On the multiple television screens in her office, Hellen Gravely watched with displeasure as Morty willingly gave Luigi the elevator button for Floor 9, the very opposite of what he had been instructed to do. With every floor of the Last Resort he cleared, Luigi got closer and closer to saving his brother and friends and thwarting King Boo's plan, and the demonic ghost grew more and more fed up with Hellen and her incompetence. It was bad enough that the ghosts she hired couldn't stop such a meek little plumber, but the film director she spied on completely went against her order and helped her enemy with his mission.
She growled and clenched her fists as her eyes narrowed with fury at Morty. If they failed, she would make him pay dearly.
"Yes, got it!" Luigi exclaimed happily as he picked up the elevator button for Floor 15, the top floor of the hotel. "That's the last one. Mario and Princess Peach should be on Floor 15." He took a deep breath. "Hang on, you two. I'm coming."
From her office, Hellen watched Luigi hurry to the elevator. She switched the screens over to Paranormal Productions, where Morty was lounging in his editing room, having finished editing the film he shot with Luigi. Completely unaware of the painful ordeal that awaited him.
"Bring him to me." Hellen growled to a trio of Goobs.
Morty sat in a relaxed manner, with his eyes closed and his arms folded behind his head. He glanced at the film behind him with satisfaction. edited into a masterpiece of a movie, as he called it.
I hope I can show it to Luigi, he thought. It was made possible by him, after all.
Suddenly, the editing door was forced open, startling Morty. Three Goobs surrounded him, two of them holding a rope and cloth enhanced with a sort of spiritual energy. All of them looked unamused.
"The hotel owner wants to see you." one of them said.
Before Morty could react, the Goob holding the rope quickly and painfully tied it around him, while the Goob holding the cloth wrapped it over his mouth, cutting off his cry of pain and protest. He struggled against his restraints, tried to phase through them, but their spiritual power disabled his ability to do so. The Goobs dragged the trapped Morty through the floors above them, and they soon ended up in Hellen's office. They removed Morty's restraints and left him to the furious hotel owner.
Morty backed up in fear as Hellen approached him, the look of pure rage on her face seeming to cut right through him. He dreaded this would happen, that Hellen would make him pay for refusing to hurt Luigi like she ordered him to. Not only did he refuse, but he helped him progress, and now he was about to face severe punishment for his actions.
"You weak-willed, bleeding-hearted, insolent little traitor!" Hellen snarled. "Disobeying an order from your employer, giving our enemy what you were supposed to prevent him from getting at all costs. Because of you, Luigi has made it past every floor in the hotel and is on his way here. King Boo, my beloved idol, has lost all faith in me," She grabbed Morty and roughly pulled him closer, "and it's all your fault!"
She pulled out a mirror and hit Morty in the face with it, and the director sprawled to the floor with a cry of pain. At the same time, Luigi arrived at Floor 15, the Master Suite. He found himself in a spacious living room with several couches and a large projection screen, which displayed a terrible scene. Luigi gasped as he watched Hellen grab an injured Morty's wrist and beat him with her mirror. She flew in and began furiously slamming it down on him, each hit making him scream in pain and fear.
"Morty!" Luigi exclaimed in horror, and grabbed his Poltergust nozzle. "I'm coming, Morty! Hold on!"
There was a pipe in a corner of the room. Luigi sent his slimy doppelganger, Gooigi, through it. The gooey clone pulled on a chain, revealing a hidden door behind the projection screen. Luigi found himself in a hallway with four rooms and a large statue of King Boo on the far end, with four slots carved into its tongue.
"There must be keys or something I can insert in here to reach Hellen's office." he said. "I have to hurry! Morty needs me!"
The first room Luigi entered was a library. One of the keys was below a mural of King Boo, but it was caged in by lasers, which were positioned across the upper and lower floors. The switch activating the lasers was on the bottom floor. After carefully observing their movement patterns, Luigi ran to the switch and pulled it down, shutting off the lasers and giving him access to the first key.
The second room was a drawing room, and right away, Luigi was puzzled. There was no key in sight, but he knew there had to be some hidden factor to getting it. There was a rotating handle on the far end of the room, and upon turning it with his Poltergust, part of the floor started to flip around, revealing three large containers, one of which held the second key. He was halfway there.
The third room was a master bathroom, and Luigi could see the third key in the bathtub. There were more lasers, but not as numerous as the ones in the library. After more careful timing, he shut off the lasers and grabbed the key from the tub. He was surprised by how easy that was, but he knew he couldn't let his guard down. It wouldn't get any easier from there.
The last room was a master bedroom-likely Hellen's, with all the memorabilia of King Boo strewn around it, and again, guarded with lasers. Luigi found a switch hidden in the closet, but instead of shutting off the lasers, it turned part of the floor over, revealing a tilting floor. Two paintings of King Boo and Hellen, respectively, slid off to the side, revealing the switch for the lasers and the last key he needed. When he stepped onto the platform, he quickly found that he needed to balance his weight on it to lift it upwards. He first turned off the lasers, the repeated the process to reach the key.
"Yes! That's all of them!" Luigi said. "I've gotta hurry and save Morty!"
He hurried to place the keys in the statue slots, only to be caged in and bombarded by a swarm of Goobs, their smaller variants, and a Hammer.
"Not so fast, Greenie!" said a Goob. "The hotel owner told us to keep you from reaching her. You'll have to get past us if you wanna save that puny little director guy."
"I don't have time for you!" Luigi said, more frustrated than scared. He took on the ghosts nevertheless, going as fast as he could. Worrying about how Morty was faring against Hellen's wrath.
Meanwhile, the director in peril was forcefully thrown to the floor. He panted raggedly as he shakily pushed himself up, weakened and badly hurt. Hellen grabbed Morty's arm and held him up high, and the director hung limply in her grasp, his strength dwindling.
"Pathetic." Hellen growled, giving Morty a hard smack in the face with her mirror. "Worthless." Another one. "Betrayer!" And another one, this time sending Morty sprawling to the floor again. The director looked up at Hellen with fear-filled, wavering eyes as he panted in pain and exhaustion.
Hellen put her mirror away, and Morty hopefully thought that meant she was done, that his punishment was over. But he was dead wrong.
The hotel owner reached behind her desk and picked up something Morty couldn't see at first. She turned around, and his fear spiked again when he saw it was a portrait, like the ones Luigi's brother and friends had been trapped in.
"King Boo left me a spare portrait for exactly this reason." she said. The portrait came to life, its frame opening up with a terrifying portal. "Say goodbye, traitor."
"No..." Morty whimpered. "No...please, don't do this..." He tried to get up and fly away, phase through the floor, anything to save himself, but he was too weak and in too much pain. All he could do was watch as his eternal prison drew near. "Stay away from me!"
Suddenly, the King Boo-shaped door to Hellen's office loudly creaked open. A plunger on a rope shot forth and stuck to the top of the portrait, and Luigi forcefully pulled it out of Hellen's hands and into a wall, smashing it to pieces. He stood protectively in front of Morty, Poltergust nozzle aimed at the hotel owner.
"Leave him alone!" Luigi cried angrily. Although his tone and expression were furious, his fiery eyes still carried fear, and the Poltergust nozzle subtly shook in his hands, despite his effort to conceal it. But he still confronted Hellen, his will to protect Morty overpowering his fear.
Hellen's eyes narrowed with displeasure at Luigi. "You're as much to blame for this as that traitor behind you." she said. "You ransack my hotel, capture my staff-including my beloved Polterkitty-and because of you both, I've lost the praise of King Boo. But now, I have the chance to get it back." Her office began to shift and change into an arena. "Once I've defeated you, Luigi, I'll trap you and the useless director in a painting and present you to King Boo, and he'll finally give me the approval I've worked for. Prepare yourself, your mission ends here!"
Morty weakly pushed himself up from the floor. "Go, get somewhere safe." Luigi said to him. "I'll take care of her." The director ghost managed to unsteadily lift himself into the air and somehow made it to the drawing room, where he collapsed onto a couch. He was too weak to stay awake against the fatigue that had begun to overtake him.
Be careful, Luigi, he thought before passing out.
Morty didn't know how much time had passed, but sometime later, he felt someone shaking his shoulder. He opened his eyes to a blur of green, which slowly focused into the man who came to his rescue, looking weary, but not badly injured. Morty happily pulled him into a hug, relieved that it was Luigi, not Hellen, who returned for him.
"Are you feeling better?" Luigi asked.
Morty stretched. "I'm still a little sore, but much better than earlier." he said. "Thank you for saving me, Luigi."
"I promised I would never let you be trapped in a painting like my brother and friends were." Luigi said. "I've beaten Hellen, but King Boo still awaits." He shuddered. "I'm certain confronting him will be a nightmare, just like the last two times."
Morty took Luigi's hands. "And just like the last two times, you'll win against him." he said encouragingly. "You can do this, Luigi. You can defeat him again and save all of us. And when the time is right, I'll save you, just like you did for me."
Luigi smiled thankfully, then smirked as he grabbed his Poltergust nozzle. "Let's go end this, then." he said.
