A WAAPT Christmas Carol

Part 1: Familiar

In an unknown city, in an undisclosed location two figures are leaning against a building. It’s night-time, snow slowly falls all around them. The first figure, who’s identity is concealed due to the trench coat and wide brimmed hat that they are wearing, halls out a pack of cigarettes and offers a smoke to the second figure. The second figure, who in spite of the cold weather is wearing but a white long-sleeve and a pair of blue jeans, gladly accepts. At the pair’s feet sits a Growlithe. It’s unaffected by the cold night due to it’s inner fire. The second figure bends down with the “cancer stick” in his mouth and gestures for the fire pup to light it up. A small tongue of flame later and soon a steady stream of smokey wisps start emanating from the second figure. He takes a long draw before turning to his partner.

“Holidays are comin’ up. You gotta family or somethin’ to go too ‘Figure’?”

“Figure” nods. “Aye, that I do Des. How about you? Do you have anyone to go too, or do I have too babysit you over the holidays as well?”

“Nah, but I’ll be fine. I’ve spent a lot of Christmases isolated from humans. My ‘mons and me try to make the best of it, though we really couldn’t care for Christmas.”

“They couldn’t care, or you couldn’t care?”

Des pauses. “Figure, I never really had a “good” Christmas. Never, even before I became a Grunt. Whether my ‘mons find some kind of spiritual satisfaction in it is up to them. As for me however, I’ve long since accepted that Christmas and me do not mix.”

“That’s too bad to hear I guess”. “Figure” halls up a sleeve and  looks at a watch.

“Well if you ever need a place for the holidays, you’re always welcome at my place. Just don’t tell the wife you’re a former crook. She’ll have you gutted and hanged out to dry. See ya!”

“Figure” begins to walk off.

“Yeah see ya! Hmm. Come on Sparkers.” He calls to the Growlithe as he begins to walk off as well. “Let’s see if we can find a comfortable tree for the night.”
Sparkers appears reluctant to follow at first, but soon finds himself following Des’s tracks in the snow as they traverse into the forest outside of the city.

He must be nuts. Why didn’t he just go with Figure? Sparkers thought to himself. The Growlithe stops for a moment and points his nose to the sky, testing the air.

He mustn’t realize that there’s a storm coming. Several moments later the wind is howling as it blows past the tress. Des is currently being pelted with snow. Sparkers is currently curled up in his arms, safe from the frozen bombardment.

“Maybe I should of went with Figure?”

The Growlithe looks up at him. “<You think?>”.

“Screw this. Let’s just go back to wherever we came from.”
Des whips around and finds himself looking at unfamiliar snow covered foliage.

“Uh?”
The wind blows stronger, the snow grows thicker. Now Des can hardly see two feet in front of him. He begins to shiver and hugs Sparkers tighter.

“It’s ok. We’ll find our way out. It was just over here. I think”.
Des walks in a random direction. Only a few minutes pass but to hi it feels like ages, constantly working against the raging wind. Finally he finds something familiar...

“Oh Arceus dammit!”. Before him is a sequence of footprints. His footprints.
“We went in a freakin’ circle!”

“<Correction. You went in a freakin’ circle>”
Unaware of his partners saucey comment, Des trudges on hoping to find some semblance of civilization. The cold has finally got to him. He’s shaking at the knees. He takes one last mighty step forward before falling face first into the snow. Sparkers manages to shimmy out from under his trainers weight.

“<Des? Des get up. Des! Oh this is bad this is very bad.>
Sparkers clamps down on the collar of Des’s shirt and begins dragging him across the ground hopefully in civilization’s general direction.

Some time has passed. Des suddenly bolts upright.

“Uh...what? What happened? And why am I in a snow bank?!”
The former Rocket picks himself up and dusts off all the snow that collected on his body. He takes a quick glance at his surroundings. He’s in a clearing with big patch of grass at it’s center, betraying the fact that only moments ago Des was caught in a blizzard. A small campfire burns in the middle of this patch, seemingly keeping the snow at bay. Des tentatively approaches it with looking to soak in it’s warmth. As soon as he steps on the grassy patch the campfire erupts, growing twice in size.

“Ah!” Des stumbles back a bit in fright. The tongues of flame begin to form something. A shape at the epicenter of the inferno. A pair of mighty bat like wings burst from either side of the plume of fire and the flames started to die down until they disappeared altogether. Standing on the pile of smoldering wood, Des found something else that looked familiar that day.

“A-Ace?”

A WAAPT Christmas Carol

Part 3: Past

    There’s a bright flash of light and Des finds himself only a few meters above the snow covered ground. The Arcanine known as Lorean speeds on leaving behind a trail of fire. Des looks at his hands and sees that they are now transparent.

“Uh spirit?”

Past looks behind at Des. “Oh call me Past!”

“Right. So am I a ghost?”

Past shrugs. “That seems to be the default explanation for the weird things that have been happening lately. Well weird for you anyways, this is just work for me!” She giggles as Lorean skids to a stop. Des looks around at his surroundings and finds himself in some sort of town square.

“Recognize anything?” The spirit asks him.

“Well I’ve been to a lot of places. I’ve never really settled down in one spot before, but there is a certain familiarity here. Wherever ‘here’ is.”

Past points to a shabby looking building. Above the door hangs a sign that reads  “Shelter”.

“What you seek lies in there.”

Des approaches the door and tries to grab hold of the handle, but his hand phases through.

“Huh?”

Experimentally he thrusts his hand at the door’s surface and sure enough it goes through. He looks back at Past.

“You coming?”

Past shakes her head. “This is something that you must see, not I. Besides, I hate reruns.”

Des decides to ignore the irony in the spirits statement and phase through the door. Inside he finds a few dozen people bundled up in blankets, either asleep of shivering.

“No...”

In a corner he finds a woman. Tan skin, black hair and eyes like two pieces of chocolate. She’s currently hugging a small boy, no older than 7. His hair is the same colour as hers, though his eyes are a bright green that looked like they could light up the whole room. The boy looks up at the mother. There is a sad look on his face.

“I’m sorry mommy.”

The woman just smiles at her son. “Sorry for what?”

“I never got you anything this Christmas. I was thinking about taking an apple but I couldn’t do it, I just couldn’t do it.” Tears begin to fall down his face.

“It’s alright. You don’t need to get mommy anything for Christmas. Besides I’m very proud of you. You knew it was wrong to take that apple. Now it’s time for your present.”She squeezes her son.

“A great big hug!”

The little boy giggles as his mother hugs him.

Tears begin to well up in Des’s eyes. “I’m sorry mom...”

The sound of footsteps draws Des’s attention to the door. He grits his teeth in anger as a trio of men make their way across the room, passing right through him to the woman and her son. The man in the middle takes off his coat and passes it to one of his subordinates. Then he takes off his hat and bows to the woman.

“Salutations.” He kisses her hand. “What’s a lovely woman such as yourself doing in a place like this?”

The woman blushes. “Um we don’t really have a place to stay...”

“Say no more! You and your son will be spending Christmas with me.”

“I-uh thank you for your generosity, but I think my son and I can manage on our own.”

“Nonsense my dear I insist.”

“But I don’t want to be in debt to you.”

The man chuckles. “We’ll sort all of that out later.”

The woman looks down at her son who’s shivering in her embrace. She sighs.

“Very well then, but I would like to at least know your name.”

The shelter door bursts open and snow begins blowing in, circling around Des. He can feel himself being pulled away from the scene.

“No not yet! I can change this!”

An evil smirk appears on the man’s face.

“Call me Uncle G.”

“Don’t listen to him!” Des is pulled out of the shelter and finds himself hurled at the feet of Past. He up looks at the spirit angrily.

“Why! Why did you show me that!”

“Your mother was never afraid to do what was best for you. She used what she had, and never asked anything of anyone. It seems ‘debt fear’ runs in the family.” The spirit giggled. The flurry of snow intensified around Des.

“The one moment where your mother accepted help from someone, she paid the ultimate price...”
Scenes played out right in front of Des’s eyes. The young boy accepting a pokeball from the aforementioned “Uncle G”, that same boy wandering off into the horizon, and his mother crying whilst being comforted by “Uncle G”, a familiar smirk on his face.

“...Was you. Now that's probably just a case of bad luck, but in the end she did what was best for you.”

“I ask again spirit why?” Des whips around to see that Past and Lorean have vanished. The flurry dies down and Des finds himself standing in an unknown city.

“Where am I now?”

The chime of ringing bells catches Des’s ear. A flash of light and a sleigh drawn by 8 Sawsbuck materializes in front of him. A massive figure, cloaked in green ascends from the sleigh. It’s hood is up obscuring it’s features from Des.

“B-Big Guy?”

The figure shakes his head, then begins to sway a bit. Whispering can be heard from within the folds of the cloak.

“Watch where you’re stepping. My pad is sensitive you know.”

“Now now my companion, I am in control of the head. You are my feet. The head tells the feet to stop swaying so much.”

“I knew I should of been on top.”

“But you were built for the torso my friend!”

“Are you calling me fat!”

“Uh...” Des just stares at the figure as it begins to sway more.

The figure trips over the side of the sleigh and falls face down into the snow. A gust of wind blows through carrying the cloak with it and revealing not one but two figures. A Breloom and a Ludicolo. Both are garbed in robes and wreaths.

“Ponch’ and Salt’?”

“It would seem our cover has been compromised” Came the Breloom.

“You must have us confused with someone else. Me and my friend here-“

“My friend and I.” Corrected the Breloom.

“We are the dual Spirits of Christmas Present, You may call me Here.” The Ludicolo gestured to himself.

“And my designation is Now!” Declared the Breloom.

Des cocked his head at the pair that looked so much like two ‘mons of his own.

“So I guess you’re here to show me the Christmas of today then?”

The pair nod.

“Well before we go can I just ask-.”

“No time! We’re running on a tight schedule here!” Now picks Des up and throws him into the sleigh. Here grabs hold of the reigns and gives them a good whip. With a mighty heave by the Sawsbuck pull the sleigh and go rocketing off. Des is forced into the back wall of the craft as they zoom through the city streets.

“I’m gonna hurl.”

Now gives him a paper bag.

“Can’t hold your eggnog huh?”