Celestial Cove Chronicles Chapter 22

CELESTIAL COVE CHRONICLES: RISE OF THE ELEMENTAL KNIGHTS
Chapter 22: THE CRYSTAL DUO’S DAY OUT
Story by Harmonia Studios
Screenplay by Clipperwhiz1

The next morning, Alan shows up at the Hope Garden while letting out a big yawn and stretching his arms.  
“You’re late,” a familiar female French voice calls out in a calm but scolding tone.
The new ice knight smiles amusedly and then looks behind his back to see his distaff fairy counterpart sitting on the fence in a meditative pose, eyes closed and all.  She wears a fancy yellow and golden Chinese qipao with a large flowing skirt, a fancy blue hair-bow to keep her hair in a neat ponytail, golden leggings, and dark brown tabu boots.
“Good morning to you too, Princess,” Alan says while resting his arms on his head in a casual, lazy manner.
“I suppose you overslept, hmm?  It pays to have a good sleep schedule so you won’t get drowsy,” Samantha replies calmly without breaking from her meditation period.
“All right, I’ll humor you.  Are you ready by the way, Sam?” the smug playboy asks amusedly.
“Of course,” the ice fairy replies casually as she jumps off the fence and joins her distaff knight counterpart’s side.  “I’m looking forward to how far you’ve progressed on this knight training of yours.”
“You won’t be disappointed, for sure.  Lead the way, Princess,” Alan replies with a flirting wink.
“Hey, remember the rules we’ve agreed to – no flirting or romance, AND don’t call me Sam or Princess, okay?” an annoyed Samantha grumbles.
“Whatever you say . . . Princess,” the new ice knight snickers playfully much to his distaff fairy counterpart’s teeth-clenching anger.
*****
Along the way to the Tenshi Fairies and Elemental Knights’ agreed-upon ‘training ground’ through the protected dark forest, Alan looks over to Samantha and smiles amusedly at her new Tenshi Nebula uniform.  “You look beautiful in that outfit, Samantha.  Yellow and gold look great on you – and it’s not on a flirting level,” he complements politely.
Samantha hears this and blushes nervously before looking away so Alan would not see.  “Uh, thank you.  You are a good art/fashion critic, I have to admit,” she replies calmly.
“Well, you are a marvelous fashionista, make no doubt about it,” the new ice knight smiles amusedly while resting his arms on his head.  “You’ll make quite a splash in the human fashion world should you have the chance to come to our city.”
“I heard from the other Elemental Knights that you are a fashion model from your city now.  I have to say, your body is quite good for the job.  You keep it in good shape and health, no?” the ice fairy complements back as she looks back – only to realize what she’s just said and covers her face to hide its glowing red blushing.  “That’s just a complement, all right?”
“Whatever you say, Samantha,” Alan replies casually while looking away to hide his snickering expression.  She wants me, I know it, he thinks to himself.
*****
Once the crystal duo has finally arrived at the ‘training ground’, Samantha hops onto a nearby tree and gets out a nail file to trim her fingernails – which are now bright blue with snowflakes on them.  “All right, my so-called knight in shining armor – thrill me,” she smirks amusedly.
“Oh, I will all right,” Alan promises flirtingly while winking at his distaff fairy counterpart, much to her groaning annoyance.  With that, he raises his whip up to the air and shouts out He-Man Style, “GREAT FORCES OF NATURE!  EMPOWER ME!”
With that, the transformation sequence from the previous chapters occurs yet again with nothing changed.  In just five seconds, Alan is revealed in his Crystal Knight form again and whips his whip around in various cool poses to show off.
Tenshi Nebula is not impressed and simply shoos casually in response to get Crystal Knight to get started already.
With that, a giant cobra just like the one Tenshi Vesta and Blaze Knight fought days ago shows up as if on cue and slithers over to the new Elemental Knight on the block, seeing him as an easy meal to snatch up.
“Your menu has just been changed today, scaly.  Want some bloody ice instead?” Crystal Knight asks amusedly as he jumps up in the air and then lands on a shining blue star from out of nowhere – yes, he’s doing Blizzard Surf-ing again.
The new ice knight spends the next few minutes surfing all around the giant serpent, dodging its lunge and bite attacks with every loop he makes around it.  It isn’t long before his slithery opponent realizes what he’s been doing all this time – trapping it in icy ‘bondage’ composed of the aforementioned icy loops.  
Seeing this as the perfect opportunity for an easy kill, Alan surfs over right at the cobra’s head – while bringing up a spike-covered shield made out of ice and holds it out before him.  He looks over to Samantha with a sparkling smile and a thumbs-up – only to see her in an annoyed, stoic manner and pointing over at the serpent.
Confused by this, Crystal Knight looks back at his slithery opponent – in time to see it spewing out its acidic venom at him.  He screams like a baby just before throwing his shield right at the incoming venom, which dissolves it into water on the spot.  He succeeds in blocking the venom, though.
Tenshi Nebula laughs out loud in response to the point of falling backwards off the tree – and quickly flies back up just as quick, giggling nervously since she hopes her distaff knight counterpart has not just seen this.
Back to the fight, the dark cobra has just spew out another blast of venom at its incoming opponent – who has just unleashed a blast of his Freezing Fog to crystalize the acid on the spot.  Just before it falls down to the ground, Alan whips out his whip and smacks the icy acid into several sharp icicles – that heads back right at its owner.  
The incoming icicle shower covers the dark cobra’s head like needles on a pincushion, sending it in a shrieking fury.  Just before it can counterattack though, Crystal Knight jumps away as the incoming ice rink of a surfboard drives right through its head for an instant kill.  It then disintegrates into a cascading pile of snowflakes as the new ice knight lands down on the ground in a graceful manner.
Samantha sarcastically claps her hands in response with a small smile in response – only to get covered up in spider webbing from out of nowhere.  She screams in surprise as she’s being hoisted up by another giant black widow.
Alan wastes no time in Blizzard Surfing to his distaff fairy counterpart’s aid, using his Freezing Fog to crystallize the webbing wrapped around her.  Samantha easily breaks free and flies away to let Alan dispose of the spider since she’s still an observer.
As for Crystal Knight, he delivers a killer roundhouse kick to floor his new opponent to the ground.  “That’ll teach you to respect ladies!” he calls out angrily as he follows it down.
Upon landing on the grass, Alan raises a glowing blue fist up into the air before slamming it down.  Commence another Icicle Shockwave.  
Just as the black widow regains its bearing, the incoming giant icicles that pop out from the ground impales it on the spot for another instant kill.  It then disintegrates into another explosion of glowing snowflakes as Crystal Knight puts his whip away and walks away in a slow, bad-a** manner just like from 80’s action movies.
“Grr, how embarrassing!  To be caught off-guard by a confounded spider!” Samantha pouts angrily as she walks over to her distaff knight counterpart.  “Please don’t tell anyone about this!  PLEASE!” she adds desperately.
“If you kiss me, I won’t,” Alan smiles amusedly.
“Groan . . . if it’ll shut you up, fine,” Tenshi Nebula grumbles annoyingly.
Swallowing up her pride, the ice fairy is about to do so – when suddenly, she and her distaff knight counterpart falls backward on the ground due to a sudden earthquake.  “DOH!” Alan whispers annoyingly while Samantha lets out a big breath of relief.
Just then, another two-headed black rat shows up at the scene and charges over at the crystal duo – with a million small black rats scurrying at its sides like a looming cloud of black doom.
“No . . . not more rats . . .” Tenshi Nebula whispers angrily while shivering in fear.
Noticing this, a sympathetic Crystal Knight brings his distaff fairy counterpart into his arms and Blizzard Surf-s up into the air just as the rat army runs over the very spot they were at.
*****
Back up in the air, Alan proceeds to surf in several loops, figure-eights, and jagged lines above the rat swarm.  Realizing what he’s planning to do, Samantha quickly brings HIM into HER arms and stomps down hard on the instant ice rink, turning it into a shower of sharp needle-like icicles just like that.  
Back down on the ground, each of the million or so needles finds its mark on each of the dark rats, killing each of them instantly on the spot.  They all burst apart into a massive explosion of glowing snowflakes that decorated the grass with their sparkling and ethereal blue light.
Once the snowy explosion ceases its blasting radius, Tenshi Nebula floats down to the ground with Crystal Knight still in her arms.  
“Impressive, I must admit,” Samantha smiles amusedly as she puts her blushing-as-Rudolph’s nose distaff knight counterpart at her side.  It’s Alan’s turn to get embarrassed now.
“All right, now we’re even.  I won’t tell if you won’t tell,” Crystal Knight asks in a nervous, desperate fashion.
“Of course.  But since you saved me just now . . .” Tenshi Nebula replies amusedly just before giving her distaff knight counterpart a big kiss on the spot, much to his surprise.  “Consider that my thanks.”
With that, Samantha winks teasingly before walking casually back into the magical barrier.  Alan quietly exclaims ‘YES!’ before following suit.
*****
Back at the Hope Garden, the crystal dup casually goes their separate ways as if nothing happened – Tenshi Nebula to her and her ‘sisters’ home, and Crystal Knight to the log cabin as he instantly powers down in a burst of silver and blue sparkles.
At the front porch, Hiro and Maria are at the couch playing Pictionary when they see Alan approaching.  He smiles and waves hello to the fiery couple.
“Hello, Mr. Big Shot!  How did it go with Sammie?” Maria calls out playfully while waving her hand.
“We’re making progress, no doubt.  She was impressed with my skillz, for sure,” Alan smiles amusedly as he looks back at the Tenshi Fairies’ home to see Samantha looking back – and blushing nervously before flying off in a cartoonish puff of smoke.  “Oh, yeah.”
“You’re enjoying your game of hard to get, are you?” Hiro asks with an amused smile.
“Of course, it’s part of the fun in a future relationship,” Alan points out as he sits down on the steps to relax.
“Sammie isn’t so snobby as she looks.  It’s just a façade she puts up all the time to avoid get emotionally hurt – just like in her old life,” Maria points out sadly.
“Yeah, I saw it crack a bit while Princess and I were confronting an army of rats.  She DOES not like them, no doubt about it,” the new ice knight agrees with a sympathetic expression.  “There must be some way to crack it open completely without force.”
“Time, Alan – time heals all wounds, you know.  You need to be patient – we all do,” the fire knight insists calmly.
Alan nods in agreement and then looks up at the beautiful blue sky forming before his eyes, shoving away the dark clouds that were obstructing it earlier – showing a symbolic sign of hope for him, Samantha, and the future.

NEXT – ENTER MOONLIGHT KNIGHT