Chapter Twenty-Six:

To Face A Beeg Challenge

Outside the corrupted castle's walls, somewhat upbeat music blared over a radio and filled the grounds as the tank brigade rolled in with Swag and Chris in the lead. Swag had decided to turn the music on to get his fighting spirit up, to hype himself, for blasting away the enemy that was engulfing the Mushroom Kingdom's main seat of power.

"Boom, boom, boom!" Swag sang, "I want you in my room. I will explode this castle, as long as there is no hassle, uh-uh-uh. Boom, boom, boom. It's time to meet your doom!"

"STOP RIGHT THERE!"

Swag and Chris halted, so too did the other tanks behind them. Luigi, Boopkins and the rest of the gang stood in the guards' way, even while that monstrous goop thing seemed to get larger by the second.

"We won't let you destroy the castle, Swag!" Boopkins cried.

"Yeah, this castle is sacred to us!" Tari agreed.

Swag rolled his eyes with disbelief and then he turned to his friend. "Chris, these baffling bifflers are blocking the way!" He exclaimed, "Destroy them all before they ruin Christmas day!"

Chris stared at Swag with a raised eyebrow. "What?" He asked.

"Oi!" Saiko yelled, "Didn't you hear us?! We can't let you take the castle, it's too valuable!"

Swag turned to the group. "All elements are past their release point." He yelled, "They are in attack position!"

"That thing corrupting the castle has SMG4...!" Boopkins pleaded.

"Then that is his fate." Swag retorted half-grimly, "We stay the course!"

"IF WE STAY THE COURSE, WE ARE DEAD! WE ARE ALL DEAD!" Luigi screamed.

"And did we forget to mention that Mario, Meggy and SMG3 are in there too?" Bob asked.

'Man...' Luigi thought, 'Bro, whatever else is going on in there, I hope you, Meggy and SMG3 are able to save SMG4 from whatever that thing is and get out of there, I don't know if we can delay Swag, Chris and the military much longer.'

Mario and Meggy ran through the hall, determined to find SMG4 and SMG3. They stopped by the stairs leading up towards the Tick Tock Clock room and spotted the Beeg SMG4 at the top. Mario and Meggy dashed up the steps, only to get knocked back down the stairs when the wacky blue-white replica expanded and they hit a force field.

Luckily, neither Meggy or Mario were hurt. Mario got back up, glaring at the Beeg SMG4 with slight disdain.

"You want a piece of me?! Let's dance!" The fat Italian declared with fury in his voice.

He whipped out a machine gun from his inventory and squeezed the trigger, firing on the squat mini-SMG4. However, the bullets poofed as they got closer to the Beeg SMG4. Just then, the oddity shook and cried in a wacky voice, "Views, views, views!"

"He wants us to watch something?" Meggy remarked.

"Ain't nobody got time for that!" Mario shouted furiously.

The plumber made another run at the Beeg SMG4, only for it to smack him back to Meggy's side. Just then, a TV screen appeared out of thin air as if it was summoned by magic. It floated over Beeg SMG4 and blinked to life, showing static on the monitor.

"VIEWS, VIEWS, VIEWS!" Beeg SMG4 yelled.

"Ok! We'll watch whatever you want!" Meggy snapped.

If they were going to get past Beeg SMG4 and find the real SMG4, Mario and the former Inkling had no choice but to watch and react to whatever videos that they were about to see. The TV blinked again, finally showing some video footage. Mario and Meggy then heard a sound and saw a meter appear on the screen next to the footage.

Words cropped up at the bottom of the meter, reading 'Laugh meter'. SMG4's goal was to make videos that made people laugh, he must have set up a challenge that required both Mario and Meggy to laugh at whatever they were watching.

The video on-screen showed Link sneaking around an apartment. A guy then waved and said, "How's it going?"

Link opened his mouth and began yelling, akin to the yell he let out whenever he fell from a great height, combined with his trademark Kung Fu-like noises that he made whenever he swung a sword. Mario exploded with laughter and the meter began to fill up, even though Meggy was confused and didn't laugh.

Mario laughed until the footage changed and showed a Smash Bros roster with all the characters, except the announcer said the names differently, and Mario laughed harder and the meter filled up more.

"I don't get it." Meggy remarked, she was more focused on saving SMG4, and was a little more level-headed to a point where she had a slight dry sense of humor despite laughing at Mario's antics in the past.

"PITY DETECTED!" A voice declared.

Mario looked at the Splatfest champion with disappointment and pulled out a piece of paper, grabbed a pencil, slapped the paper on the wall and wrote 'Naughty Woomy Corner.' The fat Italian tapped the newly-made sign to the wall and had Meggy stand next to it.

"Stay here until Mario clears the course." He told her.

"You gotta be kidding me..." Meggy sighed.

Mario slapped on a cowboy hat and approached Beeg SMG4 with the TV screen still floating above, the laugh meter was half-full. The plumber stared down his opponent, western showdown-style, and then, he yelled, "DRAW!"

New footage appeared with a Mario-ish title reading "Super Cripple Brothers" and a mouse puppet in overalls with a tall human in overalls cropped up while someone off-screen sang a wacky version of the old Super Mario Bros Super Show theme song. Mario watched until the video was so ridiculous, he exploded with laughter and the meter reached the top.

Beeg SMG4 rolled aside and the TV screen vanished. The obstacle had been cleared, now, Mario and Meggy could proceed. Mario laughed for a little bit, still processing that hilarious video, even while he fetched Meggy.

"Okay, funny man." She said, "Let's keep moving."