Fly Soup, or the Stoutland Chronicles

Chapter Five

Elsa ran up the slope, chasing her sister in a game Tadashi had taught them called tag. The odd thing was that they weren't in Arendelle at all, or at least didn't seem to be. Tadashi called the simulation before them "virtual reality." He had placed a helmet on Elsa's head after Anna had donned it and proved it to be safe.

"Tag, you're it!" Elsa said, as she caught up with Anna and placed her hand on the younger woman's shoulder.

"This is really a fun game," Anna said. "But don't you get the feeling that it's for someone much younger than us? I'm not sure what it is, but I think Tadashi was just telling us that this was a hot game for teenagers in the future."

"I think he was lying too, but I can't explain why I believe that to be the case."

"Wait, who's that?" Anna asked as a the face of a gorgeous girl appeared behind Elsa. It was not of natural size though, being about four times as big as a usual person's head. Though it wasn't big in the sense of being chubby…for the girl stood up and they could see she was about as thin as Elsa and Anna themselves. However, propotinally her size was around twenty-three or twenty-four feet tall.

Then the girl reached for Anna and lifted her into the air. In another hand she held a pipette, which she raised over Anna's head. Elsa stopped a bottle near the giant girl's feet, which said CARBOLIC ACID MIXED WITH SULFUR DIOXIDE, KEEP AWAY FROM ANOTHER ORGANIC.

"Anna, rip your headset over before it makes contact with your skin!" Elsa shouted.

Anna did so, and she disappeared. Elsa was just about to reach for her own headset when she felt herself being picked up from behind. She found herself resting on the palm of a girl with short black hair, who was blowing bubble gum.

"Honey, I've got one," said the dark-haired girl.

"Great, Gogo. Better tie it to a mushroom or something, so it can't escape"

"Don't you think this experiment might hurt them?" asked the girl called Gogo.

"This one will survive," said the one known as Honey. "I checked her on the readometer, and she doesn't shiver in cold temperatures. It's like she's immune to cold. In fact, I was hoping that she'd jump to the rescue of the other one, but that didn't happen. Unfortunatel."

"What are you doing to me?" Elsa asked, as Gogo held her firm. Elsa attempted squeezing her legs out from between Gogo's fingers but found herself restrained in that endeavor.

Soon Elsa found herself being fastened to a mushroom. And then Gogo got out a giant tube of fingernail polish, about as tall as Elsa herself, and began painting Elsa's dress with a dropper. "Miss Honey likes things that are pink, and your icy-blue dress just won't work here. So that's going to have to be altered."

Elsa had no gloves on, but she sent ice from her fingers to the ligature binding her. But no ice came.

What was going on? Her power never failed her like this before. She could summon ice at will. Well, before Anna showed her how she could control it, ice came whether she wanted it to or not. Now, however, it was at her command. But it wasn't coming, and for the first time in forever, she knew what it meant to be truly, abjectly afraid.

"You're at my mercy," Honey said, the bottommost strands of her hair falling on Elsa's cheeks. "And mine alone."

Meanwhile, Anna pulled her headset off and found herself looking at Tadashi. "Oh, thank goodness. I got out all right."

"What happened" Tadashi asked, his face anxious.

"A girl in a white lab coat and with honey-colored hair and wearing big glasses picked me up," Anna said, forming circles around her eyes with her fingers to indicate spectacles. "She nearly poured something dangerous on me."

"Oh no," Tadashi said. "I was sure I got rid of the bugs. When I made Headed On, in the prototype, my friends Honey Lemon and Gogo Tomago didn't turn out right in the game. Let me see the headset."

Annd handed it over.

"Yeah, see, this is KYH-98. I mean to give you and your sister the 96 version. I'm sorry."

""It's all right, it's not your fault."

"I hope not. I'd hate to cause you any dismay."

Anna nodded. But at that moment, Elsa's still form crumbled to the earth. She began writhing around, and then was immobile.

"Oops," Tadashi said, fearfully. "I forgot something. This machine can detect a source of cold, and zap it. Also, I doubt you would have encountered Honey in the first place, except that Elsa's low temperatures would've summoned them to the scene."

"Wait, you're saying Elsa is in danger there, and she's the reason we were in trouble?"

"That's it precisely," Tadashi said.

"But you told us it was safe!" Anna said, practically shouting.

"Safe barring that factor. And I didn't remember it. Honest, I didn't." Tadashi held up his hands as if surrendering.

"Okay, I believe you," said Anna. "But the question is how we are going to rescue Elsa."

"I'm afraid that's going to be harder than it sounds," Tadashi said. "We can freeze time in there, but the only one who can make invasive virtual reality coding programs that I know of is my brother, Hiro."

"Get Hiro then," said the princess. "Please."

"Okay, but first we must freeze time for Elsa. Otherwise your sister will be melted in another moment or two."

"How do you Honey hasn't already done it?"

"Because the way I programmed virtual Honey Lemon is that she'd make her prey fret and tempt it before going into the final stage and dissolving them."

"She didn't seem to waste any time with attempting to do that to me," Anna muttered.

"Very likely she thought Elsa would jump forward to save you. She wouldn't have poured acid on you without playing with you first otherwise."

"How does she know so much about Elsa anyway?"

"I'm from the future," Tadashi said. "I know lots of things about both of you. But virtual Honey wasn't meant for your sister specifically. She was meant for other creatures that associate themselves with ice. Like the yeti."

"Like hell she was," said a voice. A man stepped out from behind a citadel. "Hello, Anna."

"Hans! You're supposed to be banned from Arendelle!"

"I got back here using Tadashi's time-apace sphere. Quite useful, I think."

Anna glared at Hans. "Get out of here!" she exclaimed.

"Why? So your boyfriend can have your sister killed? I think I'll stay."

"Anna, listen to me," Tadashi said, seeing her fearful gaze in his direction. "Elsa won't die if your freeze her. Push the red button on her helmet."

"He lies," said Hans. "The red button will kill her. Push the blue button."

"Anna, do you want to trust me, who put your sister in danger accidentally, or him, a man who tried to kill her before your very eyes?"

"Truthfully?" Anna said. "I trust no one but Elsa, Kristoff, Olaf, Kai, and Gerda. But…I know when someone has betrayed me and harmed my sister before. And Tadashi has not done that as of yet."

Anna bent down and pressed the red button.

"So you take his side, did you?" Hans said, as Anna watched Elsa turn pale but continue to remain motionless.

"Tadashi at least, has never attempted to gain power through heinous deeds," Anna said, arms folded. "And if you'll excuse me, I have to feel Elsa. She doesn't look right."

She reached for Elsa's arm and leapt back as if from shock. "It's warm," she said. "I don't mean a good side of warm. I mean that her body temperature feels higher than I've ever known it to be. Her natural temperature seemed to be quite low to everyone else's. Somehow her being warm doesn't feel right."

Ana, darling, my old love," said Hans in a smooth voice. "Your sister is warm because you killed her. And you thought I was bad."

"Oh come on. She's not dead," Tadashi said, as Anna looked as if she were going to hurl. "Anna, don't listen to him. Put your ear against Elsa's chest. See if you can feel a heartbeat."

Anna did so, then clenched her hands together. "No heartbeat." She looked sick. "Elsa, please, come out of the trance! Please! I need you!"

She started to lift Elsa's headset. Tadashi stayed her hand.

"I'm sorry, Anna. But if you remove the headset, Elsa will have no way of returning."

"She's dead! I didn't feel a heartbeat!" Anna wailed. She placed her head on Elsa's breast.

Hans tipped an urn over Anna's body. Icy water ran down her back. And in her ears she heard the sound of Elsa screaming, pleading for help, rining incessantly. And she found that she could not move, could only gaze at Elsa through a crystal plate on a table before her. Not to mention that she couldn't move. And as she watched, the virtual Honey raised her foot to bring it down on Elsa's head. And then she saw scorpions digging into Elsa's feet…

"No, no, stop it! Elsa, I would die for you, let me suffer for you! I'll take it instead!"

Tadashi didn't know how Anna was feeling, though he did hear the words, before she went limp.

"What did you do to her, Hans?" Tadashi demanded.

"I made it where she is lost forever, unless your pathetic wimp of a brother comes to rescue her and falls in love with her," said Hans. "But you know I'm about to send you back in time. Without any recollection of being in the past, so you can't warn Hiro what he must do. I just wanted you to see me finish Elsa and Anna off first."

"Next you're gonna say you switched out the headsets, so that the Summers sisters received my dangerous first models, and not the updated ones I intended."

"Yeah, I did that," said Hans. "Good thing you're smart enough to figure it out. I'm going to make Honey Lemon and Gogo Tomago look like monsters in Elsa's eyes, and even more importantly, Anna's. If they ever try to come here to rescue them. This way I can ensure that victory will be mine."

"How do you propose to make your plan work if I'm here to stop you?" Tadashi asked.

"You? Stop me? I, Hans, future Archruler of the entire world, stopped by a measley university student from the future who built a robot that would help people? Yeah, right."

"You shouldn't know about Baymax."

"But I do know about Baymax. And I also know how you will die, Tadashi."

"I'm pretty sure I won't be dying for another sixty, seventy years at least."

"Or around two hundred and twenty, depending on your perspective."

"Two-hundred and twenty? I think you mean three-hundred. It's only around two-hundred twenty years from now that I come from, bub."

"Oops, my mistake," Hans sneered. "Now away with you!"

"You can't make me go," said Tadashi.

"Oh, can't I?" Hans said. He tossed a string of yarn around Tadashi's body. "Farewell, friend. When you arrive, you will wake up. For a second you'll think this was all a dream. Then you'll remember that your actual dream took place at a cosplay convention. And all this will be driven from your mind."

"I can get out of here," Tadashi said.

"Sorry, buddy," said Hans. "You made this yourself. Only a taste of your true love, or very, very cold lips, can free you from these bindings. Which for you I think, is Elsa or no one."

"Honey Lemon could've saved me," Tadashi said, struggling against the rope.

"The girl you're too chicken to ask out? I doubt it."

"You'll never get away with this," Tadashi said.

"Funny, a cute redhead girl once told me the same thing. And now she's at my mercy."

Tadashi gaved upon Anna's prostrate form, resting against Elsa's body. "I'm sorry," he whispered.

"Goodbye, Tadashi," said Hans, laughing maniacally. "Too bad you don't have the makings of a hero. But at least you helped me defeat the Summer sisters. I wouldn't be surprised if one of them deals the finishing blow to Honey Lemon or Gogo."

"No one's going to die in this," Tadashi said. "Except maybe you."

"I won't die. I am an Eternal. But you, Tadashi, loved by Honey Lemon…you shall die first. Just so you know."

Then Hans fastened a gadget to the string near Tadashi's chest. He punched in a plethora of numbers. Tadashi took one final glimpse of Elsa and Anna, two sisters he was sure he had caused so much harm, and felt such remorse wash over him. Why did he think time-traveling was a good plan? Did he really think Elsa would help him gain confidence? And now he had wrecked her and Anna both…forever.