Chapter Text
Three boys trekked through the thin layer of snow. They were none other than Blaze, the fire elemental owner; Ais, the water/ice elemental user and Gopal, the molecule manipulator. A very odd combination. As the group dynamic would hint, Gopal warily moved along the snowy path while Blaze on the other hand, moved a bit sluggish—must be the cold getting to him—and Ais however, paid no mind to the road as if the chances of being ambushed was not a possibility.
Who would even be on this ice-cold planet anyways? Sure, if you have proper gear and clothes, (or in Ais’ case, an ice element) you’re all free to venture off! Or in some popular cases, hunt for power-spheres.
While most would not appreciate the low temperature, Ais loved it. He always had been a ‘polar bear’ as his twin would jokingly call him. Polar bear—that name has been stuck within his brothers’ and friends’ tongue ever since Api started calling him that out of friendly teasing. But of course, as always, Air got back at him, dubbing ‘fireball’. But in the end, it’s just harmless sibling banters.
The snow beneath his boots scattered away. The satisfying crunching sound of snow tore the boring silence. The peaceful—“EKKK!!” Hah.. spoke too soon.. Annoyingly there was another sound that shredded through the quiet atmosphere beside his energy high twin and the snow. Gopal. The teen has been jumpy ever since they were instructed to complete this task; and he clearly showed his unwillingness throughout the whole meeting. If Ais has to be completely honest, He was keen on the idea of Gopal bailing out.
Sadly, that wasn’t an option. Calmness is the key to success as Ais and his Atok would say but this particular boy is walking on thin ice. Both figuratively and literally. Apparently, the latter hadn’t noticed it. Good to know that the TAPOPS organization is prepared for these. They've gotten some new garments—like the boots they’re wearing now. Very useful when walking on ice.
But he wasn’t sure about his twin though. The fireball behind him left a very faint smeared boot-print with every step he took. How long until he melts through the ice and falls? Well, it depends whether or not the older boy would stop babbling. The constant self-reassurance isn’t quite needed. Last they checked, there weren't many life forms on this planet and the likely-hood of power-sphere hunters are low, too.
Here on this planet, the temperature was dangerously low with occasional bone-chilling breeze (for the others) rushing past in a blue blur. “Pstt—Dey! Blaze! Could you light another one of your fires?” Gopal requests, bringing his arms to hug himself, he motioned the other that he was freezing. “It’s getting chilly around here!” he nervously laughed.
Though the material they’ve gotten for this particular trek was warm, it was not warm. And so, Blaze’s here. To be their “personal portable heater” as Duri naturally teased.
But even with fire powers, it’s inevitable that the latter would catch a cold sooner or now.
“Sorry, dude! As much as I want to, can’t,” Blaze shrugged. Ais can understand. Having to summon fire after fire, only for it to be put out by the cold or an avalanche (as Ais would warn). Blaze hates to admit it but he is so going to catch a cold later. “But—but! You’re our only source of warmth and survival on this ice-cubed planet!” Gopal exclaimed.
Flinging his thick leather gloved hands to grab the other on the shoulders, shaking the boy. “We know Gopal! Stop! You're making me all dizzy!!" Blaze uttered with a voice crack. He slapped the hands away. Blaze’s own hand reached up to adjust his cap that had been crooked from the shaking. He looked like Halilitar with the tongue hanging low.
“Come on! Best friend~” Gopal stretched his words. “I promise to give you all the things you need when we get back!” the Indian boy winked at the playful boy, crossing his fingers that the other would waver. Ais too, crossed his own fingers. With the number of supplies that Gopal could supply Blaze and his other brothers.. SHIT. Please Api, whatever you’re going to do. DON’T.
“It is tempting..” Ais mentally cheered. “..but no Go—ACHOO!!” only for the latter’s refusal to be cut short by a sneeze. What a way to break the ice..
All three boys had to make a double take at the situation. They all stopped walking and stared at the fiery boy much to his embarrassment. Blaze stared down at his feet to avoid the looks the two were giving while Gopal stilled jaw-dropped—Ais however was impressed that his twin managed to hold up this long.
“Did—did you just sneezed!? THAT’S IT!! WE’RE GOING TO FREEZE UP AND DIE BOBOIBOY!! HUHU HUU!!” Gopal cried in a panic. Ais rolled his turquoise eyes at the other boy’s antics while Blaze stared deadpanned. Even after everything, the older boy would not drop the nickname. “No, we’re not. Blaze just caught a cold. That’s all,” Ais sighed as he took off his heavily fluffed and warm jacket. He draped it over his twin who emitted a small ‘oof’ at the weight of the wear.
“Catching a cold doesn’t render me useless either Gopal! It just makes things harder for all of us!” Blaze added his own argument. “You should know better after that one experience!”
In the past, the whole TAPOPS station experienced what it was like to have one no, two of the power-band wielders sick.
Gopal shivered with goosebumps at the little reminder. “Esh—don’t bring that up!! But I guess there isn’t really anything to worry about then, right team?” the teen broke out into a different mood, chest puffed up in confidence—definitely none existing before. Both Ais and Blaze shook their heads in disapproval—having been friends with the teen since 10, acts like these became the norm.
“Right, guys?—Oi! Wa-wait for me guys!!” Gopal called out, realizing that the twins were leaving without him.
About 15 minutes passed and there was no sign of their target (and Gopal hasn’t come to realize that they’re a few good feet up the group. Blaze and Ais silently made a conclusion that either one of them is going to point it out to the green jacketed teen). Power-sphere: EGGBOT, last seen on this blasted planet. Blaze doesn't know how much longer he would be able to stay here. Whenever he would summon his flames for warmth, his skin felt like it was a wound that had been rubbed with salt.
It's not fun coming in contact with ice cold temperature after igniting yourself.
A very cold breeze rushed past them and the fire-bender had to hold back a hiss. While Gopal jumped, Ais made no reaction what-so-ever. Being the holder of the ice element really numbed it.
Taufan: the wind element wielder; also, the second brother of the septuplets. The latter had tagged along with them to scout the area ahead. Standing crouched down on his signature hoverboard which was hovering 2-3 feet above ‘ground’ with an additional jumper with his iconic color pallet and a pair of goggles to avoid dust.
“You guys do realize that you’re walking on ice right?” he pointed out the obvious as he removed the goggles. Dreaded, Gopal clumsily looked down and true to the latter words and his horror, they were indeed walking on a path made out of ice. Gopal shrieked and clung on to the nearest person which happens to be Ais, he was not amused.
Same couldn’t be said for the other parties. Blaze snickered at the expected reaction while Taufan was hysterically laughing at the sight. If his brother doesn’t have any of his winds, he would be plumbing to the ground.
“HOW AND WHEN DID WE GET UP HERE!?” Gopal raised the question. He viciously shook Ais. The latter only groaned in annoyance at the behavior. He had planned on staying silent but knowing Gopal, his cries could be so loud that it could attract attention. Ais was not in the mood to fight just yet. Taufan didn’t even bother to help as he flew to Blaze’s side, exchanging words, snickering.
“Sigh.. since you were busy being paranoid which was unneeded, you didn’t realize that we started walking off ground,” Ais forced out an answer. Back then, they’d reached the edge of the mountain cliff. It was tiring to climb a hill or go around one, so the solution, create an ice path to venture on. It is quite easy with the planet’s conditions.
While that was happening, Taufan and Blaze were exchanging some words. “Ay, Blaze. Why are you wearing Ais’ jacket?” Taufan asked, his head tilted to the side, eyes going from Blaze to Ais. “Well—” Blaze started, “Blaze here had to catch a cold and now we don’t have any source of warmth anymore!” to which their companion cut him off. Rolling his eyes at the shortest boy which got a glare from both twins. “Would you stop cutting me off Gopal!?” Blaze said annoyed.
“Huh? Blaze you caught a cold?” Taufan worriedly asked, ignoring the banter. He hopped down from his hoverboard—to which it disappeared into thin air—and approached his sick twin. “How long?” the wind-bender asked the younger twin. “Approximately, 20 minutes or so,” Ais replied, cutting his twin off again with an annoyed grumble from the other. “Yeah no, You’re going back to the ship bud,” the current eldest twin declared as he ruffled the other’s capped head, crocking the hat in the process. A faint, “you guys are bullying me at this point..” was heard from the boy.
“I can still help though..” Blaze pouted; arms crossed. “We know you’re more than capable. But you need to go—if not, how are you going to join future missions?” Taufan pointed out the obvious. Gempa wouldn’t let the latter join. He would end up being cooped up in the ship or at home for a good week. Blaze sighed in defeat; feeling satisfied, Taufan switched on his watch communication and speed-dialed a familiar number.
No later, a holographic screen popped up from the watch and three faces greeted him. Ying was apparently on communication duty—Gempa and Duri can be seen talking in the background. “Hey Taufan!” Ying greeted eagerly—Gempa and Duri perked up from the conversation with the mention of their brother. “How are things going over there?” she asked in her fast spoken voice. “Not much but we need you to open a tele-portal to our location right away!” Taufan explained, scratching the back of his neck. “We’re sending Blaze back to the ship. He got a cold.”
“Ay? Blaze caught a cold?” Duri asked which his fellow prankster nodded back with a sheepish smile. “Right, I’ll go get Ochobot; be back in a jiffy!” the Chinese girl announced and sped off with a yellow and blue blur. “Thanks Ying!” Taufan thanked even though he knew the other wasn’t there anymore.
“We expected this much to happen,” Gempa shrugged. “But not to worry, we’ve prepared some hot chocolate and tea!” Both Gopal and Ais particularly brighten up at the mention of the treats while Blaze cheered. Taufan and Gempa chuckled at the sight of their usually stoic brother brightening up. “We’ll send them through as well. I’ll go get Yaya.” Gempa said and walked out of frame.
Taufan noticed his brother slowly huddling up with him. Must be the cold. Ais on the other hand was dozing off. Yeah, maybe a few treats will wake him back up. Gopal was seen munching on some candy. The teen probably turned some snow into sweets. He’ll ask for some later.
Realizing only Duri was left on screen, he struck up a topic. “Hey Duri. How’re things going on the ship?” Duri covered his laugh with a palm before answering. “The usual, Lar and Fang got into a bit of a disagreement. Now they’re having a spar in the training room—” “which they have to clean up later.” Yaya’s annoyed yet amused voice continued. Seems the girl tagged along with Gempa.
Ah, Taufan could imagine how the training room would look after that episode. Hopefully no obvious holes on the surfaces.. “Seems like you guys are having fun! Hi Yaya!” Blaze spoke in his usual loud demeanor.
“Partially,” Hali’s flat voice rang as he and Ying walked into frame with a floating Ochobot by their side. “Of course~” Taufan sang; the lightning bearer shot back a glare. Earning mixed reactions between amusement and expiration from the bystanders. Ignoring the two eldest twins’ banter, Blaze greeted their power-sphere friend. “Hi Ochobot!” the bot responded with a nod(?) (don’t know how that works) “Greetings to you, too guys!” its digital face turned to a more cheerful expression.
“I have the portal ready at the get go, please step aside!” it warned. Taufan pulled his brother by the wrist to the side and their previous spot was replaced with a portal. A while after, Duri bounced out of the portal—once he caught sight of his double jacketed brother (he stifled back a laugh), he tackled them into a warm embrace—almost toppling over Taufan.
“Geez.. Blaze, you’re stiff and cold as a popsicle!” An expected tease from the plant lover. Blaze let out an offended gasp as he grasped on the other tighter—with shaky arms Duri noted. “You try staying on an eternal winter planet!” “Sure, sure~” Duri cooed as he patted his shaking brother on the back.
Taufan felt a nudge at his right side and turned to see Gempa and Ais. “Here’s the goods we promised!” Gempa said as he put down a tote-bag. Ais wasted no time and swooped into the bag and pulled out a cup. Classic Ais.. “Don’t worry—there’s 2 for each!” Gempa softly patted the other’s back. Ais hummed in appreciation.
“Blaze!” the latter perked up at the call. “Come on, let's go, and give back Ais’ jacket.” Gempa beckoned. Blaze followed as he broke the hug and took off the jacket, tossing it back to his twin which the other miraculously caught.
If Ais had to be honest, the cold didn’t bother him one bit. He could stay jacketless the entire journey if he wished.
Duri slung his arm around the fiery boy’s shoulder and dragged him to the portal. “Good luck on the mission guys! If anything happens just call us—” only to be cut short when Yaya flew through the portal. Making both troublemakers jump. “Oops! Sorry guys!” the girl apologized. “You can go on ahead!” to which the two followed, waving one last time before disappearing into the portal.
“Yaya? What are you doing here?” Gempa asked, confused. “Are you here to switch duties with me?” Gopal shoved the earth-bender away from his spot—Ais caught him, asking enthusiastically, receiving deadpan expressions. Yaya cleared her throat.
“No, I’m just here to give a tray of my biscuits!” the girl swooped out one of her freshly baked infamous pastries. Everyone immediately skidded away. “Your biscuits!?” Gopal muffled a shout behind his hands. “They’re to go with the drinks! You would need something else to fill your hunger, right, right?” she beamed.
“Erh—thank you for your consideration Yaya! But! I think we have enough food trays with us!” Taufan tried to explain. Slipping on his own words. Even if he is one of those that can actually eat those treats, the taste is still there. “Yeah! I’ve just made some more food on the road!” Gopal added as he picked up some snow and transformed it into cotton-candy in demonstration and shoved it down his bag. “Uhm! And we also just ate some too!” Ais followed up. They all crossed their fingers.
“Aw.. but I’ve just made these for you..” Yaya sighed in disappointment. Then she realized Gempa. “What about you, Gempa? Would you like some of it?” she turned her attention to the teen much to his despair.
“Sorry, Yaya. But me and my brothers just drank some hot chocolate! And Tok Aba warned us to not eat anything more than that! Yeah!” Gempa nervously explained. Those words are true, the septuplets would go in a sugar rush if they were to eat more than their given limit. Especially Blaze.
“Bummer..” Yaya mumbled. Unknown to her, the rest of the twins here and on the ship signed out in relief. THANK YOU GEMPA!
“Don’t get too down, Yaya! We can still keep them for the trip back home!” Taufan tried to encourage his friend which sort of worked. No later, she bounced back to her bubbly nature. “You’re right! I’ll keep these warm for later!” she said excitedly and skipped back into the portal.
SIGH.. they all huffed out a breath. That was something.
“Remember to be careful out here, okay?” Gempa reminded the team yet again, putting aside what had happened. “Yes, yes, Gem. We heard you the last time on board,” Taufan giggled as he pushed the other towards the portal. “Let us take care of it from here! Kay?”
“Yeah—sure.” Gempa playfully rolled his eyes. Giving one last wave the latter walked through the tele-portal and it closed itself a moment later.
“Alright! Now that’s out of the way; onwards!” Taufan turned back to the team with his usual cheerful demeanor. He dug through the tote-bag and took his share then jumped off the bridge which can give an ordinary person a heart attack and floated back up with his hoverboard. The reactions were a hum from Ais and a groan from Gopal. Very eager!
5 minutes passed and the current duo moved through the snow. No sign of power-sphere: EGGBOT. Gopal started doubting if there even was a power-sphere on this planet. If only their trackers worked in all this snow and blizzard. The signal is very faint making it hard to track its location but if you were to argue with “what about look for something shiny?” Well, they might as well be running on bad luck because the snow made everything shiny.
It's ridiculous.
Fortunately, the rain of bad luck was about to end. Taufan sped back to the duo—looking rather annoyed. “Good news!” “I found the power-sphere!” Taufan waved his arms in the air. THAT’S GREAT! Now, Boboiboy only needs to swoop in and grab it! But—why doesn’t he have it with him!?
“Bad news?” Ais raised a brow. Esh—of course, there is a bad side. Gopal grumbled. “It’s stuck underneath a.. uhm.. a giant penguin-whale like creature! And man~ it’s huge! Hah!” that sounded too cheerful.
STILL. A giant penguin-whale-like creature? What does it look like? Hm.. a penguin as big as a whale? Or a whale with features of a penguin? That’s freaky. What to expect when you’re on a different planet from Earth? Anything could be possible. Like this hybrid beast!
“Well, can’t you just get in and out of there?” Gopal asked what’s been bugging him. “Of course, I can! But trust me, you don’t want to get chased by that hybrid!” Taufan shrugged with a chuckle. “Give it a try then,” the plump boy jokingly said. “You think he hadn’t?” only to be deadpanned by Ais.
“Lead the way, Abang.” The last part was spoken in a hushed voice but not inaudible enough to bypass the wind. A smirk quivered up the latter’s face. “This way!”
“You got the plan?” Taufan triple checked the eldest. At this point, he’s taunting the teen for his lack of enthusiasm. “For the third time! YES! And drop it,” Gopal frowned. “Just making sure~” Taufan laughed at the response.
Ais sighed in exasperation at the antic. Securing the backpack with a prototype egg—Gopal manifested, he backtracked the rocky wall.
Hopping off the wall, he came eye to eye with the beast. Taufan’s description would be the acute of what it's like. Walking around the side, he looked for the trapped power-sphere.
And there it was, stuck under its tail. It was hiding in its shell. Ais kicked the snow at his foot to grab its attention. And sure enough, the bot’s head(?) perked up—its digital screen lit up at the sight of the teen.
Quietly, the element wielder walked towards it and placed the egg on the snow. With a grunt, he lifted up the tail subtly. The power-sphere rolled out then it pushed the replacement in its previous spot. Ais slowly dropped the tail.
EGGBOT nudged his leg, “Thank you,” it beeped. Ais patted its hard metallic shell, “No problem.” Setting his backpack down, he motioned the bot to get in. EGGBOT happily hopped in. Ais stood back up and slung the bag on his back. Securing it, he steadily climbed up the wall to meet up with the rest.
While advancing upward, he found himself being pushed by another body. He luckily managed to grab a hold of a ledge. Spotting a bright green and yellow, he glared at Gopal. He then froze when he spotted a very familiar item in the other teen’s hand. Ais felt his eye twitch. “Gopal! What are you thinking!?” he yelled quietly enough to not wake the beast below.
“What? This is going to be my supper!—” he gave the egg a quick kiss, “—You want some? I’m generous enough to share~” he offered. Ais only gave the latter a judging face. “NO! You put that back, Gopal!” he reprimanded.
“Esh—if you’re going to be like that don’t expect a share!” Gopal stated. Ais grew impatient as he tried to reach for the egg which the latter tried to prevent by extending his arm.
“Are you looking for trouble, Gopal!? Put it back!”
“For the last time! No! We can make it through and get a good supper at the same time!”
The bickering was put to an end when the elder teen yelped. “GAH! My supper!” and before they knew it, he dropped the egg. And bloody hell. It hatched.