Post by kitckw on Aug 25, 2011 4:45:11 GMT -5
Hello, Everybody, I haven't done much on here in a long time but I've recently been writing in my spare time and I shared this with our good friends Kit_lee and Chrisno, and I finally just wanted to share it with everybody else and see what they thought about it, so I hope that you all enjoy this. Please Enjoy! 
Disclaimer!
Kodi, Kola, Sanador, Nickolas, and Yasha are Kitckw's
Scarlet is not owned by me.
All TaleSpin related material and characters are owned by Disney.
Please Enjoy!
"Kodi's Christmas Carol
A TaleSpin Fanfic"
Written by Kitckw
Chapter 1
"Prologue" "Obtaining Holiday Leave"
One cold winter evening somewhere in the middle of the ocean at Pirate Island, a young wolf/husky pup named Kodi was preparing to leave the island for his home away from home. He and Karnage had had some major disagreements and as a bigger punishment for Kodi, Karnage had recently stolen back just about all of Kodi's hard earned money that the boy had stashed away on an island a reasonable distance from Pirate Island and had lowered the boy's pay, so this had made things hard for Kodi and his family, but Kodi had quickly gotten over the brunt of it, but Karnage still hadn't quite gotten over it,
Because of this the boy had had to move his family from their lovely spacious beachside house to a small not so fancy apartment safe behind the Cliffs of Cape Suzette, Kodi's family wasn't all too happy about the changes especially his brother Kola, but their Aunt felt that it was much safer since it was safe behind the cliff guns and out of the reach of the man that she knew her oldest nephew worked for, the dreaded air pirate captain Don Karnage. And with that begins our story.
Back at Pirate Island in the control room of The Iron Vulture, the enormous airship that belonged to the plundering wonder, Don Karnage, Kodi was preparing to leave for his home away from home as he sometimes referred to it. As he was putting on his plain brown coat he turned and looked over his shoulder toward Karnage and asked "Is it okay if I go home for Christmas?" Kodi asked Karnage (Half expecting the answer he wanted, the boy hardly left pirate island for a day or longer without permission from the Captain because if and sometimes when he did, Kodi would sooner or later always expect and usually always got a punishment from Karnage himself or sometimes from the hand of one of the crew members with Karnages’ supervision but usually the boy would shake them off because Karnage sooner or later would remember that Kodi was his best bodyguard and maybe the only most loyal member of his crew, so Karnage tried to be sure that Kodi's punishments never went as far to the point of harming the boy's life and Karnage often tried to secretly find ways to avoid having the punishments go that far so as not to look like he cared if one of his crew members lived or died, but there were times where Karnage found it hard to restrain himself from killing Kodi because of how far the brave, bold young pup would sometimes push him.)
Karnage stared at Kodi with a cold uncaring stare being nice was one thing Karnage was never good at, nor did he care to be. Karnage made like he was fumbling at the thought, he often did this just to keep the 17 year old boy in suspense and Kodi would try his best not to lose his temper waiting for his mentor's answer. Scarlett a vixen who had been standing next to Karnage at the table in the control room looked at Kodi, then at Karnage, then rolled her eyes and grinned annoyingly she knew what Karnage was doing so she finally elbowed Karnage slightly hard just enough to annoy him and get a scowl on his face as he looked at her, she said "Let the boy go, you don't have to keep him here all the time" she said as she gestured to let him go. "Please, Pops, I hardly get to see my family as it is." Kodi said with a hint of pleading in his voice which was kind of like music to Karnage's ears. "What do mean you hardly do not get to see your family?!" Karnage let out pretending to have his feelings hurt. "I-I-I mean my extended family" Kodi stuttered and tried to recover what he had said because in times past he had referred to the Air Pirates as his family because for a long time Kodi hadn't even known he had any real family so he had come to think of the pirates as his family to an extent mostly he just referred to Karnage, Scarlett, their kids, Karnage's step daughter, and Karnage's mother as his family and he kept his distance from Karnage's father who had quickly showed a instant dislike to the boy because he feared that Kodi would someday due to his fast learning and skills, would someday turn on his son, Karnage, but everyone else was not convince because even though Karnage would flip flop from treating the boy nicely to treating him harshly the boy even in his fights and outrages never really showed any hint of wanting to permanently or fatally harm Karnage.
Karnage sighed, he hated it when Scarlett would make him be nice too or interfered with the way he treated Kodi. "Very well then, you may go but to be sure that you do not forget to return the day after the festivities. Else you will upset your feared Captain," Karnage said looking smug. Kodi stared at Karnage with a blank stare for a moment it was sometimes hard for the boy to fully understand what his Captain was really saying. Kodi looked at Scarlett puzzled and then she nodded and motioned for him that he could leave. Kodi smiled and dashed out the door of the control room before Karnage could change his mind. Karnage frowned at Scarlett and said "I do very much dislike when you tell me what to do with my bodyguard; He will soon have more respect for you then for me." Karnage finished his sentence while partly worried that this might be true. "Oh, I wouldn't worry too much about that, that boy would do anything for you although why, I'll never know!" Scarlett said partly annoyed with Karnage and she walked out of the control room.
Meanwhile while this conversation between the Captain and his lady was taking place the boy, after he had left the control room, went down the stairs into the enormous hanger of the Iron Vulture and ran over to his plane. It was just like Karnage's Tri Wing Terror only Kodi's had had to have the pedals adjusted due to his size because the plane itself was built the same size as Karnage’s, but as the boy had grown this was becoming less of a problem the boy simply shortened the adjustments on his plane pedals as he got bigger, the only other way to tell Karnage and Kodi's planes apart was that the Captain's plane had a big number one painted on the tail of it and Kodi's had a skull and crossbones on the tail of his plane just like all the others. Kodi climbed up onto the wing of his plane and jumped into the seat started the engine and took off through the great airship's giant mouth.
Chapter 2
"Home for Christmas"
It was near sunset when the boy reached the cliffs of Cape Suzette Kodi would often land on the water, taxi his plane along out of range of the gunners and park his plane somewhere along the side below the cliffs and would use his little wooden rowboat that he had stashed in a small cavern in the side of the cliff to row his way into the harbor of Cape Suzette without getting shot at by the cliff gunners and he rarely had to worry about harbor patrols because the boy had gotten used to dodging and avoiding all the security in Cape Suzette, in the harbor and on land.
As the boy rowed his way to the low wooden dock, he looked and smiled as he stared at the large yellow and orange sea plane it was all too familiar to him many a time he remembered seeing it as he and the air pirates chased it in an attempt to shoot it down as ordered by Don Karnage in countless dogfights, although the boy himself never really fell to shooting the plane himself he often watched from his plane as the other air pirates and his captain would go like mad trying to shoot it down only to end up crashing themselves in one way or another and sometimes the boy would secretly get a laugh out of it as long as he was never caught.
Kodi was friends with the owner or more like owners of this beautiful seaplane. Kodi shook his head as so to snap himself out of his daydreaming and came to the dock of Higher for Hire, jumped out of the boat and onto the dock and tied his boat up, and walked up the dock. Kodi was friends with everyone at Higher For Hire and they welcomed him there almost every time he came to visit but as the boy got older the visits became fewer because he was doing more and more of Karnage's bidding and so the secret favors and slight sabotages Kodi would do for the Higher for Hire gang from time to time to help his friends from the air pirates in time of trouble or before trouble occurred were numbered and sadly the boy knew that his friendship with Baloo and the gang wasn't going to last, that someday he and the gang and or perhaps he and Kit Cloudkicker the navigator and adopted son of the fat pilot as Karnage would sometimes refer to Baloo would come face to face with each other someday.
But Kodi just walked past the front door and kept on going and headed towards town, he didn't really have time to stop because he knew his family was waiting for him and that whatever time he was allowed to have to go see them and do things with them was precious and limited enough as it was, Kodi figured he'd see Baloo and the gang again the next time they met up on a treasure hunt or the next time they cross paths with the air pirates.
Kodi walked downtown Cape Suzette down the back roads and alley ways until he came to an old looking apartment building complex and walked into the main door of the building and went up the stairway and passed a few rooms and finally came to his family's apartment. He opened the door and came in and found them all sitting in the small living room waiting for him. Kodi smiled he loved his siblings so much. His little brother and sister, Nicholas and Sanador ran up to Kodi and hugged him and Kodi knelt down and hugged them tightly, then he looked up at his brother, Kola who was always unhappy with him and distant from him. Because his income wasn't as large as it had been Kodi's younger siblings had learned to cope with it and be happy with what they had, but Kola had been angry with Kodi ever since they had moved out of their beach house. Kodi sighed sadly as Kola got up from the couch and went to his room.
"Auntie says you were gonna take us caroling!," Kodi's sister said as she bounced up and down at his side. "Yeah, And she also said that maybe we might be able to get some candy for a treat since it's Christmas!..." Nick chimed in "That’s if you can." Nick finished slowly. The boy coughed a little and smiled at his big brother who squeezed him lovingly and smiled. "Well, I guess I better get ready to go, sounds like we're gonna have a busy evening." Kodi said as he got up and started for his room. "Oh, you’re not leaving until you've had something warm to eat." Aunt Yasha replied causing Kodi to stop in his tracts. "Oh" Nick and Sanador groaned disappointedly. "I'm not sending you out in the cold without something warm in your stomachs first!" Aunt Yasha declared. "Auntie's, right." Kodi said "Besides you've had a cold recently, Nickolas we would not want er... I mean we wouldn't want you to get sicker, I'm mean after all you just over most of it and you really shouldn't be going out at all until you've completely gotten over it, so we're kinda lucky ,Auntie's letting you go out tonight." Kodi stated. "Oh, okay, you're right, Kodi." Nickolas replied slightly disappointed that he had to wait.
The young boy had had a bad cold recently and they had been trying everything possible to make it get better without having to go to a doctor because of how much the visits and medicine would have cost and most of the home treatment had seemed to be working, the boy had stayed in bed during the worst part of it and stayed indoors, kept warm and had been given plenty of warm stuff to eat and drink, so they all felt that he would make a good recovery.
At the dinner table the 2 younger kids quickly ate their supper, Kodi looked over the rim of his mug to see Nick quickly downing his soup, Kodi slightly grinned and shook his head and finished drinking his soup. He put his mug down on the wooden table and let out a satisfied sigh. "Well, I'm done are you guys ready to go?" He asked. "I'm ready!" Nick replied in an excited voice "Me too!" his sister said. "Okay let’s go!" Kodi said as he walked to the front door and took their coats, scarves, and mittens out of the coat closet and helped his siblings put them on, then Kodi wrapped a gray scarf around himself and already had his mitts on. Waved goodbye and walked out the door with both kids holding his hands, Kola had already gone downstairs and was reluctantly waiting outside the building. "Make sure you keep warm and be sure to keep Nickolas extra warm so he doesn't get that cold back!" Aunt Yasha called to Kodi from the kitchen as he left. She shook her head thinking Kodi hadn't heard her as he shut the apartment door.
Kodi met Kola outside the building complex the air smelled like winter and was cold, Kodi was used to this smell having been born up north on the other side of the Thembrian border, he knew all about the cold and how hard it could be to keep warm in it without the proper clothing. We'll go the neighborhoods uptown it's safer up there then it is down here downtown. Kodi remembered all the incidents with gangsters and such, like Trader Moe and Baby face Half nelson, so he figured the easiest way to avoid those types was to go to the better looking part of town.
Kodi could not have even guessed who would be lurking in the shadows that night, or maybe he could, just wait and see.
Chapter 3
"Gone Caroling"
They had found a nice neighborhood with houses here and there and they had been having a great time Kodi would "park" them outside the doorstep at some of houses to sing while he hid alongside the house so that Nick and his sister could have fun without having the doors slammed in their faces. And he sometimes made Kola sing with Nick and Sonya just so that he would have to be with them.
Because of what Kodi had done and what he had become almost the whole city of Cape Suzette hated him because he showed up just after the historic Lightning Gun incident. (Because Karnage had thrown him over board and Kodi had been saved by Baloo.) Kodi had hung around Cape Suzette some days after the whole incident and without thinking had left Higher For Hire still dressed like Karnage and had gone to explore the city for his own curiosity and ended up getting into a fight with some of the local kids called The Jungle Aces and most of the adults who had seen him had referred to him as Karnage's son or Karnage Junior, so since then Kodi had had to always change out of his pirate clothes and into a plain brown sweater, A Darker brown light weight jacket, and he wore a black belt in place of his shash, and his father's old pilot hat, which he only wore when he wasn't wearing his pirate outfit. Other than that his pants and boots were the exact same ones he wore with either outfit.
After stopping at quite a few houses they went deeper into town where the much better looking businesses and apartment buildings looked and they stopped at the side of one apartment complex that was made of brick and had a side window in each room and this time Kodi joined in with his 3 siblings because he figured that maybe this time it would be alright to sing with them without the risk of anyone getting their feelings hurt or anyone getting angry with him in front of his brothers and sister.
As they sang a carol Kodi eventually withdrew himself from the small group and leaned against the apartment complex wall below the windows, so that when the tenants opened their windows to see the kids singing, they wouldn't see him. They were soon joined by some more kids some of whom took one look at Kodi and almost gave him away but Kodi put his finger to his mouth, shook his head and whispered "Shhh." But not everyone was enjoying the music someone on the second or third floor threw a bucket of water out of the window and towards the kids and to Kodi's sadness it ALL landed on little Nicky.
"Ohh!" All the kids screamed. "Someone should throw you out!" one child yelled. "I'm freezing" another cried with shivers. Kodi walked up to Nick and knelt down "Achoo," Nick sneezed, "Kodi I'm all wet and cold." he replied sadly. Kodi started to pick him up "I'm all soaked!" Kola said annoyed Kodi looked up and scowled at him he may have gotten wet but he wasn't the one that had gotten the most of it. "Best get that poor, boy home out of the cold" a nearby gentleman said as Kodi picked Nick up. "Come on we better get home and warm you up fast. Kodi picked up the boy and took one last glance at the window that was now shut where the water had come from, but to Kodi's disappointment he couldn't see who had done this.
Back at home Kodi and the rest of the family had gotten Nick all warm and dried off and into bed. They had given him a good hot bowl of soup, and into some nice dry warm pajamas. Kodi tucked Nickolas in for good measure. They all said their good nights and left the room, Kodi who was the last one at the bedroom door turn and put his hand to the doorknob and looked at Nick, who seemed warm enough, smiled and said "Merry Christmas, Nick." and shut the door almost all the way closed.
Chapter 4
"Haunted At Pirate Island"
That night at Pirate Island someone was doomed to an interrupted night’s sleep. Karnage and Scarlett were sound asleep in the Captain's cabin in the Iron Vulture Scarlett was sleeping peacefully while Karnage seemed to be having a hard time sleeping, he tossed and turned and moaned in his sleep. And perhaps you and I both know what comes next.
"Ghost Warning"
Karnage found himself sitting in his bed alone and there was a foggy mist floating in his room he couldn't see the floor, he held the covers trying in vain to hide how frightened he was "What nincompoopery is this?!" he said angrily but no one answered. He slowly got out of bed, wrapped his bed robe around him and slipped into his slippers and slowly walked over to his bedroom window and saw nothing he turned to go back to bed and was startled by a ghostly figure standing between him and the bed "Who in blue blazes are you?!" Karnage demanded "What are you doing in my lovely type quarters?" "I am here to warn you." the ghostly figure wailed, "I've come to warn you, to change your ways towards your protégé' Kodi Tyler." "I am a pirate; I do not do nice ways!" Karnage stated as he turned his back to the ghost and crossed his arms. The ghost wailed loudly, came around and hovered in front of Karnage and startled him so badly that his ears, tail, and the fur on his tail stood straight up for a moment but he quickly regained and composed himself. "Are you going to be spooking about my cabin all night?!" Karnage demanded starting to look and sound very irritated. "Nooo !" The ghost wailed "I've come to warn you, you will be haunted by three spirits" "Spirits?!, HA!" Karnage shook off the very thought of this continuing on through night and turned his back to the ghost once again. The spirit came around and stood in front of Karnage once again and said "Expect the first one when the clock shows 12." the ghost warned. "Heed their words, or else it will be too late." the ghost's words trailed off as he slipped through the window of the cabin. "Change your ways." echoed as the ghost disappeared completely into the dark harbor of Pirate Island and was gone. "HA! Who does that spooky think he is trying to frighten me the dread pirate DON KARNAGE?!" In his loud statement Scarlett slightly awoke and mumbled at Karnage in her sleep and went back to bed. "But did you not just see that spookidy spooky type ghost try to frighten my wonderful type self?!" Karnage just stared when he realized that he had been the only one who had seen the ghost. "I am just tired, that is it, Yes, I am just so full of my wonderful self and the days Holiday type plundering that I am in need of some peaceful type sleep, yes-no?" Karnage chuckled to himself half heartedly trying to put it in his mind that that was all it was.
Chapter 5
“The First Spirit, the Ghost of Christmas Past”
By now it had been about three hours since the ghost had come Scarlett was in a deep sleep and even Karnage appeared to be fast asleep. The clock next to Karnage's bed struck twelve and Karnage's eyes popped wide opened he had been dreading this time, for he figured if the first had scared him so badly what would the next one look like? Karnage sat up in his bed, held the covers up to his nose and looked towards the window and saw nothing, then he looked towards the door and looked down at the floor under the rim of the cabin door came what seemed to be a bright yellow light. Karnage figured if this one came with such a bright light it must not be so terrifying as the last one.
Karnage got out of bed as before with his robe and slippers and went and cautiously opened the door and was just about almost blinded by the brightness of the room. There in the room everything was decked out for Christmas there was, a tree all decorated, there was holly above the fireplace, in which was also burning a nice cheerful fire and on a slightly long wooden table in the room was a feast such as Karnage had never seen before in all his days on Pirate Island and even more to his astonishment all the food on the table looked really good to eat.
Karnage quickly came to the conclusion that he wasn't standing in the hallway of the Iron Vulture because nothing in his airship was this finely decked out. "Come in, Come in." a voice said. "What is all this?" Karnage asked "This is the food of generosity, which is something you've never really known." the spirit answered. "HA!" Karnage burst “I have no need for generestity" he mispronounced "I am a pirate, I simply do take what I need and perhaps sometimes more." Karnage said as he grinned slyly. The spirit was a tall brown bear with a big full length green robe. And he had a type of magic sparkling torch in his hand. "Spirit, you bare a not so unfamiliar resemblance to a certain fat bear, I know of." Karnage said as he stared and studied the spirit from head to the bottom of his robe. "Come." said the spirit "We have so much to see." and with that he took hold of Karnage by his shoulder and flew off with him towards Cape Suzette.
The spirit brought Karnage to Cape Suzette and they floated over the city Karnage chuckled gleefully and said "Oh, lookity, look! It's Cape Suzette, I've wanted to plunder this city all my life, spirit!" The spirit shot an annoying look out of the corner of his eye towards Karnage, thinking that this stupid pirate was going to miss the whole point of this trip and lesson. They flew towards Higher for Hire and lowered at the window and looked in.
There the gang was getting all ready for Christmas Kit Cloudkicker, the adopted son and navigator of the great cargo pilot Baloo, was bouncing on a pogo stick while putting up yellow holly on the Christmas tree, Wildcat, the gangs mechanic, was tangled in the lights and Baloo the big fat annoying pilot, was shooting Christmas ortiments onto the tree with a slingshot.
Kodi walked through the front office door and greeted everybody and even helped put some green holly above the doorway and around the inside of the office. Karnage snarled at the realization of HIS protégé' helping his arch enemy! "When Kodi had finished he said "Well, I have to go now, Karnage will be wondering where I'm at, I'll see all you guys later and Kodi waved goodbye and quickly dashed out the door.
Then spirit showed him the next evening at Higher For Hire how Kodi quickly went with the gang to Louie's to make it snow for Molly Cunningham, the daughter of the owner of Higher For Hire. With the snap of his fingers the spirit took Karnage inside the Sea duck where Rebecca, Wildcat, and Kodi all opened a box of soap flakes and prepared to start the snow show, when suddenly there came gunfire through the cargo hold of the Sea duck. The spirit snapped his fingers again and gave Karnage a wide view of the whole attempted Christmas plunder incident, he then took Karnage back into the Sea Duck to watch Rebecca, Wildcat, and Kodi roll around and dodge bullets left and right, then the spirit showed Karnage, the inside of the Sea Duck and how Rebecca, Kit, and Kodi were all rolling back into the sea duck after they had sprayed the air pirates with the soap flakes.
Kit and Rebecca rolled up against a wooden crate Kodi came tumbling towards it and landed right side up against the crate too. Kit asked if everyone was alright Rebecca replied and Kodi said "Yeah I'm fine." then Kodi looked down at his brown sweater and noticed that the lower left side of his stomach was wet, he put his hand to it and realized what it was, he sighed calmly and got the first aid kit and tried not to make a big show of his injury. Karnage stared down at the floor as if embarrassed, he never knew that he had accidently shot his own protégé' that night and Kodi had never mentioned it.
Then the spirit took Karnage back to the Iron Vulture and took him to the main hanger and showed him what Kodi had done that night how Kodi had decked out the hanger with holly, a big tree with decorations and even a few presents for Karnage and even a few for some of the crew members who had grumbled about some things they had really wanted. "That boy loves you deeply, although why, I can't see and may never know!" the spirit snapped at the end of his sentence. "Well, the dread pirate Don Karnage is adored by all, even his enemies and not so lovable crew members, Kodi adores me." Karnage said looking all proud of himself. The spirit rolled his eyes annoyingly and blew out his torch.
Chapter 6
"The Second Spirit, the Ghost of Christmas Present"
Karnage awoke once again in his bed, beside Scarlett and sat up in bed and groaned and rubbed his forehead, he began to think he was doomed to be sleep deprived all night. "Am, I to be truly haunted by these spookity spooks all this night?!" Karnage demanded in a weary tone. He was feeling very tired and felt like he hadn't had any sleep at all in between these visits. Karnage stumbled out of his room without disturbing Scarlett and headed towards the kitchen and said aloud to himself sleepily "Perhaps some warm milk will help me to sleep better, yes/no?" He got to the kitchen and managed to find a clean coffee mug among the clutter and made his way back to his room sleepily got back into bed and went back to sleep.
Two hours later Karnage was out like a light (or perhaps more like he had been knocked out.) The clock struck three o'clock and Karnage who had been asleep on his stomach opened one eye sleepily, groaned and frowned at the clock by his bed, as if it were the clock's fault for all the trouble he was having in trying to get some sleep, as if the clock was somehow to blame for the ghosts appearing in his room that night.
Karnage quickly sat straight up in bed and nervously looked around the room. There seemed to be nothing here at all, everything appeared to be normal. He looked toward the window and there wasn't anything there, he looked towards the door there wasn't anything there either. Then he looked at the crawl space door on the ceiling of his room but to his surprise there wasn't anything there either! (Perhaps that spookity spook lied to me to scare my wonderful self or just perhaps it just decided not to come spooking around the dread air pirate Don Karnage, or... perhaps he is just late in coming?!) Karnage thought to himself as he carefully scanned the room over again with his eyes being careful to watch for even the slightest thing. Karnage sighed in relief and said "Perhaps that estupid spookity spook lied to me to disturb the rest of my peaceful type night’s restfulness. HA! Well it will not work, I will sleepy peaceful for the remaining of the night. Yes/no? And that is IT!" he stated and he lay down, Rolled over and went back to sleep.
It had not quite even been five minutes when Karnage laid back down that a small ghostly figure came out from under Karnage's bed and stood floating at his bedside. Karnage gasp quietly "Who are you?" he demanded... (Even though this was a stupid question.) ...as he held the bed covers up to his nose. The ghost was a young vixen all shining in a bright yellow light. Karnage shaded his eyes to get a better look at the ghost. "I am the ghost of Christmas present" she answered. "Present? Oh, gooditidy good! I love presents!" Karnage replied happily. The ghost rolled her eyes at him and put forth her hand to Karnage and said politely "Come with me." "I do not think so, I have had a very not so undistrubing night and do very wish to get some sleep, yes/no?" and he laid down under the covers and made like he was fast asleep again.
"But, You must come with me." she said with a little more of a stern tone in her voice as she took hold of Karnage's blanket and peeled them back quickly. Karnage sat straight up on the side of his bed and this time his eyes were wide open as he stared at the ghost not sure how to respond to this. "Now come with me." she said once more politely and put her hand out to Karnage. With slight hesitation Karnage took her hand and they floated towards the window. "But spirit, I cannot fit through such a small window, yes/no?!" Karnage said nervously as they drew near the small window but to Karnage's surprise he did not go smack onto his bedroom wall and into the window but that he actually went through it!
The young spirit took Karnage to Cape Suzette and showed him the many things that the citizens were doing and going about celebrating Christmas in their own happy ways whether alone or together with friends and or families and how happy they were whether they were rich, poor, or even well to do. That they were happy to be together with the ones they loved whether they received a lot or a little or even nothing at all for Christmas.
Then to Karnage's surprise she took him to the window of Higher For Hire and showed him what a fine time they were having together as a family. Karnage scowled as he continued to be "Forced" to stare at this happy little scene, but to his relief this time Kodi was nowhere in sight of this. Then the spirit took Karnage to Kodi's apartment where the area was more dark and quiet but still even the poor members of the community found small simple ways to celebrate the joy of the season.
Karnage and the spirit went into Kodi's apartment and watched the scene that was unfolding. Kodi's brother Kola, and their little sister were already at the table waiting and Aunt Yasha, was putting the turkey on the table and Kodi was coming out of the hallway smiling and carrying little Nickolas, who even though was still sick was happy to see everyone and was happy to be joining them for dinner instead of eating in bed.
"Hurray! We're all here." Sanador shouted happily and Kodi smiled weakly as he put Nick down in his chair. Kodi had been trying to hide how worried he was about Nick but it was becoming harder for him to hide how worried he really was. Kodi sat down at his place at the head of the table and his Aunt sat down at the other end.
Karnage watched as Kodi carved and served everyone else first and then he served himself. Karnage noticed how Kodi's behavior was totally different here then it was at Pirate Island the boy still showed manners as best as possible around Scarlett and Karnage's kids, but Kodi always had a tough side about him there and Karnage knew more than well why that was the case, but he had never really seen how polite and well mannered Kodi really was and could be.
Karnage watched as the family enjoyed their meal, then as Kodi raised his mug and so did everyone else and they all said, "Merry Christmas." and happily clanked there cups together and drank, then as Kodi finished taking a sip from his mug he said "... and here's to Karnage, may he have a Merry Christmas." Kodi looked at everyone who stared at him with dead silence. "Kodi..." Sanador said sadly "He's nothing but a big jerk! Who's brought us nothing but trouble since you met him!" Kola muttered under his breath "Well, I mean it, He's been nice enough to keep me employed all this time when nobody else in town would give me a job." Kodi replied "The man's a murderer, he's cold, cruel, and selfish!, nobody knows that better then you Kodi." Aunt Yasha finally snapped. "Auntie." Kodi motioned with his eyes to the two younger children then looked at her again. "I know but it's true and I will not make a toast to that horrible pirate." she stated. "Karnage probably just doesn't know what to do in times like these he just ....... seems so alone at times and I think that's just how he hides how sad he is." Kodi said slowly because at first he had been at a loss for words on how to try and defend his boss, which he knew was pointless and without causing an argument.
"The least we could do is wish him good health on this fine night." Kodi said calmly as he picked up his mug while looking at his Aunt waiting to see what her reaction would be to his suggestion. "Well, alright, you know I don't like him, nor do I like you working for him, but I suppose I could wish him good health at least for your sake anyway." and they all raised there cups once more in a toast to Karnage. But the only one who probably really meant it was Kodi.
Nickolas coughed and few times and Kodi picked him up from his chair and put him in his own lap, and Nickolas said "God bless us, everyone." "Yes, God bless us." Kodi agreed as he took another sip from his mug.
"What will be becoming of Kodi's small brother?" Karnage asked the spirit with a twinge of concern in his voice. "If the child doesn't get well soon, or receive better care, he may die." the spirit looked at Karnage who didn't seem so concerned at this remark. "...but I also see that Kodi may well catch his brother's cold and it may be the worst for him because of how strained and over worked he is." the spirit said sadly as she glanced at Karnage after she had finished her sentence.
At that last remarked Karnage quickly turn his head and stared at the ghost with a concerned look on his face, then Karnage looked back at the scene and watched as Kodi coughed a couple of times. "Whoa, I hope I'm not catching something too." Kodi replied calmly as he took his closed hand away from his mouth and looked at his Aunt who was becoming concerned.
"Oh, I do not think, that I will be having to be worried about, Kodi, he is always able to recover and come to my aide when I am most be needing him, yes/no?" Karnage said shaking off the very thought of losing his most loyal crew member and bodyguard.
The young spirit sighed and touched Karnage's shoulder and took him back to his room. And once again Karnage was wide awake, sitting in his bed, holding the bed covers in his lap, with Scarlett fast asleep on the side of the bed. Karnage sighed deeply, rubbed the side of his head, let out another deep sigh and turned over and went back to bed.
Chapter 7
"The Third Spirit, the Ghost of Christmas Future"
"Delaying the Visit"
One hour later! Karnage thought he was past all hope of getting a good night’s sleep, he was laying in bed, wide awake and was staring a hole through his bedroom ceiling. He then looked at the clock at his bedside it was four in the morning! Karnage sighed and looked at the ceiling again he was just dreading ghost number three and only heaven knew what the next one would look like. Karnage looked over at Scarlett who hadn't even been disturbed by any of this except for his occasional waking her slightly after each visit.
He looked at the clock again five minutes after four, he squeezed his bed sheets, Karnage couldn't bare the thought of going back to sleep again only to be greeted by another spooky ghost. Fifteen minutes later Karnage was sitting up in bed trying to think of a way to avoid the inevitable ghostly visit, he stared at the clock convinced it was ticking faster just to drive him nuts. Karnage had fallen asleep sitting up in bed squeezing a pillow with his head resting on the top of it, for what seemed to be a few minutes, he quickly lifted his head from the pillow and quickly looked at the clock which showed twenty minutes after four, Karnage groaned sleepily convinced something had to be done about the clock, it just HAD to go.
Without thinking of how silly or should I even say it C...R...A...Z...Y, it looked he grabbed the clock from off the bed stand grumbily walked over to his closet and threw it into a pile of laundry inside the closet, the clock made some crashing sound as it flew in and hit the floor. Karnage nodded his head satisfied with having put an end to the clock as well as his "nightmares" suposively, but in doing so he had awakened Scarlett who was sitting up in bed, frowning at him. "What do you think you are doing?" she asked with a yawn. "I am getting rid of that little nasty ticky tock type clock so that I may be getting some peaceful type sleep without being disturbed by those nasty, scary, annoying spookity spook type ghosts, yes/no?" Karnage replied rubbing his hands together in triumph.
"For the last time..." Scarlett said as she got out of bed, sleepily put on her robe, grabbed her pillow, and grabbed one of the blankets, and continued "... there are no ghost in here or anywhere! And tomorrow is Christmas morning and I really need to get some sleep before the children come in and wake me up early in the morning, so if you don't mind I'M going to get some sleep!" and with that she stomped off out of the room "B..B...But WAIT! You can not leave me in here all alone with these spookity spooks." Karnage stuttered and whined as he watched Scarlett go down the hallway of the Iron Vulture to find another spot to get a few more undisturbed hours of sleep.
Karnage just stared down the dark empty hallway at a loss as to what to do next, he didn't like the idea of being all alone especially when the next ghost hadn't arrived yet, and he was ashamed to admit that he was terrified at the thought of meeting this one knowing that this time he would defiantly be all alone in his bed when it came. Karnage slowly backed his way towards the bedroom door trying his best to keep his eyes fixed on the hallway, watching for any little thing, but to his dread there was no sign of anything having been there nor was there any sign of anything coming. Karnage sighed sadly and went into his room peeked out the door one last time and then shut it.
Chapter 8
"The Dreaded Visit"
An hour and thirty minutes later Karnage was laying in the middle of his bed, on his stomach, clutching a pillow in his sleep, but all in all he still seemed to be getting some sleep.
Karnage awoke to the sound of an annoying dysfunctional ringing coming from his closet, he opened one eye and snarled into his pillow realizing that banishing the clock to his closet had proven to be nothing but useless and that he had gained nothing in doing, so except maybe a few moments of sleep and that he had lost his bed companion for the remainder of the night, and that he was doomed to see this next ghost all alone for sure this time. Dreading the sight of this thing Karnage sat up in bed and stared at his closet convinced for some reason that that was where the ghost was going to come from, as if they really were coming from the clock itself.
To Karnage's horror there WAS something dark hovering in the center of his closet. Determined not to see what it was or admit what it was even though he knew very well what it was Karnage pull the bedcovers up and over his head just in time to slightly watch the figure through his bedcovers, the figure came floating at a fast pace across his floor and towards the foot of his bed. With a slow wave of its' long robed arm the ghost removed Karnage's bedcovers from off him and stared at him. Karnage was terrified he sat curled up into a tight ball on his bed clutching his pillow, finally he swallowed and asked "W...w...w... what do want with me ...Spirit?" Karnage asked slowly trying to recover his dignity.
Chapter 9
"The Visit to Louie's"
The spirit pointed to Karnage's bedroom wall which opened up into a walkway that led into a nightclub. Karnage followed the spirit through the hole and into the building it was Louie's! Karnage looked around the place, was calm not so wild as like other times and he saw a table off to the side with some of Khans pilots gathered all around it, they all seemed happy but Karnage could not tell what they were so happy about so he went closer. "Hurray!" shouted one panther, "I'll drink to that!" said another, and all three of them clanked there glasses together and drank. "Yes, The world will be a much better and safer place without him, It's a pity that fool boy had to spend all his life defending him so." said a freelance pilot at the stool bar. "Ah, Yes such a shame, He died so young, trying to protect that crazy pirate." said another pilot sitting at the stool bar. "Hey, man let's not forget that he was a friend to some of us. And he did mean well and tried his best... for a while anyway." Louie said sadly as he returned to his spot behind the bar and sat down where Baloo and Kit Cloudkicker were sitting. "Spirit, What have I to do with these fellows?" Karnage asked confused.
Chapter 10
"The Mourning at Kodi's"
But the spirit did not answer, but simply led Karnage to another porthole in the wall at Louie's and once again they went through the hole onto a street. They were at Kodi's apartment complex; here the spirit took Karnage inside Kodi's apartment where everything seemed to be at a dead silence. There was only a fire in the fireplace and one glowing light coming from a bedroom down the hallway. Karnage and the spirit entered the room and there Karnage saw Kodi just pulling up the bed covers over Nickolas head.
Aunt Yasha, and Sanador were all sitting on the foot of the bed and Kola was standing at the foot of the bed, it didn't take long for Karnage to realize what had happened, he knew the boy, Nickolas, had died of his rebounded cold, he also noticed that Kodi looked a lot worse than the last visit, Kodi looked sicker than before, Karnage felt a chill go down his back for he feared that his bodyguard would be next. Karnage shook this thought off just about as quickly as it had come to him.
Then Karnage wondered what the pilots at the bar had meant when they talk so sadly about the boy who had died protecting that pirate (Surely they had not been talking about Nickolas, Karnage had never really had anything to do with that boy! What could they have been talking about?)
Chapter 11
"A Trip to the Grave Yard"
Then the spirit took Karnage to the cemetery, it was dark and foggy and it seemed very spooky there. Karnage saw Kodi's Aunt and siblings walking away sadly leaving a small headstone propped up against a tree, there Karnage saw Kodi fall to his knees and cry bitterly with his hands on his face. "I tried! I tried! I'm sorry, Nick, I tried. I just couldn't do anything more!" Kodi said crying.
Karnage was torn between finding a way to act like he didn't care and actually feeling bad for his protégé’s situation. "But what does this have to do with the boy who protected me losing his life so young?" Karnage quickly asked trying to as it were change the subject. Karnage quickly looked up when he heard the sound of someone coughing it was Kodi! "Kodi come on before you catch your death as well!" Aunt Yasha said as she came towards him and helped him stand up and walk back home.
Chapter 12
"Losing A Protégé'?!"
Back at Kodi's apartment, Aunt Yasha helped Kodi sit down onto the couch, Kodi weakly took a warm mug from her hand and slowly drank out of it, he looked out of the corner of his eye at Sanador who stared at him with a very worried look on her face, she had just lost her younger brother to this cough and now her oldest brother had it. Kodi smiled weakly he didn't want her to worry about losing him as well, although in the back of Kodi's mind the same concern seemed to be lingering. Kola stood at the end of the couch and even though he had always acted tough and gave Kodi so much trouble even he had a look of worry on his face as well.
"HA!, The boy is just taking it easy yes/no?" Karnage snapped totally forgetting how fearful he had been of the spirit that was hovering beside him. "You will see, Spirit, Kodi, Will be getting just fine." Karnage chuckled weakly while staring at the spirit who gave no reaction to Karnage's remark. "He will be just fine, right? Yes/no?" Karnage chuckled. Just then the spirit flew up into the air and seemed to make a leap onto Karnage as he coward but, when Karnage opened his eyes he was fine, in one piece and above all ALIVE! He turned and once again there was the spirit and Karnage saw the words (2 Months Later) floating in front of him in white ghostly letters and then fade away and once again they were in Kodi's apartment and once again they were in the same room as Nickolas has been in, but this time there seemed to be no one in it, Karnage turned and face the bed and Karnage panicked when he saw that this time it WAS Kodi laying on the bed!
"B...B...B...But, I...?" Karnage stuttered. Karnage looked to his left as, Aunt Yasha walked in to the room sadly and sat on the side of the bed and stroked Kodi's long bangs the boy opened his eyes weakly and let out a heavy breath. Karnage could see the sweat on Kodi's forehead the boy clearly had more than a simple cough but it was too late. Kodi turned his head and coughed hard and held his Aunt’s hand more in an attempt to comfort her rather than her comforting him. Then the boy saw his brother Kola and sister Sanador in the doorway of the room, they were not permitted to come any closer for the precaution of not catching his fever. Kodi smiled at them weakly he was afraid to leave them, but there wasn't really anything more that anybody could do for him now.
Kodi looked at his Aunt one more time then looked at the ceiling and sighed heavily, closed his eyes and slowly lowered his chin to his chest, his, Aunt Yasha sighed sadly, as she tried in vain to hold back her tears, as she pulled the sheet up over Kodi's head, Sanador ran out into the living room and fell onto the couch and cried hard, Kola slowly turned and left the room with tears rolling down his face. The young prince of plunder as some of the citizens of Cape Suzette had called him was dead.
Chapter 13
"The Death of the Plundering Wonder?!"
(Say Not so)
Karnage was shocked beyond belief, Kodi had survived almost just about everything that had been thrown at him from Karnage's point of view, even everything he had done or had tried to do to Kodi, the boy had managed to either survive or recover from them, but Karnage was surprised that a COMMON FEVER did his little bodyguard in.
Karnage looked worried as he turned to the spirit and asked "What became of my wonderful self after these happenings happened?" The spirit took him to the Iron Vulture and Karnage found himself standing in his room which looked dark and depressing. Karnage looked at his bed and saw that there was somebody laying under the covers which had been drawn up over the top of it and beside the bed was Scarlett sitting in a chair looking very sad as she stroked the covers where a body lay under them. Karnage almost went pale at the thought of what he might be seeing here. Karnage’s mother came in and gently led Scarlett out of the room. Hoping that the scene was referring to someone else or would change Karnage turned and looked at the spirit and asked "W...W...who is that, that be laying under those blankets?" Karnage stared at the direction the spirit pointed and dreaded going any closer to the bed, but the ghost persisted and finally Karnage mostly feared angering the spirit so he reluctantly went over to the bedside and pulled down the blanket down to the middle of the body's chest and gasped with fear as he saw himself all dressed in his pirate outfit and looking pretty well intact and in one piece except for one thing that was obvious Karnage realized that his corpse had been shot! Shot in the chest! "How could I have been shot?!" Karnage asked in great fear. Then Karnage heard Scarlett say in a tearful voice "If only Kodi could have been with him, then this might not have happened." Karnage slowly covered it back up, realizing the chain of events. Karnage looked at the spirit with fear in his eyes as to what he was going to see next.
Chapter 14
"Another! Trip to the Grave Yard."
The spirit took Karnage back to the cemetery, where it was dark, foggy, and cloudy and showed him Kodi's tombstone. "My poor, boy." Karnage said sadly "If only you hadn't died, then perhaps I might not have died myself." Karnage said revealing that it wasn't really Kodi he missed but the fact that if Kodi had lived then, he might have avoided his own tragic, untimely death as well. Not really caring about Kodi's passing.
Then Karnage heard a wolf's mournful howl but he realized it was the same howl as Kodi's and he looked up and saw Kodi's ghost standing inches from a snow covered tombstone. Karnage sitting on his knees stared at this for a moment and then heard Kodi's ghost ask "Why didn't you help me?" Karnage stared at lost as to what to answer. "Why didn't you help me when I needed you to?!" it demanded. Then it looked down sadly and touched his hand on the snow covered gravestone and looked back at Karnage, Karnage got up and walked over to the stone, Karnage looked at Kodi's ghost who still stared down at the headstone, Karnage dropped to his knees and wiped away some of the snow to reveal his worst fears.
His eyes grew big as he wiped the snow away to reveal the first three letters on the tombstone K...A...R. Karnage looked at the ghost and then looked behind him to see that the spirit was still there too. "FINISH IT!" Kodi's ghost shouted at Karnage while leaning on the headstone. Karnage in between tears of fear and the cold wind chill held his robe shut with one hand and continued wiping away the snow with his other hand, until the stone was clear to read (Don Karnage, and also the year and the date of his birth, and the day and month of his death) as if triggered by reaction Kodi's ghost raised its head and let out another mournful howl, and then continued to stare at him. "AHHHH!" Karnage Shrieked and scurried backwards on his hands and feet until he hit the spirit's thick, long, black robe "Am, I truly doomed to die on a Christmas night?! Is this frightful event close to coming true or is it far away from me?!" Karnage begged as he pulled on the spirits robe and then looked back at Kodi's ghost who looked back down sadly at the gravestone which to Karnage's fear the grave below the stone rumbled opened. Kodi's ghost looked at Karnage out of the corner of its eye and then back down into the opened grave. Karnage looked back up at the spirit who pointed at the gravesite.
Then to Karnage's absolute horror the spirit began pushing him towards the opened grave, "NO NO NO!" Karnage shouted trying every which way to stop himself from being pushed any closer, he looked at Kodi's ghost who was holding onto the headstone but was leaning over the site, with a very sad, unable to provide any help, look on his face, as it watched Karnage be push over the edge into the grave, but at the very last minute Karnage grabbed a tree root that was sticking out of the side of the dirt of the grave and he latched onto it with all his might.
Karnage stared up at the spirit and in-between sobs said that he was sorry he hadn't been better to Kodi and that he had not helped Kodi in his hour of need, but had helped his condition worsen. Whether or not he really meant this it was not noticed. Kodi's ghost let out some tears. Then as if he figured it was his one last chance to avoid what was coming Karnage looked at Kodi's ghost who let out a weak sad smile and said "I can not help you anymore, because you did not help me, I can only watch you now, but I can not help you!" with that Kodi's ghost held out his hand as if to pull Karnage from his death, but when Karnage went to grab it, Kodi's hand faded out of Karnage's hand. "I CAN NOT help you anymore!" it shouted with that the root that Karnage had been holding onto snapped and broke and Karnage fell towards a wooden coffin that seemed to be sitting on fire. "NOOOO!" Karnage shouted just before hitting it, but instead of hitting a fiery coffin he went SMASH! Right onto his bedroom floor!
Chapter 15
"It Feels Good To Be Alive!"
Karnage fumbled through his bed curtains and realized that not only did he land on his bedroom floor but that he had also ripped off part of his bed curtains in the process.
"BAH!" He snapped as he got his foot free from the last of the bed curtains. Karnage stumbled to his cabin window and looked out to his relief it was morning. "HA! It was just only a long bad dream yes/no?" Karnage stated as he straightened up his robe, but Karnage was startled and almost jumped a foot off the floor when he got a quick reminding glance of both the spirit of Christmas future and Kodi's ghost shaking his finger at him in his mirror!. Karnage stuttered and leaned on his desk and tried to think of what to do next.
"Kodi? Kodi?!" Karnage shouted out in thought as he ran out of his room, into the hallway, and towards Kodi's cabin door which was next to his. Kodi who had heard the crash and commotion quickly opened up his door and said "Pops?" as Karnage came running through Kodi's door and quickly grabbed and held the boy in his arms tightly almost to the point of smothering him. "Uh, Pops, are you okay?" Kodi asked completely clueless as to what was wrong with Karnage. "Oh, Kodi, I am so glad that you are not kaput." Karnage said rubbing his head into Kodi's chest "Uh, okay... Uh Pops, you can put me down now ...so that I can breathe!" Kodi said scowling at Karnage who was oblivious as to how ridiculous he looked. "Honey are you all right?!" Scarlett asked as she peeked out of the room, "Where are you?" she asked as she tied her robe around here and started to wander down the hallway. "He's in here!" Kodi called out and then frowned back down at Karnage who was still squeezing him silly. "Okay, Pops, I love you too, but you have got to let go!" Kodi said as he slid Karnage's arms down until he got free of his grip. "Is he alright?" Scarlett asked as she ran to Karnage "Beats me ...He just came flying in here and started squeezing the daylights out of me!" Kodi replied while tying his bathrobe around himself. "Oh, I have had a most terrifying dream!" last night Karnage said panting heavily while putting his right hand on the side of his head.
"Seems more like you've been dazed! “Or sleep deprived." Kodi said looking at Karnage confused and annoyingly. "And besides since when do dreams and or nightmares for that matter bother you?!" Kodi added while continuing to stare at Karnage like he had lost his marbles (or more like what was left of them) "No no no! Your Captain is not missing any of his marbles!" Karnage replied slightly angry as he got up off his knees. "Now Pops, maybe you should come with me." Kodi said as he gently took Karnage by the hand and led him back to his room. Once inside Karnage's room, Kodi led him over to the bed and sat him down on it and said "Maybe you should lie back down for a while, you probably just didn't get good sleep last night that's all." "Or maybe it was something you ate... I mean after the food is not that good here." Kodi added as he drew Karnage’s blankets back over him. "But... NO!" Karnage snapped and quickly tossed the bedding aside from off of him and got out of bed quickly for fear of having any more visits from the ghosts or any other ones for that matter before he had dealt with Kodi's family problems.
Karnage took Kodi by the arm a little roughly and led him to the pirate treasure room knowing that most of Kodi's accumulated wealth had been stolen back from the boy and thrown in there with the rest of Karnage’s vast amount of wealth. Karnage opened the treasure room door and while still in his bathrobe started bending over and putting large piles of good coins into the boy's arms. Kodi who had been watching Karnage with a look of about to go into shock on his face allowed himself to be loaded with piles of loot. The boy finally had to ask "Pops? What are you doing?!" he asked totally confused by Karnage’s behavior as he dropped the arm full of gold coins Karnage had loaded his arms with.
Karnage stopped and looked at the boy who was showing a growing concerned look on his face as he stared at his captain from the doorway of the room. "Karnage remained calm and walked over to the boy and put his hands on the boy's shoulders and said "I want to give back the hard earned loot that you had that, I took from you, so that you can well care for your family again., yes/no?" Kodi looked worried Karnage had never really seen his family so how would he know how badly off they were? "So..." Karnage continued as he turned and scooped up a pile of coins and went to Kodi’s arms with it "...I am going to give you back the amount I took, and I will pay you your normal price and not lower it, and you may stash it back in your island and do not worry I the dread pirate, Don Karnage, will make a solemn promise never to rob you of your cache from your secret island again." Karnage stated as he held his right hand up. Kodi look at Karnage like he had really lost it! How could he really trust this pirate not to clean out his life’s savings again? I mean after all he was the dreaded air pirate and plundering wonder Don Karnage. Kodi could not believe his ears.
But later that day everybody was dressed and Karnage had kept his word, Kodi had his loot restored, his pay was put back to its normal large amount, and later without the air pirates assistance Kodi had moved his family out of their small not so fancy apartment and back into their beach house up on the rocks above the beach that had recently been boarded up, but now it was opened back up for use. Everyone was clean and happy and Nickolas, who did not die, recovered well from his cold and was happy and healthy again and even Kodi had avoided getting deep into his cold.
And even though Kodi knew deep down that Karnage would always be cruel, ruthless, and untrustworthy, he did manage to get a new kind of respect from Karnage and in some strange small way also a new kind of love and loyalty seemed to secretly hint between the two of them.
The End!
(Kodi) ".... Uh... Gee, Pops, What did you do to your clock?!"
(Finished 8-15-2011)
Disclaimer!
Kodi, Kola, Sanador, Nickolas, and Yasha are Kitckw's
Scarlet is not owned by me.
All TaleSpin related material and characters are owned by Disney.
Please Enjoy!
"Kodi's Christmas Carol
A TaleSpin Fanfic"
Written by Kitckw
Chapter 1
"Prologue" "Obtaining Holiday Leave"
One cold winter evening somewhere in the middle of the ocean at Pirate Island, a young wolf/husky pup named Kodi was preparing to leave the island for his home away from home. He and Karnage had had some major disagreements and as a bigger punishment for Kodi, Karnage had recently stolen back just about all of Kodi's hard earned money that the boy had stashed away on an island a reasonable distance from Pirate Island and had lowered the boy's pay, so this had made things hard for Kodi and his family, but Kodi had quickly gotten over the brunt of it, but Karnage still hadn't quite gotten over it,
Because of this the boy had had to move his family from their lovely spacious beachside house to a small not so fancy apartment safe behind the Cliffs of Cape Suzette, Kodi's family wasn't all too happy about the changes especially his brother Kola, but their Aunt felt that it was much safer since it was safe behind the cliff guns and out of the reach of the man that she knew her oldest nephew worked for, the dreaded air pirate captain Don Karnage. And with that begins our story.
Back at Pirate Island in the control room of The Iron Vulture, the enormous airship that belonged to the plundering wonder, Don Karnage, Kodi was preparing to leave for his home away from home as he sometimes referred to it. As he was putting on his plain brown coat he turned and looked over his shoulder toward Karnage and asked "Is it okay if I go home for Christmas?" Kodi asked Karnage (Half expecting the answer he wanted, the boy hardly left pirate island for a day or longer without permission from the Captain because if and sometimes when he did, Kodi would sooner or later always expect and usually always got a punishment from Karnage himself or sometimes from the hand of one of the crew members with Karnages’ supervision but usually the boy would shake them off because Karnage sooner or later would remember that Kodi was his best bodyguard and maybe the only most loyal member of his crew, so Karnage tried to be sure that Kodi's punishments never went as far to the point of harming the boy's life and Karnage often tried to secretly find ways to avoid having the punishments go that far so as not to look like he cared if one of his crew members lived or died, but there were times where Karnage found it hard to restrain himself from killing Kodi because of how far the brave, bold young pup would sometimes push him.)
Karnage stared at Kodi with a cold uncaring stare being nice was one thing Karnage was never good at, nor did he care to be. Karnage made like he was fumbling at the thought, he often did this just to keep the 17 year old boy in suspense and Kodi would try his best not to lose his temper waiting for his mentor's answer. Scarlett a vixen who had been standing next to Karnage at the table in the control room looked at Kodi, then at Karnage, then rolled her eyes and grinned annoyingly she knew what Karnage was doing so she finally elbowed Karnage slightly hard just enough to annoy him and get a scowl on his face as he looked at her, she said "Let the boy go, you don't have to keep him here all the time" she said as she gestured to let him go. "Please, Pops, I hardly get to see my family as it is." Kodi said with a hint of pleading in his voice which was kind of like music to Karnage's ears. "What do mean you hardly do not get to see your family?!" Karnage let out pretending to have his feelings hurt. "I-I-I mean my extended family" Kodi stuttered and tried to recover what he had said because in times past he had referred to the Air Pirates as his family because for a long time Kodi hadn't even known he had any real family so he had come to think of the pirates as his family to an extent mostly he just referred to Karnage, Scarlett, their kids, Karnage's step daughter, and Karnage's mother as his family and he kept his distance from Karnage's father who had quickly showed a instant dislike to the boy because he feared that Kodi would someday due to his fast learning and skills, would someday turn on his son, Karnage, but everyone else was not convince because even though Karnage would flip flop from treating the boy nicely to treating him harshly the boy even in his fights and outrages never really showed any hint of wanting to permanently or fatally harm Karnage.
Karnage sighed, he hated it when Scarlett would make him be nice too or interfered with the way he treated Kodi. "Very well then, you may go but to be sure that you do not forget to return the day after the festivities. Else you will upset your feared Captain," Karnage said looking smug. Kodi stared at Karnage with a blank stare for a moment it was sometimes hard for the boy to fully understand what his Captain was really saying. Kodi looked at Scarlett puzzled and then she nodded and motioned for him that he could leave. Kodi smiled and dashed out the door of the control room before Karnage could change his mind. Karnage frowned at Scarlett and said "I do very much dislike when you tell me what to do with my bodyguard; He will soon have more respect for you then for me." Karnage finished his sentence while partly worried that this might be true. "Oh, I wouldn't worry too much about that, that boy would do anything for you although why, I'll never know!" Scarlett said partly annoyed with Karnage and she walked out of the control room.
Meanwhile while this conversation between the Captain and his lady was taking place the boy, after he had left the control room, went down the stairs into the enormous hanger of the Iron Vulture and ran over to his plane. It was just like Karnage's Tri Wing Terror only Kodi's had had to have the pedals adjusted due to his size because the plane itself was built the same size as Karnage’s, but as the boy had grown this was becoming less of a problem the boy simply shortened the adjustments on his plane pedals as he got bigger, the only other way to tell Karnage and Kodi's planes apart was that the Captain's plane had a big number one painted on the tail of it and Kodi's had a skull and crossbones on the tail of his plane just like all the others. Kodi climbed up onto the wing of his plane and jumped into the seat started the engine and took off through the great airship's giant mouth.
Chapter 2
"Home for Christmas"
It was near sunset when the boy reached the cliffs of Cape Suzette Kodi would often land on the water, taxi his plane along out of range of the gunners and park his plane somewhere along the side below the cliffs and would use his little wooden rowboat that he had stashed in a small cavern in the side of the cliff to row his way into the harbor of Cape Suzette without getting shot at by the cliff gunners and he rarely had to worry about harbor patrols because the boy had gotten used to dodging and avoiding all the security in Cape Suzette, in the harbor and on land.
As the boy rowed his way to the low wooden dock, he looked and smiled as he stared at the large yellow and orange sea plane it was all too familiar to him many a time he remembered seeing it as he and the air pirates chased it in an attempt to shoot it down as ordered by Don Karnage in countless dogfights, although the boy himself never really fell to shooting the plane himself he often watched from his plane as the other air pirates and his captain would go like mad trying to shoot it down only to end up crashing themselves in one way or another and sometimes the boy would secretly get a laugh out of it as long as he was never caught.
Kodi was friends with the owner or more like owners of this beautiful seaplane. Kodi shook his head as so to snap himself out of his daydreaming and came to the dock of Higher for Hire, jumped out of the boat and onto the dock and tied his boat up, and walked up the dock. Kodi was friends with everyone at Higher For Hire and they welcomed him there almost every time he came to visit but as the boy got older the visits became fewer because he was doing more and more of Karnage's bidding and so the secret favors and slight sabotages Kodi would do for the Higher for Hire gang from time to time to help his friends from the air pirates in time of trouble or before trouble occurred were numbered and sadly the boy knew that his friendship with Baloo and the gang wasn't going to last, that someday he and the gang and or perhaps he and Kit Cloudkicker the navigator and adopted son of the fat pilot as Karnage would sometimes refer to Baloo would come face to face with each other someday.
But Kodi just walked past the front door and kept on going and headed towards town, he didn't really have time to stop because he knew his family was waiting for him and that whatever time he was allowed to have to go see them and do things with them was precious and limited enough as it was, Kodi figured he'd see Baloo and the gang again the next time they met up on a treasure hunt or the next time they cross paths with the air pirates.
Kodi walked downtown Cape Suzette down the back roads and alley ways until he came to an old looking apartment building complex and walked into the main door of the building and went up the stairway and passed a few rooms and finally came to his family's apartment. He opened the door and came in and found them all sitting in the small living room waiting for him. Kodi smiled he loved his siblings so much. His little brother and sister, Nicholas and Sanador ran up to Kodi and hugged him and Kodi knelt down and hugged them tightly, then he looked up at his brother, Kola who was always unhappy with him and distant from him. Because his income wasn't as large as it had been Kodi's younger siblings had learned to cope with it and be happy with what they had, but Kola had been angry with Kodi ever since they had moved out of their beach house. Kodi sighed sadly as Kola got up from the couch and went to his room.
"Auntie says you were gonna take us caroling!," Kodi's sister said as she bounced up and down at his side. "Yeah, And she also said that maybe we might be able to get some candy for a treat since it's Christmas!..." Nick chimed in "That’s if you can." Nick finished slowly. The boy coughed a little and smiled at his big brother who squeezed him lovingly and smiled. "Well, I guess I better get ready to go, sounds like we're gonna have a busy evening." Kodi said as he got up and started for his room. "Oh, you’re not leaving until you've had something warm to eat." Aunt Yasha replied causing Kodi to stop in his tracts. "Oh" Nick and Sanador groaned disappointedly. "I'm not sending you out in the cold without something warm in your stomachs first!" Aunt Yasha declared. "Auntie's, right." Kodi said "Besides you've had a cold recently, Nickolas we would not want er... I mean we wouldn't want you to get sicker, I'm mean after all you just over most of it and you really shouldn't be going out at all until you've completely gotten over it, so we're kinda lucky ,Auntie's letting you go out tonight." Kodi stated. "Oh, okay, you're right, Kodi." Nickolas replied slightly disappointed that he had to wait.
The young boy had had a bad cold recently and they had been trying everything possible to make it get better without having to go to a doctor because of how much the visits and medicine would have cost and most of the home treatment had seemed to be working, the boy had stayed in bed during the worst part of it and stayed indoors, kept warm and had been given plenty of warm stuff to eat and drink, so they all felt that he would make a good recovery.
At the dinner table the 2 younger kids quickly ate their supper, Kodi looked over the rim of his mug to see Nick quickly downing his soup, Kodi slightly grinned and shook his head and finished drinking his soup. He put his mug down on the wooden table and let out a satisfied sigh. "Well, I'm done are you guys ready to go?" He asked. "I'm ready!" Nick replied in an excited voice "Me too!" his sister said. "Okay let’s go!" Kodi said as he walked to the front door and took their coats, scarves, and mittens out of the coat closet and helped his siblings put them on, then Kodi wrapped a gray scarf around himself and already had his mitts on. Waved goodbye and walked out the door with both kids holding his hands, Kola had already gone downstairs and was reluctantly waiting outside the building. "Make sure you keep warm and be sure to keep Nickolas extra warm so he doesn't get that cold back!" Aunt Yasha called to Kodi from the kitchen as he left. She shook her head thinking Kodi hadn't heard her as he shut the apartment door.
Kodi met Kola outside the building complex the air smelled like winter and was cold, Kodi was used to this smell having been born up north on the other side of the Thembrian border, he knew all about the cold and how hard it could be to keep warm in it without the proper clothing. We'll go the neighborhoods uptown it's safer up there then it is down here downtown. Kodi remembered all the incidents with gangsters and such, like Trader Moe and Baby face Half nelson, so he figured the easiest way to avoid those types was to go to the better looking part of town.
Kodi could not have even guessed who would be lurking in the shadows that night, or maybe he could, just wait and see.
Chapter 3
"Gone Caroling"
They had found a nice neighborhood with houses here and there and they had been having a great time Kodi would "park" them outside the doorstep at some of houses to sing while he hid alongside the house so that Nick and his sister could have fun without having the doors slammed in their faces. And he sometimes made Kola sing with Nick and Sonya just so that he would have to be with them.
Because of what Kodi had done and what he had become almost the whole city of Cape Suzette hated him because he showed up just after the historic Lightning Gun incident. (Because Karnage had thrown him over board and Kodi had been saved by Baloo.) Kodi had hung around Cape Suzette some days after the whole incident and without thinking had left Higher For Hire still dressed like Karnage and had gone to explore the city for his own curiosity and ended up getting into a fight with some of the local kids called The Jungle Aces and most of the adults who had seen him had referred to him as Karnage's son or Karnage Junior, so since then Kodi had had to always change out of his pirate clothes and into a plain brown sweater, A Darker brown light weight jacket, and he wore a black belt in place of his shash, and his father's old pilot hat, which he only wore when he wasn't wearing his pirate outfit. Other than that his pants and boots were the exact same ones he wore with either outfit.
After stopping at quite a few houses they went deeper into town where the much better looking businesses and apartment buildings looked and they stopped at the side of one apartment complex that was made of brick and had a side window in each room and this time Kodi joined in with his 3 siblings because he figured that maybe this time it would be alright to sing with them without the risk of anyone getting their feelings hurt or anyone getting angry with him in front of his brothers and sister.
As they sang a carol Kodi eventually withdrew himself from the small group and leaned against the apartment complex wall below the windows, so that when the tenants opened their windows to see the kids singing, they wouldn't see him. They were soon joined by some more kids some of whom took one look at Kodi and almost gave him away but Kodi put his finger to his mouth, shook his head and whispered "Shhh." But not everyone was enjoying the music someone on the second or third floor threw a bucket of water out of the window and towards the kids and to Kodi's sadness it ALL landed on little Nicky.
"Ohh!" All the kids screamed. "Someone should throw you out!" one child yelled. "I'm freezing" another cried with shivers. Kodi walked up to Nick and knelt down "Achoo," Nick sneezed, "Kodi I'm all wet and cold." he replied sadly. Kodi started to pick him up "I'm all soaked!" Kola said annoyed Kodi looked up and scowled at him he may have gotten wet but he wasn't the one that had gotten the most of it. "Best get that poor, boy home out of the cold" a nearby gentleman said as Kodi picked Nick up. "Come on we better get home and warm you up fast. Kodi picked up the boy and took one last glance at the window that was now shut where the water had come from, but to Kodi's disappointment he couldn't see who had done this.
Back at home Kodi and the rest of the family had gotten Nick all warm and dried off and into bed. They had given him a good hot bowl of soup, and into some nice dry warm pajamas. Kodi tucked Nickolas in for good measure. They all said their good nights and left the room, Kodi who was the last one at the bedroom door turn and put his hand to the doorknob and looked at Nick, who seemed warm enough, smiled and said "Merry Christmas, Nick." and shut the door almost all the way closed.
Chapter 4
"Haunted At Pirate Island"
That night at Pirate Island someone was doomed to an interrupted night’s sleep. Karnage and Scarlett were sound asleep in the Captain's cabin in the Iron Vulture Scarlett was sleeping peacefully while Karnage seemed to be having a hard time sleeping, he tossed and turned and moaned in his sleep. And perhaps you and I both know what comes next.
"Ghost Warning"
Karnage found himself sitting in his bed alone and there was a foggy mist floating in his room he couldn't see the floor, he held the covers trying in vain to hide how frightened he was "What nincompoopery is this?!" he said angrily but no one answered. He slowly got out of bed, wrapped his bed robe around him and slipped into his slippers and slowly walked over to his bedroom window and saw nothing he turned to go back to bed and was startled by a ghostly figure standing between him and the bed "Who in blue blazes are you?!" Karnage demanded "What are you doing in my lovely type quarters?" "I am here to warn you." the ghostly figure wailed, "I've come to warn you, to change your ways towards your protégé' Kodi Tyler." "I am a pirate; I do not do nice ways!" Karnage stated as he turned his back to the ghost and crossed his arms. The ghost wailed loudly, came around and hovered in front of Karnage and startled him so badly that his ears, tail, and the fur on his tail stood straight up for a moment but he quickly regained and composed himself. "Are you going to be spooking about my cabin all night?!" Karnage demanded starting to look and sound very irritated. "Nooo !" The ghost wailed "I've come to warn you, you will be haunted by three spirits" "Spirits?!, HA!" Karnage shook off the very thought of this continuing on through night and turned his back to the ghost once again. The spirit came around and stood in front of Karnage once again and said "Expect the first one when the clock shows 12." the ghost warned. "Heed their words, or else it will be too late." the ghost's words trailed off as he slipped through the window of the cabin. "Change your ways." echoed as the ghost disappeared completely into the dark harbor of Pirate Island and was gone. "HA! Who does that spooky think he is trying to frighten me the dread pirate DON KARNAGE?!" In his loud statement Scarlett slightly awoke and mumbled at Karnage in her sleep and went back to bed. "But did you not just see that spookidy spooky type ghost try to frighten my wonderful type self?!" Karnage just stared when he realized that he had been the only one who had seen the ghost. "I am just tired, that is it, Yes, I am just so full of my wonderful self and the days Holiday type plundering that I am in need of some peaceful type sleep, yes-no?" Karnage chuckled to himself half heartedly trying to put it in his mind that that was all it was.
Chapter 5
“The First Spirit, the Ghost of Christmas Past”
By now it had been about three hours since the ghost had come Scarlett was in a deep sleep and even Karnage appeared to be fast asleep. The clock next to Karnage's bed struck twelve and Karnage's eyes popped wide opened he had been dreading this time, for he figured if the first had scared him so badly what would the next one look like? Karnage sat up in his bed, held the covers up to his nose and looked towards the window and saw nothing, then he looked towards the door and looked down at the floor under the rim of the cabin door came what seemed to be a bright yellow light. Karnage figured if this one came with such a bright light it must not be so terrifying as the last one.
Karnage got out of bed as before with his robe and slippers and went and cautiously opened the door and was just about almost blinded by the brightness of the room. There in the room everything was decked out for Christmas there was, a tree all decorated, there was holly above the fireplace, in which was also burning a nice cheerful fire and on a slightly long wooden table in the room was a feast such as Karnage had never seen before in all his days on Pirate Island and even more to his astonishment all the food on the table looked really good to eat.
Karnage quickly came to the conclusion that he wasn't standing in the hallway of the Iron Vulture because nothing in his airship was this finely decked out. "Come in, Come in." a voice said. "What is all this?" Karnage asked "This is the food of generosity, which is something you've never really known." the spirit answered. "HA!" Karnage burst “I have no need for generestity" he mispronounced "I am a pirate, I simply do take what I need and perhaps sometimes more." Karnage said as he grinned slyly. The spirit was a tall brown bear with a big full length green robe. And he had a type of magic sparkling torch in his hand. "Spirit, you bare a not so unfamiliar resemblance to a certain fat bear, I know of." Karnage said as he stared and studied the spirit from head to the bottom of his robe. "Come." said the spirit "We have so much to see." and with that he took hold of Karnage by his shoulder and flew off with him towards Cape Suzette.
The spirit brought Karnage to Cape Suzette and they floated over the city Karnage chuckled gleefully and said "Oh, lookity, look! It's Cape Suzette, I've wanted to plunder this city all my life, spirit!" The spirit shot an annoying look out of the corner of his eye towards Karnage, thinking that this stupid pirate was going to miss the whole point of this trip and lesson. They flew towards Higher for Hire and lowered at the window and looked in.
There the gang was getting all ready for Christmas Kit Cloudkicker, the adopted son and navigator of the great cargo pilot Baloo, was bouncing on a pogo stick while putting up yellow holly on the Christmas tree, Wildcat, the gangs mechanic, was tangled in the lights and Baloo the big fat annoying pilot, was shooting Christmas ortiments onto the tree with a slingshot.
Kodi walked through the front office door and greeted everybody and even helped put some green holly above the doorway and around the inside of the office. Karnage snarled at the realization of HIS protégé' helping his arch enemy! "When Kodi had finished he said "Well, I have to go now, Karnage will be wondering where I'm at, I'll see all you guys later and Kodi waved goodbye and quickly dashed out the door.
Then spirit showed him the next evening at Higher For Hire how Kodi quickly went with the gang to Louie's to make it snow for Molly Cunningham, the daughter of the owner of Higher For Hire. With the snap of his fingers the spirit took Karnage inside the Sea duck where Rebecca, Wildcat, and Kodi all opened a box of soap flakes and prepared to start the snow show, when suddenly there came gunfire through the cargo hold of the Sea duck. The spirit snapped his fingers again and gave Karnage a wide view of the whole attempted Christmas plunder incident, he then took Karnage back into the Sea Duck to watch Rebecca, Wildcat, and Kodi roll around and dodge bullets left and right, then the spirit showed Karnage, the inside of the Sea Duck and how Rebecca, Kit, and Kodi were all rolling back into the sea duck after they had sprayed the air pirates with the soap flakes.
Kit and Rebecca rolled up against a wooden crate Kodi came tumbling towards it and landed right side up against the crate too. Kit asked if everyone was alright Rebecca replied and Kodi said "Yeah I'm fine." then Kodi looked down at his brown sweater and noticed that the lower left side of his stomach was wet, he put his hand to it and realized what it was, he sighed calmly and got the first aid kit and tried not to make a big show of his injury. Karnage stared down at the floor as if embarrassed, he never knew that he had accidently shot his own protégé' that night and Kodi had never mentioned it.
Then the spirit took Karnage back to the Iron Vulture and took him to the main hanger and showed him what Kodi had done that night how Kodi had decked out the hanger with holly, a big tree with decorations and even a few presents for Karnage and even a few for some of the crew members who had grumbled about some things they had really wanted. "That boy loves you deeply, although why, I can't see and may never know!" the spirit snapped at the end of his sentence. "Well, the dread pirate Don Karnage is adored by all, even his enemies and not so lovable crew members, Kodi adores me." Karnage said looking all proud of himself. The spirit rolled his eyes annoyingly and blew out his torch.
Chapter 6
"The Second Spirit, the Ghost of Christmas Present"
Karnage awoke once again in his bed, beside Scarlett and sat up in bed and groaned and rubbed his forehead, he began to think he was doomed to be sleep deprived all night. "Am, I to be truly haunted by these spookity spooks all this night?!" Karnage demanded in a weary tone. He was feeling very tired and felt like he hadn't had any sleep at all in between these visits. Karnage stumbled out of his room without disturbing Scarlett and headed towards the kitchen and said aloud to himself sleepily "Perhaps some warm milk will help me to sleep better, yes/no?" He got to the kitchen and managed to find a clean coffee mug among the clutter and made his way back to his room sleepily got back into bed and went back to sleep.
Two hours later Karnage was out like a light (or perhaps more like he had been knocked out.) The clock struck three o'clock and Karnage who had been asleep on his stomach opened one eye sleepily, groaned and frowned at the clock by his bed, as if it were the clock's fault for all the trouble he was having in trying to get some sleep, as if the clock was somehow to blame for the ghosts appearing in his room that night.
Karnage quickly sat straight up in bed and nervously looked around the room. There seemed to be nothing here at all, everything appeared to be normal. He looked toward the window and there wasn't anything there, he looked towards the door there wasn't anything there either. Then he looked at the crawl space door on the ceiling of his room but to his surprise there wasn't anything there either! (Perhaps that spookity spook lied to me to scare my wonderful self or just perhaps it just decided not to come spooking around the dread air pirate Don Karnage, or... perhaps he is just late in coming?!) Karnage thought to himself as he carefully scanned the room over again with his eyes being careful to watch for even the slightest thing. Karnage sighed in relief and said "Perhaps that estupid spookity spook lied to me to disturb the rest of my peaceful type night’s restfulness. HA! Well it will not work, I will sleepy peaceful for the remaining of the night. Yes/no? And that is IT!" he stated and he lay down, Rolled over and went back to sleep.
It had not quite even been five minutes when Karnage laid back down that a small ghostly figure came out from under Karnage's bed and stood floating at his bedside. Karnage gasp quietly "Who are you?" he demanded... (Even though this was a stupid question.) ...as he held the bed covers up to his nose. The ghost was a young vixen all shining in a bright yellow light. Karnage shaded his eyes to get a better look at the ghost. "I am the ghost of Christmas present" she answered. "Present? Oh, gooditidy good! I love presents!" Karnage replied happily. The ghost rolled her eyes at him and put forth her hand to Karnage and said politely "Come with me." "I do not think so, I have had a very not so undistrubing night and do very wish to get some sleep, yes/no?" and he laid down under the covers and made like he was fast asleep again.
"But, You must come with me." she said with a little more of a stern tone in her voice as she took hold of Karnage's blanket and peeled them back quickly. Karnage sat straight up on the side of his bed and this time his eyes were wide open as he stared at the ghost not sure how to respond to this. "Now come with me." she said once more politely and put her hand out to Karnage. With slight hesitation Karnage took her hand and they floated towards the window. "But spirit, I cannot fit through such a small window, yes/no?!" Karnage said nervously as they drew near the small window but to Karnage's surprise he did not go smack onto his bedroom wall and into the window but that he actually went through it!
The young spirit took Karnage to Cape Suzette and showed him the many things that the citizens were doing and going about celebrating Christmas in their own happy ways whether alone or together with friends and or families and how happy they were whether they were rich, poor, or even well to do. That they were happy to be together with the ones they loved whether they received a lot or a little or even nothing at all for Christmas.
Then to Karnage's surprise she took him to the window of Higher For Hire and showed him what a fine time they were having together as a family. Karnage scowled as he continued to be "Forced" to stare at this happy little scene, but to his relief this time Kodi was nowhere in sight of this. Then the spirit took Karnage to Kodi's apartment where the area was more dark and quiet but still even the poor members of the community found small simple ways to celebrate the joy of the season.
Karnage and the spirit went into Kodi's apartment and watched the scene that was unfolding. Kodi's brother Kola, and their little sister were already at the table waiting and Aunt Yasha, was putting the turkey on the table and Kodi was coming out of the hallway smiling and carrying little Nickolas, who even though was still sick was happy to see everyone and was happy to be joining them for dinner instead of eating in bed.
"Hurray! We're all here." Sanador shouted happily and Kodi smiled weakly as he put Nick down in his chair. Kodi had been trying to hide how worried he was about Nick but it was becoming harder for him to hide how worried he really was. Kodi sat down at his place at the head of the table and his Aunt sat down at the other end.
Karnage watched as Kodi carved and served everyone else first and then he served himself. Karnage noticed how Kodi's behavior was totally different here then it was at Pirate Island the boy still showed manners as best as possible around Scarlett and Karnage's kids, but Kodi always had a tough side about him there and Karnage knew more than well why that was the case, but he had never really seen how polite and well mannered Kodi really was and could be.
Karnage watched as the family enjoyed their meal, then as Kodi raised his mug and so did everyone else and they all said, "Merry Christmas." and happily clanked there cups together and drank, then as Kodi finished taking a sip from his mug he said "... and here's to Karnage, may he have a Merry Christmas." Kodi looked at everyone who stared at him with dead silence. "Kodi..." Sanador said sadly "He's nothing but a big jerk! Who's brought us nothing but trouble since you met him!" Kola muttered under his breath "Well, I mean it, He's been nice enough to keep me employed all this time when nobody else in town would give me a job." Kodi replied "The man's a murderer, he's cold, cruel, and selfish!, nobody knows that better then you Kodi." Aunt Yasha finally snapped. "Auntie." Kodi motioned with his eyes to the two younger children then looked at her again. "I know but it's true and I will not make a toast to that horrible pirate." she stated. "Karnage probably just doesn't know what to do in times like these he just ....... seems so alone at times and I think that's just how he hides how sad he is." Kodi said slowly because at first he had been at a loss for words on how to try and defend his boss, which he knew was pointless and without causing an argument.
"The least we could do is wish him good health on this fine night." Kodi said calmly as he picked up his mug while looking at his Aunt waiting to see what her reaction would be to his suggestion. "Well, alright, you know I don't like him, nor do I like you working for him, but I suppose I could wish him good health at least for your sake anyway." and they all raised there cups once more in a toast to Karnage. But the only one who probably really meant it was Kodi.
Nickolas coughed and few times and Kodi picked him up from his chair and put him in his own lap, and Nickolas said "God bless us, everyone." "Yes, God bless us." Kodi agreed as he took another sip from his mug.
"What will be becoming of Kodi's small brother?" Karnage asked the spirit with a twinge of concern in his voice. "If the child doesn't get well soon, or receive better care, he may die." the spirit looked at Karnage who didn't seem so concerned at this remark. "...but I also see that Kodi may well catch his brother's cold and it may be the worst for him because of how strained and over worked he is." the spirit said sadly as she glanced at Karnage after she had finished her sentence.
At that last remarked Karnage quickly turn his head and stared at the ghost with a concerned look on his face, then Karnage looked back at the scene and watched as Kodi coughed a couple of times. "Whoa, I hope I'm not catching something too." Kodi replied calmly as he took his closed hand away from his mouth and looked at his Aunt who was becoming concerned.
"Oh, I do not think, that I will be having to be worried about, Kodi, he is always able to recover and come to my aide when I am most be needing him, yes/no?" Karnage said shaking off the very thought of losing his most loyal crew member and bodyguard.
The young spirit sighed and touched Karnage's shoulder and took him back to his room. And once again Karnage was wide awake, sitting in his bed, holding the bed covers in his lap, with Scarlett fast asleep on the side of the bed. Karnage sighed deeply, rubbed the side of his head, let out another deep sigh and turned over and went back to bed.
Chapter 7
"The Third Spirit, the Ghost of Christmas Future"
"Delaying the Visit"
One hour later! Karnage thought he was past all hope of getting a good night’s sleep, he was laying in bed, wide awake and was staring a hole through his bedroom ceiling. He then looked at the clock at his bedside it was four in the morning! Karnage sighed and looked at the ceiling again he was just dreading ghost number three and only heaven knew what the next one would look like. Karnage looked over at Scarlett who hadn't even been disturbed by any of this except for his occasional waking her slightly after each visit.
He looked at the clock again five minutes after four, he squeezed his bed sheets, Karnage couldn't bare the thought of going back to sleep again only to be greeted by another spooky ghost. Fifteen minutes later Karnage was sitting up in bed trying to think of a way to avoid the inevitable ghostly visit, he stared at the clock convinced it was ticking faster just to drive him nuts. Karnage had fallen asleep sitting up in bed squeezing a pillow with his head resting on the top of it, for what seemed to be a few minutes, he quickly lifted his head from the pillow and quickly looked at the clock which showed twenty minutes after four, Karnage groaned sleepily convinced something had to be done about the clock, it just HAD to go.
Without thinking of how silly or should I even say it C...R...A...Z...Y, it looked he grabbed the clock from off the bed stand grumbily walked over to his closet and threw it into a pile of laundry inside the closet, the clock made some crashing sound as it flew in and hit the floor. Karnage nodded his head satisfied with having put an end to the clock as well as his "nightmares" suposively, but in doing so he had awakened Scarlett who was sitting up in bed, frowning at him. "What do you think you are doing?" she asked with a yawn. "I am getting rid of that little nasty ticky tock type clock so that I may be getting some peaceful type sleep without being disturbed by those nasty, scary, annoying spookity spook type ghosts, yes/no?" Karnage replied rubbing his hands together in triumph.
"For the last time..." Scarlett said as she got out of bed, sleepily put on her robe, grabbed her pillow, and grabbed one of the blankets, and continued "... there are no ghost in here or anywhere! And tomorrow is Christmas morning and I really need to get some sleep before the children come in and wake me up early in the morning, so if you don't mind I'M going to get some sleep!" and with that she stomped off out of the room "B..B...But WAIT! You can not leave me in here all alone with these spookity spooks." Karnage stuttered and whined as he watched Scarlett go down the hallway of the Iron Vulture to find another spot to get a few more undisturbed hours of sleep.
Karnage just stared down the dark empty hallway at a loss as to what to do next, he didn't like the idea of being all alone especially when the next ghost hadn't arrived yet, and he was ashamed to admit that he was terrified at the thought of meeting this one knowing that this time he would defiantly be all alone in his bed when it came. Karnage slowly backed his way towards the bedroom door trying his best to keep his eyes fixed on the hallway, watching for any little thing, but to his dread there was no sign of anything having been there nor was there any sign of anything coming. Karnage sighed sadly and went into his room peeked out the door one last time and then shut it.
Chapter 8
"The Dreaded Visit"
An hour and thirty minutes later Karnage was laying in the middle of his bed, on his stomach, clutching a pillow in his sleep, but all in all he still seemed to be getting some sleep.
Karnage awoke to the sound of an annoying dysfunctional ringing coming from his closet, he opened one eye and snarled into his pillow realizing that banishing the clock to his closet had proven to be nothing but useless and that he had gained nothing in doing, so except maybe a few moments of sleep and that he had lost his bed companion for the remainder of the night, and that he was doomed to see this next ghost all alone for sure this time. Dreading the sight of this thing Karnage sat up in bed and stared at his closet convinced for some reason that that was where the ghost was going to come from, as if they really were coming from the clock itself.
To Karnage's horror there WAS something dark hovering in the center of his closet. Determined not to see what it was or admit what it was even though he knew very well what it was Karnage pull the bedcovers up and over his head just in time to slightly watch the figure through his bedcovers, the figure came floating at a fast pace across his floor and towards the foot of his bed. With a slow wave of its' long robed arm the ghost removed Karnage's bedcovers from off him and stared at him. Karnage was terrified he sat curled up into a tight ball on his bed clutching his pillow, finally he swallowed and asked "W...w...w... what do want with me ...Spirit?" Karnage asked slowly trying to recover his dignity.
Chapter 9
"The Visit to Louie's"
The spirit pointed to Karnage's bedroom wall which opened up into a walkway that led into a nightclub. Karnage followed the spirit through the hole and into the building it was Louie's! Karnage looked around the place, was calm not so wild as like other times and he saw a table off to the side with some of Khans pilots gathered all around it, they all seemed happy but Karnage could not tell what they were so happy about so he went closer. "Hurray!" shouted one panther, "I'll drink to that!" said another, and all three of them clanked there glasses together and drank. "Yes, The world will be a much better and safer place without him, It's a pity that fool boy had to spend all his life defending him so." said a freelance pilot at the stool bar. "Ah, Yes such a shame, He died so young, trying to protect that crazy pirate." said another pilot sitting at the stool bar. "Hey, man let's not forget that he was a friend to some of us. And he did mean well and tried his best... for a while anyway." Louie said sadly as he returned to his spot behind the bar and sat down where Baloo and Kit Cloudkicker were sitting. "Spirit, What have I to do with these fellows?" Karnage asked confused.
Chapter 10
"The Mourning at Kodi's"
But the spirit did not answer, but simply led Karnage to another porthole in the wall at Louie's and once again they went through the hole onto a street. They were at Kodi's apartment complex; here the spirit took Karnage inside Kodi's apartment where everything seemed to be at a dead silence. There was only a fire in the fireplace and one glowing light coming from a bedroom down the hallway. Karnage and the spirit entered the room and there Karnage saw Kodi just pulling up the bed covers over Nickolas head.
Aunt Yasha, and Sanador were all sitting on the foot of the bed and Kola was standing at the foot of the bed, it didn't take long for Karnage to realize what had happened, he knew the boy, Nickolas, had died of his rebounded cold, he also noticed that Kodi looked a lot worse than the last visit, Kodi looked sicker than before, Karnage felt a chill go down his back for he feared that his bodyguard would be next. Karnage shook this thought off just about as quickly as it had come to him.
Then Karnage wondered what the pilots at the bar had meant when they talk so sadly about the boy who had died protecting that pirate (Surely they had not been talking about Nickolas, Karnage had never really had anything to do with that boy! What could they have been talking about?)
Chapter 11
"A Trip to the Grave Yard"
Then the spirit took Karnage to the cemetery, it was dark and foggy and it seemed very spooky there. Karnage saw Kodi's Aunt and siblings walking away sadly leaving a small headstone propped up against a tree, there Karnage saw Kodi fall to his knees and cry bitterly with his hands on his face. "I tried! I tried! I'm sorry, Nick, I tried. I just couldn't do anything more!" Kodi said crying.
Karnage was torn between finding a way to act like he didn't care and actually feeling bad for his protégé’s situation. "But what does this have to do with the boy who protected me losing his life so young?" Karnage quickly asked trying to as it were change the subject. Karnage quickly looked up when he heard the sound of someone coughing it was Kodi! "Kodi come on before you catch your death as well!" Aunt Yasha said as she came towards him and helped him stand up and walk back home.
Chapter 12
"Losing A Protégé'?!"
Back at Kodi's apartment, Aunt Yasha helped Kodi sit down onto the couch, Kodi weakly took a warm mug from her hand and slowly drank out of it, he looked out of the corner of his eye at Sanador who stared at him with a very worried look on her face, she had just lost her younger brother to this cough and now her oldest brother had it. Kodi smiled weakly he didn't want her to worry about losing him as well, although in the back of Kodi's mind the same concern seemed to be lingering. Kola stood at the end of the couch and even though he had always acted tough and gave Kodi so much trouble even he had a look of worry on his face as well.
"HA!, The boy is just taking it easy yes/no?" Karnage snapped totally forgetting how fearful he had been of the spirit that was hovering beside him. "You will see, Spirit, Kodi, Will be getting just fine." Karnage chuckled weakly while staring at the spirit who gave no reaction to Karnage's remark. "He will be just fine, right? Yes/no?" Karnage chuckled. Just then the spirit flew up into the air and seemed to make a leap onto Karnage as he coward but, when Karnage opened his eyes he was fine, in one piece and above all ALIVE! He turned and once again there was the spirit and Karnage saw the words (2 Months Later) floating in front of him in white ghostly letters and then fade away and once again they were in Kodi's apartment and once again they were in the same room as Nickolas has been in, but this time there seemed to be no one in it, Karnage turned and face the bed and Karnage panicked when he saw that this time it WAS Kodi laying on the bed!
"B...B...B...But, I...?" Karnage stuttered. Karnage looked to his left as, Aunt Yasha walked in to the room sadly and sat on the side of the bed and stroked Kodi's long bangs the boy opened his eyes weakly and let out a heavy breath. Karnage could see the sweat on Kodi's forehead the boy clearly had more than a simple cough but it was too late. Kodi turned his head and coughed hard and held his Aunt’s hand more in an attempt to comfort her rather than her comforting him. Then the boy saw his brother Kola and sister Sanador in the doorway of the room, they were not permitted to come any closer for the precaution of not catching his fever. Kodi smiled at them weakly he was afraid to leave them, but there wasn't really anything more that anybody could do for him now.
Kodi looked at his Aunt one more time then looked at the ceiling and sighed heavily, closed his eyes and slowly lowered his chin to his chest, his, Aunt Yasha sighed sadly, as she tried in vain to hold back her tears, as she pulled the sheet up over Kodi's head, Sanador ran out into the living room and fell onto the couch and cried hard, Kola slowly turned and left the room with tears rolling down his face. The young prince of plunder as some of the citizens of Cape Suzette had called him was dead.
Chapter 13
"The Death of the Plundering Wonder?!"
(Say Not so)
Karnage was shocked beyond belief, Kodi had survived almost just about everything that had been thrown at him from Karnage's point of view, even everything he had done or had tried to do to Kodi, the boy had managed to either survive or recover from them, but Karnage was surprised that a COMMON FEVER did his little bodyguard in.
Karnage looked worried as he turned to the spirit and asked "What became of my wonderful self after these happenings happened?" The spirit took him to the Iron Vulture and Karnage found himself standing in his room which looked dark and depressing. Karnage looked at his bed and saw that there was somebody laying under the covers which had been drawn up over the top of it and beside the bed was Scarlett sitting in a chair looking very sad as she stroked the covers where a body lay under them. Karnage almost went pale at the thought of what he might be seeing here. Karnage’s mother came in and gently led Scarlett out of the room. Hoping that the scene was referring to someone else or would change Karnage turned and looked at the spirit and asked "W...W...who is that, that be laying under those blankets?" Karnage stared at the direction the spirit pointed and dreaded going any closer to the bed, but the ghost persisted and finally Karnage mostly feared angering the spirit so he reluctantly went over to the bedside and pulled down the blanket down to the middle of the body's chest and gasped with fear as he saw himself all dressed in his pirate outfit and looking pretty well intact and in one piece except for one thing that was obvious Karnage realized that his corpse had been shot! Shot in the chest! "How could I have been shot?!" Karnage asked in great fear. Then Karnage heard Scarlett say in a tearful voice "If only Kodi could have been with him, then this might not have happened." Karnage slowly covered it back up, realizing the chain of events. Karnage looked at the spirit with fear in his eyes as to what he was going to see next.
Chapter 14
"Another! Trip to the Grave Yard."
The spirit took Karnage back to the cemetery, where it was dark, foggy, and cloudy and showed him Kodi's tombstone. "My poor, boy." Karnage said sadly "If only you hadn't died, then perhaps I might not have died myself." Karnage said revealing that it wasn't really Kodi he missed but the fact that if Kodi had lived then, he might have avoided his own tragic, untimely death as well. Not really caring about Kodi's passing.
Then Karnage heard a wolf's mournful howl but he realized it was the same howl as Kodi's and he looked up and saw Kodi's ghost standing inches from a snow covered tombstone. Karnage sitting on his knees stared at this for a moment and then heard Kodi's ghost ask "Why didn't you help me?" Karnage stared at lost as to what to answer. "Why didn't you help me when I needed you to?!" it demanded. Then it looked down sadly and touched his hand on the snow covered gravestone and looked back at Karnage, Karnage got up and walked over to the stone, Karnage looked at Kodi's ghost who still stared down at the headstone, Karnage dropped to his knees and wiped away some of the snow to reveal his worst fears.
His eyes grew big as he wiped the snow away to reveal the first three letters on the tombstone K...A...R. Karnage looked at the ghost and then looked behind him to see that the spirit was still there too. "FINISH IT!" Kodi's ghost shouted at Karnage while leaning on the headstone. Karnage in between tears of fear and the cold wind chill held his robe shut with one hand and continued wiping away the snow with his other hand, until the stone was clear to read (Don Karnage, and also the year and the date of his birth, and the day and month of his death) as if triggered by reaction Kodi's ghost raised its head and let out another mournful howl, and then continued to stare at him. "AHHHH!" Karnage Shrieked and scurried backwards on his hands and feet until he hit the spirit's thick, long, black robe "Am, I truly doomed to die on a Christmas night?! Is this frightful event close to coming true or is it far away from me?!" Karnage begged as he pulled on the spirits robe and then looked back at Kodi's ghost who looked back down sadly at the gravestone which to Karnage's fear the grave below the stone rumbled opened. Kodi's ghost looked at Karnage out of the corner of its eye and then back down into the opened grave. Karnage looked back up at the spirit who pointed at the gravesite.
Then to Karnage's absolute horror the spirit began pushing him towards the opened grave, "NO NO NO!" Karnage shouted trying every which way to stop himself from being pushed any closer, he looked at Kodi's ghost who was holding onto the headstone but was leaning over the site, with a very sad, unable to provide any help, look on his face, as it watched Karnage be push over the edge into the grave, but at the very last minute Karnage grabbed a tree root that was sticking out of the side of the dirt of the grave and he latched onto it with all his might.
Karnage stared up at the spirit and in-between sobs said that he was sorry he hadn't been better to Kodi and that he had not helped Kodi in his hour of need, but had helped his condition worsen. Whether or not he really meant this it was not noticed. Kodi's ghost let out some tears. Then as if he figured it was his one last chance to avoid what was coming Karnage looked at Kodi's ghost who let out a weak sad smile and said "I can not help you anymore, because you did not help me, I can only watch you now, but I can not help you!" with that Kodi's ghost held out his hand as if to pull Karnage from his death, but when Karnage went to grab it, Kodi's hand faded out of Karnage's hand. "I CAN NOT help you anymore!" it shouted with that the root that Karnage had been holding onto snapped and broke and Karnage fell towards a wooden coffin that seemed to be sitting on fire. "NOOOO!" Karnage shouted just before hitting it, but instead of hitting a fiery coffin he went SMASH! Right onto his bedroom floor!
Chapter 15
"It Feels Good To Be Alive!"
Karnage fumbled through his bed curtains and realized that not only did he land on his bedroom floor but that he had also ripped off part of his bed curtains in the process.
"BAH!" He snapped as he got his foot free from the last of the bed curtains. Karnage stumbled to his cabin window and looked out to his relief it was morning. "HA! It was just only a long bad dream yes/no?" Karnage stated as he straightened up his robe, but Karnage was startled and almost jumped a foot off the floor when he got a quick reminding glance of both the spirit of Christmas future and Kodi's ghost shaking his finger at him in his mirror!. Karnage stuttered and leaned on his desk and tried to think of what to do next.
"Kodi? Kodi?!" Karnage shouted out in thought as he ran out of his room, into the hallway, and towards Kodi's cabin door which was next to his. Kodi who had heard the crash and commotion quickly opened up his door and said "Pops?" as Karnage came running through Kodi's door and quickly grabbed and held the boy in his arms tightly almost to the point of smothering him. "Uh, Pops, are you okay?" Kodi asked completely clueless as to what was wrong with Karnage. "Oh, Kodi, I am so glad that you are not kaput." Karnage said rubbing his head into Kodi's chest "Uh, okay... Uh Pops, you can put me down now ...so that I can breathe!" Kodi said scowling at Karnage who was oblivious as to how ridiculous he looked. "Honey are you all right?!" Scarlett asked as she peeked out of the room, "Where are you?" she asked as she tied her robe around here and started to wander down the hallway. "He's in here!" Kodi called out and then frowned back down at Karnage who was still squeezing him silly. "Okay, Pops, I love you too, but you have got to let go!" Kodi said as he slid Karnage's arms down until he got free of his grip. "Is he alright?" Scarlett asked as she ran to Karnage "Beats me ...He just came flying in here and started squeezing the daylights out of me!" Kodi replied while tying his bathrobe around himself. "Oh, I have had a most terrifying dream!" last night Karnage said panting heavily while putting his right hand on the side of his head.
"Seems more like you've been dazed! “Or sleep deprived." Kodi said looking at Karnage confused and annoyingly. "And besides since when do dreams and or nightmares for that matter bother you?!" Kodi added while continuing to stare at Karnage like he had lost his marbles (or more like what was left of them) "No no no! Your Captain is not missing any of his marbles!" Karnage replied slightly angry as he got up off his knees. "Now Pops, maybe you should come with me." Kodi said as he gently took Karnage by the hand and led him back to his room. Once inside Karnage's room, Kodi led him over to the bed and sat him down on it and said "Maybe you should lie back down for a while, you probably just didn't get good sleep last night that's all." "Or maybe it was something you ate... I mean after the food is not that good here." Kodi added as he drew Karnage’s blankets back over him. "But... NO!" Karnage snapped and quickly tossed the bedding aside from off of him and got out of bed quickly for fear of having any more visits from the ghosts or any other ones for that matter before he had dealt with Kodi's family problems.
Karnage took Kodi by the arm a little roughly and led him to the pirate treasure room knowing that most of Kodi's accumulated wealth had been stolen back from the boy and thrown in there with the rest of Karnage’s vast amount of wealth. Karnage opened the treasure room door and while still in his bathrobe started bending over and putting large piles of good coins into the boy's arms. Kodi who had been watching Karnage with a look of about to go into shock on his face allowed himself to be loaded with piles of loot. The boy finally had to ask "Pops? What are you doing?!" he asked totally confused by Karnage’s behavior as he dropped the arm full of gold coins Karnage had loaded his arms with.
Karnage stopped and looked at the boy who was showing a growing concerned look on his face as he stared at his captain from the doorway of the room. "Karnage remained calm and walked over to the boy and put his hands on the boy's shoulders and said "I want to give back the hard earned loot that you had that, I took from you, so that you can well care for your family again., yes/no?" Kodi looked worried Karnage had never really seen his family so how would he know how badly off they were? "So..." Karnage continued as he turned and scooped up a pile of coins and went to Kodi’s arms with it "...I am going to give you back the amount I took, and I will pay you your normal price and not lower it, and you may stash it back in your island and do not worry I the dread pirate, Don Karnage, will make a solemn promise never to rob you of your cache from your secret island again." Karnage stated as he held his right hand up. Kodi look at Karnage like he had really lost it! How could he really trust this pirate not to clean out his life’s savings again? I mean after all he was the dreaded air pirate and plundering wonder Don Karnage. Kodi could not believe his ears.
But later that day everybody was dressed and Karnage had kept his word, Kodi had his loot restored, his pay was put back to its normal large amount, and later without the air pirates assistance Kodi had moved his family out of their small not so fancy apartment and back into their beach house up on the rocks above the beach that had recently been boarded up, but now it was opened back up for use. Everyone was clean and happy and Nickolas, who did not die, recovered well from his cold and was happy and healthy again and even Kodi had avoided getting deep into his cold.
And even though Kodi knew deep down that Karnage would always be cruel, ruthless, and untrustworthy, he did manage to get a new kind of respect from Karnage and in some strange small way also a new kind of love and loyalty seemed to secretly hint between the two of them.
The End!
(Kodi) ".... Uh... Gee, Pops, What did you do to your clock?!"
(Finished 8-15-2011)
