"Why me?" Shark whined to Wolf.

"Because, considering how close you are with Piranha, you're easily our best DPS," he answered while lying on the couch with Snake and Webs. "Besides, I've got a special project to work on."

"But it's just caroling. Can't he handle that on his own?"

"Aren't you forgetting the time we thought Piranha could handle grocery shopping on his own?" Webs asked.

"No, I remember," Shark admitted. "But you've gotta admit, farting into the customer intercom was far from the worst thing he could've done. Wait a minute, Webs, why don't you go with him?"

"No way!" Webs objected. "I'm not gonna risk repeating Thanksgiving. I'm still recovering from learning what the inside of his mouth looks like."

"Shark," Wolf started, "correct me if I'm wrong, but do you not want to go with Piranha because of what happened yesterday?"

Shark made a face as though Wolf accused him of murder. "What? No!"

Wolf, Snake, and Webs all shot him unconvinced glares.

"Okay, fine, I'm worried I'll run into one of those kids or their parents."

Wolf got up from the couch and put his paw on Shark's shoulder. "Listen, Shark, I understand how yesterday made you feel, but you can't just hide from everything. Those kids might've been scared of you, but that doesn't mean you have to be scared of them."

"Yeah, maybe you're right. Maybe I am being a coward about all this. You know what, I'll be the DPS tonight."

Shark made the decision not a moment too soon as the faint sound of tiny bells got louder as Piranha approached them. "Wassup, guys?" he greeted them.

To say Piranha was in the holiday spirit was like saying Marmalade has an interest in money. Piranha donned an elf costume with a pointed hat with lights around it and a bell at the top, like a Christmas tree as a hat. His ensemble also included brown, curled boots which also featured bell at their tips, jingling with each step he took. In his hands, he held a song book, full of carols.

"Hey, Wolf, I don't remember kidnapping one of Santa's elves," Snake said sarcastically.

"Ha, Chico, you're just jealous that I'm able to wear clothes like these," Piranha shot back with a smug look on his face. "Anyway, I'm heading out to go caroling. Be back in a bit."

Piranha made his way towards the elevator when Shark shouted, "Wait!"

Piranha looked back at him. "Yeah, Buddy?"

Shark made a grave error of opening his mouth before coming up with his excuse. He needed a believable lie and fast. "Well, you see, I really like hearing you sing. Would it be okay if I tag along?"

Piranha didn't respond right away. Shark always had a lot more faith in Piranha's intelligence than the others. He wondered if Piranha could see right through his lie.

"Sure you can, Chico. The more, the merrier, I always say."

"You've never said that," Webs said.

Shark grabbed his coat and joined Piranha towards the elevator.

"Have fun, you two," Wolf causally said from the couch. "Take your time. Don't come back so soon."

As the elevator descended, both Shark and Piranha stood in silence for a moment. "Think he's up to somethin'?" Piranha asked.

"Definitely," Shark confidently answered.

This exchange sent both of them into a laughing fit. "Who's that guy trying to fool, really?" Piranha jokingly asked.

"Right. 'Look at me. I'm Mr. Wolf. I think I'm so dashing and cunning, but I'm as easy to read as a picture book.'"

"Woah, your Wolf impression is on point."

"Thanks. You think that's good? You should hear Diane's impression. It's scary how on point hers is."

Night had already come an hour ago, so the city was lit by street lamps, Christmas decorations, and the light leaking out the windows of buildings. The real glow, however, came from Piranha's face as he carelessly skipped across the sidewalk, bells ringing with each skip. Shark walked behind him, close enough to keep an eye on him but far enough not to be noticed.

Within a few blocks, they found themselves in a quiet neighborhood, perfect for a carol or two. The two walked up to the first house they saw with its lights on and rang the doorbell. During the lull before the owner answered, Piranha's fin wagged like crazy. It kept shaking his hat, causing a continuous ringing which most likely grabbed the attention of the home owner far more than ringing the doorbell did.

The door was soon open by a bald man with a beard in a flannel sweatshirt. "Has my package arrived?" he asked them.

Piranha and Shark looked at each other, wondering if either of them knew what he meant. "Uhh, no, we're—we're here to sing for you," Piranha explained. "You know, carols?"

"Ohh," the man responded. "For a moment there, I thought the postal service was just going all out this Christmas."

The man chuckled at the misunderstanding. The duo joined him, figuring that would warm him up to them. "So, uhh, would you like me to sing?" Piranha asked.

The man clicked his tongue. "Sorry, but I'm watching a movie with my family at the moment. Maybe so,e other time, okay?"

"Oh—Okay, have a good night."

"You too."

And with that, the man shut the door. Shark looked down at Piranha. "Hey, Buddy, are you okay?"

"Yeah, it's fine," Piranha said with a fractured smile. "I mean, it's just one house. They're plenty of those in this neighborhood."

Piranha's second caroling attempt came from an upper scale house with a brick exterior and a pristine car in its driveway. That wasn't the only stand-out part of the house. Lights of a multitude of different colors seeped through the window's curtains. Loud techno music could also be heard from outside.

"Looks like whoever lives here is having a party," Shark suggested.

"Nice, a big audience," Piranha said as he hopped up to reach the doorbell.

After ringing the doorbell, the house went silence and the colorful lights disappeared. Steps on a hardwood floor from inside the house grew louder until a young woman opened the front door.

She looked down at Piranha with confusion. "So, are they making pizza delivery people wear this for December?" she asked him.

"What? Why do people think I'm a delivery boy?" Piranha asked himself with restrained annoyance in his voice. "No, I'm here to sing Christmas Carols."

"Yeah, hard pass," the girl said in a dull tone. "This party's got plenty of music."

Piranha looked down at his feet, trying to keep his face from scowling.

Shark took notice of his friend's reaction. "What about your parents? Would they enjoy a few carols?"

With that question, the young woman bit her lip and began avoiding eye contact with both of her visitors. "My—parents?"

"Yeah, they're home, aren't they?"

She instantly shut the door.

Shark gently bent down to Piranha's level. "Sorry 'bout that, Buddy."

"It's fine, Chico!" Piranha snapped back as he slammed his caroling book shut. "I bet that girl wouldn't know good music if it ran her over with her car."

As the two left the house, Shark heard the light rustling of bushes. He glanced over to get a glimpse of the house's backyard. In the dark, he could make out the outlines of at least two dozen teens and young adults jumping over the fence and running off in all directions. This sight answered his question far more than the young lady's silence ever could.

The string of rejections continued throughout the night. When the owners weren't asleep or away, they declined Piranha's performance. Their reasons ranged from the owner hating Christmas music to the owner being deaf. The latter led to Piranha cursing under his breath about how he should've learned sign language in high school. With each rejection, Piranha's jovial spirit decayed.

At last, they reach the last house in the neighborhood. "You should at least give it a shot," Shark suggested.

Piranha scoffed, "Why not? I could use a little more disappointment this evening."

Piranha knocked on the front door of the house. His foot didn't tap, his fin didn't wag, and not a single bell on his outfit rang.

The front door was opening by a lady in in her early 30s wearing a nightgown. "Ohhh, what's this?" she asked in a pleasantly surprised tone.

This response was enough to get Piranha's fin wagging and his bells ringing again. "Hello, miss, I'm hear to sing some Christmas Carols for you."

"Oh, how lovely. Go ahead, then."

Piranha flipped through the song book, searching for the first song to start the night. When he made his decision, he cleared his throat and inhaled before starting to sing.

Just then, a vibration came out of the lady's nightgown. "Oh, sorry, let me take this real quick."

She pulled out her phone and took a call. "Hello? Roger, hi, how's everything? Wait, did Mandy have—She did!?" Whatever response she received made her squeal. "Oh my god, that's great. I'll be right over."

That last sentence made Piranha drop his song book in disbelief.

"Sorry, my sister just had a baby," the lady explained as she hastily put on her slippers. "You can sing for me tomorrow, okay? Bye."

The lady wearing only her evening attire ran out of her house and into her car in the driveway. After starting the engine, she raced down the street, quickly disappearing from Piranha and Shark's vision.

Piranha made a face of expected disappointment as he picked up his song book, tore it in half by the spine with relative ease, and threw the halves on the ground. He then curled up into a ball and hid his face from Shark.

"Piranha?" Shark spoke with a sad yet comforting voice. "Buddy? Do you need me to comfort you?"

"I don't need you to comfort me, Chico!" Piranha shouted as he faced Shark. "I need to people to listen to me sing! I didn't practice every Christmas carol there is all November for nobody to listen to me! If there's even one person in this city who wants to hear me sing, I will sing for them!"

Shark backed away from Piranha after this response. "So, where do we go now?"

Piranha stood up. "I know just the place."

With a taped-up song book, Piranha exited the convenience store and marched up to the stone fountain outside the mall's entrance. While in the store, Shark donned a disguise to guarantee that no one at the mall would ever recognize him. Luckily, the convenience store was world famous for their large paper bags.

Piranha slipped through and maneuvered around the crowds of people both entering and exiting the mall before climbing to the top of the fountain. "Good evening, todos!" he shouted to the people below. "I'm Mr. Piranha, and tonight, I will treat all of you to a selection of Christmas carols sung by yours truly."

He flipped through his book and made his first selection.

Silent night, holy night.

That's as far as he made it.

"Umm, excuse me?" a police lady called out to him.

"What?" he responded. "Can't you see I was in the middle of something?"

"Yes, I see that, but you're not allowed in the fountain."

Piranha stretched out his arms. "Chica, I'm a fish! That's like telling a bird not to be in the air."

"The air is not private property. Now, please get off of the fountain before I have to arrest you."

Piranha leaned into her face, "Miss, do you know who I am?"

The officer studied his face for a moment. "Were you the fish who farted into the Cheap Mart intercom last month?"

"Yes." Once Piranha processed what she said, he rolled his eyes and threw up his hands. "Outside of that?"

The officer started to wag her index finger as she tried to figure out who Piranha was. "Oh, The Gala for Goodness, the Good Tonight guy, right?"

Piranha smiled. "Yes!"

"Dude, you were awesome."

"Aww thanks."

"But still, get off the fountain."

Piranha groaned. "Please, just let me have this. Shark help me out, man."

"Oh no, you're not dragging me into this," Shark retaliated.

"Oh, I'll drag whoever I feel like into this clusterfudge," Piranha stated.

"Sir, is he with you?" the officer asked Shark.

"Yeah," he replied before leaning in closer and whispering, "I'm just here to keep an eye on him."

"Umm, why are you wearing a brown bag over your head."

"Oh, just because I made some children cry yesterday."

The officer's mouth hung open for a few moments. "Should I arrest you, also?"

"Shark, up here. Now!" Piranha yelled.

Shark sighed and climbed up next to Piranha.

"Haha. Thanks for following through, Chico. See, officer, I've got Shark on my side. There's two of us and only one of you. What's gonna stop us now."

A second later, both Piranha and Shark heard of stone cracking.

"I hope they can superglue that fountain," Shark said within a county jail cell.

The cell was about what you would expect. It featured yellow, plastic walls, a wooden bench held up by chains, and a steel toilet which Piranha attempted to escape through, but he got stuck halfway.

Piranha also tried escaping by digging an underground tunnel, but all he managed to do was crack a tile. Next, he tried to bend the cell door bars apart, but his arms got tired. These attempts at breaking out of the cell were met with disappointment by those in the neighboring cells, hoping he'd help them escape.

Piranha sat next to Shark, tense and breathing heavily in frustration. Seeing this, Shark grabbed him and placed him on his lap. "I do not want you to pet me," Piranha stated.

"I know you don't," Shark said. "You need it."

Shark tossed aside Piranha's hat and slowly stroked his dorsal fin back and forth. After a few strokes, Piranha stopped breathing as heavily, and his body relaxed. Once Shark noticed this, he placed him back on the bench.

"You want to talk about it?" Shark carefully asked.

"No," Piranha responded, followed by silence. "Okay, it's just that, back in Bolivia, my family never took me seriously, you know? They always said that I got in the way of things. The rest of the world wasn't much better. They either found me scary at best or annoying at worse, but, when I sang at the gala, for once, people actually enjoyed something I had to offer. I just—I just wanted for that to happen again."

Shark didn't know exactly what to say that would make him feel better. He understood him completely, especially after what happened to him yesterday.

"Buddy?" Shark said to get his attention. "You know, I get it. Must be difficult, being rejected so many times, especially after getting a taste of what acceptance is like, but there are people out there who want to hear you."

"Yeah, I know, the guys, right?"

"No, if the gala's anything to go by, people do love to hear you sing. Maybe not everyone, but people like that are out there. Keep trying, Buddy. You'll find your audience someday."

Piranha didn't know what to say after those encouraging words, so he settled for hugging Shark who patted his friend's back. "So, what do we do now?"

"Well, I never did get to hear you sing."

Piranha searched around their cell and the accompanying ones. "In—in here?"

"Yeah, why not? Not like we're leaving anytime soon."

Piranha responded with a shrug. "Eh, what've I got to lose. I've already lost my dignity."

Piranha got to the center of their cell and cleared his throat.

Have yourself a merry little Christmas

Let your heart be light

Next year all our troubles, will be out of sight

Have yourself a merry little Christmas

Make the Yuletide gay

Next year all our troubles, will be miles away

Once again, as in olden days

Happy golden days of yore

Faithful friends who are dear to us

Will be near to us once more

Someday soon we all will be together

If the fates allow

Until then, we'll have to muddle through somehow

So have yourself a merry little Christmas now

Once Piranha finished the song, he was met with clapping and not just from Shark. He looked out of his cell to see the inmates from the other cells all applauded his performance, some even wiping tears of their faces. "That was beautiful, fish," an inmate in a leather jacket said.

Another inmate sniffled. "Think you could sing another song?"

Speechless, Piranha looked at all the inmates. "Chico?" he said as he looked at Shark.

"Yeah?"

"I think I found my audience."

Piranha had the opportunity to sing three more songs until the same officer from earlier walked in and unlocked Shark and Piranha's cell door. "You're letting us go?" Shark asked.

"Yep, someone bailed you out," she said.

"Who?"

Shark's question was answered when a familiar fox wearing glasses entered the room.

"Diane!?" Shark and Piranha shouted out in unison.

"I heard what happened and figured you two could a use ride," she explained.

Piranha and Shark followed Diane out of the police station, being met with a standing ovation from all the inmates as Piranha exited.

Once the three made it into her car, Diane looked behind at her passengers. "Okay, this is the third time I've bailed you out of prison. The next time any of you do something stupid, you're on your own."

"Yes, Diane," Shark and Piranha said as if Diane was their mother.

"Why is it only the two of you? Where're the others?"

"Back at home," Piranha explained. "Wolf has some sort of project he's working on. Probably dragged Snake and Webs into it."

"Yeah, that sounds like Wolf, all right. 'Hi, I'm Wolf. You're gonna help me with my wild ideas whether you like it or not.'"

Piranha clamped his hands around his mouth in disbelief. "You weren't lying, Shark. Her Wolf impression is on point."

Diane parked the car right outside the tunnel to The Good Guys' home, and said goodbye to Shark and Piranha before driving away.

"Man, what a night," Shark said as he stretched in the elevator.

"You can say that again," Piranha commented. "Can't wait to lie down and relax."

The elevator opened up to reveal a less than relaxing scene. Flour and eggs covered the kitchen floor, batter stained the cabinets and refrigerator, and fire extinguisher powder coated the oven. What really captured Piranha's and Shark's attention, however, was Wolf, Snake, and Webs being covered head(or tail)-to-toe in soot. It was a good thing that Arsene was not there to experience this.

Shark and Piranha looked at each other, not sure how to comment on the state of their home.

"Don't," Wolf started.

"Even," Webs continued.

"Ask," Snake concluded.