Previously on Dreams of Destiny, having finally awoken from their forced nightmares. Steven, Ed, Hilda, Pony, Steven and Annie have each begun to prepare for the final showdown with Nocturn in their own ways. With Steven calling in some "backup" of some kind, Annie and Pony getting ready to do some research on the dream ghost with Lincoln also preparing to do the same thing in Royal Woods along with his still awake sister Lucy (who agreed to help her brother), Hilda and Alfur preparing to go meet a certain "amalgam of rodents" in Trollberg and Ed discovering that Nocturn's sleepwalkers are flying all over the place in Peach Creek facing his own problems there. The story continues now.
Awakened: Part 2!
A couple of sleepwalkers flew past the alley Hilda and Alfur were hiding in, not even checking it for anything. Hilda waited a few moments for them to pass as she and her tiny, invisible to the human eye, elf friend were hiding behind a dumpster that was full with bags of garbage.
Hilda panted a bit as she wiped the sweat of anxiousness from her forehead. "That was close." She whispered. "Man, getting to the Rat King is going to be difficult with all these sleepwalkers flying around." She pointed out, looking both ways to see if the close is clear. "Do you know any shortcuts, Alfur?" The blue haired teen asked the elf. "Cause we're going to be wasting time going the long way."
Alfur let out a "Hmm" as he looked around trying to find at least a semblance of a shortcut.
Until he spotted a sewer lid that just slightly open at the end of the street to the south.
"Look Hilda, there's a sewer lid open down the street!" Alfur called out to her.
"There is?" Hilda asked.
"Yes, it's slightly opened though." Alfur said. "You think that those sleepwalkers have entered the sewers and put helmets on the creatures?"
"I don't know, but if they did. I have my doubts that they've found the Rat King." Hilda said, before she added. "Mostly because he can hide among the shadows of the sewer."
"Well, what are we waiting for?" The elf asked. "Let's get down there?"
"You read my mind, my little elf friend." Hilda said as she took another look around the two ran to the slightly open sewer lid, picked up and threw it into the air. She then climbed down the ladder as the lid slammed down on the sewer hole after spending a few seconds in the air.
Once they were down in the sewer, Hilda took out a flashlight and turned it on, taking a moment to look at where in the sewer system they were before they began to walk down the sewer walkway.
As they were walking, Alfur decided to ask something.
"Hilda, why do you want to go to the Rat King? You do remember that he's an ally of the Marra, right?"
"I do, Alfur." His blue haired friend acknowledged. "But it's not like we have any alternative at the moment?"
"What about the library?" The elf suggested.
"We can't, it's closed." Hilda said. "And I'm pretty sure that the sleepwalkers got to the Librarian as well to put that shock helmet on her head, and I don't feel like breaking in there at this time of night."
"Okay Hilda, I understand that." Alfur said. "We don't need to go criminal to save Trollberg."
"Not just Trollberg, Alfur." The adventurer pointed out. "Maybe, the world if Nocturn isn't stopped."
Before the two could continue their talk, the concrete suddenly broke apart from beneath them, causing them to fall down in a hole as the pair screamed...
Lincoln and Lucy were downstairs on the family computer as they were charging their laptops and didn't want to use the at the moment.
"Hmm, let's see." Lincoln muttered to himself as he searched the website "Google" for the information he needed on his ghastly adversary. For the past 30 minutes, he searched most of the internet, looking up websites like the video search engine website YouTube and the picture and forum making websites such as Tumblr and Instagram. But unfortunately, they didn't provide the info that was reliable as the YouTube videos were either deleted or had to be signed in so the website knows your age and the pictures on Tumblr and Instagram were just tricking you to see them only for them to see something else, something potentially dangerous, maybe even mentally scarring. And the last thing Lincoln or his family was for a virus to infect his family's computer get hit with numerous viruses that will force them to erase everything on their internet to salvage the piece of technology without throwing it out or if it was the latter, go to therapy to receive help from the mental scars of the internet.
Especially since Royal Woods, Trollberg and who knows how many other cities were under Nounturne's dream grip at this point in time.
Lucy was sitting on the couch behind him, writing a poem as their was a bag full of her brother's "ghosting hunting" equipment (which were just cheap, plastic merchandise Lincoln's favorite show "ARGGH!") when she herd Lincoln speak.
"Aha! I finally found the right website with information on this ghost." Lincoln said.
"What'd you find?" Lucy said as she closed her journal and put it down. She then got up from the couch and walked towards her brother.
"It turns out that there was a website called "Villains Wiki", there's all sorts of villains here!" Lincoln scrolled through the alphabet of villainy before showing it to his sister.
"Some of these villains are real, you know that right?" Lucy asked, getting a little excited yet slightly concerned at the same time. "From Shego to that "Syndrome" genius that Mr. Incredible and his family killed."
"Well to be fair, Syndrome was responsible for killing a bunch of superheroes. I hate to say this Luce, but he got what he deserved." Lincoln pointed out. "But getting back on topic, here's what I discovered on this "Nocturne" person." He said as he turned back to the computer screen and clicked onto the ghost of sleep's page. "Let's see what we're going to fight soon."
"Ghost Physiology..." Lucy read as it was the first of their dead foe's capabilities.
"Flight, Intangibility Invisibility..." Lincoln read as the brother and sister continued to read the dream ghost's powers.
"Dream Manipulation..." Lucy read as it was the fifth of Nocturne's abilities.
"Telekinesis, Size Changing, Teleportation..." Lincoln read the sixth, seventh and eighth of the sleep ghost's powers.
"Omniscience of Dreams..." Lucy read next.
However when he heard that specific ability, Lincoln couldn't help but let out a groan of annoyance.
"Are you serious? We basically have to go up against a dream God?!" Lincoln asked as he face palm himself.
"Would you rather have our loved ones stay asleep forever and allow himself to get more powerful?" Lucy asked with a hint of scolding. "Not to mention his sleepwalkers too."
Lincoln sighed. "You're right, Luce. I just... hope that I'm up for it."
Lucy knew where her older brother was coming as she patted his leg as she gave him a small smile. "I'll be with you brother, not to mention those friends you met in your dream that you told me about."
"Yeah, that's true." Lincoln said as he smiled back. "Thanks sis."
"No problem, I'm glad to help." The goth said as she embraced her brother briefly before letting go. "Now come on, let's finish researching Nocturne."
The two sat in silence as they continued to research the ghost of dreams...
Ed hid behind a car as sleepwalkers flew over his hiding place, thankfully not spotting the one eyebrow Ed boy.
"I'm not getting anywhere with these things fly all over the place. I need to distract them, but how?" Ed thought to herself as he put finger underneath his chin as he tried to come up with a plan. "Wow, I wish Double D was here for things like this."
He then looked to his right across the street to Kevin's house saw a bunch of cars piled on top of each other. Upon seeing that, an idea began to form into his head.
"Of course! I know what I have to do!" Ed thought to himself as he began to look around for something to use. "But I need to find something to throw."
The tall boy took a few minutes to look for something that was good enough to throw, eventually finding a medium sized rock the size of his hand.
Picking it up, Ed then thought to himself. "I hope this works... Well, here it goes!"
Using his strength, the monster loving, sci-fi enthusiast threw the piece of concrete at the window of the bottom car. As Ed hoped, the car's alarm went off. Which of course began to draw most of the sleepwalkers that were in the vicinity to that specific noise's location.
"Good, take the bait." Ed said quietly. "Hopefully that car will distract them long enough for me to get moving."
With speed that only a wacky cartoon character was capable of using, Ed quickly ran all the way down the street before he came to a skidding stop.
There was what look like an army of sleepwalkers that appeared to have been waiting for him.
"Oh no! RUN AWAY!" Ed said as he ran into another direction, the sleepwalkers instantly pursing him.
As Ed was running to the direction of Peach Creek's forest, he began to think of some kind of plan in his head, hopefully to at least slow these things down.
Noticing the trees gave him an idea.
Running up to one of the big trees, Ed stopped firmly, grabbed a hold of the tree by the bottom of it by wrapping both of his arms around it and with strength that only Hercules would be known for, Ed managed to pick up the tree. He began to spin around, swinging the tree like a bat, managing to knock some of Nocturne's minions about a mile back, only for them to get up, even more aggravated, and charge back towards the monster masher... to be instantly smacked away, this time about 2 miles far.
Getting exhausted from spinning around for over five minutes straight, Ed stopped his rapid spinning but using the last of his strength, he chucked the tree in a sideways position, causing it to knock the fast approaching sleepwalkers back as much as Ed's tree throwing strength would get it given how tired the lad was.
With the sleepwalkers approaching him, Ed knew he couldn't outrun them as he was too tired to do so.
But just at it appeared that Ed would be captured, a ray of hope suddenly appeared in front of him.
A familiar magical pink portal manifested out of thin air as a certain master/charge duo jumped out of it and skidded around to see Ed staring at them in disbelief.
Before Ed could say anything, the thing the boy was riding on turned around let out a massive concussive roar, which blasted the approaching ghosts about 5 miles away.
With the sleepwalkers temporarily dispatched, the savior and his friend turned around to see Ed look at them in complete and utter shock.
"Steven?" Ed asked in shock.
"Ed?" Steven said, also in shock as he got off Lion. "Whew, what a relief."
It was then Ed noticed two heads sticking out of Lion's mane.
One was periwinkle in skin color, has a large jawline and had rainbow dreadlocks and the other one was lime green in skin color, her hair was in the shape of a triangle and she was wearing a yellow visor over her eyes.
"ALIENS!" Ed shouted before he picked Steven up rather easily and hoisted him over his head. "Earth will not fall under your rule!"
"Whoa, whoa, WHOA! Ed, STOP!" Steven pleaded as he grabbed a hold of Ed's arms. "It's okay! These are some friends of mine!"
Ed took a moment to think about trusting these strangers that Steven brought with him as he put him down. "Really? But, they're aliens!"
"They may be aliens, but I'm half alien." Steven said as he lifted his black shirt to reveal his gemstone, a pink diamond showing the bottom of it, which was faceted to look like a rose quartz. "I'm also human as you can tell."
"So they're not going to hurt us?" Ed asked in disbelief.
"Of course not." Steven said as he began to introduce the two gems he brought with him. "Ed, this is Bismuth."
"Hi there." The rainbow dread-locked gem greeted the Ed boy.
"And this is Peridot." Steven introduced the lime green gem.
"Salutations Ed. Please to meet you." Peridot greeted the paranoid Ed.
Hearing their kind voices made the paranoia in the B movie lover fade away almost completely.
"Okay, that makes sense." Ed said. "Sorry about earlier."
"It's fine." Steven said as he hopped back on Lion. "Now let's get going before more of those sleepwalkers come back."
Not wanting to risk it, Ed hopped onto Lion's back as the feline roared up a portal and jumped through it...
Annie was riding onto Pony's back as they headed towards the elevator of their apartment. Once in the elevator, Annie pressed the down button and the door to the elevator closed as it began to descend.
"We're going to the downstairs computer, right?" Pony asked as Annie rolled her eyes in a bit of annoyance.
"Yeah, Pony. We're going to research Nocturne for anything useful to help us defeat him." Annie said.
"Anything useful?" Pony asked as he began to think. "Like something magical."
"If it's possible, but where are we going to find something magical in our city?" Annie asked rhetorically. "And at this time of night to add."
"Fair point." Pony said, dropping the subject for now.
The elevator became silent as the door opened, having reached the bottom floor. The two exited the elevator and walked out to the lobby where they found the guy at the desk asleep with a metal helmet that was placed on his head.
"A metal helmet," Pony said as he charged at the sleeping man.
"Pony, wait!" Annie cried out trying to stop her friend, but he was too determined to listen.
"Don't worry we'll release you from Nocturne's dreamy grasp!" Pony said as he reached out to get get the helmet off the man... only to be electrocuted when he put his hooves on the piece of equipment.
"Pony!" Annie cried out as she ran up to her best friend. "Are you okay?"
"I think so... Wow that stings." Pony said as Annie began to help him up. "What was that?"
"I'm guessing that's the helmet's defense system." Annie said. "So he's going to have to stay like that since we can't touch the helmet."
Pony nodded as he then pushed the asleep man to the side, allowing them access to his computer.
Annie pressed the button on the computer's monitor and waited a few seconds for it to warm up and turn on. Once it was on, the two groaned in annoyance.
The reason why was because the computer needed a password.
"Oh, come on!" Pony complained. "Why does a computer need a password?"
"Probably to prevent people like us from breaking into it." Annie said, slapping her forehead in annoyance.
After a few minutes of searching for something resembling a password. the human and her pony managed to find a piece of paper which had what look like to be passwords on it.
The duo tried the first five but not a single one worked so they continued onto the last three.
Two of them didn't grant them access to the computer.
"Last one." Annie said as she stared down at the paper. "Cross your forelegs."
Pony did just that as his friend typed the last password on the space that required said password.
Surely enough it worked as the screen then said: "ACCESS GRANTED!" in big bold letters.
"We did it, we're in!" Pony said as he and Annie high-five each other.
On the screen, the wallpaper showed a rainbow colored sky that was filled gold clouds and flying pigs that had wings on their back. The grass below was silver with blue cows munching away on it.
"That's... an interesting wallpaper..." Annie said, a bit weirded out.
"We should start researching before we loose focus staring at this wallpaper for hours on end." Pony said as felt his eyes unable to look away from the screen.
"Agreed." Annie said as she quickly used the mouse to click on the search engine known as "Google".
It took about a second for the Google webpage to pop up and once it did, the red haired girl clicked on the search bar before she used the keyboard to type in the words: "Nocturne the ghost of sleep" onto it.
The results took a few seconds to appear as Annie clicked onto the first one which led to a website for the superhero known worldwide as "Danny Phantom".
"Danny... Phantom...?" Annie said, confused as to why their ghastly foe would centered around someone so recognized as the human/ghost hybrid superhero from Amity Park.
"Yeah, you know Danny," Pony said, the superhero fanatic in him coming out a bit. "He can walk through walls, disappear and fly."
"You got that from the song, didn't you?" Annie said, raising an eyebrow to him.
"Yeah, it's catchy." Pony admitted.
"Looks like Hero Horse has some competition in the excitement department for you." Annie said.
"Oh come on, Annie, you know that I like all my heroes equally." Pony said before wrapping one of his legs around his owner. "But I hold you in a special high regard."
"Aw thanks, Pony." Annie thanked her pet as she wrapped her arms around his fluffy midsection.
The two friends stayed in a hug for about a minute before they broke it and began to research the dream ghost on his enemy's Wikipedia.
After researching his powers, they went to his personality and weakness.
"So his powers relay on dream power huh?" Annie theorized, thinking about how she could use this information to her advantage. "When he doesn't have any, he's effectively powerless."
"Yeah, and according to the website, he wants to be the most power ghost in the world?" Pony asked in a rhetoric way, a plan beginning to form in his head. "I think he has a bit of an ego to him. And to appeal to an ego will lead to a villain's biggest weakness."
"What's that? Evil laughing?" Annie asked.
"Well yes that, but also monologuing when they should kill the hero when they have the chance." Pony said.
"Maybe we could use that to our advantage." Annie said as she and Pony fist bumped.
Annie was about to click on the 'close' button on the webpage and Google as well when Pony noticed something.
"Annie, wait!" Pony exclaimed. "Don't close the webpage yet."
"Why?" The red haired gamer asked.
"Look to the right side of the screen." Pony said, pointing towards something particular.
Annie did that as she also noticed what Pony was pointing at.
"Fenton Works?" Annie asked Pony as she clicked onto the subject in question.
"That's where Danny lives right?" Pony questioned. "I'm pretty sure that he's battle Nocturne before? Maybe he can help us."
"Nocturne probably got to him too." His friend theorized. "But it's worth a shot."
Annie saw the phone that was on the desk and picked it up. Briefly looking at webpage for the phone number, she dialed it. For a few seconds, the phone just rang. At the moment, it felt like no one was going to answer when...
"Hello?" a voice on the other line said.
"Hi, is this an employee of "Fenton Works"? It's really important."
"This is Danny. What's the emergency?" Danny asked.
"Danny? As in Danny Phantom?" Pony said, accidently knocking Annie across the room. "Oh, sorry Annie."
"It's fine. Should've braced myself for your excitement." Annie said, trying to regain her bearings.
"Yes I am Danny Phantom." The world renowned hero said. "If you're done getting excited, I'll ask again. What's the emergency?"
"It's this weird ghost called Nocturne. He forced me and several others into a deep sleep. We managed to wake up but now he has sleepwalkers all over the place! Trollberg, our town in Pennsylvania, Japan, Royal Woods and Peach Creek also have this problem. We figured that since you've probably dealt with that dream creep before, we've called because we figured that you could help us."
"Nocturne! Again?!" Danny said in shock. "I should've known he pull off something like this. He didn't attack Amity Park tonight, so forgive me for not realizing that he attacked elsewhere." He then took a deep breath to calm down before he went into a rant. "Alright miss, um?"
"Annie. Annie Bramely?" The girl introduced herself.
"Okay, Annie, here's what we're going to do..." Danny said. "You rally up the others who are awake, I'm wide awake so I'll rally some friends of mine and we'll rendezvous at the largest point of dream energy in the world. That's what Nocturne is after."
"I know, we've researched it before calling you." Annie said. "Sounds like a good plan."
"Okay, it'll take a few minutes for me to gather up my friends and for both our parties to meet up at the dream energy signal." Danny admitted. "Cause finding it might be tricky."
"Well when one of us find it, we'll tell you and your group or you'll tell us?" Pony asked.
"Of course. See you soon." Danny said as he then hung up.
A few seconds after Danny's call ended, Annie's phone rang, causing her to dig into her skirt pocket to get it out. Still ringing, the girl checked to see who was calling her before she pressed the call button.
"Hello?"
"Annie?" a familiar voice on the other line asked.
"Steven?!" Annie asked in shock.
"Oh, it's good that you're awake." Steven said, relieved. "Is Pony with you?"
"Yeah, he's right here." Annie said. "What are you guys doing now?"
"Right now, I'm riding Lion and I just got Ed and two of my gems named Bismuth and Peridot." Steven said. "Where are you guys now?"
"We're in our apartment building in Pennsylvania." Annie said as she and Pony ran out outside. "Are you guys in Pennsylvania?"
Her answer came in the form of Lion's portal manifesting in the middle of the street outside as Lion and his riders exited as they skidded into the Bramely's home.
"Now we are." Steven answered.
"Pony, like back in the dream world, you'll have to get into Lion's mane." Steven instructed.
"Already on it Steven." Pony said as he held his breath, took a running start before he sped towards his fellow animal's mane.
"CANNONBALL!" Pony yelled as jumped into Lion's mane in a cannonball style position, the lower half of his body sinking into the magical feline's body hair as his long neck bounced a bit before his friend stopped using her hands. "Thanks Annie."
"No problem Pony." Annie said with a chuckle as she climbed onto Lion's back as she turned to Steven and Ed. "Guys, just a head's up. Me and Pony called someone gathering some help of his own and is going to help us take down Nocturn."
"Who'd you call?" Steven asked as Lion roared up another portal using his magical ability. "The Ghostbusters?"
"Well, not exactly." Annie admitted. "The one I called was the who has experience fighting Nocturn: Amity Park's superhero, Danny Phantom."
"YAY!" Ed shouted as he began to shake the Bramley girl vigorously. "Do you think I can get his autograph, Annie?"
"O-n-l-y t-i-m-e w-i-l-l t-e-l-l Edddd!" Annie said as her voice was bumpy from the shaking she was receiving from the fanboy Ed boy, who had a big, cheesy grin occupying his face.
"Um Ed. Could you please stop shaking Annie?" Peridot asked kindly yet a bit bluntly. "Your shaking her a bit too much."
Ed stopped shaking Annie as Lion jumped through the portal.
"So who do we have to get next, Steven?" Pony yelled as the group went through an weird, magical space between locations.
"Lincoln and Hilda!" The hybrid answered.
"Those two lovebirds?!" Annie asked. "Wow, I can't wait to see the look on their faces when they see each other again, all flustered and whatnot!"
"Glad I wasn't the only one who noticed the love growing within them." Steven said.
"I noticed that too." Pony said to the both of them. "50 bucks from both of you that Lincoln kisses her by the time this is over."
"C'mon Pony, now's not the time for shipping bets." Annie scolded her pet briefly before she added. "But 75 bucks saying Hilda makes the first move by the time this night's over."
"I will what's the term..., "throw my hat in the ring?" Peridot said. "100 dollars saying nothing between them occurs by the time we save the world."
"I know we're supposed to be serious about stopping Nocturn but..." Steven said, unable to resist a good ship. "200 dollars from all of you if either one of them (or both of them) confess to each other, either privately or with us around."
"Oh, you are on, Universe." Peridot said confidently.
"Those 50 bucks will be MINE!" Pony declared dramatically.
"You mean my 75 dollars, Pony." Annie said with a cocky smile.
"In both of your dreams, Bramley!" Steven said with chuckle.
"Too soon, Steven." The group said in unison.
"Yeah, you guys are right. Sorry." Steven said, with a chuckle.
To be continued...