I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday

“No, it’s just too dangerous.”

“I’m telling you, I’ve done the sums, I’m sure it’s safe. Tell her Jess.”

Jess Winchester, also known as Wisp, had just walked into what seemed like a very spirited debate between Billy and Lily Lyon, the secret identity of Rush, the fastest girl in the world. Jess had no idea what the argument was about; she’d come over to see how Lily had been doing since coming back to them, she knew Lily was still getting over the loss of her first boyfriend after he’d died in the line of duty, saving the entire multiverse. Jess was in no position to join the argument yet, though naturally she was leaning on siding with Lily, she was her best friend after all.

“Do I even want to know what you two are arguing about?” Jess asked, looking slightly worried.

“He wants to try a dimension jump,” Lily explained.

If Lily vibrated her body at the right frequency she could jump across into alternate realities and thanks to an invention of Billy’s she could carry people in her wake. It had led to an adventure in the sword and sorcery world of Avalous, but the price had been too high for Lily.

“I’ve been mapping the multiverse,” Billy explained, “I’ve found the perfect place to take a little break from the wild adventuring and just relax and have a good time.”

“That does sound like a good idea,” Jess pointed out, “I am invited, right?”

“Of course you…”

“No,” Lily cut him off, “you’re not because we’re not going. I’m sure you think it’s going to be great, but you know how this always goes, something will happen, we’ll get in trouble and one of us will die, or nearly die, and…”

“It doesn’t go like that when I go to the Fairealm,” Jess pointed out, “not all the time anyway. Most of the time I’m just hanging with Stella, Grom and Leo.”

“See,” Billy was impressed that Jess seemed to be siding with him, “Jess knows it’ll be good for us all. It’s just what we’ll need. It’ll be wizard, I promise.”

“Wizard?” Jess looked at him, unsure what he was talking about.

“It’s slang from about forty years ago,” Lily explained, “it means it’ll be good, and it’s probably some kind of clue to where we’re going.”

“Ha,” Billy pointed at her triumphantly, “you said going, you accept that it’s going to happen.”

“Are we going to meet Harry Potter?” Jess almost squealed at the idea.

“No,” Billy looked worried that he might be upsetting Jess by saying no to that.

“I don’t think that would count as being perfectly safe,” Lily pointed out, “no matter how awesome that could be.”

“I guess you’re right, and they do magic wrong anyway. So when are we going?”

“Jess I said we’re…” Lily sighed, “fine, we’ll go now. Let’s get this over with.”

“Do I need anything to go with us? Oh should I get a bikini, or maybe some suntan lotion?”

“No Jess,” Billy rolled his eyes at how excitable she was, “I’ve got a coat and gloves in the ship, that’s all you’ll need.”

They both looked at him strangely, trying to work out why they’d need coats and gloves, still they didn’t ask, they knew it would be pointless with Billy, he’d only tell them in his own sweet time. Instead Jess climbed into the ship and got comfortable, Billy had added seat belts and cushions since they last journeyed in it. Lily changed into her Rush outfit and began limbering up ready to make the dimension jump. Slowly she began to change how she was vibrating, ripping a hole in reality and carrying herself and the ship through. Moments later she stopped her intentional shivering and replaced it with the involuntary variety as she landed in the snow.

“Snow?” Jess said as she leapt out of the pod, she was incredibly excited, she hadn’t seen much snow in Jupiter City.

“Billy,” Lily sounded much less impressed, saying her friend’s name like it was an accusation.

“Yes,” he said with a grin.

“Why are we in some kind of a snow covered forest?”

“It’s a surprise,” he was still grinning broadly.

“And are you going to tell me what the surprise is?” She was starting to lose patience with him again, all his prevarication was was an attempt to slow things down, one of the things a speedster liked the least.

“It wouldn’t be much of a surprise if I just told you.”

She looked infuriated with him but before she could say anything else she felt something hit her in the back. Turning she saw Jess holding a snowball, ready to throw it at Lily. As soon as Lily saw her, Jess tried to act all innocent, like she hadn’t already thrown one at her best friend. Instantly Lily’s anger disappeared and was replaced by a mischievous grin.

“Oh you really made a mistake there,” Lily told her, she was being friendly with her threat, but the twinkle in her eye showed it was still a threat.

Jess barely had time to duck behind a tree before a high speed barrage of snowballs began to be hurled at her. Some of them never reached the target, melting from the heat Lily was generating by moving so fast; but more were hitting their target and if she hadn’t found cover, Jess would have been covered in snow.

In order to try and even the battle, Jess summoned a fireball in front of her to melt Lily’s projectiles in the air but it was too late, Lily had moved. Jess looked round trying to spot where the next snowball was coming from but Lily was too fast. The snowballs rained in from all angles, hitting Jess on the back, the shoulder, one even hit her in the face.

Jess abandoned the fireball after that and instead released a flurry of snow. Trying to blast Lily with it as she ran. It was like being able to have a continuous stream of snowballs that were following her foe. Both girls were giggling happily now.

Billy smiled as he heard the giggling, he knew they’d enjoy it here. That was when he took something from his ship, it looked like an icecream scoop on a long stick. He rolled the scoop through the snow and swung it round his head, releasing the snowball it had formed. He had done the sums in his head, he knew how fast Lily would be moving and he knew roughly the route she’d be taking, she moved into the line of his snowball just as it reached her. The impact caught her off guard enough to knock her down into the soft white powder below. Jess fluttered towards her but she too got hit by a perfect snowball from Billy’s device. Jess and Lily looked to each other, instantly declaring a truce and turning on their common enemy. Billy found himself under a sudden bombardment and had to duck behind his ship before he looked like a snowman.

The two girls moved round the machine, one either side, but by the time they got there Billy had slipped under his ship and out the other side. He then stopped, seeing the man watching them from the edge of the trees. Lily quickly joined him staring at the stranger that seemed still so familiar. When Jess joined them she had a simple question to ask about him.

“Is that Santa?”

The trio kept looking at the jolly looking gentleman who seemed to be of the larger persuasion with his flowing white beard and flowing brown coat. He stared back at them for a moment before he waved. Jess happily waved back.

“Technically of course he’s not Santa,” Billy pointed out, “though he’ll be around here somewhere, that’s the spirit of the season that preceded him, by maybe a thousand years.”

“Old Man Winter,” Lily mouthed, looking shocked and thrilled, almost as awed as Jess, “he’s a Pagan legend, he’d visit your house on the eve of the Festival of the Unconquered Sun and if you treat him well, gave him food and drink, winter wouldn’t be so harsh.”

“He still looks like Santa to me,” Jess giggled a little bit, "so if there's a Santa here and these alternate universes have dopplegangers in our world, does that mean Santa's real?"

"How did you get so good at the concept of alternate universes?" Billy looked genuinely impressed.

"Because Santa," she shrugged.

“So this is your big surprise?” Lily asked, “A world that runs at a different time scale and it’s Yule now?”

“It’s a bit more than that,” Billy grinned, “you know that song by Wizard, I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday, well here it is.”

“Seriously,” Jess was positively giddy at this notion.

Lily looked almost as excited as she said, “should we go see him?”

Jess didn’t need asking twice, she grabbed Lily’s hand and practically dragged her towards him. Old Man Winter didn’t move away, he just grinned and waited for them. That turned out to be a mistake as a trio of what could only be described as gremlins grabbed him, putting a bag over him, ready to try and cart him off.

Instantly the trio sprung into action. Lily was the first, running at the gremlins and knocking them away from their target. Jess was next to act, letting her wings pick her up and throwing a fireball at the gremlins trying to force them back. Billy was doing the same with a barrage of snowballs. It seemed to be backing the monstrous creatures off a little until they revealed they had reinforcements. The odds suddenly went from three on three to ten to one against. Even with these odds, Rush and Wisp were impressive and powerful heroines, they were able to hold their own and even were winning the fights they were in. Billy was finding it tougher, but his heroine friends were there to stop him getting into too much trouble and he was a skilled fighter in his own right. The trouble was, no one was there to protect Old Man Winter.

What looked like a soldier walked over to the bag he was trapped in, lifting it up and onto his shoulder. Wisp managed to break off from her fight and try and confront him. She stopped as she got closer, realising it was painted wood with a large mouth perfect for cracking nuts. It looked almost human but very much a toy soldier that it really creeped Jess out. She had stopped just long enough to have a trio of gremlins jump on her back, almost catching her wings. She was able to cast them off with blasts of wind and took them out with a trio of fireballs. It was just long enough for the nutcracker to get away with Old Man Winter.

The fight was quickly over but that didn’t mean that Lily was happy. She kicked a snow drift at such high speed it virtually melted. Jess tried to comfort her and calm her down, but the truth was she was nearly as frustrated. Lily pointed out that it wasn’t just that Old Man Winter got taken by gremlins and a six foot nutcracker.

“It’s that it always goes like this,” she explained, “this was meant to be a day off.”

“But the pagan Santa needs us,” Jess pointed out, “we can’t just let them do whatever they’re planning to him, right?”

“I know, and we’ll save him, but next time we go on a holiday I just wish it would be an actual holiday. I swear the universe, no, the multiverse doesn’t want to give me a break.” She sighed, happy to have gotten that off her chest. “Right, let’s go.”

Billy pulled a sled with a small engine, he knew they were going to a snow covered world, so made sure he had something to get about. He then joined Rush and Wisp, now fully transformed into their heroic costumes, as they prepared to run or fly through the winter wonderland they’d found themselves in.

It proved rather easy to follow the nutcracker that had taken Old Man Winter, he left distinct tracks in the snow. Though flakes were falling down again, Billy pointed out they would soon be covered. The footprints seemed to suddenly split up, with the gremlins heading one way and the nutcracker heading the other. Billy agreed to follow the gremlins in case they’d taken Old Man Winter from the nutcracker. He was ordered by Rush to simply observe and not actually fight them. He showed his phone as a sign that he’d let them know if he found anything.

The girls moved through the snow in perfect sync, it had been some time since they last teamed up, but they were best friends and it felt so natural that it didn’t matter, they had natural timing together. This let them moved swiftly through the snow, catching sight of the nutcracker just as he was reaching his destination, what looked like a large warehouse in a clearing. They watched as the nutcracker chained Old Man Winter to one of the walls. What looked like a marionette was ordering him about, gloating over his captive. The marionette looked like a little boy, only made of wood. He had painted on clothing looking like a school uniform and black, pudding basin hair. He was so deep in the uncanny valley that just looking at him sent a chill down Wisp’s spine.

“The Forgotten Toy,” Rush muttered.

This broke Wisp from her staring in terror, though it was replaced by her looking at her friend in confusion.

“The Forgotten Toy,” Rush repeated as if it was supposed to mean something, “it was a song my grandad used to sing me when I was a little kid. It was a toy, a puppet, that got left off Father Christmas’ sleigh, he never found a home, he was so sad. My mum never liked him singing that to me.”

“I can understand why, it’s hardly a festive classic.”

“But if all the legends of the season are real here, then he’s got to be the Forgotten Toy.”

“And what? He’s gotten bitter and has decided to steal Christmas?”

“Why not, I’ve seen Christmas films with shakier concepts. I bet I’m right and he’s all bitter about being the one that got left behind.”

“You could say that,” the toy said in his high pitched tone, he sounded like a person speaking while trying not to move their lips, his head swivelled to look at them, turning more than 90 degrees, Wisp let out a sight scream, “But one thing I’m not is deaf. You will not stop me on my quest to capture all the legends of the season, then all the children will know the pain of being forgotten.”

“Not going to happen,” Wisp pointed out as she adopted a heroic pose, Rush did the same, “Team Superfriendship are here to stop you!”

“Oh I don’t think so. Soldier, Frosty, deal with them.”

The nutcracker walked towards them, drawing his sword, unlike the rest of him that was made of wood, the sword seemed to be an actual blade. Behind him was a snowman that seemed to stand almost eight foot tall, towering over the six foot nutcracker and the three foot Forgotten Toy. These two guards marched towards the heroines, forcing them to drop back and face them out in the snow.

“I’ll take the special snowflake,” Rush suggested, “you handle the nutcracker.”

“Why do I get the creepy, freaky wooden guy?” Wisp asked, not thrilled at the idea of fighting the human-like figure.

“Fine, I’ll take the nutcracker, you take the snowman.”

Wisp nodded at this and the duo split to face their own foes. Rush drew the shield that had once belonged to Omega. She used it to block the nutcracker’s swinging blade, batting it away and hitting him with a barrage of punches. The large wooden figure simply took them without reacting. As such Rush took a few steps back and drove the shield into the wooden soldier, driving him back into the wall of the warehouse. He didn’t seem phased by this either. Instead he opened his crushing jaws and tried to bite Rush. Rush stepped back as he did and tossed her shield like it were a discus. It had been launched in the time it took the nutcracker to close its mouth, getting caught inside. The nutcracker kept on biting, hoping to squash the shield but instead the wood simply splintered. Rush grabbed the shield from the harmless timber that remained.

Wisp was ducking and dodging out of the way of large lumps of snow and ice the giant snowman was throwing at her. She had been on the back foot from the start of the fight, having been hit by a lump of ice as she flew towards it. Now she was simply looking for enough of a break to fight back with an attack of her own. She landed behind a tree, conjuring up a fireball to defend herself. She stepped out and began flying straight at the snowman before tossing the fireball. It hit the snowman in the chest, melting a large hole in him that Wisp shrunk down to fit through.

“Sorry Olaf,” she called back as she waved apologetically, heading off to save Old Man Winter.

When she joined Rush inside the warehouse once more she stopped, just like her friend. They were in a standoff; the Forgotten Toy was stood in front of them, a knife held to Old Man Winter’s throat. Wisp looked to Rush, asking what they should do. Rush simply shrugged, she wasn’t sure she could get to them before the Forgotten Toy struck.

“You will not stop me,” the toy called out, “I will have my revenge, I will strike him down. I may not get all the gift givers, but I will get him. I’ll make him pay for abandoning me.”

“You do know he probably didn’t take you because you’re pretty creepy,” Wisp told him.

“Shut up!” he declared.

Rush suddenly saw the chink in his armour.

“Wisp, don’t antagonise him,” Rush said, looking away from the Forgotten Toy, “I mean, I’m not saying you’re wrong but the poor pathetic creature doesn’t need to hear that.”

“I am not pathetic.”

“I’m just saying that puppets are just so creepy,” Wisp told her friend, not realising that she’s getting the toy flustered, she turned back to him for a moment, “no offence.”

“I know but do you really think that’s the best thing to say to him? He’s just a bit desperate, I mean it would be sad if it wasn’t so funny.”

“Don’t you dare laugh at me, don’t pity me, you should fear me.”

“Fear you,” Rush laughed, “why would I ever fear YOU?”

“I’ll show you why.”

He dropped Old Man Winter and lunged at Rush. As soon as Old Man Winter was out of the line of fire, the Forgotten Toy was hit by the double whammy of Rush’s shield and a large lump of ice. The toy crumpled, broken to the floor. Old Man Winter smiled to them as Rush mouthed the word ‘sorry’ to the toy.

“Don’t worry child,” Old Man Winter said as he shrugged off his chains like they were never really there, “he will be recovered by the morning, and hopefully in this version he’ll understand why he is there. That poor one we spare a thought for that reminds us how much we’ve got.”

“Is this one of those meaning of Christmas type things?” Wisp asked.

“Would you like it to be?”

“I’d rather have a present.”

“Wisp!” Rush almost scolded.

Old Man Winter just laughed.

“Well you did save me,” Old Man Winter winked to Rush and flurished his jacket. It was like it wrapped round them all and suddenly they, along with Billy were back in the field, beside Billy’s ship. “You have all earned a little something.”

He handed Jess a picture, for a moment she was confused but then something clicked in her mind, it was a picture of her mother, her birth mother, from when she was Jess’ age. Jess smiled, she could see so much of herself in her mother’s eyes. Jess moved to take it back to the ship. Old Man Winter then stepped to Lily.

“All I have for you is a goodbye.”

He placed his hand on her temple and Lily was transported into a mind scape world and much to her surprise Omega was there with her. She hugged him as tightly as she could. She wanted to tell him how much she missed him; how she wasn’t sure if she could go on without him but she was finding the strength; that she was so proud of him for what he did but wished he hadn’t done it. In the end she could only say three words.

“I love you.”

“I love you too,” the phantom replied, “more than I thought I ever could, and as long as you love me I’ll never be far from you. I’m glad I get to say goodbye this time.”

Then the hug was broken and Lily was back in the world, a single tear rolling, slowly, down her cheek.

Jess loaded her picture in the ship and as she stepped out to see Billy working on it ready for the voyage home.

“You haven’t had a present yet,” she pointed out.

“I don’t think I need one,” Billy shrugged, “I didn’t exactly do much to help.”

“You got us here and you do so much to help Lily,” she noticed the sprig of mistletoe hung on the edge of the ship, directly over where Billy was working, she tenderly leaned in and kissed his cheek, “guess that’ll have to do until it’s actually Christmas. I never thought you’d be the type to hang mistletoe.”

She went over to give Lily a big hug as she noticed the tear and how sad, yet somehow happy she seemed. Billy looked up at the mistletoe above him curiously. He was wondering how it got there, Jess was right, he hadn’t put it there himself. Old Man Winter walked by, heading to greet some other travellers, but paused as he passed and gave Billy a sly wink, and then he was gone.