POV Rio
"Ugh, I can't eat anymore," I say as I hold my stuffed stomach.
"Nonsense! You're still so skinny! Eat!" Mrs Claus demands.
As much as I wanted to say no, she wasn't being cruel or mean on purpose; she was legitimately worried that I wasn't eating properly.
"Please, mercy," Lucy pleads as she looks worse off than me.
By what I can only describe as Christmas Magic, or maybe Grandma Magic, Lucy and I were so stuffed that we looked like we were pregnant. Normally, that would mean you were about to die, but besides a stomach ache, we were fine.
"Ugh... I regret everything...." Mal0 complains as well.
Apparently, Mrs Claus can see and even interact with Mal0, which has caused her to feed Mal0 since Mal0 had never eaten or drunk before and still couldn't interact with most utensils. Mal0 was at first excited, but that just encouraged Mrs Claus, and thus Mal0 suffered far more than I did. I didn't even know how it was possible.
"Please save me..." Mal0 said desperately while reaching towards me, as I was the only other person that could see or interact with her.
Innocent Whistling.
"Nooooo~" Mal0 said sadly as Mrs Claus came with more food.
Lucy and I went pale and started to crawl away in fear. Mal0 desperately tried to reach for me, but I didn't dare look back.
'Your sacrifice will be remembered.'
When we finally got away to safety, we were pulled aside by Hermey.
"Wow, you survived Mrs Claus," Hermey said with surprise.
"You knew that would happen?!" I said with shock.
"She may not look like it, but she's sad as well. She's under a lot of stress, keeping everything running and caring for Santa. She cooks to reduce her stress, but she hates wasting food, so she'll feed anyone she can until they are close to bursting. Some elves that were unlucky enough to be caught left her home rolling instead of walking," Hermey said while making a ball shape with his hands.
'Rest in peace, Mal0, lost but not forgotten.'
After giving a small prayer for Mal0 in my heart, we left the area and got to business. In this case, it meant meeting with Santa and seeing if I could cheer him up. I didn't have the biggest hopes. Especially when I actually saw him in person.
The man before me was far from the jovial fat old man with a large smile and endless joy. Instead, what was before me was a frail and skinny man who was sitting in a recliner chair with the face of an incredibly ancient man with an air of cold emptiness. His eyes had no light in them; it was as if I was staring at an empty husk. He was still alive, but he didn't even bother acknowledging my presence. Eventually, I had to leave, as I was clear I wouldn't be able to get through to him now.
"I couldn't reach him," I said sadly.
"Sigh. I feared as much. But we have a backup plan. Presents have to be delivered this year, no matter what!" Hermey said with determination.
"But how?" I ask.
"You will have to be Santa this year!" Hermey said seriously.
"What!? Me? I'm flattered, but I can't do what he does in so little time!" I deny.
"Yes, you can. You can shift your form! Christmas Magic will handle most of it! You just have to be spotted and make people think that Santa is real again. Just put on the suit, and I promise you everything will work out!" Hermey says confidently.
I was a bit uncertain, but after thinking back to what Christmas meant to me and how bad Santa was doing. I eventually nodded.
"Okay, I'll do my best," I agree.
"YES! Alright, everyone, you heard him! Christmas is a go this year!" Hermey shouts, and cheers of joy can be heard across the North Pole.
The entire North Pole awoke into a frenzy of activity as everything was quickly prepped. Mrs Claus and Gary both sat me down and explained what I needed to do and how to do it. I also spent the majority of December practicing for Christmas. I'll admit I was really nervous, but Lucy and Gary would be there to help me along my journey. It also helped that Rudolph and the other reindeer supported me through this situation.
As such, I checked the list and checked it twice to find out who's naughty and nice. There were a lot of names I had to go through and a lot of houses I had to get to this year.
"You can do this, sweetie!" Mrs Claus says encouragingly.
"Don't sweat it, kid, I'll be there to help the entire journey," Gary says reassuringly.
"And don't forget this doesn't have to be perfect. While it may be sad, if you miss some homes, it isn't the end of the world. We just need enough to believe to restore some life to Christmas Spirit!" Hermey adds.
"Fwooo. I got it. I can do this!" I say while psyching myself up.
I transform into Santa and put on his magic suit. Then I get into the sleigh.
"Now, Dasher! Now, Dancer! Now, Prancer and Vixen! On, Comet! On, Cupid! On, Donder and Blitzen! And most of all, Rudolph! To the top of the porch! To the top of the wall! Now dash away! Dash away! Dash away all!" I shout as the sleigh starts to pick up speed.
Lucy pats my shoulder and gives me a reassuring smile. As we are leaving, if I looked back, I would have seen an old man looking at us as we dashed away.
As we leave the North Pole, we reach our first stop of the night. A small home in Iceland. Since we were starting with the start of the time zones through Greenwich, we had an easy start that would quickly balloon as we went East. The unfortunate thing for me was that, regardless of whether a culture celebrated Christmas, I had to deliver a present or two to them, as Santa was universal; it had nothing to do with what religion you were or what culture you were from. Santa spread joy to everyone.
As the night went on, I got caught by some inquisitive kids and even the occasional parent. The kids were innocent and excited to see me, but the parents panicked and, on occasion, even fainted. The ones that fainted got a little extra something as an apology, assuming they were on the nice list. There weren't a terribly massive number of people on the naughty list this year. At least not from my perspective. 18% of the population was on the naughty list. Which, given the state of the world and what has happened in recent times, I'd say 18% isn't half bad. It's not great, but I'll take what I can get.
I was right that Asia was going to be especially hard, and that's not just because of all the smog and litter in the big cities. It was also the sheer number of people. The population of Asia was massive, and even though the Xenomorphs had caused a large decrease in population, there was still a truly massive number of people living on the continent. I was also spotted a whole lot more. So much so that there was even apparently talk of sending some fighters to track me, but due to a lack of fuel, they chose to watch from the ground.
I did find it interesting that I didn't go into any magical domains. But apparently that's normal.
"Santa has a sort of deal with the other magical places around the world. We stay out, and they don't hinder us. Sometimes they may change that policy on occasion, but last we heard, they still don't want us around," Gary explained.
"Fair enough," I answered.
I couldn't fault such reasoning. Maybe if I were the real Santa, I could try, but I figured it was better to leave sleeping dragons lie.
Once Asia was done, I was finally able to move through the Pacific, which was quite easy thanks to the very few inhabited islands around. But then once I hit landfall in the USA, specifically California, it really started to become busy. It didn't help that Lucy and I were getting really tired, and so were the Reindeer. We were getting tired because there was so little Christmas Magic to go around; as such, we had to burn our own mana and stamina reserves.
''Take a break, I'll handle things for a bit," I tell Lucy.
"You're tired as well," Lucy argues.
"Yeah, but I got a decent amount left in the tank. You're nearly falling asleep," I argue back.
She was too tired to even continue arguing, so she sat down and rested.
Once she rested and combined with the fact that everyone was tired, we started to slow down. There wasn't anything we could do about it; we just had to keep pushing, as if we stopped for too long, there was a very real chance we might not be able to get going again.
"We're done with North America, this is the last stretch, everyone!" I shout to boost morale.
All we had left was a small bit of Brazil, and then we would have to make one last trek over the ocean to hit a few small islands. We were cutting it dangerously close, but we might just pull it off. But it seemed fate had other plans. The reindeer started to slow down, and four couldn't even keep going.
"Dang it! Okay, Donder, Dancer, Prancer, and Vixen, I'll teleport you to a resting place. The rest of you hold on!" I ordered before quickly creating a couple of clones and having them turn into Reindeer.
That drained me even more, but I was damned if I was gonna fail here. It gave us a small little boost, just enough to finish South America, but by then, we truly didn't have anything left in us. Every reindeer was unable to go on, and my magic clones had dispelled as I ran out of magic completely. But then, as if it were a Christmas Miracle, we got some last-minute help.
"Looks like you guys could use some help," Tony said arrogantly.
Tony and Jessica arrived right in time.
"Can you pull this sleigh to these locations?" I said while showing a map.
They looked at each other and nodded.
"Hold on tight, we'll be really pushing it!" Tony said, while a few more Iron Man suits appeared and started to lift the sleigh.
I explained the situation as we neared the islands. The other Guardians also joined in, though this time they used the teleporter to deliver the remaining gifts in the hour we had left. Even with all our efforts, the sun had risen before we could finish the last 4 houses. But that didn't mean we couldn't finish the job. Jessica took one gift, Tony another, Quicksilver the third, and me the last one. Sure, we were a bit late, but luckily nobody was awake to see us being late. But once that was done, Lucy and I collapsed in exhaustion. We, the reindeer, as well as Gary, had been up and working hard for over 24 hours, and with limited Christmas Magic, we could barely move. Thankfully, Tony and the others transported us back to the Watchtower, where we could rest enough before heading back to the North Pole.
It was a massive celebration when we came back, with the guardians being invited as well, since they helped us finish the job. It wasn't easy, but we did it. I didn't even stay up for the celebrations; as soon as we got to the North Pole, I slept for 36 hours.
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Author's Note:
The required Christmas Chapter that basically all my stories have. I don't care if this is the right time. Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night!