The Oscillation: A Halloween Omen (Patreon)

Author Note:  I consider this 'soft canon' and think it was a fun little chapter to write.  I hope you enjoy the day late Halloween joy!  o7

PoV:

1. Rachel (Our Spooky Lunar Hare!)

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Holiday Specials Index

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Rachel scratched her long left ear as she yawned and stretched out under her blankets.  Smacking her lips, she opened her dull eyes to stare at the ceiling.  It had been a slow week for Crystals, and everyone was busy preparing for Halloween.

Forcing herself out of bed, she cracked her neck and felt Kid Nia already up and about, helping her mom and Scarlet with the house stuff.  She threw off the blanket and went to the heavily blocked window, peeling back the curtains to peer outside; the last rays of the day’s sun were sinking below the horizon.

Letting them swing back into place, she adjusted her sports bra and sleeping shorts while contacting Nia and making her way to the bathroom.  Morning, Little Bun.  How’s the gang?

Nia’s chipper voice came through, sorting all the candy with Alexa and Scarlet, sampling one of each.  “Everything is top-shape, Captain Hops!  The Bunny Squad is outside, setting the tone and getting into position to spook the local kids.  Scarlet still needs to get in her costume, though.”

What about the others?  And swap to my white hatter outfit, she instructed, waving at Anthony in the hallway as he carried down a big Frankenstein blow-up prop.

“Why the hell is that upstairs?”

He shrugged.  “Your mom told me it was in the storage room at the end of the hall.  Way to miss all the decorating, Night Ears.”

Slipping into the bathroom with a grin and to get out of his way, she shrugged.  “You’re captain over the day team, and I’m the night.  It’s not my fault we have opposite roles.  Did Maria say she’d swing by, or is she spending time with her block?”

The redhead sat the box to the side and posted up against the wall, Nia growing a little impatient about wanting to answer her question while not interrupting.  “She’s out with the local kids trick-or-treating.  Plus, I thought it might be good to have some of Omen’s presence in Miami if anything went south.  Fi’s with her, too.”

A sly smirk lifted Rachel’s mouth as she heard Scarlet and Alexa chatting downstairs.  “I heard Zoe’s been working remotely lately instead of coming into the Miami office.  Gossip is that she and Maria’s brother have been spending a lot more time together.”

Anthony snorted, arms crossing across his muscular chest as he glanced at the stairs.  “Let me guess, your sister-in-law and Scarlet.  They’ve become huge gossip magnets between Omen’s various branches.  Speaking of branches, Selvaria is here, away from her sea crew—with her mother, of course.  Evidently, your mom invited them since they don’t really have any family on this side of the States and didn’t want them to be lonely.”

“I heard,” Rachel said, pointing at her big ears as Nia spontaneously changed her outfit in a dazzle of lights to her White Hatter Hare suit, complete with holes for her ears.  “I think it goes without saying that Nora is with Fiona?”

“Sisters be sisters,” Anthony answered, picking up the prop and continuing to the front, where Selvaria and the two moms were making the final preparations with her slime bun gang acting as support.  “By the way, you might want to tone down Coral’s, eh… spook-level?  We don’t want to actually kill anyone with fear.”

“Good point,” Rachel sighed.  “This is her time of the year, after all.  She’s really pent-up on energy, too.  I was, heh, hopping something would happen earlier this week so I could expel everything Coral built up recently, but nothing’s happened…  Although, my gut tells me we’ll have our carrot soon.”

“No!”  Anthony almost tripped down the stairs as he swung back around to glare at her grinning face.  “And someone is in a rather high mood?  Please, please, do not tell me you have an ominous feeling about tonight!  I’m trying to relax and have a normal night after all this eldritch bull we’ve been dealing with.  Can I have a normal night without these weird dreams?”

Rachel held her hands behind her back and gave an innocent shrug.  “It’s just a feeling.  I mean, we both know my senses aren’t always on the money.”

“No,” he repeated with a critical stare, “your Misfortune Sense is always on point, but since that Shadow Split during the whole Ireland thing, we don’t know if it’s good or bad.”

“Look at the bright side,” she offered, spinning back into the bathroom to leave him to stew.  “I know you’ve missed me.”

“What does that even mean, huh?  You are a mad bunny tonight.”

Being one of the few people she allowed to call her such, she shut the door with a giggle, leaving him to interpret that however he wanted.

Sorry for the wait, Nia.  Can I get an earring?  She examined her naked form in the mirror as the formal, white, and black three-piece suit vanished with all her other costume accessories, leaving a single studded gold earring in her ear.  I have been able to build back a bit of muscle.  All those Power points are paying off.

Nia huffed.  “Why did you ask me who was staying over for Halloween if you were just going to ask Mr. Tall and Muscle anyway?  At least I’m not having weird dreams about the Wall of Sleep.  Woooooo!  It sounds like Anthony’s seen too many spooky shows this month.”

C’mon, Soldier, you know you’re my favorite bun, Rachel mused, stepping into the shower and starting the spay to enjoy the cool portion before it heated up.  Big Nia isn’t jealous, so why is Little Nia so worked up over Anthony and I spending more time together?  He needs a friend after everything that happened.

“Oh, shut up, Cap!”  Nia said in surprising defiance for the Living Denier.  “I’m not jealous!  I’m weirded out by this Jaenona Soul Item he got.  She wants to be friends, but there’s something… weird about her, okay!  No one else believes me!”

Rachel rolled her eyes while washing off.  Okay, sure, but this is clearly about more than just Jaenona, Nia.  He promised to leave her back at his place in Miami for Halloween to stay with Nora, anyway.  Just relax and have a fun time, and stop worrying about Anthony’s new Lightning Lady.

“She’s not a lightning lady, though!”  Nia hissed, probably eating the candy now out of frustration or sneaking into the laundry room to munch on her dad’s socks again; he still was perplexed at how so many pairs were disappearing.  “I know Soul Items!  I am a super awesome one!  She.  Is.  Sot.  A.  Soul Item!”

Snot, huh?  Rachel laughed.  You called her one earlier.

“Because she ‘claims’ to be one, but she’s not!”

Uh-huh.  Alright, you’ve made your—

Her thoughts broke as a familiar pulse shot through them, a warning that a Crystal would be appearing soon, and from the many she’d conquered, this one felt like an attack.  Shutting off the water, Nia enshrouded her in fire, using one of their stored artifacts to turn the water to steam before putting on her White Hatter outfit.

Well, it looks like I was right.  We are getting a Halloween surprise; I tried to warn Anthony.  Stepping out of the shower, fully clothed and resituating her top hat, a smile came on as she moved outside, where everyone was gathering.  I’m actually looking forward to an attack.  What surprise will come?

A siren went off across their city, warning residents to prepare for an immediate assault.  When Rachel made it outside, she saw Anthony already on his phone, talking to the local Crystal Defense Force representative.

“That’s right, Omen has members here to handle it; send the report to DC before we’re closed in—ah, Rachel, got anything to add before we’re isolated?”

Scarlet and Selvaria stood nearby as their parents listened, Nia rounding up her excited Bun Squad.  Rachel held out her hand for a dark orange bun to jump onto her palm, wearing a malevolent, pumpkin grin.

“Tell them that I’m going to release the Greater Harvest Moon.  Coral’s been itching to let loose recently, and this provides the perfect opportunity for her to let out her pent-up terror tendencies.”

“Fifififi,” the orange slime bun poltergeist snickered darkly.

Her mother shivered.  “Okay, well, eh-heh, we’ll be staying inside then.  I’m guessing we should warn everyone to stay in the nearest bunker?”

“Probably,” she said, giving her spooky bun a meaningful look.  “Coral knows not to get the ordinary people involved, but anyone trying to ruin her fun, besides the people she knows, could catch an unwanted fright.  How much time do we have, and what are we looking at?”

Anthony grimaced.  “Level 5, Hexahedron, and C-Grade… it will be over the whole city.”

Selvaria whistled.  “35-meters-tall?  Up to 2,500 enemy units.  Surprised we can’t see it from here.”

Scarlet’s blood scythe was already slung over her shoulders as she stared into the distance, vampiric eyes filtering out the scenery.  “Yikes.  It’s Pink, the same as that High Rolls one you showed us, Rachel; this could be as bad as the Azure Frost.”

“We’ve handled worse since, and we’re a lot stronger now.”  She pulled in her lips and glanced at her arm, where the Cerberus Triplets’ mark was; no, this probably wasn’t the place to call them.  “Hey, Anthony, can you just stay back with my family since you don’t have Jaenona here?  Scarlet and Selv will be fine to handle this with me, and they fit the theme.”

“Sure,” the Legend said, summoning his lightning enhanced spear.

The Leviathan snickered, rolling around her neck as the spikes along her back sparked with light blue electricity, and her turquoise irises lit up.  “I love letting out the inner sea monster on land.  It freaks people out.”

Scarlet sighed, scythe becoming a platform that she sat on to rise into the air a bit.  “Its glow just solidified.  Do you want me to teleport to each Crystal Hub and break them fast, or…”

“Let’s play it by ear,” Rachel winked, holding up a grinning Coral.  “I need something to get all the Negative Force out of her, and this works perfectly.  And… there it is!”

She looked up as the sky fractured, a light pink glow launching into the heavens to spread the fissures in a colossal dome that covered their entire city.

No moon came with the change, but that didn’t matter after their UK trip.  “Game on,” she grinned, pulling back her arm and throwing Coral at the highest point of the closed area.

“Fififififi!”

The orange ball soared through the air, radiating a chilling laugh before exploding in the atmosphere in a supernova that slowly spun into a miniature galaxy to coalesce into a smiling orange moon, gleaming and glistening as the sirens cut into eerie silence.

The horrific vibes soaked into her as Nia swapped her normal White Moon Pool with the Event Lunar Energy, causing ripples of haunting waves to twist around her, sparking a grin.  Beside her, a flash of light brought Nia into her adult form, lifting a hand to examine the cursed orange flames that came with the Greater Harvest Moon.

Anthony hissed and prompted the others inside, but her mom moved forward without a hint of fear inside her to pull her into an embrace.

“Ms. Park, we should go inside.”

“No matter how scary you look, you’re still my little bouncy hare girl,” her mother whispered.  “So, go put terror in the hearts of those that would do us harm.”

Rachel returned the embrace, kissing her mom on the forehead as the leaves started to take on a more sinister color, the grass and vegetation grew wilder, and the trees twisted into gnarled, horrific things.

[Fright of the Greater Harvest Moon: Active]

[Horror Embodiment VI - become the embodiment of horror, spreading the concept and conveyance of fear to those that see the user, warping their perception of who they face.]

[Fear-Dependent Immortality IV - The user cannot be harmed so long as the user’s prey fears them.]

[Hollow’s Eve Trail VI - Become one with the twisted harvest, discovering paths unseen and enjoying the company of the cursed and damned.]

[Psychosis Inducement VI - Twist the minds of those you torment to join the harvest, breaking their thoughts, inducing paranoia, and spreading terror whenever perceived by the user’s prey.]

[Cursed Frostfire VI - Frostfire that refuses to be extinguished, slowly burning its victims while tormenting and corrupting the victim’s mind.  Deals frostfire damage.]

“Have a safe Harvest Moon, Mom.  Make sure you stay indoors.”

She pulled away as Rachel started to see the mist settle in, tinted by the orange light of the seething transformed bun overhead, spreading her horrific vibes throughout everything within the zone and turning the very environment against their attackers.

Tightening the tophat against her head, Rachel’s ears tilted forward as she heard the snapping of dozens of alien creatures licking the air to taste the scents to be hunted.

However, it would be them that would become prey this Hallow’s Eve as pumpkins sprung to light, flames igniting them and taking to the skies to shriek their laughter, and the howling wind sent an unnatural chill through those not born of the fright.

Restless spirits were unshackled from their bindings, allowing the night frights to exert their negative influence, possessing anything they could to project their hatred.  It was the March of the Greater Harvest Moon, and the symphony of terror had only just begun.

Rachel pointed to the left side of the street.  “Selv, you can find a Hub that way.  I’m sure you’ll eat your fill before crushing it.  We need to crush them so bad that a Reverse Crystal Break doesn’t happen, so let them come in droves to be sacrificed to feed the Crystal’s bloodlust.”

Scarlet forced a laugh as Nia gave her a smirking wave, summoning their shared hammer to slip through the winding paths of shifting dimensional lines to meet another Crystal Hub.  “We have about twelve of them to deal with.  I’m starting to feel the scary vibes…  Mmmgm.  I usually don’t like to feel this way.”

“Enjoy it!”  Rachel said, spinning around to walk backward for a moment.  “This is the night where you can let that monster within loose!  Let’s have fun and unlock the cage.  It’s the Parade of Terror, so let’s not keep our audience waiting any longer!”

Stepping through the mist, Rachel exited from behind a tree, sauntering toward her nearby mark; a group of thirty of the eyeless aliens roamed.  They instantly locked onto her, but the sense of fear she brought made them hesitate, making her giggle and twist out of sight behind another tree.

Teleporting closer, she shot out from behind another gnarled tree near one of the creatures, grabbing the creature by the throat and pulling it into the mist as it snarled.  Some kind of sonic attack that would have normally utterly paralyzed her came from the beast’s flaring gills, yet she was immune to practically anything that held fear in this state.

Its poisonous, barbed tail froze, unable to attack her as Rachel tore the petrified creature to pieces, only allowing its screams to be heard from within the thickening orange fog.  Seconds later, pieces of the alien’s corpse dropped from the sky onto one of the terrified monsters, forcing them to back away and release more ear-splitting shrieks.

In that instance, she heard Selvaria’s thunderous roar as her stomps sent tremors through the earth, chasing down her prey.  Scarlet’s side was utterly silent, pack after pack ruthlessly murdered, and blood-like liquid drained to further fuel the Vespertine Reaper’s slaughter.

Nia soon appeared beside her from a twisting path within the mist, covered in the blue goo that filled their innards.  “Highly corrosive stuff,” she commented, licking her finger with a small smirk.  “It actually tastes like cotton candy when you can actually stomach it without melting into a pool of chemical-laced gore.”

“Gross,” Rachel laughed, reaching through a gateway to snag one of the helpless alien’s tails and yank it to a totally new location a kilometer away, left on its lonesome in the sound oppressive mist; the fear was delectable.  “We have a long night ahead of us, so maybe you shouldn’t get too full.”

“Understood, Cap,” Nia chimed, tossing her the fully charged hammer, ready to unleash a monstrous amount of kinetic force.  “Where should we use this?  I was thinking we compete to see who can kill the most with a single blow.  Thoughts?”

“I’m game… if you want to lose,” Rachel snickered, flipping the weightless hammer around her body; her training with Anthony and Scáthach had paid off.  “Let’s play.”

The howling wind and swirling mist wrapped around Rachel as she toyed with their prey, sending hundreds to their death and bringing her mind back to Conner’s Legend Quest, where they’d had the pleasure of first sampling this Lunar Event.  She had to thank Dionysus for his contributions because so many joyful things had come from the Lesser God’s arrogance that had pushed her into such a favorable position.  She and her omens were thriving.