The Fantasia Coalition
Chapter Seven: The Witch
"I have an teency weency proposition for you." The large woman sauntered over towards Elsa.
Gritting her teeth in pain and clenching her fists, she glanced over Belle's twitching body still unsure if she was breathing.
"Hello dear, yes you!" the woman gave out a malicious chuckle. "So you see it appears that this happenstance is not all coincidental. I'll make you a deal, you leave and take little miss anger issues with you and live out your happy lives or you can stay, and well," the woman took a moment to look away and run a hand through her white locks, "You'll both end up in very unfortunate circumstances." The woman starting cackling maniacally, lightning arced across the mechanical device attached to her hands.
"Oh and I see we have not been properly introduced, name's Ursula, though you can call me Charybdis if you like. But I know who you are, the esteemed Snow Princess was it? Very undignified name, child."
This is not good. The Sea Witch of Miami? She is an A-Class criminal, even an esteemed hero like Atlantica has been defeated by her multiple times. She's way out of my league.
"But that doesn't really matter does it now? The clock is ticking and I'm a very busy woman, I haven't got all day. What's your answer?" The villainess pursed her lips in a quizzical look.
"I can't let you hurt these people," Elsa announced with a slight stutter, recomposing herself slight, "Stand down or I will be forced to-"
"Forced to do what child?" Ursula interrupted. "Hurt me? Force me to stop? Or heaven forbid arrest me? Look, kid, I've taken down much bigger fish than you, take your buddy and leave and this won't have to get messy." The woman's chest heaving up and down as she spluttered with grim laughter.
I ran.
Hearing the maniacal laughter behind only pushed her faster and faster, the adrenaline in her body screamed in a primal chorus as the violent burning her muscles spread up through her body. Smashing through the nearest door, she swung herself around pressing herself to the back of a large marble counter. The heroine reached up to wipe her eyes, she hadn't realized that she had started to cry.
Why are you so weak? You left your partner out in the open, alone and injured. She's going to kill the hostages and take whatever she wants. I just keep failing everyone, I failed Anna, I failed Hans and I failed this mission. Why, are you so god damn useless!?
The Ice Queen slammed her fists to the ground releasing a burst of frost which skittered up the walls and coated the room in spikes.
One year and eleven months ago... She had been working this case for weeks now. Priceless works of art and jewelry kept disappearing from the Arendelle Museum of Classical Art. She had already viewed all of the security files. The sensors only received a tiny blip, a fraction of a second not long enough to set them off. The cameras weren't any more helpful. Sometime around 2 in the morning, there was a tiny split second flicker, she already checked there wasn't any time loss so what was it? She only had basic tech training so this was stumping her. She had figured out what the thief's next target was probably going to be. The museum had just received a beautifully crafted marble horse sculpture from DunBroch, Scotland. She had deduced the guy's obvious horse motif after the 19th century "The Horse in the Meadows" painting was stolen, followed by the ancient Roman urn with equine iconography. Unsure of what to expect, she started to stake out the museum at 11 that night. Scoping out where she presumed the culprit would enter the museum from the Ice-Mobile, binoculars in hand. All of a sudden she saw something sprint by barely a blur before zipping up to the museum's rooftop. Then it clicked, pivoting over to her laptop in the passenger's seat, she ran the security camera clip again but this time slowed down 200%. There running by the camera was a man in a skin-tight tanned leather suit. His white and black streaked hair pulled back into a braid, goggles covered his eyes and he wore dark gloves and boots. The man looked up to the camera gave a quick sneer before dashing off. Leaping out of car, her costume cascading over her civilian clothes, she had finally gotten the hand of that after she realized that it took too long to get dressed in an actual costume. Forming an ice-bridge similar to her favorite X-Men she glided up to the roof, already to witness the glass window had been opened, the man had already disappeared inside the building. Leaping down with a dull thud, using a pillow of snow to cushion her fall, she took in a full panorama glance of the museum. She was in the main exhibits room, the statue should be in the new exhibits wing. Scampering off towards the eastern wing, she pressed herself to the wall as she peered around the corner. The tall, lithe man hunched over the small statue on its pedestal. Suddenly, he flipped around in a blur.
"Didn'tseeyoucomein, goodthingyoumadeaniceracketcomingin." Elsa could barely keep up the man's accelerated speech, catching the hints of an eastern European accent.
"Name'sSitron, rememberit." It was less than a second. Sitron had managed to whip himself around, and shoot towards Elsa, she didn't have any time to react before she felt the gut wrenching pain of a fist moving at blinding speed slam right into her stomach. The wind shot out of her like a popped balloon.
"Awwpoorkid, can'tkeepup? Maybeyoushouldjustgohome?" the man snickered before wheeling around and whipping a kick towards Elsa's legs. Before she even had time to catch her breath from the first blow she was on her face. She could feel blood starting to drip from her nose.
Why. Why am I so fucking weak.
She had only wiped a bit of the blood away before the rippling agony of a foot to the chest shot through her.
You're so weak. You can't do this. You couldn't save mom or dad. You can't protect your own sister and you can't even stop a stupid robber.
"Istheprincessgoingtocry?" Sitron cackled and snorted, dashing away preforming a [SHOWOFF] back flip before mockingly bowing to Elsa. Gritting her teeth, she flailed her arm out in an arc. A flurry of icy blades shot from her fingertips peppering the wing in shards, Sitron lazily dipped and ducked out of the way of the flurry.
"Isthatallyougot? BecauseasmuchasIwouldlovetostay, I'vegottorun!"
...
"Elsa, I'm right here for you, just listen to me. We only have each other, it's just you and me, and we can get through this. Together. We can do this because I believe in you."
Elsa remembered those few words her sister said to her after their parent's funeral. Elsa had been distraught and silent for the past couple days, locking herself away in her room. She had been without hope and purpose to continue living. But then her sister, that bright and shiny girl she was came in and brightened up her life again. It might be cheesy but her sister was her knight in shining armor and she wasn't going to let her down. Ever.
...
"Hey, horse-face!" Elsa shouted towards the man as he started to walk away. A hand still clutching her aching ribs.
"Do you have a thing for horses like in Equis? Because that's pretty gross."
"Why, youstupidgirl. Youdon'tlearndoyou?" Sitron snarled, his legs already tensed for a superhuman sprint. Then he shot off like a stampeding bull towards Elsa. Preparing herself, she flourished her arm in a low circle flinging an arc of frost cascading across the ground towards Sitron. Then with a forceful stamp she shot herself backwards skidding across the ground. Sitron was not so lucky. He accelerated exponentially faster towards Elsa as his eyes locked onto her and he steamed with rage. Blinded by rage he had not seen the newly frosted ground. The second he dashed out onto it, due to the fusion of his extreme speed and inertia and the lack of traction he went flying and careened into the wall loudly before crumpling into a heap, unconscious.
"I guess that wasn't very neigh-bourly of me was it!?" Elsa cackled to herself, she really ought to keep a list of these phrases. Hearing the sirens of the Arendelle Police she silently slipped out of the museum. Her sister's words still ringing in her ears like it was yesterday...
...
"I believe in you, Elsa."
Thank you Anna.
Elsa slowly rose to her feet and strode out of the frost painted room. As she walked down the corridor leading back to the portside deck, a trail of ice crackled along the floor spreading out from each footprint on the damp boards. Frost weaved up the walls, jutting out in spikes and skating over the glass windows like Jack Frost's own feather pen. As she pushed through the double doors leading to the deck, she took a deep breath, there in the middle of the room lay a still unconscious Belle, her chest barely moving at least indicating that she was still alive. For now. Charybdis stood over by the railing overlooking the sea.
"Oh hello, dear. I see you decided to man up and play ball. I mean I was enjoying my time looking out over the ocean while your partner slowly died but I am fairly busy I shouldn't dilly-dally," the large women turned to face Elsa, a horrific smile plastered to her face.
"I'm asking you one more time. Leave now," Elsa shouted towards the witch.
"Well if you want to play. Let's play!" With a flick of her wrist, a dark translucent tendril shot from over the railing and smashed into the deck right where Elsa had been standing. The heroine was quick to return fire as she rolled away firing off a volley of icicles towards the bloated old hag. Quickly swirling her hand around, the water from the drenched deck spiraled up into a disc of water absorbing the impact of the blades. Except for one, one quick dagger had managed to slip through before it congealed, as was evident by the bleeding cut on Ursula's cheek.
"YOU BITCH! You'll pay for that!" Charybdis screamed. Throwing her arms up a giant geyser of water shot from behind her and engulfed the witch in a dark roiling blob. Suddenly maniacal cackling shot from the blob as the woman burst out eight tendrils of bubbling, oozing water flailed around her body suspending her midair. "I'll crush you!" Sweeping one of her tentacles across the deck, Elsa had barely managed to absorb the blow before she found herself scooped up and flung across the deck.
"At least I'm not an old hag!" Elsa coughed with a half laugh as she got to her feet. Snarling in return, Ursula flicked one of her tentacles firing a barrage of hardened water darts. Taking a ticket from the witch's own book, the Ice Queen gave a quick stamp as a wall of ice shot up in front of her, taking the brunt of the barrage.
"I'll drown you!" The witch screamed towards Elsa, her tentacles growing increasingly more erratic.
Drown? Oh wait. Good job, Elsa. Way to forget the obvious.
Letting a devious plan hatch her in mind she shouted towards Ursula, "I'd like to see you try!"
The witch, losing her cool, swung a tendril towards Elsa, letting the tentacle engulf her she felt herself shot up into the air. Peering through the murky liquid she peered down watching Ursula cackle to herself in the typical super villain fashion. Feeling the tightness in her lungs from lack of breath, Elsa exhaled. Before the water even had a chance to enter her lungs it contracted and with a flicker of sub-zero temperatures froze completely solid.
"What the hell are you doing?" The witch shouted a hint of surprise in her voice.
"Do you know what happens when you go swimming in a cold lake? You get hypothermia!"
I really suck at these don't I?
With a clap, the ice shot from the unmoving tendril creeping down the shaft before rolling over the witch as she howled and was slowly incased in ice. With a sharp crack, Elsa slammed the tendril encasing her lower body sending it crashing down pinning the already frozen Ursula to the deck. Landing to the ground semi-gracefully, her injuries become more apparent as she clutched her arching chest and arm.
"Elsa!?" the familiar voice rang through her ear bud through the cloud of static. "Are you alright? Something's been blocking our signal."
"I'm fine Hans, but Belle's not. We took down Shank and Shiv but Charybdis, Ursula Vanesse showed up and Belle got hurt. Badly. I need some help here," the heroine replied with a quiver in her voice.
"I'm on it. I have to man the stations but I'm sending the McHale brothers to do some tech sweeps of the boat, Aurora to do some telepathic sweeps and Dr. Joshua Sweet will provide medical assistance to Belle until we can get her back to HQ," Hans stated. "I'm just glad you're okay, Elsa. I really am. I've radioed the team, they'll be on site in 15." His voice fizzled out and was replaced by the soft mechanical static.
Those were the longest 15 minutes in the world. Elsa wasn't a doctor. Sure she knew CPR and how to perform the Heimlich but all she could do for Belle was try and get some of the blood off her with water bottles she found in the kitchen.
"Ms. Kirstensen? We can it all from here, you done well, and well I've seen pretty good." A muscular dark skinned man patted her back. Shooting her head up to meet the man's large green eyes, she was greeted by a warm smile and a bone-crushing handshake.
"Name's Dr. Joshua Strongbear Sweet but you can just call me anything you like." The doctor let loose a hearty laugh.
"Okay Dr. Sweet. Belle's over there, she's beaten up pretty bad." Elsa pointed towards Belle's broken body.
"I'll load her up on the boat, you just sit tight for a minute." As Sweet went over to attend to Belle, two men shot past her carrying odd metal detector like devices, one in a brown bomber jacket, and the other in a red and orange Hawaiian shirt.
"The McHale Brothers. Dale and Chip, they're a bit odd but they are technical and mechanical geniuses," Hans's voice chimed in from her earpiece.
Aurora fully adorned in her red and grey Sleeping Beauty uniform briskly walked by Elsa giving her only a nod before pulling up her hood and disappearing around the corner.
"Hey frosty! We're ready to go." Sweet's low voice resonated from overboard. Elsa silently dashed over the railing and sat down by Belle in the lifeboat. As the motor roared to life she looked over Belle's unmoving body. The ride back to the jump-gate was the longest ride in the world, sea-spray glistened as the early morning sun finally decided to rise.
[CASE FILE: Ursula Vanesse]
Codename: Charybdis
Gender: Female
Ages: 43
City: Miami, Florida
Criminal Record: Piracy, armed robbery, possession of illegal weapons, trespassing, robbery, kidnapping, extortion, possession of Illegal Chemicals, Premeditated murder, first degree murder.
Skills: Ursula was one of the few subjects who survived the illegal experiments conducted by a Chinese faction of bioterrorists. These experiments turned her skin a sickly grey color and her hair a stark white. They also gave her powerful aquakinetic abilities allowing her to collect water moisture in the surrounding atmosphere and condense it into liquid water which she can control and shape. Though she can give water any form she usually follows the pattern of forming tendrils/tentacles of water. She is also fully capable of solidifying water with the same durability of iron. Ursula is in possession of experimental weapons presumably from the group she escaped which are a pair of gloves capable of generating electric shocks of up to 20,000 volts.
