The three walked through the forest area of the Mystic Ruins. They had been walking for well over an hour. Tails was leading the way, looking more at the map then the road, but occasionally looking up to make sure they were still on the correct path. Luigi was walking next to Cosmo, but behind Tails. He was a little bit jumpy as they traversed through the woods. It didn't help that the sun was gone behind some dark clouds, giving a slightly more fearful tone. Cosmo walked alongside Luigi, but was visibly more tired then the fox or the plumber. Her eyes drooped down a bit and her mouth formed a bit of a frown. Her legs were a little sore, but she could still walk. Perhaps all of that running and jumping that Tails and Luigi have been doing all of their lives helped out with that.
"Tails... How long until we get to the mansion?" Cosmo asked in a tired tone.
" I don't know, Cosmo... We've been walking for a while now. We should be there any minute..." Tails responded.
Luigi looked up at the dark clouds in the sky, "It's getting pretty dark. M-m-maybe we should just head back home now, No?"
Tails parted his eyes from the map and looked at the sky. It was getting pretty dark. "Yeah, you're probably right, who knows how long it's been..."
"It feels like it's been hours." Cosmo exaggerated.
"Yeah..." Luigi said, not particularly hearing what Cosmo said, just more so creeped out by the setting of the jungle. Just then, Thunder boomed loudly though the jungle, accompanied by the flash of lightning. The three jumped in surprise as the thunder and lightning came together, however, Luigi was clearly the most frightened of them.
"Wah!" Luigi yelped as he jumped up into Cosmo's arms in fear. "Lu...i...gi... You're... too heavy..." She said as she struggled to stand while holding the 19-year-old man in her arms. "Sorry." Luigi apologized as he attempted to get down. Unfortunately, Cosmo gave out and fell on the ground with Luigi.
Tails looked down at his friends who fell and offered his hands to both of them. They both accepted and Tails pulled them up on their feet. "You okay?" He asked them.
"Mmhm..." Cosmo nodded.
"Yeah, I'm okay." Luigi answered.
"Well, look, we should probably head back now. We can check out the mansion some other time, when it's sunny, or something..." Tails suggested.
"Yeah, T-That's probably a good idea..." Luigi said, stuttering.
Cosmo was about to say something when something caught her eye. "Wait, what's that?" She asked pointing sightly to her right.
Tails and Luigi looked at her and then looked at where she was pointing to. Over in the distance, a few bright yellow lights shown through the jungle.
"I don't know." Luigi answered her.
"Well, let's go check it out. It can't hurt, right?" Tails answered them both. He ran along the pathway towards the light, "Come on!"
Luigi and Cosmo looked at each other, slightly worried. After they exchanged looks, they ran along after Tails towards the lights.
Luigi and Cosmo ran up the path way to Tails.
"Tails... *Pant* Pant* Wait up!" Cosmo said, running to him.
Tails was standing at the end of the pathway, looking upwards as Cosmo and Luigi caught up to him. The two greenly dressed figures panted when they caught up to him, bending their knees and panting heavily. Luigi took a look up and jumped up in the air as he yelped out, "Wah!"
Cosmo looked at him and then looked at what he saw and what Tails was staring at.
Where the pathway ended was a very large building, with a dark blue roof, and pale blue walls on the outside. The grass in front of it seemed to be pale, and almost dead. It had a few windows along the walls of the place, however, the roof had four, fairly large windows, large enough that one could see a full grown person through if they were standing behind it. The trees in the yard were leafless and most likely dead. There appeared to be two black crows in the tree, looking down on them with bright red eyes.
"This must be the place." Tails said bluntly.
Luigi gulped, "Y-y-yeah..."
Tails looked at Luigi and smiled, "Aw, come on Luigi. It's just a mansion. It's not gonna hurt you."
Cosmo looked questionably at the house and responded, "But, why does it look so old? In the letter, Professor Pickle said that it was built recently, right?"
Tails looked at the letter that he brought with him and re-read through it, "Actually, it doesn't say when it was built. only that it was built on the wrong continent."
"Still don't know how you can do that." Luigi said.
"That's weird." Cosmo said.
"Yeah..." Tails said, looking back up at the mansion. He took a couple of steps forward towards the mansion, followed by Cosmo and a very scared Luigi.
Up in the window of the mansion were two beady red eyes, looking down upon the three. It's appearance was cloaked by the darkness of the mansion. Eveen it's shape couldn't be told. Or perhaps there was no shape on it at all.
They passed the old, dead trees while the crows looked upon them. Only Luigi took notice of this, however. He stopped in his tracks to look at the dark birds, who in turn looked upon him. Suddenly, without warning, one of the crows cawed at him very loudly, scaring Luigi in the process, who ran back up to Tails and Cosmo.
Tails walked up the stairs and onto the porch of the large house. Cosmo looked at Luigi who had just caught up to them after being scared by the crows. Tails knocked on the door loudly, causing Luigi to once again be startled."Hello?"
"Tails, no one's here, no one's gonna answer." Cosmo told him.
"Oh, right. Sorry." Tails reached for the doorknob and twisted it. He then pushed the door open and took a look inside it. Inside the mansion was a blanket of Darkness. Tails could barely see anything. But he could see. It's just that it was really hard to see details.
Tails opened the door further and walked into the mansion. Cosmo and Luigi followed, Luigi being visibly more frightened then the other two, "Th-this is C-c-creepy..."
"Yeah..." Tails said looking around. The first room wasn't all that interesting. There was a door on each wall of the room, with a few tables and benches in it. Tails walked up to the door on the other side of the room and opened it. He walked inside, followed closely by Cosmo and followed even closer by Luigi. Tails looked around the newer dark room. It was certainly larger then the previous room, but he couldn't tell to much about what was around.
"Tails... this place is creeping me out..." Cosmo said in a scared tone.
"It's okay, Cosmo. It's not like the place is haunted or anything. Now come on and help us look for a light switch or something..." Tails said.
Cosmo looked down, "Yeah, you're right, but... still." Suddenly, she felt a hand on her shoulder. She smiled at this, obviously Tails was comforting her. She patted the hand on her shoulder and walked through the room, allowing for the hand and her shoulder to be separated. While the three looked around the room for a light switch Cosmo once again felt Tails' hand on her shoulder.
"Tails... I'm feeling fine now, you can take your hand off of my shoulder." She said.
Tails' face made a confused look, not that anyone could tell with the only visible thing in the room being the whites of his eyes, "... My hands not on your shoulder, Cosmo"
"It isn't?" Cosmo asked with her eyes slightly widening.
"No..."
"... Oh, okay then. Luigi, everything's gonna be alright. You can take your hand off of my shoulder now." Cosmo said rolling her eyes.
"Th-th-that's not-a m-m-me either." Luigi replied.
"I-it's not?" Cosmo's eyes widened, "Th-then who-" Cosmo could not finish her question as something grabbed her leg and yanked it upwards, causing her to fall down to the floor. As she screamed in surprised, whatever held her by the ankle threw her against a wall, with a very loud shattering noise being heard in her direction.
Luigi screamed at the top of his lungs upon hearing the shatter.
"Cosmo!?" Tails shouted in surprise.
"Ow..." Cosmo said as she tried to get back to her feet. Tails could see her eyes in the darkness. They had tears coming out of them, most likely from the pain that she just had inflicted on her. The next thing she felt was the same hand that grabbed her before. Only this time, there was another. They grabbed both of her ankles and started to pull on her. Cosmo started to breath heavily as she was being dragged. Whatever had her by the ankles quickened and pulled her incredibly quickly across the floor.
"Tails!" She screamed as whatever had her moved away from the group. Cosmo"! Tails screamed back.
Her eyes, the only thing visible on her, seemed to shrink. She was being dragged farther and farther away from Tails and Luigi. Tails, deciding to act quickly to protect the girl that he loved, ran after her. He saw her eyes shrink as he ran, until he bumped into something flat and hard. He fell to the ground as something flat, but nowhere near as hard fell on top of him.
"Ow..." Tails moaned as he pushed off whatever fell on him. It seemed to break into a few pieces as he got it off of him. "Ow... my head..." Tails muttered to himself as he held his head with his hand.
"Tails!" Luigi yelled out as he ran over to him, or rather his eye whites, as that was all that could be seen of the little fox. However, he felt something rush into his body from the front and it pushed him back against a wall. Luigi's body then was brought into the air and was flung around like a rag doll, until whatever strange invisible force that had him let go and he flew into another wall, but this time, falling unconscious upon contact.
"Luigi..." Tails said as he tried to walk over to the unconscious plumber. He was quite unsuccessful as Luigi's eyes were not open to indicate where he was in the darkness. Tails stopped dead in his tracks when he heard a dark, echoey laughter within the room., "Gehehehehehe..."
"H-hello?" Tails said in a scared tone, "Wh-who's there? Tails looked around the dark room he was in, in hopes to find the being who emitted the mysterious laughter. He suddenly felt a very large chill upon his entire body, which all of his muscles tense up in response.
Suddenly, giant red eyes appeared right in front of Tails' face, who appropriately screamed in response.
He tried to back away from the big red eyes, but tripped over something. Most likely Luigi. Tails looked where the large red eyes were and saw that they were gone.
His entire body was so cold that it started to feel numb. Unfortunately, he couldn't get up, as he felt something-with what little feeling he had left, anyways-keeping him down on the ground. As if something was trying to pull him through the ground. After a few seconds of this feeling, Tails sprang up into the air ad floated there for a second until whatever invisible force that had him flung him into another wall. He fell to the ground, but unlike Luigi, conscious. But just barely.
He looked up at the cold black darkness as the set of red eyes slowly faded in over the blackness of the mansion. "Gen..." Said a voice that was incredibly dark and evil sounding. Almost murderous.
Tails' eyes drooped as he looked upon the eyes. He was certain that he would die. Weather he would be killed by this invisible monster, or if the cold got to him, he wasn't sure. All he did know is that this was it. The next thing he saw was a bright light, which he could only assume was that oh, so famous light at the end of the tunnel into heaven. Though, if this was the gateway to heaven, then Jesus certainly didn't look like what Tails had expected, what with his big red eyes, purple skin, spiky ears, large mouth, and heart floating in the center of Him.
The light faded, but the being that Tails had saw before was now glowing in the dark. The strange creature ran all around the room, with it's quills on it's back seeming to be pulled against it. Almost as if it were being pulled by some sort of wind and trying to resist it. The creature seemed to pant as it tried to float away, "Geh! Geh! Geh! Geh!" Strangely, the creature had held out it's hand and a small, black sphere of energy was produced in it. The purple creature fired the orb of energy behind itself and a small yelp of pain was heard. It laughed as it oddly, enough flew through a wall.
"Oof... Wow that Gengous Garatious really packed a whollop." Tails looked around the room to see where that voice came from, but within the dark he could not see anything. He tried to talk, but oddly enough, he could not as his voice seemed to hurt for some reason. The strange owner of the voice walked over to the poor unconscious plumber, not that Tails could see him do so as-alright you know what, you should know that it's dark by now, I'm not say it anymore.
"My, my, Luigi? Oh, it is you! How wonderful! It just so happens that I could use your... Oh, wait, you're unconscious aren't you? Bah, oh well. You'll wake up eventually, I'll just take you back to the... Say, who's this young feller?"
Tails felt the breaths of someone upon his face. However, his vision grew blurry as he fell to unconsciousness.
"My, my, my. It seems this fellow took a beating too. Oh, well, I'll just get him back to the..." Tails could not hear the voice finish it's sentence as he fell to unconsciousness.
Meanwhile, back in the Mystic Ruin...
"Waluigi! Away!" Waluigi yelled as he ran out of the tunnel that the train normally went through, being chased by Parrakarry.
"Get back here, you!" The paratroopa yelled at the top of his lungs in anger.
Waluigi ran to the end of the train tracks. He almost ran right off them, too, but he caught himself. Waluigi sighed in relief upon not falling. "Whew, that was-a close..."
"Waluigi!" Yelled Parakarry from behind Waluigi. The man in purple turned to look at the flying mailkoopa. "You give me back that letter, right now!"
Waluigi looked behind himself and then back at Parakarry. "You'll Never take Waluigi alive!" He shouted. He then saluted the parakoopa and then jumped off of the rail tracks and into the ocean below.
"Whoa!" Parakarry shouted as he looked at Waluigi fall.
Waluigi in fact, while he fell, did tricks in the air. Wa-Lu-I-Gi! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! And now! Dive position!" Waluigi reached his hands downward and straitened his body.
Unfortunately, he hit a very jagged rock at the bottom, and not the water.
Parakarry winced upon seeing this. "Ooh... that's gotta hurt." He said to himself.
Waluigi fell into the water below, clearly not swimming back to the surface.
"... There's no way he survived that.." Parakarry said. He flew away from the Mystic Ruins, now that the letter was gone with Waluigi. Even if he could get it back, it would be ruined by the salty water of the sea.
But below the train station, was a small wooden dock that was attached to the very large wooden structure that helped people get off of the train. A gloved hand splashed up and out of the water, gripping the dock. Very slowly, a man in purple clothes came up out of the water. He had a very large bump on his head that actually kept his hat above his head, instead of on his head.
"Waluigi wants to wish you a happy birthday, Flora. As a present, a plug to Zone Cops... Plug, plug, plug..." Waluigi's words turned to gurgles as he sank underneath the sea, once more.
Cosmo slowly awoke. "What happened?" She thought to herself, "How did I get here?..." She noticed she was on the floor. On the floor of a very dark room. Her eyes widened when she remembered what happened.
"Tails! Luigi!" She screamed as she sprang up from the floor. She looked around. There was nothing but darkness. just like before. She slowly got to her feet and started to walk around. "Um... h-hello? Us... is anyone there?"
Suddenly, Cosmo could hear faint music playing. Cosmo listened to the song playing and figured out that there were lyrics, but the sound of the music was so distorted and weird that it was hard to tell what was they were saying.
"Wh-what's that? Who's there?" Cosmo said, looking around with a very scared look. "T-T-Tails... T-Tails, where are you..." She silently pleaded. She looked behind herself and saw something. Two beady red eyes, looking upon her. The form of the being that the eyes belonged to wasn't able to be seen. Tears started to flow out of Cosmo's eyes. She was incredibly scared. She began to breath heavily.
She was about to scream bloody murder, until she felt something touch her chest. Something sharp and pointy had touched her chest. Her eyes widened to their maximum, as they now looked upon the red eyes, which were now right up in her face. The red eyes jerked away from her, as well as the hand on her chest. Cosmo however, could not keep her balance and fell to the ground. However, no yelp was heard, no scream was shouted, no word was uttered. Instead, Cosmo just stayed silent as her face remained the same fear-filled, but somehow blank expression. The creature with deadly red eyes looked down on her. Lightning flashed briefly, and the only thing that could for certain be seen was a very sharp set of claws on one hand, with the entire hand being covered in some sort of red liquid. There were two things that Cosmo heard before she ell. The first was the maniacal laughter of the red eyed being that had a bloody claw. The second thing were the lyrics to the creepy song in the background, which she could now make out, somehow.
"CaN yOu fEeL ThE SuNsHiNe? dOeS iT bRigHTeN uP YouR dAy? dOn'T YoU FeEl ThAt sOmEtImeS YOu JusT nEEd tO rUn AwAy?
rEaCh oUt foR tHe sUnShInE. fOrGeT AbOUt thE raIn. jUsT tHINk ABout THe gOOd TiMes, AnD TheY wiLl CoMe bAcK A G A i N ..."