Holiday Presents

By: Aubrie1234

Dear Readers, this is my story for Halloween! Sorry it's so late, but I had Writer's Block. Some of the costumes in here are references to other shows and things. The characters may also be OOC.

Halloween was coming up fast, and everyone was going to go Trick-or-Treating. Even Paul, but that was because Dawn and Reggie were forcing him to. They all decided to go trick-or-treating in Pallet Town, Kanto, with Ash and Gary. Misty was the first to arrive, followed by Trip and Georgia. Trip was a ghost while Georgia was an Ice Queen. They were waiting for Ash and the others outside Prof. Oak's lab.

"Where's Ketchum? He should have been here by now, along with Gary." Trip said, crossing his arms. Georgia shrugged.

"Don't ask me. I'm not the one who became their rivals, you are." she said, "And anyway, why are you more worried about Ash? I thought you really disliked him."

"Not as much as before, but I still dislike him. And, for your information, he's my rival; I have the right to worry." She rolled her eyes.

"Yeah yeah yeah." Then, she squinted out to the road, seeing something.

"Trip," she asked, pointing, "What is that?" He turned to look. They stood watching as two figures approached. As they drew nearer, it became obvious that one was wearing a construction worker suit and the other was wrapped in a white sheet with multiple dark spots. Georgia blinked, thinking that someone had dressed as a very misshapen Zebstrika. Suddenly, she realized these were holes cut into the sheet. She bit her bottom lip in an attempt to keep from laughing. Trip dryly asked, looking around, "Alright, who gave Ketchum the scissors?"

A surprised Ash flipped the hole-filled sheet over his head with some difficulty, "Hey!" he shouted, "How'd you know it was me?"

Trip smirked and said, "It was either you or a white Sableye with black jewels."

"HEY!" Ash shouted even louder.

Georgia giggled softly and said, "Honestly, Ash, you look more like a potato than anything."

Ash turned to the construction worker, who was Misty, and asked, "What do they mean? I thought I looked cool." Misty just shook her head before hitting Ash over the head with her mallet.

"OW! And anyway, Misty gave me the scissors."

"Safety ones, I hope?" Trip smirked even wider. Ash glared at him even as Misty, who was now standing behind him, nodded sadly in agreement.

"Wait a second, Ash. Where's Pikachu?" Georgia asked, looking around for the electric mouse.

"He's getting dressed for Halloween. Brock said he would pick him up when he comes over. I have no idea what Pikachu's dressing up as." Ash said, shrugging.

Soon, everyone had come. Gary was laughing hysterically at Ash, lying on the ground and holding his stomach as he laughed his head off. The others had laughed as well and even Paul had chuckled at Ash's misfortune.

"Stop laughing, Gary! It isn't funny!" Ash said angrily, stomping his foot. Gary, who was dressed as cowboy, kept laughing. Umbreon was dressed as Gary did in Sinnoh, watching him laugh with a sigh. Pikachu, who was dressed as Ash, was laughing with the brunette.

"At least Reggie didn't laugh at me." Paul said. His Torterra was dressed as him (thanks to Reggie and Dawn's tailoring skills).

"Dawn did mention that you were going to dress up as a doctor, then a patient, and finally Frankenstein. Why deciding on Frankenstein? It fits, but I'm curious." Cress said. He was dressed as Ka-zar for some reason and Panpour was Zabu.

"Well, I'm dressed as a nurse, so there was no way he was going to be a doctor. I suggested he be my patient, but he refused. So, finally, we settled on him being Frankenstein." Dawn explained, "At least Conway isn't here." Piplup, Dawn's partner, was dressed as her and was being held in her arms.

"Who?" Barry asked. He was dressed as the Flash.

"Don't ask." Kenny said. He was a wizard.

"Yeah, well, even though you're a wizard, Kenny, don't even THINK that this is just a coincidence. We only had the same idea." May said. She was dressed as a witch and Blaziken was dressed as his human trainer (Which made him a bit uncomfortable; he was a boy in girl's clothes, for goodness' sake!).

"Has anyone even bothered to mention the other weird costumes people are wearing?" Drew said. He was a werewolf and Roserade was dressed as him. He was staring at Brock with a scared look on his face.

"I had nothing to with my costume, Drew. It was all my siblings' doing! I honestly wanted to be a wrestler." Brock said. He was dressed as a ballerina.

"Then why are you wearing that?" Solidad asked. She was dressed as a princess.

"They had hidden all of my other clothes." he said, embarrassed.

"Yeah... I fell sorry for you, Brocko." Ritchie said. He was dressed as a Beedrill. However, once Misty saw him, she screamed and ran up to and inside Prof. Oak's lab.

"I told you you shouldn't have worn that costume, Ritchie." Max said. He was dressed as Captain America.

"Is Misty really this afraid of bugs?" Zoey asked. She was dressed as Wonder Woman.

"Yep." Ash sighed, finally giving up on trying to stop Gary and Pikachu from laughing.

"I kind of have the same reaction to anything that can't be scientifically explained." Cilan said. He was dressed as a school girl and Pansage was dressed as him.

"...Remind me again why you're wearing that costume, Cilan?" Stephan asked. He was dressed as Batman.

"Chili." Iris simply answered, pointing at said boy, who was dressed as Iron Man and grinning like an idiot. She was dressed as a dragon and Axew was dressed as her, complete with wig.

"Why didn't you say that you wouldn't wear it, hun?" Harley asked. He was dressed as a prisoner.

"Same reason as Brock, I bet?" Cameron said. He was dressed as Superman. Cilan hung his head in shame and silent agreement. Everyone sweatdropped.

"Why don't we just catch up with Misty?" Bianca suggested. She was dressed as Hawkgirl. Everyone agreed. Once they were up there, they trick-or-treated with Prof. Oak and Tracy and managed to make a compromise with Misty. Ritchie and Misty could both be in the group, just as faraway from each other as possible. They then left and went out to trick-or-treat.

"Is it just me, or do some of the others seem to be closer to each other than usual?" Cameron asked Stephan after a while.

"You mean the princess and the prisoner; the potato ghost and the construction worker; the witch and the werewolf; the nurse and Frankenstein; or the school girl and the dragon?" he asked.

"All of them." Cameron said, starting to grin, "And this gives me an idea."

"What sort of idea?" Stephan asked.

"Just get the others who aren't in couples and meet up at the Ketchum's house." he said, running off. Stephan shook his head at the kid's actions, but he did them anyway.

"...This is the last house on the block." Drew said as the couples stood outside the mentioned house. However, it seemed to be old and rickety, ancient almost.

"This is where they always hold the haunted house ride, but they didn't do it this year." Ash said, looking up at the house.

"Is it just me, or have the others disappeared?" May asked, looking around behind her. The others looked to and saw that she was right.

"Should we worry?" Dawn asked.

"Nah. They're probably waiting to scare us or something." Misty said.

"Well, even though there isn't a haunted house ride this year, why don't we look through the house?" Solidad suggested.

"It can't be too scary... can it?" Harley asked.

"The effects they do in the ride are much scarier than the house itself, usually, so we have nothing to worry about." Cilan said.

"Don't be so sure, Connoisseur." Paul said, "Scary things could happen in the most unlikely of places." That made Cilan gulp quietly and Iris glare at the purple-haired teen. They went inside anyway, though.

"You sure this is gonna work?"

"What wouldn't scare the pants off of them? This will scare even Paul, I promise you."

"Shh, guys! They're coming inside!"

They went inside, jumping slightly at the creaking door. Once they were inside, however, the door slammed shut and most of the girls and Cilan jumped into the boys' (and Iris's) arms with squeaks and shouts. Once Paul recognized who was in his arms, he dropped Dawn; Ash and Drew collapsed under the weight of May and Misty; Harley was the only one to keep his girl in his arms (and Iris was able to keep Cilan in her arms) without falling over.

"Pfft! They were really scared by that!"

"They'll be even more scared of what's to come!"

"W-what was that?!" May squeaked.

"A-air...?" Ash said, though it was more of a suggestion to get off of him and Drew.

"You know you didn't have to drop me, Plum-head!" Dawn shrieked at Paul, who didn't seem to hear her and was looking around.

"You would have been fine." he said.

"Off, please...!" Drew struggled to say. The girls immediately got off of the two, who then tried to get their breathe back.

"Is it just me, or does it seem too quiet right now...?" Solidad said, though Harley was the only one who heard. He shrugged the best he could with her in his arms before setting her back on her feet, Iris doing the same to Cilan.

"Why'd you jump into my arms anyway, hun?"

"I don't like things that surprise me all that much; Especially scary things."

"Just like Cilan!" Ash interjected before being whacked on the head by Misty's mallet.

"Is he usually this dumb?"

"Yes, but he does have good ideas sometimes."

Once they had gotten their nerves back, they started climbing the staircase. That is, until-

"AAHHHH!" most of them shouted when a sheet shot out from behind one of the rail ornaments. Cilan's was the loudest and the highest, more like a girl's scream than the girls' screams were. Paul jumped, but he didn't scream. Most things didn't surprise or scare him. But, the sheet was just a sheet and fluttered to the ground.

"I-it's just our imagination. Yeah, that's it. Just our imagination..." Cilan muttered over and over.

"He really won't like what's coming if he acts like this..."

"Does he ever?"

"Good point..."

They continued up the stairs until they reached a hallway, looking into each room until they came upon a large one with all of its furniture covered with sheets. There were no windows and only one, large painting hanging on the wall, but it was covered with a sheet as well.

"Whoa. Who knew a room could be so big?" Ash said, venturing inside with the others following.

"Yeah..." May said, looking around.

"What do you think is on the painting?" Dawn asked.

"Only one way to find out, Troublesome."

"MY NAME IS DAWN!"

"Shh! Don't yell so loud! We have no idea what could be in here." Solidad said.

"She's right; For all we know, we could be in the middle of a gathering of invisible ghost pokemon." Drew said. Cilan fainted at that.

"Drew! Now look at what you've done!" May said angrily.

"I was just saying my thoughts, Ai-" Harley covered his mouth before he could say more.

"If you finish that sentence, May will kill you." he advised. Drew nodded, then Harley uncovered his mouth with a sigh.

"Then why do I get the feeling that you aren't going to take my advice?"

"Does he ever?"

"Don't answer that."

"Why shouldn't I?"

"Guys! It's almost time for us to pull our trick!"

"Let's just find out what the picture is." Iris said, grabbing the sheet with Misty. As soon as they pulled it off, the other sheets came to life and started moving about.

"YOU HAVE DISTURBED OUR HOME, SO NOW YOU SHALL PAY!" a ghostly voice said. All of them (except Paul) screamed, then bolted out of the room and the house. They didn't stop running until they were over ten yards away from the house. Then, Misty spoke up.

"Are we...forgetting something?" she asked. They all looked to each other until Solidad spoke up.

"Cilan and Paul aren't here." That made them panic.

"You guys aren't that scary, you know." Paul said to the moving sheets. They all stopped and a figure popped their head from underneath a sheet. It was Cameron.

"How'd you know it was us?"

"Who else would want to scared the pants off of Ketchum and Co.?" Paul then jabbed his thumb at the fainted Cilan, "You also forgot about Sleeping Beauty over here."

Soon, everyone had met up again. Ash, Misty, May, Harley, Dawn (and even Drew and Solidad) took turns whacking the others with Misty's mallet because they had scared them, but they said they had a lot of fun.

"By the way, Paul, how DID you know it was them?"

"That's for me to know, Troublesome, and for you not to find out..."

Finally! I have gotten over my Writer's Block and finished the Halloween chapter of Holiday Presents!

Dawn: Who's next and what holiday are they doing?

Me: FFC and Veteran's Day.

Dina: YES! Ha, TOLD YOU! (Drew grudgingly gives her 10 dollars)

Tai: What's that for?

Paul: He bet against Dina that the FFC characters wouldn't go next. He lost, obviously.

Me: (facepalms) Readers, please review.