Hiding amongst the shadows of Central Sarasaland, a hooded figure poked its head out from an ally, in search of something. Or rather, someone. Flying overhead was the ruler pro tempore, Kamek. Stepping out from their place of hiding, the hooded figure approached a nearby abandoned fruit stall. Gripping the stand from one side, they tipped it over, before quickly retreating to the shadows.

The resulting crash caught the magikoopa's attention. Turning around, Kamek flew down to investigate. He looked around to find who caused the commotion, confused as no one was around. Before he could take off again, the hooded figure jumped onto his broomstick, wrapping their arms around him in an attempt to pull him off. Successful, the two both fell to the ground, Kamek's broom now flying off in random directions.

Kamek struggled to break from the figure's grip, using his wand to pry their hand off of him. As the figure let go, Kamek rolled away, stopping just short of the figure's feet. He quickly jumped to his feet and pointed his wand in the figure's direction. The figure stood up as well, looking down to Kamek as they were twice his height. Intimidated, Kamek fired a ball of magic from his wand, only to have the figure evade it by stepping to the side.

Kamek took a step back as he fired another ball of magic, the figure easily avoiding it once again. He took a few more shots before he was inevitably backed into a wall. With nowhere left to go, Kamek began to charge his wand.

Just overhead, Kamek's broomstick sporadically approached, just missing the hooded figure's head before ricocheting off a nearby structure. As it flew back, the figure extended their arm to grab it out of the air, tightly gripping it to prevent it from flying off again. It shook in its hands as the figure redirected their attention to Kamek. They swung the broomstick to him, knocking the wand out of his hand. The wand flew up, firing its charged ball of magic into the sky before falling back to the ground beside the two.

They both glanced at the wand, then to each other, before darting towards it. The hooded figure reached the wand first, pointing it to the magikoopa, causing him to back right up to the wall he stood at before.

"Call them off!" The figure spoke in a familiar feminine voice.

Kamek was quick -- and rather hesitant -- to respond. "N-never! Like I would go against my king's demands. Especially for a mere peasant like you!" He replied shakily, barely hiding it behind a confident facade. "And besides, I doubt you even know how to use that," he taunted.

The term 'peasant' struck a nerve with the hooded figure. They were angry before, but now, they were rather enraged. Much to Kamek's dismay, his wand began to charge, its tip glowing in his face. He blinked, not taking his eyes off the wand as it slowly glowed brighter before he threw his hands up in surrender.

"Alright! Alright! I'll call them off!" Kamek exclaimed. It had seemed he had already given up, but Kamek doesn't give up so easily. The hooded figure slowly lowered the wand as Kamek put his hand to his mouth and let out one long whistle, attracting the attention of the nearby enemies. They had all stopped dead in their tracks and turned to the direction of the sound. It didn't matter what they were doing, whether it was terrorizing Sarasaland citizens or just patrolling the streets, the wave of paratroopas surrounding the kingdoms darted towards Kamek's location, prepared to attack the hooded figure that was threatening him.

The figure redirected the wand to the oncoming horde, firing the now large ball of magic, taking out a cluster of oncoming enemies. The broomstick continued to fidget in the figure's hand, giving them an idea. They slightly loosened their grip, enough to allow the broom to fly around once again and to still hold onto it. As the broomstick flew erratically around the paratroopas, the figure used the wand to shoot at them, only occasionally having them land as the broomstick's movements were unpredictable.

Eventually, the broomstick was flying too crazily, too much in fact that it was getting more and more challenging to hold on to. The figure's focus was diverted entirely to keeping themselves from crashing, most notably to the ground. They fired one more ball of magic from the wand before using both hands to attempt to get a hold of the handle.

The broom sharply pulled up, forcing the figure's hood off their head, their orange curls flowing just behind them in the wind. The broom took another turn, this one down towards the ground. The former Sarasaland princess gripped the broom with all her strength as it accelerated downwards in hopes it would slow down. She glanced to the head of the broom, noting it was smoking rather than sparkling.

Taking the wand and carefully maneuvering it to that it pointed to the broom's head, careful not to loosen her grip at all, Daisy shot the head of the broomstick off, sending it flying to the distance, but not slowing her descent in the slightest. Luckily for her, the wave of paratroopas began flying up towards her, allowing her to use them to slow herself down.

She let go of the broom handle, keeping it in her hand opposite of the wand as she prepared to jump on the approaching enemies. One by one, she jumped atop a parakoopa, using them as some sort of bouncy staircase, until she reached the ground, taking the broomstick and swinging it to take out more paratroopas that began to surround her.

As she continued to fight them off, she noticed, out of the corner of her eye, the magikoopa trying to sneak away. Daisy jumped, backflipping towards Kamek, kicking two more paratroopas in the process, and landed just before him, pointing the jagged end of the broom handle to him.

Kamek halted, looking up to see the now revealed orange-haired princess threatening him with a rather sharp object. His heart sank. Having known it was her beforehand, he would have heeded her commands as they were said. He, alongside pretty much everyone, knew not to mess with Daisy.

"Call. Them. Off," Daisy demanded once again. She was not in the mood for games. She needed to get her kingdom back into its rightful ruler's hands. She wasn't going to let some imposter steal everything from her.

Kamek, arms raised, nodded quickly, nervously whistling to the mob once more. This time, a series of short whistles, as opposed to one long one. The paratroopas ceased their attacks and turned away, beginning to fly off into the distance.

As Daisy watched the enemies flee, Kamek tried to take the opportunity to leave as well, only to be picked up off the ground by the collar of his robe. Being turned around, Kamek was now face to face with the Sarasaland princess.

"Don't think I'm done with you yet," She sternly spoke. The magikoopa nervously gulped. If he had a shell, he definitely would have retreated in it. "Where is he?" she asked angrily.

Kamek relaxed a tad, knowing he was not the one that was going to die that day. Yet still, he was absolutely terrified. "I-I have no idea who you're talking about. Honest!" Kamek cried in response.

"You know damn well who I'm talking about!" Daisy exclaimed, "Where is he!?"

Kamek thought for a moment before gasping in realization. "Oh! You mean..." he stopped, realizing he wasn't sure where exactly he was. "I... I don't know where he is..." Out of reflex, Kamek flinched, prepared to be struck down where he was suspended.

Daisy saw this and knew, rather immediately, that he was telling the truth. She felt kind of bad. She gently placed him back on the ground, weakening her grip from his robe collar, but still holding on to it, just in case.

Just as his feet touched the ground, Kamek shot open one eye in confusion, looking around for anything out of the ordinary. Seeing nothing wrong in particular, he relaxed, looking up to Daisy, confused. He wasn't used to this. Normally, when he didn't have the information that was requested of him, he'd be deemed a liar and shot down -- metaphorically and physically -- wherever he happened to be standing. But, not in this case.

"You're not... you're not going to..." Kamek began.

Daisy shook her head. "No, but you can't stay here," she informed him, turning around to face her castle. Seeing the state it had been left in by that tyrant saddened her. She tugged at Kamek's robe, gesturing him to follow her.

Daisy led him to the castle, passing in the streets, citizens that poked their heads out of hiding, relieved to see their rightful leader back in action. Daisy was aware she'd been out for a while, but the time she spent unconscious was nowhere near enough time to turn her beloved kingdom into what seemed to be a post-apocalyptic wasteland.

In the castle, Daisy led Kamek to Sarasaland's warp room. She let him go just as she approached the pipe leading to formerly Bowser's kingdom. Atop the pipe was a large metal slate that prevented anyone from the other end from exiting the pipe. Using all of her strength, she pushed the slate off the pipe just enough to allow him to enter.

"Now, get out of here," Daisy gestured to the red and black colored pipe. "And don't show your face around here again because I will not make the same mistake twice," she informed him.

Kamek nodded and quickly jumped in the portal before Daisy went to seal it back up. As she pushed the slate back over the pipe, she could hear a sound from the other end of the room. Someone was exiting a pipe.

She pushed the remainder of the seal over the pipe and slowly approached the source of the sound. It had come from the pink pipe across the room. From the inside of the pipe, reached out two gloved hands using the rim of the pipe to pull themselves out. Attached to the gloved hands was a worn-out Luigi who, at the sight of her, gave Daisy a relieved smile. She was just the person he wanted to see.

Daisy, not so much. She returned this look with one of pure anger.

Luigi knew he had some explaining to do.