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)

19. The Silver Lining

Downfall of the Mushroom Kingdom

The Silver Lining

A/N: Things in the past few months have been very scruffy but I aim to be back on track with things. We're going to be more centred in the Mushroom Kingdom again.

March 16, 2015

Peach's Castle, Mushroom City

For the first time ever, the bed in the modern Royal Chambers was occupied not by the Queen or Princess of the Mushroom Kingdom, but by another Princess. Princess Daisy woke up under the bed sheets at an exact 8:16AM. Her eyes opened up slowly as she realised where she was, remembering her decision to sleep in here last night, alone. At this time the castle was quiet; only the castle guards were present on the other floors. Only she remained on this top floor. Upon looking at the time across the bed on the side table, Daisy remembered that for now there was no reason or incentive to get out of bed so early. Despite being unable to cope with the emotional hurt from last night, it didn't prevent her from falling asleep.

Daisy rolled over, still under the bed sheets. Still tired, she wanted to sleep some more, but now that her conscience was wide awake, she was unable to stop her brain from thinking about last night as she closed her eyes. Bothering her mental state, it reappeared in her mind...

She held the soft red plumber cap in her arms, bringing it close to her chest. Luigi was by her side and it looked like he too wanted a grasp of it. It was his brother's after all. The blood drips and stains on the floor were two similar shades of red, at least that was what she was able to see in the dark tunnel. Toad operatives worked quickly at the scene, taking samples of the blood to verify if it was Mario's or not, but the fact that there were Toads present annoyed Daisy enough through her deep emotions of extreme sadness and grief.

"Close the doors." She commanded after wiping any tears off of her face. The operatives obeyed and followed suit, making sure no more police workers with them tonight were able to come across them and the incident. "Make sure nobody else finds out about this. We will declare the result when we have enough evidence that this is him."

"Do as she says." Luigi added, comforting her at the same time. "I pray to all the stars in the night sky that this blood is not of my brother's, but of that damned Koopa. I know you're out there, brother. Come back when he's been dealt with." He too was sobbing, trying to remain resilient despite the disaster but he couldn't handle it mentally. Nobody could; even half of the police operatives assisting them broke character and started to cry. Male and female alike.

"Tranko." She beckoned the Toad Captain over, having him kneel by her side to listen to her whisper as she mourned. "I don't want to see that kid ever again... Do whatever with him just make sure he does not return." The Toad Captain nodded, getting up from the floor and looking at the rest of the team operating in the tunnel.

"Remaining operatives track the tunnel. Find everything you can to trace Mario and whoever he might be with. Don't risk yourselves returning up to the surface. The fires look dire."

The evacuation from underground for Luigi and Daisy was a blur, but recalling going through some of the flames to return to the surface, with only a few of the Toad operatives down there to help escort them out gave her another mental fright. Going through the flames gave her as much of a flash of the thought of Mario dying when thinking about it as it did when she actually went through last night... Fire and Blood, and a burning red softcap.

She couldn't stay in bed now. Closing her eyes and sleeping induced her with this trauma, and it seemed to be worse during daylight than when she arrived back in the castle in the middle or the night. She remembered abandoning Luigi, leaving him with his brother's burnt and partially bloodied cap. The worst part of her return last night was trying to avoid telling the well-wishing castle-guards about Mario's now-disappearance. She couldn't even remember where Luigi went after they separated in the streets of Webcapstow. She chose her own way home under the safety of some of the Brigade force. She could only hope that they wouldn't spread the word about Mario.

...

Daisy would end up having to start the day anyway. As the current incumbent governess of Mushroom City, she still followed the call to answer to the current affairs. Little may they be at the moment, she did receive word from one of the castle-workers through a speaker message that they were expecting a 'royal' visitor. A meeting on the picnic bench in Toad Town was in order. Getting out of bed gave her a massive head-ache, and her vision started to look a little bit hazy. Two bottles of champagne could be seen behind the clock on the bedside table, both taken from Peach's wine fridge on the top floor last night. Daisy didn't even realise how bad last night actually was until seeing those. One was empty and the other half full. Almost everything was a blur.

9:30am

Upon the castle doors opening, Daisy walked outside and saw a face resembling wisdom, guidance, and most importantly, safety. However, he too was looking like a struggle to put on a happy face. He couldn't help with what must have felt like the same level of sadness that Daisy was currently enduring due to a certain something last night.

"Where is he?" His speech radiated gloom across the few metres of grass that separated the two. Upon seeing him more closely, Daisy noticed that his face was also very red.

"I don't know." She tried to keep a composite look on her face, hoping the outside guards were not making a judgement of it all.

"What about Luigi?"

"…The same." The two walked towards the picnic table, ready to sit down and discuss. "How do you know about this anyway?" She was a bit concerned about that to begin with. Toadsworth wasn't there and she ordered those who were to not tell anyone else about it.

"I was here when you came back, actually." Toadsworth explained as he sat down at the table. He pulled out his wand and to his right he drew a magical image of the castle gates from last night using lots of magical energy. "I was here to return things to the scientists down below, and on my way out… I saw you on your own, and you were not yourself." Daisy looked at what Toadsworth was projecting. She was in such a dire state that she couldn't even remember how bad it actually was. "You were carrying his cap. I knew that you had the operation going to Webcapstow and I heard on the news about the fire. It all adds up if you put a lot of thinking to it."

"I brought the cap?" She didn't even remember doing so. What followed on the magical screen was Toadsworth's silent perspective watching her sulking on her way back to the castle gates. As they were opening, she turned towards the lake in the centre of Toad Town, walking closer towards the edge, and tossed the cap into the lake. Toadsworth then ended the screen recording and instead used his wand to channel a beam into the lake, lifting up the cap from the bottom of the water bed. It floated across the water, dripping all the water soaked through it, and onto the floor just next to the picnic bed. She began to question when in the night she started drinking, as she couldn't remember this part either.

"We're in… a lot of trouble at the moment." Toadsworth sighed. "Does Peach know about this yet? Where has she been in all of this? I haven't seen her since the funeral yesterday." At least she was able to remember what happened before the fiasco last night, but what she had to say wasn't going to be very helpful to him either.

"Peach is missing." Daisy replied. "Trapped on the other side of the portals. I have no idea what to do, and have no idea whether she'll be able to come back or not. Do you know how to open the portal? Because I don't, and the only people who do… we've gotten rid of them both."

"Which portal, the great pipe?" Toadsworth asked.

"No. Tom's. The necklace one. Duncan took the gem out and disappeared with Mario last night." Thinking about it only made Daisy more stressed. She sunk her face onto the table with Toadsworth looking at her helplessly. "I'm not fit for this. What if Peach never returns? Trust that new kid to show up and everything goes to shit. I don't know why she kept letting in all these new boys. Everything about them has just fucked up everything. Where the fuck is Tranko anyway? I told him to get rid of the boy and now he's nowhere to be seen. Ugh." She shivered. "It's getting cold in the mornings now."

"I don't know much about how things have been with regards to this portal you talk about, but the fact that it has been left to be so easily… manipulated does bring great concern to the entire governance of this land. When Peach returns… and I know she will… you must tell her not to use it ever again, or so help her get one of those wristbands!" Toadsworth raised his voice slightly at Daisy. Despite not even complaining at her, he felt his aggression was too much for this time of mourning. He fell down on his seat and looked away awkwardly. "Forgive me, Princess Daisy. This past week never ceases to keep on letting us down."

Daisy reached her hand out across the table to grab hold of Toadsworth's. "You're alright." She smiled, trying to cover up the tears that were on her face before. "Now that we've realised that the times of today are getting worse, we can put a stop to it."

"It's just… We're so close to exposing this to the people. Imagine how they would all feel if they found out the person sworn to protect them deals with follies most of them don't even know the existence about? Imagine what Toad would say."

"He's gotten so much worse."

"He'd want you all to go across and never come back." Toadsworth said with a very concerning look. "He's changed. Ever since Toadbert, he's lost all faith in you all… and the only one he trusts… is gone."

"He's not gone yet. Don't say that." Daisy slapped his face gently. "He may be without his cap, but it doesn't mean he's out of it. I need to speak to Toadheim later. Maybe there's some footage of Mario elsewhere." Toadsworth wasn't looking optimistic. Even with his knowledge of magic right at his fingertips, some things didn't seem so easy to retrieve. There wasn't a spell out there that could bring a named person straight to you, nor was there a spell to undo any damage done to a body. He could only look away and shake his head. Daisy didn't seem convinced with his opinion. "Anyways." She said. "I've got something else to deal with before going to Toadheim. You're free to walk inside the castle… make yourself at home… but I've got some business to deal with."

"I'm actually going to head back home." He got up from the picnic seat and warned Daisy as she was heading back to the castle. "However, on an unrelated matter…" Daisy immediately knew what Toadsworth was talking about. Both he and she looked around the streets of Toad Town to see if any dweller was looking their way before he retrieved something out from his pocket.

"Is it ready?" She became immediately anxious, but extremely desperate. The weeks of secrecy in the works, perhaps finally ready. She looked at what Toadsworth pulled out of his pocket and seeing him place it on the table. A cloudy red substance stored into a tiny vial. Just seeing it caused her to sweat in anticipation of finally seeing its magnificence.

"There's enough in here for… two people should you have the opportunity, but it's all there. That should be what you and Peach are looking for. Gadd, Crygor and I made great use of that severed arm." The vial was small, containing only about 100ml of the substance. "Remember to only put in half."

"Thank you." Daisy replied. "I won't forget this." In the midst of the races over the past few months, Peach and Daisy had always desired to figure out a way to truly make the humans less of a threat. Daisy's eyes were fixated on this substance; she was so excited to make use of it. She tried to remain quiet, shaking Toadsworth's hand and seeing him off as he was ready to depart from the front grass area of the castle.

"Wait." He called out to her as the castle doors were closing. Daisy didn't respond and quickly disappeared, too excited to pay attention to the voice from behind her. One thing he had forgotten to mention to her was what he remembered discussing with the others last night.

He had just heard the news of the fires in Webcapstow; an instant assumption that danger struck those of great importance who were at the scene. Toadsworth immediately rushed to the lab that Gadd and Crygor were working at that night. The work on this was transferred from Gadd Science Incorporated in western Mushroom City all the way to a secret lab not too far from the castle. Toadsworth, now residing in Rivuba, had rushed all the way here to see if the fabrication was ready. The chemical was in fact ready as he arrived to see it stored safely in the lab at the hands of both Gadd and Crygor.

"Is it finished?" He retrieved the vial, a hundred and two millilitres to be exact. It looked the colour it should be, the red-cloudy colour, but he wasn't sure if it was usable. In other parts of the laboratory room, he could see items that were used in it: various DNA samples, scraps of magical fabrics, and the remains of Boom Boom's severed arm, now about a third in size and significantly less colour to it.

"It's good to go." Doctor Crygor walked over to Toadsworth from across the room. Gadd was asleep, tired and overworked from producing this for the Princess and Queen.

"So it will do everything they'd hope for?" He checked with Crygor before getting ready to leave. It seemed both of the scientists were done with this experiment, seemingly wanting nothing to do with it any more.

"Fifty-mil dosage for whomever they want to use it on. They'll be straight beneath their feet and ready to obey."

"…And any side-effects?..." This was his main concern. There was a long pause in Crygor's speech.

"I don't know." At least Toadsworth knew that Peach and Daisy weren't going to use this on themselves. They had someone they could use it on to get everything they wanted. Whether the person they use it on matters to them in the end is something he wasn't so sure about. He felt a little bit of paranoia, wondering if it was still ok to use.

"It will have to do." Toadsworth said back to Crygor.

The castle doors were closed. He could only watch from the outside, kept away from whatever Daisy wanted to do next.

…

Daisy already had intentions of going down to the basement floors. Mario's disappearance not only filled her with sadness and stress, but anger as well. One of the biggest threats to Mario, or Peach, or herself was still remaining barely operative on the lowest floor of the castle. When Daisy reached the bottom floor, she immediately noticed how empty it was. All this recent underfunding for additional security in the castle led to increasing absences. Very few guards were present across all four underground floors and Toadlynn, now supposedly the chief of security in these lower floors was not even present this morning. The cells were almost entirely empty however. Most had disappeared since the tenth, or their sentences had ended. The only person who was present inside one of the cells was the boy who mattered most at the moment: Enrique, still starving and deprived of energy. He looked exactly how she expected once she passed his cell door. Lying on the floor, few meal trays remained scattered across other parts of it, and his bed wasn't even in use. Nobody had showed up to the floor this morning to give him his first meal, but it looked like there were remains of other meals in the mess of all things that were large enough in total to give him another meal. This was the least of her concerns though; he needed to be awake.

She grabbed the keys to the cell back in the security room and tried to quietly unlock and open his cell door. This needs to work, and he needed to be at least conscious to consume it. Daisy took extra caution to measure half of the vial before checking Enrique was awake. This man was dangerous regardless, she knew to take extra cautious when handling him when he is awake, even if he was supposedly weak and out of energy. She knew that upon giving this to him that he wouldn't be deprived of health and energy anymore anyway. Daisy crept over the room so that she was standing behind him, with his head closest to her and in front of her. She nudged his head, moving it about to check if he was conscious and after about five seconds of shaking it about, his eyes started to open, but only slightly.

"Uh…" He groaned, barely moving at all. It looked like he was barely able to operate his body whether it be due to extreme tiredness or lack of nourishment. He was skinnier than before but he didn't look life-threateningly skinny. Daisy started to lean in closer, reaching as close to his mouth to try and open it slightly. With a way in to his system, she started to pour some of the vial mixture into his mouth. About half of it went into his mouth and straight down his throat in just under a second. Enrique started to choke and cough for a few seconds, opening his eyes more. He was able to swallow the rest of the dark red mixture down his throat, and it was then did he realise what was going on. Daisy noticed the quick widening of both of his eyes and started to make a run for it back to the cell door, but Enrique's reaction stopped her. He managed to grab on to her right leg and pull her down to the floor. He shot up and rushed to Daisy with extreme pivotal acceleration, grabbing the rest of her body before she could even react and hold her straight to the door. "What was that?" He shouted. "What did you do!?"

"Get off of me!" Daisy screamed as she tried to push his hands away from her as he reached for her neck, beginning to strangle her. Enrique's grip on her neck became too difficult for her to try and break off. It was far stronger than she ever thought he was. Before she could start to choke from the suffocation, Enrique's entire stance on her changed. He let go of her immediately and stood backwards, almost freezing in place and without any open emotions. It was like the life in him had randomly vanished and he turned almost into a mannequin. Only his eyes would move as Daisy moved away from the back wall of the cell.

It worked… to some degree at least. Daisy was lost for words. Enrique was completely frozen in place and would only stare back at her. His legs were straight and his arms were down by his sides. If this was going the way she expected it to go then she could only think to say what she thought of saying when first told about the effects of the vial weeks ago. "You are now under my command." She spoke softly to him in the room. Almost robotically, Enrique's head tilted towards Daisy to face her properly in the room.

"I am under your command." He replied monotonously, but exactly the way she wanted him to.

"You serve me, Princess Daisy, as well as Peach, Queen of the Mushroom Kingdom. You are not to harm or interact with anyone else unless ordered to." Daisy then followed to give him more instructions.

"I serve Princess Daisy and Queen Peach of the Mushroom Kingdom. I am not to harm or interact with anyone else unless ordered to." He then looked at Daisy directly into her eyes. "You… you are Princess Daisy." It was starting to look even better than she expected. His memories of her and Peach were able to link with the substance's effect, making him easily able to piece names together and recognise faces. "Where is Queen Peach?" He then asked rather abruptly whilst Daisy was thinking of something else to say.

"You're only to ask questions when allowed to, or when completely and importantly necessary." She said back to him, giving him another objective to uphold.

"Where is Queen Peach?" He asked again. "This is important and necessary."

"She is fine." Daisy felt a little bit nervous but hopefully he would be able to wipe that worry off of his shoulder. He nodded back to her and acknowledged her answer, remaining put on the spot in the cell. "Now, I'm going to give you a small test to see your strengths." She walked over to face him directly and stand right before him, trusting him that he would not surprise her in any way whatsoever. "I am going to send some hooks and swings with my fists to you. You are not allowed to hit me back, but you must do your best to avoid them. Do you understand?" Enrique remained straight and tall, obeying her.

"I understand. I must defend myself against your strikes." He nodded. "I am ready." Daisy smiled, ready to approach him. She remembered just now that this was supposed to be a heavily unfit, unhealthy, malnourished Enrique, full of weakness and brittleness. But as soon as she tried to surprise him by giving the first jab at his face while she wasn't even looking, he ducked on the spot as the first was coming straight for him.

"Ha." She grinned, trying to jab him again by the chest but he briskly evaded the lunge of her fist. Every time she brought her arm back close to her, Enrique reset his position in the same place every time. Even though she was so close to him, any attempt she made afterwards would be met with an evasion or a complete miss of his body. She even feigned a few times, resulting in his body not moving at all. She attempted some more pretend-jabs afterwards, and also attempted near misses to see if he would react to jabs that would come very close to his body. Mixing all those together with some genuine attempts and she would end up missing or having all of her strikes at him evaded. Every single near-miss strike or jab would be met with no movement from him whatsoever. She exhaled. "Very impressed… Look over there." She then pointed to her left and made Enrique look that way. "Stay looking over there." Now she made another attempt to punch him in the neck. Whilst looking away from her, he still evaded the jab, ducking beneath it.

"You get the picture." Enrique spoke monotonously again, though slightly humorous to Daisy.

"How do you feel?" She asked him, leaning close to him and making sure that he didn't move at all in position.

"Hungry." He replied. Daisy nodded, acknowledging him. Whether it is a hunger for violence or justice, or a genuine starvation for food, she knew she would soon be able to accommodate to him.

"Stay in here." She started to leave the cell. "You will be fed properly soon." She watched as he gave her back a nod before she walked past the door and out, locking him inside. Down the corridor she went, back to the security room to return the keys. Whilst she was there, she checked the cameras of each cell presented to her on the screens. After the walk and the time spent configuring the cameras to select the cell that Enrique was in, she still saw him idly standing up straight in the centre of the room. Daisy looked at the table before her and leaned into the microphone, pressing and holding down a button marked '1 – Lower Kitchens'.

"Princess Daisy here. Please bring a large prisoner meal for the fifth cell on the bottom floor. Come with security, just in case. Deliver the meal into the cell and leave straight after."

…

Daisy reported to floor 7: the department of Security. Again, it was a floor emptied of its workers with only a few residing at work this morning. One of those included was the head of security: Toadheim. Daisy didn't even have to make herself announced with how few there were to acknowledge her. She was here for a few reasons, and hopefully all of them could be sorted out by speaking to Toadheim. He was looking shattered. Perhaps he too could hardly get sleep last night, but still he was on his pay check and showed up to work every day regardless of any incidents or errors. From what he looked like and his reaction to seeing her approach him in the office room, he also heard about the news by someone or some means. There were a few security workers inside the main department room, so once she arrived to Toadheim's office, she closed the door securely.

"What do you know?" She whispered to him. He leaned to the side to show his face to her away from the computer.

"Probably less than you." He beckoned her to walk up the stairs next to his desk. "Did you find the guy behind the Gaishō girls in the end?" Daisy rushed up towards him and sat on the only other chair in the room right next to his own.

"Raiyon." Daisy mentioned. "That was his name. Unfortunately, we don't have any footage of him unless you could get something out of that building. Since it was set alight and burned to the ground, I don't know if we're able to retrieve anything."

"What about the recruits? Tranko?" He looked at Daisy before searching for any footage on the streets of Webcapstow from last night. He managed to get some footage from security cameras outside the alley as the police and Toad Brigade were leaving, but there was nothing of government property that showed any closer.

"I don't know where Tranko is today, and he's got everyone else's footage I believe… if their cameras survived. I know someone's didn't."

"Mario's?" Toadheim just remembered. "I might be able to check his log. I just forgot… I've got everyone's wire." Daisy watched him press buttons on the keyboard and click a lot of times on the screen, hoping he would get somewhere through all of these tabs. The security monitor was too confusing for her to comprehend. All she wanted to see were videos of footage. "Ah, we've got a bit of an issue."

"What's that?" Daisy tried to understand the options and logs on the screen. What she did understand was that there were several file folders of videos belonging to the wired cameras that each individual had last night.

"Mario's footage file folder is corrupted… Rynmar's is also." He tried clicking on them and was given an alert tab on the screen that the scripts were unreadable and not executable. "However, everyone else's works… that goes for Luigi's… Manes'… and Mirano's."

"Get up Luigi's." Daisy demanded, even going as far as grabbing the mouse and clicking on Luigi's file herself. Toadheim leaned back a little to let her configure the mouse, selecting last night's video footage. It was displayed on Toadheim's big screen and noticed it was a video lasting several hours. She scrolled all the way to near the end where Luigi finally ended up inside the building in Webcapstow. She fast-forwarded just a little more to where Mario and Luigi started descending the stairs into the brothel area. There it was where she could see on his camera three important people Raiyon, the Koopa that was marked of most interest, the Koopa behind the bar, mostly responsible for allowing all of this to happen, and Duncan, hiding beside a table.

"The Koopa in the far corner…" Toadheim pointed to him on the screen. "He wasn't arrested last night."

"That one's called Adama. I overheard it from the other wired cameras the others had. However, him." She pointed to Duncan. "Zoom in on him. He's the reason this all happened. Peach wasn't able to be here to fix all of this because he's trapped her."

"Trapped?" She gasped. She forgot that Toadheim never knew about Peach's next disappearance.

"You remember yesterday when we found that kid by the portal entrance? He's disabled it, and Peach was on the other side. That's why we were also looking for him last night." She couldn't help but confess the truth to him. She knew that he wasn't a very curious individual given that he was the master of security. Hopefully it wouldn't lead to too much questioning from him in the future. "Stay focused now." She made sure he didn't go off in a train of thought. Daisy got back to the computer and fast-forwarded even more. The computer was showing all of Luigi's encounters, spanning from the fires starting in the brothel room, the calling of the Fire Brigade, all the way to him going through the fires with Daisy and Tranko to reach the tunnel room. "Here." She paused the footage at a part where Luigi was looking down the tunnel.

"Mario's cap." He gasped.

"I need footage from the other end of this tunnel. Do you know where this is?" She demanded an answer from the Toad, but he was only scratching his cap. This dark, mysterious tunnel looked completely unknown to him. "Answer me, damn it! Can you get cameras from the other side?"

"Wait a minute." He felt under stress from Daisy's slowly-building rage. "I'll try my best."

"Mario was never found in this tunnel, but his cap and a LOT of blood was! The only way he could have gone is out of that tunnel. The same goes with Raiyon and Duncan. Find them!" She worried about whether there was any footage from a camera anywhere near the end of the tunnel. The Toad Brigade soldiers that ventured to the end of it last night never returned back to Webcapstow by the time she and Luigi stormed out in the transport. Toadheim worked as quickly as he could to scan for footage in the northwest suburbs of the city, surveying through footage from Webcapstow, Bogato and Nikoda. Unfortunately, anywhere further than these areas were classed as outside of the bounds of Mushroom City. There were large areas of space in between here and the other towns as it reached the bounds of the Open Green. With the existence of this tunnel not properly known to many people working in the government, it was unlikely it led to anywhere popular.

"I can't find anything close." Toadheim sighed, slouching in his seat after being done looking through folders. "Even going bird's eye view of where the exit could be. Nothing is remotely close. I… I could try and run a scan through them all surrounding the area for any sights of the people we're looking for." It was nowhere near enough to satisfy Daisy or make up the loss she suffered that night. It filled her with frustration, making her want to punch the walls repeatedly. She tried to keep composure and tried to offer alternative approaches.

"If you've got no luck with that… at least try and trace the faces we saw down there last night. Is this Raiyon registered? What about Adama and the other we arrested last night?" She then remembered something else regarding last night.

"I've already received feedback from the arrest last night. His name is Watana. He's the proprietor of the establishment." Toadheim mentioned.

"Maybe he's the one behind the smuggling. He's the 'one who watches over the Gaishō girls'…" Daisy realised, getting a slight uplifting feel. "Toadheim, don't forget about those requests. Also, I need access to a printer. Where can I get one of those?" He pointed towards another door outside the office room.

"There's a few in there." He said.

Daisy rushed out of the room, leaving the Toad worker alone and alleviating his stress. This room was also empty. It contained several computers all linked up to a few large active printers in the middle of the room. Stacks of paper piled up at the end of it. This room would usually be occupied by many workers, but again, the striking number of absences today made it completely empty. She went to occupy the nearest computer available to her, knowing that through one of these, she could access the entire government security database, including a search engine, log book and records and files of every representing citizen of the Mushroom Kingdom, as well as many more features she intended to use. As it turns out after just a few minutes of its use, these records not only featured citizens of the Mushroom Kingdom, but also everyone through modern history with a reputable factor. Whether they were famous, criminals, victims, associates… almost everyone across the south and some parts of the north had something to make up a record. Perhaps Peach had a lot of involvement with the Toad government when it came to assembling records. Daisy remembered that The Mushroom Accords also had a section involving a complete restructure of their people records. Going through several sub-folders, she was able to find one folder including every human brought across from Earth since Project Princess Rescue in 2010. Every human was there: Tom, Enrique, Jack, Ronald, George, Toby, Luke, Will. Eight humans including the one she had at her disposal, all with limited but useful information in the records. The status of all of them was wanted and Daisy needed a picture of each of them that the database had to offer. This is where the printer came in handy for her. With several sheets of paper, she tried to print out a photocopy of a facial picture of each of the other seven humans. Alongside these humans, she went to a different folder to find pictures of both Duncan and Tobias. On all of these nine photos she managed to print out, she also grabbed a pen and copied each of their respective names down at the bottom of the sheet.

"Thank you for the printer, Toadheim!" Daisy shouted through the department as she left the printer room with her sheets of paper. Keen to return to the bottom floor, she first received an alert call from her phone just as she left the department of security. "Come in?"

"We've made another arrest from yesterday." It was Tranko on the other end. "The other Koopa behind the bar talking with the others. We're taking him back to the Mushroom Yards Underground. Try to meet us there in an hour if you can."

"Alright…" Daisy understood. "See you there."

…

Daisy returned back down to the bottom basement floor. This time, she was carrying several sheets of printed paper. All with copies of the faces she collected from the security room. She collected the keys to the cell and started heading down the corridor back to Enrique's cell. Through the small eye-hatch, she was able to see him before ready to open the door. He was sitting on the side of his bed, perhaps feeling a little better but still very pale. His morning meal of the day was all consumed with nothing left on the tray food-wise. A few more meals and a lot of earned rest might fix the paleness, but things like that could also be fixed with a bit of advanced magic should Toadsworth or someone better have the ability to see to him someday. Daisy unlocked the door and got his attention. Instantly upon seeing her, Enrique shot up from the bed and stood up straight, looking right into her eyes. He remained put just next to the bed, letting her walk briefly around the room with the sheets of paper. Daisy then stood very close to Enrique, presenting him with the first photocopied face.

"Do you know who this is?" She asked him, holding the paper up to his eyes. He nodded slowly, without uttering a word. "Who is this?" She then asked again.

"Tom." He replied. Daisy then gave Enrique all of the photos for him to hold in his hands.

"Look through all of these photos." She ordered. "Do you know who any of these other people are?"

"…I know all of these people." He replied after a few seconds, sticking out his hands to offer back the pieces of paper to Daisy.

"These guys are wanted criminals." She spoke with pride and emotion now, trying her best to persuade and convince him. "These nine people are enemies of the Mushroom Kingdom and a threat to the safety of me and Queen Peach. You must hunt them down. Do whatever you can by any means necessary to destroy them. I want them all dead. This must happen. Do you understand?"

"I must hunt down these enemies of the Mushroom Kingdom, for the safety of you and Queen Peach." He replied again monotonously.

Daisy folded all of the photos individually, twice, and handed them back to Enrique. "Keep these. Only return them when the person in the photo is destroyed. You may return them one by one should you destroy them in any order and at different times." Enrique held the photos in his hand and looked at them once more. He examined all of the names beneath each photo as well; nine targets and with some sort of memory of all of them.

"I will do as you command." He obeyed.

"Remember, you must not harm anyone else. No Toads, no Koopas, no other humans. Only those nine." Daisy felt the need to give out more orders, should other things get in his way.

"I will not harm anyone else. My objective is to destroy these enemies of the Mushroom Kingdom… for the safety of Queen Peach and Princess Daisy."

"You must not interact with others either, by any means necessary. The targets provided for you are the biggest priority." Daisy now moved back to the door, leaving it open. "Follow me." Enrique finally was able to leave his cell. He walked slowly and stayed behind Princess Daisy, staying no more than two metres and no less than a metre away from her. She took him to one of the elevators, going all the way up to floor 13: the Training Hall.

There were a few guards present in this room, all were confused as to why Daisy was here with Enrique and why she was accompanying him here. She gave them all a nod as they walked into the main training hall. They trusted her, so if she says that everything is fine and what she's doing is right, then they will listen to her word and her decision. Daisy took Enrique through the room and all the way to the weapons room. Enrique followed her silently and slowly, staying in that small distance barrier away from her. Once she got inside the room, she waited for him to have a look at all he was seeing. This was no ordinary weapons room. This was a human's weapons room. There were guns, knives, blades, swords, a vast selection of weapons to equip and use, and nothing too torturous either. All of these were relics from previous wars or imports from Earth retrieved from the Mushroom Kingdom, polished and improved for safekeeping should a time be needed for Peach, Daisy, or any other human need them.

"Have a look around." Daisy instructed, leaning out of the way to let him through to the middle of the room. "Find what suits you best on your pursuit to these threats to the Mushroom Kingdom, and take your pick." There was too much for him to choose from at first. He spent half a minute just looking at everything before eventually making his decisions. He grabbed a sharp knife in a sheath first then he took an axe that he could hold with one hand. Not a sword despite there being so many to choose from, but one of the few axes that were hung up to the far right side. For guns, he grabbed a medium-sized pistol; low recoil but relatively high rate of fire. He checked it, noticing there was no ammunition in it. To his left, there was a large crate full of ammunition.

"Jack and Ronald deal with things like this." He stated to Daisy whilst slotting cartridges into a magazine and placing it inside the pistol.

"Very interesting." She added. "Criminal minds, they are." He reloaded the gun with ease, reminding Daisy of his serving days in 2010 under Project Princess Rescue.

"May I?" He then asked, referring to the willingness to test out the pistol. Daisy pointed to another door inside the room, leading to an area further down the floor that was used as a shooting range. However, it was hardly used due to the Toad Brigade and Patrol stations operating in different buildings in Mushroom City. This area served only for Peach and Daisy back in the day.

"By all means." She opened up the door for him to go inside and test out the pistol. There were still dummy targets set up on the other end of the room. Three in the centre and then one hung higher up at the end on each side. Enrique walked into the room for only a few seconds before reaching his arm out and opening fire across the room. He struck the upper left target first, then the upper right target, then the centre left and lastly centre right. All targets were hit in a little over a second. He started firing at the central target repeatedly until the magazine ran out of bullets. Eight shots on the centre target making it twelve in the round in total. Daisy gasped when watching him fire at the targets. Her eyes widened as she saw where exactly all of the bullets went. The targets on the upper level of the room were struck straight in the head area, along with the near targets on the left and right. The central target however, was struck eight times in the heart. There was almost no variance in the area the bullets struck the target. All eight bullets struck the very centre. Enrique walked back into the main weapons room to reload his weapon, searching the crate of ammunition for more pistol bullets. Daisy was amazed, following him back into the room. After he picked up the guns and knives and the axe which he put into his back pocket, he went back to the guns and investigated the rest of them. There was one gun that caught his attention the most. It was the longest in length, and presumably the deadliest.

"This one." Enrique pointed to it, alerting Daisy that he wanted it. She wasn't very familiar with it, but given what she saw in the target range, whatever he preferred would be the best choice.

"It's a very lengthy one. I believe the long bullets go into that one. Are these all of your choices then?" She searched the boxes of ammunition and pulled out some magazines that suited the weapon. Enrique nodded, helping Daisy reload the weapon.

"You want me to assassinate the enemies. This will help me do it out of sight." He explained, indicating to Daisy that this was in fact a sniper rifle imported from Earth. Neither she nor Peach knew how it got here and what it was previously used for, but now it would finally have a use.

"Do you need something to carry that?" She wondered, since it was as tall as her and very heavy. Enrique shook his head in response. Daisy forgot about the fact that he was previously starving and out of energy. This mixture gave him some sort of magical immunity to weariness. He could carry this forever. "Very well. You know your targets. When you are sent off, do not return until you have either dealt with at least one of them, or brought at least one of them back to me." He nodded back to her again.

"I will eliminate the threat and will only return to inform you about having doing so." These were his last monotonous words spoken to her before she instructed him out of the training hall. Back to the elevator, she would send him all the way back to his cell on floor -4. Instructions on his departure were pending. Next step for Daisy: Mushroom Yards. On the way, she decided to call up Toadsworth again as the mixture seemed to impress her so much that she began to feel suspicious about it. Everything about it was working beyond what she expected, yet the finalisation of it came like it was rushed.

"Princess Daisy, what can I do for you?" She called him whilst in her car parked outside the hedge entrance to Toad Town. She left the phone on speaker and in the middle of the front, easily able to speak to him whilst driving. The quickest way to Mushroom Yards was actually going along the outskirts of the city to the east, given that Mushroom Yards was situated far to the northeast of the city respect to the castle being at the very south.

"Hey. The mixture. I gave it to Enrique. He's basically my slave now." She kept her eyes on the road as she spoke to Toadsworth over the phone.

"What?" He wasn't impressed and his end of the call was abruptly cut briefly. "Look I can't go back to the castle to help you. I've got Toadette coming over soon… Are you driving?"

"Yeah. I'm heading to Mushroom Yards. They arrested another Koopa from last night. Unfortunately not Raiyon or Duncan, but it will help. I'm heading there now to hopefully help Tranko get some answers from where we previously left off there."

"Enrique better be locked up still. No guarantee you've managed to work him yet. I never told you all about that yet! You don't want to mishandle this."

"Don't worry." Daisy smiled whilst driving. "I've got it mostly under control."

"…Mostly?"

"As in… I've got it so that he only takes orders from me and Peach. He's not to harm or interact with anyone else… and he's got bounties to deliver. All of Tom's friends." She heard Toadsworth sighing over the phone, seemingly stressing out over the mixture. "What's wrong?"

"I didn't expect you to immediately start using the substance on him. At least not until you'd be with Peach to do it. She wanted this just as much as you did. How does he act? Is everything going well? No hiccups?"

"Well he's got superhuman reflexes… super precision, super energy. He speaks like a robot, and he keeps his distance. Everything's going perfect. Hopefully tomorrow I can start sending him off to hunt the others, or maybe when Peach's back. Might be a few days but she'd love to give the order and see what we've done to him." There was another pause on the call. While she was stuck in traffic, she checked the phone if she was still in call with him. Toadsworth must have been saying nothing or was occupied. Going down another main road, Daisy noticed something out of the window to her left: A large group of Toads and Koopas surrounding a Koopa with a microphone, chanting in old Koopish. The words were not understandable to her. Another Koopa next to the one with the microphone was holding a sign which had a symbol on it representing a stick figure with prohibition cross going through it. A Toad was also next to them carrying another sign. This one had a royal crown with a prohibition cross. A rather disturbing thing to see as a princess, but Mushroom Yards was the biggest matter at hand at the moment.

"Sorry Daisy, I think there's a police car parked opposite. Anyways, where were we? Right, sending him off… Uh… send him off today. You need him effective for as long as possible. I vaguely remember some wearing off time."

"How long does it last?" Daisy gasped. "I didn't know about that!"

"A week maybe… a little longer. Gadd knows."

"Are there any other side effects to this?" She waited in traffic again to the sound of silence. "Toadsworth?"

"Sorry. I have to go now." He hanged up the phone, leaving Daisy in frustration as she was nearing her way to the Mushroom Yards car park. There were far more police cars parked in the car park this time, with a few even outside. She recognised a few officers from the other day here too, some being under direct orders from Tranko. As she started to find a parking space, she exchanged eye contact with one of them, waving to her and beckoning her to rush inside. They were expecting her. Daisy parked up and rushed through the car park and up the steps, ready to be accompanied by some of the Toad Brigade soldiers in the vicinity.

"Where's Tranko?" She asked one of the guards as they rushed through the hallways.

"The captain's already there." He replied back to her, letting her through a doorway to go downstairs. "It's only been a few minutes though. Nothing new yet." She rushed forwards, running through the halls now. The guards kept up with her until she reached the familiar door to the dark secret chambers that housed the previous criminals. There were a few Brigade soldiers inside, including Tranko. The two workers in the brothel were locked up in their own cells, further down the hall from the other prisoners. As Daisy opened the door into the chambers, Tranko's attention was diverted to her.

"Princess Daisy… I-."

"Why did you disappear last night?" She walked past the other guards and went straight for him, poking him a few times and pushing him back, taking out all her frustration on him. "You were supposed to report back to me at the castle. Has the kid been sent away?"

"Princess, the kid has been sent away yes. Do you want to know why I wasn't able to show up last night? I've been operating all through the night. Fights broke out in the suburbs, we traced down the tunnel and we tracked down Adama. What is your problem? I'm doing my part for the good of the Kingdom. My priorities are with the Toad Brigade. I'm sorry."

"Your orders were to come back to the castle with Luigi and I. This was an executive Princess order and you refused it!" She was speaking over Tranko, but the two were just about able to listen to each other. "Well… If the kid is gone, and you've made an arrest… It's good progress. What news of Duncan and Raiyon, were you able to find either of them, or at least a sign or a trace of them?"

"Both have disappeared from our eyes. Chances are they're in the Open Green or at worst, already out of there by now."

"Fuck." She sighed. "What about these two then? You said anything to them yet? Any questioning?" She wasn't able to see either of them from where she was standing, but in the distance she could hear one of them complain about being trapped here.

"Nothing yet. I'm going to take them in for questioning together though, because I'll also see to Verida or Mywithe to see if they recognise either of them."

"So be it." Daisy agreed, ready to watch the process go underway. She did what she did before and journeyed into the room behind the one way glass, accompanied by a few Toad Brigade soldiers protecting her.

…

The questioning room was now laid out as follows: Both Adama and Watana were brought in and sent to the back of the room, told to remain on the spot and surrounded by Brigade soldiers. Tranko sat down in a chair beside the table and there was another chair on the other side for those brought in for questioning.

"Send the girl in first." He ordered his Brigade soldiers. Within thirty seconds, Verida was brought from her cell all the way back to the questioning room. She was delighted not to see a dead body and blood across the floor this time on her way in. She also looked across the room and saw Watana and Adama, but made no obvious reaction to seeing them. Tranko seated her opposite him across the table, ready for another round of questioning. "Verida, turn around, do you recognise either of these two Koopas behind you?" He watched as she turned her chair around and looked across to the Koopas being held by the Toad Brigade guards. Watana looked at her more anxiously than Adama, but neither of them said anything to her. She was silent for a few seconds, examining them closely. After a little while longer, despite still saying nothing, she turned her chair back around to face Tranko.

"No." She shook her head. "Are these two supposed to have any sort of relation to me?"

"No. Nothing." Adama shouted across the room. "I've been arrested for the wrong reasons and have no idea why I'm being kept here."

"Shut up." Tranko shouted an order across the room. "These two are workers at a brothel that has also been used as a secret passageway into the city. If I mentioned the existence of a super long underground tunnel, would that jog a memory to you?" He asked her, giving her some more time to process it and think about it. She was silent for a few more seconds, but eventually she said something.

"I do remember a giant tunnel, actually. Not much else though. Definitely nothing about a brothel." Verida shrugged. Both Tranko and Daisy beyond the glass felt disappointed, but Verida's reputation for telling the truth was good enough to begin with. Tranko was at least grateful she said something. The tunnel remembrance was enough to satisfy him, knowing that it was being used to funnel hostiles into the City. He remembered to order some Brigade soldiers to seal up the exit last night too. The place was no longer accessible.

"Are you sure you don't recognise either of these Koopas?" He allowed her to turn around a second time. Instead, Verida got out of her chair and decided to walk straight up to the Koopas, looking at them from a much closer point.

"No." She turned her head.

"Alright." Tranko scratched his cap. "One last question. Does the name Raiyon come into mind at all?" Verida walked back to her chair, nodding to Tranko before sitting down. "It does?"

"I know of the existence of a Raiyon, but not for any reason relating to these two surely." She sat back down and looked directly at Tranko. "Raiyon the Dargovi: a fierce northern pale Koopa. That's all I know about him. Why do you ask?"

"He was in the same place last night. The same place you were five days ago. Do you think you ever happened to cross paths with him at all that night? Do you think he may have been there on the tenth?" Verida took a few more seconds to think again, trying her best to recall that night.

"Fascinating that he was there… but no. I don't think I ever saw him that night. I bet it would have been great if you were able to arrest him. His father would have gone crazy. Actually, maybe not then. Maybe it wouldn't have been so good for you if you had captured him."

"Why's that?" Tranko grew concerned and so did Daisy. "Tell me." The mood of the room completely changed now that Verida said that. Even the other Toad Brigade guards in the room were concerned for what she said. A mighty fierce Koopa from one of the most dangerous parts of the north, possibly upholding a threat should something else have happened.

"I'm just speculating." Verida tried to ease this growing situation she became aware of from reading the faces in the room. "If you had a son and he was arrested on the other side of the lands, would you not be angry?" Even though he was no longer visibly concerned any more, Verida's previous words still posed worry for Tranko. He knew not to forget those words.

"I'd be angry if my son was arrested anywhere." Tranko sat back down, trying to calm himself. "Still, I'm puzzled as to why you'd bring that up."

"Forgive me for the confusion if I posed any to you." She smiled.

"What do you need forgiveness for, girl?" Tranko reflected back to her spitefully. "A murderer deserves no forgiveness… yet. Get her out of here. Bring Mywithe next… I might reconsider my offer to you. Think not ten years after your co-operation, consider it twenty." Verida spat onto the table before she was escorted out of the room. The two other Koopas were still remaining detained at the back of the room, with the guards waiting and readying themselves to bring Mywithe into the room for questioning now. Daisy however, was still extremely concerned with Verida's last words. She knew that Dargo was one of the most dangerous places in the north, and a place everyone in the government knew the least about. To have seen someone from there who possible posed a threat… certainly to her closest friends, she couldn't imagine what more of them could do to the Mushroom Kingdom. If the word is that they are as bad as everyone in the south labels them to be, Daisy wouldn't be able to stop worrying about it. She definitely needed someone like Peach for a situation like this.

Daisy leaned right up to the glass and knocked on it, getting Tranko's attention. "Flag that name." She said. "Make sure we get as much as we can on him." The Toad Brigade captain nodded back, watching Mywithe get escorted into the room. He was shoved onto the chair and forced to look at Tranko first.

"Now turn around." He ordered. "Look at the two Koopas against the wall. Tell me if you recognise either of them. Remember what you told us before."

"He knows us." Watana shouted. "He's from Résethal, isn't he? Yeah."

"Turn back around." Tranko ordered Mywithe after he listened to the Koopas at the back. "Which one of those two would you say follows your words best? The one who watches of the Gaishō girls or whatever it is."

"Look. I didn't know he was a bad Koopa. He seemed nice when we saw him first." Watana kept pleading, but it only put a grin on Mywithe's face. He readjusted his chair and leaned closely in to Tranko, talking to him softly.

"The one talking is the one who watches over them." He tried to make sure that the Koopas at the back weren't able to hear him. Tranko also listened in, getting right up to the Koopa's ear, allowing him to whisper. "He helps anyone get into the city."

"Two things." Tranko leaned back. "One: Tunnel. Mile long at least. Do you know about this? Did you ever travel through it?" Mywithe kept nodding.

"Maybe…" He smiled. "Maybe not."

"Two: Raiyon. Does that name ring a bell to you?" He smiled again and shrugged his shoulders then crossed his arms.

"Why don't you try asking the people behind me?"

"Watana!" Tranko shouted across the room. "Step forward. Come to the table." Some of the Toad Brigade soldiers pushed the Koopa on the right forward, escorting him all the way to the table. "Tell me. What do you think of this guy?" Watana watched him for a few seconds before looking back to Tranko.

"He's a threat to my business." He said.

"You do realise that your line of business is most definitely illegal in the Mushroom Kingdom?"

"Then why do all of your former colleagues like it so much?" Watana snapped back instantly. "Arrest me for running this business, then arrest everyone who visits and pays for the business. I have all of their names registered and documented. You'd want to arrest hundreds of different Toads most of them living in the capital even today. You may as well arrest all of the girls too whom I treat with respect and great pay… better yet, since they're all former Toad Brigade or government workers, if you tried to arrest them all, what's stopping them from uniting together and refusing to surrender? That would be so terrible for the capital, right?" As the Toad Brigade soldiers surrounded him, some began to realise what a strange but valid point he made. "These times are tough. A citizen's gotta find a way to relieve himself somehow."

"You can try and make a point as much as you want to try and divert the subject but first you have to address the issue at hand here. You've got a fucking tunnel that goes from outside the city right up to an area of high discretion which you've yet to document. Why don't you explain that instead?" Tranko pulled out a set of photos from his pockets whilst talking and tossed them across the table, showing them to Mywithe, Watana and several other Brigade soldiers, some of which were there yesterday and they saw it too. "You cannot deny any of this, Watana. There is clear evidence that your establishment has additionally been used to funnel undocumented Koopas into the capital, in particular, this Raiyon fellow."

"Raiyon…" Watana gulped. "Our biggest customer. He helps keep everyone fed."

"Less about Raiyon for now. This man right here is a bigger issue. You assisted this man in causing the terror acts of March 10th. Do you not realise how much damage you've allowed to happen?" Watana was frozen on the spot, focused on the photos that he saw. Tranko however, was not done with him just yet. "If your establishment hadn't burned in the fires, we'd be able to retrieve a lot more about this illegal smuggling you've been doing in your establishment. For all we know, there could be a bigger picture to this." Tranko was furious. He walked outside and got out his pager. "I need search teams back to the Webcapstow tunnel exit. We need to run a full search of the area including all neighbouring towns. Find clues to a possible bigger picture. We've got a smuggling scenario here." He waited outside, sending the orders out to a few other Brigade soldiers in the cell chambers with him.

"So… You ratted on us then?" Watana nudged Mywithe while he was still sitting down on the chair. "I didn't even know who you are until that night. You hostiles are a disgrace." Angered by him, Mywithe unleashed his rage and jumped from his chair to attack Watana whilst he was being restrained by the Brigade soldiers. Watana tried kicking back, pushing him away, but took a few punches. Other Brigade soldiers rushed to grab Mywithe and pull him back, but the two were able to get a few more hits on each other until they were completely separated. Watana yelled several slurs to the hostile Koopa after being taken away, but Mywithe said nothing. He only glared back at him.

"What's going on here?" Tranko shouted, alerting the others of his arrival back to the questioning room. "Can't handle shit while I'm gone? Fuck. Get these two shits out of here and throw them into different cells. Let's hear from this last one then. Adama? That's his name right? Come over."

This Koopa was a lot quieter than the other two, and was visibly happier now that they were out of the room. Daisy was still watching and paid close attention to this one slowly walking with his Brigade soldiers to the chair. Tranko cleaned up the mess he made on the table with all of the photos and piled them to the side. The evidence was there for Adama to access when he sat down and there was no immediate denial of it. "Let's see what this one can do for me." Tranko grinned, looking straight at the somewhat confident Koopa.

"I can tell you everything." Adama leaned in, looking slightly anxious through the sweat running down his face – maybe it was the humidity in the room – but willing to co-operate. "I was listening. Let me tell you, I just work behind the bar, but yes, there is smuggling, not of high amounts though."

"Let's go through this a little slowly now." Tranko went back to the photos and had a look at home of them, cautiously reviewing each one. "I appreciate your willingness to help but don't expect instant freedom from this. Could you first talk about yourself more? You were trying to escape today and we found you from our matches."

"Of course I was." Adama interrupted apologetically. "If I'm to be grouped with these people, especially Raiyon, then I'm running for my life. I should have resigned when this started happening."

"Hey, easy there. Don't lead me to ask more questions yet. I first want to hear about you. You escaped the establishment last night. Tell us what happened then? What exactly did you do?" Tranko wanted to make sure everything was linear. His first intention was to hear about what Adama was doing on the night of the incident, then to hear about his business there with the others.

"There was a shootout, so I hid in the store rooms. But there was someone else with me, however, a human. He was magical too because he was holding flames against me. He asked me where the safest way out was, so I led him to the tunnel."

"Did he escape with you?" Tranko asked.

"He did… but boy… only briefly. When we got to the tunnel, he sprinted at super speed down it and was gone in thirty seconds. I eventually got out too a few minutes later, but he was long gone by that time. I have no idea where he is now."

"Neither do we, and that's one of our problems… Was there any violence between you and him, or either you with anyone else or him with anyone else that night?"

"No altercations… At least that's what I remember. I'm not sure if he did anything with anyone after the tunnel, but nothing between the two of us happened inside the underground."

"Right…" Tranko understood him and quickly went to his notes, writing a few things down regarding the incident. "Now, about this tunnel. Tell me everything you know about it and what this whole smuggling situation is about."

"Well… There's something you need to know about this tunnel." Adama gulped and Tranko raised an eyebrow. "There's… more than one tunnel. This was only the first one. It's Watana's business. Most of the clients come via the main entrance up above, but a few others take the second tunnel to get here. The bigger name Toads and Koopas of the city let's say."

"Where does that tunnel go to?"

"Mushroomheath. When Watana heard the news about what happened. He collapsed our end of it."

"Any other tunnels under the establishment?" Adama sighed, getting increasingly more worried with each successive question.

"No, but there's a system that links the areas. Another from Mushroomheath gets you to Mushville, and then that one gets you to the underground train tracks to… I think it's Silverway? It's… very close to the city centre." He waited for Tranko to finish writing up his notes to see what he had next to say.

"So you're telling me…" He was still writing, but eventually stopped a couple seconds later. "…Watana used these tunnels to help Mywithe and the other hostile Koopas all the way to Silverway, which is conveniently very close to the Rainbow Road controls centre, where they were able to conduct this attack?" Adama paid close attention to the Toad's assumption. He got it almost perfectly correct.

"Pretty much, though these tunnels weren't the ones used." Adama began to give his recount of what actually happened… for he was there…

The thing is, Watana and I were good friends due to work, but he always had his little secrets. As it turned out, one of those secrets was having an affiliation with people like Mywithe and the others he was with. You see, we wanted to watch the Rainbow Road race as well, so we were actually going to use the tunnels for a… more convenient reason: taking ourselves underground to get closer to the venue screens without having to take ridiculous transport or get lost in the crowds. Millions were out there that day, so as we were closed on that day, we took the tunnel from here to Mushroomheath and it was in fact there did we first see those three. It wasn't the first time Watana had dealt with people like that as well. He called Mywithe over, bringing the other two with him so easily through the crowds that were moving together toward the inner city.

"This is the guy." Mywithe smiled when he met the pair of us, obviously diverting all of his attention to him instead of me. He only saw me as some sort of aid or extra to Watana, and it remained that way throughout. "Word has it you're the guy who can get people straight to the city centre without getting caught up in everything?" Watana nodded. Now, I correct myself here. I don't guarantee that these two knew each other before this day, but given that Mywithe had some sort of familiarity with the tunnels, I'm going to assume that they did.

"Have you got the payment for their use for today?" Watana requested as he walked us back to the diner which was where the tunnel was situated.

"Verida." Mywithe held out his palm and in a few seconds the girl Koopa placed a sack of gold coins which was then given to me to look after. This diner that we used was closed for the day, so it was very easy to access privately. Just like the restaurant above the brothel, there was a secret way down to a lower level. No brothel here, just storerooms and the tunnel connections. The conversation in the tunnels was mostly quiet, but I knew that Watana and Mywithe were whispering about something. The other male Koopa he was with was also talking to Mywithe, but I wasn't really compelled to eavesdrop, especially with how intimidating the three looked. The tunnels took us straight to Mushville and then to Silverway. Mywithe paid us a lot of gold coins for us allowing him to use these tunnels today. I must also admit, in hindsight I should have asked Watana what the conversations about. I was too engrossed into whether or not the Mario brothers would end up coming out of the tournament as victors. Maybe the whole feel of the land would have been different had Bowser not win. I wonder what the guy gets up to nowadays anyway. He's seemed to have gone quieter off the radar than if he did lose.

"The thing is…" Adama came to the end of his story recap. "I can't really tell if Watana allowed them to use these knowing the damage they caused in doing so. I think he was allowing them to use the tunnels purely because they paid us both hundreds of coins. I couldn't tell you how they got their hands on those coins to be honest."

"I think I know." Tranko replied. "These same three hostile Koopas were responsible for the death of Koops McShell, murdered when investigating another murder in a supermarket. The three stole all loose coins in the supermarket tills." It only made Adama more worried about his actions.

"So… those coins are technically blood-money." He sighed, looking down on the floor in guilt. "I'm sorry my life doesn't look very legal. It's just where the money is nowadays."

"Watana's way worse, don't worry. It's times like these where I don't doubt many people are going to different measures to feed themselves and their families." Tranko kept writing, documenting everything on Adama's recap. With the tunnels temporarily inaccessible, that should at least halt any more future smuggling into the capital. What did worry him was how people like these hostiles were able to get all the way to the outskirts of Mushroom City.

"When will it end?" Adama asked with an anxious tone.

"When will what end?" Tranko looked up from his papers.

"These hard times." He repeated as Tranko went back to writing. "I thought that when Bowser was seized that we'd be going into the best of times. It seems ever since, everything's getting worse."

"I don't know." The Toad Brigade captain started a new page of writing, having his eyes fully focused on the papers. "Partaking in dangerous activities like this doesn't exactly make it any better. I don't think these times are going to get better any time soon either. Perhaps when the threat of the north is finally over may we start to live in true peace again. Now, last question." He waited until he finished his sentence in the notes. "The tunnel going out of Webcapstow leads to the edges of the Open Green and near the last suburbs, are there any more tunnels after that one?"

"No." Adama replied immediately. "Nothing more from there."

"So that implies both Raiyon and Duncan are somewhere within the Open Green. Noted." He finished his notes. "We're done here."

"What's going to happen to me?" Adama gasped and tried to ease the grip the Toad Brigade soldiers had on him as they grabbed him from the chair. "No trial? No fairness?"

"Well think of it like this, Adama. You've broken laws including several violations of the Mushroom Accords. Down here is where you will spend your time until such a case where you'll be taken for your trial. Mushroom Yards will document you and let you know about any visits. The same goes to all of those in here." The Brigade soldiers saw him out of the questioning room. Tranko sighed, ready to leave the room as well. The first place he decided to go to was the room right behind him. Daisy was still in there alone with a few soldiers, writing up more notes to hand over to him.

"This is getting scary." Daisy looked up worried for the Toad Brigade captain.

"At least we've got our leads and reason as to how the attack happened. Two Koopas, seemingly native to the south, unknowingly took bribes to help with their costs and it led to letting three northern Koopas create the deadliest attack on Mushroom City since before Bowser's dangers." Tranko slowly walked over to Daisy and pulled up a chair next to her, sitting with her and taking a few deep breaths to try and relax after all of the hard work and effort he's been doing. Still lacking sleep, he had no desire to leave just now despite his responsibilities as the Toad Captain.

"Capital's not safe anymore." Daisy sighed. "You know, I saw a demonstration happening on the streets on the way here from the castle; a bunch of Toads and Koopas in Kinoko Street area protesting for the abolishment of Peach's governance. They had signs saying no to the crown and no to humans. How do you think Peach is going to feel when she finds out about that?" She put her feet up on the table and sulked. Her eyes glanced at the glass window still seeing a few Brigade soldiers in the questioning room.

"May the stars have mercy on her." Tranko murmured solemnly. "I wonder how she's going to feel when she finds out what's happened to Mario." It only led to Daisy dreading something far worse.

"Just wait until the people find out what's happened to Mario." She shook her head, praying that something like it never happen in her lifetime again. "He was the backbone that supported this Kingdom. He was the one to put their trust in us over all of these years, just as much as Peach was." Thinking about it more only led Daisy into a downward spiral of upsetting emotions. "Now they're only left with his brother who is an honourable man but to them lives in Mario's shadow… and me… what am I even good for now? I'm just a glorified Princess Rose." Tranko couldn't help himself watching Daisy shed tears inside the viewing room. All the signs of inability to hold leadership were shown to him from the way she was looking. He knew that she was the perfect person to act as a second in command to someone else. Brilliant optimism and moral support, but only provided there was someone else to lead. She was easily able to uplift the spirit of other people but had difficulty in doing it for herself. This sight alone almost made Tranko shed a tear, but he had to demonstrate his own leadership and strength. He couldn't look at Daisy any longer.

"I think we should start heading out of here soon." He tried to get her attention. "I've got lots of orders and operations to initiate now that we've got our new boundaries for this case. I'll also see to a few departments that these protests are seen to. I hope everything can flow well within the capital because at the rate it's going, we may soon be understaffed." Daisy fell silent, lost for words. Her mind turned cold and her face began to sweat with anxiety. More and more truths were thrown at her due to her indecency as a caretaker leader of the Mushroom Kingdom. Even with most of the things being dealt by others in the government, her impact as the woman on top was reflected by how worse she felt everything was going. She needed Peach more than ever, and discarding the teenager began to feel like regret now.

After some much needed rest, Tranko however was able to get things done. Toad Brigade squadrons were reinforced and many operatives all in neighbouring towns to the Open Green were given orders to pay close attention to the areas where Raiyon could escape to. Assuming he was heading back to the northwest, the towns and cities of the eastern edges of Sarasaland received the most attention. Leshenza, Ambozia, Daisy Hills, Canchos Palace and Summer Meadows received the most reinforcements, leading to operatives beginning searches into the Open Green from the northern and western sides. This led to more Toad Brigade involvement in the smaller settlements in the Open Green. Unfortunately, after a first day, no success was found in searching for both Raiyon and Duncan. Daisy returned back to the castle in a miserable state. While the Brigade seemingly had more things under control with the help of Tranko, her mental state began to deteriorate. She tried calling Luigi but he was clearly in a worse state of mind. She tried calling him seven times and he was unreachable for all of them. This left Daisy inside Peach's castle all alone. She even resorted to trying to call other friends or connections to see if anyone would be able to speak to her in these dire times or at least have someone she could tell Mario's fate about. Pauline was too busy dealing with the new Red Martyr influence in the Donk City area, Rosalina was unreachable for reasons unknown, and she even tried to call Princess Rose, and she too was unreachable. Toad would refuse to pick up any incoming phone call from the castle out of spite for his actions recently, and given that Toadette was visiting Toadsworth, neither of those two would be willing to speak to Daisy now. She hesitated to try calling them, leaving her on her bed in her headquarters blankly staring up to the ceiling. At least the cooks in the castle were able to provide her with a top-of-the-range lunch as per usual. She just couldn't think of what to do now. Such a seemingly strong and independent girl was now showing how big her dependencies on Luigi and Peach in particular were. However, after more time throughout the afternoon, one more name came across her mind to see who she could call.

"Hello?" The girl on the other end was quick to respond let alone answer her call, unlike everyone else she tried to call today.

"Mona?" Daisy whispered, wiping the tears from her face after almost crying for the past five minutes on the bed. It had been so long since Daisy had properly spoken to her. When the two were ever alone in conversation together, the vibe they got from each other was always positive and upbeat. Even when they were with others things would be fine, but after the turn of the year and the changes to laws in the land with the Mushroom Accords, she felt like the respect Mona had for her had faded away, especially with the incident that happened in Diamond City back in January. What Daisy remembered importantly here was that Mona was once a Princess. She knew what it was like and she endured the same hardships growing up. It was one of the things that held them together and what they were friends for in the past. Hopefully she would be able to go back to those times when the two were great friends. The same also went for Mona's friendship with Peach; it was just as strong as theirs.

"Sorry, who is speaking please?" A massive blow to her confidence, but it didn't mean all hope was lost.

"It's Daisy." Mona didn't respond instantly. "Could… could we talk for a few minutes? Human girl to human girl? Or even… as if we were both princesses again." She was met with silence on the other end for a few seconds, destroying her confidence even more, but at least she knew that the phone didn't hang up on her.

"Hey, err… sure. Are you doing okay? It doesn't sound very good." Mona eventually replied, letting Daisy exhale in relief.

"I mean… I've got a lot to say so I should probably ask you that first. Are you doing fine?" Daisy felt compelled to tell her now. Just the relaxed tone that Mona was giving off over the phone gave her trust in the girl again. No matter the hardships the Mushroom Accords or changes to life these past few months put between the two, they remembered their past and respected the friendship they had with each other.

"Well it's been great now that you've all left Wario and Waluigi alone." She giggled. "I'm joking. In all seriousness… yeah, it's been good. We're doing fine up here now… I don't think the same can be said for you then?" Daisy was hesitating what to do. She tried to piece out what exactly she was to say over the phone to her next, taking a few seconds of silence.

"I'm glad that things are going well for you. I'm truly sorry about the way these new changes screwed you lot over… Anyways…" She felt like she was annoying Mona already, or overreacting. "…Can I tell you something that you can promise me to keep to yourself?" Mona could already tell that Daisy was going to tell her something bad. To be called by her after hearing nothing from her for nearly two months meant the reason was worth something serious.

"I mean I could help out if I could. It depends on the case exactly."

"I think Mario might have been murdered." Daisy went straight to the point. "Peach doesn't know yet and Luigi and I are-…"

"…"

Daisy started panting with extreme anxiety. Mona had hung up the phone from the other end. "No. No no no no no no no please. Please!" She tried ringing her up again and every attempt she made she would have the same beeping sound for a few seconds before she was left to her voicemail. She knew that Mona was declining the calls. Was this a mistake on her end or did Mona overreact? Daisy was left with so many possible assumptions that it only stressed her out even more. She began to question herself and her own actions, worrying more so for the chance that Mona would go on to tell everyone else. She didn't have Wario or Waluigi's numbers for obvious reasons; she could only hope that she doesn't tell them.

Bzzzzzt! Bzzzzzt!

Mona was calling the phone. Daisy immediately reached back to it and answered.

"Mona please don't scare me like that. I'm not joking around when I say this." Daisy cried over the phone, hoping that she doesn't get hung up this time.

"You are serious, aren't you?"

"Yep." Daisy nodded several times. "Please don't tell anyone else. I don't know what to do. I'm not fit to govern without Peach or him.

"But… How? Wait, what do you mean without Peach? Where is she at the moment?"

"Remember that portal we recruited those humans from all those years ago? She's stuck on the other side and one of the kids has the key to the portal. We can't seem to find him and the longer he stays hidden, the longer Peach remains trapped in the other world." Daisy was raising her voice as she was stressing out over the phone. Anxious if anyone else was on the floor, she walked over to the doors to her chambers and closed them. "I need you to come to the castle. I could really use your help right now."

"Daisy, I'm not fit to help lead the land with you, especially with what you did to us this year. There's a reason I stepped down from any authority all those years ago. It wasn't just Wario's feud with Mario, and speaking of Mario… what happened?"

"We busted some underground smuggling business deep within the city suburbs last night… the Brigade were there and everything, and there was this dangerous Koopa from the north that Mario chased after… and…" She couldn't hold herself together. "He didn't return!" Mona started to hear Daisy evidently crying over the phone and it sounded very genuine to her too. "We found this tunnel where he chased the Koopa down, and there was blood… and his cap was found there too." Mona on the other end didn't know what to say. Struck with so much surprise and such severe tragedy, she was unsure what use she could be showing up to the castle to help Daisy. Maybe comfort was enough for someone like her.

"I'm guessing not many know?" She tried to think of things to say that wouldn't worsen Daisy's mental state, as bad as it already was. Only simple questions to get more information seemed to be the way to go.

"Luigi knows. He was there. The Toad Brigade captain and the team that were there know, and Toadsworth knows. That's it. Not Pauline, Toad, Toadette… not even Peach herself. She's not going to be able to handle it. I don't know what to do." While Daisy was calling Mona on her mobile, the castle phone on her bedside table started to ring.

"I'll… make my way to the castle. I'll come alone. Hopefully we can figure out something here. I can't guarantee any fix, but this is a time of mourning as it seems. Think about it though, just because he's disappeared, it doesn't guarantee that he's been killed. Maybe he's still out there. You know what he's like!"

"I think he overestimated this Koopa." Daisy leaned over to reach for the other phone.

"You can't have this attitude, Daisy. Maybe he's still alive." She picked up the other phone and put it closely to her other ear.

"Hey give me thirty seconds." She said quietly, putting her mobile down to the floor and on speaker.

"Anyways. I'll pay a visit this evening. I can stay over if you need me to… if your guards will allow me to. I'm guessing you're in charge of it for now with Peach gone?"

"Alright. Thank you very much Mona. I hope I can also make amends for every wrongdoing in the past as well when you're here." Daisy apologised.

"Don't worry about that. See you later." She quickly hung her up, which may have felt like an insult to her, but she desperately needed to get back to the other call she just received.

"Hi. Sorry about that. I was occupied. Which department is calling?" She sat back on her bed and kept her focus on the phone.

"Hey it's Toadheim but I'm calling on behalf of the department of Royal Affairs. The forensics team came back with the blood-sample reports." She remembered that with Toad no longer working for the government, there was a vacancy for the role of head operative of the department of Royal Affairs. Thankfully Toadheim was there several floors below to take responsibility and hold the confidential data so that this issue wouldn't be shared with anyone who doesn't yet know about the Webcapstow incident.

"And? The results?" Daisy gasped.

"Several samples were taken. There were DNA matches to prove that the blood was a mixture of two different people's blood. One of them being Mario's, the other being presumably Raiyon's. While the tunnel didn't total a severe and significant amount of blood-loss, the composition of the blood sample was mostly Mario's DNA matched. Eighty percent of the blood samples showed Mario's blood. With fifty-four percent showing strictly Mario's blood." Daisy was, once again, mentally frozen and too stunned to speak. "The pessimism approach implies that Mario bled more than the Koopa, but the optimism is that it doesn't guarantee his murder. Additionally, blood stains disappeared near to the end of the tunnel. I'm reading from the results here but if we assume the blood from the tunnel was most of the blood lost, that's nowhere near enough to lead to a fatal loss." Daisy felt a slight pinch of hope and confidence. Maybe he wasn't dead. Unfortunately, if he wasn't, she believed that they would have found him by now. All the possibilities filled her mind. Did he survive? Was he captured? Was he stabbed or shot? Did vital lungs get penetrated? She couldn't take her mind off it and it only made her worse. On the inside, she was past the brink of insanity. All she could hear on the inside was non-stop screaming with rage and sadness. Her face on the outside however, was blank.

"Thank you for your help, Toadheim. I'm forever in your debt." She was lying down on her bed again and she moved her hand with the phone in it from her ear back down to her side. She could faintly hear Toadheim mutter something on the other end, but she hung up the call before he finished, letting the phone leave her grasp and roll away from her hand. Now she remained exactly in the place she was when she woke up this morning. On her bed in her chambers worrying about things she couldn't undo or fix, again without her lover and permanently without his brother. Her best friend was missing with no signs of returning, and the government was seemingly falling apart due to her passive influence. Tears were for once not going down her face now. She had gone past the point of crying so much that she was too mentally defeated to cry. She couldn't think of anything else to do now… This was what despair felt like. She never thought that she could be broken this badly. At least the silver lining to this suffering was that Peach was probably feeling ignorant bliss. Maybe it would be better for her to never come back. Could this situation be so bad that it was beyond her ability to save? Maybe Daisy should follow suit and take the portal to Brooklyn. Start life there. Take as many coins from the vault as she wanted to get instant millionaire status there. Maybe being the ruling governor of the Mushroom Kingdom as a human wasn't worth it nowadays…

EOC: I had a really good run of progress to get this chapter done. Hopefully I can replicate it for the future chapters.

See you then!