“What are you doing?”
Gar got up and brushed the snow off his stone body. “Making a snow angel.”
She looked and saw he had merely made an imprint of his own body, with wings outstretched in the snow. “You have an advantage, real wings. Though, normally angel wings aren’t bat-like.”
“Dragon.”
She laughed, “sorry, dragon-like.”
“Better.”
She slapped the side of the sensor and then shivered as a new breeze cut by. “This dumb blizzard is making it hard to find the old entrance.” A shadow came over her and two large wings wrapped around her body. Then two arms held around her waist.
“Better?”
She couldn’t contain the coy smile. “If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were trying to flirt.”
“I am trying to make you warmer. We’re just friends.”
A kind, older voice said, “And I shall never have a grandchild while all the men in my daughter’s life remain ‘just friends.”
Gar opened his wings and turned. Chase ran around him and right into Santa’s arms. “Daddy!”
He stood there, his famous sleigh behind him. “Chase, dear. What brings you up here?”
“Nova sent me.”
“Ah, so work related. Oh, well. Guess I’ll take any kind of visit from my only daughter. Hop in.”
Chase jumped in with Santa and the sleigh took flight. Gar flew behind it, using the strong winds to keep up.
***
EB sat on the floor of his cage, situated along a wall with the other prisoners. From here, he had an excellent view of the entire lab, including the containment units near him that were currently unoccupied.
“This place totally sucks.” He muttered and then looked over at the lion man hooked up to tubes and cords in his own cage. “Wow, you’re, like, really ripped. You awake? Oh, right, one of those avatar dudes. The magic guy was nice, really informative and stuff. I liked him. He told good stories. Bet you’re the avatar of strength, or is it physical? I don’t remember the terms well. I just remember that you don’t have a name, just ‘avatar of…’. You should be called Leo, that’s cool. Man, I wish these people would just let me outta here. I want to go home. I bet Nova is worried sick about me. Oh, he pretends he doesn’t like me, but I know better. That guy doesn’t have lots of friends, but I am one of them. Known him the longest. We even fought together in…”
“You really do like the sound of your own voice.” Delta came into the room with several laboratory assistants wheeling in tables with naked men strapped to them.
EB looked away. “I ain’t talkin’ to you.”
“I don’t care. Just stop talking.”
“Sourpuss.” EB threw his paw out and an egg appeared, but it didn’t go beyond the cage and merely bounced back. It splattered all over him with a sticky goo he had intended to hit Delta with.
Delta chortled at him. “Nice try. Magic resistant cages, thanks to the information we got from the avatar of magic. Now, stop fighting, stop talking, and you might survive long enough to see us take down BADGE.”
“Like hell. Nova is gonna mess you up. He’s dealt with WAAAY worse than some arrogant scientists and their well-dressed smartasses.”
Delta ignored EB while several assistants wheeled in tables with men on them. Dr. Osteen came in with a small device that he typed on. He casually waved at the holding bays, “put them in there.”
The assistants propped the men up in the glassed rooms, standing them as though they were awake. Their bodies already had round patches glued to their skin at specific locations.
“Are they worthy?” Delta asked.
Osteen showed him his tablet. “The data came back. They are all conduits. They can use the morphonic energy as powers.”
“Good. Begin the process. Alpha will pay us a visit soon, and I want progress to show her.”
Dr. Osteen walked into the bay of the first man and hooked various cords to the patches on his body. Each cord had a different color of energy flowing through it that fed into the body. Once he was done with one, he went to the next and then the next.
Delta watched him work on the last man. “How are they standing without being awake?”
Osteen finished and left the small room, sealing the glass door. “That’s part of the initial preparations. We have almost complete control over their bodies. If at any point they aren’t doing what we order them, we can control them like puppets.”
Delta said, “but we’re wiping their minds. They’re merely drones doing our bidding.”
Osteen walked away with Delta behind him. “The human brain is a complex computer that we still don’t fully understand. If one regains his free will and turns on us, we could have another Arx.”
EB watched this horror show as the scientist left the room, turning out most of the lights. From his place on a ledge, he was right next to one bay where a man stood, attached to multiple tubes.
“HEY! DON’T LEAVE THEM IN HERE LIKE THIS! I DON’T WANT TO SPEND MY TIME STARING AT SOME NAKED MANS JUNK! HEY! ARE YOU LISTENING TO ME!?” He punched the cage with his tiny paws. After throwing that fruitless tantrum, he looked up at the poor soul being experimented on. The color on his skin was draining, leaving him gray. “What are they up to?”
***
Chase stepped into a memory once forgotten. This room was the picture of a Victorian Christmas card. Plump armchairs near a crackling fire in a stone hearth. Stockings hung from the mantle, holly strung across the walls, and a tree hung with glass and wooden ornaments in the corner. A toy train ran circles around the base of the tree, giving off the rumbling, clacking sound as it moved.
Taking gentle steps in this pristine room, Chase slowly approached a short table with books and toys on it. Sinking to her knees, she picked up a book and brushed the dust off the cover.
Santa came up behind her. “I could never bring myself to move that. It has sat there for a long time...well, since you left.”
Chase smiled at the hand-painted cover. “Winter Poems. I loved listening to you and Uncle Krampus read them to me by the fire.”
“It was a different time, a peaceful time.” Santa sat down in one of the two rocking chairs.
Chase wiped her eyes. “Some days, I wish I had never remembered my past. I get so sad when I think of Uncle Krampus and what he was to me back then. That he died to save me… I can’t keep from feeling terrible.”
“I think it is good you are sad for him.”
Chase tenderly put the book back. “Why? Sadness is pain.”
“No, it is truth. You remember him for who he truly was. You brought out the man under all that hate and anger. He grew so bitter during his time here on this world, then you came along and I saw a new light in his heart. He fought it, but could not defeat the truth. In the end, it was that truth, the real brother I once knew and loved, that returned to save you. I would never want you remembering him as someone you hated or feared. I certainly don’t.”
“It was a happy childhood.” Chase quietly said.
Just then Gar came in playing with a paddle-ball, or at least doing his best to make it work. “You got some neat stuff here.”
Chase put her hand on her face. “We don’t have time to play with toys or reminisce.”
Santa said, “yes. I believe you were sent by our friend, Nova. What is the purpose of your visit, if I even need to ask.”
Chase said, “we need your help to find EB.”
“I thought as much.”
Chase stood up and took the paddle-ball from Gar before he tried one more time. “Father, I know you want to distance yourself from BADGE, but we need your help.”
“I know. And I don’t want to fight any more wars or battle any more supervillains, but Easter Bunny is an old friend and I cannot allow him to stay captured. You can join my effort to find him.”
Gar said, “but, we came to ask you to help us find him?”
Santa chuckled, “oh, you think I don’t know what is going on? I knew of his capture almost as soon as it happened. I have already put a lot of effort into finding him. And I do have an idea of how to locate him. We’re going to need Nova’s help.”
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