Hello, lovely people!
Wow, I am so sorry it's been a while since I've posted anything new, I've had a lot going on (mainly a lot of health issues) which hasn't been so fun but I would like to clarify that I am okay! (Or at least I hopefully will be pretty soon).
This fic is sort of like a prequel to the Halloween one shot I wrote last year. I don't think you have to read that one to understand this one but you may want to because they are sort of linked.
I hope you enjoy!
For Alpheus, Halloween had become a fairly isolating affair over the last several years.
For a long time now, it had just been ARIA and him. Sometimes he would completely ignore Halloween and continue with his day-to-day life of invention and exploration, other times, he would watch horror movies and eat an abundance of sugary, tooth-rotting foods with nothing but ARIA for company.
Before that, he had spent a fair amount of time with the Guardians. They had seldom even acknowledged Halloween, let alone even considered it to be a celebratory event or a time of fun for the young man he had been at the time ('man' was a generous term, in all minds except his own, he had been very much still a child). The only time any celebration had come to light was when a certain bearded guardian (that didn't narrow it down much, Alpheus was certain nearly all the guardians had beards, it was apparently vital for the role) by the name of Nereus had insisted on watching a variety of movies with him and even surprising him one day by bringing an enormous pumpkin for him to carve.
When he was even younger, Halloween had been an exciting affair, he couldn't remember it especially well but he did recall his father always ensured it would be a fun event. They had had an annual tradition of watching countless movies, dressing up in splendid handmade costumes, eating pizza and even going trick or treating on a few occasions. It may have just been Alpheus and his dad but it was one of their most enjoyable times of the year - Alpheus would always remember the year his dad had engineered a mechanical witch decoration which cackled and veered backwards and forward anytime somebody wandered past.
Those had been the good days of his childhood but over the last few years, the spooky season had become nothing more than an increasingly lonely spiral as he spent all the more time alone asides from ARIA.
For the Nektons (mainly Ant in particular) Halloween was a much more exciting time.
Ant obsessed over his costume and how to spend the day. He planned everything out perfectly weeks or even months in advance and he insisted it was the best time of the year. Every year, almost entirely without fail he insisted upon begging Kaiko and Will to let them postpone whatever important mission, research project or WOA task they were currently carrying out in order to embark on a much longer trip, traversing through the Earth's oceans, against the planet's time zones to allow their Halloween to last just a little longer than twenty four hours.
And every year, almost entirely without fail, Kaiko and Will's response was nearly exactly the same - slight amusement, humoured by their son's antics and thoughtfully planned and considered schemes. Although, the overall final response was almost always a very certain, resounding 'no'.
This particular year was no different.
The Nekton family of four were all on the bridge of the Aronnax. Kaiko, Will and Fontaine were all sat in their respective seats, watching in amusement and entertainment as their youngest member (youngest human member, if Jeffrey was also being taken into account, as Ant would insist) was putting on his near annual performance of his popular production entitled 'Why We Absolutely Have To Make Halloween Last Longer'.
Fontaine looked vaguely interested, although not particularly engaged in the actual words her brother was speaking, more specifically she was just enjoying the general amusement provided by Ant's enthusiastic attempt at persuading their parents to agree with him.
Will and Kaiko were also watching with amused interest as their youngest pulled out all the stops in his best efforts to persuade them to agree with his grand plans. As Ant finally took a moment to breathe, they exchanged a glance and Will quickly cut in the moment of silence.
"Well, Ant, it's clear you've put a lot of thought into this, and it's wonderful to see just how much work you did to figure out the exact route we'd need to take," Will began.
"However, we also have to consider that the route takes us in the exact opposite direction we need to be heading in to be able to make it the marine reserve on time, we agreed to that WOA mission with Commander Pyrosome, remember?" Kaiko added.
"Ugh," Ant groaned in complaint, "We can afford to be a little late, this is Halloween!"
"Not this late," Will said.
"We can't really afford to be late at all, Commander Pyrosome said it was pretty urgent we get there as quickly as possible, she said we could only afford to be delayed for actual emergencies or if something important comes up," Fontaine spoke up.
"This is an emergency! It's Halloween!" Ant protested.
"I'm sorry, Ant, maybe next year," Kaiko replied.
"Next year?! That's a whole twelve months away!" He complained again.
"How about you still dress up in your costume?" Will offered, "Your mum and I can have a great game of guessing what your outfit is,"
"Yeah, it'll be great," Kaiko shot her husband a look.
"Uhh, Mum, what's considered an emergency to Pyrosome?" Fontaine asked.
"She didn't specify, why?" Kaiko asked, turning to look at her daughter.
"Well, isn't that Alpheus' sub?" Fontaine pointed into the distance to what was indeed the distinct shape of their supposed arch nemesis' submarine.
"Looks like it," Will remarked.
"Let's make contact! We have to just in case he's planning on doing something awful and evil," Ant reminded his parents as an afterthought before immediately springing forward to contact Alpheus' submarine.
After mere seconds, although the screen remained blank, ARIA's robotic voice rang out over the comms.
"Hello, Nekton family, I am currently connecting you to Alpheus' communication system, please hold," with that, the voice quietened and the silence was filled with a shrill jazz tune.
"Did we- just get put on hold?" Will asked hesitantly.
"By an AI?" Fontaine added.
"Well that settles it, he's definitely doing something evil," Ant decided, "We can't let him get away with this,"
Kaiko sighed, "I'll let Commander Pyrosome know that something's come up and we'll be a little late,"
"Well, I guess while we wait, this gives me the perfect opportunity to show you all your Halloween costumes I've got for you," Ant told them, excitedly.
"You got us costumes?" Will asked cautiously.
"Absolutely!" Ant grinned, already rushing out of the room.
"Now, hold on a moment-" Fontaine started to protest.
"You'll like yours, Fontaine!" Ant called behind him, never slowing down.
A while later, the annoyingly repetitive jazz finally abated and they were finally patched through to Alpheus. By this point, they were already dressed in their Halloween costumes - as selected by Ant.
Will and Kaiko were adorned in bandages as glorified zombies while Ant was dressed as what he claimed to be a kaiju with Jeffrey dressed as a wizard inside the jorange which had been decorated to look like a pumpkin. Fontaine's costume had been a source of argument between Ant and Fontaine as Ant had introduced it as a mermaid costume while Fontaine insisted it was in fact a siren.
Once the call had patched through, they were met with Alpheus' confused face as he saw their appearance.
"What-?" He began.
"Trick or treat!" Ant yelled, a moment later, he turned to look at the rest of his family in disappointment, "Seriously, guys, I thought we'd be doing this together!"
"What are you guys doing?" Alpheus asked, confused beyond belief.
"You've never been trick or treating before?" Ant asked in utter horror.
"Well I-" Alpheus began but had no time to finish his sentence before Ant was suddenly rushing away from the monitor and out of the Aronnax's bridge.
"Has he gone to kidnap Alpheus?" Will asked, turning to Fontaine and Kaiko uncertainly.
"Not without me he isn't," Kaiko declared, rushing after her son.
A short while later, Alpheus found himself aboard the Aronnax, in the Nekton's kitchen.
Eventually, the Nektons stood back to observe their handiwork - Alpheus did not look best impressed, adorned in large, oversized robes which had apparently once belonged to Will and an adhesive beard had been forcibly stuck to his face.
"Brilliant!"
"Amazing! "
"It's perfect!"
"Hmmm, I don't know, "
"What do you mean, Ant? What's wrong with it? I thought it'd turned out pretty well," Will asked, confused his son's lack of his usual chaotic enthusiasm.
"Oh well, I agree with Ant, I guess it didn't work out, oh well, I guess I should just take this off, " Alpheus said, his voice filled with faux disappointment and regret.
"I don't know, I just feel like it's missing something," Ant replied, observing Alpheus' non-voluntary attire with a surprising amount of judgement, before suddenly crying out, "Oh wait, I know!" And running off down the corridor .
A few moments later, he returned, running back into the room clutching a huge, golden sceptre.
"Here you go, this is just what you need," he said, shoving the large, ancient-looking sceptre into Alpheus' arms without him getting much of a say in it.
"Uh, Ant, I understand the costume is important but seriously, you can't give him Queen Doreus' sceptre as a Halloween costume prop! " Fontaine told him, she couldn't believe he was doing this. Admittedly he did always get particularly excited and all the more chaotic around Halloween but still, normally he was the one being overly suspicious of people at all times.
"Wait, this is Doreus' sceptre? Like Queen Doreus of Lemuria? This is her sceptre?" Alpheus asked, receiving a hesitant yet honest nod of confirmation from Fontaine, "And you just shoved it at me like it was nothing?! What if I'd dropped it? Or-"
"Oh relax, it survived thousands of years at the bottom of the ocean, it can survive being dropped on the floor," Ant laughed in reply, although Kaiko and Will didn't look particularly pleased with his actions either.
"Uh, I think I might just put this down," Alpheus spoke awkwardly, holding the sceptre at arms length as though it might bite him.
"Hand it to me, gently," Will told him, taking the artefact in careful hands.
"I think I'll let Commander Pyrosome know that we'll be back on our way soon," Kaiko said.
"Mum, have we decided what constitutes an 'emergency' yet?" Fontaine asked.
"Uh, Commander Pyrosome still hasn't specified, why?" Kaiko asked.
"Well, is that the Dark Orca?" she asked, indicating a shadow in the near distance.
"It looks like it," Will remarked.
"Mum, we're late enough as it is, " Ant pointed out.
Kaiko hesitated for a moment before eventually giving in, "I guess it won't matter if we're much later," she relented.
"Yes!" Ant yelled in excitement.
I want to say a massive thank you to my amazing friends the_deep_nerd on Wattpad and AO3 and Fanfic_Writer_03 on Wattpad for helping me with this. Without their help, this genuinely would never have been completed in time and I'm eternally grateful. While speaking with them, I did also get ideas for other fics so I'll hopefully be writing and posting those in the future.
I also wanted to say a huge thank you to my irl friend who put up with me on video call while I was editing this, sorry for annoying you for so long but thank you so much for all your help.
Also, I realised whilst about halfway through writing this that it's completely incorrect while I was trying to be Canon compliant but by this point I was too invested in my vague mess of plot to give up on it. Essentially, this fic just entirely ignores the fact that Alpheus moves to live on land before the Nektons find Lemuria so he is still living on his submarine with ARIA. I guess you could read it as he rebuilt his sub after the jellyfish incident or you could read it as though the Nektons find Lemuria before Alpheus gets stuck in the jellyfish. I don't know exactly, it wasn't written with that specifically in mind because I didn't even realise my mistake at first. However you wish to read it, I hope you liked it, thank you so much for reading!
Until next time! :D