I got a feeling something bad is gonna happen in this chapter...

Chapter 4: Neon City Battle

The minor Nightmarens dragged themselves into Wizeman's throne room after a violent fetch session with Cerberus.

"Hmm. For once you actually did a good job." Wizeman noted. "Cerberus is fit as ever."

Ralf's panting eased and he responded, "Thanks. But I thought you wanted us to give Cerberus a bath if we failed this time."

"Hey, you can do that too!" Wizeman realized happily. "Thanks for reminding me. I want Cerberus very clean for his battle against NiGHTS and the Visitor in Delight City."

The Nightmarens instantly glared at the scorpion 'maren. "RALF!"

Ralf curled up defensively. "Heh heh..." he chuckled nervously.

---

"Well, at least Delight City wasn't far away." Charles said, trying to be optimistic.

The others were more concerned about their health. After attempting to wash Cerberus, the Nightmarens were worn out and nerve-wrecked. Not to mention that they got more water on themselves than the ferocious hellhound. But now they were settled down inside a large bush, big enough to hang the Joe Colony from one of its branches.

"Yeah, we might even be early for a change, dudes." said Fred, pointing his fin at something going on outside the bush.

The others peeked out to see what he was talking about. Looking up at the sky, they saw NiGHTS and Reala in the middle of a one-on-one battle. They saw NiGHTS grab one of those bomb things and throw it at Reala, who grunted and flailed for a second.

"Yeah! Go, NiGHTS, go! Kick Reala's--"

"Shut up, Kenny!" the others hissed.

Bob sighed and grumbled, "Looks like we won't be staying undercover for very long."

Just then, NiGHTS threw a final bomb at Reala and he went down for the count as "OWNED" flashed across the non-existant screen. The minor Nightmarens had to restrain Kenny from cheering at the top of his lungs.

The minor Nightmarens watched as Reala trapped NiGHTS in the NiGHTS Capture, say some things, and then fly away.

"Yeah, that's right, you jerk. Fly away like a coward and go cry to Wizeman!" Kenny mocked.

"All right, stop bashing Reala." Ralf told him. "We've got work to do."

The Joe Colony then spoke up, "Guys, the boy Visitor just came and Dualized with NiGHTS!"

Ralf adressed the others, "We'll let Cerberus try and take them down, first. If that doesn't work, we'll have one more chance to stay on Wizeman's good side."

Ted scoffed. "Are you kidding? We were never on his good side. If you ask me, I think the boss is just trying to find ways to get us killed."

The others seemed to agree with his theory.

But Ralf was still determined. "That may be true, but if we succeed this time, he might change his mind about us! Come on, guys, just one more time! If we're gonna fail, we're gonna fail with style!"

"Yeah! Style!" the other 'marens cheered.

After a pause, Steve said, "So, any ideas?"

It took the time it took for NiGHTS and Will to defeat Cerberus the first time for them to come up with a plan.

"I know!" Kenny lit up.

"No, Kenny. We're not gonna kill Reala." Ralf said immediately.

Kenny giggled. "Not that! What if I gathered my Mothpit buddies and we raid the neon part of Delight City?"

"Dude, what good will that do?" Fred wanted to know.

"I'm not sure, by us moth-like Nightmarens just love lights!"

Because the others couldn't think up of another plan, and because they didn't have time to, they just decided to go with Kenny's idea. So once Kenny rounded up his friends, they headed into the neon-lit streets. The nine remaining Nightmarens waited on top of one of the tallest buildings and watched the scene below. The Nightopians were scared of the 'marens and they fled from the area.

"All right, troops!" Kenny announced. "Today, we take a good look at," he gestured towards a neon sign, "lights."

"Yay!" cheered the other moth 'marens.

"BUT DON'T TOUCH THE LIGHTS." Kenny warned. "If you do, you will absolutely--"

"NiGHTS is coming!" one troop suddenly cried, flying towards the others. However, he didn't realized he was about to fly into a neon sign. "NiGHTS is com--AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!" He fell to the ground.

"--burn and die." Kenny finished. The others look down at their fallen comrade. "So remember, what ever you do, don't touch the lights. And don't let NiGHTS attack you, either."

"What happens if she does?" a troop asked.

"Then attack back!"

"Oh yeah, we do this!" The same troop fired a beam at another troop, who instantly died. "Whoops."

"FOOL! You're supposed to do that to NiGHTS!" Kenny snapped. "Just disperse yourselves around the city and stay there!"

Charles commented to the others, "You know, Kenny wouldn't make such a bad leader."

"Hey, I do a better job at leading than Kenny could ever do!" Ralf snarled.

Ted whispered, "Shh! NiGHTS is already defeating some of Kenny's troops, and we don't want to be next!"

The nine minor Nightmarens watched in horror as NiGHTS took out one 'maren after another like something in a nature special. It was that scary.

Kenny noticed one of his buddies slowly moving closer to a neon light. "No! Don't go into the light!" he shouted.

In a trance, the Nightmaren responded, "I can't help it; it's so beautiful..." Before Kenny could stop him, he touched the light. "AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!" Burned, he fell to the ground in a ball.

"Oh boy..." Kenny groaned. He saw that he was the only one left, and NiGHTS was coming after him. "Aw, crap!" He realized that he was trapped by a dead end, so there was no where else to fly to.

"Come on, Kenny!" Steve encouraged. "Fight back!"

"Yeah, Kenny!" Charles added. "You can do it!"

The other started cheering as well, even Ralf.

Unfortunately, though, NiGHTS was smart enough to dodge the beam made by Kenny and she Touch-Dashed him into the wall. "Yes! We did it, Will! Now let's get you back to the Dream Gate so that Owl can talk to you some more!"

A look of terror flashed across Will's face, but he didn't get time to protest because NiGHTS began to fly away.

Once NiGHTS was out of sight, the minor Nightmarens went down to where Kenny had fallen. Apparently, he was just an orange ball, but they knew he would disappear before long.

"Dude! Are you ok?" Fred asked, picking what was left of Kenny up in his fins.

Kenny managed to reply, "...No."

"Gee, we're sorry this happened to you." Ralf said, not sounding too sad.

Kenny rasped, "Avenge...me..."

Bob said sadly, "But we're too weak to defeat NiGHTS."

"I was talking about Reala!"

"Oh. Sorry."

Bertha said, "But we're still too weak to defeat him. I'm sorry, Kenny."

"Well then...tell NiGHTS to defeat him for me..."

"Um, I'm not sure we can do that--" Johnson started.

"Johnson," Kenny croaked. "I hate you too."

"..."

"What? I'm dying, so I can be honest!" Kenny said indignantly.

Ted explained, "What Johnson meant to say was that even if we try to talk to NiGHTS, she'll kill us right away."

Kenny was silent for a moment, and everyone thought he had died. But then he said, "Shoot! Ok, never mind."

"Great. Now let's get outta here." Ralf said. "I hope Wizeman doesn't give us another Cerberus punishment again."

Fred dropped Kenny--

"Ow!"

--and he and the others followed Ralf back to the castle.

Yeah, this chapter was a bit darker (and longer) than the others, but hopefully you weren't too disappointed that I killed Kenny.

Johnson: You killed Kenny! You idiot!

Hey, be glad I didn't kill you!

Johnson: YOU KILLED KENNY!

Never mind. Just review.