On a dank and gloomy night, someone was standing on the haunted streets of Endsville, outside a seemingly abandoned house. He was wearing a green racing jacket with white stripes and the number 10 on the left side. His left wrist was adorned by a green watch with a spherical dial. He also had a pair of glasses on. Despite it being so cold out that not even his jacket was enough to warm him, he was holding a cold can of cold soda in his hand.
He looked at his watch to check the time, but was only met with the shining glow of the green hourglass symbol.
"Oh, right. I forgot." – he mumbled to himself. He tapped it and the green symbol disappeared to make way for a menu interface. He tapped it again and rang a call.
"It's me, Dexter. They're still not here." – he spoke.
"You're going to have to wait." – a familiarly accented voice told him firmly.
"They're taking forever!"
"Would you rather go in alone?" – Dexter asked condescendingly.
"Can't this wait till tomorrow, though?"
"You know as well as I do that paranormal activities are at their most potent on this very night." – Dexter's voice told him through the DexCom. "If this is not investigated tonight, we may lose the chance to do so until next year."
"If there is a next year… And why did I have to be the one going on this mission?"
Dexter said nothing, as he simply hung up upon hearing complaints.
"Prick…"
"Hey, is this the… wait, Ben? We're actually going on a mission together?" – someone else approached.
"Heh. You got the wrong guy. I'm not Ben, this is just my costume for tonight. The name's LG." – LG greeted him. He didn't seem to be wearing a Halloween costume, unless you counted the pair of spring-eye glasses he had on his face.
"Oh." – he said, slightly disappointed. "I'm Noah. Is it just us?"
"No, we're waiting on two more. Speaking of which, what took you so long?"
"Dude, have you seen this place? EVERY house looks like an abandoned house." – Noah defended himself.
LG looked around. "Yeah, that's fair."
"Hi, is this the house for the mission?" – a girl with shiny blue girl, which seemed to be glistening even at night, approached the two. Although, the blue her clashed with her outfit, which was that of a farmer, which was composed of overalls, a straw hat, and boots that were way too big for her. The only thing that was missing to complete the outfit was a pitchfork or something. "I'm Alice." – she told them.
"Noah." "LG." – the other two introduced themselves. "Heh. I have a cousin named Alice." – LG added.
"I like the blue hair. Although, it doesn't really go with the costume."
"Well, I can't help it. I was born with it."
"What? You didn't dye it?" – LG scoffed. "That's ridiculous."
"Well, it's the truth." – Alice stood her ground.
"Yeah… sure." – Noah said, not believing it either. "So, are we going in or what?"
"We're waiting for one more." – LG reminded him. "Please let this be over soon. I can't believe Dexter's making me go out on a mission on Halloween of all times."
"What, gotta get back to trick-or-treating? Or do you always cosplay as Ben 10 when going on missions?" – Noah remarked about LG's Ben 10 jacket. He also looked at Alice's outfit in the same manner, especially the boots, which couldn't have been practical on a mission.
"What? It's Halloween! I was at the DexLabs corporate party when Dexter put me aside and said that I had to go on an urgent mission. And for the record, some of us actually put an effort into our costumes." – Shala retorted and flicked one of Noah's slinky eyeballs away.
"Dexter has you working on holidays?" – Alice asked him.
"Wouldn't you rather have gone as Dexter instead of Ben? That'd be a laugh at the party." – Noah suggested.
"Cosplay as my boss? I think I'd rather kill myself." – LG rejected it.
"Mandark, then."
"I think Dexter would kill me himself if I did that." – LG rejected that one too.
"Okay then."
"Hi, everyone." – the fourth party member had finally arrived. "I'm Liv Hex Braten." – he introduced himself.
"Alice. Nice to meet you."
"I'm LG Shala."
"Noah Vilgaxsane."
"Hey, I think I remember you. You just graduated the Academy last month, right?" – Liv told Alice. "Cause, I remember seeing a girl with blue hair around sometimes."
"Yeah, although sorry, I don't think I remember you." – Alice politely apologized.
"No way, you guys are also Gen 2? Same here!" – Noah intervened.
"Gen 2?" – Alice and Liv asked in unison.
"It's what they're calling last month's generation of recruits. The one before that was the first gen, obviously." – Noah explained.
"Wait, you guys are all newbies? Wasn't the graduation, like, three days ago?" – LG intervened.
"Oh, so, you're Gen 1?"
"Just because we graduated just now doesn't mean we're not up for the job." – Liv noted.
"No, I haven't attended the Academy at all, actually." – Shala answered Noah's question.
"Dude, and you're calling us newbs?"
"No, I'm just saying, if Dexter's sending Gen 2 recruits on this one, it can't be THAT important of a mission, then." – LG remarked. "They don't tell you guys, but the first missions you get out the academy are like baby steps."
"Come to think of it, Blossom's mission for me really was about helping out with her picnic…" – Alice mentioned.
"Yeah, stuff like that. So, I don't think the mission is gonna be all that deadly, you know? Alright, before we go in, is everyone up to date on the details?"
"Yeah." "Yep." – Liv and Alice confirmed, though Noah scratched his head. "Could we run them down just one more time, for anyone who might have… forgotten to go over the mission description?"
Shala sighed once again.
"I'm saying, for anyone who might have forgotten…"
"I'm not making it back to the party, am I…? Okay, okay. So the story is that kids going trick-or-treat have been going to this house."
"Even though it's abandoned?" – Noah interjected. "Halloween movie cliché, much?"
"Not to mention we're in the middle of an alien invasion." – Liv added.
"Well, they've been hearing strange noises from this house, and DexLabs deemed this important enough to investigate. I'm the DexLabs staff they sent over (even though I wish they hadn't…)"
"Question." – Noah raised his hand, as if this was math class. "Is this a Fusion thing? Like a Fusion lair?"
"I have no clue, that's what they want us to find out." – LG sighed. "Although considering it's Halloween, and in Endsville of all places, it's probably a ghost or something."
"Ghost?" – Noah repeated, slightly shaken, though composed enough to remain calm.
"What does DexLabs even have to do with paranormal stuff? Aren't you guys all-technology and, uh, stuff?" – Liv asked.
"I told Dexter the same thing!" – LG exclaimed. "But no, apparently, we're doing ghosts now."
"Honestly, I'm not really a fan of haunted mansions either. Can't we just call Mystery Incorporated or something?" – Noah interjected. "I mean, haunted house on Halloween, that seems kinda like their turf."
"That's what I told him next." – LG continued. "But DexLabs is doing extensive research into the paranormal now. Whatever that means. And, well, I tried calling them anyway, but apparently, today is the one day of the year when they're on vacation."
"Maybe we should just go in?" – Alice suggested. "The earlier we go, the earlier we'll all get the evening off."
"Good point." – Liv agreed as he started walking towards the house. The others followed.
"So, you work at DexLabs, right?" – Alice asked LG as they walked across the lawn.
"Yeah?"
"Do you happen to be the one in charge of the slider bus system?" – Alice inquired.
"The slider bus system? No, I generally work with weapons. Why do you ask?"
"No reason…" – Alice dropped the subject.
"Is it because of that crash a couple months ago?" – LG asked, and judging by Alice's expression, he was right. "Cause I can promise you, that was all Dexter. Were you on the slider or something when it happened?"
"No, I'm not the one that was on it." – Alice told him.
"Well, in any case, we're lucky it all worked out the way it did. I mean, that poor woman… could you imagine how bad it would have been if that had happened a week later?"
"Yeah. Yeah, I can." – Alice said coldly.
Just then, LG noticed that the four of them were standing still in front of the house's front door.
"Um, are we waiting for something?" – he asked Noah and Liv, who had been walking ahead of them.
"We're not sure if it's a good idea to knock or not." – Liv hesitantly admitted.
"We probably should, right? I mean, what if there is someone actually living there…" – Alice proposed.
"Yeah, and alert them that we're coming? No way." – the idea was rejected by Noah.
"I guess it's your call, LG." – Liv told him.
"I guess we knock." – Shala told them. "Whichever gets the mission quicker over with…" – he thought, only silently.
Knock. Knock. Knock. Alice knocked three times. The four of them waited on the creaky porch, but nothing was heard from the inside. Liv knocked again, only louder and faster, at which Noah flinched. Still nothing.
"Trick or treat!" – LG impatiently yelled while knocking loudly. And yet, the house remained in total silence.
"I thought there were supposed to be noises?" – Liv asked.
"Maybe it was a crank mission." – Noah suggested.
"I guess we've gotta go in now." – Alice, with the confirmation of Shala, said.
"How do we even get in? Anyone got a key or something?" – Liv asked them.
"Uhhhh…" – LG froze. He tried the door handle, but it was locked. He looked under the ancient dusty floor mat, but the key wasn't there. He took a step back and looked at the front door.
"Alright, I guess we go around the house and find another entrance, then."
"Damn." – Noah snapped his fingers. "Alright, do we split up and go from both sides or…?" – he asked while leaning against the house's front wall. Suddenly, loud creaks and snaps were heard, and the wooden wall, being so old and brittle, gave way under Noah's weight. Noah fell though the wall and landed inside the house, creating a hole through the wall in the process.
"And we got our entrance." – LG said triumphantly.
"Lucky." – Alice commented.
"Yeah, lucky for you." – Noah grunted while trying to get up. "Okay, now what?"
Everyone stepped through the wall hole and looked around. If there was one word to describe their surroundings, it was dust. Not even dusty. Dust. The sheer mass of actual dust might have exceeded that of the furniture, all of which was antique, and would have probably been worth a lot of money if they weren't in such a state of disrepair. Cobwebs covered every corner of the house, and a thick forest of torn bits of tapestry was hanging from the walls and even ceiling, looming over them like hands, ready to grab them and drag them into some sort of portal to hell.
"Ah, so this is one of Endsville's five-star hotels." – Noah unsuredly joked.
"We should probably split up and be done with this quicker." – LG suggested.
"You're not beating the scary movie allegations, bro." – Noah responded.
"Well, if you wanna stay here all night, be my guest." – LG in turn remarked.
"You've got a point." – after considering it, Noah conceded. "But I'm going with you then."
"Okay. Why me, though?"
"Because if something does happen and monsters attack, they're gonna think you're Ben 10 and you'll be their target."
"Oh, good grief." – LG rolled his eyes. "Alright, we'll look around down here and you two look around upstairs." – he told Liv and Alice.
"Ayho Rama! It smells rancid in here!" – Noah said, holding his nose while they explored the kitchen. "Whatever ghost is possessing this place probably died from the stank."
Meanwhile, LG was going around checking all the cupboards, and scanning the area with a DexLabs spectral detector.
"So, what do you do at DexLabs?" – Noah asked to make conversation with LG.
"You know that Lightning Gun they gave you at the Academy?"
"Yeah?"
"Yeah, I made that."
"You design our weapons?" – Noah asked, impressed.
"Yeah. I mean, I'm not the only one working on them, but you know, in general I have a hand in pretty much most of them."
"Cool." – Noah said. "Now I know who to haunt in case my weapon fails and monsters maul me to death."
"Considering I'm on a mission to get rid of ghosts right now, you'd be wise to do something else if that happens."
"So you're positive that it's a ghost around here?"
"Well, no, but, I mean, it's Endsville, it's Halloween, so that pretty much tracks. Still, nothing is showing up on my spectral detector, though.
"What do you think the stench is coming from, then?"
"Probably from the food that didn't get thrown away in like 200 years. Nothing supernatural here."
THUNK. THUNK. THUNK. THUNK. "Whoah!" – Noah jumped on the spot. Loud and rhythmic knocks were coming from the ceiling.
"Quick! They're coming! Use your Omnitrix and turn into Fourarms!" – Noah jokingly remarked about LG's DexCom, which was still radiating the Omnitrix symbol.
"Oh, har har har." – Shala sarcastically laughed. "Why don't you use your zoom eyes to find where it is?" – he snapped back. "Whatever that is, it's not showing up on the spectral detector.
"It could be Fusions." – Noah suggested.
"No, my DexCom isn't picking up any signs of FM infection, either." – LG shook his head. As they talked, the loud THUNKs slowly faded, as if they were walking away.
THUNK. THUNK. THUNK. THUNK. With every step Alice took, her uncle's big boots were making loud thuds across the old wooden floor. Liv was probably bothered by them too, even though he didn't say anything. Perhaps she shouldn't have gone on this mission wearing her costume. She looked around. The house did seem pretty scary, and that was just from what she could see. The wooden furniture, the floorboards, the tapestry were probably containing massive swarms of insects and rats and whatnot…
"Pull yourself together." – she told herself. "You graduated the Academy. You defeated over a hundred of Fusion Spawns by now. You got this."
But then she noticed something move on the wall opposite to her and got startled so much she jumped on the spot – an act that in turn, startled Liv – but as she looked closer, she only saw a reflection of herself through an dirty, cracked mirror.
"Nice going. Now you're scared of yourself." – she scolded herself. The best course of action was to probably strike up a conversation with Liv so that she'd distract herself from the house's atmosphere.
"So why did you decide to fight in the war?" – she asked Liv, who was at the time looking under the couch.
"Oh, I don't know." – he responded. "I mean, seeing aliens invade everywhere, all around that, I just felt like I had to do something. I mean, sure, we've been invaded before, but it's never lasted this long. Not even our greatest heroes are enough to stop them, you know?" – he asked. Alice nodded. "So it's up to every one of us to fight back against Planet Fusion. Cause I felt so powerless to do anything, and, well, when the chance to fight back came along, I took it." – he continued. "This is gonna sound a bit cringe, but when Planet Fusion attacked, I felt exactly like when bullies would get in my business at school. And I decided that it was finally time to do something about it."
"Huh." – Alice said, not really knowing how to make a valuable contribution to the conversation.
"Well, what about you?" – it was Liv's turn to ask Alice.
"I don't really know. I know it was selfish of me, but at first I really had no intention of participating in war."
"What changed?"
"That's the thing. Nothing. There was no big moment of clarity that made me change my mind. No big catalyst. But, I guess, it's similar to you. Day after day, seeing your friends get hurt… you don't really make a decision like that. It's something that… it calls for you." – Alice explained, properly articulating these thoughts that she'd been having for weeks for the first time, even to herself. "Although I feel guilty about making my mom worry about me, at least I can tell myself that it's because I'm keeping her safe."
"Yeah, I get it." – Liv nodded. "Well, whatever's in this house, it's not here." – he added after looking around. "Why don't we…" – he said as he took a step, but he didn't get to finish the sentence, as the floor cracked underneath him as it couldn't support his and Alice's weight and it gave way, dragging the two of them under.
CRRAAASHDRSRSSPBRSDRG.
"Whoa!" – somebody yelled.
It was total darkness. Only Alice and Liv's eyes were visible, as well as Shala's glasses next to them.
"Something's got me, you guys!" – LG yelled.
Alice quickly turned the flashlight of her NanoCom on and shone a ray towards LG, but as it turned out, it was Noah, who had jumped into LG's arms and wrapped his hands around him out of fear of something crashing down from the ceiling. LG looked at him, unamused, and Noah chuckled awkwardly.
"Oh, it's just Alice and Liv." – Noah told LG. Shala let his arms go of him and he fell down on the ground.
"Did you guys find anything?" – LG asked the others.
"Nope. The place is dead, not undead." – Liv shook his head.
"Yeah, there wasn't anything down here either. I guess we can just call it a night and I'll tell Dexter there wasn't anything-"
"Muaaaaaaaaaauuuuuugh!" – a loud moan interrupted him.
"-here." – LG finished his sentence, which was obviously not true anymore.
"It's coming from somewhere below us." – Alice pointed out.
"I guess this place has a basement." – LG said.
"Uuuuuuuuuuuummmh!" – it moaned again.
"Well, which one of us is gonna go down there?" – Noah asked.
"Let's just go. I saw the entrance under the staircase." – Liv pointed out, although he wasn't really keen on going down there, either.
"Show yourself, spectre!" – LG yelled. Only further moans were heard. "Well, it's not coming out here, so we're gonna have to go down there instead.
They entered the door that led to the staircase going down to the basement. One by one, they quietly stepped down the stairs, (or as quietly as possible in Alice's case).
"Maaaauuuuungggh!" – it moaned again. Though, this time, it was really close. LG activated the flashlight and pointed it towards the source of the sound – and there it was. A small, yellow creature with a round head bigger than its flaccid body, with strands of hair growing out of the top, and cross-eyed, red-pupiled eyeballs was lying on the ground.
"CHEESE?!" – LG yelled in shock, though none of them knew what the heck that was.
"What's a… Cheese?" – Liv asked.
"He's an imaginary friend. We had him over at DexLabs to study imaginary energy, but the sheer chaos this gremlin is able to cause almost set the entire company back by months. How the heck did he end up in here?" – LG explained.
"Soooo… not a ghost." – Noah concluded, and even though he tried to not show it, he was visibly relieved.
"Ghost? Where?" – Cheese yelled.
"Dexter will sure be thrilled that the objective of this mission that he asked for ended up being Cheese." – LG said as he went to pick the imaginary friend into his arms. "So much for his paranormal forces."
"I take it that's a mission accomplished?" – Liv asked him.
"Yeah. You can go home. Although I'm not sure what to do with Cheese. If I bring him back to DexLabs, he'll cause problems for everyone… But at the same time, most of these problems will be for Dexter."
"You should just release him into Dexter's office and not tell him he's there." – Noah said with a grin. "That'll teach him for sending us on a mission like this in the middle of Halloween, right?"
"You know… that's the best thing you've said all day. Alright, I'm gonna go drop him off and mark the mission as accomplished. After that, the four of us could hang out more. I mean, it's Halloween, after all."
"Do you have some chocolate milk?"
"Didn't you have a party to get back to, though?" – Noah asked him.
"Eh, they're just a bunch of nerds, anyway.
"Party! Party party party!" – Cheese started yelling excitedly.
"Yeah, I get why Dexter doesn't like him." – Alice shook her head.
The End.
"PAAAAAAAARTYYYYYYYY!"
"NO, CHEESE!"
The End…?
So the backstory behind THIS specific one-shot is that all of us participating in the FusionFall fanfic exchange decided to take a break from it for a while, as it was draining to have a one-shot due at the end of every month. Instead, for Halloween, we all decided that we'd do Halloween-themed stories that would be set in our OWN universes. Although, I didn't really feel like doing one. I just didn't have any ideas for it. But then I got the mother of all ideas. In spirit of the fanfic exchange, I could do the crossover between all of our main OCs that I've been wanting to do for a while, and use Halloween as backdrop. Though this was more of an excuse to do the crossover than wanting to do a Halloween story.
Alice Spacebyte belongs to AnimeGirl 144 and her fanfic, It Calls for You. Roll credits. It was probably the easiest to incorporate her into this story, as she already has a long-form FusionFall story, and a completed one at that, so it wasn't hard to get her characterization. The only thing I was blanking on is what sort of Halloween costume would she be wearing, and if she would be wearing one at all, and I didn't want to ask Kyra about it because I wanted this whole thing to be a surprise. Luckily she did her own Halloween one-shot where she very clearly described Alice's costume and basically did my work for me. Although it was my decision on focus on her boots, which I had her borrow from her uncle, and thus would be too big for her.
Noah Vilgaxsane is based on a character by RayO1. It was a lot harder to incorporate him, as for one, I had to change him a bit from the source material to satisfy both Ray's and my demands, and also, he actually hasn't appeared in a published story just yet, and to be able to use him I had to ask Ray directly, which meant I had to give away the surprise for him. He provided me with basic characterization as well as several scenes featuring Noah so that I'd be able to write him properly.
Liv Hex Braten is a character that belongs to Ways that he used for a super old story that he wrote when he was younger. Even he admits that it wasn't very good, but it was the only Ways OC MC I could think of (I had half a mind to use Caleb from his It Calls For You one-shot). I had problems incorporating him as well, as he wasn't really characterized all that much in his own story, but I'm happy with how I wrote him.
LG Shala is obviously my own OC from my story The Silent Heroes. Although, here we see Shala from a different point in his life - not in his "prime", but rather back when he used to work for DexLabs. You might have noticed he's a bit more irritable and not as easy-going as in The Silent Heroes. That's what working for Dexter does for you. Since this story is set during October, and The Silent Heroes is in may, I used this as an opportunity to showcase what Shala was like back then.
Finally, the only other writer participating in the FusionFall fanfic exchange is KidZeusvado (he posts exclusively on AO3). The problem is that he does not have any OCs in his story at all. So I didn't really have anything to work with. The closest thing I could find was how he stated that Cheese was somewhat OC-fied in his story, FusionFall: Ascension, and the only thing I could do to represent Zeus' story was to use Cheese.
All that being said, this story is canon to my universe alone, and not canon to anyone else's, so as not to mess with their lore. Heck, it almost messed with my lore, even. I wanted to do this with the "prime" version of Shala, so it'd be set after his graduation, somewhere around January of February. Halloween in January?! What a crazy idea! My justification would have been that it'd Endsville, and it's a haunted house, so it'd be Halloween-themed. But the one problem was that by that time the Battle of Hero's Hollow would have already happened, and Cheese would already be in the Darklands. So I decided to dial it back and set it during Halloween proper, and just have the sciency Shala instead of the actiony one.