Chapter Nineteen:

Rapping and Corn Trouble

Bob stood on the stage, sunglasses and necklace on, a microphone in his sword hands. Meggy stood close by, holding a microphone as well while sporting similar sunglasses. Rap music started up and the Garo did some beatboxing, instantly breaking out into a rap in a manner of seconds:

I'm called Bob the Builder because I screw shit so tight, no one be messing with me because I'm always right. When I hit the streets, all the simps be running, all the girls will come and start flooding.

Meggy's cue:

B-O-B, remember that name. King of the good, player's his game. All the girls around can't resist his charm and class, all lining up for a...

She stopped, seeing the end of the sentence, seeing how not-so classy Bob was. Meggy stuck her tongue out in disgust and threw the sheet away before launching into a rap of her own:

A Splatfest champion at the top of her league, what else can she do but feel nothing but fatigue. Can somebody help me? Give me a sign, what is my purpose in life to help me shine?

Bob glared at Meggy and yelled, "Yo, FoLloW yOuR lINeS, nObOdY wAnTs To HeAr YoU wHiNe!"

"Excuse me, Bob!" Meggy sneered, "You want to play this game? As if you think you're any better, you're lyrics are lame."

And that was when the rap battle began, Bob went first:

Please stop crying about your former glory, Meggy! No one cares about your stupid story about how you sought Splatfest glory or how you finally achieved it in your hour of victory!

Meggy shot back:

Do something with your life, be better than this. Because your raps have no hits, they only miss.

Bob fired back harder:

You used to be cool, now you just complain, bringing everybody down and being nothing but pain.

Meggy's turn:

Look at when you had your rap career, how you failed to stop it from being derailed and your fans became few. You think people still like you, are you sure that's true, because when's the last time your parents called you?

ROASTED!

Bob dropped the microphone, completely shocked and hurt by what Meggy had said. Mario, who was watching not too far off, face-palmed. The rest of the gang intervened, calling it quits with the rapping, making the decision to try another job.

Rapping had ended in disaster, just like the others, but perhaps there was one that could still work...

Before long, Meggy and the others were at Steve's corn farm with Rob planting corn, showing Meggy how to plant corn. Perhaps farming would work, people loved farming. Steve stood close by, overseeing what was happening and making sure that nothing happened to his chickens.

"Here is where we grow our precious corn, just corn!" Rob said, then he said the last part again to make sure Meggy got the memo, then he grabbed some water, "Plant the seed, give it some water, and the corn is born."

Meggy grabbed some corn and planted it into the ground before watering it, however, once she got to work, things went south. The ground rumbled and a massive cob of corn emerged from the ground, one which Rob declared as the Great Mighty Corn. It was so massive, that it disrupted the environment of the farm.

Completely shocked by this, Meggy launched into action with the others and took down the massive cob, but not before causing collateral damage with the whole corn field covered in flames, which was mostly thanks to the Great Mighty Corn during the chaos.

Meggy dropped to her knees, her latest would-be job had become nothing but disaster as well.

"I don't get it..." The former Inkling whimpered, "Why can't I do anything?"

"Meggy? Are you okay?" Tari called.

Meggy was silent, staring at the burning field as Rob attempted to put out the fire but backed away to avoid getting caught in the flames since he was still mostly made of wood.

"Meggy?" Mario called, full of concern, "Hullo."

"I'M NOT OKAY!" Meggy screamed, pounding the ground in frustration, "I CAN'T DO ANYTHING RIGHT! I knew I should have just stayed at home today!"

"Its okay, you can still find your calling, Meggy." Luigi said in an encouraging manner.

"Yeah, just tell us what you want to do in life." Saiko chimed in with a nod.

"That's the problem, I don't even know!" Meggy yelled.

"What do you mean? There has to be something..." SMG4 suggested.

"NO!" Meggy glared at your friends. "You don't get it! NONE OF YOU GET IT!"

It took a couple seconds, but one look at her friends' shocked expressions and Meggy was distraught by what she'd just said to the only people who could help her.

Her eyes filled with tears, she ran off, leaving the farm and heading for home with her friends remaining behind to clean up the mess from their friend's farming disaster.

Unbeknownst to the group, half a mile away at another farm, a man in light-yellow and tan-brown overalls with a face similar to Mario's was raking and planting seeds in the ground, minding his own business.

Just then, a shadow fell over SuperFarmerMan89 and he turned around, freezing in terror as a shining corrupted meme nabbed him and dragged him away across the Rockford countryside.

In the shadows of a haunted structure, a creature growled and a red light flashed before an ominous voice spoke; "Another captured, one more double in the pile. Soon, Avatar, soon..."

In many residences across the Mushroom Kingdom, the words 'breaking news' appeared on many a TV screen, followed by Kermit the Frog in the news room with a massive news story. There had been many news stories over the past week, mostly about weather and the economy or foreign affairs, but this one was different.

"Kermit the Frog here and we have breaking news..." Kermit cried, a picture of a Mario recolor popped up on the screen and was joined by more, "Over the past month alone, more Mario recolors and YouTubers have been vanishing.

"With a few of these disappearances, such as the vanishing of police captain SuperCopMan64, some witnesses are claiming they're seeing an evil meme taking them away to who knows where. Our sources say the memes are taking them somewhere in a place known as the Dark Web.

"Government officials have done what they can to calm everyone down, but the situation isn't helped with a pair of strange fellas wandering around the streets of every city, claiming the end is coming and something called Zero is about to destroy the world..."

Video footage appeared, showing a yellow hobo with a megaphone and a blue hobo holding a sign reading "Armageddon is Nigh" with the former shouting, "THE DAY OF RECKONING IS COMING CLOSER AND YOUR UNIVERSE IS DOOMED, BELIEVE IN THE NUMBER FOUR AND HE SHALL SAVE YOU ALL FROM THE APOCALYPSE!"

"We don't know what is at play here, people..." The frog said, "But these disappearances are getting worse, heck, some of the more frequent kidnappings are beyond frightening. There aren't that many Mario recolors left, I wouldn't panic yet everybody, but something is at play. This has been your news host, Kermit the Frog."

And that was that, the news shifted away from the top story of the hour and other news anchors began discussing the weather and what was happening on the other side of the globe...