The most wonderful time of the year! (HB)

It was a snowy day in Jump City, as it had been for the last month and a half, and all was peaceful. Steve's played in the snow as the residents of Jump City went about their days. But the relative silence was broken by the sound of bells ringing and hooves clopping against the ground. But where was the sound coming from? As the sound drew nearer it would become increasingly clear what it belonged to.

People gawked from the sidelines as an old man in a very recognisable festive costume rode by in a sleigh being dragged by a flock of reindeer, full sacks could be seen in the back of the sleigh. But it couldn't be, could it? Santa Claus!?!

But something wasn't quite right. 'Santa' had a cold and harsh face with a scar going down the right side, the 'reindeer' were all white and had stones for eyes, the sacks all had dollar signs on them and there was a tied up bank worker among them "Hohoho! God bless DOMA, the Titans are nowhere to be seen thanks to those lot! That bank was easy pickings!" yep, something was definitely amiss.

As he had said, the Titans were nowhere to be seen. Only one of them. A bright Green Horse was seen chasing after the sleigh, although he was lagging behind quite a bit. Beast Boy wasn't able to speak while he was transformed, but he really wanted to say "Dude! Why are you dressed like Santa? It's February!"

Beast Boy wasn't really meant to be out here, what with the Titans going underground and everything. But his communicator had picked up the silent alarm being triggered at the bank and he had decided to go. Now he was kind of wishing he had brought some of his teammates with him, as this sleigh was going way faster than he could handle. Sure would be nice if Starfire was here.

If there was a silver lining, it was that 'Santa' was not being inconspicuous at all. He made plenty of noise as he went along, so he would likely attract a lot of attention, maybe even from a local hero. That being said, Beast Boy wasn't going to hold his breath over it. Instead he followed the sleigh, keeping it in sight and waiting for an opening to get closer.

Thankfully, Beast Boy's hopes would be answered, for there was a local hero (or at least a junior hero) around, and he was soon to lend a helping hand in stopping the redclad crook. Before the false Santa had made his appearance, Tazi was wandering across the city and enjoying yet another snowy day, as well as the Steves' antics. Though the snow attested to the state of the weather, being clad in a warm jacket, scarf, and cap helped ward off the cold. That said, he'd had set his sights upon paying a visit to a cafe for some warm, tasty treats and then stopping by a arcade for a little while, but the jingling of bells interrupted that. When he saw the sleigh approaching, the young shockslinger had at first gotten excited, giving a few happy bounces on his feet  at the thought of meeting Santa (or at least getting to participate in some sort of celebration.)

However, a errant thought dampened his excitement some. Was this really Santa? Christmas had already come after all, and he was certain that it wasn't celebrated  twice! (Or, at least, he was mostly certain.) Staring up at the sleigh in curiosity as it passed by, he first took in how downright mean the so-called Santa looked, and then noticed the money bags and hostage. His eyes widened, and then narrowed as the robber gloated. Giving a soft growl, Taz worked his way onto the road,ready to chase after the robber and give him a piece of his mind, only to blink as a green deer rushed by. He tilted his head, slightly confused at the presence of  an oddly colored animal apparently chasing after the crook, then his eyes widened yet again. Wait, he knew of a hero that transformed into green animals! Could it really be?!

Once on the road, Taz started chasing after them. After he picked up enough speed, he was soon running beside Beastboy, who might be able to notice not just how easily Taz kept up with him, but the small lines of electricity crackling off of the new arrival's form. Gazing up at the green deer, Taz pointed at the sleigh, and then asked, "Slow badman down?"

Beast Boy was getting tired. Not physically, as Horses have good stamina, he was tired of chasing after this Santa wannabe! Just as he was wondering what he could possibly do to catch up to this villain who clearly didn't own a calendar the cavalry arrived in the form of a little boy who was running at super speed and crackling with electricity. Huh.

Beast Boy jumped suddenly, then transformed back into his original form in mid-air "Yeah! Slow him down!" he then transformed back into a horse just as he landed from the jump and kept on running without losing any of his momentum.

Meanwhile, up ahead, 'Santa' peered back and saw the duo pursuing him, they were kind of hard to miss after all "Hmph, spoke too soon I guess. Hayaah!" With a crack of the reins the sleigh sped ahead, attempting to leave the two heroes in the dust.

Judging by the shining in Taz's eyes, he seemed to think that Beast Boy's smooth shapeshifting was pretty cool, and even gave a small, somewhat awed smile at it. Blinking as he processed Beast Boy's shouted response, Taz gave a nod and a quick salute, then turned his attention back to their prey. Noticing that 'Santa' had speed his sleigh up, the young speedster couldn't help but snort, as if he was thinking, 'You're not going to get away that easily, mange-jaw.' (And in fact, he was thinking that.)

He sped up his pace, and quickly began accelerating, the edges of his form beginning to gain a blur to them. Within the next few seconds, Taz had sped ahead of Beast Boy, and was quickly gaining on 'Santa' and his sleigh. The young speedster focused his gaze on the quite literally stony gazed reindeer as he approached, giving a thoughtful hum. He wasn't sure what exactly the strange beings were...it'd probably be best not to attack them directly. Tazi turned his attention to the harnesses and supports of the reindeer, and gave a mischievous grin. Bingo! He pulled ahead to the front pair, raising his hand as lightning surrounded it. With a crackle and hum, the lightning condensed into large, knife like claws of pure plasma and energy floating above his finger tips, and Taz lashed out at a support between one of the front reindeer and the one behind it.

Seeing the boy stare at him in awe as he used his powers made Beast Boy a little happy, but he was still focused on the task at hand. The young speedster nodded to show that he understood then sped on ahead to catch up with 'Santa'. He seemed to be planning on cutting the harnesses attaching the sleigh to the reindeer, not a bad plan.

However, 'Santa' noticed his approach and gave him a glare. He waved a hand and suddenly the snow seemed to suspend in midair in a small space above the hand he waved. The snow formed into a fist the size of a human torso that flew at Taz to try and prevent him from cutting the supports.

Taz noticed the So Called Santa's glare as he passed by, and returned the favor with one of his own, sticking his tongue out at the crook, before rushing past him and approaching the harnesses. However, his running stuttered slightly in surprise as their felonious foe demonstrated a ability to control snow with a wave of a hand. As the fluffy substance condensed into a frosty fist, the young speedster gulped, glancing between it and the harnesses. Making a decision, he raised his hand, about to give a quick swipe at the lead deer's harness with his crackling claws, but the fist impacted him before he could complete the gesture. As it slammed into him, he was bowled over, and found himself skidding to a halt on the road, underneath a small pile of what was left from the snow attack.

Taz had made the decision to ignore Santa's attempt to attack him and instead tried to outspeed the assault. However he was just a second too slow and got slammed with the fist of snow, knocking him down to the ground and piling the snow on top of him. As Beast Boy approached Taz he turned back into his human form and shovelled snow off of the boy "Are you okay dude!?!"

'Santa' now knew that he was being chased by someone that could keep up with his speed so he decided to take some precautions. He waved his hands like a conductor giving instruction to an orchestra, but instead of making music he made snowmen. Living snowmen that stood over two metres tall. They blocked the two heroes paths, growling and hissing at them like animals.

Taz was trying to get the snow off of himself, though he wasn't succeeding quite as fast as he'd like. THankfully, he had assistance coming. As Beast Boy helped get the snow off of him, Taz sat up with a sputter. Glancing up at BB when he asked if the young speedster was ok, Taz blew a snowladen bang out of his eye and fished his cap out of the pile before nodding and giving a sheepish nod. Thankfully, the impact had been relatively harmless. That said, he was even more eager to give that snow slinging crook a piece of his mind.

And speaking of which... As he spotting 'Santa' continuing on, Taz gave a sprightly hop back up, tugging on the end of his sleeves in a distinctly firm manner, a pouting glare crossing his face. Ooooh, that jerk wasn't in the clear yet! Just wait till he....he...tangled with giant snowmen? Blinking as the crook summoned up another obstacle,  Taz tilted his head, only to bare his teeth and answer the growls with a distinctly canine one of his own. As his hands crackled in electricity, Beast Boy just might notice that his blue-maned companion's canines seemed strangely long, and his ears seemed a little...pointer. Taz, meanwhile, started the battle by slinging  a lightning bolt or two towards one of the snowmen.

Thankfully the boy was unharmed, he was just having trouble getting the pile of snow off of him is all. When Beast Boy had asked him if he was okay the boy nodded and hopped back to his feet, which probably meant yes. Beast Boy decided to stop wasting time and shifted back into a horse, running after the two of them. As they prepared to do battle with the snowmen Beast Boy noticed that his companion had some more animalistic features to him. But hey, who was he to judge?

As Taz launched a lightning bolt at the snowmen it would prove to be very effective, with the snowman he hit bursting like a popped bubble. Clearly the snowmen weren't much of a threat on their own, the problem was just that there were a lot of them. The snowmen moved to converge on Taz, moving by shuffling along the ground relatively slowly.

As Beast Boy was confronted with a snowman trying to block his way he dipped his head down low and shifted into a bull. Ramming into the snowman head first, he plowed through it with no issue and let out a bellow. To those who don't speak Bull, his bellow roughly translates to 'booyah'.

Taz blinked as the snowman that he'd targeted popped. Huh...That was easy! Glancing around, his eyes narrowed. The halfling had a feeling that these things weren't exactly dangerous...Just had to knock them out of the way! As Beast Boy demonstrated his own ability to handle the frosty obstacles with a boisterous bellow, Taz grinned and then turned his attention to the snowmen approaching him, beginning to run forward. Giving a excited, howling battle cry of his own, he'd start slinging out lightning bolts towards any snowmen that were in his way, snow flying around him as he started popping their icy enemies. Hopefully he'd be able to break through and gain enough speed to catch up to their real foe.

The young halflings efforts to break through the line of giant snowmen blocking his path proved to be very fruitful as they were all destroyed with minimal effort, becoming nothing more than piles of snow that blocked the road. Beast Boy made a giant leap into the air, where he shifted into a gorilla and raised his hands over his head, clenching them together. He swung his hands down like an axe handle and smashed the snowmans head, causing the rest of the body to crumble. His momentum made him tilt forward in mid-air, causing him to hit the ground at an awkward angle and clumsily roll to his feet. Hoping that no one saw that, he transformed back into a horse and started chasing after the sleigh again.

'Santa' took a cautionary glance behind his back to see if he had managed to lose the two heroes. When he saw that they were still chasing after him he yelled out a very non-Christmasy word that begins with f. With a flourish of his hands he raised a wall of snow that dwarfed the two of them in height several times over "Hmph, that'll keep'em out of my hair!"

Taz gave another howling whoop of excitement as he broke through the snowmen, and snow swirled around him as he dashed through the remnants of the last one to get in his way. Those obstacles now out of the way, he refocused his gaze on their real foe and continued building up speed. However, after a very rude shout that caused Taz's steps to stutter slightly in surprise, 'Santa' raised yet another obstacle in their way. Eyes widening upon seeing the huge wall in their way, Taz glanced over at Beast Boy, then turned his attention back to the way again. Raising his hands, he started rapidly slinging out lightning bolts in a attempt to cut a way through for them.

For a moment Beast Boy was concerned about the wall of snow that 'Santa' had raised, not because he couldn't get over it but because doing so would have slowed him down quite considerably. Luckily his new ally had them covered with his lightning powers, blasting a hole in the wall for them to go through. It was fortunate but it made Beast Boy realise something, the boy was slowing himself down to help out Beast Boy, which rubbed the Titan the wrong way.

Beast Boy briefly turned back into his human form so that he could talk again, hoping to communicate with the young halfling "Hey dude, slow down a sec! Let me catch a ride!" If Taz complied Beast Boy would turn into a bug and fly into Taz's pocket and allow the young speedster to speed along, taking him with him.

'Santa' held onto the hope that the wall would slow them down for long enough and decided to keep his eyes on the road. With a whip of the reins he would spur his snow reindeer on, moving somewhat faster than before, although he still was not as fast as Taz.

Taz grinned as he carved through the wall, allowing the two to continue chasing their prey. Ha! Take that, you grease jawed, Santa inpersonating bully! Hearing Beast Boy's request, his steps stuttered slightly in surprise, and then Taz got work on following the hero's request. Leaning backwards slightly, the small speedster skidded for a few feet to bleed off enough momentum and slowed himself down enough for BB to catch up. Once his green ally did what he needed to, Taz would start picking up speed again, and his figure started to blur as he settled into a blistering pace.

Unfortunately for 'Santa', Taz was indeed faster, and he quickly caught up to the felonious Father Christmas. As he ran beside the sleigh, he slowed slightly, not wanting to rush ahead of their target. Scowling up at the crook, Taz would give into a, admittedly childish, urge and stuck his tongue out at him, before rolling his eyes around and pulling the corners of his mouth into a grimace with his pointer fingers. Though he might (sheepishly) admit that the gesture was primarily driven by a urge to mess with the snowflinging jerk, it would also, hopefully, allow Beast Boy to get onto the sleigh.

Taz complied with Beast Boy's request and slowed down long enough for Beast Boy to take refuge in his pocket. Taz then sped along and was able to catch up to the sled quite quickly and start running alongside it. While Taz was taunting 'Santa' in a juvenile fashion to attract his attention Beast Boy would fly out of his pocket and make his way into the back of the sleigh.

While that was happening 'Santa' glowered at Taz in response to his taunting and starting waving his hands in the air. As he did so a dozen smaller versions of the fists he made out of snow earlier formed in the air around him, all of them roughly the size of a soccer ball. 'Santa' gestured towards Taz, and as he did so the snow fists in the air flew at Taz with the speed of a baseball pitch, they wouldn't be as strong individually as the attack from before but made up for it with numbers.

While 'Santa' had been preoccupied with Taz Beast Boy found the hostage in the back. He transformed into a Pteranodon and picked the man up, flying out of the sleigh and dropping him off gently on the sidewalk. He then slashed with his talons to cut up the rope bounding the mans limbs. Satisfied that the man was safe Beast Boy transformed into a hawk and flew after the sled.