Not Another Holiday
Summary: With the base going crazy over another holiday, it's up to Master Chief and the cheerful Private Mitchell to educate the Arbiter on the traditions of Halloween. Will there be lots of nice treats in store, or just some nasty tricks?
Disclaimer: I don't own Halo or anything else mentioned (except Private Mitchell)
The Arbiter wandered through the corridors of the base, killing time until Master Chief came back from his current mission. There were posters placed intermittently along the walls of every corridor, large sheets of fluorescent orange paper so bright they almost glowed in the dark. The Arbiter was not able to read enough English to make out what they were saying entirely, but he could tell it was some kind of celebration. As well as the posters some of the walls had various 'decorations' on them, though the Arbiter did not understand how human skeletons and spider webs (which were normally seen as a nuisance) could aid in any sort of celebration. Even the lighting around the base had been dimmed to add an atmosphere, though this had only served to cause frequent collisions in the corridors.
The Arbiter could just make out a figure creeping towards him in the dim light as Sangheili eyesight was better in the dark than humans. The figure kept looking around as if waiting for something to jump out at them and seemed to not notice the Arbiter moving towards them. This was proven to be true when they proceeded to walk straight into him. The figure, who was a Marine, let out a high pitched scream and raised their hands in front of their face as a defence reflex. The Arbiter just stood there bewildered until the Marine finally peered out from behind his hands when nothing attacked him. This allowed the Arbiter to recognise who the Marine was, which caused him to groan internally.
"Holy crap Arby, you scared the life out of me!" Private Mitchell said. "You should really make some noise or something so people know you're there."
"I've told you before Private, please don't call me 'Arby'. And it is not my fault that you're species cannot see in dim lighting." The Arbiter stated.
"And I've told you before to call me Mitch. We're buddies now! The rest of my squad can't believe it, they're all so jealous. Which reminds me, my best buddy is going to come to my Halloween party, right?" Mitchell asked.
"Um… what's Halloween?" the Arbiter asked in return. Mitchell's mouth fell open in shock.
"Oh my god, you don't know about Halloween yet?! Why didn't you come and find me so I could explain?" Mitchell said.
"Well, I was going to ask Chief when he got back from his mission…" the Arbiter replied.
"We don't have time to wait for him! I need to tell you about it now, so you can start preparing for the day! Come on!" Mitchell exclaimed, grabbing the Arbiter's arm and dragging him down the corridor towards an unoccupied briefing room.
Master Chief dismounted from the Pelican feeling pretty good, having successfully blown up some Covenant forces with only a few UNSC casualties. This feeling was replaced by confusion and worry when he saw the Arbiter sitting in the corner on a crate, staring at a plasma pistol he was holding loosely in his hands. Chief quickly strode over to him, worried he was about to do something stupid.
"Hey Arbiter, are you ok?" Chief asked. When he didn't reply, Chief nudged him in the shoulder. "Hey, Arbiter!"
"Huh? Sorry what?" the Arbiter said, coming back to reality.
"I asked you if you were ok. You seem a bit…. Out of it." Chief said, warily looking at the plasma pistol. The Arbiter noticed Chief's visor directed toward the pistol, and holstered it at his side with a sigh.
"Sorry, I'm just trying to sort of my brain. Mitchell bombarded me with a lot of new information about this 'Halloween' and I don't understand most of it." The Arbiter explained.
"Oh." Was all Chief said in reply. Nothing else needed to be said – he knew how enthusiastic Mitchell got about holidays and celebrations, so it was no surprise the Arbiter had be stunned by the amount of information he'd got. "Did he rope you into his Halloween party?"
"Yes, and he wants me to go 'treat-or-tricking' with him." The Arbiter replied.
"Actually, it's 'trick-or-treating." Chief pointed out, wincing when he saw the dead eyed look the Arbiter gave him in return. "Not that it really matters anyway… So, do you have a costume yet?" The Arbiter shook his head. "Do you have any ideas for a costume?" Another head shake. Chief let out a long sigh.
"Don't worry, I've sorted mine already so I'll help you come up with something. We'll have it ready in no time" Chief said. There was a slight nod of the head from the Arbiter in reply, and Chief began to search his head for a good costume idea.
The time had come – Halloween was here, and after what seemed like the longest day of work ever, Mitchell could finally go trick-or-treating with his buddies around the base. He couldn't wait for them to see his costume; he'd had it planned for about a year, and he spent a careful couple of months preparing and making it in time for the day. At 6pm on the dot, there was a knock on the door to his quarters and with a squeal of excitement he jumped off his bed and ran to the door to open it. On the other side he found a Spartan (the Greek historical kind) and what he thought was an actual flood-infested Elite until he saw a hand written sign that said 'NOT A REAL FLOOD CREATURE' hanging around its neck.
Chief noticed the confused look on Mitchell's face, and explained while gesturing at the sign around the Arbiter's neck "We nearly had a few accidents without it."
"Oh my God, you both look great – they're such convincing costumes, I just know everyone is going to give us loads of candy!" Mitchell exclaimed. The Arbiter was eyeing Mitchell's costume with a mysterious look.
"Erm, what are you meant to be dressed as?" He asked.
"You silly!" Mitchell replied with a smile, and Chief noticed a look of horror come over the Arbiter's face. "Now come on, if we want to make it all the way around the base before the party starts we need to leave now!" Mitchell pushed Chief and the Arbiter down the corridor towards the next set of living quarters. However the ODST who opened the door apologised and stated that they had no candy to give out. The next room they tried said the same, and they soon came to the conclusion no one had expected trick-or-treaters in a military base because there were no children.
Mitchell tried to slump against a wall and slowly slide down it, but in the dimly lit corridor managed to bash his head on it instead. He was barely holding in tears – he'd looked forward to doing something fun with his new friends, but it had turned into a disaster. The Arbiter wouldn't be able to properly experience Halloween without successful trick-or-treating, and Chief had started to look bored after the third attempt failed. The Arbiter tried to comfort Mitchell, saying that he had the general idea of what was supposed to happen and they could always try again next year, until Chief shushed them both.
"What's wrong?" the Arbiter asked.
"Something feels wrong… dammit, I wish I had my motion tracker right now." Chief scowled. The three of them looked around warily in the dark, searching for anything that could be anything natural or supernatural. It was then they heard a banging on the other side of the wall, causing Mitchell to scream and jump into the Arbiter's arms, who staggered under the unexpected weight he was suddenly carrying.
"What on Sanghelios was that?!" the Arbiter asked.
"I don't know, I can't see through walls or anything without my visor!" Chief snapped back.
"Maybe it was a ghost?" Mitchell suggested. The Arbiter and Chief both looked at him.
"Really? A ghost?" Chief said.
"You never know! And it is Halloween after all…" Mitchell replied. There was another bang, causing Mitchell to shriek again and cling tighter to the Arbiter, making him curse while he readjusted his stance to stay balanced. Another couple of bangs followed, until the wall fell in with a crash, leaving a pile of rubble on the ground and a plume of dust in the air.
Through the hole in the wall came a group of several Grunts followed by a pair of Jackals. The Covenant stopped for a moment, allowing their eyes to adjust to the darkness, and then to take in the absurd sight before them – a Flood-infected Elite holding what appeared to be a miniature Arbiter, with a strangely dressed human next to them. Before they had a chance to react, the strangely dressed human had closed the distance between the Jackals, bashing their heads together hard enough to crack their skulls. They crumpled to the ground as the infected Elite dropped the mini Arbiter and pounced into the group of Grunts, throwing them into each other and the wall, until they were all laying in heaps on the floor. Chief and the Arbiter turned to look at each other in concern.
"How did they get past the perimeter?" the Arbiter asked. "Is everyone too busy with this holiday that they've slacked off?"
"We'll worry about that later. Right now, we need to grab some weapons and deal with any other Covenant in the area." Chief ordered.
"My butt hurts... why did you have to drop me Arby?" Mitchell whined. Chief rolled his eyes.
"We don't have time to worry about that right now, Private. Now come on!" Chief picked up a Plasma Pistol and a couple of Plasma Grenades from the pile of Covenant bodies as the Arbiter did the same. He checked a Needler was reloaded before chucking it at Mitchell, who caught it in fumbling hands. "You know how to use one of those, right?" He asked.
Mitchell shifted on his feet. "I've never used one myself, but I know people who have." He explained.
"That'll have to do for now then." Chief said. "Right then guys, let's move out!"
It was definitely the weirdest Halloween most of the UNSC had ever experienced. An unexpected Covenant attack on the base was thwarted by an ancient Greek soldier, a miniature Arbiter, and a Flood-infected Elite with a sign around its neck stating it was not a real Flood-infected Elite. The Covenant attack force was decimated, much of it down to the fact as each soldier saw what they were fighting, they paused in confusion for a split second, allowing the costumed heroes to take aim and fire.
Chief and the Arbiter did most of the work as Mitchell hid behind cover and tried not to get hit – he did however manage to get a few lucky shots off. The luckiest was when a Skirmisher rounded the corner on him and he emptied an entire clip of the Needler into it - the detonation of the rounds left a spectacular pink cloud hanging around.
By the time the bodies had been cleared away and some semblance of normality had returned to the base, everyone was wondering if the Halloween party was still on or not. As Mitchell had organised it, the choice was ultimately left to him, though everyone knew what his decision would be. That was why a few hours later, the majority of the base were getting drunk and dancing badly to Halloween themed music. Chief and the Arbiter had been banned from touching alcohol again after the Christmas incident, so they were a couple of sobers amongst a sea of drunk Marines.
Even Commander Keyes and Johnson had got into the holiday spirit – Miranda was dressed in a modest witch costume, while Johnson seemed to have raided the medical bay and was wrapped up in bandages as a mummy. The night finished with a sing and dance along to Michael Jackson's 'Thriller' where half of the base were already passed out on the floor, and the other half were drunk enough they looked like zombies when they were dancing without trying to.
As the last man standing passed out, a particularly resilient ODST, Chief and the Arbiter began to clean up the base in preparation for a return to normal duties tomorrow. They cleaned off the work consoles and washed and dried the plates and glasses, as well as getting cleaning products and medicines ready for the morning when the hangovers began. Finally, exhausted, they settled in a clear corner of the room and discussed new defence ideas for the base after the Covenant had managed to breach so far, until they became too tired and so fell asleep against each other.