Wolf was dead to begin with. There was absolutely no doubt about that. His death certificate was signed by the clergyman, the gravedigger, and most importantly, by Aran herself. If Aran had signed it, it was official. Wolf had croaked.

Did Aran know he had croaked? Well, of course she did! She had been Wolf's partner, only friend, only confident and only mourner. She had been the one who had paid for his funereal for the love of Mike! (Which was the sorriest, cheapest excuse for a funereal imaginable. The coffin was actually bought used.) Aran knew that Wolf had died, and quite frankly, she couldn't care less. It was his fault for not keeping better care of those airplanes he loved to fly. Maybe he wouldn't have crashed if he had. Of course, there were always the rumors that one of his employees had sabotaged the plane himself, in order to destroy his abusive and greedy boss. Actually, that wouldn't be a surprise at all, but Aran didn't care enough to investigate. Aran didn't give a flying leap.

Dear Ms. Aran wasn't very nice, if you couldn't tell by now.

Samus Aran was without the richest, wealthiest and most successful businesswomen in Smash City. She had money, and her own business that she had created herself. She was also one of the stingiest, greediest, and most selfish women in the city. Samus Aran had it all: the beauty of a twenty year old, the intellect of an eighty year old, and the self-love and greed of a sixteen year old spoiled brat. Her business was large, and she ran the whole thing by herself, refusing to allow anyone else to control that which she had built herself. Her employees were overworked, underpaid, and regularly miserable. Samus herself was a miser, rarely spending the money she had horded away for years. Despite being only twenty three, she was never bright, happy, and cheery. She was cold and hard, to anyone who made the mistake of speaking to her.

So, one very cold Christmas Eve afternoon, Samus Aran, dressed in her black attire, stalked into her three room building that she made her base of operations, casting a quick glare at her employees, who were working away on their typewriters (computers were too expensive) and walked into her office, passing by her secretary, a brunette named Zelda.

What could be said about Zelda? That is, what could be negatively said about Zelda? Zelda was beautiful, kind-hearted, selfless, generous, and flat-out broke. Zelda had been an heiress when her father had died. Rather than use the money for herself, she spent it to build the Smash City Orphanage, built to save children from starving on the streets. However, a combination of expensive bills and dishonest banking put Zelda in the poor house, and she now struggled daily to feed the children she looked after. With the pay she made working for Aran, she barely had enough to do even that. Some nights the children starved, some nights they would shiver in the cold with the lack of heater and an unsafe fireplace. Zelda had very little experience other than writing, so she managed to get a job as Samus' secretary, mainly because Samus was happy to employ someone who was so desperate for money that she would strive to do the work harder for even the smallest wages.

However, today there was one man who wasn't usually there. A small mustached man wearing a green coat and shivering in a combination of fear and the cold (Aran refused to buy a heater) and casting frightened glances at Aran was sitting on the chair outside of her cubicle office.

"Ms Harkanian," Samus said. "Who," she poked the man in the gut, "or should I say what is this?"

Zelda looked up from her typing. "His name is Mr. Luigi, ma'am. He's here to talk about... the loan he borrowed from you."

Samus stalked into her office, pulling off her winter coat, while Luigi began to babble. "Ms. Aran I know you're upset, but I can explain all of this! You see, my wife, Daisy, lovely woman, you should see her, wants to have a child, and we couldn't have a child without a proper nursery, not to mention how expensive the doctor is-!"

Samus hung up her coat and hat on the coat-rack in her office.

"But I do intend to pay back every penny we borrowed! We just needed a little money to help pay for Christmas presents and such, you know trees and lights, and that kind of thing-!"

Samus walked out of his office and grabbed the smaller man by the collar and walked over to the door.

"But I swear I'll pay you back! With interest! Double interest! Triple intreeessssst!"

Samus kicked the door to the building open and tossed Luigi out into the snow before slamming the door shut.

Her employees took that as a note to get back the work.

Samus walked back to her office, hands folded behind her back. "Ms. Harkanian, please prepare the bankruptcy notices for tomorrow morning to be sent to our dead-beat friend."

Zelda looked up, surprise written on her features. "Ma'am, tomorrow's Christmas."

Samus rolled her eyes. "Don't remind me."

Zelda nodded and wrote the note down. "Yes, ma'am," she said, her voice filled with regret.

After that, the office was quiet, other than the sound of typing. And that was the way Aran liked it.

It was then that Douglas Falcon stood up from his work and walked into the office. Douglas (or Falcon, which he preferred) was the bravest out of the employees. He was a kind, 37 year old race-car wannabe who never got a shot at his dream due to poor funds. He liked danger and excitement, and was one of the only ones who would actually dare to go and complain to his employer. However, as usual, Samus barely acknowledged his presence when he walked into the office.

"Ms. Aran?" he asked.

Samus sighed, realizing that he was probably complaining. "Yes, Mr. Falcon?" she said, the words filled with annoyance.

Falcon ignored the annoyance. "Ma'am, the others and I are feeling really cold in these winter months, and we were wondering if we could buy a heater?"

Samus' answer was quick. "No."

Falcon managed to keep his cool. "But ma'am, we're all very cold lately, and it's only going to get colder!"

"We're freezing!" Yoshi, another worker said, shivering.

"We'll catch pneumonia!" Olimar complained, rubbing his large, running nose.

Zelda's timid voice chimed, "It is very cold, ma'am. Maybe Falcon's right."

Samus stood and slammed her fists on her desk. "Then wear a thicker coat!" she shouted. "Wear mittens, gloves, hats, earmuffs, I don't care! But if I hear one more complaint, you can find yourselves shivering on the unemployment line!"

All the workers rushed back to work, forgetting their cold bodies and focusing on making a living. Samus sat back down, satisfied that she had control over her office once again. Until...

"Merry Christmas everybody!"

Samus' only living blood relative, her nephew Link walked into the room, wearing his green coat and hat, and carrying a large bag filled with Christmas Wreaths in one arm and a present in the other. The mood of the room was considerably lightened as Samus' kind and beloved nephew began to pass out his presents to his Aunt's overworked workers, giving each a lovely wreath for their homes. "And a Merry Christmas to you too, Aunt Samus!" Link said after giving a smiling Zelda her wreath and walking into the small room Samus called an office.

"Heh," Samus said. "Humbug."

"Christmas a Humbug, Auntie?" Link asked his voice still happy. "Surely you don't mean that! And who even says humbug anymore?"

Samus scowled. She hated it when Link called her "Auntie". "I do mean it, Nephew. And if I had my way, any idiot who ran around with the words 'Merry Christmas' would be shot upon sight without a trial." She meant every word.

Link's good mood didn't diminish in the very slightest. "Oh, Auntie, don't be like that. Be happy! It's the season of joy for the love of Mike!"

"Why are you so happy?" Samus asked. "You're certainly poor enough."

Why are you so angry?" Link retorted. "You're certainly rich enough."

A small laugh came from outside Samus' Office. Zelda covered her mouth to stop herself.

Samus scowled. "One more laugh from you, Ms. Harkanian, and you'll be spending Christmas in the gutter!"

Zelda gulped. "I'm sorry, Ms. Aran. That was unprofessional of me."

"Darn right it was," Samus muttered, going back to her paperwork. She glanced up at Link. "Now what do you want here? I don't think you came to talk to me about how I should spend my holidays."

"You got me there," Link said. "First off, I came to give you this." He placed the box on the table. Samus opened it, stared at the orange scarf inside, and then popped it into the trash can.

Trying not to frown, Link continued: "Secondly, I came to invite you to dinner on Christmas Day! We'll be having all sorts of nice foods, play a few games. I know you like to spend your time in this office, but why not come? Midna and I would love it!"

"Midna?" Samus asked. "Oh wait, that's right, the Goth woman you married. I doubt she wants to see me."

"First off, Midna isn't Goth, she just likes dark colors. Secondly, you didn't exactly leave a lasting impression at my wedding."

"And what kind of impression did I leave?"

"You never came to my wedding!" Link said. "I had to listen to her crazy Uncle Zant all night!"

"Well, boo-hoo for you," Samus replied, sarcasm dripping from her voice. "Is that all? Because I'd-!"

The door opened and two gentlemen walked in, wearing rather raggedy looking coats. In their hands they were carrying checklists and calculators. Samus sighed. Donation collectors.

"Excuse me, ma'am?" the first, a smiling fox asked. "My name is Fox Mc-Cloud, here for the Star Fox Charity Services. Oh, and this is my partner, Falco." He gestured to the blue bird that was standing next to him.

Falco barely smiled. He seemed bored or depressed. Samus barely cared.

"What do you want?" the business woman asked briskly.

Fox cleared his throat. "Well, ma'am, it is important that in these times, when the world is more caring and kind, that we strive to help those less fortunate than us. So I and my fellows are currently collecting donations for that cause. Would we be able to ask for a small sum of money from you? How much could we put you down for?"

"Nothing." Samus began to scribble on her paper again.

"You wish to remain anonymous?" Fox asked.

"I wish to be left alone!" Samus shouted.

"What a surprise," muttered Falco.

"But ma'am!" said Fox. "There's nowhere else for them to go!"

"How about the poor houses?" asked Samus.

"Have you seen some of those places? They're hardly fit to live in at these times! Some would prefer to die than go there!"

"If they'd rather die," Samus hissed, "then they'd better go and do it, and decrease the surplus population!"

"But, ma'am-!" stammered Fox.

"I said out!" Samus said, pointing at the door.

The two walked out dejected, Falco muttering unhappily about a lack of donations.

"Gentlemen, wait!" Link cried, running forward and pulling out a small handful of money out of his pocket. "I know it's not much, but here," he said, handing the money to Falco.

Falco managed a small smile. "Nice to see someone being nice this time of year. Thanks a ton."

"You're welcome," Link replied.

The two departed, and Link turned back to Samus, who was back to her paperwork. "Was that really necessary?" he asked.

"Yes," Samus replied. "My tax-money goes to funding poor-houses and prisons. The poor should go there if they need shelter."

Link sighed. There was no arguing with this woman. You'd have a better time arguing with a brick wall. "Are you coming to Christmas Dinner or not?" he asked.

Samus glared. "Nephew, you keep Christmas in your way and I'll keep it in mine."

"Very well then." He turned to Samus' workers. "Would any of you like to join us for dinner?" he asked.

Zelda smiled a sad smile. "Well, I need to care for the children tomorrow. I couldn't have Lucas spread germs all over your house. It wouldn't be polite."

"And we're going to have dinner at Zelda's place tomorrow!" said Falcon, as the other workers nodded. "We have presents for the kids!"

Link smiled. "Oh well, I guess I just can't win. Well, Merry Christmas everyone!"

"It's still humbug!" Samus called from her office.

"And a Happy New Year!" Link finished as he waltzed out the door.

Samus scowled. "Idiot..." She then glanced at the present in her trash bin. She picked it up and walked out of her office, saying, "Mr. Falcon."

Douglas looked up from his typing. "Yes, ma'am?"

"If you want to warm up that badly, start a fire." She tossed the box at his head. "And here's the kindling!"

It was quiet, after that.

Evening came, and after a long, long day, Samus' workers picked themselves up out of their desks and pulled on their winter coats. Zelda walked into Samus' office and announced, "It is closing time, ma'am."

Samus nodded and placed her pen into her drawer. "Alright then, see you tomorrow, Ms Harkanian. 8:00, sharp."

Zelda looked up, surprised. The other workers froze. "Tomorrow is Christmas, ma'am."

"Eight Thirty then."

"I'm sorry, ma'am, but a half hour hardly seems customary for Christmas Day," Zelda explained.

Samus raised an eyebrow at that. "And what would be customary for Christmas Day, Ms. Harkanian?"

Zelda swallowed. "A whole day, ma'am."

"A whole day?" Samus asked, obviously unhappy with the prospect.

Zelda nodded. "Yes, ma'am. Other businesses will be closed; there will be nobody to do business with."

Falcon chimed in, "It would be a waste of expensive paper!"

Samus rolled her eyes. "That hardly seems like a good excuse to pick a woman's pocket annually."

Everyone sighed at the prospect of working tomorrow.

Samus groaned. "But since I seem to be the only one smart enough to know that... take the damn day off."

The workers began to cheer and Zelda smiled and nodded.

Samus pulled on her coat and hat, and said as viciously as she could, "But be here an hour earlier the day after that!"

The workers all nodded and began to clean up the shop as Samus walked out of the door into the cold winter night. It was only when Yoshi, who was watching from the window proclaimed, "She's gone!" did the workers began talking happily about having a happy Christmas. The air was soon filled with their happy words and plans.

Soon, once they were done cleaning, they locked up shop and began the long, cold walk home, whilst their angry employer stalked off the other way.

Samus' house was easy to see in Smash City. It was the massive, castle-like building that over-looked the park. It was a four-minute walk away from her workshop, so she never had to use her car. Samus, as stated before, was a miser. She rarely spent much money on things other than food and bills. She never even actually bought the house. It was inherited from her dead parents, Rodney and Virginia Aran. She hadn't moved into it until she had come to the city, and very little had happened to it since then. Samus didn't ever bother to redecorate. So it looked very aged, almost ancient. It had a black metal gate surrounding it, along with several gargoyle-like statues of bird-like men covering the house, making it look almost Gothic in origin.

Samus pushed open the black gates and locked them after her as she walked to the door of her house, eager to partake in her evening rituals. She climbed up onto the front porch and began to unlock the door. Once she finished, she reached for the bird-head shaped door-handle, only to freeze once she looked at it.

She didn't see the sharp looking, falcon shaped door handle. She saw Wolf O'Donnell's head, his grey fur dark and stormy, his mouth curled into a snarl, his single eye glaring at her.

Samus jumped back, only to slip on her icy steps. She fell over and struck her head on the ground. After swearing a few times, she pulled herself up, and, after making sure to not slip, inspected the door handle again, only to find that it was in fact the same door handle she had always had.

"I need to get something to eat," she muttered. "It's going to my head."

She unlocked the door and walked into her dark house. She quickly headed to the kitchen and pulled open the fridge. She pulled out the tin container that had the sesame seed chicken leftovers that she had saved from two days ago when she had Chinese takeout. After pulling the food from the microwave and grabbing a fork and a glass of water, Samus retreated to her bedroom, the thought of Wolf still on her mind.

After lighting her fire place (heaters were too expensive, again), putting on her night clothes (blue ones, bought at the local thrift store), and sat in her easy recliner chair (used of course) and ate her fast food, trying to calm herself down.

She had obviously hit her head harder than she thought, right? It was just an illusion of Wolf she had seen, right? She hadn't eaten for most of day, so she was just having some bad dreams because of her stomach. That was all, she convinced herself as she shoved more reheated chicken into her mouth.

She didn't know how long she been sitting there until her wall clock struck twelve and began to chime. Rapidly. The bell began to ring quickly and without stopping once. The rapid ticking got Samus' attention and she turned to see the hands of the clock rotating rapidly around the face, spinning hypnotically around. Samus stared at it, spellbound, until it arrived at 12:01.

Then, the fire went out, leaving Samus in the dark.

The blonde growled. That wasn't supposed to happen. She got up and felt around for the matches on the mantle.

Then she heard the clanking. The slow, awful sound of chains clanking.

Samus froze as the clanking steadily grew louder and louder. She felt the room's temperature drop.

Then, she heard the door swing open, and a blue light filled the room.

Samus swallowed and turned around slowly, her breath frozen in her throat. There, standing in the door, was a chained, bandaged, and transparent Wolf O'Donnell.

"Samus..." the figure hissed.

Samus backed away slowly. "What are you?" she asked, trying to replace her fear with anger in her voice.

The figure chuckled. "Don't you remember me, Sammy? In life, I was you business partner. Wolf O'Donnell."

Samus made a snarling sound. "It looks like you..." she admitted."But it can't be!" she shouted.

Wolf smirked. "Why do you doubt your own eyes, Sammy?"

Samus pointed an accusing finger at her ex-partner. "Because a little thing can make them cheat! You could just be a piece of bad chicken. A little too much coffee! Some undigested chow mien! All you are is an excuse to sue that Chinese place I order from! Yeah," she said confidently. "There's more of gravy than of grave about you!"

Wolf howled, a long and dreadful howl, blasting sound and cold air into Samus' face. Samus felt like her face was freezing solid, and she backed away from the ghost, falling into her large four poster bed.

"Do you believe me now?" the ghost growled.

Despite her heart beating like a drum, Samus tried to maintain her courage. "It seems I have no choice," she muttered, reaching her hand slowly toward her pillow. "But please tell me. Why are you here?"

Wolf smirked again. "It is required of every man, and woman, and anthropomorphic animal" he hissed, "that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellow men. And if that spirit goes not forth in life, he is condemned to do so after death, to witness what he cannot share, but might've shared and turned to happiness."

"Oh," Samus said, as if it was obvious. "That's why."

Then, her hand shot under her pillow and pulled out a large, sawed off, shotgun. She aimed within milliseconds and opened fire on her ex-partner. When he didn't fall, she fired again and again, until she ran out of ammo in the gun.

Wolf was laughing ecstatically, his chains rattling as his spectral form shook. "A shotgun?" he shouted. "I can't believe you thought that would work! You actually keep a shotgun under your pillow! What do you think you are, a Ghostbuster?"

Samus dropped the gun and headed for the door, seeing that her plan had failed. However, she ended up tripping over on of Wolf's many chains and toppling to the ground. Trying to get up, she found herself staring into Wolf's glowing eyes. Unable to breath, she asked, "What do you want?"

"What I want," Wolf hissed, "is to save you from what happened to me."

"Dying in a plane crash?"

"No, you idiot!" snapped Wolf. "Dying a greedy, self-loving and selfish monster!" he shouted as his chains began to rattle loudly.

Samus winced. "What are you talking about?" she whispered. "And could you get rid of those blasted chains? They're irritating me!"

"Oh, I would love to get rid of these forsaken things!" Wolf howled, silencing Samus. "But I can't! These chains are the chains I forged in life by my acts of greed and selfishness! For this act, I am forced to wear this blasted line of steel and iron for the rest of my life!" He paused, and then added, "Oh and I went to Hell to and that's pretty bad, but these chains just make it worse!" He jabbed Samus in the nose. "You yourself wear a chain like this! And day by day, it's getting longer and heavier! Is this what you want, Sammy?" He thrust his muzzle into her face. "IS IT?"

"Wolf!" Samus protested. "What are you talking about? You weren't a bad person! You were just a man of business!"

"Mankind should have been my business," Wolf replied, grimly. "But I never listened. And now, this happened to me. And worse will happen to you!"

"No!" shouted Samus, pulling away. "Tell me that you're lying, Wolf! Tell me you're lying!"

"I would if I could but I can't, so I shant," Wolf retorted. "However, I'm not here to tell you of your inevitable damnation. I'm here to tell you that maybe - just maybe - you can save yourself from this."

"Tell me!" Samus begged, her bravado gone. "Tell me how!"

Wolf growled. "Tonight, you will be visited by three spirits - well, four if your count me - who will guide you on the path of redemption. Listen to what they say, and you may just make it out of this world happy and loved, unlike me." Wolf suddenly gasped as the chains that were wrapped around him were pulled by an unseen force. "Do you want my help!" he croaked as a chain pulled on his neck.

"Yes!" Samus whispered, unsure of what was happening.

Wolf gave a yelp as the chains pulled him to the window. They almost yanked him out of the window. He clawed at the window sill and tried to pull himself in. "Expect the first ghost when the bell tolls one!" he shouted.

"Can't I see them all at once and get it over with!" Samus shouted.

"When the bell-!" The chains pulled harder. "Tolls-!" And harder. "One!" And harder.

Wolf was almost yanked away from the window. In his last effort, he grabbed Samus by the collar of her night shirt and shouted, "Change!" in her face, before he was dragged, screaming and shouting, away into the night. When his ghostly moans faded and he disappeared from view, Samus leaped into bed and pulled the covers over her head, Wolf's words still on her mind.

Merry Christmas Folks!

It's me, your favorite Sonamus writer Coli Chibi wishing you happy holidays! Thanks for reading and please review!

Anyway, I think the source of this story doesn't need to be explained. The Christmas Carol is one of the most loved stories of all time. And many adaptations have been made, but my favorites are the Muppet Christmas Carol and the Stingiest Man in Town, by Rankin and Bass. Since it's the Holidays, why not go and watch them? Both are great!

Anyways, now for some explanations:

Yes, Samus is out Scrooge figure. I could have gone with Bowser, or Ganondorf, but that seemed too easy. Besides, Samus has that businessy kind of gal.

I know I haven't shown any Sonamus yet, but just wait till the next part. You'll see it!

Wolf seemed like a good Marley, didn't he? He is a mercenary, and that's close to a bounty hunter, like Samus. I could have made Captain Falcon Marley, but he seemed like such a nice guy. Besides, I already screwed around with him in Fast Love, so I decided to give him a break

Zelda seemed like the perfect Cratchit figure. She's calm but troubled, and seemed like the perfect mild-mannered figure to use.

And yes, Link is married to Midna, from Twilight Princess. I know she never technically appeared in Super Smash Bros., but I love her too much, and I'm a Midlinker, so what're you gonna do?

Well, I have things to do, so see you next time!