(Hedge House, 4:28 pm)
The front door burst open like a dam, letting loose a torrent of excited whoops as the three Hedge siblings poured into the yard, carrying their (soon-to-be) candy bags with their Uncle close behind them. They climbed inside Chuck's new car while Jules and Aleena (or Jason and the witch, if you prefer) climbed into their own car with the brownies and leaf bags. They would have all gone in the same car, but there wasn't enough room, so they took separate vehicles. And even though Skye's house was only a few blocks away, they didn't want to drop the treats they'd made, so they took the cars.
20 seconds later, they arrived at a regular two story house that was white on the top half, and blood red on the bottom half, which actually fit the halloween theme pretty well, but it wasn't the only thing that gave the house a halloween feel. Dotting the bushes were orange lights, making them look like they were on fire, and on the porch were two crudely carved pumpkins puking out their seedy insides. Upon seeing this, Sonic and Manic nearly fell over laughing, having never seen that particular design before, but the laughing quickly died when a stream of water shot out of the bushes at them.
"AAAAAHHHHH!" shouted the twins, running back to the car and hiding behind it.
They watched as the water slowed down to a trickle and a midget fireman in full gear stepped out of the bushes, holding a water hose.
"You guys are all washed up, XD" chuckled Skye, turning off the hose and dropping it.
Skye was Sonic and Manic's friend, and was a hedgehog like them and he even had blue fur like Sonic, except Skye's was light blue (hence his name), his eyes were gold, and his hair was pure white.
"Help us get the leaves out," said Sonic, running over to his parents' car and pulling a pumpkin themed trashbag full of raked leaves out of the trunk after Jules had opened it.
Manic and Skye got two more bags, and Jules got the last one with one hand, while holding the brownies in the other. Aleena went over to Chuck to hold the mummy hot dogs while he got the monster mouths. They brought the leaf bags into the backyard next to a pile of leaves even bigger than the one in the Hedges' yard.
"How'd you get so many leaves? :O" asked Manic, looking at the mountain of leaves ready to be set ablaze.
"Actually, we've been collecting them as they fell. Ever since the leaves started falling, we would just rake whatever fell and put them in bags, and got at least ten of them. Collecting them while they were still fresh also reduced the amount of bugs in them," replied Skye.
"OO That makes sense!" exclaimed Sonic, "We gotta remember that next year."
Then they took the food inside and set it on the table in the kitchen, next to a dozen other dishes full of food still wrapped in tin foil.
"Partyyyyyyy! ^-^" squealed Sonia.
"Not yet, we're gonna go trick or treating first," replied Aleena, setting the plate of mummy dogs down on the table.
"o_O Really? I thought we were having the party first," said Manic.
"Naw, we're having it when it gets dark. We adults will stay here and get everything ready while you guys go out with your Uncle and...the other guests," said Jules.
"O_O What other guests?" asked Sonic.
"Some old friends you kids haven't seen in a long time, ;)" winked Jules.
The twins' excitement skyrocketed. Who would they be seeing again after so long?
"By the way, where are your parents?" asked Aleena.
"Ohhh...around, ;)" winked Skye.
That meant they were likely waiting to ambush the guests like Jules and Aleena did to their own kids. Manic and Sonic ran around the house opening closets bathroom doors, and even bedrooms, but found nothing.
"Dang, they're good at this," said Sonic, leaning against a werewolf mannequin.
"Maybe they're outside," said Manic.
"Yeah, let's go check the backyard, one of them might be hiding in the leaves," said Sonic.
But before he could follow his brother, the wolf mannequin covered Sonic's eyes with its paws, preventing his escape.
"Guess who?" it asked.
"Dangit, you got me! :O" said Sonic, disappointed.
"I feel like I'm more annoying than scary," said a familiar male voice.
The "werewolf" removed its mask to reveal the face of Harvey Sterin, Skye's dad. Like Skye, he was a hedgehog, and his fur was white, while the hair on his head was black, a baffling contrast to his fur. The only resemblances he shared with his son Skye were the shape of their quills, and his eyes, which were icy blue, like Skye's fur. He was also a nice guy to be around, but was firm when he needed to be, and was known for his wacky sense of humor, as well as his ability to blend in, as his mannequin act had proven.
"You're not annoying, I've just been spooked twice already, :(" replied Sonic, referencing his mom and dad.
"Well that's what halloween is for," said Harvey.
"You still gotta find Mrs. Sterin, XD" laughed Jules, watching the whole thing.
"Have you seen her?" asked Manic, hoping his dad would come to his rescue.
"Maybe, maybe not, ;)" winked the older blue hedgehog.
"TRAITOR! :O" shouted Manic, then ran out the front door while Sonic followed.
They stopped at a tree near the Sterins' mailbox and leaned against it.
"Where do you think she is?" asked Sonic.
"Anyplace we haven't checked yet?" asked Manic, replying to Sonic's question with another question.
"No, I think we got everything," said Sonic.
"That means she must be outside," said Manic.
Both twins looked around the yard to make sure nothing was out of place, until an idea came to them.
"We still haven't checked that huge leaf pile. There's gotta be someone hiding in there," suggested Sonic.
"Either her or the bodies of the kids she found first. I'd also bring a box of tissues if I were you," teased Manic.
A cocky grin plastered itself on Sonic's face.
"Pfft, what's she gonna do? Jump out at us? I've been there and done that, so she better ha- SPIDER! 8O" screamed Sonic.
Manic looked up in time to see a gargantuan eight legged monster descending on him from a web in the tree. He didn't scream or run, he simply fell backward and held his arms up in front of himself as the spider got closer. The thing was as big as he was, and those fangs could take fist sized chunks out of him, and time seemed to pause just as it was about to land on him...until Manic realized the Spider had simply stopped dropping. That was when he noticed the spider's angry expression never changed. Nor did it's powerful legs move. Putting these facts together, he came to the obvious conclusion: it was a big fake.
However, Manic's nerves were so rattled that it still hadn't quite sunk into his head that he wasn't about to become spider food, and he stayed in his defensive position on the ground while Sonic was laughing so hard he had to lean against the tree for support...until something jumped out of said tree and landed behind him. Sonic turned around, only to feel a pair of fangs poking at his neck as the newcomer grabbed him and lowered her head toward his. She then backed up and looked him straight in the eye.
"You've been bitten...that makes you my slave, mortal," said Juliana in a fake Transylvanian accent.
It was all a big prank, and by none other than Skye's mom, Mrs. Sterin herself, who had dressed as a Vampiress, from the looks of it. Slowly, Manic regained his composure and got up off the ground and hugged Juliana, who pulled Sonic into the mix. While she was their friend's mom, she was also one of their friends since she played with them whenever they visisted.
"Out of everyone who ambushed us, you are the winner," said Sonic.
"I take it you weren't expecting my pet," purred Juliana, referencing her toy spider.
"We were expecting just you. Sonic thought you were in the leaf pile, XD" laughed Manic.
"Well that's only half true," replied Juliana.
"What do you mean?" asked Sonic.
"Well, you're not the only ones we invited," chuckled Juliana.
So there was someone hiding in the leaf pile, after all. But before the twins could go to investigate, another car pulled up to the house and out climbed Uncle Cameron and Aunt Sauna. Cameron was a dark blue furred male hedgehog, while Sauna was a female hedgehog with hot pink fur. Manic and Sonic's jaws dropped when they realized who came over and immediately raced into the backyard and jumped into the leaf mountain and grabbed the two hedgehogs inside.
"Ahh, they got me!"
"WAAAAAHHHHH!"
"Get off me!"
"Apple sauce!"
Unable to take the tickle torture any longer, the two other hedgehogs finally crawled out of the leaf pile. Manic and Sonic poked their heads out to see their cousins, Caity, and her baby brother Bobby, wiping leaves off their costumes. Caity, a brown furred, 10 and a half year old female hedgehog, was dressed as a Japanese Empress. Bobby, a purple furred, 3 year old male hedgehog, was dressed as a green dinosaur.
"Nice dino costume," commented Sonic.
"Actually, he's dressed as Godzilla," said Caity, getting up off the ground.
She did have a point since those quills on Bobby's back did make him look similar to the King of all Monsters.
"So you came all the way here from South Island?" asked Manic.
"Yup. Mom and Dad thought we should come visit you guys for halloween, and then we were invited to the party by Mrs. Sterin." replied Caity.
"Awesome. But where's Match?" asked Manic, referencing Caity's younger brother Matt, who was Manic and Sonic's age, and was known as "Match" because of his fiery fur color and a burn on his arm.
"He's very sick, so he stayed home with Gramma and Grampa," replied Caity.
"Oh. Poop balls. How's Ashura doing?" asked Sonic.
"Actually, he should be here any minute," replied Caity.
"AWESOME BLOSSOM!" shouted the twins in unison while Bobby clapped.
Ashura was an older cousin of Manic, Sonic, Sonia, Caity, and Bobby. He was 16 and had unusual fur and eye colors. His fur was black and green while his eyes were ruby red. The last time either of the twins had seen Ashura was three years before when he spent Christmas with them. They couldn't remember that time very well because they were 4, and Ashura was pretty fat back then, so they could only wonder what he looked like now.
They all heard a noise on the other side of the house and stopped to listen. It was the sound of a car pulling up.
"Leaf pile!" whispered Caity sharply.
They all dived in and buried themselves in the leaves and waited...and waited...and waited...and waited...
"Aren't they curious about where we are? :(" asked Manic.
"Someone probably ratted us out," suggested Caity.
"They wouldn't! :O" hissed Sonic.
"Rats. Bad." said Bobby.
They waited for at least ten minutes before they decided that no one was coming out, and they all erupted from the leaf mountain like magma from a volcano and charged toward the house and went inside to find Uncle Jake, Aunt Bernadette, and their other cousins Sunny and Cosmic waiting for them, but not Ashura. :(
Hugs and kisses all around.
Jake was a silvery white colored hedgehog with bright green tipped qills, and was dressed like a Sith Lord. His wife Bernadette, however, looked like an older, female version of Sonic, but with blonde hair, and was dressed as a Jedi, complete with a lightsaber handle attached to her robe's belt. Their middle child, a green furred, hedgehog named Cosmic, was Sonia's age, and was dressed as a Clone Trooper since Attack of the Clones came out the previous year. Jake and Bernadette's youngest child was a two year old, female hedgehog named Sunny, not just because of her bright yellow fur and honey colored eyes, but also because of her bright personality. Everything about her shined like the sun. It seemed fitting that she was dressed as a bumblebee.
Ashura was nowhere to be found.
"Where'd Ash go?" asked Caity.
"Oh, he went into the bathroom just before you guys got in," replied Caity's dad, Cameron.
It was then that Manic and Sonic noticed the costumes Caity and Bobby's parents were wearing. Cameron was dressed like a Roman Legionaire while Sauna was dressed like a Greek Princess, olive leaf crown, and all.
Then they heard a toilet flush and the twins raced toward the door that the noise came from and watched it open slowly. But the bathroom lights had been turned off and the only thing they could see were a pair of shades looking down at them.
"Manic Hedge?" asked a slightly familiar, though slightly matured, voice.
"Yeah?" asked Manic awkwardly.
The door flew open to reveal a green furred hedgehog dressed entirely in leather, along with the shades over his eyes. He raised a stainless steel capgun at Manic and pulled the trigger before Manic could unholster his revolver.
The blast shook the house and made several other people jump.
"You are terminated!" said Ashura in an Austrian accent.
He was dressed like the Terminator since T3 came out only a few months before, and he looked just as buffed up, too.
"How'd you get so thin? :O" asked Manic.
"I worked out alot." replied Ashura, removing his shades to reveal his red eyes underneath.
"I think that's everyone," said Harvey, checking a list.
"So what now?" asked Ashura, a toy double barrelled shotgun resting on his shoulder.
"Uncle Chuck will escort you guys while you go trick or treating, and we adults will stay here and prepare for da best partay eva! :D" replied Juliana.
"Cool beans! When do we leave?" asked Cosmic, his blaster rifle at the ready.
Harvey looked at his watch.
"In about 5, 4, 3, 2-"
"Okay we get it!" replied Ashura.
He ran out the door with his halloween bag and Manic followed after him and watched Ashura grab another bag from the bushes. He caught up to him and asked "What's in the bag?"
Ashura gave him an evil smirk.
"We're not just gonna collect candy from these houses, we're gonna give them something in return, XD" he chuckled.
"What are we gonna give them? O.O" asked Manic.
"A collection of too-good-to-pass-ups that me and Caity threw together, X3" snickered Ashura, opening the bag and letting Manic get a quick glance inside.
Manic's eyes turned to saucers when he saw the bag's contents: firecrackers, chalk, stink bombs, and various other items.
"Get ready for some real fun, we're going on a prank spree!" declared Ashura, his fist raised.