Chapter Thirty-Seven:
Ticket Rival Time Team-Ups
"Someone's met with a terrible fate, haven't they?"
Wario had reached Castle Town and, right when he was in the middle of looking for a clue pointing to the presence of his brother, he bumped right into the Happy Mask Salesman. The greedy Italian wasn't in the mood to be dealing with someone like him or his nonsense today, not when there was so much to deal with.
"Hey, buster!" Wario told the salesman, "Go buzz off and sell your masks to someone else, I'm busy here!"
"It never hurts to ask for help, my friend." The Happy Mask Salesman told him, "When people want to look for something, others are willing to help them. Perhaps you can tell me what you are looking for...?"
"Bah! Like you'd be of any help." Wario said aggressively, "I'm looking for my brother Waluigi, he's been missing for a while and it's-a been bad for business."
"Now, that sounds like someone I'm not familiar with..." The mask salesman remarked with a chuckle, "But perhaps this flute can help..." He held out a glowing flute and Wario's eyes were filled with dollar signs. "I found this lying around, and all you have to do is blow it. But first, you must pay me fifty rupees..."
Wario snatched the flute from the man's hand and made a break for it. The Happy Mask Salesman was livid, his eyes widening with fury, and he proclaimed, "YOU CAN'T TAKE SOMETHING WITHOUT PAYMENT! GIVE THAT BACK, THIEF!"
Hylian guards sprang into action, spears were drawn, and they made a mad dash after the greedy anti-Mario. Wario blew into the flute, eager to test it out, and a whirlwind blew around him before he was sent to a different location. Wario found himself in a castle, surrounded by women wielding spears, and Ganondorf stood near a throne above him.
"And what are you doing in my domain, intruder?" The Demon King demanded.
"Ah, piss!" Wario shouted, and he blew into the flute again, letting it take him to another location, where he would be out of danger for now and would continue his quest to find a lost Wario Brother...
Mario caught up with SMG4 a good distance away from the Ring Toss, then they split up to tackle the various carnival games in an effort to get the tickets they needed. Mario went for the Balloon Poppers game, and paid a good amount of money to play it. He picked up a dart, but his aim wound up being off when he threw it, and he missed the balloons.
Frustrated, Mario commandeered a forklift that was in the area for some reason, and he rammed the booth just hard enough to pop the balloons, which earned him a whole load of tickets.
At that moment, SMG4 was trying his hand at the Test of Strength game, which Frankie, who was at the carnival as well, was trying to get a good score on. Determined to score big, SMG4 grabbed a large hammer resembling Amy Rose's Piko-Piko Hammer and smashed the button hard enough to send the bell all the way to the top:
More tickets for the meme man!
On the other side of the carnival, Mario found a game run by a Monty Mole, who told him to throw a ball into some cans. However, the fat Italian had other ideas, and whacked the mole with a hammer. Bob came in and gave Mario some tickets, even though the game wasn't meant to be Whack-A Mole.
While Mario gained more tickets, SMG4 finally made his way to the fishing game pool, and was grinning like a maniac as he laid his eyes on the rubber ducks that he intended to fish up for tickets.
"Prepare yourself, ducks!" SMG4 declared, holding up a fishing rod, "I, SMG4, am about to take your lives!"
"Darn it, c'mon!"
That was when the meme man saw Tari, whom he hadn't seen since the day Mario whooped his ass in Smash. As SMG4 watched, Tari tried to fish a duck out of the pool with one of the fishing rods, only to come up empty handed. Tari sighed with disappointment, which was easy to express when one expected to do well at a game.
"Hey, Tari!" SMG4 greeted, causing Tari to turn around with surprise, and she accidentally hit the YouTuber with her fishing rod.
"Oh my gosh! I'm so sorry!" The cyborg exclaimed.
"Eh, it's okay. What are you doing here?" SMG4 inquired.
"I'm just chilling, wasting my money to get cute duckies here." Tari replied.
At that second, Bob swooped in and took the money that the cyborg gamer had with her. "Thank you for playing, come again soon!" The Garo quipped in a mocking manner.
"Oh, you're good at games, right?" SMG4 had an idea, "Can you help me get tickets?"
"Uh, well, actually... I'm not really good at carnival games." Tari said warily, "Video games are where I really excel. Plus, I have to get up and do things every day. Maybe after I catch some ducks."
A duck floated near the edge of the pool right as Tari cast her line into it. The duck became caught on the hook, and the cyborg gamer reeled it in, claiming it in her hands with wide eyes.
"I got a duck!" Tari said happily, "It's so cute!"
While SMG4 was chatting with the cyborg gamer, Mario was trying his hand at the carnival's shooting gallery. He'd used guns before, but this experience was way different since he never shot at carnival targets, and the plumber was missing... all while Bob was watching just like in the Ring Toss.
"Keep going! Wow, you're real hopeless here!" The Garo taunted, "Man, everyone seems to be shooting like a little b***** today!"
"I'm gonna lose!" Mario exclaimed angrily, "Why can't I aim straight?"
"Did someone call?"
The dimwitted Italian turned, and he spotted a familiar face watching from near an arcade cabinet; Meggy Spletzer, the aspiring Splatfest Champion, and Mario's good Inkling friend from Inkopolis. Mario hadn't seen her in a while, not since the T-Pose Virus crisis. He also spotted Boopkins trying to shoot at targets with a toy gun.
"Hey, Mario! Long time no see!" Meggy saluted with a grin.
"Meggy? Oh, thank God you're here. Mario can't aim for... crap! Can you help me?" The plumber pleaded with the beanie-wearing Inkling.
"Oh, you know that I can't resist a challenge, Red." Meggy winked, she kicked the table, and caught one of the game guns in her hand with ease. She opened fire on the targets, and, as Mario watched, the orange-haired woomy nailed every single one. Who needed the Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy when the Splatoon Shooter School rocked?
Meggy fired and struck several poses, hitting every target, and each shot that struck home earned the fat Italian and his Inkling partner a whole load of points. To Bob's utter amazement, the duo had achieved 53216 points.
"Wow, you did it!" Bob exclaimed, he handed Mario over several tickets, "Here you go!"
Meggy blew out the smoke emitting from the tip of her gun and held it in the air in a sort of dramatic pose. Mario was mesmerized by her skill like he never had been before.
"Heh, kid's stuff." Meggy stuck her tongue out in a mocking manner.
"Stop right there!"
SMG4 stepped forward with Tari by her side. At last, the upcoming star of Inkopolis was face-to-face with the cyborg gamer who'd helped Mario beat SMG4 in a game of Smash several days prior. It seemed like destiny that two of Mario's friends would finally meet, it wasn't like Tari would be super important in Meggy's life later, right?
"It's over, Mario." SMG4 told his identical buddy, "Tari here is helping me! You remember Tari? The gal who helped you beat me in Smash? That's right, she's on my side, so no luck for you this time."
"Hi..." Tari waved nervously.
Meggy stepped forward, studying the cyborg in a curious manner. The Inkling knew about the existence of robots just as she knew that humans, Goombas, Koopas and other fantastical creatures were real, and it was said the Octarian Army did utilize those in the form of Octopods and the Great Octoweapons were technically robots too.
But, until now, Meggy had never encountered someone like Tari before. She'd heard of cyborgs
"Tari, huh?" The young squid girl remarked, "I'd like to see what you got. Hope you can keep up with me."
Tari stepped towards Meggy in a nervous manner. "I have played Time Crisis before..." She said, "A-And I-I've also played some Splatoon, but I didn't think I'd actually meet an Inkling in the flesh..."
"Hey, Bob!" SMG4 called to the watching Garo, "Turn up the difficulty level, I need more tickets!"
"You gotta give me money first..." Bob told the meme man. SMG4 gave the Garo a handful of money bags and the sleezy hobo flipped the switch, turning the shooting gallery's difficulty level all the way up to HARD MODE. In a second, the targets began to move at a very fast rate.
"Good luck, mo... I mean, customer!" Bob told Tari. He stepped aside to watch how it all unfolded.
"Don't be shy, Tari! You can do it!" SMG4 encouraged, "Just focus!"
"So much pressure..." Tari remarked nervously. She held up the gun with a shaky hand and observed the fast-moving targets, which took the form of ducks, Tari's favorite creatures. She squeezed the trigger, worried she would miss, and, to Tari and the others' surprise, the shot struck home.
A Player 2 score popped up beneath the Player 1 score on the nearby screen, showing how many points had been earned. Tari breathed a sigh of relief and she opened fire again, nailing the ducks left and right with precise accuracy.
Mario and SMG4 watched with utter amazement as Tari kept shooting while she hummed the Super Mario overworld theme. Meggy was near dumbfounded as she watched Tari go, the Inkling couldn't believe that this cyborg girl could actually shoot so well, and she began to wonder if, after gaining a rival in Desti, she'd gained another rival in Tari.
With each target that the cyborg gamer struck, the 2P score continued to pile up until it had surpassed the 1P score, which was currently in the 53216 zone. 7434, 4437, all the way to 70458. It was astonishing! In seconds, SMG4 was getting the tickets, and Bob was completely surprised by Tari's skill.
"She's actually better than you, Meggy?!" Mario exclaimed with fury.
Meggy was shocked at first, then it was replaced by near anger as her eye twitched. She stood still, frozen with growing fury, and it wasn't a good sight to see an Inkling get angry when they lost. She grabbed the gun she'd previously used, and glared at Bob.
"Activate my gun." The upcoming Splatfest star told the Garo.
"Money, please?" Bob asked, "You can't play without money."
"I said activate it NOW!" Meggy shrieked.
Bob nodded nervously and activated the game as Tari glanced at her squid rival nervously. Meggy locked eyes with the cyborg, flashing her a smirk, while flicking her gun in the air. The Inkling girl started shooting madly, hitting the duck targets despite their fast-moving speed, and the Player 1 score shot up once again.
Tari studied her opponent nervously, wondering if she'd just met her match, and a memory from long ago entered her mind; a faint memory of someone with red hair. The gamer smiled with confidence, and focused on the targets.
She squeezed the trigger, and the barrel exploded, with the bullets nailing the ducks just like before. Now, the two player scores were mounting with Player 1 behind Player 2 with each shot both rivals landed. Mario and SMG4 watched as both girls struck home, nailing the targets, and aiming with accuracy without tiring out...
And they were both earning tickets, better than one of them getting nothing.
Bob watched nervously from close by. He expected them to fail, and now, it seemed like his scam was about to go down the drain. "Crap, they're gonna drain me clean of tickets at this rate..." The Garo muttered, "But, thankfully, I have a trick up my sleeve."
No one saw it coming. Bob flipped the lever harder, and the game went into POWER DRIVE mode. And by power drive, we mean, the ducks started to move a whole lot faster than they ever had before. Meggy was in shock, and she stepped back, nearly dropping her gun with total surprise.
'Carp!' The Inkling thought, 'I can't hit the targets when they're moving so fast. Th-This isn't a Turf War or Rainmaker or Tower Control. Wh-What would Oneshot Wren do in a situation like this?'
Tari was taken by surprise too, but the answer to the problem clicked in her mind, and she looked at her cybernetic arm. She pressed a button, and the blue holo-display of her options popped up. Tari accessed the option that she needed, tapped into the activation command, and her eyes glowed a bright blue as her systems shifted.
"Let's do this!" The cyborg cried.
She let loose. BLAM-BLAM-BLAM! Tari fired everywhere, nailing the ducks as fast as she possibly could... and hit every fast-moving target in the gallery. Mario, SMG4, and Meggy all watched her with astonishment, and Mario was mind-blown. Meggy, on the other hand, was feeling something different from jealousy. She was... impressed.
The points for Player 2 were skyrocketing way beyond what Player 1 had. Tari kept hitting targets like wild and scoring up points until there was too many to count, and the machine let out a buzzing sound. Tari took her finger off the trigger and smiled, even as the barrel of her gun smoked a little. Actually, the tip was on fire now.
"Hee-hee, that was fun." The cyborg remarked.
Meggy lowered her head, feeling a level of disappointment that she'd lost. She almost didn't know what to say, then she looked up at Tari with a smile of amazement and she squealed, "YOU WERE AMAZING!"
Bursting with excitement, the Inkling ran up to the cyborg gamer, and hugged her tight. "Please teach me to do that! That was awesome!" Meggy begged her new equal.
"Ack... my spine!" Tari groaned.
"I... I need to learn from you! How do you get so good?" Meggy then asked as she put down the blue-haired gamer girl.
"Uh, I'm a cyborg?" Tari replied with a shrug.
She wanted to tell the squid girl everything, but given how special the technology behind her arm was, Tari knew she couldn't just reveal everything. If she did, then what was to stop Meggy from telling someone they thought they could trust?
What if the technology behind Tari's arm fell into the wrong hands?
"Come on!" Meggy grabbed Tari's arm, "Let's get started right away! LET'S PLAY MORE GAMES!"
The Inkling girl ran off through the carnival with the cyborg girl, even as Tari tried to tell Meggy that she wanted to catch some toy ducks, leaving Mario and SMG4 behind near the shooting gallery. At that second, Boopkins was leaving the carnival, holding the bikini-clad Shizuka doll in his hands with glee in his eyes.
Mario looked at the pile of tickets that he had earned, and his eyes lit up. "Mama mia!" He exclaimed, "I just realized I have enough tickets for that Eggman Football!"
"OMG! Me too!" SMG4 cried.
Mario and the meme man scooped up the tickets, and made a run for it, determined to get that Eggman Football now that they had enough tickets to make their purchase. Behind them, Bob was watching, mind-blown by what had happened. And yet, he felt confident that he could still scam all of the customers out of their money.
"Time to teleport again..." Bob declared, and he warped away, heading to the prize booth in preparation to scam the two fat Italians. He still had plenty of tricks up his sleeve, even if the results were different...