A Very Truck-Kun Christmas: Holiday Special Part 2

  “HA... We got him!” cheered a triumphant Abeona.

  “I just crushed Santa...” Wheeler uttered in stunned disbelief.

  Before he could process this thought any further, the sudden increase in Wheeler’s weight caused him to slide off the roof. As he fell, Wheeler braced for the seemingly inevitable impact with the ground, that ultimately never came.

  Instead, Wheeler was somehow hovering mere inches from the ground upside down. He felt an unusual lightness throughout his whole body, as despite being a giant truck, he floated like a balloon.

  Meanwhile, Abeona’s charm figure had toppled off it’s usual perch and had fallen onto the interior roof of Wheeler’s cabin.

  “What’s going on?” Wheeler demanded. “Is this another truck trick you installed but never told me about?”

  “I definitely don’t remember installing an ability like this, I didn’t think anything like this would even be possible.” Abeona gasped, her figure looked around the inverted cabin in awe, before noticing something that made her let out a high pitched scream. “AGGGHHHHHH”.

  “What? What is it?” Wheeler asked, as he tried to turn his vision to look inside his own cabin rather than the outside world. Once he finally managed it he was startled to see a familiar red suited figure sitting in the upside down drivers seat.

  “Hello Wheeler Ford.” The man’s booming voice declared.

  “He knows who I am?” Wheeler squeaked to Abeona.

  “I can hear you too.” The man gave a hearty laugh. “I see you when you’re sleeping, I know when you’re awake. After all, I am Santa Claus,” Santa announced proudly before becoming more serious. “And you, Wheeler Ford and Abeona, just made the naughty list.”

  “How dare you.” The tiny Abeona charm stomped her feet and began wildly flailing her arms, looking up at Santa. “Me? A goddess? On the naughty list?”

  “Yes.” Santa said bluntly, “Attempted vehicular homicide is very naughty, especially when it results in the destruction of my sleigh.”

  “Umm Mr Claus, can I call you Mr Claus? Or do you prefer Santa?” Wheeler babbled slightly incoherently. “Let me just say that trying to crush you wasn’t actually my idea, it was Abeona’s and I...”

  Abeona let loose a huge melodramatic gasp. “TRAITOR!”

  “Both of you are responsible.” Santa insisted firmly, “and both of you are going to help me to atone for your actions,”

  “How?” both Wheeler and Abeona asked in unison.

  “Since you destroyed my sleigh, Wheeler, with your headlights so bright. You will be my sleigh tonight!” Santa announced, his voice booming with authority. Wheeler could tell this wasn’t a request, but a command.

  “NO, NUH UH, NOT HAPPENING, NO WAY NO HOW.” Abeona insisted defiantly. “Wheeler has important Truck-Kun business to attend to, the only thing he delivers is souls to other worlds.” The goddess then tried to initiate her emergency override controls for Wheeler’s truck form using her tablet. The device simply flashed up a message.

  “ERROR CODE: 54NT4CL4U5”

  Abeona’s confidence evaporated in an instant, her eyes widening with shock as the reality of the situation dawned on her “He’s... he’s got full control, I can’t override him. It seems his power exceeds my own”

  “How is that even possible?” Wheeler asked, panicked. Abeona had built his truck body and implanted Wheeler’s soul inside Yet Santa was somehow powerful enough to take command of her creation from her.

  “My best guess,” Abeona started speculating, “Remember how I said about the power of collective belief?”

  Wheeler thought back to their earlier conversation, “Yes, I remember.” He confirmed.

  Well I’m a mostly forgotten goddess,” she explained bitterly. “Most people haven’t even heard of me, much less believe in me, I’m pretty much irrelevant. That means my influence and power is significantly limited.”

  Wheeler was able to follow Abeona’s explanation to it’s logical conclusion. “But millions of people believe in Santa, especially kids.”

  “Bingo.” Abeona confirmed. “While our friend Santa here isn’t technically a god himself, with the amount of collective belief fuelling him, he’s probably got far more power than most fully fledged gods do.”

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  “Now you two seem to understand the situation,” Santa interrupted, as he made a spinning gesture with his finger which flipped the levitating Wheeler the correct way up. Abeona’s charm was left to topple face first onto the passenger seat.

  “We best get moving, I have lots of presents left to deliver and you two have put me WAY behind schedule .” Santa insisted.

  As Santa spoke, Wheeler felt a bloating sensation, like a regular person might if they’d eaten too much. This was confusing considering he was a truck that both couldn’t and didn’t need to eat. If he had to estimate where this feeling was coming from in his Truck body, it would be his normally empty semi trailer. What’s worse, some of the contents felt like it was shifting around inside him.

  Santa, sensing Wheeler’s discomfort, reassured him. “Don’t worry, that’s just all the presents we have to deliver. For once your Semi Trailer is being put to its intended use, storing deliveries.” Santa chuckled.

  “Ok, but why are some of them MOVING?” Wheeler asked.

  Santa let loose another jolly jelly belly laugh. “Those are the reindeer of course, I can’t exactly leave them here.”

  “Of course. What else would it be.” Wheeler replied dryly. He the began listing off Santa’s reindeer. “Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, Blitzen, and of course not forgetting Ru...”

  “STOP!” Santa yelled intensely, as his usual jolly, playful demeanour melted away in an instant and his face became serious. “Don’t ever say that name.”

  Wheeler’s wipers twitched with confusion. “Why not?”

  Santa’s voice became icy cold, “Nowadays that red nosed runt considers himself too important to pull my sleigh.” Santa scoffed bitterly. “He got some fancy talent agent called Guy Hollywood. I warned old red nose that guy had been a lifetime member of the naughty list, but he didn’t listen.”

  “What happened?” Wheeler asked curiously.

  “Guy convinced that reindeer to cast a curse so now if I or anyone else uses his image or even says his name, I have to pay him royalties.” Santa grumbled. “That deer is bleeding me dry.”

  Abeona’s Charm, who had finally recovered from her drop into the passenger seat, sat up and gave a mischievous grin. “So you have to pay royalties huh...” She let out a malevolent giggle. “Rrrrrrrr.....”

  Santa began sweating profusely, “Don’t say it!” he begged the chaotic goddess.

  “RANDOLPH!” shouted Abeona, gleefully trolling Santa by yelling a string of other names starting with R, enthusiastically rolling the starting letter of each one. “REGINALD, RUPERT, RODGER!”

  In response, Santa wearily muted the goddess, leaving her charm shouting 1nothing but silence. If anyone observing Abeona’s charm could lip read, they would notice that she had transitioned from R names to some rather foul language upon realising she could no longer be heard.

  “You gotta teach me how to do that.” Wheeler laughed, enjoying seeing the normally chaotic Abeona getting curtailed for once. “Finally a silent night.”

  So for that Christmas Eve, Wheeler Ford went from delivering souls to other worlds, to delivering Christmas presents. With Santa at the wheel and a muted Abeona still grumbling inaudibly, Wheeler flewmm.o. through the frosty starlit sky.

  At every stop, Wheeler hovered over the roof while Santa delivered his gifts, enjoying the simple serenity of a peaceful night. None of the usual moral quandaries an chaos, just helping Santa complete his wholesome yearly mission. Despite still being a truck and technically under Santa’s command, Wheeler had never felt so free, as time seemed to drift by at a mellow pace, the job provided him with a much needed respite.

  All good things must however, come to an end. Once the task was complete, Wheeler was hovering over the roof of the exact same house he had tried to take out Santa, just as the sunrise began to peak over the horizon.

  Santa tipped his hat as he started to disembark from Wheeler’s cabin. “Thank you for your co-operation Wheeler, with how well behaved you were tonight, I’d say I can take you off my naughty list.” Santa said with a wink.

  At that moment, Santa felt something tugging at his coat, trying to prevent him from leaving. It was Abeona’s charm which was pulling on his sleeve with one hand while wildly gesturing at her mouth with the other.

  “Oh right” Santa grinned knowingly. With a quick click his fingers, Santa unmuted Abeona.

  “ABOUT DAMN TIME YOU FESTIVE BASTARD! HOW DARE YOU PUT A GODDESS ON MUTE? YOU MAY BE SANTA, YOU SHOULD BE SHOWING A DIVINE BEING LIKE ME A LITTLE MORE RESPECT.” Abeona yelled so loudly the words echoed around the cabin.

  “Please mute her again.” Wheeler requested to Santa, missing the earlier peace and quiet.

  Santa just laughed, finally departing Wheeler’s cabin unimpeded. Onto the rooftop where a mass of splintered wood that was once his sleigh sat spread over a rooftop covered in crushed tiles. Santa unleashed another sharp click of his fingers, causing both the damaged rooftop, and the destroyed sleigh to reform as good as new. It was even complete with its full complement of reindeer.

  Both Wheeler and Abeona stared at the repaired sleigh in shock. “Wait could you of done that the whole time?” they asked in perfect unison.

  “Yep” Santa confirmed with a cheeky nod.

  “Then why didn’t you?” Wheeler asked curiously, while Abeona who despite no longer being muted, was utterly lost for words.

  “To give you a chance to atone for your actions.” Santa said with a warm smile, and a glimmer in his eye which quickly turned mischievous, "Also for a bit of fun, these Christmas nights can get a bit samey you know, I always like when an opportunity comes along to spice things up a bit.”

  “You know if you’re getting bored of the Christmas grind, I could arrange you a nice all expenses paid vacation to another world, one way only.” Abeona offered cheekily.

  “Thanks, but I’ll pass, goodbye both of you and have a Merry Christmas.” Santa gave a hearty farewell and a jolly wave. As he did Wheeler was gently lowered to the ground, until his tyres contacted the tarmac of the road below.

  Within seconds Santa, his sleigh and the reindeer, vanished from sight as they soared off into the early morning sky.

  “I wish he’d let us keep that flying ability, that would have been super useful for taking out targets.” Abeona sighed.

  “I wish he’d let me keep that muting ability.” Wheeler sighed back.

  “HEY” Abeona chided, “You should be grateful to have me around.”

  “I’m joking” Wheeler reassured her. “Well, half joking.” He added before quickly changing the subject. “I guess our mission to Isekai Santa was ultimately a failure.”

  Abeona gave an ominous giggle “Not failed my dear Truck-Kun, just delayed. After all, there’s always next year.”

  The End