Chapter 8: "The Haunt Hunt Begins!"
"Gotcha!" Luigi gave a yell of triumph as the twirling ghosts were pulled into his Poltergeist 3000. He looked around to see if there were any more ghosts, but the grand ballroom was empty. Faint candlelight played on his face from the chandelier over his head. Wait. Was that a face he saw in the flame. No. It's gone.
Luigi pulled up his GBH and the professor's buck-toothed face appeared on screen.
Well, Luigi," said the little man. "You've caught the Floating Wirlandas. They used to be quite famous when they where alive. Died during the Koopa wars, they did." He rubbed his chin. "So Luigi, found any Boos yet?"
"Not yet. I haven't seen any-" A faint beeping noise cut him off. A small light on top of the GBH was glowing blue.
E. Gadd jumped up and down excitedly. "Aha! The Boo Detector! It works!"
"Boo Detector?" Luigi asked.
"Yes. It's a Boo Detector- Toad! Will you stop dusting my room for five seconds?! I'm trying to talk to Luigi!" The view of the lab was cut out by a feather duster moving across the screen. Then Toad's squeaky voice hummed a little tune as he moved away from the screen. E. Gadd's head popped up again. "Er...Anyway, that little light on top will flash yellow when your close to a Boo, and red when your almost right next to it."
Luigi was nervous. So far, he hadn't seen any Boos. He didn't know what to expect, not with what E. Gadd had told him. They had some sort of king. Who knew what kind of powers the royal specter could posses.
The beeping of the GBH brought him back out of his thoughts. He was staring at the door at the far end of the room, one he had not gone in yet. He followed the hand-held elctronic's signal and it started flashing yellow as he approached the door.
*****************************************************************
Meanwhile, on the other side of the door (which was a storage closet), King Boo and eight of his trusted minions floated cramped together in the tight space. As the specters jostled for space, the monarch phantom raised a hand.
"Silence!" the king hissed. "I hear something.."
The other Boos stopped and listened. There was a low beeping noise coming from the other side of the door.
"Ah! That must be Luigi!" said GameBoo."Ok." King Boo whispered. "When he opens the door, we rush him. Got it?"
The other ghosts nodded, and remained silent, waiting for their chance to attack.
*****************************************************************
Luigi checked the Boo Radar as he reached for the handle. It was flashing bright red now. He shut his eyes, braced himself, and slowly turned the handle.
Immediately, he was thrown backward and slid across the marble floor. He was surrounded by Boos! Grinning, sneering, ghoulish ghosts. The drifted in a circle around him, closing in. Out of the group drifted the most dreadful phantom of al of them. This Boo had cold blue eyes that held malice and evil and a gaping maw full of jagged sharp teeth. A ruby crown sat perched upon the top of it, giving it the looks of a king.
"King Boo!" Luigi yelped. Acting quickly, he whipped out the Poltergeist 3000 and brandished it at the specters.
"Agh! It's that infernal machine of E. Gadd's!" shouted King Boo, floating backward in shock. "Flee while you can!"
The ghosts panicked, flying every which-way. Luigi switched the vacuum on a managed to suck up a few Boos before the rest went through the walls, sending up brief clouds of dust. Luigi sighed, wiped some sweat from his brow, and turned to the GBH, where the grinning face of E. Gadd stared back at him.
"Well done, my boy!" the old man said. "I can't thank you enough for catching those Boos!"
"Um. Yeah, I guess." Luigi said, the images of the horrid spirits still fresh in his mind. "I'm just glad they're gone."
The professor looked at something below screen, and his smile grew even wider.
"This proves it!" he cried. "Those Boos you caught have proven my theory!"
"What theory?" Luigi asked.
"Well, it's like this. I've been studying ghosts for years, and Boos have always puzzled me. Yet, in my times of encountering them over the years, I've noticed they have some sort of strange connection. Boo power, if you will. My idea is that Boos seem to be stronger when there's more of them, yet if one is detained somehow, the others weaken slightly. I figure if you capture more Boos, you have a much better chance of saving your brother."
Luigi pondered over the matter. He was most afraid of Boos above all things, but he had to find Mario. If anything had happened.
"Ok." Luigi said after a long pause. "I hope you're right, professor."
"Aren't I always?" E. Gadd chuckled. "Anyway, Luigi, those Boos are hiding around here somewhere. Make sure you use that Boo Detector."
Luigi nodded, put the GBH away, and walked back into the dark hall outside the room. The old place appeared undisturbed for years, for huge clouds of dust rose as Luigi walked. The old wallpaper was turn in places, and Luigi saw a cockroach scuttle through one of the holes. Suddenly, the GBH began emitting a low humming noise. The Boo Detector! Luigi pulled it back out of his overalls pocket and saw the light on top was flashing blue. He walked a little farther down the hall and it began to flash yellow, then red as he reached a fork in the hall. The double doors in front of him lead to the mansion's foyer. The left and right hallways he had never gone down before.
The Boo Detector flashed more rapidly when he pointed it down the left hall, so he turned and followed the signal through the blackness, till it flashed fastest before a side door. Luigi put his hand on the doorknob and, finding that it was unlocked, he stepped into the room beyond.
The first thing Luigi noticed was the smell of the room. Some sort of incense smelling of lavender. Luigi remembered smelling the same smell in Princess Peach's garden on the castle grounds. In the light of his flashlight beam, Luigi noticed several incense burners around a low round table with two old, squishy armchairs on either end. A crystal ball stood atop an iron mantel at the center of the table, and tarot cards lay around it in some sort of pattern.
Luigi also noticed that the Boo Detector had gone silent. He shook the GBH to see if it would work again. Nothing happened. Luigi shrugged and decided to search the room anyway.
He approached the table where the crystal ball sat. It was covered in dust, but a faint glimmer came to it when Luigi's flashlight beam hit it.
"Hmm...I wonder if this can really tell you the future." Luigi said, brushing some of the dust off with his gloved hand.
As if to answer his question, a unearthly glow came to the crystal. It began to get brighter, giving the room an faint yellow glow. Luigi stumbled backwards and fell into the armchair behind him. He sat there, gripping the arms of the chair as the smoke of the incense candles started to swirl around the crystal ball. Then, when the glass orb glowed it's brightest, the smoke curled and collected into the opposite armchair and an apparition took form.
It was a woman ghost. A gypsy, by the look of her. Her glowing, purple eyes seemed to hold many secrets. She had long, ebony hair that floated behind her as if they were underwater. She wore jeweled bracelets on her arms and a shawl that covered her mouth. The shawl had a symbol of a single eye sewn into it.
The ghost took a rattling breath and said, in a rather dreamy voice, "How's that for a dramatic entrance?"
Luigi gulped and gazed in fear at her, his gloves digging into the armchair.
The phantom laughed, which sounded oddly soothing. "There's no need to fear me, young man. I am Madame Clairvoya, seer of the future. I was the one who sent you that sent you that signal on your device there. I would like to help you."
Luigi gathered up some courage to mutter "H-Help me?"
"Yes you, silly mortal." Clairvoya said. "I have watched you since you entered the mansion, and you have more courage then I imagined. But what awaits you ahead will test you to your limit. What is it you are doing here anyway?"
"I-I'm looking for my brother, Mario." Luigi said. "He was taken away by Boos, and I'm going to find him."
Madame Clairvoya gasped. "The Mario? My goodness! Why didn't you mention this before? I simply adore his adventures! And he's your brother? Gracious! Then you must be Luigi!"
"You've heard of us?" Luigi said, amazed that even beings of the afterlife had heard of he and Mario.
"Why yes! Who doesn't?" the ghost was giggling as she spoke. " You've saved the Mushroom Kingdom time and time again! My my! I'm in shock!" The ghost finished chortling and straightened up. "Ahem...Anyway, back to where I was. I wish to offer my assistance to you if you help me."
"How?" Luigi asked.
"I will help you try and locate Mario, but in return, you must return me to a painting." the fortune teller said. "You see, I can't rest when I'm a ghost. I want to return to my frame and have peace in colors and oils. It is my only way to rest in peace, you know." She paused. "Well, do we have a deal?"
She seems friendly enough, Luigi thought. Then he said "Ok. You have a deal, Madame Clairvoya."
"Good! Very Good!" she laughed. "Then I will gaze into my crystal, and we will find your brother!"
The unnatural light that had covered the room suddenly went into a dim purple. The smoke from the candles seemed to form a mist around them as Madame Clairvoya began to wave her hands over the orb. Her eyes closed and she began to chant in a low voice. Suddenly, she shot up, her eyes wide.
"Oh! They come!" As she spoke, the room rumbled ominously. Luigi shrunk back into the chair. The ghost continued. "Come spirits of power! Come spirits of light! Show us the things in the mansion this night! Show us this...Mario!"
Another rumble, then the only light in the room was now coming off of the crystal ball and Madame Clairvoya.
"Oh! I see...I see Mario!" she said, gazing into the orb. Luigi looked, but saw nothing but purple clouds going on forever. Clairvoya continued. "Yes! He is alive...And yet, not alive. He is trapped somewhere between our world and the next, though he is not a ghost."
Luigi shuddered. What did it mean?
"Yes...Now I see...Is that a king? Yes. King Boo." she said. "He has imprisoned Mario somewhere. Yes and.What? Oh my! This cannot be right!"
This time, something did appear in the orb. It was face. A face Luigi had seen before. The face of someone Mario and Luigi had encountered many times.
Bowser, King of the Koopas, stared back at Luigi.
Yoha! Plot twist, for those of you who haven't played. I'm REAAAALY sorry for the delay, everyone, but I've had several other projects, including an original story I'm making for a friend's RPG Maker 2000 game he's making. Since I feel bad, I'm now going to thank EVERY SINGLE one of you who reveiwed personally!
GameCubeGirl1: Thanks for sticking with me since the beginning. Also thanks for being so patient when I didn't update forever. (Like right mow. XD)
The Time Traveller: Thank you also for reading since the beginning. I really hope you will continue. Also, keep writing that Kirby story of yours!
Rednas: Kudos, Rednas. Sorry I don't have a lot to say, but thanks for reading and reveiwing.
Sour Schuyler: I took your suggestion about the costume at the end. It's not the tall ghost, but I have something else in mind. *sneaky grin* And yes, Luigi is way awesome!
Nintendo Nut1: The first person I saw that was amazed that I updated. lol. Keep up those Smash Bros. stuff!
Jenaneter: Well, Rose, thanks a bunch for the reveiws. I read your stuff, btw. :)
nottelling: lol. Thanks anyway!
CrystalFlower: Thanks also!
Husky/Washu: WHEEHEE! Sorry, just wanted to do that. Thanks for reading!
Alex Warlorn: Everyone's a critic. lol. Naw. Thanks for pointing those out. I'm glad you like my fic!
AND A BIG THANK YOU AGAIN!
Anyway, I'm gonna start working on the next chapter soon. Be kind to Snifits, everyone!
"Gotcha!" Luigi gave a yell of triumph as the twirling ghosts were pulled into his Poltergeist 3000. He looked around to see if there were any more ghosts, but the grand ballroom was empty. Faint candlelight played on his face from the chandelier over his head. Wait. Was that a face he saw in the flame. No. It's gone.
Luigi pulled up his GBH and the professor's buck-toothed face appeared on screen.
Well, Luigi," said the little man. "You've caught the Floating Wirlandas. They used to be quite famous when they where alive. Died during the Koopa wars, they did." He rubbed his chin. "So Luigi, found any Boos yet?"
"Not yet. I haven't seen any-" A faint beeping noise cut him off. A small light on top of the GBH was glowing blue.
E. Gadd jumped up and down excitedly. "Aha! The Boo Detector! It works!"
"Boo Detector?" Luigi asked.
"Yes. It's a Boo Detector- Toad! Will you stop dusting my room for five seconds?! I'm trying to talk to Luigi!" The view of the lab was cut out by a feather duster moving across the screen. Then Toad's squeaky voice hummed a little tune as he moved away from the screen. E. Gadd's head popped up again. "Er...Anyway, that little light on top will flash yellow when your close to a Boo, and red when your almost right next to it."
Luigi was nervous. So far, he hadn't seen any Boos. He didn't know what to expect, not with what E. Gadd had told him. They had some sort of king. Who knew what kind of powers the royal specter could posses.
The beeping of the GBH brought him back out of his thoughts. He was staring at the door at the far end of the room, one he had not gone in yet. He followed the hand-held elctronic's signal and it started flashing yellow as he approached the door.
*****************************************************************
Meanwhile, on the other side of the door (which was a storage closet), King Boo and eight of his trusted minions floated cramped together in the tight space. As the specters jostled for space, the monarch phantom raised a hand.
"Silence!" the king hissed. "I hear something.."
The other Boos stopped and listened. There was a low beeping noise coming from the other side of the door.
"Ah! That must be Luigi!" said GameBoo."Ok." King Boo whispered. "When he opens the door, we rush him. Got it?"
The other ghosts nodded, and remained silent, waiting for their chance to attack.
*****************************************************************
Luigi checked the Boo Radar as he reached for the handle. It was flashing bright red now. He shut his eyes, braced himself, and slowly turned the handle.
Immediately, he was thrown backward and slid across the marble floor. He was surrounded by Boos! Grinning, sneering, ghoulish ghosts. The drifted in a circle around him, closing in. Out of the group drifted the most dreadful phantom of al of them. This Boo had cold blue eyes that held malice and evil and a gaping maw full of jagged sharp teeth. A ruby crown sat perched upon the top of it, giving it the looks of a king.
"King Boo!" Luigi yelped. Acting quickly, he whipped out the Poltergeist 3000 and brandished it at the specters.
"Agh! It's that infernal machine of E. Gadd's!" shouted King Boo, floating backward in shock. "Flee while you can!"
The ghosts panicked, flying every which-way. Luigi switched the vacuum on a managed to suck up a few Boos before the rest went through the walls, sending up brief clouds of dust. Luigi sighed, wiped some sweat from his brow, and turned to the GBH, where the grinning face of E. Gadd stared back at him.
"Well done, my boy!" the old man said. "I can't thank you enough for catching those Boos!"
"Um. Yeah, I guess." Luigi said, the images of the horrid spirits still fresh in his mind. "I'm just glad they're gone."
The professor looked at something below screen, and his smile grew even wider.
"This proves it!" he cried. "Those Boos you caught have proven my theory!"
"What theory?" Luigi asked.
"Well, it's like this. I've been studying ghosts for years, and Boos have always puzzled me. Yet, in my times of encountering them over the years, I've noticed they have some sort of strange connection. Boo power, if you will. My idea is that Boos seem to be stronger when there's more of them, yet if one is detained somehow, the others weaken slightly. I figure if you capture more Boos, you have a much better chance of saving your brother."
Luigi pondered over the matter. He was most afraid of Boos above all things, but he had to find Mario. If anything had happened.
"Ok." Luigi said after a long pause. "I hope you're right, professor."
"Aren't I always?" E. Gadd chuckled. "Anyway, Luigi, those Boos are hiding around here somewhere. Make sure you use that Boo Detector."
Luigi nodded, put the GBH away, and walked back into the dark hall outside the room. The old place appeared undisturbed for years, for huge clouds of dust rose as Luigi walked. The old wallpaper was turn in places, and Luigi saw a cockroach scuttle through one of the holes. Suddenly, the GBH began emitting a low humming noise. The Boo Detector! Luigi pulled it back out of his overalls pocket and saw the light on top was flashing blue. He walked a little farther down the hall and it began to flash yellow, then red as he reached a fork in the hall. The double doors in front of him lead to the mansion's foyer. The left and right hallways he had never gone down before.
The Boo Detector flashed more rapidly when he pointed it down the left hall, so he turned and followed the signal through the blackness, till it flashed fastest before a side door. Luigi put his hand on the doorknob and, finding that it was unlocked, he stepped into the room beyond.
The first thing Luigi noticed was the smell of the room. Some sort of incense smelling of lavender. Luigi remembered smelling the same smell in Princess Peach's garden on the castle grounds. In the light of his flashlight beam, Luigi noticed several incense burners around a low round table with two old, squishy armchairs on either end. A crystal ball stood atop an iron mantel at the center of the table, and tarot cards lay around it in some sort of pattern.
Luigi also noticed that the Boo Detector had gone silent. He shook the GBH to see if it would work again. Nothing happened. Luigi shrugged and decided to search the room anyway.
He approached the table where the crystal ball sat. It was covered in dust, but a faint glimmer came to it when Luigi's flashlight beam hit it.
"Hmm...I wonder if this can really tell you the future." Luigi said, brushing some of the dust off with his gloved hand.
As if to answer his question, a unearthly glow came to the crystal. It began to get brighter, giving the room an faint yellow glow. Luigi stumbled backwards and fell into the armchair behind him. He sat there, gripping the arms of the chair as the smoke of the incense candles started to swirl around the crystal ball. Then, when the glass orb glowed it's brightest, the smoke curled and collected into the opposite armchair and an apparition took form.
It was a woman ghost. A gypsy, by the look of her. Her glowing, purple eyes seemed to hold many secrets. She had long, ebony hair that floated behind her as if they were underwater. She wore jeweled bracelets on her arms and a shawl that covered her mouth. The shawl had a symbol of a single eye sewn into it.
The ghost took a rattling breath and said, in a rather dreamy voice, "How's that for a dramatic entrance?"
Luigi gulped and gazed in fear at her, his gloves digging into the armchair.
The phantom laughed, which sounded oddly soothing. "There's no need to fear me, young man. I am Madame Clairvoya, seer of the future. I was the one who sent you that sent you that signal on your device there. I would like to help you."
Luigi gathered up some courage to mutter "H-Help me?"
"Yes you, silly mortal." Clairvoya said. "I have watched you since you entered the mansion, and you have more courage then I imagined. But what awaits you ahead will test you to your limit. What is it you are doing here anyway?"
"I-I'm looking for my brother, Mario." Luigi said. "He was taken away by Boos, and I'm going to find him."
Madame Clairvoya gasped. "The Mario? My goodness! Why didn't you mention this before? I simply adore his adventures! And he's your brother? Gracious! Then you must be Luigi!"
"You've heard of us?" Luigi said, amazed that even beings of the afterlife had heard of he and Mario.
"Why yes! Who doesn't?" the ghost was giggling as she spoke. " You've saved the Mushroom Kingdom time and time again! My my! I'm in shock!" The ghost finished chortling and straightened up. "Ahem...Anyway, back to where I was. I wish to offer my assistance to you if you help me."
"How?" Luigi asked.
"I will help you try and locate Mario, but in return, you must return me to a painting." the fortune teller said. "You see, I can't rest when I'm a ghost. I want to return to my frame and have peace in colors and oils. It is my only way to rest in peace, you know." She paused. "Well, do we have a deal?"
She seems friendly enough, Luigi thought. Then he said "Ok. You have a deal, Madame Clairvoya."
"Good! Very Good!" she laughed. "Then I will gaze into my crystal, and we will find your brother!"
The unnatural light that had covered the room suddenly went into a dim purple. The smoke from the candles seemed to form a mist around them as Madame Clairvoya began to wave her hands over the orb. Her eyes closed and she began to chant in a low voice. Suddenly, she shot up, her eyes wide.
"Oh! They come!" As she spoke, the room rumbled ominously. Luigi shrunk back into the chair. The ghost continued. "Come spirits of power! Come spirits of light! Show us the things in the mansion this night! Show us this...Mario!"
Another rumble, then the only light in the room was now coming off of the crystal ball and Madame Clairvoya.
"Oh! I see...I see Mario!" she said, gazing into the orb. Luigi looked, but saw nothing but purple clouds going on forever. Clairvoya continued. "Yes! He is alive...And yet, not alive. He is trapped somewhere between our world and the next, though he is not a ghost."
Luigi shuddered. What did it mean?
"Yes...Now I see...Is that a king? Yes. King Boo." she said. "He has imprisoned Mario somewhere. Yes and.What? Oh my! This cannot be right!"
This time, something did appear in the orb. It was face. A face Luigi had seen before. The face of someone Mario and Luigi had encountered many times.
Bowser, King of the Koopas, stared back at Luigi.
Yoha! Plot twist, for those of you who haven't played. I'm REAAAALY sorry for the delay, everyone, but I've had several other projects, including an original story I'm making for a friend's RPG Maker 2000 game he's making. Since I feel bad, I'm now going to thank EVERY SINGLE one of you who reveiwed personally!
GameCubeGirl1: Thanks for sticking with me since the beginning. Also thanks for being so patient when I didn't update forever. (Like right mow. XD)
The Time Traveller: Thank you also for reading since the beginning. I really hope you will continue. Also, keep writing that Kirby story of yours!
Rednas: Kudos, Rednas. Sorry I don't have a lot to say, but thanks for reading and reveiwing.
Sour Schuyler: I took your suggestion about the costume at the end. It's not the tall ghost, but I have something else in mind. *sneaky grin* And yes, Luigi is way awesome!
Nintendo Nut1: The first person I saw that was amazed that I updated. lol. Keep up those Smash Bros. stuff!
Jenaneter: Well, Rose, thanks a bunch for the reveiws. I read your stuff, btw. :)
nottelling: lol. Thanks anyway!
CrystalFlower: Thanks also!
Husky/Washu: WHEEHEE! Sorry, just wanted to do that. Thanks for reading!
Alex Warlorn: Everyone's a critic. lol. Naw. Thanks for pointing those out. I'm glad you like my fic!
AND A BIG THANK YOU AGAIN!
Anyway, I'm gonna start working on the next chapter soon. Be kind to Snifits, everyone!