The Warners' Halloween Adventure
A/N: I wanted to do a story that put the Warners in Garfield's Halloween Adventure simply because I thought it would be amusing to see how the Warners would react to the pirate ghosts. Hope you enjoy. Happy Halloween!
It was Halloween night. The scenery was by and large a dark colored blue, broken up by the bright overhead street lamps on every corner, many brightly glowing jack-o-lanterns scattered on porches, railings, and lining up sidewalks, some accompanied with bales of bright yellow hay and scarecrows, the occasional Halloween decorations, purple and black streamers that blew in the wind, skeletons posed on the lawn furniture, glow-in-the-dark faces taped to trees and window panes, and the gaggle of brightly colored costumes of the children parading all around the streets of Burbank in search of candy.
The streets were full of pint-sized princesses, astronauts, aliens, ghosts, cowboys, super heroes, and so much more. Many kids wore store bought costumes, others had made their own, like a giant teal blue robot made out of cardboard boxes taped together, or a burglar who had donned regular black clothes and cut eye holes in a cardboard blindfold from a pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey game. They marched through the streets carrying plastic pumpkins with black faces, large shopping bags from department stores, or the old trusty pillowcase guaranteed to store enough candy in it until Christmas.
A whole gang of kids had split up to hit different houses, and out of the blackness in the void they'd left, three figures could be heard crunching leaves and snapping twigs as they made their way through bushes. Moving in perfect sync with one another, the three Warners popped up through the shrubs and landed at the curb dressed in pirate costumes, all with striped shirts, bandanas tied on their heads, gold hoops clipped to their ears, toy swords sheathed at their hips, all toting trick-or-treat pumpkins and Halloween flashlights.
"Yo ho! Yo ho!" they sang as they marched in unison through the empty street, "16 men on a dead man's chest-"
"Dees-gusting," Dot observed.
"Yo ho ho and a platter of rum-"
"-cake," Yakko added, and wagged his eyebrows as he said, "we gotta keep the parent groups out there happy so we don't get canned."
They resumed singing, "It's the greatest night of the year for kids of all ages both far and near."
"Better than Easter 'cuz who wants a boiled egg?" Yakko asked and stuck his tongue out.
"Better than Thanksgiving, still I love a good turkey leg!" Wakko made a slurping sound as he licked his lips.
"Better than Christmas Eve where you drink nog with nut-meg," Dot added and shrugged after.
"There's just plenty of treats to every kid who begs."
"Halloween!" the Warners jumped in the air and landed on their feet again.
"It started long ago in Britain and Ireland by people called Celts," Yakko explained.
"They celebrated New Year's in fall with big bonfires and whew they really smelts!" Wakko held his nose.
"But now it's a day for wearing costumes you made out of cardboard and felts!" Dot added.
"Long ago people put food out for ghosts who came back every Halloween night," Yakko continued as they observed a house on the corner with a bowl full of red apples set out by the jack-o-lanterns.
"They dressed up themselves to give the ghosts a real good fright," Wakko added as he pulled the tails of his shirt out to the sides like bat wings and hunkered down with a demonic look on his face.
"Now it's called trick-or-treat, and when you do, wear reflectors so cars can see your flashing light," Dot concluded.
"That's right, because it's-"
"Halloween!"
"A night to get candy, apples, popcorn, cookies, and if they don't have any sweets," Yakko pressed his finger down on the button for the doorbell, "be sure to ask for coins to help kids overseas...and then a little more to go to the corner store and buy your own treats."
They collected their goodies from that house and made a mad dash back out to the middle of the street again.
Yakko continued, "But don't forget the rules: when crossing the street, walk don't run, and don't scoff."
"Go with a parent or stay in a group and don't wander off," Dot added.
"Don't go inside a stranger's house, it just might be Boris Karloff!" Wakko said as he stood up straight and tall and made with the bat wings again.
"And remember-"
"Remember-"
"Remember!" the three Warners echoed as they danced around in a circle before facing the 4th wall again.
"Check your candy before ever consuming," Yakko advised, and added with a hand beside his mouth, "your parents might cheat you so don't be assuming."
"Stay safe," Dot said.
"Stay sane!" Wakko added in a fit of irony.
"And you just might avoid a whole lot of pain," Yakko concluded.
"On Halloween! Yo ho!"
"Now that that's over," Dot spoke, and turned to Yakko, "What're we doing here?"
"It's Halloween, and we're out trick-or-treating for candy just like all the other kids out here," Yakko explained as he gestured with his arms towards the whole vast landscape overrun with trick-or-treaters.
"Didn't Garfield already do this several years ago?" Dot asked.
"Yeah," Yakko answered as they walked through the lighted streets, "but CBS hasn't rerun his Halloween special for a while, so he said we could reuse the overall storyline as long as we didn't steal his music."
"I'm hungry," Wakko said.
"Well let's start hitting the houses and collect that candy," Yakko pulled his sword out of his belt, raised it over his head and bellowed, "CHARRRRRRRGE!"
The three of them took off running and squealing with glee as they anticipated unleashing themselves on the unsuspecting houses.
"Who decided popcorn balls were a treat?" Dot asked as she held up one wrapped in cellophane.
"Ehhh, everybody can use a doorstop now and then," Yakko said as he held up his too.
Wakko looked at his and popped it into his mouth, plastic wrap and all, and burped.
"Needs salt, but not bad."
Yakko and Dot looked at each other and shrugged and tossed theirs into their brother's mouth as well.
"The real question," Yakko reached into his pumpkin, "what kind of sick, deranged mind gives out carrot sticks for a treat?" He looked to the 4th wall and said, "We already did this song, among all the things we're not, rabbits are one of them."
"I know how to take care of that," Dot said, "keep walking this way."
They came to a lighted crossroad and encountered...
"Hiya, Warners," Buster Bunny said as he and Babs walked up, dressed up like Charlie Brown and Sally.
"Is that convenient or what?" Dot asked.
"A little too convenient, but we'll take it," Yakko said. "What kind of haul are you guys making?"
"Oh it's great," Babs said as she held up a pillow case full of candy.
"Impressive," Yakko said, "you guys got any carrot sticks?"
"No, do you?" Buster asked.
"Yep," Yakko held them out, and pointed back, "And they're giving them away at that house."
Buster snatched the ones out of his hand and the bunnies took of, leaving a cloud of dust behind them. "Thanks!"
"Well, there's our good deed for the decade," Yakko commented. "Onto the land of tooth decay!"
"Yo ho!" Wakko and Dot cheered in unison.
They hit every house and walked away with candy in all shapes, sizes and colored wrappers. Along the way they also collected a couple apples, several cookies, and cupcakes loaded with orange frosting.
"Bleah!" Dot spat her candy out, "who decided wax was a treat?"
"Uhhhhh, I think that falls more under the 'trick' part," Yakko answered as he tossed his wax fangs as well.
Wakko shrugged and tossed his pair up in the air and swallowed them whole.
Yakko was starting to puff as they walked along with their full trick-or-treat buckets.
"Ahoy, it's been a successful evening, sibs," he said as they paused to rest on a pier.
"I think we hit every house in Burbank," Wakko said as he and Dot sat down. "Should we try Beverly Hills next?"
"I'm getting tired," Dot said, "can we call it a night?"
Yakko looked across the water and snapped his fingers, "Look at all the houses over on the other side of the river, sibs. Nobody else can get over there, but we can take a rowboat and get even more candy."
"Gee, that's not tipping the plot at all," Dot said sarcastically.
"Well?" Yakko asked. "Anybody got any better ideas?"
The two younger Warner siblings looked at each other in silent conference and concluded simultaneously, "Nope."
"Coming through! Gain way!" the three of them hollered as they rushed for the first available rowboat.
Yakko pushed it into the water, untied it from the dock and they rowed off into the night.
"Row row row your boat," they sang at a fast tempo to match how quickly they were rowing, "right across the lake, if there's any candy there, it is ours to take. Yo ho!"
The current started to get stronger and the boat hit waves that made the boat jump 10 feet above the water, then drop down, hit another wave, jump in the air.
"Eat your heart out, Flipper," Yakko grinned cheekily at the 4th wall.
They came down hard after a particularly big wave and then they heard a disturbing splintering sound as Yakko pulled his oar back and revealed it had broken.
Wakko was just about to say something when there was a twin sound of wood splintering and revealed his oar had broken as well.
"Well that's a fine kettle of fish," Dot said.
"No, that is," Yakko pointed.
They looked and saw Yakko sitting against the edge of the boat holding a cast iron cauldron over the side of the boat catching fish in it as they sailed along.
"Now what do we do?" Dot asked.
"Easy, Wakko, your gag bag please," Yakko said.
"Coming right up."
Wakko reached behind his back and pulled out his gag bag, at the exact time they hit a particularly rough patch of water, the boat jumped in the air and the gag bag flew over the side and floated downriver. The Warners let out a collective yell as the boat hit the water again.
"Oh just great," Dot complained, "now what do we do?"
"What else? We float and we wait," Yakko said, a hint of defeat in his voice.
"How could things get any worse than this?" Wakko asked.
KABOOM!
All six of their eyes widened at the sudden clap of thunder, they looked up and saw black clouds filling the sky, lightning shooting out of them, and the beginning of a rainstorm.
Yakko and Dot glared at Wakko, who grinned nervously.
"You just had to ask," Dot said.