15. Infiltrating the Ice Temple

A considerable amount of time past since Penny and Vulcan started the long trek down the dark, damp tunnels that winded there way through the island. Penny had a hard time believing that FJ made the tunnels all by himself. It would have been more believable if she had met him but FJ was known as the estranged shipmate. It had her deep in thought and finally she concluded that FJ could not be real but Levi's imagination.

"What do think of FJ?" Penny grabbed Vulcan's attention with a low whisper, and made sure the captain hadn't heard her. "He can't be real, can he?"

"I don't think anyone on the crew has ever met the guy." Vulcan shifted his head to the side, his lips held in a firm line, deep in concentration. "Didn't he used to be the first mate before he left?"

"As far as I'm aware." Penny lifted her shoulders up and down. "It seems strange that none of us have met him before and yet he's a part of the crew."

"There has to be a reasonable explanation." The flame at the end of the torch Vulcan held, flicked with the cold gusty wind and the shadows around them danced with the sudden tremor of the orange glow.

Penny's spine crawled with pins and needles and her entire body quivered from the biting wind. She hated the dark and she hated the cold. She would much rather be stuck on a hot sunny island than stuck in a frozen tunnel following her mindless captain who had no sense of direction. She might as well be a blind man wandering around and hoping for the best.

"Maybe FJ is the Spy," Penny mumbled to herself.

"Spy? What Spy?" Vulcan shifted his hazel eyes down towards her. "What are you talking about?"

"Nothing..." Penny clamped her mouth shut before she uttered another word, having the entire crew suspecting each other with pointed fingers would drive a wedge between them all and she didn't want that.

Vulcan eyed her suspiciously but didn't intrude for more information. Instead, he continued to watch Levi skipping ahead of them with a deep grin sprawled across his face.

"Hey Levi, how come we've never met FJ?" Vulcan returned to the topic of conversation.

Levi stopped whistling. "He's busy on a secret mission I sent him on?"

Penny and Vulcan looked between themselves. "What mission?" they said together.

"Can't say, secret." The captain picked up a stick from the ground and started to drag it against the rough rock face of the walls and playfully drew patterns against the small grooves. 

Penny rolled her eyes. "Is he even real or your imaginary friend?"

Levi stopped playing with his stick and turned around to face Penny with an amused face. "I'll tell him you said that when we catch up with him at Halfway Point. He'll find that really funny." He started walking again and dragged his stick along with him. "He's real alright, we grew up together in Solaria City, we didn't exactly get along as children but after the events of the War on Sunrise Island, we found a common enemy we both wanted eliminated."

"The enemy of my enemy is my friend." Vulcan arched a brow, interested in the captain's relationship with FJ.

Levi shook his head. "FJ isn't my enemy. He's my friend and a great guy who always cares for others, but sometimes he can get too involved with people who don't concern him and easily lets his emotions get in the way."

"He has empathy," Penny hummed with a smile. "It's a good quality to have."

"True, but his emotions control his cursed soul and the last time he let his emotions take over he set the city of Solaria on fire." Levi stopped in his tracks, frozen from the memory.

Vulcan took in his words with a sharp intake of breath. "FJ started the Great Fire..."

"It was an accident," Levi cut him off before he could accuse him. "An accident he could have contained if he had been in control of his emotions." The stick snapped in Levi's hand and clattered to the ground. "He let Mordred mess with his emotions, he got fired up and he let lose his body heat. It was what the King wanted. FJ didn't realise that the Navy had dosed Solaria in kerosene, the entire city went up like a match." Levi swallowed containing his tears. "Like you said Penny, FJ is empathic, he heard every cry for help, every scream, every death, he could feel their fear, their anger, their sorrow, their impending doom and he could do nothing. He tried so hard to contain it, to help but wherever he stepped foot the world around him turned to ashes. He's been guilt ridden ever since and vowed to help rebuild and keep the city safe from harms way. He refused to leave the island with me, so I gave him a task to complete whenever he had free time from looking after the city."

"I'm sorry that happened to him." Penny placed a gentle hand on Levi's shoulder. "No person should ever go through that."

Levi shrugged her hand off his shoulder and continued through the dark tunnels. They went on for at least a good hour, in silence, no longer wanting to talk. Penny could of sworn they were lost, it was like a rabbit's burrow with endless tunnels reaching out into different directions. She was surprised Levi knew which route to take.

Finally, they made it to the end of the tunnel, where a pair of reinforced iron doors stood tall above them. Penny felt intimidated by the brutality of the doors, like tall muscular watchmen guarding the entrance to hell.

"The doors lead straight into the basement of the temple most likely where our friends are held captive." Levi grinned.

"Those doors look impossible to open." For once in his life, Vulcan felt small. A feeling he did not like. "They must weigh at least three tonnes."

"Five," Levi informed him. "FJ built them like this so only we could open it with our super strength. It was so we could easily escape without being followed, they slam shut automatically."

FJ had super strength as well, Penny was amazed. How many powers did this guy have?

Levi pulled his arm back, clenched his fist and swung his arm forward. The double doors burst open from his powerful punch and swung back slamming against the inner ice walls of the temple forcing the ancient structure to shake alive with energy. They quickly ran in before they slammed shut again.

Levi smiled towards his two friends with a deep satisfying grin. "Penny, you find Tommy, I'll find Oberon and Vulcan find your girl and apologise for making her runaway in the first place," he teased. "Meet me back here."

Vulcan's face burned beat red and he whacked his captain on top of the head before running off in search of Mirella. Levi chuckled and rubbed his newly formed lump and sprinted off. Penny took her pink bow off her back and reached for an arrow from her quiver, preparing herself as she rounded the corners of the ice palace. Despite the circumstances, she couldn't help but admire the architecture of the temple. Everything was made of ice, the bricks, the carved statues of the ancient gods, the curved arches of the corridors and even the doors were made of ice. It was a deep blue ice, mesmerising to look at, the water frozen in a state of a constant swirl forever dancing. The temple had to be over one hundred years old, it was hard to tell. She wondered about the history behind the temple, it was located in such an odd place, far out in the mountains where it couldn't be easily located. Usually temples like this held dark secrets. She wanted to explore more, like an eager archaeologist trying to uncover the secrets of the past. Her wondering mind awoke from the distinctive voice of her boyfriend talking.

She followed the sound of him, finding her way to a kitchen area and arched an unimpressed brow. Sat in the middle of the kitchen was a giant black cauldron boiling away on top of a burning fire and tied around the waist upside down with rope above the bubbling cauldron was Tommy, slowly being lowered down into the hot stew by Gluttony's fat minions. But that wasn't the best part, Tommy seemed to be instructing the fat minions with ingredients and providing them with cooking tips for making the perfect stew. The fat minions were adhering to his every word like he was their cooking-messiah.

"Ok, now add the spice and its..."

Penny cleared her throat, gaining the attention of everyone in the room. "What are you doing?" She folded her arms across her chest and her foot tapped impatiently against the floor waiting for an answer.

"Penny!" Tommy sheepishly grinned from his upside down position.

"He tried to get out of it by convincing Gluttony he was Envy's son," Penny noticed Oberon tied up in the corner. "But then she was going to bring Envy here to see if his statement was true..."

"Which I then decided to inform Gluttony that I wasn't Envy's son. I don't exactly want another reunion with, evil-psychotic-mother-dearest," Tommy hissed. "Which ended up with us here, being cooked alive for Gluttony's large appetite."

"And teaching her fat minions how to cook, it would seem," Penny lifted her bow towards the frozen blobs of fat who had no idea what to do from the sudden intrusion.

Feeling threatened, they jumped at her at once, having already prepared herself with three arrows locked in place within her bow, she effortlessly aimed towards the minions and the arrows pierced through them and they exploded into pieces of confetti fat, fluttering up into the air.

"If I'm going to be eaten I want to be a damn good dish." Tommy defended his actions.

"And your best dish is fish stew." Penny quipped and Tommy narrowed his silver eyes at her.

"Only Blondie is allowed to make fish jokes about me, not you," he growled.

"Fine." She rolled her eyes and helped to untie Oberon. "You'll be my damsel in distress instead, then."

"I am not a damsel in distress," he said, in a rather high pitched voice which had Oberon laughing.

"You look like a damsel in distress." Penny stood directly in front of her swinging upside down boyfriend who was playing the puppy-dog pouting game with her. Her smile faded and she placed a hand to his cheek. His skin flaked dry like eczema and revealed to be red raw where he had been aggressively itching it around the collar of his neck and gills. His lips were parched of moisture and his eyes were deep and sullen.

"Idiot!" She was upset with him. "Here you are drying up, dying, and all you can do is instruct the enemy how to cook? What is wrong with you?" Her voice went up an octave as she contained her brewing tears.

Oberon shifted into his human form and pushed the cauldron out of the way and put out the fire. Penny took her knife out from her belt and sliced him free. Tommy landed with a thud and groaned but he was able to untie the last of the ropes around him.

He stood up and brought Penny into a hug. "You're right, I shouldn't have been messing about, I'm sorry."

"Just don't act so foolishly again." Penny found herself buried in his chest and clutching onto him like a big teddy bear and smiled to herself. "Fish Brains," she added.

"Don't call me that!" he growled, where she felt the rumble of his chest against her face and she smirked. She loved to tease him.

"Ow!" Tommy clapped a hand to the back of his neck. "Did you just pinch me." He pulled a needle out from his neck to find a sea crystal dart.

He grinned at Penny when he felt a sudden surge of energy coursing through his veins, he felt replenished and no longer dehydrated. "I love you." He leaned down to kiss her...

"Can you stop with the sappy love?" Oberon husked, he was still in his human form, his voice deep and the muscles on his folded arms bulged and ready to fight. "Let's find the others."

Penny laughed and pulled back from the hug, not without whispering a sweet gesture about having fun later when back at the ship. Tommy swooned from the idea.

"Alex and Baden are back at the Leo," Penny explained the situation. "Levi went looking for you Oberon and Vulcan went looking for Mirella."

Tommy and Oberon exchange dreaded looks.

"What?" Penny was confused. "What's wrong?"

"It's Mirella," Oberon reverted back to his fairy form and landed on Tommy's shoulder. "She's not exactly herself."

"We'll explain on the way." Tommy grabbed Penny's hand and started running. "But Vulcan can't see her like this, we have to get to her before he does."

☠️

"Aaaahhhh!" Levi's screams echoed down the corridors of the ice temple.

He sprinted as fast as he could, using his cursed soul of super speed to get as far away from the little marshmallow creatures as he could. It was his first time meeting one of Gluttony's fat minions and well, Levi being Levi, he thought they were actual food and had bit into one, only for the little blob of fat to screech and call out for his friends, all of which were now chasing after him. Despite being small and fat, they could run fast, so fast Levi was starting to wear out and couldn't run for much longer unless he had some food to rebuild his energy.

Too busy constantly looking over his shoulder instead of ahead of him, Levi smacked into a wooden door taking it off its hinges and flinging it across the room, himself with it. The dust settled around him and he slowly picked himself up onto his feet, grabbed his tricorne hat and placed it back onto his head. Before the fat minions could charge in, Levi quickly picked up the broken door and slammed it shut. It wouldn't hold them forever but it would do for now.

Leaning against the banging door, Levi breathed in deeply finally catching a break from the fat minions. His big brown eyes flashed open and he looked around his surroundings, the room was dark and cold with little to no light. He squinted, when he saw a shadowed figured sat in the middle of the room. He cautiously crept forward towards the stranger, she seemed to be a prisoner, her wrists tied tightly to the wooden chair with poisoned soaked ropes. She was unconscious with her head flopped over and her long turquoise-blue hair fanned around her face.

"Laura?" he questioned, unsure if it was actually her. Her skin was ghostly white, with swollen veins pulsing purple, making it impossible to recognise her.

He touched her hand and he hissed, the purple venom covering her arms sizzled through his skin and he quickly wiped it onto his green coat before it infected his blood stream. She had been poisoned and only one person was capable of doing such a thing... Mirella.

It was a vicious attack, haunting even, like a dead body had been left out to hung to warn others of trespassing.

"Laura." He shook ever so lightly so not to hurt her. "Are you alive?"

It was impossible, without the antidote nobody could survive Mirella's venom. Then her neck swung around her shoulders and with what little strength she had left, she lifted her head. Her hair fell away from her face and Levi was shocked to find her left eye was missing, nothing but a hallow hole filled with a blue fuzzy mist. It was then Levi realised how she survived Mirella's monstrous attack.

"You're one of those legendary spirits with the missing eyes." Levi pulled on his mittens to protect his hands and untied her from the chair. Her wrists were chaffed purple from the burn of the poisoned rope and Levi was careful not to cause her anymore pain. "Your master must be powerful, I couldn't tell you were spirit, I mistook you for a human."

"I'm a roaming spirit," She husked rubbing her soar wrists but she wasn't healing as quickly as normal. "I acquire my energy from my master so I don't have to revert back to Limbo, but at the moment he seems to be sending me less everyday. I don't know what is wrong with him but I have to find him."

The banging on the door continued behind them, any second now and the fat minions would burst through.

"Do you have enough energy to fight off Gluttony's minions?"

She shook her head and even that was a stretch of energy. Then the banging stopped, when a bell rang throughout the castle.

"What's that?" Levi stood alert, his fists balled ready to fight if need be.

"Gluttony's calling back all of her minions, they're going to merge back with her, she's going to become very large." Laura attempted to stand, only to fall back onto her chair, exhausted. "She wouldn't call them unless..." Laura looked scared. "Unless Hiro finally managed to open the gate to the Spirit Realm and she's ready to pass through and destroy my home! I have to regain my strength and stop her, I have enough energy left to teleport to my my master and find out what is happening to him."

Levi carefully inspected Laura, she looked an awful lot like Jessica, same height, features, tone of voice, everything, except she had blue hair and fair skin instead of red hair and bronze skin.

"Spirits choose the form most appealing to their master." Levi started. "You look exactly like Jess. Your master must know Jess otherwise you wouldn't look like her and your name is Laura, my mother's name?" Levi breathed in steadily and thought deeply, who could possibly know both his mother and Jessica?. "FJ... he's your master isn't he?"

Laura nodded. "When FJ became my master the appearance most appealing to him was this woman called Laura, he named me after her. He tasked me to this island in search of the Blue Eye when all of this started with Gluttony, I haven't seen him since. But then a week ago, my appearance changed to this girl you call Jess. Is FJ good friends with her."

"They've met but Jessica doesn't know they've met." A puzzled look fell upon Levi's face and he placed his finger against his mouth in deep thought. "It doesn't explain why your appearance would change to her now."

"Maybe they have met recently." Laura second guessed.

"That's impossible, Jess is dead." Levi saddened. "He must have found out, that's why you've changed appearance, he's thinking of her at the moment."

"I'm sorry." An awkward silence fell upon them.

Levi shook his head and helped Laura up onto her feet and placed her arm around his shoulder. "It's my fault not yours. As for why you're lacking energy. It might have something to do with FJ's Clone Two. I advise not wasting your energy teleporting over to him. He's busy trying to track him down, using all his skills and energy doing so."

"Clone Two?" Laura questioned, intrigued.

"I will tell you on the way to this gate to the Spirit Realm. Do you know where it is?" He burst the door down with his foot.

Laura nodded. "It's this way."

☠️

Vulcan had found himself in the centre of the ice temple hiding behind one of the ice columns within the alter room. It was empty but it seemed like an important room, a crystal ball incased in devil's bite was perched on a stand. Wires extended out from it, as well as other mechanical machinery connected to an ancient stone arch with a sapphire stone stuck to the brow. Vulcan eyed around him, making sure the coast was clear before making his way towards the strange looking device. He couldn't help himself, he was an engineer and the mechanics of the contraption had him intrigued.

He inspected it closely, his hazel eyes filled with curiosity. He had never seen such a device before, it was beautiful. Whoever made it was a genius, meddling magic with science. He frowned noticing a flaw.

"The fuel pressure regulator from the crystal ball to the arch is all wrong," he muttered to himself. "It's overloading too much energy to the arch and is therefore causing it to cut out."

With a little fiddling he managed to fix it, the devil's bite didn't seem to mind his presence. A grin spread wide across his face when the sapphire stone on the arch glowed and the crystal ball pulsed alive and the centre of the arch formed a clockwise swirl of mystic energy.

"I told you he would be able to fix it." A familiar voice resonated across the room. "He can't help himself when it comes to mechanics."

Vulcan stiffened.

"It looks like I won't need that book after all," Hiro chimed.

"You've done well, Hiro." Gluttony grinned. "Your venomous pet came in use after all." She donged a bell, calling back her fat minions. "Now kill the pirate!"

In the corner of his eye, Vulcan saw an object flying towards him and he deflected its trajectory with his hammer. The little black knife struck the ground next to his feet and oozed with purple venom. His heart pounded not believing what he was seeing, but he couldn't take his eyes away from the push knife. The knife he had made especially for her, designed to soak up her venom and release it when it hit its target. Why had it been aimed at him? He stared at her, disbelief shone in his eyes.

"Mirella...?"

Next Chapter: 16. The Rightful Master

☠️ Did any body guess Blue Tail's Master was FJ? At the end of 01. Corrupt, FJ mentions he's the master of one of the legendary six.

☠️ How and when had FJ met Jess when she doesn't even know herself?

☠️ Mirella, why are you been so mean?

☠️ Poor Vulcan, I hope he can set her straight again, I just wonder how it's possible?

Next Update: Wednesday

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~ Robin Xxx