"Welcome, everyone! We bring you to another exciting show of..."
"Wheel Deal!" A game show was going on in front of a live audience. The host was a dapper man dressed in a white suit with perfectly combed hair.
"That's right. I'm you handsome host: Nico Swayne! Excited to meet me, I know. As you all know, one lucky player has a chance to win thousands of dollars. That's what this lovely young lady is going to do. Let's give a big hand to...Erza Scarlet!" Erza was the lucky contestant as she walked out to the stage with the audience cheering. Erza got lucky enough to be on the show with her friends in the audience. Happy even held up a sign to cheer for Erza.
"I almost can't believe Erza was able to get on the show." Gray said.
"I just hope she does well." Lucy said.
"She's going to knock it out of the park." Natsu said.
"Let's begin the show!" Nico said. "Erza, as you might know, you will be given a phrase on the board. You have to guess a letter. You guess the right letter, you instantly get a hundred dollars and get to guess another letter. Guess the wrong letter and you have to spin the wheel. That wheel is tricky. You could get instant cash, get to make a deal with our banker, lose money, or you have to immediately guess the phrase. Nervous?"
"Not even a little." Erza said as she was fully confident.
"Good attitude. Before we begin, I like to introduce a special friend. Please welcome Delia Sparkles!" Nico said. They were expecting someone to walk out on the stage. Instead, pink glittery smoke popped out on the stage with a woman with blonde hair, a small crown, and a sparkling pink outfit came out on the stage.
"Hi, Nico." Delia said.
"Delia Sparkles?!" Lucy said as she was surprised to see her.
"You know her?" Gray questioned.
"She use to work here." Lucy said. "She performed magic tricks until Nico bought the set for this show. I loved her when I was little."
"Delia, we talked about the entrance. You could have messed up my face." Nico said.
"Don't be silly." Delia said as she patted Nico's face.
"I'm just glad there are no hard feelings between us since I bought your stage." Nico said.
"Of course. It's all in the past." Delia said. "I just wish I could stay longer, but I actually have another event to be on. Thank you for at least letting me have this cameo appearance." With that, Delia made her appearance short and just walked out of there.
"At least she didn't hog my spotlight." Nico said. "Now, let's begin Wheel Deal! Erza, start by choosing a letter for the phrase."
"I guess I'll start at the beginning. Is there an A?" Erza asked, but she already got it wrong.
"Ooh. I'm afraid there is no A. That means you have to spin the wheel." Nico said. Erza reached for the wheel in front of her and gave it a good spin until it landed on a section. "Make a Deal! That's where our banker calls in and tries to make a deal with you. Go ahead." He was expecting a call, but nothing happened. He tried checking the equipment, but nothing was happening. "It seems we're having technical difficulties. I'll be right back." Nico stepped off the stage and everyone thought this was rather weird.
"I wonder what's going on." Gray said.
"I wonder if Erza really can win." Lucy said.
"I wonder...what the heck is that?!" Natsu shouted as he pointed up. Everyone looked up and was quite shocked at what they saw. There was someone in a blue suit and black fedora, dressed like a gangster, but his skin was pale white with yellow teeth and long white hair. He was even floating in the air. Whoever he is shrieked and gave the audience a good scare. "I don't think this is part of the show!"
"It's a ghost!" Lucy called as everyone was getting scared. The ghost held out his arms and that was when all the lights were flashing like crazy.
"Get out, see! Get out!" The ghost shouted as he even sounded like a gangster. Everyone was running for their lives and tried getting the heck out of there. The gang stuck around to try and stop that ghost. "Get out! Get out!" He shouted before he disappeared in a puff of smoke.
"I guess my moments of fame are over." Erza said as she regrouped with her friends.
"What kind of ghost was that?" Gray questioned. That was when a chubby business man came running in.
"Excuse me. Did you kids really just saw a ghost?" The man asked.
"Yeah. It was right over our heads!" Natsu said.
"Oh no. Listen to me when I tell you that you did not see the ghost of Gangster Morris Ren." The man said as he tried putting that in there heads.
"Who, and who are you?" Lucy questioned.
"My name Eli Lester. I happen to own this place. I'm telling you again that you did not see Morris Ren's ghost. Nico, get in here!" He called out. Nico was close as he came running in.
"Yes, Mr. Lester?" Nico said.
"What happened here? This better not have been one of your crazy stunts." Eli said as he seemed rather angry.
"No, sir. I only went to check with the banker because we were having communication problems." Nico said. "I didn't know Morris' ghost was going to show."
"Who is Morris Ren?!" Erza said as they all wanted answers. Nico was the one who decided to tell them.
"Morris Ren was gangster that owned this place about forty years ago." Nico said. "He was mean, ruthless, and did whatever it took to get whatever he wanted. One day, his luck finally ran out and the police caught him. He ended up dying in prison, but his ghost returned one day and started haunting this place."
"Why?" Lucy questioned.
"There's no reason because there is no ghost!" Eli shouted as he wanted that all in their heads. "I don't want word getting out that there's a ghost here or it could ruin my business."
"Well, something was here." Erza said as she found something. She grabbed a microphone with a gold ring around it.
"Hey! That's my favorite microphone! I thought I lost it before the show started." Nico said as he took it back.
"It was right where the ghost disappeared." Erza said as they all thought that was rather suspicious.
"Enough. One last time, there is no ghost!" Eli shouted and just stormed out of there with Nico following.
"Hmm... Nico's microphone was right where the ghost disappeared, and he stepped away just before the ghost showed up." Lucy said. "Does that seem strange to anyone else?"
"Something weird is going on. Looks like we got another mystery." Gray said. "We need to learn more about this ghost and see what happened to it. Natsu, Lucy, and Happy; you guys search around and see if you can find anything. Erza and I will try to learn more about this Morris Ren."
"There could be something in Eli's office." Erza said. Seeing that they've got another mystery on their hands, they all had a look around to see if they could find anything about this ghost.
...
Natsu and Lucy
Natsu, Lucy, and Happy had a look around the studio to see if they could find where this ghost could have gone. However, they weren't really sure as to what to look for.
"What are we even suppose to find?" Natsu said.
"I guess we'll know when we see it." Lucy said as they just searched around. They looked around until they ended up bumping into a guy with brown hair, a goatee, and a camera in his hands.
"Hey! Watch the moneymaker!" The guy said as he referred to his camera.
"Sorry. We didn't see you." Lucy said.
"Yeah, we're too busy looking for a ghost." Natsu said.
"A ghost?!" The guy said with excitement as he turned on his camera. "This is Derrick Brancin here! There've been reports of a ghost being around the Wheel Deal studio. I'm here with two people and their cat that claims they have actually seen the ghost. Tell us, what do you think?"
"Hold on. Are you some sort of reporter?" Lucy questioned.
"That's right, sweetheart. I tend bring out the truth because people deserve to know the truth." Derrick said. "Now, tell me what you can about the ghost of Morris Ren."
"We don't know." Natsu said.
"Did you hear that folks? This ghost seems to have left these poor victims speechless." Derrick said. "More to be discovered." He ran off and didn't even give Natsu and Lucy a chance to talk. Lucy did think there was something strange about him.
"How did he know it was the ghost of Morris Ren haunting this place?" Lucy said. As Lucy was trying to figure it out, Happy pulled on Natsu's pants to get his attention.
"What is it, Happy?" Natsu asked. Happy pointed to a door and showed it was the dressing room. "The dressing room?"
"Probably an ideal place to hide a ghost costume." Lucy said. Deciding to check it out, the three of them went inside to have a look around. There were outfits and clothes all over the place. "How many different outfits does a guy hosting a game show really need?"
"I think it's safe to say Nico's a big narcissist." Natsu said. Agreeing to that, the three of them went inside and looked around. What none of them knew was that they weren't alone in there.
"I wonder what's in here." Lucy said as she opened up a door and had a look around. What she didn't see was that the ghost was right behind her. He pushed her right inside and shut the door with it locking.
"Lucy? Are you okay?" Natsu asked as he and Happy went to look for her, but that was when the ghost jumped out in front of them.
"Listen here, see. You better just stay out of the way or else, see." Morris Ren said.
"Or else what?" Natsu said, but one should never asked that. The ghost screamed in their faces with the two of them running out of there and the ghost chased after them.
...
Erza and Gray
Erza and Gray were inside Eli's office. They looked around to see if they could learn anything more about Morris Ren back when he was alive.
"Find anything?" Erza questioned.
"I think I just did." Gray said as he stood over Eli's office. "Nothing about Morris, but I think I just found something about Nico. Apparently, his budget was cut a while back. It also says here that he wanted to run this place instead of Eli, but he needed an investor. If he's the ghost, do you think this is enough of a reason for him to do this?"
"Maybe. He does seem to be a little full of himself." Erza said.
"What are you noisy kids doing in my office?!" They both looked to the entrance and saw Eli returned and spotted them.
"Uh... Trying to learn more about the ghost." Erza said.
"I thought I made it clear that I don't want word about this ghost getting out." Eli said.
"Relax. We're just trying to figure out what's going on. Maybe we can help you get rid of whoever is really doing this." Gray said.
"Really? You kids?" Eli said as he found that hard to believe.
"Why not? We solve mysteries all the time." Erza said.
"Well, I got enough going on with this ghost. What I don't need is some noisy kids going around trying to find this ghost." Eli said. "That means it could risk getting out. I can't have people hearing that I'm having some ghost around here."
"Ghost!"
"That's what I'm talking about!" Eli complained.
"That sounded like Natsu!" Gray said as he and Erza hurried out of there knowing Natsu and the others could be in real trouble.
...
Natsu and Happy
Natsu and Happy were running as fast as they could with the ghost chasing after them. The ghost had a few tricks up his sleeve as he threw an actual fireball with it blasting right in front of them and prevented them from running any further.
"Leave while you still can, see." Morris Ren warned them before he disappeared in a puff of smoke again.
"Natsu! Happy!" Gray called as he and Erza were able to find them.
"What happened?" Erza said.
"It was that ghost again!" Natsu said. "He seems really mad that we're investigating. He also keeps saying if we see something."
"That's just gangster talk. Where's Lucy?" Gray asked.
"We were looking around in the dressing room when I heard a noise and lost sight of her. That was right when the ghost showed up and started chasing us." Natsu said.
"Let's have a look around and see if we can find her." Erza said.
...
The Dressing Room
The four of them went back to the dressing room to try and find Lucy. Luckily, they were able to find the closet she was trapped in and was able to get it opened.
"You okay, Lucy?" Gray asked.
"I think so. Just got a little spooked when someone pushed me." Lucy said. "However, when the ghost did push me, he dropped something. Look at this." She pulled out a pin and it had the initials N.S. on it.
"A pin with N.S. on it. I bet that means Nico Swayne." Erza said.
"So far, everything we've found has pointed to Nico." Gray said. "His budget was cut and he did want to be the one in charge of this place while he ran his show, but he needed an investor and that's why he went to Eli. Maybe he's trying to scare Eli away so he can be in control."
"He's also quite full of himself. Still, something about all of this seems off." Lucy said as she tried to find an important piece to the puzzle. Suddenly, they all heard screaming and hurried to investigate.
...
The Stage
The five of them hurried to the stage of the game show. They looked around for the one who caused that screaming, but didn't see anyone.
"Hello? Is someone there?" Lucy said as she looked around.
"Down here!" They all looked near the bleachers and saw there was a trapdoor opened. All of them hurried over to it and saw Derrick was down there.
"Hey! You're that little reporter from before!" Lucy said.
"What are you doing down there?" Natsu questioned.
"I was looking around, trying to find a big scoop for my story, when I found this trapdoor and fell inside." Derrick said. Erza climbed down and had a look around to see that it was a hidden passageway with Derrick filming. "Can you believe this is down here? Secret passages under this game show. What could they be hiding down here?"
"You won't find out." Erza said as she grabbed him and got him to go up the ladder and made sure he left.
"Seems like he'll do anything to get a good story." Lucy said as she was a little suspicious of him.
"That passageway looks like it goes through the whole stage. Maybe even the whole building." Erza said. "Do you think that ghost is how it gets around?"
"Why would a ghost need a passageway?" Gray questioned.
"To get rid of you pesky detectives!" Morris Ren shouted as he appeared behind them and slammed the trapdoor shut. The five of them hurried out of there with the ghost flying after them. He threw a couple more fireballs at them and gave them a good scare. They all kept running until they reached the end of a hall and ended up trapped. "Nowhere to run now, see. You should have just stayed out of this." It looked like they were goners until Erza spotted an emergency hose for fires. She moved quickly and got it open. Happy helped out by turning it on and she blasted the ghost with water.
"Can't handle a little water?" Erza taunted. The ghost managed to get out of the water's way with him disappearing in smoke again.
"Quick thinking, Erza." Gray said as she turned the water off.
"What's going on over here?!" They all saw Nico show up and he was a little wet.
"It was that ghost again." Natsu said. "How come you're wet?"
"I was coming to check out what was going on when a little water splashed against me. Thankfully it wasn't enough to ruin my hair, and my makeup is resistant to water." Nico said.
"Weird. He showed up after the ghost disappeared again." Erza said as Nico was looking pretty guilty.
"Hold on. What's this on the floor?" Lucy said as she spotted something sparkly. She rubbed her finger against it and got a better look at it. When she realized what it was, the whole mystery was coming together. "I think I know what's going on. We just need to catch that ghostly ghastly gangster." Once Lucy had everything figured out, they all returned to the stage with their trap set.
"Are you sure this is going to work?" Gray questioned Lucy.
"It should lure the ghost out. When he does show, Happy can drop the net down on him." Lucy said as she pointed above the stage where Happy was. "Just play along with it."
"Okay." Gray said as he started to act like the host of the show. "We're back to Wheel Deal! We have a new contestant: Natsu Dragneel!" They acted like they were playing the game with Natsu as a new contestant and Gray as the host. "Natsu, I'm sure you know the rules."
"I do and I'm ready to begin." Natsu said.
"Fantastic. Care to take a shot at a letter?" Gray asked.
"I already know the phrase. The ghost of Morris Ren is..." Natsu said, but that was all he got to say before the ghost showed himself and was stepping right into the trap. "Now, Happy!" However, the ghost saw Happy and the net when Happy dropped it down. The ghost launched a fireball with it burning right through the net. It wasn't looking good for them.
"Now!" Lucy called backstage. Erza was back there and flipped a switch. When that happened, the ghost was pulled straight to the ground and ended up trapped on it.
"What is all the ruckus about?!" Eli said as he, Nico, and Derrick came walking in.
"We're about to show that Nico is... Wait. Nico is here? He's not the ghost?" Natsu said.
"He isn't." Lucy said as she walked over to the ghost. "Isn't that right, Delia Sparkles?!" She claimed and ripped the mask off to show it really was her.
"Delia?!" Everyone said as they were surprised to see it was her.
"How did you know it was me? I was careful and clever." Delia said.
"You were clever, a little too clever, but not careful." Lucy said.
"I thought Nico was the ghost." Natsu said as he was rather confused.
"That's only what Delia wanted us to think." Gray said as he figured it out. "The clues did point to Nico, but they were a little too easy to find. Delia left those clues out because she wanted everyone to think Nico was the ghost. She never really did forgive him for stealing her show."
"But she did make a mistake." Lucy said. "When the ghost vanished after our last encounter, she left some glitter. The same kind of glitter she used in her cameo appearance and from her outfit. That's when I realized that all the tricks the ghost did had to have been her magic tricks."
"Like magnets in her shoes with the floor giving off a charge that repels them." Gray said. "That's how the ghost was able to fly."
"The whole building is probably rigged to help with her magic stunts." Erza said as they could all see how she did it.
"If it weren't for you meddling kids and your cat, I would have had revenge on Nico for taking my show." Delia said as security came in and took her away.
"Good thing that ghost was caught. I was getting worried lines on my beautiful face." Nico said.
...
A Restaurant
After another mystery solved, the gang decided to get some food. A story was already made over what happened at the game show thanks to Derrick.
"Listen to this. Four mystery solvers and their cat managed to crack the case of the faux ghost of Morris Ren." Gray read. "Looks like Derrick got his story."
"Well, at least it's over. Eli and Nico said I could get another shot at the game show if I wanted." Erza said.
"It's still too bad to what happened to Delia." Lucy said. "She was such a great magician. Too bad she used her magic tricks to commit crimes."
"Hey, Happy wants to try some magic himself." Natsu said. They all looked to see what Happy was doing. Happy started sipping at Natsu's soda, but it wasn't just his. All the drinks started to drain away until there was nothing left. They were all left dumbfounded from that.
"How did Happy do that?" Lucy questioned.
"I think that's a mystery even we can't solve." Gray said. With a burp and a giggle, Happy took satisfaction in his trick. Not all tricks can be revealed.
