Nall watched the costume party with a frown marring his fuzzy features, that had been a good idea and it was spreading out of the party now and it was Nall’s turn to spread halloween across the city further. Drifting down from the roof he’d been perched atop the black and fuzzy vampire bat spread his wings and glided across the street to perch atop a Jack-o-Lantern merrily glaring at the street in someone's front garden. He didn’t like this perch however so flapped his way up into the air and gripped the cross-bar of a street lamp with his talons and let himself swing gently to dangle upside down.

This was a much better vantage point, wings wrapped about his body snugly, cool Autumn air rifling through his fur. It was cosy but the night was not over yet and he had to focus and consider his options. This being a nightmare imp was fun, but tricky, he was having to try his hardest to make sure he didn’t get swept up in the moment and lose himself to one of the swarms racing around town terrorising and changing folk. There were vines and jack-o-lanterns everywhere, bats, rats, spiders and creepy crawlers multiplying everywhere, some of the swarms had branched out into new shapes and were doing their best to multiply and catch up with the rats and bats.. As he watched he saw a young husky with a glowing green nose disappear under a swarming, chirping cloud of bats. A couple of minutes later the enlarged swarm of bats rose into the sky, streaming across the face of the moon and leaving behind a pile of discarded clothing.

“Well what do you think Nall?” Rook’s voice murmured beside him as a large eye ball drifted into an orbit around his head. The bat resisted the urge to bite into it and just offered the eye a huge grin.

“I’d say we’ve brought Halloween to the city, but you’re not thinking big enough, don’t think you’ve won yet, I’ve got one more trick up my sleeve!”

“Oh? Care to share?”

“Nope, you’ve got enough eyes, you can watch and see how we really introduce Halloween to the city!” He gave in then and pounced, powerful back legs springing from his perch. His body elongated, shifted, wings giving way to arms, body stretching into a familiar tubular shape as he landed atop the eyeball. He hugged it then bounced off and dived into a huge pile of crisp brown, red and golden leaves with a rustling crackle of decaying foliage and was gone. Rook bobbed in place for a moment then floated up into the air to continue watching the Forgotten City embrace Halloween.

Nall meanwhile jumped out of a pile of leaves a couple of streets away from Rook and looked around. It was a quiet neighbourhood and there were only a few hints that any of their mischief so far had reached it. There were Jack-o-Lanterns on the intersection with the next street and the big flock of bats wheeled past overhead but otherwise it was quiet, untouched and not enjoying Halloween.

Slinking along the street the pine marten stopped by a modest building that was all chrome and glass and sturdy looking brick. It was the lab belonging to one of the city’s more entrepreneurial surmelle’s; the little race of weasel, rat hybrid creatures that populated fairyland. Her name was Nilla and she was known to be a keen magician and scientist, employing technology and magical means to push the boundaries of understanding! Nall had even spent a rather interesting year as one of her lab experiments when he’d lost a bet to her. He’d nearly fallen for her trick to try and keep him an extra year but he’d wiggled free of that net!

Flying over the fence Nall flew over the grounds and through an open window into the main laboratory. Feeling the air with his whiskers he flew quietly and carefully along the workbenches toward the cages and started hunting around for his friend Max. He found him relaxing in a big pile of straw in his usual cage dozing, he was a lab rat born and bred and despite all the crazy science magical and mundane that Nilla subjected him too he was quite loyal and a little bit in love with her. So despite many chances to leave he always stayed but tonight well this next trick called for someone like Max So Nall clambered up the side of the cage and knocked on it until the rat woke up with a squeak and a muffled snort.

“Nall, is that you buddy?” the rat walked closer, mismatched eyes blinking as he peered out at the pine marten clinging to his cage, “What you doing in here?”

“Well I said i’d drop in sometimes to visit, how's life in the cage? still sticking it out and not breaking for freedom?”

Sitting up on his hind legs the rat brushed at his scraggly whiskers and shrugged, “You know, still… doing ok really. Bit boring on nights like this, not many others to talk to without you in the lab.”

“Aw bummer,” Nall said with a smile, “Still I brought you a little something, fresh from my kitchen,” he pushed a small gum-drop through the bars, the sugar coated treat dropping into the hay. Max didn’t hesitate to pick it up and sniff it, turning it around and around in his little paws.

“Oooh, this smells,” he bit into it, sinking his big rodent buck teeth into the gum, eyes rolling back as he swayed gently and tore a large lump out of the treat, “yaaaah, dats good, thanks Nally.” he bit into it again and again, nibbling of lumps of gum and swallowing them, muttering in delight to himself all the while until he was left with sugar coated fingers which he obsessively licked clean.

He looked up to thank Nall for the treat but the Pine Marten was gone from the bars, he looked around, peering into the gloom but it took a minute for his bad eyes to pick up the faint outline of the marten watching him from the window. He raised a paw and waved so the rat waved back only to turn the motion into covering his muzzle as he burped. It was a big burp that seemed to expel all the air in his lungs as well as a fine green vapour that covered the bars and hardened into a glistening shell.

“What the hell…” he stared at the bars then down at his stomach which was making some decidedly strange rumbling noises and burped again, this time releasing a cloud of pink glittery powder that turned the bars into striped candy, “Oh fuck not again!”

Nall watched with interest from his safe vantage point as the bars on Max’s cage shattered and a large rat foot surged out of the cage! Another giant foot slammed through the cage to the left before Max’s torso rose through the top of the cage stack and the whole thing collapsed with an almighty bang onto the floor!

The gigantic rat hadn’t finished growing, his arms where swelling to match his ponderous new size and his head was stretching upwards. Which meant he was already pretty big, Nall figured at least eight feet before the mutations really started! The rodent’s big long rat tail was the last thing to grow in size and as it expanded it twisted and split apart into four long strands of bright colourful candy, the sticky material wound itself together in a big long braid and curved over at the end into a candy-cane like hook. The striped braid started to solidify.swishing back and forth on the ground as Max let out a roar as his shoulders and torso hunched forward into a stoop as he had to bend forward as he swelled to meet the ceiling! His fur was crumbling, spreading, bubbling and breaking up into a shoulder mantle of crumbly tablet. The ceiling tiles gave way and the room above crashed down all around the transforming rat, destroying the lab and letting loose all of Nilla’s other test animals.

Max was nearly thirteen feet tall now, broad across the shoulders and his arms had split and split again into a cascade of long liquorice laces tipped with orange and white candy corn spikes. They coiled down to the floor on either side of him and slithered across the floor, scooping up some of the escaping animals and dropping them into the pouch that had opened up across his stomach! Their wriggling shapes vanished inside as the smooth white chocolate that comprised Max’s lower body finished claiming the last vestiges of flesh and blood.

The rat’s legs still looked the same as before, stocky, feral limbs that framed his stocky, chocolate, tablet and liquorice body. As he took a step forward Nall saw that they had indeed changed, they left a trail of sugar behind them and rippled and rolled gently, deforming with each step like gel, squishing out with the impact of his feet hitting the floor only to snap back into shape a moment later. The lab-rat had gummy sweets for legs, a candy cane tail and Nall sat upright and watched excitedly as the changes finally claimed Max’s head!

Buck rodent teeth became hard boiled sweets, his eyes rolled in on themselves to become spirals of red liquorice with giant chocolate buttons covered in multicolored sprinkles for pupils. His ears were big sheets of rice paper that left trails of sherbert and his white fur had transformed into a smooth layer of white chocolate.

“What the hell, MAX is that you?” Nilla was standing in the door to her ruined lab, the short orange surmelle’s fur ruffled from sleep and her shocking bubblegum pink hair standing up in disorganised spikes. The former rat turned confectionary monster turned to Nilla and took several steps forwards, liquorice lace arms snapping and coiling from side to side as he boomed a single question.

“Trick or Treat!”

“What… Max! Who did this to you!”

Looming above the surmelle the rat monster stared down at her and shook his head, “Trick or Treat?”

“Neither! Max we have to no, no stop!” she squealed as a horde of black tentacles coiled around her, the liquorice lifting her into the air and holding her before the rat monsters face. He sniffed her then smiled, “Failure to answer means treat!”

Nilla squealed as the liquorice arms twisted her in several directions and she fell from their grip as a cascade of nilla shaped gummy sweets. They disappeared into the rat monsters pouch as more of his arms pulled it open then snapped it shut behind the last one. Max then shouldered his way through the wall and lumbered across the street to the next house.

Nall watched through one of his floating eyes, the imp keeping a respectful distance now from his monstrous creature and watched in delight as he knocked ever so gently on the door. His voice however was rather loud as he bellowed out the age old question of, “Trick or Treat.”

The tiger who eventually opened the door took one look at the monster and tried to slam it shut but those arms were already inside, coiling about the feline and pulling him out, He struggled and screamed and threw a fireball at the sweet rat that missed entirely. Max repeated his question, demanded an answer and when the cat refused to answer those liquorice arms twisted and a bunch of chocolate tigers went into the pouch. At the next house there was no answer so Max plunged his arms through the windows and pulled out a group of young wolves. They struggled and shouted and by the time the monster Max was done it had added a bunch more candy to his pouch.

The door to the next house opened and a small white stoat stared up tremulously at the giant monster. He’d clearly heard the ruckus and seen what happened to his neighbours and answered the question with Trick! Max seemed happy with this and pulled what looked like a mask made of chocolate out of his pouch and pushed it over the stoat’s eyes. Five minutes later the mutagenic candy had finished transforming the stoat into an equally horrific candy creature and they went their separate ways. Nall bounced up and down, wings flittering in delight before he flapped off to try and track down Rook, he was sure this would net him the contest! He was going to reach the most people this way with a horde of trick or treating monsters spreading throughout the city.

Perched safely in the branches of a tree outside the ruins of the lab Olaniyan watched Nall fly off, his eyes tracking the path the black weasel imp and his eyes were heading in. Shaking his head he started to swing his way down out of the branches. He landed lightly on the grass and started to follow in the same direction as Nall. Despite all their talk of rudeness earlier in the night Ola had followed them both around as best he could and watched. It looked like they had really gotten wrapped up in their little contest but Ola thought it was time he declared a winner.