A Twisted Halloween II: Spectral Soiree

Chapter 16: Don't Do That!

At an unknown location, there are voices appearing in the background.

One asks, "You all want more of this?!"

Meanwhile, at the Ghost Ship Cove in the Spectral Realm, there is a bit of a fiasco going on.

Floyd says, "Okay, ghosties. Fork over the mirror fragments, OR ELSE!" and sounds very scary.

And it looks like Floyd is getting physical and aggressive with the ghosts.

The first ghost yelps, "EEEK! PLEASE, NO MORE!"

The second ghost panics, "We already gave you every fragment we have! There's no more to give!"

"Oh yeah? Then how's about you show me what's in your hands," Floyd replies with a smug look on his face.

"But..." The second ghost says, sounding timid.

"Tryin' to pull a fast one on me, HUH?" Floyd says, sounding scary.

The third ghost panics, "Someone, please, HEEELP!"

Floyd continues to go after the ghosts as they fly away in fear. Ace and Leona watch as Floyd is attacking the ghosts.

"Floyd keeps going after the ghosts to shake 'em down, and they just run away screaming," Ace says.

"I know I said we should swipe the fragments from the ghosts and keep moving forward," Leona says, "But..."

Then angrily says, "I never said to do THIS!"

Floyd turns to Leona, "What's a matter? This is what I normally do to punks who don't hold up their end of a deal. Besides, if the ghosts startle me, I'll get possessed like Crabby did, right? Way I see it, why not scare the ghosts instead? Hit 'em before they hit us."

Then Ace says, "You're not scaring them, you're TERRORIZING them! This is overboard by any standard!" Now look! They're all hiding from us!"

And soon, they notice the ghosts are gone.

"We don't have time to search for ghosts who've gone invisible. Way to make our job harden. We couldn've swept all of 'em at once if we'd just used Spikey as bait," Leona says.

"Yeah, we should totally use Spikey -" Ace says.

But soon stops and exclaims, "Wait, is that ME?! I didn't sign up to be bait!"

"Fine, then I'm going on alone. You guys can groom your own tails," Leona says.

Ace says, "I didn't sign up for that either! You can't leave me, Leona!" and begins to grab Leona.

Annoyed, Leona says, "Hey, quit clinging to me!"

"What, you don't like my company, Crabby? You callin' me unreliable?" Floyd questions with a calm smile. "I'm a pretty strong guy, y'know."

"No, I mean... That's true, but..." Ace hesitates.

Then Leona grins, "Pfft. Can't blame Spikey for hesitating."

"'Scuse me?" Floyd questions.

Leona says to Floyd, "Do I have to spell it out? Your strength is inconsistent at best, and there's no predicting where your mood'll take you. Doesn't matter if you're a bishop or a knight. If you don't stick to your role on the chessboard, then you're a liability. A game piece that moves unpredictably is worth less than the herbivore."

Floyd laughs, "Ahaha. You're one to talk, Sea Lion. It doesn't matter how strong you are if you never DO anything. Seems to me like you'd do better as bait."

Floyd and Leona remain silent after the conversation. Floyd has a smile while Leona frowns in reply.

Suddenly, Ace says, "Uh... Heeey, look! There's a weird door in the cave! That's gotta be worth checkin' out! How about we head on over before our group implodes, okay? C'mon, guys!"

Leona scoffs, "Tch. I guess you could use that needlessly huge body of yours to ward off some ghosts."

"Be careful not to take any of your catnaps, Sea Lion. Wouldn't wanna get possessed in your sleep, right?" Floyd replies.

Ace shakes his head and says, "Sheesh... These guys are like oil and water. I'd take the teapot tyrant any day! "Oh, Housewarden Riddle, if only you could get me out of this mess!"

With that, Ace walks to the door and opens it. Then he, Floyd, and Leona walk into the room as the door closes behind them. Soon enough, they find themselves in the Forbidden Laboratory.

Ace is surprised to find themselves in a completely different location ,"Whoa, where are we? Gee, you think a GAZILLION window was enough? And you can see the moon through all of 'em! This is definitely not a cave!"

"Common sense doesn't really apply in the Spectral Realm. Don't freak out over every little change of scenery," Leona says.

Then smirks, "Unless you wanna get possessed again."

Floyd looks at the room and says, "there's a buncha big machines here. Looks like they're still running," Then asks, "Whaddaya think they're for?"

"Beats me. I don't see any ghosts so far..." Leona says, looking around. "But there's no telling how long it'll take us to reach the boss' Halloween Party. It'd be idiotic to run around slingin' magic without good reason. You'd build up needless amount of blot. So let's be efficient hunting these ghosts, and get ourselves more mirror fragments."

"Can do," Ace says.

"I guess we should start figuring out what's going on here... Looks like a research lab. Must be a pretty big facility, given all the equipment they've got. They might have a security system. Whatever you do, don't touch anything," Leona says.

However, as Leona explains on what the plan is, Floyd walks away doing who knows what."

And suddenly, the alarm goes off, catching Ace and Leona off guard.

"Whoa! What are those sirens?!" Ace asks, surprised.

"An alarm? How'd they spot us? Is there a security camera somewhere?" Leona questions.

Floyd walks back and says, "Oh, uh, I think that was me. I saw this giant button on the wall and pushed it."

Ace and Leona scream, "DON'T DO THAT!"

And with that, the ghost guard arrives in the room.

The first ghost says, "Security team reporting in, what's the situation?"

However, he notices the three and says, "...Oh! Look, there are more living intruders!"

Then the second ghost calls out, "Seize them!"