Daisy stepped out onto the roof of the bus and saw the left side of the street shaved clean of its Northern walls. A few bewildered New Donkers peeked out from their now drafty apartments at the mess outside. The bus was neutralized, but where was Wanda?

"Look!" Waluigi said, pointing.

She craned her neck up and spotted Wanda high out of reach in the air. She was zipping every which way as beezos chased her through the sky with their spears. The bus must have been circling her like a buzzard waiting for her to fall. She tried to think of some way for her or Waluigi to get up there to help. The beezos were battering Wanda as she was trying her best just to get away. They watched, helpless, as their friend took one blow too many and fell from the sky.

"Wanda!" Daisy shouted.

"Yar har har har!" Clawgrip laughed and clacked his pincers. "That's it! Bring the wee one here to me!"

The crab sat on the front end of the bus like a big ugly barnacle. It would have been nice if he had died in the crash, but nothing today was that easy. The beezos snatched Wanda and delivered her into the clawed grip of the appropriately named Clawgrip. He turned to shoot Daisy a smug look.

"Let her go or I'll make rangoon out of you!" Daisy said.

"Ye'd best watch your tongue if you know what's good for ye." Clawgrip held up the squirming Wanda and readied his other claw to snip her throat.

"Whoa, whoa!" Waluigi said, alarmed. "There's no need for that! Just calm down!"

"Ahhhhh!" Wanda said. "Ahhhhhhh!"

"Ye want to parlay, do ye?" His claws were massive enough to pop her like a P-balloon. "You'll be doing as I say if ye care for this sprixie."

The beezos watched, perched on the roof tops and spears at the ready. Daisy felt a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. She hated that after all this fighting now she was at the mercy of this clown.

"Alright," she sighed. "What do ya want?"

"First," Clawgrip said. "You'll be signing us that recording deal! 70% of the royalties stay with the band! And we keep complete creative control too, or else this little executive gets it!"

Waluigi and Daisy exchanged a sideways glance.

"Uh," Waluigi started. "You know that we're not actually talent scouts, right?"

"Huh?"

"That was a trick," Daisy said. "Kondo Records isn't even a real company."

"But I thought…" Clawgrip's voice wavered. His eyes welled up with disappointment. "Why would ye lie about somethin' like that?"

"We're trying to steal the dream gem," Waluigi said growing irritated. "I thought that was obvious."

"But ye weren't lying at least about liking our music, yeah?"

"Okay, do you want me to be honest?" Daisy said. "Because I can be honest."

Clawgrip hesitated. "Of course I want ye to be honest!"

"Alright. I think you guys sound pretty rough."

"What're you doing?!" Wanda said, squirming. "Just tell him they sound great!"

"Hold on, this has been bothering me," Daisy said. "Like, maybe a couple of you have some talent but I can't tell because it feels like you either haven't practiced enough or skipped learning the fundamentals. If you were as good as you think you are, I doubt you'd need to dreamnap a whole stadium of pedestrians to fill seats."

"Fah!" Clawgrip said. "What do you know anyway?! Genius is never recognized in its time! What would a liar like ye know about True Art anyway? Nothing!" He spat. "Everyone's a critic. You probably think Sal Out is a good singer too! Just like everyone else. Hmph."

"Okay this is going great," Waluigi said. "You know now we're not talent scouts and you don't respect our opinion. Can you let our friend go now?"

"Yeah!" Wanda said.

"Not so fast ye uncultured plebs! I ain't leaving here empty handed! You're after the dream gems are ye? Then I'll be havin' the ones you stole then!"

"What? No!" Daisy said. "That's not fair! We need those!"

Wanda squealed as Clawgrip tightened his claws. "He's going to kill me if you don't!"

"Ugh." Daisy rubbed her forehead in frustration. "Do we have to?"

Waluigi growled under his breath. "I want to win as much as you do, but…"

That would not be right. It would be easy to let Wanda die. They were so close to finishing this quest. But Wanda was a friend and there was no way Daisy could sit and watch her dumb little sprixie head get squeezed off.

Daisy could not help but smirk when an idea popped into her head.

"Alright," she said. "Give him the stone, Waluigi. Really let him have it."

A hint of a smile flashed on his face as he caught her meaning. She could always count on him to be quick on the uptake. He reached down into his overalls.

"Nice and easy," Clawgrip said. "No funny business now."

Waluigi pulled out the blue dream gem.

"Good," Clawgrip said. "Now give it to me."

"My pleasure," Waluigi said and hurled the gemstone in Clawgrip's face.

"YOWF!" the crab shouted.

Wanda flew off as he stumbled back to the edge of the bus.

"How did ye remember," Clawgrip murmured, "that me one weakness was having rocks thrown at me…?"

Clawgrip toppled over the edge with a gut-wrenching bellow followed by a distant thud. The beezos, seeing their boss defeated, scattered like pigeons.

"Yeah, you better run!" Daisy said, "We're coming for you and Wart next! Just you wait!"

"You okay, Wanda?" Waluigi said.

She fluttered down from above to join them. "You didn't have to cut it that close! I almost got squished!"

"Sorry. That didn't exactly go as planned." Daisy scooped up the loose dream gem with the toe of her shoe and kicked it up to her palm. "But look on the bright side! We got the last dream gem! AND we saved New Donk City to boot!"

Waluigi peered back at the smoldering ruins of the last half dozen city blocks.

"Ehh. More or less," he said. "Let's maybe not try and take credit for this one."

"…Yeah," Daisy said. "Probably best to get while the getting is good."

"Let's go put the Sundream Stone back together!" Wanda said. "We can wish for the power to stop Wart and beat him for good this this time!"

Now there was a plan. Daisy hopped off the bus and bounced off the unconscious Clawgrip. "Let's do it!"

Waluigi jumped down after her and adjusted his cap. Wanda followed and the three of them strolled through the burning wreckage of downtown. Things were looking up.