Another image appeared within Mado's window: it depicted some kind of pink cliffside over a dark abyss. There were five gray islands over the edge of the cliff, each with unique structures on them, and power lines connected them to a control station over the center of the chasm. The plains beyond the cliff seemed to have a vast labyrinth of some sort. April painted this setting on the World Canvas, connecting it with Mirror Manor. The girls tapped this new area and flew inside! (Play "Rainfall" from Rayman!)
Dream 4: Mind Works
Mission: Find out why it's raining.
Act 1: Long Term Memory
The girls were showered by a downpour as they gazed up a wall of colorful orbs. The road was broken a short way across, with several orbs floating in the flooded pit. The girls could platform across the golden ones, but red ones were bouncing higher with bursts of steam. They deduced these orbs to be hot and hazardous, so the girls avoided them amid their jumping. An impish, round blue creature called an Abstract was sucking red balls in through a tube. A Black Lum buzzed up and entered the Abstract, possessing him as his eyes turned red. He fired the Anger Orbs, the girls dodging as Mado shot bubbles to KO him. When the Lum was released, Mado quickly Bubbled the naughty creature.
A stairway of clouds led up and leftward, after which they could land on a piece of the shelves that was sticking out. There were Doomtoons disguised as blue orbs, waiting to drop down from above. April was caught by surprise and bit in the head, Mado smacking it off. There was a pink orb hanging over the end of the shelf, and by punching it, it would stretch into a beaded pole. They would have a few seconds to climb it before it would retract, having to hit and unravel more on the way up. They noticed a hanging, glowing ring far to the left, but it seemed they had no way to interact with it.
The Pole Beads led up to a stable path, but Flash Eyes appeared above then, striking lightning with their sharp winks. They rushed across the road before leaping off and having to Hover Bubble over a windy chasm. There were green balls floating around, and touching them would imbue a sense of disgust and distort their movement. After evading the Disgust Orbs and some accompanying Flash Eyes, they landed on a cliff. "Boo hoo hoo…boo hoo…"
The sound of sobbing caught their attention. There was a heavier rainfall pouring over a figure nearby. They appeared to be a short, round, blue girl in a white sweater, her hair a darker blue. "Hey? Excuse me?" Mado called as they stepped closer.
"Sniff, sniff…" The girl meekly turned up at them. She had round glasses on her pudgy face. "D-Don't get close to me. I'm dangerous."
"Dangerous how?"
"I ruined Riley's mind. I just wanted to help, but I ruined everything. I should've just stayed in my circle. You guys better stay away from me, or something bad will happen to you, too!" The saddened girl escaped up a hill.
"Even if we wanted to, she's running up the only path we can follow." April said. "Let's try to talk to her." As they pursued up the hill, a river began to flow down, caused by the girl's heavier rainfall. Gold orbs were mixed into the blueness, the girls jumping them to progress upriver. Hoodbombers stood on stilts mounted in the water, the two evading their bombs and jumping between the stilts. They noticed a Blue Paintball under one of them, so they jumped up to claim it. The river continued over more stable ground as Hoodlums landed on orbs, the girls dodging their guns while returning powered-up attacks.
The sad girl rode up on a cloud, but Pole Beads were available to climb. The cloud would float left and right and spill gushes of water, the duo making sure not to be under it. The beads led them up onto a shelf of orbs, and as they chased her across, purple orbs frantically bounced across to impede them. "Watch out! Those orbs have fear in them!" Marshadow cautioned.
"Isn't fear supposed to be colored dark-red?" April wondered.
"Not here, I guess." Touching the Fear Orbs would compel them to retreat the way they came, so they took care to jump or run under them. Once at the end of the shelf, they jumped and glided down to stable ground. "Boo hoo hooooo!" The sad girl had gotten to floating in the background. They used the magnifying glass to zoom in and bring her to the foreground.
"Got ya!" April grabbed her shoulders.
"Leave me alone! I'm useless and deserve to be alone!"
"Would you just tell us what's wrong? We just arrived in this dream, so we don't really know what's going on."
"Sniffle…okay…" She calmed herself and turned to them. "Well, my name is Sadness. Me and the other Emotions take care of Riley's subconscious from our Headquarters up there." She pointed to a tall building floating over a chasm.
"Sentient Emotions that control the subconscious? We've never heard of that in a dreamscape."
"Well, not every mind works like Riley's mind." Sadness replied. "She has trouble expressing emotions or organizing her mind on her own, so that's why we were born."
"Interesting… I wonder if anyone we know is like that?"
"So, what happened, Sadness?" Madotsuki asked. "How did the dream get like this?"
"It all started on one horrible day… when Riley and her family moved to San Francisco. Riley had to leave everything behind. Her friends, and even her hockey team. Her whole world was changing and she couldn't do anything to stop it."
"It doesn't sound like a big deal." Marshadow said.
"Marshadow!" April lightly smacked him.
"Riley's memories started to fall apart… so, I tried to fix them, but then Joy told me I was making things worse, but I didn't listen, and I really thought I could help, but I lost the Core Memories and now Riley's mind looks like this!"
"Slow down, slow down!" April ushered with a light chuckle. "Maybe we can do something to help. What happened to these 'Core Memories,' exactly?"
"They fell into the Memory Dump, and Joy fell down with them. There's no way to get them back. It's where memories go to die…"
"Then we'll help get them back! I'm sure we could find some way out of there!"
"But April, shouldn't we be looking for the Chiptoon?" Mado asked.
"What's a Chiptoon?" Sadness asked.
"An electric glass ball thing. It might've looked like a shooting star when it fell into this dreamscape."
"A shooting star? Hu!" Sadness gasped and pointed toward the chasm in the distance. "I-I saw a shooting star fall in the Memory Dump! It was all pink, and I made a wish that I could just disappear…"
"Sadness, we need to get that star!" Mado declared. "And you need to get those Memories back! Will you come with and help us?"
"I can't…I'll only make things worse for you. Just look at this place. This is what sadness does to you. No matter how much I try to help, nothing's going to change. I'll always be Sadness."
"Man, quit whining!" Marshadow fell out of Mado's window and on his shady feet. Sadness looked down at the imp with masked surprise. "When I was born, my own father was afraid of me. I was born as a Nightmare, and I thought that's all I would ever be. But just now, a girl said that I made her worries go away. So, I'm not just a Nightmare! I'm not gonna be afraid of people being afraid of me! That's why I'm gonna find the Chiptoons, so you should do the same!"
"I… Okay." Sadness said with a heavy breath. "Now that you've said all that, I'd just feel worse. But why do you need these Chiptoons, anyway?"
"To save the Dream World. Without them, no one will be able to wake up or fall asleep ever again! It's my fault that the Protoon broke, but I'm gonna help fix it!"
"Really? That's pretty cool. I guess I'll help you look for it. Besides, I guess you need help getting through here, anyway."
"Good!" April clapped. "So, what's the fastest road to the Memory Dump?"
"If we cut through Imagination Land here, we can find the way. I'll try not to slow us down."
"We'll hold you to that." (Play "When the Wind Blows" from Rayman Legends!)
Act 2: Imagination Land
The girls passed through the gate of this region, the French Fry Forest there to greet them. Hoodlums would leap out of the fries with guns ready, the girls reacting to KO them. When one of the fries bent from their ambush, Mado barely noticed the Electoon Cage behind it. After beating the Hoodlum, Mado used her magnifier to zoom in on the cage barely visible between the fries, and the Electoons were freed. They found a small fry cup lain at a dead end, but by squirting tears onto it, the fries grew into a plant-like platform. It helped them reach a higher ledge, where they found a thin and handsome boy. "I would die for Riley!"
"Okay?" April questioned.
"That's a Dream Boyfriend." Sadness said. "They're mass-produced."
"Well, you enjoy yourself." April patted the boy and continued walking. They approached a stack of four boyfriends.
"I would die for Riley! I would die for Riley!" As they repeated this nonstop, the stack marched left and right. Madotsuki decided to climb them and jump to a platform along a tall fry. She used Sadness's tears to water a Plant Platform, which Mado could use to jump to a series of thin footholds. Her jumping would be rewarded with another cage. They returned to the ground and exited the Fry Forest, reaching an area covered in lava. They first jumped to a couch, then took down some Lava Piranhas before gliding to some floating drawers. "Oh, I get it! It's a 'The Floor Is Lava' game!"
The next area of the lava had tiny clouds, which Sadness could inflate with her tears and make platforms, though the water would be squeezed out when the clouds were jumped on. The girls reached a pair of very tall lamps, each with spikes planted on certain parts. Beside them was an equally tall shelf that was blocking the path forward. The lamps began to sink from their weight, so the girls had to jump between the safe parts of the lamps. The tall shelf was sinking at the same rate, so by the time the lamps had run out, the trio could glide to a safe platform, but a fireplace and chimney stood in their way next. April and Mado threw attacks at the fireplace and made it fall over, serving as a long bridge to a safe shore.
A House of Cards stood in their way. Despite the common idea, the cards wouldn't go down with any of their attacks. "We'll have to go inside to get through." Sadness said, trying to crawl in the entrance. "But it's too small…"
"Let's see…" Mado reached into her window for something that could help. "Hey… I have this!" She withdrew a bottle of pink potion.
"That's the shrink potion from Girl's dream." April noticed. "You had it with you?"
"I don't know. I guess it just appeared…"
"Then let's use it to get inside there!" Marshadow suggested.
"Fine by me!" The girls each shared a drink and shrank to doll size. "You too, Sadness!"
"Um, I hope I'm not allergic…" Sadness nervously drank the potion, her chubby body compressing to their size. They entered the House of Cards and were shortly attacked by Card Soldiers. When the girls knocked them down, they would fall flat and get back up after 10 seconds. They jumped to an upper level where Spade Soldiers would charge with spears forward, the girls simply jumping them as the cards ran off the edge. A white, rectangular barrier stopped them: they were actually unpainted cars, so April struck them with the Paint Fist. Once the soldiers regained their motion and designs, the girls took them down and proceeded to the third floor. A giant Doomtoon marched up and used its bulky fist to punch them back down to the second floor. The girls climbed back up and attacked the creature together, but the Doomtoon refused to back down.
Sadness looked up at a ledge to the fourth floor. "Hey, guys, I have an idea! Don't attack him!" Mado and April did so and ceased. Sadness leapt at the Doomtoon, who threw a punch up at the little Emotion and blew her up to the ledge in question. Mado and April shared ecstatic smiles and tricked the Doomtoon into punching them up to the 4th floor. There was a strange, uncolored machine. April painted it in with bluish colors, and the machine began to stir as clouds leaked out the top. The girls trekked up some stairs to the house's roof, where the clouds would grow out of the chimney. They jumped onto one of the clouds, steadily growing back to normal as they rose to the sky.
They jumped off on a cloud path, and their next enemy to impede them was a Ty-foo. The cloud creature blew a heavy wind to push the girls back, but the action caused it to shrink. Its wind came to a stalemate, so Mado rushed up and Bubbled the cloud. They jumped up some clouds and looked over a small Ty-foo. They used Sadness to water the Ty-foo and make it grow. The Ty-foo blew a gust, which carried the friends across via the Hover Bubble. They fought with some Hoodlums as they crossed another cloud. "I would die for Riley, I would die for Riley!" There appeared to be a stack of boyfriends sticking up from a gap. Mado decided to drop down that gap and found a platform with an Electoon Cage. Mado used the boyfriends to climb back up.
After jumping up a stairway of clouds, the three found their selves above a train track. Choo-choooooo! Behind them, a pink and blue train was headed across the tracks. "It's the Train of Thought!" Sadness announced. "We can ride over the Memory Dump on that!"
"Then let's hop aboard!" April announced. Once the train passed underneath, they jumped onto one of the cars. They had a moment to relax as the train flew across the valley.
"So, does the Memory Dump have a bottom?" Mado asked, viewing into the chasm.
"The ground is made of millions of Riley's forgotten memories." Sadness explained. "Memories that eventually disappear. I don't know if there's an actual 'bottom.'"
"But shouldn't there be an elevator or something in case you guys fall down by accident?"
"I think I suggested something like that, but Joy said it was silly because we would never have to leave H.Q.."
"Sounds like poor management."
"You girls again?! You ain't stealing the glory this time!"
They faced up at an airship looming over the train, flying the flags of the Black Lums. André buzzed down to make himself known. "It's that fly thing again!" Mado exclaimed.
"I told you the name's André! I was just on my way to get the Chiptoon, and I woulda had it if not for that crazy monster down there!"
"'Down there'? So, the Chiptoon really is in the Memory Dump!"
"YIPE!" André panicked. "Yeah, well it don't matter if you know where it is, 'cause I'm gonna get it first! I was snoopin' around this dream and I found me a wallop of a Nightmare! I was gonna use it against the monster down there, but I'll test it on you first! Crush them, you cooky clown!" (Play "New Foe" from Rayman Redemption.)
The airship dropped a large crate on the train. It burst open as a giant, terrifying clown rose above them. He was purple-skinned with a red shirt, blue hair, and insane green eyes with a huge grin. "WHO'S DAH BIRTHDAY GIRL?!" He raised a giant hammer and brought it down!
"AAAAH!" The girls cried and leapt backward.
Sub-boss: Jangles the Clown
Jangles slammed his hammer once more, springing the girls into the air, but Mado was quick to shoot a bubble at his nose and deal damage. "Nice one, Mado!" April cheered. The clown cried from the pain, his tears immediately forming a river that washed them to the back of the train. They couldn't make it back up the train as his tears kept flowing, but it seemed that small clouds were floating past, puffing from the train's engine. They used Sadness's tears to enlarge the clouds and make platforms, quickly jumping across them. Jangles tried to swat them out of the air, but they dodged his hammer as April threw a punch at his nose.
They dropped back on the train as Jangles began using spin attacks. The spinning clown chased them down the train before tripping on one of the gaps between cars. His head against the roof, Mado shot another bubble against him. Jangles pushed himself up and growled, dealing faster hammer-smashes to avoid bouncing them upward. His attacks also sent shockwaves, but Sadness noticed a French fry pack bounce out of the roof. She watered it with her tears and grew a Platform Plant. Mado jumped up and tried to shoot his nose, but Jangles blocked with his hammer. April threw a punch at the crotch during this time, prompting Jangles to drop his guard, allowing Mado to land a hit to his nose.
Jangles fumed in anger and began spinning again, chasing them along the roof. The girls rushed to the back of the train and dropped down to grab the edge of the back car. Jangles was moving too fast to stop himself, and the clown plummeted off the train. "BIRTHDAAAAAYYY!"
The three climbed back onto the train, sighing with relief. "Don't we have to go down there ourselves?" Mado asked.
"I guess so." April figured. "But I'd at least like to know where-"
"Blow them to smithereens!" André commanded. The airship dropped bombs on the further part of the track, exploding as the train rashly flew off and fell into the abyss.
"AAAAAAHHH!" Darkness enveloped them as they fell beyond the rim of the Memory Dump, and even the raindrops disappeared partway down. They crashed against a pile of orbs, an impact which they expected to be painful, but the orbs possessed an unusual softness as they slid to the bottom.
"Hahahahaha! How do you losers like THAT?!" André taunted.
"Eh, Boss, ain't that where the Chiptoon is?" a Hoodlum asked. "Didn't we just help them?"
"E-Er, I… It was all part of my backup plan! While they're getting killed by that monster, we'll swoop in and steal the Chiptoon! Hahahahaha! Now, start looking for that clown!"
April propped herself up on her hands—the orb beneath her left hand collapsed as she lost balance. She picked up one of the darkened orbs and stared into it. …The orb displayed a vision of a two-year-old girl playing with a dolly. The head of the doll broke, resulting in the child crying. "Oh, yeah. I remember that." Sadness noticed the orb. "Riley used to really like that doll. Her parents tried to use glue and tape to fix her, but they wouldn't hold, and it just made the doll uglier. Then Riley stopped caring…"
The orb dissolved into dust and blew away. Mado could barely feel the dust cross her leg. Internally, she wondered just how many of her own memories would fill a pit like this. "Maybe I should've been down here in the first place…" Sadness said. "Riley needs to be happy… Sadness doesn't help anyone."
"Are you really sure?" April asked. "Sadness, before, when you said you were trying to help… Why did you try to help exactly?"
"Well, I don't know. It just looked like there was something wrong with Riley's memories, and I thought I could make them better if I…"
"Maybe because sadness can make a person feel better?"
"It… can? But how?"
"Because sadness can bring you closer to others. There were a couple times where I almost lost my friends… and I was really upset and cried. So, when you said that Riley had to leave her old friends behind, I understood that feeling. You can't just mask those feelings with joy all the time. Even if they sound like negative emotions, sadness, anger, or even fear all have their worth."
"…" Sadness gazed at April with the faint hint of newfound hope glinting in her nearsighted eyes. Marshadow hung his head, touched by her words as well. But Madotsuki's mind still lingered over the thoughts of her own past.
The ground rumbled, startling them from their thoughts. "Hey! The ground!" Marshadow exclaimed. The orbs behind them were rapidly dissolving and becoming a sandstorm.
"I didn't think they disappeared that fast!" Sadness exclaimed, the girls backing up.
"If the ground caves, we're not sure if there's a bottom, right?!" Mado asked. "Run!" (Play "Suspense" from Rayman!)
They raced up and down several orb dunes before encountering a wall. They used Sadness to water some cloud platforms, jumping jump to get atop the ledge, but those clouds would then be swept in the dust cloud. Hoodlums dropped down in attempt to shoot them, but were struck down once more. They were stopped by another wall and needed to use Pole Beads to climb up, quickly striking to stretch them. April had to paint a Pole Bead to use it, and Sadness had to water some clouds, but the dust was quickly flooding beneath them. When they reached the top, a steep hill of orbs awaited them, but they would have no time to run down. Instead, the girls removed their shoes and slid down the hill in socks, the resulted speed serving to escape the decay.
Once at the bottom, they jumped some stair-shaped platforms—an Electoon Cage suddenly poofed on the better step, so Mado ran back to break it before rejoining. A Ty-foo floated above a short ledge and threatened to blow them down should they jump up, but April dealt a quick launch of her Paint Fist upon her jump and KO'ed it. Afterwards, they had to jump a series of small platforms that had Platform Plants, with Ty-foos beginning to blow in a synchronized fashion. The girls acted quickly to water the plants and jump. Once at the top, Mado used Hover Bubble to fly them across the pit, but the sandstorm was creeping behind. A helpful Ty-foo decided to give them a push.
"I would die for Riley! I would die for Riley!" They encountered a line of stacks of Dream Boyfriends. They climbed and jumped up the escalating stacks as the sandstorm steadily swept them away. Doomtoons dropped from between some stacks, Mado getting bit by one, but she remained vigilante and kept jumping until they reached stable ground. They rushed up one final hill, jumping over bouncing Anger Orbs that threatened to burn them, but once they reached the top, the storm came to a sudden stop. (End song.)
The girls stopped to catch their breaths, staring at the stopped wall of sand in confusion. Mado about-faced. "Hey!" She spotted a pink, electrical orb mounted on a pedestal. "It's the Chiptoon!"
"The Chiptoon?" Sadness repeated. "But… where are Joy and the Core Memories?"
"I'm sure they're close." April smiled. "Let's just get the Chiptoon for now."
The group rushed up to the gem, but the orbs around it suddenly rumbled. The Chiptoon's pedestal rose, and was revealed to be connected to a larger, monstrous mass. It was a purple elephant wearing a spiked jacket and hat with bat wings, his eyes multicolored and hypnotic. He had a furry raccoon tail with an axe and a cotton-candy body area. There were five golden orbs lodged into the cotton, and a blue-haired girl with bright peach limbs was trapped between them. "It's Joy!" Sadness exclaimed. "But you… It couldn't be… Bing Bong?"
"You promised Riley would remember me… You said I could take her to the MOON!" The elephant spoke in a haunting, cartoonish voice.
"What is this thing?!" Mado exclaimed.
"It's Bing Bong, Riley's old Imaginary Friend! He fell down here with Joy. Bing Bong, give back Riley's Core Memories! She needs them to get back to normal!"
"NO! I will be part of Riley always! So long as I have her fondest memories in my cotton, I'll never be forgotten!"
"It's gotta be the Chiptoon!" Marshadow pointed at the gem in his trunk. "It's corrupting him!"
"Don't worry!" Mado declared. "We'll save them both!" (Play "Couple of Troublemakers" from Rayman Redemption!)
Boss fight: Bing Bong
Bing Bong jumped about in attempt to flatten the trio. Mado and April attempted to strike him, but their attacks did nothing. Recalling the five orbs in his cotton, Sadness shot tears at them, turning their golden glow into blue. Once all five were saddened, Bing Bong stopped bouncing and cried tears of candy. His trunk plopped on the ground, the Chiptoon lodged in it. April punched her Paint Fist at the gem, causing it to launch behind Bing Bong and stretch the trunk with it. The trunk retracted as the Chiptoon bashed him in the head. The Sad Orbs turned back into joy as Bing Bong jumped to the right of the field. He sucked some Anger Orbs into his trunk and began blasting them at his foes. Mado and April distracted him by dodging his balls, leaving Sadness to crawl closer. She shot tears at the Core Memories once more to sadden the elephant, leaving Mado to shoot the Chiptoon once it landed on the ground. The trunk stretched back and returned to bash Bing Bong again.
Clouds suddenly appeared on either side as the Core Memories turned angry. Bing Bong charged the girls in a rage, so they used the clouds on the left side to jump up and over him. They repeated this process until Sadness could shoot the Anger Orbs and turn them sad again. Bing Bong halted and cried once more, leaving himself open to another strike from his own trunk. The orbs remained in a sad state as Bing Bong cried himself a cloud, rising to the sky. His candy tears continued to fall, one of them bonking April's head and dealing pain. Pole Beads were mixed with the tears, so the girls unraveled them to climb to Bing Bong, struggling to avoid his tears as his cloud floated side-to-side. His trunk was hanging below the cloud, so Mado was able to shoot it and damage him.
They all returned to the ground as Bing Bong splashed under the dead orbs. Mado felt the orbs beneath her rumble, and she dodged in time before the elephant shot up. "Oh, I forgot he's part-dolphin!" Sadness said. Bing Bong splashed under again and would target April next. Sadness considered attacking the Core Memories just as his belly came up, until April realized she could punch the Chiptoon that came up first, stretching his trunk and landing another hit off the monster. Bing Bong quaked the ground and sprung up a hill to the right, on which he perched. The Sadness Orbs in his chest poured water that flowed down and tried to wash them away. He continued to cry candy, but with no other way to run up the river, Madotsuki realized she could Bubble the candy tears.
Mado used the Bubbled tears as platforms to bounce up to Bing Bong and shoot the Chiptoon once more. The trunk stretched behind and returned to bash him, but this time the Chiptoon dislodged from the trunk. Bing Bong slid down the hill half-conscious as his purple colors turned pink. (End song.)
Marshadow ran to pick up the Chiptoon. "AAAAAHH!" An explosion of chi burst out, spreading across the dreamscape and blowing away the rainclouds.
"AAAH!" André screamed as Jangles the Clown scattered away, along with his swarm of Hoodlums. "Not again! Time to scram!"
Bing Bong shrank to a normal size as Joy and the Core Memories fell out of his cotton. Marshadow's screaming faded to silence. "Joy!" Sadness ran to her friend's side.
"S…Sadness…" Joy weakly awakened. "You fell down here, too?"
"I was helping these guys look for something, and we had to come down here, and we…"
"Marshadow…?" The Emotions faced up at Mado and April, who were staring curiously at the Nightmare spirit. His shadowy form had changed into a milky gray color, gazing mindlessly with the Chiptoon in hand.
"Why are we trying to collect these things? We're never gonna fix the Protoon. We can't stop my father. Just let him take over the Dream World. Who cares?"
"Huh? That's not what you were saying before." Sadness said, slowly approaching him.
"Sadness, watch out!" Joy cautioned. "That thing… Is that Apathy?"
"Apathy?" April questioned.
"Oh, no… without me to give her happiness, Riley's developed Apathy! The spirit that drains all emotions until there's nothing left."
"But this is Marshadow!" Mado reasoned. "He's not this 'Apathy' or whatever."
"Unless she means that Riley is feeling apathetic right now." April assumed. "And Marshadow absorbed those feelings through the Chiptoon!"
"I'm just gonna stay down here…" Marshadow sighed, sitting on the ground. "No one's gonna care that I'm gonna… Everyone will be happier without me."
"But you said you weren't gonna be afraid, anymore." Sadness gently hugged the little spirit. "You said you were gonna fix the Protoon. I know it's hard, but I'm sure you'll make it. If you don't fix the Dream World, who will? You gotta keep going…"
Sadness's aura warmed Marshadow's soul and caused him to turn blue. His eyes teared as he sniffled. "I…I don't know what came over me. I'm sorry I said that…sniff…"
"Tehe! You're in a real mood swing." April giggled. "Are you gonna be okay?"
Sadness released Marshadow as he returned to his black color. "I think so… But, how do we get out of here, anyway?"
"I don't know." Joy replied, gathering the Core Memories in a satchel. "Bing Bong and I were trying to find a way, but there's just nothing…"
"There is a way." Bing Bong's voice spoke. The group jumped to attention when the elephant regained consciousness. "I can use my trunk as a cannon, like when I was attacking you just now!"
"Talk about a mood swing!" Mado yelled.
"I'm sorry! I was being cursed by that thing! But don't worry, I'm gonna get you out of here."
"But Bing Bong, you'll be trapped down here." Joy said.
"It's no use, Joy. I'm gonna be forgotten any second. Riley just doesn't want me, anymore. The least I can do is help you guys escape!" The elephant's trunk widened dramatically as he slurped them up like a vacuum.
"Bing Bong, wait!"
"Take Riley to the moon for me! And install an elevator so you never get stuck down here again!"
Bing Bong aimed skyward and fired the trunk cannon with tremendous force! They whooshed up the canyon, arched over the rim, and crashed atop the cliff. "BING BONG!" Joy rushed up to the cliff and searched for him amongst the darkness… but his last action had already reduced him to dust. "Bing Bong…"
"Joy, are the Memories okay?" Sadness asked. "We…We gotta hurry and bring them back, don't we?"
Joy turned to her friend, smiling through her tears. "You're right… we need to hurry back."
After Mado and April recovered from the crash, the former noticed the Portal Pedestal nearby. "We need to hurry back, too." Mado said. "Good luck, you guys! We'll fix the Protoon so Riley will be able to wake up again!"
"Wake up?" Joy repeated. "Riley was already awake."
"Not being able to sleep is probably making her pretty cranky." Sadness figured.
"Oh. At least she's not in any immediate danger, right?"
"Last I heard, she was about to board a bus with a bunch of strangers and no supervision."
"Well, we'll leave you to that!" April said hastily. "Good luck!" Madotsuki spun a portal onto the pedestal as the three returned home.
Hall of Doors
"Nyuh…I can't believe those twerps got to the Chiptoon again!" André whined as he buzzed about the river of portals. "That dumb painter and that… 'Mado' brat. That's what she called her, right? Mado…Mado…" Somehow, that name sparked familiarity. He vaguely remembered a similar red-eyed girl with a pink, window sweater… "Mado…Madotsuki! Now I remember her! She's the one who…who…" But his mind became foggy again. "Wait… why do I remember her?" He vaguely recalled dedicating a large portion of his time to… something… that somehow involved that girl… but what…
"Oh, dear. Don't tell me you've failed again, Andy?"
André turned and flinched before Pitch Black's looming figure. "P-Pitch? What're you doing here?"
"I was in need of a little break. That Jessie fellow is more troublesome than expected. Since you seem to be in need of some help, perhaps I could assist in retrieving those Chiptoons for a bit?"
"I'll take whatever help ya got, Pitchy! I don't mind watchin' you get your butt kicked for a change!"
"Ha ha, so be it. Where do you suppose the little Dreamers will be heading, next?"