Luigi's Mansion 2: Dark Moon
Chapter Twenty Seven: Slippery Slope
Luigi didn't like either of the options the giant frozen drill was giving him, but no matter how quickly Boo-ya tunneled his way down into the frozen rock, the green plumber was sliding toward him on that smooth slope just a little bit faster. He tried grabbing at the ice, digging in with the heels of his work boots, and moving himself so that he slid from one side of the new tunnel to the other, but nothing was working. Worse now, the spinning drill was slowing down, its horrible face rotating around so that the black, gaping maw was lined right up with where Luigi was sliding… but then the Poltergust made a soft beep and the unit came back online just before the point of no return.
It was not the dark light device that came back online, but the strobulb, resulting in a flash of bright, intense light that made Boo-ya cry out in surprise and pain as it went right into his large, black eyes. This outcry of pain actually saved the green plumber when it caused the mouth to close just before he would have passed through, making him instead bounce off solid ice while the frozen drill started moving faster again. Even though the strobulb had saved his life, Luigi now had to wait for it to cool down again, while the dark light device was still working on it, leaving nothing to stop him from once again sliding right toward Boo-ya's mouth when the transformed ghost recovered from the shock.
"Nice try, Green Mario, but it's over now!" The frozen drill growled, its booming voice echoing through the tunnel. "I can't wait to see the look on King Boo's face when he finds out that it was me who got you, and not him!"
The vacuum was still cooling down from the strobulb's use, but Boo-ya had recovered completely, and was slowing down again. This time there was no way for the green plumber to stop himself from sliding right toward the dark mouth as it got closer and closer. But then something else in the tunnel moved, coming from the left side and behind where Luigi was sliding, before getting right in front of him and suddenly slowing down to the point where he crashed right into it. After a moment or two of the impact and some rolling, the green plumber came to a stop and saw that Boo-ya was getting further away while he could feel himself slowing down… not only slowing down but also no longer having the feeling of sliding on ice.
"Hold on, Luigi!" Toad's voice yelled from behind. "This thing is harder to drive than it looks!"
Now that the confusion had worn off, the green plumber realized that he was now lying at the front of some kind of long wooden sled. It had metal skis running under the length, a strange kind of rudder system at the back, which the assistant was using to rotate them around the tunnel to keep away from the frozen drill's mouth, and finally a hand brake, which is how they kept slowing down at the right times to keep their distance from Boo-ya. The brake didn't being them to a complete stop or anything like that since the tunnel was solid ice and rock, but so far it was keeping them far enough away from that mouth in order to stop them from getting eaten alive.
"Aw, come on, boys, you're not playing fair!" The frozen drill growled and laughed at the same time. "But even if I can't eat you, you're still doomed, don't you see?! I'm tunneling in a spiral direction, and eventually this whole mountain will collapse right on top of us!"
Boo-ya laughed again as he rotated for another attempt at eating them, and Luigi knew they needed to do something fast since the mountain collapsing wouldn't hurt a Boo, it would just destroy its current frozen body. He and Toad wouldn't be so lucky, however, meaning that they had to do anything they could in order to slow the frozen drill down until the dark light device was ready to be used again. The assistant thought he was crazy when he told him to let go of the brake, but it was the only way to be able to flash Boo-ya with the strobulb once again. Not that this would buy them a lot of time, or anything, but what else could they do at this point?
Nothing, that's what, so Toad did as he was told, releasing the hand brake and allowing them to come within a couple meters of that giant mouth, before pulling it again just as the strobulb went off in the frozen drill's face. It forced Boo-ya to close his eyes and mouth, but this time the frozen drill stopped right along with them, causing the sled to turn to the side as they came to a stop right up against the awful face's cheek just a short distance from the mouth. The frozen drill was still moving, just a lot slower, and as soon as Boo-ya recovered there would be nothing stopping him from rotating just enough to bring the sled back over to the mouth. There was now only one chance for them to get out of this, but it was going to be close.
"Toad, don't try to steer us away!" Luigi called to be heard over the drilling noise. "We need to be right in front of him!"
"What?! Are you crazy?!" The assistant shouted back. "We'll be eaten alive!"
Shouting that the Toad needed to just trust him, the green plumber wondered if he could really even trust himself as the frozen drill rotated toward them yet again, with Boo-ya laughing about how happy he was they had accepted their fate. However, as the large maw opened there was one thing that neither the assistant nor the frozen drill knew, and that was that the dark light device had finally cooled back down. Just as the sled was about to pass through into the darkness, Luigi pressed the button, forced to look away as the blast of rainbow light, so intense it was more like a water hose being sprayed, tore its way across the frozen drill's face. Boo-ya shrieked, trying to close his partially destroyed eyes and mouth before spiraling out of control, the collapsing drill taking a hard left just before the whole tunnel disappeared.
Luigi wasn't sure what happened until he felt the wind rushing across his face, looking up and seeing the snow falling out of the cloudy sky, and… and looking down into the visible parts of Evershade Valley. For a moment he and the assistant were silent, stunned by the fact that Boo-ya had drilled right out the side of the mountain onto the surface again, and now the wooden sled was rocketing down the slope. Toad tried to slow them down with the hand brake, but there was a loud, wooden snap before the handle came off in his hand. So down the snow covered slope they went, watching as the falling snow became rain, the white covering vanishing away from the landscape until the mountain was just wet rock, and that was when the screaming started.
The sled had been doing fine the whole way across the ice and snow, but wet, uneven rock was a different story, and while the sled was still going at breakneck speed, the metal skis underneath were taking a beating. Soon there was nothing left of them, with the green plumber and Toad hugging each other and screaming as they got closer to the valley, and more and more of the sled broke apart underneath them. One piece at a time the sled vanished from existence with a crunch and a snap, until only the single wooden plank they were sitting on was left, and then… and then they started slowing down. Suddenly the terrain was smooth and wet, almost flat as they kept slowing down, becoming soaked by the falling rain as the end of the wooden plank made a soft tap on the wall of the research bunker before coming to a stop completely.
Slowly letting go of each other and looking around, Luigi and the assistant started to laugh as they realized they had ridden all the way back down into Evershade Valley, but then Toad's laughter stopped just as quickly as something slammed into him. The object was round and white, bouncing along behind the destroyed sled, and then sending the assistant flying a short distance over into the taller grass while it came to a spinning stop on the plank where Toad had been sitting. The object slowly rotated around until its face was looking up at the green plumber, black eyes swirling around from dizziness and long tongue hanging out… it was Boo-ya… knocked out of his transformation by the dark light device, and… and sitting right there.
The rounded ghost didn't even try to put up a fight as the vacuum was turned on, sucking up his tongue first, quickly followed by the rest until only the Dark Moon piece remained. Once the battle was finally finished, the green plumber exhaled deeply, allowing himself to lay down on his back while the pouring rain washed over him. Now there was silence for a while, except for the rain and the soft crackle of the black lightning surging around the corrupted Dark Moon piece, and Luigi must've fallen asleep because the rain was coming down in sheets the next time he opened his eyes.
"Luigi, come on!" Toad was shaking him. "Come on, get up! We gotta get inside!"
A flash of lightning followed by an impossibly loud crack of thunder made the green plumber agree with this assessment, shaking off the fatigue and grabbing the Dark Moon piece before getting to his feet. Now walking around to the other side of the research bunker, it was nice to have the door so close instead of having to go all the way from the cabin, and now everything was warm and dry. Heavy rain could still be heard pounding on the roof outside, with rapid flashes of lightning and thunder, but at least now he and the assistant didn't have to stand out in it for a while. Like always, the Poltergust was emptied, and the purple gem was scrubbed thoroughly clean of its corruption, forcing more of the fog to roll away.
"Oh, wow." Luigi whispered, looking at what was revealed on the cameras as the fog receded. "Look at that place."
Big, dark, and gloomy, the newly revealed building was even bigger than his own mansion, but much more frightening to look at. The design was gothic with sharp corners on the windows and gargoyles at the top, seemingly built on a singular plateau, connected to the mainland by a wooden plank bridge, and no light coming from any of those windows, not even a visible candle. Was this where King Boo had gone? Was this the place where he had taken the trapped Princess Daisy?
"Quite a sight, isn't it?" The Professor asked, handing him back the Poltergust after it was emptied. "They call it Treacherous Mansion, and it's the biggest and scariest place in the whole valley."
"Of course it is." The green plumber replied, feeling all his confidence from fighting Boo-ya melting away. "Of course it is."
