Chapter Twenty-Eight:

Finalizing the Mission Preparations

SMG3 looked at everyone present in the room and those who were still on the SKYPE line. Even without his fellow Meme Guardian present at the moment, planning the mission was important, and they were still on the matter of what direction to take in the casino's airshaft.

"Okay. Which way do we go?!" The former villain demanded, "Left or right?"

"Take the left!" Green suggested, "Most people choose to turn left at crossroads. I prefer taking the left during road trips, depending on what street corner I end up at."

"If I may..." A Scottish Toad wearing an SMG4 shirt said on a SKYPE window, "Left is my favorite direction, and there is a beastie of a chance that taking the right will lead to somethin' bad happenin'. After all, the last time someone went right, they wound up in a wee accident that could've cost 'em their lives."

In the foyer, SMG4 heard the knocking again, seconds before he reached the front door. The meme man turned the knob, and was greeted by a pair of teens wearing SMG4 costumes with a brown-haired boy holding a package that was labeled, "For SMG4!"

"A bird told us you needed help." A young girl remarked.

"Plus, we received a tip the enemy involved in the notebook theft was some weird cardboard dude named Marty." A short boy added.

The boy holding the package handed it to SMG4. "Take this gift! It'll help you deal with Marty when the situation arises." The fan said, "For the moment, do not open the gift until the right time, it'll be all the more worth it and we hope our present for you is very helpful in your battle at the casino!"

"You guys are so nice." SMG4 said, tipping his hat to the fans with a grin as he held the package.

"OI! SMG4!" SMG3 called, "WE JUST VOTED ON TAKING A LEFT IN THE AIR SHAFTS! GET BACK IN HERE! YOU WANT ME TO BE THE LEADER OF THIS BLOODY MISSION?!"

SMG4 thanked the fans, and raced back to his room. Meggy, Tari, and the others were still there, and the SKYPE line was active. Another Mario image had just come up on SMG4's computer, and it did not depict him eating a plate of spaghetti, which would have felt a little out of place with the situation and it's current theme.

"Now, Mario has the keys to the CEO's office..." SMG4 told the others, "How are we going to get it off him?"

"I say we tell him he's a bitch ass mother-effer!" Senbo suggested, "Roast that Paisano into the ground, get his PINGAS stuck in a door, kick him in the groin, bitch-slap the crap out of Mario until he's whining "mama mia", then we flip him off and stuff him in a cage..."

"What if we compliment him and nicely ask him to hand over the key?" Tari chimed in, disturbed by Senbo's suggestion.

"Let's tell him he's stinky." ShadowSquid9 said with an earnest look on his face, "Give him the "reason you suck" speech, and punch him with the biggest of insults he's ever heard until our pudgy pal is suffering emotional damage."

"What if we break his neck?!" Inkura commented with a shaky smile.

"We don't want to risk the end of the universe..." Meggy told her, "Not to mention Mario likely has a ton of 1-Ups at his disposal."

"I'll admit, I'm tempted to vote on killing Mario..." SMG3 remarked, "But we Meme Guardians were assigned to protect him, and, even after we whooped Zero for good, that's still our number one job alongside looking after the Meme Life Cycle. Our options when it comes to dealing with Mario are non-lethal. No killing."

"What if we call him attractive?" Denedry asked rhetorically, "Doesn't Mario think of himself as sexy, despite being so fat and spaghetti-obsessed to a point where he's shoving all of those noodles and meatballs in his face?"

"Call him 'sexy'!" A Japanese girl in an SMG4 T-shirt suggested in a SKYPE window.

"Tell Mario his ass is stinky." Sophia told SMG4, "Would you do the same thing, Meggy?"

"Not even in this situation, despite what he's done." Meggy responded firmly.

"Should we call him 'sexy'?" SMG4 whispered to SMG3, "Not that we'll do it anyway."

"No, that'll be weird." SMG3 whispered back. "And, personally, I'd prefer it if I was the one who got such a compliment. Plus, you think Mario get angry if we call him stinky?"

"Choices, choices..." SMG4 rolled his eyes, "But there are risks we gotta take."

Several people on the SKYPE line engaged in fierce debating, going back-and-forth between calling Mario stinky or complimenting him, even the others in the room were discussing the matter. The discourse went on for what could have been a very long time, and SMG4 was briefly stumped, so was SMG3. But to get held up in a long debate was not right, not when there was much at stake.

Eventually, the two meme guardians decided calling Mario stinky was the best option, and the debates settled, even with a couple people making remarks that calling the fat Italian 'sexy' would be funnier and easier, serving as a "good distraction" that would confuse Mario long enough for the two SMGs to take the key from him.

With the debate settled, James Bond and a couple Boos pulled up another piece of intel on Marty's office, the fact that the cardboard and his organic accomplice had it rigged with traps. Lasers, automatic turrets, buzz saws, anything that Marty and Mario could think of.

Now, there was the question;

How were SMG4 and SMG3 going to get past the traps?

Getting past obstacles wasn't easy, but it wasn't impossible. Adventurers like Indiana Jones had braved the most dangerous of traps in the most dangerous of settings over the years. Whenever traps were encountered, the best option available was to dodge them, assuming you had all of the skills available to evade the dangerous obstacles that were waiting.

"Traps are right up my alley!" SMG3 boasted, "Did I ever tell any of you about the traps I set up in that super big villain tower of mine when I was cooking up my scheme to humiliate SMG4 with a lengthy compilation involving his most embarrassing moments?"

SMG4 pat SMG3 on the shoulder. "I could easily dodge all the traps, buddy." He said, "Trust me, I've been exercising a lot, even though I still have a couple of pounds."

"There's no way you're THAT athletic!" SMG3 scoffed, "Let me do some trolling. The best way to get past a trap is to trick the trap, a friend of mine actually told me about this a couple years back, right before that business with the YouTube Remote."

"You don't know what Mario and Marty have up their sleeve..." SMG4 interjected, "And you're an ex-villain who fell off, remember?"

"Damn, Four! You just roasted SMG3!" Senbo exclaimed with a laugh.

SMG3 shot his former nemesis a somewhat annoyed look, but SMG4 was looking at an image of Marty at the moment.

"In fairness, how did that cardboard cutout obtain the casino?" The meme man quipped.

"That piece of cardboard is haunted." SMG3 remarked, " Whenever I'm not looking at it, that thing manages to monopolize and capitalize on EVERYTHING and it freaks me out! Oh, ho, no. Marty's not just haunted and we're not dealing with a sentient cardboard, I bet it's a Weeping Angel! The Angels are finally coming for us, and Mario is being manipulated by 'em!"

"Well, as long as we keep our eye on Marty, he won't hurt us." SMG4 pat SMG3 on the shoulder, "I don't think our Weeping Angel-influenced cutout pal has enough power to zap us back in time, assuming we are somehow dealing with those things."

"Hey, guys? You're getting distracted!" Meggy told the two SMGs.

"Sorry, folks!" SMG3 quipped, and James Bond pulled up footage of a vault, where the notebook was being kept whenever Mario and Marty weren't trying to break it open with their pretty-much useless tools they had up their "sleeves".

"In the event we are attacked by security while we're trying to break into the vault, what would be our best defense?" SMG4 asked the group.

Inkura started to giggle, and Green flashed her an odd look, then the school uniform-clad Inkling girl exclaimed, "USE A MEATBALL... with lots of noodles and ketchup!"

"Let's pick our options wisely..." SMG4 remarked to Inkura, "Spaghetti is not going to help us in the long run. Sorry, Inkura."

Inkura looked down sadly, "I was just kidding."

"How about we use whatever is in this package that a kind group of fans gave me?" SMG4 held up the package he'd gotten earlier, and he recalled what he'd been told when he was receiving the present.

"If I didn't know better, I'd say, whatever this gift is, it's some sort of heavy duty weapon that could be useful against Marty and Mario." Meggy commented with eagerness.

SMG3 chuckled deviously. "Can we go with a heavy weapon and a meatball?" He inquired to the YouTuber, "That is sooooo delicious. But, will Mario really fall for the meatball so easily before realizing the truth a little too late?"

SMG4 decided that they would go with using a heavy duty weapon, then he pulled up a couple side-by-side images of Mario and Marty together. By this point, it was time to conclude the planning stages. Every moment counted, and the two paisano perps were probably close to opening the notebook at that very second.

"We're going to have to deal with Mario and Marty eventually, what's our best option?" The meme man said to the gathered group and those on the SKYPE line, "And by that, what would be me and 3's special move? After all, we meme guardians can't let our powers go to waste."

"Final battle, I guess." Senbo grunted, "Okay, what if you SMGs use the power of memes... without making Mario do something wacky even though he's the Avatar?"

"Let's do friendship!" Tari exclaimed, "Friendship brought Bob to his senses."

"Chances are that will get us in major trouble." SMG3 flashed a thumbs down complete with a slightly concerned face, "If I have to choose between memes or friendship, I'm going with memes."

"I think the power of friendship is pretty neat, in my honest opinion." SMG4 gave his partner a hopeful grin, "Either way, we can easily take down Marty."

"A new addition to the 'top ten lines before disaster' list." SMG3 groaned, "Oh, we're doomed."

"Guys, the power of memes would come in handy!" ShadowSquid9 cut in, "Use your meme powers!"

"Take advantage of your Super Meme Guardian powers and put them to use against Mario." Meggy agreed with the Octoling, "I don't think we've seen you using your powers in a while, work your magic! It'll be worth the effort in the long run!"

"Use the memes! Use the memes!" A couple eager Toads on the SKYPE line chanted.

"Whatever happened to your meme powers, guys?!" An Englishman quipped, "It feels like bloody forever since any of ya put your power as meme guardians to use. Let us see your powers once again!"

SMG4 and SMG3 tilted their heads, shooting one another a quick glance, then they looked at the group again with consideration. Mario may have been one of their friends, but he was the enemy at the moment, and Marty likely didn't care about friendship. Given the circumstances, perhaps the power of memes was needed once again. And so, the big choice was made.

"Power of memes trumps power of friendship!" SMG4 declared, "I think we have everything in order. Wouldn't you agree, SMG3?"

SMG3 was looking perplexed, but the Internet Graveyard ruler quickly brightened up as best he can, despite showing a pale look upon his face. "We'll just have to see how our plan plays out..." He told his fellow SMG, "I hope we made the right choices... BUT IF WE FAIL AND I LOSE MY SUSSY NOTEBOOK..." SMG3 glared at everyone, "I'M BLAMING ALL OF YOU!"

It took some time for SMG4 to calm his partner down, but even with the slightest hint of tension, mission preparations were in their final phase. As far as SMG4 was concerned, everyone had made the right choice. Whatever happened at the casino, there was no room for failure.