Helping Orphanages? Are you even a villain anymore?

Diana rolled her eyes at the song and at the girls singing. She was acting like she was too cool to sing along.

"Yeah something like that. Are you sure it's not a Murder of Crows? Anyway what should we get? Ponies for the girls, Transformers for the boys?" Diana asked, mentally directing the Ravens to fly ahead and scout the mall, making little hand gestures as she did.

Once they found a spot, Diana the Bloodsword exited the Fiesta, and noticed something was off. "Something's wrong here. There's a massive sale going on but no one's around." Diana looked around and saw that some of the cars in the parking lot were left open, groceries left in the backseat, some of them fallen to the ground.

People left in a hurry, of that Diana had no doubt. Consider the nice boots that were close enough to Danny she couldn't miss them... Prada. Lying on the ground. In plain sight. Just her size.

While the Ravens reconnoitered the interior of the mall, the parking lot Subway stall was shaking violently. Its service door crashed open, and there stood the ugliest beast this season. A large canine, mutated, hairless, face pulled back slightly to reveal its swollen fangs and jaw. It wolfed down whole Salami and Pepperoni, and even chomped down on bacon, hard boiled eggs and whole wheat buns. It eyed the girls, barking loudly and aggressively.

"...I think that thing is still hungry." Diana suggested. It seemed they walked in on trouble.

"Girls do enjoy ponies, but we should also get them something to increase their interest in science too. The boys do enjoy robots. Those will be best. What about the small one who smells? Is he like other boys?" A rattling from the cart did not overshadow the words coming from Tsukimi. Tsukimi reached down and lifted the Prada boot and pronounced the name slowly. "Pra-Duh. I remember this name from Mitsuko's fashion blog. She labeled it a 'hot' item."

"You should listen to her more often." Danny walked past the two girls to look into one of the cars. "What happened here?"

"Something wicked this way comes. The conspiracy of ravens do not lie."

"What is it going to take to get you to get over not telling a nun the truth. Exactly what tie do you even have to her religiously?" A rumbling began to shake from within a cart on the corner of the lot, unbeknownst to Danny and Tsukimi.

"All who embrace a spiritual route should be respected."

"Tell that to suicide bombers. They're pretty religious."

"But, not spiritual. They merely embrace violence so-" The air exploded with meat. Sausage, pepperoni, turkey, the bombardment did not stop until the two girls looked up to see the feral creature consumed by a greater right to consumption.

"Time to get religious on his ass." A blade formed around Danny's wrist, shooting down into a point just beyond her fingers. Tsukimi offered up her assistance by moving to take a downed parking sign as a spear. "I'll take him from the front, you get him from whatever angle doesn't get you killed." Charging a massive beast came with some risks, but a magical bracelet capable of constructing barriers made it much more doable.

"Guys, you should get back in the car, I'll handle this." Diana wanted to keep her new so-so friends away from harm, when they instead decided to take ass-kicking poses. Tsukimi improvised a weapon, while Danny proved to have a hard light weapon. Wait what? "...Ohmygod, Is that some kind of lightsaber?" Diana asked Danny with great wonder as she produced her weapon.

The monster canine snarled, demanding attention. Well, not to be outdone, Diana reached into her her hoodie and the shadows seemed to extend around her. Emerging from the shadows, a weapon came into Diana's hand. A black sheathed katana, darker than darkness itself. Diana holds it in a defensive pose, taking a relaxed stance as the mutant hound inched closer to attack...

It charged, fangs bared and snarling, carrying its weight on its swollen muscular legs. It leapt to take Diana at the throat, to which the seasoned martial artist responded with gripping her weapon by the sheathe and using the hard pommel to strike it in its lung and send it reeling into a car that certainly was not Dana's. Its muscle and skull were thick enough to avoid being knocked out, but It whined like any dog when it made a dent in the van. It staggered to its feet, shaking its head, for a precious few seconds vulnerable to attack.

"Stay in the car she says." Taking heed to the warning, Danny put up a constructed wall to funnel the beast towards herself. Her very capable self. A barrier of light would wrap around the dog's mouth to keep it slightly less dangerous. Once it ran into the van, Danny would make an effort to pin the animal in place with a collar around its neck and a chain tethering to the ground. "I'm not sure if one dog chased off everyone from this mall."

Tsukimi kept her makeshift weapon to herself, finding her aid to the fight unnecessary. The mall behind her sat still, and that stillness sat heavy on Tsukimi's mind. While Diana and Danny continued to deal with the dog, Tsukimi let her investigative instincts carry her into the mall, looking for whatever clues she could find as to why the mall's population disappeared in such a quick fashion. Then she thought of fashion. Danny said her sweater was ugly, maybe she needed a new friend. Or a new sweater.

Diana drew her sword, both hands on the handle and approached the mutant dog Danny captured. Muzzled and chained up by hard light restraints, the dog growled and struggled, tugging on the chain to get free but to no avail. It snarled at Diana, seeing her intention to do it harm.

But alas, if there was something that tugged at Diana's conscience, it was victims of circumstance. On closer inspection, The dog had deep collar scars, and was mistreated. A large patch of needle holes on its neck and its large dilated pupils spoke volumes of what was put into making it the creature it was now. "...Nuts. I don't think I can put this thing out of its misery." Diana said, lowering her weapon.

A Raven flew above Danny and Diana, circled around and flew down to rest on Diana's shoulder. It looked as though it whispered something in her ear. "...There's... ten... twelve or so mutant dogs inside, looking for something and messing up the place. One guy is leading them. If this guy was the one who transformed these dogs, I'm letting my birds peck out his eyes." Diana was kind enough to relay her intelligence to Danny, letting her take an option. "So. How you wanna do this? Front door? back door? roof?"

Tsukimi would very much notice the crushed cars near the entrance that was unceremoniously widened, by something very large and leaving cracked footprints in the ground. Near the entrance, the first store they would see was Disney's Frozen merchandise booth, plushies of Olaf scattered on the ground, chewed up. The other stores inside fared no better.

"Looking for something?" The snarl of the animal but through the air in Danny's direction. It looked as though it would hold for now, an accomplishment Danny could live with. "What can you find at a mall?" The question bounced around Danny's ears and then sounded out the clarity. "You know, besides Frozen apparel and pretzels." Diana spoke out the details of the creatures. Given their numbers, Danny did not know if she could restrain them all. "Taking on ten could be tough let alone twelve. Do we try to make a diversion? It will be hard to sneak past these dogs since they can probably smell us as we approach." Her thought could carry some weight, but she could not fully account for just what might happen with these mutated breeds. "Let's try the roof."

The roof approach would come with some assistance from Danny and her magic bracelet creating a ladder for the duo to climb. Diana seemed capable enough to make her way up, but Danny could not figure out where Tsukimi ran off to.

"It's a snowman." Tsukimi reached down to lift Olaf. "I remember this guy. He was in a movie I saw." The display reminded her of even more things. And a number of sweaters called to her. "These look nice." She rubbed the material of a sweater with Elsa and Anna. It reminded her of Bliss and herself. "I can get two. And give one to Bliss." She looked around to see no one manning the shop. "But, I need to pay for these. Thirty dollars?" The credit card in her pocket called. But was it really a gift if she bought it using Bliss' money? "This does not seem honorable, but the spirit of the gift would be suitable."

Tsukimi knelt down with an Olaf doll and pulled out her phone. She texted Danny a simple message to send her pictures of the sweaters as well as a statement asking for her advice on purchasing, or just taking the sweaters.

The message came at a very poor time as Danny and Diana both attempted to sneak their way into the mall.

Diana was getting started on climbing up a big downspout, when a ladder made their vertical transition much easier. "You a green lantern now?" Diana hopped over and sprinted up the ladder, with hardly any difficulty scaling it.

Once on the roof, Diana's sword had some subtle rumblings only its owner could hear."The artifact. It is intriguing. We should fight the Danny creature and take it." Diana shrugged it off, and followed Danny.

The mall was still playing Christmas Carols even as the hounds were sowing chaos all over the mall. The song playing as they stalked the roof, Snoop Dog and Anna Kendrick's Winter Wonderland.

"Snoop... Dogg." Diana mouthed silently as she peered down the sunwells on the roof. She was able to pin down the ring leader, some man in a red coat sporting a hook hand, stalking the mall. He looked at all the Christmas-y decor and actually spared the time to destroy them with his saber. Then he calms down- relatively- "It's him..." Diana thought angrily. She drew her sword but she didn't attack immediately though, as the man was followed by a four mutant hounds... and one much bigger creature. A hound that towered all the rest, its hunched, twistedback almost within arm's reach from the roof.

Diana had studied the creatures for awhile now. She came up with a very odd observation to her new ally, an observation only a hardcore gym goer could. "The dogs all seem to be having roid munchies. We should check if there's still... food somewhere. Hey, where's your friend?"

Meanwhile with Tsukimi...

Suddenly, with a crash and mall signs being pushed aside, a little cat was sprinting for his little fluffy life after being chased by three howling mutant hounds. The cat climbs up the main atrium Christmas tree, hanging onto the star for dear life. And now the dogs were barking at it.

The animals almost disregard Tsukimi's presence, but one hound glimpsed the stray intruder and stalks towards her. The mutant growls, muscular legs carrying it closer and closer, preparing to pounce.

A man in a coat stirring up trouble in a mall? "I haven't seen that since, well, maybe last Christmas. I don't know what about the holiday brings out these weirdos, but for some reason it does." An entry way to the mall looked easy enough to get to. She just needed to pry the window open and the duo could slip past the hounds and into the center of the court. "Do you want to take St. Nick and I get the hounds, or the other way around?" Taking the dogs out of contention would take some time. "Who knows if this guy would notice his dogs are gone or if he has taken hostages or not. We might need to deal with him right off the bat."

Danny pried the window open with a constructed bar and then crawled into the mall through the skylights. The rafters surrounding the upper levels of the mall would let them dip down wherever they needed to go. "Grab some food? I guess we just need a fan to get the dog's attention down to the food court." Danny would head off in that direction, looking to draw the attention of the dogs.

Tsukimi stuffed the two sweaters in a bag and left a note on the counter informing the retailers she would return to pay them in whatever way they felt fit for two Frozen sweatshirts. Her penmanship made no sound at all, but the life saving maneuvers of the cat brought forth the sounds of destruction. The animals surrounded her, making the outcome for Tsukimi less than amazing. "Good doggies. I like doggies. Good doggies." Tsukimi backed up against the wall, looking for an exit.

"I'll handle Fashion Santa. Seems like he hasn't learned his lesson from when I cut off his hand." Diana said with a particularly bloodthirsty attitude. She drew her blade and neatly sliced the padlocks on the skywells. Her pet ravens fly into the mall, staying out of view in the rafters, while Diana follows Fashion Santa as he angrily breaks into a Pharmacy's cool storage.

FAST FOOD COURT

Much like the rest of the mall, the Fast Food Court had been quickly evacuated. Tables and chairs were in an OCD's nightmare of disarray. Burgers, fries, burritos, nachos, sodas and other such food items were left on the table or fell to the ground. Christmas carols were playing, but there was but one soul there who emerged from the bathroom, headphones on and eyes closed, headbanging to Nu Metal, blissfully unaware of his surroundings.

Once he returned to his station, he'd simply look around and comment. "Whoa, slow day today." The fast food attendant spots Danny coming in, and goes wide eyed a moment, and checks his reflection in a conveniently placed mirror. He turns to her, fairly oblivious to the crisis on hand. With a smile and an enthusiastic demeanor he chrips the store's welcome line. "Welcome to Crave Burger, home of the Crave Burger! can I take your order?"

Meanwhile...

As the hound broke into a charge, teeth determined to have some Tsukimi Chops, a corvid intervention came just in time as the Bloodsword's familiars descended and pecked at the hound's eyes, giving her precious time to act. The hound angrily bit at the air, catching one raven in its mouth and violently thrashing and biting it to death... this only goaded the remaining familiars to peck harder.

"You cut Santa's hand off? How many lifetimes are you on the bad list for that?" While Danny would consistently make the 'good' list for years to come, it did not seem she would be putting her future in jeopardy for fighting against Santa Clause. The padlock fell from the rafters. The clank rang out through the empty halls of the mall. It filled Danny with nervousness at the sudden sound. Her nerves quickly moved towards the conspiracy of ravens, completely giving Danny a stroke of amnesia towards the padlock. "What is with these birds and attitude? At least I can get somewhere quiet. Try not to die killing Santa Clause."

Danny hopped from the rafters towards the catwalk. After clanking her way across a metal bridge, Danny broke through a metal door leading to a stairwell, descending her from the improvised entrance and into a gray, tile hallway. The odor of the corridor smelled something along the lines of burning bread, wet dog, and industrial sanitizer. Not enough of the last one though. The doors running down the hall looked too similar in design to lead anywhere other than into storage or back rooms of fast food establishments, so Danny just followed the flow of her echoing footsteps til she came around to a small hall leading towards a door beaming with a small break of light.

For a moment it stood as the most promising lead. The moment after the sound of ravens squawking and some form of Japanese being spoken drew Danny's attention a little further down the path. Nothing in the food court needed her attention that would not be there in a matter of minutes. Another door with the similar design sat next to another row of similar doors, but this time the stirrings behind the door pulled Danny's attention. Stacks of boxes fulled to the brim with plush toys and sweaters made an inefficient labyrinth. Danny hopped over the labyrinth and told the Minotaur within 'not today'. Today, she reached her hand through the door and grabbed a handful of ugly sweater. "Suzy! Why are you here?"

"Do you think Bliss will like this sweater?" Tsukimi managed to avoid any transgressions brought to her by the hounds, still holding onto the Frozen sweaters.

"I don't want to know what Bliss does and does not like." With the rampant noise continuing to sound out through the store front, Danny and Tsukimi slipped back into the hall, where the familiar smell awaited.

"I like the smell of the cleaner, but everything else smells like calories." Tsukimi still held onto her bag as Danny pulled her towards the door she found a few moments ago. Much to her earlier prediction, the world in fact did not change over the course of her going to grab Tsukimi.

The duo waltzed into the food court taking in the scene of total disarray. "Can't blame this one on the dog."

"Look a server." Tsukimi struck her arm into Danny's nose, turning her entire head with it. Before Danny could push words into Tsukimi's forearm, the Japanese girl pushed past Danny and up to the counter. "Do you know what happened here?"

"Hold on Suzy. You need to be more delicate." Danny took her place by Tsukimi. "Do you know what happened here, and are your milkshakes still on sale?"

The server at Crave Burger seemed to need a few moments of looking at Danny and Tsukimi before he could respond. Blinking, he explains with a straight face, pointing out the menu on the counter, the images of succeedingly large and photo shopped clean burgers. The Pekish Burger was a modest thing, more akin to a slider, while the Titular Crave Burger was a monstrous triple patty, triple cheese, quadruple bun abomination of grease and fat. with a little onion, lettuce and tomato.

"Milkshakes? But this is Crave Burger, we only got Crave Burgers... Peckish Burger, Hungry Burger, Starvin Burger, then the Crave Burger. Yeah." Satisfied with himself, it took a moment before he Looked at where Danny was looking, the large sintra board menu that proudly displayed milkshakes. Vanilla, Chocolate, Strawberry, and Pumpkin Spice. With a special +1 regular for ordering an XXL Shake.

"Whoa we serve Milkshakes here? yeah, yeah. Uhh, we got like, a couples' special rate..." The server looked at the poster, then at the two girls. "Uh... I mean, it's totally okay if you're not a couple when you buy it... but I'm also saying... if you are a couple that's also totally okay... and hot..." The server stopped that line of thought. "Would you like a Crave Burger with that?"

Meanwhile, the worrisome sounds of the hounds growling and searching in the hallways outside grew a bit louder.

"Pumpkin spice." The two girls said in unison when their server finally corrected his mistake in not seeing the milkshakes. Tsukimi leaned over the counter to try and see if there was anything noticeably out of place- other than the server of course.

"Yeah, I'll take the XXL. She can have the regular." The sound of echoing paws began to move away from the store they first ransacked. "I guess Olaf doesn't have our backs."

"I'm glad I took the sweaters with me." The bag still contained the IOU purchased Frozen sweaters.

"Those are ugly sweaters. You have terrible taste in clothes because clearly Bliss and Mitsy took all those genes from you." The two continued to bicker until offered a discount. "Oh, a couple?"

"A couple of what?" Lost in some degree of translation, Tsukimi did not look up from her bag.

"Yeah, we're a couple. Give us the discount." Danny rotated her hands to try and make the cashier move faster than Tsukimi's ability to translate American concepts.

"A couple of shakes?" The sounds of animals in the hall pulled part of Tsukimi's attention and all of her gaze.

"Yeah, that. We need them now. So, hurry." Danny walked over towards the entrance to which the dogs would make their wild attack, prompting Danny to come up with a means of dealing with the problem. A sled, big enough for two with cup holders for shakes, materialized in front of Danny. She attached a number of leashes equal to the the number of dogs making a run towards Danny would emerge from the sled, ready to latch themselves to the dogs as Danny manifested a number of muzzles around the dogs. "Tsukimi, hop on. And bring the shakes. We have to save Christmas!"

The server leaned into his mic and spoke to the non-existent shake crew. "Uhhh, one extra extra large pumpkin spice, and one regular pumpkin spice please." he said contentedly, then waited for a few seconds. He repeats his order, and repeats it again. He looked in the back and confirmed that indeed, no one else was there.

"Ugh, these people, taking unauthorized breaks. I am so sorry ladies, I'll get your shakes myself. I'll be with you in a few minutes with those shakes, kay?" He apologizes to them and struts into the kitchen, singing a punk rock tune.

The dogs of war were loosed upon the food court once more, their attention on the girls only slightly diverted as they sniffed some cold food and drink strewn on the floor. Ohmygod is that a burrito? num num num.

The dogs wandering into the food court proved their own undoing as the abundance of processed meat and simple carbs took the edge of their aggression, as they seemed to fall into semi- food comas.

Server Guy came to the counter with the girls' orders. "Here you go, Extra extra Large pumpkin spice and regular... hey, uh, I don't think you're allowed to have pets inside the fast food court... so uh... could you like tell your dogs to wait outside?"

The dogs' hungers satisfied, they did not resist Danny's leashes and muzzles. The food had turned these killing machines timid, and they readily obeyed her whims, albeit moving at a slower, gut-bustingly full pace than one would see in action movies.



From where Diana was hidden she saw that the dogs were gone, leaving the distracted red coat alone in the Pharmacy. Cocky and overconfident, Diana does not bother with her advantage of surprise- instead shadow jumping and manifesting beside the figure, then throwing down a challenge.

"You know... I'm honestly amazed you had the guts to show your face around here after I took your hand." Diana side, pacing around her opponent. He paused in what he was doing for a moment, before getting back to it.

"The Sewer King is full of surprises." The man said, tearing through the pharmacy shelves without really looking for anything in particular. Diana looked around at the mess, seeing that the man missed a few medications that should have helped with his blood loss.

"I just greeted Mutt earlier this evening over pizza. That hero stopped me from offing you last time, but now I finish the job, Sewer King." Diana raised her sword in a threatening stance.

"Oh but I think you're mistaken. I am not the Sewer King." The figure turned around at last, face to face with Diana. He wore the Sewer King's coat and walked like him, but it was not the old man Diana fought. No, this was some deliberate impersonation by some dark robed, masked figure carrying a combat-ready saber. His attire screamed of treachery and deceit... and star wars.

"Uh... who are you?" Diana's eyes widened at the realization she'd talked too much to a stranger. She tries to keep her cool, delivering a quip. "Did you grab your Revanchist mask from the Star Wars section of the you store or something?"

"Amusing. Any similarity I assure you, is unintentional. My name is not important. Suffice it to say your meddling in greater affairs has gone on long enough... but my master has seen your skill. He offers you a place at his side... if you turn on your ally." He said with a straight tone behind the mask, his voice also concealed and garbled by electronics to sound more menacing.

"Sorry. It's Christmas if you haven't noticed. This is my one good deed for the year... Just for that, I'm taking your fancy mask."

Diana springs into combat, initiating with deadly swings and thrusts, but her opponent meets on an even footing, using the power of his red energy ring to give himself a greater advantage with energy blasts and levitation.

"Grab on Suzy!" Danny mushed her new dog squad along as Tsukimi hopped onto the back of the sled. Pumpkin spice really did something for the season otherwise missing with the rotting food and horrible smelling dogs.

"Can we take this thing off road?"

"Where we're going, we don't need roads!"

Tsukimi wrapped herself around Danny's waist as she tried to slide over and take a seat. "I don't want to go to the 50s!"

"We need to help Diana fight Santa." The dogs shot up an escalator, taking the duo closer towards the duel happening before them. "Something tells me this 'Santa' isn't quite what he seems."

"He better be evil. I do not want to get put on the bad list for life."

The squad of dogs pulled the sleigh up the escalator, putting Tsukimi and Danny within eye sight of Diana vs her masked adversary. "I need my power to help Diana fight, so I'll need to find a way to keep these dogs at bay. If I try helping Diana and let loose the dogs, it will be the opposite of helping."

"Hmm." Tsukimi looked around at the surroundings to see if she could add anything to the assessment. "Let's pin them in the elevator."

The dogs continued to plow through carts and discarded bags, all leading towards the giant elevator standing in the middle of the mall. A long rod of constructed energy stretched forward to ring the button, calling the elevator. Slowly the lift began to raise towards the second floor while the dogs raced towards the door. A high ping rang out as the doors opened. Row by row the dogs filled into the lift.The leashes disappeared and the sleigh dissipated into nothing.

Danny and Tsukimi slammed against either side of the door as it slowly closed up the dogs. While the fight continued in spectacular fashion, Danny knew she would need to help even the fight if Diana would succeed. "Ready Suzy?"

"Do you have a plan?"

"That wasn't the question." Danny conjured up two blades of turquoise light and made her way to join the fray.

With the hounds of war dealt with, the stranger remained. Their battle was ferocious and deadly even from afar; both aimed to end the life of the other.

As if following some strange rule about regenerators getting seriously injured once per comic to demonstrate their ability to regenerate, a great flash of light would welcome Danny and Tsukimi as they came across Diana being blow across the room.

She landed with a sickening thud by the girls, most of her face and front clothing having been burnt away, lidless eyes looking lifelessly at them.

"Kaaa... kaaaaa...." Diana starts breathing through her blasted apart throat, the flesh mending itself. Still, Diana was in no condition quite yet to get up and fight...

The Mysterious Stranger himself fared worse for wear after dueling Diana. His robes and the armor beneath showed bleeding gashes and stab wounds where the Blood Sword and the human body met. He left a trail of blood where he walked, seemingly lost quite an amount. had a limp as well, seeing Diana had caused deep cuts just above his knees. That he was still in fighting condition was a testament to his tenacity.

The Stranger wasted no time to offer villainous monologue, and greeted Danny with his own relic ring. energy poured from them and materialized three crimson light constructs of giant saw blades ripping through the ground and coming at Diana, aiming to slice her three ways while she was still recovering.

Diana flew across the room in a bloody pulp that both girls were currently too distracted to notice. They noticed the flight, just not the rugged shape. They needed to save their own skin for the time being, and Danny knew just the way. While three constructed chain saw rolled towards the downed Diana, Danny decided to get right into her enemies guard and cover his energy producing amulet.

His movements looked off. Limped. Injured. With some quick moves from an Aztec warrior, Danny got up close and personal with the man. Her first move would take advantage of his bleeding leg, delivering a blow directly to it. Her second attack would allow her to take a constructed baton to the man's jaw. Her third motion of activity would lift Diana off the ground by placing a dais under her. Danny really hoped it would save Diana from the blades, but how energy hitting energy worked never came up to Danny before.

Tsukimi took out her phone and dialed for help. not 911, but someone far more Blissy. However, it was too late in the evening and too close to Christmas for Bliss to help, so instead, she did the next best thing. Wish Tsukimi luck and tell her she'd see her for Christmas.