A Merry Little Christmas

The snow fell lightly and quietly on the small town. A gigantic blizzard had buried the town a few days earlier, and while the town had dug himself out, the last remnents of that blizzard's legacy had decked the town with a new light coating of snow while the people had decked the halls with bows of holly.
It was Christmas Eve, in the New Year Six, and the town was called Bulc. While the Change had altered many great things about the world, Christmas had survived, and had remained largely the same. Even at the snow fell, people went about last minute preperations for the coming day. Children squirmed in bed, the excitement in their minds eventually to be overcome by the exhaustions of their bodies. The adults sat around roaring fires, laid presents under trees, and generally soaked in the magic of the season. In the snow-dusted and cool streets, a older group of children wandered from house to house, caroling. At the moment, they were at one end of the town serenading a young man and pregnant woman, recent arrivals to the town.
"God rest ye merry gentleman, let nothing lead astray. Remember Christ our savior was born on Christmas day. To save us all from Satan's power if we are led astray.........."
The group of children never got to finish their song.
Out of nowhere, he came crashing down on their doorstep, tossed by some unknown force. The man grabbed his wife and, although it was a shove, it was done carefully due to the child that grew within her was not harmed as he put himself between his wife and this strange man who had seemed to drop out of the sky. The carollers froze in their song as the man dragged himself to his feet.
He was dressed all in black, a one-piece outfit that was torn in several places. His right arm emitted a few sparks, as the skin around it vanished around the upper arm. In it's place was metal and cybernetics, whose fingers ended in cruelly sharp claws.The other arm was human, but the clothing had been shredded and a cruel wound marked it. A crust of dried blood had broken from the fall, and the precious life liquid was now once again leaking from the wound. There was a simular, but smaller wound on the man's muscular chest, and a long one down his right leg. The flesh around his eye was torn, but even as the children drew in their breath with shock, it swiftly merged back together around a glowing, burning red eye, which was in stark contrast to his other one, whic was a fierce and cold blue. He had a long head of pitch-black hair, now tangled and twisted around his head.
"......Oh tidings of comfort and joy." Erik said as he regained his senses. His eyes fixed on the kids in cold horror.
"RUN! Run away! Quickly! He's coming!" Erik yelled to the children. They didn't need to be told twice. As they fled down the street, more from the man then from his warning, he turned to the couple.
"What's going on?" the man asked Erik.
"Close the door and lock it. A great evil is coming, and I have to destroy it. I will keep it away from you, but be careful and don't try to help me!" Erik snapped. The man took a look at Erik, and then decided he was telling the truth. He turned with his wife and slammed the door shut. Erik heard the faint click as he locked it as he turned away and walked out onto the street. As the wind tossed the parts of clothing in shreds, he looked defiantly at the sky.
A black shape was coming from the stars as they twinkled in the night. Erik blinked and withdrew his hand claws. He was ready.
And then it came out of the night, a blood-red sleigh that mocked the image of the kind saint who brought childen presents on Christmas Eve, and drawn by two machines that were a cruel blasphemy of the magical creatures that drew the sleigh in the legends. But in the sleigh itself was the real monster.
Erik may have been a cyborg, but his parts merged well with his organic body, and with the artifical gel he used as skin, he could look perfectly normal and human.
Not this case. The man in the sleigh, if he could even be called a man anymore, had a face that was a crazy mix of machinery and human flesh, but mostly machinery. His eyes were human, but his lower face twisted hideously into machinery complete with a mouth filled with teeth that looked like he had grafted a bear trap onto his face. The skull above the eyes fused into machinery the same way. The monster wore the red and white suit made famous by the saint who came on Christmas Eve, but that suit was now ripped in several places, exposing sparking machine coils. The only other place shown to be human was his right hand, which sported the remains of a torn glove. Two fingers were human. The rest was machine. Resting beside him was what looked like a large burlap sack, but the sack wasn't burlap, and neither was it filled with toys. It contained seemingly an endless supply of weapons instead.
Erik ground his teeth in anger. This man had once been known as Nicolas Jenson. Erik wasn't sure what had happened to him, but when Erik had first met him in the Old World, he had been an insane toy designer. Several children had been serious injured by special toys he had build for them and given them as he posed as the company Santa. The police had not realized it, but the grotesquely fat man had done this on purpose, to hurt the children. Most of them had been the rich spoiled brats of the company heads and higher ups, but they had not deserved to be the victim's of the man's madness, a madness fueled by a burning desire to ruin Christmas by pain and death. What had planted the seeds of this hate in his heart, Erik did not known, but he had realized something, even though the police had not. Erik had seen the insane glint in his eye on the news, and he had known that this man was tainted by the curse of Corruptness.
The police throught that Nicolas's workshop had been destroyed by an explosion. And it had been....after Erik had shown Nicolas just how special Christmas was and the price that would be paid for wrecking it for children. If it was anything Erik hated, it was seeing children cry.
He should have smelled something rotten when the police had not recovered Nicolas's body, but he had plenty of other targets to deal with and had no time to investigate. But he knew now that Nicolas had not died in that explosion. He had crawled away, and somehow, he had rebuilt himself into what stood before Erik, a warped mocking image of Santa Claus.
But Nicolas's mind had warped even more. He now thought he was Santa Claus. But his standards of naughty and nice had been warped right alone with his body and mind.
Nicolas thought every child in the world was naughty, just for being themselves. Children did not understand the nature of greed and consumerism that pervaded Christmas when they begged and screamed for every toy under the sun. They just wanted stuff. They saw these toys as being loved. And even without that, there was a magic around Christmas that Erik always found refreshing.
But Nicolas Jenson, warped and insane, had decided to destroy that. His mind had been filled with an insane delusion of murdering parents and stuffing their heads in their children's stockings, among other horrid things. But his fun had been spoiled when Erik had interrupted him.
"Ho ho ho. You've been very naughty this year, Vengeance." Jenson gloated to Erik. No. Nicolas Jenson was dead. He had died in the explosion, but he had been reborn in the monstrousity that stood before Erik: Kris Karnage, the Anti-Claus.
"Oh really? Why don't you check your list twice?" Erik snarled back.
"I run through 50 checks a second!" Karnage snapped at Erik, pointing at his mechanical head. "You have been very very naughty. All those people you have killed and tormented. You won't be getting any presents this year, Vengeance."
"It matters not. I don't believe in you."
Fury crossed Karnage's eyes and he lifted his left hand.
Suddenly the leather and wool shredded and vaporized as an energy blast lanced from his palm and slammed into Erik, tossing him across the street and slamming him into the stone of one of the houses. Stars exploded in his vision, but they were quickly replaced by a memory.
Laughing around the tree with his sisters and parents on a Christmas Eve so long ago.........
As Erik tasted blood, his mind roiled in fury. He would not allow this lunatic who mocked a magical season to have his way! He would die before he allowed that to happen!
Snapping back to his feet, Erik charged the floating sleigh as his hand claws snapped out. They caught a sliver of moonlight and gleamed as Erik raced towards Karnage.
"Ho ho ho! I think I may have a present for you after all!" he mocked, and reached into his bag. He yanked out a large gun that was painted in ludicrous colours to make it look like a child's toy. "The Mattel Anti-Personnel Laser Cannon!" Karnage yelled as he opened fire with a lancing spray of superheated light particles.
As the rays hit the ground and exploded, leaving small crators, Erik dodged sideways and went into a cartwheel frenzy in an attempt to dodge the shots. He flipped, twisted, and tried to perform the insane task of being faster then light.
"HO HO HO! Santa Claus is gunning you down!"
Then Karnage's fun abruptly ended as another dark figure emerged on a nearby rooftop and leapt for the sleigh.
"Ho ho.....eh?"
Then his gun was kicked from his hand as the figure landed on the sleigh and then leapt to the back of one of the mechanical reindeer. The Anti-Claus, unable to draw a bead on it before, finally saw who it was and his eyes widened.
She was a startingly beautiful woman, dressed in a very simular outfit as Erik's. She had very long black hair that nearly reached past her hips. Her face was complemented by an incredibly atheletic body that rippled with muscles and yet somehow appeared very soft. She would have been a prize catch for any man, if she ever let the idea that she was an object for men to pursue into her mind. And she sure as hell didn't.
"Who are........"
"The name's Retribution. And here's your cookies and milk!"
With that, Retribution spun and lanced a kick straight into the side of Karnage's head. She turned the kick into a flipping handspring and leapt down next to Erik, who had stopped his gymnastics to watch her leap to his aid.
Karnage had been knocked off his sleigh. As he landed on his fat ass, Erik allowed himself a laugh. With a roar, Karnage leapt to his feet. Despite his huge size, his agility was amazing.
"You naughty children! I'm going to stuff so much coal in your stocking you'll be spitting diamonds!" he roared. He brought up his left hand and the eye in it's palm opened to shoot again. The blast lanced through the air towards the couple.
Erik brought his arms up to block. The blast struck the crossed limbs and was cancelled out. Erik flung his arms to the side, getting rid of the last of the dissipating energy.
"Sorry, you've done that. MY TURN!"
And with that Erik brought his hands together and sent his own lancing energy blast from them. The blast struck Karnage and smashed him backwards into his sleigh. The sleigh was itself tossed backwards from the force of the blast and smashed into another house. It shook from the impact.
"Thanks for the help, Celeste." Erik said, giving her one of his rare smiles.
"It was my pleasure." Celeste said, returning the smile. Her smile could set any man's heart on fire, but it was reserved only for her husband, Erik.
Then a renewed roar issued from Karnage as he leaped to his feet. Sticking his hand into his sack, he pulled out a strange coloured object.
Erik pursed his eyebrows in confusion.
"A christmas ball?"
Then Karnage yanked something from the top of it and threw it at Erik and Celeste.
"No, a GRENADE!" Celeste yelled as she suddenly leapt and smashed herself into Erik, sending him backwards.
A second later an explosion rent the air. As people cowered in their homes from the noises going on outside their town, the shock wave slapped them like a giant hand and sent them halfway across the town. As they flew through the air, Erik twisted his body around and took the impact as they both landed with a crash. His spine twisted painfully, but thankfully, it didn't snap.
"Ow.....oh yeah.......it's a wonderful life......."Erik grimaced as he slowly retook his feet and helped Celeste up. A cut had opened above her right eye, and he absentmindedly brushed away the trickle of blood that was emerging.
Celeste shook her head to clear her vision and glanced up.
"Look honey, mistletoe."
Erik looked up himself.
"Oh yeah. Celeste, I really wish......"
"Shut up and kiss me, you idiot."
And with that, Celeste pulled Erik's head down and brought his lips to her own. Her lips, although cold, made Erik feel warm in every part of his being.
"I love you." Celeste whispered to him.
Before Erik could reply, a shriek rent the air and Karnage flew around a corner on his sleigh.
"Ho ho ho! Your mistletoe is no match for my TOW Missile!" he screamed, as he yanked a rocket launcher from his bag of swag. With speed that still amazed Erik, he configured the weapon and pointed it at Erik and Celeste.
The rocket launcher belched flame and shot it's payload at the couple. Erik's eyes widened. He couldn't detonate a missile in the town, even to save his own ass. Too many people could be hurt.
Then the door opened up behind Erik and a man stepped out, clutching the ripped wrapping paper of a recently opened gift. He held a brand new watch in his other hand.
"What the hell is going on........" he began.
Erik's eyes fixed on the watch as he remembered the lock-on systems of the DIGFYD-74 TOW missile.......
It configures onto the genetic pattern of it's targets.........
Erik's eyes darted back and forth. Celeste had been closer in proximity, so the missile would have locked onto her genetic code......
In a blur of motion, Erik snatched the watch from the man's hand. As he turned away from the man towards the rapidly approaching missile, he brought the watch to his hand that had wiped away Celeste's blood from her forehead and smeared what had not dried yet onto the gift. The man opened his mouth to protest, but then his eyes sighted the missile approaching his home and the complaint turned into a scream.
Erik ignored the noise as he transfered the watch to his mechanical hand.
As the missile closed it, Erik cocked back his arm, and with a snapping whip that would have made baseball proud, tossed the watch into the air. I hope this works....!
The missile kept coming........
Erik's heart sank......
I'm sorry Celeste........
Then the systems of the missile, confused by two targets bearing the same genetic code, decided to lock onto the closer one. It suddenly veered upward at a twisted angle and for a second Erik's heart lurched as the missile threatened to spin out and crash into the house anyway. Then the missile righted itself and soared towards the heavens.
As Erik shoved the man back into his house and took cover while Celeste also did so, the missile found the watch and detonated. Shrapnal sprayed. Erik yelled in pain as a piece tore through his shoulder.
Then it was over. As Karnage cursed and jerked his sleigh into an upward motion to avoid crashing into the house and swooped up to renew his attack, Erik struggled to his feet as the man sat on his ass and looked at Erik in wonder.
"Sorry. Your gift might require some assembly now." Erik tossed over his shoulder as he checked on Celeste, now sporting several nasty cuts on her arms and a few along her back. She snapped up her head and snarled at the Anti-Claus as he did a loop and pulled into a dive towards her and Erik. She held out her palm.
Raw energy began to crackle around her hand and then enveloped it, a black nucleus of power. She locked her fingers into a fist and punched the air.
"Heartseeker!"
Then a bolt of power lanced from his clenched fist. Karnage saw it coming and tried to dodge.
No dice, as the bolt corrected it's direction and zoomed home to smash right into Karnage's chest. There was a reason the bolt was called the Heartseeker.
Yelling, Karnage was tossed off his sleigh and plummeted to the ground. The sleigh, having lost it's master, did a crazy lurch and flew out of the town boundries before crashing to earth. The explosion lit the sky up like day from all the explosives Karnage had kept in his sack.
"No more games." Erik said to Celeste. It was half decision and half order.
As Karnage to his feet, the torse of his outfit vapoized to reveal sparking burnt metal and wires, he looked up as his vision was filled with Erik's fist.
The punch hit and sent Karnage flying backwards.
"He sees you when you're sleeping!" Erik yelled after him.
Karnage's backward momentum was halted when Celeste landed behind him after speeding around to his back. She attacked with a leaping backwards spinning thrust kick, sending Karnage back towards Erik before gravity took over and he crashed to the ground.
"He sees you when you're on the can!" she yelled back, improvising on the song.
Karnage roared and got back to his feet as Erik renewed his attack, plastering him with a blitz of lighting-fast punches and kicks. Karnage took some blows then returned with his own, punching Erik into the side of a building. He didn't get a chance to press the attack as Celeste launched her own blistering barrade of blows, and while should could hit nowhere near as hard as Erik, her speed and agility made up for it in spades as she overwhelmed Karnage in a mind-numbing fury of attacks.
Karnage tried to block, but as Erik leapt back into the fray, his transition to punching bag was quick and brutal. Celeste leapt over Erik's back and spun through the air, smashing Karnage in the face with two rapid-fire jump kicks. Erik comboed it into an energy-charged axe handle uppercut that lanced the creature who called himself the Anti-Claus into the air.
As Karnage's flight upwards began to be conquered by gravity, Erik was already turning around as he cupped his palms. Celeste, knowing what he was proposing to do, ran towards Erik and half-stepped, half-jumped into his upturned hands, and Erik thrust his arms up, lauching Celeste skywards. She drew her hands upwards as she gathered energy within her.
"We'll hunt your down and blow your ass from here to Pakistan!"
As Celeste finished her modified version of the carol, she thrust her hands out palms first.
And then, as she seemed to float in the air, a raging torrent of energy flew from her hands as she focussed her burning rage at the hideous being Karnage was and used it as a catalyst to attack. The dozens of bolts slammed into Karnage and consumed him in a myraid of explosions as Celeste bombarded him with enough energy to torch a convey of APC's.
As the small explosions merged together into larger explosions Celeste kept it up. The air crackled with raw energy and a windstorm whipped up from the power being tossed around. Erik braced himself and blocked his eyes as the wind pelted him with small debris as Celeste blasted Karnage with energy all the way down to his dive bomb back into the ground.
Karnage crashed into the center of the town and leveled the stone platework of the town's primary meeting area. Celeste's last few blasts slammed into the ground and dug a crator as she fell back to earth. She landed on her feet and allowed herself to be forced to her knees to absorb the shock.
The smoke from the devastation Celeste had wrought on Karnage began to clear. Erik, who had stood and watched as Celeste had annihalated Karnage, came to her side as she brushed herself off and looked saitisfied with herself.
"Well, you laid the smackdown on his ass."
"His body was well built. That may not have been enough. Let's make sure I'm wrong." Celeste replied.
As the smoke cleared, Erik and Celeste approached the outskirts of the crator.
And then the wind drove away the last bits of the dirty air, as Karnage extracted himself from the wreckage. His red Santa Claus outfit had been destroyed by Celeste's attacks. The only remnants were tatters of the black boots, a shard or two of red cloth that hung precariously on his frame, and his red Santa hat, which had somehow escaped the devastation. His artificial white beard, grafted onto his metal jaw, was tangled, filthy, and smoking. Celeste wanted to gag. The man's body was nearly all metal, but she and Erik could see internal organs tangled into singed cybernetics and the little skin and muscle fused into metal, which trailed along to fuse into the few remaining bones. Celeste glanced over at Erik and marvelled how much better her lover's body had been rebuilt.
Erik snapped out his hand as his talons extended.
"Get him!"
Then Karnage flung his arms out and a massive energy blast issued from his chest. Erik, in the midst of trying to attack, never saw it coming.
"ERIK!!!!!"
The blast enveloped him and blasted him off the crator's edge and into one of the houses. This one didn't hold up under the strain. Erik went through the wall and the house collapsed on him, burying him in rubble. Celeste opened her mouth and then closed in again as her rage exploded. She thrust out her palms, planning to repeat her Merciless Nova attack until there was nothing left of the Anti-Claus but ashes.
She never got the chance as Karnage suddenly leapt at her, covering the distance between them in less then a second.
HIS SPEED!
Then the metal fist slammed into her face. Blood exploded from her nose as Karnage kicked her into the stomach, driving the wind out of her. His metallic fingers closed on her body and Karnage hoisted her up and slammed her into the ground, and then tossed her into a wall. She bounced off the wall and crashed to earth among some garbage cans.
As her vision swam, Celeste spat blood and got unsteadily to her feet. She could feel a deep pain in her side, and also a wetness as blood ran down her leg. As her vision cleared, she braced herself for a renewed attack.
But it never came. Wiping blood as it ran from her nose and the cut above her eye, she looked at Karnage in stupified wonderment.
He was just standing there, but as he watched her regain her senses, he pointed a metal finger at her.
"Foolish girl! You have sealed your fate! I'm going to use your skin for wrapping paper and deck the hall with your guts!" he yelled. The organ parts of his vocal cords had been destroyed, and the dull, monotone, emotionless tone the threat was delievered in was even more chilling then if it had been said in anger.
Although it pained her to breathe, Celeste struck a martial arts pose in preperation for more battle.
But Karnage did not attack. Instead he stood and pressed a button on his chest. A rapid blinking began on multi-coloured lights that suddenly appeared on his mechanical body. Celeste eyes widened as he realized what he was doing.
"HO HO HO! You have failed, girl! This explosion will vaporize the village, you, and your dead boyfriend, but I will go on, and before I am done, every child on this world will wish Christmas to never come again, for fear of the man who slaughtered everything they care about!"
As Celeste tasted her own blood, her rage returned in full force. Finally allowing herself one, she screamed to the heavens and charged Karnage.
In a sudden turn, Celeste leapt onto her hands and did a series of flips to catch Karnage off guard, even though it caused her side to burn like it was on fire. Turning her cartwheel into a sideways handspring, she slammed a kick into Karnage's face and once again unleashed a barrage of punches and kicks. Her wild attack ripped out wires and smashed circuitry as Karnage fought to subdue the furious woman.
Then he managed to land a blow to the side of her head. Her attack was halted as her equiliberium was disrupted, and then Karnage smashed her with a huge metal leg, tossing her aside.
Celeste hit the ground hard. A racking cough shook her, and blood sprayed from her mouth, decorating the snow with dark red droplets. The droplets grew in number with blood from her other wounds .
Her eyes were stinging with blood and sweat. She could barely breathe. But Celeste would not let Christmas be ruined. Her arms felt like lead and her legs felt like jelly, but she forced herself to her feet.
Then her knees buckled and she collasped on her side. Her body would not let her continue.
"No......" Celeste groaned, and then another series of racking coughs shook her, as dark red blood flowed out onto the snow.

Karnage would have smiled if he could. The girl was finished. If he still had sexual desire, he might have had some fun with her. But he had no more need for his human desires. What mattered only was destroying what had hurt him his whole life: the accursed holiday called Christmas.
Then a rumbling shook the ground, and Karnage was distracted.
Then the wreckage of the building that the boy had vanished into suddenly exploded into the air in a cataclysm of fire as Erik blasted what was left into the building off of him. As the shrapnal crashed down around him, Karnage's eyes widened as he felt a twitch down in the corner of his heart that was still biological. Fear.
Erik's shirt had been burnt off by the blast. The blast had cauterized the wounds shut on Erik's torso shut, but the building had sliced open several new ones. Erik's shoulders heaved as he drew in long breaths of anger and pain.
Then he saw Celeste, crumpled off to the side, the snow around her soaking up blood in a widening red pool.
Karnage expected him to renew his attack, even as he tried to boggle how the boy had survived the blast.
But he did not. As if Karnage wasn't there, Erik calmly and purposely strode over to Celeste.
Karnage watched in amazement and wondered if he should attack. Then he decided not to. The boy would not have long in life.

Erik kneeled next to the woman he loved more then life itself and hoisted her up slightly. Despite her injuries, her beauty still shone through. She opened her mouth to speak and a new trickle of blood gurgled out from the corner of her mouth.
"I can.....go on......"she coughed.
Erik blinked, his desire to protect her clashing with his decision to let her make her own decisions.
"Do you think you can?" he asked back.
Karnage just stared. Of all the things he had expected to happen, this had not been one of them.
Celeste tried to answer, and then a grimace distorted her features as the pain ripped through her. She gritted her teeth in frustration. Although her spirit's willingness to go on shone through like a star, her flesh was beat. She had to heal. And that would take some time she would not have if she continued to push herself.
Erik could see the tremendous pain his lover was in, but he still remained dead calm. Or so he seemed.
"Go......" Celeste, almost spitting out the words.
Within any words, Erik leaned down and kissed her, a soft short kiss. The salt taste of blood filled his mouth. Her blood. As he broke the kiss, Celeste whispered one last thing in his ear.
Lying Celeste back down, Erik stood and settled his gaze on Karnage.
And then a look came over his face that chilled Karnage to the few bones he had left. A look that went beyond rage, beyond pain. A look of pure bloodlust and the desire to cause suffering. Karnage suddenly sensed immense energy starting to gather, more energy then he had ever read in one place.
Erik could now only see through a red haze. And as he gathered the power he possessed into himself, he remembered Celeste's last words to him.
"Redeem me."
As Erik thrust out his arms, Karnage's power sensors shorted out from sheer overload as power beyond anything he had ever dreamed all came together to where Erik stood.
Erik lifted his head and let all his rage, all his pain, and all his incredible fury of what Karnage had done and had intended to do come into the howling scream of one word.
"INHUMANITY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
And then a brillant flash filled Karnage's eyes and blinded him. He reared back and blocked his eyes from the sheer penetrating light that seemed to fill his mind with brillance. Even those in their homes, still terrified of the noise going on outside, were dazzled by the burning illumination that lit up the sky in a blaze of glory that rivaled even the sun.
Then as quickly as it had appeared, the light was gone. His vision cleared, and then Karnage's eyes widened as he gaped at what Erik had become.

What has Erik become? Click here!