Luigi's Mansion 2: Dark Moon
Chapter Eight: The Basement
Now that Gloomy Manor was seemingly free of ghosts, at least the ones that Luigi had seen so far, the whole place was oddly quiet, like in a disturbing way especially since none of the lights had come on yet. Back when clearing out his own mansion, every time the ghosts had been removed from an area of the house everything got bright, but in this place nothing had happened. So, did that mean the Dark Moon piece was needed for the lights to come on? So far nothing in Evershade Valley had been like the green plumber's first ghost hunting experience, but with how much the fog had been cleared after getting that piece cleaned up, he was certain that everything else would be fixed once they had the other piece.
As for the stairs, they weren't very hard to find, just across the way and through another door from the stairs going up, but this time it was so dark that there weren't even any candles inside the stairwell. Clicking on the flashlight beam, Luigi saw that there were a lot more cobwebs on the stairs, as well as so much dust that he couldn't help sneezing after his footsteps kicked up some of it. The wooden stairs looked dried out, and creaked heavily with each step as if they were going to fall out from under him, but then suddenly it was like there was a whole different world at the bottom of the stairs, nothing at all like he expected as far as what the basements of large houses looked like.
Instead of cinderblock walls and sanded down concrete floors, it was more like the upper levels of Gloomy Manor had been built on top of a natural cave, stalagmites and all. Except for the stairwell going back up, the floor, walls, and ceiling were made of natural rock, and just about all of it covered, and I mean covered with thick, dusty old cobwebs. Nothing moved or made a sound as the green plumber searched the area for the Dark Moon piece, forcing him to move farther away from the stairwell and down the tunnel, not that it made much difference as far as light levels. His clothes, or his shoes kept getting snagged on the cobwebs if he got too close to the wall, and it was surprisingly hard to free himself the deeper into the tunnel he went.
"I don't see anything down here so far, Professor." Luigi reported, scanning the beam around again. "Getting harder to move around with all these cobwebs."
"The cameras down there are all covered with webs, it seems." The old man's voice replied. "Funny, they weren't there before all the ghosts went crazy, but I'm sure it's nothing to worry about."
The green plumber was about to ask him more about it, but then stopped mid-sentence after moving one more piece of cobwebs out of the way, and suddenly seeing his own reflection staring back at him in a kind of clouded, black mirror. Strange part was that there was another mirror next to it, as well as a couple smaller ones up above… and then all of them moved. Gasping as he stumbled back and fell to the ground, Luigi kept the flashlight's beam on those mirrors as more movement started around them, starting with eight long legs spreading out to push the cobwebs away, and then the whole thing raising up to reveal that the mirrors were the eyes of a gigantic spider.
Well, now he knew where all the cobwebs came from, somehow this thought managed to pierce it's way through the green plumber's fear-paralyzed mind, but then he remembered that he wasn't helpless anymore. Thanks to the Strobulb, all he had to do was give this thing a good blast in the eyes, since all the inhabitants of Evershade Valley were ghosts, right? So aiming the flashlight as the power began to charge, the spider was just starting to move forward when that whole side of the cave was flooded with intense white light that thankfully didn't hit Luigi's own eyes this time. Readying the vacuum as soon as he could see the dazed figure again, the, uh… the very large spider wasn't stunned… and now it was still coming after him.
A high pitch scream echoed throughout all the rooms and corridors of Gloomy Manor as Luigi panicked completely, flailing his arms while franticly running back toward the stairwell, the whole time the spider's legs heard thump-thump-thumping along the rocks behind him. Of course now without the flashlight being aimed properly he kept getting caught in the larger clumps of cobwebs, pulling and fighting to free himself each time before the spider… hey, the spider seemed to be having almost as much trouble with the webs as he was. Yeah, it's legs kept getting caught, or its head would get stuck as if the monster somehow wasn't used to dealing with webs… but that didn't make sense at all.
However, this was all a moot point since the spider was still moving faster than him, and now the green plumber's foot got caught again just before he was going to reach the stairwell. Turning back to try and pull his foot free, the green plumber screamed when he saw that the spider's face was only a couple feet from his, tripping over himself and falling down onto his back just in time for the flashlight to go out when the lens shattered on a web covered rock. For a second the whole cave went dark, with Luigi certain that he was about to meet his end as he looked down at the red sparks coming from the broken light… but then those sparks got a lot brighter.
For a moment he didn't understand what was happening as the cave filled with orange, flickering light, but then the green plumber realized that it was fire spreading across the dried webbing, and soon the whole place was going up in flames. The giant spider was clearly not expecting this, panicking as he slammed its head up into the rock ceiling before starting to turn away… but then starting to come back… and then turning away again as if it were fighting with itself. One more jump upward to smack its own head on the cave ceiling, and the spider ran off the way it came, and it… it actually seemed to get smaller as it ran until… until it was nothing but an average sized crawler that vanished behind the rocks.
This wasn't the strangest part, however. The weird part was that when that spider smashed itself on the rocks, something had separated from it… something with a rounded white body, and black eyes that weren't used to the amount of light coming from all around it. It was a Boo, the kind that he and Mario had seen a hundred times during their adventures in the Mushroom Kingdom, leaving two thoughts going through Luigi's head. These ghosts weren't nearly as powerful as their king who was still safely locked up in an art gallery, and the fire from the webs was already starting to go out, meaning that he didn't have a lot of time… although not as powerful as King Boo, these ghosts could be just as dangerous as any others.
Even though the flashlight was broken, the vacuum attachment still worked, so the green plumber got up and pressed the button just as the disoriented Boo was turning toward him. The rounded ghost gasped in surprise as it's, eh… tongue was caught in the suction, but with all the light still going from the dying fire, there was no clear way for it to try and escape. In the dark this would have been a whole different fight, but for once the Poltergust had an easy time of sucking the Boo down through the hose into the containment unit, spitting something out just before vanishing completely. The last of the fires had been just about snuffed by now, leaving Luigi in total darkness, but then he was startled as a flash of bright light flooded the cave.
No, not a flash… a constant yellowish aura of light that came from… that came from fixtures mounted along the cave's ceiling. The lights had finally come back on! This meant there were no more ghosts in Gloomy Manor, and… and there was something glowing a different color on the floor near where the Boo had been. It was a dark purple gem that crackled with black energy just like… just like the other piece of the Dark Moon. This was it, all he had to do now was get the piece back to the Professor, and he and Daisy could go back home. Not only were the lights on in the cave, but in the stairwell, and up in the rest of the manor house as well, making all of it a lot less creepy… hard to believe that this was the same place he was fighting those other four ghosts a little bit ago.
Nope, all of them and the Boo were safely trapped inside the Poltergust, and as soon as it was emptied back at the bunker they would never be a threat to any living person again. It was too bad about the flashlight, though, the lens and whole upper casing completely broken and useless, but that didn't really matter since he had the other piece of the Dark Moon, and now everything was going to be just perfect. The crackling black energy around the gem made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up as he walked through Gloomy Manor toward the exit, and the green plumber hoped that the old man's machine would do as good of a job on this one as it did the other.
It was still raining when Luigi opened the front door, but now the porch lights were on as well, illuminating most of the manor house's front yard, and after all that smoke and fire the green plumber didn't mind getting a little wet. Honestly, this whole ordeal exhausted him, coughing a bit from the lingering smoke, and unable to think that the spider would have gotten him if not for the flashlight breaking like that. Best not to think about such things, the green plumber thought to himself, making his way down the concrete path toward where the Professor had setup his research bunker. There were still walls of fog on both sides of where the manor's grounds ended, but hopefully that would soon change.
"You still got it, Luigi." He said to himself happily. "Evershade Valley is saved, and in only half the time it took last time. Maybe I am a pretty good ghost hunter."
Now that his task was over, it was time to get some rest, hopefully a big victory kiss from Princess Daisy, and watch as the evil fog rolled its way out of Evershade Valley. Who knows, maybe this would be a pretty nice place once the Dark Moon was back in the sky. Ah, the rain felt good… almost as good as it was going to feel once he said goodbye to the old man and headed back to his mansion. This was it, time for his hero's welcome, so Luigi stayed outside to enjoy the rain for a few more seconds, before turning the latch on the bunker's door and going inside.
