3-1 Hotel Hell
Sorry for the long wait time on this chapter. There's always something new happening that rips my attention away. Combine that with a developed addiction to TF2's Mann Vs Machine game mode, and struggling withe boss scene, and you get a month long wait time.
But I think I've finally nailed down why I've been struggling so much with writing these chapters: the boss fights. I've just been shoving them in without proper planning, regardless if it's applicable or not, and I burned myself out on them because of it. From now on, a lot of these bosses will not be fights necessarily, but more unique events that fit the Boss character itself. That should make a world of difference.
Anyway, enough yammering, let's get to it.
The light of the nighttime full moon shone over the mountain range of the central Mushroom Kingdom, a great distance away from Toad Town, and right on the path towards the now much better known, famous among the undead and living alike Last Resort Hotel.
On the path where the occasional vehicle would pass by in the daytime, a bruiser wandered around, taking the time to enjoy the night sky and gaze at the stars. It wasn't often these usually angry creatures had a relaxing night, usually fighting any intruding plumbers who dared enter their haunted mansion. Thankfully, there were no ghost-busting plumbers in sight to ruin this beautiful night.
Standing in the middle of the path, the Bruiser looked up to the moon, took a deep, cleansing breath, and relaxed.
It was then run over by a bus, prematurely ending the relaxing night for it. How tragic.
On the bus that was careening down the dirt road, almost as if the driver didn't have a driver's license to speak of, the Toad driver hummed a little tune as he swerved to the left to avoid a tree that was in the middle of the road for some reason. "Hey, did I hit something? I can't see much over the steering wheel."
"You're doing great." Another Toad complimented his driving skills, sitting behind him and therefore having the same level of vision as the driver did. I.E. little if any at all.
The other passengers had to settle with being subjected to the Toad's anarchic driving skills as they discussed their plans for saving the Last Resort. The Mushroom Kingdom residents were handling it all quite well, already used to their apparently official bus driver's lack of experience.
As for their visitors. Well...
The bus drove over a speed bump, causing Crash and Coco to fly off their seats and smash their heads on the roof. They landed back on their chairs, one cross-eyed and dazed, the other holding her head in pain.
"If this keeps going, I'm gonna barf up last week's lunch." Coco complained. Her brother, compared to her, was handling it all better, only looking a bit concussed. Which he always looked like anyway. "Seriously, why is he the driver? Even Crash has better driving skills than this. And he got his license revoked last year."
"He's the only Toad in my employ that ever learned to drive. I don't want to upset him by firing him." The princess held on to her crown after another harsh swerve. Finding a Toad whose driving experiences didn't come from kart racing was chalked up by her, and pretty much all of her advisors as impossible, so they had to settle with what they had. "Now, I haven't heard from the professor in quite a while, and he won't respond to my calls, so we can assume something has gone wrong at the Last Resort."
"All we know is that King Boo managed to escape the hotel into the other dimension when some alien came in and brainwashed the other ghosts." Luigi quickly added.
"And that means we'll have to deal with whoever this baddie is before we can get E. Gadd to help us." Mario was nearly jostled out of his seat by the Toads driving over what he was hoping was a speed bump, and not another Koopa capable and willing of filing a lawsuit. "Hey, N. Brio? You worked for Cortex. Do you have any idea who this guy could be?"
The chemist, who was currently sitting behind the princess and holding on to the back of her chair for dear life, hummed to himself in thought. "We never had anyone like that working with us, no. Dr. Cortex hates it when people encroach on his te-te-territory, being the undisputed genius of mind control and all. But, the description you g-ga-gave me matches perfectly with a colleague Dr. N. Tropy used to talk about."
"N. Tropy?" Luigi wondered aloud. His question was very quickly answered.
"Evil time-traveling scientist. We kicked him out of our universe along with another version of himself he was… into." Coco shuddered at the other traumatic memory she was trying to repress. "Moving on from that, what's the guy's name? Maybe that could help us out."
"N-Trance. An alien being from the 5th dimension. Nefarious always described him as a master of brainwashing, wi-with access to methodologies far superior to Cortex's. I'm pretty sure he only brought him up because it made the doctor seeth in rage. Ah, good times."
"Did he mention anything else about him? Anything that could be useful in a fight?" Mario asked him, almost falling out of his chair at a sharp turn.
"No, nothing along those lines. If you want to defeat him, you'll have to figure him out yourselves."
Suddenly, the bus spun around, sliding on the ground sideways and leaning dangerously to tipping over on its side. Luckily that didn't happen, the bus landed on all four of its wheels, having come to a complete stop.
"We're here!" He announced, before passing out and face planting on the steering wheel. Guess he didn't handle the drive as well as he seemed to.
The doors of the bus parted, and the passengers slowly hobbled out, getting themselves used to stable ground once more. Crash face planted on the ground, kissing it vigorously while the others simply walked onward.
When Crash finished romancing the grassy lawn, he got up, noticed that the others were standing around for some reason, then looked up and noticed why.
The Last Resort hotel, now owned by Dr. Elvin Gadd, was a truly impressive sight of a building, the very top of it adorned with the doctor's trademark glasses and singular hair tuft. But it didn't take a genius to notice that the giant machinery sticking out of the top of the building, along with the giant N emblazoned on the front of it, were not part of the original designs.
"Well, someone's been busy." Coco commented dryly. She and the others took notice of the stone sign of the hotel, the name having been sprayed off and replaced with "N-Trance's N-Trancing Hotel."
"Yeah, I hope the Doctor's alright. His lab is on the top floor, so we'll have to take the elevator to reach him." Mario led the way, opening the gates to let themselves into the hotel's premises.
"Oh, please let the elevator buttons still be in the lift. I don't think I can handle another ghost hunt. I'm fine with it being once every few years. I'd like it to be never, but I'm fine once in a while. Two nights in a row is too much for my poor heart to take." Luigi had his fingers crossed. He really, really did not need more ghost hunting this night. Crash gave him a reassuring pat in the back, understanding completely. Or not. Regardless, he was comforting Luigi, and that was a nice gesture.
The group stopped in front of the hotel doors, the usually ornate entrance replaced with a giant steel door with beeping lights and sparking wires snaking at its sides. There didn't seem to be any feasible way for any of them to open the doors.
There was no need to find an alternate route inside, however, as the doors suddenly roared to life, hissing steam and the sound of groaning steel coming out of it as it slowly parted open. They readied themselves up for the potential fight, but lowered their guard when what came through the doors was but a small drone, akin to the one N. Brio used to announce his presence when the bandicoots first arrived.
Projecting from the device was the face of the hotel's new owner. The word "egg" was the first thing that came to mind when they looked at the creature, his apparently purple skin and eyes of unequal size glaring down at them.
"Greetings, creatures of Dimension 6-81. I am , master of hypnotism." He declared, before zooming over closer to the heroes. "And I'm assuming the two bandicoots and their floating mask friend are the ones who hard-foiled my colleague's plan of world domination, eh? Let me tell you, that really scrambles my eggs, if you get what I mean."
"Is he making those egg puns on purpose? Because I can't really tell myself." Mario whispered to the others.
"Apparently yes. N. Tropy complained about that a lot." N. Brio whispered back.
N. Trance didn't seem to notice the comments, simply continuing his speech. "Now, while I normally don't cooperate with the same scientist who helped in that act of foiling, Dr. Cortex convinced me and another friend of mine to help him out with this little plot of his. Once I hypnotize every creature on this planet and deliver them to Cortex as his new army, I will become the ruler of this new dimension, and showcase to that bald loser who the real master of brainwashing is!"
"Brainwashing an army- hey! I invented that idea! I call plagiarism!" N. Brio took great offense to the egg-shaped villain's plan. N. Trance simply rolled his eyes, apparently only now acknowledging his presence.
"Oh, you're that embryo guy. Egghead mentioned having left you on this backwater planet after sending you on a pizza run. Kind of a cruel yoke in my opinion. I'll agree, while you may have, debatably, come up with the idea first, I perfected upon it!"
A loud sound threw everyone's attention to the top of the building. It wasn't visible before, but it looked like something was being built on top. Ghosts suddenly became visible, all having vacant expressions on their faces as they carried a bunch of scrap to the top.
"Once my new ghost army finishes the upgrades to this building's satellite, I'll be able to brainwash this entire planet in the same amount of time it takes to fry an egg, and bring them all under my command! So try and stop me, heroes. The egg timer is ticking." And the hologram flickered off, the projector flying off to the top of the building.
The group all processed what they just heard. "That guy is obsessed with egg jokes, isn't he." Coco processed the wrong thing.
They needed to make it to the top of the building and destroy that device before it activated, and to do that-
"Ooooooohhh, boy. Luigi's Mansion 4 came early." Luigi groaned as he realized what was going to happen. "We gotta go through a building full of brainwashed ghosts. Again."
"Ah, don't worry too much, bro." Mario tried to reassure him. "It won't be the same as last time until we find out they stole all the elevator buttons. Am I right or am I right?" The keyword here being 'tried.' Luigi gave him a witheringly unamused stare that made him chuckle awkwardly. "Hehe, sorry."
"Well, whatever the case, we must enter the building, and inevitably face off whatever dangers lurk within." Aku Aku said, floating over to the front of the group. Whatever was inside the building beyond the open doors was impossible to tell, an almost impossibly deep darkness obscuring everything. More of that ghost illusion magic, perhaps. "Say, what can we expect inside this hotel? You all seem very familiar with this place."
"Oh, just some ghosts. Pirate sharks, ancient queens, sewer maintenance people. They're pretty friendly folks when they're not being brainwashed. But, well, they're probably brainwashed right now, so that might be a problem."
Crash gulped, before mustering up all the bravado he had and taking the lead, entering the building with Aku Aku by his side. The others followed after him, all in different states of bravery ranging from confident and cheerful Mario, to cautiously nervous N. Brio and Peach, to jittery and terrified Luigi.
Once they were all inside, the gates slowly closed behind them, trapping them inside.
"Ah, the fun part is starting soon. I better get the popcorn ready." N. Trance cackled as he watched the camera feed of the building, seeing the heroes enter his deathtrap. He steered his mechanical chassis, which was holding his limbless egg body and granting him locomotion, towards the nearby microwave. "Once I brainwash those losers, I'll have the perfect army ready for Dr. Nerdface and his cronies. And just to rub it in his face, I'll only hand the army over when he admits that I, N. Trance, am the master of hypnotism across all dimensions! What do you think, does that sound cruel or what?"
Dr. Elvin Gadd, top scientist extraordinaire, specializing in paranormality and the distribution of technology across the Mushroom Kingdom, sat on his lab chair drooling like crazy. "Oh, you definitely are the prettiest egg in all the land, Lord N. Trance."
The master of hypnotism rolled his eyes, tapping the microwave as his popcorn bag popped inside. "Ugh, I don't get what it is with your brains that make you act all weird under my Brainwashomatic Helmets effects. The ghosts act normally enough."
He signaled E. Gadd to lower his head, presenting his mind control helmet and letting him open up a panel to examine. "At least it doesn't affect your ability to do your jobs. It'd be egg on my face if my plans failed because of you people going crazy from my helmet's powers."
He closed the panel, grabbed his popcorn out of the microwave, and went back to the feed. "So," He tossed a handful of kernels into his mouth. "Howsh work on tshe shathelithe?"
"It should only be a few hours before the aurora borealis can dance it's pretty dress colors over the world's brain juices, your eggness."
"We really need to figure out what's wrong… Meh, later. For now, get the 4th floor ghosts to spread weaponry around. I want the place well defended, just in case the good guys manage a victory."
The Dr. saluted him, turning his chair back to his computer and rapidly tapping away at the keyboard. N. Trance glanced around the camera feed, looking over the floors of the hotel to see how everything was going.
"Oh, and before I forget, go tell our australian ghost hunter to make a sweep of the 12th and 14th floors. Catch any strays that might still be roaming around and trying to throw an egg in our plans."
The lobby of the Last Resort, usually meant to look pristine and grandiose to any new guests coming to stay, looked like a warzone. Scorch marks and craters dotted the area, evidence of laser blasts and explosions being involved in the chaos, along with upturned furniture, broken windows and debris and garbage lying around from escaped ghosts. It was a total mess.
Adding to the creepiness of the scene was the residents of the hotel, or rather their complete absence.
"Hello! Anybody home? It's a me! Luigi!" The green brother called out, his voice echoing through the hotel. It all sent a shiver down his spine, the foreboding silence and emptiness of the lobby. His instincts told him what he already knew, this was probably an ambush.
"Ok, before they all jump out and attack us, does anybody have a plan?" Coco said.
Crash raised his hand in the air, then broke into a series of wild gesticulations, pointing at certain members of the group, at random spots of the hotel, trying to communicate some kind of complicated battle plan. Once he finished, he looked at the others to gouge out a reaction.
"... Genius." N. Brio said after a good few seconds of processing it. He was the only one to come to that conclusion, though. The others were just confused.
"What was that about? I know that was supposed to be a battle plan, but…" Peach said in confusion.
"Crash is just repeating the same idea he had for Coco's Esports Championship Match. Just that you all should know, the game was Tetris." Aku Aku explained. "That's not gonna work here Crash, we need something else."
As the group continued brainstorming, Mario saw something in the corner of his vision. A sign of movement drifting through the curtains that still hung on the windows. A shark fin, to be precise.
"Sorry, Coco, but my kingdom doesn't have anti-tank weapons. I don't know why you'd think any of that stuff would be useful against ghosts, anyway." Princess Peach shook her head at the bandicoots surprising bloodlust.
A gust of wind tickled his nose, and he almost sneezed when something entered it. He could tell after a closer look that there were sand particles floating in the air, moving around with purpose.
"We could run away and come back with more people? And meanwhile we could all go stay at one of those Bed and Breakfasts we saw on the way here while they do the work?" Luigi suggested, and went completely ignored.
Some luggage that was still piled up suddenly fell to the ground, a surprised, and very familiarly nerdy gasp echoing in Mario's ears.
"Why don't we just counter brainwash them when they show up? I have a little concoction on my person at all times just in case I ever need to mind control someone for, uhmmm, non-evil reasons. We could break it out?"
"I don't think there's any situation in existence where brainwashing is not evil, N. Brio." Aku Aku said in annoyance.
"What about brainwashing british parliament?"
"... I'll get back to you on that."
And right behind Luigi, under a pile of rubble, he could see dust being kicked up as something approached his brother. Fast.
"Luigi, watch out!" He called out, but it was too late. The figure camouflaged by the dust tackled the green brother onto the ground, assaulting him and causing Luigi to… laugh and giggle in terror?
"Ohoho, ahahah! Polterpup, stop!" The ghost that so hastily attacked Luigi was in fact everyone's favorite spectral pup, Polterpup, and his attack was just furiously licking his owners face, clearly absolutely delighted to see him again. Last Mario remembered, Luigi had left him here to be babysat while they were on vacation. It was good that he had gotten out of the chaos unscathed.
"Awww, who's this little cutie?" Once they got past being surprised, the bandicoots were automatically enamored. Coco looked doe eyed as the pup stopped his assault of love to realize he was being fawned over, noticing Crash walking over to see if he could pet him. He responded by dashing at him, running between his legs a few times to knock him onto his butt, then jumping on his belly to sniff at this new potential friend/chew toy.
"Oh, hehe, that's polterpup. He's my pet ghost dog. How are you, boy? Is everything okay?" Luigi recomposed himself, wiping some ghost slobber off his face as he stood up.
Polterpup ignored the questioning, instead opting to start chewing on Crash's leg. The bandicoot simply chuckled as he started petting the ghost dog on the head. He'd been gnawed on enough times to learn when it was affectionate instead of because he was being eaten. This was probably the former. Probably.
"Hmm, yes, a touching reunion. Say, were the-the-these giant, purple glowing gates blocking the doorway here before?" N. Brio interrupted the beautiful reunion to point out the fact that they had all been trapped. While they were distracted by an adorable puppy, gates similar to the one in their battle with King Boo had slammed down around the doors, trapping them inside. "I can see from your faces that you do, that's good."
A few more gates appeared, blocking some doors and windows, and most importantly, the path to the elevator. Laughter of the ghostly kind echoed through the building, causing the group to tense up and ready up for a fight. Well, everyone but polterpup, who was still chewing on Crash's leg.
Fading into existence, a bellhop ghost appeared, clapping his head while chuckling. Steward, the bellhop ghost, acting far more confident than usual. For whatever reason his bellboy cap was missing, replaced with a bizarre, but very technological looking device on his head.
"Oh boy, there goes Steward again." Luigi sighed. Here we go again.
Other ghosts began appearing, all bearing malevolent grins and looking ready to manhandle their unfortunate victims. A pianist with unusually long arms, a snakelike queen, a shark with a giant hook replacing a fin were at the front, clearly the heavy hitters. Behind them, a maid, a mechanic, a DJ with a massive afro and Steward appeared, all of them wearing the same helmets the latter had on, and all looking ready to attack.
And right in the back, away from where the fighting would happen, a filmmaker was filming it all with a giant camera in hand. He cheerfully waved at the group, and showed that he had no helmet.
"Morty?! What are you doing? Are you okay?" Luigi shouted at him.
"Oh, hello my favorite shining star!" Morty cheerfully yelled back. "I'm just busy filming all the events that are unfolding today! It's not often this planet is invaded by aliens from another dimension, and who would I be as a famous filmmaker and not record every moment of it all for future reference? I'd be a terrible filmmaker, that's who I'd be! Oh, and do feel free to free the others right now! I want to share with them the screenplay I'm writing and get their feedback. That and they're being brainwashed against their will." He gave them all a thumbs up. "Good luck!"
"... He seems nice." Coco commented after a while. "I've never been in a movie before though."
"Yes, it's quite an exciting opportunity, I must say. Uhm, make sure to capture my good side, good sir!" Aku Aku called out to Morty, who gave a thumbs up in return.
"Oh yeah, Morty can make anyone a star. Even me. I starred in my own kaiju movie once, you know. We should watch it together some time." Luigi said. He jumped when he heard Serpci, the ancient egyptian ghost queen loudly clear her throat. "Oh, uh, sorry. I guess we should fight each other now?"
The sight of them cracking their knuckles and pulling out weapons gave them their answers. It definitely gave Morty the sign to start filming.
"Alright everyone, places, places. This will all be in one take so I want everyone to be at their best. Lights, camera, aaaaand,"
A goob carrying a clapperboard appeared in front of the camera, ready to clap it down to signal the beginning of the film.
"Action!" The board clicked, and the battle began.
Boss Time
One pirate shark, Captain Fishook himself, opened up the fight by diving into the ground and dashing for the heroes with an open maw of teeth aimed at their behinds. That sent them all scattering, exactly as he had wanted. He didn't want to slam into one of the pillars, though, but hey, accidents happen.
Mario landed on his feet, kicked all the way over to the door. He never fought the ghosts, the one with that honor being Luigi, so he didn't have any idea of what to do against them. He was blind to what they could do, so he didn't know how to go about beating them.
His thoughts were interrupted when the ground beneath his feet suddenly started rising, sand gathering together, growing larger and larger until a giant sand snake was formed. It hissed loudly, Mario still standing on top of its head.
"Ok, so one of them has sand powers. I can deal with that." He said. Though he did wonder which ghost was the one with the sand powers.
The answer came to him in the form of Serpci coughing into her hand to catch his attention, waving hello, then shoving him off her giant sand creation. The snake began moving around the area, ready to cause chaos.
On the other side of the building, closest to the elevator, Coco and Peach put up their dukes as DJ Phantasmagloria, Clem and Chambrea surrounded them, wielding a bunch of random cleaning items as weapons.
Peach did the same, wielding a golf club she for whatever reason was carrying on her person, slamming it threateningly on her palm. Coco wielded her tablet, made indestructible for just such an occasion. Both of the groups were waiting for someone to make the first move.
And the first move was made by Clem, who raised his wrench into the air, hooting loudly as a battle cry, before rushing at Peach to strike at her. That move amounted to nothing as Mario flew into his face, sending him crashing to the floor and smashing his helmet on the ground into pieces.
"Attack!" That was a good enough sign anyway. The remaining ghosts rushed forward, clashing weapons against Coco and Peach, while leaving Mario to recover a bit.
Now, with Crash and Luigi.
"MAMAAAAA!" Things were going swimmingly. Fishook and Amadeus decided to join forces, the shark swimming after the two hapless heroes, while the pianist tried to cut off their escape route with his elongated hands. Of course, he was doing it on two platforming experts, so they just expertly vaulted and flipped over them with incredible grace and finesse while screaming at the top of their lungs. Look, Crash just performed a Lutz jump while he was running backwards, looking at the ghost sharks gaping maw. Normally only possible while ice skating, but Crash always found a way.
Captain Fishook, his one good eye narrowing as he focused in on a particular target, lunged forward again, his tooth filled mouth awaiting a delicious marsupial snack. The attack sent Crash flying into the air, the marsupial screaming and flailing like crazy as he saw his demise approach alarmingly fast.
Luigi, meanwhile, had been caught in the pianist's giant hands. He shied away at the violent glare Amadeus was giving him, ready to put him in a world of pain. Oh, if only he had a way to break the helmet. Or maybe even capture the ghosts… wait a minute, didn't they have a makeshift poltergust? Where was it anyway?
Back at Peach's Castle, in a little room where Peach would often have chats with her friends, lying on a comfy looking pink chair with a heart shaped pillow, was the makeshift poltergust. If anyone was around, they could hear a voice coming from the bulging bag, growling and dripping with rage as it asked if anyone had any eights.
No one had any eights.
Welp, he was screwed. There was nothing Luigi could do right now that would save himself other than wait for Mario to finally return the favor of saving him.
Mario ran past the two, being chased by Serpci's giant sand snake. The queen laughed haughtily, expertly maneuvering her creation and keeping up with Mario's athleticness.
Maybe Peach, or Coco?
He could see the two duking it out with the other ghosts. Peach was looking very intimidating with her golf club, glaring daggers at Chambrea, while Coco chased after Steward, trying to bash his non-existent skull in with her tablet.
Ok, they were out of the question too. Guess it was time to beg for mercy. "Can we talk about this over a nice cup of tea and classical music?"
Amadeus feigned interest, humming in thought, before making a fist with his free hand and raising it high into the air, ready to turn Luigi into a Luigi pancake. That wasn't rare for him, that had happened before plenty of times in his many adventures , but it was pretty annoying to be squished flat (the time he was a surfboard rated #1 on most unpleasant flattenings.)
Morty, off in his little corner filming the chaos, focused his camera on Luigi's predicament. "Ah, the hero of the story, cornered and with no way to escape. All hope seems lost, and darkness falls as his inevitable demise approaches. Until…"
Amadeus gained a surprised look, seeing something behind Luigi that confused him.
"A hero saves the moment, and changes the tide of battle."
It was Crash, riding on Captain Fishook like a wild bull. Except this bull was an ancient pirate ghost shark that was going full speed right for Amadeus. The pianist simply closed his eyes, resigning himself to the inevitable, and getting smashed in the face by several tons of spectral shark, sending Luigi flying out of his hands and his head smashing into the floor. The helmet broke into pieces, releasing him from mind control, and he was knocked unconscious to prevent him from enjoying his freedom.
Holding on valiantly to the bucking Fishook, Crash flailed about like a plastic bag in the wind. He somehow managed to hold on to the sharks fin, never letting go at all, even as Fishook smashed him into a pillar. Repeatedly. There wasn't any sign he was gonna stop.
Luigi rubbed his head in pain, recovering from his fall until he spotted poor Crash's predicament. He had to help, but no matter how much he looked around in panic, he couldn't find anything he could use to save the marsupial.
Well, until someone ran past him, his brother to be precise, and he was run over by a giant sand snake.
Back with Peach and Coco, the two were having a tough time in their fight. They were outnumbered three to two, and two of their opponents fought by throwing sharp discs and luggage at them. That put them at a disadvantage, since they had no luggage of their own to throw back. Curse their lack of foresight.
Peach crossed golf club with feather duster as she and Chambrea dueled. Any attempts at hitting the mind control helmet were quickly blocked, the maid laughing as she kept up the pressure. She needed an opening if she wanted to do anything of worth.
"Ugh, stop throwing stuff at me!" Coco growled out, batting away another suitcase with her tablet. It was starting to wear down. "Do you have any idea how hard it is to make an indestructible tablet? Actually very easy, but the resources and time cost are annoying to deal with!"
Steward laughed out loud at her frustration, readying up to toss a particularly large and stuffed looking suitcase at her. Phantasmagloria fired some discs at Coco, a few of them bouncing off before one lodged itself into the tablet's covering. The tablet cracked in two, splitting apart in the bandicoot's hands.
"Ok, that tears it!" Coco tossed aside the broken tablet, and pulled out another, perfectly intact and completely identical to the previous version tablet. With a powerful leap, she charged at the two ghosts, who had stopped their onslaught for just long enough to react to her outburst. That was their game ending mistake.
Back with Peach and Chambrea, the two had also briefly stopped to watch the exchange. Chambrea had even dropped her guard to look at the broken tablet pieces, wondering if they were worth anything to steal them.
The princess took her chance, and with a powerful swing of her golf club, broke the helmet into pieces.
Chambrea blinked dizzily, while Peach twirled her weapon in her hand in triumph. With Coco savagely beating the two other ghosts with her tablet, all that was left was the sand queen and her pet snake to be taken care of.
"Now, for the climax of the story! Luigi, Marvin and the bandicoot VS Queen Serpci of the sands. Oh, this is going to be a masterpiece once I finish editing it all!" Morty said excitedly, switching his camera over to the two brothers being chased by Serpci.
"Shouldn't you be helping them? I'm assuming these are your coworkers? It seems very rude to just leave them brainwashed like that." Aku Aku said. He had chosen to stay out of the fighting after losing track of where everyone was. He had settled by Morty, and after being offered to be part of the developer commentary of the film, decided to stick with him for the time being.
N. Brio had had the same idea, apparently, since he was also there. "Don't bother the film maker. Clearly he has a vendetta against his fellow coworkers and is using this opportunity to film their suffering for future blackmail. I did the same many times while interning at Jamazon. Good times, good times." He said wistfully, reminiscing on days of brainwashing coworkers.
"Oh, heavens no, this is not like that at all. I don't hold any desire for vengeance against my coworkers at all. Granted, Steward once spilled coffee on some of my film reels, but that was quickly forgiven. No, the whole point of filming this is because it is too good a scene to pass up! Besides, they'll get paid their fair share. That includes your friends, by the by." Morty explained.
N. Brio rolled his eyes at that. "Pfft, wuss."
As they all looked at the ongoing battle, Coco now being held back by Peach, still trying to continue her beating on the now freed ghosts, N. Brio took note of something.
"Say, wasn't there supposed to be a ghost puppy with us at some point?"
Polterpup was having the time of his life, gnawing savagely on a suitcase handle he had found. Stuff had started happening around him a good while ago, he had been tossed away from the new chew toy his owner Luigi had found him, but other than that, he was pretty content with ignoring it all. His owner could handle it anyway. He was Luigi after all.
He stopped his mangling of his chew toy when said owner, along with his brother Mario, ran past him suddenly. He looked at them, whining and tilting his head in confusion, wondering what it was they were running from. Weren't they being chased by a giant sand snake last he checked?
A loud hissing coming from behind him told him exactly where it was: right behind him, glaring down at him, Serpci doing the same thing from on top of its head. To any normal being, this would have made them feel threatened.
To polterpup?
"Oh boy! Friend!" Went through his head as he jumped up to his feet, wagging his tail excitedly. He barked twice at the giant sand snake, asking if it wanted to play a game of tail chasing?
Serpci was a snake person, not a dog person. None of this interested her in any way. So, she commanded her creation to go around.
Polterpup intercepted them, getting in their way, still yipping her ears off. If she had them. She wasn't sure. Still, she grunted and tried again.
Again, the ghost puppy got in her way. Now he was vibrating with excitement. She kept trying again and again, and everytime, the polterpup just ran in front of her, blocking her path and getting more and more excited. This was starting to get increasingly annoying now.
"That's it, polterpup! Keep them distracted while we figure something out!" Luigi cheered on his pet, believing that this was all being done for his benefit, rather than just because it was fun for him. No need to tell him the truth. Regardless, he looked around to do the figuring stuff out part, trying to see if there was anything they could use.
Poor Captain Fishook had gone to lie down with the other freed ghosts, all of them nursing their bruises and waiting for their remaining coworker to be freed. His former rider, Crash, was jammed into the pillar the shark ghost was slamming himself into a while ago. He slid out, dazed, but somehow unharmed. And probably of no use right now. Coco and Peach were meanwhile standing by Morty and the others, cheering them on to finish the job.
"Uhhh, Mario? You have any ideas? I could use the help right now?"
Mario hummed in thought, looking at Luigi's ghost pet successfully stall the giant sand snake with the power of cuteness. That scene stirred up some memories of a particular incident that occurred some time ago.
"Okay, let's see how clever you are, Polterpup." Mario had taken polterpup out to the local park, it being his turn to take him out to play. The ghost pup stared up at him, his tongue sticking out dumbly. "Roll over."
The ghost dog rolled over onto his back, his head remaining perfectly still.
"... okay, good enough. Play dead."
Polterpup looked up at him, panting and being very much a living ghost pu- oh that's right.
"Nevermind then. Ummm… chase?"
The ghost dog shot up to his feet, standing at attention, before chasing after the nearest object, his tail, spinning faster and faster and-
He had to pay a lot of coins in property damage that day. But that did help him with an idea.
"Polterpup!"
The ghost dog turned around when he heard his name, standing at attention.
"See that tail!" He pointed out the giant sand snakes giant sand tail.
"Chase!"
Polterpup smiled in delight. Called to perform his one true purpose in life! Chase around and bite things he wasn't supposed to! He turned to address the giant snake, who looked confused at what was about to happen. He eyed the sand creature's tail, wiggled his butt a bit, and leaped right for it with his mouth wide open.
Serpci's snake screeched in pain, despite being a construct of animate sand, and therefore having no nervous system to feel anything. The queen was really starting to regret putting so much effort in making her creations so accurate to the real thing. Her snake, driven into rage by the indignity, again something Serpci felt necessary to add to her creations, the capacity of emotions, lunged towards the polterpup in an attempt to devour it.
The polterpup took this as a sign of playtime, so he jumped out of the way and let the snake smash its head into the ground. It shook away the dizziness, leveling a glare at the pup. Serpci glared along with it. Polterpup panted, absolutely happy with everything.
What followed was an epic chase of snake and dog, as the giant sand beast chased after the pup, snaking around as the pup darted around its body. The danger of such actions dawned on Serpci, but not on her creation, as it started to tangle up in its own body.
Polterpup suddenly stopped running, sitting down right in front of where Mario and Luigi were standing. The snake did one final lunge for him, stretching itself as far as it could.
Mario, Luigi and polteprup all casually stepped aside, letting it casually roll past, having tie itself up into a ball shaped knot. Serpci just accepted her defeat, pouting as her creation slammed into a pillar, head first. With her on the head, she was slammed into it as well, breaking the final helmet.
The dust settled as the heroes gathered amongst each other, surveying their handiwork. Luigi said what everyone had in their mind.
"Woohoo! We did it!"
Boss Finished
"... Oh poop." N. Trance deadpanned. "This is gonna be a problem."
"Absolutely, your majesty." E. Gadd sagely nodded.
"Strengthen security across all floors. And tell our ghost hunter to switch targets. We can't have these idiots mucking up my still baking plan."
"Ah, this one is a masterpiece in the making." Morty gave the film reel a kiss. Some time in the editing room, and it would be ready to enter the theaters. He floated over to the heroes, specifically aiming for his personal favorite star, Luigi, clasping and shaking his hand vigorously. "As always, Luigi, you deliver an impressive performance that puts all others to shame! I have never been more glad of suffering another invasion where all of my coworkers were brainwashed. The luck!"
"Hehe, glad we could help out, I guess." Luigi said.
The freed ghosts had gathered by the entrance, currently being nursed back to health by Peach. They all looked incredibly thankful, and perhaps a bit peeved, at being once again saved by their number one guest.
"Where are the others, though?"
"Oh, they're hiding out in the other sewers, along with the other ghosts. So long as you get rid of our egg shaped felon threatening us, we will all be fine." Morty explained casually. "He should be on the top floor, in our employers office." He pointed at the elevator, the thing they needed to get to their enemy.
"Well, what are we waiting for, then? We're not here to make a reservation, we're here to beat up a bad guy and save the day!" Coco exclaimed. Then she darted her eyes back and forth nervously. "Unless a reservation is, you know, an option that we can take. Wouldn't mind that."
"We'll discuss it in the elevator. Let's-a go!" Mario guided the group towards the elevator. Aku Aku stopped himself from joining them for a moment to address the others.
"Princess, you'll be able to hold down the fort while we are away, right?"
"I'll do my best, Aku Aku." She said. "I'll try and call for some of my royal guards to come over if they can. Best of luck to the rest of you."
"Good luck to you too, princess. N. Brio, don't touch anything."
N. Brio, in the middle of trying to pull a hair off an unconscious Clem's head, just responded with a grunt.
Satisfied, the mask floated back towards the others, who had all gathered in the elevator, waiting for him to join them. Now they were going for the top floor, the office of one Dr. E. Gadd, where N. Trance had decided to take roost in. All they had to do was press the button for the top floor, which would-
"Ohhhhhh boy." Luigi sighed out. Crash went to try and press the button, only to go in too hard and accidentally stick his finger into the empty hole where the button was. That. That was going to be a problem.