Luigi's Mansion 2: Dark Moon
Chapter Thirty Three: High Moon Showdown
At the very instant that the two of them were facing each other, King Boo let out an angry growl as a beam of purple energy was shot out from within the jewel in his crown, forcing Luigi to jump sideways, rolling across the tiles and then letting out a flash of the strobulb as soon as he was able to aim properly. The giant ghost closed his eyes in reaction, but unlike the combined Ann Boo-ny, this one wasn't hindered at all by his size, and able to pull his arm out of the way when the green plumber made an attempt to catch it with his vacuum. Now swatting at him as soon as the arm was out of the way, Luigi had to duck down, only to jump back up and dive sideways again when another purple beam was shot out.
"Stand still, you little jerk!" King Boo scowled, passing another beam along the tiles. "How can you move so fast with all that pasta you and your brother eat all the time?"
The reason he was able to run faster and jump higher than Mario was because of what was happening right now, being that where his brother preferred to stand and fight all the time, the green plumber's first instinct was to avoid fighting by getting away by any means necessary, resulting in a great weight loss program. However, that didn't mean Luigi wasn't already getting tired after jumping out of the way of another purple beam, since he had been going constantly since his arrival in Evershade Valley except for a nap that got Princess Daisy kidnapped. Yes, he was already sweating and breathing hard by the time he had tried to dive out of the way of a fifth beam, making it more like falling out of the way, so the green plumber decided to try and end this quickly.
Making sure that his last fall had gotten him closer to King Boo, Luigi hit the button to unleash the dark light device, sending the almost fluidic rainbow beam of light straight for the startled giant ghost. Even though he was the fastest Boo around, the giant ghost wasn't able to get completely out of the way in time, resulting in King Boo letting out a scream of surprise and agony as half of his face was completely overtaken by the beam. Dazed and tilting to one side, the giant ghost's tightly closed left eye was letting out little puffs of rainbow colored smoke, but the green plumber wasn't about to let his only chance for victory pass him by.
Sneaking up behind the giant ghost while he was rubbing his injured eye, Luigi activated the vacuum, catching the end of King Boo's ghostly tail, but there was no way it was going to be that easy. His other eye snapping open as soon as he felt the pull of the Poltergust, the giant ghost began to spin around in place so fast that the green plumber's feel left the ground, going faster and faster until the two of them separated with a hollow sounding pop. But while King Boo was left floating above the tiles to recover from being so dizzy, Luigi was sent flying up into the air, tumbling through the darkness far beyond the edge of their battleground until landing on something that felt like a hardwood floor.
The hardwood floor was confirmed when he found himself crashing to a stop into an old bookcase made of rotten wood, moldy books and wood splinters flying everywhere as he sat up to recover from his own dizziness. Shining the flashlight to get some illumination, the green plumber slowly stood up and had to quickly grab onto the nearest wooden cabinet to stop himself from falling… down the slope? Yes, Luigi realized as he saw more with the light, he had landed on one of the floating partial buildings he had spotted before, and this one was so tilted forward that the floor became like a steep wooden ramp. The bookcase he had crashed into had actually saved him from sliding down farther already, and now he the green plumber was able to look up and see… and see the rapidly approaching figure of King Boo!
"Here I come, Green Mario!" The giant ghost yelled as he tumbled through the air. "I'll crush you flat, boy!"
WHAM! Instead of grafefully landing on the partial building like other ghosts did, King Boo was still tumbling forward when his giant white body slammed into the very top of the wooden slope, causing the whole building to shake until… until he was rolling toward Luigi like some kind of boulder. Gasping in fright, the green plumber turned heel and leapt farther down onto the slope, struggling to get around or climb over any more wooden furniture that appeared in the flashlight's beam, while his pursuer simply flattened everything in his path. He was able to keep this up for a little while, but then one of the green plumber's boots caught on the corner of another cabinet, causing him to begin rolling uncontrollably down the slope as well.
Suddenly the partial building was gone, leaving Luigi falling through the darkness once again, but without any time to scream before getting the wind knocked out of him after… after landing on another platform like the one he and the giant ghost started on. WHUMP! He was just starting to get up to his hands and knees when King Boo landed on the platform with so much force that the green plumber was sent flying right into the giant ghost's face just as he was getting up as well, flashing the strobulb right in King Boo's good eye, and then somehow managing to catch the end of that long red tongue in the Poltergust just as the giant ghost was crying out in surprise. Hanging on for dear life as he was flipped around by the flailing tongue, Luigi gave the vacuum all it had, sucking in more and more of the tongue… until King Boo raised one of his white arms and smacked him.
Spiked like a volleyball as he separated from the giant ghost, the green plumber was sent sliding across the platform, struggling to get back up as quickly as possible, only to get a close look at the back of King Boo's white hand as it went across his face. Knocked onto his back and sent sliding in the opposite direction, Luigi pressed the buttons for the dark light device and the strobulb, but neither had cooled down yet, leaving him completely open when the giant ghost floated up into the air, before coming crashing back down like a professional wrestler coming off the top rope. CRASH! Colliding with the platform so hard that a few of the tiles were sent falling down into the darkness when they broke off, King Boo had just barely missed Luigi as he rolled out of the way, but the green plumber was unable to avoid the being grabbed by those white ghostly hands.
"Come here, you little roach!" The giant ghost growled, turning Luigi to face him and then squeezing with both hands. "I wanna break every bone in your body, I wanna squeeze you into paste… but that wouldn't look good in your portrait, now would it? Now, you hold real still, and give me a great big smile."
Frantically pushing buttons on the Poltergust, the weapons still hadn't cooled down yet, and the vacuum by itself was useless against King Boo, leaving the green plumber completely helpless as the jewel in the giant ghost's crown began to glow. Luigi screamed as the purple beam shot toward him, but instead of hitting him directly, the blast went right into the activated vacuum until… until the indicator lights on the Poltergust all turned green. Growling when he saw that his portrification beam didn't work, King Boo was readying another blast, only to scream in horror when the recharged dark light device was unleashed right into his face.
Into his good eye, and down into his mouth the rainbow beam blasted, making him drop the green plumber onto the tile floor as he covered his face in agony, but the vacuum was still on. It took Luigi a second to realize that the vacuum had caught onto the giant ghost's tail, but then he grabbed onto it and held on, keeping the switch activated as he was flopped around and spun, just not as purposefully as the last time. In fact, King Boo didn't even seem to know which was was up, puffs of rainbow colored smoke coming from both his eyes as he slammed hard down into the tiles, more and more of his giant body being sucked up into the Poltergust. The green plumber had to shake the vacuum, slamming the last exposed bits of King Boo down onto the tiles in order to suck them up faster, and then the giant ghost vanished… his crown flying off his head and falling down into the darkness below the platform.
Sitting back down on the floor, Luigi huffed and puffed, his arms and legs shaking from what he had just been through, but then he saw something that made him forget all about his own fatigue. Just by chance the green plumber was looking out into the abyss, when one of the partial buildings fell down into the darkness… followed by another one… and another one as each of the buildings broke apart into little pieces. Soon even the platform was starting to crack as only a few partial buildings remained in the sky, forcing Luigi to scramble to his feet, legs wobbling like rubber as he stumbled his way over to the still open portal, literally crawling on his hands and knees until the swirling tunnel vanished, making him fall… onto solid ground?
Rolling over onto his back, the green plumber saw a bright purple crescent moon floating high in the clear sky… was he back? Struggling to sit up, the first thing he saw was Princess Daisy's portrait that had been left on the wooden easel… yes, this was the rooftop balcony of the Treacherous Mansion… he had done it… King Boo was defeated… and now he had to get that portrait back to the Professor. Standing up was hard now, needing to take breaks every couple steps or so, and actually wishing the rain would come back because it might have cooled him down, the green plumber picked up Daisy's portrait and carried it slowly back down the stairs, and out the front door of Treacherous Mansion.
The now friendly ghosts were still hard at work as he walked along the path, one of them even removing the Closed sign from in front of the old museum so that a work crew could start fixing it up… it really was over. When Luigi finally made it back to the research bunker, the only thing in the world that felt better than watching King Boo get emptied into the vault was when the Professor told him to use the dark light device on the portrait. It had taken the green plumber so long to walk back to the bunker that the device had cooled down again, and with a flood of rainbow light covering every inch of that portrait from where it was leaning on the wall, the captured Princess emerged, falling right into Luigi's arms.
"You saved me!" She exclaimed, hugging him around the neck. "I don't… I've never liked saying this, but… my hero!"