A/N: Hey everybody! Christmas is in 5 days, and we wanna bring you some holiday cheer with another Universal Runners holiday special. Get ready to Frost the Halls, now!
Frost the Halls: Part 1
It was a beautiful December day and a couple of days before Christmas. The streets of Los Angeles were decorated with holiday decor and were bustling with excitement. And at the Millennium Metropolis Mall, which was decorated to a tee, everyone was rushing around to get their Christmas shopping done.
Men walked by carrying armfuls of presents. Women stepped out in newly bought clothes. Children and teens pulled their parents along to the toy and video games stores. Store displays lit up with decorations of Santa, snowmen, reindeer, etc. And in the middle of it all, a "Meet with Santa" booth was open for the kids, but many did not visit as they were too enamored by the toys and games they wanted in the display windows.
"Who's next to visit Santa?," the "elf" of the display asked the people in the mall.
"Santa? Santa who? I want the Samurai Kid action figure!," a boy said as he passed with his father.
"Look it's the DIY Fashion Maker Dolls! I want it, I want it, I want it!," a girl said to her mother as they passed. The "elf" sighed with sadness. Kids today, they were so concerned about want they wanted or what they were gonna get. They just didn't get what this holiday was really about anymore.
Just then, it started to snow–right inside the mall! Everyone inside stopped their shopping or working to see this. They were perplexed at first, but soon became excited and pleased with it.
Then, the snowfall turned into a powerful blizzard, chilling the people and blowing the decorations down. Now frightened, everyone quickly evacuated the mall. Unknown to everyone, the Santa of the "Meet with Santa" booth was snickering at everyone's misfortune.
"Happy Holidays, everyone!," he laughed evilly.
Meanwhile, at Oak's apartment, the Pokémon professor was about to leave to meet Jordan and the others.
"I gotta get to the school," he said to himself. "I hope Jordan and the others don't start the gift exchange without me."
He exited his apartment and locked the door. But as he turned around again her found himself face to face with none other than…
"Dana!," he screamed at his neighbor, who was smiling widely and holding a familiar looking plant over his head.
"Hello, Sonny," Dana said. "I've got mistletoe. You know what that means."
"Ah, thanks, but I'm in a hurry," Oak said as he tried to leave, but was pulled back by Dana.
"I'm sure one quick holiday smooch won't hurt. So pucker up."
Dana then moved into kiss Oak, who leaned back as much as he could. Just before Dana could make contact, Rotom, who had let itself out of its Pokeball, quickly got in between them, causing her to kiss it instead. Disgusted, Rotom let out a Discharge, shocking Dana.
"What a man!," Dana said as she fainted.
"Rotom," Oak growled at his Pokémon who sheepishly grinned. He then smiled. "Thank you SO much."
Rotom then smiled as well and winked.
Later on at Fils-Aime Moffitt School, in the Mid-Zone Lounge, the students were exchanging their Secret Santa gifts. The Runners and friends were exchanging theirs too. Jordan ripped the wrapping paper from her gift to find…
"Issue #43 of the Fighting Stone Shooters manga," she shrieked. "Whoever, got me this, I love you!"
"Well ho-ho-ho, I'm your secret Santa, Jordie," Itzal said with glee.
"Thank you Itz," she said. "And by coincidence, I'm yours too!"
"Really?!," he said as he looked at his present and quickly opened it to find…
"Future Aura Fighters: The Video Game! Thank you so much," Itzal asked as he hugged Jordan.
"You're welcome. Merry Christmas."
"My turn," Kani said as she opened up a small box to find…
"A DIAMOND RING!," Kani screamed as the girls all fawned over it.
"Wow, who would give you something as expensive as this?!," Calla asked in amazement.
"Well, I decide that my little angel should have the best," Andre said.
"Andre?! You're my Secret Santa?!," Kani asked, to which Andre replied with a nod. "You didn't have to get me this."
"Only the best for my little bowl of jelly."
"Well, I dunno if I'm your Secret Santa, but here's something special for you," Kani said as she kissed Andre on the cheek. The boy genius stumbled back, stunned and dazed.
"Awesome," he said as he fainted into Bren's arms.
"Hey dude, get up," he said, slapping Andre's face until he woke up.
"Oh, uh," Andre said as he got himself up. "Anyhow, I wonder what I got."
He ripped the wrapping paper from his gift to find…
"The BIX-10 Robotics Kit!," Andre shouted. "The kit I've been blabbing about all year!"
"Who gave it to you?," Layla asked.
"My best friend Oscar in the Robotics Club, the one I've blabbed about it to the most."
"Oh, well my turn," Layla said as she opened her box to find…
"Donte Barlow boots!," Layla gasped. "Who knew I wanted these?"
"Me," Calla said with a smile.
"You're my Secret Santa, Calla?!," she said.
"Not exactly, I got someone else. But that boy you like, Hunter, he was yours and he wanted to get you something really special. So I told him about the boots and…voila!"
"Wow. You might not be my Secret Santa, but…thank you so much, Calla."
"No worries. And Happy Holidays."
"Anyhow," Zeus said. "My turn."
He unwrapped his large gift to find…
"The Ultimate Rockwell Book of Poetry! Who-?"
"I think it was that girl, Carla from our English class. You kept telling her about how you wanted to expand your creativeness in poems."
"And she got me this book. Clever."
"Okay, me," Bren said as he open a box to find…
"A new red T-shirt, and with fire-themed logos too. Sweet! Hey and there's a note."
He picked up the note and read: I noted how much you loved the color red and fire-themed stuff, so Happy Holidays, Brenton. Sincerely, Jocelyn Reese.
"Jocelyn? As in the girl from your Science class that you're crushing on?," Jordan asked.
"That was very sweet of her," Kani said.
"I'm gonna wear this shirt every day for the rest of my life," Bren said dreamily.
"Okay, now me," said Calla. "I wonder what cool gift I got."
She then opened her box, only for a bunch of black smoke to billow out. When it cleared, she then saw that in the box was…
"COAL?! SOMEONE GAVE ME COAL FOR CHRISTMAS!"
As the Runners crowded around the box in disbelief, they heard familiar evil laughter and turned to see none other than…Lena.
"Happy Holidays loser," she cackled before walking off. "Don't burn it all in one place!"
"No…way!," Calla gasped. "Lena was my Secret Santa?! No fair!"
She takes a lump of coal and is about to throw it at her enemy when the others stop her.
"Hold on, Cal," Jordan said.
"Yeah, don't waste perfectly good coal on Lena," Bren said.
"It's only fair," Cal snapped back angrily. "I was Lena's Secret Santa, and I got her the latest Limon-Opera scarf on the market out of holiday spirit. And what does she pay me back with: COAL!"
"Wait, I was Lena's Secret Santa," Kani said in dismay.
"No way, I was her Secret Santa too," Bren said stunned.
"Me too!," Zeus put in.
"And me!," Layla added. They looked over to Lena to see her receive more gifts from more students. It didn't take them long to realize what was going on.
"SHE RIGGED THE SYSTEM!," they all shouted in dismay and anger. "THAT CHEAP LITTLE CHEAT!"
Enraged, they all grabbed a lump of coal from the box, and the six Runners's hands with the coals started glowing with their elemental powers. Andre's and Layla's didn't since they had no Runner status.
"On the count of three, we deck her halls with lumps of coal!," Jordan said as they took aim. "One…two…three!"
Before they could throw, however, a portal opened up behind them, and they all tumbled into it, dropping the coals. They tumbled through the portal screaming and eventually landed right in Tina's holiday decorated office in a pile.
"There you all are," Tina said.
"Ms. Reyheart, three things," Jordan said as they recovered. "One, you could not have picked a worse time to portal us here. Two, I think Jerry is getting to be a bad influence on you. And three, did you have to call us here the day before the biggest holiday of the year?"
Just then they all noticed a wrapped box on Tina's desk.
"Wait," Bren said as he ran over and picked up the box. "Did you bring us here to give us our presents? What did you get us?"
"Excuse me, Brenton," Tina said as she took the box away from him. "This for my parents."
"Man…"
"Well did you get anything for us?," Itzal asked.
"Unfortunately, no," Tina replied. "I haven't had time to shop yet, with all the work I have to get done here at the office before tomorrow and all the crazy havoc going on out there, which is why I brought you here."
"So what's the trouble?"
"There seems to be an unidentified flying object over Los Angeles."
"Maybe it's just a parade float," Kani said. "There is a Christmas Parade coming through there today and again tomorrow."
"Nope, because this UFO is invisible to all radar, but ours it seems."
"And how is it causing havoc exactly?," Andre asked.
"The last week, we've tracked it and it's been discovered to hovered long periods of time over several L.A. malls, superstores, and warehouse stores that were apparently snowed in, in the last week–from the inside."
"Snowed in? From the inside? How's that possible?," Zeus asked.
"That's what you need to find out," Tina said.
"Well good news, it's right in the city," Layla said. "So we can solve this case and get back to the celebration at school."
"Then let's get to it!," Jordan said as she and the others left Tina's office.
Not long afterward, the gang was flying over the skyline of L.A. in their new ULO vehicle, the -Aura Copter-, searching for the UFO Tina mentioned.
"Well, looks all clear blue skies, as usual here in L.A.," Kani said as she surveyed the scene.
"Except…," Calla said with a gasp.
"What, where?!," Itzal asked frantically.
"TRACY's is having a shoe/boot sale!," she said as she pointed down at the store.
"Calla, focus," Jordan said.
Calla groaned. Then she saw something out the corner of her eye.
"Hey, look!"
"Let me guess, another sale?," Andre said.
"No, it's the UFO Ms. Reyheart told us about!," she said pointing at what seemed to be a satellite.
"Nah, that just looks like a regular old harmless satellite."
Just then, something crystal-like fired from the satellite and flew right at the Copter, forcing Jordan the pilot, to dodge it as the others screamed. The satellite fired several more times, sending more crystal-like objects at the Runners, who continued to dodge them, until one finally crashed through their windshield.
"That harmless satellite is shooting at us!," Kani shouted.
"And with ice!," Zeus added in.
"Ice? Well, so a great to get in the holiday spirit!," Calla exclaimed in amusement.
"But satellites aren't supposed to have weapons…or pilots for that matter, right," Bren asked.
"No, which mean that satellite is seriously tricked out or something," Layla said.
"I'm going in for a closer view. Hang on!," Jordan said as she flew full speed towards the satellite, which was still firing at them.
"Jordan, try and get right above him, I'm gonna try and snare the whole thing with the -Net-in-a-Ball-," Itzal said as he took out a seemingly ordinary gray ball (transformed from a card). Jordan flew the Copter right above the satellite, at which she opened the doors, and Itzal threw the ball at the satellite. The ball exploded and a large net shot out and trapped the entire satellite.
"Alright, we got him!," Itzal said victorious, as the others started to celebrate. However, their celebration was cut short as the satellite glowed blue and the net suddenly fell apart, much to their dismay. "Or not."
"An ice deflector shield? You were right, Layla, this satellite is seriously tricked out!," Bren said. The satellite's pilot then took aim and fired at them again. Jordan maneuvered the Copter to dodge the large ice shards, until one struck the Copter's rotors, causing the Copter to go into a dive.
"We're hit, and going down!," Jordan shouted.
"We gotta bail out!," Kani shouted as well. She then searched the controls until she found and pressed a button on the panel. The eight kids were dumped out of the still-descending Copter as it fell from the sky and crashed into the street.
"Vortex Palm!," Calla said as she aimed her palms at the ground. A large windy vortex quickly caught the Runners and helped them slowly land safely on the ground.
"That was too close," Zeus said
"That was almost as bad as my fourth attempt at my driving test," Layla said. "And I nearly passed that time too."
"Yeah, well let's hurry and get that jerk," Andre said as they all got up. But when they looked up at the sky they were shocked to see that the satellite was nowhere to be found.
"Wha-Where'd he go?," Jordan said. "What a bust of a mission this is!"
"And speaking of busted, check out the Copter," Bren said as the gang surveyed the wrecked -Aura Copter-.
"Great, how do we explain this to Ms. Reyheart?," Zeus asked.
"Better yet, how do we explain to her that we got blasted out the sky by a satellite?," Kani asked.
"Almost as lame as her being too much of a workaholic, and not getting us gifts," Andre said.
"Well, we do have one clue," Zeus said as he walked to the Copter and prying the ice shard from the windshield. "Let's send part of this to her for analysis."
"Good idea," Jordan said as she broke of a piece and sent it to Tina via her RunCom. "She should get back to us with it soon."
"Well, in the meantime why don't we go back to school and wait for the results there," Calla suggested. "No sense in missing out on the rest of the festivities."
"Right, let's go," Jordan said as she and the others ran back to school.
A/N: Wow, that's cold (no pun intended). What is with that satellite? Who's controlling it? What's it's link to the mall incident? And how can Lena be punished for her naughty ways? Find out the answers to most of these questions, next time!