Ice spread down the hallway, and encased the door, while also covering over the bottom of their feet. Along with an intense pressure from the presence of this monster. The air itself seemed to grow thick and felt like it was ready to freeze solid.

“Dang it! This cold is going to set me back another minute…” grumbled Freddy. “Hurry up and take care of that thing!”

It was him. The void from the meadow. Grimjack saw him stand in that aura of death like it was nothing. He was standing at least a two-hundred feet away, and just staring down at them with his red hat. Putting everything on defeating that giant was not a bet Grimjack was comfortable making. Instead, he sent a kick into the door near Freddy, and activated his jet thruster. His kick had cracked the ice, and the heat from his boot started to melt the rest of it away. “Ignore him, just hurry with this door!”

He didn’t even see it happen. The giant was right next to him. In mere moments he had crossed the entire hallway. Grimjack started to turn, but his speed was dwarfed by the giant.

CRACK!

At the last moment there was a jingling of bells as Jangle put herself between them. Holding a gingerbread shield, she had managed to withstand his first strike, but at the cost of cracking her cookie. Still, that gave Grimjack enough time to finish and with an extra burst of thrust from his feet, he backflipped onto the ceiling where he activated the maglock on his boots. He was going to need something stronger than just a disintegrator for this guy though.

“I need a few seconds, keep him busy for a little longer Jangle, and then I’ll jump in.” He said using his subvocal comm.

“Do you know what you’re messing with buddy? This isn’t just some elf king kidnapping. This is Santa! One of the most powerful and important beings ever!”

“Ho…ho…ho…” It was like pure ice had been formed into speech. Sharp, and cutting it sounded wrong. Like a poor imitation of speech by an Alien hivemind.

In another flash, he breezed past Jangle towards Grimjack, but again a small jingle and Jangle had blocked his attack again. But before she could do anything else, he had dissipated back away from them.

“Buddy, you’re really wearing on my Christmas cheer here.” Snarled Jangle as with a well-practiced move, she smeared white frosting over the cracks in her shield. “What does something like you have against Christmas anyway? Always get coal or something?”

He smirked and let out a wry chuckle. “I’m the one who has the most reasons to hate Christmas, and especially that fat glory hog Santa.”

That was all he needed. While the two of them were trading blows, Grimjack had put together and charged the biggest weapon in his arsenal. A ten-foot-long, four-foot-wide gatling gun, a Schwarzschild Industries G-320 Heavy Rotary Particle Accelerator, that he had nicknamed Vera. It was his big ace in the hole, a gun that created unstable, miniature black holes with each shot and fired so fast that it could even hit enemies shifting through the quantum realm.

Metal spikes shot out from his ankles and anchored him to the ceiling as he spun up the gun. The force from the gun pushed against his top-of-the-line maglocks and stabilizer spikes as the heat from it immediately melted the ice all around him. Unstable black beams sped forward and peppered the giant. Seeing an opportunity, Jangle joined in and threw several dozen shuriken shaped cookies followed by pulling the top off of a glass ball ornament and tossing it as well.

There was a big explosion and Grimjack’s visor showed the giant’s mass shrinking as his gun got dangerously close to overheating. But he wasn’t going to risk anything, so he continued to fire, until Freddy called out, “I got it! Hurry up and let’s save the fat man.”

“Go, I’ll cover you!” Jangle said as she gripped her gingerbread shield tight.

Grimjack let go of the trigger as Vera kept spinning as she was glowing bright red from heat. Several alerts were going off in his HUD as Vera had drained a lot of his suit’s power reserves. Freddy dashed through the door, and without hesitation, Grimjack followed. Turning his back on the fight, he pressed forward.

The room was a perfect octahedron with just a narrow platform dividing it. Instead of walls, it seemed to just be powerful shielding letting the very heart of the star shine through and remind them that one mistake and that’s what would come crashing down on them. The platform was surprisingly sparse, no scientists, no guards, no equipment except for a single structure smack dab in the middle.

“A Montok Cell.” Snarled Grimjack as he stared at the pyramid in the center glowing dark purple.

“So, know how to turn it off without crushing and frying us all?” asked Freddy.

Grimjack knew. The entire station would have to lose power, and even then, they’d have to wait a good hour or so. He looked down at Freddy. The cell was made to stop robotics and flesh from getting through by melting it. Maybe it wouldn’t work on a stuffed animal. But his mind turned back to Jangle, out in the hallway alone. His objective was right here, but something pulled at him. Like a hand gripping his heart. Instead of using Freddy to grab Santa, he turned around and reached out the door. He grabbed jangle by her shoulder and yanked her in.

SLAM!

As soon as she was inside, he slammed the door and quickly laying down a strip of quick-melt, he soldered the door shut. Freddy and Jangle both raised an eyebrow in surprise. As the heavily armored Grimjack turned around and pointed at the pyramid. “If he’s here he’s in there.” He felt the tug harder and licked his lips under his helmet. “How sturdy is this Santa? Could he survive what we put that other guy through?”

“Oh no doubt, you can’t kill Santa, he represents an idea and that makes him real good at surviving.”

BANG!

A dent appeared in the door as the three of them jumped and turned around. More thudding and dents appeared until a small crack broke in the quick-melt and four bony, blue fingers poked through.

“Quick, to the pyramid, but don’t touch it!” Grimjack led the way as the door was being forced open by strength Grimjack didn’t think was possible. “He’ll have a way to get us out of here, right?”

“Yeah, Santa is an expert at slipping in and out of places.” Her voice was confident, but whether Grimjack believed her or not, there weren’t a lot of options. He was going to miss Vera, but at least he got to use her once.

The smart move was to try Freddy. He’d either die, or succeed, but he knew with his armor he would have a few seconds at least. He mentally psyched himself up and as they reached the pyramid the massive vault door was torn from its hinges. What walked through wasn’t the giant of a man, but a scrawny shell of his former self. Almost like a blue tinted skeleton with flesh draped over it. But as Grimjack looked, he could see muscles growing. His chin lengthening and turning from a sharp point to a flat square.

“Ho…ho…ho…”

It was now or never. Grimjack thrust his left hand into the Montok cell. Pain wracked his body as it quickly ate away at him. His arm went in just past his bicep before he felt something inside. He grabbed on, and with a roar pulled it out. A fat old man with a long white beard and a red suit landed on the ground as bits of what was left of Grimjack’s cybernetic limb flew out leaving him with only loose scraps hanging from his left shoulder.

The pain was excruciating, which was by design. He activated his emergency protocols as his body was starting to go into circulatory shock. Luckily, avoiding all kinds of death was something the horde did not skimp on. His suit stabilized his body and with a quick SHINK, his suit closed off his limb at the shoulder and superheated it as the few bits of dangling cybernetics were severed.

“Hotshot!” cried out Jangle.

“Why did you…” muttered Freddy in surprise.

A flurry of ice blowing towards them returned their attention to the growing figure.

Santa groaned and held his uncovered head with his hand. “Jack…” Even dazed, his voice sounded like a disappointed grandfather who knew you could so better.

Grimjack was full of a life preserving cocktail and slightly out of it, so he responded, “What is it Santa?”

“Your name’s Jack?” said Freddy and Jangle in unison.

Santa seemed to ignore them as he stared at the rapidly growing figure. “Grab ahold of my coat, ol’ Santa still has a trick or two up his sleeve.” Then, in a louder voice he bellowed out, “Well Jack. Seems you should’ve kept those assassins of yours. You couldn’t steal my power and use their anti-cheer gear. It’s too bad you were so greedy this time, or you might’ve succeeded.”

Santa winked as he touched the side of his nose. Gold glitter spun up around them as Freddy, Jangle, and Grimjack quickly grabbed ahold of Santa’s coat. The glitter surrounded them, and in an instant, they disappeared in a puff of twinkling lights. Sadly, with only one arm, Vera lied there alone and abandoned on the ground.