Chapter Eight:

Meet the Gamer Girl

After he'd left the castle, Mario headed downtown to the Mushroom City Mall to blow off some steam. He told himself that he would be training, but the "training" would come later. However, the plumber would start... by eating ice cream.

He walked by an ice cream vendor run by a Toad and paid him a gold coin for a vanilla-flavored cone. The toad gave Mario the ice cream and then he walked over to a bench, sat down and helped himself to his treat, feeling a little better after he'd been beaten by SMG4 earlier at the castle. And man, oh man, did that cone taste so good?

"Man, training sure is-a hard." Mario remarked.

Just then, he heard the excited clamor of a crowd coming from a nearby gaming store. Mario finished his cone, wondering what was going. He walked inside the store, seeing the humongous throng of Goombas, Koopas, Toads and Cataquacks. Whatever was going on, everyone was real excited.

The fat Italian tried to look past the large crowd, hoping to glimpse what they were watching and getting excited about, but it was pretty hard to do so.

"I can't see anywhere!" Mario exclaimed.

Luckily, he came up with a solution and climbed onto a shelf, even though one of the store managers protested upon seeing what Mario was doing. Regardless, he was able to catch a glimpse of the scene that had attracted so much attention:

Bob stood in front of a screen, displaying none other than the Super Smash each other in the face Bros game, holding a controller, and, right next to him, was a blue-haired girl in a sweater and long pants with a silver arm, also holding a game controller. That made Mario a little more curious and looked down to see Fishy Boopkins close by.

"Hey, Boopkins." Mario waved.

"Huh? Oh, hey, Mario." Boopkins waved back.

"What's-a going on? Why are there so many people here?"

"Oh, it's Bob." Boopkins explained, "He challenged the blue-haired girl to Super Smash each other in the face Bros! Apparently, she's one of the best in the world at this game!"

Mario turned to watch the show that was unfolding. 'Well, this should be interesting.' He thought, 'If that girl is the best at the game like she apparently is, then maybe she could help me beat SMG4.'

On the other side of the area, Bob scrolled through the character select to pick his fighter. Before he made his final selection, he turned to the gamer girl and remarked mockingly, "Oof! A girl gamer? Don't make me laugh, girls are so stupid. Leave the games to manly men like me!"

The girl looked at Bob with an annoyed "hmph", then she looked back towards the game as she selected her fighter. The announcer began the countdown from "three, two, one" and the battle arena appeared with Bob and the girl's chosen fighters on the screen, facing each other: Yoshi and Sonic's nemesis Doctor Eggman.

"FIGHT!" The in-game announcer shouted.

"Its time to smash!" Bob declared, "You will never beat Doctor Eggman!"

"Game on!" The girl said, her accent sounded British, making Mario wonder if she was an English immigrant who'd just moved to the Mushroom Kingdom.

Bob and the girl began pressing buttons, taking control of their respective characters and getting into the in-game battle. The blue-haired gamer moved Yoshi towards Eggman, who seemed ready. In the span of a second, before anything else happened, it was wondered who would attack first. The girl tapped a button and Yoshi jumped up when he was an inch way from Eggman.

And then, she pressed another button and Yoshi punched Sonic's nemesis hard across the face, taking away an inch of health from the Eggman. The gathered crowd shrieked excitedly and Bob nearly dropped his controller, near-shocked by what had just happened.

"What the...?!" Bob exclaimed, "How did she do that?!"

He tapped the buttons on his controller and Eggman fought back, but the girl made sure that Yoshi avoided their foe's attacks and then, she punched Eggman back and knocked him down. Before he got back up, the girl made Yoshi pummel the mad doctor until his health bar was in the red zone.

"Damn it!" Bob cried, "This is ridiculous! How are you...?"

"Time to finish this!" The girl said excitedly.

Yoshi ran in and delivered one last strike to Eggman, the health bar depleted past the last red zone and the fat scientist fell to the ground.

The match ended and the in-game announcer declared Yoshi as the victor. The crowd went nuts and the girl looked at everyone with what seemed to be a shy smile, even as she took in the excited buzz and the hollering from the Goombas, Koopas and other customers.

"Oh, thanks, guys..." The victorious gamer said. And then, she walked out, walking past the amazed Mario and Fishy Boopkins. However, Bob was none too thrilled.

"Hey, wait! Where are you going?!" He called, "I was just going easy on you that time, I WANT A REMATCH AND I DEMAND IT NOW! GET BACK HERE OR I WILL CALL UP SAKURAI AND TELL HIM TO BAN YOU FOR HACKING! I HAVE HIS NUMBER AND I HAVE YOUR NUMBER, I'LL HAVE YOU KNOW THAT I HAVE A PARTICULAR SET OF SKILLS AND I WILL NOT HESITATE TO TRACK YOU DOWN!"

Mario ran out of the store, amazed by what he'd seen, even as he still heard Bob ranting angrily. A couple of Toads walked out a minute later, all expressing their amazement over what they'd seen.

"She walloped that Garo's fighter like he was nothing." One Toad said.

"Did I go up against her in that game once without realizing it?" Another Toad asked.

"Wow, I gotta have her autograph." A third Toad quipped.

The blue-haired girl walked by a vending machine as she strolled through the mall, she didn't feel too worried about a thing. And just then, without warning, Mario came up in front of her.

"Heya, blue smurf girl, how are ya doing?" He asked casually.

Caught off guard, the girl yelped and tripped, crashing into the vending machine. A dispenser shook and a bag full of chips fell out, the girl smiled with eagerness and scooped up her newly-purchased free bag of chips.

"Mario wants to ask you a question." Mario said in a polite voice.

"Uh, n-no." The girl stammered, "Sorry..."

"But you're good at games, you were pretty good back there." Mario stepped further into her path, trying to keep her from leaving as long as he could.

"Um, t-thanks." The girl said a little more nervously.

"What's-a your name?" Mario asked.

"The name's Tari." Tari replied with a sheepish wave.

"Well, Tari. Can you teach-a Mario not to suck at-a video games?" The fat Italian finally questioned.

"I-I'm not that good, actually. I just play for a living."

"Very funny joke..." Mario remarked sarcastically, "I saw you smash Bob back there, he didn't stand a chance. Please! I need to beat-a my friend SMG4 at Super Smash each other in the face Bros so I can feel accomplished for-a once in my life, saving Peach and saving the world aside."

'He really needs help that badly?' Tari thought, 'I've never helped someone like him be good at gaming before, but I suppose some compassion wouldn't hurt.'

"Uh, okie-dokie then, I'll... I'll try." She said, surrendering politely.

Mario yelled with excitement and began dancing around gleefully like the goofball he was. A Goomba was walking by when he saw Mario's wacky dance and Tari looked at him in a sheepish manner, shrugged and remarked, "I don't know this man."

And unbeknownst to her or Mario, a sinister man with lanky proportions watching from the shadows smiled with insidious glee, eager to observe their activities even more...