2012-12-16 Deck The Malls With Boughs Of Holly

Somewhere in the 'No Man's Land' between New York City and Gotham there is a shopping mall. One that at first glance is like any other shopping mall. But /maybe/, just maybe, it was meant to be that way. After all the mall is named the Justanothah Mall. But then again what sort of person in their right mind would want a shopping mall to be generic?

Either way, The Justanothah Mall is a three story affair, with a food court in the basement, and towards the center of the mall. At one end, there is a Stacy's, aka one big chain store, and at the other there is a J.C. Dime, aka another big chain store, all though right next to the Dime there's a Toy 'R Not Us toy store. And of course there's all sorts of other stores both large and small and restaurants through out the mall too!

But of course all of that is there year round. What makes this place different right now? Well... For starters, it's the holiday season, thus it's jam packed! But if that wasn't enough, a segment of the parking lot right outside the mall is roped off around a 'Big Rig' with a 'Toys For Joy' logo on the side. Inside, you have 'The North Pole' set up in the food court where kids can meet Santa Claus, tell him what they want, and even get their pictures taken with him (if their parents will fork over the $19.95  tax for a single 8x10 glossy). There's even a live of kids and adults (including at least one adult without a kid) waiting to speak to Santa.

Or at least the kids could if Santa was at that area right now.

But well, what really sets things apart is what's happening down by the interior entrance to Stacy's. Why? Because there's a series of boxes on wooden palettes. Said boxes are decorated to look like presents with open lids, and people are coming by to 'drop off' toys. Now while that might not be /too/ unusual this time of year, what's with those boxes might be. After all, it's a pair of radio DJs apparently doing a live show at the mall in a roped off area, and they have a third person with them.

"And that was 'Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer' on your favorite Holiday Station, WCRZY. And you're here with Bucky..."

"And Satchel!"

"As the two most annoying shock jocks on the East Coast continue our non-stop live radio marathon. If you haven't been tuning in.."

"Or have the IQ of a cat..."

"Or a dog, then you know by now that the two of us will be broadcasting non-stop from the Justanothah Mall, live and in person, until we fill a 'Toys For Joy' truck with toy donations! But to help drive that point home, I bring you the man... The Myth... The Legend himself... Santa Claus!"

Normally malls are not Selina's thing. She vastly prefers a day-trip to Paris or Milan when the need for shopping comes up. She's not here for shopping but rather the need to keep out of Gotham and herself occupied, her mind off of what happened to her and the others recently. Sadly the mall and those occuping it do nothing to really help. The noise and crowds give her a headache and the mere notion of the holiday being so commercialized has her equal parts sad and annoyed.

Deciding something to drink is in order, Selina looks for the food court on the map and starts to make her way down to where it is, pausing only long enough to give the DJs a glare. Someone does not appreciate cats being spoken about in such a light. Instead of making an issue of it she just presses on, motivated further to get out of there by a promise of hot chocolate made to herself.

Warlock is a connoisseur of human insanity. Since his return to earth he has become something of a people watcher and after finding out about a 'Justanothah Mall' he found himself intrigued at the idea of a shopping mall that was so unique in how hard it seemed to be trying to be generic. The idea of standing out from the crowd by being the most mundane possible is something that to Warlock only the genius of human nature could conceive of.

The single adult waiting for Santa sans kid is in good enough company, mainly because just behind them is what appears to be a kid waiting sans adult. Warlock has found himself getting into the spirit of the season, and as such has taken on a form that a few people he knows might recognize as a ten year old version of his Self-soul-Friend Douglas complete with a T-shirt that has an obscure Calculus based math joke on it and a Santa hat of his own just so he can get his own picture with Santa.

Christmas was that -time- of the year where for much of Roy Harper's life, things were magical and warm and wonderful. Growing up with a park ranger for a father meant the scent of fresh pine; growing up on the Navajo reservation meant Ya'at'eeh was a joyful time.

And raising Lian Harper meant passing on that magic. His own shopping put aside for -later-, Roy Harper was guiding Lian Harper through picking out presents for the people in her life; her babysitters, her 'aunts' and 'uncles' and apparently giving her money for a present for 'Daddy, who's not allowed to peek!'

Still, as Lian asked about seeing -Santa-, Roy sighed with relief. He'd been wondering each year whether -this- was the year that the magic would cease to be real for her.

"Sure, we can," Roy grins, as he follows an excited Lian into the line.

It was when he'd explained -why- people were listening to 'those annoying men' that he was most proud, as Lian scrunched up her face. "Daddy? Can you give my present to those others?"

"Yes, we can, princess," Roy grins, as he picks up Lian, and squeezes her, causing her to squeak in protest and push her hands into her father's face before he did that ICKYYUCK.

Curtis really normally wouldn't be this far from NYC but he'd been dragged by a friend out to retrieve the last of a certain gift she wanted from one of those chain stores. He's been generally displeased by the mall and has been considering making those DJs have an 'accident' while he's dragged along through the mall. Right now he's in the food court looking a little bored as he eats a soft pretzel and waits for his friend to finish deciding whether or not she'll cheat on her diet.

After a week of performing oddjobs for anyone he could to earn Earth currency (and a set of clothes to wear) around the mansion, including probably doing way to many students science, language, and math homework then is good for them, getting a holoimager, taking his first trip on a terran mass conveyance, and totally passing through one of the largest cities in the world, Broo has arrived to see 'Father Christmas' and buy some more clothes at his first Mall. And what better Mall then Justanothah Mall, since Justanothah is Xandarian for 'Perfect and Devine, unrivaled and without equal', and if the Xandarians think so highly to name it so, then it must be.

Broo slowly slips into the back of the line for Santa, so he can ask the Jolly being for something special, something that hopefully Santa can give him, 'Membership into the Nova Corp', cause if anyone can, Santa can, right? He keeps his hoodie up as he plays with the watch on his left wrist, scratching at the area around it, looking at his hands as if he'd never seen them before this morning.... cause technically he never had.

Rory Regan realized today that he had to do some last minute Hanukkah shopping. Deciding not to go to the mall close to the store/home well he picked a random mall and traveled there. Hey can't let the people know you forgot about them and stuff. Plus he's still getting used to this jewish thing, cause well he only found out when he found the suit. So he made do the first few nights by giving some of the people stuff from his store. But well he could tell last night that they started to catch on that he didn't buy anything yet.

So well that is what brought Rory to the mall today. He is out shopping and well does what every good person does this time of year, he does drop in a toy in the donation boxes. After that he goes back to the shopping. So what do you get a friendly rabbi and well the worker of the store. Maybe they'll like gloves everyone likes gloves.

For those that are near the J.C. Dime store, or to be more exact, the Toys 'R Not Us toy store, a commotion can be heard coming from said toy store. It's as if something, or someone, or possibly even /multiple/ someones, or even /multiple/ something are flooding into that store from its outside entrance. And what ever it... Or they, are, they're flooding in from outside the building, and causing customers and employees alike to come running out of that store and into the mall proper, all while screaming about... Dinosaurs?!?

Of course that's not the only oddity going on in the mall right now. Not as people, a large number of people, wearing trench coats and hats that obscure their faces filter into the building from every other entrance the building has. And as they do so, they enter all sorts of stores too. Jewelry stores. The pet store. A 'Home Improvement' store. A candy store. Not every store mind you, but a lot of them. heck, one of them even moves to mill around the food court, and for some reason is eyeing the poor woman who's moving about cleaning tables down there.

The shock jocks though just keep broadcasting, even if it's Santa who speaks up.

"Merry Christmas to you bad little boys. It's almost too bad Krampus is no longer a Christmas tradition, otherwise you'd have to be very afraid of him."

"Ha! Ha! Thank you Santa. You're too kind."

"And we know that you have a lot to do, so want to juts give us a few words?"

"Well. Toys For Joy is one of many collection efforts to give toys to less fortunate kids. And everyone who donates is helping make the world a better place, and is more likely to be on my 'Good' list. So please, come on down and give what you can to help these kids out. Aside from that... Mery Christmas! Ho! Ho! Ho!"

And with that Santa turns and leaves to head back to the Food Court, and 'The North Pole'."

Not yet having made her way dwonstairs, Selina can hear what she thinks is screaming but she's not close enough to be one hundred percent so...

"One of these days, your curiosity is going to kill you, Selina."

Change of plans. Instead of going to get herself the treat in the form of a drink she's now heading in the direction the sounds are coming from. God help her if something bad really is going down.

The sound of screams instantly gets Warlock's attention. Panic is always an attention getter, and yells about things like dinosaurs doubly so. There is no obvious sign of whatever is going on spilling out into the Mall its self so it might not be actual Dinosaurs attacking, right? For just a moment the cute blond kid's face changes to a black color with metallic gold highlights and his eyes alter as he extends sensors to try and get a better idea of just what is going on before he does something like leave his place in line.

The smile on Roy's face as Lian keeps her hands on her father's cheeks fades as the screaming catches his attention. Roy quickly puts Lian down. Grasping her hand, he warns her to hold on tight. "We're getting you somewhere safe, then Daddy's going to find out what's going on.

And then Roy starts trying to make his way away from the crowd, looking for a place to safely put her. The noise from the direction of the toy store and people actually shoving their way in into the entrance made this a losing proposition.

"Dammit," Roy mutters, as he swings Lian into a koala hug, telling her to hold on tight.

"Daddy, what about Santa?" Lian says, too concerned to scold her father for saying bad language.

"We'll find him, sweetheart. First we have to get past everyone... whatever you do, don't let go."

And Roy starts trying to squeeze his way through the jam towards the outdoors.

"Curtis, check Twitter. I'm seeing a bunch of stuff about the mall being under attack."

Curtis is startled from his salty treat by his friend, frowning and leaning over to look at her phone. When he sees the messages, his eyes go wide. "Dude! We better get outta here!" he insists, starting to drag his friend for a way out while 'panicking'. Of course it's an act and he manages to lose his friend when he 'accidentally' falls out of sight. And with that, it's run to the bathroom for a quick change time. Danger means its time for Freedom Ring to do something. Even if he has no idea what yet.

Catching sight of the Calculus Joke, Broo falls over laughing, gasping for breath as he uncontrollably laughs, trying to actually say parts of the punchline out loud, "Be... cause they have... sine and cosine... to get a tan... and don't need the sun! That is brilliant..." he rolls on the floor a bit, trying to get a hold of himself. It takes him almost two minutes to get his laughter under enough control to get back to his feet, and he still has tears streaming from his eyes, a huge grin, and keeps snickering as he tries to hold back the laughter more. He smiles at the little girl in line ahead of him with her father, waving at her since they're both about the same height, and being friendly is better then ignoring people. He then goes back to snickering, though he does start to look around at the noises as they start occuring, as well as the guy with the hysterical shirt showing signs of being a Technarch... but that is silly, what would a Technarch be doing on Earth, and if one was, why wouldn't the area be transmoded and drained of energy by now, must just be some Terran machine that resembles a Technarch...

Broo can't ignore things when the father grabs up his little girl and tries to leave. What father would keep his child from meeting Santa, unless he was protecting his young. So Broo begins following them, since something must be happening, the Mall is becoming a buzzing hive, and Broo knows how dangerous those can be. He fiddles with his watch a bit, then leaps up onto a pillar, keeping an eye on Roy and Lian, while getting out of the traffic. He glances around, and then starts to ascend, his holo image flickering out, though his hoodie and sweats do give him some modest concealment to his alien features, using the fact that humans can't usually walk up walls to stay where traffic isn't. He grumbles about never getting to be a Nova Corp Member at this rate, but something tells him the little girl and her father may need him more then he needs to meet Santa... plus maybe doing this will help him get on the Nice list.

Rory starts to hear people run and scram about Dinosaurs, and well he just blinks a little at that one. Well that can't be right, unless Dinosaur is like the new hit toy out this year. Oh hey maybe he can get one for some under privileged kids or something like that! Well okay maybe not, but it's the thought that counts, right? But anyway Rory does decide that he needs to do something to see if something is happening.

Fighting the crowd he makes his way towards the nearest store and starts to peek inside. Well the nearest store is a candy store that some of the people are in as well. Oooo boxes of chocolate, Betty would love a box of chocolate. Wait is chocolate Kosher, that's not one of the things he can't eat is it?

One big thing that the scene runner forgot to mention earlier is that above the food court there is a series of 'gaps' roughly the size of the food court, in the floors above it. Oh sure there's railing so that no one can fall, but it's possible to stand by this railing and look down into the food court from any of the higher levels in the mall. And on top of that, above this area there is a giant domed 'skylight'.

Down in the line for The North Pole, that lone woman just yawns, despite what might be happening elsewhere in the mall, before she reaches into her shopping bags and pulls out a few things. First is a pair of glasses, which she puts on. then there's a white coat... Scratch that, a white lab coat, which she slips on as well. Then she pulls out an... Over sized candy cane that looks like it's as wide around as a toilet paper tube...? Yeap. All though she is holding it with the hook 'down', and there is a switch on the side of this 'candy cane'. But she doesn't pay any attention to what may or may not be happening elsewhere in the mall.

To people like Selina who are rushing towards the screams about dinosaurs, or maybe be able to detect them, they will see a very interesting sight coming from the Toy Store once they get close enough to see what's starting to spill out of said store. That is of course after they dodge all the people rushing away from the store.

But anyways, coming out from the toy store is a steady stream of dinosaurs all right. Only they look like small, animatronic, plushy, neon colored dinosaurs that are /maybe/ a foot and a half long (at most), and eight inches tall (at most). And every single one that enters the mall proper from the toy store somehow is carrying a toy on its back (or in the case of the T-Rex ones, it's otherwise useless hands). And this swarm... not only does it look like it's not stopping, but they all appear to be heading towards the opposite end of the mall, where those shock jocks are.

If one, (like Roy if he's serious about getting out of the mall), were to end up outside the mall, they'd actually see that there's a couple of big mac trucks with trailers blocking traffic by the toy store where these dinosaurs appear to be coming from.

Now these dinosaurs aren't the only problems. Not as those people wearing the trench coats, who are in all those other stores, suddenly start throwing off their trench coats, revealing that they are... Giant walking wooden nut crackers?!? Who are trying to grab things from the various stores?!?

In the pet store, one is trying to grab parakeets from inside a cage, while saying, "Calling birds... Calling birds..." While another in nut cracker that same store tries to grab a parrot from another cage as it says, "French hen! French hen!"

For some reason in a 'Cards and Collectibles' store another nut cracker tries to grab a Luke Skywalker cardboard cut out as it says, "Partridge! Partridge!"

And if you think that's strange, in the home improvement store, its human sized 'nut cracker' is dressed like a knight, and it grabs a shrubbery while saying, "Pear tree! pear Tree!" Only it quickly stops, and say, "Error! Error!" before it changes again and starts saying, "Nii! Nii!"

And yes, as those nut crackers make themselves known, people start running out of the stores they're in as well, leading to more panicked civilians running in every direction in the mall proper. On top of that, if one was good enough at detecting electronics they might detect some odd signals from these nutcrackers, especially the one in the jewelry store smashing display cases as it takes, "Golden rings! Golden rings!"

In the candy store though, there's a 'nut cracker' opening bags of candy, dumping them on the floor, and just picking out... Caramels? "Maids Milking... Maids Milking..."

And yet, despite all this chaos Santa actually does return to 'The North Pole' and takes his seat, allowing what ever kids are still there to tell him what they want.

And what about the shock jocks? Well, they start to switch back to music..., For now...

"And that was Santa Claus everyone! next up, we have 'Christmas at Ground Zero' by Weird Al!"

The crowds are getting thicker the closer she gets and the mad dash towards where the chaos is happening gets slower, the press of the people heading in the other direction making it almost like a salmon trying to swim upstream. This adds to the headache and annoyance Selina was already feeling, it doing zilch to sweeten her disposition.

As she pushes through she winds up going past Roy and his daughter but she doesn't see them. She's too busy getting around a very... round patron who is trying to film this with his phone so it can be posted to YouTube later. "Alright. I am not going to go to the mall anymore," she hisses while another person, this one a skinny, befreckled redheaded lady, runs into her, causing her to hiss when her shoulder's jarred. Yes. Definitely /no more/ trips to malls. Ever. Period.

Warlock blinks and is distracted for a second when someone starts to laugh hysterically. Turning to look at Broo his face totally normal human looking just in case anyone is watching he just stares at the person that actually finds his shirt funny. That makes Broo one of a very very small number of people, and brings a small grin to warlock's face. Of course while watching Broo he starts doing those interesting acrobatics and...is that the tale tell sign of a holographic image futzing? Yes it is. It could just be a young mutant with insect like features, but even then the chances that one would look so much like a Brood drone are very low. If the Brood are invading then this does not look like it's going to be a very merry Christmas after all.

Warlock already shifting into this is bad mode thanks to what could be a Brood gets the red alarm sirens as the toy dinosaurs and nut crackers start to attack the mall. Quickly he ends up one of the few people still standing where the line for Santa was, along with the woman now dressed like a parody mad Scientist. Still looking like a small child Warlock moves closer to the woman before speaking, "Query Miss Doctor Insano Ma'am? Self would like to know if you are behind this Seasonal chaos?"

Trying to get his way out, Roy catches sight of the woman dashing past him, and it doesn't -quite- register, immediately.

However, Lian, looking back over her father's shoulder, suddenly squees. "DADDDDYYY... they're -cute- dinosaurs! Why are we running from them?"

"Taking a minute to digest that, Roy slows down, glances towards the exits, then back towards... what the HELL is going on there?

Potential robbers, or cute dinosaurs.

"Hell with it," Roy mutters, clutching Lian closer and turning back to dash, already noticing the brunette woman pushing her way and finding a path that he was going to follow. "Lian, when we head back to the store... find a place to stay, and don't play with the dinosaurs."

Someone had been running towards the bathroom to use it as a hiding space finds their plans rather quickly changed when bright flashing lights come from under the door. Shorting after that doubly-scared man goes screaming back into the crowd, Freedom Ring comes rolling out in 'costume' and wearing roller blades. Once he sees he no longer has a clear path for rolling, Freedom Ring switches to a jetpack. Rising into the air above the chaos, the reality altering hero looks around at the chaos and frowns. "Okay...this is so not what I had in mind when I wished for some excitement," he mutters. "HEY! Messed up soldier guys!" he eventually decides on a course of action, singling out a few of the nutcrackers. "Drop the stuff and get down on the ground before I have to use ya as fire wood!" he exclaims. They look wooden enough to him."

Seeing the causes are inorganic, at best semi sentient, automotons and toys makes combat far more easy for Broo, since no one will be physically harmed if he smashes them. He tilts his head and cleans his auditory cannals with his claws, grumbling, "Wasn't the WKRZY Broadcasts bad enough, do the humans have to pump out all this background signals... and what is this oddly catchy harmonic combination?" he begins humming the 12 days of Christmas, commenting, "This true love being is extremely generous, but highly inpractical. The cacophany from all those gifts would be quite unmelodious, and feeding that many beings would be extremly expensive." he shakes his head, then switches to singing ~You may hear some reindeer on your rooftop, or jack frost nipping out your window sill... but if someone's climbing down your chimney, you better load your gun and shoot to kill~.

As Roy changes directions and heads back with Lian, Broo shrugs, and then decides perhaps following them is still the best idea, though keeping to his high road along the walls and openings between levels where no one else tends to travel. He does glance around for something to use, since his is unarmed at the moment, and then smiles as he sees the perfect weapons... Christmas Ornaments on the Tree... launching himself from his high ground as wings extend through slits in his hoodie and he flies over to the Tree and begins grabbing ammunition and loading them into his hoodie and sweat pants pockets.

Well okay Rory is looking at what is happening and well almost breaks out laughing. There is a giant wooden soldier stealing caramels in the candy store, that is well just funny on so many levels. So Rory has the information that he needs now to go out and do something about it. First things first a change of clothes is in order, cause really he doesn't go out wearing the suit unless he needs to.

Ducking into an a now empty booth that was temporarily setup to sell more Holiday junk, Rory ducks out of sight. Concentrating for a moment after that he summons the suit of souls to him, and the The Tattered Tatterdemalion is ready for action! After that he goes into the candy store, "I always liked the gummi soda bottles, those are awesome."

And as Selina gets caught up in those people, the dinosaurs are almost on her!

Sorta. They actually go /around/ her while carrying those toys. Heck, a few even let out a cutesy squeak of a 'roar' at her as they try to just move along, carrying their ill gotten goods. But they don't move to hurt her. At all.

But they're still coming out from that store. And heck, some of them are moving fast enough that they're almost at the half way point for that level of the mall?!?

And while down below, most of the kids and their parents are gone from the line, that woman in the lab coat just blinks at Warlock, remaining silent as she walks up to Santa... And presses the button on that 'candy cane'. Only as she does there's an odd 'snap hiss' as a white and red striped energy blade comes out of that 'candy cane', and just stops an inch or so from St. Nicks throat, all while the blonde woman... Giggles?

"I'm /NOT/ Miss Doctor Insano! I'm Dr. Holly Daye! *Giggle* And I'm here to kidnap Santa Claus so I can get my arc-enemy The Easter Bunny in exchange for him! And if I don't, then there's gonna be a lot of unhappy kiddies on Christmas Morning! Yepyepyep! *Giggle*"

And Roy, as the dinosaurs get closer, they move to get around you! See! you don't have to worry! heck, a green triceretops just tries to move and walk along next to the archer and daughter, occasionally letting out a cute squeaky roar as it carries a monster high doll!

Now good 'ol Freedom Ring... Well, as he targets the 'nut crackers', two of them pause, and point at him, before they say "Lord leaping! Lord leaping!" and they start trying to jump up, and towards him. Of course they only manage maybe to get six inches off the ground, so he's safe but.... They're not giving up either!

Since Broo isn't doing anything threatening on the other hand, the 'wooden soldiers' leave him alone. Mostly. For as that nut cracker knight comes out carrying its shrubbery, it... Points at him and says, "Herring! Herring!"

Why? Who knows!

Of course as Rory comes back into the candy store, the 'wooden soldier' has its arms loaded with the caramels, and it pauses, as if trying to process what was said, before it just tries to shove its way past him, and out of the store. Which might not work that well depending on what Ragman does.

The squeak has Selina freezing in her steps and turning around, her head angling to the side as she watches the parade go on like she isn't even there. "Okay. This is strange," she utters before going on, trying so very hard to get to the store. Again.

Pushing, shoving, trying to do her damnedest to get to where the source of the chaos is. C'mon, Selina. You can do it. You can make it. That's the mental peptalk.

Warlock does not, as yet, have eyes in the back of his head. He does however have built in wireless and all sorts of tech based senses he is currently extending to see what is going on all over the mall in case he is wrong about the oddly dressed woman or needs to get involved to save lives.

warlock cants his head to the side questioningly at the Mad scientist woman waiting for a response. When the woman activates an energy weapon though he moves fast. His left hand whips out and extends far farther than it should, turning black as coal with circuitry like patterns in gold all through it. The hand tries to grab the weapon puling it back and away from the big man in red. "Self will not allow Doctor Holly Daye to harm Santa Clause." As he speaks the 'child' grows larger till he is almost human sized, becoming a black and gold being looking almost like a robot put together out of pieces of many different robot toys.

"Daddy, look...!" Lian exclaims, excited about the dinosaurs, especially the triceratops carrying the Monster High doll. "I want it!"

"Now is -not- the time, Lian...!" Roy exclaims as he seeks to follow to the source of chaos. There's just a brief glance, as Lian tightens her grip on her father, before Roy sighs, nabs the doll, and keeps running after Selina, as he pushes the doll towards her for safekeeping.

"Right..." Freedom Ring trails off, hovering there in the air as he watches the jumping nut crackers. "Time to deal with this," he says, holding up both hands. There's a flash of light and suddenly he's holding a pair of oversized guns. He takes aim, the weapons hum with power...and fire off snowballs at the nut crackers. What, he's staying seasonal today.

Sure, he could fart in their general direction, but that would be silly, so, since the Nut Cracker Knights are pointing at him, and one is carrying a shrubbery, and the other is carrying another shrubbary which is being carried slightly higher with a sort two-level effect... maybe a path between them, Broo decides he will stop listening to all the radio stations and signals and try a parody or two of his own. He wraps some Holly around a couple of the ornaments then smiles, "Let Loose the Holly Handgrenades!!!" aiming at the Nut Cracker Knights, "This is a time of giving, so stop being takers... unless you take this" flinging an ornament... or Holly Handgrenade... "And this" flinging another... then he starts singing, ~You're not gunna take it... NO... you ain't gunna take it... You're not gunna take it... from the store.~ flinging ornament after ornament... or Holly Handgrenade after Holly Handgrenade...

Ragman lets the wooden soldier thingy try and push him out of the way. Hey it's not a bad thing to do when you have a cape that you can control. He reaches out with the cape that he wears trying to grab the wooden soldier's legs with it. See this is why a cape can be a good thing, even if it can get in revolving doors. Ragman scratches his head as his cape is shooting out, "Why is it stealing candy. Is it the only wooden soldier in the world with a sweet tooth or something?"

And as Selina reaches the the toy store, if she enters it, or heck, just looks in through the big glass windows near the front, she'd be treated with quite the sight. Simply put, the dinosaurs are everywhere in that store. They're moving around in... Well.... Let's just say that the entire store is filled to what would be 'waist height' on a full grown man with tons of these little dinosaurs, all one on top of another, and they're all moving around pretty much non-stop. And if that wasn't strange enough, the huge mass of tiny dinos appears to be stripping the store clean of toys, and is carrying them out into the mall itself. Only well... It isn't as much of a mass but instead a swarm of individual dinos once they leave the store.

But anyways... They just keep avoiding Selina even as they do that. But, there does appear to be a 'security panel' for that store right by the 'inside' entrance to the toy store, which could do all sorts of things that could slow down these dinosaurs. That is, depending on what one were to try to do to it. Aside from that, the dinos appear to be coming in, all the way from the other end of the store, non-stop.

"I'm in no danger Warlock." is said by Santa, despite the fact that he has an energy blade aimed at his throat. Or at least he did until Warlock grabs on and starts to move the blade. Only as he does, Dr. Daye reaches into her pocket, and appears to press a button. Only when she does, there's a sound like glass shattering as a section of the skylight up above shatters and falls down, before a giant thing that looks like a cross between a robot and Bigfoot (albeit a Bigfoot holding a giant sac) falls down from above and crashes into the food court.

"Krampus come to take /BAD BOYS/ away!" is said by this odd robot, before it turns its head to look at Warlock, even as Holly lets go of her candy cane lightsabre. "You BAD BOY! You go sack!"

Meanwhile, even as that toy is taken by Roy, the triceretops continues to march along, keeping pace with him and Lian. All though considering what he might see in that toy store, having that little green triceretops around might into be as much of a good thing as one might think.

Those snowballs not only hit the nutcrackers that are jumping at Freedom Ring, but they hit. And hit hard. The head of one of the nutcrackers goes flying right off, causing it to land much like a rag doll in a heap. The other though is sent flying over some railing onto one of the lower floors, and when it crashes, it breaks into all sorts of pieces, revealing that despite its wooden exterior, there are some fancy electronics and robotics on the inside.

Of course as those two go down, many of the nut crackers start to drop their stuff so they can go after the 'leaping lord' that is Freedom Ring.

Another large chunk of the nut crackers though start responding to Broo. For while he is hitting them with the ornaments, he's not having the same effect that Ring is having. Sure one of the nut crackers falls, but the others... Well, they try to start throwing their stuff at him?!? Even the one with the shrubbery tries to throw /that/ at Broo.

But, there's still two others. Sure Ragman has caught one by its legs, hence why it turns its head and looks at him, saying, "Seven maids a milking..." before it tries to toss just /one/ of the candies at Rory. One the wrapper are the words 'Milk Maid'.

And if that wasn't strange enough, walking behind Rory, in the direction of a certain pair of shaock jocks, he probably can hear another nut cracker saying, "Five golden rings..."

Of course the dinosaurs are still moving through the mall. In fact the fastest ones have reached the area of the shock jocks, and are... Throwing the toys they carried into the 'Toys For Joy' donation bins?!?

"Hey Bucky... Looks like we might be out of here soon if these little guys keep it up..."

Okay. Not the strangest thing she's seen but that's probably a given, seeing as how Selina's from Gotham. Very little can top the craziness that can be found there. At first she has it in her head to turn around and leave this for the police or whatever heroes might wind up on the scene but a niggling of guilt hits, pushing her into entering the store.

The dinos are looked at a little closer at first before she does something possibly foolish, that being picking up one of the erstwhile toys if she's able to. And, regardless of if she can lift one up to face level or not, she's looking for signs of their being ran by remote.

Warlock's slightly reflective glassy eyes narrow at the large creature that drops from the sky light to get into his way. "Self is a good being." As he says this warlock's shape starts to change once more bulking up till he is a matching size for Krampus and a very decent replica of the Russian Orthodox version of Saint Nicholas.

Still black and gold, except for his little red Santa hat, Warlock's new body which could possibly be based on how Colossus would look dressed as the jolly old elf takes up a fighting stance with a pair of sharpened candy canes in each hand each the size of swords. "Self will not allow harm to come to Santa Clause." He says before turning his right hand palm up and giving the Krampus robot a 'Come get some' gesture while saying "Ho. Ho. Ho." in the same tone action movie heroes use for witty quips just before or after they do massive damage to the villains.

Why he had a seemingly friendly dinosaur was something Roy would puzzle out later. Probably had to do with what they were made of, but why -were- they doing this and why now?

Catching up with Selina, while Lian coos over her Monster High doll, Roy grunts. "Hey, excuse me, there's a security panel over there. Keep an eye on the friendlies, will you?" Yes, he was still keeping Lian with him. Lone Wolf and Cub, ganbatte!

"Okay, that is just freaky," Freedom Ring remarks, frowning as he sees the insides of the nutcrackers. "Whatever. Eat snow!" he eventually declares, opening fire on the not-so-leaping soldiers. Of course when the giant crashes into the mall, Curtis lets out a startled yelp. Distracted, his jetpack vanishes with a little 'pop!'...and Freedom Ring falls into some of the North Pole scenery. "I'm okay!" he calls...right before the titular pole falls on top of him.

Seeing his Holly Handgrenades are useless, Broo sighs and decides that despite everyone loving gloves, it is time to take the kid gloves off. He swoops down grabs the top of the Tree and, despite his size, starts flying and lifting it, singing ~O Tannenbaum, o Tannenbaum! Du kannst mir sehr gefallen! Wie oft hat nicht zur Weihnachtszeit, Ein Baum von dir mich hoch erfreut! O Tannenbaum, o Tannenbaum! Du kannst mir sehr gefallen!~ as he swings the tree like a giant wack-a-mole Hammer at the Nutcracker Knights... Hey, Holiday song trumps Monty Python Song, even if he could maybe get the Nutcrackers to join in as the Mounties. He is not as impressive looking as Warlock's Santa Colossus, or as efficient as Freedom Ring's Master of Snowball Wars, but what he lacks in stature and pinpoint accuracy, he makes up for in overcompensating with a bigger weapon and the fact he is singing about his weapon...

Rory catches the candy that is thrown at him and looks down at it. Well that is just too funny, but could be worse the soldier could have spent time trying to find nursing mothers or something. Curiousity has gotten the better of Ragman now and he starts to follow the soldier. "I so have to know who well decided to send them stealing stuff. And the important question what are they going to do for the lords-a-leaping!" He starts to shake his head as he chases after the soldier, "You know I'm jewish I'm not even supposed to do the Christmas thing!" He mutters to himself.

Oh yes, Selina can pick up the dinos. In fact, as she pick it up to eye level, the dinosaur in question tilts its head at her and let out an almost questioning, but meek sounding, "Roar?"

All though on further inspection, if she, Roy, or anyone else for that matter were to pick up one of these dinos (and yes, they'd let you) it would be easy to feel that inside the cute looking plush exterior, that there is an electronic, animatronic, or even robotic interior (depending on which definition you want to use with those terms). There's even a zipper on the bottom if one were to really examine them, that if it's opened up, would reveal a place where batteries can be inserted, as well as a switch that's labeled 'Remote' and 'AI'. And yes, right now the switch on the one Selina is inspecting (if she inspects that deeply) would be set to 'remote'. Others though (like the green triceratops that's been following Roy and Lian) are set to 'AI' though.

Robo-Krampus just snarls at Warlock even as he changes, before responding to that gesture. Only as he charges, the robo-monster doesn't try to punch. Or kick. Or body slam. Or even bite. Instead, he just opens his sack around, and swings it around like he's trying to catch Warlock, despite his new 'bulk'. Of course as he does that, he leaves himself wide open...

Speaking of wide open, with Krampus now distracting Warlock, that means that Holly now has a chance to go after Santa. Doesn't it?

Maybe. Because before she can do more than look at Santa again, Freedom Ring comes crashing in! And he does, the 'mad scientist' leaps backwards and lets out a slight "Eek!"

Saint Nick though blinks and manages to let out, "All you all right there... Freedom Ring?"

That green dino with Roy just continues to stay up with him. Only well, as he gets there, the flood of dinos coming out of the store starts to get /worse/. In fact, most are coming out without any toys. But that's not the strangest bit. Not by a long shot. Not as a /life sized/ (as in real dinosaur 'lide sized') green triceretops pokes its head out from that mass of smaller dinos in the shop, and starts making its way towards Sel, Roy, and Lian?!?

"Store empty." the giant dino says as it tries to make its way out. "Donate all toys! Donate all toys! Donate all toys! Next store! Next store!"

And with that said the dinos without toys start to head for the nearest store as they leave the toy store, heading towards that J.C. Dime store.

And while that tree might be a decent whack a mole hammer with the 'nut crackers', for some reason every time it connects, there's a slight explosion that destroys another chunk of the tree. Odds are there's maybe only two or three good hits before the tree is useless. But then again, by then there probably aren't that many robo-nut crackers near Broo he could hit with it.

There are at least two nut crackers left though, and as Rory lets his go to find out where it's headed, he'd find out that much like the dinos (who really are starting to get to the donation area em mass by this point, putting toys in the donation bins) they're approaching the area of the shock jocks. Worse, the soldiers start throwing the stuff they collected at the shock jocks.

"Shut up. Annoying! stop! Eight Maids a Milkin! Seven Swans a Swimming! Use good music! Have toys so you go home! Don't be an annoying brooder! Be quiet!

Oh! Hey, look, it's Roy and his daughter. But why is he in here with the tike in tow? "Ro.... oh, wait. What?" Doesn't look like he's stopping but she doesn't have time to ask as the big dino makes its presence known, that getting her to groan. This is snowballing out of control... more. Yes, more. And it has Selina's heart sinking. "Sorry but no time for babysitting," she asks while chucking the dino she did pick up over her shoulder. But does she mean the little Harper or the dino or something or someone else? Hard to tell. She doesn't take any time to elaborate, however, as she's gone.

SSuper-Mega-Zoid dino is ran towards and then she does something she'll probably regret in spades later, that being trying to find a way to scale the huge thing so she can stop it. Or, if she can't stop it, perhaps distract so someone else can.

If anyone is videotaping the epic Ded Moroz vs Krampus fight they are going to have an instant Youtube sensation on their hands. As the Robot monster trys to catch Warlock-clause up in his sack the alien bends backwards to avoid the sack in a matrix Bullet time like move comming up already swinging both candy cane swords at Krampus aimed one twords his midsection the other at his hands holding the sack. "Self-Friend Freedom Ring! Protect Santa Clause from Naughty Doctor Holly Daye. Self will deal with naughty child theif Krampus."

"Oh ... hey, it's the lady from the museum...!" It finally sinks into Roy's head, and he grins. "Not asking for babysitting, just keep an eye out... you too, Lian!"

But as Selina dashes off to do something inane, Roy blinks, glances down at his daughter, and shrugs. "What the hell..."

"Daddy..."

"Sorry, I'll put money in the swear jar later. Ummm... Lian, I'm gonna need you to do something for me...

A second later, Lian is perched on Roy's back, as the young man is dashing towards the very large beast. Leaving Selina to run interference, Roy dodges, leaps up onto whatever he can, trying to get towards the panel once again.

"Wheeeeee, horsey!"

"Not -now-, Lian!"

"Okay, ow," Freedom Ring groans. Pushing the pole off, he starts to sit up. He pauses when he hears his name, looking over. "You know who I am? Sweet!" Curtis grins, hopping to his feet. He'll be bruised up later but for now, back to work. When the giant Warlock-claus calls out to him, the reality alterer just blinks. "I'm gettin' famous, awesome," he laughs before moving to put himself between Santa and the Doctor. "Okay, lady. How about just givin' up so nobody gets hurt?"

Briefly mourning the poor tree that gave its needles to cracking the nutcrackers, Broo flies up to survey the situation. He eyes the battle between the Technarch Titan and the Anti-Santa Yuletime Yeti whose name sounds like a German euphamism for that time of the month for a lady, then the stand-off between the Doctor and Santa nearby with the guy who appears to have taken a wrong turn on his way to Santa's Workshop fighting the North Pole itself, the Man wearing an outfit that Broo himself would have recently envied as a much better rag suit then Broo's own scraps of cloth attempt chasing after the last few of the soldiers, and finally people running at a giant plush ceratopsid... It takes a moment for him to decide, but Freedom Ring and Warlock probably can help Santa, Ragman can wipe up the last of the Nutcrackers, and Selina and Roy probably can handle whatever crazy plans they have... but Lian really shouldn't be being carried toward the fight, so having heard the comment of a babysitter, Broo flies toward them and shouts, "Airborne child protection services, totally free. Please ignore my odd appearance, I am not bad, just non-terrestial. I will keep your offspring safely above the threats, and away from harm sir. There is a safe landing near the skylight well out of range of any projectiles and attacks... I can keep your little girl safe there until you have disabled these odd Ornithischia and Saurischia effigies." swooping down to grab a stuffed triceratops and anklosaurus in his hind claws, "I also will provide entertainment and distractionary services... all merely for the satisfaction that your offspring will not be at risk..." he adds, "Pleeeease?" trying to look and sound as cute as he can as he holds out his hands to accept Lian if Roy will allow it.

Oh see now we have a little dilemma, he is supposed to save the DJs but well he does agree with the soldiers dang it. But well Ragman is supposed to be a hero and stop things like that even if he feels the robot thingies are right. So he channels the souls so he can leap in front of the DJs and well stop anything from hurting them. "Maybe you guys should go home." Cause hey when wooden soldiers throw stuff at you, it's a normal cue to leave. The cape spreads out behind Rory as he speaks, trying to do his best to shield the guys behind him.

The giant dino doesn't try to stop Selina as she climbs on it. But it also doesn't slow down or try to make it easy for her either. Once onboard though, she might find something a bit... Odd. Namely that unlike the mini dinos, behind the frill of the giant one, on the neck, there appears to be a 'control panel' of some form. Or at least an ipad like touch sensitive tablet screen, which is active. Heck, the screen even looks like the dino is running off of a known OS. Albeit the OS is Windows ME.

Down in the food court though, things are falling apart. Literally. Because as Warlocks candy cane swords connect with the robo-Krampus, pieces fall off of the Krampus. Namely both of his hands. And if that wasn't bad enough, as the other sword hits the stomach, it splits open, revealing that this thing isn't an AI, or being operated by remote control. Instead it looks like one of the mini dinos, much like the ones running amok up above, is sitting in a chair operating the machine via a series of levers. Only the little dino inside the Krampus armor is a yellow bronto.

Speaking of the dinos, as Roy rushes towards the panel, the dinos... Move out of his way? Yeap! All though that green one does stay at his side too! And when he reaches that panel, he'd have access to any number of things. All it'd take is a press of a button and the emergency doors in the store would snap shut. Or the sprinklers would go off. Or an alarm would go off. There's even a button labeled 'Black Friday emergency', what ever that means.

On the up side, that panel is located right next to a window where one can see right outside the mall, /and/ it would become apparent that almost all the dinosaurs are not inside the mall, since those trucks they were on are in plain sight, and there's only maybe a dozen or so left leaping out of the backs of said trucks, and heading towards the doors they were using to get inside the toy store.

"Look... Who ever you are..." is said by Dr. Holly Daye as she giggles in a cutesy and bubbly manner. "All I want is to capture my arch-nemesis, The Eatser Bunny! I'm sure that he'd gladly turn himself in if I captured Santa! After all, it's not like he ever tried to hire an intergalactic bounty hunter who's been banned from both heaven and hell to try and kill Santa, now is it? So please...."

Then Holly reaches into a pocket, and pulls out an older looking 'Nerf Ballzooka' which she aims at Freedom Ring. "Back off and let me have Santa!"

Santa himself isn't wasting any time. As Freedom ring 'deals with' Holly, he starts to run. In fact he starts to run towards, and up a nearby stair case.

Now, have you ever had a dog follow you around? Or at least a puppy? You know, acting all tame and cute. Then have you ever had someone who it doesn't know up and show up, and do something that it could of thought was threatening? Now in most cases like that, a dog might whimper and hide. But a guard dog? They'd go on the attack.

Guess what Broo suddenly has to deal with as he approaches Lian and Roy, with that green dino there? Yeah, that's right. The green dino that was following Roy and Lian around suddenly lets out a loud /ROAR/ and leaps at the alien. How it manages to jump that high is anyones guess. What it can do probably isn't that much. But the little green dino does try to 'bite', 'kick', and otherwise attack Broo, if only because he's a scary alien, who came too close to his 'people'.

And as the DJs are protected by Ragman, they chime back at him.

"Sorry, if we leave before Christmas Eve, or before the entire truck outside is filled with toys, we loose our jobs!"

The nut crackers near Ragman don't let up with the pelting though. All though one does turn its head to look at Rory.

Then again, considering how many toys that the little dinosaurs have managed to get to this side of the mall, and into the donation bins, these DJs might not have to wait much longer. Heck, somehow the little dinos are even picking up the bins when they are full, and carrying them towards the nearest exit....

Tablets and other similar devices are not alien tech here and Selina can't help but to sigh a bit when she realizes that this should be easily taken care of. "Alright. Time for you to become extinct," she grumbles to the dino she's riding, it even petted a bit before she goes to work.

First thing she does is look to see if the thing's rigged to blow before tugging it closer to her face, the device given a glance while she looks for a power switch or something by which to shut it off. And once she does... here's for hoping the damn thing will turn off and hasn't been altered so it won't be able to powered down.

Warlockis not even appearing surprised as he breaks open the cockpit of the Mecha-Krampus to reveal a cute little dinosaur toy at the controls. The situation is just silly enough to get him him to react in kind. His own chest appears to crack open revealing...what looks like a Muppet designed by Brian Froud in a steam punk control center.

The Muppet Goblin inside of warlock's chest shapes a fist at the little dinosaur inside of Krampus and yells at it in a gibberish sounding high pitched language. Right, next thing youk now David Bowie is going to show up and start singing.

What the... was -that- another..." Roy begins, a second before the little dinosaur gets all protective. Blinking, Roy gets back -to- work, muttering. No safer place for Lian right now than where he -could- keep track of her. He'd just have to be very careful. And so Roy keeps heading towards the control panel, pausing to shake his head ruefully at the woman taking on the beast.

The quick glance outside the window causes him to frown. "So -that-'s where they're coming in from..."

A quick study of the panel has Roy considering his option. Whichever doors would keep the dinosaurs from coming in...

"What's Black Friday, daddy?"

"Shopping heck. I think this qualifies," Roy replies, automatically cleaning up his language in his daughter's presence. And he immediately presses -that- button.

Freedom Ring just smiles as Holly takes out the toy. "Yeah, that's not gonna happen," he says, smiling and putting his powers to work. A duplicate of the toy appears in Freedrom Ring's hand and he aims it at Holly. "So, how about we stand down then? Mine's real, y'know," he says. Nope, Curtis has no idea Holly's is probably more than a toy too.

A frown forms on Broo's face... he meant well, but then again, he knows he isn't the most obvious choice to be a babysitter, even if he would probably be one of the safest to have. He decides to not fight the guard toy, but instead restrain it, and use it and its 'siblings' he has collected... he use his free hand to open their zippers and begins examining their workings, trying to figure out how not only to stop them, but perhaps use those three to stop all of them. Heading toward the nearest computer or electronics store he looks around for tools used by the tech support people, in hopes he can hack the toys and use them to send a deactivation pulse to all of them... hey, he's an alien ultra-genius... he might be able to do it... maybe...

Ragman keeps with the cape spread out. "Then maybe listen to them and play some good music. Like you know Bing Crosby's White Christmas. That's a classic everyone loves it!" Maybe that will get the soldier thingies to stop throwing stuff at the DJs. "Or maybe Happy Christmas War is Over? That's another good one." He goes back to shaking his head now, "Seriously I'm Jewish, I'm not even supposed to be here today!"

It's a post Windows 95 version of Windows. There's an easy way to shut it down. Via the start menu. So while there might not be any explosives in the big dino, it does take a little bit for it to shut down once the shut down is initiated by Selina.

Or at least the dino tries to shut down, when the 'Blue Screen of Death' appears on the screen.

Either way, the effects are the same. Namely the big dino freezes up. As do pretty much all the little dinos in and around the mall, with a few exceptions.

The dino down in the robo-Krampus is one of those that freezes up. Only before it does, it starts to wave a paw at the muppet inside Warlock, as it lets out a short but of roars. odds are if it could, it'd be flipping the bird and cursing out Warlock, but since it can't do either of those, it just waves a paw and squeaks.

Or at least it did before it froze due to the blue screen of death on the big dino.

Of course things just can't calm down just yet, can they? Nope. Because Roy has to press /THAT/ button. Thus a siren goes off in the toy store, one that echoes through that end of the mall as a voice calmly states, "Warning! Store Self-Destruct initiated! Please leave the store! 10 Megaton nuclear explosive armed! Please leave the store!" Then the alarm stops suddenly, and the voice over the speakers in the store speaks up again. "Thank you for leaving the store. Our doors do not open until Midnight. We hope you enjoy your Black Friday shopping experience. And no, we don't have a bomb or self destruct sequence, but we will next year if people try to rush the doors before they open again. Thank you for shopping at Ties 'R Not Us."

And yet, as that happens, hopefully Roy and Lian are still near the window when what happens next happens. Because as that alarm shuts itself off, the sounds of bells jingling can be heard through the /ENTIRE/ mall. If one were to look up through the skylight the robo-Krampus entered the mall via, they'd see a sleigh pulled by eight reindeer taking off. Said sleigh and reindeer doesn't just up and fly off though. Oh no. It just starts to up and slowly circle the building a few times, coming down, and close enough that anyone looking through a window can see it. Then after the second time around the building, the fat man in the red suit on the sleigh can be heard shouting, "Merry Christmas to everyone! Ho! Ho! Ho!" before it takes to the sky and is gone...

Despite that though, Dr. Daye continues her standoff with Freedom Ring, "So? Mine is nuclear powered and fires my choice of ordinance, ranging from explosives to glue bombs! And I improved it so it makes a better noise too!"

Yeah, she doesn't fire her weapon though.

By the time Broo starts playing with the little dinos, the blue screen has caused all the ones he's holding except for that green one to freeze up. But it doesn't take much for him to create a bit of a feedback that not only causes a little smoke to come out of the green dino, but also all the others that are operating with their own independent AI, thus shutting down the rest of them.

And as the DJs continue to hear Riry, one of them (Satchel) rushes over and presses the play buttin on his controls, causing a song to start (not having yet realized that much like the dinosaurs, the 'nut crackers' have frozen in place as well).

o/~ I have a little dreidel. I made it out of clay.

When it's dry and ready, then dreidel I shall play.

Oh dreidel, dreidel, dreidel, I made it out of clay.

Oh dreidel, dreidel, dreidel, then dreidel I shall play. o/~

As the dinosaur in the Robo-Krampus freezes, and with him the monster robot warlock can only shrug and shrink back to his normal look. Seeing the standoff between Dr Daye and Freedom Ring he starts growing protrusions out of his back, shoulders, arms, legs and even the top of his head that all form into the shapes of various scary looking alien blasters with origins across half the Galaxy and a few from other Galactic clusters.

The over armed Warlock walks up to the Dr and attempts to tap lightly on her shoulder from about 10 feet away with weapons all aimed at her, along with a few laser pointer like sights for good measure. "Query, is now a good time to offer a chance to surrender to Self before megaton weapon detonates?"

As the blue screen comes up a sound that any Windows user will recognize comes from Selina, that being a shrill, angry scream that echoes off of whatever is near by. "And this is why I don't do the hero thing," she grunts before slipping off of the toy. Let someone who isn't a gray hat deal with that Windows-running POS. She's out of here.

The toy's slid off of and she looks around, not sure what to do now. "I need a latte," she yells just before the alarm goes off, the mention of the n-word getting her to freeze up until the point where the fact that there is no bomb is announced, that causing her to almost cry. Dammit, do not SCARE HER!

There's just the bit of eye-widening 'what the hell?' before the alarm stops, and Roy clutches his chest. "Ah HELL!"

Lian is too busy going "Daddy, do -that- again!" to pay heed, at least till she looks outside the window, and -shrieks-. "It's SANTA CLAUS!" she screams, as Roy blinks. When he looks, he's staring at a man in a red suit flying off. "Nuh-uh... no way," he says slowly, shaking his head.

"Uh-HUH!" Lian empathically nods.

"Yeah?" Freedom Ring smirks. "Sounds like what mine can do too. I betcha mine's better too," he says, continuing the standoff. He's distracted from most of the rest of the fight thanks to it. But then there's all the extra chaos and Warlock showing up. Curtis just blinks. "Huh? What's goin' on?"

Grabbing parts from the three 'toys' as well as some junk from the burnt out items and device recycling bins, Broo cobbles together a small object on the fly (literally, since he is flying as he makes it), smiling gleefully. He swoops down toward the stand-off between Dr. Holly Daye, Freedom Ring, and Warlock, then trying to sound as egotistically superior and inhuman as he can, he quasimonologues, "Inferior Terran Primatemeat, lower your weapon, you are outnumbered, outweaponed, and outmatched. This is a Technarch Trans-Temporal Sub-Particle Displacement Field Generator, and if you do not surrender within an acceptable period of your Earth Seconds, I will use it to scatter your recombinant electrons, protons, and neutrons through out time and space. Your existance will cease in your complete structured form and you will be as your Asiatic Philosephers desire to be, One with the entire universe. I however, unlike them, do not mean it on a spiritual level, as your atomic structure will be broken down so much that no spiritual part of you will be capable of functioning... and just so you know, your time begun when I began speaking and ends when I finish, so either place your weapon on the ground and lay down beside it, or prepare to cease to be." Oh yeah, this is what he thinks is acting tough... and who knows, maybe it will work. "Santa is already safely away, and he knows you have been bad, so expect plenty of carbon in the molecular formation that is black and crumbly and not in the form of sparkly crystalline structures."

With the dinos, and nut crackers frozen, depowered, destroyed, or otherwise disabled, there isn't much left to be said, is there?

Especially now that Santa Claus has flown off.

Oh wait, there's still Dr. Holly Daye. Isn't there...?

Well, as the standoff between her and Freedom Ring continues, she blinks, and turns her head slowly as she hears Warlock shift his attention back to her. In fact, what she see's when she looks at him is not only enough to get her to drop her weapon, but it's also enough to get her to slap her watch and say, "Easter is coming..." which triggers... /Something/.

Of course then Broo shows up and spouts all of that, which causes her fear to fade away as she looks right at him and says, "You know you sounded like a total idiot there with nall of that? *Giggle* Because you /soooooooooo/ did. *Giggle* After all, sometimes... Probably almost all the time in your case, less is more, including saying less. *Giggle*"

Then a Star Trek original series style telportation effect starts to kick in around the 'mad scientists' as she fades away. But before she's gone, Holly does let out, "Next time... Little Bo Peep at the Bunny's island home..."

And at the same time the other DJ tries to slip out before Ragman can try to eat his soul (if he even has one) for playing that song.

So where was Selina before all this started to happen? She was about to get herself a treat but now that this is all said and done a measely little cup of hot cocoa is not going to to cut it. But whatever she will hunt down in the form of comfort food is going to have to wait. What she does do is stand there. And wait for Roy and his rugrat. She'll see them both our.

Warlock gives a small wave too Freedom Ring. "Someone has apparently activated a self destruct system on the mall. Do not worry. Self can evacuate those in this area to safety if stand-off ends quickly. Please note Selfs confident and reassuring smile." Warlock points to his face, and a smile that on a human would not appear confident and on his face is in no way reassuring. Then, there was the Brood Drone.

If it was not frightening on some level to think of the Brood coming to Earth to infect and convert the human race then there is the fact that one is either insane and has no idea what it's saying or is bluffing like mad with every pseudo scientific sounding word it can throw out there. Either choice, not good for Warlock's confidence or ability to reassure others.

After the mad scientist disappears Warlock's weapons all get reabsorbed and then he starts to change shape again growing and forming into...a Runabout from the Star Trek Deep Space 9 television series. The entry to the ship opens and Warlock's voice pipes out of it. "Query, on the chance that the Mall sound system is not Bluffing like the talkative Brood Drone now is time to escape. Yes?" He offers himself as an escape just in case because, really, anyone that would go to all the trouble to make a mall as generic as possible might actually fill it with explosives just in case."

Freedom Ring just stares at Warlock for a moment. "I remember you now..." he trails off, not very reassured at all. He just continues looking lost and confused at Broo and Warlock's chatter, head tilting to the side. Silently, he hopes this isn't what working in the Baxter Building will be like. When the scientist disappears, Freedom Ring sighs and lets his weapons vanish. "...I should probably try to do something about that bomb..."

"Daddy, did you see that?" Lian has been going on for a few seconds as Roy leaves the store, pausing to pick up an old friend the triceratops.

There's a crooked eyebrow at Selina as she meets him outside. "Miss Kyle. Long time no see. I see you're much more than a pretty face." There's a tilt of his head towards the courtyard. "Tell ya what, I'll buy you a cup of tea and we'll catch up."

Floating down to the floor, Broo sighs, "Guess I need to learn this Bluff thing better." looking at his device, "Anyone want a useless pile of spare parts and some partially depleted lithium batteries? They are all refuse for reuse." he looks around, "I have much to learn about these Terrans it seems." looking sad, "Like why they would put a warning for termination of their life functions and then almost immediately have a message that says the warning was a false alarm, but that it may not be the next cycle of their planet." he looks around, "And now I can't ask Santa if he can get me membership into the Nova Corp." looking really saddened, "Hopefully at least I will not be on his naughty list. I try to be nice."

Rory eyes the DJs for a moment, but they ended up leaving the mall lucky them. He glances at the the things that are going back to normal andd well decides he doesn't need to be here anymore. And lucky for him the Suit has decided he should be somewhere else. So with that it just kind of teleports Ragman away from the evil that is the mall.

Warlock shrinks back to his normal self. "The warning contradicted its self? Self missed the ending in excitement." He says a little forlornly with a face much like that of a kicked puppy. With the offered ball of parts Warlock shrugs and extends a hand to take it from Broo and then...infect them with the TO virus and absorb them. After today he is at least in need of a small snack. "Perhaps if Brood Drone wishes to join Nova Corps Law Enforcement Agency it can write a letter to Santa Clause? Bloomingdale's Store advertises that they will deliver mail to North Pole home of Santa Clause."

The comment about being able to have a letter delivered to Santa cheers Broo up and he smiles, "Thank you Technarch." he pauses, "And I am not Brood Drone... well I am one, but my Hive is destroyed, and I am bittersweetly happy about that. My friends Jubilee and Kitty Pryde gave me the name Broo, so I am Broo now." and then looking over to Freedom Ring and waving with a, "Hiiiiiiiiiii." before zipping off to write and send off his Letter to Santa.

Later...

As Dr. Holly Daye returns to her lab, she looks down from her 'drawing room' onto a /HUGE/ room down below, where swarms of robots appear to be building something.

"Little Bo Peep should be ready by Easter... That is unless Stay Puff attacks first and steals the thing I'll need the most to finish it off..."

Then, as the screen goes dark her maniacal, but still bubbly and care free giggle can be heard...

Before the credits start to roll!

Dun dun dun!