Luigi's Mansion

Chapter 17 - Dinner with Professor Gadd

   When the final boo at last fell to the balcony floor with an icy clink, Luigi sagged in exhaustion. The cold night wind still tugged at him, threatening to make off with his hat; and his damp clothes caused him to nearly freeze at a sudden gust.

   But he had been victorious.

Sucking up the last boo that made up Boolossus felt better than he would have even imagined. The battle had lasted longer than almost any before – Luigi would have guessed more than twenty minutes they'd struggled on the balcony, each trying to gain an upper hand on his slippery opponent.

   But as he slowly and surely picked away boos from his enormous adversary, it became evident that Luigi would win. It was mostly a game of wits, after all; and Luigi tended to be better at those. And if there was one thing evident from all of this... it was that nothing could be truer than the boos' power in numbers.

   The Poltergust hadn't been able to swallow Boolossus whole, but it was able to get enough grip on him that Luigi could drag him overhead into the statues. As long as he didn't let the boo bash the floor too much and send him flying into the air, Luigi found it similar to wrangling one of those giant parade balloons after all.

The final one had been the most annoyingly hard; he would fly up and around, far out of Luigi's reach, and then swoop down and try to hurt him in the next second. With the icy elementals helping him, Luigi had finally been able to shoot him down.

"Fifteen boos," he murmured to himself, looking around at the empty battlefield. "Fifteen boos." He was immensely pleased with his catch, but now, he only wanted to rest.

Luigi was trying to decide whether or not it'd be wise to sit down for a moment when he spotted something sparkling on the ground just a couple of feet away. He looked with eagerness and found it to be exactly what he was hoping for: a beautiful key.

   Aha... it was about time.

This one was possibly the nicest he'd yet seen. It was deep blue, with the shape of a large diamond fashioned into the handle. Undoubtedly it opened something important; but what?

As if it had called his name, Luigi's gaze suddenly drifted upwards to the opposite corner of the balcony, past the place where the ring of boos had been. There in the wall waited another door.

It must have led into the west wing of the third floor – Luigi was sure that the safari room couldn't have been the only room up here. He especially knew he had struck home when he saw the elaborate design of a diamond, worked into the door's metal plating. The path of duty calls.

Key in hand, he had taken one step forward when his Game Boy Horror started up again.

At first the sound startled Luigi so much he jumped. He hadn't heard from the professor in what felt like ages – he wondered what he was up to.

"Luigi, can you hear me?" his voice at last came through.

Luigi yawned and nodded. "Yeah, and I can see you, too," he said. "What's going on?"

"Oh, what a relief," E. Gadd sighed. "I think that's what you need to tell me. That white mist interrupted your signal."

"White mist?" Luigi asked. "Oh, you mean the ice. Or the boos?" He couldn't helping feeling a little envious of the professor, seeing him just sitting there in the cozy lab. He shivered, suddenly wishing that he could go back.

As if the professor had read his mind, he was looking at him thoughtfully. "Hmm. You seem to have done some serious work there!"

Luigi allowed a smile of exhaustion. "I caught Boolossus."