2-3 King of the Spook

Well, this took forever. I was stuck on a rut with this one, barely being able to push through the constipation to poop this out. I think what happened is that I ended up veering off script, and didn't plan out the fight properly, which is why it was so hard to get finished.

However, I've used the time to set up the groundwork for the later chapters, so (hopefully) I'll be able to get the chapters out on schedule from now on.

I hope so, anyway.

Crash Bandicoot and Super Mario are owned by their respective companies, not me.

The full moon was at its peak as the Mario brothers and the bandicoots rushed through the woods, closely behind Aku Aku as he led them to the doorway to the ruins of his old home, where King Boo lied in wait for them.

"Okay, when we reach this King Boo guys place, I get first dibs on beating him black and blue with my bare hands." Tawna growled out as she cracked her knuckles.

"That's way harder than it sounds. King Boo's a ghost, and a powerful one at that. The only thing that even makes him flinch is the Poltergust." Luigi bit his lip nervously as he looked at the makeshift poltergust in his hand. It shuddered briefly and sparked a bit, which was a worrying sight.

Mario was quick to reassure him. "Don't worry, bro. You've battled the guy on your own three times and won every single time. And we're a group of five right now, so the odds are pretty much in our favor."

"And if you're worried about Crash, don't be." Coco joined in as well. "There isn't anything anyone can do to him that hasn't happened to him before. I should know."

"And what do you mean by that, exactly?" Aku Aku turned around to scrutinize her.

"Uhhhhhh… Oh, hey! We made it!"

Standing tall in front of them, carved into the wall of a cliff, was a giant pair of stone doors, lovingly decorated with carvings of a certain island guardian's face. In the center of the doorway was a keyhole, who's key they had in their possession. And at the foot of the door, bathed in a mysterious purplish glow, was a tall, wooden sign that read "Site of the new Last Resort Hotel."

"Oh, Hellen came with too." Luigi sighed, as the others took their turn in reading the sign.

"Building a hotel in the middle of my home? Now that is something I am not allowing." Aku tutted as he flew over to the doorway. "I'll be opening the gate. This may take a while, since the process is very complex."

From behind the mask, a keyring stuffed to the brim with keys floated out in front of him, and he started to sift through them in search of the key to the gate. "Alright, which one of you is the key to my village again."

"So, how are we doing this?" Tawna decided to ask as a way to pass the time. "What's this King Boo guys power set? I'm assuming it's ghost related stuff?"

"Something along those lines." Luigi began to explain. "First of all, he's a super powerful magician. He can make stuff disappear, create giant painting portals, duplicate, conjure up giant spikeballs, teleport, turn invisible or make himself giant." He counted on his fingers to the two bandicoot women's growing nervousness.

"That sounds like a lot of powers. We don't deal with wizards all that often, so this is all pretty new to us." Tawna said. "Wait, you haven't faced off against wizards while I was gone, right?" She turned to Coco with a look of curiosity.

"No. Well, if you count an ancient evil mask as a wizard. So, maybe? But that's the only one I know of." Was Coco's answer. "At the very least you guys have experience with this guy? What's the big weakness?"

"His crown." Mario answered, tapping the top of his head to illustrate. "It makes his magic super powerful, but if we manage to take it, it'll make him easy pickings!"

"Then that's our plan then."

"Aha! Here we are." Aku Aku's voice called their attention.

Grabbing the largest, most ancient looking stone key, which he had remembered was right next to the little metal key to his old gym locker, the mask inserted it into the keyhole, and twisted.

The sound of thousand year old stonework trembling rang through the area as the gates slowly parted open, causing the heroes to gather around it in preparation for the fight. Luigi held the poltergust threateningly, his teeth chattering in fear. Mario adjusted his cap as he bounced in place, ready for the fight. Tawna cracked her knuckles, gritting her teeth. And Coco balled up her knuckles and glared at the door.

The doors fully parted ways, revealing, instead of a large clearing leading to a village, as Aku Aku remembered, an empty void of darkness.

They all nervously walked into the area, every step echoing from bouncing off of walls they couldn't see. Their earlier bravado was starting to drop.

When they were a ways in, the doors suddenly slammed shut, causing them all to jump in terror. And it was all made worse as they heard King Boo laugh maniacally, mocking their fear.

"Yeah, okay, I hate this guy already." Tawna commented. Luigi halfheartedly nodded in agreement as the group continued walking forward.

A spotlight from an unknown source suddenly flashed on, illuminating an unknown object. As they approached, they realized it was a cage, and in that cage…

Crash yawned as he scratched his butt, waiting for something to happen. It was always so boring to be trapped in a cage. Sure, you could nap the time away, but when you didn't want to sleep, what else was there to do?

He felt as if there were eyes on him, and he turned around to see his friends, his girlfriend and his sister standing a ways below him, frantically waving at him.

He just waved back at them with a dopey smile on his face. He was happy that they had found him, it had been a while since he last saw them, having been kidnapped by a ghost in all. He wondered why that was?

"Crash! Are you alright!?" Tawna called out to her boyfriend. Her worries were quelled when Crash waved hi at her, not at all bothered by his situation. "Oh, thank goodness he's okay. He's still himself. Let's get him out of there"

"Oh boy, I know where this is going." Luigi muttered to himself while the others started searching around the area for a way up to Crash.

The whole area appeared devoid of any terrain, so it was a mystery how Crash was so high up. They had to feel around under where the cage was to see if there was anything beneath there for them to climb, awkwardly holding their hands to the air and walking aimlessly.

Just as they were to consider to give up, Luigi felt his hands touch something. "Hey, I think I got something?" He felt what he was touching a bit, noting the unusual softness and coldness. And why did it start feeling so wet all of a sudden?.. Oh.

Luigi shakily moved his head upwards, coming face to face with King Boo's giant, grinning face. He was holding his hand to the ghost's tongue, and the King took the opportunity to give it a big lick.

"AAAAAAAHHHH!" The green ghost hunter jumped out of his socks, directly into his brothers arms as the King cackled maniacally.

"Gahahaha! Ah, baby Luigi, you never change. Just as easy to scare the pants off of every time we meet." He chuckled out. Then he grimaced as his tone dropped to something much more menacing. "It's about the only thing I ever enjoy, in fact."

Luigi shivered in fear as he lay in his brother's arms. The King's piercing visage was aimed directly at him, and he knew exactly what that was going to lead to.

"Hey, let my brother go you, oversized child's interpretation of a ghost!" Coco went on the aggressive, shoving her way forward and pointing an accusing finger at the King. She leaned close to Mario and whispered into his ear. "Was that a good insult? I just came up with it when I saw him."

Judging by him turning his glare to her, it did. "Well someone's got sass. You think I'm not terrifying do you?" He floated closer and closer to the group, making himself seem larger and larger as he did so. "You think I'm something a little kid came up with? I've heard better insults from my kindergarten teacher. He said I was never gonna amount to anything other than a haunted house attraction performer."

The darkness suddenly lifted itself from around the area, startling the heroes as they took in the scenery. The surrounding huts, old homes from Aku's home village, had gained a somewhat demonic look, the architecture of the buildings looking like jagged mouths forming twisted smiles. Behind them, the doorway had been blocked off by a spectral gate of ghostly energy, sealing them inside.

Around the area, the ghosts that had invaded the bandicoot house had gathered around, cheering loudly. They had a strange gleam to their eyes, which was lost on the bandicoots, but familiar to the Mario Brothers.

"He's brainwashed them again." Luigi revealed, outright sighing it out in annoyance.

In front of them, all the way up an outcropping jutting out of a cliff, was Crash, who was cheering along with the ghosts for whatever reason, clearly missing the memo that this was the enemy.

King Boo suddenly appeared next to the cage, along with a purple ghost woman with a massive beehive hairdo. The King raised his nubby arms as high as he could, signalling the crowd to break into a roar of ghostly wailing.

"Well look at me now! Think a kid's drawing can do all of this!? I don't think so!"

"I think I might have made him angry." Coco muttered out awkwardly as she looked around at their audience.

Poor Luigi was shivering in fear as all the ghosts put their attention right on him. He knew exactly who they were rooting against. It reminded him he was afraid of ghosts at one point.

He turned around to address the purple ghosts, startling her. "Hellen! Explain to these idiots what's about to happen."

"Why yes, your greatness." Hellen walked forward to the outcropping, addressing the crowd and the heroes trapped in the arena. "Now, everyone, you are all about to witness our great King squash these mortals into a fine paste. And when this is all over, he will trap them all inside this beautiful canvas, designed by me of course."

Two goobs raised up a large, empty canvas, the frame decorated with an array of sparkling jewels.

"Hey, those were my mother's jewels!"

She continued forward, ignoring the mask's rage. "This frame will be the centerpiece of our newest hotel, where we will lure in unsuspecting mortals for the scare of a lifetime! All sponsored by my new makeup brand."

She pulled out a makeup jar with her face on the lid, winking at the reader. "Graveyard Decor. To hide the pesky blemishes of your soul."

She tossed it aside and spread out her arms in a grandiose manner. "And now, let's all witness our great king get his revenge once and for all!"

The heroes all seized up, noticing that King Boo was missing from the outcropping. They all looked around for him, until Luigi looked up, and screamed.

Boss Time

King Boo fell from the sky, slamming the ground and causing a shockwave that sent everyone flying off their feet. He laughed at the sight of everyone sprawled around on the floor, before turning his attention to Luigi. "That dinky little trash heap won't save you now, Luigi!"

A giant, spiked ball materialized in his nubby arms, and the ghost tossed it high into the air.

Coco blew her cowlick off her face as she got up to her feet, glaring at the King and psyching herself up for the fight. That bravado disappeared the moment she noticed the shadow of the spikeball appear right underneath her. Her ears drooped as she looked up, a "this is gonna hurt" kind of look on her face.

No one really noticed her getting squished by the spike ball, all too busy watching King Boo make himself look larger, his crown glowing brightly. "Now, I can tell we're all on even footing when it comes to this fight. So let's change that!"

A purple wave of energy pulsed out of the crown, washing over the area and blowing the others back.

Luigi landed on his back, sliding a fair distance on the ground, ending up near the giant spike ball. As he struggled up to his feet, he noticed that King Boo was missing, and that an electric gate had formed around the arena. He was getting a sense of deja vu from the look of things.

The sound of a giant, spiky ball rolling cemented the situation as familiar, as the source of the sound slowly made its way towards him, causing the area to tilt under its weight, and help the ball to speed up in its roll towards Luigi.

The cowardly hero scampered up to his feet and started running away from the rolling death trap, causing the arena to tilt around out of control and toss the others around. The ghostly audience found the entire sight to be hilarious, laughing it up while pointing at the poor plumber. Things couldn't get any worse.

King Boo's crazed laughter echoed through the village as he suddenly fell from the sky, slamming onto the other side of the arena and catapulting everything on the other end into the air.

"Alright, now that we've all had our fun." King Boo started monologuing right as Luigi and his friends crashed in front of him. "I'm gonna just cut to the chase and trap you. If I try to have too much fun with you, you'll come up with some crazy idea to use my attacks against me, and then all my effort goes to waste." He floated the portrait frame out in front of himself, ready to slam it down on them and finally end it all.

The sight of Luigi's fearful gaze as he lay on the floor, and Tawna, Mario and Aku's glares made him laugh. "Yeah, hold that pose. That'll look great on the portrait… wait, where's the other one?"

The sound of something falling made him look up, and lose all of his confident bravado and replaced it with exhaustion. "Oh, great-"

And squish went the ghost king, his own created spike ball crashing onto him and flattening him into a pancake. When he regained his shape, he was left completely dizzy. And most importantly, vulnerable.

The spike ball that rolled off disappeared in a puff of smoke the moment it hit the ground, causing Coco to drop in a heap onto the ground, to the others clear worry.

That was washed away when Coco raised an arm and gave them a thumbs up, all without getting off the ground. "I did that." What she said came out muffled from her snout being buried in the ground.

"Quickly, Luigi, capture him!"

"We gotta get rid of the crown first!" Was his response to Aku's statement. "Mario, can you help?"

"Oh, yeah." The red brother adjusted his cap. "It's about time I actually had a hand in beating him. Hey, Tawna, can you give me a boost?"

"And help you get revenge on the guy that kidnapped you? Count me in." She stood in front of the boss, putting her hands together and awaited the red plumber.

Mario took a running start, performing one jump, than another to land in Tawna's hands, and with an assisted triple jump, soared high into the air, and aimed a well placed air kick right at King Boo's crown.

"Here we go!" He bellowed.

"And here you go!" Hellen returned the exclamation with a mirror applied directly to Mario's face. The plumber was sent flying into the ground, knocking over anyone still standing by the shifting area.

"My King had a feeling you'd try something silly like this. Luckily for us, he was smart enough to come up with a backup plan just in case you decided to go through with it."

With a graceful twirl, Hellen dove to the ground and slammed her mirror on it, causing a shockwave to further tussle the heroes.

"That backup plan is me, in case you all don't understand his genius." She pulled the mirror out of the ground, dusting of some dirt that had stuck on it.

"Ha, you're actually making me not regret having you around." King Boo had recovered from his little dizzy spell, his malicious grin back on his face, terrifying poor Luigi who shivered on the ground. "Now, where was I? Oh yeah, capturing you idiots. Too bad that ruined the pose you had going on there."

"Great, that backfired." Tawna complained as the two ghosts disappeared before their eyes. "Now what?"

"We try again. They're just gonna do the same thing with a few extra pieces."

Exactly as Mario predicted, King Boo slammed himself onto the center of the arena. This time they were prepared to actually jump over the shockwave and keep themselves a foot.

The king this time summoned two spikeballs, tossing them in the air. He then turned his sights on his favorite/most hated enemy, intent on chasing him around and dealing with him personally.

Luigi screamed in terror as he ran away from the King, and now the arena was tilting like crazy due to all of the chaos. And it got worse when the spikeballs landed on the ground, shifting the area around even more. Mario, Tawna and Coco could barely hold their footing as they stared at their friends' predicament.

"We gotta help him. He's gonna be crushed into pancakes if he gets caught by big, round and bothersome." Tawna said.

"Oh, what a cute attempt at insulting his handsomeness." Hellen giggled as she poofed in front of them, twirling her mirror around as she sauntered over. "But, my king needs some one on one time with his greatest enemy. And he would very much dislike having it all be ruined by a bunch of intruders. So."

With a snap of her fingers, several ghosts materialized into the area, wielding weapons in a menacing manner as they glared at the heroes.

"I'll let the cleaning staff deal with the trash."

One of the ghosts, a hammer to be exact, roared and beat its chest before charging at the heroes, ready slam them into the ground.

Meanwhile, with Luigi

"Run around all you want, Baby Luigi! I'm gonna get ya!"

Luigi screamed like a baby as King Boo slammed his tongue on the ground, the ghost buster barely dodging the attack.

A little bit of hope sprung in his heart when the king slowed down, and then the little bit of hope was snuffed out by the realization that the king had cornered him, and then was replaced with crushing fear by the king pulling out a portrait.

"Ah, this is always so much fun! But the fun's gotta stop eventually!" King Boo laughed at the cowering Luigi. "Hold that pose. It'll make my portrait look great on my mantle. The centerpiece of my new collection, HAHAHAHA!"

Without his friends around, or any weakness to exploit, Luigi knew he was done for. There truly was no way to escape such a situation. The only possibility would be if some random, unforeseeable event would mess up King Boo's attempt and ruin everything. But that didn't look like it would happ-

"WAAAAHHHH!" Luigi was sent flying into the air when their side of the arena suddenly tilted upwards, smacking King Boo in the place where his chin would be. As he rubbed it in pain, he turned around.

At the other end of the arena, where Luigi's friends had been left to be dealt with, it became apparent what happened. A hammer decided to be the first to attack, trying to body slam the good guys, failing spectacularly and slamming the ground with enough force to tilt the arena and catapult anything that was on the other end.

The hammer rubbed its face as it got back up, only to freeze in place at the angry stares it was receiving from everyone. It didn't have a good grasp of the situation, but it was pretty sure it had just screwed up.

"You idiot!" King Boo screamed.

Yep, it screwed up. Now it just wanted to disappear from the situation, the audience booing the poor hammer for its screw up.

And then it was crushed by a spike ball. Wish granted.

Hellen could only stare gobsmacked at how fast everything went wrong. The heroes cornered, with her King's most hated enemy in his clutches, and all ruined by a single ghost's stupidity. That had gotten everyone's attention off of the heroes, and she now noticed that they were escaping them.

"Stop wasting time, you morons!" The ghosts snapped at attention when she yelled at them. "They're getting away!"

"Okay, okay, how are we doing this?" Coco brainstormed as they ran away from the group of ghosts. "Maybe we can get Luigi to capture those ghosts while we keep the King distracted? That sounds achievable?"

"It does. We just need to get Luigi up to speed."

Mario suddenly stopped, spreading his arms out while looking upward and rapidly stepping around the area. Luigi's scream grew louder until the green brother finally reached ground, landing in Mario's arms.

"AAAAHHHHH- Oh, hey Mario."

"Luigi, think you can take out those ghosts? The one's currently coming for us?"

Luigi looked behind him to see the army of ghosts charging at them with livid expressions.

"No."

"Good, we'll keep King Boo distracted while you do that." Luigi was tossed in the direction of the charging ghosts. "Good luck, bro. I believe in you!" He and Coco rushed in the opposite direction, leaving him behind to stare at the charging army in horror.

"Hey, I got your back, greenie." Tawna, staying behind with him, gave him a pat on the shoulder. "Now, how are we gonna do this again? Cause this is all very new to me."

"Ehhh..?" Luigi quickly dug through memories of his night at the hotel. Hellen usually had a mirror in hand that could block the strobulb flash. Hammer's could only be stunned from the front. Most of the ghosts weren't wearing anything to block the flash. "I think, if you can keep Hellen away, I can deal with the ghosts and capture them all."

"Distract someone obsessed with their appearance? Yeah, I can do that."

"Haha, look at little Luigi over there." Hellen chuckled, flying high in the air and overseeing the arena from above. Her cleaning crew was on their way to ripping apart Luigi, while King Boo was busy dealing with his brother, Marlon or something. She'd have to make sure Luigi would stay alive long enough for her King to be able to have his fun with him, of course. She had no intention of ruining his perfectly crafted revenge plan.

She tightened her grip on her mirror when she noticed the ghost hunter mustering up some bravery, clutching the hodgepodge poltergust in his hands in his shaking hand and aiming the light right at the cleaning crew. Who, she needed to say, were taking their sweet time getting to him. Enough that Luigi could charge up the flash and stun them. Guess it was time for her to intervene and-

"Hey, old lady!" Someone yelled at her. The tall bandicoot woman, not the short one, who was standing near Luigi yelled at her. "Yeah, I'm talking to you! I love your makeup!"

Oh, she wasn't expecting a compliment. The way that started seemed like it would lead to an insult. "Why thank you! It's not often I meet someone with good taste!"

"What brand is it? I'd love to try it out someday?!" She yelled back, scooting over to block Luigi from her view. She didn't care enough to register Luigi charging up the flashlight as the ghosts continued to blindly charge at him, too consumed by false flattery.

"Oh, you mortals wouldn't be able to use it. It's a brand designed specifically for us ghosts. I have a bulk supply of it on my person at all times, so that I look my best on every occasion. Including when I'm aiding my- wait a minute." And now she realized what was going to happen.

Luigi let go of the button, releasing a blinding, ghost stunning flash on the ghost army charging at him, freezing them all in place. Confidence started to creep into his face as he swapped for the vacuum part. More confidence came in when he remembered the last thing that happened when he first tested the poltergust, and realized the advantages he had right now. He flicked the dial to skull, and pulled the trigger.

"Ugh, could you idiots stop bothering me! I'm starting to remember how much you used to annoy me." King Boo poofed up a bomb in his hand, throwing it at the two bothersome heroes ruining his plan. They jumped out of the way of the blast, and their continued survival was beginning to wear through his nerves.

"Yeah, maybe you should try getting better aim? And better taste in revenge schemes, too." Coco stood still for a second to pose sassily, mocking the King. "I mean, our arch enemy at least spices things up. What's this? The 4th trap you tried to set up in order to capture Luigi?"

She leaned towards Mario and whispered to him. "Did I get that right? I don't know much about this guy."

"Yeah, you got it on the nose. He's tricked us a lot of times."

"Enough chit chat!" King Boo's gem started sparking, charging up for an attack that would surely fry the two heroes in front of him. Mario and Coco tensed up and readied themselves for the attack. Nothing was going to stop King Boo from killing the Mushroom Kingdom's greatest hero, and some random cat chick who was here for some reason. No distractions!

The sound of Luigi screaming in terror distracted him, turning him around with a wicked smile that very quickly fell off when he saw the reason why.

The green ghost hunter was being dragged around by the ghosts as they desperately tried to escape the pull of the tiny handheld vacuum cleaner. Granted, calling it a pull was an understatement. It was more of a giant tornado being emitted by the tiny handheld vacuum that was sucking them in, along with all the other ghosts in the audience who didn't get out of the way in time. It was honestly the most absurd sight he had ever seen in his unlife.

It made him seethe with rage.

"Ohhhhhhh, you have made me mad for the last time!" He aimed right for Luigi, firing a powerful purple laser from his crown right at him.

In his anger, he had misjudged how fast the green guy was being dragged around, missing entirely and blasting a giant crater into the ground. That didn't deter him at all as he chased after his flailing nemesis with laser blast after laser blast.

"Die. Die! DIE ALREADY!"

More lasers were shot, creating crater after crater as he tried to kill the ghost hunter.

Luigi held on for dear life as he was dragged around by the ghosts. When he realized King Boo was shooting him, he started screaming at the top of his lungs. The king would enjoy that, but that was being drowned by all the screaming of the other ghosts currently being sucked up by the handheld vacuum.

One by one, they fell, unable to compete against the powerful suction of Coco's Vacusucker, spinning wildly through the vortex before entering the nozzle and landing in the containment sack. Said sack looked like nothing had entered it, even as hundreds more ghosts were being captured and contained within.

Mario, Tawna and Aku Aku looked on in horror at the chaos and destruction being wrought in front of them, jaws dropped as they made sure to back away from being caught in it.

Coco looked proud of herself. "The Vacusucker everyone. Available soon at a hardware store near you."

"Please don't, the world doesn't need another Curtainizer."

"Hey, that one was a fluke, Aku Aku."

"Not to interrupt you admiring the destruction you're indirectly responsible for causing." Tawna stepped forward, grabbing Coco's shoulder to grab her attention. "But I think we need to go help Luigi. You know, like we planned to?"

"Mario already left to do that." She pointed at the red plumber running towards danger. "He seems to have things under control."

With the red brother himself, Mario ran through the cratered battlefield, his goal of the other side of the field in view. He long jumped past a rolling spike ball, forgotten about during the chaos, but remembered by him as part of his plan.

He slid to a stop at the edge of the arena, and turned to call out to the others. "Hey! Brace yourselves!"

He didn't wait to hear any confirmation, he just went for it. He squatted down, storing up power in his legs for a classic jump of his. The Super Jump.

He shot high into the air, feeling the wind rushing through his ear, before looking downward, spinning in the air, and shooting straight down for a ground pound.

The power of the ground pound tilted the arena to a great degree, making King Boo's previous attempts seem comparable to a child trying to lightly step on a bug. Anything that was sitting on the other half of the arena was sent flying upward into the air, and a few of the remaining ghosts flying around slammed face first into the uptilted ground, leaving them vulnerable to Luigi's powerful suckage.

Through it all, King Boo was only lightly startled. He simply turned around, glaring at Mario, and charging up another laser barrage. "You've all completely ruined my night. I didn't think you could make it worse, but you've beaten the odds, and you ruined my night to a point beyond ruined." He said, perfectly calmly, loathing venom dripping through his tone. "Forget paintings, forget capturing you. I'm just gonna kill you all, skin your corpses, ą͖̙͔̺͌n̛̦̯̤̟̞̩̂ͩ̀̚d́̇҉̞̠͓̠͍̞̙͍ ̱̱̻̮̝̄ͮͩ̀ḏ̣̱̠͇͈̗̓ͨ͜ḛ̩̻̺͚̮ͮ͜c̡͖͚͗̀o̭͉̬̭̣̼͂͂̚͞r͚̬̬͎̠̠̝ͧ̊̀a̴̺͔̅t͈̤̣͙̰̲̼ͫ͋ͣ͢ȅ̮̟̥̥̼̩̪̦̇̕ ̱̝̆͡m̷̘͕͓̥͓͙̳̐͌y͙̹̤̮̲͈ͦ̌́̌͜ ̳̥̭͍͓̹̤̮̑̓̈͟r̡͙͔̃o̩͙̮͕̩̗̯͒̆̊̾͝o̸̞̞͔̰̝̥͊̌m̸͖̻̽ ̛͙̯̬̈́͋w͋͏͚̩̗̲͎į̦͇̱͓̝̳̝͍ͤͦͪ̄t̙̺͈͇͈̲͚ͯ͡ḧ͓̳̗͖̩͔͓̬ͨ̒́ ͚̝̭̂̑͡y̞̤ͣ͌ͧ̕o̥̬̙͕͖̪̤̓͝u̪̳͎̲̥͚͆͋͑́r̻͓̩̦͔͚̗̋́ ̵̠̬ͥ͑ͅs̥͖̬̻̳̓͗͗̀̚k̡̮̪͕̃ͥ̈́ę̘͉̣̭͚̱̭̔̽̾͐l̀ͮ̊҉̻̩̤̣͕e͑͏͙̺t̰̮͙͕͉͎͇͕ͫ̌̿͢o̸̜̖̗̣ͬͮṇ͖̲͍̤̪̤̘̉̈́̑̀s̵̮̘̘̳ͦ̓!̿ͤ̈͏̫̳̦͙̠"

His crown jewel glowed blindingly bright, the air around the king distorting due to the sheer power emanating from it. The blast he would send out would be a doozy. One so large, Mario would be unable to escape. Finally, the King would kill one of the Mario Brothers…

He had failed to account for the fact that the spike balls he had thrown around were still rolling on the field. That's why as he was powering up his crown, one of those spiky balls fell right on top of him. He never learned, did he?

As the spike ball rolled off his head, his head throbbing as he flopped onto the ground completely dazed, Mario called out to his brother. "Luigi! He's ready!"

Luigi heard his name called out, knocked onto his butt by the massive ground pound his brother performed. He had let go of the suction button at some point, thankfully after every ghost had been sucked up. He could see them trashing about inside the containment bag, which had only barely grown in size. There still seemed to be enough space in there for a giant ghost king to fit inside.

He jumped up to his feet, adjusting the poltergust before running towards the prone king. The ghosts eyes were spinning around, his tongue sticking out of his mouth and lying on the ground. Exactly what he needed.

He activated the suction of his poltergust, latching on to the giant tongue, and he began to pull.

And pull!

And pull!

And he now remembered that he needed two people to actually manage to make the giant ghost king budge. Thank goodness the ghost audience had been trapped along with the other attacking ghosts. He would be humiliated right now.

"Uh, Mario! A little help here!"

"Yes, cry out to your brother for help, you coward." Hellen looked angrier than ever, materialising behind him, her makeup wiped away to reveal the face underneath, greatly emphasising her hatred of the green plumber right now. She was wielding her mirror like a bat, ready to bludgeon something. "I'm going to cave in your skull and use it as a decorative drinking chalice for my king now. No hard feelings, right?"

She didn't get far in her attack, as the screams of a bandicoot woman distracted her from her attack and made her look above her. She was met with a pair of brown sneakers colliding with her face, knocking a tooth right out of her mouth and sending her plummeting down to the ground.

Tawna hopped off the ghosts face, scuffing some makeup off her shoe as she stretched her legs in pain. "Yeah, wow, that kind of hurt. Should I have gone for a butt slam, cause I feel that would have been less painful?"

"Yeah, butt slams are way better. It takes some getting used to, though." Mario ran towards his brother, grabbing onto his back and joining forces in pulling on the king's tongue, Tawna joining as well.

Memories of the previous time flashed through King Boo's mind as he regained just enough awareness to begin struggling. Alas, it was futile, as the heroic trio's combined strength was enough to start dragging him around. He was swung to the side, kicking up dirt before he was pulled high and slammed onto the ground, right where Hellen Gravely was lying unconscious. The second slam showed her stuck to the king. And the third had her crushed by the full weight of his magnificence.

Suffice to say, they had lost spectacularly. King Boo felt his resolve falter as the poltergusts suction won out. But he had just enough left in him to glare at Luigi, and leave him with some choice words to remember him by.

"You suck. All of you." And in he went, trapped in the vacuum, as it was always meant to be.

The ghostly gates around them disappeared, the raised chunk of ground they were fighting on lowered itself back to earth, and the battle was officially over.

"... Ha. Hahaha! I did it!" Luigi cheered, jumping around in joy as he broke into a little dance. Tawna would have corrected him, this was a group effort, and he mostly spent his time screaming, but Mario stopped her. His brother was enjoying this victory.

"Ah, thank goodness. My old village is free and safe again. I really have to come up with a better lock for the place." Aku Aku looked around, sighing in relief. "Say, where is Coco? Did she end up in orbit again?"

Looking around the area for a bit, they spotted her at the cliffs outcropping, where Crash's cage was. They kind of forgot about him in all the chaos. The bandicoot must have been worried sick.

Crash was startled awake from his nap when Coco opened his cage. He grumbled a bit in reaction. He was having a nice dream, a wumpa fruit party with a bunch of ghost people. And he was about to sign a declaration of codependence with a bunch of them before he was woken up.

"Hah, same old Crash. Napping in the middle of danger." Coco rolled her eyes bemusedly.

"So, how was your first time being the damsel in distress? Did it suck?" Tawna asked him, grinning from ear to ear as she opened her arms. Crash jumped into them, rolling his eyes as he pantomimed being bored out of his skull. "Yep, definitely boring."

Coco clapped her hands together. "Alright, now that everything is all sorted out, and the ringing in my ears from the sound of the vacuum has disappeared, let's see where they're keeping my- our stuff, shall we?"

Their belongings, not just Coco's as Aku Aku had to remind her, were hidden right behind Crash's cage, all haphazardly thrown on top of each other without rhyme or reason. Coco had to dive inside in order to begin her search.

"Come on, where is it." Coco muttered to herself as she searched through the pile of stuff, the others watching her as she threw random object after random object out of the way. With a triumphant smile, she pulled out a strange looking device, basically a small radio with two antennas sticking out in the style of a divining rod, and presented it to the others. "Behold, my Super Science Diviner! Patent Pending."

Crash cheered for his sister's genius, heading over to her to give her a hearty pat on the back as congratulations.

"Well that's wonderful!" Mario cheered. "Let's go back to our world and use it then! We'll have this whole problem sorted it out in no time! And then we can all celebrate with dinner back at our place."

"Yeeeaaaah, about that." And now Coco looked apologetic, nervously chuckling when everyone looked at her. "It's… not finished."

"Eh?" Crash vocalized his and everyone else's confusion.

"Coco, you said you started working on this years ago. Why isn't it finished yet?" Aku Aku asked her, using the Fatherly Look of Disappointment on Coco to get out an answer.

"Welllll..."

Coco slapped on her goggles as she entered her lab, preparing to work on finishing an invention that would make whatever ploy their mad scientist arch enemies would come up with that much easier to foil. The Super Science Diviner.

All she had to do was finish the internals, and input the necessary super genius brainwaves for it to actually be able to detect super scientists. It would take a while, but that was what inventing was like, time and work.

She reached over to grab the aforementioned device that was laying on her work desk. Her hand froze in mid air, however, when Coco saw another invention she was also working on. A Remotely Controlled Remote Control. For when you didn't want to bother yourself with grabbing the Remote from the table to change the channel.

Decisions, decisions. Should she work on the device that would make foiling evil so much easier first? Or should she work on a remote control for a remote control?

"... I forgot." Was her answer.

"Well, can't you finish it back in your lab? I can help out if I can?" Luigi suggested.

"No, I don't have the right equipment for it. And it'd take weeks for me to be able to get someone to search the black market and get it delivered to the island."

Well that was another problem to add to the pile. An invention they needed that needed special equipment to complete, and a haunted hotel that was apparently being invaded by an outside force. If only solving one problem could also lead to a solution for the other one.

Mario finally realized what they needed to do. "E. Gadd!"

'You have an idea, bro?" Luigi asked his brother.

"I just said it, E. Gadd. He's in the hotel, right?" He pointed out. Luigi quickly realized what his brother meant, and nodded along excitedly..

"The naming convention here sounds awfully familiar. Are you sure this doctor is trustworthy?" Aku Aku made his doubts clear. Usually, someone's first name's initial combining with their last name to form a word meant that they were a scientist of the evil variety.

"No worries, E. Gadd's a friend of ours. Sure, he's caused us some trouble here and there, like the whole time travel incident, and the paint brush incident, and the time he sold King Boo's painting at a garage sale."

"What?"

"But he's an ally, for sure." Mario said. "He can definitely help us finish your thing, Coco. We just have to deal with whatever's going on at the hotel first, then we can go look for our arch enemies. Easy as that!"

"Well, while you guys are doing that," Tawna clapped her hands together. "I'm gonna go ahead and get this stuff back to the house. Have it all put in its place before I join you guys. I don't know how you guys do it on a daily basis, cause I am exhausted."

"Oh, make sure to check on Wade while you're at it! I think he should have regained consciousness by now!: Behind Luigi, the portal to the Mushroom Kingdom opened up.

"Once we're done with our thing, we'll pick you up, okay." Aku Aku called out to her, the others jumping into the portal. Crash stopped in his tracks for a moment, rushing back to jump into his girlfriend's arms and giving her a big peck on the cheek goodbye.

"Aww, I'll miss you too, Crash. Have fun, and bring back some souvenirs for me! Preferably magazines about celebrity gossip!"

Crash waved goodbye at her, before taking a running start and diving into the portal. On to the next world.