A/N: Okay here's another chapter for you guys to enjoy. Yes, I know that it's been hard to get the action up and going but seriously, all good things come to those who wait. Well, anyways, it's a new record for me given that this is something worth waiting for. Especially with help from NUTCASE1733 on his info of the Mario games. Anyways, this is also loaded with comedy for you guys to enjoy. Again, I don't own anything and the OC Clayton Mario belongs to my friend. I only own my own OC and that's that. Thank you and enjoy.
The group all made it back up to the mansion as lightning flashes furiously overhead the night skies. As they all entered, a wolf was heard howling in the distance. Needless to say, it unnerved some of the group.
"Why must wolves howl right when one is about to enter a haunted mansion?" Miguel growled while looking around.
"Yeah, no arguing from me on that front, kid..." Knuckles added sharing his sentiments.
"Say what you want, that freaked me out. I sure hope there are no werewolves around," Clay said while shivering a bit. "Ghosts are one thing, but anything else is best left in the movies. I do not want to run into anything like werewolves, or worse, vampires."
Before anyone else could speak, Sam heard something that sounds like crying. "Be ready, guys. I think I hear something."
"WAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!"
Everyone turned around as they shined their lights on the sound of the cry, and they saw a familiar face. Luigi was the first to voice out who it was.
"TOAD!"
The red-spotted toad person looked up smiled at seeing two members of the group, "LUIGI! CLAY! Am I glad to see you guys!"
"Man, you almost gave us a heart attack with that cry of yours, kid!" the red echidna said while trying to calm down a bit.
Sonic could only nod while at the same time looking to Toad, "I'll say, but here's the real brain teaser: What are you doing here?"
"Princess Peach was concerned about hearing that you guys won a mansion and that Mario vanished soon afterward..." the small toad person said right as he hesitated a bit before continuing. "...I saw him on the way to the store today and when I told Peach what the deal was, she thought it seemed weird you won this place without entering a contest."
"So did we," Sam spoke with a nod as Toad continued.
"Th-then when Mario vanished, she sent me here and I saw the place was full of ghosts...and I didn't see Mario anywhere..."
"That explains a few things," Miguel said with a nod before speaking again. "Well anyways, we're all here to help look for Mario."
This brought a relieved smile to Toad's face as he spoke, "Thanks for the help, guys. You have no idea how upset the princess will be if we don't find him! She'll flip!"
"Relax, we'll fix everything."
When hearing Sam speak, Toad turned to his direction with a curious expression as he asked, "Who's this guy?"
"Oh, I'm Sam, a friend of Miguel's," the four-eyed teen answered while shrugging it off. "Anyways, we'll get this straightened out."
"Hey guys! This thing's working!" Tails said as he was seen by a light switch as he turns on the lights in the foyer.
Needless to say, the entire foyer is not a frightening as it was before.
Luigi breaths a sigh of relief as he spoke up, "I feel a little better with the lights on..."
"This place is an illusion made by King Boo, right? How does it have light switches?" Clay asked curious about the subject in question.
"Well, a very strong spirit can make illusions that are as solid as actual matter. But this is still weird," Sam explained while he too was feeling flabbergasted at the situation.
The green clad plumber reached for the Gameboy Horror and contacted E. Gadd as he spoke while looking around at the mansion, "Hey professor, can you tell us about this place? Seems a bit real for a 24 karat fake..."
"Of course. This mansion may be a fake, but it is based off the original mansion the family I mentioned once lived in," the old professor responded with a nod. "It's a 100% perfect recreation, light fixtures and all."
"Whew! Whatever it is, this King Boo Boo Clown seems to have gotten the decor down to the last detail," the blue hedgehog said whistling at the sights.
"Got that right, blue," The red guardian of Angel Island added to his sentiments. "I guess he's really not going to make it easy for us to get to him, huh?"
"Well, that's sorta his plan from the get go, Knux," Miguel said while he looked around. "Anyways, I think we'd best get going with our search, guys."
"I tried the doors, all of them are locked except the double doors on the second floor," Toad said while he pointed out to the stairways the group used before.
"We know, we were in there when we met E. Gadd," Clay said while shivering at the memory of moments ago. "Nearly got killed, too."
"Well, it's time we got back in there and taught these little bastards who they're messing with," Sam said while at the same time arming his own Poltergust 3000 for battle.
At the room where the group first met Elvin Gadd, it was dark and cold. When the group entered, the air was very tense.
"Ok, here we are..." Tails said as he shivered at his surroundings.
Having enough of playing around, Clay shouted out throughout the room "Hey! We know you're watching! Give us back our brother RIGHT NOW or there's gonna be some real trouble!"
"Yeah! Come on out and put up your dukes unless that you're all too chicken to even face us in person!" Knuckles said while getting himself ready for a fight.
Miguel could only moan as he sensed a very cold presence, "Oh great..."
"Now we've asked for it!" Sonic said while turning to Knuckles with an annoyed glance. "Way to go, Knucklehead!"
Suddenly all of the paintings around the room shook violently. Needless to say that that everyone were jumpy when they all heard the portraits talking.
"So, you return?" a portrait of an old lady said with a cackle in her tone.
Then a painting of a young man spoke up in an eerie voice, "You should have stayed away..."
"What's the matter, not able to face us yourselves, so you're playing ventriloquist with a few paintings?" Sam said while finally having enough of the ghost games. "Get yer yella-bellied ectoplasmic carcasses out here this second! We're calling you out!"
"Fine then. The ones who like the dark shall deal with you," the first ghost answered with a sneer.
Another portrait, one of a man in his middle ages, then finished up by saying, "Like the little red cap before you..."
Just then, three orange ghosts appeared laughing as they advanced on the group. However they were more than ready to deal with them this time around.
"Not this time!" Clay says as he stunned all three with a flashlight beam, and quickly manages to get all three in one swoop. "AHAHAHAHA! That's what ya get!"
As soon as the young Mario brother got the three spooks, the lights all turned on by themselves. This gave the group a good sigh of relief.
"Judging from the way the lights suddenly turned on, I'd say we're all in the clear, guys," the Blue Blur said after getting his bearings.
"Whew! Well, I'd doubt that we'd seen the full extent of their powers, Blue," Miguel said while he too managed to calm down. "Or least King Boo-Boo given what had told us."
"Tell me about it. Let's move on though," Sam said while leading the way for the group.
"Yeah Mario's counting on us!" the small mushroom person cheered while trailing behind the four-eyed human teen with the others following.
The group headed into a room behind the parlor room. Looking at the Game Boy Horror, Luigi said, "This here's the Anter Room. Whatever that means..."
Looking at the room, which was very bare aside a few drawers and vases, Clay said, "Is there a point to this room? It's more like empty space in here."
"BLAHAHAHAHAH!"
Turning around they see a tall skinny, pink ghost headed at them at high speed. It then gained a quick burst of speed as it threw a punch as it flew by, and clocked Sonic in the face, knocking him across the room.
Sonic groaned a bit, saying, "OW! That really hurt!"
"Sonic, are you ok?" Tails asked his brother figure.
"I will be but watch out!"
Tails jumped as the ghost tried to attack him next. Thanks to Sonic, Tails dodged in time. While the ghost recovered, Luigi caught the specter without much hassle. After the lights turned back on the group found another key and went into the next room.
"Are you ok Sonic?" Sam asked the blue hedgehog.
"I think so," Sonic said, unsure. "That was real painful. These guys hit harder than the ghosts back home."
"Well, at least you're ok at any rate," Knuckles said, growling soon after. "When I get my hands on those freaks I'll-WHOA!" Knuckles had suddenly tripped on something. Looking down, he saw a banana peel in front of him. "What the-where'd that come from?"
Looking up, they saw several bulky green ghosts that were eating bananas who laughed goofily at Knuckles' predicament. They continued throwing banana peels on the floor.
"Some ghosts leave traps, however mundane..." Sam said, recanting Professor E. Gadd's lessons on busting ghosts. "With so many banana peels, this can be troublesome."
"I'll say." Clay said, then a banana peel landed on his face. After throwing it away, he said, "Can someone get rid of them so we can get the ghosts?"
"SONIC WIND!" Yelled the blue blur as he launched the razor-like whirlwind, blowing the peels back at the ghosts, surprising them a good deal. This left them open to Sam, Clay, and Luigi as they vacuumed the ghouls up. They soon got the lights back on and obtained another key leading someplace else in the mansion.
Checking the map, Luigi said, "That leads to the hallway just outside the parlor. There's some more rooms down that way."
"Ok, let's check 'em out. Mario's gotta be around somewhere," Tails said as he walked on.
As they drew near the locked door on the second floor of the foyer by the parlor, the Game Boy Horror beeped and Clay picked it up just in time for E. Gadd to appear on the screen.
"Boys, a moment please."
"Hey, what's up doc?" the Blue Blur said while looking to the device.
"Yeah, what is it, E. Gadd? Something that we should know?" Miguel asked while at curious about it as well.
"Yes, I'm picking up some of the escaped gallery ghosts somewhere in your vicinity! They're likely in the area beyond the door you're in front of!" the old professor explained. "Best be careful for these guys are a bit tricky. They like to remain hidden from view and as such you need to catch them off guard to come close to capturing them!"
Sam clearly a bit upset at the news right as he spoke, "Why are we catching these guys anyway? They've suffered enough."
"I want to capture them so I can release them into a new home someday," E. Gadd answered. "They deserve to have some form of life since they cannot move on to the afterlife where they belong."
Those words caused Knuckles to lower his head in shame as he spoke, "Man, way to kill my mood man...no pun intended."
The taller brown haired human teen could only sigh as he said with thought, "So now that we know of what we're facing, all we need to do is just catch them."
"Thanks professor, this helps a good deal," Tails said to the professor with a smile.
"Be careful, lads. Under King Boo's influence, they could be forced to attack," was all that E. Gadd could say before he signed off.
With that done, Luigi nervously reached for the key in his pocket and unlocked the door barring their way as he spoke, "O-Ok, on we g-go."
The group all found themselves entering a dark hallway. They would have thought that the section of the mansion would be like a regular hallway save for the ghost mice and lack of light.
"There's several doors here. Lets see if this one's unlo-" was all that Sam could say right as he touched a door knob, it swung back and slammed Sam against the wall.
The door, as it turned out, was a fake, rigged to hurt any who tried to open it. When the fake door shut itself back up, Sam was flattened as thin as paper before falling to the ground. One could have sworn that it was like a scene from a cartoon.
"Hahahahahaaaha! Oh man! Now that's something funny!" Knuckles laughed as Sam tried to pull himself back up.
"Oh I wouldn't say that if I were you, Knux," Miguel cautioned the red echidna.
"Yeah man, this ain't a cartoon! We could get seriously hurt you know!" Clay added while Sonic nodded in agreement.
"Well, toon powers or no, that really did hurt..." the four eyed youth said while moving his flat form a bit. "...King Boo's power apparently is a little more dangerous than I thought..."
"Look why don't we just get into one of the rooms and get it over with?" Sonic said while looking around more cautiously. "But let's be careful here."
"Yeah, no telling what might happen," Miguel nodded in agreement.
Clay then pulled out a drain snake from his pack and touched another door with it. However, nothing happened as a sign that it was safe.
"Ok, it's clear," the youngest Mario brother said as he opened the door, revealing an actual room. "Ok, guys, let's go in."
Right as Sam managed to get himself back into his regular form, he said with a wince, "Damn...that hurt."
"Here. This would help ya," Toad said as he hands Sam a mushroom.
Sam eats the mushroom and feels the healing effects just as he and the others go in. The room they entered was a small library with a desk and a rocking chair. The chair was rocking back and forth on it's own giving the group a suspicious look to it.
"Th-The ghost must be in that chair," Toad said with a bit of a fearful shiver.
"It's invisible though...how do we know when to catch it?" Tails asked while carefully looking at the rocking chair.
As if to answer the question, the chair glowed with a haunting glow around it. At that moment, the ghost, a male spook who appeared to have been 35 when he died, yawned audibly and became visible in that instant. This was when the group saw their chance.
"Oh yeah!" was all green clad plumber said right as he made his way to catch the ghost and managed to bag it moments later while with a smile. "Ah ha ha!"
"The professor wasn't kidding about having to find a possible vantage point here," Sam said.
"Got that right, Sammy," the blue hedgehog said with a chuckle. "If all the spooks here are as easy as this guy, it would be one short night."
The red echidna could only moan as he spoke, "Well, sucks for me given that I need something for me to vent on!"
"Uh, don't be so sure, guys," Miguel said with a nervous tone while looking around. "I mean, that seemed a bit too easy if you ask me."
"I know but all adventures start out that way. We'll just have to be more clever as we go along," Clay said with a nod.
The key they found after capturing the yawning ghost lead to the master bedroom. Going inside they saw a glow in a chair in front of a vanity mirror.
"I wonder who that is," Miguel pondered.
Luigi held up the Game Boy Horror, remembering that the professor installed a scanning feature akin to the PKE meters Egon Spengler developed for Ghostbusters. He saw a female ghost who looked quite beautiful.
"It's a woman," Luigi further checked the GB Horror and found the ghost's identity. "Says her name's Lydia. She's the wife of that first ghost we saw in the library. Says she died by starving herself to death as she sat in front of that mirror trying to make herself look prettier..."
Clay thought for a minute before saying, "The professor mentioned a nightmare demon killing this whole family...there's no way a woman would go that far like that."
"I dunno. I heard a group of friends starved themselves to death willingly by playing World of Warcraft too much," Sam said, recalling a news article he read.
"Ok, no way that's true," Sonic said, refusing to believe what Sam said.
"Well, it was an internet news article but you never know," Sam said as he looked to the ghost before them. "How do we get this one?"
"Well if she's as vain as the Horror states..." Miguel thought as he walked to the window. "Maybe a distraction could help," Miguel threw open the window letting the wind blow in. The ghost looked to the window, ignoring Miguel and got up.
"Oh what a dreadful draft!" The ghost, Lydia, said as she hovered to the window. She was immediately captured before she realized someone was in the room with her.
"Jeeze...she acted like she was in a trance..." Tails said, feeling a little scared out.
"Might be the nightmare demon's influence, considering," Sam lamented.
"Now I can't wait to hammer that thing if it ever shows its face around here," Knuckles said with a growl.
The group went back out into the hall to continue their adventure when they heard what sounded like a baby crying. The ghostly sound of it shook everyone to their core.
"Ok, that was freaky..." Tails said with a frightened shiver.
"Some people feel ghost babies are the worst kind of ghost," Sam explained as he listens carefully. "And the sound of that cry was certainly indication as to why..."
"Ugh, thanks for pointing that out, Sam," Knuckles muttered to the four eyed young man.
"Yeah, makes me think of my three nephews...only three times worse!" Miguel added as he shook at the thought.
"How's about we just go in there and snag him before something happens, alright?" Sonic suggested while trying to calm the group's nerves.
"I really dislike this part of the whole thing to be honest. Kids are kids, after all," Sam said with a sigh as he felt a bit reluctant.
Clay could only share in the four eyed teen's feelings as he said, "We have to catch the kid, unfortunately."
With Clay in the lead, the group followed him towards the door where the sound came from. They all found themselves in the nursery and see tons of baby toys all over the place. They see a ghost baby asleep in his crib.
"Poor kid...to die at this age?" Sam said while Miguel nodded in agreement.
"Yeah, really sad to look at, Sammy."
"Well, how's about we bag the little guy and then be on our way guys?" Knuckles said to get the two human teens. "I mean, no use dragging it out."
"Right..." Luigi said as he gets himself ready to aim and saw the baby no longer there on the crib. "Huh?"
"HI! Do you wanna play?" The baby, known as Chauncey, asked the group in a creepy babyish manner.
"GAH!" Sam exclaimed as jumped a bit before he staggers and falls over, kicking a ball into the baby's face, sending him across the room.
This of course did not go well with Chauncey as the baby ghost cried, "OWIE! You hit me! Why do you have to be bigger than me? Small! Now grow smaller! Gagagoogagee!"
"Oh what the hell's going on now!" Clay said right as he and the group noticed the room starting to spin.
Everyone blacks out briefly after the ghost baby's tantrum. When they all awaken, the group saw that they were in a giant crib. Tails was the first to recover and state where they all are.
"Uh...w-where are we? And what happened to the room?"
"Some weird electro-magnetic field is surrounding this whole area," Sam said as he and the other recovered before finally realizing where they all are. "And...we're inside the baby's crib?"
"Oh man, now this is going to be a pain!" Sonic said with a sweatdrop while looking around the creepy new surroundings.
Knuckles, however, was actually smiling as he shouted out pumping his fists, "Finally! I get to throw my fists at something other than air!"
Miguel could only look to Knuckles with a glare as he spoke, "Knux, how can you think of that at a time like this?"
"Sorry, but I'm sick and tired of just allowing those things to do what they want to us!"
Before an argument could break out, an ear-splitting wail was heard. When everyone turned to the source of the sound, Luigi was the first to shout out his response.
"GYYYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!"
"HOLY CRAP!" Clay shouted out along with his older brother at the sight.
What the group saw was Chauncey, once a small baby ghost, now appeared to be forty feet tall. The infant spectre lets out five more loud wails, which sounded near demonic as he sent several rocking horses flying at the group.
"Everyone watch out!" the blue hedgehog shouted while dodging a few of the flying rocking horses. "Baby's got his toys out for us to play with!"
"More like THEY want to play with US!" Miguel exclaimed while dodging a few while running around.
"WAAH!" Tails ducked as he tried to keep from getting hit by the flying rocking horses. "Man, now what do we do!"
"PANIC!" Sam shouted right as he pointed at an oncoming barrage of toy balls, numbering at about fifty which began coming down like meteors.
This of course did not deter the red echidna as he got his fists ready, "Well, I'm ready for anything! Bring it on!"
With those words, Knuckles began to charge towards the volley of balls and started to punch each one by one in succession!
"Keep it up Knuckles, it's working!" the four eyed teen shouted to Knuckles while seeing him keep on punching more of the balls.
Toad looked to the huge ghost baby and then to the balls as he shouted to Knuckles, "Hey Knuckles, try sending one of the balls at the ghost!"
"You got it, Little Man!" the guardian shouted right as he punched a ball towards the giant ghost baby. "Take that, brat!"
Right as the ball hits him, Chauncey lets out a comical wail as the ball whacks him head on...literally. This also presented the two Mario brothers the opportunity needed.
"Luigi, let's go!" Clay shouted to his older brother as he ran up towards the huge baby and begins vacuuming him up.
"NO FAIR!" Chauncey shouted as he broke free from Clay's snare but was soon caught by Luigi's vacuum stream. "WAAAAAAAAAAH!"
The process kept going back and forth until Chauncey was finally caught by Luigi in the end. The spell placed on the team wore off and they reappeared in Chauncey's room. The lights were on and a large pink key with a heart-shaped handle appeared.
"Wow, what a key!" Luigi said as he picked up the said item.
"I got a feeling that it may lead us to the next area of the mansion!" Toad said as he too watched the Key with thought with Tails nodding in agreement.
"Yeah, I bet it will!"
It was then that the Gameboy Horror started to beep as E. Gadd's voice started to sound out, "Luigi, come in! Answer me! Anyone!"
"Whoa, doc! Nice of you to call!" Sonic said.
"Good timing too," Miguel said with a sigh of relief. "What's up, ?"
"Oh thank God! I lost contact with you boys and feared the worst!" the old professor said while at the same time sighing himself.
"We caught the third portrait ghost here," Sam said as he looked up the info on the Gameboy Horror. "According to the ghost list here, the he was called Chauncey."
"Oh well, that explains a few things," E. Gadd spoke. "Yeah Chauncey's a pretty scary toddler. He gave me one heck of a fight when I first captured him. It's a shame he was born a ghost. Unlike the rest of his family, he has no idea that mortal beings cannot safely play the games he wishes to play."
"Wait, he was born a ghost? How does that work?" Toad asked clearly shocked by what was said.
"The mother, Lydia was allegedly pregnant when she died. Chauncey died at the same time as you'd expect," E. Gadd explained.
"Man, talk about bad. I've seen worse before but this just tops it off," Sonic said with a shiver to his body.
"Y-Yeah, blue. No baby or mom deserves that..." was what Miguel said with a shiver right before managing to calm himself down. "Anyways, I think we'd better get going, guys."
"Yeah we could all use a breather," Clay said as he too had just started to calm down.
"We can't stop for too long. Mario still needs help after all," Luigi spoke up.
Everyone nods in agreement right as they all exited the room and head downstairs towards the exit of the mansion.