Downfall of the Mushroom Kingdom

by geddiknight

As it feels like the worst is behind her, Now-Queen Peach resumes rule of the Mushroom Kingdom. Sadly, due to the costs of having upheld the Ultimate DoubleDash Tournament, everything seems to only be getting worse. With Rates of Violence reaching new highs and rates of approval dropping by the day, can Queen Peach handle her self-inflicted destruction? (Now rated M)

13. HMP Mushroom Yards

Downfall of the Mushroom Kingdom

HMP Mushroom Yards

A/N: There was a long break in writing due to work reasons.

March 15, Foredawn

Asterno, far Southwest Wuhu

(In The Narrator's Perspective):

There he was, alive in the flesh, but not looking so great. The roughed up Galaxyë human looked a lot worse than how Zane saw him on his last visit. Seeing him alive now begs the question to Zane, how did Ioreth perform the ritual sacrifice?

Tarren was looking very pale as well. Upon a closer look at him, Zane noticed his body starting to show wrinkles. It only took a second for him to become frightened at that sight. Now he knew what could have happened, and what the effects of a ritual sacrifice could do to a Galaxyë human.

"You're not Ioreth." He choked and coughed. "Is she downstairs? Bring her up to me, I need water." He was already sounding a lot worse as well as behaving even worse. For once, he was less aggressive, but the signs of weakness were evident.

"Ioreth isn't here." Zane replied softly, walking closer to Tarren as he struggled to get himself out of the chair.

"Oh." Tarren sighed. "Are you here to kill me then?"

"No, why would I do that?" Zane stopped. "I'm here for a visit like any other, except this time without having to see you beating a woman for once." He made Tarren chuckle, but at least the man in the chair didn't seem intimidating any more. Inside this house, Zane felt like he had the power for once because not only did Tarren appear to look considerably weaker, but he looked completely powerless. He looked more dependent on Ioreth more than ever, and now that she was gone, maybe Tarren's beliefs would eventually fade away.

Through all of the coughing and growling, Tarren eventually turned his head to look up to Zane as he stood before him. "Where is she?" He tried to look fierce and angry, but Zane could tell by now that Tarren was unable to do anything to him. Now that Zane was up close, he could get the best look at the man's skin. It was getting wrinkly everywhere... like age was actually catching up to him. "Something's wrong, isn't it?"

"I take you tasked her to go out and bring Princess Rose to you... something about wanting a healthy human heart? Well, unfortunately, the police caught up to her... she's been arrested." Tarren tried to relax himself, lying back down on his big chair. Despite the coughing and murmuring, he managed to maintain his composure.

"She failed me..." He said with controlled anger. "She promised me she would do anything to get me back to my former self, after what the cow did to me. She was MINE!" He slammed his fist on the arm of the chair. "To the depths of darkness with her!"

Zane exhaled with disappointment. "I mean, a couple murders in the process, lots of police damage... you know how the laws are around here. She's facing execution in a month. She managed to take Princess Rose all the way along the southern coast of Wuhu to Blue Lake where she was eventually caught."

"Please." Tarren called out. "Do her job for me. The water tap is downstairs. The ones up here don't work. Get me my water and my food!" He ordered, asking Zane for help since he wasn't strong enough to get out of his chair. "Ah, cosmos... I can barely move my legs."

Zane said nothing and obeyed him, leaving the room quietly and walking down the stairs of the broken house to the kitchen where he found the sink. A lot of the place looked damaged despite the assumption that Ioreth was his supposed maid and would be expected to clean everything up. He twisted the tap to get the water running but nothing was coming out. Zane groaned and searched the cupboards. Maybe there were other drinks or flasks in a fridge that would contain water. Rainwater here wouldn't do much worse considering how messy this place was. In one of the top cupboards he found some bottles of water which could be used instead of the tap. It made him wonder if Tarren was actually being given water from the tap or Ioreth may have gone to shops to buy bottled water for him instead. As he grabbed one of the bottles, something odd behind them all caught his eye. There were other flasks, full of clear substances but without water labelling. These were custom labelled and it was unclear what they said, but after a closer look at one of them, Zane realised what these were. He searched one of the nearby cutlery drawers and found a few pipettes, even one that was left wet. Now when he checked back on the flasks, he took one out and tried to read the label. The handwriting was poor, most likely Ioreth's, and it read 'P.M.M.'. Hesitating at first, Zane used the wet pipette and took a few drops of the liquid and mixed it with water into one of the glasses in the nearby cupboard. As it was colourless, it didn't react at all with the water and it just mixed right in. He quickly cleaned the pipette and placed it back into the drawer with the rest of them. Then he carefully placed all other flasks and bottles back into the cupboard and finally Zane went back upstairs with Tarren's water. He was beginning to wonder whether Tarren ever left the chair.

"Good man." Tarren smiled, still sitting in the chair and watching Zane as he arrived. "I've been thirsty for hours. I haven't been able to sleep. I don't even know what time it is."

"I think it's about five in the morning now. Even if you went outside you wouldn't be able to tell. It's always so dark around here." The two could still noticeably hear the thunderstorm going on forever outside, and with summer ending, it was only going to get worse by the day. Zane leaned in after handing Tarren the water, curious about his current state. "What happened to you then? Why have you allowed the girl to leave?" He wanted some serious answers now. A girl can't just kill many people whilst trying to bring a human of royalty here without reason.

"That girl... she's the best I've ever had... but also the worst..." Tarren said back, looking away from Zane. "She was mine, but I taught her too much and too well...

I had her at my service only for a few months, another outcast orphan raised in Wuhu after the Mushroom Wars. She came to this city looking to learn the ways of magic for she had already mastered all that she had available to her from various places. It was only one day when Marrec introduced me to her, for it seemed that she was working with him for quite some time beforehand. She would be asking him after everything she learned from him where she could go to find a better teacher since she wasn't really the type to read off of the tomes and scraps of paper found in the forbidden libraries. That's obviously he we met each other. She wanted everything from me, and in return I made her mine, and for the few months I spent here quietly training her, I didn't realise how I started to feel more tired as each day went by. This town is like a trapdoor sometimes, for those who enter it may become difficult to leave. Most people who live here never go outside and they get weaker, relying on the power of magic to keep themselves healthy and in shape. Then one night, perhaps fuelled by all the abuse I gave her, she tried to kill me. She tried to take all of my power so she could become the strongest sorceress across all the lands, little did she know about who I actually was."

"So she tried to sacrifice you?" Zane assumed, thinking about what the effects of it had done to Tarren and his body.

"I was very sleepy, and I underestimated her. She came to me like she knew very little about magic, but this girl knew way more than what she demonstrated. It was like she wanted to trick me... yet... she managed to take away my powers, and is able to become proficient without a wand. Look at what it left me with!" He began to see why Tarren was unable to get off the chair. "Do you see these wrinkles? Do you know what that is? Age!" Zane now essentially saw a man who had lived for thousands and thousands of years, no longer with the ability to live without aging. Who knows how many years he would have left, or possibly months.

"So... I'm guessing to your knowledge, the sacrifice of another human could be done to you to restore it? Is that what you're inclined to believe?" Zane wondered, examining Tarren closely.

"A blood-pact with the darkness. A life to restore mine. A true sacrifice. The demons of the deep came to me; they said it was the only way. No Koopa or Toad could make up for it. It had to be a human." Between Zane's last visit to Asterno and today, he had noticed the biggest change in character he had ever seen. Going from thinking he would be treated like a king going back to the north someday, to becoming completely powerless and unable to get out of his chair.

"Why did she come back to you? Why did she not just leave you here to rot?" This was the thing Zane was concerned about, maybe when Tarren said that Ioreth was his, somehow it could have been literally.

"Because Ioreth is bound to me, and she always will be until I die. I made it so that Ioreth could never kill me, and she never will. It's what I have left in her ever since she came here." Tarren kept coughing.

"So..." This left Zane in deep thought. "If she would never kill you, then she either knew that trying to perform a ritual sacrifice on you would not kill you... or... she didn't know, and your spell on her to be bound by you goes beyond her conscience. Ioreth wouldn't be able to kill you no matter how hard she tried. She... she can't. That's what you've done to her."

"She can't leave me. That's what I'm capable of doing. True ownership of someone." Tarren grinned while he still could, watching Zane standing up in the centre of the dark room, full of confusion.

"Ioreth's being detained in prison, her execution is scheduled in a month. If you die before she does, then it would be your blood in her hands, which under the spell, is simply impossible. This is the darkest sorcery if I have ever seen it... Why did she want Rose though? A royal sacrifice? Is that even a thing?"

"I don't care if it's Rose or not. It could be Princess Peach for all I care. That would be too good to be true. It doesn't matter if the person is royalty or not. It just has to be a human."

"But why did she not just go for any old human? There are... maybe a few hundred that live in the Wuhu lands. She could have gone to somewhere like Gonak or Duchev and kidnapped someone. Why did she have to go through all this hassle to get to Princess Rose?"

"I don't remember much about it, but she told me that she had connections with some Koopas, some police officers, and they told her that they would be able to bring her to her. I don't know how she got connections like that, but I wouldn't put a taught spell of hypnosis past her. She's probably mind-controlled somebody before."

"Right..." Zane was still thinking about it all, particularly the spell enchantment that bound Ioreth to Tarren and wondering if her execution had any relevance to it all. "...So... the date of her execution is the twelfth of April. Let's just say that assuming this spell does not persist after death, that's the earliest you'll pass, if your weakness leads you to passing."

"Whether Ioreth lives or dies... I cannot die."

"But you will get worse, and worse, and worse, until somebody else comes around to kill you. You could be rotting away but your conscious could still be lurking, and what use will you be then? You gave Ioreth a life of suffering and in return she has cursed you with an eternity of suffering." Zane spoke words to Tarren that even made him begin to worry about the future. "Nobody will come to see you ever again, and you will spend forever in this house, on that chair." He watched Tarren's face turn angrier, laughing in the inside knowing he couldn't do anything about it.

"Ioreth must not die in that prison next month." He demanded. "If not for her, then you must bring me a human. Bring me Ioreth if you want to. Bring me anyone. I need to be restored, to be like you again! We share common blood, Zane. You will do this for me!" He shouted at Zane, making him back away a few seconds later. He gave him a stern look and shook his head, refusing the order. "No?" He was surprised, not expecting this behaviour from him.

"You can't even free Ioreth from the spell you put on her. You truly are heartless after all." He started to walk away.

"Then you will have to kill me." Tarren called at him as Zane turned around.

"You can spend eternity alone here. Nobody will come to visit you." He decided to leave Tarren alone in the dark room. His business in Asterno was over. It went better than he thought as well; now he would be able to head back to Blue Lake and tell the Koopas there that there's nothing about Tarren to worry about.

"The demons will visit me."

Zane stopped as he was walking down the stairs in the dark, messy house.

"They'll answer to me after what I did to them."

He decided to walk away from it all anyway. This burden was no longer his to carry. Zane was tired, and while it still looked very dark outside, it was now the morning. A journey back to Blue Lake was up next for him, that way he would be able to get a power nap in by the time he got to the police station to update the Koopas on the news. As he walked outside, he was still welcomed by the darkness of the town and the torrential thunderstorm. What were new this time on his venture through the streets were signs of life outside. There were three Koopas walking up the spiral paths and also noticed him in the distance. Zane stopped on the path and looked towards them, seeing two Chuck-like Koopas standing aside the third Koopa in the middle, acting like his bodyguards.

"That's not Koopak Asquia, is it?" Zane wondered as he made eye contact with them. Through the rain, they started walking towards him, following him as he intended to walk back to the train station further up the spiral. Noticing that the Koopas were lurking behind him, Zane stopped walking and turned around to look back at them.

"Something wrong, guys?" He said with a deep voice, looking down on them on the slope.

"We couldn't help but notice your departure from that house over there. We would like to-err know what your purpose was for being in that-uhh... house." The Koopa had a very different accent to most people around these parts. Zane noticed he was sounding far more northern.

"That abandoned-looking house over there?" He pointed the Koopas to Tarren's house, now seemingly more understanding with the Koopas. "The crooked old man has more visitors than we all think."

"Oh, so you know about the old man? You're not-a some lone wonderer trying to get himself killed out on 'zees streets?" The middle Koopa leaned in to Zane. "Nobody must know." He whispered.

"Nobody must know." He nodded back, finding some common ground between himself and these guys despite not knowing who they were.

"You came from the bottom... you sail? You drive?" He asked the Koopas, curious of their journey to visit Tarren.

"Bah." The Koopa felt offended. "Why is this man trying to ask so many questions? Go about your business. Whatever you have with him has nothing to do with me." The Chuck-looking Koopas stood forward, becoming protective over the Koopa in the middle, trying to intimidate Zane. He looked straight at the Koopa in the middle and beckoned him to listen in closely.

"The man you seek in that house has been cursed by someone else. If this is not your first visit then you would know of a girl who used to serve him."

"Ioreth..." The Koopa spoke over Zane.

"You will not be able to take him away from that home unless you find that girl." The four stood in the thunderstorm in silence.

"Who are you?" The Koopa looked up to him one last time. Zane refused to reply to the Koopas and instead turned around to walk back up the slopes of the spiral. Lost for words, the Koopa in the middle halted the Chuck bodyguards and let Zane walk away. Confused by their encounter with him, he decided to walk back to the abandoned house to see how Tarren really was. What Zane took away from this was that there were many who visited Tarren, and thankfully they all knew to keep his existence a secret to the world. Perhaps another few visits to that house in the next few days may be needed so he could know more about these Koopas coming to visit him. The only possible place he thought they would come from is all the way up in the north somewhere.

These Koopas seemed too strange to be simply passing by to the dark abandoned house, especially with intention to speak to Tarren. He knew that they got themselves inside now and would be searching for him, to find him in that dark room where he'd be sitting on his chair unable to do anything. Zane couldn't help but investigate the purpose of these three Koopas' visit, and perhaps learn where they came from as well.

He started to slowly walk back to the house, edging himself against the front walls and hoping to find his way in through another way. As the front entrance was locked, the other places he could think of were the balcony entrance which could be guarded by those Chucks, and the chimney. An abandoned house's chimney wouldn't be too ashy, especially since it always rains here too. Zane decided to slowly elevate himself, flying upwards without making any loud noise. As he got to the top, she slowly descended in head first. He began to hear the voices once he was halfway down the chimney, but they were all very unclear. In order to be able to hear them properly, he would have to fully descend the chimney and enter the house. He had no idea where anybody was, but the voice of the main Koopa sounded like he was inside the room with Tarren which wasn't so far away from the kitchen. In a desperate moment, Zane knew that he would have to channel one of the most difficult incantations of magic ever learned: Invisibility.

As Zane reached the station, he finally saw more life to the city. While everyone at the station was there on their own and not talking to each other, keeping to themselves, it was nice to see more people inside the station waiting for the trains. Regardless of which one to take, every single one would stop off at Blue Lake. For the police at Blue Lake, their concerns about Ioreth were now over. Zane waited for his train to depart from the station, filled with anxiety. The interaction with those three Koopas could have been his first ever true interaction with the Dargovi, now with his face recognised by some of them and word passed through by Tarren that these were the fiercest Koopas to be reckoned with. Even he began to feel worried about his journeys. At any time, he could be watched...

Morning

Peach's Castle, Mushroom City

Sun had risen over the Mushroom Kingdom. It was the first sign of autumn as the temperature had dropped through the night. Peach had left her window open from using the noise of the capital below to sooth her mind to help her get sleep, but now she was hit with a cold patch over her face as she rose out of bed.

"The boy..." She whispered to herself. "He's got to return home now." Quickly she hopped out of bed and rushed over to her dress cupboard. A quick look in the mirror gave her a sigh of relief as she wasn't looking like a disgraceful mess this morning. It was enough to present herself well to the boy should she meet with him asleep in his dormitory. She didn't want to appear perfect, but realistic. That was all she focused on to keep him convinced about her intentions.

The castle was very quiet this morning; no Toads roamed the top floors on her journey to his dormitory. Perhaps the floors were completely deserted and that the staff being relieved was real and not a dream of doubt she thought she might have had.

Rynmar was in his bedroom, for the door to his room was ajar and she could already see him sitting patiently on the bed. It was already cleaned and made well again by him. She had no idea how long he had been awake for but he was looking very eager and bright. His first look at her was a smile, just what she wanted.

"How do you feel?" She approached him, sitting on the edge of the bed next to him. This time, she gave him a big warm hug.

"I'm ready to go back. It's probably early afternoon back where I'm from. I'm not sure what time it is here actually." He tried to hold in his excitement, but it was very obvious to her that her presence would make him go bonkers.

"You've got plenty of time. Don't worry... Just make your way home before doing anything else. When you do get home though... it's a Sunday, do you think you could speak to Ellis? Maybe call her." She hoped she could kill two birds with one stone today: securing Rynmar's safety as well as being able to fully recruit Ellis to here then the two would be at her disposal in her search for Tobias and Duncan.

"I can do that for you... sure, and this evening... when it's night where I live, I can come back and update you on everything..." He had a few thoughts about some other things he could do to help her. "Do you think I would be able to teleport Ellis across if I held her hand when I use the device?"

"DO NOT touch anyone when using these. I cannot stress this enough for you. She will have her own device, and ideally, she will need to do the same thing you have done last night in order to get her one working. I'll deal with that when I see her next though." Peach gave the boy a smile and moved away from the bed, learning her lesson from before and giving him some personal space. "Stay in this room when you go back to Earth though. When you do return and if I'm not around, then seek out a Toad and they'll let me know that you're here."

"Thank you." Rynmar responded. "I'll see you soon." She gave him a final nod, signalling him that he is now allowed to use the portal device to head back to Earth. Within the next ten seconds, she watched the boy vanish in front of her on the bed. He will return exactly where he was sitting when he uses the device on Earth again. Peach kept staring at the bed even after he had disappeared.

"I guess that's another thing I can thank Shigeru for." She said to herself, just as Daisy knocked on the bedroom door.

"What did you say, Peach?" She invited herself in.

"Nothing... I just saw the boy away. He's now back on Earth, and I can trust him. His loyalty to me is evident." Peach finally turned her head around to look at Daisy, now standing beside her before the bed.

"I hope it remains when he actually finds those two other boys. We don't want him suddenly changing sides because he's been influenced so much by their absence that when he finally meets them he swaps like that." Daisy snapped her fingers.

"I'll do my best to condition him so that this will never happen... Besides, we've got Enrique to help him on that, hopefully."

"We'll have to see how the work of the scientists goes." Daisy sounded a little bit anxious. "I think our search for those two boys won't even be during this month. We'll need luck on our hands if we're going to use Enrique and your accomplices to find them within even April."

"That is what I fear... Time. There's so much going on that's out of our control now." The two stared at each other and gave eachother another hug. There was a few seconds of silence as their eyes made contact. "Does it hurt?" Peach also looked at Daisy's scar on her cheek caused by the hostile Koopas the other day.

"A bit." She replied. "What's worse for me is the image. I don't want to be seen on cameras like this." Peach now sat on the bed again, carefully avoiding the place where Rynmar disappeared from. The reminder of Hostile Koopas being able to sneak all the way into the capital put fear in her mind, something she had encountered before, and grew out of worry from it. She wanted to hit it face on and that in turn made her angrier at it. She wanted to get rid of the idea that a hostile Koopa could easily enter the capital with full throttle.

"I still can't believe we managed to let that happen. Not just what happened to you... but the whole incident in general... such a sad way to end a glorious tournament." She took a few pauses in her speech, too busy contemplating the problems in her head. "I'd go with Toad to finally deal with these scoundrels, but even he's no longer with us. Toadant's not even with us either... literally, he'd know what to do... No Toadbert... this is terrible. Do you know anything about Toad or his whereabouts? Maybe I could persuade him one last time."

Daisy shook her head, immediately hesitating at that idea. "Leave him be. I can tell he wants nothing to do with this anymore. His group are going to leave Toad Town empty. Most of them have left already."

"Do you know where he's going?"

Daisy walked out of the room, getting Peach to follow her. The two stood outside in the corridor and looked out of the windows to the side, being able to look down on the streets of Toad Town below. "Anywhere further away from the north than here... Rivuba, Sysenta, anywhere near Toad Lake or Toogle I guess. Back with his family, you know, the woodland parts of the southeast. The Kongs might vacate out of their reserve of a jungle as well, giving the land back to the Toads."

"It's really bad on paper that the jungle reserve is so close to the capital. If I was any stricter I would have had them all out of here." Peach pitied herself. "Am I not too kind for my own good?" She only made Daisy giggle.

"Whatever. They can leave if they want to, but it doesn't look like we're forcing them to. This capital's not getting any bigger in the southeast, all the suburb expansion's happening near the north and west."

"I mean to be fair." Peach turned around. "I wouldn't want the back of Toad Town to be cluttered with gentrification. I prefer it quiet, it helps with my secrecy. Anyways, if Toad wanted to move further away from the north, surely... Sirenna Beach is the furthest away, right?"

"I guess Sirenna Beach is very modernised, and the Toads of Toad Town want the old culture. You know... the traditional houses. You don't get those everywhere. Those shapes are a dying breed. The architects hate building those kinds of houses."

"They're too organic." Peach laughed with Daisy. "Such picky minds! By that logic, there's no other answer to where he and Toadette are moving but Toad Lake."

"I wouldn't go there now though." Daisy looked down again to see an empty street. There were no Toad Town Toads wondering about down below. "The last thing he'd want is to go against the intentions of his people... the elite I refer to obviously."

Peach shook her head, dreading another future council meeting. "I'm going to have to work with my loyalists." This thought actually put a smile on her face, as these Toads on her council board would surely stay with her in this tough moment in time. "I did notice something about Toad as of recent. He would be there for us in our best times, but in our hardest times? Where did he go?"

"His interests are with Toadette I suppose." Daisy tried to recall good memories with Toad recently, but besides the races, all she could remember were arguments between him and Toadette. "Maybe he's trying to commit to her properly now."

"It's okay. We need not worry about it!" Peach cheered remarkably. "We've got the Mario brothers with us. We've got Sminder, Toadheim, Toadasha and Tranko: our new Captain. I miss our old anonymous friend, but Tranko swore to continue his duty, to carry on his legacy. The spirit of the Captain now resides in his heart." Daisy was in admiration of Peach's brave stance and attitude change. The optimism in her was what she had craved for and has become addicted to seeing.

"I'm right behind you. Always." She smiled at Peach.

"Let's go deal with those Koopas now."

...

The morning went on and Peach and Daisy readied themselves for the day ahead. They were nourished, well-dressed and upbeat, now heading to the council room after assembling word to the departments that another meeting was urgently in order. All those of importance to the council showed up punctually. All representatives of the Brigade were to Peach and Daisy's left. All representatives to the Departments of security and general affairs were to their right, and Mario and Luigi were on the opposite side of the table.

"You may all be seated." Peach addressed them all. "Before I begin with our important matters to discuss today, does anybody have any new information regarding anything of relevance and importance that they would like to share with us today?" She gave everyone around her an eager smile, hoping somebody would speak.

"I do have some news for us." Toadheim stood up confidently, announcing himself to everyone in the room. "Our increased security budget has allowed us to install new cameras in more towns of the Mushroom Kingdom, keeping our streets safer and hopefully giving us quicker response times for any urgent Brigade calls. Some notable towns and cities on this list include Urquaia... for obvious reasons, Nutusa, and Tâskan. Our northern tunnels to the east side of Résethal will be kept more secure."

"Very nice!" Daisy cheered him as some of the council members applauded their new implementation.

"That's very good Toadheim. I would like a report on the northern borders to my headquarters tonight if possible. Anyone else?" She looked around the room and the members remained seated, ready to listen to her. "Very well." She prepared herself, standing up from her council seat. "I would like to make this address to everyone in this room for hopefully we can all take part in this task in one way or another. I must first inform you all about the resignation of Toad from our council. His service was a very long and dear one to us, but we can all admit he has done so much for us that it's way more than what we could have expected from him. While it is a very sad circumstance, we must move onward from this and in the meantime, Daisy and I will determine a replacement for him in the future." She gave the council a few seconds of a pause before moving on.

"Anyways, I will now inform you all about a plan I would like to share with you all regarding the ongoing worries coming from the north. What I would like the most out of the situation there now is any insider knowledge we can get. This is where I turn to both Toadheim and Tranko for this. I will provide your departments with a detailed assignment later but I will brief some information to you now. If you encounter anyone in the Mushroom Kingdom showing hostile behaviour or any hostile connections and they show no immediate threat, do not approach them head on and arrest them. Instead, monitor their activity, track them down, and gather any information we could get about their intentions and motives. Make sure though that they do not eventually become a threat. As soon as that becomes a possibility, lock them down. We need all we can get from those who are already in our lands. Anyone we can find, we must question them, and we must gather everything we can to learn more about what could be going up there, because I sure as the stars know that their attack on Aypyidaw and the Red Martyrs wasn't just a one-time deal. I'm sure they're planning something else on us. We need to be ahead of them with this." She kept seeing nods and constant obedience from these Toads, not just from the two she was directing her speech to but the assistants to them sitting beside them, writing things down in their notes.

"We can do this." Tranko nodded confidently.

"As you command, my Queen." Toadheim agreed.

"This will be my first big mission, my first big chance to prove to you all that the Toad Brigade and Patrol are ensured in safe hands." He stood up, taking pride in his role and seeing the Toads around him cheer for him.

"Very good. If only we could hustle Mushroom Yards for those three ruthless hostile Koopas responsible for the Rainbow Road tragedy. Maybe we could get answers from them but none of them want to say anything." She sat down again, frustrated as much as everyone else who witnessed the attack on Daisy a few days ago.

"My Queen." Tranko grabbed her attention again. "I can do this for you. I can lead with my friends and troops, and we can march into the Yards and demand them for us to see these Koopas. We will show them no mercy. There's nothing those selfish Toads should be able to do to prevent us from acquiring these Hostiles."

"I say we transfer them to the castle cells!" Another Toad sitting next to Tranko suggested, sparking uproar of cheer from the Toads in their department attending the council meeting.

"They won't touch us my Queen. We will do everything we can to make up for their treacherous crimes five days ago. And when we're done with them... we can leave that to you." Tranko seemed very dedicated to the job, which amused Peach. Hopefully they would be able to get something out of those Toads: their motivation, their connections and how they managed to get all the way from the north to the capital.

"I need you two to check on them. I want everything you can get from them before engaging any further. I'd like to be able to hear it myself but... I fear that they will behave differently if they see me." The Toads in the council room agreed with Peach at the table.

"I feel like they'll behave weirdly anyway." Toadheim stood up. "Let me explain to you, please. Any sort of security authority questioning them will lead to the same behaviour. We're all working for the same purpose here. They will not be convinced by anyone who questions them to share out any information."

"I believe I could get something out of them." Tranko stood up as well. Peach saw in front of her two rival Toads equidistant from where she was sitting. "They don't know what the mighty Brigade is capable of!"

"So are you suggesting we do some sort of Good Patrol Bad Brigade thing on them? There are... three of them, right? A girl and two boys? Fully capable of violence, I don't think aggression will get us anywhere... but..."

"But torture..." The council room fell silent as Tranko came up with the most unorthodox decision the Brigade would ever say. "These people, killed not just Toadbert, but Toadant, the other Toads in the management crew, and were responsible for many more deaths, damage, hurt on our people. We should be showing them no mercy!"

"Nobody is coming to get them." Toadasha added from her side of the council meeting. "These Koopas arrived to the capital with one intention: hurt. We cannot give them anything. Literally nothing. Not even a legacy to be remembered by. The press have still not released their names, and I sure hope Mushroom Yards haven't either. Any mention of their names could be dangerous for us. Maybe they're big up in the north, and word about their names travelling all the way up there could lead to more of a provoked response from the rest of them." The council nodded in agreement; all eyes turned back to Peach.

"What are their names anyway?" Tranko asked. "We could assess this situation together!" Peach stood up firm, ready to address everyone.

"The three detained hostile Koopas in Mushroom Yards are known as Joris Blackley, Mywithe Unudhu, and a female Koopa we've not yet got the name of." She said.

"Actually..." The council turned their eyes back to Toadheim. "We do have new intelligence on all three of them which I should mention now on the matter of names. The female Koopa is called Verida. There's very little data we have on her and we don't have her last name either. What we do know is that she has a brother called Nikola."

Peach recognised the name. It was somewhere left hidden in the back of her mind, but she couldn't precisely recall where she heard the name from... and then it hit in her head.

..." Give me names."
"I saw a lot of familiar faces in the cells."

"I need more than just names by the way, I need details too."

"Fine. The one that was with us today, his name Nikola, he's got a girlfriend called Verida, who is also a Hostile. She's far more aggressive than the average Koopa, attempted to kill me with a rifle up north as well when I was with them briefly. Nikola's a bit of a coward but uses Verida as a form of self-esteem and cockiness."

A fond memory came to life in her mind; a recollection of a conversation between her and Enrique just hours after the Koopa Cape race.

"The big catch is that this Nikola is the very same Koopa that was once with the Queen and many others in Koopa Cape after a failed attempt to assassinate her took place. Not the perpetrator, but the quiet one who made his way into Aypyidaw, perhaps helping out others which could have led to their assault on the city." There were gasps of shock heard throughout the hall. Many of the Toads looked at Peach, feeling sympathy for her.

"It could be any Koopa." She muttered under her breath.

"Of the two male Koopas... The first one is called Joris Blackley. We're not quite certain about where he resides as a citizen of the north, but data from our directories show that this Koopa was actually born in the Mushroom Kingdom, specifically the town of South Port. He had been living in the mushroom Kingdom until he was at least eighteen, then our directory declared his status as a disappearance, which was likely assumed moving to somewhere in the northern towns. Again, this shows signs of recruitment like what we have witnessed before: Radicalisation."

"I always thought that one of them acted a little bit differently to the other two. His voice was a lot higher pitched." Daisy spoke quietly as Luigi walked around the back of the council table to approach her whilst Toadheim was discussing the matter.

"Was he the one who struck you?" He whispered to her.

"He might have been." She replied.

"The second male Koopa is the biggest shock to us all. This Koopa is called Mywithe Unudhu. The name already sparks many controversies."

"The deserter?" Toadasha wondered.

"The oath-breaker. An oath-breaker! A former Red Martyr from what I've heard about that name!" Tranko slammed the table.

"What's worse is that the last name Unudhu is quite big in Résethal, considering there's a town named after the family name. If he's involved, then a massive family is involved, which could lead to potentially an entirely new Asquia-level fiasco on the side of the hostiles." Toadheim looked directly at Peach now. "My Queen. This knowledge we have is not enough but it is surely enough for us to declare that this is very dangerous and we have no time to waste!"

"Unudhu is an oath-breaker, oath-breaker I tell you! He should be killed immediately for deserting the Red Martyrs! Get Archbarn down here and let him give the order for us!" Tranko was fuming with knowing that there are such evil Koopas residing in the capital and having nothing done to them.

"Archbarn is currently very busy at the moment, sadly." Daisy sadly had to confront Tranko, disturbing him with news about Aypyidaw. "I don't think the oaths hold when there are no Red Martyrs anymore. It's... tragic to even speak about it. Our best line of defence is all gone..."

"Now's not the time to be sad about it, Princess. I say we face them directly, confront them, and then hold them for their crimes. All of them are killers!" Tranko leaned over the council chamber table with both hands on it. "Listen to me my Queen. We cannot spend the day thinking about what to do about this. We must act now. Send me. Send me to Mushroom Yards. I will not let you down."

Nobody in the room showed any sign of disagreement with him. They all turned their heads back to Peach like they were waiting for her approval to send Tranko to the hostile Koopa prisoners. The only thing she could think of that would get in the way of decision was whether Mushroom Yards would be willing to give up their authority over the Koopas. Thinking about it more for a few seconds, she realised that the only thing that made the Toads working at Mushroom Yards afraid to let anybody here intervene with them was the action caused by Luigi and Daisy. If a Toad or simply a non-royal went there, then they would surely be treated fairly.

"Very well. I hereby give you permission to go to Mushroom Yards to interrogate the three prisoners. We need as much as we can from them while they are still alive. That is why I am going to be sending Toadheim also, just as suggested before. Toadheim, you must operate to your best ability for me to get everything out of them while they are alive. Then Tranko, I leave it to you to decide what to do with them next." She gave them both a half smile. "That is an order." She smirked after finishing her speech.

"Alright!" Tranko lifted up his arms from the table. "Brigade with me! We ride to the Yards!" He and the Toads sitting beside him in his section of the council chamber table headed towards the exit to the right, passing and brushing past Toadheim. "We will go down as heroes for this." He whispered to the Toad with a cocky tone.

"I'll leave you two sectors to your business." Peach smiled, watching Toadheim and his board of Toads stand up and head out of the hall next.

"My Queen." He bowed to her before leaving the chamber.

"Well... as always, we'll be able to finance any future decisions the castle makes." Toadasha smiled at Peach.

"Beautiful words to my ears. You are all dismissed." Peach said back politely. Toadasha turned around and gave a signalling nod to her department to return upstairs to resume work for the day. Before leaving, she walked around to Peach to speak to her one last time.

"I will see you at the funeral. Unfortunate that this day must bring more sadness, but it is what we must do." Peach nodded, seeing her out, leaving her in the room now with only Mario, Luigi and Daisy. Her very close friends.

"I have to do this today, for Toadant. You're not obligated to come too, so it is entirely up to you if you want to come with me." Peach stood firm in front of her seat, not turning her head to face the others just yet. Mario stood by her side and held her arm gently yet firmly.

"I heard that... when the management crew were preparing everything, he apparently did pretty much all the work. All the planning, all the organising, all the decisions were made by him, and wow... what a fantastic display we were able to witness over these past two months. It's a shame it ended that way, making the rest of it look so bad and awful." He looked down in grief. "I will go with you to the funeral."

"He was always loyal to the crown. He worked alongside Toadheim before The Mushroom Accords gave him and the others the opportunity to take control and manage this massive event." Peach stated.

"What was so great about him was that during the event, he treated all of us like neutrals, even us. Everyone was a contender for this tournament and he treated us all as equals. He adapted to the process so well. It's a shame we lost him and his talent. He was almost irreplaceable." Luigi looked at Peach. "I too will go with you to the funeral." Both he and Mario now looked at Peach.

"I suppose these are some nice things you should rehearse and say to the mourners at the funeral. The words you say are quite touching." They managed to get to the heart of even the jolliest of people like Daisy. "I didn't really know him much beforehand. He was another worker in the castle before this year. You should honour all of those who worked alongside him. They all had lives and they were all great at their job. Truly, they are all heroes... I would go with you all to the funeral today, but I have a lot of unfinished business to attend to, so discreetly I will be journeying with Tranko, Toadheim and the local Brigade to Mushroom Yards."

"Daisy..." Luigi immediately felt worried.

"I can look after myself. They will not even know that I am there." She smiled, loving the fact that Luigi cared so much for her. She gave him a kiss on the cheek as a sign of recognition for his instinctive actions.

The funeral wasn't for another hour, but the Toads on the council were already preparing themselves to make the journey through the capital to Mushroom Yards. Daisy knew she was going to be there for a long and unknown amount of time, therefore she would be unable to attend both matters even if the funeral would go on to last hours. The quiet, mournful service was something she felt like she had to attend, and even if she did, an atmosphere of sadness wasn't for her. This gave her enough of an excuse to say no to it and instead attend this. Mushroom Yards was a long drive away, and a few stops on the Inner City train line, but she didn't want any publicity, especially with the funeral happening today. She couldn't afford to miss the departures of Toadheim and Tranko. Her best chance of getting to the Yards unnoticed would be by travelling with either band of Toads. Toadheim's group seemed like the more sensible option, and certainly the option most quiet and discreet, just what she was looking for.

When the time came around for the departure, Daisy was surprised to be met with what seemed like as much discretion as possible.

"Don't leave yet!" She called out to Toadheim, for it looked like he was intending on going without any of his department or any of the local Toad Brigade either. His car was ready to leave from the track of Mario Circuit which now served as a car park for the castle workers whenever the track wasn't planned to be in use. A lot of houses on the track were also now used as homes-away-from-home for castle workers who normally lived really far away, in case the dormitories for workers in the castle were not big enough for all of their belongings. There would be times and nights where the workers were not allowed to sleep inside the castle, last night being an example.

"Princess Daisy, what can I do for you?" Toadheim lowered his window down and asked, surprised to see her. She was wearing thick clothing and her dark trench coat, intending to look hidden and have her identity kept a secret.

"A lift to Mushroom Yards, please... in secrecy, as I can tell you want to be in secret right now." She smiled, walking around the car. "I didn't know you lived in one of these buildings nowadays, did you ever stay inside the castle?" She opened up the passenger door and got herself quickly inside. "Don't worry. I'm dressed for the occasion. Nobody's going to notice us."

"It's not really because of secrecy that is my reasons for wanting to go alone and without Tranko... It's more so that I'm just a bit uncomfortable with travelling from place to place with so many people. Sometimes I just prefer to drive alone or with one person at most. Believe me you don't have to worry about me now that I've told you about this. I cannot say no to a Princess either, especially Princess Daisy." He started the car, waiting for Daisy to be ready before driving out of the track and onto the road that leads to the main gate of Toad Town.

"We've got to hurry up, I'm sorry for making you leave a little later as well. We need to catch up with Tranko before he does anything stupid. I'm just a little worried because he gives off that feel that he's going to act or do something very impulsive while in the Mushroom Yards."

"He's very stoic isn't he?" Toadheim thought as they drove down the road.

"I don't think stoic is the word to describe him." She said back, looking at the gate up ahead. "It's... hmm... maybe just impulsive is the word to describe him actually. There's a lot of pride in him too, but maybe that's what the Brigade need in a new Captain. The Captain's Pride." He raised her hands and presented herself at the end of her speech.

Toadheim stopped the car and waited for the gate-workers to open the gate for him to head back into the city. As they were fully open, Daisy noticed another change to the city since the Double-Dash tournament ended. What was once a very busy road that was alongside the gate to Toad Town was now a more open and cleared area for the gate. It was all fenced off and the entire street was closed, only connecting with the city streets at the end of either lane. Going directly straight ahead from exiting the gate was no longer an option now as it was shut off by fences.

"Oh, this is new to me." Toadheim noticed after looking around. "I'm guessing I've got to go this way then." He turned the vehicle right.

"New to me too." Daisy added. "There's a lot less people on the streets around here too. I hate this change but I guess it's better for people like us."

"This must have been one of Toadasha's laws passed... or whoever's in charge of Toad's former position now that he's gone." Toadheim drove down the quiet fenced-off road and eventually came to another temporary gate which gave him access back to the inner city.

"Oh..." Daisy giggled. "I hope you don't mind me asking." She immediately tried to appear serious. "May I ask about what your thoughts are regarding Toad's resignation? Do you think he was in the right to make the decision to move out of Toad Town?" It looked like Toadheim was going to say nothing about it back to Daisy, but as she looked at him closely, it was evident that he was actually trying to both process the journey and busy roads ahead of him or thinking about his answer whilst driving carefully.

"Well I can only give you a neutral perspective since I don't really know Toad that much, but if he has served well and done his job and feels like it is time to retire then he has the perfect right to do so. I'm not against anything he's done and that includes his intent to step down and move away from the capital. Maybe the confined elite city life isn't for him anymore." He grinned, turning right at the next set of traffic lights, entering a one-way street through the centre of the inner city.

The conversation inside the car fell silent for most of the journey to the yards. It only picked up again when Daisy noticed Tranko and his fellow Brigade operatives turning into the Mushroom Yards car park a few cars in front of them.

"There he is." She pointed out. "Just a bit ahead of us now. That's convenient." She waited for Toadheim to be able to turn into the car park, keeping her eyes fixed on the other Toads. As they got out of their car they walked around the back of the main building, not going to the main entrance. Daisy seemed surprised at this, eager to follow them and not lose them. "Let me out now." She asked Toadheim, hoping to see where they enter the building from. Toadheim was not yet in a parking spot but stopped the car to let her out.

"Run on ahead." He told her as she got out of the car. "If I lose you I can always take the main entrance." She smiled and thanked him, running quickly but quietly to catch up with the other Toads. She had no idea what Tranko and the others with him did in the short period between the decision made to venture here and now to help them get inside fast, but they were being welcomed in by some of the workers at the Mushroom Yards. Something felt fishy to Daisy, and she knew she had to act fast.

As Tranko and the other Toads headed inside through a different entrance, she stopped and felt anxious, wondering whether or not she'd be allowed inside on her own business anyway.

"What's up?" Toadheim surprised her, walking just by her shoulder. She freaked out after staring intensely at the back entrance whilst trying to keep quiet and hidden out of sight.

"I'm not sure if they'll allow us in. Do you think they would let me in on this unknown business Tranko and the others might have? Everything seems so secret and suspicious." Daisy was openly paranoid, afraid to go first up the steps to the back entrance that had a few Toads waiting outside, giving off the impression that they were guarding the entrance to her.

"I don't see why not." Toadheim walked on ahead and confronted the Toads. "Apologies, we're the last of them. We just took a different way to the rest." He smiled at the Mushroom Yards workers, who seemingly seemed very open to accepting both Toadheim and the appropriately-dressed Princess Daisy through the back entrance.

"Do you have any Brigade identification on you?" One of the Toads standing outside asked Toadheim and Daisy, halting them at the entrance.

"Is that Toadheim?" The two overheard Tranko walk back out to them at the entrance. "Don't worry about them, they're with us. They're here for the write-ups." He winked back at Toadheim while the Yards workers weren't looking, getting their approval to let both of them inside.

"Hurry up with the rest of your squadron." The Toad mentioned. "Those three have been moved to isolation chambers in the basement sector. Remember to be careful where you tread if you enter their rooms."

"Thank you." Toadheim grabbed on to Daisy and quickly rushed on ahead, catching up with Tranko and soon the other Brigade soldiers inside the building.

"I see you've brought along a little friend with you." Tranko jokingly nudged Toadheim as they were quietly walking through the hallways of the building to the nearest staircase that would send them down a few floors. "I never took you for the type that would let people on the outside interfere with your work."

"It's not just a friend." He whispered back, making sure nobody else heard them. "It's Princess Daisy. She stopped me before I was about to drive out of Toad Town. She said she wants in on this too, but I don't know why. She also said she wanted to keep this a secret, so do me a favour and be quiet about it." Tranko leaned up and turned around, noticing Peach and giving her a nod.

"I see." He said. "I'll do what I can to make sure she gets what she wants out of this. The secrecy part of today is done already, surely? She's inside with us, and we're almost at the prisoners." He walked more to the left side of the corridor to allow Daisy to walk closer up with them, now positioned in between Tranko and Toadheim. After another five minutes of corridor walking and traversing down stairs, the band of about ten Toad Brigade soldiers and the other three arrived at the underground isolation chambers. The workers on the floor opened up the gate to the chambers revealing a large hallway with many cells, and the three Hostile Koopa prisoners were the only ones on the floor, occupying cells all far away from each other and the walls between them were mostly soundproof.

"You have an hour with them." The main worker stated. "You're welcome to leave at any time you want, and by Mushroom Kingdom Court of Law Act, no citizen is permitted to cause fatal harm to any prisoner."

"Understood." Tranko as acting leader acknowledged the rules and gave the workers a nod to close the gate, leaving them inside with all of the prisoners in different cells.

"Alright everyone! Space yourselves out and let's make the most of this hour... we have a booth to our right which we can use to bring each one in for questioning." Daisy quickly grabbed Toadheim and rushed to the second door next to the booth room as the Toad Brigade soldiers moved about in the hallway chamber. Daisy could see from the gap in the doorway one of the prisoners, but it wasn't the one she remembered the most, scarring her face.

"I'm going to be sitting here with you. You are going to be the scribe but also my last line of defence. I will have no Koopa inside this room with us, do you understand?" She worried Toadheim, but he listened along anyway. His face grew anxious as he waited for the other Toads to finish interrogating the Koopas from their cells. Both he and Daisy knew that Tranko would take one of them to be brought into the room opposite to be questioned alone.

In came the first Hostile Koopa: Joris Blackley.

Tranko's sheer size matched that of the Koopa's, and his strength was greater. He shoved the Koopa into the room and was joined by more Brigade soldiers, ready to ask him questions to which Toadheim and Daisy were listening in secret.

"So, a South Port recruit then? Tell me. What was your motivation for this attack, why did you do it? How were you able to infiltrate the management crew?" Joris, despite being shoved about by Tranko, refused to answer. He only smiled back and kept up a cocky expression.

"Pitiful, stupid Toads." He eventually spat out before Tranko, angering him. "Looking at you shit-suckers now would have given me the motivation to do it all again!" The Toad Brigade soldiers tried to keep their composure after receiving various insults from the Koopa. It was obvious that he didn't want to share any useful information.

"If you don't start providing us with anything useful then I'm going to have to go on you like a pissed off Wiggler, so start talking!" Tranko slammed the table in the room.

"You're too late. You cannot do anything to me!" Joris laughed. "You want something out of me but here's something for you... I'd do it all again. I loved massacring those poor innocent Toads. It relieved me more than a Red Light wild night! That's the red I loved; the blood that came bursting out of those Toads!"

"Say..." Daisy leaned over to whisper to one of the Toad Brigade soldiers standing outside the second booth room. "You don't happen to have a heavy-bullet gun on you, do you?" She kept looking into the room, passively feeling frustration towards Joris despite not talking to her. A flashback of his claws cutting through her cheek filled her mind, angering her more.

"Your lack of cooperation with us is getting you nothing but eternity to rot in one of these basement cells. Is this the life you want to live?" Tranko found it difficult to get to Joris' head considering he knew his laws and had to obey them, but what he gathered from this Koopa was that he was beyond saving, clinically insane.

"You know, not one night goes by where I don't think about that night and how beautiful it was to see so many Toads die!" Joris taunted Tranko. "They could have been a relative of yours, a loved one! The north would have celebrated this event if they ever heard about it. They probably have!"

"Joris, I'm going to give you the count of three to shut up and start giving us information... or else... One..."

"And there was that other one. The Toad who fell from the Rainbows in the night sky. The space girl tried to save him but she wasn't able to because she was too slow!"

"Two..." Tranko turned red, almost losing it.

"That blue-dotted Toad everyone loved, dying because of me! I KILLED TOADBERT! I KILLED TOADBERT! I KI-."

BANG!

"Thr- th- what?" Tranko looked at a bullet that just struck Joris' thick skin, piercing it deeply unlike the other gun from days ago.

"That... really hurt." Joris and the other Brigade soldiers turned their heads to see the disguised woman reveal herself in the room. "You..?"

Daisy fired three more times at Joris, including once to the head. The Brigade soldiers reacted to the violence and started pointing their weapons to Daisy, but she had already dropped the gun onto the floor after seeing a hopeful visible confirmation that the Koopa was dead. Joris remained on the floor, bleeding from multiple places, and was no longer speaking.

"I'm not a citizen." She stated. "I'm Princess fucking Daisy, and I couldn't waste any more time with this Koopa being alive, especially for what he did to me, and what he did to all of your kind." The Brigade soldiers lowered their weapons.

"Maybe this will get the other two to talk." Tranko wondered. "Let's bring in the girl." He ordered some of the guards over to open up Verida's cell, bringing her into the room next. Joris' body remained on the floor, kicked to the corner. Some of the Toad Brigade soldiers tried to remain resilient standing next to a now dead body, but felt a bit of fear in their minds.

Toadheim remained in the other room, writing some things down in his notes and still able to see the main room through the glass window. Daisy returned the gun she took from one of the Toad Brigade soldiers and returned it to him on her way back to the second room, walking just past Verida as she was being taken in to the questioning room.

"You alright, Toadheim?" She asked him, checking for his mental state in case the sight of a Koopa being killed before him left him in some sort of shock.

"I think we needed one of those. It may have given us a bit of a confidence boost to show our authority against these vile creatures." He unintentionally made her laugh, for he wanted to stay focused so he could write up more information. He took out a tape recorder from one of his pockets and laid it out on the desk before him, pressing a button for it to start recording sound. He nudged Daisy and showed it to her, then indicating to be silent and watch what would unfold in the room opposite.

"Do you see that body over there?" Tranko greeted Verida with a question, pointing at Joris. "That's your friend over there. If you don't cooperate then you're going to look like that next, alright?"

"He's not my friend." While frightened at the sight that beheld her, she snapped back at Tranko, making it well known to them that she had no true affiliation with Joris or the other Koopa. "I only met him a couple of weeks ago and to be honest, I'm glad you killed him. He was very annoying, wasn't he?"

"An annoying and also dangerous man." Tranko stated. "We're not tolerating that kind of behaviour here, so you better start wishing for a personality change because if you're any similar to him then you're not leaving this room alive."

"Fine, whatever..." Verida walked over to the table in the middle of the room and sat on the only chair that remained unused. "What do you want from me?"

"Everything, we're going to ask you everything out of you because it's all you're getting if you want to go back to life outside of a dirty underground prison cell." Tranko stepped forward and sat down on a chair so that he was facing Verida from across the table. "I'm going to start it off with a simple question with more details to follow soon after..." He coughed. "Why did you cut the power?"

"I didn't." Verida replied immediately, assuming what he referred to as the power. She turned around and pointed at Joris' body in the corner. "He did... and the other guy helped him. They kind of did it together."

"We've learned that you're not as similar to them as they are to each other, is this true?"

"Yes!" Verida said back reluctantly. "I don't even like those two! They were the ones with the plan; I was just used in it along with them."

"Used in it? In what way?" Tranko grew suspicious. Toadheim and Daisy were attentively listening in to the conversation going in the room opposite, both of them leaning in to try and hear them better.

"As... as a girl, I did what I had to do to stay alive." She tried to show weakness, but it didn't get past Tranko.

"Don't try and fool me girl, you're a fighter, you're a murderer I can see it in you, right in your eyes. Did you kill anyone that night?"

"I..."

"DID YOU KILL ANYONE THAT NIGHT?"

"I did!" She slammed the table. "I did. You want the truth out of me, I did. I did not willingly murder people. I just killed to protect myself and to protect them as for just a few hours they were on my side unlike anyone else. I did not shoot any innocent people, though I will admit, if not for the heretical behaviour I witnessed from the other two down there, I wouldn't have known better myself. I despise the Mushroom Kingdom yes... and all those who are part of it, but Joris and Mywithe, slaughtered those crew members, and for what? They wanted to go down in history as the crashers of that racing tournament?" Daisy felt like what they were getting out of Verida was sincere and just a bunch of lies. Her emotions were open; it was if she didn't really want to follow in with the plan or at least initially wanted to and started having second thoughts once they were inside the city.

"You've made a great start so far, but we're not done yet. You may show no intent of harming anyone purely out of your own will, but you're still a killer, and killers nowadays do not get treated fairly. There is light at the end of the tunnel through, show your interest in cooperation and perhaps after all of this and some more future punishment you may just be able to go back to where you were before all of these bad times." Tranko tried to negotiate with her, which in turn annoyed Toadheim. Daisy noticed his visible frustration, but due to having to be silent during the recording, he refused to say anything.

"Back to where I was before?" Verida chuckled. "My old life back? Hah, you can barely call it a life. That's what it's really like up there. Everyone basically fights for their own things up there. My house... is ran down, my friends... what friends? Going back to the days of old will leave me with nothing! There's nothing worth living for up there anymore. It shows you all how cruel this land has become, you're all so cruel!"

"But you'd rather be alive, right?" Tranko suggested, further frustrating Toadheim.

"Look." She sighed. "I tried to leave the life of a northerner, a Hostile as you would call us, but the first interactions I got were catcalls and threats. I knew that... maybe if I tried to fit in then my opinion on you all would change... but it was Toads who hurt me in places you wouldn't dare to think about!" She tried to get emotional, this time it worked on both Tranko and Toadheim behind the wall.

"Oh... I'm sorry to hear that. I bet after that, the idea of reporting it to the Brigade or the Police seemed out of the question because of fear that they might do the same thing."

"That's the thing." She cried. "They were Brigade!"

"I'll open up a case about it later today. Could you tell me the town where this happened so I could narrow down the regiments for myself?"

"Leaf Town." She said softly.

"Thank you." Tranko wrote down a few lines in his own notes now, leaving the room in silence for a few seconds. "Now... Could you tell me how you met the other two Koopas then?" He watched Verida groan, slouching in her seat. She started moaning and falling to the floor.

"Those two... shitheads!"

"This looks bad." Tranko whispered to one of the other Toad Brigade soldiers in the room.

"I think it was... Summer Meadows? Yes, obviously the top part of the Savannah Circle didn't treat me right at all, so I was making a journey south on the roads, I was planning on heading to Canchos Palace with everything I had on me to see if I could look for work there because that area looked very beautiful too. So, Summer Meadows, made a stop there in the evening to go and buy some things for the journey, and I... went into this store, and apparently there was already a crime scene going on in there! Shopkeeper shot dead, detective shot dead, and it was them. Those two Koopas took me out of there because they recognised me and forced me on their journey. Now, admittedly, this was before I really knew them, because before up in the north those two... they weren't the worst people in the world, and it was the only people I knew down here. The horrible trauma I had already faced being alone down here made me left with no choice but to trust them, because I know those two would never do such things to me."

"And this was where you began your journey to the capital then?" Tranko questioned. He received a nod from Verida, who didn't appear ready to keep on talking. He was understanding and waited on her for she would resume speaking eventually. She had no choice but to keep going.

"We passed Senephrey, and then the Canchos Palace... and then the Daisy Hills... Ambozia, Leshenza... those other tiny towns... They took me with them, so I had lost my car. Then we went straight through the big green woods or whatever they're called... and ended up in Mushroomheath on the day of the big event. You want to complain about your lack of security? You can blame how massively overpopulated your city was that day. The city was so dense of people that we had to go on foot for most of the way there. Mushroomheath was packed, but we found some secret way into the centre."

"Stop." Tranko nodded a few times, standing up. He heard a knock from the other side of the back wall and turned that way. Toadheim had stopped the recording, hoping to briefly pause this session of questioning. "Wait here. Make sure she doesn't get out of her seat." Tranko informed the Brigade soldiers.

"I'm not going anywhere." Verida smiled sinisterly.

Toadheim stood up inside the other room and watched Tranko arrive, closing the door behind them so it was just them and Daisy inside. "Did you hear that last part?" Tranko pointed to Verida across the glass window. "Secret way into the centre."

"What are you thinking?" Toadheim wondered, getting Daisy's attention and making her pivot in her seat to face him after facing Tranko. "Minute district? Mushville? Mushington Street?" Daisy was not so familiar with Mushroom City district culture, and was actually unfamiliar with most of the names Toadheim had listed. Only Mushville was familiar to her.

"Webcapstow." Tranko nodded. "I have a strong feeling." Toadheim groaned.

"Go back inside and get some answers. I'll start recording again when you come through the door." He sighed, watching Tranko rush back outside. "I don't believe this."

"I don't have the slightest clue what you two are suggesting, could you please tell me?" Daisy felt left out of the conversation, having no idea what any of those words meant.

"Wait and see." Toadheim pointed to the window and resumed the recording once Tranko returned back to his seat. "But I have a bad feeling about what these Koopas will have to say." She kept her focus and listened in to Tranko greeting Verida for the second time.

"You were saying?" He resumed the questioning, hoping that she remembered where they left off at. "What of this... secret entrance into the inner city, and more importantly, how did you end up in the control room? Somebody must have helped you with this, right?"

"Again, you'll have to ask Mywithe about this one. He's the guy who led us all the way into the city from Mushroomheath."

"Fine." Tranko paused. "We'll leave that part from there. I just want to ask a few more questions about some other things regarding you... mainly personal questions."

Verida paused and took a deep breath. "Could you give me a minute? Somebody I knew has just died and it's really frightening me. All of this is making me very timid." She begged for some sort of support from the Toads but got nothing but headshakes from everyone in the room, including Tranko.

"We're beginning now."

"Fine..." Verida sighed, almost falling off of her chair.

"Verida... what's your last name?"

"Which one do you want?"

"Oh... you're one of those Koopas. Both will do, I guess." Tranko smiled. "A real Résethal native."

"My southern surname is Ichoga, but... my native last name... Buqrizhúk."

"Oh cosmos, those names are always like that, aren't they? You know what, I'll just write it from how I think it sounds and I'll proof it with the Yards Toads once we're finished with here. What matters is that we have Ichoga." His eyes widened as he tried writing out Verida's folk last name, a dialect that was very different to even Old Koopish. "Book... rizz... hook..." Verida grinned, looking at the papers on the desk from the opposite end.

"And they wonder why we don't use these names in public anymore."

"Anyways." Tranko was finished. "Next question, where do you live? A city or town if applicable."

"Zurlon."

"..."

"It's... a hundred? Hundred and fifty? Miles north of Vurduresa? Well in the northeast. You're probably familiar with that place."

"Ah yes, we know all about Vurduresa, how is that place doing nowadays then?"

"It's a shithole." Verida chuckled. "Always has, always will be. Mostly thanks to those Red Martyrs."

"Right." Tranko noted the first two questions. "And finally, do you know how many others might be involved in similar sort of acts that could be possibly committed in the future? Do you know anyone else who might be as insane as... he who is not living anymore?"

"Not many, really." Verida thought about the question. "I don't think there are many like him... many as retarded as him, not like I know many people anyway." Tranko didn't say anything more until he was finished writing. This took him another ten seconds and Verida wasn't able to read what he was writing across the table.

"Thank you for your time. If you keep up this behaviour then maybe we'll consider a possible release within the next ten years." Tranko looked at the other Toads in the room and gave them a signalling nod to escort her out of the room. "Let's get Mywithe in now. This guy's probably going to be more work than the other two combined."

"Good luck with him." Verida mentioned as she was leaving. "He's good at lying, and that's not a lie. Keyword: Good."

"Goodbye Koopa!" Tranko waved at her when she was already out of the room. He laughed as he watched Mywithe get escorted out of his cell and taken into the room to be the last Koopa for questioning. This one was shoved onto the chair, remaining silent. All of the Toad Brigade soldiers except Tranko gave him fiendish glares and looks of disgust, knowing about some of his past already. He was covering his face, but a look at the rest of his body gave Tranko enough thought about the current state of this one. He was looking dirty across all areas of his body, and there were plenty of cuts and bruises scattered across it. When he revealed his face, Tranko could see his bloodshot eyes and the bags beneath it; this Koopa lacked sleep and nutrition, almost what they think he deserves. "So, you're the Koopa they call traitor... deserter... oath-breaker." Tranko looked at him straight in the eyes and began his confrontation of him. He knew that he could do whatever he wanted to this Koopa considering the laws he has broken, the sight of his friend's murder before his very eyes, and the sense of superiority the Toad had over the Koopa.

"Of all the things I have done and an oath-breaker is the one everyone seems to remember. Well... if there were any Red Martyrs here... they'd have done the duty and sentenced me to death... killed me even... long before you started speaking." Mywithe spoke quietly and wish a croaky husk. He was sick, evident from the way he sounded. "I'm probably looking at weeks if none of these workers down here are going to do anything about this nasty cold I've developed in these cells."

"Well consider me the last window of opportunity not to bring a Red Martyr in here to finish you." Tranko grinned. "Are you yet aware of the rotting corpse that you can see in the corner?" He indicated to Mywithe, who had not yet noticed Joris. He turned around and upon looking at his dead friend's body, he began to shiver, choking on sick and spitting out some fluid onto the floor beside him.

"He's..." He kept coughing. "What did you do?" Mywithe was trembling before the Koopa, showing complete open weakness. He lost his grip on the table and began shaking everywhere across his body now. He could no longer feel his legs as his mind became completely unsure of all of his surroundings. A natural, mental process of responses caused him to slip in his seat and fall to the floor, all while being watched at by the Toads in the room. Some mocked and laughed at him but did so silently. His speech was broken, and Tranko wasn't able to get any proper words out of the Koopa with his face fixed to the surface of the floor.

"Get him up on the chair." Tranko ordered the guards in the room. These Toads forcefully held him up, seeing him puke out some more sick onto the side of the table as they restrained him back on the chair. "I don't care what state he's in... as long as he can hear and speak, well... communicate even."

Daisy in the other room began to feel upset for the Koopa despite all of his past crimes. This method of questioning seemed a bit too much for her liking but she couldn't do anything about it as she wanted her presence here to stay discreet and without Mushroom Yards knowing. One thing she did recall to reassure herself about this process was that only the worst of Koopas were to be treated this way.

"You've... you've killed him!" He couldn't even shout. Mywithe's body shaking coinciding with his mind being mentally sick impaired his speech. Everything he could do required so much energy and would always lead to coughing.

"He didn't co-operate with us. Don't think that if you do the same as him then your fate will be the same as his. You look the state like you'd want to be dead instead of alive. I mean look at you, is this what you wanted to happen after blowing up the Rainbow Road control room?" The Toads held him in place as Tranko questioned, slamming the table and inflicting his aggression on him to worsen his mental state.

"You killed my friend. Why... why sh-." He coughed up more sick. Now though, there could be hints of red seen in the sick that landed onto the table. Tranko had a closer look at the liquid splodges, seeing what he thought was blood.

"Blood. Don't touch the table. Don't touch him. Leave him on the chair." He ordered the Toad guards quickly. "You all need to be tested after today, and wash yourselves when you get back. Don't touch anyone." Tranko kept looking at Mywithe, seeing how he thought of this, but he couldn't read his emotions. All he saw was more weakness.

"Ha... Blood." Mywithe looked up and stared at his puddle of sick on the table. "Must have been one of those Gaishō girls..."

...

"I'm sick of this." Daisy stood up. "That Koopa can't operate in that state. He looks like a complete and total disaster waiting to happen... and... Gaishō? What's the other word...? Street-girl?" Even Tranko was able to hear Daisy's distressed shouting from the other room, sparking a fire in Mywithe's heart to regain focus.

"Even in the Capital." He grinned, knowing that it would trigger more rage in the Toads.

"Tell us everything about how you got to the control room and we'll start treatment with your illness." Tranko turned around and lifted up the table from the side, flipping it away from both him and Mywithe. The reaction caused by the Koopa made him cough up more blood. It began to hurt badly enough for him to feel truly disturbed and discomforted by it.

"Secret alleys... Underground... Lifestyle..." The Koopa coughed a bit of blood and phlegm after every word. After he had coughed up a certain amount, his throat felt properly clear, allowing him to speak normally. "You're not prepared to hear how much danger is right on your doorstep. Secrets lie everywhere within this city. Anywhere seemed off-limits houses someone who knows things on the inside and sends word to those on the outside. Call me a criminal, a traitor, oath-breaker yes... but the work is done. Former racing management employees... former anything... former workers when their life isn't going well they go to the secret places, paid to share their insider information."

"Webcapstow?"

"Perhaps..."

Tranko looked at the other Toads, feeling like they've finally found their first clue. "You want to know how we managed to find ourselves a way into your control rooms? To shut down your race that you housed over millions of people? Look for he who watches over the Gaishō girls, he'll give you a name. He'll be the one to look out for. He'll be the one who knows about it all. Ask me not who else knows about the secrets, but who receives the secrets from the outside. You might just get a bit unlucky and important information about your own people's safety could be exposed to a Zurloner, or worse, a Zarkaner or a Dargovian."

It was exactly what Toadheim feared: the security of the Mushroom Kingdom being shared to the outside by individuals. Individuals who seem like citizens, but could be involved with the north, sharing government information.

"Throw him back in the cells. We've spent enough time with these... two Koopas today." Tranko looked back at the Toads, ready to have Mywithe escorted back.

Toadheim finally stopped the recording, letting Daisy let out a lot of noise in distress from witnessing the questioning in the room opposite. She sunk in her chair, looking to her side and wondering how Toadheim felt about it all.

"What are... Gaishō girls again?" She stretched her arms and legs out, letting out a yawn afterwards. Toadheim did not respond; he only shook his head in disbelief. He was more afraid about this than anyone else in the rooms underground, but now that they were finished with the Koopas, they could get some fresh air outside. Tranko opened up the door to their room a little more and walked in, closing it behind him.

"I think this will be enough for now, but we can't continue this job on ground level. We've got to get someone else wired in to do this for us. I'm not having any of our guys go in because we'll immediately be found out." Tranko walked forward and grabbed Toadheim by the shoulder as he got up. "No Toad will die on this mission." He whispered in his ear.

"Why are you saying this to me?" Toadheim snapped back to both Tranko and Daisy's surprise. "You act like I am your supervisor? You are your own leader now. I've never told you to do anything, anyway." Daisy grew anxious, unsure what to say, especially given her two exit tickets out of Mushroom Yards were now in a perhaps unnecessary argument with her.

"I don't mean it like that, my friend! You're our eyes in the sky..."

"And you will be too! You said it yourself, you don't want any of your men on the ground this mission." Daisy felt a slight bit of relief at Toadheim. The two raising their voices at each other was not in fact an argument, but a boast of confidence towards one another cheering each other on.

"Who are we going to get though? We can't just take a Toad or Koopa disguised as a citizen and send them off to the alleys." She was still confused, unsure whether it was a friendly chatter now. She couldn't read the room, and was too afraid to ask them.

"Whoever we get, cannot be armoured up. What we're planning on doing isn't a mission of violence, but a process of gathering intelligence. I'm going to give you a copy of the recordings when we get back to headquarters. I will rally this to the Queen as well once she's back for the day." Toadheim suggested.

"We've got until nightfall. That's when it's probably best to go. Webcapstow will be busy at night. Especially that place." Tranko said back to Toadheim as he moved over towards the door, opening it up slightly.

"This reminds me..." He whispered. "Don't tell everyone about this... you'll never know who we might bump into over there at night. Perhaps some old colleagues of ours." The two prepared themselves for departure, leaving a confused Daisy to tag along with them at the back. She was too nervous to ask more about it, but assuming Peach would get a copy of the records, maybe her input on the situation might give her a better understanding of what is to come.

The only thing she did know about Webcapstow was that it was a district in the northwest part of the Capital, and quite a long distance away from the castle. It was one of the more commercial parts of Mushroom City, and definitely lacking any sort of Mushroom culture. The important factor she kept note of was that for a long time it felt like nothing eventful ever happened there... until now, supposedly...

EOC: Updated to the former note at the top, uploads are probably going to become more inconsistent due to business in life at the moment.

Hopefully more to come soon though, see you then!