Chapter 4 - The Siege Of Snomar

"Them?" Elsa asked. "You recognize those guys?"

Snowflake nodded. "I'm starting to remember some things. They work for the man in the white coat."

Elsa looked closely out of the window of the Snowcat, her eyes keeping focus on the various tanks and military vehicles driving through the town. Where they had come from, she didn't have a clue, but if they were the ones who hurt Snowflake, she couldn't risk them taking her.

"Do you know anything else about them?" Elsa inquired.

"No," Snowflake answered. "But they're here for me. I'm sure of that."

"Alright, we need a plan," Elsa stated. "But first, we have to make sure Kristoff is okay."

Snowflake looked at Elsa, a little confused. "Why? I thought you were only concerned about me."

"I am, but I can't let innocent people get hurt because of you," Elsa reminded her. "Look, I'm gonna try and get into town. Maybe I'll be able to spy on those thugs. Stay right here- and I mean it this time."

Snowflake nodded, swallowing. "Be careful, Elsa. I don't want them to take you too."

"They won't," Elsa promised, pressing a button on her side to open the canopy. She climbed down and opened up the storage compartment, taking out the arc caster. It wasn't much of a weapon, but Elsa knew she had to be prepared in case things got messy.

After giving Snowflake one last look of goodbye, Elsa started carefully sneaking towards the town, hiding behind a large steel wall.

She looked to her left, seeing a platoon of identical grey-armoured soldiers walking through the streets, bringing people out of their homes while they searched the buildings. Amongst one of the squads, Elsa noticed a man wearing gold coloured armour; the commander of these soldiers, she assumed.

"The scans show that she came this way!" the commander barked to his troops. "If the girl's here, find her! If not, find out where she went!"

"Shit," Elsa swore. Her fears were sadly confirmed.

Before she could move forward, she was quickly grabbed by a pair of hands from behind. She felt like she needed to scream, but as the hands released her and she saw who they belonged to, she relaxed.

"Easy," Kristoff said quietly. "It's me. It's Kristoff."

Elsa sighed in relief. "Kristoff... am I glad to see you." She then looked behind her, checking for any of the troops before speaking again. "What's going on here?"

"Hell if I know," Kristoff said. "About an hour after you and Snowflake left, these tanks rolled into town and those soldiers came out. Their leader went over to Dr. Tremaine's clinic and, well…she didn't make it."

Elsa looked closely at the troops, seeing the leader walk back to one of the large tanks. "Who are they?"

"Don't know, but I haven't seen any technology that advanced before," Kristoff remarked. "Whoever these guys are, we don't stand a chance."

"Snowflake recognized them," Elsa said. "These creeps are bad news."

"I figured they were after her," Kristoff replied. "All they kept asking people was if they had seen a girl with blue skin and white hair. No one except you, me and the doc saw her, so when those guys got no answer they just tossed them in the back of those tanks or out into the street."

"They're taking hostages," Elsa surmised. "In case Snowflake's still here and they need to lure her out."

"Yeah. Thankfully, I was able to get out of the inn just in time," Kristoff said. "So…do you have a plan?"

"Sort of," she answered. "I'm gonna surrender myself to them, see if maybe I can keep them occupied. You try and get to those tanks and free those people." She pulled off the arc caster from her back and handed it to him. "Use this if things get too hot."

"Wait, is this an arc caster?" Kristoff asked in surprise. "How did you get one of these things?"

"It's a long story," Elsa replied. "But it should be charged enough to fire a few charged shots. Make them count."

"Alright," Kristoff agreed with a nod. "And Elsa? Be careful. We don't know how tough these bastards are."

"I'll be careful," Elsa told him. She took a deep breath and steeled herself. She had never considered playing the hero, but now she didn't have much of a choice.

She walked out down the street, hoping to get the attention of the soldiers. She only hoped they would take her to the commander, so she could deal with him personally.

One of the troops pointed to her. "Commander Phoebus!" they exclaimed. "We've got another civ over here!"

"Bring her here!" the gold-armoured leader ordered.

Suddenly one of the troops ran over to Elsa, quickly grabbing her by the arm. "Come here!"

"Ugh!" Elsa grunted, having never been so man-handled in her life. "Let me go!"

The guard dragged her before the commander, tossing her onto the ground.

Elsa looked up, her hair in a beaten mess. The commander was looking down on her, the visor on his helmet lifted to reveal a pair of golden eyes and a blonde beard. He slightly resembeled Kristoff in a way. "Who are you?" he demanded. "What are you doing here?"

"I was going to ask you the same thing," Elsa remarked. One of the troops hit her in the back with the butt of his rifle, eliciting a grunt of pain.

"I ask the questions here," the commander stated. "Who are you?"

"Elsa Walker," Elsa said in an annoyed tone. "And as for why I'm here, well, let's just say it's not for the milk and cookies at the Reindeer Inn." Another smack from the butt of the rifle.

"Oh, a smartass, huh?" the commander snarled. "Well, we have ways of dealing with folks like you." He gestured to one of the soldiers. "Take her to the command vehicle. I'll interrogate her myself."

xXx

Kristoff watched as Elsa was dragged away towards the command vehicle, his grip on the arc caster tightening. Half of him hoped she knew what she was doing; the other half had doubts.

He sighed. He needed to find Snowflake quickly and get her somewhere safe. Regardless of whether Elsa made it out or not, he knew that as long as Snowflake was in town, those soldiers would keep tearing the place apart until they found her. "Where the hell is she?" he muttered to himself.

He looked behind himself and saw the vacant Snowcat, with Snowflake waiting inside. "Oh. That was easy."

Kristoff then sprinted as fast as he could along the snow, trying his best to not draw attention to himself as he made his escape.

Arriving at the Snowcat unharmed, he then tapped on the glass of the canopy. "Snowflake?"

Snowflake was hiding under Elsa's control console, keeping herself out of sight. As she heard the tapping, she poked out her head. "Kristoff?"

"Could you let me in?" he requested.

Snowflake quickly found the button to open the canopy and pushed it. "Get in, quick!" she exclaimed once it was fully open.

Kristoff obliged, climbing into the driver's seat. "Elsa's in trouble," he said, starting the engine. "I gotta get you outta here, fast."

"Wait, what?!" Snowflake exclaimed. "No, we can't just leave her!"

"Snowflake, these bastards are out for you. Elsa's giving you a chance to escape," Kristoff reminded her. "We need to go!"

"No," Snowflake refused. "I'm not leaving without her. She's gone out of her way to help me, so now I have to help her.

Kristoff sighed. "Christ, you're stubborn."

Snowflake then thought for a second, looking at Kristoff's arc caster. "Hang on; I've got an idea. How good are you with machines?"

"I'd say I'm pretty good. Why?"

Snowflake smiled. "I need you to wire something to explode. With a really, really big kaboom."

"Are you fucking crazy?!" Kristoff asked incredulously. "I can't make a bomb!"

"You're not making a bomb, Kristoff," Snowflake said. "You're turning something into a bomb."

xXx

While Kristoff had been planning out his run to the Snowcat, Elsa was taken to the command vehicle. "I can walk, you know!" she snapped at the troop shoving her along.

As she was led through the street, hands held behind her back, Elsa could see the various people of the town being rounded up in front of her, forced onto their knees with the troops holding them at gunpoint. She couldn't help feeling responsible for them. As Elsa saw their suffering, she silently vowed to make sure that these soldiers would pay for what they had done, both to Snowflake and to these people.

Elsa was soon led into the back of the command vehicle, a larger version of the grey wheeled tanks that now occupied the town, with a larger turret and yellow stripes along the hull denoting its importance.

She was forced up a ramp and into the large cavity that was the hold of the vehicle. Inside were a number of computer monitors, many of which appeared to be surveillance footage of Snomar. Even by the standards of the tech to which Elsa was accustomed, this was a highly advanced setup.

Before Elsa could look any longer, she was pushed onto a seat in the middle of the room and handcuffed to a table in front of it.

Elsa tried to strain, hoping to break her bonds, but the troop watching her chuckled.

"That's cute," he remarked. "But you won't break those chains. They're made of titanium."

"You better hope I don't," Elsa spat. "Because the first chance I get, I'm gonna kick your asses from here to The Falls."

Suddenly, the silence was broken by the commander walking into the vehicle, removing his gold helmet to reveal a head of blonde hair. "Sergeant, leave us, please."

The soldier did as he was told and exited the tank, and the commander walked towards Elsa, laying his helmet on a nearby chair. "So, your name was Elsa, correct?"

"Yeah," Elsa confirmed. "And what's yours? Because I'm really thinking of calling you 'fuckboy.'"

"Very funny," he said sarcastically. "Well, if you want to know my name, it's Phoebus. Commander Phoebus."

"Just a few letters off from penis," Elsa joked.

He rolled his eyes. "Brilliant. We've got a fucking comedian."

Elsa then scowled. "Oh, you wanna talk about funny business? What's this big joke you've got going on around here?"

"For your information, Elsa," Phoebus said evenly, "our forces are looking for some…missing property of our organisation." He then took out a small PDA-like device and turned it on, laying it on the table in front of Elsa.

The device displayed an image that Elsa immediately recognised as the face of Snowflake, albeit lacking the white streaks in her hair. She seemed rather happy in the image, far from the awkward, jumpy amnesiac Elsa knew.

"This girl escaped from one our compounds a few days ago," Phoebus explained. "It's our mission to track her down. Would you happen to have any information concerning her whereabouts?"

"Yeah," she said. "She's up your ass and around the corner."

Phoebus then slapped Elsa in the face. "Don't sass me, bitch. I'm in control here."

Elsa recoiled from the pain, but still smirked. "Thank you, sir," she said sarcastically. "May I have another?"

The blond man groaned. "Oh, you really are a smartass." He then walked over to a small box on his side and opened it, revealing a small syringe filled with a blue liquid. "But I'm sure this will make you talk."

xXx

Kristoff sat, bent over, in the driver's seat of the Snowcat, trying to hotwire the vehicle. He hadn't needed to hotwire anything in quite a long time, so the process was pretty slow going.

"Are you done yet?" Snowflake asked.

"Patience," Kristoff told her, still working on the control console. "I'm a little rusty at this. And besides, this console's a complete fucking mess."

"We have to hurry!" Snowflake insisted, "Those tanks could be ready to move out any minute. Elsa could be their prisoner by now!"

"Hang on!" Kristoff called back to her. "I'm almost done!"

xXx

Elsa's eyes narrowed. "What's that supposed to be? Some sort of truth serum?"

"No... this is far worse," Phoebus said, holding the syringe up to Elsa's neck.

"Hey, you keep that stuff away from me," Elsa warned. "I don't like getting hickeys."

"Oh, this is gonna do a whole lot more than just give you a hickey" he stated, holding the syringe carefully in his hand. "See, I've seen this stuff do pretty fucked up things to people. Things that you would definitely not want done to you. But if you tell me where we can find the girl, then we'll be on our way, and you and everyone else can get back to your lives."

"Eat a dick," Elsa shot back, spitting in his face.

"Well, have it your way," Phoebus said. He then started to lean down, ready to inject Elsa with the substance in his syringe.

xXx

Snowflake looked over towards the town of Snomar, seeing several of the citizens in the street, all with guns pointed at their heads. "This is all my fault," she murmured. "These people are all getting hurt because of me."

"No," Kristoff told her. "It's not your fault, Snowflake."

Snowflake sighed. "I've already hooked up the arc caster to the engine. I think it should be able to explode once the engine is turned on."

"Well," Kristoff replied, the burly man climbing onto the roof of the vehicle. "Now is our moment of truth."

"It's done?"

"Should be," Kristoff said, before crossing two wires together. The engine of the snowcat then roared into life, with the soft crackle of electricity coming from the engine compartment.

"And we are in business!" Kristoff exclaimed, jumping off. "Now... if I programmed this thing right, it should just drive straight into town now."

The treads of the tank started to churn, snow kicking out from behind it as the large vehicle began to move forward, picking up speed.

"It works!" Snowflake cheered.

"Now... let's get down there to watch the fireworks," Kristoff remarked, before taking Snowflake's hand and the two of them running after the runaway Cat.

The Cat raced down the snowy road at great speed, it's treads churning snow underneath them. As it neared the town, the soldiers on duty tried to shoot at it with what appeared to be laser weapons, but the shots merely bounced off the hull.

With a thunderous BOOM, the Snowcat smashed into a pair of tanks outside of Kristoff's, causing both the building and the nearby tanks to be destroyed in a fiery explosion.

xXx

Before Phoebus could stick the needle into Elsa's neck, the command vehicle suddenly shook violently, and the sound of an enormous explosion split the air.

"What the fuck?!" Phoebus exclaimed. He tapped a commlink on his wrist, activating it. "This is Phoebus, what just happened?!"

"A Snowcat came out of nowhere and crashed into some of our tanks, and then blew up!" came the confused reply.

Elsa's eyebrow raised. What?! She exclaimed in her mind.

"Do you know where the Snowcat came from?" Phoebus demanded.

"Negative, sir," the troop replied. "There was nobody driving it."

Elsa realised that whatever had happened, this was the distraction she needed. She strained as hard as she could, breaking her chains free from the chair. She quietly crept up to Phoebus, before flinging herself over him and wrapping the chain around his neck tightly.

"Ack!" Phoebus choked, trying to grab Elsa off of him, but the blonde courier would not let go of his bond.

"Tell me who the fuck you are working for!" Elsa demanded, pulling the chain back.

"Y-you...fucking...bitch..." Phoebus choked.

"Tell me!" Elsa growled, tightening the metal noose.

"I won't... I'll die for my cause!" Phoebus growled. "And soon, these wastes will belong to us!"

"Fine by me," Elsa scowled, before pulling the noose back around Phoebus's throat, throttling him.

Phoebus coughed and sputtered, gasping for breath against Elsa's hold. He made a few last noises that didn't sound possible for a human to make and his eyes rolled back into his skull. He then breathed out his last breath and slumped out of Elsa's bind, dead.

As he fell to the floor, Elsa reached around in his pockets, having to remove some parts of his armour to do so. Eventually, she found the key to her restraints and then unlocked her chains. "Now, let's go finish this."

xXx

Kristoff and Snowflake watched the aftermath of the explosion from behind a nearby wall, watching the flames spew into the air and the troops panic in frantic fear over what had happened.

"So, you think that's a big enough distraction?" Snowflake asked.

"Considering that boom took out two of the tanks, my inn and probably a squad of those stormtroopers," Kristoff replied, "yeah, I'd say that went pretty well."

Snowflake nudged his arm, picking up a discarded laser rifle. "I'll hold those troops off. You go and rescue the prisoners, and try and find Elsa."

"You sure you know how to use that thing?" Kristoff asked uncertainly.

"I…think I do," Snowflake said, feeling the handle of the rifle in her hand. "Maybe…I was a soldier before all this?"

"Well, let's hope your aim is a good as your ingenuity," Kristoff remarked, picking up a pair of rifles. "See you on the other side, Feisty-pants."

"Feisty-pants?"

"Gotta call you something other than Snowflake, don't I?" Kristoff stated, before charging off into the street.

Suddenly, a group of troops descended on Snowflake, their own rifles pointed at her head. "We found her!" one of them exclaimed. "Bring her in!"

Snowflake scowled. "No," she growled. "Not this time. Not ever, ever again!" She closed her eyes and squeezed the trigger of her weapon. The weapon discharged, firing an array of laser shots out from its barrel. One of the shots landed square in a man's chest, killing him instantly; another shot pierced another trooper's helmet, blood from the wound spewing over the snow.

Screaming like a harpy, Snowflake threw herself onto one of the troopers and beat him with the butt of her gun, before shooting another in the stomach. She could feel a deep anger rising within her. Part of her seemed to be enjoying this.

She slammed the butt of her rifle into the soldier's visor, hitting him repeatedly with such force that she cracked his skull.

"Come on, you bastards!" she roared. "Who wants some of this?!"

As Snowflake continued her rampage with the rifle, Kristoff was running towards a group of prisoners who were confused by the commotion.

"Okay, note to self: don't piss off Snowflake," he muttered softly, before holding his rifles towards the prisoners. They seem to have been bound by some strong metal chains around their legs.

One of the prisoners, a girl with short red hair, looked up at him. "Kristoff? What's going on?"

"Talk later, Katie," Kristoff answered before firing on the chains, freeing the rest of the prisoners with a few shots of the rifle. "Is there anyone else in these chains?"

The girl nodded. "Yeah, there are a few more being rounded up on the other side of the street."

Kristoff tossed the girl one of the rifles. "You better get going then. I've got a friend to look for."

"Wait, what friend is that?" Katie asked.

"She's blonde and probably pissed off some of the guards here earlier," Kristoff informed her.

Katie pointed towards the large command vehicle on the other side of the street. "She got dragged in there. I think the boss of those thugs wanted to interrogate her personally."

"Thanks, Katie," Kristoff replied, patting her on the back. He made for the large vehicle which Katie had pointed out. He turned to his left, seeing Snowflake practically going ape on the troops, blasting and smacking her rifle around. It was slightly disturbing seeing her like that.

He pushed himself up against the side of the vehicle, the large wheels reaching up to the back of his head. He gripped his rifle tight, making his way to the left.

Kristoff prayed that there weren't any guards inside of the truck, but if there was a squad in there, he was prepared.

He quickly turned the corner, but his face then met a familiar sight.

"Woah, Kristoff!" Elsa exclaimed, holding up her hands. "It's okay, I'm fine."

"Elsa," Kristoff said, relieved, placing his gun to the side. "Thank God." He looked around. "Where's the boss guy?" At that moment, he saw a corpse on the floor, dressed in gold armour with blood oozing from a cut on his neck. "Oh."

"Yeah, he tried to inject me with this weird blue stuff," Elsa stated. "But before he could do that, he got a call over his commlink about you driving my Snowcat into two of his tanks. And before I continue, what the fuck was with that?!"

"Well…." Kristoff sheepishly explained. "It was Snowflake's idea." He then looked down at Phoebus's body. "Elsa…is this the first person you've killed?"

Elsa shook her head, an expression of grim acceptance on her face. "You do what you have to do out here, Kristoff."

"I get that."

The two then walked out, seeing Snowflake standing in the street, firing at a fleeing tank with her rifle. She breathed heavily as she dropped the weapon, collapsing to her knees.

Elsa quickly rushed to Snowflake's side, kneeling beside her. "Snowflake?"

"I…." Snowflake panted. "Elsa…I killed them…."

Elsa sighed and helped Snowflake to her feet. "Come on, we better get out of here. Before those bastards come for you again."

Snowflake nodded. "Yeah, let's go."

xXx

Author's note: Well that was certainly intesnse!

See ya next time!