Luigi's Mansion 2: Dark Moon
Chapter Twenty: Under Wrapps
From watching the stuff that Luigi had gone through so far in Evershade Valley, Daisy was prepared, at least somewhat, to face all manner of ghosts and phantoms along with their dirty tricks… but this thing in front of her didn't appear to be a ghost at all. The sand had fallen off it's bandages during its rise to the surface, and now its large feet were leaving footprints as it kind of stumbled toward the Princess, the mummy's legs kind of wobbly and it's arms sort of flailing around in her general direction as if its body wasn't quite working properly. Either way, it was coming for her, so she charged up the strobulb before letting the flash loose right in its bandaged face.
Aside from growling a little, there was no effect from the light, forcing Daisy to move backwards to avoid being grabbed, even though she wasn't exactly sure what the creature was planning on doing with her if it managed to. Probably not anything good, so avoided the next grab while moving around to the side of the chamber, forcing the mummy to stumble sideways as it tried to follow, charging the strobulb again and flashing it just as the creature was finishing its turn to get it by surprise. Unfortunately, there was still no effect, aside from making the mummy stumble forward right into the wall when it missed grabbing her by mere inches.
Taking advantage of the moment, the Princess rushed forward and shoved the creature while it was pushing off the wall with its flailing arms, causing it to growl again in a manner that almost sounded surprised as it fell backwards. Unfortunately, one of those flailing arms managed to grab onto Daisy's hair, making her scream as she was dragged down with it, getting a mouthful of sand after landing on the dirt floor. Spitting out the sand, she tried to crawl away, but the mummy was still grabbing at her, first getting a hold of one of her feet, and then trying to grab the Poltergust to the point where the two of them were wrestling for control of the vacuum head.
"Let go!" The Princess yelled, being pulled forward a little across the sand. "I said let go, you bandaged freak!"
Twisting around so that she was still holding onto the vacuum head while being able to kick at the creature with her feet, Daisy kicked at its head and one of its arms, gasping in shock when the limb simply fell out of its socket. The head didn't seem to mind being kicked, however, and its remaining arm kept grabbing at the Poltergust until the vacuum turned on, first attaching itself to the Princess's fingers, then a lot of sand when it was forced down by their continuing struggle, and then the tattered end of one of the creature's bandages. Suddenly the struggle was over, and the mummy's remaining arm let go of her as the creature began to violently spin around, kicking up even more dirt into her face as the thing spun faster and faster.
She was kicked a couple times, and knocked back down when she tried to get up, all the while that mummy was spinning faster and faster… while getting smaller and smaller until they finally separated so that Daisy fell backwards as… as a glowing purple figure fell in the opposite direction. Stumbling on wooden stilts with boots attached to the bottom, and dropping the remaining plunger stick arm right before it fell, a pair of dark sunglasses were hanging halfway off its face, explaining why the strobulb hadn't worked. But why would that purple phantom gone through all the trouble of making itself up into a mummy? Just to scare her more? That didn't make any sense, but without those glasses on, its glowing yellow eyes were vulnerable.
Pushing the button to charge the strobulb while the heavily dazed ghost struggled to free itself from the wooden stilts, she aimed the vacuum at the phantom's face just as it was looking up at her, blasting it with light, and then hitting the vacuum switch. Dizzy and then blinded by the flash, the purple ghost's whole head down to its shoulders were sucked into the Poltergust before it was able to react, but then the phantom flew straight up, slamming both the Princess and the vacuum into the stone ceiling. It tried to pass through up into the higher levels of the Old Clockworks, but was too far into the vacuum, and was pulled back down when the Princess crashed back into the sand.
That crash was all that was needed to make the purple ghost lose its grip on the edges of the vacuum head, vanishing down into the main unit while Daisy had to lay there for several minutes catching her breath. Coughing out more sand, while even more fell from her when she was finally able to get up, her own legs almost as wobbly as the ghost's wooden stilts from fatigue as she made her way over to where the other clock hand was laying. It was the smaller of the two, but after capturing all those ghosts it felt like the metal hand weighed a ton, and… wait a second, all those ghosts? There were only two so far, and Luigi had dealt with more than that in Gloomy Manor alone.
Luigi had bounced back after everything the ghost threw at him, capturing more than a dozen so far, including two Boos… while she was a dripping sweaty mess, barely able to keep standing up. Eventually, Daisy caught her breath, carrying the hour hand over her shoulder as she left the ruins, traveling back up into the mine junction where she had left the minute hand, reaching down and… and having to rest again before trying to carry their combined weight back up toward the factory. At least the radio was working again, and soon the cameras would be able to see her as soon as she got back up through the trap door. It took a second for her to push the clock hands up onto the floor of the Old Clockworks, followed by boosting herself back up, and then closing the door behind her.
"Are you all right, Daisy?" The Professor's voice crackled through. "You were out of contact for a long time… I was worried something happened to you."
"No, I'm fine." The Princess replied, dragging the metal clock hands back toward the service elevator. "I got the hands, and… and I got the ghosts… just that Boo now."
The old man advised her that she should come back to the bunker and take a rest, since she wasn't used to this kind of work, and Daisy agreed that she would… right after she captured Boo-dacious. That disgusting round ghost had licked her face and called her insulting names, and now the anger that the Princess was feeling toward that Boo was actually making her feel less tired. The Professor didn't agree, warning her that trying to capture a Boo wasn't like the weaker ghosts that she had dealt with, and while… and while it was a bit disheartening for him to refer to the gold and purple phantoms as weak, this was something she felt she had to do if she was going to prove herself to Luigi as a ghost hunter.
Lifting the hands up and mounting them on top of the router, both of them slid right back into place as if it was no big deal that Boo-dacious had removed them in the first place, and as soon as that final click of setting them was heard, the cage door preventing her from reaching the service elevator slid open. So far the Old Clockworks was still just as silent as when she entered, and nothing jumped out at her when she stepped onto the wooden platform of the elevator, although startled and jumping a bit when the whole thing jolted after she pushed the up button on the mounted switch. Cables began to move over rusty pully wheels, making a vibrating, squeak noise each time they went completely around, slowly raising the Princess from the factory floor up into the clock tower.
Eventually the elevator stopped, opening the cage door again inside of an area that was filled with old bells and gigantic clock gears that were so rusted and dust covered that it looked like they hadn't functioned in years. Enough light was coming in through the massive clock faces on all four walls for her to see what was around as she stepped out of the elevator, and good thing, too, because there weren't even any lit candles in this place. Even though there was enough illumination to see, Daisy still clicked on the flashlight just so that anything up there would have a harder time sneaking up on her, passing the light beam around over all the discarded metal scraps and old bolts that were all over the wooden floor.
"Hi again, beautiful." A voice said as Boo-dacious appeared toward the center of the room. "I guess it was too much to hope that those two bums could handle you… took your time getting here, though, I was starting to think you got lost."
The white, rounded ghost wasn't making any attempt to hide itself or sneak up on her, just contently floating in the air as if it was waiting for her to come farther into the room, and there really wasn't much choice but to do so. Still, she passed the light beam around in each direction before advancing, and… and so far there was nothing else there. So what was going on here? Was Boo-dacious waiting to have some kind of one on one competition with her? While it was true that the Princess was getting the hang of the Poltergust, she hadn't completely ignored the Professor's advice about Boos being a lot tougher than the average ghost, so she moved slowly toward it, trying to be ready for anything.
"All I want is the Dark Moon piece." Daisy said, pressing the button to charge the strobulb. "Just leave it here and go, and you don't have to get vacuumed up."
"Ignoring the fact that you're not good enough at ghost hunting to threaten me." Boo-dacious replied, laughing a little as he floated closer. "The Dark Moon doesn't mean anything to us, beautiful, neither does this valley or any of the braindead morons floating around in it. See, this whole thing's a personal matter, and as cute as you are, Daisy… you're in the way."
Boo-dacious laughed again, saying that if she was smart, the Princess would drop the Poltergust and run away screaming while she still could. In fact, she should stay out of Evershade Valley completely, and leave this whole ghost hunting business to Luigi. In response, Daisy flashed the strobulb, but the round ghost just laughed, partially vanishing while dodging to the side, and leaving a blurry trail over to the far side of the clock tower where he reappeared. Well, the old man was right when he said that Boos were a lot faster than regular ghosts, but she couldn't back down from this fight, not now.
No… she had to capture this Boo.