SMG4: Love & Cephalopods - Chapter 131 - Shade_To_Black (2024)

Chapter Text

If there was a phrase that described what was going on in SMG4’s room, that phrase would be “complete and utter HELL,” and SMG3, Meggy, and Desti were right in the middle of it.

Black, eldritch-looking tar was spreading all around them, covering the walls and floor. Desti, panic in her eyes, takes out a hunting dagger, ready to slash at the tar back. SMG3, also freaking out, tries to back away but accidentally falls onto his back, forcing him to crawl away from the approaching blackness. Meggy was rooted in place, her fear worse than SMG3 and Desti’s combined as the tar’s white, sketchy eyes all stared down on her.

This scenario reminded her too much of her Eldritch Zero/Niles nightmares, the feeling of constantly being watched, of not having control over your own body. Meggy’s legs shake violently as she starts to hyperventilate. Her turn glassy and hollow the more the black goo’s eyes stare at her.

Meggy would have suffered a full-blown panic attack if not for Desti grabbing her hand, having seen her girlfriend’s troubles state. Desti squeezes Meggy’s hand, the pressure and warmth managing to ground the ginger-haired girl. She slowly gets her breathing under control, her fear dissipating but fully gone. Before long, Meggy’s back to her usual self, though still a bit tense.

Meggy mouth’s a silent “thank you” to Desti, her girlfriend giving her a “you’re welcome” smile in return. The couple, along with SMG3, turn their attention back to the situation at hand. They focus on SMG4, who was staring back at them with hollow, possessed eyes.

“IT’S GOTTA BE PERFECT! IT’S GOTTA BE PERFECT!! I̶̴͘T͢͞'̢S̵͟ ͘G̡͝͡O҉̛͠T́͢T͢A ̛͢BĘ̕ ̴͜P̧͠ER̢͢F̷E̴͠C̀T̸͢͠!!̵̛!̵̛"̛ SMG4 screamed at them, his voice now bellowing in a low, demonic tone.

“Bro…what…” SMG3 stutters out, fear gripping his throat. “...What happened to you?”

A Few Weeks Earlier…

It was a perfectly normal day at Peach’s Castle. The sun was shining, Peach was doing her “royal” duties of mindlessly ordering her Toads around, and SMG4 was about to make the greatest video of all time. The meme man kicked open the door to his room, his arms filled with snacks like chips, energy drinks, instant ramen, and bleach, and joyfully strolls in with a wide, excited smile on his face.

“Alright,” SMG4 said to himself, “I’m restocked and ready!” He goes over to his desk and drops all the food and drinks beside it. “This is MY year!” He snatches up a can of BONK energy drink and holds it proudly over his head. “And I’m going to make…

“THE BEST. VIDEO. EVER!” SMG4 takes a swig of the BONK, letting out a sigh at the taste of it.

He then just stands in place…before immediately shooting over to his computer and getting to work. His fingers type frantically against his keyboard and make various grunting and cheering noises, using all of his signature meme-ing and comedy ability and pouring it into every cut, edit, and frame of his video.

Several Days Later…

“Ok! Let’s play that back!” SMG4 clicks the “Play” button on his video editing software and reviews his masterpiece.

The video began with Jesus standing on one of the wooden bridges around the castle grounds, cheeky bassoon music playing in the background. Kermit the Frog then walks into frame, flopping around like a GMod ragdoll, and gets into a floppy fight with Jesus. The two “fight” for a bit until Kermit pushes Jesus off the bridge, winning the duel. He then explodes before cutting to a hastily-plastered and poorly-aligned “THE END” screen.

“Hmmmmmm…Mhmm…” SMG4 hums and nods his head as the video ends, seemingly approving of it.

Before his face turns into a bug-eyed glare and his hands grab the monitor and throw it back over his head.

“NO!” SMG4 yelled, his monitor exploding on the ground behind him. “How am I gonna make the best video ever with this MEDIOCRE CLIP!?”

He raises his fingers over his keyboard to try again, only for loud banging and shouting to start coming from his door. He turns around as his door disintegrates, revealing Mario behind it. SMG4 gets out of his chair and slides over to Mario.

“Y-Yes?” SMG4 said, his eyes darting back and forth anxiously.

“SMG4!!!!” Mario screamed with enthusiasm. “WE’RE GOING TO TEXAS!!!!”

“Oh, uh, was that today? Uh…” SMG4 hesitantly looks back at his desk monitor before turning back to Mario. “I’m sorry, Mario. I can’t come out today. I’m in the middle of making a special video.”

“What?! But you’re always making videos! That’s never stopped you!”

“Not this one…” A creepy smile forms on SMG4’s face. “This one’s gonna be different…

“K BYEEEEEEE!” SMG4 slides back towards his desk, but not before fixing his missing door problem.

He plants a large “Door” seed into the ground and waters, the seed quickly growing into a new door. The door secures itself into the doorframe as SMG4 sits back down in front of his computer.

“Ok. Let’s try again.”

SMG4’s fingers once more skitter across his keyboard as he dedicates all his time to perfecting his special video.

3 Days Later…

The state of SMG4’s room had deteriorated over the last three days of video making. There were empty food tins and crushed energy drink cans scattered around the floor, along with seeping trash bags. The rotting remains of food and various other items created a foul stench, permeating the air and making it rancid.

And in the center of all of it was SMG4 himself, staring at his latest progress of his video through the screen. The video had Kermit the Frog standing in a sort of static “A-pose,” set to the “Candy Mountain” theme from “Kirby Super Star.” Multiples of Kermit appeared in time to the theme’s fast notes, forming diagonal lines, turning, or spinning with each beat. When the theme hit its stride, the Muppet then began to squat in the middle of the screen, still in time to the music.

SMG4’s bloodshot, tired eyes twitched at the sight of his video, before letting out a primal scream. He grabbed his keyboard and started slamming it against his desk in a fit of rage, hitting it repeatedly until the keyboard disintegrated into dust in his hands. He thankfully had another keyboard stored away under his desk and took it out, slamming it onto his desk.

“THIS IS NO GOOD!” SMG4 screamed, frustrated. “I NEED IT PERFECT!” He tries again, muttering “It’s gotta be perfect…” at an increasingly frantic and paranoid level.

He focused entirely on his video making, so much so that he didn’t even hear Mario burst his head through the door.

“OI!!” Mario shouted, pausing momentarily when he took in the disheveled sight of the room and SMG4, before shouting at him again. “SMG-FOOOOOOOOOUR!!!”

That shout stirred SMG4 back into reality. He turns around, letting out a panicked “Huh? W-What?,” and faces Mario.

“Hiya!” Mario waved at SMG4. “Celebrate MAR10 day with me next week!”

SMG4 glared at Mario, annoyed at the plumber interrupting his work. He and Mario argued a bit, SMG4 explaining the importance of his special video and Mario arguing the memer needed a break. Their argument ended when SMG4 threw his chair at Mario, who retreated his head out of SMG4’s door, barely avoiding a chair to the head.

With Mario gone, SMG4 returned to his work.

Much, Much, Much Later…

SMG4 worked tirelessly on his video for days on end, but no matter what he tried, his video still wasn’t perfect.

The repeated failures took a toll on him, both mentally and physically. His clothes became dirty and disheveled, along with his hair. His eyes became even more bloodshot and tired after every sleepless night, noticeable bags forming under them. Short, messy facial hair covered the bottom of SMG4’s face, the beard caked in sweat and old food. He neglected to bathe himself, focusing all his efforts on making his video at the cost of him smelling like a manure factory.

His constant drive towards his video was also making him insane. He kept breaking keyboards in fits of frustration, throwing them into the growing pile beside him. He typed “WHERE IS THE FUNNI?!?!?!?!?!” into Google repeatedly, trying to find an answer, but receiving none. He even prayed around a circle of Moai heads and candles to try and make his video perfect, along with other methods, but none of them worked, much to his frustration.

“Why isn’t it perfect?! WHY ISN’T IT PERFECT?!” SMG4 muttered to himself, slamming his head against the desk as he tried and failed to make the perfect video.

The gang, namely Meggy, Bob, and Mario, all visit SMG4 and see if he wants to hang out. But all they get from the memer is the door slammed in their faces, or thrown at their face in the case of Bob. SMG4 starts barricading his door with more doors, wanting to keep everyone out so he wouldn't lose focus and could dedicate even more time to his video.

Some Time Later…

The day was now March 10th, otherwise known as MAR10 Day. Everyone was gathered at Peach’s castle, enjoying the party that Mario had organized. But while the guests were having fun with games and activities, SMG4 was working in his room, looking even more disheveled than before.

“Why isn’t it perfect?! Why isn’t it perfect!?” SMG4 kept muttering to himself, his video STILL not meeting his expectations.

All the while, the gang was knocking at SMG4’s door, calling to him.

“SMG4?” Meggy’s voice, muffled by the thick door, said to him. “Can you come out?”

“Yeah, dude,” SMG3’s voice was then heard, “get out of your room.”

“It ain’t a party without you, SMG4,” Desti’s voice said through the door. “Please, come out and join us!”

“So loud…” SMG4 mutters, covering his ears. “Everyone’s so loud!” He then takes the broken halves of two keyboards and shoves them into his ears, blocking out the gang’s cries to focus on his video.

SMG4 was scrolling through Kermit meme videos, only for his screen to flash a “No Internet” warning. He paused, his delirious mind slowly realizing that, without any internet, he can’t work on the video. His face twists into a disturbed mockery of a smile, before-

“Hahahaha…”

SMG4 begins to laugh, his voice sounding soft and broken, before shifting into mad laughter.

“HAHAHAHAHAHA! AHA- HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!”

After his laughing fit, SMG4 begins to hear the commotion in the foyer between Meggy, Desti, Mario, and the Wario Bros. He turns towards his door, his manic expression still frozen on his face as he gets out of his chair. His face slowly morphs into one of insane anger as he reaches the door, kicks it open, and steps out of his room for the first time in weeks.

“HEY!!!” SMG4 yelled, grabbing everyone’s attention. “SHUT UP!!! CAN YOU ALL JUST SHUT UP?!?!”

SMG4 then goes on a rampage, blasting away the party goers with a Waluigi Launcher. SMG3 and his friends try to stop him, but SMG4 just stomps back into his room, slamming the door shut behind him. He walks back to his desk and sits down, seeing that the internet connection was restored on his computer.

SMG4 leans back and lets out an exhausted sigh, the stress and fatigue of EVERYTHING now getting to him. He relaxes for a little bit longer, before straightening up and getting back to work. He opens up Google and prepares to type, only for a PNG of a bunny-ears TV with a smiley face to appear in the middle of the screen, complete with a catchy theme tune.

“[Hey!]” The TV greeted SMG4 through a dialogue box. “[It looks like you need a bit of editing help!]”

SMG4 lets out a startled yelp at the sight of the TV, his surprise allowing the icon to continue speaking.

“[Can I interest you in a magical keyboard?]” The background behind the TV turned into a 90’s-style “Saved By The Bell” wallpaper as the TV moved to the side to present the so-called magical keyboard.

The keyboard was called the “Completely Regular Keyboard That Looks Cool,” but its appearance was anything but. It looked like it was made out of demonic flesh, with eyes and fangs sticking out of it in random places. The keyboard keys were all laid out as normal, jutting out of the flesh, scarring all around each key.

Despite its garish appearance, the TV continued to advertise it. “[It’s guaranteed to make your work…PERFECT!]”

“OOOOO!” SMG4 gasped when hearing the word “perfect.” Without further hesitation, he started rapidly clicking the “Buy Now” button on the screen, ignoring how creepy the keyboard looked if it meant it’d help him with his perfect video.

The TV icon smiles at SMG4, which turns ominous when the background music starts to distort. The icon then disappears, along with the 90’s backdrop, as the advertisem*nt ends, booting SMG4 back to the main Google screen.

“Huh?” SMG4 said, confused, only to yelp in pain when something crashes through his window and hits the side of his head.

He looked down to the ground and saw that the object was the “Totally Normal Keyboard” he just bought. SMG4 gawked excitedly at his new keyboard, thankful for the speedy delivery, but even more thankful for the promise of his video finally becoming perfect. He grabs the keyboard, tosses his old one away, and hooks it to the computer before placing his hands over the keys.

The moment his fingers touched the keys, SMG4 felt a surge of power rush through him. His fingers tapped across the keyboard with newfound energy, as if SMG4’s body was being controlled by someone else. All the while, SMG4 had a wide, crazy smile on his face, feeling this new power wash over him.

“This feeling! Yes!” SMG4 screamed, working his fingers even faster than before while screaming “YEEESSSSSSS!!!”

Little did he realize that the keyboard was already taking control of his damaged mind. Black, eldritch mist started coming out of the keyboard, transforming into tar then began covering SMG4’s desk. The man’s pupils pixelated to the point of non-existence, turning his bloodshot eyes white and hollow as the keyboard's control sank further into SMG4’s mind.

The black tar continues seeping around SMG4’s room, a white, sketchy eye looking down at SMG4, who wouldn’t know of his redesign, becoming nothing more than the keyboard’s puppet.

This all leads back into the present day, with SMG3, Desti, and Meggy trying to stay back from the eldritch tar.

Desti and Meggy slashed at the tar on the wall beside them, Desti having given Meggy one of her knives beforehand. They found their blades getting sucked into the tar mid-swing, forcing them to pull them back to avoid losing them. SMG3 also found himself getting sucked into the tar on the floor, sucking him by his legs and arms. He pulls his arms free and tries crawling away, but the tar keeps spreading around them.

The three kept fighting against the eldritch tar as SMG4(?) started speaking once more.

“A perfect video…requires sacrifice,” SMG4(?), his voice echoing with mad laughter.

“Sacrifices?!” SMG4 yelled, anger taking over panic as he glared at SMG4(?). “Ever since I helped you out with your channel, you’ve done nothing but have a hard-on for making this freaking video!”

SMG4(?) glares back at SMG3, who pulls himself off the floor and yells at him more.

“Why don’t you just go outside, and touch some grass!”

SMG4(?) scowls at SMG3. With rage filling his body, he reels back his head and shouts in a demonic voice:

"̷̨͘͞͡Ỳ̛O҉̕͡U͠ ̶W͡҉͏͟I̴͡L̴͘͟L̢̛͘͢͝ ͝N̶͞È̢̕͘V̷̛E̵͡R̢̡̀͟͞ ̸̢̡͟͡Ų̕N̨͏D̕͠͞͠E҉̸R̵͟S̶T̴̛̛̛͡A͞҉͏͜N̵̢D̢̀́͜!͜͜͟!͏̸́͞!̧͝͏̷"̷͠

SMG4(?)’s scream makes the eldritch tar glitch out and transform the room. The room turns into an endless corridor of blackness, illuminated only by the spotlights above. The floor was now covered in the eldritch tar, its eyes staring at the panicked forms of SMG3, Meggy, and Desti.

The three were taken aback by the room’s sudden transformation, but they wouldn’t have time to think about it as several bloody tentacles emerged from the ground around them. The tentacles’ sharp, outstretched mouths latched onto SMG3 first and started dragging him down into the ground.

“WHAT THE HELL IS THIS?!” SMG3 screamed as he struggled to get himself out of the tentacles’ strong grip on him.

SMG4(?) smiled wickedly at SMG3’s struggles, believing he’ll be the perfect sacrifice for the video-

“HIYAAAAAAAAAH!”

Only for a battle-cry from Meggy to ruin his plans. The girl lands a flying kick to SMG4(?)’s face, sending him crashing back into his desk. The impact causes the room to glitch again, reverting back to its original, albeit eldritch covered, state.

SMG3 was still getting dragged into the ground though, which is where Desti came in. Taking out her twin Bowie knives, she slices the tentacles holding SMG3 to pieces and pulls the man out of the eldritch tar. She then kicks him away and through a window out of the room to safety.

With SMG3 saved, the girls prepare to leave through the broken window, but take a moment to look back at SMG4(?). The possessed memer glared furiously at the couple for ruining his plans, and let out a loud, demonic roar. The room shook as more eldritch tar and tentacles started growing out of the walls.

Taking that as their que to leave, the two jump out the window, just as the room behind them explodes. They land on the ground beside SMG3, Desti doing the “Superhero” landing and Meggy rolling to a stop beside her. They get up and turn to SMG3, who was laying face-down on the ground.

“You alright?” Meggy asked him.

“Yeah…I think so,” SMG3’s muffled voice replied. He pulled his head off of the ground and was about to get uo, only to hear the castle rumbling behind him.

SMG3, Meggy, and Desti all turn towards the castle, only to gasp at what they see.

“Oh my god…” Desti muttered, covering her mouth with her hands at the sight of a large, red, fleshy growth emerging from the castle walls.

The demonic-looking flesh oozed and pulsed, cracking and breaking the limestone walls of the castle. It grew with each passing second, spreading further along the wall. Bone, teeth, and stringy muscles all jutted out of the flesh growth, along with a pair of bulging, bloody eyes.

The eyes stared down at the three below, sending chills down their spines before running away.

Further down the castle grounds, some of the gang were making their way to the castle.

The group consisted of Saiko, Tari, Kaizo, Bob, Boopkins, Luigi, Cipher, SMG1, SMG2, and Mario, with the plumber leading them. Tari and Saiko had asked Kaizo to join in case they needed to drag SMG4 out of his room, while Cipher asked SMG1 and 2 to come, hoping they, as fellow Meme Guardians, could help with SMG4.

“OK, you guys,” Mario said to the group. “What’s the plan to make SMG4 feel better?”

“We’Re GoNnA bEaT tHe CrAp OuT oF sMg4 ‘tIl He GeTs BaCk To NoRmAl!” Bob suggested, rather enthusiastically.

“AW, HELL YEAH!” Kaizo cheered, cracking his knuckles. “Any plan that involves ass-kicking is one I can get behind!”

“WHAT?!” Boopkins said, shocked by such a violent plan. “I just thought we were gonna tell him that life isn’t just all work and he has friends who love hiiiim~” Boopkins pulls out a bunch of Chonk versions of the gang, all circled around an SMG4 Chonk lovingly.

“Yeah, Bob,” Cipher said, agreeing with Boopkins. “Maybe we should leave the violent option for last.”

“I kind of like Bob’s idea, though,” Mario admitted, the violent part of his brain brimming with delight-

“AHHH, WHAT’S THAT?!” Luigi screamed, pointing towards the castle.

The rest of the gang turned to where Luigi was pointing…and felt their jaws collectively drop at the sight of multiple, large demonic flesh growths engulfing the castle.

“WHAT THE HEEEEELLLLLLLLLL-” Mario screamed, which got cut off when Desti, Meggy, and SMG3 bumped into him.

The three were racing to the castle, no doubt planning on busting in to save SMG4, when Mario yelled out to them.

“HEY!! WHAT THE HELL’S GOING ON?!”

The three stopped running and turned to Mario and the gang to explain the situation.

“SMG4’s gone completely mad, and has corrupted the castle!” Desti quickly summed up what was happening.

“SoUnDs LiKe JuSt AnOtHeR tUeSdAy,” Bob said, acting casual.

“No… I don’t think that was SMG4 in there…” Meggy said, remembering the possessed look in SMG4’s eyes. “SMG4 would never do this…”

“Do you…” Tari said, a frightening thought crossing her mind. “Do you think it could be Niles?”

The gang, especially Cipher, all pale at the thought of this being Niles return.

“No,” SMG1 said firmly, “That,” He points at the flesh growths, “isn’t meme energy.” He stares at the demonic flesh quizzically. “This is something completely different…”

“Honestly, I’m glad it isn’t Niles,” SMG3 admitted, “‘cause I really didn’t want to go through that crap again.”

“The feeling’s mutual,” SMG2 agreed. “But right now, we need to figure out how we’re gonna save SMG4.”

“Don’t worry, guys!” Boopkins said, already forming a plan. “The power of friendship will save the day! I’ll just go and give SMG4 a hug, and everything will be better!” He sprints off away from the group and towards the castle.

“WAIT, NO!” Desti screamed as Boopkins ran past her and onto the bridge. “BOOPKINS, WAIT!”

“SMG4! I’M COMIIIIING!” Boopkins pushes through the demonic flesh goop around the bridge, slowly reaching the front door. “Almost…there…”

The gang watch Boopkins swim through the goop in horror, except for Bob and Kaizo, the two looking more bored than anything else. Boopkins was stretching his hand towards the door handle, fingertips barely grazing it, when a demon tentacle burst out of the goopy flesh and bit down on his head.

“AHHHHHH! HELP MEEEEEEEE!” Boopkins screamed, the tentacle flailing him around and trying to consume him, much to most of the gang’s horror.

“”Do A fLiP!” Bob dared Boopkins, oblivious to the obvious peril his friend was in.

Bob’s comment earned him a smack to the back of the head from Meggy, the girl hitting Bob hard enough to make him do a full frontal flip and fall face-first onto the ground. Saiko then steps on him, using him as a platform as she whips out her hammer.

“C’mon, guys!” Saiko said in a commanding voice. “We got to save him!”

The group all cheer with a determined “YES!” (and a “FiNe, I gUeSs…” from Bob). They all charge forward with weapons drawn, ready to fight against the demon flesh as it summons building-sized tentacles against him.

The first group of tentacles charge at Saiko and Kaizo. Saiko bashed the tentacles away with her hammer, while Kaizo slashed at them with his scythe. The two share a look and, with matching smirks, prepare their combo move. Saiko presses a button on her hammer, causing blades to spring out around the hammer’s head. She uses her new hammer like a buzz saw to cut down one of the tentacles, Kaizo doing the same to another with his scythe.

“CHEF! ORDER UP!” Kaizo and Saiko yell as they launch the severed tentacles towards Bob in the air.

“TwO oRdErS oF fReAkY tEnTaClE sUsHi CoMiNg RiGhT uP!” Bob said, wearing a Japanese chef bandana as he uses his sword arms to cut the incoming tentacles into sushi.

He then bats the two sushi orders to Luigi, who sucks them up with his Poltergust 3000. He aims his modified vacuum towards two other giant tentacles and fires the sushi straight into their mouths.

"͠E̡̕W͝W͡W͘͝Ẁ͜W̧͡W͝W!͏͟!!̸̴̕"͢ The tentacles gagged in disgust at the sushi’s foul taste, before violently exploding.

As Luigi fed more awful sushi to the tentacle monsters, Tari was trying to make peace with the tentacles further up. She presented them with a large rubber ducky to one of the tentacles, putting on a bright smile to ease both herself and the tentacle.

But all her efforts are for naught when the tentacle grabs the rubber ducky and crushes it, slamming it repeatedly against the ground until it is flat as a pancake.

“HA HA!” The tentacle laughed in a childish, mocking tone at Tari.

Tari stares brokenhearted at the destroyed duck. This sorrow swiftly turns into rage though, fire burning in her eyes as she glares at the tentacle before her. She then does a “JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure” styled pose and summons her rubber ducky, Archibald, as a muscular Stand. The muscular duck flies forward and unleashes a barrage of lightning-fast punches at the tentacle.

“ORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORAORA-HIYAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!” Archibald yelled with each punch, before finishing off with a devastating uppercut that tears the tentacle out of the flesh goop and into the air.

The tentacle screamed and flailed as it disappeared into the sky, heading towards a fiery death by the sun.

Back over with Boopkins, the fishman was currently being used as a tennis ball by two of the tentacles. Oversized rackets swung and hit him back and forth between them, interlaced with Boopkins screaming for help the entire time.

His help would come in the form of Cipher. The one-eyed mage’s hands frosted over as he launches two beams of Ice magic at the tentacles. The beams slammed into the tentacles, freezing them solid in mere seconds. SMG1 and 2 then swooped in and sent flying kicks into the frozen tentacles, shattering them like glass. SMG1 then grabs Boopkins as he falls and he and SMG2 bring him back to Cipher as more tentacles emerge.

Over on the wooden bridge, SMG3, Meggy, Desti, and Mario were all huddled up, facing back-to-back against their own group of tentacles.

“You guys ready?” SMG3 asked, him and the others all taking fighting stances.

“Don’t even need to ask,” Desti said, taking out her Bowie knives once more.

“Bring it on,” Meggy said, holding her fists up high.

“MARIO’S GONNA COMMIT TENTACLE HOMICIDE,” Mario declared as the tentacles all shot towards them.

SMG3 raised his hand, which glowed with white flames as he summoned Eggdog. The meme dog extended its body and SMG3 uses him as a rapier to fend off against an incoming tentacle.

Meggy and Desti were double-teaming their own group of tentacles. Meggy hurled Splat Bombs at the tentacles’ mouths, blowing half of them away, while Desti hacked and slashed the other half into ribbons.

As for Mario, he was doing the same as Desti, but in a more “Mario” fashion. His mustache grows huge and he extends his arms out, before spinning around rapidly. He flies into the air and, with a cry of “HELICOPTER, HELICOPTER!~,” zooms towards a trio of tentacles and cuts them in half with his mustache. He lands back with the others, who all paused to stare at Mario’s display.

“Wow, that was actually pretty cool, Mayo,” Desti praised, impressed by Mario’s creativity.

“I’M A KING NOW!” Mario said, now wearing a fancy-looking crown.

The four were celebrating their victory, when a loud growl behind SMG3 got his attention. He turned around as sees a new tentacle had emerged, and was coming straight for them.

“LOOK OUT!” SMG3 tried to warn the others, but his warning came too late as the tentacle slammed straight into the four of them.

The four all flew through the air and crashed through the front doors of the castle, which quickly shut itself closed, trapping them inside.

“NOOOOO, GUYS!!!!” Luigi screamed, running towards the door to save his friends and brother.

But the demonic flesh halted his actions by engulfing the entire front passage, making sure no one else could get in. Luigi could only stare at the front door, worried about his friends, but he would have to worry more about himself when another tentacle emerged and swatted him off the bridge.

“OOF!” Meggy, Desi, Mario, and SMG3 all groaned when they fell into the castle.

The three picked themselves up off the floor, dusting themselves off, and saw that they were back in the foyer.

“Well that’s just great,” SMG3 said sarcastically. “We’re back where we started!”

“But now with SUPER FUNKY MARIO!” Mario said, doing the surfing Funk Kong pose, bandana and all, before reverting to normal. “Hey, where’s all the creepy goopy stuff from before?”

Mario was right; There was no trace of the fleshy demon goop anywhere in the foyer. The others thought it was strange too, considering how much of the goop was enveloping the castle outside, but Desti puts it aside and focuses on the task at hand.

“Let’s just find SMG4 for now…” She said to them. “I’m sure if we can somehow get him out of here, all of this will stop.”

“Octy’s right,” Meggy said. “Saving SMG4 may be the only thing to stop whatever’s corrupting the castle.”

“Whoa whoa whoa…” SMG3 said, very reluctant to the girls’ idea. “What do you mean find SMG4?” He stomps over to the couple. “We just escaped from him, and now we want to find him again?!”

“3…” Meggy gives SMG3 a kind look, “SMG4 is our friend. I know he’s tried to save us, no matter what in the past-”

“And what about you? You think I didn’t see that little panic attack you had in SMG4’s room? I’m not gonna babysit you if you freeze up again, even if you are my patient!”

Meggy pauses at SMG3’s callous words. Desti herself got pissed off by SMG3 and was about to deck him in the face, but Meggy stopped her.

“It’s fine, Desti, I got this,” She told her.

Desti looked at Meggy quizzically, still wanting to punch SMG3 in the face, but she relented, letting her girlfriend do what she needed to do. Meggy smiled appreciatively at Desti before turning to face SMG3.

“You’re right, 3, I was scared. Still am, to an extent. That… thing… controlling SMG4 reminded me too much of Niles. I know the feeling of not being in control of your own body. Of something using you to do terrible things to your friends. It’s…a terrifying feeling to have…

“But that’s exactly WHY I’m doing this.” Meggy’s eyes burn with determination as she raises a clenched fist. “Despite whatever fear I may be feeling, I know SMG4 must be feeling even worse. We need to be brave, to fight through our fears to save our friend! And we’re not gonna stop until we save SMG4!”

Desti smiled proudly at Meggy. “Well said, Squidy.” She then turned to SMG3. “I don’t care what you say; We’re going after 4 before it’s too late, and you’re not stopping us.”

“Ugggghhhhhh…” SMG3 groaned. “Look, I’m all for saving the idiot, but you all saw what he did before-”

“WAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!”

SMG3’s argument was interrupted by a terrified cry from Mario. He and the girls looked to see that the plumber was no longer with them, and that his cry was coming from SMG4’s room. Dread pooled in their stomachs as they raced towards Mario, before something bad happened to him.

Mario was standing in the room, his eyes filled with fear at what he was seeing, when the others kicked down the door.

“MARIO! GET AWAY FROM THAT…room…?” Meggy yelled, her concern turning into confusion when she saw the state of the room.

It was…normal. No sign of the eldritch tar or demonic flesh goo anywhere. Even the trash littering the floor was in the same position! The only difference was that there was no SMG4 in sight.

“What the-” SMG3 said, mirroring Meggy’s surprised expression, “Everything’s back to normal? Why the hell did you scream then, Mario?!”

“Because…” Mario said, staring at the untitled Notepad document on SMG4’s computer monitor. “MARIO HAS TO READ!”

The others, having walked over to Mario, all stare at him incredulously for his “fear,” with SMG3 even muttering “Oh my f*ckin’ god…” in annoyance. The man pushed Mario aside so that he and the others could see what was on the Notepad. The Notepad only had a single sentence, presumably written by SMG4.

“‘I…just want to make everyone happy…’” Desti repeated the sentence out-loud, speaking in a somber tone.

“...Well, what the hell is that supposed to mean?” SMG3 asked, his voice oddly somber as well.

Before the group could dwell further on this, the power suddenly cut out, plunging SMG4’s room into darkness.

“AHHHH!” Mario screamed like a little girl. “TAKE SMG3, NOT MARIO!”

Fortunately for Mario, the lights would turn back on. Unfortunately, when they did, the group saw that the entire walls and ceiling of the room was covered in demon flesh. Muscles, teeth, and bone all jutted out and expanded across the room, while dozens of eyes all stared at the four of them.

The four all stared back with jaw-dropped horror, but Mario, in traditional Mario fashion, got over it pretty causally.

“Well this ain’t so bad,” The plumber said.

A tentacle then emerged from the flesh beside him, holding a sign that said “Boo!” on it.

“AHHH, READING!!!” That was enough to strike fear into Mario and make him run out of the room.

The others weren’t far behind him, none of them wanting the demon goop to grab onto them next.

“ALRIGHT, I’M OUT OF HERE!!” SMG3 screamed as he ran, only to abruptly stop at the top of the stairs.

The others were standing there as well, Mario hiding behind Desti and Meggy as they and SMG3 looked down at the foyer. There they saw Toad, rendered in his N64 polygonal body and stuck halfway through the floor at an angle.

“...Toad?” Meggy called out to him cautiously.

Toad doesn’t respond back, just staring at the group with blank eyes. SMG3 raised a confused eyebrow at Toad and decides to investigate, walking down the stairs towards him.

“SMG3, be careful!” Mario warned SMG3.

Pfft, it’s just Toad,” SMG3 scoffed. “The hell is he gonna do?” He stops in front of Toad and pokes him. “Yo. Toad man. Do you know where SMG4 is?”

Once again, Toad remains unresponsive. The others join up with SMG3 and they all looked down at Toad, wondering if there was any way to make him talk.

“SMG3…” Mario said, a plan already formed in his mind, “allow me.” Mario walks over to Toad and does their traditional greeting.

Which involves Mario enlarging his hand and using it to slap Toad’s static body while screaming at him.

“TOAD, OL BUDDY, OL PAL, WHERE IS SMG4?”

After a moment of pause, Toad actually begins to reply back, though not in the way the group had hoped. The floor underneath Toad began to shake, along with the rest of his body, as his “talking” tune from “Super Mario 64” plays.

“[Guys…I don’t feel so good…]” Toad said to them, his words coming out of a text box.

The shaking only gets worse afterwards, forcing the group to stay on their feet as Toad goes through a transformation. His body grows bigger and breaks through the floor, revealing a pair of long, well-groomed legs attached to him. He stands up to his new, full height, now standing higher than the upper foyer balcony, and looks down at the group.

"͘[͢D̨ơ͝ ̢͠y̛͝o̷ú͢ ̸̴ĺ͞͠ik̡̀e my̵ ̵r̨e͝d̕ȩsi̡ǵ̡n̨͘?̵̕͞]̸̧́"̵̧̛

The four all scream in fear at Toad’s new look, before running away from him. They don’t get very far, as Toad uses his new legs to ellegently jump in front of them, blocking their path.

“Oh god!” SMG3 said with disgust as he looked up at Toad’s legs. “Looks like SMG4’s been experimenting with redesigning more characters!”

“STUPID SEXY TOADIES!” Mario shouted, running over to the “redesigned” Toad and kicking him in the shins.

Toad retaliated by stomping on Mario, doing so repeatedly until the plumber was flat against the floor.

“...Ow.”

Back outside, things weren’t looking good for the gang.

The tentacles had captured most of them, holding them all in their mouths. Most of them were panicking, with Luigi and Bob in particular screaming the loudest. Saiko and Kaizo were the only ones staying calm, looking more bored than anything else.

“GUYYYYYYS, WHAT DO WE DO?!” Tari screamed, struggling against the tentacle’s mouth.

“Oh, I kNoW!” Bob said, stopping his screaming to pull out his phone. “MeLoNy WiLl TaKe CaRe Of ThIs, EaSy!”

“Actually, where is Melony?” Kaizo asked. “And where’s Axol, for that matter?”

Inside their apartment, Axol and Melony were sleeping peacefully in their bed.

Melony laid on top of Axol, snuggling up to her boyfriend’s warmth with frazzled hair. Axol had an arm lazily wrapped around Melony’s back, keeping her close, while a blanket covered them messily. The two seemed to have been in a rush for bed, as their clothes were all laid down on the ground. They also seemed to have tossed and turned a lot in the night, judging by how the sheets are all laid around haphazardly.

The two were enjoying their sleep when Melony’s phone started going off on the nightstand beside them. Melony grumbled and squirmed at the sound of her “Sweet Parks - Kirby’s Epic Yarn OST” ringtone. She moves her hand over and feels around for her phone. Once her fingers laid over it, Melony raised her hand up high.

Which summoned her Furious Deity Sword to her, which she uses to stab through the phone and the nightstand, ending the ringing. She lifts her sword back up, the phone and nightstand still stuck to it, and then throws at it the wall. Her sword buries itself into the wall and pins the remains of her phone and nightstand into it, the rest falling down in a pile of broken wood and phone circuits.

With the phone taken care of, Melony lets out a sigh of content and snuggles back onto Axol, who sleepily covers their bare shoulders with the blanket.

The line goes dead on the other end of Bob’s phone, much to the man’s unamused frustration.

“GoDdAmMiT” Bob yelled, his idea ruined.

“You big meanie!” Boopkins yelled from down below. “You let my friends go, now!”

Everyone looked down at Boopkins, the only one not currently captured by the tentacles, hitting the demonic flesh goop with a long stick.

“You need a good spanking, so you can-AAAAHHHHHHHHH!” Boopkins’ ineffective stick-hitting stops when one of the tentacles grabs him and pulls him away.

Another tentacle comes and starts wailing on Boopkins, deforming him until he looked like a bootleg Mr. Potato Head. The first tentacle then throws him onto the ground, reverting Boopkins back to normal. The tentacles holding the rest of the gang do the same, throwing them to the ground harshly. The gang pick themselves up and stare at the demon flesh, which only seems to grow bigger as it absorbs more of the castle.

“What do we do?!” Tari asked nervously. “Our friends are still in there!”

Cipher steps forward, his hands sparking with heat, and unleashes a torrent of Fire-Lightning magic at the tentacles. The tentacles screeched unholy screams as they were electrocuted and burned from Cipher’s magic. A few turned to ash a moment later, but they were quickly replaced by more tentacles emerging from the demon goo.

“ARGH, THIS ISN’T WORKING!” Cipher yelled, stopping his magic assault in frustration.

“Looks like we might need some backup…” Saiko said with a deductive gaze towards the demon goo.

No sooner did Saiko say that, an army trumpet started playing from behind the gang. They all turned around to see a line of army tanks roll up onto the castle grounds. They and the lead tank stop a good 10 feet from the gang, and out the top of it pops Swag, wearing a cowboy hat.

“We heard there was a disturbance in my town,” Swag said, putting on a vague cowboy accent.

“ YOUR town, Swag?” Chris said sarcastically, popping up beside Swag, who gives him a nasty look.

“SHUT UP, CHRIS! Let me have my moment.” Swag drops the cowboy accent and looks back at the gang. “Ok, who ordered a big serving of ‘mass destruction?’” Swag gestures to his tank, along with the other ones, all aimed and ready to fire.

“Wait!” Luigi said. “You guys can’t blow up the castle! Our friends are still in there!”

Swag stares at Luigi before stretching his entire upper-body to him. “Oh Luigi…” He condescendingly pats Luigi on the head. “Sometimes we all have to make sacrifices-”

*SLAM*

Swag was smacked in the face by Saiko’s hammer mid-sentence. The girl pulls back, revealing the flat and photo-realistic remains of Swag’s face.

“Ow…”

“No way…” Saiko said, glaring furiously at Swag with her hammer raised. “If you’re gonna blow this place up, you’ll have to go through us.”

“Pfft,” Swag scoffs, his body snapping back to normal. “Have it your way, sweetie.” He turns his tank towards the gang, ready to blast them away.

“DID YOU JUST CALL ME SWEETIE?!” Saiko glares at Swag with newfound rage as he grips her hammer tighter.

“Oh ho ho, ya f*cked up now, Swag!” Kaizo said, wielding his scythe with a toothy smirk. “Only Tari gets to call Saiko ‘sweetie’ and LIVE.”

The others start getting into fighting stances as the rest of Swag’s tanks line up beside him. Saiko, Kaizo, SMG1, SMG2, Bob, and Cipher all readied themselves for a fight, while the more pacifist members like Luigi and Tari stayed close by them, with Tari standing right beside Saiko protectively.

The gang and army stared each other down, waiting to see who would make the first move. Tensions were high as the pin was ready to drop, only for Boopkins to disrupt it all.

“Wait, WAIT, THAT’S IT!” Boopkins yelled, jumping in-between the gang and Swag. “THAT’S THE ANSWER!”

“...What?” Swag and Saiko both said at the same time, looking confused at Boopkins supposed idea.

“Peace and loooove~”

It was almost comical how severe the whiplash of the tension breaking was. Everyone, especially Saiko and Swag, was staring at Boopkins incredulously, all of them gobsmacked by what the fishman had just suggested.

“You’re f*cking kidding me…” Swag said, putting his head in his hands.

“Swag,” Chris said. “Just give the boy a chance.”

“Fine." Swag leans back on the tank, letting Boopkins go do his stupid plan. "But if this doesn’t work, it’s ‘Boom Boom McDoom’ time.”

Boopkins nods at Swag’s “approval” and gets to work. He leaps into the air and towards the demon flesh goo, landing on the castle bridge. He stares intently at the goo with a confident expression and lays on the “peace and love.”

“Excuse me, Castle. I love yoooouuu~” He said, putting on the kindest voice he could.

All Boopkins gets in the return is a tentacle to the face, slamming him down into the bridge.

Meanwhile…

Toad was having the time of his life. His new legs had granted him the height he had always wanted, making him feel on top of the world. He imagined himself skipping across a deserted island, free to use his long legs to their fullest potential.

But in reality, Toad was causing absolute chaos in the castle foyer for the gang. SMG3 and Mario were running all around, trying not to get stepped on by Toad’s large feet. Meggy and Desti, in contrast, were going on the offensive. The two lobbied punches, kicks, and knife-strikes against the Toad, trying to bring him down.

However, Toad’s new legs had given him newfound flexibility, allowing him to dodge the girls’ attacks. After dodging another blow in the air, Toad spun around and struck the two with a devastating leg swipe, sending them flying back with a Wii Sports “It’s Out of the Park!” announcement. Meggy and Desti slammed against the wall and fell to the ground, groaning in pain with their back to the floor.

“GIRLS!!!” Mario yelled out to the couple with worry, Toad leaping into the air towards the downed girls.

“360 NO-SCOPE!” Toad shouted as he stomped onto the girl, trapping them under each foot.

The girls fight back, punching, pushing, and stabbing at Toad’s feet. It did little to deter him, Tad simply upping the pressure. The ground underneath the girls shatter and pins them down further, but neither gives up their struggle, even if it was hopeless.

“God, I wish that were me!” SMG3 cried, his horniness overtaking his fear as he watched the girls get crushed by Toad’s feet.

Just when it seemed like the girls were about to be crushed to death, Mario steps in to rescue them.

“HEY, STINKY!” Mario calls out to Toad, making him stop his stomping.

Toad looked over to Mario, who was holding a video camera, recording all of Toad’s stomping live onto the internet.

“Now all of China knows what you’re into!”

“NOOOOOOOOOOO!” Toad screamed at his fetish being exposed. He gets off the girls and starts running away in a blind panic, where he ends up hitting the upper roof of the front hallway and knocks himself out.

With Toad no longer crushing them, Meggy and Desti could finally breathe a sigh of relief. The two helped each other off the ground and went over to Mario, limping a bit from pain, but otherwise fine.

“Th-Thanks, Mario…I think?” Meggy said, thanking Mario for his unusual way of saving her and Desti.

“I’ll never understand how some people can be into that sorta thing…” Desti muttered to herself, her and Meggy rubbing the last of the pain out of their systems.

Everyone then heard the sound of a door creaking and looked up to see the door to the second floor swing open.

“Well…guess we’re going up there.”

“Let’s just keep moving and find SMG4,” Meggy said. She, Desti, and Mario all start going up the stairs, while SMG3 looked between them, the downed Toad, and the second story door with an exhausted look.

“I miss just being the villain,” SMG3 sighed. “This ‘good guy’ sh*t is too tiring.” Despite his complaining, SMG3 followed the others, all of them going straight to the second floor of the castle.

At first, everything seems normal. There was no sign of demon goop or eldritch tar anywhere, but no one dropped their guard in case something suddenly popped up at them. They wander around the floor, when Meggy notices something written over one of the paintings:

YOU WILL NEVER BE GOOD ENOUGH

“What…what could this mean?” Meggy muttered, trying to understand the hidden meaning behind the words.

“Squidy, look!” Desti called out to her. “All the paintings are like this!”

Everyone looked at the various paintings and saw that they were all covered in black paper with white words written on them, all of them saying more horrible things than the last.

NOBODY LIKES YOUR VIDEOS

YOU ARE A FAILURE

GO AWAY

IT IS NEVER ENOUGH

“Wow,” Mario said in a strangely chipper voice. “Whoever wrote these sounds like a nice person!”

“SMG4 wrote these,” SMG3 said in a somber, teary-eyed tone, drawing everyone’s attention. “These are all his thoughts.”

“What?!” Desti shouted in surprise. “No way… How do you know?”

“Because I felt the same way…” SMG3 clenched his fist and turned to the others. “Do you know what it’s like? To live with the kind of expectations he has?

“I had his channel for barely a day…and it was the most stressful thing in my life.” He turns away, hiding his tears from the gang. “Having millions of eyes on you… Being worried you’ll make one mistake and lose everything… Always having to try and be perfect…

“It can make you go…kinda crazy…” SMG3 takes out his phone and looks at a certain photo.

Meggy and Desti walked over to SMG3 to comfort him and see that the picture was the climax battle between SMG3 and SMG4 during the YouTube Arc. A YouTube Remote-powered SMG3 was holding a scared-looking SMG4 up by his collar. It was a reminder for SMG3 of what his envy over SMG4 had turned him into that day, and what he almost lost in his mad pursuit of power.

“Aww…3,” Desti cooed at SMG3 actually being soft and emotional. “SMG4’s really lucky to have someone that understands him like you do.”

“What?! No!” SMG3 said, realizing he had just been vulnerable just now.

He throws away his phone and wipes the tears out of his eyes, trying to re-establish his “cool, aloof” persona.

“I don’t care about him!” He turns around and crosses his arms with a childish pout. “I only feel like this ‘cause I’m cosmically-linked to the idiot!”

“AWWWW, SMG3!~” Desti slides over to SMG3 with a tender but cheesy smile. “IT’S OKAY!~ LET IT OUT!~”

“YEAH, 3!~” Meggy said, sliding to SMG3’s other side with her own cheeky smile. “DON’T HIDE YOUR EMOTIONS!~ LET THEM ALL OUT!~” She and Desti then hug SMG3 and lift him into the air, cuddling him like a teddy bear.

“HEY, LET ME GO YOU DAMN CEPHALOPODS!” SMG3 yelled at the girls, flailing around to try and escape their iron-clad grasp on him.

Desti and Meggy laugh at SMG3’s flustered face as they tease him more, while Mario is hiding behind the staircase to the third floor.

That was because the top of the stairs were being guarded by an ominous-looking BEEG SMG4. The living plush was standing completely still, like a statue, before suddenly snapping down to look at Mario. Mario let out a tiny “EEP!” and hid behind the stairs. He turns back towards the others, Meggy and Desti just having put SMG3 down, who was glaring at the giggling girls.

“Uhh…guys…” Mario said, “...can we get a move on…?”

“Yeah,” Meggy said, her and Desti done giggling at SMG3, “let’s just start checking rooms. Maybe SMG4 is in one of them.”

The all grouped back up and go to the first available door, in this case being the secret Snowman’s Land painting room. Mario grabs the door first and twists the knob, letting the door creak on its own.

“Hello?” Mario celled out, his voice echoing through the empty room. “SMG4?” He slowly walks into the room, the others following right behind him.

The room seemed normal at first, if just a little under-lit. It wasn’t until the group looked at the mirror wall that they saw that the mirrors were all replaced by a large, thick block of ice.

“Odd…” SMG3 said as he examined the ice. “Isn’t this meant to be a mirror? Why has it been replaced with-”

“GUYS!!” Desti shouted, getting the others’ attention. “LOOK!!” She points to a particular part of the ice and the group turns to see what it was.

Their eyes widened when they saw SMG4 stuck in his ice, specifically the old Mario-recolour version of him. Everyone rushes towards the ice, stopping in front of the frozen SMG4 and looking at him intently..

“Why is…why is SMG4’s old design here?” SMG3 asked, just as confused as everyone else.

“Ahhh, don’t you miss how handsome he used to look!” Mario said, taking a selfie with the frozen SMG4.

SMG3 gives Mario a flat look before turning back to SMG4. “Maybe SMG4 is trying to turn his design back?”

SMG3 steps a bit closer when the frozen SMG4 suddenly comes to life. He moves through the ice like water and grabs SMG3 by his ankles, pulling the man into the ice with him.

“AHHHH!! OH GOD, HELP!!” SMG3 screamed and flailed as “SMG4” pulled him further into the ice.

Desti, Meggy, and Mario all witness SMG3 struggling and rush over to help him. They all grab the top of him and start pulling against “SMG4,” trying to free SMG3 out of the twisted doppelganger's clutches.

“GET ME OUT OF HERE!” SMG3 screamed.

“WE’RE TRYING!!!” Meggy screamed back.

Despite the three of them working together, Meggy, Desti, and Mario could feel them losing this tug-of-war against “SMG4.” SMG3 realizes this and decides to try and reason with ‘SMG4” in the hopes of

“SMG4! My man, you have to stop!” SMG3 pleaded. “I understand the pressure you’re under, but we’re here to-heeeeeeellp!”

SMG3’s pleas go unheard by ‘SMG4” when the doppelganger finally rips him out of Meggy, Desti, and Mario’s clutches. The three were helpless as they could only watch SMG3 be pulled deep into the ice. They stared at the ice block intensely, where they witnessed “SMG4” and SMG3 appear a few seconds later, SMG3 now reverted back into his old Mario-recolour design.

“OH CRAP, THIS IS BAD!” Meggy screamed. She runs over to SMG3 and starts banging her fists against the ice, trying to free him.

Mario and Desti join her immediately after. Mario spins his fist back like a tornado, honing as much strength into his hand as he could, and punches the ice. The ice stays standing, and all Mario gets is broken fingers for his efforts. Desti tries to rapidly pick through the ice with a large, red-glowing icepick, but the icepick ends up the one being shattered, while the ice shows no visible damage.

“SMG3!!!!!” Everyone shouts as they keep trying to get to SMG3.

Dispite their efforts though, the ice doesn’t break, not even showing a scratch.

“IT’S NO USE!!” Mario yelled.

“C’mon,” Desti said, “we need to find SMG4 quickly!” She turns around and runs for the door out of the room.

Meggy grabs Mario’s arm and effortlessly drags him out of the room with her and Desti, the three all silently promising to return to save SMG3.

Back outside, Swag was leading his tanks back to the castle, all while singing his rendition of “Boom, Boom, Boom, Boom!!”

Swag: Boom, boom, boom, boom!

I want you in my room!~

I will explode this castle!

“Uh…”

I want you in my room!~

His tank then abruptly stops, throwing off Swag's rhythm and the sunglasses he was wearing off of his face.

“OI! WHAT’S THE HOLD UP?!” Swag asked, angry at his singing be interrupted.

He then looks down and finds that it was Fishy Boopkins who was blocking their path.

“YOU WILL NOT HURT THIS CASTLE AND OUR FRIENDS, SWAG!” Boopkins declared, putting his arms out protectively wide.

“Oh my god, this crap again?!” Swag groaned with a facepalm.

He had absolutely no time for Boopkins’ “peace, love, and friendship” nonsense. Swag punches the gas on his tank and runs the fishman over. The other tanks follow right beside Swag, all of them running over Boopkins as well, leaving him in a Peter Griffin death pose on the ground.

“My scrotums…” Boopkins groaned in pain.

Swag continued making his way to the front of the castle, certain that nothing else would block his path-

“STAHP RIGHT THERE!”

All the tanks abruptly stop once more, much to Swag’s growing frustration.

“What?!” Swag yelled. “WHAT IS IT THIS TIME?!”

Swag quickly finds that the entire gang was now blocking his path to the castle. The gang stood hand-in-hand in front of the castle bridge, all of them standing alert and ready to stop Swag by any means necessary.

“You can’t stop all of us, Swag!” Saiko shouted, her and the others all glaring at Swag.

“Yeah!” Tari yelled. “This castle is sacred to us and isn’t going anywhere!”

“Our friends are still trapped inside!” Cipher said, his eye glowing a bright white. “We won’t let you destroy the castle until everyone is out of there!”

To emphasize his point, Cipher passed his Shield magic through the gang, upping their defences. He also summons a giant magical wall in front of Swag, stretching out all the way to cover the castle front. Mystic symbols covered the barrier, all glowing different colours of magic and all ready to defend against whatever Swag throws at it.

Swag gave the gang an unreadable expression, before turning towards Chris.

“Chris! These baffling bafflers are blocking the way!~” Swag said, speaking in rhyme for some reason. “Destroy them all, before they ruin Christmas Day!~”

“...Wut?” Was all Chris said, looking at Swag like his friend had lost his goddamn mind.

Mario, Meggy, and Desti were running through the second floor, heading for the staircase leading up.

Once there, they saw that the BEEG SMG4 was still guarding the top of it. Undeterred, the three all glare at BEEG and rush towards him, thinking they could slip past him. However, BEEG expands his body, sealing up the staircase entrance. The group all slam into him, BEEG’s now elastic body stretching back before shooting them off him, sending the group hurtling down the stairs and skidding to the back wall.

The three get up, now more angry than ever, and glare at BEEG, who had reverted back to his original size.

“YOU WANT A PIECE OF ME?!” Mario shouted, expanding his mustache and pulling out two Uzis from it.

The girls also bring out their weapons, Meggy with her Splattershot and Desti with a large assortment of throwing knives. They and Mario all aim at BEEG and unload, sending a wave of bullets, ink, and sharp blades at him.

Their attacks are unsuccessful however, with BEEG’s body nullifying/disintegrating everything thrown at him. After nearly 10 seconds of non-stop firing and knife throwing, the trio finally stopped, realizing that this wasn’t working. They all stared shocked at the still standing BEEG as the living plush doll/ creature thing started saying something.

“VIEWS VIEWS VIEWS VIEWS!” He said, repeatedly.

“...I…” Desti said, looking at BEEG strangely, “...I think he wants us to…watch something?”

“AIN’T NOBODY GOT TIME FOR THAT!” Mario yelled. He decides to blast through BEEG SMG4 with some good ‘ol-fashioned BLJ-ing.

His attempt is thwarted when BEEG grows bid again and smacks Mario away with a giant hand. Mario lands back on the ground in front of the girls as BEEG returns to his normal size once more. He then summons a TV to drop down from the ceiling over the stairs.

“VIEWS VIEWS VIEWS VIEWS VIEWS!” BEEG started hollering again.

“O-Ok, ok fine!” Meggy shouted. “We’ll watch whatever you want!”

BEEG smiles happily at the group agreeing to watch his video and turns the TV on. The TV starts playing VR Chat footage on the screen. It shows the POV of a man conversing with Link, the Hylian warrior looking a lot more glitchy and crouched than usual.

Meggy, Desti, and Mario all stare at the screen in confusion, not understanding what the point of this was. Their gawking would be interrupted when the room around them started to shake. Before they knew it, the three were stuck in a “reaction” video format, with the TV footage to the left in a large screen box while they were to the left in a much smaller “reaction window.” Between the two screens was a “React Meter,” currently empty.

The three were even more confused now, even a little unnerved by the sudden change. The only thing they could do now was watch the TV screen and try to figure out what BEEG wanted them to do.

“Hey, Link,” The POV man from the Tv said, waving at Link.

Link responded by expanding his mouth, the front half going over his nose, and letting out a long “HIAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!”

Mario started snorting with laughter at the scene, finding Link’s face and distorted scream funny. His laughter also made the React Meter go up a bit, seemingly rising based on how hard and loud a person laughs.

Meggy and Desti, however, only stare at the TV screen with confusion, neither finding the humor before them. Their lack of laughter caused the React Meter to fall back down to zero, but at least Mario now knew what they needed to do

“I don’t get it…” Meggy said, her eyes crossing outwardly as the next video played.

The video showed the character screen for “Smash Bros. Ultimate,” only with the names of the characters altered. The Smash Bros. announcer then started pronouncing each name in a booming voice, no matter how ridiculous each name was.

“MOIRA!” (Mario).

“LASAGNA!” (Luigi).

“PEEP CREEP!” (Peach).

“GAISY!” (Daisy).

“ROSA & ROSA” (Rosalina & Luma). “

WOW!” (Bowser).

“WOW LITE!” (Bowser Jr.).

“DR-”

With each ridiculous name the announcer reads off, Mario laughs harder and harder. His voice cracked and wheezed from how hard he was laughing, his body doubling over. His laughter alone fills up half the React Meter, and all that was needed was for the girls to fill up the other half.

Unfortunately, neither girl was laughing. They both were staring at the screen with confused eyes once again, not getting the joke. Their lack of reaction caused the React Meter to plummet once more, needing everyone to laugh at the content.

“You understand any of this, Octy?” Meggy whispered into Desti’s ear.

“No, I’m just as lost as you are, Squidy,” Desti whispered back.

Mario was busy busting a gut when he saw that neither girl was laughing at the comedy “gold” in front of them, and that their lack of laughter was negatively affecting the React Meter gauge. He needed to remedy this, so he quit laughing and turned to the girls.

“Girls!” He said exuberantly. “You need to react…” Mario grabs both girls’ heads and stretches them out to comically-long proportions, “...BEEEEEEEG!”

“Ehhh…Ok, ok we’ll try…” Desti groaned, her and Meggy snapping their heads back to normal in time for the next video.

This video showed a Yoshi plush sitting peacefully on the ground, before a large boulder suddenly appeared and fell on top of it. The Yoshi plush then went through a bunch of different, painful scenarios, like being cooked on a frying pan, all set to a rendition of the “Obstacle Course” theme from “Yoshi’s Island.”

Mario was laughing even harder at this video than the last, his laughter nearly filling the React Meter to the brim. Meggy and Desti still just stared confused at the screen, not really finding the video funny. Mario, still laughing, turned to the girls and discreetly pointed at the React Meter, reminding them what they had to do.

“Oh, right,” The girls said in realization. The two of them let out some weak, fake laughs to try and fill the React Meter to max.

Unfortunately, the meter detected the insincerity in their laughter. An alarm blares out, saying “[PITY DETECTED]”, and the TV flashes a rainbow barred error screen. The nearly-filled React Meter then plummets so hard it explodes, destroying it for the moment.

The group were all taken aback by this. Mario turned to the girls with shocked eyes, while the couple just gave him awkward looks.

“ *sigh* Y'know, what?” Desti sighed. “I’m just gonna go now…” She turned away from Mario and walked off the screen.

“I’m sorry, Red…” Meggy apologized. “I just don’t get it…”

Mario stares at Meggy and Desti a little longer before taking action. He grabs the two and pushes them to the corner of the room, dubbing it the “Naughty Woomy/Veemo Corner,” and has the couple stand there with their faces to the wall.

“And stay there ‘til Mario clears the obstacle,” Mario told them, sounding like a tired parent, before turning around and heading back to BEEG.

“...You’ve got to be kidding me,” Meggy muttered, her and Desti equally annoyed by Mario’s “solution.”

Mario, now dressed in cowboy attire, was standing at the foot of the stairs, glaring up at BEEG once again. The two were in a Mexican standoff, both waiting for the other to move. After a tense few seconds, the first move was finally made by Mario.

“DRAW!” Mario yelled, queuing BEEG to begin the next video.

The video was a parody of the “Super Mario Bros. Movie” plumbing ad, played by a blue rat puppet (Stinky Blue Rat) and a funny-looking man with Beals-Hecht syndrome (Ricky Berwick). The two were dressed in Luigi’s and Mario’s clothes, respectively, and reenacted the ad, only with their own version of “The Super Mario Bros. Super Show” theme playing in the background.

Blue Rat & Ricky: We’re the Cripple Brothers,

And plumbing’s our game!

We’re not like the others,

Who get all the fame!

“PFFFFFFT-AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!” Mario laughed so hard he created a sonic boom that shook the entire floor.

His laugh destroyed the TV from the force of it, and accidentally slammed and buried Meggy and Desti into the wall. The React Meter fills up to the brim in less than a second, before rising over the cap, over the reaction video setup, and through the roof. The gauge keeps going higher and higher into the sky before striking a passing airplane, knocking it out of the sky in a fiery wreck.

“SUCCESS!” BEEG cheered, congratulating Mario. He then rolls off to the side and out of view, allowing the group access to the third floor.

Mario, smirking smugly, slides over to the girls, who had just freed themselves from the wall. “Hey, girls-”

“Yeah, yeah.” Desti said, cutting off any potential gloating from Mario. “Come on, funny man. Let’s go save SMG4.”

Everyone runs to and up the stairs to the third floor, the last place SMG4 could be. They reach the top of the stairs and look to the third story Star Door, pausing when they see large, pulsing veins and stringy muscles covering the floor around it. The trio get chills at the sight of the demonic flesh, all of them looking nervously between each other.

Meggy then takes a deep breath to calm herself and steps forward. She reaches her hand to the door to open it, but the door slides open by itself, its inner mechanics still working, at least. The three go through the door and enter the third floor, greeted by the darkness surrounding them.

The lights turn on a second later, and the three gasp when they see mountains of demonic flesh, eyes, bone, and teeth covering the room. The demonic spread was even worse than what they had seen in SMG4’s room. Before any thoughts of turning back could enter their minds, the door slammed shut behind the three and sealed by a large pile of demonic goop.

Even Mario was starting to get scared now. The plumber’s breaths became shaky with fear, chills running down his spine every second. Meggy and Desti notice Mario’s fearful expression and put a comforting hand on each of his shoulders.

“Don’t be afraid, Red,” Meggy said, her words just as much for herself as they were for Mario. “We’ll get through this.”

“Just focus on saving SMG4,” Desti said, feeling just as scared as Mario right now. “He needs us right now.”

The girls’ words managed to soothe Mario, even if just a little bit. The plumber takes a deep breath to calm himself and nods to the girls. Meggy and Desti smile at Mario and let him go, the three now moving deeper into the room to find SMG4.

They would have to go far to find him. They followed a trail of veins and tendons across the floor, all leading to the middle of the room. There, a large patch of darkness covered the front of a pulsating mass of demon goop, the three seeing what appeared to be the outline of SMG4 standing within the darkness.

“S…SMG4??” Mario said, cautiously reaching a hand out for his friend.

He pulls his hand back when the darkness disappears and everyone can see SMG4’s state. The man was sitting at his desk and working on his computer, like back in his room, but now his body was covered in a glitchy, dark-pink substance. This substance spread like fines over his body and face, corrupting him just like the eldritch tar before. SMG4 seemed barely aware of his surroundings, mindlessly working on his video with blank, pupil-less eyes.

The others let out horrified gasps at the corruption overtaking SMG4’s body. They all rush over to him, needing to get him out of his chair and away from his computer to save him.

“SMG4!!” Meggy yelled. “It’s us!!”

“Bro!!” Mario cried. “We’re here to save you!!”

“Snap out of it, 4!!” Desti shouted.

SMG4 doesn’t respond to their shouts, his fingers tapping across the demonic keyboard as he focuses entirely on making his perfect video.

Desti turns to Meggy and Mario. “Come on, guys. Let’s get him out of here!” The two nod at her and they all reach out to grab SMG4.

Their hands were just within SMG4’s reach when his head snapped over at them, staring into them with hollow eyes. The trio take a step back, which becomes even further when a large, spindly red leg slams itself into all of them. The three fall back towards the sealed Star Door and look up to see a new monster blocking their path.

The monster was a large, bulky creature with blood red skin. Its lower half resembles a spider, with long, thick, spindly legs, the tips sharpened like skewers. It had a long tail, thicker than a tree trunk. Its arms were as long as its body, each hand having four, sharp fingers attached to it. Its head was misshapen, with a skinned-off, pig-like nose, gaping jaw, and black voids for eyes with glowing red pupils in the center of them.

But what was MOST disturbing for the gang was the fact that SMG3 had been fused to this abomination. His head, now the size of the monster’s head, was fused into it, covering up one of the beast’s eyes. His body, also enlarged, was spread out over its back in a messy, contorted fashion, his limbs bent and crooked in unnatural angles. And covering SMG3 was the same, glitchy corruption that was currently covering SMG4’s body.

“S…SMG3!?!” Mario shouted, him and the girls staring horrified at SMG3 being fused with the monster.

“H-Help…me…” SMG3(???) groaned, his voice weak and filled with pain.

Mario, Meggy, and Desti just stare at the SMG3/monster hybrid, their pupils shrinking and shaking with fear. The beast is soon on them, charging at them and smacking them all away. Meggy and Mario fly to the left and right respectively, with Mario slamming head-first into the half-spiral staircase beside him. Desti slams her back into the demon goop covering the Star Door, which tries to suck her in.

Desti reacts fast, whipping out her Bowie knives and slashing at the demon goop before it could pull her in. At the same time, Meggy gets off the floor and Mario pulls his head out of the staircase. The three all move towards each other and get into fighting stances, all turned towards the monster.

“Guys…” Meggy said, growling at the beast. “Looks like to save SMG3…” Meggy cracks her knuckles, “We’re gonna have to KICK HIS ASS!!”

Meggy then runs towards the monster and leaps into the air, throwing a flying punch its way. The monster blocks Meggy’s blow by raising its arm, though the impact still shakes it to its bones. Desti and Mario then rush the beast, Desti going low and Mario going high. Desti slides under the monster’s legs and climbs onto its back, while Mario leaps into the air and extends his nose towards the monster’s eye.

The monster screams in pain from having its eye poked. They strike back quickly, grabbing both Mario and Meggy in its claws. It raises them up and prepares to slam them both into the ground, only for Desti to climb onto his head and stab it in the eye with her Bowie knife.

The monster screams once more, the pain in its eye worse than before. It drops Meggy and Mario to the ground, the two falling back as the monster starts flailing and roaring in pain. Desti buries her knife deeper into the eye, trying to reach its brain and kill it. Her plan is halted, however, when the creature’s tail reaches back and wraps itself around her waist, pulling her off of its head.

The tail then whips back and throws Desti away, the girl hurtling towards the ground. Meggy manages to run over and catches Desti before she hits the ground, saving her from even worse pain.

“Thanks, Squidy!” Desti thanked her girlfriend, who nodded back at her in return.

Mario then slides behind the girls and grabs them by their legs. He straightens them out, transforming them into the “Super Meggy & Desti Bat Deluxe™.” He wields the girls at the monster and uses them to fend off against the beast’s pointed leg swipes.

Mario manages to push the monster back for a time, thanks in part to Desti stabbing the thing’s eye out and making it half-blind. He blocks and parries each swipe, but the monster's overwhelming strength eventually knocks Mario back. He and the girls slide back, all of them still on their feet, and then Meggy takes out a Splatterscope.

“Mario. Let’s pretend this is Splatfest,” Meggy said, explaining her idea. “Remember the ol’ ‘Meggy Switcharoo?’”

“Oh yeah!” Mario nods, remembering the old technique Meggy she had tried to teach him all those years ago. “But…we haven’t used it for real before.”

“Well we’re doing it now!” Meggy then looked over to Desti. “Wanna join us, Octy?”

“Heh, you even need to ask?~” Desti said, taking out her knives again. “Let’s have some fun!”

The three begin their assault, with Mario going first. The plumber takes out a gun and points it at the monster. He pulls the trigger, causing a microphone head to emerge out of the gun barrel. He raises the mic to his face and starts loudly screaming/singing into it.

The deafening noise causes the monster to cover its ears in protection, along with angering it greatly. With a roar of rage, the monster leans down and tries to swallow Mario whole.

Its mouth nearly reaches a scared-looking Mario when Meggy and Desti hop over from behind the plumber and dropkick the monster’s face. The monster is pushed back and the girls use its face as a springboard to go higher. Desti hurls her various knives at the monster’s legs and tail, slicing through them with enough force to pin the creature to the ground. Meggy whipped out her Splatterscope, spinning it around her body in an impressive fashion before aiming it at the monster and saying only one thing.

“Splat~”

Meggy unloads on the monster, firing high-speed, high damage ink bullets at it. With the monster pinned down and half-blind, it was practically defenceless against Meggy’s assault. It wasn’t long before it before the beast succumbed to the assault, collapsing to the ground with a roar of defeat.

Mario danced to himself in victory as Meggy and Desti landed back on the ground. Meggy blows the smoke off the tip of her Splatterscope before she and Desti share a fist-bump. The three all watch as the monster dissolves into a pile of demonic flesh goo, the steam soon clearing to reveal SMG3 trapped in the middle of it. The three all rush to him and Mario pulls him out of it, setting the man back on his feet.

“SMG3!!” Meggy said worriedly. “Are you okay?”

“Y-Yeah…” SMG3 said, sore and having a headache, but overall fine. “What happened? I…I don’t remember-”

SMG3 then turns to see SMG4, still working away at his computer.

“SMG4!!” SMG3 looks at SMG4’s decrepit state with worry, but his worry soon shifts when the room starts shaking violently.

At the center of it all was SMG4’s demonic keyboard, which began to glow an ominous red colour. The glow was followed by some mad giggling from SMG4, who still appeared to be possessed by the keyboard.

“It’s almost finished…” SMG4(?) giggled happily as a familiar black substance emerged all around him.

The eldritch tar had returned and was quickly covering the room. It spread across the walls, ceiling and floors, with hundreds of eyes staring at the gang. Everyone feels dread pool in their stomachs, especially Meggy, but they manage to keep themselves calm enough to act.

“IT'S HAPPENING AGAIN!!” Desti shouted.

“WE NEED TO GRAB SMG4 AND GET OUT OF HERE!!” Meggy ordered, keeping herself focused despite all the eyes staring at her.

SMG3 didn’t need to be told twice. He runs over to SMG4, grabs him by his head, and tries to pull him out of his chair. SMG4 didn’t budge, however, seemingly glued to his seat by whatever forces were controlling him.

“COME ON, GUYS, HELP!!” SMG3 shouted towards the others, who all ran to his aid.

The four all grab onto SMG4 and try to use their combined strength to pull him out of his chair. Despite their efforts, SMG4 remains rooted to his seat, but they don’t plan on giving up. They pulled harder on SMG4, so laser-focused on him that they didn't see the tentacles coming up to grab them until it was too late.

The tentacles grab onto their arms and pull them away from SMG4, before pulling them into the floor. They all struggled and pulled against the tentacles, trying to break free of their hold as they were dragged further and further down into the eldritch tar.

Desti couldn’t even take out her knives to try and free herself and the others, forcing them to struggle fruitlessly against the iron grip of the tentacles.

Back outside, Boopkins’ attempt to make peace with the demon goo had turned into motivational speaker territory. The otaku fishman was now standing at a podium at the front of the castle, the gang standing on either side of him as he gave a speech to both Swag’s army and the demon goo

“I have a dream…” Boopkins said, quoting Martin Luther King Jr. “That we can all live in peaaaace! I have a dream-”

Boopkins rattles on to Swag and Chris, the former looking absolutely bored out of his mind. Swag takes out his pistol and points it at his head, seriously debating whether or not he should blow his brains out to avoid listening to any more of Boopkins “peace, love, and friendship” crap.

Thankfully, he wouldn’t have to hear anymore of it when the demonic goo became active again. The ground shook and everyone turned towards the castle to see the demon goo growing and expanding. The goo had nearly overtaken the entire castle and was now spreading towards the grounds, causing most of the gang to run away.

“W-Wait, no, guys, stay calm!” Boopkins said, getting in front of the fleeing gang. “Love will win! Love always wins-”

“MoVe, BiTcH!” Bob said, kicking Boopkins out of the way.

Boopkins groans into the ground when he hears something stretch over to him. He looks up to see Swag’s extended neck and face looking down at him with a smug grin.

“TOLD YOU SO!” Swag said, feeling so good at being right.

“Boopkins!” Saiko yells at Boopkins, him and Swag both turning to see her fighting off the demon goo. “We need to tear down this castle, otherwise the entire kingdom is in danger!”

“But…but…” Boopkins said. “But what about our friends?”

Just then, the sound of tank fire echoed through the air. Boopkins turned to see Swag and his legion of tanks all firing at the demon goo.

“SWEEEEEET RELEAAAASE,” Swag said, time practically slowing down when he talked as he finally got to fire his tank.

The tank shells all fly straight towards the castle and strike the demon goo with explosive force. The demon goo covering the castle is engulfed in flames and smoke, and Swag leans back with shades over his face.

“Hand me my medal now, Chris,” Swag said, believing he had destroyed the demon goo, “cuz I saved the world once again.”

Swag lowers his shades to see the damage…only to drop them when the clearing smoke reveals the castle still standing, the demon goo not even showing a hint of meaningful damage.

“WHAT!? IMPOSSIBRUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU-”

As Swag continued freaking out over his failed assault, the gang were staring hopelessly at the engulfed castle. Nothing they had done had managed to destroy the demonic flesh goo permanently, and with the rate it’s expanding, it’ll engulf the castle ground and eventually the entire kingdom. With time and options dwindling, Saiko turns to Boopkins and proposes the only plan she could think of.

“We need to sink the castle…” She said, her voice and face somber.

“But…” Boopkins said, sounding equally sad and forlorn. “Won’t this sink the castle…forever?”

“...There’s no other choice…”

Back on the third floor, things were looking equally hopeless for the guys inside.

Meggy, Desti, Mario, and SMG3 were still trying to free themselves from the tentacles holding on to them. They struggled and pulled with all their might, but no matter what they did, the tentacles didn’t budge. They kept trying regardless, even as they sank further into the eldritch tar.

“GUYS, WHAT DO WE DO?!?” Mario screamed. “MARIO DOESN’T WANNA DIIIIEEEE!!!!!”

“I DON’T KNOW, MARIO!!” Meggy screamed back. “JUST KEEP FIGHTING IT!!”

“C’MON, C’MON!!” Desti yelled, trying to reach for one of her knives. “I COULD CUT THESE THINGS OFF IF I COULD JUST GRAB-”

As those three kept struggling, SMG3 was busy having a panic attack. His ears rang and his vision was getting blurry, realizing how dire the situation was. The tentacles had already dragged the group down to their armpits, and they were only going to sink deeper if they couldn’t get themselves out of it.

His eyes then land on SMG4and in that moment, SMG3 knows what he has to do. He takes a moment to calm himself, waiting for his vision to return to normal and the ringing to stop, before speaking out towards SMG4.

“Hey, dude. Listen to me,” SMG3 said, using the most serious and understanding tone the gang had ever heard from him. “I used to think you had it all… Friends. Fame Views. I thought you had to be the happiest person in the world.”

The others look at SMG3, not expecting him to speak in such a way. They see the sad smile on the man’s face switch to a frown as he continues speaking.

“But I understand you now. You’re really scared, aren’t you?”

For a brief second, SMG4’s eye twitches.

“You’re scared you could lose it all at any time. Because you think you’re only worth as much as the stuff you make…”

By now, the gang had been dragged down to their necks in eldritch tar. It wouldn’t be long before they were completely immersed in the stuff, so SMG3 prepares his final words, hoping they’ll reach SMG4.

“But I’ve met your friends, man. No matter what you make, they… WE… will always be here to have fun and laugh together.”

“THAT’S RIGHT!!” Meggy said. “YOU’LL ALWAYS HAVE US, SMG4!!”

“WE’LL ALWAYS BE THERE FOR YOU!!” Desti said before turning to Meggy. “And each other…” She reaches her arm through the eldritch tar and grabs Meggy’s hand, the couple intertwining their fingers for what may be the last time.

“YEAH!!!” Mario said. “MARIO’S GONNA LAUGH AT YOU FOREVER!!”

SMG4’s eye twitches again as the gang start sinking further into the eldritch tar. The tar starts covering their heads and the gang closes their eyes, accepting their fate. They didn’t see SMG4’s body begin to twitch more and more sporadically, gradually gaining more control over his body.

His twitching becomes more animated until, in a surprising moment, he takes his hands off the keyboard and stretches them out. In an instant, the corruption covering his body disappears. His body is also rejuvenated, no longer tired and dirty, and his uses this new energy to leap out of his chair and turn to the gang trapped in the eldritch tar.

The gang’s heads were just barely poking out, but it was enough for SMG4 to grab onto. He grabs SMG3, Meggy, and Desti and pulls them all out of the tar in a single go. The three, realizing they were no longer trapped, opened their eyes and looked at SMG4, relief spreading over their faces.

“SMG4, bro!!” SMG3 said, tearing up at seeing SMG4 back to normal. “You’re back!!”

SMG4 smiles at SMG3 and the gang, wiping away his own tears. “Yeah…I really needed to hear all that.”

“Wait!! MARIO!!” Desti shouted, realizing he was still trapped in the tar.

“OH YEAH!!” With a second thought, SMG4 ran over to where Mario was buried and pulled him out of the eldritch tar.

“I LIIIIIIIIIIVE!!!” Mario cheered, happy that he wasn’t eldritch tar food anymore.

All of the sudden, the eldritch tar covering the floor vanishes into thin air. The gang were no longer in danger of being dragged under, which allowed Meggy, Desti, and Mario to run over to SMG4 and pull him into a big, group hug.

“Dude…” Meggy said, relief clear in her voice, “I thought we lost you.”

“SMG4!!!!” Mario shouted with relief. “DON’T GO COO-COO CRAZY AGAIN, PLEASE!!!!”

“I’m…I’m so sorry, guys,” SMG4 apologized to the gang. “I never meant for this to happen.”

“We’re just glad you’re okay, 4,” Desti said, rubbing the man’s back soothingly. “Everyone was so worried about you.”

“Mario just wanted to see his friend’s not be possessed anymore!” Mario cried. “We never thought we’d see you again!”

“Thanks, guys,” SMG4 said, before turning to SMG3. “And thanks, SMG3. I…didn’t know you felt that way.”

“WHAT?! N-NO!!!” SMG3 screamed, trying to hide his emotions again. “I only said all that so I wouldn’t die in the eldritch goo!!”

“Yeah, sure, whatever you say man~” SMG4 gave SMG3 a look, basically saying that he wasn’t falling for 3’s attempt to mask his true feelings. “Now, let’s get out of here!!”

The five of them all start running for the nearest exit, with Meggy, Desti, and Mario leading the charge. That exit would be a window on the far side of the room. Meggy, Desti, and Mario all leap through the window, Mario doing a silly cartwheel as they burst through the window. SMG4 and SMG3 jumped next, ready to leave this nightmare castle…

…Only for a set of demon tentacles to emerge and wrap themselves around SMG4. SMG3 stopped and turned to 4, time seeming to slow down around them, and watched in horror at SMG4 being dragged back into the room. SMG3 turns around and chases after 4 to save him.

Meggy, Desti, and Mario were unaware of the situation behind them, too busy focusing on the rapidly approaching ground. The three soar towards the castle grounds and land down, Meggy and Desti landing in a “superhero” pose while Mario lands on his face. The three picked themselves up when they heard a communion by the castle, turning to it to see what was happening.

There they saw Cipher, Saiko, and Kaizo battling the demon tentacles. Saiko bashed some down with her hammer, Kaizo cut up others with his scythe, and Cipher was alternating between firing magic attacks and protecting himself with Shield magic. The three fighters then got into a stalemate struggle with the tentacles, which was exactly what they wanted right now.

“NOW!!!” Kaizo yelled off to the side, where the rest of the gang were.

The gang were all holding lit bombs in their hands. They all run towards the castle, planning on throwing the bombs in the dried-out moat to weaken the ground and have the castle sink down. A few stray tentacles flew towards them to try and stop them, but that’s where Swag came in.

“OI! H3nT@! MONSTER!” Swag shouted, drawing the tentacles’ attention towards him. He pointed his tanks towards the tentacles and fired, blowing them all away.

With the tentacles taken care of, the gang had no issue throwing their bombs into the dried moat. The bombs joined up with a lit pile of their brethren, the combined explosive power more than enough to sink the castle. The entire gang falls back towards Swag’s tank, everyone watching the castle with tense faces as Swag takes out the detonation switch.

“HERE COMES THE BOOM!” Swag pauses a bit for dramatic effect before slamming his fist onto the detonation button.

Over the course of several seconds, controlled explosions blasted out around the castle. Swag pumped both his fists in the air at the sight, his thirst for destruction sufficiently quenched. The explosions completely destroy the moat, at which point the castle starts to sink, unable to stay standing under its own weight against the weak ground.

“This is the best day ever!” Swag cheered, turning to the gang. “Isn’t this the best day ever?”

The gang didn’t respond, all of them too stunned with shock and horror as they watched the castle sink further into the ground.

“There…there it goes,” Tari said, crying a bit at seeing the gang’s favourite hangout spot sinking away.

“But look!” Luigi said, pointing at the castle. “The creep has stopped!”

Indeed, the demonic flesh goop had stopped spreading, some of it even falling away or sinking back into the castle. The gang felt cold comfort that, at the very least, the demonic creep wouldn’t spread to the rest of the kingdom.

“WoW!” Bob said in surprise. “I cAn’T bElIeVe It AcTuAlLy WoRkEd!”

“Guys!” Boopkins said, turning to the gang in a panic. “We still need to go get Meggy and the others! They’re not out yet!”

“Oh, aren’t we?~” Came Meggy’s voice from across the grounds.

The gang looked and were happily surprised to see Meggy, Desti, and Mario all standing triumphantly before them, all three safe and sound. Luigi, relieved to see his brother and friend okay, runs over to them and collapses on his knees to hug their legs.

“OH MY GOSH YOU GUYS MADE IT OUT!” Luigi said, his words coming out fast due to how scared he had been for them.

“Hehe, did you miss us?~” Desti asked with a playful tone, patting Luigi's head.

“You guys made it!” Cipher cheered, everyone happy to see their friends alive.

“Yeah!” Mario said. “We got SMG4, too! He’s right…” Mario turns to SMG4…only to discover neither he nor SMG3 were with them.

It takes several seconds for Mario to realize what that means, and when he did, he grabbed onto Meggy and Desti and started screaming and shaking them with newfound panic.

“GUYYYYYYYS!!!!! SMG4 AND SMG3 ARE STILL IN THE CASTLE!!!!!”

The castle was crumbling all around SMG4. Chunks of the ceiling and walls rained down over him, but SMG4 paid little attention to it as he was busy with his own predicament.

The tentacles had strapped him down into his chair, leaving only his head and arms to move around freely. SMG4 used whatever little freedom he had to try and break out of the tentacles’ grasp. But no matter what he did, he couldn’t break free, the tentacles keeping him in his chair. 4 still struggled on, meanwhile SMG3 had finally caught up to him.

“SMG4?!” SMG3 yelled, stopping beside SMG4. “WHAT’S GOING ON?!”

“Dammit…I…” SMG4 said, stopping his futile struggling. “I don’t think I can leave…”

“What?! Forget about your stupid video!”

“No, I mean…I physically won’t be allowed to leave ‘til I finish this video…” SMG4 solemnly sighs to himself and turns towards his computer. “You should go, 3.”

SMG4, resigning himself to his fate, starts typing on the demonic keyboard once more, working on his perfect video for the last time.

“What?!” SMG3 looks at SMG4 like he’d lost his mind. “This is crazy!”

“SMG3…” SMG4 stops typing and looks over at SMG3 with a pained expression. “Please go… This is entirely my fault, and I’ll suffer whatever fate is in my way…

“At least I’ll go down doing what I love…” He smiles sadly at his computer, remembering all the fun times he had making videos with it.

SMG3 wasn’t having it though. He goes over and SMACKS SMG4 behind the head, trying to knock some sense into him, before ranting at him.

“You idiot!” SMG3 yells at SMG4. “You think after all these years of rivalry, after I pretty much went through a whole ‘Vegeta’ character arc, I’m just gonna let you die? HOW SELFISH IS THAT?!”

SMG4 was shocked by SMG3's heated, passionate words at him. He was even more surprised when he saw SMG3 pull out a chair and sat next to him, taking out his own laptop and plugging it into SMG4’s computer.

“Wh-What are you doing?” SMG4 asked 3.

“What does it look like I’m doing?” SMG3 spat back. “I’m gonna help you finish this video!”

SMG4’s eyes widen at SMG3’s statement, but he quickly nods and smiles at the man. The two then get to work on finishing SMG4’s video, even as the castle breaks around them.

The castle continued to sink into the ground below, the gang watching it for any sign of SMG3 and 4. They had no idea what was happening inside, but they knew that if 3 and 4 don’t get out of there soon, they’ll both be lost forever.

Cipher couldn’t allow this, couldn’t allow to lose more of his friends. He then gets an idea and turns to SMG1 and SMG2.

“1! 2! Let’s do the thing!” Cipher said to them.

SMG1 and 2 immediately know what Cipher’s talking about and nod to him. Cipher reaches down and grabs both of them, holding them over his shoulders. He then quickly filled them with his magic until all three of them were glowing a burning-hot white. He aims SMG1 and 2 at the third floor window and fires them at it with his newest magic technique.

“TWIN-SMG CANNON!”

Cipher throws SMG1 and 2, the two hurdling like rockets towards the castle. The two SMGs keep themselves straight as they soar towards the window, planning on grabbing SMG4 and 3 as they fly by before shooting out the other side and at the grassy hills behind the castle.

However, the demonic flesh goop decided to interfere with a final “f*ck you” to the gang. Just as SMG1 and 2 were about to reach the window, a tentacle shot up and between tem and smacked them away, sending them crashing into Cipher. The three picked themselves off the ground and looked back at the castle as it finally sunk down out of view.

“N-No…” Cipher gasped, his heartbroken expressions matching the rest of the gang.

Everyone’s head lowered in mourning, believing that they had just lost SMG4 and 3. Tari was crying into Saiko’s chest, the girl holding back her own tears as she hugged her wife back. Cipher, Boopkins, and Luigi were also struggling to hold back tears, feeling like complete failures. Bob and Kaizo managed to keep their tears at bay, but sadness still struck their hearts, coming in the form of clenched fists and gritted teeth of frustration. Even Swag felt bad about all this for, despite what he had said earlier about sacrifices, he didn’t actually want to kill SMG4 and 3.

Meggy, Desti, and Mario were all huddled around each other, comforting each other as they struggled trying not to break down. The three had gone in there with SMG3 to save SMG4, and now it seems that they had lost both of their friends. Meggy and Desti hugged each other, tears in the corner of their eyes, while Mario put his arms around both of them, holding back his own tears.

“This…This can’t be real…” Desti said, trying to deny the impossible.

“No…” Meggy said, her voice cracking. “No, this can’t be the end…”

“OK! AAND…DONE!!!” SMG3 and 4 said simultaneously, pressing a key on each of their keyboards as they finish the video.

SMG4’s computer flashes a video maker notification, reading “RENDER COMPLETE! (wow it didn’t crash, nice).” The finished video downloaded itself into a white USB stick plugged into the monitor, making it glow gold. The tentacles wrapped around SMG4 burn away, freeing him, and the demonic keyboard shuts off, its purpose fulfilled.

With SMG4’s perfect video now complete, the TV Adware PNG appears on his screen once more to congratulate SMG4 and 3’s work.

“[Congratulations on finishing your product.],” The smiling TV said. “[Would you like to rate your experience with the magical keyboard?]”

SMG3 answers in 4’s place by grabbing the demonic keyboard and whacking the computer monitor with it. He breaks the screen and the monitor as a whole, while also knocking the USB stick out of it, sending it flying into SMG4’s awaiting hand. SMG3 then drops the keyboard to the ground and turns angrily to a very happy-looking SMG4.

“Don’t order stuff from sus websites, dude!” SMG3 chastises 4. “Stuff like that is why your Twitter got hacked a few months ago!”

SMG4 doesn’t pay attention to SMG3’s ranting, enraptured instead by the sight of the golden-glowing USB in his hand.

“This…This is it…” SMG4 said with a giant smile on his face. “My life’s work… The online respect this is going to give me…”

SMG4 imagines what this perfect video could bring him, feeling accomplished after so many weeks of hard work, even as the castle begins to disintegrate around him.

“DUDE!” SMG3 yelled, snapping SMG4 out of it. “I’M ALL FOR FAKE INTERNET POINTS, BUT LET’S GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE FIRST!!”

SMG4 didn’t need to be told twice. He and SMG3 get out of their chairs and run towards the window the others had escaped from. They looked outside of it and were shocked to see that the castle was falling into some sort of demon pit, with red, fleshy walls all around them.

But they needed to get out of here now, lest they suffer the castle’s fate. The two move back from the window, giving themselves a running start before leaping through it. The two manage to grab onto a protruding mass from the wall and cling onto it with all their might. The two looked down at the castle and watched it get devoured by the pit’s sharp, red-toothed maw.

SMG4 grips the USB in his left hand tightly, not wanting to slip away, and he and SMG3 take a moment to relax. Their moment didn’t last for long though, as the demon pit suddenly shifted, jerking 4 and 3 around a bit. The sudden movement caused 4’s grip on the USB to falter and it ended up flying onto the top of the protruding mass they were holding onto.

SMG4 could see that the USB was still within arms reach, so he tried to grab it with his free hand. However, SMG3’s grip on the protruding mass starts to slip at the same time. His grip fails and SMG3 starts falling towards the pit’s maw, only for SMG4 to grab his ankle at the last second.

SMG4 tries to pull SMG3 up when he feels something land on his foot. 4 looks down to see that the USB had been knocked onto the top of his shoe. The surprise made his grip on SMG3’s ankle weaken, but he quickly fixed that and held on to him tighter, though he was still struggling to lift him up.

“Don’t worry, man! I got you!’ SMG4 said to SMG3, trying to remain calm. “I’m not letting you go!”

That statement would be tested when he saw that the USB was starting to slip off of his shoe. SMG4 began to panic, his eyes darting back and forth between the USB and SMG3 as his brain scrambles to see if he could save both, or if he needed to drop one of them.

“Wh-What are you thinking?” SMG3 asked, noticing SMG4’s look. “SMG4?”

SMG4 was still panicking, his desire to save the USB and his desire to save SMG3 clashing furiously with each other. The USB was slipping further off his foot, and it was becoming clear he couldn’t save both it and SMG3 at the same time.

“We can make another!” SMG3 calls out to 4. “Remember what I said? We…

“...We’re friends!”

That was it. That was all he needed to hear to make his decision. Taking a deep breath, SMG4 closes his eyes and prepares to make the ultimate sacrifice.

Back on top, the gang were standing at the edge of the demon pit, mourning SMG4 and 3. Those wearing hats took them off and placed them over their hearts as a sign of respect, with everyone’s heads tilted down in solemn silence.

That silence would be broken when a steadily increasing scream heard coming out of the pit. Everyone shot their heads back up just in time to see SMG3 flying out of the pit, much to the gang’s shock. SMG3 kept screaming and flailing until he face-planted onto the ground in front of them, at which point SMG4 leapt out of the pit and landed beside him.

The gang gasped at the sight of SMG3 and 4, which soon turned into cheering at the revelation that they were alive.

“YOU GUYS MADE IIIIIT!” Boopkins cheered with star-eyed excitement.

“OH THANK GOD, YOU’RE OK!!!” Meegy cheered, relief filling her body.

“W-WE THOUGHT YOU TWO WERE DEAD!” Desti said, wiping away a tear.

SMG3 picked himself off the ground and shot SMG4 a look, a little peeved that SMG4 threw him into the air, even if it did save his life. SMG4 just smiled at 3 as the two of them were suddenly pulled into a tight hug from Mario.

“WAHHHHHH!” The plumber cried. “YOU SCARED MARIO AGAIIIIIN!” He hugs the two SMGs a little longer before pulling out of the hug.

“Yea…” SMG3 said, looking over at SMG4 with a smile. “Even I thought I wasn’t going to make it at the end.”

SMG4 smiles back at SMG3, both happy they were all alive. They then turn to look at the demon pit, its giant maw roaring and teeth churning to snatch and eat someone.

“Nah…” SMG4 said to SMG3, smiling at him again. “...I’d do anything to not lose my friends.”

“WHAT?!” SMG3 yelped. “I’M NOT YOUR FRIEND! …B-Baka.” SMG3 turns away from SMG4 with a blushing, pouty face, going full-tsundere once more.

The gang laughed a bit at SMG3’s overreaction, but it did little to lighten the mood. Everyone was staring at the roaring demon pit, the reason the castle was no more.

“I…I can’t believe it’s gone…” Tari said somberly.

“I’m gonna really miss this place…” Luigi said, just as soberly.

“Wait…but guys…” Mario said, turning to the gang. “Mario blows up the castle all the time… Can’t we just build it again?”

Desti looks sadly at Mario and the pit. “Something tells me…the castle won’t be returning any time soon…”

The gang all stare at the demon pit, mourning the loss of the castle. SMG4 himself feels even worse, guilt clawing at his heart.

“I’m really sorry I caused all of this, guys…” SMG4 apologized to the gang with tear-filled eyes, before noticing something on the ground beside him.

The object was the castle’s front door, the only thing to have seemingly spared from the demon pit. The door had been ripped from its hinges, but still relatively intact. SMG4 crouches down to the door and fondly runs his hand over it.

“This was like a home to us… We had so many adventures here…”

SMG4 starts reminiscing on all those adventures at the castle. He remembers when he and Mario had to get rid of the giant Chain Chomp after it chased them through Bob-omb Battlefield. He remembered the 10 Year Anniversary party he threw, where he and the gang were properly introduced to SMG1 and 2. He remembers the various Christmas parties, including the one that marked the return of Meggy and the introducing of SMG0/Cipher into the gang. He even thought fondly of the first episode he ever made for the channel, all about Mario killing Peach for lying about making a cake.

SMG4 was now holding the wooden door in his hands, the happy memories being replaced by immense guilt. But instead of getting consumed by his guilt, SMG4 decided to turn that guilt into burning motivation. A determined look appeared on his face as his resolve etched itself into his mind.

“I’m going to make this right,” He said, turning to the gang. “We can build a new castle! And it may be different…but so long as we’re all together…I’m sure it’s going to be perfect!”

The gang all perk up at the idea of creating a new castle, their faces brimming with excitement and possibilities.

“This’ll be fun!” Tari said. “We’ll get to build it up however we want!”

“We can build a rock stage!” Saiko suggested, already coming up with ideas for the castle.

“I love the sound of that!’ Kaizo agreed with Saiko’s idea. “We can deck it out with pyrotechnics, surround sound, maybe even a guitar-smashing room!”

“And have a spaghetti room!” Mario said, suggesting his own ideas for the castle.

“I cAn MaKe A rOoM tO dO lOtS oF iLlEgAl ThInGs!” Bob said, unintentionally revealing his criminal plans.

“Maybe we can put a meme research lab in it…” SMG1 suggested, contemplating the idea.

“Or perhaps a training room!” Meggy said.

“OOOOH, I love that idea already, Squidy!” Desti cheered, pulling her girlfriend in for a hug.

“I’m down for that!” Cipher said. “Maybe we could add some magic trinkets to spice it up?”

“Can we have an anime room, too?” Boopkins asked SMG4.

“Uhh… Maybe!’ Was SMG4’s answer.

The gang continued throwing out room ideas for the new castle for a short while, everything from basic guest rooms, to workout centers, or even places to hide bodies, the last suggestion coming from Swag.

“Wait guys!” SMG3 said, halting all further conversations. “This is cool and all, but… where and how are we gonna do that?”

“I…I don’t know…” SMG4 admitted. “But I’m sure we’ll figure it out! C’mon!” SMG4 starts walking into the sunset, carrying the door, and this new future, along with him.

The gang follow alongside him, all of them now brimming with new hope and excitement. They may have lost the castle, but now, there was the possibility of creating something NEW. They all continued to walk into the sunset, everything feeling absolutely…perfe-

“WAIT A MINUTE!” Meggy screamed, realizing something. “WHERE’S PEACH?!?!”

Peach was sleeping peacefully in her royal bedroom when her alarm clock buzzed her awake. The princess turned off her alarm and got out of bed, stretching the tiredness out of her limbs. She goes over to her bedroom window and opens up the curtains.

Where she was greeted by a large, demonic eye staring at her, causing the princess to scream.

“AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH-”