Nick collapsed to the linoleum floor in a heap. She was in shock, not from fear of the ghosts but from the death of her two-day love interest. She knew he would soon respawn on a floating platform in the break room of the building sans one stock that would quickly be replaced in the flag storage room, but it just wasn't the same. The man she had loved was gone. All that remained was a ghost of him, and also literal ghosts.
The spooks flew around the room, grabbing Pac-Man's posthumous lunch and throwing it at the other patrons. A few smash veterans grabbed their weapons and took aim at the ghosts, their attacks futilely passing through like an allied-yet-hated Nintendog assist trophy. Ike, sitting on his daily throne of uncooked steaks that he somehow procured through illicit Wario-dealings, would have none of this food-fight debauchery in his throne room and countered Shulk's orange which a ghost had thrown his way.
Speaking of Shulk, he too was mourning Nick's spherical love next to her. Either that or he was ducking on his knees underneath the table to hide from the ghosts.
"I'm really kneeling it!" Shulk announced to the linoleum. He was pretty cute, cowering like that. He was blonde too, just like Pac-Man sort of. But he just wasn't the same. What could possibly fill the vacuum in Nick's heart now?
"Vrrrrrrrrr!" hummed Luigi's vacuum. From across the room a great turbulence began sucking up the ghosts one by one. Ploink! Ploink! Ploink! It seemed that Luigi had acquired a Smash Ball in the fifteen seconds since Pac-Man's death and stuffed it into his Poltergust. Smash Balls were a pretty rare commodity since the economic downturn. You were surprised Luigi was selfless enough to waste one here to save his comrades.
His uncle-brown mustache blew majestically in the vortex he commanded. Nick noticed a twinkle in his eye she had never noticed before. Something beneath the cowardice. Something hidden. Something she had to discover.
As quickly as Pac-Man had faded away, so was her lust for him replaced by desire for the overall-sporting Italian stereotype with a nose the size of her fist.
He probably had some other good qualities too, but she couldn't think about that right now. At the moment Nick Name wanted nothing more than to jump into Luigi's arms. She lept up onto the fruit-laden table and took a running jump into the vortex.
"Hold on, Luigi!" She shouted triumphantly, long jumping into the nozzle. The suction took with it a banana that lodged itself into the Poltergust, causing its engine to backfire. The vacuum exploded, taking Luigi with it. The ghosts flew off. "OOK," said DK, mourning his lost banana.
