Persona: Frozen IC (Open)

[Cassette-Disk]

"First day with the Persona, don't kill yourself with it." Crystal joked to Saito as Claire's shadow gazed at them before addressing Cures and Max again. Now that was a bit annoying. Not even a real glare or anything. "That reminds me, you gotta show me how to throw a real punch." She told him, shaking her damaged hand. When she stopped, she was a bit surprised to see a dried up bit of blood on the glove. Damn you too, Hogan. "Gonna run outta hands at this rate." The girl mumbled to herself as she watched Curse slam against the ground thanks to the opposing shadow. "Gonna run outta friends, too if this keeps up." As much as she wanted to rush over to Cures and Max, the ever growing army of wrestlers stood in the way. Before the pianist tried to think something up, Cures' friend ran up to them.

"Do you think you two can punch a hole through them? I'm going to get to Claire and end this. If you guys have any better ideas than that, then by all means, toss 'em at me."
"Do you actually have a plan for when you reach her? Besides punching her really hard? Because that's all I've got." She looked back at the shadow, noting how she had so far ignored Max. At least his shadow couldn't be angry at her yet, though her singling out Cures wasn't too great since it meant he was in some serious crap. "Alright," Crystal told Jack, "get ready to move." She held her left hand out towards the hoard of shadows. "Mazio!" As if from nowhere, small bolts of lightning began striking at the various musclemen. She let loose another jolt towards the shadows as she addressed Saito. "That ain't enough, but I'm weakening them. Keep the momentum going!"

 

[Peace]

Saito gave no indication as to whether or not he heard Crystal and Jack as both he and Ronin dashed forward. The latter decked a Shadow in the face before he swung his tachi at another. This attack was intercepted by the wrestler grabbing it mid-swing. This made the summoner's arm feel like it was stiffening up slightly as if he's also straining against the muscleman.

Come on. More power, Saito demanded internally as he struggled against the Hulk Hogan-like monster. He thought of how the guardian from before made its head glow before striking him. It was then another word came across the front of his mind. Cleave!

With that, Ronin's blade glowed the same hue as the aforementioned black and white creature did. This shine empowered the red Persona further, giving him enough power to slice the Shadow's forearm cleanly in half. While said monster was recoiling from the attack Ronin throttled it with his fist.

While the giant armor tangoed with his opponent, Saito was taking on another one of the brutes. Somehow he felt stronger and faster since he initially released his Persona. The half-Irishman held both of his clackers like nunchaku. He spun around a punch and in the same movement struck the mulleted Shadow's knee. As said monster looked down, the young man was swinging out again with a spin. This time at the back of its other knee.

Out of nowhere, Saito felt like he was punched in the face. Not only that. His body was dragged backwards a bit as well. He turned to the giant he summoned and saw that he too got punched. Ronin righted himself and quickly slashed the Shadow twice. After that, he drew the nodachi on his back before he kebabbed a pair of the hulking creatures into a wall which included the one the red-eyed one was assaulting.

While the former samurai had his back turned, the Shadow he sliced up before threw its fist into the back of Ronin's head. As Ronin was attacked, Saito ignored the pang of pain and ran between both of their legs. He slammed clackers against back of Hulkamania's knees. This distracted the beast for just enough time for the giant metal ghost to turn around, grab it by the face, and slam it into the floor. The street fighter glared at the flailing shadow as if passing judgement preceding the tall armor killing it with a stab to where its heart would be if it had one.

The impaled Shadows freed themselves and went on the offensive at Ronin. The brick-colored fighter blocked their blows with his blades while Saito kept another pair busy. The Persona-user turned his head towards Crystal and Jack and yelled "Now!"

 

[Max]

Black. I could see nothing but black. But why? And something around my body felt off- what was it?

Wait... My eyes were closed, that's why I couldn't see. But I couldn't open them even with this realization. I reached up with my hands and felt an ice cold on my fingers. The upper portion of my face was literally encased in ice. I scratched and scraped at the ice gently, and it slowly melted at the touch of my fingers. When my vision finally returned it was blurry from the melted ice, and I lifted my head from the ground and looked down at my body.

Oddly enough, the rest of the abnormalities I felt on my body were the clothes that Valerie gave me. That's right, my clothes were soaked from my little police chase to the dojo and I had to change... What the hell had I gotten myself into?

I could see dim streetlights down the road, and I was positioned on my back not too far away from the severely damaged dojo. This wasn't right- I was missing pieces. I was just in a room with Cures, and his sister Claire was there. Claire and... The other Claire. Jack, Saito, Crystal, Valerie, everybody; everybody was there fighting those shadows. I remember wanting to wake Claire up, wanting to help her get away from all of that shit I had to deal with previously.

But her shadow was strong. It started getting fuzzy from there, I remember Cures swinging his Naginata, commanding Jack Frost. I remember a blast of Jack's ice flying past my face at the other Claire. Was it so cold that it froze over my eyes?

I sat up and allowed my eyes to adjust to the darkness of the night. There were several dark shapes on the ground, and the most familiar was lying between myself and the rubble. I crawled over to the shape that was Valerie's body lying on the ground, and I rolled her to her back so that her face was facing mine.

"Valerie... Valerie wake up, are you okay?" I lightly smacked her face and pulled her head and shoulders up onto my lap as I felt her pulse and pushed her hair out of her face. Her heart was beating and I could feel her breath coming out of her nose. I looked around again at the other shapes and could only assume they were the bodies of the others, but were we all here? "Valerie. Valerie come on, wake up." I patted at her face again unsure of what else I could do.

Sitting here in the dark, at the dead of night, I only hoped that everyone else was here and okay, and together we could piece together what happened and figure out our next move from there.

 

[KingdomKey]

Who's calling me?

Why do they sound so... upset?

I'm okay, aren't I?

Without opening my eyes, I slowly shifted my body around until I could confirm for myself that my body was still completely intact. Nothing appeared to be missing or broken or out of place. Feeling a bit relieved, it dawned on me that I had been asleep. But for how long was I out for? What happened? How'd I fall asleep in the first place? Why was my face starting to hurt all of a sudden? It wasn't until my brain registered something was hitting me across the face that I jolted awake and my eyes cracked open to see someone's face hovering over mine. I knew of only one person who'd be brave enough to hit me across the face.

"Max," I groaned softly, "I think this makes us even." I gave him a small smile as my vision began to clear up; I could see the concerned look written all across his face as he looked down at me. I reached up and gently cupped the side of his face with the palm of my hand, trying to reassure him I was okay. Turning my face sideways, I could see we were outside on the pavement and it was dark. There was some snow on the ground but it wasn't as freezing cold as before. Probably because Max is holding me in his arms, so I can't get cold. I didn't let myself think about that fact for too long because, I needed to remembered what happened to us and how it came to this. Unfortunately my memory was still a bit fuzzy on the details as I took in the semi destroyed dojo. Did we... Did we really do that? Why hasn't anyone in town showed up for it? "How'd we get outside? Are you okay, Max?"

I felt my breath catch in my throat as I caught myself thinking about asking Max about the well being of the others. They weren't Max's responsibility. He was dragged into this mess by the rest of us. I slowly sat up with Max's help until I felt strongly enough to stand up on my own two feet. I quietly thanked him as I checked my pockets for any signs of a phone being in them only to come up empty handed. Shit. I hope somebody else has a phone. Or the lines aren't dead, cause if the rest of us are out here, we'll need a ride home. Less we freeze to death. I took a few steps forward towards the dojo to see the full extent of the damage as the reality of it hit me dead center in the chest; anxiety blooming painfully beneath my rib cage. I could remember some of it now. We were desperate to survive as we were all on the brink of exhaustion from fighting against the Hulk Shadows. One of them had... had smashed into the side of the dojo enough to cause a lot of damage for the foundation of the building to sort of collapse.

Did everyone make it out? I think Saito was closest to Crystal at the time and pushed her out of the way of that attack...? What happened to Cures and his sister? I remember a few beams from the ceiling had fallen down between us and separated us from sticking together. Including some bricks. I felt my head beginning to throb into a headache as my memories got fuzzy again. I took a look around our surroundings until I could make out the distinctive dark shape lying across the street on the curb. Crystal. She made it out of there after all. I couldn't see Saito anywhere nearby as I returned to Max's side. "We're going to have to stick together if we're going to go home, Max. I need your help picking Crystal up if I can't get her to wake up."

I walked ahead of Max and knelt down next to Crystal's side. Please forgive me for this. It's the quickest way to wake you up. I cupped a small pile of snow with my hands and placed it against the back of her neck, hoping for the desired effect of getting her up and out of here.

 

[Cassette-Disk]

Pa-ding
Pa-donk
Pa-ding
"So how's the whole 'return my body thing' going?"
Pa-donk
"I'm still working on it."
Pa-ding
"Because it doesn't really seem like you're making a whole lot of progress."
Pa-donk
"Yeah, well I'm trying my best."
The darkness that surrounded the two girls was, as always, infinite. Though at least now Crystal had company. It wasn't exactly someone she was enthusiastic to see but it was better than no one. Still, looking at the shadow was eerie; it was like her mirror reflection but with yellow glowing eyes.
Pa-ding
"So how did you get in here anyway?" Crystal asked, swinging her right arm.
Pa-donk
"I'm not too sure. The last thing I can remember was that we were fighting someone else's shadow," the doppelganger replied, following up Crystals swing with one of her own.
Pa-ding
"I remember that. Kinda. I can kind of see what you're doing."
Pa-donk
"I know."
Pa-ding
"Speaking of which, quit flirting with that guy. I don't even know anything about him."
Pa-donk
"Hey, I'm not doing anything you wouldn't. I literally can't."
Pa-ding
"You stole my body. Pretty sure I wouldn't do that.
Pa-donk
"Wouldn't you though?" Crystal swung to intercept the small white ball once more, but her shadow's comment threw her off, and she missed her mark.
"Aw, butts."
"Fifteen-Love," the shadow smiled, counting up the first score of the game. Crystal bent down to pick up the ball before hitting it across the black piano's surface with the small paddle she had some how acquired.
Pa-ding
"Why are we even playing ping pong right now anyway?"
Pa-donk
"You know how they say chess is an intellectual's game?"
Pa-ding
"Sure."
Pa-donk
"I wonder what those people would have to say about ping pong?"
Pa-ding
"Nothing good, I bet."
Pa-donk
"Well, this is all your subconscious. You tell me why we're playing such a lowly game?" Crystal didn't even attempt the swing.
"Really?" She growled.
"30-Love. One more for me and we'll be at match point. You're at a disadvantage."
"I've gotten used to it at this point."
"Serve the ball."
"How can I even trust you even plan on giving my body back?"
"Would I lie to you? Serve the ball."
"I'm pretty sure you would, yeah. This could all be an act and you'd just keep me locked up forever."
"You'll just have to trust me."
"Pfft. It's not like you're giving me much of a choice here," Crystal readied the ball once more, but stopped. "Do you feel cold?"
"I never feel cold. It's one of my perks."
"No, I mean on the back of your neck?" Crystal served the ball and, in that instant, the shadow vanished from the darkness. "30-15, I guess. I'll catch up sooner or later."

---​

"Zoey, I'm gonna kill you!" Crystal's shadow howled as she lashed forward. The intense cold she felt was a rarity, even snow shouldn't effect her yet Vale's tactic did a stupidly good job at shocking her awake. "Why would you do that?! What is this, some kind of classical fantasy story?! What, you gonna start talking in French next!?" The shadow rambled incoherently as she scrambled to remove the snow from her skin all the while making strangling motions at Valerie. You can't hurt her. You can't hurt her. You can't hurt her. "You...!" The shadow continued to wiggle her fingers together, as if she were to lash out at Vale at any second, "You are...very lucky," she ended with a deep breath. "Sorry. Sorry about that. You're okay. We're okay." A quick scan of the area told Crystal where they were, and that's when she remembered what had happened. "Wait, what happened? Did we win?" The only other person she could see was Max, but the idea of everyone else being well wasn't too far-fetched. "Um. So, what do we do now?"

 

[Peace]

As Saito fought with the purple Shadows, his stamina quickly depleted. To the point where he can barely maintain his newly acquired Persona. Despite this, he's having the time of his life. The feeling of his fists against his opposition. Adrenaline fueling his limbs. Fatigue poisoning his muscles with toxins. Blood seeping from his wounds. New bruises forming on his skin. How he had missed these sensations.

This came to an end when a pair of the monsters punched both him and his manifestation. These blows contained enough force to blast them through the wall. As if the ice was the border of the other world, they wound up sailing through the air in the alleyway next to the dojo. For the few moments he was able to stay in the real world, Ronin was able to cushion Saito's body from the full force of hitting the wall at the speed he was going.

After hitting the wall and landing on the snow covered ground, he groaned, "Ow." He got up a few seconds after that. He then wandered in between the buildings, making sure he doesn't touch any of the ice encasing the dojo, until he arrived back on the street. He leaned against the convenience store next to the frosty dojo and slid down the wall to recuperate.