A/N - Less than a week til Christmas! I can hardly believe it! Where does time go? Okay, so the next chapter is mostly a selfish indulgence. If you're not a fan of or have never seen any of The Lord of the Rings movies, then you'll probably just think I've flipped my lid. But I just couldn't pass up the chance with something like "five golden rings" and so it's a chance that I took. I promise that the next chapters will be less spoofish and more original and, err, normal. There's also a moment in here that is very loosely inspired by the likes of Heroes, Mutant X, etc. Also, there is another reference to Chris the Singing Christmas Tree. You probably caught the reference in the last chapter. No, I'm not completely crazy. It's just a running gag that Robin (doodlegirll), Stacy (secretwindow1) and myself have involving Wilbur's being completely obsessed with seeing the worst come to the annoying little Christmas decoration. And hey, I don't blame him! Those things are pretty weird :P Anyways, for more on that, you should check out Robin's work cause I think she's got a oneshot all about it coming up soon :) Okay, enough shameless plugs and explanations...on to the story!

Chapter 5

"Special delivery for the lovely Lucille Robinson," Wilbur carried a box into the dining room. "Here you go, grandma."

"Thank you, Wilbur. Why, I didn't even expect that I would get one of these packages. I wonder what it could be," Lucille eyed the package, not sure what to do with it.

"There's only one way to find out," Wilbur urged her to open it.

"Oh my!" Lucille gasped as she revealed a box that contained five golden rings. She quickly pushed the box away, stood to her feet and left the dining room quickly.

"What was that all about?" Wilbur asked as everyone looked at one another quite confused.

"Dad? Do you know anything about it?" Cornelius asked Bud.

"I can't say that I do. I don't see how five golden rings would upset Lucille, but I'll be sure to ask her why," Bud said with concern for his wife.

"This isn't like her at all," Billie said as she and Franny exchanged worried glances.

"Maybe it just evoked a memory of some sort," Franny suggested. "After all, these gifts have seemed to evoke something from the gifted."

"Franny has a point. I'm sure mom's okay," he bit his lip, not sure what to think as they finished up their lunch meal.

"I'll just hold onto these for grandma," Wilbur said, taking the five rings for safekeeping. However, they weren't just for safekeeping for long. After lunch, Wilbur found himself just sitting on the stairs, mesmerized by the golden rings that still sat in the box. He had only ventured to barely touch one of them at first but now he stroked one of them. "It's so golden. It's like nothing I've ever seen before. It's my precious."

"Whoa! Wilbur, come back to me, Wilbur," Carl said in a worried voice as he overheard Wilbur's sudden obsessive behavior towards the rings.

"What?" Wilbur looked around with a dazed expression on his face. "What happened?"

"Oh nothing, you just went completely…mad! Nothing to be too concerned about," Carl said sarcastically. "What got into you?"

"I don't know. It's these rings. I can't take my eyes off of them. I have to try them on!" Wilbur took one out as fast as he could.

"Wilbur, first of all…they're rings. Since when have you been into man jewelry? Second of all, they're not even yours! And your grandma obviously wasn't too happy by the sight of them, so maybe you should take that as a hint. And third of all, it's like they're turning you into this compulsive monster that has to have them for himself."

"You're overreacting again, Carl," Wilbur said, completely ignoring Carl's comments as he slipped one of the rings onto his index finger.

Overreacting, heh. One of these days something horrible's going to happen and then he'll wish he had listened to my overreacting. "Are you satisfied now? You're wearing one. Woohoo. Now just take it off and put it back in the box." For goodness sake just do what you're told for once in your life.

Wilbur stared at the robot with wide eyes. He had heard things Carl had been saying but hadn't seen his mouth move. "Carl, what was the last thing you said?"

"Take it off and put it back in the box?" Carl repeated himself.

"Really?" Wilbur looked down at the ring and back at Carl.

What's running through his brain this time? No, I don't even want to know.

"Carl, did you just say something?" It happened again.

"No," Carl shook his head. What, do those rings make people crazier than usual?

Wilbur was about to protest angrily when it dawned on him that he could read Carl's thoughts. "It must be the rings!" he exclaimed and ran off to test it out on someone else. He ran to find his mom and dad in Franny's music lounge as the frogs were tuning their instruments. He snuck in and hid behind the closest table he could without being seen.

She has the most beautiful eyes in the world. How did I get so lucky? Wilbur recognized the thoughts to be his fathers and stuck his tongue out in disgust.

I can't wait to give him his Christmas present. He deserves everything in the world for how wonderful he is. Wilbur stuck his tongue out again when he heard his mom's thoughts and shuddered a little. Oh, so he wants to play footsies does he?

"Oh my goodness!" Wilbur stood up, not even caring if anyone saw him.

"Wilbur? Sweetie, is something wrong?" Franny asked when she noticed her son.

"Uh, no, not really. Gotta go!" Wilbur said over his shoulder as he made a beeline for the door.

"You weren't trying to overhear what we got you for Christmas now were you?" Cornelius asked.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Wilbur waved his hand in mock agreement as he left. Once out in the hall, he breathed a sigh of relief. "I just had to know what they were thinking." He opened the door slightly and peeked back in.

"We just had to have a kid," Franny said aloud.

"Oh, come on. You know you love being the mother of a hyperactive teenage boy," Cornelius said with a laugh.

"Not as much as I love being married to his father," Franny said with a smile as they both leaned across the table they were sitting at and shared a kiss.

Why don't dey respect Frankie's no pda rule. Lousy humans.

"I'm with Frankie on this one," Wilbur said in response to Frankie's thoughts. "I think I've had enough of this ring for now," Wilbur shut the door, felt a shiver go down his spine and decided to remove the ring. "Hmm…so I wonder if any of the other rings have any powers." Wilbur put on another one of the rings.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," came the sound of Lucille's voice.

"Grandma?" Wilbur looked around but Lucille was nowhere in sight.

"Bring the rings to me before you destroy us all," her voice was heard again.

"Okay, I must be going crazy. Maybe it's a guilty conscience. I was afraid it would catch up to me someday," Wilbur shook his head then shrugged his shoulders.

"The rings will drive you crazy if you don't do as I say. You haven't seen fear yet, Wilbur."

"Okay, that's it! Grandma! Where are you!?" Wilbur took off down the hallway and towards the wing of the house that Bud and Lucille occupied. On his way, he passed Bud. "Grandpa! I'm looking for grandma!"

"Well, she was baking cookies but now I think she's just resting in our room. If not, I'd check the mayonnaise jar," Bud answered.

"The mayonnaise jar? Why the mayonnaise jar?" Wilbur asked curiously.

"I don't know. I think I left a pearl earring in there once," Bud said in his usual offbeat manner and then walked on.

"Okay, I'm not even going to ask. I've just got to find grandma."

"You've already found me," Lucille said.

"What are you talking about…ah!" Wilbur spun around and saw Lucille standing right behind him. "Sorry, grandma, you just startled me that's all."

"I know. You have something of great burden that I think you should give to me."

"I don't understand."

Lucille looked around to see if anyone was nearby then looked back at her grandson. "This way," she beckoned and Wilbur followed her to a room that he had never actually seen before although he knew that it existed.

"Is this your lab?" Wilbur asked in amazement. "Why don't you just use dad's lab?"

"Because your father needs all that space to make world changing inventions. I don't want to get in the way," Lucille answered honestly.

"Grandma, you're inventions are great too. I mean, the coffee patch! That helped me stay awake and cram for my math final last year. Without it I wouldn't have passed that class and would have had to do summer school! You definitely improved the world," Wilbur praised.

"Well, I'm glad to be a hero in your eyes," Lucille said in a grandmotherly way. "Now about the rings," her voice changed to a more eerie tone.

"What about them? All I know is that this one here lets me read people's thoughts. And this one…I'm not really sure what this one does?" Wilbur said pointing to the one on his finger. "I didn't have time to find out."

"Take it off, Wilbur!" Lucille cried horribly. "Please, you must listen to me!"

"But why?" Wilbur was in the dark, not sure what to think of his grandmother's weird phobia of the rings.

"Wilbur, those rings have a greater power than any of us can handle. And that one is the most powerful of all! I don't want to see the worst happen to you. Take it off!"

"Power?" Wilbur studied the ring on his hand more carefully, a gleam growing in his eyes as he thought about all of the amazing things that he might be able to do with the rings abilities.

"Nooooooooooo!" Lucille screamed, bringing Wilbur back to reality. He saw the look on his grandma's face and realized that the ring had been trying to possess him. He quickly discarded the ring, breathing heavily as he did. "Oh, thank goodness." Lucille moved closer to her grandson and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. "Those rings were my Doris's."

"What do you mean?" Wilbur asked in confusion, not seeing the connection.

"I only wanted them to be a help for humanity. You see, I wanted to create several rings that would give certain people with perfect compatibility superpowers. I wanted to create a breed of heroes to save the world when it was in danger. I only meant it for good, but something went wrong. Just like Doris, the rings were too powerful," Lucille sighed. "But when I went to destroy them, it was too late. They had disappeared. All these years I've been haunted by the thought of what would happen should they ever return. And now they have."

"Grandma, don't you see! You have them again! You can destroy them now!" Wilbur exclaimed. He was in no mood for more Doris like villains to have control again.

"You're right. But it was almost too late again. You put them on and they could have wielded you to their power if given the chance," Lucille said seriously.

"I'm sorry, grandma," Wilbur hung his head. This time he really should have listened to Carl.

"I'm sorry too. There's only one way to destroy them and I don't have the capability to do it," Lucille said solemnly, causing Wilbur to look at her with sudden wonder.

"What has to be done to destroy them?" he asked, willing to do whatever he had to make things right again.

"They must be burned," Lucille answered.

"That seems easy enough," Wilbur scoffed.

"But not just any fire will work! It must be a fire created by something just as evil as the rings or they will not melt."

"Okay, now why exactly did you make it that way?" Wilbur raised an eyebrow incredulously.

"It was an error in the formula. It's the same reason why the rings are evil to begin with," Lucille explained.

"I see. Okay, so wood is out of the question. Something evil…" Wilbur snapped his fingers. "I got it! I know just the thing," he grinned a mischievous grin as he thought of the very annoying Christmas decoration that he would use. "Wait, but it's snowing outside. Will a fire even burn?"

"It can, but I have a better idea. There's a wood burning stove down in the basement. I'll go get it set up and you meet me down there with the evil thing you think will melt the rings and the rings themselves."

"Got it!" Wilbur started to hurry off on the mission.

"And, Wilbur, be careful. Don't put the rings on again."

"Don't worry, grandma. I won't," Wilbur promised as he left.

--------

"Where have you been, Wilbur?" Cornelius asked his son as he and Franny saw him.

"Yeah, we haven't seen you since earlier in the lounge and you seemed to be in such a hurry."

"Oh, I was. But it was no big deal," Wilbur lied as he remembered how just an hour before, he and Lucille had successfully destroyed the five golden rings and Chris the Singing Christmas Tree along with them. "I've just been hanging out with grandma all day."

"Oh, Lucille, I wonder what was wrong with those rings," Franny's voice was filled with concern.

"Maybe I'll go talk to her," Cornelius suggested.

"No need," Wilbur spoke up quickly. "Trust me, she's definitely alright now. In fact, I think her words were, 'I'm feeling better than I have in years. Tonight I'll finally sleep easy,'" Wilbur quoted.

"What does she mean by that? Is she okay?" Cornelius' worry grew.

"Dad, relax. Grandma's wonderful. Isn't that right, grandma?"

"That's right. I am," Lucille said with a youthful cheer, startling both Franny and Cornelius. They turned to see Lucille standing behind them. "And don't worry about the rings either. The world is safe again. Come on, Wilbur. How about a game of that chargeball you love so much?"

"You're on!" Wilbur said as they walked off towards his room where the game was set up. Cornelius and Franny exchanged confused glances as they watched them go. "What a day, grandma. But it was actually kind of cool. I just can't wait to see what happens tomorrow."