Christmas Contest Entry: A Lost Christmas?

Contest Entry: ID: 11715

All around the globe cell phones beeped with the emergency distress calls.  Heroes woke from their long winter nap to check their phone, bleerly staring at the screen.  After a moment looking unbelieving at the flashing red screen, supers all around the world leapt out of bed with a clatter and quickly got dressed in their suits.  They emerged from their doors seeing dark robotic elves trying to break into houses and steal children from the sledding hills, magic flashed and arrows flew, robots started exploding into coal powered mush in the snow..

Meanwhile, Krampus used the chaos of the situation to teleport into house after house, stealing children from their beds without anyone noticing, bringing them to his dark lair in the frigid ice of the south pole.  The children shivered from both fear and the cold, crying out for help.

From his viewpoint in the sky, Magnificent Marvel heard the cries of parents, the shrieks of children being woken as they were kidnapped, and the smell of brimstone as Krampus disappeared.  He quickly flew along, following the path, and eventually made it to the southern coast of South America.  It was only a small logical jump from there to search Antarctica.

Landing on the ice of Antarctica, Magnificent Marvel shivered, thanking his Morphon powers for the fire coursing through his veins to prevent him from freezing.  He slowly flew over the ice, scanning with his x-ray vision for anything out of the ordinary.  After finding many waddles of penguins, a pod of seals, and a few prehistoric creature frozen into the ice, he finally found a spot that mysteriously blocked his vision.  Magnificent Marvel landed to check it out.

        He quietly sneaked into the base, turning invisible to avoid the cameras, and floating slightly off the ground to prevent any footprints in the snow.  Turning his body into liquid form, he slipped through the cracks in the door, moving quickly enough to prevent being frozen from the frigid weather outside.  Once inside the lair he discovered a Krampus sitting by a warm fire, watching the children shiver and freeze, through a thin translucent sheet of ice, in their frozen cell,.  Magnificent Marvel knew that he would not be able to break the children out without Krampus noticing and stopping him, so with a heavy sigh he retreated from the layer to a safe shelter outside the lair.

        Magnificent Marvel wracked his brain seeking a solution to save the children and Christmas at the same time, and suddenly an idea came forward.  He would replace the children with look alikes and take down krampus at the same time.  With a mighty whoosh, Magnificent Marvel leaped into the air speeding to the nearest land to gather supplies.  Settling into a shop, he worked with Morphon Powered speed to mix the flour, molasses, and brown sugar, making them into full sized gingerbread children.  Then he added the special ingredient to his recipe, schnapps, which the world knows is a way to persuade Krampus to leave you alone.  After laying them out, he used his laser eyes to cook the gingerbread in record time.  Gathering up the newly baked gingerbread children, he zipped back to the south pole.

        When Krampus let out a yawn, Magnificent Marvel teleported into the room, switching out the gingerbread children for real things and laying down a subtle glamour to make the giant cookies look like the real thing.  Then hid the children in another room for safety.  Immediately after completing them Krampus stood, rubbed his belly hungrily, and opened a door in the ice with the swipe of a hand.  Without stopping to think or even chew, he grabbed glamoured cookies and threw them down his throat, each cookie child causing his belly to engorge further.  After eating the last child in the cell, he let out a mighty belch that shook them room.  Then, a moment later, started staggering on his feet and hiccuping at a more rapid pace.

        Krampus was clearly drunk. Not just slightly so, he was completely snookered.  Magnificent Marvel gave himself a quick glamour to look like jolly old St. Nick himself, and stepped out of the shadows.  “Well Krampus you drunken sot, what do you have to say for yourself?  I’m here, free of your curse and power, and ready to stop you.”

        Krampus responded with a drunken lilt and a hiccup, “hic, Santa, wha you doing here?  I locked you if your palace with all your wee little friends.  Never you mind, you silly little elf, I’ll just stop you here and now.”  Krampus attempted to snap his fingers, once, twice, failing to gather up his facilities in his drunken state then sighed and clapped his hands.  After a delayed pause, the power that was over the real Santa Claus in the North pole was lifted and focused onto the lair with Magnificent Marvel, Krampus, and the Children.  Then Krampus swayed a little bit, gave another hiccup, and fell over onto the ground passed out drunk.

        Within a moment the real Santa Claus popped into being within Krampus’s lair, a twinkle in his eyes and a ticked off expression on his lips.  He looked down upon the drunken Krampus with utter disdain, wiggled his whiskers, and touched his nose.  The spell over the lair poofed out of existence and the children instantly transported safe into the beds.  Both Santa and Magnificent Marvel appeared in a warm cozy palace in the North Pole.  After giving Magnificent Marvel some hot chocolate to warm him, Santa said “Thank you, Sir for saving me and breaking the spell over my palace.  You have saved Christmas for all the good boys and girls out there.  We will deal with Krampus in due time, but for now he is to drunk to cause more trouble.”