BiancaSantana880 ReptileEdge

Along the river basin, Wolf, Snake, Shark, Piranha, Dragon, and Hyena stared at the giant, metal thing with their mouths hanging open. Wolf cocked his head, realizing immediately that the metal creation.
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"Webs had built was actually a large mechanical robot designed to look just like a muscle-bound Santa. What it was, was obvi-ous. Why she'd built it was another matter?" Mason said.

"Hold on, Webs built a Santa Claus robot?" Pandora asked.
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"Roboclaus! Yes, and it was the best thing I ever build." Webs looked gleeful.

"Roboclaus' Built this bad boy for our Christmas morning bank heist," Webs explained. "The security bars will be no match for this mechanical Santa's super strength. I was going to surprise you all tomorrow, but you can call me a genius now. Check it." Webs grinned at them, as she pressed a button.

Roboclaus raised his arm as if to wave. But instead of a jolly wave, flames shot out of his hand. With a shriek, the group jumped out of the way to avoid being cooked into a blackened filet.

"It is surprising, for sure," Wolf mused.

"The normies will forget all about their precious Santa balloon once they lay their eyes on this beauty. It captures Santa's true nature." She cocked her head in the other direction, studying the surly and somewhat frightening-looking Santa. "None of that jolly business."
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"What did it look like?" Pandora asked again.

"It looked like Santa was being replaced by a robot killer." Hubert said.

"Aw come on, it was great." Webs groans. "I still think it was still awesome."

"Do you still have it?" Gray wondered.

Webs smiled, "Why yeah, do you wanna see it later kids?"

"Heck no!" Everyone shouts when they witness Roboclaus, they didn't wanted it to harm the kids.

"I'll show you kids later." Webs whispered to them.
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"The suit really should be operated by a driver." She nudged Wolf and added, "C'mon, Wolfie, try him on."

"Oh, that's-" Wolf began, backing away just a few tiptoed steps. He didn't really want to be the guy operating Webs's Santa mech. "I'm good. Thanks, though. And as great as... this is, the jolly component of Jolly old Nick is probably why noncriminal folks like him."

Webs hopped up onto Roboclaus's shoulder and whispered into his ear, "Don't listen to him. You're perfect."
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"Trust me kids, it was great, best thing I ever did" Webs says.

"No it isn't kids, don't listen to Webs." Mason said.

"Hey, put a bow in it, Wolfie." Tara said.
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Wolf held up his paws, trying to think and see if he could come up with other ideas on the spot.
Surely, this terrifying Roboclaus was not going to fill the hole left in peoples' hearts when they'd destroyed the real Santa balloon.

"If we all work together," he said confidently,
"I'm sure a bunch of criminal masterminds like us can make one silly Santa balloon."

"I mean, how hard could it be to create a perfect replica of the jolly old Santa balloon?"
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"I think it takes a lot of work to create a balloon Dad." Pandora says.
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The Bad Guys jumped right to work, gathering up as many materials as they could think of, hoping to build something that might trick the public into un-canceling Christmas. They sewed sheets together, painted the sheets red, and bustled to and from, building the best homemade Santa they could.

"Even I'm a little offended by this," Snake said, when they'd finally finished, and everyone stepped back to admire their work.
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"It was an eye sore." Hubert says to the kids.
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Webs covered Roboclaus's eyes, hoping not to scare him with their awful creation.

"His beard looks like a tentacle." Hyena announced.

"I feel scandalized." Piranha said.

Wolf's face fell. This was obviously going to be harder than he'd originally thought. But Bad Guys didn't give up. Ever. Even when a task seemed utterly impossible.
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"So were you gonna use Roboclaus to save Christmas" Mason Jr. asked.

"Not exactly son." Mason rubbed his head.
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"Okay," Wolf said, clapping to get everyone's attention a bit later.

He'd gathered the team at the heist board. It was brainstorming time.

"We lost some time there, but we'll just have to figure out another way to cheer up the city in time to rob it on Christmas morn-ing." He shrugged. "Which, sure, is in, like, twelve hours... so, lay it on me. What else says holiday spirit?"
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"Giving and spreading joys to others" Willow asked.
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"Stealing whatever we want because normally guards take the day off, Snake muttered. "But no, not this year. They'll be at work, ruining the only good thing about Christmas..."

"Only good thing? Are you kidding?" Shark gasped.

"What about all the classic Christmas criminals?"
He began testing out some of his favorite holiday disguises, knowing the team would be very impressed by all his options. "The Grinch?" he asked, sporting a puffy green wig.

Then he jammed a bowler hat on and said, "Hans Grouper?"

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"Who's Hans Grouper?" Viper asked then they all gasped.

"Only the greatest criminal of all time." Hubert says.

"Uh Snake, he is just an character from the movie famous Christmas movie die hard, you see kids, Gruber is a thief and criminal mastermind from East Germany who holds the Nakatomi Plaza hostage to steal $640 million in negotiable bearer bonds." Mason says.
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The gang didn't seem all that impressed. Shark knew it was time to debut his masterpiece. He tossed on a top hat and sideburns and blurted out, "And the OG of them all: Ebenezer Scrooge!"

The rest of the Bad Guys oohed and aahed.
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"But Ebenezer Scrooge turned good at the end, they all do." Pandora says.

"Exactly Princess." Drago said.
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Piranha nodded. "That guy's a legend. He parties with ghosts and wears a dress to bed."
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"Uh Piranha, I don't think that what Scrooge does" Pandora says.

"Really? That's not how I remember it." Pepé said.
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"And yet," Shark said, holding up a fin. "His story has never been properly told. So, I propose that we put on a show for the whole city, with me as Scrooge, and all the other characters, but without that needy, nefarious Tiny Tim tearing Scrooge down."
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"The point of the story is for the villain to learn the true meaning of Christmas, Dad." Gray says to his father.
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Wolf's eye twitched. He was trying really hard to keep it together, but they were getting a little too off course here.

"I would buy a ticket to that show," he told Shark, trying to keep his buddy happy. "But... we gotta stick to all the awful stuff people like-ahhh!"

He cut off as he noticed the giant eyeball of the charred Santa balloon staring at them from just outside the window of their living room. It was as though the annoyingly jolly guy was watching them, judging them. Wolf quickly reached over and closed the shades.

"My favorite part of the holidays," Piranha mused, "Is getting a lump of coal. Really makes me feel like I'm making good choices."
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"If I had to guess, you were all on good terms with Santa." Pandora said.

Everyone shook their heads in agreement, "No we did not." Mason says.
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The other Bad Guys nodded their heads in agree-ment.

"The Naughty List is a badge of honor," Shark said in a hushed whisper.

"Maybe we can get everyone some coal?" Piranha
suggested.

Wolf whooped. "Piranha, you're a genius."

"I am?" Piranha asked. He was confused.

"It was a good idea, but it wasn't exactly a great idea"
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"What was?" Pandora asked.
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Wolf snapped and said, "We're going to play Santa!"

"You mean Uncle Shark got to dress as Santa like he did last year?" Mason Jr. asked.
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Snake eyed him suspiciously. "Let me get this straight. Are you suggesting we give instead of take?"

"Think of it this way," Wolf said. "We'll steal the gifts from the big department store and then break into houses to leave them!"

Snake narrowed his eyes. "That sounds a lot like
Robin Hood, who is notoriously good?"

"Ugh," Webs groaned. "That guy is the worst. He ruined tights for me."

Wolf shook his head. "We're only doing good for the greater bad. If folks have presents waiting for them, they'll stay home on Christmas morning... and our Holiday Heist-tacular can live again!"

Slowly, Snake began to nod his agreement. It made— sense, in a sort of crazy way. The good kind of crazy. The Bad Guys' kind of crazy. Brilliant.

Webs lifted one of her eight legs and said, "We also have to deal with this." She hopped onto the radio and turned it on.

A blast of loud, angry heavy metal music blared out of the speakers. "After the balloon. uh, incident, the radio station stopped playing Christmas music and is instead broadcasting something called-'DOOM TUNES' instead." She cleared her throat and lowered her voice to a normal level once again as she shuts it off.

"This music isn't helping with holiday spirit. If someone could get into the recording studio to help, I could hack the station's antenna and stream my sweet Santa mix." Webs said.

Wolf turned back to the heist board. He was in full-on planning mode now. He began to sketch out the plan-they had the start of something good.

"Alright, guys," Wolf said with a devious smirk. "Let's go do some good, so we can be bad."

The gang grinned at each other.
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"Is that how you saved Christmas?" Pandora says.

"Oh no little princess, it was a lot complicated then that, this story is only beginning." Mason said.