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“So,” said Morgan adjusting the mask on Hawk’s… for want of a better term… face. “You remember the Do Not Kill list?”
Hawk nodded and shrugged.
“It’s just a promise to try,” said Morgan with a smile. “I’d rather not train up new nemeses if I can help it. Hold still this strap in being difficult.”
Hawk obediently held still. “But I can scare them?” It thought at Morgan.
“Of course!” replied Morgan cheerfully. “That’s kinda the whole point. You’re a spooky scary ghost. You scare the Conundrum Corporation and anyone else away from the old pier.”
“But not with Ducky?” asked Hawk sulkily.
“Sorry Buddy,” said Morgan sadly. “Ducky’s parents said no. But you can go round there for tea after and tell Ducky all about it. Okay?”
“Okay,” agreed Hawk with a sniff.
“You don’t have to do this if you don’t want to,” said Morgan carefully.
“I can do it!” thought Hawk with such fury that it hurt Morgan’s head and made them wince.
“I know you can, Hawk. No one is doubting that you will be the most spooky ghost to ever haunt anything. But you and Ducky planned this, if you don’t want to do it without him I’m sure your Aunt Diego and Uncle Dave wouldn’t mind you coming round earlier?” asked Morgan.
“No,” thought Hawk, suspiciously quickly. “I want to scare the teenagers, it is Halloween after all.”
“Okay,” replied Morgan narrowing his eyes with suspicion. “Now, your Mom and I are going off planet for the weekend. So you can scare the teenagers and then if you give Barnaby a call when you’re done he’ll give you a lift to Ducky’s okay?”
Hawk rolled its eyes, very effective with the mask. “I know Other Mom, we’ve been over this five times already.”
“So,” said Morgan. “If you get into trouble…”
Hawk sighed. “I call for Mom, as loud as I can.”
“That’s right,” agreed Morgan. “Alex will hear you, and we will be there instantly. Ready to go?”
**
Morgan dropped Hawk off at an old warehouse by the pier. Hawk settled down to wait when a bloodcurdling scream from behind it made it spin round to come face to face with a blood covered snarling monster right by its face, The monster reared up for a killing blow and then dissolved into laughter.
“Ducky!” exclaimed Hawk with more surprise than it would have liked.
Because Hawk communicated telepathically, Ducky didn’t even have to shift out of bear form for Hawk to understand him. “Oh god,” spluttered Ducky. “I wish I could have seen your face, but the mask was in the way.”
“Idiot,” thought Hawk, pushing the still laughing Ducky onto his ass. “I knew it was you.”
“Sure you did,” drawled Ducky from the floor.
“If you’d really scared me, you’d be dead now,” snarled Hawk.
“You’d try,” grinned Ducky. “Invulnerable, remember?”
Hawk sniffed. “And I can smell the difference between real blood and… is that chocolate syrup and red food colouring?”
“Yep,” agreed Ducky happily. “Effective isn’t it?”
“It’s going to be a bitch to get out of fur,” grinned Hawk. “How did you sneak out in the end?”
“Easy, picked a fight with my Dad, then stormed off upstairs and slammed the bedroom door. Put the music on loudly and snuck out the window,” explained Ducky, the shrug looking strange in his bear form.
“What if they check on you?” asked Hawk.
Ducky shrugged again. “I put a lock on my door weeks ago. And I hooked up a sensor to the door. If they try to open it it’s rigged to play a voice file of me shouting ‘go away’. But even if that doesn’t work, I’m here now anyway. What can they do?”
“Right then,” thought Hawk, focusing blank black eyes made even more unsettling by the ghost mask surrounding them on Ducky. “Let’s go scare off the Conundrum Corporation.”
**
A few days later, Hawk was at the kitchen table doing its maths homework and its Other Mom was making coffee.
“So,” said Morgan placidly. “I caught up with the Conundrum Corporation yesterday.”
Hawk focused as hard as it could on its maths homework. “Really?”
“Oh yes,” said Morgan stirring their coffee. “They were very impressed with the ‘beast monster’ I found to haunt the pier. “Wilma in particular is very annoyed that she can’t work out how I did it. How did I do it, Hawk?”
“I’m not sure I know what they mean?” thought Hawk, avoiding eye contact.
“Apparently it was a large hairy, almost ‘bear-like’, creature,” explained Morgan taking a sip of their coffee. “Thoughts?”
“Um… maybe… shadows…” tried Hawk still looking down at its homework.
“Hairy shadows?” asked Morgan, taking another sip. “Or, maybe, Ducky met you at the pier after all. Even after his parents forbid him from doing so?”
Hawk thought about lying but realised it was too late, it had already been caught. “Maybe,” it agreed sheepishly. “Are you going to tell Aunt Diego?”
“Hawk,” said Morgan seriously, putting their coffee down to look Hawk in the eye. “I am no snitch. But tell Ducky he needs to be more careful. Diego is not an idiot. And you shouldn’t lie to me. Just tell me what’s going on, I can’t help you if I don’t know.”
“Yes, Other Mom,” replied Hawk looking back down at its homework.
“But, all that aside. You two did a fantastic job! Frank has apparently never been so scared. Proud of you buddy!” said Morgan winking at Hawk and taking their coffee with them into the next room.