Christmas Special! Enjoy!


Monsters Are Coming To Town

T'was the night before Christmas and deep in the base, T.O.M the monster was getting tape on his face.

"Guys! It happened again!" he cried.

Sarah and Fang walked into the living room to find their brainless vegetable completely wrapped up in sellotape for the fourth time. But they weren't bothered by this; in fact they were feeling quite cheerful.

"It couldn't possibly get any better than this! Bar'Hbi and Ravs are on a training exercise in the Himalayas, Sqooty's gone home for the holidays and Covertron is in hospital with a severe case of brain freeze from eating too much ice cream. An alien free Christmas, it's gonna be awesome!"

"I know, right? I love this time of year!" smiled Sarah as she and the snake began cutting away the tape from T.O.M, "My family spend every Christmas morning in front of the fire, unwrapping our presents and trying them out, the jumpers my Gran would knit me. Then we'd walk around Modesto to see other people enjoying the festivities,"

Fang cut the last of the tape with one of his sharp teeth and T.O.M jumped away, free from the bind he'd gotten himself in.

"Thanks, guys! Now, I need to get back to wrapping my presents!"

"You sure you wanna get presents for EVERYONE in the base?" asked Fang, looking at all the random gifts on the floor including a Satsuma, a plant pot and an odd shoe.

"Hey, everyone deserves a gift!" said the tomato.

"Quite right, T.O.M. I got my gifts all wrapped up ages ago. I think you'll like the gifts that I…I mean Santa Claus got you guys," said Sarah.

T.O.M looked sceptical, "Santa? I don't think so. He hasn't done any present delivering since we shot him down!"

Sarah glared at T.O.M as Fang stood behind her, waving his arms at him to be quiet.

"I'm…sorry. Say that again?" said Sarah, looking thoroughly confused.

"Yeah, Santa came by many years ago and we shot him out of the sky! BANG! BANG! BOOM! CRASH!" laughed T.O.M, pointing his fingers and pretending they were guns.

Sarah turned to glare at Fang who had his hand over his eyes, her eyebrows raised high and her jaw low, "Explanations, please?"

"Well…I…we…you see…the thing is…"

Just then Dr Sprocket walked in drinking a cup of hot oil; he had his torso covered in wrapping paper. He knew he had been given a new power regulator for Christmas but didn't want to spoil the surprise so he installed it into his body but wouldn't unwrap till tomorrow.

Sarah then turned to look at the mad scientist, "Doc, what's this T.O.M's saying about shooting down Santa Claus?"

He dropped his cup and oil spilt everywhere, his eyes almost popped out of his optic cylinders and his jaw moved up and down with only white noise coming out.

Sarah rubbed her head, "Okay, SOMEONE tell me what's going on or so help me…"

Then the far wall rotated and General I.N. Monger appeared with his hands behind his back, "Always knew this would come in handy. Sarah, you are now officially a part of Ho-Ho-Oh-No, our most fiercely guarded secret, thanks to the recent slip up of your fellow monsters!"

The others stood shame faced as Sarah was still puzzled, "Ho-Ho-Oh-No? General, what is all this?"

"Follow me and I'll explain," said the General, standing by the main door. Sarah followed him out, accompanied by the others.


As they walked down the main transfer corridor the General began to tell Sarah their most secret of secrets.

"It was Christmas Eve 1970 and our scanners had detected an unknown flying object entering our airspace, we tried everything to contact it but got no response."

"We thought it was an actual alien invasion!" Dr Sprocket hastened to mention.

"So we opened fire on it, everything we could throw at it, and we brought it down! But when we arrived at the crash site we realised it was not an E.T,"

"It was Santa Claus!" T.O.M called out happily, Fang quickly covering his friends' mouth.

Sarah was in shock, she had to take a few minutes to process this, "Wait, you're telling me that Santa Claus is REAL?!"

"He was until that moment. Sleigh was blown to bits, reindeer running/flying loose and Santa lying on the floor surrounded by presents!" said Monger.

"You KILLED Santa?!" the blonde couldn't believe what she was hearing.

Dr Sprocket quickly walked next to her, "No no, my dear, my examination of the body determined that he was not dead, only in a coma. It took him a few months to come round but when he finally did he had forgotten who he was and what he did for a living!"

"Had to give him a new identity and career whilst we cleared up the mess, had his reindeer shipped off to a nature reserve. He's now an actor living in the UK under the name Brian Blessed." Said Monger as he led them down a smaller corridor.

Sarah's head was swimming with so much info that she felt her brain was going to explode, "Wait, Santa's real…you shot him down…he forgets who he is…so what happened to the presents?"

"That's what I'm about to show you, in here…" the General came to a small metal door and swiped his key card on the slot next to it. The light above turned green and the door slid up.

They stepped inside a giant room and were greeted by a mountain made entirely of neatly wrapped presents. Hanging above the mountain was a sack suspended from the ceiling, presents pouring out of it like a waterfall.

"Santa's sack!" Monger pointed to it, "Got no idea how it works, which annoys Doc, but somehow it knows what everyone wants for Christmas and it materializes out of the sack, it's like a bottomless pit every December."

"So if Santa couldn't deliver them anymore then what do you do with them all?" asked Sarah.

"We needed a postal service, a damn good one that could get the gifts to people on time. So we created one: FedEx." Monger said proudly.

Sarah staggered back and nearly fell over till Fang caught her, "Santa real…Brian Blessed…FedEx…this is too much!"

"That's why very few people know about this, only me, a few top-level soldiers, your fellow monsters and the FedEx delivery people know about it, they get their memories wiped afterwards though, can't have them knowing the location of our base, aka Santa's workshop!" the General joked, "I take it you have everything you needed to know, Sarah?"

Sarah couldn't get an audible word out of her mouth, it's like it had stopped working, so she just nodded.

"Good, now get out of here and enjoy your holidays and let FedEx get on with delivering Christmas!" Monger ordered.

Fang picked up Sarah and they all ran out the room.


A while later the monsters were in the living room, drinking eggnog and discussing the missions they had done that year. T.O.M was still trying to wrap up his presents and had resorted to superglue instead of sellotape, with the same disastrous results.

Sarah then walked in carrying her suitcase and backpack, "Right, my flight back home will be here soon so I thought I'd just pop in to say bye,"

"Have a nice Christmas, my dear!" said Dr Sprocket, raising his glass to her, "And, uh, you're not upset about earlier, are you?"

"Upset? Nah, it was a lot of info to take in just thirty minutes but I'll get over it. And I won't be telling anyone about it either, people might believe in monsters these days but Santa is a little farfetched!"

Just then General Monger came racing in, he was in a great hurry, "Monsters, we got ourselves a major situation! Report to the main hangar immediately!" he then ran out the room again.

"But I…"

Fang picked Sarah up once again and the four monsters ran to the front hangar, they knew better than to keep the General waiting. They arrived at the main hangar where they found a large pile of parcels being loaded onto the carrier jet they used.

"What's going on, General?" asked Dr Sprocket.

"Seems there was a miscalculation with FedEx this year, they sent one too few delivery teams! This pile of presents was left behind and if the people don't get 'em then they'll start asking….questions!"

"NOOOO! NOT QUESTIONS! ANYTHING BUT THAT!" T.O.M cried to the heavens.

"These presents are addressed to residents of Fargo, North Dakota's largest city. I want you to deliver them before dawn! There has been a severe snow storm there recently so you'd better wrap up warm!"

Sarah was concerned however, "But, General, my flight is due…"

"Sarah, how'd you feel if you woke up Christmas morning and there was nothing for you under the tree?" Monger glared at her. The others followed his gaze.

This made her feel bad; she couldn't let those people, those children, wake up all happy and cheerful and then not get their presents.

"Okay, boys, let's go save Christmas!" she said and ran into the plane. Her fellow monsters saluted and then ran in after her as the loading doors closed and the jet rolled out of the base before taking off into the night sky.


After a bumpy flight of battling the blizzard the jet finally touched down on the outskirts of Fargo, they made sure they kept their distance so as to not wake anyone up. The loading doors opened and the monsters stepped out into a snow covered land.

"Hmm, interesting, Fargo's average snow depth in December is normally eleven inches but this appears to be nearly a fourteen!" said Dr Sprocket.

T.O.M happily jumped into the snow and stuck his tongue out, snowflakes rested on it and he tasted it like he was trying a delectable cuisine.

"Brrrr! Its freezing!" said Sarah as she put her special red anorak on, like her other clothes it had the ability to grow with her.

"Hah! The cold means nothing to me!" boasted Fang, he dipped a toe in the snow and his scales almost turned blue, "Okay, so maybe this will take me a while,"

"We've only got an hour and a half till Christmas morning so we're gonna have to do this fast!" Sarah told them, "We'll split up and take an even amount of the presents with us; they're all mounted on sleds so getting around in the snow should be easy, and for the love of all that is merry…do not get caught!"

"I've given you all a GPS with all the co-ordinates so you'll be able to find the house you're looking for!" added Dr Sprocket.

They all strapped the sleds onto themselves and one by one they dismounted and began their rounds.


Fang arrived at his first house; he opened his sack and pulled out several presents addressed to it. He looked through the windows and saw everyone was fast asleep, "Right, move over, Mr Kringle, there's a new guy in town!"

He stretched over to the roof with the presents and found the chimney; it was big enough for the presents to fit in but not his whole body. He then had an idea, "Sometimes my genius knows no bounds!"

He wrapped his tail around the presents and lowered them down the chimney stack; he stretched his body back down so he could peer through the living room window where the fireplace was. He saw his tail and the presents emerge and carefully he carried them through the room and placed them under the tree. Fist-pumping, he began reeling his tail in. As he did he realised, too late, that there had recently been a fire in the fire place and there were still burning embers as his tail brushed against it. His burning tail flew out of the chimney, soot flying everywhere, as he hopped around in searing pain. Quick thinking, he threw his tail into the snow in order to cool it down, "I meant Kris Kringle not Crispy Kringle!" he muttered as his tail went numb.


T.O.M was happily doing his rounds, sometimes just leaving them on the front door, others he left on top of the chimney pot cos they wouldn't fit. He then came to a house that had five snowmen surrounding the front garden. He slid up to them by the front door, "Hi, I'm Transmutation Oxidized Metaplasia, but you guys can call me T.O.M, whichevers easier,"

He began engaging the snowmen in riveting conversation, he liked them as they were such good listeners, but then all his talk had woken up the houses' residents and he saw a light come on in the bedroom. He remembered Sarah tell him not to get caught out.

"What do I do? What do I do, guys?" he asked the snowmen, they said nothing, just stood as still as statues, "Of course, that's a brilliant idea!"

He grabbed a large pile of snow and threw it on himself, covering his whole body.

The homeowner opened the window and looked outside, "Hello? Somebody there?"

There was no one around except for the snowmen, all six of them.

"Don't recall there being one on the path?" he muttered to himself, peering at the snowman with the bulbous head, "Mah, shouldn't have had all that wine earlier!" he told himself before closing the window and switching off the light.

T.O.M shook the snow off himself and beamed at avoiding getting noticed, "Thanks guys, that was an awesome idea of yours! Put it there," He grabbed one of the snowmen's stick arms and shook it, "Y'know what? You can give them their presents! The honours all yours!" he placed the presents in the snowmen's hands and he continued on his way. After he left all the snowmen fell apart as the weight of the presents was too much.


Dr Sprocket had decided not to go door to door like the others; instead he had devised a faster way to deliver the gifts. He had made dozens of micro-copters that would lift the presents up into the air and then drop them off at their destinations.

"And they say Christmas is just about magic? Not anymore, now it is time for science to take a firm hand on the candy cane! MWAHAHAHA!" he cackled as he finished hooking up all the presents to their micro-copters.

"There, now fly, my pretties! Fly and be merry I say!"

He activated the copters and their little propellers sped up, faster and faster till they took off, taking the weight of the presents and hoisting them up into the air. As the robo-doc admired his genius he didn't notice that one of the cables was wrapped around his foot. The copter rose higher, he felt a slight tug and then suddenly he was lifted up off the ground by the leg.

"Argh! Mayday! Mayday! Mad scientist abducted by his own creation!" he cried as he began hovering over the buildings, unable to reach anything and pull himself back down.

The micro-copter had its orders and began making its way to the house it would deliver to; unaware it was taking extra baggage.

Dr Sprocket hit his head on several chimney pots and dozens of satellite dishes, and then he came across some telephone wires.

"Oh fiddlesticks!"

He hit the wires and electric surges were sent up and down his body, the presents were intact as he took the shock. Eventually he passed over the wire, smoke pouring from his body and his eyes flickering different colours.


Sarah was making good time; she had just arrived at her next house but was worried to find there was no chimney to drop the presents down. She looked all around and saw the upstairs window was open a tad, if she get it open and sneak into the house then she could go downstairs and place the presents under the tree.

Quietly, she grew big and placed the presents by the window, she kept her hand on the window as she shrank back down, hoisting herself up to it. She reached in and carefully pulled the window open, she was thankful that she was a tiny person as she probably wouldn't have been able to fit through otherwise.

She stepped into what she surmised was the landing and the stairs were close by. As she tip-toed along she winced at every creaky floorboard she stepped on, pausing for a second to make sure she hadn't woken anyone up.

She made her way down the staircase and found the living room with the tree in the far corner. She carefully placed the presents under the tree and started her return trip when, standing on the staircase, was a nine year old girl in her pyjamas and holding her cuddly bunny rabbit.

Sarah was frozen to the spot, she had been caught, and by a child!

"Who are you?" the little girl asked as she rubbed the sleep from her eye.

"I…er…I'm…"

"Are you Santa Claus?"

Sarah had a theory, being only nine years old meant she probably didn't watch the news because it was for 'grown ups' so she probably didn't know she was a monster.

"No, I'm…er, I'm Sarah Claus! Santa's daughter!"

"Santa has a daughter?"

"Santa can have children too!"

"Why are you delivering the presents and not him?"

"Because it's a family thing, we all deliver the presents together, Santa's a few houses away and he'll be wondering where I am,"

"Can I go see him, please?" she asked nicely.

"And what would he say if he found out that one of his favourite children was up at this time of night?" said Sarah, putting her hands on her hips.

"I'm one of Santa's favourites?" the little girl looked surprised and delighted.

"Yes, but you won't be any more if you don't go back to bed,"

The little girl turned to go back upstairs; she then turned to smile at Sarah, "Thank you for my presents, Miss Claus!"

"You're welcome, Sweetie," she smiled back.

The girl went back up to bed, Sarah felt happier than she had ever been in a long time, not just for getting out of a tight spot but for making a child happy. To her that was what Christmas was really about. She noticed the girl had left milk and cookies for Santa and carrots for the reindeer, not wanting to disappoint the girl she drank the milk, ate the cookies and took the carrots before quickly writing a 'thank you' note on the plate. She then went back up to the window and clambered out. She slid down the roof, arrived back at her sled and continued on her way.


It was twenty minutes till midnight and the monsters were making good time; they had nearly finished delivering all the presents as they met up at Prairiewood Golf Course. They were tired and their feet/vines were covered in snow.

"Anybody seen Doc?" asked Sarah.

Suddenly the robo-doc dropped from above and landed in the deep snow, his friends looked at him and then up at the night sky, trying to work out how he got up there.

Dr Sprocket got to his feet, his eyes still flickering, as he brushed the snow out of the nooks and crannies in his body, "Ah, all parcels delivered safe and sound!" he declared.

"I'm done too," said Sarah.

"Same here!" said Fang, a large ball of ice on the end of his tail after he had dunked it in the hole of a frozen lake.

"I just got one more," said T.O.M, holding up the last present, it was a large green one with a red ribbon.

"Awesome! We do this one together and then we're finished!" said Sarah.

Fang read the address on the presents tag, "Uh-oh,"

"What's the matter?" asked Dr Sprocket.

"Well the house isn't far from here but it's for a Mr Gregory 'Richman' Inch!" Fang read out.

"So?" asked T.O.M, "He's got lots of money?"

"His initials on the tag read his name as Mr G. !"

Sarah and Dr Sprocket looked at each other; they had a feeling this last parcel was not going to be an easy one to deliver.


And they were right, Mr Inch was a grouchy businessman who preferred the company of money rather than people, his house was devoid of Christmas decorations and it looked to have a high level of security.

"Seems a bit of a snob, doesn't he?" asked Fang.

"Looks like it, but we have a job to do so let's get going!" said Sarah.

She walked up to the front gate but it wouldn't open, you had to use the buzzer to get a response, in which Mr Inch would simply tell you to go away.

"Guess we're not going through that way," she sighed.

"Allow me, I don't use doors," smirked Fang. He picked up the present and stretched over the high hedge wall, for a moment there was silence but then came the sound of barking and snarling, Fangs feet began dancing around as his body quickly retreated back over the wall, "Okay, he has guard dogs!" he said, cuts on his scaly body.

"This G.R. Inch sounds like a real 'Bah Humbug'!" said Dr Sprocket, "I say we throw his present in the trash and call it a night!"

"Seconded!" said Fang.

"Halved!" added T.O.M.

"No, guys! We're delivering this present even if he is an old miser!" Sarah told him.

"But Sarah, just looking at that guy's place, not one decoration, security everywhere, why should he deserve a present?" asked Fang.

"Because maybe no-one's ever shown him a decent bit of human kindness?" she said, "And on Christmas day everyone deserves a present!"

This made the others feel bad.

"So…how do we get the present in there? The dogs!" Fang reminded her.

"We do this together, as a team! Wait here…"

She stood by the gate and went big; she towered over the hedge wall and saw the two guard dogs charge the gate at the new intruder. Sarah loomed over them with a serious look on her face and raised her finger, "Bad dogs! That's very naughty! You don't do that to guests!" she told them sternly.

The dogs stopped barking and started whining with their ears low. The giantess brought her hand to them and they licked her fingers before retreating to their kennels.

"Okay, up you come, boys!"

She picked up her friends and placed Dr Sprocket on her head, the mad scientist used his scanners to monitor the area, "My systems are a little frazzled but I can see there are sensors all over the grounds, if they detect something that's not a dog then the alarms will go off!"

"Okay, T.O.M, you're up!" said Sarah, she leaned forward and stretched her arm out, her fingers just reaching the roof.

T.O.M carried the present along her arm and jumped onto the roof, he looked all around for a chimney but couldn't see one, "Guys, I don't think this guy likes fires!" he said.

Then he started to hear a low humming noise, and it was getting louder.

Dr Sprocket was banging his head, trying to get his scanners working properly, when he was finally back at 100% however: "Ah, much better, wait…T.O.M, watch out!"

There was a bright flash and the tomato went flying into the air and then landed in next doors garden. The present went flying out of his hands but Fang caught it before it touched Mr Inch's garden.

"There's an electric grid surrounding his roof, probably to keep pigeons at bay!" said Doc.

"Thanks for the info, Doc!" said Fang as he brought the present back to them, "So now what? No chimney, no entering the premises, this guy's more trouble than he's worth!"

"We have to keep trying!" said Sarah, "Doc, are those sensors all over the entire garden?"

Dr Sprocket focused all over the grounds, his sensors could see red lasers sweeping the lawn but there was a small patch close by that the sensors were avoiding.

"That patch over there seems to be clear from Mr Inch's security grid, my dear," he pointed to the patch.

"Okay, I'll just step over there and then we can find another way to get inside his house," Sarah said. She lifted her leg over the hedge wall and placed her foot on the patch, the moment she put weight on it her foot slipped forward and the giantess lost her footing, crashed through the hedge, stomped over the snow covered lawn and then fell over and smacked her head on the front of the house.

Her friends were sprawled over her body after going along for the ride, "You know, that patch may have been a frozen pond covered up by the snow?" said Dr Sprocket.

"No kidding!" muttered Fang as he checked his sore tail.

"Who's there?" came a voice from inside the house. The alarms had been tripped and Mr Inch had awoken.

"Run for it!" said Sarah. She shrank down and she, Fang and Dr Sprocket took off, leaving the present in the snow.

Mr Inch opened the front door and found his garden had been torn up, there was a large gap in his hedge fence and there was a large imprint in the front of his house, it looked almost like a face.

"What is the meaning of this?" he said angrily.

Suddenly T.O.M appeared in front of him, he was covered in Christmas lights that he had landed on when he crashed into next doors garden.

Mr Inch stepped back in fright, "Who…who are you? A g-ghost?"

"Erm, yes! I am a ghost! I am the ghost of Christmas day after yesterday!" the tomato said in a ghostly voice.

"W-what do you want from me?" Inch trembled.

"You have been a miserable old miser! You have no decorations on your house!" he wailed.

"But…but those decorations cost money and I don't have time to waste on…"

"CELEBRATE CHRISTMAS! And be a good boy and take your present," T.O.M pointed to the green present in the snow, "Or I will retuuuuuurn!"

Mr Inch took the present with trembling hands, "I will! I will be nice! I will change my ways and celebrate Christmas, just don't haunt me!" he pleaded.

"Okay then, BYE!" T.O.M dashed out the broken front gate, taking the lights with him as Mr Inch stood in his ruined garden, holding his present.

T.O.M caught up with his fellow monsters and told them Mr Inch's present was now delivered and with just minutes before midnight. As they reached the carrier jet the snow had started coming down heavier.

"We can't take off in this," said Dr Sprocket, examining the night sky, "With all this snow we'll be flying blind!"

Fang looked at T.O.M as his lights twinkled all around him, "Maybe not. T.O.M?"

"Yah?"

"T.O.M, with those lights so bright, how'd you feel being up front tonight?" he paraphrased.

"AWESOME!"

T.O.M was strapped to the front of the jet and with his Christmas lights shining brightly the monsters were able to take off and head back, the mutant tomato was enjoying the front row view through the snow.


As they flew through the night, Sarah sat quietly in the cargo hold, Fang then sat next to her, he could tell something was the matter, "What's up, Lil' S? I know we only delivered some gifts to dozens of people in one town but as far I'm concerned we just saved Christmas!"

"It's nothing," she said quietly.

"Come on, you can tell me,"

Sarah let out a deep sigh, "I've missed my flight home, there won't be another flight scheduled till tomorrow morning and by then the best part of Christmas will be over and I won't be able to spend it with my parents," she said, wiping a tear from her eye.

"You did what you thought was right, think of all those kids who'll wake up in a few hours' time and see all those presents that that special person in red got for them, eh?" Fang comforted her, nudging her with his elbow.

Sarah blinked back more tears and looked at her friend with a smile, "Yeah, I guess you're right, thanks Fang,"

"Course I'm right, it's me, remember?"


A few hours later Dr Sprocket emerged from the cockpit, the autopilot now flying the plane, "We'll be touching down in a few minutes, chaps!"

The jet bumped around as its wheels eventually made the ground. Sarah got up, still feeling sad, and stood by the loading doors as they opened. She walked out and was expecting to see the main hangar of Area Fifty-Unknown with General Monger wanting a full report, but instead she found herself standing on a street with brightly decorated houses on either side.

She knew where she was. She looked round to see Fang and Dr Sprocket standing smugly in front of her, "Knew you'd miss your flight so we called Monger to let him know we'd be taking a little detour," said the mad scientist.

A frozen T.O.M finally fell off the front of the plane and landed between them, the ice shattering off him as he jumped up and said: "Merry Christmas, Sarah!"

Sarah looked to the house nearest her and knew immediately that it was her house, her home, and standing in the doorway were two all too familiar faces.

"Mom? Daddy?" her face lit up.

"Didn't think we'd start Christmas without our little girl, did you?" smiled her mother.

Sarah was so full of happiness that they do say that she did grow ten sizes that day!

She picked up her friends and hugged them, tears of joy now in her eyes, "You three are the best friends a giantess could ask for!" she said.

"Everyone deserves a present!" said T.O.M, "This is ours to you!"

"But we expect some glittery and bedazzling gifts in return!" joked Fang.

She put them down and shrank back to normal, "Come inside, you can spend Christmas with me? I'd love you to stay!" she offered.

"We appreciate the offer, my dear, but we don't want to intrude on your family yuletide tradition," said Dr Sprocket.

"We got enough turkey for everyone!" Mr Miller called to them.

"BEST. CHRISTMAS. EVER!" cried T.O.M as he and Fang ran inside the house.

"And maybe a little grease from the oven for a special little robot?" coaxed Mrs Miller.

Dr Sprocket stood still for a moment, "After careful consideration I have decided that I would be honoured to join you and your family for Christmas!" he said, before running inside and joining the others.

Sarah chuckled as she joined her parents and hugged them. She had her family, she had her friends, she made many children happy this night, T.O.M was right, "Best. Christmas. Ever!"


MAY YOUR NEW YEAR BE A MONSTER ONE!