With Daisy now in the safety of E. Gadd's lab, Luigi and co's hotel-wide search was close to its end. The team took this time to look into the ghosts haunting the next floor. As it turns out, these ghosts had evaded E. Gadd before in the past. E. Gadd played an old tape on the lab's monitor. It was black and white, and was likely made back in the roarin' twenties. The footage showcased three magician sisters at a circus, back when they were alive. "I encountered these three back in my earliest days of ghost hunting. Nikki, Lindsey, and Ginny. They were quite the famous bunch back in the old days. Quite ironic that their fame would ultimately lead to their demise." Vinny raised an eyebrow. "If I'm not mistaken, they died in a magic trick gone wrong, correct? That's about as much as I know about them." E. Gadd turned in his chair. "That's... partially true. The story goes that they were the star attraction of their circus. It brought their superiors plenty of business. But they were the ambitious lot, and after seeing how successful they were, they soon wanted to go out on their own. And as you can imagine, their boss wasn't too happy about it..."
The screen then showed the triplets getting into a crate as it was hoisted up by a crane, soon to be lowered into the water, when all of the sudden it exploded! Daisy grimaced. "Yeesh. He took it about as poorly as he possibly could have." E. Gadd nodded. "Of course, he was brought to court, but they didn't have enough evidence to place any charges. Ghosts are usually born out of a strong will to do something they didn't have the chance to in life, so in my younger days, I went to that circus in the hopes of finding them. And I was right! But I underestimated their magic, and as a result, they got away. If I could give you any advice, they're at their strongest when they're together. Taking them down one at a time would be your best strategy." Vinny smirked. "Frankly, I'm amazed they get along so well. If I had any siblings, I imagine we'd constantly be at one another's throats. But no use dwelling on hypotheticals..." She got out of her chair. "You ready, Luigi?" Luigi gave a thumbs up. Despite their tragic backstory, he had to admit that of all the ghosts he's met thus far, they seemed the least scary to him.
Back on the elevator...
Getting back to work, Luigi and his ethereal comrade were on their way up to floor 10. There wasn't that much of the hotel left that they hadn't explored yet. Not counting the basement, there were 15 floors in total. So chances are, they weren't very far from their goal. With all the crazy stuff that's been going on tonight, Vinny's mind wandered onto the subject of the biggest enigma in the hotel: Nivyn. Now that she thought about it, the circumstances in which the two of them met was quite suspicious. And if her emotional ruin was enough to quarantine an entire floor, why did her father choose to just ignore her? And most confusingly of all, why was she so insistent that they were sisters? In every family photo they had, it's clear to see that she's an only child. And yet... all these coincidences seem quite peculiar.
Her train of thought was cut short, however, as the doors to floor 10 opened to reveal the three magicians waiting right outside the door for them. They sat gathered around a floating table. Lindsey shuffling three red solo cups on it. "Alright, ladies. Which cup is it under?" Her sisters sat in contemplation for a moment. "Hmmm... this one?" Nikki asked, pointing to the one on the right. Lindsey lifted it up, revealing it to be empty. "Nope." Ginny twirled the end of her hair. "I wanna say... the one on the left." Lindsey revealed that cup was also empty. "Wrong again." She then floated down to Vinny and Luigi, lifting up Luigi's hat to reveal a bomb under it! "Tada!" And within seconds, it promptly exploded in Luigi's face! Nikki clapped, while Ginny giggled at the plumber's misfortune. Thankfully, the explosion didn't have too much kick to it. But before either of the two could retaliate, Nikki struck them with a blast of magic. Paralyzing them in their tracks.
The other two sisters joined her. "This guy is the one giving the boss so much trouble? I thought he'd be like... I dunno, Prince Peasley, or something." Ginny commented. Nikki put her hands on her hips. "You've gotta move on from the dating phase, Gin. Don't you remember what happened last time?" Ginny cringed at the memory.
Dating fail #224:
Ginny knocked on the door of her new boyfriend's house. Well... by 'new boyfriend', she meant someone she met on a shopping website, to buy a deck of cards from them. But come on! If he set that price so low, it just HAD to mean he liked her, right? When the door opened, she saw the face of Kamek. Perfectly demonstrating her lack of self-awareness, she used her magic wand to summon a bouquet of flowers. "Hiya, cutie~ I came here to pick you up for our date! So do you like Italian, or are you more of a seafood kinda gu-" aaand then he shut the door on her, with a blank expression. She paused, still unable to take the hint. "Okay! You go get dressed for the occasion. I already reserved us some seats at Maggiano's...!" She was then left waiting out there for the rest of the night.
End of flashback:
"Oh, I'm sure he just got cold feet, or something..." Lindsey rolled her eyes. "Let's just focus on the matter at hand. Ready your wands." They then pointed their wands at them. Vinny and Luigi desperately trying to move, but to no avail. "Alaka...ZAM!" The three of them chanted in unison, as the room was smothered in magical energy. A moment passed, an our two heroes blacked out for a second. Vinny rose from the floor, rubbing her head. "Ugh, whatever you clowns did, I'm certain you'll regret... it...?" She looked at her hand to see a white glove on it. "What the...?" She then looked to the side to see... herself!? It was quite unnerving to see her own spirit looking back at her, with just as much confusion as she had. "Hey, that pudgy man sounds a lot like Vinny." Ginny observed, as her sisters stared horrified at their magical mishap. "I don't understand. It was supposed to put them to sleep, not this!" E. Gadd then spoke up. "From what I've heard from Starlow, this isn't Luigi's first rodeo with sleep magic." Nikki folded her arms. "Argh! You idiots! Your past exposure must've screwed up our spell!"
Luigi looked down at himself, and was mortified that he was not only a ghost, but also wearing a dress. Vinny's legs wobbled as she stood, she was clearly out of her element, piloting someone else's body. "Well, too bad for you. Change us back, or you're going into containment with Mordread!" Lindsey then grew an evil grin on her face. "Yes, yes, that would be ideal. But I think it'd be better if we took that vacuum thing first. Think of it as a down payment." Her sisters chuckled at the idea, as they pointed their wands in three separate directions. "Watch closely, lady and gent. It's time for a fairly odd performance that'll make Disney's Fantasia look like a parlor trick." Lindsey snickered. The walls then collapsed around them, the classy looking stage room giving way to a spherical platform floating in a purple void. Long red curtains flowing in the distance. "I've just lost sight of you on the radar, youngsters! Look lively out there!" The three magicians then appeared in a straight line, and took a bow.
"Don't get excited yet, folks. They don't call this the ultimate show for nothing." Ginny then pulled out a plushy of herself out of her hat. "And don't forget to stop by the gift shop! We have tons of merch calling your name." Lindsey just stared at her, while Nikki buried her face in her palm. "What? Gotta boost our market-share somehow." Vinny held the poltergust with uncertainty. Her awareness of how to operate the thing was minimal. "Erm... Any advice, Professor?" She asked. "Of course! The poltergust is made of a man made alloy capable of interacting with astral phenomena-" She interrupted him, "HELPFUL advice!?" As they were distracted by their conversation, Luigi saw the three sisters using their magic to fuse together, and tried to tug on Vinny's shoulder, only to have his hand pass right through her. Ghost logic. A cruel mistress indeed. The three magicians became one. their Trirova Transmorphosis: Zatanna.
(The music "Giant Girania" from NIGHTS: Journey of Dreams plays)
Zatanna was a tall magician ghost with fishnet leggings, and whom wore her cape around her waist. Her hair was much longer than the triplets, and was dyed pink at the end. The three magic wands fused into a violet scepter with a pink stone engraved in the top and bottom. Vinny and Luigi gazed in awe at the radiant specter. "Time for the main act." Zatanna declared, gripping her scepter with an award winning smile. She blasted some razor sharp playing cards out of her scepter at her opponents. Each slight with pink flames. Vinny swerved out of the way, but she ended up tripping over her own feet. And Luigi floated around them, freaked out by the fact that he was off the ground. "Ah. Already seen that trick? Then let's try something more flashy." She then summoned a bunch of mirrors, all in different places. She then struck the one closest to her with a pink laser, causing it to bounce off the mirrors like the world's deadliest game of laser tag!
Seeing Luigi was in the line of fire, Vinny activated the poltergust to try and blow him out of danger. But she accidentally hit suck instead of blow, sending Luigi tumbling towards her and almost sucking him up. "Sorry, Luigi. Heaven's sake, why are none of these buttons labeled!?" Her finger slipped, causing her to push the wrong button again. Shooting out a plunger that hit one of the mirrors dead on. That's when she got an idea. "Ahaha! I have to admit, even I feel bad for you two." Zatanna taunted, as she started forming a giant orb of magic. Vinny sucked the rope on the plunger with the poltergust, and then swung it towards Zatanna. "Time for some smoking mirrors of my own!" The mirror smashed into her, not hurting her that much, but it broke her concentration. Making her drop the orb on herself!
Ginny was sent spiraling out of Zatanna, and Vinny sucked her up. She couldn't help but be impressed with herself. "Wow. I think I'm actually getting the hang of this thing." Zatanna shrunk a bit, as well as her hair length. A third of her power ripped away, without the youngest of her components. "Don't think you've won yet! I think I'll need a volunteer for this next trick..." She grabbed Vinny up, and placed her in a metal box. "Watchful eye, now." She then shuffled it with three more boxes and put them all on the platform Luigi was on. "Hope you guess right~" Luigi stood there in confusion, not knowing which one his friend was in. This could very well be another trick. Zatanna tapped her foot impatiently. "Come on, pick one. It's not that hard to do." Luigi didn't want to run the risk of picking the wrong one, so he just stood there until he was sure which one was right.
Her patience at an end, Zatanna flew down to him. "Can't do anything right, can you? It's this one, dumb dumb!" She declared, opening the left box to reveal Vinny. And it only dawned on her too late that she just solved her own puzzle for him. Seizing the chance, Vinny activated the poltergust. But the suction wasn't enough to split her apart. However, Luigi found one of the stray playing cards from earlier on the floor, and threw it at Zatanna. Nikki, and Lindsey were sent spiraling out of their form. Vinny got a capture stream on Lindsey, and successfully captured her. All that remained was Nikki. The middle sister. "Okay, okay! I surrender! Enough!" The world around them was consumed by a white light, and they were transported back to floor 10. Despite this, Vinny still had her poltergust trained on her. "Change us back." Nikki sighed, and did as she was told. Swapping Vinny and Luigi back into their proper bodies. "That's more like it." Nikki sat down in the stage, with a defeated look on her face. "There's no way the president will ever forgive us for swapping you two, anyway."
Vinny was puzzled. "The president? What does that have to do with-... Wait... Are you saying the one behind this whole scheme is...?" Nikki sighed. "Is Maxill. Yes." Vinny sat down next to her. "If that's true... I'm certain you have nothing to fear, Nikki. I doubt he'd go out of his way just for me. I'm just a nuisance in his eyes." Nikki turned to her. "That couldn't be further from the truth, Vinny. He cares for you and your mother deeply." Vinny but her lip, as a wave of sadness began washing over her. Nikki got back up. "When he first hired us, he hoped our magic would be able to break the curse. And when we couldn't, he just... broke down in front of us. And yet for some reason, he still kept us around." Vinny looked up at her. "What curse?" Nikki then summoned some old looking papers, and handed them to her.
Luigi didn't see what Vinny was reading, but he could tell from the changes in her expression that whatever was written on it held plenty of answers. "...I had... no idea. This is his handwriting. But I still don't see why he would do this. Why he would kidnap innocent people." Nikki held her hat in her hands. "I feel it'd be best if you asked him yourself, because I'm afraid I don't know. Now then..." She then floated over to Luigi. "I'd like to be with my sisters. Now that I've blown his secret, he's gonna want my head mounted on his wall." Luigi reluctantly agreed, and sucked her up. Peach then voiced her concerns. "What do those pages say, Vinny?" Vinny stood up, and readjusted her hat. "Many things. I'll tell you in time. For now, I have a request..." she cleared her throat. "I want to go back to floor 2. Something tells me Nivyn knows much more about this than we do. You've done a lot for me already, but I can't do this alone."
Luigi warmly smiled, and nodded. Something that spread to Vinny, upon seeing his response. "Thank you so much. I don't know if I'll ever be able to repay you, but I'm thankful nonetheless." They hopped back on the elevator, and headed down. The truth was to be found, in the darkness of floor 2. Submerged in the mind of a shadow. A shadow of a former life. Nivyn was there since this all started. And if she was ever gonna see the end of it, she needed to confront her. They did not know what horror awaited them, what nightmarish state the phantom of those halls may be in, but someone had to step forth into the unknown. Or all... was lost.
(The music "Mephiles' Whisper" from Sonic '06 plays)
(For any of you who want to know what those pages said, you're free to check out my prequel story, "Dying To Treat You". I'm sorry if this chapter might've been disappointing to you, writing fight scenes isn't my specialty. But for those of you who enjoyed it, it means the world to me that you like my story. I promise the next chapter will be worthy of the buildup.)