Disclaimer: The characters in this chapter do not belong to me, nor does the setting; however, the events that follow with these characters in this setting during this chapter all belong to me, except any events that occur in any media that was already created by Nintendo before this chapter was written. If they have occurred in any media that was already created by Nintendo before this chapter was written, any aspect of the manner in which they occurred in the context of them occurring that was not present in said context in any article of media that was already created by Nintendo before this chapter was written belongs to me instead of the actual event. This rule applies not only to aspects, but to aspects of aspects, aspects of aspects of aspects, etc, etc. This disclaimer also applies to any previous chapters that did not feature it in its entirety.

Chapter 3: The Puppet's Lost Master; Operation Rooftop

The fluffy clouds seemed to pulsate with a sort of happiness. It was distinct from the assertive state of life, but not quite dead. The battle being waged between the warmth of the sun and the cool grass over control of the inattentive monster's body temperature came off as nothing more to it than a wave of peaceful equilibrium and a welcomed barrage of bright sunlight. So much for "Dark Star," thought the monster as it leaned back into the grass and let its eyes fall shut. Whoever decided to name it that was clearly being either sarcastic or very spoiled. This was much better than whatever paradise could possibly be. It was almost too good to be true.

"D'oh!" As consciousness slowly returned to the noddy, it found itself somewhere in a space void-like both in light, temperature, and pressure, as though it were diving deep into a lake of ice at midnight. It felt a mysterious force holding it by its foot, and since the noddy seemed to be pulling away from the force, it presumed that it was upside-down. The absence of a blanket made its surroundings seem very cold, and the absence of a pillow gave it a headache. Worse yet, its surroundings had darkened to a light so dim that it could barely see a thing. "Remind me," it muttered, grimacing, "never to consider something 'too good to be true.'"

"Pleasant dreams, I presume?" replied a seemingly disembodied voice.

Shit! An intruder. The noddy gasped in all the air it could find and held its breath nervously, quickly assessing the situation; the voice was coming from a place that the noddy would have thought was below it, but was clearly above it if it was upside-down; the voice was familiar, carrying an amused and generally benevolent tone with a tad of falsehood; the falsehood was probably intended as a means of lulling people into false senses of security.

But who on Dark Star tries to lull people into false senses of-- Oh, right.

"Jeez, Customer Service," pleaded the noddy groggily. "Don't sneak up on me like that. Can't I sleep a little longer?"

The now-identified Customer Service felt around for a lightswitch. Nothing on the back wall, he determined in a matter of seconds, owing to the compact nature of the minion rooms. He checked the left wall. Nothing there, either-- Ah, here's one.

The lights flashed on, almost blinding the noddy, and as it stared up into the purple, wrinkly, human-like, geekiness-ridden, tall-jawed face of the monster that held it hanging helplessly by its foot, it almost couldn't tell whether it was being blinded by the light or by the ugliness of the being before it.

"Sorry, but we need all personnel right away," apologized the monster emptily, apathetically dropping the noddy on the ground to free his human-like arms.

"Aw, come on, who wakes people up in the middle of the night?" asked the noddy sleepily, not really appreciating the gesture. "Just another half-hour..."

"I'm fairly certain that it's, let's see..." Customer Service pulled up his deep-purple suit sleeve to look at a circular ticking thing on a band; it was probably a watch, but the noddy knew well that with Customer Service, you could never be certain. "3:15 PM. Hardly night-time."

"Wha... It sure doesn't feel like 3:15 PM..." The noddy sat back against the foot of its bed and yawned.

"Yes, well, time hardly ever feels the way it really is." Customer Service returned the yawn; he, too, had gotten up that morning far earlier than he'd wanted to. Lots of calls to answer, after all, mostly complaint calls. He hated complaint calls. "Hey, listen, Sir Nightmare is missing. I'm gathering everyone to go find him. Would you like to get up now?"

Nigh... The noddy tried to understand what it had just heard. Nightm...

Nightmare... is...

The noddy crisply and urgently swung its head-body back and forth, searching its room for signs that it was still dreaming. Broken alarm clocks that had fallen off of the noddy's nightstand before they'd been ringing enough to wake it up piled so high in the front-right corner that they almost touched the ceiling; light-blue nightcaps were stacked semi-neatly next to its bed on the side opposite its nightstand. The white paint on the walls was flaking, revealing the dark-red glow of the rust on the metal foundation, which made it seem like the walls were bleeding. Customer Service was still purple and semi-human-like, as always; he had not transformed into an elephant or a slice of toast. The situation was clearly a reality and not some sort of dream.

"Well, I'll leave you to decide what to do," remarked Customer Service, leaving the room with a false smile and a wave. "We're off for now; buhbye."

The floor started to feel swirly like a blast from Tornado Kirby. The noddy stared up at the ceiling, but it was no better because it was swirly too. It tried standing up, but just fell down again; everything was useless. The whole universe was suddenly spinning in circles and as tiny as a little speck of dust. The noddy felt detached again, like it did when it woke up and everything was dark. All its life, it had operated in part under the assumption that things didn't just disappear, and that Nightmare would always be there for his minions, that Nightmare would always be there to be in charge and tell everyone to sleep in people's pillowcases or to go mess up some poor kid whose family was dissing the big buffoon who sat down at the center of Pop Star calling himself the King. But what was supposed to happen now?

The noddy felt the thumps of several heavily-armed feet echoing across the translucent metal hexagon floors just outside; the echoing thumps vibrated through the building, making it almost feel like the ceiling was going to fall down. What should it do? Nightmare had never gone missing before. Even when that little pink bastard Kirby beat his ass with the Star Rod, he'd managed to come staggering back to Dark Star yet again; sure, his cape was nearly torn off and he was breathing heavily as though it were a burden to even move, but he'd returned. Sir Nightmare couldn't just... disappear like that. That didn't make sense. The noddy thought for a moment that maybe it should just go back to bed. Things were so much more fun in the world of his dreams than here on the real Dark Star, right? The noddy lifted itself off the ground and started to climb up onto its bed, then hesitated about halfway up.

Wait a second; hadn't th'boss said before that he was going to try out Operation Rooftop? Yeah. Yeah, he did.

As the noddy climbed back down and started out the door, the feeling of dizziness left it and was replaced with a sudden impulse to laugh. As it walked down the dimly-lit hall with grungy, pale-green walls, it laughed as deeply as a little noddy could laugh, and as it approached the slimy, rusty door labeled "MAGIC SUPPLIES" in red letters of condensed, formal font, its laugh grew in volume and pitch, approaching hysteria. Geez, they sure don't make monsters too bright nowadays. Seriously, it couldn't believe that it was the only one who'd made the connection.