Chapter Sixteen:

To Fetch a Meme Man

"Excuse me for a bit, folks!" The plumber announced, "There's something I need to attend to."

He went to the Secret Slide Room door and knocked on it. No response. Mario knocked again. And then, he kicked the door. Still no response. The plumber became annoyed and grabbed the door, ripping it off its hinges, finding another door. Mario face-palmed, what had gotten into his best friend?

It was unbelievable to even think about it, to think that SMG4 would be sooooo busy with making a big video, he would lock himself away in there. Hopefully, he had food.

Mario knocked again. "SMG4!" He yelled, "COME ON, WE NEED YOU FOR THE PARTY! WE GOT A BIG EVENT COMING UP AND WE CAN'T DO IT WITHOUT YOU! CAN YOU HEAR ME?! SMG4, STEP AWAY FROM THE COMPUTER AND JOIN US!"

'Mama mia.' The plumber thought as he backed away from the door.

A thought struck him. It was time for the big guns. Mario immediately went downstairs, grabbed Meggy, SMG3, Tari, and Bob from the Mario Merch booth and the Match The Mario Face room respectively, and headed back to the Secret Slide Room door with the group following him. He couldn't do it alone and he wasn't SMG4's only friend.

"What's going on, Mario?" Meggy asked.

"SMG4 won't come out of his room." Mario explained, "And I need him for the main event."

"Jeeze, it's been weeks!" Bob exclaimed, "And he's still making that video?"

"Don't worry, Mario." SMG3 said with a smile, "We'll get him out of that room. Just keep the other guests busy until we get him, you know what to do."

Mario nodded and stepped away, leaving Meggy, Tari, Bob and SMG3 to figure out how to get SMG4 out of his own room. Bob came up with an idea and grabbed a giant hammer, ready to smash down the door. However, Tari stepped in at the last minute with a suggestion of her own.

"Why don't we try to be less harsh?" She suggested.

The gamer girl brought up her robotic arm and tapped a button, generating a holographic browser feature. Tari tapped her arm, browsing around until she found a duck picture. Tari picked the picture, opened up an email-server, typed in SMG4's email address and popped in the picture into the email before clicking 'Send'.

Everyone waited a minute, but just then, a message cropped up, saying that Tari was banned. The cyborg frowned with disappointment, unable to believe that her plan had flopped.

"Okay, let me do something." Meggy volunteered as she stepped in.

The former Inkling stepped towards the door and kicked it. "Get out here, SMG4!" She shouted, "This has gone on long enough. DON'T MAKE ME, uhhhhh, DISCONNECT YOUR INTERNET!"

SMG3 pulled her back and pat her on the head. "Calm down, mom." He said, "Let me try something."

The former villain pulled out his phone and tapped into the internet. He pulled up TikTok, moved towards the door, and tapped the play button on a video that involved a wacky spinning cat meme that appeared to have come up recently.

"Ooooh, a new meme just dropped!" SMG3 said aloud, "Ooooooh."

He turned up the volume and the girls covered their ears with a yelp, fighting to ensure their eardrums weren't annihilated by the loudness of the meme-related video. SMG3 turned up the volume a little more as he played more meme videos, then Meggy took the phone and turned it off.

On the other side of the door, the meme man himself was toiling away at his computer, trying to work on his video. "It's gotta be perfect..." He said, his voice hoarse from yelling with frustration, "It's gotta be perfect..."

"SMG4, can you come out?" He heard Meggy call.

"Yeah, dude. Get out of your room." SMG3 chimed in.

"So loud, so loud..." SMG4 muttered.

He slapped on a pair of headphones, blocking out any other noise. And all he could hear was his typing, the click of the mouse, and his own muttering.

"What's wrong, SMG4?" Meggy asked, staring at the door.

"C'mon." SMG3 stepped forward, "These are your friends, you can't treat them like this. Don't you even care about the people in your life anymore? And this is your friend Mario's big day, at least step away from that computer for a little while and spend some time with us. You know we care."

Still no response. And behind the door, the meme man continued to work hard on making his project while his mind slipped further and further away...