Superkids 5

Superkids 5: Ghosts of Grandeur City



	"This one looks interesting", Marcus remarks. He and his twin sister, Mavis, are going over a list of haunted houses on their laptop.

	"It's in Grandeur City too. We can stop by and visit Sally. Maybe she's cheered up by now", Mavis suggests.

	"Hang on. This says the haunted house's last owner was Phoebe Crystal. That's Nadia's aunt", Marcus notices.

	"I'll call Nadia and see if she wants to come with us", Mavis suggests. She takes out her cellphone and dials Nadia's number.

	"Nadia Crystal here", Nadia answers.

	"We're going to investigate a haunted house that your aunt phoebe used to live in. Wanna come?", Mavis asks.

	"I really don't wanna go near that house. When i look at it in my crystal ball, I see a great darkness surrounding it" Nadia responds.

	"Okay. Talk at you later". Mavis responds. She hangs up the phone, then turns to her brother. "Nadia says she sees a great darkness around her aunt's old house. She doesn't wanna go anywhere near it".

	"Well I still want to explore it. You and I don't scare as easily as Nadia, do we sis?" Marcus responds.

	"Nope. Lets grab Gloria and head to Grandeur City", Mavis responds back.

	Gloria Grace is waiting for the twins outside her house in Spellbound Kingdom. Gloria has on a white skirt and white pants.
	"I like wearing white because it goes so well with my light powers", Gloria explains.

	Marcus drops by Nadia's place while they are in the area, Hoping she might change her mind about coming to her aunt's house with them, but Nadia isn't home. Marcus returns to where Mavis and Gloria are waiting and the three of them make haste to Grandeur City.


	Sally Blitzer is sitting on her uncle's couch, still depressed over the death of her mother. Her friends Bonnie and Annie are sitting on either side of her, trying to cheer her up.

	"We have some new designs we need you to try on for us", Annie confers. Bonnie and Annie are the Superkid fashion designers. Sally often models for them.

	"Not right now", Sally mutters.

	"You have got to get over this", Bonnie insists, "Its bad enough you ran Ezekiel and Vector off". Ezekiel is Sally's boyfriend, while Vector is another Superkid who has a crush on Sally. Someone knocks on the front door. Annie opens it to find Marcus, Mavis, and Gloria standing outside.

	"We're gonna investigate a haunted house located here in this city", Mavis explains, "Wanna come with us?"

	"I'm not interested", Sally answers. Bonnie and Annie opt to stay with Sally.

	"We'll stop back by after we're done at the haunted house", Marcus insists.

	"The haunted house is on Jeffery Street. We're on Roundhouse Avenue right now", Mavis notes.

	"We should turn right off Roundhouse onto Metro Boulevard, then follow that road through the square, and turn left onto Cayden street. If we go up Cayden until we reach the Grandeur Public Library, the road on the right just past the library is Jeffery." Marcus explains after pulling up a GPS map on his phone.

	The three of them leave Sally's uncle's house and follow the path Marcus's GPS gave him, reaching the haunted house in under 20 minutes. As they approach the house's front door, the three of them notice a lot of the locals running inside their houses and slamming their doors shut behind them.

	"These people sure are afraid of this house", Marcus remarks, "makes exploring it even more exciting".

	The front door is unlocked, and when they push it open, a massive swarm of bats fly out. After the bats fly away, the three Superkids make their way into the house. The find themselves in a hallway with a single picture on the wall, depicting a woman who looks like an older version of Nadia, and the bust of a man on a pedestal in a corner. The pedestal has a plaque attached to it. Gloria walks over and reads what is written the plaque.

	"Jeffery Von Brakken. first Mayor of Grandeur City. born Apr 27th 1916, died Aug. 30th 2000.  Mayor from 1946 to 1956. Upon his death in 2000, the street outside this house was renamed after him", Gloria recites.

	"This house must be Grandeur City's old mayoral estate", Marcus realizes, "Nadia's aunt must have moved in here after the city stopped using this place as living quarters for its mayors".

	Marcus, Mavis, and Gloria make their way over to a flight of stairs heading down to basement. Marcus and Mavis notice a ghost that bears a striking resemblance to the bust floating outside the basement door. A second ghost is floating near him. This ghost is the woman from the picture in the hall.

	"Jeffery Von Brakken and Phoebe Crystal, I presume?", Mavis asks. Both ghosts nod yes. As Marcus pushes the basement door open, the two ghosts turn to him.

	"There's something evil in there. The two of us don't even go into the basement for fear of it", Jeffery explains.

	"I'll protect them," Gloria insists. She can't see the ghosts, but knows they are there and assumes they are standing guard over the basement. Leaving the two ghosts behind, the three Superkids trudge into the basement. Gloria senses evil spirits all around herself and her friends and uses her light powers to repel them and light up the otherwise-dark basement.

	"There's a light switch over there", Marcus points out. When he flips the switch, instead of the lights coming on, a chunk of the wall swings inward. Marcus steps into the hole in the wall and finds himself in a room with a small table in the center. On the table is a board with letters, numbers, and words like "yes" and "no" on it. On top of the board is a device that looks like an oversized computer mouse with no cords. Mavis and Gloria walk into the room and see the spirit board on the table as well.

	"You reckon that's what's causing all the spiritual activity around here?", Marcus wonders. He and his sister have dealt with spirit boards before.

	"Maybe if we remove the spirit board from this house, all the ghosts in here will be able to move on", Mavis suggests.

	"I'll carry it in case anything evil is "attached" to it", Gloria suggests. She picks up the spirit board and hauls it out of the basement and then out of the house. Marcus and Mavis follow right behind her. Marcus stops when they reach the Grandeur Library.

	"I'm gonna stay here and do some research on that house. You two get that spirit board as far from here as possible", Marcus announces. Marcus heads into the library, while the girls return to Sally's uncle's house.

	Mavis and Gloria arrive to find Bonnie and Annie fixing dinner while Sally is sitting on the couch flipping through TV channels nonstop. Bonnie bakes a chicken, while Annie prepares mashed potatoes and rolls.

	"Sally, don't you wanna help us cook?", the two of them infer.

	"No thanks. tell me when it's done", Sally mutters. Mavis and Gloria opt to prepare dessert: a delicious cheesecake.

	Marcus rushes into the house just as everyone is getting dinner on the table.

	"I found out some really interesting stuff about that house", he declares.

	"Mind if we eat first?", Bonnie insists, "If you tell us anything scary now, we might lose out appetites".

	Sally finally gets off the couch, but only to get herself a plate of food, then she goes right back to the couch. After everyone finishes their plates, and has a piece of cheesecake, Marcus finally tells them what he's learned.

	"The first reported hauntings at that house came right after former Mayor Jeffery died. The city council got tired  of every mayor reporting hauntings at the Mayoral Estate, so they built a new Mayoral Estate and abandoned the old one. Since then, the hauntings there have gotten even worse. They got worse still after Phoebe Crystal moved into the house. Ever since Phoebe died, everyone's been afraid to go into her house, even to collect things she left to her heir: Nadia Crystal", Marcus informs everyone.

	"Nadia is afraid to go in that house and she inherited it?", Mavis wonders.

	"Seems so", Marcus responds, "I tried to call her when I left the library, but got no answer. Anyway i'm going back to that house now that its dark to see if removing the spirit board ended the hauntings".

	"I'm coming too", Mavis insists.

	"I better come", Gloria suggests. Marcus, Mavis, and Gloria leave for the old Mayoral estate. After the three of them leave, Sally notices the spirit board, which they left on the coffee table.

	"Wonder if I can contact my mother's spirit with this thing", Sally ponders. Making sure Bonnie and Annie have gone to bed, Sally places the pointer on the center of the spirit board, pen and paper ready to write down what ever the board spells out. As Sally places her hand back on the pointer, she feels a chill in the air

	"Is someone dead here with me?", she asks the board. The pointer jerks and points to the word "yes". Hand still on the pointer, Sally asks another question, "Are you my mother?".

	In a cave far away from Grandeur City, Nadia sits in the shadows, watching Grandeur City through her crystal ball. She is still unsure she's ready to face what lies within her Aunt's house. A darkness forms around a different house: Sally's uncle's house.

	"That's strange", Nadia remarks to herself. She zooms in on Sally's uncle's house and notices Sally messing with a spirit board. Nadia realizes it's the spirit board from her aunt's house, and she realizes what Marcus and Mavis must have done.

	"This changes things", Nadia declares. She packs her bags, loads up her crystal ball, and heads out of the cave.

	Marcus, Mavis, and Gloria return to the old Mayoral Estate and quickly encounter the two ghosts they saw before.

	"What did you do with my spirit board?", Phoebe's ghost asks.

	"We removed from this house in hopes of ending the hauntings", Marcus responds.

	"That was a big mistake, boy", Phoebe screeches, "That spirit board was the only thing keeping IT at bay".

	"What do you mean by IT?", Mavis asks. Before Phoebe can answer, the basement door flies open and a hideous creature emerges from it. the creature looks like a skinny minotaur with dragon wings.

	"That is IT", Phoebe explains, "A demon that is keeping us trapped in this house. It was trapped inside the secret room and bound to the spirit board. When you removed the spirit board from these premises, you freed it".

	Gloria approaches the demon and begins exuding bright light. The demon is forced backwards, but grabs Phoebe and Jeffery, dragging both ghosts into the basement with it. The basement door slams shut behind them. Gloria approaches the door and tries to open it.

	"Its locked from inside", she yells. Not sure what to do, the three Superkids leave the house and return to Sally's uncle's house. As they reach the house, Nadia approaches from the opposite direction.

	"Why did you remove that spirit board from my aunt's house, and why did you let Sally have it knowing full well that she is grieving from the loss of her mother and would more than likely use the board to try and contact her mother's spirit?", Nadia fumes.

	"We didn't give the board to Sally. We just left it at her uncle's house until we can find someplace better for it", Mavis insists.

	"Sally tried to use the spirit board to contact her mother, but conjured something darker instead", Nadia reveals. The four of them rush into Sally's uncle's house to find Sally standing in the living room, facing towards them. Her eyes are as black as coal.

	"She's possessed", Nadia yells.

	"I noticed", Gloria responds. She balls her left hand into a fist, summons a bright light around it, and punches Sally right in her chest. A creature similar in appearance to the demon from Nadia's aunt's house is knocked out of Sally and escapes out the front door and into the night. Sally collapses in Gloria's arms. Bonnie and Annie rush into the room.

	"Great. Now we have TWO demons to deal with", Mavis remarks.

	"You saw the demon in my aunt's house?", Nadia asks.

	"Yes", Marcus responds, "we also met your aunt's ghost along with the ghost of Jeffery von Brakken, who was Grandeur City's first mayor. The demon has the two of them hostage in the basement".

	"Interesting", another voice remarks, "So my great-grandfather IS haunting that place after all". A boy in dark purple clothes is standing in the road just outside of the driveway.

	"Ashton!", Sally yells. She along with Marcus, Mavis, Gloria, and Nadia rush down to where Ashton is standing.

	"This guy your friend?", Nadia asks Sally. Nadia has never officially met Ashton before, despite Ashton being a Superkid.

	"This is Ashton von Brakken, great-grandson of Jeffery Von Brakken. He has the power to bring inanimate objects to life", Sally explains, "Ashton, this is Nadia Crystal. Her power is divination".

	"You're kinda cute", Ashton whispers to Nadia. Bonnie and Annie overhear him.

	"You know, we designed that flower-pattern miniskirt Nadia's wearing", they remark, "We design men's clothes too, if you are interested".

	"Save the flirting for later", Mavis declares, "Right now, it's time to face our demons. Literally".

	"The demon that Gloria knocked out of Sally took off toward Nadia's aunt's house. It may be planning to join forces with the other demon. We need to hurry over to said house and stop both demons".

	"Everybody on that carpet", Ashton yells, pointing to the rug in the doorway of Sally's uncle's house. Once everyone is standing on the carpet, Ashton reaches down and touches the carpet. The carpet lifts up into the air with everyone on it and rockets out the door and into the night. The carpet reaches Nadia's aunt's house in a matter of seconds.

	"They're in the basement", Nadia reveals.

	When they reach the basement door, it's still locked. Ashton grabs the door hand and yanks it so hard he pulls the door off its hinges. Ashton tosses the door aside and everyone enters the basement. The entrance to the secret room is wide open. They find the ghosts of Jeffery Von Brakken and Phoebe Crystal in the secret room. Nadia, who can see the ghosts through her crystal ball, confronts her aunt.

	"Is it true that you conjured the demon that had been hidden here in this room?" Nadia asks. Phoebe floats into the crystal ball, becoming visible and audible to anyone who looks into it.

	"Yes, but I didn't mean to conjure it", Phoebe responds, "I was trying to contact the spirit of my mother, just like your friend over there was when she let the second demon loose". Sally realizes Phoebe is looking at her.

	"I'm sorry I ever touched that spirit board", Sally declares. Phoebe turns back to Nadia.

	"We can use the spirit board to send both demons back where they came from", Phoebe explains. Nadia gets the spirit board out of her backpack. The two demons burst into the room and try to grab the spirit board.

	"Oh no you don't", Gloria declares. She grabs the spirit board and looses a pulse of of light, knocking the demons backwards. In Gloria's hands, the spirit board begins radiating with light. A bright portal opens up above it and both demons are sucked towards it. They try to grab Jeffery and Phoebe, but Gloria puts a shield of light around them. The demons disappear into the portal, which closes behind them.

	"We're finally free", Phoebe and Jeffery declare. Several other ghosts appear all around the attic and then ascend upward, out of sight. Phoebe turns to Nadia.

	"Do whatever you want with this house. You should probably get rid of that spirit board. It's more trouble than it's worth", she rambles off before ascending. Nadia, crying, waves goodbye to her aunt. Jeffery turns to Ashton.

	"Take care of Nadia, and the rest of your friends as well", he insists. Then Jeffery ascends as well. Phoebe's head floats back down into the basement.

	"Nadia, I know Ashton likes you. I read his mind. you two would make a cute couple", Phoebe remarks, then she floats up and out of sight once more. Sally's uncle appears at the top of the stairs leading down to the basement door.

	"Are all of you alright?", he asks.

	A short time later, everyone is at Sally's uncle's house. They have recounted all of the night's events, and everything that led up to them, to Sally's uncle.

	"What are you gonna do with that spirit board?", he asks Nadia. The spirit board is sitting in the living room on the coffee table.

	"I have a pretty good idea about that", Ashton responds. He whispers something in Gloria's ear. She walks over to the spirit board. She places both hand on it and looses a blast of light energy, causing the spirit board to explode into a billion pieces. The pointer remains intact, but Ashton picks up a sledgehammer and finishes it off too.

	"Problem solved", Ashton remarks. Nadia walks over to him.

	"You know, since Aunt Phoebe's house isn't haunted anymore, I may just move into it", Nadia announces, "If Ashton wants to move in with me, I wouldn't mind". Ashton doesn't respond. Instead, he grabs Nadia and locks lips with her. Bonnie and Annie are dumbstruck, but Sally pulls them to the side.

	"You two said you had some new designs for me to try on, and i'm in the mood to try them on right now", she remarks, feeling cheerful for the first time in ages. The three of them head off into Sally's bedroom together. Marcus and Mavis are already scouring their laptop, looking for their next haunt. Sally's uncle, meanwhile, is just glad to see his niece feeling happy once again.