A/N- Hello guys. I hope you all had a wonderful time last night, whether or not you celebrate Halloween. In any case, now that the celebrations have ceased a bit, here is my AI Football GGO Halloween Special. Enjoy!
Master Huytin
Notes: '/' = New scene/ Time skip
In the rather large area of Shanghai where the members of Team Barefoot lived, night-time life was far from rare. Lit up by blazing neon signs, the streets bustled with life until well into the following morning; even then the streets weren't completely silent. But as the sky began to grow darker and darker, and the night of Halloween approached, the city seemed to be more alive than ever.
Among many of those who were excited for Halloween were the Barefoot quartet of Isaac, Karl, Timmy and Cat. Cat's infamous rolling pin seemed to have been put away for one day (the other three had dreaded that it would be part of her Halloween costume at first, but this, luckily for them, seemed not to be a possibility anymore). Timmy had even vowed not to eat any hotdogs for the rest of the day so that he could keep a good appetite for the sweets. It was 5.00 pm, so there was still a bit of time until the trick-or-treating began. As they stood in Isaac's room, they discussed their Halloween costumes with each other, as well as what they were looking forward to.
"So Isaac, what are you going to wear?"
"I think I'm going to go for a vampire costume this time. I found one online which looked pretty cool, so I had it delivered straight away, with a free pair of red contact lenses. The delivery was quite fast as well, and, according to my calculations, I saved 29.73 percent off any normal costume. But then again, I have to consider that all those other costumes will have gone down in price as well… this limits my percentage profit to about only 59.36 percent maximum of the original calculation. But-"
"Okay, okay, enough. But I think that's quite a nice selection. I think a vampire look would suit you, with your dark hair. It's a pity you don't have the sharp canines." Cat seemed impressed with the choice.
"They came with the costume. It is true: my own teeth have been ground down by those rocks of wheat which Aunt Betty calls 'bread'."
"WHAT DID YOU SAY, ISAAC?!"
"S-so-sorry, Aunt Betty. I won't disturb you again!"
"GOOD! YOU'D BETTER NOT, YOUNG MAN!"
Karl, Timmy and Cat sweatdropped at another classic example of the… complicated relationship between Isaac and his aunt. Cat cleared her throat.
"Oh yeah, and we mustn't forget about your extremely pale skin."
"I AM NOT PALE! Sophie says my skin is embrassé au clair de lune." He puffed his chest out in a proud fashion. Karl snorted.
"Be quiet, lover boy. Your French accent is terrible."
"L-Lover boy?! I have n-no idea what you are talking about: please do t-tell me."
"The lady doth protest too much. You're almost stammering as much as when Aunt Betty speaks to you!"
It took a considerable amount of will power for Cat and Timmy not to laugh.
"Shut up, Karl! And since when do you quote Shakespeare?"
"I have been picking some posh English up for my costume- I'll have you know that I will be both a dashing knight and a classy gentleman tonight! Arise, Sir Lancelot!" Now it was Karl's turn to look arrogant.
"Pfft. You say my French accent is bad, but you can't even pull off a decent English one!"
"What would you know about English accents? I had Mr Glanz coach me!"
"Well I had Sophie teaching me!"
"And? She probably spent more time teaching you how to French kiss than she did teaching you how to do French grammar!"
"BOTH OF YOU, SHUT UP!" Isaac and Karl instinctively raised their arm to shield against the rolling pin which would've probably smacked down upon their heads by then.
"Haha, you don't have that cursed rolling pin of yours with you today. You no longer scare us!"
Cat's fists then proceeded to mutate into terrible cactus abominations. Next, she charged up to the two still cocky teenagers, and punched each with one fist out the open window.
"I SAID SHUT UP!"
And Timmy simply watched with silent bemusement, though he was highly preoccupied with an internal debate about whether his 'Grand Sacrifice of Hotdogs' was really going be worth it; he had just reached the climax of the argument by the time Isaac and Karl slumbered back up the stairs, covered in scratches and thorns, and into Isaac's room, having landed on Aunt Betty's 'Ornamental Cacti', which were perched horrifyingly outside Birdy Bread.
/
It was now 5.20 pm. They had agreed for Shawn to meet them in Birdy Bread at haf-past, but Cat seemed too impatient to wait. She took out her phone after five minutes of the funeral service for Karl and Isaac which Timmy was sombrely conducting. She looked at the screen her call record on the screen.
Recent:
Shawn (574)
She seemed happy that fate had presented Shawn as the first person she would probably call. She wondered how they knew how much she and Shawn loved each other, blatantly ignoring the fact that the call log showed the record of who she had called most recently, and that she called him about nine times every day. She eagerly pressed the call button, and placed her hot pink phone next to her ear. After about three rings I was picked up.
"Hello…Cat."
"Shawnie? Are you okay? You sound tired- should I bake you fifteen cakes for the next week?"
"No…I'm fine. What do you need?"
"When are you coming here? It's really dull being stuck with these annoying teenage boys without you." She looked at the three boys, two of whom were lying face down on the floor, looking like extremely large, dead porcupines due to the cactus spines embedded in their backs, and one who was dressed up in full black, chanting some Latin prayers he had found on the internet.
"I don't think I'm coming today, actually."
"WHAT?!"
At this scream the dead porcupines flew five meters into the air, their spikes becoming embedded in the ceiling, leaving them hanging there.
"I'm sorry, Cat, but I simply cannot see the point in Halloween. We're all too old for this;we shouldn't still be going trick-or-treating."
"Oh…okay then…" Cat sounded a bit hurt. But it seems that the 'dead porcupines' had been listening in as well.
"What do you mean, we're too old? Halloween is supposed to be universal!" Karl seemed to have revived himself.
"Yeah! Karl's right for once- I'll get you to come with us if it is the last thing I do!" And with that, the two boys somehow took off their jumpers which were stuck to the ceiling, leaving them in only t-shirts.
"Wow guys. I guess I've never seen what you without you wearing your jumpers before." Cat looked at the two t-shirts the boys were wearing. Isaac had a black shirt with the GGO Football logo on in, while Karl's was simply green. They ignored her, and Isaac went to his cupboard. Cat sweatdropped.
"Why do you have a whole cupboard full of the same jumper?" The whole cupboard consisted of that one type of orange jumper. While Isaac was putting one on his head, he shrugged.
"They were on sale, so I bought two of every size."
"Oh…I have always wondered why that jumper always fits you." And then Karl pulled out another jumper from his own rucksack, and they went to Shawn's house.
/
On arriving, they noticed that nothing had changed at all about the mansion. Shawn's parents were away abroad, but he still hadn't chosen to decorate it. They got a bit annoyed, since they had tried to decorate their own places to the best of their ability, and Shawn, with such a large house which so many children could see, did absolutely nothing. They rung the doorbell. Mr Glanz answered, his eyes seeming to twinkle when he saw them. He smiled gently.
"Don't worry, Shawn is just feeling a bit stubborn today. You will convince him- I have trust in that, but good luck anyway."
"Thank you Mr Glanz." they replied. As they walked up the stairs, they could already hear the piano music which was being practiced. As they entered the room, they saw Shawn visibly sigh in what seemed to be a mixture of both annoyance and resignation. He stopped abruptly.
"Hello guys, what do you want?" Though he was a bit annoyed, he had the manners to treat them politely anyway.
"C'mon Shawn, you know what we want."
"Yeah, it's not cool to walk out on us last minute, ya know."
"Mhmm. I even listened to your advice about not eating hotdogs for today."
At that, Shawn's impassive expression was breached a small bit as his left eyebrow raised slightly in surprise. However, he was also surprised to see that Cat had not said anything. He had thought that he would be 'rolling-pinned'- for some reason it still hadn't happened to him, and he was frightened of it. But she just seemed sad and quiet. He may have been a genius, but he was still denser than his grand piano when it came to romance.
"Sorry guys, I just don't think it is something people our age should still be doing."
"Come on. Stop being such a prissy princess and just come along. Didn't you enjoy it the last time you went?"
"I've never been."
"What?! That's outrageous. Let us take you!"
"No, sorry guys. I just doubt the use in the celebration. If you don't mind, I think I will return to my piano practice." And with that he strolled back to his grand piano. The three boys tried to stop him, but they paused, seeming to give up.
"It's ok guys…if Shawn…doesn't want to…come with us, than… he should… do what he wants." Cat seemed rather timid at that moment.
"No wait," Isaac chewed his lip. "How about this, Shawn? Since you want to play your piano so much, if I name a classical song related to Halloween can you play it and then come with us?"
Shawn paused as he was sitting down. That was a rather odd request; he didn't think Isaac knew any names of classical songs at all. Then he smiled.
"Go on then. You can try." Isaac pumped his fist.
"I know there was this one song…what was it called again?" All the other four watched him. Karl and Timmy stared at him without a clue as to any names themselves. Cat seemed a tiny bit more revitalized at this minor victory, and was staring at Isaac half-apprehensive and half-threateningly.
"Hmmm…Ah yes! Got it! I think it was… Fudge and Toccata, by S. J Bath?" Shawn raised his eyebrow.
"You mean Toccata and Fugue, by J. S Bach?"
"Yep! That's the one!" Shawn raised his eyebrows.
"I am surprised you know it at all," Isaac puffed his chest out in pride again. "So I will forget that you butchered the name horribly," Isaac deflated. "And I will agree to your deal. But you first have to listen to me play it, as you said."
So he sat down and began to play. As the notes whizzed by, Karl and Timmy seemed to actually be enjoying it; Isaac was too busy mumbling to himself about how great he was for saving everybody; Cat was fangirling again. Finally, he finished, wiping some sweat off his brow.
"Whew. I had forgotten how exciting that piece was to play."
"Hmm. I guess that was kind of Halloween related- it sounded a bit creepy." Timmy nodded in agreement at Karl's remark, as did Shawn.
"Though it wasn't supposed to be about anything of the sort, this is what it is often perceived as these days. It is one of the classical masterpieces- you should check out how mathematically it is put together."
Isaac, who had, as one would have hoped by the end of a ten-minute piece, recovered from his moment of self-arrogance. "True. That's how I came across it in the first place- the maths is quite intriguing. By the way, this means that you are coming with us!"
"I guess that's true. I'll stick to my word."
"YAAAAAYYY! SOOO COOOL!" Cat squealed. But Timmy had other things on his mind.
"What are you going to wear?" Everyone immediately deflated a bit.
"Oh yeah, that's true. You won't be getting me to wear those itchy five-yen costumes."
"But surely you must have something?!"
"Nope. I told you, I don't normally celebrate this. The closest thing I have to any costume are my dinner-party clothes."
"Ah well that will do. I bet that you will look like a prince anyway because of those weird clothes you rich people wear." Shawn snorted at Isaac's comment, but still nodded his assent.
And indeed, as he came out, all the others realized they had underestimated how posh Shawn was, and that he did indeed look like he was in a prince's costume. They all sweatdropped, except Cat, who was fangirling (again…).
/
And then came the time when the costumes were all to be shown. The four teenagers left to separate guest bedrooms in Shawn's house, and changed into their costumes, meeting in the lobby. Isaac and Karl were the first to arrive, and they gave each other looks of begrudging respect.
"Hmph. Well I must say, the costume suits thee. Not bad, Count Dracula."
"I think I would've said the same thing, Sir Lancelot." Then they began a starting contest which was awkward for Shawn because there was nobody else there, and the vibes were bad anyway. Suddenly, they all heard THE giggle. The giggle of a certain Cat when she is lost in dreams about Shawn. As she turned the corner, everybody realized that she looked more like she was dressed up for a ball than for Halloween. She looked like she had picked out a costume which was undoubtedly supposed to resemble that of a princess.
"Hello, My Prince! Do you like my costume?"
"Yes, it is pretty."
"AAAAAHHHH! YAAAY!"
Isaac snorted at Cat's over exaggeration for anything Shawn ever did.
"So you're the princess and Shawn is the prince?" he asked, with his eyebrow raised.
Cat's eyes twinkled, and she looked up at Shawn, slightly drooling.
"Yep! Isn't it destiny? Two lovers, always paired together under the stars, an invisible red line connecting them both…aaah, right, Shawn?" with this she tried to lean closer to the latter, but, unfortunately for her, Shawn was creeped out a bit by her speech as well; he avoided her, and she let out a muffled "Save me, my prince!" before he sighed and caught her with both his hands just before she fell down.
"OOOH MY! This position is just too ro-oomantic! Shawnie, you should have told me you wanted to go this fast! Never let me go!"
Everybody sweatdropped.
/
As they stood there with Cat clinging to Shawn, the latter was just waiting for Timmy to arrive so they could set off. Finally, they heard some shuffling. Around the corner came Timmy. They all sweatdropped when they saw him.
"A green dragon wanzie?! Art thou crazy?!" but Timmy just grinned at Karl, as well as the bewildered Shawn and Isaac.
"Teehee! You haven't even seen the best part! Look!" he said, brandishing his tail. To all of the rest it looked like a normal tail.
"Hah. You mortals do not understand this contraption. Look! It's a tail-vacuum! This way, while Karl is distracting the owners of the sweets by being obnoxious-"
"I AM NOT OBNOXIOUS; THOU ART A FIEND FOR INSULTING ME LIKE THIS!"
"-and Isaac is distracting them by being grumpy-"
"I AM NOT GRUMPY!"
"-I can stick my tail-vacuum in the sweets basket and suck out all the sweets so I can have them all later!" Everyone deadpanned.
"Oho, so that is thy endgame? But Sir Lancelot fighteth against all forms of corruption in the lands of our Great and Noble King; thou shalt be slain, fire-breathing reptilian monstrosity!" Isaac groaned at how Karl was getting into the Archaic English way too much. Shawn butted in.
"So let's go now, before all the sweets are taken."
"Fair enough, let us venture forward into the arms of the Night, my brethren!"
/
The night had been going quite well for each member of the gang so far. Isaac had even got some girls after him for once, though they were still mainly more interested in Shawn. But, as he guessed, that was why Cat wore a green dress- when she morphed into a 'fire-breathing reptilian monstrosity' (a.k.a The Cactus), it kind of went well together aesthetically with her skirt. But he had unfortunately declined every girl who had approached him so far asking for him to attend their midnight party, for no particular reason other than that he felt that he should get to know people first before he did anything else (Karl: "cough, cough, Sophie.")
Karl was arguably the most childish of them all, so he had just been enjoying a time of pure and innocent bliss; Timmy had been enjoying all the sweets (he had a secret mouth piece which connected his sweet reserves directly to his mouth). And Cat was just engrossed in her book 'Destined Lovers', practically allowing Shawn to carry her the whole way.
They all had access to their favourite sweets as well. Timmy didn't really have any favourites- he liked them all, but a jelly hotdog had been of most interest to him. He had debated internally over whether it would be breaking his vow, but then had sucked up five through his mouthpiece without anybody seeing.
Karl's favourite sweets were popping candy, or pop rocks. He enjoyed the sensation of them fizzing around his mouth- he found it rather addictive to touch them with his tongue, and he had found some nice peach-flavoured ones as well. Isaac liked his bonbons des pommes, or apple bon bons, but they, unfortunately for him, seemed rather the less abundant on the streets of Shanghai than they had been on the streets of Paris when he had visited Sophie.
Shawn, who had never eaten most of the sweets he had encountered that night, found himself rather attracted to the strawberry lace, although his appetite for them was somewhat dimmed when he heard Cat quietly squealing about 'invisible red strings connecting destined lovers' from where she was perched on his back. Yep, he decided to go with some sherbet lemons instead, which he also quite enjoyed.
The 'damsel in distress' herself was rather the less interested and engaged than she might have usually been, but one would have still been able to notice her love for chocolate buttons (as well as for Swizzel's Love Hearts, but we won't get into that, both because it is awkward for Shawn and because they are rather obscure anyway).
/
They had begun to reach the middle of their cycle around, and were approaching Isaac's house, where they had agreed to turn around and start walking back to Shawn's house (in a different route of course). Suddenly, Isaac saw something that scared him more than anything he had seen this Halloween. Scarier than the Werewolves popping out of walls, than the clowns on their tricycles, and perhaps, dare he utter it, even scarier than Cat when girls had tried to approach Shawn that night.
There…were kids at…Aunt Betty's house… and they were eating…some sweets she had given them.
"No, no, no! How am I going to participate in the GGO Football World Tournament if the Gao family has the murder of a young child on their criminal record?! I have to stop them!" the others watched as he turned into a bat (just kidding), as he reached pace they had never seen him running with before. But he got there just too late; as the kid…took…his…first…crunch.
"AAAH! COME ON KID, LET'S GO!"
"Isaac, is that you? What are you doing?! Oh, and Happy Halloween, kiddo!"
The kid looked as if he was trying to nod, but that only got the 'cornflake clusters' lodged in his throat more. Isaac threw him on the grass, as he tried unsuccessfully to resuscitate the boy with a blue face who had Aunt Betty's cooking up his throat. Suddenly, he knew what he had to do. It was the last resort of the Gao family, a secret more well kept than any ultimate kung-fu move, and his greatest trump card as a part-time waiter at Birdy Bread.
It was known as 'The Black Hole'. It was like the Kiss of Life, but instead of pumping air in (that, as Isaac found, tended to push the foods lower down the throat), it consisted of drawing out breath instead.
The technique had taken him five-years to master, and now he needed it more than anything. So he ignored the fact that it was slightly gross, and put his mouth on that of the kid, temporarily drawing out the air in his throat and sucking up the 'cornflake cluster'…into his own throat.
Shawn probably would have puked if it wasn't such a noble rescue. The kid seemed fine, albeit rather confused, at that moment, and Isaac was the one who now had a blue face.
"Hello? Will he be alright?!" the kid seemed rather scared. But Karl comforted him, dropping the weird English.
"Don't ya worry 'bout it. Our Isaac has a special metabolism evolved for Aunt Betty's pastries. His stomach acids are five-hundred and sixety-nine times more powerful than that of an average adult male. Right, Isaac?" Isaac tried to grin, though it failed quite miserably, and put a thumbs-up. The kid suddenly seemed just as frozen as when he had ingested the 'cornflake cluster'.
"W-wait…Isaac? Are you g-guys…T-team B-barefoot?" Karl smiled like he normally did on camera.
"In the flesh!"
"OOOH MY GOD! I AM SUCH A BIG FAN OF YOU GUYS! ESPECIALLY ISAAC AND HIS MYTH!" Cat let this opinion slide, because she thought the kid was quite cute (and not bad-looking either, just too young, might she say so herself). Isaac tried the same combination of actions, but the grin still looked more like a grimace. One could now, however, perceive that the rock-shaped lump had travelled further a bit down his throat, and was nearing his stomach, where Isaac had his 'killer acids' in the ready.
"Aww, all my friends have gone now." He hung his head down in sadness. Isaac took his final gulp, and smiled.
"Don't worry kid; I'll play some GGO Football with you if you want. It's the least I can do. Do you play?" The kid's eyes light up like a re-animated carousel.
"Yeah! That would be so cool! Please could you?" Isaac nodded.
"Sure. Where do you want to play?"
"Could you come to mine?"
"Let's go then." He waved goodbye to his friends.
"See you guys. Enjoy the rest of the evening- it was fun, thanks." They smiled.
"See you Isaac."
"Do you want me to tell Mr Glanz to pick you up?"
"Don't worry about it, Shawn- I think I will find my way. If not, then I'll give you a call?" They all gave Isaac a thumbs-up, and a final wave, watching as he and the kid were quickly swallowed up by the darkness in the barely visible night, already talking happily about GGO Football.
/
As Isaac sat on the toilet-seat at midnight, still having diarrhoea (he had given all his diarrhoea prevention tablets to the kid and he hadn't had the time to get more), he tried to smile through the pain. He had actually quite enjoyed that- the kid was just like Oscar had been to Shawn. Lots of potential, huge interest and willingness to learn- just a different personality.
He cleaned himself up as the onslaught finally ceased, and went to bed. All of them had been waiting for him, so he thanked them. As it turned out, the kid had been one of Shawn's neighbours, so I saac had been able to walk home fast enough before his stomach started messing with him and had talked to them very briefly before had rushed to the toilet.
And as he slept that night, his nightmares of 'cornflake clusters' didn't last too long.
A/N- Well, hope you enjoyed. See you next time!