The Fourth and Rainy 1-1:
For the first time in nearly eight months, Daisy stepped into the Mushroom Kingdom boundaries and entered its outskirts. Her cloak and hood stayed on to deter the rainstorm that had soaked the southern lands of Earth's northeastern quadrant. The mid-July heat and humidity contrasted heavily with the freezing blizzard of the peaks at the bottom of the world she experienced just a little more than a week ago.
Going through the streets to close in on Mushroom City and its Toad Town suburbs, Daisy noticed two things. For one, the Mushroom Kingdom world seemed somewhat gloomy and muted compared to what she remembered. That could have resulted from the downpour of precipitation and the darkened stormy sky, however. The people she saw and passed appeared as a whole untroubled and relaxed.
What she noticed aside from that inspired more surprise. It seemed that in the time she had been away, the Mushroom Kingdom – or at least the section she trekked through at that moment – had undergone a technological modernization. The area appeared more urban than she remembered, and much of its aesthetic had taken on a more futuristic theme. Metal and shine now had a prominent presence alongside the old brick, concrete, and color.
The advancement reflected everywhere, from buildings to vehicles to even the gadgets that people carried. Daisy trotted past a koopa talking into his watch. A Noki drove by her in a kart that hovered just a couple feet off of the ground with its wheels sideways and glowing blue for what appeared to be some sort of anti-gravity mechanic. When Daisy crossed the intersection, a toad almost walked his umbrella into her while doing tricks with his no-string yo-yo. Just a few moments later, a blue yoshi rode by on a hover board.
Did I miss something? Daisy wondered, glancing around as she continued deeper into Mushroom Kingdom. Because in the time I've been gone, it seems like society has really evolved when it comes to all this technology stuff. I mean, this was beyond quick...
As Daisy exited the outskirts and entered some of the more inner portions of Mushroom Kingdom, the theme remained constant. In addition to various scattered construction sites and renovation areas, she saw more examples of technological advancement present and in several more forms; including but not limited to robots. Daisy did recall seeing Toad and Alden working on robots before, but the ones she saw at that moment appeared far more complex and efficient – and also varied and abundant as well, ranging in all sorts of colors from humanoid shapes to animal-type anatomies. Upon noticing a law enforcement robot that eerily resembled an average human marching past her on the cobblestone sidewalk, she caught sight of a stylized emblem on its shoulders consisting of grandiose wings and the letters "MAE."
May? Daisy wondered. Or is it M-A-E? What's MAE?
In a sudden move, the Patrol Bot cut in front of Daisy and effectively brought her forward progress to a halt. Confused, Daisy stared at the robot and waited for it to do something. A part of her wanted to force it out of her way, but it surprised her with the realistic human voice and octaves backing its metallic tone.
"Good afternoon, tourist earth wielder!" the Patrol Bot said. "Have you seen a rabbit in a hat lurking about these streets?"
"Um, no, I have not," muttered Daisy. "But I'll tell you what – I ain't a tourist. My house is not too far from here."
"I could do without your sass, but my apologies," the Patrol Bot replied. "I have not noticed you in the time MAE has been here. Carry on, earth wielder. I must continue to look for rabbits in hats."
Daisy raised an eyebrow as the Patrol Bot started to move away. "Wait – rabbits in hats? What do you mean by that?"
"Ah yes, we are on the lookout for Broodals in the area," the Patrol Bot happily responded. "They are registered in our database as anthropomorphic rabbits that wear hats – and may potentially hide in them – that we have heard several grievances of in this district as of late for theft of various desserts! Data suggests that they may or may not have a relationship to the Mafio Bros criminal organization. Certainty as of yet unconfirmed. The latest reports we have received are from two days ago to the west of here."
A siren then went off from within the Patrol Bot's chest cavity. "Correction!" the robot said with urgency. "There is now a reported sighting of Broodals at a local confectionery! Don't worry, tourist! MAE Law Enforcement LDU has it under control! You take care and have a nice day!"
The Patrol Bot turned and activated a function that converted its feet into wheels. The robot then sped away with great haste down a sidewalk ahead and to Daisy's right, spraying some rain water at her out of its initial acceleration. Daisy also saw another Patrol Bot race by much further up in front of her.
"I'm not a tourist!" Daisy yelled.
The Patrol Bot had already gotten too far away to hear her. Daisy intended to go straight to her house and maybe even visit Peach at her castle, but both the development of the Mushroom Kingdom as a whole and the potential scene that could be just minutes away brewing with rabbit thieves and MAE police robots piqued her interest. Under the steady downfall of hot summer precipitation, Daisy dashed in the direction she had seen the Patrol Bots head in.
Daisy cut around the corners of the many streets and intersections for a stretch of nearly two miles to arrive at an assembly of MAE Law Enforcement LDU Patrol Bots at a joint candy shop and bakery where Bandits fired off stone rifles from the cover of overturned cars and karts. Snifits hurried out of the store doors and hurled projectiles from their masks to support their Bandit allies. The couple dozen Patrol Bots there faced heavy fire from their opposition and found themselves pinned to the sides of other nearby parked cars as they retaliated with shots from their shoulder-mounted stun guns.
"Civilian! Clear out of here!" a Patrol Bot yelled.
"I'm no civilian!" Daisy snapped, ducking behind a truck. "I know y'all can tell that I'm an earth wielder!"
"Elemental wielding is archaic, flawed, and inefficient," another Patrol Bot said. "Stand down and yield to MAE Law Enforcement LDU."
"Uh, excuse me?!" Daisy barked.
The same Patrol Bot attempted to mimic her tone in its response. "I did not hesitate, civilian. Your methods are outdated and unreliable."
"Stop calling me a civilian!" the Kruna of Earth yelled. "I'm Daisy Sarasa, damn it!"
"Daisy Sarasa," a third Patrol Bot said. "Computing..."
"What?" Daisy said.
"Ah, okay; Daisy Sarasa," the third Patrol Bot said. "Data comes back for you as a native of Sarasaland and current resident of Mushroom Kingdom. Age, twenty-three. Height, five-nine; weight, 145 pounds, athletic build with prominent muscular development. Hair, copper red; eyes, blue. An earth wielder boasting very high strength, speed, power, agility, and toughness – but at the expense of poor aerial and aquatic skill, along with a deficiency in defensive capabilities. Known occupations: Princess of Sarasaland, competitive athlete, and Kruna Yura of Earth. Last known location updated."
"Hold on – what just happened?" Daisy muttered.
"Is this data incorrect?" the third Patrol Bot asked.
"No – it's all...way too correct," Daisy mumbled. "How do you know all of that?"
"You are in the Universal Database," the third Patrol Bot replied. "I merely accessed my wireless connection to the server and opened your archive."
Daisy gasped in annoyance. "Well since when did I have an archive in whatever that is?!"
"Alert-alert-alert!" a different Patrol Bot called out. "The Broodals have emerged!"
Two rabbits in hats had exited the store's doors behind their Bandit and Snifit henchmen; one rabbit tall and lanky and dressed in white and orange, and the other rabbit round and squat in a green and yellow suit. They had rolled out a whole cart loaded with bagged assortments of candy and baked goods, which they positioned safely behind the highest overturned car they could get to.
"Rango and Topper identified," said a Patrol Bot. "Watch out for their hats!"
"Pfft – their hats?" Daisy said. "Come on. Really?... Actually, yeah; you really can't be sure about hats from what I've seen."
"Hyuk! Yer aim is awful!" Rango, the tall Broodal called out. He jumped out from his cover and slung his hat into the crossfire. Its swift rotation and the spikes that jutted out as it flew deflected rainfall as well as shots from both parties into random directions. The rogue hat only added to the growing chaos when it spun its spikes out at the Patrol Bots, several of the robotic policemen sustaining damage from the piercing high-speed projectiles launched in semi-scattershot fashion. Once the hat finished unloading, it curved back to Rango's hands.
"Ahyuh hyuh hyuh! Stupid overgrown tin cans!" Rango shouted.
The undamaged Patrol Bots launched energized cuffs at the two Broodals and their gang. Many of the cuffs caught several Bandits and Snifits and latched onto them, at which point stunning jolts of electricity shot through their bodies and brought them to their knees. The recovering Patrol Bots then shot out sets of their cuffs as well, theirs also restraining a number of the Bandits and Snifits still standing.
"That sure changed things pretty quickly, didn't it?" Topper muttered to Rango. He was in for a rude surprise when Daisy leapt over their cover and brought both of her fists down on his head. Unfortunately for her, her two-handed smash did not score a hit on Topper himself. Her attack clanged with his hat and knocked it off of his head, but she dealt no harm to Topper. The next thing she knew, the hat slithered along the ground and launched itself at her to knock her to the wet pavement with a heavy thud.
"Ya gotta be smarter than that, Miss Little Black Riding Hood!" taunted Topper. "Don't think we didn't come prepared!"
Daisy kipped to her feet just for Topper's hat to launch at her again and knock her back down. When she rolled to her knees, she felt a hard Stone Rifle shot blast her in her back from a nearby Bandit. Thankfully, a Patrol Bot then got a shot of its stun gun in on that same Bandit to disarm him.
"Ya best be gettin' ta steppin'! Ya hear?" Topper yelled, his hat leaping back onto his head.
Rango took off his hat and got ready to sling it out once more. "Don't try anythin' funny, or we'll put ya to yer grave early!"
The rainfall throughout Mushroom Kingdom amplified, making the Patrol Bots activate their shoulder lights and the sights on their stun guns. Daisy saw many of the red lasers trace all over the area, but her vision of the Broodals and their henchmen blurred. She could barely make out the incoming hat from Rango under the heavy downpour, but she reacted quick enough to get herself out of the way when she did. Rather than cut to the side, she jumped over the hat just as it unfurled more spikes. Though she did not intend for it, her feet landed on top of the hat. Out of the hat's recoil from her weight, she sprang at Topper and Rango. The swift shoulder bash she executed knocked Topper away, and the slide tackle she chained into took Rango's feet out from under him. Just as Rango hit the ground; Daisy grabbed him, made a somersaulting jump, and threw him out of her flip into the middle of the street.
Before Rango could get up, energy cuffs grabbed him at his ankles and bound him with a crackling blue link he struggled to overpower. A Patrol Bot had him by his collar moments later. That just left Topper and the eight Bandits and Snifits still unbound and shooting their Stone Rifles.
Daisy landed back behind the overturned cars to attack Topper; but she forgot about Rango's hat, which careened its flight back at where Rango stood prior to him getting thrown. Now in the spiked hat's path, Daisy leapt to her left and let the hat breeze by her. Instead of hitting her, the hat crashed into the cart of stolen edibles and scattered all of the bags out on the sidewalk.
"EEK! That's our goods!" Topper cried. "Oh, ya's bouta get a poundin' now!"
"From what?" Daisy carelessly muttered.
"From my Hats of Discipline!" yelled Topper. "These'll straighten ya's out!"
Maddened, Topper rushed at Daisy and pulled out several green slips from within his suit. All the slips ballooned into extra hats that dragged alongside him on the ground in a sidewalk-grinding rotation. As Topper ran at her, Daisy made several hops back and away from him and his ensemble of hats. The instant Daisy jumped at Topper to dish out a kick, his hats leapt in front of him and took the hit instead. The hats that Daisy's strike did not hit stacked themselves onto Topper's head. Despite having seven hats balancing on top of him, Topper did not let any of them fall off. They all stayed stuck together.
Daisy spun around and tried to deal a kick out of her twist, only for Topper to step out of reach and then whip his head across his body. That head-swinging motion sent his hats at her like a club and smacked her into the rear windshield of a crossover sedan. The next thing Daisy knew, all of Topper's hats flew at her before she even got herself off of the car. However, Patrol Bots intercepted all of the hats with shots from their stun guns. Much to Topper's dismay, Daisy set herself back on the sidewalk without enduring any damage from his now stunned hats. But his anger subsided to make way for worry when he noticed all of his Bandit and Snifit henchmen either downed or restrained.
Daisy sprang at Topper to land a vicious knee strike, but the rabbit sidestepped and backed away. When she turned around, she lunged at him and caught him by his foot. She then jumped, swung him in a vertical arc, and threw him down into the street as if slinging a tomahawk. Once Topper stopped tumbling, Patrol Bots swarmed him and restrained him with energy cuffs. With him, Rango, and all the Bandits and Snifits subdued, the violence ended and the scene quieted down.
"Alright!" Daisy cheered. "That takes care of that!"
"Ya stupid heaps of metal!" groaned Topper. "I'll make sure I get ya back for this!"
"Nah – you've got some jail time ahead of ya, I'm sure," said Daisy.
"Hyuh! We'll just break out!" hollered Rango. "Y'all better watch it, 'cause once the others come get us-"
Rango and Topper both felt hard yanks when the Patrol Bots picked them up and bound their energy cuffs together. The Bandits and Snifits spread throughout the area got paired and grouped in a similar manner. The Patrol Bots also confiscated their weapons and gave them all body checks.
"Transport van is now en route," a Patrol Bot said. "Thank you for your assistance, Kruna Daisy!"
Daisy crossed her arms and turned her head away. "You better be thankful."
"Yes, we are," the robot as-a-matter-of-factly replied. "Even though we did not actually need you at all in the first place, we are still thankful. We have everything under control now, so please clear away from the crime scene."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah; whatever," Daisy muttered.
Popping a Mushroom in her mouth for recovery, Daisy started on her way home in the heavy, humid rainfall. The sore in her back from the stone shot she took earlier still remained after the Mushroom worked its magic, and all she really wanted to do was just go home and get in her own bed for once. But still, the ongoing modernization she saw throughout the kingdom and her interactions with the Patrol Bots made her both curious and uneasy about what had gone on during her time away.
Considering how close her home was to Peach's Castle, Daisy decided she would head straight to Peach's Castle first and get updated on all that had transpired in her extended, lengthy absence.