A/N: Tons and tons of mushrooms and 1Ups and gratitude to DaLover, dragon19kyoshi, and Ikuni Hattori for reviews! I promise not to forget the painting - and the 'M' word may or may not have a little something to do with Bowser's nefarious plans. :) Thanks again for reviewing (and reading!) everyone. You're amazing.

EDIT: I wanted to add a note about this chapter - I know it occurs after several Bowser/Peach chapters, but I'm trying to keep the timelines even so you can assume all of this is happening simultaneously. I hope it's not too much filler (and that it isn't too confusing) - sorry in advance!

Peach was definitely missing.

So was the referee, Luigi discovered, and any footage of the race - which was a real bummer because Daisy had done this killer trick on the third lap, and she'd wanted to show her father. Mario was worried - he and his brother left to search the rest of the castle, while Daisy insisted that she and Toad could handle the unconscious Koopa Troopa. Oh, she had big plans for him - with the Mushroom Retainer's help (and yellow ribbons she'd brought along with her accessories), she tied the suspect's wrists to his Magikruiser handlebars and pushed him back onto the track, behind the finish line, near that unsteady patch of land pock-marked with lava-blasting geysers. He was certainly out of harm's way, as was she (and her shorter, jumpier counterpart) but she liked the "privacy". Under the circumstances, it was the closest thing Daisy could get to a suitable environment for interrogation.

"Remember what we talked about?" she prompted under her breath as the Koopa Troopa finally began to stir, blinking his reptilian eyes heavily and tugging as his bindings.

Toad shifted uncertainly where he stood, touching his mushroom cap with one hand. "With all due respect, Your Highness," he replied dubiously, "I'm not sure this is the best course of action."

"Relax, Toad! I've seen this on television, it always works," Daisy replied dismissively, "All you have to do is stand there and look...non-threatening." It shouldn't have been tough. He was the good cop, she was the bad cop - this meant she'd be doing most of the persuading. A resolute smile crossed her face as the Koopa finally realized he was trapped (she was very good at sailor's knots) and looked up at her. Show time.

"Where did Bowser take my cousin, Kooper?"

"I don't know."

Daisy wasn't discouraged, narrowing her eyes triumphantly, "But you admit he did take her!"

Kooper frowned, shifting uncomfortably on his bike seat-turned-inquisition chair. "Wha- no? No. What is this?"

"I'm asking the questions, shellboy!" Daisy snapped, in her mind a perfect mimicry of one of her favorite shows, Sarasaland 5-0. It was so good. "Do you know how many treaties Bowser has broken today?" She didn't give him the chance to guess, "Do you know how many you've broken as an accomplice? Why, I have enough evidence to imprison you right now!"

"U-u-um," Toad stuttered nervously, unprepared for Daisy's sideways (and emphatic) glance, "H-however, if you...um...if you help us, we'll b-be sure to inf-form the racing commission that you c-cooperated. I-if-" he cast a pleading look the princess' way, because he didn't believe he could do this.

Good enough, thought Daisy charitably, cutting off Toad's painful performance with a much more intimidating, "If you don't, you'll never race again!" Now. "Where is my cousin?"

"I don't know."

"Listen, we already know he took her," she insisted impatiently, "You don't have to look at the instant replay to figure that out!" The Koopa Troopa said nothing. "I mean, Bowser's missing, Peach is missing, and you don't look worried - if your king was really in trouble, you wouldn't be so calm, Kooper." It was more than just his 'good' timing after the race, his entire behavior was questionable. Just as soon as someone tracked down the Lakitu, they'd have video footage to confirm what Daisy already knew. Why wouldn't he just do himself a favor and speak up now?

Daisy tried every tactic she knew of to get a confession - she even pushed Toad back into the limelight, where he stumbled through more lines - but the Koopa Troopa wouldn't change his story. He continued to insist that he didn't know where Bowser and Peach were, or what had happened, or how it happened. The fact that she knew he was lying made it all the more frustrating! If only she had the video feed - then he couldn't deny anything!

"If you're so innocent," Daisy demanded, pacing back and forth in front of her captive, "then why did you try to attack us?" Revving up one's bike to run over two people wasn't an accident. She'd seen the intent in Kooper's face before she'd dodged a would-be collision.

"I didn't try to attack you, Your Highness," he defended, unapologetic, "But Mario was armed."

Daisy scoffed, because while she could reluctantly admit it wasn't an unbelievable answer, she knew it was the right one. "Admit it, you knew you'd been caught," she argued, "You were just trying to escape our custody!"

"No, ma'am."

"Don't call me ma'am!" Just tell me where she is. "Look, Kooper, just-" Toad wasn't fit to play her counterpart, so Daisy was stuck with both roles, and while her voice wasn't gentle, she tried for a less overtly forceful approach. In fact, she leaned down so that she could look at him in the face when she asked, "Is she still in the castle?"

He didn't look away, as guilty parties sometimes do. "I don't know."

You're lying. So much for 'less forceful'. "Just answer the question!" she shouted, "Is she in the castle or not? Yes or no?"

"Your Highness-" Toad prodded her with a hand on her shoulder, but before Daisy glanced up, she heard an answer.

"No." Luigi. The Koopa Troopa didn't say anything, but it didn't matter. The princess released an anxious breath she didn't even know she'd been holding - and she tucked a stray curl of auburn hair behind her ear as the green-capped hero pulled up next to her. Mario, too. "She's-a not here, Daisy."

"How do you know?" she asked, ignoring the way her heart seemed to stutter - even worse than Toad - when Luigi looked at her.

"We found-a something." Daisy's mood lifted - hopefulness - because at first, they'd seemed so empty-handed. Instead of an explanation, Mario drew the glove from his pocket. Her eyes widened. She knew that shade of pink, and immediately snatched it from him, holding it up comparatively with her own. It was the exact same style.

"This is Peachy's!" There was no doubt about it, "Where'd you find it? Did you find anything else?"

"We searched the towers. There was-a nothing else up-a there." And, Luigi added, it was the only clue they'd found. Her glove. At the top of a tower.

"Do you think she left it on purpose?" Mario shrugged - it was a possibility and Daisy thought, well, it had to be more than a mere possibility. Peach wouldn't just go around with a missing glove for no reason. Now how many ways were there to get off a tower? "You think Bowser brought that stupid bowling ball he calls a car?" Which was already ridiculous in and of itself, because it wasn't a car at all. At least he got the clown part right. The copter was small, from what she'd seen (and heard from Peach). It was also quiet. And things had been very chaotic after the race...

He took her to another castle. It was the conclusion Mario and Luigi had reached - the most obvious one. Aha.

Poor Peach. Daisy realized that her suspect had overheard the entire conversation - but actually, this worked in her favor. She turned back to him, brandishing her cousin's glove in his face, ink stains and all. "What," she challenged, "do you have to say about that?" Proof.

"I'm no Goomba."

"What?"

"I'm no Goomba," Kooper repeated firmly, proudly, the most honest thing he'd said during this catastrophe of a Q&A. "I am a soldier of His Majesty's Koopa Troop. I won't commit treason against my King." And Her Highness was an amateur interrogator. He'd been trained to withstand much more than that - and whatever 'amnesty' she thought she could offer meant nothing. King Bowser wasn't merciful to traitors, and Kooper wasn't about to sign his own death sentence.

He knows, Daisy realized. She'd suspected, but now she was positive. He knows exactly where she is, but he's not telling. She was so angry. "Why you-"

"Daisy!" Luigi's quick reflexes caught her wrist before she did anything foolish. The Princess of Sarasaland striking a soldier of the Dark Lands in the Dark Lands? It wouldn't look good. He pulled her away from the smug Koopa Troopa before she lost her temper, trying to lighten the mood with a whispered, "You've got-a admire the dedication."

"No! No, I really don't!" Dedication, shmedication, Kooper hadn't endeared himself to her at all - and she whacked Luigi in the side of the head, hard, twisting out of his grasp, "That scaly creep took Peach - right under our noses! It is not okay!"

"Mamma mia! Daisy- yowch!" She even stomped on his foot, lashing out at him as the nearest person. "We'll-a find her, bella, don't-a worry!" Luigi took her by the shoulders, crushed toes or not, and held her tightly - until she stopped fighting so hard. "Daisy, guardarmi. We'll-a find her," he repeated.

She scowled, but she didn't hit him again and that was an...improvement. "Fine," she said shortly, "But he's-" and with that, she pointed directly at Kooper, "-not going anywhere!" She didn't want to give him a chance to warn Bowser. The brothers agreed, and readily too, but it wasn't enough to cool her temper. "Where's Toadsworth? I need to talk to him." Toad piped up that he could take her to her cousin's steward - and Daisy left the Koopa Troopa in the capable hands of Luigi and his brother.

Daisy deliberately sought out the very stuffy Toadsworth just to fill him in on what'd been learned - that was dedication. But things got complicated once news of the kidnapping reached the series coordinators; having never had a precedence for this kind of thing, everyone struggled to guess what it meant for the logistics and peace agreements of the Special Cup. Tensions rapidly heightened with the local koopa population - especially once the missing referee was discovered, unconscious and tucked away in one of the castle's many dungeons. Where was the impostor? The video footage was still missing - and great protests were raised when it was announced that the entire Cup would be suspended until a full-scale investigation turned up both Princess Peach and King Bowser. Great and noble heroes that they were, Mario and Luigi were requested (by the Mushroom Kingdom) to recover their princess.

Not only was Daisy determined not to be left out, but she wanted to get started as soon as possible - and as quickly as possible. She thought that, for Bowser to do what he did, in the middle of a race, he had to be planning something horrible. It would take too long for Mario and Luigi to search all of Bowser's castles - sure, they might get lucky in the first one, but Peachy might've been trapped in the eighth one. Or the tenth. There was no way to know how many he really had.

So she had a plan.

"I'm sure you all know," she started, "by now that Bowser and Peach are missing. It's pretty likely that he's kid-"

"So what?"

"So...I'm getting to that," Daisy snapped with an imperious glare at Waluigi, "As I was saying, he's kidnapped her. We-" she exchanged a meaningful look with Mario and Luigi who, alongside Toad, stood to the side. "-believe it's something very serious, um, this time-" as opposed to the dozen times Bowser had done the very same thing in the past, "-and we need your help-"

"Wahahahahaha!"
Even Wario chimed in with Waluigi's guffawing, interrupting the princess yet again - and the two of them formed a great, discordant chorus that infuriated Daisy to no end.

"Not on your life, Princess!"
"There's-a nothing in it for us." But charity work - and Wario'd sooner drown in coins than spit in the direction of helping someone for free. Especially if that someone was Mario.

"Wanna bet, dipsticks?" Daisy stepped forward aggressively, "The races are postponed until she's found, you geniuses, and if we don't get her back by the end of the week, it'll all be canceled." Everything related to the Cup - including the parade and the awards ceremony. Mushroom Kingdom could hardly be expected to host the celebrations with its princess held hostage in some Stars-forsaken firepit somewhere. "That means no trophies, no prize money, no endorsements, no festival, nothing, nada, zilch. They won't even televise it."

Wario cursed.

So there. Did those losers really want all their work and bravado to go to waste for another year? Didn't they want the fame, the bejeweled trophies, the free food and (misplaced) admiration of the crowds? It made Daisy absolutely ill that she had to consider bribing people she didn't even want around - but honestly, the sooner they found Bowser and Peachy, the better. The longer their absence, the bigger the diplomatic mess.

"Even if you don't care about Princess Toadstool - or Bowser, for that matter," who would possibly care about him except for that all-too-stubborn Koopa Troopa? "And even if you don't care about the future of this series or what it means for all of us," Diddy Kong, Yoshi, even King Boo (who had, for some reason, completely vanished from the proceedings), brought together in one of the most successful international sports competitions in the world, "You-"

"You mean we all lose?" Waluigi, who couldn't seem to let Daisy finish a sentence without interrupting, seemed genuinely irritated. "Just because Bowser can't keep it in his shell?"

"Hey! Watch-a your mouth!"
"You're disgusting!" And Peachy is not that kind of girl. Ugh. Who would- ugh. No. No. No.

"What? You got something to say, Greenbean?"

"No, he doesn't!" Daisy interrupted loudly, "Can it, Waluigi!" This was exactly what she didn't want to happen. At least with Mario and Luigi, she knew that they wouldn't bicker like children - but that couldn't be said for the lanky nuisance in front of her (or his overweight buddy). "We have to work together. The racing commission is sending representatives to the castles Bowser permitted for use in the Leaf and Lightning Cups, so we're going to hit the other ones." She really didn't like the way Waluigi turned his nose down when he looked at her - and so she broke eye contact quickly, stepping away from him to search the expressions of the two racers who weren't quite as chatty.

"Are you in?" she asked them, individually. "We really need to find Pe-Princess Toadstool." It was weird for her, using her cousin's proper title - but she thought it would be more recognizable and...she wanted to sound official.

"Yoshi!"

"Um." Did anybody here speak Yoshi? Daisy had never been as adept at languages as Peach, but she had plenty of other skills. "Sorry, is that a yes?"

"Yo-yo!"

O-kay then. Daisy gave a cautious smile, and when the Yoshi just stared at her with very intelligent eyes, she figured that...yes, that had to be a yes. Diddy Kong was much the same way - she had no idea what he said, but he seemed pretty enthusiastic. She wondered if he had Donkey Kong's permission or not...did he need Donkey Kong's permission? She would've told him that his...uncle...or friend or...whatever their relation was (she wasn't sure) was welcome too, if it weren't for the fact that Luigi had told her that Donkey Kong wasn't on very good terms with Mario. Since she already had her hands full with Waluigi and Wario...

"You gonna ask us if we're on board, Daisy?" Case in point? Hands. Full.

She could just feel him behind her, and knew that if she didn't deal with him - Luigi would. So Daisy turned to regard him with the utmost disdain, "I already know you are. Your brother really wants his prizes." And not for the first place recognition, or the prestige of the victory, but because placing in the Special Cup meant an impressive amount of coinage - and the trophy could be melted down for quite a hefty profit.

Waluigi wasn't in it for the coins - which was why he felt so comfortable towering over the princess with his hands in his pockets. "Wario won't work with Mario. And I'll only work with you." Then, seeing the protest in her eyes, he quickly added, "You say no, you kiss our help good-bye and hope Bowser doesn't flamebroil your cousin this time around." If it weren't for this nagging feeling in her stomach that she needed to find Peach, sooner rather than later, Daisy would've thrown her hands up. She didn't like to feel boxed in - and she didn't trust Waluigi as far as she could kick him. But in the end, they needed the extra help.

The racers split into two groups, so as to cover more ground - while protecting one another from whatever traps Bowser might have laid. Much to Luigi's dismay, he ended up yet again on the opposite team of people he cared about most. Daisy, Mario, Waluigi (at his insistence) and Yoshi would go to one castle, while Luigi, Toad, Wario, and Diddy Kong would go to the second. Daisy knew it wasn't fair to her green man - but the four of them had mutually decided they couldn't trust Waluigi and Wario together. Yoshi and Diddy Kong were more trustworthy (if not particularly talkative), and Daisy would have been willing to work with them, but neither Mario nor Luigi was comfortable leaving her alone in the company of Waluigi. Frankly, Daisy wasn't really comfortable with it either - she would probably end up pushing him in a pit of lava, and then she'd be down one team member.

Toad wasn't the...best fighter, but he earnestly wanted to help, and no one had the heart to tell him to stay behind. Daisy was surprised he even offered to come along - and she didn't want to belittle the bravery. Kooper wasn't an option, since he was the least trustworthy of them all, and King Boo was nowhere to be found.

Their search groups weren't ideal, Daisy knew that, and Toadsworth had most emphatically tried to dissuade her from her course of action. Her father would be furious. But this was something she just had to do. They would investigate separate castles - and meet two days from now. Two days, and she would see Luigi again. She hoped, by then, they'd have good news for one another.

Hold on, Peachy. We'll find you.