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

33

"Well?" Snoozemore asks as the team walks back into the Dream Lab.

"Still no luck." Mario admits.

"The fighting couple and the pink Toad are in the clear, but we still don't know who attacked Toad." Luigi adds.

"Toad's not evil." Mario says.

"He signed up for a self-defense class that was about to go belly up, and sent books to a Toad bookworm." Pauline says.

"Unorthodox or not, Toad was just trying to help the people he saw." Spike agrees.

"Not everyone." Snoozemore reminds them.

"Let me dreamwalk again before we wake him up." Luigi requests. "There's gotta be something else I can do in there."

"We're cutting it close with this one." Snoozemore warns. "At this stage, we won't be able to see much else beyond his most recent trauma, and wherever his subconscious is trapped."

"This'll be quick. I have an idea I want to test out." Luigi assures him.

Snoozemore looks to Mario for clarification, but when Mario doesn't offer anything up, Snoozemore pushes, "What is it?"

"Better if I just do it and don't bother explaining it." Luigi says. "Last thing I need is this one." He points at Mario with a thumb. "Refusing to let me do my job again."

"The lab won't let you dreamwalk at all without backup." Mario crosses his arms. "And I'm not setting one foot in there unless you talk."

"Just let me." Luigi insists. "Nothing's gonna happen."

"And if Toad wakes himself up like Lemmy while you're messing with his dreams?" Mario reminds him.

"Then you get the heck out of there and wake me up." Luigi promises, and when Mario looks as if he's still about to say no, Luigi drops all pretenses and comes closer, begging,

"Mario, if you really want me to trust you, I need you to do the same for me. Please."

Mario knows he should be saying no, but at the look in Luigi's eyes, all Mario can do is nod his head in reluctant agreement.

"Alright, Weeg, where are we?" Mario says the moment his feet land inside the dreamscape.

"Toad's house. Toad's partaking in his new hobby." Luigi describes, allowing both of them to walk closer.

"So what are you gonna do?" Mario asks, giving Luigi his full attention.

"So Toad's been watching that neighborhood since he moved into your old house, right?" Luigi recalls. "That has to be the equivalent of months he's been watching them. Months he's had to know their secrets."

"Okay, I'm not putting my foot down yet." Mario says as permission for Luigi to continue.

"Toad's whole livelihood in this house was centered around the Lakitu's camera feed." Luigi says. "Which means it's loaded with all the feelings he had while watching them."

He doesn't bother explaining, instead just choosing to put his hands on the computer monitor, watching as the neighborhood cycles through the past months at a rapid pace.

"Luigi's brain activity is going crazy."

"Status report, now."

"Lu, what are you doing?" Mario demands, reaching out a hand, ready to pull him away.

"Don't." Luigi warns. "I'm just going through all of Toad's memories from the time he moved in to now." Then he notices, "There's a house that looks empty."

"What are you seeing?" Mario asks.

"Lights never turn on, can't even see in the windows." Luigi says. "What're they hiding?"

"So what? It's an empty house." Mario tries to wave it off, only to be thwarted when he hears in his earpiece,

"Swing and a miss. Records show all houses are occupied."

"30 seconds to wake him up."

Now Mario puts a hand on Luigi's arm, ready to pull him away, "Time to go. Now."

"Not yet." Luigi insists, not moving. "Don't wake me up."

Now his focus has turned elsewhere, noticing, "Do you see the lampposts flickering? I think it might be some kind of signal. I think they're moving something in the Lakitu camera's blind spot."

"Weegee, we need to wake Toad up." Mario begs, but Luigi won't, looking out the window. "There's another Lakitu camera."

"Forget Toad, wake him up!" Mario says into his earpiece, right as Luigi reminds him, "You can't do that without getting killed."

"9...8...7..."

Luigi can't move, as a flash appears before his eyes.

A Lakitu camera moving towards someone, someone that was apparently tracking the camera's movements, because he points straight into the camera, no mistaking his meaning.

"5...4...3..."

Luigi pulls out his dream hammer immediately and whales on the purple chunk, with Mario assisting, and when it's done, Mario hightails it out of there and wakes him up.

Upon seeing Mario standing so close, Luigi reprimands, "Told you you could trust me."

"What was it?" Mario asks softly. "What did it do to you?"

"I think it showed me who petrified Toad." Luigi says.

Mario sighs, but says nothing as he heads to the conference room, while Luigi goes to change out of the pajamas and join him.