THE BAD GUYS: a very bad holiday

Chapter 5: here comes robo-Claus

Along the river basin, Wolf, Snake, Shark, and Piranha stared at the giant, metal thing with their mouths hanging open.

Wolf cocked his head, realizing immediately that the metal creation.

"Webs had built was actually a large mechanical robot designed to look just like a muscle-bound Santa. What it was, was obvi-ous. Why she'd built it was another matter"

"Hold on, webs built a Santa Claus robot?" Princess asked.

"Roboclaus! Yes, and it was the best thing I ever build" webs looked gleeful.

"Roboclaus' Built this bad boy for our Christmas morning bank heist," Webs explained. "The security bars will be no match for this mechanical Santa's super strength. I was going to surprise you all tomorrow, but you can call me a genius now?" Webs grinned at them, awaiting the team's praise.

"It is surprising, that's for sure," Wolf mused.

Webs nodded. "The normies will forget all about their precious Santa balloon once they lay their eyes on this beauty. It captures Santa's true nature." She cocked her head in the other direction, studying the surly and somewhat frightening-looking Santa. "None of that
jolly business."

"What did it look like?" Princess asked again.

"It looked like santa was being replaced by a robot killer" snake said.

"Aw come on, it was great" webs groans.

Webs typed a code on her computer, and moments later, Roboclaus raised his arm as if to wave. But instead of a jolly wave, flames shot out of his hand. With a shriek, Piranha jumped out of the way to avoid being cooked into a blackened filet.

"Hmm," Webs said thoughtfully. "Okay, that was supposed to make him dance, but it was still pretty awesome.

"I still think us was still awesome"

"Do you still have it?" Princess wondered.

Webs smiled, "why yeah, do you wanna see it later princess"

"Heck no!" Everyone shouts when they witness Roboclaus, they didn't wanted it to harm princess.

The suit really should be operated by a driver." She nudged Wolf and added, "C'mon, Wolfie, try him on."

"Oh, that's-" Wolf began, backing away just a few tiptoed steps. He didn't really want to be the guy operating Webs's Santa mech. "I'm good. Thanks, though. 

And as great as... this is, the jolly component of Jolly old Nick is probably why noncriminal folks like him.?

Webs hopped up onto Roboclaus's shoulder and whispered into his ear, "Don't listen to him. You're perfect."

"Trust me princess, it was great, best thing I ever did" webs says.

"No it isn't princess, don't listen to webs"

"Hey, put a bow in it wolfie"

Wolf held up his paws, trying to think and see if he could come up with other ideas on the spot.

Surely, this terrifying Roboclaus was not going to fill the hole left in peoples' hearts when they'd destroyed the real Santa balloon.

"If we all work together," he said confidently,
"I'm sure a bunch of criminal masterminds like us can make one silly Santa balloon."

"I mean How hard could it be to create a perfect replica of the jolly old Santa balloon?"

"I think it takes a lot of work to create a balloon wolf" princess says.

The Bad Guys jumped right to work, gathering up as many materials as they could think of, hoping to build something that might trick the public into un-canceling Christmas.

They sewed sheets together, painted the sheets red, and bustled to and from, building the best homemade Santa they could.

"Even I'm a little offended by this," Snake said, when they'd finally finished, and everyone stepped back to admire their work.

"It was an eye sore" snake says.

Webs covered Roboclaus's eyes, hoping not to scare him with their awful creation.

Piranha announced, "His beard looks like a tentacle.

"I feel scandalized."

Wolf's face fell. This was obviously going to be harder than he'd originally thought.

But Bad Guys didn't give up. Ever. Even when a task seemed utterly impossible.

"So were you gonna use Roboclaus to save Christmas" princess asked.

"Not exactly honey" wolf rubbed his head.