Sonic was running. Not a surprising statement. Once he single-handedly saved Yoshi's Island, he found himself at a dead end: Because Grounder managed to keep his mouth shut on the location of Eggman's new base, he had no idea where he should head next. Whenever Sonic found himself in a rut like this, he simply began to run wherever he felt like to clear his thoughts. Unfortunately, after two hours (and countless circumnavigations of the Mushroom Kingdom), all clues still eluded him. It seemed like Eggman simply vanished into thin air!
He was still rattling his brain as he entered a rather spooky-looking forest. In fact, he was so deep in thought, he wasn't watching where he was going, and ran head-on into something... hard. Getting back onto his feet, Sonic noticed that he was standing in front of a huge, old, decrepit mansion, and that the thing he ran into was a giant blue pipe. Even more surprising was the fact that, standing in front of the mansion, looking up at it, was none other than his old pal Knuckles, who he hadn't seen since he was on the pollution-covered Angel Island. However, he noticed something odd about Knuckles: On his back was what looked like a vacuum cleaner!
"Woah! Hey, Knux!" Sonic greeted, "Long time no see! Whatcha doin' way out here and what's with that thing on your back?"
"Sonic! 'Bout time you showed up!" Knuckles growled, "I heard all about your crazy stunts on that island! Meanwhile, while you're showing off, I'm dealing with something important!"
"You're not answering my question..." Sonic reminded.
"Grr... Look, Tails and Amy are trapped in that mansion and I gotta save them! You can come if you like, but I'm not gonna help you if you get in trouble!"
"Gee, what are they trapped under, a mountain of dust?"
"Wha?..." Knuckles mumbled before he realized that Sonic was referring to the Poltergeist 3000 strapped to his back, "Hey, I didn't come up with this thing! That crazy Gadd guy did! He said it's the only way to take care of..."
"Of what?"
Suddenly, the doors to the mansion blew open and hundreds of boos came flying out.
"Of these things!" Knuckles answered as he pulled out the nozzle of the Poltergeist 3000 and pointed it at the oncoming army.
"BOO! Blegh, heh, heh!" the boos all laughed in unison, almost as if they were one entity, "Looks like Red has come back for more! And he's brought a friend, too! Well, I guess we'll just..." they immediately stopped taunting when they saw what Knuckles was pointing at them, "Wait a second... Is that... No, it can't be... EVERYONE RUN! HE'S GOT A POLTERGEIST 3000!"
The boos began to completely freak out, flying around all over the place randomly before disappearing in a cloud of white smoke.
"What the?..." Sonic uttered, "What the heck did you do? They took one look at that thing you have strapped to your back and they all ran like scared rabbits!"
"I didn't do anything..." Knuckles replied, "... Yet. Come on, Tails and Amy are inside there, and we've got to rescue them!"
Inside the mansion, Lady Bow, who was not aware of the going ons outside, was busy admiring her 'living artwork'.
"You better let us out right now!" Amy screeched, "Because Knuckles will come back for us, I know he will! And when he does, he'll kick your little ghostly butt into another country!"
"Amy..." Tails muttered, "Could you give it a rest?"
"NO! I'm not giving up until this stupid ghost either lets us out or we're saved!"
"I'd suggest you shut your mouth now, missy!" Bow snapped, "Because I'm willing to 'change' artwork I don't like."
"What the heck do you mean by that?"
"In case you haven't realized, you are a mere painting," Bow began as she opened a drawer and pulled out a paint brush, "Meaning that whatever I do to your painting, I do to you. Since you're getting on my nerves, I shall demonstrate this. However, to show the kind of woman I am, I shall give you the choice: Do you want green stripes all over your body or your head completely orange?"
Bow approached Amy, wielding the paintbrush like a sword. Amy, realizing that she really blew it, began to wince, bracing for an unwilling color change. Fortunately, right before Bow began her work, Bootler appeared.
"Lady Bow!" Bootler reported, "I have received word that two rodents, one going by the name 'Sonic' and the other 'Knuckles', have engaged in combat with the boos outside the mansion! 'Knuckles' was the one that escaped from his portrait last night, correct?"
"Sonic and Knuckles are both out there?" Tails yelled in disbelief.
"SONIKKU!" Amy squealed, "HE'S COME TO RESCUE ME!"
"Hmm... Yes, I believe so," Bow sneered, ignoring Tails and Amy's comments, "Hard to believe that he would be such a fool as to return, even if he does have backup."
"But there is more!" Bootler continued, "It appears that 'Knuckles' has a Poltergeist 3000 with him! This certainly makes things a bit more dangerous!"
"Heh, heh, so? He probably doesn't even know how to use that thing. I'm not afraid."
After Lady Bow had said this, the doors to her room opened, and Sonic and Knuckles came running in.
"SONIKKU!" Amy cried, "OVER HERE!"
Since this was the first time Sonic actually saw what had happened to Tails and Amy, he was a little shocked when he first saw them.
"Whoa! THAT'S what you meant when you said they were trapped? They're inside paintings!"
"So, you're Sonic, hmm?" Bow asked, "The pink rat seems to hold you in quite a high regard. I think you'd make a good addition to my collection!"
"Yeah, right! If you want me, ya gonna have to catch me first!"
And with that, Sonic rev'd up and blasted off, racing around the room at high speed, making it impossible for Lady Bow to trap him in a painting. Undaunted by this, however, Bow snapped her fingers, and tons of boos suddenly filled the room.
"Catch that little rat!" Bow demanded, "And bring him to me! I want to cast him into the painting myself!"
All the boos obliged and began chasing after Sonic. Of course, Sonic was too fast for any to catch up to him, but the sheer quantity of boos was enough to make things challenging. Meanwhile, while Sonic was luring the boos all over the place, Knuckles sprung into action. He pointed the nozzle of the Poltergeist 3000 up at the boos in front of him and turned it on. Since there were boos everywhere, it wasn't hard at all for Knuckles to bag them by the bunch. It also didn't take long for Lady Bow to notice this.
"What are you doing?" Bow yelled, "Can't you see what's happening? The blue rat is acting as bait! Get the red one! THE RED ONE!"
The mayhem continued, until Sonic, not looking at where he was going, ran right into Knuckles! After somersaulting a few times, Sonic and Knuckles found themselves sprawled out on the floor, surrounded by boos. If that wasn't embarrassing enough, the nozzle of the Poltergeist 3000 was stuck on Sonic's nose!
"Hey, ged dis ding off my nose!" Sonic moaned, pulling on the nozzle until it popped off.
"Well, now that I have you two, it looks like my collection is complete. Heh, heh, heh..." Bow snickered, "So, who wants to become a masterpiece first?"
"I don't believe that either one of them want to," came a voice from behind Lady Bow, who, at the moment, had her back towards the door. Turning around, she found herself staring down the nozzle of another Poltergeist 3000! And this time, the person using it was much more experienced!
"Hey, everyone!" Tails called out, "It's Luigi!
"L-L-Luigi?" Bow shuttered, turning very pale, even by ghost standards, "What are you doing here?"
"Simple," Luigi replied, "I want you to let my friends go."
"What? You mean these furballs? They intruded on my property! They deserve to be trapped in paintings for all eternity! Besides, it's not like you did anything worthy of me giving you a favor!"
"That's-a very true, but I believe there's someone else who you might show a little more respect to..."
Suddenly, another person entered the room: Mario!
"Ah! Mario!" Lady Bow greeted in a pleasant tone, "How nice of you to... drop... by..."
Bow trailed off when she noticed that Mario didn't look too pleased, either. He had his arms crossed across his chest and he was tapping his foot, obviously none too happy about what Lady Bow was doing.
"Hey, look here!" Lady Bow protested, "These rodents were snooping around my property. What do want me to do, invite them over for tea?"
"Lady Bow," Mario began, "you are my friend. I helped you when the boos were threatened by Tubba Blubba, and you helped me through the rest of that adventure. So, as a friend, I am asking you let Sonic, Tails, Amy, and Knuckles go."
"All of them? But... But... That red furball just sucked up a bunch of boos into that infernal contraption!"
"Fine. How about a deal: He'll release all the boos he captured if you free my friends."
"He will?"
"I will?" Knuckles asked, in equal confusion.
"Yes, he will," Mario answered, holding out his hand to Bow, "So, Lady Bow, do we have a deal?"
"Deal!" Lady Bow agreed, shaking Mario's hand, "But keep in mind I only make deals like this with people I like, and that isn't many of them!"
Bow signaled to the boos surrounding Sonic and Knuckles, and they disappeared in a puff of smoke, just like they did outside.
"Right..." Mario mumbled, "Alright, Knuckles, you can free those boos you got now."
"Sure, ok," Knuckles replied, trying to look at the Poltergeist 3000 on his back without much success, "Is there a 'reverse' switch on this thing?"
"I think so," Luigi explained, "It's back there somewhere; just feel around for it."
"Grr..." Knuckles growled, unsuccessfully trying to throw his arms around the back of the Poltergeist 3000 and feel for the switch, "I can't find it anywhere! Where is it?"
"Hey, calm down! I'll help."
Luigi walked around to Knuckles' backside and quickly found the switch he was looking for. Upon flipping it, the Poltergeist 3000 began shooting the boos back out at a fast rate... Perhaps a little too fast. The kick-back from the boos being launched out propelled Knuckles and Luigi backwards into a wall! Both of them were dazed, but pretty much fine afterwards. Once she saw that the boos were free, Bow floated up to the paintings of Tails and Amy, took them off the wall, and handed them to Mario.
"A deal's a deal," Bow stated, "here's the pictures. Actually, now that I think about it, maybe turning them into portraits wasn't a good idea to begin with. I mean, yellow and pink kind of clash with the décor of the place..."
"Wait a second!" Amy shouted, "Aren't you gonna free us? We don't want to be stuck as paintings forever!"
"Don't push it, kid." Bow groaned, "That Professor Elvin Gadd guy can fix you if you really don't want to be a portrait. Personally, I think it's an improvement."
"Okey-dokey!... Oph!... Thanks!" Mario tried to get out from under the weight of two paintings, "Gee, these things are kinda... ugh... Heavy! Could someone take one of these, please?"
Luigi quickly grabbed the picture of Tails, lightening Mario's load... but only in the literal sense.
"Hey! Why am I being carried by Mario?" Amy yelled, "I want to be carried by Sonic!"
"Huh? Uh, boy... Sonic," Mario moaned, "do you mind?"
"If it shuts her up, fine." Sonic replied, taking the Amy portrait off of Mario's hands.
"Oh, I'm being carried off by my hero..." Amy sighed, "... How romantic!"
"Is she always liked this?" Luigi asked Tails.
"Yeah... always..."
Eventually, after a few goodbyes with a somewhat humbled Lady Bow, the odd group of two humans, a hedgehog, an echidna, and two portraits left the mansion. They knew what their next stop had to be: Professor Elvin Gadd's laboratory, in order to fix Tails' and Amy's 'picture perfect' problem.