Chapter Eight:

Cucoo Crazy Mario

"Mario!" SMG4 called as he and Luigi roamed the halls, "Mario?! Jeeze, where the heck is he?"

"Mario!" Luigi yelled for his little brother, "Maaaaariooooooooo!"

The little Italian brother and the meme man peaked inside the kitchen, finding no trace of Mario. He considered looking inside the storage room, but the YouTuber quickly changed his mind as soon as he heard the unfolding commotion that was Meggy and Tari trying to open the trapdoor.

SMG4 and Luigi decided to check the YouTuber's bedroom to see if Mario was there, probably to try and use the meme man's computer, and saw that nobody was there, except for Beeg SMG4.

"I haven't seen him in a while." Luigi quipped with a chuckle.

"How are you doing there, buddy?" SMG4 asked his pet.

Beeg SMG4 made a funny series of cute noises. He didn't talk very much, but SMG4 could understand him. He waved cheerfully to Beeg SMG4, then he and Luigi stepped away from his room, and left the little guy be. Returning his focus to finding his best friend and Luigi's big brother, SMG4 and the cowardly plumber decided to check the game room. Mario hung out in there sometimes, mostly for SMG4 Crew episodes, so maybe?

One way to find out if he was. SMG4 pat Luigi on the shoulder, assuring him that everything would be alright after they found his spaghetti-loving brother.

The meme man turned the small knob, and carefully opened the door, and upon setting foot inside the gaming room, SMG4 and Luigi found Mario sitting on the couch with a game controller in his hands with a strange look on his face.

"Mario, there you are!" The YouTuber quipped with delight, "Did the power come back on?"

The fat Italian didn't respond, which concerned Luigi and SMG4. They approached the unresponsive plumber, and looked at the controller in his hand. And then, the two of them looked at the TV, seeing that the screen was blank. SMG4 and Luigi felt uneasy as their focus returned to Mario, whose face was contorted into the creepiest of pained smiles.

"Uh, M-Mario?" Luigi asked, "SMG4? I have a bad feeling about that face."

And that was when they got a response. However, instead of a normal human response where Mario responded in a somewhat polite manner, the overweight avatar turned his head in SMG4's direction while ignoring Luigi and, in an unsettling voice, he said, "No TV... no electricity... makes Mario very, very coo-coo crazy..."

That was when lightning exploded outside the window, illuminating the room, and the meme man and the younger Mario brother saw words in chalk-writing spread all over the wall, saying the exact same thing: 'NO TV, NO ELECTRICITY, MAKES MARIO COO-COO CRAZY!'

"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" Luigi shrieked, "WHAT IS THIS?"

'Oh, God.' SMG4 thought, 'Not now, not at a time like this. Why, why, why?'

In that moment, as he took in those words, time was going into reverse and SMG4 was back inside the Secret Slide Room in Peach's Castle, in the midst of working on the Perfect Video, just before Meggy and SMG3 entered the room. He'd worked overnight, and words in chalk had been written on the wall, describing SMG4's desire to make his video perfect.

Now, history was repeating. The power outage was the perfect video, and Mario was losing it just as SMG4 was losing it. And yet, Luigi was present and the only other thing missing that could complete the similarities was the involvement of the mysterious TV entity that gave SMG4 the keyboard in the first place.

Even though the power was out, the entity could reveal itself at any moment, and potentially give Mario an offer. Thankfully, there was no chance Mario going insane would lead to the castle being destroyed. History did not need to repeat itself.

But, even in that moment, the meme man was so distracted by the writing on the wall and the memories of a year prior, he and Luigi failed to notice Mario making his move. The fat Italian grabbed him, and stared into his eyes. SMG4 quickly snapped back into stark reality, and looked into the deranged face of a man who was supposed to be his friend.

"MARIO!" Luigi shrieked.

"DUDE, GET OFF!" SMG4 wailed in protest, "WHAT ARE YOU...?!"

Mario leaned closer to his face, and the meme man thought about what the fat Italian currently wanted; 'Electricity'. Electricity, Electric, electrode, ELECTRON! The human mind ran on a form of electricity of it's own, and SMG4's eyes went wide as he began to realize what may have been about to happen; Mario wanted the meme man's electrons.

"Sweet, delicious electricity." The spaghetti-obsessed Italian man said ominously.

"Oh no, it's worse than we thought..." Luigi remarked with dread.

The overweight spaghetti-loving Italian hero opened his mouth wide as SMG4 screamed. A terrified SMG4 pushed his best friend off, and he made a run from the room as quickly as he could with Luigi following him, and he was just as terrified as the meme man was.

"CRAP, CRAP, CRAP, CRAP, CRAP!" SMG4 shrieked, he did not want to become Mario's source of electricity, and this was far from the first time he came into conflict with the guy over different things. He and Luigi heard the deranged Jumpman laugh, and the meme man frantically looked around the castle hall for a place to hide.

Perhaps the bathroom was a good idea. And, if he locked the door, Mario would assume SMG4 and Luigi were busy relieving himself and leave them alone until the power came back on. SMG4 dashed for the bathroom door, threw himself inside, and locked the door shut as Luigi tried to help.

"God, my poor big brother." Luigi said uneasily, "I didn't think he'd go mad like this."

"Just relax, Luigi! I think we'll be fine..." SMG4 told him, "At least he's not going after Bob and SMG3."

Outside the castle in the midst of the ensuing chaos, SMG3 and Bob were still waiting for lightning to hit their bottles. Despite the latter's advice to be patient, the former was getting very annoyed by the second. Finally, with his arm aching a little from holding the bottle, the ex-villain gave into frustration.

"Okay! That's IT!" SMG3 began to walk away, "I'm going inside before I get trench foot!"

Bob stepped in front of the frustrated meme guardian. "Do YoU hAtE mOnEy?" He asked.

"What kind of stupid question is that?" SMG3 demanded, "Of course I love money!"

"MoNeY iS lIkE wAtEr." The ex-Garo said to him, once again acting like a sage figure, "AnD iF yOu WaItEd PaTiEnTlY fOr It, It WiLl FlOw. Be WaTeR, mY fRiEnD."

SMG3 thought about Bob's advice, and began to envision himself as a water bottle. He sighed and decided to give it one more shot. "Alright, Bob." SMG4's former nemesis said, "That advice could be helpful, but this is your last chance. If something doesn't happen, THEN YOU ONLY BROUGHT ME OUT HERE JUST SO I CAN GET WET..."

Bob waved his blade in a chiding manner. "Ah, ah, ah." He said, "Be MoRe PoLiTe, I wAs NoT tRyInG tO mAkE yOu LoOk DuMb."

SMG4 and Luigi didn't care what time it was as they continued to hide in the bathroom. They was going to hide until Mario calmed down, and it did not sound like the fat Italian was going to calm down, especially as the meme man and Mario's younger sibling could hear him saying crazy electricity-obsessed things out there in the hall.

The YouTuber was shaking with as much dread as Luigi was, and he didn't know what was going to come next at this point. The power didn't seem to be coming back on, and the storm wasn't letting up. Just then, they felt the door shaking, and Mario's voice had gotten louder.

He was close.

"YOU'RE NOT TAKING MY NEURONS, MARIO!" SMG4 shouted, which may as well give away his current position to the deranged Italian man.

"P-P-Please settle down, M-M-Mario." Luigi whimpered, "Y-You wouldn't eat my brain, would you?"

BAM! BAM! The door shuddered, and the knob shook. A moment later, a hole burst open in the door, and Mario's head appeared, then he reached through the hole and unlocked the door as Luigi screamed. The dimwitted plumber laughed as he entered the bathroom, and went full Shining mode as he opened his mouth and imitated the movie/book's antagonist.

"Here's Jo..."

He was cut short when SMG4 bonked him on the head with a club he'd grabbed from a box in the hall. Mario toppled over, seemingly falling unconscious on the bathroom floor. SMG4 and Luigi waited to see if his unhinged Avatar was out of commission for the moment, then the YouTuber let out a relieved sigh and said, "Whew, that was close..."

A laugh made him jump, and Luigi shrieked. He and SMG4 watched as Mario stood up, and turned to face the meme man with the scariest serial killer expression ever. "Oh, silly SMG4." Mario said in a near-deranged version of his regular voice, "A bonk to the head isn't going to stop me from getting your electricity. We're going to have lots of fun!"