I've Got the Strangest Feeling This Isn't Our First Time Around

10

When Luigi finally makes it back to his apartment, the first thing he notices is all his stuff is gone.

"Uh Spike?"

"Ah! There you are!" Spike comes out of the kitchen in a "Kiss the Chef" apron, carrying a pot full of spaghetti.

"What did you do with my stuff?" Luigi asks. "Last I checked you were threatening to send it all to the dumpster."

"So, funny story." Spike says as he serves up two helpings. "I...may have lost my temper. Just a tad. It's all back in your room."

"Exactly how I left it?" Luigi doesn't buy it.

"What do you think?" Spike retorts, then moves on. "So spill already! Did you stop the bomber or not?"

"Uh, yeah, we did." Luigi shrugs. "We stopped an entire mountain known for granting wishes from being reduced to rubble."

Spike's mouth drops open, "Shut the front door!", then hands him a glass of wine. "You really do walk through people's dreams. When's the next time you get to do it?"

"Uh, tomorrow, actually." Luigi says offhandedly, then just comes out and demands, "Okay, what the hell is this?"

"What?" Spike holds up his hands in mock surrender. "Is it so wrong I wanted to make up for our little disagreement?"

"You call putting me on academic suspension a disagreement?"

"I do when I decide to make us some pasta as an olive branch." Spike says smoothly.

Luigi just stares at him, so Spike prods, "That means I'm sorry, pal."

"This is you apologizing?" Luigi asks, surprised. "To me?"

"Uh huh." Spike shrugs, gesturing to the spread.

But instead of sitting down, Luigi sets down the wine and walks away, still puzzled.

Which leaves Spike to sit down alone, pick up the discarded wine glass and mutter to himself,

"And this is me squeezing your skull.", before he downs the wine, and squeezes the glass hard enough to make it shatter.

"Ap ap ap!" Mario stops Luigi as the man in green comes out in his Dreamwalking pajamas. "I just hope you know I'm being dragged kicking and screaming to allow this to happen."

"You are?" Luigi looks. "How's your throat?"

"How's my—It's a figure of speech!" Mario says.

"Earpieces." Pauline comes up and hands them to Mario and Luigi, who both put one in their ears.

"I'm talking about how we're still trying to figure out what happened the last time you Dreamwalked." Mario reminds him.

"I touched something, I felt something." Luigi doesn't get it. "So what?"

"The 'so what' is that's not something you're able to do on your own. Or so we thought." Mario walks them over to the Ultibed. "You're walking through a stranger's dreams. Anything you can touch is through our assistance."

"Really?" Luigi turns his head to the bed. "That mean the lab has to shut down?"

"It might!" Mario doesn't care for Luigi's attitude.

"Hate to say it, but he's right." Pauline says from her station. "Your vitals were all over the place."

"All over the place?"

"Going crazy!" Mario says exasperatedly. "That's why I don't like that I don't know how you were able to touch something without our assistance. Or why it made our technology go crazy."

"I don't care." Luigi walks over to the bed. "How much time do we have?"

"Our window to try ." Pauline emphasizes. "Is less than 48 hours."

"Her name's Molly Turner." Luigi snaps.

"Hey, lay off her." Mario snaps at him, deflating some as he walks over to Luigi. "She just wants you safe in there, same as me."

The confusion clears, as Luigi says, "Oh I get it. This isn't about me at all, is it? This is about the other Dreamwalker--"

"Bowser."

"Right, sorry. Bowser." Luigi corrects. "You think I could end up the same way?"

"I hope we never find out." Mario says to avoid answering.

"Fine." Luigi says, then looks at where the purple statue is encased. "Because that would be the only thing to stop me from going in there."

When he sees Mario about to protest, Luigi stops him, "Just listen, okay? Molly was never my mom in any sense, but she did give me a roof over my head. So I need to know who killed her, and prove it wasn't herself. It's the least I can do so I never have to think about her connection to my parents again."

"Even knowing what we might find in there?" Mario asks, his concern loud and clear.

Luigi looks at the statue again, then the bed, and only says, "Yes." And walks away.

"Alright, lights!" Mario calls, and as they dim. "Alright, sound off--"

But suddenly, the lights go back to bright, stopping everyone.

Luigi sits up abruptly, "Hey! What gives?"

"Mm, yes." Snoozemore appears. "Swap out Molly Turner. We have a new priority."

If looks could kill, everyone in the room would be dead from the glare Luigi's giving him.