[Deleted]

It was a dark night on LI as Paula stood on a hill near Mushroom Ruins, looking over the abandoned village as Princess Toadstools castle lied over head, looking kind of brand new, she heard that Peach and Rosalina were there the other day getting things ready for a party? In a place outside the Life Sphere, I'm sure Peach has some sort of security from the starvia, speaking of which Peach was said to be joining Paula and Tails with finding the mysterious Island Leder mentioned, where The Sanctuary Stone and The Great Grandfathers Diary were apparently located, Paula checked her pockets again to see if the rubies were still there, thankfully they were.

Paula had some fear that she would drop the rubies somewhere or someone took them while she was not looking, which would ruin the mission If that did happen, luckily things were going smoothly so far...Well except for the fact that she hadn't found the summer house Leder told her and Tail's about which is where they need to go before the island.

Paula started to look around for the Summer House while she was waiting for Peach and Tails, unfortunately due to the darkness she couldn't see very well. "Where would the house be...If I were the Osoho's Leaders Wife where would I leave my summer Home?" Paula thought to herself as she looked around...Mainly at the cliffs.

She was about to give up for now when saw something at a nearby cliff.




Paula kind of saw the house and admired it's creation. "Wow...That was well created, I guess the Wife had great style...And art Probably...The eyeless sculpture should be in there somewhere." Paula thought to herself as she waited for her three team mates to arrive.

"But first I better wait for everyone to get here."

[Coolshaymin]

Tails finished his last minute maintainance and made sure all his equipment was working properly for the adventure ahead. There was no telling how long he would be out and he had to make sure his tools did not break during the adventure. Nothing worst than having to do repairs in a place with unknown dangers. He finally finished with his last tool, the Tornado MK IV and then touched a button to turn it into it's more manageable briefcase form.

The fox then got into his Tornado II and flew it over to the ruins of the Mushroom Kingdom. He looked down at the ruins from his plane and felt bad for what he saw all over. Sure, Tails has been to plenty of ruins in the past but they were usually ancient. The Mushroom Kingdom was much more modern and was a really recent destruction. He could not help but feel bad for the residents. Of course his home was not much better but he can be concerned with that later.

Tails spotted what seemed to be the Summer Home and Paula down below. The 8 year old pilot took the plane down to land by Paula and then jumped out and looked over to the summer home that held a way to the island the powerful items were. "I finished making sure my equipment was in top condition. Did you find someone to come with us?" Tails asked as he looked towards their first destination.

[Mari]

Princess Peach was hurriedly refreshing herself after a harrowing experience in her castle. There was nothing like a bob-omb exploding in your face to give you a bad hair day. ...And a bad makeup day. ...And to make you smell like singed hair. Being blown up was literally the worst, but it was nothing a makeover couldn't fix! Perry laid to the side as Peach worked, watching her idly as Peach went through her morning routine again. From removing her makeup to reapplying it, to primping her regalia, to meticulously tending to her hair, to finally applying a bit of perfumed oil to aforementioned hair in order to eliminate that less than regal smell. She examined herself carefully using a compact mirror, taking great care not to miss any details. There were still subtle cues that she had had a rough day hiding amongst her presence, but this was good enough. Hopefully, nobody would notice and worry about her.

"Wow, you put a lot of work into your looks." Perry remarked thoughtfully. He wasn't usually present during Peach's morning routine, mainly because it normally involved a shower, but her needs were a bit different right now. It was a puzzling ritual to him. It looked like a lot of work to go through every day, and while he saw clearly how nice it looked he couldn't help but muse that she looked fine without it as well!

Peach twirled in place, getting comfortable with herself before stopping to beam at Perry. "Looking good is feeling good~!" she remarked with a wink. The parasol seemed to consider this for a moment. "Can't argue with that~" Perry remarked lightheartedly as the princess moved to pick him up. Most of all, she was grateful to still have her loyal companion at her side. She wasn't sure she could handle this world without him, especially now that Mario was busy doing his own things...

Now! She had one more date to keep.

...

Princess Peach would arrive at the meeting area not all that long later, carrying Perry over her shoulder. Spotting the two shorter people, she made her wave over and waved daintily to them. "Greetings! I'm Peach, princess of the Mushroom Kingdom." Peach introduced. She couldn't help but wonder if she'd seen this two-tailed fox somewhere before. Perhaps at some sort of party or a sporting event..? Either way, she'd definitely not had a chance to introduce herself personally before. "And I'm Perry, Perry the parasol!" Perry chimed in, beaming from over Peach's shoulder. Peach, in turn, would shift her gaze to Paula, offering the other a knowing smile. "I'm glad to see you're doing alright, Paula. I worried after we parted ways." Peach admitted.

[Deleted]

Paula watched as Tails rolled in via his Tornado and watched as he jumped out of It. "Nice to see you again Tails...After leaving each other for only a few hours." Paula said to Tails as the young fox asked the Psychic who the third person that was going to help them be. "Actually third and fourth...Peach and Perry have chosen to help us...Speaking of which there they are." Paula said as Peach and Perry soon appeared to the two, with Peach introducing herself to Tails with Perry doing so soon after, Peach looked at Paula and said that she gotten worried for her after the last mission.

"Oh I'm fine, but welcome you two and thanks for helping me, It means a lot since this mission could help me...Anyway over there is the summer house, It looks like one." Paula said pointing to the house she saw again. "Before we head to the Island we need to head in there to find a sculpture that will help us." Paula said to Peach and Perry before looking at Tails. "Well then let's start this mission while the infected activity remains quiet." Paula said as she headed towards the dark house.

When she got there she looked at the front door. "This might be troublesome since the door might not open." Paula said to her partners as she tried to open the front door...She was surprised when the front door easily fell due to It being old. "Wow...Getting in was surprisingly easy." Paula said to her friends as she looked around the darkened room, she tried to flick on the lights in case there was somehow a generator around that somehow still worked...It seems there wasn't as the lights to the house did not come on. "Looks like this house will remain dark...Dont worry I got this." Paula said as she looked at her thumb, which quickly sparked a small fireball which lit up the hall.

Paula looked around the front halls she was in, she was more surprised that the hall was filled with art, probably done by the Osoho's Leaders Wife. The art seemed fantastic and looked like It should be hung in a museum, beside the groups were the lounge and the dinner room which were also filled with wondrous art and nearby were stairs leading up.

Paula turned towards Tails, Peach and Perry.

"This house Is filled with paintings...I guess she loved art very much...But where do you think the Sculpture Is?"

[Coolshaymin]

Tails was a little puzzled by Paula seeming as if she was correcting him by saying third and fourth. He simply asked if she found someone, not if there was more than one. One of the names sounded a bit familiar for some reason... Oh yeah, Peach was a major help in the war on Tabuu. He also recalls seeing her at those sport events Sonic and Mario have every two years. They never really had the time to talk in person though especially since Tails was mostly helping in the background of the Emissary.

Then she came and her appearance confirmed it was the same Peach he was thinking of. The parasol was definitely new to him though. It was a bit shocking to see the parasol talking but he has seen weirder in the past. "My name is Miles Prowler but my friends call me Tails, best friend of Sonic and child genius. It is nice to meet you," Tails introduced himself.

Paula then suggested they get going before the infected activity ramps up. "Right, best to get going before the infected activity starts ramping up," Tails agreed before hitting a button on his Miles Electric and sending the Tornado II into autopilot to find a safer place to hide. He then followed Paula to the Summer House.

"I do not exactly live in a very rich building back in my world unfortunately. I kind of live small with my lab since I don't exactly have the money to get much more. So I would not know where someone would put a statue. Do you have any idea where one could be, Peach?" Tails asked.

[Mari]

"That's what friends are for, right?" Peach replied to Paula, placing her free hand on her hip and striking a rather enthusiastic pose. "Right!" Perry promptly chimed in, drawing a brief look of acknowledgment from Peach. At Tails' prompting, Peach began to think. Hmm... Where would she put a statue? "I would put a statue in... the garden! Or perhaps the foyer. Statues look their best when they're centerpieces!" Peach replied. Though, in all honesty, she was just slightly too modest to fill her castle with statues. As much as her kingdom did cherish her, she cherished her kingdom even more. A few memorials here and there didn't hurt, but nothing quite so ... Bowser-like. "I'd want to put it somewhere nice, where it could be enjoyed by visitors." Peach finished. Well, it made sense to her anyway. She wasn't so sure about the owner. They could have entirely different ideas on interior design! ...Could one imagine a house without cloud theme wallpaper? The horror.

"How big is it?" Perry wound up innocently asking.

[Deleted]

Paula watched as Peach and Tails tried to guess the location of the sculpture, while Tails quickly gave up since he didn't live in a house the four were currently In back in Mobius, Peach guessed that the sculpture would either be in the foyer or a garden, Paula wasn't sure If this house had a garden and there were no sculptures in the room they were in which was the foyer and also the main hall. "I don't think this house has a garden and were currently in the foyer and there's no sculpture in sight." Paula said looking around before Perry asked her what size the sculpture was as Paula just shrugged.

"I'm not sure, but Leder said the sculpture has no eyes and that we need to place these rubies In It's place so It can help us find the island." Paula said showing the rubies to Peach and Perry before putting them back in her pockets, she looked at the stairs before looking back at the group.

"You know, my Mother used to love buying stuff that she would call art at a farmers market near my old house, she would usually put most of them upstairs...What If there's more important things upstairs that the Osoho's Leaders Wife placed up there?" Paula said looking upstairs before slowly going up It, when she reached the top there were five coloured doors lined up infront of her with another set of stairs at the end of the hall. The first door is red while the next was green, the third door was a regular shade of brown as the fourth door was black, finally the fifth and last door was white and was the only locked door as the other four could easily be opened, there were lots of paintings lined up at the door less side of the halls and some were even hung up, Paula looked back down at her group.

"There's just more paintings up here...However there's some doors here, maybe one of the rooms might have the sculpture?"

[Coolshaymin]

Peach seemed to be as big a help on figuring out the location of the statue as Tails was. Not like he was going to judge her for it. Maybe she was not the art type. Tails probably wouldn't have any art even if he did have a bigger house. It was not really the kind of type to admire art much.

Tails looked at the five doors that were upstairs when Paula suggested it. He looked at all the doors and looked to Peach and Paula. There was no telling what room it was in and they should not waste too much time. "I think we should each take a door and see if it is in one of these rooms. Would be faster if we each take a door after all. I will take the red one," Tails offered and suggested since the color kind of reminded him of Knuckles.

Regardless the answer, he walked over to the Red Door and cracked it opened a bit for a look first as he still felt some apprehension. There was something about an abandoned mansion leading to a cursed land that was unsettling. Once he was satisfied nothing was on the other side waiting to jump out he would push it open further and take a step in. Sonic would not be scared of the possibility of some kind of monster in this abandoned mansion. He just had to focus on what was actually important and stay determined. Despite him being a lesser hero in this giant world he can do this if he just believed and flew high.

[Mari]

Princess Peach pouted at no one in particular. Why didn't the mansion have a garden..? Who didn't like gardens? What a sad abandoned mansion. Oh well. She listened to what Tails had to say but seemed a tad hesitant about his idea to split up. Somehow she was convinced something bad would happen. She had to remind herself that they were in a rush for a reason and that getting caught might be the greater of two evils. "Which door do you want to take, Peach?" Perry asked. Unlike the princess, he had never questioned Tails' plan.

Peach pondered this for a moment as if it were a difficult question. Surely those colors represented something, right? Yet, though the doors were symbolic of something without, some sort of legend she could not read their labels. Still, she had to muse... The verdant door spoke of nature and harmony. How nice! The chocolate door spoke of... wood. How boring. There was clearly nothing behind that one. The ebony door spoke of... death. A shiver ran down Peach's spine and her grip tightened a bit in an anxious manner, drawing Perry's attention. Though it was nothing more than speculation, she knew then which door she had to take. "We'll take... this door!" Peach replied, moving over to the black door and pausing just long enough to give this decision a second thought before opening the door and stepping inside.

[Deleted]

Paula watched as Tails and Peach choose a door, Tails took Red while Peach took black, Paula meanwhile took the brown door expecting to find something In it, and with the that the three twisted the knob and opened the doors to the three rooms and entered as Tails suggested, Paula hopes that one of the doors contain the sculpture, but let's see what was actually in the three rooms first.




In door number one, aka the red one Tails opened, there was a small bathroom that had no oddities In it, near the sink were two toothbrush's and two small ones in a small cup, probably belonging to the previous family that lived here...But why were there two small two tooth brushes If it the Osoho's Leaders wife was pregnant on the island? Maybe they wanted a child even before heading to It, other then the toothbrush's there was nothing to find in here...Well except for one thing at the bathtub.


A figure.


Someone was standing in the bathtub at the otherside of the room, weird since Leder thought nobody lived here, especially If It's outside of The Life Sphere. The figure was hidden behind a shower curtain so he or she was hard to see, Tails can either walk closer and move the curtain so he can see the figure, or tell Paula, Peach and Perry about it.




And In door number two, aka the door who's colour is associated with death, when Peach opened the room she soon found out that It was the opposite, the room was colourful and full of life. There were more paintings on the wall, but other then that, there was nothing interesting to find in here, well except for an old paintbrush on a table just infront of Peach and Perry.




And finally in door number three, aka the brown one Paula choose, was a wooden and well cleaned bedroom, Paula looked around and soon noticed a button near the closet. "I wonder what this does?" She said as she pressed the button, she soon noticed a wire that leads up the roof, which slowly started to open due to Paula pressing the button, It seems this was made so the Osoho couple could stargaze, speaking of which It was a starry night tonight and Paula looked on in amazement. "Wow..." She said.

On night's like these...It reminds her of the times she had with Ness, Jeff and Poo and how sometimes after a rough day they would spend the night stargazing in the town or village they were in...

She misses them...Especially Ness, she's still worried, even If she's not showing It.

Paula soon snapped out of her daydream when she realised that she was sitting infront of the bed and quickly got up, she called out to the rest of her partners. "Found anything?" She said as she looked around the bedroom one last time...And saw something just near the lamp by the dozens of windows at the otherside of the room, a tall object covered by a red cloak, Paula slowly walked towards It and pulled the cloak forward to reveal the object.

"Perfect." Paula said as she found out that the object was the sculpture, she quickly turned and called out to her partners again.

"Everyone come in here, I found the sculpture!"

[Coolshaymin]

Huh, the red room was actually okay for a bathroom. There was two toothbrushes which seemed a bit odd considering the woman was supposedly pregnant on the island. The floors and walls were surprisingly clean for such an isolated place and it was so typical. There was even some kind of figure standing behind the shower curtain... Wait... HOLY SON OF CHAOS! WHAT THE HECK WAS THAT?!

Tails felt his heart momentarily do the jump at 80 Miles Prowler until it came back from the future. That was definitely not supposed to be there. But he had no idea what was in there. All he could tell was some sort of being was in there. No one was supposed to be here though! Tails's eyes darted back to the two small toothbrushes. Yeah, this was really unsettling and despite his skeptism he could not get himself to man up. It could not be a monster of some kind but could he really believe that? He has seen things here that he normally would never believed existed in his world.

As much as Tails wanted to prove his fear wrong as he stepped back he heard Paula's voice from two rooms over. Good, she found the statue. An excuse to leave this room and hopefully this house. Tails stepped back slowly until he was in the hall where he would dart down it and into the brown room to look at Paula. Sure enough it looked like the sculpture. "Good, hopefully it opens a path out of here fast..." Tails replied as he breathed heavily. It was something fairly important to mention and he felt he should not ignore what he saw. "In the bathroom I saw someone behind the shower currents. I think more is going on here than Leder told us," Tails explained. It made sense in retrospect there would be more secrets. It's not like Leder made it clear he was going to keep a ton of them or anything.

[Mari]

Princess Peach gazed around the room speculatively. Huh! What a nice room! No death to be found here! ...Or was there?! ...Nah, nothing but ...paintings. Paintings of death? ...Nah. Just paintings. Huh. "Do you think a painter lived here?" Perry asked idly, eyeing the paint brush. Peach's eyes also locked onto the brush, studying it for a moment before moving on to pondering the question at hand. "Hmm... Maybe!" Peach replied. She couldn't help but wonder if the previous owner had painted all of these painting themselves. She also had the idea that maybe the paint brush was important... to someone. However, her alignment didn't permit her to just take that totally inconspicuous paint brush. Sure the owner probably wouldn't miss it, but she also really didn't particularly need it. Hoarding wasn't very becoming of a princess!

Peach looked around for a moment longer before Paula's voice caught her attention. Welp, no point in dawdling here! She returned with the others, making her way into the room Paula and tails were in. "Someone was in the... shower?" Peach asked, her expression a tad perturbed. Now that was just creepy! ...She wasn't sure she wanted to be the one to check on showering strangers, but if she was lucky they could just kind of ignore it and make their stay brief.

[Deleted]

Paula watched as the rest of the group came into the bedroom. "Great everyone's here...And as for the sculpture." Paula said as she took a step back so the sculpture could be seen by everyone in the room, however what they saw was not what one would called artistic or great, more on the lines of...Creepy.




The sculpture was that of a young woman, however the creepy part of the sculpture was of course, she has no eyes, for now, but It make's the sculpture look more uncanny, before Paula could add some eyes to the sculpture by applying the rubies, she noticed Tails looking like he saw something very creepy...Well If your In an abandoned house something spooky is most likely to happen. "What's wrong Tails? You look like you could faint." Paula said as Tails explained his situation, which mostly involved him seeing a figure in the bathroom he was in, making Paula's eyes widen. "Someone else Is In this house? But Leder said this house was abandoned." Paula said as she looked at everyone before quickly walking out of the room, she saw the red door to the bathroom where Tails apparently saw the figure and walked into it.

To see the figure herself.

Paula gulped but slowly walked toward's the shower curtain. "Hello? We see you now...You can show yourself." Paula said to the figure...Who did not reply, she quickly grabbed onto the shower curtain and quickly pulled the curtains to the right so the figure will be revealed...However Paula pulled the curtain too fast, causing the figure to slip and fall on Paula. "Yikes!" Paula said as she fell on the floor along with the figure. "Get off of me!" She said as she grabbed onto the figure and pulled It back so His/her face can be seen.




Which Is a very detailed creepy clown face!

Paula screamed to the top of her lungs upon seeing such a creepy face and punched the figure very hard in the face, causing It's head to suddenly split off from his body and hit the roof of the room, Paula moved the rest of the body off of her and stood up and grabbed her head...Only for the clown head to land straight into her arms upon reaching her head. "AH!" Paula said as she quickly dropped the clown head and quickly stood back infront of Peach and Tails, she took a closer look at the body before realising something.

"Wait a minute..." Paula said as she knelled down and grabbed the clown head, she pulled it to reveal It was a mask, under the mask was a mannequin head. "This is just a mannequin...A creepy mannequin, with a red dress." Paula said standing up and noticing the red dress, the Wife had some weird art, she looked back at Tails and Peach. "We should head back to the bedroom..." Paula said as she did so.

When she made It back into the room she took out the rubies and being very careful, placed the two in the sockets and waited to see what would happen.

"I wonder what will happen? Also I couldn't even move that sculpture, It's like It's stuck to the wall."

[Coolshaymin]

Tails was not comfortable with going to check on the person in the shower but he figured it was no good to let Paula check on her own. And while Paula struggling with the clown was startling... He noticed the figure behind the curtain was rather still as if he was not alive... Wait a second... It was a mannequin?!

Tails watched Paula leave the bathroom in stunned silence. He was completely speechless. It was not the fact that he was scared of a mannequin... No... It was for a much more reasonable question. "... Who puts a mannequin in the shower?!" Tails questioned incredulously. He then sighed before following Paula back to the statue. He just stood there as he tried to answer the ridiculous question.

[Mari]

Princess Peach wasn't about to let her charge wander off to investigate mysterious shadow people creeping in the shower alone! Nope. That sounded like just the worst idea. She followed along at a respectful distance, peering intently at the totally real clown monster as it was revealed. Now Peach may have jumped a bit when she first saw the mannequin, but it became pretty obvious to her rather quickly that it wasn't real. The way it fell was the first red flag, and the red dress was the second. She did flinch when Paula screamed, however. Oh no... That was probably going to haunt that poor kid's dreams at some point. "Wah!" Perry blurted out in unison with Paula, entirely skeeved out by the clown. Peach drew him closer to her to soothe the parasol, reaching out with her free hand to help Paula out. She recoiled however when Paula struck out at the mannequin.

Eesh... That had gotten ugly. "Someone with a really gross mannequin." Perry would remark in response to Tails, sticking his tongue out at the fallen mannequin as they moved to leave. Yeah, I see you, clown! You're not so scary now that you've gone and lost your head, now are you?! Peach followed Paula back to the statue, a concerned expression on her face. Far from wondering why one deigned to store their mannequins in a shower or what might happen now that they had placed their gems where they seemed to belong, she had a much more... motherly concern. "I'm not sure! ...Are you alright, Paula?" the princess asked softly as they waited to see what would come of these riddles and gems. ...Perry silently hoped it wasn't more clowns.