Chapter Ten:
Super Smash Rematch Time
"What?!"
Mario was dumbfounded, how was this supposed to be part of training?
In the time he was spending, getting to know Tari as she helped train him with his gaming skills, Mario did not expect anything like this. But here they were at a duck pond with Tari throwing bread to ducks, some of whom looked like they'd come right out of the video game Duck Hunt.
Luckily for them, the infamous Duck Hunt hound didn't pop out to snicker at Mario.
He was lucky that dog didn't come by when he lost his match to SMG4 to laugh at his misfortune. Being laughed at for having bad hunting skills or bad gaming skills wasn't fun, making it important to hone those skills in order to be good and not be laughed at.
"Being calm is important before a match." Tari said to Mario, feeding bread to a purple duck.
'Ok.' Mario thought.
Just then, a pair of ducks flocked to Tari, attracted by the bread on her, and began to bite her. Tari yelped, trying to get those crazy geese off of her. Eventually, she collapsed as the ducks overwhelmed her in seconds.
"Training over..." She gasped.
"Let's-a go kick SMG4's ass!" Mario said excitedly.
"Y-You go on ahead." Tari gasped, "I... I have other things to do."
"Okie-dokie. TIME TO DIE, SMG4!"
Mario waved to the cyborg gamer, then he left the pond, heading to the castle and declaring it was time for SMG4 to meet his downfall.
Tari remained behind, silently watching the fat Italian depart, while letting out an unheard sigh of relief; "Whew, thank goodness... Almost had to meet new people, other than him, I'm happy right where I... am..."
She then thought about the last several minutes of their interaction, Mario was a strange man for sure, and, as they interacted, Tari felt as if she'd just made a new friend.
It was nice to get out, stretch a little, interact with other people, but socializing with other people was rare for Tari. She still worked out now and then, mostly using fitness-themed video games if she had to exercise.
Her mind replayed every moment of her training Mario to be good at video games, leading to a part of Tari remembering a Nintendo game she'd played that featured a character named Mario.
In the time since she last played that game, she didn't think that she'd actually meet THE Super Mario. But it had happened, she'd met him, and she never asked for his autograph. Heck, the Mario she'd met was way different from that Mario, but it probably didn't matter anyway.
The blue-haired gamer noticed that more ducks had bit into her hands, one of the ducks had sunk its teeth into her cybernetic arm. Tari shrieked in pain and flailed her arms, trying to shake off the crazy duck. She tripped over her own feet and fell over on her back, rolling on the ground while trying to get those ducks off until they finally calmed down.
Mario returned to Peach's Castle, feeling more confident than ever. And despite his... low-level intelligence, he remembered what Tari had taught him and he remembered his training. He could do it; he could beat SMG4 this time, and the meme man wouldn't see it coming... and he didn't know that someone sinister was watching from far away.
He walked into the Whomp Fortress painting room, finding that SMG4 was still there, seated in a chair.
SMG4 turned around, slowly and dramatically, staring at Mario in a near-ominous manner, holding a Yoshi plush in his hand as if it were a pet. He was trying to taunt Mario or maybe he had psychic powers and had brought out the Yoshi toy to taunt him.
"Welcome, Mario..." The YouTuber said, his tone sounding familiar, "I've been expecting you."
'How much Star Wars has he been watching?' Mario thought, 'You watch way too much YouTube and TV, SMG4.'
"I'm back and I trained like I said I would..." He said to his near-identical friend, "Fight me, SMG4!"
"Challenge... accepted."
SMG4 put aside the Yoshi doll, looking eager to play against Mario once more and give him another ass-whooping. He brought out his game controller and Mario brought out his own too.
Minutes later, the two Fat Italians were going at it again in Super Smash each other in the face Bros as themselves with the new battle arena... being the Whomp Fortress painting room.
Mario tapped the controls, controlling his in-game counterpart, and moved towards SMG4, fists flying and legs spinning. He leaped out of the way of an incoming attack from his opponent and, when he got a chance, he moved in and sucker-punched SMG4 hard enough to knock down a chunk of his health.
'I can't believe it.' Mario thought, 'Mama mia. All of that training with Tari may pay off. Watch out, SMG4, you may be good, but this is-a where you're going to lose.'
He landed another blow on SMG4's Smash counterpart, knocking down more health, and surprising the real SMG4. But the meme man let off a smile, nearly unusual for someone on the verge of defeat, and glanced at Mario in a smug manner.
"You've gotten better." He said, "But its game over, your feeble skills are no match for the power of memes."
'Another Palpatine imitation? C'mon, already!' Mario thought.
He was about to launch another attack and knock off more of his foe's health, but was taken by surprise when SMG4 struck his in-game avatar and his health bar began to empty, one health point at a time. Mario's eyes widened, he didn't train for nothing, he was not about to lose again. And yet, panic set in.
"Focus!" He heard Tari say.
Out of the corner of his eye, right when he thought a memory was replaying in his mind, Mario noticed Tari peaking through the window. She had to be standing on some sort of ledge, because it was impossible to look through the window unless you could fly or there was some sort of platform.
No matter, her words burned in his mind, even as he saw his avatar's health enter the red zone after another hit from SMG4. Mario turned back to the game and resumed tapping the buttons on the controller, he had this in the bag.
Mario evaded another blow from SMG4, leaped to avoid a punch, and then, he delivered a drop kick down upon the blue-colored meme man.
The plumber's blow struck true and SMG4 lost more health. Mario launched another attack, striking as hard as he could, and the meme man's health depleted completely. SMG4 dropped to the ground and Mario became the victor the match.
"No!" SMG4 cried, eyes welling with tears, "No! No! How!"
"Ha-ha!" Mario exclaimed, "Wahoo! I did it, I did it! I beat you, SMG4. Take-a that, I beat you, I beat you! Victory screech! YAHOO! Yeah, ha-ha-ha! That's-a so nice-a! How about another game, eh?"
SMG4 crawled away from the sofa, crying with defeat, unable to bear the fact that he'd just lost to Mario and on the same day he'd defeated him earlier. It was unthinkable, the king of memes, defeated by a fat spaghetti-loving Italian, dethroned as the champion of Super Smash each other in the face Bros.
Oh, what would the internet think of him?
Mario ran after SMG4, taking in his victory, and trying to offer him another game. Just then, Tari entered the room before they could leave and Mario happily introduced her to SMG4. And the next thing they knew, SMG4 and Tari were playing Smash together while Mario danced around with glee.
On this day, a new friend had been made, even if she was shy and didn't interact with others much. And little did both Mario and SMG4 know that it wouldn't be long before the gang had a new member...
