: Alright, our fighters are ready.
Catch the Prelude Here: Ghostly Gambit – PRELUDE
: Which of these spooky specters will come out on top?
: Let’s find out, in the Clash!
: I’ll pick first, and I’ll use King Boo.
: Alright then, Gengar is comin’ atcha!
———-
Location: Haunted Mansion, 12:00 am
An inconspicuous green-clad plumber takes his next few steps through the dark, ancient mansion, his Poltergust 5000 strapped to his back and light flickering down the long hall. He was as ready for danger as he could be, with the stoic physique for it to boot… If only his knees and teeth could stop clattering in fear.
“Let’s-s-s, a-g-g-go…” He mutters, reassuring himself.
He continues down the hall, braving the unknown while a shadow lurks from behind. The darkness dips into the floor as Luigi swings his flashlight wildly, catching only the glimpse of a shadow. He may have been long past having second thoughts about being here, but his mind kicks into gear again, recounting all the reasons why those second thoughts had to be thought in the first place…
Luigi turns back down the hall, assuring himself the brief movement he heard was nothing important. He plants a foot into a carpeted foyer, looking around to see if it’s safe to enter. At the end of the room, a faint blue light listlessly hung. A sudden jolt surged across the floor, paralyzing the green ghostbuster for a moment. He hears the walls rumble, muttering quiet conversations of “where the child was”, or, “how they died getting trapped in the cellar.” The voices keep getting louder, and as Luigi stepped forward cautiously, faces with drooping eyelids and lips hung down from nowhere and beckoned Luigi to the wall.
“COME LISTEN TO OUR FINAL MOMENTS,” The faces speak, now shouting loudly at the plumber. “YOU MUST LISTEN. WON’T YOU LISTEN TO US? WON’T YOU L̸̨̰̟̯̣̰̣̿͛͑̓͌̂͐͗̎I̸̧̧͓̱̬̜̜͉̣̲̽̓̃̓͌̏̽̇̚͞S͓̮͖̘̞̞̝̗̞̿̀͒̂̈́͟T̬̣͍̮̻̄̉̀̿̎͛͆̚͠Ȩ̴̢̨͉̻̜̗͌̃̄̈́͆̀̒̔̈́͢Ņ͓̣̤͍͔̬̺͆̏͐̌͗̑͢ͅ WHEN THE Ŏ̷̺̼̱͓͙̞̀͗͆͗̐͆T̶̡͈̞͇̘͈̯̔̅̑̽̈̕͡H̨̢̨̜̲̱͕͙̠̤̅̃͆̐̅̏̏Ḛ̝̠̦̯̉͒̊̎̿̇͜͠R̸̤͉̬̥̹̣̯͚͇͆̏͗͘͢͝Ş̷̡̭͈͓̎͊́̂̾́̚̚ Ẁ͙͉͈̣̝͖̬̋͐͆͆̂̅̐̕͜͞O̷̧̤̯̝͔͉̩͙̲̍̀͛̆̒̀̆͝͝͞N̗̫̜̼͎̫̥̤̫̒̒̌̓͡͞͠͞͠’̣͓̻͍͈͚̥̝͛̋̒͊̊̽͘̚͟͡T̨̡͍̠̰̟̰̞̳̅̂̉̍̃̈̄̚!”
“UWAAAAAAHHHH!” Luigi cries before sprinting through the foyer in blind fear, the faces chasing him from the walls with their lithe, liquid-like bodies as though they were tubes of flesh.
Hurrying, hurrying, Luigi reaches the door at the end of the room. Anxiously, he fumbles the knob, growing more and more horrified as his gloves keep slipping off the doorknob. It opens just in time for Luigi to slam the door on the screaming faces. The Mario bro huffs and puffs, trying to catch his breath. At last, a moment of peace.
And then…
He turns, coming face to face with the most horrifying thing in the mansion thus far. A massive monstrosity looms high above Luigi, a fat, scaly monster with unknown fluids oozing from its skin, which looks stretched and sagging. The monster turns its giraffe-length head to behold Luigi, staring through one tiny, pin-thin iris. Its face is just smooth, with a small eye at the top and an impossibly grand mouth lined with spine-like fangs.
The creature leans down, breathing on Luigi as its mouth gapes open, letting loose the smell of sulfur and the sun. From within the disgusting mouth, a long, winding tongue lashes out with a big, glowing white ball at the end. Luigi just looks on, eyes wide, mouth agape, and blood frozen.
The ball at the end of the creature’s tongue forms a mouth, small stubby hands, and a bright, gem-encrusted crown. Without a moment of hesitation, the ball, revealing itslef to be King Boo, roars its raspy roar at the plumber.
“Hah hah! I have returned Luigi!” King Boo states. “And now, I’ll capture you and take over the Mushroom Kingdom!”
King Boo eyes Luigi expectantly, expecting some sort of reaction. A scream, a whimper, anything. He leers to his archenemy expectantly. Luigi’s face was pale and frozen in a scream, yet no noise comes from him.
“Come on, you can quit with the ‘I’m a scared wittle baby’ face now,” King Boo says. “It’s time we get down to business. So get up. It’s time I knock some serious hurt into you!”
Luigi stays frozen in fear. Finally, King Boo floats over to him, pulling the monster tongue off his back. The king checks the plumber’s pulse.
Immediately, the giant, eldritch abomination that towers in the room came apart piece by piece, like blocks in a tower crumbling under its lack of structure, revealing an army of Boos.
“All right men! Let’s go and conquer the Mushroom Kingdom!” King Boo says, pointing to the door. “Nothing can stop us now!”
The Boos all fly for the door when, suddenly, three figures float up from the floorboards. One is a wispy-figure, a black face with a spectral cloud around it. The other looks like it were made with a quick paintbrush stroke and had two, glowing hands that floated alongside it. The last hovers in place with a chubby body and looks like a fuzzy shadow with deep, red eyes. The ghosts inspect the room they’re in, Boos waiting with confusion until King Boo floats to the front of the army.
“Who are you lot?” King Boo demands.
“Gengar,” The middle, stout one replies, then motioning to the ghosts on either side of it. “Gengar, Gengar.”
“Eh?” King Boo mutters, confused.
“Gengar, Gengar Gengar, Gengar Gengar Gengar Gen,” Gengar says, motioning to the mansion in all manner of ways.
“Are you trying to say… You want this place to yourselves?” King Boo asks.
“Gengar,” Gengar and associates nod, smiling.
“Well tough luck!” King Boo says. “I’m the Ruler of the Paranormal Dimension, and you lowly ghosts, my own subjects, think you can ask for my property? And you expect I’ll just give it to you?”
Gengar looks at his associates with a quick side-eye.
“Gen.” They all nod again.
“Yeah right!” King Boo says. “This may as well be treason! Boos! We have a new target: THESE THREE GHOSTS!”
“Gengar?” Gengar replies as if to say ‘3?’
Suddenly, a mass of ghosts appear behind Gengar, from Duskulls to Banettes, to more Gastlys and Haunters, to even a Shedinja and Misdreavus. The Pokémon were ready for a new spooky home, and they would sure as hell have it.
“ATTACK!” King Boo demands, the Boos rushing forward.
“GENGAR!” Gengar cries, the Ghost-Types rushing forward.
The battle begins. While the Boos fought the Ghost-Types, Gengar and King Boo floated up over the chaos.
“Let me personally educate you on how to treat your KING!” King Boo cries, firing one of his ectoplasmic lasers from his crown.
“Gengar!” Gengar replies, firing his Night Shade rays from his eyes.
The two rays struggle to overcome one another. The ghosts give it their all in a battle for the future of un-life, with the leaders duking it out in a no-holds barred brawl of ghostly might!
———-
———-
Their beam struggle is cut short when a stray Boo is struck into it, causing it to cry out in agony. When the rays stop, the Boo falls to the ground, a small white flag in its stubby arm. Gengar and King Boo look at each other again before Gengar reaches forward and slaps King Boo in the face with a paper fan.
“Kekehkhekhehke!” Gengar giggles as it hovers away.
“Why you!” King Boo exclaims, lunging at Gengar.
One step ahead, Gengar already parted its pearly whites and fired its tongue out like a bullet. King Boo quickly levitates upward to avoid the attack, his crown glowing in the process of. Gengar retracts its tongue and drops to the floor, melting into a shadowy pool. King Boo lets loose a rain of plasma, hitting the ground with tremendous force in several spots. A Gastly and Yamask get hit in the crossfire, instantly knocking them out. The shadow moves in behind King Boo, but the spectral sovereign already summoned several spiked balls above where the shadow waits.
“Gotcha!” King Boo exclaims, a red glint now appearing behind him along with a smile.
Before King Boo can drop the spiked balls, Gengar reappears, kicking King Boo in the behind. Taken aback, King Boo angrily roars, only to be met with Gengar pointing up. The King looks up, finding his balls were about to hit him. He tries to scramble out of the way, but the shadow pool below him launches a fist straight into the Boo’s underbelly. King Boo could only float while the balls fell on his head, crushing his crown into him while Gengar was off laughing.
“You wanna play like that eh?” King Boo mutters, his crown glowing brightly.
The King fires a salvo of bolts at Gengar, all of which Gengar sidesteps, ducks under, or floats over.
Gengar giggles and flies over the floor, attempting to flee to another room. Several blue, flaming wisps emerge from the floor like drops of water on a ceiling and give chase to the Pokémon. They converge on the Ghost-Type and act like punches: five uppercuts to the giant chin of the ghost.
“Geh!” Gengar spits.
The Pokémon tries sending forth another punch, but to no avail, as the punch sails right through the King. The Boo spun out of the way and summons another salvo of Spirit Balls aimed squarely at Gengar, only for Gengar to return the earlier favor, turning intangible as they passed through it.
“Right, you’re a ghost…” King Boo mutters. “Guess I should’ve seen that coming.”
Gengar snickers as it flies in close for a Dark Pulse, but King Boo floats over the wave of negativity. Said wave travels through the whole room and knocks out most of the other fighting ghosts.
“What power!” King Boo says. “And you squander it with this pathetic slapstick?”
Gengar freezes, its smile vanishing. It falls to the ground on its hands and knees, moping until snow built up over it. Within a few seconds, there was just a snowy mound where Gengar despaired.
“Wow,” King Boo says, genuinely surprised. “Can’t take criticism, eh?”
With that, King Boo summons a spiked ball over Gengar and lets it fall. The spiked ball crushed the Gengar in the snow, the two crushing and breaking the floor and falling down a level. King Boo inspects the hole and smiles.
“Well, I didn’t know that was actual snow,” King Boo says, wiping a few flakes from in front of the hole. “I thought that was just a sense imagery representation of how depressed this thing felt when I-”
Suddenly, a small piece of wood hits King Boo in the back, catching his attention.
“Who did that?” King Boo said.
With nobody admitting it, he returns to look down the hole, only to find a smiling Gengar looking right back at him. Before King Boo could react, Gengar gives the noble phantom a big, sloppy lick right up his face before vanishing again.
King Boo descends into the hole, finding a dining room, fully furnished with a meal prepared at its center.
“Hmmmm…” King Boo mumbles. “I don’t remember setting up this stuff…”
Suddenly, the chairs, tables, plates, cutlery, and food all swirl around in the air in a violent whirlwind. King Boo turns intangible to avoid most of the odd onslaught.
“This is dumb,” King Boo says, a chair poking his crown.
With a snapping sound, the King fires off several lasers from his crown, each one perfectly vaporizing every item flying around. Ash falls to the floor, except for a small pool of it that landed on an invisible Gengar, outlining it.
“Gotcha!” King Boo exclaims, ramming straight into Gengar and leaving it plastered against the wall.
“Gehgehgeh…” Gengar mumbles, floating to the ground like a page of paper.
As it pulls itself up, Gengar finds its adversary split up into several of himself. Seven King Boos in total, they all charge up lasers and fire them at Gengar, who quickly vanishes from sight. The laser burns a large hole in the mansion, leaving the rustic planks smoldering.
“Where’d the dumb ghost go?” King Boo and his clones mutter in unison.
As if on cue, the Ghost-Type appears behind the middle one and shines a bright, bouncing light in his eyes. The other Kings fire laser after laser back at the Pokémon, but Gengar easily bobs around them while giving a peace sign and melting into the ceiling.
As the King Boos gave pursuit, the initially blinded one rubs its eyes. As he re-focuses, it seems like six Gengars are floating in front of him. Without a second thought, King Boo annihilates the rest of the King Boos as though they were balloons. When King Boo finally corrects his vision, he is attacked from below yet again, this time with a large tongue.
“Guoh!” He grunted, snapping out of his confusion. “You’re not getting away with that nasty habit this time!”
As the tongue retracts, King Boo inflates vigorously, essentially puffing his belly into the ground and crushing the Ghost-Type hiding in his shadow.
“I’ve had enough of your sub-par jokes!” King Boo says, his ghostly form returning to normal.
Below was Gengar, head bobbing with dizzy spirals for eyes.
“Here’s my chance,” King Boo says, summoning a portrait with a Gengar-shaped silhouette into his stubby arms.
With a clap, the portrait snaps down onto Gengar. The shadow was gone, the Pokémon was gone, and a bomb with a lit fuse sits in the portrait.
“Haha! Gotcha you annoying little…” King Boo looks hard at the picture. “Wait, is that a…?”
A quarter of the mansion blew up, ancient architecture replaced by smoke and burning wood. King Boo floats there, covered in soot, while Gengar slowly floats up through the floor, laughing its ass off.
“GEEHGHEGEHEGEGHEEGGGGEHEHEGG!” Gengar wheezes and chuckles.
“Alright, you!” King Boo says. “I’ve had it up to… *cough*”
Gengar loses it when King Boo coughs out a black puff, the gremlin of a ghost falling to the floor with tears in its eyes and chest spasms. King Boo floats, the most unenthusiastic look on his face.
“Are you done?” King Boo asks.
Unsurprisingly, Gengar floats up and moves its hands in weird ways, waves of psychic energy emanating from its body.
“Beautiful, now your routine calls for hypnosis…” King Boo states with sarcasm. “Maybe you could do me a favor and do a disappearing act next!”
Swiftly, King Boo slams the portrait down on Gengar, capturing the Pokémon.
“Finally…” King Boo mutters, rubbing his temple.
———-
Location: ???
Gengar looks around at the hellscape. It looks as though it was standing on the roof of the mansion, with fire and brimstone painting the skies.
“Heheheheh!” King Boo laughs, looking in from a small box in the sky, the painting’s frame it would seem. “Poor little ghost, trapped with nowhere to go! What will you do?”
Gengar, after collecting its bearings, simply looks at the Boo and laughs, blowing out its tongue with a *phbbbbbbthat*.
“W-well, you won’t be making many jokes by the end of today, hahahah!” King Boo chuckles while Gengar pulls out a marker and draws a monocle, thin mustache, and chin mole in the air, making it look like they were on King Boo’s face from where he stood.
“Would you take this a little more seriously?” King Boo demands. “I just trapped you in a painting for all eternity!”
To that, Gengar takes off its legs like pants, revealing another pair of legs with white and red heart boxers underneath while slowly swinging its butt at its captor.
“THAT DOES IT!” King Boo shouts in a rage, flying into the painting himself. “I think I’ll make you spend your last few miserable hours experiencing utter hell.”
Gengar’s eye glints devilishly before firing out black bolts of energy. King Boo was prepared to do away with the attack, however, summoning a giant turtle shell to his side which bounces the shade away. Suddenly, other large turtle parts come together, forming a giant monstrous dragon turtle of some kind. King Boo swiftly flies down the throat of the beast and its head falls into place, tightening itself with its arms.
“Get a load of this!” King Boo exclaims.
Flames erupt from the Bowser Suit’s mouth, scorching the ground where Gengar was standing. When the flames die down, not a trace of the ghost was left. Rather, he was already on the giant Bowser’s back, smacking it in the back of the head with a toy hammer. The Bowser Suit’s head pivots in place, turning to Gengar with daggers in its eyes. Gengar floats backward in caution and worry as if he’s dealing with a tough crowd.
“Fine, then take this!” King Boo says, the mouth opening and launching several icicles out in a shrapnel rain.
Gengar stands its ground for the first time, grounding itself midair while charging up a Shadow Ball. The icicle volley makes it extremely close, but when Gengar lets loose the glob of darkness, the Shadow Ball makes a path straight through the ice projectiles.
It carves through the ice, all the way to its source. The glob travels straight down the Bowser Suit’s throat. The Suit’s eyes expel tears, until every orifice erupts with ghostly winds, indicating the detonation of the attack.
“Geh!” Gengar says, peeling its eyelid down and sticking out its tongue.
The Bowser Suit still gets up, though, only needing to adjust its slightly askew head. Gengar looks on with half-shut, annoyed eyes and a slight frown as the Bowser Suit tries breathing fire again. Again, instead of getting scorched, Gengar turns intangible, walking through the flames daintily. Finally, it reaches the large avatar and sticks its hand inside, grasping the king ghost by the scruff and pulling him out. The Bowser Suit turns lifeless and collapses as King Boo is thrust out into the open.
“What the…? How dare you nudify me!” King Boo says. “No ghost will be stronger than me, nor shear me of my clothes! I have something here I know you can’t beat!”
King Boo lowers his head as Gengar watches, intrigued that there’s something that could finally pose a threat. King Boo fires a laser forward, but instead of hitting Gengar, it freezes midway. The bolt expands into a wormhole, swirling violently with paranormal energy. Suddenly, an army of ghosts fly out from the portal and swarm the painting’s void.
“See this?” King Boo says. “This is a Paranormal Portal, it leads to the Paranormal Dimension. If I keep this open for too long and the ghosts spill out into this pocket world I made, then the reality of this dimension will fold on itself and collapse, destroying both of us!”
King Boo chuckles heartily, duplicating himself again. The two King Boos he made fly to Gengar and hold it down.
“Except, it will be all three of you,” King Boo states, pointing at his clones and Gengar one at a time. “Meanwhile, I’ll watch it all unfold! Have fun!”
The King flies away, happy as a lark, straight for the box in the sky. However, an evil presence befalls the all-powerful ghost. He feels cruel eyes on the back of his fluff, causing him to freeze in fear.
“What…?” He mutters, turning to face a heartily smiling Gengar. “Did you do to me!?”
“Gengar!” Gengar spits.
Suddenly, the dimension within the painting begins to crumble. The pillars turn to dust, which floats away. The floor simply ceases to exist, fading away out of reality. The fire-lit skies quickly dissolve into blackness. All that was left was the Paranormal Portal.
“Curse you monster!” King Boo cusses, making a beeline for the portal. “Then I’ll leave through here!”
Once King Boo reaches the portal, he feels the same inexhaustible look of death from before. Eyes that intimidated him to the point of accepting his demise.
“When did you do this to me…?” King Boo demands. “It’s like I can’t leave or something horrible might befall me…”
Suddenly, a moment of enlightenment. The Boo remembers the look Gengar gave him when he first entered the painting, one exactly the same as the one paralyzing him from leaving.
“You sly dog you…” King Boo says, despair taking hold of his voice.
“Gennnnn~!” Gengar taunts, sticking out its tongue once more.
With that, the portal closes and the dimension is destroyed…
———-
Location: Haunted Mansion, 12:40 am
King Boo writhes on the floor, holding his head. He was fast asleep, but it seems some troubling nightmares were playing in his head. Thought bubbles pry free of the ghost’s head, slowly drifting into the air, before a shadowy hand plucks them away.
“Gengar!” Gengar exclaims, taking a large bite out of the dream.
The Pokémon relaxes on top of its bed of Boos, all adorned with scuffs, snacking away at the big boss Boo’s dreams while toting his crown as a symbol of victory. Hypnosis, for Gengar at least, always is the staple of any self-respecting ghost’s routine. It wasn’t long after that other Ghost-Types came to join in the feast and festivities, now having acquired a new home all their own.
“Gengar~!” Gengar exclaims, shifting in its Boo bed as if to say ‘This is the life!’
———-
———-
: Now that’s what I call a bad dream!
: Alright, so, this is going to have quite an interesting explanation, as this is among the few VS Battles to ever feature characters who are already dead. I don’t mean characters like Ganondorf who are alive but immune to death by any weapon except sacred. No, these folks are literally already dead.
: Essentially, conventional means are moot. Though the big guy upstairs says he wants to deal with more tiers and stuff, unfortunately, he picked a fight where the stat trio is useless. What is strength, speed, or durability to things that cannot die?
: Therefore, we must find how these two’s hax abilities interact with one another.
: Sorry to say, but Gengar can simply cheese the whole fight at any point.
: While King Boo may be a scheming, intelligent ghost, he’s just not that creative. Given the power to basically make something from nothing, you would think he would do more than inflate himself or summon spiked balls or create something that already exists like Bowser.
: Gengar’s variety is what played the biggest impact on this fight, especially his status-oriented attacks. King Boo may have dominion over creation, but nothing’s stopping him from shutting his eyes for a bit. While Lick doesn’t inflict paralysis on other Ghost-Types, assuming that’s King Boo’s typing according to the Pokéverse, there’s still Curses, Confusion, Sleep, and the inability to escape.
: Even if King Boo tried to beat Gengar in a match of stamina, or even causing a pocket dimension, like the inside of one of those paintings, to collapse due to the Paranormal Portal, Gengar could cheese King Boo with Mean Look to keep him from leaving or Destiny Bond to guarantee taking King Boo with him. Even if Destiny Bond makes both the user and the afflicted faint together, their destinies are literally connected. If Gengar doesn’t wake up, neither does King Boo, it’s in the name.
: At the end of the day, if there were one-hundred simulations of this fight, then King Boo would win none by virtue of Gengar’s cheesy moveset, and most fights would instead end in ties.
: But, the one that pulls through at least once as a guaranteed result would be Gengar. He’s got infinitely more varied ghostly physiological defenses and evasive abilities, has more variety in attacks, and has fewer exploitable weaknesses, not to mention the means to exploit King Boo with ease.
: Boo hoo, the king is undead, long un-live the king! Congrats for inheriting the throne O Shadow Pokémon!
: The winner is Gengar.
Where Titans Clash 
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