Wanda's dream brain portal barfed Daisy and Waluigi back into the real world and they tumbled into a messy heap on the floor of Pi'illo castle. Daisy shoved a stunned Waluigi off of her and got to her feet just as Wanda sat up in bed.

"You're back!" Dreambert said, poofing out of his pillow form and into his basic dweeb form.

"Looks like it," Daisy said, feeling like she could do with a nap herself.

Daisy's phone buzzed. She pulled it out to see she had fifteen missed calls from the skipper of the sunken Daisy Cruiser.

"One sec," she said and called them. "Hey, Princess D. here."

"There you are!" the sailor cried. "We were worried! What happened to you?"

"Sorry, I don't think I get any reception in other dimensions," she said. "What's up?"

"Well, uh. The other crew members and I were just wondering if you wanted us to do anything."

"I don't know! Set up an embassy or something. I'm busy with hero stuff right now! Bye!"

She ended the call. The Pi'illo prince looked at her expectantly.

"…Have you succeeded?" Dreambert said. "Have you thwarted the villain and saved us all?"

"Ehh… not quite," Daisy said. She was still alive, which she considered a win as a rule but all she could say they accomplished was distracting Wart for a few minutes. "That was more of a reconnaissance trip."

"That makes me feel better about how badly we got beat!" Wanda said. "We lost big, and right away too! I was worried we were just bad at this."

"Shut up!" Waluigi said as he sprang upright. "This is not our fault. We were missing critical intel. Wart is MUCH too powerful to fight head-on."

"I thought that was obvious," Dreambert said. "I'm like 90% sure I told you something about it being too dangerous."

"He's got crazy powers!" Wanda said. "How are we supposed to fight him if we can't even touch him?"

Waluigi paced the room. "We need power of our own. …Wah. We've seen what the dream gems can do. If we collect them all, we might just have enough oomph to break through his defenses!"

Dreambert looked dumbfounded. "Wait. You're telling me you guys KNEW about an assortment of legendary doohickeys and you DIDN'T collect them before confronting the big bad guy? I've been out of the loop for hundreds of years and even I know that's standard practice for adventuring heroes."

"Hey!" Daisy said. "We're new at this! Cut us some slack!"

Dreambert floated over to the window. "If what you say is true, it appears things are worse than I thought. I cannot doze idly if the Dream World is imperiled like this." He turned towards them with a dramatic flick of his red cloak. "I shall put my princely duties on hold and accompany you on your quest!"

Daisy and Waluigi exchanged an uncomfortable sideways glance. Waluigi grimaced and frowned. Daisy clenched her teeth, eyed Dreambert, and tried to shake her head without him noticing. Waluigi relaxed, appearing to agree. Wanda was handy to have around but carting around an extra goody-two-shoes would be unbearable.

"Wahh… No. That's okay, thanks," Waluigi said.

"Yeah, see, we've already got a side-kick." Daisy waved her arm in the direction of Wanda. "We're set for right now."

"You just stay here so we can get back to Subcon when we need, got it?"

Dreambert looked deflated. "I… suppose. But do you even know where to look for these dream gems?"

Daisy hummed. "Well, we've got Sunny to point us in the right direction, but the Daisy Cruiser is sunk. Getting to them might be a problem."

"It's fine," Waluigi said. "Just call Peach and ask where Mario is. Odds are he's already found the rest of them."

"What?!" Dreambert shook his head in disbelief. "Didn't you say before that Mario was dead?!"

Daisy waved at him to be quiet. "Yeah, something like that, sure. Anyway, is this island on the Warp Pipe network?"

"Huh?" Dreambert said. "Well, yes. I had us hooked up to it a couple of months ago to help with tourism."

"Perfect! Great. That's all we need then," Daisy said.

Waluigi pushed open the door. "Alright! We've got a plan. Let's go!"

"Hold on!" Dreambert said. "I demand an explanation!"

Daisy was already halfway out the door. "Wanda! are you coming or not?!"

"Just a second!" She said as she finished making the bed. "Okay, ready. Bye Dreambert! Thanks for letting me sleep on you! It was nice!"

"Oh, uh." He blushed. "You're welcome. Anytime."

Wanda fluttered out the door and the three of them hurried to find the Warp Zone.