December 23rd, 2009
M80s, I don’t even want to describe what we’re looking at here. It a horrible ruin of a creature, made of snapped bone and burned flesh. I don’t noe what awful spells Antisnatter tried to use to make himself better, but they did not work properly! Him alive, but him… transformed, corrupted!!
“Santa Clausss.” him say, looking right into bridge!
“What do you want, Peter?” ask old snatter. “What will it take to stop this senseless destruction?”
Antisnatter laugh!
“What do I want for Christmas, Claus?” him cackle. “I know your act. The kindly Father Christmas, the jolly old elf, the kindliest man in the world – but don’t get on his naughty list… like I did, and now see what’s left of me! Do you kill them all, Claus? Are all the naughty little boys and girls subject to your justice?”
Snatter look like all him crests have fell off
“I – I was a young man, Peter, I didn’t understand my abilities yet. I didn’t mean any harm, it was the magic! I didn’t know about the naughty list! I thought it was just a list, I, I…”
“Excuses!” snap the ruin of Antisnatter! “Lies! You had the list right in your hand, you knew that we were in a highly flammable chamber and that a lump of coal would be enough to set off a gigantic explosion!”
“But I didn’t know about the coal! I thought that everyone would get the present they most needed,” Snatter say quietly. “I didn’t know yet that it gave them the present they most deserved. I would have stopped it! I wouldn’t have reached into that bag if I’d known!”
“Do you know what happened to me, Claus?” say Antisnatter nastily. “After you delivered your gift, I was blasted into the Christmas Star. Yes! Right into the heart of the celestial energy source from which all Christmas flows… and it rejected me. But it was too late – the explosion of festive power was so great that atoms were compacted and merged, power flowed through me and through the piece of coal. When my lifeless body was flung across the icy wastes, along with it went a new being. The Spirit of Antichristmas, created out of the piece of coal that set off the explosion.
It knew it had a connection to me, and it searched for me while I hung there, encased in ice. I was aware, the entire time, of my predicament, and of the searing cold stripping away and killing my flesh. I was a mind unable to rest, imbued with a spirit which kept me from ever dying. When eventually the spirit found me and tunnelled up through the ice, melting it away with its unquenchable flame, I was already a monstrous thing, layers of my own skin and outer flesh sheared loose by the cold. I should have been dead, long dead, my organs and bones split from the skin that was little more now than a dead crust. But that relief was denied me. My newfound spirit kept me alive, my cells still living and dividing, my body growing as it ever had, but now without the luxury of shedding its old cells, or of them dying away. The remaining matter within that ice-crusted shell of my old body continued to grow and twist into whatever awful shapes the ice would allow.
“That list of yours is a dangerous thing, Claus,” he rasp. “Dividing the world into Naughty and Nice, and with you as its executioner, dealing out its justice. Once it has written a person off and decided they are “bad,” why would you ever suspect it would then produce for them a lovely present? It is clearly out to cleanse the world of all those it finds unpalatable, with no chance for redemption! It takes no knowledge of the specifics of your power to realise that! It is implied, right there on the list! You saw my name there, and yet you still drew out its “gift” from your bag! A jolly old elf? These are the ideaas of a dictator!”
“No!” Snatter stammer! “I saw your name, but I didn’t know about the separate sections of the list! I should have checked it twice!! I always have, ever since!!” he think for a moment, and say reluctantly, “Come aboard my ship. We can talk, we can work this out. You will be treated well. We needn’t be enemies forever…”
Antisnatter laugh. “You’re too noble, Santa Claus! Too noble for your own good!!” and he ZAP at screen with LIGHTNING CLAWS!!!!
Dooley quickly switch off the communications screen.
“What can we do, Admiral?” him ask.
Snatter turn to him wearily. “I don’t think there’s very much we can do, Dooley,” him say. And him sit down in him admiral chair, and have a big think.
Come on Snatter, don’t give up! There must be something we can do!