister about it though.

"That blasted girl is ruining everything!" the boy complained. "Why did she have to show up and teach him how to fight?"

"It's because of their grandfathers. They arranged the two to meet up, but without Geist's actual consent." the girl murmured. I flinched when I heard my name. Two kids were talking about me, Lerene and our grandfathers?

"Hmm." the boy said as the fog in the room cleared a bit more. I could see them now. Two very small sillouettes in the far side of the cave.

"What do you mean 'hmm'? I say get some Strays after them. Bring them here and we'll rip their guts out personally." she exclaimed. For kids, they were pretty sadistic.

"Now, now. There's still six days for us to kill them." the boy assured her.

They both stood in silence for a while, but the girl turned her head over to where I was dreaming I was and suddenly yelled.

"HE'S HERE!"

I woke up in a cold sweat right after. I kept reassuring myself that it was just a dream.

Then again, why did it feel so real? I felt the dampness of the fog. I felt the heaviness of the air inside that dark, gloomy cave. That stuff doesn't happen in dreams. It all felt so... real somehow.

I checked the clock. It was 4 am. I only managed to get six hours of sleep. It was still pretty dark outside, but I decided to get up from the couch. Again and again, my thoughts would return to the mysterious conversation between the two children inside the cave. I kept shrugging them off as I headed for the kitchen to make myself a cup of morning coffee.

As I switched the kitchen lights on, I noticed an odd note taped to the fridge that hadn't been there before I dozed off. I took it off and looked at it.

It was a piece of old, crumpled up paper. The color was starting to turn yellow, but whoever used this looked like he didn't mind. I expected to see Lerene's name on it because she told me last night that she was going shopping today. Her name wasn't there.

There was only one sentence with a handwriting I didn't recognize.

See you in Millennium Park~

I quickly went to my room, holding the letter. Was it a note so I would know where to train?

I turned the doorknob but it was locked. I took the spare key I hid above the door frame and used it to open the door, which clicked open.

"Dude, knock first!" yelled a startled Lerene in a bathrobe. "I was about to take a shower!"

"I can see that, but did you write this?" I showed her the note. She stared at it blankly and raised one eyebrow.

"This isn't from me." she said, handing me back the piece of paper. "It's from a girl, though. You sure you don't have any dates planned?"

"No." I told her, annoyed. "How would you know if it was from a girl?" I asked before she could make another teasing comment.

"Gee, I have no idea. Maybe it's because of the little hearts instead of dots on the letter 'i'?" she said sarcastically. I guess my cancel-teasing-comment plan didn't work after all. Gotta admit, though. She was right. There were hearts on the i's.

"I guess we're canceling today's training?" I asked as she went into the bathroom, closed and locked the door.

"It's pretty weird, though. It might be dangerous or something." she said from inside. I heard the shower turn on and water splash down.

"Still..." I said as I tried to find a way to get her to agree with me. I was never good at those things.

"Okay, okay. We'll go over to Millennium Park later to check it out, but if there isn't anything there, we're training for the whole day!" she yelled through the door.

"Sure." I sighed.

"Now can you get out?" she asked.

"You're kicking me out of my own room?"

"Well duh. Everybody needs a little privacy when they finish showering. Not that I'm done just yet."

I groaned and got out, locking the door as I did. I heard a muffled 'thanks!' and went back to the kitchen.

"Hurry up and don't use up all the hot water!" was all I yelled in return.

I sat down a few minutes later on the table drinking up the coffee I fixed for myself. As I held the note in my hand, I had the strangest feeling, like static, but it made my hand completely numb. I dropped the piece of paper as soon as I felt it.

This was getting weird. As I got the note that fell to the floor, I experienced the 'static' feeling yet again. Carefully, I folded it up and inserted it into the pocket of my red jacket which was hanging on one of the chairs.

 

[Blizzard-Prince]

Chapter 4: Chess Match

Once we finally got to Millennium Park, the first issue was finding a parking space. Lerene and I managed to find one quite a way from the south entrance of the park. The park itself was huge, not that I haven't been here before, but it seemed smaller last time.

The parking issue cost us 10 minutes of time, as we made our way to the park. A group of people was gathered there, crowding around some sort of interesting activity.

"Who's next?" a male voice yelled in the center of the crowd, followed by the screams of girls.

"Celebrity?" Lerene asked as she scuffled next to me.

"Possibly." I answered back.

"Psh." she said.

The crowd was big, really big, and now we got the unfortunate gift of being stuck in it. That's when I noticed that it was a huge line. The people walked forward, excited about whatever was in the end.

As we got closer, the male figure could be seen playing a sort of game with some teenage girls. Some were giggling uncontrollably every time the guy smiled at them or anyone else for the matter. Turns out, they were playing some chess.

I never noticed, but we were in the Jay Pritzker Pavilion already. It was like this huge grassy area which kind of looked like a stadium with a huge metal net above it. I'v heard it was the centerpiece of the whole park.

Once it was our turn to play chess with the 'celebrity', Lerene did something I never expected she would.

"OH MY- OHMA OHMA OHMA OHMA! OH EM GEEEEEEEE!" she screamed into my ear, and for a second I thought the frog-men were back. "It's the King!"

I considered covering her mouth with a hand, but I didn't want to cause a scene.

"Ah, a fan?" the 'celebrity' asked. "Come here, Green." he gestured to Lerene, who skipped over to him.

Apparently, Lerene's a crayon now. I thought.

"And is Red there a friend of yours?" he added, pointing at me while talking to Lerene.

Red?!

"Cousin, yeah." Lerene blushed.

"Well come on down, Red." he grinned, followed by a horde of screams from various girls in the crowd.

"You know, I think I prefer Pink, cause it's the color of love, and a humanitarian like me loves people." I said sarcastically as I trudged over to where they were.

"Alright, then, Pink. Which one of you's playing?" he asked both of us.

Apparently, this guy wasn't just naming people after crayons. He's been eating the dang things too.

He had dirty blond hair and blue eyes. His hair was formed into having a fringe. He wore a white trench coat and a dark colored shirt underneath. His cargo pants gave him a tough and strong look, but actually, he looked pretty lanky.

"Go Green!" screamed the crowd.

"Why don't you play him, Gre- Lerene?" I suggested. Ugh. I'm turning into one of them.

"N-NOWAAAY!" she yelled at me. "You play him, and don't you dare win." she glared.

"Whatever." I shrugged. I sat opposite the celebrity and hovered my face over the chess table. Piees were still in the positions from the previous game. I guess I found the answer as to why he kept winning all those games.

"First guy to come down and challenge me." he said with a smirk. I shrugged once more and the game started.

He went first, and as he started moving each chess piece, I used the best way to counter them. Turns out, he was easy as cake. I got in a checkmate on the fourth turn.

"How unfortunate." the celebrity sighed.

"Dethroned!" I smirked as I got up and turned around.

"I CANNOT BELIIIEEEVVE YOU, RED!" Lerene yelled. "I told you not to win!" she ran towards me.

"...help?!" I stammered as she grabbed the collar of my jacket and started shaking me back and forth with surprising strength.

"What are you talking about, Green?" King asked, walking over to where I was being strangled. "I had fun with Red. If possible, I'd like to have another match with him soon."

Lerene froze and suddenly bowed towards him, letting her hands slip from my clothes.

"Yes, mister King, sir. He is yours to play with as much as you'd like."

"...I'm what now?" I asked as I recovered.

"Awesome." the celebrity said, then, he turned to the crowd. "Who's next?"

It was followed by screams of the fan horde.

We continued walking, Lerene waving at King when we passed him. We still didn't know what exactly we were meant to do here.

We got to that huge metal sculpture called The Bean and it was surrounded by a lot of tourists. Frankly, a huge bean-shaped piece of metal didn't really seem all that interesting.

Chalk drawings lined the concrete floor, which really shouldn't have been allowed. They were lines that circled the sculpture like a ritual circle, only... made of chalk.

I gazed at The Bean up close and the strange static feeling shot through my body once more. Strange, even for a guy with crazy transformation powers.

Lerene didn't look like anything was happening to her at all.

I got the note from my pocket, ignoring the static. I looked at it and read it once more.

'Great job. Now just look for us~'

I could've sworn that it said something different before.

I touched the metal bean. The static was getting annoying so I figured I could transfer it to metal. I was dead wrong.

As soon a my fingers touched the cold surface, the static build-up was probably too much and threw me back, away from the metal.

The force literally threw me back several meters. I was able to not land on my face, and as I got up, I looked at the statue again and swallowed.

I busted a hole through the thing! The huge hole was burnt and melted around the edges of the opening with a stream of black smoke coming out of it.

The previous paragraph about the hole, though, was not the reason I swallowed and a knot formed in my gut.

A large, white dragon flew out of the sculpture, shrieking as it flew up to the sky with large batlike wings.

 

[Blizzard-Prince]

Chapter 4: Chess Match

Once we finally got to Millennium Park, the first issue was finding a parking space. Lerene and I managed to find one quite a way from the south entrance of the park. The park itself was huge, not that I haven't been here before, but it seemed smaller last time.

The parking issue cost us 10 minutes of time, as we made our way to the park. A group of people was gathered there, crowding around some sort of interesting activity.

"Who's next?" a male voice yelled in the center of the crowd, followed by the screams of girls.

"Celebrity?" Lerene asked as she scuffled next to me.

"Possibly." I answered back.

"Psh." she said.

The crowd was big, really big, and now we got the unfortunate gift of being stuck in it. That's when I noticed that it was a huge line. The people walked forward, excited about whatever was in the end.

As we got closer, the male figure could be seen playing a sort of game with some teenage girls. Some were giggling uncontrollably every time the guy smiled at them or anyone else for the matter. Turns out, they were playing some chess.

I never noticed, but we were in the Jay Pritzker Pavilion already. It was like this huge grassy area which kind of looked like a stadium with a huge metal net above it. I'v heard it was the centerpiece of the whole park.

Once it was our turn to play chess with the 'celebrity', Lerene did something I never expected she would.

"OH MY- OHMA OHMA OHMA OHMA! OH EM GEEEEEEEE!" she screamed into my ear, and for a second I thought the frog-men were back. "It's the King!"

I considered covering her mouth with a hand, but I didn't want to cause a scene.

"Ah, a fan?" the 'celebrity' asked. "Come here, Green." he gestured to Lerene, who skipped over to him.

Apparently, Lerene's a crayon now. I thought.

"And is Red there a friend of yours?" he added, pointing at me while talking to Lerene.

Red?!

"Cousin, yeah." Lerene blushed.

"Well come on down, Red." he grinned, followed by a horde of screams from various girls in the crowd.

"You know, I think I prefer Pink, cause it's the color of love, and a humanitarian like me loves people." I said sarcastically as I trudged over to where they were.

"Alright, then, Pink. Which one of you's playing?" he asked both of us.

Apparently, this guy wasn't just naming people after crayons. He's been eating the dang things too.

He had dirty blond hair and blue eyes. His hair was formed into having a fringe. He wore a white trench coat and a dark colored shirt underneath. His cargo pants gave him a tough and strong look, but actually, he looked pretty lanky.

"Go Green!" screamed the crowd.

"Why don't you play him, Gre- Lerene?" I suggested. Ugh. I'm turning into one of them.

"N-NOWAAAY!" she yelled at me. "You play him, and don't you dare win." she glared.

"Whatever." I shrugged. I sat opposite the celebrity and hovered my face over the chess table. Piees were still in the positions from the previous game. I guess I found the answer as to why he kept winning all those games.

"First guy to come down and challenge me." he said with a smirk. I shrugged once more and the game started.

He went first, and as he started moving each chess piece, I used the best way to counter them. Turns out, he was easy as cake. I got in a checkmate on the fourth turn.

"How unfortunate." the celebrity sighed.

"Dethroned!" I smirked as I got up and turned around.

"I CANNOT BELIIIEEEVVE YOU, RED!" Lerene yelled. "I told you not to win!" she ran towards me.

"...help?!" I stammered as she grabbed the collar of my jacket and started shaking me back and forth with surprising strength.

"What are you talking about, Green?" King asked, walking over to where I was being strangled. "I had fun with Red. If possible, I'd like to have another match with him soon."

Lerene froze and suddenly bowed towards him, letting her hands slip from my clothes.

"Yes, mister King, sir. He is yours to play with as much as you'd like."

"...I'm what now?" I asked as I recovered.

"Awesome." the celebrity said, then, he turned to the crowd. "Who's next?"

It was followed by screams of the fan horde.

We continued walking, Lerene waving at King when we passed him. We still didn't know what exactly we were meant to do here.

We got to that huge metal sculpture called The Bean and it was surrounded by a lot of tourists. Frankly, a huge bean-shaped piece of metal didn't really seem all that interesting.

Chalk drawings lined the concrete floor, which really shouldn't have been allowed. They were lines that circled the sculpture like a ritual circle, only... made of chalk.

I gazed at The Bean up close and the strange static feeling shot through my body once more. Strange, even for a guy with crazy transformation powers.

Lerene didn't look like anything was happening to her at all.

I got the note from my pocket, ignoring the static. I looked at it and read it once more.

'Great job. Now just look for us~'

I could've sworn that it said something different before.

I touched the metal bean. The static was getting annoying so I figured I could transfer it to metal. I was dead wrong.

As soon a my fingers touched the cold surface, the static build-up was probably too much and threw me back, away from the metal.

The force literally threw me back several meters. I was able to not land on my face, and as I got up, I looked at the statue again and swallowed.

I busted a hole through the thing! The huge hole was burnt and melted around the edges of the opening with a stream of black smoke coming out of it.

The previous paragraph about the hole, though, was not the reason I swallowed and a knot formed in my gut.

A large, white dragon flew out of the sculpture, shrieking as it flew up to the sky with large batlike wings.

 

[Blizzard-Prince]

Chapter 5: When Time Flies

The ground shook when the dragon perched itself on top of the Pavilion. Beating its huge wings, it kicked up a gust of freezing air towards Lerene and I. The crowd of people scattered all around the park, driven into a panic by the recent bean explosion.

"Stray." Lerene muttered.

"What else would it be?" I asked her sarcastically. The dragon was too high up on its perch to reach. It gazed at the situation below with blue, crystalline eyes, white smoke forming around its mouth.

The dragon's body wasn't really that of a dragon's. It was more wyvern-like, which meant its arms and wings were merged together into a single pair of limbs. White, silvery scales surrounded its lean, muscular body, which measured around 30 feet long, I assumed. Long, sharp talons grasped the metal net it was perched on. Its azure-spiked tail swished through the air like a whip.

"Find a way to provoke it. I'll get the people away." Lerene told me as she started telling people to run out of the park.

I was a bit confused. How the heck was I supposed to get up on the net thing? I ran out of ideas and just started yelling at the creature.

Its large, beady eyes stared straight at me. The temperature seemed to drop suddenly. Frost was beginning to form on the windows of the buildings around me. Wasn't it a bit early for Winter?

Lerene came back, successful at her attempt to get the crowd to safety. She looked at the dragon, still staring down at the chaos it caused below.

"I have no idea how to get it down here, Lerene!" I yelled as I pulled my jacket closer. The cold was beginning to be a pain.

"Throw something!" She told me, looking for anything I could use. There was a piece of metal from the sculpture I destroyed lying on the grass. She picked it up with difficulty. The metal plate was just around a meter long, but nonetheless, heavy.

I tried to think of a transformation to help me toss it. A catapult was okay, but that was impossible. I decided to get a pair of superhuman hands. They were more than I needed and let me lift the metal with ease. Rearing back, I started with a run and threw the projectile the way you would throw a Frisbee. My throw hit its mark and wounded the dragon's neck.

It gave a shriek of pain and took off into the sky. Flying higher towards the sun, the glare wasn't helping me look for the flying creature. I lost it after a few seconds of staring at the sun.

I looked around the park a bit. The statue I destroyed earlier was still burning from the explosion. The frost was now showing up on the grass.

"Any idea where it is?" Lerene asked, waving her camera in every direction, looking for the creature.

"If I did, I wouldn't be just standing here!" I yelled back, changing my transformed hands into two sickles.

Running towards one of the nearby collumns that held up the Pavilion, I was able to get some height on it. I used my sickles like ice axes to climb the rest of the way up.

The dragon was nowhere to be seen, but the frost aura I figured it caused was still in the air.

"See anything?" Lerene shouted.

"Not yet!" I replied. The entire Pavilion area was deserted now. Only a few struggling civilians here and there. A shriek from behind interrupted my observations when the dragon slammed me on the back, throwing me off the building.

I managed to retain consciousness and land on my own two feet back on the ground. The rough landing kicked up a lot of dirt off into the air.

"How'd you do that?!" Lerene asked, startled by my apparent 'acrobatics'.

"No idea!"

Lerene shrugged and pointed her camera at the dragon. I did what I did last time and closed my eyes shut. There were the two beeps again, followed by the distinct flashing sound.

I opened my eyes again, and the dragon was still there, only a part of its wing frozen solid.

"Well, at least we can get it to stay on the ground." I remarked. Lerene was disappointed. Apparently, her camera doesn't work on jumbo-size Strays.

"Follow my lead, Geist!" Lerene yelled, running around the creature. I had no idea how she was going to fight a dragon with a digital camera.

"Screw that!"

Without 'following Lerene's lead', I made my sickles larger and ran headlong towards the dragon who was trying to get its wing free.

The next thing that happened went by in a hurry. I jumped up toward the dragon at a height I never even imagined. I think I went up to several meters into the air.

The dragon, still able to move, struck me with an arm even before I could land an attack. The Stray then quickly backed away, knocking Lerene out of the way.

I didn't get the perfect landing I achieved earlier. I hit the ground so strong, that I bounced off half a block away. Surprisingly, I survived an impact that would've broken my back. Were my powers somehow affecting my endurance as well? No, genius.

Lerene managed to stay out of harm's way and was actually getting some progress done on th camera thing.

"Told you." She laughed. It amazed me that she was able to throw out a comment while fighting.

"Shut up." I sneered. I got back up and got rid of my ineffective sickle arms. I traded them in for a large shield on the left arm. The huge thing's weight was surprisingly light.

I held it out in front of me and jumped back into the fight. Running at the Stray, I moved with surprising speed. I laughed at what I could do now.

"What are you doing?!" Lerene yelled as I ran past her.

"Just keep flashing!" I yelled back. The dragon was now stuck on the ground. It made repeated attempts to take off, but to no avail. It suddenly raised it's free arm and pushed on the ground, sending large chunks of mud and rock at me.

The attack didn't do much. It just made me lose a bit of speed and the mud made the shield heavier, but I was okay. Did I mention most of the dirt got on my jacket too?

I rammed the shield onto the dragon's chest, causig it to stagger and lose its footing. It fell backwards and had a lot of difficulty getting back up. I landed a few feet away, but surprisingly, it was able to lash the white, spiked tail at me while upside down. The tail hit me right behind the knee, causing me to fall over too. A small set of its sharp scales got stuck in my leg and it started to bleed.

"You alright?" Lerene asked, stopping her attacks and helping me get back on my feet.

"Yeah. Just a bunch of little cuts." I said. I pulled out the scales and winced as each one came off.

"You better be more careful, Geist." Lerene said, pulling me up.

"...Thanks." I told her. The dragon was able to get up before we could follow-up our attack. With a sharp roar, it broke off the crystal from its wing and flew off.

Not again, I thought.

The dragon, wings beating heavily, flew slowly overhead and around the whole Pavilion. It made a tight circle around us, closing in.

"Any ideas?" Lerene asked, slightly showing signs of panic in her voice.

"You got me." I answered.

I reformed my shield and got behind it, Lerene right next to me. I raised it at the dragon, pivoting in one spot because it flew around us. The flight cycle of the creature suddenly stopped and dove straight towards us, shrieking. The temperature dropped.

Seconds before impact, a flash of red struck the dragon, and it fell to the side. Lerene, having closed her eyes beforehand, asked what happened.

"I have no idea."

"Do you have any other answers?" She asked.

"Dunno." I said, to deliberately tick her off.

The temperature dropped some more, and the grass started to go white from the cold. Small bits of snow started falling, and gray clouds blocked out the sun. The chill winds of Chicago tore through us, and make the cold much more intense.

I lowered the shield and looked at the dragon. It was back on the ground, facing us with its mouth glowing an eerie blue. Blue smoke started to form.

Just then, a figure stepped in front of us. It was a man wearing a pinstriped vest, and slacks to match.

Our dandy cafe owner was going to fight a dragon.