Chapter Ten:

In the Basement Below

After getting over their dispute, Meggy and Clench as well as Tari got back to work with trying to open the trapdoor. However, their efforts didn't take too long when the cyborg gamer looked closer at the hatch, and realized they were doing it wrong.

"It says push, not pull!" Tari told Clench and Meggy, "Looks like our problems are over."

"Why didn't we think of that?" Meggy asked.

"Nice job, Tari!" Clench complimented, "You weren't so useless."

Tari grabbed the latch on the trapdoor and pulled it open. Just as she finished opening it, SMG4 and Luigi came racing into the room with Bob and SMG3, who were holding an electrified bottle, all screaming in terror. Clench sparked, and deactivated in a second, becoming a regular robotic arm once again.

"WE'VE GOT A PROBLEM!" SMG4 cried, "MARIO'S AFTER US!"

Right on cue, Mario entered the room, glaring at the group in a demented manner as he proclaimed, "MARIO"S GOING TO GET YOU!"

The fat Italian charged at the group full speed, and pounced them, knocking the gang right through the trapdoor. Tari, SMG4, Luigi, Bob, Meggy, and SMG3 screamed as they lost their footing, and fell into the darkness with SMG3 screaming the loudest all the way down, even after they hit the bottom.

"I mean, ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" SMG3 said, mimicking a deep scream.

Everyone shrugged it off and recovered as their eyes adjusted to the darkness, finding themselves in the basement. Tari looked at the bottle that Bob and SMG3 had, surprised to discover that you could actually catch a bottle-full of lightning. Mario reached for it, feeling delighted to finally get his hands on some electricity.

"Well, we're in. All we need to do is find the generator, then our problems will be over." Meggy remarked confidently.

"Oh, I hope so." Luigi said in a very nervous manner, "I don't know how much longer I can take seeing Mario in the state that he's in, seeing him obsessed with electricity and wanting someone's brain energy."

SMG4 pulled out his flashlight, and turned it on, illuminating the darkness around the gang. The meme man stared into the shadows, and moved the light in different directions as he looked for the generator. SMG4 looked around the room, and the beam of the flashlight shone upon a strange figure in a suit who was out of the corner of the meme man's eye.

Wait.

His eyes went wide and he looked back, and the figure was gone. Perhaps it was just his imagination, there didn't seem to be anyone else other than him, Mario and their friends. SMG4 resumed his scan of the basement, and finally found the power generator on the right side of the chamber.

The meme man grabbed Mario, and dragged him towards the generator with the fat Italian holding the lightning bottle in his hands. It was time to end this outage. SMG4 snatched the bottle out of his friend's hands, and slapped it inside the socket in the port attached to the generator.

In the span of a second, sparks burst forth as the lightning bottle did it's job, and the generator thrummed to life as lights flickered and burst back on in every room throughout the castle.

"Yeah, alright! Yippee!" The gang cried happily.

"ToTaLlY wOrTh It!" Bob whooped, elbowing SMG3.

"Gosh darn right!" SMG3 chuckled.

"WAHOO!" Mario hollered.

The excited buzz was disrupted as a long high-pitched signal broadcast beep sounded through the room, shaking their eardrums, and perking their attention. SMG4 and the others all turned around in the noise's direction, seeing a TV set in the corner of the room with an active static-filled screen. However, it was no ordinary TV.

"Isn't that the TV from upstairs?" SMG4 asked, recognizing there was something wrong.

"How did it get down here?" Meggy pondered, "Something isn't right?"

Curiosity could not be resisted, the bewilderment was too strong. Mario, Luigi, and SMG4, Bob, and Meggy, SMG3, and Tari slowly walked towards the TV that sat on the floor, and the sound seemed to get a little louder as they got closer. It wasn't plugged into anything, but it was active as if it was.

However, there was never such thing as a TV that didn't require to be plugged in to turn on, something was clearly wrong here, and the gang seemed to know it.

Everyone leaned closer, staring into the static-filled screen as the broadcast sound continued, then the noise was replaced by statis noises, and something came into view on screen. A black-and-white test card appeared, showing the words 'PUZZLEVISION' and the message 'PLEASE STAND BY' under it.

"Where did PUZZLEVISION come from?" SMG3 questioned, "I've seen those words before... somewhere."

"It kinda popped up on the TV when it was shorting out earlier." SMG4 quipped, "Whatever it is, it's probably a new channel that's been around for some time, or it's a new TV company that just got into business and we missed it's opening act."

"Mama mia..." Luigi said, "All of-a the times I've blipped through-a the TV channels, and I have never heard of-a PUZZLEVISION. There's something off here, and I don't know if I like it."

"Has anyone noticed there's no plug?" Mario asked, pointing out the obvious.

Meggy raised an eyebrow, "Wait. That symbol appearing on the screen, that looks like..."

The screen turned to static again, then the PUZZLEVISION test card reappeared. And this time, a symbol made an appearance on the upper right-hand corner, depicting a TV with a bowtie underneath it and a hat with two antennas above the TV. Everyone studied the screen, perplexed by what was even happening.

Just then, strange, faint, and distorted music began blaring through the speakers, and SMG4's face lit up. Not with shock, but surprised recognition. He'd heard it before, on the day he got the keyboard from... No, it couldn't.

In a second, the music got louder and clearer, it was some sort of catchy and upbeat jingle. And for a moment, the group thought they heard someone say "TV time". Seconds later, the test card disappeared, and an odd face appeared as the SMG4 Gang froze with absolute dread as they saw the creepy colorful smile of someone peculiar.

"What the...?!" Meggy exclaimed, looking at the face on the screen brought back a memory from her vacation nearly a few years prior, "You look like..."

"Greetings, SMG4 and company!" The face in the TV said, "I see you have just been enthralled by my brand PUZZLEVISION. In fact, you're already part of my show... and you never even knew it, for I, Mr. Puzzles, AM YOUR DIRECTOR!"

"Hey, how do you know my name?" SMG4 demanded.

"Oh, I've been watching you both for some time..." Mr. Puzzles laughed, "A showman never reveals his secrets. Now, enough talk, it's time to begin our latest show and we can't have it... without performers."

The group turned around, seeing someone with a lanky body in a suit standing behind them. Before SMG4 and the others could move or say something, the odd individual held up a remote and tapped a button. An odd light surrounded everyone, and they felt their consciousness slip away, and the final thing they heard was Mr. Puzzles' laughing.

"Ah, perfect!" Mr. Puzzles picked up his head and placed it back on his neck as SMG4, Mario, SMG3, Luigi, Bob, Tari, and Meggy's unconscious bodies hit the floor. The demented entertainer turned to his incapacitated "actors", and smiled in an eerie fashion as he said, "We're going to be having a marvelous time, aren't we?"

Mr. Puzzles let out an elated cry of laughter, then he collected the incapacitated SMG4 gang, and prepared to start his latest show. He just needed to make some necessary final preparations first, then it would be time to begin, and the sinister entertainer knew what he had to do.

After months of preparation, the time had finally come for PUZZLEVISION to make itself known to the world...