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

23

"Bad news." Mario says as he rejoins the team. "Clark said she talked to the guy at the front desk at the bed and breakfast. The call log showed he was just talking to a guest checking in late."

"And that would be why we reached out to Gadd Science Incorporated." Spike says. "Buildings appear, disappear at will on a regular basis in Boo Woods, but with this, we can not only track exactly where they made one appear before, but where they're gonna make one appear next."

Spike types on the keyboard a few seconds, "That's where they made the bed and breakfast appear. Time stamp says it was on Friday night at around... 7 at night, when Whirl said they started on the path."

"That's them?" Mario watches, intrigued.

"Uh huh. And then there's the bed and breakfast, still not disappeared." Spike confirms.

"So the alibi checks out." Pauline says, disappointed.

"Forget this. I need–" Luigi starts to say, but at Mario's look, catches himself, "I want to talk to Whirl again. Ask him about the front desk guy."

"Clark can do that." Mario says dismissively.

"Absolutely not." Luigi argues. "I need to be there. I'll go to where he's staying."

Mario clearly doesn't like it, so Luigi tells him, "I know how it sounds, but you're wrong. He already thinks I'm with the cops. And I think he's starting to trust me. I just..."

"Know him so well?" Pauline guesses.

"Yes!" Luigi exclaims.

"And that's exactly why I don't like it." Mario says. "Lu, dreamwalking is doing something to you. It's not always permanent, but people can see it."

"So what if it does?" Luigi shrugs. "That doesn't change the fact that this is my job."

Mario starts to shake his head again, but Luigi stops him before he can get one word out, "I'm going to see Whirl and that's final."

"It's not gonna work out the way you're hoping." Mario tries to warn.

"Which is why you're not coming." Luigi says smoothly, then walks back to the pipe and jumps in.

"Crazy idea: go with him." Spike says sarcastically.

"He just said no." Mario reminds him, then walks away.

"So now what?" Pauline asks Spike.

"Now we go back to my apartment and get together..." Spike slips up.

"Okay!" Pauline says excitedly.

"Get the record player together." Spike finishes, smirking when Pauline deflates.

"Right, of course, the record player." She says sheepishly. "That's why I cheered like a little schoolgirl." And walks away.

"And why I didn't stop you." Spike says to her retreating back, not that she can hear him.

Mario's sitting next to Bowser's hospital bed when Snoozemore finds him.

"Mm, yes." Snoozemore says. "I should've guessed you'd be here wallowing in self-pity."

"I never asked for any of this." Mario says without looking at him. "I was just an aspiring plumber from Brooklyn that fell into the pipe to the Pi'illo Kingdom by complete chance, that you recruited into the Dream Lab by promising me you'd tell me which pipe would take me home. You said nothing about how big a price that would come to be."

"Mm, no." Snoozemore disagrees. "Need I remind you that the reason we have something to put the petrified bodies in to wake them up is because of you? Did you not understand what that meant?"

Mario rolls his eyes, "I was an aspiring plumber who was majoring in civil engineering. Every detail went into keeping the petrified bodies as safe and comfortable as I was capable of making them. Already petrified bodies don't even register anymore."

"Luigi isn't Bowser." Snoozemore says.

"But is that going to be enough?" Now Mario looks right at him, eyes glassy.

"Mm, yes." Snoozemore nods. "Bowser is here because he let the corrupted minds he was dreamwalking through corrupt him."

"I think it's happening to Luigi too." Mario tells him, looking at Bowser.

"Mario." Snoozemore says, and when Mario slightly turns his head, Snoozemore goes on, "I know you don't want to be here, and that you don't trust me after going home and finding out you were declared legally dead. But look at what you're doing now: We're saving more lives than you ever would've in your old life, and with that comes a price. Now as much as you deserve to know more about what we're really doing, I'm not allowed to tell you. But what I can tell you is once it's done, you will thank me for letting you be a part of it."

Then Snoozemore starts to leave, until he hears,

"It was my life."

The doctor turns, and Mario's looking right at him, eyes wet.

"You recruited me before I even had a chance to save lives as a plumber."

At that, Snoozemore says, "There's always a chance someone will get hurt."

Then he finally leaves, and Mario goes back to watching Bowser sleep.