Chapter Three: Bad Moon Rising

Unikitty bounded over as soon as she saw Emmet, Lucy, and Benny arrive, nearly bowling the spaceman over. "Your tactics didn't work either, did they?" she ventured, and Benny pouted.

"No…"

"Tactics?" Emmet asked, giving the pair a curious look.

"I have a really bad feeling about them going on this trip," Unikitty admitted. "We tried convincing the Cops and Busy to just stay and go to the party, but they wouldn't hear anything of it." She sighed. "I just hope they'll be okay…"

"Why? Is something wrong?"

"It's Halloween night."

Emmet simply stared at her. "What's so bad about Halloween night? It's just parties and spooky decorations and costumes and little kids getting candy."

Unikitty rolled her eyes. "That's how highly commercialized it's become, but that's not what it is." She sat, curling her tail around herself. "You're probably too young to remember, and I'm not sure Bricksburg ever was all that much affected by it anyway, but Halloween is the one night of the year when the spirits of the dead can return to the realm of the living, and must be appeased before they go back. In most cases, it's just family members coming to see that they haven't been forgotten…"

"But?" Emmet prompted.

"But," Lucy picked up, "Sirius and Cary made a lot of enemies over the past decade. I know Bad Cop tried to prevent as many deaths as possible in the fights they often got into, but he wasn't always successful." Unikitty nodded solemnly.

"Something Busy did during his reign kept them from being able to come back. I think the Kragle might have actually had something to do with that. But since the two of you destroyed it, that gate is open again."

Emmet shivered and scooted closer to Lucy. "That's… That's actually real? It's not just a scary story you're telling to freak me out?"

"I wish it was," Unikitty sighed. "But no, it's all true. And I'm scared they'll get caught up in someone's plan for revenge."

"I think they'll be okay," Benny said. "They're more than capable of handling themselves. I'll just really miss B," he pouted. "But he made me promise I would try to have fun at the party tonight. So why don't we set the solemnity aside for a while and at least go say hi to Dick?"

"Let's!" Emmet agreed, eager to move on to less unsettling topics.

The boy in question was thrilled to death to see them when they stepped through the doors. "You're here!" he cheered, rushing forward to hug them. Lucy smiled as she returned the embrace.

"Of course we're here, we said we'd be, didn't we?"

"Is that the Monster Mash I'm hearing?" Benny snickered.

"Yeah, it's already started! My friends from the orphanage came kinda early so Grandpa figured we'd go ahead! Come on, I want you to meet everyone!"

They'd popped open the top as soon as the sun had gone down enough so as not to bake them, and Sirius had enjoyed the feeling of the wind for a while, but now, as it was getting dark and they still hadn't reached their destination, he was starting to get obnoxious. Bad Cop had to agree with his whining; he couldn't remember it being such a long drive either. The fatigue was starting to get to him.

"Should've just taken your flying car," Sirius grumbled.

"You're the one who wanted to 'arrive in style', Sir." He paused to yawn widely, and Sirius glanced over at him, surprised.

"Want me to drive?"

"When was the last time you drove anywhere?"

"Geez, fine, just thought I'd offer." He folded his arms across his chest, starting to settle into a good sulk, when something caught his eye. "Oh hey, look! There's a hotel right there! Let's stop for the night. We should be close enough we can make it if we leave early in the morning, right?"

Bad Cop looked over to where he pointed. Sure enough, there was a bright neon sign advertising vacancy. He opened his mouth to answer, but was cut off as his brothers weighed in.

I'm not so sure about this, Cary, that's convenient to the point of suspicion. Besides, I thought the only hotel on this road was abandoned years ago?

Now who's the paranoid one?

It's not paranoia-

GuYs! Keelan nearly shrieked them, and seemed to be done with words, as all he could manage was to shove a strong feeling of NOPE at them. That, more than Good Cop's protests, gave Bad Cop pause. Keelan was very clearly freaked out by something, even if he couldn't articulate just what it was.

"I'm not so sure about this, Sir," he finally spoke. "Last Alastar and I checked, this hotel was supposed to have been abandoned, and something about it is freaking Keelan out pretty badly. Maybe we should just keep going."

Sirius rolled his eyes. "Well it's very obviously not abandoned now. It looks pretty well kept to me, and besides, you look ready to pass out as it is." Bad Cop sighed and pulled into the gravel parking lot. "I think you guys have been listening to Unikitty too much, she's got you all worked up over this. It's just a night like any other, everything will be fine." Sirius let himself out when they stopped and headed inside to get them checked in, and Bad Cop went to retrieve their suitcases. The weight of the iron crowbar tucked safely inside their own was reassuring.

He stepped inside to find Sirius speaking with the receptionist. "Certainly, sir," the young man was saying. "We should still have several rooms available. Do you have a preference?" Sirius glanced back to Bad Cop, who simply shrugged in response.

"I think we'll be fine with one room, as long as it has separate beds," Sirius answered.

"Alright. Your room will be three-A, right down that hall," he gestured in the direction of the room, "and here's your key. You guys have a good night."

"If I can lay down before I fall down, it'll be an excellent night," Bad Cop grumbled, fighting back another yawn. Sirius snickered and made his way down the hall, opening the door.

"Oh, not bad. Looks clean, at least. Décor could use some updating though, I think."

"Sir, quit blocking the doorway." He rolled his eyes and stepped inside, getting out of the cop's way.

"I'm not really tired yet, so I think I'm going to walk around for bit. I'll be back at some point." Bad Cop grunted in acknowledgement as he dropped their luggage on the floor, then himself on the bed. He waved goodbye with one hand as he fished his phone out of his pocket with the other, bringing up Benny's number and barely paying any attention as the door clicked shut. He hit 'dial' and waited, but didn't hear ringing. Frowning, he glanced back at his phone. No signal.

"Figures," he sighed. He'd go try to hunt for a signal in a bit, for now, he just really wanted to close his eyes…

Sirius hadn't been lying when he'd said he was still too wired to sleep. He'd dozed several times during the drive, lulled by the heat and monotony of the desert. So now he wandered around the hotel, trying to walk off his energy, maybe talk with the other hotel guests. There was a surprising amount of people staying there, he realized, in the middle of nowhere. Oddly, he couldn't really recall seeing any other vehicles in the parking lot…

While he was distracted puzzling that one out, he bumped into someone considerably smaller than himself, knocking them over. He paused, blinking down at the young woman he'd just sent crashing to the floor. "Oh my goodness I am so sorry, I wasn't paying attention! I didn't hurt you, did I?" he asked as he extended a hand to help her up. She ignored his offered hand and pushed herself to her feet, brushing off her dress. Sirius slowly pulled his hand back, biting his lip at the blatant rejection. Had he offended her?

"I'm fine," she finally said after a moment. "It was only an accident, after all." She finally gave him a proper look, eyes widening in recognition. "You're President Business, aren't you?"

He relaxed, offering her a smile. "That's right."

"My name's Tiffany," she introduced, offering her hand this time. He took it, giving it a firm shake. "What brings you out this way?"

"We're on our way to Rookburn to make nice. But the drive's taking longer than we expected, so we stopped for the night."

"We?"

"Oh, the Cops and myself. They insisted on coming along, thought it would be a bad idea for me to go alone, I suppose. What about you?"

"Same thing, actually! I'm traveling with my troupe, we thought it would be a nice idea to throw them a surprise performance."

"So that's why there's so many people here tonight. You're an actress?"

"Of a sort," she grinned at him.

"Theatre?"

"Circus, actually."