In anticipation of the freezing temperatures, Luigi swapped out his short-sleeved shirt for a flannel, long-sleeved one. He also slid on a winter coat, a scarf, a pair of earmuffs and more insulated gloves.
"I hope you like snow," Gadd told him when he emerged in his winter wear.
"Well—I have a love-hate relationship with it," said Luigi.
"As we all," Fred chimed in.
Gadd then told Luigi a little about his next destination.
"A secret mining operation was started at the top of that snowy mountain a while back," he said, "but it's been abandoned since."
"Why?" asked Luigi.
"No one knows," replied Gadd, "but what I do know is that the minerals in the mountain—especially the crystals—have unusual properties."
"That would explain the secret behind that mining operation," mused Luigi.
"But we'll discourse on that later," said Gadd. "The next Dark Moon piece is somewhere in this Secret Mine."
"Unfortunately, the signal picked up by the Parascope is unstable because of the terrible weather," Zed piped up.
"Does that mean we'll have to wing it?" asked Luigi.
"No," Gadd assured him, "because I already have a Toad Assistant there, doing some research. What are the odds, eh?"
"One in 734,958," Fred said crisply.
"Gee, thanks," murmured Luigi.
"His name's Ned, and he may have seen where the Dark Moon piece landed," said Gadd, "but he's not responding to my calls!"
Fred and Zed exchanged a concerned look.
"He's probably in the chalet, napping in front of the fireplace," reasoned Gadd, rolling his eyes. "I'll pixelate you nearby."
"If I ask him about the Dark Moon piece's location, then do you think he'll personally lead me there?" asked Luigi.
"I don't want him taking that chance," said Gadd. "Once you find him, bring him back here so we can talk to him."
"You got it," said Luigi.
"In the meantime, I'll keep scanning the area with the Parascope, looking for our Dark Moon piece," said Gadd. "Though the harsh weather will make it tough to find anything."
"We'll have to keep trying," said Zed.
"If the remaining Dark Moon pieces fall into the wrong hands, then that's no bueno," added Fred.
Gadd nodded. "Are you ready, Luigi? Here we go!"
Luigi sent Mario another text message before he gave Gadd the go-ahead to pixelate him out.
…
The Secret Mine was an old, frozen shack smack-dab in the middle of a perpetually winter wonderland. Currently, it wasn't as wonderous, since there were ghosts running rampant. It certainly wasn't wonderous to Luigi, who wound up pixelated there upside down, landing face-first in the cold snow. He pulled his head free, adjusted his cap and got to his feet, the cold beginning to knife his cheeks as his breath hung in thick clouds about him.
Flurries of snowflakes swirled in the air as Luigi began trudging through the snow, vacuuming up small piles of it and even uncovering a chest full of treasure. The soft, feathery flakes rested on the bare skin of his face, melting after a few seconds of contact. Luigi didn't mind—as he told Gadd, part of him liked the snow and part of him despised it. Snow was fun to play in when he was a boy, but it was a chore to shovel from the driveway in the mornings.
He caught some snowflakes on his tongue before proceeding toward the chalet, noticing a snowman near the entrance. When he yanked off the scarf, the snowman fell apart, and he could launch the "head" from the vacuum to earn a handful of coins. Then, he walked up the stairs, wiped some frost from the window and peeked through it to view an empty chalet, save for a Hider relaxing in a rocking chair.
The Hider turned around and saw him, causing them to spin around and ride the rocking chair like a bronco, more coins spilling out of it as the Hider laughed. Suddenly, the chair tipped over, yielding some dollar bills, and Luigi turned away before vacuuming up more piles of snow and heading inside.
After stamping the snow from his boots, Luigi glanced up to see the Hider back in the rocking chair. As the ghost alighted from it, the man in green stunned them, getting dragged a short distance before sucking the Hider into the vacuum. Something shoved him from behind, and he whirled to see a Sneaker grinning at him. Luigi made short work of them, too, along with a second Hider concealed in a drawer and a Gold Greenie hiding under a bear rug. Once all of the ghosts were in the Poltergust, Luigi searched the chalet, but he could find no sign of Ned. He was able to find a golden bone, though.
The Dual Scream rang.
"Yello?"
"Ned's not in the chalet?" asked Gadd.
"No, he isn't," replied Luigi. "Where else could he be?"
"He'd better not be fishing in that fishing hut out back," huffed Gadd. "I'm not paying him to catch fish—unless they're some kind of freaky ghost fish."
Luigi chuckled. "Now that I'd like to see," he said.
"I hope he's okay," Fred piped up.
"Don't worry," said Luigi. "I'll find him. Ciao."
Luigi hung up and proceeded into a smokehouse, where he uncovered a hidden scarf with the DLD. Yanking on both scarves opened a secret cabinet, which contained a sapphire. Whistling a tune, the man in green continued his search, jumping when a Greenie burst out of the stove.
After Luigi captured the Greenie, another Greenie appeared, using a rock as a weapon. He vacuumed the rock out of that Greenie's hand before capturing them, as well. Upon the ghosts' defeat, burning rocks were jettisoned from the stove, which Luigi used to melt some of the ice which built up inside the smokehouse. Doing so thawed out a cord, which he yanked to produce a downpour of treasure. Once he melted as much ice as he could, Luigi exited the smokehouse, finding himself back outside, walking—or sliding—along a frozen lake.
And it was there that Luigi sensed he was no longer alone.
There was a malevolent presence in Evershade Valley. A malevolent presence that wanted Luigi—or Professor Gadd or both—dead.
A chill that wasn't the cold pierced his back. He whirled, staring into the starry sky, but he saw nothing.
However, he knew that the presence was still there.
His guard on high-alert, Luigi blew on his hands to warm them before peeking through a hole into the fishing hut. There, he saw a solitary Boo floating inside, cackling and licking their tongue along—something. Luigi moved away before the Boo could spot him, just then spotting a hockey puck nearby. He launched it into a nearby goal, attracting the attention of two Gold Greenies in ice-hockey attire!
Dodging swings from hockey sticks, Luigi stunned and captured the Gold Greenies before drawing some Spirit Balls from the fishing hut's entrance. When he walked inside, the Boo smiled wickedly before disappearing, and then he sucked up piles of snow to find a reflection of a portrait on the icy floor.
A portrait of a Toad.
"Ned," Luigi murmured, shining his DLD on the wall in front of him and revealing the portrait. After vacuuming up the Spirit Balls, he released Ned from his artistic confines.
Ned landed on the icy floor, creating a small crack. He pushed himself up to a sitting position and laughed. Like Fred and Zed before him, the blue-spotted Toad sported some bruises, along with a busted lip and several small cuts, but he wasn't seriously injured.
"Thanks, Mar—Luigi! Is that you?" asked Ned.
"In the flesh," responded Luigi.
Ned leaped to his feet, causing the icy floor to further crack. "Boy, am I happy to see you!" he chirped.
In his jubilation, Ned started jumping up and down, creating more cracks on the floor.
"Ned, wait!" cautioned Luigi. "Stop! You're gonna…"
But Ned paid him no heed—at least until the ice crackled ominously beneath their feet.
He glanced up. "Whoops," he muttered.
The icy floor gave way, sending Luigi and Ned tumbling an indeterminate distance into the snow. Ned landed in a snowy pile, and once Luigi recovered his wits, he helped the Toad Assistant free himself.
"Are you all right?" he asked.
"Yeah," Ned replied.
"Just—be careful, all right?"
"What are you, my mom?" Ned rolled his eyes. "All right."
The Dual Scream rang, and Luigi answered it. "Yello?"
"Luigi!" Gadd's voice was quite static-y. "Are you all right?"
"I'm good," replied Luigi.
"You're losing reception," said Gadd. "Are you underground?"
"My bad," Ned spoke up. "I didn't know the ice was so thin."
"Good Lord! The two of you probably fell into the old mine!" Gadd exclaimed. "The place is extremely dangerous! Be careful!"
"Okay."
"There's an old elevator that should take you back to the chalet," Gadd went on. "That's the only way out! Good luck!"
"Ciao," said Luigi, hanging up and turning to Ned.
"C'mon," he said. "I'm gonna take you back up to the chalet. The Professor, Fred and Zed are worried about you."
He opened his coat slightly, allowing Ned to huddle inside. Insane cackling sounded around them, giving the mine an unsettling atmosphere. While searching for a way back aboveground, the two of them encountered a Gold Greenie, which Luigi easily dealt with. Then, Ned got his attention with a light tug on his coat.
"There's a geyser blasting out air," he said, pointing it out to Luigi. "Let's use that to head back up."
"Good eye, Ned," said Luigi, suctioning the Toad onto the nozzle and stepping onto the geyser, which propelled the both of them upward.
"That was fun," gasped Ned. "And look—I see a sapphire!"
Ned crawled into a nearby mineshaft, emerging with the aforementioned sapphire cradled in his arms.
"Thank you," said Luigi as Ned slipped the sapphire into his pocket.
The two of them pushed through a door into a gondola terminal, and then accessed the high wires, where Ned helped Luigi uncover another sapphire. Back in the terminal, the two of them headed into the airway, and Ned frowned.
"Darn it," he hissed. "The zip line can't be activated from this side!" His expression lightened. "Hey! Look over there! That's the elevator we need to reach! We'll need to find another way to get over there."
"Great," huffed Luigi. "Just great."
Ned turned and spotted a lift behind him. Again, he tugged on Luigi's coat, and then he saw the lift, too. Using the Poltergust, he launched Ned onto it, lowering it with his weight while also raising another lift. On that lift was a key partially buried in snow, which Luigi freed by vacuuming up the snow pile.
After pocketing the key, Luigi knelt and high-fived Ned. "I think we're getting somewhere now," he said.
They walked back into the terminal, and Luigi discovered that the "door" to his left was just a cloth. Yanking it down revealed a mirror and allowed him to uncover a hidden barrel. Cackling sounded from within the barrel, and when Luigi peered inside to investigate, the Boo he'd seen earlier jumped out!
"Hey, who turned out the lights?" asked the Boo. "I'm Boofoon!"
"J—s! That's him!" exclaimed Ned. "That's the Boo who trapped me in that portrait!"
A paternal feeling welled up inside Luigi as he faced Boofoon. He wasn't about to let Ned fall victim to them again! His jaw set as he yanked hard on the Boo's tongue, sending them bouncing all over the terminal. He repeated this until their HP was depleted, and then he none-too-gently shoved Boofoon into the Poltergust.
Ned cheered, and then he huddled back inside Luigi's coat as the man in green used the key to unlock the door to a prospector's crossing.
A smaller icy lake was in front of them. When Luigi tried to carry Ned across it, the weight proved too much for the icy sheet, sending Ned frantically scurrying back. After warming the Toad back up, Luigi suctioned him onto the nozzle and used the "blow" function to shoot him to the other side. Then, he hurried over to join Ned.
The duo continued into a drift hall, where Luigi found a key inside a chest. This key unlocked a door to a basin, where some Sneakers lay in wait for them. But Luigi skillfully defended Ned against the ghosts, keeping his body planted in between the Toad and the Sneakers. It took about two and a half minutes the clear away all of the ghosts, and then Ned and Luigi proceeded to the other side of the airway.
A rope bridge led to the elevator Ned had mentioned, but it was in a state of disrepair. Luigi pulled one of the ends back into place, creating a makeshift tightrope.
"Stay here," he told Ned before steeling himself and beginning the treacherous trip across.
The icy winds tried to knock him off balance, and his nervousness wasn't doing any favors. But Luigi looked straight ahead as he willed himself to the other side, step by step. When he reached his destination, he exhaled before fixing the other end of the rope bridge. Now, it was safe for him and Ned to cross.
After Luigi fished another sapphire out of a barrel and activated the zipline system, he and Ned boarded the elevator, which took them back up to the chalet. Across from them was a Pixelator screen.
"Thanks for getting me out of there," said Ned as Luigi activated the Pixelator.
"You're welcome," said Luigi.
The two of them waved at each other as Ned was sent to the Bunker.
The Dual Scream rang.
"Yello?"
"You had me worried for a minute there, son," said Gadd. "I thought I'd have to go looking for both of you myself!"
"I can be pretty resourceful when necessary," said Luigi.
"Ned made it back safe and sound," Gadd told him. "I'll bring you on back, too. Hold on a sec."
"Ciao," said Luigi before hanging up.
He could hardly wait to return to the Bunker's warmth.
…
"Welcome back, Luigi! You did good!" Gadd said merrily when Luigi returned. "The Poltergust 5000 must be about to burst with all the treasures and ghosts you found in the mine!"
"It is," said Luigi, emptying his trusty vacuum into the Vault.
"I'm a bit rattled from all of this," said Ned, "but I think I'll be okay."
"Thank God Luigi found you," said Zed.
"Ditto," Ned softly intoned. "I know somebody shattered the Dark Moon. Unfortunately, I haven't seen the piece that landed in the Secret Mine. However, I can tell you that the ghosts—Boos in particular—have been very active."
"My," breathed Gadd.
"Professor," said Luigi. "I shouldn't be telling you, this—but I sensed something out on the frozen lake. And when I was trying to get Ned out of the bottom of the mine, I thought I could hear some—crazed laughter." He shuddered. "I didn't like the sound of that laughter."
Gadd paled. "That's not good news," he said.
"I've got a snapshot from that tridimensional security camera," Ned told everyone.
"Great! I'll process it posthaste!" said Gadd as Ned handed him the security image. "Fred, Zed and I have set out an assortment of teas in the lounge."
"Thanks," said Ned. "I could use some thawing out."
"Me, too," said Luigi as he followed the blue-spotted Toad into the lounge.
Please R&R.