While a couple of soldiers kept Max and Omi company inside of the house, Engel and the rest of the party and Suicide Squad outside as they heard some strange noises from outside. Azur followed suit shortly afterwards. Looking around and aiming their guns in different directions, remembering to be on high alert in case anything we're to jump out and catch them by surprise. Ulrich held his M60 machine gun close to him, also on alert. They neared the woodsy area of the suburbs until they were surrounded by trees and snow-covered bushes. The silence was unnervingly still.
"I don't like this, Engel." Ulrich told the captain.
"I don't like it, either." replied Engel before he grabbed his walkie-talkie and spoke into it. "We're getting close to the park. Repeat: We're getting close to the park."
"Copy that." Hopkins answered back on his own walkie-talkie as he and his party arrived at now house after getting some signatures there.
Tobias marched up to the door and pulled back a fist. And then with an outrageous amount of strength, he knocked the door down with one single punch. Everyone scurried inside with caution. Howard gave him a brief look of amazement before entering as well. While a few men hurried up the stairs, the rest stayed below. Rosie was with them as well, as Howard couldn't go without his "attack dog". On the second floor, C-10 froze when he thought he heard a woman's voice from the attic.
"Who's there?" He called while keeping his weapon in the direction of the source.
"I need help. Please help me." The woman's voice answered back from the darkness of the room above, making C-10 feel compelled to go up there.
"Are you okay?" He asked while inching closer to the steps to the attic.
"Please come up. You have to help me." persisted the woman.
Against his better judgment, C-10 ascended the steps and into the pitch black attic alone. Meanwhile, on the lower level, Howard froze when he heard a noise in the kitchen. Knowing it could be bad news, he gripped his gun tightly and turned to Rosie.
"Come on, Rosie." He urged his dog silently, but the bulldog whimpered and cowardly marched away.
"Useless turd." grumbled Howard at his mutt's cowardice before he told Tobias, "Alright, just stay here. I'll handle this."
Howard carefully, ever so carefully, waded over to the kitchen with his rifle, ready to shoot whatever he was expecting to encounter. As an experience hunter like himself, he knew that the rules of hunting included "always stay alert", "make sure your weapon is loaded" and "always shoot on sight". There was nothing in the kitchen as it was quiet as could be. But Howard was not fooled by this at all as he new there had to be something in here. There was a gingerbread house on the table and unknown to Howard, there were animate gingerbread men sneaking around inside of the tiny candy model. On the second floor, a few soldiers noticed C-10 missing and called out, "Boggs?"
No answer. But they did see the entrance to the attic open and the stairs still down. Curious enough, they approached the steps and walked up with flashlights.
"Boggs? Where are you, man?" They called out again. Still nothing. Not even a cough in response. All of the sudden, in the blink of an eye, something zipped by behind them and when they jerked around, there was nothing there. Then the silence was broken by a gurgling sound and they slowly turned their heads and flashlights in the direction of a large creature. Not just any creature. It was a giant Jack-in-the-box-like toy monster with a snake-like body. The tip of it's tail was stuck inside of the open box with the crank. It's porcelain jester clown face separated by the mouth in two splits, revealing a gaping, cavernous maw of sharp teeth and in that mouth where a pair of boots. It didn't take an idiot to figure out who's those were. They could hear C-10's muffled screams from inside the monster's body as he was being swallowed whole.
"Holy shit." Was what one of the soldiers could manage.
After shoving the last of the dying soldier inside of it's mouth, Der Klown wiped it's mouth with handkerchief and let out a huge belch, making them cringe in disgust and horror. Der Klown's mouth opened up as he let out a shriek-like roar. That did it. They could fire upon it, but they knew it wouldn't die permanently unless the big one was dead. A moaning sound made them look up to see demonic creature that looked like a Christmas angel. Only it's ghastly appearance made it seem anything but. It did something far from what a real angel would do. It flew down upon one of the soldiers and began to claw at him as he screamed, trying to fight it off. It started to stick it's tentacle-like tongue in his ear as he could feel it's saliva-covered muscle enter his lobe. The other soldiers tried to help him out when one noticed something else coming right at them.
"Bear!" He shouted, in midst of the struggle.
"What?" Another cried.
"BEAR!"
He looked to see a monstrous teddy bear with evil eyes and a mouth full of sharp canines lunging at him. It knocked him down to the floor, trying to maul him to death. Howard heard the thumping upstairs from down in the kitchen as he knew something was going on. Suddenly, he was struck in the leg by nails. He yelped in agony from the sudden pain and crouched down, trying to nurse his hurt leg. The sound of high-pitched laughter made him look up to see the trio of gingerbread men cackling sadistically at his misery while handling a nail gun.
"We should've gone to my brother's." He muttered.
The living cookies aimed the nail gun and fired more nails at him, making Howard crawl away to avoid getting hit again. The nails broke a jar of beans, spilling it's contents all over Howard. Suddenly, Howard saw a board on the counter and quickly grabbed before the gingerbread men fired the nail gun at him again, using the board as a shield. Back up in the attic, the soldiers were fighting off the possessed toys when Hopkins rushed up to see what was the commotion about. He looked in horror to see living monster toys attacking his men. He immediately sprung into action and shot at the angel first, making her fly off of him. However, a tiny, mechanical robot toy operated behind him and leaped on his back, jabbing at his back and neck with his drill-type arm.
"You gotta be shitting me!" He screamed, flailing around to get the tiny robot off him.
The struggle made him loose his balance and he fell to the floor. He quickly retrieved his gun and carefully pointed it at the robot. It froze when it noticed the gun before it was blown to pieces with a single shot. Hopkins got to his feet and fired at the teddy bear then the angel. Der Klown took the opportunity to escape into the vents while they were distracted.
"That thing has Boggs!" A soldier shouted, pointing at Der Klown.
Hopkins ran for the Jack-in-the-box monster as it removed the cover and crawled it's way into the ventilation system. Hopkins fired his gun at it as it tried to get away, but he was too late. The thing was already gone. Back downstairs, Howard peaked over his makeshift shield to see the gingerbread men giggling and tackling each other. Then he noticed the kerosene lantern on the table near them, giving him an idea. He aimed his gun and fired at the lantern, causing an explosion. The result blasted the living cookies to the floor ablaze and panicking. Howard grinned smugly at their pain as they did to his.
"Merry Christmas, motherf-"
"There he is!" One of the gingerbread men chirped to the other two as the now-flaming cookies charged at him. Howard was quick with his gun and he fired at one of them, blasting it to crumbs, then blasting another. He tried to shoot the remaining one, but it dodged the blasts and jumped right towards him a candy cane sharpened at the end, intending to stab him with it. Howard recoiled in abject terror as it came closer, then shut his eyes tight, awaiting the finishing blow and accepting his fate. But there was a loud thud in front of him. Nervously opening his eyes, he saw that Tobias had smashed the final gingerbread man to death with his fist.
"Nicely done." Howard panted with gratitude.
While Tobias removed the nails from Howard's leg and helped him to his feet, Hopkins and his men rushed back downstairs after that fiasco in the attic. They all entered the living room as they listened the clown thing run about in the vents.
"What the hell happened up there?" asked Howard, using his gun as a cane.
"You don't wanna know, rookie." Hopkins answered while still looking at the ceiling.
"Lieutenant, if you must know, I just got my ass kicked by a bunch of psychotic Christmas cookies! So trust me when I say I can take it!" Howard demanded further.
"Shh!" Hopkins shushed him as they all listened to the monster roaring from above.
"I'm pretty sure he's dead, sir." One soldier assured.
"Dead, my ass." The Lieutenant grumbled stubbornly, cocking his gun.
Tobias found a vent on the wall near the floor and ripped the cover off. He stuck his head and looked around, sensing Der Klown inside. That's when Rosie approached him. Tobias looked at Howard and he nudged him to proceed. Tobias urged the mutt to go inside the vents and she did.
"Go get 'em, girl." Howard whispered.
When the bulldog was well within the vents, they could all hear the monster's roaring intensify as the mongrel fought against it. It sounded like a rough battle going on as when at it. But it didn't at all seem like Rosie had a winning chance against that thing. Suddenly, the noises stopped and Der Klown fell through the ceiling, crashing onto the floor, leaving a mess of dry wall and debris. The thing seemed to have eaten Rosie.
"Shoot it!" Hopkins screamed and everyone opened fire on Der Klown, trying to kill it. When the irritated creature lunged on Howard to eat him too, Tobias joined in and grabbed the anaconda-like beast and shoved it to the ground, roaring. He protruded blades from his forearms started to stab at it repeatedly, going absolutely crazy. When the thing was no longer moving, Tobias stopped and panted as he could see the green blood on his protrusions. They slowly retracted back into his skin as the soldiers carefully came forward to make sure it was really dead.
"We need to move now." Hopkins ordered. "Let's go!"
The entire party rushed outside to catch up with the Blue team.
Engel and his own party suddenly froze as they felt activity surrounding them. Ulrich put on a pair of goggles and cocked his gun.
"Pussy." Luz jabbed smugly.
"I will knock your ass out. I don't give a fuck if you're a woman." Ulrich threatened her. She only snickered under her breath.
"Engel!" He turned to see that Hopkins arrived just in time with the rest of the men, Howard and Tobias in tow. They rushed over, seemingly out of breath and Hopkins walked up to Engel.
"What happened to you, Hopkins?" asked Engel.
"We we're attacked by those damn toy things!" Hopkins explained.
"Well, I think it's about to get worse."
They all frozen when they heard the sound of evil laughter and saw figures running by in the distance around them. From back at the house that Max and Omi were safe in, the elderly woman perked up when she heard the sound she was all too familiar with.
"Elfen." She spoke.
While back at the forest area where they were standing, Engel knew that sound as well like this mother and that were in for the fight of their lives.
"Jesus...!" He grunted.
Before any of them could react, a plethora of dark elves popped out of their hiding spots and attacked the group. They were all wearing haunting masks and had chains on them like Krampus did. Everyone either fired their guns at them or fought back with weapons of their own. Guns blazing, killing each elf in sight. Luz fired her firearm at some elves. One elf, Gluggagægir, came at Runyat, but he fought it off of him and used his sharp horns to slice at it's face. Tobias snarled and roared as he charged at Þvörusleikir. He knocked the saw out of it's hand and brought his sharp claws down on it, tearing it apart with such ferocity. Runyat was pushed to the ground with Gluggagægir on top of him and it stabbed him in the chest with a knife, but Runyat retaliated by stabbing it in the eyes with his sharp nails, puncturing it's eyeballs until it falls dead in the snow. Pulling the knife out of his chest, the wound healed away in seconds. Ulrich got on top of a car's hood and fired upon more elves as they came at him, killing them one by one.
Howard shot as denizens of elves with the help of the soldiers and Hopkins, who fought by his side. Azur, being bigger than all of them, stepped on some elves and even kicked some away and they tried to climb on his legs. As Raeffael was being tackled by a group of dark elves, Mezem used his strength to throw them off him. Luz was suddenly picked up by another elf, but made it twirl her around while she gunned down more elves in the process. She wrapped her legs around the elf's head, leaving her hanging upside down. Shooting another elf, she shoot the one holding her in the head, making it drop her. Engel was killing some more elves, when they grabbed him by the ankles and started to drag him away.
"Captain Engel!" Ulrich shouted, shooting and elf off him as he and his fellow monsters rushed to his aide. They each killed Engel's captors and formed a protective circle around him. Lionell, however, stayed behind, not wanting to fight and release the full extend of powers.
"I'll be fine!" argued Engel.
"If you die, we die!" Ulrich reminded him.
"Everybody move out!" Engel shouted to the party and, with most of the elves dead, they marched further into the woods until they came upon a bridge over a small, frozen creek. More elves approached and the soldiers open fired. Meanwhile, Ulrich saw that Lionell wasn't fighting at all and pushed him into a tree to confront him.
"Where you been, slick?" asked Ulrich, taking his goggles off.
"This isn't my fight!" Lionell yelled.
"You know what? If you don't stand for shit, you ain't about shit!" Ulrich barked at his face.
"Don't touch me, man!" warned Lionell.
"Don't touch you?"
"Yeah!"
"Whatcha gonna do?" Ulrich asked, tauntingly tapping his head. "I'm touching you. I'm touching you. Do something."
"Don't touch me!" roared Lionell, slapping his hand away.
"Do something!"
"You wanna see something?!" asked Lionell with a threatening look.
"Oh, yeah. I wanna see something!" Ulrich nodded.
"YOU WANNA SEE SOMETHING?!"
"YES, I WANNA SEE SOMETHING!"
Lionell shoved him out of the way and marched over where he held his hands out with an angry, determined glare. And just like that, he shot out jets of fire at the gang of elves from his bare hands, burning them to a crisp while everyone watched with disbelief. After he was done, Lionell ended his flames and saw that they were nothing but scorched corpses, still burning in the snow.
"Jesus christ." Howard muttered, speechless from the display he just witnessed.
Lionell turned his head to face Ulrich, expecting a reaction.
"I was just trying to get you there." He told him in a more calmer tone. "We're good, right?"
What's when Luz wrapped her arms around Lionell's neck and smooched him on the cheek.
"I knew you'd come through." She smiled.
"That shit crazy." Ulrich commented.