Chapter Text
From his cage dangling above the lava pit, its hot glow emanating with the heat to throw everything into red light, Luigi could see several of the neighboring cages swinging wildly, spinning, and some dropping down too close to the lava for comfort, only to be lifted back up while the prisoner inside screamed
It happened with the penguin king and his subjects, and the little talking star, and then Luigi's stomach dropped as he felt his own cage lowering.
It swung around and lowered much more slowly than he'd seen the others' do. It didn't stop him from giving an involuntary shriek as the chains clanked, causing him to sway.
As his cage finally halted, he heard a high, childlike giggle from just behind him. It almost sounded like the little star, but perhaps a bit younger.
His cage spun around and around before abruptly halting before a miniature sized version of that hulking dragon-turtle man that had interrogated him about Mario.
"Hi new prisoner, I'm Junior!"
Luigi blinked at him, at a complete loss for words but unable to forget his manners so he was able to give a small wave.
The mini-dragon-turtle - Junior- tilted his head in curiosity. He gave Luigi a long, appraising look followed by a series of sniffs through the bars all over his body.
"You smell funny," he concluded, his little mouth curving upwards to reveal rows of small but sharp teeth. "But good too. You must worry a lot."
Luigi quirked an eyebrow. "How can you tell?" He asked. Now that he surmised he wasn't in any immediate danger, he was finding the young creature as interesting as he was finding Luigi.
"I can smell it," Junior said. "You kinda smell like my Mama. She used to worry a lot, too."
"Really?" Luigi found it hard to believe that the mother of this kid - if she looked anything like him - would worry about anything.
Junior nodded. "Yeah, about me, about Papa, about the other Koopas. She tried not to let me see but I could smell it."
Luigi removed his cap to wipe away the sweat from his forehead, fanning himself with it while he had it in his hand.
Junior didn't seem to be effected by the heat at all, but he did notice the kid's smile had slowly disappeared upon the mention of his mother. It hadn't escaped Luigi that he'd been using past tense to talk about her.
"May I ask, is your Mama around now?"
He blinked at Luigi, his gaze lowering and he shook his head.
"The bad king got her."
Bad king? Luigi hadn't seen much of this world before he was captured, but the idea of a king worse than Junior's papa gave him even more reason to sweat.
When he didn't respond, Junior continued.
"But it's okay. Papa's gonna destroy the bad Mushroom Kingdom so nobody will be hurt by them again."
Replacing his hat to his head, Luigi grasped the bars of his still-dangling cage.
"I'm sorry about that--- your mama."
Junior had been avoiding his gaze, but he looked at him then.
"Everybody says that, I mean, all the Koopas anyway. But they knew her, you didn't. Why are you sorry?"
"I don't have to have known her to be sorry for you," he answered. "I can imagine it being tough for you."
Junior sniffed, wiping his face and trying to make it look like Luigi's words hadn't made him tear up.
A pang of guilt hit him in the stomach. He hadn't meant to make the boy cry. He decided to change the subject.
"And your Papa, he's the one who put me in here?"
Junior nodded again. "Uh huh. But if he comes don't tell him I was here, okay? Papa doesn't like me coming to the dungeon by myself."
"I wanted to play 'torture' though and I don't have anyone to play with."
"So that's why you were shaking the cages around," Luigi concluded.
"It's fun!" Junior exclaimed.
"Not for the one in the cage," he mumbled.
Junior scoffed. "Come on, they love it, right?" He gestured to the other prisoners who all jumped to attention and gave various hurried, fearful exclamations of agreement.
"See?"
Junior appeared to notice Luigi's skepticism, for he pulled out a remote control with several large red buttons, mashing one and lowering Luigi's cage to the floor of whatever Junior was standing on.
Another button pressed and the door to his cage sprang open, Junior waving him out enthusiastically.
"Here," he shoved the remote into Luigi's hands and nearly leaped into the cage, slamming the door shut and pointing back to Luigi.
"You use the remote and fly me around some. I'll show you how fun it is!"
Luigi blinked again, flabbergasted that it was this easy to be let out like this. He could escape now, easy. All he had to do was use this remote to lift Junior high enough that he couldn't follow him and boom, he was free.
His eyes flicked from the remote in his hands to the entryway Junior must have come from. It *would* be easy...
"Let's go already!" He heard Junior whine impatiently from the cage. Luigi turned back to see the boy bouncing and swinging the cage himself, anxiously waiting Luigi to start the game.
It would be easy, but then what? Where would he go, where could he go? And how would he get there?
It wouldn't be fair of him - even if he did manage to get out of this Darkland place - to leave all of these others behind.
And this Junior kid--- whatever his papa had done to him, Luigi truly felt a kind of sympathy for him. He was just a kid, a kid who'd lost his mom. It wouldn't be right to trick him or betray his trust however misguided.
So, feeling like he might regret not taking the chance later, Luigi pressed several buttons in succession and flung Junior about the dungeon, spinning and dropping him in the same way he had been doing.
He probably should not have been surprised when all of the screaming the boy did was of delight, interspersed with wild, high pitched squeals of laughter.
After a few minutes of watching Junior fly and dive and scream with joy, Luigi almost forgot where he was.
Almost.
He was reminded quite abruptly when a large yellow Koopa guard took hold of him and wrenched the remote from his hands.
"What are you doing?" The Koopa barked at him, Luigi instinctively cowering in his grip. "What do you think you were doing to the prince?"
Junior's sounds of enjoyment slowly died as he became aware of what was happening.
One of the flying Koopas zoomed up to stop the cage from spinning, aiding its descent back onto solid ground.
"It's okay, Junior," the flying guard tried to comfort the boy who only whined and rolled his eyes. "We'll get you out of there and this human will be swiftly dealt with."
"But we were just playing," Junior whined. "He was gonna go back in the cage when we were done, honest."
Luigi made to speak up and agree with him, but the guard holding him smacked him across the back of his head, knocking off his hat.
"Quiet you!" The guard said. "Junior, you're lucky we got here when we did. Who knows what this human was planning?"
The flying guard came up beside his fellow, taking hold of one of Luigi's arms. "Yeah. We'll have to take him to your papa now and see what's to be done with him."
As the two koopas began to drag him away, Luigi saw Junior pick up his hat, scrunching it in his claws as tears filled his eyes.
Luigi wasn't sure if Junior was fearing for him or for himself, but he did know that he was about to come face to face with this koopa king once again.