The Aftermath

6. Freedom with a Grain of Salt

(POV: Plug)

On reverse, the machine continued to move various parts as it followed the orders I somehow gave it by landing upon it. One by one, the portraits began to move.

"Is that what I think it is...?" Rob asked in an annoyed tone, rolling his eyes. I nodded. Though it hadn't been used for some time, the Ghost Portrificationizer had, once again, the pride of place in E. Gadd's new museum. I assumed, previously, that he had disabled it of the ability to function, but he had clearly not. For that, I can only wonder why. It's clearly a powerful machine which he clearly had no intentions of using. Still, it was active and I didn't quite know what to do about it.

As for the paintings, E. Gadd searched them all back out, one by one, and kept them in the museum upon the walls. Whilst he sold them before, he must've come to his senses that they were safer in his hands after the disastrous consequences that came after he did that.

I honestly didn't know what kind of effect the Dark Moon would have on the portrait ghosts. If old ghosts are anything to go by, who don't earn pupils but are equally earn a mind when the Dark Moon is around, the portrait ghosts would be effected in one way or another. However, if they can speak human tongue like boos, I didn't have much hope when it came to portrait ghosts.

Me, Grunt and Rob moved back towards the wall as we anxiously waited for the first ghost to be released from the machine. Grunt looked towards me and asked quietly, "How are we going to get out of this one?"

Just as he spoke, the first portrait ghost emerged. We all stared. The room began to form clouds of fog and the lights began to flicker. A cyan humanoid drifted slowly from the machine. This cyan body was surrounded by what I figured to be a pink dress which had exactly three red buttons. The ghost seemed to have blonde hair which was positioned into two pigtails which reached upwards. I searched for her eyes, knowing that pupils would be a good sign, but they were closed. I guessed, at the time, that they were a female, but I could've been easily wrong. Spoiler: I was right. Not only that, but they appeared almost child-like. I decided it best not to approach this new figure, on the basis of them being possibly asleep.

On the other hand, there's my new friend Rob. "Oy!" He shouted at the ghost. I shot a look towards Rob. I truly couldn't believe what a risk he had just taken on behalf of all of us. We had no idea about the power these ghosts may be able to use on us if the Dark Moon has no effect on them.

Within that moment, the ghost's eyes shot open and sent out waves of emerald light which flooded from their eyes.

"How dare you wake me!?" She cried out in a very deep, booming voice which almost seemed to be coming towards us from every direction. Grunt and I both shrieked, though he didn't seem to have the will power to move. I could feel the air around me closing in and I, too, couldn't move. It wasn't about our will power; it was hers. Using her mysterious power, she began to spin us around. I could barely make out anything around me. All I could see was lots of colour moving from the machine. It was all over for us.

Now, I'm not one to get dizzy on usual occasion. However, I don't usually get spun around without any control of my movement, therefore I would stop myself if I felt it should be the case. I had no idea what direction I was facing, nor would I know whether I had stopped yet or not. All that I could think to do was to try my signature attack and-

Soon we had all mostly recovered from the spinning. Stunned, the ghost lay asleep (or unconscious at least) once more. By this point, all the other portrait ghosts had escaped the machine and the Ghost Portrificationizer itself was producing an unhealthy amount of smoke.

"We need to check on the Dark Moon!" Grunt urged. I nodded.