ic Crisis on Infinite Holidays (IC)

[Electra]

Miss A was visibly uneasy about working closely with Santa and his elves, a fact made both more obvious and more strange by her usual perfect equanimity. She didn't let it affect the quality of her work though, and between her and Dragonfly, the sleigh was quickly working better than it had in years! She grimaced at the reindeer's near-slip but let it pass, and merely took her place in the line when it was time to fly. Between Jack's guidance, Victory and Miss A in the traces, and the tune-up they'd given the sled, it was going to be a speedy Christmas this year!

[Avenger Assembled]

The heroes went everywhere that night: literally! Passing through thick fluffy Christmas clouds, they journeyed to the homes of children near and far to distribute toys. Here was a village in Africa where Santa's sleigh had books and food from international relief agencies for the children; there was a quiet suburban home in Cleveland that wound up with a gigantic stuffed bear that required Dragonfly and Jill to help Santa muscle it down the chimney for the children, and hundreds more. In Freedom City, they found themselves in some very familiar homes indeed, but Christmas cheer made sure they all hustled before anyone found themselves knowing too much about a secret ID. They even took a trip to the dark side of the Moon, handing out Spacemas goodies to the Farsider children!

It was a good night. There were cookies and milk, ham sandwiches and 7-UP, rum and Cokes, and various other goodies to be shared that kept everyone well-fed through a trip that might have taken forever, but at the same time might have been just a few minutes. Finally, when the long, glorious Christmas night was over, the sleigh turned and headed for home, returning to polar skies with a shower of light as they came in for a smooth, perfect landing before the workshop as the elves all cheered "Hip hip hooray! Hip hip hooray! Three cheers for the heroes of Freedom City!" In their tiny voices, they all celebrated, as did the big man himself.

[Gizmo]

"...obviously isn't the, y'know, real North Pole," Jill was chattering to Dragonfly as they disembarked the sleigh, "but that was the real Freedom City and everywhere else, so... wow, right?"

The elder Espadas sibling lept from his perch, somersaulting through the air to land in the snow with barely contained energy. "Everything tastes like peppermint sugar cookies and that is awesome!" Jack declared to nobody in particular, jauntily resting his festive rapier on his shoulder. "Man, it is nice to be using something that's not demonic hellfire or deadly radiation or whatever for once. And it jingles, too!" The fencer demonstrated by waving the red and white sword around. "...the jingling's in my head, isn't it?"

"Little bit, yeah," Jill confirmed, patting her brother's shoulder sympathetically.

Jack slumped his shoulders slightly, subdued, but quickly straightened, insisting, "Still awesome!"

[Fox]

"Not a story many would believe," Dragonfly replied as she hopped out of the sleigh, glad once more for her still-active armbands as feet hit the snow. "Even with the things we see. Supervillains, superheroes. Aliens. But a ride on Santa's sleigh?"

She adjusted her gauntlets, raising an eyebrow at Jack's antics. "Bells rely on a small, hard ball inside a much larger container to create sound," she explained, a trace of humor coloring her voice. "Could just stop moving your head - jingling would cease."

[JackgarPrime]

Once they finished their rounds and returned, Victory took a moment to do some cool-down stretches. He ejected the harness cables, and took some time to say his thanks and goodbyes to each of the sleigh team members. It was a bit odd speaking with...well...deer, but he'd seen even stranger recently.

He managed to catch up to Santa on his way off the sleigh, and extends his hand to him.

"It's been a pleasure working so closely with you tonight, sir. I'm extremely honored to have gotten the chance."

As he speaks, he lowers his tone, and his lips turn into a bit more of a grin, and speaks lower.

"Did you drop off that one particular gift at the prison?"

[Avenger Assembled]

"Ho-ho-ho, I'm afraid that's a secret in my business," said Santa Claus with a broad wink. Putting a fur-mittened hand on Victory's shoulder, the right jolly old elf added, "Let's just say that little Desmond has been on the naughty list for many years, and I'm afraid he'll be there into the future." He looked depressed by that thought for a moment, his big shoulders slumping, before brightening at the sight of the latest arrivals. "Ah, speaking of which..."

Avenger had arrived to wish everyone well, accompanied by a somewhat more together Lupita now dressed in a green cap and red outfit obviously borrowed from an elf close to her size. The Latina girl had much more color in her cheeks now, for all that she still tinkled with Christmas chimes to Erik's ears, and stuck close to the sweater-clad Avenger and Mrs. Claus. Before they could do more than greet each other, Santa Claus said, "My friends, I'm afraid it's time for us to say goodnight. Christmas City must begin our time of rest before our work starts all over again. But before that..." He pulled over his sack, which still burst with toys, and said, "I have something for all the heroes of Freedom City!"

For Avenger, Santa reached into his legendary sack and produced a shimmering, luminescent star, shining with a magnificent, magical inner beauty. "This is for your wife and son," the king of Christmas said with a wink. "Put this on your tree, and both of them will have the most magnificent Christmas of all! As for you, take this." Digging deeper, he produced what turned out to be the crouching sculpture of a bat-man, ears extended high, wings out behind him, a magnificently produced work of art cast in shimmering black stone. "A symbol of the night, for the heroic night warrior who helped save Christmas! Cast from purest anthracite!"

Avenger thanked Santa, because what else could you do? The elf moved on to Miss Americana, giving her a rosy-cheeked wink before saying "Your present is very large, my dear, and I'm not sure I'm strong enough to get it out by myself!" With Miss Americana's help, Santa produced for her...a vending machine full of Mountain Dew? But no, on closer inspection it was full of things like 'North Pole Ale' and 'Fizzy Milk of Human Kindness'. "An ever-flowing fount of refreshment," he said, pointing to the image of Santa himself where the money should be. "For the refreshing beauty of the North, next only to Mrs. Claus herself." He looked at her closely, and in her seat in Freedom City Gina distinctly heard Look in the storage compartment when you get home

From there he turned to the Espadas siblings, waving a finger at them chidingly. "Ho-ho-ho, you two made things very difficult! How can I find a better sword for you, or a better shield for you?" He laughed again, then pulled over the bag. "I think you'll like it, though!" Brother and sister wound up pulling out an envelope, and for half a second they thought Santa had just given them a gift certificate before they looked inside. It turned out to be a week's stay, all expenses paid, at Ocean's Breeze, an expensive resort a few miles outside of town, far, far outside their price range on any normal day given Erik's salary and Gina's pension, complete with attached pictures of brochures that showed the completely wheelchair-accessible facility in lavish detail. "Better save that one for summer, though, ho-ho-ho!"

And from there, to Dragonfly! "As for you, my little elf, what could I give you that your genius doesn't give you already?" As it turned out, what Santa could give her was a good-sized cloth bag about the size of a McDonalds' drivethru bag, and inside Mara found a carefully wrapped hamburger dripping with special sauce, bacon, and cheese, a sleeve of piping-hot and deliciously salty French fries, and a cunningly-baked pie filled entirely with apples! "An ever-flowing bag of nourishment," said Santa jovially, "made just the way you young people like it!" He winked, and turned at last to Victory.

"Ah, my noble rocket of the skies. So many favors you have done me." Santa gave Victory a long, searching look. "I cannot give you what you deserve, but I can give you what you need." He reached into his bag one last time and pulled out...a set of keys, which he handed to the ace pilot. Victory looked at the keys and recognized the lion of the skies, the workhorse of the air: the Douglas DC-3! "It's in red and green and parked in a slot reserved for Kris Kringle at Jordan Airport. I used to use it for delivering presents during the war!" He laughed, putting his hands on his belly. "It's got a few surprises I think you'll like!"

[Gizmo]

Jill snorted loudly at Dragonfly's dry comment while Jack gave the diminutive technologist a sidelong smirk, shaking his head slowly. "Heh. Nicely played, chica," he commended her, his grin widening to show teeth. "For a dour, sentence fragment type, you got potential."

His sister's mouth quavered as she struggled to hold in a laugh. "Snrk. You're a bellhead."

Jack gave her a look, pausing. "...is this going to be like a thing now?"

"Bellhead!"

"Right," the elder sibling sighed good naturedly as they made their way to gather around Santa's bag. Jack raised an eyebrow as they retrieved the envelopes, then abruptly lowered it as he flipped through the brochure. "Wow. Ah, thanks, sir. That's... thanks."

[JackgarPrime]

"Heh. I'm sure the look on his face in the morning will be priceless, sir." Lance took a step back as Santa went to address the other heroes, handing out their very unique gifts. And when Santa came to Victory himself, he shook his head. "Don't worry, sir. I'm just doing my duty." But he wasn't the kind to refuse a gift from the very spirit of giving, and held his hand out to accept his gift.

As he turned over the keys in his hand, Victory's eyes began to widen as he realized what it actually was. He'd seen old pictures of an unusually-shaded DC-3 (as the pictures were still black-and-white, one could only make out the odd shading), and had heard many rumors about it. He didn't think it actually existed, though! And these are the keys to that very plane. His smile grew warmer, and turned the keys over a few more times, before storing them in a compartment in his arm.

Straightening up his body and his face, Victory gives Big Red an enthusiastic salute. "Thank you for this honor, sir! I will make sure your generous gift is well taken care of, and put to good use!"

[Electra]

Miss Americana was reluctant to step forward and receive her gift, but not taking it at this point would seem strange at best, and would probably just draw more attention to other oddities she'd displayed this evening. So instead she put a big smile on her face as she examined the vending machine. "Wow, this will be perfect for the long nights in my lab," she told Santa, her eyes serious behind the smile as she studied his face. What was the old elf up to? Her strength easily allowed her to carry the machine, which felt like it was already fully loaded with beverages. "I was wondering... could you help us get back to Freedom City? It's a bit of a hike home from here."

[Fox]

Dragonfly raised an eyebrow, peering down into the cloth bag. planes - drink machines - a burger? Still...it had been a long night. She hadn't even realized she was hungry, but the smell coming from the bag was making her stomach growl. Carefully pulling the burger out with one hand, she took a bite.

Dragonfly made a sound of pure culinary satisfaction, her shoulders slumping a little as she melted and her world turned into delicious, delicious flavor. that - that is a very very good burger The rest of it disappeared so fast she may as well have sucked it into her dimensional pocket, interspersed with mumbled 'thank you's toward the jolly old gifter.

[Avenger Assembled]

No sooner had Dragonfly finished the burger than she felt the packing paper swell in her hand. Within mere seconds, another delicious-looking cheeseburger was there, dripping with sauce and bacon! It looked just as delicious as the first one, though was different enough in shape and weight that it was obviously not the same burger. Looking pleased at her enjoyment of his gift, Santa moved to address the crowd, handing everyone a jingly Christmas ornament before raising his own to the air. "Come, my friends! Let the magic of Christmas send you to your homes and your holiday with a recitation of the Christmas Oath!" He began to chant, his booming voice ringing out across the field as the elves, reindeer, and all others joined them; Lupita doing the same as she stood by Avenger.

"Punish the naughty, reward the nice;

Check the list not once but twice;

Let those who chant humbug's spell beware my power:

The Christmas Bell!"

As the bells jingled, Santa boomed "Ho-ho-ho! Merry Christmas, and I'll see you all next year!" And then there was a wash of snow across everyone's vision, bright and cold, and they were right back where they'd started before meeting Adrian Eldritch, their new acquisitions from Santa Claus standing right next to them like newly-unwrapped presents.