Chapter One:

Insanity in The Basement


Birds chirped and flew across the blue sky, settling in the green trees upon the castle grounds. Mario walked towards the castle, his stomach growling, as he thought of his favorite food; spaghetti.

The dim-witted Italian smiled and hummed the overworld theme as if he couldn't think of anything happier in his life, if anything made him happy, it was living to eat spaghetti and be with the people he saw as his best friends despite the misadventures they'd embarked on. And despite being annoying, Mario's friends were glad to have him around.

He remembered when he faced the power of the eldritch virus known as Zero not so long ago, everyone was fortunate that Mario had survived the ordeal and that their enemy was sealed away within an old enemy's mysterious USB-shaped spaceship known as a Guardian Pod.

Mario walked through the door of the castle and strolled down the hall into the main foyer, eager to find some spaghetti in the fridge.

"Mario, I need your help!"

"Mama mia!" The plumber cried as she made her appearance, Princess Peach of the Mushroom Kingdom, whom he feared immensely whenever she got angry with him due to his antics. Even now, he was freaked out to see her.

"Mario, pay attention, because this is a very urgent matter." Peach then said, "SMG4's been down in the basement for days and he's gone all weird, putting drawings and pictures all over the walls."

"SMG4 is cuckoo crazy?" Mario asked.

"Uh, yes."

"And he's drawing stuff in the basement? If you're so concerned, why don't YOU deal with it?"

Peach slapped Mario with annoyance and walked off, leaving the plumber in shock. The princess' level of patience was something, especially if she was so concerned for the well-being of SMG4. And since he was friends with the meme man, Mario was very worried as well.

'Looks like we're gonna have to wait, spaghetti.' Mario thought, "Fine, I'll go check on him."

Without another word, he walked towards the left door by the stairs and walked through it into the hallway that led to the courtyard. However, Mario took another left and moved down the stairs to the basement. Just as he was about to open the door, the spaghetti-loving Italian stopped to think about the situation.

Was it a good idea to be down here, that rabbit MIPs was probably still living here after all this time and he still had a gun. One step inside there and that rabbit would be after him, if Mario messed up. And how was SMG4 able to do whatever he was doing down here, without MIPs getting to him?

The alternative was Peach getting more annoyed and yelling at Mario while SMG4 continued to do crazy stuff in the basement before doing crazy stuff all over the castle.

Mario decided to risk dealing with the rabbit.

He opened the door and walked inside the water-filled basement alit with torches and complete with the painting that led to Lethal Lava Land. Mario looked around, checking for a sign of MIPs. He spotted him close by and braced himself, luckily, the rabbit was still sleeping. But one wrong move and he would have to deal with the rabbit's gun skills.

And then, there was Chicca. She was sleeping in a corner close by. Thank goodness she hadn't attacked anybody in a while.

He slowly walked through the basement, looking around for his best friend. Mario could hear chuckling and scratching sounds; the latter noise was likely the sound of something being drawn on the wall. The red-and-blue plumber followed the sounds, slowly treading through the water, and turned the corner.

Shock and anxiety welled up within Mario as he saw the sight before him. The walls were covered in various pictures of the fat Italian along with a few pictures of SMG1 and SMG2, some of which were drawings, and a few arrows pointed to one of Mario's pictures.

And then, he could see what looked like images of Zero, mostly drawings as well. He could also see a picture of a large USB and a few others.

"Ha-ha-ha! Oh yes, oh yes."

Mario's gaze fixed upon SMG4, who was studying the images while drawing more pictures. Usually, memes were SMG4's focus. But somehow, ever since the anniversary, SMG4 had become obsessed with solving a conspiracy all revolving around Zero, the two hobo SMGs, the idea of 'Guardian Pods' and how Mario was an avatar.

Once again, thinking of Avatars made Mario think of the Avatar movie along with the likes of The Last Airbender, but it was agreeable that the plumber was not a Na'vi, nor was he capable of Airbender attacks.

"That's why they were there at Saiko's restaurant..." SMG4 said with a shaky voice, "...and this one must be connected here. Oh, and Zero, what is your origin story? Heh, and it all connects to the Avatar. Mario's the key to all of it, somehow, they called him an avatar for a reason. Ooh... heh-heh-heh, the avatar..."

SMG4 turned around and Mario could see the eerie look in his friend's eyes.

"You okay, bro?" He asked.

"THE AVATAR!" SMG4 lunged at Mario and pinned him to a wall, he grabbed some duct tape and started taping him down while shouting "AVATAR" repeatedly. He finished taping up Mario and remarked with a grin, "There we go."

"SMG4, YOU'VE GONE CUCOO CRAZY!" Mario protested.

"Listen well, Avatar!" SMG4 declared, "I possess theories of the SMGs who visited our world many moons ago and it is clear they are from a parallel universe, which brings to mind the existence of the multiverse, where parallel worlds like the world they came from exist. But what do the Guardian Pods mean? WHAT DO THEY MEAN? WHAT DO THEY MEAN?!"

Mario quickly broke free of the tape and punched SMG4 in the face, knocking him unconscious. "Sorry, SMG4, but this is for your own good." The fat Italian said with regret.

He picked up his friend's body, but then, he stopped to look at the pictures and drawings that SMG4 had placed upon the wall. Mario set down the unconscious SMG4, studying the meme man's little conspiracy chart. He had a lot of work cut out for him...

SMG4: Secrets of The Universe