Trick or Treat

"Okay," Jack said, grinning down at the three bemused kids in his living room, "Halloween is here once again. The night those horrible ghosts think they can just fly all willy-nilly in our town. Well I won't have it! So here," he said, reverently dropping an orange sized green ball of goop into each of their candy bags. "If a ghost tries to steal your hard-won candy, these babies'll blow up and trap'em good!"

Still smiling, the older man pulled out a fourth blob and held it out at arm's length. Carefully, he pulled out a vial of ectoplasm in his other hand and let a drop fall. A second later, everyone and everything in the room was coated in sticky green goop.

"Success!"

While Jack was busy congratulating himself, Danny Sam and Tucker snuck outside and hurried away as fast as they could. When no one was looking, they dropped their bags and let Danny discretely turn each of them intangible. Goop slid off of Sam and Tucker and Danny's costume, leaving only a few bits to stubbornly cling to his skin. With a long-suffering sigh, Danny picked up his bag and the three headed off into the night.

"Dude, does your dad seriously think we'll run into a ghost?" Tucker asked in an amused voice. Scowling, Danny once again plucked at some of the green gunk. It still wouldn't come off. Grinning, Sam reached an arm around each of her friend's shoulders and marched them along.

"Who knows?" She asked cheerfully. "Halloween is famous for bringing out crazy spirits and all sorts of cool stuff. It'd be a dull night if nothing happened." Amity Park's ghost boy raised an eyebrow at that.

"Oh? And do you plan on fighting these 'crazy spirits' when they show up?" Smiling, Sam shook her head.

"Nope. I plan on watching you fight them." A moment later as the words registered, the two friends suddenly jumped apart and turned bright red. Tucker laughed.

"Come on guys, just admit it. You totally like each other!"

"Tucker!" They both turned and yelled at the same time, then blushed again. Their friend grinned.

An hour later, the three friends were slowly walking home, dragging huge bulging candy bags. Sam's costume had been the favorite, though Tucker still argued that since she hadn't dressed up for the occasion it shouldn't count. Danny came in second with his astronaut getup, and Tucker was pulling third as Technus. Scowling, the geek ruffled through his bag for a piece of candy.

"It's not fair." He grumbled. "I spent two weeks putting this thing together. Using real appliances!" Danny and Sam grinned over at him and hefted their noticeably larger hauls.

"Come on, Tucker, it's no big deal." Sam teased. "At least you still have your PDA." Tucker's face darkened.

"Oh? Well listen up, miss 'Princess of Darkness', I'll have you know that-"

"Hey, look what the shuttle dropped off." Came a sneering voice from down the block. "It's Dork Vader, Princess of the Geeks, and an Alien Nerd!" Catcalls and laughter rang out from Dash Baxter's small group of friends. Paulina in arm, the jock strutted forward to the very annoyed trio.

"Come on Dash," Danny griped, "its Halloween. Can't you just – WHAT ARE YOU WEARING?"

"What this?" The quarterback said smugly, gesturing down. "I decided to go out as Phantom this year. All the cool kids are doing it." Paulina giggled and gripped his arm.

"But why would you losers know that?" She scoffed. "You all picked lame costumes."

"Now how about some of that candy?" Dash asked sarcastically, as he reached out for their bags.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, a large blue net shot out and wrapped Dash in a tight cocoon, hauling him off screaming at the top of his lunges. Paulina Screeched and fled the other way. At the other end of the net stood Jack Fenton and the family RV, beaming at his red-faced son and friends.

"I did it! I caught the ghost kid! ME! Jack Fenton!" Beaming, he threw the gyrating bag into the back of the RV. "Your candy's safe now kids. Have fun." Jack hopped back into the assault vehicle. "I'm gonna take the ghost kid home and start probing him right away!" With that, the large vehicle sped off into the distance, Dash's desperate wails falling on deaf ears.

The three friends stood still and stared after the retreating hunter for several long moments before bursting out laughing.

"Oh man." Danny said, wiping his eyes. "I'm gonna pay for that tomorrow, but it was totally worth it." Tucker gasped and doubled over beside him.

"Totally." He wheezed. "I'll remember this forever." Grinning, Sam nodded. Finally over the worst of the laughing, the three headed off towards home again.

They were only about a block away when they saw kids running away from one of the houses, screaming at the top of their lungs. Frowning, Danny walked forward, and groaned as blue mist shot from his mouth. Quickly transforming into his ghost form, Phantom strode forward.

Youngblood stood in front of the house amidst a small mountain of candy bags, laughing his head off. The older ghost scowled.

"Hey kid!" He yelled. "Back off! That candy's not yours!" Eyes narrowing dangerously, the young pirate ghost floated up and glared at Danny.

"What's it to ya? Ain't you a little old to be trick-or-treating?" He asked peevishly.

"We wanted to do it one more time." Danny said coldly. "And I'm not about to let some punk ruin it for us." Charging up an ectoblast, Danny shot at the young ghost, who quickly dodged. The powerful attack went on to hit-

"My candy!" Youngblood wailed, flying back down to put out the smoldering bags. "You jerk!" He yelled. "I worked hard for that candy! Do you know how many kids I had to scare?"

"Maybe you should try trick-or-treating like a normal kid." Danny said sternly as he pulled out a thermos. Strangely, all the fight went out of the kid and he sat down on the road.

"Mrmlbg." He said sullenly. Curious, Danny floated forward.

"What?"

"I CANT!" His enemy shouted at the top of his lunges. Halloween is so cool! So many fun kids, dressed up like me! But if I go to a door for candy, the grownups can't see me! So I have to scare kids if I want any candy." Standing up, Youngblood started walking off, kicking invisible rocks with his pirate boots. Frowning, Danny stepped forward.

"Hey kid!" Youngblood stopped, and turned around with a resigned expression on his face.

"Trick or treat." Danny said simply, and tossed him his bag of candy. Grinning, Youngblood grabbed it and took off.

"Arg, ye be a true and good pirate, matey!" He laughed, flying off into the night sky. Smiling, Danny headed back to his friends, past Kwan and some of the slightly less popular crowd.

"Dude! Nice costume!" Kwan called out. Danny grinned.

"Thanks!" He called back. "I've had it for a while!"

When he got back to his friends, he changed back, grinning. Sam gave him a quiet smile, but Tucker looked a bit nonplussed.

"Dude! That was nice and stuff, but you didn't have to give him all your candy! And he did steal all that from other kids." Danny nodded.

"I know." He said, shrugging. "It just seemed like a nice thing to do. "Besides," he added with a wicked grin. "I said 'trick-or-treat. I never said he just got one."

Back in the ghost zone, in a decidedly kiddish lair, Youngblood the pirate opened up a bag of candy and grinned.

BOOM!

An hour later, the peeved little ghost stopped struggling in the thick green goop that was sticking him to the ceiling.

"Oh, ha ha Phantom. We'll see who pranks who next year!"

Happy Halloween!