The Case of the Classic Creeps
The sun had set and it was getting dark as Tech was in the Library alone close to closing time looking for a book about R. Necros but wasn't having any luck as Necros was quite a mysterious person.
"Hmmm. I haven't been able to find any information on our mysterious Mr. Necros." Tech says with a little disappointment. As he was looking, a mysterious shadowy tattered robed figure with a crown approached Tech from behind and knocked him out. The figure quickly bound Tech up, placed him in a van and drove off.
Ace and Lexi were at the clothing store looking for some new clothes. It was close to closing time and they were the only ones looking.
"Anything good, Lex?" Ace asks.
"No luck." Lexi responds.
"We got about 20 minutes left. Let's take one more quick look." Ace says and he walks to the other side of the store.
"Sure thing." Lexi responds.
Before Lexi moves, the same mysterious figure approaches her from behind and knocks her out. It takes her and hides her in the dressing rooms. Ace comes back.
"Lexi?" Ace calls out. "Where are ya?"
Then the figure approaches Ace and knocks him out too. It bounds Ace and Lexi up and places them in the same van and drives off.
Duck and Slam were at a diner finishing up a meal. They were the last patrons and had just paid the check.
"I'll wait outside." Duck says.
"Sure. Be right there." Slam says.
As Duck waits outside and as Slam gets up, the mysterious figure from before approaches Slam from behind and knocks him out. It drags him to the kitchen. Duck comes back in.
"Hey, Slam, what's taking ya?" Duck calls out. After noticing Slam is gone, he gets worried. "Slam?" He looks all over the diner but can't find him. "Waiter, have you seen my friend?" He gets no reply and then the figure approaches Duck from behind and knocks him out.
The figure bounds up Duck and Slam and places them in the same van and drives off.
Rev and Rip were at the arcade. They had spent quite some time at the Big Game Hunter and Rail Shooter games. Then they finish and leave. As they walked down the sidewalk lit by the street lamps they tried calling the others but got no answer.
"No one's answering." Rev says.
"Same here. No one." Rip says.
Then the brothers went into an alleyway and noticed a large moving van at the end. They approached it and noticed their van was in it from a light on a nearby wall.
"Hey, that's our van!" Rip says.
"How'd it get in there?" Rev asks.
The brothers enter the moving van and then the large door suddenly closes and locks them in.
"What the?" Rev says and pulls out his flashlight.
"What gives?" Rip says with anger.
Then a chilling roar behind them causes them to turn around and the last thing they see is a terrifying ghoulish monster that is revealed to be the figure from before and are immediately knocked out. The monster drives the moving van off with all the Loonatics in the back to it's lair.
A few hours later, Rev and Rip wake up bound and gagged together inside a sack. They struggle to get loose, but the ropes are tight. Then the brothers use their beaks to puncture the sack and rip it open and cut their binds. When they stand up, they realize that they are in some sort of a castle dungeon with large chains dangling from above.
"You ok, Rip?" Rev asks.
"Yeah." Rip says. "You?"
"Alright." Rev says.
"Where are we?" Rip asks.
"It looks like some sort of dungeon." Rev says. "We must be in a castle or something."
"What was that thing?" Rip asks.
"Whatever it was, it sure was creepy." Rev says. "It looked like some sort of a ghoul king."
"That roar it gave was enough to give me a total fright." Rip says with a shiver.
"Same here." Rev says. "Well, we need to get out of here and find the others."
"I just hope they're alright." Rip says.
"I'm sure they are." Rev says.
The brothers head up a walkway that goes all the way up the tall wall by the dimensions until it reaches a large door in the wall. The brothers go through and enter what looks like a large maze lit up by torches of blue flame.
"Another maze? Oh great." Rev moans.
The brothers go one way and find something in the corner of a dead end.
"Hey, look." Rip says.
"That's the mask that belonged to the Snow Ghost!" Rev says.
As they pick it up, the wall opposite them opens up with a loud squeal, revealing a pile of bones, giving the brothers a jolt.
"The sooner we get out of here, the better." Rip says.
The brothers head back and try another path. Then they see something that makes them scream.
"WHAT THE HECK IS THAT?!" Rev screams.
"A ZOMBIE!" Rip screams.
The zombie gives a ghoulish moan but does not attack them and walks in circles from one end of a path to the other. The brothers walk past the zombie and go down another path. After a few turns, they come upon a door. They go through and enter what looks like a torture chamber. There are numerous instruments of torture like an iron maiden, bone breaker, whips, and a large pit in the center of the room with a green glow.
"Wow." Rip breathes. "This looks like a torture chamber."
"Never seen one before." Rev says.
The brothers descend the steps that go to opposite ends of the walls, look around the chamber and pick up a hook on the floor and put it in their bag. Then they head back into the maze and after a few more turns, they reach another large door that leads to a magnificent ballroom.
"Wow." Rev breathes.
"Now this is eloquent." Rip says.
The brothers go up a dual staircase behind them, but the doorway at top is blocked by a massive spider web. They go back down and try the large dual copper doors and enter a small area with dual stone doors just in front. They open the doors and notice that a large gate now blocks them from leaving. Looking through the gaps in the gate, they notice that they are at the front door of the castle and a large bridge over a large lake connects the castle with the road.
"Can't get out this way yet." Rev says.
"Talk about being trapped." Rip says.
They go back into the ballroom. They notice a music box on a nearby table in the corner and put it in their bag. Then they go through another door designed like a massive spider web with multiple colors of blue, green and yellow. They find themselves in a yard with a few more zombies and they go to what looks like a small cemetery and pick up a hammer between two plots and put it in the bag. Then they head down the yard.
"Hey, look at this." Rev says.
They notice a large fat blue fish on a board on the side of a small shed.
"Man that's a big fish." Rip says.
They pick it up and put it in the bag. They then come upon a large building and try the door but it's locked. They go back into the castle and notice something next to a pillar. It was another fish, but long and green.
"Whoa, this fish is huge." Rev muses.
They pick it up and put it in the bag. Then they go through a smaller pair of wooden dual doors. On the other side are two long rows of animal heads that stretch down a long hallway. As they enter, the heads suddenly come to life and lower and raise at the same time, attempting to bite at the brothers. As they dodge the heads they notice another fish on a board, but it's tiny with white and blue. They put it in the bag and reach the end of the hallway that leads to a fireplace.
"What now?" Rip asks.
"There's got to be something here..." Rev thinks.
They look at the wall and notice a few hooks in place to resemble a pattern. In one place, another fish is in place. A medium sized orange one. The other three spaces are empty.
"Hmmm. This looks like a pattern puzzle." Rev says.
"I see." Rip says. He takes out the other three fishes from the bag. "If we put these in the right order, something might happen."
The brothers put the tiny fish first, then the fat one after the medium and finally the long green one. A CLANG is heard and the fireplace opens to reveal a doorway.
"That did the trick!" Rev says.
"Let's go see." Rip says.
They enter into what looks like another maze, but it has a creepy feeling to it. Webs everywhere and lit by torches with a pale white glow.
"Whoa, this place is giving me the creeps." Rip says
"Same here." Rev says.
As they start moving up, they hear footsteps approaching and they duck behind the wall of another path. The source of the footsteps reveals itself to be the monster from before.
"Uh-oh." The brothers whisper in fright. "Not him again."
The ghoul king has a loft dagger in his hand and he has a menacing voice.
"No one will find that girl in here." The ghoul king rasps and he walks down another path.
"Lexi!" Rev deduces.
"She must be somewhere in this maze!" Rip agrees.
"Well, let's hope we don't run into the king." Rev hopes
As they evaded the king, the brothers then heard some rattling like a chain. They follow the rattle and they find Lexi bound in a chain and gagged at the end of a pathway. They free her.
"You alright, Lexi?" Rev asks.
"A lot better, thanks." Lexi says. "Glad to see you two are alright too."
"Woke up tied together in a sack." Rip says. "Didn't stop us."
The brothers take the chain and put it in the bag.
"Let's get out of here." Rev says
As the trio head back through the maze, they take a wrong turn and go into a large dead end and notice another mask in the corner.
"The Witch Doctor's mask!" Lexi says.
"We also found the Snow Ghost's mask in another maze." Rip says.
They pick up the mask and put it in the bag and proceed to the maze entrance. Then they notice the ghoul king is blocking the entrance.
"Not good." Rip said. "He's blocking the door."
"I'll draw him off." Lexi says.
"Lexi?" Rev asks with concern.
"Don't worry about me." Lexi reassures. "He won't catch me. Look for the others."
The brothers hide behind one pathway's wall while Lexi tosses a stone that hits the ghoul king in the head. He roars and chases after Lexi who lures him out of the maze. The brothers come out and notice something on the floor.
"Look at this." Rev says. He picks up an iron key with a skull base. "He must of dropped this."
"It looks rusty. Like it's been outside." Rip says.
"Maybe for that large shed outside!" Rev says.
The brothers head out of the maze, through the hallway and outside into the yard and reach the shed. They try the key and it opens the door. As soon as they enter, loud knocking rings out.
"What's that?" Rip asks.
They follow the knocking throughout the shed and it leads them to the other end and they notice a large coffin against the wall.
"It's coming from that coffin." Rev says
They try opening it, but realize it's nailed shut. They take out the hammer they found earlier and pry the nails out. The coffin cover falls off and inside is Ace and Tech tied together and gagged.
"Ace! Tech!" Rev and Rip say with joy. They free Ace and Tech.
"Thanks, guys." Tech says.
"We thought we were goners." Ace says. "Did you find any of the others?"
"We found Lexi, but the ghoul king chased her away." Rev says.
"Ghoul King?" Tech asks.
Rev and Rip tell them everything.
"Alright." Ace says tensely. "We need to find the others and solve this mystery. You three go look for Slam and Duck. I'll go look for Lexi. In the meantime, see if you can find more clues and trap pieces."
"No problem." Rip says.
"Oh, and take this." Ace hands them a bug sprayer. "It was in this coffin along with some ladder rungs." With that, Ace heads out.
"Can't believe that this ghoul king nabbed all of us on it's own." Tech says.
"He's a crafty one I'll give him that." Rev says.
As the trio head back to the door, they notice a large net in a box. They take it and put it in the bag.
The trio head back to the castle. They go up the staircase and use the bug spray on the giant web. The spray is used up and the web disintegrates. They head up the stairs and enter a large hallway with many open archways on both sides of the hall. Rip goes in one and comes out another one further down. Rev and Tech try one each and the same happens to them.
"Trick doorways." Tech deduces.
They try one of the doors at the end of the hallway, but it's locked. They try the other one and it's open. Inside is a room filled with spinning gears. They search the room and find a ladder with missing rungs, making it unable to climb.
"These rungs should fix it." Rip says. He puts the rungs in and the ladder is climbable.
The trio head up onto a second level with gears and find a set of Tibetan chimes next to the ladder hole. They find another ladder and head up to the third level with gears.
"This castle sure uses a lot of gears." Rip says.
They walk through the room and notice something in the corner.
"It's the Black Knight's helmet!" Tech says.
"Wow. That's all three." Rev says.
They then find a third ladder that takes them to the final level with ceiling. The wheels have gotten larger and take up some of the pathways. After getting past the wheels, they find Slam and Duck tied up and gagged on the ground.
"Slam! Duck!" The trio says and free the two.
"Glad you guys found us." Slam says. "I was going nuts with all the gears moving."
"Oh, you're not the only one, Slam." Duck says.
"Ace went to find Lexi. Now we need to find a way out of this castle." Tech says.
"You guys look for a way out." Slam says. "Duck and I will look for Ace and Lexi."
"Alright." Rev says. "There's a ballroom near the main gate. We'll meet up there."
"You got it." Duck says and he and Slam head off.
The trio does a quick look around the final level and find a gear on a walkway in the middle of the room.
"Wonder where this goes?" Rip asks.
"Let's hold onto it." Tech says. "We might find out later." They put the gear in the bag and head back down the ladders to the main floor.
As they go back into the hallway, a familiar roar from the other side quickly got their attention. The ghoul king was back! He was running towards them with his dagger.
"Not him again!" Rip says.
"What now?!" Tech says.
"The doors! Quick!" Rev says.
The trio run into one door and the ghoul king follows. They go through door after door. The trio chased by the ghoul king, the ghoul king chased by the trio, Rip chased by the ghoul king followed by Rev and Tech, Rev chasing the ghoul king, Tech chased by the ghoul king, then the trio chased by the ghoul king. Finally, they all get their own door and the ghoul king slips into one with a crash and vanishes with a roar. The trio appear next to it.
"I think we lost him." Rev says.
They go in a wooden door at the entrance and enter a bedroom with a large red bed with green tentacles protruding out of it on the other side. They approach and the bed comes to life with a menacing roar, flapping it's tentacles around.
"What now?" Rip asks.
"Let's try this." Rev says. He pulls out the music box and plays it.
The music box gives out a beautiful tune like a melody and the bed gives a squeak and it falls asleep and snores.
"Thank goodness." Rev says.
They see something on the nightstand in the corner next to the bed and pick it up. It was a painting, a very familiar one.
"Hey, isn't this painting from the museum?" Rip asks.
"By George, it is." Tech says.
"Well that's one painting going back to it's proper place." Rev says and puts it in the bag.
They put the music box on the nightstand and leave it running and head through a door next to the bed and enter what looks like a tower with lots of moving gears. They move around the tower and find a full oil can on the ground. Then they go in the spire where all the gears are and notice one's not moving.
"Hmm. This mechanism seems to be missing a gear." Tech deduces. " It seems this is what opens the main gate of the castle. This gear we found should do the trick."
Tech puts the gear they found in the gear tower in the spot and it works. They hear a gate open and realize that it's the gate Rev and Rip found closed earlier.
As the group head back through the room, Tech notices a rolled up newspaper next to the bed. As he picks it up, the music box stops and the bed wakes up. Tech manages to get out of range just in time. They go back to the ballroom and go through the large copper doors again and notice the gate that was closed is now open. The dash across the bridge and find their van on the other side.
"Our van!" Rip cheers.
"It's still in one piece." Tech says.
"Thank goodness." Rev says.
They look around and find the keys right under the van. Then they find another key with a skull insignia but it's gold.
"This looks like the rusty iron key the ghoul king dropped before." Rev says.
"Maybe it's for that locked door in that large hallway." Rip suggests.
"It could very well be." Tech agrees. "Let's head back."
They go back across the bridge and into the castle and find the other Loonatics in the ballroom.
"Hey guys!" Lexi says.
"Hey. Glad to see we're all back together now." Rev says.
"Couldn't have said it better." Ace says.
"We just found the van." Rip says. "It's on the other side of the bridge through that door."
"Excellent!" Ace says. "Now we just need to trap that ghoul king and solve this mystery. Did you guys find anything?"
"Oh, we sure did." Rev says.
The brothers unload the bags with all the items they found. Ace puts the chain, hook, net, and oil can in his for the trap. Lexi takes all the others in her bag as clues.
"This is great. We're gonna need some time to think on what to do next." Ace says.
"Well, we were gonna go try this key on a locked door." Tech says. "Let's go together this time."
"Sure thing." Ace says.
The reunited Loonatics head to the locked door at the end of the large hallway. Tech tries the key and it unlocks the door. They enter into a large computer room.
"Wow." Tech breathes. "This room had an upgrade."
"Let's look around, Loonatics." Ace says.
They look around checking the equipment. Then Tech finds a computer tape lying next to the door at other end of the room.
"Hmmm. This must have all sorts of information." Tech says.
Then he hears buttons being pressed in the doorway and he calls the others to him. They peek in the door and spot the ghoul king in a large computer control room with large monitors.
"Uh-oh." Duck says.
"So that's what he looks like." Slam says.
"I don't think he saw us." Ace says. "Let's go."
The Loonatics retreat back to the ballroom.
"Well, now that we know where he'll be for now, I've come up with a plan to trap our mysterious host. Let's all meet in the torture chamber. That's where we'll set up the trap." Ace says.
The Loonatics head to the torture chamber thanks to Rev and Rip's directions for they had memorized the route. Ace and Lexi set the chain and hook over the large pit. Rev and Rip set the net over the opening and connect it's ends to the hook. After setting the trap, the team gathers.
"Let's go over the plan one more time, Ace." Lexi says.
"Alright." Ace says. "Tech, you, Rev and Rip will lead the ghoul king through the castle and into this torture chamber."
"Being careful not to step into the oil that I will place down in front of the door." Duck says.
"When the ghoul king steps into the oil, he'll slip off the stair case and into this pit." Slam says.
"Where Tech, Rev and I placed the net." Rip says.
"After that, we hoist him up and solve the mystery." Rev concluded.
"Well, it looks like we are all set." Tech says.
"Alright, Loonatics." Ace says. "Let's give the ghoul king a real scare."
"Hurry back, you guys." Slam says.
"And be careful." Lexi cautions.
"Don't worry. We'll be alright." Rev assures.
The trio head back through the maze, back to the ballroom, to the hallway and into the computer room. They approach the doorway to the monitor room and see that the ghoul king is still in the seat.
"Let's do it." Rip says.
The trio step into the doorway and Rip gives a loud whistle. The ghoul king turns around, gives an angry roar and charges towards them.
"Get a head start!" Rev screams.
The trio run back through the computer room and into the hallway. They do the trick doors again and this time, the ghoul king does not get lost. They run into the ballroom and back into the maze. With the ghoul king in hot pursuit, the trio run back to the torture chamber and enter the door.
"Here he comes!" Rip says as they run down the stairs.
Duck dumps the oil in front of the door. The ghoul king runs into the oil, slips and falls off the staircase and into the net over the pit. The weight of the fall causes the chain to drop a couple of feet into the pit. Ace and Lexi raise the hook and net. The ghoul king is tangled in the net with his head sticking out exposed. The Loonatics gather around.
"Now let's see who the ghoul king really is." Ace says. He pulls off the mask revealing a middle aged man. "Now it's all starting to make sense. This is Rex Necros."
"As in R. Necros?" Duck asks.
"Of course." Lexi says. "The newspaper that Tech found had an article on a Rex Necros, International Criminal Mastermind. Interpol has been after him for years."
"Correct." Tech adds. "The paintings, the jewels, the masks and all of those invoices were all a part of Rex's criminal web."
"After we took down all of his major operations, he decided to take us out himself." Rev says.
"He came close, but in the end he failed." Slam says.
"Looks like a pretty clever plan, Rex." Rip says.
"It was." Rex says. "I was so close to getting my operations back up and you ruined it all! I would have gotten away with it if it weren't for you meddling kids!"
Soon after, the police arrive with a heavily armored transport for transporting the most dangerous criminals. They take Rex away with several patrol guards guarding the transport. A few days later, the Loonatics are invited to Interpol Headquarters for a celebratory dinner for their capture of one of the most dangerous criminal masterminds on the planet and they accept.