Jack Skellington, the Pumpkin King

At the end of the battle, Jack steps on the final bug.

His nemesis is defeated. Probably not permanently, if enough bits of him regrouped.

He wanders away from the scene, away from the crowd, turning back to watch Chris. The man in red, at his greatest level of power, now that Christmas Eve has arrived and the twelve days of Christmas are beginning. He watches as Chris retrieves his reindeer, and then with a smart nod of thanks, departs for the front door.

As Jack leaves the forest, he looks up into the sky, hearing the sound of sleigh bells, and by the magic of time, seeing the lobster man fly across the sky.

As he does, a sprinkling of snow starts to fall on him.

"What's this? What's this?
Is this a happy end?
What's this?
Result I can defend?
What's this?
Must be a Christmas game!
What's this?
It's really very strange..."

Jack doesn't attempt to leave the custody of Gene as he leads the search party into the forest, map in hand.

There are a great many more doors now, each with a pumpkin, and as Jack comes into the vicinity they seem to give a little click.

He turns to the search party.

"Spread out and search each area of the forest." he says. "There is likely to be monsters behind these doors, preventing the retrieval of the first Santy Claws. Your Santy Claws is, I think, in the hands of a creature called Oogie Boogie, the former king of Bug Day, who appears as a big sack full of bugs. If you find him, or you get into trouble, shout for help at once. The other monsters should not hurt you too severely, but they will attack, so your best bet is to force them back into the door."

What a pain.

Jack should have known that if he wanted a job doing, he'd have to do it himself, rather than relegating all the important stuff to the monsters who are, frankly, idiots.

He knew Lock, Shock and Barrel had, at some point, got the correct Santy Claws from Christmas Town. He'd seen him himself, and told them to put him somewhere safe as their guest.

After his enlightening conversation with Gene, and the ransom note which looks very much like something the trio would do, Jack is pretty sure that it can't be a coincidence. But as he sits in his room, trying to work it out, the one thing that really doesn't make sense is this: why would they go out and kidnap a second Santa when they already knew they had the right one?

A surprise visit is in order.

He makes his way over to Lock, Shock and Barrel's home, careful to enter silently to avoid encountering Oogie Boogie living below. He soon finds them sitting with a Santy Claws, who is tied up and annoyed-looking, but doesn't appear unwell or anything.

"Release me now or you will face the dire consequences!" the Santy Claws declares.
"The children are expecting me, so please, come to your senses."

"Kind sir now please don't worry." Jack says. "It's all under control,
Your task this year will be performed with me now in that role.
But please if I may just confirm, where do you live around?"

"Where do you think I live?" he snaps. "I came from Christmas Town."

"Did you construct the ransom note?" Jack asks. "That went to Milliways?"

"Maybe." says Shock. "But does it really matter anyways?"

"Where is now the second one? And how did he get here?"

"Escaped." says Barrel, shrugging. "We're not really sure, but two appeared."

Jack turns upon the trio his most terrible look, until they begin to tremble.

"Find him!" he orders. "Find the Milliways Santa, and put him safely back where he came from, straight away. This one you keep safe and we will release him as soon as Christmas is over. If any harm comes to him, I will hold you all responsible, and terrible things will happen."

He storms out, rubbing his skull. Why does everything have to be so difficult?

Back inside, the trio look at one another.

"That's the Santy Oogie's playing with?"
"Yep."
"He's screwed."
"What we gonna do?"
"Put him back together?"
"Maybe we can find all the pieces."



***

Meanwhile, while escaping being pushed down the tube by Lock, Shock and Barrel, Chris found the place he woke up in very... disturbing...

At the end of the meeting, Jack stares into the snowglobe.

So. Milliways. It seems to be another parallel universe, another 'real world' rather than a holiday. There has to be opportunities there, too. If they are going to get this right, it would be good to test out on some humans first.

A box.


He makes his way to see the doctor, the one who created Sally.

"May I see your range of most delightfully entertaining poxes?"