//------------------------------//
// White and Gold 
// Story: Mother X: Father 
// by Tatsurou 
//------------------------------//

	When the group stepped out of the lifts at the top, Moondancer rushed forward to explore, only to jump back with a yelp as her paw-covered hooves sank into the white ground before her.  Thankfully, any people around were too far away to hear a dog scream in shock.  "What's that?" she gasped in surprise.  "Why did the ground sink?"

"That's snow," Zarbol told her gently.  "It's-"

"I know about various weather formations," Moondancer interrupted.  "I just didn't know snow was...soft ice?"  She gently took another step, only to jerk her paw-wrapped hoof back as it too sank into the white layer over the ground.  "How...how strange..."  She continued to paw at the snow as the group made their way forward, occasionally leaping to let all four paw-hooves crunch the snow...unwittingly perfectly imitating puppyish behavior.  Alinivar and Col. Saturn did their best not to coo at how adorable it was.  They fought off the few hostile sources as best they could without calling her attention to them, trying to let her enjoy her innocent fascination.

They continued to make their way through the town, stopping here and there to talk to the townsfolk.  Moondancer didn't really listen as they continued, too focused on the snow she was now dancing in.  Eventually, however, Zarbol tugged the string to get her attention, guiding her to look at where they'd stopped.

At the very top of the mountaintop town was a statue of four youths.  One young boy wore a baseball cap.  One was a young girl with pigtails.  One was a young boy in glasses.  One was a somewhat older young man wearing shades.  Due to the grey stone, Moondancer was unable to distinguish further details.  However, the description on the statue illuminated her as to their identities.

'The four heroes who bravely marched forward up Mt. Itoi and repelled the alien forces.'

That's wrong, Moondancer thought to herself.  Dad told me about that day.  While there were four youngsters who stood against him, only three actually climbed the mountain to face him.  Then again, all four seemed to weigh heavily on his mind...

Alinivar calmly focused his mind, raising his disguise's hands against the statue before releasing his PSI, causing it to slide backwards revealing an entrance to an underground facility of some sort.  Her eyes alight with curiosity, Moondancer eagerly followed into it, though she let Zarbol carry her down the ladder.

Below the ladder was a single chamber made of metal, with missing panels here and there exposing circuitry.  There was only one door aside from the ladder as an exit, off to one side of the room next to some exposed cables.  A warning sign reading 'Danger: High Voltage' hung between the broken cables.  Alinivar stared at that for a time before taking a few breaths.  "If any of you don't want to risk that-" he began.

"No worries for lectric, boing!" Col. Saturn insisted.  "Saturns part rubber!"  His large nose wiggled as if to prove his point.  "Only PSI lectric bad."

"I can take a few thousands volts before I need to worry about system damage," Zarbol provided helpfully.  "I'm really durable."

"We're assuming an Apple is here?" Moondancer asked curiously.  When that received nods of confirmation, she steeled herself.  "Then I'm not backing down.  I...I need to see one of these up close."

Nodding, Alinivar led the way towards the door, only for the voltage symbol on the sign to come to life and leap off the wall to attack them, flanked by two small concentrations of PSI charged electricity.

"You were saying, Colonel?" Moondancer pointed out as she shifted into a defensive stance, powering up her PSI to back up the protective shield Zarbol was already generating.

The electric shapes attacked primarily with electricity and bright flashes of light, which with PSI amplification turned into PSI Thunder and PSI Flash.  While the electrical discharges could be deflected somewhat by Moondancer and Zarbol's combined shield, the flashes of light pierced right through, dazzling the eyes and inflicting physical disorientation if they didn't time blinking their eyes properly to filter it out.  Thankfully, despite the devastating potential of their arsenal, the creatures energy based bodies proved readily disrupted, and enough concentrated firepower eventually forced them to dissipate.

With the creatures destroyed, the group made their way through the door only to find an even smaller room of metal panels, the only other feature being a small wooden table with a glowing gold apple that was somewhat see-through sitting atop it.  Unerringly, Alinivar walked up to the table, quickly followed by the others.  As he reached out to take it, time seemed to slow to a crawl as the world - save the Apple - went grey.  A voice Moondancer recognized from her nightmare - now known to be true - echoed.

"Your struggles to defeat the destroyer
Are all too little too late.
But within you lies the power
To ensure my prophecy rings true.
For alongside you is life's messenger,
and your story may in time be passed on.
His call must be answered by the
fated four, Earth children, one girl among them."

As the world returned to normal, Alinivar collected the Apple of Winter.  His eyes seemed hard.  "...no," he stated firmly.

"Beg pardon?" Zarbol asked curiously, seeming disturbed by the message they'd received.

"No.  It's not all meaningless," he snapped angrily.  "And I say we prove it to the Apple that we have what it takes...starting by storming our way back up that tower and wringing Greyface's neck!"

Moondancer was rather unsurprised to see Col. Saturn and Zarbol immediately get behind this course of action.  She couldn't really dispute it herself, as she was certain Greyface had something to do with why Giegue was so far gone now.  At the same time...she couldn't help but feel that somehow they would regret this decision...