"You want to know where Mario went?" Peach laughed. "Oh, Daisy! If I didn't know any better, I'd say you were trying to make a move on him!"

Daisy rolled her eyes before raising the phone back up to her ear. "Don't worry, I'm not about to steal your man. And if I were, you know I'd never give any hint about what I was up to."

That was not EXACTLY true. Sure, Daisy had no interest in Mario: He was a relentlessly happy doughball and that was just exhausting to be around for any longer than a 40-turn mini-game party. But if Daisy ever felt like ruining Peach's life then all she needed to do was invite the guy over for cake. The more brazen the invitation the better.

"I'm needing to catch up with him because he's holding onto some stuff for me."

"What kind of stuff?" Peach said with an edge in her voice. Daisy tried not to laugh at her. She was such a dork for that dweeb.

"The usual, y'know? Just some mystical rocks. I figured they'd be safe with him but now I need them for something, and I can't find the bozo anywhere!"

"Could this wait?" Peach said. "I'm trying to review city building plans right now."

Daisy could tell by the echo in the call and the faint dripping sound that Peach was taking a bubble bath right now.

"C'mon Peachie!" Daisy said. "I've got stuff to do too and I'm really in a bind here! Listen, do me this favor and I'll go easy on you at the charity tournament. How about that?" This was a lie but would let Daisy save face in the off-chance she lost.

"Oh, alright. Give me a moment, I need to pull up the app."

"App?" Daisy said.

"Oh, I asked Mario to sew a Global Positioning Satellaview microchip into his hat," Peach said. "Just in case, you understand. It puts me at ease to see his little dot moving and on the world map and I get an ETA on rescues. I can check where he is now."

Daisy thought about talking to Peach about relationship boundaries but decided not to push her luck. It was not any of her business anyway.

"Hm, looks like he's in the Western end of Desert Hill right now," Peach said. "Does that help?"

"Awesome!" Daisy said. "Perfect. Thank you SO much, I can finally get this errand out of the way. Anyway, I won't keep you. Enjoy a nice soak with those building plans, alright? See you at the tournament. Ciao!" She terminated the call and received a couple of expert high fives from her companions. "Target acquired. Let's blow this dump."

The three of them hurried into the underground Warp Zone and charted a course through the different kingdoms. Desert Hill was a bit out of the way. They had to make transfer stops at the Bean Bean Kingdom and Diamond City Warp Zones before they could get on the 2-1 line to the Mushroom Kingdom's various deserts.

They popped out in front of vibrant earthy wasteland of rolling sand dunes and blocky stone ruins. Palm trees and cacti offered a splash of green alongside the odd oasis in the far distance here and there. Daisy could see purple pipes outlining the skeletons of abandoned construction work a ways off. She supposed they were derelict on account of Peach's constant kidnappings, or else the local vassal king was a bumbling useless idiot. Possibly both.

"Alright," Daisy said. "You got our compass handy?"

Waluigi whipped Sunny out of his overalls and held him up.

"Oh! Ah!" Sunny said. "I'd forgotten what the sun looked like! It's so bright!"

"Never mind that, disc face!" Waluigi said. "Are any of your gems nearby?"

"Hmm? Hey. Now that you mention it, I think there are! Yeah! Wow. There's a whole bunch of them too!"

"Which way?" Wanda said.

"Little more to the left, wait, stop. Right there! That's it! You're getting good at this."

"I know," Waluigi said before stuffing Sunny back into his inventory.

There was no option but to take the rest of the trek on foot. They made their way up and down the dunes and through lumpy neighborhoods of pint-sized pyramids. It was easy to tell Mario had come through here recently. The coin blocks were empty and there was a trail of beat-up minions snaking across the landscape. Knocked-out shy guys, ninjis, and cobrats were strewn all over the place with the handful of still-conscious survivors now too frightened to pose much of a threat. It made for a relaxed stroll.

"Keep your eyes peeled for that chubby red imbecile," Waluigi said.

"Who?" Wanda said.

"He means Mario," Daisy said.

"Ohhh," Wanda said, her eyes drifting toward something. "Isn't that him at that big temple over there?"

They looked and spotted him leaping and bounding around the outside of one of the bigger ziggurats like a fly smacking against a windowpane trying to get through. Daisy and Waluigi rushed downhill to get closer and peeked out from behind cover to spy on him. Mario slid and climbed and ground pounded on switches and collected coins while going 'wahoo!' until something clicked, and a pair of massive limestone double doors ground open. As soon as it was done, Mario cartwheeled through the air and jogged inside with a little "haha!"

"There's gotta be a dream gem in there, right?" Daisy said. "You think we can nab it before he does?"

"No need," Waluigi said. "Let him do the heavy lifting. We can relieve him of all his stones on his way out."

Daisy nodded. "That's smart, good thinking. But we're gonna need a plan. Unless you think we can overpower him?"

Waluigi turned his lip up at that idea. "Brute force is a last resort. A good trick gets twice the work done in half the sweat."

"We both tricked him not too long ago, so I think he'll be on guard," Daisy said. "We're gonna need disguises, and a cover story that appeals to his empty-headed heroism."

"Yes!" Waluigi pumped his fist, looking fired up. "Now you're talking my language!"

"Um, guys?" Wanda said, fluttering between them. "Why can't we just ask Mario for help? We can team up and all stop Wart together."

"Hush," Daisy said, "the grownups are talking,"

"I'm four-hundred years old!"

"I've got an idea," Waluigi said, ignoring Wanda. "But I think you're going to hate it."

"Try me."

"Mario is all about rescuing and helping people, but Peach in particular. No offense, but the two of you look close enough to pass for twins."

Daisy groaned. "You're right, I already hate where this is going." The resemblance was an absolute pain, but it was undeniable.

"Just hear me out," Waluigi said. "The guy is so lovesick for that woman his IQ drops a couple percentile ranks anytime they're in the same room. All we need to do is dress you in pink and make it look you're in danger and he'll drop everything to help."

"The worst thing about this is I know it's going to work," Daisy said, rubbing her face. "Alright, but if I'm the bait what's the trap?"

"We need to create a sense of danger. A threat to distract him."

"Okay, but we still need some way to get the dream gems off him."

Waluigi thrust a thumb into his chest. "You leave that to ME. When I'm done, he won't even know what happened!"

His excitement was infectious. Just brainstorming with him was so much fun. She loved how confident he was about pulling off this absurd heist. She could not help getting into it herself.

"I'm counting on you, but we still need that distraction."

Waluigi looked around the area. "There's not much to work with here but heavy stone blocks. If they were lighter, maybe we could build something."

"Wanda can magic blocks out of thin air," Daisy said. "Maybe we can use that instead?"

"Oh! You're right!" Waluigi said, grinning ear to ear at her. "That's perfect. I have just the idea! Wanda!"

They turned to look at Wanda, who had fluttered off to sit alone atop one of the ruins with her arms folded. Waluigi ran over and started drawing a schematic in the sand with a stick.

"Wanda, here's what I'm thinking. If you can summon a bunch of blocks in this pattern, we can clown all over that dunce Mario!"

Wanda glowered down at him, a twist of bitter anger in her face.

"No," she said.

"No?" Waluigi said, confused. "Wanda, I think you're key to making this work. We don't have a lot of time to throw this together. Why don't you want to help?"

"Because this is stupid!" Wanda said. "I'm not going to help you trick Mario! All he's trying to do is help!"

"Hey, hey, wait a second," Daisy said. "We told you already that this Mario guy is a creep. He's not cut out to be the hero. He's done all sorts of bad stuff!"

"Do you think I'm dumb?" Wanda said. "That's just a bunch of lies you told the Sundream Stone to get its help! Now you're talking about pulling more tricks! You guys don't actually want to help people at all!"

"That's not true!" Daisy said.

"That's, pardon my language, a bunch of baloney!" Wanda said. "All you care about is taking credit for saving the day!"

Waluigi held up his hands. "Alright, you need to calm down. It's true we both have a stake in becoming heroes, but that does not mean we only care about ourselves. The 8-bits are causing serious damage to the Waking World and the Dream World. It's bad for everyone if Wart gets his way."

Wanda stood up on her perch, looking down on them. "Then why won't you team up with Mario?! If stopping Wart is what matters most, maybe I should go help Mario by telling him you've got one of the dream gems!"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Daisy said. This whole situation was spinning out of control. "There's no need for that! We're all in this together!"

"If that's true then WHY are you being so selfish?!"

"I…" Daisy stared up at Wanda, struggling to think of some excuse or explanation. The little sprixie was so worked up that one wrong word might send her running to Mario. She could not let that happen. If Mario got all the dream gems, then that was it. He would stop Wart, and everyone would call him the hero. He'd win.

But was that a bad thing? She would lose her crown but everything else in the world would be fine. The world would keep spinning. It would just leave her behind.

Daisy thought about mom and the orphanage. She thought about how lucky she was and how easy it would be to lose all of it. How was she supposed to explain any of this to someone like Wanda?

"Wanda, I… you're right," Daisy said. She took a deep breath. "I am being selfish. I'm scared, and I don't want to lose my crown. Or lose at all. I don't want to admit Mario is better."

"Stop it!" Waluigi said, taking her by the shoulder. "Mario is not better than you. The only thing that matters here is the strength of your will. If you want something you take it by whatever means you can. He is not better if when the dust settles you win."

Daisy was taken off guard, looking into Waluigi's eyes and seeing her face reflected in them. She pulled away to wipe the tear budding in her eyes.

"It's just… it doesn't even matter," she said. "I have to try so hard to win and he does it like it's nothing. I could give up right now and he'd take care of it like he always does. Everyone will go on loving him and I can just disappear!"

Waluigi took her hand. She looked back at him and recognized a familiar sorrow underneath the hard lines of his anger.

"I know you're better than this," he said. "You're not the type to give up. That's what I respect about you. I get it. Believe me, I do. But don't you dare falter. The world does NOT care about us. That's why you care about yourself. We can do this, with or without Wanda."

Daisy looked over at Wanda, who was watching them in silence. Daisy shook off her whirlwind of emotion and steadied her heart to talk to the sprixie.

"I'm doing this for me. That's the truth. I want to be a hero to keep my crown and that's it."

"Is it really that important to you?" Wanda said.

"Yeah," Daisy said. "Think whatever you want about that."

Wanda's face softened as she considered those words. She stepped off the edge of her block and fluttered down to Daisy.

"Alright then," she said. "I'll help."

"You… will?" Waluigi said, raising an eyebrow.

"I don't get it," Wanda said. "But you're being honest now, at least. That's the first step to being good. I wanna think we're friends, so I'll give you a chance to make your dream come true. Just promise me you'll do the right thing if it looks like we're gonna lose."

"Heh." Daisy felt her spirits lift. "Don't worry. We got this in the bag."