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Six exited the ship first. The outer lights were off which was suspicious. His swords exited from his sleeves. He moved quickly and sliced a drone that was behind him. The two halves clattered onto the floor.
"What's going on?" Holiday joined him holding a lantern to illuminate the area.
"I don't know." He walked to the door and typed a code into the pad. The door didn't open. "It's not working."
Holiday tried. The result was the same. Caesar walked up. "Caesar, can you check to see what's going on?"
Caesar pulled a wire from his smart phone and plugged it into a port.
"Hmmm, fascinating… something has taken over the system." Caesar said.
A loud clanging made them all turn around.
"Uh, guys? A little help here?" Rex was fighting off several drones.
"Excuse me." Six went to help Rex.
"What took over the system?" Holiday frowned.
"Uh oh." Caesar muttered.
"Caesar, what did you do?" Holiday tried not to sound exasperated.
"Actually, it's an easy fix." Caesar said confidently.
0o0
Calan thought he was finished when the shocks suddenly stopped.
"Captain, are you okay?" He heard White's voice above him. Blinking several times to clear his vision, he looked up to confirm that he was not hearing things.
"Sir," His voice sounded rough to his ears. "Yes sir, I'm fine." He struggled to get up.
"Well, you certainly don't look fine." White offered a hand. Calan gripped his wrist as his boss pulled him up.
"What's happening?" Calan decided to ignore how he appeared.
"I don't know. All the banging woke me up. I tried to contact Agent Tuck but everything is static." White Knight said dourly.
"I had the same problem." Calan confirmed. "When I came back to check, the drones seem to have gone nuts."
White Knight was typing on his armored suit's wrist computer. "Everything on the network seems to have been corrupted."
"Of course it is." Calan almost groaned. "How did that happen? Deliberate or accidental?"
"We need the people in the IT department to tell us." He growled as he walked down the hall. "Let's see if they can shed some light on this."
Calan followed his boss keeping an eye out for any attackers. His ears picked something up. "Look out!" He pushed White Knight out of the way as lasers shot out of the ceiling.
"Our defense system has been activated." White growled. With his wrist laser, he took out the one of the weapons.
Calan went to a panel on the wall. Grabbing the sides he yanked the panel off exposing wires. Calan randomly took a handful and pulled them out causing sparks.
The lasers dropped lifelessly.
"That take care of the problem in this hallway." Calan wiped his brow.
"Hello? Hello?..."
Both men looked at each other in surprise. It was the first time they heard their comlinks work.
"Agent Tuck?" White Knight answered.
"White Knight, sir! Boy am I glad to hear you." Tuck blurted out.
"Where are you?" White Knight got right to the point.
"We're in the conference room. They're several agents injured here, and the door is about to give." Tuck answered.
"Hang tight, we're on our way." Calan said.
"Sir, yes sir!" Tuck sounded relieved.
The two men gave each other a determined nod and took off.
0o0
Walter searched for weapons in the room while Cricket tried to tap into the computer system. Tuck worked on trying to get through to anyone.
"You think with all the technology in this room, we can have a working phone." Tuck complained.
"I found it." Cricket piped up.
"A way out?" Walter looked up.
"Sort of. I found the corruption in the code that's messing up our systems. I'm trying to isolate it now." She said.
"Can you get rid of whatever's blocking our communication?" Tuck asked.
"I'll try but I'm just a beginner at this." Cricket muttered.
The banging outside the door got louder and the dents got bigger.
"We don't have much more time." Walter said nervously.
"Working as fast as I can." Cricket replied. "There! Try now." She addressed Tuck.
"Hello? Hello? Anyone out there? Code red, code red. We are under siege." Tuck tried to keep his voice even.
"Agent Tuck?"
"White Knight, sir! Boy am I glad to hear you." Tuck blurted out.
"Where are you?"
"We're in the conference room. They're several agents injured here, and the door is about to give." Tuck tried to not sound panicked.
"Hang tight, we're on our way." Tuck was surprised to hear Captain Calan's voice.
"Sir, yes sir!" Tuck answered.
"Great, we're saved." Walter breathed a sigh of relief. Just then the doors fell, and drones rushed in. "Oops, spoke too soon."
"How many guns do we have?" Tuck turned to Walter.
"All I found were these." Walter tossed two handguns to Tuck. He tossed one to Cricket and kept one for himself.
"Get behind the table." Tuck ordered as he began shooting the drones.
"He's crazy! He's gonna get massacred." Walter growled as he and Cricket tipped a table over to protect themselves.
"I have an idea." Cricket grabbed the legs of the table. "Help me."
"What are we doing?" Walter asked as he grabbed the legs on the other side.
"Battering ram. 1…2…3… Go!" She pushed and Walter followed.
Tuck glanced behind him and saw a table coming at him.
"Hey woah!" He made a leap over the table as it rushed forward. It then hit the horde of drones knocking them down. They were able to knock down a row of drones before they were stopped. A drone sliced the table in half. They went back to Tuck.
"Any other ideas?" Walter asked sarcastically as the drones streamed through the door.
"Stay alive." Tuck said grimly.
"I guess that's as good as any." Walter sighed before ducking a drone trying to saw him in half.
They fired on the drones which kept them at bay for a while. When they ran out of bullets, they fought them off with the furniture. Soon they were pushed back to a corner.
"If we can make it to the vents, we can get out through there." Cricket offered.
"I'll stay to keep them off of you." Tuck said.
"What? No way!" Cricket said angrily.
"There's no other way." Tuck argued.
Several drones fell as they were shot from behind. Calan stepped into the room.
"Or we can be saved by Captain Calan." Walter said.
"What am I, chopped liver?" White Knight asked as he shot the rest of the drones.
Before anyone could answer, the alarm sounded as the emergency lights came on.
"Now what?" Walter asked exasperated.
More drones rolled in.
"Intruder alert. Intruder alert. Dispatch automatic de-fen-se sys-tem." The voice trailed off.
The alarms shut off and the regular lights came back on.
Rex sauntered into the room. He tagged all the drones that immediately shut down.
"Hey guys," Rex said cheerfully. "What did I miss?"
Everyone glared at him.
"Uh, Merry Christmas?" He looked around at the annoyed faces.
0o0
"You ok?" Cricket asked Tuck who sat sullenly in the cafeteria.
"Fine." He answered tersely.
"You don't sound fine." She nudged him.
He sighed. "I really wanted to impress them. You know. It was supposed to be an easy job. Make sure nothing bad happens while everyone is on vacation. And what happens?"
"Computer virus corrupting the entire system?" Cricket guessed.
"And a virus made by Caesar!" Tuck exclaimed.
"Well, not on purpose." Cricket said.
"Why do they let him keep experimenting on AI's? Tuck slouched in his seat.
"It's a good thing Rex was able to communicate and shut it down. Caesar put in a fail safe. He says it will never happen again." Cricket told him.
Tuck snorted in disbelief.
Walter excitedly slid next to them with a tray full of food. "Do you know what they have here?"
"We can see it on your tray." Tuck said dryly.
"Since when did they serve Flæskesteg?" Walter asked taking a huge bite.
"Gesundheit." Cricket said.
"It's roast pork with cracklings!" Walter looked at them. "It's a classic Dutch Christmas dish!"
"Since when do you know about Dutch food." Tuck asked.
"Oh, I spent a month in Denmark studying paintings of the Old Master." He shoved more food in his mouth.
"It's another unforgettable Christmas." Cricket sighed.
"Well, at least I got a chance to be in charge. Guess it'll never happen again." Tuck sighed.
"Who says son?" Cricket and Tuck immediately snapped to attention.
"Oh, hi captain." Walter waved before going back to eating.
"Tuck, you have a lot of potential. Tonight, well, tonight was a fluke." Calan shrugged.
"We have an awful lot of flukes here." Tuck said bitterly.
"And a good leader learns to roll with the punches. You've displayed a lot of common sense and leadership skills during the emergency. I think you'd make a fine leader…" Tuck's face brightened until Calan added the last part. "One day. For now you're going to have to continue to work hard and learn. In some ways it's my fault. I should have prepared you better."
"But captain, you did prepare me well! It's my fault that I couldn't stop the…" Tuck stopped when Calan help up his hand.
"A sign of a good leader is one who takes responsibility regardless of the circumstances." He said. "We'll discuss what you could have done better after I get back from my vacation."
"Wait? You're letting me…" Tuck held his breath.
"You have a job to finish, mister." Calan got up. "Don't let me down."
"No sir! I'll take care of everything." Tuck said excitedly.
"Good man. The reserves have arrived to relieve those who were injured. You should brief them on their duties." He turned to leave. "Oh, and Merry Christmas, y'all."
"Merry Christmas, sir." Tuck and Cricket said. Walter mumbled something with his mouth full.
0o0
"Hey, you're back." Beverly said with relief as she opened the door.
"It was anti-climactic." Rebecca told her. "Rex just used his technopathy to communicate with the computer system and everything returned to normal."
"What happened?" Beverly asked.
"Ask your boyfriend." Rex pointed his thumb at Caesar.
Beverly glanced at Caesar. "What happened?"
"Remember, the AI I was working on?" Caesar said sheepishly.
"It was contained on that one server." Beverly replied.
"It managed to travel out of the server through the power source to the rest of the system." Caesar said.
"Wow, it managed to do that? It's amazing." Beverly said impressed.
"I thought so too." Caesar said proudly.
"It wreaked havoc on the base, injured nearly all the agents, and nearly killed Captain Calan." Six said flatly.
"Did anyone die?" Beverly asked.
"No." Six replied.
"Then everything is fine." Beverly said as he took Caesar's arm. "So how did the AI figure out how to get out of the server."
The two of them walked off.
Rex shook his head. "I love my brother but sometimes he's a menace."
"Rex is back!"
The kids rushed him and clamored for his attention.
"Huh? Isn't Circe cooler?" He asked confused.
"She was telling us stories about you." Matthew said.
"Yeah, you're pretty cool too." Luke said.
"Can you really make ice sculptures?" Sarah asked.
Rex looked up to see Circe with a smirk on her face. He smiled at her.
"Well, I would need a big piece of ice." Rex replied.
"We can get one from the river." Matthew suggested.
"I know where that is." Rex said remembering a few Christmases ago. Stepping outside, he took off with his Boogie Pack. As the kids waited with Circe for Rex to come back, Six and Holiday went inside.
"Are you having a good Christmas?" Six asked as he took off her coat.
"When I'm with friends and family, it's always a good Christmas. How about you? Are you having a good Christmas?" She asked him.
Six was quiet for a second. "I haven't had many real Christmases."
"Then let's make each one better." Holiday said wrapping her arms around his shoulder. He bent down and kissed her.
"Uh-hem." They pulled apart to see Nanna looking at them.
"Oh, hello Nanna." Holiday said annoyed with the interruption.
"I saved you some fruit cake." She said as she went to the kitchen.
"It's ok, Nanna. We're still full from dinner." Rebecca tried to tell her.
"You can never be too full for more dessert." Nanna brought out two plates.
"Thank you." Holiday sighed knowing it was pointless to argue.
"It's good." Six said simply after a bite.
Nanna looked at him. "It's a recipe that's been in my family for years."
"You do it justice." Six said.
Holiday could see that his simple praise changed Nanna's demeanor towards him.
"There's more where that came from." Nanna left beaming.
"You don't have to humor her." Rebecca whispered to him.
"I don't humor people." Six said simply.
Rebecca hid a smile.
A loud thump caught their attention. They stepped outside to see what's going on.
Rex had brought back a block of ice.
"It's a little thinner than I like but I have an idea." Rex announced. Turning one of his hands into SmackHands and the other into the BFS, he began cutting, stabbing, and shaving parts of the ice sheet.
"What's up?"
The rest of the Holiday family came out to watch. They watched as Rex continue his work. When he was finished everyone oohed and aahed. He had formed a giant snowflake with intricate designs.
"That's beautiful." Rebecca's mother gasped.
"It's very impressive." Dr. Holiday agreed.
The children jumped excitedly around the ice sculpture.
Even Nanna approved.
Rebecca could feel Six slip his arm around his waist. She leaned into him and watched everyone enjoy another perfect Christmas.
This was worse than I though. I profusely apologize for the lateness of the story and not finishing it for the holidays. I'm also sorry I miss posting on pi day and Saint Patrick's Day. But happy April Fool's. I guess this is sort of an April Fool's since it's a Christmas story finished on this day. I hope everyone is doing well. Currently, I'm trying to catch up on the last of my unfinished stories, add to the one-shots, and maybe just maybe start a new story.
Sergio: Thanks for your review. I looked up the new Gen Rex/Ben 10 show. It looks more like a reboot with both characters in the same universe. I'm not sure how I feel about that. I think I would rather have a continuation of Generator Rex than to force it into the world of Ben 10. But we'll have to see. I'll be cautiously optimistic, but I was not a fan of Ben 10 Omniverse (the change of art style for Gwen and Kevin was jarring) or the Ben 10 (2016) reboot and worry what they would do to poor Rex.
God bless.