Merry Christmas to all of you out there! There are several of you out there who really like the Hong Kong gang. So, here's a present for those of you out there.
Takes place during season 1 after Rabble.
I do not own.
Cricket put the last touches on the small silver tinsel tree. "There, doesn't that look nice." She declared.
"Yeah, that looks pretty good." Tuck agreed as he hung the last of the colored LED lights in their small living room.
Skwydd glanced uninterestedly before turning his attention back to his video game. "I don't know why you guys even bother. There's nothing special about this holiday other than stores trying to guilt you into buying crappy presents."
"You say that about every holiday." Cricket laughed.
"Well, it's true. Some egghead in some marketing firm is just exploiting us plebs." Skwydd said reaching over to a bowl of popcorn next to him.
"Lighten up and have some eggnog." Tuck said.
"That disgusting stuff? It's like drinking melted ice cream mixed with whip cream." Skwydd said disdainfully as he munched with one hand and spamming buttons on the controller with the other.
"Well, how about some spiced apple cider or hot chocolate?" Cricket offered.
"Hot chocolate? It's like 17 degrees Celsius outside." Skwydd leaned back against the couch. "Hot chocolate is for chalets in the Swiss Alps, not rooftop hideouts in Hong Kong."
"Man, you're such a Scrooge." Cricket shook her head.
"Bah, humbug." Skwydd responded sarcastically.
"Well, Tuck and I are going to the market to check out the tree." Cricket told him.
"Knock yourselves out." Skwydd shrugged. "I'd rather spend my time playing video games than fighting the Christmas crowds."
"Come with us, Skwydd. It'll be fun." Tuck urged.
"What and be jostled by the crowds and listening to endless loops of We wish you a Merry Christmas? No thanks." Skwydd scoffed.
"Let's go Tuck and leave Mr. Scrooge here to play his lame video games." Cricket said while pulling a hoodie over her head
Tuck shook his head and walked out with one of his bandages wrapping around the door and pulling it shut behind him.
"Please, why would I go out and walk around pretending to have good will to men." Skwydd scoffed. He reached over for another helping of popcorn but realized the bowl was empty. "Rats!"
He paused his game and got up to get some more. Looking around their makeshift kitchen he found a bag under some shelves. In his haste he got up too quickly and banged his head. "Acckkk! He cursed as he rubbed his head. He didn't realize that his vibrations made a heavy-laden top shelf unstable. The shelf suddenly gave way and the contents landed on top of Skwydd knocking him out.
0o0
Skwydd groaned as he came to. Pushing the junk off him, he slowly got up. "Ow, what hit me?" He grumbled.
"Your conscience." His voice answered. His own face appeared in front of him.
"Aaaurrgh!" He sprayed ink.
"Seriously, is that any way to treat your inner voice?" Skwydd saw himself walk through the dark mist.
"What's my inner voice doing outside of me?" He yelped.
"Just trying to bring you a little Christmas cheer you sourpuss." His inner voice said cheerfully.
"Oh man, I must have gotten hit hard. Maybe I'm dead!" Skwydd groaned and covered his face.
"If only," His doppelganger sighed. "Come on, I wanna show me something."
"Can't I just eat my popcorn and play my game?" Skwydd complained.
"Nope." He shook his head.
"Am I going to be visited by three ghosts?" Skwydd asked sarcastically.
"Haha, you wish! You're on a budget. I'm the only thing you can afford. Let's go, quit stalling." He grabbed Skwydd and
"All right, all right, stop your nagging. Wow, I'm so pushy." Skwydd followed himself to the door. His inner voice walked through the door. When Skwydd tried to do the same, he smashed his face.
His voice peaked his head back in. "Oh, you can't walk through walls. I told you we're on a budget."
"Great," Skwydd held his stinging nose. "So everyone's going to be able to see me." He opened the door to see himself smirking.
"Let's just say, be careful talking to me, otherwise everyone's gonna think you're crazy." He answered.
"I must have a concussion." Skwydd said but continued walking after himself.
The reached the streets with people bustling through the busy streets. Skwydd pulled his hoodie over his head so that people couldn't see his face.
"Ah, don't you see all the good will around you?" His voice said.
Skwydd looked around. "All I see is people shopping and going about their everyday lives."
"Yeah, but with goodwill."
"I see a guy robbing a store."
His voice turned to look. "Oh shoot, shouldn't we do something?"
"Why?"
"What do you mean why? You can't let him get away."
"Oh, I can do that very easily."
"That'd be wrong."
"Ugh, what are you my conscience? Oh wait."
"Be a hero!"
"I'm not, Rex."
"You don't have to be Rex, just be yourself."
Skwydd scowled but went over to the store just as the robber was running out. He extended his arm and the robber slammed into it. The man bounced off, hitting the floor hard, knocking him out.
"There happy?" He asked his inner voice.
Before he could reply, a lady screamed. "EVO!"
People on the streets began panicking.
"Hey, it's ok. I'm good." Skwydd said in a calm voice until he saw a wok coming at his face. Ducking he sprayed his ink for cover. When the black haze disappeared, he was gone.
Skwydd panted in an alleyway. He glared at his conscience. "Well, I've had enough of this goodwill. I'm going home."
His conscience didn't answer. Skwydd angrily pulled the hood over his head and was about to leave when he heard sniffling. He stopped and turned back toward the sound. He slowly walked toward the sound. Behind the dumpster the noise grew louder. When he peered around a small boy was rubbing his eyes crying.
He glanced at his inner voice who nodded encouragingly.
Skwydd cleared his throat. "Hey kid, what's wrong?" He asked in Chinese.
"A-ma?" The boy sniffled. He looked up at Skwydd. Skwydd expected him recoil in fear but all the boy did was repeat, "A-ma?"
"You lost your mother?" He guessed.
The boy nodded. "Scary monster came and chased us." He responded in Chinese.
"Where was the last place you saw her?" He asked. The boy pointed toward the dark side of the street.
"Of course, it would be." Skwydd muttered in English before switching back to Chinese. "Well, let's go kid. Your mom isn't going to find herself." He offered his hand and the boy took it. They walked down the street together.
As they approached the shadows, a pair of glowing red eyes flashed.
The boy made a squeak and Skwydd pushed him behind his back. The eyes narrowed as a low growl emitted from the shadows.
Skwydd shoved the boy to one side while he jumped to the other. An EVO rat called a gnasht leapt in between them.
"Hey ugly, over here!" Skwydd yelled. The gnasht snapped at Skwydd before attacking him. Skwydd blew ink into its face making it staggered back. He then swung his arm like a whip and smacked it straight across the head making it fly against the wall before sliding into a dumpster. Skwydd then slammed the lid down trapping the EVO.
"Ting!" A woman's voice shouted fearfully.
"A-ma!" The little boy ran to a woman who stood at the end of the alley way with what looked like Providence agents.
"Ooops," Skwydd took several steps back before dashing away. He ignored the Providence agents' commands to stop or the little boy's yells to come back.
He didn't stop until he reached the next block. When he finally caught his breath, he kicked the nearest wall in frustration. "So, what did I learn?" He snapped. "Oh, just that no good deed goes unpunished. Good will my…"
"And so you should have let the EVO eat the kid?" His inner voice suddenly appeared behind him.
"What? No, of course not!" He replied.
"Then, maybe you did some good?"
"Well, maybe?"
"Maybe Christmas isn't just about avarice and greed? Maybe it's about taking care of each other?"
Skwydd was silent for a second. "Nahhh, that's not it."
His inner voice threw his hands up in disgust. "Fine, stay a Scrooge! Go back to playing your video game and totally ignore anything special about this time of year."
"I will." Skwydd agreed and started off in the direction of home. The commercial area gave way to a more dilapidated area where the poor had set up temporary homes for themselves.
When he was almost back home, he was stopped by a child's voice.
"Octopus-man! Octopus-man!"
Skwydd turned around. It was the little boy from before. He and his mother ran to him.
"Do-jie, thank you!" The mother bowed. She handed him a can of ham.
Skwydd hesitantly accepted it. He bowed as the two bowed back. He watched them leave. To his surprise, he saw them walk into a makeshift shack. He looked at the can in his hand.
"Hey, wait!" He called in Chinese.
The lady poked her head out. Skwydd jogged over. "This belongs to you. I don't need anything."
The lady looked like she was about to protest when her son stuck his head out.
Skwydd smiled at him. He took a step back and blew out an ink dragon.
The boy stepped outside and clapped delightedly. Skywdd made another ink picture of a tiger. More people started coming out of their makeshift homes to watch Skwydd perform his little show. He blew ink pictures of the Hong Kong skyline, junk ships sailing, and rickshaws.
Someone handed out lychee juice boxes and someone else started passing out spiced sunflower seeds. It became a street party as someone started playing an erhu, a violin-like instrument. People were laughing and talking.
"Skwydd?"
Skwydd turned around to see the shock look on Cricket and Tuck's faces.
"Oh, hey guys, where have you been?" He asked casually.
"Well, not having as good a time as you, apparently." Tuck observed.
"What this?" Skwydd shrugged.
"Do more!" The little boy tugged oh his hoodie.
"You want more?" Skwydd blew several more ink animals while the children clapped.
0o0
That evening the three friends sat in their livingroom after a meal of noodles.
"What are you looking at?" Skwydd asked his other two friends.
Cricket grinned. "You know, you acted like a Grinch but you're actually a big softie."
"Yup, filled with creamy sentiment in the middle." Tuck agreed.
"That sounds disgusting." Skwydd snorted. "And since when was I the Grinch? I thought I was a Scrooge."
"Ha! Don't change the subject." Cricket admonished. "Here, I know it's early, but Tuck and I got you something." She pulled a rather large flat package from under the couch.
It was crudely wrapped. Skwydd ripped through the gift wrap. It was poster paper.
"It's not much but we thought you might want to, you know, keep some of your art sometimes." Tuck explained when Skwydd didn't say anything.
He was quiet for so long, Cricket was worried that they had offended him when he suddenly blew ink onto the paper.
He turned the paper around and Cricket and Tuck looked on with awe.
"Wow." Cricket breathed.
"Cool." Tuck said simply.
"I didn't know you could do that." Cricket said.
Skwydd shrugged. "Been practicing."
On the paper, was a picture of the three of them.
Skwydd looked up to see his inner voice giving the thumbs up before fading away. A slight smile tugged on his lips.
"Merry Christmas." He said softly.
More sappy Christmas stories for the season. Merry Christmas to all who celebrate. Happy Holidays to those who don't.