Luigi's Mansion 2: Dark Moon
Chapter Seventeen: The Old Clockworks
The rain had picked up again, leaving Daisy completely soaked by the time she walked a short distance from the research bunker, looking left and right at the current state of Evershade Valley. Seeing Luigi's progress on those old screens was one thing, but now she was able to see just how thick and intimidating the wall of fog was over the areas that the green plumber hadn't been able to clear out yet, keeping well away from the misty edges as she kept going down the path toward the Old Clockworks. The Princess had been to this place several times throughout her life, especially as a favorite vacation spot during childhood, but right now nothing could be seen of the remaining buildings, and even the ones where the fog had receded were still much darker and unfamiliar than she remembered.
While a lot of the valley was just that, a grassy or forested area, there were parts of it with higher elevations and less plant life, with the old factory being one of these, sitting on top of the plateau of a rocky hillside. Sure, it was referred to as a mountain, but honestly the landscape wasn't much taller in this spot than a large hill, and anyone who had climbed the peaks of lower Skyland in the Mushroom Kingdom wouldn't exactly be impressed. As the valley had been a tourist attraction for a long time, the path up to the plateau was a pretty easy one, with a gradually sloping trail and rope bridges over any chasms that might have once required climbing, allowing the Princess to reach the front courtyard of the old factory before too much time had passed.
"Daisy, can you hear me?" The Professor's voice asked over the radio. "I have good news; I believe I have been able to locate where the Dark Moon piece is hidden."
"That's great." The Princess replied, taking cover inside the old security booth at the gate, and wiping the water off her face. "Where is it?"
The old man explained that the strongest paranormal signal he could detect was coming from the very top of the factory's clock tower, meaning that getting to it was going to be relatively simple. All Daisy had to do was make her way through the building's first floor and pass through an elaborate door the Professor referred to as the clock gate, and from there it was just an upward elevator ride to the top. That part of the building had never been open to the public when the Princess had been there before, but she knew where the elevator was, beginning with the front entrance to the factory. From where she was, inside the old wooden booth connected to a toll gate that had broken off at some point, it was just a short walk across the old gravel parking lot, and the rain wasn't letting up so there was no point in waiting.
Lightning flashed as she stepped back into the rain, with thunder crackling a second or two later, and… and this Poltergust vacuum thing was a lot heavier than Luigi made it look, really slowing down her movement speed as she jogged across the gravel toward the partially rusted metal double doors. Thankfully, they were unlocked when she reached them, the rusty hinges screeching loudly as Daisy pulled one of them open, clicking on the vacuum's flashlight in reaction to the darkness inside. Screeeeech, the hinges made more noise as the metal door slowly swung itself closed behind her, and now aside from a few old hanging lanterns on the walls, each burning with a dim glow no better than a candle, the only light came from her flashlight.
Rain could still be heard falling on the factory's tin roof, and now and then a lightning flash would reveal more of the room's old unused machinery, but nothing was moving. Her flashlight passed over dusty conveyer belts and broken wooden crates of unused clock springs, but so far there were no ghosts that could be seen. Well, not waiting for any of them to sneak up on her, the Princess began walking through the workshop, stopping at any noise that might or might not have been a ghost. From watching how the green plumber handled such encounters, the Princess figured that he just seemed to charge right at them because of how confident he was in his abilities, while Daisy on the other hand was a novice. She had no doubt that she would get the hang of it after a while, but for now it was best to move slowly and quietly.
Through the open doorway into a room that might have once been for shipping and receiving, the Princess moved her way around wooden crates and pallet jacks that looked like they had been quickly abandoned right in the middle of a normal work day, recalling how the tour guide had once said that everyone ran for their lives when the first ghosts showed up, and everything was left pretty much as it was. No one knew where the Dark Moon came from, either, but somehow it drew a large portion of the phantoms from all over Sarasaland, and then everything was great for well over a hundred years until the big purple gem was somehow separated into corrupted pieces.
"It looks like you're almost at the clock gate." The old man's voice said, startling her a bit as it cut through the silence. "If I remember correctly, it works as a timer to only allow maintenance crews up into the tower to do maintenance, and no one else, so just move the clock hands to midnight, and the gate should open."
"Midnight, got it." She replied, passing through the next open doorway. "Okay, I see the timer, give me a second."
Unlike the last two areas which were filled with tools and machinery, this room was nothing but a long, empty passageway. It's only features were an open doorway on both ends, some windows along the south wall that allowed her to see that yes, it was still raining outside, and the clock gate itself. A heavy, metal cage door prevented the Princess from simply stepping into the maintenance elevator, and that was sealed by a very large, golden clock face where the similarly colored hour and minute hands were stuck at about the 3:15 position. Walking up to the gate and reaching up toward them, Daisy realized that she wasn't quite tall enough, so what she needed was something to stand…
"Hey, what's going on here?" A voice suddenly asked. "That's not him… is it?"
"No, don't be stupid." Another one replied as two figures began to appear. "Luigi's got shorter hair, and, and, uh… I don't think he wears yellow… hold on, let's check the wanted poster again."
Frozen in surprise for a second as the yellow and purple figures appeared in front of her, the purple one unrolling some kind of paper while they both hovered a short distance above the floor, the Princess slowly moved her thumb to the button that would charge the strobulb, activating it while the two phantoms looked over a poorly drawn stick-figure drawing of Luigi that had the word WANTED written in red crayon at the top. The stick-figure's only identifying features were a way overly exaggerated mustache along with a big green L hat, with things like kill this weenie, and L is for loser, and stupid green Mario written on the sides. The phantoms moved their glowing yellow eyes from the paper to her and back to the paper again, only to receive the shock of their lives when Daisy activated the strobulb the next time they looked at her.
Crying out and covering their glowing yellow eyes, the Princess was so excited that the strobulb worked, that it took her a second to remember that she had to turn on the vacuum in order to capture them, allowing the purple one to float out of range by the time the head was turned on. It caught the yellow one, though, causing a sensation similar to that of hooking a very big fish with a fishing pole as one of the yellow phantom's arms was sucked down inside, and now the struggle began, and now something odd was happening. In addition to her feet literally sliding across the wooden floor to the point where she was hugging onto a support pillar to keep from getting knocked down, it looked like something was falling off the yellow phantom during its struggle to free its arm, jingling as they rained down onto the floor like… coins?
Pulling back a little on the vacuum, the trapped ghost had its other arm braced on the edge of the vacuum, and it looked like the Princess was starting to win, when everything went dark. While she had her attention on the yellow phantom, Daisy had completely forgotten about the purple one that was now sneaking up on her with a large clock bell, putting it down over her head and striking the rounded metal with a discarded hammer. CLANG! This was all that the Princess could hear as the distraction caused her to lose her grip on the machine, allowing the trapped ghost to pull her from her feet, dragging her around the room a bit before freeing itself, and rejoining its companion while Daisy was sent rolling into the wall, still a bit dazed from that bell ringing.
"Nope, that can't be him." The purple ghost said, taking one more look at the poster. "Luigi's been making us look like chumps all night, and that was just… sad."
"Great, and now all my coins are all over the floor." The yellow one complained, looking down at them. "Just look at this mess."
Now the purple one was saying something about not understanding why its companion even needed coins for in the first place, giving the Princess the time she needed to get up to her knees and hit the strobulb charge button again while they were deciding to take care of this mess before the boss found out. Now the ghosts were approaching again, a little more hesitant this time when Daisy aimed the vacuum, and beginning to move in opposite directions in order to surround her before something stopped them. At first the Princess couldn't tell what the sound was, a kind of echoing banging and whooshing noise that was coming from everywhere at once, but then she realized that it was laughter… loud, echoing laughter as one of those rounded white Boos came flying down the elevator shaft.
"Is he here already?!" The Boo asked excitedly, flying right through the metal bars to enter the room. "You guys were supposed to let me know so we could… wow, get a load of her."
The rounded white ghost whistled loudly as its black eyes looked Daisy up and down, but then he vanished, with the Princess reflexively firing the strobulb just as the Boo reappeared right in front of her face. Unfortunately, the rounded white ghost was so close to her that the flash went off behind him, allowing the Boo to stick out his long red tongue and drag it all the way up the side of her face like a wet, drooling dog, and with enough force to make her stumble back toward the wall she just moved away from.
"Good to meet ya, gorgeous." The rounded white ghost said as he approached again. "I'm Boo-dacious, and it looks like the party we planned for Luigi is still on."
