by Marc Franco
Fleep was completely absorbed in reading from my floating book. I, however, had decided to stop reading and start doing. And, frankly, reading what happened to people in real-time was creepy. What if something terrible happened to my friends? It was just as bad as watching it take place. No thanks!
I shifted around Fleep, careful not to step on Santa, then grabbed the frontpack with the crisscrossed straps—the one I’d hidden the green J-Ray in. I shouldered the frontpack then handed Fleep the flashlight. I was unnerved by what I’d read in the book and put my frontpack on so fast you’d think I was being timed in a competition. After snapping everything in place and making sure it fit firmly against my body, I gave Fleep a onceover. He was still wearing his frontpack as a backpack.
I rolled my eyes. “You need to put that on the right way,” I said.
“Okay, here.” He passed me his flashlight, and I steadied the beam on him.
After Fleep finished, I aimed the flashlight into my own frontpack and searched for the green J-Ray. The quicker I had it in my hand, the better I’d feel.
I finally found the stout, green and white striped J-Ray buried deep in the frontpack. With a firm grip on the hook, I barely whispered, “Shamira.” I was expecting it to vibrate kind of like those vibrating stuffed animals everyone has as a little kid. The ones with the press here sticker. Well, forget that. This thing felt like a blender puréeing ice. I gripped it with both hands and held on as the candy cane silently vibrated for a few more seconds then morphed into something I never expected. It was a pointed crystal rod that partially coiled around my wrist and up my arm. At the end of the coil was a hanging piece that looked like a plug of some sort. But what did it plug into? Three illuminated green energy tubes, the life source of the J-Ray’s power, looked like veins. It looked more like an alien device. I’d expected a blaster like from Star Wars. After all, Baum had said the thing would produce plasma bolts. Oh man, it was amazing, surprisingly light and flexible. I was able to bend my wrist and aim the J-Ray. “Awesome,” I said, unable to contain my excitement.
Fleep had been absorbed in the book, not listening at all, when suddenly he looked up and put his nose in the air.
“Holy smoke. It smells minty in here.”
I hadn’t noticed it in my excitement, but the smell of spearmint was emanating from the transformed J-Ray and now overpowered the closet. Weird, but cool.
Just then, we heard a faint noise outside the fort. I peered out and saw Shig and Logan. I smiled and let out a sigh of relief, then quickly motioned them into the fort. At first I thought about telling them what we’d read in my floating book, but then it dawned on me: how did I know for sure that everything we read really happened? Sure, the blinking red eyes on the polar bear belt had stopped flashing at the same time as in the book … but that was all I knew for sure. No, I decided that first I’d let Logan tell us what happened outside. Then I’d tell her about the book.
Logan sprinted past Shig, wearing a smile from ear to ear, and we learned why the moment she entered the fort. She whispered in what sounded like a million words a minute. Koji was back home and I understood the weather report—it was snowing and there was at least an inch of snow on the ground and, yeah, it smelled minty in the closet. She finally started to tell us about the reindeer but was talking way too fast.
“Slow down.” I had the dim circle from the flashlight on her. “What did the reindeer do?” I asked.
“They morphed into commandos,” Shig said, animated, then lowered his voice. “It was, well, like the coolest special effects I’ve ever seen. One minute there are these six huge Clydesdale-sized reindeer. Then the next thing you hear is a voice call out, ‘Now, Dancer!’ Then it was Prancer, then Comet, and then Cupid and Donner, and Blitzen. You should have seen it. Each of them morphed into a tough-looking soldier wearing commando gear like Santa, and carrying a green and white striped blaster like the clone troopers from Star Wars.”
“Like the DC-15S blaster?” Fleep asked, wide-eyed.
“No, the big ones—like the DC-15A!” Shig and Fleep were Star Wars freaks like me.
I regarded Logan. It was time to tell her about the book.
“Well, actually the reindeer uncloaked,” I said.
Logan eyed me curiously. “How do you know?”
“Put your frontpacks on first.” Logan and Shig wasted no time and had their frontpacks on in a matter of seconds.
“Check this out,” I said shining the flashlight on my floating Kringle Chronicles book. I told them about the book and how it wrote things down as they were happening.
“Incredible!” Shig said admiringly.
Logan brushed past me, almost knocking me into Santa. “Hey, be careful,” I complained.
“My dad gave you this book—a floating book?” I could tell by her tone she wasn’t happy.
“Yeah, it’s incredible, isn’t it?”
“Yeah, incredible,” Logan said sarcastically.
“Now what?” I said, trying not to sound like I wanted to strangle her.
“My dad! He has weirdoes in yellow suits building things, an elf spy working at The Teashroom, and now he gives you a magical floating book.”
“Logan, he’s a spy!” It all made sense now.
Logan regarded me, processing what I’d said.
“Just not the kind of spy you thought he was,” I said, talking with my hands. Logan nodded, relieved that her dad was one of the good guys in this battle.
She locked eyes on my arm. “What in the world is that?”
“A green J-Ray.”
“Baum didn’t give us green ones. You swiped it?”
I shrugged.
“Remember what he said about the green ones. They’re dangerous. Make it transform back.”
“No. S.R. is out there,” I said defensively, then told them what I read in the book: that Baum was aborting the mission and coming to get Santa and me. I had to stop S.R.
“Jakob, going after S.R. by yourself is suicide. If what you say about the book is true, then we can figure things out when the commandos get here. Just put the J-Ray away. Please,” Logan said.
I sighed. “Fine, but I’m not giving up on the mission.” I stared at the J-Ray and said, “Shamira!”
After it finished its vibration thing and had transformed back to a cane, I stuffed the J-Ray in my waist. Fleep and Shig were staring at me.
“What’s the deal with the green J-Ray?” Shig asked curiously.
I had just finished explaining the difference between the red and green J-Rays when two commandos stormed into the fort with frightening stealth and speed, brandishing green and white striped blasters. Logan and Shig instinctively reached for the sky then moved closer to me. Fleep took cover behind my floating book.
The commandos were tall and, like Santa, wore the same tactical gear and protective equipment over their uniforms—the same half-head ballistic helmets and cool-looking black goggles. If you looked really close at the goggles, you could see the heads-up display. I wondered what the rubber-like turtlenecks they wore were for. It looked like part of a wetsuit or something. And what did they have in their bulging pockets?
“Clear,” the commando closest to me said. I could tell by the way they’d scanned the closet that their blasters weren’t out for us.
“It’s okay, we’re the good guys. You can put your arms down. I’m Dasher,” the biggest one said, pointing to himself, “and this is Vixen.” Holy smoke, I thought. He was the Dasher from my comics. And Vixen was a female commando. A very pretty female commando.
“Awesome,” Logan grinned at me. Vixen removed a small silver disc from her belt, the size of a silver dollar, and flipped it in the air. It transformed into a silver Frisbee-looking disc. Hovering above our heads, it casted a dull red light that illuminated the closet surprisingly well.
I glanced at Vixen. She had just finished listening through an earpiece when she dropped her blaster and said, “Perimeter is clear!”
Dasher immed
iately dropped his too, and the coolest thing happened. In midair, the blaster automatically holstered. Impressive.
Dasher and Vixen knelt down by Santa’s side.
“He won’t wake up. We’ve tried water but—” Shig began.
“No worries. He’ll wake once he’s in the armored personnel carrier,” Vixen paused. “I mean the sleigh.”
Just then, two more commandos entered the fort.
“Prancer … and Dancer,” I said slowly.
“How do you know their names?” Fleep said.
“Uh, it’s on their jackets.” I pointed. “See, he’s Prancer and she’s Dancer.”
Logan and Shig looked at me skeptically.
“I don’t see it,” Fleep said.
“Yeah, me either,” Logan added.
“Shig?” I asked. He shook his head.
I thought about touching their nameplates to see if it was the invisible thing. But, on second thought, they were fierce looking and probably wouldn’t take kindly to me touching them. I regarded Dasher. “How come I see—?”
“Pardon me, Jakob,” Prancer spoke with a British accent. She turned to Dasher. “Baum is on the ground.”
I glanced over at Logan. She mouthed the name Baum. I shrugged then watched Dasher. He lightly pinched his throat with his thumb and index finger. It was the same thing Baum had done at the Crystal Palace.
“Dasher to Comet and Cupid.”
“Comet here, Cupid’s with me … go.” The loud reply sent painful shock waves through my head. I fell to my knees holding my ears. It was like I’d turned my iPod volume to full blast with my ear buds still in. No one else was feeling this effect.
“What’s happening to him?” Logan pleaded.
“His abilities are maturing. It’s our presence,” Dasher said.
I glanced at my friends. They didn’t seem to hear Comet’s voice. I’m not saying that I suddenly developed some super-hero listening ability where I could read people’s thoughts because it wasn’t like that. But I clearly heard Comet’s voice. It was like I had a listening device in my ear even though I didn’t.
“Dome the neighborhood, house by house. We’ll dome the trap house from the inside,” Dasher said with urgency.
“Roger that, doming in progress.” I heard background noise behind Comet’s voice. A swish, like a bottle-rocket taking off.
“Vixen, take care of doming this house,” Dasher commanded.
She nodded.
“Dancer, Prancer, ready the package,” Dasher continued his rapid-fire orders.
“Roger that,” Dancer and Prancer said, moving over to Santa.
Prancer was holding a silver disc, the size of a serving dish, and looked like he was typing on it, but I couldn’t see any keys from my angle. Then Dasher turned, blocking my view of Prancer.
“Dome the neighborhood?” I asked, confused.
“Dome—the moment we get outside, you’ll see that your house and every other house on this street, minus the vacant one, will be domed.”
“I still don’t understand.”
“A red shield will surround the homes and prevent our nemesis from taking further hostages. Once the domes are up, it’s sleep time for eight hours for anyone inside. Now, let’s go. Operation Catch S.R. has been aborted. We’re here to extract you and Santa.”
“Okay,” I said, distracted and trying to see around him. Then I suddenly realized what I had just agreed to and quickly corrected myself. “I mean no; I am not going anywhere with you guys,” I said in protest.
“Yes, you are,” Dasher said then looked up. It looked like he was reading something from his heads-up display. Logan, Fleep, and Shig moved protectively in front of me. Dasher looked down at us and blinked. “There’s no time for this. Radar indicates Baum and the rest of his team are across the street. They’re engaged in a pretty heavy firefight.”
Actually that was good news. It meant S.R. was close. “Guys, let’s do what he says.” Logan looked over her shoulder at me, her eyes full with worry. I winked. I had a plan.
“The package is ready,” Prancer said. The package … Santa. I hadn’t been paying attention to Dancer or Prancer, but I could see Santa had been moved to a long silver tube-like chamber. That must have been the disc Prancer had.
“Let’s move out,” Dasher said. I quickly grabbed my floating book and stuffed it inside my frontpack just as Dasher grabbed and ushered Logan and me out of the fort. Shig and Fleep followed.
“Wait! I need to talk to him—Santa—as soon as he wakes,” I pleaded.
Dasher nodded. He brandished his green striped blaster and led the four of us toward the living room, taking cover behind one of the columns in the foyer.
“Take cover behind the table,” Dasher said, pointing his blaster toward the front door. The four of us knelt. Vixen tossed a red, rubbery, brick-sized thing into my living room, then did a commando run with her blaster aimed forward and took a position beside the living room window.
“What are they doing?” Logan asked.
“They’re trying to see if the exit’s safe,” Shig said.
“And wake Jakob’s parents in the process,” Logan said.
I tapped her on the shoulder then pointed to the red thing Vixen had tossed. It had changed and looked like a brick of red Jell-O. There was a red force field bubbling up at the ceiling and creeping its way through the house.
“The doming barrier is up. I guess that’s why they’ve stopped whispering,” I said. After a minute, Vixen moved over to the front double doors and exited, taking cover outside behind a concrete support pillar. A gust of cold air carrying snow flurries blew in just as Dancer and Prancer ran by with blaster rifles trained forward. Between them was the hovering silver tube-like chamber that carried the still-unconscious Santa. It looked like one of those photon torpedoes from Star Trek. They exited and turned left into an area of large bushes. Dasher, still behind the column, turned and motioned for us to move out.
“Let’s move,” I ordered the gang. As soon as we got outside, Vixen ushered us into the bushes. That’s when I noticed Dancer typing on the invisible keyboard on the silver chamber.
Prancer was gone.
I’d forgotten my jacket and worried the cold would be a problem when the frontpack suddenly got warm. It was like I had a personal heater strapped to my chest. The frontpack was mysteriously warming my body.
Dasher exited my house with the strong red glow of the dome behind him. The light was so bright it made his uniform and protective gear look red. “You three, take off the frontpacks and go home. Jakob is coming with us,” Dasher commanded. The gang protested. I stepped forward, quieting the lot. It was time to reveal my plan.
“I already told you, I’m not going with you guys. We have a friend, Rick Lang, and his family to rescue.”
I noticed Shig was wiggling and reaching behind him for the clasp to take off his frontpack, and Fleep had shouldered his.
“Shig, stop it! And put yours back on the right way,” I said to Fleep then turned to Dasher. “Look, S.R. is over there, and we all know what he can do. So no one is going home, retreating, or evacuating. And no one’s taking off their frontpacks until we catch him.”
Dasher’s dark brown eyes studied me. “Is that what the Pole commands?”
I looked at Dasher incredulously. Was he seriously asking me for confirmation on what I’d just said? I ran with it. “Yes,” I barked.
Dasher began issuing new orders to his team, including the change to catch S.R. It was like all of the sudden he was taking orders from me. Why? Because I was the Pole?
Dasher came nose to nose with me. “This doesn’t change the fact that I am still ultimately responsible for you. If we don’t fare well in our attempt to capture the Servant, we will tactically disengage and evacuate. Understood?”
“Yes,” I nodded. “But I still don’t understand what this is all about.”
Dasher continued. “Servant Rupert wants his belt of power back.”
A
n image of the two belts Santa wore flashed before my eyes, including the one with the nasty goat head and the crossed-out initials. Suddenly it all made sense, and I knew what Dasher was going to say next.
“They each had a belt of power until S.R. abused his for evil. Santa took it back and S.R. has been trying to get it ever since,” I finished for him. “That’s what this is all about.”
Dasher nodded then pinched his throat. “Sit rep?”
Sit rep, more military slang. It meant situation report, he was asking for an update. “Prancer here. I just got to the APC. It’s been sabotaged. I need Comet.” Prancer was speaking so loudly we could hear his voice over the device inserted in Dasher’s ear.
“Comet here. I copy. En route.”
“No way!” Shig said. “Santa really has an APC, an Armored Personal Carrier.”
After a few minutes Dasher commanded, “Damage report!”
“We have power, but it looks like it might be the stabilizers,” Comet updated him. “I’m on it.” I figured Comet must be the engines expert.
Another voice interrupted over the speaker. “Blitzen to Dasher.”
“Go!”
“Reading multiple bad guys inside the vacant house. Baum and team look like they’re about to be overrun. Permission to attack?”
“Negative, Blitzen!” Dasher interrupted. “I see them. Deploy the heat-rays and keep your heavy plasma cannon trained on the front door of the vacant house.”
“Roger that,” Blitzen said.
Who was Baum fighting? I had to know. That meant getting a better look at the house across the street, so I left the cover of the bushes and ran over to the pillar opposite Vixen. Perfect, I could use the pillar as cover and still see everything—even the rest of the commandos.
I can’t explain how, but I knew exactly who was who—even from that distance. Cupid had just finished firing what looked like a large Roman candle at the house across from Shig’s and began riding some giant disc-like thing back toward my yard. A second later, a red force field encapsulated the same house, forming a dome. Amazing. Donner and Blitzen were behind a giant live oak tree, manning plasma canons trained on the house across the street.