Nightmare Before Christmas: Pinocchio's Story
Prologue
It's strange how my life lead up to this point. It was almost all a little unexpected. But I always viewed it like a grand adventure, even if it did have a few sad parts. My name is Pinocchio P. Woodworth (the "P" stands for "Puppet" by the way). Yes, the same nose growing puppet-kid who was brought to life by the Blue Fairy. And this is the story of one of my most memorable adventures with my uncle, Jack Skellington.
Let me start from the beginning: it all began shortly after the Blue Fairy turned me into a real boy. I'll admit, for a while it was fun. But two years later, when I turned ten, was when everything changed for me. My relationship with Geppetto wasn't going all that great and also, Jiminy and I were getting into a few disagreements. I didn't need him as my conscience. I could already tell the difference between right and wrong (my first adventure after coming to life taught me alot). And true, I was getting into trouble almost every week, but that still didn't make it necessary for what Geppetto did to me!
One day when I was getting ready for school, Geppetto stopped me and told me that I wasn't going to school that day. I was overjoyed by that prospect, but would soon become aware of why. He took me to this giant building that looked like a hospital. He told me it was a facility called The Academy, where they made robots. It was then when I realized what was happening: Geppetto was giving me away to be turned into some robot kid. Actually, when I put it that way, it sounds pretty awesome! But anyway, I can still remember men coming to meet us at the front gate. They were dressed in black and wore black helmets. They almost looked like agents in a movie that I once saw. They grabbed me by the arms and started dragging me away from Geppetto. I couldn't believe it. Geppetto, my own father, was just… giving me away like this. I remember how angry and hateful I felt as I was being dragged away from the man who carved me from pinewood. But at the same time, I saw something in the old man's eyes. Was it remorse?
I don't remember much about what happened next, because they put me on anesthesia. When I woke up, I saw that my skin was wooden again, and I realized that I had been turned back into a puppet. I also had been given a tail, which, at first, brought back some very bad memories. But the doctors there told me that I had been turned into something more: a robotic puppet!
I know this all seems very sad and kind of dark, but honestly, after that, things got a lot better. At first, I was pretty shocked at all that had happened, but things at The Academy weren't all that bad. The doctors there were very kind, and I got placed with a doctor name Dr. Strauss. I can still remember what she looked like: tall with grayish-black hair and purple glasses. She always had a warm expression on her face, and she was like a mother to me while I was at The Academy. She always encouraged me when I was sad, she supported me, and always bought me ice cream on Tuesdays. (I still miss that.) She even gave me a backpack which could pretty much hold anything (which means I could fit a tank in there). I was also given a time machine by The Academy. I don't know what it's for because I haven't tried it out, but I'm certain it's something good. I was soon taught all the new thing about me: how my robot system worked, the fact that I could shoot lasers from my eyes (which was pretty mind-blowing when I first found out), become invisible (once again, awesome), and the fact that I was super swift and agile. I was soon taught karate and kung fu, which I was very good at. I was so good, in fact, that I rose to getting my black belt. I was also taught how to use certain weapons, like guns (don't worry, I've got a permit), and my two personal favorites, the kanata and the nunchucks. My training in karate and kung fu was such a huge point in my life that I decided to keep my gi, which I have worn to this day. I also learned about my ability to run on all fours. I guess the doctors put a little animal instinct inside of me (nothing too savage, though), I was also taught about the real world: history, English, math, you know, the usual school stuff. Then came another huge moment in my life that I will never forget: I was given Pokemon! My starter Pokemon was Chimchar. Right when we first met, we immediately became best buds. I was soon given more Pokemon: Piplup, Pikachu, Turtwig, Starly, and Riolu, and I formed a strong bond with all of them. We became our own family. I loved my Pokemon so much that I made them all a little gift. Since the doctors had also programed me with a knack for inventing stuff, I decided to take full advantage of that, and made my pokemon some collars that would allow them to talk. I became so fascinated by Pokemon that I wanted to find out more about them. So I did extensive research and eventually, I learned everything there is to know about all eight-hundred and two Pokemon.
Soon came the day when I graduated from The Academy, and I was released into the real world. I was kind of sad that I had to say goodbye to Dr. Strauss, but I knew that I would be okay. Plus, I could take care of myself.
So, after that, I explored the world. I went everywhere: Germany, England, China, Japan, Paris, Ireland, Scotland, the U. S., you name it.
It was all fun and games, but I started to feel… lonely. True, I had my Pokemon with me, but something in this life of freedom felt like it was… missing.
That is, until I got a call from The Academy. (They said they would be in touch if I needed anything.) It was about my uncle. I was very surprised by this. I never knew I had an uncle, but I soon received an even bigger surprise when I found out that my uncle was a skeleton, and not just any skeleton: the King of Halloween! I wasn't sure if this was all a prank or something, but due to how things were going for me then, I decided that I could use the company. And who knew. Maybe I did have some connection with this skeleton guy, even if it was a tad bit weird.
So, I headed off to this world called Halloween Town via teleporter (which was another device given to me by The Academy although it didn't even look like a teleporter at all. Just a little remote control switch with a red button on it that would take me anywhere if I asked it to.) When I first arrived there… well, let's just say I didn't exactly get the warm welcome I was hoping for. Upon entering the town, I first looked around at the buildings. They were all very tall, gray, some slightly slanted, and made of wood and brick, except for one that was made entirely out of metal and looked like an antenna. Some of them were shaped weirdly, too. One of them looked like a giant octopus. Another looked like Pac-Man with sharp teeth and little hairs sprouting out of his head. (I eventually found out that those where branches). Then came the people, or I really shouldn't say people; more like monsters. Almost every type of monster lives in Halloween Town. Witches, vampires, a wolfman, a zombie, they even had a mad scientist, though I found it interesting that he was wheelchair-bound. But there were also some other monsters there that I'd never seen the likes of before. There was a melting man, a fat clown who was always riding on a unicycle, a talking tree that would walk all over the place and had little skeletons hanging from his branches; and a family of what I first thought were more zombies. However, I soon found out they were corpses. It would've been pretty cool to be staying in a place like this if everyone there hadn't acted so hostile towards me.
I soon met my uncle Jack Skellington. He was unlike any skeleton I'd ever seen. The first thing that I noticed about him was his height. He was pretty tall. Taller than Dr. Strauss even, who was about six foot five. Jack was probably around seven foot five. I could tell because I reached up to about halfway of the upper part of his legs. He also wore a black pinstriped suit with a bat bowtie. He was actually pretty good-looking for a skeleton, and I would soon find out that he was also uncommonly kind. When I first met him, he greeted me in a very welcoming manner. He even hugged me, which was a little awkward. I then met Zero, Jack's ghost dog. He was a very good dog and extremely cute. So cute, in fact, that he gave me just about a thousand kisses on the face when I first met him. I eventually got settled, and as I looked down from the window in Jack's room, which had an amazing view of Halloween Town, I knew then and there that this place was my new home. I took a deep breath and told myself that I'd better start getting use to it.
And it was pretty hard getting use to it, at first. I soon learned that Halloween Town was in charge of putting on a spectacular performance for Halloween each year, so there was a lot of work to do in order to prepare for it. Not that I had a problem with that; I enjoyed helping out with Halloween as much as I could. I was even given the job to track how well we did on each Halloween, though it's not all that fun when people are continuously watching you with a judgemental look in their eyes. I eventually found out why everyone in Halloween Town was treating me like I had some kind of contagious disease: it was because they were suspicious of Jack's and my relationship. And I could kind of see where they were coming from. How could a robotic-puppet like me be related to the Pumpkin King? I finally told Jack about it, and he admitted that he was aware of this, as well. He told me that the people of Halloween Town just needed to get use to me and that even though neither of us knew how we were related, we were still uncle and nephew, and that was all that mattered. I took in Jack's words of wisdom, but was still unsure. I remember lying awake at night, praying to God that the people of the town would see me as an equal. Another thing I had to get use to was how the people ate. It was hard for me to enjoy my food. Although they had a convenient store with regular food items in the town that they rarely used, I still had to sit next to Jack and watch him eat food that looked like it had just been pulled from of the trash. One other thing that I had to get used to was the town being so macabre. I knew, of course, it was because these guys were Halloween creatures, but having to endure the fact that there was a guillotine in the middle of town square and the fact that Jack had an electric chair in his room was a little unsettling. I eventually found out that they just used the guillotine for cutting pumpkins and that the electric chair in Jack's room was just for decoration, though I did use it sometimes to recharge my batteries (as long as Jack was around, of course). Also, I had to get use to the slang of the town. Like whenever someone said, "That was horrible" when something good happened, they really meant that it was great (and I still have yet to perfect that).
After some time, though, people started to notice some similarities between me and Jack, and so did I: we were both brave, sympathetic, swift, and agile, although I had more of a ninja-type swiftness going on and Jack had a sort of ballerina-gracefulness, which meant that I was more awesome. And because of that, the people of the town began to treat me more kindly. Also, Jack and I had formed a kind of bond with each other. He became more than just an uncle; he became like a father to me. Since Geppetto kicked me out, I figured Jack was doing everything in his power to make sure that I received that love, which I am very grateful for. We also became something like brothers. I say this because we would sometimes get into arguments about silly things, whether it was me having the volume up too loud on the TV as I played my video games or the fact that I did some late night reading. (I still have the ole mischief-maker in me). We also would sometimes get into physical fights, but we would make up for them later.
It wasn't until my first Halloween that I had received the town's full acceptance. I decided to take up the role as the Possessed Puppet (wearing my old clothes which I dyed dark gray), and Jack had been teaching me how to scare properly. So by that time, I felt ready. After a riveting performance, everyone cheered for both me and Jack.