Another Smallville-Disney mash-up, and this time, a certain industrialist is the hero.

Disclaimer: Mickey's Christmas Carol belongs to Walt Disney, and Smallville and Arrow belongs to Warner Brothers, and the characters from that and any other DC character I use belongs to DC Comics.

Clark's Christmas Carol
Chapter 1: Strange's Ghost

In Metropolis, on Christmas Eve, the stingiest man in town, Malcolm Merlyn, walked down the street. There was no Christmas cheer in his heart though. Merlyn hated the whole idea of Christmas. As he walked, he passed a homeless man as he outstretched his hand.
"Give a penny for the poor sir." The man said. "Penny for the poor."
"Bah." Merlyn said simply before continuing to his counting house, Merlyn & Strange. Merlyn never bothered to paint out Strange's name.
"My partner Hugo Strange." Merlyn said calmly. "Dead seven years today. He was a good businessman. He robbed from the widows and swindled the poor."
Merlyn looked at the sign and smirked.
"In his will he left me enough money for his tombstone, and I had him buried at sea." Merlyn chuckled to himself.

Inside the store, Merlyn's bookman, Clark Kent, was about to put a thing of coal in the fire while Merlyn was out when he came in.
"Oh... Uh..." Clark said nervously. "Good morning Mr. Merlyn."
"Kent, what are you doing with that piece of coal?!" Merlyn asked angrily.
"I was just trying to thaw out the ink, sir." Clark said timidly as he pointed to the ice covered ink quill.
"You used a piece last week!" Merlyn snapped as he grabbed the coal and tossed it in a bucket. "Now get on with your work, Kent!"
"Speaking of work Mr. Merlyn tomorrow is Christmas, and I was wondering if I could have... Half the day off?"
"Christmas." Merlyn spat angrily as he thought. "Mm... Oh, I suppose so, but I'll dock you half a day's pay. Now let's see... I pay you two dollars a day."
"Uh, two dollars and a quarter, sir." Clark corrected.
"Oh right." Merlyn said. "I gave you that raise three years ago."
"Yes sir." Clark said. "When I started doing your laundry."
"Alright Kent, get busy while I go over my books, oh and I've got another bundle of shirts for you." Merlyn said as he tossed a moderately large laundry bag at Clark.
"Yes sir." Clark said quickly.
Merlyn then sat down and went over his notes as a large amount of money sat in front of him.
"Now let's see..." Merlyn mused. "One hundred and twelve dollars from Fine, plus his eighty-percent interest, compounded daily..."
Merlyn laughed as he played a little with a few coins.
"Money, money, money."
Then the door opened, and Merlyn's nephew and only living relative, Oliver Queen came in.
"Merry Christmas!" Oliver called out.
"And a merry Christmas to you, Ollie." Clark said as he took a break from his books to talk to Oliver.
"Bah humbug." Merlyn muttered.
"Merry Christmas, Uncle Malcolm!" Oliver called out with a smile.
"What's so merry about it?" Merlyn asked moodily. "I'll tell you what Christmas is, it's just another work day, and any jackanapes who thinks else should be boiled in his own pudding!"
"Ew." Oliver remarked.
"But sir Christmas is a time for giving." Clark said quickly. "A time to be with one's family."
"I say 'Bah humbug.'" Merlyn said stubbornly.
"I don't care!" Oliver called out. "I say 'Merry Christmas!'"
"Well said Ollie!" Clark called out as he applauded.
"Kent, what are you doing?!" Merlyn asked angrily.
"Uh..." Clark said nervously as he stopped clapping. "Just trying to keep my hands warm, sir."
"And what are you doing here, Nephew?" Merlyn asked testily.
"I've come to give you a reef and invite you to Christmas dinner." Oliver said as he handed Merlyn the reef.
"Well..." Merlyn said with a smile. "I suppose you're going to have plump goose with chestnut dressing?"
"Yup." Oliver confirmed.
"And will you have plum pudding and lemon sauce?" Merlyn continued.
"Oh yeah!" Oliver said with a widening smile.
"And spiced sugar cakes with candied fruit?" Merlyn finished.
"Yes!" Oliver said excitedly. "Yes! Will you come?"
"Are you insane?" Merlyn snapped. "You know I can't eat that stuff, now get out!"
"Alright." Oliver said as he put the reef on the door. "Merry Christmas!"
"And a bah humbug to you!" Merlyn shouted back, but Oliver had already left.
"That Ollie." Clark said with a chuckle. "Always so full of kindness."
"Yeah." Merlyn said. "He always was a little peculiar." The door opened again. "And stubborn!"
Instead of Merlyn, a very well built man was there with a man with black hair walked in.
"Oh, customers." Merlyn said with an excited smile. "I'll handle this, Kent."
Merlyn then walked up to the two.
"Yes, what can I do for you two gentlemen?" Lex asked.
"Sir, I'm John Jones, and this is my associate, Bruce Wayne." Mr. Jones said. "We are soliciting funds for the impudent and destitute."
"For the what?" Merlyn asked.
"We're collecting money for the poor." Bruce translated.
"Oh..." Merlyn said. "Well, you do realize that if you give money to the poor, they won't be poor anymore."
"Well that's true." Bruce said.
"And if they're not poor anymore, then you won't have to raise money for them anymore." Merlyn went on, putting on a concerned front.
"Well, I suppose." Mr. Jones admitted.
"And if you don't have to raise money for them anymore, then you would be out of a job." Merlyn said as he opened the door, and the two walked out. "Oh please gentlemen, don't ask me to put you out of a job, not on Christmas Eve."
"Oh, we'd never do that, Mr. Merlyn." Mr. Jones said.
"Well then," Merlyn finished, going back to his normal manner at once. "I suggest you give this to the poor and be gone!"
He tossed the wreath Oliver had given him at Bruce who caught it reflexively and slammed the door in their faces.
"What's this world coming to, Kent?" Merlyn asked as Clark turned to listen. "You work all your life to get money, and people want you to give it away."

As the day came to its end, Clark used a nearby lamp to keep himself warm, which wasn't too easy. He then glanced over at the clock and smiled when he saw that it was only fifteen seconds until quitting time. Finishing up his last sentence, he closed the book and got ready to head home.
"Two minutes fast." Merlyn remarked as Clark gulped and was about to get back to work when Merlyn stopped him. "Eh, never mind those two minutes. You can go now."
"Thank you, sir!" Clark said as he hopped down. "You're so kind-"
"Never mind the mushy stuff!" Merlyn shouted. "Just go, but be here all the earlier the next afternoon!"
"I will!" Clark said excitedly. "I will sir, and a bah hum- I mean, a merry Christmas to you sir!"
Clark then picked up the bag of Merlyn's shirts and walked off as all Merlyn said in reply was, "Bah."

At nine at night, Merlyn closed up the counting house and walked off to his house, which had once belonged to Strange. As Merlyn unlocked the door, he looked at the knocker just as it turned into Hugo Strange's face. With the same glasses and beard.
"Merlyn..." Strange said in an eerie voice.
"Hugo Strange?" Merlyn asked in shock. "No, that can't be!"
Thinking he was just wearied from a good day's work, he touched the knocker's nose, and exclaimed in a way that frightened Merlyn so badly, he ran into the house. After catching his breath, he put what had happened off as stress with all the fools he had to deal with that day. He then began to walk upstairs when he heard footsteps coming up behind him. He turned, but no one was there. He went on, and again he heard the footsteps. He turned around again, but still no one was there. He looked down from the stairway, but nothing was there either. He walked on when he heard the footsteps for a third time and turned to see a shadow of a bald man with the profile of Strange. Merlyn shouted in shock and terror and rushed to his living room, bolting the door and hiding in his seat.
"Malcolm Merlyn..." Strange's voice called out from the other side of the door.
"GO AWAY!" Merlyn shouted as a blue-white, transparent version of Hugo Strange walked in. Aside from his usually lab coat and gloves, Strange also wore a long chain with cash boxes and safes attached to it.
"Malcolm Mer-AHH!" Strange explained as he tripped on a lose rug and ended up landing right next to his chair.
"A bit more hazardous here than I remember." Strange said calmly as he got up and looked at Merlyn, apparently noticing a look of terror.
"Merlyn, don't you recognize me?" Strange asked. "In life I was your partner, Hugo Strange."
Merlyn hadn't wanted to believe it, but looking at Strange's face, he was forced to, and that actually helped to calm him down a little.
"Strange, it is you." Merlyn said as his eyes widened.
"Malcolm," Strange said as he stood straight up. "Remember when I was alive, I robbed the widows and swindled the poor?"
"Yes, and all on the same day." Merlyn said with a smile at the memories. "Oh, you had class Hugo."
"Yup." Strange said with a smug look before shaking his head. "Wait, no! No! I was wrong, and so as punishment, I'm forced to carry these chains for eternity! ... Maybe even longer. With no hope. I'm doomed! Doomed!"
Strange then turned his face to Merlyn.
"And the same thing will happen to you, Malcolm Merlyn."
"No!" Merlyn gasped in fear as he recoiled from the chains that were close by his chair. "No it can't! It mustn't! Help me, Hugo!"
"Tonight, you will be visited by three spirits." Strange informed Merlyn. "Listen to them, and do what they say, or your chains will be heavier than mine."
Merlyn agreed nervously as he turned nervously around.
"Farewell Malcolm..." Strange called out as he walked back, making sure to be mindful of the rug. "Farewell . . ."
"Strange!" Merlyn called out as he remembered something about the stairway. "Watch out for that first-"
There were several loud screams and grunts as Hugo Strange's ghost fell down the stairs.
"Step." Merlyn finished before going off to bed.

Spooky, huh?