I'm glad to announce that the next chapter is here. With this being the third to last chapter, I hope you are preparing yourself for the final climax of the story! I'm also glad to say that I am grateful for those who have reviewed and enjoyed this story, but I think I'll save the rest of the thanks for the end. So, for now, I hope you enjoy this next chapter and continue to review.

Chapter 24-A Desperate Search

"Luigi! Call Daisy! Tell her to meet you at our house! Toadiko's not at the castle, she's gonna escape, and we have no idea where she's gone! I'm sorry I can't explain anything, but you and Daisy have gotta go and look for her! You guys check the train station, and Peach and I will go to the airport! Call my cell if you've got anything! Notify the police!" And with that, Mario hung up the phone, leaving Luigi no time to say even a single word. This left the green-capped plumber highly curious and a bit cautious of what was going on...

"Check the airport?" Peach overheard Mario, grabbing her car keys and rushing out the door, with him at her side. To onlookers, it might have looked as though the duo was late for a luncheon or something, but this was most certainly not the case.

"Lemme drive!" Mario yelled as Peach swiftly tossed him the car keys, where he caught them, equally as swift. The two jumped into the car immediately, and Mario waited for almost nothing before he backed up and found himself driving down the street..., "Peach! Call Hamma and have him search the area. You know, like super markets and grocery stores and stuff. This will ensure that Toadiko is actually gone and didn't just go to the store or something..."

The princess nodded, pulling out her cell phone and dialing Hamma's number with tremendous speed. It only took a few seconds before she heard his voice on phone, oblivious to how desperate their situation truly was.

Mario listened as Peach sputtered out quick and numerous phrases. He wouldn't have been surprised if Hamma became even more clueless as to what was going on. By the way Peach was speaking, Hamma would probably explode out of sheer confusion. He wondered if Luigi was feeling the same way about how he had spoken to him, which, knowing him, he probably was.

"Bye!" He heard Peach yell into the phone, "He's going right now..."

Mario felt a bit more relieved. Considering that they practically had an entourage of Toadiko-hunters with them, he felt a lot better than he would if only he and Peach were going. But still, Toadiko was smart. She would most likely have some kind of elaborate plan that would get her out of even the worst of situations...unfortunately...

"Mario..." Peach said his name, several minutes later. This caused him to quickly glance at her out of the corner of his eye, "You're going a bit fast, wouldn't you say?"

"No..." Mario said, keeping his eyes on the road. Sure, he wasn't going eighty miles an hour, but for Mario, anything faster than the speed limit was a big jump for him. But this was no time to waste dilly-dallying on following the speed limit, which his brother was probably doing. If anything, and judging by his driving, one might suspect that Mario was a reckless driver that cared little about the safety of others..., "Call Luigi! Now!"

Peach complied, not entirely sure why Mario had suddenly wanted to bring his brother back into the picture. She suspected he wanted to check up on how he was doing, but when it came to Mario...you could never be quite sure...

"Luigi?" Peach asked, glancing at Mario. The plumber leaned in towards her and whispered for her to ask him about his progress, "Umm, where are you?"

"Daisy and I just got in the car now..."

Peach explained the situation to the ever-so-jumpy Mario, who found himself tensely gripping the steering wheel and jerking it around as though he were a robot. He simply nodded and ignored Peach's 'now what' look on her face.

"Hey, Luigi, we'll call you back in ten minutes. If you don't hear from us then, then call me in fifteen, alright?" Peach said, rather suddenly. This caught Luigi slightly off guard.

"All right, princess..." And with that, they ended their short conversation. Peach found herself staring ahead, through the windshield, watching the cars go whizzing by. For once, it was Mario who was doing the passing, considering he was exceeding the speed limit by almost twenty miles an hour. Peach wouldn't have been surprised if they got a speeding ticket, right then and there. This was one thing that she began to fear; if Toadiko was at the airport, then the last thing they needed was to be pulled over by a policeman.

"Peach, make sure I don't miss the exit, alright? Give me heads up when you see the sign..."

It only took a few minutes for Peach to fulfill her job. Mario found himself merging -which was more like jolting - to the right as though this was some Driver's Ed class. Apparently he wasn't a very good driver when under pressure...

"We'll be their in just a minute. Make sure you have your phone with you," Mario ordered, not wanting to waste any time worrying about what they needed when they were parked.

Peach felt her heart racing at speeds that seemed impossible to reach. After all of their searching, this might finally come to an end with this final confrontation. It began to make her jumpy out of sheer anxiety.

SCRREEECH! The car came to an unexpected halt, making Peach lunge forward. Thankfully, she had herself strapped tightly in her seatbelt, as soon as she had realized that Mario was going to drive like a mad-man.

"Get out!" Mario yelled suddenly, while Peach was recovering from the unpleasant parking incident, "Hurry!"

The duo found themselves joining together in the parking lot and walking awfully quickly to the air port entrance. Mario feared that Toadiko was either already in the air, or she was just about to be.

Peach, on the other hand, wasn't as confident as Mario was that she was indeed, at the airport. For all they knew, they might have been stressing and recklessly driving over nothing...

But Peach was wrong. Definitely wrong. Mario had stopped, frozen in his tracks, staring forward in amazement. She joined him, as they both, awestruck, watched Toadiko walk across the far end of the airport with a large suitcase. She was wearing a pair of sunglasses and was walking as though nothing was wrong. It was almost annoying to see such a criminal acting like she was just a mere citizen. But Mario and Peach knew better than to fall into the trap that they had fallen into several times before. Toadiko wasn't fooling them, anymore...