Chapter Six:

Zero Point of Insanity

SMG4, the semi-physical representation of part of the meme man's consciousness rather, stood before a crowd of Goombas, Koopas, Cataquacks and Monty Moles with a few Toads among them. A few spotlights shone down on him, even though the area surrounding the stage and the audience was a pitch black void.

Mario wondered what he was going to do, that crowd had to be SMG4's fans and SMG4 was ready to show them his latest marvel. And after a slight delay, he pulled out a screen showing the image of the spinning fish meme.

"Check this out." He said to his fans.

He showed them all the fish, spinning endlessly, and... silence. Nobody expressed amazement, no bursts of excitement, no comments. The only sounds heard were "Everybody's Super Sonic Racing" and crickets.

SMG4 put away the fish meme and Mario saw that he looked frightened, it was the frightened look of someone who dreaded to lose their own audience and their fans. The meme man's face brightened up as if he'd come up with a joke and smirked at the audience as he held a hand to the side of his face and made a remark, imitating another YouTuber.

More silence and cricket chirping noises, then...

"Boring!" Someone said with annoyance.

"Where's the funny? You're not giving us the funny!"

"Is that all that you got for us to see?"

'Mama mia...' Mario thought, 'Is this SMG4's worst fear, people not being entertained by his memes and hating him?'

SMG4 seemed to become more frightened by the minute, so frightened, tears were filling his eyes. The mustached content creator started to dance a jig, trying to keep his composure and his audience engaged. Funky music played over a radio and the meme man continued to dance, looking at his audience and wondering how they would react next.

He seemed to notice Mario in the back of the crowd and kept dancing, leading to Mario assuming that SMG4 thought he was here to support him as a good friend. Mario gave him an encouraging thumbs up, but the people watching did not seem to be amused either way.

Cries of "cringe" rang out and SMG4 fell to his knees, hitting the breaking point. He whimpered and huddled up, falling to his side as the mob surrounded him. And then, dark figures appeared, taking the form of friends that Mario knew. He recognized Axol, Tari and Saiko, friends who supported them through the roughest times.

Axol and Saiko had supported Mario and Meggy during the Splatfest and they'd all supported SMG4 through the rough times. Tari had been supportive of SMG4, Mario and the others too, not only during the Snitch Productions takeover, but during the Splatfest event and she'd been on Meggy's team all the way to the end.

But here, these creatures taking their form, they weren't the real deal. They were dark manifestations of SMG4's insecurities, becoming manifest thanks to a dark power that contributed to his madness.

"We don't like you." Shadow Axol said with disdain in his voice.

"You're not funny." Shadow Tari chimed in.

"And we will NEVER like you!" Shadow Saiko snarled in a sinister voice that sounded like the old psychotic Saiko, but taken up to eleven.

Mario saw two more shadows appear, taking the form of Luigi and Meggy. The dark version of Meggy flashed back and forth between different forms, taking the appearance of an Inkling, followed by a human form.

"Your content has to be the worst I've ever seen." Shadow Luigi said coldly.

"Look at you, sad and pathetic!" Shadow Meggy then said, "You should do yourself and everyone else a favor, GIVE UP!"

Mario heard a growling noise in the darkness amongst the insanity of people scorning SMG4. He noticed something rising behind the Goombas, Koopas and Cataquacks, letting off an eerie red glow. It looked round and seemed to have some small tendril-y lines rising from various areas, appearing to be veins. And then, it revealed itself;

A massive eyeball stared down at Mario and SMG4 ominously as a growl filled the area, then it's demonic pupil flashed red and the entity roared. Mario recognized the sound too well, having last heard it several days ago.

Then, to make things more freaky, a green mist filled the void with 1s and 2s floating up, all around Mario. The fat Italian looked at his arm, watching it briefly flash into a blue three-fingered limb.

No, it couldn't be. It was Zero, a manifestation of him. The real Zero had been quarantined inside SMG3's USB/Guardian Pod, but in this moment, Mario began to piece together that the monster was influencing SMG4, gnawing away at his mind as he tried to piece the mystery together. The situation couldn't be more dire.

"I'm in danger." Mario said, laughing nervously.

'C'mon, man. Pull yourself together.' A small part of the dim-witted Italian's mind said, 'You're here to help SMG4 and he's not doing so hot right now. Be a hero and do your job.'

Mario looked at SMG4, moving on the ground in a sad and helpless state, then he looked up at the demonic eye representing the monster that nearly took his life in that cathedral. Flashbacks filled his head, memories of the giant arm pulling him through the halls of that terrifying place, that thing staring at him with a red eye and the visions of that thing's past that he'd seen.

No, that thing was not going to torment his friend and destroy his sanity even further.

-Eldritch Cosmic Horror-

Eye of Zero

Zero's pupil flashed and a focused beam of red energy shot towards the mentally-challenged Italian hero. Mario leaped out of the way, diving for cover, and got back up as fast as he could. He yelled in pain and clutched his arm, feeling it shift into Zero's likeness again, until his arm returned to normal. He saw Zero's next attack coming and ducked before the virus' beam could strike him.

Mario leaped to the side, avoiding another blast of energy, and ran like his life depended on it. He ducked and rolled out of the way as Zero fired on him once more. There weren't any places to hide in this environment, which meant Mario had to be quick on his feet and think with the IQ that he had.

The spaghetti-loving Italian hero never forgot his previous battles, experience wasn't easy to forget, but this battle was far different from the others and Zero was in a very different league.

That thing could dwarf Waluigi in his WaluRambo mode and make SMG3 look like a low-level goon. Francis, with Axol's Inkweaver, probably had no chance of competing with that horrid entity, even if he'd survived beyond the island and came face-to-face with that eldritch monstrosity. Zero was capable of destroying universes and had spent a decade hunting Mario from the shadows.

He screamed as he felt his arm flare up with pain again, transforming into Zero's arm, and Mario heard a monstrous voice speak in his mind; "You can't save him, you can't help. You are mine and we will reshape everything!"

'WITNESS!' He heard Zero hiss, 'Witness! Witness!'

An explosion of energy erupted behind Mario and he narrowly avoided the blast just as his arm reverted back to normal again. He looked up, seeing Zero looming over him. He stepped to the side, avoiding another blast as Zero came closer. He saw SMG4 curling up and crying on the ground out of the corner of his eye, remembering what he'd come here to do.

Mario ran towards the meme man and green mist surrounded him, obscuring everything, and making it hard for the red and blue-clad plumber to see anything. He ducked when he heard a roar and a beam of light streaked over him.

"YOU HAVE NO HOPE!"

The fat Italian was taken by surprise as Shadow Axol pounced on him, the shadow doubles of his own friends were attacking, having sided with Zero. Or, perhaps, they were manifestations of Zero within SMG4's own consciousness.

"You're so dumb, nobody wants to be around you!" Shadow Luigi declared, joining the attack.

"Why should we care about a jackass like you?!" Shadow Saiko screamed.

"Face it! You're so idiotic, you made her lose the first tournament!" Shadow Meggy snarled.

'It wasn't Mario's fault.' Mario thought, hearing the shadow of his best friend, 'I didn't mean to make her lose that day, but I made up for it with all of that training and when we pulled through in the last Splatfest. Mario likes games AND HE'S NOT LETTING HIS FRIENDS DEAL WITH TROUBLE LIKE-A THIS.'

He pushed the dark doubles off himself just before Zero fired another laser. Mario grabbed a Goomba from close by, seeing the other audience members had turned into floating digits, and chucked it at Zero. The Goomba made impact in the middle of the viral monstrosity's eye and Zero roared, the Goomba fell off and Mario grabbed a Koopa, chucking it at Zero.

The Koopa huddled up in it's shell as it came towards the massive eyeball demon and smacked into it, sending Zero into a daze. With the entity distracted, Mario turned his focus towards SMG4.

"M-Mario..." The meme man whimpered as he saw the mustached Italian in front of him.

"SMG4, you gotta snap out of it." Mario told his friend, giving him a light slap.

The meme man stood up, looking at his identical buddy with a sorrowful face. "I'm sorry, Mario." He said, shedding a tear, "Nobody likes me anymore, I'm... not good enough."

It was time for some motivation and Mario knew what he had to do. After he and the others had seen Meggy in a similar state of despair following the battle on the island, the dim-witted hero knew how to get 'em motivated.

"It's all right." He said, SMG4 looked at him, "Always remember, no matter how much you get knocked down, you always get back up! Never give up, never give in!"

And the words rang true...