Alright, 3 more riddles left until the climax of the story. Unfortunately, this chapter is going to be a bit shorter.
Chapter 14 here we go.
After the kids had been floating down the tunnel for a few moments, Butch says, "Hey Buttercup, can you do that fireball thing again? It's kinda dark in here."
"Sure." Buttercup rubs her hands together again and, within a couple of seconds, they had a light source.
"Whoa." Said Brick.
"Hey, that's useful." Said Boomer.
Buttercup smirks and says, "Like I told Butch earlier, you have no idea."
Brick just nods his head while Boomer says, "Well, at least we can see things now."
The kids continue down the tunnel for a few minutes until Buttercup says, "Wow, this sure is a long tunnel. I can't see the end of it." Then Boomer sees something thanks to Buttercup's fire.
"Hey, what's that up there?"
The others look at Boomer and see him pointing at something on the ceiling.
"It looks like a hatch." Said Bubbles.
"Hey yeah. Maybe it's a way out." Said Blossom as she floated up and started pushing. The hatch got stuck however and she had to push a bit harder before it finally opened up. She poked her head through and was surprised at what she saw.
"Hey, w-we're back in the cemetery." Blossom said with a nervous edge to her voice. Why do we always end up in the cemetery, she thought to herself.
Blossom heard the others suck in a breathe below her.
"Wait, so we're underground in the cemetery? Why haven't we seen any coffins or skeletons down here?" Asked Butch.
Bubbles' face drained of all color and started whimpering while Buttercup elbowed Butch in the stomach, "Butch!" She hissed.
Butch, currently doubled over in pain from the blow, actually had the decency to look sheepish and said, "Sorry, my bad."
After giving Butch a look that said, 'really?', Boomer asked Blossom the obvious question, "Do you see any ghosts Blossom?"
Blossom looked around for a moment and sighed in relief, "Nah, come on up you guys, there isn't a ghost for two miles."
The others came up and looked around and were relieved that they were alone. There was just one problem; they weren't. Standing just behind them was the British soldier and they hadn't noticed him yet. That is until, the hatch that Blossom pushed open fell over and onto its feet.
"OUCH!" Yelped the soldier.
The kids turned. "YIKES! Would you believe two feet!?" Shrieked Blossom. Bubbles and Boomer were holding on to each other, Butch and Buttercup were gaping at the ghost in terror, and Brick had actually pulled Blossom away from the ghost a bit.
"That did it, now you all are going to pay for your trespassing." Said the soldier in a deathly serious voice as it started reaching for them.
The kids screamed and immediately ducked back down inside the hole.
"Ok, time to go!" Yelled Brick. "This way!"
They continued down the tunnel only now with an angry spirit chasing them. The ghost pulled out its pistol and fired but due to the kids flying around, it missed.
Blossom looked back and saw that they were losing the ghost. A smile came to her face and said, "Keep going guys, we can lose him." But the ghost had other ideas.
"You can't escape that easily you pesky brats, I'm springing the booby-traps on you!"
The ghost stopped next to a lever and pulled it down. Suddenly, the cave started to rumble and small bits of the ceiling were coming down too.
"What's happening?!" Shrieked Bubbles.
Brick's eyes widened, "I think he's collapsing the cave. MOVE IT!"
The kids picked up the pace. Blossom thinks back to the clue, more specifically the part about facing the perils. "Guys, this must be what the clue meant about perils, be ready for anything."
Just as she said this, spikes suddenly jutted out from the walls and nearly skewered them. "Holy hell!" Shouted Brick. "Don't stop!"
They continued on and the ground started opening up revealing a pit with spikes at the bottom; of course this meant nothing to them since they could fly. The next trap did succeed in separating the group slightly but then who wouldn't be when pendulum axes come swinging from the ceiling. After that, some small, sharp stones began shooting out from the walls and scoring hits here and there but the only damage done was to their costumes; a rip here, a scuf there. After they reached what looked like a dead end, they were able to catch their breathe.
"Heh heh heh...that was...nothing." Said Brick between pants.
"Oh really? Then...why are you...out of breathe?" Asked Blossom breathlessly.
Brick smirked, "Oh? Look who's talking...Pinkie."
"Uhh, guys, can we save this for later? In case you haven't noticed, we're sort of trapped here." Said Butch.
Suddenly, Boomer called out to the ghost, "Hey, is that all the traps you got? That was nothing you Halloween reject!"
Both Boomer and Bubbles were further away from the wall as the others at the moment with Bubbles being the furthest. Before Brick could tell Boomer to knock it off, Bubbles glanced up at the ceiling and a horrified look appeared on her face.
"BOOMER, LOOK OUT!"
Bubbles dove for Boomer pushing him down and both of them skidded across the ground just as a large slab of rock with spikes sticking out of the bottom fell from the ceiling just where Boomer was floating moments before.
"Holy shit!" Yelled Brick and Butch in unison. Blossom and Buttercup were covering their mouths with their hands at the close call. Boomer looked at the large slab of rock with wide eyes and then looked at Bubbles with gratitude written all over his face.
"Oh wow, thanks Bubbles, I owe you one."
Bubbles gave Boomer a small smile and said, "Don't mention it." Boomer smiled back.
"Uhh guys, that's great and all, and thank you Bubbles for saving our brother but, we're still trapped here!" Said Butch as he pointed to the wall.
Brick sighed, "We'll figure this out guys, calm down. After all, we're out of danger now."
"No we're not, look!" Shrieked Blossom as she grabbed Brick's shoulder to turn him around. When he and the others did, they saw the soldier with a cannon pointing at them and a match in his hand lighting the fuse.
"Don't worry kids, I promise, this will only hurt for a split-second." As it said this, it motioned toward its blown apart face.
The kids screamed in terror and slammed against the wall in a desperate attempt to escape. Amazingly, it worked because the wall suddenly revolved around and they found themselves in another room just as the cannon went off. They could feel the impact of multiple projectiles, most likely grape-shot again, hit the wall behind them and then a deep rumbling sound as the cave collapsed, sealing the entrance.
They all collapsed to the floor after a moment and caught their breathe. "Oh man. I can't believe I'm about to say this, but I'm beginning to wonder if searching for this treasure is actually worth the risk." Said Brick as he wiped the sweat from his brow.
"Hearing that coming from you really speaks volumes about how dangerous of a situation we're in right now." Said Blossom.
Brick lets out a scoff and says, "Oh geez, thanks a lot Pinkie." Then Brick looks around and takes in his surroundings before stating, "Hey, we're back in the basement. How about that. I'll bet that's how the ghosts have been getting in and out of the house."
"Hey guys look, more pearls, just like the last clue said." Said Buttercup as she looked down and to her left to see said pearls and a clue hanging from a rusty nail.
"And another scroll." Said Blossom. "Come on, let's get upstairs where we can read this before anything else happens."
Back upstairs, Blossom opens the clue and starts reading. "Ok, it says, 'There's no mystery about the next clue, inside bear cave, the jewel's in plain view.'"
"Bear cave?" Asked Boomer.
"Hey, we passed that on the way to the house. This is going to be easy." Said Buttercup.
"pfffftttt, yeah real easy, provided the bear isn't around." Butch replied in a snarky manner.
The others looked at him funny before Buttercup said, "Why should we be worried about a normal bear? We have superpowers. The bear is probably going to be the least dangerous thing we have to deal with tonight."
Butch Blinked at that and said, "Oh yeah, good point."
The others just shook their heads in amusement but Bubbles still looked a bit on edge. "I hope we don't have to deal with the bear though. The last thing I want to do is disturb its sleep."
Blossom remembered that they were talking about whether or not the bear was hibernating yet when they floated past the cave earlier that night.
"Don't worry Bubbles, if we're careful, we can sneak in, find the clue and sneak out before the bear is any the wiser." Said Blossom.
"Yeah, provided the soldier or the skull ghost doesn't show up and try to kill us that is." Brick unhelpfully supplied.
Blossom sighed in slight annoyance, "Yeah, that's a possibility but we'll deal with it if it comes to it."
Only 2 riddles left now. We're getting closer to the climax. I've got to start thinking how the last couple chapters are going to play out. I mean, I know how I want the story to end but I'm still having a little trouble putting it into words, especially the chapter where the kids have a little chat with the antagonist. Oh well, I will have it figured out before the end of the year.