CHAPTER TWENTY, merry glitchmas

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"Ho, Ho, Ho! Santa's here." Donald announced, walking through the front door with bags in his hands.

"I'm not sitting in your lap. Just hand out the gifts." Leo pointed out, making the man chuckle before the others crowded around him.

Donald smiled. "Presenting this holiday season's hottest new action figures! Adam, Bree, Chase and Emilia!" He announced, pulling out four action figures from the bag and showing them to the four teenagers.

"Oh my—"

"Wow!"

"Cool!"

"Toys!"

"They're so cute." Tasha smiled before glancing at her husband.

"And mine matches my new hair colour!" Emilia grinned, seeing the brunette hair on her action figure.

"Only because you told me about your hair before I ordered these." Donald hummed to the banshee. "And now that the world knows and loves you guys, a toy company was eager to put one of these in every kid's stocking— for a small licensing fee."

Leo cleared his throat before asking. "Didn't they forget a certain someone?" Donald looked at his step-son with raised brows. "I'm just saying, this face would look dashing in molded plastic. It appeals to children of all ages."

"Leo, we agreed to keep your bionic arm a secret." Donald told him. "Besides, this is about Adam, Bree, Chase and Emilia. And me!" He pulled out an action figure from the bag that matched his physical appearance, before imitating an airplane sound. Seeing the looks the others were giving him, he furrowed his brows at them. "What? It comes free with the set."

"Right, because no one would actually pay for you." Bree remarked, earning a chuckle from Emilia.

"Look, Chase, yours is life-sized!" Adam grabbed the boy's action figure and held it up to him.

"Oh, and look!" Chase picked up Adam's action figure. "Adam's head is hollow, just like the real thing."

The girls smiled as they looked towards Adam who defended. "It's not hollow. It's filled with potential."

"Wait, potential? More like air." Bree scoffed at her brother before the three siblings began to bicker with each other.

Emilia shook her head, turning to the others behind her as she rhetorically asked. "And I was chosen to protect them? Give me a break."

"Guys, it's Christmas." Tasha sighed while going over to the four teenagers, with her attention on the arguing siblings. "This is a time to think about others, not yourselves. Which is why famed TV reporter Tasha Davenport is hosting a charitable toy drive at school." She turned to her husband who sent her a pointed look. "Oh, it can be a little about me."

"Of course it can, honey." Donald smiled, walking over to kiss her on the cheek. "Now that little self-involved side trip is over, check it out. Heh heh heh! Your action figures are now second place on the holiday gift best-seller list."

"Second place? What's first?" Chase questioned, as Donald looked at his phone.

"A— A toy called the Nerble." Donald answered the boy.

"What's a Nerble?" Emilia asked, with her, Chase and Bree peering at Donald's phone.

"That?" Chase furrowed his brows. "That's just a furry orange ball."

"Yeah, who would buy that stupid thing?" Bree chimed in.

"I can give you one guess." Emilia hummed, nodding towards Adam with the others following her gaze to see Adam playing with the item, muttering 'Nerble' repeatedly.

Noticing them looking at him, Adam practically shrugged. "What? It has fur and rubber. What else do you need in life?"

"Ooh, Donald. I bet the kids at the charity drive would love some of your old toys." Tasha suggested to her husband.

"Tasha, they're not toys, they're scientific inventions—" Donald chuckled, turning around to see Tasha beginning to run out the room. "No! No, no! Stay away from my toys!" He shouted, following her out the room.

"The only reason the Nerble is outselling us is because our action figures don't have any cool features." Chase sighed, staring down at his action figure.

"But a furry rubber ball with one eye does?" The banshee questioned, looking down at Adam.

"You see, she gets it. On my side once again." The boy said, holding an arm out.

Emilia shook her head, smiling in amusement before they turned to Leo who piped up. "Hey, you know what will make your toys number one? Drop a little dab of Dooley in that fun pack. Hey."

"Or we could make better prototypes and get the toy company to sell them. Then we'll be number one instead of the Nerble." Chase suggested.

"You guys are ridiculous. Who cares if some little toy is beating us?" Bree questioned.

"I do." Chase answered, gesturing to himself as he continued. "We're heroes. We should be number one. I don't see any furry rubber balls saving the world."

"No, but they do bring the world joy." Adam pointed out, staring down at the Nerble.

"How?"

Adam smiled, throwing the Nerble towards his brother which hit Chase in the stomach, causing him to groan in pain.

"See, joy." Adam smiled, making Emilia sigh before kneeling down to pick up the Nerble with a hum.

Emilia smirked. "No, you're wrong, Adam. This brings me joy." She said, throwing the Nerble towards a laughing Leo which hit him in the stomach and he fell to the ground, groaning in pain.

Emilia smiled, raising her arms in the air in the cheer as the others laughed harder, before the banshee kneeled down to help Chase up from the floor who smiled proudly at her.

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"Look, guys, I just finished improving our action figures with some cool new features." Chase said, seeing his siblings and Emilia walk in. "Well, apart from Lia's because she threatened me if I touched hers."

"And you never will." Emilia shook her head at her boyfriend. "Anyway, continue."

"Check out Adam's." Chase held up his action figure.

"Activating heat vision." The toy said, with its eyes flashing red making Chase smile brightly at the three.

Adam gestured to the action figure. "Okay, now show me the cool thing you added." He didn't look impressed.

"And Bree's." Chase glanced at Adam before he picked her action figure up.

"Activating super speed." Bree's action figure said. "Whoosh whoosh, whoosh, whoosh."

"Super speed." Chase grinned, although Bree wasn't happy.

"Super? No." Bree corrected, before going to walk away with the other two, when Chase stopped them.

"Check this out." He said, holding up his own action figure.

"Calculating GPS coordinates." Chase's action figure said, making Chase cheer.

"Oh, Chase, how can I put this in a way that won't hurt your feelings?" Adam rhetorically asked, letting out a sigh. "You're the worst person that's ever been born, and this is the biggest waste of time and money I have ever seen."

Emilia whacked Adam on the arm before glancing at Bree who sighed. "These are no better than the originals."

"Hello? Did you not hear the 'whoosh whoosh, whoosh whoosh'?" Chase furrowed his brows.

"Look, if you're gonna soup these things up, at least add some real super speed to mine. Oh, and super agility. Oh, and hair extensions!" Bree suggested, making the boys give her a strange look as Emilia chuckled. "Well, I'm just trying to keep it real."

Adam turned to Chase after Bree walked away and mentioned. "What I think Bree is trying to say is, our fans are awesome, so they deserve action figures that are awesome."

"But they're toys." Chase reminded. "It's not like I can put actual bionic abilities in them."

Adam shrugged. "Sure you can. We have a lab, you have no life— get to work." He said, before turning around to walk out the lab.

"I know you said no, but please can I see fix your action figure?" Chase asked his girlfriend.

"Okay, fine. You can." Emilia sighed, pulling out her action figure from her pocket and giving it to Chase.

"Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you." Chase grinned, kissing her on the lips before she walked out the lab with a chuckle.

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"The Nerble stared down at us from its perch on the number one spot. But we would not back down. No, we wouldn't— because we're strong!"

"And boring. Get on with it." Adam interrupted Chase's speech.

"All right, now watch what happens when I press this button." Chase said, pressing a button on Adam's action figure that activated the heat vision, causing actual lasers to appear and shoot across the room, creating the explosion.

"Oh, cool! I wish I could do that." Adam gasped, impressed by the sight.

Emilia furrowed her brows before shaking her head as Chase said. "And check this out." He pressed a button on one of Bree's action figures, activating the super speed that made the action figure speed across the room.

"Whoa, look at that little momma go! You are goin' down, Nerble!" Bree exclaimed, making Emilia smile in amusement. "Uh, not that I care, because I don't."

"Ooh, what did you do with mine? What did you do with mine?" Emilia asked with a giddy smile on her face, making Chase chuckle.

"I'll show you now." Chase smiled before pressing a button on one of Emilia's action figures, in which it activated the blue eyes before the arms shot forward, while a screaming sound was coming from the toy.

"I am so cool!" Emilia laughed, as the others smiled at what her action figure did. "What did you do with yours?"

"Watch this." Chase said, and pressed a button on one of his action figures, making it fly towards the tunnels and come back. "So realistic, right?"

"You can't fly." Adam reminded him.

"Toy me can fly! End of discussion." Chase defended.

"Look out!" Bree yelled, the four of them ducking down as Chase's action figure came flying back, with them dodging it just in time. "Chase, kids can't play with these toys. They're too dangerous."

"Oh, come on, they're not that dangerous-" Chase went to say when Adam accidentally pressed a button on his toy, activating the heat vision and it aimed at Chase's hair. "Okay, I see your point. Just put them in here. I'll get rid of them." He put a box on the table.

"Aw, but I like him." Adam frowned, accidentally activating the heat vision on his toy. "Ow!" The boy groaned in pain, as the heat vision hit him, since the toy was pressed on his chest. "Traitor!"

He threw the action figure across the room, with the heat vision activating during the process, that created an explosion. "Yeah, you should probably get rid of those."

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Emilia was talking with Bree and Adam in the lab when Chase came running in. "Hey, guys, I finally figured out how we can top the Nerble. Instead of giving ours real bionic abilities, we can just get—" He stopped what he was saying as he glanced down at the box. "Hey, what happened to the action figures?"

"Well, I don't know about mine, but yours is probably somewhere doing homework." Adam chuckled.

"I don't get it. They were right here." Chase said, furrowing his brows in confusion.

"Uh, guys? You might want to see what Tasha just posted." Bree called, glancing down at Emilia's phone before she held it out so Chase and Adam could see, to reveal a photo of Tasha holding the action figures in her hands.

"At the toy drive. Giving is so much fun." Chase recited the caption. "Oh, no! Tasha took our action figures to the toy drive! Those things are deadly weapons!"

"Don't just stand there, Chase, fly us to the school." Adam panicked. "Oh wait..."

Emilia sighed before her and Bree super speeded the boys over to the school. Once they arrived, they ran into the hallway to see the woman talking to Santa Claus.

"Tasha!" Chase yelled, making the woman turn to them.

"Hey, guys, what a wonderful surprise. Did you come to help me with the toy drive?" Tasha questioned, smiling softly at the four teenagers.

"Of course not." Bree answered bluntly before she saw the look Tasha was giving her. "Uh, where are the action figures?"

"I just handed them out to the kids." Tasha answered, turning around to the hall.

"What? Why would you do that?"

"I assumed you left them in that old box to donate." Tasha answered Bree's question. "The kids just love them. Mostly because we ran out of Nerbles."

The four teenagers sighed and looked into the hall before approaching the doors. "We have to get them back!" Chase panicked.

Bree sighed. "Well, at least they haven't found the button yet."

"What button?" Tasha's question was answered when a kid found a button on an Adam doll, and it activated the heat vision, making the table behind them fall apart.

Emilia chuckled nervously. "That button."

"This is a disaster!" Chase yelled.

"Yeah. I'm gonna go home and play with my Nerble." Adam went to walk away, when Emilia and Bree pulled on his arms and dragged him into the hall.

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"I knew this day would come." Adam said as the four teens along with Tasha hid behind a small sleigh. "First the toys attack the humans, then they recruit the refrigerators and microwaves to seal our doom. We need to stop this!"

"Okay, obviously, the Adam figures are the most dangerous, so we have to get those out of the kids' hands first." Chase began to explain.

Tasha pointed in a certain direction. "Wait, what's wrong with the Bree doll?"

"And mine?" Emilia added, widening her eyes to see both of the dolls shaking.

"Oh, no, I made them too perfectly." Chase said in worry.

"What does that mean?"

"They're glitching like we do. The bionics are burning out the motor." Chase explained.

"But that still doesn't get why mine—" Emilia went to say, before she was cut off when her and Bree's dolls exploded, along with an ear pitching scream echoing around the room for the shortest period of time, making the children and adults scream as they covered their ears.

"Okay, change of plans. Go for the Bree and Emilia ones." Chase instructed, before Emilia and Bree super speeded around the room to find their dolls and turn them off.

"What did you do to these toys?!" Tasha angrily questioned, after Adam walked off to help Bree and Emilia.

"Made them better?" Chase excused innocently, getting a look from Tasha before they stood up and Tasha ran off.

"Oh, no. Oh, no." Chase panicked, seeing his doll floating in the air before it started flying after him. Chase dived out of the way before his doll exploded. "Okay, go after the Chase ones first. You know what, just get them all." He caught one of the dolls before starting to hit it, trying to get it to turn off as Tasha pulled everyone out the hall.

"Okay. I think we got all of 'em." Adam looked at the dolls in his hands.

"I only count eleven. We're missing one." Chase looked worried.

"Okay. I'll check the hallway." Adam walked into the hallway.

Double checking the gym, Chase, Emilia and Bree turned to see Adam having a stare down with the last one of his action figures.

"Adam, be careful. He's unstable." Chase warned his brother.

Adam looked back at them. "So am I." He turned back to the shaking action figure before the heat vision was activated, with Emilia pushing Chase and Bree to the side before they could get hit, as Adam rolled on the floor before aiming his own heat vision towards the doll, which destroyed it.

"Yes, Adam!"

"Nice shot!"

"You nailed it!"

Adam picked up the broken doll, frowning at it in his hands. "Why is it you always hurt the ones you love?"

"I'm gonna need you guys to clean this up." The Davenport woman said in annoyance, before a tree from inside the gym hall falling to the ground.

"Tasha, it's Christmas. Stop thinking about what you need and start thinking about others." Adam repeated what the woman said the day before, only getting a glare back.

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After saving the toy drive by the four bionic teens playing with the children using their own bionics, they arrived home and gathered around the living room to open their presents.

Tasha turned to Rose. "Well, I for one, am relieved you know about Leo's bionic arm. Now I can stop lying to you." She sighed in relief, before noticing the look she was getting from her mother. "About the fact that I've been lying to you."

Donald passed Rose a bag. "Oh, what's this?" She asked with a smile.

Adam hummed. "Knowing him, it's either cheap or re-gifted." He retorted, earning a chuckle from Emilia.

"It's just a little something. Merry Christmas, Rose." Donald grinned, before Rose pulled out an action figure from the bag.

"Oh! A Grandma Rose action figure!" Tasha said, smiling at her husband as Rose gasped. "Donald, that is so sweet of you."

"It's so stiff and lifelike," Chase pointed out, and everyone turned to him. "Because of its warmth and charm."

Bree noticed the doll's clothing. "Hey, why is she wearing a mission suit?"

"Oh, I just had a new head molded. I used the body of an Emilia prototype that was lying around." Donald explained.

"And it's re-gifted." Adam smirked and took a sip of his drink.

"Wait, Emilia prototype?" Bree questioned, seeing if she had heard that right.

"Hey, what does this button do?" Grandma Rose found the button, making Emilia's eyes widen.

"Oh, no!" Emilia panicked, and stood up to grab the doll from Rose. "Everyone get down and cover your ears!" She warned, and threw the doll over towards the kitchen before Chase pulled her down with him and they covered their ears just in time, as an explosion was created in the kitchen, along with hearing a scream.

"You're right, he is a bad father." Leo muttered to Grandma Rose making Emilia roll her eyes.

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MEGAN SPEAKS!

hope you enjoyed reading this
chapter! the next two parter episode
is the big one, and i'm not ready. anyway,
thanks for reading, i love you all!! <33