A World of Disney Christmas 2

Part Four: I'll Be Home for Christmas

            Two Guardians brought down by one man (if they chose to call him that). Truthfully, Merlock was no man. He was exactly as Anna described him: "a wolf guy thing." His towering figure could have filled half of the living room area he stood in, gripping his golden scepter and a half-conscious Genevieve. He dangled her limp body a few feet from the floor before dropping it like a sack of rocks.

As soon as he did, it was just the right moment for Alissa, KaeLeigh, and Hercules to make a charge for him.

Unfortunately, the wizard foresaw the attack. Waving his Fantasian scepter, he froze his three would-be assailants just as they were a few feet. Jatniel, Brandy, Penz, and Anna remained standing where they were, already petrified with fear.

"What a pitiful excuse for an attack!" Merlock belittled. "Did you really believe charging at me like raging bulls would best a master of sorcery? You have no right to call yourselves 'heroes!'"

"They...aren't just...heroes..."

Merlock glimpsed downward. Genevieve was pathetically in the process of lifting her battered body from the floor, her arms heavily shaking beneath her own weight.

"They're defenders," she boldly told the rogue sorcerer. "And they will...defend this world...and the next... from scum like you!"

In response to her declaration, Merlock planted his oversized right foot onto her back, placing all of his body mass into it to brutally pin her. She felt the wind squeezed out of her between Merlock's foot on her back and her chest pressed against the walnut-colored hardwood floor.

"Might I remind you how simple it was to foil your plan in burying the scepter deep within a world outside the Disneyverse?" Merlock derided. "The same world where I managed to snatch this little souvenir."

From beneath his robe, he retrieved a black metal device that looked very familiar to Jatniel: "That's a lightsaber!"

"Indeed, that's what they call it in that strange realm." Merlock switched on the device, igniting a ten-foot blade made of purple fire and flickered with black lightning. "Rather interesting, isn't it? I wonder just how much of a mess I can make when I cut off this one's head." To everyone's horror, he brought the fiery blade close over Genevieve's neck. "Of course, I won't do it...unless Penz yields herself as my new apprentice."

The young, barefooted blonde in question swallowed hard, caught in a difficult choice that was factually a matter of life and death – her life, Genevieve's death.

As the tense scene unfolded in the living room, Brandy instinctively directed her eyes towards Benji's bedroom, fearing her son would never have the chance to see his grandfather again. However, as her focus went to the doorway, she spotted Elsa, who listened in on the incident and seemed to have a plan. Her gaze locked with Brandy's, she gave a slight nod.

Following her lead, Brandy returned focus on Merlock and exclaimed, "How dare you!" All attention, including Merlock's, centered on her. "How dare you come into our home – during Christmas of all times – and ruin it for me and my husband!"

Jatniel could hardly believe her. "Have you lost your mind?" His only reply was a swift elbow to the gut, delivered by his dear loving wife.

"I take very little care for your Christmas, child!" Merlock bellowed. "My Christmases were spent fending for my life in worlds you would not believe!"

"Oh, poor you!" Brandy mocked. "You make yourself out to be some big bad with your funky staff, your ridiculous lightsaber, and stupid clothes, but all you are is just a pale imitation of Yen Sid!"