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Either there were some scattered people here and there, visiting the nameplates of the dearly departed, or it was empty save for the fire keeper. Tonight was the former, owing largely to the occasion. Hallowed Halls' Eve was the time for recalling those who had been lost, remembered with a plate, an epitaph, even holograms of various kinds. Grigori Wallak stood with a young pig girl named Emma; his family had adopted her when her parents had been lost so recently, a bitter reminder that the Locksmouth incident had taken an unkind toll on some.\n\n\"... It still hurts, doesn't it?\" Natalie came up to them, hips canted to one side. \n\nEmma frowned. She was tough, she'd made it through a lot on her own muster. But this was something she couldn't climb over on her own. \"... Does it ever stop hurting?\"\n\nShe mulled it over. \"... No. But.\" Her head tilted and she smiled gently with a soft double nod. \"It gets better.\"\n\nEmma turned to hug Greg, who wrapped her up in his big arms with the warmest, most sincere gesture of love he could give. She took a deep breath, released him slowly... then came to Natalie and hugged her around the waist. The wolf returned the gesture with a hand on her back and a pat on the head. This, too, was released, and she turned to Greg. \"... I want some candy.\"\n\nGrigori laughed softly. \"Come on then, let's go.\" He patted the petite girl on the back, leading her out before turning to Natalie. \"Hey. Keep up the fight. For everyone. But especially Inked kids; it makes a difference.\" He glanced Emma's direction.\n\nShe put up a fist and gestured strongly. \"Always.\" The wolf watched them both leave, lingering a few more moments before returning to the reason she came in the first place. The pyre was strong tonight, and burned green in celebration of the holiday; its light bathed Natalie's nameplate, still displaying that ever-present skull. And right next to it, was another nameplate.\n\n[Michael Grayswift\n2493 - 2532]\n\nThey'd had his plate duplicated at her mother's request, a year into moving to Locksmouth. It was good to have it here. Her hand lightly pushed against it, and a holographic display projected itself. A gray-furred wolf man with red eyes and long, unkempt hair adjusted his sloppy, unwashed lab coat and scratched the back of his head. His kind, narrow eyes sparkled as he grinned, something that came easily to him. \"Ah, I'm bad at these, but Lorrie won't let me get away with putting it off any more.\" He took a deep breath and addressed the camera. \"Well Natalie, you're [i]three[/i] whole years old today.\" The boyish man smirked at a simplified action figure he held in one hand. \"I was gonna give this to you, but you were already down for a nap. If you didn't play so hard, you wouldn't need so many of those, you know!\"\n\nHe laughed. \"But I've got no room to talk. You know, your mother's always comparing us, you and me. Notably when she's mad about something I did, or something you managed.\" Michael smiled widely in that good-natured way his daughter often did. \"But I remember the day you got out of the play pen. Lorrie was [i]so upset[/i] with me!\" He laughed. \"Like I'd passed down some kind of aversion to the rules. But I remember seeing something in your eyes. That cleverness, that quick thinking... that's all on her.\"\n\nThe wolf shrugged, distracted by a thought. \"Ah, I should probably at least [i]try[/i] to do some of my own research. I can't just go for donuts all day. But, before I go.\" He got in close to the camera. \"Being your father has been... the scariest adventure of my life. But I'm [i]so[/i] proud of you. And I love you so much.\" He paused. \"Never be ashamed of who you are, Natalie. Show 'em what you got.\"\n\n -\n- -\n -\n\n\"Lastik is coming in!\"\n\"Lastik approaching; lower the bridge!\"\n\"Lowering the bridge...\"\n\nThe castle was full of life these days, Greys filling roles everywhere. Once dilapidated hallways now looked merely worn, and a large door was opened with little trouble, letting a particularly interesting orange shape walk in.\n\n\"Welcome to Castle Blackwolf!\" Echelon greeted.\n\n\"I suppose it's about time I came here, huh?\" the orange inkling offered nervously, but happy all the same. The moment they stepped in, the torches glowed just a bit brighter.\n\n\"Your timing couldn't be better; we all appreciate you donating your excess prana to the castle, what with how much was lost during the battle with Grendel...\"\n\n\"O-Of course!\" Lastik insisted. \"I mean it's... it's only right. I-... I'm sorry, Echelon, for abandoning the Resistance; it's why I delayed coming here for so long. I should have-\"\n\n\"There'll be no recriminations here,\" the black and pink inkling insisted. \n\n\"Too right!\" Phactys agreed, ushering them toward the main quarters. \"Humans have finite lifespans, and can afford to hold grudges- but if we let the mistakes of the past undermine our future, there'll be nothing to build on!\"\n\n\"Tsk,\" Mhend complained. \"Ohh, why'd you have to remind me they'll be gone one day?\" She hung upside down by an archstone. \"I've come to [i]like[/i] mine so much!\"\n\n\"That's the point of the holiday they're celebrating today!\" Koralo piped up with a big innocent smile. \"That people [i]die[/i].\"\n\n\"That's not even close to right,\" Arus deadpanned, folding her arms as she rested against the wall. \"The point is extortion via false identities.\"\n\nEchelon sighed. \"Either way, I hope we all remembered to tell our hosts that they can't access us or our abilities tonight?\" They collectively gave her an affirmative. \"Good. We need to be in Recharge mode for the whole day so that we can get back some of that surplus that keeps this place running.\"\n\nThey all spent a moment quietly reflecting, wind blowing banners gently. \"... Not to be negative,\" Arus said, \"But even after this, aren't we just going to run low again? We've taken on more every day, it feels like; we'll have to start turning them away.\"\n\nMhend nodded. \"That's why we've sent some of them out to go find others, like Lastik here, and Voltaus. Perhaps she couldn't give much now, but I'd feel better if Animis were recuperating here instead of out in the roughs.\"\n\n\"I agree, friends,\" Echelon acquiesced. \"But for tonight, let's just settle down, settle in, and set sail on the dreamless sea of turpentine.\"\n\n -\n- -\n -\n\nGrendolyn Murcbee was electric. Being a fanatic for all things dark and spooky, Hallowed Halls Eve was more important to her than her own birthday. And yet, this was the one time she wasn't going as something scary.\n\n\"Are you ready yet??\" called an impatient Aren Tenthwood from the other side of the holographic divider that had obscured all but their silhouettes to one another. He had fashioned himself a black and yellow bodysuit with gloves, boots, and a mask that featured two discs on the side of his head.\n\n\"Don't rush me! It has to be [i]perfect![/i]\" she insisted, going from counter to counter of Carrie's bedroom, the best place to get dressed.\n\n\"Greeeeeen!\" he complained. \"We're gonna be late! I wanna get all the candy I can!\"\n\n\"Aaaalmooooost... there!\" Gren lifted the veil and showed off her own bodysuit, mask and gloves combo, all of which were yellow and black, just like Aren's. \"Are we ready??\"\n\n\"We're ready!\" he exclaimed, and both of them made their way out into the hallway. They traveled through the foyer, where Vincent and Diane had met Margaret at the door, who took their coats. \"Hi-mister-and-missus-Masterson!\" Aren managed breathlessly as they ran past.\n\n\"Goodness, they're excited,\" Diane noted with a smile.\n\n\"Of course they are!\" Margaret glowed. \"It's an exciting time of year, they've made a bunch of new friends, and we have bats! Can't have Hallohalls without bats,\" she mused.\n\nVincent furrowed his brows. \"I don't know how that association ever came to be.\"\n\n\"I don't think anyone does,\" Diane weighed in. \"But it's fun, isn't it?\"\n\nHer husband seemed reticent. Margaret added, \"Oh, and we have jelly shots!\"\n\nHis eyebrows shot up. \"In that case, let the spooking begin.\"\n\nMeanwhile, the kids ran through the kitchen at what grown-ups referred to as 'outdoor speed.' Old Man Murcby raised cane. \"Gren, no runnin' in the house!\"\n\n\"Sorry Grandpa!\" she said absently as she made it into the living room- and therefore the center of attention.\n\n\"Oh ho, and what're you supposed to be?\" Penelope asked.\n\nShe posed dramatically. \"Prepare to be amazed by the megawatt might of [u]Electrocutie[/u]-\"\n\nAren posed as well. \"-And [u]Amplidude[/u]!\"\n\nThe adults laughed and clapped, many of them having missed the presence of smaller children for years now, delighting in their japery. Aren, for his part, was electrified with having such attention on him, and could barely contain himself. \"Me and Gren, we've been working on our powers with Carrie, and we found out that we can use 'em separately too! Not the lightning bolts, that's only together; but she can throw sparks everywhere, and I can make a steady current! I powered this mechanical project I made in Science class, and I'm getting real good at gauging amperage required! I bet I could power your sound system!\" His hands reached toward it as Hugh Oakenfield began sputtering in panicked protest.\n\n\"I think the power grid's got it covered, buddy,\" said Carrie, as she walked out of the kitchen and into the living room. \n\nHugh turned around. \"Oh! Hi Pumpkin! Is... that what you're wearing out? I thought you were a little old for fur-pattern PJs.\"\n\nHer father's guess didn't seem monumentally wrong. Fur-pattern pajamas were body-hugging suits made of fuzzy material made it look as if the wearer was naked- but naked by cartoon animal rules, leaving inoffensive blank spaces where more provocative articles would have appeared. Indeed Carrie seemed to be wearing such a piece of clothing, but instead of mimicking her endless white fur, her underbelly was the same powder blue as her hair. She also wore red bandanas over her knees, elbows and eyes- eyes which stared blank white, seeming to be composed entirely of sclera in a manner which hearkened to stylistically masked comic book heroes, thanks to holographic assistance. She hiked up her belt, which held a pair of very dulled tri-pointed daggers. \"Tch. Dad, I'm not a little kid- I'm a ninja named after a Renaissance painter.\"\n\n\"Oh.\" He winced. \"I... knew that...?\"\n\n\"Wow...\" Gren and Ten remarked together, taking in the originality and cool factor of the costume as well as being mollified by her huge featureless breasts jostling slightly with her movements.\n\n\"Haha, don't worry, Mr. Oakenfield,\" Erwin assured him, walking into view. He had the same exact costume set up, with his own fur colors and purple bandanas. \"It's based on an old obscure comic series from the Pre-Splice era. Jacent showed it to us, and we all thought it would be fun to dress up like the characters!\"\n\n\"Oooh!\" The kids marveled in unison, noticing Erwin's big bandaged stick, as well as the fact that the suit did nothing to hide the enormity of his male bulge, nor the fact that it, too, jiggled when he walked.\n\nNatalie and Max came in as well, the former with an arm around the latter's shoulders. \"Max had an unfair advantage- he's already green!\"\n\nMax shrugged. \"Well that's the fringe benefit of being the token lizard friend!\"\n\n\"Token- what?!\" Natalie immediately caught him in a neck-lock and began applying vigorous noogies to him as Gropey edged away from her wrathful knuckles.\n\nGren and Ten silently grinned- Max had chosen orange and nunchaku, whereas Natalie had chosen blue and swords. But neither of them had chosen their builds, which were both flattered by their play-fighting as they turned away and bent down to either escape or further the entrapment.\n\n\"I thought the red one picked on the orange one,\" Samantha remarked, walking in wearing a yellow jumpsuit with a plunging neckline and fanning herself. Jacent followed in a torn-out sleeveless shirt, ratty jeans and a hockey mask, complete with stick.\n\n\"Hah!\" Lorna grinned. \"They couldn't get you in a bodysuit, huh?\"\n\n\"There were, thankfully, only four such characters,\" Jacent said with great relief.\n\n\"Aww...\" the kids said in unison. \n\"Wait a minute, why am [u]I[/u] perving on them??\" Gren whispered angrily. \"This is your fault!\"\n\"How's it my fault?? They're [i]your[/i] eyeballs.\"\n\"You've been influencing me somehow!\"\n\"How would I even do that??\"\n\"How should I know?? I don't think like a sneak!\"\n\n\"Hey, so,\" Carrie interrupted. \"Are you kids gonna whisper sweet nothings all night, or are we gonna go bag some candy?\"\n\nThey gasped and looked at one another, alliance now mended. \"CANDY!!\"\n\n -\n- -\n -\n\nLuminescent smiling gourds lined rooftops and windowsills. A low-rolling mist roiled along the ground in more places than not, spots of it illuminated in toxic greens by street lights underneath the grass. The projected architecture of virtually every building had turned to look like something it wasn't: wooden old vestiges of yester-century, dangerous concrete facilities wherein terrible experiments lurked, haunted fun-houses or simply dilapidated examples of modern housing, looking as if it had been abandoned for decades. On top of this, the moon glowed like a blood orange, casting an eerie glow over the entire city. as if the entire world had changed overnight.\n\n\"Whooooaaaa...\" Gren marveled. \n\n\"I've lived in this town for a while,\" remarked Natalie. \"But I've [i]never[/i] seen them go all out like this.\"\n\nJacent looked around with a great deal of wonder as to how all of this was accomplished, but not why. \"During good times, a holiday can seem unnecessary. But during hard times, people turn toward celebration to distract themselves, and put their minds at ease.\"\n\nNatalie smirked. \"Speaking of distractions, where's Shelly? I thought she was going in on our costume theme.\"\n\n\"She and Kei are catching up with us later,\" Erwin supplied. \"Didn't want to deal with all the people, but they're totally in for Haunted Castle.\"\n\n\"Great!\" Max cheered, handling his bag. \"More candy for me!\"\n\n\"Max,\" Jacent interjected. \"Aren't you a little old for that?\"\n\n\"Bro.\" Max was frank with him. \"First off, this ain't the holiday you're thinkin' of. Second, it's not about being young, it's about being [i]scared[/i]. And third! ... You fight with yo-yos and marbles???\"\n\nThe red-haired boy tilted his masked head, disarmed. \"Touché.\" \n\nMax flung his arm toward a house. \"Onward, to the candy!\"\n\nThe first house they visited was a creaky wooden affair with too many cobwebs everywhere. With a ring of the door chime, none other than Culby Hendrix opened the faux-wooden door wearing a Neo-Victorian era dress of the Educators' Aristocracy. It was historically accurate in every way, from the stitching, to the brass-buttoned belt, to the fact that her breasts were almost entirely bare save for a pair of saucer-sized lace buttons that kept her decent. \"The end is near...\" she beckoned from behind her rimless glasses, eagerly participating in her part of the ritual.\n\n\"Have no fear!\" Gren, Ten and Max exclaimed in the sing-songy manner of children well-practiced in the tradition.\n\nThe skunk giggled, delighted as she reached into her candy bowl to hand out treats to the children. \"It's good to see you kids having fun!\"\n\n\"It's always good to see [i]you[/i], Ms. Hendrix!\" Aren beamed.\n\nIt was usually at this point that Gren would have chastised him for 'perving on' the prodigious educator, but her eyes were staring just the same. \"Uh. Yeah, good to see you...\" she said absently, licking her lips before turning around, looking at the cream-filled chocolate pumpkin treat in her bag as if it had magically materialized inside it, foil wrapper and all.\n\nMs. Hendrix smiled as they left, calling to them one last time. \"Happy Hallowed Halls! Oh, and Jacent, I'm not letting you off the hook for that extra credit report!\"\n\n\"Y-Yeah... I'm still working on it!\" he called back, walking away swiftly and shaking his head. \"And the research is just about killing me...\"\n\n -\n- -\n -\n\nThe night was a raucous blur of merriment, walking from one complex to another and grabbing up all the treats they could carry. Between Carrie's strength, Natalie's charm and Max's knowledge of which houses had the best candy from year to year, they'd had to make a stop at Aren's apartment to drop off their respective hauls and begin the second leg of the journey.\n\n\"Aw man, isn't this great??\" Aren excitedly asked his partner in crime, grinning underneath his mask as he dumped out a boatload of candy out onto his bed. \"We're gonna have chocolate until we're 50!!\"\n\n\"We're gonna have chocolate until [u]9[/u]:50, tomorrow morning,\" she countered with a smirk. \"I've seen you put away those peanut butter pieces!\"\n\n\"Hahaha! Shut up!\" The tiger put his bag sideways on the bed and stuck his head inside it, looking around for any last scraps of candy that might impede it being unable to carry the maximum load possible.\n\nGren watched him perform this maneuver, as she'd witnessed him do something silly on many occasions, but there was something... [i]different[/i] about this time. He'd been growing, like her, but Aren had experienced a particularly noticable growth spurt. No longer a straight line down, his hips had widened, and he'd started putting some weight on in the back. She watched his buns grow taut, more round than she was used to and flattered by the angle he'd bent. Her face felt hot, her breathing got shallow, and without thinking about it, she'd placed her hand on the middle of his right cheek. It was unbelievably soft, sending a thrill down her arm as she very lightly squeezed it. Her whole body felt warm.\n\n\"Hunh?!\" Aren fought his way out of the bag and looked up and back at a now red-faced goat girl. \"... Gren? Did you touch my butt...?\"\n\n\"Uh, d-no! Of [i]course[/i] not, that's- why would I do that??\" Her ears burned. \n\n\"Really??\" He blinked. \"That's [i]weird[/i], because it felt exactly like you squeezed my-\"\n\n\"Well that didn't happen!\" She heard Carrie's voice. \"And... they're... calling for us! So I'm going!\" She briskly almost-ran out of his bedroom and his apartment, tromping down the stairs and stopping half a flight down before framing the sides of her face with her hands. \"What was [i]that???[/i]\"\n\nAren, now alone in his room, blinked several times, before licking a stray piece of chocolate off of his lips. \"[i]Weird.[/i]\"\n\n -\n- -\n -\n\nThe second round of candy collection was just as fun as the first. Gren and Ten met many classmates and friends they recognized on their journey through the spooky alternate-universe incarnation of Locksmouth, laughing and comparing hauls and singing silly, spooky songs that redoubled on the excited, adventurous sense of ultimately consequenceless danger. This was only reinforced by the efforts of many adults and teenagers to make their houses and apartment halls as creepy as possible, often startling the children enough to make their conviction in the spoken ritual sound particularly flimsy.\n\nTheir last building to plunder was Penceworth Estates. There were a lot more people living there than when Jacent had first moved in, and they looked to be in higher spirits. With the addition of so many inked denizens, the apartment complex had become a warm and inviting nexus between Canvas and Earth- and with Jacent and Kelvalde, between Present and the Past. There was no crackling thunderclap in this building, no intensely real holographic haunts; these people had seen enough to scare them for a long time, and had opted for cartoonish bat and spider decals to go with the now gradient black-green walls. They met with plenty of people who were happy to have visitors, and doubly happy to see the people who worked so hard to protect them and their rights. Next to last stop? Bo Briggs.\n\n\"Oh!\" She answered the door, her hair frizzy and unkempt. \"The end is near!\" she managed quickly.\n\n\"Have no fear~!\" Aren said confidently. \n\n\"I'm kind of surprised you're here, actually,\" Jacent noticed, smiling at his downstairs neighbor. \"I thought you were taking your little brother out.\"\n\n\"Oh, I did. He can't ever seem to stay up long.\" She smiled. \"He's a sleepy boy.\"\n\n\"Did you run into any trouble out there?\" Natalie inquired.\n\n\"Nah! Thanks for taking care of the rogue cops, by the way; I walked around in my ink skin all night with no problems! It was nice!\"\n\n\"Ahem, not to interrupt, but...\" Gren shook her bag insistently.\n\n\"Oh!\" Bo laughed. \"Right. As she moved out of sight, they spied a disheveled-looking Jordan Alpine, wearing a mussed dress shirt, tie and... nothing on his bottom half other than a sticker. \n\nCarrie grinned. \"No, [i]I'm[/i] sorry to interrupt.\"\n\n\"Oh hey Jordie,\" Erwin greeted the lightly flushed weasel. \"How come you're not at Haunted Castle?\"\n\n\"Oh, I already solved it hours ago; I just couldn't help myself! This year's mystery was sumptuous and quite satisfying,\" he indicated. \"You should really get over there and try it yourselves!\" He waved as Bo dropped some candy into the kids' bags. \n\n\"Thank you!\" they said in unison, and on they went.\n\nThey made their way up to the top floor penthouse, where Kelvalde was serving drinks to Kei and Shelly while dressed as a classic vampire, cape and all. They carried on a conversation that was at once too nerdy for Jacent and too rooted in Pre-Splice nostalgia for Erwin, successfully going over everyone else's heads. \"Ah, you're here!\" the husky greeted them. \"All done with the candy collection?\"\n\n\"Like I sure [i]hope[/i] so, geez!\" Shelly laughed at the bulging bags the kids were holding. She'd dressed up in a button up shirt and sweater vest, pointing toward their huge candy haul with a very stereotypical-looking hand held death ray. \"Maybe I'll [i]get 'em![/i]\" she teased, pushing her arm through the hollow barrel of the gun and emerging from the other side as a huge grabby-hand.\n\n\"Ah, but I will defend your honor!\" Kei reached to the side of his blue gi and pulled out a wooden practice sword of Eastern origin, which he bopped Shelly's oversized hand with. The butterfly had a brief slap-fight with his bokken, which they had likely done several times that night.\n\nMax grinned. \"Yojimbo? Stockman?\" He gestured to the kids. \"Electrocutie, and Amplidude. Sweet, huh?\"\n\nKei giggled. \"Very. Will they be joining us tonight?\"\n\nNatalie folded her arms. \"I dunnooo...\"\n\nGren and Ten looked up at her with pleading eyes. \"[i]Pleeeeeeease???[/i]\"\n\nShe grinned. \"Aw, I'm just kidding, I already checked with your parents; I just like to see you beg.\" She pinched their cheeks and mushed their faces together, making the two of them giggle and struggle. \"How about you, Kelvalde?\"\n\n\"Me??\" He seemed surprised as he sipped at his snifter of something quite old and potent. \"Don't you have a big enough crowd?\"\n\n\"Aw c'mon,\" Carrie insisted. \"You're always up here workin' on your inventions, or passed out 'cause you forgot to sleep, or bangin' like three people. You never hang out with the whole gang!\"\n\nAfter a moment's consideration, he grinned. \"Hah! You're right! Enough talk, I'll join you!\" He threw the glass on the floor behind him, shattering it dramatically and spiling the contents all over the tile. The rest of them flinched visibly and stared at him. \"..... The auto-maid will get that. Let's go!\"\n\n -\n- -\n -\n\nIt was common for a derelict house to be converted into an amusement most of the year, inside of which a fake murder was staged and the culprit had to be systematically deduced by participants. The game was called Haunted Manor. But on Hallowed Halls' Eve, an entire abandoned hotel was transformed. The game's size and depth multiplied, and this special version was called Haunted Castle.\n\nThe teens and tweens marveled at the holographically-augmented architecture, the odd shadows and spooky lights visible in multiple windows from the outside, and the foreboding sounds coming from inside. Boards creaked under their feet as they entered, over-stylized furniture decorated the lobby in someone's moment of pique, and hideous portraits of many shapes and sizes catalogued a dark and unsettling lineage of prior masters of the massive stone-and-wood castle.\n\nNobody greeted them, but when they all managed to get inside, the huge doors closed behind them on their own, sealing them inside with a spooky flourish and beginning the game. On the massive wooden table, a hand-written note laid by itself. \n\n\"Who wants to read it??\" Natalie asked excitedly.\n\n\"Make Kelvalde do it!\" Aren demanded. \"He's got the voice for it.\"\n\n\"Oh, very well,\" the husky returned with false modesty, striding over to pick it up. \"Ahem. 'My dearest Dolores. I am writing you on this, the anniversary of our third year of marriage, to invite you to my house-uncle's estate, Gamely Manor. I know you have wish of a child with me, and for so long I have been away, toiling under the dirt to find the treasures of yesteryear. But if you will accompany me to Wilahem's old living space, I promise your dreams will finally come true. ~Your Darling Jonathan.'\"\n\nJust then, the lights went out, and a ghastly, youthful moaning sounded throughout the house. It was a few more uncomfortable seconds before the lights returned, everyone looking around. \"Ohhhh boy oh boy oh boy!!\" Gren tittered. \"This is so spooky already!\"\n\n\"Alright, gang,\" Natalie announced. \"Time to split up!\" \n\nAnd they did. Nat, Cat and Max in one group, Erwin, Kei, Shelly and Kelvalde in another. The kids both started after one of the other hallways. \"I suppose we'd better go after them,\" Sam noted with a knowing smirk.\n\n\"... Mm? Ah, yes,\" he said absently.\n\nShe tilted her head. \"Are you that scared of this place?\" She chuckled, then leveled out. \"Mm. No. It's her, isn't it. You're still thinking about that monster underground.\"\n\nHe stared down the dark hallway. \"I just can't stop worrying that she's out there, just waiting to spring...\"\n\n\"Jacent.\" She regarded him seriously. \"You can't spend all your free time worrying about things that [i]could[/i] happen, or you'll miss everything that's happening right now.\"\n\nHis face softened, and he nodded. \"You're right. The only person I should be thinking about is [i]you[/i].\" He bent down, raised his mask and kissed her nose with a smile.\n\nShe grinned and kissed his lips in return. \"That's more like it.\"\n\nAren elbowed Gren with a giggle-snort. \"Geez. They're gonna be flirting all night long.\"\n\nShe smirked. \"Yeah, we'll prolly have to solve this ourselves. C'mon, let's go in here!\" They took a left turn into a heavily stylized servant's quarters, simple bedding and furniture amidst some sparse reading materials. The place looked old and dusty, but the smell of the mansion was that of fresh rubber and carpeting rather than musty cloth, which both betrayed the illusion ever so slightly at the same time that it lent the entire affair a bizarre, otherworldly quality. \"Hmm... I don't see nothin'...\"\n\n\"Hmmm... ah ha!\" Aren checked under the servant's pillow to find a diary. \"Hey Sam, read it, read it!\" He thrust it at the bat, who had only just entered the room. \n\n\"Mm, alright then.\" She cleared her throat. \"'I have never seen the signoré so excited. Usually tired from his arduous labors, lately he seems spritely and untroubled. I do not know what could have caused this change in him, but a happy master makes a happy house.'\" She turned the page. \"Hm. There's another entry, a few days later. 'The signoré has been so secretive about the reason for his jubilation, but last night I managed to hear him slip something in between meals. A baby! Could it be that he has overcome his previous troubles and our house will be blessed with child? A momentous day. Now I smile as well.'\"\n\n\"So he's gonna knock up his lady,\" Gren concluded. \"Okay. Hey Aren, save those pages!\"\n\n\"Already done!\" He closed out the scanner on his PET and put out a call. \"Hey guys, we found the first clue!\"\n\n\"Already??\" Natalie's voice called back. \"Welp, guess that's it for this floor then! Let's head on to the next part!\"\n\n -\n- -\n -\n\nThe gang had reconvened long enough to head to the second floor past the grand entrance hall. The doors closed behind them, and the front doors to the building opened beyond them, allowing others to start the game behind them. This brought them into the guest quarters, and all of the sub-groups split off once more. Erwin's group had made their way into a rec room.\n\n\"Hm!\" Kelvalde took notice of a chair made out of wood and french curves. \"There was a point in Neo-Victorian times where we had a shortage of other kinds, and found it most convenient to use Pine Lacquer.\" He rubbed his hand over the arm of it. \"That's a really nice touch.\"\n\nShelly nodded. \"I like the plasmic-induction lighting!\" She pointed out baubles of glass and ivory on the walls; they were filled with swirling gaseous blue light that flickered in and out, casting an otherwordly pallor on the house. \"But I totally dunno where they got any of it; isn't that stuff like, super rare?\"\n\nKelvalde laughed softly. \"Well, we certainly mined like hell for it back then. It was plentiful for a [i]while[/i], but by the time old Barney Holmstock came around, you'd be lucky to have enough to keep the lights on.\" He leaned on a billiards table that was constructed, weathered, and re-finished to make it look like a recovered relic- an insane amount of effort for a prop. \"These days? You can make all of it that you want... but why would you? By the time we figured out how to synthesize it, we already had Fusion, which is just, you know, better in every way.\"\n\nKei slowly pivoted in his chair, getting a gradual panoramic look at the room. \"I heard a lot of people died in those digs...\"\n\nThe husky nodded grimly. \"Some people were buried in mine collapses. Others were crushed by the digging machines. Some? Just... disappeared, swallowed by the earth, never to be found. We made a lot of sacrifices in the name of Progress, and it would've been overbearing if not for the amazing storytelling prowess of Adalynn.\"\n\nKei blinked. \"Adalynn Vanier? The horror writer??\"\n\nHe nodded, remembering fondly. \"Talented [i]and[/i] beautiful.\"\n\nThe fox seemed confused. \"Why would it make you feel better to read a bunch of horror stories when you're already wigged out?\"\n\n\"Because you can't die reading a book,\" he answered simply, smiling. \"It's therapeutic to be scared in a context where you're safe, especially when the world around you is so [u]un[/u]safe. The worse the times, the better the scare-...s...\" He was cut off by the power going out, bathing the room in darkness.\n\nFootsteps were heard down the hallway, the sound of a pair of high heels clicking on the wooden floorboards. A silhouette appeared in the doorway. A candle was lit, and from the meager light provided, an attractive young squirrel woman dressed as a housekeeper looked around. \"Signoré? Are you in here?\" She looked left, then right. \"Signor- AH!\" Suddenly, a hand grasped around her mouth, and a long blade ran her through the chest. She let a muffled scream into the hand, dropped the candle, and the light from it was snuffed out in an instant.\n\nThe kids stood in the darkness, tense and unsure. Then, the lights came back on, and the maid was missing. No body, no knife, no candle, nothing. \"... What the fricking [i]shit![/i] Aaaaaaa!!\" Shelly flailed, at once intellectually certain that what she had seen wasn't real, and emotionally certain \"That was messed up!!\"\n\n\"Geez,\" Kei laughed nervously, catching his breath from the scare. \"I didn't know it was going to be [i]this[/i] spooky.\" He activated his PET and pulled up the hologram of Samantha sitting on one of the numerous counters in the spacious kitchen. \"Hey, are the kids okay, Sam? We just saw a servant get impaled...\"\n\n\"Awwww, and I missed it??\" Gren complained.\n\"Dang it!\" Aren groused. \"Erwin didja at least get it on your glasses-cam??\"\n\nErwin winced. \"Aren! C'mon man, don't rat me out!\"\n\n -\n- -\n -\n\nThe third floor was where wooden facade began to give way to stone structure, huge grey bricks lining the walls and floors with cold disregard. A long hallway filled with blue lights and red carpet stretched before them. \n\n\"So, read that letter we just found again??\" asked Natalie.\n\nJacent recited it. \"'My Dearest Dolores. Where have you gone? I thought greeting you with a child would fill you with joy. I was never able to give you one, and our circle is so vanishingly small. Please, come out of hiding. Your child needs her mother.\"\n\nCarrie scratched her side, confused. \"So what? This guy brings home a baby and his wife freaks and runs? They can't be [u]that[/u] ugly.\"\n\nThe lights went out. Every single torch was snuffed at once, and from the end of the long hallway, a pair of eyes glowed green. \"Dad-...dy...?\" came a young girl's voice.\n\n\"Aw!\" Nat smirked in the dark. \"It's cute!\"\n\nWithout warning, two pillars of fanning sparks came from the ground on either side of the small figure, accompanied by a horrid metal scraping sound.\n\n\"Oh god!\" Natalie rescinded her initial impression. \"IT'S NOT CUTE!!\"\n\n\"D-DAD-DY... MOM-M-MY!!\" she wailed, coming ever closer. She got within fifteen feet of them before the sparks died, a loud ~thump!~ sounded, and the lights came back on.\n\n\"... Okay, yeah,\" Carrie admitted. \"That's a fucked up baby.\"\n\n\"Let's, uh. Let's split up again!\" Natalie managed, though the place was starting to get to her as well. \n\nThe groups split off in their usual combinations, leaving Nat, Cat and Max together to explore a conservatory. Bookshelves, chairs and a suit of armor decorated the room, which was bathed in the warm yellow glow of the roaring fireplace. Despite the decor, the room felt a bit comforting to be in. Enough so that when Max wandered off to examine a series of lithographs in a desk, Carrie pushed Natalie up against the side of the hearth, pressing her breasts against the wolf's chest. \"Brings back memories, huh?\"\n\nNatalie's teeth revealed slowly. \"I remember. We were thirteen. Sam was playing it cool even though she was scared of the flickers,\" she referenced the holographic ghosts that made up much of post-splice mythology. \"Erwin was shaking in his shoes. Max was antagonizing both of them, then jumping at shadows. And you were acting weird all night.\"\n\nCarrie slid her hand down the fire-warmed brick work. \"I'd been rehearsing it in my head for a week, and I was so scared I'd mess it up. So. I pulled you in a room, just like this.\"\n\nShe nodded. \"Yeah.\"\n\n\"And I pushed you up against the fireplace, just like this.\"\n\nShe grinned. \"Uh-huh.\"\n\n\"And I said... 'Natalie, I want to be girlfriends together.'\" They both paused and looked into each other's eyes, savoring the moment, cherishing the memory of the moment they'd taken a leap forward together. \"... And you said...\"\n\n\"'Ohhhh my god,\" her eyes grew wide, as if confused and scared and awed. \"Your boobs are [i]so big.[/i]'\"\n\nThey both broke down laughing hysterically. \"I worked [i]so hard[/i] to make it sound [i]so good[/i]...\"\n\nNatalie wiped a tear from her eye. \"I know!! But [u]I[/u] didn't get time to prepare, it was just sprung on me!\"\n\n\"And you just, [i]come at me,[/i] with 'oh my godjer boobs're so big-\"\n\nNatalie had to resist laughing, a pained wheeze coming out of her; now her belly hurt. \"I was completely overwhelmed, the thought of spending my life with you, and then I just look down and notice that you're pushed against me and it makes your jugs look huge- I mean, at the time, just wow, you know?\"\n\n\"Little did you know, right?\" Carrie gave her a wry grin.\n\n\"Oh, no question I made the right call; look at those friggin' things. Ba-BOOM!\"\n\nCarrie ground into Natalie's arm with her knuckles, the wolf gritting her teeth and grinning through yet another of their countless physical contests, until she finally gave up with a happy sigh. \"You big dork. I love you so much.\"\n\nThe wolf put her girlfriend's arms around her neck. \"Well that's good, because I don't think anyone else is tough enough to love you like I do.\" They both laughed at this, rubbed noses and kissed.\n\n.........\n\nWhen Nat and Cat could see again, they found themselves at the bottom of a long chute, in a large pile of packing foam. The last thing either of them remembered was the bottom dropping out from under them and a whole lot of yelling.\n\n\"... This is like a metaphor for my life,\" Natalie determined.\n\n\"Look out belooooooow!!\" A green shape slid down the chute and landed in the pile between them, headfirst, legs and tail sticking out.\n\n\"Max??\" Natalie realized.\n\nCarrie sighed and began pulling him out. \"Dipstick, if you saw the floor was open, why did you step into the hole??\"\n\n\"Phmnhph! PUAH!\" His head emerged. \"Dudes! The flicker-baby girl came after me! She was chasing me with her blade arms!\"\n\n\"Max, it's a part of the ride,\" Cat said flatly.\n\n\"Dude, NO. She sliced at me and- oh!\" He retrieved a disheveled Gropey from the pile. \"And nearly took my head off! It was like [i]inches away![/i]\"\n\nNat and Cat looked at each other with concern. \"... Something's wrong,\" Natalie concluded. She pulled out her PET and attempted to call the others, but was met only with interference. \"Dammit, of course. This is a keepaway room, it won't let us out until someone finds the release. Max, you've gotta go warn the others!\"\n\nMax grimaced and looked up the chute. Even Gropey looked scared. \"B-Back up there???\"\n\n\"We don't have our powers, remember??\" Carrie reminded him.\n\n\"Awwww maaaaaan!\"\n\n -\n- -\n -\n\n\n\"Like, did you guys hear something?\" asked Shelly, looking up from a musty old tome that was actually just a weathered copy of several children's bedtime stories.\n\n\"Ah? No, I didn't,\" Kelvalde responded. \"I don't know how anyone can hear anything with all the spooky ambience they put in this place.\" At different times there were whispers, groans, howling wind and antiquated gas and water lines running, to name just a few.\n\n\"Yeah, I guess it's spooky, if you're a baby.\"\n\nThe group of teenagers looked to find one of their own that didn't belong. A light brown vixen in a halter top, cutoff jacket and jeans stood with her hands in her pockets, eyes hidden by long brown hair pulled back in a ponytail by a loose pink bow, her messy bangs wrangled underneath a hat that was as grey, utilitarian and rough-looking as the rest of her clothes. \"Oh ho yeah??\" Kelvalde accepted her challenge. \"I bet you'd be grasping for my hand if you went through the Phantomme De Mysterie in-\"\n\n\"Literally nobody cares,\" she responded with a smirk. \n\nShelly bristled. \"Um! Like hel-[i]lo,[/i] rude! Who even [i]are[/i] you, like for real??\" \n\nShe took a deep breath and laughed, her olive eye peeking out. \"Wow, you're boring. See you later, Dork Squad.\" As she left, she slapped the top of a bookshelf. This action coincided with the sound of unhappy grinding and, within a few moments, the bookshelf began rotating faster and faster, squealing and throwing books everywhere.\n\n\"Ow! OW!!\" Shelly shielded herself after one of the books bounced off of her chest, the other two turning away until the thing had been emptied of tomes.\n\n\"Hey guys,\" Erwin came into the room from an adjoining one he'd been investigating. \"... What happened?\"\n\nThey all looked at each other.\n\nComing around the corner, they saw the brown vixen moseying down the hallway. It was a narrow one filled with suits of animatronic armor on either side, swinging their weapons in tiny, non-threatening arcs at a low speed. She, on the other hand, swung her hips with not a care in the world. \"HEY!\" Shelly yelled harshly. \"You could have like, hurt somebody!\"\n\n\"Yeah, so be careful,\" she replied without looking back, extending her arms to touch the walls and suits of armor.\n\nThe kids ran after. The animated armor, however, had other plans; their arm motions were no longer arrested by their plotted paths, and began speeding up. \"Whoa, whoa [i]whoa!![/i]\" Erwin ran under a sword swing, falling face-down on the floor.\n\n\"AH!!\" Kei managed to grab the handle of a large two-handed axe above him, his noodly arms quivering under the weight until the wheels on his chair responded to the pressure laterally, shooting him forward and tossing him onto his back. \"Ufh!\"\n\n\"Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow!\" Shelly sheltered her head, but her entire upper half distended every time the mace was brought down on her. \"STOPPAAAT!!\"\n\nKelvalde, on the other hand, just managed to wrest a sword out of the grip of one of the animated knights. \"Hah! Have at you!\" He parried Erwin's sword, flipping the thing out of the still-swinging armor's grip. He slashed at the axe handle, breaking it in half due to its obviously shoddy construction, and with no real way of defeating the mace, he threw a hit down onto the knight's arms, reducing its functionality to wriggling the weapon along the floor and grinding its gears.\n\n\"Whew...\" Kei panted, pulling himself upright using one of the inanimate armors. \"Thanks, Kelvalde.\"\n\n\"Quite so, my friends!\" He brandished the blade heroically with a grin. \"Let us apprehend our foe!\"\n\nThe double doors to the next area opened. \"[i]Dang[/i] it! She already took the elevator up and junk! Aaaargh.\" Shelly stamped her foot. \"C'mon, let's go!\"\n\nThey all got into the elevator in a hurry and pressed the button for 'up.' The gate closed. The doors closed.\n\nAnd they dropped.\n\n\"AAAAAAAAAHH!!!\" the kids screamed in unison.\n\n -\n- -\n -\n\n\"... Hello??\" \n\nGrendolyn Murcbee was a fan of scary things. She enjoyed spooks and frights. But as she hurriedly walked down the hallway, she realized that she wasn't having fun anymore. \n\n\"Gren, I don't see anybody...\" Aren said warily, taking stock of the dilapidated animatronic armors, which had burned out. They'd gotten lost exploring several rooms that connected with one another, but when they'd come back to the original room they started in, Sam and Jacent were gone. They'd looked for the other groups after hearing noises, but nobody called back. Their PETs had lost their signals, probably due to interference with all the other goings on in the dome that night.\n\n\"I don't either... oh, the elevator!\" Gren ran up. \"Maybe they went to the next... floor...\" Her voice quavered as she stopped short, staring down into the bottomless abyss of the elevator shaft. She and Aren looked at each other with growing anxiety. \"We have to get out of here. The doors should open up the back way, let's-\" They immediately stopped in their tracks, watching two green eyes in the darkness. \"OHMIGOD!!\"\n\"IT'S THE FLICKER BABY!!\"\n\"GO UP THE STAIRS!!!\"\n\nIn a blind panic, the children ran into the stairwell, flying up the steps as fast as their little legs could take them. They heard nothing but their own screaming and the sounds of clopping, hurried footsteps. When they emerged at the top of the stairwell onto the next floor, a stone hallway with torches and no windows, they gasped for breath and looked around, paranoid.\n\n\"W-... What do we do now...?\" Gren wondered aloud.\n\n\"... I guess we go up...\" Aren concluded. \"There's an exit at the last floor; I saw a topway that goes across to another building. If we can get there, then we can get out and call the police.\"\n\n\"Yeah...\" she agreed breathlessly, nodding. \"Okay.\"\n\n~(_)~\n\nThis proved easier said than done. As they climbed the tower of terror, bypassing clues and rooms in favor of simply going from one end to the other as quickly as possible, they were treated to a disjointed experience that would have only barely made sense if half of the components hadn't massively malfunctioned. In one room, a full dining set tilted erratically as the floor tile under it tried over and over again to flip over to its empty side. A self-pulling hallway rug lurched slowly, making a moving sidewalk for the kids. In a strangely placed kitchen, animatronic servant corpses twitched much faster than they were supposed to, turning what was supposed to be a silent, ghastly display into a hilarious if unheard song and dance number. \n\n\"Maaan,\" Gren complained. \"This woulda been so spooky!\"\n\nAren winced. \"Are you kidding?? This place is so messed up, I'm scared enough for the entire rest of the year!\"\n\nThe torches began to fade as they neared the top floor. The stairwell grew darker. \"Crap, I can't see a thing anym-uh!-m-more!\" Gren exclaimed, almost tripping on several stairs. \"And my PET ran out of battery after yours did...\"\n\n\"Here.\" Aren grabbed her hand. \"I can see better in the dark.\" The foil-like backing behind his eyes shone yellow in the darkness. \n\nGren blinked, taken with this little thing she'd never known about her friend. \"Ooh. That's kinda cool...\" She held his hand as they climbed, stepping in unison. \"..... Did you hear that??\" she whispered urgently, stopping after another seven steps.\n\nThe tiger was too nervous to hold his breath. He heard crying. They slowly stepped, silently, up the steps, until they arounded the corner enough to see the source of it. Sitting there was a metal monstrosity, long blades coming from their fingers, green eyes dim as she slumped over next to the door to the top floor, sobbing almost silently. \"H-... Hhhh... It's the flicker baby...\" he realized.\n\n\"W-We have to get through that door,\" Gren said. \"On three, we're gonna slowly, quietly, sneak past.\" Aren nodded in the affirmative. \"One... [i]two[/i]...\"\n\n\"Aren?\" the monster managed, looking around the corner. \"G-G-Gren?\" she stuttered, not from speech impediment, but from glitching.\n\n\"Widget!!\" they exclaimed in unison. \n\"You were the flicker baby??\"\n\"Wow, how did you get this job?\"\n\"That costume is super spooky!\"\n\"Why are you-\"\n\n\"I'm losing power,\" she said. \"Not just motor, but data, and reserve. I've been writing everything to storage that I can, b-b-but I-I-I-I can't make it in time...\"\n\n\"Hold on Widget!\" Aren cried, bravery swelling in his small chest. \"Gren, help me get that headmask off of her!\" The goat used her diminutive brawn to remove the vestiges of Widget's costume, exposing the face they both knew and loved. Aren pressed on a pressure plate underneath Widget's brilliant blue hair, now dreadfully dim, and ran his fingers underneath the soft plastic, breaking the resealable seamline and opening a panel. \n\n\"Ewwww!\" Gren shuddered; the components underneath her fiber-optic friend always gave her a really gross feeling inside.\n\n\"Just stay with us, Widget, you'll be okay!\" Aren summoned up his will and pressed his palm against the charging contacts on Widget's head. \"Here we go!\"\n\nThe robot's head glowed incredibly brightly as her body convulsed, scaring the children and making Widget moan in pain.\n\n\"Too much, too much! It's okay, I've got it this time!\" The tiger concentrated, introducing a steady current that flowed into the Automa girl at the right proportion. \n\nAfter a full fifteen seconds, her eyes glowed again, and she sighed with relief. \"You saved my life, dude...\"\n\n\"Just take it easy,\" little Tenny Tenthwood said, his voice cracking. \"Keep charging off me, y-you can have as much as you want,\" he tried to stave away tears, but his eyes glistened all the same- something the girl smiled at. He hadn't known Widget for that long, but she'd treated him well. The idea of her being put in such dire straits bothered him more than he even thought it would. \n\nGren blew out a shaky sigh relief. \"What happened?\"\n\nThe blue haired robot looked over to her. \"I saw you guys tryna get to the top floor, so I had to beat you to it. I had to warn you not to go...\"\n\n\"Why??\" The goat looked toward the door with a newfound sense of dread. \"What's up there??\"\n\n\"The whole reason this place is so messed up... she's terrifying. Everything she touches goes haywire. I tried to stop her, but when she put a hand on me, e-everything...\" She paused. \"Everything inside me started failing at once. It was like my insides were destroyed one by one. I felt every microcapacitor blow. Every contact melt. I can't even go into low-power mode... just one touch and I was set to short out and wipe everything...\" She nodded to Aren. \"I think I should be okay now though. I fast-drew to my capacitor, and I'm holding everything in paging.\"\n\n\"Rgh, what a jerkass!\" Grendolyn growled. \"I'm gonna show her what happens when you do that to [i]my[/i] friends!\"\n\n\"Wait! Gren!\" Widget called, to no avail; the diminutive goat was already through the door. \"... You better go after her, dude.\"\n\nAren nodded. \"Okay. I'll come back for you Widget!\" He hurried through the door.\n\nShe sat up a bit, smiling. \"I know you will, bro.\"\n\n -\n- -\n -\n\nThe door to the final room wasn't a door, but practically a portal to another world. Castle walls, wood with peeling wallpaper, dark caves, even foreboding forest phased in and out, holographic props from trees to tables fizzling horribly. The nauseating miasma of haunted locales poured in and out as if melted into an offputting fondue and stirred arhythmically; when even the floor wouldn't sit still, the only stationary objects anchoring one to reality were the black holes in space- patches of completely burnt out display paint.\n\n\"Oh god, I think I'm gonna barf...\" Aren whined.\n\n\"Keep it together!\" Gren pushed. \"We just gotta find whoever did this- OOFH!\" She bashed into an archway that looked like every other part of the room, her hard skull crushing the paint into a blackened crater. \"This place sucks!\"\n\n\"Look! Gren!\" Aren spied a brown and white tail moving around a corner.\n\n\"Quick, after her!\" The spunky goat rose and took off. \"We're gonna get you, lady! Just as soon as the room stops spinning!\"\n\n\"Oh yeah?\" A smooth, disembodied voice called out. \"Lemme help with that.\" \n\nLoud, angry buzzing sounded out from the entirety of the machines in the room, vibrating and scaring the kids, until every single image, every hologram, every light in the entire place went out in an explosion of fallen wires, sparks and encroaching darkness. The kids cried out in surprise, then were left in a lightning-strike darkness, the pure blackness interrupted in only split-second intervals, sparks from the live wires flashing chaotically. \n\n\"A-Aren, your turn!\"\n\"I can't! My eyes can't get used to the darkness!\"\n\"Crap! What do we do??\"\n\"H-Hold on... I've got an idea!\"\n\nAren grabbed his PET and pulled it apart with his claws, its seals already loosened by the many times that the curious, mechanically-inclined boy had opened it up. Tearing away at the elastic waterproofing seals, he ripped the entire computer aspect of it away and pushed his fingers against the contacts. With an exertion of will, Voltaus supplied the screen with pure current, lighting up the room as brightly as the small rectangle could.\n\nThe goat pumped a fist. \"Great thinking, wonder boy!\"\n\nHe grinned back, blushing. \"Just watch for the wires!\"\n\nThey made it, very carefully, through another room before the same voice called out. \"Isn't this so much more fun??\"\n\nGren winced as they searched the room for the voice's owner. \"Are you crazy?? This night was perfect before you decided to be a jerk!\"\n\n\"You're a boring kid. You gonna follow the rules your whole life? What a joke!\"\n\n\"Who [i]are[/i] you???\" Aren asked. \n\n\"Her name's Leihanne Veviroux!\"\n\n\"AAAAAH!!!\" the kids cried in unison, noticing a crystal ball behind them in which Max's face stared back at them. Gren's eyes widened. \"Ohmigod Max, are you calling us from the ethereal plane???\" \n\n\"There's a hole underneath it, I just stuck my head inside.\" He licked his eyelid. \"Anyway this girl is super bad news! She's got a rap sheet a mile long dudes; the cops are always after her, and she's destroyed a ton of stuff! She's a, uh, what was it? Technophobe! No wait. Technobane!\"\n\n\"Is everyone okay??\"\n\n\"Yeah, everyone's fine, we just fell in a ton of traps and couldn't get out 'cause she messed up the time locks!\" he explained. \"Just come back the other way, dudes, she's way too dangerous! I- G-... Gropey! Wait! Stop!\" The goo ball slurmed up into the crystal ball, crowding his head space and looking around curiously. \"Gropey! No, stop, quiddit! GROPEY!\" The baby grabber climbed up over Max's eye, his own ocular lining up perfectly to make Max look like some kind of mutant. \n\n\"See ya when we've kicked her butt, Max!\" Gren called after him. \n\n\"Dangit! Okay well use your powers and be careful!!\" he called back, before staring at Gropey with his one open eye. \"You're killin' me man.\"\n\nThe kids made their way through room after room, shining the pulled apart PET in hopes of seeing their quarry. Then it happened: Aren passed over a smirking brown vixen once, cried out in surprise, then was kicked in the stomach, his light flying. \"UFH!!\" \n\n\"It was pretty dumb for you to come by yourselves. You should've listened to your dork lizard friend.\"\n\nThis was the moment Gren had been waiting for. She grabbed at the back of her costume's utility belt, wrapped her hands around two metal double discs, and flicked down Jacent's yo-yos with force and ferocity. \"Leihanne Veviroux, you're gonna pay for ruining Hallohalls!\" Yellow jolts of unstable electric power sparked down the metal wires that served as strings, and arced over the spinning wheels like red and blue generators. \n\n\"Snrrrrkhahaha, what the hell??\" Leihanne laughed in the yellow glow. This stopped, however, when the goat retrieved her toys and threw the red one directly into her gut, shocking her like a taser. \"UNGHNAHANH!\" She convulsed for a moment, wincing. Her grin grew malicious. \"Ooh you're a [i]vicious[/i] little shit, aren't you?\" \n\n\"C'mon!\" Gren threatened her, flicking the electric yo-yos out in arc after arc; she'd been practicing with Jacent's help. \"Come and get me, I dare you!\"\n\nLeihanne was used to brawling. She edged in, carefully dodging to the side, then pushing her hips back when one of them got too close, and then baited out a swing before hooking down to punch Gren in the side of the neck. The girl cried out and went down, her toys sparking wildly. \"That's what you get for fighting someone bigger than you.\"\n\n\"Gren!\" Aren inked over, ran up and tackled Leihanne's legs. The addition of an inkling put anyone's strength a weight class over where they stood normally, and thus he hit with equivalent force, bringing them both to the ground. \n\n\"Ohhh, smart!\" she praised him sarcastically, before a brilliant emerald green enveloped her. \"But I've got one, too!\" She grabbed his arm and threw him into a table, the edge catching his hips. He bit his lip and writhed.\n\nGren came after her as well, ducking her head down and charging. Leihanne side-stepped, grabbing Gren's horn as she came around, forcing the goat to orbit her, and slammed her head into a chest of drawers, showering them both in splinters. \"... Aaaanh...\" she moaned, dizzy from the impact.\n\n\"You know I don't normally get a kick outta beating on little snots your size, but [i]you earned this,[/i]\" Leihanne grinned at them. \"This is [i]way[/i] more fun than candy!\"\n\n\"... You know what?\" grunted the goat, holding her bruised arm. \"I used to think that growing up was dumb because it involved [i]people[/i] and [i]caring,[/i] and trying to be [i]safe[/i] when stuff could be [i]fun[/i] instead.\" She panted, looking around at the meticulously crafted funhouse, now in ruins. \"But if I don't grow up, I'll end up just like you: a stupid, selfish [i]jackass[/i].\" Her heart thumped in her chest as Leihanne grew less impressed. \"I have two words for you.\"\n\nShe folded her arms. \"What's that, dipstick?\"\n\nGren looked to the side. \"AREN, NOW!\"\n\n\"Wha?!\" Leihanne looked where Gren was looking, but Aren wasn't there; he was underneath her legs, which Gren capitalized on by charging her head-first, butting her right in the stomach. \"ARGH!\" The vixen fell backward into a trolley on a track, her head having impacted it upon entry. \"Ow! Dammit! Rrgh... what the f-\" She looked up to see the two kids frantically pushing the cart. \"Nonono don't you dare you little- AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaa...!!\"\n\nGren and Ten watched her fly down the track, spiraling tightly down the shaft. \"The end is near!\" they cried with childish glee as she reached the bottom, at which point the cart stopped, upending and dumping her into a pile of dead leaves. \"You smell like rear!!\" They finished the chant in the popular, if less correct fashion, laughed deliriously, shared a cathartic high five, and leaned on each other.\n\n -\n- -\n -\n\nThe rest of the night was far more sedate, to everyone's relief. After filing a police report with Murphy, Natalie and her friends made their way back to Carrie's place, where they slept over and watched horror movies that ran the spectrum of good to terrible. Gren and Ten stuffed their faces with candy. The adults had already partied themselves out, but Erwin's parents decided to stay and 'socialize' a bit more. \n\nIt almost seemed like the only one left alone was one Leihanne Veviroux.\n\n\"Tch.\" She kicked a rock down the unswept path of the abandoned area of the Residential sector. \"That place was boring anyway.\"\n\nCedric watched her walk down the way, sitting and drinking a cup of coffee as black as the night- blacker, considering the effects still on display. \"Had a rough night?\"\n\nShe hmphed. \"It was fine until-\"\n\n\"Until Natalie, and her friends. Right?\" He took a sip.\n\nLeihanne frowned, folding her arms. \"I wasn't gonna join your little band back in the day, Cedric, and I'm not going to now. I'm nobody's toadie.\"\n\n\"That's what I like about you, Veviroux,\" He sighed with refreshment, taking in the bitter liquid. \"You don't let anyone else think for you. So.\" He put the mug down on the porch step. \"I've got something for you.\"\n\n\"Living in this heap, I can't imagine what you'd have that I'd want,\" she countered dryly.\n\n\"A proposition.\" He stood up. \"What if I said that, in one stroke, we could discredit Natalie and her allies, and make it inconvenient for the police to go after us?\"\n\n\"I'd say that's some ambitious shit,\" she replied. \"You really think you can do that?\"\n\n\"No.\" He picked up the mug again. \"But [i]we[/i] can.\"\n\nLeihanne looked at Cedric's house. It was livelier than usual, and all the lights were on. Then she looked back toward the city proper, and scowled. \"... What would I have to do?\"\n\n\"Just what you do best.\"", "writing_bbcode_parsed": "The Hallowed Halls were never what one would call 'crowded.' Either there were some scattered people here and there, visiting the nameplates of the dearly departed, or it was empty save for the fire keeper. Tonight was the former, owing largely to the occasion. Hallowed Halls' Eve was the time for recalling those who had been lost, remembered with a plate, an epitaph, even holograms of various kinds. Grigori Wallak stood with a young pig girl named Emma; his family had adopted her when her parents had been lost so recently, a bitter reminder that the Locksmouth incident had taken an unkind toll on some.

"... It still hurts, doesn't it?" Natalie came up to them, hips canted to one side.

Emma frowned. She was tough, she'd made it through a lot on her own muster. But this was something she couldn't climb over on her own. "... Does it ever stop hurting?"

She mulled it over. "... No. But." Her head tilted and she smiled gently with a soft double nod. "It gets better."

Emma turned to hug Greg, who wrapped her up in his big arms with the warmest, most sincere gesture of love he could give. She took a deep breath, released him slowly... then came to Natalie and hugged her around the waist. The wolf returned the gesture with a hand on her back and a pat on the head. This, too, was released, and she turned to Greg. "... I want some candy."

Grigori laughed softly. "Come on then, let's go." He patted the petite girl on the back, leading her out before turning to Natalie. "Hey. Keep up the fight. For everyone. But especially Inked kids; it makes a difference." He glanced Emma's direction.

She put up a fist and gestured strongly. "Always." The wolf watched them both leave, lingering a few more moments before returning to the reason she came in the first place. The pyre was strong tonight, and burned green in celebration of the holiday; its light bathed Natalie's nameplate, still displaying that ever-present skull. And right next to it, was another nameplate.

[Michael Grayswift
2493 - 2532]

They'd had his plate duplicated at her mother's request, a year into moving to Locksmouth. It was good to have it here. Her hand lightly pushed against it, and a holographic display projected itself. A gray-furred wolf man with red eyes and long, unkempt hair adjusted his sloppy, unwashed lab coat and scratched the back of his head. His kind, narrow eyes sparkled as he grinned, something that came easily to him. "Ah, I'm bad at these, but Lorrie won't let me get away with putting it off any more." He took a deep breath and addressed the camera. "Well Natalie, you're three whole years old today." The boyish man smirked at a simplified action figure he held in one hand. "I was gonna give this to you, but you were already down for a nap. If you didn't play so hard, you wouldn't need so many of those, you know!"

He laughed. "But I've got no room to talk. You know, your mother's always comparing us, you and me. Notably when she's mad about something I did, or something you managed." Michael smiled widely in that good-natured way his daughter often did. "But I remember the day you got out of the play pen. Lorrie was so upset with me!" He laughed. "Like I'd passed down some kind of aversion to the rules. But I remember seeing something in your eyes. That cleverness, that quick thinking... that's all on her."

The wolf shrugged, distracted by a thought. "Ah, I should probably at least try to do some of my own research. I can't just go for donuts all day. But, before I go." He got in close to the camera. "Being your father has been... the scariest adventure of my life. But I'm so proud of you. And I love you so much." He paused. "Never be ashamed of who you are, Natalie. Show 'em what you got."

 -
- -
 -

"Lastik is coming in!"
"Lastik approaching; lower the bridge!"
"Lowering the bridge..."

The castle was full of life these days, Greys filling roles everywhere. Once dilapidated hallways now looked merely worn, and a large door was opened with little trouble, letting a particularly interesting orange shape walk in.

"Welcome to Castle Blackwolf!" Echelon greeted.

"I suppose it's about time I came here, huh?" the orange inkling offered nervously, but happy all the same. The moment they stepped in, the torches glowed just a bit brighter.

"Your timing couldn't be better; we all appreciate you donating your excess prana to the castle, what with how much was lost during the battle with Grendel..."

"O-Of course!" Lastik insisted. "I mean it's... it's only right. I-... I'm sorry, Echelon, for abandoning the Resistance; it's why I delayed coming here for so long. I should have-"

"There'll be no recriminations here," the black and pink inkling insisted.

"Too right!" Phactys agreed, ushering them toward the main quarters. "Humans have finite lifespans, and can afford to hold grudges- but if we let the mistakes of the past undermine our future, there'll be nothing to build on!"

"Tsk," Mhend complained. "Ohh, why'd you have to remind me they'll be gone one day?" She hung upside down by an archstone. "I've come to like mine so much!"

"That's the point of the holiday they're celebrating today!" Koralo piped up with a big innocent smile. "That people die."

"That's not even close to right," Arus deadpanned, folding her arms as she rested against the wall. "The point is extortion via false identities."

Echelon sighed. "Either way, I hope we all remembered to tell our hosts that they can't access us or our abilities tonight?" They collectively gave her an affirmative. "Good. We need to be in Recharge mode for the whole day so that we can get back some of that surplus that keeps this place running."

They all spent a moment quietly reflecting, wind blowing banners gently. "... Not to be negative," Arus said, "But even after this, aren't we just going to run low again? We've taken on more every day, it feels like; we'll have to start turning them away."

Mhend nodded. "That's why we've sent some of them out to go find others, like Lastik here, and Voltaus. Perhaps she couldn't give much now, but I'd feel better if Animis were recuperating here instead of out in the roughs."

"I agree, friends," Echelon acquiesced. "But for tonight, let's just settle down, settle in, and set sail on the dreamless sea of turpentine."

 -
- -
 -

Grendolyn Murcbee was electric. Being a fanatic for all things dark and spooky, Hallowed Halls Eve was more important to her than her own birthday. And yet, this was the one time she wasn't going as something scary.

"Are you ready yet??" called an impatient Aren Tenthwood from the other side of the holographic divider that had obscured all but their silhouettes to one another. He had fashioned himself a black and yellow bodysuit with gloves, boots, and a mask that featured two discs on the side of his head.

"Don't rush me! It has to be perfect!" she insisted, going from counter to counter of Carrie's bedroom, the best place to get dressed.

"Greeeeeen!" he complained. "We're gonna be late! I wanna get all the candy I can!"

"Aaaalmooooost... there!" Gren lifted the veil and showed off her own bodysuit, mask and gloves combo, all of which were yellow and black, just like Aren's. "Are we ready??"

"We're ready!" he exclaimed, and both of them made their way out into the hallway. They traveled through the foyer, where Vincent and Diane had met Margaret at the door, who took their coats. "Hi-mister-and-missus-Masterson!" Aren managed breathlessly as they ran past.

"Goodness, they're excited," Diane noted with a smile.

"Of course they are!" Margaret glowed. "It's an exciting time of year, they've made a bunch of new friends, and we have bats! Can't have Hallohalls without bats," she mused.

Vincent furrowed his brows. "I don't know how that association ever came to be."

"I don't think anyone does," Diane weighed in. "But it's fun, isn't it?"

Her husband seemed reticent. Margaret added, "Oh, and we have jelly shots!"

His eyebrows shot up. "In that case, let the spooking begin."

Meanwhile, the kids ran through the kitchen at what grown-ups referred to as 'outdoor speed.' Old Man Murcby raised cane. "Gren, no runnin' in the house!"

"Sorry Grandpa!" she said absently as she made it into the living room- and therefore the center of attention.

"Oh ho, and what're you supposed to be?" Penelope asked.

She posed dramatically. "Prepare to be amazed by the megawatt might of Electrocutie-"

Aren posed as well. "-And Amplidude!"

The adults laughed and clapped, many of them having missed the presence of smaller children for years now, delighting in their japery. Aren, for his part, was electrified with having such attention on him, and could barely contain himself. "Me and Gren, we've been working on our powers with Carrie, and we found out that we can use 'em separately too! Not the lightning bolts, that's only together; but she can throw sparks everywhere, and I can make a steady current! I powered this mechanical project I made in Science class, and I'm getting real good at gauging amperage required! I bet I could power your sound system!" His hands reached toward it as Hugh Oakenfield began sputtering in panicked protest.

"I think the power grid's got it covered, buddy," said Carrie, as she walked out of the kitchen and into the living room.

Hugh turned around. "Oh! Hi Pumpkin! Is... that what you're wearing out? I thought you were a little old for fur-pattern PJs."

Her father's guess didn't seem monumentally wrong. Fur-pattern pajamas were body-hugging suits made of fuzzy material made it look as if the wearer was naked- but naked by cartoon animal rules, leaving inoffensive blank spaces where more provocative articles would have appeared. Indeed Carrie seemed to be wearing such a piece of clothing, but instead of mimicking her endless white fur, her underbelly was the same powder blue as her hair. She also wore red bandanas over her knees, elbows and eyes- eyes which stared blank white, seeming to be composed entirely of sclera in a manner which hearkened to stylistically masked comic book heroes, thanks to holographic assistance. She hiked up her belt, which held a pair of very dulled tri-pointed daggers. "Tch. Dad, I'm not a little kid- I'm a ninja named after a Renaissance painter."

"Oh." He winced. "I... knew that...?"

"Wow..." Gren and Ten remarked together, taking in the originality and cool factor of the costume as well as being mollified by her huge featureless breasts jostling slightly with her movements.

"Haha, don't worry, Mr. Oakenfield," Erwin assured him, walking into view. He had the same exact costume set up, with his own fur colors and purple bandanas. "It's based on an old obscure comic series from the Pre-Splice era. Jacent showed it to us, and we all thought it would be fun to dress up like the characters!"

"Oooh!" The kids marveled in unison, noticing Erwin's big bandaged stick, as well as the fact that the suit did nothing to hide the enormity of his male bulge, nor the fact that it, too, jiggled when he walked.

Natalie and Max came in as well, the former with an arm around the latter's shoulders. "Max had an unfair advantage- he's already green!"

Max shrugged. "Well that's the fringe benefit of being the token lizard friend!"

"Token- what?!" Natalie immediately caught him in a neck-lock and began applying vigorous noogies to him as Gropey edged away from her wrathful knuckles.

Gren and Ten silently grinned- Max had chosen orange and nunchaku, whereas Natalie had chosen blue and swords. But neither of them had chosen their builds, which were both flattered by their play-fighting as they turned away and bent down to either escape or further the entrapment.

"I thought the red one picked on the orange one," Samantha remarked, walking in wearing a yellow jumpsuit with a plunging neckline and fanning herself. Jacent followed in a torn-out sleeveless shirt, ratty jeans and a hockey mask, complete with stick.

"Hah!" Lorna grinned. "They couldn't get you in a bodysuit, huh?"

"There were, thankfully, only four such characters," Jacent said with great relief.

"Aww..." the kids said in unison.
"Wait a minute, why am I perving on them??" Gren whispered angrily. "This is your fault!"
"How's it my fault?? They're your eyeballs."
"You've been influencing me somehow!"
"How would I even do that??"
"How should I know?? I don't think like a sneak!"

"Hey, so," Carrie interrupted. "Are you kids gonna whisper sweet nothings all night, or are we gonna go bag some candy?"

They gasped and looked at one another, alliance now mended. "CANDY!!"

 -
- -
 -

Luminescent smiling gourds lined rooftops and windowsills. A low-rolling mist roiled along the ground in more places than not, spots of it illuminated in toxic greens by street lights underneath the grass. The projected architecture of virtually every building had turned to look like something it wasn't: wooden old vestiges of yester-century, dangerous concrete facilities wherein terrible experiments lurked, haunted fun-houses or simply dilapidated examples of modern housing, looking as if it had been abandoned for decades. On top of this, the moon glowed like a blood orange, casting an eerie glow over the entire city. as if the entire world had changed overnight.

"Whooooaaaa..." Gren marveled.

"I've lived in this town for a while," remarked Natalie. "But I've never seen them go all out like this."

Jacent looked around with a great deal of wonder as to how all of this was accomplished, but not why. "During good times, a holiday can seem unnecessary. But during hard times, people turn toward celebration to distract themselves, and put their minds at ease."

Natalie smirked. "Speaking of distractions, where's Shelly? I thought she was going in on our costume theme."

"She and Kei are catching up with us later," Erwin supplied. "Didn't want to deal with all the people, but they're totally in for Haunted Castle."

"Great!" Max cheered, handling his bag. "More candy for me!"

"Max," Jacent interjected. "Aren't you a little old for that?"

"Bro." Max was frank with him. "First off, this ain't the holiday you're thinkin' of. Second, it's not about being young, it's about being scared. And third! ... You fight with yo-yos and marbles???"

The red-haired boy tilted his masked head, disarmed. "Touché."

Max flung his arm toward a house. "Onward, to the candy!"

The first house they visited was a creaky wooden affair with too many cobwebs everywhere. With a ring of the door chime, none other than Culby Hendrix opened the faux-wooden door wearing a Neo-Victorian era dress of the Educators' Aristocracy. It was historically accurate in every way, from the stitching, to the brass-buttoned belt, to the fact that her breasts were almost entirely bare save for a pair of saucer-sized lace buttons that kept her decent. "The end is near..." she beckoned from behind her rimless glasses, eagerly participating in her part of the ritual.

"Have no fear!" Gren, Ten and Max exclaimed in the sing-songy manner of children well-practiced in the tradition.

The skunk giggled, delighted as she reached into her candy bowl to hand out treats to the children. "It's good to see you kids having fun!"

"It's always good to see you, Ms. Hendrix!" Aren beamed.

It was usually at this point that Gren would have chastised him for 'perving on' the prodigious educator, but her eyes were staring just the same. "Uh. Yeah, good to see you..." she said absently, licking her lips before turning around, looking at the cream-filled chocolate pumpkin treat in her bag as if it had magically materialized inside it, foil wrapper and all.

Ms. Hendrix smiled as they left, calling to them one last time. "Happy Hallowed Halls! Oh, and Jacent, I'm not letting you off the hook for that extra credit report!"

"Y-Yeah... I'm still working on it!" he called back, walking away swiftly and shaking his head. "And the research is just about killing me..."

 -
- -
 -

The night was a raucous blur of merriment, walking from one complex to another and grabbing up all the treats they could carry. Between Carrie's strength, Natalie's charm and Max's knowledge of which houses had the best candy from year to year, they'd had to make a stop at Aren's apartment to drop off their respective hauls and begin the second leg of the journey.

"Aw man, isn't this great??" Aren excitedly asked his partner in crime, grinning underneath his mask as he dumped out a boatload of candy out onto his bed. "We're gonna have chocolate until we're 50!!"

"We're gonna have chocolate until 9:50, tomorrow morning," she countered with a smirk. "I've seen you put away those peanut butter pieces!"

"Hahaha! Shut up!" The tiger put his bag sideways on the bed and stuck his head inside it, looking around for any last scraps of candy that might impede it being unable to carry the maximum load possible.

Gren watched him perform this maneuver, as she'd witnessed him do something silly on many occasions, but there was something... different about this time. He'd been growing, like her, but Aren had experienced a particularly noticable growth spurt. No longer a straight line down, his hips had widened, and he'd started putting some weight on in the back. She watched his buns grow taut, more round than she was used to and flattered by the angle he'd bent. Her face felt hot, her breathing got shallow, and without thinking about it, she'd placed her hand on the middle of his right cheek. It was unbelievably soft, sending a thrill down her arm as she very lightly squeezed it. Her whole body felt warm.

"Hunh?!" Aren fought his way out of the bag and looked up and back at a now red-faced goat girl. "... Gren? Did you touch my butt...?"

"Uh, d-no! Of course not, that's- why would I do that??" Her ears burned.

"Really??" He blinked. "That's weird, because it felt exactly like you squeezed my-"

"Well that didn't happen!" She heard Carrie's voice. "And... they're... calling for us! So I'm going!" She briskly almost-ran out of his bedroom and his apartment, tromping down the stairs and stopping half a flight down before framing the sides of her face with her hands. "What was that???"

Aren, now alone in his room, blinked several times, before licking a stray piece of chocolate off of his lips. "Weird."

 -
- -
 -

The second round of candy collection was just as fun as the first. Gren and Ten met many classmates and friends they recognized on their journey through the spooky alternate-universe incarnation of Locksmouth, laughing and comparing hauls and singing silly, spooky songs that redoubled on the excited, adventurous sense of ultimately consequenceless danger. This was only reinforced by the efforts of many adults and teenagers to make their houses and apartment halls as creepy as possible, often startling the children enough to make their conviction in the spoken ritual sound particularly flimsy.

Their last building to plunder was Penceworth Estates. There were a lot more people living there than when Jacent had first moved in, and they looked to be in higher spirits. With the addition of so many inked denizens, the apartment complex had become a warm and inviting nexus between Canvas and Earth- and with Jacent and Kelvalde, between Present and the Past. There was no crackling thunderclap in this building, no intensely real holographic haunts; these people had seen enough to scare them for a long time, and had opted for cartoonish bat and spider decals to go with the now gradient black-green walls. They met with plenty of people who were happy to have visitors, and doubly happy to see the people who worked so hard to protect them and their rights. Next to last stop? Bo Briggs.

"Oh!" She answered the door, her hair frizzy and unkempt. "The end is near!" she managed quickly.

"Have no fear~!" Aren said confidently.

"I'm kind of surprised you're here, actually," Jacent noticed, smiling at his downstairs neighbor. "I thought you were taking your little brother out."

"Oh, I did. He can't ever seem to stay up long." She smiled. "He's a sleepy boy."

"Did you run into any trouble out there?" Natalie inquired.

"Nah! Thanks for taking care of the rogue cops, by the way; I walked around in my ink skin all night with no problems! It was nice!"

"Ahem, not to interrupt, but..." Gren shook her bag insistently.

"Oh!" Bo laughed. "Right. As she moved out of sight, they spied a disheveled-looking Jordan Alpine, wearing a mussed dress shirt, tie and... nothing on his bottom half other than a sticker.

Carrie grinned. "No, I'm sorry to interrupt."

"Oh hey Jordie," Erwin greeted the lightly flushed weasel. "How come you're not at Haunted Castle?"

"Oh, I already solved it hours ago; I just couldn't help myself! This year's mystery was sumptuous and quite satisfying," he indicated. "You should really get over there and try it yourselves!" He waved as Bo dropped some candy into the kids' bags.

"Thank you!" they said in unison, and on they went.

They made their way up to the top floor penthouse, where Kelvalde was serving drinks to Kei and Shelly while dressed as a classic vampire, cape and all. They carried on a conversation that was at once too nerdy for Jacent and too rooted in Pre-Splice nostalgia for Erwin, successfully going over everyone else's heads. "Ah, you're here!" the husky greeted them. "All done with the candy collection?"

"Like I sure hope so, geez!" Shelly laughed at the bulging bags the kids were holding. She'd dressed up in a button up shirt and sweater vest, pointing toward their huge candy haul with a very stereotypical-looking hand held death ray. "Maybe I'll get 'em!" she teased, pushing her arm through the hollow barrel of the gun and emerging from the other side as a huge grabby-hand.

"Ah, but I will defend your honor!" Kei reached to the side of his blue gi and pulled out a wooden practice sword of Eastern origin, which he bopped Shelly's oversized hand with. The butterfly had a brief slap-fight with his bokken, which they had likely done several times that night.

Max grinned. "Yojimbo? Stockman?" He gestured to the kids. "Electrocutie, and Amplidude. Sweet, huh?"

Kei giggled. "Very. Will they be joining us tonight?"

Natalie folded her arms. "I dunnooo..."

Gren and Ten looked up at her with pleading eyes. "Pleeeeeeease???"

She grinned. "Aw, I'm just kidding, I already checked with your parents; I just like to see you beg." She pinched their cheeks and mushed their faces together, making the two of them giggle and struggle. "How about you, Kelvalde?"

"Me??" He seemed surprised as he sipped at his snifter of something quite old and potent. "Don't you have a big enough crowd?"

"Aw c'mon," Carrie insisted. "You're always up here workin' on your inventions, or passed out 'cause you forgot to sleep, or bangin' like three people. You never hang out with the whole gang!"

After a moment's consideration, he grinned. "Hah! You're right! Enough talk, I'll join you!" He threw the glass on the floor behind him, shattering it dramatically and spiling the contents all over the tile. The rest of them flinched visibly and stared at him. "..... The auto-maid will get that. Let's go!"

 -
- -
 -

It was common for a derelict house to be converted into an amusement most of the year, inside of which a fake murder was staged and the culprit had to be systematically deduced by participants. The game was called Haunted Manor. But on Hallowed Halls' Eve, an entire abandoned hotel was transformed. The game's size and depth multiplied, and this special version was called Haunted Castle.

The teens and tweens marveled at the holographically-augmented architecture, the odd shadows and spooky lights visible in multiple windows from the outside, and the foreboding sounds coming from inside. Boards creaked under their feet as they entered, over-stylized furniture decorated the lobby in someone's moment of pique, and hideous portraits of many shapes and sizes catalogued a dark and unsettling lineage of prior masters of the massive stone-and-wood castle.

Nobody greeted them, but when they all managed to get inside, the huge doors closed behind them on their own, sealing them inside with a spooky flourish and beginning the game. On the massive wooden table, a hand-written note laid by itself.

"Who wants to read it??" Natalie asked excitedly.

"Make Kelvalde do it!" Aren demanded. "He's got the voice for it."

"Oh, very well," the husky returned with false modesty, striding over to pick it up. "Ahem. 'My dearest Dolores. I am writing you on this, the anniversary of our third year of marriage, to invite you to my house-uncle's estate, Gamely Manor. I know you have wish of a child with me, and for so long I have been away, toiling under the dirt to find the treasures of yesteryear. But if you will accompany me to Wilahem's old living space, I promise your dreams will finally come true. ~Your Darling Jonathan.'"

Just then, the lights went out, and a ghastly, youthful moaning sounded throughout the house. It was a few more uncomfortable seconds before the lights returned, everyone looking around. "Ohhhh boy oh boy oh boy!!" Gren tittered. "This is so spooky already!"

"Alright, gang," Natalie announced. "Time to split up!"

And they did. Nat, Cat and Max in one group, Erwin, Kei, Shelly and Kelvalde in another. The kids both started after one of the other hallways. "I suppose we'd better go after them," Sam noted with a knowing smirk.

"... Mm? Ah, yes," he said absently.

She tilted her head. "Are you that scared of this place?" She chuckled, then leveled out. "Mm. No. It's her, isn't it. You're still thinking about that monster underground."

He stared down the dark hallway. "I just can't stop worrying that she's out there, just waiting to spring..."

"Jacent." She regarded him seriously. "You can't spend all your free time worrying about things that could happen, or you'll miss everything that's happening right now."

His face softened, and he nodded. "You're right. The only person I should be thinking about is you." He bent down, raised his mask and kissed her nose with a smile.

She grinned and kissed his lips in return. "That's more like it."

Aren elbowed Gren with a giggle-snort. "Geez. They're gonna be flirting all night long."

She smirked. "Yeah, we'll prolly have to solve this ourselves. C'mon, let's go in here!" They took a left turn into a heavily stylized servant's quarters, simple bedding and furniture amidst some sparse reading materials. The place looked old and dusty, but the smell of the mansion was that of fresh rubber and carpeting rather than musty cloth, which both betrayed the illusion ever so slightly at the same time that it lent the entire affair a bizarre, otherworldly quality. "Hmm... I don't see nothin'..."

"Hmmm... ah ha!" Aren checked under the servant's pillow to find a diary. "Hey Sam, read it, read it!" He thrust it at the bat, who had only just entered the room.

"Mm, alright then." She cleared her throat. "'I have never seen the signoré so excited. Usually tired from his arduous labors, lately he seems spritely and untroubled. I do not know what could have caused this change in him, but a happy master makes a happy house.'" She turned the page. "Hm. There's another entry, a few days later. 'The signoré has been so secretive about the reason for his jubilation, but last night I managed to hear him slip something in between meals. A baby! Could it be that he has overcome his previous troubles and our house will be blessed with child? A momentous day. Now I smile as well.'"

"So he's gonna knock up his lady," Gren concluded. "Okay. Hey Aren, save those pages!"

"Already done!" He closed out the scanner on his PET and put out a call. "Hey guys, we found the first clue!"

"Already??" Natalie's voice called back. "Welp, guess that's it for this floor then! Let's head on to the next part!"

 -
- -
 -

The gang had reconvened long enough to head to the second floor past the grand entrance hall. The doors closed behind them, and the front doors to the building opened beyond them, allowing others to start the game behind them. This brought them into the guest quarters, and all of the sub-groups split off once more. Erwin's group had made their way into a rec room.

"Hm!" Kelvalde took notice of a chair made out of wood and french curves. "There was a point in Neo-Victorian times where we had a shortage of other kinds, and found it most convenient to use Pine Lacquer." He rubbed his hand over the arm of it. "That's a really nice touch."

Shelly nodded. "I like the plasmic-induction lighting!" She pointed out baubles of glass and ivory on the walls; they were filled with swirling gaseous blue light that flickered in and out, casting an otherwordly pallor on the house. "But I totally dunno where they got any of it; isn't that stuff like, super rare?"

Kelvalde laughed softly. "Well, we certainly mined like hell for it back then. It was plentiful for a while, but by the time old Barney Holmstock came around, you'd be lucky to have enough to keep the lights on." He leaned on a billiards table that was constructed, weathered, and re-finished to make it look like a recovered relic- an insane amount of effort for a prop. "These days? You can make all of it that you want... but why would you? By the time we figured out how to synthesize it, we already had Fusion, which is just, you know, better in every way."

Kei slowly pivoted in his chair, getting a gradual panoramic look at the room. "I heard a lot of people died in those digs..."

The husky nodded grimly. "Some people were buried in mine collapses. Others were crushed by the digging machines. Some? Just... disappeared, swallowed by the earth, never to be found. We made a lot of sacrifices in the name of Progress, and it would've been overbearing if not for the amazing storytelling prowess of Adalynn."

Kei blinked. "Adalynn Vanier? The horror writer??"

He nodded, remembering fondly. "Talented and beautiful."

The fox seemed confused. "Why would it make you feel better to read a bunch of horror stories when you're already wigged out?"

"Because you can't die reading a book," he answered simply, smiling. "It's therapeutic to be scared in a context where you're safe, especially when the world around you is so unsafe. The worse the times, the better the scare-...s..." He was cut off by the power going out, bathing the room in darkness.

Footsteps were heard down the hallway, the sound of a pair of high heels clicking on the wooden floorboards. A silhouette appeared in the doorway. A candle was lit, and from the meager light provided, an attractive young squirrel woman dressed as a housekeeper looked around. "Signoré? Are you in here?" She looked left, then right. "Signor- AH!" Suddenly, a hand grasped around her mouth, and a long blade ran her through the chest. She let a muffled scream into the hand, dropped the candle, and the light from it was snuffed out in an instant.

The kids stood in the darkness, tense and unsure. Then, the lights came back on, and the maid was missing. No body, no knife, no candle, nothing. "... What the fricking shit! Aaaaaaa!!" Shelly flailed, at once intellectually certain that what she had seen wasn't real, and emotionally certain "That was messed up!!"

"Geez," Kei laughed nervously, catching his breath from the scare. "I didn't know it was going to be this spooky." He activated his PET and pulled up the hologram of Samantha sitting on one of the numerous counters in the spacious kitchen. "Hey, are the kids okay, Sam? We just saw a servant get impaled..."

"Awwww, and I missed it??" Gren complained.
"Dang it!" Aren groused. "Erwin didja at least get it on your glasses-cam??"

Erwin winced. "Aren! C'mon man, don't rat me out!"

 -
- -
 -

The third floor was where wooden facade began to give way to stone structure, huge grey bricks lining the walls and floors with cold disregard. A long hallway filled with blue lights and red carpet stretched before them.

"So, read that letter we just found again??" asked Natalie.

Jacent recited it. "'My Dearest Dolores. Where have you gone? I thought greeting you with a child would fill you with joy. I was never able to give you one, and our circle is so vanishingly small. Please, come out of hiding. Your child needs her mother."

Carrie scratched her side, confused. "So what? This guy brings home a baby and his wife freaks and runs? They can't be that ugly."

The lights went out. Every single torch was snuffed at once, and from the end of the long hallway, a pair of eyes glowed green. "Dad-...dy...?" came a young girl's voice.

"Aw!" Nat smirked in the dark. "It's cute!"

Without warning, two pillars of fanning sparks came from the ground on either side of the small figure, accompanied by a horrid metal scraping sound.

"Oh god!" Natalie rescinded her initial impression. "IT'S NOT CUTE!!"

"D-DAD-DY... MOM-M-MY!!" she wailed, coming ever closer. She got within fifteen feet of them before the sparks died, a loud ~thump!~ sounded, and the lights came back on.

"... Okay, yeah," Carrie admitted. "That's a fucked up baby."

"Let's, uh. Let's split up again!" Natalie managed, though the place was starting to get to her as well.

The groups split off in their usual combinations, leaving Nat, Cat and Max together to explore a conservatory. Bookshelves, chairs and a suit of armor decorated the room, which was bathed in the warm yellow glow of the roaring fireplace. Despite the decor, the room felt a bit comforting to be in. Enough so that when Max wandered off to examine a series of lithographs in a desk, Carrie pushed Natalie up against the side of the hearth, pressing her breasts against the wolf's chest. "Brings back memories, huh?"

Natalie's teeth revealed slowly. "I remember. We were thirteen. Sam was playing it cool even though she was scared of the flickers," she referenced the holographic ghosts that made up much of post-splice mythology. "Erwin was shaking in his shoes. Max was antagonizing both of them, then jumping at shadows. And you were acting weird all night."

Carrie slid her hand down the fire-warmed brick work. "I'd been rehearsing it in my head for a week, and I was so scared I'd mess it up. So. I pulled you in a room, just like this."

She nodded. "Yeah."

"And I pushed you up against the fireplace, just like this."

She grinned. "Uh-huh."

"And I said... 'Natalie, I want to be girlfriends together.'" They both paused and looked into each other's eyes, savoring the moment, cherishing the memory of the moment they'd taken a leap forward together. "... And you said..."

"'Ohhhh my god," her eyes grew wide, as if confused and scared and awed. "Your boobs are so big.'"

They both broke down laughing hysterically. "I worked so hard to make it sound so good..."

Natalie wiped a tear from her eye. "I know!! But I didn't get time to prepare, it was just sprung on me!"

"And you just, come at me, with 'oh my godjer boobs're so big-"

Natalie had to resist laughing, a pained wheeze coming out of her; now her belly hurt. "I was completely overwhelmed, the thought of spending my life with you, and then I just look down and notice that you're pushed against me and it makes your jugs look huge- I mean, at the time, just wow, you know?"

"Little did you know, right?" Carrie gave her a wry grin.

"Oh, no question I made the right call; look at those friggin' things. Ba-BOOM!"

Carrie ground into Natalie's arm with her knuckles, the wolf gritting her teeth and grinning through yet another of their countless physical contests, until she finally gave up with a happy sigh. "You big dork. I love you so much."

The wolf put her girlfriend's arms around her neck. "Well that's good, because I don't think anyone else is tough enough to love you like I do." They both laughed at this, rubbed noses and kissed.

.........

When Nat and Cat could see again, they found themselves at the bottom of a long chute, in a large pile of packing foam. The last thing either of them remembered was the bottom dropping out from under them and a whole lot of yelling.

"... This is like a metaphor for my life," Natalie determined.

"Look out belooooooow!!" A green shape slid down the chute and landed in the pile between them, headfirst, legs and tail sticking out.

"Max??" Natalie realized.

Carrie sighed and began pulling him out. "Dipstick, if you saw the floor was open, why did you step into the hole??"

"Phmnhph! PUAH!" His head emerged. "Dudes! The flicker-baby girl came after me! She was chasing me with her blade arms!"

"Max, it's a part of the ride," Cat said flatly.

"Dude, NO. She sliced at me and- oh!" He retrieved a disheveled Gropey from the pile. "And nearly took my head off! It was like inches away!"

Nat and Cat looked at each other with concern. "... Something's wrong," Natalie concluded. She pulled out her PET and attempted to call the others, but was met only with interference. "Dammit, of course. This is a keepaway room, it won't let us out until someone finds the release. Max, you've gotta go warn the others!"

Max grimaced and looked up the chute. Even Gropey looked scared. "B-Back up there???"

"We don't have our powers, remember??" Carrie reminded him.

"Awwww maaaaaan!"

 -
- -
 -


"Like, did you guys hear something?" asked Shelly, looking up from a musty old tome that was actually just a weathered copy of several children's bedtime stories.

"Ah? No, I didn't," Kelvalde responded. "I don't know how anyone can hear anything with all the spooky ambience they put in this place." At different times there were whispers, groans, howling wind and antiquated gas and water lines running, to name just a few.

"Yeah, I guess it's spooky, if you're a baby."

The group of teenagers looked to find one of their own that didn't belong. A light brown vixen in a halter top, cutoff jacket and jeans stood with her hands in her pockets, eyes hidden by long brown hair pulled back in a ponytail by a loose pink bow, her messy bangs wrangled underneath a hat that was as grey, utilitarian and rough-looking as the rest of her clothes. "Oh ho yeah??" Kelvalde accepted her challenge. "I bet you'd be grasping for my hand if you went through the Phantomme De Mysterie in-"

"Literally nobody cares," she responded with a smirk.

Shelly bristled. "Um! Like hel-lo, rude! Who even are you, like for real??"

She took a deep breath and laughed, her olive eye peeking out. "Wow, you're boring. See you later, Dork Squad." As she left, she slapped the top of a bookshelf. This action coincided with the sound of unhappy grinding and, within a few moments, the bookshelf began rotating faster and faster, squealing and throwing books everywhere.

"Ow! OW!!" Shelly shielded herself after one of the books bounced off of her chest, the other two turning away until the thing had been emptied of tomes.

"Hey guys," Erwin came into the room from an adjoining one he'd been investigating. "... What happened?"

They all looked at each other.

Coming around the corner, they saw the brown vixen moseying down the hallway. It was a narrow one filled with suits of animatronic armor on either side, swinging their weapons in tiny, non-threatening arcs at a low speed. She, on the other hand, swung her hips with not a care in the world. "HEY!" Shelly yelled harshly. "You could have like, hurt somebody!"

"Yeah, so be careful," she replied without looking back, extending her arms to touch the walls and suits of armor.

The kids ran after. The animated armor, however, had other plans; their arm motions were no longer arrested by their plotted paths, and began speeding up. "Whoa, whoa whoa!!" Erwin ran under a sword swing, falling face-down on the floor.

"AH!!" Kei managed to grab the handle of a large two-handed axe above him, his noodly arms quivering under the weight until the wheels on his chair responded to the pressure laterally, shooting him forward and tossing him onto his back. "Ufh!"

"Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow!" Shelly sheltered her head, but her entire upper half distended every time the mace was brought down on her. "STOPPAAAT!!"

Kelvalde, on the other hand, just managed to wrest a sword out of the grip of one of the animated knights. "Hah! Have at you!" He parried Erwin's sword, flipping the thing out of the still-swinging armor's grip. He slashed at the axe handle, breaking it in half due to its obviously shoddy construction, and with no real way of defeating the mace, he threw a hit down onto the knight's arms, reducing its functionality to wriggling the weapon along the floor and grinding its gears.

"Whew..." Kei panted, pulling himself upright using one of the inanimate armors. "Thanks, Kelvalde."

"Quite so, my friends!" He brandished the blade heroically with a grin. "Let us apprehend our foe!"

The double doors to the next area opened. "Dang it! She already took the elevator up and junk! Aaaargh." Shelly stamped her foot. "C'mon, let's go!"

They all got into the elevator in a hurry and pressed the button for 'up.'  The gate closed. The doors closed.

And they dropped.

"AAAAAAAAAHH!!!" the kids screamed in unison.

 -
- -
 -

"... Hello??"

Grendolyn Murcbee was a fan of scary things. She enjoyed spooks and frights. But as she hurriedly walked down the hallway, she realized that she wasn't having fun anymore.

"Gren, I don't see anybody..." Aren said warily, taking stock of the dilapidated animatronic armors, which had burned out. They'd gotten lost exploring several rooms that connected with one another, but when they'd come back to the original room they started in, Sam and Jacent were gone. They'd looked for the other groups after hearing noises, but nobody called back. Their PETs had lost their signals, probably due to interference with all the other goings on in the dome that night.

"I don't either... oh, the elevator!" Gren ran up. "Maybe they went to the next... floor..." Her voice quavered as she stopped short, staring down into the bottomless abyss of the elevator shaft. She and Aren looked at each other with growing anxiety. "We have to get out of here. The doors should open up the back way, let's-" They immediately stopped in their tracks, watching two green eyes in the darkness. "OHMIGOD!!"
"IT'S THE FLICKER BABY!!"
"GO UP THE STAIRS!!!"

In a blind panic, the children ran into the stairwell, flying up the steps as fast as their little legs could take them. They heard nothing but their own screaming and the sounds of clopping, hurried footsteps. When they emerged at the top of the stairwell onto the next floor, a stone hallway with torches and no windows, they gasped for breath and looked around, paranoid.

"W-... What do we do now...?" Gren wondered aloud.

"... I guess we go up..." Aren concluded. "There's an exit at the last floor; I saw a topway that goes across to another building. If we can get there, then we can get out and call the police."

"Yeah..." she agreed breathlessly, nodding. "Okay."

~(_)~

This proved easier said than done. As they climbed the tower of terror, bypassing clues and rooms in favor of simply going from one end to the other as quickly as possible, they were treated to a disjointed experience that would have only barely made sense if half of the components hadn't massively malfunctioned. In one room, a full dining set tilted erratically as the floor tile under it tried over and over again to flip over to its empty side. A self-pulling hallway rug lurched slowly, making a moving sidewalk for the kids. In a strangely placed kitchen, animatronic servant corpses twitched much faster than they were supposed to, turning what was supposed to be a silent, ghastly display into a hilarious if unheard song and dance number.

"Maaan," Gren complained. "This woulda been so spooky!"

Aren winced. "Are you kidding?? This place is so messed up, I'm scared enough for the entire rest of the year!"

The torches began to fade as they neared the top floor. The stairwell grew darker. "Crap, I can't see a thing anym-uh!-m-more!" Gren exclaimed, almost tripping on several stairs. "And my PET ran out of battery after yours did..."

"Here." Aren grabbed her hand. "I can see better in the dark." The foil-like backing behind his eyes shone yellow in the darkness.

Gren blinked, taken with this little thing she'd never known about her friend. "Ooh. That's kinda cool..." She held his hand as they climbed, stepping in unison. "..... Did you hear that??" she whispered urgently, stopping after another seven steps.

The tiger was too nervous to hold his breath. He heard crying. They slowly stepped, silently, up the steps, until they arounded the corner enough to see the source of it. Sitting there was a metal monstrosity, long blades coming from their fingers, green eyes dim as she slumped over next to the door to the top floor, sobbing almost silently. "H-... Hhhh... It's the flicker baby..." he realized.

"W-We have to get through that door," Gren said. "On three, we're gonna slowly, quietly, sneak past." Aren nodded in the affirmative. "One... two..."

"Aren?" the monster managed, looking around the corner. "G-G-Gren?" she stuttered, not from speech impediment, but from glitching.

"Widget!!" they exclaimed in unison.
"You were the flicker baby??"
"Wow, how did you get this job?"
"That costume is super spooky!"
"Why are you-"

"I'm losing power," she said. "Not just motor, but data, and reserve. I've been writing everything to storage that I can, b-b-but I-I-I-I can't make it in time..."

"Hold on Widget!" Aren cried, bravery swelling in his small chest. "Gren, help me get that headmask off of her!" The goat used her diminutive brawn to remove the vestiges of Widget's costume, exposing the face they both knew and loved. Aren pressed on a pressure plate underneath Widget's brilliant blue hair, now dreadfully dim, and ran his fingers underneath the soft plastic, breaking the resealable seamline and opening a panel.

"Ewwww!" Gren shuddered; the components underneath her fiber-optic friend always gave her a really gross feeling inside.

"Just stay with us, Widget, you'll be okay!" Aren summoned up his will and pressed his palm against the charging contacts on Widget's head. "Here we go!"

The robot's head glowed incredibly brightly as her body convulsed, scaring the children and making Widget moan in pain.

"Too much, too much! It's okay, I've got it this time!" The tiger concentrated, introducing a steady current that flowed into the Automa girl at the right proportion.

After a full fifteen seconds, her eyes glowed again, and she sighed with relief. "You saved my life, dude..."

"Just take it easy," little Tenny Tenthwood said, his voice cracking. "Keep charging off me, y-you can have as much as you want," he tried to stave away tears, but his eyes glistened all the same- something the girl smiled at. He hadn't known Widget for that long, but she'd treated him well. The idea of her being put in such dire straits bothered him more than he even thought it would.

Gren blew out a shaky sigh relief. "What happened?"

The blue haired robot looked over to her. "I saw you guys tryna get to the top floor, so I had to beat you to it. I had to warn you not to go..."

"Why??" The goat looked toward the door with a newfound sense of dread. "What's up there??"

"The whole reason this place is so messed up... she's terrifying. Everything she touches goes haywire. I tried to stop her, but when she put a hand on me, e-everything..." She paused. "Everything inside me started failing at once. It was like my insides were destroyed one by one. I felt every microcapacitor blow. Every contact melt. I can't even go into low-power mode... just one touch and I was set to short out and wipe everything..." She nodded to Aren. "I think I should be okay now though. I fast-drew to my capacitor, and I'm holding everything in paging."

"Rgh, what a jerkass!" Grendolyn growled. "I'm gonna show her what happens when you do that to my friends!"

"Wait! Gren!" Widget called, to no avail; the diminutive goat was already through the door. "... You better go after her, dude."

Aren nodded. "Okay. I'll come back for you Widget!" He hurried through the door.

She sat up a bit, smiling. "I know you will, bro."

 -
- -
 -

The door to the final room wasn't a door, but practically a portal to another world. Castle walls, wood with peeling wallpaper, dark caves, even foreboding forest phased in and out, holographic props from trees to tables fizzling horribly. The nauseating miasma of haunted locales poured in and out as if melted into an offputting fondue and stirred arhythmically; when even the floor wouldn't sit still, the only stationary objects anchoring one to reality were the black holes in space- patches of completely burnt out display paint.

"Oh god, I think I'm gonna barf..." Aren whined.

"Keep it together!" Gren pushed. "We just gotta find whoever did this- OOFH!" She bashed into an archway that looked like every other part of the room, her hard skull crushing the paint into a blackened crater. "This place sucks!"

"Look! Gren!" Aren spied a brown and white tail moving around a corner.

"Quick, after her!" The spunky goat rose and took off. "We're gonna get you, lady! Just as soon as the room stops spinning!"

"Oh yeah?" A smooth, disembodied voice called out. "Lemme help with that."

Loud, angry buzzing sounded out from the entirety of the machines in the room, vibrating and scaring the kids, until every single image, every hologram, every light in the entire place went out in an explosion of fallen wires, sparks and encroaching darkness. The kids cried out in surprise, then were left in a lightning-strike darkness, the pure blackness interrupted in only split-second intervals, sparks from the live wires flashing chaotically.

"A-Aren, your turn!"
"I can't! My eyes can't get used to the darkness!"
"Crap! What do we do??"
"H-Hold on... I've got an idea!"

Aren grabbed his PET and pulled it apart with his claws, its seals already loosened by the many times that the curious, mechanically-inclined boy had opened it up. Tearing away at the elastic waterproofing seals, he ripped the entire computer aspect of it away and pushed his fingers against the contacts. With an exertion of will, Voltaus supplied the screen with pure current, lighting up the room as brightly as the small rectangle could.

The goat pumped a fist. "Great thinking, wonder boy!"

He grinned back, blushing. "Just watch  for the wires!"

They made it, very carefully, through another room before the same voice called out. "Isn't this so much more fun??"

Gren winced as they searched the room for the voice's owner. "Are you crazy?? This night was perfect before you decided to be a jerk!"

"You're a boring kid. You gonna follow the rules your whole life? What a joke!"

"Who are you???" Aren asked.

"Her name's Leihanne Veviroux!"

"AAAAAH!!!" the kids cried in unison, noticing a crystal ball behind them in which Max's face stared back at them. Gren's eyes widened. "Ohmigod Max, are you calling us from the ethereal plane???"

"There's a hole underneath it, I just stuck my head inside." He licked his eyelid. "Anyway this girl is super bad news! She's got a rap sheet a mile long dudes; the cops are always after her, and she's destroyed a ton of stuff! She's a, uh, what was it? Technophobe! No wait. Technobane!"

"Is everyone okay??"

"Yeah, everyone's fine, we just fell in a ton of traps and couldn't get out 'cause she messed up the time locks!" he explained. "Just come back the other way, dudes, she's way too dangerous! I- G-... Gropey! Wait! Stop!" The goo ball slurmed up into the crystal ball, crowding his head space and looking around curiously. "Gropey! No, stop, quiddit! GROPEY!" The baby grabber climbed up over Max's eye, his own ocular lining up perfectly to make Max look like some kind of mutant.

"See ya when we've kicked her butt, Max!" Gren called after him.

"Dangit! Okay well use your powers and be careful!!" he called back, before staring at Gropey with his one open eye. "You're killin' me man."

The kids made their way through room after room, shining the pulled apart PET in hopes of seeing their quarry. Then it happened: Aren passed over a smirking brown vixen once, cried out in surprise, then was kicked in the stomach, his light flying. "UFH!!"

"It was pretty dumb for you to come by yourselves. You should've listened to your dork lizard friend."

This was the moment Gren had been waiting for. She grabbed at the back of her costume's utility belt, wrapped her hands around two metal double discs, and flicked down Jacent's yo-yos with force and ferocity. "Leihanne Veviroux, you're gonna pay for ruining Hallohalls!" Yellow jolts of unstable electric power sparked down the metal wires that served as strings, and arced over the spinning wheels like red and blue generators.

"Snrrrrkhahaha, what the hell??" Leihanne laughed in the yellow glow. This stopped, however, when the goat retrieved her toys and threw the red one directly into her gut, shocking her like a taser. "UNGHNAHANH!" She convulsed for a moment, wincing. Her grin grew malicious. "Ooh you're a vicious little shit, aren't you?"

"C'mon!" Gren threatened her, flicking the electric yo-yos out in arc after arc; she'd been practicing with Jacent's help. "Come and get me, I dare you!"

Leihanne was used to brawling. She edged in, carefully dodging to the side, then pushing her hips back when one of them got too close, and then baited out a swing before hooking down to punch Gren in the side of the neck. The girl cried out and went down, her toys sparking wildly. "That's what you get for fighting someone bigger than you."

"Gren!" Aren inked over, ran up and tackled Leihanne's legs. The addition of an inkling put anyone's strength a weight class over where they stood normally, and thus he hit with equivalent force, bringing them both to the ground.

"Ohhh, smart!" she praised him sarcastically, before a brilliant emerald green enveloped her. "But I've got one, too!" She grabbed his arm and threw him into a table, the edge catching his hips. He bit his lip and writhed.

Gren came after her as well, ducking her head down and charging. Leihanne side-stepped, grabbing Gren's horn as she came around, forcing the goat to orbit her, and slammed her head into a chest of drawers, showering them both in splinters. "... Aaaanh..." she moaned, dizzy from the impact.

"You know I don't normally get a kick outta beating on little snots your size, but you earned this," Leihanne grinned at them. "This is way more fun than candy!"

"... You know what?" grunted the goat, holding her bruised arm. "I used to think that growing up was dumb because it involved people and caring, and trying to be safe when stuff could be fun instead." She panted, looking around at the meticulously crafted funhouse, now in ruins. "But if I don't grow up, I'll end up just like you: a stupid, selfish jackass." Her heart thumped in her chest as Leihanne grew less impressed. "I have two words for you."

She folded her arms. "What's that, dipstick?"

Gren looked to the side. "AREN, NOW!"

"Wha?!" Leihanne looked where Gren was looking, but Aren wasn't there; he was underneath her legs, which Gren capitalized on by charging her head-first, butting her right in the stomach. "ARGH!" The vixen fell backward into a trolley on a track, her head having impacted it upon entry. "Ow! Dammit! Rrgh... what the f-" She looked up to see the two kids frantically pushing the cart. "Nonono don't you dare you little- AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaa...!!"

Gren and Ten watched her fly down the track, spiraling tightly down the shaft. "The end is near!" they cried with childish glee as she reached the bottom, at which point the cart stopped, upending and dumping her into a pile of dead leaves. "You smell like rear!!" They finished the chant in the popular, if less correct fashion, laughed deliriously, shared a cathartic high five, and leaned on each other.

 -
- -
 -

The rest of the night was far more sedate, to everyone's relief. After filing a police report with Murphy, Natalie and her friends made their way back to Carrie's place, where they slept over and watched horror movies that ran the spectrum of good to terrible. Gren and Ten stuffed their faces with candy. The adults had already partied themselves out, but Erwin's parents decided to stay and 'socialize' a bit more.

It almost seemed like the only one left alone was one Leihanne Veviroux.

"Tch." She kicked a rock down the unswept path of the abandoned area of the Residential sector. "That place was boring anyway."

Cedric watched her walk down the way, sitting and drinking a cup of coffee as black as the night- blacker, considering the effects still on display. "Had a rough night?"

She hmphed. "It was fine until-"

"Until Natalie, and her friends. Right?" He took a sip.

Leihanne frowned, folding her arms. "I wasn't gonna join your little band back in the day, Cedric, and I'm not going to now. I'm nobody's toadie."

"That's what I like about you, Veviroux," He sighed with refreshment, taking in the bitter liquid. "You don't let anyone else think for you. So." He put the mug down on the porch step. "I've got something for you."

"Living in this heap, I can't imagine what you'd have that I'd want," she countered dryly.

"A proposition." He stood up. "What if I said that, in one stroke, we could discredit Natalie and her allies, and make it inconvenient for the police to go after us?"

"I'd say that's some ambitious shit," she replied. "You really think you can do that?"

"No." He picked up the mug again. "But we can."

Leihanne looked at Cedric's house. It was livelier than usual, and all the lights were on. Then she looked back toward the city proper, and scowled. "... What would I have to do?"

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