Christmas Contest Entry: Santa is Missing

Christmas Contest Entry: Santa is Missing
By Timebender #10897

Timebender was rescuing children from being eaten by Krampus when he got Director Nova's message.  What his other selves are doing is important, but so is this.  He picks one analog and sends them off on a different mission, find Santa.

Finding Santa is never easy, even at normal times.  While every child knows he lives at the North Pole, any scientist can tell you that he is not there when they look.  That is because the North Pole where Santa lives is actually part of the Mythic realms, pocket or side dimensions associated with the "real" world which are located in the four hidden dimensions of space.  

Science can tell you there are actually seven dimensions on a subatomic scale, not three.  There is some thought that what is called Dark Matter is actually other three dimensional worlds that touch ours only on these subatomic levels...or possibly share only one or two dimensions with our own.

Santa's Workshop is one of those places, is shares two dimensions with our reality, but the third exists in what is to us only thoughts and dreams.  As a result, it can only be found by those who believe it is there, something scientists with their objectivity can not do.

Having learned to see in these worlds during his fight with the Crooked Man, and existing in multiple universes thanks to the Options Oracle, Timebender can see and travel to the Mythic Realms, including Santa's Workshop, Heaven, and Hell.

Timebender exerts his powers a bit to flex time, arriving at the North Pole BEFORE Midnight in GMT so he can see what happened.  As he has learned, while travelling in time he can not change the past, only see it.  

He sees the Elves preparing things for the big night.  Santa's reindeer being yoked to the sleigh, the toybag being magically filled so that the contents are able to be pulled out one at a time on the reverse order they are put in only, and the bag only weighs as much as the last item put into it.

He sees Krampus too, hidden in the shadows of the bright North Pole, in a dark echo.  His place barred from the world, though Timebender is not sure how that was done.

He observes what happen, a rip in space-time releases Morphons into the space where Krampus is.  The Demon gains great power, amplifying the powers he already has as Santa's flip side.  He hits the North Pole just before Midnight, carrying his own sack.  He wades through the Elves and grabs Santa, stuffing him into the sack, then inverts Santa's own bag into that sack as well, so that Santa is buried on the bottom of billions of undelivered gifts.

Well fudge, this is going to be tough, looks like the only way to get Santa out is to deliver all the gifts in the bag, in the reverse of the normal order to boot.

Fortunately, Krampus leaves the bag behind as he goes out to Torment the naughty children.  Timebender is able to enter Krampus' world and take the bag.

Now comes the hard part, making the deliveries.  Fortunately the reindeer know which way to go, he just has to get them to run the route backwards...or rather, they will run it forwards and HE will be inverted carrying the bag.  He will get on the sleigh at the end of the run, and ride backwards through time until the start, dropping off the gifts until he can pull Santa out of the bag at the START of the run.

This is going to get confusing, but he has to leave NOW before he and Santa Arrive.  Then Santa is going to be making the same deliveries at the same time, going Forwards in time...so what he will really be going amounts to putting the toys in Santa's bag just before Santa needs them.

Sometimes, Timebender hates his powers, even he gets confused by time travel.  Still he heads into the future to close the time loop without encountering himself and gets on Santa's Sleigh as it arrives back at the end of the night.

Keeping himself inverted and moving at Santa speed all night long is going to leave him more than just exhausted...but doing what is necessary is what Heroes do.

Very entertaining!