Chapter Ten: The Basement
(Mansion)
Dingodile, Tiny and Coco ran away from Colonel Bowser's ghost in fear, seemingly forgetting about the necklace he took. Luckily, they had the Spirit Squad to help them escape.
"Quick, guys! Over here!" Biff said, going over to a door and opening it. Unfortunately, behind the door stood Donkey Kong, whom roared. The three friends, running towards the door at first, came to a screeching halt and took off in the other direction.
"No! Over here!" Slim shouted, opening up a window leading outside. Dingodile and Coco jumped through it easily, but Tiny became stuck part-way through. Slim gave him a push, managing to get Tiny outside.
"Ya know? Somehow, Ah feel like we're forgetting something." Dingodile mused as he got down behind a bush.
"Yeah. Like how we aren't supposed to come out here." Coco nodded. "I can't remember why, though."
Suddenly, gunshots were heard overhead, scaring all three friends. Dingodile dared to look above the bush and saw Xigbar standing several yards away, aiming his gun again.
"Hold still, Koopa!" Xigbar shouted, taking aim at Dingodile's head.
"Ah, no! Not him again!" Dingodile said as he turned tail and ran back towards the mansion, thinking he'd have an easier time with his uncle's ghost. Coco and Tiny followed suite, all three diving in through the window again.
Dingodile quickly saw Bowser running at him, preparing to swing his sword. The hybrid took off running, narrowly avoiding getting attacked. As Bowser was recovering from his own attack, Coco and Tiny ran off after Dingodile.
Shivers quickly opened up a door. "Quick, fellows! In here!" He said, causing the trio to run towards him and into the room the room on the other side of the door. "Oh, and watch that first-"
Shivers couldn't finish, because all three friends ended up tumbling down the stairs on the other side of the door. Apparently, the three were unaware that Shivers was directing them to the basement.
"…Step." Shivers concluded meekly, looking down the stairs. He quickly shut the door and rushed into battle to aid Biff and Slim.
The Spirit Squad flew around Bowser's ghost several times as the old Koopa took many swings with his sword, which was incredibly stupid considering that his opponents were ghosts themselves.
Eventually, the three ghosts left the old Koopa alone. Bowser looked around a couple of times.
"Hey, geezer!" A voice shouted from behind.
"Huh?" Bowser asked, turning around and looking over his shoulder.
Slim was holding onto Shivers' arms as Biff held onto his legs. Biff floated backwards, pulling Shivers and stretching him to long lengths.
"Catch!" Biff shouted as he let go of Shivers, causing the third ghost to shoot past Slim (a makeshift slingshot) and rocket straight into Bowser. This took the old ghost off guard, but it did little to hurt him. Instead, it just made Bowser incredibly angry, and he proved this by grabbing Shivers' arm and throwing him away.
"Fellows, watch out!" Shivers shouted, seeing that he was uncontrollably flying towards Biff and Slim.
"Stop, you fool!" Biff shouted back. Unfortunately, there wasn't anything he could do to stop himself, and he collided with the others.
Bowser smirked when he saw that the collision had reduced the Spirit Squad to a wad of ghost, stuck together and unable to pull away from each other.
"It's time for some shish-kabob!" Bowser laughed as he ran at the three ghosts, sword first.
Biff saw this and his eyes widened. "Scatter, guys!" He said.
It took a bit of effort, but Biff, Slim and Shivers managed to break away from each other just before Bowser could run them through. Bowser was suddenly aware that he was no longer running at the three ghosts, but was instead running towards the wall. Unfortunately for him, Bowser couldn't stop in time and ran his sword straight into the wall, where it became stuck.
As Bowser attempted to pry his sword from the wall, a laughing Slim appeared in front of him.
"Hey, grandpa! Don't look now, but you sticker is stuck!" Slim taunted.
Bowser became extremely annoyed with the ghosts' antics, so he grabbed the handle of his sword and gave it a hard yank, pulling it from the wall. Unfortunately, the sword attacked Slim as it was coming out, launching the lanky ghost away from the old Koopa.
The attack took Slim a bit off guard, but he managed to stabilize himself in midair. He rolled up his sleeves as he flew ahead a little more. "This guy's starting to get on my nerves!" He said.
As soon as Slim said this, Biff and Shivers appeared on either side of him, flying with him.
Biff raised an arm. "Okay. New strategy!" He said. "Flight formation, guys! Spirit Stingers, away!"
The Spirit Squad did an instant about face and flew headfirst at Bowser. The three ghosts started flying around Bowser, the force from their moves making the old Koopa spin around several times, Biff grabbing something from him on one of his passes.
When Bowser finally managed to stop himself, he saw that his three attackers were nowhere to be found. Bowser looked around several times, now looking behind him to make sure that they weren't doing another slingshot move on him. However, there wasn't anything behind him this time.
"Where are you?" Bowser asked, looking around. "Where are you, you freaks?"
Suddenly, the Koopa's hat lifted into the air on it's own. Bowser looked up and watched as three ghosts shot out from inside it.
"Right in here!" Shivers said.
Slim quickly grabbed Bowser's hat with both hands. "Yeah, but keep it under your hat!" The lanky ghost shouted as he pulled the hat over Bowser's eyes, blinding him. Slim had a good laugh at Bowser's expense after this.
Seeing that he was getting nowhere, Bowser decided to retreat. After pulling the hat above his eyes again, Bowser rushed off.
(Basement)
Down in the basement, Dingodile, Coco and Tiny were listening to the noises coming from upstairs. Dingodile's back was still a little sore after the tumble down the stairs, as were Coco's knees and Tiny's behind, but the three were otherwise alright.
Dingodile sighed in relief. "Well, the noises have stopped." He noted. "Ah guess it's safe ta go upstairs again."
"Why?" Tiny asked. "This where last clue say to look."
"Huh?" Dingodile asked.
"What're you talking about, Tiny?" Coco asked.
"Remember clue?" Tiny asked. "It say 'What you called when not buyer'. You seller! Get it? Cellar!"
"Oy! That's gotta be right!" Dingodile said.
Coco smirked. "Are you sure you're Tiny?" Coco asked.
Tiny chuckled and rubbed the back of his head nervously. "Coco and Dingodile rub off on Tiny." He said.
"Well, we're here." Dingodile shrugged. "We might as well start lookin'."
With that, the three friends split up around the basement, trying to find the next clue. As Coco was searching some crates in the corner of the basement and Dingodile was searching around the stairs, Tiny walked towards a door and curiously opened it.
"Maybe there something in here." Tiny mused as he stepped into the room. Once he did, his eyes lit up in excitement. "Oh, boy! Look at that!"
Tiny rushed into the room, but his outcry grabbed the attention of Dingodile and Coco, whom walked over with hopeful looks in their eyes.
"What did you find in there, Tiny?" Coco asked.
"Another diamond?" Dingodile added.
Dingodile and Coco suddenly became aware that the room Tiny had gone into was a giant meat locker. Ham and beef were hanging from the ceiling all over the room, and the two spotted Tiny sitting against a wall, eating ham on a bone.
"Better than diamond!" Tiny said happily as he continued eating.
"Wow. Look at all the ham!" Coco said in awe, looking around.
Dingodile chuckled. "Yeah, and look at the ham eatin' the ham." He replied.
Tiny didn't seem to catch Dingodile's last remark and instead grabbed another ham. However, just as the huge feline was lifting the ham up to his jaws, it opened up, revealing that it wasn't a ham, but a storage container cleverly disguised as one. A sparkling sapphire and another note fell from the 'ham' surprising Tiny.
Coco's face lit up as she scooped up the gem. "Wow! A sapphire!" She said is awe. "This always WAS my favourite type of jewel!"
Dingodile smirked as he picked up the letter. "And there'll be plenty more when we find the last clue." He replied as he opened up the letter.
"What are we up against now, Dingodile?" Coco asked.
Before Dingodile could have time to reply, he heard a strange rolling sound. Looking up, the hybrid's eyes widened when he saw that he was staring down a cannon. "A CANNON!" He screamed.
Coco and Tiny suddenly saw the cannon and screamed in fright as well.
"Everybody, hit the deck!" Dingodile said.
With that, Dingodile, Coco and Tiny threw themselves to the floor, anticipating the worst.
Slim's head popped out of the cannon. "BANG!" The lanky ghost screamed insanely before laughing. "Oh, man! Did I ever get you guys there!"
Upon hearing Slim, the three friends looked up curiously, but saw that someone had lit the fuse on the back of the cannon, although Slim didn't seem to be aware of it. Dingodile, Coco and Tiny threw themselves to the ground again as Slim continued rambling.
"Man, you should have seen the looks on your faces, guys!" Slim laughed. "Boy, that joke just never gets old!"
Suddenly, the cannon fired. Luckily, there was no ammo in the cannon, but because Slim was in it, the lanky ghost was sent shooting over the heads of the trio, torpedoing into the wall.
As Slim recovered from his joke, Biff suddenly floated onto the scene. "Hey! What's all the racket going on down here?" He asked. "Who's shooting off cannons?"
Coco sighed. "We don't know who's shooting off cannons, but we know who's shooting off his mouth!" She said.
"Yeah. Slim." Tiny nodded.
"Well, come on, you idiot." Biff said. "We need to catch that ghost!" However, as he turned to leave, Biff stopped, turned back around and floated over to Dingodile. "Hey, before I forget, the guys and I managed to swipe this from the ghost as we were fighting him off." With that, Biff handed Dingodile the necklace that Bowser's ghost had stolen from him earlier.
"Oy! Thanks, Biff!" Dingodile said. "Tis necklace has been in the family fer a long time, and Ah'd hate ta be the one ta lose it."
"No problem." Biff nodded before turning to Slim again. "Now come on! We've still got ghosts to catch." With that, Biff grabbed Slim and flew off again.
Dingodile shook his head in hopelessness. "That Slim has a one-track mind." He noted.
"Never mind about him, Dingodile." Coco said. "What does the clue say about where to go next?"
"Clue?…Oh, right!" Dingodile said as he read the clue. "What kind of stone do you wear as a hat?" He read.
"Stone hat?" Tiny laughed. "That ridiculous!"
"Heh. Yer right, Tiny! It IS ridiculous!" Dingodile added. "Wouldn't Ah look cute with a big stone on mah head?"
Coco's eyes widened in realization. "Wait, guys! That's it!" She said. "A headstone!"
"A headstone?" Dingodile and Tiny asked at the same time.
"Right! Like they put on graves!" Coco nodded.
"G-G-Graves?" Dingodile and Tiny asked, starting to shiver.
"Yeah! Our next clue is on a headstone out in the cemetery!" Coco concluded.
"C-C-C-Cemetery?" Dingodile and Tiny asked, the latter slinking off.
"Right! Come on! We need to go outside!" Coco nodded.
"Oy. What a day this is turnin' out ta be. Well, we might as well get going, Tiny." Dingodile said before realizing that Tiny was no longer with him. "Tiny? Hey, Tiny! Where are ya?"
Tiny was holding onto an empty rope that a ham usually hung from, doing his best to look unsuspicious. "Nobody here but us ham." He replied casually.
"Ham, eh?" Dingodile chuckled, walking over. "Ya look more like a chicken ta me!"
To be continued…