AN: Okay, so some of you asked how my Halloween night went. Well, I thought, why tell you in a boring PM when I can tell you in the form of a Lab Rats One-Shot? So, here I am! I hope you all enjoy "Truth, Dare, or Scare?"!

This takes place between the episodes "Which Father Knows Best?" and "You Posted What?!" Just to clarify, that means Douglas lives with the Davenports, but Leo is not bionic, and the world hasn't discovered their abilities yet. :)


Disclaimer: I do not own Lab Rats or Hudson Taylor. Confused? Just read the story and it will make sense. I promise. ;)


"Dare," the dark-skinned boy stated confidently while crossing his arms on the glossy table. The other three teens snickered at the fourth teen's sudden bravery.

Adam, the eldest of the group, gestured towards the only girl in their game. She nodded wordlessly before pushing her chair back and standing up from the table. Leo, the one who made the unfortunate decision of Dare, sank deeper into his chair, beginning to regret his choice.

"Okay," Bree, the bionic teen, started with an air of superiority. She held all of the power in this game. The group of siblings had a special system for this particular version of Truth or Dare. Bree conjured up all of the dares, unless she was dared herself, and Chase, her younger brother, came up with the truths.

It would be lying to say Bree wasn't fond of her job. She rather enjoyed holding the fate of those brave enough to take the Dare risk. Bree was an expert at deciding what dares would best fit each opponent. She knew Leo was squeamish-unable to take any physical pressure. But he was the easiest. Both of her blood-related brothers were harder to crack.

She was so close to them that you'd think they'd be easier to torture. It was, in fact, the opposite. Bree knew they could withstand much harsher conditions that their step brother. They were bionic as well, therefore have been on life or death missions. They've endured thousands of hours of painful training, just to take a short break and start over again for the rest of the evening.

"We dare you to put an ice cube in each of your jean pockets until they melt," she finished with a smirk. Coldness and water: two of Leo's greatest weaknesses. This was the perfect dare for Leo, but it would be even better for the bionic siblings to watch.

The two bionic brothers barked out laughter at their stepbrother's expression. Leo's mouth was agape while his eyes were widened to the size of golf balls.

"Bree, no!" Leo protested, leaning forward in his chair to rest his forearms on the glass table in front of him. "You know how easily I get brain freeze from ice! Do you really want to find out what happens when I put ice in my pants?!"

All three of the bionics burst out into another laughing fit at Leo's statement. The first to recover was Chase, who replied to Leo's plead.

"You have to, Leo. It's a dare, and you already used your chicken."

This was a true fact. Leo had used his chicken (the 'get out of jail free' card of Truth or Dare) on a previous dare that would've left the neighbors scarred for life by Leo's insanity. Of course, what they'd call insanity would mean nothing but a strange dare to Leo and the rest of the Rats.

With a sharp glare pointed at Bree, Leo grumbled a low, "Fine," before sliding his chair away from the table. At a snail-like pace, Leo reluctantly made his way to the freezer.

With one last puppy-dog eyed stare at the Rats, Leo pleaded for an extra chicken. Or a skip. Or pass. Something to get him out of the dare.

"Leo, if you need me to get the ice from the freezer for you, I will, but you are doing this dare," Bree bossed Leo, who quickly yanked open the freezer door to retrieve the ice before Bree could assist him. He gulped before quickly stuffing the frozen cubes into his pockets.

"COLD! Cold, cold, cold, cold! It's really cold!" Leo chanted in a high pitched voice while dancing around the room, causing Adam and Bree's stomachs to ache with laughter and Chase's ears to ring in discomfort.

"Gah! Leo, stop!" he shouted, pressing his palms to his sore ears to block out Leo's girlish shrieks. Super senses were just as much a burden as a gift.

"S-sorry, Chase, b-but it's c-cold!" Leo shivered, still jumping around in an attempt to relieve the chill.

"Yeah, I got that. Thanks," he retorted sarcastically, lowering his arms and readjusting his chair. "It's Leo's turn to choose someone."

"Finally! Something good comes out of this game!" the aforementioned boy exclaimed with a cheerful smile despite the freezing ice in his pockets. "Adam, truth or dare?"

"Uh, truth," Adam mumbled, uncertainty in his voice. "No! Dare! I want a dare!" he finalized.

In Adam's mind, this mere game could define his future decisions. One wrong move could haunt his choice-making questions forever. Adam needed all the practice he could get before any major choices occur in his life.

"Are you sure? You seem tentative," Chase noticed while Adam shot him a confused look. With a sigh, Chase explained, "That means you seemed uncer-"

"I chose dare! Just tell me what I gotta do!" Adam yelled impatiently, interrupting Chase's dictionary-worthy description of the word 'tentative'.

"Okay, okay," Bree started. Now this was one of the hardest parts of the game: finding a good dare for Adam.

Leo was obviously the easiest. His abundance of weaknesses and peppy personality made him an easy target. Now, Chase was a tad harder (since he could find loopholes in practically any dare with his beloved intelligence) but not insuperable. He was mentally strong enough to bounce back and put the embarrassing past behind him- such as a humiliating dare.

But Adam was a completely different story. Sure, he was feeble minded, but he was extremely vulnerable. He takes the not-so-serious things too personally. Too big of a blow can shatter his views of . . . well, anything and everything. Just take the 'arm dislocation' debacle for instance. Adam got hurt once and was afraid of ever being injured again. Who knows what a simple choice in a game could do to him.

"You have to choose one of us, and bark like a dog whenever that person moves or talks. But just for one round."

Adam's eyes widened in excitement and anticipation. "Anyone?" he questioned Bree, a sly grin crawling onto his face. When Bree nodded in response, Adam clapped his hands together once and jumped to the floor.

Chase groaned as he saw Adam sitting a few feet away with his 'paws' on the ground. Adam was doing his best dog impression; his tongue was hanging out of his mouth while he took in large pants of breath.

"Bree, are you really-"

"Ruff!" Adam barked, completely cutting into Chase's sentence. With a heavy glare in Adam's direction, Chase tried to continue.

"Going to make-"

"Woof!"

"Me suffer-"

"Ruff!"

"THROUGH THIS?!" Chase finally finished, utterly annoyed with his older brother.

Adam howled, and Chase squeezed his eyes shut and took a deep breath to try and calm himself.

"Yep!" Bree cheered, completely unfazed by Chase's irritated behavior

.

"Okay, Bree. Your tu-" Leo started before he was abruptly cut off by their father's distinctive ringtone.

"Da-venport! Davenport! Somebody wants to call Davenport!" Sounded from the little speaker in the back of the phone. Leo gladly stopped the narcissistic song by accepting the call. Donald was in the lab, and it was easier to just take the call than run his phone down to the basement.

He waited several seconds before hanging up with a weirded out expression on his face. He returned to his seat after shaking his head and asking, "Where was I? Oh, yeah! Bree, it's your turn."

And so the group moved on, the phone call completely forgotten. Near the end of the game, Leo's pocket ice had melted, leaving small water stains in his pants and Adam reclaimed his seat after torturing Chase with random barks and howls. Bree had accepted a dare where she had to eat something that Adam had picked from the kitchen (which resulted in a vinegar and mustard stench to burn her tongue). Leo had chosen a truth, which unfortunately revealed to everyone that he hadn't had his first kiss yet. And last but not least, Chase picked a dare, in which his siblings got to see him reenact the strangest television commercial he had ever seen.

The last of Chase's goofy grins had the other three teens rolling on the floor in laughter. Every thought of worry was erased from the group's minds.

That is, until the power was mysteriously turned off. Only the decorative Halloween candles remained aglow; the rest of the house as black as the neighborhood at midnight.

Albeit there was no power, there was definitely an abundance of noise in the Davenport-Dooley household. Adam's and Leo's childish screams pierced Chase's sensitive ears, which set off a new round of shouts from the younger bionic. Even Bree let out a little squeal in surprise.

Obviously, none of the teens had been expecting a blackout on Halloween.

"Chase, what's going on?" Bree, the first to recover, asked her brother. Despite the glow from the faux candles, Bree could hardly see a thing in the dark house.

"It must be a blackout. I'm right by the window, and none of the city seems to have power."

"B-blackout?" Leo restated with a wavering voice. "There's a blackout on Halloween? The spookiest night of the year?"

"Blackout?" Adam asked, just like Leo, but for a different reason. "What's a blackout?"

"A blackout," Bree said. "is when a whole city loses power. Right now, Mission Creek's power plant must be down or something."

Suddenly, Bree's phone started jumping on the counter, the little screen flashing bits of light. She weaved her way through the large room to grab ahold of her cell phone and see who was trying to talk to her.

"Hello?" She asked into the speaker.

"Bree! Did the power just go out at your house too?" Bree's best friend Caitlin shouted through the phone.

"Uh, yeah. All the lights just went out and we can barely see outside. I'm guessing everywhere from my house to yours is without power."

"Yeah, I know, Bree," Caitlin drawled. "That's what I just said!"

"Okay, Caitlin. I was just making sure," Bree assured her friend.

"I gotta go. I don't want to waste my phone battery before I can charge it."

"'Kay, bye," Bree ended the conversation and set her cell phone back on the counter.

"Guys, the power is out all the way to Caitlin's house. And she lives on the other side of Mission Creek. What do we do?" She reported to her brothers.

"Well, isn't there something you guys can do to help? Check with Big D. Maybe he'll let you go to the plant for a mission," Leo suggested to the Rats. Chase was quick to counter.

"If the power is down, we won't have access to the lab to get our suits and gear. It's a safety protocol for the lab to go on lockdown without power to help block out intruders. The best thing we can do now is wait for the power to return. I'm sure they already have mechanics on the way."

"But aren't you guys forgetting something?" Leo asked. Without bothering to wait for an answer, he added, "It's a blackout on Halloween. This could be the start of an apocalypse!"

"Leo, I highly doubt that a blackout could lead to the end of th-"

Chase was cut off by one of Leo's unmistakable gasps. "What about the phone call! That means something too, right?"

"What are you talking about, Leo?" Bree sighed, not really caring what could be cycling through Leo's strange brain.

"The phone call," The youngest teen repeated with emphasis on every word. "That Big D got while we were playing truth or dare. When I answered the phone, there was some shuffling, a lot of raspy breathing, a beep, and then a creepy voice whispered 'goodbye' before hanging up."

In the distance, Bree, Chase and Leo heard Adam scoff, "Rude. Everyone knows you need to wait until the other person says 'bye' before hanging up!"

"I'm telling you guys, something is going to happen this Halloween. Something bad."

Chase was the first to roll his eyes and reply to Leo's words. "Leo, it was probably just someone prank-calling us. You don't need to be so paranoid all the time."

Just as Chase said this, a loud buzzing noise passed through the room. Each of the teens let out their own form of a scream as they turned their attention to the refrigerator, where Eddy's screen was filled with black and white static. Small bleeps of Eddy's voice could be heard, but none of the sounds could be put into a sentence before the screen flickered one last time and faded slowly to black.

"Okay, that was probably just a mini power surge. We're fine," Chase assured everyone in a shaking voice, even though no one asked.

"Come on, guys," Bree said, her voice slightly, just slightly, waving. "Let's just sit on the couch and wait it out. The power should come back in no time."

Agreeing, the Rats (and Leo) made their way to the large sofa and sat down together. After a short amount of time, each of the teens seemed to relax into the couch, forgetting their troubles. All of them except Adam.

Adam still sat straight up, his shoulders square while his mouth was pressed into a flat line. His eyes darted around the room, trying to see all around him at once. There were no other words to describe what he was feeling besides suspicious.

Leo's theory, although ironic, was very believable to Adam. It made sense to have spooky events happen on Halloween night, not far from midnight.

This night uncovered memories of the Rats' first Lunar Eclipse. The events may have been a sham, but the terror that was sparked in Adam was genuine. How was he supposed to know that Perry was just acting? It very well could've been an actual alien coincidentally appearing on the night they were filming. So, logically speaking, the events that happened on this Halloween night could be real.

Just as Adam started sink into the sofa in relaxation, a deafening explosion-like noise erupted from the city below the Davenport's residence. They all jumped to their feet and ran to the glass windows in the back of the room.

"What was that?" Adam asked, quite obviously frightened.

"I don't know," Chase admitted solemnly.

"Finally!" Leo cheered, despite the mysterious conditions. "Finally, Chase doesn't know something!"

"Seriously?" Bree asked, rolling her eyes at her stepbrother. Even in the strangest situations, Leo still seemed to point out the simplest of feats. "It was probably a car crash."

After a few minutes of scanning the darkened city below them, the teens started to disperse, wandering around the room with nothing to do. They had no tv, no Wifi, no lights, and they couldn't even open the refrigerator. If they cracked the door open the tiniest bit, all the cool air would rush out, defrosting the food. Their Ephones (except Bree's, which was nearly dead) were stranded somewhere down in the lab on their chargers, where they were unable to go.

As Chase meandered around the sofa, his bionic hearing picked up a few low footsteps coming from the distance. Then he heard loud breathing, almost panting, from the other side of the walls.

"Guys, do you hear that?" He asked his siblings, all of which said 'no' in response.

Chase suddenly heard a new sound. It was a low, steady knock on the door. The eerie sound sent a sickly chill up his spine, finally ending at the back of his head.

"Guys, I'm serious. Someone is knocking on the door."

"Don't answer it!" Leo was the first to shout, followed by Adam, who raced behind the kitchen island, as if it could protect him from whatever fiend was behind the door.

"Oh, come on. It's probably just a late-night trick-or-treater," Bree carelessly said, reaching for the knob.

"Bree, no!" Leo whisper/shouted before diving belly first behind the couch. Hey, if there was some demon on the other side of the door, Leo needed protection, and the couch was the closest (and largest) object to hide behind.

Bree opened the front door, and was tackled by a black blur. It's claws scratched their way up her arms as she fell to the ground with a thump. Her surprised scream was stifled by the taunting yaps the creature spat into Bree's face.

Chase was quick to help, grabbing ahold of the unruly animal that had attacked his sister. He wrestled it off of Bree, allowing her to regain her standing position.

"Hudson Taylor! Stop that right now! You know better!"

Leo popped his head up from behind the tan sofa, just enough to see the old woman who stood in their doorway. Her name was Ms. Phoenix, the woman from down the road. Her face was awfully pale and marked with faint wrinkle lines. She was a widower who lost her husband years ago to a car accident. Now she lived alone, with the exception of her dog.

Inspired by her late husband's love for dachshunds, Ms. Phoenix decided to adopt one to keep her company. But eventually when it died, she was sent through a relapse of her husband's death. So, to keep herself busy, she always adopted a new dachshund after the previous one passed. It was a bittersweet story, but an interesting one. That is, until she's told it for the fifth time, which she has far past due to her poor memory.

"I am so sorry," the old woman apologized. "The blackout has little Hudson Taylor spooked."

Now the said dog was running around the couch in loops, sniffing random objects every so often. He was perpetually letting out high-pitched yelps and desperate whimpers that left Chase's ears ringing once again.

Adam, who jumped up from behind the counter, raced after the puppy, trying to catch it. However, the tiny dog was much too agile for Adam to keep up with.

"It's fine," Bree said politely while inspecting one of her scratches. "He surprised me more than scared me."

"Yes, well I came up here because I was wondering if any of you had a phone I was able to ring someone up with. My carbon monoxide alarm started going off, and I need to call someone for help."

"Of course," Bree said, stepping back to the counter to grab her cell phone. Meanwhile, Adam somehow was able to grab hold of the frightened dachshund. He began to stroke the dog's black coat. It was dappled with brown patches around his muzzle. Hudson Taylor kept switching his balance from paw to paw in fear. The blackout and loud beeping of the carbon monoxide alarm had him so stressed out and worried he didn't even know what to do with himself.

While Ms. Phoenix dialed the phone number-with Bree's help; the smartphone was too complicated for the widow-Chase tried to calm down the worrisome dog, which had broken free of Adam's hold and began sprinting around the room furiously.

"Hudson Taylor, sit. Sit," he chanted, holding his hand above the puppy's head whenever it came close. However, being the stubborn dog that he was, Hudson Taylor just let out a series of long howls in protest.

"Do you guys know what this means?" Leo asked dramatically with wide eyes while pointing at the noisy dog.

"What? What could it possibly mean?" Bree asked sarcastically.

"Haven't any of you seen any of 'the end of the world' movies? The signs are all around us, people!"

"Leo, what signs? All that's happening is a blackout and an irritable dog!" Chase shouted, tired of his step-brother's suggestions to their doom.

"Hello! Can't you see them? A blackout on the spookiest night of the year? A mysterious phone call? Strange noises in the city? Poisonous gases in the neighborhood? Crazed animals?"

Bree, who was still aiding Ms. Phoenix with the phone let all of Leo's theories sink into her brain. If you really thought about it, they actually made the slightest bit of sense. This night could very well be the end of the world for everyone.

But, then again, this was Leo talking. Since when was he ever right about anything?

"Leo, that's nonsense," Chase said. "Don't you think this is just nothing but a few random coincidences?"

Leo shook his head stubbornly. "No. Maybe it's a little sudden, but I really think this is the end. You guys have to believe me."

"Guys he's right!" Adam yelled. "We need to prepare for the end! You guys go raid the candy store and I'll buy a lifetime supply of pudding!"

"No, Adam stop!" Chase called to Adam as he bolted for the door. "This isn't the end of the world! But even if it was, why candy and pudding?"

"What, you don't want me to die on an empty stomach, do you?"

The group suddenly heard a loud, low rumbling sound and everyone turned to Adam.

"You hear that! I told you I was hungry!"

"No, that wasn't your stomach. That was-"

Bree was cut off by a white streak that lit up the sky and everyone in the living room jumped with surprise. The loud noises set off Hudson Taylor again, yipping and squealing at everyone from the floor. He took off again, running from the couch to the kitchen to the stairs, where he ended up sliding into the wall because of the slippery tile floor there.

"For goodness sake, Hudson, settle!" Ms. Phoenix barked before saying politely into the phone, "yes, well thank you for your time. Have a good night. Now how do I hang up this thing?"

"Here," Bree said exasperatedly, snatching the phone from her boney fingers.

"Oh, well then," she huffed. The woman regained her composure and said calmly, "The man said they've been getting reports like mine all over town, and that it's probably just a result of the blackout."

"That makes sense," Chase hurried to say, still plugging his ears to block out the yappy dog. "Why don't you take Hudson Taylor home and reset your carbon monoxide detector."

"Oh, of course. Have a good evening! Hudson Taylor, come!" The dog immediately stopped its persistent barking and quietly followed Ms. Phoenix out the door, where they disappeared into the soon to be raging thunderstorm.

As soon as the door slammed shut behind their neighbors, the lights flickered on and their television came to life with a static screen. The group cheered, but not two seconds after that did the power cut off again. Another flash of light appeared outside the window, but nobody paid any attention to it or the thunder that rolled in afterwards.

"Ugh, I'm tired of this!" Bree complained. "Why can't it just be over with?"

"Because the apocalypse is here! We're all gonna die!" Leo said.

"The world is not ending!" Bree and Chase both screamed at Leo.

"Yes it is!" Adam and Leo yelled back.

Adam didn't know what had come over him. It was either fear for the end of the universe or anger towards Bree and Chase for ignoring the blatant signs around them. He didn't mean to glitch and send a blast wave towards his younger bionic siblings. He was just glad they got out of the way in time.

However, instead of blasting his siblings, he hit Eddy's panel that was in the wall by the front door. The screen shattered and crackled with electricity for a split second before all the lights in the house lit back up again.

"What the-? Adam! Your blast wave must've carried enough energy through the wiring in Eddy's screen to power the house back up!" Chase cheered.

"Finally, a glitch that benefits us!" Bree said.

"What are we waiting for! Let's get to the lab!" Leo shouted, making his way towards the elevator.

The four teens all crammed together in the elevator and it plummeted down to their hidden Lab. The elevator doors opened to reveal the second set of lab doors shut tight. Adam was about to open them, but Chase stopped him before he could reach the panel.

"Wait, Mr. Davenport is talking to someone," he whispered to the group. Chase activated his super hearing and everyone was silent as he eavesdropped on the Davenport brothers.

"Did you hear how terrified they were? 'Ah, it's the start of the apocalypse! The world's gonna end!'Ha, they're so gullible."

"The neighbor was a nice touch. How much did you have to pay her to pretend her carbon monoxide alarm was going off?" Chase heard Douglas ask.

Donald sighed. "Not as much as I had to pay Caitlin to bribe her. That girl knows how to negotiate."

A new, irritating voice interrupted the brothers' conversation. "Ahem, you're welcome for the special effects! Jeez, what's it take for a security system to get some appreciation around here?"

"You're right, Eddy, thanks for your help," Donald said.

Douglas then grumbled, "And you wonder why I faked my own death. You are an embarrassment."

"Wha- excuse me! I will have you know, it is very normal for a grown man to talk to his best friend!"

"Not when your best friend is a piece of software!"

Chase turned to his brothers and sister, having heard enough of the conversation to piece together exactly what had happened. "This whole thing was a prank! We were set up!"

Leo froze. "Huh?" he asked, dumbfounded. "But the blackout, and the phone calls! What about Ms. Phoenix?"

"All fake. Mr. Davenport, Douglas, and Eddy simulated everything."

Adam, who was standing next to Leo, moved away and stood by Bree instead. "Told ya it wasn't real," he lied. Bree glared up at him and elbowed his arm, but Adam pretended to not notice.

"So what do we do now?" Bree asked, sounding tired and completely frustrated with how the night went. "Can we finally just go to our capsules and sleep?"

"No! Not yet at least. Isn't it obvious?" Chase asked, a smirk growing on his face. "We prank them back!"


AN: Whew, so how did you guys like it? Pretty long, right? Over 4,300 words (without both the Author's Notes)! This was a ton of fun to write! And sorry for the year-long wait. . I got most of this written out by mid November, but by then nobody would really want to read a Halloween story, so I decided to wait until Halloween this year. Hope it was worth the wait. XD

Everything written in this story happened to me and my three friends at a Halloween sleepover last year. I pretty much copied the dares (because they were hilarious when we did them :P) just how they were, but I changed a lot of the phrasing and such to fit the Lab Rats "style," I guess you could say. In case you were wondering, I used the dares I got for Leo. XD Yes, I was dared to put the ice cubes in my jean pockets, and it was terrible. I literally started dancing around the kitchen trying to shake the ice out of my pockets. XD

But yeah, the phone call, the neighbor coming over with her dog because of the carbon monoxide alarm, and the talk of the apocalypse all happened. O.o Of course not everything was the same though. Ms. Phoenix's name came from the name of the actual dog that ran all over the house. He was a lab named Phoenix, but I gave that name to the neighbor to fit in Hudson Taylor, which is user TheMichiganWriter's dog! Special thanks to her for letting me use her dog in my story! ;)

In the end though, everything that happened from this story in real life didn't turn out to be a prank. Just a bunch of coincidences. XD Weird, huh? My entire city got a blackout on Halloween. 0_0

QOTD: If you've read my story "Tutor", you'd know I usually ask you guys a question for you to answer in your review. I think last year around Halloween I asked what candy you liked, so this year, tell me the favorite thing you dressed up as for Halloween, or what you're going as this year if you still Trick or Treat.

I think mine would be a jaguar. XD I had this cute leopard print mask and a leopard print footie-pajama type thing that it wore. It was so cute! But that was way back when. XD This year I'm a cowgirl. I got my flannel and this straw hat that I love, so I'm ready to go!

A special thanks to musicdreams31 for editing this book! You're the best! :D

Thanks so much for reading this! It's my first one shot, so let's see how this goes! If you liked this, please feel free to Comment, Vote, and Follow! You don't have to, but it's always nice! XD Thanks again!

Until next time . . .

PEACE OUT PICKLES!

Gotta Run! ~musicdreams31