Avo frowned as his eyes suddenly snapped opened and he looked at the clock which showed it was 6 in the morning.

It wasn't that he had woken up that bothered him, or the time for that matter. He felt well rested and he did tend to snap awake most days. And 6am wasn't unheard of for him as he tended to get to bed early, much like the rest of the Z Fighters.

No… it was the fact that he was in his bed, at Capsule Corp, that was throwing him off.

"What the fuck is going on?" he whispered as he got up and looked around. 'Alright Avo, think… you were just on a ship to Namek and now you're back on Earth. That HAS to mean something, right?' He shook his head and muttered, "Of course it means something, you idiot!"

"Morning Avo!" Master Roshi said as he passed through the room.

"Morning," he replied only to stop and blink as several facts came crashing through his brain.

1) Master Roshi was dead, so he shouldn't be there.

2) Master Roshi had just PASSED through the room… as in he floated across the floor and through a wall

3) Master Roshi was dressed. He was never dressed so early in the morning.

"Oh this can't be good," Avo declared, hurrying out of his room only to run into, of all people, Hercule who had Videl riding on his shoulders. "Uh… hey guys. You notice anything weird going on?"

Hercule considered that. "I don't think so?" He suddenly grinned before reaching up to tap Videl's foot, gasping in shock. "Except I have this here growth suddenly on me! What is it, what is it!" He began to spin about and despite the stress from moments earlier Avo couldn't help but grin at the sight of Hercule playing with his daughter.

"Its me, daddy!" Videl proclaimed, pressing her hands against his cheeks.

"Ah… good… good. I was worried there for a moment!" He chuckled and looked back at Avo. "Nope, nothing weird here."

"Hurry it up in there!" Master Roshi proclaimed from at the end of the hallway, staring at the bathroom door. "I mean it, Tien, I gots ta do my ghostly business! And by that I mean poopin'!"

Avo looked at Hercule and Videl who… just shrugged and went back to walking down the hall.

"Okay… okay okay okay," he said, watching as Tien finally came out of the bathroom and let Master Roshi's GHOST go in there. "Okay…"

"Uh, you keep saying that," Krillin said as he walked up to him, rubbing his eyes. He was bare-chested, wearing just a pair of pajama bottoms. "What's up, man?"

"Master Roshi is a ghost."

"…and?"

"Is this a new occurrence I just missed out on?" Avo asked. "I mean… we're all used to the dead coming back but usually they have bodies and Shenron is involved."

Krillin considered that before he chuckled. "Oh right, sometimes I forget you're American, so you don't know about this stuff." He patted Avo on the arm and began to guide him towards the kitchen for breakfast. "Its Halloween."

"It's…ah." At once Avo got it. "Okay, that explains a lot."

"Yup!" Krillin said cheerfully. "This is the time of year when the dead return to the Earth. Master Roshi will return to Other World by tomorrow… this is just a nice visit."

"Not for whoever has to clean the bathroom up," Avo pointed out, causing Krillin to grimace. "So," he moved to grab some food, seeing that the kitchen droids and Chichi had decided on making waffles to go along with the traditional rice and fish that was normally their breakfast; pumpkin-shaped ones, "anything special we need to do when its Halloween?"

"Well, we're going to have the Halloween party tonight," Krillin said. "That's gonna be fun. Karaoke, lots of great food, some party games…"

Hercule piped out, "I'm gonna be taken this one on a Halloween train ride." He lifted Videl off his shoulders and moved to gather up their breakfast. "Chichi, you and Gohan are welcome to come."

"I think I'll stay and prepare for the party but I'm sure Goku would love to join you. And if not someone else might be able to. Isco perhaps?"

"I wouldn't mind at all," the droid said, entering in both his Fighter Form and his Droid Form. "The young ones are quite devious and I do enjoy watching them to learn new methods of torturing you flesh bags." Videl giggled at that. "And if I get to them young I can begin training them to better understand their place in the eventual robot empire."

"I still have a nice place there, right?" Avo said, raising his hand.

"You will be my cherished pet."

"I am okay with this." He chuckled and patted Isco on the shoulder. "And hey, your costume could be a human dressed as a robot."

"Why would I ever pretend to be one of you, even if it was to be pretending to actually be me?"

"Mock humans."

Isco considered that for a LOOOOOOOONG moment.

"…I am okay with this," he replied, moving out of the room.

"Ya know, I have ta be the one that deals with him," Hercule pointed out.

"You'll be fine," Avo commented. "Most likely."

"Morning everyone!" Goku chirped as he walked in, Gohan dangling from his bicep like the little monkey boy he actually was. "How's it going?"

"Just discussing our plans for Halloween," Krillin said. "Big party tonight."

"Oh yeah! I can't wait to bob for pumpkins."

"Its apples, Goku," Avo said.

"No, I'm pretty sure its pumpkins."

"And… wait. With you it might actually be pumpkins." He shrugged. "Anyway, we're figuring things out for the party and all that, what the kids will do before hand-"

An alarm suddenly sounded throughout the complex.

"-figure out what is that!" Avo complained, clapping his hands against his ears just as Dr. Brief hurried in, taking out a remote and clicking it to turn off the alarm.

"Sorry about that!" he said with a smile, cigarette bobbing against his lips. "I forgot how loud the alarm was."

"And what was that exactly?" Avo asked only to notice that none of the other Z Fighters seemed worried by the alarm.

"Oh, just my Undead Alarm. Seems like zombies are invading the city."

"…okay, that sounds bad," Avo stated, "but the way you causally brought it up makes it… not sound bad?"

Goku chuckled as he moved to grab some breakfast, eating it while standing up. "Aw, its not that big of a deal. We deal with zombies almost every Halloween."

"Sometimes its vampires," Krillin said. He looked at the time. "They are actually a little early this year. Normally they show up around lunch."

"At this point it feels like a tradition!" Goku began to hurriedly slurp down his breakfast and, seeing the others not that concerned, Avo decided to shrug his shoulders and eat his breakfast as well. At this point, after facing off with aliens multiple times, he had become a bit jaded to things.

"So Avo, you want to come with us to deal with the zombies?" Krillin asked. "You might be able to make it a bit more entertaining with your magic."

"That boring?" Avo asked, honestly not surprised. The Z Fighters could punch out mountains… rotting corpses had to be like hunting for really dumb rabbits.

"Well, at first it wasn't," Krillin said.

"What are we talking about?" Yamcha asked as he entered, a towel around his neck. Because he had lived in the desert pools were of great interest to him and as such he had taken to swimming every morning right when he woke up.

"First zombie clean up."

"Oh yeah, first time was wild," Yamcha said. "But it gets old pretty quick."

"That's why Avo should come with us," Krillin argued. "He has magic so that might make it more interesting!"

"Huh… yeah, you have a point, Krillin! What do you say, Avo?"

He shrugged as he cut into his waffles. "I have no plans so why not? Won't be a kick in the head."

"But there will be a lot of kicking heads," Goku chimed in. "You have to destroy the brain, remember?"

"…right."

~MC~MC~MC~

"So, want to put any restrictions?" Senza asked as he rolled his shoulders, staring at the giant horde of zombies that were shuffling about a block away from us.

It had been a bit of a debate to decide who would end up dealing with the zombies but not in the way one would have expected. Rather than it being about strength or power or who had to deal with the dark deed it was more like deciding who had to do the grocery shopping that day. Some people liked to shop, some people just wanted to stay at home; same with taking down the zombies. We'd waved off Hercule when he'd offered to help, telling him to focus on Gohan and Videl and the train ride he'd promised them and Isco had assured me that he didn't mind being the second chaperone.

"After all, sir," he had informed me with a sniff, even though he didn't have a nose, "it takes all the sport out of destroying you walking balls of anxiety and pus if you are already dead."

Chichi had already said she wanted to stay and prepare for the party and Bulma had decided she wanted to spend the day just relaxing… which for her could either be getting a full spa day or being guts deep in some new machine she was working on. I hadn't asked out of politeness. Tien and Chiaotzu had begged off too, though they didn't want to explain why…

~Meanwhile~

"Your honor, the things Master Shen is saying about us are libel and slander and we demand they be removed!" Tien said, dressed in a suit and holding up the documents that went over all of the things their former Master had been posting online about them. "And we have evidence to back it up."

"Master Shen," the judge, who was purple cat man, said as he turned to the martial arts instructor, "your opening statement?"

Master Shen nodded. "Your honor, I'm just a simple country martial artist instructor…"

~MC~MC~MC~

"Restrictions?" Launch asked. She had jumped at the chance to join us, eager for a fight. "That might make this a bit more interesting."

Senza nodded. "Yeah… actually give some of us a challenge."

"Oh, I know!" Goku said with a grin. "I'm not going to use my arms at all! Just kicks!"

"Well, I am going to try stay on the ground," Krillin suggested. "Too easy if I can just fly away from them."

Senza nodded. "Hmmm… both of those are interesting ones." He grew quiet, clearly thinking of what he wanted his restriction to be.

"I assume no Ki blasts?" I asked, looking at the zombies as they continued to muddle about. Thankfully it seemed like the city had been VERY smart and VERY prepared for the zombies because there was absolutely no one about. The buildings were all sealed and the zombies were rather confused as they moved about, unable to find anyone and unable to actually break into any buildings. As such they were just kind of bumping into each other and shuffling about, waiting for someone to show up and… do something.

And that someone was us.

"No way, man," Yamcha said, "that would make things WAY too easy!" He bobbed his head back and forth before grinning. "I know! My restriction is that I can only use weapons I find around here." To demonstrate he grabbed a stop sign and ripped it from the ground, hefting it a few times and nodding. "Yeah, this will work just fine!"

"I'll put a timer on myself," Senza declared. "5 minutes of fighting then I need to break off and return here before I can start again."

"Ooooh, that will be interesting!" Goku said. "What about you, Launch?"

"Well, since you guys aren't using Ki I won't use my guns." She spun and then holstered her weapons. "This is my first zombie fight so I think I'll hold off on restrictions till next time."

"That's okay," Goku chirped, "we only do restrictions because this is old hat for all of us!"

Senza nodded. "Though I usually have to deal with the zombies in the wastes. Which speaking off, perhaps we should check on the wastelands after this."

"Good idea," Krillin said. "Wouldn't want to forget about that and then the zombies show up a week from now. That might be distracting." He began to bounce on his toes. "Alright… ready to do this?"

"Hey guys?" Yamcha stated. "Why don't we let Avo and Launch take the first crack at this? It is their first zombie kill."

"That's a great idea!" Goku said.

"I'm game…" Launch suddenly grinned. "Oh, I have an idea. How much time do we have before we need to really wrap this up?"

Krillin looked down at his watch. "Well, Dr. Brief promised that we'd have the city cleaned up by lunch time."

One of the best ideas we'd come up with for the Z Fighters was to run everything that didn't involve sudden alien threats through Capsule Corp. We were all basically family at this point and Dr. Brief and his company was well equipped to handle the lawyers and politicians that came out and made a fuss about this silly thing or that. They met with politicians to ensure that the police didn't bug us if we took down a threat, got with the lawyers to make sure that everything was above board, and most importantly collected the money we got from a grateful public.

It also allowed Goku and his friends to remain relatively anonymous.

The Z Fighters had no problem saving the world time and time again. They enjoyed doing it and saw it as their duty. But they didn't want to be praised for it. Made to be celebrities. They wanted to just live their lives quietly and peacefully. And I understood that mentality. Yes, there was something to be said for people thanking you for your hard work and feeling appreciated. But there was also something embarrassing about people gushing over you when you felt that you hadn't actually done that much. I liked being appreciated and respected, and I really liked when certain aspects of my life were praised, but I also didn't need to be mobbed by fans.

Goku and his friends were even worse than I was. They just wanted to have their fights and then retreat to the group and celebrate that way. Even Bulma, as vain as she was, didn't want to get bogged down by a ton of well wishers, which I personally felt came from her humble father.

That was why running things through Capsule Corp was such a blessing. They got all the praise, the awards and the medals, and we were able to do what we needed to do.

'And also get paychecks,' I thought to myself. 'Capsule Corp will be paying for our food, utilities, things like that, and then providing us spending money. And considering Bulma and Dr. Brief barely understand the value of money they are going to be giving us more than we need.'

Launch and Hercule had been selected for the Z Initiative not just because they were skilled fighters but because they didn't mind the limelight. Hercule especially and he would be our main spokesman, doing the rounds on TV and with the fans. For as jittery as he could get the man was a skilled liar and would be able to explain away any issues we had… leaving me to focus on other things because I knew I would have otherwise been stuck with his job. And while I wouldn't have minded doing the job at the moment I had a better position as resident mage.

'Sure as hell not getting Baba to do it,' I thought. 'And with what is coming with Buu we're going to need someone magical on our side.'

"Right," Launch said, breaking me from my thoughts. "Then this is what we're going to do: a competition."

"Like counting our kills?" Krillin asked. "That's fun."

"Not quite," Launch said. "We're going to go one at a time and each person needs to be as creative as possible taking down one of the zombies."

"Hey!" Yamcha declared. "That would be fun! Help us show off!"

"And force us to get creative," Senza stated, sounding a bit more like Kami at the moment. "I have found that we tend to get locked into the same moves at times and it isn't until we are dealing with a truly serious threat that we actually try and think of unique ways to take down our foes. This is a chance for us to practice that."

"Can we keep the restrictions though?" Goku said. "That would add an extra challenge."

"I'm fine with that, but only if you want to," Launch said before turning to me. "So… you want to go first?"

"My mama didn't raise no fool," I replied, motioning towards the horde. "Ladies first."

She smirked at that before suddenly holding out her hand. "Avo, can you make weapons with your magic?"

"I've learned how to transfigure things. Yamcha?" He held out the stop sign. "What do you need?"

"Katanna," Launch stated and I nodded, focusing on the image of the weapon in my head. I had found, oddly enough, that the more complex a weapon was in my head the easier it was to form. I had thought it would be the reverse but it seemed like having a clear picture of it allowed me to better create it. As such, rather than simply made a standard katanna I focused on creating a rather unique katana. A handle that was wrapped with blue leather, with several golden feathers on a short chain hanging off the end and a long lean blade with a deadly edge. My hands glowed as I performed the transfiguration, not even needing to call out the name of the spell as it was a rather basic one, much like the basic Ki ball attack.

Within moments the blade appeared in Yamcha's hands.

"I'll need some fabric if you want a sheath," I told her. "It's easier to make something if the original item is made of similar materials."

"Let's see how this works," Launch said before giving the blade a few swings, smiling as she saw the balance would work for her. "Alright… Goku, mind breaking one off from the horde?"

"On it!" Goku said, disappearing in a flicker of speed before appearing back with us, one shambling zombie now standing about 20 yards away from the horde. It turned its head one way and then another, letting out raspy sounds as it realized that its buddies were no longer with him.

"Oh, I've always wanted to try this," Launch said before rocketing forward, swinging her sword in a blur of motion as she passed the zombie. She skidded to a halt just behind it before racing back towards us, giving another set of swings before she was standing once more with the group. All told it had only taken her about 5 seconds to do the entire thing.

The zombie stood there for a moment before it fell apart into large cube shapes.

"Whoa!" Krillin cried out. "That was really cool!"

"Amazing!" Yamcha declared.

"You ever worry that we're psychopaths?" I asked.

"Well done, Launch," Senza stated.

"You did that so quick! Great job!"

Launch bowed to us. "Thank you, thank you." She turned to me. "Your turn."

"Right," I said, already finding myself not caring that we were having fun mutilating corpses. I rolled my neck before I thrust out my hands, Good Magic crackling along my fingers. "White Chains!" The magically created chains that I had used against Loki and Thanos flew out of my palms, wrapping around one zombie and tugging them from the horde. "GET OVER HERE!" I bellowed as I yanked the zombie towards me before I shifted the chains just to my left hand, right hand glowing with more magic as I waved it about, already knowing what I wanted. "White Satin!"

The armor I created looked like it would be at home worn by an Arthurian Knight. Except any blade wielder from Camelot wouldn't have liked my gear as it was too tight.

Far… far… far too tight.

The buckles and straps all squeezed the zombie hard, it struggling to free itself even as the breastplate shattered is chest, its limbs were popped off, and finally the helm forced over its rotting head, causing it to pop like a squished grape.

"You know, they don't stink as much as I expected," I said as I finished with my attack, the gang cheering me on.

"Why would they? They're zombies!" Yamcha proclaimed.

I shrugged and decided that must be something that was a Dragon Ball World Thing.

"Alright… whose next?"

~MC~MC~MC~

"What's so funny, dad?" Bulma said as she walked in on her father, who was sitting at the dining room table cackling up a storm. He was keeping Chichi and Bulma's mom company as they worked on getting ready for the party, cooking up all sorts of delicious dishes. There would be plenty of meat, of course, because with three Saiyans in the house there would be need for that, but also a lot of different pastries and cakes. The two ladies of course had help with the automated kitchen doing a lot of the work, but they did like to make sure that everything was going as they preferred and that meant triple checking the work of the machines.

Bulma had once asked Isco if he had a problem with them using such devices and he'd scoffed and proclaimed that 'kitchen machines are not proper robotic life'. It was a thread she'd decided not to pull.

"Oh, this book I'm reading," MDr. Brief stated. "It probably one of the funniest books I've read."

"And what is it about?" Bulma asked, sneakily grabbing a pumpkin cookie and munching on it.

"Just this nitwit who thinks he's a scientist but he clearly doesn't have any idea what he is doing," Dr. Brief stated, letting out a bemused chuckle.

"What do you mean, dear?" Mrs. Brief asked as she set about frosting some cupcakes that looked like happy ghosts.

"Well, first off, I understand that the scientist… and I only call him that because it would be awkward to call him 'the man'… has just gotten out of school and is strapped for cash but there isn't such a thing known as 'grants'."

"He didn't apply for ANY of them?" Mrs. Brief declared in shock.

"Never even considered it."

Chichi frowned. "What are grants?"

"Well, it is where you reach out to an organization and they give you money to do your work, with the understanding that you will promote them. We do it all the time… it helps out young scientists." Dr. Brief shook his head. "And then, because he doesn't have a grant, the fool decides to go looking for what he needs. Now, I get scrouging for parts… no problem with that. Remember, honey-" he looked towards Bulma, "-how we did that when we made your first bike?"

"I remember!" Bulma said with a grin as she finished off her cookie only to find her mother handing her an icing bag, drafting her into decorating. Which Bulma didn't mind… while she had a reputation of being a machine-gal AND high maintenance she actually did enjoy helping out in the kitchen. Not the baking part because all that gooey raw stuff was… ugh… but decorating? She liked that. She was able to turn off her brain and focus. "That was so much fun! We spent weeks finding old parts and cleaning them up…"

"Right, but the scientist in this book didn't even bother to do any cleaning or work on the parts. He just threw them all together and figured that would be good enough. Utterly lazy, in my opinion."

"I'm guessing it blows up in his face?" Bulma said.

"That's the best part," Dr. Brief said with a chuckle. "It turns out that it works exactly like he expects! But he hadn't actually considered what success would be like and it scares the hell out of him and he runs off! He succeeded but he can't enjoy it."

"Huh," Bulma said.

"Yeah… that Victor Frankenstein might be the funniest character I've ever read about."

~MC~MC~MC~

"Okay, I'm kinda seeing now what Avo was getting at about us not taking this seriously," Krillin admitted.

"You're just mad you didn't think of this," Launch teased.

The Z Warrior had actually made a VERY good dent in the horde. From Goku juggling body parts with just his kicks, to Krillin taunted them to run into objects and bash their own brains in, to Yamcha using an umbrella to take out ten zombies at once, all of them had been rather creative. A personal favorite for a while had been Senza using his super speed to constantly bat a zombie back and forth like a tennis ball, each time hitting a different part of the body and repeating the pattern with an added step until the zombie had been reduced to mush.

But then Avo had gone for the grand finale.

First, he had shocked the gang by revealing that his transformation powers had grown so great that he was able to add mass to his body, to the point that rather than look like someone else he could turn himself into a giant. Not as big as a Super Namekian or the Mighty Oozaru, but still big enough to cause a panic if citizens were around. It wasn't even 'poofing' anymore; the transformation just allowed him to swell huge. He'd then used Black Chains, a new variant of White Chain, to snag two zombies by the arms and head.

What followed was the world's most macabre puppet show.

Avo was delighting in having his puppets fight for him, thrashing their arms about and attacking their fellow zombies which was upsetting the horde. Floating about them, he loomed over the city like some demented parade balloon, twitching his fingers to make the zombies he had ensnared fight the rest of the horde, wiping out more and more.

"I like it," Launch said with a dark smirk.

"Hey Avo!" Goku called out. "I think you won! Let's wrap this up and get going to the party!"

"Works for me!" Avo called back, voice booming out before he holding out his hand. "Aaaaannnnnddddd sling ring into the sun!"

A small portal opened up under the horde and they quickly found themselves being sucked into it, draining away like water in the bath tub until there were no left, allowing Avo to shut the portal even as he shrank down and walked to the gang.

"Well… who wants cake?"

~MC~MC~MC~

"-when the campers got back to their camp… all of the hamburgers had been eaten!"

I stared at Krillin, waiting to see if there would be anything else to his story.

"The. End."

"…so, who else has a story," I asked, looking to the rest of the group. Normally I hated telling scary ghost stories but the gang was proving to be so horrible at it that I actually didn't mind at all.

Of course what was really amusing was that each member of the group thought THEY were the only ones able to tell a scary story and were startled when no one screamed in terror at their tales. Case in point…

"Aw, come on!" Krillin complained. "That was a scary one!"

"It really wasn't," Tien stated.

"Yeah!" Chiaotsu declared. "That's just what happens if we let Goku watch over the grill!"

"Hey, come on guys!" Goku whined. "I'm not THAT bad!"

"Goku," Senza said dryly, "we've seen you try and eat burgers while they were still on the grill. You burned your lips the last time we let you watch them cook."

"I thought they were done!"

"Well, I think that's the end to the scary stories," Bulma said as she slowly got up and stretched. "And I think I need my beauty sleep."

"Now there is a scary thought," Krillin said with a laugh. "Bulma if she didn't get enough sleep! Drool dried on her chin, gunk in her eyes, hair-AAAAAAA!" He screamed as Bulma suddenly thrust her face next to his, her rage distorting her features so she looked like a demon.

"WHAT WAS THAT!? I AM ALWAYS UTTERLY BEAUTIFUL!"

"Should we worry about cleaning up?" Miguel asked. She had been feeling strong enough to join us for the party and while I could tell she was flagging the smile on her face showed she had no regrets about joining us.

"Don't you even think of volunteerin'," Hercule said firmly, helping her up. "I'll take care of that."

"I can wipe a dish," Miguel argued but Hercule merely smiled and squeezed her hand.

"And I can do a whole lot more. And soon enough you'll be able ta show everyone you can do a whole lot more!"

Chichi though waved them off. "Its fine. The kitchen support machines will do most of the clean up."

"Like they should," Isco said darkly and I shot him a glance before deciding I REALLY didn't want to know what Kitchen Machines had done to be on his shit list.

"And we'll take care of the rest," Chichi stated.

"In fact I'll take care of all of it!" Goku declared.

"You… you will?" Chichi said, surprised.

"Uh huh! That way you guys can get a good night's sleep!"

"Why… thank you Goku!" Chichi declared, giving him a kiss on the cheek and going over to where Gohan and Videl were curled up, fast asleep. She picked the boy up, who murmured slightly at the suddenly change in elevation, but remained in his sugar crash snooze, allowing Chichi go grab Videl for Hercule and Miguel and follow after them.

The rest of the gang were quick to file out of the room, wishing everyone good night, the last being Roshi who just disappeared through a wall.

"That was… oddly considerate of you, Goku," I commented.

"No big deal. Not like we'll actually be here tomorrow, right?" he said.

"…what?"

"Halloween will be over and we'll be back on the Havokrider headed towards Namek!"

I blinked before my eyes went wide. "Are… are you aware of the Filler Arcs?"

"Yeah!" Goku said cheerfully. "Do you think we'll see that bearded Namekian again at your Christmas Birthday party?"

"…what the f-"

Happy Halloween from us at Chaos Theory Z!