Connie the Hedgecat: Thank you for your praise!

Chapter 6: Freezing World

"Ugh..." groaned the purple weasel as Fang slowly began to get up, rubbing his head under his hat. When he came too, he saw that he was lying on snow. In fact: the floor, ceiling, and wall behind him was just that: snow! "Where the hell are we?"

"For one, 'we' is just the two of us." Fiona spoke up, the fox tying a cloth to her bleeding arm, "Two, I think we're burred under the snow from the lightning." Fang nodded as the vixen explained as he stood up, "And don't ask where Bean and Bark are: I have no idea."

"This is bad, huh?" Bean questioned as he looked upon the spot where the snow sucked up Fiona and Fang. After the lightning strike, Fiona and Fang fell into a pit, snow quickly covering it up, as Bean and Bark were blasted away. Speaking of which, Bean had lost the rest of his coats so he had to wear Bark's, the Polar Bear not at all effected by the intense cold.

Bark nodded as a response to Bean as the duck summoned a bomb, "Do we blow them out?" Bark quickly began shaking his head. "Why?" Bark then pointed at the snow as if it was obvious. "Oh...right. We might get buried. So what now?" Bark stood up and began digging in the snow, leaving the demo duck baffled.

"Alright, so how do we get out?" questioned Fang as he got up and inspected his person as well as Fiona. Neither of their gear was too badly damaged, except for Fang's arm and jacket from Tristan's punch, but they were otherwise OK. He looked forward and saw some sort of cave.

"Well...looks like we go forward." Fiona was a bit uneasy about it, but the duo had very little options as they began to trek down the cave. At first, the quiet was bliss. But after about a half hour, it slowly became an eerie feeling. There was no noise at all. And with Fiona leading the way, it made her antsy.

(What's Fang planning? Why did he want me on the team anyway? It couldn't be just for more muscle: Bark and Bean were never too bright, but they can fight.) True to her nature, Fiona was having difficulty fully trusting Fang. It was easy with the others: they were familiar. But Fang..., (Come on, Fiona. It's Fang. He wouldn't...what reason would he have, anyway?! Even if he wanted to, he couldn't. Yeah, I'd take him out easy.)

(Shit, this is bad. We're buried under god knows how much snow, we have no idea where we're going, and to top it off, those G.U.N. idiots are probably hunting us down! That egg better be here.) Fang, however, was only concerning himself with when the job will be completed. But even the greedy thief had to ask himself, (What exactly does he want with a Chao Egg? A very rare egg at that. If he couldn't find it off the Black Market, then there has to be something special about it. I think I'll charge him for this.)

"Fang...is it me, or is it getting colder in here?" the fox questioned as she began to frantically rub her arms. Fang, now snapping back to reality, quickly noticed the lower in temperature.

"Yeah. What's that about?" the sniper began shivering as his body struggled to keep itself warm. The two looked around as the sound of footsteps filled the cave, "Oh great! Soldiers." he groaned as he quickly grabbed his guns, ready too fill anyone coming his way with hot lead.

"A good beat down will surely keep us," Fiona stopped speaking when she and Fang saw that the footsteps came not from G.U.N. Agents, but odd, living-snow creatures, "...warm?"

"The hell is this?!" Fang cried as the snow creatures charged at the mercenaries. Fang growled as he began to unload his bullets at the snow creatures, falling over the second the bullets pierced their bodies, falling to snow. "Heh. Nothing to it." Not too soon after they fell, the creatures began to reform, the snow forming bodies as they became the creatures that were once shot down by Fang's Desert Eagles.

"Yeah, nothing." Fiona was greatly disturbed by the regenerating snow beasts as they came at the Hooligans. Fiona was quick to deliver a series of kicks, knocking their heads clean off as they fell on the ground. But they quickly began to reform as if nothing happened. One quickly grabbed Fiona with a vice grip, tossing her onto the floor with a hard thud. "What are these things?!"

"Who cares?! How do you kill them?!" Fang fired more shots until his guns were empty and the snow mush, "That takes care of-" the snowmen quickly reformed, "Aw nertz." The snow creature charged right at the weasel, it's hands, despite being made of snow, proved to be very hard as it collided with Fang, knocking him on the floor. "Damn...snow hurts."

"What now, Fang?! We knock them over and they get back up!" Fiona shouted as the weasel began to pick himself up. The weasel didn't seem to hear as he dug through his duffle bag, pulling out an all black pistol as he pointed it straight at the snow creatures. "Uh...Fang? We tried shooting."

"Yeah, but this is a new toy I got on the Black Market." Without any other warning, Fang pulled the trigger as, instead of a bullet, a ball of fire shot from the gun as it burned and melted the snow creatures to water. This time, they didn't reform. "Ha! It works!"

"A Flare Gun? That's some pretty quick thinking, Fang. But...why exactly do you carry that?" Fang shrugged.

"Thought I'd need it."

"But, since we're mercenaries, wouldn't you try to conceal yourself rather than let others know?"

"...Hey Fiona."

"What?"

"Shut up."

Fiona rolled her eyes as Fang began to lead them down the cave.

(I can't believe I was worried. Fang wouldn't just try to betray me. After all, he hangs around with Bean and Bark. He'd probably ditch them before me.)

As the temperature dropped lower and lower, Fiona and Fang were constantly working to keep themselves warm and awake. They had little to no idea where they were going, but back was not an option. They occasionally ran into other snow creatures, but Fang only carried three other Flare Guns. It was agreed it would be smart to hang onto them.

"T-this is f-fucking ridiculous!" Fang's teeth chattered as they kept walking, "We have no idea where we're going!"

"W-would you rather back track?" Fiona questioned miserably. She hated the cold almost as much as Bean, especially since she risked monomania after she broke out of prison.

"Uh...Fiona. If you see a bright light, do you go towards it?" Fang questioned.

"No, you idiot! You...oh." Fiona was surprised to see that there actually was, indeed, a bright light. "I hope that's the exit and not what I think it is." with that, the two mercenaries headed towards the light...not that light!