Apocalypse Redux

Chapter 207: White Christmas

Isaac’s childhood home had been almost completely transformed by the time he arrived. Sure, his parents had always put up plenty of Christmas decorations, but that was a far cry from the efforts that had been made this year.

Tree branches hung from every place on the house where something could be attached, the sides of the roof were covered in ornaments and a dog-sized Santa statue proudly sat upon the chimney.

Isaac grinned as he saw that. Being able to clamber up the outside of your building without needing a ladder or being in any danger from the fall meant that decorating had just become a million times easier.

Well, the people hadn’t been in any danger. A handprint that clearly belonged to one of the twins marred the house’s façade and unless Isaac was wildly off base, that had been caused by one of the little ones slipping and failing to contain her strength when grabbing at a handhold.

The only thing missing was the snow.

Sure, you’d get the occasional snowflake in December, and maybe even a couple of days where enough snow lay on the streets to require a snowplow, but Isaac could count the number of white Christmases he’d seen on one hand and was looking like tomorrow was going to be another holiday without snow.

Actually, he realized it was after midnight, so it was already Christmas, but only technically, so he still had time.

“Are things ready?” he asked the police officers currently barricading off the street.

“Sure.” One of the officers called.

Arranging to have the street barred to cars for the day had been easy, terrifyingly so. Normally, German bureaucracy was a byzantine maze of infinite forms and other staggeringly unhelpful office drones.

Isaac though, he had connections with the police, and he’d dealt with officers from the nearest precinct a few times.

On one hand, seeing things go so smoothly had been nice.

On the other, seeing how much personal favors could change the situation was absolutely terrifying on a deep level. This wasn’t corruption in the legal sense and also probably morally in the clear, but things should be equal for all, shouldn’t they?

Except the thing he was doing was most definitely a universal good. Eh, the occasional car driver might be mad at having to take a slight detour, but most of the people affected would also benefit. Even the officers who had to “work” on Christmas had volunteered for the sake of their kids.

Isaac grinned and pulled the first storage ring from his jacket pocket and thrust it in the direction of the cordoned-off area.

The water contained within sprayed out in a fine mist, passing through the frost flame he’d projected in front of the ring. At first, the fresh snowflakes melted the instant they hit the ground, but by the time the first ring was empty, a couple of centimeters of snow covered the road.

“Do you have any more of those?” the nearest officer asked.

“Of course I do.” Isaac grinned. He’d borrowed a million from the university. They were still far from perfect, being too small, too hard to access, or having some other flaw, but they wouldn’t blow up in his face, which made them good enough for the task at hand.

Three rings later, there was enough snow on the ground for a decent snowball fight. Nice, but still nowhere near enough.

By the time 4 a.m. rolled around, Isaac used [Blessing of Innovation] to borrow a couple of structural engineering [Skills]. He used a standard flame to melt small portions of the snow castle he’d created, then re-froze the area to turn it into a solid chunk of ice sturdy enough to carry even a grown-ass adult.

Isaac took several steps back, wiped non-existent sweat from his brow, and grinned up at the twin, two-story castles he’d built with around ten meters of space between them, each complete with a stash of snowballs and sand spread on top of all walking areas to make them less slippery. The no man’s land between them had knee-deep snow for the kids to play in before the castles were opened for battle.

“That looks awesome. My kids are probably going to wreck it in about two seconds flat.” Another of the officers said.

“Don’t worry, I’ve got a bunch more rings and I’ll be around to fix the castles if they crack.” Isaac assured her “I’m turning in for a catnap, have a nice morning.”

Then he headed into his bedroom and started playing around with [Blessing of Innovation].

He figured out several new Aspect combinations that should work pretty well but hadn’t been popular or even tried out in either timeline, he looked over a bunch of tactical manuals from the other timeline and updated a couple, but looking at the current situation without his baggage was still beyond him. Sure, he managed to keep going without returning his memories a little longer this time around, but he still failed.

When the [Skill] wore off, Isaac took a brief catnap and tried to sleep in, emphasis on tried. An attempted assassination by way of a bucketload of snow being dumped on his face thwarted that.

“Oh, now you’re in for it!” Isaac yelled, shot to his feet and grabbed Tanja around the waist, then ran out with her under his arm. A snowball fight in the house … they wouldn’t survive their mother’s wrath if they did that.

Outside, though, that was fair game.

Isaac was dressed in his pajamas while the tiny blond hellion was wearing full-day clothes, but not winter clothing. Neither of them needed winter clothing, but it still had to look pretty ridiculous when he stormed out into the street and tossed her into a snowdrift.

“Hey, you’re mean!” Tanja laughed, sticking out her tongue.

“Hey, you started it!” Isaac replied with a grin and stuck out his own tongue in turn.

The police officer who’d been stuck guarding what was officially classified as a “street festival” ambled over and asked “Having fun?”

Isaac sighed theatrically in response “When you hit Level 50 and can decide what powers to give to your relatives, you might want to consider what six-year-olds might do with the power to walk through walls.”

“Ah.”

***

Both Isaac and Tanja were back inside and, more importantly, dry, by the time breakfast was ready. And then, the very millisecond their mother allowed it, the twins ran outside and started tossing snowballs at each other, the running battle causing people passing by to reflexively duck. It was a damn good thing they’d set up barriers around the winter wonderland in the night.

From the moment the sun peeked above the horizon to when it fell, the street outside the Thoma family home was the very definition of chaotic.

Just as Isaac had expected, plenty of drivers didn’t comprehend why it wasn’t a big deal to take a single block detour but thankfully, people willing to lean on their car’s horn while cussing out a group of children were very much unwilling to do the same in the face of a police officer flashing their badge.

Isaac continued to add new snow as the old snowbanks were trampled flat, fixed the “castles” whenever it was needed, and so on.

Around noon, he challenged all the kids present to a snowball fight and “fled” in ignominious defeat after a couple of minutes.

He slunk back home and returned to the street with a pot, milk, cocoa powder, and a bunch of cups.

The pot floated in midair, resting on a trio of flying Kabars while he heated the liquid using a conjured flame. Magic hot chocolate, what more could a horde of little kids want?

They also had a couple of neighbors with applicable [Skills], including an [Illusionist] that created fantasy creatures that fell apart when hit with enough snowballs and a [Horticulturist] who grew a fir tree on top of each “castle”.

It was around 2 in the afternoon when the press showed up.

Either someone wanted a cute feel-good story to air on Christmas, or someone wanted another story about Isaac himself.

It didn’t matter, though. He floated the pot over onto the windowsill of his room and headed towards the newly arrived group. The press team was pretty bare-bones, consisting of just the camera person, the reporter themselves, and some manner of assistant.

“Merry Christmas,” Isaac called out as he approached them.

“Merry Christmas.” The reporter responded, pausing for a moment as she realized his current outfit was better suited to a Caribbean beach than Germany in the middle of winter.

“Can I ask you a couple of questions?” she asked.

“Of course,” Isaac said.

“What is all this?” she asked.

“A winter wonderland for the kids. Everything I wanted to play with on Christmas when I was a kid.”

“Well, it looks amazing.” She said, only to let out a startled squeak as Isaac exploded into motion to swat a snowball out of the air in order to save the camera.

“Kids, mind the electronics.” He called. Of course, a couple of the little monsters decided to take that as a challenge.

“Do you think we could continue this somewhere out of range of the castles?” Isaac suggested, facing the reporter while smacking snowballs out of the air, still not even looking at the incoming projectiles.

***

One interview for a feel-good press story later, Isaac went back to supervising the chaos unfolding outside his home.

Eventually, night fell, and everyone headed home. Isaac demolished the castles to ensure that no one got hurt using them unsupervised.

Christmas dinner was a lively affair and then, it was finally time for presents.

Just as he’d requested during his last birthday, Isaac didn’t get any big presents, just good food he wouldn’t normally buy and some nice clothes.

The present he’d gotten them was a family trip to Seoul. He really wanted to show them the city he’d spent so much time in since the [System] had appeared.

And, of course, there were the guinea pigs he'd bought for the twins on behalf of his parents.

***

And then, after a wonderful holiday, on January second, Isaac headed straight back to work. The winter holidays had been fun, sure, but there was vital work to do.