The Night Before
A Very Hale-y
Christmas
written by Colin Dyson (kalonZombie)
The Night Before
A Very Hale-y
Christmas
written by Colin Dyson (kalonZombie)
6:00 AM
Hale rubbed his eyes and stretched as he woke to his datapad going off. He groggily turned and looked at the time. 0600. Christmas Eve, I'm allowed to sleep in I guess. He gave Em a peck on her cheek and checked his datapad. The message was from Cheryl, and he read it with interest.
"I've hidden the key to Emeralda's belt somewhere on the mansion grounds. Find it before we leave for the party and you'll be allowed to unlock her. Your first clue: Mess Hall."
Hale blinked, and then slowly dawned on him that he had remembered the conversation he had the other day with the General. He quickly got dressed, wanting to find the key sooner rather than later. True, the party was still 15 hours away, but knowing the General, the clues would only get more vague and require more thought from there. It was likely that the excercise would take him all day. Not to mention, his parents were coming to the mansion to visit. He and his younger brother, Chris, both lived in the mansion, not to mention a dragoon with part of his own DNA, Tabetha. On top of that, they wanted to meet the woman that finally had gotten Hale to stop chasing every skirt that happened to make partial eye contact with him.
He quickly made his way to the mess hall, passing by Josephine's room as he did so, and he heard all too familiar noises coming from there. Chris is probably getting his present right now... he thought, and continued on. He entered the Mess to see it still pretty empty. Lemon must still be getting breakfast ready... Sure enough, Lemon walked out and was putting the food on the table, and blinked at him being early. "Oh, you must be here as part of Cheryl's hunt."
"Uh, yeah... any idea what that's about?" He asked, looking around.
"Yes." Said Lemon simply as she went back and into the kitchen before he could respond. Hale scratched his head in confusion. Lemon came back, looking at him with a raised eyebrow.
"So... are you going to tell me what it's about?" Hale asked.
"No." Lemon said with a smile as she turned back to get more food. Hale let out a small sigh and started looking around the Mess Hall for more clues. He searched for a good 15 minutes, and several of the other members of the team came in at the tail end, but he eventually found it under some chewed up gum and crusted... actually, he didn't want to think of what was crusted right there. A slip of paper with a single word written on it.
9:00 AM
Hale had been following one clue to another. Like he suspected, they slowly got more obscure or more generalized. He suspected he wasn't even half done, and he had been at it for three hours already. Cheryl either wants to make sure I'm not just asking for simple sex, or is recording this for her amusement... or both. He thought as he looked at his watch. Just a little past 0900. "Shit" he cursed aloud. His parents should be here soon.
Sure enough, as soon as he looked at his watch, he got a message that his parents were approaching the mansion. He would have to continue his search a bit later. He started heading up to the mansion entrance, and let Em know through the bond that they were here. <I'll be there in a bit> she replied. He smiled a bit and groped her through the bond. Her responce was a light smack on the back of his head. Hale simply laughed and kept walking, where he ran into Chris.
"You ready for this?" Asked Hale.
"No. You?"
"God no. Last time I talked to mom, Tabetha was given the mission to make me not perpeptually single anymore. Now that I'm not, what's next?"
"Josephine is going to hide for a few hours until I tell her Dad's calmed down a bit." Chris shook his head like that was going to be impossible.
Less than two minutes later the elder Hales were walking in the door, giving smiles and hugs to their boys. Tabetha skipped up and gave hugs as well, saying hello to her grandparents. "It's nice to meet you in person, Grammy! You too Grampy!"
Martha Hale looked at her boys and started fussing immediately. "Chris, you're too skinny. You're not in prison anymore, the food should actually taste good. Johnny, you need a haircut. You're starting to look like a hippie."
"I missed you too mom" Hale replied as he shook his father's hand. Gregory Hale smiled as he pulled his son into a hug. "So where are your girls at? If they're half as cute as the pictures you've been sending I'm jealous."
"Em's coming. She should be here any minute." Hale said with a smile. Chris looked back at the hallway and said "Jose's... busy. She'll be here eventually."
Hale leaned into his mom's ear and whispered "Hiding from Dad." She laughed a bit and nodded her head knowingly. At that moment, Emeralda walked up, holding two wrapped presents. "Hi! I'm Em!"
"Johnny's told me all about you, Em" Greg said as he kissed the back of her hand, giving her the trademark Hale smile. Em blushed a bit and handed him the smaller of the two presents. "This is for you. And this is for you!" She said as she handed Martha the larger, and heavy, one. Martha sagged a bit under its weight for a second.
"Well why don't you give us the tour?" She said with a smile. Hale nodded and started showing her the way around...
12:30 PM
Hale was growing desperate. It was 1230 and he hadn't been able to get back to the hunt. Cheryl did this on purpose. He thought. Chris finally had managed to draw Josephine out of hiding, so Hale used it as an excuse to sneak away and continue his hunt. Apparently the most recent clue was "bullseye". He figured that meant the training room, so he rushed his way down there. He fired a couple of shots at the targeting dummies, but that didn't do anything.
That was too easy for this late in the game, Hale thought, and paced in the room. Not seeing anything else there, he left, passing by the rec room. He saw the room set up with the standard games to pass the time, most importantly, a dartboard. Hale moved into and started looking behind them. When one was pried to the wall, he sat there and thought a bit. A lightbulb went off and he grabbed a few darts and tossed them. The electronic interface kept his score, resetting every three tosses. It took a bit, but he eventually got three bullseyes, and the board swung open to reveal the next clue, "high art".
He blinked and started heading off to the art hall, but realized he had snuck away for a while. He resigned to going back to his family, having to call off the hunt for now. He was just in time to see presents being handed out. "Oh good, you're back, come here sweetie." Martha said, patting a spot next to her. He sat down and smiled at Em who had gotten his parent's presents for him. She's too good to me.
Sky, Tabetha's adopted daughter, and Leira, Tabetha's wife, were also there. Sky was hiding behind the two as they opened their presents from Tabetha, which were stuffed animals and pictures of Sky. Greg laughed as his present from Em was viagra, and winced as Margrets was a frying pan with a note "for when 'No' isn't final enough" attached to it. Chris got a new sweater and he put it on right away to Josephine's displeasure. She shook her head and he wrapped an arm around her.
Hale and Chris had joined their presents into one, a romantic getaway to Jamaca for them. Hugs both manly and feminine were exchanged, and the boys opened theirs. They were a few really, really bad movies. The kind that the Hale boys liked to sit down to watch and laugh at.
3:00 PM
Hale wandered the art wing of the mansion and saw it. The key. Nestled nearly between the breasts of a rather bosomy painting. He started rushing over to it when Greg intercepted him, wrapping an arm around Hale. "There's my boy. Why don't you take your old man around and show him how good a shot you are?"
Hale looked back at the painting, but noted the time was around 1500. They still had three hours before they left for Athena's concert. He knew where the key was. So what was an hour to kill with his dad in the training room? "Alright. Let me show you this trick Peter taught me..."
4:00 PM
Hale was moving back to the art room. He was going to grab that key. He started moving with purpose. He saw the painting again and started walking to it, intent to grab it. Hours of searching finally over.
It was then his mom came over and gave him a hug. "We haven't had much time to talk between presents and other people, sweetie. Come tell your mom all the stuff you're allowed to."
"Mom... I..." He looked at the key again. He still had two hours. Plenty of time. Spend an hour with his mom, come back, grab the key, and enjoy a nice Christmas party. "Yeah, yeah let's go find somewhere to talk."
6:30 PM
Hale was running to the art room. It was one thing after another. First his dad, then his mom, then both of them wanted to play a game... Hale had less than ten minutes to get the key. He gave a quick goodbye to his parents, promised he'd visit more often, and started running. He smiled as he approached the painting. Victory was-
The key was gone. THE KEY IS GONE?! Chris blinked at Hale as he walked by. Hale ran over to Chris and grabbed him by the shoulders. "Chris, did you see a key there?"
"Huh? Oh, yeah, it was weird, just hanging there. I took it."
"WHERE DID YOU PUT IT?!" Hale asked, desperate.
"Th-the lost and found? Why?" Chris never got an answer. Hale was already rushing off towards the lost and found. Okay, okay, I still got this. Seven minutes until we need to leave. Just get the key and leave. How hard can it be?
As Hale approached the box, he heard a mechanical sounding "HALT". At that moment, a robot popped up, his eyes glowing red. "I AM THE LOSTANDFOUND BOT."
"...Tabetha's?"
"THE CREATOR IS DESIGNATED AS TABETHA JUSTICE-HALE, YES." Shouted the robot. Hale was certain he was going to go deaf before the concert. "I WAS BUILT TO PROTECT THE LOST AND FOUND BOX."
"Protect it from wh-" "THIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIEVES." Shouted the robot, then narrowed his eyes at Hale. "DID YOU LOSE SOMETHING?"
"Yes. A key! My brother brought it not too long-" "I HAVE THIRTY-ONE ITEMS DESIGNATED AS 'KEYS'. CHOOSE YOURS. IF YOU TAKE MORE THAN ONE KEY, YOU WILL BE VAPORIZED."
Hale blinked as the robot opened his chest. Sure enough, there were lots of different looking keys. Hale looked around, trying to remember which one it was. Three minutes left.
"YOU ARE TAKING AN AWFULLY LONG TIME TO FIND YOUR KEY" The robot shouted, narrowing his eyes again. "YOU WERE NOT LYING WERE YOU?"
"No! No I just... I don't know what it looks like..." "IF IT WAS YOUR KEY THEN YOU WOULD! VAPORIZATION TO COMMENCE IN FIVE..." Hale spotted it! "FOUR..." Hale reached for it! "THREE..." Hale wrapped his fingers around it! "TWO..." Hale pulled his hand out! "ONE..."
"This is it! This is my key! I swear this is the one I was looking for!" Hale pleaded. The Robot narrowed his eyes and pulled back his plasma cannons. "THANK YOU FOR USING LOSTANDFOUND BOT. PLEASE LEAVE BEFORE VAPORIZATION!"
Hale had less than an minute, but he managed to grab the key. He rushed to the teleporter to the PAX. Cheryl eyed him as he ran up, a bit sweaty. "Well?" She asked. He simply held up the key. Cheryl inspected it, and nodded. "Congratulations Hale."
Hale smiled, wrapping an arm around Em's waist. I totally earned this.