It's not easy being Goo

Lightning shouldn't strike twice, let alone three times! With a bulky metal briefcase tucked under his arm and a Poltergust machine strapped to his back, Luigi hurtled down the darkened hotel corridor. Skidding to a halt by the elevator, he slammed his palm on its call button, willing it to arrive before any more ghostly apparitions found him.

A soft bell sounded. Luigi couldn't wait. He leapt into the brightly lit elevator before the doors had even fully opened, and hammered at the button for the basement, not stopping until they'd closed again. Once safe within its gleaming, Art Deco walls, he let his breath go, his nerves still jangling from fighting his way through the ghosts on the fifth floor.

He stared at his bedraggled reflection in the wall-mirror as the elevator descended, wondering how he could have let this happen again. Mario, Peach and three Toads had been abducted from their guest suites in the dead of night, and King Boo had already revealed himself as the culprit. Luigi should have seen the signs. The mysterious invitation for a break at the hotel should have been obvious enough. And the reappearance of that Polterpup on the coach journey there - he'd been too taken with its friendly nature to consider that it, too, might have been an omen.

Running into Professor Gadd tonight had at least given him hope of some help, but the professor seemed more interested in recovering his scientific tools than helping to find Mario. Luigi sighed. This was going to be a lonely fight.

He set down the briefcase and squirmed under the weight of the Poltergust's shoulder straps. Heavier than its predecessors, this model had an exhaust powerful enough to lift him off the floor, and an engine so strong he could fling small pieces of furniture over his head in its suction. He hadn't figured out all its features yet - or the purpose of the empty glass tank that took up most of its bulk. It wasn't for storing captured ghosts, that was for sure.

The bell dinged again. With a gentle bump, the elevator landed in the basement, and the doors glided apart. His heart began to thump. He'd already cleared these basement corridors of ghosts, but they had a habit of coming back. With his flashlight wedged under his chin, Luigi hoisted the briefcase up into both arms, and after glancing left and right to make sure the coast was clear, made a clumsy dash into the corridor and through the entrance to the underground car park.

He hurried across the empty parking bays towards the dome-like shelter dead ahead of him, a shiny, metallic bunker twenty feet in diameter with a rotating dish on top, so tall that it had cracked the concrete ceiling. Luigi kicked at its battered door panel and yelled to be let in. The door lifted high enough for him to duck through, and once it slid shut behind him, he dropped the briefcase and bent forward, hands resting on his knees, to catch his breath. Like it or not, the cramped space of Professor Gadd's mobile laboratory was Luigi's only real refuge.

"Welcome back, Luigi!" Clad in a frayed old lab coat, the diminutive professor spun round on his swivel chair to greet him, his eyes distorted through thick round glasses. "My briefcase," he said. "Chop chop!"

Luigi raised his head to see the old man's gnarled hands extended in expectation. Huh, not even a word of thanks, he thought, as he hauled the briefcase from the floor and placed it onto the professor's lap. His errand complete, Luigi turned his attention to the array of monitors lining the lab's circular wall, looking for clues as to where to head next to find Mario and the others. Their distorted displays offered him no help.

"Heh heh heh!" Gadd flipped the catches to the briefcase. "This! This is what I wanted!" A soft, green glow illuminated his face as he opened the lid; his expression a picture of wonder and excitement, as if he'd unearthed an ancient treasure. "The time has come to use it in battle..."

Battle? The thought of battling more ghosts made Luigi shudder, but if Gadd could give him anything else that would help him find Mario, he'd take it. "What is it?" he asked.

"I'm to old to be out catching ghosts by myself," said Gadd. "Rather than give up, I thought I'd create a helper to take my place." He lifted a large glass canister from the briefcase's protective foam interior, while the empty case itself slid, forgotten, from his lap. "The latest invention from the brilliant mind of Professor E. Gadd!" His voice trembled with pride as he held the canister to the light. "I give you... Gooigi!"

Goo-what? Luigi stared at the luminescent green substance swirling inside the glass canister - not quite liquid, but not quite solid, either.

"The development process was a real challenge, to say the least." Gadd was in full flow, now. "Fortunately, I had a little help from someone to test the prototype!" The old man leaned forward and peered at him through his thick spectacles with a knowing smile. "Ho-ho! Of course, Luigi, you won't remember. Timelines, timelines..."

Luigi had had enough. This had nothing to do with rescuing anyone from King Boo. "All right," he said, struggling to hide his frustration. "How will this help Mario?"

"Hm?" Gadd shook his head and tut-tutted. "Now, now, take it easy". He jumped down from his chair and made an adjustment to a screw on the cannister's top. "Here, Luigi. I'm going to attach this to the Poltergust G-00. Turn around for me, would you?"

With a sigh, Luigi turned his back so that the Poltergust faced its inventor. Without warning, a jolt of energy zinged through his back, making him shout out. He looked over his shoulder in alarm to see Gadd had connected the canister to the base of the Poltergust, and was injecting the gooey green substance into its tank. He could feel the weight of it shifting as it writhed about in its new container.

Gadd stood back. "OK, it's all set up," he said. "Luigi, let's practice a bit. Follow me outside." With that, he tossed the now empty canister over his shoulder where it rolled away on the floor. Luigi stared in incredulity as Gadd shuffled past him and opened the lab door.

It was only when Luigi followed the professor out into the underground car park, that he understood what he meant by 'it's all set up'.

A large, grey metal box stood ahead of him, the size and shape of an old-fashioned phone booth. He couldn't remember it being there when he brought the briefcase back - or maybe he'd been in too much of a panic to notice. He didn't remember seeing the large puddle of water surrounding it either, or the continuous drip drip drip of water leaking from a pipe near the ceiling.

The dripping led Luigi to look up. The metal 'booth', seemed to be open at the top. A length of rope extended upwards from within it, and then threaded through an array of pulleys that hung from a girder that ran along the ceiling, which connected to the outer shell of the laboratory itself. He followed the rope along the ceiling with his eyes until...

"Don't concern yourself with what's up there just now, Luigi. We've work to do." Gadd tugged at his arm. "Come here, come here," he said. "A couple of steps backwards. Yes! Stand there, just on that yellow square."

Luigi positioned himself. Gadd pulled a remote control from his lab coat pocket, and with a flourish, pressed its single button. The sound of disengaging ratchets echoed through the car park, followed by a squeal of pulleys and a deafening clang of metal on concrete.

"Whaa? Huh?" The iron cage had hit the floor around Luigi before he'd even realised what had happened. Panicked, he launched himself at the bars that separated him from the professor. How could Gadd do this to him? What had he done? "B..but.. I..I..I..."

"I've caught you in my trap, Luigi!" said Gadd, with a giggle. "Oh don't worry, I'm just kidding. But I am going to need you to stay locked up."

Luigi couldn't believe he was hearing this. The professor had gone mad. His hopes of ever saving Mario began to fade. "B..b..but why?"

"Because I want you to use Gooigi to try to escape from your cell."

"Gooigi?" Luigi looked over his shoulder at the tank on his back, and the gooey liquid moving around inside it. "How?"

Gadd clapped his hands together. "You can deploy Gooigi from his tank and recall him at will," he said, tapping at his own temple.

Luigi forced himself to breathe slower. If he were to escape from the cage, he'd have to remain calmer than this. He unhooked the Poltergust's nozzle and searched in vain for a button that might release the goo from its tank. He looked out through the bars at the professor for help, but the old man just stood there, arms folded, waiting.

The weight of the Poltergust shifted again, like it was alive. Luigi pushed his thumbs under its shoulder straps and hitched it up to a more comfortable position. The tank jolted. That same fizz of energy shot through his back again. Stifling a yelp, he slipped his hand between the Poltergust and his back to find what was causing this odd sensation.

"Do you feel that? Good, good, it's working!" Gadd bounced a little with anticipation. "The Poltergust G-00 has a sensor, which, when in contact with your back, lets you control Gooigi. Now, try again..."

Try again? Do I have to command this Gooigi thing to appear, somehow? Luigi screwed up his face and concentrated. Of course, nothing happened. He felt stupid. This was ridiculous. He didn't have time to be Gadd's lab rat. He needed to get this over with. He needed Gooigi now...

The tank felt light. He felt giddy. Everything took on a slightly wobbly appearance, as if he were looking at the world through a green-ish heat haze. An identical copy of him appeared right in front of his eyes, its back turned to him, complete with blue overalls, and a red Poltergust - except that its tank was empty.

"Tada, behold!" Professor Gadd jumped up and down in excitement. "This is your very own personal assistant - Gooigi!"

He stepped forward for a closer look. His legs felt wobbly and uncoordinated as if they weren't his. But he circled his double until at last, he stood facing it. His copy stood still, swaying a little, and appeared to be slumped forward in a state of deep sleep. What do I do now, wake it up? he wondered. Now that there were two of him in the cage - how were they to escape, except, perhaps, to combine brute force? He scratched his head, and wondered why he couldn't feel it properly; in fact, everything felt a little numb.

"Gooigi can slip through tight spaces, like grates and vents," said the professor. "His body is incredibly soft and malleable. It's really quite amazing. Go on, see for yourself!"

This sleeping beauty didn't look particularly malleable to Luigi. He reached out a green, gelatinous hand to prod at his double, and stopped dead. Wait... that isn't my hand!

"Wha? Hello?" The world solidified again. Luigi raised his hands and looked with relief at his white, workman's gloves, and then nearly jumped out of his skin at the sight of the green blob in front of him. It stood there, large as life, wobbling a little, and sculpted exactly in his image - complete with overalls, a hat, and a Poltergust moulded onto its back. It appeared to be slumped in the same way as... he reached out a trembling hand and prodded at it. The outer layer dimpled at his touch, causing ripples to course through its green body. He swallowed, as he slowly began to process what had just happened.

Lost for words, he could only turn towards Gadd and point at the green doppelgänger. The professor's nod confirmed it.

Luigi shut his eyes for a moment and took a deep breath. So, the sensor on the Poltergust projects me, somehow, into this...this... Gooigi thing. Okay. He took a deep breath. Then I'll be Gooigi. I just need to squeeze through those bars. Nothing to it. Here goes...

Staring straight ahead, he strode towards the bars and and crashed into them so hard he fell on his backside. With a growl of frustration he scrambled to his feet. Gooigi hadn't moved, and remained sleeping in the same spot. This was a waste of time. Mario needed him, and he was still stuck in this cage...

Without warning, the green-ish heat haze returned. The purpose was clear. He moved towards the edge of the cage once more, and pushed himself against it. It pushed back, making a large indentation in his right leg. He tried again - just a little more force - and with a squelch, his thigh enveloped itself around one of its metal bars. It felt cold and clammy as it sliced through his hip, his shoulder, his chest and then his head, yet somehow, it felt natural as it passed right through him. As the metal left the boundary of his being, he looked down at his semi-translucent form, to see that everything had returned to its correct shape, without so much as a scar. Free from the cage, he turned back to face what he now knew was his real body, standing in a deep sleep, still inside the professor's trap.

"There you go," said the Professor. "He moves in basically the same way you do, so controlling him shouldn't take much getting used to."

Controlling him? Luigi stared at the professor, who appeared to be talking to the senseless body in the cage. Am I Gooigi?' he thought. Or am I Luigi, controlling Gooigi? A chilling feeling overtook him, a feeling he hadn't felt since those harrowing days after he'd returned from the castle of Count Bleck. 'No... no... I don't want to do this... Not again... I don't want to be anybody else, I just want to be me...' He woke with a jolt inside the cage again and turned around to see the now unconscious form of Gooigi, standing some distance away, beyond its bars.

"And remember, you can easily switch between him and yourself!" said Gadd. "Oh..." he clapped his hands in delight. "I see you already did..."

Luigi glared at the professor, and then back at Gooigi. This game was starting to annoy him. But, if Gadd thought Gooigi would be useful in this quest - and he could see already this ability to slip through small spaces might - then he'd have to humour the professor and complete this so-called 'training'.

Right. Time to get out of this. He looked out through the bars of his cage at the arrangement of rope and pulleys that connected it to the metal booth outside. It seemed obvious that whatever was inside that booth had been responsible for triggering this trap, and if he were to be released from it, then Gooigi would need to get over there and take a look.

He screwed up his face and concentrated on becoming his gooey likeness again. Again, nothing happened. Frustration overtook him and he threw a punch at one of the bars with his fist, but he never connected with it, because he was already outside of the cage, looking back at his sleeping body once more.

From this angle, he could see that the booth was, in fact, three-sided, and contained a contraption with a wheel mounted on the front. The rope extended directly upwards from this. The task looked simple enough. Turn the wheel to winch the cage upwards, he thought, and I'll be free.

Aware that Gadd was watching his every move, he approached the wheel, splashing into the puddle of water as he did so. Except that it didn't feel like water. It felt like mud... quicksand... holding him in its grip... Unable to pull his feet free, he looked down to see first his boots dissolve away, then his legs... what little feeling he had in them numbed completely as he began to sink...

In a panic, he tried to pull backwards with what was left of his body, and the next he knew was that he'd fallen backwards inside his prison. Sitting on the ground, he clutched at his shins, relieved at finding his legs were in tact. He staggered to his feet, the Poltergust feeling heavy on his back. He looked over his shoulder. Somehow, the goo had come together and slithered its way across the car park, into the cage, and back into its tank. It took a moment for him to re-orientate himself.

"Heh heh heh! Gooigi isn't even remotely waterproof, Luigi. If he gets wet at all, he'll melt and disappear. Be careful with him around anything wet!"

Luigi sighed. Back to square one. He grabbed the Poltergust's shoulder straps and pulled them forward, making sure that whatever physical connection the machine needed with him was strong. He had to get out of this mess... had to get back to the wheel... The green haze clouded his vision again as he dropped out of the tank and squeezed out of his cage, leaving his sleeping body behind. This time, he took more care where he stepped, but he could see there was no way he could get close enough to that wheel without dissolving in water again.

He toyed with the idea of blowing the water away, and aimed his Poltergust's nozzle at the ground. To his amazement, this gooey replica responded with as much power as the real thing. Spurred on by his discovery, he set about trying to dry the area. The water merely sloshed around, but the wheel was loose enough that it rattled in the Poltergust's blast. He flipped the setting on vacuum to see what effect it might have - it was enough to cause the wheel to turn in its suction, pulling rope above it taut. Then, with a loud creak, the cage began to lift from the floor, swinging a little as it rose.

Nearly high enough... Luigi kept an eye on his sleeping body in the cage, while he kept his gooey Poltergust trained on the wheel. Just a little more... Now, to switch back and run!

But the cage slammed back down before he could even make a move to escape it. Luigi stared out of his prison in despair at the catatonic Gooigi, standing by the metal booth. How could he switch back to himself and escape while he needed to be Gooigi and keep the trap raised?

"The trick is to switch back, while Gooigi's still operating his Poltergust!" said Gadd. "You can do it, Luigi!"

So close! Must try again... In an instant, he was staring at the wheel through Gooigi's eyes again. He aimed the machine's suction power, and held on as the wheel turned, winching the cage to its highest level. 'Hold it... hold it...' he told himself. It was time to get himself out of there.

He woke, having found he'd unconsciously turned his own Poltergust on full power. But the important thing was that the cage now stayed suspended above his head. Luigi switched off his machine, while Gooigi's continued whirring. He wasted no time in moving away to safety.

Gadd seemed unaware of Luigi's success, instead, watching his creation like a proud father, as it still senselessly trained its Poltergust on the wheel. Luigi had to tap the old man on the shoulder before he turned and clapped his hands in delight.

"Heh heh Heh, well done, Luigi! I feel like I can let you loose with Gooigi!"

Luigi didn't feel so sure. He watched Gooigi just standing there, oblivious to all around him, with his Poltergust still working on the wheel. "He will do that, for ever?" he asked.

"You're the one that controls him," said Gadd. "Wielding his Poltergust was your last command, so he'll carry on, until you stop him."

"B...but... I... I don't know how I did it. Controlling Gooigi, I mean."

The professor chuckled. "I tested the whole process myself, you know. You'll find the technique is more visceral than cerebral. Best not to overthink it, Luigi. Be assured, when you need him, Gooigi will never let you down." He pulled out his remote control again, and pressed its button. Luigi heard something clank into place inside the booth. The professor nodded, satisfied. "Gooigi can let go, now," he said.

As if in response, Gooigi's Poltergust fell idle, and the gelatinous form made a listless 'thumbs up' gesture.

"Wait," said Luigi. "He just did that by himself... That wasn't me!"

"Wasn't it?" the professor laughed again. "Gooigi has watched considerable amounts of footage of you vanquishing those ghosts in the mansion at Boo Woods," he said. "He's learned and copied your techniques and mannerisms! He can do everything you can do, but he's still just goo - he can't think for himself - and that's where you come in. In time, you'll be switching back and forth and working like he's an extension of you, just like he did now. You can't lose him - he's tied to the Poltergust and whoever's wearing it, so he won't stray too far. All right, we're done with your training, at least for now. Let's go back to the lab."

Luigi shook his head. "You know I can't," he said.

"Oh, right," said Gadd, shoving his hands into his lab coat pockets. "You can get to a new floor, now. I'll keep an eye on you, back at base." The professor turned and shuffled back towards the lab.

Luigi turned to go. He felt the Poltergust sag again as the goo returned to its tank. His back prickled. Was that Gooigi's choice? "No," he said aloud. The professor had already said, Gooigi can't think for himself. But somehow, Luigi felt he was no longer alone.

Back in the elevator, Luigi turned again to the mirror. Whatever horrors were waiting for him in the floors above, perhaps he had a better chance now. He closed his eyes and pulled the Poltergust close to his back, feeling his connection with the goo in its tank. With a squelch, he stepped aside from his slumbering body and looked at the reflection of the green, translucent form he now inhabited. Its blank, pupil-less eyes and emotionless features disturbed him, but at least it was a vessel he possessed, rather than any other consciousness possessing him. He awoke back to his natural body in time to see Gooigi's deformed mass fly back into the base of the Poltergust's tank, and he braced himself against its weight.

The elevator bell dinged, and he grabbed his flashlight.

Luigi, as ever, was in control.