A Dementia Christmas

(Part 1)

By Mark J. DeGregorio, a.k.a.- Lucky

“How about the Milky Ways.” Alan asked as he reached his hand into the bowl sitting on the table and grabbed a single chocolate puff of cereal. He held it with his thumb and index finger, rolling it onto the back of his thumbnail. Alan flicked the single Cocoa Puff into the air as Nonie stretched her neck out and caught it in her mouth.

After she ate and swallowed it, she replied, “Milky Ways? We’re not going to name the band The Milky Ways!”

He grumbled, “Why not?” as he snatched another piece of cereal and flicked it into the air.

Nonie stretched her neck back and caught the little puff of cereal, then said, “We are not going to be named after a candy bar!”

“Well then,” he suggested, “how about The Comets?” and flicked another chocolate puff Nonie’s direction.

The rubbery redhead stretched out to her left and caught it in her mouth, and said, “I don’t know, is that already a rock band?”

Alan paused before sending another piece of cereal flying, smiled and said, “We could call ourselves, The Rubber Bands.”

Nonie missed the Cocoa Puff Alan flicked towards her as she retorted, “Now you’re just being funny.”

As she brought her hand down to retrieve the fallen cereal puff off the floor, Nonie noticed an ear stretched into the room, “What do you want Patricia!”

The brunette girl stretched her upper body into the room and said, “We’ll call ourselves…Patricia, and company.”

Nonie snarled, “What makes you think you’re in the band!”

“For starters,” Patricia gloated, “daddy had me take piano lessons.”

“Big Deal,” Nonie snapped, “so you can play Chop-sticks. That doesn’t mean you’re in our band.”

As the two elastic girls glared at each other, Alan suggested, “Well let her try out, and if she’s good, she’ll join.”

“Me, try out!” Patricia snapped, “I don’t need a try out.”

“Our band,” Nonie grinned, “our rules.”

Alan suggested, “We’ll need to get a bass player and instruments before we can start the band.”

Alan and Nonie got up from the table and the three went to get ready to go to the mall’s music store.

* * * * * * *

The mall was packed with Christmas shoppers. The holiday was in full swing as the lines to see Santa stretched to the food court. All was proceeding as normal when a small vortex opened and a little blonde imp emerged from it.

She flew around with her faire-like wings and announced, “I have arrived! Dementia is in the house!”

She looked around and saw that no one even paid her no-mind. Furious at being regarded as nothing, she flew around the mall to see the cause of it all. What she found was an old man in a red suit, getting all the attention that was meant for her.

She manically smiled as she said, “Well, I’ll get them to notice me.” Then she pointed her finger at Santa and said, “Starting with him.”

* * * * * * *

A van pulled into the parking lot of the mall, Alan jumped out followed by Nonie. Stephanie glared at her brother and hissed, “Remember, if you don’t have the money for it, don’t you even think about trying to get me to buy it, do I make myself perfectly clear.” Then she stepped out of the van.

Alan fretfully nodded in agreement and started for the entrance. Patricia got out and followed Nonie to the entrance of the mall. Penny pulled James out of the van and towards the mall. She was determined to get her husband something that was not purple for him to wear.

After everyone was inside, Alan said, “I need a superhero name.”

“How about Aqualan?” Nonie suggested.

Patricia laughed, “Or, Al Washed Up.”

“Hey,” Stephanie added, “how about Lunk-head.”

“Yeah,” Alan signed, “I’m really going to call myself that.”

“Alantis.” Nonie spouted as everyone groaned.

“How about Lunk-head.” Stephanie laughed, “It suits you.”

“I told you,” Alan snapped, “I’m not calling myself that.”

Patricia grinned, “Maybe, Al Wet?”

“If you don’t like Lunk-Head,” Stephanie smiled, “then how about Bathman?”

Penny thought about names and said, “If he’s needing a name, then I’m going to need a hero name.”

“Hyper-Woman!” Alan, Nonie, and Patricia shouted.

James laughed as Penny asked, “Why Hyper-Woman?”

“Obviously you never had to work with yourself.” Nonie exclaimed.

“Hey, I’m a good boss to work for.” Penny insisted.

As they made their way to the main area of the mall, they heard screams as the shoppers were running through the mall. One of the people running towards them, Nonie recognized. “Jasper?”

He saw Nonie and came up to her. He had a sense of panic has he said, “Something terrible has happened, Santa was turned into a gingerbread man.”

“What?”

“An evil imp has transformed him into a gingerbread Santa, and is running amuck.”

They followed the elf to where Santa Clause was. The foreman elf at Santa’s workshop ran to where some Polaroid pictures were scattered on the floor. He found the picture of the imp he took after she turned Santa into the huge cookie. “This is her, and she’s somewhere in the mall. We have to make her change him back or Christmas is ruined.”

* * * * * * *

Carmen Beauregarde, better known as Agent 69, was currently at Max’s Jewelry store. She was purchasing a set of diamond earrings and a matching necklace for a very special person at the top of her Christmas list, herself.

“I’m sure your friend will love this very expensive gift. That will be twenty-eight hundred and fifty-two dollars.” The salesman informed.

Carmen handed him her visa card and said, “Oh, I know she’ll love it.”

He ran her card through and handed the slip for her signature. After she signed it, he placed it into the drawer and said, “Thank you for shopping at Max’s.”

Carmen stepped out of the store and stopped to look at her diamonds again. It was then that the cosmic imp, Dementia appeared. She flew up to Carmen and said, “Ooooh, what pretty little stones.”

“Buzz-off!” Carmen snapped, “I just paid a hell of a lot of money for my Christmas present!”

Dementia cringed at hearing that word again, snapped, “Again with this Christmas!”

She pointed at Carmen’s pretty diamonds and said, “You deserved charcoal.” Then she pointed at them, transforming them into coal.

“Why you little bi…” Carmen bellowed, but Dementia stuck out her tongue and flew away.

Carmen dropped the coal and began to chase after Dementia.

* * * * * * *

The six heroes set out to find the troublesome little imp. Nonie, after changing into her Elasticity costume, Alan and Stephanie moved towards the south side of the mall while James, Penny, and Patricia went north. Nonie, Alan, and Stephanie ran passed a teen fashion shop as Nonie stopped and stretched her neck back to get a closer look. The Foster siblings stopped and turned when they saw Nonie looking around inside the dress shop.

“Is she in there?” Alan asked.

“No.”

Stephanie crossed her arms and scowled, “Then why are you looking in there?”

Nonie retracted her head out from the shop and replied, “There’s a ten percent sale on all jeans in there.”

Alan and Stephanie stood there with a blanked expression on their faces when Stephanie finally yelled, “We’re suppose to be looking for the imp to save Santa, not to be shopping for jeans!”

Before Stephanie could smack her, Alan pointed up at the imp flying towards them and shouted, “There she is!”

Elasticity shaped her hand into a huge baseball mitt and caught the imp. Her victory was short lived as a brunette woman in a purple cat suit collided with her. Elasticity dropped the imp on impact as both fell to the ground.

The imp fluttered around and laughed, “Did you really think you could catch me, Dementia of the Q dimensional?”

“Dementia of the Q dimensional?” Alan questioned as Dementia flew away. Stephanie looked at her brother and asked, “So why didn’t you grab her instead of standing there like a dummy?” then turned towards Elasticity and said, “and you let her go!”

“Hey, I didn’t let her go…” Elasticity protested, “She made me drop her!”

“Just who are you anyway?” Stephanie snapped.

“You don’t know who I am?” Carmen questioned.

Nonie got up off the floor as Stephanie lift an eyebrow and asked, “Should I know?”

“I am none other then Carmen Beauregarde, Agent 69 of A.G.E.N.T.” she bragged.

Alan, Stephanie, and Elasticity stood there with blanked expressions until Elasticity asked, “What is A.G.E.N.T. anyway?”

“Are you people stupid,” Carmen snapped, “A.G.E.N.T. is the All Girl Espionage and Neutralization Team, and I happen to be their top agent.”

Again, Alan, Stephanie, and Elasticity stood there with blanked expressions, when Agent 69 pointed at Elasticity and riposted, “And, you’re suppose to be, what, circus rubbish?”

Elasticity stood in her classic superhero pose and spouted, “I’m the superhero, Elasticity!”

“Oh great, another superhero wanna-be,” 69 scoffed, “Look, there’s a Hot Topic across the mall, why don’t you leave the heroics to a professional, okay, now run along, scoot.” Then Carmen began to push out with her fingers as to move her away.

Elasticity frowned, stretched her fist ten feet, and planted it into Carmen’s face. Carmen fell to the floor. She rolled over to get up and said, “Oh, I get it, elastic powers.”

“And here’s some new school moves for you!” Elasticity snarled and she stretched her entire body around the fallen agent, engulfing her.

Carmen pushed out to remove the rubbery girl off her, but she would stretch outwards in the directions she would push. Alan ran over to try to pull Nonie off. Stephanie held up her communicator and called the others for backup.

Dementia stopped when she noticed that no one was following her, returned to see why. She saw the girl who caught her, wrapping herself around the nasty one with the sparkly stuff. Annoyed, she yelled, “Hey, I thought I was the bad guy here!”

The four stopped for a moment and looked up at the imp as she pointed at herself and continued, “Hello, bad girl over here, if anyone is interested!”

Elasticity and Agent 69 glanced at each other, and then Nonie let go and started for Dementia. Carmen grabbed Elasticity’s ankle sending her to the floor. As she continued to stretch her body to seize the imp, 69 pulled her in, and said, “This should be handled by a professional like me.”

Elasticity turned to face the obnoxious agent and kicked her in the head with her free foot, then got up and chased Dementia. Alan and Stephanie followed as Carmen got up rubbing her sore head and followed as well.

* * * * * * *

James called Penny and Patricia over and said, “They had caught the imp, but Nonie let it get away.”

“I knew it,” Patricia gripped, “I knew she’d goof it up somehow!”

James looked at the young brunette and said, “Nonie didn’t do it on purpose, we have another complication to deal with.”

Penny looked at her husband and asked, “A complication? What kind of a complication?”

“Apparently, they met up with an agent of some organization who caused Nonie to drop the imp and letting her get away.” James answered.

As they journey to the location of Stephanie’s transmission, Patricia saw an outfit in a window of a red and black outfit. She quickly transformed her attire to match it. She smiled, “I like this look better.”

Plastrica stretched her legs five feet in order to catch up to the others.

* * * * * * *

Dementia made a one-eighty turn and flew towards the rubbery Elasticity laughing as she past her. Elasticity slid twenty feet and turned to follow her. Alan and his sister Stephanie stopped and tried to jump up to catch her as she flew by. Elasticity squeezed between them close behind the imp.

Carmen had stopped running when she saw the imp coming with that rubbery pain-in-the-ass closing in on her target.

Agent 69 recalled the bump on her head from when the rubbery redhead had kicked her and said, “No superhero wanna-be is going to out best me!” and pulled out a small device which looked like a remote control.

As soon as Dementia passed, Agent 69 held up the device, and pressed the button. A faint glow of light exited from the device. The energy formed a large round disc of translucent energy.

Elasticity was unable to see the force shield placed before her, smashed into it. She was running as fast as she could and when Elasticity hit it, her body collapsed onto itself, leaving her flattened to about one-sixteenth of an inch thick.

Carmen smiled as the flattened superhero nitwit fell backwards to the floor. “Ah, what’s the matter? Are we feeling just a wittle flat?” Carmen teased, “You can thank our A.G.E.N.T.’s new patented Bio-plasma Force Shield.”

Agent 69 turned to chase Dementia. Nonie was lifting her flattened self off the floor when the Fosters appear. James, Penny, and Plastrica arrive on the scene moments later. After a few flat jokes from her sister, Plastrica, Elasticity explained what had happened while she un-flattened herself.

James went into a costume/novelty shop and purchased some domino masks of various colors. He passed them out to the others and said, “There is a chance we may have to use our powers to catch this Dementia, if so, we’ll need these to cover our identities.”

Stephanie grabbed a white mask and said, “Alright, but this doesn’t mean I’m going to be a superhero.”

Penny placed a pink one on her face and said, “Ya, this looks like a job for…Hyper-Woman!”

Then they all set out to find Dementia again.

* * * * * * *

Dementia decided that she would like to play a new game, pointed at the floor. Two hundred banana peels emerged from nowhere, in front of Carmen. She screamed as she hit them and slid forty feet into the food court, crashing into the Dairy Queen. As she got up, her hand hit the soft-served ice cream nozzle, pouring the cold, frosty, dessert over her head.

Carmen jumped up as the icy cream rolled down her back, “I’m really going to get that little piece of crap.”

Dementia fluttered across the mall. She was looking for more mischief to get into. As she turned the corner, an energy beam blasted passes her. She looked to see stretchy girl had some friends, said, “Oh boy, I have more play toys!”

Stephanie ran towards Dementia, who held up her hand creating a force wind to blow back the charging blonde woman. Dementia laughed, “This really blows, doesn’t it?”

Stephanie flipped over the railing and started to fall to the ground floor. She screamed as she descended and suddenly stopped. She opened her eyes and saw that she was five feet above the floor, hanging in mid air. She thought of moving upwards and she did. Hey, James isn’t the only one who can fly, she thought.

James shifted into his green form flew to catch her and saw Stephanie flying on her own. The two flew back to the food court.

Dementia flew away and went to the main part of the mall. She stopped in front of a video store to look into the window. She gave a wicket smile as she saw the poster ad for Dino Crisis 3 for Playstation.

As the heroes and Agent 69 arrived, Dementia took to the air and announced, “Attention everyone! For my entertainment, I will have these heroes battle this…” and she snapped her impish fingers, “…Tyrannosaurus Rex!”

“Oh, this can not be good.” Alan whimpered.

The Tyrannosaurus looked around, leaned down, and roared moving its head from side to side.

Everyone in that area who saw and heard it began to run away. The Tyrannosaurus moved and chased down a shopper, grabbing him with its mouth.

Around the corner, Franklin Cummings was sitting on a stool with his shoeshine kit, waiting for a shoe to shine. He glanced over at the shoppers running and screaming in fear, and stood up and said, “This looks like a job for…”

Franklin reached down, grabbing his shirt and pulled it off. He then sat down and began to pull off his pants without removing his shoes. After struggling with pulling them off over his shoes, he placed his mask on and stood there wearing his Captain Wonderful costume. Franklin spread his legs apart, placed his right fist on his hip, and extended his left hand out pointing into the air and finished, “…CAPTAIN WONDERFUL!”

He then ran around the corner and saw the Tyrannosaurus stepping on one shopper while grabbing another in his teeth, moving towards him. Franklin as the superhero wanna-be, did what any wanna-be would do, joined the shoppers in their scurrying away.

The real heroes were busy trying to distract the Tyrannosaurus. James shouted, “Its sight is based on movement,” and turned to his wife and continued, “Penny, run around the Tyrannosaurus at super speed.”

“On it!”

“Stephanie,” James ordered, “Take to the air and start blasting him!”

As Stephanie took off, James turned to Carmen and said, “Start getting these people to safety!”

“I don’t take my orders from you people,” she snapped, “I get my orders from A.G.E.N.T.”

James was in no mood for this, bellowed, “Right now, your precious A.G.E.N.T. is not here, and if you hadn’t noticed, people are dieing!”

The Tyrannosaurus started to move across to where the GAP was. A voluptuous blonde girl exited from the GAP and saw the dinosaur approaching. Elasticity stretched her right arm and grabbed the ceiling support. She then swung herself over to where the girl was. When she got there, the Tyrannosaurus was about eighteen feet from them. Elasticity wrapped her left arm around the girl and recoiled her right arm, lifting them both to safety as the T-Rex snapped its deadly jaws.

James flew to where they were suspended and took them to the other side of the mall’s large area. As the Tyrannosaurus turned to catch them, a geyser of water from the fountain splashed him in the face. Letting out a roar, it turned its attention on Alan Foster, who was controlling the waters flow.

Penny ran passed the carnivore while Stephanie blasted it in the face. Elasticity looked at the girl she had saved and said, “Stay here, miss…”

“Candi Kane.”

Candi Kane? She thought, perfect for this season, and then continued, “Stay here Candi and stay low. That T-Rex can’t see you if you stay still.”

Elasticity looked at her sister and said, “Come on, let’s try to trip him.” Then the rubber-twins began to stretch themselves around the Tyrannosaurus in order to hold it still.

James flew away from the Tyrannosaurus, then turned and flew straight at the dinosaur. He pulled back his fist and thrust it into the carnivore’s jaw as hard as he could, when he heard a snap from the dinosaur’s jaw.

James then flew behind the Tyrannosaurus, grabbing its tail, and flung it towards Dementia. She was giggling throughout the entire battle until she saw the Tyrannosaurus flying at her. Dementia screamed as she was squashed between the dinosaur and the floor.

Moments later, Dementia slid her flattened body out from under the fallen carnivore and said, “Okay, now I’m pist!” and popped herself back to normal.

“You overgrown gorilla,” and pointed her impish finger at James, “you killed my Tyrannosaurus Rex!”

James began to feel his body shift. His arms stretched six inches longer and grew green hair. His legs became somewhat squatted as his feet shaped into hands. Even his face morphed into an elongated mouth with fangs sprouted from it.

Dementia laughed, “You want to monkey with me, now you’re a overgrown chimp-pity-pansy.”

James had been transformed into a green gorilla. Penny dashed towards Dementia to hit her for what she did to her husband. Before she could reach her, Dementia held up her hand at Penny. As she mover closer to Dementia, her body became more sluggish. Dementia said, “Not so fast now, are we?”

Penny’s body started to melt into a blob of flesh. Dementia flew to Penny and said, “Maybe you can call yourself, Silly Putty Girl.”

Stephanie flew towards the malicious imp and said, “Yeah, now I’m going to knock you flat on your butt!”

The imp smiled, “Knock me flat on my butt? You mean, like this.” Then she pointed at the flying blonde woman.

Instantly, Stephanie felt her body fold down onto itself. She looked down to see her breasts fold down flat. Her butt also had flattened out as she cried out, “Why, that little shit made me two-dimensional!”

The imp smiled, “Who’s going to flatten who?”

Stephanie fell to the ground. Her flimsy body could not coordinate being this thin, said, “I’m so flat that I can’t get around.”

Elasticity stretched her neck over to Stephanie and said, “Yeah, welcome to my world.”

Carmen pulled out the Bio-plasma Force Shield and pointed it at Dementia. She set the dial to bubble and pressed the button. An energy beam shot out and hit the imp encasing her into a bubble. “Got you, you little shit!” Agent 69 shouted.

Dementia materialized a zipper into the bubble and pulled it open. She then flew out and right into Carmen’s face and said, “There’s only one star in this show, but if you want to be a star sooo bad, then a Star is what you’ll be.”

Dementia snapped her fingers and Carmen disappeared from sight. Elasticity looked around and asked, “Hey, where did she go?

Dementia flew to the Christmas tree and began posing like Vanna White. She was pointing at the star on top of the tree. Elasticity stretched her neck up for a closer look. It was Agent 69 sitting on the tree. Dementia had transformed Carmen into the star and placed her on top of the tree. Nonie could see that the bottom two points were her legs, the two side points were her arms, and the top point was Carmen’s head.

Franklin poked his head out of the trashcan he was hiding in to see if it was safe to come out. He jumped out, ran over to where the T-Rex was positioned. He placed one foot on the fallen dinosaur and began to beat on his chest as he shouted, “Woo Woo! I did it! I, Captain Wonderful, have killer the T-Rex!”

The Tyrannosaurus moved slightly, due to a nerve reflex action after death, and Franklin turned and ran away screaming like a girl.

Dementia danced though the air at the demise of her foes. Then something started to happen to Dementia, she started to become dizzy. Something was taking control of her mind, or someone. She decided to send it back to the sender and pushed her mind to create feedback. Moments later, Candi Kane grabbed at her head in anguish, as Dementia flew over to her and said, “So you’re the psychic!”

Dementia scanned her mind and laughed, “Oh, this is precious! Candi Kane. What better transformation for you then…”

The nasty imp snapped her fingers and Candi became rail thin and her head, neck, and shoulders started to curve around. Her left side became red, and the right became white. Finally, her whole body began to twist around, as Dementia finished, “…A Candy Cane.”

Dementia turned to Alan Foster and the rubber-twins and asked, “Alright, who’s next.”

They looked at the green gorilla sitting on the floor, picking at some mites in his fur. Penny was still trying to move in any direction she could. Stephanie managed to get up and moved towards Dementia, but the imp just took a deep breath and blew her over. Then she asked again, “So who is going to be a hero next?”

Alan pointed at Patricia, Patricia pointed at Nonie, and Nonie pointed at Patricia. Dementia smiled and said, “I’m sorry, but you’ve been voted off the group, buh-bye!”

The imp waved her hand and Plastrica vanished. She rematerialize in the window of Victoria’s Secret. Patricia was dressed in the latest undergarment, a red, two pieced laced ensemble. The top was a wonder bra, and the bottom was a small G-string. Patricia’s body was like a hard plastic with moveable joints. Elasticity stared at her sister in the window and said, “You made her into a dummy.”

“A mannequin to be exact.” Dementia giggled, “but a dummy is a dummy.”

Dementia began to look around and asked, “Hey, where is that guy with the pointy hair?”

She continued to look for him when she noticed a puddle of water moving across the floor. It was moving towards the mall’s fountain. She remembered that he was able to control the water in the fountain during the T-Rex battle. She snapped her fingers and the puddle changed back into Alan. He was suspended five feet in the air by Dementia as she said, “Ah-ah, only fish plays with water.”

Alan began to shrink down. His legs formed into a fish’s tail. His arms flattened into fins of a fish while his head and face morphed into that of a fish. Then the color of his body changed to a goldfish orange, as he was dropped into the fountain.

Dementia grinned, “Play nice, little goldfish.” Then she turned her full attention on the silly little rubber girl.

Elasticity stretched her legs eight feet and began to take a long stride to where the Santa cookie was located. Dementia hastily flew after her and caught up by the fat man cookie she created. “It’s just you now, rubber girl.”

Elasticity’s body started to become like smooth rubbery latex. She began to inflate into a rubber doll of herself. Nonie’s expression formed into a surprised look with her mouth forming into an O.

When she was fully inflated into a rubber blow-up doll, Dementia laughed, “You seem to be a bit of an airhead now you’re full of air.”

Elasticity tried to think, if only I could deflate myself, I’d show her. She rolled her eyes down and saw that her belly ring was still metal. Elasticity tried to speak, it was hard to do with her mouth in the shape it was in, but, she said, “Well…still…have…magic…ring…”

“Magic Ring?” and Dementia looked over the inflatable doll and saw her navel ring. She grabbed it and pulled it off her body and Elasticity began to deflate. “Augh, I popped my rubber dolly.”

Elasticity’s body flattened out as she deflated. Stephanie had a hard time being flattened, but Nonie’s been flattened out so many times that she knows how to move about in a flattened state.

She stretched her arm into Santa’s magic gift bag. She remembered that when she was helping Santa two years ago, that it had an endless supply of presents. Nonie figured that Dementia hated Christmas because she never got a present for Christmas.

Dementia noticed Elasticity’s arm digging into a bag and ordered her to remove it. When she complied, she held up a gift and said, “Hey Dementia, I think this one’s for you, Merry Christmas!”

“What?” and she took the gift from Elasticity and looked at the name on the gift and cried, “It is for me! It has my name on it and everything!”

Dementia flew around the main mall area, dancing about cried out, “I never got a Christmas present before, this is so great!”

She spun around with joy as she said, “this is the best Christmas I ever…”

Suddenly, Dementia realized that she was outsmarted by the rubber girl, yelled, “D’oh! You tricked me! I can’t hate Christmas now!”

Dementia flew to the middle of the mall and waved her hand. Everything began to revert to normal. The shoppers who were killed by the dinosaur were brought back to life, the Tyrannosaurus disappeared from sight, the heroes, Candi, Carmen, and most important, Santa Claus had been transformed back to normal.

Dementia also erased the memories from everyone, except for the ones she battled. She wants them to remember her when she returns.

A dimensional rift opened and Dementia grabbed her gift and moved towards the portal. She stopped, turned to face those annoying heroes who defeated her and ranted, “You may have defeated me this round, but I will return to fight you again. I, Dementia, here-by swear, that I will return…”

Carmen heard this type of ranting before, interrupted, “Yeah, yeah, bluh-bluh, heard it all before.”

Agent 69 smiled as she added, “Say, why don’t you make like a tree, and leave already.” then she started pushed away with her fingers.

Dementia scowled at 69, then smiled, “Tell you what, you make like a tree, and I’ll leave, How’s that?”

69 knew she should have kept her mouth shut, when she began to transform into an evergreen Christmas tree. She grew to fifteen feet from tip of the tree to the trunk. The one thing that looked odd about this tree was that it was a purple Christmas tree, with big blue eyes.

Dementia laughed, “A’ll be bauk!” and went through the portal.

After she was gone, the others looked at the former Agent 69. “What are we going to do with her now?” Alan asked.

“We could take her home and decorate her.” Patricia answered.

“Yeah!” James exclaimed, “and best of all is that it’s a purple tree.”

Penny glared at her husband and snapped, “I brought you here to get you something that wasn’t purple, and now we’re getting a purple Christmas tree.”

“Yeah, aint that great!” James replied.

Stephanie said, “Well, we do need a tree, and this is a free tree.”

“Besides,” Alan added, “The rubber-twins could use their magic to restore her…”

“At least until after New Years, we’ll need her until then.” Nonie smiled.

“Hey,” said the purple 69 tree, “don’t I get a say on this?”

Patricia laughed, “No, you’re just a tree, trees don’t vote, too bad.”

Oh well, Carmen thought, at least things can’t get any worst. Then she heard a familiar voice shouted, “Hey! Look at what I found!”

Carmen turned her eyes to see what she did not want to see, it was her fellow Agent Kirsty. She cannot stand her. She hoped Kirsty would not notice her as a fifteen foot purple tree. As Kirsty passed, Carmen saw that she had found the set of diamond earrings and matching necklace, which she paid with her Visa card, that the imp turned into coal. Then she remembered that she threw them down to chase Dementia.

“I found a the set of diamond earrings and matching necklace. How lucky can I be!” she joyfully cheered.

Carmen rolled her eyes and thought, how long must I suffer.

Kirsty rambled, “I bet this must’ve cost at least, twenty eight hundred dollars!”

“Twenty-eight hundred and fifty-two dollars to be exact,” Carmen mumbled to herself, and watched Kirsty leave with her diamonds.

James lifted the tree with the others pretending to help, and carried the purple 69 tree home. While Alan, Stephanie, and the rubber-twins decorated Carmen, Penny brought out some Christmas cookies and eggnog. James brought Candi over to meet with Beaker, who was in his human disguise. Beaker explained the ability of telepathy to Candi.

Nonie was excited to find out that Candi could play the bass and now they have a full band. Then suddenly, Nonie shouted, “Oh No! We forgot to get the band instruments!”

* * * * * * *

In the Q dimension, Dementia gazed at her Christmas present. It was not quite Christmas yet, but she could not wait any longer. She had to see what neat present she got. She grabbed the package and began to rip off the gift-wrapping paper. When she saw what she got, her jaw literally fell to the floor. “What is this!” she shouted.

In her hands, she held a nine-inch action figure of that stupid hero, Elasticity with stretchable arms. “I came back here for this!”

Dementia threw the figure across the room and shouted, “Oh, just wait until I get back into that dimension! I’ll fix that rubber girl and I’ll get her friends too!”

Then she spent the next five hours ranting about Elasticity.