It's been only a couple of minutes, but Tom and Sarah sat quietly in the snow plow while the rest were fighting the war. Thankfully, the radio still had a spark to it, so they were listening to some tunes. But Sarah was pondering over what Daniel said in the kitchen. About his and Tom's childhood. Suddenly, she broke the silence between them.
"Tom?" She asked, with a ripple of steam exiting her mouth each time she spoke.
"Yeah?" responded Tom as he turned to face her.
"I've been thinking."
"About what?"
"Me and Danny have been talking before." Sarah said delicately. "And he tells me that you and him haven't been seeing eye-to-eye as kids on Christmas."
"Oh, that. There was a lot crazy stuff happening between us back them, but we were very young. That was a long time ago." explained Tom, almost sounding like he wants to forget about it.
"He also tells me that you've been the most perfect child in your father's eyes, while he lived in your shadow." Sarah added with a somewhat firm tone of voice.
"Well, I was the youngest." Tom defended as best he could. "And Danny wasn't really the most perfect and I was always trying to be as good of a son our dad wanted us to be. And Danny, well, he wasn't always a happy child. Average, miserable, apathetic. He was never joyous on Christmas as I was."
"And that's a problem?" Sarah persisted.
"It's Christmas, Sarah!" barked Tom in an argumentative manner. "Nobody should be sad or indifferent on Christmas! And besides, he never appreciated the gifts I gave him."
"What did you get him?" asked Sarah.
"Clothes. Nice ones." Tom answered with a calmer tone. "At least to me they were."
"Clothes? That's it?"
"He never tells me what he wants for Christmas, alright?" Tom yapped. "So all I ever gave him was clothes. Sweaters, socks, shoes. I even gave him my old gym socks once and he did not react well to that."
"Tom, I don't know if your mother or anyone else told you this before, but Christmas is a time when you need to start thinking about others, what's best for them and not for yourself. And I think Danny just wants to prove that there's more to it than just presents and caroling." Sarah explained to her husband.
"I know." Tom nodded and sighed, feeling the weight of his guilt. "You're right. Maybe I haven't been the most honest brother or father."
"Hey." Sarah placed her hand on his shoulder. "It's never too late, you know. You're still his little brother and he's still family."
"Let's just hope that they survive this." Tom replied with worry in his voice.
Lionell and Ólafur got to work in searching one of the houses where they were sure some more elves were hiding. Searching all around the otherwise deserted home would've been proven fruitless is they haven't heard the sound of footsteps creaking among the foundation above. Lionell tells Ólafur to stay downstairs while he searched upstairs. As soon as Lionell was on the second floor of the house, nothing seemed off so far. He carefully and quietly wadded down the corridor, looking all around and expecting something to happen. After a few silent seconds, Lionell detected movement from behind him. He knew it was more elves. Lionell rushed over to the room they were hiding in and tried to open the door, but it was locked.
"Come on out, you motherfuckers." He hissed, trying to jiggle the knob and forced it open, but to no avail. When that failed, he started hitting against the wood of the door with his shoulder, trying to bust down the door. Finally, with a solid kick of his foot, the door flung open and elves' hiding spot was revealed.
"Here's Johnny!" Lionell shouted before he and the elves started going at it in an all-out brawl. But Lionell was overpowered by them when one elf wrapped it's chain around his neck, dragged him onto the bed and held him down tightly. One elf with the most haunting mask got on top of him and dangled a sharp hook over him tauntingly, signaling that he's about to use it on him. Lionell struggled and tried to make them loose their hold, but it was no use.
Meanwhile, Ólafur overheard the commotion upstairs before all of the sudden, another gang of elves broke through the windows into the house, ambushing him. He fought back and conjured up some gusts of wind to show them what for. The elves were almost too weak, now match for him, when one of them tripped Ólafur, causing him to fall to the floor. All the elves surrounded him and started hitting, pushing him. Back with Lionell, the haunting-masked elf was about to gut him like a fish when Lionell summoned all the fire inside of him and turned his whole body red hot. The sudden burning heat made the elves let go him and the elf on him to let out an audible shriek of pain. Lionell grabbed the elf and sent both him and it tumbling to the floor. Lionell growled and started to burn and singe the elf's face with his hands. Then he snapped it's neck just like that. That's when the other elves start to fight back against him, but with his flames, he put them all down singlehandedly and he finally stopped to take a breath and realized they were all dead. There was also a burnt mark on the bed's blanket in the shape of his body.
Ólafur yelled with rage as he summoned all the ice power he had, making the elves around him back off. He was on his feet in seconds and stood before them. Then he took a deep breath and blow a powerful, icy wind at them, which caused them all to be thrown back by the wind's force. As soon as all of the air in his lungs were out, Ólafur saw that were now frozen solid from the ice winds. He had officially won this battle alone. Lionell came rushing down the stairs to see if Ólafur was okay and saw the elf-cicles that he created.
"What did I miss?" asked Lionell.
The two rejoined the Suicide Squad outside as everyone sally forth towards the park where they knew Krampus's sleigh was at. After fighting past the sub-zero temperature and snow in their faces, they arrived at the scene of the crime. Hiding behind some trees a few feet from the spot, they all saw the sleigh belonging to the Christmas demon himself. It was like a demonic, Gothic version of the original Santa's sleigh. At the reins appeared to be monstrous goats in place of reindeer. And there was the real McCoy himself. Krampus and his army of dark elves.
"There he is." Engel remarked.
"So what's the plan again?" asked Runyat.
"The plan should be simple enough. Krampus has a larger minion about the size of a fucking elephant." explained the captain. "We gotta take the big one out first. We have darts filled which will inject it with a flammable chemical and we just got to distract the hell out of that sum'bitch and keep hammering him until we hit it with the bomb."
"Bomb?" asked Raeffael with confusion. He never knew there was a bomb in the plan.
"Yeah." nodded Engel. "We'll fire a powerfully-explode time bomb somewhere on it's back, which will detonate on it's ass. Then we should try and see if we can break that Santa Claus impersonating asshole's horns off."
"This should be good." Ulrich remarked.
Unfortunately for them, Krampus sensed their present before him and knew they were there. He launched right into the air with his enchanted jumping ability and landed on a telephone pole, looking down at them. Everyone froze in their tracks when they gazed up at the haunting creature starting back at them with his rectangular-shaped pulls through the eye holes of his old man mask. The group didn't know what to do. But then all of there thoughts were disrupted by sudden missions that seemed real. Visions of what they're past Christmases were like. Krampus was no fool to know what none of them had any terrify holidays either.
The first thing Ulrich saw was the house he was standing in. It was only familiar; given the Christmas tree in the living room, the presents underneath it and the people sitting all around in the room, going through the unwrapping procedure. Ulrich recognized these people. There was his parents, his older brother, Fred, the aunt and uncle, his grandparents on his mother's side and his cousins. Then it clicked. He was in his own house. This was a long time ago. A memory. He and his brother were young at this time. He saw his 17-year old self, just moping and brooding on the couch with his brother. With each gift he received, he never cracked a smile or made a simple "thank you" or compliment with a happy tone. This must've been some time after the break-up and his personality change. Then his cousin, Brendan, surprised him with a chokehold and started performing wrestling moves on him for fun. Everyone were laughing at the display, but Ulrich was finding nothing fun about this at all.
Luz was reliving the same moment her older brothers played that prank on her as a child on that dreadful Christmas years ago. They both had gotten her a present and sat on both sides of her waiting for her to open it up while mentally hoping their little joke would work. Luz looked estate which sadly turned to anger as once she opened the box, blue ink was splattered all over her face and pajamas. Her brothers laughed at her and shared a high five. Although Luz's parents scolded them, Luz was angry beyond comprehension. She yelled at them and called them rude names before rushing upstairs to wash the ink off her face and probably lay on her bed to cry her eyes out.
Engel saw his younger self along with a younger Tom walking through the mall with their parents. Tom was enjoying himself while going Christmas shopping with his family. Daniel, however, was less than thrilled. When they got in line to sit on Santa's lap, Tom was constantly thinking his thoughts aloud, going over what he wanted to tell Santa. When it was finally their turn, Tom pushed Daniel aside and sat in his lap first and started running through everything he wanted for Christmas. Daniel sat down and kept quiet the whole time while his little brother was hogging his turn. But then they're picture was taking and they had to move on and let others get to see Santa. Daniel never got the chance to tell Santa what he wanted for Christmas thanks to his little brother.
Runyat looked around the medieval English village he was in. This must've been the Dark Ages and he noticed his younger self getting bullied by the other human kids and thrown around in the snow. He was only a few years young and his horns were just starting to grow out. All the villagers hated him and ostracized him for his appearance; accusing him as the Devil or a son of the Devil to be precise. They were throwing stones at him, screaming the Lord's prayer at him and throwing holy water at his face, hoping that "evil presence" would leave them. He was never accepted by society so he never had the chance to celebrate Christmas. Ever since his human family had died away, he has been all alone ever since for years.
Lionell could his family enjoying themselves on Christmas. He could see that this was just a few days before Christmas. His sister, Dolores, spoke to him on account of his activities. While he and his sister conversed, the scene changed to where he was escaping the police in disguise. He thought he could lose them in the park, but he was dead wrong. The cops all had him surrounded with their guns aimed at him, daring him to make a move. Suddenly, he launched a huge blast of fire at all of them from his hands, frying all of them at once, burning them to death. But Lionell knew what was going on and he wasn't going to let this get to him.
"I can't change what I did and neither can you!" He bellowed with absolute rage.
"What? What is it?" asked Raeffael.
"Wake up! He's just getting in your head!" Lionell explained to his teammates. "He's trying to trick you!"
"My cousins are irritating." Ulrich droned out in an almost hypnotic tone.
"That's all in the past." reasoned Lionell.
"I don't care if it is." snapped Luz.
"He's just trying to play games with you, man! It's not real!" Lionell screamed, trying to get them to understand.
"He's right." Engel agreed. "It's not real."
Once they were all freed from their mesmerizing visions, the entire team looked forward Krampus and they were brave enough to stand up to him. Krampus seemed baffled that his little mind trick backfired on him and it has become apparent that they weren't gonna back down. They weren't going to stop until it was all over.
"You can't have any of us, freak!" Lionell screamed up at him. "These are my people right here!"
Then suddenly, Krampus began to speak in an echoing, demonic voice in low-pitch with a slight Austrian accent.
"But it is our time." He explained, breathing steam as he spoke. "The sun is setting and fires of Hell rises. The lack of festive spirit must be destroyed. The fate of the holiday is in my hands. The naughty must be punished at any cost."
"Buddy, you...are EVIL!" Ulrich shouted, jabbing a finger at him.
Enraged by the Goth's callous response, Krampus lifted his head up and emitted a loud, howling roar into the air, causing everyone to cover their ears from the thundering bellow. After he was done and the roar echoed into the blizzard-laced night, everyone took notice of the elves around them, brandishing their weapons, ready for battle.
"Are you ready for this, rookie?" asked Hopkins to Howard.
"We'll see." Howard answered.
Then the elves all sprung into action in attacking the team with their hooks and chains and god knows what else. The whole Suicide Squad gave them all hell as they fight their guns at them, killing some elves. The monster fight more elves than they did before. Runyat impaled and slashed at some elves' bodies with his horns, cutting them open. Luz fired at some that chased after her and decapitated one that was attacking Raeffael. After thanking her, he spun around, smacking some elves off of him with his squishy, flexible body and was brave enough to kill the enemy. Tobias went crazy at the dark elves around him and when he saw Howard being attacked by one, he raced over and knocked it off of him before killing it.
"Thank." Howard said to him with a panting voice.
Hopkins and Engel were gunning down of the hideous, giggling creatures while Ulrich and Ólafur were fighting off more elves together with firepower; guns and bullets, and the power of the wind and snow. Ólafur used his icy wind breath to blow back some elves charging toward them. Lionell blasted some jets of fire, bring some elves on his side to a crisp. Then finally, when all of the elves were dead and defeated, everyone was all silent. But then Krampus summoned his powerful weapon. It started with loud footsteps and everyone turned toward the source. Marching towards them was a giant, ape-like humanoid creature with white fur and black skin and sharp teeth.
"Oh, wow." Ulrich marveled with shock.
"Uh-oh." Luz gasped.
"What's this? This is gonna be bad!" Runyat worried.
"That's the big one!" Engel shouted and started firing upon it while the others followed suit. But unfortunately of them, the giant yeti was too strong for them. With a few swipes of his hands, he knocked down the monsters and humans with such force. They knew this one was gonna be a tough one so they had to act fast if they were going to kill it.
"We need to get it distracted while get the darts in it!" ordered Engel while they hid behind an uprooted tree. "That bomb doesn't have enough time to detonate once it's set!"
"I'll do it!" Lionell shouted immediately. "I'll get him there!"
"Not without me you aren't." Mezem replied, speaking English since forever.
Runyat charged at the yeti and tried stabbing it with his horns. While the yeti roared with pain, it knocked him away. Then it stomped over and tried the beat him into submission until Azur intervened by shoving it aside. Too bad the yeti wasn't fazed by this action and it was now even more pissed. Azur tried to fight back with it, but the yeti had more strength than he did and it punched him far away, knocking Azur into the trees. It was getting worse by the second.
"I lost one family! I won't lose another!" Lionell argued.
"Dude, think it through!" Ulrich begged.
"I got this! I know I can! My sister payed the price and it's time I did the same." Lionell said with a determined face and rushed out to fight the impossible giant.
"It's time for you see who I really am." Mezem told Ulrich before joining in on the fight.
"Over here!" Lionell shouted at the yeti to get it's attention and started blasted it with his flames. The yeti wailed and yowled from the heat, but then it kicked Lionell away into the ground a few feet away. Mezem jumped onto the giant beast scratching and clawing and biting; the yeti spun around and around trying to knock him off it. Mezem flew right off into the snow. Ulrich stepped in by firing at the yeti with his gun until he was thrown back as well. Luz was too late to intervene with her gun as the behemoth smacked her away too. Then Lionell stood up and summoned up all of the fire within his core and to everyone's shock, he bursted ablaze, his body shrouded in flames. His temper was on his side now and it was all he had now.
As Mezem lifted himself up from the snow, something that has been kept dormant for many, many years was finally started to awaken and rise. When he opened wide his mouth, he let out a loud inhumane roar that nearly sounded like the yowl of a panther. The yeti turned to that Mezem had suddenly taken on into his true form. A giant, slender demon with black fire and skin with the head of a goat, sharp horns, claw-like fingers, cloven hooves, the tail of a reptile and bat-like wings. The demon then spoke in Spanish as Mezem did when he was in human form.
"Está encendido, perra." He declared before the yeti went at him, only for Mezem to charge at him with greater strength, shoving him back and slashing his sharp claws at him and punching it. Engel, Hopkins and Howard all stared in shock at Mezem's demon form. None of them have seen him like this before. Lionel fired more fire at the monster, both of them weakening the beast. Mezem bit at the yeti's neck and shoulders, tearing at it's flesh with his sharp teeth while the yeti tried the force him off.
"Get him, mate!" Runyat yelled with encouragement and that's when the soldiers fired the darts at the yeti. Luckily, they didn't miss as the darts themselves stuck the yeti's skin, injecting it with the chemicals.
"Give me the gun." Engel ordered and was handed the weapon that fired the time bomb. "Lionel! Mezem! Get out of there! I'm about to launch the bomb!"
Engel ran on top of a tree trunk with the gun in his hand and as he jumped with the yeti's back turned to him. When Lionell and Mezem moved out of the way, Engel pulled the trigger. The tiny bomb was fired onto the yeti's back. The bomb was set at 10 seconds and counting down fast.
"Everybody down!" screamed the captain and the entire team ducked out of the way to avoid the blast radius. Mezem suddenly leaped on top of the flaming Lionell once the bomb finally detonated, killing the yeti and creating a huge explosion. Tom and Sarah heard the explosion from the snow plow as well as Linda from the other vehicle. Max and Omi heard the thunderous blast and hoped it wasn't bad. The yeti was finally dead. Everyone saw Mezem shielding Lionell from the blast as he slowly turned back into his human form. Lionell's flames were put out and he looked at Mezem with a thanking look.
But their victory was short-lived when they heard Krampus roaring with rage while sitting on a tree branch. The elves were dead, the toys were dead, the yeti was dead, it was just him now. Him and him alone. Him and the Suicide Squad.
"You're next." Ulrich pointed at him.