Crossover Story...

[Nemrod]

There's no as of yet for this story I've been writing with some friends. No spoilers will be given, if you read it, surely you'll know what this story will be about...

OK, here I go:

Prologue: Perilous Discovery​

Since the revolutionary yet disastrous idea of halloweenize the Christmas as Jack thought, too few had thought of being as scared as the people they had brought down even to death, and all that thanks to the zealousness of Jack Skellington, King of the Pumpkin Patch and of Halloween Town. Of course, Jack himself could not do that alone, there was also Oogie Boogie.

Life was no good without a good scare, they used to say, because they were not mean really, it was simply their job. But during that Christmas, some started to think that it would be better if many thought of another manner to make a fairly decent living, and never to be let loose again in the zest of a most amusing and innovative idea.

However, what happened once in a night before Halloween’s eve, it could be said with no exaggeration, as the most intriguing, ominous and creepy situation ever in Halloween Town. It was something that threatened all the folk, indeed.

In the house of the Zombie family, sudden piercing cries tore apart the dead of night, and of course, it woke up in the most unpleasant manner the corpses of the night, the parents of the frightened Zombie kid.

‘‘Mama! Papa! I’m going to die for the second time and I don’t wanna!’’ shouted horrified the Zombie kid, tears flowing from his horrid sewn eyes.

‘‘There, there my poor deceased boy’’ Zombie Father broke in through the room of his son, startled. His pace was clumsier than ever before. ‘‘What just happened here?’’

‘‘WAHH!’’ yelled Zombie Mother, falling to the ground as she wavered. ‘‘My boy, my boy! You’re dead and you’ll be so forever, you can’t die anymore! What could have possible crept you out!’’

But the little corpse boy was so scared that it could not stop crying. More and more tears flowed from his sewn eyes. To a living it would be a rather gruesome sight, but for the Zombie parents, it was most creepy; they did not want to see his son whimpering like that.

After some minutes of a tender embrace, the little Zombie kid was soothed by her mother ‘‘Mama, it’s nothing of our people, not of our town! It’s not Oogie Boogie!’’ Zombie Mother eyed his husband with a worried expression.

Zombie Mother patted the bald head of his son. ‘‘What? My little dead, Oogie Boogie is no more in Halloween Town! All of him was squashed… or devoured.’’

‘‘Son, tell us what happened exactly’’ snapped Zombie Father.

‘‘I was just having joyful sleep, the dream of the dead and…’’ The boy wavered a little, lips shaking like a fish out of water, ‘‘And then…I woke up because something shook hard my bed. I got down and crept below my bed, searching for anything. There was nothing.’’

While Zombie kid was speaking to her mother, Zombie Father lit some candles and his oil lamp, then looked around for any hint of an intruder in the room. ‘‘Nothing suspicious, just the usual mess of this room.’’

‘‘I was going to lean on my bed after searching, when something shook my bed again. I tried to ignore it.’’

‘‘Those damned kids of Oogie Boogie, I’m sure they are behind this!’’ shouted angered Zombie Father. ‘‘Since Oogie Boogie has gone, they have done nothing but cause troubles again… Jack is ought to teach them a lesson again.’’

‘‘They need more than that, dear’’ said Zombie Mother.

Suddenly, something was heard behind a door in the room. It was not the entrance door to the room, nor did it come from the windows, nor the trapdoor next to the bed. No, it came from the closet. Shortly had Zombie Father and Zombie Mother approached, a loud hissing noise was heard and the door trembled again, quite violently. Then, nothing else was heard.

All the Zombie family was scared, and they dared not to approach at the door. Father and Mother left the room of his son and went to theirs. As they exited, they never noticed a faint gleam that crept out from below the door. First it appeared there, later it shone as if it became a frame for the entire door, and the light shone brighter. A few seconds later, it rapidly waned and nothing but darkness reigned the room.

The next morning, almost all the folk of Halloween Town were in the Major’s Hall, speaking about the strange things that had occurred the last nights. There were three important issues on their discussions: What happened in the closet rooms at night? Why Oogie Boogie’s kids had been so scared to come out at sunlight, and even at nightfall? (and this made many to think they had lost their touch) And lastly, where was Jack?

Zombie kid was talking to Mummy boy and the Green Bat, they too had been scared. It relieved them somehow the adults cared for their safety, but they had never been scared by whatever sprang out from the closet doors or trapdoors in the night. Only the children were the victims.

‘‘Too bad that you couldn’t see what scared you’’ commented Mummy Boy.

‘‘I couldn’t see it, too’’ said the Green Bat.
‘‘Trembling beds, strange noises… perhaps weirder than ours, and the menace comes from trapdoors and wardrobe doors.’’ said Mummy boy, pensive ‘‘But, you know what? I saw last night a light behind the door in my room’’

‘‘What door?’’ asked Zombie kid.

‘‘There is neither trapdoor nor wardrobe in my room…it was from the door of my room, the entrance to my room!’’ replied Mummy boy.

‘‘What!? I guess you were pretty much scared! But what happened then?’’ voiced alarmed Green Bat.

Meanwhile, the Major was being overwhelmed with many questions, and the folk of Halloween town came to him as flies and ravens to corpses. He could not stand for long like that.

‘‘Where is Jack?’’ asked nervously the Mayor over and over ‘‘Where is Jack? I can’t handle all this alone… and what’ll be his reaction when he knows about Oogie Boogie’s kids?’’

‘‘Where is Jack?’’ asked at unison the three vampires.

‘‘What’s happening? Oogie Boogie’s kids are cowards now!’’ shouted the Werewolf.

‘‘If Oogie Boogie is no more, then, who’s this monster who fancies to be better than us!’’ yelled the Demonic Harlequin.

‘‘Whoever or whatever it is, let’s going to tear away his face… in the way I do, HA!!’’ said the Ravenous Clown, tearing apart his face abruptly and bursting out in a maniacal laughter ‘‘But he’ll suffer way too much, HAHA!!’’

 

[Nemrod]

Conclusion to Chapter 1

With each question, the Major’s faces turned over and over: first the happy face, then the scary one. As more questions pounded his ears, and claws, fins, hands and tentacles came to him, both faces were not unhappy but rather scared. He even could not get anger. A few seconds later, the Major burst out with a loud yell and his head started to swirl with so much speed that it seemed it would detach and fly away from the neck.

From the entrance of the Major’s Hall appeared a white gleam, and it shown a little red spot.

‘‘Zero!’’ cried many people as they spotted the ghost dog. But the faces became happier as the tall, slender body of Jack Skellington loomed behind the stairway. Luckily, the head of the Mayor stopped spinning.

‘‘Hey, scary folk!’’ he greeted, though his face was unsettled ‘‘You ought to know how hard has this day been for me. I’ve brought company so not only me, but all of you can atone better.’’

‘‘What did you say, Jack?’’ questioned the Mayor, worried. His head whirled a little when Jack said that.

‘‘You don’t need to tell me’’ replied Jack ‘’I’ve seen Oogie Boogie’s kids trying to lock all windows and doors of their hideout. In fact, I helped them… and know that they won’t come out in a long time. Hehehe!’’ he finished with a joyful smirk.

‘‘I hope they never come out.’’ said the Mayor showing his happy face.

‘‘Who’s the one coming with you?’’ asked the Werewolf.

Everybody around Jack and the Mayor was going to ask the same when they spotted a small, red hat with a puffy ball on its end. Then, they watched a chubby body clad in red and white. A snowy but untidy beard in the man’s face made everyone to recognize him.

‘‘I had no better choice but to bring him here, so we can atone better and talk to him.’’ said Jack ‘‘It’s been hard to convince Sandy Claws… erh, I mean, Santa Claus that we have nothing to do with this outbreak of terror.’’

‘‘Outbreak!?’’ was the word many uttered.

‘‘Yes, and one reason that proved our innocence to him was that our living is to scare people, yes, but we only do it once… in Halloween… One night, but we do it as if it was the last one, the very downfall of mirth, joy and light.’’ Jack burst out in a cackle.

The other monsters cheered him. Some roared, shouted, wailed or did anything when they frightened people in Halloween.

‘‘Alright, calm down people. As I said, since we only go to Earth, the human world, in Halloween, that proves our innocence. The problem we have here is not only in Halloween, but all days, all the year.’’

‘‘And it is in all the worlds, I’m afraid’’ snapped Santa Claus, worried. ‘‘Make way and stop messing up with my beard!’’ he ordered as he went through the crowd.

‘‘You see, Santa Claus told me that his helpers, gnomes, who look like children, have been scared… in ways far more terrible than ours in Halloween…’’

‘‘He can’t be saying the truth!’’ said the Werewolf.

‘‘Let me speak, please. He told me that this hasn’t happened in Halloween and Christmas Towns only, but in all the other holiday worlds, and, one that is equally important, the Earth.’’

‘‘Jack, you need to say that not only children have been scared, along with those who look like children.’’ added Santa Claus shouldering his way among the crowd ‘‘Any people of any age has been victim of this outbreak of horror. And I thought I had seen everything with Oogie Boogie.’’

The crowd stopped moving and whispering. A grim, long silence took hold of the entire place, as if they were in a very graveyard.

‘‘This is getting serious.’’ said the fattest of the three vampires.

‘‘I ought not to say this but… I’m afraid this is beyond my understanding.’’ commented anxious the Grim Reaper.

‘‘How can you say that?’’ asked surprised the Ravenous Clown ‘‘Have those kids of Earth strip you off all your powers, or is it something else?’’

‘‘No, not at all, I mean, I’m starting to have some good days.’’ answered the Grim Reaper, somehow startled.

‘‘We should gather a group of all the able-bodied men here: fiends, monsters, everything. We took the children to a safe place while we only make a false kid and let him in anyone’s room. That way we might catch whoever or whatever is scaring them.’’

‘‘That’s a good plan Mayor, I praise it!’’ exclaimed Jack happily ‘‘Everyone strong enough to face this threat, come before me… perhaps you might not be able to go with us Muddyman. You might be splattered easily, or eaten… unless you got stuck in the monster’s throat and choked him. But we can’t be that lucky. That monster has to pay for this’’

For a moment, the crowd cheered and roared, wailed and shouted. The sound was becoming deafening and horrible, but somehow, a single cry overcame the wave.

‘‘SILENCE!!’’ yelled Santa Claus ‘‘Look over there!’’ he pointed at the Hall’s entrance stairway.

There in the stairway were approaching none but Oogie Boogie’s trio of tricksters, who had been now transformed into humiliated cowards. However, they still kept a little of treachery and courage, for they rode in the bathtub, and inside they had a big black sack. Something was bulging inside it, and it shook violently.

Lock, Shock and Barrel seemed confident, but immediately called for help.
‘‘Jack, we’ve brought something here!’’ they yelled scared, and the crowd stood incredulous, they could not believe Halloween Town’s most terrible tricksters were now cry-babies ‘‘We got one here, this is the one!’’

Jack though of this as something suspicious, but then he smirked.

‘‘Kids, who asked you to bring me Sandy Claws… ehr, I mean, Santa Claus, here again?’’ he asked in a mocking tone ‘‘If you haven’t noticed, Santa Claus is here’’ And then Jack motioned Santa Claus to walk and stand beside him.

The kids suddenly fell off from the bag and the bathtub, horror in their faces, not because of the humiliation (as if they could be more humiliated), but because of the trembling sack. They stupidly regained on their feet and tried to hold on the sack.

‘‘Or is it that you’ve caught again the Easter Bunny?’’ asked Jack with a big smile.

The kids didn’t answer, nor they rolled their or did anything else to complain. Before Santa Claus could say something, Jack stopped joking. He saw that Lock, Shock and Barrel had been really scared, though he wondered what they could have trapped in the sack despite their state. At the very least, he was thankful of two things: that their treachery has gone and they were frightened rabbits, and that they had trapped whoever or whatever was the responsible for the problem.

Even so, Jack was cautious, and allowed himself to hesitate about Oogie Boogie’s kids. It could be possible that even scared they were joking with everybody, and that they might have caught the Easter Bunny or who knows who was the victim now.

After deliberating with Santa Claus in hushed voices, Jack stepped ahead and stared at the kids with big, hollow eyes. His mouth was to become a smirk (and perhaps a horrible jaw to scare them off and make them wet their pants), but he showed himself worried and said ‘‘I hope you’re not joking this time… or you’ll never come back to see any light or darkness again, save for the gloom of your cells, those of Oogie Boogie. Do I make myself clear?’’

Lock, Shock and Barrel dared not to raise their gazes and meet Jack’s eyes.

‘‘Enough scolding, Jack.’’ said Santa Claus ‘‘These children are bad ones, we’ll later decide what to do with them. For now, let’s see what have they brought us here.’’

As the kids moved aside, shuddering and head lowered, Jack and Santa Claus approached to the sack and untied it. It was hard for some seconds, but it took them more time because whatever or whoever was inside it didn’t stop shaking. Jack asked for help, and the Werewolf went to them. Once it was untied, the sack was open and from it sprang out and slender, reptile-like figure. It cocked its head and said:

‘‘I’m back, at last! I’m back! Now, it’s time for rev… Where am I?’’

 

[Nemrod]

Chapter 2: An Alien Monster

An Alien Monster​

‘‘Where am I?’’ hissed the creature, and shortly it tried to escape, the bigger men in the crowd submitted him.

Jack had an astonishing gesture, even it looked hilarious how his mouth was wide open.

‘‘Where am I?’’ yelled the creature as it struggled to escape.

‘‘What kind of forsaken monsters is that?’’ asked the Mayor, quite frightened by the sight of the stranger.

‘‘It disappeared!’’ yelled the crowd.

Gasps and yells were heard as many watched how the creature disappeared. But the ones who held the monsters could still felt the hideous struggle. ‘‘It’s still here!’’ said those who held it. Then, more gasps and yells startled not only the creature, but its captors and the reason was that the monster changed with weird colours, as if by art of magic.

‘‘The way it wriggles and hisses…’’ said some people ‘‘It’s a disturbing sight!’’

Annoyed, Jack approached at the monster, seized its head and, once it started deeply at its slitted eyes, he let out a foul mixture of a shriek and roar. The monster rapidly stopped wriggling, now it was shivering with fear.

‘‘No, no… stop it!’’ was the response ‘‘Not anymore… That… roar… where am I? Is he here?’’

‘‘Tell your name, stranger!’’ said Jack sharply, his stern expression barely changed.

Again, the creature tried to escape, but its squirming changed again into a shivering of terror, causing some cackles, at the sight of sudden cowardice.

‘‘My name is… Randall’’ said the creature at last as it felt the clutch loosening ‘‘I won’t try to escape… surely I would end up in a narrow place, being hit by a boy and his mom’’

‘‘The strangers it’s mad, where are you from?’’ asked the Mayor.

‘‘I came from… Earth’’ hissed the creature ‘‘That is, the world of humans. Surely you must have seen it. But, actually, I come from Monstropolis’’

Several hushed gasps and babbles were heard, but Jack rapidly stopped the bothering sound with a long cackle.

‘‘Ha! Monstropolis? Is that where you come from? What kind of holiday is that?’’

‘‘We are the only monsters who bring down humans!’’ shouted the people of Halloween Town ‘‘No creature is better than us in scaring people’’

‘‘Well, I’ve killed sometimes children… and adults too’’ snapped Randall with a mischievous tone ‘‘And not only by means of fear…’’ he suddenly let out a swift laugh, and later, he changed his colour in a hideous way: it seemed as if he had been bathed in blood ‘‘And with this I mark my words… and if you let me do it, I’ll prove my words again’’

More than one person felt intimidated by the words, as well as with the gaze and skin of Randall.

‘‘And you think yourselves champions in scaring people?’’ added Randall ‘‘HA! I don’t see any board or screen showing it, nor a burly guy showing off his skills… urh, **** you, Sulley! But, who the heck are you?’’

‘‘Well, I am Jack Skellington, king of the Pumpkin Patch and of Halloween Town’’ he replied ‘‘What you see here is our world. It might look trapped in darkness and foreboding feelings, but we’re not mean… scaring people is our job and joy.’’

‘‘Are you joking? Well, I’m scarier than you!’’ shouted Randall rising from the ground, a head higher than Jack ‘‘If circumstances had been better for me, I would have shredded your bones to dust, scrawny boy!’’

‘‘In that case, I feel quite in the mood for another kind of foe’’ replied Jack boldly ‘‘Not too long ago I defeated a pesky, bulging monster made out of bugs, but disguised as an ugly ghost. His power was not so big at all, save for that of his hunger, pride, trickery mind and stupidity. If you are my new foe, know that I’m ready’’

‘‘Same as you’’ said Randall with a disturbing smirk.

‘‘He has no good intentions, Jack’’ said the Mayor ‘‘He is to be kept prisoner. However, we must question him more about Monstropolis’’

Randall could not possibly have too many opportunities in Halloween Town, as lone as he was, though he needed just a minimal chance to sneak out and return to Monstropolis. Even so, with the discovery of Halloween Town, Randal didn’t know where he could end up the next time he crossed a closet door.

‘‘Seize him again!’’ ordered the Mayor.

‘‘At least it’s not as annoying as being trapped by Sulley and his stupid one-eyed crony,’’ said Randall frustrated.

Thus, the deranged madman, the Werewolf and the Demonic Harlequin took away Randall and led him to Oogie Boogie’s lair, now transformed into a prison for Lock, Shock and barrel. Actually, it did look the same as always, save for the trio of tricksters, for now it seemed to them as the very place where they would spent their lives in misery.

Meanwhile, outside the town hall, the Mayor kept discussing with Jack, Santa Claus and the Grim Reaper the rare issue of the foreign monster.

‘‘What’s the meaning of this?’’ asked the Mayor with a wavering voice ‘‘With Oogie Boogie we didn’t have too many problems, save for those of his cronies. We remember the pest, the swarm of bugs that spoiled our food and patches; the meddlesome kids and… I’m sorry Jack, but you know as much as we do that Halloweenize the Christmas turned out to be a bad idea’’

‘‘Don’t make me to recall it again!’’ snapped Jack a little embarrassed.

‘‘Nothing like this had happened before,’’ commented the Grim Reaper ‘‘As far as I know, there has never been any intrusion into the worlds of holidays… save for the rare occasions when the kids of Oogie Boogie wanted to spoil more than a holiday’’

‘‘But that creature didn’t come here through a door,’’ said Santa Claus ‘‘I mean, not exactly through one of the Wood of the Holiday Worlds… he entered through a common door. But which one? There would be hundreds here… even thousands! Yes, thousands. Remember the hideous findings we did once we inspected Oogie Boogie’s lair?’’

‘‘It turned out to be a really large dungeon,’’ replied Jack ‘‘Of unfathomable measure I dare to say. Strangely… it had some paths that led directly to Professor Finkelstein’s lab. How odd’’

Suddenly, as he recalled the professor’s image, he added:

‘‘Doctor!? Ah, yes, let’s have that Randall taken to the lab, he’s to be examined by the Doctor’’

‘‘Mmh, I don’t like the idea very much, but if it’s of use for you, go ahead (this world hasn’t changed, though. They’re still crazy)’’ said Santa Claus.

For the next hours till midday, time had been spent chatting with Doctor Finkelstein as soon as they arrived to the lab. He showed a great interest in the new monster and longed to see it. ‘‘This is what I was dreaming of!’’ he shouted out of joy ‘‘Monsters! New creatures! New worlds!’’

‘‘Calm down, Doctor!’’ said Jack, who watched as the doctor seemed to be overreacting, but indeed was clearly excited.

‘‘Oh, but I won’t be going alone! All of you will come with me! I want to show you all the wonders that I’ll surely discover!’’ snapped the doctor.

Jack looked at his company with a big grin, but they really didn’t share the feeling.

‘‘You won’t regret it, I’m sure’’ added the Doctor ‘‘I just wish that all the town could witness such an event’’.