Four Eyed Jack

by EAParakeet

Ludwig drags Iggy on a ghost hunt though the castle after Kamek tells them the story of a spector called Four-Eyed Jack.

Paste your document here...

Four-Eyed Jack

Disclaimer: The Koopalings & Kamek belong to Nintendo. Jenni & Chas belong to me.

AN: Yay! My second finished Fanfic! Woo Hoo! Anyway like my last fic The Haunted Train, Four-Eyed Jack is based off an old Hey Arnold! episode. To everyone who read my last story: Thank you and I hope you enjoy this one too!

...

One dark and stormy night at Castle Koopa, Iggy was sleeping over in Ludwig's room. They had planed to put their heads together and come up with a brilliant scheme to ruin the Mario Bros. But instead, had found themselves distracted by a box full of old books that they had came across earlier that evening.

"Man Ludwig, get a load of this one!" Exclaimed Iggy as he took out one of the books. "It's calledThe Shelly Boys Dig Up the Severed Hand in the Cellar. "

"Hmm zhat seems like a pretty good one Ignatius, but I zhink I vill read zhis one first." Ludwig holds up a different book. "Zee Shelly Boys Trapped in a Mansion with a Bunch of Undead Mummies!"

"Ooooh!" Iggy grabs the book from Ludwig, flops down on the bed and opens it. "These books are sick! Heh heh, I love 'em!"

Ludwig continues looking through the box and comes across a pair of old glasses. "Hmm? Vhat are zhese Ignatius?"

"Huh?" Iggy takes the glasses from him and after looking them over, takes off his own glasses and puts the other pair on. "Whoa! Who ever owned these had worse vision then me, these glasses make everything a whole new kind of blurry! Heh heh heh!"

Ludwig takes the glasses off of Iggy and puts them on.

"He he! Look at you Ludwig" Chuckles Iggy as he puts his glasses back on.

Just then there is a knock on the door and Kamek walks in the room with a tray of cookies and milk. "Evening boys! Thought I'd bring you some milk and cookies before the power goes out again."

He sets the milk and cookies down on a table near Ludwig's bed. As the boys get up to eat, lightning strikes. "Oooh." Kamek hugs himself as if he's scared. "I'd hate to have to send you boys downstairs to replace a fuse on a dark stormy night like this."

Ludwig takes a bite of his cookie and holds the glasses up. "Ah Kamek, vho's glasses are zhese?"

Kamek takes the glasses, takes a slight look at them and gasps in horror. "Boony Marooni! These look like the glasses of Four-Eyed Jack!"

Iggy looks at him perplexed. "Huh? Four-Eyed Jack?...Who's that?"

"You mean, you've never heard of Four-Eyed Jack!?" Gasped Kamek, his eyes widening in surprise as he walks over and sits on the bed with them.

The boys just look at each other confused and shake their heads no.

"Well then, give me one of those cookies and I'll tell you the story." Ludwig gives Kamek a cookie, which he inspects before handing it back. "Hmm no, not that one, it's got raisins in it. Hand me another one."

Ludwig frowns and rolls his eyes as he hands the old Magikoopa another cookie. Kamek inspects this one too. "Ooh this one's got little sprinkles on it." He takes a bite and begins to tell the story.

"You see, a weird fellow lived here in the castle a long time ago, back when I was young and started working for your Grandfather. Every one called him Four-Eyed Jack, on account of these glasses. Couldn't see but three feet in front of him. People pretty much left him alone and he mostly kept to his room in the dungeons, cooking re-fried beans. Whoa boy! It stank to high heaven."

Ludwig leaned over and whispered to Iggy. "Zhat vould explain zee veird smell down zhere..."

"Heh heh, yeah." giggled Iggy.

Kamek just shook his head and continued. "Anyway, old Jack had this notion to invent a new method of cooking them. He was always experimenting on bigger and bigger batches of beans. Finally, one night, he went too far and his pressure cooker exploded! Not a trace of Four-Eyed Jack was ever found there again...Ever since then, on really stormy nights, the ghost of Four-Eyed Jack wanders around the castle, blind as a bat, looking for his lost glasses, moaning and muttering and crashing into things, spreading his awful scent and scaring the living day lights out of everyone."

He looks thoughtfully at the glasses. "Funny that these would turn up on a night like this."

Iggy looks at Kamek startled. "Wait a minute, are you me that our home is...haunted?"

"Well, no. That would be irresponsible. What I'm trying to say is..." Kamek raises his voice and makes a scary face. "Yes! It is haunted! By the vengeful and holy crypt creeping ghost of FOUR-EYED JACK!"

He hands the glasses back to Ludwig. "Well, here you go young sire. You'll be hearing from him tonight, I'll wager, by moving these glasses you disturbed his spirit." He then gets up and walks to the door.

Ludwig stares at his younger sibling. "Ve'll be hearing from him?"

Iggy shakes his head. "Nah, just put the glasses back in the box where you found them and forget about it."

"Hmm..." Ludwig looks at the glasses thoughtfully. "Vell, maybe I vas meant to find zee glasses, and give zhem back to Four-Eyed-Jack, so zhen he can finally move on and stop haunting zee castle."

"Well, you boys believe what you want, nothing to do now but pray for mercy." Kamek's stomach rumbles. "Oooh. I'll be in the commode, Kammy made raspberry cobbler tonight. Oh boy."

He starts to leave, but pauses and looks back at Ludwig. "I'd be careful with those glasses young sire." Just then lighting strikes, illuminating Kamek eerily, he leaves the room and walks down the stairs laughing.

"I bet those glasses belong to someone in the castle, maybe Jenni or someone." Said Iggy as he picked up a book from the box and opens it.

Ludwig walks over to the door and looks down the stairs from his room to the hallway. "Did you hear somezhing Ignatius?" He points down the stairs.

Iggy looks at his brother annoyed. "Yeah. Something made a bump, so what?"

"It's him!" Ludwig exclaims excitedly. "He is looking for his glasses!"

"Grrr! Forget it man!" Growled Iggy as he threw his book down. "It's just your imagination! Besides, this old castle always makes noises at night."

"Come on!" Ludwig ignores his little brother and starts to make his way down the stairs.

Annoyed, Iggy follows him. "Okay, fine." He rolls his eyes. "Looks like it's going to be a ghost hunt. And here I thought I'd just sleep over, read a few manga, listen to some CD's and maybe even think of a way to help King Dad beat the Mario brothers, but nooo."

Ludwig reaches the bottom step and hears a creaking sound, startled he jumps off. "Listen to zhat! It's zee ghost!"

"It's the bottom step of your stairs Ludwig! It always creeks when you step on it, see!?" Iggy jumps up and down on it to demonstrate. "Man, you need to get a hold of yourself, you're coming unglued." Suddenly a loud rattling sound is heard, surprising him.

"You hear it Ignatius, it's louder zhen ever! He's real close!" As Ludwig walks past one of the doors, it's doorknob starts to rattle, then the door swings open and a human girl runs out, followed by records that are being thrown at her.

"I heard you were at the race track again! Dang it Chas! Your wasting all our money!" Yells a second human girl as she looks for something else to throw.

"Aw, come on Jenni, I wasn't at the race track, I was, uh, lookin' for a job. Whoa!" Chas just barely dodges a pitcher that flies over her head. "That just happened to be in the same neighborhood as the race track!" She quickly closes the door.

"Ya liar! I know you were at the race track!" Jenni starts to bang on the door.

The two Koopalings shared a look with each other, before Ludwig spoke up. "Er, hello, Chas... "

"Huh? Oh, hey there Ludwig and uh, Tall, Skinny Dude..." Chas is busy holding the door knob shut, while the sound of things crashing and Jenni's indistinguishable yelling is heard on the other side.

Iggy glares annoyingly at her. "My name is Iggy..." He then turns to his brother. "That doesn't look like any Four-Eyed-Jack to me Ludwig. I'd say it looks more like Chas."

Chas looks over at the Koopalings. "What're ya'll talking about?"

"Ludwig here thinks there's a ghost haunting the castle." Said Iggy as he shook his head.

"A ghost, in the castle? Ah, foo! I don't believe in ghosts. I ain't the least bit superstitious." Boosted Chas as she turned to face the boys.

"What the heck do you mean you ain't superstitious?" Jenni muttered from the other side of the door. "You keep a horse-shoe in your pants pocket!"

"Don't mock my family traditions Jennabell!" Chas laughed as Jenni grumbled at her though the door.

Ludwig rolled his eyes. "Anyvay, have you been hearing anyzhing unusual, any veird noises?"

"Noises? What kind of noises?" Chas had barely finished her question when a combination of loud crashing noises and a gagging/gargling sounds are heard coming from down the hall. "Whoa! What was that!?"

Ludwig, thinking it might be the ghost, begins walking down the hall toward to the next door. Chas pulls a horse-shoe out of her pocket and grins at Iggy, who just rolls his eyes and starts walking after his elder brother.

"Hey wait! Don't you leave me alone in the dark!" Chas whined as she hurried after the Koopalings and together the three of them walked down to the next door.

Ludwig is just about knock when the door cracks open just enough for the person on the other side to peek around it. "Yeah, what?"

"Good evening Roy. Ve Vere just vondering vhat...um...you vere doing in zhere." Said Ludwig as he tried to see into the pink headed Koopalings room.

"Eh, it ain't none yo business!" Roy growled at Ludwig, daring the older Koopaling to come closer.

Ludwig just put his hands up and backed away, the last thing he wanted was a unnecessary fight with his younger bullying sibling. "Ah, sorry...Ve zhought zee sound va..." Iggy cuts him off.

"See Ludwig!" Iggy holds out his arms and waves them around. "There is no ghost! There is no such thing as ghosts!"

"Ghosts? Did ya say ghost? Hey not so fast Bro." Roy opens the door and walks out into the hallway, pointing at Ludwig.

"Listen Ludwig, ya don't wanna disturb da spirits of da night like tis'. Ya don't wanna mess with da unknown." Roy puts his thumb to his chest. "Cause I messed with da unknown one time."

Ludwig looks at Roy shocked. "V-vhat happened?"

"Nuthin' but it coulda been horrible." Roy looks up and back down. "I coulda been struck dead or turned ta stone or somethin'. Who knows?" His eyes widen. "Dats why they call it da unknown."

"Listen, if I were ya guys..." Roy points at Iggy and Chas. "I'd turn back right now." He does a hitchhikers thumb down the hall towards Ludwig's room.

Chas cocks her head to the side. "Turn back from what!?"

"Well...um...eh...I...I don't know if I should tell ya tis." Roy looks a little unnerved as he points down the hall towards the downstairs.

Ludwig looks excited as he urges his sibling to go on. "Tell us vhat!? Go ahead!"

"Well...eh..." Roy points downstairs again and begins walking over to the stairs. "Da last couple of nights... I've been hearin' some pretty funny sounds comin' from down there. Like someone gagging on a hoagie, it was horrible." The rest of the group joins Roy at the top of the stairs.

"See Ignatius? I told you!" Ludwig said excitedly as he grabbed Iggy's arm and shook him. "It's Four-Eyed Jack!"

"Oh great!" Iggy rolled his eyes. "Now everything sounds like Four-Eyed Jack!"

As Ludwig moves closer to the stairs, a horrible gagging noise is heard from downstairs.

"Dat's da sound!" Exclaims Roy pointing downstairs.

"It's him! It's Four-Eyed-Jack!" Ludwig giggles a bit as he starts down the stairs. "Come on!"

"Heh, well whatevea, I ain't goin' anywhere without da old equalizer here." Roy smirked as he brandished a dented metal baseball bat.

The whole group makes their way downstairs with Ludwig in the lead, followed by Roy, Iggy and Chas bringing up the rear. They reach the bottom and begin walking to the kitchen as they get close the horrible gagging noise is heard again.

"I'll go first, tis could get ugly." The group, now led by Roy, goes into the kitchen. They stop in surprise as soon as they reach the doorway, for there is a figure standing by the sink. It starts making the gagging noise and the group huddles together frightened.

The figure turns around and starts making it's way toward them, gagging in the process. A flash of lightning brightens the room enough to reveal the figure to be non-other then Lemmy.

The small rainbow haired Koopaling spits into a coffee mug and grins at the group. "Hello! Yes!"

Roy turns to the others and points his thumb at Lemmy. "I told ya it'd get ugly..."

"Lemmy?..." Ludwig looked at him a bit confused.

Iggy points at Lemmy's mouth, which is covered with a foamy substance. "Are you okay?"

"Of course, I am okay." Lemmy wipes his face with a handkerchief. "I was just gargling. Heh, heh..."

"Gargling?" Iggy turns to Ludwig exasperated. "He was gargling Ludwig! Okay!? He's not the ghost of Four-Eyed Jack, alright!?"

Ludwig looks down sheepishly and rubs the back of his head. "I'm sorry Lemuel, I guess I got carried avay. You see, ve're sort of looking for a ghost."

"Oooh, I don't like ghosts. They're really creepy!" Lemmy shivered. "Are you saying there's a ghost in the castle Ludwig?"

"Vell..." Ludwig shrugs.

Suddenly the back kitchen window flings open and a news paper on the counter flies around the room. The night sky turns red and the papers form into the shape of a floating monster for a brief second before scattering with a spark of electricity.

"When there's a ghost in your home...Ugh!" A newspaper flies into Lemmy's face and nearly knocks him off his ball. "Pah!...Anyway you need to give him a offering to get him to go away!" He rolls over to the refrigerator and opens it. "Hmm...this chicken...looks good."

"Hey, dat's my lunch! So don't even tink about it!" Said Roy making a fist and waving it at Lemmy.

Chas comes between them and looks in the fridge for a minute, before making a face. "Bleh...lets give'm that halibut, it's goin' bad anyway."

"Okay." Lemmy takes the fish out of the fridge and closes the door.

"Gah!" Iggy face palms. "You know what!? You guys are all crazy! I refuse to believe any of this!" He folds his arms and turns away from the group.

Just then thunder rumbles and lightning strikes across the sky as a loud creepy moan reverberates through out the kitchen. The groups attention is turned toward the coat closet door as the source of the sound. Iggy and the others watch as Ludwig walks over to the door and opens it, another moaning sound comes through as he does.

Ludwig carefully pulls the coats aside to reveal a secret passageway with steps leading down to what seemed to be a secret basement area. He motions to the others and they follow after him as he grabs a lantern near the steps and begins the journey downstairs.

"Hey I know! Let's catch him and send him to the circus! We'll make ourselves some money!" Suggested Chas as they made their way down the passageway.

Lemmy shook his head. "No. It's bad luck to harm a ghost..."

The moaning gets louder as they reach the bottom of the stairs and come upon a hallway that leads to a single door.

Iggy's nose wiggles as he catches a whiff of something. "Ugh, well Kamek certainty didn't exaggerate about one thing Ludwig. Something sure sinks around here." He waves his hand to fan the smell away.

"Ja." Nods Ludwig in agreement as he makes a face, his nose wrinkling at the odor. "None zee less, let us continue."

As they begin walking down the long dark hallway, the moaning continues and the group complain about the smell with indistinguishable comments as they walk along. They eventually reach the door and are feeling a little scared as Ludwig reaches for the doorknob.

"Hey wait!" Iggy cries and Ludwig moves his hand away from door. "Maybe we shouldn't open it."

"And vhy not?" Asks Ludwig rising an eyebrow.

Iggy put a hand on his shoulder. "Look, if you open that door and we find out whats behind it, one of us will be right."

"Ja, so?" Ludwig brushes Iggy's hand off and gives him an annoyed look.

"Sooo..." Continues Iggy. "One of us will be wrong and what if it's me?" He brings his fists up to his chin looking worried.

Ludwig just rolls his eyes and reaches for the doorknob again. Though before he even touch the knob, it starts to jiggle from the other side. Then the door slowly opens, causing Ludwig to drop the lantern as a mysterious figure appears from behind the door making everyone scream.

The light from the room becomes brighter, revealing the figure to be Kamek, who's holding a newspaper under one arm and rubbing his belly with the other. "Ooooh...Never eat raspberries kids."

"Kamek?!" Ludwig looks both shocked and confused at seeing the old Magikoopa. "Vhat are you doing here!?"

Kamek adjusts his glasses, looking slightly irritated as he stares at the group in front of him. "Hey, can't a fellow use the downstairs bathroom in peace?"

"I didn't know ve had a downstairs bathroom." Said Ludwig as he looked about the room. "I zhought zhis vas a secret passagevay."

Kamek steps to the side, revealing a nicely decorated bathroom. "It is. You think I want everyone finding out about my secret bathroom? I'd never get my reading done." He winks as everyone walks past him into the bathroom looking amazed. "What the!? Oh great, now the secrets out!"

"It's even gotta shower." Said Roy as he looked over the walk in shower that was in the corner.

"Yeah and marble sinks too!" Exclaims Chas as she rubs her hand over the smooth marble.

"Da old guy's been holdin' out on us, just look at tis magazine rack." Roy gestures for Chas to follow and they walk across the room. "Tis must be made of pure walnut."

"Nice wallpaper!" Lemmy rolls over to a wall and pats the wallpaper. "Pretty, pretty bunnies!"

Iggy puts his hands on his hips and shakes his head. "Man! Well, are you satisfied Ludwig? There is no ghost."

"Iggy's right Ludwig, no ghost." Roy waves to the others. "Come guy's lets head back upstairs."

A very annoyed Kamek stands by the door ushering everyone out. "Alright, come on, let's go, get a move on now. Goodnight!" He shakes his head and follows after them.

"Man, I can't believe we just spent half the night, looking for some dumb ghost." grumbled Iggy as he yawned. "Come on, let's go get some sleep." He turns and begins to head upstairs.

Ludwig stays back at the bathroom for a couple of seconds as he peers in, he pulls Four-Eyed Jack's glasses out from his shell and then shuts the bathroom light off.

Later that night, after everyone has gone back to their rooms...

Something enters Ludwig's room and takes the glasses that the sleeping Koopaling has in his hand. After putting them on it goes over to Iggy, who asleep on Ludwig's couch and pulls the covers up on him.

Iggy rouses and looks up to see that floating before him is the real ghost of Four-Eyed Jack. He can't believe what he's seeing and rubs his eyes.

Four-Eyed Jack adjusts his glasses and bends down until he's right in Iggy's face. "Um...BOO!"

Iggy screams at the top of his lungs as Four-Eyed Jack flies out of the window and into the night.

The End.