"All right, you two," said Gadd, walking into the lounge and rousing Luigi and Fred from their rest. "I've unscrambled that security image. Wanna take a look-see?"
"I've always loved to study my own work," replied Fred.
"Maybe it can help us," added Luigi.
The three of them headed over to the console, where the security image was displayed on the monitor.
One of the first things they saw was a Boo holding a key as they talked to a short, pink ghost. It was almost as if the Boo was entrusting the ghost with the key.
Gadd's eyes shone behind his glasses. "Look at that key! It appears to be mighty special, don't you think?"
Luigi nodded, Fred bearing a contemplative expression.
"That Boo is giving it to that pinkish ghost!" Gadd observed.
"They probably want that ghost to hide it," reasoned Fred.
"Which means that they don't want it falling into my hands," added Luigi.
Gadd nodded. "We'll ned to take a very close look at this image in order to find clues," he said. He used the buttons on his console to tilt the image and zoom in and out.
Pointing to another pink ghost, he said, "I've never seen that kind of ghost before! And I've been in this valley for close to two years! Luigi, once you capture them, then I'll start research on them right away!"
"Yeah, okay," Luigi said distractedly, his eyes fixated on a pair of Boos carrying a portrait in a sack.
"Just look at those ghosts!" Gadd was saying. "They're out of control! The Boos seem to be encouraging their bad behavior."
"The Boos showed up after the Dark Moon shattered," said Fred. "Coincidence? I think not!"
The two of them finally noticed Luigi staring intently at the Boos carrying the portrait.
"What are those Boos holding?" asked Gadd. "Suspicious…"
"It's—another one of those paintings!" exclaimed Fred. "It's just like the portrait they shoved me into!"
Luigi said nothing, zeroing in on the portrait, particularly the pair of shoes sticking out from the burlap. They looked extremely familiar—
"That's—the rooftop pool," murmured Gadd after a while. "It seems to be a meeting point for the Boos. Their power increases when they gang up, and they feed off each other's energy."
"If there are more people stuck in portraits, then we've got to help them," Fred said urgently. "Otherwise…"
Luigi tore his eyes away from the portrait. "I know," he said. "I know."
"But that key in the image," said Gadd. "It must be the special key we're looking for—the one that unlocks the door inside the Hollow Tree!"
"The ghosts must be hiding that key from us because they don't want us reaching the top of the tree," reasoned Fred.
"And they don't want us reaching the top of the tree—because that's where the Dark Moon piece is located," finished Gadd. "Oh, boy! These are some crafty ghosts we're dealing with."
Luigi stroked his chin. "I need to find a way onto that rooftop pool," he mused, "and since the ghosts won't give up that special key, I'll have to fight them for it. That sounds fun."
"Wait a minute—maybe I can help," offered Fred.
"Fred—I want you to stay in the Bunker with me," said Gadd. "Together, we can help guide Luigi in the right direction."
"All right," said Fred.
Gadd marked the rooftop pool's location on the Dual Scream.
"I'll be praying for your safe return, Luigi," said Fred.
"And so will I," said Gadd. "Now go get that special key!"
Luigi nodded, and then Gadd pixelated him to his destination as Fred waved goodbye.
…
Once he was back in the Haunted Towers, Luigi plugged in his earbuds and set off. First, he jostled a Gold Greenie from a tree near the entrance, numerous dollar bills spewing from the nozzle once they were captured. When he reached the courtyard, he saw to his horror that more Flytraps had grown, snapping at him as he raced into the tower lobby.
Inside the tower lobby, there was a tall flower with deep red petals, which punched down at him whenever he approached. He dodged a punch and vacuumed up the flower, earning a dollar bill. Then, he proceeded to the skybridge, where more of those flowers waited. The last flower, however, dropped an emerald, rather than a dollar bill.
"This place is getting more overrun," he said to himself. "I need to find that Dark Moon piece soon."
Back in the plant nursery, Luigi sucked up another one of those flowers and used the vacuum to turn a valve, causing water to spout from a pipe. He took a bucket and watered a sprout in the center of the room. And that sprout grew into another leafy staircase.
"What kind of plants are these?" Luigi asked himself as he carefully ascended that leafy staircase.
He found himself in a rumpus room, where a creepy-looking doll turned its head to follow his every move. Next to the doll was a dollhouse, and when Luigi inspected it, he found himself looking at the room's reflection. Peering closer, he saw that one of the jack-in-the-boxes was moving.
That couldn't be good.
With some trepidation, Luigi ventured over to the jack-in-the-box, turning the crank until a Greenie popped out!
Luigi must've hopped back a foot.
Then, he composed himself and dealt with the Greenie in his usual way, followed by several more Greenies that had emerged from the box. As he moved around the rumpus room, the doll's head continued to turn, following him. And after Luigi was finished capturing the Greenies, he saw that the doll's head had unscrewed from the body, yielding an emerald.
"That's still pretty creepy," he said before continuing on his way.
In a sprawling family room, Luigi noticed that a portrait was missing, uncovering it with the DLD. The portrait was crooked, and when he straightened it, a Boo emerged from behind him!
"I always knew you'd fall for me!" cackled the Boo. "Boo. B. Trap strikes again!"
Hardly two minutes later, Luigi had captured Boo B. Trap, and now he was in a solarium. Yanking on a cord pulled out a flight of stairs, and he revealed a hidden chest which contained a golden bone and an emerald. Then, he ran up the stairs and peered through a crack in a wall, observing a trio of Hiders lounging around in a bedroom, eventually falling asleep.
When he walked into the bedroom, however, there were no beds in sight. He had to spin a ceiling fan, which pushed the wall back to reveal the bedroom in its entirety. At once, he noticed that the Hiders were awake, and when they saw him, they dove under the three beds.
Uncovering them was easy. All Luigi had to do was yank away the top sheet. But once he captured the first Hider, the other two decided to play a shell game with him, shifting the beds and forcing their opponent to keep a quick eye. However, Luigi had played many shell games. He only slipped up once before he sucked up all of the Hiders, the last one dropping a key.
The key unlocked the door to the west hall, where two doors waited for him. The door to his left was locked, but the other door took him across a crow's next. He hummed along to his music as he traversed the crow's next, stunning bats and pulling down vines along the way. Eventually, he found himself back in the conservatory.
"Now what?" he asked.
The sight of those bulb-like plants answered his question. Using them, he floated his way up to a hidden door. After he uncovered it with the DLD, this door took him to another maze with red coins.
In this maze, Luigi had 15 seconds to run up the flights of stairs and gather all of the red coins. He completed the challenge with 5 seconds to spare, earning another emerald for his efforts.
Outside of the door, he found a golden bulb. As soon as he inflated it, he followed the trail of coins back down to the conservatory, where a chest stuffed with treasure appeared. Then, he floated back up to another door, which took him to the crow's nest's upper level. After he used the DLD to uncover a key, he returned to the west hall to unlock the other door.
The door opened into the west bathroom, where a vain Slammer was studying their reflection in one of the mirrors. Luigi captured them before they even knew he was there, but the element of surprise was soon lost as a couple of Greenies arrived on the scene. After he dealt with them, those pink gates strangely didn't disappear. There were more ghosts about, but where were they?
In his distracted state, Luigi stepped in a purple, gelatinous puddle. At once, a purple, gelatinous ghost formed around him, entrapping him and giving him a big hug. Luigi managed to break free, and then he used the DLD to form the two smaller puddles into two smaller gelatinous ghosts. These ghosts had an infinite amount of HP, so he had to use a Surge to get them into the vacuum.
"Ick," he said when he was finished. "I think I'll call those ghosts—Creepers."
After uncovering one last emerald, he plopped onto a nearby deck chair to rest, only to be catapulted up to the rooftop pool.
"All right," said Luigi. "I made it. Now to look for that special key…"
After splashing some water onto his face, Luigi noticed that there were frog statues on three corners of the pool, which meant that one statue was hidden. Once the statue was revealed, it ejected the special key, where it floated in the middle of the pool.
"I never would've thought that," Luigi mused as he waded into the pool and grabbed the special key.
A strange noise made him pause. Mysterious ripples formed in the pool, several overhangs swinging back and forth.
"Who's there?" asked Luigi.
Then, the strange noise sounded directly in his ear. Yelping, Luigi jumped into the air and splashed back into the water, dropping the special key as he did. He turned to find the special key in the hands of a triumphant looking ghost. It was one of those pinkish ghosts from Fred's security image!
"My God," he gasped. "You're quite the sneaky one, aren't you?"
The ghost chuckled as more of them appeared around the man in green. Luigi dove to his right to avoid another sneak attack and stunned two of those ghosts, only for another one to give him a scare powerful enough to jar his grip. He used the ripples in the water, along with the DLD, to track down the sneaky pink ghosts. Sneakers—that was a good name for them.
Six minutes later, Luigi managed to vacuum up the last Sneaker. As he caught his breath, he saw the special key reappear on the diving board. He walked over and scooped it up, raising it over his head in triumph.
"Yeah!" he cheered.
A cheerful bark sounded, and Luigi saw a flash of white leap over his head and snag the key from his grip.
It was the cute ghost puppy he saw at the Gloomy Manor earlier!
The puppy landed on the ground and turned to face Luigi, wagging his tail playfully.
"Hey!" cried Luigi.
Then, the puppy dropped the special key before pouncing on it, using it as a chew toy.
"No, no, no!" admonished Luigi. "Bad doggie!"
But the ghost puppy ignored Luigi, tossing the special key over the railing before happily diving after it.
"Oh, come on!" huffed Luigi.
The Dual Scream rang.
"Yello?"
"Criminy!" exclaimed Gadd. "Where did that ghostly dog come from?"
"I saw him playing outside the Gloomy Manor's mudroom," said Luigi, "but he just grabbed the special key from me."
"And now he's vanished completely," said Gadd. "Ugh—stupid dog!"
"Take it easy, Professor," said Luigi. "I think he's kinda cute."
"Whatever you say," said Gadd. "Let's bring you back."
"Ciao," said Luigi.
He put the Dual Scream away, just then noticing that he'd inadvertently stepped in some ghostly dog's droppings.
"Yuck," Luigi grimaced, quickly wiping his shoe.
…
"Luigi!" chirped Fred when the man in green landed back in the Bunker.
"Hey, Fred," said Luigi as the two of them hugged.
"I certainly didn't see that coming," said Gadd, referring to the ghost puppy. "We need to recover that special key at all costs."
"Can you track him down?" asked Luigi.
"I tried to locate him with the Parascope, but the doggone dog's gone!"
"Say that three times fast," murmured Fred.
"Let's unload the Poltergust 5000, shall we?" asked Gadd. "I believe you captured a new kind of ghost!"
"Actually—I caught three new types of ghosts," said Luigi as he emptied the ghost vacuum.
"And look at that," said Gadd. "You've earned enough treasure for me to start on your third upgrade. This upgrade will complete the Power Gauge for the Surge function!"
"Perfect," said Luigi.
"When I'm finished with the upgrade, I'll try to tune the Parascope to find that dog's hiding place," said Gadd. "How about you take a breather?"
"Okay," said Luigi, sliding off the Poltergust and handing it to the professor.
Then, he turned to Fred.
"Would you like to share some sweet wine with me?"
Please R&R.