Chapter Twenty-Seven:

Facing the Nightmare of Fusion Horror

With Beeg SMG4 no longer blocking the way, Mario and Meggy walked up the stairs towards the door that led to the Tick Tock Clock room. They treaded carefully, keeping an eye out for the demonic goop, knowing that trouble still lurked in the darkness. Inch by inch, they slowly approached the door. As they got closer, they saw strange red vines coming out from beneath the door.

Initially, they looked like thorned branches, but it was just tendrils. Thankfully, the closer Mario and Meggy got, the traces of the demonic goop didn't attack them.

However, Mario was a little uneasy, despite having faced danger many times before. The duo moved closer and the door opened. They walked into the Tick Tock Clock room and, as soon as they were inside, the two of them were greeted by the sight of the goop filling the room with the creepy eyes watching.

The door closed behind them before goop covered it, trapping Mario and Meggy inside. Mario became uneasy, but Meggy comforted him in a tender manner.

"Don't be afraid, Red. We'll get through this together." She told the fat Italian.

A nervous Mario nodded to the former Inkling, then they saw SMG4 at the end of the room near the Tick Tock Clock, which was covered by the goop. Meggy was beyond terrified, seeing the state that the meme man was in. But once they got him out of there, everything would be alright.

The two friends moved towards SMG4. They kept an eye on the goop, just in case the tentacles attacked them again. Mario eyed his best friend, his meme-loving guardian, and nervously extended a hand.

"SMG4..." Mario said with a shaky voice, 'Please be okay, please be okay.'

"SMG4, IT'S US!" Meggy yelled.

"Bro, we're here to save you!"

"C'mon, Mario. Let's get him out of here!" Meggy then said urgently.

Just as the two friends were reaching out to their meme-loving friend, something came down from the shadows and knocked them back. Mario and Meggy looked up and the blood in their veins ran cold as they saw the horror towering over them; a red-colored beast straight out of a famous video game creepypasta.

And right there, they could see a glimpse of SMG3 with half of his face visible, the other part of the beast's head was the creature's real face. It was sickening, the fact that SMG4 had merged his old enemy with a creepypasta monster, which made things more complicated.

"SMG3?" Mario asked with shock.

"H-Help me..." SMG3 groaned, his face seemed to also be breaking out with traces of demonic cracks, and his eyes were blank.

"Mario..." Meggy said warily, "It looks like to save SMG3, WE'RE GOING TO HAVE TO KICK HIS ASS!"

The Red-SMG3 hybrid monster attacked, even as SMG3's half wailed, "SORRY!"

Both Mario and Meggy dodged as the demonic creature swiped its claws at them, they ducked out of the way and evaded their enemy's talons. As Red-SMG3 approached the two of them again, Meggy ran in, leaped up and threw a punch at the monster. However, the creepypasta demon blocked the strike and Meggy retreated.

Mario stepped up to the plate and leaped at the beast, Red-SMG3 tried to block the fat Italian, but the plumber evaded his defenses and poked him in the eye. The monster roared with fury and grabbed both Mario and Meggy, tightened its grip on them, and then picked the two friends up. Mario and Meggy struggled, then Red-SMG3 slammed them into the ground.

Red-SMG3 snarled as it watched the two heroes lay there, dazed and near-defenseless, then it brought down its fists. Mario pushed Meggy out of the way and rolled to avoid the attack.

A determined Meggy got back up and leaped onto a platform covered in goop, then she leaped onto one of the eyes, leaped onto another eye and jumped on top of a tooth. And then, she leaped towards Red-SMG3's head only to be knocked aside by the beast's claws.

Watching this, Mario yelped and ran to intercept the falling Meggy. He held out his hands and Meggy landed in the plumber's arms, Meggy smiled and Mario breathed a sigh of relief, then he held her up and Meggy relaxed her body. Mario swung the former Inkling as Red-SMG3 tried to claw them, Meggy blocked the strikes and pushed back against the monster's defenses.

Red-SMG3 slammed the ground and the two friends dodged, backing against a wall. Then, Meggy had an idea and whipped out a Splat-Charger. With many ideas burning in her mind, she looked to her dim-witted friend.

"Mario, let's pretend this is a game of Splatoon and we're going up against a powerful enemy." She said, "You distract 'em and I'll splat 'em."

Mario nodded; he was starting to like her idea already. He stepped forward and looked at Red-SMG3 as it prepared to strike again, then the fat Italian pulled out a microphone gun, turned up the volume, and began singing a pretty bad song. Red-SMG3 howled and stared at Mario with disbelief, then Meggy ran in and leaped off Mario's head with her weapon ready.

She kicked Red-SMG3 in the head, leaped onto a wall and then leaped off with her Splat-charger aimed at the enemy.

"Splat!" Meggy said confidently.

BLAM-BLAM-BLAM! The well-skilled Splatfest player squeezed the trigger, letting off several volleys of ink at Red-SMG3 in the legs and the head. Mario whooped and Meggy landed, watching as Red-SMG3 fell over and the creature moaned in defeat. Meggy fired another shot at their fallen enemy and watched as the creature smoked and vanished.

SMG3 appeared as the smoke cleared, stuck in a pile of goop. Mario ran over and grabbed the former villain. He pulled him out and Meggy came over with worry in her eyes.

"SMG3, are you okay?" She asked.

"Yeah..." SMG3 grunted, "What happened? I don't remember... OH CRAP, SMG4!"

A rumble filled the room as they looked at SMG4, still typing away at his computer, they heard a chuckle as he said, "It's almost finished."

Mario, Meggy and SMG3 ran to the meme man and grabbed him, trying to pull him away from the computer. Just then, dark goop with creepy eye symbols appeared and enveloped the room, surrounding the trio. Mario, Meggy and SMG3 became nervous. And just then, demonic tendrils grabbed them and slowly dragged them into the darkness...