Luigi's Mansion 2: Dark Moon
Chapter Fifteen: The Great Tree
Even though he had known that the tree between the two towers was massive, Luigi hadn't understood just how large it was until he started climbing the wooden stairs that wrapped themselves around the big trunk. At first everything was going great, since there were no more ghosts attacking him for once, allowing the green plumber to take his time while traveling up one staircase, walking across a flat deck, and then up another staircase… and then another… and then another. The little ghostly dog didn't seem to be bothered about it, simply vanishing all the way back down when Luigi tossed its stick over the side and returning just as happily a couple minutes later, but the green plumber was getting pretty worn out.
Just like with Gloomy Manor, the Haunted Towers had left him almost completely out of energy between the ghosts and getting the water to work, so by the time he had climbed about halfway up the tree's length, Luigi was barely holding on. Huffing and puffing with each step, one hand gripping firmly on the old dried wood guardrail to keep from falling while the other hand was planted a few steps above to keep him on his feet, the green plumber was suddenly jealous of his brother, wishing that he could have that flying water gun thing that Mario had to use after getting into trouble on Isle Delfino. Yeah, something like that could have shot him right to the top.
On the other hand, Luigi didn't like the idea of getting arrested in front of his girlfriend and made to do community service, so he slid his gloved hand up the guardrail while taking another labored step, and… and falling to his knees as soon as he reached the next flat deck. There were visible light fixtures running along the upward path, but dark like all the others, and thankfully the light on the Poltergust had stopped blinking, allowing him to use its flashlight feature, because man was it dark. There were no candles of lanterns like there had been inside the east and west towers, so the flashlight was literally all he had to light the way, but the green plumber didn't dare try out the vacuum itself just yet. There wasn't any more black smoke coming out of the casing, but better give it more time just to be safe.
"Mama… Mia." He said, shining the light upward to see how much was left. "It's like it… never… gets any closer."
"You poor thing." Daisy's voice said over the radio. "I know you're exhausted, but you're almost there, the moon piece is somewhere right above you. I wish I could do something else to help."
No, it was better that the Princess stay well away from all this ghost hunting business, especially since she didn't have a Poltergust, and without it there was no way to fight off even the weakest of Evershade Valley's inhabitants. Pulling himself to his feet, Luigi took another couple of slow, dragging steps before having to stop when the phantom dog returned with it's stick, vanishing just as quickly after the green plumber tossed it over the side again. It wasn't an option right now, since the vacuum was still cooling down, but was he supposed to capture the little ghost dog? Unlike all the other inhabitants of the valley, the happy, floating phantom didn't seem to be affected by the absence of the Dark Moon, so what was he supposed to do with it? Just let it keep running free? Take it back to the research bunker?
You know what? The Professor could decide that after he woke up from his probably wonderful nap, and for now the green plumber could just keep dropping the stick while climbing… and climbing… and climbing up the evil, sadistic, horrible never ending stairs. Gasping and suddenly alert when his foot slipped backwards from the step it was on, Luigi grabbed onto the railing, looking down to see that the wood on this part of the climb was wet. This made sense, given that there was a rainstorm going on and the higher the green plumber climbed, the less protection there was going to be from the falling water that dripped its way through the leafy canopy.
With the way his luck was going, one slip and the wooden staircases would probably become some kind of long slide that would take him all the way back down to the bottom, and if that happened… well, then the ghosts could have the Dark Moon for all Luigi cared, so, uh… best to be careful. Since it was always night time in Evershade Valley, and there was too much raincloud cover to even see where the moon was, he had no idea how long this climb was lasting, aside from too long. One step at a time, walk across the deck, throw the stick, the green plumber's mind was wandering as he kept moving, daydreaming about random things so much that he got startled to the point of crying out when something brushed against his face.
"Don't give up now, Luigi." Daisy's voice said. "You're almost there… you can do it!"
Looking around and rubbing his eyes, it took him a second to realize that it was a large, green leaf that brushed across his face, meaning that he must've finally reached the canopy. Looking up, there was nothing but more leaves, so Luigi looked down over the side of the guardrail and… oh, nope, don't do that again… come on, it couldn't be that much farther up, could it. Suddenly filled with his second wind, the green plumber gritted his teeth and started walking quickly up the stairs, reaching the top of the next one and then, uh… getting confused when there was suddenly no cover at all from the pouring rain coming down on top of his head.
Shining the flashlight around, he was still surrounded by leaves in all direction that stretched out far above, but there was nothing directly over him as if the area had been purposely cleaned out. The deck there was wide and long, more like a platform, and there was a small building over toward the center, looking kind of like a child's really old treehouse, and… and hey, he had made it to the top! There were some more dried, old wooden steps going up to the treehouse's door, and the Dark Moon had to be inside since there was nowhere left to go, so Luigi walked toward the small structure, only to stop upon placing his hand on the guardrail. The wood was vibrating, maybe from the wind? No, it was more like shaking… shaking that got steadily stronger until the stairs suddenly separated itself from the house with a loudand dry snap!
The wind couldn't have done that, and if the stairs were simply breaking off their brackets, then the movement would've stopped as soon as it fell down… but the stairs weren't stopping. Shaking more and more so that little splinters of wood broke off, the stairs suddenly turned toward the green plumber and growled with what looked like a set of jagged teeth made from where it had broken off from the treehouse. The deck shook with each waddling sort of step that the staircase took, keeping it's sort of face focused on Luigi, following him no matter which direction he tried to side step, and then it growled, charging forward with awkward quick steps, the jagged wooden teeth smacking together as it lunged for the kill. This thing was nothing but a mouth snapping open and shut like an alligator, but other than that it was impossible to discern any features, so no way of attacking just yet.
He managed to avoid it, diving out of the way and rolling away from the staircase as it slid to a stop near the guardrail, but the green plumber barely had time to get to his feet before the staircase attacked again. Luigi wanted to use the Poltergust on it, but the problem was that he didn't see any eyes, and without them how was he supposed to know where to aim the strobulb? Not only that, but it the vacuum was still malfunctioning after that overload, what if he could only us it once? For now he had to dive out of the way in a different direction, slipping on some of the wet wood and falling while the staircase slammed into the old guardrail. It recovered from the hit a lot faster than Luigi, and it was turning to leap at him again even before he was able to get up, when the staircase suddenly stopped.
As hard as it was to believe, the wooden attacker seemed to have its attention focused on something else, as in the little ghostly dog that was biting down onto one of its back, uh… legs? The white phantom growled and bit down, trying to pull the staircase back away from the green plumber, and in response the wooden attacker started shaking its leg, lifting the ghost dog up with each shake until it lost its grip, falling down onto the deck a little dizzy. Now the staircase turned its full attention to the dazed ghost, preparing to attack it, before stopping when it was distracted by something else. The ghost dog had just saved Luigi's life, so he did the only thing he could think of to stop it from being hurt, which was to jump on top of the staircase and grab on by putting his gloved hands over what was hopefully the eyes.
It must've been. Because now the wooden attacker was angry, jumping around and stomping across the deck in multiple directions, but it just couldn't shake its passenger. The staircase was getting so frustrated by this that it suddenly charged forward in the vain hope of getting its target… only to slam into the old, dried wood guardrail by mistake. This time there was so much force that the guardrail just gave up, a part of it exploding outward from the impact, raining down little bits of splinters and sawdust as the wooden attacker held on by one front leg jammed into the deck. The little ghost dog was fine on the deck, but Luigi was still on the staircase's back, causing its embedded leg to move in the wrong direction every time he tried to move.
All right, everything was going to be fine as long the green plumber and his wooden attacker didn't move a muscle, giving him both time to rest a bit and think of a way out of this… until he heard the little ghost dog growling again. Having shaking off the dizziness, the phantom dog was approaching the staircase, ignoring Luigi's frantic hand motions to stay back, before letting out a snarl as it leapt right on top of the wooden attacker. Snap… crack… POP! The extra weight of the glowing phantom dog leaping down onto the monster was just enough to make its front leg break its way out of the deck, and then everything was moving downward, with Luigi's only coherent thought being that this was a much faster way to go up and down the great tree as the ground rushed up to meet them.
