Author Notes - Writing the Master Suite chapters initially was such a weird experience. Yeah, there was the rooftop to go, but it was still the final stretch of the story. It felt bizarre and even kinda sad to know that I was almost done with my biggest project yet. There's less of that feeling now, since this is just a re-edit of the original story, but there's still remnants of it.
I swapped the chapter titles of this chapter and the next one, since I think 'Master's Suite' suits this chapter a lot better since it's the introduction chapter to the level. Meanwhile, 'Going to Hell'n Back' much better suits the chapter where they actually confront Hellen Gravely.
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO - MASTER'S SUITE
Charles, close the vault... Sam, shut your mouth... Charles, don't look at me like that... Sam, go retrieve that Trapper down in the Paranormal Productions...
Since the very beginning of this whole mess, Charles and Sam had been loyal to their boss. Now that the two were being used as meatshields in front of the King Boo-shaped vault lock, they had given up.
'You know the saying, Charles?' Sam asked. 'The enemy of my enemy is my friend? Look, we may hate that green kid for capturing our friends as much as the next ghost, but compared to our boss? He is nothing.'
'I see what you mean.' Charles said. 'May I add that one should always choose the lesser of two evils? Sure, Luigi's incarcerated all of our friends and maybe has even catnapped Ms Gravely's pet, but at least he isn't torturing someone's child in some messed up game of blackmail.'
'When the fight inevitably comes along, I'm letting that kid capture me in seconds. I don't care where I end up. Just as long as he saves my sweet little Louie, he can do whatever he wants to me.'
She puffed out her chest, and began to float away.
'Samantha...' Charles said, quietly. 'Where are you going?'
'Off to do something very important... getting those mortals here as soon as possible.'
Most elevator rides up, Luigi was noticeably perturbed and frightened. When going up to the fifteenth floor, however? He had never looked so furious. The rage in his eyes disturbed Daisy and Polterpup, but Polterkitty couldn't blame him for it at all. He didn't even say anything, aside from cursing Hellen Gravely under his breath. His silence worried Daisy, but she said nothing.
After forever, the elevator finally dinged and opened. Without another word, Luigi stepped out of the cart and looked around. He saw no ghost, but found himself marvelling at the sight. Polished marble walls and floor, a gorgeous set of comfy couches in the middle, many vases lining the walls, even a real dead tree planted in a small field of sand... Ms Gravely clearly wanted to show off. Even the elevator cage was made of bars coated with what appeared to be gold. The golden King Boo patterning on the floor did not deter Luigi in the slightest.
'Whoa.' Daisy said as she left the elevator. 'Wow...'
Polterpup snorted. 'Trying too hard.'
'Nice.' Gooigi murmured.
Polterkitty cringed the moment she got her head out of the elevator doors. The odour of King Boo was heavy in the air, even heavier than Master's own scent, thanks to her abundant incense emanating from every one of those King Boo vases.
'Alright,' Luigi said, speaking for the first time in a while. 'Where is she?'
Daisy gave his back a soft pat. 'Sweetie, let's not rush this. I doubt Ms Gravely is going to make this easy for us.'
Our heroes stepped deeper into the beautiful lobby, and came across a massive pair of shiny double doors. Before they could even begin to approach them, however, a gigantic screen lowered from the ceiling and covered them up.
Luigi growled. 'What now?'
Polterkitty gulped. The screen turned on, revealing a certain ghost that made Luigi's blood boil. Daisy had to hold him back.
'Hellen Gravely...' He muttered, his words loaded with disgust.
Hellen Gravely did not seem particularly happy. Oh no. She looked pissed. Her eyes and fingers twitched as she stared at her hands with fury.
'How could my staff be so incompetent?!' She screamed. 'There's no way Luigi could've gotten this far! Even Amadeus... that pathetic coward just surrendered to him! They all just surrendered. Every single one of them. USELESS COWARDS, THE LOT OF THEM!'
It was then she noticed Luigi glaring at her. He could pinpoint the exact moment she realised he could see her - she flinched and lathered on that powdery make-up.
'I suppose I underestimated you and your friends. Just a tad. Congratulations on making it all the way up here!' She chuckled. 'But that does not mean you've won.' She cackled. 'Quite the opposite! This could be very, very good. For me, of course. You're about to become the ultimate gift!'
Daisy gritted her teeth and clenched her fists.
'Once I capture you and your friends and offer you to King Boo,' Hellen Gravely continued. 'He'll be absolutely delighted with me! In a way, this worked out splendidly. You may as well have wrapped yourself!' She spoke like that was her plan all along.
'Where is my brother?' Luigi asked with an uncharacteristically serious tone.
Hellen giggled. 'Maybe if you're lucky, you'll be displayed right next to him. I'll have to ask King Boo.'
'Where is my brother?'
She flinched.
'Don't worry, my cowardly friend. Your brother is doing just fine!'
The camera showing the footage zoomed out, revealing her entire office. The many security cameras exposing every floor of the hotel did not perturb Luigi at all. He couldn't even focus on them. Up above them all, hanging from the top of the wall was Mario. And he looked absolutely terrified. Luigi gasped - he couldn't think about his anger anymore. He reached out his arm, as if he could grab onto his brother from there.
'M-Mario...' He murmured, so deep in despair that it broke Daisy's heart.
Polterpup growled and barked at Hellen, wishing he too could morph into a horrific beast to mangle her up. Polterkitty, on the other hand, backed away.
Hellen Gravely beckoned to Luigi with her hand. 'Luiiiiigi! If you want to save your pwecious big bwo, you'll need to come and fight me for him!'
That did it for Luigi. He broke free from Daisy's grasp and ran to the middle of the room. So much anger circulated through his veins that he'd explode if he didn't unleash it.
'I'll destroy you for what you did to Mario!' He shouted, tears rolling down his face. 'I won't just capture you... I'll make sure there's not a drop of your ectoplasm left! If I can't destroy you, then you can be sure as hell that I'm sending you down where you belong!'
Daisy gasped. She had never heard him use such language before.
'Try not to die from sheer terror before you make it!' Hellen taunted. 'I'll be waiting in anticipation!'
Daisy wanted to punch her face in, but not nearly as much as Luigi did. Polterkitty sighed in relief. She was certain she had managed to get out of this one. The relief vanished when she realised that Master hadn't turned the camera off yet.
'Oh, don't think I didn't notice you, Polterkitty darling.'
The Panthergeist cringed. If she could disappear like the other ghosts could, she would never come back.
'My little sweetie, step forward.'
Master gave that order in her awful 'I am secretly furious but pretending not to be' tone. With a gulp, she stepped forward to the centre of the room alongside Green Man. She could feel Master's glare.
Hellen groaned. 'Ugh, look at yourself darling. You're hideous. Are you really going to return to me like that?'
Polterkitty gasped, and returned to her tiny and 'cute' house cat form.
'That's much better! Look at how cute you are now.' Hellen said with obviously feigned happiness.'I couldn't help but notice something. You appear to have been following Luigi this whole time! That's a little odd, isn't it? Didn't I tell you to bring him directly to me?' She laughed. 'Oh, of course! You're just luring him to me, aren't you sweetie?'
Polterkitty lowered her head in shame.
'That is correct, isn't it?' Hellen asked. 'You were planning on betraying that man, right? I would certainly hope so! We wouldn't want to find out what happens to animals who double-cross me.' Her tone shifted to one far more serious. 'Would we?'
Polterkitty gulped, and shook her head.
'Good! I'll be waiting to see your results, darling! Just remember - if they're not the ones I want, you'll be the one who pays the price.'
The footage turned off, and the blank white screen scrolled back up into the ceiling.
'I don't like her very much.' Gooigi said. 'She seems mean.'
Luigi rushed for the double doors, but was stopped in his tracks by Daisy. He tugged against the grip she had on his arm, but she didn't let up. Even when he gave her one of his patented death stares.
'Sweetie, we need to be careful.' She said, wrangling him in. 'If we're not careful, Hellen Gravely is gonna kill me and lock you away forever. We cannot let that happen. You've taught me that I need to be more careful. Why have you gotten your own lesson?'
'Anyone who takes my brother away from me does not deserve my mercy.'
'Right. Of course. It's all that witch's fault. Well, we're about to teach her a lesson. Aren't we guys?'
Polterpup yipped and howled in celebration, and Gooigi cheered them on from his glass home. Only Polterkitty did not join in.
Luigi breathed in and out slowly. 'Right. Rushing in will just get us killed. Gattina, do you know how we navigate this place?'
Polterkitty was tempted to derail their plan completely. Stall the adventure. Confuse the mortals. Lock them away at this very moment. Anything to prevent her from having to meet up with Master again. She wished she could go back to the museum, before she felt so many conflicts over her own plan.
'Oh hey, there you are! Dang, you guys got here quickly.'
The voice came from a female Goob approaching them, who waved at them as she phased through the double doors. Daisy got between her and Luigi, gritting her teeth.
'Watch out, ghosty!' She yelled. 'If you get too close to my precious Luigi, I'm gonna-!'
'Daisy, don't!'
Though Luigi pushed her back, the Goob figured that she had travelled close enough and stayed put.
'Hey there!' She greeted. 'Now, I know all us Goobs look the same, but you might recognise me, Green Kid. See, my husband and I were the first ghosts you met once you got that fancy vacuum strapped on your back.'
Luigi gasped. Maybe the Goobs looked the same, but he could recognise that voice. He hooked up the nozzle up to Poltergust, and stepped forward just a little.
'You... you came back?' He asked. 'Why?'
'I'm not here to capture you, buddy. What I am here for is to give you a little heads up. Our stupid boss has forced my husband and I to lock up the door to her office.'
Daisy groaned. 'Really? If you really wanna help us, then why did you follow her orders?'
'It isn't important. The point is, if you wanna get past those locks, you need to get four keys. Hellen keeps one key in each of her rooms, as a little series of puzzles for mortals or something stupid like that. Look, the point is, you need those keys. Think you got that?'
Luigi didn't say it out loud, but he did have doubts in this Goob's words. Yet, he could hear the desperation in her voice.
'Sounds simple enough.' Daisy said. 'Find the keys, and open the lock. Obviously there's going to be about a thousand traps on the way there, but that doesn't sound as bad as that pyramid. Or that garden. Or that castle. Or that twisted place. Or... actually, this entire hotel is awful.'
'Tell me about it.' Sam remarked. 'I'd hate ta leave you so soon, but my boss will do some... terrible things if I don't return to my post in the next minute, so I can't quite help you out. I'm sure Polterkitty will help ya out though!'
Sam left to return to her post with those finishing words, leaving our heroes unsure of her true intentions and Daisy even more suspicious of the ghostly cat.
The hallway behind the big double door was, for the most part, completely normal. It had a couple of 'blocks' where the rooms sat, but was not at all out of the ordinary. The hallway itself was normal. The decorations, on the other hand, were most certainly not. And they sent shivers down Luigi's spine. King Boo's face was on everything. Absolutely everything. Paintings on the wall? King Boo. Statues in the corners? King Boo. The lights hanging from the ceiling? King Boo. Even the golden patterning on the floor? Hundreds of tiny King Boos. The odour of the royal phantom was so thick in the air that even the mortals could smell it.
One painting of the king was dented inwards, creating the illusion that it was constantly staring at you. Another also depicted Hellen Gravely, with both dressed up as Sand Kingdomian rulers, looking into each other's eyes. Pink dust lined the floor. All the pictures of King Boo made Luigi shudder.
'Don't worry, sweetie.' Daisy said. 'As horrific as this is, they're just pictures.'
'That's not what's creeping me out so much. I know that Ms Gravely said that she was a big fan of King Boo, but this? This is not being a fan. This isn't even being a crazy fanatic. This is an obsession.'
Daisy shuddered. 'Oh god, I think you're right. This... this is not normal. At all.' She looked to Polterkitty. 'Please Kitty, get us out of this King Boo hell as quickly as possible.'
The little ghost kitty certainly did not want to earn Mean Lady's wrath, so she led our heroes over to the room on the left. The door, rather obnoxiously, was on the left side of the room.
Polterpup sniffed at the door - he could smell remnants of what he figured was a Trapper. There seemed to be nothing left of it but trace amounts of ectoplasm. Luigi opened the door without delay or even an inkling of fear. He was going to save his brother no matter what.
The room behind the door was a regular old two-storey library, albeit one with about twenty little King Boo statues strewn about. And that gigantic painting of King Boo shining like the Dark Moon itself. The door brought them to the top floor of it, where they could easily see the second storey just by looking over the guard rails. The first key, one topped with an orange gem in the shape of King Boo's crown, stood on its own in a little compartment it had all to itself, one that was implanted in the back wall. Nothing seemed to block the way.
Daisy scoffed. 'Well, this is gonna be stupidly easy.'
She began to walk towards the seemingly unguarded key, but Luigi felt very uneasy about this whole room.
'MROW!'
Luigi gasped. 'Polterkitty says there are lasers in front of you!'
'Lasers? LASERS?!'
Daisy jumped back with a yelp and hid behind Luigi. Polterpup stepped towards where he figured the lasers would be, and ended up bopping one of them with his nose. He thought that these would be regular old lasers that couldn't hurt a ghost.
'YIP!'
He thought wrong. The moment his nose touched that laser, it sent a purge of pain through his entire body. He yelped and jumped away.
'Are you kidding me?!' Daisy cried. 'So not only are there lasers that I can't see, but they can hurt ghosts too?!' She groaned loudly. 'Of course Ms Gravely wouldn't make this easy! How have I not learnt that by now?'
Luigi looked over the edge, and gasped. 'Daisy, I think I've found something.'
He pointed to a big lever on the bottom floor of the library that lay right underneath the key. It had a picture of a lightning bolt on it.
Daisy crossed her arms. 'I'm willing to bet my bottom dollar that if we flip that switch, it'll turn off the lasers. It's a bit of a problem if we can't see said lasers though.'
Her eyes fell upon the thick layer of pink dust that covered the floor. If she had learnt anything from those spy movies, it was that airborne dust could do... something about scattering light particles? She never paid attention to the actual science of it, but she knew that dust could make the lasers visible. She knelt on the floor, and swept the dust into the air using her arm in one quick swoop.
The strange pink dust scattered into the air. The deadly red beams were revealed, moving up and down like spotlights. More lasers guarded the key like it was a jail cell.
Daisy grinned. 'Alright! Now all we gotta do is wait for the right time, and-'
'ACHMPHT!'
She was interrupted by a strange sound. Polterkitty had fallen into a sudden sneezing fit.
'Gattina!' Luigi cried.
He rushed over to her and lifted the sneezy kitty into his arms. It didn't help her at all, and for once Luigi did not care about the spittle flying into his face.
'Uh, why is she sneezing so much?' Daisy asked.
'I-I don't know.' Luigi replied. 'I need to get her out of here. Can you guys grab that key while I take care of her?'
'Can-do, Sweetie!'
Luigi ran out the door with the kitty in his arms while Daisy eyed the lever down on the second floor. She picked up more of the strange pink dust and tossed it down into the area below, and it revealed even more lasers moving up and down.
'This seems easy to abuse.'
She vaulted over the railing and landed right next to the lever, behind the deadly lasers. Chuckling, she poured all her strength into pulling the lever until it made it all the way down to the bottom. The lasers turned themselves off and put themselves away into the floor. Polterpup yipped in joy as the lasers in front of the key disappeared too.
Daisy put her hands on her hips. 'Geez. You'd think that Hellen was trying to make this easy.' Her smile dropped. 'Wait, that's actually a possibility...'
She walked down the path where lasers used to be, noting the titles of the books on the shelves. Darkness is Their Cheese, the Necronomicon, An Autobiography by King Boo... entirely just 'spooky' titles. As she passed yet another King Boo vase and made her way up the spiral staircase, she couldn't help noting how oddly shiny and clean everything was. The only concern was all that weird pink dust around the place.
'Okay, seriously. What is this pink stuff?'
She scooped up a handful and peered at it closely. It was like some sort of powder make-up that emitted some faint purple aura, and she dusted her hands off. She ended up getting most of it into her face, and unleashed a hearty sneeze.
'Oh geez! Oh, that stuff is potent.'
Putting that aside, she grabbed the key lying by an excitedly-yapping Polterpup. The entire key was coated in sparkly gold, except for the orange gem at the top. It looked almost identical to King Boo's crown.
'Sweet Rosalina, she even models the keys after that round king? That woman needs help.'
Once Luigi got outside the room, he sat down on a nearby couch. Polterkitty, recovering from her fit as soon as she reached fresh air, cuddled deep into his arms and rubbed her face against his chest. Luigi couldn't tell if she was genuinely cuddling up to him or just wiping her nose on his clothes.
'You okay, girl?' He asked, stroking her head.
Polterkitty purred as she sunk deep into the warm fabric of his clothes. 'I am now.'
'What was that stuff? What kind of dust is pink?'
'That wasn't dust. It was Master's special Gheistpaint make-up. I'm really allergic to it, but she always makes me wear it.'
Luigi's eyes widened. 'Wait, you're allergic to that stuff? But why does she force you to wear it then?'
'You know that morphing thing I do? The powder forces me to look like this. Master only likes me when I look like this.'
Luigi groaned in disgust. He ended up hugging her tighter, and continued to do so for as long as he could.
'That isn't right.' He said. 'If you wanna be a big panther, your owner should let you. And she certainly shouldn't powder you up with something you're allergic to. She's not right to be your owner.'
'What do you mean?'
'I mean, after this whole thing is over, you're coming home with me.'
Polterkitty's eyes widened. Did her ears deceive her? Did this green man really just suggest such a thing? He couldn't have. Master had told her time and time again that only Master could possibly love a three-tailed monster like her. He must've been lying.
'W-What?'
'I mean it, Gattina. You need a good home, and you just won't find it here with Ms Gravely. If one of the ghosts here wants to adopt you, that'd be fine too. But, right now, I've decided that you're going to be mine.'
The kitty was at a loss for words. No... he was lying. She knew he was. Master had made it quite clear that no one else would ever love her. Master could never be wrong. Master could never lie.
Right?
Daisy opened the door and interrupted their little cuddle session, holding the orange key. 'I got the key! Is Kitty okay now?'
Luigi nodded. 'Yep! She's just really allergic to that make-up stuff. Apparently, it's Hellen Gravely's.'
Polterpup jumped through the door, and sat next to Luigi on the couch. Both the plumber and the ghostly cat honoured his clear lack of any sort of jealousy.
'Of course it is.' Daisy said, before she chuckled. 'Do you two just wanna cuddle while Polterpup and I find the other three keys, or...'
Luigi jumped to his feet, much to Polterkitty's chagrin. 'N-No! We gotta do this together if we have any hope of succeeding. We cannot afford to split up now.'
'You are absolutely right, Sweetie.'
The next room, adjacent to the library, was the drawing room, behind a door that needed to be Dark-Lighted first. More bookshelves, a nice fireplace, a few white couches... and more King Boo paintings, including one depicting him as a farmer by a windmill. The fan of the windmill itself seemed to pop out of the painting, thanks to a real mini-fan put in its place. A short series of stairs on both sides of the room led to a slightly raised platform. Daisy picked up some of the Gheistpaint and scattered it into the air. No lasers could be found.
'Aight, so what do we do here?' She asked.
Polterkitty was about to answer, when those elusive pink Spirit Balls appeared from the floor and flew around the room.
Daisy groaned at the sight of them. 'Ugh, these things again? What are they going to possess now?'
They floated about until they decided on their target - the windmill fan. Once possessed, its blades twitched in one direction, before the middle of the fan sprouted a glowing red eye. Then, it began to turn itself. It started off slowly, but it quickly built up speed.
'And that does what, exactly?' Luigi asked, dreading the answer.
The entire space between the far edges of the stairs, including the couch in the middle, began to rotate to the right like a Ferris wheel.
'Uh?!' Daisy exclaimed. 'What the heck is this?!'
It didn't take long for the spinning to speed up, and it did so considerably. It rotated to another 'set', one with a very concerning statue of King Boo before it quickly disappeared. In moments, it spun around so fast that our heroes could barely see what was going on. If it turned any faster, it would launch out and cause a lot more problems. It would not have been a problem at all, if Daisy hadn't seen a glowing green gem for a few moments, one that returned with every four rotations.
'Oh my god, the key is in the middle of that!' She yelled. 'We gotta get it to stop!'
She ran over to the sentient fan. Regardless, she reached her arm out towards it. Only Luigi pulling her back kept her away from the spinning blades of death.
'Daisy, what are you doing?!' Luigi demanded. 'You could cut your own hand off doing that!'
'I just want this damn thing to stop! We need that key, and this stupid fan is stopping us from grabbing it.' She groaned. 'That's a sentence I just had to say...'
'I'm sure we can come up with a way to stop it that doesn't involve getting limbs chopped off. I can just Dark-Light it.'
'Oh... of course.'
Luigi enveloped the possessed fan with his Dark-Light device, and held the light in place for a few seconds. The typical rainbow veil never appeared.
'Oh no...' He muttered. 'It must be spinning too fast for the Dark-Light to work!'
'ARE YOU F-?!' She took a deep breath. 'Anyone got any ideas before something breaks off and slices our necks?'
Gooigi, without any warning, deployed himself. Unfortunately, it ended up spooking both Luigi and Daisy.
'WAHH!'
'Oh sweet Luvbi... warn us next time, Gooigi!'
'Sorry.' He said. 'But I have good plan. Big bro know how I make things sticky? I can do it again.'
'Um, against a swirling fan of terror?' Daisy questioned. 'Are you sure that's a good idea?'
'Does big bro and princess have any better ideas?'
Taking their lack of a response as a 'do it', he reached his arm out towards the middle of the fan. The blades were now spinning so fast that the entire thing was wiggling around on its axis.
'Uh, li'l bro,' Luigi said. 'I don't think that's such a good i-'
He was cut off by a sound akin to flesh getting blended, except a whole lot more wet.
'AH!'
The fan turned Gooigi's arm into mush in a matter of seconds. The gooey man didn't even flinch.
'GOOIGI!' Luigi cried.
Gooigi, far too calmly, held up his other arm for his 'big bro' to stop, even though the fan was making its way up to his shoulders. His goop had done the trick. The fan began to slow down, and quickly too. It took no time at all for it to stop. It emitted a sound comparable to a Chain-Chomp growling, despite its lack of a mouth. The spinning floor came to a stop too, half-way through the creepy King Boo statue and the big cage with the key inside it.
Gooigi stepped away, now totally missing his arm, looking very proud of himself for someone who could hardly emote. 'Trust me. I learned from best!'
'Why would you do that?!' Luigi cried.
'Not to interrupt or anything,' Daisy said. 'But shouldn't we Dark-Light that fan thing before it frees itself?'
'Oh. Right.'
Luigi used his trusty Dark-Light Device once again, and it worked like a charm. The fan hissed and growled, but he paid it no mind. The pink Spirit Balls emerged from it, and Luigi made quick work of them.
'Crisis averted!' Daisy declared. 'Now we just have to... D'OH!'
Only then did the mortals realise that the room was not at the most ideal rotation. Daisy knelt down and tried to reach into the tiny slither of the cage that was above ground, but her arm couldn't quite reach the key.
'Well, that solved our possessed fan problem.' She remarked. 'But now how to we get the damn key itself?'
'Easy.' Gooigi said. 'Just spin the fan.'
Drop by drop, the goop jumped back onto Gooigi's stump of an arm. Once the fan was free of his goop and he had his arm back, the gooey man used his Poltergoo to spin the un-possessed fan blades a little, just enough to bring that cage above ground.
'OH GOD!'
He could've waited for Daisy to back away from the floor though. After the platform spooked her and settled into place, she reached through the (non-laser) bars on the cage and yanked the green-tipped key out.
'Sweet!' She said. 'We're already halfway done! Just two more, and we can teach that witch a lesson. Good job, Gooigi!'
Even though he knew that Gooigi had no mouth, Luigi could've sworn he saw a smile on his face. Daisy tossed the green-tipped key to Gooigi, and he stored it in his body. The green glow of the gem could be seen through his translucent skin.
'I want to stay out now.' Gooigi said. 'I'm much more helpful out of cage than in it. Then princess can hear me too. I can do so much more. Is big bro okay with that?'
'Am I okay with it? Bro, we need all the help we can get.'
Author Notes - The Master Suite was another collection of back-to-back puzzles, which never translated well into this story. Though I kept most of the puzzles, pretty much every single one of them is modified to work a little better. Besides, the main 'selling point' of this level is the Polterkitty stuff, not so much the floor itself.
