Chapter Twenty-Four:

Casino Mission Prep Time

SMG4 and SMG3 rarely wore different clothing, but there had been occasions in the past.

However, when it came to clothing, it was always the same Mario-style overalls. Despite that, the two meme guardians had gone clothes-shopping or had outfits tailor made for them. Luckily for everyone, the meme man and his former nemesis had fancy-looking suits pressed and ready.

It didn't take long for SMG4 to put on a white button-up shirt, a blue vest, and a blue bow-tie, with black pants and fancy dark-brown shoes. The meme man stepped out of the changing closet, sporting his spy attire, and flashing a grin at the group.

Moments later, SMG3 came back out, wearing a dark purple suit, and sporting a purple fedora in the place of the cap he'd worn for years. 007 nodded his head in approval, and Tari gave a peppy thumbs up with an approving smile. Meggy clicked some photos with her phone, smiled encouragingly at the duo, and said, "Nice."

"Just as slick as Inkura's school girl uniform." Green remarked.

"I haven't even gone to prom yet." Senbo commented with a barely hidden hint of boredom.

SMG3 tipped his hat a little. "What the hell are we waiting for? Let's get on to business, and plan this mission out." He said with a smug, and confident grin.

"One more thing." SMG4 began typing on his phone.

Before anyone knew it, the group was engaging in a SKYPE-style call on SMG4's laptop with several people of different species from Toads to Inklings and various humans of different cultures, and the people SMG4 had reached out to were fans of the meme man's content. This meant that Devin, Senbo, and Denedry were not the only SMG4 fans involved

However, SMG3 was quick to voice his concerns; "There's a chance Mario and Marty might detect this call at the casino."

"Ah, relax." SMG4 assured him, "We made sure the calls can't be traced and reported, thanks to a special stealthy program that ensures calls can't be tracked. And, honestly, I think the fatsos are too busy with your notebook."

"We heard about what happened." A Japanese SMG4 fan said in English.

"Good blimey!" A British man exclaimed, "I can't believe Mario stole SMG3's notebook and took it to a casino run by his cardboard cut-out OC who ran the pizza shop in the Showgrounds. That's quite the sticky wicket of a situation if I may say so, eh?"

"Tell us what the plan is." A Toad inquired, "You plan on going after the notebook at the casino to get it back, and you guys got intel on the place, right?"

"Oh, we're planning a mission all right!" SMG4 declared, "And we need all of you to help us out! My YouTube channel wouldn't have been successful without your support, and you're all the reason I kept making memes, and how many of us went on wacky adventures that we turned into YouTube videos."

"Let's get cracking!" Tari cried, "Mario and Marty might have figured out how to open the notebook by now!"

"OH GOD!" SMG3 exclaimed, "ALL OF MY SECRETS WILL BE EXPOSED!"

"Calm the crap down, man!" Senbo told him, "*sigh* This is going to be a long week."

SMG4 called for order, and, once any further commotion was settled, the planning was under way. The meme man pulled up an image and some footage of Casino Paisano's main lobby, with Mario at the security guard's booth at the forefront. There was no doubt the two meme guardians would be taking the main entrance into the building.

"Okay, so. We have to deal with Mario once we get inside, he's the head of the casino security." SMG4 said, "How do we take care of him? Once we get Mario out of the way, we'll be able to get in without being caught by our dumbass friend."

"I got it! Why don't we scare the carp out of him!" Inkura said excitedly, "BOO!"

"GAH! INKURA!" Spider yelled.

"Scare Mario!" A Toad suggested, almost agreeing with the Inkling girl.

"Or you could wear a disguise that Mario will totally not see through." Senbo inquired, "Maybe you can wear a spooky disguise that will certainly scare him out of his overalls in a heartbeat..." He grinned, "Disguise yourself and scare Mario! That sounds genius!"

"Jeeze!" Denedry quipped, "I think scaring the fat Italian would do the trick."

"Hey, guys! You wanna scare the Mario?!" A green Toad on the Skype inquired, "I'd say we should scare him right out of his pants!"

In seconds, SMG4 was bombarded by a flurry of people exclaiming "Scare the Fat Italian" or "Wear A Disguise" with the former being touted around the most, then he slapped a red button and a buzzer noise went off.

"Scare the fat Italian it is!" SMG4 declared, "Now..." A couple images depicting rows of security cameras along with footage of the security room came up, "There are security cameras everywhere, and we need to disable them or Mario will catch us. So, what option should we go with?"

"Ink 'em up!" Green pulled out a Splattershot.

"No, we're not doing Turf War." SMG3 told him.

"Blind the cameras with a sexy dance!" Meggy suggested with a giggle.

"Hack 'em with your hacking skills!" A pair of Toads cried.

"Do the sexy dance and blind the cameras, meme idiots!" Senbo quipped condescendingly.

"I'd say hack the system." An African man wearing an SMG4 T-shirt suggested.

"Y'know, I think I like hacking the cameras." SMG3 told SMG4, "What do you say we get Melony involved, she is good at the hacking gig after all, and we could benefit from having her on the team."

SMG4 grabbed his phone again. "Let's see if she's available then..." The meme man said, and began texting the watermelon waifu with an eager smile as everyone else debated on the two meme guardians' options for dealing with the security cameras.

Melony giggled and she picked up another card. For the past thirty minutes, the watermelon girl had been playing UNO with Axol Junior. Despite the fact regular axolotls couldn't play games, Melony was happy to have some fun with her pet. An Axol plushy sat on the floor close by, it's lifeless eyes staring at the cards in Melony's hand.

Perhaps it was through this little toy that the watermelon-turned waifu warrior could feel the spirit of her late boyfriend watching on. She couldn't see him, but Axol was watching from the afterlife, smiling as she played with the animal whom she'd named after him.

'VVT! VVT! VVT!'

She put down the cards, and looked over at her phone, seeing SMG4's text message. The green-haired fighter had seen the news about the theft, but the situation didn't seem to call for her services. The notebook situation was mostly a personal issue for SMG3, and it didn't scream anything related to "end of the world".

'Playing UNO with Axol Jr. right now.' Melony texted.

"Hey, hey! Axol Jr.? No sniffing the cards." She chided when she turned her attention back to her pet, the little axolotl had started sticking his snout into the pile of cards.

Axol Junior made some odd axolotl noises, and Melony held him gently. The small axolotl nuzzled it's head against her body, and the green-haired watermelon girl stroked his head in a tender fashion, then she picked up one of the UNO cards again. It was time to get back to the game, then it would be Axol Jr.'s feeding time.

Melony turned off her phone, and put it aside once more. She was having a pretty busy day looking after her pet. And, unbeknownst to the god tier waifu fighter, a mysterious entity was watching from within her TV...