Okay, FoxyKhai0209 had an idea for a special story for Halloween months ago. We agreed to write it anyway. Since I have breaks for exams, I can do it during those days.
I know people in Slugterra do not celebrate Halloween, but we will like to introduce it to them.
Enjoy!
It was a bright sunny day in Marinatopia Kingdom. The people in Marinatopia were putting up decorations. There were spooky webs, Jack-O-Lanterns, paper bats on the windows of their houses and stores. Ghost figures were hanging on the ceilings of their houses, and there were other more decorations. They were preparing for Slugween, a Slugterra version of Halloween as proposed by Princess Khai of Marinatopia for some time ago. There were only two days left for that holiday.
In the Crystal Castle of Harmony, Khai and her teammates were decorating for Slugween with the help of the Shane Gang, our allies and me. Our slugs were making paintings of spooky ghosts, bats and skeletons on the papers. Reiki, Khai's Mega Morphed Boon Doc finished her painting and showed it to her slug friends. It was a painting of a Goon Doc, a ghouled Boon Doc! The painting scared them at first. They were shocked because Reiki was supposed to be afraid of Goon Docs. However, she had overcome her fear at last. Obert smiled at Reiki and her art work. Though, he was the Goon back then when the Emperor ghouled him with dark magic. He returned to a normal Guardian Slug thanks to the power of Harmony that purified him. He now belonged to Junjie.
We hung the finished decorations around the castle. Although we were tired, we had fun.
"Everyone! Your attention, please. With the decorations done, we are going to the pumpkin patch to make Jack-O-Lanterns," Khai announced.
The siblings of Shane Gang and Ha-Chan cheered in excitement. We rode our mecha-beasts and reached the barn where all the pumpkin patches were present. As we arrived, we saw plenty of pumpkin patches. Everyone was awed to see the whole patch of pumpkins.
We entered the barn and met Apple Jack or A.J. for short. She and her family ran a farm that planted and sold fruits and vegetables.
"So... what do you all want?" A.J. asked kindly.
"We would like to have some pumpkins to make Jack-O-Lanterns for Slugween," Khai replied.
A.J. agreed and led us to the pumpkin patch. "Free to choose any kind of pumpkin that you like but just pick one," she told us when we stepped onto the land where pumpkin were planted.
"And be careful not to squash the pumpkins," she added. So we began to choose pumpkins.
Jie was looking for a nice pumpkin when he spotted a grayish-white bat that was eating an apple from the apple tree. Jie was awed to see it since he never seen a bat before.
Suddenly, the bat fell and landed on the ground. Jie walked over to it and wanted to help it. However, it hiss at him unfriendly.
"I am trying to help you," Jie said to the bat. He reached out his left hand to touch the bat. The bat bit his left hand and Jie yelped in pain. The bat then flew away.
Jie looked at his left hand where the bat had bitten him. It was bleeding!
"Jie!" a male voice called out. It was his elder brother, Junjie. He was running toward him because he heard his twin brother's scream. He saw Jie's bleeding hand.
"What happened?" he asked Jie.
"I was bitten by a bat when I tried to help it," Jie explained. Junjie removed Jie's glove and tended his injury.
Jia came to them and asked, "What happened?"
"Jie was bitten by a bat when he tried to help it," Junjie explained to her. That made Jia to feel shocked and worried.
After we got our own pumpkins to make Jack-O-Lanterns, we left A.J.'s barn and bid farewell to her.
"Have a great Slugween," Apple Jack said to us.
As we were on our way to the Crystal Castle of Harmony, owned by Khai the Princess of Marinatopia, Jie suddenly felt dizzy. He looked unwell. Junjie noticed him.
"Are you okay, Jie?" Junjie questioned him.
"I am fine, brother," Jie answered but Junjie was unconvinced.
Once we arrived at the castle, we brought and placed our pumpkins in the royal kitchen to carve them into Jack-O-Lanterns.
"I didn't know you and your team celebrate Slugween as Halloween like the Surface," Eli stated in surprise. The Shane, like every holiday, was very excited about it. When he first mentioned about Halloween in Slugterra, none of his friends understood it except for Khai, Michela, Annaliza and I since we were from the Surface.
"So... what costumes will we wear?" I asked since I thought costumes were the best parts in Halloween or Slugween.
"Mine is a Fairy Princess, Haru will be a mummy, Elke an evil witch, Ilys the Dead Hunter, Xia the Cat Woman, Yamu a knight, Zak the Monkey, Falcon a crow, and Ha-Chan a Flower Fairy," Khai told me.
"For the Shane Gang," Khai started to suggest, "Eli will be a zombie, Kord will be Frankenstein, Trixie as a Ghost, Pronto will be an Evil Clown, Junjie as the Dark Slinger, John the Dead Pirate, Tad as Darth Vader, Wen Jing as the Black Lady, Nate as a Jedi and Roza as the Rusty Robot."
"What is the Black Lady?" I asked.
"She is an urban legend," Khai explained.
"How about I be Spidergirl, like Spiderman?" Dana Por suggested.
"Sure, and I can be Sabine Wren!" Brick, Dana's best friend added.
"I am a vampire already, so I don't need a costume," Jacob, Brick's boyfriend said.
The siblings of the Shane Gang had decided their costumes. Sapphire wanted to be the Crystal Fairy. Jia chose to be a mermaid, while Jie be a vampire. The Jones twins, Zoey and Zara, would be the twins in Fatal Frame 2, Yae and Sae. The Sting Triplets, Louis, Kurt and Ren, wanted to dress up as superheroes, which were Superman, Green Lantern and Batman. For the Zane Quadruplets, Mason, Orleans, Patrice and Remy, they decided to be the Swamp Monster, Big Foot, an alien and a cowgirl. The Geronimole Quintuplets, Charlotte, Ayane, Xander, Yair and Zeno, they decided to be an angle, a demon, a werewolf, a skeleton and a scarecrow. The Schnee Sextuplets, Terry, Isla, Derek, Blair, Rudy and Ashley, chose to be an elf, a Fairy Forest, a snowman, a tiger, a snake and a swan ballerina dancer.
Yuuki chose to be a prince while Annie decided to dress up as Elsa from Frozen. The members in Team JSMN, Ja Jung would dress up as the Grimm Ripper, Samantha as the Black Bride, Dead Warrior for Marcuse, Nina as the White Kimono Woman, Mitsumi as Rapunzel, Guang Guo as an archer and Xiu Juan as the Dead Slug Fu Master. Khai's four ancestors, the Rey twins and their children did not need costumes for Slugween. Our slugs decided to dress up as Ghoul Slugs that were similar to their counterparts.
We started carving our pumpkins to make Jack-O-Lanterns. Jie was feeling unwell as he felt his body was burning from the inside. Jia noticed this and asked, "What's wrong, Jie?"
"I am... feeling unwell," Jie answered.
Jia took her twin brother to their bedroom that they shared. Jie lied on the bed and fell asleep. Jia left the room to let him get some rest. She went back the royal kitchen to help the others to carve the pumpkins.
Her cousin, Ja Jung saw her returned. "Where is Jie?" he questioned her.
"He is in our bedroom, resting," Jia replied.
Annie, the girlfriend of Jie, questioned, "What happen to him?"
Jia shrugged and said, "I have no idea."
Her respond made Annie really worried about her boyfriend, so did Junjie and Ja Jung.
Morning came in Marinatopia. Jia woke up and stretched her arms. She looked to her right and saw her brother that was lying beside her since they shared the same bed. Jie was still sleeping. Jia placed her hand on his shoulder and gently shook him. Jie woke up and stared at his twin sister in a blank expression.
"Good morning," she greeted him.
"Yeah... good morning..." he greeted back with a soft dry tone.
"Are you alright?" she asked.
"I am fine..." he replied and added, "I think I ate something bad and I was a bit pale." Jia became worried about her twin brother's condition.
There was a knock on their bedroom door.
"Come in!" Jia called out. The door opened and Junjie entered their bedroom.
"Good morning," Junjie greeted his beloved twin siblings as he went over to the twins' bed. He noticed his younger twin brother's condition.
"Are you alright, Jie?" he asked Jie.
"I am fine. I think I ate something pretty bad," Jie answered.
"What did you eat?" he questioned.
"I think... I ate... something juicy and... bloody," Jie explained. His words confused Junjie and Jia.
Then, Ying came into the twins' bedroom. Breakfast is ready. She informed them through telepathy.
When they arrived at the royal dining room, they saw everyone was already seated there. They took their seats. The table was quite long, actually really long. There were food on it: spaghetti, rice balls, chickens, pork chops, a bowl of apples and vegetables. As we were eating breakfast, Jie grabbed an apple and took a bite on it. All of the sudden, he felt a bit different when he ate the apple. He finished it up quickly. He then took the whole bowl of apples and gobbled them up!
We stared at him in shock and disbelief. Junjie felt embarrassed due to his brother's sudden inappropriate behaviour.
"Jie, why did you eat all the apples? Gobbling all of them up in front of everyone is rude," Junjie scolded him.
Jie just shrugged and said, "I am sorry... I have no idea why I ate all the apples." His behaviour was a bit odd when he ate all the apples.
"That's okay, Jie," I told him, "I don't really like apples, anyway."
Meanwhile, Jacob was feeling suspicious about Jie.
After breakfast, we decided to visit the Eastern Caverns. Khai's four ancestors stayed behind at Marinatopia. We gathered at the throne room. Khai pulled out her Magical Scepter and with a swing, pink shimmering sparkle surrounded us and we disappeared in a flash of magic.
A few seconds later, we reappeared as we arrived at Peach Blossom Spring Cavern, the capital of the Eastern Caverns. We went to Junjie's home and met up with Megumi, the mother of Junjie and the twins. Master Lian, Master Minami Kaido, Hamengku, Swick, Team Phoenix, Xian Wen and her friends, along with our other allies were there too. We all greeted them and they greeted back.
"What are you beloved young heroes doing here?" Master Lian questioned politely.
"We just want to make a visit and would like to look around," Khai explained.
"And... tomorrow is a special day!" Eli added in excitement. Master Lian, Master Minami and almost all the other Eastern heroes pulled out a confusion expression.
"Tomorrow is Halloween, right?" guessed Annaliza, or Anna for short.
"Yes!" Eli answered happily.
"What is Halloween?" Kun Zhen questioned.
"Well... it is a holiday that Eli, Khai, Anna and I know about. Though, in Marinatopia, it is called Slugween," I said.
"What is Slugween?" Swick asked.
"It is a holiday in Marinatopia when people dress in scary costumes and go to houses to get some candies or go to parties," I explained.
"Sounds like an extortion to me," Yu Juan blurted out.
"But it is legal, right?" Zhong Fen asked.
"Well, if you all wanted the holiday to be official here, then it is legal," I explained.
"So... will we get it?" Wei Cheng questioned.
"We are in Marinatopia to experience it. We will share our experiences once it was over," I stated.
"Oh, good," he replied with a smile. All of them understood and they were quite curious about this Slugween tomorrow.
"Hey, I have something to say," Swick suddenly said.
"What is it, Swick?" Junjie questioned him.
"Something strange happened last night," he answered. His statement caught our attention.
"Last night, I saw a shadowy silhouette flying through the sky when I was walking around Peach Blossom Spring Cavern. It really scares me!" he explained.
"A shadowy silhouette?" Junjie was curious.
"Yes, it looked almost human but with bat wings on its back!" Swick added. Team KHEI found it interesting while the Shane Gang, Team JSMN and I were skeptical. Pronto was really scared now along with Ha-Chan, Yuuki, Annie, and the Shane Gang's siblings.
"Maybe someone was just testing a flight experiment in the middle of the night," I tried to find a logical explanation.
"I don't think so, Wen Jing," Zhong Fen denied. "We all saw it too." The other members of Team Phoenix nodded in agreement. Megumi, Master Lain, Master Minami Kaido and Hamengku also did the same.
"We all saw the shadowy silhouette of a humanoid bat," Wei Cheng explained. "It was flying all around the Eastern Caverns!"
"So it couldn't be a flight experiment since there is no technology that can fly so long in the air," Hamengku explained.
"Not just that, it ate almost all of the fruits and killed the animals around the plantations by sucking their bloods!" Rong Chun yelled angrily. She and Yong Gang were in the agriculture team that I assigned them. Rong, who had the passion to nature, was truly furious.
"We know it was a bat because there are two holes left behind on the neck of the animals," Xian Wen explained. She was my bodyguard because we looked alike as she was my doppelganger. She also performed my duties during my absence. When Junjie, the twins, Team JSMN and I departed to Marinatopia days ago, I left her and Megumi in charge.
"We found out this morning," Yong Gang told us. "And you don't want to know what Rong Chun did after finding out the mess."
"Besides that, we saw it outside through the window. It was hanging upside down on a tree branch," Megumi added.
"It is staring at us with its red-violet eyes! Like it's staring at our souls!" Swick exclaimed.
Their explanations shocked us all! "I fear that it might appear again at night and we really need to get rid of it because it is causing trouble and there will be no fruits anymore if it eats them all," Master Lian said.
"Though, there are still a few more fruits left now," Yong Gang told us.
Khai formed a plan in her mind. "Everyone!" she called out and we turned to her. "I know how to find the humanoid vampire bat. Since it only comes out by night, we need to find it during night time. We need to stay up all night until we all catch it."
We nodded and proceeded to the plan.