It was five sweet minutes as Luigi stood in the shower, washing the stink of his adventure so far off of him and relaxing. That roundhouse brawl had left some bruises on him, but those bruises would fade in time. The memory, however—was a different story.

"Nothing's been the same since the mansion," Mario had confided in him a few months after that night in 2001. "You experience things—and then they're over, and you still can't explain them. Boos, illusions, portrait prisons and a character more hateful than Koopa himself, and I'm just a little man from Brooklyn. The only reason I didn't succumb to King Boo's torture and torment was you, hands down. I'm the luckiest S.O.B in the Mushroom Kingdom. But Bro—I can't sleep, and when I do, I have nightmares. And yet I'm trying so hard to be the strong one, because I know you're having nightmares, too…"

Luigi had hugged him, and the man in red had clung to him like he was drowning. But the worst was yet to come. Two weeks later, Mario had been rushed to the hospital following a nervous breakdown, and when Luigi was summoned to the emergency room, he'd been distraught. The next morning, the Bros had finally decided to act and seek therapy. For twelve years and counting, they saw the same therapist once a week. Recently, they were considering cutting their visits down to once every two weeks, since they were starting to feel better about the whole thing.

"And now look at me—back in the belly of the beast," he murmured as he stood under the downpour, completely lathered and now rinsing off the suds. "I could use Mario's comfort right now, but I don't know what happened to him aside from the fact that there was a struggle in his house…"

He started in on his hair, rubbing the shampoo deep into his scalp and inhaling the scent. Then, he turned the water's temperature to as cold as he could bear, tilted back his head, closed his eyes and let the cool spray do the rest. By the time he shut off the water, stepped out of the shower and wrapped a towel around his waist, Luigi was soothed and ready to push on.

Quickly, he dried himself off, combed his hair, and pulled on another short-sleeved shirt, followed by a fresh pair of overalls, socks, boots and his signature green cap. He glanced at his reflection, took a deep breath and strode back out to rejoin Gadd and Fred.

"Ah, Luigi!" greeted Gadd. "Just the man I wanted to see."

"What did I miss?" asked Luigi.

"I tried my hardest, but I wasn't able to locate that missing hour hand," sighed Gadd. "The Parascope can only find paranormal objects, so we're out of luck there."

"But we can't give up," said Luigi. "Without the clock hands, we can't open the Clock Tower Gate and get the next Dark Moon piece."

"Well—we did find something of interest in the clockworks court," said Fred. "A few minor paranormal signals—but a good ghost researcher leaves no stone unturned! We have to start our search somewhere, after all."

"You're right," said Luigi. "I'll check out whatever going on in the clockworks court, and we'll see if we can go from there."

"Good idea," said Gadd. "Are you ready, Luigi? Prepare to be pixelated!"

Luigi sighed deeply.

"There's really nothing to worry about; it's perfectly safe," chuckled Gadd. "You've done this over a dozen times without anything going wrong."

"Nothing's gone wrong yet," said Luigi.

"All right, I'm going to push the button now," said Gadd.

"Let's just—get this over with," said Luigi.

Gadd activated the Pixelator, and he and Fred saw Luigi off.

…

As soon as Luigi entered the clockworks court, he saw two Greenies playing catch with the hour hand while a third looked on. At first, Luigi hoped to stun the ghosts, grab the hour hand and be done with it. But then, he saw the ghost puppy perched nearby.

Please, don't, thought Luigi.

But the universe was against him at the moment, and as one of the Greenies tossed the hour hand to the other, the ghost puppy intercepted the two mid-catch, grabbing the hour hand in their jaws before swallowing it whole. The three Greenies glared at the ghostly puppy, who adorably rolled about on the ground and then disappeared into the factory.

Luigi facepalmed.

"Here I go again," he murmured as he followed the dog inside.

Inside the warehouse, the three Greenies were still sore over the hour hand being taken from them and thus decided to take it out on Luigi. He was able to defeat two of them effortlessly, but the other was protected by a blue shield. Through some frustrating trial and error, he discovered that the shield would break once the Surge meter reached the corresponding color. Once the ghost was captured, Luigi reminded himself to keep an eye out for more shielded ghosts.

Luigi turned on the DLD and began following the trail of spectral paw prints to the workshop, where he found the ghostly pup in one of the cabinets. The puppy bounded onto Luigi and licked his face before racing off, and another Greenie arrived on the scene to laugh at the long-suffering plumber. Luigi flipped them off before continuing his search.

At the Clock Tower Gate, Luigi noticed that the chain to one of the lanterns was missing, uncovering it with the DLD. Just as he did so, out popped a Boo!

"Don't call me GumBoo!" said the Boo. "My name's JamBoolaya!"

Luigi didn't miss a beat, capturing JamBoolaya and resuming his mission, tracking the ghostly pup all the way to the drafting office, collecting some dollar bills and fighting more ghosts along the way. The puppy was hiding in one of the drawers, and when Luigi opened it, they playfully pounced on him for some doggie kisses before fleeing, with the same Greenie following. Luigi gave chase into the warehouse's upper level, where he was finally able to capture the Greenie after breaking their paranormal shield, which was also blue.

He found the paranormal puppy in the clockmaker's chambers, and they gave his face a few more licks before darting to the roundhouse's upper level. Which meant that Luigi had to inch his way across those beams to follow the puppy across. Just as he reached the other side, a Greenie chased the puppy away, and Luigi pursued them into the transportation hall. In the stairwell to the lower level of the roundhouse, he came across another golden bone. Then, he went into the finishing room, where he found the puppy with the Greenie.

The puppy woofed happily and ran off, leaving Luigi to deal with the Greenie, along with two Slammers. The Greenie was protected by a red paranormal shield, and the Slammers were acting as their muscle. Thus, Luigi had to fight the Slammers first before even thinking about approaching the Greenie. By the time the scuffle was finished, Luigi was huffing for breath and cradling his side.

But then, he picked himself up and followed the puppy's pawprints through the container yard to the other side of the transportation hall, where he saw the ghost pup sitting there without a care in the world. Luigi tried sneaking up on them, but just as he reached the puppy, they dashed back into the finishing room, where Luigi finally cornered them.

Just like the first time, the puppy's whimpers sent thrills of guilt coursing through Luigi as he turned the Poltergust on them. But as long as they kept stealing crucial items, he'd have no choice. Luigi braced his backside against the wall and gave his vacuum one last Surge, sending the puppy inside.

Just as he picked up the hour hand, the Dual Scream rang.

"Yello?"

"Nice work, Luigi. That ghostly dog actually did us a favor by snatching the hour hand from those ghosts!"

"Really?"

"Really, really. I'll bring you back in just a second. Hold on."

"Ciao." Luigi hung up and did a celebratory leap of victory before he was recalled to the Bunker.

…

"Welcome back, youngster!" greeted Gadd. "Great job up there, as usual."

"Thanks," said Luigi.

"Now, would you hand over that handy hour hand?"

"Here you go," said Luigi as he obliged.

"Phew! The dog didn't chew it up." Gadd smiled and examined the hour hand. "After our last ghost-dog incident, I was worried I'd have to repair this thing." Putting the hour hand away, he continued, "You know the drill—let's send those ghosties down to the Vault."

"Okay." Luigi emptied the Poltergust, but as he finished, the nozzle shuddered.

"Not again," groaned Gadd as the ghostly dog burst out of the vacuum and pelted Luigi with happy licks before making good their escape.

"Doggone it!" snapped Gadd as Luigi caught his breath. "I don't get how that little guy manages to escape from the Poltergust 5000!" He pounded a fist on the armrest of his chair. "F—ing dog!"

"Hey—take it easy on Polterpup, all right?" Luigi told him.

"Polterpup?" asked Fred.

"Polterpup?" asked Gadd.

"Yeah—that's what I decided to name him," said Luigi. "That's—not a crime, is it?"

"Oh, dear God," said Gadd. "Fred—Luigi's getting attached to that pooch."

"He is?" asked Fred.

"It's a universal rule of thumb," explained Gadd. "If you name a dog or a cat or even an inanimate object, then that means you're getting attached to them."

"Okay, maybe I am starting to feel attached to Polterpup," said Luigi. "So what?"

"It's just—we still have work to do," said Gadd. "There's one last clock piece missing—the rotor. You'll need it to operate the clock hands and open the Clock Tower Gate. I'll need some time to track it down, so why don't you take a load off?"

"Sounds like a wonderful idea," said Luigi, stalking over to the lounge.

"You know—he does have a point," said Fred. "It's not like the dog's actually trying to hurt him or anything."

"It doesn't change the fact that he's making things difficult for us," Gadd told him.

"Just—cut L some slack, all right?" suggested Fred. "You asked him to deal with this, after all."

"Oh, Fred," sighed Gadd.

Please R&R.