Level 2: The Haunted Mansion and an Unexpected Companions (Canonical route)

Maria hit the ground hard—shoulder-first into damp earth that smelled of rotted leaves and something sickly sweet. Her vision swam, the violet afterglow of the portal still flickering behind her eyelids like a bad hangover. "Ugh," she groaned, spitting out a mouthful of dirt. "Couldn't just drop me on a damn trampoline—" A hand thrust into her line of sight, fingers smudged with what looked like engine grease.

"Took you long enough," Lucia said, her voice thick with amusement. Maria blinked up at her sister—same stubborn jawline, same stupidly perfect ponytail, but now clad in a grease-stained tank top and cargo pants that looked like they’d seen more action than Bowser’s entire army. "You look like shit," Lucia added helpfully, hauling Maria to her feet with a grunt.

Maria wobbled, her knees threatening to buckle. "What the hell are you doing here?" she managed, swatting at Lucia’s hands when her sister brushed dirt off her overalls a little too aggressively. "Last I checked, you were ‘retired’—" She air-quoted the word with a sneer, "—from ‘plumbing adventures.’"

Lucia rolled her eyes, nudging a half-crushed Goomba shell with her boot. "Yeah, well, retirement’s boring. Plus," she jerked her chin toward the skeletal trees around them, their gnarled branches clawing at a bruise-colored sky, "someone’s gotta save your ass when you trip into a fucking Shadow World portal like a drunk Yoshi."

Maria opened her mouth to argue, but a rustling in the dead underbrush cut her off. Both sisters tensed, shoulders squaring in unison. The bushes parted—not with the clumsy thrashing of a Koopa, but with deliberate, almost liquid grace. A figure emerged, and Maria’s breath hitched.

Peach—or something wearing her face—stepped into the clearing. Her dress was torn, one strap dangling off a shoulder, and her eyes gleamed with something darker than fear. "Maria," she breathed, but her voice was wrong, layered with whispers that didn’t belong to her. "You came for me."

Maria’s stomach lurched as the violet static of the portal spat her out onto damp, rotting leaves. She groaned, rolling onto her side just in time to see the rift stitch itself shut with a sound like tearing velvet. The air smelled of mildew and something sharper—burnt wiring, maybe. Above her, skeletal tree branches clawed at a bruise-purple sky. "Great," she muttered, spitting out a leaf. "Just fucking great."

A boot nudged her ribs. "You planning to lie there all day, or are we doing this?" The voice was familiar, smug in a way that made Maria’s teeth grind even as relief flooded her chest. She looked up into the grinning face of her sister—Lucia, in her stupid green overalls, one hand propped on her hip, the other gripping a modified Poltergust like she’d been born with it.

Maria swatted at Lucia’s outstretched hand but let her yank her upright anyway. "What the hell are you doing here?"

"Rescuing your ass, apparently." Lucia flicked a twig from Maria’s shoulder. "You’re lucky I was ghost-hunting near the mansion when your dramatic ass came falling out of the sky like a—"

"Bowser’s got Peach," Maria interrupted.

Lucia’s smirk died mid-sentence. "Shit."

"Yeah. *Shit.*" Maria scrubbed a hand over her face. The distant wail of a Boo echoed from the direction of the mansion, its walls warped and leaning like rotten teeth. "I need to get back to the castle, but—"

"But you’ve got no power-ups, no map, and *somehow* even less of a plan than usual." Lucia sighed, slinging the Poltergust onto her back with a clank. "Lucky for you, I was already on my way to see E. Gadd. Dumbass upgraded my vacuum without telling me the damn thing *overheats* when you suck up more than three ghosts at once." She jerked her chin toward a rusted gate half-buried in ivy. "He’s got a lab set up in the basement. Probably has something that can help your *damsel in distress* situation too."

Maria’s fingers twitched toward her sister’s throat before she thought better of it. "Peach isn’t—"

"Save it." Lucia was already walking, boots crunching through brittle undergrowth. "We’ll argue about your terrible taste in women *after* we stop Bowser from turning her into his latest fucktoy."

Maria’s face burned, but she fell into step beside Lucia anyway. The path to the mansion was littered with broken picture frames, their glass shards reflecting the sisters’ faces in fractured, distorted slivers. Lucia kicked one aside. "So. How’d he take her this time? Giant robot? Magical bullshit? Or just old-fashioned **** while you were busy tripping over your own feet?"

"Portal," Maria muttered. "Like the one that dumped me here. But… darker. Felt like it was *licking* me."

Lucia made a noise halfway between a laugh and a gag. "Classy. Real classy." She shouldered open the mansion’s front door—it groaned inward, revealing a hallway choked with cobwebs and the faint, greasy shimmer of floating specters. "Hope you’re ready to meet the professor," Lucia said, grinning over her shoulder. "He’s *weird* about hands."

Maria groaned. "Why am I not surprised?"

The mansion door creaked shut behind them with a finality that made Maria’s skin prickle. Before she could complain, a shrill voice echoed from the shadows. "*Aha!* My favorite delinquent returns—and she’s brought a *plus one!*" A hunched figure lurched into the dim light, his goggles glinting like insect eyes. Professor E. Gadd’s grin was a jagged thing, too many teeth for comfort, his fingers twitching around a device that buzzed ominously. "Lucia, my dear, did you *overheat* the G-00 model *again?*"

Lucia rolled her shoulders, unrepentant. "Your ‘upgrades’ suck, old man. Literally." She tossed the Poltergust at him; he fumbled it with a yelp.

Maria stepped forward, fists clenched. "Look, we don’t have time for—"

"Ah-ah-ah!" E. Gadd waggled a finger in her face, then recoiled as if struck by his own audacity. "Manners, Ms. Maria! Or should I say… *heroine in distress?*" His cackle bounced off the peeling wallpaper. "But fear not! The great E. Gadd has *just* the solution!" He scurried to a workbench littered with half-dismembered gadgets and yanked a tarp away, revealing a second Poltergust—sleeker than Lucia’s, its chrome finish scuffed but gleaming. "Behold! The *G-01,* modified for *brute-**** ghost wrangling!*"

Maria eyed it. "You expect me to suck up ghosts while Bowser’s out there—?"

"*Pish-posh!*" E. Gadd shoved the vacuum into her arms; it hummed against her chest like a living thing. "Ghost energy is *concentrated dimensional instability!* Capture enough specters—*especially* that no-good King Boo—and I can *crack* a portal straight to Bowser’s doorstep!" He adjusted his goggles, the lenses whirring. "*Unless,* of course, you’d prefer to *walk?*"

Lucia snorted. "She can’t even run without tripping over her own—"

Maria slammed the Poltergust’s nozzle against her sister’s ribs. "*Try me.*"

Their fists met with a dull *thunk*—less a show of solidarity and more a silent agreement that they’d throttle each other later if this went sideways. The mansion’s foyer swallowed the sound whole, its walls oozing a wet, glistening darkness that seemed to pulse in time with Maria’s quickening heartbeat. Lucia flicked on the Poltergust’s headlamp; the beam carved a shaky path through the gloom, illuminating floating motes of dust… and the pair of glowing eyes watching them from the stairwell.