"You can't be serious..." Dark Ace's jaw fell open when he discovered what his next mission was. He couldn't believe he'd been picked for this job. He would've thought it was going to be Snipe this year... He'd done it two years running and he truely hated it. Why him? Why? Master Cyclonis knew he hated children, so why make him suffer? Was this some sort of punishment for failing to destroy the Storm Hawks? Snipe'd be better for the job... he was bigger than Dark Ace. This was unbelieveable.

The Dark Ace threw the red santa suit on the bed and let out a loud growl. This was going to be a really bad christmas, he had a feeling. The best bit about it was the part when he went to bed absolutly paraletic; he'd wake up the next day and everything would be back to normal again. Of course he'd suffer with the headache, but he didn't mind, anything to get rid of Christmas! He could hear the evil cackle from Ravess's mouth echo in his ears already, and he hadn't even stepped into the costume. Surely he, the most feared man in the whole entire Atmos, couldn't dress up as Father Christmas and have little children sitting on his lap on Christmas Day? Where was the sense in that?

He sighed; it was no use, there was no way he was going to get out of this one. He didn't understand why Snipe couldn't be him... It just didn't make sense to him. Stepping into the suit, Dark Ace couldn't help but scowl. He felt a fool, he knew he looked like a fool. Why was he being punished??

*

Dark Ace reluctantly sat down on the big red chair. He was still scowling.
"Aww, cheer up, Santa, it'll all be over soon," one, short 'elf' smiled.
"Ugh... Just get me something extremely strong and alcoholic to drink," he replied before the first child sat on his knee. He very nearly yelped and pushed the child off, but he told himself he'd be rewarded back home on Cyclonia if he just passed this without any commotion.

He gritted his teeth as the child rambled on about all the he wanted for christmas. As if Dark Ace cared about what this little bastard wanted. He didn't care, he just wanted to get out of there. He didn't care about anyone or anything. Dark Ace tried to concerntrate on something else, every time he did this, it landed on the small 'elf' that had spoken to him before. She was... incredible, if he had to tell the truth. Nice legs, great figure, gorgeous light brown hair... and a pair of blue eyes to die for.

What was he thinking? Dark Ace told himself to snap out of it as he felt the kid climb off his lap and wish him a Merry Christmas. Dark Ace muttered one back and the next child climbed on... This was going to take forever...

*

Dark Ace flopped on his bed, exhausted. There was no way he was going to do that again, nothing can pursuade him. Well, maybe one thing...