Chapter 1?

The lightning didn't bother Daisy. It was the thunder she didn't like. Lightning just kind of tickled, while the thunder boomed, hurt her ears and shook everything a little bit too much including her tiny, small-framed, skinny self.

That was the problem with living in the Daendala Valley, there was always a violent rainstorm swirling overhead that never, ever stopped. When the climate changed thanks to burning fossil fuels and the towering Craggenclag Mountain range that surrounded it, the valley had became a sad, damp place and it's claim to fame, the Daendala Daffodil, seemed to uproot itself and completely disappear. 

But none of that bothered Daisy too much. Unlike most valley residents who had developed a drippy down demeanor that paired with the dank, dark skies, Daisy went out of her way to find sunshine in the storm clouds, sparkles in the raindrops and even embraced the flashes of electricity as friends. The thunder could still go away and come back another day, but the bright yellow, black striped special lightning rubber diffuser suits that were developed for the children of Daendala to play outside in the despicable environment did their job well. Daisy had been struck several times and never suffered a scratch.

Today was a day much like yesterday and Daisy was singing her favorite Cowboy Jones song as she jumped into each puddle to see which would make the biggest splash. She was proud to say the puddle that did was always the one she had just landed in. As the last puddle in her sight exploded under her powerful, leaping feet, lightning flashed and she saw something fall and spark down the side of a ragged Craggenclag cliff. The something didn't seem to land but come to a hover a foot or so off the ground. 

Daisy approached the thing cautiously. It was blinking, moving up and down slowly, humming and made of some kind of metal. It looked like - a platform? 

Squinting her brown eyes at the floating robotic structure, Daisy's brow furrowed in thought. One end of her lips pulled up slightly, and then crossed over to the other. With a sudden smile, she made her decision. 

Daisy took 2 steps forward, ran, and leaped. With a loud thud, she landed squarely on top of the could be transport. It bobbed slightly under her weight doing absolutely nothing.

"Well, that was uneventful." she said to herself. The blinking then stopped and the humming started to ramp down and become silent. Let down, she poked at the "platform" with her toe and sighed. Maybe there was another puddle to jump in. 

And just like that, she was suddenly sky rocketing straight up in the air. 20, 40, 60 feet were passed in seconds. She continued to climb and climb. As she looked down through the cascading falling water droplets trying to balance on the speeding metallic rectangle, she saw her solid ground slip away and she realized she was cheering. This was the best ride ever! 

The platform veered and turned on it's own. It dipped and dropped but continued it's upward trajectory. With every movement, Daisy couldn't help but let out a "Woo-hoo!". And then just as fast as the journey began, it stopped, and there was a mysterious figure before her screwing a bolt on what appeared to be a giant fan.   

It was a man. He had on a white coat, and even with the rain falling, his hair was a bad case of untamable bed head that stood up and spread out in all directions.  

"Willie-72, this was supposed to be a 1/2 inch but it's really a quarter. Can you hand me the other ratchet please?" the man asked. "Willie?"

He turned to find whoever this "Willie-72" was and there was Daisy. His good eye started to twitch. They stared at each other for a moment before Daisy slowly smiled and started to nervously wave. 

The man then threw down the wrench he was using and slowly uttered two words. 

"Oh, no." 

And then he uttered 3 more words. 

"Oh, heck no."

___________________________ 

"Welcome back," distractedly mumbled Daisy's Mom. "How was your day?"

Daisy squealed as she peeled off her protective rubber lightning diffuser suit, "Double great with the excitement of a baseball opening day! I played with Vile Evil!"

"That's nice, dear," Daisy's Mom seemed to almost not say. "Now, get washed up before dinner." 

And with that Daisy rushed to the washroom to clean her hands and Daisy's Mom went back to day-dreaming about warmer climates, tropical sandy beaches and very nice pool boys named Pedro, Pablo and Maximilian Sánchez-Villalobos Ramírez.