(Good ol' unsettling mood music - M-13 Take 1 - Neon Genesis Evangelion)

July 23rd, 10:31am

Mason Mansion, Wesker Hill

It's not everyday that you get to see two people physically sink through a wooden floor and vanish altogether at the will of a disembodied floating head born from the spirit of a terrible horror reference but on this particular day, all four of the Chaotix saw this very sight occur right in front of them.

Sitting on a cushiony chair in the study this event took place in, Mighty scratched his head in sheer bamboozlement as he worriedly asked no-one in particular "Exactly how in God's name did that happen?! One minute, Toji and Ken are there and the next, they're completely gone!"

"Well, I'm glad ta see 'em gone!" Vector remarked as he leaned back on another chair opposite Mighty, "They probably just would've gotten in da way. Least it means we can get on with things now!"

Mighty clenched up his fists in frustration as he asked "How can you be so cold? Two people just died and you're shrugging it off just like that!" with a tone of anger picking up during the second sentence.

"They didn't die." Vector said back, as he folded his arms and looked up towards the glass ceiling high above them "Just 'cause they sank through da floor don't mean they've snuffed it!"

"Hey Vec," Charmy curiously asked as he hovered around Vector, "How do you know those two wimps aren't dead?"

Vector's eye twitched somewhat at this question before he replied "…Well, it's just detective's intuition. Ya gotta trust that and hope da two of dem ain't dead." He then stretched his arms and rose up from the chair as he continued, "Anyways, like I said, at least we don't have ta worry 'bout those two now. Hey Esp, what ya thinkin' 'bout?" as he looked at the chameleon leaning on the fireplace.

Espio was taking his usual contemplative pose; eyes closed, arms folded and head directed up above. He stayed in this position as he replied "That head…the so-called Mansion Master. Something about that…thing seems really off."

"Well, a course!" Vector cheerfully remarked as he placed his hands on his hips, "It's a ghost that came and went just like that!" snapping his fingers to prove his point, "Everythin's gonna be off 'bout it!"

"No, it's not that." Espio said back, as he opened his eyes and looked back down at his comrades, "What I mean is that something felt really inconsistent about it. Remember when it swallowed up those two teens, it said that there were only three of us left, even though there's still us four."

"And what about that organ cutting off like that?" Mighty pointed out as he turned his head to the other three detectives, "You can't just ignore something as mood-wrecking as that!"

The chameleon stroked his chin as he continued "That's right. You get two inconsistencies like that happening almost back-to-back and you know that there's more to this then what we know…"

Seconds passed in silence until Espio finally concluded "However, we don't know enough to really figure things out at this point." as he unfolded his arms and stopped leaning on the bricked wall, "So the best thing we can do for now is explore this mansion and find whatever clues we can. Speaking of clues, do you still have that camcorder, Vector?"

The emerald crocodile fished the camcorder from one of his leg pockets and held it in front of Espio's face as he eagerly replied "Yep! Ya think I'd give it back to that otaku dweeb before I found anythin' from it? How thick do ya think I am?"

"Quite," Espio whispered under his breath before he spoke out loud "So, did you find anything interesting from the recorded footage?" as he reached his hand out towards the camcorder to grab it when Vector suddenly put it back in his leg pocket.

"Not really," Vector quickly replied, keeping his hand in the pocket, "It's just some dumb footage 'bout the two seein' a zombie. And like ya said, they ran off home so really, we don't need ta see it."

Espio took a quick glance at Vector's leg pocket, remarking "How come I don't fully trust you on that one? I think the rest of us should take a look to see it. It may as you said, but it's better to know for yourself than trust the words of others."

Vector raised an invisible eyebrow at this remark and curiously asked "So, you're saying ya don't trust me?"

Espio stepped back slightly at this question as he hesitantly replied "…In this case…no."

The eldest detective rolled his eyes in response before he said "Honestly, I'd have thought that after seven years, we'd be able to trust each other on anythin'!"

"Says the guy who's taken to hiding his skinmag collection completely," Espio sternly remarked, much to Vector's embarrassment and sheer annoyance, "But the point I'm trying to make is that there's something about this case that just feels too off. And until I figure out what that is, I'm trusting my instincts and only my instincts."

Vector stared at the chameleon with widened-out eyes before sighing in exasperation and admitting "Alright, fine. We'll take a proper look at da footage when we've found more clues." as he walks towards a corridor to the left of the fireplace that lead off to another section of the mansion.

"Hey Vec," Charmy curiously asked as he flew over to Vector with a puzzled expression on his face, "why can't we just look at the footage now?"

"Kid, I'm not in da mood right now." Vector coldly answered back, not stopping in his walk down the new hallway. Charmy hovered in a single spot, with his mouth slightly agape at what just happened. The young bee felt something moist form up in his eyes, which he quickly rubbed out with his arm before flying back slowly towards Mighty and Espio.

Espio folded his arms and whispered to Mighty "Something's off about Vector as well. I'll go with him and see what I can find out."

Mighty nodded as he replied "Alright, partner. Me and Charms here'll take a look round for something fun to do. Besides, at least it'll cheer the little guy up." as he glanced at the sullen-looking bee that flew over towards them. He then gave Espio a thumbs up, saying "See ya later. Good luck."

"Likewise." Espio remarked before he walked off to follow Vector down the corridor he vanished into. As the chameleon vanished out of sight down the darkness in the hallway, Mighty heard a distant voice remarking "And don't call him Charms. He hates that name."

The armadillo silently muttered "Oh, right." before he walked over to Charmy, who was hovering closer to the ground with his arms folded and his head tilted upwards, his eyes looking as dim a rainy day. Mighty squatted in place to look Charmy straight in the eye as he cheerfully suggested "Hey buddy, you wanna check out the rest of the house? I mean, it's what we're here for, right?"

Charmy breathed out through his nose and slowly nodded as he hovered down a hallway opposite the one the reptilian detectives wandered into, quickly followed by Mighty. As the two walked down the hallway, neither of them spoke for several minutes until Charmy asked out of the blue "Hey, Mighty? Do ya know why Vector's acting so crabby?"

Mighty turned around to face Charmy while still walking and put his hands behind his head, replying "Honestly, I was hoping you'd know that. I've only known the guy for a month but you've known him…how long?"

Charmy stopped in his tracks and looked up at the ceiling for a few silent seconds before answering "Five years…I think."

"Well, there you go." Mighty cheerfully continued, as Charmy began hovering forward again, "You'd have a better idea of knowing what's up with him." The young bee scratched his chin as he took this idea into consideration while Mighty asked "How was he this morning?"

Charmy's eyes gazed towards the decrepit walls of the hallway as he said "He was horny and loud so about the same as usual. But, while we were at the high school, I had to go to the bathroom. So I went but when I came back, he seemed…what's the word?…Bitter?"

The shelled detective stopped in his tracks as he tilted his head and raised an invisible eyebrow, as he bewilderedly asked "…Bitter?"

"Yeah," Charmy replied, "It's hard to say but normally, there's something nice about Vector. But today…there isn't." as he flew past Mighty through a door at the end of the hallway. Mighty scratched his head in confusion before he started walking normally again.

He walked into the door Charmy just flew through into a large room. Unlike the study, this new room was surprisingly vacant, all except for a small bookcase in the corner and an enormous ebony grand piano. Even stranger were the complete lack of windows in the room, as if it was designed as some kind of prison.

Charmy was over by the piano, hovering in the air as he tapped the piano keys slowly, and when I say slowly I mean first-timers slowly. Mighty scratched his chin as an idea popped into his head, causing a confident smile to appear on his muzzle. He walked over to the piano and innocently asked "You like the piano?"

Charmy looked up from the keys and replied "Well, kinda. But I can't do the keys that well."

"Maybe I can help with that." Mighty eagerly proposed as he sat down on the small leather seat in front of the piano. As soon as he sat down, a cloud of dust sprung up from the leather, causing him to bring a hand to his mouth and start coughing for a few seconds.

Eventually, the dust settled and Mighty brought his hand down to the piano keys, pausing for a moment as he mumbled "Now, what were the keys again?…Oh yeah!" He then played a simple one-handed melody that translates into notes as such: C-A-C-B-C-B-G. Mighty looked at Charmy and asked "You think you can do that?"

(Note: I dare you to play those, and the next few sets of, keys on an actual piano. I think you might find a continuity nod or two.)

Charmy non-chalantly shrugged as he slowly tapped the white piano keys to play the same melody as above, though higher pitched due to hovering more to the right than where Mighty was sitting. "Pretty good for a beginner." Mighty cheerfully said in response, "It's a little slow but it's still good…Here's one I really like."

He hovered his right hand over the keys and played another simple melody: C-B-A-G-F-G-C-C-B-A-G-F-E as he sung in time with each note "Fly me to the moon, and let me play among the stars." When he finished, he chuckled a little bit before he looked at Charmy once more and said "Well, give it a try."

The young bee placed his two hands on the keys and began playing the second melody in a manner that wasn't as slow as before and a bit more confident. Upon playing the last key, a bright smile formed on Mighty's muzzle as he said "For someone who can't do the keys that well, you're actually pretty damn good."

Charmy chuckled softly at this while Mighty suggested "Alright, this time, you follow my lead; I keep playing and you try copy it as best you can. Okay?" The insect detective's eager nodding gave Mighty the answer as he began playing again. He started over from the second melody he played just a few seconds ago: C-B-A-G-F-G-C-C-B-A-G-F-E. And like before, he sang in time with the tune "Fly me to the moon, and let me play among the stars."

Charmy followed along at a higher pitch slightly faster than before as Mighty continued in the song, both in keys and words; F-G-A-G-F-E-D-E-F-A-G-F-E-D-C, "Won't you. Let me see what spring is like, on Jupiter and Mars?" And much to the armadillo's delight, Charmy was still able to keep up with him, despite the melody getting a little tricky.

C-D-A-A-C-B-G, "In other words, hold my hand." Mighty sang and played the keys, at a slower pace as his mind began to wander. He played another set of keys and slowly sang once more: C-D-F-F-A-G-F-E, "In other words…Honey, kiss me…"

Upon hearing those last three words, Charmy looked up from the keys at Mighty, whose gaze was directed at the wall, yet looked as if he wasn't really concentrating on it, or anything in particular. The young bee tilted his head and asked "Mighty, did you just say…what I think you said?"

The armadillo blinked back into consciousness and glanced at Charmy with a puzzled look on his face. A few seconds passed when his eyes widened out in realization and his muzzle became a very deep shade of crimson as he looked away with his arms folded, nervously protesting "N-n-n-n-no, I didn't! You're j-just hearing things!"

"Oh really?" Charmy cheekily asked as he hovered around to devilishly smile at Mighty's blood-red face when suddenly, loud sounds started emitting from where the bookcase was sitting. Flinching at first from the sudden shock, the two detectives looked at the nearby wall as sounds of gears turning and bolts unbolted echoed from the bookcase.

After a matter of seconds, the bookcase slowly swung forwards on one side, revealing a misty staircase spiralling downwards into darkness. Mighty slowly got up from the seat and walked over to the bookcase, leaning forward to try get the best possible look at was down below. However, his investigation was suddenly interrupted by Charmy suddenly asking "So, did you find anything?"

The armadillo turned around and upon finding the bee barely a foot in front of him, his heart jumped and he started swaying about wildly. He nearly fell down the stairs but caught the edge of the wall just in time and gave Charmy the angriest look that rivalled even Captain Haddock in sheer, unadulterated rage as he hurriedly said "For God's sake, Charmy, don't scare me like that!"

Charmy gleefully giggled as Mighty directed his glare back towards the strangely metallic steps below. Holding onto a small rail at the side, the armadillo slowly made his way down the stairs, followed by the curious bee. Step by step, the two descended the spiral staircase for what felt like an eternity until they finally reached the floor.

It was way too dark to see anything at all so Mighty reached a hand outwards to find some sort of solid object or surface to make contact with. A sensation at the tips of his fingers gave him a possible idea so he edged his body up towards where his hand was to confirm it. It felt like some kind of strange structure; he couldn't put his finger on it but something felt very strange about it.

Meanwhile, Charmy had felt his way around another wall and felt a strange digit pointing downwards. Feeling a small ingrave, indicating that the digit pointed upwards, the bee exclaimed "I found the light switch!" and flicked it upwards.Suddenly, a great light filled the room, causing Mighty to briefly shriek and cover his eyes from the incredible brightness. When his eyes had gotten used to the shift, he lowered his hand and looked around the room to see what was around him.

To say it was a strange sight would be an understatement; the room was filled with so many gadgets, gizmos and devices one could think the house was owned by Emmet Brown, though if this was the case, the writer would've spent his time writing an epic Sonic/Back to the Future crossover fic…with massive amounts of Knuckles/Biff shipping. Just cause.

Anyways, another very peculiar aspect about the room was the fact that in each corner of the room were enormous stone statues, but what was even more peculiar about them is that each statue was sculpted to resemble a teenage girl with incredibly endowed…assets placed in a very provocative pose. Mighty stared at this bizarre sight for a few seconds until he remembered that his hand was still holding onto something…

He reluctantly turned his head to see exactly what his hand was holding onto and much to his displeasure, his hand was groping a stone breast of a teenaged cat in a Playboy bunny outfit. The black Mobian stared at his hand for a couple of seconds before he very quickly removed it from the concrete mammary. He looked at his hand, feeling a strange sense of embarrassment and yet, wonder, when Charmy suddenly said "And I thought Vector was the big pervert of the team?"

Seemingly too distracted by that odd feeling of his, Mighty only blushed as he gave Charmy a mildly irritated look, saying "Yeah, well…I'm not planning on doing it again anytime soon." He then looked over the room one last time and noticed that in the middle lay an enormous stone tablet, of which the very top seemed to be removable.

Mighty and Charmy walked over to the tablet and pushed with all their…well, might but alas, no matter how hard they tried, they just couldn't budge the thing by even an inch. Mighty leaned on the tablet, panting heavily from all the work, when he noticed that there was text written on the lid. He leaned forward to get a better read of this and found that it read as such:

A lunar orb in a pitch-black galaxy,

Combined with a spiteful angel's litany,

Shall unlock the secrets hidden within,

All of which shall be at your whim

And below the inscription were two holes; one shaped like half an orb and the other being extremely thin, as if a disc was meant to be inserted into it. Mighty scratched his head, completely bamboozled, as he asked himself "What the hell's this about?"

"Maybe we're supposed to find stuff to put in." Charmy suggested, as Mighty turned his head to look at him, "Well, we've already got a Resident Evil thing going on; corridors into corridors, horrifying things and Albert Wesker's our leader. May as well have adventure game puzzles on top of all that."

"Vector isn't that smart, at least I don't think so," Mighty pointed out, scratching his chin in thought, "But other than that, you've got a point…problem is, what are we supposed to put in? And where do we find them?"

And suddenly, as if the writer pulled out a cheap contrivance out of the endless depths of his anus, a calm, familiar but very tired sounding voice called out from above "Is…is anyone down there?" Upon hearing this, Mighty and Charmy ran from the tablet up the spiralling stairs to find Espio, leaning on the wall next to the bookcase entrance.

However, something was wrong; Espio was breathing heavily and was clutching the right side of his lower torso, with his normally clear white glove dyed a medium shade of red. Mighty's eyes widened out slightly at this sight as he leaned forward, nervously asking "Espio…are you alright?"

The chameleon removed his hand to push against the wall as he turned to his two comrades, revealing a small white strip wrapped around his lower torso, and in particular, a red blotch on his right side. He smiled bitter sweetly as he explained in between deep breaths "Bullet…grazed my side…Don't worry…it's not as bad as…it looks…I've had worse…"

Mighty looked at the injury and noticed that it was still dripping blood, upon which he rushed over to the reptilian detective and

placed his arm over him, saying "I don't care; you have to lie down. Will that work?" glancing over at the small seat in front of the night-black piano. Espio wearily nodded and so, Mighty began slowly walked him over to the leather seat, with Charmy hovering behind them with his hands out, ready to catch Espio if he fell suddenly fell back.

After about a minute or so, the three Mobians reached the seat and Mighty gently lowered Espio onto the seat. The chameleon leaned backwards until his back and head were safely lying on the leather. Espio gave out a weak chuckle, saying "It's…not the best…but it'll do…"

"Alright," Mighty answered back, as his hands started shaking and his breath quickening all of a sudden, "But tell me, what the hell happened when you followed Vector?"

"Sorry," Espio tiredly replied while he reached his non bloody hand into his leg pocket, "But I'm…a bit tired…to talk right now…For the moment…however…" pulling out the camcorder last seen in Vector's hands and a small CD, placing it on the piano keys next to him, "Check these…over…they might…help with…what's going on…See ya in a minute…" and with that, his eyes closed and his head collapsed onto the leather.

Seconds passed in dead silence until Mighty sat down on the floor, pulling his knees and arms close to his head, his gaze directed at the aged, wooden floor below him. He couldn't believe what had just happened; his best friend had gotten shot and maybe even died. And he couldn't do a thing about it. Where he sat, he muttered in a mantra "Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid…"

"Mighty?" Charmy worriedly asked. Mighty tilted his head upwards and saw the bee, for the first time since he'd met him, actually standing on the ground in front of him with a very confused and scared expression. That was when Mighty realized something.

He wasn't alone anymore; he couldn't just curl up in a ball and break down whenever something really bad happened. Not anymore. Not when someone, especially a kid, was just as lost and terrified. He had to keep strong, if not for himself, then at least for someone else.

He took a deep breath and uncurled his body, leaning forward as he told Charmy "Don't worry, buddy. I'll be alright but for now, we gotta check out what Espio found." The two glanced over at the unconscious detective lying on the piano seat as Mighty assured "And don't worry about Espio; he'll be okay…I hope."

And with that, he stood up and glanced at what Espio had taken out; the camcorder looked slightly more dented than before and had a very small splatter of blood on the side. The more curious case, however, was the CD. It seemed to be one of those blank discs you could buy at any electronics store, the only difference being that on the bottom of the front side was written in marker "Zankoku na Tenshi no These."

The armadillo raised his eyebrow in confusion as he wondered what this had to with anything. "I know Espio was a bit of an otaku," he thought, "but even for him, this is pretty strange." He placed the disc on his pocket, deciding that it would make sense later, and focused on the camcorder.

He flipped open the little screen on the side and saw a menu of the most recent recordings on the device:

July 18th, 11:03pm - Going to strip club for first time (TELL NO-ONE!)

July 18th, 11:28pm - So, that's what they look like…;)

July 19th, 2:03pm - New Chao in Space prequel showing (HINT: It sux!)

July 22nd, 8:55pm - Checking out the haunted house on Wesker Hill

That's the one they were looking for! Mighty highlighted the bottom recording and hit the pay button. The screen changed to a flickering recording of the events that occurred the night before. The first few minutes consisted of Ken, the camcorder's owner, gushing about going to the house and finding what all the fuss was about. And it essentially dragged on as such to the point were Charmy was beginning to fall asleep from boredom when suddenly, it happened…

July 22nd, 9:06pm

Mason Mansion Entrance

Through the damaged perspective of the camera, the front door burst open and flew about ten feet away, revealing a sight that caused the camera to wildly shake within Ken's hands. At the very entrance into the mansion stood an unholy apparition; a decrepit looking shadow of a human being with dead grey skin, tattered clothes and most notably, a lack of a right arm and the left side of its head, leaving only bloody guts dangling out from that missing side.

This monstrous thing stumbled slowly towards the camera, smiling a horrifying half-smile that revealed sharp teeth as it moaned a terrifying sound that shook the two to their very core. The being reached out his left hand, scarred, bruised and bleeding all over, towards the camera screen as it continued moaning.

However, it was unable to make any further contact as the camera suddenly flew through the air and landed on the ground with a hard thud, still aimed at the entrance as the sounds of two teenagers screaming faded into the distance. The disturbing creature stood at the very edge of the entrance as it looked on, smiling in delight as its moans soon turned into a horrifying laugh that grew louder and louder, echoing throughout the dark night skies.

Suddenly, the creature began flickering in and out of existence until it vanished completely, collapsing into blue lines that faded into nothingness. A strange figure clad in a fedora and a long trench-coat walked out from the mansion when two large words, saying "BATTERY LOW!", appeared on the screen, after which the screen went blank.

July 23rd, 11:01am

Piano Room, Mason Mansion

Mighty shook the camcorder as he said "Crap! The battery's dead!" before he gave up and placed the camera back on the piano keys, leaning back as he continued "Well, at least we know what happened…sort of."

"Sort of?!" Charmy asked in sheer confusion, "The zombie kept flickerin' like our TV and Van Helsing popped out of nowhere! If the battery hadn't died, we might've been able to find out what happened!"

"Fair point," Mighty admitted, groaning irritably at the situation, "All we can do now is just wait for Espio to wake up. Maybe then, things'll start making sense." He looked at the K.O'ed detective lying down and instinctively held onto the blooded hand with one of his own as he whispered to himself "Espio…don't die."

To be continued…

Message from the Author - 13/Jun/2013

(Well, I'm a little late but hey, at least I got it done in a close enough time. Anyways, things did get a little spookier this time around, a little bit more than I originally planned to as well. I'm aware that the mood-shift is a little overdramatic but believe me, it was originally much worse.

Espio's injury was going to be much more harmful and the overall tone was going to be quite dark but I realized that the whiplash in mood and tone might've been too much so I scaled it back to a more reasonable level.

On another note, to BinaryHedgehog's review of Chapter 25, that plot error you mentioned was intended but I couldn't say so since I can't reply to your reviews for…some reason. Damn the strange inconsistencies of !

And as usual, tell me what you thought of this chapter, this episode so far and if I can make any improvements to my writing style. I hope you enjoyed reading this chapter and until we meet again, have a great day y'all! - FrDougal9000)