Omega [REDUX]
Chapter 14
Elsa vaulted over the stand as lead rounds flew past her, her eyes picking up every single bullet, her skin tingling with every single heat trail from the rounds that sailed over her head, even through the nano-weave she wore.
The fabric that clung to her skin already had a layer of frost covering its surface, flaking with every movement of her hands. But it never fully thawed. Not at the rate she was firing.
Her hand lashed out, her palm outstretched but fingers clamped together, delivering a slicing beam of ice straight into a black-armoured soldier. Even as she rolled to the side to dodge a sniper bullet, she could see the armour split open, blood spurting from the wound. Through the blasting of gunfire she could still hear the soldier's garbling death throes as he collapsed to the ground.
She needed to get used to this again; her skills were rusty, and fear was clouding her mind. Bullets struck the icy field of air that she'd surrounded herself with, the pockets of air freezing whenever the rounds sliced through them, stopping the rounds midair. But the bullets wasn't the main threat she was concerned about.
Elsa drew up the suit's energy shield, covered it with a layer of ice, and planted her feet into the ground just as the lightning bolt slammed into her. Even in that position her feet skidded a few feet backwards, her arms aching from the impact.
"I know you," came his voice, omnipresent and reverberating. "I've seen you before."
He sounded crazed. Definitely crazed. Whatever they did to him, it clearly worked.
Elsa didn't respond. Right now, compromising herself emotionally was the last thing she needed to do. Instead she increased the thickness of the frosting covering her suit, engraving gaps along the joints so that she wouldn't compromise her mobility. Bullets clattered all around her, forcing her to dive for cover yet again.
"Why don't you come down here and fight?" she taunted, crouching behind a pile of debris, making sure that she wasn't in his field of vision. "Beats floating there all day."
"Why do you wear the mask?" he went on, clearly not listening to Elsa. "Why are you ashamed to hide it?"
"I'm scared I'll burn your eyes."
"And to whom is that insult directed to?"
"Right now you've got a lot more things directed to you." Elsa leapt from her cover, diving to the side as she dodged a reactionary lightning bolt, her own ice beam slamming into his side with great effect, eliciting a cry of pain as he dropped the full three metres back to the ground. With a slam, a dust cloud gathered around the point of impact.
Then a sniper round caught her in the shoulder, the force knocking her entire shoulder backwards. Elsa staggered from the impact, already knowing that she'd made a careless mistake. Reactively, she raised her hand to fire off an ice beam towards her attacker. The first bolt missed as the sniper ducked behind the wall. The second smashed through the wall and caught him straight in the face.
She felt little to no pain, but her skin was pierced, and she could feel a trickle of blood on her skin. If it wasn't for her armour and the layer of ice covering it her shoulder should have been gone by now.
More bullets came her way. She ducked again, clutching her shoulder.
"Painful, isn't it?"
"Shut the fuck up, Edison. If you want to have a fight, call your men off, and we'll settle this proper." She winced as her wound began to frost over, a reactionary response triggered by her body to numb the pain further. Elsa reached up with her other arm to pull out the round that had embedded itself in her shoulder. "Why the hell are you doing this anyway? You fight a war, not terrorise civilians."
"They're, shall we say, collateral damage."
She could see the bright light emanating from Edison's location. At least when the lights go out I won't have to worry about not having a line of vision on him. The hall began to flicker as the static electricity began to interfere with the building systems.
"You, on the other hand," came Edison's voice again, "are a prize I wish to collect."
"What is this about then?" Elsa retorted, her eyes falling upon the assault rifle of a fallen soldier near her location. "Is it about them? Or about me?"
"I want to carry out the aims that we used to propagate together," his haunting voice said. "If it involves destroying my enemies' technology, or killing their loved ones, so be it. All of this is ultimately a means to an end."
"This is why I'm glad I left," Elsa muttered to herself, as she dived for the rifle, then forcing herself into a crouching position, bringing the gun up to bear. She took aim down the sights and squeezed the trigger just as Edison's body came into view.
She watched the lead rounds fire dead on, but ricochet off what appeared to be an electromagnetic field being propagated around his being. A feeling of dread welled up inside her as Edison rose to his full height, completely unharmed.
"Awww," she heard him say sarcastically, "Did you really expect that to work?"
Her eyes widened as another bolt of lightning lashed out towards, this one catching her square in the chest and sending her flying again. Elsa crashed into exhibit after exhibit, skidding across the floor and smashing everything along her trajectory.
"I won't let you stop me," Edison called out, "but if it's a fair fight you want, I'll grant you that last wish. It's the last one you'll get."
Elsa watched helplessly as he motioned to his men. "Go now. Hunt down what's left of the survivors. After that is done and I've finished my business with her, then we'll destroy this place for good."
Anna crouched behind the rounding of the corner, glancing past the wall she now hid behind. The corridor was identical to all of the other convention halls, just that this one had two black-armoured soldiers guarding the entrance to convention hall 2. They're in the way.
An almost machine-like trance came over her; Anna simply brought up the rifle without a second thought, and pulled the trigger. The resulting gunfire came with suppressed sound. Down the red dot sight she watched the bullets cut through the first soldier. He dropped with relatively no incident. His companion whipped around in surprise, to which Anna simply adjusted her aim, delivering a single, almost silent burst to his head. Her second adversary fell as easily as the first.
Later she'd think back to this moment, and realise how much of a machine she was becoming, and how emotionless she'd been to execute those men without further considerations of human life and whatnot, and how she'd been driven by sheer will to survive. But for now, Anna simply emerged from cover, checked to see that the coast was clear, and walked down the long corridor, aiming down her sights the whole time.
"Belle?" she whispered through her COM, as if afraid that someone would hear her. "Belle? Do you copy?"
"I copy," came the response. "What's your current location?"
"Outside one of the entrances to Hall 2. I think it's…" Anna squinted to see, and her suit responded by filtering in more light into her helmet to assist her. "…entrance C."
"I'm outside entrance C now."
"Do you have a weapon on you?"
"…no. No one here is armed. It's dim here and we're all hiding."
"I'm coming in. Do not attack me."
"Okay."
Anna decided it was better to walk in with a less intimidating stance. So she dropped her rifle to her side and pushed open the door. Belle was wrong about it being dim; it was very close to pitch dark. Anna strolled in slowly, trying not to look like an attacker.
A sharp blow caught her in the face, the mask absorbing most of the pain and force, but still enough to throw her off balance. Rough hands grabbed her from the back, and Anna had to yell "Belle! Call them off!" into her COM just as a knee slammed into her gut, forcing the air out of her lungs. Her suit's defense mechanism's activated, sending an EMP out from all around her, along the suit surface and immobilizing her attackers.
As the lights came on she could see her assailants writhing in pain on the carpeted floor. They were a few members of the security force, along with some particularly burly civilians and members of her delegation. "Oops," she said out loud.
"Anna!" Merida rushed up from the rest of the crowd and embraced her, albeit carelessly forgetting that her suit was probably still emitting an EMP charge. Luckily, Anna managed to deactivate it in time, else Merida might have been equally fried.
She returned the gesture, then pushed her off gently, and nodded to Belle and Rapunzel. "We have a plan."
"We?" Rapunzel asked, cocking an eyebrow. "Who do you mean by 'we'?"
"Elsa and I." Anna placed her gun into Merida's hands, and began unloading the rest of them, tossing them to her teammates, and leaving the last gun on the floor. "I'll handle this," she said discreetly.
She took a deep breath as she walked back to the door, feeling the expectant gazes of everyone in the hall gazing at her.
"ER-ehm." Anna cleared her throat nervously, holding her ground where she stood. "To the delegation of the UIF Military Academy, I compel you to pick up your arms and join us in glorious combat!"
There was an awkward silence. A few eyebrows were raised. Anna died a little inside. "You know what, never mind. That was a stupid idea—"
Gunfire erupted from the sides of the hall. Panicked screams filled the air as the remaining survivors around her hit the deck, frantically trying to evade the deadly hails of lead from the soldiers that had just entered from entrance A.
"Get down!" Anna managed to yell.
A lead round caught Anna in the side, knocking her shoulder back and pricking the armour that covered it, but it didn't deter her from bringing up the rifle, not even bothering to change her position, to return fire on her new adversaries.
Her first burst caught the soldier in the chest, then the second burst in the knee, the last in the head. The other soldiers charged forward towards her, towards the remaining survivors that were desperately trying to hide, still looking for targets to shoot. Anna gunned down as many as she could before she ran out of ammo, prompting the soldiers to attempt to tackle her. She caught one soldier charging, digging her feet into the ground as she took the brunt of the impact, raising both her hands to slam her elbows into his back.
She could hear the sound of his spine breaking as he collapsed lifelessly to the ground. I didn't realise I had the strength to do that.
Anna watched her remaining five assailants draw a combat knife each, to which she dropped her rifle to the ground with a clatter, assuming her combat stance that she'd rehearsed over and over again with Elsa. Her blood pounded in her ears, and her pupils dilated, her muscles tensing for combat.
"This one's going to be easy," she heard one of the soldiers mumble. "She's just a recruit!"
A few hours ago she'd be doubting if she was ready for combat. Now they'd forced her hand. Here goes nothing.
Anna watched one of the soldiers lunge to stab her, his first swing barely missing her chest as she stepped back, forcing him to lose his balance. He recovered, and swung again in the opposite direction; Anna blocked the swing and slammed her knee into his gut, grabbing hold of his arm and twisting it into an impossible angle. She ignored his scream of pain as she drew the suit's equipped combat issue knife from its sheath, slamming it downwards into his skull.
She watched the other soldiers shift uncomfortably. Anna pushed the soldier off her, twirling the knife expectantly. "Who's next?" she taunted.
She didn't get a reply. The remaining four charged her simultaneously.
Anna kicked the first one off easily, diverting her attention to the other one that was attempting to flank her. Her first punch didn't connect properly, only countering her adversary's own attack, to which she responded by wrapping her arm around his and twisting, locking him in position. She slammed the hard knee guard into his back, listening for the satisfying cracking of bones before she let him go. One down, three to go.
"Who the hell is this kid?" she heard one of them yell again, recovering from their earlier attack. "Fucking kill her!"
The other two lunged at her, again. They just don't learn. At the last second Anna triggered the energy shield, knocking them aside. Taking advantage of their momentary disorientation, Anna spun, swinging the shield in a low arc, but pulling up at the last second. The blade of the shield caught the last soldier's hand, knocking the blade out of his palm. Anna stabbed forward, her knife catching him in the throat.
A rough pair of hands grabbed her into a chokehold. She raised her shield, the edge hitting her assailant in the head, giving her enough space for her to raise her leg and stab backwards into his thigh, breaking his grip. Anna's right hand swung, slamming the point of the blade into his chest, twisting it more maximum effect before she mercilessly kicked him off. Blood spurted from the wound as the knife tore free from the flesh.
The final soldier, some distance away, immediately drew his rifle. Anna tossed the knife straight at him, catching in in the shoulder and forcing him to drop the weapon. She lunged, delivering a straight drop kick to his chest, then recovered fast enough to straddle him and slam the edge of the shield into his helmet, over and over again. It was only when her arms began to ache from the pounding, the visor began to crack and the suit registered her assailants vitals to have flatlined did she stop.
Adrenaline still pounding through her veins, she forced herself to breathe. What the hell did I just do?
For a few moments she couldn't think properly; Anna realized she'd never been in actual combat before apart from defending herself against Ursula. And she'd straight up murdered at least 10 soldiers.
What have I become?
Her heart was still racing. Anna forced herself to ignore it and focus on the task at hand. Elsa was still buying them time, and potentially still in danger. Breathlessly she picked up the ASR3 assault rifle she'd dropped earlier, ejecting the magazine and sliding a fresh one into the chamber.
Then she noticed the pairs of eyes that silently watched her in awe.
"What the hell are you waiting for?" she yelled at her delegation. "Grab a weapon and move out! We still need to get the civilians outta here."
With a flurry, the remaining recruits complied, moving to retrieve weapons and ammunition from the fallen soldiers.
Elsa conjured up another shield, this one thicker than before, to deflect yet another electric blast. It failed; the tendrils simply blasted over the edge of her shield, enwrapping her bodice in a tangle, pulling her towards Edison. His fist lashed out, catching her straight in the face, but letting the momentum carry her body onward. She spun and hit the ground with a thud.
"Oddly easy fight, I have to say," Edison remarked. "Perhaps what they say about how pathetic you are is true?"
"I appeal to the doubt in your statement," Elsa retorted, pushing herself back up.
"I'd always respected your combat ability, Elsa," Edison went on, electric bolts still lashing out from his bodice, making contact with the ground and sending out pulses every now and then. "Until the day you were captured. Seriously? All it took was one taser from a Class-X insertion team?"
Elsa winced, not because of the insult, but because she clearly remembered the events that happened that day. She leaned against the debris that shielded her. Frost gathered at the bottom of her palm.
"You really are pathetic. You can't even beat me! You were the one that had to train me to become more fit and more positive! What happened now?" Edison blasted the debris with a continuous stream of lightning, refusing to let up. "Have you become weak?!"
Oh gods, what have they done to you, Edison? She could see that something was different in his eyes. He wasn't the small boy she had to protect from Empyrean anymore; now he was their agent, he was Empyrean incarnate.
I can't let him compromise my mental state any further. Otherwise I'm not getting out of this alive.
Her senses came alive once again. She could feel the static crackling in the air, her eyes coming back into hypersharp focus. She heard Edison's every move, every step, every syllable. Her palm came alive with a vortex of icy energy.
"Come out, you rat!" Edison's voice pitch rose to a shrill scream. "Fight me!"
"And a fight you shall have." Elsa leapt from behind her cover with a tenacity she never knew she had, lashing out ice beams in quick succession. Edison raised a hand to strengthen the shield he projected around him, which flared brightly with every hit. Elsa clamped her fist, letting her power charge as she lunged toward Edison, dodging the reactionary lightning bolts.
As she pushed herself off with her feet she swung her right hand, letting fly the concentrated ice beam, piercing Edison's shield with a blinding flash of light that temporarily disorientated her. But the scream of pain that was result of her actions served as adequate compensation for her temporary loss of sight. She leapt towards the sound, her vision quickly recovering to show her target again. Elsa slammed her fist downward onto Edison's skull, letting her knee connect with the front of his face, knocking him backwards.
Edison grunted, hands spinning in an attempt to regain his balance. Elsa didn't let him, instead delivering a roundhouse kick at his head, knocking him sideways and onto the floor. An ice pillar rose from the position where he stood, sending him staggering back to his wobbly feet, only to meet the respite of Elsa's ice cold fist slamming into his gut, forcing the air out his lungs and leaving him gasping. Elsa delivered an uppercut, punching Edison a few feet away, flat on his back.
"Enough of a fight for you?"
"Oh," came his reply, pushing himself up and shaking the dust off, "I'm just getting started."
Elsa's eyes narrowed as he struggled to his feet, but lunged in a surprise attack, fists glistening with electricity. She sidestepped the first punch, catching the next with her gauntlet, leaving him vulnerable to her own clenched hand, one to his gut, one to his face.
I'm actually kind of glad his fists are glowing now. They're easier to spot.
Her gauntlets now frosted over with a thick, rough layer of ice, Elsa blocked blow after blow, making sure the hard ice connected with his fists, inflicting as much pain as she could while defending. She could see Edison wince with every contact he made, but she could still feel every shockwave jarring her bones through her gauntlets.
"Is that all you've got?" Edison yelled in anger, hurling a lightning bolt past Elsa and lunging for his next attack. Elsa raised her leg to kick away his oncoming attack, spinning to elbow him in the chin, then in the other direction to do the same. Enraged, Edison let fly a massive bolt of electricity that caught Elsa in the chest, but she stood her ground, feeling pain course through her torso as she charged towards Edison, swinging in a wide arc. She caught him in the face, sending him staggering back as he yelled, "Soldiers! Finish her!"
From the corners of her eyes she watched black shapes reappear, rifles raised. She braced for the inevitable.
Gunfire. A kick. She wasn't dead.
Elsa tumbled to the floor, watching Edison stand over her even as she scrambled to her feet, failing to block another kick aimed at her torso. As it connected she felt the air leave her lungs, her oxygen-deprived brain beginning to strain with effort. She forced herself to roll to the side to avoid the next kick, pushing herself into a kneeling position. I'm not dead.
"What the hell is this?!" Edison had begun to yell. Elsa glanced around, watching formally dressed figures with assault rifles return fire. Anna. Took you long enough.
"You!" Edison threw an incriminating finger at Elsa, to which she stood her ground. "You did this. You did all of this!"
Elsa let her hands fall to her side, fists clenched. Edison began to look decently scared. The floor around Elsa was completely frozen over in a sheet of ice, and the outlines of a snowflake were beginning more and more pronounced, originating from the point in which she stood.
"That's right, Edison," she replied, the steel in her voice becoming more and more evident. "Scared yet?"