Luigi (Nintendo vs. Capcom)

Luigi is the deuteragonist of the "Super Mario Bros." / "Mario & Luigi" series, and the main protagonist of the Luigi's Mansion series. Beginning with his debut in the 1983 arcade game "Mario Bros.", Luigi had served as the iconic symbol for the second player until shortly thereafter with the release of Super Mario 64 in 1996; he was removed from the main Super Mario Bros. series to make way for his slightly older brother, Mario. During the time of living in his brother's shadow, Luigi carved his own path in adventures such as those in the Luigi's Mansion series, thwarting King Boo's legions of poultergeists with the help of Professor Elvin Gadd. Luigi also had detailed his adventures in several self-published novels traveling to the Waffle Kingdom to save Princess Eclair from the tyrannical Chestnut King around the events of Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door, proving he is an adventurer of a similar but completely different color than his prominent superstar brother.

During the invasion of Team Capcom, Luigi was in the midst of a summons by E. Gadd shortly after Mario left to defend Princess Toadstool's castle; the wonky professor was picking up many obscure signals from the dimensional tearing and feared yet another supernatural calamity was upon them. He geared a reluctant Luigi with his trusty Poltergeist 5000 and set the Pixelator to transport him to another dimension known as Ascension City.

Luigi's rival in this cross dimensional war is Nathan Spencer.

Opening
Luigi waves farewell to his older brother Mario, already on his way to defend Princess Peach's kingdom once again. Though he displays a disappointed grimace, he is quite relieved that the calamity currently upon the Mushroom Kingdom was not his duty to tackle. As he enters the Mario Bros. residence, Luigi feels the back pocket of his overalls vibrate with intensity, completely forgetting he still has the customized Nintendo DS E. Gadd crafted for him. Flipping it open, Luigi once again comes face to face with the Professor,

"Luigi my boy!," he speaks with piqued exuberance, "Do you see this phenomenon!? It's astounding, no, mind-blowing!  To think a tear in space time would happen in my own lifetime is a dream come true!  You must come at once, I must have you investigate this immediately!  The Pixelator has gone through a couple recent upgrades to its teleportation module that needs testing!"

Luigi raises a hand in protest, but is immediately silenced,

"No exceptions, do you understand!? This is too big of an opportunity to pass up, now buckle up boy and get down here, I've fixated the Pixelator to a world not of our own, come get the Poltergeist and see if we can't discover some new scientific treasures!"

Luigi somberly closes the DS, taking a deep sigh; it seemed leaving Mario at the helm was too much to ask. Packing his pockets with essentials, Luigi heads off to Gadd's headquarters, nervous at what lay ahead.

Rival
Name: Nathan Spencer Reason: Shortly thereafter reaching Ascension City, Luigi finds himself in the lowly suburbs rife with debris and destruction. The city was quite reminiscent of New York, but Luigi sees the dimensional tearing affecting the distant towers. As he makes way into the open streets, Luigi suddenly catches wind of mechanical revving nearby. Looking around he sees nothing, but shortly after comes face to face with Nathan as he swings to ground level. Nathan questions Luigi's appearance with a hostile voice, clearly on edge from his recent encounter fighting off the local military. Luigi denies any involvement with the warping of reality, but Spencer is already convinced the obscure plumber is an invader working for a higher power on the other side, gearing his bionic arm for combat.

Connection: Luigi and Nathan both live in the shadow of their accomplishments, Luigi consistently is besmirched and overplayed by his brother Mario despite his courageous and heroic deeds while Nathan was mercilessly betrayed by the Federal States of America and sentenced to die on false charges despite his outstanding military achievements. They both don the color green as their brand of individualism, for Nathan due to his involvement in the TASC and Luigi to provide differentiation from his elder brother. Luigi and Nathan also utilize advanced technology to assist in their adventures against inhuman opponents; Luigi has access to the Poltergeist vacuum capable of sucking up objects to fire back, expelling elemental projectiles and the Dark Light that reveals objects invisible to the human eye while Spencer possesses an integrated bionic arm that offer him immense strength, long-range grapple capabilities and dead-shot precision when targeting enemies with his firearms.