Out at a large house that had a large and extravagant garden, something wicked moved through the plants. That something was actually a skunk...a skunk monster. It stood at two feet with claws and had a snarling face. It looked around as it could hear the roar of thunder and knew that something else was coming. That something was the gang that drove through the road.
"Why are we going here again?" Natsu asked.
"Some people have said that there've been reports of strange activity happening at the old Willow's House." Erza said. "Sounds interesting for us to check out."
"Does anyone live up there?" Gray asked.
"I heard the place has been sold for a while, but someone by the name of Professor Pickles bought the place." Erza said.
"I wonder why no one bought it before. It would be real cool to live near that mountain." Lucy said as she pointed towards one that's about a half-mile away. "I heard that there's an old mine that runs through that mountain, but they never really found any gold. I still think it would be cool to leave near something like that."
"Speaking of which, it looks like we got a nasty sky." Natsu said as he could see the dark clouds. As thunder roared through the sky, Happy got spooked and jumped right on Natsu's head. "Ow! Why does this always happen to me?!"
"Calm down. The storm is just passing. It's not even going to rain." Gray said. "Anyway, we should be there soon." They could see the place up ahead with the gate closed, but someone in overalls and messy auburn hair was there. They all pulled up to the gate, but he didn't move.
"Who are all of you?" The man asked.
"Hello, sir. We were hoping we could go in and talk to Professor Pickles." Erza said.
"Is he expecting you?" He asked.
"No. Are you his assistant or something?" Lucy asked.
"I happen to be the gardener. Bowen happens to be my name. If I were you, I turn back now. There are some strange things that go on in this garden."
"That's actually why we're here. So is it okay if we go in or not?" Gray asked.
"Well... Okay, but do be careful in there." Bowen said as he opened up the gate and all five of them were able to walk inside. The gang walked right through the garden, but Natsu was getting an uneasy feeling about this place.
"What kind of kooky garden is this? It's creepy." Natsu complained. "Don't you think so, Happy? Happy?" He looked around, but saw Happy was a little distracted by some of the flowers. "Come on, Happy. Those aren't your flowers. Don't mess them up." He grabbed Happy away from the flowers, but that was when he heard something moving around in the plants. "Hello? Someone in there?" He moved the plants aside, but that was when he saw it. The skunk monster emerged out of the plants with Happy and Natsu a little spooked to see that. Just then, it snarled right at them with the two of them running off. The two of them kept running with them flying passed the others.
"Whoa! What got into you two?! What are you running from?" Gray asked.
"Sk-Sk-Skunk!" Natsu called.
"Eew! A skunk?! Where?!" Lucy said.
"Relax. Skunks aren't that scary." Erza said.
"They are when they stand on two legs and are six-feet tall!" Natsu said as he pointed right at the monster. All of them saw it as it moved through the plants.
"Yikes!" The others said as they all tried running from the monster. They kept on running until they reached the front door of the house. Natsu tried to get the door opened, but it was locked up tight.
"Just our luck! It's locked!" Natsu said.
"Hold on. Where did that thing go?" Erza said. All of them looked back to the garden and saw the skunk was gone. Just then, the door opened up and an elderly man was at the door.
"What are you doing out there? Come in! Come in! It's not quite safe out there!" The man said as he allowed all of them to come into his home and then locked the door. "Did you all see anything out there?"
"We sure did. The biggest skunk we've ever seen, and I'm not really a fan of skunks." Lucy said.
"I take it you're Professor Pickles." Erza said.
"Yes, that's me." Professor Pickles said. "Who are all of you and what are you doing here?"
"Would you believe we're a group of mystery solvers?" Gray said. "We heard that there's been strange activity going on around here. I think we just saw what it was."
"You really saw the skunk out there?" Professor Pickles questioned. "Oh dear... That thing has been roaming around here for some time, but I'm not sure what it wants."
"Please, tell us what you can." Lucy said.
"That skunk monster has been seen around here a lot." Professor Pickles said. "Rumor has it that the last owner of this place was a mad scientist that ran experiments on animals. One of those animals was a skunk and it ended up becoming the monster you just saw out there. It's been roaming around here for years now."
"If this thing has been causing terror, why don't you move out of this place?" Natsu asked.
"I can't. You see, I work as a botanist. This place is ideal for my research." Professor Pickles said. "I'm not going to let some sort of skunk monster scare me away. Besides, I already spent a good deal of my money on this place. I can't leave, but it might be a good idea for you younglings to leave."
"Sorry, but we're not doing that." Gray said. "We came out here thinking there was a mystery and it looks like we found it. We might be able to get rid of this skunk monster for you."
"Really?" Professor Pickles said as it did sound like a good deal. "Well, okay. I do suppose it's getting nasty out there. Why don't you all make yourselves comfortable? I'll see if I can cook something up."
"Sounds good to me. Come on, Happy. Let's check out one of the rooms." Natsu said as he and Happy went on upstairs. They better not get too comfortable because they might be in for a long day.
...
Natsu and Happy
"Not bad." Natsu said as he and Happy found a nice room to rest. They both jumped right on the bed and can already feel themselves relaxing. "Maybe this place isn't so bad after all." He said as he and Happy just laid there. The two of them were so relaxed that they didn't notice a secret door was opening up and the skunk monster came through. He hovered right over them with its breath coming down on Natsu. "Happy, you're breathing all over my face." He opened his eyes, but was met with the monster's face. "The skunk monster!" He shouted as he and Happy became alerted.
"RRRAAAAAGGGHHHH!" The skunk tried to grab them, but they both jumped off the bed and avoided his grasp. Both of them dived inside a dresser for cover. The monster tried going after them. It opened up one of the drawers, but they weren't in it. The skunk monster kept opening up dressers, but they didn't appear to be in any of them and yet it kept checking. Somehow Natsu and Happy got out through the back of the dresser and tried sneaking away, not realizing they just went through the secret door.
"I think we managed to give that weasel the slip." Natsu said, but that was when he realized where they were. "Wait a minute. What is this place?" The two of them made their way down some steps and soon found themselves in a tunnel. "Where in the house are we?" Neither of them understood what a place like this was doing in down here. "Let's check to see if the monster is gone and then tell the others about this." Both of them made their way back up the stairs and took a look in the room. Luckily, the monster was gone. "He's not here. Come on. We need to alert the others about this." Something weird is going on with this house and they need to figure out what it is.
...
The Front Door
Meanwhile, someone was up on the front door and knocked on it with the others being aware about it. Professor Pickles went on the door and was met with a real-estate agent with white hair.
"Hello again, Professor Pickles." The man said.
"Bennet. I keep telling you that I'm not selling this home to you." Professor Pickles said.
"Hey, guys! I found something!" Natsu called as he and Happy came down, but they weren't really listening.
"Pickles, listen. All your troubles could just go away." Bennet said.
"I said no! Now good day!" Pickles said as he slammed the door right in the guy's face. When that happened, Lucy noticed something out the window and saw Bowen acting all sneaky with him moving away from the window. She thought that was rather suspicious.
"Is everything okay?" Gray asked.
"No, it's not. That man was Bennet. He's a separate real-estate agent that's been trying to do business with this house for some time." Pickles said.
"Why would he do business with you when you already have this house?" Erza asked.
"Well, the land isn't officially mine just yet. There's some paperwork to be finalized before that happens." Pickles said. "He's been trying to get me to reconsider buying this place, probably because he wants to be the one who sells it and makes a good buck out of it."
"Now, what were you being so frantic about, Natsu?" Gray asked.
"We found a hidden passage that leads to a tunnel that runs under the house." Natsu said.
"Hidden passage?" Erza said.
"Oh... I've been meaning to close that off." Pickles said. "I was surprised myself to find that there's a tunnel that runs through here and it leads all the way to the mountain. Who knows what could come out of there."
"I know! That skunk that likes to roam in your garden!" Natsu said.
"You saw it?!" Lucy said.
"Can you show us?" Lucy said.
"Oh dear... That place gives me the willies. You all go on without me. I'm going to fix myself a nice cup of tea." Pickles said as he went to the kitchen.
...
Upstairs
"It happened in here." Natsu said as he was about to show them. "Keep in mind, that skunk monster did not leave through the tunnel." Natsu carefully opened the door, but while they were distracted, the skunk came out of the room and grabbed Erza, covering her mouth before pulling her into the room.
"Erza? You okay?" Lucy said as she turned to her, but saw she was gone. "Erza! She's gone!"
"What?!" Gray said as they all saw she was gone. "What happened?!"
"I heard a door close!" Lucy said as she opened up the closest door. They looked inside and saw there was a window opened. Seeing that, they all hurried out the window to try and find Erza, but there wasn't a sign of her or the monster.
"The tunnel will have to wait. We need to find Erza." Gray said.
...
The Garden
"Erza! Where are you?! Erza!" Natsu called as the others looked around through the garden as to where she might be. "I don't see her anywhere."
"That thing couldn't have taken her too far." Gray said.
"Hold it! Look there!" Lucy said as she pointed to some tracks in the ground. "It looks like something was dragged through here."
"And they lead right to that shed." Gray said as they could see the shed. All of them took a closer look at the shed and tried to get it opened up, but it was locked. "Great. We might need the key." Happy had other ideas as he found an axe. Happy held it up and tried to smash it against the lock. "Not a bad idea, Happy." He said as he took the axe and chopped away on the lock until it broke off. When they opened it up, they saw Erza right there tied up.
"Erza!" Lucy said as they hurried over to her and helped her up.
"Are you okay?" Natsu asked.
"That skunk grabbed me and stuffed me in here." Erza said.
"You were a little too easy to find." Gray said. "Obviously he didn't have enough time to do what he really wanted. I think maybe he was trying to keep us distracted."
"Distracted from what?" Natsu asked.
"I think there's something in that tunnel our stinky friend doesn't want us to find." Gray said.
"I'll say. Look at this pickaxe." Lucy said as she found another clue. "There's something sparkling on the tip." She said as she carefully slid her finger over the tip and tried to examine what they found. "I think I know what this is, and isn't it a little convenient that it happens to be in the gardener's shed?"
"Bowen? I'm not sure about him. What about that Bennet?" Gray questioned. "He sure wants this place? He could have placed that locked on the shed just now."
"Here's an idea. You guys can ask...him!" Natsu said as they all saw the skunk monster was back and he seemed mad. He was also blocking their only exit. What it did next was a little strange. It pulled out a device, removed a pin, and some sort of cloud was coming out of it. It tossed it right inside with the room being filled with it.
"Argh! What is that?!" Natsu said as he couldn't stand that odor. Neither could any of the others.
"I got it!" Gray said as he took the axe and tried throwing it at the skunk, but the skunk dived out of the way and the others all made a run straight through the exit and tried to leave the monster in the dust. They kept on running until they couldn't see the monster around anymore.
"That stuff smelled awful." Natsu said. "What the heck was in that thing?"
"I'm not sure, but fresh air sure does smell nice." Erza said as she took in deep breaths.
"What was that about anyway? Don't skunks usually spray smelly stuff from their butts?" Natsu questioned.
"That's why I don't like skunks." Lucy said.
"But the fact that it didn't tells us that isn't a real skunk." Gray said. "We better get back to the house and make sure Professor Pickles is okay. We still need to see what the deal is with that tunnel Natsu and Happy found."
...
The House
All of them went back to the house. When they got back inside, Professor Pickles saw them come back.
"Are you all okay?" Pickles asked.
"Barely. I can still smell that skunk's smell on me." Erza said as she actually did, which was rather odd.
"Ooh... This sounds like it's getting dangerous. I think it might be best if you kids get in your van and hit the road for your own good." Pickles said.
"We're not just going to leave you with that monster still out there." Lucy said. Just then, they heard some sort of tapping coming outside.
"Oh no. It's here!" Professor Pickles said as he ran off into another room. Just then, they heard some sort of crashing sound coming from the direction Professor Pickles ran towards.
"Professor Pickles!" Erza called as they all hurried to make sure he was okay, but that was when the skunk monster came back. It moved closer to them as they were backing away. The skunk leaped right at them with all five of them jumping away. Happy actually jumped straight up and landed right on a chandelier. However, that chandelier was old and Happy's extra weight ended up causing the whole thing to fall right off and landed right on the monster.
"Happy! You okay?!" Natsu asked. Luckily, Happy was able to walk out of there and with a few lives left, but the monster was trapped now. Once they dug the skunk out, they tied it to a chair and was left with unmasking the monster.
"Well, we got the skunk monster now, but who is it?" Gray asked.
"It's got to be that sneaky gardener." Lucy said.
"It's not me." All of them looked and saw Bowen walked through the back.
"He's here? Well, it must be that real-estate guy: Bennet." Natsu said.
"Did someone say my name?" They all saw Bennet walked in. "I came here to talk to Pickles about this place again."
"But if it's not either of you guys, then who?" Natsu questioned.
"The only other person that wanted this house." Erza said as she reached for the mask and pulled it right off. "Professor Pickles!" All of them gasped at seeing that. "I realized it was him because I was still picking up that stinky smell the skunk used against us. Some of it was on him."
"Professor Pickles?! I don't get it! He owns this place, doesn't he?" Natsu said.
"He almost does!" Lucy said as she could see it. "What Professor Pickles wanted us to stay away from was the tunnel because he's been mining in that tunnel. That tunnel leads to the mountain, the same mountain people did some mining. That tunnel is an active vein."
"You mean there's gold in a tunnel near here?!" Bennet said.
"He wanted to keep people away until the property was officially his. That would mean the gold would be all his as well." Gray said.
"Yeah, and it would have been mine if it weren't for you meddling kids." Professor Pickles complained.
"An active mine right underneath this house makes this place more valuable. Unfortunately, the mine is actually government property." Bennet said. "If this tunnel really is part of that mountain, this house technically belongs to the government and can't be sold."
"It's the right thing to do, but what about that stink he used on us earlier?" Natsu asked.
"Just a simple stink bomb. Pretty harmless, but is rotten." Erza said. That's how it was, but Happy had other ideas as he dug around Pickles' pockets and pulled out another one. "Happy, wait! Careful with that!" She called, but it was too late as Happy accidentally set it off and filled the whole room with stink. Professor Pickles wasn't the only thing that smelled rotten in there anymore.