Unikitty: AAAH! Christmas Tree!
AN: Sorry I wasn't able to post a story yesterday. My house lost Wi-Fi and I tried to pull an all-nighter, but failed. So, I plan to make up for that with two stories in one day.
"Yay! I'm so glad you guys are celebrating Christmas with us." Unikitty squealed in delight as Frown and Brock hung up their coats and hats.
"This might just be the year that might not be totally ruined." Brock said, glancing at his friend.
"You know, this is the first get to spend Christmas with someone other than Brock." Frown said.
"Well, we're gonna make sure you get the best dang Christmas in your life!" The Princess assured, putting an arm around him.
It had been months since Frown ditched the Doom Lords. He even dropped the 'Master' title to further distance himself from them. Of course, he still had bouts of mischief-making from time to time. After all, as the old saying goes, "Old habits die hard". Still it was a lot better than when he was working for them, so they considered that an improvement.
The castle's interior was decorated from top to bottom and the smell of Richard baking cookies filled the air.
"Okay, guys. We got the eggnog ready." Puppycorn announced as Hawkodile carried the vat.
"It's an old recipe." Hawkodile added as he placed it on the table.
"And I got the tree!" Dr. Fox chimed in, carrying the small potted evergreen.
"Dr. Fox, where did you get this tree?" Richard asked.
"Oh, don't worry about. It'll be fine." She replied with a scoff as she set it down.
"That's what I'm afraid of." Richard said as the citizens of the kingdom began to arrive for the party.
And so began a long night of party games, one of which involved Hawkodile and Frown downing as much eggnog as they possibly could and the latter kicking the former's butt. Unikitty's heart swelled at the sight of Frown actually having fun without wanting to ruin it for others. However, things would take a very unpleasant turn.
Soon the guests had left, leaving Unikitty, Frown and their friends passed out on the floor from exhaustion and all the eggnog. All was quiet until Brock sat up and groaned in discomfort as he rubbed his gurgling stomach.
"Aw, man. I really gotta stop drinking so much eggnog at Christmas." He said.
As he got up to find a bathroom, he noticed that tree had vanished, leaving only the presents. Initially, he thought the guests might've taken it or destroyed it, but that became a bit harder to believe when he saw a trail of pine needles leading into the hallway. He seemed to forget his upset stomach as he followed the trail down the hall and into the kitchen. There, he found even more pine needles. After following the trail even further, he found the hatch to Dr. Fox's lab open. He then ran back to the group in a frenzy.
"Guys!" He called.
A second later, they shot up groggily and mumbled incoherently.
"I had a dream I was dating a cookie!" Puppycorn randomly.
"Brock, what is it?" Frown asked.
"The tree's gone." He said, pointing to the spot. "And I don't think anyone took it."
"What are you talking about?" Unikitty asked.
"Just follow me!" He said.
And they did. When they saw the hatch wide open, they were starting to get nervous about their situation. Richard then glared at the scientist.
"Dr. Fox, you don't happen to have anything to do with this do you?" He asked sternly.
"Okay, so maybe I was trying to run some experiments on how to create an evergreen tree that will mature faster, but I didn't think this would happen." She confessed.
"WHAT?!" The others cried.
They heard a loud roar coming from the lab just a second after blurting that out.
"Huh, for once I'm not the one to ruin Christmas." Frown mused.
"Focus on the task, Frown!" Hawkodile said.
And with that, they all headed down to the lab and found what used to tree. It still retained its ornaments, but it had sprouted legs, arms, a mouth, and glowing yellow eyes. It was currently trying to break into a large vault.
"What's it doing?" Unikitty exclaimed.
"He's trying to get to the saplings!" Dr. Fox answered.
"Let's turn this tree into a yule log!" Hawkodile quipped as the friends charged at it.
The monstrous tree roared in response and charged back. Hawkodile jump-kicked the monster back before throwing a barrage of left and right hooks. In retaliation, the mutated tree spat resin at him, sticking him to the wall, much to his disgust. Dr. Fox then came along with a flamethrower. She managed to set the monster's arm on fire as Puppycorn gnawed on its leg, Brock came swinging with a bat and Richard tried to get away from the chaos. They too ended up stuck to the wall with resin.
"I'm never letting you grow Christmas trees again." Richard scolded.
"That's fair." Dr. Fox relented.
Seeing her friend in this predicament, Unikitty was enraged and flew at the creature with every intent to turn it into kindling. While she was able to land a few serious blows, she was ultimately stuck to the wall with her friends. As the tree approached them menacingly, they all closed their eyes and braced for the worst. However, that didn't come when they heard the sound of something hitting wood followed by the monster screeching. They looked to see what happened and saw the monster on the floor trying to crawl away from Frown, who had just buried an axe into its back.
"This is for ruining Christmas!" Frown growled as he chopped its back again.
"This is for giving me nightmares!"
Another chop, this time he chopped off its arm.
"And THIS is for hurting my friends!"
He landed the final blow to its head, splitting it in half as resin seeped out of it like blood. He then turned to the others.
"Aw, did you just call us your friends?" Unikitty cooed.
"You know... I could always leave you down here." He said.
The others looked betrayed until Frown continued.
"But why would I do that? I'm gonna go get some hot water, I'll be right back." He said.
And let me tell you, he was true to his word.