Santa Claws and his Slay Bells (IC)

[Supercape]

"How about this one?" asked Rene, opening up a suspiciously big box. It looked, however, almost empty.

"No luck there" he replied, giggling slightly.

"You having any lucky wucky?" he asked Victory, before collapsing in hysterical fits of laughter.

[JackgarPrime]

Victory had gotten back to looking around, managing to mostly get his composure back, but still pretty ticked off about the scarring to his chasis. He's a bit surprised the laser was even able to make marks like that on his special alloy.

"Nothing yet...."

He was sorting through boxes again, when he noticed the laughing. Something must be wrong!

He swings his gaze back to Rene, just in time to see him collapsing in laughter. Quickly, he zipped over, and tried to check Rene over.

"Hey! Hey, snap out of it!"

[Supercape]

"Yes, yes" muttered Rene, fighting off the hysterics.

How undignified! screamed the more lucid parts of his brain, as the primitive parts danced with manic elation.

"Some kind of gas...pfft hahaha.... laughing gas... I guess... pffthahaha. Don't know what I'll do next... nexty wexty...HAHAHAHA!"

[JackgarPrime]

Well, Rene at least seemed to be fighting it off. Or trying to. Thinking quick, he swiftly picked Rene up on to his shoulder.

"Sorry, but I gotta get you out of this room until the gas is gone."

He doesn't wait for a response. He zips Renee into the room they had come from, to get him away from the gas. And just as quickly, he zipped back in. The best way to get rid of it would be to dissipate it, so, using his significant speed, he flew in small circles, attempting to funnel the gas up and out the vents near the ceiling.

[Supercape]

Rene shook his head and felt the cobwebs clear. Perhaps the gas had worn off, perhaps Victories burst of speed had shaken his brain into gear.

"Thankyou, monsieur" he muttered, then had to fight down the wave of nausea that came from the blistering speed of the cyborg. "Although I am afraid my old body is not built for such furious bursts of speed!" he gave a grimace.

He looked back at the Toy storage room. "There are not many places left our little enemy can be hiding... and I for one am keen to give him a smacked bottom!"

[JackgarPrime]

It's easy to forget that, at his speeds, he has to be more careful ferrying people around. He usually slows down a lot when moving rescued citizens and whatnot, but sometimes he cuts all-out in cases like this. And some people have a harder time handling those kinds of speeds than others.

"Sorry. Sometimes I forget that people aren't supposed to be moved that fast."

Victory moves his eyes over the room again, checking out heat sources inside the remaining presents.

"But I must agree. It's about time we dealt with him for good. He's going to be spending his Christmas behind bars."

[Supercape]

Rene dusted himself off, although there was no dust in the spotless environment of Toy Boy's Arctic factory. Nonetheless, it always paid to make a show of it.

"Hmph. Well yes, don't you forget it young man. Tsk. Youth of today. "

He held on to his hip and made a face of pain, although he was barely feeling a twinge. There was always time to make a song and dance about aching bones.

[JackgarPrime]

Victory couldn't help but wonder if the old man was exaggerating his aches. He's known quite a few elderly who do just that, and anyone who could even do any heroics at his age can probably handle the stress more than he's letting on. But he doesn't bring it up right now. There are more important issues.

Cautiously, Victory approaches the next box. Slowly, he removes the top, keeping at arm's length away, preparing for anything...

[Supercape]

"Careful..." muttered Rene, who had by now developed a healthy fear of presents.

I'll never open another gift wrapper present in quite the same way... he thought to himself. He briefly thought about the chaos that the "deliveries" must have caused in Freedom City. He hoped no children would have opened a box by accident... Christmas would be ruined forever!

bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz Came the tiny sound.

Rene's old eyes could only make out a greyish blur, but Victories superior enhanced vision could make them out clearly enough: a swarm of microscopic robotic flies!

[JackgarPrime]

Victory could certainly understand the feeling. He's going to be pretty cautious about brightly colored packages from this point on, himself. With the box open, the swarm that flows out just increases any present-based paranoia he may begin developing.

As soon as it popped up, Victory's vision clarified what was going on with it. Bugs. Tiny ones. Not really something you can just punch. However....they are still flammable! Thinking fast, Victory grits his teeth and bends his arms at the shoulders, letting the boosters built into his forearms blaze over the swarm! It was a tremendous bit of flame, but it could only last for a long enough burst to burn them all away.

[Supercape]

"Nice improv" mentioned Rene. "Very Jazz. More to you than meets the eye!" he said, tapping his nose.

He poked the dust that had been the robotic swarm with his foot, leaving a trail of carbon. "I have to hand it to his inventiveness, if not his morals. He has some class there. Some artistry".

He shook his head clear.

"However, I would rather discuss his artistic merits face to face..." he muttered in a more irritated tone. "Where is he???"

[JackgarPrime]

Victory has to take a moment to catch his breath. Using the jets for an offensive purpose is not what they were meant for. Directing them that way took a slight toll, due to the sudden burning of fuel.

"...Huh...Thank you. My mechanic probably won't be happy with me for that one, though."

Taking one last scan, to make sure he didn't miss any traps, Victory gets ready to finally find the little bugger.

"A shame, isn't it? So many of the creative types end up using that creativity for their own selfish purposes. If he really wanted to just make toys, I'm sure we could set something up for him to work out of prison."

[Supercape]

Victory opened what must surely have been the last possible toy to house the scallywag in question, and sure enough, cute as a button and as furious as a bull, sat Toyboy, amidst a plethora of scanners, video feeds, joysticks, and keyboards.

"Curse you Victory! Curse you!" the man-child screamed in a high pitched voice. "I'll get my hands on that technology if the last thing I do" he continued waving his fist.

[JackgarPrime]

Victory seemed....rather unimpressed by their foe, seeing him face-to-face. His eyes shielded from sight by his visor, the angry glare he was giving was blocked from view.

"You're just going to have to settle for the technology to get its hands on you."

He reached in, his massive metal hand grabbing the villain by the collar and hoisting him up in the air. He gave a glance back to Rene, and smirked. "I believe you said something about...how did you put it? Reddening his bottom?"

[Supercape]

"Indeed I did" said Rene, raising his hand and putting on his best fierce voice...

"You are a very, VERY, naughty boy" he said, with all the menace he could muster.

"Noooo... Noooo!" squealed Toy Boy, scrunching up his face and holding his hands over his behind as best he was able.

Rene chuckled. "You fully deserve a good spanking, Monsieur. But in this case, I shall let the courts of law decide what is right and best for you. Which, I should imagine, would mean a loss of liberty and a stay at a certain high security specialist prison in Freedom City. I'll let your brain, which I am sure is quite spectacular, do the imagination for you. "

He looked at Victory "can you take him back to Freedom? I could do with a ride myself... perhaps there is a Sleigh here we could borrow?"

[JackgarPrime]

"That's definitely where he's going. It's been made much faster to get these super-criminal types right to prison, so he should be locked up by tomorrow night. And since I'm not up for hearing him complain the whole way back...."

He brings his finger up and, as Toy Boy is sure to go about whining, he flicks him in the back of the head, with just enough force to knock him out, without causing any serious damage. With that out of the way, he moves Toy Boy under his arm like a sack, and thinks.

"Well, there was the sleigh that brought me here, but it may be out of commission. If you're okay with it, I could carry you back. I promise to slow down if you need me to."

[Supercape]

"Hmph" muttered Rene. "Travelling by air at that speed through the Arctic? Sounds a bit cold to me..."

He brought out a notebook and carefully removed a picture of a Street in Freedom City. His home. "I shall let you deal with Toy Boy and the authorities, as you seem much more official than me. I shall have to make my own way back. "

He brought out his paintbrush and started waving it in mid-air. Colours and lights danced around, and Victory could see an image form on the picture.

"All that red tape and legalese" muttered Rene "its no good for my heart you know. After all" he continued, as he faded from view and the image on the picture become quite clearly that of Rene giving a wave to the camera.

"I'm just a helpless old man!".

Was it possible that the last bit of Rene to fade away into the picture was his left eye, hung motionless in the air for a fraction of a second, before disappearing with a wink?

[JackgarPrime]

"Hmph. Sure you are."

The last bit of the eye remaining to wink...well...it did weird Victory out just a bit, but he just shook his head with a grin on his face. Silly old man. He was a good help, though, he would freely admit.

"Come on, then, Toy Boy. I'll make sure Santa delivers your coal right to the prison."

And then, once more, he was off, rocketing into the snow, on his way back to Freedom, and to enjoy a nice mug of cocoa.