Rewritten: The Remastered Diary of a Green Plumber

by Shana Hager

Rewrite of Unwritten, with brand-new chapters and scenes. Follow Luigi in an epic adventure spanning forty-odd years as he navigates his complex relationship with his big bro, falls in love with a tomboyish Princess and makes new friends at every turn. Rated M for sexual situations and mature themes.

28. Year of Me: Pt 1

15 February 2013

MK

Dear Diary,

I can barely sit still. They just announced in the Nintendo Direct that the entire year would be centered around me! As you know, it's been thirty years since my introduction into the video game world. As such, Nintendo has decided to do something special. After so many years of longing, I finally get a whole year in the limelight! I can't wait to see what exciting things they have planned!

Luigi

16 March 2013

MK

Dear Diary,

The Year of Luigi (or Year of Me) is in full swing. Josh and his folks visited me, bearing gifts and congratulations. The presents really don't matter. I'm just happy I'm finally getting recognized!

Speaking of which, Jas's Sweet Sixteen birthday party was me-themed. The birthday girl was dressed like me, sans the moustache, and almost all of the guests turned up wearing green. Jackie and Jules organized a Mario Party tournament, followed by four guests at a time playing New Super Mario Bros U. There was even a Jeopardy-style game featuring questions about my adventures. Jas's birthday cake was chocolate with green frosting, topped with several figures of me.

"Today is about you as much as it's about me," said Jas. "Happy Year of Luigi!"

"And happy Sweet Sixteen," I replied.

Then, Jas opened her presents, which were wrapped in green wrapping paper. Jake's present to her was a charm bracelet, the charms made to look like Boos and my face.

"Oh, Jake," said Jas, kissing him sweetly. "Thank you!"

"I made that by myself—with some help," said Jake.

"Your craftsmanship is extraordinary," said Jas.

Jake blushed. "Happy birthday," he said, and they kissed again.

"You know what we need?" Kate, one of Jas's friends, asked later. "Another Luigi's Mansion game. And there should be a multiplayer mode!"

"So—another player controls Gadd?" asked Jas.

"I—don't know. Maybe it can just be another Luigi," shrugged Kate.

"But an online mode would be even better," Jake put in. "Nintendo's come a long way from the GameCube. I'm sure that if there was another Luigi's Mansion game, they'd add some refreshing new features."

"Plus, a new Poltergust would be nice," said Jas.

"You're right," I agreed. "I don't think my old one is in working condition anymore. And Gadd has spent these past years working on inventions. I'm confident that he has a new Poltergust waiting for me!"

Come to think of it, it's been nearly twelve years since my ghost-hunting adventure. Perhaps another, bigger and better one isn't far from the horizon…

Just a thought.

Luigi

25 March 2013

Evershade Valley

Dear Diary,

My chance to return to my ghost-hunting roots came sooner than I expected—and maybe hoped. But in some way, I'm glad it came, because I feel I came out of it a different Luigi. Allow me to explain.

I had my TV on mute, and I was just settling in after a long day. In the middle of the night, I was awakened by static, and I saw that the TV had the color bar test pattern. As I started to inspect it—Professor Gadd's face suddenly popped into the frame, giving me a brief fright!

"Luigi! Thank goodness!" said Gadd. "We need your help, sonny—the ghosts have turned hostile!"

"Wha?" I asked, still a bit drowsy. "Ghosts?"

Grace's image appeared beside Gadd. "Remember when I said that I was helping Gadd with some research?"

"Yeah."

"Well—we came upon this place called the Evershade Valley and decided to set up shop. The ghosts here are very friendly and playful—well, they were until a few minutes ago," Grace told me. "I took the job because—I needed more time away from Roland. I've noticed that he doesn't bother you much anymore, but there's still the matter of that exchange between us."

"What about Gavin?"

"I video-chat with him and his dad when I'm at work. Over the weekends, I come over and see them. We—gosh, why are you on the floor, L? Did we wake you?"

"You can say that," I said.

"I'm so sorry!" gasped Grace. "It's just—Gadd, Becky and I didn't know who else to call."

"That's okay," I said.

"We'll talk more about this when you get here," said Gadd. "Don't move—I'm preparing the Pixelshifter!"

"The WHAT?" I balked.

"New invention," Grace quickly explained, looking nervous as Gadd pressed some buttons.

"All right, here we go!" said Gadd, pushing another button.

"Hey, wait!" I shouted, trying to retreat, but I'd hardly gone a few steps before feeling myself—disassemble—and float through space before reassembling and falling butt-first into a room filled with computers and other machinery.

"Luigi!" Gadd shouted joyfully, clapping his hands. "I knew our paths would cross again!"

"Hey, Professor," I said, getting up and dusting myself off. "Nice to see you again, too." We shook hands, and then I did the same with Becky and Grace. "But—what exactly is going on here?"

"The ghosts in the Evershade Valley started acting hostile toward us," said Grace. "Becky and I had to get Professor Gadd to safety. Those ghosts can't reach us in this impenetrable Bunker."

"We started construction on it not long after we arrived in Evershade Valley," Becky chimed in. "It's bigger than it looks. It has a dining room and a few guest rooms—there's even a rec area."

"Our initial findings allowed us to discover why these ghosts were so friendly toward us," said Grace. "It's due to an artifact in the sky known as the Dark Moon." She showed me a picture of a purple crescent moon. "It appears that someone has shattered it, causing the ghosts to act aggressively. To make things worse, a purple mist is obstructing our view."

"But we managed to recover one piece," said Gadd. "It seems to be corrupted by some kind of dark magic." He pulled out the Dark Moon piece and set it on a machine that looked like a vintage turntable. "Fortunately for us," he continued, turning the machine on, "this device can clean up the piece."

We watched as multiple arms sprouted from the machine to wipe down the Dark Moon piece. Once it was squeaky clean, Gadd removed the piece and checked a map projection.

"Perfect! Some of the mist has cleared away!" exclaimed Gadd. "It appears that the only area open for exploration right now is the Gloomy Manor. My bet is that another Dark Moon Piece is hidden in there."

"You want me to go in there and retrieve it for you," I said. It wasn't a question.

"Luigi—you're the best ghost-hunter I know," said Gadd.

"He's also the only ghost-hunter you know, Professor," sighed Grace, "and he's also unarmed. I think you left his present in the Gloomy Manor's garage."

"You have a present for me? What's the occasion?" I asked.

"Any day is a good day to give you a new ghost-hunting device," said Gadd. "I'm sending you and Grace to the Manor so you can recover it."

"Well, it has been a while," I stated, a bit nervously.

Gadd gave me a communication device which was more advanced than the Game Boy Horror—the Dual Scream, with better visuals and a catchier chime. Then, he used his "largely untested" Pixelshifter to send me and Grace to the Gloomy Manor.

The Gloomy Manor was a run-down, haunted mansion similar to the one I'd explored last time. Rain poured as Grace and I were deposited outside the gate, armed with nothing but a flashlight.

"Oh, boy," I muttered as I looked over the place Grace and I had to explore.

"Hey—I've got your back," said Grace.

"It's my front I'm worried about," I told her.

We walked through the gate, which slammed behind us. Once we approached the front yard, we looked through one of the windows to see two green ghosts, which we decided to call Greenies, in the garage, playing around with some sort of lightbulb. The front door was locked, but then we saw a mouse with the key on its tail. Easily, we chased down the mouse, recovered the key and unlocked the door, cautiously stepping inside.

"Hello?" I softly called out as Grace and I scanned the entrance with our flashlights.

We jumped a little as the door slammed after us, with me clutching my flashlight tightly.

"I really didn't miss this part," I said.

The two of us headed to a door on our left, leading to the garage. And there, under the car, was a brand-spanking new Poltergust!

"Oh, yeah!" I cheered, holding up the ghost vacuum triumphantly.

Seconds later, the Poltergust was on my back where it belonged.

"It suits you," said Grace.

Then, Gadd called, instructing me on how to use the Poltergust 5000. It was similar to the 3000 model, except that it had greater suction power. Per his advice, I tested out my new gadget all around the room, vacuuming up piles of dust and dirt and sheets. One such sheet contained a chest with a key.

Unfortunately, one component was missing, the Strobulb. Grace and I would have to search the mansion to find it. That would be fun.

After using my vacuum to fetch a key atop a ceiling fan, we used the first key to unlock the Guard Hall. A peculiar lightness was in my step as I strode confidently down the hall, Grace beside me once more. I smiled at the familiar feelings of the vacuum in my hands, the hum and whirr causing it to vibrate between my fingers and Grace's hands sliding over mine to give me additional support. We sucked up a few spiders and chased some mischief causing Greenies into the foyer, dashing past suits of armor swinging various weapons at us along the way. In the Foyer, the Greenies pointed out the Strobulb, resting atop a chandelier. First, we tried vacuuming it from the first floor, and when that didn't work, we tried doing so from the second floor, the vacuum spinning a blade which lowered the chandelier. Grace nimbly palmed the device and handed it to me, and I screwed it onto my flashlight.

Now, we were ready for action.

One door was blocked by a switch; flashing it with the Strobulb caused the switch to activate and the door to open into a coatroom. I continued practicing with the vacuum, sucking up coats, dollar bills and coins. A rotating wall revealed a hidden room, where we came upon a Greenie taking a shower; startled, it escaped into the other room. Pink gates suddenly slammed down over the doors as a small group of Greenies floated toward us. I readied my Poltergust and held down the Strobulb, hearing and feeling it build up power with a high-pitched hum, and then I steadied my breathing and released the trigger.

ZZZAP!

The bright flash stunned the Greenies, and Grace and I began to vacuum them up, planting our feet and pulling the nozzle in the opposite direction as they tried to escape. They didn't go down easily, winding up before trying to punch us. We took a few blows before managing to clear the ghosts from the room. Then, we made our way back to the foyer, battling more ghosts along the way, and we had an exciting tussle with a few more Greenies at our destination before Gadd recalled us to the Bunker.

Just like last time, Gadd had me empty my Poltergust into a vault. That way, he, Grace and Becky could study them later. As we rested, Gadd told us that there was a mechanism in the Foyer. If we activated that mechanism, it would reveal a new area to explore on the second floor. Once Grace and I were ready, Gadd sent us there.

It didn't take long for Grace and me to find the mechanism, but as we stepped toward it, four brutish-looking ghosts, which Grace told me were Slammers, flew in and disassembled the machine, each of them taking a gear with them. During our pursuit of the Slammers, a Greenie caused more headaches by locking us out of the Common Hall and taking the key. We cornered him at the entrance, vacuumed him up and retrieved the key. One of the doors was locked, and the other led us to some sort of Lab. We simply vacuumed around the place, searching for anything, until we uncovered a Greenie behind a blackboard, who was soon joined by two more Greenies and one of the Slammers that held the gears. Cue a knock-down, drag-out fight which culminated in all of the ghosts in the Poltergust, the first gear in hand and Grace and I slumped against a wall, composing ourselves.

"Oh, how I've missed this," I said.

"I actually need a tussle or two," shrugged Grace. "Keeps me on my toes."

We vacuumed up any treasure we could find, eventually pulling away part of the wallpaper to reveal a secret pocket stuffed with treasure—and a key.

As we headed back to the Foyer so we could look around the second floor, I found myself humming softly—anything to keep my nerves steady. Grace didn't seem to mind this time; I think her current situation has given her frazzled nerves herself. But we'd only gone halfway up the stairs when the lights went out and the stairs dropped under our feet, sending us sliding back to the main floor. That was my introduction to the blue, thin ghost which Grace identified as a Hider, which disappeared and then reappeared frequently, throwing objects at us.

A flash of the Strobulb stopped his stealthy sneaking, and he was vacuumed up in short order, along with a few other ghosts who'd tried to help him. We started back upstairs and then used the key to unlock the door to the Master Hall. In the Parlor, we found an old phonograph; turning our vacuum on it caused it to play—and also caused two Greenies and a Slammer to pop out. The Slammer held the second gear, but we had to capture the Greenies before capturing him.

All right. Halfway through.

In the bedroom, we used the Poltergust to yank on a cord, revealing a bed.

"A Murphy bed, huh," mused Grace. "Nice."

We sat together on the bed to rest.

"Do you see yourself taking him back?" I asked.

"Well, I want to, but…"

The bed threw us into another room before she could finish.

"A secret passageway," we said together.

We were now in a study, and after mulling over the many bookshelves in the room, we came across the third gear—which was promptly palmed by a Greenie. Three of his buddies joined him, and a tussle was soon raging about the study. Just as we'd captured the Greenies, a Slammer holding the third gear accosted us. After a heated struggle, we captured the Slammer and claimed the gear.

While searching for a way out of the study, we used the Poltergust to roll back part of the carpet, uncovering a hidden switch. When we threw the switch, the fire in the fireplace extinguished.

"Think it's another secret passageway?" asked Grace.

"Maybe," I said.

The "fireplace" was indeed a secret passageway which dropped us into a studio, where two Hiders waited for us. After a frustrating battle, the Hiders were safely in the Poltergust. Now, we had to face a Slammer holding the last gear. He didn't give up that gear without a fight, I'll tell you that. We were dead on our feet by the time the Slammer was defeated. Once we cleared away a large dirt pile blocking a door, we trudged over to the Foyer, but since those Slammers had manhandled the gears, we couldn't activate the mechanism. Gadd called us, congratulated us on a job well done and recalled us to the Bunker so he could fix the mechanism.

"Regarding your question—I really want to take him back, because Gavin needs both his parents in his life," said Grace as we tended to our injuries, "but I can't help but think about what he's done and said, and—what kind of father is that?"

"I feel the same way," I said. "Sometimes, I think he deserves a good punch in the face. But violence isn't the answer."

"He's just happy Gavin wasn't there to see his old man act like a fool," said Grace. "Don't get me wrong—he's a good father. But for some reason, he can't think straight when it comes to you."

"Maybe he's jealous because I can hunt ghosts and he can't," I sniffed.

"Maybe," said Grace. "Whatever it is, he needs to get it together, and pronto."

Once Gadd repaired the mechanism, he sent the two of us to the foyer. The mechanism was pretty easy to figure out, and upon activation, it lowered the aquarium, revealing a set of double doors. We raced up the stairs and through the doors into the lobby, where we captured two Greenies, and then a Slammer, granting us access to the Library.

Gadd then gave us a buzz, telling us that there was some eerie music coming from the Library, and we had to figure out the source.

Once we entered the library, we discovered books flying around everywhere as a piano played seemingly by itself. Suddenly, the flying books started diving at us, and we were able to suck up a few before the barrage grew overwhelming, forcing us to retreat.

"Instead of hitting the books, the books hit us," quipped Grace.

I chuckled.

We flashed the Strobulb at some golden spiders and mice, turning them into treasure, as we made our way to the dining room. After searching it, we came across an elevator which took us into the kitchen. There, we were ambushed by Greenies wielding tools like pots, pans and rolling pins, which protected them against the Strobulb's flash. Eventually, we captured them by stunning them when their guards were down, allowing us entry into the Library.

There, we found a yellow ghost with a large head and a purple brain sitting at the piano. So, that was where the music was coming from!

"What—is that thing?!" I asked as the ghost towered over us.

"It's called a Poltergeist," Grace calmly explained.

The Poltergeist then disappeared from view and attacked us with flying books.

"And—it can do that," added Grace.

The two of us sucked up or dodged the flying books before letting the Strobulb rip. The first time, our enemy shielded the flash with a book, but we got him the second time. Then, we turned up the suction to max power and began vacuuming him up, accomplishing this in two tries. Need I mention that we had to fight two more of these guys?

Thankfully, Gadd transported us back to the Bunker after the fight.

Oh—I forgot to tell you—the treasure we collected enabled me to upgrade the Poltergust and the Strobulb, making it easier to control. Something told me that I was gonna need those upgrades.

A little later, Gadd reported that someone was casting illusions in the manor. The only way we'd uncover these illusions was via the Dark-Light Device, which he'd left in the lab. What was it with Gadd and leaving important objects?

If only if it was that easy. When we were pixelated onto the scene, the door to the Lab disappeared. Gadd got in touch with us, telling us that this was the work of what he called Spirit Balls. Great. Guess we had to take the long way.

The long way involved a fight with a Hider and a Slammer, who buffeted us both before we got them in the Poltergust. In the Parlor, the fireplace extinguished, immediately revealing itself as a secret passageway to the Lab. The Dark-Light lay there on a shelf, waiting for us—only to get snatched by a Greenie wearing sunglasses! These ghosts were getting smarter!

Luckily, so were we. We vacuumed up the sunglasses before unleashing the Strobulb and vacuuming him up; we took care of two more of these Greenies in the same fashion.

I screwed on the Dark-Light, and Grace and I continued on our way, using the Dark-Light to reveal hidden doors and objects—even flashing it on paintings to reveal treasure and keys. But if we held it down for too long, it could burn out, and we had to give it time to cool off before our next use.

Remember back in 2001, when Grace brought an iPod along with her? Well, this time, we listened to music on her phone, keeping one ear open, of course. It kept our blood pumping during confrontations with ghosts, and it kept my nerves steady when we had to explore darkened areas. Seriously, how did Grace hold it together, between this and that hubby of hers?

In the dining room, we finally uncovered who was behind these Spirit Balls—a Boo! After undoing his work, he raged at us, but we exposed him with the Dark-Light, pulled on his tongue and sent him bouncing all over the room, dizzying it. We had to bounce on it a little bit to fit it into the Poltergust. Our mission accomplished, we were recalled to the bunker.

While we rested, Grace video-chatted with her estranged husband. I couldn't really hear what they were saying, but I could tell by Grace's gentle tone that at least they weren't fighting. So, I let her be and ate some of the food Becky had prepared. Then, I called Josh and his family to tell them about my adventure, but when I tried to call Mario, I wound up getting his voicemail. Huh. Maybe he was busy with something. Or maybe—no, don't go there; it's just gonna cause more headache and heartache.

After we'd recuperated, Gadd told us that the Gloomy Manor was now infested with sticky spiderwebs. So, he sent me and Grace to do a little housecleaning. There were webs we could simply vacuum up, and then there were the tougher webs. There were web balls laying around on the floor, along with dangling web cords. Using any candles we could find in the hallway, we lit these web balls and web cords on fire and used them to clear away the thick masses of webs. Along the way, we cleared away more Spirit Balls, collected treasure and turned fire portraits into more flame sources with the Dark Light. At one point, we found ourselves in the rafters, where we had to shuffle across thin planks to get to the other side. That was unnerving. By the time we cleaned up the last web, we were sweaty and cross.

"Did you see that?" I asked Gadd after he recalled us to the Bunker. "Because I'm not doing that again."

"Seconded," huffed Grace, plunking herself down.

"You'll need all the rest you can get," said Gadd, "because my Parascope just picked up a large reading in the cellar. And it doesn't look happy."

Grace and I nodded before helping ourselves to a few glasses of water. She then chatted with Gavin before rushing off to the ladies' room, while I plugged in my earbuds and escaped for a few minutes. When Gadd asked us if we were ready, I replied by making a dash for the men's room. Now I was ready.

From the lobby, we unlocked an elevator which took us into the cellar. Cautiously, we ventured down the stairs, which retracted and sent us tumbling to the bottom. We checked ourselves, and then each other, for major injuries before looking around the room. Most of it was blocked by a giant web.

"Might as well," I said, and we started to pull a web cord toward a nearby torch on the wall.

What we didn't count on was a giant spider with glowing green eyes jumping down in front of us, knocking us off our feet!

Grace spat out a curse. I, on the other hand, screamed.

The spider glared at us, her mouth pincers snapping threateningly, before raising her forelegs and slamming them forward. If we hadn't moved out of the way fast enough, then we would've been her dinner.

"What kind of spider is that?!" I shrieked.

"I think that's more than just a spider," said Grace. "Let's burn that web and see what happens."

The two of us started toward the web cord again, stunning the spider when she tried to attack us. As we dragged the cord toward a suit of armor carrying a torch, the spider spat purple gobs at us. As the armor took a swipe with the torch, we leaned out of the way so that only the web was ignited. The spider scuttled backward as the flame drew closer, and she was knocked onto her back once the fire destroyed the web.

Out of the spider flew a white ghost, who looked around, formed a force field around himself and barreled at us, only to hit a wall instead. On impact, the force field disappeared.

We nailed the ghost with a Strobulb flash and vacuumed away what appeared to be a layer of skin.

"I knew it!" shouted Grace. "That's a Possessor ghost!"

"I thought you only saw them in a movie," I shuddered.

We leaped aside as the Possessor, now back in the giant spider, charged at us and then charged back, smashing through several brick walls as they went. We ignited the web cord, now attached to a chandelier, a second time to burn away some webbing to the spider's left, revealing another suit of armor with a spear. And then, we knew what we had to do.

Stun the spider. Drag a fresh web cord over to the spear and hook it while avoiding the purple stuff and some dangling small spiders. Spin the chandelier around until the charred web cord ignited to set fire to the fresh web cord, so it could burn the web the giant spider was resting on, knocking the Possessor back out. Stun the Possessor and vacuum away—a second layer of skin.

"I think we have to do this just one more time," I told Grace as we evaded the spider's charge.

This time, we were given a web ball and a web cord to utilize. First, we took the web ball all the way back to the torch-bearing armor, lit it on fire, used the flaming web ball to ward off the small spiders in our path and then lit the torch on another suit of armor. Second, we dragged the web cord over to the torch and ignited it to destroy the web. Finally, we stunned the Possessor and vacuumed him up, recovering a Dark Moon piece in the process.

The spider the possessor had targeted shrunk to a normal (for her, as she was a spider queen) size, a few red spiders trailing along after her.

Then, we felt the ground shudder, and I shrieked as I saw a bunch of spiders stampeding after their queen. The two of us darted for cover and waited for them to pass. When the last of the spiders had gone, I wiped my brow in relief.

As Gadd prepared to pixelate us back, Grace and I did a little victory dance which was interrupted when I was startled by a stray spider.

We gave Gadd the Dark Moon piece, which he cleaned using that machine I mentioned earlier. But we weren't done with the Gloomy Manor yet. While we were busy with the Possessor, a mess of ghosts had gradually infiltrated the building! So, Grace and I went through every room, tangling with and capturing any ghost we met, sometimes using the web balls and web cords to accomplish this. It took five minutes for us to clear out all of the ghosts, and after that, we had to use the Dark-Light to expose and vacuum up a Boo. Thankfully, Gadd let us rest up a bit after he told us that the purple fog had cleared over a locale known as the Haunted Towers.

As Grace video-chatted some more with Roland and Gavin, I again tried to reach Mario, with no success. Then, I called Josh, who told me that he couldn't reach my bro, either. I wanted him to not only know where I was but also know that I was okay. We agreed to keep trying, and then I calmed my nerves with a cup of tea.

Grace also poured herself some tea when she was finished with her video chat.

"Roland—wants to apologize to you, L," she said. "He feels badly over harassing you, and he's finally realized that there's nothing going on between us."

"He's a little late," I said. "I've waited for him to apologize for the better part of a year."

"So did I," said Grace.

"If he wants to apologize, he should do it to my face, not hide behind a computer screen," I went on. "What snapped him out of it?"

"Maybe the fact that we had to fight a giant spider queen," suggested Grace.

"Hm. Better late than never," I shrugged.

After we finished our tea, Gadd told us that the Hydro Generator in the Haunted Towers wasn't working, and that the two of us needed to check out the problem. Well—that was something I knew a thing or two about…

The Haunted Towers consisted of two broken down buildings degraded by overgrown agriculture, most significantly a giant oak tree which had grown smack in the middle of it. Flashing the Strobulb at the plants near the entrance yielded treasure, and in the case of one of the flowers, a key which opened the gate. Grace and I explored the courtyard, which led us to the Hydro Generator. When we got there, a Slammer had just flown out through the ceiling. After finding another key hidden in a treasure chest, we went back into the Courtyard, yanked away a leaf and entered the tower lobby, where we located a hidden door using the Dark-Light and captured some Spirit Balls.

In the greenhouse, we ran into some Greenies, who armed themselves with shovels and engaged us. After the scuffle, we went to the other side of the Tower Lobby and ascended the stairs to a plant nursery, where two carnivorous plants started snapping at us. We saw some spiked plants nearby, and, getting an idea, gave the two a meal to die for. Back in the tower lobby, I managed to prevent Grace from walking into a carpet trap which could've sent us to the bottom floor and made us repeat our hard work.

At a skybridge, we had to move quickly to avoid being hit by a swarm of crows. We found ourselves in some laboratories, where a handful of Greenies confronted us. After we captured them, we dealt with two Slammers in the same fashion.

Soon, we discovered that the flowers in this room were composed of a gum-like substance which expanded when air was pushed inside. Using this substance, Grace and I were able to float our way up to the next floor, which contained a lounge area. Through a door in the lounge was the water supply and a switch closer machine. There, we came across a bucket and some yellow slime.

"What's that stuff?" asked Grace. "Is that what's blocking this machine?"

A Greenie popped out and took the bucket, but we captured it in seconds. Then, we put the slime in the bucket and used it as an equilibrium to activate the switch. And with one flash of the Strobulb, the Hydro-Generator was up and running. We looked around as water rushed, gurgled and streamed throughout the room.

Gadd phoned us. "How goes it?" he asked.

"This was easier than I thought," I said. "I'm still a plumber, you know."

"Great. Now that the machine is working again, we'll powwow in the Bunker," said Gadd.

"All right—see you soon," said Grace.

But as we turned to leave, we heard the machine shudder. Something yellow forced itself out of one of the spigots. A nasty clog, maybe?

Oh—no…

A big, yellow ghost which hawked up and spat mouthfuls of yellow gunk at us!

"Ew—gross!" I spluttered as one such blob of gunk splattered onto my overalls. "Grace—have you seen this type of ghost before?"

"Yeah—it's called a Gobber," said Grace.

"Well—this is the nastiest ghost I've ever seen," I said.

"Tell me about it," said Grace. "Let's collar him!"

We aimed the Strobulb at the Gobber and fired before letting the vacuum rip. This Gobber could still spit gunk at us, even as he was being vacuumed. It splattered onto our faces, got in our hair, and I even caught some on my moustache! By the time we captured this Gobber, we were nearly covered in gunk.

"Hey, Gadd," I said when he called us. "We need a shower!"

Back in the Bunker, I emptied the Poltergust before Grace and I rushed off for a quick shower and some clean clothes.

Afterward, Becky put out some snacks for us, and while we ate, I sent Mario a voicemail and a text message. Then, I got a text from Josh.

Still no word yet on Mario from my end. Sorry.

That's okay, I texted back. We'll keep trying.

"I just want him to know where I am," I said quietly.

"What?" asked Grace.

"Nothing," I said quickly. "Just—some private stuff."

"You think something's happened to Mario?" asked Grace.

"Well…"

"Look, I know you two as well as anyone else," said Grace. "I was there the first time you had to save him. Maybe he got roped into something, and he hasn't had time to call you."

"That's a sure bet," I said, "but what if it isn't—and I'm stuck here doing Gadd's housework?"

"C'mon—don't be like that," said Grace. "He's getting old—can't work out in the field like he used to. And even though I've mastered these ghost-hunting skills myself—I have a feeling about you. Tonight, I think you're going to do something awesome. Something which will propel you out of Mario's shadow once and for all."

"Well, it is my year," I said.

"It's about time you had one," Grace chimed in.

After chatting some more, Gadd walked up to us.

"Now that the water flow has been restored, we can continue our search for the Dark Moon piece," he said. "You guys ready?"

"Do I have to answer?" I asked.

Gadd warped us back to the entrance to the Haunted Towers. We strolled across the Courtyard and came to a pinwheel gate, where we used the vacuum to blow on it so that it turned like a fan, beginning to open the gate.

But just as we'd opened it, a Hider drew our attention, and while we were thus distracted, a few other Hiders disassembled the pinwheel, laughing as they flew off.

"F—ing troublemakers!" snapped Grace. Then, she sighed. "Guess we'll have to chase them down. C'mon, Luigi."

With long-distance help from Gadd and his Parascope, Grace and I tracked the Hiders to the East Hall, who quickly split up in different directions. We found one of them in a gardener's dwelling and chased it into the gardener's lab, but a sunglasses-wearing Greenie was waiting for us, followed by another. We had to capture them before capturing the Hider and recovering the first pinwheel vane. A second Hider was in a toolshed, with two Greenies and a Slammer covering him. Again, we captured all of the ghosts and grabbed the second vane. Our search then took us into a garden, chasing the Hider concealed there into the garden's lower area. We had to use a lawn mower to get to the lower area, and even then, we got some trouble from two Greenies and a Gobber. These Hiders sure loved to have other ghosts do the fighting for them! After a struggle, we overcame the ghosts, captured the Hider and took back the third vane.

Grace and I proceeded through a toolshed and up the toolshed stairs, where we captured a Greenie to get into a botany lab. Sensing something, we shone the Dark-Light, revealing several pipes, before using the Strobulb to activate the mechanism. Water began streaming out, splashing onto a plant below, which grew until it touched the ceiling. Using the leaves as stairs, we climbed up to a seedling laboratory, where a battle with some Greenies and a fourth Hider ensued. We emerged from it a little buffeted but with the fourth vane in hand.

For the last vane, we made our way to the Conservatory, where we saw a Slammer playing an organ (very badly) as a Hider concealed himself among the organ pipes. After defeating the Slammer, Grace and I took turns playing the organ (not quite at a professional level, but significantly better than the Slammer) to force out the Hider, suck him up and claim the final vane.

"That was some good organ playing," said Grace.

"You're not that bad yourself," I replied.

Gadd then pixelated us back to the Bunker in order to reassemble the pinwheel.

As we were resting, Jules gave me a phone call, telling me that he, too, will be on the lookout for any calls, texts and emails from Mario. I thanked him before settling back, charging my phone and listening to music.

Gadd eventually tapped me on the shoulder, revealing the repaired pinwheel.

"Good as new," I said.

"What's our next move?" asked Grace, walking over.

"After repairing the pinwheel lock, you should be able to get into that tree growing in the middle, the Hollow Tree, and look for the passageway to the top," said Gadd.

Grace and I exchanged a look. "Let's do it," we said together.

The first thing we dealt with upon arrival was a Flytrap blocking the gate. Watering one of the plants revealed a spiky ball, the Flytrap snack that was to die for. Once we got past that, we came upon a Greenie and a Slammer messing around with the remaining vane. Then, two more Slammers emerged. Unfortunately for them, we weren't having any of it and defeated them in short order, followed by a Greenie. My experience as a mechanic came into play as I set to work repairing the lock as Grace looked on. And at long last, we were through the pinwheel gate and on our way to the Hollow Tree.

Once inside the Hollow Tree, some ghosts tried to impede us by malfunctioning the stairs, but we eventually put an end to their little game. We burned a web cord and revealed a passage, only for a door to slam and block our way. So, we had to lower ourselves using another web cord. I think my legs were shaking a little after that perilous descent. Anyway, we ignited some web balls which allowed us to burn away the webbing which blocked the tree root.

We inched our way down the small passageway and cleared some vegetation to reveal a botanical elevator. It shot us out of the mouth of a bird statue, and after regaining our bearings, we realized we were in some sort of old graveyard. At once, I was assailed with repressed memories of our fight with Bogmire. I heard Grace whistling—a raucous, nervous whistle, and I could tell she was remembering Bogmire, too. Her whistling trailed off as I began to hum—a jerky, quivery hum. We proceeded into a crypt, where we yanked on a nearby plant rope until the wall crumbled. And there—was a painting of a Toad!

"What the…?" I asked.

"Oh, my God—that's one of Gadd's assistants!" cried Grace.

"Gadd has assistants?" I asked. "He never told me that."

"The poor fellow must've forgotten…" Grace shook her head. "I'm starting to worry about the Professor. His years are starting to catch up with him. I mean, what other mistakes is he bound to make?"

We aimed the Dark Light at the painting, freeing the Toad.

"Finally! I'm free!" cried the Toad. "It was so awful, stuck in there, unable to move, or—wait a minute, Luigi? Where's M…"

"I honestly don't know," I said. "Do you know who did this to you?"

"Well, a Boo surprised me, and then…" The Toad trailed off. "Hey, Grace! How've you been?"

"Okay, I guess," Grace replied.

"Thanks for freeing me," said the Toad. "You both rock!"

Then, the Professor called.

"Why didn't you tell us about your assistants?" I wanted to know.

"I must've forgotten," sighed Gadd. "I'm really sorry. But I'm happy you found him. There's a Pixelator in the Gardener's Lab. I need you two to get my assistant there safely."

"You can count on us," said Grace, and then we ended the call.

Grace and I led the Toad out of the Hollow Tree and toward the lab, tangling with ghosts along the way. But in the Garden, just outside the lab, we were confronted by three ghosts, who Grace identified as the Three Sisters. The ghostly trio took the time to flirt with me—and also with Grace—before going for the attack. We could only battle them one at a time, as we couldn't stun them unless they lowered their mirrors. The Toad spent the fight running about and shrieking, and after the Sisters were defeated, we had to comfort him before continuing into the sewers, which eventually deposited us in the lab. Once we activated the Pixelator, the Toad waved gratefully at us as he was transported to safety. Then, Gadd decided to pixelate us back, as well.

The Toad wasn't completely helpless—he'd managed to take a photograph before the ghosts overwhelmed him. We studied the snapshot—it appeared to have been taken at a rooftop pool and showed a Boo and a ghost called a Sneaker holding some sort of key—the key which would unlock the door which slammed in our faces in the Hollow Tree. There were other Boos cavorting around, as well, two of them carrying a portrait in a sack.

"If there are more people stuck in portraits, then we have to help them," said Grace. "Time to get to the bottom of this!"

Gadd sent us to the Courtyard, where a couple of Flytraps snapped at us. Outrunning the carnivorous plants, we found ourselves in a plant nursery, where we turned on the water source and watered a withering plant, which turned into a leafy stairway to a rumpus room. A dollhouse provided a reflection, enabling us to find a shuddering box filled with—Greenies! We sucked them up, two or three at a time, and then explored a family room, pulling some sort of red tassel-like cord to unveil the stairs. Up those stairs was a bedroom.

It appeared to be a small room, until blowing on a ceiling fan revealed it to be a huge bedroom. A trio of Hiders were engaged in a pillow fight and hid under the beds when they saw us. We revealed them by vacuuming the covers away, and then vacuumed them, obtaining a key to the West Hall.

In the West Hall, the door to the north wouldn't open, forcing us to travel through a crow's next and back into the Conservatory. With some help from a Bulb, one of those balloon-type plants, we floated up to the second floor and walked through a door, finding ourselves back in the crow's nest. We shone the Dark-Light on a painting of a key, finally granting us access to the room north of the West Hall, which was the West Bathroom.

Inside, a vain Slammer was checking out his reflection, allowing us to get the jump on him and vacuum him up. He was followed by two Greenies, one of them wearing sunglasses, and then a purple, gelatinous ghost called a Creeper, which attacked by giving us a bear hug, trapping us inside it, before spitting us back out. Hitting him with a Strobulb flashed reduced the Creeper into smaller copies of himself, which we eventually captured. When we sat on a chair to rest, we were catapulted to the Rooftop Pool.

We couldn't resist splashing some water onto our faces before revealing a frog statue using the Dark Light. And there was the special key! But as I reached out for it, it was swiped by some Sneakers! If that wasn't enough, after capturing the sneakers—an adorable ghost puppy grabbed the key in his mouth and played with it, like a bone.

"No, no, no!" I admonished. "Bad doggie!"

But the puppy didn't listen, continuing to play around with the key before tossing it out the window and leaping after it.

"A Polterpup," said Grace. "Cute but annoying."

We told Gadd about the Polterpup, and he pixelated us back to the Bunker so he could track down the pooch with his Parascope.

I sent out texts to Mario, Josh, Julian and their wives as Grace video-chatted with her husband and son.

"I don't know, Rollie—I just don't know," she was saying. "I still love you, and I miss you, but—it still hurts."

Dutifully, I tuned her out and ate some more snacks as I listened to some more tunes.

After her video-chat, Grace looked emotionally rattled, but she was ready to continue the adventure. After Gadd gave us some clue where to start using the Parascope, the chase was on. The Polterpup was lounging in the courtyard when we arrived, but he aggravated us further by eating the key and scurrying off to the Tool Shed. We used the Dark-Light to uncover the pawprints and follow him into the toolshed's drawer, where the Polterpup leaped out and gave me a loving lick as Grace chuckled.

"When I was little, I always wanted to have a dog," she mused as we chased the paranormal pooch into the Garden.

The Polterpup turned on the lawn mower and dashed off, and we had to fight off three Sneakers before giving chase. We stopped to activate a fountain and battle a Creeper before running up the toolshed stairs and pursuing the Polterpup through the seedling lab and the conservatory. The organ had disappeared, so we had to uncover it using the Dark-Light and then play the organ to make the ghost doggie pop out. While we were distracted by a Creeper, followed by three Greenies and a Gobber, the Polterpup ran off.

Grace and I searched the crow's nest, and then hurried down the West Hall into the West Bathroom. We found the pooch in the bathtub and pursued him back across the West Hall into the West Bedroom, running afoul of three Creepers along the way. Once we reached the West Bedroom, a Creeper dropped down on us. After capturing him, we pulled away the blankets until we found the Polterpup; this time, he gave both of us a lick. We nailed him with the Strobulb, vacuumed him up and palmed the special key.

Following that chase, we were long overdue for a rest, and Gadd agreed. The key was covered in doggie drool, anyway. Unfortunately, the Polterpup escaped the vault, licked each of us and then leaped out of the bunker. Oh, well, at least we had the key.

According to the Parascope, the Dark Moon piece was at the treetop. Gadd pixelated me and Grace to the Hollow Tree, where we used the key to unlock the door. Ahead of us was an eerie staircase with different sets of steps, and only one set would allow us to proceed. One false move, and we were unceremoniously dumped to the bottom with some ghost to fight, and had to start all over again. We were covered in welts, splinters and bruises by the time we made it to the top, yanking down a cord to reveal a ladder. Then, we climbed up into a Tree House…

…whereupon we were nearly squished by a giant f—ing staircase!

"The staircase is alive?!" I exclaimed.

"Looks like it!" shouted Grace as the staircase snapped its "jaws" at us before shooting blue fire in our direction.

We darted and dodged out the staircase's way until it leaped up and tried to pounce on us again. Then, we saw that red, tassel like cord, ran over and pulled it taut, causing another Possessor to tumble out. We tricked him into charging into a wall, causing him to drop his force field, and then we vacuumed away the first layer of skin.

Great. We just had to repeat that twice more. I took a deep breath and braced myself.

After what seemed like hours, the Possessor was defeated, and the Dark Moon piece was ours! We leaned against each other, catching our breath, before calling Gadd and telling us that we'd made it. I couldn't resist doing a little victory dance, which was interrupted when I saw a spiky plant ball stuck to my back. In short order, Grace and I were recalled to the Bunker, where Grace and I tended to our wounds while Gadd cleaned the Dark Moon piece. More of the purple fog cleared, revealing a factory of sorts in the shape of a clock. Gadd's name for it was, appropriately, Old Clockworks. But just like with the Gloomy Manor, hordes of ghosts had launched a hostile intrusion of the Haunted Towers, so we had to go on another ghost-hunting run to clear them out.

As we rested from that excursion, Gadd told us that the next Dark Moon piece was at the top of the Clock Tower. Before we set off, I checked up on Josh and his family, who told me that they still hadn't heard from Mario. An uneasy feeling began to roil in the pit of my stomach.

Gadd sent us to the Clockworks Court, the sand around us causing me to sneeze. Through slightly irritated eyes, I glanced up and saw the spot Gadd had pinpointed. This should be easy.

We opened the gate using the Strobulb and came across a clock door. Though we didn't know if it would work, we turned the clock hands with a crank so that it would match the time on a nearby clock—and we were very surprised when it opened. In a warehouse, we came upon a Greenie, who shockingly didn't want a fight and fled. Using a nearby mechanism, we unraveled two ribbons and then opened a safe by way of the Strobulb, which yielded a gold ribbon, which in turn yielded a key.

Thanks to this key, we got to explore a workshop, where two Greenies were tinkering on a robot—thing. Upon closer inspection, we saw that it was a robotic bomb—a Robomb, and we could arm it by flashing the Strobulb at it. The explosion stunned the Greenies long enough for us to vacuum them with little resistance.

Past the workshop was the Clock Tower Gate. When we got there, however, the clock hands had gone missing! And we didn't have time to contemplate our bad luck, because two Greenies attacked us by making sand whirls. Once we defeated these Greenies, we searched for anything valuable in a cargo room, detonating another Robomb, causing sand to pour into the room and allowing us to ascend to the next floor.

After fighting off some more ghosts, we trudged up some stairs, uncovered a bridge using the Dark Light and went to a drafting office, where we captured a Greenie hiding among some papers. Thanks to a ceiling fan, we pushed back the walls to reveal a secret area teeming with Sneakers. It took nearly ten minutes to defeat them all, and then we palmed the special compass that would help us. Gadd recalled us to the bunker so we could take a look at it.

In the interval, Grace and I dressed in more desert-appropriate attire (I just changed into a short-sleeved shirt) and downed a bottle of water each. The special compass pointed toward the underground area, and Gadd put an "X" on the map, indicating where we should proceed. We took a few extra bottles of water along with us for our journey, and Grace even took the time to grab a first-aid kit.

Grace and I arrived at the correct spot in record time, working together to work the special compass into a piece protruding out of the sandy ground. It triggered a door, which opened and dropped us into a storm cellar below.

I helped Grace to her feet, and we faced off against a couple of Greenies before opening a gate by placing a rock on a mechanism near the entrance. We trekked down a canyon hall, pulled down a wall curtain to get to the canyon narrows and used a series of hanging cords to cross the ravine, looking anywhere but down, to get back to the canyon hall. My hands were shaky afterwards—scratch that—all of me was shaky, so I had to compose myself before we continued on our way.

In a roundhouse pit, we broke the fragile wall by yanking a cord and slid down a big slide into a quarry. There, we created level ground for the sand flow by pulling a mine cart into it. While waiting for the sand to fill the upper level of the quarry, we tangled with three Greenies, followed by three Sneakers, and then walked into an antechamber.

The place was clogged with webs, but we noticed a web ball and dealt with them in our usual way. In a tomb, we searched the coffins until we found the clock hands we were looking for, but then another Poltergeist, an "ancient" one, snatched them up and flew off. The sand beneath us shifted, and I stopped breathing as three mummies rose out of the ground and shambled toward us.

Impulsively, I flashed my Strobulb at one mummy, causing it to tumble forward.

"Hey!" shouted Grace. "One of its bandages is loose!"

She pointed me toward the loose bandage, and then we gave it a solid yank. The bandage unraveled to reveal—a Greenie on stilts!

"Clever," we said in unison.

Our apprehension gone, we sucked up the Greenie and made short work of his buddies. Then, Gadd gave us a buzz and pixelated us back to the Bunker so we could powwow about that Ancient Poltergeist.

We sipped on some iced tea as Gadd used the Parascope to track down the Ancient Poltergeist. Luckily, he had a very strong paranormal signal, allowing Gadd to pinpoint him in a roundhouse. After we finished our beverages, Gadd sent us to the warehouse to fight this ghost.

Taking the elevator to the upper floor, we used a Robomb to blow up an obstruction and enter a clockmaker's chambers, which took us to the roundhouse. What ensued next was a balancing act as Grace and I walked and leaped across a series of beams to cross the roundhouse. Below us, we heard the Ancient Poltergeist doing—something, but we dared not look down. Instead, we fixed our eyes on an open door on the other side, which slammed shut the second we finished our perilous crossing. Subverting our expectations, we were able to go through it without any problems. Instead, we had to deal with steps which pushed us back each time we tried to climb them.

After wandering blindly, we went to a finishing room, where we were able to access an upper level of those steps, as well as clear out a trio of Greenies. Through the transportation hall, we walked into a container yard, where two Slammers waited for us. After capturing them, we pulled a knob, releasing two Robombs, their combined weight steadying the floor so we could venture further into the room—but also raising another platform. So, we armed and detonated the Robombs to lower it, proceeding back through the transportation hall into a kiln room.

Thick fog filled this room, which disrupted a nearby Strobulb switch. After using the Dark-Light on a hidden wheel, we blew on the wheels with the vacuum until the air flow ceased, and then simply vacuumed the fog. Now, we were able to flash the Strobulb at the switch, which released two Greenies. We vacuumed them, went to the uppermost area of the transportation hall and freed a key from a portrait with the Dark-Light. At last, we could go into the lower floor of the roundhouse and confront the Ancient Poltergeist.

This ghost burrowed in sand, tossed bombs at us and then tried to pelt us with bricks. Over the course of the fight, Sneakers dropped in to help. But Grace and I didn't give up, capturing the Ancient Poltergeist and his Sneaker buddies following a long (at least for us) brawl in the roundhouse. We claimed the minute hand as our prize, lowered a tilted bridge and then showed the minute hand to Gadd, who recalled us to the Bunker.

"According to my readings, there's some activity in the clockworks court," said Gadd.

"Hm—that sounds like a place we should check out," said Grace.

So, we did.

Two Greenies were playing catch with the hour hand as the Polterpup we encountered earlier looked on. We groaned as Polterpup ate the hour hand and scurried off as the Greenies flew after it and we chased after them. After capturing a Greenie surrounded by a force field, we used the Dark Light to follow those spectral paw prints into the workshop, but then the pooch ran to the second floor and into the drafting office. Grace and I found him in a drawer, but he, along with a Greenie, fled once again.

Battling ghosts as we went, Grace and I chased the cute ghost dog into the clockmaker's chambers; he bolted out of a closet and into the roundhouse's upper level, which we had to reach via perilous beam-hopping. The chase went on through the transportation hall and into the finishing room, then right back to the transportation hall, where we were stopped by more ghosts.

"Regular dogs cause less trouble," I gasped.

"I still think this Polterpup is adorable," said Grace.

"I never said he wasn't," I told her.

We set off some Robombs in the container yard, crossed its upper area and reached the upper level of the transportation hall. And our breathless chase finally came to an end when we cornered and captured Polterpup, triumphantly claiming the hour hand.

Back in the Bunker, Grace made another video call to her family, while I was once again booted to Mario's voicemail and checked in with Josh and his folks via text. The Polterpup had jumped out of the vacuum and escaped for the second time. We'd taken back the clock hands, but we needed one more component to fix that Clock Tower Gate. He pixelated us to a service elevator to begin our search.

In a gear chamber, we took an elevator to a lower level and peered through a crack at some Greenies and a Sneaker with a cracked-looking exterior as they messed around with the rotor until one of the Greenies put a brick over the crack. Then, Gadd called us, telling us to go into the synchronization room to meet with another of his Toad assistants.

"Hopefully, he won't have waited long," said Grace as we headed back downstairs.

In a maintenance hub, we used the suction to hang onto a dangling cord, which carried us to the other side. Then, we uncovered a hidden door to the north of the hub and walked into a crank room, and at the bottom, we used the Dark-Light to reveal a crank, which controlled the other cranks around us. These cranks powered gears which took us up the room; we encountered two Slammers at a gap within a rotating gear, which won us a key.

This key unlocked a door to a synchro gantry, where we yanked down a spiderweb so that a conveyor belt could function. After activating a cuckoo clock, the clock's bird sent us to the gantry's left area, where we vacuumed up another web to get to the synchronization room.

The place was sprawling with gears, but the Dark Light uncovered a rotor. By turning this rotor, we moved the gears aside, revealing another painting of a Toad. Flashing the Dark-Light freed this Toad from the portrait's confines.

"Wait—Luigi?" asked the Toad. "What are you doing here?"

"Helping Gadd with his work," I replied.

"Do you know who trapped you here?" asked Grace.

"Some Boos. It was horrible! You see—I'm afraid of clocks!"

"Then why did Gadd have you working here?" I wanted to know.

"I wanted to work here, believe it or not," the Toad confessed. "I hoped it would help me beat my fear of clocks, just like you beat your fear of ghosts."

"So—you're saying I inspired you?" I asked.

"You did," replied the Toad.

"Then I'm flattered," I said.

Gadd phoned us on the Dual Scream, asking us to lead the Toad to another Pixelator.

"All right—let's go," said the Toad.

We lifted the Toad onto a switch, allowing it to open up, and then fired him into the conveyor belt. He didn't mind at all. As for Grace and me, we used the cuckoo clock to get us to the other side of the gantry.

A couple of Greenies bothered the Toad, but we captured them easily. After launching Toad to the other side of the maintenance hub, we had to fight a trio of weapon-baring Greenies to get across ourselves. Then, we escorted the Toad assistant all the way back to the gear chamber, only for the weird looking Sneaker to confront us!

We'd find out from Gadd that the Sneaker's cracked appearance meant that he was stronger. The Strong Sneaker fought by sending trios of Greenies upon us. The first trio was unarmed, the second trio wielded shovels and the third trio had those force fields. As a trio of mummies pulled themselves up from the ground, the Strong Sneaker finally joined the fight, and the mummies were once again revealed to be Greenies on stilts. We subdued and captured them all before continuing our search.

In the storage room, we moved aside some posters to reveal an area with enough room for Toad to explore. Toad grabbed the rotor for the Clock Tower Gate and passed it to us. After that, we found the Pixelator in the service elevator and thanked the Toad for his help before sending him to the Bunker.

A few minutes later, we followed.

Just like the previous Toad, this Toad managed to procure a security image. But first, Grace and I needed a rest. We ate some mac and cheese Becky prepared for us and gossiped.

When we finally examined the security image, we found a third Possessor Ghost, surrounded by some other ghosts and some Boos toting around a portrait in a sack—the same portrait we found in the first image. Over them was a shadow of a particularly large Boo, complete with a familiar-looking crown…

But that was impossible! I saw him turned into a portrait myself! Unless he somehow broke free…

"Professor," I said. "Do you still have that painting of King Boo?"

"Ah—oh, b—cks," he cursed.

"What?" asked Grace.

"I sold that portrait at a yard sale," groaned Gadd. "I must've forgotten…d—mit!'

"You're forgetting a lot of things," I said with concern.

"Let's just—let's just find that Dark Moon piece, shall we?" asked Gadd, sounding and looking flustered.

He quickly sent us to the Clock Tower Gate, where we peeked through a crack to find a digital clock bearing the time 7:30. It had to be a clue, so we inserted the rotor and clock hands, and then turned the rotor so that the clock face read 7:30. Lo and behold, the gate opened, revealing a door which took us into the movements. Rotors lined the wall, and we spun them in order to progress up into a belfry. When we reached a ladder, a springboard catapulted us into the belfry's clock, and were promptly attacked by ghosts.

It was a harrowing fight, and it grew even more harrowing when one of the hands on the clock glowed ominously and swung around the clock face. After jumping over it, the Possessor Ghost made his presence known. He was possessing the belfry clock!

The Possessor denoted each hour of the clock with a ghost—or many ghosts—to fight, giving us a minute for each skirmish. Eventually, we figured out how to "cheat" by using the vacuum or exhaust function to give us extra time. Every four "hours", the Possessor would pop out, giving us time to try and capture him. With each progressing "hour", the enemy horde grew more difficult, and we took more hits. But there was so much adrenaline flowing through us that we barely felt any tiredness.

1:00 was a Greenie. 2:00 was three of them. 3:00 was five of them. 4:00 was two Slammers followed by the Possessor.

5:00 was nine Beetles. 6:00 was three Sneakers. 7:00 was three armed Greenies, which gave us a difficult fight. 8:00 was three "mummies", followed by the Possessor.

9:00 was fourteen of those Beetles. 10:00 was five Creepers. During the 9:00 and 10:00 fights, the clock hands were red hot, the slightest touch burning us. 11:00 was eleven Robombs. And 12:00 was everything the Possessor had left to throw at us. A Greenie, a Robomb, a Sneaker, five Beetles, plus one Slammer, an armed Greenie and the burning hazard—followed by the Possessor. The pain receptors in my body were really screaming at me by the time we subdued that overset Possessor. But when we saw the third Dark Moon piece, I knew that it was worth it.

"Outstanding, you two!" cheered Gadd. "You sure made him clock out a little early! Hold on—I'm bringing you back."

Grace and I sat on the clock hands to rest—and were swiftly startled by the giant wooden bird. Well, I was, at least.

Once we were back in the Bunker, Gadd cleaned the Dark Moon piece, clearing away more of the purple fog to reveal a chalet and a mining area atop a snowy mountain. Gadd told us that the place used to be home to a secret mining project, but was abandoned due to unknown circumstances. Nowadays, the secret mine was covered in snow and ice.

That, however, would come later. The paranormal signals in Old Clockworks were through the roof! Grace and I were pixelated back there, and we went from room to room, clearing away the ghosts. Seven minutes later, this outlandish interruption was taken care of.

After emptying the Poltergust, Grace and I bundled up in coats, scarves and gloves for our descent into the Secret Mine. Gadd tried and failed to contact his Toad assistant, who was supposed to be at the chalet.

"He's probably napping in front of the fireplace," shrugged Gadd.

"We'll check on him for you," said Grace.

"Stay warm, stay together—and be careful," implored Gadd before sending us on our mission.

Grace and I combed through the mine, but the only souls we found were ghosts. It was colder than we thought, numbing our ears and turning our cheeks deep red. Our breaths hung in the air, and we found ourselves huddling close to keep from shivering too much.

"What would he think if he saw us like this?" I asked.

"Luigi—he apologized," sighed Grace. "I think he's starting to get the hint."

"It doesn't change anything," I said.

"No," mused Grace. "It doesn't."

Gadd gave us a buzz.

"Any sign of him?" he asked.

"No—a lot of ghosts to fight, though," I said.

Gadd thought it over, and then he told us to search the fishing hut before hanging up.

In the fishing hut, we used some web balls laying around to melt away some of the ice. And there was another Toad portrait hanging there. Shining the Dark-Light, Grace and I freed the Toad, and he landed right in our arms.

"Thanks, Mar—Luigi! Is that you?" asked the Toad.

"Yep—it's me," I said. "Do you remember Grace?"

"I sure do!" laughed the Toad. "Boy—I'm so happy to see you both!"

In his excitement, he started hopping about, which cracked the ice we stood on. As we watched in horror, the crack grew, and then the ice shattered, sending the three of us on a terrifying drop. Fortunately, the soft snow broke our fall.

The Dual Scream's reception was weak when Gadd called. I knew we were underground in the mines. From what I was able to make out, there was an elevator in the Airway which would help us get back to the Chalet, where a Pixelator would be there to take the Toad back. Thus began a third Toad escort mission through the cold, snowy mine.

It was further exacerbated when we saw that we couldn't activate the zipline to the elevators. No matter—we found an alternative, yet longer, way, protecting the Toad from ghosts wanting to menace him. And when we finally reached the airway, some Sneakers took us by surprise! Grace directed Toad to get behind us as we faced the Sneaker horde head-on. Thanks to our teamwork, we were able to defeat the Sneakers and keep the Toad safe. There was a rickety bridge leading to the elevator, which I fixed up as Grace kept the Toad warm. Finally, we led the Toad across the bridge and took the elevator up to the Chalet.

"That was so close!" cried the Toad. "Thanks for helping me."

"You're welcome," I said.

We activated the Pixelator and saw the Toad off.

Gadd pixelated us back, too, and he had cider waiting for us. After we'd thawed off, we looked at the security image the Toad brought back. In it, the Boos were forcing ghosts inside these red, crystal-like things, and I told Gadd about the familiar laughter I heard during the mission.

"It sounded like him," I shuddered.

"Check the Crystal Quarry," said Gadd. "That's our best bet."

My heart started to race as Grace and I were sent back to the Airway. Before pixelating us, Gadd told us to try one of his E-Gates to get around the mine. We came across one such gate, which we activated with the Strobulb. Cautiously, I slid my hand into it—and watched in awe as my hand came out of the gate on the other side. I spent a minute or so waving at myself, and then Grace did the same, waggling her fingers and making shadow puppets before giving herself—and me—a thumbs-up.

"You know what these remind me of?" asked Grace. "Portals."

Using the E-Gates, Grace and I found ourselves in a room which just so happened to be a slide. This slide deposited us close to the very bottom of the mine, where we got to our feet and found a smuggler's hideout, where we had to battle some Greenies and a Sneaker. After that, we arrived at an elevator shaft, and as we descended, we saw some ghosts carrying large, red crystals, managing to capture a Gold Greenie.

In a Deep Hall, Gadd helpfully informed us that we were now at the bottom of the mine and near the Crystal Quarry. We found a key trapped in some ice and melted it (the ice, not the key) using burning rocks and wood we came across. With this key, we accessed the Crystal Quarry, where we saw just what those red crystals did to the ghosts. The ghosts now had white stripes down their bodies, and they appeared fiercer, meaner and more powerful. The Boos taunted us before leaving us to the mercy of their own creations. Simply approaching the crystals caused one of the ghosts to fly out and attack. We had a whale of a battle in that quarry—but we won, and Gadd called us back for yet another thawing.

This time, Becky brewed some mint tea for us. After sipping down half of it, I tried for the umpteenth time to reach Mario, and then called Josh. I was growing increasingly apprehensive. What could've happened to him?

Grace, meanwhile, was wrapped in a blanket, talking quietly to her husband and son.

"It's getting dangerous," she was saying. "I—I don't wanna leave things unsaid…"

Again, I tuned her out, putting in my earbuds and listening to my music.

Finally, the Parascope located another Possessor ghost, and where there was a Possessor, there had to be another Dark Moon piece! But in order to get them, we had to find a way across the chasm, since the Pixelator camera near the workshop was currently non-operational. But no fear—we could ride the gondola across.

It was easier said than done. The elevator that would take us to the gondola's terminal was frozen solid, thanks to a window that had been left open. A bit of elbow grease got the window closed, and a few fiery logs melted the ice away. Now that the elevator was back in working condition, we headed to the terminal and detonated some Robombs blocking the gondola.

"After you," I said.

"Thanks," said Grace.

But before she could step on, a Strong Gobber, a Strong Greenie and a Strong Slammer popped out of nowhere. The three ghosts had what appeared to be chains wrapped around their forms. I quickly leaped between Grace and the ghosts, but they paid us no mind, instead chaining up the door leading to the gondola and splitting up.

"I knew this was too easy!" huffed Grace.

We found the Strong Gobber first, and after capturing three Hiders, we turned the Poltergust on him. He put up a far more aggressive fight than a regular Strong Gobber, and his balls of gunk hurt like heck, but we managed to subdue him, removing the yellow chain on the gondola.

The Strong Greenie was dealt with next in the smuggler's hideout. First was a fight with a trio of Sneakers before a throwdown with him. Whatever those chains were, they made these ghosts stronger and less predictable.

Last but not least was the Strong Slammer in the Chalet. Before taking him on, we had to take on three Greenies, with one surrounded by a red force field. With the Strong Slammer's capture, all three chains on the gondola were finally broken.

After boarding the gondola, we used a catapult-like machine to fire burning rocks onto the frozen wires blocking access to the workshop before riding the gondola there.

At the workshop, Grace and I disembarked and looked through a window to see yet another Possessor harassing a Fuzzball. The door to the next room was blocked, so we went into a maintenance room and took a peek at the generator. Utilizing my old skills once again, I fixed up the generator. Now, the Pixelator camera was back up and running, and the door was unlocked.

Just as we were about to leave, there was a sudden, small avalanche which snowed us in. Luckily, Gadd used the camera to send us back to the warmth and safety of the Bunker.

"Thank God you repaired that camera," Gadd told me as we sat around with mugs of cocoa.

I nodded, and then my phone went off.

"Luigi," said Josh, "I may have a clue as to Mario's whereabouts."

"Really?" I asked.

"One of Jules's clients told him that he heard King Boo had escaped," said Josh, "and he likely wants to hurt you for what you did to him."

My stomach twisted as I recalled seeing a pair of shoes in that painting from the security image.

"My best bet is that he intends to lure you both into a trap, make you watch as he does whatever he pleases with Mario, and then…" He trailed off. "I think you should have your guard up over these next few days."

"So should you," I said urgently. "I don't know if he knows about you and Jules, but I'm not taking any chances."

"Don't worry—we'll be fine," said Josh. "Good luck, Luigi."

"Same to you, Josh," I said before hanging up.

"Hey, Grace," I called. "Make sure your family is safe. I think…"

"King Boo's out for revenge," finished Grace. "I already checked on them and told them to protect themselves by any means necessary."

"If he's behind this, then you two need to be on your toes," cautioned Gadd. "That possessor's in the Workshop, and he likely has the next Dark Moon piece. But I know you can beat him."

I blushed. "Thanks, Professor," I said.

The Possessor had vanished, however, by the time we got there. The only thing we saw was a large ice sheet. Gripping the Poltergust tightly, Grace and I slipped inside the Workshop, and when we turned around—

The Possessor was right in front of us!

Alarmed, we jumped back, and the Possessor jumped into the ice sheet, which came alive with the sound of ominous crackling. An icy face grinned at us before descending into a frozen pit, knocking down some barrels as it went. Staring down at the pit in shock, we were flipped onto a sled which fired bombs, and we steered the sled after the ice monster.

Grace and I went on a chilly ride down that pit with that ice monster, firing bombs at the ice sheets protecting its face and then shooting a bomb into its mouth when it tried to EAT us. The explosion blasted the Possessor out of the ice, and after trying to ram us thrice, he tired himself out, allowing us to vacuum up his first coat. Then, he hopped back into the ice, and it began again, the two of us taking turns operating the bomb-launching mechanism as the number of protective ice sheets multiplied on the ice monster. The two of us screamed and shrieked like we were on a roller coaster, the ice-cold wind slashing through our hair and knifing our skin, our voices echoing throughout the pit. By the time we captured this shrewd Possessor, our blood was pumping like crazy, and we had to remember that we were deep underground in a cold mine. The Dual Scream's reception was mostly static, and it was only a stretch of luck that allowed Gadd to teleport us back.

But we'd hardly come down from our adrenaline high when Gadd alerted us of a severe infestation that had been taking place while we were battling the Shrewd Possessor. It was as good a time as any to send us back to the Secret Mine to deal with it. And so, Grace and I moved from room to room, slipping across ice and trudging through snow, chasing down and vacuuming up any ghost we uncovered. Most of the ghosts had those markings and didn't go down without a fight. But along with the Poltergust, we utilized the environment we found ourselves in and captured those ghosts as quickly as Gadd's Parascope pointed them out.

When we returned from that exhilarating hunt, Gadd had cleaned off the Dark Moon piece we'd found, dissipating more of that purple fog and revealing one last area—the Treacherous Mansion, a museum erected in the middle of a large ravine. The Parascope's readings instantly spiked, and even Gadd mused that going in there was a death wish. But we had to if we wanted to claim the last Dark Moon piece. The location was drowned out by this paranormal activity, so we had to look for the piece on our own. Oh, joy.

Grace called her son to give him her love before Gadd pixelated us onto a veranda.

We walked through the large gates, and the wind picked up, nearly blowing my hat away. Steadying ourselves, we stepped across the narrow cliffs which barely managed to hold our weight, collapsing as soon as we reached the other side. While gathering ourselves at the front door, we were about to use the key Gadd had given us when Polterpup returned to stir up more trouble, sending us stumbling flat on our butts and jarring the key out of my hand. Polterpup gobbled it up, woofed playfully at us and trotted off.

"Bad doggie," we said in unison.

Peeking in through a window, we saw several Boos turning one Toad into a portrait while forcing another to watch. Both Toads screamed throughout the entire process, and once the Toad was in painting form, his friend shared the same fate. We exchanged aghast glances. There was no time to waste—we needed to get that key back to investigate what all of this mess was about!

Using our Dark-Light like last time, Grace and I proceeded to follow Polterpup, our search taking us to the bottom of a well, through a guard tunnel and onward to a ceremonial chamber, dealing with some strong ghosts along the way. In the ceremonial chamber, we lit three torches and watched a throne with a suit of armor sitting atop it appear toward the back of the room. We walked toward it, only to be intercepted by a walking suit of armor!

The armor chased us about the chamber until we figured out a way to literally yank the rug out from under it. The armor fell to pieces, revealing that a Strong Greenie had possessed it. We captured that ghost, along with another one, before Grace offered to take a picture of me seated on the throne. I accepted, but once I sat on the throne, it began to lower. Another secret passageway. Nimbly, Grace raced over to join me, and the throne lowered us into the catacombs.

We moved through the catacombs in silence, save for the music playing on Grace's phone, stunning and sucking up the ghosts who tried to ambush us. The harrowing search led us to some dungeon cells, where we fought off a Strong Hider and detonated a bomb we found in a portrait to locate the Polterpup hiding in a barrel. After some struggle, Polterpup was captured for the third time, and Gadd proudly announced that he'd fixed the vault so that the cute ghost puppy would remain inside. After recalling us to the Bunker, he enabled the Pixelator near the front door, allowing us a safe gateway for future missions and side-quests.

Our next task was to find a Toad in the mansion's exhibit hall, as he could have information about the last Dark Moon piece. Plus, he was starting to get worried for him. We promised that we'd find the Toad, and then Gadd sent us to the mansion's front door.

At this point, I figured I'd seen everything. Giant spider queens, possessed staircases, a possessed clock, ice monsters. So, I approached the door with a confident stride and inserted the key into the lock.

"You're finally starting to get the hang of this," mused Grace.

"I am," I said as I swung the door open.

The room was so pitch black that our flashlights couldn't penetrate it. Confused, I looked around and then back outdoors. A minor chill crept along the back of my neck as I sensed someone behind me and then whipped back around, standing protectively in front of Grace.

But no one was there.

"What was that?" breathed Grace.

"I don't know," I said, "but I think it would be really great if it didn't happen again."

We walked inside the Treacherous Mansion as the doors slammed behind us and made our way to the Exhibit Hall, collecting treasure and tussling with ghosts as we went. In the Jungle exhibit, we found the Toad assistant Gadd mentioned, his mouth frozen in a scream. We ran toward it, only for two spear-wielding Strong Greenies to force us back and a Flytrap to snap at us. We vacuumed up the Greenies, but we had to search for a way to water a plant we saw earlier, hoping to grow those spiky, deadly snacks. With some luck, we discovered a Portal—I mean, E-Gate—in a treasure chest, which took us to the Dark Age exhibit. After fighting two Strong Hiders, we grabbed a bucket, carried it back to the Jungle exhibit, filled it with water and splashed it onto the plant. When the spiked fruit had grown, we fired it into the Flytrap's maw and used the Dark Light to free the Toad.

"Thank you so much, Luigi!" gushed the Toad. "You're my new personal hero! Those Boos—they made my friend watch, and I think they turned him into a portrait, too! You've got to help him!"

"Your—friend," I said, remembering the Toad forced into a painting earlier.

"Huh. The professor didn't tell you there were two of us? I'm not surprised. He always thinks we're the same person," scoffed the Toad. "I wonder if he's color blind…"

"Or if his mind's going," Grace said worriedly. "I've known him for nearly thirteen years. When he hired me, his mind was sharper than a number two pencil. I should talk to Becky about this…"

Keeping the Toad close by, we found the other Toad assistant in the Ice Age exhibit after narrowly defeating a couple of Strong Sneakers. Unfortunately, he was encased behind a wall of ice. Luckily, there was an Ancient exhibit nearby with a desert theme. We could find plenty of heat-related things in there.

When we flashed the Strobulb at a statue's eyes, the sand level lowered, allowing us to pull part of the statue away. It had concealed another E-Gate! But our attention was soon grabbed by four "mummies", which we knew were just Greenies on stilts and wrapped in bandages. Strong Greenies, in this case. We dealt with them, activated the E-Gate and went back to the Jungle exhibit.

After plucking a log, we went to the Ancient exhibit to set it aflame. Using this, we melted away the ice trapping the second Toad and freed him. The two Toads hugged each other, and then hugged me in gratitude. Gadd told us there was a Pixelator in the inner courtyard, so that was where we headed, battling ghosts and protecting our charges.

A structure in the inner courtyard had two cages on it. We helped the Toads inside the cages, where they uncovered parts we had to activate with the Strobulb. But suddenly, the structure disappeared, courtesy of a Boo! He summoned three Strong Sneakers to take care of us, but we wound up taking care of them, undoing the Boo's work and reactivating the mechanism. The statue moved back, allowing a staircase to ascend from the ground.

"That's interesting," I said.

We walked up the stairs, reached the Pixelator and sent the two curators to the Bunker. Two minutes later, Gadd pixelated us back, too.

"I have good news," said the Professor after we've rested. "The Toad curators brought back a security-camera image. Maybe it'll give us some clues about the final Dark Moon piece."

Nothing could prepare me for what I saw in that image.

It was that portrait in the sack the Boos have carried around all this time. But now it had partially slipped out of the sack, revealing the portrait in its horrifying glory…

"Mario…!" I gasped.

Mario, against the canvas, was an unmoving, black-and-white image. From his posture, he was trying to ward off whatever—whoever—had turned him into a painting, but it was the helplessness, pain and terror on his face which got me. Just like last time, his face was mottled with bruises and peppered with cuts, signifying that he'd attempted to resist.

Moving as if in a trance, I placed my hand against Mario's image, my breath shuddering. I squeezed my eyes shut. And then they snapped open, my jaw tightening, my other hand closing into a fist. I turned back toward Grace, Becky and Gadd, and they seemed taken aback when they met my gaze.

"We're gonna find him, L," said Grace. "We did it before—and we'll do it again."

Silently, I nodded, and we studied the image more intently. Just then, I noticed the background was of a train, and one of the Boos was bigger, with a commanding and intimidating air about him.

And then this Boo turned around and looked directly at me, laughing that wicked laugh as the image glitched and then fuzzed out.

"Oh, God," I breathed. "It's him."

"King Boo was behind all of this!" cried Grace. "He was right here—he could've attacked us at any time. But he wants us to play a game."

"The background—that's the Train exhibit," said Gadd. "There are huge paranormal readings in there. Before we deal with King Boo, we have to find Mario. I know he can help us."

He handed us a rotor. "Use this to move that staircase in the Inner Courtyard," he said.

After wishing us luck, he sent us to the front entrance.

The rotor fit at the bottom of the staircase, and we could use the Poltergust to twist it around as needed. Gadd phoned us, saying that we needed to make for the Train exhibit. After twisting the staircase, we went to the east corridor, barely avoiding a trapdoor, and proceeded to a study.

There was a crack in the wall, which allowed us to see the Train Exhibit. But there was nothing of interest. What did interest us was that we could see the reflection of a book on a table in the mirror, but not the actual book. We made it visible with the Dark Light and tried to put it back in the bookcase. Force of habit, you know. But a yellow hand pushed it back out. Gesturing for Grace to stay back, I looked cautiously at the gap between books—only to be roughly shoved out, hitting the ground hard.

From the gap emerged a Strong Poltergeist, who grabbed the book and made off with it as Grace helped me back up.

We'd later find out from Gadd that without that book, we couldn't get into the Train Exhibit, and due to the massive interference, he couldn't get a good reading from the Parascope. He directed us to head over to the west side of the first floor and pray that we'd find the Poltergeist somewhere in that area.

But we made a stop in the Nautical exhibit, where a Strong Slammer turned a wheel controlling a compass on the floor. Before vacuuming him, we had to close a vent letting in some mist and then vacuum the mist. Two Strong Greenies joined the fight, but they were no match for us. We activated an E-Gate and spun the compass till it pointed North. A portion of the wall flipped round, which made the E-Gate face the study. We then went to the west area by way of the staircase in the inner courtyard.

Three Creepers awaited us in the west corridor. Two Strong Greenies and a Strong Hider awaited us in the Aviation exhibit. A Gold Greenie awaited us in the Archives. We handily defeated them all, and then located a hidden door which took us into a Space exhibit.

There was an E-Gate in a rocket, which we activated. Then, we looked through a telescope at some planet with rocks all around it, surrounded by smaller planets and orbiting moons, with a bright, light blue star in the background.

"Whoa," breathed Grace.

We stepped back—only to find ourselves in space, standing on one of the orbiting rocks of that planet. The Strong Poltergeist towered over us, ready to fight.

He flung star-shaped rocks at us, changed the rotation of the rocks orbiting the planet and attacked us with bombs and beetles. All we needed to do was avoid these projectiles, and then stun the Poltergeist and suck him in.

If only if it was as easy as it sounded. We finished up the battle covered in bruises and scratches, and I was bombarded by thoughts of Mario. Taking the book, we slid it into its proper place. Instantly, the shelf slid beneath the floor to reveal the Train exhibit. After facing off with a few strong ghosts, we searched the area for Mario's portrait.

And there he was, in the miniature train model, shrunken to bite size, with bite-sized Boos doing—something—to it. The sight caused my knees to buckle, and I knelt there, gasping, thinking about nothing but what they could be doing to him in there.

Grace knelt beside me, silently rubbing the small of my back as she also gazed solemnly at the scene.

I pulled myself together long enough to answer a call from Gadd.

"Did you find him?" he asked.

"He—he's in the train—model," I managed to say.

"Hang on, I'm bringing you two back," said Gadd.

Once he did, Grace made a beeline for her laptop, calling her husband and son to see if they were still okay. I dialed up Josh and brought him up to speed.

"You were right—King Boo has him!" I cried. "I don't care where you are—get inside the house, lock your doors, lock your windows, arm your security system, arm yourself—and tell Jules and his family to arm themselves, as well! He might have discovered your relation to me and sent Boos after you!"

"Done and done," said Josh. "Nobody's using us as bait."

"I don't think he wants to use you as bait," I said. "He wants you for something far worse. He'll want to hurt me—by hurting you."

"Well, we're not gonna give him the chance," said Josh. "Don't worry about us. We'll be fine. Now, go and save your brother."

"God be with us," I said before hanging up.

"Hang in there, my boy," Gadd said soothingly. "We'll get him out of there."

"I just love you more than anything," I heard Grace say. She sounded on the verge of tears.

"That train model has an itsy-bitsy camera inside," Gadd went on. "Give it a few minutes, and I'll be able to hack into it and send you in there. You and Grace will get the drop on King Boo, get Mario's painting and whisk him to safety."

I nodded, allowing myself to hope, for Mario's sake.

After Gadd hooked up the Pixelator to the aforementioned tiny camera, he warned us that the Parascope went wild in the Train Exhibit, a strong sign of King Boo's presence. Our plan was to surprise the master of illusions, subdue him and save Mario. But like most plans, they were unlikely to work out correctly.

Gadd sent us into the model, which consisted of a track, a ton of balloons, and the train. But the train's engine was missing—must've been concealed by those Spirit Balls. Grace and I used the Dark Light to reveal the engine and capture the Spirit Balls, whereupon the train started its engine, tooted its whistle and chugged down the track, popping all of the balloons.

"Well, there goes our element of surprise," muttered Grace.

We jumped at the sound of maniacal laughing as a Boo flew out of the train. "Looking for someone?" he taunted.

He was quickly joined by nine more Boos, and they merged together to form one large Boo. Was this Boolossus, looking for a rematch?

"I may not be the king, but I'm big," boasted the Big Boo. "Big enough to crush you!" Shrieking with laughter, he advanced on us, and then we knew—King Boo and his minions had anticipated our arrival. Instead of us trapping them, we'd been the ones ambushed and lured into a trap. Grace and I looked at each other and nodded. We were gonna fight our way out and find Mario, even if it killed us.

Big Boo attacked by charging at us from slightly underground, or by leaping thrice into the air and trying to slam down onto us. As the train chugged around us, Grace and I noticed the large drill mounted on the train's engine. I remembered how we'd gotten the best of Boolossus by "popping" him with the horn of that unicorn statue. My breath steadied. A slight smile quirked onto my lips, and by glancing askance at Grace, I knew that she had the same idea.

So, we tricked Big Boo into jumping and landing onto the train, stunning him. We pulled his tongue taut, and when the drill was in sight, we released him like a slingshot. It was a clean, direct hit, and as we'd hoped, Big Boo "popped" into the ten regular-sized Boos. But instead of sucking them up, we launched them into the train's compartments, trapping them inside, using the Dark-Light when they turned invisible. When the Boos merged back into Big Boo, we simply repeated the process until all of the Boos were stuck inside the compartments. Big Boo had managed to ram me several times, but I'd pushed Grace out of harm's way and taken the full impact.

"No sign of Mario, eh?" asked Gadd when he called us. "Don't you worry—we'll find him. Now, hold on. I'll try to get you out of there."

Overjoyed that we'd escaped Big Boo's trap, I twirled Grace around and then did a goofy little dance.

After emptying the Poltergust and downing a glass of wine to soothe my nerves, the Parascope signals were suddenly sent into the red. King Boo had sent his strongest minions to launch a terrifying invasion of the Treacherous Mansion! Grace and I went straight into the danger zone, vacuuming up scores of ghosts right and left. Something told me that this was merely a warm-up of things to come.

And it was. After returning, Gadd revealed to us that the Parascope detected a distortion in the fabric of this dimension—a paranormal portal that had opened on the terrace!

"I think the last Dark Moon piece is in that portal," he said, "along with Mario and King Boo. Entering a paranormal portal is dangerous, but what choice do we have?"

"I don't think we have one," I found myself saying.

"God be with you," Gadd said before sending us to the inner courtyard.

We ran up the spiral staircase and burst through the door into the terrace, skidding to a halt when we saw King Boo floating near a golden altar. With a crazed laugh, he built up power in his jeweled crown before firing a pink bolt somewhere above the altar, causing it to open up into a portal. The King of all Boos then floated through this portal, as all varieties of Strong ghosts came racing out to wreak havoc. Gadd's call made the situation clear—we had to capture those ghosts, or all of our dimension would collapse upon itself! Fun, right?

As pink lightning flashed and crashed around us, Grace and I went through the exhibits, fighting for our lives and for time and space itself against these ghosts. We started with the Nautical exhibit, then Space, then Jungle, then Ice Age, then Ancient and then Dark Age. Once the exhibits were clear, we had to clear out all of the restrooms and the kitchen.

"I've got some mighty strange readings from the Terrace!" shouted Gadd. "Head over there, posthaste!"

Back on the Terrace, waves upon waves of ghosts surged out of that paranormal portal—and we had to fight all of them. In normal circumstances, I would've gotten hysterical, but then I thought about Mario, stuck in this madness, this time unable to move—and probably unable to communicate with me. Do it for him, I repeated, over and over. Do it for him.

I thought it would never stop, but mercifully, it did, and I half-collapsed in Grace's arms.

"It's okay," she whispered. "We're gonna be okay. We're gonna get through this and see our loved ones again."

"Grace…" I uttered.

The Dual Scream rang.

"You are a ghost-catching artist, you know that?" asked Gadd. "And the same goes for you, Grace. Before going into that portal, how about you empty those powerful ghosts into the vault?"

He recalled us to the Bunker, where I emptied my Poltergust and then polished off two glasses of wine. Then, I crumpled onto a sofa, willing myself to stop shaking. An epic disaster was narrowly avoided, thanks to me and Grace, but I couldn't help but mull over what would've happened.

"Josh," I said when I called him, "I just want you to know—you've been an important part of my life. And I just wanna say thank you."

"I—where is this going, L?" asked Josh. "Now, you listen to me. You're not gonna die in there. Your game—your story—is far from over. You're gonna look King Boo in the eye and remind him who you truly are. You're gonna fight him to the bitter end, find your brother and bring him home—you hear me?"

"Yes," I said.

Then, I called Joan, Jules and Jackie, and the latter put Jas on the phone. They pretty much said the same thing—not to give up or break down, because I was close, so close.

"Go get him!" cried Jas. "We'll be waiting for you!"

"Thank you, Jas," I said softly before hanging up.

Grace, meanwhile, was practically blubbering as she spoke to the family she might never see again if King Boo had his way, saying the things that needed to be said. I guess that Roland was also making the apologies he needed to make. Funny how events like these can push people back together, reminding them of what they had and what they cherished. Sometimes, circumstances could impel us to play the grateful game, because one day, you could have something, and the next, it's gone for good.

"There's something I need to tell you," said Gadd.

And just like that, Grace had once again acquired an unflappable demeanor. As did I.

"King Boo must've flipped out after you two overcame Big Boo," Gadd surmised. "Those ghosts you fought was a desperate effort on his part to…" He trailed off. "Thankfully, his actions have allowed me to track him down, and I'm sending you both after him. The portal's still open, but it's only a matter of time."

I sucked in a breath and slowly let it out. "For Mario," I said.

"For Mario," said Grace.

"For Mario," said Gadd and Becky.

Gadd sent us to the Terrace, where we were almost immediately sucked into the paranormal portal.

Grace and I landed in a room with five suits of armor, and we saw the last Dark Moon piece on one of them. We ran over to the suit of armor to grab the Dark Moon piece and get out of there, only for another Possessor to appear and slam us backward with a wave of energy. Scrambling back up, we could only watch as the Possessor cloned himself, and the two clones flew into two suits of armor.

Grace cursed loudly. I yelped loudly.

But then I forced myself to calm down and remember the suit of armor we faced in the ceremonial chamber. Looking down, I saw the three carpets on the checkered floor.

"L," Grace was saying. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

"I sure am!" I announced.

We waited until both suits of armor were on one of the carpets, and then sharply yanked it from under their feet, sending them crashing to the floor. The Possessor and his clone flew out, merged and then charged at us. We waited for him to drop his shield before blasting him with the Strobulb and sucking away his first coat.

The Possessor split into three copies and possessed the remaining three suits of armor. Those three were dealt with in the same fashion, although we took a few blows from those medieval weapons before finally getting the timing right.

Laughing mirthlessly, the Possessor created multiple clones of himself and then flew out of the room. We heard an ominous CLANK, followed by another and another and another—

Until—

A giant, possessed suit of armor loomed over us, cleaving through the walls with a massive sword before marching inside, one foot nearly squashing us and flinging us forward. And as that giant armor stabbed at us with his sword, sending debris raining earthward, we managed to trick him into putting one foot onto a carpet. By yanking both carpets away, we could first knock the armor off-balance and then send it clattering uselessly to the ground. Thankfully, the plan worked, the Possessor clones piled atop each other, dazed, and we could finally capture that tough Possessor once and for all.

"Yes!" I cried as I grabbed the Dark Moon piece. "We did it!"

The Dual Scream went off, and I answered it.

"There it is—the final Dark Moon piece!" exclaimed Gadd. "Hey, Grace—you'll never guess who came knocking while you were battling that Possessor."

"Who?" asked Grace.

"Why, no one else but Mr. Butter himself," said Gadd. "Now, at first, I didn't know if I wanted to let him in. But then there was that look in his eye, and I figured, let bygones be bygones. He's worried about you, you know."

"Well, you can tell him to breathe now," said Grace. "Is—Gavin with him?"

"Yes, he is. He's just looking around at these gizmos he's never seen before. One of these days, I'm gonna show him around the place."

"Tell my two boys that I love them, and I'll see them soon," said Grace.

"All righty. It's not gonna be easy, but I'll try to bring you out of that horrible illusion! Pixelshifter, this one is crucial! Don't fail me now!"

I felt the sensation of being disassembled into pixels, floating through cyberspace, and then being pulled—somewhere.

When we landed, we were in anywhere BUT the Bunker. Just a dark room with a purple-spiraled floor. We hopped to our feet and scanned our surroundings. As far as the eye could see—nothingness.

"Where are we?" asked Grace.

Cackling sounded, echoing around us. I broke out into a cold sweat, and Grace was obviously trying to hold it together. Multitudes of windows opened, a familiar silhouette flying back and forth. I think I dizzied myself looking around at those windows. Then, the windows disappeared, leaving us in darkness once again.

My stomach was nearly liquid.

"Look at me," Grace was saying. "Look at me."

I obliged.

"I'll tell you what we're not gonna do. We're not gonna panic," she said. "We're gonna find a way out of this place."

I nodded shakily.

Then, we saw a painting across from us. As we approached it, we saw that it was the painting we were searching for.

"Mario…" I breathed, reaching for the portrait.

It disappeared, and in its place was the reviled Boo King!

I jumped back, spooked.

"Now, what do we have here?" asked the villain I hoped never to see again. "Why, if it isn't my old pal Luigi! Or is it Baby Luigi? I can't tell the difference."

"What do you want with us, King Boo?" Grace sharply demanded of him.

"I'm just getting to that part, Mrs. B," chuckled King Boo. "Remember when you trapped me in a painting for all eternity? Good times."

"Indeed," I said. "I was also hoping that you'd, I dunno, stay there."

"Well, guess what—I GOT OUT!" snapped King Boo. "And now—I'm painting this town red!"

"You were responsible for this mess, weren't you?" asked Grace.

"Smart girl—I was the one who broke the Dark Moon," gloated the king. "This power-enhancing jeweled crown of mine made it easy. And now that every ghost in Evershade Valley is under my control, it's time to take my rightful place as supreme ruler of your world! You—that annoying scientist, that family of gym proprietors, your friends and everyone you've ever loved will look great hanging from the wall of my throne room."

Dio! He knew about Josh and Julian, after all!

"And who knows? Regarding all of those gorgeous-looking people in your lives, I just might let my faithful minions [bleep] them. Every. Last. One. And then I'll let my allies [bleep] them while you watch. And after that, when they've become shells of their former selves and lost the will to fight, you will know that your debt has been paid." King Boo let out a sadistic cackle.

I narrowed my eyes at him. "Not if we can help it!" I vowed.

"You're not getting near my son!" hissed Grace. "C'mon, L! Let's take this b—d down!"

And thus, our final battle began.

Our opponent opened the fight by slamming himself onto the platform, causing a shockwave and sending three spiked balls crashing down. But he'd also act like any old Boo, covering his face whenever we looked at him. We used this to our advantage, shining our flashlights in his face when he was directly under one of his own weapons.

BOOM! One spiked ball landed right on him, disorienting him and allowing us to move in, pushing the Poltergust as hard as it could go to vacuum him up.

Just as we sucked him up, King Boo pulled himself free and glared at us before slamming down on the platform, tilting it and sending us sliding into a mansion hallway. He then made us run through an obstacle course as he rolled in pursuit of us, collecting some treasure along the way. But our priority was to avoid running into obstacles and not get flattened. Wow, he must've seen Raiders of the Lost Ark!

A spring catapulted us out of the hallway and onto another platform. Our foe used his magical crown to try and trip us up with sand, ice and spiked patches, and he also shocked all but one square of the platform. After this attack, the cycle repeated twice more.

With each cycle, however, King Boo's attacks grew more lethal, but we simply refused to die by his hand. Here I was, in unfamiliar territory, with an auburn-haired mother of a soon-to-be-eight-year-old son as my sole companion, fighting it out with someone more dangerous than the Koopa King! I looked into his eyes and saw that he'd gone completely off his rocker. Somehow, he knew about Josh and his family—even Jasmine. Right now, there could be Boos on their way to get them. And what King Boo said he'd let his minions and allies do with them—he'd have no qualms over having that done to a sixteen-year-old while making me and Grace watch. The mere thought, combined with the image of Mario immobilized in a monochrome portrait, caused my fire to grow, and I tightened my grip on the Poltergust's nozzle, glaring malevolently at the master of illusions.

"This is no time to get angry," Grace whispered in my ear. She'd probably felt my grip tighten. "Don't give him what he wants."

I nodded, breathed and silently recited my mantra as King Boo's hate-made eyes bore into us. Do it for him. Do it for him. Do it for him.

No. Do it for THEM.

Grace and I looked King Boo straight in the eyes and blinded him with our flashlight beams. And then, one of his spiky balls flattened him. Again, we let the Poltergust rip, but he kept trying to free himself by slamming on the floor again, and he also yanked us toward the other two spiky balls rolling around.

"You almost have him," said a voice. "Push, Luigi. Push, push, push…"

Was I going mad? Mario was completely frozen in that portrait, unable to…

"No, you're not going crazy. There are things about our bond that King Boo failed to consider."

The voice whispered from all around the arena, and I glanced at Grace to check if she could hear it, too. She could.

"My body may be in this painting, but my mind roams free," Mario's voice explained. "In my mind, I can see you. You're hurt, stuck in a strange place—but you're still fighting. King Boo's giving you everything, but you're still fighting. I have faith in you, Bro. I had faith in 2001, and I have faith now. And because of this, King Boo can't frighten me. Because in spite of your fears, you'll fight for me. You'll die for me. You'll come for me all the same. You can't give up now."

Grace and I planted our feet and held fast to the vacuum's nozzle, pulling it in the opposite direction King Boo was trying to go. His HP was three-quarters of the way depleted, and as such, he was resisting harder than ever. I tasted the sweat rolling down my face and into my mouth, mixing with blood. My arms trembled with the effort I was putting in, but thanks to Grace, I was able to keep the vacuum steady.

"Keep going," Mario's voice whispered. "Keep going…"

And that's just what we did, giving the vacuum one final surge.

"You…" I vowed to our rival. "…will never—hurt anyone—again!"

On that declaration, Grace and I sent the King of all Boos into the confines of the Poltergust 5000. Only his power-enhanced gem was left behind.

We stood there for a moment or so, catching our breath and composing ourselves from the grueling fight. Then, we walked over to the gem and picked it up.

"We—won," Grace said softly. "Wow—we won!"

We high-fived, and then I did a little victory dance before triumphantly holding up the gem. "Yeah! We did it!"

Then, Grace and I were sent out of that nightmarish dimension and into the Treacherous Mansion's terrace. Once we re-oriented ourselves, my eye caught Mario's portrait.

"Mario!" I cried, running toward him, tenderly touching the canvas. "I'm gonna get you out of there! Somehow…"

I turned as Gadd, Becky, Roland and Gavin pixelated in.

Grace cried out in delight and rushed into her estranged hubby's arms.

"Mom!" shouted Gavin, joining his parents. "You're all right!"

"When the Dark Moon piece reached the Bunker and not you…" said Roland.

Grace shushed him. "It's over," she said quietly. "It's over."

"Gavin and I almost lost you—I blame myself…"

"You'll never lose me. You have my word," promised Grace.

Becky and Gadd walked up to me.

"We're glad you're safe, L," said Becky. "Now, about your brother…"

"Use your Dark-Light. Just like with my Toad assistants!" added Gadd.

Grace and her family stood back and watched as I shone the Dark-Light on Mario's painting.

And then Mario fell out of the portrait, landing ungracefully on his face. He'd hardly pulled himself up when I dropped to my knees before him and took him into my arms.

"Mario…" I uttered, breaking down into grateful sobs.

"Luigi…" he whispered, quickly returning my embrace. "You've done it again. You saved my life. Way to go—you're number one!"

"I—did it?" I sniffled.

"Yes, you did," smiled Mario.

I sobbed profusely, holding him close. No one would ever do something like this to him again.

The Toad assistants Grace and I had freed earlier now pixelated onto the scene, each holding a Dark Moon piece, except the Toad in the front, who held two pieces. The lead Toad approached me and handed me one of the pieces. I looked to Mario, Gadd, Becky and Grace for guidance, and they nodded. Sighing in relief that this mess was finally over, I walked over to join the Toads.

We stood in a circle and held out the Dark Moon pieces, which began to glow brightly. Then, we let go of the pieces and watched them float into the sky, reassembling into the shape of a crescent moon. The newly-repaired Dark Moon then grew back to its original size before swooping back up into its rightful place in the star-studded sky, releasing an aura of purple light as it did.

Grace, Roland, Gavin and Mario walked over to join me, my bro slinging an arm round my shoulders. Gadd pressed a button on a remote control, and within seconds, we were all joined by the ghosts of Evershade Valley. With the Dark Moon restored, they were their friendly selves once again. They wasted no time scooping us up, carrying us around and playing with us.

Then, Polterpup slowly walked up to me, looking chastened. However, a big smile broke out on my face. "Come here, doggie," I said, forgiving the spectral pooch.

Joyfully, Polterpup leaped into my arms and gave my face a hearty lick.

"Aw—he likes you," cooed Becky as she and Gadd looked on.

Mario was positively beaming. "That's my bro!" he said.

I blushed. "Th-thanks, Mario," I mumbled.

Then, a Greenie set up a camera as everyone gathered together in the Terrace.

Why not? I thought.

The Greenie motioned for us to say cheese, and then we all leaped high in the air, striking a pose.

At the beginning of this entry, I mentioned that this latest ghostly adventure changed me. And it did. It really did. The Dark Moon's power showed me that not all ghosts are ill-tempered or out to hurt us. They could actually be quite playful. I've resolved to spend more time here in Evershade Valley, helping Gadd with his research. Because I'm not so afraid of ghosts anymore. I'm still a bit skittish around them, but I'm not gripped by paralyzing fright each time I see one. How shall I say it—I've come to keep an open mind when it comes to the paranormal.

Please excuse the paw prints all over these pages. My Polterpup is anxious for a cuddle. I guess here is a great place to end this entry, anyway. Besides, I've got to tell the rest of my friends that I'm now a proud supernatural pup owner!

Luigi