Luigi's Mansion 2: Dark Moon
Chapter One: Trouble In Evershade Valley
"For a minute I thought it wasn't going to work." Luigi said as he sat down, handing the other cup of tea to his guest. "But the Professor's machine trapped King Boo just like every other ghost, and then it freed Mario just as fast."
All of this was difficult for the green plumber to recall, getting him to the point of slight shivers while telling the parts about some of the more aggressive ghosts inside the mansion he had won in the contest for Better Homes and Mushrooms. Great big house with dozens of rooms and several floors, but the whole thing had been a trick by King Boo in order to trap Luigi's brother, Mario. With the help of legendary ghost researcher Professor Elvin Gadd and his Poltergust 3000, the green plumber had been able to not only rescue his brother, but also capture every single ghost in the place to the point where he was able to move in, since technically Luigi really did own the place.
It took a couple years of really hard work, along with contractors that were easy to pay for, being that the green plumber had also inherited the mansion's gigantic fortune hidden in the basement, but now the grounds were well maintained and the estate looked nothing like the gothic manor it had before. The dark colors were replaced with vibrant greens and whites, the light fixtures and utilities had been updated, and now at the center of the building toward the top was a large circular white emblem with a big green letter L at the center. Yes, Luigi's mansion was now the talk of the Mushroom Kingdom, especially since he was now the richest man that lived there.
Once everything had been settled, and every ghost pressed back into portraits where they belonged, Professor Gadd had packed up and left, headed out to find other locations to continue his ghostly research, and leaving the green plumber to entertain his favorite house guest. No matter how many times he had told her the story, she always wanted to hear it again and again, with this gloomy night being no exception. So the two of them sat in one of the sitting rooms, flames crackling in the fireplace as the two of them sipped their tea on the small sofa, her full attention on Luigi as he talked about his encounters with Shivers the butler, and Melody… no, better to leave out what happened with the blonde ghost.
"You're so brave, Luigi." Princess Daisy said, setting her cup down on the table. "Weren't you afraid at all?"
"Of course, I was scared." The green plumber replied, setting his own cup down. "King Boo was bigger, meaner, and scarier than Bowser, Tatanga, Wario, all of them… but my brother was in danger, so I picked up the Poltergust 3000 and I did…
Suddenly his words were interrupted when the Princess pounced on top of him, putting her arms around Luigi tightly while quickly kissing him all over the face and head, and then one more on the nose before they hugged. Yes, life these days was truly good for the Mario brothers; the red plumber was off living the good life in that big castle with Princess Peach and all her Toad servants, while Luigi, the richest man in the Mushroom Kingdom, had this big mansion and all its surrounding land, not to mention Princess Daisy. The ghosts were all gone, King Boo was contained, and Bowser hadn't been heard from for a while, making Luigi genuinely believe that life just didn't get better than this… until the TV over in the corner came on.
Unlike back in Brooklyn, the Mushroom Kingdom didn't have things like cable, and the broadcast day had ended on all the local networks, so all the square shaped screen showed was a loud and annoying snowstorm. This completely ruined the mood set by the fireplace and the candles, so the green plumber got up off the sofa to turn it off, with Daisy following close behind. Reaching out his hand to turn off the power knob, Luigi stopped for a second when the static on the screen changed for a second, not that he had been able to make sense of what it looked like. Then the Princess noticed it, too, commenting that it looked like a person was visible for a second, but then something happened that was pretty hard to describe.
A bright yellowish-green light suddenly erupted from the center of the screen, filling the green plumber's vision as it seemed to engulf everything around him, and then it was like the whole world stopped. Luigi couldn't move or speak, but he could hear more static as that yellowish-green glow became all he could see, and then it all just stopped. The green plumber fell onto the concrete floor while the glow and static both faded away, and he could move again in spite of feeling dizzy. Daisy was there, too, having fallen onto the floor right next to him, although she was a little slower to recover, so Luigi scooted over to the Princess in order to help her sit up.
"Luigi?" She asked, reaching up to rub her eyes. "What happened?"
"I don't know." He replied, tilting his head up to look around. "Maybe… maybe we've been kidnapped by aliens."
As ridiculous as this sounded to say out loud, it wouldn't be the first time that Daisy had been kidnapped by a creature from outer space, and as the green plumber looked around at the computer screens and indicator panels all around this circular room, the possibly of them having been beamed up into a UFO was sounding a lot more likely. Aside from the screens, control panels, and a metal hatch style door that could've very well opened out into space, the only other feature in this place was a large rolling chair that was faced away from them, with the mysterious occupant heard as he, or maybe it, pressed buttons and moved levers. Once its alien tasks were complete, the chair started to very slowly rotate around so that it's occupant could face the two captives, and the green plumber gasped with fright once the creature's identity was revealed.
"Hiya, Luigi." The chair's occupant said happily. "It's been a while, but I told you our paths would cross again at some point, didn't I, boy?"
No, it wasn't Tatanga or any other space-faring monster that was facing the two of them in the chair… it was worse. Sitting in that chair surrounded with the greenish glow of his many screens and control panels was none other than Professor E. Gadd, himself, the little old man's eyes hidden behind those extremely thick glasses while he smiled with his few remaining teeth. By this time the Princess had mostly recovered from… whatever had just happened to them, standing up and brushing the dust from her yellow dress while the Professor just kind of stared at her… for a while… like for a long while that was starting to make the green plumber uncomfortable, especially when Daisy noticed this.
"Oh, Professor this is Princess Daisy of Sarasaland." Luigi said to break the tension. "Daisy, this is Professor E. Gadd, the famous ghost hunter."
"Wow, is she out of your league." The old man bluntly replied, reaching from his chair to take her hand but stopping when the Princess pulled back. "I tell you, boy, if I was thirty years younger, you'd have some competition on your hands."
"Are you the one who brought us here?" Daisy asked, some sternness in her tone while putting her hands on her hips. "Where are we? How did we get here? What's the idea interrupting our date night?"
In his usual fashion, the Professor was dismissive of most of what she was saying, only telling the two of them that the full explanation was very technical, before pointing to a strange looking device that had some kind of security camera mounted on the top. This contraption was called the Pixelator, and the old man had used it to reach out through the green plumber's Television, digitizing his whole body into a stream of binary code that was almost instantly transported into this research bunker where it was reassembled far more successfully than any of the last test experiments. Honestly, he hadn't even known that Luigi had company, assuming that it was just a blur from poor reception.
"The Pixelator is largely untested, and sending one person through is dangerous enough." The old man explained. "Only a daredevil like you would willingly dive into such a device with another person, even though last time I tried to send two subjects they turned inside out… and exploded… all over. Mark my words, boy, one of these days your on the edge lifestyle is gonna get you killed… but hopefully not before you can help me out."
Turning away from them before anything else could be said, the Professor activated one of the screens, but it only showed what looked like thick smoke with… I don't know, little fleeting glimpses of something within. According to the old man, this was what all of Evershade Valley looked like now that the Dark Moon was gone, leaving Luigi confused since he had never heard of this valley, or whatever the Dark Moon was. Daisy, however, was quick to speak up since she had heard of both of them before, being that both of them were located deep within her Kingdom of Sarasaland, meaning that the Pixelator had moved them a very long distance.
"Evershade Valley is actually a pretty popular tourist attraction." She explained. "It's known as the most haunted place in Sarasaland, but it's safe because the Dark Moon always seems to make the ghosts friendly. I've never seen it look all smoky like this, though, and… and I can't even see the Dark Moon right now."
"Quite right, my dear, you are really well informed." The Professor added. "I came here to study the ghosts in the only place where they wouldn't try to kill me, and I was making great progress in my research until the Dark Moon vanished, and the ghosts chased me out… after destroying my lab and giving me an awful suitcase-wedgie."
The green plumber was beginning to understand where the old man was going with all this, and he didn't like it, not one bit. The Princess, on the other hand, was concerned since this was part of her Kingdom and a large source of income during Halloween, so she asked where the Dark Moon had gone to. Instead of explaining more, however, the Professor simply produced a large piece of dark purple gemstone from on top of a nearby shelf. It crackled with what looked like black lightning, making everyone's hair start to stand on end when the old man brought it over for them to see, and then he pushed a button that raised yet another strange device up from the center of the floor.
"Somehow the Dark Moon has been corrupted by powerful magic." The Professor explained as he carried the gem over to the device. "Corrupted and smashed into a dozen pieces, but don't lose hope… the Purifier 800 might just be able to repair the damage."
Looking like a big record player with some scrub brushes and water jets on the side, the Purifier 800 came to life as soon as the dark gem was set on top, blinking and beeping while the crackling gemstone was spun around. The scrub brushes went to work, moving back and forth while water and chemicals were sprayed onto it like they were cleaning a dirty plate, and slowly… slowly the gemstone's purple light became brighter. Eventually the black lightning was gone, and the gem's bright almost pink glow was comforting… until Luigi noticed what was happening on the smoky screen. The smoke now looked more like a thick fog that was rolling back to reveal a dark landscape… a landscape where a creepy house was becoming visible.
"It worked!" The Professor exclaimed as the whole house came into view. "The fog has receded, and we can get to Gloomy Manor again… that's right, Luigi, we need to contain the ghosts until the Dark Moon is repaired… and that house is where you're going."