Author Notes - I don't usually 'talk' to my readers in this way because I find social interactions awkward even in one-sided text, but, um... thanks to Clove357, Coolkidwriter97, Draco Mercer, Majestic Yo-kai Fauntleroy, Pikminfan, jane grove, JFiniti Productions, Marioman101, MonalisaRomano17, and Typhilda for the favourites/follows! I thought I'd do this because I think it's awesome to see my name in someone else's work, and I figured you guys might appreciate the honour too.

You know how I said I'd be dividing up the chapters a bit more than originally intended, while Chap 2 was still pretty long? This chapter and the last were supposed to be the same one, in a 12,000 word beast that mentioned our plumber's name nearly 150 times. (Update from Future Me, after I finished the story: HA!)

UPDATE 14/05/20 - Moved beginning flashback scene to end.
UPDATE 28/01/20 - Less typos, less paragraph breaks, and other minor changes

CHAPTER THREE - THE BARE BASEMENTS

Luigi had so many questions in such little time. Why was the professor here? How did he get captured? How long was he here for? Without even realising it, he ran across the entire ballroom until he reached the professor on display. Polterpup looked up at the painting and whimpered.

'Oh no... no, no! How could this have happened to you?'

He would've been far more distressed at the sight had he not known that being trapped in a portrait was not permanent.

'I-I gotta find the Dark-Light Device! I-It's gotta be around here somewhere.'

'Hey Olivia, what did Ms Gravely tell us to do with this thing, again?'

'I dunno. Hide it or something. I doubt it's important.'

Luigi flinched, and just barely fought the urge to yelp. Those voices were new, and certainly didn't belong to anyone good. He turned to his left, where he heard the sounds, and saw a door. With a gulp, he approached it. His hand shaking like never before, he reached for the door and pushed it open ever so slightly. He peeped through the tiny gap, and gasped.

Two more ghosts floated in the hallway, except these were not quite like the Goobs. They were long and skinny, and had yellow translucent skin instead of blue. The male of the two - Owen - held the Dark-Light Device in his hand, while the female - Olivia - peered at it.

'What does this thing do, anyway?' Owen asked. 'It's just a lightbulb! Why was that old guy even holding it?'

Olivia shrugged. 'Heck if I know! I think Ms Gravely was overreacting.'

'I'll just put it in a safe or something.'

Luigi's eyes widened upon seeing the all-important device in their grasp.

'No!' He yelled out, and no sooner than he did he regretted it.

The Oozers snapped their heads to him, and gasped at once. Owen held the bulb close to his chest.

'It's Green Cap, and his cursed contraption!' Olivia yelled, before turning to Owen. 'Hide that dang thing, and get outta here!'

Giving no more instructions or any reassurance, she disappeared through the wall, leaving her partner to stare with his mouth agape.

'Don't leave me alone with Green Cap!'

He glared at 'Green Cap', and flew down the hallway. Befitting his slim physique he zoomed around the corner, still holding the Dark-Light Device. Polterpup stood by his owner's side, growling with slightly-expired donut frosting on his lips.

'C-Calm down, boy. We'll get that device back.'

Polterpup charged down across the carpet, barking much more violently than usual. Luigi sighed, and chased after him.

'D-Don't leave me, boy. I need you to find ghosts...'

He followed his pet around the corner, and witnessed him jumping through a metallic door at the end. The moon shined down on him through the windows as he ran up to the door. It opened up to a storage room, with chairs and boxes covered by old dusty tarps, and shelves stacked with various knick-knacks. Luigi wrinkled his nose as the musty odour returned. On the bright side, the Oozer was nowhere to be seen.

'Arf!'

Polterpup sat by a safe embedded in the wall, his nose pointing straight up at it. Luigi approached him, eye on the safe.

'That's where the ghost hid the device?'

'Arf arf!' Polterpup replied with a nod.

The safe had nothing to twist to input a combination, but it did have a bright green light that flashed slowly. Luigi smirked; this puzzle didn't take a genius to figure out. Which was really good for him.

'Hey!' He yelled, presumably at me.

He charged up his Strobulb, and beamed that flashing light. It reacted just like the light on the vending machine. The sound of gears turning could be heard from inside the safe, until it swung open like something wanted to break out. For the most part, it was empty. That was with one exception, that being the one thing that Luigi wanted to see the most.

'There it is!'

He picked up the device, and shifted his Poltergust into Dark-Light Mode. His flashlight disappeared into the machine in favour of an unfinished stump. He screwed in the gadget, and it fit like a glove, as luckily the installation was so simple anyone could do it. With a press of the Strobulb button, the light emitted a rainbow beam that swirled around like food colouring in milk, or like oil on water. Either way, it looked surprisingly beautiful for a fancy lightbulb.

'Arf?'

Polterpup stepped into the light. His usually translucent skin became more opaque under it. He yelped in shock as a tingly feeling overtook him.

'Oh, you don't remember this, do you? I'll show you what it does! But we gotta get back to the professor.'

So he left that dusty storage with his ghost doggy in tow... and yelped upon seeing a couple more Goobs right next to him in the hallway. One of the ghosts stuck some posters on the wall, while the other struggled to carry a whole pile of them. Wanted posters at that. They had a mugshot of Luigi, with a fair reward for his head, literally or not.

'You know what kinda sucks?' The Goob carrying the posters said, his arms shaking. 'We gotta present the dude alive. Why can't we make it easy and just kill him?'

Luigi gulped. Now I know they're looking for me. The other Goob looked at his friend, rolling his eyes while pinning up another poster.

'Ms Gravely's orders.' He said. 'She wants that man alive. Speaking of which...' He turned to the aforementioned green dude, glancing at him and then back at the poster. This process was repeated a few times until he got it. 'Yep. That's him.' He said, calmly. 'Aight Greg, let's grab him and impre-'

'RUN AWAY!' The first Goob screamed, sending the posters flying everywhere as he flew out of the room.

The other Goob grunted. 'Ya wimp.'

Some of these ghosts were apparently spiders, following the 'more scared of you than you are of it' mentality. Others threw that mentality out the window.

He turned to Luigi with his arms slumping. 'Look bud, if I want the money I gotta bring you to the boss. You okay with that?'

'Uh... n-no?'

'You hesitated. That means yes. Get over here.'

The Goob's translucent skin disappeared into thin air bit by bit until nothing left of him could be seen. Polterpup bowed down and growled with his teeth bared.

'Huh. The ghost dog is the disloyal one. How's that for irony?'

Luigi switched the nozzle over to the Dark-Light, and the Poltergust followed his directions in less than a second. He aimed his flashlight right where Polterpup was growling, and shined his rainbow light. Slowly, the glowing blue skin of the Goob returned. He looked down at his body and gasped.

'Okay, now you're cheating. How does that even-?'

Luigi cut him off with a Strobulb flash.

'Uh... can we think about this?'

A few quick slams into the floor that he couldn't pass through for some reason later, the Goob vanished into the Poltergust like he wasn't even there to begin with. Luigi couldn't help but think that this new 'slamming' move was a little bit too powerful. Of course, he wasn't exactly going to complain about his job being made a little easier, now was he?

He peered at the wanted posters tacked on the wall. The ghosts made it very clear how desperately they wanted his head, considering that they had at least twenty plastered on that one wall alone. Shining his light on just one of the posters was difficult, what with how much his hand was shaking.

'L-L-Let's just save the professor.'

He returned to E. Gadd's portrait, half expecting it to have disappeared or something. Thank those in the Overthere that it hadn't. Polterpup watched with anticipation.

'You wanna see what this can do? Watch this!'

He enveloped the portrait with the rainbow light of his newly-recovered doohickey, and the swirly pattern of the painting came to life and moved around. More importantly though, the professor emerged from the portrait.

'Arf?'

'Yeah! It can do that.'

Upon being fully separated from his tapestry prison, E. Gadd immediately fell flat on his face. Polterpup yelped, and jumped back. Luigi flinched, and hoped the guy didn't break all of his presumably fragile bones. The fears were put to rest (hehe) when E. Gadd dusted himself off and stood up.

'Ooh, I never thought I'd be on this side of the portrait-ification process...' He muttered as everything came back to him. 'No wonder King Boo was so keen on-'

His bespectacled eyes met Luigi, and lit up visibly behind those big glasses.

'Professor, I-' Luigi tried to explain before getting cut off.

'Ah! If it isn't Luigi! And that mischievous spectral puppy too. You are precisely the last person I'd expect to find here.'

He wasn't quite sure how to interpret that comment, but he assumed it was an insult. It usually was.

'Professor, we-'

'Hold that thought! Now isn't the time to catch up.'

Luigi grumbled. At least he was so used to being interrupted that it was just a minor annoyance now. With how quick to the draw the professor was, he wondered if those trapped in the portraits were actually conscious the whole time. AAAND time to stop thinking about that.

'What matters is...you'll do nicely! Come on, Luigi. Get me out of here now! The hotel is filled to the brim with ghosts! Let's make a run for it!'

Make a...? Wait, no!

E. Gadd tried to make a run for it, and though Luigi couldn't blame him at all this was the one situation in which one ignores that advice. Before E. Gadd could get far at all, Luigi grabbed his arm. He didn't pull him in too hard; he didn't want to hurt him.

E. Gadd looked back at him, perturbed. 'What're doing sonny? We must get out of this hotel, posthaste!'

'N-N-No! M-M-Mario! The princess. T-The other princess. The T-Toads!' He stammered, realising how silly he sounded only after he spoke.

Polterpup, hardly understanding the guy himself, nodded in an attempt to put his owner on a higher pedestal. E. Gadd, trying to make sense of that nonsense, peered at the sonny's face. That was definitely distress in those big blue eyes of his.

'What was that? All of your friends have been captured?! And you can't just abandon them here, you say?'

Luigi nodded. E. Gadd promptly hung his head all the way back and sighed, his arms hanging down.

'You're the same as ever, I see. A bit of a handful...'

He said that so casually, to the point where it took an already questionable response and made it a thousand times worse. Polterpup lowered his head and did his best job at facepalming.

The plumber blinked at him. 'You... you serious?'

'OK. I'm not thrilled about it,' E. Gadd continued like Luigi had said nothing. 'But I, Professor Elvin Gadd, have an idea! First things first, Luigi. We have to get to my car! Will you take me there?'

Ah. He knew that old car seemed familiar. What was with the professor and storing the Poltergust in the trunk of his car? E. Gadd peered around his back, and saw the device hooked up onto him. It made him grin, seeing his ingenious inventions at work.

'Hey. The new Poltergust G-00 you're wearing... You took that out of my car, right?'

Poltergust G-00? Maybe the professor's naming scheme wasn't so predictable after all.

'We've got to get back to the underground garage. Let's go!'

Once again, he had been freed for a grand total of two minutes, and already he was kicking his green-clad assistant into something else. It was that kind of go-getter attitude that Luigi wanted to have. E. Gadd ran towards the doors to the lobby, in a way that was best accentuated with some sort of cartoony running sound. Luigi watched him, confused, while staying his spot.

'Uh, but I've already got the Poltergust.' Luigi said. 'Why do we have to-?'

'Hurry up, sonny! The more time you waste the longer it'll take to get my ghost collection back.'

This professor has absolutely stellar priorities, I have to say.

Luigi rolled his eyes. 'Come on boy...' He said as he went after him, his pet following close behind.

Once through the door, E. Gadd ran to the elevator. Turns out, the second storey had another place to board it, at around the same place Luigi saw that maid. On the way there, Luigi noticed another door. Even if E. Gadd would let him, he couldn't get to that door through all the cleaning stuff put in front of it.

'Chop-chop, sonny!'

Luigi then realised that E. Gadd had already reached the elevator while he was just staring at a door he couldn't access.

'Oh. C-Coming, professor!'

E. Gadd pressed the button the moment his assistant arrived, and said assistant rubbed his hands nervously as the elevator began approaching them.

'Um, professor, t-there's a small problem with this elevator...'

'Oh, don't fret.' E. Gadd said. 'I'm sure there isn't a fire.'

'N-No, there's-'

*DING*

The elevator arrived, and opened up. E. Gadd ran in without delay, and Luigi followed him in with tons of delay. Polterpup chose to jump through the walls to get in instead.

'S-See,' Luigi said as he entered. 'The buttons are-'

'Of all the... someone has removed all the other elevator buttons!'

The plumber sighed. That's what I was trying to... never mind. At least the basement button had some actual use now. E. Gadd peered into the lowest hole, looking for anything that he could tap into it to get things moving without the buttons. There was nothing in there. You'd think there would be something inside for them to press to get the elevator moving anyway, but it seemed like the buttons had all the power. Only in a haunted hotel would that work at all.

'What's going on here?'

'Um, m-maybe a ghost-'

'Hmm... A mystery for later, I suppose.'

Luigi whimpered in frustration, just quietly enough that no one could hear him. Sometimes he wondered if the problem was more on him than other people.

'It didn't seem like any of your friends were trapped on the second floor with me. They must have been taken to one of the floors higher up in the hotel.'

I assume Mario's on floor fifteen, only because of course he would be.

'Which means... yeah, we're going to need those elevator buttons.'

'There... aren't any stairs?' Luigi asked, finally getting his voice into this two-person conversation.

E. Gadd chuckled. 'Like anyone would want to walk up all those steps! Oh ho, I never tire of your silly little ideas.'

Well, I guess that would be a 'no' then. No stairs, at all? He whimpered again, this time far more audibly.

'Oh, don't be like that, sonny. Go ahead and give the B1 button a push.'

Luigi didn't have the energy to wonder why E. Gadd couldn't have just done it himself, and did as he was told. While the elevator travelled downwards, he took this moment to ponder.

Come on professor, I just wanna save my friends! I didn't find anyone in the basement... how's this gonna help?

Though he was still annoyed about having to find the buttons, he relaxed and paced around aimlessly. He took great solace in the fact that the elevator would give him plenty of time to unwind in-between the levels of his personal hell. He felt something moving against his leg. Polterpup licked his overall leggings gently, whimpering quietly. Luigi gave him a small smile, knelt down, and stroked him.

'I'll be fine, boy. I promise. I've got you here with me.'

Though Luigi didn't believe the words coming out of his own mouth, Polterpup seemed pretty convinced. He yipped and wagged his adorable little tail, and gave his owner a quick kiss on the cheek.


The elevator arrived at its destination far sooner than he would've hoped. The doors opened up to the basement, and compared to the well-lit mezzanine the place seemed even darker now. The musty air felt worse after the clear air of the upper floors.

'Hurry, sonny!'

Luigi stepped out of the box like he was stepping in-between spikes, darting both his eyes and his flashlight all over the place. No way in the endless ocean of the Minus World was he letting his guard now. Polterpup stood by his side, snarling at every single air particle, just in case something leapt out at his best friend.

'Why do you worry so much, Luigi?' E. Gadd rhetorically asked. 'Hundreds of aggressive and dangerous ghosts are no match for the trusty Poltergust G-00.'

Luigi gulped. Thanks for the reassurance...

Fortunately, the place hadn't changed much at all. Aside from that bin being an extra half-an-inch to the right, but he was pretty sure he was just seeing things. Thinking about it, he was actually kind of glad to be following someone around. It gave him a break before he inevitably had to venture out on his own again. He glanced down at Polterpup. The dog marched along with his head all high and mighty. It almost brought tears to Luigi's eyes; what did he do to deserve such a friendly and loyal friend?!

No Luigi... not the time to get over-emotional.

*CRASH*

'AHH!'

A painting fell off the wall and plummeted to the ground with a fairly loud CRASH, and the moment that bang hit his eardrums Luigi's blood pressure spiked. It took several seconds of deep breathing to calm himself down. He heard E. Gadd laughing at him, and it made him blush, both in embarrassment and in frustration. No one ever seemed to take his hatred for loud noises seriously.

'Stop fooling around, Luigi!' E. Gadd said. 'What part of 'posthaste' was not clear?'

With a sigh, Luigi continued to walk down the hallway. He heard Polterpup growling rather defensively, and he could only guess he was growling at E. Gadd.

'Let it go, boy.' He whispered to him. 'It isn't worth it.'

Polterpup snorted, but obeyed him all the same. After what felt like a while, they finally arrived at the door. E. Gadd reached for the handle, and turned to Luigi.

'Now sonny,' He said. 'I'm sure you've been wondering why I wanted us to return to my car.'

'Actually, yeah, I-'

'You need not worry for much longer now!' He announced, opening up the way. 'For once we're on the other side of this door, we'll find the- CRIMINY!'

Luigi jolted, and rushed to the open door. He had to cover his mouth in order to contain his high-pitched yelp upon seeing that they were not so alone. He recognised that blue ghost, as the bellhop who didn't seem especially happy to be carrying people's luggage. Steward, his name was. There was one major difference; he no longer had those uncanny eyes and mouth, and now looked far more like the Goobs from before.

Luigi gasped. They were ghosts this whole time?! I KNEW there was something off about them! … I need to trust my instinct more. Would've saved us all this trouble...

Steward had a luggage cart with him, far more rusty and worn than the last one. It only now dawned on Luigi that these suitcases were not at all familiar to him. In fact, they seemed to be worn away by years worth of age. He gulped. Who else was here before us? Steward grunted as he hoisted a green suitcase into his arms, and chucked it onto the cart. He looked over at all the other suitcases on the floor, and growled to himself.

'We're packing up, she said.' He muttered. 'Time to finally get rid of all those old suitcases, she said. No one needs them anymore, she said! Well thanks Ms Gravely! Hey, you know what would be nice? Actual HELP!'

Despite him being, ya know, a ghost, Luigi couldn't help but feel bad for the guy. Seeing this poor skinny bellhop struggle to do work forced upon him spoke to him on a personal level.

'Be careful, sonny.' E. Gadd whispered. 'If we're careful, we should be able to get to my car without provoking... where are you going? Lui... Luigi!'

Luigi ignored him, and walked towards the ghostly bellhop, because he has to ignore an order as simple as 'be careful'.

Steward chucked on another suitcase. 'Yeah, what a brilliant idea! We'll lure these idiots to our hotel, so we have to deal with all their garbage. Love it! Oh, if only we could get some of those blue guys to help me.'

It was at this moment that Luigi realised that he probably made a big mistake here. Unfortunately for him, he shared some of Mario's stubbornness.

He gulped. 'Uh... h-hi, S-Steward. Y-You want help?'

Both E. Gadd and Polterpup slammed their hand/paw directly into their foreheads. Steward gasped, and spun his whole body around to look at him. Luigi smiled like someone had him in their crosshair, and waved with the same amount of cheeriness.

'You!' Steward cried. 'You're that green guy! Ms Gravely told us about you.' He gritted his teeth. 'You're the one who's gonna ruin everything!'

'I-I just wanted to help.'

'If I present you to Ms Gravely, she might give me a better job than this. Get over here so I can...!'

He paused for a few seconds, then sighed. His head and arms hung down like he was being hanged by his back.

'Oh, forget it. Do what you want with me. I'm just so SICK of this stupid job!'

Luigi blinked at him. He lifted up his flashlight to beam him just in case this was all a 'fake surrendering' thing.

'I used to like this job, you know.' Steward ranted, flailing his arms about when appropriate. 'It was kinda fun at first, helping out the guests with their crud. But after doing the same job for decades or even centuries - heck if I know how long it's been! - it got tedious fast.'

Luigi, taking care to walk as quietly as possible, approached him with a charging Strobulb.

'But you wanna know what really sucks? You'd think that after all these years of lifting these heavy suitcases, you'd get stronger, right? Wrrrong-o! Guess what? Unless you were all muscly to begin with, ghosts can't gain muscles at all!'

Totally oblivious to the approaching man, he held his spindly arms out.

'I mean, look at these noodle arms! I could've been the guy who just handed out drinks. But nooo. I had to be the guy who had to carry all these stupid people's stupid lug- HEY!'

Luigi's heart told him it wasn't right to capture a ghost who was just surrendering, but the rest of him said it was just like Madame Clairvoya. So, he flashed Steward square in the eyes.

'S-Sorry.'

He wasted no opportunity to get him, so he yanked his tail into the Poltergust and did not let go. Steward got over his stunned state in moments, and dragged the plumber all around the carpark, through every puddle and into every traffic cone.

'Hey hey hey!' The ghost yelled. 'What are you doing, buddy?!'

Luigi's feet slipped all over the place as he pulled them through another puddle. 'But I-I thought you - GAH!'

Steward rammed him right into one of those old suitcases. Luigi squeaked out in pain as his shins collided with the hard leather. His face slammed into the ground, and his grip on Steward vanished. Taking a moment to groan, he pushed his face off the concrete floor and unhooked his legs from the luggage. Steward grabbed a red suitcase, and struggled to lift it up any more than an inch. Luigi took this chance to get back on his feet.

'B-But I thought you, uh, wanted to be captured?' He said. 'Or... s-something.'

Steward pulled on that old trunk with so much force, his arms began to stretch. He huffed and puffed, and despite the fact that he had no way of lifting it nearly as high as he wanted he kept trying.

'Hey, look.' He managed to say between grunts. 'Just cos I... said it, doesn't mean... I meant it. No matter what... Ms Gravely puts me through, I will obey... her until the very... end!'

Somehow, the weak little ghost managed to get the suitcase into his shaky arms. He gave Luigi a glare that told him to 'watch out'.

'Steward, I-I mean it!' Luigi pleaded, holding both his hands up. 'I just wanted to help you.'

'Heh. A likely... oh goodness... story!'

Having none of the green man's nonsense, he lifted the suitcase even higher, and gave it a good - if incredibly slow - overarm shot. Though not very quickly at all, it approached our timid hero.

'Watch out, sonny!' E. Gadd yelled from the sidelines. 'If that suitcase hits ya, it'll really sting!'

Now that was advice Luigi was actually going to follow. He got out of the way of the packed projectile, which wasn't that hard considering how slowly it was moving. It collided with the other suitcase, and both fell to pieces almost immediately. After all, even if the guy tossing them is a weakling, they're still boxes of leather filled to the brim with usually heavy stuff. Luigi gulped, unable to see the rubble as anything but what could've been his bones.

Steward grunted and clenched his fists. 'Sweet Gravely, make like a deer and let me get you!'

He picked up another trunk, struggling with it even more than the last. Luigi mentally searched for any kind of opening, but the suitcase blocked the ghost's face. Doubting it would work, he charged up his Strobulb and unleashed its flash. Just as he expected, the hard leather blocked any rays from stunning Steward.

'Hey buddy, ghosts don't like light.' Steward said, sounding like he was seconds away from passing out. 'But I hear that plumbers really like a suitcase to the - YOWCH!'

He dropped the suitcase as his body seized up with pain. Luigi stared in confusion at the sudden, um, whatever that was, until he saw that Polterpup had clamped his suddenly sharp teeth onto Steward's tail. Polterpup pulled on the tail like he was in the middle of an intense game of tug-o-war. Upon getting a mean stare from Steward, he dropped it and looked up at the bellhop with an innocent smile.

Luigi grinned, and charged up his light-based weapon.

'Bad dog!' Steward yelled, shooting a finger at him. 'BAD dog! Don't mess with my attempts at pleasing the boss.'

He turned around to return to smashing the literal life out of the plumber, and before his mind even registered his eyes meeting him, Luigi greeted him with a full on blast of light.

'GAH! Green guy, I'm gonna-!'

Luigi didn't wait a single second, and sucked his tail right up into the Poltergust's nozzle. Once again, the bellhop flew about in an attempt to shake him off, except this time Luigi did a much better job at hanging on. Now, possibly due to exhausting himself trying to lift heavy objects, Steward could hardly fight the vacuum at all. His struggling slowly came to a stop as the realisation of his inevitable defeat came over him.

'I-I'm sorry.' Luigi muttered.

Even though half his body was already gone, Steward managed to turn around to stare directly into the mortal's eyes.

'Hey bud, I got a couple of words for you!'

Luigi gulped, but his fear drained away when Steward dropped the glare in favour of a small smile.

'Thank you.'

His simple thanks were his last words before he was sucked inside the ghost-capturing machine. Rather comically, his hat remained spinning in place even as he disappeared. The last part of him that Luigi saw was his spindly arm reaching out and grabbing his floating hat, before nothing of him remained.

'Arf arf!' Polterpup cheered.

'Ya did it, sonny!' E. Gadd said, approaching him. 'I only doubted you for a moment.'

Luigi stared at the nozzle, only one thought in his mind. Why... why did he thank me?

His Poltergust nozzle began shaking, snapping him back to reality. He grabbed it with both hands, but the shaking just got worse. Two golden lights flew out, hitting him with nasty recoil. Both the lights bounced against the floor a couple times, before coming to a gentle stop. And since Luigi liked bright shiny gold things, he walked over to the lights and picked them both up. He peered at them for a few moments, but upon realising just what those numbers were for he grinned.

E. Gadd readjusted his glasses and gave the lights a closer look, then grinned as well.

'Professor, I think these are the-!'

'Ho ho! Those are definitely the elevator buttons. I never would've guessed a ghost had taken them!'

Luigi sighed. Yeah, who would've thought that the buttons would've been taken by ghosts in a hotel full of them.

'But...there are only two.' E. Gadd said. 'Maybe there are other ghosts out there with the rest of the buttons?'

Luigi's eye twitched.

'No matter. Let's go to my car. I've got something very interesting that I want to show you!'

Well, no need to worry about the eventual torment he'd have to go through later. He packed the buttons away into his pockets; it was time for E. Gadd to finally show him this very interesting something.


STEWARD, THE FRUSTRATED BELLHOP

AGE - 26

GENDER - Male

CAUSE OF DEATH - Crushed by luggage

Out of all the employees, Steward has been working at the Last Resort for the longest, thanks to being the first hired by Hellen Gravely. He hates his job with a burning passion, but he didn't always. Back when he was still alive, he actually loved working as a bellhop for a hotel in the BeanBean Kingdom, even after he lost his life in a tragic luggage cart accident. It was being hired by Ms Gravely that made him loathe his job so much.


Author Notes - Yeah, I decided to have it so the Boss Ghosts used to be humans themselves, like in the first game. And like the first game, I'll detail most of their deaths cos I gotta earn that 'T' rating.

Like all my best ideas, most of what I did with Steward happened on the spot. All I planned was 'he hates his job', and everything else followed. I'm especially proud with the 'thanks Luigi before he disappears' thing.

I know that door isn't unlocked initially, but with how long I write I gotta streamline some things.

So what is this ending scene about? I'm being intentionally vague about what's 'wrong' (with ALL the quotation marks) with Luigi. I do have one interpretation in mind (hint: it applies to me too), but I tried to make sure I left it open for multiple possibilities. However, I may have screwed up and you will know exactly what I was trying to imply.


Luigi was only eight when his parents, Martin and Lucinda, sat him down in his room to talk to him. Young Luigi assumed that he had done something wrong, as they typically did this when Mario got in trouble, and he struggled to imagine what he could've done.

'W-whatever I did wrong... I-I'm sorry.'

But when he saw their worried expressions, he realised it was something more serious.

'You've done nothing wrong, Luigi.' Martin said, patting his back.

'We just have to... talk.' Lucinda added, hesitantly.

What proceeded was... an interesting discussion, and not at all what Luigi was expecting. His parents talked about how they always suspected there was something... different about him. Luigi listened to every word intently, and the more he listened the more the words hit close to home. They talked for a while, detailing everything that lead them to this point. By the end of it, Luigi was staring at his lap, thoughts about that discussion strong in his mind.

Lucinda had her arm wrapped around him. 'I know that's a lot to take in. Do you understand?'

She often had to ask him that question, and it was never as important for him to say 'yes' as it was now.

'S-So...' Luigi stammered. 'That's what's wrong with me.'

He must've said something wrong, because both his parents glared at him. He hated that look; it meant he screwed up big time.

'Luigi!' Lucinda yelled.

'Don't ever say that again!' Martin joined, pointing right at him.

Oh, he really screwed up. His mother hardly ever yelled at him.

'I'm sorry Momma, I'm sorry!' He cried, his eyes tearing up. 'I-I didn't mean it. Just... just tell me what I did wrong!'

He lifted his knees up and buried his face in his arms as the tears began to flow. There really is something wrong with me, he bitterly thought. Lucinda brought him into a sudden embrace, and hugged him tight. He didn't know what he did to deserve it, but he wrapped himself up in her warmth. She stroked his hair. It made him smile through the tears.

'We're so sorry, Sweetie. You did absolutely nothing wrong.'

'Then... then why did you yell at me?'

Now he was confused. Really confused. His mind struggled to put these seemingly unrelated pieces together.

'We don't want you saying that there's anything wrong with you again.' Martin said, much softer than before but still rather stern.

'But... but isn't it true? I heard everything you said, and-'

'Sweetie...'

His mother looked him straight in the eye, the same innocent eyes the both of them shared.

'There's nothing wrong with you. This is just a part of who you are. And it would never make us love you any less.'

'Y-You mean that?'

She smiled. Her smile was precious, and could make even the most stone-hearted person calm and content.

'I mean it. And we'll help you, don't worry. But, you have more potential than you realise. You'll be just fine.'

Luigi learnt a lot about himself that day. He learnt why he seemed so 'different' compared to other people his age. And, most of all, he learnt that he should never regard this aspect of him as 'being something wrong with him'.

Even if it was hard to remember that lesson sometimes.