Episode 11: Ghostly Gourmet
Life was calm and tranquil for another night at the House of Mouse, even after several monster attacks happening all over the place, but the threat of evil is always ever present. Previously, the nightclub got ransacked twice, first by bloodthirsty plants, then Japanese monsters, so the question was, would this be a normal night, or another ransacking? All that remained squirreling in the minds of the Z-Team and everyone else in the nightclub as everyone resumed a sense of normalcy. The entire group was seated at one giant table, some staff members had to change jobs because of this.
Everyone ordered regular food hoping that they could enjoy a nice meal without the disturbance of ghosts and monsters. At one point, Aladdin stopped eating and looked down at the one thing he was entrusted to: A demonic looking chest, it was used to capture a mad magician ghost, but perhaps there were other secrets? There was no time for that as a scream could be heard from the kitchen, everyone in the dining area turned their heads to the sound. Out emerged Gus Goose, the cook in a state of panic holding a tray of plates, and just emerging from the double doors out came the ghost of a morbidly obese lawyer, his clothes were bursting at the seams already from his enourmous girth, there were food bits all over his mouth. A lot of the patrons and staff were disgusted by this ghost.
"Yuck! And I thought the Grendel was disgusting!" replied Mickey, pretty grossed out, the others nodded in equal disgust as they observed the fat phantasm wolfed down whatever food it could find around down his mouth and then brought it right back to the even more disgusted patrons who backed away as much as they could when they weren't trying to flee from it.
"I think I'm going to be sick….." Goofy added holding up his shield to protect against the projected food. The rest of the Z-Team readied their weapons and magic against the corpulent specter, Zack held up the Shadow Bane just in case things got a little hairy. Mickey cupped his hands and shouted "Shadow Skull!" launching a wispy black skull in the direction of the ghost which hit him away from a few patrons.
"Lightning Strike!" shouted Donald, pointing his spear at the ghost, which emitted a bolt of lightning out of the point, the bolt knocked the ravenous ghost away. Donald continued firing bolts of lightning at the ghost, sometimes missing sometimes hitting the ghost away from any available food it could get his plump hands on. The ghost then circled around and readied himself to give back some of whatever he was eating prior, but Goofy was ready with his shield, and Moana was ready with her oar. As soon as the ghost regurgitated, Goofy held up his shield, while Donald got out of the way, and Moana, pointing her oar shouted "Hydro Surge!" causing a stream of water to shoot out of the point and wash away the projectiles.
Seizing the opportunity, Aladdin pushed the demonic chest out where the ghost was, Zack was ready with both the Shadow Bane and his sword, Elsa readied herself and ice magic, Mickey launched more Shadow Skulls, and Donald aimed his spear again. Upon holding up the amulet, which glowed white, the ghost was pushed into the vicinity of the chest and all three launched their magic at the ghost, encircling it in a matrix of magic. Then Zack said some strange words: "Nefeato Cacond Diaboz Evivan!" As soon as he finished the strange incantation, the chest opened and a vortex sucked the ghost into the chest and immediately closed itself, the eyes of the skull glowed red for a few seconds and then darkened. The entire room of patrons and staff applauded the heroes efforts.
After the battle, everyone, patrons, staff, and the Z-Team could finally relax into true normalcy, even with the food that was left, that wasn't eaten or brought back by the ghost of the fat lawyer, for he was now safely in the chest along with the mad magician ghost caught during the trial. But everyone in Zack's group was still curious about the chest's secrets.
"Question Zack, what's so special about this special chest that can capture ghosts?" asked Aladdin, the rest nodded in addition. Zack seeing their curiosities piqued, gave an eccentric smile in reply.
"I figured you'd sooner or later ask about it. This chest was created by means of dark magic by a practicioner of one, who would later become both a follower of the Dark Master and became a ghost himself. As I said at one point earlier, this chest used to contain 13 malevolent specters, from different time periods and nations, performed horrible deeds, died some horrible deaths and as a result become what they are. They cannot be reasoned with by anyone, good or evil, their chaotic natures got to their heads before death, and that's why they can't be controlled. The mad magician ghost you all caught earlier has an interesting story. Ivo Minso, that's his name, was once the protegee of the great Harry Houdini, he learned quickly but secretly wanted to become greater than Houdini, so he searched for better more complicated tricks. He eventually found the trick, the Disembodied trick, which he felt would put his master to shame. What he didn't realize was that the trick had a nasty negative effect, it would drain his sanity with each use. The first trick, the rehearsal went well, but when Houdini found out about the trick he warned Ivo of the dangers, but he wouldn't listen, he went along with it during the night the trick was to be performed. As Houdini feared, Ivo completely lost it, wrecking sets, and attacking people. Fortunately, an officer was in the audience, arresting him proved to be futile, so he had to be shot dead, the effect of the trick lingered on after his death."
"What about the gross lawyer we just captured?" asked Goofy, the others nodded.
"He's from the 1920's, Lorenzo Corpule was an obnoxious lawyer who treated the justice system as some sort of money-making scheme, a gambling operation in disguise. The judge of a county in New Jersey discovered this and ordered a search on him, there he fled to New York City, and settled down in some ritzy hotel, which held a contest to see what group would earn an extravagant feast. Lorenzo rigged the contest so that only he could win it all. Sure enough he did and at just about everything and then died from gastric rupture due to overeating. When the police arrived they discovered a suicide note in his hotel room claiming that his death wish was to indulge in his greatest fantasy..." the group was just as disgusted hearing that story as they had to deal with the ghost themselves.
"So what exactly is the real significance of this chest?" pondered Jasmine.
"You collect all 13 of the ghosts, the chest becomes a key to the portal to enter the Dark Master's realm, that only mortals can enter. Those pieces we obtained from Athena and Friar Tuck are pieces to a map that can pinpoint the exact location of where to find the Lightbringer armor and simultaneously the portal to Dakmogon's realm."
"And where would we find more of the map pieces and these remaining ghosts?" asked Mickey.
"There are about 7 pieces to find for the map, and as for the ghosts, well, they can appear in the most unlikely places, so we'll have to be on our guard for that. The locations of the map pieces are in the most sacred of places where light energy is the strongest. In the mean time, let's just relax a bit for now, but be on our guard for any new threats, what we need could be within our reach when we least expect it." Everyone in Zack's group nodded. "One last thing," he continued. "Let me do the ghost capturing part, as only some Dark Speech can unlock the chest to capture the ghosts, Dark Speech is cursed talk, literally, learning even a little bit can corrupt your soul a bit. So if my behavior is a little bit eccentric, you'll have to forgive that, but that's nothing new, ever since I was young I was fascinated with the realms of light and darkness, always pondered what I could do in the battle between good and evil. As for how I got like this, well, that's another story for another day." he smiled. The next threat could happen at any time, as everything in the clubhouse returned to another night of normalcy.