Here's the second chapter of this Christmas story! Happy New Year and I hope you're ready for the start of the 20's decade! Before we begin, a friend of mine on FanFiction told me that she hasn't seen "Tangled" before. You should see it! It's a good movie! The main character, Rapunzel, is voiced by Mandy Moore, who is a singer and Mandy happens to have a pretty voice when she sings.
Anyway, here's where the villain first appears!
Meanwhile, in another town where it also snowing, a man with gray hair is wearing a suit, cape, top hat, red scarf and an eye piece, and is wielding a staff with a diamond and a golden dollar sign on it. He is riding through the town in a horse-drawn carriage that's being driven by his butler. As he rides along, he has a stern look on his face.
"Jingle bells, Christmas smells." he sings to himself in a grumbling manner.
He spots a boy building a snowman trying to put a carrot nose on it, but he is too short to reach where he wants to put the carrot on. The man sees this an opportunity to show how much he hates Christmas spirit.
"Stop the carriage. Someone needs my help." he said to his butler. The carriage stops and the man gets out and walks to the boy. "Need a hand, kid?"
"Oh, thanks, mister." the boy said gratefully. He gives the man the carrot and the man puts it below the snowman's eyes and above the mouth. Then he pushes hardly to make the head fall off. "Ha!"
"Hey!" the boy exclaimed. Then the man dropped the carrot into the boy's hand and heads back to his carriage.
"You're a mean one, mister!" the boy said angrily. The man responds by throwing a snowball at him and the boy gets stuck in his own creation. Then the man gets back in his carriage.
Along the way, he hears a man exclaim, "Hey, Merry Christmas! Happy holiday, Sue!"
"Morning, Fred!" Sue responded. The man in the carriage groans exasperatedly at this.
"Season's greetings, folks!" Fred greeted the townsfolk.
The horse pulls the carriage past a group of carolers who are singing. "God rest ye merry gentlemen, let nothing you dismay!" The man covers his ears in an attempt to block out their voices.
"Remember, Christ, our savior, was born on Christmas Day to save us all from Satan's power when we were gone astray! Oh, tidings of comfort and joy, comfort and joy! Oh, tidings of comfort and joy!"
Once the carriage was far away from the voices and they can no longer be heard, the man puts his stern expression back on. "I hate Christmas." he muttered.
Later, the carriage arrives and pulls over to a tall building that has the words 'Copper and Weasley Toys HQ' on it. The butler gets out of the driver's seat and goes over to let him out of the carriage.
"Here we are, sir. Your office building." the butler said as the man steps out without so much as a grunt.
They go inside the building as employees are seen making toys and so on, all sweaty and exhausted.
"Ah, I love the smell of profit in the morning." the man said.
They pass by two men as one of them sighs in sadness.
"John? What's wrong?" one of the men said.
"Oh, nothing, James. " John answered. "It's just that, well, Christmas is coming soon, and I have no idea if the boss will let everyone off for the holidays like he rarely does these days."
"Pfft, I wish! You know how scroogy that old warthog is!"
"It's just that one of my kids has started feeling unwell recently, and I just want to spend Christmas with him, and not locked in the office building that also serves as a toy factory."
"I can't imagine the odds of him allowing that. He never keeps his word these days." They see their boss arriving to a secretary.
"Morning, Scrooge McCopper." the secretary said. "You have two meetings today."
"Of course, I do, Secretary Sylvia." McCopper said. "Now move so I can attend it." He goes inside an office.
"This is my chance, James." John said.
"Oh, I don't know about that." James replied. "The last employee who tried to ask for something was hospitalized by McCopper's guards. Poor soul was trying to get the chance to see his ill wife who died afterward."
"Well, it wouldn't hurt to try." John breathes deeply. "Well, here I go."
"But you can't interrupt him in the middle of his meeting. You could get fired."
"Then I'll simply wait. I don't care what happens. I am not going to let my family down."
In McCopper's office, McCopper is counting a series of coins.
Sylvia knocks on his door and tells him, "Sir, two businessmen are here to see you."
"Send them in." McCopper sighed. He then turns his chair and sees a huge portrait of himself when he was younger and two other men.
"Ah, my old business partners and teenage friends. Alan and Drakey Weasley, dead three years on Christmas Eve which is only three days from now. Ah, those two and I had some great times. Tragic they died from an incident with a poison dart frog. Man, what funny words they said. In their last wills and testaments, they left me enough money for their tombstones." He laughs. "And I had them buried at sea. Ha-ha! You're a rotter, Mr. McCopper!"
A knock is heard. "Come in!"
Two businessmen entered. One of them was incredibly clumsy.
"Hello, Mr. McCopper." one said. "The name is Nigel, and that guy over there is my clumsy associate, Stanley.
Stanley crashes into a shelf filled with glass. "I'm okay!" he declared.
"Uh, right. Anyway, we are representatives for a donation organization. Today's projects are to keep Prison 42 afloat, as well as founding for the local hospitals, orphanages, and our biggest one, relief for the poor victims of the previous hurricane."
"It may have been two years ago, but that was a really bad storm, you know-" Stanley said before tripping and crashing into a vase. "OOF! I'M OKAY!"
"Oh, really? A charity scam?" McCopper asked.
"Hell, no, we didn't say 'charity scam', did we?" Nigel answered. "We're just collecting money for the poor, that's all."
"Oh, I see. You want me to give you money for the poor, huh? Well then, if I help you raise money for the poor, you do realize that means the poor won't be poor anymore, will they?"
"We just want to make things better for them." Stanley said.
"And if the poor is no longer poor, you won't have to raise money anymore, will you?" McCopper asked.
"Well, I suppose-" Nigel began before getting disrupted by McCopper.
"And if you don't have to raise money anymore, then you would be put out of a job and just before Christmas Eve." He pretends to have pity on them. "Oh, please, gentlemen. Don't ask me to put you out of a job! Not before Christmas Eve!"
"Wow, even for a miser, that's quite an outlook." Stanley said.
McCopper felt offended at this. "Excuse me You come in here just to insult my pride? I WON'T HAVE IT!" He shouts and presses a button. "Get me security! I need some people who are trying to trick me into giving them money for free!"
Security guards show up and grab Stanley and Nigel.
"You want some money? Well, I've got a bundle right here!" He raises his hand up. "Spend it like mad! Now, get lost!"
The security guards drag the two businessmen out of the building and threw them out into the snow.
"So, where was his bundle of money?" Nigel asked. Stanley looked at him weird.
Back inside, McCopper sighs and looks at the portrait again. "What's this world coming to, Weasleys? You work all your life to make money, and people want you to give it away! I swore to make this the best company in this town, and I meant it!"
Sylvia knocks on the door and announced, "Mr. McCopper, your nephew is here to see you."
McCopper's jaw drops open in shock and he sighs. "Send them in. By the Gods I never get a break!" He looks at his portrait again. "At least I'm happy you two won't have to deal with Christmas anymore. The plus side is that I don't have to share 50% of the business and profits with you two anymore. Yet, I have to see my nephew. I have to acknowledge my family for once after... that night." He looks sad, but sharpens up. "No matter!"
His nephew enters.
"What brings you here, Sonny, my nephew?" McCopper asked.
"Well, Uncle Scrooge, I came to ask you something." Sonny said.
"Be quick about it. I'm counting my profits. McCopper said as he began drinking some wine.
"I came to ask if you would like to come to our Holiday Festival and spend Christmas with me and my family in four days."
McCopper spits out his wine in shock. "Pardon my French, but could you run that by me again?"
"Would you like to spend Christmas with us?"
McCopper smacks away his money pile with his cane in anger as the money piles onto the floor. "I do not enjoy Christmas! Have you forgotten what it has done to me?!"
"I was only asking to see if you'd come around!"
McCopper sighs and takes a deep breath. "Sonny, I love you like a child, but please, keep your holiday spirit to yourself and I'll keep mine to myself."
"I'm sorry. I've tried for years to make you happy after what my family thinks of you."
McCopper shivers. "I left my family behind me a long time ago. You're the only family comfort I have left. And I must ask you to leave."
"Well, if you insist." Sonny sighed as he leaves.
"Bah, humbug!" McCopper grumbled as he watches his nephew leave from the window.
Here's where the main antagonist first appears. A man with a personality like Ebenezer Scrooge named Scrooge McCopper. We haven't gotten to his evil plot scheming yet, but we'll get to that later on.
See you in the next chapter, and welcome to the start of the 20's decade!