Bab 111: 110. Holiday Village 2
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(3rd POV)
After parting with his granddaughters, Max headed to the southwest of the city, where he noticed a trail of smoke from a chimney. Moreover, it was the only building that was heated in this city, so it was logical to assume that the head of the city was located there.
From what Max has already noticed, the local elves do not feel the cold and work comfortably in light clothing, so this further strengthens his previous conclusion.
After walking several blocks and turning several times through narrow streets, Max found himself in front of a large building that looked more like some kind of factory. It was this building that was heated and Christmas melodies could be heard from there.
'It clearly a toy factory. A mountain of gifts packed and packaged in a sleigh at the entrance only confirms this guess. Someone stubbornly wants to make a city of eternal Christmas out of this place. I don't like it all.' - Max thought as he surveyed the suspicious building.
Carefully opening the front door, Max looked inside with one eye and saw a deep pit, along the walls of which conveyor belts were laid. At the bottom of the pit was a device that created children's toys and sent them down a ribbon while about a hundred elves worked hard to pack the toys. Then the wrapped gifts went along the tape, where they were stored in huge piles.
The machine itself, which created the toys, looked like a strange metal structure shaped like a Christmas tree and a spaceship at the same time. Moreover, it was a very ugly mixture of genres.
'In my experience, a machine that looks like this can't be used for good. I'm sure the man at the head of all this clearly has bad intentions. Or, at the very least, he's not right in the head. Not the first time I've encountered this.' - thought the old Plumber.
Having examined the underground toy workshop a little more, Max noticed that there is a small balcony under the ceiling, which leads to some room with a fireplace, from which smoke comes out.
'I think that's exactly where I need to go.'
Cautiously entering inside, and quietly closing the door behind him, Max went to the ledge and moved to the stairs, which was a little to the side.
'It seems that in order to place this workshop here, the entire floor of the former factory had to be destroyed and dug two dozen meters down. I'm lucky, as I accidentally found an entrance that no longer makes sense to use, so I can sneak down inside.' - Max mused as he walked down the stairs.
After reaching the bottom of the pit, Max used the mountains of gifts as cover and watched the balcony.
'I need to get there somehow and find out what's really going on here.'
- I'm glad you made it here on your own. You have no idea how long we all have been waiting for you. - suddenly there was a cheerful voice behind Max, who scared the hell out of him.
Turning sharply back, Max saw a short old man with a gray beard, similar to the rest of the elves. But it was clear that he was not an ordinary elf, since his clothes were more luxurious than those of the others, and also his eyes had a normal look, in contrast to the beady eyes of elves. Plus, he was taller than everyone else.
- Are you the owner of this place? - Max asked warily, remaining alert.
- Yes, I created this beautiful Holliday Village. Greetings, my name is Mr. Jingles and I'm glad that we were finally able to meet Mr. Claus. - with a huge smile, Mr. Jingles said shaking Max's hand, which he himself snatched.
- Mister Claus? What are you talking about? - Taking his hand, asked Max, starting to carefully move back.
- Oh, don't worry, I know who you are, don't be shy. Can I just call you Santa? - with an unhealthy gleam in his eyes, said Jingles, approaching Max.
- You must be confusing me with someone else. I'm sorry, but I have to go. - Max said quickly, trying to get to the exit, but two giant nutcrackers blocked his way.
'Looks like I can't get out without a fight.' - Max thought when he saw the Nutcrackers.
- Oh no, Mr. Claus, you can't leave. And what about the children around the world waiting for their Christmas gifts? You must fulfill your purpose. - said Mr. Jingles, taking a remote control out of his pocket. At the same time, two three-meter teddy bears appeared behind him.
'Maybe it really was worth waiting for Lex to come back? ' - Max thought ruefully.
- It's July. - Max said seriously, discreetly pulling Lex's gift from his magic bag.
- It's always Christmas in this city! - Jingles categorically shouted, and then added: - And you must deliver all these gifts!
When Jingles pressed a button on his remote, Santa's throne appeared behind Max, having a strong pulling effect that tried to get him to sit on it. This clearly did not bode well.
Luckily, before Max sat down, an energy shield appeared from his belt, destroying the throne itself and protecting Max from Jingles' subordinates.
'I'll have to thank Lex again for that belt.' - Max thought, remembering his grandson, whom he now really missed.
- What is it? Get him out of there! - Seeing that the throne had been destroyed, Jingles screamed hysterically and gave orders to his pawns.
- Not today. - shouted Max, dodging the nutcracker and the bear. 'Time to test the Jaeger in the battle.'
Throwing the figurine on the ground, Max quickly took out the keychain and activated the increase system. When the Jaeger appeared in his four-meter incarnation, the AI of the robot took control and destroyed the guards who ran after Max, who turned out to be ordinary robots. Climbing up the arm of the robot, which the AI lowered specifically for Max, he got into the cockpit and took control.
- NO! YOU CANNOT GO! SANTA IS NECESSARY FOR THIS CITY! CATCH HIM! - the angry cry of the once friendly Jingles was heard, who sent two dozen robots at Max that looked like toys.
Knowing full well that this was not the right place to fight the robots, especially considering the elves who were there, who were clearly only innocent bystanders, Max destroyed a couple of nearby robots and jumped to the balcony, which could lead him to the exit from here.
In one jump, Max reached the railing, which he pulled himself up to, quickly climbing into a room that looked like an old library.
- Heck! It was the wrong decision… - Max swore when he noticed that there were about a hundred robots from Jingles' army in this library.
- You will never get out of here, Mr. Claus. Just give up and complete your mission. - came the calm voice of Mr. Jingles, who miraculously found himself behind his army.
- I didn't want to do this, but it looks like I don't have a choice. Take care of your head! - Max shouted, and then turned on the Jaeger's increase function and increased to ten meters, thereby breaking through the ceiling of the building.
Unfortunately, before Max could get out of the building, Nutcrackers jumped onto his robot's feet, restraining Max and preventing her from jumping out. Other robots began climbing Jaeger's legs to pull Max out of the cockpit. At the same time, the robots themselves miraculously became stronger and ceased to be as fragile as before.
'It seems to be related to the remote that Jingles was holding.' - Max thought, fighting off the invasion of toys.
When Max threw the nutcrackers off his feet, and was about to destroy a few more robots, he heard a voice from the sky: - Grandpa!
It was Gwen, who flew in with the help of her flame, and with her help she began to destroy the robots that wanted to climb onto the roof.
- Gwen! Are you okay? - Max shouted as he trampled on the blue bear robot.
- We're all right. What happened here? - shouted Ashley, who flew up, began to pour electricity on other robots, which for some reason did not become less, no matter how much destroy them.
- The head of the city seems to be very obsessed with Christmas. He thinks I'm Santa and wants to make me deliver gifts. - Max said quickly, tearing the nutcracker robot to pieces.
'After all, real weapons are really lacking.' - Max involuntarily thought.
- But it's July! - Gwen yelled as she sent the magic discs to attack.
- I said so, but it didn't seem to convince him. Plus, there's a hell of a lot going on here. - said Max, recalling all the oddities that he noticed earlier.
- It's all Jinglelator! - Instead of the voice of his granddaughter, Max heard a squeaky voice belonging to one of the elves, who managed to climb onto the Jaeger's shoulder.
- What do you mean? - Max asked, thinking at the same time: 'Finally, there's some way to get some information.'
- This is the machine that produces gifts. It's called the Jinglelator. Mr. Jingles uses it to control the city and turn it into a village of eternal Christmas. It's the Jinglelator that makes me look like an elf. - the elf said quickly, when Max covered him with his arms to protect him from the attacks of the robots.
- So you're not a real elf? - Gwen asked, landing on Jaeger's other shoulder.
- No, I'm just a normal boy. Like everyone else, as soon as I got to this city, I gradually began to turn into an elf, after which Mr. Jingles made me wrap gifts all day long. I don't even remember how long I've been here. I really miss my parents. - starting to cry, the little elf continued the story.
- So the source of all the oddities in this city is this Jinglelator? - Max asked, trampling on several robots that were finally starting to run out.
- This is true. Please destroy this infernal machine. Release us from this curse! - shouted the brave elf.
- Ashley. - Max turned to his adopted granddaughter, because her abilities are best suited to destroy the magic machine.
- I realized. : the girl shouted, flying into the building and heading towards the Jinglelator.
- NO! If you destroy the Jinglelator, then the children will not be able to receive their gifts. Without toys, Christmas will be sad and everyone will cry. - came the voice of Mr. Jingles, who had sent most of the toy army to stop Ashley.
- The main thing in Christmas is not gifts, but the feelings with which you present them! - Max shouted, unable to bear the stupidity of Jiggles.
- But ... But ... How ... - Jingles said in a stunned voice, having sent Max.
- You subjugated ordinary children and forced them to give gifts that are essentially meaningless, because there are no feelings in all this, but only your deranged obsession. - Max added, destroying the last robot nearby.
*BOOM**BOOM**BOOM**BOOM*
A series of explosions were heard from below, signaling the destruction of the Jinglelator and the end of this battle. Once the wonder machine was destroyed, all the robot toys that attacked Max and Gwen stopped moving. After making sure it was over, Max reduced Jaeger to his standard size of 4 meters.
- Well, how? - Max opened the cockpit and asked Ashley, who returned holding a small cube of metal.
- All perfectly. The Jinglelator worked on a strange glowing star. I thought Lex would be interested in her, so I took her and destroyed everything else. - Ashley said, pointing to the cube.
'Ashley is right here, I think Lex will be interested to know how this star was able to change the whole city and turn children into an elf. Even to me it seems unbelievable, although I have seen a lot.' - Max thought after listening to Ashley.
- So it was pointless... - Jingles said ruefully.
- You had good intentions, but you chose the wrong method. - Max said sternly, getting out of the Jaeger.
- You are right... - said Mr. Jingles, looking at his factory and the elves.
- Thank you for freeing us. - said the little elf who helped our heroes.
- We were happy to help. - Gwen said with a smile.
- It was pretty fun destroying all those toys. - Ashley replied with a satisfied smile.
- Looks like it's coming back. - Max said, noticing how ripples passed through space. After shrinking the Jaeger, Max returned it to his bag.
Before they could blink, they were all on the street, in the center of an ordinary town, with European architecture, but at the same time having all the benefits of civilization. Happy people walked the streets, snow guns were everywhere, and Christmas paraphernalia could be seen everywhere, which was obviously fake, unlike what was before.
- Everything is back to normal. - Ashley said as she looked around the city.
- Yes, it seems that the dimension is gone and we are in the real world. And there is a real city here. And look, we're not in the desert anymore. - Gwen said, pointing to a forest that could be seen outside the city.
- Look. ; Max said, drawing the attention of the girls to the sculpture of a familiar person.
- 'Holiday Village. Founded by Thomas Jingles in 1928. What is important is not the gift, but the feelings with which we present it." - Ashley read aloud the sign under Mr. Jingles' monument.
'Looks like he's learned his lesson.' - Max thought, glad that it ended like this.
- 1928? - Gwen asked shocked.
- Looks like that place was not only in a separate dimension, it was also stuck in time. - Max suggested.
- Grandpa, look. Does that old man remind you of anyone? - Ashley asked, pointing at the old man, accompanied by his grandchildren.
- Is this the elf who helped us? - Gwen asked, looking at Elsgood, as his grandchildren called him.
- Even after it's over, things don't get any less weird. - Max complained.
- How are you? - Lex said, out of nowhere, eating a caramelized apple.
- Lex, you're back! - Ashley exclaimed with a smile.
"Looks like their relationship has improved. What can not be said about the relationship with Gwen.' - Max thought with a smile as he watched his grandchildren interact.
- Yes, I'm done with everything. So, did anything interesting happen while I was away? - Lex asked with a smile, pulling out an apple for each of them.
- You wouldn't believe it… - Ashley immediately began bragging about her past adventure.
'How glad I am that we went on this summer trip. It's nice to see my beloved grandchildren grow into wonderful people.' - Max involuntarily thought, biting off an apple.
Status Power Mingguan
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Power 
-- Power
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