Elsewhere on the holiday season, the graduates of Hive Academy, having grouped themselves together for the "power in numbers" mentality, were huddled up to the radiator against the wall of their Burn Out Lair. Such lairs of course were old war bunkers re-purposed by HIVE and used by HIVE graduates until they moved onto bigger and better things. Of course, the reckless abandonment of the underground facilities whenever that happened tended to leave the places in a state of disrepair before new occupants came in.

Just like it was now.

"C'mon man. When're you going to get the heater back on?" Seemore asked as he rubbed his arms, the breath leaving his lips turning cold when it hit the open air.

"Give me a break here cludge-bucket! I'm working as fast as I can here!" Gizmo shouted over their communication devices; hexagonal-shaped Hive Phones, which were essentially rip-offs of the T-Comms. that were reverse-engineered from technology that Jinx was able to pinch when she and her team had infiltrated Titans Tower early on in the young heroes' careers. "Maybe if you pit-sniffers didn't overload the damn thing trying to heat up every room at the same time, I wouldn't have to be DOWN HERE!"

"But it's cold," Mammoth grumbled.

"Oh suck it up, will ya? You don't see Cheshire shivering like you guys," Jinx huffed as she pointed over her shoulder, the neko-kunoichi sitting in the lotus position on the couch. "Seriously, if you had even half the fortitude she had, you wouldn't be whining like this," she huffed as she curled up in her pink-and-black blanket.

"What the hairball?! Where the fuck did this snowball come from!?" Gizmo suddenly shrieked from his end of the line, the others looking back at the Hive Phone as the sounds of snow being pelted against the local midget echoed into the room. "Ah! Ow! Hey, quit it!"

"Shouldn't we help him?" Seemore questioned as the local midget continued to freak out.

"I'm wondering who brought snowballs into the base," Mammoth mused.

"And none of you happen to be curious as to how someone bypassed all of our security measures?!" Jinx demanded. After a few moments Kyd Wykkyd got up from his seat, throwing the blanket he was using aside as he headed for the basement.

"Come on, guys. Gizmo won't help himself," Seemore sighed as he got to his feet and followed after.

"Gizmo! What's going on in here!" Jinx cried out as she and the others rushed into the heater room, the floor and walls covered in splotches of snow and Gizmo huddling behind some machinery while the unseen assailant bombarded him with snowballs. "AIEE!" she cried as one of them beaned her in the face.

"This nutjob in a hoodie came out of the air vent and started chucking snowballs at-" Gizmo said before another ball of snow pelted him in the face and cut him off. "ME!" he cried out as he got to his feet and wiped the offending snow from his face.

"You don't think it's-" Seemore started before he was pelted in the face, Kyd pulling him behind some machinery while the others ducked for cover. The next moment a figure in the shadows leapt through the air, a storm of kunai pelting the ground around them.

"Hey Cheshire, this happen to be a friend of yours?" Jinx asked from her position against the wall, a couple dozen kunai a half-inch away from her body making an outline. Cheshire's only response was to pluck one of the knife-like ice-born protrusions from the floor, eyeing it before she disappeared from view.

"He's heading back into the air vents!" Gizmo shouted as the shadowed figure tore out one of the grates and shot back into it.

"Seemore! I want eyes on him!" Jinx shouted as she and the others ran towards the exit.

"I've only got one eye!" the cycloptic teen shouted as he turned a dial on the side of his helmet and changed his vision to ifared, Cheshire's disembodied eyes and smile bobbing into the air vent after the escaping antagonist.

"He's right outside that door!" Seemore shouted as he and the others reached the foyer, one final door separating them from the outside and the person that had attacked Gizmo.

"Attack Patter: Beta!" Jinx ordered. Without missing a beat Mammoth smashed the door off its hinges before kicking it out at the person on the other side, who leapt off the staff in his hand and into the air. Jinx then used the larger teen as a stepping stone and spun into the air, throwing a flurry of hexbolts at her target who rolled across the ground. Not a moment later, Gizmo flew overhead with his bat wings and carpet bombed the target's position, said target spinning his staff overhead and repelling the explosive charges, a wall of dust, ice, and smoke rising around him.

"Did we get him?" Mammoth asked as he got to his feet.

"Wait for the smoke to clear. If he's still standing, give him hell," Jinx ordered as she and the others formed a vanguard formation in front of their base's hidden entrance. Slowly the smoke began to clear, revealing a figure in his teens close to five and a half feet tall if not taller. His attire consisted of white toe sneakers on his feet, tan-colored pants, and a blue hoodie with a thin layer of frost over the shoulders. Held in his right hand was a long silver staff and his hood was up, a mess of frost-covered brown hair spilling out into view.

"YOU?!" Gizmo shouted once he caught sight of the figure's crimson-colored eyes. "What the hell are you doing here!?"

"How'd you know where we live?" Seemore demanded with as much gusto as he could manage.

"Chillax, dude. Put down the video game controller every once in a while," Vent said throwing out his hand at Gizmo, a flurry of white-and-silver wind flowing over his hands. When the attack subsided, Gizmo's hands and video controller were encased in-

"Ice!? You can make ICE now?!" Gizmo shrieked as he looked down at his hands, finding them frozen to his controller in a solid clump of ice. "When the flying-fuck could you do that!?"

"Fuck you, that's how," the brunette quipped as he balanced atop his staff before flipping off of the end at Mammoth's charge and froze him from behind with a thrust of wind from his hand.

"What's the big idea attacking us in our own home?" Jinx asked, trying to distract the snow-covered teen long enough for Mammoth to bust his way out of the ice around him.

"Apart from the fact that you did so to me and my friends," he said walking around Mammoth's front and threw another layer of ice over his chest up to his neck. "It's the holidays, so I'm trying to extend the olive branch," he said balancing himself on his staff, Mammoth trying once again to break free, only to find he could not do so now that his leverage had been taken away.

"What are you talking about?" Jinx asked in order to keep him talking, Kyd Wykkyd appearing silently behind him only for the brunette to twirl his staff so the top end bopped the darkly-dressed teen on the end, before a flick of the wrist brought the opposite end up between the teen's legs.

"Every other day of the year we're at one another's throats," Vent said once again balancing himself on his staff, Kyd clutching his aching balls as he fell to the ground, Mammoth winching while Gizmo tried to free his hands. "I'm here to offer a temporary truce in the spirit of the holidays."

"Why be so forthcoming?" Jinx questioned, Seemore sneaking up behind the teen in an attempt to get a pot shot at him from behind.

"Is it so hard to believe that I'd like to extend holiday blessings during Christmas, instead of giving my ex-schoolmates the-" Vent said as he threw his hand over his shoulder, sending a wave of ice out at Seemore and freezing him up to his neck. "Cold shoulder," he finished as he poked the cycloptic teen in the face with his staff and tipped him over.

"N-N-N-Not funny man!" the cycloptic teen cried out, feeling quite cold in his prison of ice.

"As I was saying, the Titans are having a Christmas party this year, and I figured, what better way to keep an eye on you than to have you over for the party so we know where you are?" he questioned before he found something sharp pressed against his throat. Looking over his shoulder, he saw a disembodied pair of eyes, Cheshire smiling at having been able to get so far inside his guard. "What about you, Neko-chan?" the brunette asked as he swatted her hand away from his throat. Lunging forward once again, her eyes widened when the brunette's hand darted into her kimono before pulling out one of her kunai, the two now holding one another at knifepoint. "What are your thoughts on my proposal? Robin may raise some hell about this, but I think I can talk him down, and you all joining us for the holidays would certainly be better than freezing your butts off in this Burn Out Lair, aren't I right?"

" . . . " Cheshire was silent for a moment as she faded back into view, lowering her kunai from the brunette's throat and he did the same. Standing on her tip-toes as she pulled himself up to his ear, she began whispering her response. Since the kunoichi was wearing a mask her lips couldn't be read, and none of them understood Japanese. Jinx's understanding of the Japanese language was limited, though at the moment she was attempting to find a way to get a shot in, and maybe get some leverage over the Titans. "Nakama?"Cheshire eventually asked after a minute as she placed herself between Jinx and Ventus, extending a hand to him after their short chat.

"Nakama," Vent replied with a smile as he slid his hand in Cheshire's sleeve and shook hers in return, the kunoichi blushing slightly behind her mask before she disappeared from view. Of course it wasn't perfect, because Vent could see her eyes and smile bobbing back into the base. "Well, I'll leave you guys to think my offer over. Happy holidays!" he said as he began to back away. "Wind, take me home!" he called out as he jumped into the air, the wind picking up before he was carried out of sight in a frigid gust.

" . . . Guys. I'm still stuck," Mammoth grumbled after a minute's pause. Not even bothering to repress the urge to slap himself, Gizmo did so... only to club himself in the face with the controller that was still frozen to his hands and knock himself out.

"I'll go in and get the ice pick," Jinx grumbled as she walked back into the base. "At the least if we take him up on his invitation, we'll be able to stay in a place with central heating."

The other day I watched Rise of the Guardians, and it was right as I was thinking of a chapter to write after the second one, that I remembered a scene out of the movie when Jack Frost was in what I believed to be in Russia and literally rode the wind.

Since both Jack and Ventus can ride the wind, albeit through different methods (though they carry themselves the same way), I figured for this holiday special I could give Ventus Cryokinesis as an extension on his own Aerokinesis. For those of you that've watched Justice League Unlimited, you'll know that Wind Dragon had Aerokinesis that evolved into Cryokinesis (the wind lowered the ambient air temperature to create ice).

Of course I doubt I'll make such a change in the main story, so I'll leave his ice-manipulating powers specific to the special.