The group returned to Madotsuki's room as the girl held Marshadow in her arms, using him to trace the other Chiptoons. "By the way… I'm sorry for shouting at you before." Madotsuki said. "It wasn't you I was yelling at, it was… my fears."
"I figured that… but as long as you're not afraid of me anymore, then it's alright." He smiled.
"To tell the truth, I…I'm still kind of afraid. That monster is still in my head, and…huhu." She shuddered and felt an unsettling chill on her shoulders.
"Your awful memories came rushing back to you all at once." Mr. Dark said. "Truthfully, it's incredible that you are holding yourself together now. But I wonder… could you truly face Darkrai I with such fears lingering over you?"
"I…I have to try, right? I should be over this fear, so…"
"I've got visual on the other Chiptoons now!" Marshadow announced. "They're in the same places as before."
April saw these places on Mado's window. "One in Wonderland, Moody Lake, Football Land, and Dimension Matrix. I hope I can fit these on the canvas…"
"Hey, guys! We got trouble!" Murfy called, flying into the room. "There's a whole swarm of Hoodlums heading this way!"
The group faced out the window, seeing a fleet of blimps and a mass of thousands of Black Lums in the distance. "Hahahaha! I knew waiting was the right answer!" André cackled. "This place don't look nearly as nasty as before! Let's get that Chiptoon before they ever expect!"
"Well, if it isn't an old friend of mine." Mr. Dark glared. "April, we don't need a painting. We shall travel to those dreamscapes my own way!"
"Your own way? WAAAAH!" Mr. Dark's hands suddenly whooshed around April in circles, stirring a sphere into being as it compressed a shrank April into a holdable size.
"Don't worry." Mr. Dark willed the small glass ball to levitate. "I use this spell to conveniently carry prisoners."
"That's not very assuring!"
"But you, Madotsuki, shall get a front-row seat." He wrapped his cloak around Mado and held her and Marshadow steady as he soared out the window! He raised the red Chiptoon in his free hand.
"EH?!" André gasped, a wave of memories returning to him upon seeing the cloaked figure. "Heh…hahahahaha! No way! It's really you! Mr. Dark!"
"Ah, André… how long has it been?"
"Way too long! I shoulda known the Nightmare King's return would've brought you back, too! And you even got the Chiptoon! Now we can cause chaos just like the old days!"
The Chiptoon crackled like lightning in his grasp. "If you wish!"
"WAAAAAAAHHHHH!" A thousand bolts scattered and struck the Hoodlums before Mr. Dark took off to the sky!
"I'll lead you to the dreamscapes!" Murfy yelled, flying ahead. "Follow me!" (Play "Cruising Together" from NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams!)
Dream 7: Dream Cruise
Mission: Recollect the stolen Chiptoons!
His cloak flapped under the starlit night, made visible only by the crescent moon. Hordes of Hoodstormers flew up from the clouds and shot them, but Mr. Dark swiftly evaded and cast fireballs in return. Three Hoodblimps tried to block him, so Mr. Dark focused fire on the top one's balloon until it exploded. He dodged the others' attacks and attacked the middle blimp until it exploded, but two more blimps approached from behind. Fortunately, the previous kill powered him up enough to strike purple lightning around the surrounding area, eradicating the blimps. There was an increase of wind as he flew faster across the Dream Realm. As the clouds cleared away, a vast field of football lay in their wake, goal posts towering in the horizon.
Nightmarish footballers lined the field as they chucked footballs skyward with the force of cannonballs. Mr. Dark shifted left and right in evasion, but when he had to focus attention on Hoodstormers, one of the crafty footballs struck him. As he shot down the Hoodlums and evaded other footballs, an Electoon Cage appeared. He tried to break it, but a Hoodoo blocked it with his barrier, mounted on a floating platform. Mr. Dark quickly destroyed the Hoodoo before he could break the cage. While some Electoons escaped, Mr. Dark turned two of them into Doomtoons, serving as extra defense. "You're turnin' them back after this, right?" Murfy asked.
"Yes, yes. Ah, what's going on down there?"
Lee Andrew and Diwata Uno had been brought to help Lulu and Denny battle Nocturn. The former two were left to deal with Sleepwalkers while Lulu fed her brother more pancakes to keep his stamina raised. Denny rushed at Nocturn, dodging his tentacles before leaping to sock the ghost in the jaw, only for Nocturn to grow larger and evade his attack. He then slapped Denny away, but as he tried to jab his enlarged tentacles, Lulu ran to her brother's aid and sliced the tentacles with butcher knives. Nocturn yelled in pain and dove his claws down in attempt to grab them. Denny grabbed Lulu and carried her as he evaded Nocturn's grabs, and when two more tentacles came, Lulu sliced them away.
"Alright, boy, see if you can catch THIS ONE!" Nocturn mustered his energy and conjured a giant football. He flew to the sky and threw it with incredible velocity, and it was no surprise that Denny and Lulu would be crushed into the crater it created. "Phew! Those two were more persistent than they should've been. Now to deal with these interlopers." Nocturn returned to the ground and began to shoot Ecto Beams from his enlarged eyes. Diwata and Lee hastily dodged the giant beams, but were tackled by five Sleepwalkers. "Watch as I take 'crushing your dreams' to a whole new-"
PSHOO! A giant football punctured Nocturn's chest like an oversized torpedo. "Aaaahh…" He groggily twisted his head to see Denny charred and standing firmly at the edge of the crater.
"Dreams or reality, you didn't think my sister and I trained to catch big projectiles like that?"
Lulu groggily climbed out and said, "I wanna throw up, but I don't know what my real body will do."
"But…but it was time now…" Nocturn gasped as his starry body dissolved away. "It's not fair…it's not fair…"
As the Sleepwalkers faded away, one of them dropped the blue Chiptoon. "Ooo! What's this thingy?" Diwata asked, picking it up.
"Hey, it's the Chiptoon!" Murfy announced as he and Mr. Dark swooped to the ground.
"Hey, it's that Mado girl!" Lee pointed. "And there's Marshadow and… who're you again?"
"Wait, I know you!" Murfy pointed at Diwata. "You're the Moon Firstborn Guardian! This is good timing! Let's take her with us, too!"
"Whoa whoa, where's this coming from?" Lee asked. "Diwata can't just go now, we need to help Lulu and Denny's parents!"
"What's happened to their parents?" Madotsuki asked.
"That ghost snapped their necks." Diwata replied. "But, this is a dream, right? What's happened to their real bodies?"
"Their real bodies should still be alive." Murfy answered. "But they're gonna be in a coma for a while."
"But they'll wake up eventually, right?"
"Sure they will!" Marshadow quickly answered. "I…I'm positive they'll wake up! Once we fix the Protoon, everything'll be okay!"
"Are you sure?" Lee asked.
"Yeah!"
"Well, that's more assurance than we've gotten all night." Diwata shrugged and smiled. "All we can do now is fix things. Lee, stick with Lulu and Denny and hold your ground. I'll see you later."
"Okay!"
Mr. Dark sealed Diwata in a crystal ball, her and Chiptoon flying beside him as he returned to the sky. Lulu and Denny rejoined Lee in time to watch them, like a faint glint of hope reflected off the dark cloak. Returning above the clouds, a Grim Keeper floated in their way, a chubby Hoodlum with a wide shield. The Keeper released flying Hoodgrims. Mr. Dark shot them down, but his fireballs couldn't penetrate the Keeper's shield. Destroying enough Grims would power his lightning, the shield unable to protect from the area attack. Hoodblimps flew in the background and launched cannonballs, but Mr. Dark simply fired toward the background, with Mado using the magnifying glass to improve his aim.
Mr. Dark saw a great asteroid in the sky and whooshed ever higher (it makes his whirring sound from Rayman). Drawing closer to the Dimension Matrix, a series of Blacksand Horses galloped across the air at different angles. He couldn't destroy them fast enough, so he shifted up and down in evasion. A large number of horses were flooding the sky and giving him little room to evade, destroying his Doomtoon guards as his cloak was scratched by one of the Nightmares. However, he rammed through a dark sphere and powered his lightning, allowing him to obliterate all the horses. Soon, Mr. Dark could glide along the surface of the asteroid, from which Fearlings seeped up. He simply blasted along the ground to keep them underneath, soon to cross over the hill and find a wide crater where a battle was taking place.
Knights of golden sand and knights of Blacksand dueled on the asteroid, and Shelly jumped across the knights with a shield and sword of sand in hand. "To be fair, I never learned how to play chess!" Shelly remarked as her blade clashed with Pitch's. Shelly destroyed his sword with a more forceful attack, but Pitch just as quickly formed a giant Sand Fist and punched her away with the turnaround.
Pitch smirked as he retrieved the yellow Chiptoon from under his cloak. "Now I wish for you to become a turtle!" The Chiptoon glowed as Shelly turned into a purple turtle. Sand Monkeys tried to pounce on her, but Shelly curled up and spun away, using sandbending with her mind to pierce the monkeys' heads. "I wish you couldn't sandbend!" With Pitch's command, Shelly's bending was disabled, but she turned back into a human form.
"So, you can only make one wish at a time, huh?" Shelly smirked, punching monkeys away with her own fists. Pitch cast sandwaves, which Shelly flipped over until one from the side was able to push her away. She shook the sand off ran again. Pitch shot beams of sand that Shelly either dodged or kicked off of. Pitch stirred a Sand Cyclone around himself to keep Shelly from reaching. "I wish you weren't such a prick!"
"And I wish you'd mind your manners!" Pitch retorted.
The Chiptoon glowed from his wish. "Ah, my apologies, kind sir~" Shelly said politely—right before she pierced through the cyclone with a thrust of Dreamsand, jabbing Pitch in the stomach. "But if I may, you should have chosen a better wish~" She hurriedly whirled sand gushes around to hit Pitch's hip, his head, then knock the Chiptoon away from his grasp.
As Nebula had been knocked on the ground by an attack from the broccoli monster, she saw the Chiptoon bounce by her head. She quickly seized it and declared, "I wish the portal machine would stop malfunctioning!" By her command, the portal stopped glitching and returned to normal.
"You think a silly wish is going to fix anything?" The broccoli monster said as he lashed his katana—it was suddenly sliced in half by another katana, wielded by Liaziana the Glomourian leader.
"You know why I didn't summon any operatives for help?" Nebula asked as hundreds more operatives marched out of the portal. "Because they had more important things to do than deal with sour broccoli! But if that's what you want, have at them!"
"AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH…!" Diced up by Liaziana's sword, punctured by Minksman's guns, incinerated by Pyler's fire, or swarmed by Lenari's Pikmin, not a trace of the broccoli being remained. The dream illusions passed a thumbs-up to Nebula before returning to their homes.
"Alright! I guess I better help—AAH!" Nebula was suddenly caught in Mr. Dark's crystal ball.
"Good, that makes two." he said. "On to the next!" And he took off.
"Wait, we gotta help Shelly!" Nebula yelled.
"No worries! I got this!" Shelly declared as she created sand cannons to shoot rounds at Pitch, while he conjured guillotines over the cannons to chop them. "Sweet, and I ain't gotta worry about manners no more!"
After returning to the sky, they were ambushed by a lizard wizard called Chamelan. Chamelan draped the background in a purple curtain of ?'s, taking cover behind it as cards flew up to Mr. Dark. Some poofed into Hoodlums, some turned into Toxic Sludge, and others into spike pillars, in which he had to fly through the gap. One of the cards became an electric sphere, so Mr. Dark collected it and struck lightning around the area. This eradicated the curtain, so Mr. Dark pummeled the Chamelan with fireballs until it fell from the sky. Afterwards, Card Soldiers flew up from the clouds and dove at Mr. Dark in a glide; an unwise maneuver for the cards as fire beats paper (and that's why it was banned from Rock, Paper, Scissors).
As they crossed the valley into Wonderland… or was it really Wonderland? It seemed like it had been changed into a giant DJ studio. Wizeman reflected Sunni's Psy-Beam to one of his other hands, which bounced the beam back to her and blasted Sunni onto a record. Wizeman then tried to pin her beneath the record's needle, to which Sunni struggled to force it back with psychic. "Lie down and rest… just like your sister and mother. With a traumatized mind, you are useless as a psychic!"
"I am not! I'm just a little stressed OUT at the moment!" Sunni used a more forceful burst to force the needle off, rising to the air. "And I think a change in scenery is in order!" She focused her Imagination and transformed the DJ studio into an Inkopolis studio, the sounds of Squid Rap resounding.
"What in the world is this gibberish?"
"It's called Squid Rap, and it has way more culture!" Sunni willed parts of the ground to split open as fountains of inks sprayed out. Sunni amassed gallons of ink within Psy-Spheres and sent them at Wizeman's hands. He maneuvered the hands in evasion and used one to shoot a purple laser at Sunni, but she dodged and was able to splash a sphere over that hand, drenching it in ink. Sunni splashed other spheres over his spiked head and two more over some hands. Wizeman willed a storm to appear over Wonderland as heavy rain poured, washing off the ink. The raindrops grew bigger as several of them forced Sunni to the ground. Wizeman used this opportunity to pummel Sunni into the dirt, but after a while, he was merely pummeling an illusion.
The real Sunni teleported above him, creating a giant blanket of psychic to catch the rain. She wrapped the psychic into a balloon and smashed it down against Wizeman. As the balloon exploded, she quickly wrapped all the water and Wizeman into another one and began to forcefully shake it around. Wizeman forced the balloon to explode and transformed the storm into a terrible drought. Everything in Wonderland decayed into sand, and the intense heat was making Sunni's skin dry. She felt the need for something cold and sweet, so by her Imagination, mountains of ice cream rose from the sands. Wizeman grasped Sunni in his hands, the psychic conjuring a bubble in defense. The ice cream finished rising regardless, and she was able to make some giant scoops fly up and shove him away.
Sunni then conjured large Psy-Spoons and dug them into the ice cream on Wizeman's head, but Wizeman grabbed the spoons and turned their blue into purple. He scooped the cream off himself and launched it at Sunni, who avoided each scoop until a spoon batted her toward an ice cream mountain. Wizeman turned the ice cream dark-yellow and rotten as it melted around Sunni, but she teleported out and conjured a psychic bulldozer to shove the rotten cream to Wizeman. Wizeman willed the cream to spiral up into a tornado, shoving it in Sunni's direction. She tried to push the tornado away, but was zapped by dark lasers to weaken her grip, and the tornado enveloped her.
"You can't fool me!" Wizeman immediately sensed her warp behind and spun to clap her in three hands. However, all that remained within were psychic webs, gluing the hands together. Sunni teleported above and used a giant hammer to smash Wizeman into the ground. He was able to break those three hands free and used all six to blast the hammer skyward. "I am one of the Holy Nightmare's greatest creations. I am like a demigod! You will never defeat-"
"Okay! It's just about loose now!" Sunni announced. With that, the entirety of Wonderland's landscape bent up like a dense paper wrapper, completely condensed, and crushed Wizeman inside. "I've been sparing some psychic to detach Wonderland from the foundation!" She couldn't maintain the seal for long, so Sunni flipped the wrap upside-down before letting it spread open. Some of the distorted features, such as the ink fountains, DJ stands, ice cream, or sand dunes. "Huff…god or demigod, you were all talk, dude. Hm?" She looked over as Mr. Dark flew up. "Hey… you're Mr. Dark, aren't you? I kinda forgot about you until just-"
"You might have crushed the Chiptoon along with him! Could you flip this place back over real quick? There's a round, white orb we need to collect."
"Well, okay then." With that, Sunni casually flipped Wonderland back over again. She looked over Wizeman's crushed form and said, "Ah, you must mean that!" taking the Chiptoon before flipping the land back upside-down.
"Wow, you really gave Wonderland a makeover." Madotsuki commented. Indeed, the classic fairytale was unrecognizable in this upside-down and overly transformed state.
"Well, it was in need of some remodeling. So, what's going on?"
"If you want to save the universe, get in my crystal ball." Mr. Dark stated.
"Don't worry, it's safe." Mado smiled.
"If you say so."
Once Sunni was caught in the crystal, they were off to the sky. The crescent moon shimmered red as a gigantic mass began to rise from the clouds behind them. "MISTER DARK!" It was a massive Hoodmonger, its scarecrow mouth gaping as it spoke with André's voice. "I thought you were the coolest Nightmare this side of Candy Chateau! Why're you siding with these twerps?!"
"Have you forgotten Madotsuki is my Creator? So long as the Protoon is broken, she cannot be free."
"You was the one who wanted her dead in the first place! What about all the KND who didn't help her? Don't you still want revenge on-"
Mr. Dark struck the giant with a great burst of lightning, causing it to collapse. "And I couldn't be more thankful that we are both alive!" When André sprung up from the clouds, his stitched face charred, Mr. Dark conjured his Darkband instrument and strummed the piano keys, sending red spiked waves. The Hoodlum's head was sliced to pieces, so André attempted to slap him out of the sky, only for another burst of lightning to hold him back and disintegrate the giant. "That should scare you off for now. Now then…" (End song.)
The group had arrived at Moody Lake, the surrounding clouds rumbling with thunder. After examining the pearl towers for a moment, Mr. Dark saw someone sitting on a bed atop one of the towers. As he approached, the boy felt his presence and looked up. "Ah…it's you."
Harvey gasped. "Mister… Dark?!"
"Harvey!"
"Madotsuki?"
Mr. Dark released Mado onto the tower as Harvey approached him. "What are you doing back? I thought you disappeared with her memories?"
"Harvey, my memories are back."
"They…They're what?!"
"One of the Chiptoons landed in my dreamscape and it caused my memories to come back. Or, at least… it made the pieces come back. I had to put them together."
"Well, do you remember the part where Mr. Dark-"
"Harvey, don't. I remember everything, okay? …Well, I might be forgetting a few details, but I do remember what Mr. Dark tried to do. But he's good now."
"Like I can believe that! What is she even doing here at all?"
"Murfy, did you even go around and explain to everyone?"
"Hey, I got to as many as I could, but there were Hoodlums over there, Doomtoons over here, and I lost track of how many operatives there were a long time ago."
"Mado, get us out of here!" April asked. "Now that we're all together, we should just explain."
Mado nodded and proceeded to smash open the crystal balls containing them. After the operatives grew back to normal size, they briefed the main parts of the quest. "Oh yeah, I remember." Diwata said. "We held a sector meeting, and Index mentioned Mado was a Guardian."
"I wasn't really informed." Sunni admitted. "I was taking an extended break from the KND, so…"
"Yeah, me too." Harvey said snidely. "And I was hoping Madotsuki wouldn't be involved at all."
"I didn't decide to be Marshadow's Guardian!"
"Fine, then don't be. We may've asked for your help a few times, but a Firstborn Guardian is way more responsibility."
"She did say if she had a choice, she would want April to be my Guardian." Marshadow said sadly.
"I did say that…" Mado smiled sheepishly. "But that was before I remembered. It was thanks to Marshadow that Dark-san came back to me. And now… I want both of them beside me."
"Yeah, well I don't want HIM beside you!" Harvey shouted, an accusing finger aimed at the cloak in question.
"You seem awfully disagreeable." Dark said. "And I don't feel it's entirely because of me."
"Harvey lost his sister recently."
"Ah…My condolences."
"Wow, you sound so considerate." Harvey glared.
"Look, we're getting off track." Nebula stated. "How do we fix the Chiptoons?"
"We need the powers of the gods who created them." Murfy answered. "Unfortunately, with things as they are, even they can't enter the Dream World too easily. But that's where you guys come in!"
"Us?" Diwata pointed at herself. "Oh, right! I just realized we're all Firstborn Guardians! Including Madotsuki, too!"
"But I haven't become his Guardian, yet."
"It doesn't matter as long as Marshadow's here! But if you guys hold the respective Chiptoons and channel your chi, the Firstborn should answer your call."
"Wait, you said Cresselia was one of the gods." April remembered. "But Diwata isn't her Guardian."
"Then does that mean Crest can do it himself?" Diwata asked.
"Oh, yeah. I forgot Crest."
"I hope you aren't planning to fix the Protoon around HIM, are you?" Harvey accused.
"Apologies, but you seem to be mistaking me for one of the Demon Lords, HIM." Mr. Dark retorted. "In any case, I have no desire to use the Protoon for my own gain, anymore, nor will I attempt to justify myself for you. You can hate me all you want, but you will not stop me from being with Madotsuki."
"Awwwww!" Diwata cooed.
"Harvey, we don't have time to debate about this." Nebula said. "Do you have anything that looks like this?" She held her Chiptoon.
"Yeah, I do." Harvey crouched and reached under his bed to retrieve the pink Chiptoon. "Some Nightmare monkey brought it after I killed this doll-spider monster."
"Then we should have them all. The sooner we fix the Protoon, the sooner we can stop anyone else from dying. Well, pseudo-dying… right?"
"I hope so." Mado replied.
"Sigh…alright. Should we do it now or what?" Harvey asked.
"You can probably start now." Murfy shrugged. "I'm not sure how long it'll take to reach the Firstborn. Until then, there's one more thing we gotta do to fix the Protoon."
"ARE YOU SERIOUS?!" they all shouted, stirring Murfy around in the air.
"Easy, easy! All we gotta do is free more Electoons! They gravitate around the Protoon and help maintain its stability. You can easily just revisit the other dreams and look for places you missed! Those were the good old days of gaming, when ya had to get all the collectibles to fight the final boss. Oh, but FYI, you can't use Mr. Dark or any special powers you found in your dream, Mado. That'd make the game too easy, hehe."
"I feel like there should be a quicker way to fix the Protoon since breaking it is so dangerous!" Nebula stated.
"It ain't exactly easy to break to begin with. You'd have to be a real clumsy joe."
Marshadow bowed his head in shame. "Oh, perhaps I spoke too soon."
"Whatever, let's just get on it." April shrugged. "We'll offscreen it, anyway."
"We better do our part then." Nebula said. "I hope everyone else is doing alright…"
Sky High
Sky High was an aptly-named dreamscape of airplanes where people had to traverse with hang-gliders. Due to the Protoon's destruction, numerous planes had begun to lose control and crash, but Aranea Fulbright was able to get some back under control.
However, the girl in the sky-blue hoodie found herself being chased by a Nightmare around an airship. He was an obese, crab-spider hybrid with five eyes, and a tuxedo and red vest. Two of his five eyes were blackened, there was a cut in his left belly, and his middle right leg was missing. "What's wrong, kid? Don't got any more tricks up your sleeve?" Waternoose (from Monsters, Inc.) taunted as he tried to shoot web wads from a bazooka. Aranea punched a switch that caused a wall beside him to fall open, releasing a burst of steam, but Waternoose dodged and stepped backward just in time. The Nightmare hauled the hatch up and resealed the steam before skittering through. He spotted the wire traps she had set up and shot them with webbing to set off the arrows. Afterwards, he resumed chasing Aranea around a corner, quickly jumping to the wall as barrels rolled down the passage. He managed to shoot a web wad at Aranea's left shoe just before she escaped into a door.
"You're running me in circles, kid!" Waternoose said as he followed her into the next passage. "But I ain't losing my chance to get back into business!" Seeing Aranea struggling to flee with a sticky shoe, he quickly covered her in more webs. "You Kids Next Door make it really hard to scare the average kid. Nightmare Land was going through hard times, so all I wanted to do was harvest the Fear Chi from a select few kids. Was that so wrong? But no, big boss Darkrai said kidnapping kids was wrong. At least the Nightmare Generals liked my idea! It's the dawn of a new night with Darkrai I back in command!"
"Don't you mean the dusk of a new night?"
"Who cares?! Now hold still so we can get this over with! After all, you won't be afraid if I suck the scare out of you."
"But if I can't feel fear, I can't feel hatred. And believe me, I have a lot of hatred for you that I want to expend."
"Then I'll be happy to take it off ya!" the spider-crab smirked.
"Then take off!"
Right on cue, the airship seemed to split in half, with the dividing point being just between Aranea's and Waternoose's positions. "I've been setting off mechanisms to divide the ship! I must be pretty paranoid to have so many traps in my own dreamscape, huh?"
"Nice try, brat!" Waternoose shot a web up to Aranea's ledge and reeled himself up—she punched a button that dumped glue from the ceiling, sticking Waternoose to that foothold while she herself jumped off. Aranea landed in the other piece of ship that seemed to be falling.
"Hah! But actually, THIS was the side I wanted to be on!"
"You! Darn it!" Waternoose struggled to tear off the glue.
"Bye-bye, you ugly bug!"
A timed bomb had already been set near a fuel tank in that side. Once it went off, that entire half was blown to smithereens with Waternoose inside. "Sigh…what a distraction. Now then…"
Aranea piloted her side of the craft up to a floating landing platform. After disembarking, she approached the Exit Portal of her dream. The portal spiraled as someone was entering: a gray alien with swirly glasses, a cooky blue cape with stars, and a funny hat with a very thin middle and two wide curves on either side. "Behold! You have reached Forgetmeo, the Dream Seeker."
"Yeah. Did you get the info?" Nea asked impatiently.
"Gee, show a little gratitude. That dreamscape wasn't easy to navigate, you know. About lost my mind, like, 10 times. And I'd lose my head, too, if it were detachable from my body. …It is, and, I have. Anyway, all the secrets you wanted were inside a vault." Roger handed Aranea a file. "I checked, and they seem legit. You're lucky I was on a crew with him because that mind is nuts."
"I'll bet. But thanks. I'll contact you after I wake up for your pay."
"Sweet! But since we can't wake up, I'm gonna get wasted in Santa's One Horse Open Stool. Heh, when you drink in the dream, do you drink in real life? …Yes, but in the wrong way." With that, he left the dream.
Aranea focused down on the file and opened it. There were monochrome pictures and info of every major KND operative. Mason's file talked about dirty fantasies about Sheila, Nagisa's talked about his homophobia, Eddy Flores' talked about account hacking, and there were many more.
Chamber of the Protoon
"Ahh…it seems he's finally made it!" Darkrai II beamed at the giant star.
With a flash of light, a shooting star soared down from the Planet Popstar. A familiar pink puffball rode the Warp Star with a fierce expression. "POYOOOO!"
"Hey! It's Kirby!" Rayman exclaimed.
"It's been way too long!" NiGHTS said.
"Ah, Kirby. My third greatest mistake." Darkrai I sneered. "Fortunately, my Generals have already built a countermeasure to you!"
"PIYAAAAH!" A Warp Ztar intercepted Kirby's and caused the little Star Warrior to crash in the distance. The Ztar was ridden a black-and-purple clone of Kirby.
"MWA HA HA HA! Kirby, meet Ybrik! This little Nightmare is designed to copy your every attack and only attack you! We've also made sure to iron out that irritating positive attitude."
"That's playing dirty, you coward!" NiGHTS yelled, flying to attack the king. "WAH!" They were struck by a red- and gray-clothed jester with a similar build.
"Our king can never have enough firepower." The red jester spoke with black lips and a stiffer voice.
"Reala!"
"Heh! Looks like the party's finally getting started!" Rayman said, balling his fists as Dark Rayman approached him. "In fact… I bet you miss your old master, don't you?"
Dark Rayman said nothing and smirked, his blank yellow eyes curving spitefully.
No joke, I've never played a Kirby game since Return to Dreamland, and that was before Firstborn. XD
"So, Wizeman was no body and all clothes?" Mr. Dark asked.
"Yep." Sunni shrugged. "With separate hands."
"Hm, and the Holy Nightmare is almost the same way. Must be a trend for us."