"What is it, Professor?" Ted asked with concern.
"Yeah, is everything all right?" added Fred.
"I—the…" spluttered Gadd. "The paranormal levels in the Treacherous Mansion are spiking!"
"That can't be good," groaned Zed.
"I have no idea what's happening yet…" Gadd tinkered with the Parascope some more, and then—
"Oh, dear Lord. Sweet Lord," breathed Gadd.
Luigi's breath hitched. "What's happening?" he asked.
"We've just picked up a radical new signal," said Gadd. "A distortion in the very fabric of our dimension!"
"J—s," hissed Ed. "That can't be good."
"I'm afraid we've been confronted with something we've never seen before," Gadd went on. "A paranormal portal—and it's located on the Treacherous Mansion's terrace!"
"Okay—how on Earth did a paranormal portal wind up in Evershade Valley?!" balked Ned.
"This—is King Boo's doing," Gadd said slowly. "He's definitely not messing around anymore."
Luigi crossed himself, and the Toad Assistants did the same thing.
"I think King Boo has the last Dark Moon piece—and Mario—in that paranormal portal," Gadd continued. "Luigi, I'm sending you in to investigate. And—entering a paranormal portal of this caliber is dangerous, but what choice do we have?"
"None at all, Professor," Luigi found himself saying. "None at all."
Gadd marked the terrace's location on the Dual Scream. "The future of Evershade Valley is in your hands," he solemnly intoned. "God be with you."
"God be with you, too," said Luigi.
Gadd uttered a short prayer as he activated the Pixelator.
…
Luigi was deposited in the inner courtyard, but before heading for the terrace, he made a quick stop in the aviation exhibit. His gut told him that a Boo was floating about in there, and when he saw that the hot air balloon model was missing, he was proven right. After he uncovered the hot air balloon and vacuumed up the Spirit Balls, the Boo jumped out in Luigi's face!
"I'm MaraBoo! Aren't my feathers classy?"
"I have no time for this," huffed Luigi as he shone his DLD on MaraBoo. "I have a brother—and a valley—to save!"
Quickly, he captured MaraBoo before returning to the Inner Courtyard. He used the rotor to turn the staircase until it faced center. Then, he raced up the steps and into the terrace.
Luigi skidded to a halt and almost forgot how to breathe when he saw King Boo floating near a golden altar, his back to him. With a crazed cackle, the Master of Illusions built up power in his bejeweled crown before firing a pinkish-purple bolt of energy directly above the altar. There was a low but mighty rumble before the sky itself tore asunder, creating a wide, giant portal. Laughing in satisfaction, King Boo flew inside the portal, which began to glow a bright pink. Tentatively, Luigi took a few steps toward the portal—and then screamed out as enhanced ghosts came flooding out of it.
Back in the Bunker, Gadd and his Toad Assistants hit the deck, assuming the "duck-and-cover" position, when they saw a brilliant flash of pink light. Seconds later, they heard a muffled but loud boom and felt a sharp jolt.
"What in the name of everything holy was that?!" Fred sharply asked.
"Whatever it is—Luigi's smack-dab in the middle of it!" exclaimed Ned.
Slowly, the Bunker's occupants rose to their feet, Gadd running over to check the Parascope. The device was going bonkers, its paranormal readings completely off the charts!
"The paranormal portal," the professor realized, with dawning horror.
The Toad Assistants yelped at another pink flash and boom, and Gadd wasted no time contacting Luigi.
Back on the terrace, Luigi's heart pounded furiously as he took out the Dual Scream and answered the professor's call.
"Professor—I…" he began.
Gadd cut him off, the rising urgency in his voice making the situation clear. "The paranormal levels just shot through the roof!" he cried. "This is really serious!"
"Yeah, you think?" Luigi bit out.
"The portal will have to wait," Gadd told him. "We've got to reduce the paranormality, or our very dimension will collapse upon itself!"
The Toad Assistants cursed. Luigi looked ready to faint, but he quickly pulled himself together.
"I'll keep you updated as best as I can," said Gadd. "Now look lively! My Toad Assistants and I will be praying for you!"
"King Boo's gone completely off his rocker," said Luigi. "At this point, he'll see the whole universe in flames if it will make him king of the ashes. May God help us all, Professor."
He hung up, squared his shoulders and rolled up his sleeves before dashing back into the inner courtyard.
As pink lightning flashed and crashed all around him, Luigi went from exhibit to exhibit, facing off against the hordes of berserk ghosts who smashed, threw, tore up and weaponized anything they could get their hands on. In between battling these ghosts, he kept a close eye on the Dual Scream's map projection. Presently, all of the rooms were lit up in a lime-green glow, but it slowly and ominously faded to a yellow color. Luigi instantly knew that if he took too long, then the color would change to red. And once that happened—there would be a cataclysmic disaster imminent.
First, Luigi cleared out the exhibits in the east section of the Treacherous Mansion, and then he tackled the ghost-infested exhibits in the west section. On top of all that, there were ghosts running amok in the restrooms and the kitchen. Due to the severity of the situation, Luigi had to keep both his ears open, so he couldn't put on any music. But at this point, he didn't need it. His grip on the Poltergust 5000 never wavered, even as the "thunderstorm" continued to rage outside. A fully-charged Strobulb flash could light up entire rooms, like a beacon in a lighthouse. The ghosts he confronted had an ungodly amount of HP, and their attacks were stronger than the previous ghosts he'd fought. However, he kept on, not daring to stop and rest for even a second. He thought of nothing else but Mario and getting him out of this paranormal chaos.
At some point, Luigi detached himself from the pain, doubt and apprehension he was feeling, the "what-ifs" threatening to drag him down—and narrowed everything down to this one goal. He envisioned Mario's face and what could happen to him should he fail; he recalled the look in those sea-blue eyes when he showed up at that Secret Altar in 2001, ready to do battle with his captor. He remembered the mantra that kept him marching on through those creepy halls, and he began mentally reciting it. Do it for him. Do it for him. Do it for him.
Luigi's eyes narrowed as he confronted the enhanced ghosts. They tried to pull away from his vacuum's suction, but he fiercely raked his tongue across his lips and yanked back as hard as he dared. He found anything solid and steady to brace himself against—walls, furniture, cabinets, bookshelves—if it could stand up to his weight, then it was fair game. Crazed and berserk Greenies, Slammers, Gobbers and a host of other ghosts pounded him, punched him, pelted him with projectiles, slashed him, spat slime at him and even tried to skewer him, but he'd become a juggernaut, these attacks barely slowing him down. The captured ghosts would drop large quantities of gold, but that didn't matter anymore. Luigi was cleaning house, getting rid of every spook and spirit and busting up this haunted zoo, fighting for his life, for Mario's life, for Evershade Valley and for time and space itself.
A mild ache arose in his lungs by the time he'd subdued all of the ghosts in all of the exhibits. He stumbled into the kitchen, splashed some water onto his face, grabbed a bottle of ice-cold water from the fridge and drank from it, gulp after gulp.
"Luigi!" Gadd's voice started to crack. "Get back to the terrace, posthaste! I'm getting some mighty strange readings from there!"
That's exactly what Luigi did. And on that terrace, he became a one-man army against the seemingly endless waves of enhanced ghosts surging from the paranormal portal. Greenies, armed Greenies, Greenies with paranormal shields, Slammers, Sneakers, Gobbers, "mummies" and even beetles—it went on and on and on. Any ordinary person would've broken down on the spot—but not Luigi. Intensity blazed from him as he stood his ground, his mouth rounded and his breathing carefully controlled, refusing to give the Poltergust even the quickest break. That vacuum and the continuous thoughts of Mario were all he had in this long, dark night, and he had a chance of making it through. It was a fool's chance, yes, but it was better than zero chance.
Inside the Bunker, Fred uttered a Hail Mary as he and his colleagues crowded together, clinging to each other for support and reassurance.
"He's not gonna die in there," Gadd said to them. "He's not gonna die. Not tonight. Not like this."
"That psycho probably has a bounty on all of us," said Ted. "Luigi captured him and gave him a taste of karma by imprisoning him in a portrait, and your inventions enabled him to do so."
"And since we're your employees, we're guilty by association in his eyes!" cried Zed.
"All right, we all need to stay calm," Gadd said soothingly. "Panicking will only worsen the situation."
The professor prepared some hot cocoa and cider, and they all sat around to drink it, quietly watching on the centermost monitor as the enhanced, berserk ghosts continued to buffet and drag Luigi around. But with each ghost he captured, four more materialized. Gadd started to wonder what kind of s—storm he sent Luigi into.
So engrossed were they in watching the action that the powerful flash of pink light caught them all off-guard.
"Motherf…!" spat Ned.
"Sweet J—s! That was a big one!" Ted exclaimed.
"And that doesn't mean good news," said Gadd, checking the Parascope.
The area encompassing the terrace was now bright red! He had to warn Luigi!
"We're reaching the paranormal limit!" he shouted over the cacophony of battle. "At this rate, our dimension will collapse upon itself within the next three minutes! Hurry!"
"Three minutes?! You think he can deal with this rabble in three minutes?!" wailed Ed.
"He's gonna have to try," said Fred.
By now, the flashes of pink lightning had become more frequent, accompanied by earthquake-like shaking and shuddering. The Bunker's lights blinked on and off, and the image on the monitor wildly jumped around. But Gadd and the Toad Assistants could still get a clear view of Luigi, sweating and bleeding and bruised and exhausted and in obvious pain but stubbornly continuing to fight until the bitter end.
Eventually, a single enhanced Gobber was Luigi's remaining opponent, but with an estimated 90 seconds remaining until an apocalyptic meltdown, there was no comfort in that fact at all. This Gobber spat out balls of gunk that could knock Luigi back quite a distance if he didn't dodge them quickly enough, and they also weaponized their large, rotund form. As the seconds relentlessly ticked down, there was no sound in the terrace, save for the booming and crashing, the Gobber hawking up projectiles and laughing, the vacuum whirring, the Strobulb zapping in bright white starbursts, the Power Surge activating, Luigi gasping for breath and grunting with effort—and a chorus of Boos' high-pitched cackling, joined by their leader's insane giggles.
Do it for him, Luigi silently repeated, again and again. Do it for him.
And then the enhanced Gobber was mercifully sucked into the Poltergust with a few precious seconds to spare.
It was over.
For now.
Luigi slumped to the ground with a choked sob, the detached ghost-hunter giving way to the numerous emotions flooding through him.
Inside the Bunker, Gadd took a few shaky breaths as the Toad Assistants wept with relief, thanking God and whoever else had a hand in stopping this madness.
"You—are a ghost-catching artist, you know that?" asked Gadd when he contacted Luigi.
The man in green was hyperventilating, his pupils dilated and his frame quivering. "I—I…" he said.
"You are," said Gadd, "and the Poltergust 5000 is your paintbrush. Which, by the way, must be jam-packed with ghosts!"
"It is," said Luigi.
"Let's unload it before you go through that creepy portal," said Gadd.
"I could use a little break," Luigi shakily conceded. "See you soon."
He hung up and waited for Gadd to recall him to the Bunker.
…
"Could somebody please get me a f—ing drink?" Luigi asked the second he arrived in the Bunker.
Fred obliged, giving the green-clad plumber a mug of cider.
Luigi blew on the liquid, took a few swallows and then set the mug aside to empty the Poltergust.
"No offense," he said when all of the ghosts had been sent into the Vault, "but [bleep] the cider. May I have some wine, please?"
"Yes, you may," said Fred.
He disappeared into the lounge and emerged with a nice, chilled bottle of Moscato.
"Thank you," said Luigi as he crumpled onto a chair, took the bottle and opened it. His hands trembled as he attempted to fill the glass Ned had given him.
"Here," said Gadd. "Let me."
"Thanks," Luigi said quietly as the elderly professor poured the wine.
"We didn't think you'd make it, my boy," said Gadd, "but we're sure glad you did."
"Yeah—that must've been one Hell of a challenge," added Fred.
"Good job capturing those ghosts," Ed chimed in.
"We can't celebrate yet," warned Luigi. "King Boo's still out there, and Mario's still at his mercy."
"He must've flipped out when he saw you defeat Boolossus II," Gadd put in. "That's why he opened up a paranormal portal and sent out those ghosts. But by doing so, he showed us exactly how to get to him!"
"How?" asked Ted.
"The paranormal portal, of course," replied Gadd. "It's still open, but we've got to hurry! Who knows when he'll close it?"
He clapped his hands and spun around in his swivel chair. "King Boo—wherever you are, your days are numbered," he chuckled. "Right, Luigi?"
Luigi's face was pale and set. "Right."
I'm coming, Big Bro…
Please R&R.