Chapter 7: The Challenge

Daisy stared at II Piantissimo strangely, and he stared back at her. From what Daisy had heard from Mario, he was a strange man who always challenged Mario to races where Mario would often win prizes.

"Hello, Princess Daisy," II Piantissimo said loudly, "I am II Piantissimo. I'm sure Mario has told you all about me; we had some interesting times lest time he was here." He kept staring at Daisy, yet she didn't know what to say.

"Um…" Daisy began, "Hi, II Piantissimo. I've heard some stories about you." Daisy decided that since II Piantissimo hed been here for a while, she might as well get information from him. "So, what have you found out about Bowser and his plan since you've been here?"

II Piantissimo thought for a couple of minutes, but then began to speak. "Well, you can always find out information when you sneak into the planning room, that's where Bowser holds all his meetings!"

Daisy was completely surprised by this piece of information. Not only did II Piantissimo know things, but he seemed to know also know how to get out of here. "Wow! So you know a way out of here? Where is it?" Daisy wanted to get out of here as soon as possible.

"Hah!" II Piantissimo exclaimed, "I' not telling you anything! Well unless…" Daisy thought she knew what he was going to say next.

"Do you want me to race you?" she asked, "Because if you haven't noticed, it's a little cramped in here to have a race." She was right; the jail cell could have only been about fifteen feet long and ten feet wide, making it almost impossible to have a race.

"I think we could," replied II Piantissimo, and Daisy looked at him strangely. "We'll run 50 laps back and forth. If you win, I'll tell you the way out of here. If you lose, I'm not telling you the way out, and I doubt you'll find it by yourself. Are you ready?"

Daisy thought about it for a minute, and she decided that it was worth a shot, for she had nothing to lose if she lost. "Ok, let's do it," she finally said, "It won't be that hard; I heard Mario beat you almost every time." Daisy knew that as soon as she said this that she had angered the man greatly.

"Yes, well…He's very fast! I doubt you'll be as good as him. But let's find out, shall we?

Daisy and II Piantissimo decided to start at opposite ends of the cell, and after Daisy took off her shoes, they were ready to start.

"On your mark," Daisy began.

"Get set," continued II Piantissimo.

"GO!"

They both started off running at the same rate, but Daisy noticed that II Piantissimo was gradually getting ahead of her. After Daisy finished twenty-eight laps, she realized that she was becoming light-headed and that she was three laps behind II Piantissimo. She didn't know what to do, she didn't see how she could catch up in her condition. She became very dizzy after lap thirty-five, and couldn't see where she was going. However, II Piantissimo was not paying much attention either, causing the two of them to collide with each other. Daisy just fell over, while II Piantissimo went flying in the air.

Daisy got up quickly and saw that II Piantissimo was still on the ground and moaning in pain. She took this as an opportunity to catch up, and was able to complete eight laps before II Piantissimo got up and began to talk.

"Stop…stop," he panted, still out of breath from running and being knocked into the air by Daisy. "You win. I'll tell you where the way out is. Just…just pull out the bed over there. You can reach the planning room from there, it's only about a five minute crawl."

And sure enough, when Daisy pulled out the bed in the corner, she found a hole that looked barely big enough to crawl through. "This is it?" she asked him. She didn't really need an answer; she just couldn't see herself crawling through something that small.

"Well, here I go! I'll see you when I get back." Daisy jumped in the hole and began crawling through the narrow passage. She never thought that she would be in what now looked like a ventilation system, but she thought that the information she would find out would be something that she could use to her advantage. Like II Piantissimo said, after five minutes of crawling there was a vent in which Daisy could here voices coming out of. As she got closer, she could see Bowser, Bowser Jr., Kammy Koopa, Kamek, and a ton of Bowser's cronies. It seemed like they had just began a meeting.

"Son, was the attack successful?" Bowser asked his son, who was right across from him on the round table.

"Of course dad, everything went fine. And we even got new prisoners! There back in the Princess's cell now.

"Excellent," Bowser replied, clearly pleased with himself and his son, "And Kammy, what happened at Bianco Hills?"

Kammy shifted in her seat, and then began talking, "Well, Mario and his friends arrived with some native Zoshis, and a war broke out between them and the Piranha Plants. Mario was able to capture Petey Piranha, but the rest of the plan went successfully."

"What! Petey was captured!" Bowser exclaimed, "The idiot…we'll have to get him back… anyway, Kamek, what has been going on with the sharks and chips?"

Kamek began talking proudly, "The robotic shark's camera shows footage of it almost catching the real Princess and some of her friends, but they got away just before he could get them. And so far we have had to insert mind controlling chips into twenty of the residents, they've just seen too much and some of them were getting suspicious. We inserted them in the Delfino Plaza officers, the owner of Pinna Park, the Mayor of Delfino Plaza, and many other residents of the island who spotted us at work. The chips make them forget what the saw and tell other people who are suspicious of us that they are wrong and crazy. They really are useful…"

"Yes well, that's very good to hear." Bowser said. "Soon we will be inserting these chips into everyone on the island, including Mario, and nobody will be able to stop my plan from succeeding. Muahahahahah!"

Daisy had heard enough. She was completely shocked at what Bowser was up to and what was happening to all of her friends while she was locked away in Bowser's Sub. She began to crawl back to her cell, being very quiet as to not attract the attention of Bowser and the rest. She climbed out of the dark hole and back into the cell, looking dirtier than she had ever been in her life.

"Daisy, is that you?" said a voice behind her. She turned around to see two new occupants in the cell: Toadsworth and Toad.