"What's this? What's this? There's color everywhere! What's this? There's white things in the air! What's this? I can't believe my eyes, I must be dreaming, wake up Val' this isn't fair! What's this?"
Valentine caroled to her song in front of the largest Christmas tree on display in Jump City, while people ran about and away in fear at the sight of her newest and largest models to come out of her Factory, the Steam Boys. Hulking devices the size of mythic ogres, the body composed of a green steel shell that terminated in a metal air-vent that served as a non-face for the creature, while gray stringy muscular limbs poked out of the sides of the steel shell, themselves ending in metal gauntlets and greaves. Three of the gargantuan artificial zombies, large axes strapped to their backs, all hunkered about the Christmas tree, attempting to pull the trunk right out of the stand.
"Dude, Val'. Your big guys have axes. Why not just cut it down?" Devil Hand turned to his companion in question as they all stood guard.
"Cause that'll damage our Christmas tree, you idiot! You should treat trees with respect, you know. They're the main reason why there's still oxygen in the world!"
"Be nice to the trees? What about people?"
"They're a detrimental effect to the world wide eco-system. They should be pleased I help recycle them, then leave them in stuffy boxes that can't be decomposed!" Valentine harrumphed with crossed arms.
That effectively ended the discussion, as D' found himself quickly backing away from pouting child. She was seriously too weird sometimes.
Terra, guarding the side opposite of Valentine pondered their latest mischief, "This is a weird way to celebrate Christmas…"
"Ha! Public trees! Today's society is too indulgent! Wasting billions on getting large trees, just so it'll be wasted by the indifference of the masses! It should be better used to the few who care, rather than the many who don't!" Valentine lectured, before turning to Mr. Freeze who sat cross-legged and hunched atop the bus that was parked nearby the quartet, "Right Freezie?"
Freeze simply looked back with apparently, some form of diluted variant of a scathing look before twisting around to keep guard.
"Agh! Don't tell me you still hate Christmas, Freezie!"
"I find it an inefficient waste of time."
"Mou! What else would the Japanese say… Mak-taku…"
Mr. Freeze suddenly shot out his arms, lighter opening up a barrier of blue flame that protected him from a short barrage of star-bolts, steam spilling everywhere.
"Looks like your going to have to cancel your Christmas shopping plans." Robin remarked as the Titans came to save the Christmas spirit for the masses.
"Aw, it ain't that bad," Devil Hand shot back, rubbing his bare left arm, "After all, we got each other, right? Ain't that what Christmas is all about, spending time with people you care about?"
-
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A Christmas Carol For Mr. Freeze
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"Titans, go!"
"Steam Boys! Direct pressure to 25 Percent! Move it!"
Valentine leapt onto the hull of one of her creations, while the vents of the Steam Boys erupted in a giant bellow of smog, the sounds of an engine rumbling their bodies as they lumbered behind the other Foundation members with large axes in hand.
Terra was first to attack, goggles on while she threw her arms out towards the heroes. Following her, the pavement between the two groups rushed towards the Titans in an oncoming tidal wave of shattered and sharp concrete, making them dive out of the way.
Mr. Freeze from atop the bus, slashed out into the air with his lighter, his other hand clawed in silent commands to the ice fire in the air. In moments, the miasmic frost solidified into blue blades suspended in the air, where gravity sent them downwards, threatening to impale the Titans who continued to dodge. Before they knew it, the supposedly slow Steam Boys were already among them, clumsily slamming their mighty blades down on ground about the crumbled battlefield.
Cyborg could already see where this was going, "Robin! They're trying to split us up again!"
"I know!" Robin shouted back as he narrowly sidestepped another axe blow and retaliated with several spherical grenades into the Steam Boy's 'face', "Titans-"
Before the team leader could say anything else, though, Devil Hand was already flipping into the battlefield and delivering a drop kick into Robin's chest. As the two slid to a halt, D' waved his greeting.
"Evenin', kiddo. Got appointed as Leader Distraction, so better keep on your toes and not on your mouth!"
With that, Devil Hand slashed downwards, releasing a surge of orange power to do as his job appointed.
Somewhere else, Mr. Freeze atop his vehicular throne continued to blast at Starfire, who flipped away through the air away from every burst.
"You! Why must you persist in attacking me in particular?" The princess earnestly asked in worried curiosity, eeping away from another flaming salvo as she returned with starbolts of her own.
"Your very existence is an irritation to me. It would do me a great favor if you stayed still long enough for me to end your frivolous being."
Starfire's eyes glowed with a rage, "Well, I apologize then but as you say, I cannot comply!"
With a shout, she hurled more of her solar powered blasts downward, forcing Freeze to leap off the quickly decimating bus.
At the other side of the battlefield, a bird of particular verdant hue fluttered away breathlessly about the stony spires that erupted from the ground, hoping to slam into him, while Terra wordlessly continued to keep her eyes narrowed in focus, and her hands glowing in attack.
The moment there was a pause in the attacks, Beast Boy flipped back to the ground into his human form, a move that genuinely confused the geokinetic, given they were in a middle of a fight.
"C'mon, Terra! Can't we just talk?" The shape-shifter pleaded to Terra (in, much to her annoyance, what would become a damnably annoying and recurring event that found its way in all her future skirmishes).
There was an awkward silence, as Terra simply shook her head in belief with a raised eyebrow and snorted a disdainful, "No. Are you an idiot or something?"
Beast Boy could only sheepishly chuckle, "Well, you know. It never hurts to keep trying-agh!"
A surprised green octopus managed to stretch itself across a large fissure that Terra threw underneath his feet.
As for Cyborg, he wrestled with one of the Steam Boys, barely managing to stop the gigantic axe from splitting him down the middle as he caught the blades in his hands, servos and musculature whining and stretching in effort while the zombie ogre continued to press downwards with its immense size.
Suddenly Valentine had flipped onto the giant axe and was straddling the backside of the large weapon, legs dangling off either side of the handle and head propped primly on folded hands as she craned her Cheshire smile towards Cyborg's annoyed visage.
"Hallo, my Shin-Getter friend! How're you doing this fine Christ-Mass?"
"Girl… why can't you just celebrate Christmas like a normal person?" The man-machine retorted with much effort.
"Normal? Ha! Excuse me, but you're not exactly the representative voice of the average-wage, white-collar, middle-class, married with two children at age of thirty-five masses yourself!"
Cyborg stared in disbelief at the statement of normality, before being brought to more pressing situations at hand, like making sure he didn't get cleaved in two. With both hands used up, he could only watch helplessly as Valentine rose up and brought her tome to her to summon a nasty spell at the incapacitated Cyborg.
"Uh… some help here, guys?"
A surge of black energy threw the Foundation Sorcerer off the axe, leaving her tumbling for control atop her floating spell book.
Raven floated by with a sardonic, "Don't mention it."
"Yeah? And about this big guy here?"
"It's been warded against my magic. I can't move it. Sorry, Cyborg."
Valentine cut in just then, reciting as she stood upon her floating book, "Come on, Rae-chan! I'm burning through the sky, two hundred degrees, that's why they call me Mr. Fahrenheit! Firnium, Etoil, Cal'cier, Kierbi!"
With that, Raven was forced away from her mechanical comrade as Valentine raced after her as a living, flaming comet.
That still left the Steam Boy for Cyborg to handle, unfortunately. With a terrific yell, Cyborg managed to lift the axe blade higher up, leaving him time to quickly shift his right arm into the sonic cannon that was now pressed against the axe. In a brilliant flash, the Steam Boy backed away clumsily in an attempted show of surprise as it lifted a smoking handle, sans most of the threatening edge that was supposed to adorn it. In moments, Cyborg was giving a hearty war cry as charged towards the vent-faced monstrosity and slamming the cannon end into its green body. A second blast had the Steam Boy toppling backwards from the point blank blast, a smoking hole carved through its steel stomach.
Seeing Robin being double-teamed by Devil Hand and another of the Steam Boys, the Titan raced in to help in the same manner in which he finished off his opponent.
In moments, it was five on four again. D' was first to be pushed back, as Robin and Cyborg rushed in on him with a second wind, leaving the brawler on the defense as he defended against the two.
"Cyborg! Sonic Boom!"
"Gotcha!"
That stopped Devil Hand as he scrunched up his face in confusion, "Say what?"
Instead of a verbal answer, Devil Hand watched Robin throw one of his explosives right into the path of Cyborg's blasts, creating a sonic-amplified blast. Though, D' tried to defend at last minute, all that happened instead was that he was thrown through the air in surprise, his aerial journey cut short as he smashed into the remains of the bus nearby.
Raven continued to race through the sky with the Valentine's comet hot on her tail, and despite all the hurled magic or objects at the sorcerer, it all melted off against the immense magic heat.
I need something to cool her down.
Raven, having a taste for irony, knew exactly who to go to for that.
Down below, Mr. Freeze skated after Starfire, the two continuing to trade shots. Unfortunately, the Tameranian was not careful in making sure where she was going as she flew backwards to retaliate with starbolts. As such, Starfire soon found her back slamming against the side of the building, distracting her as she looked back to see what she exactly had hit her back against. Freeze, sensing an opportunity, quickly dropped onto his back as his momentum slid him forward. As the last starbolts flew over his head, the boy in blue shot his arm outward, a surge of flame slamming into Starfire and pinning her to the wall as a thick layer of white ice, the layer pressing her head backwards and upwards, forcing her to look upwards and away from Freeze.
The momentarily triumphant Freeze brought another cylinder to his mouth to light, before a hand motion caused a circle of ice to fall away from the trapped Starfire, exposing her chest. Another arm movement with his lighter caused to flame to wrap about his weapon and limb, until it all hardened into a rudimentary blade that consumed his forelimb.
With that, Freeze charged forwards, the tip of his icy weapon aimed at the alien's chest.
Raven suddenly flew between them, disappearing into the ground in a flash of black.
"FREEZIE! LOOK OUT!"
Instead of Starfire's chest, Freeze's thrust was interrupted in mid-swing as he stabbed instead into an out of control comet racing downwards after Raven.
The two extreme temperatures collided, along with the magic imbued in the flames. The explosion was tremendous to say the least.
As the smoke cleared, Valentine was found head first into the pavement, her legs sticking into the air almost comically before the body dropped back to the ground.
For Mr. Freeze, as he picked himself mechanically off the rough ground he heard a cry, and turned around into a flying tackle, a flurry and red hair and glowing green and burning orange flesh as Starfire tackled him to the ground, the force enough to knock his lighter out of hand.
"What do you want from me?"
Mr. Freeze kept his listless gaze straight even as he was pinned down."
"Answer me!"
"It is the same answer as all the others in the previous engagements between our parties. I find you exemplary proof of where weakness is derived. A creature whose powers come and go based on emotional stimuli can only be the definition of utter powerlessness. Though I admit that your entire member roster in general is quite unprofessional-"
"That's not true!"
"I look at facts as they are. You are the weakest out of your agency."
"I have still defeated you." The princess shot back.
"Another day, perhaps. Valentine."
The aforementioned struggled to her knees, groaning, "Can we discuss this when my head doesn't hurt?"
"No. Escape route, please."
"Yeah, yeah… Celci…"
Valentine mumbled the rest of her spell out, causing her body to slowly sink into the solid concrete. Devil Hand, slumped in an elsewhere dreamland gave no protest, unlike Terra, who found her ankles going through the liquid ground against her will.
"What the heck?"
"Do not mind it, Terra. It is merely Valentine." Freeze murmured as his head began to sink through the ground. Starfire's own hands, strong as they were, could not keep the grip on the jacket as they continued to obey the laws of physics. In the end, she was just left on her knees in the shattered square that still held the biggest Christmas tree in Jump City.
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Things were slow on the Eve of the greatest morning in the world, as Foundation members patched up from their little foray into Christmas shopping. Out of all of them, Terra was practically untouched, until the Titan's resident magician went ballistic on her.
Still, nothing that a cup of eggnog, or hot chocolate, or anything really couldn't solve.
Terra and Devil Hand sat in front of the Servant of the God of Time who herself was on a coffee table.
"So, the demon says to the two hitchhikers, 'play the best song in the world, or I'll eat your souls'! Well, it seemed pretty surefire way to damn some guys, you know? Armed with only an acoustic guitar? Unfortunately, my buddy Axel didn't take into account that every thousand years or so, fate and her little handmaidens come down to grant random schmucks the honor of playing literally, the greatest song in the world, even if they forget exactly how it goes right after, and it happened to be that night. True story."
It was now a rather open secret in the Foundation that every night Valentine went to bed, her soul traveled to the Underworld to do he master's bidding. Thus, she related some very interesting stories.
"What happened?" Terra asked.
"Well, Axel took some pretty bad hits from the Song. I mean, he's a demon musician, you know. Even has an amplifier that goes all the way to eleven! So when he was forcibly exorcised back to the Underworld just because two hitchhikers and an acoustic guitar played better than him… well, it's a good thing he promised to do anything for me, so long as I don't tell any other demon about this story. Anyways, that's why I can blackmail Axel to do basically anything for me! I also happen to have gotten a copy of the song that's a tribute to the greatest song from Axel as well, and apparently that's also a pretty good anti-demon weapon."
Devil Hand balked, "That… is weird."
"Welcome to the universe, D'!"
It was about then that Freeze interrupted the happy gathering with a big fat-
"Valentine, I need you to go to your Factory and begin production. We will be leading an assault tomorrow."
That got everyone complaining.
"Boss! It's Christmas tomorrow!"
"Come on, Freeze, it's the holidays!"
"Freezie! We need to chill a bit!"
"Christmas, holidays, and this 'chilling' are pitiful excuses to waste time on slothful activities when we could be completing necessary projects. The security at STAR labs will be more lax about this time, and I will not pass up this opportunity for new equipment."
"Freezie! It's Christmas! Everybody takes a break! Even the other bad guys have to take it easy some time!"
"It is their foolishness then, considering we are about to outdo them. I want you all rested up and ready at zero-five hundred. I will be in my facilities, recuperating."
Devil Hand raised an eyebrow at the word choice, "Don't you mean sleeping?"
"Recuperate, Devil Hand. I do not sleep."
Mr. Freeze abruptly twisted about on his heels and walked off to the elevator.
Valentine stuck out her tongue at the disappearing form, "Why does he always have to be such a killjoy whenever it comes to holidays? I swear, every time we had something fun, I waste so much effort just dragging him into it as well! Bureaucrat."
"Geez, and I was hoping we could at least have one day off!" Terra fumed. Devil Hand joined in with their sighs.
"Yeah man! I was wanting to have a Christmas dinner and everything! I mean, we did go knockin' over that supermarket on the way to the tree, right?"
Valentine crossed her arms in thought, "If there was only something we could do to make Freezie give us Christmas…"
"You mean, how do we get the Christmas spirit into Freeze." Terra translated and corrected.
"Wait… Achey Breaky, what was that story about that other Freezie-like guy? He was some old fogey who didn't like Christmas either."
"A Christmas Carol?"
"If that's what it's called."
Devil Hand already had a good idea of what Val' was about to say, and with disbelief, "Dude, Val' are you planning to re-enact Christmas Carol on Boss?"
"Well it worked in the book! Do either of you have a better idea?" The sorcerer vehemently argued.
"Petition?" Terra suggested.
"I tried that once. It didn't work. Seriously, when you have to convince Freezie of anything, you usually have to do an over-the-top presentation."
"Still, Val'… this plan is kinda… messed up."
"Well, I don't care! This is our best shot at convincing Freezie about letting us celebrate Christmas! We're going to have to put up a really great show for him. He's not easily convinced."
"Just one problem."
"What is it, Achey Breaky?"
"There are only three of us. We at need at least one other person to be the Marley."
"Hmmm…"
"Dude, we don't exactly look the part of some Christmas spooks either, Val'."
"Got it!" Valentine cheered, snapping her fingers. Her two partners-in-crime flinched, half-expecting a ghoul of some sort to drop out of the sky, "Isn't there some old guy in the prison? That British guy who works with elaborate illusions and stuff?"
Devil Hand visibly recalled him with a shiver, "Man, that guy was creepy when we did that job with him. He kept calling all of us a duck for some reason…"
"And you're going to get him in on this thing?" Terra muttered.
"Come on! Breaking into a prison! It'll be fun!"
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It was Christmas Eve, and Mad Mod was quite reserved to enjoy a disgruntled and quiet evening in his cell, after all, he was an old man, and he needed his rest.
Of course, he didn't take into account of chains being wrapped about the bars of his window, before a roar and a crash brought it down, courtesy of the bus outside. Jumping to his feet, the aged man looked on in disbelief as a figure coughed and waved away the dust amidst the sounding alarms.
"Hallo! Is this Mad Mod?" A discordant tinkling of a girl's voice called out.
"What's it to you, luv? Can't an old man have his little rest for once, without whatnot exploding everywhere!"
"That's not important! You'll be playing the role of Marley in our production. So come along and grab your special effects along the way?"
The succinct introduction had Moddie grasping for words, but in the end, complied, since anywhere was better than prison.
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Mr. Freeze was quite settled on his bed, staring ever upwards into the darkness of his cold room. It was nigh about exactly twelve at night when he heard something groan into his room.
"Mr. Freeeeeeze…"
At that, the boy was sitting up, aiming his lighter in self-defense and finding nothing to aim it at.
"Frreeeeeze!"
"Who is speaking?"
What revealed itself to Freeze was some horrifying apparition that melted through the doors, groaning in British and carrying heavy steel chains that connected by safes, cash registers, and other unwholesome heavy objects.
Normal people would have screamed in fear at the sight of phantoms. Mr. Freeze did not believe in phantoms. After all, souls weren't apparently part of the visible spectrum, so nothing should change, even in death.
At any rate, "Mad Mod. What are you doing here?"
The Mad Mod hologram gave some more over-the-top groans, "Look at me, Mr. Freeze! I have been granted permission from the land of the dead to give you this warning!"
"Impossible. You are not deceased. I would have heard some rumor of it."
"Well, you never know what happens to an old man in his ailing health, my duckie!"
"I see. What is this warning of which you speak of?"
"Well… ah-hem… look at these chains, Mr. Freeze! This is my punishment for years of selfishness and greed! But I can see the same wrapping about your very being! Your lack of gratitude, and spirit, of your selfishness! Pray you turn about in your ways, and redeem yourself, or you shall suffer a worse fate than mine!"
Mr. Freeze gave this some thought, before deciding:
"Did Valentine and the others put you up to this?"
"What- Of course not! I am DEAD… really!"
"This sounds like re-enactment of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens."
"It is not! I am a ghost!"
"You are alive, and I am speaking to a hologram."
"…stuff and nonsense, my duckie! Hear me, hear me! For this very night, you shall be visited by three spirits-"
"Consisting of Terra, Devil Hand, and Valentine, in that order, am I correct?"
"…How did you know that!"
"Once you realize that Valentine is the originator of this plot, it becomes quite easy to draw some reasonable conclusions. First, Terra is female, blonde-haired and blue-eyed, which matches the description of the Ghost of Christmas Past, which makes her casting inevitable. Valentine, who thoroughly enjoys playing the roles of foreboding and macabre characters, will no doubt elect herself to play as the Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come. Devil Hand, with the other roles already taken up, is left with the role of Ghost of Christmas Present."
"Well… they may look like your friends, but they most assuredly are actually spirits!"
"Of course. Thank you for your warning, Mad Mod. You are free to leave."
"Oi! I can leave where and whenever I want, without your permission!"
"Excuse me."
Silence. The hologram coughed.
"Well… er…be a good boy then! Merry Christmas!"
And Mr. Freeze was left alone again, leaving him to sit the entire hour till one o' clock. Then the second hologram appeared, clad in a white gown.
"Terra."
"It is not. I am the Ghost of Christmas Past."
"You are most assuredly Terra, and I am speaking to a hologram. Though, I must admit, the real time technology is quite remarkable."
The Ghost of Christmas Past scrunched up her face in annoyance.
"Look! I'm the Ghost of Christmas Past, alright? Take it or leave it!"
"At any rate, you wish to speak of me of something?"
"I've come to let you see your past."
"Forgive me, Terra, but my past is not terribly interesting, nor traumatic. The boy you look at now considers his life started when he was found dying the desert, and subsequently found by Valentine."
"What about before that? How did you get into the desert in the first place?"
"That history belongs to Oswald Friece, my predecessor, much like how the previous Terra is yours. He died in the desert, and is no longer relevant."
"And you never gave the holidays a chance…?"
"Holidays are a pointless exercise in superficiality, an excuse for people to waste their lives and resources on being more ridiculously emotional than they already are."
Typical Mr. Freeze response. The Ghost of Christmas Past grasped for words.
"Well… some people…treat Christmas…with reverence."
"Of course. At any rate, it's one- forty five. Devil Hand is due in another fifteen minutes, I think it would be best for you to leave if you are truly following in line with A Christmas Carol."
"Really! Carp! Well, I'll see you later then!"
With that, the Ghost of Christmas Past took her leave, allowing Mr. Freeze about fifteen minutes worth of breathing space till Devil Hand, for some reason, decided to knock on the door to Freeze's room.
"It would be best if you put on one of the heavy jackets outside, Devil Hand."
A figure in sunglasses and bundled in the aforementioned entered Freeze's domain, "That's Christmas Present Ghost to you, Boss!"
"Most apparitions are immune to the effects of extreme temperatures, Devil Hand."
"Yeah, well… I'm not! Now follow me, Boss! We're going to the Observatory!"
"What for?"
"To see how the people are doing during this Christmas!"
Mr. Freeze gave a sort of blank stare that implied irritation, but humored his subordinate spirit and followed him out of his room, lighting a cylinder to prepare himself.
As the two entered the observatory, Mr. Freeze noted the inordinate amount of food that was scattered about the floor and tables. Turkey, fruits, candy, chocolate, punch, eggnog, chocolate milk, soda, ham, frozen pizza, ice cream, instant noodles…
"I see that our raid on the supermarket earlier this night has not gone to waste, Devil Hand."
"What are you talking about? I conjured this all up! I can do that as a ghost, you know!"
"Undoubtedly, Devil Hand."
"That's Christmas Present Ghost!"
"Excuse me."
"Now sit here!" The Ghost commanded Freeze, patting the chair that sat in front of the giant telescope. Freeze did as he was told, and keyed in a prompts on a nearby dashboard to activate the giant harness for the telescope, platform rising so that the lens began to shift downwards towards the city.
"What am I supposed to be looking at, Devil Hand?"
"Dun worry 'bout it! I'll key in the instructions on the computer so all you have to do is look… got it writ down somewhere…"
Leaving that to D', Freeze peered through the scope.
"So Boss, what do you see?"
The powerful lens allowed Freeze's vision to stretch across the city and into the window of a particular housing.
"A lower class family having a midnight celebration inside their apartment."
"Yeah! Think of it Boss! Buncha poor guys, and they're still celebrating Christmas, right? They may suck, but at least they're happy."
"That is because they are bound by a wage and shift system. Most likely their employer has forced this holiday upon them, regardless of their financial situation. Still, I am curious. If this is your take on the Cratchit family, who would be the equivalent of Tiny Tim?"
"Dunno, Boss."
As if on command, Freeze watched from far away as a red-headed form not much older than himself seat herself by the window, staring into what he supposed was the night sky.
Still, it was a rather hard to believe that, as Freeze watched his forehead being stared through by the girl's wide gaze.
Disturbing.
Freeze quickly moved his head out of the way of the telescopic sight, "Do you have anyone in particular you wish for me to look at?"
"Well… gee, darn it my time's nearly up."
"I see. Valentine must be anxious. I'll be returning to my room. Clean up this mess, Devil Hand."
"Yes sir, Boss!" The Christmas Present Ghost saluted to his exiting employer.
And Mr. Freeze found himself sitting in his room again, when the time struck two, and a giant flooding cloak of death poured itself magically into Freeze's chamber, completely unaffected by the cold.
"FREEZIE! I HAVE COMETH FOR YOUR SOUL! SUFFER AND DESPAIR AT THE POWER OF THE GHOST OF CHRIST-MASS YET TO COME!"
"Valentine, the Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come was incapable of speech."
"Oh- Shut up Freezie! I can take creative liberties, you know! AND I AM THE GHOST OF CHRIST-MASS YET TO COME! SO I CAN DO WHATEVER I WANT!"
"By all means, lead on and show me how I will end up dying alone and unwanted."
"Fine! Follow me! You have to check out the graveyard I made!"
So Freeze idly followed after a cloaked wraith, that took them down, rather than up. The two found themselves at the lobby at the bottom of the mountain, which had been converted into some sort of theatrical presentation of a graveyard covered in snow, lichen and dark evergreens everywhere. In the center of the rows of plaster-Paris tombstones stood Devil Hand and Terra, back in their usual clothes.
"Wow, who would have ever thought that he would die all alone, and without friends?" Devil Hand first recited.
"I should have guessed it though. That man never gave anyone a break! He didn't even let us celebrate Easter, or Halloween, or anything!"
"Yeah, dude. Halloween isn't even a holiday!"
"To think, his utter…" Terra seemed to frown at the script in her mind, "… Bureaucracy would be the thing that made everybody shy away from him, leaving him a cold and alone!"
"Dude… Ter'… he always was cold."
The script seemed to call for the two of them to laugh at some inside joke, which they did, though very poorly.
"So, Ter', you wanna go get a pizza or anything? Not like we care about him or his life, right?"
"Sure!"
With that, Terra and Devil Hand raced past the Ghost and Freeze and traveled up the elevator.
"I must admit, you've outdone yourself this time, Valentine. The cost for this production must be staggering."
"Oh bother! That is you dead there!"
"Yes. Apparently I have died all alone and unwanted, as per the book's tradition."
"Yeah! And I do hope you don't want to die all alone and stuff like that! It sucks!"
"The nature of my death is not a priority issue, since I assume it will be quite far into my latter years. When the time comes, I shall address the nature of my death. Until then… public opinion… does not… matter." Freeze cautioned out, testing the words if they were really what they thought."
"Yeah, well tonight's your last chance to see the wrongs of your way, Freezie! So you better clean up your act! You're the leader now! You're the example of what to follow, and not all of us take kindly to the perfect method. We still have a soul, you know!"
"Noted." Freeze said duly, "In the mean time, our meeting is over. We shall re-adjourn in the morning."
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And at five in the morning, a scant three hours after the mess of a Christmas Carol presentation the Foundation members pulled of, Terra, Valentine, and Devil Hand all sat about the coffee table, dead beat and tired.
The coffee wasn't helping their spirits either. It was the best morning in the world, and none of them would be having the time to enjoy it since they would be busy attacking a fargin' lab.
"I thought it would work…" Valentine groaned into her coffee, "I thought we were all good actors…"
"Actors?" Terra grumbled, eyes darkened with sleep depravation, "He figured it out since Mad Mod!"
"Dude… this sucks… I want to celebrate Christmas." Devil Hand muttered mournfully, slumping.
"Good Morning, fellow members." Mr. Freeze's voice interjected. Valentine's pale head inched her way over the top of the sofa she was on to look back at the team leader.
"I suppose we're off to hit that lab, Freezie?"
"No."
Devil Hand and Terra stuck their heads up in surprise alongside Valentine's.
"For you to put in so much effort to try and convince me to rescind my previous orders must mean this Christmas is quite valuable to you. Perhaps I have been too callous in my treatment. At any rate, I have taken your suggestions into consideration, and have authorized your request."
Mr. Freeze pulled down his hood, revealing a familiar red and white furred cap, topped by a pompom atop his head.
"I wish my Foundation season's greeting."
Freeze was immediately assaulted on all sides by his affectionate teammates.
"Freezie! You do care!"
"Merry Christmas, Boss!"
"Thanks, Freeze! You're the best!"
"Enough of that, I still have plans to snow in the city. It is winter in Jump City, after all."
And all was right in the best morning in the world on Olympus Height.
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Episode 9: "Good Deeds"- Sometimes the best way to look after your assets is to do well upon others. As the Foundation watches over their territory with as strangely benevolently malevolent hand, people ask, is one good deed enough to make one a hero?