Popping the Christmas Windbag

Krampus landed into the next Christmas Eve and was surprised at what he found.

One, he was late. He'd have to go right now if he wanted to get things going.

Two, no time to think about that other thing.

Krampus shot off into the wind to get things going.

-Line Break-

After a few slip ups Krampus shot off to the North Pole to see what was going on.

Well not really straight to the Pole. He'd worked his way downwards and then upwards until he finished up the Pasific Islands and was finishing up the western coast of Canada and Alaska so while some places got their just desserts in the middle of the night, others got theirs right before daybreak.

Yeah it wasn't up to the standard that he put for himself but he wanted to find out what was happening before he had to leave.

Santa was late, sure Krampus was fast but the old man could really make his rounds in the shortest amount of time if he felt like it.

There was something in the air. Something that made Krampus' radar flash. He'd felt it whenever he crossed near the Arctic Circle, almost if the atmosphere itself was either waiting for something to happen or on call when something did. Tapping into the omnipotence that he was allowed he looked into what was currently going on at the Pole.

Right as he began looking he got flashes of what had happened in the days leading up to the holiday. He really could have avoided that if he decided to keep the omnipotence window open whenever he steps into a world, but it was always a hassle to remember that it was more of an ability rather than his normal state whenever he tapped into it.

Heat Miser and Snow Miser were fighting again. Not really something he didn't expect. Sure he taught those two a lesson but that was one of the only times that he was physically able to to do so. Everytime before he'd be stopped by Mother Nature, and everytime up until this one he'd always run out of time. Sure he could have, and probably have, stayed overtime to work on those two; but what was the point of even trying with those two. Sure they were nice the Christmas they were let out and a few after, but he didn't even have to look into the futures of the two to know that they'd start fighting again.

That North Wind guy proposed that he'd take over if something ever happened to Santa.

They just bought this as him trying to be nice and honorable? Sure he'd been a real momma's boy almost all his existence but come on. Did none of his relatives even bother to visit him? Because a veil of clouds isn't gonna hide something for too long from a force of nature. He was just like that Jack Frost guy Krampus met a few Christmases ago. Try to upstage Santa and do everything their way because it's obviously better their way solely because it's their way. At least Jack didn't try to knock Santa out of the sky and blame it on someone else, though a whole lot of his stunts to try and be bigger than Santa are really becoming a headache.

And should Santa's sleigh have a surveillance system on board? Sure the guy knows when kids are naughty or nice but all these Santas crossing over to be more tech savvy have never put in any sort of cameras. Maybe a handful of them had radar but that was rare.

Heat Miser and Snow Miser were forced by Mother Nature to fill in for Santa as their punishment.

This was her idea of a punishment? Sure working together might have been enough, but being Santa until the real guy is up and ready to go is not what he'd think as a punishment. At the very least she could make it so that they'd have to help Santa for a couple decades after he'd recover.

The next thing that he saw was quite surprising. It was when the two actually took over. Sure they had a long and drawn out brawl and that was to be expected of the two. It was only until they'd seen all of the stuff from the naughty and nice list area that they actually did some good. That and the singing. Krampus would never admit it to them or to anyone that would end up telling them but he always enjoyed their songs. Sure it was all about pride and their little introductions, but it was always fun watching them do it. They were surprisingly good singers for guys who only did their jobs and fought with each other. The little musical bits that he got from this place were always quite amusing. Sure there were other places that had this feature, but it was always from this world that he could know that he'd get a good show.

Oh, no.

Santa was now flying the old sleigh while the two opposing forces of nature duked it out on the guy's front lawn.

He really shouldn't have expected more from those guys. A guaranteed letdown if they ever tried to change. Krampus just ignored whatever came next because he didn't need to watch another one of the hundreds of fights the two had.

Then he finally got to see what was going on as he shot to the North Pole.

The Northern Windbag was creating a vortex that was drawing in Santa.

Why did he expect this guy to not go this far?

Sure he had difficulty in using his abilities on the forces of nature but it really was his fault for not seeing this coming.

And a perpetual vortex? Sure to an observer it was such an amazing thing, but that was literally how the guy made his lair.

Krampus closed in on the two, just underneath the sleigh and the windbag. He was about to throw a punch when something caught his eye.

It really wasn't uncommon for him to see a team of reindeer pulling a sleigh, but two was definitely a first. The second sleigh was being manned by the miser brothers and was being pulled by a team of baby reindeer. Seems like they got the new sleigh up and running.

Krampus barely had time to register this as a white glow came from his cloud of black smoke. He formed his upper body to see where this was coming from. He only got two words out as he saw his pocket watch glowing.

"What the?"

With a flash he was gone, and the shadow of Saint Nick was not happy he had to leave.