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Henry recoiled in shock when Andreas blew the horn right next to him. He had not seen his ally raising the horn to his lips, and was of course not expecting the man to signal to the HORRIFYING ENEMY MONSTERS that they were standing in the next room, with a musical alert.

He was the first to scramble back from the door as Santa and his party turned to approach the sound. After pausing for a moment and focusing on his internal functions instead of the outside world around him, Henry deemed that the least dangerous path was down the stairs to the first floor. However, because his power was still new to him, Henry reached this realization at roughly the same time as Andreas and Gregory, who had used common sense instead of mystical brain powers. So in this case, it was just sort of wasteful.

"Come on, man!" he said, grabbing Andreas by the wrist and pulling him out of the way of the charging yeti.

Toy Factory

The elf scratched his chin as he considered the offer, "Hm. I guess it wouldn't hurt to have you help with the fortifications. The faster we can make this place safe the faster we can get back on schedule. Go ask one of the elves working on it, they'll tell you what to do."

*

Ro, finally breaking his silence, placed a hand on Arthur's shoulder.

"Hey, we've been going through this together the entire time, what do you make of it all? I mean, we get thrown into a crazy house, dragged into the middle of a war, and we were betrayed by people I thought we could trust. I just... what is there to do? How do we know we can even trust anyone here? What if we can't go home?"

Ro was wringing his hands, it was obvious that he was having a difficult time adjusting, any normal person would. But it was only just now that Ro was showing any actual signs of stress, and since Arthur was the person he felt closest to, it was he that Ro chose to confide in.

"I'm only seventeen, I don't want to die here..."

*

Alastair nudged Juliet to get her attention, a little harder than he intended due to his new-found strength. He frowned when he realized the nudge was more of a shove.

"Oh, sorry about that, lass. I hope I didn't hurt ya, I guess I don't know my own strength." he apologized. Then, leaning in to whisper, he said "I'm not sure how much I trust that Majesty of Colours, ya know? This isn't our war, lass. I say we get done what we need and then do what we can to get everybody out of here. Do ya think it can be done?"

***

Santa's Castle

Henry managed to pull Andreas out of the way with time to spare. Gregory scrambled to their side, on the verge of cowering. Almost as soon as the infected yeti came to a stop and prepared to charge again, another yeti, wielding a spear, came bursting through the front gate, followed by two unarmed yetis.

The spear-wielding yeti attempted to skewer the infected yeti, but it managed to knock the point of the spear away. The spear yeti instead collided with the infected yeti and they tumbled to the ground.

By this time, Santa had reached the bottom of the stairs, surrounded by a small swarm of infected elves. Santa pointed a claw at the three guests and half of the elves, about two dozen, ran towards them while the remaining elves remained at his feet. The two other yetis, seeing their target, charged Santa.

One of the yetis managed to land a solid blow to Santa's chest and slammed him into the wall, but Santa was quick to recover and attempted to grasp the yeti with his deadly phalanges, forcing the yeti to jump back. No sooner had the yeti done so than he was swarmed by the elves. They climbed his body, biting at his thick hide and trying to claw out his eyes while he thrashed about, tearing elves off of himself and trying to crush them.

The other yeti, acting while Santa was attempting to grasp his partner, grappled Santa from behind and forced him to the floor.

Jasper nodded in assent to the old elf's suggestion of work- he was grateful he wouldn't have to be working on toys- he was too clumsy, for one, and he'd probably set something on fire, for two. Considering his powers, he doubted this would have a good outcome.

A small, raspy cough sounded deep in Jasper's throat. Without looking, almost automatically, he pulled his inhaler out of his jacket pocket, taking a puff or two. He had a feeling he'd need a few more before he was done- this cold air was not good for his lungs. Taking a deep breath, he started moving in the direction of one of the teams that were fortifying the exits. On the way, he noticed a few piles of wood nearby, but figured he should talk to the elves first, to see what he needed to do. He stopped a short way away, contemplating just how small they all were. Chances were, they needed his help.

"Ahem... excuse me, sirs. I just spoke with..." Jasper drew a sudden blank. What was that old b*****d's name? He hadn't introduced himself, and no one else seemed to know who he was, either. Ah, to hell with it.

"...that old elf over there," finished Jasper, indicating the angry old man hobbling about. He took a sniff- his hair had definitely been singed. Quite the picture. And all this smoke is making me gag. "He said that you would tell us how we can help with fortification efforts. How may I be of service?"

Toy Factory

A female elf - or maybe it was just a slightly more feminine male, it was difficult to tell - wearing a hardhat turned away from her work to address Jasper. She gave Jasper a strange look and leaned to the side to see the elf that Jasper had indicated and then looked back up at Jasper. More accurately, she was looking at his hair.

"Oh, yeah, you can call him Mr. Jingles." Remembering her manners, she redirected her eyes to meet Jasper's. She spoke quickly but clearly, "Glad to have you helping us, my name's Gilraen, but just call me Eira. What you and your friends can do is help us fortify the windows higher up. We don't have any problems with the exits, but I'm sure you can guess why the windows would be a pain. Just make sure nothing can get through them easily. That shouldn't take too long, so if you're still around after that's done, I'll have more work for you."

She gestured for Jasper to begin working and turned with a smile to Alex. "I think we have a special job for you, though. No reason a nice, young boy like you should be stuck with a boring job. Do you like toys? Good! How would you like to help us build toys that will be brought to life?"

*

Ro frowned, but found some comfort in Arthur's words. "I hope you're right." He reasoned that Arthur probably was right. The MADmen could probably have killed them several times over by now, but that was before they had chosen a side. Ro wasn't so sure they were valuable enough to keep alive now that they were their enemies.

"What do you think makes us so valuable?" Ro asked as he headed towards a pile of wood to get started on the fortifications.

*

"I suppose you're right, lass." Alastair agreed. "We're stuck here, so there's no use complainin'. Guess all we can do is our duty and do our best to keep the lads and lassies safe until we can all go home." Alastair chuckled, "Might as well make the best of it, besides the infection and the war, this place is pretty amazin', wouldn't ya say, lass? It'll make one hell of a story to tell back at the station!"

Santa's Castle

The elves were thrown off of the yeti and, much to his relief, Andreas noticed that the yeti was mostly unharmed. The yeti seemed to grin at the change of events and proceeded to crush as many as he could beneath his feet.

Santa, meanwhile, managed to break free from the grapple and threw the other yeti off of his back and rose to his feet, turning to meet his assailant. The yeti pulled himself back up and fell into a fighting stance. Santa's head twitched and settled at a right tilt. He began to shamble towards the yeti, parts of his body twitching at odd intervals.

The yeti held his ground. Once Santa was close enough, the yeti threw a punch at Santa's head, planning to keep Santa on the defensive. It didn't work. Santa's hand shot up and caught the yeti's arm, causing the punch to stop dead. Growling, the yeti pulled his other arm back for a punch. Before he got the chance to follow through, Santa's other hand darted out, this time digging his claws into the Yeti's gut. With a jerk, Santa ripped a handful of the yeti's stomach out, spilling blood, flesh, and fat onto the floor. He then stabbed the yeti repeatedly with his claws, effectively widening and deepening the wound. With a final grab and rip, Santa removed most of the yeti's digestive system. Blood filled the yeti's mouth and his eyes were wide as he watched himself get gutted. Finally, the yeti looked up and met Santa's gaze with eyes full of hate. Without hesitation, Santa drove his claws through the yeti's throat and yanked upwards sharply, beheading the yeti. He released the headless yeti's arm as the body collapse.

Santa studied the head briefly before discarding it and turning his attention to the other yeti, who had by now stopped crushing the elves to witnessed the brutal slaughter of his ally. With vengeance in his eyes, the yeti dropped to a fighting stance.

Jasper was surprised when the elf that adressed him was deemed to be female. Not overtly surprised, he knew there had to be at least some females among them, but still, it was a surprise, nonetheless. His mouth twitched slightly as he noticed that her gaze was concentrated on his hair, which was still smoldering slightly. He gave another raspy cough as he forced his frustration down. The fault was not with Eira, it was with him- at least, the fiery part of him.

I have got to get better at controlling this- I can't just be setting fire to everything randomly everywhere I go. True, his power was limited to manipulating existing flames for the time being, but a few of the Residents had some missing eyebrows that could attest to the danger of that. And his powers were only growing- whether it was his shoulders smoking or his fingers producing sparks, his power was looking for an outlet. A way to be used. And they were getting too desperate to hold back.

Jasper grit his teeth in frustration, but managed to hear the rest of Eira's instructions. Nodding, he left Alex with the elf, as she seemed to have something else planned to keep the boy busy. That was fine with him- the poor kid needed a break. He started to grab a large piece of lumber, when he heard Ro and Arthur speculating about their situation. When the question of their importance came up, Jasper chuckled good-naturedly.

"It's pretty obvious to me- y'know, regarding what's been happening to us since we arrived. I mean, let's look at the facts- you," he said, indicating Arthur, "can heal burns just by touching them, he," he said, with a toss of the head in Alastair's direction, "can punch through walls, and I've been lighting up like a Roman candle since the forest. Something's different about all of us, and the MADmen are hoping they can get us to use it for them." Jasper shrugged. "But regardless, whatever the reason, the MADmen are bad news- does it really matter why they want us so badly?"

Toy Factory

"I guess you have a point." Ro shrugged, "I just don't see how we can even measure up to these guys. I just feel like there's more to it, you know? You'd think they'd kill us now before we have a chance to cause problems." He sighed deeply and loaded his arms with wood.

"Maybe I'm just overthinking this." He continued, glancing sideways at Jasper, "I guess what matters right now is that we're not dead, and we should work to keep it that way."

*

Eira smiled at Alex's enthusiasm and led him to a nearby conveyer belt manned by five elves. She giggled at the child's uncertainty, obviously taking no offense. "Please, call me Eira, not 'miss'." she told him, mostly to clear any confusion, "We're fortifying this toy factory to keep the bad things out. You see, not too long ago, bad people, the MADmen, came here and started causing trouble. They turned good people naughty, made them want to be mean to us, so we're fortifying the toy factory to help keep them away." Eira explained, giving an answer designed to minimize the impact to the child without actually lying.

She gestured for Alex to bring his attention towards the conveyer belt where five elves were busily working. The first had two boxes next to him (her?), the first box was filled with unpainted wooden body parts and the second was filled with wooden legs. The elf connected the legs to the body and stood the incomplete toy on the conveyer belt and sent it down the line at a rate of about one toy per second. The second elf attached arms to the toy before the conveyer belt carried it to the third elf, where the toy acquired a head. The fourth elf took the unpainted (though otherwise complete) nutcracker and flicked it in the head. The resulting bit of elf magic was a sight that many children often fantasize about but never get to see, and Alex got to see it first-hand! Starting from the origin of the flick, color began to cover the nutcracker. Within seconds it was painted as a traditional nutcracker and a furry beard had sprouted from its wooden chin. The elf was inspecting the toy for any defects when another fantastic thing happened, the toy began to move. It began testing its arms and rotating its head to look around the factory. Satisfied, the elf passed the nutcracker to the final elf, who assigned it a weapon, this time a halberd, though Alex could see that there were also rifles.

Through the haze of wonder, Alex noticed that it was the fourth elf he would probably be helping. The extra time the elf spent inspecting the toys instead of transforming the next was causing a bit of a backup.

"You'll be inspecting the nutcrackers." Eira explained. "You don't need to be too in-depth with your inspection, just tug on the arms and legs a lil to make sure they don't fall off and look for any major defects. If there's somethin' wrong, just toss it in the box next to you, they'll be recycled. If it's good, set it on the conveyer belt, simple as that!"

On that note, she went over the the elves and explained to them that Alex would be helping them. They cheerfully acknowledged Alex and waved him over to get started. Eira then left to get back to work on the reinforcements.

***

Santa's Castle

With a mighty grunt, Andreas sent the large spear flying towards Santa. It worked out better than he imagined. The spear caught Santa's attention and he turned towards it just as the tip pierced his soft stomach. Inertia carried the heavy spear through Santa's gut and embedded it deep into the nearby wall, effectively immobilizing Santa. The monster's head dropped down to inspect the spear and his hands grasped the shaft.

The yeti, taking advantage of the distraction, pounced without hesitation. It grasped Santa's should with its left hand and viciously punched Santa with its right repeatedly, eventually producing a sickening crunching noise with each punch.

When the yeti's fist was sufficiently bloodied, he released Santa's shoulder and let him fall limp. Santa's head was a flattened, bloody mess. The lenses and respirator that once covered his face were completely destroyed, revealing a face that probably actually looked better flattened and bloodied than it did previously.

Meanwhile, the yeti's other companion rose and reclaimed its spear from where it had fallen after successfully breaking the neck of its infected brethren.

Santa's head twitched to one side and his hands grasped feebly at the shaft of the spear still impaling him. The yeti took a quick step back before actually noticing Santa's weakness. He gestured for his companion to come over. They exchanged a few grunts and growls and the yeti still possessing his spear stabbed viciously at Santa's neck, beheading him and causing his body to once again become limp. The head fell to the floor and rolled as much as its flattened shape would allow. The head still showed a few signs of movement, so, each with a snarl of hate, they began to alternatively stomp the head until nothing but a bloody pulp remained.

Satisfied, the unarmed yeti gathered his recently-fallen companion and left the castle, leaving the spear-wielding yeti alone to watch over Santa's body.

"We... we need samples... I think th-they'll be b-b-back soon." The wide-eyed Gregory reminded Andreas with a whisper. He appeared to be trying to recover from the violent scene. "Uh... you can get the samples."

And then I bought Venom icecream on the way home.

"Perhaps that's why they want us alive- to cause problems," remarked Jasper, then laughing sardonically at his statement. "And, then again, perhaps now I'm overthinking things." He shrugged at Ro as he loaded up with wood, taking a moment to catch his breath. At least he was strong enough to lift all of this. Finally, I'm useful for something other than toasting marshmallows.

"You have a point, nonetheless. Sooner or later, the MADmen are going to realize they can't manipulate us. And perhaps then, they will try to kill us. So, yes, for now, we ought to appreciate our not-dead-ness. Certainly we should take steps toward making it a more even fight when they come knocking. Heh... Perhaps I should start with learning not to incinerate all of you, first." he said, laughingly. He shifted his hands on the pile of wood, before noticing that his hands had slightly burned somewhat-darker shapes into the wood. His good humor snuffed out instantly (thatwasahorriblepunI'msosorry), Jasper resisted the urge to growl as he carted his wood toward the stairs to the second floor.

This is going to get worse before it gets better. I can tell. Fire always burns hottest just before it starts dying...