Better with Ice (open)

The sun baked sand could burn your bare feet if you stayed in the same place for too long. The salty ocean water came rolling into shore with golden waves.

A sunbathers looked up in surprise to see two figures in long black cloaks descend from the sky. They were teenagers, a boy with white hair and a girl with black.

"I'm hungry," the girl said.

"Don't worry, we'll get some food."

"We're out of money."

"Then we'll earn some more."

"But I'm tired."

The boy never stopped smiling. "I know, Grace. Here, I'll get something for you now." The boy walked up to a concession stand. "Excuse me, are you running low on ice?"

The vendor popped open the cooler. "Yeah, a little."

"Would it be worth a hot dog if I filled that up for you?"

The vendor shook his head. "Afraid not."

The teen's smile never waivered. "Well then, how about this?" The boy held his hand out. Ice formed in the ground next to the vendor and grew up into a perfect statue of the man.

The man laughed. "Yeah, I think that deserves it." He handed a hot dog to the girl.

The girl smiled warmly. "Thanks Argo."

A beach in general brought back good memories for Atlas, the crashing waves onto the shore and sunlight being scattered into thousands of diamonds set his mind as ease. He was sitting on a small driftwood in his typical black jeans and green T-shirt, not at all fazed by the sun. Spending a few years in Australia had made him somewhat tolerate of this kind of heat. He took note of a duo floating down nearby but held no interest so he went back to looking out into the sea, losing himself in the seemingly endless horizon of blue.

A woman walked up to the vender she wearing clothes that looked like they belonged to a time of knights and dragons while also from the far future with the cloth clothing under her armor. She looked to the vender then to the hot dogs holding out some money to him. When she was handed one she held it out to the boy. ”All older siblings should eat too to keep their younger siblings safe better.” She looked to Atlas as he floated  her eyes flashing pink as he would hear whispers all over inside his head that sounded like his own voice.

“Why? Why had everything gone so wrong? Why had Hero's fail him? Why did they take her away from him?” Then  her voice. In his head while the others heard nothing. ”Because the world is cruel, it makes us feel the need to explain as to why we must do good but not why things must hurt since even if we ask we could never get a reason we are willing to accept. There is only one certainty and that is that chaos will kill us all if we do not join it. And even then life is still an uncertainty thus making us just have to accept this fate and use the time we have while we have it because if we waste that time those who lost theirs will surely loath us.”

With each word if he was looking for the source he would feel his eyes drawn to the woman as she spoke again in his mind. ”Find your eyes… see the fate you need to to move forward. If you do you may even feel alive again. Because you are still breathing...accept it.” She looked back to the children if they took the hot dog she would gently pat their heads ”Keep being who you are,  both of you. The world needs more good souls such as yourselves.” She would say before leaving then.

Spoiler:

"Thank you for your generosity."

Argo accepted the hot dog from the strangely dressed woman. Being strangely dressed himself, he felt they shared a common bond. She told him that older siblings had to make sure to feed themselves in order to protect the others. Her words brought back memories of Argo's father telling him that his powers were meant to protect people. He wasn't sure how he felt about such memories today. This woman was right, though. You had to take care of yourself before you could care for anyone else. But it wasn't like Argo was starving himself or anything. He had eaten earlier today. Then again, things were very stressful right now. It could be he just didn't feel hungry, even if he otherwise would. It was important to remember to keep his strength up. They were in a new city now, and they were on their own.

While Grace devoured her hot dog, Argo couldn't help but be intrigued by the woman's outfit. Was it just fashion? Perhaps she was a superhero? If so, he definitely wanted to get to know her more. As she turned to leave, Argo spoke up. "You seem to know a lot about our souls for someone who just met us. And yet I'm afraid I know very little about yours. My name is Argo. How shall I address you?"


OOC: Edited for quality.

Atlas took note of the oddly garbed woman but paid no heed as again it's far from the strangest thing he had seen before. He kept his gaze out into the sea and its churning depths. A thought did come to mind what drowning would feel, something he did not ponder on for long. No, he was not going to give that bastard any more satisfaction of having his rival take his own life. He gave a tired sigh, gazing into the rippling waves. Movement draw his gaze again towards the woman who seemly floated towards him. Atlas face harden at the sudden whispers, eyes narrowing blanky but not saying anything. There was no surge of anger of having his mind violated, rather just tired annoyance. With a snort he looked back to the waves and while he wanted to ingnore her at first he might as well humor her given she is already in her head, ”Ah...I was wondering who was prying into my thoughts. Tch you don't need to tell me the world is cruel and chaotic, that much was obvious when society broke down and the world turned into a radioactive funeral pyre.” He thought back bitterly while shaking his head in disgust and holding back a laugh, ”Move forward? Well excuse me if I'm having a hard time at that missy. And still breathing? Do you want to know why I am still breathing? Because the villains willed it to be so, it was their hand that kept me alive. It's them why I still breath and I'm damned not going to thank them.” With that thought Atlas gave a small sigh as he continued looking out into the waves.

The woman nodded to the boy simply to say you’re welcome to him letting him take the hot dog. She started to make her way out but paused when the boy spoke up to her again She turned back to him and nodded once more simply. ”Yes… for simple terms… it is my job to know the type of souls that roam this world and others in order to do what I must correctly… As for my name…” She thought a bit searching her mind going through various faces and names her eyes flickering a bit pink as she did so before stopping on one and looked back to him rather than seemingly through him.

”I would like to be identified as Finley this time around. It is nice to be speaking with you sir Argo.” She said with a respectful nod to him. As she said all this she thought back to the old man in the water. ”Sir I am aware of that i need not to tell this of a man of your age and past but you were the one to ask the question that lead to this answer. I apologize if this is not the one you wanted, but it is the only one i may provide at the time being. And as for your second part… i never said to thank them… you clearly hold a grudge and i know this may not be the path you wish to choose but if you need to end those men to move on you should…”

“If not then find another way to move on. If you don't move on you will constantly think of death and one day it will take you and you will loose any and all opportunities to use this reality you are stuck in now to do good or what you will with it…. Finally… you seem to hold the angst and hold well of grudges like someone with your current body would… it is not appealing… if i am forced to be in you mind i’d rather not share it with a childish one but one of an older fellow such as yourself.”

“If i wanted to be in a childish mind I would have swapped placements with my sister to deal with a real child…. I apologize for my outburst. It was uncalled for.” She thought to him all totally in a monotoned near robotic manner that never seemed to actually get upset once.

Her job was to know the types of souls people had? Argo wasn't sure what that meant, but the confusion on his face could also be explained by a pending decision to take this woman seriously or not. Her claim, unless Argo was misunderstanding some strange metaphor, was that she could travel between different worlds and see people's souls, to see if they were good or evil, young or old, eager or discouraged. Apparently, these abilities were important for doing her job, whatever that was.

"And what is your job, exactly?" He was visibly curious. And while he wasn't sure that he believed her yet, he was reserving judgement. It was only fair. She had already been kind to him, and she was very polite.

Finley was an odd name, but Argo was the one who was new to Jump City. He still had a lot to learn about this place and these people.

And he had a lot to forget, too. Years of hateful thinking that his father had subjected him to had left baggage in his mind. He knew that the lessons his father taught him had been wrong, but he had still learned them. Hearing someone like Finley call him good was a surprise, especially when both of his parents were now in prison.

Grace, not interested in the conversation, decided to pursue a conversation of her own with the hot teen boy staring majestically at the sea. Grace had never been allowed to hang out with other kids her age, and she certainly hadn't been allowed to hang out with any teenage boys. She did notice that there were quite a few girls in the area wearing skimpy swim suits, but Atlas wasn't watching them. Perhaps that's why she thought he looked so mysterious.

Without realizing that she still had some ketchup on her nose, she walked up to Atlas. She had to say something good. After all, this might turn out to be her future husband. But what to say?

"The beautiful sure is ocean."

Wait, what? She had been so nervous she got it backwards! Quick, she had to fix it. "I mean, the water, it sure is beautiful, isn't it?"

Driving into the parking lot of Jump City Shores, Will parks his white motorcycle in the row second to the front. It was a particularly hot day that he wasn't wanting to be out in, but he wanted to start seeing the city and came to the conclusion the beach would be the best place to start today. Will, wearing a red-orange tank top and some brown swimming trunks with blank sandals, adjusts the Pokemon hat he was wearing, remembering his older sister gave it to him before he moved out from Star City. "I think Brook said it was a Azurill on here. She was always a fun of this cute blue mouse. She'd probably like it if I sent a picture of me here with it on. Will gets his phone out and stands facing away from the beach so he can get a good view of it in the camera. After getting the pic and sending it to his sister, Will sees the human sized ice statue by the hot dog vendor. "Bit of a hot day, maybe someone here just made that for him. Will starts making his way to the water, looking over the other visitors.

Wow. The guy Grace had tried to talk to hadn't even noticed her. It really didn't matter if she said the right words or not. He was in his own little world. She didn't matter to him.

Defeated, Grace returned to her brother's side.

"Do you want to swim?" Argo asked.

"I don't have a swimsuit," Grace replied. "They also don't sell swimsuits at the beach, but they should."

Argo considered that idea. "Well, if someone is already going to the beach, I think they'd already have a swimsuit."

"I don't care. There's too many people around her anyway. I don't want them looking at me."

There were plenty of people looking at them. Wearing heavy black clothing at the beach was not normal. Besides, as already discussed, they had no money. Argo started to leave. Grace wasn't happy here, and they had plenty of the city to explore.

But before they left, he just had to compliment a gentleman on his Pokemon hat. "Nice Azurill, dude."

"Nice beard," Grace muttered under her breath.

"It is a nice beard," Argo said, trying to make the best of his sister's...depressing existence. "I wish I could grow one like that. But I've been cursed with this baby face."

"Like father like son. Oh wait..."

"Please forgive my sister. My name's Argo, by the way." He held out his hand to shake the stranger's.

"And I'm Chuckles the Dinosaur," Grace said. She started to walk past them both. "And we're sure you have better things to do than talk to us all day."

A monochrome hair pairing of people approached Will as he was watching a wave roll up to the shore, complimenting his hat and beard. He felt confused about their black heavy clothing when they were on the beach. In their short introduction, Will was informed that they were siblings. And as Argo put his hand out, Will gave him his own to give a firm handshake.

Well thank you, the hat was a gift and the beard came from family genes. One of my grandmas used to have a one to her waist. And Argo, Chuckles, I just got here yesterday so I'm just out to see what's all here. Would either of you be familiar with the city?

Argo laughed. "Not at all. We just flew in a few minutes ago. We're a bit desperate for friends, shelter, and food at the moment. But we have a destination in mind. I was actually going to ask if you knew anybody who needed any favors. I'll work for food."

Before the introductions were complete, people started running out of the water screaming "shark." The chaos drew in even the mentally distant Grace. The screams increased a hundredfold as a large silver abomination came bursting out of the water.



Grace's jaw dropped. "It's a shark...man?"

"It's a monster!" The hot dog vendor cried. He turned and ran, abandoning his food stand to save his life. Grace jumped into action, charging over to the stand and started eating hot dogs as quickly as she could. Monster or not, she was hungry. And if a fight was coming, she didn't want to have an empty stomach.

Argo threw a hand back towards his new friend. "Don't worry, sir. I'll take care of this. I've been gifted with power of sorts. It isn't much, but it's enough to deal with this angry tuna."

Forming ice armor was exhausting on such a hot day, but Argo put forth the effort anyway. Once again, he formed his black ice armor under his heavy black cloak, shielding it from direct sunlight. Then, all of the sudden, he flew! Up in the air, Argo steered himself towards the abomination.

The sound of screams had caught the attention of Will and the siblings before they saw the monster appear on the beach. Will had only a moment to take in what was before them now when he saw the other two take off in separate directions. The girl had ran to a hot dog stand and the guy had started to fly after telling him to sit back!

Really, these two have powers? Then a three on one will be easy on this guy.

Will started running down the beach to meet the man-shark, watching how it moved like on it's 4 legs it was still swimming. Realizing he would need to keep from getting bitten by the beast, Will stopped and picked up a large ice chest, slinging it as hard as he could to have the contents fall out and pelt the shark.

The shark man was chasing after a bikini sporting blonde beauty. It bared its sharp teeth and prepared to make one final lunge at her when one of Argo's ice arrows hit the neck. The ice shattered upon striking the monster. The shark man must have still felt some pain, though, because it suddenly changed its focus to the flying teen in the sky.

"You're tough," Argo said. "I was hoping that would pierce your thick skin. I'll have to try something heavier next time."

The shark man growled, but suddenly six soda cans hit him in the chest with tremendous force. The cans exploded in bubbly goodness as the monster recoiled.

"Like that," Argo said.

Grace put down the ketchup and ate another hot dog in three bites. That red head was actually really strong. She couldn't help but feel a little impressed. Dad had always nailed into Grace's head that there were two types of people: those with powers and those without. This guy was clearly in the first category. They were the same. Maybe she should actually pay some attention to this...Mr...wow. They hadn't actually gotten his name yet. She needed to get that name before either of them left the beach.

Argo took advantage of Will's strong attack and started forming a harpoon out of ice. It had to be strong enough to withstand the monster's thick scales. Before it was big enough, though, the shark man jumped into the air with frightening agility. Argo moved out of the way, but wasn't fast enough. The shark reached out to grab him with a giant, clawed hand. Argo felt the air get squeezed out of his lungs. The monster brought Argo's face dangerously close to some very sharp teeth. Argo mentally commanded the mini harpoon to come crashing down on the shark man's head. Again, it failed to pierce the thick skin, but did manage to stun the monster for a few seconds.