Chapter Four:
The Big Collab
"One, two, one, two..."
At her house in Belmont by a hotel that once stood atop her home, Splatfest champion and sports coach-in-training Meggy Spletzer was doing push-ups in the living room, working out and keeping in shape.
Her cat Loaf sat on the couch, watching his owner exercise. Meggy needed the exercise, being a sports coach required good fitness, and it helped her help others get in shape.
Up, down, up down. Meggy flexed her arms as she raised herself, her head beading with sweat and her hair tied back in a pony tail. She then lay down and pushed herself up, down, up down. Meggy grunted, feeling the burn.
She soon stood and helped herself to a drink, her exercising routine done for now. Meggy let herself breathe and pet Loaf, feeling more fit than ever before, then she wiped some sweat off her forehead.
Her final exam would be coming soon and, after that, it would be time for Sports Coach Meggy to see action.
As she thought of what she would do as her career started, Meggy thought of the Turf Wars of Inkopolis, remembering the big Splatfest tournaments. Perhaps as a start, she could coach a Turf War team.
Then she thought of the rumors of Anarchy Splatfests happening in the new Splatville happening out in the Splatlands, maybe she could coach a team for the upcoming tournament there.
Just as she sitting down to relax, Meggy felt her squid-phone vibrate and pulled it out, seeing a notification, She tapped it and her eyes lit up with great surprise.
'Collab between SMG3 and Mr. Yeast, today.'
Meggy looked at her texts, recalling a message she'd gotten from SMG4 not too long ago that SMG3 had reached three-million views in one live-stream and that he would be doing a collab with a guy called Mr. Yeast.
A few blocks away, Bob was working at the hotel and had just shown a guest to their room when he received a notice on his tabloid. The former Garo was in for a big surprise when he saw the message, he'd heard about the SMG3-Mr. Yeast collab and was surprised to find out it was today, in just a couple of seconds.
In the hotel and in her house, both Bob and Meggy wondered how it would go and decided to tune in.
"Okay, everything is set. Aaaaaaannnnd ACTION..."
The lights were on and the camera began rolling, all eyes were on SMG3 and Mr. Yeast alongside Mario in a metal room near a table with cooking supplies. SMG3's eyes were filled with glee, he'd been looking forward to it for a while since he agreed to collab with the guy.
SMG4 served as the assistant cameraman, holding one of the cameras as he made sure the focus was on his former nemesis and Mr. Yeast along with Mario.
Close by on the wall, a screen activated, showing the number of views there currently was.
"Greetings, viewers!" Mr. Yeast said, "Your boy Mr. Yeast here with SMG3 and today we're joined by a special guest, Mario..."
Mario waved.
"Mario here will be making some special spaghetti for us..." SMG3 added, "...while on a crashing plane."
The room began to vibrate, indicating that the plane everyone was on was about to go down. Luckily for the crew and everyone else in the room, they weren't on an actual crashing plane as it was a fake set with special machinery to mimic the effects of a plane as it was crashing.
Either way, it was go time for the big one, and Mario knew what to do, mentally-challenged or not.
SMG4 gripped the camera tightly, even as gravity shifted and he fell towards the wall. Mario got to work, he grabbed some noodles and meatballs, and put them on a plate, clumping them together. And as he was doing so, the viewer count began to skyrocket.
Mario then grabbed a can of sauce from the cabinet and opened it up. And as the vibrations intensified to indicate the plane was about to "crash", Mario slapped a reasonable amount of sauce on the meatballs and some of the noodles.
In seconds, the spaghetti was complete. And being the spaghetti eater he was, Mario ate it all up, right as the room shook to indicate that the plane had crashed.
Everyone looked at the view count, seeing the total tally: 10,000,000 viewers.
"AND CUT!"
Just like that, the collab was said and done. Excitement was buzzing, especially with the amount of viewers that both SMG3 and Mr. Yeast had scored.
"Great work, guys. Fantastic job!" Yeast told the crew.
"Thanks, dude." SMG3 fist-bumped him, then he noticed the look on SMG4's face and remembered what they'd discussed after meeting Mr. Yeast, "Say, would you be up for a collab with SMG4 next?"
Mr. Yeast thought about it and looked at SMG4, who was watching. And then he replied, "No."
SMG4 dropped the camera, completely shocked.
"First, he may be cool..." Mr. Yeast said to the meme man's rival/former-nemesis, "But he's not as cool as you, even with millions of subscribers. You broke the stream record and are the one I wanted to collab with. It will be a while before I collab with anybody, especially the likes of the meme man there."
'Not as cool as SMG3...?' SMG4 thought sadly.
He then turned towards a still-active camera and said, "If you haven't already, be sure to smash the subscribe button and follow me. That's all for today, folks."
And with that, he snapped his fingers and summoned a flying boat. Mr. Yeast climbed in and started up the engines, just as a group of people led by Sergeant Mark surrounded it and grabbed on right before the boat took off, leaving a stunned SMG4 behind with SMG3.
SMG4 was at a near loss for words, unable to process it all. He'd been making videos for years and earned so many fans, he'd also endured several wacky adventures with his friend Mario and made so many friends along the way. But to hear someone not want to collab with him, that hurt immensely...
