Happenings On Halloween
by Rat
It was eight o' clock in the dusky town of Mu. Crickets sighed melodiously under the light of the full moon, and in the artificial luminescence of Nookington's. However, no lights would be shining in the cozy houses of the villagers tonight.
It was Halloween night. The Association's day of reckoning.
The animals that the humans had wronged would wreak their vengeance upon any who dared cross them in their identical pumpkin-headed costumes. On that fateful day of October 31st, karma reared its ugly head on the influential leader of the Association.
Rat the Boss.
***
With her pockets bulging with three weeks' worth of candy, Rat coyly flipped her hot pink hair and smirked, her blue-green eyes alight with an energetic glow. She had drank enough coffee to keep her Halloween-exclusive, under-the-table business running well into the wee hours of the morning. Bounding up the stairs leading from the cellar to the main room, she greeted the waiting Association members lounging on her kiddie couch.
"All right!" Rat said enthusiastically, skidding to a stop and looking at them all imperiously. "Er..." She gaped for a second, then blinked and regained ehr composure. "What is this?!?! Where is everybody?!!"
"Well, you see..." faltered Marie, the newest addition to the group, a red-haired human who was a dead ringer for Raggedy Ann. "The animals... all of the animals... must trick-or-treat on Halloween." She wilted under the reproachful look of her leader. "Even our own animal members."
Rat turned away, pacing and growling. "That figures... they always return to the old ways, I suppose... well, they're dumb enough to forget about what they did tomorrow, so we'll just have to deal with it." She faced Marie again, punding her fist decisively into her palm. "Very well! We'll just have to be extra careful not to get caught by them; we need to save our candy for our 'business' with Jack." She snapped her fingeres at a new thought. "Oh! And be sure to wear a design instead of your normal clothing. I heard a rumor that if one of the animals catches you, they'll steal your clothes and replace them with rags."
She changed into one of her own designs--the +_+ insignia of the Association--and gave it to Marie to use as well. With both of them overloaded with candy, they ventured out.
"It's a shame we can't do anything about them without damaging our integrity..." Marie spoke her thoughts aloud.
"Yeah, it is..." Rat's large yet shrewd eyes scanned the area for nearby trick-or-treaters. "Okay, coast is clear--Marie, you take the east half, there's a smaller concentration of animals living there. I'll take the west sector."
"Got it!" Marie nodded, whispering lastly as she hurried off, "Be careful."
Rat nodded and slipped off into the darkness.
***
A silly-looking grin was carved onto the face of everyone around, and inside their fleshy orange heads, a mind full of greed worked itself up into a mood for candy.
"Hey, buh-uh-ud," a voice echoed out from inside one of the pumpkin-heads. "Got any candy yet?"
"Do I LOOK like I have any candy on me, blaaarf?!" a high-pitched voice screeched angrily out of the shorter pumpkin being adressed. "Before I even get the chance to ask anyone for candy, the stupid ninny runs off in some other direction!!"
"Yeah, I don't get it either..." the laid-back squash-wearer, Sven the goat, mumbled inside his costume. "What good is this day if we can't trick... OR treat?"
"Beats me, blaaarf." Unlike Sven, Static the squirrel used a saying different from his true one, tying him with the Association--and keeping him safer, if anything. "But, I hear ol' man Tortimer's out tonight too. And he's pretty slow, blaaarf."
The two looked at each other in silence, then a strange light gleamed in their eyes.
"Yeah! Let's rip some candy from the old dude, buh-uh-ud!" Sven said, his casual attitude gone for the time being.
"All right, blaaarf! Let's do this!!"
***
Meanwhile, one acre south of Nookington's, Rat darted stealthily from tree to tree, carefully looking around each one, her back pressing the trunk, before dashing off to another hiding spot.
*No WAY are these stupid animals gonna catch me!* Rat thought with a determined frown. *If they think they can steal MY hard-earned candy, well, they got another think com--"
"TRICK OR TREAT, tralala!"
The stoic leader of the association squeaked and jumped up a good two feet. Near the tree was Cheri the bear, in full costume.
*DAMN IT! She's not even one of our own...!* Rat seethed as the animal giggled stupidly.
"I caught you, now you gotta gimme a treat~!" Cheri sang in a saccharine voice. "Or..."
"CAUGHT me!? You haven't even TOUCHED me yet!!" Rat told Cheri incredulously. "Besides, I'm not giving you any candy. I need it for--"
"TRICK!!" Cheri waved her paws and something purple blasted Rat. She fell hard on the ground, slightly winded but unhurt, her insignia changed to a tacky patched shirt. "Hahahaha! Got you, tralala!" The bear ran off into the night.
Rat got up and brushed herself off. "Whew! I don't think there are any losses here... but..." Feeling that something was amiss, she checked her pockets and found one piece of candy missing. "WHAT?! How did she--how could she have--" Her faced flushed with rage. "THAT STUPID PIECE OF BEAR CRAP!!" She ripped off the unfashionable shirt and replaced it with her star design in the blink of an eye. "This is gonna be harder than I thought..."
No longer bothering to sneak around, she ran head-on, ducking and weaving to avoid any collisions along the way.
*Hopefully Marie's not having any such trouble...*
***
Marie's heart thumped loudly in her chest as she barely peeked from behind Genji's house. A lot of animals were gathered in that acre, and she had failed to realize it until she'd almost gotten too close.
*There's so many of them!* she exclaimed in her mind. *How do I get around them all?*
The acre was unofficially called Iggy's acre, after the first landowner, a goat held in high distaste by the Association. After he'd moved to Kenton months ago, the acre had been transformed into an orchard, sporting nothing but juicy, lucrative, out-of-town beauties such as apples, pears, and peaches. Currently there lived an Association-associated rabbit named Genji, and a defector from the group, Lily the frog.
Marie took stock of the animals gathered there--Chief the red wolf, Genji, Queenie the ostrich, and Mitzi the cat. Chief and Mitzi were Associators, but Mitzi's case was unique because although she didn't wear or say anything Rat had created, she DID spout out Genji's original phrase--otaku. It was one of the very few Rat approved of, and therefore she was secured.
"Okay, now that we're all here, otaku, where do we go first?" Mitzi asked excitely.
"Let's all gang up on someone together, DIEKTHX!" Genji suggested, clenching his paws with wild glee. Marie gulped.
"No, chicken..." Queenie sighed exasperatedly. "THAT'S not how you do it! We have to be quite a bit more sneaky, don't we, chicken? Otherwise they'll just run away like all the others."
"Yeah, like that pink-haired kid did, harrumph!" Chief grumbled sourly.
*Rat's already been through here?!* Marie thought, her eyes widening. *But I didn't know that much time had passed. Wow...* She stood up from her crouching position decidedly. *That's it! I've got to work hard for our cause!* She took one determined step from behind the house.
Her pockets crinkled loudly with wrapped candy.
"Huh??" All the pumpkin heads in the acre turned towards her.
"...Eep..."
***
Having stayed unchanged since her encounter with Cheri, Rat stopped to rest beside the fountain.
"Phew..." She looked around quickly before deciding to sit. "Jesus... you'd think they'd have a little sanity, but... it's almost like Halloween just sucks out their brains, or something."
"Hello there, whippersnapper!"
Rat was on her feet in an instant. "WHAA-! What do you think you're--" She relaxed. "Oh... hi, Mayor Tortimer."
"Did I give you a scare? Heh heh hoorf!" A low, jolly voice reverberated from inside the pumpkin. "Don't worry, I'm not out for your candy, or for tricks. The shenanigans you youngsters get into..."
The Mayor was in a powerful enough position to be exempted from the Association's rule, yet he posed no threat whatsoever to them, and often took time out of his schedule to assist them, and since his jobs usually helped the entire town, the peons stayed blissfully ignorant, therefore keeping peace in the land and business in Rat's hands.
"Haha, you know their tricks are nothing compared to some o' my own." The clock struck the half-hour. "Say, Mayor, have you seen Jack around anywhere? THE Jack?"
"Not in particular," Tortimer answered truthfully. "I suppose you're gonna do a great deal o' business tonight with him, are you? Heh heh hoorf!" The wizened turtle pulled something out of his pocket. "Before you go, take this with you." He handed over a leaf-shaped piece of miniaturized furniture, something that could be expanded into its true size for when placed inside one's own house. "It's a model of Katrina's tent, though I don't think it'll help in hiding from the villagers."
"Thanks, Mayor," Rat said gratefully, putting the gift in her pocket. "I'll be going."
He waved her off cheerfully, then returned to his original thoughts. "Ah, what lovely weather we're having! So warm, even at the end of October. Well, I can't say my old bones are against it, heh heh... who?"
Tortimer stopped and peered into the darkness, his small bespectacled eyes squinting out from behind his pumpkin into the darkening night.
"There 'e is, blaaarf! What are we just standing there for?!"
Tortimer faced where the voice was coming from. "Who's there? Won't you even show your faces to your own Mayor?" he challenged them.
"That's it! No more waiting!! C'mon, Sven!"
"Trick or treat, buh-uh-ud!"
***
An unearthly scream ripped the air seemingly in two. Marie and the animals that were hot on her heels all froze in their tracks as their blood ran cold.
"Wh-whuh..." Mitzi began sweating and trembling. "What was that?!!"
"Harrumph! It was just the wind, ya scaredy-cat," Chief said, managing to hide his fear.
"More like the ghost that haunts the town every week, DIEKTHX!" Genji hunched over and brought up his arms like claws, uttering a low, creepy moan.
"Don't be stupid!" Chief snapped at him, a vein pulsating in his forehead. "Let's just get that--"
Marie was nowhere to be found.
"It looks as though she's long gone, chicken," Queenie commented airily.
"Raaarrrghhhh!! How can it be so hard just to get some freaking CANDY!!!" Chief roared and gnashed his teeth a bit, then took off running again. The others followed suit.
"That dude really needs to take a chill pill, DIEKTHX," Genji observed.
***
Rat had barely reached the next acre when she heard the scream. Turning right around, she was back at the fountain in two shakes, where an awful spectacle of greed met her eyes.
"HELP! HELP!" Mayor Tortimer thrashed feebly on his back as two other squash-faced animals looted him of his valuables. After kicking him away, all the pranksters had to show for their deeds were ten fishing trophies, an organizer, and three empty boxes of chocolates.
"What the hell d'you think you're doing?!!" Rat ran up them, preparing to ram them with her right shoulder, since she wasn't carrying any of her handheld tools with her.
The thieves stood up straight and looked at Rat. The pumpkin on Tortimer fell off as he withdrew his head and limbs into his shell.
"Save yourself, youngster! They're quick!"
"What were you idiots doing to the Mayor?!" Rat yelled, clenching her fists and glowering.
Sven lost his cool and began dancing about nervously. "We... um..."
"He didn't have any candy on 'em, so we decided on a replacement!" Static shoved the goods into a pillowcase. "This IS Halloween, after all. If we don't get a treat--"
"Then you play a stupid TRICK, yeah, I GET it," Rat grated harshly, her eyes flashing angrily. "Well, you're going too far, and I'm not gonna TAKE this crap anymore!!"
Remembering something, Sven instantly became calm again. "Oo, whatcha gonna do, buh-uh-ud? Tell on us?" He laughed himself to tears. "This is the ONE night where we can do anything!"
Rat grinned a scary grin. "No." She picked up the turtle's discarded pumpkin. "But if you animals get to have that much FUN tonight..." She placed the pumpkin on her head. "Then *I* should, too!!"
She stalked towards them, chuckling evilly. Static sweatdropped as he began to get a little weirded out.
"Uh, hey, blaaarf. Didn't you see what just happened??" Static said. "We didn't get any candy! So we don't have any to give to you!"
"I know," said a strange voice from inside Rat's pumpkin.
Static and Sven looked at each other.
"I think we're in trouble, buh-uh-ud."
***
In a far southern acre, a one-wart toad by the name of Huck wandered around aimlessly, looking for others to play with. He hung his head and sighed.
"Man, I wish I didn't live so far from everyone else, hopper..." he lamented. "I guess this is gonna require more exercise than I'm used to..."
A human rushed close by him, spinning him around until he landed on his butt.
"Woahhh..." said the dizzy Huck. "Boy, hopper, what was THAT?!"
A stampede of chasing animals trampled the toad underfoot. When they and their dust had passed over, Huck was covered in various pawprints and his pumpkin was smashed.
"I don't like Halloween anymore..." he groaned painfully.
He lay there for a few moments, only moving slightly when he heard someone rustling the bushes near him. He covered his bruised face with his webbed toad-paws.
"No more, hopper, no more..."
The footprints came very close and then stopped. He cautiosly uncovered his eyes and was immediately staring up into the black, single-lashed eyes of a human girl.
"Are you okay...?" the girl asked uncertainly.
"I'm okay, I guess..." Huck sat up and rubbed his head, then started slightly and smiled as he saw who it was. "Oh, hiya! What was that all about, anyway, hopper?"
The girl shook her head, the tip of her pointed cap swaying slightly. She was wearing a daisy shirt. "I don't know. I thought all the animals were supposed to split up to get candy on Halloween."
Huck stood. "I don't really feel like candy right now, hopper. But I went to all the work to get outta the house tonight, so... wanna hang out at the pond? I'm sure no one's there now."
The human smiled at her animal friend. "Sure!"
And off to the pond they went to star-gaze for a while.
***
Rat rushed towards the two muggers, yowling like a banshee.
"RAAAAAAAARRRR!!!"
Sven and Static held each other in a tight embrace as they screamed like little schoolgirls. "AIYEEEEEEEEEE!!!"
A two-second long *SCREEEEE!* noise followed by the faint smell of burnt rubber caught their attention.
"Rat?" Marie blurted out, the soles of her shoes still very warm. "What are you doing here?"
Before Rat could ask what the hell she was talking about, no less that six animals rammed into Marie's back and propelled the lot of them into Rat, Static, and Sven. They all rammed into the big tree where the fountain was, and scattered on impact.
Rat forced herself up and shook her head, trying to will the flashing stars away. Bits of broken pumpkin clung to her hair.
"Marie!!" she yelled out. "What's goin' on here? How'd you manage to get all thsoe animals after you?!"
"I'm sorry! I didn't know you were even here!" Marie rushed to explain, almost tripping oevr her words at the pace they were coming out. "The animals over at Iggy's said that a pink-haired girl had run through there, so I thought you'd been back there already!"
"I haven't even BEEN anywhere in the eastern sector, let alone Iggy's! They're prolly talking out their asses again." A sudden thought struck her. "Unless it was..."
Leopold and Eloise, two non-Associators that had joined the throng on the way to the fountain, sat up with moderately damaged pumpkins.
"That was some hit, lion cub..." the green-maned Leopold said as he watched little yellow stars spin around his head.
"Oh, tooot! My eye makeup is all smudged now!" Eloise complained.
Genji flipped agilely onto his footpaws. "C'mon! Everybody up, DIEKTHX!!" He pointed one black paw at Rat and Marie. "Look at their pockets! They've got CANDY to give to us!!"
"Yeah, I want my goddamn candy!" Chief howled form inside his pumpkin and rushed towards the humans like a charging bull. "OWOOOOO! TRICK OR--"
The others recovered and joined in.
"--TREEEEAAAAT!!!"
Quickly surrounding the duo and jumping on the with a "YAR!", a huge dust cloud of fighting animals formed by the fountain and moved south into the next acre. Rat and Marie flailed around with their feet and fists, but they were hopelessly outnumbered.
When the seven animals finally left them, both of their clothes were in patches, ripped by the fight, and they were struggling under the weight of fifteen jack o' lanterns and way too many jack-in-the-boxes.
"My candy's... all gone..." Marie said morosely.
"Same here..." Rat threw off the Halloween paraphernalia on top of her and changed her design back to the rightful inisgnia. "You didn't have any tools or anything on you, right?"
Marie shook her head affirmatively. "Nope, I left them at my house like you told me to."
Rat sighed and smiled wryly. "Then we can safely assume that they didn't take anything of value from us."
"But what about Jack?"
"There are other ways to get the Spooky series," Rat said. "Besides, I still got this cool tent that Tortimer gave me."
"Wow! Can I see it?"
"Sure!" Rat reached into her pockets. "Just a second..."
She rummaged around afor a few seconds, then stopped.
"It's not here."
Marie blinked. "You didn't leave it at HQ?"
"No, I haven't been back to my house yet, I just got--"
And then she knew.
"THEY STOLE IT!!"
Marie's eyes nearly popped out of their sockets. "The trick-or-treaters stole your present?!?!"
"Yes! Those dirty little bastards-!!" Rat swung and hit a tree with the side of her fist as hard as she could, disregarding the money that jingled to the ground. "You can't BUY BACK something like that!!" She was absolutely livid.
Marie stood there, dumbfounded and not wanting to believe it. "This isn't anything like I expected... everything's gone wrong..."
Rat closed her eyes as she attempted to control her rage. "Well, we can't do anything about it. If we retaliate the Mayor'll have our asses, and I don't even wanna think about what Godfather N would do."
When Marie spoke, her voice was small and anxious. "Should we just go home...?"
Rat nodded silently.
***
Something poked Reina's shoulder none too lightly.
"Oh!!" She bumped into Huck accidentally as she scooted away from whatever had poked her. "What was that??"
"Hey, trick or treat, toady!" Lily smiled along with her costume and held out an orange plastic bag.
"Uh..." Reina giggled nervously. Several wrappers were sitting beside her. "I ate it all already. Sorry."
The pumpkin appeared to scowl. "WHAT?!" Lily took out another jack o' lantern and swung it vengefully, knocking out Huck. She went to hit Reina but stopped. "Hey... aren't you part of the 'Order' or whatever, toady??"
"You mean the Association? No," Reina answered cautiously. "Even though I don't condone their actions, I don't hold it against--"
"Whatever! All you humans are the same. You all belittle us animals and if we don't wear the right thing or say the right stuff, we get charged extra!!"
Huck pushed himself up on one arm, his eyes black and puffy. "But I thought it was for protection from--" *WHACK!*
Lily tossed the dented hard plastic jack o' lantern aside. "That's bull, toady! I'm gonna get revenge on the Association tonight!"
Reina was quite confused by now. "But they never do any REAL harm! Why tonight, why at all??"
"Because..." Lily smiled darkly beneath her mask. "I *CAN.*"
***
The night was eerily silent as Marie and Rat trudged through the undergrowth. It was nine-thirty. Marie kept silent because she didn't want to say anything that might anger her leader further, and Rat was silent as well, only her mind was burning with the ceaseless and noiseless din of her own rapid-fire thoughts.
*Tent--rare--mayor--bastards--Jack--no deal--pink hair--* SHe checked herself. *Pink hair... that wasn't me. Then who? The one the animal's saw earlier was...*
"Reina's here."
Marie looked up from the ground at Rat's flatly intoned statement. "Wha? Where?"
"Reina's in Mu. She came to a village miles and miles away despite all the rabid animals running around."
Reina was Rat's best friend, and the sole human resident of Kenton. They often provided items for one another, such as Rat giving Reina the entire regal set to please the HRA with, and Reina giving Rat several large rare fish to give to the local museum.
"Maybe she already went home," Marie guessed hopefully.
"We can't be sure," Rat said, walking away quickly. Marie rushed to catch up. "We'll do a full search. But first, we'd better grab our tools. This village is now a potential warzone."
~~~
I didn't intend this to have more than one part, but I wanted to finish SOMETHING before going to bed, so here's chapter one for ya. Any questions about the story or the characters will be answered in the preface of chapter two.
All AC town names, humans, and animals are real(as far as the game goes), and this is based on a true story. I honestly hate the Halloween event with all my heart.
Until next chapter... review? :3
by Rat
It was eight o' clock in the dusky town of Mu. Crickets sighed melodiously under the light of the full moon, and in the artificial luminescence of Nookington's. However, no lights would be shining in the cozy houses of the villagers tonight.
It was Halloween night. The Association's day of reckoning.
The animals that the humans had wronged would wreak their vengeance upon any who dared cross them in their identical pumpkin-headed costumes. On that fateful day of October 31st, karma reared its ugly head on the influential leader of the Association.
Rat the Boss.
***
With her pockets bulging with three weeks' worth of candy, Rat coyly flipped her hot pink hair and smirked, her blue-green eyes alight with an energetic glow. She had drank enough coffee to keep her Halloween-exclusive, under-the-table business running well into the wee hours of the morning. Bounding up the stairs leading from the cellar to the main room, she greeted the waiting Association members lounging on her kiddie couch.
"All right!" Rat said enthusiastically, skidding to a stop and looking at them all imperiously. "Er..." She gaped for a second, then blinked and regained ehr composure. "What is this?!?! Where is everybody?!!"
"Well, you see..." faltered Marie, the newest addition to the group, a red-haired human who was a dead ringer for Raggedy Ann. "The animals... all of the animals... must trick-or-treat on Halloween." She wilted under the reproachful look of her leader. "Even our own animal members."
Rat turned away, pacing and growling. "That figures... they always return to the old ways, I suppose... well, they're dumb enough to forget about what they did tomorrow, so we'll just have to deal with it." She faced Marie again, punding her fist decisively into her palm. "Very well! We'll just have to be extra careful not to get caught by them; we need to save our candy for our 'business' with Jack." She snapped her fingeres at a new thought. "Oh! And be sure to wear a design instead of your normal clothing. I heard a rumor that if one of the animals catches you, they'll steal your clothes and replace them with rags."
She changed into one of her own designs--the +_+ insignia of the Association--and gave it to Marie to use as well. With both of them overloaded with candy, they ventured out.
"It's a shame we can't do anything about them without damaging our integrity..." Marie spoke her thoughts aloud.
"Yeah, it is..." Rat's large yet shrewd eyes scanned the area for nearby trick-or-treaters. "Okay, coast is clear--Marie, you take the east half, there's a smaller concentration of animals living there. I'll take the west sector."
"Got it!" Marie nodded, whispering lastly as she hurried off, "Be careful."
Rat nodded and slipped off into the darkness.
***
A silly-looking grin was carved onto the face of everyone around, and inside their fleshy orange heads, a mind full of greed worked itself up into a mood for candy.
"Hey, buh-uh-ud," a voice echoed out from inside one of the pumpkin-heads. "Got any candy yet?"
"Do I LOOK like I have any candy on me, blaaarf?!" a high-pitched voice screeched angrily out of the shorter pumpkin being adressed. "Before I even get the chance to ask anyone for candy, the stupid ninny runs off in some other direction!!"
"Yeah, I don't get it either..." the laid-back squash-wearer, Sven the goat, mumbled inside his costume. "What good is this day if we can't trick... OR treat?"
"Beats me, blaaarf." Unlike Sven, Static the squirrel used a saying different from his true one, tying him with the Association--and keeping him safer, if anything. "But, I hear ol' man Tortimer's out tonight too. And he's pretty slow, blaaarf."
The two looked at each other in silence, then a strange light gleamed in their eyes.
"Yeah! Let's rip some candy from the old dude, buh-uh-ud!" Sven said, his casual attitude gone for the time being.
"All right, blaaarf! Let's do this!!"
***
Meanwhile, one acre south of Nookington's, Rat darted stealthily from tree to tree, carefully looking around each one, her back pressing the trunk, before dashing off to another hiding spot.
*No WAY are these stupid animals gonna catch me!* Rat thought with a determined frown. *If they think they can steal MY hard-earned candy, well, they got another think com--"
"TRICK OR TREAT, tralala!"
The stoic leader of the association squeaked and jumped up a good two feet. Near the tree was Cheri the bear, in full costume.
*DAMN IT! She's not even one of our own...!* Rat seethed as the animal giggled stupidly.
"I caught you, now you gotta gimme a treat~!" Cheri sang in a saccharine voice. "Or..."
"CAUGHT me!? You haven't even TOUCHED me yet!!" Rat told Cheri incredulously. "Besides, I'm not giving you any candy. I need it for--"
"TRICK!!" Cheri waved her paws and something purple blasted Rat. She fell hard on the ground, slightly winded but unhurt, her insignia changed to a tacky patched shirt. "Hahahaha! Got you, tralala!" The bear ran off into the night.
Rat got up and brushed herself off. "Whew! I don't think there are any losses here... but..." Feeling that something was amiss, she checked her pockets and found one piece of candy missing. "WHAT?! How did she--how could she have--" Her faced flushed with rage. "THAT STUPID PIECE OF BEAR CRAP!!" She ripped off the unfashionable shirt and replaced it with her star design in the blink of an eye. "This is gonna be harder than I thought..."
No longer bothering to sneak around, she ran head-on, ducking and weaving to avoid any collisions along the way.
*Hopefully Marie's not having any such trouble...*
***
Marie's heart thumped loudly in her chest as she barely peeked from behind Genji's house. A lot of animals were gathered in that acre, and she had failed to realize it until she'd almost gotten too close.
*There's so many of them!* she exclaimed in her mind. *How do I get around them all?*
The acre was unofficially called Iggy's acre, after the first landowner, a goat held in high distaste by the Association. After he'd moved to Kenton months ago, the acre had been transformed into an orchard, sporting nothing but juicy, lucrative, out-of-town beauties such as apples, pears, and peaches. Currently there lived an Association-associated rabbit named Genji, and a defector from the group, Lily the frog.
Marie took stock of the animals gathered there--Chief the red wolf, Genji, Queenie the ostrich, and Mitzi the cat. Chief and Mitzi were Associators, but Mitzi's case was unique because although she didn't wear or say anything Rat had created, she DID spout out Genji's original phrase--otaku. It was one of the very few Rat approved of, and therefore she was secured.
"Okay, now that we're all here, otaku, where do we go first?" Mitzi asked excitely.
"Let's all gang up on someone together, DIEKTHX!" Genji suggested, clenching his paws with wild glee. Marie gulped.
"No, chicken..." Queenie sighed exasperatedly. "THAT'S not how you do it! We have to be quite a bit more sneaky, don't we, chicken? Otherwise they'll just run away like all the others."
"Yeah, like that pink-haired kid did, harrumph!" Chief grumbled sourly.
*Rat's already been through here?!* Marie thought, her eyes widening. *But I didn't know that much time had passed. Wow...* She stood up from her crouching position decidedly. *That's it! I've got to work hard for our cause!* She took one determined step from behind the house.
Her pockets crinkled loudly with wrapped candy.
"Huh??" All the pumpkin heads in the acre turned towards her.
"...Eep..."
***
Having stayed unchanged since her encounter with Cheri, Rat stopped to rest beside the fountain.
"Phew..." She looked around quickly before deciding to sit. "Jesus... you'd think they'd have a little sanity, but... it's almost like Halloween just sucks out their brains, or something."
"Hello there, whippersnapper!"
Rat was on her feet in an instant. "WHAA-! What do you think you're--" She relaxed. "Oh... hi, Mayor Tortimer."
"Did I give you a scare? Heh heh hoorf!" A low, jolly voice reverberated from inside the pumpkin. "Don't worry, I'm not out for your candy, or for tricks. The shenanigans you youngsters get into..."
The Mayor was in a powerful enough position to be exempted from the Association's rule, yet he posed no threat whatsoever to them, and often took time out of his schedule to assist them, and since his jobs usually helped the entire town, the peons stayed blissfully ignorant, therefore keeping peace in the land and business in Rat's hands.
"Haha, you know their tricks are nothing compared to some o' my own." The clock struck the half-hour. "Say, Mayor, have you seen Jack around anywhere? THE Jack?"
"Not in particular," Tortimer answered truthfully. "I suppose you're gonna do a great deal o' business tonight with him, are you? Heh heh hoorf!" The wizened turtle pulled something out of his pocket. "Before you go, take this with you." He handed over a leaf-shaped piece of miniaturized furniture, something that could be expanded into its true size for when placed inside one's own house. "It's a model of Katrina's tent, though I don't think it'll help in hiding from the villagers."
"Thanks, Mayor," Rat said gratefully, putting the gift in her pocket. "I'll be going."
He waved her off cheerfully, then returned to his original thoughts. "Ah, what lovely weather we're having! So warm, even at the end of October. Well, I can't say my old bones are against it, heh heh... who?"
Tortimer stopped and peered into the darkness, his small bespectacled eyes squinting out from behind his pumpkin into the darkening night.
"There 'e is, blaaarf! What are we just standing there for?!"
Tortimer faced where the voice was coming from. "Who's there? Won't you even show your faces to your own Mayor?" he challenged them.
"That's it! No more waiting!! C'mon, Sven!"
"Trick or treat, buh-uh-ud!"
***
An unearthly scream ripped the air seemingly in two. Marie and the animals that were hot on her heels all froze in their tracks as their blood ran cold.
"Wh-whuh..." Mitzi began sweating and trembling. "What was that?!!"
"Harrumph! It was just the wind, ya scaredy-cat," Chief said, managing to hide his fear.
"More like the ghost that haunts the town every week, DIEKTHX!" Genji hunched over and brought up his arms like claws, uttering a low, creepy moan.
"Don't be stupid!" Chief snapped at him, a vein pulsating in his forehead. "Let's just get that--"
Marie was nowhere to be found.
"It looks as though she's long gone, chicken," Queenie commented airily.
"Raaarrrghhhh!! How can it be so hard just to get some freaking CANDY!!!" Chief roared and gnashed his teeth a bit, then took off running again. The others followed suit.
"That dude really needs to take a chill pill, DIEKTHX," Genji observed.
***
Rat had barely reached the next acre when she heard the scream. Turning right around, she was back at the fountain in two shakes, where an awful spectacle of greed met her eyes.
"HELP! HELP!" Mayor Tortimer thrashed feebly on his back as two other squash-faced animals looted him of his valuables. After kicking him away, all the pranksters had to show for their deeds were ten fishing trophies, an organizer, and three empty boxes of chocolates.
"What the hell d'you think you're doing?!!" Rat ran up them, preparing to ram them with her right shoulder, since she wasn't carrying any of her handheld tools with her.
The thieves stood up straight and looked at Rat. The pumpkin on Tortimer fell off as he withdrew his head and limbs into his shell.
"Save yourself, youngster! They're quick!"
"What were you idiots doing to the Mayor?!" Rat yelled, clenching her fists and glowering.
Sven lost his cool and began dancing about nervously. "We... um..."
"He didn't have any candy on 'em, so we decided on a replacement!" Static shoved the goods into a pillowcase. "This IS Halloween, after all. If we don't get a treat--"
"Then you play a stupid TRICK, yeah, I GET it," Rat grated harshly, her eyes flashing angrily. "Well, you're going too far, and I'm not gonna TAKE this crap anymore!!"
Remembering something, Sven instantly became calm again. "Oo, whatcha gonna do, buh-uh-ud? Tell on us?" He laughed himself to tears. "This is the ONE night where we can do anything!"
Rat grinned a scary grin. "No." She picked up the turtle's discarded pumpkin. "But if you animals get to have that much FUN tonight..." She placed the pumpkin on her head. "Then *I* should, too!!"
She stalked towards them, chuckling evilly. Static sweatdropped as he began to get a little weirded out.
"Uh, hey, blaaarf. Didn't you see what just happened??" Static said. "We didn't get any candy! So we don't have any to give to you!"
"I know," said a strange voice from inside Rat's pumpkin.
Static and Sven looked at each other.
"I think we're in trouble, buh-uh-ud."
***
In a far southern acre, a one-wart toad by the name of Huck wandered around aimlessly, looking for others to play with. He hung his head and sighed.
"Man, I wish I didn't live so far from everyone else, hopper..." he lamented. "I guess this is gonna require more exercise than I'm used to..."
A human rushed close by him, spinning him around until he landed on his butt.
"Woahhh..." said the dizzy Huck. "Boy, hopper, what was THAT?!"
A stampede of chasing animals trampled the toad underfoot. When they and their dust had passed over, Huck was covered in various pawprints and his pumpkin was smashed.
"I don't like Halloween anymore..." he groaned painfully.
He lay there for a few moments, only moving slightly when he heard someone rustling the bushes near him. He covered his bruised face with his webbed toad-paws.
"No more, hopper, no more..."
The footprints came very close and then stopped. He cautiosly uncovered his eyes and was immediately staring up into the black, single-lashed eyes of a human girl.
"Are you okay...?" the girl asked uncertainly.
"I'm okay, I guess..." Huck sat up and rubbed his head, then started slightly and smiled as he saw who it was. "Oh, hiya! What was that all about, anyway, hopper?"
The girl shook her head, the tip of her pointed cap swaying slightly. She was wearing a daisy shirt. "I don't know. I thought all the animals were supposed to split up to get candy on Halloween."
Huck stood. "I don't really feel like candy right now, hopper. But I went to all the work to get outta the house tonight, so... wanna hang out at the pond? I'm sure no one's there now."
The human smiled at her animal friend. "Sure!"
And off to the pond they went to star-gaze for a while.
***
Rat rushed towards the two muggers, yowling like a banshee.
"RAAAAAAAARRRR!!!"
Sven and Static held each other in a tight embrace as they screamed like little schoolgirls. "AIYEEEEEEEEEE!!!"
A two-second long *SCREEEEE!* noise followed by the faint smell of burnt rubber caught their attention.
"Rat?" Marie blurted out, the soles of her shoes still very warm. "What are you doing here?"
Before Rat could ask what the hell she was talking about, no less that six animals rammed into Marie's back and propelled the lot of them into Rat, Static, and Sven. They all rammed into the big tree where the fountain was, and scattered on impact.
Rat forced herself up and shook her head, trying to will the flashing stars away. Bits of broken pumpkin clung to her hair.
"Marie!!" she yelled out. "What's goin' on here? How'd you manage to get all thsoe animals after you?!"
"I'm sorry! I didn't know you were even here!" Marie rushed to explain, almost tripping oevr her words at the pace they were coming out. "The animals over at Iggy's said that a pink-haired girl had run through there, so I thought you'd been back there already!"
"I haven't even BEEN anywhere in the eastern sector, let alone Iggy's! They're prolly talking out their asses again." A sudden thought struck her. "Unless it was..."
Leopold and Eloise, two non-Associators that had joined the throng on the way to the fountain, sat up with moderately damaged pumpkins.
"That was some hit, lion cub..." the green-maned Leopold said as he watched little yellow stars spin around his head.
"Oh, tooot! My eye makeup is all smudged now!" Eloise complained.
Genji flipped agilely onto his footpaws. "C'mon! Everybody up, DIEKTHX!!" He pointed one black paw at Rat and Marie. "Look at their pockets! They've got CANDY to give to us!!"
"Yeah, I want my goddamn candy!" Chief howled form inside his pumpkin and rushed towards the humans like a charging bull. "OWOOOOO! TRICK OR--"
The others recovered and joined in.
"--TREEEEAAAAT!!!"
Quickly surrounding the duo and jumping on the with a "YAR!", a huge dust cloud of fighting animals formed by the fountain and moved south into the next acre. Rat and Marie flailed around with their feet and fists, but they were hopelessly outnumbered.
When the seven animals finally left them, both of their clothes were in patches, ripped by the fight, and they were struggling under the weight of fifteen jack o' lanterns and way too many jack-in-the-boxes.
"My candy's... all gone..." Marie said morosely.
"Same here..." Rat threw off the Halloween paraphernalia on top of her and changed her design back to the rightful inisgnia. "You didn't have any tools or anything on you, right?"
Marie shook her head affirmatively. "Nope, I left them at my house like you told me to."
Rat sighed and smiled wryly. "Then we can safely assume that they didn't take anything of value from us."
"But what about Jack?"
"There are other ways to get the Spooky series," Rat said. "Besides, I still got this cool tent that Tortimer gave me."
"Wow! Can I see it?"
"Sure!" Rat reached into her pockets. "Just a second..."
She rummaged around afor a few seconds, then stopped.
"It's not here."
Marie blinked. "You didn't leave it at HQ?"
"No, I haven't been back to my house yet, I just got--"
And then she knew.
"THEY STOLE IT!!"
Marie's eyes nearly popped out of their sockets. "The trick-or-treaters stole your present?!?!"
"Yes! Those dirty little bastards-!!" Rat swung and hit a tree with the side of her fist as hard as she could, disregarding the money that jingled to the ground. "You can't BUY BACK something like that!!" She was absolutely livid.
Marie stood there, dumbfounded and not wanting to believe it. "This isn't anything like I expected... everything's gone wrong..."
Rat closed her eyes as she attempted to control her rage. "Well, we can't do anything about it. If we retaliate the Mayor'll have our asses, and I don't even wanna think about what Godfather N would do."
When Marie spoke, her voice was small and anxious. "Should we just go home...?"
Rat nodded silently.
***
Something poked Reina's shoulder none too lightly.
"Oh!!" She bumped into Huck accidentally as she scooted away from whatever had poked her. "What was that??"
"Hey, trick or treat, toady!" Lily smiled along with her costume and held out an orange plastic bag.
"Uh..." Reina giggled nervously. Several wrappers were sitting beside her. "I ate it all already. Sorry."
The pumpkin appeared to scowl. "WHAT?!" Lily took out another jack o' lantern and swung it vengefully, knocking out Huck. She went to hit Reina but stopped. "Hey... aren't you part of the 'Order' or whatever, toady??"
"You mean the Association? No," Reina answered cautiously. "Even though I don't condone their actions, I don't hold it against--"
"Whatever! All you humans are the same. You all belittle us animals and if we don't wear the right thing or say the right stuff, we get charged extra!!"
Huck pushed himself up on one arm, his eyes black and puffy. "But I thought it was for protection from--" *WHACK!*
Lily tossed the dented hard plastic jack o' lantern aside. "That's bull, toady! I'm gonna get revenge on the Association tonight!"
Reina was quite confused by now. "But they never do any REAL harm! Why tonight, why at all??"
"Because..." Lily smiled darkly beneath her mask. "I *CAN.*"
***
The night was eerily silent as Marie and Rat trudged through the undergrowth. It was nine-thirty. Marie kept silent because she didn't want to say anything that might anger her leader further, and Rat was silent as well, only her mind was burning with the ceaseless and noiseless din of her own rapid-fire thoughts.
*Tent--rare--mayor--bastards--Jack--no deal--pink hair--* SHe checked herself. *Pink hair... that wasn't me. Then who? The one the animal's saw earlier was...*
"Reina's here."
Marie looked up from the ground at Rat's flatly intoned statement. "Wha? Where?"
"Reina's in Mu. She came to a village miles and miles away despite all the rabid animals running around."
Reina was Rat's best friend, and the sole human resident of Kenton. They often provided items for one another, such as Rat giving Reina the entire regal set to please the HRA with, and Reina giving Rat several large rare fish to give to the local museum.
"Maybe she already went home," Marie guessed hopefully.
"We can't be sure," Rat said, walking away quickly. Marie rushed to catch up. "We'll do a full search. But first, we'd better grab our tools. This village is now a potential warzone."
~~~
I didn't intend this to have more than one part, but I wanted to finish SOMETHING before going to bed, so here's chapter one for ya. Any questions about the story or the characters will be answered in the preface of chapter two.
All AC town names, humans, and animals are real(as far as the game goes), and this is based on a true story. I honestly hate the Halloween event with all my heart.
Until next chapter... review? :3