Author Notes - Here we go, baby! Up to Ms Hellen Gravely (or, as I sometimes call her, Hellen De Vil, named after my favourite Disney villain of course) herself! Well, after we get through Charles and Sam.
And we will finally get an answer to that 'will Polterkitty betray Luigi or will she remain loyal to him?' plot. Oh, who am I kidding? You already know how that's gonna end...
Even though doing so this far in is kinda a bad idea, I still must give thanks to Harpra and Blinding Brightness for the favourites/follows! WOO!
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE - NAGIVATING MASTER'S SUITE
'Hey, I've got a question.' Daisy said. 'So at this point, we've all come to the horrible conclusion that mortals like us are regularly killed in this blasted trap. I just wanna know... where the heck are the bodies?!'
The walk down the hallway to the next two rooms made every nerve in Luigi's body twitch. Not because it was loaded with horrifying ghosts and traps, or even because of the horrific obsession with King Boo that covered every single inch. It was that nothing was happening. No ghost ambushes. No sudden traps of death. No screams of agony. Just pure nothing. The statues didn't even move.
'Miaow?'
'She's asking if you really wanna know.'
'I'm asking the question, aren't I?'
'I'm not sure if princess really want to know the answer...'
Luigi's attention fell on the only thing not shaped like King Boo or his face - a golden statue located far off in a corner, one modelled after Polterkitty. It clearly had been neglected for years, as it was covered in so much grime the golden sheen was barely visible, in stark contrast to the shiny and polished King Boo merchandise. Polterkitty was about to give the explanation, before the VB suddenly went off. Its ringtone seemed so loud in such a quiet hallway. Gooigi was the only one who looked even remotely happy about it.
Luigi took the VB out of his pocket, but Daisy swiped it out of his hand and answered it for him. 'Professor, we're stressed enough as is! This better have been important.'
She could see Soff in the background, looking like he had seen hell itself. Gus did not seem much better, resembling the red fungus in all but colour. Parr was too busy gawking at the captured ghosts to notice what was going on.
'Does information about Hellen Gravely count as important?' E. Gadd asked, rhetorically.
'Yeah, that sounds a little vital.' Daisy replied with a shrug. 'As long as you're not just telling me what kind of make-up she wears.'
'While I would love to find out the components of that bizarre powder, that is not what I'm here to talk about! I have my reasons to believe that Ms Gravely is not what we call a 'previously-living ghost', but instead the kind that was always a ghost.'
'Oh, geez. I'm not sure how that really affects what we're doing, but that's good to know. I guess.'
'There's much more to that, princess! I have my suspicions that she is a Siren, a rare all-female breed of ghost. Combined with the mounting evidence that this is no regular hotel but instead a trap for mortals such as us, this paints a very ugly picture.'
As E. Gadd presented Daisy with his personal theory that may have been more correct than either mortal could've ever realised, Polterkitty explained the disappearance of the bodies to Luigi and Polterpup, and possibly Gooigi if he could understand her. Both stories overlapped more than anyone expected.
'And that ugly picture is...?'
'I'm not gonna spare any of the details here. You see, Sirens are usually just sapient killing machines, but some such as Ms Gravely move on to more... sophisticated traps. The more, erm, savage Sirens use their beauty to lure in any man or woman attracted to them, while others like Ms Gravely use more impressive means, where they proceed to, um... eat the bodies.'
'EAT THE BODIES?!' Luigi and Daisy yelled out at once as both their storytellers reached the same part of the story.
Polterkitty gulped and nodded. E. Gadd continued with his explanation of a Siren, but Daisy did not hear it; she had already hung up the call, and slipped the VB into her own pocket without really realising.
'Oh no.' Gooigi muttered. 'That sounds bad.'
'We gotta capture her.' She said. 'NOW!'
They rushed to the next room, the one on the right of this next set. A sign hung on the door, depicting King Boo in the bathtub. Daisy couldn't tell if she should laugh or scream. The sign was appropriate, as the door led to a bathroom. However, it looked more like a sauna, and had glass of all materials surrounding both the bathtub and the toilet. Either Hellen didn't get many visitors, or she really wanted King Boo to peep in on her. Or, perhaps, she wanted to peep in on him.
Most of the flooring consisted of orange wooden planks. Both the bathtub and toilet areas were blocked off by glass surrounding them on almost all sides, with the only access being a door that Daisy found, to her annoyance, had been locked from the inside. Which was a problem, since the key currently rested in a King Boo-shaped floaty in the middle of the bathtub that was already full of water.
'She has to bathe with him too?!' She exclaimed. 'What is wrong with that woman?! What am I saying? We already know what's wrong with her.'
'Too much water.' Gooigi said, trembling a little. 'Way too much water...'
Polterpup snorted at such a set-up. Though her lasers affected ghosts too, clearly Ms Siren Lady thought that only mere mortals would be taking on a challenge such as this. He hopped through the locked door like it wasn't even there, and used his hindlegs to scatter that Gheistpaint into the air. It revealed lasers surrounding the bathtub, even the sides covered by glass.
'Talk about overkill.'
'Be careful, boy.' Luigi said. 'Those lasers hurt.'
'I learnt that the hard way, remember?'
He looked around the little room he had entered, and licked out the nearby toilet bowl. Maybe it was just because he belonged to a former plumber, but he had tasted much better toilet water before.
Polterkitty winced. 'Why do dogs have to drink out of the toilet?'
He gave her a look. 'Why do cats have to lick their crotches in front of people?'
'Hmmm... touché, my doggy friend.'
Polterpup, after getting his necessary beverage for the night, looked around the room for another switch. He quickly found it just above the toilet, near identical to the last one but glowing blue instead of orange.
'Oh miss Gravely... you simple, simple soul.'
He grabbed it, and pulled. Compared to Daisy who did it without a single ounce of effort, Polterpup found himself struggling quite a bit more. After all, he lacked the Phantasma-Gloves, the Poltergust, or even Polterkitty's powered-up form. Regardless, he kept yanking on it until he got it to move.
'Oop!'
He had pulled on it so hard that he ended up flying through the wall when it finally moved. Popping back into the room quickly, he witnessed the lasers disappearing just like the ones before it. He snickered to himself as he dove into the bathtub.
'Okay, these puzzles are a little too easy to solve.' Daisy remarked, leaning up against the glass door. 'I'm sure as hell not complaining, but it really makes ya wonder... you think Ms Gravely's made these puzzles easy on purpose?'
Luigi shrugged. 'Maybe. Gloria did tell us she got the final button because Ms Gravely thought that she would be quickly defeated. If she's half as clever as King Boo, it wouldn't surprise me.'
For just a moment, Polterpup worried how he was going to get that big key through the wall. He only had to think for a moment, as he simply swallowed it in one bite.
'Polterpup!' Daisy cried, slammed her palms into the glass. 'Why did you do that?!'
'R-Relax, Daisy.' Luigi said. 'He swallowed all those keys in Evershade Valley too, but he was able to cough them up. It'll be fine.'
Though it didn't make her happy about it, she begrudgingly accepted it. Polterpup jumped through the wall with the key in his stomach, kneeling at his owner's feet. Luigi did not delay the cuddles and pats.
'That's right, boy!' The plumber said, hugging him quite tightly. 'You're doing good, boy!'
Each display of unconditional love made Polterkitty more and more envious. After all the floors she had accompanied Green Man and Mean Lady on, she had her definition of 'love' changed so much. She used to believe that Master gave her the best love she could ever get, but Green Man had turned that on its head.
'WOO!' Daisy cheered. 'Seventy-five percent of the way through already! We'll be punching that Siren's face in in no time flat.'
'We'll teach that witch a lesson.' Luigi muttered. 'And save my brother once and for all.'
Polterkitty's eyes widened. The moment was arriving already? Oh no... what could she say? What could she do? How was she going to get out of this one? Why was she so damn conflicted over something so meaningless?!
Just one room remained, if one excluded the office itself - the master bedroom. To say the least, it was quite possibly the most concerning of all the rooms on that floor.
'Oh... what the hell?'
The most notable thing in the room was, of course, the bed. For something supposedly only used to occupy one ghost, it was shockingly big. It was round too, rounder and bigger than King Boo himself. Half of the pillows were the usual King-Boo-face, while the other half were love hearts. The bed cover had rose petals scattered over the whole thing, which also dotted the floor. A massive painting hung above it - King Boo and Hellen Gravely sleeping in that very same bed, doing... oh god.
'Oh my god!' Daisy yelled. 'What the hell is that painting?!'
Luigi didn't even want to look at it, and he especially did not want to know how something like that could work. Polterpup nearly puked up that key upon witnessing such a disgusting picture. Polterkitty wished she could've been surprised. Hellen Gravely's make-up station rested in the corner, and the mirror was shattered to pieces. Anything would seem pathetic compared to that painting.
'Well, now we know what Hellen Gravely wants from King Boo!' The princess cried. 'Now how do we un-know it?'
Polterkitty walked up to the bed and stared at it. She could still pick up very trace amounts of her own scent on the top cover, which was nigh-undetectable through that cursed King Boo detergent. She could still remember those warm nights of cuddling up to Master, even if those memories were as faded as could be. She almost hopped back on it again, in an attempt to recapture those memories, but stayed far away. The day when Master punished her greatly for jumping into that bed was one she remembered far more well than those cuddly nights.
'Tell me what the puzzle of this one is,' Daisy said. 'So we can get the hell out of here as soon as possible!'
Above that horrific painting were two more, separated from each other, with the left one depicting King Boo and the other Hellen Gravely. They were looking into each others' eyes lovingly, which made Polterkitty gag. Daisy picked up some of the powder on the floor and tossed it into the air. It revealed a grid of lasers right above them, creating a 'ceiling' low enough that Daisy could cut her arm off if she was foolish enough to reach out and touch them.
'I got this.' Polterkitty said, looking up towards the Hellen Gravely picture.
Daisy witnessed her climbing onto the bed, hopping through the grid, balancing on the top of that creepy painting, and leaping for the Hellen Gravely one. The little kitty made the jump just fine, but as always anything past her neck struggled to push its way through the wall. Polterkitty muttered hundreds of awful words to herself, most involving her own uselessness. The princess, meanwhile, scoffed.
'How much do you wanna bet that she's setting up some sort of awful trap for us?' She asked, crossing her arms.
'Daisy, why do you have to doubt her so much?' Luigi questioned. 'Surely if she wanted to trap us, she would've done so floors ago. She would've taken us while we were sleeping. Heck, she would've killed you by now!'
'I know, but... I still can't trust her completely, especially now that we're this close to Ms Gravely. I... I just can't let my guard down in front of her.'
'I trust her.' Gooigi said. 'I will play bait if she does turn evil, though.'
Polterkitty heard their words, and it only confused her inner conflicts further. Follow the orders of the woman who had been taking care of her for years? Or help out the man who had showed her love despite her horrible actions? No matter what she chose, she needed that key. After much struggling, she managed to squeeze her whole little body through the painting. It was holding a little cage behind it, where the next switch lay. Luckily for her, Ms Gravely hardly cared to make sure that this one was even remotely hard to flip - after all, she never expected any mortal to be able to get up there anyway.
Daisy's eyes widened. The lasers vanished right before her eyes.
'Oh.' She said. 'She really was just trying to help.'
'See? Don't mistrust her so much. She just wants to help us out!'
Polterkitty cringed upon hearing the innocence in his voice through the painting. With the switch flipped, she jumped out through the painting and ran across the golden frame once again. When her eyes fell upon that picture of King Boo, she hissed at it like she was hissing at the real thing. She must've been the only being in existence who hated King Boo as much as Luigi did, and that was certainly saying something.
Of course, Polterkitty had to admit that her hatred for that royal phantom just wasn't deserved. It wasn't King Boo's fault that he existed, or that Hellen Gravely lusted for him above all else. She just couldn't hate her owner.
Ignoring the being in the picture, she leapt through it after suffering her usual struggles of slipping through walls. If she would not receive so much retribution for removing it, she would shatter that enchanted pendant and eat the remains. Master had put it on her for a reason. But was it a good reason anymore? Was it even a good reason to begin with? She shoved those questions aside, and set her sights on the final key. It was just like all the others, except this one was topped with a pink gem. She chuckled to herself - the key colours seemed to match those who helped recover them.
It made her wonder - what was Green Man there for? The answer was pretty clear after just a second of thought: without him Mean Lady would've gotten herself killed, and without his unrelenting yearning to be diplomatic instead of violent... well, Polterkitty wouldn't be here right now, would she?
It was then she realised a problem - she was too small in this state to simply swallow the key, and it wouldn't go through a solid wall on its own. Even thought she knew it wouldn't work, she picked up the key with her mouth and pushed her head into the wall. As predicted, she didn't get anywhere; she couldn't even get her nose through the picture.
Luigi gasped. 'Daisy, she's stuck! She can't go through walls normally like the other ghosts.'
'Why doesn't she just remove that stupid pendant then?!' Daisy yelled. 'If that's the one thing making it hard for her, she should just get rid of it. I mean, if she's not going to betray us like we're hoping, you'd think she wouldn't care what her quote-unquote Master thought.'
'Daisy, please. She's making her own choices. If she doesn't want to remove it, then she doesn't have to.'
'Does Polterkitty want to remove pendant though?' Gooigi asked. 'I'm not an expert, but she does not seem happy with it.'
Polterkitty agreed with Daisy on one thing - she was going to ignore Master's orders for just a moment, just not the ones about the pendant. With a mighty roar, she transformed into her beloved panther form while still inside that little box. It was a tight squeeze, but just for a bit. Her massive size pressed her into the King Boo painting and smashed it to bits.
'GATTINA!'
'Polterkitty has transformed again. I think she just wants to be like that.'
Before she plummeted to the floor now that she could not longer fit in that tiny alcove, she grabbed onto the key. With the object of desire in her teeth, she allowed herself to drop to the ground. Her natural cat instincts spun her around and allowed her to land on her feet before she crashed into the floor.
Luigi smiled wide. 'You did it, Gattina!'
She dropped the pink-tipped key to the floor as Luigi rushed over and gave her a massive hug around the neck. She could feel the love emanating from his very being, and he poured every single little bit of it into that cuddle, and she had to assume he was doing this on purpose. It must've been to trick her into going over to his side, so he could... what was she thinking? Why would he do something like that?
'You know what this means, Luigi?' Daisy asked. 'Now that we have all four keys, we can confront that witch and save your brother!'
In an instant, Luigi's expression changed from happy to angry. 'And we're not stopping until we've captured King Boo too.'
'Alright!' Polterpup said. 'I think a little bit of vengeance and justice will really turn this whole awful vacation around.'
'I am excited to help big bro! I will help any way I can.'
Polterkitty was the only one who didn't celebrate such an event. The key was at her feet, and she could've easily swallowed it at her new size and ran off until the mortals couldn't catch her. She almost did, but something in her mind stopped her.
After leaving the disturbing bedroom, which all five heroes were excited to do, they saw the King Boo lock at the very end of the hallway. Two Goobs stood by it, but they didn't faze our heroes in the slightest. After all, they were as basic as they got; they didn't even have any weapons on them. Each member of the quintet, except for Luigi, held a key - the one matching their own colours. Luigi didn't even notice that he had no key, but even if he did he wouldn't have cared anyway.
'It's right there!' Daisy yelled. 'We're almost there!'
She ran for that gate with the orange-tipped key in hand as Luigi's warning fell upon deaf ears. Not that it mattered; she skidded a stop as paranormal gates appeared from thin air and blocked off the way to the lock.
'Oh lovely.' She muttered. 'Not that it really matters if Polterkitty can just break them for us, but still.'
Luigi braced for a battle against all the remaining ghosts in the hotel. He waited, and waited, and waited. No ghosts arrived. The only ones in the room were the two Goobs, who hadn't even noticed their arrival.
'I'm not complaining, but what gives?' Daisy asked.
'Daisy, be quiet for moment.' Luigi said.
'Why do I have to be quiet? We just need to-'
'Ghosts are talking.' Gooigi said. 'Ghosts are saying interesting things.'
The quintet stepped up to the paranormal fence, and listened to the Goobs at the gate. Neither seemed especially happy to be there.
'Why did we even bother with a trap like that?' Charles asked. 'Polterkitty can just break the dang thing down! What's the point?'
'Because, honey,' Sam replied. 'If we don't stop that green kid, we're gonna pay the price. You know how Ms Gravely works.'
'I don't care about that anymore! Any second now, I'm gonna get that stupid collar put onto my neck. If that means our son is okay, then nothing matters anymore.'
Luigi gulped. That was Sam again all right, and her husband too. With how determined they seemed to catch him when they first met, it really made him wonder what the heck happened between them and their boss. And they had a son? That meant that Hellen Gravely... he felt sick to his stomach.
'Oh my gosh...' Daisy said. 'That Goob was right. She must really not like her boss. And I take it that guy doesn't either. Okay, this is what we're gonna do. First, we-'
'ROOOOARRR!'
Polterkitty roared, and reduced that paranormal gate barrier into shards of its former self that dropped to the floor. The chaos caught the attention of the ghost couple, who turned their heads to our heroes and gasped.
'Sam, look! It's-'
'It's that green kid!'
The only thing between Luigi and that King Boo lock were those Goobs. His knees quaked, but not because he was scared of their battle. He did not want to fight them at all.
Daisy took a fighting stance and stared them down. 'Don't even try it, ghosties! There's five of us and just two of you.'
Polterkitty backed away. She shuddered as she remembered the day when she witnessed them and their son dying to the hotel trap. She could remember all those times they showed her true love and affection, only for Master to write them off as 'not worthy enough' to go near her. Polterpup snarled and growled, and Gooigi picked up the Strobulb on his Poltergoo.
The Goobs just stood there, with their fists ready but not actually moving at all. Daisy played fair, and waited for them to make the first move. She only gave them so much time, however; if they took too long, she'd punch the daylights out of them.
'What are you waiting for?' She asked. 'You should just get this match over with.'
'You don't wanna deal with us!' Sam declared. 'We've been working here longer than any other ghost. ... Except maybe Steward, but you get my point! Ms Gravely respects us more than you could ever imagine for a reason, you know! Isn't that right, Charles?'
Charles did not reply, or add anything to her discussion. His angry glare faded away, replaced with an empty expression that Luigi could not identify.
'Uh, honey? You okay?'
He gritted his equivalent of teeth. 'Gah, I can't TAKE IT ANYMORE!'
The Goob buried his face in his hands and unleashed incomprehensible screaming sounds. Everyone else in the room stepped back, but none more so than Sam. She ignored the targets sitting right in front of her and went to console her husband.
'Charlie, sweetie, it's okay.' She said. 'We can handle these guys no problem.'
'Why are we even pretending at this point?!' He shouted back. 'We don't wanna do this crap anymore!'
Luigi gulped down his nerves. While the others were too shocked by such a reaction to do anything, the green-clad plumber approached the couple. His Poltergust was not in his hand, and neither was his Strobulb.
'L-Listen Charles,' Sam said. 'I'm not happy about this either. But you're usually-'
'I KNOW I'm normally the 'calm one' out of the two of us! I can only play the straight man for so long, and my patience has been pushed to its absolute limit. Ms Gravely is pushing me so far that I'm certain that it's been her plan this whole time. After all, the more desperate you are the more easy you are to control.'
'And that's why we gotta keep pushing, honey! It's for our son. If Ms Gravely catches us like this-'
'Does it even matter anymore?! Who's to say that she hasn't already taken our son away from us? For all we know, that Mini Hammer in there could be an impostor, or an illusion, or something like that. Would you really put it past her to do that?'
He began to weep. Sam did not like seeing her husband cry; it made her cry too.
'I-It's okay.' She stammered. 'All we gotta do is hand over that green kid, and then we-'
'You really think we can take him on? He defeated Amadeus. Amadeus. And Serpci too. He defeated all of them. We're just a couple of Goobs. We don't even have any weapons or anything like that. He is going to destroy us.'
Sam sighed. 'Well, that's for the best, isn't it? The quicker he gets through us, the quicker he gets to our monster of a boss.'
As Luigi stepped closer, the rest of our heroes stayed in silence. After so many floors, they knew his methods very well. He glanced back at the rest of his team, and pointed at the lock. They understood his instructions, and made their way over to the gate as quietly as they could. While they got to work on the keys, Luigi spoke up.
'It doesn't have to be this way.' He said.
Both Goobs shot glares his way, though that of the male ghost was far more laden with fury.
'It's all your fault!' Charles shouted. 'You're captured all of our friends, you've ruined all our plans... if you just jumped into that stupid portrait, our son wouldn't be danger right now!'
'Charles, STOP!'
Both Luigi and Charles flinched. The male Goob had never heard his wife so serious before.
'We are not doing this!' She yelled. 'We said, ourselves, that we are letting this kid capture us! Like I said, the quicker he defeats us the quicker we and our remaining friends can be free. For Jaydes's sake, why else did you think I left a little while ago? It was so I could warn this kid that the door would be locked!'
Charles sighed. 'I-I know, b-but... I'm just so angry! I need to take it out on someone, but it sure as hell can't be Ms Gravely. I can't have my son taken away from me. He's all we have left...'
As the ghosts and plumber argued, Daisy lifted the orange-tipped key out of her pocket and placed it into one of the four slots carved into the statue's tongue. It locked into place perfectly, which did not make the whole 'stabbing the keys into a tongue' thing any more fun. Polterpup puked out the blue-tipped key, making Daisy feel a little squicked out, but still she lifted up the key and slotted it into place. Gooigi pulled out the green-tipped key from his body, and since he lacked the strength to put it in himself the princess did it for him. All there was left was Polterkitty's pink-tipped key.
'Okay Kitty,' Daisy said. 'Hand me the final key. Polterkitty?'
The Panthergeist stared at Charles and Sam, paying most of her attention on the green-clad man trying to talk with them. It made her feel so sick that such great friends of hers were suffering so badly.
'Kitty!'
Polterkitty flinched, and dropped the final key onto the floor. Daisy picked it up, but didn't quite put it in yet - she was waiting for Luigi.
'I don't want to hurt you.' Luigi said. 'I never wanted to hurt anyone. I didn't defeat Amadeus. He surrendered to me, and not because he couldn't beat me. He absolutely could've if he wanted to. He only surrendered to me because he didn't want to deal with Hellen Gravely anymore.'
'What's your point here, kid?' Charles asked.
'The point is, I'm not going to fight you unless I have to. I don't even need to capture you. I'm not sure what's going on with your son, but I'm sure we can help.'
Sam nodded. 'Oh, see, Ms Gravely is only punishing our son to get us to do stuff. Unfortunately, it works. Luckily for us, while she's willing to do just about anything else she won't torture kids. I mean, she'll kill 'em, but quickly. So I don't think she'll bother keeping our sweet Lou around if he won't do anything for her.'
Charles gasped, and smiled. 'Oh, of course! Sweet Jaydes, I am so blind.'
Luigi unhooked the Poltergust nozzle, and aimed it directly at the two ghosts. They shuddered at first, but quickly seemed to accept their fate.
'Listen kid,' Charles said. 'I am so sorry for the yelling. I just-'
Luigi waved him off. 'It's fine. I understand. It's scary. It's difficult, especially when a family member is involved.' He grunted. 'From what I've seen, Hellen seems a little too intent in separating and destroying families.'
He thought back on the other families he had seen attacked. Amadeus panicked at the mere thought of his daughter being in danger, and Ms Gravely manipulated that as hard as she could. Gloria was just as furious about her father being captured. Clem and Billie were told that their failure would result in the other twin getting the punishment. He didn't even want to think about what had happened between Lindsey and her two older sisters. And, of course, kidnapping and imprisoning his own brother.
After a moment of thought, Charles sighed. 'Okay. We'll do it.'
'Awesome!' Sam cried, slightly inappropriately. 'Here we go!'
Luigi appreciated her enthusiasm, as unfitting as it was.
'Just promise us one thing.' Charles said. 'I'm sure you already know what it is.'
Luigi nodded. 'Keep your son safe. Will do.'
The plumber made sure to make it quick. It felt so weird to be capturing the first ghosts he had met on this dangerous 'vacation', but it also seemed rather appropriate. Charles was the first one in, and he disappeared without making a sound. When it was Sam's turn to go, she cheered like a sports fan whose team just scored a goal.
It left the already empty hallway feeling that much more empty. And he hated it.
'Now with that taken care of,' Daisy said, catching his attention. 'We got a door to open.'
She handed him that final key, and he took it with a nod. Taking in a deep breath, he inserted the key into the final slot. Once all four keys were in place, they spun around just like the elevator buttons, and the gems on their tips glowed. The eyes of the King Boo lock illuminated with a blinding purple light, and our heroes backed away from it slowly.
'I like the lights.' Gooigi said. 'The lights are pretty.'
'Well, if you insist.' Daisy remarked.
The vault behind the statue unlocked itself, and the giant golden door swung open towards them. Polterpup had to jump back as the door swept across the floor. Hellen's office lay just behind the now-open door.
Luigi gulped. He couldn't believe it. After all the hell that he and his friends had been through, the one behind this entire 'vacation' sat just in front of him. The Siren sat in her chair, facing away from them as if the very sight of them brought disgust to her. King Boo didn't even matter anymore - it was like it was not him this was building up to, but instead Hellen Gravely herself. He couldn't pay much attention to her regardless. It was that portrait of Mario that he focused on. He could practically hear his brother begging for help from the other side.
Help me, Weegee!
'Alright Hellen!' He yelled, taking one step into her office. 'Give me my brother back, and I might spare you!'
Hellen didn't even spin her chair around and just chuckled. 'Well well well... I honestly didn't think you had it in you. A bunch of scaredy-cats like you, making it this far... you are just FULL of surprises.'
'I surprise myself sometimes too. It's amazing what you'll do when someone has taken your brother away from you. I thought I had finally defeated King Boo for good... then you freed him just for the sake of your own fantasies!'
The Siren just laughed again. 'They are not mere fantasies. Once I hand you over to King Boo, he will shower me with love and admiration.'
Luigi scoffed. 'You sure about that? It's five against one. If you'll forgive the cheesiness, friendship and love will always prevail over your brute voice and mind control.'
'And if you'll forgive the second-grader retort... are you sure about that?'
Luigi opened his mouth to talk back to her again, with all the rage he had ever felt dripping from his breath, until...
'ROOOARRR!'
Polterkitty spun around, and smacked Daisy across the chest with her massive paw. The Panthergeist bashed her with enough force to launch her across the room.
'GAH!' Daisy cried as she fell backwards.
'DAISY!' Luigi yelled.
The princess slammed into the back wall of the office, hard enough to knock all the breath out of her. It should've knocked the consciousness out of her too, but she wouldn't back down so easily. Though every muscle in her face twitched with pain, she still managed to direct a glare right at Polterkitty. The Panthergeist responded by hissing at her.
'G-Gattina?' Luigi stammered. 'W-What are you doing?'
Polterpup jumped to his owner's defence and snarled at the hulking panther beast. 'What did you do that for? Don't you dare tell me that after all this you're still on your owner's side!'
Polterkitty roared at him, a roar that translated to nothing but angry gibberish. She pounced forward too quickly for him to have any kind of reaction, and grabbed him by the collar. No matter how hard he pulled, he could not escape from her powerful jaws. She clamped her teeth down into his skin, and he yelped in agony. Once she was certain she had bit into him hard enough, she tossed him against the same wall as Daisy. He was too stunned to pop through it, and hit it just as hard as Daisy did.
'Oh no...' Gooigi said. 'Big bro!'
Gooigi stepped forward to flash her with his Strobulb, but she ripped him into shreds before he could even start charging the light. She spat on his remains just to ensure that he would return to the Poltergust. With the other members of the party taken care of, she glared at Luigi.
'Luigi...!' Daisy yelled between pained groans. 'Do something!'
The plumber couldn't do anything. His mind had broke.
'No...' He muttered. 'No...!'
Tears trickled down his cheeks.
'You... you couldn't have.'
His heart was about to give up.
'Gattina, why?!'
He refused to believe it. There was no way the Polterkitty who just hurt his friends in a matter of seconds could be the same Polterkitty as the one who had cuddled up to him. The same one who saved his princess from drowning. The same one who tried her hardest to help him through the floors.
He gasped. 'You... you were just helping me so you could present me to your boss?!'
Polterkitty scoffed. 'It was about time you figured that out. As if I would ever like a lowly plumber like you.'
'I...' He choked. 'I trusted you! I was helping you! I just wanted you to have a happy life. That was all I wanted. Why, Polterkitty?'
'Did you really think I would actually go home with you? Look at where I live now. It's so much better than whatever mess of a house you live in.'
Luigi pointed his Strobulb at the Panthergeist, who didn't even flinch. His arms shook like crazy, and his grip on the nozzle was slipping. He couldn't even bring himself to start charging the light.
'I... I thought you loved me...'
He collapsed onto his hands and knees, unable to do anything else but cry.
'I KNEW IT!' Daisy screamed. 'I knew you were just trying to present Luigi to your despicable owner. You weren't helping us out. You just needed to keep us alive so you could make your owner happy! I should've done something about it... I can't believe I didn't.'
Luigi looked up to Polterkitty, unable to differentiate anything else through his tears. She didn't have any reaction to the sorrow in his eyes.
'How... how could you?' He choked out.
Hellen giggled. 'It was the perfect plan, you see. Why not throw in a little heartbreak and betrayal before you join your brother on my wall for all of eternity?'
Luigi was in no position to fight back, and Polterkitty didn't waste a second to take advantage of it. She grabbed him by the back of his shirt and slammed him onto Hellen Gravely's desk.
'Your princess was right about you.' The ghostly panther said, looking him right in the eye. 'You really are too innocent for your own good to think that I would actually help you out. If you somehow manage to break out of that portrait, let this be a lesson for you to never trust anyone.'
Hellen Gravely looked down at the heartbroken man and laughed. 'I thought you were quite the strong man to have made it all the way up here. Now I see you are just as pathetic as your big bwother put there.'
Through the betrayal, Luigi glared at her. 'Fine. You can take me. Just let my brother and friends go.'
'Oh, you really are too innocent for your own good!'
Hellen picked him up by the neck of his shirt, and flung him against the wall with the Poltergust still attached. With a snap of her fingers, a cage of paranormal gates appeared around him and trapped him before he could recover. He gasped, and stuck his face out from between the bars as far as he could.
'Daisy!'
The titular princess got to her feet, and laughed. 'Looks like you made a mistake here, Helly. He's still got the Poltergust!'
Hellen rolled her eyes. 'Oh, you really are as small-brained as I thought. What good is it if he's behind bars? And with that blasted vacuum cleaner locked away with him, how are you supposed to use it?'
Daisy screamed out an incoherent cry of anger. 'Alright, that's it! I'm ready to punch your face in. So come at me, bitch!'
For a split second, a flash of anger appeared on Hellen's face, most likely thanks to such crude language that Daisy very rarely, if ever, used. It disappeared just as quickly.
'Eh, I think I'm okay with that.' She said. 'After all, I have to kill you first before I can safely present your boyfriend to King Boo. If I feel generous, I'll do the killing myself. If I don't, I'm sure Polterkitty here will gladly do it for me.'
Polterkitty confirmed her order with a growl, one not nearly as wholesome as those she emitted when with Luigi. Daisy rolled her eyes and laughed.
'Didn't you see what I did to her down in the Great Stage?' She asked. 'When I can punch a ghost in the face, I'm hard to fight against.'
'Uh huh.' Hellen said. 'Is that why you have such ghastly scars on your chest? Even your haphazard bandage is soaked with blood.'
'I only got these scars trying to save my Luigi from that... that savage beast!'
'Yes, I'm sure. Oh, and just to make sure that you won't try to get out of here...'
Hellen snapped her fingers again, and this time the vault door slammed shut behind Daisy, locking her inside. She yelped as the heavy thud echoed in the tiny room.
'But hey, I'm no monster.' She insisted, lying through her teeth. 'I'll give you a chance to surrender. I'll even be nice and let you go back home. Everyone's going to call you crazy if you try to convince them anyway. I'll make sure of that.'
'Gattina!' Luigi cried from behind bars. 'It's gotta be Hellen's mind tricks! You can fight against them. I know you can!'
Hellen grinned at him. 'Oh, if only that was the case. My mind tricks unfortunately don't work so well on animal ghosts. If they did, I wouldn't need to have Fishook run a seafood restaurant to keep him constantly riled up, and I would've had your dirty mutt rip your girlfriend apart in moments.'
Polterkitty nodded, which did little beyond rub it in Luigi's face. Stuck in such a state of helplessness, all the determination he had to save his brother and his friends vanished. He buried his head in his knees and cried. It brought almost as much pleasure to Hellen as King Boo himself did. She put that green man aside for a moment, and turned to her precious darling. Polterkitty puffed her chest out and mewed.
'Well done, my little sweetie!' Hellen said, clapping her hands together. 'You have done what my own staff couldn't even hope to accomplish, and I did promise that whoever brought Luigi to me alive would be rewarded. Allow me to reward you, darling!'
Polterkitty held her head up and closed her eyes. Finally, for the first time in years, Master would give her the reward she rightfully deserved. Would be cuddles? Or catnip? Or maybe even a laser pointer! The reward may not have been what she cared about, but she couldn't wait for whatever Master was ready to give her.
*SLAP*
'MROW!'
'YOU TRAITOR!'
The room fell silent. Luigi's attention snapped to the scene behind the bars. Daisy and Polterpup's jaws dropped.
Polterkitty backed away in a moment. Did... did Master just slap her? That pain on her cheek was unmistakable. She emitted a confused sound not unlike a dog's whimper.
'Did you really think that bringing Luigi to me would forgive you for what you've done?!' Hellen screamed. 'I've been watching you since the very beginning of your little scheme. Why did you save the princess when she was drowning? I didn't need her alive, did I? You had so many opportunities to kill her and bring Luigi to me, but you took none of them! And do you know why?'
Polterkitty whimpered out a pathetic response, slinking away into a ball.
'Because you're just as pathetic as Luigi himself! Did you think I couldn't see through to your intentions? You helped this mortal scum capture my staff, and kept that princess alive far longer than you needed to! If you think I'm going to reward you for your cowardly behaviour, you can get out!'
Polterkitty stared up at her owner like she had a whip. She trembled on the spot.
'What are you waiting for? For me to one-eighty and suddenly take you in again? With how much you've been bonding with that mortal scum, you should be thanking the stars that I'm not electrocuting you right now! Shame that little Lou appears to have escaped. Oh well.'
The Panthergeist emitted one last mew, hoping that she could win her owner over again.
'I SAID GET OUT!' Hellen screamed as she delivered another slap across Polterkitty's face. 'I don't know why I ever adopted a hideous monster like you... this isn't how this was supposed to happen! You weren't supposed to just betray us and your own friends!'
Daisy gasped. That wasn't angry in Polterkitty's eyes - she seemed to feel just as betrayed as Luigi did.
'GET OUT!'
Polterkitty obeyed her 'owner' one last time, and ran out the vault door. She cried out as she struggled to get her body through, like always. Daisy ran over to the stuck kitty, her angry now completely gone.
'Kitty, please!' She pleaded. 'You don't have to-'
But Polterkitty disappeared through the wall before Daisy could finish. The princess could hear her distressed cries get quieter and quieter as Polterkitty ran as far away from that office as she possibly could.
'This isn't how ANY of this was supposed to happen!' Hellen screamed again as she turned to Luigi, still locked in his cage. 'You weren't supposed to run away like the filthy coward you are! If you had just jumped into that portrait like your sweet wittle pwincess did, King Boo would be showering me with love this very moment! But instead... instead...' She breathed in deeply. 'I'VE LOST EVERYTHING BECAUSE OF YOU!'
She slammed her hands into her own desk and destroyed it in seconds. It fell apart completely like a nuke had hit it. The resulting dust cloud consumed Hellen, and once it dissipated...
'OH MY GOD!' Daisy screamed as she fell over backwards.
See, there was always more to a Siren than meets the eye. Like all Sirens, now that she was as angry as she could possibly be, her beautiful façade faded away. And those red eyes stared into Daisy's soul. Hellen was not the lovely seductive enchantress anymore. She looked much more like the witch she truly was, with her crooked face, collapsed hair, and tattered dress.
'You took away my staff.' She continued to rant. 'You ransacked my hotel. You even took my precious darling Polterkitty away from me! IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT, LUIGI!' It was only then did she realise her transformation, and she gasped in horror. 'And now... and now you've made me reveal my horrible, disgusting, repulsive form! NOW YOU'VE REALLY DONE IT!'
She lathered herself up with some of the Gheistpaint powder on the floor, reverting herself to her 'normal' 'beautiful' self. She aimed her icy glare at Daisy, who yelped with the appropriate amount of fear.
'You want a battle, princess?' She asked. 'I'LL GIVE YOU ONE HELL OF A BATTLE! Have fun fighting me without that Poltergust of yours!'
CHARLES AND SAM, THE ORIGINAL COUPLE
AGE - 30/28
GENDER - Male/Female
CAUSE OF DEATH - Hellen Gravely's hotel trap
Charles and Sam were the first mortals invited to the Last Resort and killed in its trap. They've long since forgotten their lives as humans, but remain as a loving couple who will always be there for each other and their precious son Lou.
Author Notes - It's quite funny, really. When I first wrote Charles and Sam, I was going to have them be one-offs who only appeared in that one scene to get captured. After I named them and gave them personalities, I didn't want to say goodbye to them so quickly and thus I kept them around. I was not at all expecting them to become such major characters, and I wasn't even originally intending for them to have a son at first. Heck, it took me a while to choose between a son or a daughter. I am so happy that these two characters spiralled into something much bigger.
With Hellen Gravely, I wanted her to be as villainous as could be. In the game, she's only doing what she's doing to please King Boo who just ignores her, with makes her slightly sympathetic. Just slightly. So, I was like 'Imma gonna make her irredeemable' and here we are. She murders mortals to satisfy her own hunger as a Siren ghost, and her attraction to King Boo is... well, I'm sure you get it.
Charles and Sam used to be humans, hailing from the Mushroom Kingdom. They do not remember this life at all, aside from vague memories of memories that haunt their dreams. They can't even remember the day they were hired into the hotel anymore.
When they first returned as ghosts, they were horrified. The traps in Serpci's pyramid made quick work of Sam - she suffocated in the poison clouds. Charles was drowned by the monstrous Captain Fishook. Lou got pretty far into the castle attraction, until he was impaled on some spikes by MacFrights himself. Hellen Gravely only kept the kid around for blackmail purposes. Something in that hotel trap didn't bring their souls back as humans, but instead generic looking ghosts that all looked the same. Perhaps that was because Hellen ate the bodies before their souls could properly take form. A Siren's appetite is never satisfied after all.
They remained loyal to their boss, of course. It was the only life that they could even remember anymore.
