Luigi's Mansion 2: Dark Moon
Chapter Thirteen: Ghost Dog
For a while Luigi was just laying there on the floor, his ears ringing and vision blurred as the room spun around him. He wasn't sure how long it had been since everything finally calmed down, but it looked like the whole world was starting to slow down, just as the ringing was fading and his vision cleared. Even the action of sitting up was difficult for the green plumber, his whole body sore with probably more than a few bruises forming underneath his overalls. But at least the chaos was over for the moment. There had been so much movement and noise, with his brain being unable to process it all to the point where it took a while for Luigi to realize that he had crashed to the floor.
"Luigi?" A voice could barely be heard calling to him over the radio. "Luigi, are you all right? Can you hear me?!"
That voice belonged to Princess Daisy, but the green plumber was unable to understand anything that she was saying, at least until the last of the ringing in his ears faded away, rubbing his eyes and being startled by how much the surprisingly well maintained residential part of the Haunted Towers was now… well, a mess. He remembered all three of the elderly ghosts leaning in close to the Poltergust for what they thought was a group photo for the Professor… who had a lot of explaining to do after this, but everything got kind of blurry after pushing the button. Luigi remembered hearing them fight and argue, pushing each other out of the way and trying to fly off in different directions instead of working together, and while this made them easier to capture, the process of that capture was not exactly pleasant.
Even though the three of them were arguing and trying to push each other closer to the vacuum in order to save themselves, this still resulted in the green plumber being dragged all around the residential area, smashing the tea set and knocking over furniture as he was tossed around all over the place. The walls had drag marks, the portraits were broken, cabinets and display tables were knocked over, broken dishes were scattered across the floor, the list went on and on. One of the older ghosts had tried to escape through the window, but the others pulled her back in, continuing to screw each other over in their personal attempts to escape, but in the end all three were secured inside the Poltergust's main unit… and Luigi's senses were finally coming back enough to answer the radio.
"I'm okay." He managed to say, using the nearby counter to help himself stand. "I got them, and uh… I'm not dead… I think."
"Luigi, that was… insane." The Princess replied. "I was so scared you were gonna get hurt, and I kept telling you to let the ghosts go, but you just kept going, letting out that savage war cry as you wrestled them down, and… oh, Luigi, I'm so glad you're okay."
Savage war cry, he wondered as she kept talking? He remembered shrieking like a little girl and holding onto the vacuum hose for dear life, especially during the part when one of them tried to go out the window, but even now the green plumber's hands were shaking from the experience. Okay, okay, okay… the three phantoms were gone, so yay for that, and now it was time to get back to the job at hand. The pinwheel device was on top of this tower, and according to Daisy, the upward stairs were on the opposite side of the residential area from the downward ones Luigi used to get up there, and… and what was that sound?
He hadn't noticed it at first, not really, but the rhythmic thud… thud… thud… was getting louder to the point where the one remaining portrait on the wall was shaking a little more with each sound. However, before the green plumber could ask the Princess to check the cameras around the Haunted Towers, the door to the downward stairs was thrown open so hard that it nearly came off its rusty old hinges, revealing a large yellow figure that Luigi had almost forgotten about. The massive ghost leaned against the doorframe, coughing as it took that last step up to the second floor, and taking in such deep, labored breaths that its expanding body added a couple cracks to the nearby wall when it was pushed against it.
"There you… there you… are." The massive phantom coughed, pointing an arm at him, which quickly dropped. "I'm… I'm gonna… get…
Without waiting for the yellow ghost to finish its words, Luigi turned around and ran in the opposite direction, stepping over the partially broken door to the upward stairs, and heading up them as quickly as he could… which wasn't much faster than his large pursuer, since he was still all sore and beat up from capturing those three ghosts. Thankfully, this tower only had three floors, and when the green plumber pushed open the metal door leading out, he discovered that the third floor was actually part of the roof. It had walls all around the perimeter, but they were more decorative like Greek columns with a wooden beam on top to hold them all together, and the floor was made of smooth carved stone.
This was because the center of this area was taken up by a large swimming pool, oval in shape, with worn out, partially broken patio furniture all around, including wooden tables, loungers covered with ripped up, almost flat cushions, and sun umbrellas that were missing pieces of their canopies. Only a small amount of greenish, moldy water was sitting in the bottom of the pool, probably replenished by the constant rain, and… and hey, all this smooth stone was pretty slippery when it was wet. Well, as neat as this spot could've been if it were properly maintained, where was the pinwheel device? That massive phantom had tossed it up onto the top of this tower, so where had it landed?
No sign of it on top of the wall, neither along the boards or columns, and it wasn't sitting near any of the patio furniture, leaving… yup, leaving only the moldy and pungent smelling bottom of the swimming pool… of course it did. Walking around the whole perimeter, there wasn't enough light from Luigi's flashlight to see beneath the green surface, and when he tried to get Daisy to ask the old man if this model of Poltergust could suck up water like a shop vac, she replied that he still hadn't woken up from his nap. It was only a matter of time before that large ghost reached the pool area, meaning that the green plumber couldn't wait, climbing down the rusty metal ladder down into the pool, and groaning after feeling the water filling his boots since it was up to his knees.
Now trudging his way back and forth across the moldy water, Luigi kept feeling around with his feet for the edges of the pinwheel device, not wanting to cut himself or break the thing, until… until that had to be it. Reaching down into the water with his gloved hand, the green plumber had to turn his head to keep his face out of the disgusting fluid, his fingers closing around something that felt metal, and then pulling up… the pinwheel device! Yes, this was it! Not even bothering to try cleaning it off yet, Luigi trudged his way back over to the ladder and began climbing, his soaked boots slipping a bit on each rung.
Making sure to be careful not to fall off, he slowly made his way up to the top, the green plumber reached up and set the pinwheel device on the edge before pulling himself up the rest of the way. However, his head was just getting to the top when a glowing white figure filled his vision, the sight of glowing yellow eyes and a gaping mouth as a long, transparent tongue licked up the entire length of his face, startling Luigi so badly that he gasped while losing his grip on the ladder. SPLASH! The water wasn't very deep, but it was cold, smelled bad, and was more than enough to completely submerge the green plumber before he was able to get up, gasping and coughing for breath while wiping the nasty water from his eyes.
What was that, he wondered? It had to be another ghost, ambushing him to steal the pinwheel device! Scrambling and trudging his way back toward the ladder, he climbed back up as fast as he could without falling again, pulling himself up over the top onto the smooth stone and getting the vacuum ready for… for something unexpected. It wasn't a sinister looking phantom rushing to hide away the key to the center area of Haunted Towers, but a small, glowing white creature with four legs and a bright red collar. It's little ghostly tail was wagging as it jumped around, holding the pinwheel device in its mouth as if it were some kind of… ghost… dog… wanting to play fetch.
"Uh… nice… doggy?" Luigi said, not really sure what to do at this point. "Come here, uh… boy? Bring it over here… come on."
Did ghost dogs respond the same way living ones did? Honestly, the green plumber had no idea, but after a few seconds of whistling and slapping his knees, the glowing dog started to slowly walk toward him. During the fall back into the pool, the phantom dog had moved around to the other side, and was now kind of doing a, uh… walking, floating mix. Closer and closer the little ghost dog came, but just when the green plumber was about to reach for the device, there was a loud thud as the metal door to the stairs was thrown open. This time it did come off its hinges, making an even louder crash when it hit the smooth stone, all this noise along with the accompanying crash of thunder was enough to spook the ghost dog, causing it to let out a yelp as it took off into the air.
Flying past Luigi and over the edge of the building, the green plumber could only watch as the ghost dog turned and disappeared right through a window on the second floor… leaving him alone at the swimming pool with a very large, out of breath phantom. This time so out of breath that it nearly fell over while stepping through the doorway, the glowing body heaved and expanded with each breath, the whole time its yellow eyes locked on the Luigi with an angry scowl on its lips. There was nowhere to go, the massive phantom had him cornered, and since the Poltergust didn't work on it for some reason, the green plumber was currently out of ideas.
"Stop… making… me… chase… you." The pursuer coughed between labored breaths. "I… don't… like… running."
As soon as it had sort of caught its breath, if a ghost even needed to do that, the massive yellow phantom started toward Luigi, slowly stomping its way up to the pool and then working its way around. The ghost didn't seem to have the same slipping problem as he did, so if he was going to get out of this, it was going to have to be when the large phantom was almost right on top of him. So he did just that, waiting until the massive ghost was just a few meters away, before turning around and walking the other way around the pool. Even walking briskly was hard to do without slipping thanks to the falling rain, but the green plumber was keeping a good distance ahead of his pursuer.
"Daisy, check the cameras." He said into the radio, looking back at the large ghost. "I need to know where that ghost dog went, and I'm not gonna have a lot of time to catch it."
