Door 1 - The Snow Realm (The North Pole)

[NativeForeigner]

Gregory stared at Andreas blankly, "A...are you really...a priest?" he asked in all honesty.

At the end of the hallway, they came across a spiraling staircase leading up multiple stories and down several more.

"I think he might be higher up..." Gregory quietly suggested, "The important people are always on top..."

He began up the stairs. "Where are the others, do you think?"

***

Henry and Ro sped past the rest of the sloping with little resistance. They reached the top in no time and came to the rocky bridge that connected their side to the door.
Ro noticed some dully glowing figures up above, moving down the walls. They were rather small, but there were a lot of them.

"Let's go." Ro urged, "There's something up above."  

[Jokerman-EXE]

Henry nodded and proceeded over the bridge. Not really much else he could do.  

[NativeForeigner]

Ro could see the silhouettes moving down in front of them. He turned his head to see similar silhouettes moving down behind them.
From the other side of the bridge, the silhouettes had now reached the ground and were coming at the two.

Both of them could now see what they were, Elves, with yellow-black eyes and gray, almost lifeless skin. There were about seven of them coming from the front.  

[Jokerman-EXE]

Henry withdrew his knife and placed the whistle back between his lips. He waited for a twinge from his TK to tell him if they were in trouble as he said, "Ro, you get the ones behind if it comes down to it."  

[NativeForeigner]

Ro nodded and got back-to-back with Henry. The elves were already coming from both sides now.
The ones from the front were approaching quickly. The front-most dove at Henry, his TK went off and he smacked it out of the air and into the frozen pond below. Two more charged. The first he smacked down and kicked it aside. The second latched onto his leg mid-kick and reared back to bite his leg.
Henry brought his knife around and dug it into the feral elf's head. It let go of Henry's leg and fell limp.

Meanwhile, two came at Ro, one leaping and the other directly behind him on foot. Ro brought his foot up, kicking the airborne elf up and away. As soon as he sent the elf away, he brought his foot down in a wicked axe kick down on the other elf's head, crushing him into the ground.

Another charged Ro. Ro dug into his pocket and kicked it off the bridge. Yet another elf jumped over the elf Ro had just kicked.
The momentum of his kicked forced Ro to spin. As he did so, he produced his butterfly from his pocket and flipped it open.
As he came around again, the elf was nearly upon him. Ro brought his knife up and drove the tip into the small elf's body.

Ro threw the dead elf's body off the bridge as more and more elves came after them from both sides.

"Let's go! There's too many." Ro told Henry, "Let's just push through them, they're small enough!"
As he spoke, Ro moved up to Henry's side.

Henry nodded, "Alright, let's go."

They rushed forward, practically wading through the mass of sick elves. They kicked and stabbed their way to the end of the bridge and ran inside.

They were immediately met by a spiraling stairway and rushed up.

The elves kept on coming.

***

Gregory, Andreas, and Arthur were on their way up the stairs when Ro and Henry appeared from below.

"Run, dammit!" Henry insisted as he shoved past the three and up the stairs.

Ro was quick behind him, "Run!" he echoed.

The mass of infected elves was soon to follow.  

[Jokerman-EXE]

Henry has long since put the whistle away; there would be no point in calling Shepard if they were required to keep moving like this. By the time Shepard arrived, they'd be long gone. Maybe he could try it again later.

In the meantime, he focused on running all-out and using his TK to navigate to wherever was safe.  

[NativeForeigner]

And TK says: Up.

The group continued upwards until they reached a large, ornate door at the top of the stairs. With no time to ask questions or knock, the threw the door open and closed it behind them, separating themselves from the mass of elves.

The room inside was very dark, all that could be seen was a curtain with a faint, red light shining from the other side and the silhouette of a body on a large bed.  

[Jokerman-EXE]

Henry scanned the room, sensing no immediate danger, and let the others know such before leaning back against the door and sighing.

"This s**t is just crazy. What the Hell! I mean, really, just yesterday we were in our own world, going to a party. Now we're in the North <********> Pole, fighting crazy zombie elves and looking for the tyrant Santa. Am I going crazy, here?" he asked, looking at the others.  

[SirBayer]

"Before we worry about that, let's blockade this door," Arthur suggested. He didn't have a lot of energy to run on, despite all. "Looks like the Big Man is right there," he added more quietly. "Hello?" Arthur called quietly, hopefully not loud enough to wake him up if he were sleeping, but enough to get his attention if he were awake.  

[NativeForeigner]

"I think we're all going a little crazy." Ro commented quietly, "Let's block off this door."

A simple survey of the door revealed a red and white striped plank that could be set to rest on two hooks on either side of the door.

There was movement behind the curtain, probably elves from the look of it.

From the looks of it, a group of at least five of them were surrounding the bed, two of them on the bed itself.

They began to speak to each other:

"Pulse?", one asked.

"Still none, it's just...flowing." a second replied.

"Respiration?"

"Scarce, the respirator's attached and keeping his breathing steady."

"How's his leg doing?"

"The amputation of his foot went well, his body has more than welcomed the peg."

"Weight?"

"He's definitely lost a lot of aesthetic weight, but it seems like his mass has only suffered minimal loss. Whatever infection or virus he has, it seems to be making his muscles more compact and removing almost all body fat."

"Interesting...what's happened to his hair?"

"His beard was thinning, but we had to shave it anyway for the respirator. The rest of his hair is thinning, became stringier, and the pigmentation has darkened."

"Let's look at his skin..."

The elves on the bed could be seen uncovering the body, presumably "Santa", and lifting one of the arms. It seemed rather scrawny from what they could tell from the silhouette.

"His veins are darkening as the infection progresses, they're beginning to bulge and the skin on his forearms is browning and almost...changing. The infection seems to be causing him to undergo several mutations, many seem to be on the genetic level.

Now, let's remove these gloves..."

The other elf on the bed gripped Santa's hand and began to pull the glove off. It wouldn't give. "Doctor, the glove seems to be stuck."

"What? Let me see. Hm...the glove seems to have bonded to his skin, notice the discoloration underneath, it's spreading to the outside of the gloves as well.

We'll have to cut them off, hand me the scalpel."

The elf took a scalpel from another by the side of the bed and handed it to the doctor. The doctor took the scalpel and lifted the wrist of the glove and placed the blade to the glove wear it was bonded to the skin.

"Wait! Doctor, he's moving his fingers, I think he's coming to."

The group could hear heavy, labored breathing.

"Respiration is up! This is good!"

The doctor set the scalpel down, excited, "Excellent! This could be the first steps of recovery, get him some water!"

One of the elves below ran to someplace else in search of water.

"Wait...something's wrong with his fingertips, they're pressing against his gloves." The doctor moved closer to the fingertips, "Something has cut through. His fingernails are growi-"

The doctor was cut off as five long, sharp protrusions erupted from Santa's fingers and thumb and through the doctor's head. The hand opened, spreading the claws. The gruesome silhouette of the elf's head being torn apart could be seen through the curtain as blood stained it.

The other hand acted in a similar way, claws erupting from each of Santa's fingers and his thumb. The second elf on the bed recoiled and fell off the bed.

The rest of the elves ran out from behind the curtain and towards the group.

Santa could be seen throwing off the rest of the covers just as the elf who went to get some water returned and immediately ran back off.

Santa stood. His silhouette was tall and thin, even with his jacket. He could be seen with a peg in place of his left foot. He stood there, his arms and hands outstretched behind the curtain.

His breathing quickened and hissed through his respirator.

Henry's TK went off the charts, it began to give him a headache. The others didn't need TK to know that they were likely in trouble.  

[SirBayer]

Arthur stared. "No medical treatment necessary, I suppose," he murmured. He looked around for a window, considering the possibility of jumping out of it. Outside of that, he reached into his pack and retrieved his steak knife, holding it in preparation for a fight.

"Guys, I'm not exactly in the greatest shape," he commented. "I'm not gonna be able to stay up against this guy long. We've gotta find a way to get out of here safely." Arthur looked around again to see if there were any weapons.  

[Jokerman-EXE]

Henry clenched his teeth and reeled as his head throbbed. "I'm with Dr. a*****e," he groaned, rubbing his temples. "We have to get out of here."

He pulled out the whistle and blew it weakly. Maybe Shepard could help.  

[NativeForeigner]

The room was large and circular, quite spacious, but there was little light. In the far right area of the room was the red curtain concealing the bed and an apparent extension of the room. The ceiling was high and coned, but easily visible.
Directly across from the entrance was a large painting, probably eight foot by ten foot, of the Mr. and Mrs. Clause that the people of Corona were familiar with when they were children from the holiday of Christmas, big bushy, snow-white beard, jolly good fatness, and all.

Other than that, the room seemed to be almost completely bare, stripped of it's contents when the "Boss" became sick. All that remains were a few scattered boxes, torn wrapping paper, streaming ribbons, and cobwebs.

The room's decor, too, was rather barren. The once colorful and spiraling design on the floor has since faded, cracked, and has been iced over. The walls themselves reveal no sign of any previous decor, they're simply ice, now.

There was a large window carved through the icy walls of the room, allowing a beam of light to shine through into the room, the only source of light other than the flood lights the elves had placed by the bed.

Shepard wasn't there yet.  

[Jokerman-EXE]

Henry began to edge along the wall. "I, uhh...I think we need to leave here. Now." He looked nervously for a possible escape route as the throbbing in his head became an accepted constant.  

[Venom3001]

"Well, we haven't yet barricaded ourselves in, but the infected elves outside... well...." Andreas pointed out. "That option's down. On the other hand, I've recovered from our prior battle, so..." He grimaced in anticipation of pain and leveled his hand out at Santa's leg, planning to to snap off the peg at the base if his attention turned to them. Then, an idea.

"If we break the window open I can throw him out through it," Andreas suggested. "It'll hurt like hell and we'll still have to deal with angry elves, but it should work."