"Luigi!?"

Mario was overjoyed. He tossed his still-smoking gun aside and dashed over to his brother.

"What happened?" Luigi asked, eyeing the gun on the ground.

"Some weird Koopa dude came up and tried to kill me," Mario explained. "We did a quickdraw. When you appeared, it distracted him, and I, uh..."

Mario motioned to the shelled figure sprawled out on the ground behind Luigi.

"So, what happened with you?" Mario asked.

Luigi shook his head. "Wild adventure, bro. Absolutely wild. When you disappeared, I about killed the professor. We started working on it, trying to fix it to bring you back, but Bowser and that weird Koopa guy attacked us. He tried to send me back in time, too, but accidentally wound up sending himself back. So that's when he met you."

Mario nodded. "What happened to Bowser?"

"Well..."

--

Bowser banged his head every time he met a curve of the Ghost Portrificationizer's pipe. He was finally flung inside a round, metal device where he starting getting thrown around as if it was a washing machine. Maybe it was. After a few more frazzles from electricity and stomps from metal pounders, the Koopa King was defeated. By a simple device from a little professor.

--

"Oh. So he got turned into a painting?"

"No. He's not a ghost. But he DID get the beating of his life. Also, Kammy Koopa waddled in."

"What'd you do to her? Suck her into the Poltergust 3000?"

Luigi shook his head and grinned. "Would you believe me if I said we bribed her using Twinkies?" Mario shook his head no. "Well, it's true, because that's what we did. Appears the hag has a craving from little yellow puffs with cream."

Mario felt somebody behind him. He turned around and saw Einstein.

"Oh yeah," Mario stuttered, "this...this is Einstein. Happens I was sent here to him."

"Quite obviously, this young fellow is Luigi, the one who you spoke of, who must be your brother."

Mario nodded. He took another look at his surroundings. "Sorry, professor, but I've got to be going now. My brother is back."

Luigi looked a little sad. "Well, about that, bro...I think I was a little too hasty in coming here, 'cause I only heard about half of what Prof. Gadd said about bringing us back. I heard, 'remember, Luigi, the key to bringing you back is envisioning--' And then I got warped here. Sorry, bro."

Before Mario could comment, Einstein spoke up. "Imagination is more important than knowledge."

Mario looked at him strangely. "What?"

"Imagination is more important than knowledge."

Without even thinking about it, the answer clicked inside Luigi's head. "That's it!" he exclaimed. "Imagine we're back at the lab, Mario. With the professor. Go on, close your eyes."

Mario did as he was told. He made his mind completely white and blank, then filled it with the sound and image of clanking machines.

"There's the hamster, running in the wheel," Luigi added.

Mario added the running hamster in the machine to his mind.

"There's another--"

"Luigi! My boy! And Mario! You both are back, safe and sound!"

Mario opened his eyes with a start. He was in a room full of tinkering, clanking machines. A strange old man in a white coat was standing in front of him.

"I'm back!" Mario shouted happily. He turned and hugged Luigi, who had just opened his own eyes. Luigi was surprised at first, then hugged him back. The small professor chuckled beside them. Mario turned to see a pile of Twinkie wrappers on the floor next to his foot. In front of that pile was a female Magikoopa munching on a Twinkie. Mario turned to Luigi, who shrugged.

"Well, let's get out of here," Mario said cheerfully. "There's supposed to be a new episode of 'Living with Piranha Plants' on TV. Don't wanna miss it."