Disclaimer:

Hmm, let's see, I don't own DBZ, any holiday's what so ever, or Snickers bars (mini or otherwise.).

Authors Note:

Ah, tis the season to be typing! Sorry. This is early for Halloween, but maybe it will help to get everyone into a festive spirit. Lets see, I had plan to have this set in that three years while they trained for the androids coming, though it doesn't quite fit in. Just go along with those ages. Heh, you Gohan fans will be pleased to note it was NOT Gohan who has been my instrument of torture in this J . Now, I've taken enough of your time, read, enjoy, and for the sake of all things bright and beautiful, REVIEW!

Trick or Treating, a Nightmare for the Pride

"Come on Mr. Piccolo, you promised!"

Piccolo sighed despite himself. The boy could be quite persistent when he wished to be, even with his voice muffled through the planks of a hard wood door. A trait the Namek was normally quite fond of in the child, but not right at this instant. Gohan did not seem to understand the… humiliation the current circumstance could cause. A glance at the mirror on a dresser in the room enforced that thought, humiliation would be caused to *him.* "I have dressed in this foolish outfit Gohan, what more do you want of me?"

"I'd like you to come out of my room Mr. Piccolo. We can't go trick or treating if you're in there!"

The large man stifled a snort. Trick or treating, ghosts and goblins, Halloween, the whole thing was a load of dinosaur dung. A night when children could let their dreams run rampant and have their imaginations twisted by an overdose of sugar. A real demon would not be caught dead outside tonight, a thing Piccolo above all should know. But… he had indeed promised Gohan that he would join them in trick or treating, alibi grudgingly. "Must I go through with this Gohan?"

"You promised Mr. Piccolo. Now come on, it'll be fun, you'll see!"

The Namek stood for a moment staring at the door. His young charge sounded very excited about this… Halloween. He could not, no matter the cost to his own reputation, let Gohan down. Sighing once more, this time in resignation, Piccolo pushed open the door and was faced with a sight nearly as odd as his reflection in the mirror.

Gohan stood with a grin plastered to his face, the classic Son grin, that is where similarities to the normal child twisted. Red velvet breeches were tucked into knee high black 'leather' (AKA, all man made materials J ) boots. A black and 'gold' belt could be seen barely peeking out form beneath a red velvet coat, cut with long coat tails and sewn with a flourish of lace around each cuff and at the neck line. In one hand, a pillowcase was held in a firm grasp. The second hand was covered with a very entertaining plastic hook. Sewn to the coats shoulder was a… interesting stuffed bird, whose head was just barely missed by the red velvet pirates hat that graced Gohan's own crown. A black eye patch was flopped lazily over his left eye and a painted on silly moustache rested atop his lip. The look was completed with a red leather strap holding ebony hair at the nape of his neck.

The boy swiped his face clean of the grin for a moment to look Piccolo up and down. He clasped hand and hook behind his back and made a slow circle around the Namek. Having completed his inspection, Gohan nodded his approval and replaced his grin. "You look just like Frankenstein Mr. Piccolo, only… with pointed ears and entene, but no one will mind that."

Frankenstein, indeed. He had been talked into wearing an annoying rubber… hat… that had a flat top and black 'hair' painted around it's crown. Two rubber 'bolts' had been glued to his neck. The Namek's body had been crammed into a suit, which looked to have seen it's better days. Chi Chi had gone to a lot of work to take that in from the Ox King's size to his. His own outfit was topped with boots that had thick flat heels, a shoe he was most uncomfortable with. "Hn."

Gohan snickered. "That's perfect Mr. Piccolo! Just keep saying that all night, and scowl just like you are now, and you'll do the original Frankenstein proud.

Chi Chi walked in then, saving Piccolo from struggling with the scathing remark on his tongue. The woman, normally very cold and distrusting of the Namek, had warmed up to him slightly in this ordeal with making the Halloween costumes. Goku's mate, in that respect was quite talented. The outfits were fitted and sewn as if by an expert hand. "Are you two ready yet? My Goku is about to have an apoplexy at the door over not having the chance to go out for candy yet."

"Uh huh mom!" He smiled graciously at his mother and grabbed Piccolo's hand in the same move. "Come on Mr. Piccolo, we'll be late for trick or treating hours if we don't fly to town soon!"

He began dragging Piccolo to the front door with him, but stopped abruptly, causing the Namek to nearly run him over. Turning, Gohan dropped the big man's hand and ran for his mother, catching her in a big bear hug. "Thanks mom, for everything." The boy floated up a pace and placed a kiss on Chi Chi's cheek before grabbing Piccolo and flying towards his dad once more.

They spotted Goku, on the welcome mat just outside the door. The Saiyian hopped from one foot to the other with the eagerness of a two-year-old. His outfit was simple yet unique, and well suited to Goku. Bells jingled on his hat with each bounce, a cloth thing whose red and orange colors decorated three spikes. To each spike was attached a large bell. His outfit was made of the same cloth, the arms of his shirt were billowed out as was the midsection, which was tucked abruptly into rather tight breeches, shoes, also of the same material, curled up over the toe to a point on each, at which was attached another bell. In one hand he held a very large pillowcase, in the other a wooden baton about a foot in length, with a plastic court jesters head attached to the end.

The Saiyans eager eyes turned to them upon their entrance of the doorframe. "Are we ready to go yet? Can we go trick or treating now, huh? Can we?"

Gohan replied affirmatively to his father while Piccolo had to do his best not to gape. The similarities between father and son in their child like excitement were… astonishing. Something like a war whoop, but not quite erupted from Goku's throat as his KI burst to life and flame and he shot off towards Satin City. Thus the three unlikely companions, a Pirate, a court Jester, and Frankenstein made off to the center of Halloween, the city.

Despite the head start of his father Gohan touched down on the cement just outside of Satin City before Goku. The Saiyan, however, was not far behind and FrankenPiccolo brought up the caboose. Piccolo made a half-hearted effort to straighten his gray suit coat before following the Son's out of the alley. And into something right out of the demon's nightmares. Children. Everywhere. Literally millions of brats, chest height and lower milled about going from door to door.

Scents of face makeup, nylon outfits and sweaty skin slammed into the Namek's nose. Swallowing convulsively, Piccolo effected to follow Gohan to his first destination. A white painted porch with a black light screwed into place where a normally light would go. The angel wings on a child just getting her treats glowed eerily. Gohan and Goku stepped up in unison to the door. A man, wearing a red union suit with a tail attached smiled through red face paint. He adjusted a headband with cheap plastic horns before offering a sack to the two, which was attached to a three-pronged red and black pitchfork.

"Hello my little… er… and big minions! Welcome to your master's domain. If you are good and scare everyone else you meet, you'll get rewarded, Mwahahahaha! But first I will reward you, with Chocolate from hell, haHA!"

The Son's each excepted a mini-snickers bar, and Gohan thanked him before they left. A queer fellow indeed, but… "Gohan, just what was that man supposed to represent?"

"That guy in the red? He's trying to be the devil."

Piccolo snorted. "The devil? The devil does not have horns, nor a tail, and is NOT red!"

Wide eyes stared up at him. "Do you know the devil, Mr. Piccolo?"

"Of course he does son," Goku through over his shoulder, as he belined for the next house. "Piccolo IS the devil."

Piccolo shook his head at the absolute stark amazement in Gohan's eyes as he mouthed out a 'Really?' It was obvious every now and again that Gohan had definitely received a few gene cells from his father, unfortunately, not just in the brawn department.

The next porch contained a woman dressed in rags with a large black caldron sitting before her. A black pointed hat sat crooked on her brow and black painted fingernails reached out to the little children that went passed. Every child that looked in the pot would 'eep' and stare at the woman incredulously. She would laugh and drop a handful of candy into their sacks and inform them not to tell anyone. The Jester and the Pirate however, paid no heed to these signals and walked right for the pot. Both gasped and stared wide eyed at the woman. She again laughed and dropped candy into their bags.

Piccolo, not being able to contain his curiosity, walked up the few steps and peered over the cauldron's lip. Two very realistic dummies sat in a pool of fake blood. They were about the size of children and were dressed in some strange European type of clothing. He shook his head at the woman and turned back down the steps, just restraining himself from grabbing at a non-existent cape. Once again, he made his way to Gohan's side. "I doubt I want the answer, but what was that supposed to be?"

The boy snickered and eyed his mentor from beneath the red velvet of his hat. "Did you ever read the story of Hansel and Gretel?"

"Hn. They were to be cooked in an oven, not a cauldron. And that woman's house was certainly not made of candy. That Baba woman and her crystal ball make a better witch."

Gohan stroked the head of his dummy parrot in thought for a moment. "All true Mr. Piccolo, but it was still fun! Woah, wait up dad!"

The Son's took off for the next house and FrankenPiccolo irritably followed. He sat lightly on the edge of the porch while he waited for his companions this time. People, he decided, were all insane. An insistent tugging on his gray jacket pulled him from fancies of a twisted version of Hansel and Gretel, in which both children died very bloody deaths. He looked down at the young boy who bothered him so. A mask covered the child's face; a ridiculous thing shaped like an upside down green teardrop with big black … eyes… protruding from it. "Mr., I just thought you should know that Frankenstein didn't have antenna."

"I like the antennae."

"But… Frankenstein didn't have those!"

"So?"

"So why would you add them to your outfit?"

"For the same reason you're wearing that idiotic cape and mask."

"But… I'm an alien, was Frankenstein an alien? All well, gotta go!"

The child took off leaving a bemused Piccolo behind him. A giggle to his right told the Namek of Gohan's presence. He looked to the amused child. "Is that… mask, really supposed to be an alien to these people?"

"Hehe, yeah. Not very realistic huh? I mean, with those huge eyes and tiny nose and mouth. Wonder where they come up with these things."

"I do not know Gohan. What I do know, is that that thing… had best be nocturnal."

Gohan giggled again before running to catch up with his brighliantly colored father. The rest of their journey through that side of town was uneventful, excluding Goku's little problems with the man dressed as a doctor, needles and all, and the woman who handed out pennies instead of candy. At the end of their final street loomed a very large building. With darkness shrouding it, and children running much faster from it than to it, the place looked quite foreboding.

"Look Daddy, Mr. Piccolo, its Capsule Corps! Let's go visit Bulma!"

"Good idea son. She'll probably have lots of candy!"

Leave it to Gohan to come up with the 'good' ideas. As the walked towards the front steps, another bunch of kids ran yelling from the area. The reason soon became apparent. Wearing a frog hat with a crown attached and green flippers on his feet, none other than the Saiyan prince himself sat handing out candy to the kids. Or, he was supposed to be handing out candy. He looked to be entertaining himself with handing out scares and feasting on the candy.

Vegita looked up at the three and grinned evilly. "What are you supposed to be, the three amigos, or the three stooges? Hah, you, Kakarot, dressed up and out on this little 'Halloween' expedition with your brat child does not surprise me. The fact that you got the Namek dressed up, intrigues me. What are you supposed to be anyway, FrankenPic? Or Picenstien?" And the Prince broke up in peels of laughter at his own joke.

Piccolo sneered, and for the second time that night, was cut off from his hot retort. This time by Goku, who held up his hand and smiled mischievously at the Namek while jerking a thumb at Vegita. Piccolo nodded his understanding. "What are you supposed to be Vegita?" Goku intoned. "Captain Ginyu or the frog prince?"

Vegita's face turned red and an interesting vein popped out of his forehead. He opened his mouth, and Bulma's voice sounded. "He had better hope he's Ginyu. Because this Princess is not kissing the wart covered disgusting thing that scares away little children, steals their candy bags, and eats their treats!"

The prince gaped. "But… Woman… you wouldn't…"

"You bet I would! And I'll tear apart that gravity chamber as well!"

"WHAT!"

At this point Goku and Gohan had lost it and were rolling on the ground laughing, the bells on the Jester outfit chiming their good humor as well. Piccolo smirked. It was good to know it would not be his pride compromised on this, all hallows eve.

That was fun J . Well, incase I don't type again sooner, Happy Halloween everyone!