[T&$r?!#u*~e%#A$?!r%~t]

[[]]

Ruby let out a short breath as she walked through the now lit first floor halls. Ruby had no idea why these halls were now lit, but if it meant not dealing with the ghost mice and bats Ruby would take it.

Either way Ruby made her way to the end of the hall past the washroom, where she stared at the single door with a clover imprinted on it and the metallic vines growing over it. Just like with the door in the Foyer, the light on the vines began to pulse faster and faster before dissolving and allowing Ruby to slide the key the keyhole and unlocking the door and stepping out into the Courtyard.

Taking a moment to look around the courtyard Ruby noticed a pair of statues, an old well, a fountain, a little birdhouse… and an outhouse for some reason.

However Ruby found herself doing a double take at the birdhouse, as she noticed a piece of paper stuck in it.

Ruby found herself walking toward the birdhouse, only to stop as a small pale wisp like ghost floated in front of her, not intending to hit her, but just randomly floating around.

"Huh…" Ruby said as she watched the wisp's for a few seconds, before she continued to the birdhouse.

"J..t...e...h.r...o…"

Ruby froze at the sound of that voice. It was faint, very faint, but it sparked an almost forgotten memory within Ruby's mind as she looked to where she heard the voice coming from.

The well.

Ruby ran toward the well and, barely taking note of the ladder, jumped into it. When she landed at the bottom she noticed an old lantern and a tunnel that Ruby quickly ran down, and upon reaching the end of it, found a small gap that looked like the inside of lions maw, the sharp fangs stopping Ruby for sliding through the gap.

Ruby peered through the opening and noticed the room was rather well lit despite Ruby having never been in there before, looking to her right Ruby noticed a door with a Diamond shape on it, and when she looked to her left she-

Ruby's entire brain came to a halt. Against the far left was hung a gold framed painting, the subject of which was a woman with dark red hair and a pair of silver eyes.

'Mom.' Ruby thought as her mind was flooded with thoughts.

"Hueh he he he." Laughed King Boo as his entire focus was on Summer Rose's portrait, "After all your precious little rose has been doing I can't even begin to consider that thought." King Boo mocked, "I'm willing to let go of her little friends she saved, if only to let them feel the despair of not being able to save that silver eyed runt."

Summer noticed Ruby, barely recognizing her daughter if not for the fact she knew her own face as well as she did, "So you're just going to assume you'll beat her the same way you beat me?" Summer growled, "You only won because I had nothing to fight you with! Plus from what I've heard…" Summer face turned into a smirk, "My little Rose has been throwing your minions into the slammer left and right. Isn't the power of your kind the fact they get stronger in numbers?"

King Boo growled at Summer, "You best toss aside your hopes right here and now!" King Boo shouted, "The little runt is an absolute coward! She trembled at the sight of me!"

"And you ran like a little chicken from the sight of her." Summer challenged.

"Raaah!" King Boo roared as several objects in the room began to tremble- With Ruby taking it as a sign to get out of there before the King noticed her.

Ruby stumbled away from the gap in the wall until she reached the center of the well, where a hanging purple ghost flipped down and laughed as it dropped a bomb, the fuse of which was instantly doused when Ruby mindlessly aimed the Poltergust at the ghost and bomb and fired a large blast of water- dissolving the ghost and ruining the bomb.

As the lantern came on, and a key appeared, Ruby slumped against the ladder and looked down the hall she had come from.

"Mom… She's been here this whole time." Ruby muttered, "Trapped in the basement of a mansion for so many years…" Ruby closed her eyes as she took a deep breath.

"Isn't the power of your kind the fact they get stronger in numbers?"

Ruby focused on those words before opening her eyes and the Poltergust, "One at a time, every single Boo." Ruby said to herself as she stood up, her eyes gleaming ever so slightly, "Don't worry mom, I'm coming for you."

Grabbing the Key, which unlocked a door back into the Mansion, Ruby climbed the ladder and returned to the courtyard. As she approached the dead tree's near the birdhouse a trio of the hanging ghost's appeared, only one of which didn't drop a bomb. Ruby released water from the Poltergust and did a quick spin, dissolving all three of the ghosts in an instant and lighting up the courtyard, as well as allowing a chest to appear by the well.

Ruby however made no attempt to go toward the chest for the moment and instead pulled out the sheet of paper from the birdhouse.

"A letter?" Ruby muttered as she looked at the paper, then began to read it.

To my family.

If you've managed to get this then I'm sorry I can't be there for you anymore. I've been chased by something that is calling itself the king of ghosts, I guess Professor Gadd was right about his theories on Ghost's.

I don't have much time to write this before he finds me in this mansion, but he seems to be using the crown on his head to manipulate the ghost's in the mansion. The Ghost's seem to be getting stronger, but the king is enhancing their emotions, making some of them more aggressive. But he seems frustrated as a surprising amount of them aren't aggressive in the slightest, prefering to keep doing what they've refused to go to the afterlife for.

Ruby, Yang, if either of you are reading this, I'm sorry I missed so much of your lives, I can only hope that whatever happens to me doesn't leave a burden on your shoulders, and Yang, please, don't bother going after Raven, she's-

Ruby figured her mother ran out of time to write the letter. "Still, this is useful." Ruby noted, "In fact, maybe Madame Clairvoya can help use this." With that in mind Ruby pocketed the letter, looted the chest in by the well, and then unlocked the door back into the mansion- Specifically the Rec Room.

The first thing Ruby noticed was the amount of exercise equipment in the room. Exercise bikes, punching bags, weights, even a treadmill that for some reason had a key haphazardly on the belt.

Then Ruby noticed that the weight in the middle of the room was being lifted up, repeatedly.

"Oh great." Ruby muttered as she pulled up the Dustboy Horror to see the ghost. The best word to describe the ghost was buff, blue skin with blonde hair, a purple tail, a red shirt, and a barrel sized chest with arms to match.

This was Biff Atlas.

Ruby looked around the room as she walked over to the treadmill to take the key, noticing Biff was surrounded by three punching bags, Ruby had an idea- If Biff, and most likely all the other Ghosts in the Mansion, could interact with the environment, perhaps the environment can interact with them.

After grabbing the key, Ruby quickly turned around and took a running leap at the sandbag between her and Biff, drop kicking the sandbag and causing it to slam into Biff.

Biff was sent tumbling through the air, dropping the barbel he was lifting and after a moment righted himself and looked at Ruby with some irritation in his eyes… Before spinning his arms around trying to hit Ruby.

"Wow…" Ruby muttered, not particularly afraid of Biff, "Even I can fight better than that without a weapon.

Ruby proceeded to slam into sandbags, causing them to slam into Biff, two more times until the wind was knocked out of the ghost entirely, allowing Ruby to easily capture the Ghost as he could barely put up a fight after the relative beating he took.

As the lights came on, Ruby looted the chest that appeared, checked the key's door, which apparently was the key to the locked door that led back into the first floor halls (So now she had a shortcut) and then checked her Boo Radar.

Because the best chance she would have to save her mother was to capture every single Boo in the Mansion.

The Boo Radar led Ruby to one of the Exercise bikes, which after Ruby kicked revealed the Boo hiding in the room.

"It is I, fair Booregard!" The Boo declared with a hint of refinement… Before that refinement dissolved into a panicked shriek as Ruby focused down the Poltergust on the ghost, capturing it without much hassle.

"That's one less Boo." Ruby said as she put the Poltergust away and left the Rec Room and entered a dark hall, to which Ruby took a moment to unlock the door back to the lit halls of the first floor, then looked at the stairs ahead of her.

"Looks like I'm going back to the second floor." Ruby said to herself.

[[]]

Well, that's another chapter done.

And for those of you who guessed Summer Rose to be within the Mansion, take a moment to feel extra proud of yourselves.

Now I'm sorry these chapters feel short sometimes but, really the first of the Luigi's mansion games is painfully short and lacking a lot of things that make good writing and to be honest, I don't want to overload each chapter with monotony despite it being a good chunk of the story.

And to the guy that pointed out Ruby had forgotten to ask E. Gadd about Melody, well to be fair, Melody (no offense to her) Kinda took backseat to 'What the heck is Bogmire' considering the situation, and she's also going to be taking backseat once again to the Summer is in the Mansion.

Anyway folks, Today is Halloween, it's a full moon… And where I live, daylight Saving has come to an end so it's a 25 Hour Halloween… So I gotta lock down my place from the creatures of the night.

I hope you all enjoy your Halloween despite the… Problems we've all been having for 2020, and I'll see you again tomorrow.

Oh, also to the guest who asked me to update Remnant's Phantom Thieves… Well in accordance to my policy on what I do when people ask me to update a story on an UNRELATED Story… Guess what's NOT gonna update after I finish Ruby's Mansion :)