Okay, okay, calm down everybody, just relax, and you, Gameloverx! Yes, you! Second row, third from the left! Put. The pitchfork. Down! I know I kind of abandoned FF net lately. I know you all probably thought I died or something. I know you very badly want to see chapter four of The Legend of Nazo, and I promise, after however many years of abandonment, I have picked it up again and started working on it. I won't bore you with details, but short story is my computer died, taking everything I had on the fiction with it, and I threw up my hands and yelled "Screw it!"

But I'm here right now. I'm trying to get back into writing. I set a schedule for myself. Chapter four is 65% done, and I have this neat little story lined up for Halloween. So instead of muddling in the past, let's look to the future! And if this is the first story you've ever read from me, welcome! You have absolutely no idea what the heck I'm talking about!

So. About this story: It's just a cute, stupid little Halloween story. Like, an episode from a cartoon. It popped into my head one night and I rolled with it. This is part one of two, and if everything goes according to plan (pssh. As if.) expect part two on or before Halloween. But seeing as it has yet to be written, you can still offer advice, criticism, suggestions, etc. and I will be thrilled to read them all! Good? Bad? Best line? Worst line? I'd love to hear what you think. But first you have to read it. So I'll shut up. - TC

Knuckles couldn't help but think that of all the ridiculous and trivial holidays the surface dwellers of Mobius celebrated, Halloween has got to earn the prize. No other tradition was so stupid, so ridiculous as to be based entirely off of scaring one another. Knuckles honestly wondered who on Mobius would have come up with such an idiotic idea as this, and finally came to the conclusion they must have been college frat boys. No other theory fit.

Under most circumstances, he would have been happily on Angel Island by now, sleeping the night away, but sadly, these were not most circumstances. He had tried to explain to Vanilla all the reasons why he hated this holiday, but she would have none of it. He would take Cream and Amy trick-or-treating, and that was that.

"But why can't they go on their own?" He had demanded.

The mother had looked shocked. "Two young girls? Out at night? Alone? On Halloween? I wouldn't dream of it!"

"Why not the Choatix, then?" He had half-pleaded, growing desperate.

"Well, Espio plans on taking Charmy trick-or-treating, so you may run into him..." Knuckles paled considerably at the thought of Charmy on sugar. "And Vector apparently had some extremely important business to take care of tonight, so he can't do it. Besides, it will do you some good, Knuckles. I worry about you, up there all alone."

And with that, it had been decided that he would be the one to take Amy and Cream trick-or-treating. It was not until a good eight hours later, when he was brooding alone on the island, did it occur to him he probably should have pointed out to the older woman that her daughter had faced Doctor Eggman alone plenty of times throughout the years and gotten away without a scratch, to say nothing of her best friend's magical hammers. Hindsight is indeed always 20/20.

And so, he found himself dragging his feet through the piles of dried leaves that somehow managed to find their way onto the sidewalk no matter how many times they were raked, dreading the moment when he would reach the Rabbit's doorstep.

Soon enough, he reached the porch, and reached out to hit the doorbell (Mrs. Rabbit had kindly requested he refrain from knocking after the third or fourth door was lost). The elegant chime that played was closely followed by a not-so-elegant shriek of childish joy. Vanilla opened the door.

"Oh, good, Knuckles, you're here!" She greeted. "Amy's just finishing up with her makeup, and Cream is waiting in the foyer. You can come in and have some Halloween cookies, if you like."

"Er, thanks, I guess." He mumbled back, stepping into the foyer. Normal houses tended to weird him out, and the Rabbits' even more so. What was it about the entire house that made it seem so… posh? He guessed the plush carpets and soft couches were supposed to make guests feel welcome, but it simply made him even less at ease, and so sat only on the very edge of the sofa.

Vanilla had disappeared in search of the refreshments, and Knuckles was too focused on being indoors to notice the soft footsteps on the carpet behind him until it was too late. With a sudden shriek, the only daughter of Vanilla Rabbit grabbed the echidna from behind, sending him whirling around, eyes wide and fist raised, before catching sight of the rabbit and stumbling backwards into the coffee table in an attempt to avoid taking the young girl's head off.

Cream, oblivious to the danger she was just in, giggled. "Trick or Treat, Mr. Knuckles! I got you!"

Knuckles quickly reorganized his face to hide any remaining traces of shock, assuming an annoyed expression instead. "You definitely did not 'get' me. 'Getting' me implies that you did something scary. All you did was sneak up behind me."

To his annoyance, it just made her grin wider. "But you were still scared!"

"I was startled, not scared." He corrected quickly.

"Sure you were." She responded politely, but without losing her little smirk Knuckles was sure she had learned from Sonic.

"And they say you're the innocent one," he muttered under his breath. At that moment Vanilla returned from the kitchen and set down a plate of sugar cookies cut into various "Halloween-y" shapes.

"Oh, oh! Mr. Knuckles, try that one!" Cream said, previous argument forgotten. "I frosted that one!"

Knuckles picked it up, trying to figure out what exactly it was. It really just looked like an orange blob with some black blobs smeared around it. "It's a Jack-O-Lantern! See?"

"Yes… of course." Knuckles replied, still unable to see anything in the clump of frosting.

"Try it!" She encouraged. "It's good!"

Reluctantly, he popped the confection into his mouth. The entire thing was made almost entirely out of sugar, which was still fairly new for him, but it wasn't too bad. He turned to her, noticing the look of expectation in her face. "It's good, Cream. Very, uh, sweet."

At this she broke into a smile. "Yay! And just wait until the candy starts! Trust me, it'll be awesome!"

Vanilla poked her head around the door. "After you inspect them all, of course."

Cream's expression fell as her ears drooped. "Aw, but Mom!" She complained.

She shook her head. "I don't care, Young Lady. You hear all these horror stories around this time, about just what sick people will do to unsuspecting children…"

Knuckle's brow furrowed in confusion. "I thought that was the point of Halloween? To tell scary stories to one another?"

For a minute, Vanilla actually looked puzzled. "Umm…"

"Well, that's not what Halloween is all about." Cream broke in.

Knuckles turned to her. "Well, what is it, then?"

"I dunno…" she mumbled, pulling at the hem of her pink sequined dress. "the costumes, I guess?"

"Getting to be someone else for a night is a big part of it." Vanilla agreed.

"That reminds me: what are you even supposed to be, anyway?" Knuckles asked, gesturing to the girl's pink and white layered dress. Hardly functional, in his opinion. Could barely even move in that thing, let alone fight.

Cream's chest puffed up with pride. "I'm a fairy princess! And Cheese is gonna bring me my crown!"

At that moment, Amy entered the room, and Knuckles turned to look at her. Cream squealed, "Miss Amy! You look great!"

From her place at the top of the stairs, the hedgehog twirled, showing off her whole costume in detail.

The costume was definitely… different… From Cream's. There was hardly any frills or lace, and in fact the whole dress, despite reaching down to her ankles where it shredded away into rags, actually looked more combat-ready than her usual outfit. The dress wasn't the only change, though. Her entire makeup was altered, making her skin pale and giving her eyes a sunken look. At first, Knuckles thought she had just gone crazy with the lipstick, but then he realized there was fake blood splashed across her muzzle and dripping onto her throat.

"Well?" She asked expectantly. "Think I make a convincing Queen of the Night?"

Knuckles just tilted his head to the side, confused, but Cream burst into applause. Apparently satisfied, Amy popped down the stairs and grabbed a cookie shaped like a ghost. "So are we ready to go?" she asked.

Something white whizzed past Knuckles ear suddenly and he jerked back in reflex, holding one mitt up to defend himself with, before the white object settled on Cream's head. "Thank you, Cheese." The Rabbit cooed sweetly. A plastic tiara with large fake gemstones now adorned her head, completing her fairy princess outfit. The white object, which Knuckles now identified as Cheese, was wrapped up in what looked like a small white sheet, making him look like a ghost – which he supposed was the idea.

The second Amy turned towards him with an evil look on her face, Knuckles knew he was in for it. "Are you sure you wanna come with us, Knuckles? There's some horrible plastic spiders down the way in the Johansen's front yard. We wouldn't want you to get scared."

Knuckles scowled again. "I was not scared. I was startled."

"Sure you were." The girls answered teasingly at the exact same time. Knuckles just sighed. It was gonna be a long night.

Chaperoning a group of girls trick-or-treating, as Knuckles found out, really wasn't all that bad, or even difficult. The entire job largely consisted of him walking the girls from house to house and waiting at the edge of the driveway while they walked up to the door and did their thing. Occasionally he had to stop and help one of them with a costume malfunction, and he was holding Cheese's bag ever since it got too heavy for the tiny chao (about 5 houses in), but for the most part it required little to no effort on the echidna's part. And Knuckles was almost enjoying himself.

"Hi, Knuckles!" Piped an irritatingly familiar voice behind him. Key word: Almost.

Knuckles turned to face Tails, eyeing him up and down. "What're you supposed to be?"

The tips of his ears, tails, and hands were now dyed black, and there was a third fake tail attached to him. "I'm a Keaton!" The young fox explained.

Knuckles furrowed his brow. "You're a… What?" He asked.

"A Keaton! It's a mythical creature, sorta like a-" He began, but was cut off by Cream.

"Mr. Tails! I didn't expect to see you here!" She said, rushing up to offer him a hug.

"Yeah, Tails, where did you come from?" Amy grinned, before her innocent curiosity became just a touch too nonchalant. "And where's Sonic?"

"Oh, I'm around." Said a voice from right behind him, causing Knuckles once again to leap backwards and try to punch whatever spook was there. This time, however, it was only the said spook's quick reflexes that saved him from immediate decapitation. "So jumpy." Sonic the Hedgehog chided, wagging his finger at Knuckles. "What's the matter? Did I startle you?"

"I wasn't startled, I was scared! I-I mean – Stop it! Stop laughing!" The crimson echidna, who seemed just a little more crimson than before, ground his teeth together. "For the last time, making a person jump a couple of times isn't scary!"

Somehow, through his intense laughing fit, Sonic managed a shaky, "Of course not, Knuckster. Totally different."

"Yeah, absolutely," Amy agreed, doubled over.

"We believe you, Mr. Knuckles." Giggled Cream, a hand held over her mouth as though that would somehow make things better.

Grumbling, Knuckles readjusted Cheese's candy bag while Sonic caught up on the particulars of each person's costume. "Alright, I know what you are, Tails, but Cream… Lessee… A princess?"

Cream smiled and turned around so he could see the glittery wings attached to the back of the dress. "Ah, a fairy Princess, 'scuse me. And here," he continued, turning to Amy, "We have…?"

The female hissed, revealing the fake fangs underneath her lips. Sonic faked a shudder. "Ah! Please, don't bite me!"

Amy smiled, turning the look a bit more friendly. "I like yours, too, Sonic. It's… Simplistic, but still frightening."

The blue hedgehog was wearing little more than he usually wore. His white gloves were still with him, but his normal red and white running shoes had been abandoned in the name of something a little more low-key. Instead, the main component of his costume was the black cloak that encompassed his entire body, and even dragged a little. Despite the fact that he had been clearly running around in it all night, it showed little signs of wear and dirt. He also carried in his hand what looked to Knuckles a curved blade on a wooden post.

Sonic smiled and bowed. "Subtlety is the name of the game, Amy. The best horror shows don't need a ton of fake gore or violence to freak you out."

Knuckles snorted. In all his life since meeting the little speed demon, he had never once known him to be subtle.

Sonic, interrupted mid boast, turned to the echidna. "Somethin' funny to you, Knux?"

Knuckles would have let him have it ordinarily, but something else caught his eye that made his original insult irrelevant. The clasp around Sonic's neck, pinning the cloak around him… "Is that… Is that a Chaos Emerald?"

"What, this?" Sonic asked, holding the gem in question. "Yeah. It originally had this fake jewel in it, but to me it looked kinda tacky, but then I realized, 'Hey, a Chaos Emerald fits perfectly in here, I bet!' so then I pried out the other gem, and-"

The rest of his story was cut off by Knuckles. "You used a freaking Chaos Emerald as a part of your stupid costume!?"

Sonic looked hurt. "Of course not!"

Knuckles ground his teeth together, a habit which Sonic really thought he would need to see a dentist about later on down the road. "What for, then?" He managed.

Sonic rolled his eyes. "For pulling off the best Halloween pranks ever, of course! Watch…"

And before Knuckles could put into action any of the fantasies of violence currently running through his mind, Sonic grabbed the clasp and teleported a ways away.

Once he was certain he still had the whole groups attention, he teleported farther away, to where a group of tween girls were crossing the street. Appearing just behind them, he hovered for just a moment to pull up his hood, obscuring his face in shadow. Then in a surprisingly deep voice that carried over to where the rest of the team was, he greeted them. Sure enough, the girls in question – a witch, a pop star, a lunch lady, a zombie cheerleader, and a maid – all screamed loudly, and scattered in all directions, leaving Sonic to disappear. He reappeared behind the group, laughing manically.

"Oh, man, did you see their faces?" He asked gleefully.

"That's what you're using the Emerald for? A bunch of mindless, stupid pranks?" Knuckles fumed.

Sonic rolled his eyes again, moving on towards the next house on the block. "Oh, come on, Knux, lighten up. It's not like I'm hurting anyone, or anything. I'm just having a little fun, that's all. It'll be over in one night."

Knuckles was still angry over it, but realizing he would get nowhere attempting to reason with the hedgehog in his current mood, and taking comfort in the fact that at least he could keep an eye on the emerald for as long as Sonic was around, he reluctantly agreed to a truce.

The rest of the night passed smoothly. Knuckles quickly found adding Tails to their trick-or-treating party did not seem to slow them down too much, and the gang made good time, filling up their bags with plenty of candy.

Sonic, for the most part, was fairly easy to handle. Every so often he would teleport or use his renowned speed to frighten a group of kids he deemed worthy, but didn't usually stray too far from the group.

A little before nine, the group ran into Charmy and Espio, the former sporting devil horns and a tail, the latter, like Knuckles, not wearing any costume at all. Knuckles found Charmy's costume to be somewhat ironic. "Hey, Cream." He said. "I thought your mother said you were supposed to be someone else on Halloween night."

Cream, who didn't seem to get the joke, only looked at him puzzled. Tails and Amy, however, snickered. Sonic feigned shock. "A joke? From Knuckles the Echidna? Surely the day of reckoning draws near!"

"Oh, blow it out your piehole." He muttered, but most of the comeback was lost when Charmy broke in.

"Hi guys! Did you hear about the candied apples they're passing out on Acorn Lane? They've got sprinkles and everything! Oh! And the Crazy Chao Lady on Whiteman Avenue has king size Butternikkers! Don't go to the Ackmens', though, they've got raisin boxes."

As usual, the bee spat out as much information as he could in as little time as he had to, and most of what he said passed right over the group's heads. It seemed despite his best efforts, Espio hadn't managed to keep him away from all the sugar.

Knuckles, realizing he would be stuck listening to his babble unless he acted fast, pushed his two charges in the direction of the next house. "Why don't you go up?" He suggested, And take him with you. He added mentally. While Cream simply smiled and nodded, Amy glared at him, recognizing his ploy.

Sonic handed his bag to Tails. "Do ya mind, pal?"

Tails simply shook his head and answered, "Not at all."

He followed the girls and Charmy up to the house, waiting while Cream rang the doorbell. The older generation of the team was left to talk, or rather, listen sympathetically while Espio complained.

"…And he won't stop going on about this stupid haunted house! I swear, I always get stuck with this nonsense." He grumbled. Though normally a patient, poker faced individual, Sonic and Knuckles understood that at least three hours in the company of Charmy Bee was enough to drive anyone insane.

The six year old in question was just reaching his guardian when Sonic wondered, "Where is Vector, anyway?"

Charmy instantly started sniggering, then dissolved into full blown laughter. Espio shot him a death glare. "He is taking care of some important business tonight." Apparently his frustration at Vector was outmatched by his loyalty to his boss.

Charmy, unfortunately, didn't take the hint. "Oh, sure. Some important business in his–" His chameleon friend silenced him by clamping a hand over his mouth. "Important business." He repeated, without showing any sign of emotion. "I think it is time I took Charmy home. Don't want him to be out much longer."

Charmy squirmed his mouth out of his guardian's hand. "Aw, but that's not fair! I never got to see the haunted house!"

Sonic's eyes lit up. "Haunted house?"

Charmy shook his way out of the entire hold, the ninja allowing him his freedom for now. "Just a couple months ago, this little old lady who lived on the edge of Elderberry street, died. And ever since then, Timmy and Tommy Nook both swore they heard these weird noises coming from her house. Last night, Jimmy the Bat and his buddy Adam the Deer both dared each other to go in…" The bee's voice dropped low, whispering the last part of the story to the hedgehog conspiratorially. "And Adam hasn't come out yet. They say Jimmy made it out, like, hours later, but he hasn't said a word to somebody about it since. No one told any of the grown-ups 'cuz he asked them not to, but he started acting funny afterwards. Like, zombie-ish. The kids on the street all say the lady's ghost got mad 'cuz they were trespassin', and got 'em both. Like, with some kinda hypnotic spell or somethin'."

The more the six-year-old spoke, the more Sonic seemed to be under a hypnotic spell of his own. "We've gotta go check out that house." He murmured, his eyes glazed over and staring.

"Absolutely not," Knuckles retorted. "I don't care what you do in your spare time, Speed Freak, but I told Vanilla we would be back at a decent hour. We're already pushing it."

"Fine, let's take a vote." Sonic retorted, turning to the group. "Who wants to come on a super awesome fun adventure with me, and who wants to go home early with Knucklehead?"

"Well, you can't say it like that!" Knuckles insisted.

"Why not?" Sonic demanded.

"It isn't fair! Look… Who wants to be safe, not risk life and limb for cheap thrills, and come home with our candy, and who wants to go off on a stupid attempt at gaining attention?"

"Hey, what are you trying to say-!"

"Enough!" Tails broke in. "We will vote on our own, thank you."

Cream spoke up first. "A haunted house sounds really scary."

Amy voted next. "I agree with Sonic."

Knuckles snorted quietly. "Big surprise there."

Amy started to retort, pulling out her infamous hammer, but Sonic quickly shoved them apart to shoot one last glance at Tails, the resident tiebreaker. He looked somewhat nervous. "Umm… Look, I love haunted houses as much as the next guy…" he began, but as the two hedgehogs and echidna began to give him a nasty look, he turned to Cream. "But I think we should play it safe and head home anyway."

That earned a sigh of relief from the small rabbit, who offered him a tiny smile as a thank you. Mouthing "You're welcome," Tails then turned and tried to console Sonic, who was not happy about losing.

"Next year, I promise." He reassured him, then tried to change the subject. "Anyway, why don't we take the girls home? We can sort and inspect our candy there."

Knuckles jumped at this. "No, no, that's okay. Really. It's fine, I can take them home. Go home. It's fine."

However, Amy jumped at this, and inside of half a minute they were walking to the Rabbits' house all together, both older boys grumbling for different reasons.

Later at the house, things had mellowed down slightly. Vanilla had offered to let Knuckles stay the night, but he had yet to either accept or decline the offer, and instead helped Vanilla inspect all of Cream and Amy's candy, of which they occasionally offered to share (Cream more so than Amy).

Sonic was simply relaxing on the couch, when the phone suddenly rang. "I got it!" He called out, reaching for the cradle on the end table just above his head. "Hello? Oh, hey, Espi- huh? Hang on... Okay, slow down. What happened? Where? ...Okay. Okay, relax. Yeah, I'll help. ... I said I'll help. I'll - hang on."

Sonic lowered the phone and turned to the others, who by now were staring with peaked curiosity back at him. "Charmy's run off." He said, getting directly to the point.

"To where?" Tails asked, his eyebrows already furrowing in worry.

"Not sure. Espio says he was pouting about having to go home. He just turned around for a sec and he was gone."

Amy sat up from where she had been sprawled out on the rug. "Then we should go help! It's bad enough for a little kid on any night, but tonight...!"

Vanilla nodded. "I hate to say it, but you are absolutely right. Charmy needs to be found as quickly as possible."

Sonic stood, readjusting his cloak and ensuring the clasp was still secure. "You know me, I can search the whole town in an hour, there's no way he could pass the city limits before I catch up to him!"

"I don't think that will be necessary, Mr. Sonic." Cream spoke up. "I know where he's going."

The whole gang turned to her in slight surprise. "Where?" Amy prompted, when she didn't immediately offer the answer.

Cream spread her arms wide, as though it were obvious. "Where else?"

Tails was the first to catch on. "... The haunted house."