Chapter 4: The Time Has Come To Protect Yourself

"Its time, ready?" James asked. 

"You even have to ask." 

"Let's do this." 

They went up to the third, and top, floor and opened the window. The first and second floors are bigger than the third, so they were able to climb on the roof of the second floor. Out there they went on the roof to watch for the enemies. Just as they got up there, they saw smoke rise from the exhaust pipe on the roof. 

"Looks like your candle trick worked" James said to Mick. And then they got startled as they saw mounds upon mounds of snowmen slide towards the house and they quickly ducked behind the roof. 

They got their snowballs ready and.... fire. They were launching snowballs like there was no tomorrow and took out a bunch of snowmen. But they eventually ran out. They then turned to the snow on the roof. They made as many as they could but it wasn't fast enough. The snowmen were getting closer. At least 15 were about to be approaching the front door 

"I don't think we have enough equipment to block them all!" Mick said. 

"You remember those 5 minutes I said I had to go to the bathroom and you said hold it we're in a literal war right now and I said I hadn't gone for like 7 hours." 

"ya..." 

"Well I ended up never going to the bathroom because I got some inspiration." 

As the snowmen were quickly approaching James went back into the house for a sec and grabbed two extension wires. He was hiding them close to each rother and said, "Let me know when they're like 5 feet from the front door!" 

They were quickly approaching, now almost on top of them, almost, almost, almo* 

"They're here!" 

James plugged in the wires and Mick saw tons of snowmen melt as they tried to reach for the door. They melted one after the other and Mick was amazed. 

"What did you do?" 

"oh, just placed aluminum foil under the snow on the front porch, and attached jumper wires to it. And the ensuing electricity... well, you know the rest." 

"Oh no!" Mick exclaimed. "More are coming and they're climbing over their fallen brethren, but it's less than before. I think that was the majority of their forces. This person does war like an impatient kid to throw almost everything in his first attack. Oh ya, what if Santa was in that wave, what would you have done then?!" 

 "Wouldn't have done it then, but still, the voltage was only high enough to give him a mild shock. Just needed enough to melt some snowmen." 

They quickly went to making more snowballs but it wasn't enough. 

"they're coming in." Mike said. 

"Drat, they're numbers are dwindling but they had more than I thought. Hold on, I'll get my bag and then we should regroup on the other side of the roof and hold out for as long as we can until I can unleash my finale." James reached his head into the window and crawled through so that only his legs were perched onto the side of the window. He then grabbed for his bag next to the window on a chair. After he had it in his hand and was getting ready to go back outside he looked up and saw somebody there. 

Like any normal person in the middle of a war who sees an unexpected face when they otherwise though they were alone he screamed at the top of his lungs and fell out of the window inside face first. After he got up and rubbed his face a little he realized it was just a girl. 

"Who are you?" The person said. 

James realized it was a girl and not a snowman so he let his guard down a little. "Names James, I'd like to know who you are too." 

"Names Ruby Rabbit." 

"Any relation to the Easter Bunny?" 

"You know him, he's my dad." 

James looked at her and said "But you're not a bunny!" 

"Adopted." 

"Makes sense. Oh ya, I forgot the Easter Bunny was coming here too." ***(Me too, shh, don't tell anyone)*** 

At that moment Mick popped his head in the window and yelled toward James, "You can't be serious. You yapping in here to yourself or something." He then saw Ruby too and said, "who's she?" 

Ruby replied before James could, "names Ruby Rabbit." 

"Got it, Easter Bunny. Can we get going, the snowmen have gotten passed most of the defenses now I'm sure." 

"Oh, ya, war, forgot, right right." 

Mick went back outside the window and James followed. 

James then turned back, "oh ya, Ruby, you want to come too?" 

"hmm, I don't know" she said as she motioned towards to rumbling downstairs as the snowmen found their way upstairs. "Sure, why not." 

"How'd you end up in here?" James asked as Ruby followed him out the window and they walked along the roof until they got to a ledge that was about as wide as two people. 

"Well, the Easter Bunny heard that Santa was recruiting some college students in his battle against him, so the Easter Bunny asked if I could come along. I had just finished my midterm and just got home so I was too tired to think of an excuse not to and here I am. The rest happened like clockwork. We couldn't find Santa, so we just waited out in his Workshop and eventually the Easter Bunny took a look around and didn't come back. I didn't think much of it until I saw you guys arrive and still no sign of EB. Then I heard loud noises of shattering and saw Santa being pelted with snowballs. He dodged most of them surprisingly, but he let his guard down when he thought he was safe and was taken from behind by a snowman and stuffed in his own toy sack." 

"That was a lot of info but I think I get it. Your kinda in the same boat as us then," James said. Then he looked at his watch. "Mick, it's 30 to midnight, we gotta hurry this up. The finale won't work unless it before midnight." 

"I know! I was the one rushing you along. I think we can still make it tho, just remember your part. Your cue is happy, got it," Mick said. 

"Got it." 

"What finale," Ruby inquired. 

"uuh, at this point it makes more sense to just show you in a couple minutes. Be ready, might be the coolest thing I've ever done." 

James looked back and could see the snowmen had gotten on the roof now and were following them. "We gotta get this right first try, we got bogies on our tail." 

The snowmen were now throwing snowballs. James then took a bat out of his bag and swung. He was able to block most of them but it was slowing him down. He then realized he had no choice. He had to use his secret weapon and make the ultimate sacrifice. 

"I never wanted it to come to this." He said as he started sobbing. "Nobody should ever have to make this choice, whyyyyyy!!!!" He took a thermos out of his bag and kissed it goodbye, and undid the lid a most of the way and then threw it towards the incoming snowmen. Cocoa color substance spilled out of it and onto the roof. And a couple of the snowmen in the front. As soon as it made contact with them, their bodies melted and they shrank until only water remained. The oncoming snowmen slipped on the liquid that dissolved them along with their fallen brethren. and fell off the roof. The first snowmen that had melted had become obstacles for the snowmen and made it almost impossible for them to get across without slipping. James looked longingly at the fallen hot chocolate and said a final goodbye and caught back up with the others. 

"Dang it, I really wanted to have that hot chocolate too. It would've made my finale perfect. Ahh, who am I kidding, it'll still be awesome. They had finally made it off the ledge and to the other side of the roof, where their finale would occur. James and Mick hurriedly looked at each other and started digging through James bag. James took out some explosive looking devices, and Mick took out a brown box. James was using his bat to draw on the snow residing on the roof. 

Ruby took a step back and asked, "Why are you drawing the number 10?" 

"You'll see" James replied. 

Ruby then turned to Mick and said, "will you tell me what he's up to." 

"Sorry, my friend here loves surprises, and doesn't want to ruin it for anyone but me. Anyways, it'll be here soon." 

"I'm sorry but I can't accept that. Anyways, it'll go quicker if I help, right?" 

James and Mick looked at each other and they both nodded. 

"Ya, you're right. Mick, finish up my part while I explain it quickly." 

Mick took the bat and finished writing a message in the snow. 

James leaned in and explained everything as quickly as possible. 

"And that's the gist." 

"Really?! That is kinda cool, where should I start?" 

"Can you blow these balloons up?" James asked. 

James then headed to his back and got the explosive looking devices and set them up all over the roof. 

And just when he finished the last one, he saw some snowmen approaching. Mick had also finished clearing a patch of roof of snow and went to James bag and pulled out a pic-nic blanket and placed it on that spot. He then got the brown box and placed it in the middle. James then stood in front of the other two with a bat in hand and deflected the snowballs heading towards them. 

After a couple shots, he took a deep break and yelled at the top of his lungs, "COME OUT RUDY!!!" 

THe snowmen then stopped with their throwing for the moment and moved to the side to allow a person wearing a cape and a red hat with a white bob on it. He kinda looked like Santa, but smaller. 

"Rudy, you should know this isn't the proper way to behave. I mean come on, your 9, aren't you. Wait, no, that's not right, your 10. Right, am I right. 10 today if I'm not mistaken." 

"You remembered my birthday? I haven't even met you before." 

"Ya, but your dad mentioned that it was a special day today when I saw him yesterday." 

"He did?" 

"Come on, I know you have him, bring him up front and we can ask." 

A snowman approached from behind dragging a red sack around. When he stopped he opened it and let a man in a red suit and red hat with a white b—well, you get it by now I'm sure. It was Santa. 

"Hohoho oh. That hurt my back like the dickens." 

"Dad, you forgot my birthday again this year and weren't even here when I got up. Do you know how frustrated that made me! You promised you'd be here this year." 

Santa looked at his boy and got teary eyed. " I know I wasn't here this morning, but I promise I didn't forget your birthday." 

"You went out yesterday drinking with this guy getting ready to be in charge of Halloween." 

"You don't understand, Jacky finally let me to take a swing at Halloween after almost half a century of asking. He said that the Covid Pandemic had really hit Halloween and not many people trick or treated during it. He understood that so didn't make much of a fuss, but not as many trick or treaters have participated since it ended either. He said he believed some Christmas cheer could help save Halloween. I always wanted to but as soon as you came along it became less feasible because I wanted to be with you and not have to disappear for four days out of the year." 

"Four?" Mick asked. 

"Ya," Ruby replied, "for holidays that take place all over the globe, they happen for 48 hours. All though China doesn't specifically celebrate Halloween, it has something similar called the hungry ghost festival which the person in charge of Halloween is also responsible for." 

Santa continued, "And when I helped out last year, guess it was too much for me and I ended up crashing my sleigh in Greenland from sleep deprivation. I was so sad that I wasn't able to get home in time. I'm so sorry." 

Everyone looked back at the ledge as someone else came over. It was the Easter Bunny and Mrs. Klause. 

Mrs. Klaus said, "Sorry that I'm so late Rudy, I was on my way back when a nasty storm forced me to change my course. Also, why was this man being held hostage by snowmen. I told you not to mess with our frosty top hats. They bring life but just blindly follow orders." 

"Wait, raise your hands," James yelled loudly. And sure enough all of the snow men in ear shot raised their hands. "Wow, that woulda been nice to know like an hour ago. Never mind." 

"I'm sorry Rudy, I promise I remembered. I invited EB to come here- 

"Wait, invited? What happened to that whole he wants to fight you for not taking Easter?", Mick and James said. 

"Take Easter?" The Easter Bunny responded. "Ya, like I'd ever trust him to be in charge of that. Did you know if a kid is only slightly bad he sometimes just puts them on the naughty list so he has one less gift to give." 

"What are you talking about!" Santa responded. "There is no such thing as a naughty list, that's despicable. Parents made it up to get their kids to behave. Imagine how cruel it would be to single out kids based on how they who's good or who's bad. They should learn to be better but by examples and constant support, not risk of not getting gifts. That's a terrible reason to be nicer. I wish that rumor never got started. And btw, coal isn't cheap. Why would I go around and give out cool, that is an awesome gift. You can keep your house extra warm around the holidays." 

"Uh, Dad, you were saying." 

"Oh sorry. I was also out getting him," Santa said. 

Everyone turned their heads to see where he was looking, and everyone found their gaze to be upon James. 

"I know you get lonely here around the North Pole, so I wanted you two to meet. You know, he reminds me a lot of you, so I thought I should bring him to your birthday." 

"Why not tell me then instead of this charade?" said James. 

"I kinda wanted to surprise you too." 

Then Mike said, "Wow, we finally found someone who loves surprises more than you, well I'll be. Never thought I'd see the day. James, tik-tok." 

"Oh crud, almost forgot. Thanks." 

Everyone was now looking at Mick and James with suspicion. 

Mick walked closer and said, "Happy..." and James grabbed a matchbox from his pocket and lit one up and dropped it on a piece string behind him, "birthday." 

"You guys may want to stand back a little bit." 

Just as everyone did, the flame that had ignited the string reached the explosive, or as you probably have guessed by now, fireworks and watched with anticipation as the first couple went up. There was a brilliant red, and a dazzling blue, then a shimmering green. It was beautiful, and just as everyone's focus was on the fireworks, Mick had snaked his way past everyone and was in front of Rudy with the brown box. 

"We found it in you guy's fridge while we were searching for stuff to barricade ourselves with. It was the final piece of the puzzle that made us realize what today was." Mick opened it up and revealed that It was a delicious cake. Chocolate with white icing on the sides and a printed on picture of Santa, Mrs. Klaus and Rudy. Rudy then noticed on the ground there had been a drawing of Happy 10th birthday Rudy under their feet this whole time! 

"We wanted it to be a surprise for you for tonight Rudy," Santa said, "You know, I'll always love you and that will never change. And I'm sorry you I ever made you feel like you weren't important to me." Santa got teary eyed again, "Sorry, some snow in my eyes."