Chapter Seven:

Gaming Trouble

Several days had passed since the T-Pose Zombie dilemma at the castle and everything seemed to be back to normal in the Mushroom Kingdom. Nothing too crazy happened, other than Bowser opening up a café and the gang volunteering as his staff when his minions weren't present to help him.

Running the establishment took a while and, despite the chaos, everything had turned out fine for everyone.

However, Waluigi, Wario's partner and brother, had shown up at one point with the other customers and had asked for a coffee, only for Toad, who was known to be a bit of a jerk and didn't like the Wah man that much, to tell him no, prompting an angry Waluigi to storm out.

Nonetheless, everyone in the Mushroom Kingdom seemed to be in good spirits, despite the occasional episode of stupidity and insanity, and were safe from any trouble as well as hopeful of good days to come. But one day, on the grounds of Peach's Castle, Mario and SMG4 faced each other as tension between them grew higher by each passing millisecond.

Mario glared at the meme man with seriousness as if he was eager to obliterate him. SMG4 glared back at the fat Italian, feeling as if he was more than happy to finally put a stop to the never-ending cycle of immense stupidity and near laziness that was his friend and the Mushroom Kingdom's hero and resident dummy.

The whistle blew and both mustached men made their move, lunging at each other and ready to fight it out. And it was SMG4 who landed the first lucky strike, knocking Mario to the ground in a daze, but Mario got back up and attempted to attack the meme man.

"Are you even trying?" SMG4 asked with a chuckle, "You even call that gaming?!"

The meme man punched Mario again and the health bar above the plumber dropped more, it was no longer as full as it was when the match started.

"No, no, NO!" Mario cried, watching the TV screen.

He and SMG4 were on the couch in the Whomp Fortress painting room, playing Super Smash each other in the face Bros with Mario playing as himself and going up against SMG4. It wasn't even a War Of The Fat Italians-related event, it was just a gaming match between the YouTuber and the goofy plumber.

And Mario was doing very poorly, despite being a gaming icon and being somewhat good at video games in the past.

"Looks like you're toast, Mario." SMG4 taunted.

"MAMA MIA!" Mario yelped, watching as SMG4's avatar whooped his avatar again.

"C'mon, man. Where's the fight in you? Maybe you're so fat, you're outta practice!"

The plumber pressed the buttons on the controller frantically, trying to stand a chance against his opponent, but SMG4 had proven to be better than him. Mario had lost before the fight started. SMG4 kept wailing on him until Mario was down and out.

The 8-Bit music playing came to a stop and a fanfare blared while an announcer declared SMG4 was the winner.

Mario threw the controller in a fit of rage, he'd lost... again. He usually came out on top in karting competitions and other things, but he couldn't believe that he had just been beaten by a fellow "fat Italian".

"Oh, you nerve-hurting piece of..." Mario groaned.

"Ha, way too easy." SMG4 grinned.

"THIS IS THE TWENTIETH TIME I'VE LOST NOW!" He heard Mario wail.

"You look so ticked, man." SMG4 smirked at the fat Italian, "Maybe it's because... you just suck?"

Now Mario was even more ticked. "I'm-a gonna go train and become the best!" He declared.

"What? You, train?!" The meme man broke out into a fit of laughter, "Mario, you've never trained in ANYTHING... ever!"

'I train for Turf War and Splatfest with Meggy.' Mario thought as he shouted at SMG4, "I'm gonna become stronger than anyone you've ever seen in the Mushroom Kingdom. I'll be the most powerful video gamer ever, more skilled than you are, and I'm gonna train until my arms fall off or so help me, Lord. Just you watch, SMG4, just you watch!"

Mario left the room while SMG4 slapped on some shades and started to dance a victory dance. He didn't bother to say anything else to Mario and temporarily powered down the game, waiting until the goofy plumber made his return to lose again. Oh, he looked forward to their next "rematch".

But, unbeknownst to him or Mario, someone was watching them from far away under a tree in the mountains, using a magical orb to watch the many happenings that were happening across the land.

"Now where is our fat friend going to... train?" Waluigi questioned, "And how will he fair with his next game with SMG4. I could train you, Mario. Oh, but perhaps now isn't a good time.

"Let us see how you do and how you will train, eh? And when we finally come face-to-face again, when the time comes, it'll be delicious and you certainly are the most important fool in the world."

The lanky "Italian" screamed with laughter, then he warped away from his hiding spot. He would continue to observe, but silently, from the shadows. Waluigi was in control, it had taken so much time and practice, but he had mastered every ability and could control his new powers.

At the local mall in Mushroom City, Bob and Fishy Boopkins walked into the game store, looking at the various video games that were on sale. The former thought about what new game he would get for the Switch, it had been some time since he played anything new at the dump.

In his downtime, Bob played video games, but it was mostly games he'd played before or had yet to play.

Boopkins, on the other hand, was thinking of what new anime-related video games that had come out. And he hoped there were gorgeous waifus in them, as usual, especially since no anime-based property would be complete without a very pretty anime girl.

Maybe he'd get the new One-Piece game, maybe play as Nami or Nico-Robin, or Boa...

Just then, Boopkins spotted an ad for a new One-Piece video game title and saw Nami, Boa and Nico at the front. His eyes lit up and he smiled eagerly, a One-Piece spin-off staring the three leading waifus of the anime and manga.

'Heeeyyy, that's pretty good.' Boopkins thought.

Bob ignored Boopkins gawking at the anime video game eye-candy and continued looking around until he bumped into a girl wearing a blue sweater and long light-brown pants. The girl's eyes were purple and her hair was blue, which was nearly unusual unless she was one of those people who liked to dye their hair in different colors.

"Oops, sorry." The girl said when she saw Bob.

"Technically, you didn't pay attention to your surroundings and you were in my way." The Garo remarked.

"No, no. I was about to play Super Smash each other in the face Bros. Yoshi's my favorite fighter."

"You could play somewhere else where you can't run into anybody or where anybody can't run into you. It is never a good idea to get in the way of someone, especially someone who has swords for hands, gifted to me when I was a young one learning the ways of the hood."

"I'm gifted in the ways of the gamer." The female remarked.

"Hey, what's going on over there?" Boopkins asked.

"You know 'the ways of the gamer'?" Bob retorted, "Please, how can you play a video game, especially with an arm like that?" He gestured to the girl's right arm, which appeared to be dressed in gray plating with black joints and buttons on it. Either it was a special Power Glove, or it was robotic.

That girl had to be some sort of cyborg.

"Uh, did you just insult me?" The girl stared at Bob with surprise, "I can play video games."

"And you were about to play the greatest fighting game known to man!" Bob declared, "You can play games. Prove it! Do you want to 1v1 with me, I, Bob, challenge you to a Super Smash each other in the face Bros match!"

He grabbed a controller and held it. The blue-haired girl chuckled and grabbed a controller too. Boopkins whooped and wished Bob good luck as he stood back, unable to believe what had just happened, just as a huge crowd of Goombas, Koopas and Cataquacks gathered, chattering loudly and excitedly as Bob and the girl prepared to brawl.

'Good luck, Bob.' Boopkins thought, unaware that, hidden away in the shadows at that very moment, a lanky pink-nosed man with a thin mustache watched with an insidious smile...