Striding forward as he ran, he searched for Nova without a plan. Santa’s time remaining was few, only Nova would know what to do! His legs were quite quick, but was fast really fast? When Santa could be dying or have already passed? Then chatter was heard from just down the way, so MC kicked harder, no time for delay! All Nova had seen was an incoming blur, that arrived at her feet, covered in fur.

After a mad search. he managed to finally find Nova sitting down in the cafeteria with Nina. MC teleported inches from Nova’s face, startling her half to death.

“Nova, grab your shit and get to Santa! His health took a bad turn and his life is in danger. Hurry!” MC had shouted right in Nova’s face, but her reaction was a far cry from what MC had expected. He'd expected her to already be halfway across the room - gunning for her equipment and then to Santa after. Instead, she hadn’t flinched from her seat and instead was staring at him in a trance as she looked him up and down.

“Fucking go! Now!” he repeated, with more anger than urgency in his tone this time. Nova finally snapped out of it and began heading out - jogging at first but sprinting by the time she had reached the exit.

“Magnus? What happened to you? You look so… green. You look kinda like if an avocado grew the sickest beard ever but all across your body,” Nina said, sharing Nova’s reaction at MC’s arrival. Finally noticing, MC remembered that he had undergone a change from the side effects minutes ago and that his whole body - spare mechanical arm - was now completely covered in green fur. MC facepalmed, making a mental note to apologize to Nova later.

“Yeah, my bad princess. Long story short, I have Christmas powers now, and the side effects are as you see. Though, I think that with the right amount of effort and oomph, I can make this work,” MC lied, knowing full well that his lack of suitable shampoos and conditioners, Moroccan oil treatments, and trips to the salon would leave his new fur lacking in luster, volume, and definition. Worst of all, the split ends would make any battle out in public downright embarrassing.

“You jerk! It was my turn to get superpowers! You always get the cool stuff and I’m always stuck being the cool guy’s awesome and beautiful little sister. Whatever, I’ll beat you up later. For now, show me what you got. It better not be the ability to eat milk and cookies for hundreds of years and never go up a size. I’ll be so pissed if that’s what you got, dammit!”

With the possibility of fratricide imminent, MC knew he had to answer her quickly, but he choked - he had no actual clue what his new ability was. The description was useless and the vidsphere had shown him too many different things for him to narrow down.

MC focused on his new ability and was actually able to feel distinct possibilities with his new power. He was able to feel a flow through his body that he could instinctively manipulate to several ends. The first two possibilities he noticed he was capable of were what Santa had told him he would receive upon accepting the Christmas Spirit into his body, while the third was exponentially more interesting.

“I got three new abilities from Santa but they aren’t permanent, so you didn’t miss out on much, princess. The first is something kinda like a Christmas sixth sense. I just know where and how much Christmas energy is around. It’s a lot like Midar but its range is significantly wider and it works passively instead. It’s how I’ll be able to narrow down where Santa came from without alerting the Dyn.”

MC was able to make out Santa’s Christmas Energy in the room he was lying in. He forced a pained smile. With a much better sense over Santa’s current state, MC was able to make out just how faint the energy left in him was. Nothing but a sliver of energy was visible. If the planet wasn't devoid of Christmas energy, MC might have missed it entirely. MC turned his head and narrowed his eyes, sensing a significantly larger source than anything he’d felt until now. Ignoring it for now, he continued his explanation.

“The second ability I obtained is also passive and it lets me fly Santa’s sleigh. I’m pretty sure his sleigh required Christmas Spirit being fed into it to run properly, which would explain why I’m able to use it now.”

Nina raised an eyebrow when MC had mentioned Santa’s iconic ride. Nina was much harder to impress these days, being surrounded by magic, aliens, and a teleporting sibling on a daily basis. “That’s pretty cool Magnus. It sounds to me like you’re a glorified Christmas taxi with a built-in GPS, though. Is that all you got from Santa? You know, besides the green winter pelt.”

MC smirked, excited for the big reveal. Nina shuddered - the smirk not at all the handsome grin MC thought it was but rather an evil-looking smile that his new features warped it into.

“I’m glad you asked, princess,” MC said, preparing to blow her mind with an ability that he was also excited to use. “My third ability, which I presume is a fortunate result of my parasite taking over Santa’s power, is my favorite. Luckily, my abilities this time are more instinctual than before, so I already have a relatively good grasp of what they are and how to use them. This one would've been tricky to pull off, otherwise.”

He focused on an image of a bag in his head, slowly adding velvet, strings, and more details into the picture until he had a perfectly realized sack conjured up in his mind. Once his visualization was finished, his skill guided his intentions as he drew up the flow of energy from within his body into the form he had imagined. The energy then left his body. As he felt it completely finish changing shape, he opened his eyes to find that the image had become tangible.

In MC’s hands lay a large almost-but-not-quite overflowing red sack thrown over his shoulder. Nina blinked and tried touching the sack to confirm it was really there. But MC didn’t let her get close enough and took a step back, moving the sack away from Nina’s hand.

“It’s real, but I’m not done yet, princess. You know what they say, ‘It’s what’s IN the sack that counts.’”

MC reached deep inside the bag, and once it was up to his shoulder, he began to heave something out of it. Nina’s eyes nearly popped out as she witnessed her brother pull a gun the size of an Ultimator - and as intimidating as one, too - out of the sack. Her jaw was left hanging after MC had pulled a hunk of metal from a sack half its size, but her jaw had fallen to the floor when he managed to pull three more guns from the bag, each one either the same size or bigger than the first. He displayed them on the ground in front of her for her viewing pleasure as he continued talking,

“My third ability is Santa’s bag of presents. These babies here are my long-forgotten Christmas wishes, one through four. I’ll have to ask him when he wakes up, but I think he made these gifts when I asked for them as a kid even though he never gave them to me. I’m pretty confident that these are real, and that I’m just retrieving them from somewhere. He must do that with every kid. See that right there?” MC pointed at a sleek titanium cannon, easily large enough to give someone a heart attack at the very sight of the thing alone.

“A cannon that could shoot holes in the moon…” Nina whispered to herself. Nina’s head cocked to MC with a twinkle in her eyes.

“No, princess. It can’t actually shoot holes in the moon. I wish it could, but that’s honestly more than I could handle,” MC said, pouring cold water on Nina’s excitement. But it only lasted a second, as Nina was a giggling mess again shortly after.

“This is awesome, Magnus! The Dyn don’t stand a chance against team Cromwell-Nova now! Let's go and help Santa right away! I’d like to see some Dyn super ship try to bl--!”

MC placed all the guns back into the bag and placed a hand on Nina’s shoulder.

“Listen, princess, you’re not coming with me. There's a reason Santa asked me to be his little helper, and it’s with safety in mind. One person is enough, and I can't be worried about you two while I do this.”

Nova reentered the cafeteria, interrupting Nina's response.

“Nina, listen to Magnus this time. Time is of the essence and I’m afraid we would serve only to slow him down. I’ve managed to keep Santa’s body from failing completely, but he’s breathing through a ventilator on the edge of complete respiratory shutdown. He is only alive because the life support equipment here is just barely adequate to get liquid and nutrients into his shriveled body and keep him from dying. He is slipping in and out of a comatose state. He won’t last long, Nina. We can’t be stubborn about this.”

Nova’s statement broke Nina’s heart as she pictured the icon of joy and innocence suffering while she had been all smiles moments earlier. Magnus placed a hand onto Nina’s head, prompting her to turn back to face him.

“I need you by his side, princess. No one should be alone on Christmas.”

Nina broke into a grin at MC’s line. “Hey, I’m pretty sure that’s not your line you big green rat.”

“I’m pretty sure I take what I want if I’m remembering correctly.”

MC smiled at his sister's banter and ruffled her hair around. The siblings shared a couple of chuckles before Nina headed out of the cafeteria to give Santa some company. Nova gave up trying to decipher the siblings' banter, as usual.

“Make sure ol’ Saint Nicholas doesn’t croak while I’m gone. I’ll be back in an hour or two with eggnog and Santa’s mojo okay?”

“Why do you never make sense? What is this eggnog and mojo and how is that at all relevant to the life of the dying man in the other room?” Nova sighed. “Just be careful while you’re on your own.”

MC responded to her concern with a laugh and a wave as he Relocated himself out of the cafeteria and onto the sleigh outside. A quick massacre of the surrounding mutants cleared the strip for takeoff and with a little bit of MC’s Christmas Spirit, he was off the ground and into the air. MC turned the sleigh to face the only location on the planet besides Sanctuary with any Christmas energy.

“Operation Naughty List is a go.”