Chapter Text
“Trick or treat!” chorused the trio at the door.
“Wow! What great costumes!” Veronica complimented, catching the pumpkin next to the door before it fell off its stand. “I thought I recognized you under that wizard hat, Milo.”
“Now I’m a magician and Murphy’s Law is my magic that’s out of control!” Milo said proudly.
“Are you any specific character? That costume looks familiar,” Veronica said.
“Just something I threw together,” Milo said. He dressed in red wizard robes with a pointed blue hat covered in stars and a crescent moon. “You look pretty awesome in that dragon outfit!”
“Thanks! Thought I’d flip the script since I’m normally working at the pizza place this time of year,” Veronica said, showing off her dress made of scales, horned headband, and dragon wings on her back. “Let’s see. The werewolf is Zack, right?”
“They convinced me to dress up this year,” Zack shrugged, wearing wolf ears, a wolf tail, and various other fur attachments under his old Lumberzacks outfit. He even had a bit of face paint to sell the look.
“And Melissa! You are rocking that Medusa look!” Veronica complimented as she handed out candy to each of them.
“Thanks! Thought I’d go with a villain this year, and I subscribe to the belief that Medusa was one bad lady who was rightfully turned into a monster,” Melissa said.
“Please don’t get her started on the debate about Medusa’s origin story,” Zack groaned.
“I’m just saying there are multiple versions of the story, but I grew up hearing the one where she was an actual villain, so I’m sticking with it!” Melissa declared. “If I wanted to hear a story about a Greek woman getting gypped, I’d read the myth about Echo.”
“Thanks for the candy! Maybe we’ll see you at the Danville Costume Party!” Milo said as he and his friends walked off.
“Wouldn’t miss it! See you guys there!” Veronica waved.
“I still can’t believe we’re trick-or-treating at our age,” Zack said. “Dressing up? Sure, I can get behind that. But trick-or-treating?”
“You’re going to argue about free candy?” Melissa said, counting her chocolates.
“Besides, I see lots of older kids out here.” Milo waved to Candace across the street, walking with Phineas and Ferb.
“Fair enough. I’m stoked for this party,” Zack said. “Sounds like it’ll be a blast.”
“Sounds like there will be more opportunities for candy and costumes!” Milo cheered. “I love Halloween!”
“BOO!”
The three teens jumped with small screams when someone leapt from the bushes, but they relaxed and started laughing when they realized it was someone familiar.
“Dakota! I told you I would scare them!” Cavendish complained.
“Even in your costume, you’re not very good at scaring,” Dakota said.
“You guys look great!” Milo said. “Panda bear and a ghost?”
“Yes, indeed,” Cavendish said. “Dakota wanted me to just throw a bedsheet over myself, but I thought I’d put a little more effort into my attire.” Cavendish certainly went the extra mile. Not only was he in an entirely greyish-white outfit, he even painted his exposed skin white to sell the look.
“I still think the sheet would have worked just fine,” Dakota said. He wasn’t about to spoil Cavendish’s fun with his morbid thoughts, however. Dakota’s panda outfit was perfect: black bottoms, black and white top, and black bear ears, though he still wore his usual 1970s glasses.
“Why a panda bear?” Melissa asked.
“They’re big and cuddly but also ferocious beasts!” Dakota said. “Plus, I saw this awesome movie about a panda who does kung fu, so if anyone messes with me tonight, I can go all Hong Kong Phooey on them!” Dakota made funny noises and exaggerated martial arts moves, causing his partner to roll his eyes and the kids to laugh.
“Are you guys going to the costume party, too?” Milo asked as the men joined them.
“Yes, Mr. Block has given the entire P.I.G. office the night off to enjoy Halloween,” Cavendish said.
“Which is weird, because you’d think this would be the busiest night of the year for them,” Dakota said.
“Come on, it’s Halloween,” Melissa said. “A night of fun costumes and buckets of candy.”
“Yeah, what could happen?” Zack asked.
One would think Zack would have learned by now to never say something like that around Milo. Then again, what happened next wasn’t exactly Milo’s fault. First, the lights on the street flickered and went out. Then all the lights from all the houses went out, too. A wave of sickly green light passed over the neighborhood, catching everyone in its wake and causing everyone in a costume to glow. The light passed and faded away, and the house lights and streetlights came back on. Seconds later, chaos erupted and many screams from civilians echoed down the street.
“Hey, what’s going on?” Melissa asked a passing kid dressed as a mummy. The kid made a moaning sound, and then turned to stone in an instant. Melissa jumped back, and she realized her skin had scales like a snake and there was a weird hissing sound next to her ears. “Guys?”
“Melissa, cover your eyes!” Milo yelped.
Melissa did so. “What just happened?”
“Something really weird is happening! There are monsters all over the place!” Zack yelped, sounding like a dog. “Why do I have a tail?!”
“Melissa, here!” Milo reached into his backpack and pulled out a pair of sunglasses. Melissa put them on and opened her eyes. Thankfully, none of her friends turned to stone. In the mayhem, the five of them realized that they looked different. Melissa’s Greek-style dress and shoes were the same, but her skin had snake scales and her snake wig had come to life. Milo looked mostly the same, but he discovered his backpack had become something of a void from where he could pull whatever he wanted. Zack was much more wolf than boy, and his ears and tail moved like a wolf’s. Cavendish was still greyish-white in color, but now translucent with a soft blue glow in his eyes. Dakota was a full-on panda bear, though he still had his glasses on.
“What the heck just happened?” Milo wondered.
“As insane as it sounds, I think we just turned into the things we dressed up as for Halloween!” Cavendish gasped.
“This fur is itchy,” Dakota groaned, scratching at his side.
“How could this happen?” Melissa asked Cavendish and Dakota.
“Well, this is no time travel phenomenon, but it certainly reeks of paranormal,” Cavendish said. He reached into a pocket in his jacket and pulled out a ghostly version of his phone. But he pressed a few buttons and nothing happened. “Battery is dead, which is ironic. Dakota, where’s your mobile?”
“Well, it was in my pocket, but I don’t seem to be wearing pants anymore,” Dakota said, suddenly noticing the little tail he had and wiggling it.
“I think I have mine!” Milo reached into his backpack and pulled out a landline telephone. “Wait, that’s not right.” He tried again and pulled out an even older rotary dial phone. He tried one last time, really concentrating, and pulled out his cell phone. Cavendish tried to take it, but the phone passed right through him; and Dakota had a hard time dialing with the nonretractable claws, so Milo dialed and held up the phone for the men.
“Mr. Block?” Cavendish and Dakota asked in confusion when their boss appeared on the screen looking like a little fairy.
“Not one word,” Bob Block grumbled. Even his voice was squeaky.
“Did what happened to us happen to you too?” Dakota asked.
“I’m guessing you turned into your Halloween costumes, too,” Block said. “Same thing happened to all of us at P.I.G.! Someone, and I’m not saying who—” Block turned briefly to shout “Toodles!” at someone offscreen. “—thought it would be a great idea for us to draw costumes out of a hat. When the ray hit, all of us were transformed and only then did we realize the hat was rigged! None of us could stop them from stealing the machine!”
“Machine? What machine?” Cavendish asked.
“And who’s ‘them’?” Dakota asked.
“Some crazy wannabe evil scientist named Roddenstein broke into P.I.G. and stole a prototype machine we were building,” Block explained. “Normally, this would be classified information. But you two are the only ones who can help now. The machine was meant to bring training dummies to life for our agents to practice on, but Roddenstein modified it to change people into whatever costume they wore!”
“Don’t worry, sir! We’ll stop this fiend and fix everything!” Cavendish declared.
“Oh, that’s very cute, boys,” Block said. “But it’ll be a lot safer if you went to the very competent police and let them take care of it. Besides, the effects of the ray will wear off in a few hours. Stay safe out there, boys!”
Block hung up, and Cavendish grumbled to himself. “Your boss is a piece of work, isn’t he?” Melissa said.
“There has to be something more we can do! I’m sure the police are going crazy trying to figure this out, and some of them might be dressed up, too!” Milo said.
“Uh, guys? We got a problem!” Zack pointed to a small crowd of zombies shuffling towards them. Each zombie had a paper with a number taped to their chests.
“Uh oh! I think those are the joggers from the Zombie Fun Run!” Milo gasped.
“Run for it!” Dakota yelped as he and Cavendish herded the kids away from the zombies calling for brains and other body parts.