Fighting in the Streets
Chapter 20 – Reformation
A/N: Results for the past four races can be found in the chapter 19 – Maple Treeway.
Important Notice: This chapter is released after the 'The Terrible Truth about Time' prologue, so all dates are fully normalised. Also this chapter marks the beginning of the second quarter.
Peach's Castle, Mushroom City
January 21, 2015 – 5:00PM
Bodies were scattered on the floor in to the infirmary room well out of sight. Behind the operating area was a doorway to another small secluded room filled with medical equipment. The bodies were then changed to be put there for further safety.
Peach was safely wrapped up in the medical bed duvet and completely unseen from the outside. Tom carried the body from the front and Enrique on the back, with Rosalina ahead of the two searching for safe passages outside the castle. By this time they had sneaked out of Toad Town and circled around the eastern edge of the city, heading into the meadow plains northeast of the city and just west of Acorn Plains. The plain was one of few areas unaffected by new technology and mainly consisted of vintage question blocks and paths leading northward. The memories of Enrique's first time here came back into his head, as it was the same path that spanned all the way from the caverns to Toad Town's southeast entrance. The path was wide and dirt paved, continuing north after the turn to the hill where the caves began. Next to the hill lied the overgrown great pipe, which seemed inactive. The switch to enable its portal was currently off, and only accessible on the side of Muhu Delfethal. Rosalina led on ahead going in to the cave first, turning left after proceeding down a dirt staircase. The cave was lit up brightly and carried on for hundreds of metres, expanding in height as they ventured down.
"Take a left here." Tom ordered as they reached the bottom of the section. The cave spanned metres high and several metres across in width, filled with multiple tunnel sections. The three took the first left in the row of exits and travelled through a narrower cave passage compared to normal, which at the end led to the second of three direct portals to Earth. This one was much smaller than the great pipe which led to Brooklyn, but larger than the third which's location was unknown to the three. "Go through it slowly; there isn't as much room on the other side." He instructed.
Unlike the great pipe, the other two portals were constructed recently. This portal was actually the most recent to be created, with the third being created years before in August 2008. The portal within the cave led to Bexley in England and was created by Tom in August 2012. It was currently switched off, and Rosalina did not know how to turn it back on. The ground was dirty and both Tom and Enrique didn't want to ruin the duvet they were carrying.
"How do I turn this thing on?" Rosalina asked Tom, looking at the switch.
"Carry the duvet for me." Tom walked over to her and passed the front of the wrap. As she collected the front he walked over to the switch and took off a necklace he had been wearing for years. The necklace had a luminous gem which was detachable and was used to turn on the portal. Behind the switch was an inlaid mold with the same shape as the necklace's gem. When Tom took the gem out of the necklace and placed it in the mold, it allowed him to pull the switch to enable the portal. The darkness that was at the end of the portal lit up and revealed the other side, a small room with walls made entirely out of aluminium with a small door hatch on the right side. Tom took the gem out of the mold and placed it back on the locket of his necklace. The switch stayed on and the portal was not closable unless the gem was placed back in the mold. The three stepped forth and went through, opening up the door hatch leading to what looked like another wall to Rosalina and Enrique. What they both did not see was a sliding door handle on the left edge. Tom grabbed the handle and moved the wall to the right, revealing Tom's old office. The lights were off and the view outside was pitch black, even though it was the afternoon back in the Mushroom Kingdom.
"It's so dark outside, are we on the other side of the world or something?" Rosalina asked the other two inside the office.
"Pretty much." Tom replied. "It is also winter season here, meaning the days are really short. This is because we are in the northern hemisphere, whereas I think we are in the southern hemisphere in Muhu Delfethal."
"I see."
The three carried Peach towards the car park of the old school Tom used to work in, all the way from the office on the top floor of the main building. Only streetlights were the source of light around for them to see the road, as there were neither cars nor anybody in sight. Hopefully Tom could search for his old car he hoped to be left around in the car park and not taken away due to his absence. The ground was wet and dirty, for it had been raining recently. Rosalina squealed around the puddles in the car park trying not to get her biker outfit stained. In the distance Tom spotted his old Lexus CT which he wished he could bring over to Muhu Delfethal and show off. Rosalina's eyes widened at the sight of the sapphire vehicle.
"Put her in the back Enrique." Tom got his car keys that he had been keeping this entire time out from his pocket and unlocked the car's doors and boot. Enrique heaved the body wrapped in the duvet on his shoulder and opened up the boot with his left hand, slowly unloading Peach into the boot.
"This car looks amazing." Rosalina basked in what she thought was beauty. "They sure look different to the ones back in the other world."
"Look all around you, other people's cars." Tom showed Rosalina, before going into the driver's seat.
"Some of them look really nice, but some people really need to give their vehicles a clean." She said, making her way around the front of the car to the front passenger seat. Enrique was standing directly between her and the door, interrupting her while she was staring back at Tom.
"Going somewhere?" Enrique sniggered. Rosalina frowned, sighed, and walked around Enrique and opened up the middle left door and leaned forward to duck and step into the vehicle.
"It's quite a low vehicle." Rosalina pointed out, looking around at the interior design.
"It's not for racing." The two replied. "If you lived a childhood on Earth nowadays you'd be questioning a lot less." Enrique added.
"I've visited Earth for thousands of years in the past I have you two know." She tried to sound superior to the two.
"And how much of it do you remember?" Enrique asked back. "Earth changes far more rapidly than your world, probably because there are far more people living on this planet."
"More than a million?" Rosalina assumed.
"Seven billion, that's seven thousand million." She gasped with surprise.
It took the three half an hour to get through mild traffic and reach the closest hospital for them to take Peach into. Since Rosalina and Peach were in their biker outfits people didn't seem to pay much attention to them as they hurried through the hospital. The only turns of heads they would get are ones in response to seeing an unconscious human wrapped in a blanket. The secretary at the front desk stood up and dropped the phone she was using.
"We need to see the nearest doctor, urgently!" Tom shouted as he hurried to the desk. The secretary got up and moved from her desk, responding to them and escorting them swiftly to the nearest ward, calling for additional support at the same time. The ward was filled with several vacant doctors and nurses, all responding quickly to seeing Peach. They unravelled the blankets and laid her down on the closest bed.
"What caused the incident?" One of the doctors asked Tom and Enrique as Peach rested on the bed. Other doctors began measuring her pulse if there was one and preparing equipment to operate with.
"Motorcycling accident." Enrique replied. "We cleaned her up before bringing her here, none of us had any signal to call the ambulance."
"999 is an emergency number, you don't need signal for it." The doctor said back to Enrique. Rosalina looked at his face, worried.
"Sorry, I did not know, I am not from this country." Enrique replied.
"Can we have a name for this patient?"
"...Achep." Enrique said back. "Just leave it like that for now."
"We need a full name I'm afraid."
"Achep Dolostato." Tom interrupted. "That's her full name."
"...Achep... Dolostato..." The doctor finished writing down the patient's name. "We're first going to run our diagnostics on her to see what the problem is. If it helps you, you are welcome to wait outside."
"I need to see if she is okay." Rosalina begged to the doctor.
"In order for us to work at our best, we really would appreciate it if you didn't." The doctor redirected the three out of the room and to the seats outside of the private ward. She stared through the small door window as it closed on her, seeing the group of medics hurdle around Peach on the bed.
"I don't like what I'm seeing." She said to Tom and Enrique.
"Relax." Enrique cheered. "They'll sort it out in a matter of minutes or hours hopefully. She'll be back to the other world soon enough ready to lead and prepare those races she has in store. Besides, which one is next?"
"Koopa Cape." Rosalina said quickly.
"Ah yes, I keep forgetting somehow." Enrique grinned. "Reminds me of that time I saw you from the cliffs there, Tom. It was the first time I saw the Cape."
"Oh you were there? Spying on me? Yeah that was when I first met Dunc and Tob; we definitely have to see those guys someday soon." Tom laughed.
"Don't they live around here on Earth?"
"But I don't know the exact location, plus I wouldn't want to waste time looking for them when we're on a tight schedule thanks to a certain someone in the other room."
SEVERAL MINUTES LATER...
One of the nurses opened up the door to the waiting area where the three were sitting.
"You three are welcome to come in now." The nurse addressed them, leading them back inside. "We detected a coma leading to some memory loss, it seems also that we cannot fully decipher the condition Achep is in, and she doesn't seem to know where she is either."
"Enrique, tell them where I am from!" Peach yelled from across the room, frightening some of the nurses in the room. He sighed, and walked over to Peach first.
"There there... you'll be fine." He comforted her, even though he thought nothing would be wrong with her besides the coma.
"I am fine though, what are you talking about, it's these people that shouldn't be here, where are the guards?"
"This is what we're trying to get across; she thinks she is some sort of princess from a magical kingdom."
"I think she was a big fan when she was younger." Enrique said back to the doctors and nurses.
"Is she healthy? You know, besides all of the aesthetic effects?" Tom asked them.
"We think so, but we will log this patient on our special list in case something happens. That way if she ever has a similar effect we will give you priority in this ward. Here is the secretary's number." The head doctor handed Enrique over a piece of paper with the phone number and other important details. "She can leave here for now, but she is not allowed to move about a lot, and be very careful on her back. That's a very unique type of wound and it should be left alone for the time being. I suggest she rests at wherever you lot are staying at.
"I'm perfectly fine thank you very much." Peach interrupted.
"Be quiet please." Enrique looked at her seriously.
"You will be fine when you rest my dear." The nurses awkwardly smiled. "Now who here is the one mostly connected to Achep?"
"It's Pe-."
"That would be me." Enrique quickly interrupted Peach before she could finish. He got up and moved towards the other side of the bed and hurdled around the group of nurses, getting him to sign some papers dealing with the withdrawal of Peach from the hospital.
"What are you doing?" Peach called out again.
"Calm down, we'll be out shortly, then we will talk about things." Rosalina calmed her.
"What's this all about?" Tom asked.
"It's just contact details." Enrique replied, winking to Tom. After a few more seconds everything was filled in and Peach was ready to get off of her patient bed.
"Thankfully we have the outfit she was in cleaned but it's really cold outside so we advise she wears it all."
"That will be fine with us." Enrique passed over the biker outfit to Peach. "Come on, put it on quickly."
"That's no way to address me!" Peach growled.
Enrique sighed. "She must have been injured more than we thought in the head."
"And the back to, to save her from taking her clothes off to show you lot we took a picture just before operating." The nurses showed Enrique and Tom the picture of Peach's back, it showed a massive dark red rupture scab spanning across the middle of her back.
"Jesus Christ." Tom gasped at the size of the wound. "That looks terrible."
"Thankfully there is no bleeding, but we have it plastered for safety." The nurses handed the picture over to Enrique, who folded it up and placed it firmly in his coat pocket.
"I take it we are done here then?" Enrique checked.
"Yes everything is fine good man; there is no need to rush." The nurses cheered.
"Good." Enrique walked over to Peach and helped her up from the bed.
"I can walk out myself now." She turned over to the nurses whilst being whispered to by Enrique. "Thank you all for helping me out, I am sorry if I was a nuisance to some of you." The nurses smiled back and Tom and Rosalina followed the others out. The four walked together briskly through the corridors en route to the entrance to get back to the car.
"So where exactly am I?" Peach asked the other three walking quickly.
"England, a nearby hospital, we tried to get you awake as soon as possible." Enrique replied. "The Toad doctors back at the castle said it would take them far too long to wake you up. One of us had the idea to take you here instead. Plus it's only been about two hours since we got here. It's still the evening of the same day you fell asleep."
"Quick question, why did I fall asleep, did they tell anything to you while I was asleep?"
"The only problem with the doctors here is that they had no idea, since this was probably something to do with those nightmares you keep having." Enrique found Peach's mysterious case more and more believable. "When we get back we'll talk about it more." The four almost reached the entrance to the hospital. "You two get Peach back to the car, I've got to sign some things at the front desk to do with what happened today." As Enrique separated from the three he watched them head outside before signing a last paper at the front desk. Taking it with him, he walked out soon after, but was quickly held back by someone else just outside. It was a rather young blond person, showing a similar resemblance to Enrique when he was around fifteen.
"Can I help you?" He asked the teen rather loudly. The teen was trying to quieten Enrique. He went up to Enrique's ear and whispered. "I don't know exactly who you are, but those two girls that walked outside are connected to you and not from around here... if you know what I mean." Enrique leaned away from the teen and looked back at him with suspicion.
"Have we met before?" Enrique asked.
"That room in the school, it's a portal isn't it?" The teen questioned.
"You are mistaken." Enrique took the teens grasp off of his arm and started walking away.
"Duncan visits there a lot of times when he's at that school." Enrique stopped moving and was tempted to turn around and respond back, but instead he resumed moving back to the car. The teen was blond, so there was no chance he was Duncan or Tobias, he looked nothing like either of them either.
He got back into the car. Rosalina and Peach were sitting in the back waiting patiently whilst Tom started the engine.
"You were there for quite some time." Tom pointed out. "What kind of things did you have to sign?" He looked back at Enrique who was staring directly straight after he had buckled himself in quickly.
"I didn't really read much about it, but whatever it is it should be irrelevant to us considering the fact that Peach shouldn't have to go there again." Enrique replied, looking to his left back at the hospital buildings.
"I remember the nurses talked about something to do with your back." Rosalina turned to Peach, attempting to query about it. "What's that all about?" Enrique took out the picture from his coat and passed it over to Rosalina. She unfolded it and flipped it over to see the large dark scab that was on her back. "How long have you had this for?" She asked her.
"Since I woke up I believe, I can barely remember anything before that in the short-term. We had the race, came back and all of a sudden, I'm here." Peach elaborated.
"No dream, no nothing?" Enrique questioned.
"Not this time."
"It seems like whatever has come to hunt you has left a bit of itself behind." He suggested. "Let's go back now, before anybody notices her now."
"Why would you assume something like that would happen?" Tom wondered, still looking directly at Enrique.
Enrique frowned, trying not to make eye contact back with Tom as he was driving out of the car park. Instead he checked the entrance to the hospital to see if the same person was staring at him from afar; he wasn't anywhere to be seen. "No reason, anything can happen." He finished.
Peach's Castle Infirmary, Mushroom City
9:30PM
It had not been very long since the four had left the world in search for a faster, better way of waking Peach up from her coma. Hopefully, all of the mediocre Toad doctors and nurses were still unconscious, along with Luigi, Daisy and Pauline. The four reached the room and noticed the door was still barricaded and the bodies were kept away from anybody who would have checked in. Rosalina re-opened the door and walked through the infirmary corridor to where the bodies were. She checked to see if there were the same amount of people as there were when they left, she counted all of the doctors correctly, but found out one of the other three were missing. Luigi was on the floor sleeping, Daisy was too, but Pauline was not around.
"Pauline's missing." Rosalina informed the other three.
"What? Why are they all lying on the floor?" Peach screamed and panicked around the infirmary room as she noticed the bodies.
"Shh shut up, now's not a time to be making noise." Tom sealed Peach's mouth.
"Relax, Tom." Rosalina grinned. "Sound will not wake them." She approached the bodies, getting closer to them, and then squatted down to see how they looked. "I don't want to wake them just yet, since Pauline's missing." She looked around and checked other parts of the rooms to see if Pauline may have been placed somewhere she had not yet checked. "This spell isn't supposed to be broken simply or have a chance to not happen. I've mastered this one by now."
"But why are they all asleep?" Peach whispered this time.
"Rosalina had to put them all to sleep in order for us to take you out of here and across to England where we could get other people to wake you up sooner. These people said you wouldn't be awoken for at least another day if I can recall, and we have too many things to do in such a short time period." Tom replied rather quickly.
"Another reason why you're regulated laws have their flaws." Enrique said out of spite.
"Was I aware of this demon taking over my life slowly?" Peach cried, raising the pitch of her voice gradually. Her breathing became louder, so she slowly walked over to the bed that she was lying on when she was here unconscious and rested on it for now.
"I think you need to relax, Peach." Enrique tried to calm her. "I'm pretty sure demonic powers do not exist around here, not anymore I believe."
"Well it does worry me, and I do try my best to get it out of my head." Peach began to feel sharp pains on her back, irritating her and making her wail quietly. "It's my back!" She attempted to scratch it as Tom and Enrique stood around her on each side of the bed, the pain got worse as she began scratching.
"Stop scratching it!" Tom ordered. "You're making it worse." He grabbed Peach's soft hands and held them away from her back, trying to get her to stop scratching.
"But it hurts!" She moaned.
"I know it does! You need to sit up." He suggested.
"But I'm exhausted." She sat up straight on the sheetless bed and placed her arms forward. Eventually she either got used to the sharp pain or it did not appear as bad to her now that she was sitting up.
"Stay like that, or get off the bed even." Enrique thought. "What are we going to do about those people in there?" He asked Rosalina, who was still inside thinking about what could have happened to Pauline.
"The door is open!" A voice was heard from somewhere outside the infirmary. It was the sound of a familiar Toad voice, the voice was followed by several stumpy footsteps getting louder and louder as many Toads approached the entrance to the main infirmary room. "Quickly now everybody." The same voice called out from outside, the three inside the main room watched Toadsworth and a few other Toad castle workers approach the doorway. Peach gave a light wave to Toadsworth as he became startled to see Peach awake and appearing healthy.
"She is awake, Toadsworth." One of the Toads said in excitement. Toadsworth smiled.
"Indeed." He said. "It's great to see you looking better, do you know what happened?" His smile began to disappear away. "Where are the doctors?" He was concerned at how Peach was only seen in the room with both Tom and Enrique.
"Doctors?" Enrique said back as if he was confused. "They've not been here for ages, their job was amazing. Have you not seen them?"
Toadsworth was silent for a few seconds. "No." He said back. "None of us have seen any of them."
"They didn't really say where they were going after she awoke. So I assume they went where they would be expected to go." Enrique replied back. The group of people in the room noticed Rosalina return from the corridor.
"A-and where are Luigi, Daisy and the others?" Toadsworth asked again. Tom shrugged. "You don't know?" He asked again.
"Peach wanted some time alone from most people, she said this when she woke up." Enrique convinced. Peach nodded in agreement. "Luigi and Daisy went somewhere together."
"Probably in Daisy's quarters... if you know what I mean." Tom grinned, and put up a fake laugh, making the Toads around Toadsworth laugh as well. However, Toadsworth did not laugh as much as the rest.
"Haha... and what about Pauline?" Toadsworth looked very concerned to the others now. "Something doesn't seem right here."
"That we don't actually know." Tom replied. "I think she left literally at the same time you did, she never really went into this room with us."
"She did say she couldn't bear to watch Peach lay down unconscious, I'm sure she wasn't here." Rosalina backed Tom up.
"Yeah she wasn't here." Enrique finished.
"Really..." Toadsworth pretended to agree with them. He turned to Rosalina and stared to the corridor just behind Rosalina. The lights were still on in the room, and lots of medical equipment looked unused.
"Everything all right there mister Toadsworth?" Rosalina questioned his frozen look. "Why are you staring at me?"
"I'm not staring at you." He replied smoothly, evading the chance of him being perceived as a creep. "I'm staring at the room behind you." Toadsworth turned to the direction he was facing and approached Rosalina slowly. "May you let me pass?" He asked her. Rosalina sidestepped out of his way and let him proceed forward. Tom and Enrique began to feel a sense of unease thinking that the bodies would still be there. They could only assume she would knock Toadsworth out too.
They watched him turn his head leftwards to look around the small room of cabinets on all sides, too small to store bodies. He didn't appear to say anything afterwards.
"Well I'll be damned." Toadsworth said loudly from across the corridor. "I still don't trust you all." He walked out of the room and back into the main room where the rest were watching him awkwardly. Toadsworth looked once more to Peach, who was already looking better to him than when he last saw her. "I wish you a swift recovery." He bows in front of her and begins to leave with the rest of his Toad group. The sound of silence was at hand as they distanced further from the infirmary. Tom slowly sidestepped in through the hall to see if there was anything suspicious hidden in the back room.
"What did you do?" He called out from the back room, amazed to also see nothing... or nobody in there. "Some sort of spell?" Enrique headed over as well, to see those inside eventually appear. For a short moment as he arrived he did witness the re-appearance of the unconscious doctors, Luigi and Daisy. Pauline was still missing.
"Exactly that." Rosalina replied, walking over to the room and leaving Peach on the bed. "The problem is what we're going to say to them when I wake them."
"Where is Pauline?" Tom asked again.
"I don't know."
She approached the bodies and began laying them out comfortably along the floor of the back room, and in a few more seconds she moved her hands around and woke them all up at the same time, that way there would be less time worrying about explaining to them what happened.
"Leave the room." Rosalina ordered the others as movement began to occur amongst those on the floor. She watched some eyelids open slowly as if they all had a long sleep. Unable to bear the awkwardness, Rosalina sidestepped out of the room as well and returned to the others surrounding Peach.
"You've just got to play with it ok Peach?" Rosalina walked in mid-conversation of the others.
"Are they alright?" Peach asked. "I can't trust whether or not you've put some nasty side-effect on whatever you did to them." She said quietly.
"Trust me." Rosalina replied. "The only thing that we need to worry about is how you got that big mark on your back."
"Maybe Zane would know about it-."
"Peach!" Daisy rushed over towards the bed from the back room and made an attempt to leap over and give Peach a big hug. "You're ok!" She said as she was doing it. Rosalina quickly stepped in the way and prevented Daisy from leaping, for Peach was not to be moved around with the painful mark on her back.
"Stop!" Tom shouted. It seemed like the sight of seeing Peach awake and looking better was more important than the fact that she was asleep for several hours. "She isn't to be touched; she has a horrible mark on her back that is not to be looked upon."
"My queen, are you ok? We thought we were working on you but all of a sudden we appeared on the floor in there." One of the Toad doctors asked, looking at her and seeing her better.
"I want nothing of you lot, leave here now. But thank you I am doing much better."
"...My queen?"
"Leave me! And speak nothing of this day to anyone! Or it's the cells!" She raised her voice and ordered them a second time.
"Yes my queen, sorry my queen." The doctors headed out of the room and left the area quickly, Peach slid slowly down the bed with relief, trying not to make contact with the surface with her scab.
"Too many things are happening at the same time." She moaned. "Or at least can I not endure all of this pain at the same time?" Her distress began to worry Daisy slightly, but she eventually learned to get used to witnessing Peach suffer. It was like the cost of properly ruling to her, since Bowser is no longer a large threat.
"Speaking of those Toads... and us too, how did we end up in there?" Luigi asked. "And where is Pauline?" Enrique walked over to Luigi and put his hand on his shoulder.
"Basically." He began. "We went to Earth with Peach to wake her up; it would have taken far much longer if we let these... workers do it for her. Citizens here have not really done much of this stuff ever, since it doesn't happen to them. We thought it would be faster taking her to a hospital in Earth."
"But Earth doesn't have these magic things, or magic anyway. Why would they do it any faster?"
"We have better technology." Enrique replied. He walked over towards some of the Toads' medical equipment. "See, I don't even know what this thing is." He grabbed it and fiddled around with it, whatever it was. "And it doesn't seem of much help either. What matters is that Peach is somewhat fine for now, and at least she is awake."
"We thought it would have been too much of a catastrophe attempting to take her with you lot witnessing it, it's not something we would want to tell the people now." Tom added.
"And luckily it worked well." Rosalina cheered.
"For now, agh!" Peach moaned more, resisting the urge to scratch or pick the mark on her back.
"Are you sure those Toads are not going to talk about this?" Tom wondered. "Word spreads super quickly in this day and age."
"I better hope they don't, and it would look really bad on me if they did." She replied, deeply thinking on any short term changes she can implement.
"Well, you can't let people get away with it even if they work for you." Tom thought.
"You're right. With things like this going on it's hard to trust any citizen, the borders haven't been manned properly either since the trains sort of allow free movement." She worried. "Detaining is too simple nowadays too; it doesn't give any justice for the innocent." Implying she was innocent here, she wondered what she would do to those who committed crimes against the crown. "Is there a word to describe committing a crime against me? Or someone like me on Earth?" She asked those surrounding her.
"It's called treason, it's known to be one of the highest levels of severe crime, and back in the past committers would be punishable with death." Enrique replied.
"So you're saying you'll provide execution to those who wrong-do?" Tom asked. "That sounds ridiculous."
"No." Enrique replied. "...send them north, if people find about what happened here. They'll serve time protecting the lands of the south; we'll have the Red Martyrs train them. That way Peach would have to worry less about that." Peach seemed to like what Enrique was saying. "Even better we can have those who are currently locked up working on the mountain borders. We may have to speak to the council but they can decide leaders amongst themselves to lead these people into servicing the tunnels and the stations. You may also have to directly speak to the train operators to make checks on those stations just before or after the tunnels, to see if anybody is sneaking past." Rosalina moved towards the door of the infirmary and closed it, making a gesture implying it's better to talk about this without anybody hearing in.
"One thing I'd like to ask is – and this is to Peach mainly – how are we supposed to monitor people crossing the border north? Toads and Koopas and Goombas arrive every day in their hundreds in and out of the north how are we supposed to know if they are citizens of the south or not?"
"Each citizen has or should have proof of citizenship or proof of address on them when taking a train north; we can have that checked easily." She smiled and nodded back at Enrique. "I think having people work there would be a brilliant idea, since the Brigade and Patrol are much needed in defending the south from local threats.
"I guess that defeats my next question concerning radicalisation." Tom added.
"Radicalisation?" Peach looked confused.
"It's like brainwashing, but in this case it would be citizens here travelling north to be influenced by hostility. So when they come back they are far more likely to commit crimes here." Enrique added.
"The north should have pledged allegiance with us five years ago, but they still refused. We should enforce our borders so the people there will not find it easy to sneak in. If the innocent want in then they should give up their towns and distractions and hold proper citizenship here." Peach was soon eager to make that a new law for reinforcing the borders.
"It all seems like a distant dream, trying to make the north unify with us." Tom stated.
The mention of northern unification reminded Enrique of the times he was with Illias Fonavan, mentioning how the north was divided and not as big of a problem as people in the south ought it to be, but he was unsure on whether or not he should inform Peach about it.
"There's only one problem here that I would like to put across." Luigi took his turn to speak. "What if they say no? What if the locked up people refuse to work on the stations and would instead stay in the cells?"
"They can have their sentences reduced. Simple. If they can hold their positions until the threat is dealt with, they can return back home, or be paid to continue their services." Peach smiled. "Enrique, you and I will head straight to Aypyidaw after Koopa Cape! We will need to see Archbarn and Muji about this proposal and allow them to allocate leaders for each station."
"And what will we do?" Daisy asked Peach, boring her.
"I will need your eyes in the south; I will appoint you in charge of the castle while we are gone. Devise a plan on regulating the people perhaps. We must... talk about this in my quarters, ouch! It's stinging." The pain became worse for short periods every so often, mostly during times where Peach makes herself most comfortable. "Leave me, all of you. I'm tired." The bother of the pain changed her slightly. She did not fancy any company for the time being anymore now that she knows in her head what the cause of it is. Luigi looked at Peach and gave her a look of gratitude.
"I'm going to look for Mario probably at home." He said. "I am his brother after all." Before he was about to leave, he turned to Daisy one last time. "Training grounds for nine thirty." He still thought he was in the competition despite having to put up with the disturbed Mario. Hopefully he could drive throughout all of the upcoming races since he's been training a lot more often and wouldn't be distracted whilst driving.
"Great plan." Daisy gave Luigi a big kiss, wishing him off soon after. "...do you want to train with us tomorrow Tom? Rosalina? What about you?"
"I've got some things to do." Rosalina said with disappointment. "Maybe another day." Daisy then looked at Tom, hoping he would give a better response to her. She could only dream of that soothing response of a big 'yes, I'll come' from him, but she doubted it anyway.
"I've got to find the others, haven't seen them since that big dinner we had at Luke's penthouse." It was as she thought, he wouldn't come. Rosalina began walking out of the infirmary after Luigi left leaving the door open.
"All the best for now, Peach." Rosalina said her goodbyes and went off.
"Ok Daisy and Peach, see you soon." Tom left with Enrique just after Rosalina. Daisy then began to make her way off, staring at Peach who was lying on the bed looking like she was about to doze off.
"Stay, Daisy." Peach prevented her from leaving quietly and wished her back. Daisy closed the door, still inside and locking it soon after before walking over to the seat next to Peach. She watched her slouching on the bed; the duvet was dirty and creased having been used to carry her across to Earth. It had been the longest period where the two were wearing their biker outfits; Daisy was eager to either get back into her dress or a gown to get herself an early night in preparation for training tomorrow. Although they weren't first at the moment, they were still ahead of Bowser and Daisy intends to keep it that way. "I don't know if I should make the effort to go up to bed." She eventually spoke, still looking up to the ceiling rather blankly.
"You can do whatever you want." Daisy replied brightly, doing her best to keep Peach's mood positive. "If you think you could get some sleep here then so be it, I'll sit here and stay with you if that is what you want." Peach often made attempts to sit herself up straight but it seemed like she had no energy to do so anymore, even though she felt normal on her way back here.
"I feel like a cripple, I cannot run a kingdom like this. You'll have to drive for every race from now on until I'm better. The show must go on." She eventually turned her head to Daisy, who was undoing her zip slightly to give herself some space to move around in her biker outfit. "My parents would be so disappointed in me, toiling with magic." Daisy looked confused and discomforted at how Peach was talking. It's been a while since she last saw Peach in a proper happy mood.
"And everyone out there thought that it was all a lie, that there was no such thing as sorcery, or only something that had come from outer space, where Rosalina and Zane got theirs from." Daisy added on. "Apparently Duncan's got a thing for that magic stuff too, but he's not very proficient I have been told by Tom in the past."
"Tom really liked those boys, it's actually rather sad how I ran them off, scared them away from these lands. Now if the power in the north properly goes out it will definitely cause a war to happen. I bet some people up there know it was us who banished them too."
"We could always go to war."
Peach shook her head. "...Too busy for that, we'll frighten the people and Bowser would usurp me, I'm sure of it." Daisy didn't reply, she just sighed and sat in her chair with Peach, watching her groan and moan passively. "It feels like time is going way too slowly for my liking now. I should have made the races every day."
"It's better if it is like this. Everyone gets a rest day, it just happens to be you only who is suffering." Daisy mentioned. "I insist you train with us tomorrow, it will make you feel better. I promise." Peach looked back at her and smiled.
"Alright." She said, warming Daisy on the inside. "It should be fun."
"You will definitely like it, we'll ace Cape tomorrow too, I'm sure of it. We'll take the lead and show the people why we are the queens of the land!" Daisy was one to get really excited so quickly. It was one of the things Peach liked the most about her. She was always someone who used to always brighten up the mood in the darkest of times during their childhood. Despite being consistently captured by Bowser in the past, Peach hadn't felt this much stress and pain since the wars in her childhood years.
"Get some sleep Peach then, I will see you tomorrow." Peach wished her peace and held her by the arm with her right hand. "Nine thirty at the training grounds." She smiled at her.
"Nine thirty!" Daisy smiled happily; amazed at the fact Peach remembered what Luigi said stating the time of meet. "Do you want the door locked?" Daisy asked as she reached the door. "You'll need to get up and close it once I leave." Peach got up from her spot on the bed and walked over towards Daisy slowly.
"Yes, I need peaceful sleep." She reached out for the door handle and gave Daisy a big hug before closing the door on her and locking it. Hopefully she would understand Peach's pain and will accept informal goodbyes, for Peach turned around and rushed straight to the bed again. She tried to find a position that wouldn't cause pain in her back as well as being comfortable enough for her to attempt sleeping. What did annoy Peach however was the thought of trying to sleep making it more difficult for her to actually fall into deep sleep.
The sky was dark, but many lights were lit up in the city. Daisy walked through the corridors of the castle and made her way up stairs to her bedroom on the top floor: the same floor that had Peach's bedroom and her work quarters, now fully repaired after the previous damages. For security purposes, there was now a pass-code implemented on the door at the top of the stairs leading to the floor that only few knew, including Daisy herself. Just before she opened up the door to her bedroom she turned her eye towards down the corridor towards Peach's work quarters. The door was ajar, and she still had things on her mind to check out, so she closed her bedroom door and walked across the hallway into the work room. No activity was heard of so there was no worry of making too much sound.
The room looked a lot cleaner than usual now that the Toad workers have fully fixed the windows. The only thing to appear messy was the map table. Most of it had scrolls of maps scattered on all corners of the table, but there were still the same pages Daisy had hoped to see on this table: parts of the Mushroom Accords. A set of regulations that were to make the living standards of the southern kingdoms more safe and to further pursue the hunt for Bowser's old allies and other associates of evil, with intention to make the southern lands more peaceful. Although Peach discussed a lot of the accords with her, she assumed there would be some sections of it that would be hidden away from her, since she wasn't allowed to proof read the whole set before they were formally passed and established. There seemed to be a lot more pages than she could remember piled up as well. Daisy picked up all the sheets and sifted through them. Each new regulation was categorised and written in much larger text at the top of each page. This made it easier for Daisy to find out any new sections that were never discussed with her. The first new section she came across was the intent to purposely raise price levels, for purchasable goods as well as taxes, making the citizens less wealthy. This gave her the explanation as to why the prices for tickets to the races were very expensive as well, despite it being the most popular tournament so far. The second section she came across that she had not recalled seeing was the removal of conscription. Five years ago, Peach addressed to her citizens the idea of conscription; most citizens would be trained in the event hostility in the north was to get worse over the years in between. Daisy was confused as to why this became removed; perhaps it would be due to the threat of Bowser being minimal so now citizens would appear to live more freely. But she thought "why increase prices?" as well.
Daisy kept sifting through sections that she had already seen until she got to the last sheets of paper. There was one more section that she had not seen before, and the title of this one caught her eye quickly.
"Hey? What's this one?" Daisy said out loud as she picked the sheets up from the rest.
EOC: I'm almost running out of spare chapters to upload. This one took me too long (about 3 months) but I do intend to go faster because this one was rather difficult to do as well as me being busy a lot.
See you soon.