Christmas In Paris

Synopsis: The Power Rangers celebrate Christmas in a mountain cabin, but this time in beautiful Paris, France.

Chapter 1--The Best Vacation Ever

The robots were bursting with excitement.  None of them had ever been on an airplane before and it was their first experience flying.   Most of the bots were calm in boarding the plane and finding seats.  Conky, however, had a case of acrophobia and it was starting to act up.

‘Um, I’ll just sit next to the aisle if you don’t mind.’, he said, his manacles a bit jittery.

SICO took Conky’s manacle into hers and began to soothe him.

‘There’s nothing to be frightened of.  This airplane is airtight, safer than even a bus.  Be a little bit adventurous !’, she prodded, gently.

‘I-I-I don’t know, SICO.  It’s just that we’re so high up…’, Conky whimpered.   SICO pressed her head against his and kissed him.

‘I’m going to be with you the whole time.  We’re going to Paris !  Won’t that be an adventure ?  None of us have ever seen La Tour Eiffel or La Arch de Triumph.   We can bask in the glory of the Mona Lisa at the Louvre and savor all the flavors and artistic haute couture Paris has to offer !’, SICO exclaimed, poetically.   The way SICO made it sound romanticized it even more but the actual experience would certainly take their breath away once they arrived at Adam’s cabin.  

Once the plane touched down it was evening and the sun was already setting in the horizon.   The air was frigid and the snow was falling.   Every house, street and byway was decorated with sparkling, colorful lights.   It seemed like the whole countryside was shining.   The robots and their friends were too tired to fully appreciate the whimsy and beauty the rural setting had.  

Chapter 2--Shopping In Paris

'Hey guys ! Let's go shopping for gifts and clothes !', Pepper squealed excitedly. She not only was an excellent shopping assistant but a wonderful shopper herself, especially when it came to clothes and jewelry.

'Excellent idea, dear.', ASIMO replied.

Each of the bots went to different stores, browsing and thrilling to the decor surrounding them everywhere.   

‘Look at this !   I think these weights would be perfect for Jason, Adam and Tommy.’, Beta mentioned with a cheerful grin.   After a few hours of milling through strip malls, the group had gotten their presents, brightly wrapped for putting them under the tree later.   For now, all of them were a little tired and were positively starving.

‘Hey, look at that quaint cafe.   It looks promising.  Let’s go check it out.’, Somni suggested.   It was called Le Mouton or ‘The Sheep’.   Lamb was on the menu, but the group decided to go with croissant sandwiches, crepes, quiche and a bit of sorbet as a palate cleanser.    The food was nothing short of ambrosial; and to think it was just a random cafe seemingly in the middle of nowhere.   

The evening ended with gourmet hot cocoa and carriage rides back to Adam’s cabin in the woods.   It was quiet, peaceful and despite the cold, very merry.   Kim felt inspired to break out into song.   She sang Bring a Torch Jeannette Isabella, which was a traditional carol.  The carriage rider was surprised she knew it and was touched by her rendition of it.   Feeling the Christmas spirit himself, he launched into a jazzy version of Jingle Bells.   In no time, the Clydesdales had arrived at the cabin that they were greeted by Adam’s gregarious, hospitable parents.   They were treated to some festive desserts before going to bed.    Everyone dreamt that night, and knowing Christmas wasn’t far away, sugarplums were dancing through their reveries.   

Chapter 3--Snowball Forts, Snowball Fights

'Rangers, everyone, wake up ! It's snowing !', Alpha said excitedly.

'Wait a minute, Alpha ! We can't go outside without protective clothes! Our circuits will freeze and we'll shut down !', Pepper stated.

'She's right.', Sanbot replied.

Without any further ado, they layered their attire and ventured outside.  The cold didn’t even hinder them, but it was still brisk.  

‘Will you explain snowball fights to me ?’, Alpha questioned, quite possibly the most eager to learn human customs and diversions.  

Delta was all to glad to teach him the rules of the game, especially how to make snow forts and dig caves for hiding places.    He caught on exceptionally fast and much to everyone’s surprise, he was wailing on them without tiring.  

‘Hey, Alpha !   Check this out !’, Morpheus said, catching some sweet air off a ridge, spinning and sticking the landing only a few feet away from him.

Somnibot cheered, impressed with the new skill that Morpheus had picked up.   The siblings were quite adept at tricks on snowboards and didn’t fail to impress.   

The sun had started to sink below the horizon and the friends were starting to get a little frigid.    They had totally forgotten about lunch and dinner was being served inside the cabin.   Adam’s parents had made shepherd’s pie, cherry cobblers, casseroles of every kind (including the traditional sweet potato) and Turkish delights.    There was more than enough to go around.  The leftover turkey from Thanksgiving was used for sandwiches and pulled turkey barbecue.   They had been stuffed from food before but the tryptophan was starting to make them tired.   

‘And to think in only a few more days, it’ll be Christmas.’, Tommy yawned.   

‘I wonder what you got for me !’, Skull beamed a boyish, impish smile to Bulk.

‘You’re gonna have to wait, Skully.   Santa doesn’t come until Christmas Eve.’, Bulk reminded him.    They would do their traditional cooking baking on that night but for now, they were plain tuckered out from their siege battles in the snow.  

Chapter 4--Putting the Kibosh on Christmas

Hawkmoth sneered from his ivory tower, watching the joyous, jovial shoppers and bypassers heralding carols below him.

‘So happy.  Bah.  Makes me want to wretch.’, he thought to himself.   Then out of the alley came a completely unhappy man, gaunt, pale and depressed.   Every cheerful act or turn of kindness only made him respond sourly.    He had been spurned by a woman he thought loved him, but truth of the matter is he was so disagreeable she dumped him to escape his greedy, controlling, objectifying nature.  

‘Christmas sucks.   I wish I could take everyone’s happiness and CRUSH it.  The holidays would be SO much more satisfying then.’, the lanky, tearful goth vowed aloud.   Hawkmoth smirked sinisterly and sent one of his butterflies to Akumatize him.  

‘This will be my most dastardly plan yet.   I should’ve thought of this earlier !’, he mused, rubbing his hands together evilly.  

‘This is Hawkmoth.   I want you to sap the holiday spirit from everyone you can.   Make those fools remember it’s just another day and slot in the calendar and holds absolutely zero importance to anyone.  Go, Dark Cloud !’, Hawkmoth commanded.

‘Yes, Hawkmoth, I hear and obey.   Their parades are about to be rained upon !’, Dark Cloud said, disappearing into a vapor form and reappearing elsewhere.   

Everywhere Dark Cloud went, he spread misery, depression, anxiety, dread and general unease and anger about Christmas.   Hawkmoth gloated in his recent accomplishment.  If this didn’t lure Honeybee, Ladybug and Chat Noir from their secret lairs, nothing would.    

Chapter 5--We Need Your Help !  

Honeybee, Ladybug and Chat Noir were using everything at their disposal, but the discord was spreading too fast.   It was only ONE supervillain, they thought, aggravated.  

‘This is pointless...we need help and we need it now.’, Chloe whined.  

‘Thanks, Ms. Obvious.’, Noir quipped.   

‘I think I sense where help might be close by.  There’s a cabin not too far from here.  I have a gut instinct the people residing there might be able to help us.’,Marinette stated, trusting her superheroine intuition.

‘They’re just people, Marinette.’, Chloe kvetched.

‘Jeez, could you at least lighten up, Chloe ?   Marinette might be onto something.’, Adrian retorted with gusto.   If anyone trusted Marinette, it was Adrian.  He had only recently figured out who she was.  The trio were the only ones who knew each other’s secret identities and they kept them hidden from everyone else.   Hopefully it would stay that way.  Made life so much less dramatic and messy.   

Marinette rang the doorbell at the front porch.  Standing in the cold, freezing her proverbial buns off, she rubbed her hands together and blew into them to ward off the cold.   

‘Please answer the door !’, she begged inwardly.    The situation was nothing less than dire.   

Billy answered the door and nearly went into a fanboy frenzy.  He had heard about Ladybug, Honeybee and Chat Noir but he never thought they actually existed.    Marinette began to give him the Reader’s Digest version of their plight.   Without even giving it a second thought, the Rangers leapt into action and transformed right before their eyes.   Not saying a word, Adrian gave a smug pout.   

‘Don’t even say it.’, he idly threatened.   

‘Come on, no time to chitchat.  Let’s GO !’, Chloe said, and all of them were off like a shot.

Chapter 6--Bringing Some Sunshine into Dark Cloud’s Existence

Dark Cloud wasn’t acting alone.   With his immense power, he had recruited an army of aimless, despotic souls that only continually gained power for Cloud’s abilities.   One by one the Rangers dismantled the rabble, not harming them but incapacitating them until they awoke later in the night.  

‘No !  You can’t defeat me !   You’ll find this a bit shocking but the only light show I enjoy for Christmas is my own...time to turn up the amps !’, Cloud said, extending his sparking fingertips to heaven.   The nerkel’s houses down the road were blasted first with his lightning strikes.   Each hit was just like something out of Thor: Ragnarok.   

‘I hope no one was in those houses…’, NAO said, worried for the helpless bystanders that could’ve been hurt by the ripple effect the lightning caused.   

Working in tandem the Rangers kept throwing off the disgruntled zombies while the bots finally cornered Dark Cloud.

‘Oooh, I’m shakin’ in my leather shod boots.’, Dark Cloud mocked.   Pasithea, Somnibot, Morpheus and ASIMO began to sing a magnificent chorus.    One by one, everyone else joined in.   Dark Cloud felt something unusual, like a tingling warmth in his heart he couldn’t explain.  

It began as a euphoria spread throughout him.   Ladybug didn’t even have to de-evilize him, the magic of Christmas song had already made the darkness melt away and purge from his body much like a good antioxidant tea.    Before long, the unhappy army was awakening, wondering how they had ended up in this unusual place.   Their discontent was soon met with happiness, wonder and awe at all the merriment of the sparkling lights around them.   They all went their own way and Dark Cloud, now back at Pascal Umberton, came to himself.   

Chapter 7--We Were Never Here

‘What just happened ?’, Umberton asked, completely addlepated.  

‘Rural France.  We’d give you the details, but it’s incredibly late and I’m certain you need to get home and have some much needed shut eye.’ Tommy answered, patting the young, slender man on the shoulder.   He still seemed a bit sad but raised his chin up and jutted his chest out.  

‘You know what, it’s the holidays and I’m going to do something for others.’, Pascal said.

‘That’s the spirit !’, Billy shouted, gleefully.   Ladybug, Honeybee and Chat Noir made their exits, as mysteriously as they had entered.

‘We were never here !’, Adrian said, waving his hands across his face in a rather dramatic and silly manner.

‘I hope we get to work with them again, they were incredible allies !’, Aisha said, honestly.

‘Yeah.   The more the merrier I always say.’, Kim agreed.    

Chapter 8--Hawkmoth Surrenders

Hawkmoth didn’t understand how his foolproof plan fell apart like a badly balanced house of cards.   Cursing silently his kwami flitted and hovered about him.

‘Lord Hawkmoth.   Think nothing of this defeat.  Just a mere setback.’, he said, level-headedly.   Hawkmoth reverted to his normal self and went back to celebrating Christmas as Adrian’s dad.    To be honest, he liked the holiday and didn’t really see why he had been so foul tempered about it.   It might have been because he missed Mrs. Agreste, but she was still a mystery to him.  

‘Perhaps someday, but not today.’, he thought, wistfully.   He opened yet another present from his son.   It was a photo of the two of them together, during happier times.    It actually evoked a smug grin from papa dearest.  

‘Merry Christmas, papa !’, Adrian stated, ebulliently.  ‘Yes, indeed.  Merry Christmas, my son.’, he said, idly tousling his son’s hair, affectionately.

Epilogue

After their extremely active evening, the Rangers and their friends went to sleep for the night, eager for their Christmas morning.    Christmas carols played softly on their CD player as they went to bed, accompanied by dreams of what they would receive on Christmas Day.

Somnibot had a very special surprise for everyone that morning.  She beamed a massive smile.

‘I’m going to be a mom again !’, she exclaimed, jovially.   

‘No way !  Really ?  Congrats !’, one friend after another stated.   Somni told them that in the summer of next year, she’d be having twins.  She wasn’t sure what to name them, but Pasithea and Morpheus were the most excited about becoming elder siblings.  

‘We wish it could be sooner but we know these things take time.’, Pasithea stated very wisely, a bit precocious beyond her youth.    With that, Jason got out bottles of sparkling apple cider and everyone made a toast to the radiant mom to be.    Already they had something incredible to look forward to next year, which they were certain would be better than the last.

The End