**Chapter 5 Part 3** “Nah, girl it’s cool. We are just hanging out after all,” Birdo said. Lucy didn’t insist anymore after that. She did cook Birdo her meals, cleaned her house, and helped her run errands. “How is there a grocery store on Yoshi’s Island?” Lucy wondered. For the surprising modern installments road weren’t one of them. They trekked through the wild woods, the branches were so thick the had to manually part them. “Not all Yoshis are satisfied living in the wild. I say about a quarter like the house, the front yard, TV, the whole deal.” “Good morning,” the clerk greeted as programmed. He did a double take when he saw her. “Lucy!?” A hole opened up in her when she saw the papers on sale. Particularly their headlines: “Mario depressed from being dumped by his sister Lucy and lover Peach?” “Princess Peach cutting back on public appearances” “What you need to know about the Empress of Sarasaland’s return from her diplomatic world tour” “Will Princess Daisy’s transformation into Empress Margaret shift the balance of power?” “Donkey Kong mad no one asked for his opinion on all of this” “Waluigi named the year’s leading entrepreneur” “Big Barda’s stand up break sales records” “Princess Peach opens Disney World Mushroom Kingdom for the public and Turtles!?” “Bowser goes to Disney World Mushroom Kingdom with son after months in seclusion” “New Donk City Mayor says people are being too harsh on the Marios” “Professor E Gadd finds surprising new Ghostbuster” That last one peaked Lucy’s interests. She wanted to just run out there and then truthfully, but she already ran to Yoshi’s Island so where else would she run to? Birdo didn’t comment on her traumatized gaping. They bought Birdo’s groceries with the newspaper. Lucy truthfully forgot about the Professor. She never visits because the Professor was a little too nutty. The ghosts were just too spooky. Their relationship was largely professional. Ever since her disappearance from the public eye Professor E. Gadd found a new test subject. Lucy found that for once the papers couldn’t be accused of sensationalism: *Professor E. Gadd is the foremost expert on the paranormal. His experiments with Boos and other ghosts have turned the mythical in the explainable. However for the longest time he was in the shadow of Lucy formerly known as Luigi. She captured the ghosts. It was her most well known exploits. She even rescued her brother Mario from Boos.* Lucy skipped over the paragraphs describing the Professor’s recent discoveries. *The professor feared his work would stall as with Lucy gone he had no way of obtaining new testing material. For ethical reasons he always released Boos after a time. Other times the Boos pass on to the other side. Lucy was never around that often to help anyway due to her phobias. His dearth of materials was depleting fast.* *“I actually knew Luigi was a girl. After taking anatomy and biology in college you know the difference in form from a male to a female. I truthfully didn’t care.”* *However, he found a replacement.* *Empress Margaret of Sarasland, formerly Princess Daisy, came by to visit.* *“Lui-Lucy always prattled on and on about her ghostbusting adventures to me when she wanted to see brave. I decided in my travels to see the truth of the matter. I visited the eccentric professor of Lucy’s little yarn.”* *Professor E. Gadd confirmed the green plumber’s stories. He made a move only a nutty professor would make.* *“When E. Gadd asked me to ghostbust for him I agreed. It seemed like fun from the stories and when else am I going to get a chance?”* *Empress Margaret threw herself at the job with gusto. Professor E. Gadd reports that in one day she broke all of Lucy’s ghost busting records. This is only one in a string of achievements in Empress Margaret’s travels around the world. Her meteoric adventures have advanced her star and kingdom-* Lucy crumpled the paper up. She threw it away like a hot coal in her hand.