I own nothing except a few characters and the plot.
STAR WARS REBELS
The New Spectres
Halloween III: Season of Caleb
PHILADELPHIA - 2030
"When are we doing the shopping for Halloween?" Justin asked Lucy and Darius one day over dinner as he stopped the bottle of ketchup from floating across the table.
"Barring any ships landing in places that they shouldn't or dead bodies with blaster wounds, it can be done tomorrow." Darius replied.
"What's wrong with you doing it?" Lucy asked him.
"I'm giving two tests and I have Detention Duty if anyone gets assigned one."
"I don't think we can have Caleb in the same car as a ton of candy." Justin said reminding Lucy about how much Caleb seemed to be eating lately.
"Provided that someone's sister-in-law didn't buy every piece of candy in the city already." Darius muttered as he put more food on Caleb's plate.
"I think we need to start putting more in his lunches." Lucy said ignoring Darius' sarcastic remark about Ty's sister-in-law.
"I think somebody at that school needs a chat with a couple of Death Troopers and or Major Schuyler. They seem to save all their complaints about him for me. Mrs. Archer said they don't go any further then Ed Dobbs. Caleb is the only known Force-Sensitive student in the school and given what they know about how powerful Master Windu had been. He's not making a big deal out of the fourth-grader who threw food at Caleb and ended up on the receiving end of something involving The Force and a trash can. I think that kid got suspended for throwing food." Justin told them.
"That's policy starting at Grade 3. At the High School level, some of that stuff can trigger a police report and possibly a transfer to Boot Camp or other referrals as needed." Darius explained.
"Speaking of things in your school. How is she?" Lucy asked him referring to Keisha Banks.
"She's doing well. Victim's Services is helping her and Jeremie with everything they need. Her mother's parental rights were terminated. What have you heard on your end?"
"I'll tell you when Caleb's not around. Back to Halloween, Justin's picking up Caleb tomorrow so he can take Caleb costume shopping and Darius can get the candy."
"Then we have to hide it from somebody."
"Like you always eating at Midnight." Justin told Darius.
"Better to eat then come stumbling in drunk without your car." Darius shot back.
"That happened once and better to leave my car with Mom and Dad then to have to get it from an impound lot somewhere in Jersey after being pulled over on the Turnpike. Once the Jersey Troopers release me from whatever drunk tank they put me in."
"If Caleb wasn't here, I'd mention what Chris said he supposedly found in your car that he left in New York with its rightful owner." Finally, Lucy had enough of the bickering and ordered R9-D2 to shock both Darius and Justin.
"You two wanna find yourselves going on an extended trip to Southern Russia?" She asked them ending the brewing argument.
"R9 fry Daddy and Uncle Justin." Caleb said amused.
"Don't give R9 any ideas." Darius told Caleb wondering how much of Chopper's personality R9 had inherited from the time the two droids had spent together before the final battle against the First Order and Darth Sidious. According to Lucy, Chopper had been with Hera Syndulla and Firmus Piett when the three slammed the Naberrie head-on into the First Order's massive Dreadnought. The battle as a whole had been hard on everyone, but more so for him, Josh, and Lucy. Luckily, The Force had been with them and gave them a reason to go on. Darius was also willing to admit that Tevin's massive fleet had turned the battle in their favor too.
The next afternoon, Justin picked Caleb up from school and was stopped by Mrs. Archer.
"There's a note about the school's Halloween Party in his backpack. I was wondering if he'd have someone from his family here for that." She said.
"It would either be his mom or me. I'm sure you know Darius wouldn't be able to make it. I better read this now since I'm the one doing the costume shopping with him." Justin told her and opened Caleb's backpack to look for the note. He finally found it along with a couple of art projects that were being sent home and another note from Ed Dobbs about the recent incident with the older student at Lunch.
"I know I told you about what happened at Lunch with that other kid, but Ed insisted on sending home an official note about it since it involved school bullying."
"Surprised it wasn't mailed."
"He sent a copy to your sister's office too."
"No weapons?" Justin asked her.
"SOP. Also, no fake blood. One kid brings a fake weapon in or wears some fake blood and some parent with a few screws loose insists on filing a police or child welfare report. Policy is not to report these things with the Kindergarten classes and I'm sure any parent who does make a stink about Caleb wearing a little fake blood will get a very unwanted visit from your sister's troops like I expect the kid in this lunchroom thing will."
"We'll find something that won't offend the nutjobs." Justin said as he led Caleb to his car. After some driving, they arrived at a store that sold all sorts of Halloween costumes and other decorations. While Caleb looked at costumes, Justin read and replied to a text message from Junior about a party he was inviting Justin to in New York following the yearly Halloween Parade in Greenwich Village. Justin told Junior that he wasn't sure he would be able to make it, due to the schedules of Lucy and Darius. He also mentioned that Chris might have found something of Junior's in his car when Chris brought it down from New York. Eventually, Caleb appeared from wherever he had gone with a Ghostface costume.
"Where did you find this?" Justin asked Caleb who led him to the part of the store where the kids costumes were kept. After Justin found his own costume and paid for everything, the two returned home where Darius was making dinner.
"Hey, there's a note about his school's Halloween thing in his bag and a letter from Ed Dobbs about that incident Caleb was involved in at Lunch last week."
"I was expecting that." Darius said.
"He faxed it to Lucy's office too."
"Expected that too. What are you doing on Halloween?"
"I don't know yet. Why?"
"Somebody has to take Caleb trick-or-treating and somebody has to be here to hand out candy. Lucy doesn't know what her schedule will look like that day. My guess is that Eric will be dealing with the end result of creepy clowns in storm drains and other things that go bump on Halloween."
"I'll tell Junior I can't make the party. I think he wanted me to come, but I don't feel like riding the Halloween Drunk Local home from New York or risking a DUI from the Jersey State Troopers." Justin told Darius and began texting Junior.
Halloween soon arrived and the fun began the night before as it always did. Eric had been pulled away from whatever he was doing at least four times to deal with assorted mischief. Lucy peeked into his office to find him filling out a report on the worst of the vandalism. Some kids had smashed out the windows of an empty storefront in the Frankford section of the city.
"Lemme guess, kids." She said.
"Teenagers. Captain Dobbs is talking to their parents to decide if this was inspired by the spirit of the night and will be a one time thing or if it's part of an ongoing problem that she will be more then happy to correct." He told her.
"I'm hoping for a quiet Halloween." Ty said as he joined them.
"If last night was any indication. I doubt it will be. I've got Darius taking Caleb out tonight and Justin handing out candy so I can do my own trick-or-treating. I'll need a squad for that and I can get the map off my own computer."
"Does she do this every year?" Eric asked Ty.
"I've been wanting to, but this is the first year that I can." Lucy replied.
"Philadelphia SVU and other agencies do the same operation all over the city. Usually get a good number of creeps off the street on parole or probation violations for decorating, answering the door, or going out in a costume. When my girls were younger, I did the exact same thing while they went out with my wife. You would not believe some of the excuses I've heard. The most common one is that they were living with somebody who insisted on decorating the house and giving out candy. I still arrested them. The best part is when Halloween falls on a Friday or Saturday and they have to spend a couple of days in jail before they see a Judge." Ty explained to Eric.
"We never did that at RSB as far as I know, but I was too busy chasing smugglers all over the place to really know. Then again, we never did the holidays at RSB to begin with. I decorated my area there one year and made it look nice like I'm doing here. Hochster tore it all down, screamed at me, and threatened to send me to the Stormtrooper Corps. I still wonder what he said or did that set Colonel McKnight off into filing for that court-martial. Luckily, I was leaving the next day to go chase after this guy Azmorigan who was looting shipwrecks of anything that could be re-sold at 100% markup. If nothing else, the looting of shipwrecks and the warehouse full of loot he had on Garel got him sent to USP Beaumont for 15 years. I was told by Hondo Ohnaka that the Houston Administration made the Galactic Underworld fear the American Legal System." Eric told them as a pair of Stormtroopers hauled a teenager into the office followed by Schultz who handed Ty a paper.
"General, they just brought him in."
"Who and what?" Lucy asked.
"Teenager caught skipping school to throw eggs at his Vice-Principal's house." Ty replied.
"Looks like someone's going to Boot Camp." Eric said.
"Yep. I'll fax this over to Dobbs and let her know that she can come get him."
"Who was the Vice-Principal?" Lucy asked.
"Our good friend Greg Washington. If Darius had dealings with this kid, I'll find out." Ty told them and left for his office. Lucy looked at Eric and chuckled.
Justin attended the Halloween event at Caleb's school and then took Caleb home after school because it made sense. Darius was home when they got in.
"I'm making dinner so we can go get Caleb his candy and stuff after he eats." Darius said.
"Chris reminded me that today is Josh's birthday."
"I sent him a message already. Lucy's doing what she described as a Creep Crawl tonight, so you have to give out the candy."
"Junior said he was blowing off the party he wanted to drag me to anyway. He said he might come down here instead."
"Should I feed him too or is he eating on the road?" Darius asked Justin as Caleb used The Force to move the bowl of candy towards him.
"If he shows up, it'll be after dinner." Justin replied as Darius grabbed the floating bowl of candy and put it back on the counter.
"Caleb, we're going to get your candy later." Darius told his son. After the three ate dinner, Darius took Caleb out to collect candy while Justin stayed behind. Justin changed into his own costume since he wasn't sure how many people to expect. As Darius and Caleb made their way around the neighborhood, they spotted Lucy who was doing her own version of trick-or-treat.
"Hi Mommy." Caleb said.
"Hey." Lucy replied.
"How much did you collect?" Darius asked her.
"Three, so far. I'll tell you the total when I get home tonight." Lucy told Darius and rubbed the top of Caleb's hood before going back to her work. Darius took Caleb onto the next house with a light on. Caleb rang the doorbell and the door was answered by a man in a clown costume.
"Trick-or-treat." Caleb said while Darius used The Force to read the man's mind.
"Here you go." The man replied and put a box of crayons in Caleb's bucket.
"Thank you." Caleb told the man and left followed by Darius. They went to the next lit house and repeated the process continuing until they reached the end of the block. A couple of hours later, Caleb's bucket was overflowing and Darius had emptyed it into a bag he had brought with him just in case. They also spotted Lucy again. This time, she was watching two Stormtroopers load a Frankenstein Monster into a police van and Darius now understood what she was talking about earlier. As it started to get late, Darius took Caleb home where he found that Junior had come down to visit Justin and fallen asleep on the couch.
"He stays the night, it's $50 Room & Board plus liquor and taxes." Darius told Justin.
"What taxes?" Justin asked.
"Hotel Tax. Sales Tax on the liquor." Darius replied as Caleb jumped on Junior and woke him up.
"Really Caleb?" Junior asked.
"You owe me $100 if you're staying the night." Darius told him.
"You just said it was $50." Justin protested as Lucy walked in followed by R9-D2.
"What's $50?" She asked.
"If Junior spends the night here. Plus liquor and taxes." Darius replied.
"Then he said it was $100." Justin added.
"I rounded it off." Darius said as Lucy crossed her arms.
"I don't care, it's still cheaper then a DUI in Jersey." Junior told them all.
"Darius, get Caleb cleaned up and into bed." Lucy said.
"Right, Caleb off him." Darius called and took Caleb upstairs while Lucy dealt with Justin and Junior. An hour later, she joined Darius in bed.
"Ten people. I'll find out how many Ty and Eric got tomorrow. I wish I knew what went on with those two sometimes. All I have is what Chris and Mitch Piett are saying." She said.
"Mace said to let it go. They'll tell us when they're ready." Darius told her. Lucy decided that it wasn't worth qrguing with the Jedi Spirit and she certainly couldn't have R9 shock it like she could with Darius and Justin when they started arguing.
"Did he have fun?" Lucy asked Darius.
"Yeah. Got a lot too. I had to dump his bucket into my bag three times." Darius replied.
"You can check it when you have your Midnight Snack."
"There's a box of crayons in there and few other non-candy things."
"Good. I'd check it at the office tomorrow, but I think I'll be busy processing arrests." Lucy told him as she drifted off to sleep. Darius stayed awake for a few minutes seeing what he missed from New York before he fell asleep too waking up around Midnight as he usually did. He then went through Caleb's loot as Mace appeared.
"That's not yours." Mace said.
"I have to make sure it's safe for him to eat. I doubt he'll notice if a few pieces go missing anyway. I'll just tell him it was stuff I know he won't like."
"His frequent use of The Force and what he's able to do with it is very concerning."
"The trash can in school thing was self-defense from a bully and from what I was told, that kid had it coming."
"I meant the constant moving of food."
"We're working on adjusting his diet." Darius said as Mace disappeared. After eating, he went back to bed only to find Lucy awake.
"I forgot to tell you, one of your students got picked up by our troops for egging Greg Washington's house." She said.
"I know, I have Marcus in my Homeroom. I heard him talking about it and told he would go to Boot Camp if he did it. Had to find out the hard way. He's upset because he got ISS for running Blackjack for stakes in the Cafeteria." Darius told her.
"Ty got 6 creeps and Eric got 3. An RSB crew got a guy driving around Bristol in a cargo van that said "Candy" on it. They pulled him over, ran his name, and arrested on a parole violation. Most child abductors drive around in cargo vans with signs like "Candy" or "Puppies" on them. The guy's screaming at Eric because he was confronted by Death Troopers who pointed their blasters at him and a nasty German man. who insisted that he had the right to search the van as per Ty."
This chapter was titled after Halloween III and like that movie does not have an appearance by Michael Myers creeping down the stairs while the teenage Spectres are in his kitchen only to end up with their weapons pointed at him after R9-D2 throws a fit.
