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Ghostbusters: Regenesis Chapter 22 (Merry Krampus) Written by Leo_Todrius Sponsored by MattCat

There was a bite to the air, a bitter chill that was incredibly pervasive. The air was still and quiet, capturing the city in a frozen moment. The fallen snow had lingered for a few days. In such cold temperatures, the soft powder had started to develop a crunchy outer shell. The mere presence of snow was enough to bring life in the Pacific Northwest to a standstill, and as conditions worsened there were fewer and fewer signs of life on the streets. The one consolation was that the snow had fallen after most families had put up their Christmas decorations.

Home after home was wrapped in strings of Christmas lights, filling the frigid night with a soft, warm glow. Some homes had a rainbow of colors, others operated in one or two tones. A few had inflatable decorations while a few were swathed in blankets of cream colored white bulbs, twinkling away like perfectly spaced stars. For some reason it was those white lights that Callum liked the most.

With each trudging step, Callum moved a step closer to his own house. A stocking cap covered his short brown hair and his grey eyes watered as they tried to defend against the arctic front lingering over the city. Callum's coat was battered, the black faux leather coating having chipped and flaked and come off in places to reveal the olive green material beneath. His gloves were worn too, the material having snags and burrs along the fingers.

It had been a grueling day, but Cal was getting used to grueling days. There hadn't really been an easy one since he and his brother had been placed with their most recent foster family. At eighteen years old, it seemed to be the goal of his foster parents to keep him out of the house as much as possible. The newest method was getting him hired to help cut Christmas trees and sell them... but Cal had turned it around into a situation in his favor. While his parents expected him to turn in every cent, he'd been setting aside a little each day - just enough so that he'd be able to get Jason something.

Callum thought of Jason, how with their real parents dying when he was so young that all he knew was the foster care system... Not that it was all bad. The brothers had enjoyed the home of a good foster family once but that had all fallen away. It was almost like a half remembered dream in the midst of a waking nightmare. Cal tried to steel his nerves as he approached his house at the end of the street.

Like many of the houses on the block, Callum's house was already lit up. The gutters, the trim and the window frames each had a string of white bulbs... and that was it. A single line of white. Callum loved Christmas lights, but the all monochromatic look was so sterile, so dispassionate. It felt like a mockery of the occasion. Then again, that pretty much summed up his foster life.

Deciding to get it over with, Callum picked up the pace as he got closer to home, but his light jog slowed to a stop as he saw something on the front steps - his brother.

"Jason?" Callum asked in surprise. The fourteen year old slowly lifted his head up, shaggy brown hair falling over his blue eyes. Jason reached up to brush his bangs away.

"I... don't know if you want to go in there. They're really mad." Jason said softly.

"What happened now?" Callum asked, moving to sit next to Jason and put his arm around his brother. Jason was cold even with the coat on. He had undoubtedly been outside for hours. Callum was shocked at that.

"Your boss called, talked about giving you a raise... They found out how much you were earning before." Jason said. Callum's face went pale. He looked up at the front door and then at his brother.

"It'll be okay, we'll get through this. It's my fault, not yours anyway." Callum said. Jason nodded softly but said nothing. It was hard on them when there were fights. He didn't exactly feel at home, but the idea of being sent back into the system was even more terrifying.

"Maybe you can tell him you'll..." Jason trailed off, his lips frowning.

"Give him all of the net check? That's what I was supposed to be doing all along. Not that he needs it, the prick." Callum muttered.

"Cal!" Jason hissed in whisper, "Don't let him hear you."

"He isn't our real dad; a real dad wouldn't treat us like this." Callum murmured.

"He's all we have..." Jason replied.

"That doesn't mean it's good enough..." Callum murmured. Jason said nothing, but he was still shivering. The coat he had was a bit undersized but their parents swore it was still perfectly good. As much as Callum was prepared to face the elements rather than be at home, he couldn't make Jason stay out in it any longer.

"I'll go inside and get things squared away... Just a little bit of discussion and then it'll quiet down enough for you to come inside, okay?" Callum asked. Jason nodded at that. Callum stood up and withdrew his coat, draping it over Jason's shoulders. Jason hugged it tight around himself as if it was another hug. Callum took a long, deep breath of the icy air before he opened the front door and ventured inside.

****

The warehouse was wide, dark and dank. A foul, strange odor hung in the air like the scent of liquefied moss. Crates had been stacked irregularly, vehicles were overturned and rotten fruit was suspended in three inches deep of dark green slime. Long, sticky strings dropped down from the ceiling, congealing and melting randomly, emitting faint heat signatures. Where the slime kept the frozen air at bay, a light fog started to build that swept down into the lower portions of the structure.

Step by step, boots pressed down into the slime, the tread squishing through it. In the darkness, a wide flat panel of light pulsated with orange and red light, then another, then another. Two sets of three moved through the warehouse at the ready.

There was a stirring, a creaking, and then a stack of crates came crashing down. The air erupted with a flurry of orange pellets zipping through the air, hitting a massive plume of teal energy that came rising up. The orange pellets sizzled as they hit the energy, arching across in lighting like zig-zags before the teal light dissipated... but not all of the troops stopped firing. One kept going, punching holes through the corrugated metal roof. The warehouse lights snapped on to full illumination.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Nice shootin, Tex!" Nico howled from one of the catwalks. While Nico was garbed in the customary Ghostbusters Tan with a mark one pack on, the troops he overlooked were wearing brand new equipment, garbed in royal blue uniforms. On the sleeve they had Ghostbuster patches formed into the shape of Oregon state.

"Crowd control is as much about yourselves as your targets." Grayson's voice came as he emerged from a position on the far side of the warehouse. It had been a few months since the Zytu incident and he had grown his hair longer, working it into a small warrior's ponytail in the back with chop sticks sticking into it, "You are the elite, the professional, the emergency responders. You're the national busters... But this isn't something you can take lightly. These targets are unlike anything you would encounter on a battlefield. Some ghosts think with strategy, others respond entirely on instinct. Some are trapped in repetitive behavior and others can see the very thoughts you have in your head. You have to be adaptive, and most of all you can't stick together like that." Gray said, pointing to their formation.

"Sir, if I may?" one of the cadets asked. He was short and broad shouldered, his brown hair shaved short, freckles crossing his cheeks and the bridge of his nose, "How do we avoid hitting each other if we're spread out randomly?" he asked.

"Your targets, you can't predict... But your friends? You get tot know them, trust them, have their strategies burned into your heads. Given that you'll be equipped either with a licensed nuclear accelerator, or at the very least cartridges of meson energy, you don't want to fire unless you're reasonably sure you'll be hitting something rather than someone." Gray explained.

"Wouldn't these training drills be more effective if we had actual ghosts to try these things out on?" Came a quick quip, a woman from the back row. Her hair was a deep honey gold color braided into a thick corded pony tail.

"While it is true that most of these ghosts are beings from other dimensions leaking through... Some of them, a few of them, are spirits... Spirits trapped here with unfinished business. Even if they aren't, a lot of the ghosts we come across are harmless. They're more of a nuisance than a threat. It would be inhumane to release them and subject them to capture over and over again." Eli said, looking horrified at the notion.

"You will get on the job training, it just won't be here. The best we can manage are PKE bursts." Gray said.

"And a hell of a lot of slime!" Nico shouted from his perch.

"I think you guys performed well enough, but it's late. Our liaison will contact you with the next drill time and location. Until then, practice your meson loading and unloading." Gray said.

"Troop, dismissed!" The blond girl shouted. The blue uniformed troopers broke up and head back to the doors, clapping each other on the back as they headed out.

"Well, that wasn't as painful as I thought." Nico said, climbing down the ladder. He brushed his black hair out of his eyes as he moved over to Gray and Eli.

"I think things have slowed down enough that we have time to train them right. We aren't having to train them live fire anymore.

"Well, it helps when we don't have to deal with dimension devouring mega bugs or falling through to other dimensions willy nilly." Eli said. Gray smirked at that and nodded.

"Still, Christmas is a busy time of the year. We should get ready for extra calls. There's a lot of unfinished business this time of year." Gray said, moving toward the warehouse doors. Nico followed easily but Eli hesitated a bit.

"What... about the slime?" He asked, looking around at the soaked warehouse.

"Well, clean up was never really our strong suit." Nico shrugged.

"We'll figure something out before the EPA has a fit. Maybe we can neutralize it with mood slime." Gray shrugged, heading out toward their cars.

****

It had taken hours for Callum's parents to calm down, too long for Jason to stay outside. By the time Cal had gotten things as smoothed over as they were going to get, Jason had gone upstairs to bed. Cal eased the bedroom door open gently, a little of the light from the hallway spilling inside. The eighteen year old glanced over his shoulder before he shut the bedroom door behind himself and leaned his back against it. His eyes took a moment to adjust to the dark, but there was Jason, asleep in the twin bed four feet away from his own.

Every penny Callum had set aside was gone, as were his own Christmas presents for the year - not that Callum cared about getting anything. All he'd wanted to do was to give Jason something nice, something to remember. Now because of the man that ran the household, that was going to be impossible. As the thought crossed Cal's mind, it suddenly seemed wrong. As if a light had been snapped on inside his brain, he realized how narrow minded he had been.

For too long Callum had been taking the world on its own terms. He followed the rules, he did everything right and still life punished him. If that was the way things were going to be, why was there any point in playing the game the right way? Jason was going to get that gift one way or another, and it seemed that it was going to be the other this year. Callum grabbed his sweatshirt off of a chair and moved for the window.

The attic window was usually stuck shut, but with some elbow grease Callum managed to get it up a few inches. Jason stirred gently in his sleep, rolling from one side to the other. Cal froze where he was, waiting for Jason to slip back into a deeper slumber before he opened the window the rest of the way. Cal took one last look at his room before he slipped a leg through and caught the trellis outside the house. As the teenager maneuvered his body out, he turned around and closed the window to all but a crack, ensuring he could get back in.

Cal was focused on his stealthy escape at first. He descended the trellis and moved away from the house, pulling his sweatshirt on. He could feel the snow crunching beneath his feet though and decided to kick at the bushes, knocking powder down to obscure his escape. The focus and concern slowly started to erode into something else. It was... exciting to sneak out, but that was nothing compared to what he was planning on doing.

With each step Callum moved farther away from home, but this time the night wasn't entirely silent around him. An oddly warm wind was picking up, carrying with it a spicy, earthy scent. The warm air started to swirl around the teenager, blasting across his skin. Cal slowed to a stop where he was and looked around, inhaling slowly, drawing the smell into his lungs. The more he breathed it, the more the smell changed... Cinnamon, cocoa, marshmallows, yams. It smelled like one of Cal's earliest memories, one of his first Christmases.

"Good, bad, good, bad..." Came a strange, deep voice. It felt as deep as coal, but as smooth as ice. Callum looked around frantically but saw no one.

"Who's there?!" Cal called out.

"Good brother, bad son, good person, bad person..." The voice continued. It was so low in pitch that it rumbled inside of Callum's stomach, his chest, his whole body vibrated as he spoke. Callum trembled as he looked every which way.

"Who are you? What do you want?" Callum asked, turning until he faced a pair of birch trees. Perched between the two was a being unlike anything the teenager had ever seen before. The creature had skin the color of graphite, glinting with the faintest of sheens in the moonlight. Its face was too angular, too pointed to be human. From the nose to the chin to the pointed ears, it was beyond elfin and nearly looked like the face of a troll. Solid red eyes with golden irises peered out from beneath bushy black brows and a long, curving tuft of black hair hung from the creature's chin. He had a wild, unruly mane of black hair that dropped down across his shoulders, but his shoulders were furry in their own right, covering half way down to his nipples... but the hair could not hide the two thick, brown angled horns pushing back along the being's head before angling out and then up.

The more Callum looked at the creature, the more alien it seemed. The fur on his stomach and arms was short, showing off veiny muscle that seemed too strong, too dangerous - just like the long, wicked claws extending from his fingers. The fur thickened at his waist, covering his strange legs. Somehow instinctively Cal expected to see cloven hooves like on the satyr myths in school, but this creature wasn't a satyr at all. His tail seemed more like that of a cow, fleshy until the furry tip... and the being's feet looked more like those of a mountain lion.

"Who are you, what do you want?" The creature parroted Callum's words back at him. The lips parted to reveal insanely sharp fangs, but as they parted a long, forked tongue began to push out. Cal stood there silently as inch after inch extended. It pushed past six inches, eight, twelve, twenty. The tongue dropped down and waggled just below the creature's nipples before it snapped back into his mouth. The red eyes bore into Cal's deeply. Callum felt something stirring in his stomach, pushing its way up. At first he thought he was going to vomit, but what came out were words.

"I want to get something nice for my brother." Cal blurted. The demon tilted its head slowly, appraising the youth.

"How do you want to do this?" it asked.

"I... tried to earn the money, but it got taken away. Now... I have to steal it." Callum murmured. The demon looked almost offended at this idea, pulling back slowly.

"A gift stolen is a burden misplaced," the creature intoned, its words heavy and deep. It stepped away from the birch trees and moved toward Callum. A smile crossed its black lips, "If you trust me, I will let you give your brother an amazing gift and you will not have to steal to do it." The creature whispered. Callum's heart was irregular, his breathing erratic.

"I-I-I won't sell my soul to get my brother a gift." Cal murmured. The creature only smiled more at that.

"It isn't your soul that you will have to give away... Keep that, it is important. What you must give away... is your humanity." The creature said before his lips parted and the tongue emerged again, snaking its way through the air to Callum. Callum tried to resist, but as he felt it brush his own lips he felt waves of heat radiating through his body, warming him, making his skin tingle like a bath in cinnamon oil. The tongue pushed his lips apart and slid into his mouth, filling it entirely.

The tongue was hot and undulating, pulsating, throbbing. Cal's eyes started to glaze over, feeling his nipples grow erect and blood rush to his penis. The creature moved closer and closer until they were nose to nose. The demon tilted its head and brought its lips to Callum's, reaching up to grab the human's head with one black clawed hand. The tongue in Callum's mouth only slipped deeper, plunging down his throat, filling his esophagus before it started to curl and pool in his stomach.

Callum was motionless like a doll against the kiss at first, but slowly his own lips started to work back against the demon's. The demon pet Callum's head, tracing the claws along his skull. Cal's eyes slipped shut as he gave into the kiss, but then the heat fell away from his body. He felt weightless, motionless, like he was floating... and then he felt his body hitting a mattress. Cal's eyes snapped open, revealing the familiar roof above him. He turned his head ever so slowly and saw Jason sleeping just a few feet away.

The sudden loss of the moment was perplexing and unsettling. Callum started to wonder if he'd dreamt running away, if it had all been an elaborate fantasy. Was his subconscious trying to warn him against stealing? Against running away? Cal slowly rolled until he was on his stomach, though the move made him wince. The dream had at the very least made him horny. As Cal surrendered to his tiredness, he started to hump his mattress gently, passing out a few friction filled thrusts later.

**** The engine of the Ecto had been quiet for no more than a minute, but Grayson was already coming down the stairs to the basement of the firehouse. His feet clanged on the metal steps, but it was hardly any noisier than what was already going on. The huge fire engine red containment unit was pulsing in its quiet, steady rate with nothing out of the ordinary, but a series of thick tubes and cables ran over to a tall cylindrical tube. It was from the connected device that such strange noises emanated - and at the center of it stood Seth.

The tall Ghostbuster leaned against the frame as if he was receiving a shower, but he was being bombarded with particles and waves of energy rather than water. Grayson came up outside the pod and tapped the screen that was situated at Seth's waist level. The display filled with the PKE reading, showing most of Seth's body overlaid with a calm blue color but there were spots of purple and red along his hands, feet and spine.

"I think that's about all the progress we're going to make today." Gray said, reaching to turn off the machine. The whirring and hissing diminished steadily for a few seconds before the pod opened up. Seth stood inside in nothing but boxers. His chest was quite muscled, his arms thick and powerful, but over the last few months it had been other elements that had changed the most.

While Seth had kept his goatee long for years, he'd finally grown out his mustache and let his cheeks get covered, braiding his goatee into a plait for most situations. The hair on his head was longer as well, forcing him to keep it tied back into a pony tail. A thin, distinctive stripe of gray had started at one temple and worked back over his head, making him one of the most easily recognizable Ghostbusters on the street... but those changes were not what he had fixated on.

Seth gazed down at the hands resting on the interior ledge of the pod. The tips of his fingers looked as if he had dipped them in cement, tinted a light gray color. His fingernails were short claws, sharp and distinct. Seth gave up on the cleansing process and reached out to tug on his brown long sleeve t-shirt before he returned his hands to the safe confines of a custom set of electrical gloves. He looked at Gray with a soft, almost defeated smile. Gray pouted a bit at that before he stood on his tip toes and kissed Seth on the lips, reaching up to stroke Seth's fuzzy cheek.

"We'll figure it out." Gray promised his boyfriend.

"Grayson, we already figured it out... My PK field has been changed too many times. It can't just... bounce back anymore." Seth said. Gray shook his head.

"But why you? Why not the rest of us? We've had our fair share of encounters." Gray said. Seth shrugged softly at that as he stepped into his pants.

"I was a gargoyle for a really long time. Maybe it's duration more than anything." Seth said, moving for the stairs. Grayson followed right after him.

"But we had everything back to normal for a while. Why now?" Grayson asked. Seth reached the top of the stairs and moved over toward the desk before stopping.

"I don't know. Maybe it's because things slowed down? We haven't had as many cases after that Zytu thing... Speaking of which, you launched right into this without telling me anything about the task force training." Seth said, crossing his arms. Gray moved over and hopped onto the desk to sit next to Seth.

"They're... okay. I'm glad we gave them cartridges and the meson dart throwers. Until they're more experienced, I don't want them having more potent fire power." Gray said.

"Was Emily there?" Seth asked. Gray shook his head.

"I haven't seen her since the last meeting with the governor. I think he was rather put out that Republicans in other states were speaking out to protect small business owners like ourselves and that government overreach was a dangerous road to take." Gray smirked.

"Well we're lucky that Emily even came up with the idea to make us government contractors. I'm glad we won't go out of business even if there are other people trained in what we do." Seth said.

"Hopefully trained by us as much as possible. Even if things are slowing down, the dead don't stay dead forever." Gray whispered. Nico stopped where he was on the stairs holding two cups of hot cocoa, looking somewhat dejected.

"You guys need to cheer up, it's fucking Christmas." Nico said. Seth smirked at that and nodded, slinging an arm around Grayson.

"Boyfriend, we'll have to be more festive." Seth said.

"And how do you suggest we do that?" Gray asked.

"We're going to have to plan a majestic night out on the town." Seth replied. Grayson's eyes glittered with anticipation.

"You really do know how I love to plan things." He whispered. Nico groaned and turned around and moved back up the stairs.

"Maybe it was better when you guys were talking about terrible stuff." He moaned.

**** The light to the bathroom flicked on and a moment later the CFL bulbs snapped to life. Callum padded into the bathroom, still half asleep. He'd had a shower the night before and didn't have to pee yet, so the only thing left to do before school was shave. He opened his sleepy eyes and looked into the mirror before gasping slightly. In one night his stubble had grown more than it ever had before, almost a week's worth of grow out. Cal reached up and ran his hand across his cheeks. It was thicker and denser, mostly along his cheeks but even his chin had filled out... but his parents were clear. While he was under their roof he had to remain 'presentable'.

With a bit of regret, Cal set out his razor and got out his shaving foam. The can hissed as a big pile of white cream sprayed out. Cal brought his hand up and smeared the white foam all over his cheeks and chin and upper lip, saturating each and every dark brown hair. He soon washed the excess foam off his hand and watched it spiral down the sink. With a quick breath to steel his nerves, Callum brought the razor blade up to his cheek and brought it down. The blade sheered the shaving cream from his skin, but perplexingly it did nothing to remove the short, dark hairs emerging from his cheek.

Seeing the rectangle of bare hairy skin, Cal looked at his razor in confusion. He rinsed the cream off and tried again on the other cheek. Once more the blade collected the shaving cream but left the hairs untouched. Callum was fit to be tied. He looked at the blade and at his face before he tried on his chin instead, pressing down as carefully as he could without cutting himself. The razor caught some of the small hairs, but the razor came to a dead stop. Cal pulled on the blade, then pulled again. There was a shudder, a snap, and then the razor went flying. Pieces of the blade rained down into the sink, but the stubble remained precisely where it was.

"What... the fuck?" Cal whispered softly, looking at his reflection in surprise. Whatever was going on, it certainly wasn't normal.

"Cal, hurry up! I need to pee!" Jason exclaimed from outside. Callum winced. There wasn't much time left before he had to head out. Whatever the repercussions would be, he'd have to skip shaving. The only question that remained was if he could get out of the house without being spotted by his father.

**** The early morning hours of the Portland Firehouse were usually quiet ones. Either the busters were asleep or they were on a late night job. On slow nights one or two stayed in the guest bedroom, but there was one who was always there. A rattling came from the fridge as glass jars clinked against one another. The busters weren't unafraid to binge on snack food, but there were no feet sticking out from beneath the door of the fridge.

With a generous pour of milk into the giant green plastic bowl, Rerun returned the jug to its proper place, grabbed his cereal and floated back into the second floor living area, still wearing the red and white santa hat one of the busters had given him. The time wyrm aged so slowly compared to the rest of reality that he had not changed in months. His robin's egg blue skin was flawless, his long segmented abdomen and tail bisected by glistening silver ribs that matched the three clock hand like wings that extended from his back. His faintly purple hair came down in loose, fluffy bangs and his solid white glowing eyes gazed on from above his button nose and slight smile.

The only thing that had seemed to age was Rerun's favorite t-shirt, the neon green shirt with the hourglass emblazoned on the front. It was starting to fade and weather with bits of the screen printing wearing off. Rerun absent mindedly scratched at the bottom hem of his shirt as he curled his tail up beneath him on the couch and got comfortable. With one hand the time wyrm took a spoon full of fruit loops and began chowing down on it, but with the other he turned the TV on and flipped through a few channels.

"And so that is why you believe, Marcia, that you have planned the perfect Christmas present for your whole family? The be-all, end-all of gifts?" The host asked. A red headed woman nodded, tears running down her cheek.

"I'm sure Bob, I'm sure this will be the most perfect Christmas ever!" She exclaimed. Rerun continued to eat as he watched the TV, though his free hand was propped up on the arm of the couch, continuing his four fingered sign language to copy everything the people on the television said. After a while, though, his hand lowered. He could understand language perfectly - not just English, but Spanish and Mandarin and a few others as well... but as hard as he tried, he could only mouth the words. He had only spoken a few times, and most of those phrases were in a timeline that no longer existed.

"Hey pup, whatcha watchin?" Came the relaxed, cool voice of Dakota as he moved up the stairs and plopped down on the couch. While most of the other busters had experimented with their looks, Dakota had changed the least. He still hated sleeves, kept his hair short and alternated between just a mustache and a goatee ring. Dakota pulled a box of raisins out from the top drawer of the table, pouring a portion right from the box into his mouth.

'I love and hate Christmas.' Rerun signed, with his free hand, the cereal spoon sticking out of his lips as he frowned a bit. Dakota leaned back on the couch, a bit intrigued by that.

"What parts do you like?" Dakota asked, having mastered the four finger sign language over the last few months.

'I like... the ghost of Christmas past.' Rerun signed before cracking a grin. Dakota smirked at that and shook his head.

"What else?" He asked. Rerun contemplated before he resumed signing.

'I like it when people are happy without lots of stuff.' Rerun said. Dakota nodded slowly at that.

"The materialism. Yeah, I get it. A lot of humans wish it wasn't so commercial too." Dakota said with a soft smile, though he looked at Rerun more contemplatively, "But it's more than that. You see people from before they get the things; you see their lives, right?" Dakota asked. Rerun nodded softly with a shy, weak smile. Dakota grinned a bit more, "So you'd rather focus on the things that bring people joy no matter where they are in their lives." he added.

'Damn right.' Rerun signed back.

"Hey pup, watch the language." Dakota said, faking serious for a moment before he cracked up and Rerun joined him in a silent fit of giggles.

****

The halls of Pioneer High School were never excessively crowded even during the busiest of times. The school was still new and the student body had not reached the building's full potential. That being said, Cal was having a hard enough time avoiding being distracted. Every motion in the hall seemed to draw in his attention. He spotted people giving each other small presents, carrying each other's books, picking up litter - every kind act warmed Cal's heart - but that wasn't all he saw.

There was pushing and shoving, name calling and food stealing, practical jokes and down right bullying. Callum had already stepped in on a few occasions where he shouldn't have, nearly catching punches himself, but something was different today. Cal wasn't trying to go unseen. Every act of injustice felt personal to him, infuriating him more than ever before. It was almost too much to stand.

Cal pushed open the door to the bathroom and moved in, finding peace and relief in the quiet. He took a few breaths and moved up to the urinal. His button popped, his zipper came down and Callum started fishing around in his pants. Normally it was an easy maneuver but Cal had been unusually horny all day. His half hard cock had snaked its way out of the leg of his underwear. After some wrangling, Cal managed to free the meat and bring it forth just in time. He was nearly caught off guard with how easy his piss came.

The hot steaming stream of amber hit the porcelain back of the urinal and came crashing down to the bowl below. Cal tipped his head back slowly and his jaw went slack as he peed... and peed... and peed. The flow was ongoing, steady and voluminous. It was almost hypnotic with how easy it poured. Without even thinking, Callum started to slowly stroke his shaft with the hand intended to hold it in place. His cock responded, as most would, by slowly and steadily stretching longer.

Blood pumped into the half hard member, making the veins bulge and the head swell. Cal continued to piss away, his face in a mild rapture. He knew things were changing, but if this was part of being more adult then life was going to be pretty good. Callum continued to stroke his shaft more liberally, working the flesh from root to tip. It felt hot and heavy in his hands, but more than that it felt long - too long.

Cal started to moan out loud as his shaft grew as hard as it had ever been before, and then in a few short moments surpassed that. There was so much blood in Callum's cock that it was darkening, pushing past red and into shades of purple. It was rock hard and nine inches long. The gentle, idle strokes had become more intent. Cal could no longer delude himself, he was clearly masturbating. Each stroke of his hand was more forceful. His grip got tighter, his pace faster. The attention to the shaft only seemed to encourage it.

As the teenager's tight grip slid from the base to the head, the cock seemed to surge out longer. The growth spurt was sudden and caused Cal to gasp, feeling his cock grow to a foot in length. His eyes snapped open and his head came down. He looked at his shaft and moaned in shock. It was enormous, it was gorgeous, it was raging... and he couldn't stop. Cal wanted to pull his hand away, but instead it only went faster. Cal moaned louder and louder, and again his shaft started to grow.

This time he could see it. This time he watched it happen. Cal's purple cock grew out to fourteen inches, then sixteen, then twenty. It was shockingly long, big enough to ruin any hole it went into, and that thought alone was intoxicating. Callum had never thought of himself as particularly manly, but now he was too manly. Cal's eyes slowly closed again as he basked in the pleasure, feeling his cock swell fatter and wider as his heart pulsed.

Switching tactics, Callum tried to tug and pull on his cock rather than push. It succeeded to a degree. The cock surpassed twenty two inches, then twenty four. It was simply too long. The fat head brushed the back of the urinal. His searing hot member touching the cold ceramic shook Cal out of his reverie, but it sent the wrong signal to his brain. All rational thought was blotted out by a searing hot wave of pure refined pleasure before a jet of hot silky spunk shot out of his massive cock. The load was hot and fast and typical, but it wasn't all. After a few throbs, Callum had expended all the human seed he had, but something else started to emerge. The sperm darkened, turning from white to yellow to brown and then purple.

Callum grunted and moaned sharply at that, panting as he continued to cum, spraying his purple... slime. The substance was thick and sticky, coating the urinal, plugging the drain as it built up. Cal panted and shuddered as his orgasm came to a rocky and uneven end. The last few pumps of unearthly goo came out before his two foot cock was dry, and Cal was left there standing with a strange realization.

"It wasn't a dream..." He whispered, slowly looking up into the mirror. For just a moment his brown eyes flashed red, and an oddly sharp grin crossed his lips before returning to a look of shock and confusion. The realization was spreading through him, awakening every sense and nerve. Reality itself wasn't what he thought it was. Callum needed answers and he couldn't wait around for them at school.

****

Callum came up the road quickly, his breath turning to steam as it left his lips, contrasting with the tiny flakes of snow falling around him. Some of the ice crystals even clung on to the teenager's eyebrows and stubble as he moved. His jogging gate was a little awkward with his long shaft hanging down one leg of his jeans. The teenager had left school suddenly, not telling anyone. He'd headed up the hills back to his neighborhood, terrified he'd see his foster parents around any corner... but he had to see, he had to know. Cal slowed as he approached the birch trees.

"What did you do to me?!" Callum called out. There was no response, not even an echo. Callum shuddered softly as he channeled more of his fear into rage, "I didn't agree to give you my soul!" Cal exclaimed. His voice fell on silence once more, but something had clearly happened. The snow falling all around him had slowed to a stop. Each flake hung in the air motionless, as if frozen in time.

"I told you before; your soul is most important where it is. I am no demon." The deep voice murmured as the dark beast emerged from between the birch trunks.

"Then what are you? Are you one of those ghosts from the news?" Callum asked.

"I am Krampus..." The beast replied.

"Kra... Krampus, I remember that from..." Cal froze in place, his eyes widening as a forgotten childhood memory came spilling back. His parents, his real biological parents, had talked about the old country, about Hungary, and part of their Christmas tradition had been Krampus, the counterpart to Saint Nicholas, a horned being that punished all the naughty children, dragging the worst ones away to a very unfortunate fate.

"And what are you?" The Krampus asked, moving forward slowly. Callum looked into those deep, dark red eyes.

"What am I?" he parroted back slowly. The beast gave a fang filled grin.

"You are Krampus." He replied. The words washed over Callum like a wave of lava. Callum let out a deep moan as his cock began to unleash another flood of slime, but that was only the start. After years of being kept short, Cal's hair began to grow at an amazing pace. The short buzzed hair kinked and twisted as it grew longer. Each second represented days, even weeks of growth. The hair surged out of his skull, tangling and twisting as it grew... but that was nothing. Cal moaned even louder as the tingling spread across his face.

It was most intense across his chin as the brown hair began to emerge. It was dark, thick stubble at first, but as the centimeters built up it was stretching down and broadening out. Unlike the Krampus that had changed him, though, Cal wasn't limited to just that. A tickle crossed his upper lip as juvenile hair became thicker and more bristly. The mustache came down across his upper lip, the sides growing connectors to mesh to the goatee. Soon Cal's cheeks exploded with thick, bristly brown hair extruding from his face.

"Sh... Show me... Fuck, I need to see." Callum panted. The fear of losing his humanity was gone. He knew what the beast spoke was true, he was a Krampus... and he wanted to enjoy it. The black skinned brute seemed to revel in this development and swept his hand. Snowflakes swirled and climbed up from the ground, melting and refreezing in layers to form a mirror. Callum gazed into it, seeing his wild mane of hair reach his shoulders and travel down further inch by inch as his beard filled out.

Callum reached up to brush his hair back, feeling his fingers throb and sting. Even with the presence of pain, it was oddly pleasurable. His nails darkened from brown to black before surging out into claws. The claws brushed his bangs back and revealed his changing, reshaping ears. Both were warping and melting, growing and flexing as they stretched into points. At first they were subtle like elf ears, but the points kept growing taller, looking less human and more brutish by the second.

There was something about watching it happen that ensnared Callum all the more. A grin crossed his lips, but the smile felt different. His mouth was almost too full. The teenager parted his lips and revealed his teeth as they started to throb and elongate, pushing out of his jawbone, honing into sharp tipped fangs. Cal opened his mouth wider and wider and went to lick the fangs. As his fleshy tongue slid over them, one of the sharp fangs stuck his tongue. At once it started to swell up and bloat.

"Shit, fuch... I bith... my tun..." Callum murmured, trying to get used to it. The Krampus moved to stand between Callum and his reflection, reaching up to sink his clawed fingers into Cal's growing beard. Cal gasped as he felt the oddly hot hand on his cheek. The Krampus scratched and scritched at the beard before he opened his mouth and that long, devilish tongue started to emerge. As if instinctively it knew what to do, Cal's tongue slipped out of his mouth like an unfurling tape measure. Inches emerged, then a foot, then more. The two tongues touched in the center before they started to slather and curl around one another like entwining snakes.

The two fleshy red prehensile meat tubes wrapped and spiraled around one another, advancing more and more before the tips plunged into one another's mouth. As Cal felt a tongue slather across his fangs, he felt his own enter a hot, wet embrace so far away from his own mouth. It was exhilarating, but soon it was so much more. Their entwined tongues started to glow and glimmer, and Callum's mind started to fill with images, sounds, sensations and memories that weren't his own. It started off somewhat subtle with every injustice he had seen at school, but it was spreading out to other memories throughout his lifetime.

Callum felt a weight of responsibility, of morality, of justice... but more than that he felt certain memories getting brighter and more vivid. He remembered each Christmas as if it had been yesterday, stretching back through his life... Bad foster parents, the foster home, and the Cromwell's.... and then finally his real parents. Even at the worst of times it was the best, and at the best of times it was a moment of perfection. Christmas was his to protect, justice was his to dole out, and there was a city that needed them both.

The Krampus that had changed Callum slowly reached down, wrapping its clawed fingers around its mighty, super long shaft. He brought it up, waggling it tantalizingly before Cal's lips. Cal felt so different than he had before. He felt liberated, powerful, justified and hungry. His mega long tongue emerged to slather across his black lips before he grabbed the cock with both clawed hands and held it in place as his lips spread over the tip.

The former teenager gobbled down inch after inch before he was sucking and slurping, making the elder Krampus writhe in pleasure. As much as the beast wanted to let things go, though, he had work to do. He threw his head back, teased one nipple with his clawed hands and released his load. The thick, hot ectoplasmic spooge filled Callum's mouth. He savored the hot, musky, cinnamon purple goo before he gulped it down... and that was all the lumps on his head needed. The skin broke and two sharp black nubs pushed out, curving back and following the curve of his skull before rising straight upwards. The bone thickened and widened, hardening each second... and with it Cal simply knew he was what he was meant to be, a Krampus. After draining his mentor of all the Christmas cum he could, Cal slid off and licked his lips, rising upwards.

With his new senses he could feel a lot of injustice in the city, but there was one problem bugging him more than any other... There was one sweet, innocent boy that had never done anything wrong that was suffering a terrible Christmas because of terrible people. Callum's mind filled with the thoughts of his foster parents, how deplorable they had been compared to the two good families he already had. He felt that heat boiling in his chest, growing brighter and hotter, ready to explode - until he felt a slight nudge against his hand.

When Callum turned, he saw the other Krampus was holding a large, thick burlap sack. The brown bag was thick and rough, harsh and huge.... but the beast was also holding another, an empty one. The Krampus reached out and offered the spare bag to Callum. As Cal reached out and wrapped his clawed fingers around it, he knew exactly what had to happen.

****

The Mercedes had been Stefan's pride and joy. Since he had made it big in housing, he had decided that he could afford a little luxury. In fact, Stefan had come up with a five year plan to achieve the perfect retirement. Cars, boats, exotic vacations... But Joan had ended all of that. Joan wasn't satisfied that they had 'failed' to have kids. She took it out on Stefan at first, then his bank account. The quickest solution to shut her up had been to become foster parents, and it had worked for a time... but it just wasn't the same. Stefan's true baby was his Mercedes.

But, as she did with all things, Joan had tired of her newest acquisitions. She tried less and less and the boys had become his responsibility. Jason was easy for Stefan; the kid was easy to send to his room, to keep quiet, but Callum? Cal was headstrong. He pushed back. It was all a big headache. Stefan was sure that the only reason he hadn't tried to end the whole thing was because Joan had to accept it as her idea or she'd fight tooth and nail to keep the boys out of spite. Stefan shook his head and went back to polishing the car. When the garage door started to rumble open, Stefan cursed and looked toward the house.

"Just what do you think..." Stefan's rage faded. No one was at the door to the kitchen. No one had pressed the remote control. Stefan looked at his car and then out into the street. The cold wind had picked up, blowing into the garage. Snow flakes swirled and clung to the car before melting in the warmer air. Stefan dropped his cloth and moved out into the street, shaking his fist to the sky, "If this is one of those drive by scams to rob my house, you got another thing comin'!" he shouted out loudly.

"Naughty..." Came a deep, rumbling voice that shook the gravel beneath the snow. Stefan hesitated a bit at that, looking around.

"Who said that?" Stefan asked. There was a glint of light in the distance, light on a pair of irises peeking out from a pair of Birchwood trees in the neighbor's yard. Stefan's rage built again and he stormed down his driveway, nearly slipping, "I see you there! You can't hide from me, you fucking pri-" Stefan's words were cut off as something rather peculiar happened. Stefan felt as if ribbon had been wrapped around his mouth, but it wasn't foil or cloth that had done so... it was light. A ring of light wrapped around his face, covering his mouth. Soon more bands wrapped around the man's wrists and ankles, his waist and neck. Stefan tried to turn, the ribbons nearly tangling, but as he turned he fell forward and let out a muffled scream.

The forty five year old closed his eyes, afraid he was landing face first in the cement. He stopped a few inches short. As impeded as he was, Stefan lowered his head down, looking between the underside of his body and the driveway to see a most unnatural sight. Standing behind him was another creature with black skin and fur and clawed, almost bear like feet. The struggling man squirmed more, catching sight of a huge burlap sack. It seemed almost like the sort of bag Santa would have, but made out of something far rougher.

Stefan looked down, following his bonds all the way to their source. The ribbons had snaked out of the bag to wrap around him and they were slowly retracting, pulling back toward the inside of the bag. At first it seemed simply like darkness, but the closer he got, the more Stefan knew it was worse than that. The darkness was hot, humid, putrid. It went beyond just smells. The bag was every fear, every pain, every ounce of suffering. The bag was a portal to hell. Stefan tried to struggle even more, wriggling and writhing.

As Callum watched his stepfather drawn toward the bag, he felt no sorrow. He thought of the black eyes he had gotten from this man. He thought of the days without food, the nights without suitable accommodations. He thought of the squalor they lived in just so their step father could pinch every penny and prepare for his future. The closer Stefan got to the bag, the more intangible his body became. He was partially transparent like a ghost, a fading one at that. Even Stefan's cries had faded away to silence, and then his body did too. The tendrils snapped back into the bag and the bag shut.

The snow had started to fall again, drifting on the wind as night fell. Callum reached down and grabbed the bag and lifted it up, testing the weight. It felt a little fuller, but not by much. There was clearly a lot of work to do... and one more obstacle to Jason's justice. Callum turned and looked at the house, his red eyes rising up to the main floor. Joan was no doubt enjoying a fourth glass of wine and reality television by this time of night. He wondered if her Fear Factor rerun had anything even remotely close to what she was about to face.

****

Eli and Nico's lips had much practice working together, but as often as they pressed up to one another, it never seemed to bore either of the men. Nico was sucking and nibbling on Eli's lower lip before he broke the kiss and came down to bite his lover's neck. Eli winced at that but grinned in a soft, nearly high expression. Nico growled happily at that, pressing into Eli harder, biting him again on the neck. Eli gazed up at the mistletoe that had started it all.

"I love mistletoe... Though it's a parasite on its own." Eli commented. Nico groaned at that, reaching up Eli's shirt to pinch his boyfriend's nipple.

"Fucking botanist... Don't forget, you turned into a plant once already." Nico chided.

"And you were taken over by a tentacle parasite. There are parallels all around." Eli replied. Nico grinned at that.

"I made a sexy parasite host though... and you made a sexy plant." Nico murmured.

"You think everything I do is sexy." Eli grinned.

"Damn right I do." Nico said before he hoisted Eli's shirt up and leaned in to start biting and tugging on one of his nipples. Eli moaned sharply at that, rising to his tip toes before coming back down to the balls of his feet. He licked his lips and murmured Nico's name, tangling his fingers in that dark black hair... but something was off. The familiar pulsating buzz caught the edges of both of their awareness. Both boys turned, looking to the shelf. Even at home, none of them were ever too far from a PKE meter... and the meter was starting to pick something up. Something was building in the city.

****

There were many kinds of nativity scenes across the city. Some were realistic with carefully detailed plastic or cement figures, others were more general or even cartoonish, but they typically had one thing in common - they were regarded with respect. This was not the case for one unfortunate nativity tucked away in a quiet corner of North East Portland. The sounds of collapsing wood and cracking plastic could be heard for over a block, but no one had emerged from their houses. The damage continued unhindered.

The ring leader behind the act was a fourteen year old, bundled up in second hand clothing. The glint of an earring caught in his left ear, barely peeking out from beneath his stocking cap. His eyes were cold and heartless as he kicked in the figures, but they turned even more wrathful when he looked at his accomplice, a twelve year old with inky black hair.

"You fucking better not wuss out on this... We're making a stand, not some practical joke." The older boy glared.

"I get it, Christmas is fake, but why... are we doing this?" The younger boy asked, having defiled the three wise men but hesitating as he got closer to the center of the nativity scene. The older boy glared.

"This whole season is a lie. Everyone tries to cover up the misery with delusions. They think gifts are going to make them happier, and what does it accomplish? They last one more month before all the depression sinks back in... If they get it over with, realize what a bitch life is now, maybe they'll fucking do something about it before the new year comes around." The older boy snapped.

"Won't they just get mad at us?" The younger boy murmured.

"Of course they will, but they'll have to think beyond just that. Why did we do it? What was the point? What deeper reasons are at work? I mean, the kids at school already don't like you... but now they'll respect you." The older boy said. The younger boy was tense, his muscles tight. The thoughts bubbled and boiled in his brain as his face grew darker and darker. It all came to a head as he strode for the center of the nativity and brought his foot up. Channeling all his range, he tried to bring his foot down but he couldn't. In fact, he couldn't move at all.

"Bu... Buck?" He asked, trying to turn his head. As he moved, the younger boy could see that there were bands of light snared around his shoulders and his elbows, even his knees. The older boy was backing up slowly, horror filling his eyes. Something had been with them there in the dark, watching, but it wasn't standing idly by any more. The Krampus stood just at the edge of the darkest shadows, holding a burlap bag open. A hot, reddish, swirling light filled the interior of the bag and a foul steam escaped from it.

It was from that bag that the tendrils of light stretched out and wrapped around the younger boy. He was held immobile for a few moments before he was tugged off his feet and dragged back, his body growing more and more intangible as he approached the bag. Buck watched in shock as his accomplice was pulled inside, disappearing entirely. He turned around to run but slammed into a hot and furry chest. The other Krampus smiled slowly, exposing his fangs as he opened up his own bag. Twelve ribbons of light snapped out and wrapped around Buck's elbows, knees, waist and neck, hoisting him off the ground.

"Pl-pl-please!" Buck begged as his body started to grow transparent. He could see the lawn through his own stomach.

"You have been very naughty." The Krampus said, his voice deeper and more resolute than anything Buck had ever experienced.

"I can change, I can-" Buck pleaded, but his voice faded away as his body did, dragged into the bag. With its target eliminated, the bag snapped shut and went dark once more. The silence returned to the neighborhood. The nativity itself had been destroyed, but the mother and child remained intact, standing as the only survivors to the heinous act.

****

Room 106 hadn't been used all semester, and for a Freshman that felt like an eternity. The desks were bare. Even the teacher's desk was even covered by plastic. There was an old scent lingering in the air... Chalk, dust, old chipped paint, cork board. It was the smell of a hundred years of education. Portland was an old city and some of the schools had been around for a very long time. For Davian, though, it was a very new, very real prison.

The fourteen year old sat under the plastic of the teacher's desk, hugging his knees. His red hooded sweatshirt had been pulled up over his intricately braided black hair, his creamy brown skin and chocolate brown eyes matching the wood of the desk around him. The hiding place had served him well for weeks, but its effectiveness came to a crashing end.

"Davey!" Came the shout as the door swung open and three sixteen year olds moved in. They tittered and guffawed as they looked around. "Dave! Time to come out, face the music! It's time for your daily beating... and you're a few days behind my friend." The bully grinned.

Davian remained silent where he was, hoping beyond hope that they would give up. He still had a black eye from their last encounter, but worst of all, there was no rhyme or reason. They didn't take his lunch money, they didn't think he was a geek, they didn't try to recruit him into some gang, he hadn't slighted them. It seemed to be unprovoked, unless it was because he was black.

"We're going to beat the shit out of you..." one of the others glowered as he opened up some of the cupboards.

There was a loud thump as one of the desks was thrown over, an attempt to startle him out of his spot. Davian said nothing and remained where he was. There were more thumps, scuttles, then oddly enough yelps. Davian turned and looked beneath the edge of the desk, watching several pairs of sneakers slide and skid along the cement floor before they floated up off of it... and the room was quiet again. Davian pushed back the plastic and came out of the desk, standing upright - coming face to chest with a black furred creature.

The fourteen year old slowly looked up into the red and gold eyes of a Krampus, cowering gently where he stood... but oddly enough the horned, bearded creature reached out and rested a clawed finger on Davian's forehead. The claw pricked his skin a bit, but Davian started to feel warm and tingly all over. His muscles relaxed, his fear went away. There was a general sense of peace and goodwill... and somehow in that moment, Davian understood what was happening. He had been saved by this creature. His tormentors were gone... but something else was happening too.

It was slight at first, a lick of cold air on his ankles. Despite the mysterious creature before him, the teen looked down and watched as more and more of his ankles emerged from the legs of his pants. Davian was surprised and confused, but his arms were growing out of his sleeves as well. Soon even his midriff was exposed, the sweatshirt too small for him.

The Krampus stood there in supreme silence, watching on as the fourteen year old grew taller and broader. Even his hair was growing longer and longer, and the intricate braids couldn't hold. They started to burst out in sections, turning into haphazard dreadlocks that stretched down longer and longer until they brushed his shoulders. Davian looked at his hands as his palms widened, his fingers stretched. His shoes groaned and shifted before the leather popped and plump, thick toes pushed out the front like tongues from a mouth of sneakers.

"What's-" One word was all it took for Davian to realize his voice was deeper. It finally hit him. He was aging... Davian turned and looked in the window, catching sight of his reflection on the aged glass. His hair, his height... There was even dark stubble across the point of his chin. He reached up to rub at it, feeling the stiff bristles. It was invigorating, but confusing at the same time. He turned slowly, looking down at his body and then up at the beast, "Why? Why me?" he asked. His voice was silky and smooth. If this was a glimpse of Christmas future, he was going to be one sexy adult... but the Krampus apparently didn't want to wait. He had made the future come now.

The horned beast leaned in and pressed his lips to Davian's. Davian's eyes went wide in shock but as a slurping, writhing prehensile tongue snaked into his mouth, his eyes slowly started to close again. The tongue slathered all over before plunging down Davian's throat, sliding up and down before pooling into his stomach. A clawed hand reached up and started to play with the bristles on Davian's chin. With each flick and brush, they stretched longer until the Krampus had enough to wrap his fingers around. With a good grip, he started to pull.

The hair emerged from Davian's chin at a remarkable pace, coming out three inches, six, eight, then twelve. The foot of dark black hair was impressive, but it had brought forth other changes as well. Davian's face was wrapped in supreme pleasure and relief, almost something else. The Krampus reached up and started to massage Davian's ears as they kissed, molding them like clay into tall points. While the Krampus was directing a few of the young man's changes, others were happening on their own.

The collar of Davian's undersized sweatshirt filled with thick black fur and soon his exposed ankles were covered too. The toes sticking out of his shoes warped and changed, growing leathery at first before the toenails elongated and curved into claws. The former bullied boy's hands became tougher too as claws pushed out of his fingers. Davian moaned into the kiss, his lips parting around the thick tongue, revealing his brand new set of sharp fangs.

The Krampus continued to embrace his new recruit, though he retracted his long tongue and broke the kiss, looking at the young man before him. Davian's gleaming red and yellow eyes opened up shortly before two lumps formed on his head. His skin tried to hold in place, but soon two thick horns broke through the flesh and curved up. The Krampus leaned in to lick and kiss the swelling horns. Davian moaned softly, flexing before he heard the tearing of cloth all over his body.

The zipper on the sweatshirt snapped and fell away, revealing the furry, leathery torso of a Krampus. The pants went next, and then Davian stepped out of the remnants of his shoes. A long cow like tail flicked around behind him as he got used to his new body. The older Krampus smiled wide before he grabbed his bag from the near by desk and reached into it, rummaging around before he pulled out a burlap sack of his own, offering it to Davian. Davian wordlessly accepted the bag, but as he touched it he felt a swell of power, of justice, of purpose.

His bullies had been irredeemable bad boys, blights on the world. Their disappearance would serve as a reminder to others that there were laws to be adhered to, morality to follow, especially during the Christmas season. The two moved out of the classroom as mysteriously as the first Krampus had entered. The school was down four students, but the season had one more protector to defend it.

****

It had been a year of changes for the Pacific Northwest with new laws going into effect. Both Washington and Oregon had passed the legal use of recreational marijuana in recent elections. There were pros and cons to the issue to be certain, but there was one undeniable fact. For those intent on taking advantage of the system, it had gotten easier than ever to target kids... and Pioneer High was no exception.

Arsen was fairly popular at school, though his cotton candy blue and fuchsia purple hair stood out anywhere. That detail coupled with the purple goggle like sunglasses he wore, he was an icon. He and his skateboard rolled along the cement alley that allowed supplies to be delivered to the school, but now it was his turn to deliver. In just a few minutes the kids would be released to lunch.

The senior swung his backpack around and unzipped it, looking inside. He had no use for things like school books. He was undoubtedly going to be held back a year, but for him that was a boon. It was one more year he could get rich by selling product to his classmates... and he had a lot of products. There were edibles, tools for vaping, and of course the classic dime bags. While he didn't carry it with him, Arsen was prepared for the even more adventurous students at home. Each day was just one more opportunity.

"Arsen." The wind carried the teen's name, but it sounded like it had emerged from the Earth itself. It was too deep, too steadfast, too inhuman. As Arsen looked up, his goggles caught the reflection of an unholy demon beast. He stopped where he was for only a split second before his flight or fight kicked in. The blue haired teen turned and tried to escape, but Arsen was yanked off his skateboard by a net of light. His board went sailing forward, crashing into the dock.

"Help! Someone help me, please!" Arsen screamed, thrashing around. He was floating horizontally, wrapped up in light. He screamed even harder as he started to see the school through his feet and legs, but his voice was growing quieter and quieter until there was nothing left. The bag snapped shut and the Krampus turned, moving back the way he had come. The wheels on the overturned skateboard hadn't even stopped spinning by the time everything was normal again.

****

The screaming could be heard for blocks, especially since the bay window of the 1902 house had been broken. The front door slammed as Brandy came storming down the steps. Her brown hair swished as she moved, her legs squeezed into designer jeans. She had nearly reached the gate when the front door swung open behind her and her mother stormed out, holding what appeared to be a metal loop of some kind.

"Brandy Conners! Do you have any idea how old that platter was? How many members of our family kept it safe for generations?!" The woman shrieked. Brandy spun around on her heels, shooting back a look of pure indignation.

"If you cared about it, you shouldn't have said no to me." Brandy said before she turned again and moved out of the gate. Her mother was so devastated and confused that she merely stood on the front steps, holding the metal ring as if her entire life had fallen apart. Brandy turned the corner and moved along the sidewalk. As she got out of sight of the house, she slowly started to smile. Perhaps it had been enough. If sentiment was important to her mother, then she'd do anything to put the pieces back together before Christmas, and if she'd do anything then maybe Brandy would get her way.

"Naughty..." The word was deep and unsettling, nearly enough to make Brandy trip and fall over the curb - not that she would have been able to fall all the way down. Brandy gasped as something caught her wrist, then the other wrist. She struggled as her feet were hoisted off the ground. She writhed like a rag doll on a string, but in moments she was drawn into a Krampus bag. The Krampus unceremoniously slung the bag over his shoulder as he turned, walking back into the park, disappearing from sight once more.

**** While there were several benches and counter tops in the firehouse's workshop, the very center piece of furniture had recently been upgraded to a table top display. The large screen rested beneath a thick glass plate, but it was sophisticated enough to amuse the many tech savvy busters. They had all gathered in the room, watching as data was fed in from PKE relay posts around the city. There were flashes, glimpses, and then the energy was gone again.

"One to three minutes, that's all it's taking before they are gone again..." Nico shook his head. Eli moved over and pointed at some of the locations they had picked up during their monitoring.

"The police are getting a flood of amber alerts. Kids are turning up missing across the city, and they're getting a fair share of missing people's reports too... Normally they would be rejecting them until forty eight hours lapsed, but the timing made them worry." Eli said.

"Are there any common threads?" Grayson asked. Seth nodded.

"Yeah, actually. Most of the missing persons have a rough track record, and a lot of the cases are coinciding with crimes. Bullying cases, animal abuse, under age drinking, some kids egging Santa's Workshop at Bridgeport Village, even a kid with a penchant for back yard arson." Seth explained, "In each case there's a crime, then a missing person."

"They're also happening faster and faster, covering more ground." Dakota commented.

"Which means either this thing can teleport..." Eli considered.

"Or there's more than one moving through normal space." Nico replied.

"Nico, Eli, I need you to check out some of these sites, see if you can get some witnesses or camera footage, anything to corroborate with the disappearances." Gray said. The two nodded and moved toward the workshop exit to get the Ecto ready. As Eli and Nico left, Rerun drifted into the room, curious about all the activity. Seth moved around the table, looking at the patterns before he looked up.

"I'll pour through the public records, try to peel back the layers and figure out how this started. Missing person's cases, abnormal absences, stuff like that." Seth said. Grayson was a bit concerned at that. Once more Seth was taking on a menial task out of the sight of everyone, but at the moment it was a valid strategy.

"I'll cross reference with justice wielding spirits in Zumdingers and Tobin's Spirit Guide." Gray said.

"So, that leaves me... to find the juvenile delinquents that might become targets?" Dakota asked. Grayson blinked a bit at that before considering.

"S... sure. Just don't get caught stalking kids around the city." Gray said.

'I'm going to help.' Rerun signed. Grayson hesitated a bit at that.

"You'll help him?" Gray asked, "I don't know, what if people see you?" Gray's question was met with an expression Rerun didn't usually make... a flat, determined grimace.

'I can rerun time...' Rerun signed, circling his fingers around in the air.

"He's right, he can just roll back before he's caught, use a different tactic." Dakota said.

"Just remember there are certain things you can't access, like when I got pulled through into the orc dimension. Be... be careful out there, okay?" Gray asked. Rerun floated over the table and wrapped his arms around Gray, giving his friend a hug before he floated back to Dakota's side.

"Well, time to get rolling." Dakota said, holding up his hand. Rerun bit his lower lip before giving Dakota a high four with his blue hand.

**** Life on the streets was no life at all, but it was particularly hard for the young. The homeless had started to drift on for the day, but one of their ilk wasn't stirring. Tucked in a corner beneath a tarp, lying against a massive cement pylon stretching up to the bridge above was a skinny, gaunt form. Gael had been homeless since he was thirteen, but three years had taken their toll. His blond hair had lost its luster. His pale face was dirty and grimy. His ribs would have been showing if he wasn't wearing a holey woolen coat.

A shadow fell across Gael. Red eyes surveyed the young man, seeing his faults and his gifts. He had stolen in order to survive, but he had shared the food he had purloined as well with others. He was not innocent, but he was not irredeemable either. The only certainty that he was near death and he would need more help than others. The Krampus leaned down and pressed a clawed thumb to Gael's forehead.

The teenager started to stir as his body began to age. His cheek bones pushed out a bit more, his shoulders broadened, his spine elongated. In moments he had aged enough for the Krampus' needs, but the young man needed more to revive. When the other homeless had returned, they would have found a dead boy under a tarp. The Krampus had to give more.

Clawed fingers removed the woolen coat and cut through the t-shirt, then the pants. Gael was dirty all over, but the Krampus didn't care. The nearly lifeless body was lifted up, gangly legs hanging loose before the Krampus sat down. From his black furry groin, a tall tapered black cock emerged. Gael came down, his cheeks slowly spread apart. Purple slime leaked from the tip of the Krampus' dick, lubricating enough before he slid into Gael's body.

Gael stirred gently, coming back to consciousness. His eyes opened slowly, looking out, seeing the face of a bearded, horned being. For some reason, though, he wasn't scared. He was being held and oddly enough, this creature... felt like Christmas. It felt oddly right to sit on his lap. Gael slowly wrapped his legs around the Krampus' waist, wriggling his ass around the shaft. With each moment he felt vitality and strength returning to his body - and Gael was very thankful.

A hand reached up to slowly brush the Krampus' thick beard, feeling the tangles and the thickness. Gael blushed a bit, amazed at how masculine this beast was. He started to lift his hips and drop himself down, feeling the thick shaft spear deeper and deeper into him. He moaned softly and leaned in, cuddling into the Krampus, burying his face in that beard before he leaned down and nipped at one of his black nipples.

"Fuck..." Cal grunted sharply at that, throwing his head back. In the back of his mind he realized that he hadn't saved a virgin, but he had saved a worthy compatriot. Gael was riding the beast's cock harder and faster, leaning in to steal a kiss from the Krampus. As their lips entwined, Callum felt his tongue surge forward, bypassing Gael's mouth and sliding down his throat. The saliva in his mouth thickened into ectoplasm, the energies seeping into the homeless youth he had pulled from the edge of death.

In moments black streaks had appeared in Gael's light hair, the color spreading out. His hair was wiry and greasy, but it remained relatively short... making the stubble spreading across his cheeks seem longer by comparison. The cheeks filled in first, growing out bushy thick black sideburns. They thickened and grew and lengthened into mutton chops, but a thin mustache pushed out to connect the two sides and then the chin grew in as well. The two kissed as Gael's beard grew in and they continued to kiss as two huge lumps formed on Gael's forehead.

The lumps swelled larger and larger, stinging and throbbing, but Gael wasn't unfamiliar with pain. All he felt was the release when his new horns pushed out of his skull, arching out and straight up in a prominent display. His flesh started to darken around the horns, turning from pale whitish pink to brown and then obsidian black. The color spread across his forehead, around his eyes and across his nose, down his cheeks and then his throat. His ears burned as they stretched into points and Gael's nose and cheek bones became sharper and less human as well. In moments he had the head of a Krampus and the body was following.

Three years of cold disappeared as steam started to rise off of Gael's body. His flesh turned ebony just before thick patches of fur grew out of his shoulders. His nipples widened and thickened and a trail of fur emerged, growing down between his pectorals all the way down to his groin. As the dark flesh reached his waist, two fleshy bits began to grow; his tail, and his cock. Gael's head thrashed back as his little pink cock began to stretch longer and longer. The foreskin pulled back and went tight, the head stretched out to a point and the difference between head and shaft disappeared as the bottom bloated out to match the top. The cock grew and grew, passing ten inches, then twelve, then fourteen. His immature cow tail began to flick around.

Gael's legs felt like they had gone numb, but the pins and needles covering the flesh were in fact thousands of tiny black hairs emerging from his hips, his thighs, his knees, his legs... everything. His nails turned black before erupting out into claws, the fur even growing out of patches of his toe knuckles. Gael was no longer lost or abandoned, left to die. He was a living, breathing Krampus. He rode on Callum's gigantic member, grunting and moaning before he leaned in to kiss the beast that had saved him.

Callum reached up and wrapped a hand around the back of Gael's short, greasy black hair, holding him in the kiss. He could tell it wasn't one of lust, but instead one of thanks. It was all Cal needed to go over the edge. His furry balls seized up and his shaft erupted with potent quantities of thick purple cum, filling Gael with some true warmth. Gael broke the kiss and gave a fang filled grin, merely content to rub their thick beards together and get them tangled for the moment. He knew there was work to do, but it would be so much more fun as a team.

**** The Ecto pulled over to the curb, the engine rumbling a bit extra before going silent. Nico hopped out of the driver's side and Eli wasn't far behind. Both looked around, taking in the neighborhood. It was a newer development on the outskirts of town. The street was a bit wider and the houses were all from the last decade. They also looked like exact replicas of one another, just in a variety of muted dull tones. Eli started walking up the block, looking at the house on the corner of the next intersection.

The house was two stories tall with a ground level garage and living room while the second story seemed to house all the bedrooms. The paint was a dull beige offset by cream colored Christmas lights and a trellis with nothing more than a few vines climbing up. Nico looked around at all the houses with a bit of disdain.

"They're all so samey..." He murmured.

"And it costs extra to have that. Not everyone can have a nice east side house like you." Eli smirked, looking both ways before he crossed the street.

"So we've got thirty five missing kid cases that we're aware of, but these were the first?" Nico asked.

"Well, this is an issue of absenteeism, but the school was concerned. The boys come even when they're sick." Eli replied.

"Wouldn't their parents report them as missing though?" Nico asked.

"I don't know, but... we need to think outside the box. Before the pattern developed, there might have been more clues." Eli said as they arrived at the front door of the house. Nico reached up and knocked on the door, both waiting for an answer. The silence was palpable, long enough to prompt Nico to knock again. The two looked at each other, trying to decide what to do when there was a scuffle on the other side of the door.

"Who is it?" Came a young voice.

"My name is Nico Kingston and this is Eli Reed, we're from the Portland Ghostbusters. Are your parents at home?" Nico asked.

"I... I'm not supposed to talk to strangers." Jason's voice replied through the door. Nico grimaced a bit. Eli smiled and moved closer to the door.

"You're smart to be careful, and you don't even have to unlock the door for us. We're just like Policemen or Firemen, trying to help people be safe. We're in the neighborhood trying to find out if anyone has gone missing. Your school was worried about you and your brother not being there." Eli explained. There was another long silence from the other side of the door.

"My brother and I are okay... but... how do you know about missing people?" Jason asked. Eli looked surprised at that response. Nico bit his lip a bit.

"In the last few days, a lot of people have disappeared. We're trying to find out what happened to them, to make sure it stops and everyone is safe." Nico said. This time, rather than awkward silence, the front door clicked and unlocked before it eased open. Jason stood on the other side of the door wearing a brand new neon green dirt bike shirt and new cargo pants. His shoes were spotless Nikes and he even had on a necklace. The Christmas tree at the base of the stairs was nearly leaning over from the bounty of presents that had appeared beneath it. The PKE meter on Eli's belt began to chirp, the arms flashing as it detected a faint signal. Eli looked down at the meter and then at the boy. Jason reached up and brushed one of his shaggy bangs out of his face.

"You have to promise he won't get in trouble... He's trying to help us..." Jason whispered.

"Who is? Who don't you want to get in trouble?" Nico asked.

"Cal... All he wanted to do was to protect me. He's different now, but that didn't change. Don't hurt him, please..." Jason begged. Nico looked at Eli, not sure what to say. Eli reached out and put a hand on Jason's shoulder.

"We'll do whatever we can to help him, but to do that we need to know more. Is that okay?" Eli asked. Jason considered for a long moment, looking at the red and white Ghostbuster emblem on their arms before he finally nodded and turned around, moving back into the house. Eli and Nico followed, though Eli took his meter from his belt to scan the house as they moved.

**** Seth sat at the desk in the firehouse garage, pouring through documents they had been granted from the police department and school districts. Every time he thought he had it down, there'd be one or two cases that threw him. The majority of the cases were straightforward. Most of the missing kids were teens that had committed multiple offenses. Something was punishing the bad kids - but there were other missing cases too, missing teens that had just seemed to be chronically unfortunate. Seth sighed, running his fingers through his hair before he turned.

"Any luck over there?" Seth asked. Gray tried to look up from his tablet, but his eyes remained glued to the screen.

"There are fourteen common judgment spirits that resort to kidnapping, but I can rule out all but the Panoptes... Still, someone would have seen something with that many eyes. It's got to be something I'm missing, something more abstract." Gray murmured.

"We'll have to get some clues from the others... Either Nico and Eli will dig something up from the missing cases, or Dakota and Rerun will stumble across an event in progress." Seth said. Gray nodded at that.

"I have faith, though we have to figure out how to get all these missing people back. Usually trapping the original spirit allows them to reassert, but if they are trapped somewhere or in some method that's immune to that? We could trap the spirit and lose them forever." Gray said softly.

"It's getting bad enough that Sune may want to deploy her troops." Seth said. Gray looked a little green around the gills at that.

"I don't want them to jeopardize this situation, but at the same time we could use more boots on the ground. I'll have to call her." Gray admitted. Seth reached over and patted his lover's shoulder, trying to give him an extra bit of strength. Gray smiled at the attempt, bracing himself for what was to come.

****

The living room was richly furnished, though it seemed that some of the furnishings were fresh arrivals. There were paintings and delicate furniture, vases and pieces of crystal that betrayed the wealth of adults... but there was also a stack of gaming consoles, towers of games, magazines, books... The living room was nearly overflowing with all the sorts of gifts a teenager could want. If it hadn't been for the clear PKE signal they detected, Nico might have believed his brother had become a part of organized crime sooner than any supernatural influence.

"So it wasn't gradual?" Eli asked, picking up in the conversation where they had left off. Jason rocked back and forth in the gaming chair that had appeared with all the other gifts.

"No, just... one night he-" Jason paused, looking conflicted, "Well maybe, actually..."

"Go ahead." Nico said, trying to prove for information without traumatizing the teen further. Jason swallowed a bit.

"A few days before he came back, he was a bit different... He was hairier, and bigger, and smelled different." Jason said.

"Like... puberty?" Eli asked. Jason glared.

"Like cinnamon and spice." Jason replied. Eli winced at that.

"And then when he came back, that was when he was fully different? When your parents disappeared?" Nico asked. Once more Jason glared.

"They weren't our parents... They were terrible people. We know the difference, we had good parents before... Twice. Callum knew our real parents, but I was little when they died. The first parents I knew were the Dades. They were amazing, and they loved us so much..." Jason said, his eyes glistening with grief and pain that had been pent up and pushed aside for too long.

"What... What happened to them?" Eli whispered. Jason looked at the busters on his couch, trying to summon the strength.

"The economy crashed. They don't let you keep foster kids if you don't have a job." Jason said bitterly, "But it would have been better to go with them, even if we were homeless, than to wind up here." Jason nearly spat.

"And that's why he made them disappear?" Nico asked suddenly. Eli's eyes went wide. They had been skirting around the situation, working in concentric circles, spiraling in towards the truth. Nico wanted to catch Jason off guard, to get to the truth. It worked.

"Yes... he came back here and he made them disappear. He sucked them into his bag and he gave me all these presents... He's looking out for me." Jason said.

"And you like him better this way?" Nico asked. Jason opened his mouth, but no words came out. Once again he had been caught off guard. It took Jason a moment to focus his thoughts.

"I... I just want my brother to be safe and happy." Jason whispered.

"That's all we want too, for all of you to be safe and happy." Eli said softly.

"We have connections with the government, we'll look into things, try to help with the situation here at home. In the mean time, I don't think it's safe for you to be here alone." Nico said. Jason squirmed a bit in his seat.

"But if I leave here, how will Callum find me?" Jason asked. Nico looked at Eli. He wasn't sure if that thought was as unsettling as what would happen if Cal did find them if they took Jason somewhere else.

"Well, how about I stay with you here, to make sure you're safe?" Eli offered. Nico gave a sad smile. It was the only solution to the problem that worked. Jason smiled softly and nodded in agreement. As happy as he was that Callum was able to help him out, it was getting lonely in the house without him.

****

Portland was a city constantly on the edge of reinvention. While there were some historical landmarks preserved for the ages, the turn over of private spaces was a never ending cycle of rebirth. That unpredictability was a ripe environment for those looking to take advantage, and it was that environment that Dakota had sought out. Dakota led the way down the alley, wearing a black sleeveless hoodie and blue jeans. His sneakers were well worn, but it was a style that helped him to blend in. His accomplice, however, stood out a bit more.

Rerun followed after, floating down the alley like a water snake with his zig zagging tail. Trying to play the part, he'd found a jade green sweatshirt to pull on after he'd cut out a slit for his wings to fit through. Rerun looked around at the worn metal doors with crackled paint set into brick and mortar walls. The alley itself had piles of water logged boxes and garbage sticking out of the snow.

'People really come here?' Rerun signed as they moved. Dakota smirked a bit at that and nodded.

"Some people need a place to stay and they'll stay anywhere no one is using. Others need a place to do whatever they're trying to do. They hang out here until the next business tries to use the space, then they come back when that business fails." Dakota said.

'So it is like a haunting?' Rerun asked. Dakota considered for a moment.

"Yeah, sort of like that." He nodded, "I used to haunt a few of these lots myself when I was a kid. Got myself into a bit of trouble a few times." Dakota said.

'Do you think I would have been in trouble?' Rerun asked. While his hands were silent, his face betrayed a deep, almost mournful expression. Dakota stopped where he was at that.

"If... you..." Dakota trailed off.

'Human.' Rerun signed back. Dakota hesitated before shaking his head.

"You're like Gray. You're smart, you got a sharp mind, you love to learn things. I think you'd be on the good side of things." Dakota replied. Rerun gave a weak smile at that before his eyes widened and he pointed to Dakota's hip. Dakota looked down and realized his PKE meter was starting to climb. He pulled it out and switched it off of passive mode, trying to isolate the signal. It was almost two blocks away. Dakota broke into a sprint and Rerun chased after him. Dakota cringed. The PKE signals they had picked up from the firehouse were short lived events. After the first block, Dakota grew more concerned he wasn't going to make it.

Dakota ducked under pipes and skidded around boxes, turning corners in a labyrinth of poorly planned mazes of access ways. The cement crumbled beneath his feet, the grass caught around his ankles and the chain link fences rattled against his shoulders. Dakota honed in on the signal, trying his best to make it there. When he felt a hand on his wrist he looked up in surprise, meeting eyes with Rerun - but it wasn't as surprising as what started to happen. As Dakota skidded to a stop and Rerun held his wrist, the world around them started to run backwards.

Rerun focused, concentrating on being precise. His wings shimmered, shifting slightly on his back. Dakota looked down the alleyways, watching cars on the main street roll backwards. Pedestrians walked in reverse and the snow drifted upwards. The Ghostbusters had learned some events were time locked, but being witness to them had to be immutable. Time slowed down before it resumed its proper direction and Rerun let go of Dakota's arm.

"You are amazing... Best detective partner ever." Dakota said, clapping Rerun on the shoulder before they resumed their movement. The two snaked their way through the last of the alleys, hearing a scuffling up ahead. Dakota slowed down as he advanced on the last barrier, a dumpster standing between them and the PKE signal. He signaled for Rerun to be careful and stay down before he peeked out around the corner.

At the end of the labyrinth Dakota spotted the sort of young ruffian he expected to see dressed in gang colors with an over-stuffed, over-worn back pack. What he didn't expect to see was the teenager being suspended mid air by tentacles of light connected to a burlap sack being held by a black demon creature. Dakota wasn't equipped to interfere, but the PKE meter had been upgraded to incorporate newer technologies. Dakota activated the camera and held the meter up, recording the event.

Rerun reached over Dakota's shoulder, stretching around him to hit one of the filters. The screen image changed, showing the PKE signals overlaying the image. The demonic creature had a bright reddish orange hue around him and the human's bluish green signal was fading... but there was another energy pattern, one stronger than either of the others. The burlap sack itself was an intense, almost neon green. Perplexed and surprised, Dakota zoomed in on the bag. The intensity came from the high volume of signals contained in the one spot. There were dozens of PKE sources overlapping, all within the sack. Dakota slowly looked at Rerun. They had found out well more than they had intended to.

****

Gray moved into the workshop and slid an SD card into the side of the display table at the center of the room. The large screen filled with an alpine painting of a furry demon just like the one that Dakota had seen. Seth, Rerun and Dakota stood around the table across from Gray, though Nico was having to attend the meeting by proxy of a speakerphone.

"We are dealing with a Krampus." Gray said, clicking to the next picture. This time, rather than a painting, the image was of someone in a furry demon suit.

"Don't you take like potassium or something to stop that?" Dakota joked. Gray smirked but continued with his presentation.

"The Krampus is from Germanic and Nordic lore, a counterpart to Saint Nicholas. While the good kids got gifts from Santa, the bad kids were punished by the Krampus. Depending on the severity, he would beat them with branches of a birch tree called a ruten, or he would drag them away to hell, never to be seen again." Gray said.

"Talk about capital punishment." Seth murmured.

"That explains what we saw in the alley... The bag's holding all his victims, just like a ghost trap." Dakota said.

"I don't think it is just a "he" and a "his" at this point." Gray said, clicking to another picture, showing a group of ten men dressed in Krampus outfits. Gray looked at the table as he continued, "There are Krampus traditions from Austria, Romania, Bavaria, South Tyrol, northern Friuli, and Croatia to name a few. Men dress up as the Krampus, roam the streets and scare children into line. If that tradition wasn't just made up by humans, if they adopted this recruitment tradition, the Krampus may have built himself an army." Gray explained.

"I think I know where it started." Nico's voice came over the phone, "We know that Jason's brother became something and he came back here to get rid of their foster parents. Callum is the earliest case of anyone missing too. Eli and I have learned a lot, but I'm not sure how any of that helps us."

"If this is the real Krampus, I don't know if it's the sort of being we can trap. It could be as disastrous as trapping the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future." Gray considered.

"If we do nothing, what happens to the kids sucked up into those bags?" Dakota asked. Seth slowly crossed his arms.

"Christmas day, when its work is done... Those kids will be gone forever." Seth murmured.

"We can't just let them all disappear, even if they were bad!" Dakota exclaimed.

"If we can't trap the original Krampus, we can at least try to weaken his hand. We have to cut the ties with his first recruit. Nico, I need you to dig down psychologically. We need to give this Callum an anchor in our world again." Gray said.

"I think we may have it already. The kids had a really decent foster family before this one, but they lost them because of economic hardship. If we could get them reunited, give them hope for a better future, then Callum may not need these powers. He may not feel obligated to protect his brother from everything." Nico replied.

"If it's an army of these things, though, how are we going to predict where the right one is going to be? They are all over the city?" Dakota asked.

"We need bait to set a trap..." Gray considered. He left the table and moved across the room, throwing open a cupboard. After rummaging around he grunted and moved to the next one. It took a few tries before he found what he was looking for and produced the egg shaped ghost beacon based on the one he had built when he was possessed by Thana.

"What are you going to set it to broadcast?" Seth asked curiously.

"We have the readings Dakota took of the kidnapped kids in the Krampus bag... We could generate a field that will seem like the biggest orgy of naughty kids any of these things has ever seen. They'll all be drawn in to dispense their justice. But the beacon isn't strong enough on its own. I have to build a PKE pylon to make that big of a signal." Gray said.

"The trap won't work with just the bait. We have to break the connection with Callum. We need to set up the anchor." Seth said, "I'll start making calls. Human services, Emily Sune. If that first family really loved these kids, all we need to do is get them back on their feet so they can get the kids back..." Seth said. Gray beamed at that.

"I love the way you think." Gray whispered.

"I'll get as much information as I can from Jason and we'll get him ready to travel. He'll need to be there when this all goes down, otherwise Cal's not going to re-connect emotionally." Nico replied.

"So... how long do we have?" Dakota asked. Gray looked over at the clock and then cross checked it against the date on his watch. He looked up slowly at that.

"We have thirty one hours." Gray said.

"Better get to work then..." Seth said, moving out of the workshop to head back to the computer. Dakota moved to the cupboards and opened them up, looking around at their inventory for a moment.

"I'll help you build the pylon. I may not be as good at the conventional designs, but I can amp up any signal and make it hella over-powered." Dakota grinned.

"Unstable?" Gray asked. Dakota shrugged.

"Well, the odds of it catching fire aren't TOO high." Dakota replied. Gray smirked at that.

"I'll take whatever help I can get." Gray smiled, "Nico, I'll call you back as things develop." He said, grabbing the phone. It always felt good to have a plan.

****

The night time temperatures had dropped again, bringing the wet air down to that magical temperature between two worlds. The snow was falling once more, drifting and carrying on eddies of wind to cling to everything. Between the weather and the disappearances, most of the citizens had remained indoors, leaving the Ghostbusters to their work in the park. The moon was occasionally visible between the thick clouds, a silent companion to the cold night. A gentle pulsing sound came from the pylon as it did its work, orange light strobing inside the honeycomb filter covering. Gray knelt at the base of the device, quickly adjusting dials and shifters, trying to amplify the effect as much as possible. The snow was sticking to his eyebrows and hair as he worked, looking up every so often. Dakota stood near by, holding up a PKE meter with one hand and his proton blaster with the other.

"The Pylon's washing out all other readings. I can't get a fix on anything." Dakota said.

"We're almost out of time, we can't juice out any more power." Grayson murmured. Standing at the edge of the group, Jason looked more nervous at that, starting to wring his hands.

"Maybe... I should do something bad." Jason said softly.

"No, that... that's not something we can let you do. You can't make yourself bait." Eli said, moving over to him.

"It's just... all I wanted for Christmas was for my brother and me to be happy, to be together. I didn't need any presents." Jason said, his eyes glistening despite the cold, a tear rolling down his cheek. As the tear fell, it shimmered a bit brighter before the light disappeared from it.

"Guys." Seth murmured, his voice deep. Gray looked up, gasping gently as he saw a figure emerging from the shadows of the trees. The Krampus was tall and proud, his horns thick and tall. His body was covered with fur, his skin was as dark as coal and a thick bushy beard descended from his strange sharp featured face. The Krampus hoisted the heavy bag up a bit on his shoulder. Jason looked up, meeting eyes with the creature.

"Cal!" He whispered before he ran past the Ghostbusters and wrapped his arms around his brother. The Krampus lowered his bag to the ground, wrapping his arm around Jason with care. Nico turned, noticing other movement, his eyes widening sharply at that.

"He's not alone..." Nico murmured. The busters looked around as another Krampus emerged, then another, then four more. They were surrounded by a dozen converted Christmas creatures all summoned to the spot by the PKE aura.

"They can't all be the original Krampus..." Eli whispered.

"They aren't. The missing kids, the ones that didn't break the rules... The ones that skirted the line, this is them." Seth said, finally putting the pieces of the puzzle together.

"Jason... You can join me." Cal said, his voice incredibly deep. He looked down at his brother with crimson red eyes, his clawed hand resting on the teen's cheek. Jason looked up at Cal before shaking his head.

"No, you need to come back with me... These Ghostbusters are my friends. They found our family, the Dades... They... They fixed everything. They got them a government job, they have enough money t support us and they want to adopt us for real. They want to keep us forever. Please, Cal." Jason begged.

"There is too much to do..." Cal replied.

"There are bad children in this world, bad teens... And they do need to be straightened out and put on a better path. We are a better society for doing that, we have learned, we have abilities to network and help." Grayson said, standing up next to the pylon. He slowly turned, looking at all the Krampusz, "Please, give them another chance. Don't drag them away to hell and condemn them to that fate. Let them learn from their mistakes. It's... Christmas." Gray said. The demonic beasts seemed to look to one another, conferring in silence, considering... but there was one change they hadn't noticed. The eyes Jason was looking into were no longer red, but brown.

"They want us?" Callum asked, his voice hoarse but closer to normal. Jason grinned brightly at that, nodding.

"They want us, they're going to get us back. You just need to come back so we can be together again." Jason whispered. Cal trembled gently before he wrapped Jason up in both arms, holding him tight. The loss of one of the two primary Krampusz seemed to take its toll on the others as their unity in purpose seemed to waiver. One Krampus, though, did not waiver. He strode out from the ring of beasts and moved to the pylon, lifting his hand. The pylon shuddered and then shorted out, sending sparks out across the ground. Gray dove out of the way as the pylon collapsed, fires igniting on the circuit boards. He scrambled to get to his feet, but the Krampus grabbed Gray by the collar and lifted him to his feet. The other busters brought up their proton blasters but could not risk firing without hitting Gray. The Krampus inhaled slowly, his nostrils flaring.

"Grayson Kale... You... have been a very good boy." The Krampus murmured. Gray was a little surprised at that. The Krampus turned and looked at the other Ghostbusters that had gathered around, his red eyes appraising, "Seth Dillon, Dakota Shaw, Elijah Reed, Nico Kingston, Rerun Unduallai..." He murmured steadily.

"We have... and we want to help others to be good too." Gray said softly. The Krampus looked back at Gray, one bushy black eyebrow rising slowly.

"If you take on this task, there are risks... and rewards." The Krampus growled. Gray looked a bit surprised at that.

"You'll let us try to help these kids?" Gray asked softly.

"You have one year to make the improvement... One year until my return." The Krampus said. He let go of Gray and held up a clawed hand. The bags each Krampus held fell to the ground, rumbled and shifted before they spewed open, unfurling bright white light into the park. In the midst of the light there were kids and teenagers appearing, bewildered and stunned. Half a dozen at a time, they began to fill up the park... but the light was only growing brighter. It washed over everyone as bright as the sun - and then was gone.

Jason blinked slowly, his eyes trying to recover from the flash. As he opened them, he saw a blurry peach colored form before him. It took a few moments, but Callum's face came into focus... his human face. Callum looked sheepish and ashamed, but he looked human again. Jason grinned and leapt up, wrapping his arms around his brother's neck tightly. Callum sniffed and buried his face in Jason's neck, not wanting to let go. Dakota looked around at all the stunned, confused kids that filled the park.

"Nico, get the authorities here..." Dakota whispered before he moved forward, looking to the huddled masses, "Alright kids. We're going to get some help here soon. I know you've been through a lot and we're here to help. Not just for what you experienced today, but in general. We're here to help you, personally... Just... wanted you to know that." Dakota said. Gray looked around at them all but his eyes settled on Jason and Callum after a moment. There was an unusual pin stuck to Callum's collar, made with gold and white crystals embedded. It was a ruten, the Krampus switch. Whatever agreement they had apparently made, the Krampus had not given up on its first lieutenant quite yet.

****

Callum stood in his bedroom, looking around at the empty shelves and the full suitcases. He had packed several times in his life, saying goodbye to facilities and houses, but this time it felt a bit different - a bit better. He was leaving a house he hated and he was heading for a brand new home with parents he actually loved, and more importantly, who loved him and his brother. With a new job and with pressure from the joint task force the adoption was being fast tracked. The nightmare had ended, though one way or another it had been destined to.

That thought sent a slight chill down Cal's neck. He looked down slowly, reaching a hand to rub at the pin on his collar. Every missing kid had returned to the park, unharmed and unchanged. Everything had seemed undone - but Stefan and Joan had not reappeared. The two were still missing and Christmas had come. Cal let go of his pin, his jaw set. Even with his powers gone, he still felt the judgment of the Krampus inside him. He knew his former foster parents were irredeemable and had met the darkest fate of the Krampus.

It was oddly cathartic to know that they hadn't been returned, that they wouldn't stand in the way... and that the Krampus hadn't given up on him either. Callum slowly closed his eyes and remembered what it had been like; to wield that kind of power, to roam the Earth with such domination, and to be a model of such masculinity. Cal moaned softly, remembering the beard, the cock, his naked body in the cold night air.

"You having a party without me?" Came a soft voice. It wasn't Jason's voice either. Cal turned, looking to the doorway. Gael was still thin and gaunt, but he was alive and dressed in some of Jason's old clothes.

"Well, I'm going to have to for a while longer." Cal murmured.

"Two fucking years..." Gael groaned in disgust, "Come on, don't you want to be a rebel? We don't have to wait." Cal moved over and rested a hand on Gael's shoulder.

"You know I can't break some rules now, we're being held to a higher standard. But this will give us time to heal, to get our feet beneath us. You have school to finish and a new foster family to try out." Cal said.

"Well... if I can't persuade you, you better fucking wait for me." Gael murmured. Cal smiled at that and reached to ruffle the blond's hair.

"You've got a deal." Cal replied.

"Guys!!! I can't get the lid on my DVD crate!" Jason shouted from downstairs. Gael chuckled at that, crossing his arms.

"You got turned into a Christmas demon and you gave him every next gen game? That's what you did with your powers?" Gael asked. Callum smirked as he picked up his luggage from the bed, moving toward the door.

"Hey, I want the kid to be happy." Callum smiled, leaving his bedroom behind for the last time. Gael looked around the empty room before he pulled the door shut behind him.

****

The firehouse was quiet once more. The beds in the guest room had been filled and Dakota had even curled up on an inflatable mattress down in the garage where it was cooler. The lights had been turned off, but the Christmas tree cast a warm rainbow glow across the living room. The table was covered with cups with the remnants of hot chocolate and apple cider and plates with half eaten cookies. All in all, it had been quite the successful Christmas.

Rerun was curled up on the couch, this time lying on the cushions themselves. A smile crossed his lips as he relived the events of the day, not with his powers but with the magic of dreaming. His tail twitched a bit, his fingers flexed. It wasn't until his pointed ears heard a faint crunching that his white eyes opened up slowly. Rerun sleepily lifted his head up and turned, wondering which of his friends had woken up first...

Standing at the table was a man seemingly in his late fifties. His hair was as white as snow, just like his beard, but his cheeks were rosy and warm. His coat and pants were made from a plush red fabric with white trim and he had on a hefty black and silver belt that made it all around his prodigious belly. The man stood at the table and lifted another cookie to his lips, munching away as he pulled out a few last presents from his large burlap sack. Rerun stared, wide eyed at the spectacle. Noticing movement, the strange visitor looked up and met eyes with Rerun. He chuckled softly to himself.

"Never could get anything past a time wyrm, could I?" he asked, his voice tender and rich with such warmth and care. He reached down into his bag and rummaged around before withdrawing a package wrapped in metallic blue paper with silver metallic ribbon. He walked over to the couch and handed it to Rerun.

Rerun's hand moved up to his chin and he gestured the sign for 'thank you'. Nearly teary eyed, Rerun looked down at his package and began tearing into it with his four fingered hands. The ribbon fell away, then the paper. As the wrapping was torn asunder, the present itself became visible. Resting inside was a brand new t-shirt with the hourglass emblem emblazoned on the front. The screen printing was pristine and, if it was possible, even cleaner and more focused than his original had been. Rerun gasped silently and looked up - but the room was empty. There was no longer any visitor, just a few more cookie crumbs and a few less cookies on the table. Still clutching his gift, Rerun hugged the shirt closer to his chest as he reflected on the day's events. He had come across the minions of death, traveled through lost civilizations and re-lived decades to catch back up to himself... but none of that compared to meeting the real Santa. Rerun grinned from ear to ear as he lifted his t-shirt up to take a big sniff of the new fabric before he flopped back on the couch in glee.