by KJ Harlow
“Mother of Frank,” Flick whispered next to Yoshi, clutching his arm. “What is he?”
He descended slowly, eyes trained on the girlfriend. Like a coiled spring, he charged up, his wings slightly folded against his back. As quickly as he had come, he was gone, the only remnants of him the dark blue feathers that spiralled to the ground.
The new girlfriend winced and fell to one knee. “You,” she said, looking at Yoshi. “Help him.” She gestured to Asshat behind her.
Yoshi heard her but his legs wouldn’t budge. After several moments he crept towards her, Crystal, Flick, Arlif, and Ai trailing him. He knew it was rude to stare, but he had just witnessed so much craziness in the last 10 minutes that he forgot all propriety.
This girlfriend was pale, her skin so light blue it was almost white. Her hair was blonde and woven into a crown that she wore like a halo.
The tall man had called her Angel.
Flick prodded him in the back and he snapped out of it. He strode past the girlfriend and towards his old enemy from Topaz.
“Asshat.”
His eyes were frozen in a rictus of fear, staring at Angel on her haunches. A wet stain had soaked through his pants in his crotch area.
“Asshat.”
He blinked and looked up at Yoshi.
“Y-Yoshi? My girlfriends, he… they…”
Resisting the urge to kick him, he offered him a hand. Asshat looked at it, eyes darting back to Angel.
“The guy’s flown away,” Yoshi said reassuringly.
Man, it sounded weird saying that.
Asshat eventually took Yoshi’s hand, almost pulling him down as he got to his feet.
“Withdraw your girlfriends,” Yoshi urged. He looked behind him. Amber still hadn’t moved from the wall at the far end, Cash’s breath was short and shallow, others were fainted or frozen solid. “Withdraw your girlfriends,” he repeated, a little louder this time.
Asshat did as he was told, extending a shaking, ring-laden fist to each girlfriend.
“Did you come down here from the lake?” Yoshi asked. Asshat nodded dumbly. “Is there a way out?”
Asshat shook his head. “The other tunnel is a dead end.” He looked back at the other trainers encased in ice behind him.
Damn it. Instead of leading his girlfriends to safety, he had led them directly towards a death trap. How were we going to get out now?
“I’ll take him out.” Yoshi turned around. Angel was back on her feet. She wavered slightly, opening the wings on her back to rebalance. They were similar to the man wearing the coat: long across and about two-feet high top to bottom. Her plumage was also navy blue, though there were patches of unevenness where feathers seemed to be missing.
“Hold on.” Yoshi took his bag off and rummaged through it. “Here,” Yoshi said, handing Asshat the Repel he had found on the lake. “Hopefully the Naseemas won’t attack you.”
Guilt flickered over Angel’s face but she didn’t say anything. It took 10 minutes for her and Yoshi to convince Asshat that she wasn’t going to hurt him. Eventually, he agreed. She lifted off the ground, with a single flap of her wings before landing again, as if she was testing them.
“Lie down on your stomach,” she instructed. Asshat quietly complied. She grasped the back of his collar with both hands before looking up at Yoshi. Her irises glowed gold. “Don’t go anywhere.”
With another powerful flap, she launched herself up, effortlessly lifting Asshat off the ground. Yoshi raised his phone towards them, holding it still.
Click!
As Angel flew through the opening, he pulled the photo up. Asshat’s face was about 80% horror and 20% confusion. He chuckled. Luckily Ai’s been making me practice.
He slipped his phone back into his pocket and turned around. His girlfriends were crowded around the frozen figures by the wall.
“That… thing... froze these trainers,” Arlif said. The grass/poison-type paled and looked like she was about to faint.
“They’re pretty shitty sculptures though,” Flick sniffed, bringing herself face to face with one of them. “More like he started to freeze them into a block then gave up halfway.”
The water-type was right, for some of them, anyway. The bottom of the trainers was encased in a cuboid ice block up from their ankles to their hips. Their torso was untouched. Their face were frozen into a look of horror, eyes open forever.
WHOOMPH!
Yoshi and his girlfriends started and turned around. Angel was on the ground, down on one knee. Her wings were wrapped around her body protectively.
“Hey are you–?”
“Stop,” Flick commanded, putting herself in front of Yoshi and the winged girlfriend. “She might have saved us, but she’s still a wild girlfriend.” The other three girlfriends joined the water-type at the front, creating a barrier.
Yoshi frowned. Flick did have a point and yet… Her head was down, blonde hair had broken free of the wreath around her head. I haven’t even added her to my GF-wiki yet. Yoshi pulled the sleek device out, switched it on and pointed it at the unknown girlfriend.
Detecting…
Name: Angelika
Entry #: 146
Species: Ice Angel
Type: Ice/Flying
Nature: Virtuous
Rarity: ***
Angelika is one of three Legendary girlfriends found in Ohno. There are a handful of cases of trainers who have scaled Mount Opus, seen the Ice Angel and lived to tell the tale. One trainer claims that she rescued him when he got lost upon the Magnum Alps. It has been five years since she has last been sighted.
Yoshi stared at the fine, green words inscribed in the glass panel. Legendary…
Slowly, he looked up from his device. Angel was also looking up, still catching her breath. “You’re…”
“Yes,” she said, struggling to get to her feet. “I’m one of the Legendaries. Never liked that term.” Her mouth twisted wryly.
Yoshi didn’t say anything. His eyes roamed over her body. She wore a simple, gray one-piece with a silver sash tied around her waist. Hardly befitting of a Legendary girlfriend. As she waited for him to respond, a web of veins around her body pulsed black. It faded away as quick as it came.
“You’re injured,” Yoshi said, pushing past his girlfriends. Angel took a step back, keeping the distance between them.
“I’m…” She held a fist to her chest and looked away. “I need to get you out of here before Xark gets back.”
“Xark?” Yoshi repeated. The name sounded hostile and dangerous. “He’s the man from before who could conjure up ice attacks?”
Angel hesitated and nodded. “I can’t keep him at bay forever, but I can give you enough time to get off the island.”
“How about…?” Yoshi turned around and looked at the frozen trainers behind him.
Angel became solemn, her mouth set into a thin line. “The moment the ice touched them, they were dead.”
“I’m not going anywhere,” Yoshi said. His girls and the Legendary stared at him. “You’re injured.”
“I’m not injured…” Angel said hesitantly. The black, pulsing web appeared again and her breath caught in her throat.
“Whatever you are, something’s wrong,” Yoshi said. “You saved us from Xark. The least I can do is give you a Potion or–”
“A Potion isn’t going to fix me,” Angel scoffed, her clear voice suddenly murky with bitterness. She cleared her throat. “A Potion isn’t going to work because I’m not injured.”
Yoshi focused on the form and her basic stats floated up.
NAME: Angelika (Angel) (CRRPTD)
LEVEL: 65
HP: 389/389
CRRPTD? Yoshi frowned. What sort of status ailment was that?
“There must be something I can do,” Yoshi said.
Angel stood up and flexed one wing, then the other. “You can withdraw your girlfriends.” Noticing Yoshi’s girlfriends shuffling closer together again, she sighed. “What’s your name?”
She curled her pinkie finger under her thumb and laid her middle three fingers flat over her heart. “I swear on Frank’s name that I will not injure Yoshi Soysauce.” The girlfriends relaxed somewhat, though they didn’t step away from their trainer.
“It’s OK, she’s got a Virtuous Nature,” Flick said slowly. “Those girlfriends live and die by their promises.” Angel wrapped one of her wings around her front, ran her hand over the bone and plucked a stray feather free. “Let him help you,” Flick said, calling out to the ice angel. “Unlike a lot of the other trainers, he actually cares about his girlfriends. You might be surprised at what he can do.” The water-type looked over her shoulder and smiled at her trainer before she disappeared back into her ring.
One by one, the other three zoomed back in, leaving Yoshi and the wild Legendary alone.
“Lie down on your stomach.” Angel said tiredly. Yoshi did as instructed. He felt powerful hands grasp the back of his collar. The G-force dragged him down and for ten seconds or so, he couldn’t breathe. The cave became a blur of ice. When he burst back out into the air, the gale was so chilling that he thought he would freeze right then and there.
Angel lurched. Her wings started beating in double-time, battering Yoshi with snowflakes. They both dropped a few feet in the air.
“Angel?” Yoshi yelled. “Are you OK?”
Maybe the squall swirling around them stole his question before the Legendary could hear it. Or maybe by that time, she had already fallen unconscious.
“Aaaaaaaaaaaaargh!”
PFFFFFFFFFFFFF…
For several seconds, Yoshi felt nothing but all-consuming coldness. I’m dead, aren’t I? Then he opened his eyes – really wide. Angel’s face was inches away from his. To his left and right, snow embraced them. Her eyes were closed, her mouth slightly parted. The sun was making another brief appearance, light shining through the cracks in the snow.
If I just… I mean, she’s not conscious now anyway, so…
Yoshi closed his eyes and lifted his head. If he wasn’t going to catch a Legendary, he’d be happy with just kissing one.
36
Rescue
Yoshi puckered up. He was close enough to feel her staggered breaths brushing his lips. He sighed.
You’re an idiot, Yosh. She just saved your life. You should be saving hers n–!
The snow supporting her wings chose that particular moment to collapse. Angel’s lips smooshed into Yoshi’s. In contrast to her cheeks, her lips were on fire, as if she was every.
He hesitated. Oh well, I can’t not kiss her now. He relaxed, opening his mouth slightly and wetting the lips of both the wild girlfriend and his own with his tongue.
“Mmmmm…” she mumbled, brow furrowed slightly.
Shit, shit, shit, she’s waking!
Yoshi turned his face to the side, straining to look away. He dug through the snow with his right hand, counting the rings on his belt. It took some fiddling, but he managed to unlock two rings and curl his fingers into them. He brought his hand up and around such that it rested on Angel’s back, pointing through the space she had fallen through.
“Ai, Crystal, come out!”
Beams shot out. Moments later, the snow shifted as one of his girlfriends and his daughter appeared.
“Hey, we’re back out in the snow!” Ai cheered, hopping in place. Yoshi and Angel fell a few inches deeper into their hole.
“Ai! Crystal!” Yoshi tried to yell. The ice angel stirred again. Yoshi froze. Was she… moving closer to me?
“Yoshi,” the rock-type responded. Yoshi could almost feel her stillness. “Ai, look down the hole.”
Yoshi breathed an internal sigh of relief.When he needed a level head, Crystal was his girl.
“…Daddy? Is that you?”
“Hi.” Yoshi waved, the rings glinting on his fingers. He poked his head over Angel’s shoulder. “Could you both pull her off me? I’ll explain later.”
Crystal and Ai got to work. They knelt in the snow, driving their open palms into the cold, white precipitation and throwing it over their shoulders. Ten minutes later, they had scooped enough of it out that they were able to climb in. They stepped down carefully, slipped a hand under the Angelika’s arms while carefully folding her wings back into her shoulder blades.
Yoshi clambered out and stamped the pins and needles out of his feet. “Thanks girls.”
The black web pulsed over Angel’s skin again and her eyes fluttered open. “What happened?” She murmured.
“You flew me out of the cavern, then you fainted,” Yoshi explained.
“Really?” She wrinkled her brow and coughed. “I’m sorry. I must have overestimated myself.”
“Don’t worry,” Yoshi said, waving at her. Ai and Crystal stepped away from her and joined Yoshi. “Let us take you back to your home. Then we’ll leave.”
Angel looked at Yoshi for several seconds, an unreadable expression on her face.
Crap, was she awake when I was giving her some tongue?
“Alright,” she said, flexing her wings casually. “So be it.”
Phew.
“OK, which way?”
Angel looked up and smiled at the sun. Yoshi noticed right then that the ice-type looked rather sad. Not the sort of sad like she was having a bad day, but a more sadness that someone feels when they’re trying to come to terms with something terrible.
She held her hand to the sky. The snow that had been getting persistently heavier and the squalls that buffeted them suddenly stopped.
“Up there.” She pointed behind Yoshi, at a point high up the ice tower.
“Sure,” Yoshi said, “let’s go.”
The Angelika giggled. The sound was child-like and pure. The sadness thawed for a moment before it froze over her lovely face again. “Don’t be silly. I’m going to fly you up there.”
“You just flew me up and passed out,” Yoshi said, crossing his arms.
“I’m better now,” Angel said. She threw her wings as open as she could, kicking up puffs of white to her sides. “Trust me. Though you will have to withdraw your girlfriends again.”
Yoshi looked up at the tower again before looking at the Legendary. “OK… but if you feel like you’re passing out, just drop me.”
She put three fingers on her chest again. “I swear on Frank’s name that I–”
“You don’t have to swear it,” Yoshi interjected. He lay on his stomach. “Let’s go.”
They flew around the tower, spiralling up and up. To Angel’s credit, it did seem like she had recovered. There were no sudden jerks or lurches. The tower had open, glassless windows every few feet up. Yoshi got glimpses of a long, winding stairwell through them.
How high up am I? He looked down and immediately regretted it. Even with the mattress of snow beneath, if Angel did pass out and drop him, he’d almost certainly die from the impact.
Angel used her wings to put some reverse throttle on their upward movement. “OK, you can step off here,” she said. She let go of Yoshi’s collar and he fell a couple of feet, stumbling to the platform. Angel folded her wings up and landed far more gracefully.
Yoshi looked out over the edge of the balcony. In the distance, he could see the Cruisy McCruiseface at the edge of the dark, grey ice. It was surprisingly calm and quiet, almost like they were in the eye of a storm.
“Welcome to my fortress,” she said. She was walking back towards a large, arched doorway. She looked over her shoulder, her blonde braids swishing around. “Do you want to come in?”
Yoshi nodded. He walked towards the framed doors. On initial appearance, they did look like frosted glass. He looked up close, noticing its uneven nature. It’s ice… everything’s ice.
“Close the doors behind you,” she said.
Yoshi did as he was told, shutting it behind him. He turned around. Despite the size of the balcony doors, her bedroom was rather quaint. Oil lamps burned in the corners of the room, casting gentle glow
s that converged in the center, where there was a square table with a single chair pushed in underneath it. Against the wall was a single bed, made so neatly it looked like it had never been laid in.
“You live alone,” Yoshi said slowly.
“When you’re a Legendary, you don’t have much choice.” She was resting a hand heavily on the table. “I think I’ve overexerted myself again, I might have to lie down.” She pinched her one-piece at waist height, pulling it off. Yoshi averted his gaze. She used her wings to shield herself as she walked over to her bed.
“So, who’s that Xark guy? What does he want with you?” Yoshi asked, still looking away. Only when she had thrown the blankets over her exposed body did he look at her again. Her eyes were closed. Had she fallen asleep?
“I really shouldn’t be telling you,” Angel said. Yoshi stepped closer to her. Her voice was quiet. “I don’t really know who you are.”
Yoshi stood there and rubbed his chin. “Errr, I’m a trainer from a town called Topaz. I’m like most trainers really, I want to beat the Merah League one day and be a girlfriend master.”
“Who was your first girlfriend?” she asked.
“It was Star…” Yoshi paled; Angel opened her eyes a crack. “It was a Starlotte. I lost her on this island.”
“Lost?” Angel asked, eyes closed again. Yoshi told her about the avalanche in the valley caused by the Naseemas.
“I’m sorry to hear that, I’m partially to blame. When I came here, the Naseemas had already been living here for generations. I warped their home into what it is today. Over time they changed too, adapting to the icy conditions. They see me as a goddess who has bestowed ice-type power and resistance to them. They patrol the island and keep intruders out.”
“Or try to,” Yoshi said. Angel smiled faintly. Yoshi pulled the single, wooden chair from the table and sat next to Angel.
“So you weren’t always on Agate Island then.”
She shook her head. “My home was Mount Opus, in the Magnum Alps right by the Upedge.”