Enter the Hound: The Origin of Inu

Chapter 11: Hot and Cold

 

            It was the most unusual experience he had ever had, and he’d had plenty of unusual experiences with which to compare this one.  Cori-O sat in a tub of warm water, remnants of ice cubes floating around him, feeling like his internal organs had been replaced by hot coals...and yet there was a thick layer of frost forming on every strand of hair on his head and arms.  Even his facial hair was covered in frost.

            ‘Well, this is interesting,’ he thought.  ‘I’m a living embodiment of Icy Hot.  I’m freezer burn personified.’

            The nurses left the room to fetch more ice, leaving Cori-O alone with Dr. Moreau.  Moreau was intrigued with Cori-O reaction to CX-1247B, but kept his distance lest his test subject combust.  He opted instead to stand behind a protective wall and observe this test subject from a distance.  This left Cori-O with the freedom to experiment with the changes he was experiencing.  Concentrating on the heat with his chest, Cori-O struggled to make it less painful and more bearable.  Moments later, he was waist-deep in boiling water.

            The heat in his chest instantly dropped to his stomach, making Cori-O feel sick.  Before he could stop himself, he wretched and spewed-forth a large fireball.  The fireball flew through the air, incinerating everything unfortunate enough to be in its path, and struck the far wall before burning itself out.  The wall remained intact, but the room itself was filled with smell of scorched brick.  Shivering, Cori-O sank deeper into the comfort of the scalding water.

            “Note to self,” he muttered.  “Thinking too hard equals fire-vomit.  No more thinking.”

            He relaxed and allowed his mind to drift, paying only cursory attention to the fact that he was not experiencing any pain despite sitting in boiling water and vomiting a flaming projectile.  Even the heat in his chest had become more tolerable, but he refused to acknowledge such things.  He closed his eyes, shutting out the world so his mind could absorb everything without actually thinking about anything.

            He was shocked back to reality when the alarms went off in the building.  The instant of surprise did not pass without incident.  Cori-O’s whole body frosted over despite the boiling water, and ice sickles formed at his finger tips.

            “Additional note to self,” he said, staring at his hands.  “Not enough thinking equals Cori-sickle.  Must find balance.”

            Behind his protective barrier, Dr. Moreau smiled with evil delight.  He had created a person capable of not only roasting enemies alive, but of freezing them as well.  All he had to do was figure out how to duplicate the process, and then hello government contract!

            “I could just by-pass the government all together and set out for world domination,” Moreau thought aloud, ignoring the alarms.  “I could forge my own army of frosty fire-beings and claim the world as my own....  No, no good.  There would always be someone trying to kill me and claim my empire as their own, and I’m just not interested in dealing with that mess.  Besides, do you have any idea how hard it is to find good minions?”

            Hearing a door slam, Moreau looked up and discovered that the key to his success had just fled the room.

 

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            Inu stopped dead in her tracks, watching as numerous guards and employees raced past her to the nearest exits without so much as a fleeting glance.  She didn’t know whether to be relieved that no one was paying attention to her, or annoyed that she wasn’t attention-worthy.

            “Ash!”

            Snapping her head around, Inu saw Cori-O racing torward her.  His hair was coated with frost, and he appeared to be leaving a trail of fiery footprints.

            “What’s going on?” he asked upon reaching Inu.  “What the heck are you doing here?”

            “Search and rescue,” she answered, grabbing his hand and bolting down the hall with the stream of fleeing employees.  “Best I can figure, security finally noticed something was up and raised the alarm.”

            “Then why aren’t they stopping us?”

            “Hell if I know!  Maybe it’s just a well-timed false alarm.  Who cares?  Just run!”

            Traffic in the corridors bottlenecked and soon panicked employees were clawing at each other in attempts to reach the exits.  Without thinking, Inu summoned her clones and started herding some of the employees toward the offices, helping them climb out of the very window she had used to sneak into the building.  Cori-O went to the next office down from Inu’s, and with intense concentration managed to channel the heat in his chest to his hands, forming a fireball that he could actually control.  He launched the fireball at the window, creating a larger hole through which more people could escape.  Then he concentrated again and ran his hands along the edges of the hole, cooling them so as to keep the employees from burning themselves.

            When the flood of employees tapered off on her side, Inu climbed through the window and ran to help more climb out of the hole Cori-O had created.  Her clones kept watch for stragglers and potential danger, but no new threats appeared.

            “Nice work,” she said when Cori-O himself climbed out.

            “Thanks, you too, Ash,” Cori-O replied.

            Inu shook her head.  “I’m not Ash, Cori.  I’m Inu.”

            Cori-O laughed.  “Yeah, well, then I’m not Cori-O anymore either.”

            “Is that so?  And just what, pray tell, do I call you now?”

            Cori-O ran a hand through his frosty hair, causing a cloud of steam to rise from his head.  “Call me...Frostfire.”

            Inu nodded and started to compliment his choice of name when a litany of curses drew her attention back to the hole.  There inside the office looking out at Inu and Frostfire stood a very angry Dr. Moreau.  For an instant, Inu stood transfixed and could not bring herself to move as she and Dr. Moreau stared at each other through the hole.  Then Frostfire grabbed Inu’s hand and ran toward the crowd of employees.  From there, they headed for the street and out into the deserted neighborhood, leaving Dr. Moreau to ponder over what he had seen.