A Scrap Pile Christmas

Guest-Starring DAZZLER!

I had been wanting to do a holiday issue for a while. My first thought was Halloween, but that was inconveniently timed. The Christmas season, meanwhile, falling at a point where I wanted to remind everyone I still very much dig the Scrap Pile, but also at a point where I didn't have everything together to pick up the ongoing campaign again, worked out really well. We all got together (again, minus the unfortunately overbooked Magi), wore Santa hats, and had a great time.

So, it was a cold, snowy Christmas Eve on Lightfoot Island and the team had a drink together at the base before heading off to their separate engagements.

Disco flew off to his holiday DJ gig at a bar in Beta City. On the way, he was confronted by a dark, winged figure who identified himself as Flying Fish and demanded that he turn over "the gift-bringer." The Flying Fish conjured up wind blasts and stuff, but was particularly vulnerable to Disco's light because he was made of shadow. Upon being defeated, the Flying Fish dissipated and a big red and green gift-wrapped box appeared nearby. Disco opened it up.

Torpedo got in his car to head to Morgana's Winter Solstice service in a grove outside town. He was greeted there by Goth, a shadow-woman who had darkness powers and the same agenda as Flying fish. Torpedo turned into lava, ruining his upholstery, but enabling him to take out the villain who, like her apparent teammate, turned into a gift box. Torpedo called the bomb squad.

Land Shark started walking across Lightfoot Island to go volunteer at the shelter. He ran into Harvey Wallbanger, a globular do-gooder with a strong Boston accent. He was looking to make a name for himself by taking out the Dastards, who were reputed to live in this area. While Land Shark decided how to answer, they were attacked by Ballistic, a sort of fire-based flying villain. Land Shark's street clothes got burned off and he was left with a skimpy costume Disco made. I don't remember why. Again, they were left with a gift which they opened.

Disco, Land Shark, Harvey Wallbanger, and a bomb-diffusing robot all appeared together in an other-dimensional ski chalet. The fireplace was encased in a giant ice crystal and ephemeral shadowy forms flitted about. Santa Claus was chained to a post nearby. Eventually, we got Torpedo in there too. Santa was chained up and the fire pit was frozen solid. Shadowy forms were flitting around. Santa said a rebellious elf named Snaptooth (who wanted to be a dentist) had stolen his mojo and was freezing the world into shadow or something. Land Shark's pug, Mr. Chompers, was there too, and kept telling Disco to kill everyone. Strangely, only Disco could hear this.

They skied down to the entrance to Snaptooth's lair while fighting off pterodactyls, because pterodactyls are cool. On the other side, they fought some reindeer men who knocked Torpedo out, then some snowmen and evil elves that looked pretty gnome-like. Then they fought Snaptooth and got Santa's bag and... I wanna say I threw in the Baby New Year thing from City of Heroes too. Everything after the pterodactyls is a little fuzzy.

Back on the ski slopes, the Angry Beet attacked for some reason, but was quickly bounced by Harvey Wallbanger. They got back to Santa, where the bonfire sprang up and the shadows resolved into party guests, including Dazzler and her band. Disco was ecstatic to meet his idol. Dazzler performed "Shadows of the Night," and everybody had a Merry Christmas.