Luigi's Mansion 2: Dark Moon
Chapter Twenty One: Guess Who?
Flashing the strobulb a second time, the interior of the clock tower echoed with laughter as Boo-dacious simply vanished again, leaving a barely visible trail as he floated around the room, and Daisy probably could have followed it if the place wasn't so dark. Even though its distorted trail was visible, this didn't last barely long enough for the Princess to shine the flashlight on it, even if she had to wait a bit each time the strobulb was used. As soon as the brief cooldown period was over, she activated the flashlight again, but the trail had already vanished, meaning that the Boo was completely invisible until he decided to move again.
"Where am I, beautiful?" The rounded white ghost asked, his laughter still echoing around. "Can you see me? No? I guess I could be anywhere, huh? I'm like the wind."
"You're full of wind is more like it." Daisy replied, charging the strobulb while shining the flashlight around. "Why don't you quit hiding, and come face me like a man, er… like a ghost?"
There was no response for a while as the Princess moved the light beam around, trying not to make any sound as she carefully stepped over some metal scrap, her ears straining to hear some clue as to where Boo-dacious was. Rain on the rooftop, random crackles of thunder, her own soft breathing… these were the things she could hear, but where was the rounded ghost? Clink-clunk, turning toward the sudden noise, her flashlight beam fell upon an old aluminum can that was rolling across the floor at the far end of the clock tower where it came to a gentle stop against the wall. With no sign of the white ghost, Daisy started to relax, letting out a breath and turning around just in time to cry out in shock as a long red tongue was dragged all the way up her face.
"Mmmmmmm, you're delicious." The Boo laughed as she stumbled backwards. "Gimme another kiss, doll."
Boo-dacious kept laughing while the Princess stumbled away, her foot catching so that she fell against an old wooden cabinet, the whole thing collapsing into a dusty mess when she tried to grab onto it to catch herself. Now she was partly covered with dust and debris as the ghost closed in, sticking out his long red tongue and making another disgusting attempt to drag it along her face… just as she was able to raise the vacuum up out of the mess. Daisy was trying to use the strobulb but Boo-dacious swooped in too fast and her finger hit the vacuum switch instead, giving the white rounded ghost a turn at being surprised when the end of his tongue got sucked down into the head.
His black eyes suddenly wide with shock, the Boo lifted upward into the air, his white arms pushing off against the vacuum head while the Princess's feet left the floor, now spinning around while Boo-dacious fought against the suction. If the Poltergust hadn't been attached to her back, there was no way the Princess would have been able to hold on as they kept flying around through the air, especially when the white rounded ghost took a hard left right into one of the clock faces. Whump! Weaving so that he passed through the metal gear, the wind was knocked out of Daisy when she struck the solid surface, and this was enough to free the Boo from the vacuum with a loud POP! The Princess crashed down onto some old wooden pallets, kicking up a bunch of dust while Boo-dacious's fly around wasn't quite over yet.
Having been violently separated from the Poltergust, the white rounded ghost was catapulted across the room, trying to stop himself by grabbing onto anything that he passed by, but only succeeding in bouncing himself off the first solid surface… and then the next like a pinball machine. It seemed like the more the Boo tried to stop himself, the harder he was bounced around, with Daisy struggling to follow it with her eyes as Boo-dacious bounced all over the room. She was still struggling to sit up when the white rounded ghost finally came to a stop, slamming down right next to her on another stack of pallets, and now… and now the Boo just kind of groaned while his eyes swam around in circles.
Sighing with relief while taking in several deep breaths, the Princess was relieved that she was getting a brief rest from the battle, but then it was like her brain finally started working again when she realized that Boo-dacious was stunned! With her arms shaking and sore, she picked up the vacuum head and fired off the strobulb just as the white rounded ghost was starting to recover, and then the suction grabbed a hold of his tongue once again. Still dazed from all the bouncing around, this time when the Boo tried to get away he just kind of awkwardly flew sideways in a circle that spun the Princess around once, but this time he couldn't even keep a grip on the vacuum head.
A few moments later the battle was over, with Boo-dacious vanishing down into the Poltergust's main unit, and then a dark purple gem popped back out, bouncing a short distance across the floor before coming to a stop, with little black bolts of electricity crackling around it. Oh wow, Daisy thought almost in disbelief… she had done it… she had defeated her very first Boo! So excited by her victory, the Princess jumped up and ran over to pick up the gem, or at least that was the plan. Instead of all that, she attempted to stand up but just stumbled sideways and fell over again, kicking up some dust when she coughed on the dusty floor, breathing heavily while making a second attempt to get up.
"Hey, I did it." She said weakly into the radio. "Did you hear me, old man? I got the Boo, and… and the Dark Moon piece."
"Daisy, get up!" She could barely hear the Professor's voice through the ringing in her ears. "Daisy, you have to get up right now! Get out of there! Daisy, you have to get out of there! Hurry!"
She could only understand a couple of the words he was saying, the rest were all muffled to the point where the old man almost sounded like he was underwater, so the Princess struggled to pull herself up to her feet, and stumbled a bit before being able to stay on her feet. Okay, now where did the Dark Moon piece go? She had turned around a bit during the effort to get up, so Daisy turned back around, only to bounce back when she walked right into what looked like a solid wall of whiteness. Unable to keep her balance, the Princess found herself falling back down onto the floor, looking up at the white wall just as it began to sort of… rotate down toward her.
The first thing she saw was the mouth, it was a horrible maw filled with sharp teeth and a long red tongue just like Boo-dacious, but this phantom was much bigger, several times the size of the Boo she had just captured. Next it's large black eyes, each the size of a dinner plate, became visible while moving to look down at her, and finally the golden crown on top of his head, topped with a very large purple gem that sort of looked like another piece of the Dark Moon, but not exactly. Still worn out and dazed from her battle with Boo-dacious, Daisy had only been able to scoot herself backwards a few feet, when the giant ghost reached down with one of his white hands to grab her by the ankle.
Effortlessly lifting the Princess up into the air so that she was upside down, the giant white ghost shook her rapidly up and down until the Poltergust fell from her back, and then he swatted the unit away so hard that it collided with the Dark Moon piece. Together the machine and the gem bounced their way across the floor of the clock tower until they… both vanished through a crack in the wall, falling outside into the falling rain… which did not seem to make the giant ghost happy. He frowned for a second, before those big black eyes slowly moved back over so that Daisy could see herself reflected in them, chuckling as he looked her up and down.
"Hiya, gorgeous." He said with a sinister smile. "I'm King Boo, and while I expected that idiot, Boo-dacious to get himself vacuumed up, I came here expecting Luigi… not his little girlfriend playing ghost hunter. Here, take a seat."
Crying out as she was swung around, Daisy found herself being tossed away so that she flew through the air, crashing hard into what might have been another old wooden box, but it was so broken apart and destroyed by the time she crashed through it that there was no way to be sure. Bouncing a bit and then sliding to a stop, the Princess wasn't so quick to even start sitting up this time, but King Boo was already floating right above her by the time she was able to even look up, meaning that he was even faster than the smaller Boo… a surprising thing for how big this ghost was.
"See, darlin', I got a little bone to pick with your boyfriend." The giant ghost explained. "Now, I used to be the baddest thing in the Mushroom Kingdom, I mean, people both living and dead used to tremble at the sound of my name, but then I got into a little fight inside an old mansion, and everything changed. Now when I make an appearance people say 'look, there's the ghost that got his butt kicked by Green Mario'… Green… damn… Mario. I know, humiliating right?"
Daisy hadn't gotten the opportunity to say or do anything short of breathe heavily, before an intense purple light erupted from the crown on King Boo's head, striking the Princess like a continuous lightning bolt as her whole body became surrounded by that same purple light. It became so intense that she had to cover her eyes, but then it stopped, and she opened them to find that something was different. Instead of laying on the clock tower floor, she was now standing in a very small box shaped room that was just big enough to fit her, with one wall being some kind of window that looked out at the giant ghost as he… picked up the whole thing?
"Well, aren't you pretty as a picture?" King Boo laughed, holding up the newly framed portrait as Daisy silently beat her fists against the window. "Get it? Picture? You know, because you're trapped in a portrait? Don't worry, gorgeous, you'll get used to it… eventually… and once I've done the same thing to your little boyfriend, I'll hang you two right next to each other."
