Chapter 3.- Together we're invincible.

Part 1.- The most unexpected people are the best allies.

(October 31, 1990 [Local calendar] - 2037 Hours [Local time] - Mission clock of Kasius and Jack Skellington, and the Blue Team - Location: Outskirts of Doctor Finklestein's lab, Halloween Town, Holiday Worlds, surface of the Earth, Sol system)

Kasius was frantic, despite not showing it.
Probably the universe was in a great danger, especially considering what the Spartans had told to him about the alien alliance that called itself the Covenant. And if he was right, his town would be attacked by the Covenant in their quest for the Tesseract.
Therefore, the Pumpkin King had ordered his troops to prepare for battle, but he knew that despite all their Tesseract-powered weapons, that his soldiers were undead and that because of both reasons they had great chances of winning the battle, as the human who had introduced himself as John-117, had said, the Covenant had a mania for "glassing" the planets where they lost the battle on ground. And despite his dislike for humans, Kasius was not going to let anyone destroy Earth.
As they walked, one of the human females had suggested him to ask for help to the UNSC, as the Covenant would attack Earth anyway, but Kasius, being the proud king who he was, rejected the offer.
However, since Jack was much more reasonable, and knew when to be afraid, he accepted the offer behind his father's bnack. Although there was a problem, and it was that the communicators of the Spartans could not transmit nor receive any signals as long they were in the Holiday Worlds.
And while Kelly was fast, she could not avoid the many ghosts that were escorting them to Dr. Finklestein's lab, so they had to find a way to send a distress beacon through the portal so the UNSC could get ready for the attack, before it was too late.
Once the undead and the humans arrived at the entrance of the weird doctor's home, Kasius opened the door and gestured the Spartans and his son to follow him. After the children walked inside, the king turned to his men and said:
- I want you to prepare all the defenses, send a message to the other Holiday Leaders, and tell Odin, Cosmic Blast and the rest of the Watch; if the Covenant is after the Stones, many worlds are in danger. It is imperative to make sure they don't get any. And also, I want some of you to watch this door, no other than the doctor or me can get out of here for no reason.
The ghosts nodded, most hurried away while the rest stood outside the building, then Kasius entered Dr. Finklestein's home and closed the door, then he gestured the children to stay where they were.
Minutes later, Jack, John, Kelly, Fred, Linda and Sam were waiting at the foot of the ramp that lead to the lab, while Kasius was inside the lab with Dr. Finklestein, showing him the sword that Jack had taken from the invader, and he showed him its similarities with an old sword with a blue light blade and his own sword. The children had received specific orders not to go anywhere, and to make them obey, Kasius summoned six skeletons to stop the children from going up the ramp, along with the ghosts guarding the door of the building. And although the Spartans and Jack followed the Pumpkin King's orders, that just made them feel more desperate, as the time to contact the UNSC was running out.
- This is frustrating... - Kelly sighed. - When will we jump into action?!
- Be patient, Kelly, or you might regret your words. - John said calmly.
- John's right. - Jack said. - What should concern us now is call the uniting notions something.
- United Nations Space Command. - Sam noted.
- Don'cha think we shouldn't talk 'bout contacting the UNSC in front of them? - Linda asked, as she gestured at the skeletons.
- Nah, they only listen if you address them directly, or if they are ordered to spy on someone. Anyway... are you sure your UNSC can beat the Covenant?
Before any of the Spartans could utter a word, a series of barks was heard, then a ghostly canine phased through the wall of the lab and barked again happily as he floated closer to Jack, being petted by the prince.
- Hello, Zero. - Jack said with a smile. - Can you do us a favor?
Zero barked in affirmation and Jack turned to John.
- John, give me your communicator. - Jack said.
- What are you trying to do? - John said.
- I'll ask my friend Sally to help us, she's up there, Zero can go to her and give the communicator.
- We can't just trust anyone... - Kelly blurted before Jack glared at her.
- I don't care. - The young prince muttered. - Either you trust my friend, or we lose the Earth, the Holiday Worlds and the Tesseract to the Covenant.
- Ok, even if we agree to trust your friend, we can't explain her everything, nor how to contact the UNSC, not to mention I don't think Hood and his men will trust her. - Sam said.
- I'm not good for electronics and stuff, but I think the lab and its contents create enough waves to make my plan work.
Kelly, Linda, Fred and Sam looked at their squad leader, who just sighed and closed his eyes and then he took off his ear com and gave it to Jack. The skeleton grabbed it, inspected a second and activated it, causing the other Spartans to hear some static on their communicators. Jack tapped the microphone a couple times and whispered: "Can you hear me?" After the Spartans nodded, the skeleton handed John's communicator and his sword to Zero.
- Now, go with Sally and give her these things, then take her to the portal and wait for my instructions, okay? The fate of the Earth, and probably of the universe, hangs in the balance, just you and Sally can save us.
Zero smiled and floated swiftly to Sally's room, all right before the eye sockets of the Pumpkin King's skeleton soldiers.
Moments later, a young rag doll was looking out the window, feeling a massive fear, because she could see the Halloween army mobilizing from the cemetery to the town. Dr. Finklestein's creation tried to think of what had caused that, thinking maybe one of the other Holiday Leaders had declared war against Halloween, or perhaps the equestrians had returned, or perhaps the humans had found them.
All her theories made her knees tremble violently as she had grown up listening horrible things about the wars that were fought, especially those against Equestria and Discord, so she was scared to death... Or she would be if she wasn't an undead.
And as she kept spying on the Halloween soldiers through the huge window in her room, she heard a couple of barks coming from the door. The girl was taken aback when she heard them, so she walked to the door of her room and opened it, letting out a yelp when she saw Zero in front of her, with some sort of cylinder and an object with a small button, in his muzzle. The canine ghost barked a couple of times, as if he tried to incite to take the items from his snout. The ragdoll hesitantly took the cylinder and the object, then she uttered a faint yelp of surprise when the device with the button released some static noise.
- Sal... can... hear... me? - Said a voice for the device.
Sally put the cylindrical object on his bed and pressed the little button on the other device, then she asked:
- W-who is it...?
- Sally... Put... thing... ear... - The voice answered again.
- What?
- Put the thing in your ear...
- Jack, is that you? What is this? What's going on? - Asked the ragdoll, ignoring her friend.
- I'll explain it later, right now I need you to do me a huge favor.
- Sure... I'll do whatever you ask me...
- Excellent... Look, I'll make this simple, there is an alien race on its way and we need to alert the army of human organization called UNSC...
Sally froze when she heard her friend.
- ... And much as I hate myself for putting you in danger... I'm afraid you're the only one who can go contact them.
Sally wanted to gulp hard, but even her throat was frozen due to her friend's revelation. The ragdoll wanted to help because she felt more than friendship for the prince (who ignored that fact), but the prospect of leaving when an alien race was on the way, made her subconscious beg her to put an end to her friendship with Jack and stay inside, where she had a chance to survive.
Finally, just because her heart overwhelmed her mind, Sally swallowed her fear and turned the com on again.
- W-what do I have to do...? - Sally asked.
- Get out of the lab and go to the Hinterlands, then follow Zero, I ordered him to take you to a portal to the human world, but don't go through it yet, wait until my new friends tell you what to do to contact the UNSC, please. Oh, and don't forget to take my sword, that will identify you as an emissary of the royal family, so no one in town will attack you or anyone with you. - Jack explained.
- U-understood, Jack...
- And by the way, no matter what anyone else says, not only you're the bravest person in town, but you're a hero.
Sally smiled at the young prince's kind words, which gave her an extra boost of confidence. The girl quickly grabbed all her sheets and clothes, tied them together other and formed a rope. The ragdoll tied one end to her closet, opened the window and threw the other end of the improvised rope through it.
Seeing that most likely she would have to sew her legs after falling out the window, because the rope was not very long nor very strong, she took a spool of thread and put it in her pocket, as she fixed a needle right above her ear to keep it secured. Finally, Sally grabbed Jack's sword, put it in her mouth and began climbing down the rope, praying for it to resist long enough to let her reach the end, and for no one to notice she was out during the curfew.
Lucky for her though, everyone seemed too busy planning the defense of the town, but to her misfortune, right when she was about to reach the last part of the makeshift rope, it got loose and made Sally hit the ground with a thud, breaking the threads that kept her left leg together and making her drop Jack's sword. The girl sighed and took her needle and thread to repair the damage she had suffered.
Meanwhile, Zero floated down to Sally, who quickly re-sew her leg together. After a few minutes, the ragdoll put the needle back under her hair, grabbed her friend's sword and climbed up the wall that separated her creator's house from the cemetery, hoping to fulfill the favor for his friend without having to die.

(Ninth Age of Reclamation [Covenant calendar] - 2050 Hours - Thel 'Vadamee's mission clock - Location: Unknown point of Death Valley, USA, surface of the Earth, Sol system)

Several minutes after escaping from his earthling captors and the strange world in which they had fought, the young Sangheili felt like a total failure.
Five humans and a strange creature had subdued and captured him, and what was worse was that they were just as young or even younger than himself.
And because of those same reasons, 'Vadamee hesitated to contact the Arbiter.
He wanted to think of a way to steal the Tesseract from the strange, thin creature, before the Arbiter or any of the Ship or Field Masters found about his huge failure.
While 'Vadamee kept thinking, some beeps snapped him out of concentration and made him feel quite uneasy. His com was ringing, and once he answered, he would have to confront the wrath of Ripa 'Moramee for his failure Knowing that things would only get worse if he prolonged his punishment, Thel 'Vadamee grabbed the communicator from his hip and activated it, hearing grunts and whispers in the background noise.
- "I'm surprised you're still alive, child, if you're 'Vadamee and not the human who killed him." - Said 'Moramee.
- "I'm still alive, Arbiter, but I'm afraid I failed. Despite locating the Tesseract, its owner and a group of Demons managed to defeat me, but I escaped..." - Sighed 'Vadamee.
- "No matter, if really you located the Tesseract, the fleet will arrive soon to destroy the planet and the humans, as well as anyone who stands in our way."
When the Arbiter ended the transmission, 'Vadamee was taken aback, to say the least. 'Moramee was a warrior who did not tolerate failure, he had seen him kill others much less than his failure, so being so condescending with him was a very strange behavior.
The young Sangheili put his communicator back in his hip and looked at the sky, thinking about what 'Moramee was up to, and why he did not even sound upset when he informed him of his failure.