Preface: Hello, everyone! Happy Halloween (if you celebrate it)! This story is just a little bonus I came up with on the spot one day, since I thought it would be nice to do a proper Halloween special. For the record, this story is set between Minecraft Maniacs: The Mini-game Tournament and Light and Dark, and doesn't have any bearing on the overall storyline. With all that said, let's get started!
Raid on Halloween
[Character Selected: Danny]
[Current World: Minecraftia]
[Current Location: Public World, Maniacs' House]
[BGM: C418 - Danny]
Halloween. The day kids of all ages look forward to. The opportunity to dress up as your favorite thing or character, scary or not, and get free candy. But while such a thing is normal when you're, I dunno, six or seven, when you're in high school, some people might consider it…I dunno, strange.
Luckily, the last few years I went trick-or-treating in the real world, I didn't get any weird looks or teases, but probably because I took my dog with me. So why should doing it that way in Minecraft be any different? And that's how I found myself in my public world that afternoon on Halloween, offering to take the rabborgs trick-or-treating with Kevin. I figured having some "little kids" so-to-speak would make me seem less weird.
"You almost ready, Danny?" Kevin called as I changed into my Halloween skin. "Spawny's itching to go!"
"Almost…" I said. Then I stepped out of the closet and held my arms out, presenting my costume. Slicked-back hair, a beige sweater-vest with a tie underneath, and big black glasses. "Ta-da!" I said. "I'm Rivers Cuomo!"
"Oh, right, still on that Weezer kick, I see," said Kevin, nodding.
"I wouldn't call it so much of a kick as much as an obsession," I admitted, rubbing the back of my head. "Though now I kinda wish I dressed as Marty to go with your Doc costume."
Kevin looked down at his costume of Doctor Emmet Brown. Crazy hair, lab coat, tacky Hawaiian shirt, and a clock around his neck, all over his regular gangerman skin. "Well, it's not too late to change!"
"Mmm…nah, I'm good," I said, shrugging. "Besides, at least I pair up with Pork Chop!" The piglet ran in, dressed in the deep black hair and leather jacket of Billie Joe Armstrong. "We're 90s band frontmen!"
Just then, Spawny and Spawnette ran in, dressed in their costumes. "(Roar!)" cried Spawny, proudly showing his vampire costume. "(Stay away from my sharp teeth!)"
"(And my magic wand,)" said Spawnette, debuting her witch costume. "(Or else, I shall transform you into a hideous beast!)"
"Don't worry, I'll be sure to be careful, young enchantress," I said, playing along. "So, is Liam coming with us?"
"Nah, he's gonna hang back and fight off those zombies that spawn with pumpkins on their heads," said Kevin. "He says by the time he's done, we'll have enough pumpkin pie to last us until New Year's."
I chuckled. "Well, I'll stick with the turkey at Thanksgiving, thank you very much!" With that, I helped Spawny and Spawnette grab the shulker boxes they were going to use, grabbed my own, and then left the house for an in-game trick-or-treat session.
"So, are you sure the villagers and other players won't laugh at you?" said Kevin.
I shook my head. "Nah, they haven't for the past two years," I insisted. "Although," I then added, less sure, "I'm nervous about what the illagers might think…
"(Ooo…I hope we don't get illagers,)" said Spawny. "(Those pumpkin-wearing skeletons are scary enough!)"
"Oh, please, I doubt a pillager patrol will spawn in a place like this," said Kevin. "Plus, there's tons of torches all around!"
"Mmm, alright," I said. "But if we get attacked at some point tonight, you owe me some of your Thanksgiving dinner!"
"Alright, alright, deal!" said Kevin. We reached the fountain where the path was divided. "Let's start with Hrrm Road. They always give the good stuff."
[BGM: Gareth Coker - Happy Halloween (Halloween)]
We walked up to the first house and knocked on the door. A villager wearing the hat of a Pokemon trainer answered the door. "(Trick-or-treat!)" cried the rabborgs, holding out their shulker boxes.
"Aw, a vampire and a witch," said the villager, adored. He gave Spawny a golden apple and Spawnette a cookie. I then walked up to the door. "Oh! I love Weezer! Have an emerald!"
I watched as the jewel flew into my shulker box. "Whoa! I was not expecting that to happen!" I said, delighted. "Thank you!"
"Great Scott, you might have a bit of luck after all!" said Kevin, nodding. "But I wouldn't expect every single villager here to be Weezer fans."
"You're right," I said, snapping my invisible fingers. I bent down to Pork Chop. "Think you can scope out the other Weezer fans out here, boy?" I asked. The piglet nodded and gave a good whiff of my costume. Then he started sniffing the ground, looking for more villagers who liked the nerdiest 90s band of all time.
"You go ahead with him, I'll stay with the rabborgs," said Kevin. I waved and then left to go scout out the other houses. Unfortunately, there were only a few other villagers who liked Weezer, but luckily there were also a few Green Day fans who gave me stuff for Pork Chop's costume, and a few more who just gave me stuff out of kindness. Lots of cool villager costumes - creepers, crewmates, Sailor Moon, Testificate Man…my favorite was probably the one who looked like some cross between Minecraft Steve and Blue's Clues Steve. And the loot I got was just as impressive as the costumes - diamonds, gold, netherite, enchanted books, cake, bread, even emeralds!
[BGM: End]
After I hit all of the houses, I met back up with Kevin at the fountain. Spawny and Spawnette were excitedly diving through their loot. "Lots of good houses, I suppose?" I asked.
"Precisely!" said Kevin. "They gave jewels, sweets, books…all the good stuff!"
"(The costumes were lovely as well!)" said Spawnette. "(Except for one dressed up as a strange red creature. I was confused.)"
"So, wanna hit the other end of town before we head in?" asked Kevin. "I know you wanted to go trick-or-treating in real life."
I checked the time. About 5:30. "Mmm…why not? I've got time." But just as I turned to start seeing if the players would like my costume…an arrow came whizzing out of nowhere. It just barely dodged us and landed smack-dab into the fountain. "Uh-oh…"
We all watched nervously as a gray-skinned villager wielding a crossbow walked up to us. He smirked. "Well, well, well, look at what we have here," the pillager said, snidely. "A couple of babies trick-or-treating."
"(H-Hey, at our age, it's c-cute!)" said Spawny, struggling to sound brave. Then it dawned on him. "(Oh, did you mean Danny and Kevin?)"
"Exactly," said the pillager. "Shouldn't you be home right now, getting some sleepy-time?"
This was it. My greatest fear on Halloween. Getting ridiculed. I expected myself to be frozen in place, cowering in fear of being called a baby. But instead, my worry turned into rage. I was not going to let this jerk tease me. "It's. The. WEEKEND!" On the last word, I took out the Chicken Blade from my inventory and slashed it across the pillager's face. It died instantly, dropping its crossbow, but an icon of an illager and two axes flashed across my screen. That's when I realized I failed to notice one crucial thing about the pillager: the banner on its head.
[BGM: Gareth Coker - Ghosts in the Tower (Halloween)]
"Uh-oh," was all I could say as a health bar reading "Raid" appeared on the top of my screen. I had just gotten a bad omen, and now vindicators and pillagers were flooding the village, attacking everyone.
"You just couldn't help yourself, could you?" said Kevin, shaking his head.
"Nope," I admitted. "Come on. This is my fault. Let's take care of it."
"(Uh…okay…) said Spawny, nervously taking out his scepter. "(I never fought in a raid before…)"
"(Well, we fought against Magnivolent and won, didn't we?") asked Spawnette. Spawny reluctantly smiled and nodded.
"Well, it looks like the players have already started to fight back," said Kevin, looking over. Sure enough, knights, princesses, fairies, ghouls, and sasquatches alike had taken out their weapons and started to fight back. Kevin took out an iron sword. "Let's help out the villagers."
"You're the doc, Doc!" I said, nodding. We all ran back towards Hrrm Road. Evokers and witches were starting to attack the poor villagers. "Combo?" I said to Kevin.
"Yes, Danny. Combo," Kevin responded. We split off and each started to attack both factions from each side. Dodging the fang attack of an evoker, I slashed my sword sideways, sending it flying towards Kevin, who slashed his own sword. We then moved on to the witch tormenting the poor Steve villager from earlier. This time, Spawnette and Pork Chop helped out, the former twirling around to deflect the splash potions thrown, and the latter tackling the witch as it healed. In the middle of our battle, another evoker summoned a bunch of little flying creatures with iron swords to attack us. Vexes.
"Hey, Spawny! Think you could help us out?" I called over, trying to shoo away the vexes.
"(Uh…I'll try,)" the rabborg said, anxiously. He aimed his scepter out, fired…and then gave a battle cry as he realized he successfully killed a vex. And that caused his fear to vanish as he ran into the fray, taking care of any vex that came in the way.
"Attaboy, Spawny!" cried Kevin, pleased. That's when he noticed the swinging of axes in the distance. "Uh-oh! Here's Johnny…and his pals!"
"Don't worry, I know what to do!" I said, thrusting my sword. There was another witch in the area, and when it tossed a splash potion of harming at me, I gestured for Kevin to boost me up. He held his hands out and I jumped on them, then I did a somersault, waving my sword in the process to fire a cloning spell. The splash potion turned into five, and when they neared me, I spun around, sending them right towards the vindicators and the witch. All of the foes fell as I hit the ground, making a three-point landing with my sword.
"Well, well, well, Mr. Ridiculed-By-A-Pillager," said Kevin, crossing his arms, "look who can kick butt while looking like Buddy Holly!"
"I'm…" I began, but then I realized what he meant. "Oh, I see what you did there!"
[BGM: End]
"Well with that, and the other players helping out, we just have one more phase left!" said Kevin, checking the status bar. "Y'know, I have yet to see a ravager show up…"
"Uh, I think I know why…" I said, grimly. Pointing to the opposite side of town, I saw the big burly creature charge through the streets, striking fear into the townsfolk's eyes.
"Great Scott!" said Kevin.
[BGM: Gareth Coker - Warped World (Halloween)]
"Yeah, this is heavy," I added. That's when the ravager and the pillager riding it noticed me. It charged over, taking the pillagers and vindicators that arrived with it. It growled at me, and I nervously gripped the Chicken Blade.
And then…it started laughing. And so did the illagers. They were all laughing at me. And this time, I froze. One pillager was bad enough, but now a whole squadron of them were teasing me. I was the teenage freak still doing a childish thing.
And that's when Spawny did something really brave. He, Spawnette, and Pork Chop formed a tower and all twirled around. Shots of energy fired from Spawny's scepter, hitting every single illager and causing them to drop their weapons. "(Listen, you punks!)" Spawny demanded. "(It is not childish to want to dress up on Halloween! Or go trick-or-treating!)"
"Yeah! What he said!" said one of the players, dressed up as a disk jockey. "In fact, I was gonna go trick-or-treating in real life after this!"
"I wasn't, but if that's what they wanna do, who am I to judge?" added a player dressed as a shepherd. One by one everyone rallied their support of my desire to go trick-or-treating. And that brought my confidence back.
"Hmmph. Forget you losers. You're not cool enough to raid," said the illager riding the ravager, and they all turned to leave.
"Well, if you forfeit, I accept!" I shouted. I thrusted my sword into the air, changing it into its guitar form, and I performed the iconic riff from Weezer's song Buddy Holly. As the sweet rock sounds filled the air, the illagers and ravager all fell over and died, dropping their equipment. With that, the raid was finally over.
[BGM: End]
And then the villagers started cheering and throwing fireworks into the air. "Yay! Hooray for Rivers! Hooray for Rivers!" the Weezer lovers cheered.
"Looks like I owe you part of my dinner in a month," said Kevin. "But at least you showed them you're not a freak."
I smiled. "Yeah, I think I showed myself that, too." I looked down at Spawny and Spawnette. "So, wanna hit the players' houses?"
The two yawned. "(No, thank you. I feel sleepy…)" said Spawnette.
"(Yeah, and we got some cool stuff, anyway,)" said Spawny. He eagerly eyed a totem of undying in his hands.
"Alright, come on, let's take them home," said Kevin, picking up Spawnette. I picked up Spawny and began to walk back towards the house. "Still planning on going trick-or-treating in real life after this?" Kevin asked as we made our way back home.
"Of course," I said. "But even if I don't, this was still probably one of the best Halloweens of my life."
The End
Credits
Voices:
Alfred von Any - Danny
Neville Napoleon - Kevin
Damien Laquet - Spawny, Spawnette
Dee Bradley Baker - Creature Voices
Dan Lloyd - Villagers, Illagers
Jesus von Any - Various Voices
Music:
C418
Gareth Coker
Additional Music:
Gareth Coker - Happy Halloween (Halloween) (Trailer Music)
Weezer - Buddy Holly (Credits Music)
Written by: Alfred von Any
Edits by: Jesus von Any
Postface: So, was that a delightfully frightful Halloween tale? I sure hope so!
Trivia time! The conflict regarding Danny's worry about being seen as childish is kinda based on something that has happened to me in recent years. Specifically, my parents are concerned about me going trick-or-treating at the age I'm at now, worried that I'd be ridiculed. Thankfully, I've found ways to convince them to let me go, and I haven't gotten ridiculed, to boot! Still, I thought that would be an interesting theme to feature. Also, yes, I do have a Weezer addiction in real life. As for the illager raid, I decided to have that because it's something that I've never covered in my Minecraft stories yet, but with the current storyline going on in Light and Dark, I probably wouldn't have much room to incorporate it.
That should be it! Please read, review, and share around, and I'll see you all later. Stay diamond, everyone!
-Alfred
~Minecraft and everything related to it are properties of Mojang Studios and Xbox Game Studios. No copyright infringement with any of these companies nor financial gain was intended in the making of this story. Any resemblance to real-world people or events are either coincidental or done fictitiously.~
