Its Christmas time, and everyone has gathered at Ethan's place in East falls for a Christmas party. Arthur, Joe, William, Denny and Burn were drinking hot chocolate and chatting about what they did for the holidays. Alisha, Blaze and Moana were helping Ethan's aunt Amy take in the kitchen, while Ethan's uncle, Miles and Dr. Wily were catching up, apparently they had worked together once in the past. Ethan was nowhere to be seen however. Meanwhile in the Net several navis were gathered and also joining in the festivities. Ammie and Ember were busy fangirling over Django the Sol boy, much to Gregar's dismay. Decibel, Flare and Falzar were busy organizing the music programs, while Treble, Arsenalman, Mathman and the newly, resurrected Plugman talked. Steamman and Midnight were keeping a watchful eye on Iris, Colonel, R and Beta. Chip, Prowler and Rose were making some cyber ham so all the navis could try it alongside their NetOps. Alias like his NetOp was nowhere on the scene.
"So do you think they'll like it?" Ethan asked his netnavi, after just removing his goggles. He had been working on getting or rather making the 'gifts' for his friends, family and mentor.
Alias likewise had been working hard, deleting each and every virus that tried to infect the gift. "I'd question their sanity if they didn't." He told his Netop.
"Okay then, let's wrap this stuff up and head to the party. Don't want to be late."
"Um, Ethan the party started an hour ago." Alias nervously said.
"That can't be right, the party is at 3:00. What time is it?"
"Um, 4:00."
"Crap."
"What do we do now?" Alias asked.
"Plan B."
"What's Plan B again?"
"Build a time machine."
"We don't have the resources for that."
"Build a teleporter."
"Still no."
"Then we'll call and tell them to come here. I'm going to go put up some more decorations in the workshop." Ethan suggested as he walked off.
"But- and he's gone." Alias muttered. "Okay might as well." Alias used the PET's phone and called Midnight.
"Hello." The Knight answered.
"Hey Mid, it's me."
"Alias is that you, where are you? Everyone got here ages ago. Where is Ethan?"
"We're at the shop."
"Why are you guys there?"
"Um. It's a surprise." Alias chuckled nervously.
"Mhm." Midnight didn't sound too impressed.
"Whatever. Just tell everyone to come down to the shop."
"Okay but- hello, hellloooo, Alias? Dammit." Midnight swore. The lunar knight walked to the centre of the area. "Can I have your attention please." Everyone ignored the navi, to busy taken up with their own affair, "Guys."
Gregar noticing the Knight's difficulty walked up behind her and tapped her shoulder.
"May I?" He asked. Midnight gesture for him to take a try. Gregar took a deep breath before releasing an ear-splitting roar that would deafen some people. "HEY, MIDNIGHT IS TRYING TO SAY SOMETHING."
"WHAT?" apparently the roar had, temporarily bugged up all the netnavis hearing programs.
The beast turned to Midnight. "Take it away," He said.
After waiting several seconds for everyone to regain their hearing, Midnight told them about Alias and Ethan's request.
"What do you think he's up to?" Treble asked Flare.
"To be honest, I don't really know. He's been in that workshop for about a week now." The bird navi responded.
"Whatever it is we won't find out waiting here." Gregar added. "Let's bounce." He transformed into his CB form was about to leave when Wily stopped him.
"Hold it Gregar. This might be a good time to test out a program Lan made for the Christmas." The mad scientist typed some codes into his PET and a special green, red and yellow mystery data appeared. "Now Lan said both you and Treble are required for this, so Treble if you'd be so kind." Treble wasted no time. The bugged wolf transformed into GS treble and went and stood next to Gregar. Almost immediately the program reacted. It floated behind the two before bursting into a snowy explosion. Gregar and Treble felt streams of data wrap around their bodies and their mouths.
When the explosion died down, it revealed a huge sleigh, with Gregar and Treble as the means to move it.
"HEY, WHATS THE BIG IDEA?" Gregar growled.
"Oh, how nice, you guys are like reindeer pulling Santa's sleigh." Iris cooed. Gregar wanted to scream, he wanted to shout but seeing Iris and Flare's faces made him suck up his pride. Treble was blushing slightly at the comment.
Decibel was the first on the sleigh," Cheer up Gregar, it'll be fun dashing through the net in a wide open sleigh."
"Over the Copperhill well go, laughing all the way." Ember and Ammie added as they got on.
"Oh Jingle chips, Jingle chips, Jingle all the way." Falzar and Flare continued as they jumped.
"Oh what it is to ride in a wide wolf pulled sleigh." Iris finished as she boarded. The girls all took a bow from the sleigh. All the guys clapped and cheered, except for R who was trying to sneak a piece of a ham.
Everyone got on the sleigh except for Beta, R, Steamman and Chip. Chip apparently needed Steamman to help tenderize the ham and Beta needed to keep R from eating it.
Ammie used her Ice buster mod, which apparently doubled as whip, to use as reigns for the sleigh. Thanks to Treble's bugs, the sleigh data and ice mod fused in peculiar way. As the sleigh began to move, snow formed behind it.
"Looks like, the Net might get a white Christmas." Blaze joked.
"Looks so." Burn replied.
The Navis left the compspace as several of the Netops left to go see what Ethan was planning.
The sleigh was moving through the net at a sufficient speed. Behind it was snow trail left behind due to the mixture of bugs from Treble and Ammie's ice buster. The sleigh itself was being pulled by two of the net's strongest beings, the Bugged Wolf Treble and the Legendary Cybeast Gregar. The two wolfs were pulling the sleigh with relative ease, only moving at a slow pace to avoid damaging the net and the sleigh's passengers. Said passengers were busy singing Christmas carols as the wolfs moved through the Net.
"Deck the halls, with batches and extensions, fa-la-la-la-la-la, la-la-la, this the season to be jolly. Fa-la-la-la-la-la, la-la-la. Sing the ancient old time carol. Fa-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la." Some of the navis sang. The girls were enjoying themselves singing, and most of the guys enjoyed listening. Treble was among those. Despite pulling the sleigh he could distinctly recognise Flare's voice and that's saying something considering Falzar and Iris had similar voice programs. He had been wondering what kind if gift to give Flare, but was lost as to the right one. He had heard Mathman and Arsenalman joke about him meeting Flare under something called a mistletoe, but couldn't quite figure out what it could mean. Was a mistletoe a place or snack? He would have to ask Arthur later.
Meanwhile Arthur and Blaze was walking down with their friends to the workshop, led by Alisha. Mr. and Mrs. Prowler as well as had stayed behind to take care of the cooking.
"So what do you guys do for Christmas?" Arthur asked. He usually spent time with friends and family. This time however he went by Ethan since they recently went through some adventures together.
"Nothing really, Christmas is celebrated like his you guys do it." Denny responded.
"For us it usually means, less military drills and more fun and food." Williams said.
"We used to go carolling around the neighbourhood." Decibel's operater, Moana said. "But we stopped after my brother and father had a... Disagreement."
Blaze was even more jollier than usual. "Well where do I begin? Oh I know. Christmas movies. My family and I all like to gather up by the fire place and watch a marathon of Christmas movies; the Grinch, Scrooge, The night before Christmas. You name it, we've probably watched 100 times." She said.
The group of friends continued to laugh and exchange Christmas traditions as they were walking to the shop. At some point they even mimicked their navis and began singing as they walked.
"We wish you a merry Christmas. We wish you a merry Christmas. We wish you a merry Christmas and a happy New year. Good tidings we bring to you and you're King. We wish you merry Christmas and Happy New Year."
Ethan meanwhile was frantically moving back and forth getting things into place. When he finished he took a good look at the shop. "This will do right." He asked his netnavi.
Alias looked through the PET and security cameras. "Looks like you saved your ham from burning."
Ethan threw him a look, "Are we sure mom didn't program you with better jokes."
"Hey, my jokes are funny."
"Like a sad clown."
"Hey." Alias called, only to be shushed by Ethan.
"Do you here that?" The Netop asked. The navi and Netop both listened as the group of cheerful carolers approached.
"It's them, quick go turn on the lights." Ethan told his navi as he jacked him into the system.
Alias scurried through the system activating most of the lights. When he approached the last one a very unusual virus appeared. It was a swordy in dark green armour with a red and white stripped sword. "Humbug sword" was its name.
"I don't have time for this." Alias muttered. He focused his power on both his carvings and rushed the swordy variant. He struck it with a green and red energy deleted in one clean hit. Unlike the usual virus deletion this one exploded into bright spectacle of coloured snowflakes.
"Festive." Alias said as he turned on the lights.
Group outside, covered their eyes as the lights came one. When they finally recovered from the glare, they were awe struck by the way the shop had been decorated. Apparently Ethan and Miles and their workers had decided to use Santa's workshop as their own for the holidays. The falling snow around the area only served to further enhance the illusion of them being in the north pole.
"Got to say, they really out did themselves this year." Alisha said as if she expected this, but still looked amazed.
"They do this every year?" Arthur asked.
"It helps attracted more customers and reminds them of Ciel." Alisha responded as she walked towards the entrance.
"Oh okay."
The navis had finally arrived at the workshop compspace. Treble had quickly reverted to his navi form to help Flare off the sleigh, despite her insistence that she could do it on her own. Gregar meanwhile was subjected to another of the sleighs effect, apparently as either a safety precaution or a cruel joke, Lan had added another feature to the sleigh. If one of the wolfs went lose the other's nose would glow bright red and act as a beacon for the lost wolf. And Gregar's nose did glow. The cybeast was pushing the limits of his own self restraint , resisting the urge to rampage and destroy the sleigh, all to make sure he didn't ruin anyone's Christmas.
"If anyone says a word, I'll eat their portion of ham." He threatened.
The navis decided to let him be, consideringbhe pulled their sleigh and didn't do anything destructive. After doing a head count the navis realized something, they were one short.
"Where's Falzar?" Gregar asked, now in his navi form.
"She said she had to pay someone a visit." Flare answered.
"And you just let her go." Her brother asked.
"I trust her." Flare responded.
"If anything goes wrong, its on you." Gregar told her.
She nodded and followed him through the warp point.
The navis and Netops were greeted by Ethan and Alias. After catching up, Ethan took them to a room with several gift wrapped boxes. He stood there waiting patiently.
"Well. Aren't you going to open them?" He asked. Everyone looked surprised that he had gotten so many gift for them, some being very huge.
Blaze was the first to open hers. She found a pair of strange looking red metal-like shoes inside, with a metallic pad.
"These aren't exactly my style." She told Ethan.
"Trust me they are." He said. "Try them on."
Blaze did as he said. At first the shies seemed to do nothing, the Ethan pressed a little button on the side.
"WOW!" Blaze exclaimed as she began to float of the ground.
"Now you and Ember are more alike. Thanks to Willy I managed to down grade the force fields enough to make it." He explained. "Do you like it?" He asked.
"THIS IS...AWESOME!" Blaze yelled as she tried to move around.
"Just be careful." Ethan warned as she moved. She crashed not five seconds after he warned her, ending up in Santa Claus statue's arms.
"I'm alright." She called.
"For Moana, I got this." He gesture as he handed her a box. When she opened it she was surprised to find a brand new electric guitar much like the one she losses due to a power surge frying it. "I modified so now it doubles as PET." He said motioning to the head piece that opened to reveal a little screen, similar to a regular PET. He also pointed to the spot where an amp would have connected, showing her that it held a compartment to store chips.
"For Arthur, Joe, William and Denny. I made these." He said as he offered them four identical boxes. The boys opened them to find three objects inside. The first were PETs no doubt customized by Ethan himself to be supposedly better than those at Scilabs. The second was some strange glasses, with each of their navis logos embedded on the side. The last object was a round sphere that had about 14 cameras in it.
"You can already guess what PETs are, so I'll explain the others. This" Ethan took up one of the spheres," is a 360° camera. Long story short if this records a video you can see the entire environment around the camera. When plugged into the PET it gives you navis the ability to move in simulated version of the real world. In lay man terms the navis can see us but can't touch us. A poor man's copy bot."
Ethan the reached for a pair of glasses. "But don't let that discourage you. Put on the glasses and jack your navis into the PC behind me. Moana, Blaze you too." He told them handing the girls the extra glasses. Everyone did as they were told and put on the glasses. When they jacked the navis in they were surprised when a light erupted from PC.
Most of them did a double take, blinking and checking their eyes to ensure they were seeing correctly. The navis were all standing right in front them with no copy not being used. The navis likewise were surprised at their Netops appearing in front them.
"What in the world?" Arthur asked, astounded by the sight of Treble in front his face.
"AR." Ethan muttered with a smirk.
"Huh?" was the response he got from everyone.
Alias stepped forward, "Allow me to explain." The navi offered. "Ethan here embedded the classes with a gyroscope, mini projector and scanner to enable augmented reality. Basically by combining the 360 camera with the glasses, you can see us in the world around you. We may not be able to touch you physically like a copybot would allow, but we can still talk." He explained.
"This is unbelievable." Joe muttered.
Ethan blushed a little." It wasn't that hard, I just built the tech, Lan did some of the programming."
"Hey don't sell yourself short, this is amazing." Moana said patting him on the back.
"These are just prototype though. The final version should allow us to watch navis Netbattle and stand right beside them in tournaments. With worrying about us being deleted, bugged or hurt in any way." Ethan said proudly, looking at Gregar and Arthur during the last part. The two looked away sheepishly, one remembering Wily's chair and the other remembering a rampage in a copyboy.
"Jack all you navis out. I've got one last gift for all of them." he said. He showed them to a room in the back. "Now this was the hardest build. I almost got electrocuted installing the power source." He joked as showed them a huge object covered with a tarp. He grabbed said tarp and pulled it off revealing a huge Net arena. "This is the beast's den." Gregar's ears pricked at the name.
"What's it do?", the cybeast asked.
Ethan mere chuckled. "This will allow you to do what you have always wanted, Gregar. Its the ultimate fighting stadium. I have put into this more memory and processors than physically possible and added an entire 20 gallon tank of coolant to avoid it combusting if you and megaman were to ever fight. You could in theory fight for years without stopping."
Gregar was silent for a minute. And then came the water works. "This...is ...the best gift ever." The cybeast said crying tears of joy, much to everyone's surprise. Ammie walked over and gave him her scarf to dry his tears.
"Well that was unexpected." Ethan said."but the arena is for all the navis, plus megaman,R and Beta."
After receiving all their gifts everyone left to go back to Ethan's place. Ethan meanwhile made sure to lock up the shop properly. While locking he was felt a pair of arms wrap around him. He smiled as he knew who it was. Turning around his eyes met Alisha's. She flashed him a soft smile. "Those were some amazing gifts you gave them." She told him.
"Took me several weeks to make." He responded.
"To bad you gave me mine before Christmas. It would have felt more special today." She joked.
"Yeah it would." He smiled and took a small preseny out of his jacket." That reminds me, Merry Christmas." he said handing her the present. Alisha was shocked but accepted the gift. She opened it revealing a box with a beautiful necklace. The necklace had purple-bluish shine to it and had a star hanging in the middle held by crescent moons on each side. "May I?" Ethan asked gesturing for him to help her putnon the necklace. She handed it to him and held her hair up as he put it on. "For the girl who I see, fills me with glee." He said. Alisha merely blushed at his rhyme.
"Thank you, but I didn't get you anything." She told him.
"You're helping make the ham. Don't tell Aunt Amy but it tastes better when you help." He laughed.
"But still?" She asked.
"I'm sure you'll think of something." He whispered in her ears.
She looked behind him and saw a very familiar Christmas decoration. I thought popped into her head. "What's that?" She asked.
Ethan turned around to look at the decor. "Mistletoe?" He said looking at the decor.
"Isn't there a rule with that?" Alisha asked him with an innocent smile.
"Yes, yes there is." He smiled back.
The celebration went along smoothly. Everyone got together to enjoy the Christmas feast. Treble learnt what mistletoes were used for when Iris surprised him and Flare by tricking them under one. R got his ham much to his delight, everyone was astounded how someone with such little personality could enjoy something so much. As for Falzar, she spent her time making a rather gloomy navi and his kin happy in his page in the corner of Undernet.
Merry Christmas.
