CHAPTER 6

'Wakey wakey Lieutenant' Hannibal shook Face's shoulder, the only response he got was a low, barely audible groan, 'Face, it's time to get up'

Face raised an eyelid, 'Just a few more minutes' he mumbled, 'then I'll get up'

'No, you'll get up now Lieutenant' Hannibal told him, 'Everyone else was up and about almost an hour ago; you need to help the elves with their choirs. BA's helping out in the workshop, and last time I checked, Murdock was going out with Fidgely to help feed the reindeers'

At the sound of Murdocks name Face shot an accusing look over at his friends empty bed, 'It's Murdocks fault I'm so tired' he complained, 'All night he was humming Christmas tunes Hannibal, all night. I didn't even realise there were so many of them, until I got front row seats to his little Christmas humming concert, I didn't get a wink of sleep'

'Now Face, don't exaggerate, you were both fast asleep when I came into your room this morning' Hannibal chucked Face his clothes, 'so Murdock must have stopped humming sometime, I was gonna wake you up, but he said to leave you for a bit, cus you said how tired you felt last night, so you should really thank him'

'Thank him!' Face blurted out, and then sighed heavily. Hannibal tried to hide an amused look as he left the room.

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'Well Rudolf said that he thinks it's gonna be a little foggy tomorrow, but he's confident that his nose is in good working order, so he says everything should be fine' Murdock said as he fed one of the reindeers a carrot. Murdock was wearing his elf costume again, but he was also wearing a scarf and a pair of gloves because of the cold.

Fidgely walked up to Murdock.

'Ok that should so, think they're all fed and watered, it's time we went back inside to help the others make the toys'

'Ok' Murdock stood up, then petted the reindeer, 'Talk again later Prancer'
He followed Fidgely back inside to the workshop.

'Are all the reindeers ok?' Asked Hannibal.

'Yeah Colonel, a few of em were a little concerned about the weather conditions for tomorrow night, but Rudolf's nose is working a treat, so they should all be fine' Murdock explained, making his way over to the nearest work table.

'The reindeers can talk?' Hannibal looked down at Fidgely.

'Only to Murdock apparently' Fidgely answered, walking off to a work table of his own. Hannibal shot an amused glance over at Murdock.

'So what now Hannibal?' Face looked expectantly at his CO, 'what's the plan?'

'Can I have everyone's attention' Hannibal raised his voice loud enough so that everyone could hear him. When the room went quiet he continued, 'How's all the toy making progressing?'

'It's going really well' One of the elves spoke up.

'Yeah, with all of you helping, we're almost on target for were we should be at this time' Another elf added.

'Good' Hannibal smiled, 'Do you think you'll all be ok now to work on the toys yourselves, whilst we deal with Porchly and his gang?'

'Sure' the elves called out.

'Great' He looked at BA and Murdock, who both walked over to join him and Face,

'Ok, so here's what we're gonna do'

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All four of them searched around the whole building, inside and out for anything that looked useful to help with Hannibals plan.

Murdock and Hannibal found some old metal wired fences and carried them back into the workshop to BA.

BA took them, put a mask on, and started to weld them together.
Face carried a toolbox he had found in, and started to search through the contents, passing BA random objects that he asked for.

Murdock stood on a ladder, and hammered metal chains to the ceiling.
Hannibal passed him the shaped welded fences, which now were in the shape of wired metal boxes. Murdock attached them to the ceiling.

Face fixed a lever to the wall, and BA connected some wires to it.
Face took the wires over to Hannibal, who passed them to up to Murdock to attach to the metal boxes that he'd attached to the ceiling.

'Nice' Hannibal said when they were all done; he lit up a cigar and grinned; 'now we just need to wait for our guests to arrive'

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'They're coming Hannibal' Face spoke into the radio.

'Great, come back inside Face' Hannibal told him.

'Right' Face switched off the radio and made his way back to the workshop.

'How many?' Asked Hannibal as Face entered.

'I couldn't get a proper look, but there was a lot more than yesterday' Face groaned as he saw the sparkle in Hannibals eye, which could only mean one thing.

'He's on the Jazz' BA warned, Hannibal just grinned at them both and walked over to the window.

'Ok, get into your positions' He said after a while, 'They'll be here any minute' he looked over at the elves, who nodded, and moved away from the work tables.

A group of about ten elves cautiously entered the building, they had 'team 1' attached to their jackets, 'All clear' they could hear one of them shout, so the other two teams entered, Porchly following them inside.

'To the workshop' He shouted out, 'but watch out for traps.' They made there way easily to the workshop.

Entering, they saw Hannibal, Face, BA and Murdock just standing there looking at them. Porchly and his gang gave them a confused look.

'Now' Hannibal ordered, and Face pulled down the lever, realising the metal wired boxes. They all came crashing down, covering all the work tables. BA pulled another lever which was close to him, which caused a bigger metal box to cover the sacks of toys.

'What is this?' Asked Porchly, sounding as confused as he looked.

'This' Face replied, looking around, 'is us stopping you from being able to do what you came for'

'But' Porchly began.

'Giving us a chance to have a little talk with you all' Hannibal added, 'Murdock'

Murdock nodded and placed a long ribbon on the floor, separating the A-Team and Santa's elves from Porchly ad the bad elves.

'A talk?' Porchly glared, 'what makes you think we're gonna talk to you'

'You don't have to talk, you just have to listen' Hannibal answered. Porchly just rolled his eyes.

'Hey sucka, Murdocks gonna talk, and your all gonna listen to what the fool says!' BA snarled, the elves looked over at BA warily.

'Go ahead Murdock' Hannibal told him.

'Ok, so your probably all wondering what the ribbons for, well its so that you can make a choice, if you wanna join Santa again, now or any time in the next few minutes, then all you gotta do is step over this line ok' Murdock explained, the elves gave him a disgruntled look, which he ignored, and continued, 'So, Porchly, you decided to make a group of your own, when Santa refused to help with your little revenge plan on the all the humans for the myth thing right'

'Wow, impressive, you've been doing your homework haven't you' Porchly replied sarcastically.

'So, you wanna stop Christmas, because of a few people who believe a silly little myth that you all don't exist right' The bad elves nodded in confirmation, so Murdock continued, 'which would, evidently spoil it for millions of children all across the world, just cus of a few adults who have lost all sense of imagination and who won't believe anything other than what's underneath their own noses?'
A few of the elves started to look a little guilty, and Face pointed to the ribbon on the floor. Several of the bad elves shot an apologetic look at Porchly and shrugged, crossing over the line.

'Let me ask you, have any of you ever had second thoughts about what you plan on doing, and or have, at times, missed working for Santa?' None of the elves answered Murdock's question, but the look on their faces confirmed to the team that they had.
'Could you really live with yourselves, if you upset and disappointed so many children?' Murdock questioned.

'Yeah, think about the kids man' BA joined in. This caused a few more elves to cross the ribbon.

After a few minutes the majority of the bad elves had crossed the ribbon, leaving Porchly, and his two trusty sidekicks, Turtsnip and Quedgie beside him. All three of them looking more and more as thought they wanted to cross the ribbon, only stubbornness was preventing them from doing so, but eventually they gave in.

'I'm sorry' Porchly hung his head in shame, 'so very very sorry'

Santa walked out of his room and looked over at them all.

'We are so sorry Santa' they cried, 'we've been so bad, can you ever forgive us?'

Santa just sighed, 'come on you lot, we've got a lot of talking to do' He told them, and with that all of the bad elves followed Santa to his office.

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'What happened?' Hannibal asked Santa as he walked over to the four of them.

'Well, thanks to you four, they've all decided to turn over a new leaf and help me again like good elves' Santa told them, 'but of course, they won't be left unpunished, they're all on washing up duties for at least a month'

'Haha, great' Hannibal smirked.

'I really can't thank you all enough; you did a splendid job' Santa smiled.

'That's ok, we were happy to help' Face replied.

'Well, I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas, I'm afraid I'm going to have to send you all back home though, I've got a very busy day tomorrow you know' Santa said.

'Oh yeah, tomorrows Christmas eve Colonel, what we doin for Christmas?' Asked Murdock.

'We're all goin to stay at Face's new place' Hannibal grinned, placing his arm round Face's shoulder, 'Face said we can all have Christmas at he's'

'I did?' Face asked, rolling his eyes 'Must have missed that little conversation we had'

'Oh goody, can we decorate it all, and and...' Murdock said excitedly, but was cut off by Face.

'Hannibal, why can't we stay with you or BA, the apartment is brand new, I don't want it to end up a complete tip before I've even had a chance to try it out' Face complained.

'Because it's new, so it'll be harder for Decker to find' Hannibal replied matter-of-factly, 'we'll pick you up at the VA at noon tomorrow Murdock, so be ready'

'Righteo Colonel' Murdock smiled.

'Ok, well I guess it's to go' Hannibal smiled.

'Oh, wait, I just remembered, here, before you leave, these are what Murdock made you, he wanted to make you all a little souvenir Christmas presents, so that you could remember your adventure in Lapland' Santa explained, getting out a small sack. He passed Hannibal the toy flying soldier he had made.

'Thanks Murdock' Hannibal said gratefully, collecting his gift, 'I like it, its very unique'

Santa then passed Face the plane he had made, the wing had been fixed.

'Santa fixed it for me' Murdock smiled.

'Thanks' Face smiled back.
'Oh and last but not least, this is for you BA' Santa got the last thing out of the bag, Hannibal and Face both shared amused looks as they saw the gift that Murdock had made for BA. A photo frame, with a picture of Murdock inside of it.

BA gave it a dirty look, 'Got any darts to go with it?' He asked.

Murdock scowled at BA, 'got any darts to go with it' he mouthed. Santa, Hannibal and Face all laughed.

'Wait, what about you Murdock, you've got no souvenirs to take back' Face realised.

'Sure I do Faceman, Santa said I could keep this suit' He beamed. Everyone laughed

again, and Hannibal put his arms around his team smiling widely.
'I love it when Christmas comes together'

TBC

A/N – I know it's already Christmas Eve, this was supposed to have been posted yesterday, but it took longer to write than I thought it would lol.