World 1-2: Bad News

After I had considered the life decisions that had led me to this moment, E. Gadd and I entered the small establishment.

"E. Gadd, can-a you turn on the lights, please?" I ask, not wanting this to become more haunting than already is.

"Aye, sonny" he says as he approaches the wall close to the right door where we came from, pressing a switch.

Luckily for me, the lights do turn on, showing a lovely cafe with cute decorations, such as wooden chairs with circular forms, wooden tables with the finest shine, and mushroom lamp holders with decorated napkins akin to a Yoshi egg design.

Wow, E. Gadd put a lot of effort into this place. It's hard to believe this place was created in the Beanbean Kingdom... Oh my god, there are bathrooms! He learned the importance of having them! I'm legit perplexed!

E. Gadd starts to stare a me while I'm looking at the bathrooms, to which I, while sweat coming out of my face, quickly try to disguise as just looking around and whistling a bit. It seems the old man hasn't forgotten the little incident that both of us caused back then, hehe.

"Anyway, sonny. The apparition is located on the 2nd floor of the cafe, really simple stuff." He claims it as he walks towards the stairs.

I must say, this is going quite nicely for a change. Usually, when I go helping E. Gadd out, something chaotic happens like, I don't know... ghosts showing up or something? Nah, no wait this can happen... After all, we aren't even close to his labs or something.

... Right?

"Let me get the key... Aha!" E. Gadd then pulls a golden key from his labcoat and tries to put the key in, only to not turn around as it should.

"Eh?" He says, confused. "I'm sure this is the key..."

As he tries to look around in his coat, the lights start to dim. No, this can't be. It couldn't possibly be...!

As I try to deny it the most probable of situations, E. Gadd gets punched in the face by an orange-like figure, making him roll down the stairs we climbed from.

"E. Gadd?!" I rush down the stairs and make my towards E. Gadd, worried that he might have gotten seriously hurt, raised him just a bit.

"Ow... That was quite the punch." He says while putting his hand in front of his nose, where the fist connected to his face.

Relieved, I sigh. That's good, he's not hurt. But what the heck was that?

My eyes go back to the door, which now has 3 orange figures and one of them took the key E. Gadd was holding.

As they noticed our gaze, they quickly ran away towards the opposite stairway... Towards the basement of the building.

"E. Gadd! Why are ghosts-a here?! You told me that there-a would be an apparition here only!" I can't help but complain out loud to the poor doctor, shaking him.

"U-Ugh, I-I c-can E-explain-in!" He tries to say, only to be jabbled by my panic action.

Thankfully (For both me and him) I calm down enough to let him go of my desperate attempt at not accepting reality right now.

As he fixes his coat, he slowly says "Ok, sonny, I may or may not have built this cafe in a very specific place..."

"What-a specific place?" I look at him with a stare that could kill a man.

"... You know... Hehehe... I had to leave the Boo Woods after what happened there, so you know... I had to find a new place to supervise the Portrait Ghosts..." He tries not to look at me in the eyes, to not see the anger I'm expelling from my eyes.

"It was around that time that I needed to move to Evershade Valley to continue my studies about paranormal phenomena, so ummm... I left them here... under this building at the time..."

"So... You know... Vincent Van Gore might have escaped his portrait while we were coming here. You know, the ghost artist that was making the ghosts for King Boo during our first work together." He concludes.

...

... Was this the reason why King Boo managed to escape his portrait so easily and went to Evershade Valley after E. Gadd and then attract me to that dreadful and scary place?!

Because E. Gadd left the Portrait Ghosts abandoned inside an empty building all this time without any supervision or anything to stop them from leaving?!

And now you are telling me that a berserk ghost artist is on the loose in here and probably wants revenge on me?!

...

...I think I gonna pass out from stress.

"A-Anyway, my boy. No time for that! We must get the key back and look for Vincent on the top floor before he runs away!" He urges me.

Ugh... I knew this would happen, but I still came... I can only blame myself for this.

Understanding the situation, I grab my suitcase and equip the Poltergust and the flashlight.

"Alright-a, Lu... You can do this, no problemo." I reassure myself as I head towards the basement, as E. Gadd stays in the cafe's lobby.

"Anything I should-a know about the basement before going there?" I ask him, making sure to not get lost down there.

"Well, there's the kitchen, the employee's cabinets, and the gallery where the portraits were located, I'm sure. So probably nothing to worry about." He guarantees me to which I'm grateful.

"If anything, use the new Dual Scream I gave you, alright? It should have a wireless headphone on it for you to put on your ear as one of its new attachments" He tells me.

I nod as I find the piece of equipment and put it on my left ear.

"You hear me sonny? This is the new technology I was given. It's called Bluetooth!" It feels kinda weird to hear E. Gadd's voice without a cable, I'm always more comfortable with a cable connected to the console anyway.

But... What does he mean by "given"? No time for that, I must pay attention to the task ahead,

As I open the Dual Scream, it shows 4 rooms on the basement level: One large room, a rectangular one, and another huge room with two roads in it, which must be the gallery and one last small room at the end of it, probably being where King Boo was stored.

It doesn't seem to be a labyrinth down there, so it shouldn't take too long. We still have that apparition to deal with.

As I open the door to the basement, I can already feel the chills coming down my spine as I enter. I can't help but move slowly as I'm not sure what I'm dealing with. It could be anything or even new times of ghosts, who knows?

First came the kitchen, a large white and gray room filled with utensils for cooking. Fridges, sinks, furnaces, and stoves, filled with pots and pans, with two vent areas to let the smoke out of it. I wanted to move quickly, but it seemed that the door to the next room had been plagued with haunted spikes or something. So I can't just hurry up... Great, just great.

As I enter, I hear something coming from the far end of the room, inside the largest fridge, as I see her moving from the left to the right, like in a rhythm.

"Keep an eye out for any activity, sonny. You know how playful those ghosts can be." E. Gadd carefully tells me not to put myself in danger.

I check the surroundings as best as anyone could, opening the many drawers and objects as I can, it's just a shame that here there aren't coins or bills popping up like they do on the mansions, I could use the extra financial aid.

Finally, I get in front of the shaking device and knock it with the back of my hand, opening to a... pie? Huh, that's weird.

"Well, I'm-a sure the room is just emp-" I tried to say it, but then I got attacked by an orange laughing blob of spookiness as he threw the same pie I saw on the fridge onto my face.

I stand still for a moment, processing what just happened. Did this ghost, not like the ones from Evershade Valley, just throw a pie on my face?!

As I clean my face distracted by what just happened, the paranormal blob screams to let his presence known, making me scream out loud as the pots and pans start floating atop the stoves, somehow creating a poltergeist effect on the room.

I get myself together and know that the only way to make things come back to normal is to suck those ghosts up, so I activate the Poltergust.

I just need to time it right like I always did... Just don't look at him...! But it's so scary!

I start shaking, but that seems to somehow make the ghost even more interested in giving me a good smack in the face, so I just go with it.

As he raises his fist, I turn around and flash him with a good light beam with the Strobulb, causing him to get stunned in place, allowing me to start my trusty machine and suck him up as quickly as I can, pulling him with all my might.

He screams as if to request help, only to fall on deaf ears. The blob didn't stand a chance as I pulled him towards the Poltergust, but the little guy was still giving a nice fight.

But in all seriousness, I'm about done with this. I'm legit angry with this ghost!

As emoticons got the best of me, I just decided violence was the best answer as I slammed the stupid ghost on the floor repeatedly, to the left, to the right... That felt good!

I laugh as the traumatized ghost is sucked right into the Poltergust, thus restoring the light to the kitchen, all the pots and pans falling to the floor.

As much as I want to help clean this place up, I need to hurry and find the other 2 mischievous ghosts, so I tell E. Gadd that umm... His kitchen needs some maintenance.

"Luigi, you have learned how to use the new Slam function by yourself! You are amazing!" E. Gadd claims, although I'm a bit confused.

"Once you start sucking ghosts and force them to enter the Poltergust, a power gauge will fill up. Once it is filled, you can slam the ghosts onto the floor, taking off the morale to struggle against you!" He explains to me.

So there are other new functions to this version of the Poltergust, huh? Interesting. Plus, this Slam thing will be good to vent some anger and stress out of my mind. I'm going to enjoy this function, hehe.

"There's still the Suction Shot, the Burst, and a special function that you should be able to field-test before going to the second floor!" He says.

Hmmm... 3 more, huh? Alright, I'm getting a bit pumped up now!

I open the door to the next room. It's a rectangular middle-sized room with a few lockers, some small changing room spaces, and a few benches to sit down. A normal employee locker room, although it's dark and scary right now.

Sigh... The door to the gallery is also locked by those strange spikes, so it's searching time again.

"HMGFG!" I try to open one of the lockers with sheer force, only to fail spectacularly... Those lockers are too tight for me to open with my bare hands. Now what?

"Luigi! Use the Suction Shot!" E. Gadd tells me. Very well then, let's do this.

As I change the Poltergust's settings to the option said, the vacuum nozzle becomes a rubber plunger tied to a rough rope.

"... E. Gadd, it's just a plunger attached-a to a rope." I tell him with a straight face.

"You mean an infinite amount of plungers attached to a rope that comes from the Poltergust!" He objects to me.

"Use the Slam function alongside the Suction Shot to force open the lockers! You just need to suck the rope connected to the plunger like you would do with the ghosts and pull once the power gauge is full!" He exclaims, probably having a smug smile on his face.

Well, it's worth the shot, I suppose.

I aim the plunger towards the closest locker door and shoot it, making it stay glued to the cabinet. Now the rope is begging me to pull it with all my might.

I change it back to the vacuum nozzle and start sucking the rope and... it got stuck on the nozzle. Now I have to use the Slam once the power gauge is full... Done!

And now the part I like! Slamming and pulling the rope with the strength of the Poltergust was enough to force open the locker and um... There's nothing there, just a few photos of a green toad with a fire flower.

A-anyway, there's more to go!

One had a Hammer Bro Suit on it, but I can't help but be curious about it as to why a Toad would have that in the first place... another had a ticket for an express train located somewhere far away... This one had some kind of gel on it and I don't know why, but the droplets from it are making the cloth below it kinda transparent.

Alright... The last one must have the ghost inside of it, I'm sure of it!

As I open it, of course, the room goes crazy with the poltergeist and things start flying around like they are birds collecting treasure or hats, like that one from the desert.

The ghost shows up and... it's using some kind of wooden shield to protect himself. That's something new.

Well, let's just do the same strategy I used on the other ghost... Wait what?! That thing doesn't seem affected by the Strobulb flash! I can't suck him this way because the shield is in the way!

W-Wait, calm down Luigi! Don't start panicking right now just because you can't defeat a single ghost! B-b-b-but how I am gonna stop that thing from getting close to me?!

"Luigi, use the Suction Shot to break his shield! Quickly" E. Gadd tells me, as if he was seeing me panic or something.

I desperately shoot the plunger on the ghost, sticking it to the shield. It's my chance!

The shield breaks down as I pull the plunger with the Poltergust's suck and slam abilities. Haha! Not even the paranormal forces can't go against the might of a plunger and the power of the wind!

Without his protection, the ghost panics and tries to run, only to fall victim to the strong gusts of my trusty machine. The door opens, giving me access to the gallery.

This is going smoothly, to which I'm thankful. These new functions are indeed helpful.

E. Gadd surpassed any expectations I had so far.

Now, just one more room and I can deal with the original objective and go back home to my bed and puppy.

I open the door. And I'm not surprised in the slightest as to what happened here, but I know one single thing about it... I'm going to have a huge headache until this is all solved.

The gallery interior is the same as I remember from Boo Woods, except this one is... filled with debris. More specifically, portrait frames, rotten wood, and scrap metal filled the floor. I can't move at all in this place!

The broken frames only mean one thing... The ghosts... They are all free. Why? What did I do to deserve this, Lord? Ugh, first things first, let's just get that stupid key!

"So, it's everything alright there, my boy?" E. Gadd asks, hoping for an ideal answer from me.

"No, this place is-a all destroyed, with your frames all broken down... The ghosts are all out-a there again in the world." I just revealed to him as straight as I could be.

If this headache is going to happen one way or another, I'm not the only one suffering from it.

"I see..." E. Gadd says, a bit disappointed in himself. Most likely, identifying that it was indeed his fault all of this was happening.

Anyway, I must get to the end of the gallery, where the King Boo portrait was. That must be the place where the last ghost is.

The Poltergust tries to suck the debris, only to fail at this, which is surprising. Perhaps it is because there's way too much trash.

"Hehe, I haven't cleaned this room since forever!" E. Gadd says it while giggling. Of course, you haven't cleaned it, you abandoned this place for god knows how long!

"So what now, Prof? I can't move with all the stuff in the way." I tell him.

"Have you tried the Burst function, sonny?" He asks.

I say no as he picks up a note from his coat.

"Okay sonny, so first things first, you need to press two buttons simultaneously to activate it. They should be in the arms of the machine. Try it." He reads the note and instructs me to do it.

Alright, it shouldn't be too hard... Ah, I found them.

I pressed them both and a gust of high-pressure wind came out from the bag, destroying nearby debris in the process.

My god, I was legit shaking! It felt like a small jump, although it was a bit way too violent and I can still jump just fine. This is gonna be good to stun ghosts and destroy blockades, hehe!

I quickly clean the gallery from its mighty force of trash and slowly advance to the last checkpoint available to explore.

As I enter King Boo's old accommodations, all I see is a ghost holding a key while sitting down on a throne-like chair.

He starts mocking me, as he is protected by some iron bars that block my path toward him... and the little blob smirks nervously.

The iron bars were there probably from stopping anyone with a physical body from taking King Boo away, but... it didn't exactly work out as he was able to escape by himself.

"Tsk. There must be a way to get him..." I try to think of something to utilize to finalize my mission on this basement as quickly as possible but... Nothing comes to mind.

"Hehehehe! I reckon it's nigh time we use my latest technology then!" E. Gadd exclaims to all in the room, already smelling the air of Victory.

"Sonny, press the blue button on your flashlight. It will activate... him."

... Him? At this point, I might as well not question it and just do it. As I press the blue button, the goo that was inside the glass container in the new version of the Poltergust comes out, and... This thing is morphing to me?! Why there's a slime Luigi in front of me?!

"Luigi, meet Gooigi. The latest technology in resistance and slipperiness I ever had the fortune to create!" He says it proudly to me as if I'm happy to see a slime version of me.

Ugh, beggars can't be choosers. Let's see what this slime thing can do.

"Alright, so Gooigi can do everything you should be able to. But he can phase through iron bars or other iron railings without any difficulties." He says it.

"But! Don't ever let him touch water, it will disintegrate him into his liquid form and then will be put back on the Poltergust. Or at least, that was what I found out during test runs." He finishes the explanation.

I shrug. I'm better than this slime thing, for sure. After all, I can swim and stay in water for long periods.

"Alright, just tell him to do something, and you're good to go." E. Gadd simplifies the instructions for me.

"Ok... So, Gooigi... Cross these-a iron bars and capture that ghost for-a me... please?"

As I asked him to do the action, he swiftly moved towards it and crossed the bars flawlessly, which caused the ghost to start to panic as he saw his plans were foiled easily.

Needless to say, that was so easy it even made me proud of this puddle of slime goo.

As the goo returns to me and gives me the key, it disappears and returns to the Poltergust. Perhaps I still need to check what happens when it comes into contact with water later.

I breathe in and out, preparing myself for what awaits us there. I start walking back to the stairs to the lounge, hopeful that E. Gadd and I can have a plan of action for what might be one of the chaotic missions I participated in.

Sigh, I wanna go home...

Author's notes:

Hello there, just stopping by to wish all who are reading this on New Year's Eve of 2024 or January 1st a happy new year! I wanted to quickly give you a new chapter as a special gift, so there it is! Hopefully, it's not filled with grammar mistakes, as I rushed a bit to get this out in time.

This chapter was made to introduce Luigi to the new functions of the Poltergust G-00 without having to make him go through the events of Luigi's Mansion 3 yet. Maybe I can make the events of LM3 happen in this story somehow? Who knows.

And if you are seeing where I'm going with the Portrait Ghosts, perhaps a certain club located in Millennium Academy will have to deal with something else other than Decagrammaton in the not-so-far future... Maybe some students will end up haunted by them? Or maybe this will end up causing new ghosts exclusive to Kivotos to show up? Only time will tell.

And with that, I'll say my adieu with a little trivia.

Did you know that the G-00 from the new Poltergust stands for Goo? Hehe.