Who Stole Christmas?

by

JamesPicard_007

Onett

A gentle snow fall blanketed the little town of Onett. The usually green fields were dressed in a thin layer of white. The trees seemed to have a new kind of beauty with the snow packed on their branches. Tonight a full moon hung over the little town. All of Onett slept peacefully silently anxious of the morning to come.

For tonight was Christmas Eve meaning that the next day would be Christmas. The little homes shone brilliantly with their Christmas lights and decorations. At Town Hall a large Christmas tree stood shining brightly for all to see. However all was not well. For in a little house on the hillside there was evil afoot.

Ness slept peacefully in his warm bed. Dreams of the morn to come fluttered through his mind. The presents, the cookies, the candy, the huge bird that was waiting to be thrown in the oven to be cooked. Unknowingly Ness slobbered over himself as the thought of all the delicious food danced through his dreams.

However what Ness waited on the most was the time with his family. There was nothing like spending time with family at Christmas. His grandma and grandpa from his mother’s side of the family were flying in from Summers to visit. Even his hard-working father had promised to be home for the holiday.

Time passed by and soon Ness’ clock rang. Ness jumped out of his bed and ran downstairs. As he ran downstairs Tracy joined him in the race. The house rumbled as they raced to the living room. When they got downstairs Tracy fiddled around trying to find the switch.

When the light came on the living room was almost devoid. There was no Christmas tree, no presents, there was nothing Christmas related. Ness ran into the kitchen and swung the refrigerator door open. Where there was supposed to be a fat Christmas turkey was a huge space.

The fudge was also gone and all the goodies that had been fixed for this day was also missing. Ness slowly sunk to his knees. Tears began watering from his eyes and he began to sniffle. Tracy walked up behind him and placed her hands on Ness’ shoulders.

“Why? Why today? Why me? WHY ME?” Ness cried.

“It’ll be okay, Ness.” Tracy said.

“Okay? OKAY? It’s not okay! What’s Christmas without the presents, the cookies, the candy and the bird?”

“Do you really want me to answer that?”
”It’s not necessary.”

Ness and Tracy walked back into the living room and sat down on the couch. Their mom came downstairs to put the turkey in the oven. A few seconds after she walked into the kitchen Ness’ mom let out a scream. She came storming out into the living room screaming her head off.

She yelled at Ness and Tracy asking if they knew what had happened to all the Christmas stuff. They told her that they didn’t know a thing. Mom walked back upstairs feeling slightly depressed while Ness and Tracy just continued to sit on the couch.

The time flew by and the siblings grew even more depressed. A slight wind seemed to blow inside the house and Ness and Tracy looked up. Sitting in front of them was a white ball of energy.

“Ahhhh! What the heck is that thing?” Ness and Tracy yelled.

“I am the Spirit of Anthadd. I am here to give you guidance.” The ball said.

“Guidance? You know who stole our Christmas?” Ness asked.

“Yes! I have come from another world to give you the answer to your problems.” Anthadd replied.

“Well tell us already! Who stole our Christmas?”

“The person that has stole all your Christmas presents, food and other assorted material is none other than…. Arrrrrrrgh!”

“What? Who?”

“Can’t go on. Temporal anomaly removing me from story. To allow inane plot to survive. I shall return. At the end! “

The ball of energy that was Anthadd began to twist and distort until it finally disappeared. Ness walked upstairs and changed into his clothes. He grabbed his winter coat, a hat, some gloves and his backpack. Tracy tried to convince him to stay and wait for the relatives, but Ness insisted on finding out what Anthadd had tried to tell them.

The weather outside was clearing up from the snowfall. The sun shone through the clouds and the snow crunched under Ness’ feet. He tried think of anyone that would want to steal Christmas from his family. The only person he could think of was Pokey, but he was long gone into a different era.

Ness decided to head to the local Burger Shack to talk with Frank. Frank usually kept himself in the business of keeping tabs on all the activities of the underworld. Burger Shack was unusually busy today. Ness pushed through the massive crowd to get to Frank.

“Ness! Merry Christmas!” Frank said.

“Not very merry this year.” Ness replied.

“Why’s that?”

“Somebody stole Christmas from my family.”

“Even the precious and delicious popcorn balls?”

“Yes.”

“The jerks!”

“Yeah. I was wondering if you’ve heard anything that could help me.”

“Nope. Can’t say that I have.”

“Dang. By the way what are all these people doing here?”

“I dunno. Apparently they’re from another world. Some group called Stardudes.Net or something.”

“Starmen.Net!” A penguin wearing disco clothes shouted.

Ness thanked Frank and walked off. He walked around town trying to think of who would do this to his family. As he walked he noticed there was a lot of new people around. After a while Ness was ready to give up. He sat down on a nearby bench to rest.

Suddenly a snowball smacked him in the face. He sat for a minute until he wiped the snow off his face. Someone was running up to him whom Ness guessed was the guy that threw the snowball into the first place.

He couldn’t tell much about the guy other than he was 5’ 7” with light brown hair.

“Hey Ness. I’m sorry about that.” The guy said.

“Wha? How do you know my name?” Ness asked.

“D’oh! You’re not from here, JP. They don’t know you around here.” The guy said to himself.

“Weird.”

“Um. Err. Eh. I saw your picture in the newspaper. Yeah. The newspaper….”

“Whatever. I’m not in the mood.”

“Okay.”

The guy started to walk off back to where he had come from. Using his psychic powers Ness scooped some snow off the ground, rolled it into a ball and launched it at the guy. The ball smacked him dead on in the back of the head. He turned around with an annoyed look on his face while rubbing the back of his head.

“You, sir, have awakened a sleeping dragon.” The guy said.

Ness chuckled a bit as something extended from the guy’s right arm. An arm with a scoop reached into the snow and packed some into a ball. Then the arm launched the ball into the air where the guy caught it and threw it at Ness.

Ness jumped behind some bushes to avoid the flying ball. Ness scooped up some snow himself and launched it. The guy rolled out of the way and scooped some more snow into a ball. The snowball fight lasted for several minutes with neither one the clear winner.

“You’re pretty good.” Ness said.

“You’re not bad yourself.” The guy said.

“Do you have a name or something or should I just call you guy?”

“My name is JamesPicard_007, but you can call me JP.”

“Uh-huh.”

“It’s a nickname. Not my real name.”

“Okay. So why are you here, JP?”

“I’m here to help you discover who stole your Christmas.”

“You know who done it?”

“Well yes, but I’m not allowed to tell.”

“Why not?”

“Because the same thing that happened to Anthadd will happen to me.”

“You’ll disappear into nothingness?”

“Well he really didn’t disappear. He’s just not here because he tried to divulge classified information.”
“Classified information? The location of all my family’s Christmas things is classified information?”

“Technically yes.”

“That is the dumbest thing I have ever heard.”

“Well we can’t really interfere with the story by telling you everything.”

“Story? What story?”

“Shut up, JP. He doesn’t know. If you tell him you’ll be kicked out.”

“You’re very weird. Has anybody told you that?”

“Plenty of people. Now we have to get moving if we want to find all your Christmas stuff before midnight.”

“Why midnight?”

“Because if we don’t find it by then a temporal anomaly could occur that will collapse on itself dragging the entire universe with it.”

“That’ll really happen if we don’t find my Christmas things by then?”

“Probably not, but it’s a great incentive to get moving.”

Ness took JP back to his house so they could warm up a bit before they left. Ness’ mom made them hot chocolate with marshmallows to drop in. Ness and JP discussed their plans to find the missing Christmas.

“We need to get to Stonehenge.” JP said.

“Why Stonehenge?” Ness asked.

“The other guys are there. They can help us out.”

“Well we better find out where this stuff is because I want my Love Hina manga collection.”

“Ness! Have you been looking through your presents again?” Ness’ mom roared from the kitchen.

“No Mom.” Ness said.

“Okay.”

“Tsk. Tsk. Tsk. Looking through your presents before Christmas.” JP said.

“It’s not like you’ve never done it.” Ness replied.

“True. We better get going before it’s too late.”

They walked outside where Ness prepared to teleport them to Winters. Ness picked up speed to open the portal. The portal flashed open before them, but when Ness came in contact he bounced back into JP.

“Wunderbar. We can’t teleport to Winters.” JP said.

“What does this mean?” Ness asked.

“We’ll have to walk to Threed. I’ve got a friend there that’ll fly use there.”

So Ness and JP began their long walk to Threed because since it was Christmas all the buses were down for the day. A lot of kids were out playing today. Ness felt a small pang in his heart of being left out. Hopefully JP’s friends would be able to help him out.

The walk through Onett was pretty uneventful. However when they got to Twoson Ness wanted to visit Paula. They stopped at the door of the Polestar Preschool and Ness rang the doorbell. A few seconds later Paula answered the door.

“Oh. Hello, Ness. Who’s your friend there?” Paula said.

“Paula this is JP. JP. This is Paula.” Ness said.

“Hi.” JP replied.

“Come in.” Paula said.

Ness and JP walked into the preschool. Paula shut the door behind them and Ness noticed that there was a guy and a girl sitting at a large table. He didn’t recognize them, but JP did.

“Luna? Sephy? What are you guys doing here?” JP asked.

“Luna demanded that we… OW!” Sephy started.

“We were just in the area and decided to visit. What brings you here?” Luna said.

“I’m just helping Ness out with his problem. You know what I’m talking about.” JP said.

“Yes. Paula was telling us about a problem of her own.”

“What kind of problem?” Ness asked.

“I have this package to deliver to Happy Happy Village, but our furnace was damaged by the cold recently and I need to stay here.” Paula replied.

“So who’s going to deliver it?”

“Luna said that we wou…. OW!” Sephy said.

“Oh. I suggested that Sephy and I take the package ourselves. We have nothing to do.” Luna replied.

“Why don’t Ness and I take the package ourselves? You guys seem to be having a nice conversation.” JP suggested.

“Oh you don’t have to do that.” Paula said.

“It’d be a pleasure.” Ness said.

“Why don’t I go with you guys?” Sephy asked.

“But we’re having a nice conversation with Paula, Sephy.” Luna said.

“Not much of a conversation where I can’t speak my mind.”

“Are you saying I’m being rude?”

“Come on, Ness. We better get that package over there now.” JP said.

“Take care.” Luna called.

JP pushed Ness outside as fast as he could and began walking for the cave entrance to Peaceful Rest Valley as fast as he could.

“What did you do that for?” Ness asked.

“Trust me. That is not going to end well.” JP replied.

“What do you mean?”

“Wait a few seconds.”

Ness walked with JP as fast as he could. Suddenly a blood curdling scream like he had never heard before pierced the air.

“What was that?” Ness asked.

“Let’s just say that Sephy will be singing soprano for a while if not for the rest of his life.” JP replied.

“Gah.”

“Exactly. Let’s go.”

The air inside the Peaceful Rest Cave was incredibly chilly. When they got to the valley it was no different. The chill pierced their coats and froze them. They walked through the valley as fast as they could.

However when they got to the middle of the valley things began to get weird. It wasn’t terribly cold, but seemed like summer. The snow had disappeared and was replaced by lush greenery. Ness turned around and saw the snowy wasteland behind him. He turned around again and saw the lush paradise before him.

“We must be getting into draed’s territory.” JP said as he took his coat off.

“Who?” Ness asked as he removed his coat.

“Everdraed. I guess he’s settled in around here.”

“How can you tell?”

“See how everything is weird around here? That’s a dead give away.”

“You call this weird?”

“Not really. You haven’t seen anything yet.”

JP was right. The plants spit Lucky Charms as they passed. Frogs were colored magenta and swung from tree to tree using their pelican legs. Big blue cats with bells around their necks and a huge pocket in the front ran rampant. Bees produced horseradish sauce instead of honey.

Ness could barely contain his sanity in all the weirdness. JP rushed Ness through the rest of the valley so Ness’ mind wouldn’t splurge on them. When they finally got to the entrance of Happy Happy Village it was guarded by two Oompa-Loompas holding huge licorice sticks as poles.

“We got a babe that’s an island. Golden Speakers!” The left Oompa-Loompa said.

“Wha?” Ness said.

“Where an herring, hoping I could find it. Ya lucky; how’s a famine feeling and fly above the ship and close the shacks.” JP replied.

“He’s got the code. Let him in.” A voice said.

The Oompa-Loompas moved allowing Ness and JP entrance to the cave. They walked through the cave to Happy Happy Village. The village seemed to be the same except for the unusual weather. A man in the distance began to approach them.

He wore a tuxedo and was completely normal except for the fact he had a dinosaur head.

“Hey, JP. How ya doing?” The guy asked.

“Not bad, draed. Yourself?” JP replied.

“I’m good. Just waiting on a package from Twoson.”

“Oh good. We won’t have to worry about hunting you down anymore. Here you go.”

“Thanks. I’ve been waiting on this. I see that Ness is with you.”

“Yeah. We’re trying to figure out who stole his Christmas. Have any ideas?”

“Have you tried asking the guys at Stonehenge?”

“That’s where we’re headed right now. Hey. Have you heard if Gio is still in Threed?”

“Last I heard he was staying there for the trip.”

“Cool. Hey Ness! Say hi to draed. Don’t be rude.”

“Hi.” Ness said.

“Hey.” Everdraed replied.

“I think I better get him out of here. He’s not exactly used to all this stuff.” JP said.

“Okay. See ya later.”

JP led Ness out of the village and into the valley. He guided Ness back to the entrance of the frozen wasteland. They got their coats back on and ran through the dreadful cold. Soon they got back to Twoson.

“Well that was quite an experience right?” JP asked.

Ness couldn’t answer as he was still in shock from being exposed to all that weirdness. JP slapped him around into reality. After making sure he was okay Ness and JP continued the journey to Threed.

Threed was relatively peaceful for the events of the day. Ness was glad to have some normality at last. JP led him to what seemed to be an airfield. Last he knew Threed hadn’t put in an airfield. Then an old man looking like Rich Uncle Pennybags came walking towards them.

“Hiya, Gio!” JP said.

“Hello, James. How are you doing? Ness. You’re looking quite well.” The old man said.

“I’m fine.” Ness stuttered.

“Listen. I need your help in getting to Winters. We can’t teleport there so I figured you could help us out.” JP said.

“At last! We can finally see if the new system works!” Gio replied.

Gio ran towards the hanger. A few minutes passed by when the doors finally opened. Ness was shocked once again as the biggest animal he had ever seen walked out. Not only that it was wearing a set of wings with seats on the top and jet engines in the back and wearing a huge set of goggles.

“What’s that?” Ness asked.

“A guinea pig.” JP replied.

“No. What is that?”

“It’s our ride to Winters.”

“We’re gonna flying on a gigantic guinea pig to Winters?”

“Yup. Hey, Gio. Where’s the enclosure? How are we supposed to stay warm?”

“It has an energy shield. See?” Gio replied.

“Ah yes. I can see the shield emitters now.”

“I’ve told Humphrey here that you want to go to Winters. Just get on board and he’ll get you there.”

“All right. Let’s go, Ness.”

JP led Ness onto the gigantic guinea pig and placed him in a seat. He buckled Ness in and made sure it was secured. Then he sat down himself and strapped himself in. When he was secure JP pressed a button on his seat. The shield activated and Humphrey began to run.

Humphrey was running faster than Ness would have preferred, but even so he couldn’t feel the wind thanks to the shield. The engines sputtered and struggled to activate as Humphrey ran. Soon the engines finally started and Humphrey lifted off from the ground.

Ness didn’t remember much of the trip, but soon they had landed in Winters. Humphrey let them off at the Snow Wood Boarding School. Since the engines were still hot he just jumped into the air and took off back to Threed. Ness decided to make a detour into Snow Wood so he could see Jeff and at least something normal.

The school was festively decorated. It was warm and toasty inside so Ness and JP took of their coats. Students were gathered around the fireplace telling stories and roasting marshmallows. Ness found Maxwell who told them that Jeff was upstairs with a visitor. Once upstairs Ness knocked on Jeff’s door.

Noises came from inside the room that seemed to indicate Jeff was having a hard time getting to the door. Seconds later the door made sounds of being unlatched and it opened and Jeff looked into the hallway.

“Ness! How are you doing?” Jeff asked.

“Not bad.” Ness replied.

“Great. Who’s your friend?”

“I’m JP.” JP answered.

“Cool. Come on in. Beware the room is kinda of a mess.” Jeff said.

Ness and JP squeezed through the door into Jeff’s room. Inside the floor was covered with wires and several equipment stands. By the window and sitting in the middle of all the equipment was a guy with light brown hair, glasses, and plain clothes.

“Another one of your friends, JP?” Ness asked.

“Yeah. How are you doing, JR?” JP asked.

“Not bad. Just setting up the radio equipment in here. Quite a squeeze as you can see.” JR replied.

“JR?” Ness asked.

“Jeff’s Radio. Don’t try on think on it. You’ll only end up hurting yourself.” JP answered.

“Already done.”

“So, JP. Are you helping Ness with his problem right now?” JR said.

“Yeah.” JP replied.

“What problem would that be?” Jeff asked.

“Somebody went and stole Christmas from my house. We have no presents or food and by now the relatives have arrived.” Ness said.

“Oh. That’s terrible. Only a monster would steal at Christmas time. Could it have been Pokey?”

“Probably not. He’s stuck in another time right now. Remember?”

“Ah yes. Then what then is your plan of action?”

“Right now we’re headed to Stonehenge to see our webmaster.” JP said indicating JR and himself.

“Ah. Off to see reid and Tomato.” JR said.

“Yeah. They’re supposed to help out here.”

“Hopefully they’ll just tell us who done it.” Ness grumbled.

“Whatever.”

“Well I suppose you’ll be going now. Do you want any cookies before you go?” Jeff asked.

“No. We’ll be….” Ness started.

“What kind are they?” JP asked.

“They have peanut butter cups inside.” Jeff replied.

“Oooo. My favorite. Thank you very much.”

“You’re welcome. Take care.”

Ness and JP made their way to Lake Tessie. On their way Ness stopped by the drug store to pick up a pack of bubble gum. When they got down there the Tessie Watchers were out and about. The Bubble Monkey was down there, but he was acting kinda of insane right now.

“I wonder what’s with the Bubble Monkey today.” Ness said.

“I’ll bet you that’s not the real Bubble Monkey. It’s probably Only Mildly Insane Bubble Monkey. Give him a piece of gum anyways. He can probably still call Tessie.” JP said.

Ness threw the monkey a piece of gum. The monkey unwrapped it and threw the gum in his mouth. He then blew a giant bubble and floated out above the lake. A slight wind began to blow and Tessie rose from the depths of the lake. She swam over to Ness and JP who climbed on her back.

While she swam over to the other side of the lake the Bubble Monkey kept speaking in insane gibberish.

“Only Mildly Insane?” Ness asked.

“So he claims.” JP replied.

When they got to the other side Ness got off as fast as he could. JP hopped off then Tessie and Bubble Monkey swam off into the growing fog. There were no obstacles between here and Stonehenge and Ness was very thankfully for that. Soon they reached Stonehenge and JP led Ness down the ladder.

Inside the base entrance there were two paintings of two figures.

“Czar reid? Tomato the Red? Who are these guys?” Ness asked.

“They’re the webmasters of Starmen.Net.” JP replied.

“Sounds like a Communist nation.”

“Eh. It’s not so bad as long as you stay on their good side.”

JP led Ness deeper into the Stonehenge base. The people of Starmen.Net had certainly changed it around since last he had been here. It was now cozier and fit for people to live in. JP finally stopped at a door which had a sign that read “The Big Cheese Room.”

JP knocked on the door and a voice invited them in. Inside sitting in two of the comfiest chairs Ness had ever seen was a Mr. Saturn and a huge tomato. JP led Ness over to them.

“Ness. Meet reid and Tomato. Tomato. reid. I’m sure you know Ness.” JP said.

“Hiya.” Tomato said.

“Welcome. Thank you for bringing him…. Uh.” reid said.

“JP. JamesPicard_007? I made the only other Starmen.Net related game that you weren’t captured in?” JP said.

“Um. Nope. Can’t say I recall you.” reid said.

“Hey. Are you okay?” Ness asked.

“*sniffle* No. I need some time to myself. I can tell when I’m not appreciated around here.” JP said before he ran off.

“Weird guy. Anyways you’re here about your missing Christmas problem.” reid said.

“Yeah.” Ness said.

“Well I can’t tell you much other than the perpetrator is closer to home than you’d want to believe.”

“Um. Okay.”

“You’ll want to head to Dalaam next. Then after that you’ll want to return home. It’ll be late by then.” Tomato said.

“Okay. What about that guy?”

“JP? He’ll be okay. We’ll send him your way when he recovers. You should be able to teleport to Dalaam so hop to it and take care.” reid said.

Ness said goodbye to reid and Tomato and a guard escorted him to the entrance of the base. Once outside he gathered up speed and teleported to Dalaam. When he got there JP was waiting for him outside of the palace.

“How’d you get here so fast and weren’t you feeling unloved?” Ness asked.

“Eh. I got over it. We have a transporter inside the base so I used that to get here.” JP replied.

Ness just sighed and walked into the palace. Inside the throne room was Poo and someone dressed like a black mage from Final Fantasy.

“Hiya, Rat! What are you doing here?” JP called.

“Hey, JP! I’m here to play with big shiny stabbity things.” Rat replied.

“You mean swords?”

“That too.”

“Hello, Ness. Who is your friend?” Poo asked.

“Hi, Poo. This is JP. He’s helping me find what happened to my missing Christmas stuff. Hey! The palace is decorated very nicely.” Ness said.

“Thank you. I’m sorry, but I haven’t heard a thing.”

“Oh. Well thanks for your time.” Ness said dejectedly.

Ness, JP, Poo and Rat said their goodbyes and Ness teleported himself and JP back to Onett where it was now night.

“Sorry we couldn’t find your Christmas stuff.” JP said.

“That’s okay. I’ll just go home and spend some time with the relatives. At least I’ll have some fun that way.” Ness replied.

“Yeah. Hey! Tracy’s room seems to be festively colored.”

“Wha?”

“See those lights coming from Tracy’s room?”

Ness looked in the direction of his house. From Tracy’s room window an array of colors shone brightly. Ness and JP ran inside and upstairs to Tracy’s door. It was locked, but Ness ran downstairs and got a knife to bypass the lock. They swung the door to Tracy’s room open and gasped at the sight.

Inside was all the missing Christmas stuff. All the presents, trimmings and the food and in the middle of the floor was a sick Tracy.

“Tracy! How could you steal all this stuff?” Ness asked.

“I wanted it all for myself. So I took it in the middle of the night.” Tracy said.

“But that’s not what Christmas is about.”

“Then what is Christmas about, Ness?” JP asked.

“Wait a minute. You knew it was Tracy all along and didn’t tell me.” Ness said.

“Yup.”

“But why?”

“You had a lesson to be learned.” A familiar voice said.

“Hello, Anthadd.” JP said.

“Hello, James. Tell us. What was you worried about so much this morning?” Anthadd asked.

“Finding all our Christmas things.” Ness replied.

“And what did you tell me you wanted to do just a few minutes ago?” JP asked.

“That I wanted to spend time with my family.”

“Exactly. This morning you wanted presents and such. Now you want to spend time with your family. Why is that important?”

“Because spending time with family is more important than presents and such?”

“Yes. Presents will come and go, but family is forever.” Anthadd said.

“But presents are always nice.”

“Oh. I never said they weren’t. You just need to be more of a family man.”

“Okay….”

“Well our job here is done. Come, Anthadd. I believe the party back at Stonehenge will be starting soon.” JP said.

With those words Anthadd and JP disappeared. Ness’ family helped get everything out of Tracy’s room and back downstairs. Tracy apologized profusely for what she had done. Ness and his family had a wonderful Christmas party.

Back at Stonehenge everyone from Starmen.Net also had a wonderful party. They had helped Ness save his Christmas and learn that friends and family are infinitely better than any gift you can receive.

The End.