All Hallows Evil

By Mark J. DeGregorio, a.k.a.- Lucky

Nonie carried a hollowed out pumpkin into the kitchen. She place it down and stared at it for a moment before Patricia entered the room. “So, what are you waiting for,” Patricia asked, “Halloween to be over?”

Nonie glimpsed up at Patricia and answered, “I can’t think of a scary face to carve into this pumpkin.”

Patricia walked to a drawer and pulled out a pad of paper and a penciled. She brought it to Nonie and said, “Draw something here first before you goof up the pumpkin.”

Both girls sat at the table, staring at the pumpkin. Stephanie promptly made her way through the kitchen. She had that kill Alan expression on her face as she passed by. The girls glanced at one another wondering what made her furious. Patricia smiled as she said, “You know, you could give the pumpkin that look.”

“It sure is scary enough.” Nonie agreed.

Nonie began to draw out the face, and then carved the pumpkin. When she had finished, she left it on the table to get things ready for their Halloween party. As the twins walked into the other room, the pumpkin’s eyes began to glow. Its freshly craved face morphed into a truly evil grin as it turned to face the girls in the other room. It laughed, “Soon, very soon.”

In the other room, Nonie and Patricia were decorating the room for their Halloween party. Nonie was in the process of setting the snack table with a black cloth draped over it. Patricia extended her arm and retrieved a life-sized cardboard skeleton to hang on the wall. She promptly gave a quick glimpse at her twin and said, “Hey Nonie, what are you doing in that box?”

Nonie turned to see Patricia poking fun at her being skinny again, said, “I am not a skeleton.”

Looking at the skeleton from all angles, Patricia laughed, “And I see you’re still as flat as ever.”

Nonie stretched her arm out the window and to the front door. She rang the doorbell and said, “Hey, the guests are already here.”

Patricia dropped the skeleton and walked to the door and said, “That’s impossible, the party isn’t until…”

When she opened the door, Nonie punched her square in the face. After re-molding her face back to normal, Patricia swiftly moved over to Nonie to pay her back when James entered carrying a casket prop for the party. James saw the expression on Patricia’s face and asked, “Alright, what’s going on here?”

“It’s a good thing you brought that coffin,” Patricia said, “because she’ll need it after I get through with her.”

James dropped the coffin and held her back as Nonie retorted, “Well, she started it.”

“And I’ll finish it.” James concluded, “You both had better start growing up!”

Alan trembled has he entered the room. He looked worse than if Stephanie had clobbered him. His skin was paler than usual and dehydrated. Alan could not hold himself up enough to walk. He buckled over and fell to the floor. James and the rubber-twins rushed to his side. James examines him over and then called Beaker on the communicator in his ring. In less then ten minutes, Beaker arrived. He analyzed his vital signs and gave him an injection of something to stabilize him.

“We’d better get him to the medical bay aboard Terisen.” James ordered.

Beaker replied, “Terisen is to far, we’ll take him to the medical lab through your study.”

* * * * * * *

In the medical lab, James placed Alan gently on extended examining platform. There were a complex of instruments and controls, which lined the wall just behind Alan’s head. Beaker touched a few controls to active the autodoc. The four girls watched from corridor from behind a thick window.

Beaker touched a series of buttons and began to scan Alan’s body. It started from his head, down the full length of his body and back up to his head.

James and Beaker stepped over to the monitor to view the scan. James, without turning from the screen, asked Beaker, “So, what’s wrong with him?”

Beaker responded, “It appears that he’s going through a biological change…”

“He’s mutating.” James interrupted.

Beaker pointed at the screen at the color organic x-ray view of Alan’s neck as he stated, “This appears to be the formation of…gills.”

“Gills,” James shockingly said, “he’s growing gills.”

“…And his skin is becoming dry, we need to submerge him in water.” Beaker finished.

Beaker pressed a button and printed out the medical data on Alan, and then James lifted Alan from the examination platform. He carried him placing him into the regenerator. After the door was sealed, Beaker began to fill it with water.

Nonie screamed, “They’re trying to drown him!” and dashed into the room.

James stepped in front of her to stop her, but she squeezed through between his legs. Nonie then snaked her body around Beaker in an attempt to make him stop drowning Alan, shouted, “Get him out of there!”

Beaker lifted his brows as he took control of her mind, setting off all the neurons in her brain off all at once, stunning her. As she fell to the floor, James asked, “What did you do?”

“I had to mind blast her.”

Penny and Stephanie entered the lab. Patricia was standing at the medical lab’s door, shouted, “Hey that was funny, do it again!”

Penny looked Nonie over and asked, “Will she be alright?”

Beaker smiled, “Yes, she’ll wake up with a head ache.”

Stephanie stood in front of the regenerator looking at her brother, asked, “So, why is he in here underwater, and how is he breathing?”

* * * * * * *

Evening approached, as James had left the house to visit an old friend. He drove his car to a cottage in the woods. After arriving at his destination, he entered the cottage. The interior resembled an old wizard’s dwelling. A man sat at an old wooden chair at the table. He was monitoring the potions he was fabricating. He was average in height and build, with light brown hair. His beard was long, as one would expect a wizard’s would be. He turned to face James when he entered the room.

“Gordo, is there something you would like to tell me?” James questioned.

“Linda,” he answered, “she’s tucked away in a cave somewhere at Jakes peak.”

He often wondered what he did with her, but that is not why he came. James frowned as he continued to question him, “What I would really would like to know is, what do you know about Jesmina?”

Jesmina, Gordo thought, he had not heard her name for a long time, not since that mission he went on for the Amalgamation. “Why are you asking about her?”

“Did you sleep with her at any time?” James ingenuously demanded.

Before, he would have hesitated to answer that question, but since they were no longer part of the Amalgamation, he answered, “Yes, but why would you’d be asking this now?”

“Because, you have two daughters.”

* * * * * * *

Nonie sat on her bed. She was not feeling like partying tonight. Alan was submerged in a water tank and she did not know if he was going to get any better. Patricia was already in her She-Devil costume adjusting the horns on her head. “Come on, will you get dress already!”

“You go, I don’t feel like going right now.” Nonie moped.

Patricia walked over to Nonie and said, “Look, we both planned this party, we both talked James into letting us throw it, and the guests will be here in less then an hour.”

Nonie looked up with her soulful eyes and replied, “How can I have a party with Alan stuck in that tank? It’s not fair.”

Patricia sat down next to her sister and said, “You heard Beaker; he said Alan was going to be alright.”

What came next shocked Nonie, when Patricia said, “The party will not be the same without you.”

Patricia being nice, she thought, that’s a first. Patricia stretched her hand across the room and grabbed the black and orange witch’s hat and forcefully placed it on Nonie’s head and said, “Now get dressed and get your skinny butt down to the party.”

After Patricia departed the room, Nonie began to get dressed. Patricia strolled down the stairs into the room they decorated for the party. She grabbed her devil tail and placed it onto her rear. Her costume was bright red latex one-piece suit, red boots and gloves. She heard the doorbell rang and rushed to see who was arriving first. She passed Penny, who was dressed as a space woman, in the hall as she answered the door.

“Trick-or-Treat.” Mike said as he stood at the door.

“Aren’t you suppose to be wearing a costume?” she asked.

The cyborg man looked himself over and said, “I look like this, and you say I need a costume?”

Patricia smiled and stretched her upper body into the pantry and retrieved a metal funnel, placed it on Mike’s head and laughed, “There, now you’re the Tin Man from the Wizard of Oz.”

“Very funny, can I come in now?”

Patricia placed a finger on her chin and gave a whimsical expression and answered, “Hum, I suppose so.”

Mike entered the entrance hall as Beaker approached dressed as a gorilla. Mike looked him over and commented, “Nice monkey suit.”

“Thanks.” He replied.

Patricia smiled, “Hey Beaker, I thought you were going to wear a costume?”

Beaker removed the gorilla head and retorted, “I see you’re going as yourself.”

The three moved into the room where they were going to have the party. Mike reached for the chips when Patricia stretched her neck over to mike and said, “I thought you only ate nuts and bolts.”

She was getting on his last nerve; angrily replied, “Look, I am a cyborg! Part man and part machine.”

The metal golem picked up a potato chip, dipped it into the salsa and continued, “I eat normal food. In fact, I require real food to survive!” and stuffed it into his mouth.

From up stairs, they heard Nonie shout, “I’m ready!”

The three exited the room into foyer and joined spacewoman Penny and Stephanie, dressed as a leather-clad warrior princess. Nonie stood at the top of the stairs, dressed in her sexy witch’s costume. Her costume consisted of a two-piece outfit; the top was a black, long loose sleeved, opened mid-drift, with orange trim. The bottom was a black and orange, cheerleader-like skirt. She sophisticatedly descended the stairs. When she got one third of the way down, she slipped and fell. Nonie bounced down five times before landing at the foot of the stairs.

Patricia sarcastically said, “Oh, that was graceful.”

Nonie pulled herself off the floor with a little help from Stephanie. All went back into the party room to put an ice pack on Nonie’s head from where she bumped it against the floor. Patricia fought the urge to poke fun at the situation, when they heard someone ringing the doorbell and Nonie shouted, “I’ll get this one.” Then ran to the door.

The others follow, leaving the party room. When everyone was gone, the pumpkin’s eyes illuminated and its face twisted into a malevolent grin as it began to laugh.

Nonie opened the door and was shocked at the sight before her. An enormously fat man wearing a brown bodysuit was blocking the outside of the door. “JUAN TUN!” Nonie gasped, “What are you doing here!”

“I came to party,” he answered, “and I’m coming as a Party Crasher!”

Patricia stretched her neck over to look Juan over, and then laughed, “Is he a friend of yours?”

“Absolutely not.” Nonie gripped.

Juan Tun forced himself into the house and headed for the food. Patricia glared at Nonie and said, “He’s going to eat all the food before the real guests arrive.”

“You tell him to leave.” She snapped back.

Patricia protesting, marched over to the enormous figure and said, “You’re not invited to our party! Get out!”

He stopped eating only long enough to belly flop on top of the brunette in the devil costume, squashing her flat. Nonie stretched a hand to grab her digital camera and quickly snapped a picture of her flattened sister before she could get up. “Hey, now you’re a 2D-Devil for Halloween.”

Patricia stood up and began to re-inflate herself. She then glared at Nonie and demanded, “You better delete that picture, or else…”

“Or else what?” she countered.

From outside, a loud clap of thunder broke up the tension building in the room. Penny looked out the window and saw a heavy rainstorm pouring down said, “Looks like no one is leaving here now.”

“You mean we’re stuck with fatso here!” Nonie cried out.

“FATSO!” Juan shouted, “I ought to squash you!”

Patricia’s face lit up at the possibility of seeing it happen, shouted, “Do it…Do it…”

Stephanie hand began to glow with energy as she said, “No one is going to get squashed here.”

Juan thought for a moment and walked out of the room as Nonie smiled at the pouting devil girl. Patricia was still going to get that bubblehead. Another bolt of lightning knocked the power line out, placing the house in darkness. Stephanie illuminated her hands to help Penny find the candles for light. Beaker made his way to the passageway through the study to start the generator in the medical lab. Alan was still unconscious, but doing well. Mike was easy to spot with his left eye glowing in the dark; he switched it into infrared to see in the darkness.

After Penny placed candles around the house, she looked out the window and saw the roads had flooded out and the winds have picked up. She announced, “We’re flooded in, nobody will be able to get to the party now.”

“WHAT!” the twins cried out.

From the party room, the pumpkin quietly began to laugh. Its face had changed into a purely gruesome smile, its eyes formed into small slits of glowing evil.

Juan Tun strolled up the stairs to use the bathroom. He reached the top and stop by the railing to look down at the entry hall below. Someone from the shadows pushed him over the rail, sending Juan falling to the floor below. Patricia saw him falling and pushed Nonie below him as he landed. Juan rolled to his stomach to get up and Patricia stretched her torso to get a better look at Nonie. She looked like, what the wicked witch must have looked like after the house fell on her. “Ooohh, man, that was totally awesome!” Patricia excitedly shouted, “You flattened her good!”

“Hello, still in the room.” Nonie flatly snapped.

Juan glared at the devil-clad girl and retorted, “Hey! I didn’t jump down here, I was pushed.”

Stephanie illuminated her hands again and focused them into a beam of light. She shined the light forwards and backwards searching the open upstairs hall. There was nobody there. Nonie had already pulled herself from the floor and was inflating her body too normal size, said, “I think fatso’s lying. He did it on purpose.”

“Do you want me to flattened you again?” Juan angrily said, “Keep it up!”

Beaker removed the gorilla head and suggested, “Maybe we should go up and check it out.”

Penny responded, “Alright, you, Stephanie, and Mike; go up and see if anyone is hiding up there.”

As the three started up the stairs, the rubber twins entered the party room and saw that all of the food was gone. They stormed out to confront Juan Tun about the missing food. “That fat pig ate all the food in there!” Patricia gripped.

“I most certainty did not.” He declared.

Nonie stretched her forearm five feet, stretching her index finger another foot, poking it into his blubbery stomach and said, “Oh, I doubt all the food is not in here.”

“Girls,” Penny said, “there was still food in there before the power went out and he hasn’t been in there since.”

Beaker, Stephanie, and Mike moved to the upstairs railing and shouted, “We searched everywhere, and there’s no one up here.”

“Well look again!” Juan Tun ordered.

Before they turned to check the upstairs again, they heard a creaking sound, which had transpired from inside the party room. Penny sauntered to the door and opened it. A large bat flew out past her sending her reeling back, “Augh! What was a bat doing in there?”

Nonie stretched her neck into the room and looked around. She saw the coffin had been opened. She stretched her neck farther out to get a closer look at the coffin. What happened to the vampire dummy that was in there, she thought. She recoiled her neck and asked, “Alright, who took the vampire dummy out of the coffin?”

“Maybe One Ton here did it.” Patricia responded.

“Hey,” the fat man snapped, “why am I the one to blame?”

“Because, you’re a villain, that’s why.” Nonie retorted.

“I didn’t even know that there was anything in that thing!” he countered and stormed away.

“Meanwhile, there’s a bat flying around my house.” Penny stated, “We’re going to have to find and get rid of it.”

* * * * * * *

James and Gordo arrived at James’s neighborhood. James quickly stopped the car when he saw an unknown energy dome surrounding his house. Inside, it was storming. Outside, it was calm and clear. “What do you suppose that is?” James asked Gordo.

James walked over to the field, but Gordo grabbed him by the arm in order to stop him from touching it.

“Wait.” Gordo instructed and pick up a stone and threw it at the field. The rock exploded into fragments.

“Good save Gordo,” James said in amazement, “and I was going to touch it.”

Gordo studied the field and asked, “So, how are we going to get in there?”

James moved back to the car and answered, “Through Beaker’s laboratory, it has a secret passage into my house.”

The wizard looked at James as he made his way back to the car and asked, “Who do you suppose placed that barrier there in the first place?”

* * * * * * *

Juan Tun proceeded through the house. He was infuriated at the fact that those rubber brats had insinuated that he was responsible for everything that had happened. He entered a room in the upstairs as another flash of lightning shortly illuminated the room. Juan approached a mirror that was in the room to admire him. Upon gazing at his image, it began to become anorexic in form. The reflection’s eyes commence to intensity glow as it began to laugh. The reflection then jumped out of the mirror, grabbing him by the throat.

The more Juan fought, the stronger the doppelganger became. He felt as if the fake version of him were drawing his life force right out of his body. Juan’s body was beginning to loose body mass as he became anorexic himself. Then the doppelganger let his go, moved back through the mirror, and disappeared.

Weakened from the attack, Juan could do nothing but lie there and do nothing. His now bony body did not have the energy to get off the floor. He had hope that someone would come and help him, even if it were the rubber brats.

Beaker picked up Juan’s thoughts and stated, “Juan Tun is in trouble.”

Nonie smiled, “So what else is new.”

Beaker leads the way to the room where Juan had entered. All gasped at the sight of the enormous Juan Tun, skinner then Nonie, as she cried, “What the hell happened to him?”

As they helped him to his feet, Juan told them what had happened. They moved him to the downstairs sitting room and placed Juan on a sofa. After making Juan comfortable, they went into the main hall to make a decision on a course of action. Since it was her house, Penny took charge of the planning, faced Beaker and asked, “Do you have anything in the lab, that we could use to find whatever it is running around this place?”

“I’d have to look.”

Penny glanced at Stephanie and ordered, “Steph, go with him to light his way, the rest of you, stay put until they get back.”

Stephanie powered up her illumination ability and she and Beaker went on their way. They made their way through the passageway in the study, to the medical lab. Stephanie saw Alan still useless in the regenerator. Why someone as smart as that lamebrain, can get into so many messes, I’ll never know, she thought.

She moved the light to one side of the room to find Beaker, but found something else. It made her jumped back in fear as she saw a creature in a containment tube. It was a ghastly insect or reptile in nature with six arms, and two legs. Its teeth were long, needle like, and two antenna sprouting from its head. Each of the six hands had four, three-inch talons at the end of each finger.

“Beaker! What the hell is that, that thing!” she cried.

Beaker poked his head up from a cabinet to see what she had been referring. He saw the creature she was pointing at and answered, “Oh, that’s species 180268.”

“What’s it doing here!” she demanded.

“Oh, don’t worry,” Beaker reassured her, “it’s very much dead.”

Stephanie glared at him and said, “That doesn’t answer my question. Why is it HERE!”

“Species 180268 is a life form which has me baffled. I brought it here for additional study.”

“Well, get it the hell out of here!” Stephanie frowned.

Beaker went back to the cabinet, searched for a moment, and removed two metering devices. As the two left the medical lab, Stephanie said, “When this is all over, you’re going to get rid of that creepy, species 180…whatever thing.”

As the medical lab door closed, species 180268’s eyes popped open and it began to claw its way out of the containment unit.

* * * * * * *

James and Gordo arrived at Beaker’s research lab. The two got out of James’s car and entered the building. When they got to a door in Beaker’s office, James spoke into a microphone, “Captain James Wayland.”

He then faced a device mounted on the wall. Placing his face close to the scanner, a green light ran across his eye. The computer conferred that it was James Wayland, and opened the door into the secret door to his house.

He and Gordo entered the passageway to save his wife and friends from whatever trouble they are in.

* * * * * * *

Beaker and Stephanie returned with the devices he went for. Penny asked him how it worked.

“It picks up on paranormal activity in an area, it doesn’t have much range, about two meters.” Beaker explained.

Penny moved her eyes around the room, then at each of her friends, then said, “Okay, we’ll separate into two groups, I’ll take Beaker and Patricia with me, and Stephanie, you take Mike and Nonie.”

Penny pointed to the upstairs and continued, “Stephanie’s group will search the upstairs and attic, and my group will take this floor and the basement. If anyone runs into trouble, call out on your communicators.”

Nonie reluctantly followed Stephanie and Mike up the stairs as the others moved out of view. Stephanie held the meter while Mike attached his plasma cannon onto his right arm. Nonie rushed to catch up to them, so as not to be left alone. The three entered the room, which they found Juan, and started to search. The indicator began to go off and Stephanie moved to the chest on the floor. “I think there is something in here.” Stephanie called, waving her hand for them to come closer.

Mike readied his cannon as Stephanie opened the chest. The bat from earlier jumped out from the chest and flew around the room. Nonie screamed and stretched her body away from the bat blocking his shot. The bat flew out of the room as Stephanie yelled, “What did you do that for!”

“It was the bat.” Nonie answered.

Mike sighed, “Well now we’re going to have to find it all over again.”

“Sorry, my bad.”

“It couldn’t have gone far,” Stephanie said, “Mike you have infrared vision, see if you can find it again, me and miss courageous here, will move on.”

Mike exited the room and started to scan for the bat. He moved down the hall and into another room. He saw a figure of a man in a cape as a bright flash of lightning blinded his infrared sensors, then when the clap of thunder sounded, the figure was gone. The bat however, flew past him and out the door.

He chased it down the hall and into another room where he closed the door behind him, so it could not get out. Mike took aim and fired. To his surprise, his plasma bolt stopped before reaching the bat and suddenly turned back towards him.

“Oh Shi…” He uttered as the impact of the blast sent him flying into fourteen pieces across the room.

The bat shifted into the caped figure from before. He looked at the busted man-machine. His eyes glowed red and when he smiled, Mike saw fangs sprouting in his mouth. He then walked out of the door, leaving Mike’s pieces scattered around the room.

* * * * * * *

Penny, Beaker and Patricia moved through the dinning room and into the kitchen. The meter started to act up and Beaker proceeded to fix it. He retrieved a screwdriver from a drawer, sat down at the table, and began to work on it.

Penny heard something from out into the hall and asked, “Did you hear something, stay here a moment, I’ll be right back.”

Penny moved back into the dinning room and into the hall. She heard something inside of James’s study and entered. She was relieved when she saw James exited from the secret passage. “James!”

She rushed towards him, but stepped back when Linda came in from behind him. “James! Linda’s behind you!”

As James turned, Linda cast a spell of energy-ball. A globe of pure energy plunged through James’s body, leaving a large gapping hole through his upper torso. James fell over as Linda made her way towards Penny. The sorceress then chanted something and Penny found that she could not move. Linda laughed as she touched her. Penny was in horror when her body began to turn into stone. She tried to scream, but turned into a stone statue before she could.

* * * * * * *

Species 180268 finally broke through its containment unit. As the fluid flowed onto the floor, the creature pulled itself to its feet. It turned its attention to the regeneration chamber, which held Alan Foster. Scrambling over to the unit, and began to claw its way to Alan. Its claws ripping into metal and thick reinforced glass, as it worked its way to get the helpless engineer.

As species 180268 worked, Alan opened his eyes for the first time since becoming ill. The slender, five and a half monster tore open the regenerator, spilling Alan and the water out over the floor.

Alan gasped at the sight of the terror before him as species 180268, jumped for its attack.

* * * * * * *

Patricia stood in the kitchen waiting for Penny to return said, “What in the hell is keeping her? I’ll be back in a minute.” Then ran out of the Kitchen.

Beaker dropped the meter on the kitchen table and went after her, “Wait, not alone.”

When Beaker entered the dinning room, Patricia was nowhere to be found. He made his way into the hall and into the library. “Patricia, are you in here?”

When he got no response, he turned to leave when something hit him in the back of the head. He looked down and saw a book, thought, who though that book. He turned to see if Patricia was playing a trick on him. Two more books jumped off the shelves and struck him. “This isn’t funny Patricia!”

Eight more books from around the room jumped off the shelves and hit Beaker from all sides. Beaker knew Patricia could not do that as he ducked for cover.

Something then grabbed him by the ankles. Beaker reached down and felt a wet, slimy, warn tentacle had wrapped itself around his ankles. It pulled at him, sending him falling to the floor. The fireplace started to transformed. The mantel curves downward and points began to form, similar to teeth. It was then, that Beaker realized that the tentacle was actually a tongue.

It started to pull him towards the jaws of the fireplace. Beaker had to use his telekinesis to keep from entering the huge mouth. He was able to keep from entering the mouth, but he knew he could not do it for an infinite amount of time.

* * * * * * *

Stephanie and Nonie wandered down the hall. Nonie stopped when she heard something and turned to see what it was. She saw a glowing light moving away in the other direction and followed it. Stephanie came to the door leading to the attic. Still thinking Nonie was with her; she entered and climbed the flight of stairs.

When Stephanie got to the top of the stairs, she said, “It’s creepy in here…” and turned to see that Nonie was not with her.

“Now where did that little idiot go?” she sighed.

Probably she’s hiding downstairs from all of the ghosts and monsters, she thought with a smile. Some superhero she turned out to be.

Stephanie entered the attic and looked around. There was all kind of things that Stephanie considered junk all around. She shined her hands to illuminate the area. “What in the hell…” she uttered.

She was repulsed at all the spider webs around the attic. Why did Penny let the attic gather all these spider webs? I thought she was a neat freak, she thought and moved deeper into the attic, brushing away at the webs.

She heard something fall over from behind her and turned to see what it was.

Stephanie saw a ten-foot spider looming over her. She raised her hands to blast it, but the enormous spider sprayed its webbing at her hands. Its two front digits locked onto her body, lifting her into the air, placed her onto a large web, and continued to spray her body until she was wrapped into a cocoon. Stephanie tried to blast her way out, but was unable to. She was becoming sleepy and could not stay awake.

* * * * * * *

Nonie and Patricia went back into the party room to re-group, plan, and mainly hide from the horrors in the house. It was they, against the creepy things going bump in the dark. The twins realized that, in order to survive the night, they would have to rely on each other.

Patricia sat at the snack table while Nonie paced around the room, asked, “What do you suppose happened to the others?”

“I don’t…” and stopped when Nonie got to the other side of the room. Patricia turned her head to face Nonie as she started to the other side of the room.

“Will you stay in one spot long enough for me to answer?” Patricia growled. Nonie stopped as Patricia continued, “I don’t think they would leave us here to fend off these horrible fiends by ourselves, something must had happened to them.”

Laughter seems to come from around the room as the girls looked around to find the source of the laughter. The jack o’ lantern sitting on the table was sinfully laughing as it turned towards the cardboard skeleton hanging on the wall. It then jumped off the wall and began to inflate into a real skeleton.

The twins screamed, looked at each other, and then screamed again. The jack o’ lantern split opened and reveal a bright intense light. When the light faded, the twins saw the reason for everything that was happening.

“Pumpkin-Puss.” Nonie muttered.

The face on Samhain was of pure hatred as he said, “That’s Samhain to you cretins. You will not win this time, for I have dispatched your friends.”

Patricia whispered to Nonie, “He sure is, as long winded, as I remember.”

Samhain pointed to the skeleton and it began to move towards the rubber girls. Nonie and Patricia ran out of the room, slamming the door behind them. When they started up the stairs, Samhain and his minion skeleton emerged from the room. They screamed when the bat flew towards them, forcing them back down the stairs.

The skeleton grabbed Patricia by the throat and threw her to the floor. Nonie ran to see if Patricia was alright, when Samhain stood at the doorway slowly clapped his hands a few times and said, “Well done, now it is time to finish these two once and for all.”

Patricia started to get up when the skeleton hit her knocking her out. Samhain held up his hand and Nonie was pulled by some obscured force towards Pumpkin-Puss. He reached out his right hand, grabbed Nonie by her throat, and lifted her two feet into the air.

He held up his left hand and said, “I have waited a year for this moment.” Nonie watched as Pumpkin-Puss’s hand commenced to burn. Flames emerged from his hand as he continued, “Have a happy death.”

As the flame grew closer, sweat rolled down her forehead as Pumpkin-Puss laughed, “Maybe we will meet in the after life.”

Nonie initiated the spell that sent him back to his realm, but Samhain laughed, “Nice try, but you have not figure out your magic as of yet, no matter, you and your twin, will be of no consequence to me.”

Nonie felt the flesh of her skin beginning to melt. Before she could be scorched, a stream of high-pressured water hit Samhain, dropping Nonie, and sending him recoiling to the back of the room.

A watery identity rushed into and sent a second water blast at the skeleton busting it apart. Nonie looked at this new comer into the battle. It was definitely male, with watery spiked like hair and had watery hair sprouting from his chin.

“Alan?”

Nonie watched Alan’s watery form revert into human form. Nonie stood up and noticed that he seemed to have grown and additional six inches to his five foot six inches statures. “Wow, you changed.”

Alan saw Pumpkin-Puss pick himself off the floor, said, “Uh oh, Pumpkin-Puss is getting up, we better take off.”

Nonie and Alan ran up stairs and into a room, locking the door. Nonie thought for a moment and asked, “What about Patricia?”

Alan was pulling the vent off said, “She’ll be alright, and Pumpkin-Puss is more pist at us right now.”

Alan and Nonie looked into the vent shaft, “Nonie, squeeze through the shaft into the other room, I’ll follow you through in my water form.”

Nonie stretched her body to thin herself out and began to snake though the vent. Alan turned and heard Pumpkin-Puss coming to the door, shifted into water form and flowed into the shaft. Samhain busted down the door and entered the room.

In the other room, Nonie was reforming back when Alan exited the vent. “How did Pumpkin-Puss get here in the first place?”

Nonie looked at Alan and when he was in human form, answered, “Me and Patricia saw the jack o’ lantern open, and Pumpkin-Puss appeared.”

“The jack o’ lantern?” Alan thought out load, then looked at the rubbery redhead and smiled, “Come on, we have to get back down to that room.”

They opened the door to that room, looked to see if the coast was clear, and proceeded down the stairs. They got half way down when Pumpkin-Puss heard them and came out. Alan and Nonie ran into the party room. Pumpkin-Puss followed them and when he opened the door, he saw something terrifying.

Alan J. Foster, super genius, held the jack o’ lantern in his hand, grinned, “Funny, if I drop this pumpkin,” and pointed with his other hand at Pumpkin-Puss, “that pumpkin over there will disappear.”

“Why, I should…” and Samhain flames up his hand to attack.

Alan held the jack o’ lantern in front of him and interrupted, “Ah-ah-ah, don’t want me to accidentally drop this pumpkin, do you?”

Samhain’s eyes flared with anger as he shouted, “I should blast you where you stand…”

“And destroy your ticket into this realm, I don’t think so…Pumpkin- Puss!”

Samhain held his ground, waiting for an opportunity to strike snarled, “Do you really think you can win this battle?”

Nonie responded, “Holding this pumpkin, I think so.” She turned to Alan and added, “Do it.”

Alan lifted the jack o’ lantern over his head. Samhain shouted, “NO!”

Alan slammed it to the floor. The jack o’ lantern shattered into over twenty pieces. A vortex opened into the room and Samhain tried to grab hold of something, but the force was too great for him and he was pulled into the vortex. Before he disappeared into the vortex, Alan and Nonie laughed, “Bye-bye Pumpkin-Puss.”

Then he was gone.

Everything reverted to the way things were. The storm outside dissipated, the skeleton became a ripped up cardboard skeleton, the vampire fell over as a dummy, and species 180268 was dead.

In the library, the fireplace turned back to normal releasing its hold of Beaker. He rested for a moment before getting to his feet and left the library.

The spider and all of its webbing disappeared, leaving Stephanie resting on the floor of the attic. She picked herself off the floor and started down the attic stairs wondering what had happened.

Juan Tun grew enormously fat again and broke the couch he was laying on. He looked himself over and joyously said, “I’m me again.”

In an upstairs room, Mike was reassembled into a fully functional cyborg. He got up and ran a systems check.

Penny transformed back into flesh, and watched as James’s body vanished from where it rested. She mourned her lost until the bookshelf slid open and James entered with Gordo in tow. Penny ran to her husband, held him hard, and cried, “I saw you die.”

“When was this?” he asked.

“You came in through the passageway and then Linda came in and killed you.”

“Penny,” James reassured her, “when we got into the passageway, the energy field that surrounded the house extended underground, blocking the middle of the passage.”

Gordo added, “We spent the last hour trying to get through it, and as for Linda, is still in her bottle hidden away.”

* * * * * * *

Alan and Nonie walked out of the party room. Patricia awoke and was getting up. Beaker entered the foyer and saw Alan was out-and-about. Stephanie came down the stairs and smiled at the sight of her brother. Not that he was taller or that he was all right, but his apparel. She laughed; “So Alan, you came in costume, let me guess…are you suppose to be?” she paused for dramatic effect, “Captain Underpants!”

Alan quickly looked himself over to see that he was in fact, running around in his underwear. He smiled and ran up the stairs to his room to put on some clothes. Juan Tun entered the foyer, looked at the rubber-twins and said, “Your party sucks!”

Patricia replied, “Good to know you had a great time.”

“Don’t come back now, ya hear!” Nonie added, and Juan walked out of the house.

James, Penny, and Gordo came out of the study into the foyer. Nonie remembered him as the guy who helped save Penny from Linda.

“Girls, come here.” James called.

As Patricia and Nonie approached, James said, “It may come as a shock to you, but this is your father.”

“What?” Patricia huffed.

“Gordo is our real father.” Nonie added.

“Yes, and I think you may have discovered your magical ability.” Gordo responded.

“Well yeah, but it doesn’t always work.” Patricia said.

Gordo smiled, “That’s because you’re twins. With our race, twins can not use magic without the other.”

Nonie blinked a few times and asked, “How come?”

“Because,” Gordo explained, “when twins are born, their magic is divided between them.”

Gordo moved to a chair, sat down, and continued, “Which means, to use your magic, you must one; make physical contact with each other, and two; you must cooperate with each other.”

“Those two cooperate.” Stephanie grinned, “Boy, that will never happen.”