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

41

Eventually Bowser leads Luigi to the sewers, prompting Luigi to ask, "Why did you bring me here?"

The giant Koopa doesn't reply, instead walks around the area, looking behind pipes, roars once, and suddenly, music starts playing from somewhere unseen.

"What are you doing?" Luigi asks, but Bowser just snaps, "Shut up." And keeps looking around.

"No one's here but us. This place isn't bugged." Luigi says louder over the music. "Look, I'll prove it."

He pulls out his phone, and as Bowser comes over, shows his phone scanning the area.

"It scans for anything that might be listening in. I check it every time I go in and out of the pipe." Luigi explains. "Stop the music."

Bowser only nods, roars again, then the music promptly stops, leaving a slight ringing in Luigi's sensitive ears.

"We're alone. I promise." Luigi says, still holding up his phone.

"Oh yeah? Show me your phone." Bowser demands, and Luigi hands it over.

After a moment, he hands it back. "Maybe you're smarter than I thought." Then he says, "Let's go." And starts walking away.

Luigi nods, and once Bowser's back is turned, he dials Mario's number and shoves it in his pocket as he follows.

"Why are we doing this?"

"You're gonna be much safer in my castle than you'd ever be here." Bowser says without turning around.

"Safer from what? " Luigi asks.

"Your 'friends', who else?"

Mario's phone rings, and after checking it, he tells Spike and Pauline, "It's Luigi." So he answers.

"You'd better have a good explanation for not being in the lab right now."

"What 'friends'?" Luigi says as calmly as he can, hoping Mario can hear him.

"The Dream Lab! They're the bad guys!" Bowser roars. "That's why we gotta take them down!"

Mario gestures for Spike and Pauline to come closer and puts it on speaker.

" It was you that leaked the dreamwalking algorithm to Luna, wasn't it? So you could take down the lab? "

"Now you're getting it. And when that went nowhere, I just decided to go after the head honcho himself." They hear Bowser brag. "How is that slimeball, anyhow?"

Pauline covers her mouth in shock.

"In a coma. They think he's not going to wake up." They hear Luigi lie.

"Good." Bowser replies. " One less loose end I don't need to tie up. Come on, we're wasting time. We need to get to my castle, pronto. "

"Get Clark. Now." Mario orders urgently, and Spike and Pauline jump up immediately as they all disperse, with Spike dialing Clark's number.

"Your cozy little Dream Lab is a sham." Bowser tells Luigi once they've made it through the pipe to the Darklands. "Though I guess it did give me incentive."

"I heard something latched onto you in the Dream Lab." Luigi says. "Didn't wake up fast enough?"

"Because it's always the dreamwalker's fault." Bowser rolls his eyes. "Is that what Mario told you? Course he did, because he's the lab's golden boy."