"He's not answering the door? And his car is parked in the driveway?!"
"That's what they say," said Thad. "There were no signs of a disturbance, either—but the neighbors said that they heard a struggle."
Luigi felt sick.
"Whoever was responsible must've tidied up the place afterward," Thad went on.
"Dio! Someone attacked my bro, and I wasn't there to help him!" Luigi exclaimed. "Has a state of emergency been declared?"
"If the attacker wanted to go after Peach, then wouldn't they have done so already?" asked Thad. "She's still safe in her castle, and once more information surfaces, she'll take the necessary action."
"Do you know who'd attack him?" asked Luigi.
"It's definitely not Koopa," said Thad. "He would've made a spectacular entrance beforehand—burned the residence to the ground, even, and of course, he would've taken the opportunity to grab Peach. Look, maybe it's just some troublemaker who wants to rattle the MK, but I promise you—if there's a new development, then you'll be the first to know."
"Thanks, Thad," said Luigi before hanging up and snatching at his hair. This was just great. He was God-knows-how many miles from the MK, and someone decided to mess with his brother for fun! Worse yet, Mario probably didn't even know that he'd been roped into this venture in a strange land! Neither of them knew if the other was okay, or even alive. Which brother had it worse?
As Luigi tried to calm his racing thoughts, he heard Gadd's voice call his name.
"Yes?" he asked, a bit tersely, as he walked over.
"Is everything all right?"
"Well—I…"
"You still haven't heard from Mario?"
"I think something's definitely happened to him," said Luigi. "Some Toads did a welfare check, and he wasn't at home, but the car was in his driveway. And the neighbors—heard sounds of struggling…"
"Dear Lord," said Gadd.
"Right now, they're saying that it's a random troublemaker, but—I should've been there! I could've helped him fight off that troublemaker!"
"I have faith in Mario," Gadd said gently. "I know he'll overpower the troublemaker and escape."
"And if he doesn't?"
"Then the Toads of the MK will band together to help him—just like he's helped them," said Gadd.
"What a case of horrible timing," grumbled Luigi. "Someone goes after Mario shortly after I'm called away on an emergency. I vowed to protect him, and…"
"Hey—you can't be everywhere at once," said Gadd, "and there are some things that you just—can't protect him from."
"It won't stop me from trying," said Luigi.
Gadd looked into his eyes and knew that he was serious about this.
"But for the time being, I'm hoping that he'll fight his way out," Luigi went on. "There has to be another Dark Moon piece hiding in the Old Clockworks. Have you tracked it down?"
"I have," said Gadd. "Before it was abandoned, Old Clockworks once produced the finest timepieces ever made. But years of neglect have turned it into a favorite haunt for ghosts. So, it wasn't surprising when the Parascope detected our next Dark Moon piece inside the place! After some fine-tuning, I was able to pinpoint its precise location—the top of the Clock Tower!"
Gadd pulled up a digital representation of the Old Clockworks. "Do you see the fancy-looking door over there? That's the Clock Tower Gate. You'll need to get through the gate in order to climb the Clock Tower. I've highlighted it on your map."
Luigi whipped out the Dual Scream and saw the exclamation mark at the aforementioned location.
"Now that we know where the Dark Moon piece is located, you won't have to stumble around in the dark!" Gadd said cheerfully.
"That's a relief," said Luigi. "I'll just get to the Clock Tower, grab the piece and then get out of there."
"You said it! What could possibly go wrong?"
Luigi bit his lip. "Maybe we shouldn't answer that," he said.
Fred nodded in agreement. "When it comes to ghosts, anything can go wrong," he said.
"All righty. Here we go," said Gadd as he pixelated Luigi to the Old Clockworks.
…
He landed bottom-first in the gritty sand, a cloud of dust drifting around him. Luigi gave a mighty sneeze as he got to his feet, the dry, sandy wind irritating his eyes. He craned his neck and saw the tower he was looking for. The trick was—finding a way to the top.
Sneezing again, Luigi peered through a telescope, where he saw another white, horned ghost floating around the Clock Tower, a hue of purple embedded in their chest.
"A Possessor," he murmured. At least he knew what to anticipate when he reached the top of that tower.
He turned and flashed his Strobulb at a green panel, causing a yard arm to open. Sniffling and sneezing, Luigi made his way into the clockworks court, where he vacuumed up piles of sand and cobwebs and found a chest containing some dollar bills. He also came across a round, red object which he activated with the Strobulb, causing it to sprout arms and legs, flash and beep as it ran toward him. Luigi quickly ran out of the way as the object detonated.
"Huh," he said. "A robotic bomb. A robot bomb—a Robomb."
Continuing to explore the clockworks court, Luigi came across green beetles that persistently followed him around and were immune to the bug repellant he'd applied earlier. He could stun these beetles with a Strobulb flash, though. More of those Robombs appeared throughout the clockworks court, and detonating them cleared away obstacles to allow further exploration. He even came across another chest, which contained a ruby.
The front entrance was blocked by a giant clock face, but Luigi could move the clock hands by spinning the wheel next to it. When the time on the clock face matched the time on a nearby smaller clock, the giant clock lifted to reveal a door, which opened into a warehouse.
Inside the warehouse, Luigi was startled by a Greenie, who fled into a room upstairs. Also in the warehouse was a strange-looking contraption with a green ribbon inserted in it. With the vacuum, Luigi unraveled that ribbon to reveal a gold bar.
"I've never seen something like this before," he said.
He scoured the warehouse for more ribbons, lined them up in neat rows and unraveled them all. The green ones contained gold bars or dollar bills, while the red ones were less likely to contain treasure. As he worked, he heard some Boos cackling, but he paid the sound no mind—for now.
Eventually, he figured that if there were Boos nearby, then he should capture them before they caused headaches for him and Gadd. He revealed a hidden ribbon with the DLD, but it didn't contain a Boo; it contained another ruby. Unraveling a red ribbon, however, revealed the Boo he was looking for.
"ComBooter says 01100010 01101111 0101111!" laughed the Boo.
Luigi wasted no time capturing ComBooter, and then he opened a safe containing a gold ribbon, which he unraveled to reveal a key. Having completely searched the warehouse, he continued into a roundhouse, where some spiders and crows tried to bother him. He vacuumed away piles of dirt, found a golden bone in a drawer and then unlocked the door on the other side of the warehouse, which opened into a darkened workshop.
Two Greenies in welding masks were hammering away at a Robomb. Detonating that Robomb stunned the two, allowing Luigi to capture them without that rough of a fight. After those two Greenies came a Gold Greenie, and then Luigi collected all of the treasure and continued on his way.
In the next door over was the Clock Tower Gate, where some Robombs were strewn in the sand. The grains seemed to swish around Luigi as he treaded from Robomb to Robomb, detonating them all. Then, he studied the Clock Tower Gate. It was a clock face similar to the one at the entrance, except that the clock hands were missing. That was odd.
"How do I open this d—n thing?" he wondered aloud.
As if in response, the Dual Scream rang.
"Yello?"
"Good job, Luigi," said Gadd. "I see you made it to the gate."
"I did," said Luigi, "but it just looks—odd. It's just a clock face and no hands."
"Are you telling me that the clock hands are missing?!"
"They are."
"Those clever ghosts," muttered Gadd. "You see, the clock hands operate the Clock Tower Gate. The ghosts figured that out and hid them from us! Incredible!"
"Yeah—for them," sighed Luigi. "For us, it's a huge pain in the [bleep]."
"I agree," said Gadd. "It would take a strong ghost to pry off those clock hands."
Luigi remembered the Possessor he'd seen fooling around in the Clock Tower. It would be just his luck if they hid them along with the Dark Moon piece, thus making the latter unreachable.
"I'll scan the area for any powerful paranormal signals," Gadd went on. "And if I pick up anything, then I'll let you know."
"Ciao," said Luigi.
Just as he hung up, a Greenie appeared and then dove into the sand, creating a mini-tornado. Luigi dodged this tornado, and when the Greenie became dizzy, he stunned them and vacuumed them up. Then, two more Greenies attacked him in the same fashion. The ensuing battle left him sneezing up a storm and wiping sand granules from his eyes, but the last Greenie he defeated dropped a key, which unlocked the door to a cargo room.
The Dual Scream rang a second time.
"Yello?"
"Well, I think I've found our clock thieves," said Gadd. "There's a strong signal underground, and I reckon it's them."
"Well, how do I get underground?" asked Luigi.
"According to my research, there's a special compass that should help you get down there," Gadd replied. "It's likely stored somewhere in the drafting office. Check your map, and hop to it!"
"Ciao."
Luigi glanced up at the floor above him, wondering how he could reach it without any stairs. Then, his eye fell on a Robomb embedded in some sand. Detonating it caused some sand to pour into the room. This sand raised the ground level enough for him to pull down a ramp to access the next floor.
"Genius," he said.
However, as he started up the ramp, out popped a Greenie, sending him tumbling back down into the sand. This Greenie was joined by another Greenie and a couple of Robombs. Whenever the Strobulb failed to stun his ghostly opponents, Luigi relied on the Robombs, making sure to stay out of range of the explosions, of course. After capturing a Greenie, he heard the deep chuckle of a Slammer who was burrowing around in the sand. This Slammer jumped out in front of him, giving him a quick scare, but he soon recovered his wits and had the Slammer in the Poltergust's suction before they knew what was coming! Finally, the Slammer was captured, and Luigi could proceed. He detonated a gold Robomb, which yielded some gold bars, before heading up the ramp and into the next room.
It was the second floor of the Clock Tower Gate, where parts of the walkway were missing.
Bit by bit, Luigi revealed these hidden pieces of the walkway with the DLD, sucking up the Spirit Balls and wincing as they glanced across his body. During this, spiders would descend on webs to impede him, and he'd just stun or vacuum them. When he reached the end of this walkway, he pushed open the door into the drafting office, which was teeming with ghosts.
Luigi sucked in his breath and battled them all, and afterward, he sucked loose scraps of paper into his vacuum. Blowing on a ceiling fan pushed back a wall to reveal a hidden area of the drafting office, but before he could explore it, a Sneaker startled him! He brandished the Poltergust and advanced on them, only for two more Sneakers to pop out and give him a huge scare!
After a few slip-ups, Luigi managed to stun all three Sneakers at once, capturing them in seconds. Then, he turned his vacuum back on the ceiling fan, pushing back the wall and walking into the hidden area before the passageway closed behind him.
A door in this hidden area took him to the warehouse's second floor, where there were plenty of gold bars to collect. After that, he went back inside, where he found the special compass inside a desk!
Laughing softly, Luigi kissed the compass before answering an incoming call on the Dual Scream.
"Yello?"
"Ah! That must be the special compass!" said Gadd. "I'll bring you back so Fred and I can take a gander at it. Hold on a sec."
"Ciao." Luigi hung up and did his little victory dance as he waited for the Pixelator to recall him.
…
"I must say—I really thought getting that Dark Moon piece would be a breeze," sighed Gadd.
"So did I," said Luigi, "but I should've known better."
"Yeah. These pesky ghosts won't make this easy for us," bemoaned Gadd. "Speaking of ghosts, let's unload the Poltergust 5000."
Once Luigi did so, Gadd laughed and clapped his hands. "Perfect! I can now equip the DLD with its final upgrade!" he cried. "The cooling component will now reach its maximum efficacy. Those ghosts can't hide from you now!"
Luigi slid off his Poltergust and handed it to Gadd.
"There will be one more upgrade after this," said Gadd, "and it's going to be special. But—more on that later. Let me see that special compass."
"Here you go," said Luigi, handing over the item in question.
Gadd intently studied the special compass. "This is really something else," he breathed. "I'm gonna need some time to examine it. Fred, would you like to help?"
"Certainly," replied Fred.
"Perhaps you'd like to visit the Vault in the meantime, Luigi," asked Gadd. "Check your progress."
"Maybe," replied Luigi.
Gadd pressed a button, and Luigi gasped as he was lowered into the Vault beneath the Bunker. The ghosts were in a green containment unit, and the Boos were in a blue containment unit. Luigi walked over to the unit which stored the ghosts, watching as they socialized with each other. Down here, it was quiet and still. Perhaps he could take advantage of that to fish for updates on Mario's situation—whatever that might be.
Please R&R.