The Sprawling Savanah, perhaps one of the most breathtaking sights in the Sprixie Kingdom. It wasn't the countryside of the Mushroom Kingdom, nor was it the Inkling metropolis of Inkopolis, but it may as well be a fine place to visit for a vacation, especially for someone like Tari.

Only a good number of months had flown since the gang had banished SMG3 to the Internet Graveyard and Meggy got a new voice to accommodate her complete transition from Inkling to human.

For the first few days here, Tari had made sure she didn't get into trouble since there were areas in the savannah that had ants roaming about and the cyborg did not want to deal with any bug troubles.

However, she did see a pair of Ant Troopers forging while she was by a tree atop a mountain and, luckily, they didn't see and attempt to give her trouble. Tari had her rubber duck, Archibald, with her, enjoying the little rubber toy's company as she had for a good long while.

Nothing could separate them, as long as she took good care of Archibald and he wasn't harmed in any way while she was around. Feeling in a good mood, the blue-haired cyborg walked around the lush green mountain area and taking in the sights while she gave her little rubber duck a gentle squeeze.

Hopefully, it was enough not to attract unwanted attention from the savannah's hostile residents.

Just then, Tari heard a crying noise and stopped walking. She listened closely and then heard the sound again, it sounded like...

A cry for help?

Tari followed the sounds and hid herself behind a tree, she peaked out and stifled a gasp when she saw what was going on. She could see a pair of Koopas in poacher outfits harassing a couple fauns, baby deer, along with some jaguar cubs and a couple other animals. This, this wasn't right. Something had to be done!

The cyborg nearly hesitated, if Mario or Meggy or any of the others were here, they'd kick those poachers' butts and save those animals, but they weren't, that meant it was all up to Tari. But how, she detested violence and wasn't a big fighter...

No, she wasn't completely helpless, she'd fought alongside the gang in every situation they were in, from Waluigi's apocalyptic rampage to the battle with Francis on Anime Island to SMG3's takeover.

And Tari had shown she was capable on the battlefield during Splatfest against the opposing teams, even though she may as well have been using a paintball gun. She was not letting those baby animals be hunted and hurt. Tari knew what she had to do, those little creatures needed a hero, even while she was on vacation.

'Let's do this.' She thought.

"Ya ain't gettin' away from us, ya li'l cat." A Koopa poacher said to a baby tiger as it tried to claw them.

"We're gettin' good money off these critters." Another Koopa said as he held a baby armadillo.

SQUEAK!

"Wot was that?" A Koopa asked.

"LEEEEEEEEEROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOY JENKIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINS!"

Tari charged in, grabbing the armadillo along with a baby bird from the poachers' hands. She grabbed a stick that had fallen from a tree and threw it at one of the Koopas, knocking him out.

"You leave the animals alone!" Tari yelled.

"Oi, you wot?" A Koopa poacher shouted back.

And they were on to her, Tari gathered as many animals as she could and ran as the poachers went after her.

She found a place for them to hunker down in the bushes, checking to be absolutely sure that there were no dangerous animals close by, and then headed off to find more endangered animals and make sure the poachers didn't hurt them.

"Looks like another one of those adventures, eh, Archibald?" The cyborg remarked to her duck."

'Squeak.' Archibald replied.

"Pack 1 to Pack 5!" She heard a poacher yell into a radio, "We got trouble, blue-haired gal with a robot arm interferin' with our catch, think she might be one of 'em Meta Runners we've heard tell about. Keep a look out and secure all catches!"

Tari found a poacher camp, seeing the poachers load up caught birds into cages along with captured baby bears. No, she wasn't going to let those meanies take those animals to do whatever horrible things that were about to happen to them.

Thinking as fast as she could, the cyborg dashed into the camp, grabbed a key and unlocked the cages, freeing the animals.

"THERE SHE IS! DON'T LET THE LASS ESCAPE!" A Goomba yelled.

She looked at the freed animals. "QUICKLY!" She cried.

In a second, the baby bears and the birds were following the blue-haired human in the sweat pants with the robotic arm as they dashed away from the encampment. Tari found a cave in the nearest mountain, not far from where she hid the first batch of animals, and made sure they were safe.

When she heard the voices of Poachers approaching, Tari hid with the bears and birds while making sure they kept quiet. They listened as the poachers came by, searching their surroundings for their escaped loot and the "strange blue-haired Meta Runner" interfering with their hunt.

Once the hunters had passed, Tari emerged from hiding, made sure the animals nearby knew she'd be back and then headed out, returning to the first hiding spot to make sure the other animals were safe.

Then she darted off across the savannah to find more animals in need of saving, spotting a pair of poachers harassing a baby monkey and a giraffe. Tari ran in, grabbed the net from one poacher's hand, and dumped it over his head.

Another poacher tried to grab her, but Tari back-handed him and then grabbed some rope before tying up the other poacher.

"HEY!" A Koopa poacher, "YOU THINK YOU CAN GET AWAY WITH BUTTIN' IN ON OUR ANIMAL BUISNESS?!"

"Yes, I can, because you mean men should know that hunting and poaching baby animals isn't a very good thing to do." Tari replied.

"But there ain't any laws against us poachin' here in the Sprixie Kingdom, lass!"

A big man in a hunter's outfit stepped forward, he was taller than the Koopas and the rest of the bad guys that Tari was dealing with. He glared at her through his sunglasses with mean eyes, a cruel smile upon his bearded chin.

The monkey whimpered, the giraffe cowered near Tari, who stood her ground and faced the Poacher Leader.

"Poaching is illegal and these are baby animals!" Tari cried, "They've barely learned how to walk and do things around the nest, and you're hunting them. We should be preserving the environment, taking care of helpless animals who have yet to defend themselves."

"Aww, the li'l girl doesn't think we're taking care of the animals." The Poacher Leader remarked in a mocking tone, "Well, sorry, missy. You're not stoppin' us from havin' the animals."

"Then I'll have to make you stop, Mean Poacher Man!" Tari said firmly.

"My name is Moari Kewp, not Mean Poacher Man, and we've been huntin' for years! Now then, let's teach you to interfere with our business..."

"HEY, THAT LION'S GETTING AWAY!"

Everyone including Tari heard a high-pitched mew and turned, spotting a baby lion running in Tari's direction. Tari picked up the baby lion and the poachers yelled furiously, unable to believe that their catch was being withheld. Morai Kewp shouted angrily, having had enough of this insanity.

"Okay, miss. Ya won't hand our animals over, we're forcin' ya." Mr. Kewp said.

He ran towards Tari like a bull and Tari hopped out of the way along with the animals near her, the poacher leader tripped over a rock and fell on his face with a groan. Then he got back up and attempted to grab Tari, or Archibald, or the lion, or the monkey and the giraffe.

"REOW!" The baby lion jumped at Morai Kewp and scratched him with its claws as hard as the baby lion could, causing the man to yelp as he grasped his scratched wrist.

"OI, SOMEBODY TRY TO PUT RESTRAINTS ON 'ER AND THE LION!" He yelled.

The Koopa poachers took action and rushed towards Tari, their bodies spinning like boomerangs across the ground. Tari hopped on the back of one Koopa and steered towards Morai Kewp as if she was riding an Ink Boi. She then hopped off and watched as the Koopa tripped up Morai, just as the rock had tripped him up.

"You really..." A Koopa poacher started, but Tari interrupted him as he grabbed the poaching turtle, stuffed him in his hide and then threw the fella at Morai Kewp.

Tari's weaponized Koopa bonked the poacher in the head hard and collapsed to the ground, Morai Kewp groaned and fell over, his eyes rolling while he let off a dazed smile.

"I'm seein' fish tonight..." He muttered.

And then, he fainted, all while that strange smile remained on his face.

A pair of Koopa poachers looked at each other and then at Tari with shock before glancing at each other again. "He's out." One poacher said, "Let's get out of here!"

They unlocked any nearby cages, freeing the captured animals inside, and scrammed. Tari held the baby lion as it purred, despite its wide eyes.

Then she pulled out her phone from her pocket, activating the camera feature before putting it in selfie mode, Tari made sure the backdrop was in the right alignment with her smiling face and the lion in clear view.

Click! The picture was taken. And no sooner than the picture was taken, her phone vibrated and she saw the skull icon appear on the screen as Darkest Hour played over the speakers; Saiko was calling.

"Mrow?" The baby lion mewed.

"Shhhhh." Tari told the little guy. She pressed the answer button and Saiko's face appeared on the screen.

"Hey, Tari." Saiko said, "How's your vacation been?"

"Great." Tari replied, "How've you been, Saiko?"

"I just got the band together and we are in the music biz as of last night's concert." The anime girl was smiling excitedly, "Everyone loved us, Tari, we got so many autographs. We were so good, our manager booked us another gig. We're playing for a couple's wedding next time."

"I am so bummed I couldn't see you, guys, but I just got done saving these adorable animals from those horrible poachers." Tari told the anime girl, "Once I release them back into the wild where they belong, I'll be on my way home."

"You're the real hero, Tari." Saiko said, sounding proud for the cyborg, reminding Tari of when Saiko had complimented her on her skills in the field on the day the Splat-Squad had emerged victorious in the last Splatfest.

"Oh, I gotta get that." Saiko then said as the doorbell rang on the other end, "I'll talk to you later."

"Bye."

The call ended and Tari put away the phone just as the little lion cub nuzzled its head against the cyborg's shoulder just as a few more lion cubs rubbed their heads against Tari's legs, the baby lions purred and Tari felt the baby giraffe's head rub against her neck. She knew she'd done a good job, protecting these little guys.

Now, it was time to make sure that poachers hadn't captured the other animals she'd safely hidden during her efforts to protect the animals.

Tari headed off, even as the baby animals followed her, making sure they didn't run into the Ant Troopers prowling around. Who wanted to deal with them, especially after Tari had just beaten the poachers?

She checked her surroundings, making sure there weren't any poacher traps or straggler poachers close by. Once nothing came up, Tari then decided and knew that all was well, the animals were in safe paws...

The End