The great outdoors where the grass is dead and the trees are deader. Enjoy frosty hard earth and not much else. It's coooold.

::Santa, pulled on his sleigh by a team of reindeer, lets out a hearty laugh as they begin to pick up speed whilst crossing the snow.::

"Ho ho ho! Let's bring some early gifts to the young ones!"

::The sleigh rises into the air and the team is soon flying through the cold air to the magic school.::

[Everybody from the kitchen at the mansion is sweetly deposited here.]

"Oh my God!"

:: Azura pretty much wraps herself around Paige. The poor woman has no natural padding afterall and it is quite, quite cold. Freezing even.::

(Ah, it's warmed than I thought.)

::Sharon feels relieved. Must be all those dead animals' skins she's wearing.::

"I thought there'd be snow..."

"There is!"

::Where they're standing is dead, frozen land where the grass is only present because it's frozen in place, but Jasmine points to a small distance where there's white stuff.::

"We need to get inside and get shelter from this wind!"

::She shouting because the roars of said wind are so loud and strong they pull her voice away barely after she's spoken.::

(Zomg, pretty frozen grass!)

:: Lirie crouches down in glee to poke at the frozen grass blades. Yes, it's freezing, yes, she's cold, but there are sparkley pointy thingies befor her and such trifles matters as a sub-zero degrees seem quite irrelevant to her. Looking up at the others and catching Jasmine's words before they vanish, she nods, though. ::

"Yes, shelter. Hey, aren't those caves a bit further down there? Are there icey caves?"

:: Azura stares at Lirie from her Paige shelter. She can't begin to phathom what she is doing and why.::

(Why did we bring the strange girl?)

"There."

::Paige points to what looks like a shed in the distance.::

"Come on."

::She clings to Azura, then reaches for Chloe and Jasmine and orbs them to the byre.::

::Julie in turn grabs Andrea, Lirie and Sharon. She figures Leo can orb himself. Lazy ass. She blink to The byre.::

:: Azura drags Jasmine a good twenty metres or so before she stops running. And now she's cold! She turns and stares back at the cottage, looking for everyone else.::

::Leo and an antlered Petunius rush from the cottage and far away.::

"Those things keep you warmer?"

::Paige rushes out carrying Melinda and joins the others. She puts her daughter down and shakes off her coat, wrapping it tightly around the child.::

::Ozy and everybody else arrives now, panting.::

"Man it's cold!"

"I don't think that'll be a problem much longer."

[She's right. The cottage everybody just left explodes and is left as a flaming heap of rubble. A freaky silence follows.]

::Jasmine holds her hands out towards the fire, all aglow.::

"Well."

::Sharon steadies her hands on her hips.::

::Jasmine then stops and folds her arms across her stomach, holding herself. Did they just kill Santa Claus?::

:: Azura has her arm around her sister's waist now. Yes, it seems like they did.::

::Paz turns to Petunius. Then points. And laughs.::

::Julie keeps her arms wrapped around Andrea.::

"This is one hell of a birthday!"

::She smiles as she spots Melinda, safely in mom's arms. Chloe not yet Christmas dinner and her Andy safe and sound.::

::Chloe holds the liquid Lirie close to her body, trying to keep her from freezing.::

"Happy Birthday, Julie."

::She rubs the jug with the palm of her hand, blowing warm air in the top.::

"Can we get to warmth before this puddle turns to ice?"

(Yeah, can we?)

:: Puddle!Lirie ripples from the blowing warm breath, but it does little to help as her anxious swirling becomes more sluggish. The cold is enveloping and she begins to feel extremely sleepy... ::

(*yawn*)

"Paz? Could you help her without, like, boiling her?"

::Paige turns now and looks meaningfully at Leo, then at the sky. She's trying her hardest not to shiver now, but it's absolutely freezing - below - out here, especially without her jacket. However, this does mean she can hold Melinda even tighter. Despite the horrible circumstances, she can't stop thinking about how Melinda called her mommy when she was scared and needed her the most.::

::Leo orbs out and is gone for a few seconds before he reappears.::

"There's still something blocking magical exit."

::He looks at Paige and Ozymandias anxiously.::

(This may not be over. I sure hope the way to turn it off isn't... back down there.)

::His eyes now trace a path to the ruins of Santa's cottage.::

::Adolf's red nose lights the way as he and a team of five other reindeer pull the sleigh that has just burst from the rubble of Santa's ruined cottage. Sitting in the wide chair of the sleigh is Santa himself, blackened, cut, and certainly worse for wear - but alive. The sleigh circles the heroes as the dark sky twinkles with stars, showing how majestic the childlike wonder of Santa Claus really can be. That is, could be, if he weren't so evil and deadly.::

"Ho ho ho!"

::Santa guffaws, the sound of a cracking whip filling the air.::

"Thought you'd got rid of me, did you?"

::A spray of real machine gun bullets pierces the ground in a steady stream heading towards everybody.::

::Andy puts her hands up and a telekinetic shield covers herself and her friends. On the outside, bullets begin to liquify and splatter onto her barrier like weird black rain.::

(I'm going to have nightmares for years about this. And to think Santa was the only childhood fantasy character that didn't scare me...)

::All the noise frightens Melinda more and she pushes her face closer into Paige's stomach, trying to drown it all out. Unfortunately, she's pretty much incapacitating her mother by doing this.::

"A little help here?"

::Petunius tugs at the antlers and holds them and as a result, his head, upright.::

"Andrea, let me out."

::Andrea lifts Leo up with her powers, then pushes him out of a hole in the barrier she makes before closing it after him.::

::Now free to orb without any difficulty, Leo does so. He disappears into a stream of orbs and reappears on the sleigh, crouched on the back behind Santa. He throws himself onto Santa's back, determined to grapple the man right off the side of the sleigh and onto the hard ground below.::

(We need a plan.)

::Jasmine almost bites right through her lip as she watches the sleigh wobble a bit. She glances at her sister.::

(Az. Maybe our powers will work on him now, without that hat on and if we work together. If we can get Andso and Paz to, I don't know, like melt some snow or something and make a pool? Then Andrea and solidify it again?)

"Get off me, nuisance."

::Santa grabs Leo by the collar and pulls the whitelighter towards himself before pushing forcibly and throwing Leo from the sleigh. Santa guides the reindeer away and, pulling a u-turn, sprays bullets at the falling whitelighter - just to show he's a little peeved.::

::Leo orbs out promptly and reappears beside the others.::

:: Azura nods and opens up a psychic channel to Paz more than Andrea, and informs them of what Jasmine wants them to do.::

(Are you ready?)

:: She looks at her sister now.::

"Ho ho ho! Give me the child and I may not kill you all!"

::Santa's eyes glow with a demonic red as he fires more at the group, trying to break down Andrea's shield.::

::Adolf's nose whines with charged energy and a red laser beam shoots from it, drawing a line through the snow towards the witches and melting it with intense heat. It runs over Andrea's barrier and, towards the back of it as the sleigh sweeps over everybody, cuts through.::