Disclaimer: I don't own the source material included in this crossover story. Thank you all for being so patient with me.
From inside his dark and nightmarish lair beneath the earth, Pitch observed the globe of his, a differently-built version of North's globe, as he waited patiently for news about the group and when and if they had been stopped. As his patience close to running low, Karasu and Washi appeared behind him, both a bit scarred from their previous fight and the telltale missing mouth piece on Karasu's mask. Pitch turned to face them with a face full of expectation.
"Well?" He asked them, growing impatient. "Any luck?"
The sisters looked at each other with wordless expressions, silently wondering if they should tell him truthfully or not. But Pitch was one to be lied to so they both levitated closer. Karasu stood closer to Pitch, trembling nervously.
"I'm...sorry, my lord. We almost had him, but our sister, that nosey Guardian and his friends got in the way. We..." She gulped with droplets of perspiration trickling down her barely-exposed face as her gnawed on her bottom lip. "...we failed."
With the final words gone through, words couldn't possibly describe the tension Pitch felt right now. Enraged and furious over their failure, Pitch struck Karasu in the face rather hard, which created an echoing slap, knocking her to the ground and her hat and mask fell off and onto the ground. Washi gasped when he beat her sister and backed away a step, shaking with fright, hoping not to receive the same treatment. Although, one of the Nightmares stared at her dead in the eye with it's glowing, yellow eyes.
"Unbelievable." Pitch sighed with exasperation, brushing his hair in stress. "I suppose it's times like this when you have to pull out the big guns."
"We'll try harder next time, my lord!" pleaded Karasu from the floor. "I promise! Just give us another chance!"
Pitch laughed darkly at her pitiful begging to do better and improve their performance.
"Next time? I doubt there will be a next time. And that was your only chance, my dear. And you both blew it." Pitch declared, pushing her face up with his finger to look at him. "You two are useless to me now."
Dreadfully slipping his finger from under her chin with hate, he waded over to the globe within over his current options.
"May I ask if you father is available?" He asked.
Both twin sisters shared a collective gasp and said, "But our father does not work well with others. And he most currently would not want eternal darkness everywhere."
"Oh, well." The Boogeyman gave a nonchalant and casual shrug. "He'll have to wether he likes it or not. Besides, I'll give him an offer he can't refuse."
"What's that?" asked Washi.
"That is none of your concern." He quipped dangerously. "We're done here. Leave my sight. NOW!"
Startled by the sound of him raising his voice, the sisters jumped the made their way out. Karasu grabbed her mask and her hat before joining her sister, departing the Boogeyman's lair in seconds. Pitch sighed and eyed his Nightmares around the lair.
"Our time will come, my friends. We just have to wait for the right moment." Pitch announced to his army.
Meanwhile in the darkness and eerie atmosphere of Krampus's hideout, there were thousands of snow globes around on shelves and tables and each one held the victims he had captured over the years whom he considered naughty. One of them being Max's family, trapped behind round glass inside an exact replica of the Engel household and surrounded by the countless number of other poor souls who have been drifted away and held captive by the Christmas demon. Tom stared out the window with a look of regret and heaved a sigh. This was worse than their situation back on Christmas when it was twelve people who couldn't stand each other stuck in a house with no heat, no water and no electricity, except a decrease in warm temperature.
The rest of the family were not enjoying themselves as much either. Here they were in the Engel house inside of a snow globe, forced to live with each other and never to see the outside world again. Linda wished that things could've gone better as did Sarah, not it was all for naught. Some family issues just don't get old. Howard felt like he would never hunt again or drive his beloved Lucinda ever, now that it's been torn to pieces like it was nothing. He wanted his children to have the perfect future, become exceptional sports players and now it's never going to happen. Aunt Dorothy has always wasted her life in a trailer park on her own, drinking and complaining about every trivial thing that life had to offer and throw in her general direction, much to the ire of her relatives.
Beth never once enjoyed her life with her family and mostly found solace and comfort in speaking with her boyfriend, Derek. Of course, it was not uncommon for teenagers like her to become easily-annoyed and bored with everything that they would usually bury their faces in their phones, surfing the net or texting with friends and the like. And Beth was stupid enough to go out in the blistering winds and the piling snow to look for Derek to check on him, only to fall victim to Krampus firsthand. If only she could more sensitive and appreciative and not complain about things not going her way, then she wouldn't be here.
In hindsight, Omi knew that someday Krampus would take her away and now that it has, she sat in self-remorse. She could still remember the horrified screams of her family when the goat demon whisked them away that one dreaded Christmas. The shadows of the laughing gingerbread men and the rattle of chains still fresh on her mind, haunting her, taunting her, making her wish she had a chance to take it all back if she could. But now it's happened all over again and her new family had to pay the price. Somewhere in the elderly woman's mind, she felt glad that her family was taken away since they basically deserved it for losing their Christmas spirit, but they were still her family.
Stevie and Jordan were feeling the worst of them all. Stevie felt like she was responsible for their predicament. After all, she and Jordan were the ones who stole his letter and read it out loud to everyone at the table to add insult to injury after taunting Max's belief in Santa Claus by impulsively telling him a horrendous and obnoxious tale about how he crashed his sleigh and ate his reindeer to survive. It was their abusive bullying that drove poor Max over the edge and finally give up on Christmas and if it weren't for them, none of this would've happened. That graphic tale about Santa wasn't the only offense they made against Max. There was the time when they plunged his face into his birthday cake on his 8th birthday among other things that would be better left unsaid.
"What's the matter, Stevie?" asked Linda, putting her arms around her.
"I feel like this is all my fault. Me and Jordan should've known better than to make fun of Max. Are we really bad cousins?"
"Well, I'm not gonna lie, it was very unacceptable and so not okay." Linda answered, giving her daughter a stern gaze, which soon softened up. "But honestly, we're all to blame for this."
"Still I pretty deserved to be in here, locked away from the outside world and my uncle's house." said Stevie, still down in the dumps.
"We're gonna make it through this, Tom." Sarah assured her husband.
"How?" He asked, unconvinced. "How are we gonna get through this? Our only son is probably out there on his own, lost, cold and alone. I should've been a better father. I suck as a parent."
"Tom, don't say that. You don't know that." replied Sarah strictly with her best firm reassurance. "So what if he got into fights before like at the mall. He's young, Tom. All kids will be like that. He's still our baby boy."
Suddenly, the foundation of the house shook violently as everyone shot up from where they sat to look up at the ceiling, wondering what the commotion was about on the roof. To no surprise, Omi knew exactly what this was. The quaking vibration ceased abruptly and there was a solid silence now which was then broken by the sound of footsteps on the roof. From out of the chimney, soot fell onto the firewood and then smoke. Krampus arose out of the fireplace and stared at the family inside the house all around.
"Are we enjoying the accommodations so far?" asked the yuletide demon with a sinister cackle.
"You!" Tom screamed in anger and ran toward Krampus to attack and try to force him to free them, but Krampus swiped at him with his chain, sending him falling on his back on the ground painfully. Howard joined in by jumping on Krampus's back, griping his horns and punching him on the head. The demon twirled around, knocking off him and flying into the wall. Linda rushed to his aid.
"Enough! I'm not here to fight." Krampus roared in annoyance. "You're all here for a reason."
"Listen here, you bastard!" thundered Sarah in the demon's face. "If you don't set us free and give me my son back right now, I will break your horns off!"
But Krampus was unfazed and somewhat amused by her intimidating threat as he laughed at her face.
"And why would I want to do that?" He asked.
"We need him as much as he needs us." Tom said, standing up.
"He doesn't need you." Krampus hissed. "Max only wanted Christmas to be gone as well as his family. And who am I to be surprised? What do you expect from living in a large family of ingrates and incompetent meatheads."
"Incompetent?!" shouted Howard before wincing in pain. "Who are you to judge us?"
"I am Krampus, you fool." raged Krampus, startling the middle-aged hunter. "I discipline the naughty and give them the only they truly deserve. Brutal punishment. You all got yourselves into this and here, I make the rules. I make the choices."
"Bitte, meine Familie weiß es einfach nicht besser. Bestrafe sie nicht dafür." pleaded Omi, but the Christmas demon gave her a snort in response.
"Look, pal." Stevie began, bravely standing up to face him. "If you want to punish someone, punish me. I'm the one who deserves it. And I admit that now, it was wrong and stupid of me to make fun of Max and all that other stuff I did just to entertain myself and Jordan. I had no right, okay? No right."
"Stephanie Hilton." Krampus replied, catching her surprise before stomping over to him on his hoofed feet. "You are guilty of many things. I quite understand that you are brave, strong, tough, independent, but you are also impudent, arrogant, insensitive, egotistical, selfish, have no regard for anyone's feelings and very, very stupid. You were probably upset that your favorite team lost their win, but that's no excuse to take it out on your cousin. You may have had a different reason for that, but it really doesn't matter. The point is for you to just let it go and learn humility. If you really care about your family, you'd think about your actions and understand the consequences before I dragged you here."
Stevie lowered her eyes to the floor and she knew on the inside that Krampus had a point. With that being said, Krampus was suddenly gone from their view within seconds. Everyone's heads darted around looking for him and Tom found him standing inside of his lair, having grown back to his original size, looking down at them.
"Think about that. All of you." He ordered before turning away and walking out of sight, leaving them in their snow globe prison.
The next morning, the group had woken up and collected their things to prepare for the rest of their journey. Max got enough sleep despite last night's altercation with Sariatu's sisters. Everyone walked out of the cave before Jack stopped and wondered something important.
"What about your cave? What if somebody comes in and steals your things and whatnot?" asked Jack.
"I wouldn't worry about that. But just in case..." Sariatu strummed her shamisen, casting her magic to form a wall over the mouth of the cave, masking it from view as if it was never there. "There. That should do the trick."
The group hiked down the mountain and toward the village full of lively people going about their business, not a care in the world. When they had gotten through and approached the red torii gate, Maui's attention focused on the sea the Sariatu's cave faced outward.
"So, uh, how are we gonna get a boat if we're get across the ocean?" Maui asked, gesturing to the Pacific Ocean out past the mountain.
"Too high profile." Sariatu declared. "We need to blend in for a while before we can sail the ocean."
"Wha-Oh, come on! I've been away from the ocean long enough! I need to be there!" Maui whined and ranted like a child.
"Shut up, mate!" Bunny barked back, silencing him. "You heard Sariatu."
"Thank you, Bunny." smiled Sariatu.
"So what exactly is the plan?" asked Bunny, twirling a boomerang around with his paw.
"We'll just make our way across the country and try to sail the ocean from there. Because there's clearly too much ocean to get across if we sail from there." Sariatu explained, pointing to the ocean outside her residence, which was not the best, suitable option right now.
"We're going to the other side of Japan?" Max asked. "That could take days."
"Not if we keep moving." Sariatu reminded him.
And on they went, hiking through the vast woods and tree-covered landscapes. It was tough for all of them to keep. They had to stop for breathers every so often like they were hiking on a mountain trail. There was no way they were gonna get to the other side of Japan fast enough on foot. But dark clouds started to cover the sky and block out the sun and heavy rainfall came with it. When it seemed hopeless, a luminescent ray of light gleamed in the distance. It was evident they were getting closer to human civilization. The group trekked over as fast as their legs could carry and found themselves, to their immediate bewilderment and confusion, standing in a bright and extravagant city with jumbo-trons there and there showing various advertisements in Japanese; a video of what looks like an anime television show from a TV store and an full crowd of Japanese folk; punk teenagers texting or talking on their phones, businessmen getting off the bus and everything. Sariatu hasn't been anywhere outside of her cave beside at the village so all of this was new to her to so many possible ways.
"What is this place?" She asked with a breathy voice of wonder.
"It appears to be Tokyo." Bunny answered.
"Tokie-what?" asked Sariatu, furrowing her eyebrows in confusion, not following him.
"It's the capital city of Japan." said Max, checking the city out. "I've seen too many photos on the internet and postcards to not recognize it."
"I've really been in my cave longer than I thought." Sariatu muttered, rubbing her forehead.
"This is so cool!" chirped Mavis with enjoyment. "I've heard so much of this place! The food, the technology, the anime, the manga, the martial arts."
"This can't get any worse. Now I'm surrounded by a bunch of foreigners in a giant mortal city." complained Maui. "How far have we gotten?"
"Well, let's see." Sariatu pulled out an old map of Japan. There were no words on it to show the cities and prefectures and counties, just a red circle painted around a certain area, which she pointed to. "See that? That right there? That circle? That's where my cave is."
Max pulled out his phone and looked up a real map of Japan and revealed to them. The spot where her cave was is located in the Chiba Prefecture, which was right next to Tokyo.
"We only hiked one mile?! Oh my god!" Bunny complained. "I'm sorry, but we're never gonna reach the other side of Japan at this rate. At least not on foot."
"Why don't we just use your tunnels?" suggested Jack.
"I told you I have to know the exact spot where I'm going to. I need a name for it." Bunny explained agitated.
"Okay, smart guy." Maui said with a look of challenge of his face, placing his hands on his hips. "What do you suggest we do?"
Bunny looked all around to look for a way to get around quicker without have to over-exercise themselves. The first thing that came to mind was the vehicles all around. Bunny knew this probably wasn't going to work too well and it was gonna be a long shot. But in their time of need, it was all he could think of.
"I have a plan, but it's not gonna sound good." Bunny came up with before turning to Sariatu. "Do you know how to drive?"
Sariatu's eyes bulged with confusion when he asked this. He went over the plan with them and they had no choice but to agree to it. Looking all around for some car to use, Sariatu suggested a nice-looking car that she thought would be perfect and it had enough seats for all of them. They all crammed into the car with Maui sitting in the far back, Mavis, Jack and Max sitting in the middle and Bunny in the passenger seat up front while Sariatu was put behind the wheel.
"This is your plan?!" shrieked Mavis, having second thoughts about this.
"It was all I could think of, alright?" Bunny defended with annoyance.
"I don't know how to drive! I don't even know what it does!" Sariatu cried with fright.
"I'll guide you the rest of the way. This care is used to transport the mortals." Bunny explained.
"Okay. How do you start it?" She asked, looking around for something to start the car with.
"They mostly use keys to start it." explained Bunny, looking to see that there were no keys in the ignition or anywhere in the car. And no why would there be? "But, of course, they'd be stupid if they just left the keys in the car."
"Well, how else is it suppose to start?" shouted Sariatu.
"Try pressing that button right there that says 'Start'." Max instructed, pointing to the button that indeed read 'Start'. Vehemently, Sariatu pressed it and the car started. The needle on the gas meter was on 'E', luckily.
"Okay, good. We got enough gas." Bunny sighed with relief.
"Uh, what's that supposed to mean?" asked Sariatu, eyebrows furrowing with confusion, feeling awkward by his statement. Cleary, she was getting the wrong idea.
"These vehicles are fueled by gasoline. Without it, it wouldn't work."
"Why won't it go?!" Sariatu shrieked, wondering why it wasn't moving an inch.
"You have to make it go. It doesn't run on it's own." Bunny told her, then pointed at the lever in between them. "This handle right here sets the car to move in a different angle. Like reverse?"
To demonstrate, Bunny set the handle to 'R'.
"Now it will go backwards." Then Jack decided to take over and pointed to the petals by her feet. "See those pedals there? You press down on them with your feet. That's what makes the car move. Well, that one on the right does. You press on the one on the left to get the care to stop."
"Okay." breathed Sariatu, calming her senses.
"Now make sure to hold onto the wheel, because you have to use it to steer the car in the direction you want it to go."
"Alright, here we go." Sariatu said, building up enough confidence as she gripped the wheel and pushed down on the pedal. But she pushed it too far down, which caused the car to go reverse really fast and she ended up hitting against the front of another car that was parked behind it. Upon being unexpectedly struck in the hood, the car's burglar alarm set off and echoed loudly around the parking garage. Sariatu gasped when this happened and she quickly hid the brake in panic, taking her hands off the wheel. Everyone except her looked behind them to see the damage she had done.
"Oh my god, what did I hit?" She asked fearfully.
"Uh...there was another car behind us." Mavis said with a cringe.
"Do cars do that?" asked Maui, referring to the loud, blaring car alarm.
"Yeah." Max nodded. "That's an alarm system that all cars have. It's meant to keep carjackers from stealing them."
"Look, we can't worry about it now. Here." Bunny rearranged the throttle and set it to 'A'. "There. Now it's on accelerate. So now it will go forward."
Sariatu took hold of the wheel and pressed on the pedal again, driving at full speed out of the parking space, steering her away through the parking garage for a way to get out. She was going a little too fast, forcing everyone to hold onto something.
"Don't press the pedal down too far. You're making it go too fast and you don't want it to go too fast or else you'll crash it." Jack shouted.
"Just press on the pedal a tad bit." Bunny instructed.
She did as she was told and only had her foot on the pedal just a tiny bit, making the car go at an acceptable speed. Bunny directed her through the parking garage until they made it to the exit where the toll booth was, but the gate arm was down. However, Sariatu didn't know what it was or why it was down so she kept going. She drove right through the gate arm, breaking it right off as she did
"ごめんなさい。" She cried to whoever worked at the toll booth apologetically for that mishap and drove out of the garage and into the rain where she drove it down the street, but she wasn't sure where she was supposed to drive the car on the road and just drove all around through the city, dodging cars and narrowly missing pedestrians and civilians who screamed in terror and jumped out of the way of the reckless driver.
"Okay! Easy now! You're driving like an animal!" screamed Maui in anger.
"You still think this is a good idea?!" Mavis bellowed at Bunny.
"I did say it wouldn't sound good, did I?" Bunny said back, defending himself.
"Uh, guys? Instructions?" Sariatu begged as she kept driving non-stop aimlessly through the streets, watching out for people.
"Stay inside a lane and slow down. Try to watch the speed limit. They should how fast you have to go on these streets." Bunny explained as Sariatu obeyed, but yet another mishap happened. The traffic light said red, but she didn't see it and kept driving.
"Alright. You see those devices hanging up on the wires?" asked Bunny, gesturing to the traffic lights.
"Yeah." She nodded.
"When they turn red, that means you stop." instructed Bunny.
When the traffic lights turned red, Sariatu exactly just that and slammed her foot onto the break. Unfortunately, she neglected to see the car in front of her and wound up crashing into the rear of it. The driver of said car was holding a cup of coffee at the time and the collision was so powerful, it caused him to spill the cup's hot contents all over him, making him scream in pain. Everyone, including Sariatu, stared in shock at what she just did.
"Uh..." Was all she could manage at the moment as she was completely speechless beyond decipherable words by what just happened.
The car's driver hopped out of the car, steaming in fiery anger to confront and rant at whoever just hit him and make him spill hot coffee on himself. When he noticed that the rear of his car was damaged beyond repair, he was even madder than ever. She raved and cursed at Sariatu in Japanese, making her blush out of embarrassment.
"ああ私のクソな神! どうしたの?! あなたは雌だ! あなたは、このクソの車にどれくらいの費用がかかっているか知っていますか? あなたはちょうど私に470ドルの価値があります! 私はこれを牽引しなければならないだろう! もし私がこれまでにやった最後のことなら、あなたのお尻を訴えるつもりです! 私はあなたを殺すつもりだ! 聞こえますか?!"
"What is he saying?" asked Max, who didn't speak the language.
"You really don't wanna know." Sariatu warned him, growing pale at the angry man's threats and excessive string of obscenities. They needed to get out of there quick before the man called the police so Sariatu, in her moment of panic, drove the car around and away from the man, fleeing the scene. Max pulled up the Google Maps app on his phone and helped Sariatu in driving down the street calm and into the direction they needed to go. When they were far away from Tokyo within minutes or hours and out on the open road, they sighed in relief. Sariatu was also worried. Okay, so it wasn't a good start, but at least she was trying.
This is her first time driving a vehicle and she had already inadvertently caused mass hysteria with her lack of driving skills and busted the back a guy's car. She just hoped that a thing like that could be easily forgiven and forgotten. Just so long as he doesn't call the police on them or anything, not that Sariatu has any knowledge of. It would be safe to say that as long as Sariatu doesn't cause any more accidents or unexpected mayhem, they should be making quick progress. Sariatu was now driving the car steadily and properly now down the lane of the road. They should be able to reach the other side of Japan in no time.
AU: In case you guys are wondering, Sariatu never met and married Hanzo in this story, so Kubo doesn't exist in this timeline...yet. But that doesn't meant that she didn't turn against her corrupt and malevolent family. After thinking about the movie Barnyard, I though it would be funny to add a hysterical car scene where Sariatu had trouble driving the car and causing public endangerment accidentally. I plan on putting in a police car chase scene, too. But that's be added in the later chapter.
Bitte, meine Familie weiß es einfach nicht besser. Bestrafe sie nicht dafür. - "Please, my family just doesn't know any better. Do not punish them for that."
ごめんなさい。 - "Sorry."
ああ私のクソな神! どうしたの?! あなたは雌だ! あなたは、このクソの車にどれくらいの費用がかかっているか知っていますか? あなたはちょうど私に470ドルの価値があります! 私はこれを牽引しなければならないだろう! もし私がこれまでにやった最後のことなら、あなたのお尻を訴えるつもりです! 私はあなたを殺すつもりだ! 聞こえますか?!- "Oh my fucking god! What is wrong with you?! You fucking bitch! You know how much this fucking car cost me?! You just cost me $.470 worth! I'm gonna have to have this towed! I'm gonna fucking sue your ass for this if it's the last I ever do! I'm gonna fucking kill you! You hear me?!"
Be sure to PM me or review the chapter or story so far. See you guys in the future chapters. Thank you!
