A Twisted Halloween II: Spectral Soiree

Chapter 18: Bad News Box

Thanks to Floyd, he along with Leona and Ace have to fight off the rescue team of ghosts. They use their magic to attack the ghosts, and soon, they end up being defeated.

"Urgh... This is an outrage..." The ghosts scream.

Then they all collapsed on the ground.

"Aw, it just signaled another group of ghosts. Talk about a let down," Floyd says, disappointed.

Ace pants in exhaustion, "All these non stop fights with legions of ghosts... I don't think I can take any more of Floyd's stunts. The best I can hope for is bringing some ghosts down with me!"

"Maaan. This is boring. Maybe, it'd be more fun to just yell and bring all the ghosts here at once. We could have an all-out brawl!" Floyd says.

"No one's getting out unscratched if we let Floyd keep going to town in this cramped lab. Not even me. But as much as I'd love to make some dried eel right now..." Leona says.

Then turns to Ace and says, "Hm? Hey..."

"What's up, Leona? You see something on the desk?" Ace asks.

What Ace sees is, "What's this little box? It's ticking like a clock."

"Wonder what it does. It's got a square button and a triangle button on the outside..." Floyd says, and walks toward the box.

Leona yells, "STOP! DON'T TOUCH IT!"

"Huh?" Floyd and Ace reply, confused.

"That box is bad news... It's a powerful magical artifact. It turns every living creature in a one-kilometer radius into stone!" Leona says.

"A magical artifact?!" Ace and Floyd question in shock.

Leona looks at the box and says, "Crud, it's already activated. We got five minutes to push the button that'll disarm it, or we're gonna be statues!"

"I'd ask if you were joking, but I've never seen you so freaked out before," Ace says, shocked.

And asks, "You're serious, aren't you?"

"Dead serious," Leona answers.

Then explains, "First time I saw one of these was years ago, at a Halloween party my family attended. It was on a cruise ship. One of the guests was wearing this necklace that had a legendary sapphire in it, the Ocean's Tear. A thief set one of these boxes in the band's piano, as part of a scheme to steal the sapphire."

Ace reacts in surprise, "A party on a ship? Legendary jewels! This is like, famous people stuff. It's kinda hard to imagine."

Floyd is actually interested, "Ooh neat. So land peeps have boat parties for more than just birthdays and weddings. What's up with you guys and boat parties, anyway? All it takes are some choppy waves and BAM-you're sleepin' with the fishes."

"Guess it makes sense that a merman and I would get hung up on totally different details," Ace says.

Then Leona says, "I rescued the captain from the thief's clutches, stole the gateway boat, and got all 5000 passengers safely off the ship. Finally, I had to deal with this device. I was about, hm... seven years old, I think."

Ace is very surprised, "Dude, that's super young! Seven's like, just outta kindergarten!" He grins and says, "No one could save a whole boat at that age! No even the high-and-mighty Leona Kingscholar."

Leona frowns and crosses his arms in response,"Hey. Are you mocking me?"

"What?! No, I would never!" Ace answers in a panic.

He then says, "Come to think of it, that's pretty common in movies, right? Some super agent kid fighting the forces of evil with their quick wits? I'm just a plebe so I'm not up on royalty stuff... Maybe you princes get cool special training?"

"Sure do. But even so, back then I struggled to figure out the right button until the very last second. At least I know the answer now. The square button's a trap. Press it and you're an instant museum exhibit. The triangle button disarms it!" Leona says.

"Hmm..." Floyd replies, thinking.

He smiles and says, "Square button it is."

Hearing that, Ace panics, "Wait, what?! Floyd no!"

"No! Don't do it!" Leona calls out.

And with that, Floyd presses the square button anyway.

Ace and Leona scream, "AAAH!"

However, nothing seems to happen.

"...Uh, we're not turning into stone," Ace says, confused.

Leona however, remains silent.

Suddenly, he smirks and begins laughing, "Pfffahahahahah! Man, I got you good!"

Ace exclaims in shock, "You're LAUGHING? So you were yankin' our chain the whole time?!"

"Bah... Not cool, dude," Floyd says, unamused.

"I can't believe you took the bait and pushed the square button. You've got a LONG way to go before you can get one over on me," Leona says in remark and still has a smug look on his face.

Floyd is still displeased, "That smug attitude of yours has been gettin' on my nerves..."

Then Floyd smiles, "But hey, at least that was exciting. Way more fun than fighting those ghosts."

Ace however, "Geeze, you were way too convincing! I nearly had a heart attack! This stupid box just shaved years off my life."

"Hey. You can examine it if you want, but just be careful how you handle it. There's no stopping it if it activates again," Leona says.

"What?!" Ace exclaims in shock.

"Spinnin' a yarn was just what we needed to distract a certain moray with a short attention span, yeah? That, and I knew whichever button I told him to press, he'd hit the opposite," Leona says.

"Wait... Back up. So the part about it being a magical artifact was for real? Are you STILL decided to play games with the buttons?" Ace asks, shocked. "For that matter, you told us a whole story about a fancy boat party, and how the box turns people into stone..."

Then asks in a loud voice, "Just how much of that was actually true?!"

"Wouldn't you like to know? You can fill in the blanks yourself," Leona says with a smirk.

But before Ace can answer, a strange figure appears, a somewhat familiar ghost figure.

Floyd says, "Ghost alert."

Then Leona says, "I see a door further in. Let's snatch the ghost's mirror fragment and go."

But Ace says, "Hey I'm more interested in sorting our your story than any stupid ghosts right now!"