Cloey was shocked at what she just saw in the store. An actual person, whom she had just been conversing with moments ago, was now completely covered by a clear, icy vertical rectangle. The woman inside was unmoving, not even a glance from her still eyes. It was like she was an inanimate doll inside a box, unopened until someone made a purchase.
"Wh-what is this?" Cloey chattered to herself. "Why is she in ice? Is that why it was cold in this place?"
The chills around her body worsened, not helped by how she was still wearing her summer long dress. If this kept up, she would no doubt pass out or even get severe symptoms of hypothermia.
"The door... I can get out while I have time!"
Cloey was seconds away from grabbing the handle to the outside, where she hoped that the warmth from the mall would hit her skin, dreaming of a warm oven heating her before the cold could take her.
But she looked back; the frozen woman in ice was still there. If left here for a period of time, she might get serious injuries or even death. Cloey was almost at the exit, but she shouldn't be the only one who could escape. The thought of abandoning a person who was helpless and stuck, it was shocking and sickening to her very core.
So she thought of an idea that would help warm up the room. Cloey pushed the door outwards so that the hot air would combat the coldness that circulated the room, and melt the ice the trapped woman was in. The cold dwindled her strength as she tried to make an opening, just for a sliver of heat to make through, but it was no use, because the door froze itself shut and the hinges were extremely sturdy for her to kick down the door.
Cloey's heart fluttered from the cold piercing her skin, and fatigue slowly overriding her consciousness.
Looking around for a thermostat she could manually handle to increase the heat, Cloey rushed with all she could through the cold breezes circling in Nacy's Cosmetics. She checked behind the counter next to the frozen block lady, then next to the back of the shelves, but finally turned towards an unopened door that led to the back.
Assuming it was a maintenance room, Cloey dragged her legs, forcing herself to walk over there. Reaching for the handle, she was relieved that it wasn't stuck like the one from the front door, and then she went inside.
The small room only had a couple of boxes and empty shelves, typical for a place like this to be used as storage for purchasable items. But when she looked over to her right, Cloey saw something unimaginable in a place like this.
There was a tall creature spewing out visible cold air through its vent-like mouth. Its balloon dress covered its lower torso, the whole thing only supported by a couple of interconnected stick legs. The whole body was light blue like a winter snowflake, but there were also hues of green and dark gray around most of its face and body. It was unmoving, but she could see that the eyes were tracking her, giving hints that it was alive and not some kind of machine.
"Wh-wh-what...?" Cloey stammered, her teeth still chattering from the cold.
That color scheme was familiar to her from before. Her mind flashed back to the Trickcycle Faden from before. Based on the description from Manson before, with the similar colors of gray and green seen, the only logical conclusion Cloey could make was that it was another Faden.
An... Icepop Faden, as she named it herself based on how it was making the whole store cold.
Cloey looked around the whole room, hoping to see the thermostat or any type of switch. No luck with that, only boxes and snow piling up on the floor. She must've made the situation worse since she opened the door, because the outside of the room, the shelves, and floors were completely blanketed by the snow. It was like being outside in the winter at night.
This monster was in front of her. There was really no doubt that it was a Faden that terrorized people, like that poor woman working the store. No time could be spared, as remaining in the cold for a long period of time would definitely give her severe cases of frostbite. She had to act before things could get worse.
Cloey's power from before, back when she was with her father, was to fix whatever was malfunctioning in the family truck. It was in the mechanic shop outside with the strange bike monster that she first had this power. The power to summon pairs of metal boots. It was rough, but she managed to defeat the Trickcycle Faden before it could kill her.
Maybe because she gained powers, it was her job to help those who were unfortunate and weak. And also, the fact that her power summoned some kind of shoes that looked like they were from a knight was kind of funny. It was like something she would think of in her extravagant imagination to pass the time from the reality and boredom. So she decided to try it once again, trying to get the feet to be the same as before.
She decided to call upon the mysterious ability, the Knightly Defender, to come out and play with fun in the air.
Channeling her inner strength from... from whatever it can be from, Cloey closed her eyes and hoped for the ordinary warmth that surrounded the city in the summer. She also told herself in her mind about the severe low temperatures in the air around her and how she needed to get help before it was too late.
Cloey continued to violently shake from the cold hitting her exposed skin. "P-p-please... anyone out th-there... h-h-help... me..."
As soon as she said those soft words out of her mouth, she felt her tongue droop down into the bottom of her jaw; the whole pink thing was solid as rock. Nonetheless, a faint wisp within Cloey had appeared like a bright flashbulb, but then slowly disappeared into nowhere. She was confused about what was happening, but she saw behind her that the same pair of metal boots appeared as before, swiftly, without her noticing.
The Knightly Defender was finally here, ready to take arms against the foe at hand. Cloey softly giggled because of the apparent similarities to a fairy tale.
Immediately, the metal boots charged at the Icepop Faden without a moment to spare. The way the monster towered over her, the vent-like mouth continuing to force cold air to freeze the surroundings, she would probably freeze like the woman behind the counter if she attempted to draw near. If Cloey were to be incapacitated, then nobody would be able to help them at all. The loss would spell doom.
When the metal boots smashed into the middle of the body, it gave off a sound of a heavy bass in the middle of a remix party, but no considerable damage was done. It was as though it didn't even hurt the Faden in the first place.
Cloey backed off, her confidence now receding to the back of her mind, as she was sure that the summoned metal boots would fight for her and win. But instead, it was all for nothing. The boots continued to go back and do another charge, then another, then another, until Cloey looked away in despair.
"Stop! Please don't hurt yourself any longer! Knightly Defender?!"
She did not know why she said this, since the metal boots weren't exactly alive, but the way they launched themselves felt like they were doing everything they could against the Icepop Faden. Cloey was afraid that something would happen if she did not intervene.
The metal boots stopped their aggressive movements. Listening to her voice, both boots glided slowly towards her, and then stopped right at her side.
"The monster looks like it can't move. So, maybe I can close the door to this room and block the air from coming in. Can I block the door to the storage room with a shelf? With how heavy for me to push it..."
The Iceopop Faden, however, only replied to the onslaught that the enemy provided with a gust of frozen wind that knocked Cloey away, her back striking against the brick wall.
"Ahh!" she cried out in sudden pain.
The metal boots quickly tended to her. The left one faced her to protect her from anything else, while the right one kept its direction towards the Faden in case it made any sudden movements.
Getting up from the ground and fallen plastic bottles, she looked at her arms and saw that they were devoid of any orange warmth that once coursed through her veins. Cloey tried to move her fingers but saw that her left hand was dangerously blue, like dimmed sapphire, and that her right wrist was covered with ice, chaining her to the cold burst of the wind.
She escaped the cramped storage room and went back to the main part of the store with the shelves. The metal boots followed her on the way.
She caught her breath in the cold air. Cloey looked up to see the white frost enveloping the glass windows near the front door. The thought of the window meant that she could use the knight boots to smash through and make a large hole so that the hot air from outside could finally enter and melt the snow and ice rising inside the store.
Cloey mustered her voice, ignoring the blistering cold and scratchy dryness that had settled in her throat.
"Hit the windows! Right there, so that hot air can get in!"
She commanded in a tone similar to a leader. Maybe if she was like this often, then people would say that she was like the leader of Quad Four.
The metallic boots hummed a quiet noise and launched themselves towards the window with force. However, instead of glass shards flying everywhere, the metal boots launched backwards from impact, with the only damage that seemed to be visible was a minor scratch.
Cloey looked in horror at how strong the ice freezing over was to make the thin glass in the store completely durable. To even make a small hole through the window, it would take about a few hours at least.
Bigger problems were about to expand as the door to the maintenance room showed an Icepop Faden exiting. The hulking frame seemed to squeeze through the door frame as its blistering winds directly froze the shelves and their items into blocks of ice.
Cloey tried to scream for help, calling out for everyone who might hear her, no matter who it was, but it was useless to even do so. The Icepop Faden was now in the main store, the aisles constantly battered by the icy breeze and making a screeching noise inside a severe blizzard in the middle of nowhere.
Her eyes started to see blue in the corner; her heart could be felt slowing down in return. The metal shoes were now erratically spinning from the torrent of coldness.
With no other choice, Cloey tried to tell the shoes to push the Faden by going around the body, avoiding the source of the icy winds from stopping them, and then ramming themselves into their feet.
"Go... d-do that..."
It worked well with how the Faden was sliding slowly, and their movements were noticeably slow and sluggish, not enough to even move a limb to hit someone. The metal boots continued to push until the Icepop Faden was not in the way of the storage room.
Taking the chance presented to her, Cloey bolted back into the room, and her summoned boots returned back safely. She saw that the Faden was slowly adjusting its position by turning its front body to her. It was like the monster could turn in three-sixty degrees from the waist.
She closed the door and went up to the wall opposite it. Cloey hoped that the door would hold against it, but even so, the increasing cold might take her life in return. But the hope within her provided the warmth she needed to stay alive until she couldn't bear it anymore.
As she closed her eyes to keep her eyelids warm and prevent them from shutting down, the back of her head felt a hard, square-like shape sticking out. Cloey glanced to her side and saw that it was a thermostat device that looked unaffected by the cold.
The freezing Faden was blocking the thermostat from view, preventing Cloey from realizing it was there from the beginning. In a crucial and swift move, she reached for the thermostat and cranked the heat to the max.
She waited as she hugged her boots, shaken by the cold and covering her legs by tucking her dress over her knees. After a short period of time, Cloey felt warmth for the first time in forever hitting her skin.
Around her, the storage room was beginning to be more clearly seen, and the ice and snow began to melt until they slowly dripped into the puddles on the ground.
Then the metal shoes disappeared into thin air while a change in the situation was happening.
"Huh? They're gone. So this means that it is safe right now?"
Cloey walked out of the storage room and saw that it was the same as before. The shelves and walls were not covered by snow, the products weren't encased in ice blocks, the windows were now free of frost, and there weren't any snowflakes appearing in thin air. Although there were puddles of water all over the ground, requiring someone to clean them up.
Even the Icepop Faden disappeared, leaving no traces behind. Cloey could only guess that it melted from the maximum heat.
She went over to the front counter and saw the woman was finally free from being trapped in ice. She was on the ground with her hand in her head like she had eaten too many frozen desserts, and her clothes were drenched in melted ice water.
"Ugh, my head... The hell happened here? Why is everything such a mess?" The woman asked the girl.
"Excuse me, did you see that monster that was blowing cold wind in this place? Did you see anything like that at all?" Cloey questioned.
"Uh, what do you mean? I don't see anything at all. Is there something on the shelves?"
"Not even before, when the whole place was a mess? At least you saw yourself getting covered in ice, right?" Cloey asked.
"I don't have any recollection of what you're talking about. Sorry, love. Maybe a party was in here raving all night, hehe..."
Cloey was surprised to see her like this. The woman was all dazed and sleepy-looking, like she was not in a ready state. Maybe she was forgetful about the whole thing, but she didn't want to bother her for much longer, as Cloey grabbed her bag that was hidden in the corner when she first encountered the unusual cold. She presented her future purchases to the employee.
"So, can I pay now? I have a bit of cash."
Starting with this incident, Cloey believed that life would become more fun and interesting, and decided to keep this part of herself a little secret a little more.