Apprenticeship [An SMG4 Fanfic]

Chapter 21: Old Habits Die Hard

"So, you still don't know where the YouTube remote is?" 4 asked, looking up at 3. The blue meme guardian was lying with his head in SMG3's lap as the other ran his fingers through his hair.

3 shook his head. "No... but we need to do something to introduce that idea to you and the rest of the crew," he huffed. "That we're looking for it that is. I've been texting Luigi to see what he can find but..." He sighed. "I just wish this could all be done and over with."

4 smiled, putting a hand on 3's cheek. "It will be eventually."

3 nodded. "Well... any ideas on what we could do? I mean... our month deadline is almost up and we've still got nothing for how we'll introduce our 'evil plan' to locate the YouTube remote again to you and the others. We have plans for how to get to it once we find it, and plans for how to possibly have you stop us once we do, but..."

SMG4 brought his hand back down as he thought. "Well, you've been doing the basic thwarting bullshit for the past few weeks... just being more of a nuisance than a threat..." He looked at the flowers beside them, taking one in his hand and twirling it between his fingers. "Maybe something to up that threat level? Like... how about you guys step it up a notch on things? I mean, lately you've just been distractions, being rude, chasing us down, I swear you guys are more like Team Rocket now," he laughed.

"Not helping," 3 said, poking 4's nose as the other stuck his tongue out at him.

"You have any big plans coming up by the way?" He asked.

"Hm... well, I was planning on doing some live-streaming..." SMG4 smiled, sitting up and snapping his fingers. "You guys can crash the livestream then!"

"And then what?" 3 asked, crossing his arms. "We crash the stream and... what? Introduce ourselves as the new owners of your channel or something? Because seriously, I don't..." He sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. "I don't know..."

"Say you're attempting to take over again, but then let it 'accidentally' slip that you're going for the YouTube remote? Oh! And maybe you can take Luigi or Mario hostage?" SMG4 asked before smirking. "I would suggest Mario though. It would be fun to see how frazzled Mr. Puzzles can get."

3 laughed. "Uh huh. Sure."

"Oh! Maybe kidnap them both! Then you have both of them that we can save! And you can say you're holding them hostage until we reveal the location of the YouTube remote! All on stream!" 4 exclaimed excitedly. "And then, once we defeat you, we'll know your plan! And you can do it all from the studio! I can give you my channel's password and everything so you guys can hack it! You can do something that usually gets you a lot of views on your streams. Or you could just be evil, the fans like that."

"I could also flirt with you when you try and defeat me," 3 said with a smirk. "I bet you'd like that."

A light blush formed on 4's cheeks as he playfully pushed 3 away. "Yeah. Sure. While you're at it, film a Snowtrapped Part 2," he joked.

"Don't tempt me, Glitchy," 3 laughed as he pulled 4 down with him.

"You fucking suck," 4 laughed.

"And you love me anyway."

"Sadly."

"Puzzles and I can work out the rest of the plan when I wake up," 3 laughed. "Unless you have any other dumb ideas?"

"Yeah. Snowtrapped Part 2, dumbass," 4 laughed.

3 smirked. "You still joking or-?"

4 pinned him down, returning the smirk. "Nope."

"We should go with that plan then."

Mr. Puzzles hummed his theme as he walked through the halls of the studio, script in hand for whenever they would find the YouTube remote. He just hoped it could stop Exubus. He looked over at the security office, where SMG3 was sound asleep. He smiled. Best to let him rest, especially since he said he and 4 would talk about some plans that might make Exubus leave them alone for a bit.