So this is basically a weird idea I had that I decided to turn into a Halloween fic. As in I will probably only update it around Halloween since it will take that long to work out how it will progress.

I don't own Shield Hero, Overlord, Undertale, One Piece, or Skeleton Soldier That Couldn't Protect the Dungeon. Rights to their respective owners.

Chapter 1: Summoning Skeletons

A group of mages in a certain castle in a certain world were performing a ritual to summon four heroes to save their world. A bright light filled the circle as the ritual was completed

"Huh?"

"what the…?"

"Eh?"

"..."

They managed to succeed.

"Oh Heroes! Please save our world!"

But the heroes were not what they were expecting. There, standing in the summoning circle were not four humans as they had expected, but four skeletons of varying sizes and states of dress. One was at least eight feet tall and had an afro, while another was only five feet at most. The other two, while benign closer to an average person's size, had their own oddities. One was dressed in exquisite robes and had red beads of light in its eye sockets, while the other wore nothing at all.

Murmurs erupted among the mages as they were uncertain of what to do.

"AHHHH! A BUNCH OF SKELETONS!" The tallest skeleton exclaimed while looking at the other three.

"look in a mirror lately?"

"AHHH! A TALKING SKELETON!"

The mages' murmurs became confusion at the skeletons' reactions to each other.

"It has been a long while since I last met another skeleton capable of talking." The naked one commented. "But the mages surrounding us seem like a bigger concern."

The tall skeleton's mouth hung open for a moment before he responded. "Good point." He then turned to face the mage that looked like he was incharge. "Excuse me, but how exactly did we arrive here?"

The mages were slow to respond, but one stepped forwards. "There are many complications in this situation, but to offer a simple answer to your question, we have just completed an ancient ceremony and summoned you four Heroes."

The skeleton wearing the robes murmured something to himself, at least the mages assumed it was a he, but no one was able to hear what it was.

"Our world teeters on the brink of destruction. Heroes, please lend us your strength." The mages all bowed to the skeletons.

"Umm…. I know this will sound a bit awkward, bu~t you didn't just summon us because you were too lazy to do it yourselves, ri~ght?" The tallest skeleton asked. "I recently met some people like that who wanted me to kill all their enemies and that did not go well."

"I assure you, brave heroes, that we would not have summoned you all if we were not in desperate need."

"sounds like you're really boned," the shortest skeleton joked.

"Yohohohohoho." The tallest skeleton laughed as the other two just looked at them.

The robed skeleton cleared his throat (does he even have a throat to clear?) before speaking. "You speak of your needs, but not of why we should assist you. As a ruler who has been abducted from his throne by this ritual of yours, I do not feel particularly inclined to help. I suggest you speak quickly, before I grow impatient."

"Yes, well, we would very much like you to speak with the king. He will discuss compensation with you in the throne room."

"Very well then. Take us to your ruler."

The mage bowed before opening the doors and directing them down a hallway.

The quartet of skeletons walked down the hall, with a slight pause by the window overlooking the castletown, until they eventually reached a throne room. As they entered they saw the king sitting on one of two thrones, the other remaining empty. The taller two of the four looked around, the robed one simply scanning the room regally while the tallest stared at anything that caught his eye. On the other hand, the shorter two didn't make much in the way of unnecessary movements.

"Huh…" The king could hardly control his shock at seeing four skeletons having been summoned as heroes. "So these are the four Holy Heroes?" After receiving confirmation the king continued. "My name is Aultcray Melromarc XXXII, and I rule these lands. Now then, I shall begin with an explanation. This country, no, this whole world is on the brink of destruction."

The king continued on to explain the situation of the waves being predicted by an hourglass and how they would need to fight them. The skeletons' thoughts varied from having no idea what he was talking about to comparing the waves to timed events.

Once again it was the robed skeleton that spoke. "I can certainly see why it is that you would perform a ritual to summon assistance. But what reason do we have to assist you rather than to return to where we came from? As a fellow monarch I am sure you understand that my first concern is to my own people, as such leaving them for an extended length of time to assist you would require adequate compensation."

Many eyes went wide as they heard him refer to himself as a monarch. His robes were exquisite to say the least, but no one expected that a skeleton could actually be the ruler of a country. The king thought on this information for some time, even going as far as to prevent his minister from answering for him as he contemplated how to respond.

"guess they weren't expecting a royal summons."

Meanwhile the other skeletons were now looking at the robed one.

"Oh my. Are you really a king?" The tallest asked.

"Indeed I am. Apologies, it would seem I have yet to properly introduce myself." The robed skeleton flipped the sword he held in his hand to a reverse grip and let the tip touch the ground, taking up a majestic pose that was likely well practiced using a staff. "I am the Sorcerer King Ainz Ooal Gown, Absolute Ruler of the Sorcerous Kingdom."

A new wave of murmurs erupted from the nobles watching. Skeleton or not it was hard to deny the regality of his movements and speech.

Just before the silence became awkward, the shortest skeleton spoke. "nice to meet you. name's sans, sans the skeleton." He moved the bow he was holding to his back before reaching out to offer a handshake.

"Do you think I am unable to see the whoopie cushion strapped to your palm?"

"heh, guess i can't fool everybody."

"You would try a prank like that on a king? I can't believe my eyes… That is, if I had eyes. YOHOHOHO."

"nice one. but it looks like we're the only ones with any funnybones." Sans noted the lack of reaction from both Ainz and the naked skeleton.

It was then that the king cleared his throat to regain everyone's attention. "It would seem I must apologize to you, Sorcerer King Gown, as we did not expect to summon a monarch such as yourself to be one of the four cardinal heroes. While I have made arrangements to both support the heroes financially and provide you with whatever you may require, it is not possible for us to return you to your country." A dark aura surrounded Ainz, causing the hair of many to stand on end and even the tallest skeleton to tremble in fear. "But it has been said that the heroes are able to return to their respective worlds after quelling the waves." The aura Ainz was emitting faded but many were still wary of what he may do.

"Then it would seem that we have no choice but to help if we wish to return to our homes."

"Oh yes. While I am interested in this world I do need to return to my crew. Though… I do have two years before we need to meet up. I hope we can finish this by then." The afroed skeleton commented without anyone really listening to him.

The king once again cleared his throat. "Now then, would the other heroes please tell us your names."

"Yes, my name is Brook, your majesty, also known as the humming swordsman." The tallest skeleton gave a bow, but accidentally knocked his ribs with the shield that had affixed itself to his arm.

Finally all eyes turned to the final skeleton, wearing no clothes and holding a spear. "I am a skeleton soldier. I don't have a name… I have used several aliases in the past but personally I don't much care what I am called."

"What? How sad to not even have a name of your own." Brook looked down on him with pity.

"I suppose we shall simply have to refer to you by your title, Spear Hero."

The skeleton soldier thought for a moment while looking at the spear. "I normally use a sword." He turned to look at Ainz. "Care to trade?"

"Um… I'm also a swordsman. I think this might actually be the first time I've even held a shield." Brook threw in.

"That won't be possible." The king interjected. "Anyone who has been chosen by one of the legendary weapons can only use that weapon. That is why you each must go on a journey to strengthen them and yourselves. But first, Heroes. Please confirm your status, and give yourselves an objective evaluation."

Three of the skeletons started looking at things that only they could see, while Brook looked himself over confused. "Uhhhh… Your majesty? I'm not really sure what you mean by that."

It was Ainz that answered him. "There should be an icon in your vision, try and focus on it."

"OH! I see it now. Thank you, your… uh… other majesty? Hmmm… this could get confusing."

"Please, just call me Ainz."

"Really? You're fine with being addressed so informally?"

"Yes. We are going to be working together to save this world, so it is important to have a good relationship. That being the case I see no reason to hold on to formalities."

"heh. when you talk like that, you actually remind me a bit of king asgore."

"Sooo… what is this?" Brook asked the king.

"Do these things not exist in your worlds, oh Heroes? You are experiencing 'Status Magic.' Everyone in this world can see and use it."

"What?! Everyone can see these numbers about us?"

"i think you can only see them for yourself."

"Indeed. I am familiar with a similar system. It stands to reason that one would only have access to their own stats and perhaps those in their party. But I assume it would be far more difficult to learn such information of an enemy."

"Sir Ainz is correct." The king confirmed. "While there are methods to learn of another's stats they are rather complex."

"Well that is good to know. But I'm surprised my defense is so high. Even if I have been called thick skulled. YOHOHOHOHOHO!"

"Perhaps that is due to your class. Would I be correct in assuming it appears as Shield Hero?"

"It does! Are you sure you can't see it?"

"It was simply an assumption based on my own showing as Sword Hero."

"Oh, that makes sense."

"I would assume that your defense is particularly high, so you will likely take on the tank role in the party."

"So I'm supposed to block any attacks they send at us?"

"Wait just a moment, Heroes."

"Eh?" Brook's head tilted sideways as the king drew their attention.

"The four of you should set out separately, to recruit your own companions."

"Is there a particular reason for this?" Ainz asked curiously.

"According to the legends, the Legendary Weapons you possess will interfere with one another should you form a party. Both your weapons and yourselves can only grow when you are apart from one another."

"I see…" Ainz raised a hand to his chin as he seemed to be reading something. "Then we will each need to form our own parties inline with our own styles and methods. But we will still have to work together during the waves, so it would be best if they are able to function together, or at the very least not interfere with each other."

"I will attempt to secure travel companions for you all. Regardless, evening draws near. Heroes, you should rest for the night and prepare for departure on the morrow. In the meantime, I will find companions for you from the village below."

"Umu. I'll leave it to you then."

"So we can relax for the night?"

"sounds good to me, i've always been a man of into rest."

"YOHOHOHO! That's a good one. I'll have to remember it."

A maid led the four skeletons to a room that had been prepared for them. Once she showed them there, Brook asked her a question.

"Excuse me, but may I see your panties?"

The maid ran away.

"Has anyone ever said yes when you asked them that?"

"Believe it or not, the last people who thought they summoned me were more than happy to. Buuuuut, they were mostly men. And no matter how many times I said I wasn't interested in man panties they wouldn't listen."

"must be pretty thick skulled if you'd still ask after something like that."

"Actually it's hollow." Brook opened the top of his skull to show them. "But I do keep a few things in here, so I can't be accused of being empty headed. YOHOHOHOHO."

"talk about having things on your mind."

"Funny enough, I don't always think about them. Though I do hold them close to my heart."

"what heart?"

"Hey. I know I joke about my appearance a lot, but it hurts when someone else does it."

"sorry. didn't realize it was a sore spot."

"It's alright. As a fellow skeleton you have as much of a right to use skeleton jokes in general as I do, but please don't make any about the organs I now lack. You'd think I would be used to it after fifty years, but I'm still sensitive about having become a skeleton."

"what? become a skeleton? you weren't born one?"

The other three skeletons looked at Sans surprised.

"I wasn't aware that it was possible for a skeleton to be born. Are you referring to awakening from your grave as birth? Or perhaps a specific type of ritual?" Ainz asked inquisitively.

"no. i mean born as in born. the same way all monsters are. why would i have a grave?"

The others looked at each other trying to think of how to respond. In the end it was the Spear Hero who spoke first.

"I was awakened by a human necromancer while my bones lay where they were buried. My body may have been human once, and they would have had to of been born, but I'm not that person and don't have any memories from before my awakening."

"what the hell? are you saying all that stuff about raising the undead from alphys's anime can really happen?"

"I don't know what an anime is, but I have known several necromancers."

"What? I always hoped that was just superstition. But are there really people that can turn corpses into puppets other than Moria? One devil-fruit being able to let someone do that was bad enough, but several? that's just too much." Brook slowly shook his head. "Then again… I did eat one that made me end up a talking skeleton."

"Devil fruit?"

"never heard of anyone demonizing fruit before."

"You know, those fruit that when eaten give people some unique ability but make it so they can't swim. Have you really never heard of them?"

"Perhaps." Ainz had been listening to them talk for some time and finally came up with a theory. "It might be that we each came from a different world."

"being here proves other worlds exist. so that's possible."

"I guess."

"It wouldn't be the strangest thing I've seen."

"Now that that's settled," Ainz continued, "I believe it would be best for us to learn as much as we can about this world and how we can become stronger to survive. There seems to be a help section in the 'Status Magic' and that seems to be as good a place to start as any."

"Oh wow. There's a lot in here." Brook exclaimed as he apparently found the help screen. "This could take a while. I may as well get comfortable." The tall skeleton walked over to one of the beds and layed down. "Oh my, these beds are fantastic. You've got to try them."

Spear Hero walked over to his own and sat down without saying a word.

"looks like they are giving us the royal treatment."

"They do seem to be providing us with some of the best amenities available to them. Though it pales to that of Nazarick, the effort can be appreciated." Ainz chose to sit in a chair at a table rather than a bed and proceed to skim through him help screen.

Not long after they had settled down, a knock came at the door. "Heroes, we have prepared a meal for you."

"Food? How wonderful. I haven't had a decent meal in days." Brook jumped up and went to the door, followed by sans. Then he turned back to see that Ainz and the Spear Hero only looked at them strangely. "Aren't you two coming?"

"The skeletal-type undead of my world are incapable of eating." Ainz replied.

"I don't eat either."

"Oh… Then I shall endeavor to eat enough for all three of us!" Brook boldly proclaimed as he and Sans followed the maid to the dining hall.

The Spear Hero looked at Ainz. "Those two are… odd."

"From our perspective, yes, but they likely feel the same about us. All people have their own normal, so those who have sufficiently different normals will each see the other as strange. This is even more true when referring to those who come from different worlds. In such cases even things that seem like they should be common sense to one could be a completely foreign concept to the other."

Not knowing how to respond, the Spear Hero remained silent and went back to trying to figure out the Status Magic which had replaced the blue windows he was used to.

Of course, while what Ainz had said made him seem very open minded, even he wasn't sure how those two skeletons were even capable of eating. Regardless, he continued to look for any useful information he could find within the help screen

Meanwhile the castle cooks were dumbstruck by Brook's ability to keep his word about eating enough for three. Several couldn't help but to lean down in an attempt to see where it disappeared to, but it seemed to simply vanish after entering his mouth.

"Oh my, this is quite delicious." He commented while stuffing his face.

"i don't know where you put it all." Sans was equally surprised by how much Brook could eat.

"This is nothing. You should see how much Luffy eats. Everything on the table would have only been enough for his first course."

Once they were done eating the two returned to the room where their fellow heroes were waiting.

"From your expression it seems that you found the food to be more than appetizing."

"Oh yeah! I ate so much I think my stomach might explode. That is, if I had one! YOHOHOHOHO! Excuse me." *Fart*

"and you thought my using a whoopie cushion was bad," Sans chuckled.

Ainz got up to open a window after Brook lowered the air quality.

Omake: Theme Song

Brook stood up and addressed his fellow heroes. "So I've been thinking and if we are going to be heroes we really should have a theme song."

The Spear hero tilted head in confusion as he looked at Brook

"A theme song?"

"agreed."

"Great" Brook pulled out a guitar from who knows where. "Hmm… this could be difficult with only one instrument. Can anyone else play?"

"incidentally, i'm pretty good at the trombone." Sans joined him.

Ainz simply looked at them and asked, "Are you seriously doing this?"

"But of course. And I know just the song." Brook started to strum the first few notes of Spooky Scary Skeletons.

Spear Hero: "I don't understand what's happening."

Sans: "I got ya." *starts playing along on a trombone that he hadn't been holding seconds before.*

Ainz: "I can't believe this is."

Brook: "Spooky, scary skeletons."

Ainz: "Send shivers down your spine." (What? Why did I just sing along?)

Brook: "Shrieking skulls will shock your soul."

Sans: "seal your doom tonight."

Brook: *points at Spear Hero*

Spear Hero: "Spooky, scary skeletons?"

Brook: "Speak with such a screech."

Sans: "you'll shake and shudder in surprise"

Brook: "When you hear these old bones shriek"

Spear Hero: "We're such sorry skeletons"

Ainz: "We're so misunderstood."

Brook: "I only want to socialize" *is seen chasing a group of girls in dresses*

Spear Hero: "but I don't think we should"

Sans: "'cause spooky, scary skeletons"

Brook: "Shout startling, shrilly screams"

Spear Hero: "I'll sneak from my sarcophagus, And just won't leave you be"

Brook: "Spirits supernatural are shy what's all the fuss?"

Ainz: "But bags of bones seem so unsafe, it's semi-serious"

Brook: "Spooky, scary skeletons"

Sans: "we're silly all the same"

Brook: "We'll smile and scrabble slowly by"

Ainz: "All this is so insane."

Brook: "Sticks and stones may break our bones."

Spear Hero: "So seldom do we snooze"

Brook: "Spooky, scary skeletons, will wake you with a boo!"

. . .

Ainz looked at Brook while the red dots in his eye sockets glowed ominously. "I don't understand how that just happened but NEVER do it again."

The way I see the weapons choosing these guys

options limited to skeletons

Spear: "Well there are still a few good choices, I suppose."

Shield: "Dibs!" takes Brook

Sword: "This guy is mine." abducts Ainz

Bow: "I like this one." chooses Sans

Spear: "I guess I'll take the nameless guy then."

That skeleton guy from Berserk is left standing alone and unpicked.