Suddenly, Jangle, Grimjack, Freddy, and Santa were all in the snow in the middle of a blizzard. They only had one bike left, and Santa stumbled a moment before collapsing down to his knees and coughing violently. Jangle rushed to comfort him as Freddy eyed the big man cautiously.

Freddy tapped Grimjack’s leg but before he could say anything a rock crashed through and nearly hit the two of them.

“I told you your life was forfeit if you returned!” boomed the echoing voice of the Grump.

“We’ve got to protect Santa! He’s too weak from whatever they were doing to him in that place.” Said Jangle as she pulled out an emergency flask of hot cocoa and handed it to Santa.

Another boulder came flying, but this time Grimjack jumped up and slammed his fist down, sending it into the ground.

“Is that Santa? That gaudy fat man in my territory at last. Very well, give him to me and not only will I spare your lives, but I will reward you with riches beyond belief.”

“Not on your life Mr. Grump!” shouted Jangle.

Then, the snowstorm seemed to peel back to reveal a squat green troll. He was fuzzy, and hideously misshapen. “The word from his slave means nothing to me. You two,” the Grump pointed towards Freddy and Grimjack, “get him for me. You hold no place for Christmas in your heart like me. Help me end this madness at last.”

Freddy stroked his chin while Grimjack stood there defiantly. Finally, Freddy sighed and shook his head, but then gold glitter sprinkled around as Jack started to force his way through time and space towards Santa. He seemed to have recovered most of his former strength, as his massive muscles struggled to pass through the glittering portal.

Freddy swore under his breath and dashed towards the Grump. “Grab the big guy and make a run for it! I’ll hold this one off at least!”

“What? Are you insane?”

Freddy clicked his tongue. “You kind of left me no choice metal Jack. What with how you gave up your arm back there. That was a dumb move…but hey, gotta pay you back for that anyway. Now go!”

Freddy flipped his knife out and jumped towards the Grump, who seemed to be quite confused at the chaos Jack’s summoning had caused. With a quick thrust, he had stabbed out the Grump’s eye, who roared in pain and anger. Along with his roar, the storm seemed to lighten up to just a light snow.

Grimjack and Jangle leaped into action. He threw down the bike, she jumped on before it had even hit the snow and started it up. In a smooth motion, he swept Santa up under his arm while sitting on the bike behind Jangle, who put it into overdrive as soon as they were all on. They could still see Jack struggling to fully form from the glitter while Freddy fought the Grump before they finally got out of sight of the spires.

“He’s still going to be chasing us! And he seems to have drained enough of Santa’s cheer to travel like he can.”

“So, we have to blow him away with overwhelming power.”

“That’s right! But wasn’t that thing back then the biggest you had Jack?”

He sighed. “If you insist on calling me by my name, it’s Grimjack. And yes, Vera was the biggest and best I had.”

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

“Grimjack. I mean, you can’t say it doesn’t fit you, eh Mr. Gloomy? Anyway, the elf armory won’t do much good. Not really made for Santa containment, you know.”

“Wait, the landfill!”

“We’re still a ways away, and Santa is in no shape to get all three of us there.”

“We’ll figure out a way to keep him off of us, just head there.”

Jangle nodded and turned the bike away from Santa’s village.

“Sorry about this,” coughed Santa. “That bit of magic seemed to take a lot out of me. Oh, and Jangle, could I bother you for a cookie or two?”

“Of course, Santa, how about some milk as well?”

“Why that’d be just grand.”

There was a short ding, and a tray of milk and cookies popped out of the front council of the bike, which Jangle handed back to Santa. While still being held under Grimjack’s arm, Santa accepted the food gratefully, and with a small “Thank you Jangle,” he happily ate the food.

There was a loud explosion behind them, and a huge plume of white snow rose high into the sky. Grimjack focused his sensors in and saw Jack riding up on top of the pillar of snow before it started to rapidly descend. He seemed to form a sleigh out of ice and skeletal reindeers in front of it that were being pulled down faster and faster by gravity, but they managed to pull up at the last second and avoided shattering against the ground while keeping up the momentum from their fall.

“You’re going to need to speed up Jangle.”

“It’s not really made to carry three people, especially when two are so big. So, this is as fast as it’ll go like this.”

“Burn out the engine if you have to! Otherwise, we’re going to have a fine bike, but no us.”

Jangle did what she could, but the ice sleigh was quickly catching up. Grimjack tossed Santa roughly behind Jangle as he jumped off the back of the bike. “Hold on tight,” he said before he grabbed onto the back of the bike. His feet jumped in the snow for a second before he managed to straighten them out. He locked his arm’s position on the bike and then activated his jet thrusters.

With a blaze of fire behind them their speed rose rapidly, while Grimjack’s energy reserves got closer and closer to empty. But it was enough. The ice sleigh was still catching up, but it was slow enough now, and indeed they made it to the reject landfill.

“Now what?” asked Jangle over the comms.

“Trust me and hold on. We need to try and attract as much attention as we can.”

“Wait! There’s got to be a…aaaaaahhhhhh!!!”

Jangle screamed as Grimjack pushed out his last bits of energy reserves into an extra boost to send them flying like a missile into Freddy’s old home. Santa seemed almost too nonplussed, but as they fell down, he grabbed Jangle and Grimjack as he jumped off of the bike and started to gently float down when they neared the bottom.

An icy snort rang behind them as the frozen reindeer as Jack followed closely behind them. When they touched the ground Grimjack started to slam into buildings and make as much noise as he could.

“Nowhere to run.” The frozen sleigh landed gracefully while spreading ice everywhere it touched. Jack loomed high over them as he stepped out of the sleigh. “Might as well just give up. It’s time for a new king of the holidays.”

“You never got it Jack. Christmas is about the spirit, not the power, titles, toys, or anything else. About…”

“Shut up!” howled Jack. “Enough of your excuses, it’s over.”

Grimjack tackled Santa to the ground as Jack sent an ice spike towards him that flew through several buildings on the tightly packed streets. As Jack threw out another spike, Jangle pulled out her gingerbread shield, and blocked it. But it was finally too much, and the shield shattered into a million little pieces.

Jack laughed. It sent a chill right down Grimjack’s spine, like it was the purest expression of frostbite in vocal form. But more importantly, it was loud, and he finally heard the cymbals he had been waiting for.

“Jangle, now!” he called out as he tossed Santa to his feet and ran while keeping Santa in front of him.

Jangle quickly followed behind him as Jack simply chuckled and flung several more icicles.

“It’s no use! These streets may be narrow, but I can blow through them all with one mighty wind.” Jack took in a deep breath of air and then blew it out in a stream so powerful it did indeed blow away buildings, discarded toys, and anything else in its path. But as those buildings all collapsed A swarm of monkeys that made Jack look small, locked eyes with him. Each had cymbals on their hands, and with an ear-piercing screech, they charged him.

Grimjack held up the collapsed building on his back as he kept Jangle and Santa safe beneath him. They could hear the sound of an intense and violent battle above them, but it was muffled by the sheer amount of debris.

“Before I forget,” coughed Grimjack as he opened his leg’s compartment and a small package fell out. “I have a delivery for you Santa, or whatever you want to call yourself. It’s from the Council of Grundoks.”

Santa opened the package without a care for preserving the packaging. Inside was a letter and two pouches. He pulled out a tiny pair of spectacles from his pocket and donned them before he read the letter while nodding. As he finished, he smiled and put the letter into his pocket with his glasses. He opened one of the packages, that seemed to be full of dust, and poured it into his mouth.

“Well, what did the letter say Santa?” asked Jangle.

“Oh my dear Jangle, I can’t tell you that. You can’t just go around and tell someone what’s in a Christmas letter. If you do, then it can never come true you know.”

“Wait, really?” said Jangle in awe.

“No, not really. But they asked I keep it private, and so I shall.”

“Wait,” said Jangle as she looked up at Grimjack who had turned himself into a pseudo shelter for them from the collapsed buildings. “Jack, or I mean Grimjack, couldn’t you have delivered that any time after we found Santa?”

“Hmm? No way. There was too much going on to focus on something like that.”

Jangle’s mouth was covered, but it was obvious she was smiling. “Right. Well, let’s hope your plan worked out.”

“Yeah, let’s hope.”

Santa just laughed and soon enough the two of them joined in.