A JSS Christmas

Thanks to Nope, Lax & Silver Lantern for all of their help!

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"Ok, here's the shopping list, all you have to do is get the stuff that's on it. You can manage that, right?" Sapphire Swift asked, then muttered under her breath in annoyance. "At least we finally found the googing kitchen in this hellhole."

"Watch your language young lady."

"That's the NICEST thing I could say about this place, dad."

Superion *tsked * at his daughter. "Try to set a good example."

She smiled at him and walked from the 'transporter' room.

"Why am I going? I just came because I got your invitation for dinner, and now
I get stuck doing the shopping?" Rydgen asked, looking around at the assembled JSS members. Twinkle was dressed down in civilian clothes, and looked bored with the proceedings. Azangel was shifting uncomfortably in a slightly tattered trenchcoat Silver Lantern had rescued from the Hair and Hippo's rubble, trying to get her wings folded into a reasonably comfortable position under the heavy material. David stood, waiting silently, a few feet from the others.

"Someone has to carry the bags. I can't carry them all, silly." Janet responded.

"Whatever, Twinkle. Can't we please just get this over with? The last time I was talked into going 'shopping' with JSS members I ended up with fuchsia hair."
Az muttered offhandedly, still attempting to position her wings under the bulky coat.

Jeremy turned and stared at her, slack-jawed. Janet silently mouthed 'pink?' with a horrified expression on her face.

"…And I didn't want anyone to know about that…" She grimaced, partially covering her face with her free hand, the other currently stuck under the coat.
Silver Lantern, who had been watching her struggle with the coat for some time, finally wandered over and helped her with it. "Why in the world Quetz didn't give me RETRACTABLE wings I'll never know."

"That probably would have been too easy." He responded, getting the coat to lie somewhat flat across her feathered wings.
"Is that better?"
She nodded silently.

Twinkle leaned over to Jeremy and whispered. "I think she's blushing."
He laughed a slightly and nodded in agreement.

Superion pulled out a credit card, which Twinkle tried to grab unsuccessfully.
The blonde bombshell, currently wearing a tight black and yellow sweater, batted her eyes innocently at the older man, expecting to be handed the card.

He continued to smile and quite wisely ignored her.

Superion pulled the credit card away from Twinkle's grasping hands and handed it to Az. "As you have to get used to the way things work in the real world, I'm putting you in charge of the card. Please don't max it out. And make sure everyone remembers to use each other's REAL names. You're not in costume or fighting any villains…you aren't the JSS right now, just consumers out to spend some money."

"Um, right, Superion. Sure thing."

"No costumes, no powers. Just…be yourselves." He repeated.

"Retentive Roger strikes again." Jeremy whispered.

"I heard that."

"I know." Jeremy grinned as they teleported to J Street.
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One teleport and several quick introductions later:

The foursome wandered into the grocery store, passing a security guard arguing at the entrance with a grinning, silver-haired young man. An extremely large wolf sat quietly next to him.
"How many times do I have to TELL you? No dogs allowed!"
"He's a wolf."
"Fine, he's a WOLF! No pets allowed! Why is this so hard for you to grasp?!?!"
"He's not a pet, he's my bodyguard."
"…Sure he is…and you really are the Mayor…like those sunglasses and a cheap dye job would fool anyone…"
"Tracer? Kill."

David looked around at the others once they got inside, then back outside to the guard, now being chewed on by the wolf.
"He looks familiar."
"Who, the guard?" Asked Jeremy.
"No, the guy with the wolf."
"Maybe you're related, he looks almost as weird as you do." Twinkle muttered.
"I doubt that. I don't think I have any relatives" He paused and looked into the crowded store. "Wow…I'm not too good with crowds, are you sure I can't just go back to headquarters? Maybe Silver Lantern would like to go shopping instead…?" David looked at Ciela pleadingly, back out the door, then back to her. "Maybe the wolf wants someone else to chew on?"

"If I have to do this, you have to do this. Besides, as I'm sure Roger would say…it's good for you to do things you don't want to. It builds character." She muttered under her breath. "I don't like this crowd either, just try to relax, David."

"Of COURSE there's a crowd! What do you expect, it's two days before Christmas! If you think this is bad, David, you should see the MALLS the day after Christmas!" Janet piped up, looking around. "Oh, now he's cute…" She whispered as she turned her head, tracking a manager in a blue vest as he hurried past them.

"Look, here's the thing." Ciela murmured, first waving her hand in front of Janet's face to get her attention, then taking a blue shopping cart from one of the cart attendees. "I don't know where any of this stuff is…even WHAT some of it is…So how about we each take a couple items from the list…"

"I'll get the turkey!" Jeremy shouted before diving into the throng of people milling about the front of the store, heading towards the upright freezer case running down the center of the store.

"You ARE the turkey!" Janet giggled, then flipped her long blonde hair out of her face. "And he WAS cute, Ciela. You SERIOUSLY need to loosen up."

Ciela ripped the list into thirds, and handed both David and Janet a section, wishing there were more carts. They seemed to be a hot commodity - the half-dozen or so the teen had brought in from the packed parking lot were gone already. "Just get what you can and meet me back up here."

She looked down at the list with trepidation as the others departed. "Well this shouldn't be a problem." And she headed into the produce section.
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Elsewhere in the store:

"Too small, too small, too small…C'mon, where are the BIG turkeys?"

"Excuse me, sir."

"Hmm?" Jeremy stuck his head out of the freezer case and looked up at the young man who'd just tapped him on the shoulder.

"Those are the frozen chickens you're looking at, not the turkeys. The turkeys are over there." He pointed to the opposite side of the freezer case.

"Oh, ok. Thanks man."

Jeremy crossed the crowded aisle and shoved his way to the front of the freezer.
Spotting a likely candidate, he reached down and grabbed a mammoth turkey.
As he stood back up, something hit him in the back of the head, hard.
He turned, only to be hit with another of the unidentified flying objects, right in the face.
As the third mysterious object flew towards him, he recognized it as a Cornish game hen.

"Knock it off!" he shouted in the direction of the flying fowls.

"I TOLD you what we'd do to you freaks if you showed your faces…"

C.A.M.P., here? This gets worse and worse. First grocery shopping, now this. He thought, ducking another of the poultry projectiles.

The man continued to shout at the top of his lungs and chucked chickens at Jeremy until a couple of Jalbertson's employees stepped in and removed - dragged, actually - the man from the store. Another employee rushed to help Jeremy. "I'm sorry, we've had trouble with him in here before, handing out literature for some grassroots group called C.A.M.P. We never thought he'd attack someone, really we didn't, and with frozen food no less…"

Jeremy brushed off the manager who was now trying to get him to fill out an accident form. "No harm done." He muttered, adjusting his grip on the turkey and going to look for the others.

C.A.M.P. seems to be EVERYWHERE these days! I quit the JSS and they're STILL bugging me!
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Janet - AKA Twinkle - stood in the bakery, looking totally lost and even more undecided. "Ok, which kind of pie do they want? Apple? Cherry? Maybe both? Fruitcake? Ugh! Swift didn't say on the list." She frowned, picking up one of each.

"How many people are you serving for dinner?"

"Oh, um…Ciela, David, Jeremy…" She stopped to think for a minute. "Eight people."

"Oh, I'd get one of each, at least. Maybe a couple extra to be safe. Just stay away from the fruitcake. No one likes it, and it usually ends up being used as a doorstop." He laughed. "First time cooking for a large crowd? Newlywed?"

Janet looked up from the pies to the source of the voice. It was the cute manager she'd seen earlier. "No, not newlywed. Just some friends of mine coming over."
She gave him her best smile.

He turned and started to walk off, also smiling.

She barely managed to restrain a giggle. "Oh he IS cute! And so polite!"

"Yes he is, and he's much too good for a freak like you."

"What?!?!?"

Janet swung around, only to find herself face to pie with a lemon meringue pie.
"You're the teleporter for the JSS." The woman spoke loudly, accusingly. "You'd be quite pretty if you weren't a meta-freak."

Janet looked out from behind her facefull of pie, shocked. Who was this woman and why was she yelling? Yes she was the teleporter of the JSS, she was proud of herself! She was FINALLY in a group of superheroes, finally getting some respect for her abilities, and this woman hit her in the face with a pie because of it?

Most of the said pie had already slid off and was now either clinging to Janet's sweater, or falling off in chunks and hitting the floor.

"You…you…GOOGER!" she shrieked, anger overcoming her initial shock.
She pulled back with one of the pies in her hand and let it fly.
"This was a FIFTY DOLLAR sweater!"
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{Clean up in the Bakery, please. We have a wet cleanup in the bakery please.} The intercom squawked loudly overhead. David only halfway heard it, though; he was too busy focusing on avoiding contact with the other shoppers and finding the items from his section of the list.

Turkey baster, check. Roasting pan, check. Now the aluminum foil. He looked back up and down the aisle. "…There it is."
He reached down and grabbed the well-hidden foil, then stood up quickly, wondering if the others were done yet. He was beyond uncomfortable surrounded by the mass of people who were inside the store, and he wanted to leave badly.
He was startled when a man wearing a Jalbertson's uniform and carrying a garishly wrapped Christmas present rushed past, his shoulder briefly making contact with David's arm. It was enough.

"That's not a nice thing to think." He muttered, setting down the items he was carrying, then turned to follow the man as he went further into the store.
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"Excuse me, Ma'am? Could you come with us please?"

Ciela glanced up from the produce rack slowly, looking around. "Who, me?"
There were three men standing around her, one on each side and another one behind her. Were they new, previously unknown, Raiders? More doppelgangers from the KSS dimension? She looked again more closely.
Store employees and a police officer? Ooops. Overactive imagination strikes again.

"Yes, you."

She blinked. "Is something wrong?"

"Please don't embarrass yourself like this. We have reason to believe that you've been shoplifting - placing items in that coat." The manager in the gold vest commented.
"Why are you wearing a trenchcoat, anyway? It's almost seventy degrees outside. Is it supposed to be some sort of strange fashion statement?" The other manager added.
"Do you know what the penalties are for shoplifting on J Street?" The gold vested manager added, leaning in towards her face.

"Shoplifting? That's stealing…right? I'm sorry, I'm not from around here."

"Riiiiiiight. Will you please come upstairs with us so we can look inside the coat?" They gave up trying to intimidate her into confessing; she didn't seem to be biting. One took her arm and turned towards the stairs leading to the upstairs office.

"Sure thing!" She shrugged. Superion had said not to attract attention, and not to use their code names, and not to let themselves be known as the JSS in any way.
She was pretty sure he'd look down on her unfolding her wings in the middle of the store, it would be kind of a dead giveaway, after all…

Five minutes later:

"Sorry, ma'am. Really, we are. It's just this older gentleman came up to us and was so sure you had something hidden under the coat…"

"No problem, really." It was kind of hard to keep from laughing. And after all the work that went into hiding her wings…
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David slipped through the crowd a bit more quickly than before, staying just behind the man carrying the Christmas present. He lost sight of him several times in the crowd, but caught up to him quickly. He pushed through a set of double doors marked 'employees only', which swung shut, blocking David's view for a moment. Two employees wandered down from the upstairs area, cutting in front of him, so he stopped, inspecting a dozen eggs for cracks until they passed out of view. Instead of vanishing into the store, however, they were approached by a goateed man.

"Be excusing me, miss. I am be looking for the wintering for my turkey."
"Excuse me?"
"I be looking for the wintering for my turkey."
"I'm sorry, what are you looking for?" Asked the flustered clerk.
Neither of the clerks had a clue.
"Friend BA, you be helping with this please?"
"Sorry, miss. He means *seasoning* for the turkey."
"Ooooooohh. This way…" The employees exchanged bemused glances and led both the bearded man and his 'friend' away.

As soon as they were out of eyeshot, he slipped through the doors and peered cautiously around. To his extreme left, down a short corridor, was another set of doors. Through them he could see several butchers in white aprons, going about their business, so his quarry wasn't there. Directly to his left and ahead of him was a large steel freezer door, slightly ajar. A tiny alarm was sounding from it, letting meat market employees know that the door was open, that the temperature inside was at risk of rising above safety levels. The door couldn't have been open long anyway, because there were flecks of ice on the floor around it that had yet to melt.
He looked around a bit more. To his right were doors leading to the other cold holding rooms, the dairy section and the produce cooler. Pallets blocked both these doors, so he doubted his 'friend' had hidden in either of these.
So that left the freezer.

He pulled the heavy metal door open further, and with one hand parted the heavy plastic strips that hung down, keeping most of the cold air inside while the door was open. His skin stuck slightly to the ice-encrusted door, and he noted that the fire axe was gone from the hooks inside the door.

Great, now he's armed, as well as carrying a bomb.
__________________

Ciela met up with Jeremy up at the front of the store, and compared lists.
"Looks like we got almost everything, just waiting for David and Janet."
Janet soon appeared, carrying pies and several other items.
Her hair was wet and pulled back from her face in a ponytail, and she was wearing a khaki pullover shirt with a stylized 'J' logo on it. She looked none too happy.
To her teammates' surprised looks, she replied, "Some googer hit me with a pie. Well, with several pies. I don't wanna talk about it."
Her sweater was now folded up inside a plastic bag, and she set it down in the shopping cart along with the merchandise.
"At least we don't have to pay for the pies you messed up, right?"
"Wrong, Jeremy, we do. Now can we PLEASE drop it?"
"It's ok, kiddo, Roger is loaded." Jeremy laughed, slapping her lightly on the back before continuing. "Where's David, I wanna get out of here before anything happens. I ran into some C.A.M.P. people, and they might start something. We don't want that, according to Captain Anal."
"Well, give him a few more minutes then we go look for him."
___________________

David entered the freezer cautiously; both because of the ice coating the floor and the possibility his quarry could be hiding, waiting drop the axe and split his skull in two.
As confident as he was in his abilities, he didn't think this was a good time to test the limits of whatever was keeping him 'alive'. The others needed to know about this, and as soon as he got some solid evidence, namely the bomber, he'd tell them.

Inside the freezer, pallets were stacked in a double row, higher than he could see over.
He started around one stack when he heard a noise behind him.
He spun around; ready to pummel the mad axe-wielder, but the noise turned out to have been a couple of employees talking outside. He knew this because the door slammed shut, which automatically turned off the lights and turned on the fans inside the freezer.

Come out come out wherever you are…

Smirking slightly, he pulled his mask out of his pants-pocket and put it on, flipping on the infared lenses. He leant back against the freezer door and waited.
________________________

"Well?"

"Well, maybe he got lost or something. Jeremy, why don't you go look for him?"

"Why me?"

"Because I'm standing in the line."

"I can do the line thing. You go look."

"Jeremy…I've got the card, remember? How about you, Janet? Want to go look for David?"

"Uh-uh. Not dressed like this!" She indicated the uniform top she wore. "People keep asking me to help them find things. Why don't you just have them make an intercom announcement, like they do with kids?"

"And say what, exactly? Paging the dead man to the front? If you're a walking corpse, please come to the front of the store, your party is waiting?" Az snapped impatiently.

"His name's David." Janet *hmpfed * at Ciela.

"Fine, go ask someone to page him, Janet, since it's your idea."

"Ok, I will." The blonde wandered off. "Bitch."

Ahead of them in line a very annoyed customer shouted at the clerk, who cowered in fear.
"…Listen, Sparky, what my wife says she wants, my wife gets, so don't give me any of that 'out of stock' goog." The irate customer pulled a very large gun, and waved it towards the clerk. "Where's your manager?"

"Here…take it…" the clerk pulled his till out of the drawer and placed it on the countertop, his hands shaking so hard the change rattled inside the plastic.
"Please don't shoot me…"

The cashier in the next lane laughed. "He always does that to the newbies. Nothing to worry about."

"Let's just switch lines…"
______________________________

Sure enough, the door was only closed a few minutes before the 'mad ax-wielder' crept from behind the stacked frozen foods. He shuddered slightly he glanced around blindly in the blackened freezer. He propped the axe up against the wall and crept towards the slightly luminescent emergency handle on the freezer door.
David slipped past him quietly and picked up the axe, and hefted it over his shoulder.

As the door opened he stepped behind the man and quietly whispered 'boo'.

The bomber spun around in surprise, ready to fight. Unfortunately, his feet had other plans, one going one way, the other shooting the other. He went down, hard, and his head crashed into the heavy doorframe of the freezer.
He was out like a light.

"Oh goog." David muttered. "How do I know I'm going to get blamed for this?"
_____________________________

"Just goog…" Ciela repeated as David told his tale of the 'mad bomber' in the freezer.

They still stood at the front of the store, but had abandoned their shopping cart and congregated in a corner where they wouldn't be overheard.

"What do we do now?" Janet asked.

"Look for the bomb, what else?" Jeremy replied. "Dibs on being Twinkle's partner!" He laughed.

"You said that once before, didn't you? Look, I'm calling Superion so he'll know what's going on." Ciela said, as she rolled up her sleeve and opened the communicator.

Jeremy put his hand over the open communicator. "You're gonna admit to the old goat we couldn't go grocery shopping without getting into trouble? We'll never live it down!"

"Well, it's our pride versus the safety of everyone in the building."

Jeremy moved his hand, nodding, and Az switched on her communicator. Swift answered. In hushed tones Ciela filled her in, and by the time she closed the communicator, Swift was by their side. "The others are busy with a bomb scare at the mall. There's been a rash of call-ins…"

"Go convince the managers to evacuate the building, Tw…Janet." Swift said, before vanishing into the store.

The blonde walked off, and pulled the store director aside, explaining the situation.
He didn't look amused, shaking his head at the blonde. Clearly he thought she was joking. He was paged to the telephone and walked away from her in a hurry. Janet turned to them and shook her head.

Ciela looked at David. "I don't suppose you could just read his mind…"

"My powers don't work that way. Besides, he's unconscious."

"Well, did he still have the bomb when he entered the freezer?"

"I'm not sure, I lost sight of him a couple times." David admitted. "He could have put it down, handed it to someone…"

Swift appeared beside them. "This isn't good, there's a lot of wrapped gifts around, on displays and such. Nothing in the freezer, though. Has Twinkle convinced the manager to evacuate yet?"

"She was working on it but he walked off…"

About this time several blue-clad managers appeared at the double doors, locked the entrances, and started turning people away. They then positioned themselves at the exit doors to make sure no one came inside. The gold vested store director came up to them and indicated that he wanted to speak to them, but before he could say anything, the intercom blared to life, a loud yet soothing voice intoning: "Attention shoppers, Jalbertson's will be closing immediately. Please leave your purchases where they are and proceed to the nearest exits. This is not a drill, proceed to the exits…" Emergency lights began flashing, and amazingly, the customers began to file out without a stampede.

"We need to talk. As soon as these people are out of here."
The gold-vested store director walked away, and locked the exit doors behind the other managers.

"We just got a call…there IS a bomb in here, set to go off in less than half an hour. You people think you can find it?" He pointed at Janet. "She said you were heroes, how about it? I called the police. They told me to get in line, they had their hands full with about a dozen other bomb threats, all over the 'street."
All eyes turned to David, who nodded. "We can find it."
Swift vanished into the store and a pile of wrapped gifts amassed quickly. After a few more seconds, she stopped. "That's all of 'em."

"It's not there."
"Oh for Quet…"

"It HAS to be there, David. That's all of them. I know it's all…of…them…?"
Swift's voice trailed off and she whispered. "They couldn't be THAT low…"

The others followed the speedster's gaze from the collected pile to a 'Toys for Tykes' bin by the front entrance.

"Davey? Is it in there…?" Ry asked.

David walked to it and pulled the top two presents out and dropped them on the floor. Underneath them was a loudly wrapped box about the size of a large doll.
"Right here." He backed off slightly so the others could see it.
"Uh, have I mentioned I hate bombs?"

The manager blanched almost as pale as David. "Ok, so that's the bomb? One of you can disarm it, right?"

"I should be able to, as long as it doesn't blow when I take off the paper…or open the box…" Swift said as she stepped closer to the bomb.

"I've got a better idea." Twinkle laughed, gently taking the garishly wrapped present from the bin. She held it in front of her and seemed to concentrate. A storm of sparkling lights surrounded it and it vanished.

"That's great, Twink, but where did you send it? If there's people around when it blows…"

"Oh I know better than to send it where someone could get hurt." She smiled. "There's this big pond on my dad's property. I used to LOVE swimming out there! Anyway, no one's there right now... so I just dropped it to the bottom."

Azangel looked at the store director, who was still slightly pale. "Go get our unconscious 'friend'. We need to find out who his accomplices are." Azangel had pulled off the coat and was stretching her wings out while she spoke.

"I thought we were supposed to be low profile?" Twinkle cocked her head to the side, looking at Az. "And how do you plan on getting a confession? Gonna tickle him?"

"No, David's gonna find out for us."

"I told you, my powers don't work that way." He objected.

"I know that, but do you think your concussed friend does? All I need you to do, David, is keep quiet…"

At that Twinkle snickered.

"…and look menacing."

Sapphire Swift glared at Azangel. "We're turning him over to the police as soon as they arrive, whatever you're planning, Azangel…"

"…won't take long, Swift. Anyway, shouldn't you be helping with the other bombs?"

The speedster arched an eyebrow and vanished.

"Hm, I didn't think that would work."
______________________________

Security brought the bomber back inside. They'd already searched him, producing nothing to indicate who he was or whom he worked for, the Jalbertson's uniform and name badge were both stolen. The faux-employee stood shakily a couple feet from the toy bin, and glanced at it nervously from time to time. Security left, leaving Rydgen and Twinkle standing on either side of their 'guest'.

"We got rid of your bomb, don't worry. Shot in the dark here, why does C.A.M.P. want to blow up a grocery store? You can tell me, or my friend here…can find out for us."

"He won't do nothing to me…you're the 'good guys'." He chuckled.

"Good guys? You don't know David very well, do you…what was your name again?"

"Stephen!" He answered belligerently. "And you meta freaks don't scare me! C.A.M.P.'s gonna get rid of all of you!"

Azangel sighed. "Stephen, David's a telepath y'see. But since he died…his powers don't work too well. Sometimes he gets the info we need, and sometimes, well, I hate to even say it…" She looked over at the pale JSS'r, who grinned slightly. "…he does a little bit of damage to the person's mind he's trying to read."

Ry decided to get in on the act as well, and whispered to Twinkle. "A little? The last guy's still in a coma!"

"Ry, he was already hurt, had a concussion. Stephen here looks healthy, doesn't he?" She whispered back.

"He looks ok to me." David said quietly. "I'm sure he can handle it." He stepped closer to the bomber, one hand raised slightly.

Stephen started to back away but Ry and Twinkle held him fast.

"Look, I really don't know anything…"

"You mentioned C.A.M.P. Are you working with them? Tell us and we won't…"

"…have to hurt you." David finished for Az.

Stephen looked from Azangel, to David, then to Ry and Twinkle. Back and forth, until they were worried he might break his neck. David inched a bit closer to him and raised one arm, hand twisted in a strange way. Stephen paled slightly, then began speaking, and he didn't stop for quite some time.
__________________________________________________________________

One Hour Later

"…and you should've seen his face when David walked up to him with a hand up like he was going to do the Vulcan Mind Meld." Twinkle finished the story.

"Yeah, poor sap spilled his guts really fast then!" Rydgen added as he was scooping some more googoo gai pan.

"Richard, would you pass me the rice?" Sapphire Swift asked Night Hood who was at the other end of the table.

"Sure thing, Parker." He handed the bowl to Superion who passed it down the line to his daughter. "This is your reward for a job well done, Sentinels. Chinese take out."

"High praise indeed." Silver Lantern remarked as he sat at the table but wasn't eating. (He didn't need to eat.)

"Well, Silverado, you better partake of tomorrow's turkey dinner." Twinkle said noticing he didn't have any food before him.

"I will. It wouldn't be Christmas without a big meal."

With that, Rydgen stood up with his Pepski to make a toast. "God bless us…everyone."

"Sit down, 'Tiny Tim'." Night Hood laughed as he raised his glass.

"Who's cooking the turkey tomorrow anyway?" Azangel asked innocently.

The Sentinels looked at each other quizzically. Then, they all started laughing.