Title: A Snooty Halloweed - HumanNinjas vs PirateSaurs
Status: Incomplete
Characters: Anon, Fang, Anon's Family
Rating: SFW
Classification: Short Series
Author: examanon
Summary: Young Anon goes trick-or-treating with a serious challenge in mind: to get twice as much candy as his insufferable egghead cousins. It's all planned out - he even made a map! But what he didn't foresee was getting caught up in a treasure hunt.

Chapter 1: Prologue 

"Anon, darling, you haven't even touched your mashed potatoes!" the worrying voice of his mother rang out across the dinner table.

"I-- I know, Mom." Anon stuttered in response "It-- It's just--"

All eyes turned towards him, the combined curious scrutiny of the extended Mous clan descending upon the young boy. A rather stressful thing for a nine-year-old, stealing his words.

It was a rare occurrence for the family to get together like this, and especially around this time of the year. Christmas dinners weren't unheard of, nor a summertime BBQ or two. But there's never been a Mous Halloween gathering. It wouldn't have been this year either, were it not for a murder most foul - someone killed the music. And the electricity, subsequently, but it all started with the music. It was the first thing the cousins noticed, that the nigh 24/7 continuous melody playing from their grandmother's old record player stopped. It was gone. What happened was, as much as Anon could piece together from the haphazard explanations overheard from phone calls and all the boring adult smalltalk, a vase was knocked over as his cousins prepared their matching vampire costumes. Water and electric appliances don't mix well together, apparently. Or old wiring. Point was, he now had to share his room with his two cousins for the weekend. A perfect twin pair of bespectacled eggheads, a boy and a girl, with matching jet-black bowl cuts and buck teeth.

"Savin' space for all that candy, am I right?"

This time it was his father who spoke up, tearing himself from the wall of newspapers he normally hid behind during family events, winking mischieviously at this his son. Immediately, Anon grinned back up at him, straightening his back enthusiastically.

"Yeah!" he yelled, maybe a bit louder than necessary, then placed both hands on his belly to emphasize the point "I'm gonna get the mostest candy this year! I have it all planned out and everything!"

The adults around him all chuckled at this cutesy display of childish ambition and innocence, being reminded of a time when planning the perfect night of trick-or-treating counted among the most stressful worries one might have. It was only his mother who scoffed, wagging a finger at the young Anon.

"You better not eat all that candy in a day this year, or so help me...!"

Recalling the memory, Anon shuddered, some of his former energy leaving his body at the unpleasantness of it. A wicked tummy ache would be a very mild way to put that little incident. Whatever punishment his mother was thinking of, it probably couldn't have been worse than that. He opened his mouth to protest, albeit half-heartedly, but he could get no word out before once more his father came to his defense. Placing a hand upon his son's bald head, Mous senior hushed his wife.

"Oh, don't be a sour grape. You know how much he worked on his costume, don't you? He deserves to have this."

With his spirits rekindled by his father's caring words, Anon's face lit up again, nodding along in approval.

"Yeah Mom! I'm gonna be a ninja."

"Mhm. And may that be the reason why my green scarf went missing?" lady Mous bit back; though in vain, as not a second later she sighed, conceding defeat "Nevermind... Fine. It's fine."

With that, it seemed that the conversation would reach its conclusion. Until another, high-pitched voice came from the other end of the table.

"A ninja isn't scary, stupid!"

A clearly provocative statement, which was then followed by the annoying giggle of two eggheads. They held their chins up high in the air, staring Anon down in unison, and all but high-fiving each other for their superiority. Altough, perceived superiority, as it was. Something Anon had long learned not to care too much about. Still though, he couldn't let this unsolicited jab go unpunished.

"You'll see!" he called out at the duo self-consciously "I'm gonna get twice as much candy as the two of you combined!"

"That's impossible..." one of the twins said.

"...We have the better outfits, and there's two of us." the other finished the sentence. "You have no chance."

"Will so!" Anon puffed in protest.

But before the twins could further answer his challenge, anger glaring in their eyes at the bald boy's audacity, Anon turned to his father, asking to be excused from the table. Then, with his permission granted, he left the room hurriedly.

Much was still to be done till the big night.