Chase watched as a team of heroes battled against a hologram of Nova. Quark had worked with BADGE engineers to rebuild one of the empty labs on the second floor into a viewing room. They had made one wall into clear, superpower proof plastic. Stadium seating allowed for a nice, comfortable viewing, and the concessions were always free.
EB hopped into the room, “Hey, babe, whatcha watchin?”
She pointed at the battle. “Six heroes are currently battling the Nova simulation.”
He plopped down in the seat next to her and wagged his feet around. “I love that new simulator thingy. It’s a hoot to watch. I can’t believe Nova let them make a hologram of him to beat up.”
“I was surprised as well. But I think Justin had some good points about newer heroes having something less threatening to battle.”
He grinned. “I ran the Skelanimal simulation by myself last night. Beat him single-handedly. I was like a GOD out there.”
“And you turned down the difficulty rating.” She stated as she cringed when a hero took a hard smack across the room.
EB pouted. “I thought I hid my minor alteration.”
“Oh, I wouldn’t have noticed, except a team came this morning to use that simulation. They killed Skelanimal in two hits. You forgot to turn it back up.”
“Oopsie. Oh well, I suppose it gave them a little boost in their ego.” They both cringed when the Nova hologram grabbed a hero by her cape and slammed her into a pillar. EB jumped up on his seat, “Hey, you know, it’d be awesome if we could televise this. You know, make it a sports program like Pro Wrestling. Only this wouldn’t be all faked. It’d be real...sorta. And, we could even market toys, a home game, candy...oooh, candy. I could make a special More-Fun bar that is tolerable for non-morphonic people. It could be like an energy bar, but WAAAAY better. You know, most energy bars taste like carpet lint mixed with dog food. YUCK! I could make my chocolate with nuts, honey, berries, more chocolate, then...”
“EB, what did you come to see me about?” Chase stopped his rambling.
“Uh...I...uh, wait, it’s on the tip of my ears....uh. OH RIGHT! Santa wanted to see you.”
She frowned at him. “See me? Is he here?”
“Yup. He’s in the second level meeting room.”
Chase was up in a flash. “Why didn’t you say that to begin with?”
“Dunno. Got caught up in the action and being alone in the same room with a hot babe.” He grinned at her.
“Ugh!” she retorted and raced out.
Chase darted through the station, furious at EB for making her adopted father wait. She stopped and pressed her BADGE ID up against the door panel next to a basic meeting room in the public sector. It opened and the scent of hot cider and a fireplace met her.
“What the?” She stepped in.
The world around her changed. She was now standing in the comfortable sitting room inside Santa’s workshop. The room looked like it came right off of a Christmas card. Wood timber walls, heavy wooden furniture with plush, crocheted pillows on each seat. A pine Christmas tree sat in the corner, decorated in blown glass ornaments with popcorn and red berries strung around. A glittering start sat on top with presents underneath. In fact, the presents made a massive pile that filled nearly half the room.
Santa sat in one of the comfortable chairs near the fire as he read over a thick scroll of names.
He set aside the scroll, and his rosy cheeks plumped into a brilliant smile. “Chase, dear, I’m so glad you made it.”
“Why am I here? In fact, how did you do this?”
“Just a simple transportation spell, nothing difficult. Only works on stable locations that are safe.”
“Okay?” She came over and gave him a hug. “It’s always nice to see you, but why did you call for me?”
He gestured toward the chair across from him. “I have a problem I was hoping you’d help me with.”
***
Nova watched the monitors in the Operations Center of the station. There was a new window among the many on his screen, a list of people waiting for their time in the simulator. He wondered if they shouldn’t build more, perhaps even some on Earth.
“Sir, we have two transports coming at the same time, and the docking robots mixed up the schedules.” Justin handed Nova a tablet.
“Nothing to worry about. Just reset the program and tell the shuttles they’ll have to wait.”
“Got it.”
Chase walked in from the elevator with a hot cup in her hands. “Oh, good, you guys are already here.”
Nova sniffed the air and frowned. “Apple Cider, and if I’m not mistaken, that smells just like the kind Santa makes.”
She sipped her piping hot cider and smiled. “You have a good nose.”
“I’ve known your father a lot longer than you. What did he want?”
“He has a request for the heroes.” She joined him and Justin at the front of the room.
Justin pulled up a list on his tablet. “So, we’re back to the volunteer season. I suppose we can send out a sign-up for the heroes who will accompany Santa on Christmas Eve.”
“Well, it isn’t the normal request from him. He has a special request, though it does have something to do with gifts.”
Nova asked, “What is it?”
“You know my father doesn’t really give out gifts, he gives out the Holiday spirit so that people give each other gifts.”
“I told you, I’ve known him a long time. I know how he operates.”
She said, “His operation changed this year. EB convinced him to do actual gifts.”
Nova had a hand on his face. “Why is it always EB?”
“Don’t be so hard on him. EB had a good idea. The world is still timid and recovering from the World Corps situation, so a real, old-fashioned Christmas with real gifts might bring much needed cheer to the planet.”
“I suppose that’s a good idea. But where did it go wrong? With EB, his ideas always go wrong.”
“Hey!” EB hopped up on a console, which caused the other three people to jump.
“When did you get in here?” Nova demanded.
“I was on my way when my ears started burning and then I hear you guys talking smack about me.”
“I wasn’t.” Chase said.
“That’s my honey bunny.”
“Call me that again and I will burn the rest of you.”
“Party pooper.”
Nova held up his hand. “Enough of this. What’s the problem?”
Chase said, “Santa decided it was a good idea and went with it, but he had to get ahead of his normal list if he was going to have enough physical gifts for everyone. That means even those who don’t qualify for the nice list have gifts waiting for them.”
Justin said, “So, you mean the naughty list also has gifts made for them?”
“Precisely.”
Nova asked, “What’s the problem?”
“Santa has a LOT of gifts that are undeliverable if he stays true to his naughty list not getting anything. However, he wants us to make a big decision. Deliver them to the naughty people or give extra to the nice people.”
“Why ask us to make the decision?” Nova said.
Chase answered, “In either case, his gift delivery is going to go up tremendously, and he’ll need a lot of help to deliver them. So, since we are being asked to deliver the extra, we can decide who they go to.”
“They should go to the nice people.” Justin said. “They are nice, so they get rewarded.”
EB hopped up and down on the console. “No, give them to the naughty people. Being nice to a naughty person might help them learn to be nice. Get it?”
“EB has a good point, but I don’t know.” Chase said.
Nova clicked his comm, “I think we’ll see what the heroes think, naughty or nice.”
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