Project: Gamer Ver. 2 Alpha Build X-Mas
Disclaimer Me Do: I own nothing you recognize. And most of what you don't recognize, I still don't own.
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Penny stretched, raising her arms well above her head and grinning.
It was getting colder, snow was piling high and she loved this time of year!
Even her system agreed with her!
~~ Special Quest! ~~
~~ The most wonderful I.D. of the year! ~~
~~ Defeat the evil Krampus in the zombie I.D. for special Christmas rewards! ~~
Which had not gone well for her, sadly. He was super strong, but she'd escaped the fight and the I.D. every time she'd taken him on so far!
So maybe it was time to ask for some help?
And she knew just the gamer to ask.
Which was convenient, since he was in the mountain base today!
...Which was actually kind of sad. Christmas was tomorrow, didn't he have anyone to visit? If she wasn't here looking for him specifically she'd be at home with her family.
"Hey Alchemist!" She finally found him, on his way to the Zeta terminal. "I need some help in an I.D., do you mind giving me a hand? There'll be loot! You like loot, right?"
"...Sorry Patty. I've got something going on today. Maybe later?" He... Had something going on?
She had noticed he was wearing a new, oversized white hoodie with red triangles around the hem, the sleeves and the hood. But she'd thought it was literally just a new piece of clothing.
"Oh... Okay. I'll see you later, I guess." He gave her a short wave before the terminal activated.
Leaving her alone and dejected. Maybe feeling a little rejected.
What did he even have to do? He never talked about a family, she'd seen his hobbies... He was a total nerd!
"You alright there, Penny?" She jumped in a full body flinch at the sound of Robin's voice. "Woah, hey chill!"
"Geeze, sorry. Kinda confused, I guess. I invited Alchemist to go do something for Christmas and he said he was busy!" Now who was she going to get to help her fight Krampus and save Christmas?
"Well it's just Christmas Eve, right? Maybe he'll be free tomorrow." Penny nodded glumly at Robin's attempt at helping before going home herself.
She'd just spend the holiday with her mom and dad and brother and sisters.
-----
Christmas morning rolled in, bright and early and filled with excitement! Penny could barely control herself, she wanted to run into the living room and see what her parents had put under the tree for her and everyone else!
Instead she found her parents and half of her siblings staring at the television, utterly entranced.
"What's going on?" She had to push one of her sisters over a bit to get a seat where she could see.
"Some metahuman turned up at all of the hospitals in Gotham yesterday." Her mom sounded worried. "He wasn't caught until he was leaving St.Judes."
"What was he doing?" And why hadn't Robin or anyone else told her about it?
"We don't know. We're just hoping your cousin Stacy is okay." Oh. That's why her mom was worried.
Stacy was a patient in St.Judes. They, her family was supposed to visit tomorrow.
Her dad turned up the volume as the news began to play an interview.
"-and this elf just walked right into our sons room. He was, had to be about six feet tall with long red hair, pointy ears. We thought, well, might just be some cosplayer or someone dressing up as Santa's elf. And he- he asked my son what he wanted most for Christmas." The woman on screen was crying, but she didn't seem as distraught as Penny expected.
"My son, my wonderful son. He told him he didn't want mommy to cry anymore. And he-he just- the elf clapped twice and said granted with this big, dopey grin on his face. He left a small box for [Censored] with a little hand-held game in it and waved and left. He walked right down the hall, did that in every room." She reached her hands up into the blur where her face would've been, probably to wipe away at her tears.
"When we went back this morning, [Censored] looked healthier than we'd seen him in months. He was sitting up on his own and smiling! He told me 'Mommy, can we get pancakes? I'm so hungry!' but he-he had a feeding tube in. He'd had it there since the chemo made it too hard for him to keep down food. My husband practically ran out the room to get a doctor since we- since we'd been told..." The woman on screen hiccupped before continuing her story.
"It-it has to be a miracle. It has to be! The doctors can't explain it, my little [Censored] has-had leukemia. This... This would have been our last Christmas with him but now... Most of the tests aren't back yet. But-but the ones that are, my boy, my little boy is healthy for the first time in his life. Ni'klas, if you're out there? Watching this? You gave my son back his life. You gave me back my child. I- my family and I can never repay you. Thank you. Thank you so much!" The screen soon cut off to show other families with their children, all excited and eager to run and play in their hospital rooms.
"Christmas miracle or mass hallucination?" The news anchors voice came in over the picture. "We asked more families as well as adult patients all throughout Gotham and got nearly the same story. Someone claiming to be Ni'klas the Christmas elf visited all of the long term patients across Gotham's various hospitals and did something, experts have yet to determine what, and seemingly cured the various and very different illnesses overnight. Everything from cancer to burns to even Smilex inhalation. All before being arrested outside of St.Judes where he went with the police willingly to the tune of several hundred possible charges of assault with a metahuman power. When asked about the status of the supposed Christmas elf, the Gotham City Police Department declined to respond."
"Hey mom?" Penny finally asked, feeling somewhat faint. "Maybe you should call Stacy's mom."
While her mom went to do that, Penny finally sat down in her now unoccupied seat on the couch.
She could hear the news anchor saying something about breaking news and the elf going missing, with only a bag of candy canes being left behind, but it was washing over her.
This... She got the strangest feeling that this was Alchemist's fault and she didn't know why.
-----
Batman had been furiously searching through Gotham for hours with no luck. Two-Face was lying low, Cobblepot was too 'legitimate', The Riddler had been drunk and the Hatter was just looking at a book and crying when Batman found him in an old-fashioned haberdashery.
Everyone else was still in Arkham.
Where they'd gotten Christmas gifts. That had completely gotten around the guards and didn't appear on camera.
Mostly books. Like Poison Ivy getting a new book on modern plant discoveries.
Scarecrow got a lump of coal in a red stocking taped to the outside of his door.
The Joker, much to the clowns ire, had received a book. 'Timing: The Secret to the Perfect Punchline'.
Though there was one odd outlier, The Joker's doctor, Harleen Quinzel had been gifted a book about cults and cult leaders called 'Who's Making it and Why? The Kool-Aid Kronicles'.
The closest thing to a breakthrough had been Player One calling him about Alchemist acting weird the day before and her suspicions as to his connection to the Christmas Elf.
It was a stretch and utterly absurd.
Which meant she was probably right.
The magician either didn't have his communicator with him, or he'd let the battery run out. Either way, Batman hadn't been able to contact him and he was nowhere to be found in Gotham.
In the mountain though?
The irksome wizard was sitting in the lounge, leaning back in the couch between Superboy and Power Girl half-asleep while Megan was telling a story.
He'd probably been here the entire time.
"-and then? And then my brother got a psychic skirlik to run under the priests robes! We got in so much trouble but for the next year Priest M'der couldn't go anywhere without hearing someone talk about him and the skirlik in his pants!" Neither of the two clones were laughing at her story, but Alchemist was at least chuckling.
Instead Connor was chugging his steaming brew, likely cocoa, while Karen seemed to be trying to get each of the marshmallows floating in her beverage.
"Alchemist!" The Dark Knight growled, immediately grabbing the attention of the rooms occupants.
"Present." And the one in question refused to be serious, choosing instead to remain perpetually flippant.
Bruce took a slow, deep breath and calmed down. Being hostile when dealing with Alchemist tended to have negative results. He would be perfectly reasonable and pliant, even doing exactly as demanded of him.
Exactly as demanded. However he chose to interpret that.
"Alchemist. Did you magically transform yourself into a tall, redheaded elf to go to the various hospitals throughout Gotham and heal people without their permission? And then, once arrested, escape from police custody while leaving behind a bag of custom made candy canes?" The last part had seemed to be insult to injury. The elf, according to Gordon, had literally disappeared between eyeblinks.
It had left behind a bag of handmade candy canes on top of a present addressed to Harvey Bullock.
It was coal.
"Batman?" Alchemist grabbed a mug from in front of him and sat forward, taking a long draw of his own cocoa while the various aliens were looking between them. "No offense intended, but that sounds like a lot of effort."
He offered no further answers, nor explanations.
A deflection, rather than a serious answer one way or the other.
With a growl, Batman turned to stalk off... Only to meet with J'onn just outside the room.
"Were you able to get anything?" He asked the taller, greener man.
It wasn't that Bruce disagreed with what had been done. If this worked, it would probably do as much good as Batman himself had done on the ground in Gotham all in one night.
But the problem was precedent, and copycats going out and deciding to 'help' when they were only making things worse instead.
"Yes." The male Martian answered. "Though I doubt you'll like it."
"Well, hit me."
J'onn J'onnz cleared his throat and then, in his usual monotone, began. "I want a dakimakura for Christmas."
Bruce raised one eyebrow in confusion before the Martian Manhunter continued, singing in a drab tone.
"Only a waifu Rainbow Dash one will do."
...He should have known better than to ask him to try and check Alchemist mentally. If this was intentional...
Batman would have preferred the coal.
