Havoc at Halloween
BG-music: General Mumble – The Stare Master
It was a day like every other for Yami. She was helping Chris practice his fighting moves while Martin still refused to talk to him. He just hoped that it would soon change, and she tried to help him whenever she could, but the older brother was impassible. After they had finished their training, she helped Aviva develop new features for the Tortuga's outer shell.
She was just explaining how she had managed to include the complete shifting of her body into her systems, when somebody suddenly knocked on the door. She instantly hid in her room, still uneasy in the presence of other people than the Kratts, while Aviva went to answer it. But there were just three children.
"Trick or treat!" they said in unison, holding out a bag.
"Aww, aren't you just cute? I really love your costumes." she said, before she went and got some sweets. The children thanked her and continued their quest for candy while Aviva wished them good luck and closed the door again.
Yami came out of her hiding place. "What was that?" she asked, incredibly confused about what she had just witnessed.
"You don't know about Halloween?" Yami shook her head, starting to get embarrassed. "Well, originally, it was a Christian celebration that was called 'all hallows eve', where the people tried to repel evil spirits by dressing up. Eventually, that original cause was forgotten by most, and now children wear scary costumes and go around asking for candy. I'm surprised you've never heard about it."
"But it sounds funny. What else do you do on this 'Halloween'?" she asked, intrigued by Aviva's explanation.
"Some people carve out pumpkins to make jack o' lanterns, others throw parties where they play games and tell creepy stories, there are also contests for the scariest costume. I think there's going to be one in town tonight. Would you like to participate?" Aviva offered.
Laughing, Yami waved her hand to decline. "No. I don't even have a costume, and I'm not really good at doing something in front of a crowd."
"We can't really do anything about that, but a cyborg-cat would still be really scary. I think you'd have a good chance to win the price!" the inventor thought, when suddenly, Chris came into the room.
"The contest? But I wanted to go there as a werewolf, and now you're going to ruin my show!" he pouted, but wasn't able to restraint his grin for a long time.
"No, you'll stay here. There's going to be a full moon tonight, and even if you defeated Stonebreaker, there could still be side effects we don't know about yet. I'm sorry." she replied.
"I know you wanted to take part in the contest, but there are just too many people you could hurt if you lost control." Aviva agreed, putting a hand on his shoulder. "But hey, perhaps we can celebrate here! Yami didn't know about Halloween until now, and this would be a great opportunity to introduce her to our traditions."
"That's a good idea, but how are we going to prepare something like that in such a short amount of time? The sun is going down in two hours." He looked on his timepiece.
"It's OK, guys, you don't have to do this for me." Yami tried to get that idea out of their heads, but as soon as Aviva's mind was set onto something, she wouldn't give up.
"We'll figure something out." the inventor said, already rushing around to get the others. After everybody, even Martin, had gathered, she told everybody what their task would be.
"Jimmy, you prepare the food. Yami and Koki, you take care of the decorations. Chris, I'll help you prepare your straps so they'll be ready on time. Martin?"
"Hm?"
"Can you try to get a pumpkin or two?"
He sighed, but nodded and left with a bit of money. Everybody else went to prepare: Jimmy looked through the recipe book his grandma had given him to find something adequate, Aviva had gone to get the technology she would need and Koki had managed to find some black, orange and white paper so they could start.
"The best motives are pumpkins, bats and ghosts, I'll get some markers so we can draw the faces in the end and string to hang them around the Tortuga. Do you need a pencil?" she asked, but Yami shook her head, showing her the pencil she now always carried with her. After she had joined the Kratts, she had been able to rediscover her affinity for drawing, and had designed some motives with which she would decorate her own room.
Koki left to get everything else they would need, while the cyborg prepared her first sheet of paper. 'Only three motives are a bit boring. Let's mix it up a little!'
"OK, found them. Sorry I took so lo –" She gasped in awe when she saw what her partner had created. Drawings with all kinds of different monsters were covering the table, and Yami had just started cutting them out with a pair of scissors.
"I started already, if you don't mind." she said innocently, while piercing the first figures to put them on the string. Koki didn't know what to say.
"These...these look amazing!" she whispered, after she finally found the ability to speak again. "And the colours are so strong, how did you do that?"
"Wax pens. They produce naturally strong colours, that's why I love using them. I also like pastel colours, but you wouldn't be able to see anything when these are hung high up." She continued sketching another monster's head. The computer genius just sat down and got another pair of scissors, before she worked without making a single sound.
An hour later, everything was ready. After Martin had managed to find the perhaps last two pumpkins in the entire area, Koki and Yami had carved them out and gave the rest to Jimmy so he could finish his recipes, and Yami had designed their faces. She was finally done with cutting them out, just when Aviva and Chris had finished with tying him up, but in a way where he would still be able to enjoy the party until he transformed. They just didn't know exactly how his mental state would be.
Half an hour after the sun had gone down, they decided to tell each other scary stories. Chris still hadn't shown signs of changing, but he wanted to keep the straps on just to be sure. Nobody else really had an idea about what to tell, so Jimmy decided to start. Soon, everyone was hooked, so much that they didn't notice the full moon showing in the night sky.
"...But when the girl wanted to go back towards her house, she noticed that something was different." The young man started to whisper, so everybody got closer to understand what he was saying. "The trees were darker, and there definitely was more plant life than before. But they weren't normal plants, they were fungi, of many different colours. She was scared, but something was attracting her towards the heart of the woods, something she just couldn't resist. Slowly, she made her way along the path, not noticing the mushrooms glowing stronger as she walked past them. Even if she had wanted to, she would have been unable to turn around. A voice was calling her, forcing her to make one step after the other..."
Suddenly, Chris felt the familiar pain announcing his transformation and he wanted to alert the others, but for some reason, he was unable to move or even speak.
"Then, she felt a presence. She didn't know if it was in front of her or inside her head, but she felt its call. Familiar, and yet new. Finally, she stepped out on a clearing, but all she saw was a big tree. Disappointed, she wanted to go back, but the path had disappeared!" Everyone gasped, not realizing that the werewolf was behind them. "So she went to take a closer look at the tree, and again, she felt the attraction, stronger than ever. As she went closer, the tree was suddenly rotting away extremely fast. Horrified, she tried to run away, but it was the tree that was calling her, calling for help. Unable to move, she could only watch as it extended one of its branches and grabbed her, pulling her towards its rotting stem. All of the fungi started closing in, first covering her arms, then her torso, her legs, her face, filling every single one of her orifices, eating away at her brain. But even though it was painful, she became one with the organism, her entire being was rotten to the core. She still wanders through the woods, looking for her next innocent victim to feed on."
Suddenly, a lightning bolt struck the Tortuga, causing the power to go out. Jimmy shrieked, freaked out by his own story and the sudden flash of light, but Yami instantly noticed something was wrong, so she looked towards the place where Chris should have been, only seeing his empty straps. She wanted to warn the others, but suddenly, a black blur rushed past her, towards the exit!
"Guys, quick! He's escaping!" she screamed, instantly running after him with Martin following closely behind.
"Why were the doors open?" Koki asked, grabbing her coat.
"I don't know, the systems probably crashed when lightning hit, causing the doors to open and the straps to unlock. I really have to fix that..." she explained, looking for a pair of other straps and a gun that fired anaesthetics in case he would fight back. Before they left, they told Jimmy to contact all the Wild Kratts Kids in the area and tell them to stay at home and advise everybody they knew to do the same, so people hopefully wouldn't get hurt.
BG-music: Sayonara Maxwell – Welcome to the Sister Location
Yami was running through the forest, following his tracks. Even though she had changed into her cheetah form, he was too fast for her to catch up to him. Then, she noticed that he was heading towards civilisation!
'Oh no, I absolutely have to stop him before he attacks anybody!' she thought, but there was something different about him than last time when she witnessed his forced transformation. His own mind still seemed to be strong, but his body wasn't responding.
Suddenly, she saw his shadow in front of an illuminated house. She instantly stopped, knowing that she couldn't run through the streets as a cheetah. But why didn't the people run away when they saw Chris?
'They probably think he's dressed up!' So, following Aviva's advice, she transformed into a cyborg-panther, changing her fur colour to be black. Like that, she was able to follow Chris without attracting too much attention. Staying in the shadows, she tried to stay close to him, but as long as there were people around she would be unable to capture him.
"Cool costume, dude!" She froze when she suddenly saw a group of teenagers walking towards him. "Did you make it yourself? The fur looks extremely realistic."
The werewolf had started growling, confused. He wanted to attack them, thirsting for flesh, but something was stopping him. So he just ran off, the young people all showing him a thumbs up.
'Weird.' she thought, hurrying to reach him again. Finally, she was able to catch up to him in an empty street and grabbed his shoulder. But when he turned around, she froze.
"Help me!" he whispered, his voice distorted and raspy, but his eyes were what had shocked her. They were neither his normal eyes, nor Stonebreaker's eyes, but a mixture of both, with a brown iris surrounded by yellow.
"Chris, can you understand me? Is Stonebreaker taking over?" she asked, simultaneously dragging him towards the edge of the town. He grabbed his head, unable to respond, so she tried to build up a mental connection. It was difficult, and she kept getting repelled, but then she was finally successful.
Stonebreaker still seemed to be trapped, so he wasn't doing anything, but it appeared that his original form, the wolf, was now fighting with Chris over the control of his body. But since they had both been merged together several times, no one was really able to claim victory. The wolf tried to act as it would in the wild, but Chris wanted to stay human, walking on two legs and stopping it from attacking anybody.
Suddenly, she was violently ripped out of her mental state when a car rushed past them, honking, allowing Chris to break free. He was clearly confused, but the wolf was stronger, forcing him down on four legs and running back into town.
"Where is he?" Martin asked, panting, once he had reached her location. Showing him the general direction, she ran after the werewolf, directly followed by his brother.
"Did Stonebreaker take over again?" Sweat started to form on his forehead, but when Yami shook her head, he let out a sigh of relief. Even though he refused to talk to Chris, he still cared for him, she could feel it.
"The evil Stonebreaker has been locked away, but right now, he's fighting with what you might call the 'original Stonebreaker', the wolf he's been for all these months. He isn't hostile, and he should transform back at the break of dawn, but who knows what he will do if he panics." she told him, while they were both running through the streets, scanning their environment.
"Dammit, he's fast!" Martin hissed. They had only been able to catch glimpses of him, and neither of them were able to fully activate because of all the people around. Even if it was Halloween, there were some limits to a costume. There were already multiple people showing her a thumbs up while they ran past them, and she already scolded herself for picking this form, but she couldn't go back.
"There he is!" her partner suddenly yelled. She followed his hand, finally spotting the grey wolf standing in the middle of a growing crowd. He was clearly confused about his situation, but Chris managed to stop him from moving.
"Well, it seems we have another contestant for our 'Best Halloween-costume of the year'-award! It's really impressive, how did you make it?" the host asked, while the crowd forced the wolf to step forward.
"Oh, no!" Martin whispered, while Yami tried to make her way towards the stage.
"Not much of a talker, huh? Come on, tell us your secret!" the tall man spoke into the microphone. The werewolf was now standing on the stage, unsure about what he should do. One part of him told him to run away and attack anyone who would oppose him, but the other part wanted him to stay where he was and try to act as casual as possible. But before he could make a decision, someone grabbed his arm.
"I'm really sorry, he doesn't like to talk in front of big crowds." Yami forced herself to say, and even though her mind was racing, she tried to stay calm.
"Wow! Are you a contestant, too? Because your costume is great! Original, yet very detailed. Would you mind to answer a few questions?"
"Err, actually, I'm just here to –"
"Great! So where did you get the idea?" If she had been able to, she would have been bathed in sweat. Her eyes darted around, looking for an exit, while she tried to think of something to say. But her mind was blank. Everybody was facing her, eagerly waiting for an answer.
Suddenly, she saw something behind the crowd. Martin had created a hologram and was typing out words for her.
'Jimmy – Video-game'
"W-well, I have that one friend, who's obsessed with video-games, and there are pl-plenty of animal cyborgs in so-some of them, so I-I thought: Why no try th-that?" Trying to control her stuttering, she saw Martin nod.
"Interesting. But more importantly, how did you make it?"
'Group effort'
"All of my – my friends helped me with this. It actually started out as an art project, b-but then, we loved that idea so much that we – we just kept working. Same thing with my friend –"
'Steve'
"Steve here. It kind of became a competition of who would make the – the best Halloween-costume."
'Really? Steve?' she thought to herself, but while she was nervous like that, mental connections were impossible to construct.
"Is that so? Anyway, auditions are now closed, proceed to voting! Everybody can vote three times, either for one contestant, or for multiple. Here are our contestants! First, Estelle, with her stunning witch costume. Then, little Robin, dressed as a river demon, and his sister, Lisa, the night owl. Finally, Steve the werewolf, and his friend the black jaguar cyborg..." He looked at her, question marks in his eyes.
"Stella. I'm Stella." she heard herself say. Martin hadn't told her anything, her mind had just created that name.
"The black jaguar cyborg Stella! You have seen them, time to vote."
A few minutes later, she was walking back to the Tortuga, one end of Chris' shackles in one hand and her new trophy in the other.
"Well done! I knew you could win." Aviva congratulated her, patting her shoulder. Martin had told them about their location right after she had joined Chris on stage, and they had put the shackles on him while everybody had cheered on Yami. Finally, Koki had rescued her before she suffered a nervous breakdown.
"Is Halloween always like this?" she had whispered, trying to shake off the people who tried to take pictures with her. Koki had shaken her head, while she tried to hide her smile.
The next morning, Chris walked out of his room, rubbing his arms. He had worn the shackles for the entire night to make sure he didn't run away again, but he had stayed calm.
"How are you feeling?" Jimmy asked, handing him a leftover piece of pie. Chris gratefully took it, along with the cup of coffee Aviva handed him.
"I'm feeling OK, still a bit groggy, but it's better than knowing that I wasn't in any control at all. At least I was able to stop myself from killing anybody. By the way, how do you feel?" He faced Yami who was sitting at the table. She looked up, still shaking a bit. She had guarded Chris' door for the entire night, but visions of the crowds had followed her, making it almost impossible to focus on the task at hand.
"I've definitely been better." But even though she still felt awful, she managed to smile.
That had really been a strange celebration.