"I'm still blown away!" Lori gushed over the phone. "I mean… An honest to god superhero!"
"Yeah," Leni agreed. "It's pretty crazy."
"Have you seen her yet?"
Leni looked over to the vanity mirror across the room.
"Once," she answered, "Maybe twice."
"Really?" Lori was in awe. "That's so cool!"
"Who do you think she is?" Leni heard her say.
Leni hummed in thought.
"It's me," she wanted to say, "I'm the one who's fighting all these gangsters and supervillains! I'm trying to help people too! Aren't you proud of me?"
"She must be the luckiest girl in the whole world," Lori continued. "Being a superhero, flying all over the place… I mean, where do I sign, right?"
"Yeah…" Leni smiled.
"Leni?" Lori sounded concerned. "What's wrong?"
"Oh, nothing," Leni lied. "Just missing you."
"Oh! That reminds me," Lori then said. "Turns out, I might be coming back home after all."
"What?"
"Yeah," Lori said, "The school's kind of keeping an eye on the whole… situation you guys are in over there, since more than a couple of the students are neighbors."
"Wow…"
"Yeah, so if things get too bad, they'll send us home. Isn't that great?" Lori paused. "I mean, aside from the whole 'things going bad' bit. Jeez, maybe we'll all have to move."
Leni bristled. "It won't come to that!"
The two girls let the shock of silence pass for a few seconds. Leni shook it off.
"I mean," she tried to recover, "I just…"
"Leni," Lori spoke softly. "Is… is something bothering you?"
Leni slouched on her bed. Another day, another lie. "I'm just… I'm tired. I'm sorry, I wanted to talk to you, but I haven't been getting a lot of sleep lately."
"Well go get some sleep," Lori ordered. "I can always talk to you later."
"Okay," Leni submitted. "Goodnight. Love you lots."
The two hung up and Leni threw her head back in exhaustion. She didn't… totally lie. It just wasn't the whole truth, either. She wasn't ready for Lori to leave to begin with, and now that she might have some idea of adjusting to this empty room, she says she might be coming back? And then there's that possibility of gong away somewhere just to keep her family safe…
Leni leaned forward, rubbing her eyes with the heels of her palms.
Too many changes. Too much. Too soon.
She needed something to drink.
She made her way downstairs. The Loud house was quiet for the time it was. Usually at this hour, the little ones were rebelling against bedtime (again), Lincoln was trying to make a deal with Mom about staying up later, and Luna would be trying to soothe Lily with an electric guitar lullaby.
Instead, everyone was crowded around and curled up in front of the TV. Heads were knocked back, drool was dripping in some cases, but all eyes were shut, and everyone lightly snored.
"Huh," Leni noted as she hit the bottom step. She shrugged and went into the kitchen. She needed a smoothie.
She goes into the kitchen, only to see her mother, holding Lily, sitting at the small table next to the pantry. The little plastic seat was too big for an adult like Rita, but there she sat, both of them asleep.
It was an adorable sight, that Leni would have absolutely gushed over, if it weren't for the fact that Lily was slipping out of her mother's arms.
"Whoa!"
Leni jumped forward, catching the baby just in time. She immediately set the infant to her shoulder and started bouncing her.
"It's okay, it's okay," she tried to soothe her. "I got you. I got… you?"
Leni realized that, as she patted the baby's back and bounced her to keep her from crying, she didn't move. She didn't even wake. For that matter, neither did Rita. The teen girl was befuddled. The baby just sighed, peacefully, and Rita is snoring like a lumber mill.
Leni reached over with her free hand and poked her mother. Then she shoved her. Then she wet the ends of her fingers and let the water droplets drip on her forehead. Then, failing that, she got a cup of water.
"I'm, like, so sorry about this," Leni apologized, before dumping the cold water on Rita's head.
Nothing. She didn't even shiver.
Leni's adrenaline was starting to spike, as panic started to overtake her. She looked around and called out the first name she could think of.
"Lincoln!" she cried. "Luna! Lisa! Anyone!"
"I'm up here," she heard a voice. Someone was still awake. And they were upstairs.
The teen hustled over to the stairs but paused in the living room. There was someone talking on the TV.
"And the Owl said to the rabbit. Sleep. Sleep. Sleep. For dreams are where reality is upended. Life is not for the weary soul. Sleep. Sleep. Sleep. Dream away, my little rabbits. Enter the forest of slumber. Enter the infinite reality of dreams. So commands… the Dream Queen."
Leni slowed to a stop, as the adrenaline in her veins turned to ice. Her eyelids became heavy. She let out a loud and exhausted yawn.
"So… tired…" She feel herself collapsing.
She fell to her knees, before laying Lily down in front of her. She curled up next to the infant, using her hands as a pillow.
"Just… a little… nap…"
She closed her eyes and let her mind drift off to sleep, not knowing that hundreds of people were suffering the same fate.
It was impossible to say how much time had passed. She found herself waking to a mask, just inches above her face.
"Ah!" she yelled, weakly shoving the figure away from her.
"Leni!" the figure's muffled voice called to her. "Leni, it's me!"
Leni blinked as she pulled the helmet off her head. "It's me."
"Luan?" Leni blinked and rubbed her eyes. "What's… What's going on?"
"I don't know," she answered. "But I think you've slept on it enough to figure it out."
Leni looked at her, and she shrunk away from her gaze.
"Sorry," she apologized. She cleared her throat. "Anyway. I was working on my act in my room, and I heard you call up to me. You sounded scared. Then, I saw you curl up on the floor in front of the TV, and then I almost fell asleep on the stairs! I ran back up and grabbed Luna's noise cancellers, and Lisa's welding mask, just in case. I got Lily to her crib, and it was all I could do to get you up the stairs."
Leni noticed they were in Luna and Luan's room. Her side felt sore.
"Where's Lisa?" she said. "Where's…everyone?"
"Asleep on the couch," Luan answered. "It still took a while to wake you up. Um… Sorry about the…"
She pointed to her own face, indicating that Leni had something on hers. Leni felt the same spot and felt a noticeable sting.
"Ow," she noted. She shook her head to clear the fog. "What about the others? Can we get them up?"
"I tried turning off the TV when I came back to get you," Luan explained. "But it… I don't know how, but it was like I could start hearing her through the headphones. I could barely stand up straight when I was looking for the remote."
Leni felt a shiver through her spine. This… is going from bad to worse.
"I have to stop this," Leni stood up, rubbing some sore spots. "Ow. Legs asleep."
"Hehe." Luan chuckled. She then thought to get serious and coughed. "Sorry. Puns are how I cope."
Leni looked at her with sympathy. She could see it in her eyes. She's trying her best to keep it together.
"Luan, can you get Lisa up here too?" Leni suggested. "We need more help on this."
"Right," Luan pulled on the headphones and the helmet. "I'll be right back!"
Leni followed her out of her room and went to her own. Luan went downstairs, almost deliberately stomping her way down the stairs. She's making more noise, maybe just to keep herself energized.
Leni changed into her costume. She could hear the vibrations from the TV from under the floorboards. Her room is directly over the living room, and this house is less soundproof than an open field. She could feel her eyelids getting heavy again.
"No. No!" Leni slapped herself again. She finished getting dressed and stomped her way out of her room.
Luan met her in the hallway, with the sleeping toddler in hand. Leni pointed to the nursery, and Luan followed her in there.
Luan set Lisa down in her bed, while Leni shut the door behind them. The both of them sighed in unison, Luan removing her gear first.
"That puts some distance between us," Luan breathed. "What now?"
"Do what you can to wake her up," Leni instructed, "I'm going to fix this."
"How?"
"I don't know," Leni admitted. "But I have to try something."
"You got your earpiece?"
"Yeah."
"Good," Luan nodded. "I'll, uh, keep the jokes to a minimum."
Leni opened the window, letting the cold night air flow into the room, but hesitated. She had an idea.
"Actually," she said, "Maybe that'll help."
"What's that?"
"You remember that playlist you made a year ago?" Leni asked her sister. "The one you made for Luna?"
Leni soared through the sky. scanning the city from far above.
She spotted a lot of fires, and a lot of unconscious people. Because it was already getting late, a lot of families were home for the night, and a lot of bars were opening. Whatever is happening to put the whole city to sleep, it's not just playing over the television. It's being broadcast on radio too. Some people were driving to their destinations, but somehow managed to put their car in park before falling asleep.
Leni had been scrambling. With the past fifteen minutes, she's evacuated six apartments, and put out the fires that had been growing in them.
Unfortunately, it seems the police hadn't been able to escape this fate, as the superhero found more than a few cops completely passed out in their cars.
Fortunately, this also means that the thugs and gangsters that would normally taking advantage of the chaos, are also falling asleep.
And it's not just that, either. The hypnotist- the disembodied voice on all these electronic devices- isn't slowing down. If anything, she's getting louder. The same footage of her reading some demented bedtime story was playing on a loop, but the volume was definitely growing. Her voice was soothing, and it tingled Leni's temples, clouding her thoughts with every syllable.
So, how is she staying awake amidst all this?
Well, Leni would like to think that the act of flying everywhere with the chilly winds and adrenaline was doing the heavy lifting, they still needed something to drown out the sound of the villain's voice. So…
"Hamsterdance to the rescue!" Luan laughed over the earpiece.
"Luan," Leni begged, as the annoying tune started to play again in the background. "Please focus. I can't keep this up forever. We need to find the Dream Queen before we start losing people."
Luna tried to get her roommate to listen to the same music as her, trying to start a new hobby between the two. Instead, what ended up happening, was Luan made a playlist of twenty of the most annoying and meme worthy songs she could find. Then she flooded all of her sister's playlists with them, randomly sprinkling them like unpredictable time bombs. Finally, Luna just deleted all her playlists and made new ones; making sure she never left her phone in the same room as Luan ever again. Now Luan's prank of irritating and awfully sung pop songs are helping Leni save the day.
"Right, right," Luan refocused. She had to speak over the loud music. "Uh… Let's see. Well, nothing's really coming up when I google Dream Queen. Except… Whoa."
"What's happening?"
"She just started, like, six or seven different streams!" Luan told her. "In different languages? Leni, she's trying to put the whole world to sleep!"
"We need to find her," Leni decided. "Now!"
"Okay, okay! Hold on!" Luan could be heard searching. Hamsterdance faded out, and was soon replaced by "Blue" from Eiffel 65. "I found her name! She's… Midory Summers. Oh hey! I thought she looked familiar. She's a Youtuber that got big on reading bedtime stories. She'd been offered time slots on television, but it didn't bring in revenue like they wanted. She got cancelled. She had kicked up such a fuss over it, she's basically been blacklisted. This livestream is the only thing she's posted for the past two years."
"That's so sad…" Leni lamented. "Wait. I can't feel sorry right now. Do you know where she is?"
"Hold on…" Luan searched. "If she was hired by… Then she probably would have worked at… There's a station on River Way! That has to be where the broadcast is coming from! Get over there and tell her she's cancelled! She wants to take over the world? She can dream on!"
"Luan," Leni sighed as she flew to her new destination. "You're a nightmare."
Leni approached the building. No sign of any traps, or fires. It had been a long night already, and she was ready to go home.
When she entered the building, she could feel the power growing. That voice... it was dominating her senses. It was everything she could do not to collapse.
"Leni?" Luan said over the com. "Leni! Headphones, now!"
Leni reached for her belt. It wasn't set up neatly, but it was the quickest option, under the circumstances. Leni put Luna's noise cancelling headphones over her ears and plugged it into her Ipod. The track Luan had set up started playing. This one was playing "September" by Earth Wind and Fire.
Leni breathed. The clashing music in from the headphones and the earpiece made it hard to think, but it also made it hard to sleep. She hurried, flying through the stairwell to one of the upper floors. She knew the method wouldn't last forever. She needed to end it quickly.
She was totally guessing when it came to what floor her target would be on, but she found it. She could hear her voice, even through the headphones. The same video loop playing through the television screens.
It's no use. She's not going to make it if these screens are still playing around her. She looked around, and spotted a fire axe hanging on the wall. She broke the glass and grabbed it, and continued to scream as she swung it at television screens. She did this six, maybe seven times.
She huffed as she finished. It was quiet, again, and she was much more awake than before.
"That's not very nice..."
Leni turned to the doorway to see a girl around her age. She wore a pink night gown, fuzzy slippers, and a stuffed bear under her arm. Her hair was a mess, like she just rolled out of bed. Her eyes were half lidded, and her voice was softly spoken.
"You're exhausting to be around," she complained. "Go to sleep."
Leni caught herself from falling over. She shook her head to snap him out of it.
"It's you," she followed her into the next room. "You're the Dream Queen. You're putting everyone to sleep."
"Yeah…"
She didn't elaborate; yawning instead. Leni followed her to a studio, with the cast of a late night show strewn about and snoring.
"Why are you doing this?" Leni asked her. "What could justify… all of this?"
The girl tilted her head, thinking it over.
"I just wanted to sleep."
"…What?" Luan sounded shocked.
"What?" Leni repeated.
"I want to sleep," the girl echoed. "There's nothing in this life for me… anymore. I'm just going to sleep… forever."
"Okay…" Leni looked around at the sleeping cast on stage. "What does that have to do with everyone else? Why put Royal City to sleep?"
"Because it won't let me… sleep…" She explained. "Had my shot at the… bigtime… I missed… I try to sleep in my bed… they wake me… I stand on the ledge of a building… they stop me… Nobody let's me rest… Nobody cares if I feel… anything. So I put them to sleep… Nobody will bother me… anymore…"
Leni shook her head. "Do you… Midory, do you even know how many people I had to save on my way here? How many fires there were? You put so many lives in danger… just to take a nap, at night?"
"Not a nap. Sleep. The eternal sleep. This is a kindness. Everyone is off to dreamland… for the rest of their lives…"
Leni's face contorted in anger. "You're… You're going to let everyone wither away and die, because you're depressed? Because you're so full of… of hatred, and despair?"
Leni drifted over to her. "I tried sleeping away my problems! Ever since my best friend moved away to college, I have never felt so alone in my life! But then I got these powers… this opportunity to help people. And you have the same power, and all you can think to do is sleep?!"
"Leni?" Luan reminded her she was watching.
The girl- the villain- didn't even blink.
"The world… can go… to hell…" the Dream Queen answered. "I'm going to sleep… And so are you…"
Leni dropped to the ground. The axe in her grip clattered to the ground and her palms slapped against the tiled floor. She kept her arms straight. She slammed her eyes wide open. It was taking every ounce of her willpower to stay awake. She couldn't form a thought. She could barely form a word.
"Go… to… sleep…"
Her voice never raised an octave. Her power… its her voice. It's all her voice.
"Sleep… And dream pleasant dreams… So commands… the Dream Queen."
Leni started to collapse. She could feel her consciousness fading. The music was fading. Everything was turning white…
"Leni, you can't give in!" Luan cheered her on. "You need to wake up! Uh, um… Exercize! Drink a coffee! Get angry! Get…
"Get angry…" she sounded like she was working something out.
"Hey Leni!" Luan suddenly yelled. "You know I got offered a job at the mattress factory? I asked if I could sleep on it!"
"Ugh…" Leni shook her head. "What…?"
"Luna had a gig the other night, and passed out on stage!" Luan said, "I guess she rocked herself to sleep!"
"Luan…" Leni groaned. She was sitting up on her knees. The Queen was starting to panic. She stood right over Leni's head.
"What are you doing?" her light voice having the faintest hint of irritation. "I told you… to sleep!"
"I had the best dream in full color once. Too bad it was a pigment of my imagination!"
"Stop… talking…" Leni complained. She got to one knee.
"Go. To. Sleep." Queenie demanded. "Your Queen commands you!"
"C'mon, Leni! This chick has got nothing on you! I once watched as a pig put an entire audience to sleep!" Luan gave her finale. "I guess you could say he was quite the boar!"
"Shut. Up!" Leni threw an uppercut that connected to Dream Queen's chin. She flew back, totally knocked off her feet. The villain flipped through the air, slamming on her belly and knocking herself out with a groan.
Leni felt her strength returning. She shook the last of fuzziness out of her head and looked around. She saw the staff and showmen stir from their slumber, slowly waking.
"I notified some admins about taking the streams down," Luan reported. "Lisa and Lily are waking up. So, I guess that means the rest of the city is too. We did it!"
Leni breathed a sigh of relief.
"All thanks to your jokes," she reported.
"Yeah," Luan agreed. "It's a gift. And now no one can say otherwise."
Leni chuckled. Now to deal with Summers. Nothing some duct tape and a note won't fix, before leaving her for the police.
After setting her up for the lawmen to find, Leni noticed the cameras facing the stage. Dream Queen had been using them for her broadcast. Their entire confrontation must have been captured by them.
She smiled and waved at the camera.
"Just another day," she told the feed. "In the life of your friendly neighborhood Sky Girl."
With that, she flew off. Out of sight, and into the night.
