Holiday Special #3: Halloween

Halloween had always been James' favorite holiday, in one form or another. Until his family moved to Brockton Bay, and for the first year after, his mother had insisted on not celebrating 'the devil's birthday'. Instead, the Barron family would go to a 'harvest festival' sometime in late October or early November. October 31st itself was spent pretending to not be home, in hopes no one would 'trick' the house for not giving out candy. In the South it usually worked. In the Bay? It took years after that first Halloween for James to find out that 'a gross' isn't only a measurement for eggs. Ever since then, James had enjoyed dressing up as his favorite heroes, the occasional villain, even characters from retro and Earth Aleph media.

During his first year as a Cape, James had planned on dressing in some of the edgier costume options [Crafting] and [ID Create] offered him, until Gaia had given him and Taylor a quest to keep children from eating 'candy' from the Merchants. His impassioned speech on the sanctity of Trick-or-Treating as he pummeled the drug-pushers responsible went viral, including the part where Skidmark nearly ganked him from ambush. Taylor saved him at the last minute by giving Skids a 'bad acid flashback' ("Oh god! There are spiders UNDER MY SKIN!") and smirking while giving what sounded like a well rehearsed speech about 'allies of justice' and 'looking out for each other'. One of the children recorded the whole thing and posted it to ViewTube. It went completely viral, and it took James months to get people to stop quoting it. Gaia must have liked it too, as their quest rewards were a pair of costumes. 'Sailor Moon' for James and 'Tuxedo Mask' for Taylor. He didn't get the joke until after he'd equipped the 'new gear'. The +25% to magic damage and +10 to Speech were almost worth equipping it again though.

His second year, James tried to avoid the issue, without ruining his night, by inviting the whole gang over for a costume party. Each of them dressed up as the first supervillain they ever defeated, gender adjusted if necessary. James and Taylor spent most of the night joke-arguing about who deserved credit for defeating Lung. Everyone agreed that she wore his scales better. Lisa made Coil's black and white bodysuit look good. Rachel refused to dress up as Hookwolf, but did carry around a life-sized sculpture of his transformed head, fake blood dripping from it. Despite repeated reminders that he didn't have to cross-dress, Alec showed up in a spectacularly well-made Glass Bakuda costume, translucent fake boobs and all. Once again, Aisha proved that there was nothing she couldn't add her own touch to, turning a Kaiser theme into a whole new vehicle for showcasing cleavage. And blades. Lots and lots of blades. Brian insisted that his costume wasn't Jason, but refused to wear purple with his hockey mask.

The quest showed up around midnight, and simply requested they all bob for apples. As each of the partiers retrieved their apple, it was instantly coated in caramel as the quest completed and a new costume appeared in their hands. Everyone agreed that Rachel made a fantastic Werewolf, still hauling around her bladed wolf head. Lisa was the only person not happy with her Banshee costume. Frankenstein's monster really shouldn't be bishonen, but Alec wouldn't wear it any other way. Brian made for a very intimidating, if billowy, Death. Any and all complaints that an Invisible Woman costume shouldn't show cleavage between the bandages were cheerfully ignored by Aisha. And James and Taylor found themselves (jokingly) arguing again, this time about who made a better Vampire. Once again, the general consensus fell in support of Taylor's cape-wearing prowess.

This year, James tried to game the system by preparing his own quest ahead of time. He was proven right when the quest showed up before the sun even set.

[New Quest Alert: Distribute Candy!]

[Give out at least 500 pieces of candy (each)]

[Time limit: 3 hours]

[Reward: ? Costume(s), 50,000 XP, increased relationship with the children of Brockton Bay.]

[Failure: Decreased reputation with the old ladies who saw you buy all that candy, severe sugar crash]

With surprisingly similar smirks, the gathered parahumans shouldered their candy cannons and aimed out over the city.

"Fire!"

Victory was sweet. Even after Gaia rewarded them with Sugar Rush costumes.

Author's Note: I swear, next update is back to the main story. I was working on it when I suddenly remembered it's Halloween. And I couldn't not write this.