One sunny Thursday afternoon in Inkopolis, the Blackbelly Skatepark was filled with the sounds of splatting as an orange-haired gal fired off her Splattershot at training targets of red, blue, white and yellow colors. Meggy Spletzer was training her battle skills, it had been some time since she'd last partaken in a Turf War and she needed to warm up if she was going to do a Turf War again.

Today was bright and peaceful, everything felt quite lively and Meggy didn't feel bored out of her mind. The beanie-wearing former Inkling kept running, rolling and firing shot after shot at her fake targets, splatting them all up.

Initially, she thought of calling one of her friends to see if they wanted to train with her. But with no Splatfests coming up and while the rest of the gang was doing their own thing, Meggy was alone.

However, she did have plenty of good friends in the Inkling city to hang out with.

Plus, unbeknownst to anyone else, today had a massive surprise in store for the squid-turned human girl and it still involved that loveable red idiot Mario, but not in the way that anyone else expected. Word had it that a trailer for a new movie was going to be released soon and people had been talking about it for weeks now.

Meggy was curious and she wondered if it had something to do with that animated Nintendo video game movie involving that Pratt guy of all people, she couldn't wait to hear more.

Just then, as she splatted up more targets, she felt her phone buzz in her pocket.

Putting away her Splattershot, Meggy pulled out her cell-phone, hearing the tune of the Calamari Inkantation playing and seeing the still-shot of Callie and Marie doing their trademark 'stay fresh' pose from their Inkopolis News broadcasts; The Squid Sisters were calling!

She tapped the answer button. "Hey, this is Meggy." The young ex-Inkling said.

"Hi, Meggy." Callie's voice bubbled on the other line, "You gotta come over here, it just cropped up an hour ago and you gotta see this."

"What? What happened?"

"It's the trailer!" Marie's voice exclaimed, "They dropped a trailer and it's about Mario!"

"Oh my gosh!" Meggy gasped, "I knew the whispers were true! I'll be right over there. See ya soon, girls."

"We'll be waiting, Meggy." Callie quipped up, "Stay fresh!"

The line clicked and the phone hung up. Meggy put away her phone along with her iconic Splattershot, then the ex-Inkling left the Skatepark as quickly as she could and made her way to Inkopolis Square before heading down the sewer tunnel leading to Tentakeel Outpost; The Squid Sisters and Captain Cuttlefish's hangout spot whenever nothing big was afoot.

She made her way to the top of the mountain where the athletic ex-Inkling found Captain Cuttlefish waiting for her, resting on his cane.

"Hi there, Meggy. Nice day today, isn't it?" The old Inkling asked.

"Sure is." Meggy nodded, "How's yours been, Captain?"

"I've been listenin' to that Japanese song about a kid who's like a cat on that I-Pod." The captain remarked, "It's really inspirational to listen to and some of the kids in the plaza have already heard it, that song might be my new favorite jam unless my granddaughters come up with a new show-tune."

"Callie and Marie called, they tell me a trailer's up and it's about Mario. Guess the rumors about the Nintendo movie with a certain someone we know and love voiced by Mr. Pratt are true, huh?"

"Oh, they're waitin' by the TV, the trailer cropped up in a broadcast twenty-five minutes ago."

The kind old Inkling stepped aside and Meggy thanked him, she walked past him and headed past the cabin to the sitting area next to the tree where the Squid Sisters were waiting for her by the TV. Callie wearing her pink cap, black shorts and sweater and Marie wearing her Japanese kimono.

Callie let out an energetic squeal of happiness at the sight of Meggy and ran up to hug her in a warm manner, Marie calmly joined the hug in her own manner.

"We haven't seen the trailer yet, but I think you're going to love this." Callie told Meggy.

"I got the drinks." Marie offered, holding a tray of soda cans.

Meggy sat down in the middle of the sofa with Callie on the right and Marie on the left, sodas in hand with Marie in charge of the remote. "Okay…" Meggy said with an optimistic grin, "Let's see what this trailer has in store. Fire away, girls!"

"Here-a we go." Callie said in a mock Italian voice, attempting to imitate Mario.

And with the press of a button from Marie, the TV was on and the screen began showing a landscape covered in ice, a kingdom sitting right in the middle of it. The cold landscape started changing as fireballs dropped into the ice and a shadow loomed over, the scene shifted perspectives to show the source of the shadow; a massive floating island of lava with Bowser's face etched into the front.

It was clear what this was, apparently, this was some kind of mobile kingdom Bowser had. The scene then showed penguins preparing themselves with a penguin king emerging from the ice castle walls, confronted by Koopa warriors and a Kamek appeared. Meggy was impressed by the animation.

"Behold, the King of the Koopas!" Kamek declared.

"And here we go." Meggy said.

With those words, Bowser made his entrance and some of the Koopas cowered in fear while the penguins stood their ground. The penguin king proceeded to confront Bowser, facing him down with his forces. "Do you yield?" The penguin asked.

"I do not yield." Bowser replied the penguin leader in an intimidating manner.

"Wow..." Meggy commented with surprise, "That was quite a response, Bowser."

Kamek waved his wand, casting a magic spell that scattered the penguins with the soldiers at the Koopa army's mercy. Meggy found herself getting goose-bumps and took a drink of soda to sooth herself just as Bowser began breathing fire, melting the icy structure of the penguins' fort before the camera cut to black.

Seconds later, the camera faded back in to show Bowser in an unknown room as he stood in front of what appeared to be a Power Star that he was about to obtain after seeking it for so long.

"I've finally found it!" The Koopa King declared, "NOW WHO'S GONNA STOP ME?"

"Mario will stop you as he always does, Bowser." Meggy commented.

"LET'S-A GO!" Callie cried.

"Well said there." Marie nodded.

Music played and a new scene appeared, finally showing Mario himself coming out of a pipe and landing in an environment filled with mushrooms. Mario looked very... different. He had a pocket in the front of his overalls and his red undershirt had a new look, it was clear that the movie would be taking things in a different direction… to a degree.

Movie Mario looked at his surroundings, almost confused, like he'd never been here before. "What is this place?" The plumber asked.

He saw a blue mushroom and was about to touch it when Toad popped up, yelling at him to not do so as he would apparently die before the lovable humanoid mushroom laughed and hugged the blue mushroom. "Just kidding." Toad said, "It's actually safe."

Another camera cut later and the scene showed Mario following Toad across giant mushrooms towards the town and the large castle in the distance that was the movie's version of the Mushroom Kingdom as Mario spoke again. Listening to him without that iconic Italian accent he was known for sounded quite interesting for Meggy, especially after she'd known the real Mario for so long.

"Mushroom Kingdom, here I come." Movie Mario said.

"Heck yeah!" Meggy whooped, "This is gonna be good!"

The trailer showed a little more footage with Mario's younger brother Luigi finally cropping up, crying in terror as he was chased by Dry Bones while running through a foreboding forest, hopping across a lava pit and running inside a stone structure before closing the door shut.

"You okay there, Luigi?" Meggy asked, "That sure was pretty scary."

"I'm sure he will be okay." Callie said, "He's come out fine in the past."

"Yeah, he's been fine before." Marie agreed, "Despite all the situations he went through."

The trio watched as the screen cut to black, showing the title: THE SUPER MARIO BROS MOVIE, then it showed the release year; 2023. And with that, the trailer was over. Meggy was left breath-taken by what she'd seen, she was amazed by the visuals and everything she'd heard. Her surprise then became replaced with excitement, she was going to love that movie.

"What did you think, girls?" Captain Cuttlefish asked, he'd walked up just before the trailer ended, "I bet that was exciting, wasn't it? Oh, they're outdoing themselves in all departments. Voice acting, writing, animation. Animated movies these days, they're a real treasure..."

"Oh my gosh!" Callie cried, she leaped up with her arms in the air and her soda bottle still in hand while bursting with energy, "That was amazing, I am going to see that when it comes out!"

"Hopefully, we won't be too busy that day." Marie said, looking at her Ink-Phone, "According to the information here, it's coming out on April 7th and that's on a Friday, almost a year to the day that Sonic movie dropped. Plus, Friday's a work day, maybe we could see it after the broadcast of the day and that's assuming we still have our jobs by then."

Meggy drank some soda from her can, then she stood up and squealed, "THAT WAS AMAZING!"

"I know…" Callie was giggling like a fan girl "It's exciting."

She and the Inkling-turned human shared a hug, both excited about the upcoming movie. Marie joined in and so did Captain Cuttlefish, which felt heartwarming to have the Squid Sisters' grandpa join the group hug.

A short time later, after hanging out a little longer with the two Inkling cousins and chatting with them as well as good old Cuttlefish, Meggy left the outpost with a smile on her face as she texted her friends to let them know she'd just seen the trailer for the new Mario movie. And after seeing all of that footage, she couldn't wait to see what else was in store for when the movie came out.

One thing was for sure, Meggy was hopeful that this movie really would be amazing...

The End