The Time Whale slowly regained consciousness and groaned with exhaustion. It was on dry, snowy land. (At this point, you should have assumed it was snow.) The Time Whale was officially beached. Its riders were also all unconscious.

"Wake up, you guys," said the Time Whale.

All four of the humans slowly came to.

"Where are we?" asked Ai.

"Not sure," said the Time Whale. "I don't think this is the right location, much less the right time."

The land they were on happened to be a huge icy coast. Farther inward were icy mountains and a tall stone castle atop a steep cliff.

"You can't time travel if you're on dry land, can you?" asked Ran.

"No," said the Time Whale. "I require the sea in order to swim into the time stream."

"We're not too far off from the ocean," said Agasa.

"There's no way only the four of us can push him back into the sea," said Conan. "It's too far away and two of us are six years old."

"But is there anything here that can help?" said Ran.

"It's likely that that castle up there is inhabited," said the Time Whale. "You ought to go there for help. I can't do anything like this, but I will last for a long time out of the water. Still, I assume you guys enjoy being in the present, so it'd be best if you hurried."

"All right, then, let's head off," said Ran. "We've got to get home eventually. My dad must be worried sick."

"And I've still got a case to solve," said Conan. "Almost forgot about that."

They began their ascent.

"Hey, Ai-chan and Agasa-hakase, what were you doing in Santa's workshop, anyway?" asked Ran.

"I wanted to find out the meaning behind all this sudden magic," said Ai. "For experimental purposes. Gin came along because he can fly a helicopter."

"I see."

"Hey Shinichi, I've got an idea," said Agasa. "If we've really restored everything to normal because of what we did, and it's a time period closer to the present, maybe you can turn back to your regular self again."

"Maybe I can," said Conan. He said his own name three times again, but nothing happened.

"That sucks," said Ai.

"So that means one of two things," said Ran. "Either what we did wasn't enough to restore the timeline to its original state, or Santa's magic just doesn't work in the past at all."

"I hope it's the latter," said Conan. "I don't want to deal with my past self again, and definitely not my future self if that's even possible. It's unsettling."

"I'll admit it was kind of funny to see two of you, and you having to explain the whole situation to yourself."

"You try doing it."

"I wouldn't dare, unless it somehow restores Santa's magic and fixes everything."

They didn't talk for a while, but then Conan suddenly jumped like he remembered something, which he just had.

"So, Ran," said Conan, "did you find out what exactly I did that caused everything to screw up in the future?"

"Actually, yeah," said Ran. "From what I heard from the Time Whale, the cookies that Santa gave you in the past for lunch were his very last cookies. He didn't survive long after that."

"That's horrible," said Conan. "Now I really do feel guilty about everything."

"You didn't before?" said Ai.

"Well, not as much," said Conan. "I wasn't really sure what I did in the first place, but now that I know, I feel terrible just thinking about it."

"Well, at least it's probably fixed now," said Agasa. "Hopefully that timeline doesn't exist anymore."

"But still, it did at one point, and we still remember it," said Ai. "It may be gone but its memory takes its place."

"And," said Ran, "because it still existed at one point, everyone in that universe still suffered thanks to you."

"Thanks for the comforting words," said Conan. "I really appreciate them."

"Okay, we all know you didn't mean it," said Ran, "but you still screwed up."

Gin sat locked in a closet.

He knew that some infernal magic had made him good for a while, even-tempered, even likable by his former enemies. He had even helped out his former nemesis and traitor, Sherry. He had convinced his boss to turn his criminal company into a whole-hearted charity. And when all of the giddy feelings had worn off, he was trapped in a dirty, worse for wear closet at the North Pole.

It was like he had been on a bizarre drug trip for three whole days. He felt completely ashamed of all those goody actions he had done. Who even knits sweaters? He looked at his hands. They had been busy doing things for the power of love and friendship. It was sickening enough for him to want them figuratively cut off. His face had smiled genuinely probably a dozen times in a single hour. It was inexcusable. He had to get out of the cabin and take the helicopter back and stop his comrades from giving away more toys to needy children and make them go straight back to gun smuggling and political assassination.

The door was tough. His brute strength hadn't been enough to get him out after multiple tries. There had to be another way, but the rest of the room was filled with boxes of cookies, and the disturbing elves outside would definitely not open under any circumstances.

Unless...

"Hey, let me out," said Gin. "I turned good again."

"Okay," said the guard elf. Gin heard the door unlatch and he was suddenly free again.

As soon as he was clear of the door, Gin drop-kicked the nearest guard elf into the others and set off running for his helicopter.

He passed a doorway, then stopped and walked back and peered in. Mountains of magic sparkle dust within like a vault full of gold coins except they were magic. This would come in handy.

Agasa tripped in the snow.

"Are you all right, Hakase?" asked Ai.

"What did I trip over?" asked Agasa. "It couldn't be a log, could it?"

"There's not a tree in sight," said Conan. He walked over and began to unearth the object out of the snow. It was a yellow scooter.

"Sorry about that," said the scooter.

"It talked," said Ai. "It...has a face."

"Well, I'm sorry, haven't you ever been to the North Pole before? Of course us toys can talk. It's all we ever can do on this island." The scooter stood up by itself.

"What island?" said Ran.

"This is the Island of Misfit Toys, where all defective toys are sent by Santa's elves. Kids like you two shouldn't have to play with broken gifts. That's just not kind."

"We're not kids," said Conan. "We're sixteen and eighteen, respectively."

"Well, I'm sorry if I'm not used to teenagers that look like kids."

"I'm not used to scooters that talk."

"Now, hold off this argument," said Agasa. "This is getting ridiculous."

"I'll say," said Conan.

"Shut up, Kudo-kun," said Ai.

"Pardon my asking," said Ran, "but if you're a misfit toy, what's wrong with you?"

The scooter revealed that it could not turn but only go straight.

"That isn't so bad."

"Not if you want to ride a scooter down the highway," said the scooter.

"But what were you doing buried in the snow?" asked Conan.

"For your information, I was wallowing in sadness because no human child will ever play with me."

"Oh." Conan looked away. He had just offended a scooter.

"So there are other toys like you on this island?" asked Ran.

"Hundreds and hundreds."

"Can you help us? The Time Whale got beached here and we need to get back to our own time."

"I could round up our friends," said the scooter. "Come with me to the castle, we'll ask our ruler about it."

The four travelers and the yellow scooter with a face finally reached the entrance to the castle at the icy summit. Now they really could tell that they were on an island. All around them was the vast Arctic Ocean (they could tell because there was not a single penguin in sight).
They opened the doors and before them was a huge court. A lion with wings, a black mane, and a crown reclined on its throne.
"I am King Moon Raiser," said the lion. "To what do I owe the presence of these mortals?"

"They've been washed ashore on the Time Whale," said the scooter. "They request our assistance in returning the Whale to the sea."

"That's doable," said Moon Raiser, "for a favor."

Conan sighed. Are you kidding me. A favor.

"I am most definitely not kidding me," said Moon Raiser. "Yes, it's a favor. But it's not much. I want you to tell Santa to stop sending toys here and start sending them to kids who actually need toys, and who will be nice enough to care for a toy who won't work right. It's getting overcrowded here and I think that the toys here are very sad about this whole business. They're not even being given a chance."

"That's awful," said Ran. "We'll do it."

"I'm holding you to your word," said Moon Raiser.

"We were planning to return to Santa's workshop anyway," said Agasa, "so it's convenient."

Conan and Ai watched as Ran, Agasa, and a bunch of broken toys attempted to push the Time Whale back into the sea. Moon Raiser ended up having to aid them as well, and with a final push, the Time Whale was finally back in his own element.

"I think it's time to go," said the Time Whale.

"Be sure to inform Santa of our needs," said Moon Raiser.

They sailed away into the claymation time tunnel.
"What year was that?" asked Conan.

"That was about two hundred years ago," said the Time Whale.

"How are they going to feel to have to wait two hundred years for Santa to start using the misfit toys?"

"I blame it on you," said the Time Whale. "You should have known better than to accept a request that was impossible to fulfill without time travel to the past."

"We fricked up," said Ran. "We're sorry."

"Maybe Santa can do something about it, if he's back," said Ai.

"I hope so," said Conan.