Luigi's Mansion 2: Dark Moon

Chapter Twenty Two: A Cold Mountain

"Daisy's been what?!" Luigi exclaimed, jumping to his feet. "But how did… why would… oh, Professor, how could you let her go there all by herself?"

"Son, have you ever tried to stop that girl from doing something?" The old man replied, rotating his chair back around to face him. "And besides, this is all your fault. That poor girl sat here for hours watching you strut around like some kind of 80's action star, vacuuming up the strongest ghosts with your devil may care attitude like it was nothing, and Daisy was worried that she wasn't tough enough for you. She thought you were gonna lose interest if she didn't capture a Boo on her own, and look what happened, boy… look… what… happened."

It was hard for the green plumber to wrap his mind around the possibility of him losing interest in a perfect dream girl like Daisy, while at the same time frustrated by how everyone seemed to think he was some kind of a dare devil, regardless of the fact that he had flat out told the Princess how terrified he was of ghosts. The only reason Luigi had stayed to clear out his own mansion was because King Boo had captured Mario, and up until now it had all been to help Daisy's kingdom… of course now the giant ghost had reappeared and captured his girlfriend in the same way that his brother was captured and… and how in the world had King Boo gotten out of the portrait in the first place?

The Professor admitted that he hadn't even been aware of the giant ghost's escape until after he appeared in the Old Clockworks, since all of the captured ghost portraits from the green plumber's mansion were back at his main laboratory. It had taken a while to get in touch with the Toad assistants back at the main facility in the Mushroom Kingdom, about as long as it had taken for the old man to retrieve the Poltergust and Dark Moon piece from outside the factory where they had fallen, and the assistants were able to confirm that King Boo's portrait was empty. Now things in Evershade Valley had gotten a lot more serious, because not only was the giant ghost the most frightening thing Luigi ever saw, but now he had the Princess, and… and at least now they knew who had shattered the Dark Moon in the first place.

Like with the others, more of the fog receeded as soon as the purple jem was all cleaned up, revealing a small building up on a mountain even higher up than the plateau the Old Clockworks was sitting on, but this new place didn't look like a factory. Instead, it was almost like the cabin of a really nice resort, with an A-frame roof that went all the way down, and everything around it blanketed white with snow. This was a nice change, at least visually, from the rain, but from what the cameras could see the snow was pretty deep, and, uh… the other cameras were mostly covered with snow, so they didn't do much good. Unfortunately, King Boo's trail went the opposite direction from the factory, leading right into the fog where it wasn't exactly smart for anyone who wasn't a ghost to follow.

"Don't even think about it, boy." The Professor warned sternly. "I know you're considering saying screw it all and go charging right into the fog to save the Princess, but don't you understand that's just what King Boo wants? He's counting on you to go crazy and just start destroying things so he can ambush you, but somehow we have to prove you aren't the same mad dog lunatic he faced before. I know you won't like this, Luigi, but we need… a plan."

Honestly, the green plumber loved the idea of a plan, especially since King Boo was not your ordinary every day ghost, and this time luck was with them since apparently what they needed to save Daisy just happened to be up on top of that snowy mountain. Now, while the place looked like a resort cabin, the old man explained that before all the ghosts showed up this place was living quarters for scientists who were studying the somewhat unique properties of the rocks inside the mountain. Like everyone else in Evershade Valley, those scientists fled when the ghosts arrived all those years ago, but those unique minerals had allowed the Professor to invent a prototype device that might just give them the edge they needed over King Boo.

"It's called the Dark Light." The Professor explained, unrolling a blueprint on the table so Luigi could see. "You might have noticed there's a second port on the Poltergust next to where you plugged in the strobulb, er… well, you probably didn't, but that's where you install this device."

"All right, that sounds simple enough." The green plumber replied, trying unsuccessfully to look at the vacuum unit on his back. "So, what is the dark light? What does it do?"

According to the old man, this device was capable of breaking right through the ghosts' best means of defence, as in their illusions and invisibility. Sure, a powerful light like the strobulb or even a normal flashlight could do it with enough time, which Luigi didn't usually have, but this prototype could do it almost instantly. As long as he knew roughly where a ghost was hiding, simply passing the dark light beam over it would be enough to reveal that phantom's hiding place and possibly stun it at the same time. However, as the dark light consumed a lot of energy, it couldn't be used for very long at a time, and the cooldown period was even longer than using the strobulb or even overloading the vacuum like he had done before.

"I wanted to give this to you a lot earlier, Luigi." The old man continued. "But when the fog rolled in the cabin was one of the first places overcome, and I haven't even been able to contact my assistant working there."

"Assistant?" The green plumber asked. "I thought your only assistants were back at your main facility."

One of the Professor's Toad assistants had accompanied him to Evershade Valley to assist in the study of ghosts under the Dark Moon's unique condition, but then everything went bad, and the fog had rolled over the cabin before the old man even realized something was wrong from where he was. Naturally, he had tried to contact the assistant, but the phone lines in the valley were just as dead as the power, causing the Professor to fear the worst… then he got in touch with Luigi, and he knew the rest. It was actually a stroke of luck that the cabin was revealed before wherever King Boo had gone, because now it gave them the opportunity to surprise the giant ghost for once.

That being said, the green plumber headed out right away, quickly being soaked by the pouring rain as he took the path that went past Gloomy Manor, the Haunted Towers, and even the hill where the Old Clockworks was sitting. Now the path was going upward, a long and winding trek up to the absolute tallest point in Evershade Valley, and… and it was getting colder as well. The wind was picking up, but the rain was lessoning gradually to the point where there were actually a few minutes of no falling water at all… before the snow started. Beginning with just a few random patches of white on the rocky ground, the whiteness gradually took over as Luigi climbed and climbed, until none of the rocks were visible.

Cold didn't quite describe it as the green plumber neared the top of the mountain, now trudging his way through a couple feet of thick blanketed snow, snow that blew off the top in large drifts each time the wind blew it right in his face, a fact made worse by how the rain from lower in the valley soaked his clothes. Yeah, by this time the green plumber was shivering, his teeth chattering, and in general feeling about as miserable as he could… but hey, at least the cabin was in sight. He could see the long A-frame roof silhouetted against the background, a large lantern above the door swinging back and forth on a chain each time the wind picked up, reflecting off the frost covered windows as it it moved back and forth.

A camera was mounted on the wooden fence that surrounded the property, but it was partially covered with snow and frozen in place, and so didn't respond until he wiped the snow off and moved it around on the joints. A low whirring sound was heard as the indicator light on top of the camera got brighter, and then it struggled to turn itself up toward the green plumber's face, only to start to freeze again before the lens could properly focus. In his radio earpiece the Professor was trying to say something, but the wind was too loud for his voice to be heard, so Luigi just kept going, reaching the ice covered stairs of the cabin's front porch, and holding onto the wooden railing so that he wouldn't slip back down.

Once standing on the snow covered porch, he made his way over to the nearest window, frost covered like all the rest, and started wiping it off with his hand, just barely enough to peek through after several circles. Inside there wasn't much to be seen, in fact the whole room was dark except for the crackling flames in the fireplace… a concept that seemed like a pretty good idea at this point. Freezing to the point where it was getting hard to move, the green plumber struggled with each step to reach the front door, sighing with relief when the unlocked knob turned, but then groaning when the hinges were frozen. Bracing his foot against the doorframe and pulling on the knob as hard as he could, the ice slowly gave way until the door swung wide open, causing Luigi to get a face full of snow as he fell onto the frozen porch.

Scrambling toward the open doorway, crawling and teeth chattering like a madman, the green plumber crawled his way through the door, almost forgetting to turn around and close it again until a strong gust of wind almost made the fire go out. It took a lot of his remaining strength, but he managed to get the door shut again, before crawling the rest of the way over onto what looked like a polar bear rug, holding out his hands in order to enjoy the warmth of the crackling fire. This was such a wonderful sensation that he almost didn't hear the Professor trying to reach him on the radio, thankfully not losing signal in this place like what happened to Daisy in the Old Clockworks.

"No sign at all of my assistant, huh?" The old man's voice crackled through the radio. "I was hoping he would be just sitting there waiting for you, nice and safe by the fire, but with your luck I should've known better."

"So far there's no sign of anything here, Professor." Luigi replied as he passed the flashlight beam around at the rustic furniture and hunting trophies of this room. "There's even less light here than in the Haunted Towers."

Right now the Profesor's only advice was for the green plumber to find that Toad assistant, since he would be the only one who knew where the dark light device was hidden, but then something else distracted Luigi's attention. It was a low growling sound that caused him to turn his head over to the right and see that the polar bear rug had moved… in fact, its head was now looking right at him, growling with its sharp teeth bared.