Chapter 22: Big Boo's Haunt
"Enter...if you dare..." Minako awoke to the sound of evil laughter. She and Mozzarella Rigatoni were standing on the steps to a huge, dark mansion.
"All right! I always wanted to explore a haunted house!" exclaimed Mozzarella eagerly.
"If there really are evil spirits inside, we should have Rei with us," said Minako, "Her anti-evil charms could ward them off."
"Maybe Rei's inside. Or Parallax. She would love this place," suggested Mozzarella, boldly opening the door. Minako followed, more cautiously. There didn't seem to be anyone in the house, at least, there was no one in the front hall. However, there were several doors, any of which could lead to spooks...or to friends like Rei and Parallax. They checked the first door. This room was mostly empty except for the grand piano sitting in the corner.
"This is odd. Usually in the movies about ghosts, if there's a piano, it's making music by itself," commented Minako as they wandered closer to it. Then she and Mozzarella shrieked as it suddenly came to life, its teeth gnashing and snarling and snapping at them like a starved alligator.
"Marshmallow Prism Power, Make Up!" yelled Mozzarella as she jumped backwards. As she transformed, Minako crashed into her, sending them both stumbling into the wall in a flash of lavender sparkles.
"Wait, how are your powers going to stop it? How can a raging piano be beaten by a bunch of metal spikes?!" Minako panicked.
"Don't know, but I can try. Silver Spikes!" Some of the metal shards penetrated the wood on the piano, but that seemed to only make the monster angrier.
"Let's just get out of this room!" exclaimed Minako, and Sailor Marshmallow was happy to follow. They ran past the monster piano and went through another door. This new room looked at first to be a normal library, but the chairs were floating around, threatening to hit the pair. Also, books with sharp teeth flew out of the bookcases, chomping like the piano.
"Silver Spikes!" Sailor Marshmallow tried again. This time her attack did help in fighting off the nefarious novels. She and Minako used another door to get back into the main room of the dark mansion. The next room they checked only had a few ledges in it and nothing else. They didn't explore that one much, as the prospect of falling into a possibly bottomless pit wasn't very appealing.
"Maybe we could search the upstairs rooms," suggested Minako, "And then I might be able to find a handsome prince who's been locked up and rescue him!"
"But aren't you happily married already?" giggled Sailor Marshmallow.
"Who said anything about marriage? If we find someone to rescue, I'd rather it would be a cute guy. And if he's a prince he can give us lots of money," snickered Minako. Although, if that happened, I'd have to make sure Akane wouldn't just give it all away, she thought bitterly.
"What are you waiting for? Let's explore some more!" exclaimed Sailor Marshmallow, who was already half-way up the giant steps. The first room on the second floor had a giant eyeball in it.
"Interesting. I wonder what it feels like to touch an eye," mused Minako, and she went up to it. She found that it felt like it was made of the same strange, almost-plastic material that had formed her Senshi items. Suddenly she was knocked back into another room when it shot an energy beam out of its pupil. She then screamed when she noticed that the new room had a bunch of coffins in it. One opened up on its own--there was nothing underneath!
"Silver Spikes!" Meanwhile, Sailor Marshmallow had decided to fight the giant eyeball. The metal spikes clattered to the floor, not even making a dent or a scratch in it.
"Why don't we just explore another room!" Minako exclaimed in a panicky voice, grabbing Sailor Marshmallow as she ran out of the room into the main area. Sailor Marshmallow yanked her hand free and bounded into another room. This one also looked like a library, only it was darker, there were more bookcases, and the books were flying from one case to the other.
"OW!" Minako shrieked when one hit her, "Let's look in a different room." Sailor Marshmallow had already gone ahead again. Minako peeked in the last room. Another library, it seemed, with those same chomping books. Where was that little Italian imp anyway? She ran around to the other side of the room in a panic, and fell through a large trapdoor!
"Isn't this neat? I found a giant swimming pool in the basement!" giggled Sailor Marshmallow's familiar voice. Yes, they were in a large pool of water. And it wasn't too deep, in fact, Sailor Marshmallow could stand up without it going over her head.
"What's that music? I can hear music coming from somewhere," commented Minako suddenly.
"Me too. Let's go see what it is," said Sailor Marshmallow.
"You're not afraid? Because almost everything we've ran into here has been dangerous," Minako said.
"So? I'm a Sailor Senshi," shrugged the petite brunette. She hopped up onto the wooden ledge and opened a nearby door. Yes, that was definitely where the music was coming from, but there didn't seem to be anything making the music. Just an empty room...that was turning in circles?! The door slammed and locked shut after Minako entered.
"This room is the weirdest one yet. There's nothing in it...huh?" A blue light had appeared in the center of the room, and it was swirling like water.
"Nothing? You scary Sailor Senshi think I'm nothing?! Get away from me with those sharp pointy spikes; they'll ruin my beauty!" Umi shrieked as she appeared out of the watery light.
"Rei's predictions are never wrong! It's a battle to the death!" declared Minako. Umi stared at her with frightened eyes.
"Water Dragon!" she shouted, spraying the two of them with blasts of water.
"I don't want to hurt her; she's scared of us. But if we kill her, she'll go back to her world," Minako whimpered.
"I thought you were just determined to beat her a second ago! Don't wimp out now! Silver Spikes!"
"Water Dragon!" This time, Umi was hit by a bunch of wet, silver spiky shards. She touched the jewel on her glove and her sword appeared.
"So THAT'S the way you want to play, huh? Mokona! I'll see what's inside of you!" roared Umi, charging at the pair. She ran forward to stab them, but she got her sword stuck in the side of the wall instead.
"Remember, Umi, this floor is spinning!" Come and get me!" called Sailor Marshmallow, who was standing in the doorway to this little room. Umi was about to comply, when she screamed and hid her eyes.
"There's a ghost behind you! A ghost! What am I doing in a place with ghosts?!" she wailed. Sailor Marshmallow barely had time to react before the ghost knocked her back onto the spinning floor.
"Huh? Why did you warn her then?" Minako asked.
"Silver Spikes!" This time it was Umi's turn to be caught off-guard, and the barrage of spikes knocked her down. She jumped back and threw her "Water Dragon" attack at Sailor Marshmallow. Interestingly enough, a stream of fire shot out of the wall behind the young Senshi, so Umi's power actually saved her instead of hurting her.
"WAAAAAH!!! You Sailor Senshi are too scary!" Umi wailed, swinging her sword around as if to ward off a whole army of Senshi. Since there was only one, that only got her some strange looks from Sailor Marshmallow and Minako.
"Isn't it weird? I get the feeling that this room is supposed to be full of ghosts, but there was only one, and it's gone now," Minako commented.
"Maybe Umi and me scared them all away," joked Sailor Marshmallow.
"Enough of this! You've scared ME for too long!" Umi declared.
"Really? I have? Wow! That's amazing, 'cause I barely know you!"
"Stop mocking me with your fluffy, sweet Senshi name that hides your metallic strength! I just KNOW you're a human representation of Mokona! Sapphire Hurricane!"
"Silver Spikes!" The two attacks mixed together in a swirling mass of spiky metal shards and wet, high winds. Umi, Minako, and Sailor Marshmallow did not survive this, and they all disappeared from the haunted house in a flash of blue light.