After placing calls to Brad, Chad, Thad and Conrad, Luigi sent yet another voicemail to Mario. He was surprised to find that the situation hadn't yet made the news. In this day and age, something like that wouldn't take long to reach the headlines. And since Mario was infinitesimally important to the MK, the news about his startling disappearance would've broken instantly.
Something was going on, and Luigi knew it.
"Okay, Luigi," Gadd's voice said from above. "I'm bringing you up."
Luigi held on as he was hoisted out of the vault. Gadd sat there, smiling brightly.
"Good news, Luigi—the special compass revealed an alternate entrance to the underground!" he announced.
"Do you think the clock hands are hidden there?" asked Luigi.
"I sure hope they are," replied Gadd. "I've marked the entrance's location on your map. Take a look!"
Luigi took out his Dual Scream and studied the exclamation point.
"The normal access may be blocked," Gadd went on, "but there's an exterior hatch located in the Clockworks Court."
Luigi put the Dual Scream away, and then Gadd handed him the special compass.
"This will open that hatch, believe it or not," said Gadd.
"Cool," said Luigi.
"They don't call this compass special for nothing!" Gadd said with a laugh. "Now, about the missing parts for the Clock Tower Gate—the clock hands are our top priority. And like you said, there's a strong probability that they're deep underground."
"Courtesy of the ghosts," Fred chimed in.
"Yeah," said Luigi, "and they won't give them up without pounding me hard. I need to be careful."
Quickly, he ducked into the lounge to change into a short-sleeved shirt, for he knew that it would be hot and stuffy down there.
"All right," said Gadd when Luigi was ready. "Good luck, youngster. Don't get lost down there."
"Professor!" chided Fred.
"It's okay. I won't," said Luigi.
Gadd chuckled before activating the Pixelator.
…
This time, Luigi was able to land on his feet like a professional gymnast. He allowed himself a few seconds to silently celebrate this little accomplishment before setting out on his mission.
It wasn't long before he found something—metal—sticking out from the ground. Pulling out the special compass, Luigi knelt down and fitted it into the metal fixture. Sand kicked up as the compass started to spin, revealing some sort of trapdoor. Luigi tapped on it with his foot, causing the door to open, sending him dropping down.
Luigi was deposited into a storm cellar, and as he predicted, it was hot and a little stuffy. Luckily, he'd made sure to bring some water along. Even so, he didn't want to spend more time in here than needed.
Before he could head deeper underground, however, two Greenies appeared in front of him, one of them holding a wooden bucket. Just like that, Luigi snapped into action, vacuuming the bucket out of the Greenie's hands, holding down the Strobulb button and then releasing the flash once the two ghosts were in range. They were captured in seconds.
There was a door blocked by a gate, but placing a rock on a nearby lift easily lifted it. After finding another ruby, Luigi proceeded into a canyon hall, humming along to his music playlist as he crept forward. Detonating a Robomb cleared away some debris, and then he stepped into the canyon narrows, where he used two zipline-like wires to cross to the other side of the canyon hall. Just as he reached the door, those pink gates closed over it. A ghost was out and about!
"Show yourself!" shouted Luigi.
Ghostly laughter answered him.
He tiptoed toward one of the crates, vacuuming up a gold bar—and that was when a Sneaker popped out.
Luigi jumped back, cursing. But the Sneaker didn't get far before the man in green stunned them. The best they could do was drag Luigi all around the canyon hall. Eventually, Luigi planted his feet and sent the Sneaker into the Poltergust where they belonged.
He noticed a door to his right and went through it, trudging up the canyon stairs, snagging a ruby and detonating a Robomb which made short work of some more debris. Before he could explore further, the Dual Scream rang.
"Yello?"
"Good going, Luigi!" gushed Gadd. "It seems you just unblocked the original entrance from the other side! Once we clear out the ghosts, I'll be able to explore the underground myself."
"Hoping to find a lost artifact?" asked Luigi.
"That would be something," said Gadd, "but for now, you've got to get back down there and find those clock hands."
"Ciao," said Luigi before hanging up and continuing his search.
In a roundhouse pit, Luigi uncovered and detonated some bombs hiding in the trash bins, all the while fending off some green beetles. By yanking on a metal chain, he broke down a wall to reveal a door on the other side of the pit. Then, the Dual Scream went off again.
Luigi sighed. "Yello?"
"Lu_gi! Can y_u hear me?"
"You're starting to break up," said Luigi.
"You must be v_ry deep undergr_nd," Gadd went on.
"Yeah, you think?"
"See th_t tunnel? It seems the Old Clockw_ks was built d_rectly above an anci_nt archeological site."
"Whoa," breathed Luigi.
"Be ca_ful. Who kn_ws what things you'll find down th_re?"
"Hopefully, the clock hands will be one of them," said Luigi. "Ciao."
He hung up and ventured over to a nearby sarcophagus. As he opened it to check for anything valuable, bandages like those used for mummification snarled around his body and yanked him inside!
Fighting against his bonds and struggling to stay calm, Luigi watched as a Boo and a Hider floated into the room, the latter carrying a bomb. After the Hider placed the bomb on the ground and left, the Boo cast some Spirit Balls and disappeared. At that point, Luigi managed to break out of the sarcophagus and disentangle the bandages from his body.
"J—s C—st," he muttered as he pushed through the door and accessed a pit slide.
He jumped at the sound of a muffled avalanche. Then, he flopped onto his stomach and slid down the sandy slope, collecting coins and gold bars along the way. When he reached the bottom, he brushed himself off and found a golden bone in a large vase before stepping into a quarry.
Sand poured in through a hole in the ceiling, and higher up in the quarry was a door. Once he noticed a minecart, Luigi formulated a plan, tugging the minecart toward the pouring sand. But once it was in place, a Greenie emerged from the cart!
As sand began to fill the area, Luigi faced off against the Greenie, and then battled and caught several more Greenies, most of the batch armed with shovels. At least one Greenie was gold and yielded additional treasure upon capture. And after he'd defeated the Greenies, he had to fight some Sneakers who loved burrowing around in the sand. By the time all of the ghosts were subdued, Luigi was bruised, rattled and had sand in his eyes. But at least he could access the next door.
But part of a bridge was missing, hidden by Spirit Balls. And after Luigi drew out and vacuumed those Spirit Balls, the Boo he'd seen earlier confronted him!
"Boo ha ha!" cackled the Boo. "I'm Bootine—with extra gravy!"
Rolling his eyes, Luigi sent Bootine bouncing all over the quarry before wrestling them into the Poltergust.
The door opened into an antechamber, and Luigi paused. It was completely dark, save for his flashlight and a few torches burning along the walls. Spiderwebs blocked the passageway, but there was also a web ball, which he set afire and used to clear the obstructions.
At the end of the antechamber was a tomb, and Luigi started thinking about the Indiana Jones movies he'd seen. He hoped against hope that he wouldn't come across a cursed artifact and unintentionally doom the universe, or that he wouldn't wind up trying to outrun a giant stone ball. But since ghosts were out and about…
Another sarcophagus was in front of him, and he cautiously pushed open the lid. However, his apprehensive expression changed to a joyful one when he saw one of the clock hands float up.
"Okay, that's one of them," he breathed, "but where's the other?"
Luigi reached out to take the clock hand, only for it to tilt to the side. Frowning, Luigi tried again, getting the same result. And then a Poltergeist emerged, holding up the clock hand and cackling. This Poltergeist was different from the one in the Gloomy Manor's library, with a blue hue instead of a yellowish one.
Laughing, the Poltergeist flew off into the antechamber. Luigi was about to give pursuit when he heard a strange noise.
"What the…?"
He screamed out as a mummified hand burst from the sand below him. Slowly, a mummy pulled themselves to the surface with a low groan, followed by two more. Luigi was now in bad trouble—the Poltergust wasn't equipped to deal with mummies! As the mummies shambled toward him, he spat out a curse and wildly flashed his Strobulb at them, and to his surprise, they were sent staggering in different directions, one of them walking straight into a wall and falling onto the sand.
One of their bandages was loose.
Seizing the opportunity, Luigi gave the bandage's loose end a sharp tug, unraveling the mummy. But instead of a rotting corpse—he found a Greenie on stilts!
Way too close, Luigi thought, hefting the Poltergust and taking on the remaining two "mummies".
The "mummies" could attack by barreling into him, and if that wasn't enough, then those beetles started springing up all over the tomb, nipping at him. He ignored them, trying to get the "mummies" to stumble into the walls or one of the torches on either side of the room. Even with the beetles, defeating those "mummies" was rather easy. However, his skin was itchy from the beetle bites.
The Dual Scream rang.
"Lu_gi! Are you all r_ght?" asked Gadd.
"Yeah," said Luigi. "These beetles are immune to my bug repellant, though."
"Did y_ see that big-headed ghost? They ran off wi_ the clock hands we're look_g for!"
"I was about to go after them," said Luigi, "but then these Greenies disguised as mummies attacked me."
"We need to track th_ down," said Gadd. "I'll pix_port you back so we c_n regroup."
"Ciao," said Luigi, wiping his brow and waiting for the Pixelator to work its magic.
…
"Good job down there, my boy," said Gadd. "I must say, though—those ghosts pretending to be mummies? What a hoot!"
"I certainly wasn't laughing," said Luigi. "Until I figured out that they were just Greenies on stilts, I thought I was gonna die in there."
"So did I," said Fred.
"All right," said Gadd. "Let's send the clever little rascals to the Vault, eh?"
"I couldn't agree more," said Luigi, emptying the Poltergust.
"I have some iced tea waiting for you in the lounge," said Gadd, "along with some ointment for those beetle bites."
"Thanks, Professor," said Luigi.
"However," Gadd continued, "that big-headed Poltergeist—the one that took the clock hands—could be a problem."
"How so?" asked Luigi.
"The Parascope went crazy when he appeared, so he must be very powerful," said Gadd.
"On the bright side, that very power will allow us to track him down!" Fred chimed in. "How about you relax in the lounge while we scan the Old Clockworks?"
"I'll leave you to it," said Luigi.
He strode into the lounge, poured himself a tall glass of iced tea and plunked himself onto a sofa before ministering to the beetle bites.
Then, he took out his phone to check on the situation with Mario.
Please R&R.