Chapter Twenty-Five:

Deeper Into The Eerie Castle Depths

As Meggy and SMG4 kept looking around for what they needed in relation to IP, the former spotted something that made her geek out; A pair of creepy horror villain statues. Meggy stood next to them, inviting SMG4 to take a picture.

SMG4 obliged and snapped the photo, it wasn't every day when one got to see statues of the Purple Man, Jason Voorhees and... Cold chills swept over the duo and Meggy looked up with a gulp, even SMG4 seemed surprised, those "statues" had just moved and they were eying the former Inkling with a sinister manner.

The duo wasted no time in moving away before the creepers had a chance to attack them, especially since the Jason "statue" had just drawn a knife. They looked around, finding a pair of books close by. SMG4 looked into one and shrieked when he saw the contents before looking away.

"HOW IS THERE SO MUCH FURRY STUFF?!" The meme man yelled, trying to mentally bleach away the questionable imagery that was now in his head.

One book emitted an ominous glowing aura before transforming into a monster, which then attacked Meggy and SMG4, who ran for their lives. They ran through the corridors with their hearts beating intensely as the abomination pursued them.

The duo ran into a camera along the way and knocked it out, disrupting the signal before the monster then destroyed the camera completely. SMG4 looked at the castle map on his phone and ran towards a door with Meggy following close behind.

They ran through the door and closed it shut, grabbing a bench to block the door while grabbing a massive pile of Dutch tape from their inventory to tape the knob, preventing it from budging in the event their pursuer tried to use it.

THUD, THUD, THUD! The monster tried to access the door, which shook on its hinges. SMG4 quietly shushed Meggy, who kept her lips sealed. They waited for a time, then the door stopped.

Now they were safe. SMG4 and Meggy breathed a calm sigh of relief and looked around the room they were in, seeing a whole library with books floating around. SMG4 nodded to Meggy and started through a pile of books on a shelf.

"Ok, we're looking for something on parody law." The meme man told his friend.

"I can see what you're getting at." Meggy remarked, she put on her glasses, ready to get to work.

The Inkling-turned human looked through a stack of books lined up neatly on a shelf and picked up a book with a dark-red cover, hoping to find something useful.

But the second she opened it, a hologram of a Sonic-Pikachu hybrid and began talking, mentioning something about Sonic kissing Rosalina on the lips, then it fizzled and a beeping sound emitted.

Meggy looked over the content she just found and realized it was a file on a crossover lemon. And not only that, the hybrid hologram looked like Sonichu, a Sonic and Pikachu fusion created by Chris Chan, whose works and activities had made the rounds on social media many times.

She closed the book and put it away, that was not useful. Meggy moved on, digging through more books and files with SMG4, hoping to find what they were looking for. And somewhere in the back of their mind, Meggy hoped Mario was okay and so was Luigi. Hopefully, she and SMG4 would find what they were looking up before Nintendo signed the dreaded DMCA.

Back in the Mushroom Kingdom, Mario and Luigi were at Lawyer Kong and a Nintendo producer's side, observing the production of various game projects that involved many of their friends they'd made on the various wacky adventures they'd embarked on with SMG4 over the years.

The first project was a sleeping simulator starring Melony, who had the Fierce Deity Mask. With the simulator, the objective was simple, press the A button to ensure Melony had a good sleep. It wasn't too difficult.

"It has a little something for everyone." Lawyer Kong quipped, giving a slight thumbs up.

'At least he likes it.' Luigi whispered in Mario's ear.

The next project involved was the Old Man Hobo, who originated from a Pokémon village before coming to the Mushroom Kingdom. Like the Melony game, this one was a simulator where you could feed the Hobo. As soon as the Old Man was fed fruit, the producer realized this was just like the Nintendogs game.

"Well, perhaps we can come back in a few years, realizing this game exists, and feed the fella again." Lawyer Kong suggested after they'd fed the Old Man Hobo some apples.

"Egg!" The Old Man Hobo demanded.

Upon hearing his demand, the producer pressed one of the control buttons and the Old Man Hobo received an egg in seconds just as Mario started to remember that day when the Hobo walked into 7-11 for an egg, which was just weeks after Zero's final defeat.

The next many projects were a law game, involving Shroomy and Mr. Monitor, who caught the former in a pool during one level, an orchestra game, which featured SMG3 conducting a band of Ugandan Knuckles, and a cyber-tech adventure game, where Tari and Belle used their powers to warp into games to complete quests.

While working on the orchestra project, as they listened to the symphony conducted by SMG3, the producer was moved by the music. Even Lawyer Kong was amazed, especially as he remarked, "No way, it's... so perfectly conducted, despite not being funky."

Another project they took a shot at was a game involving Saiko and Depresso, who turned into a giant to menace the former at one point, followed by a game where Kaizo blasted away enemies with the power of rock.

And then there was a platformer game where SMG1 and SMG2 hopped across blocks to defeat a giant enemy with Fugeo offering them drinks as refreshment power ups now and again.

Then, at one point, the team wound up crafting a dating simulator involving Whimpu with Swag and Chris being involved. Whimpu was the dating sim's protagonist with Swag sort of being one of the women that Whimpu was trying to date and impress. However, Swag, since he was a man, wasn't too comfortable with it.

"Please seppuku me so I can get out of this nightmare." The guard begged as he handed Whimpu a sword.

Lawyer Kong, watching this, wasn't too pleased.

"Anime was a mistake..." He said, "Just because Nintendo is a Japanese company making games that take influences from Japanese culture, it doesn't mean we would dive into making stuff like anime-based games and nor do we recall making dating simulators."

Mario and Luigi gulped, both knowing that their plan was about to get very complicated...