Chapter 24: Decoration Disaster
(Al's POV)
Christmas Town…
The trip down the Christmas Door was insane. I felt like Alice when she fell into Wonderland…only it was cold. I don't like cold. And to make it worse, I landed in a freaking snow patch! Now see, if Frank was here, I wouldn't be buried in snow. Sadly, my new kelpie was back in Halloween Town helping out Will. Oh well. As I dusted myself off, I spotted Jack standing about five feet in front of me. "Cold snow? Not the best way to end that wild ride."
Apparently Jack didn't hear me. His gaze was practically glued on whatever was ahead. "Oh no! I've got to hurry!" he said, mostly to himself. Then without warning, he just took off down the hill, leaving me behind. Again! What is with this guy leaving me behind? And if things weren't bad enough, as soon as I get up and start to follow him, I hear this:
Oh no! Oh no!
There's trouble everywhere!
Oh no!
There's smoke clouds in the air!
Oh no!
I can't believe my eyes
I have to help them
Hurry Jack, they wouldn't dare!
Oh no!
Oh no! Oh no!
There's something very wrong!
Oh no!
These things here don't belong!
Oh no!
The streets are lined with
Little creatures crying
All the others must be hiding
Christmas spirit is subsiding!
Oh no!
Oh no!
Singing… He had to be singing. I tried to block it out as I ran after him.
The joyous decorations here
Are melting from the fire!
No doubt the work of Oogie Boogie!
Drat that no good liar!
There's fear in every window!
Oh, I can't believe my eyes!
And in my bones I feel the urge
To cut him down to size!
And there! Oh no!
His monsters have control!
Look out!
It chills me to my soul!
No more!
They're getting the presents to ignite them!
Don't they know who they are for? Oh no!
Oh no!
He's here! It's all part of his plan!
The nerve!
He's really gone too far!
This time!
It's up to me to put a stop to this
Now is my chance I cannot miss!
This town's counting on me!
So I must take charge and let them know!
The time is now
For them to go!
Or when to start in such a mess!
Oh no!
Okay, how long was this gonna go on? I was about ready to use Macho Baby to zap myself unconscious.
When I finally got to the bottom of the hill, I saw the damage that had been done. Old Bones was right; the whole place was a wreck! Thick black smoke rose into the air from the larger building in the back, but I was only looking at the damage done to the Plaza. All seemed quiet, but I wouldn't let my guard down. The mini trees seemed fine from where I was standing, and nothing seemed out of the ordinary with the buildings. Though the lack of light in the windows suggested either no one was home, or the people living there were hiding and hoping no one would search the house. I walked forward a little bit and stopped when I caught a view of the carousal. The thing had been repainted gray and purple with sickly green lights, and penguins with sharp fangs and evil Barney colored cats replaced the Christmas critters from the movie.
And to top it all off, the big Christmas tree standing in the center of the Plaza had been completely redecorated. There were spiders and centipede garlands, along with glowing black skulls and twitching eyeballs. Cringing, I turned back to my search for any signs of life, but the whole area seemed like a Ghost Town, a wintery Ghost Town. The only sound was coming from Pixilated Pansy who was still prance dancing around like songbird, and not giving a rat's ass about the main problem.
Hmm… Maybe I should just use Macho Baby on him, I thought.
Oh no, what now?
The peaceful town is ruined!
And look, the Christmas tree is bare!
Attacked! By someone, welcomed fiends!
I tell you I will snare them
And make sure they pay for their
Outlandish rude behavior
Oh no!
The cheerfulness is missing
And the wonder isn't here!
And in their place there seems to be
A paralyzing fear!
Instead of songs, I swear
I can just hear screaming in the air!
The stench of Oogie Boogie
Is absolutely everywhere
The ghosts, the ghouls!
They're everywhere and all around
I've never felt so sad before!
This happy place in front of me is being trashed
So greedily, so greedily!
It's tragic! Oh, it's tragic!
I can't stand and watch it burn!
I've got to save this Christmas Town!
And seize these monsters lying all about!
This must stop!
When Jack finally stopped, he turned and met my annoyed expression. "Have we gotten that out of our system now?" I asked sarcastically.
He smiled sheepishly before we continued on. We didn't take more than four steps, when out of nowhere an elf in green pajamas comes running around the corner being chased by a ghost, screaming his tiny head off. The little guy made a beeline for Jack, while I pulled out Macho Baby and quickly dispatched the apparition. I sheathed my weapon and turned around to find Jack on one knee trying to comfort the frightened elf.
"Are you all right?" Jack asked him.
"Yes… No," the elf replied in an annoyingly high-pitched voice. "The Christmas Tree's ruined… Its decorations are scattered everywhere! Can you help us fix it? Please help, sir!"
"Fix a tree? This day just keeps getting weirder and weirder…even without singing…" I said. We really didn't have time for this. And looking at it, despite that unpleasantness, the Christmas tree actually looked pretty cool with the more Halloweenish ornaments. I turned to Jack and saw he looked conflicted. Uh-oh! I know that look. It's the same look Will gets whenever she wants to help someone.
I groaned, giving in. "How many do ya need?"
"W-Well, most of the ornaments we've been able to collect, but what we're really missing are five particular ones," the elf replied. "There's some round red and blue ornaments, a couple stockings, and we're missing a gold candle holder with three white candles. And the last one is the most important: the star."
"Well, looks like we got another Scavenger Hunt. Let's go, Boney Butt." Not even waiting for a reply, I started off. We really didn't have time for this, but if Jack was anything like my Will, I'd never hear the end of it if we didn't help.
"Al, I think I found something," Jack called out. I looked back and saw Jack standing in front of a little Christmas tree. He was holding up a couple red ornaments with purple zigzags on them. "I'll check the rest of the trees for more."
I nodded, and started searching around the Plaza. As I got up close to the carousal, I noticed what I had thought was a gray top was actually a giant Oogie Boogie head grinning in a stupid manner. Well, that needs to die. I was thinking of using Bertha, but decided to save her for the real Boogieman, and used Macho Baby instead. As I reached for my weapon, one of the Barney cats shot a pumpkin at me. I dodged, only to have one of the penguins shoot a fishbone. Every time I stepped in front of one of them, something would be fired at me. Another problem was the things would explode the moment they made contact with something. Every time I moved to avoid being blown up, I'd get sprayed with snow.
"I hate to do this but…" I whipped out my halberd and fired a large electric bolt at the carousal. The bolt hit right in the center where the control panel was, causing the whole thing to explode and crash into the ground. In a way, I kind of felt bad for destroying it.
As I replaced Macho Baby, I noticed a large hole in the roof of the carousal and my curiosity was piqued. I climbed up and peered inside. To my surprise, there was a bunch of red and white Christmas stockings stuffed inside. I quickly grabbed them and started heading back toward the Plaza. Just as I was about to cross over the train tracks, the train came by. I stepped back to avoid being hit, but then I noticed something was riding on the back of the train. I was all ready to take on another enemy, but to my surprise, it was Jack standing on top of the last car, riding it like something out of a theme park.
"Jack, is this really the time for a ride?" I yelled at him, completely annoyed he thought now was a time to play.
"I thought there might be some decorations hidden on the rooftops," he answered, trying to talk as the train took him farther away. "Jumping onto the train was the only way I could quickly check them. I already found the blue ornaments inside the cottage on the hill. All we need now are the candelabras and the star. I'm going on ahead."
"Alright, I'll head your way soon as I drop these off," I called back. I quickly ran back to the Plaza and spotted the elf taking down the Halloween decorations. Though, it looked like he gathered a couple of his buddies because there was a bunch of little elves running around. Some were disposing of Oogie's decorations, while others were busing putting the correct ones back on the tree. The little elf from before — at least, I think it was him — started jumping up and down crazily when I dumped the stockings next to a pile of red and blue ornaments. I didn't stop to chat because we were still missing two more decorations.
I decided to backtrack toward the train tracks, but there were so many that Jack could be anywhere by now. Eventually I just started to walk in the way I thought would be the most direct path. I rounded a corner of a couple buildings and found a dark tunnel where the train must have disappeared. I gulped and drew my chainsaw, not turning it on but letting the fire at least attempt to brighten the darkness. "Gosh I wish Riddick was here…cause I can't see in the dark!" I muttered to myself.
Suddenly I heard a loud crash. There was a large building about five feet away from the tunnel, and the crash sounded like it was coming from there. Hmm… Scary dark tunnel with no way of knowing what's inside, or to a nice lit house where clearly something is waiting inside to eat me. Easy, little house, no contest. Going into the dark tunnel feels too much like being a character in a horror movie, and Heaven knows how I feel about horror movies.
I ran over to the building, and looked up to try to pinpoint where the commotion was coming from. I could see shadows move across the upstairs window, one being particularly thin and boney. I tried the door, and wouldn't you know, locked. Not caring what happened, I revved Bertha and hacked out the door. Luckily, there were no creatures or innocent elves hiding downstairs, so I dashed up the stairs. I followed the sound of stuff breaking and burst into the first room on my left. There I saw Jack battling with five or six skeletal zombies, and a hoard of spiders.
Jack smashed another skeleton with his Soul Robber before he spotted me. "Al, look out for the–" He was cut off as three zombies swarmed him.
I looked around and hacked at a few spiders, but other than that, I couldn't see what he was trying to warn me about. None of the zombies were interested in coming at me, and the only thing nearby were some lame spiders that were easily burnt to a crisp, and a little snowman with a tall green hat and a carrot nose. Wait! What was a snowman doing inside? I took a step closer before it shook and a gruesome black and orange ghost sprang out.
"Good gravy! Possessed Frosty the Snowman!" I started hacking at it with Bertha, but the blade only went through the specter, melting its snowy hiding place. I quickly grabbed my halberd and sliced through it before it could attack. Good thing Macho Baby still had his anti-ghost potion on it. As I exchanged weapons to go Texas Chainsaw Massacre on those zombies, something shiny caught my eye. I looked over and something was peeking out of the hat and it was reflecting the light from the fireplace. I made a grab for it and found a Crystal Skull hidden away. I snatched it up and used my belt to keep it safe since Will had taken her backpack.
Revving Bertha to kill mode, I quickly went to work helping Jack smash those zombies. It didn't take long before we had those boney rejects reduced to useless bone piles, but not taking any chances, I picked up the bones and tossed them into the fireplace.
"Thank you, Al," Jack said, setting his boney hand on my shoulder. "I spotted three white candles on the window ledge, and I stepped inside hoping to find the candelabra. I wasn't expecting them to be hiding in those little snowmen."
"Really? Snowmen inside didn't seem odd to you?" I asked sarcastically.
Jack chuckled. "I guess not. Ah, here it is!" he exclaimed. Walking past me toward the fireplace and pulled the candelabra out of the garlands. "Wonderful! Now we have all the ornaments."
"What about the star?" I asked.
"Oh, I found that on one of the rooftops while I was riding the train," Jack explained, pulling the star partway out of his jacket. "Now all we have to do is put the rest of the decorations back."
"Alrighty dighty then," I said. I grabbed his arm and pulled him downstairs. "Let's get these ornaments back on that tree, then get after Oogie. It is way past my nap time, dude."
When we reached the bottom of the stairs, Jack paused as he looked over the damaged door. Casting me a look, I smiled sheepishly. Okay, I know I went a little overboard, but it was an emergency. Jack made a gesture that I took for rolling his eyes and walked over to the small directory. Picking up a pen and paper, he wrote out a note apologizing for the damage. Then we walked outside and made our way back to the Plaza.
All the elves swarmed as we came over, the little green elf leading the way. I thought his face would crack if he smiled any bigger. "Oh, please tell me you found the other decorations?" he asked, a little too desperately.
"Why yes, we did," Jack replied, pulling the star, candelabra, and candles from the house.
"You found them!" the elf cheered. "Hurry and hang them on the tree!"
Jack nodded and climbed the ladder to put the decorations on. When he placed the star on the tree, all the lights came on. All the elves cheered as Jack came down and stood next to me. I swear, if Jack weren't standing next to me, I'd drop kick each one and shout "Annnnnd It's good!" with my arms in the air.
"Oh, thank you, sir! You found all the items!" the green elf thanked Jack. "Now the Christmas Tree is ready for Christmas!"
"Yeah, it's looking good guys…" I said, eying the tree before realizing I had been snubbed by these pixie-toed midgets. "Wait just a candy coated moment! I found ornaments too!"
"Oh, sorry," the little elf replied. "I was just so excited, I guess I forgot."
"You'll have to forgive him, miss," said another elf. This one wore red pajamas and he had on a thick pair of geeky glasses. "Benny tends to be a bit of a scatterbrain at times. I can assure you, all of us appreciate both your efforts to help us put our town back in order."
"And…you are?"
"Bernard, Santa's Top Elf," he replied. "I'm in charge of keeping everyone on track."
"I'm glad we were able to help, but now we must get back to our task," Jack began to explain. "We need to find Sandy Claws before Oogie Boogie gets to him. Does anyone know where he might be?"
All the elves went silent. Bernard was the one to speak. "When those monsters came, we all tried to protect the presents, but we were outnumbered. That Oogie took all the presents and had his horrible minions wreck all of our factories. A few of us managed to escape, but the others are locked inside the toy factory along with Mrs. Claus. None of us have seen Santa Claus since."
"Can you show us where Oogie is keeping the presents?" Jack asked.
"The presents are loaded up in the sleigh in Christmas Junction," Bernard answered. "Benny and Henry can guide you. I'd go myself but someone has to look after the others."
"I understand. Thank you for your help." Jack shook the little guys hand, and then turned to me with a smile. "Ready, Al?" he asked, giving me the chance to stay behind.
As tempting as it was to finally have that nap, that over glorified pile of insects was high on my Hit List at the moment. No way I was gonna let Jack have all the fun. I grabbed my Macho Baby and set his electricity level to Dangerously Deadly.
"Okay Jack, let's go kick some Oogie sack!"
XXX
GodlyJewel: Oogie better watch his back, Al's on the hunt…but that's in the next chapter. We're getting close to the final battle. I can hardly wait!