Preface: Hello, again! I trust you all had a safe Easter! This chapter is the finale of the In the Chaosverse of Copyright arc! Yes, the arc that has been the majority of this saga is coming to an end! But that doesn't mean the heroes are getting a break...

MINECRAFT MANAICS RPG

THE WHISKER HAVEN SAGA:
OF PLAYERS & PALACE PETS & KNUCKLES

Previously...amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, Danny, Liam, and Kevin were summoned to the kingdom of Whisker Haven, where they learned that they must find a third set of Gadgets of Order across the multiverse in order to expose an imposter of the kingdom's guardian, Ms. Featherbon. So far, the team has achieved the first gadget from the spooky depths of Whisker Woods, the second gadget from King Bowser in the Mushroom World, and the third from King Creep as he unleashed an infestation of creepers on Whisker Haven. They then traveled to Dream Land in search of the final one, locating it within the Fountain of Dreams.

Now...the gang, which now features Kirby and Bandana Waddle Dee, question how long they will be falling.

Roll Call:

Danny - Alfred von Any: Hero with emotional issues. The leader.

Liam - Willy Blanq: Expert crafter. The maker.

Kevin - Nevile Napoleon: Part-gangerman player. The brains

Spawny and Spawnette - Damien Laquet: The rabborg siblings. The heart.

Buzzer - Jim Cummings: Fly from the future. The fairy.

Pumpkin - Bailey Gambertoglio: Princess Cinderella's puppy. A prim and proper pooch.

Treasure - Sanai Victoria: Princess Ariel's kitten. Courageous and loves water.

Knuckes the Echdina - Asher Angel: Angel Island native. Master Emerald guardian.

Kirby - Makiko Ohmoto: Super-tough pink puff. Can copy other's abilities.

Bandana Waddle Dee - Kerry Williams: Kirby's courageous buddy. "B.D." for short.

Chapter 32:
In the Chaosverse of Copyright, Part Seven:
A Different Kind of Nightmare Realm

[Main Party Selected: Danny, Liam, Kevin, Buzzer]
[Supporting Party Selected: Spawny, Spawnette, Pumpkin, Treasure, Knuckles, Kirby, Bandanna Waddle Dee]

[Character Selected: Kevin]
[Current World: Fountain Realm]
[Current Location: ?]

It feels like you've been falling for hours. All you can see is the dripping black walls of this strange realm, alongside the others. "So...this isn't gonna be like that bottomless pit and we'll eventually get spat out, right?" you sheepishly ask.

"Doesn't look like it," responds Kirby. "Maybe this is our punishment for swimming in the waters."

"I'm sure the Ancients will understand," says Danny. He looks down and notices something he didn't before. "Hey, wait, guys! I think I see the ground!"

"Finally!" says Liam. But then something hits him. "Wait. We're all gonna die!"

"Oh, dear! He's right!" says Pumpkin. "We have been falling quite a distance!"

"I could puff myself up," says Kirby, "but I don't think I can catch all of you!"

You start to brainstorm ideas on what you could do. You have a water bucket in your inventory, but who knows if you'll reach the ground before the others. And despite sharing Kirby's inhaling ability, you can't puff yourself up to fly. Suddenly, an idea hits you. "Danny, pass me that Item Bag!" you shout.

"Okay," says Danny, tossing you the mushroom-spotted bag, "but I don't know how it'll help!"

"I'm gonna test a hypothesis I just came up with!" you respond. You start to think of the Power Balloon power-up as you reach into the bag, hoping that you will be gifted with it. Sure enough, when you pull your hand out, the yellow balloon with a white 'P' is in it. "Yes! Jackpot!" You allow the power to go into your body, and it begins to swell up like the balloon itself.

"Um, I'm not sure how becoming a balloon is supposed to help," says Knuckles, still in disbelief over the power-ups.

"Just trust me!" you choke out, reaching your arm out to grab the echidna, Pumpkin, Treasure, and Danny. With the other arm, you grab the rabborgs, Liam, Kirby, and B.D. After that, your fall begins to slow up due to the helium in your body and you gently fall to the ground.

Danny hops out of your grasp and lands on the ground. It is just as black and dripping as the walls, so it is represented by puddle-like impacts as he steps. "This is so weird…" he muses. "I think I've seen this before, though."

"(This sort of looks like what I think purgatory looks like…)" says Spawnette. "(But I doubt that is where we are.)"

You exhale the breath that you've been holding in since your transformation and touch the ground. "I'm not even sure where the gadget is," you say, checking your watch's tracker. "And quite frankly, not even my watch knows."

Buzzer flies out of your inventory. "It seems that we are in some kind of nightmare realm," he says. "There is stuff in here that only one that is a pure dreamer can see. That is why…" He closes his eyes, and a ball of energy appears, slowly becoming bigger and bigger until it becomes a snoozing pink kitten wearing a gold tiara with a heart on it.

"Dreamy?" says Pumpkin in surprise. "What is she doing here?"

"This was in my vision," explains Buzzer. "She is a pure dreamer, so she should be able to see those unseeable things I mentioned."

The kitten touches the ground and gives a big yawn. "Good morning, Treasure," she says sweetly upon seeing the scarlette kitten. "Where are we?"

Suddenly, an evil cackle echoes across the area. "Welcome, players," it says in a male voice. "I have been waiting for you. I've seen what creatures you have to fight in your world. If you survive my waves of nightmare mobs, we shall fight each other...in your nightmares!"

[BGM: Tadashi Ikegami - Fountain of Dreams (SSBM)]

The cackle fades out shortly afterward. "What does he mean by that?" asks Danny.

"I don't know," says Dreamy, rubbing her eye. "I only just woke up, so…" Suddenly, she gasps. "Uh, Mr. Blocky Man, there's a strange creature behind you."

"Where?" says Danny, drawing his sword. He can hear a zombie growl, but he can't see anything. Suddenly, he gets knocked back and flashes red as if he were hit and slashes his sword out. "Hey! They must be invisible!" He looks at the droppings. "But I don't see why I got beef from it."

At that moment, you feel arrows sticking in your back. "And I think there's a skeleton behind me…" you say, putting your fists up.

"Watch out," says Dreamy. "It has s-spider legs!"

That concerns you greatly. A spider jockey if the skeleton and spider were one? Now that's nightmare creatures! You feel the spiders legs begin to consume you, although you can't even see anything. "This is not a pleasant sensation!" you say.

"I've got your back!" says Kirby. He does a run on the spot and inhales in your direction, sucking up the invisible spider-skeleton combo. He swallows it and several different hats flash on his head before he finally settles on a braided headband with a hammer in his hand. "Well, Archer plus Spider equals Hammer, apparently," he says.

"Okay, but please, be careful, everyone!" says Dreamy. "More monsters are coming!" With that, you prepare to fight. And it's going to take a good while…

[Character Selected: Danny]
[Current World: Fountain Realm]
[Current Location: Nightmare Arena]

At Dreamy's direction, I fire a laser from my sword at some more of those weird zombie-cow combos that caught me off guard at the start. It felt so weird fighting invisible mobs, especially since there weren't any swirls signifying them. "We're gonna be eating a lovely undead steak dinner tonight, boys!" I said, picking up the scraps.

"That sounds strangely appetizing!" Liam responded. He fired his dispenser and I heard what sounded like some kind of combination of a silverfish and a slime's voice clips. "I think I'll have it with a side of silverslime juice!"

Dreamy chuckled. "Oh, you must make fun out of everything!" She turned to face her fellow Palace Pets. "Oh, Treasure! There's some scary snow monsters behind you!"

Treasure took Pumpkin's paw. "Wanna take those baddies down together?" she asked.

"I'd love to," said Pumpkin, absorbing the Chaos Emerald's power. The two fists punched that snowy creature in the face, knocking it towards Knuckles, who, upon instinct, punched it away towards Kirby, who finished it off with a smash of his hammer.

"Alright, Kirby!" said B.D. spinning his spear around. "But these creatures are really tough!"

"Tough?" I said. "Then we just gotta get tougher!" I took out one of the purplish-brownish splash potions of strength Liam and I made and tossed it into the crowd. "There! Now we're stronger, too!" I said.

B.D. twirled his spear and I heard some more of those skeleton-spiders go down. "Say, this potion really works, and I didn't have to taste it!"

"Kirby, there's another snowy creature behind you!" shouted Dreamy. Before the puffball could respond, I heard an explosion, and he was encased in an icy prison. A blue star with a hammer icon bounced around the arena.

"I've got him!" shouted Kevin, inhaling the star. The headband and hammer appeared on him, and he smashed Kirby out of his prison, briefly turning him into a pancake.

"Thanks…" said the puffball, a little woozily.

"Sounds like those icy creatures are discount Athens creepers," said Liam, firing on some more zombie-cows, based on the noises.

Knuckles climbed up the wall before jumping off and smashing into the ground with his fists outstretched. A shockwave boomed around the arena, and a good amount of the mobs died. "There, that should give us a breather," he said, taking a breath.

"(Yeah, I'm getting a little tired,)" said Spawny. He'd been firing a lot of magic from his scepter, and it seemed to be sucking a lot of energy from him.

Since we had an opportunity, Liam tossed a splash potion of healing at us so we could get some of our health back. "Let's see; according to Buzzer, only that pink kitten can see the mobs because they're so-called 'nightmare mobs'," he thought aloud.

"That is correct," said Dreamy, giving a quick yawn. "In fact, I hear more of them coming!"

"What if it'll also apply to those outside of the current plane, like invisible people?" Liam suggested. "I mean, dreaming is in another plane that can't be seen, so therefore invisible people must be in that same plane!"

We were at a loss for words. It just sounded so stupid. But I thought it might work. "Potion, or Item Bag?" I asked.

"I think the potion's our...oof!" Liam was just about to toss the lingering potion of invisibility he had when he was suddenly knocked to the ground. The potion splashed on the others, turning them as invisible as the mobs we were fighting.

"Hey, it works!" said Pumpkin. "I can see the creatures! And they're hideous!"

I took out my sword and slashed at the creature that was stuck on Liam. Based on the sound that came from it, it seemed like the silverfish-slimes were getting their revenge. "Well, they're invisible, but we aren't," I said, taking out the Item Bag. "Wanna use it now?"

"If we must," said Liam, reaching in. "C'mon, we need something that can turn us invisible!" he said as he pulled his hand out. He was holding a white mushroom with a pretty ghastly face on it.

"So, you get a Boo Mushroom," I said, reaching in and thinking of an invisible power up. "And I get a Vanish Cap!" I pulled out a transparent version of the red hat I was wearing at that moment and slapped it on my head. My entire body became transparent, and I saw...the zombie-cows. They were kinda like centaurs but with cow butts.

Liam absorbed the power of the Boo Mushroom, and his body morphed into the familiar round ghost's body, with his Shy Guy mask staying on his body. "Eek! A ghost!" shouted Treasure, trembling.

"It's just me, you sudden scaredy-cat!" responded Liam. He turned transparent himself and looked around. "Ugh! Now I wish we still couldn't see them!"

"Well, this will help us!" I responded. As I caught my first glimpse of the green, sticky, bouncing silverfish that was tormenting Liam, I dug my sword into the ground and dragged it around to send them to their maker.

Spawnette twirled around, holding B.D., letting the creature's spear slash through some of the white snowy creepers. "(This is so much easier now!)" Spawnette proclaimed, doing a pirouette.

Kevin smashed his hammer on top of some skeletons that had spider legs on them. "Yeah! And pretty cathartic, too!"

Kirby, who now had a hammer of his own once more, smashed the zombie-cows to beef alongside Knuckles. "Now that we're on equal footing, they don't stand a chance!" he said, happily.

Pumpkin delivered a finishing kick to what seemed like a baby zombie with a chicken butt. "Okay, there seems to be only one more!" she said. Sure enough, right in the middle was an enderman who seemed to have the body of an iron golem.

"Oof, that guy looks impossible to touch!" said Liam, his sweat dropping.

Knuckles cracked his namesakes. "I say we attack this dude all at once!" he proclaimed. "That's what they call a zerg rush, right?"

"I think the zerg rush was what we were just facing," I responded, "but that could work!" We all gathered around the ender golem in a circle. I charged my sword to 25%, Liam prepared his dispenser, Kevin and Kirby charged their hammers, Dreamy, Pumpkin, and Treasure took hands, Spawny prepared his scepter, Spawnette took her brother's hand, Knuckles charged up a Spin Dash, and B.D. prepared his spear. The ender golem looked at all of us, roared, and...was instantly destroyed by our simultaneous attacks.

[BGM: End]

Liam reverted to his usual form. "That was awesome!" he shouted as his feet touched the ground and made that little 'splash' impact.

The others' invisibility began to wear off. "Y'know, we make a pretty good team together," Kirby complimented us. "It's been fun fighting with you all."

Suddenly, the voice returned and echoed around the room. "I must say, I am very impressed," it said, slyly. "You have bested my nightmare mobs...now it's time I destroyed you myself…"

"(What does he mean by that?)" asked Spawny. Suddenly, it seemed like I got the Nausea effect, as my vision began to swirl as if I were in a Nether portal. Everyone began to stumble before collapsing on the ground in a pile. I was the last to collapse before my screen went black…

[Character Selected: Dreamy]
[Current World: Dreamscape]
[Current Location: ?]

Dreamy opened her eyes, feeling odd. The last she remembered, she had just finished helping some heroes from another realm fight the scariest creatures she'd ever seen in her life. She looked around, seeing that the others were scattered around, just as confused as she was. They were all in a strange astral area, standing on a piece of glass.

Being a bit of a heavy sleeper, Dreamy knew that she was in a dream. But like everyone else, she was never able to see what occurred in her dreams with her own eyes - there was just the wisps of it in her head when she woke up. So seeing this strange scenario for real was concerning.

"Where the heck are we?" asked Danny, standing up.

"We're in a dream," Dreamy answered, sounding more determined than when she was awake. "But I don't know why."

Suddenly, the cackling returned. Everyone looked around, trying to figure out the source of it. They looked up into the sky, and saw a horrifying sight. Some kind of wizard, wearing a cloak that hid a tornado-like body, a chain necklace, and sunglasses, was hovering above them. "Welcome, heroes, to the dreamscape!" he said.

"Nightmare!" said Kirby, anxiously. "I thought I destroyed you!"

"Silly puffball spirit," said Nightmare. "As long as there is fear in your soul, I am immortal. And speaking of fear, I shall now bring your greatest fears to life!" He held out his long, blue fingers and snapped them.

[BGM: Super Kirby Clash Soundteam - Nightmare (First Battle)]

"What do you me-" Kirby began, when suddenly, he felt a strange sensation. It was almost like his mouth was being sewn shut by a needle and thread. He began to scream incomprehensible voices, for his greatest fear was not being able to eat.

"Oh, dear!" shouted Pumpkin. She ran over to the puffball to try and help out, when suddenly she stumbled on her paw and fell face-first onto the floor. "No! I'm uncoordinated!" she shouted in fear.

Danny gritted his teeth. "I'll get you Night-" He began, when suddenly, he sat down on the floor, depressed. "Nah, I won't. I'm completely worthless. Why am I even still here?" he suddenly said.

"Yeah, I feel you," said B.D., who was also on the floor. "I'm just in this story for no reason. I mean, I barely contributed to the fight we were just in!"

"I knew it!" cried Liam, pounding his fist into his palm. "Danny's greatest fear is how he feels about himself!" Suddenly, he felt a pain in his arm from the first-pound. "Gah! I'm weak!"

Dreamy could not believe that this was all happening. That wizard was not going to get away with this! The kitten ran up to Treasure, who was cowering on the floor with Spawny. "C'mon, Treasure! We must stop this wizard!"

"I-I c-c-can't!" Treasure stammered out. "H-he al-lready g-g-got us!"

"(Yeah! I'm too scared to do anything!)" Spawny agreed,

Dreamy felt a tug on her hind leg. Lying on the floor was Knuckles the Echidna, who could not have looked weaker. "Dreamy…" he groaned. "I'm too weak, Kevin's too dumb, and Spawnette's too ugly! You're our last hope!"

Dreamy took Knuckles' hand and squeezed it. "Don't worry. I won't let you down!" She walked right up to Nightmare and gave him a glare. "You undo my friends' fears or else!"

"Or else what?" Nightmare teased back. "Hey, why aren't your fears coming to life?"

Dreamy smiled. "I am a pure dreamer," she said, defiantly. "I am in control of my dreams in ways that match no other. In fact…" She held her arms out and began to transform. Beautiful, transparent wings grew on her back as she was lifted up into the air. Her tiara became a much more ornate crown, and a magic wand topped with a star appeared in her paw. "I can become anything I want!"

Nightmare smirked. "Very well then. You shall fall braver than most." He held his arms out and transformed into a spinning blue ball decorated with stars. The two figures charged at each other and Dreamy shot a magic blast from her wand. Nightmare retaliated by shooting stars as bullets at the kitten, who shot them with her magic wand, purging any dark magic from them. The stars flew onto the fallen heroes and hit them, curing them of their incapacitated states.

Kirby felt his mouth being unsewn and stopped running around in panic. "Hey! My mouth is free!" he said. He ran over to B.D., who was recovering from his forced self-doubt. "C'mon, B.D.! Let's get this guy!"

Dreamy dodged the attack waves that were shot at her. "Good! You're back to normal!" she said. "In the dreamscape, you can be as powerful as you like!"

Hearing those words, Kirby watched as the red-and-white striped wand with a star on it appeared in his hands. "The Star Rod!" he said in delight.

"Nightmare's weakness!" said B.D. An orange Star Rod appeared in one of his hands and he took Kirby's hand with the other. "Let's get him!" The two flew up into the air and joined Dreamy in front of Nightmare.

"Well, puffball, it seems you've broken my spell," responded Nightmare, "but your friends won't be so lucky!" The sphere began to fly around, shooting stars at everyone, but the three were quick and nimble, being able to shoot their own blasts in retaliation.

"Wow! This guy sure is as tough as you told me he was!" said B.D., flying out of the way of a star blast.

"And we're pretty quick for him to land a hit!" added Kirby. "We may just be in a stalemate!"

An idea popped into Dreamy's head. "Oh, no we're not!" She placed her hind legs onto Kirby's belly, pointed her wand in front of herself, and launched herself towards the unsuspecting Nightmare, who, in his shock, reverted to his wizard form.

Kirby and B.D. noticed the uncovered tornado body. Remembering his first encounter, Kirby began to shoot stars at the body, and B.D. copied him. "Yeah! Now we're talking!" said the Waddle Dee. One by one, the fallen heroes began to recover from the plight that Nightmare put them under.

Danny sat up. "Sorry about that, guys," he said. "I was having another moment. I'm over it now."

Treasure uncovered her eyes. "Hey, why am I just sitting here like a pirate ship stowaway?" she questioned.

Knuckles stood up, his strength returning. "You did it, Dreamy!" he said, giving a thumbs-up to the current kitten-fairy.

Dreamy looked down from fighting. "Well, I had a bit of help," she said, pointing to Kirby and B.D. "Do you mind helping as well?"

Kevin rubbed his head, recovering from being so stupid he couldn't walk. "Sorry, what's happening?" he said.

"We gotta go Supafied!" said Liam. At that moment, the players' Supafied attire suddenly appeared on their bodies, no incantation required. "Huh. Guess it's that easy."

Danny ran near Nightmare and shot a laser at him from his sword. "That's for making me so depressed I couldn't do anything!" he shouted.

Spawny and Spawnette had transformed into their Deity forms and already sent some duplicates to go help Pumpkin and Treasure, who had snapped out of their funk as well. The two pets were now surrounded by circling stars and were assisted by the duplicates in attacking Nightmare straight-up. "Gah! This much power is unbearable!" cried the wizard as the animals bounced off of him.

"Mind if I enter the fray?" asked Knuckles from the ground.

Liam turned to the echidna, and paused firing lasers from his arm cannon. "Go ahead. They're waiting for ya!"

The echidna nodded and thought of all the Chaos Emeralds empowering his body. It flared up and began to flash from power. He was now Super Knuckles! "It's crunch time!" he said, floating up to join the others. He did a somersault in the air and glided right through Nightmare's exposed body, inflicting damage with his outstretched spiked fists.

That was the breaking point for the wizard. "Enough!" he shouted, spreading his arms out. The heroes who were flying were all knocked to the ground and watched as Nightmare tensed. "You have all caused enough ruckus! It's time to end this!" Star bullets began to emerge from his body, all awaiting to rain down on the heroes.

Pumpkin looked at Dreamy. "What are we going to do now?" she asked.

Dreamy looked at her wand. She had no idea if what she was thinking about would work, but she was going to try anyway. She raised the wand into the air, and power began to course into the others' bodies. Before long, everyone was with equal power with Dreamy.

"Whaddya say?" Kevin asked Knuckles. "Another zerg rush?"

Knuckles nodded. "Let's do it."

Nightmare spread his arms out once more and the stars began to rain down on everyone. Kevin opened his mouth wide and inhaled a huge grouping of the stars before spitting them right back at Nightmare's open body. Danny and Liam followed up with a dual laser shot, followed by Spawny and Spawnette activating their Thunder abilities, raining lightning on top of the wizard.

"(This oughta spark you out!)" shouted Spawny, making sure his lighting hit the wizard. Suddenly, he felt himself being lifted up by his cape, with Spawnette being held by her veil by another hand. Nightmare had plucked the both of them from their clouds.

"Now's our chance!" Knuckles told Pumpkin and Treasure. The three floated into the air and attacked. Knuckles launched into a Super Sonic Spin Attack, Pumpkin twirled through the tornado body, and Treasure dived through with her claws outstretched.

Nightmare dropped the rabborgs, who gently floated down, and became irrationally angry. "Now you've done it, you meddling mortals!" he shouted. He turned towards Kirby and picked up the puffball. "I shall deal with you myself!"

"Not so fast!" shouted B.D. He aimed his Star Rod copy at Nightmare's body and shot a star bullet at the wizard, causing him to drop Kirby. The puffball went flying through the air, but he did not freak out. He kept his wits with him and began to charge up the Star Rod.

"This is the end for you, Nightmare!" Kirby shouted. He unleashed the charged Star Rod at Nightmare, sending a massive blast at the tornado-like body. The wizard howled into the night before beginning to explode in a bright flash. Before long, Nightmare was no more.

Dreamy began to jump for joy. "Yay! He's gone! We won!"

"Boom! That was awesome!" shouted Danny. And he held his hand out to smack Liam's.

Nightmare's voice began to echo across the dreamscape. "Well, you may have vanquished me again, puffball," he said. "But heed this: fear is the root of all nightmares. As long as fear lives in your hearts, I shall one day return. Until then, I bid thee farewell." The voice echoed across the room as Dreamy felt the sensation that she was beginning to wake up.

[Character Selected: Danny]
[Current World: Planet Popstar]
[Current Location: Rainbow Resort, Fountain of Dreams]

[BGM: Kirby's Return to Dream Land Soundteam - Challenge Victory]

The 'generating world' screen vanished and I found myself back outside the Fountain of Dreams. Both my health and hunger bars had somehow been filled up. How did I make it back? Was the whole thing just a dream? Did it spit me out when Nightmare was defeated? By god, it didn't matter! The point was, the final Gadget of Order was finally in our grasp!

Dreamy gave a sweet yawn. "I'm glad you're awake, uh...Danny," she said, getting up for a stretch. "But everyone else seems asleep."

I nodded in agreement. I gave a deep breath, and shouted. "YO, EVERYONE! WAKE THE FRICK UP! WE'VE GOT A GADGET TO DECORRUPT!"

That sure did its job of waking everyone up. "Thanks," said Liam, groggily. He felt a weird feeling and sat up. Under him was yet another purple orb. "Huh. I was sitting on the gadget the whole time."

Pumpkin instantly ran up and grabbed it. "I can't believe it…" she said. "We can finally expose that imposter!"

Buzzer flew out of Kevin's inventory. "But first, we have to decorrupt it!" he reminded the puppy.

"Decorrupt?" said Kirby. "Why do you need to do that?"

"If we decorrupt it with something pure," I explained, "it can be used to help us protect the multiverse!"

That gave Kirby a thought. "Gimme it. I wanna try something." Pumpkin handed him the orb, and Kirby sucked in a gust and flew to the top of the Fountain of Dreams, where the Star Rod was still sitting on top. He placed the orb on top of the rod, and it began to flash. Before long, the orb had turned into its true form, a white object that glowed blue and made a satisfying ding when it floated into Pumpkin's paw.

"Finally," said Buzzer, returning to his natural green appearance. "Victory is within our grasp. Now to return to Whisker Haven and finally expose that imposter!"

B.D. excitedly raised his hand. "Ooo! Ooo! Can me and Kirby come?"

"The more, the merrier!" said Liam, shrugging. From behind him, the portal back to Whisker Haven had appeared once more. "Well, now that we're all assembled, let's go face the music!"

Walking through the portal this time felt liberating. After what was probably our most difficult adventure yet, we were finally going to claim our rightful prize!

[Character Selected: Pork Chop]
[Current World: ?]
[Current Location: Fiery Fortress]

Pork Chop eavesdropped on the conversation that the demon was having with Perinton Pig from the passageway he was in. "It seems that the heroes are about to return to Whisker Haven!" he heard Perinton say. "And it seems that they have all of the Gadgets of Order!"

The demon chuckled. "I've actually been waiting for this," he said. "Finally, after spying on that silly little kingdom, I can destroy them once and for all!" He turned towards a cage. "Plus, I can keep my little souvenir!"

Pork Chop looked at the cage and tried to conceal a gasp. There was a hummingbird in the cage, and she looked trapped! "I won't allow you to get away with this!" she gritted. "I will find my way out and avenge my Palace Pets!"

"You've been saying that for quite a while now," responded the demon. "It's lost all humor. Now stay there while I deal with your precious pets!" He vanished without a trace, and Pork Chop breathed a sigh of relief. The piglet grabbed his walkie-talkie and began to buzz Buzzer's partner.

"So is he gone?" came the voice on the other end. Pork Chop began to explain the situation in oinks. "Yikes! I'll get there as soon as I gain the trust of these two!"

Suddenly, Pork Chop heard a new voice on the walkie's other end. "Hey! What are you doing here?" said the voice. "Wait, I recognize you...Silver?"

To be continued...and next time: the imposter gets exposed!

Next chapter: With the Gadgets of Order all in the heroes' grasp, there's just one more question to ask: "Ready?" And the Maniacs may have to answer "no", because Exetior is not holding back! But it looks like they may have a little help and they don't even know it... The final battle of the Whisker Haven Saga and the start of a new story arc!

Postface: Chapter complete! I'll be honest: this chapter really feels like finale potential. I'm actually starting to get nervous that I may have set the bar too high for the finale!

Trivia time! A new Palace Pet joins the party: Dreamy! I thought it'd be fun to throw her in because she's known for sleeping much of the time, which made sense in a land of sweet dreams. The nightmare mobs came to be to give her a purpose to be there - think of her power being kinda like how only Calvin can see all the fantastical things in Calvin and Hobbes. In this version, I sorta used the strange mobs in Minecraft: Story Mode - Season Two: Episode 3 as a basis for their designs, mostly because just having them be ordinary mobs seems underwhelming. I was pretty happy to throw in the Mix power, where Kirby inhales two ability-giving enemies and a roulette starts, and having it from combined mobs seemed to be a funny way of doing it! But why did I have the others see the mobs when they became invisible? Eh, I just thought it'd be interesting. As for the Mario power-ups that show up, the Power Balloon stems from Super Mario World, and it turned Mario into Balloon Mario, allowing him to float in the air temporarily. I originally wrote this before Super Mario Maker 2's final update came out, so I had no clue about that updated version! :P Next up, the Boo Mushroom is another Super Mario Galaxy power-up, and it's my way of having Liam see the nightmare mobs. Meanwhile, the Vanish Cap comes from Super Mario 64, as one of the hat power-ups Mario could obtain. I know I could've let Danny and Liam use the invisibility potion as well, but I just thought having the power-ups were cooler!

With that, there's the part I'm really proud of: the finale! I based it off of the battle at the end of the Gravity Falls episode "Dreamscapers" - y'know, the one where Bill Cipher first appeared? Since the battle with Nightmare in the Kirby: Right Back at Ya! finale was within Kirby's dream, I thought it made sense to have the battle here be set in the dreamscape. Having everyone's fears come to life before realizing that they can become powerful in their own dreams, however, was totally stolen from that! Sorry, Alex Hirsch! P.S.: Kirby's fear of having his mouth sewn shut was taken from an unused idea for a game in Kirby Super Star, where he steps inside a mansion and gets his mouth sewn shut, preventing him from inhaling.

That should be it! Please read, review, and share around, and I'll see you all later for the final battle! Stay diamond, everyone!

-Alfred

~Minecraft and everything related to it are properties of Mojang Studios and Xbox Game Studios. Characters, ideas, etc. from the Mario and Kirby franchises are properties of Nintendo Co., LTD and HAL Laboratory, Inc. Characters, ideas, etc. from the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise are properties of Sega Corp. The Palace Pets and everything related to them are properties of The Walt Disney Co. No copyright infringement with any of these companies nor financial gain was intended in the making of this story. Any resemblance to real-world people or events are either coincidental or done fictitiously.~