Chapter Two:

Invasion of the T-Posers

Birds tweeted as they rested peacefully in the trees of the castle grounds and a warm summers breeze gently floated past the majestic structure of Peach's Castle. It was a calm afternoon for the residents of the Mushroom Kingdom and things seemed to be alright.

Inside the castle, everyone's favorite Italian hero with an IQ of "zero" hummed the overworld theme as he grabbed a plate of special spaghetti from the fridge. And then, he headed into the main foyer of the castle, where he'd set up the table, still humming the overworld theme.

Mario didn't care if the spaghetti looked more red than normal, he was happy to eat his favorite meal.

Close by, Luigi was playing with two Luigi dolls, chuckling to himself. Playing was so much fun, no matter how old you were. His older brother, Mario, sat down at the table, ready to eat his spaghetti. Just then, the red and blue-clad Italian noticed Toad staring at him strangely.

"What are you looking at, Toad?" Mario asked.

"Oh, nothin'." Toad lied, "Just watching you eat as usual."

Mario prepared his knife and fork.

'Yes.' Toad thought, 'Eat it, eat the poisonous spaghetti. Heh-heh-heh...'

SMG4, also known as Super Mario Glitchy 4, the land's resident YouTuber and Mario's best friend, stood at the window, staring outside at the tall mushroom standing near the bridge, his arms stretched out like plane wings. The mushroom was Shroomy and SMG4 could tell there was something strange going on.

"Hey, SMG4. What are you staring at?" Luigi inquired, the green Italian took notice of the meme man's strange behavior, especially since he hadn't moved from the window for a while.

"Shroomy..." SMG4 said, "He's been standing there in that pose... the entire day."

Luigi stared out the window, seeing that Shroomy hadn't budged. "Perhaps it's some type of new yoga." He suggested, "I've been taking yoga classes, maybe he came up with a yoga-related idea?"

"Whatever it is, that is some strange ass yoga. I'm gonna check on him." SMG4 said.

He moved from the window and left the foyer, walking towards the door. The meme man made his way outside with the fresh air filling his nostrils, he approached Shroomy with a raised eyebrow, wondering what was the matter with the boy scout.

"Hey, Shroomy?" The YouTuber said, "Why are you making that pose? You're kinda giving me strange vibes here, is there something wrong?"

Shroomy turned towards SMG4, who gulped nervously, and the meme man stared into the mushroom's eyes, knowing that something was really off and perhaps it was not a good idea to go outside.

Luigi turned to Mario and Toad, right as the former, Mario, was about to eat his spaghetti. "Guys, you should check this out!" The green Italian quipped, "Shroomy's being weird."

"Mama mia, Luigi!" Mario exclaimed, "What is it? Mario has some important business to attend to!"

'Darn it!' Toad thought, 'I wanted Mario to eat that spaghetti.'

He and the fat Italian joined Luigi by the window and they looked outside, observing Shroomy and SMG4. The both of them were quite perplexed by what was going on out there. Posing was fine, but posing for hours was a little questionable. And Shroomy posing like that, for almost the whole day, raised some concerns.

"Maybe it's just a prank." Luigi suggested.

"Oooh, look!" Mario exclaimed, "SMG4's being a bird with Shroomy!"

"WHAT?!"

Luigi focused outside the window again, seeing SMG4 was now standing in the same pose as Shroomy. Just then, both the mushroom and the meme man turned around and stared through the window towards the Mario Brothers and Toad with an ominous look. Luigi yelped in shock and backed away, shaking with surprise and fear.

Then, SMG4 and Shroomy began to move, approaching the front door in an ominous manner. Judging by the way they were moving, with their arms out to the sides, it looked like they were gliding. Moments later, everyone could hear banging on the door.

A terrified Luigi made haste and grabbed a box, slamming it against the door in an attempt to block it. He turned to Mario, begging for help, even though the fat Italian declined.

"I'm-a sure we'll be fine." He remarked.

BLAM! Part of the door exploded and the T-Posing SMG4 appeared. Luigi fell over and Mario became scared, the wide-eyed plumber, in his desperation and panic, grabbed Toad and threw him towards the door like a grenade. Toad flew out through the hole and crashed into SMG4, knocking down the meme man.

Just like that, the situation seemed to calm down. Luigi looked at Mario, surprised by what his big brother had just done.

"Mario fixes everything!" Mario exclaimed happily.

The mood was short-lived. Everyone heard a scream and a cracking sound along with several smacks, and then, Toad reappeared, doing the T-Pose and staring ominously at the Mario Brothers. The door exploded and Toad, Shroomy and SMG4 appeared, T-Posing and gliding into the castle towards Mario and Luigi alongside a Koopa, Shrek and Po the Panda.

Frightened to the bone by the situation, Mario and his brother screamed and bolted up the stairs, heading to the upper floors of the castle. Whatever was going, this was like nothing that the Mario Brothers had faced before in their lives.

While they could handle Koopas, zombies were beyond their expertise, especially T-Pose zombies...