Black plumes of smoke rose from the exploded towers of the palace. Countless bodies littered the streets of the city, each one snoring gently. The capital was in ruins. Shy guys from the invading forces still lingered, waddling around, climbing on top of things like cats, or otherwise just hanging out. The sky was dark. A massive, swirling dream portal hung in the sky over everything. But the cotton candy tie-dye pastels of the portal were different, darkened by veins of black reaching through to take root in the waking world.
Daisy stepped around the rubble to sprint up the steps of the palace. The front gate was blasted off its hinges. Everything was destroyed. Waluigi and Wanda followed her as she stormed through the entrance, making a point to punt any minion who got in her way.
Things were not any better inside. Comatose servants dozed in restless slumber at her feet. Columns were knocked over and walls blown apart. To put it plainly, this sucked. She had JUST finished renovating the castle last month.
"This is terrible!" Wanda said. "I'm sorry, Daisy."
"Yeah, me too," Daisy said, feeling her temper starting to boil. "You think those 8-bit bozos are still here?"
"I do," Waluigi said. "You hear that?"
Daisy listened. There was music: a faint, gurgling sort of singing deeper inside the castle. She gestured for her friends to follow and stalked towards it. It was time for some pay-back.
They stepped into the throne room. Things were no better here, but the rumble of the music was closer. Daisy spotted someone hiding behind her throne.
"Hey!" She shouted. "I see you! Get out here!"
The wall to her left burst open as an ear-piercing shockwave punched through, spraying dust and debris everywhere. Daisy's ears rang. She waved an arm to clear the dust from her eyes. A team of snifits hefting boomboxes hopped through the new hole in the wall. Wart, that slimy obese frog and would-be king of Subcon, swaggered into Daisy's throne room trailing a microphone cord behind him. A wide, smug grin spread across his face.
"THEEEERE you are!" he said. "I was starting to worry you'd miss out on the fun! I wouldn't want to miss your reaction to my little surprise."
"You think you're getting away with wrecking my kingdom?!" Daisy said, shaking her fist. "I just got the downtown walkways how I wanted! Now I have to start over!"
"It's only fair princess," Wart cooed. "You've thrown so many rocky wrenches into my plan that I had to come all the way to the waking world MYSELF to harvest the last few dreamers I needed. But you know what? It's fine. I thought to myself, if she wants to get involved this bad, then I know just where to sleep-nap the last of my new fans!"
"You mean dreamnap," Daisy said.
"What?" Wart said.
"Dreamnap is a better term for it," she said, "That's what I think, anyway."
Wart tried to wrap his pea-sized brain around this.
"No? That's ridiculous. Sleep-nap sounds WAY better. If someone came up to me on the street and said the word dream-nap to me, there's no way I'd take them seriously."
"ARGH!" Daisy pounded her foot in frustration. "This is why your stupid band is never going to get any good! You never listen to constructive criticism!"
Waluigi tugged at the shoulder puffs of Daisy's gown.
"I don't like the look of those boomboxes," he whispered. "We need to fight him somewhere with more cover."
"Don't tell me what to do!" Daisy said.
"Please listen to him," Wanda said. "I don't want to game over here!"
"HEY!" Wart's voice boomed so loud through the speakers the whole castle shook. "Pay attention to me!"
The three of them winced from the noise and glared at him, which seemed to make him happy.
"So, it turns out I need to fill just a COUPLE more concert seats," Wart said. "Wanna take a guess who I've got in mind?" He snapped his fingers and snifits cued up a beat loop on the boom boxes.
"Uh oh," Daisy said.
"This track, which has been climbing the charts, will be recognized by a growing number of fans and victims…" The frog man flashed a wicked grin, "As Wart's Lullaby. Ahem…"
Daisy's team scrambled to get away as Wart belted out the first verse of his cursed melody. But there was nowhere to go. The throne room was huge and open with excellent acoustics by design.
"Little Darlin', go to sleep!" Wart crooned. "Shut them eyes and count some sheep!"
Shockwaves rippled out of the boomboxes and plowed across the floor and walls. Daisy and Waluigi leapt out of the way but Wanda was too slow and got caught in the blast zone. She dropped like a brick and plopped onto the carpet, limp.
"Wanda!" Waluigi and Daisy shouted.
"Little baby, just go to bed… Stop your screaming or I'll smack that head!"
Daisy spun looking for cover but there was none. Before she could react, Waluigi shoved her out of the way and took the blast for her.
"No!" Daisy said.
They both hit the floor. She lurched to check on him but was blinded by a flash of light.
The five multi-colored dream gems floated in front of Waluigi, rotating like a shield. They crackled with energy and then with a POP sent Wart's shockwave back the way it came. The snifits collapsed in a heap at Wart's feet and the amphibian sorcerer stood stunned.
"Errrrgh—" Wart shook off the effects of the lullaby, his body radiating the faint black aura of subspace. He gaped at the hovering dream gems shielding Waluigi.
"You collected all of them?" Wart said. "…This changes things." He fussed with some buttons on his microphone and after a moment of audio feedback, spoke: "Attention all roadies! This is your idol speaking! New plan! Everyone back to Subcon! On the double!"
"Where do you think you're going!?" Daisy said. "We're not done with you yet!"
"Sorry toots," Wart said as he summoned a black portal with a wave of his hand. "That was just a demo. If you want to see the rest of the show you'll just have to come to the concert." He dropped the mic and stepped through the portal. It disappeared before Daisy could catch him.
The dream gems glimmered and then clattered to the floor, inert. Waluigi snapped out of whatever stupor he was under and looked around.
"He's… gone?" he said.
"Yeah," Daisy said, furious.
Waluigi knelt next to Wanda to check on her. She was already curled on the carpet, her eyes closed and her body still. The tiniest baby snores escaped from the back of her throat.
"They got her." Anger wrinkled his face.
Daisy scooped Wanda up, trying her best to mimic the baby holding technique Waluigi showed her before.
"We'll save her," she said as she set Wanda down on the cushions of her throne. "We'll wake her up and everyone else too."
Waluigi picked the dream gems off the floor. She half expected a sarcastic jab from him, but he was grim and silent instead.
"So, uh," a thuggish voice said from behind the throne. "It's safe to come out now, right?"
Daisy recognized that voice. "…Hiyohoi?"
The stone king stomped out from behind the throne to glare at her. She was surprised to see him awake and in one piece. He wore bandages and there was spackle wedged in the cracks of his stone body. It looked like he had put up a good fight.
"About time you showed up," he grumbled.