Luigi's Mansion 2: Dark Moon

Chapter Thirty Two: King Boo's Terms

Ever since the first moment he had set foot inside of Evershade Valley, the weather had been a relentless mixture of fog and thunderstorms, so it was weird for Luigi to see the night sky so clear. The fog that had acted as a barrier to keep him out of so many areas in the beginning was now gone completely, and there wasn't a cloud in the sky, causing the soggy earth to slowly begin drying under the dim purple light of the Dark Moon up above. Yes, now that it was complete, the purple gem, which actually did resemble a crescent moon, was illuminating every inch of the valley, and the ghosts…

Instead of hiding inside of the many buildings to cause trouble, it seemed like all of the ghosts were coming outside, their glowing yellow eyes no longer so angry, and smiles on their faces as they worked on cleaning up the area. Some were fixing the lightbulbs of Gloomy Manor, while others were hard at work trimming the hedges around the Haunted Towers, all of the different colored phantoms working together to get Evershade Valley back into shape. A crew of them wearing hardhats was even transferring building supplies from the Old Clockworks to the top of the mountain, probably in order to start rebuilding that cabin after the cave in.

"Hiya, Luigi!" One of the ones with the large brain exclaimed, startling him when it got in his path. "Hey, we're awful sorry we had to get so rough with you earlier, but now that the Dark Moon's back, and there aren't a bunch of Boos bossing us around, you can tell the Princess that we'll have Evershade Valley back up and running by tourist season."

"Oh, good… that's great." The green plumber replied. "Well, uh… keep up the good work."

Wow, this was weird, they were all just… they were all just acting like everything was suddenly back to normal, and it was all thanks to that big purple gem in the sky. All over the valley lights were coming back on and doors were being repaired, but unfortunately Luigi was headed back to the only building in the place that was still darkened. None of the now friendly ghosts were even attempting to get near the Treacherous Mansion, with one of them even going so far as to put up a sign near the rock bridge, before flying back toward the others as fast as it could. Stopping for a moment to read the sign before crossing onto the rock bridge himself, the green plumber saw that it read:

PARDON OUR DUST

ATTRACTION CLOSED DUE TO RENOVATION

REOPENING ESTIMATE: WHEN KING BOO LEAVES

Taking a deep breath as he looked over at the darkened mansion, Luigi felt his legs starting to shake again as he remembered his first confrontation with the King of the Boos, getting to the point where he had to lean on the sign to keep from falling over. Honestly, if Princess Daisy wasn't being held captive, he might have considered just leaving the giant ghost in there to do as he pleased… oh, Daisy, why did you have to go after the ghosts, yourself? He knew that she was trying to impress him, and the Princess was a real tough girl, even managing to capture a Boo all by herself, but she just wasn't ready for their King. He couldn't just be captured like any other phantom, but hopefully the dark light device would provide the needed advantage.

The rain had cleared up from above the mansion as well, allowing a little bit of the purple glow to filter in through the gothic building's windows, illuminating at least some of the darkened space, even though Luigi was still heavily reliant on his flashlight. According to the Professor, now that most of the background paranormal activity had gone away, the only remaining power source was up on the roof, so the green plumber walked up the stairs, his boots making a soft thud-thud-thud against the carpet that ran up the whole length of the staircase. Even though there were no Boos or any of the other ghosts around, he was still nervous while searching for the stairs up to the third floor, which was the only way up onto the roof.

Finding it all the way on the other end, a short spiral staircase without a carpet, this area must've been where the caretaker lived, since the third floor looked less like a museum, and more like someone's house. There was a full size bathroom with a tub, a kitchen that hadn't been used in a long time based on the dust on top of the oven, and a bedroom where… where a set of doors appeared to lead out onto a balcony. The curtains were closed, but there was still purple light coming in, although it was darker and brighter than what was coming from the Dark Moon, and crackling with black lightning when he slowly opened the door.

"Ah, the guest of honor finally arrives." A deep, and frighteningly familiar voice said. "Say hello to 'Green Mario', my darling."

The wind and rain had somehow come back, but apparently only on the roof of the Treacherous Mansion, but this didn't stop him from seeing what features of this place lay beyond the gothic bricks and roof shingles. Illuminated by the dark purple glow of the jewel in his crown, the giant King Boo, even bigger than the combined Ann Boo-ny, was floating there glaring at him with sinister black and purple eyes, horrible sharpened teeth with a long red tongue flicking back and forth between them, and a rounded body with such a shiny white color that it was reflecting the purple from the jewel.

And across from him, resting on a wooden easel as if about to be painted, was the portrait-prison of Princess Daisy, the girl silently gasping upon seeing him, and then pounding helplessly against the portrait just like Mario had once done while he was trapped. Luigi's first instinct was to run over to her, but a blast of energy from King Boo's crown hitting the floor right in front of his feet stopped this effort, and then the giant ghost laughed even as the green plumber raised the Poltergust's vacuum head. That laughter stopped as suddenly as it began, King Boo growling in anger before releasing a couple more blasts of energy from his crown, each one hitting right in front of Luigi's feet, and forcing him to back off a little more with each one.

"You must be pretty proud of yourself, huh?" The giant ghost asked. "Recovering the Dark Moon, subduing the idiots of this valley, capturing my whole gang… I kept hoping one of them would get lucky and destroy you, but somehow I knew it would end this way. You're lucky I didn't even know you were a ghost hunter when we first met, or I would've crushed you right then instead of going after your brother first."

"Hey, look, nothing has to happen here, okay?" Luigi asked, lowering the vacuum. "It's over, this… this whole Evershade Valley plan of yours has gone down the drain, so why don't you just hand over Daisy's portrait and leave? That way no one has to get crushed or captured, and we can just go our separate ways."

The giant ghost was still for a second, but then his rounded body started to shake a little, slowly gritting his big sharp teeth while growling in anger, before releasing an even bigger blast from the crown… but as the green plumber covered his face with his arms and ducked, he realized that the blast didn't come toward him, but behind King Boo. The energy gathered in the air on the very edge of the rooftop balcony, and formed some kind of… what was that? It looked like some kind of swirling purple tunnel that ended in darkness, and then the giant ghost took a deep breath to calm himself down.

"No, little man, you misunderstand me." King Boo said, licking his white lips with that long red tongue. "I will not leave, nor will I just crush you right now… even though I probably should. No, you destroyed my reputation, so you will receive something I've never given anyone else… a fair fight. You will follow me through the portal into my world, and then you and I will fight without distractions… the most powerful ghost in the world against the best ghost hunter in the world… winner takes all. This valley, the Princess, the loser, everything. Come, or I'll destroy the girl's portrait right now."

Luigi absolutely did not want to follow the giant ghost anywhere, let alone his own world, but there was no way that he could stop Daisy's portrait from being destroyed, even if he somehow managed to get King Boo by surprise. Letting out a sigh of both frustration and fear, the green plumber slowly walked forward, causing the giant ghost to smile in a big toothy grin that somehow made him look even more terrifying than usual, but so far King Boo kept his word. He did not attack Luigi, nor make any kind of aggressive move toward the portrait, or do anything else, simply joining the green plumber and floating alongside him as they moved down the swirling tunnel toward the darkness.

He thought it was just a cloud, but no that energy was solid enough to walk on, and now everything around Luigi was getting darker, but not quieter. The wind and rain of the thunderstorm was getting more intense with each step, and upon reaching the darkness at the end of the tunnel, the green plumber expected to fall a ways, not simply step onto something that felt like the same roof balcony that they were just on. Shining his flashlight around into the darkness, the falling rain was visible, but so was the fact that they were definitely not in Evershade Valley any longer. There was nothing but darkness all round, with random pieces of buildings floating in all directions, some of them only a room or a wall, with others being almost a complete other place. Even the balcony they were on was floating above the darkness.

"You know, I partly expected you to run away screaming." King Boo said. "You're a lot braver than you pretend to be, so we'll go ahead and get started, don't worry the rules are simple. The only way this fight will end is if I'm trapped inside that vacuum of yours, or you're tossed into the void after I beat you senseless. You may use any means at your disposal to win, and so can I… we will stand back to back, walk to the opposite end of the balcony, and the battle will begin once we turn. Ready?"

The green plumber nodded, turning back to back with the giant ghost, and then slowly walking forward on his count, swallowing hard to keep himself from shaking too much once the end of the platform was reached. It seemed like an hour passed with him just standing there, looking out into the infinite darkness that was all around them, but then the word turn was called out, with Luigi's legs starting to shake again as he slowly turned around to face King Boo.