Chapter Forty-Two:

Convention Disaster Strikes

Visiting Boopkins at his anime booth had been great for Tari, but nerve-wracking for Meggy. Thankfully for the Inkling, the other booths had nothing to do with the Spike's fascination, and she needed a good palate cleanser, which the nearby Spider-Man booth seemed to offer as a basketball hoop with Spidey decorations caught her eye.

"Tari!" Meggy called, distracting the cyborg gamer from a video game-related booth, "Come over here!"

The blue-haired gamer girl followed Meggy's voice into the Spider-Man booth. The moment she saw the hoop decorated with figures of Spider-Man, the cyborg's heart thumped anxiously the second she lay eyes on it. Sports, which was Meggy's favorite subject, wasn't usually in Tari's expertise compared to playing video games.

"Uh, Meggy?" Tari asked, "I don't know if..."

"Watch!" The Inkling cut her off. She grabbed a red-blue basketball, and threw it as high as she could. The ball dipped through the hoop, and bounced on the ground before settling near the base.

"Give it a try." Meggy egged her blue-haired friend.

'Okay.' Tari thought anxiously, and she picked up one of the balls. The cyborg pitched hard, with the ball crashing into part of the hoop, knocking down one of the figurines in the process. Having tried basketball for real in the past, Tari knew she wasn't so good at it, even if she'd practiced.

"Tari..." Meggy tapped the cyborg on the shoulder, and hopped up and down while mimicking a ball throw, "Like this."

'Let's try again.' Tari threw another ball. However, it wound up bouncing off the wall, and it struck Meggy in the face, knocking the orange squid to the ground while nearly taking her beanie off.

Tari shrieked and ran to help her friend back onto her feet. "I'm so sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry!" She squeaked anxiously.

"It's fine, Tari..." Meggy said with a slight chuckle, "Let's just keep looking around. I'm sure there might be something you'll like around here. Hopefully, we don't find any more anime nerds in this place."

The girls proceeded onward, looking around the convention area for something more exciting, until they heard excited chatter and saw several people gathering around a table as a Japanese man in a suit signed autographs. A sign close by read; "Meet the famous Nintendo producer Satoru Iwata."

"OMG! I THOUGHT HE DIED!" Tari exclaimed, "IT'S IWATA-SAN!"

"Iwata?" Meggy raised her eyebrow, "Where've I heard the name before?"

"He helped craft Kirby and Super Smash Brothers!" Tari told the Inkling, and her brief shock and excitement faded, "But there are so many people, I don't think I'll be able to meet him and... OH MY GOSH! IS THAT A RUBBER DUCK?!"

Tari ran off towards a bin full of toys, and Meggy looked at the Iwata booth as she considered what the cyborg gamer had said before switching the subject, it sounded like she really wanted to meet him, even with all of those people around. It was up to Meggy to make Tari and Iwata's meeting become reality, no matter what.

Close by, Mario and Luigi had left SMG4's booth and were strolling through the convention hall with the red Italian getting more annoyed by the moment. Just then, he and his brother spotted the commotion, and Luigi's eyes were widening with each moment.

"Is that Satoru Iwata?!" Luigi exclaimed, "But he died years ago! Mario! Look who's here?"

"Bro, do it look like I care, no!" Mario told him.

"We'll find the spaghetti booth if you talk to him."

'Talk to a dead guy, eh?' Mario chuckled, he was already suspicious of how the late Satoru Iwata was at Glitch Con, signing autographs, when he'd died a few years prior. Perhaps it was up to him to solve the mystery.

And he was running. Mario dashed like mad towards the table, and jumped on several Goombas until he was within Satoru Iwata's proximity... just as Meggy wove her way through the hordes in her squid form and took on her humanoid form, right next to the arriving fat Italian.

"Oh, hey, Mario!" Meggy waved, "I was just about to talk to Mr. Iwata."

"So was I... about how he's still alive." Mario told the Inkling. And then, without warning, he whipped out an 11 mm Glock, took aim at Iwata and opened fire. People shrieked in alarm, and Satoru Iwata toppled to the ground with a bullet hole between his eyes.

"WHAT THE SHRIMP ARE YOU DOING?!" Meggy yelled.

"Satoru Iwata died years ago." Mario explained, "That man is likely an imposter."

Just then, an odd purple glow surrounded Iwata, and he floated in the air, staring at Mario and Meggy with wide red eyes. In those moments, Mario's suspicions about Satoru Iwata were confirmed. Right as he was about to declare he was right, False Iwata reached into his pocket...

...And pulled out a purple mushroom.

'What is that...?' Mario thought.

"MARIO! LOOK OUT!"

Meggy moved fast, and pushed the pudgy plumber out of the way despite his weight, and the mushroom glowed as Iwata's imposter moved closer to Meggy. Seconds later, a near-blinding flash illuminated the convention hall, and several attendees scattered like mad. Red lights flashed, and an alarm began to scream.

A PSA let off a whining noise, and a voice declared, "INFECTION ALERT! INFECTION ALERT! ALL GUESTS EVACUATE GLITCH-CON AT ONCE! A VIRUS HAS ARISEN IN THE CONVENTION HALL!"

Mario looked up, and as his eyesight settled, the pudgy plumber began to look around the hall for Meggy. He found her close by, and his eyes dilated with horror, with haunting memories sweeping through his mind.

She was standing still as a statue, her arms held out and away from her body, with her face emotionless and her eyes wide. Meggy had become a T-Pose zombie again. That mushroom, it must have been the T-Shroom that Shroomy was talking about, how Waluigi had caused the T-Pose pandemic weeks ago.

"No... no..." Mario whimpered, "Meggy! YOU'RE A T-POSE ZOMBIE!"

Meggy wasn't the only one who'd gotten the virus. All around her, a pair of Goombas, Koopas, and Monty Moles were standing in a T-Pose with blank expressions in their eyes.

False Iwata laughed in a near-demonic voice, a voice that sounded so very familiar, and the aura around him glowed intensely as the bullet hole in his head faded. The imposter dispelled the visage of the late programmer, and assumed his true form, sporting that unmistakable lanky mustache and that pointy pink nose with a muscular build.

In moments, people began to run away, screaming with terror. Many of them had already made it to the exit, and were leaving Glitch-Con as quickly as possible. An Inkling snapped a photo of the godlike Waluigi, then he ran for the emergency exit without skipping a beat.

"MARIO!" The Wah-Man boomed as he looked at the fat Italian, "I knew we would meet again! Allow me to welcome you to the dawn of a new era, the twilight of the world you know, for it is time FOR THE WAH-POCALYPSE TO BEGIN AND IT ALL STARTS HERE AT GLITCH-CON WITH A NEW T-POSE APOCALYPSE!"

"Waluigi!" Mario exclaimed, and he looked over at the T-posing Meggy. "It's a good thing that Mario has... THIS!"

He reached into his pocket, and grabbed a 1-Up Mushroom. Mario never left home without an extra life, no matter how dumb he was, even when he didn't die. Meanwhile, 1-Ups had worked with curing the T-Pose pandemic victims before.

And so, they would again.

The dim-witted hero pitched his arm, and threw the shroom at Meggy. He prayed for it's effects to work, hoping that it would do the trick again, and that the woomy girl would be safe in a second. The mushroom hit Meggy, making contact with her, and bounced off the T-posing beanie Inkling, collapsing to the floor next to the feet of an unconscious Koopa.

Mario stood speechless, terrified, and Waluigi laughed maniacally as the alarms continued to blare. "FOOL!" The nigh-powerful Wah-Man proclaimed, "MY POWERS ARE STRONGER THAN EVER! THERE IS NO CURE FOR THE T-POSE VIRUS! Your extra life mushrooms are useless, and now, the world shall be consumed by the T-Pose!"