Chapter 108: Sometimes picking the wrong path leads to another clue

The group finally comes out of the door, and back inside the mansion. But it seems the group only reached to a stairway that goes up. Jack could feel as though he's light, and recovered. The group is surprised they're fine.

"Huh?" Ask Joey, feeling his body. He feels healthy again.

"What?" Ask Lucario, confused.

Jack said, "My muscles; they don't hurt." Only Joey and Jack recovered since they were attacked by the chess pieces. But when Jack checks to see if Vincent is back, he notices that no only Vincent is missing, but also Houndoom. "Huh? Vincent? Houndoom? Where'd they go?"

Amy replies, "I don't know, but I got Furret." Furret wakes up, but feels a small pain.

"Just what was that anyway?" Ask Jack, looking behind at the door.

"I don't know, but I don't care anymore!" Said Kyo.

Jack said. "I don't know what to say, but that was a bit too easy. And thank goodness too." Jack stares at the door. He reaches in and asks, "Did Vincent get left behind?"

And then a voice called, "Hey! Monsieurs and Mademoiselles!"

The group is surprised. "What?" Ask Jack.

"Huh?" Ask Joey.

"Pika?" Ask Pikachu.

"What?" Ask Lucario.

"Meh?" Ask Amy.

"Blaze?" Ask Blaziken.

"Oh?" Ask Furret.

"Hey, did you miss me?" Ask Vincent.

"Vincent!" Jack calls. Joey, Lucario, Amy, Kyo, and Blaziken turn away. Pikachu saw the group looking away, and Furret is happy to see Vincent alive with his Houndoom. "Well, mostly me, Pikachu, and Furret."

"Vincent!" Furret cheers. She jumps off of Amy, and gets back to Vincent's arm. Amy holds her arms up like it was rude to leave.

Vincent said, holding Furret, "Hey, little guy." Furret rubs around Vincent's face like he hasn't seem Vincent for a little while. Vincent pulls out a Poké ball and said, "Okay, Houndoom, return."

Houndoom barks, and then the Poké ball shot a red beam on to Houndoom. Houndoom warps back into its Poké ball. Vincent puts the ball away.

"Blaziken, return." Said Amy. The Poké shoots a red beam to Blaziken, and Blaziken is warped back into its Poké ball.

"Lucario, time to rest." Said Joey, returning his Lucario back into the Poké ball.

"Yes, master." Said Lucario." Lucario goes back into the Poké ball.

"That was nuts!" Jack calls. "But thank Zucion it's over. Who would have thought we would be in a stairway room. Are we supposed to go up?" Joey thinks. "Try opening this door, it won't open."

"Maybe this is door we came in through." Said Vincent. "This place is full of tricks."

"Well, let's just go up there." Said Jack. Joey agrees. The group walks up the stairs. They enter the second floor, and then found another door.

"This door?" Ask Vincent, pointing at the door.

"One way to find out." Said Jack. He opens the door, and then the group goes through. Outside of the mansion on the second floor, the group has come to a balcony with a wooden platform, but to their right, they see an icicle path with a few holes. But beneath the balcony is a courtyard. "What kind of place is this?" Ask Vincent. "So what we do now here?" Jack asks, curious. "It doesn't look much safe."

Joey yawns a little. Vincent asks, "What's the matter, Joey? You're tired already? We just got here."

Joey replies, "Sorry, Vincent. I've been doing some thinking."

"Okay. Now it's my turn to solve the puzzle." Said Jack, prepared. He looks at the icicle platform. "I don't know if it's look safe." He looks at his left and sees a door on the wall. "Why don't we go check on the door over there? Cousin, go check it out."

Joey flies across the platform, and in front of the door. He tries to open, but the door is locked. Joey rejoins the group.

"Figures." Said Jack. He looks at the icicle platform. "So, it looks like we got another puzzle to solve."

Amy complains, "Ugh! Puzzles! Why?"

"Hey, come on, Amy." Said Jack, telling Amy, "At least yours is done. I'm next on this one."

"So go ahead and solve it." Said Amy.

"Eh, alright." Said Jack. "See where this leads."

Jack takes one step on the icicle floor, and Jack didn't slip. Nothing happens. He takes the next step forward, and then all of the sudden, the icicle floor behind Jack cracks. That caught the group's attention to the cracked icicle floor.

"Oh." Said Joey, surprised.

"Huh?" Jack asks, turning around. "What the?" He caught the attention of a cracked ice floor.

"Jack, I think you might want to move." Vincent suggested, calling to Jack.

Jack said, a little afraid, "Oh Zucion."

"Jack, get back here." Joey said, trying to bring Jack back. "That dangerous."

"Uh, uh, uh, okay." Jack walks to the left, and then the ice floor behind Jack cracks again. Jack becomes surprised again, and then goes down. The floor behind Jack cracks again, and then Jack jumps over the gap. He made it safely. The last ice floor Jack was on cracks, and then the icicle platform cracks. "That was close." Said Jack.

Behind Jack, the icicle platforms then come back up again, and reform. "Well, that was weird." Said Joey.

Jack figured out the trick. "I bet if we could try and completing this puzzle stepping on the ice, getting them all crack, then the door will open up."

"Worth a shot, Jack." Pikachu agrees.

"Very well." Joey agrees.

"Okay, one more time." Said Jack, taking a deep breath. He walks a pathway on the icicle platform, and carefully makes it across the icicle path.

"Wow. Look at him go." Said Vincent, amazed.

"Finished." Said Jack. The icicle platform shatters and falls to the ground. "That's done."

"Great. So the door opened now?" Ask Pikachu.

"I don't know. Let's go have a look." Jack suggested. Jack walks to the door, until a trapdoor beneath Jack's feet turned into ice. Jack is slipping. "Uh, uh, uh," And then it cracks beneath Jack's feet. He looks down, and said, "Uh-oh." He falls down, "AAAGH!" He falls down, and falls buried in a pile of snow.

"Huh? What?" Ask Joey.

"Jack?" Ask Pikachu, surprised.

"Where did he?" Ask Joey, surprised.

"What just happened?" Ask Vincent, surprised.

Pikachu checks through the open trapdoor, which is an icicle floor, and finds Jack buried in a pile of snow. "Uh-oh! Jack's down there." Said Pikachu, looking down through the open icicle floor. "Wait for me."

"Pikachu?" Ask Joey.

"Guys, come here and look!" Pikachu calls.

"Alright." Said Joey. "Here I come." Jump downs down from the balcony.

Vincent said, "Well, Amy, I guess it's just you and me now."

"I regret nothing." Said Amy. And she jumps off. But before she could get down, she comes back up. "Wait, I almost forgot." She grabs Kyo. "Come here, Kyo!"

"Hey!" Kyo shouted, grabbed. Amy flies down with Kyo.

Vincent had the idea of coming down. "And so, we shall die together."

"Oh boy." Said Furret, disturbed. Vincent and Furret jump down, and scream until they reached to the courtyard.

The group comes down from the second floor to the courtyard. They find Jack's head and torso stuck in a pile of snow. Jack wobbles.

"Jack, come out of there." Said Joey, shaking his head slowly.

Jack comes out of a pile of snow. "Ugh!" He shakes the snow off him.

They look around from the courtyard and see everything is just pillars, a small pond, a while of snow everywhere, and statues. "What the? What is this place?"

"A courtyard." Vincent answers.

"A strange courtyard." Joey comments.

"Well for one thing, I don't like it." Vincent comments. "And another, I don't think we're alone here."

"Do you have to always have think jinxes, Vincent?" Ask Joey.

"Oh no," Vincent replies, "Just this worm right there." He points at the small white worm.

"Hmm?" Ask Joey, looking at what Vincent is pointing at.

The group looks at the little white worm crawling around a pile of snow. Then, it crawls around Jack.

Jack takes the little worm and adores it, "Aww, it's cute."

"It's adorable." Said Pikachu, "Look at it."

Amy doesn't like how Jack is holding the worm. Something's not right with the little worm. "Jack, you don't want to uh…"

Jack pets the worm, with his finger, and said, "Tickle, tickle, tickle." The little worm then bites Jack's finger. Chomp! "Ow!" Jack shouted. He pulls the finger away. "That hurt."

"Told you not to mess with it." Said Amy.

Jack holds the worm, with one hand, and said, "Scram!" He flicks the worm out of the courtyard.

"Jack, I wish you haven't done that." Said Amy.

"That worm is nothing but trouble." Said Jack. "Let's go back up to the second floor."

Vincent comments a warning, "Oh boy, I wish you haven't done that, Jack."

"Why?" Ask Jack.

"Because, Jack," Joey explains, "Things are not as they seem."

The group decided to go back to the second floor: Joey and Amy fly up to the balcony while Jack and Vincent walk up the wall. Pikachu, and Kyo hang on to Jack just as Furret hangs on to Vincent. But the group doesn't realize that the white little worm is hanging on to a wall. It burrows back through the snow and back into the courtyard.

Joey's ears flick. "Huh?" He stops and looks back. "Hmm?"

Amy turns at Joey and asks, "Joey, what's up?"

"Something's coming." Said Joey.

Jack, Pikachu, Vincent, Furret, and Kyo turn at Joey, and then turn at the end of the courtyard. Staring at a pile of snow, a white little worm pops out again. The group is surprised, except Joey.

"Hagh!" Said Jack, surprised.

"Uh. The same worm again."

"You again?" Ask Jack, disturbed. Jack walks back down to the snow and marches to the white little worm. "I thought I told you to scram!" Jack is about to stomp that white little worm, "You little, finger biting…" But before Jack could stomp on the worm, the little white worm starts to grow. The group is surprised. Jack is astonished and said, "Weakling…annoying…worm?"

The white little worm is now a white huge worm. It roars at Jack and Pikachu.

"You had to kick the worm, Jack." Said Joey, face palming.

"He didn't kicked it, he flicked it." Amy corrects.

Jack and Pikachu can't move. "Oh, great. So much for our leader." Said Joey, face palming his forehead.

Vincent said, "What a complete idiot." He said French for idiot.

"Tell me about it." Amy agrees.

"Tell me again how am I related to him?" Ask Joey. "Now what do we do?"

"We better take it down before he decided to have Jack as a meal ticket." Vincent suggested.

Joey suggested. "Well, we can't get close to it, otherwise we'll be paralyzed."

"Blaziken!" Amy calls, bringing Blaziken out again. Blaziken comes out of the Poké ball with its arms crossed.

"Blaze! Blaziken!" It spoke.

"This time," Joey spoke holding another Poké ball, "Infernape." He tosses the ball up in the air. "To my side!"

The Poké ball opens up, and then brings an ape like Pokémon with a fiery hair, long monkey tail, and blue eyes. "Infernape!" It spoke. "Infernape!"

Vincent pulls out a Poké ball, but gives Furret a command, "Furret, stay right there with Kyo."

Furret agrees, "Okay." And goes to the corner with Kyo.

"Houndoom, come on out." Said Vincent. Vincent releases the Poké ball in the air, and the Poké ball releases Houndoom again. It roars. "Should we go help Jack before he becomes a meal worm ticket?"

Joey agrees. "Mmm-hmm."

"Joey, you start." Vincent said, allowing Joey to start.

"Very well." Joey agrees.

"Hold on a moment. I've heard of this worm, but what was it?" Vincent tries to remember, "What was it? I heard of it, but I don't know where."

"If it's from the snow, then my fire can," Joey comments, but then he realizes, "Wait, what if I hit Jack?" He gets to the side, and then forms a purple energy in both arms. Joey shouts, "Eat this worm! Gallic Gun!" He blasts a purple beam attack at the huge white worm. The huge white worm roars in pain, but still wiggling alive. Joey said, impressed, "Impressive strength, worm." He commands, "Infernape, Flamethrower!"

"Infernape!" Infernape inhale its breath, and then blows flames at the huge white worm. "Infernape!" The huge white worm roars in pain again, but it doesn't become burn.

"Okay, my turn." Said Amy.

"Guys, use fire." Joey suggested.

"Oh? Okay. Fires a good idea." Said Amy. She aims her arrow at the huge white worm, and then fires an arrow at the huge white worm. The huge white worm takes a hit, but it's still strong.

Blaziken charges at the huge white worm, and then kicks with a flaming Blaze Kick. "Blaziken! Blaze!" The huge white worm takes a huge hit, and almost goes down.

Joey said, "Vincent, finish that worm off." He sits down and watches.

Vincent jumps up on the huge worm's head. He bends down to the mouth and spoke, "Bonjour, Monsieur Gel Ver. Are you enjoying yourself?" The huge white worm roars at Vincent, and Vincent holds his head. The huge white worm stops roaring, and Vincent replies, "I'll take that as a non. But however, I'll make you nice and toasty."

Vincent inhales his breath, and then blows a flamethrower out of its mouth and at the huge white worm. The huge worm is singed, and then burns in defeat. "Escargot."

Joey asks, "Uh, guys, what do we do about Jack?" He looks at Jack and Pikachu who are still stunned from the roar.

Amy replies, "I don't know. I think we should leave him here. Let him learn his lesson."

Joey sighs and said, "As a bigger baka he is, he is still family. Its just one thing my parents taught me, always help your family. I'll take him." Joey picks up Jack to one shoulder, and then Pikachu to the other. Next, he pulls out a Poké ball and said, "Infernape, return."

"Infernape." Said Infernape. The Poké ball shot a red beam to Infernape, and then Infernape warps back into the Poké ball."

Amy pulls out Blaziken's Poké ball, and said, "Blaziken, return. Good job."

"Blaze." Said Blaziken. The Poké ball shots a red beam at Blaziken, and Blaziken is warped back into the Poké ball. Amy puts the ball away.

"Maybe I should keep you out just to be sure, Houndoom." Said Vincent. Houndoom agrees.

"Great. Thank goodness I didn't get frozen." Said Kyo.

"You're coming with me, Kyo." Said Amy, picking up Kyo.

"Dang it!" Kyo shouted.

Joey carries Jack and Pikachu to the top of the second floor. He asks, "You're not that heavy, Jack. Are you sure you're eating?"

Joey and Amy fly up to the balcony while Vincent walks up on the wall, again. Joey carries Jack and Pikachu, and Amy carries Kyo back up to the balcony. Furret hangs on to Vincent while Vincent carries his Houndoom up. The group is back on the balcony, Vincent opens the door, and the group walks in.

Back inside the mansion, the group is still searching for the library Jack has to return. The hallway is still brown and cold, and there is a door on the right side.

"Ah, it feels so good to be out again." Said Vincent.

Joey agrees. "Hmm-hmm."

Vincent asks, looking at the frozen Jack, "How long has two been out?"

"I, I don't know."

"Why, don't you just put him down? We'll find a way to snap him out of it."

Joey puts Jack and Pikachu on the floor. "Hmm, I wonder." Joey asks, "How can we snap Jack out of this?"

"Mmm, food?" Ask Amy.

"Food?" Ask Jack, snapping out of it. Pikachu wakes up. Both Jack and Pikachu look around, "Did someone say food? Where? Where? Where?"

"Good of you to wake up." Amy said, "Ready, Joey?"

"Yeah." Joey agrees. Both Amy and Joey wind up their arms, and then hammer Jack to the ground.

Jack gets hammered, and prone to the ground in pain. "OWW-Ho, ho! That really hurt!" Said Jack, whining in pain. His head has a big lump.

"Jack, next time learn you lesson." Joey gives a lecture, "Do not flick a worm if it suddenly grows and paralyses you."

"What he said." Said Amy, pointing to Joey's comment.

"Ow. That really hurt!" Said Jack, getting up and rubbing his head.

"Well, you need to learn you lesson, Jack." Said Amy.

Jack said to Amy, "Ugh! Fine! I'll stop doing that. Can we please go? Just where are we anyway?"

Vincent answers, "We are in a hallway getting close to the Study Room. Let me see the map."

Jack pulls out the map, and checks the map. He said, "According to this map, the room should be down the hall to the right."

"Let's go there." Said Vincent, and Joey just nods.

The group walks down the hallway and found a door on the right. "Here it is." Said Jack. He reaches to the doorknob, and turns to the right. But the door won't budge. "What? Again?"

"Not again." Said Vincent, discouraged.

"Aye." Said Joey, upset.

"How many well know doors we've know that are been locked up?" Ask Vincent.

"So what, do have to solve the puzzle?" Ask Joey.

Jack replies, "This door won't open."

Furret spoke, "It must be locked on the other side."

"Great. As if we need an expert to unlock this door, I wish Yuki is here."

"Hmm, I wonder." Joey reaches his hand up like he's about to jab the door down, but Jack notices Joey is about to break the door down.

"Huh?" Ask Jack, catching Joey's swish movement. He gets in front of the door and calls, "Wait!" He gets in front of Joey, and Joey stops before he could try and skewer his cousin to Swiss cheese. Jack's eyes were shut, and then open his eyes. He's surprised the finger was in front of Jack's face. Joey's hand then starts to spin like a drill. "Whoa-whoa-whoa! Okay! Do you remember the last you blow the cabin down?"

Joey thinks and remembers, "Oh yeah." He pulls his hand down. "Fine, Jack, I won't blow the door open."

Jack said, "We were pretty lucky to get the hammer out, but you almost blew down the chimney down with the cabin."

Joey sighs, "What now? How are we going to open it?"

Vincent said, "Jack's right. We need to use our heads, not our muscles. Think before you leap; otherwise, you might not only break the door down, but also, we'll have to do a serious scavenger hunt in the Study Room."

Amy examines through the keyhole. Jack asks, "What do you see?"

"Books; lots of it. I don't like." Said Amy.

Jack said, "We're ganna have to unlock the door someway."

"Should we unlock it?" Joey thinks. "That would be too boring." Then he has an idea. Joey said, "Jack." He points his finger at the door, "I'm going to blow the door down but not with my muscles, but I'm ganna use a finger beam."

Jack then realizes that they come this far to help bring Hiro back; however, the puzzle tricks would be too long for the group to bring Hiro back since Hiro's illness. Jack mutters to himself, "Oh, whom am I kidding? We're already gotten this mission. We need to finish this." He speaks to the group, "Okay guys; move out of the way. Joey is ganna blow it."

"Okay." Said Amy. The group moves out of the way so Joey can blast the down door.

Next, Joey blasts a yellow beam out of his finger on to the edges, and on to the door. It seems the door is too strong from Joey's attack. He said, "I know I can get it this time." He tries again, but it seems Joey's finger beam did a weak blast, and the door didn't go down. "Darn it." Joey tries on more time, and then time blast rapid finger beams on the door.

Jack and Pikachu are surprised, and Jack shouts, "Agh! Cousin!"

The door is blown up, and opens up a passageway for the group to go through. Joey scratches the back of his hair since he embarrassedly blew the door into pieces, and chuckles a little. "Uh, he, he. Maybe I kind have over done that one."

"Well, that's one way to open it." Said Jack. He looks in. Jack sees damaged books on the shelves.

Joey peeks in and said, surprised, "Whoops. I think I blew up the books too."

Jack walks in and tries to walk through without stepping on a book. "I hope Hiro doesn't mind the avalanche of books.

Inside the room, there are books everywhere. The group is a little astonished to see a room full of books in the bookshelves They look around to see if the book, Jack found, to see if the book has any clue to where it belongs.

Jack pulls the book and looks for the symbol. "Let's see." He finds it the symbol. "Here." The symbol on the side of the book shows a Sheep symbol. "A sheep, just like Hiro." Jack looks at the other side of the room.

And then Joey takes a nap while standing. "Should we wake him up?" Ask Vincent.

"Nah. Let him sleep." Said Jack. "I think he had enough."

He looks around and sees a lot of books with different colors. He looks at the other side of the room and some books. "Here we go." But then he notices that all the books are full.

Vincent said, "Not much room for one spot."

"You said it." Furret agrees.

Jack and Pikachu look at the book, and Jack looks behind the book. He becomes astonished to see something odd the book Jack is holding. The back of the book is an odd image. It looks like some kind of close up skin.

Jack looks at the group and said, "Hey, guys." Everyone looks at Jack, but Joey.

"I got this." Said Amy. She pops Joey's bubble, but nothing happened. "Dang it." She has another idea, "Joey, I got some chicken in here." Joey didn't respond one bit.

Vincent sighs and said, "Try this. Oh, Vincent." He pulls out some steamed chicken to Joey's nose, and it still changed Joey's nap. "Sheesh. This boy is out cold." Said Vincent. Joey wakes up, and tackles Vincent to the ground. "VAAGH!"

Joey said, "Soshi?"

Vincent asks, "Tu Idiot! It's me! Vincent!"

"Soshi, how did you get so big?" Ask Joey, delusional. He mistook Vincent for Soshi.

Vincent calls, "Frog-Leg Kick!" He kicks Joey up high, and then back flip kicks Joey to the shelves. Wham!

"Ow!" Joey calls, slammed to a wall.

"What's the matter with you?" Ask Vincent.

"Huh? Who? What? What?" Ask Joey, surprised. He turns at Vincent, "Vincent! Did you just kicked me into a wall?"

"You tackled me, you idiot!"

Joey clutches his fist, "Oh, that's it!" He charges at Vincent, and punches Vincent to a wall. "HEEYA!"

"VAGH!" Vincent screamed, attacked. He is sent slammed to a wall. "UGH!"

"Guys, cut it out!" Jack calls.

"Heavy Chopper!" Vincent kicks Joey back into the wall.

"AGH" Joey calls, slammed to the bookshelf. "Oh yeah!" Joey calls, and he punches Vincent to the wall again.

"VAGH!" Vincent calls, "You're wide open!" Vincent gets back up in a quick jump, and slam kicks Joey back into the wall. Both Joey and Vincent continue to fight each other.

"Ow! "Oh yeah!"

"I'll teach you to mess with a chef!" "How's this for a surprise? Make-a-way supreme!"

"Why you!" This time Joey takes Vincent for a joy ride to the ceiling, and then slams Vincent back to the floor.

"UGH!" Vincent said, slammed. Thanks to their fighting, both Joey and Vincent caused the entire room to shake, and then all the books come falling down. Jack grabs Amy, Pikachu, Kyo, and Furret, and shields them from falling books. The group is now covered in a pile of books.

"I think it's over." Said Jack, popping out of a pile of books."

"Nice going, guys." Said Amy, coming out of the books. She turns at Joey and Vincent.

"Sorry about that." Said Joey, apologizing.

"Désolé." Said Vincent, apologizing.