It had been five days for them since they went on their journey. Nita and Mike had grown accustomed to the feeling of perpetual darkness everywhere they turned. They were currently flying over the countries of Europe. They had streamlined some of the deliveries for more advanced and clustered houses with the help of Penny's turret but all rural neighborhoods and islands were forced to be delivered by hand.
"Penny, look! Mrs. Rosa's greenhouse!" Nita called, peering over the edge of the sleigh.
"I see it kid! Next stop: Brawler village!" Penny shouted over the wind as she yanked the reins of the sleigh. The reindeer skittered to a stop on top of the greenhouse, and Penny swore as she heard a faint "Blooming 'eck!" from inside. "I'll take care of Rosa, you guys go get started. Grab your home base and then tell the rest of us the next place you're going so we don't accidentally do the same house twice." Nita and Dynamike both gave a silent thumbs up before stealing off into the night. Penny steeled herself and jumped of the roof before strolling through the front door. She felt the potion wear off as she fell. When she hit the ground, she started pulling out another one but thought better of it. She opened the door and ran face first into rosa.
"Penny? What in the blazes are doing?" Rosa growled, leaning down to make herself eye-level with the pirate. As she did, two small, yellow-clad arms wrapped gently around her neck as Bea jumped on her back, resting her chin in Rosa's hair.
"Penny, help me! Rosa hasn't slept for three days!" Rosa growled again and lifted Bea off of her by the collar of her bee-themed pajamas.
"Sleep is for the weak, darling," Rosa said simply and trudged back to her desk. Penny sighed and strolled up. She looked for a place to lean, but opted to just stand normally when she saw that every square inch of the desk was covered in papers and pots.
"Rosa, we've talked about this: you need sleep." Rosa pulled her glasses off and rubbed her eyes.
"Penny, I am so close to a breakthrough, and- what are you supposed to be, a christmas tree? That isn't funny."
Penny rolled her eyes. "I'm an elf actually. And you're going to forget this ever happened." Rosa opened her mouth, but Penny hit her with a pinch of wonder dust before she could speak. The botanist was asleep before her head hit the desk.
"So you're an elf?" Bea asked from behind her. Penny turned around slowly, already grabbing more wonder dust.
"Yeah. Sorry about this Bea." The entomologist grinned and rubbed the back of her neck.
"It's fine, I assure you. I'm assuming I won't remember this tomorrow?"
"Nope."
"Alright, just lean me up against her desk. I fall asleep there a lot. And find her glasses, would you?"
Penny stepped closer to Bea, preparing to catch her. "Will do. Goodnight, and merry Christmas." She blew a puff of the wonder dust into Bea's face and caught her as she fell. She carried the now sleeping girl over to Rosa's desk chair and propped her up, smiling when she shifted and unconsciously made herself comfortable against the metal. Penny picked Rosa's glasses up off the floor and placed them on her desk before walking over to their tree, a large decorated pitcher plant that seemed to be eating it's lights.
"Rosa Bush, nice." A set of beakers, a new lab coat, and a set of ceramic pots landed in Penny's arms and she placed them under the tree. "Beatrice Midgely, nice." A small set of wrenches and a large net flew out of the pack, and she caught them and placed them under the tree next to Rosa's gifts. "Sprout, nice." A short string of lights and a hamster water bottle popped out, landing neatly in Penny's hands. She placed them on top of the pile of gifts and pulled out a potion. She drank it in one quick gulp and dashed out the door towards her ship to drop off her crew's gifts.
She skidded over the quiet waters as if they were frozen and climbed onto her ship, launching herself up by grabbing onto one of the cannons.
As soon as she landed on the deck, her earpiece began spitting out the names of her crew one after the other, all followed by the word "naughty". One name frustrated her, "Gonna have to fix that when we get back." She went about her way, stealthily delivering the necessary presents to their owners.
Across the city, Pam Junker was getting ready for bed. She pulled her hair out of it's customary do and put on her pajamas before going to check on jessie in the next room over.
That was when she heard a loud sequence of noises coming from downstairs, followed by a high-pitched noise that sounded like a growl and only lasted a split second. She dashed back to her room, grabbed a large wrench out of her closet, and started down the stairs, careful to make as little noise as possible. The second she hit the first step, she heard more thuds. When she got to the bottom, there was no one there. Presents topped with glittering bows sat under the tree, crumbs were scattered across the room, the lights on the tree reflected off of the wrapping paper. She did a double take and looked back at the table where the cookies that Jessie had set out had been sitting not a moment before.
The table was a disaster. The plate the cookies were on now had multiple scratch marks on it. On closer inspection, the scratch marks looked like a small animal had clawed at the plate as they were eating the cookies. And, seeing as there weren't any wild animals near her house, there was only one person who could've made this much of a mess. Pam put her hands on her hips and looked back at the tree.
"Nita Littlefoot, how did you get in my house?"
Black boots thudded silently to the ground as Dynamike dropped down the entrance to the mine. He looked around to make sure no one was coming and spotted Jacky, curled up in an overstuffed rocking chair. He smiled at the young woman and set to work bringing out presents. His earpiece chirped that both Carl and Jacky were nice, and he pulled out gifts accordingly, proud that the abrasive girl had managed to behave enough to stay on the nice list.
He was lost in his thoughts when his foot caught on a spare drill and he tripped, dropping one of the gifts. He calmly stuck a hand out to catch the gift, which was falling in slow motion to him thanks to the potion. He didn't realize that the potion had worn off until the present hit the ground with a loud thud. Jacky snorted and woke up with a start, nearly falling out of her chair in the process. Her hard hat fell into her eyes and she had to lift the brim out of her face to properly see her visitor.
"Santa? Wait… Mike? Is that you?" Jacky launched herself out of her chair and flung herself at Dynamike, wrapping him in a tight hug. "Glistening gemstones, Mike, I thought you were passed out in an alley somewhere! You can't scare us like that!" She took a deep breath and grabbed the man by his shoulders. "What are you doing playing Santa with that back of yours?!" She shouted, shaking him gently. Dynamite smiled sheepishly.
"It's a long story."
"Whatever your excuse is, it won't work! You are not going back out there!" Jacky began to push him towards his room, still rambling about his back and other injuries he had received over the years. Meanwhile, Dynamike was pulling a pinch of wonder dust out of the pouch, praying that it worked as well on humans as it did on monkeys. He ducked under Jacky's arm and threw the powder at her face. She wrinkled her nose and started to sneeze, but she fell asleep halfway through. Dynamike wrapped an arm around her waist and one around her shoulders, just barely catching her as she fell face-first towards the floor. He shifted his grip and carried her back to the chair that she had been asleep in, careful not to wake her up. He silently checked to make sure he had put out all of Jacky's and Carl's gifts before chugging another potion and vanishing back up the mine shaft.
Penny crept stealthily through the front door of the mortuary, carefully avoiding the gaze of some of Mortis' nastier bats. A few of the nicer ones squeaked at her, recognizing her even when she looked like a walking poinsettia moving at the speed of sound.
"You guys need to be quiet, ya hear?" She whispered. A few of the bats squeaked, and the whole colony took flight in slow motion, flapping sluggishly towards an open window to go do their hunting for the night. Penny chuckled at the cloud silently before continuing her trek through the large mansion. Three more hallways stood between her and the Christmas tree, so she still had a lot of ground to cover. As she walked, her earpiece told her that all the occupants of the household were on the nice list. She quickly whispered their names and grabbed the gifts as they popped out of her bag. A box for Frank, containing a pair of holographic glasses that could be programmed to display anything the wearer wanted them to. Emz was getting a signed poster of Poco, her celebrity crush, and Mortis was getting a signed poster of... himself. Penny smirked at the vampire's narcissistic tendencies as she entered the living room and placed the gifts underneath the tree.
When she was done, she stole one last glance at the tree and stole off into the night.
After they had finished delivering gifts to Brawl Village, they returned to the sleigh. Nita and Dynamike were relieved to not hear Rosa still awake inside her greenhouse. All three were somewhat refreshed after visiting their homes, and they climbed into the sleigh with little complaint. As they flew away, Nita leaned over the edge of the sleigh, firefly waving at her home as it shrunk in the distance.
"Don't worry you two, we only have about fifty more go. Just hang in there," Penny said.
"Fifty more? How many days is that, one? Two?"
"One and a half. Quit complaining, it's better than swabbing the poop deck for five days straight! The only treats you get doing that are the ones the gulls drop for ya!" Nita giggled at Penny as she pulled herself back into the sleigh.
"Don't worry, Mr. Mike, we'll be done soon." Dynamite sighed and propped himself up on his elbow.
"I sure hope so. I miss my mine. "
The group took their seats as Penny pulled off. The soared miles above the sky across the seas to their next location. Along the way Nita noticed that same ship shitting at the dock west of their village. "Hey Penny, look! It's your ship!"
"Yep, just finished delivering there."
Nita thought it would be fun to mess with her, "What did everyone get?"
"Same as every year, coal."
Nita snickered at the statement, "Yeah right, what did you actually get?"
Penny gave her a crooked smile, "Nothing but coal."
She refocused on the reindeer and the skies ahead. Nita however wasn't convinced. She leaned over the edge of the sleigh, silently whispering, "Penny Brooks." She waited for the response from her ear piece. Her heart quickly sunk as did her body.
She fell back into Dynamike, starling the older man. "Woah there kiddo. What's wrong?"
"Um… nothing. Just saw a bird fly by."
Dyanmike laughed at the thought, "Yeah that's happened to me once or twice. Just be careful." Penny laughed at her mistake.
Nita silently took a seat beside Mike. When Penny turned around she couldn't help but whisper the name again. She couldn't have heard what she thought she heard. But alas the tiny voice said into her ear again, "Penny Brooks. Time left on naughty list: 44 years."
Sammy: *softly crying in the corner again*
Queen: Oh dear Lord, here we go again.
Sammy: *Tears rolling down his face* What?
Queen: You're crying. Again. What happened now?
Sammy: I'm not crying… I just have something in my eyes.
Queen: Like what? We are in a void with no-
Sammy: *crunches on a single Taki chip*
Queen: And again with the snacks.
Sammy: By the way, *rubs away a tear* great chapter. I knew you could handle all the character interactions without my help. *Taki dust gets in eyes* GAH!
Queen: Yeah, handle. Random question, how much caffeine can you have before you die?
Sammy: Ten grams.
Queen: *pours herself a fourth cup of espresso* good to know.
Sammy: *looks towards the rest of the story* How many chapters do we have left?
Queen: Two? Three? Something like that. *softly sips espresso*
Sammy: *looks at the size of the story* Let's make it one.
Queen: *spits out espresso* You're kidding!
Sammy: Ahem, I'm in college. I am not a little kid.
Queen: Fine, joking. *spits out more espresso* You're joking!
Sammy: No jokes. It's only like… 2000 words left. They can handle it.
Queen: How did we manage that?
Sammy: I dunno? Faith, trust, and pixie dust?
Queen: Bibbidi bobbidi boom cracka lacka. It's almost done!
Sammy: Which means it's almost time to say goodbye to this wonderful place. *looks at all the beautiful nothing around them*
Queen: Until then, we can say goodbye to the chapter and prepare for the last one! Sam?
Sammy: *points finger guns with a rocking pair of shades on* Until then. Thanks for reading another one of our silly scripts, please keep reading and goodnight!
Queen: Where are you getting this stuff?
Sammy: You really haven't been using your powers in here, have you?