Awakened: Part 3!

After falling for what felt like hours, Hilda and Alfur finally landed roughing at the bottom at the sewer.

"Ah, definitely gonna be feeling that tomorrow." The blue haired girl said as she sat up and rubbed the middle part of her spine. "Are you okay, Alfur?"

There was the sound of muffling from underneath her person. It was only then that she realized that where the tiny elf was.

"Oh my, I'm so sorry!" Hilda exclaimed in embarrassment as she jumped up from her spot.

Alfur coughed a little as arched his back, feeling it crack a bit. "It's alright, Hilda. It's not your fault. Just an accident, that's all."

Taking a moment to get off the ground, the two began to look around to find out where they are.

"You sure the Rat King's around here." Alfur asked as he jumped onto the girl's shoulder.

"Let's hope so. Let's get going." Hilda said as she began to walk down the dark sewer. "Rat King? Where are you?" She shouted as her voice echoed throughout the city's sewer system.

A few seconds later they heard the sound a rat squeaking, causing the two to stop in their tracks.

"Is that a rat?" Alfur asked.

Just then, even more sounds of rats squeaking rang throughout the sewer as what appeared to be an army of rats that piled on top of one another as they tied their tails together as their eyes glowed, lighting up the place and allowing the two to see where they were going.

"You rang?" The cluster of rats said in a united male voice. "Oh, it's just you."

"Nice to see you too, Rat King." Hilda greeted in a kind but tired tone. "Listen, I need your help. I need some information about this supposed ghost of dreams named Nocturne."

"Hmm, that depends on the amount of information." The rat king said. "It'll take us some time to gather that information."

"Well, can you get me as much as you can in a short time." Alfur suggested. "We don't have much time and time is of the essence."

"Short on time, huh? Well, we'll see what we can do with that." Rat King said. "Now what's your secret?"

"Oh, right." Hilda said as she began to think of something to tell the Rat King.

"C'mon on, blue hair. give me something juicy." Rat King egged on.

As Hilda began to think of any secret "juicy" to satisfy the tied together of rodents in front of her. She began to think about her dream where all this started. Speaking of her dream, then remembered how she met Steven Universe, his magical, pink lion that can roar up portals, Ed, Annie Bramely, her talking pony, Ed and...

Lincoln Loud.

The second she remembered him, a weird feeling began to form in her stomach as she felt her cheeks heat up and a small smile forming on her face. The Rat King and Alfur noticing the two latter effects.

"Oh, is there a secret you wish to share?" The rat king asked smugly.

"Well, I don't know if this counts as a secret but I guess so." Hilda said as she then whispered into one the rat king's ears.

A few seconds later, the Rat King spoke. "Ooh, that's a juicy one. Okay, We'll get to work on researching this "Nocturne" ghost."

Just as the rats began to retreat from where they came from, Hilda quickly remembered something else from her dream.

"Wait!" She shouted.

"Yes." One of the rats asked.

"I've just remembered something. If you do find any information on Nocturne, I want to know if he has any connection with the Marra." Hilda added to the rat king's list.

"You got it." Rat King said as his body fell apart into the rodents that composed it.

After the rats dispersed, Hilda and Alfur decided to leave the sewer since they got one they came there for.

But one question arose for the two.

How exactly were they going to get out the sewer since the way they came was a pile of rubble and stone?

Alfur then spoke up, bringing Hilda out of her thoughts.

"Hilda?"

"Yes Alfur?" Hilda said.

"Since we're going to be stuck down here for a bit, you mind telling me what you told the Rat King?" Alfur asked. "Only if you want to that is."

Hearing her elf friend suggest that caused the blue haired adventurer to blush a bit. She then sighed a bit. "Well, I'll have to backtrack a bit but since we can't get out of here so this might take a while."

From there, Hilda told her tiny elf friend everything that happened in her dream.

What her dream was about...

How it became a nightmare...

How she met Steven and Lion...

How she and them rescued, Ed, Annie, Pony, and Lincoln...

That it was again, that feeling in her stomach manifested once she thought of that certain white haired man.

But why...

Before she could think of why, a bright light of pink magical energy has appeared in the form of a circular portal in the dark sewer as something then jumped out of it.

"Hilda! Thank goodness we found you!" said a certain voice.

"Steven?!" Hilda said in confusion. "Is that you? I can't tell, it's very dark in this sewer."

"Yes, it's me." The hybrid clarified. "It's nice to meet you in person?"

"Likewise." Hilda said. "Are the others with you?"

"Yes." Pony interjected. "Aside from Lincoln of course."

"Climb up up on Lion and let's go get him, Hilda." Annie said.

"O-Okay, sure thing." Hilda said nervously as she quickly climbed up onto Lion's back all while blushing profusely upon hearing the white haired man's name.

"Alright Lion, onward to Royal Woods!" Steven said in a dramatic fashion as he pointed into the darkness.

The magic infused, pink feline knew the drill at that point as he roared up another magic portal and jumped through it, taking everyone that was either riding on his back or riding in his mane through it as well...

With Lincoln and Lucy, they were packing up some of the former's "ARRGH!" gear in two small bags. One for the two of them which they can tie to their waists or put into their pockets.

"Lincoln, you know this gear is just merchandise for your TV show and will be ineffective against both Nocturn and his minions, right?" Lucy asked, bluntly.

"Well, yeah, of course I do." Lincoln said as he put a pair of ghost hunting googles into his bag. "But hey, at least we won't be completely defenseless. And we have to have something to defend ourselves with against the sleepwalkers."

"True." Lucy admitted. "So when will your dream friends get here on their "magic, pink lion"?"

Lincoln could sense the sarcasm in his gothic sister's voice when she asked that question, specifically that last part, making him roll his eyes before he answered. "Well it might take a while considering how far all of our respective homes are."

"Wanna check the city while we wait on them to get here?" Lucy suggested as she put a "spectral" blaster into her bag before zipping it up.

"Sure, Luce." Lincoln said as he zipped his own bag closed. "But we're going to have to be very careful. Who knows how many sleepwalkers are out there?"

"I agree." Lucy said as she got up from her knees and rubbed them a bit to ease the numbness she felt in them.

The two headed to the door before Lincoln placed his hand on the doorknob before turning to his sister with a look of uncertainty in his eyes.

"Something on your mind, brother?" Lucy asked, noticing the uneasy feeling Lincoln was feeling.

"Lucy..." Lincoln began nervously. "Are you sure you want to come with us?"

"What do you mean "if I'm sure"?" Lucy asked, a bit offended. "Of course, I'm sure."

The white haired lad could feel the venom in the goth's tone so he needs to choose what he says carefully to avoid hurting her feelings.

"Well... its just... this isn't just our typical Royal Woods shenanigans or another day in the Loud House, Lucy." Lincoln began gently. "You don't know what Nocturn is capable of. He's a real world threat! Me and the others only managed to wake up through a universal amount of luck and you weren't even asleep so the sleepwalkers missed and even then that was through luck!" Lincoln explained with a bit of fear in his tone. "And I don't know if you're capable of taking it seriously, considering the stakes involved if we fail stop him and his army and your love of all things dark and things that go bump in the night."

"Really?" Lucy said as she glared at her older brother a bit through her hair before thinking on this. She knew her brother was right. However, she couldn't just stay behind while her brother was going to be out risking her life to save their family and essentially the world from being trapped in eternal slumber.

"Well, maybe not at first." Lucy began. "What are you saying? That I'll just get in the way and you want me to stay here?" She asked in a rather... hurt tone.

"Well, I'm not saying that. I'm saying that things get bad, I want you to run." Her brother said, looking away a bit.

"Lincoln, I'm not..." Lucy began but she got cut off.

"I'm serious, Lucy!" Lincoln said as he embraced his young sister. "I'm scared for you. If something were to happen to you out there, I'll never be able to forgive myself."

"Well, do you think I'm okay with you risking your life either?" Lucy said, raising her voice a bit as she embraced her brother a bit. "Cause I'm not!"

Lincoln was shocked that his normally quiet and reserved sister was actually raising her voice at him, even if it was a little. She must really want to help her brother save their town and by extension, the world.

"I'm coming with you to make sure you don't get hurt or worse." Lucy muffled in her brother's shirt as she felt herself tear up. "I don't want to end up planning your funeral so soon, brother. I care about you too much to just stay behind or run away from the fight when your life is also on the line."

Lucy then cried like she never did before which would've surprised Lincoln even if he wasn't already surprised that his sister was being this... emotional. And especially when it came to them getting ready to face Nocturne. Usually, when Lucy showed emotion, it would be rather brief like when she smiled, much like their genius sister, Lisa, showed as she put it: "innate human emotion".

Lucy then pulled away from Lincoln as she wiped some snot that was dripping from her nose as she spoke once more. "Do you understand my reasoning now?"

Lincoln nodded before he then spoke. "Yeah, I do. But Luce, you don't have to worry so much. If you want to come with me that's fine. I just want you to be careful when we face Nocturne again."

Lucy nodded as she then said. "Only if you be careful out there too."

With their feelings on the situation and subsequent fears of possibly dying finally sorted out, Lincoln was then about to open the door...

*BAM!*

...only for it to burst open all of a sudden and knocked the two siblings away from the door and onto the floor. They then heard the door slam shut.

"Oh my gosh. I'm so sorry! Are you two alright?!" a worried voice asked.

Taking a moment to regain their bearings from having been knocked to the floor suddenly and getting up from the floor afterwards, Lincoln and Lucy looked at what or in this case... who just came barreling into their house.

It was a pink lion... and his riders (at least the ones that the two siblings would see anyways) were Steven, Annie, Ed, Pony and Hilda who all had relived looks on their faces.

"Yeah, we're fine." Lincoln said, easing their concerns. "I'm just you guys weren't- GAH!"

Lincoln was cut off when Ed leaped off Lion and hugged his white haired friend rather tightly.

"Lincoln!" Ed cheered excitedly as he spun him around. "I'm soooooo glad that Nocturn hasn't captured you yet!"

While Lincoln was happy that the Ed boy's well of hopeful enthusiasm... his windpipe would beg to differ.

"Ed... can't... breathe!" Lincoln gasped out as Ed then immediately dropped him to the floor.

"Sorry." Ed said sheepishly. "I'm just so happy!"

"Ahem!" Lucy coughed, gaining everyone's attention. "I'm sorry to interrupt this "reunion"..." She air quoted using her fingers. "but who are you all and are you here to help us?"

"Oh right. Sorry we forgot to introduce ourselves." Annie apologized as she and Pony stepped out of Lion's mane and approached the goth in question. "I'm Annie Bramely and this is my is my best friend."

"Is he really a...?" Lucy asked in utter confusion.

"Yes, he's really a pony." Annie asked.

"Hi there." Pony said.

"A talking pony?" Lucy said in shock. "Wow."

"Wow indeed." Pony said as he stuck out one of his forelegs to the goth. "Please to meet you, uh..."

"Lucy." The goth teen said as she shook Pony's hoof. "Nice to meet you as well." She then turned back to Annie. "You too, Annie."

"Likewise." Annie said as the two then shook hands.

Steven was next as he got off of Lion and extended his hand to Lucy. "Hi, I'm Steven."

"It's nice to finally meet you Steven." Lucy said as she shook his hand. "I'm Lucy. I've heard of you and the Crystal Gem friends for quite some time now."

"Really?" Steven asked. "Wow, I had no idea that some of our personal ventures got leaked to the rest of the world... or at least, some people outside of Beach City."

"Wait, you really think that just because your adventures are self contained to just Beach City and the rest of the world doesn't know about it?" Lucy asked.

"Honestly, yeah." Steven admitted. "The Crystal Gems are rather... "secretive" when it comes to wanting to keep their origins and everything else about them a secret." Lucy noticed the bitterness in his tone when said the word secretive, but chose not to ask him about it. "I've lived a rather shelter life for most of my life. I didn't know that some other people in the world know about some of my adventures."

Suddenly, Steven remembered something else.

"Oh, wait. There's two more people I've brought with me." Steven said, going back to Lion and sticking his head into the feline's mane.

Seconds later, Peridot and Bismuth emerged from the magically resurrected Lion's mane.

"Greetings all." Peridot introduced herself. "I am Peridot. Please to meet you all."

"What's up everyone." Bismuth greeted. "Bismuth here and I'm fired up!"

"Friends of yours?" Lincoln asked as he shielded Lucy just in case the two gems tried anything.

"Yeah, no need to worry." Steven said, gently. "Trust me Lincoln, they're not bad guys. Not anymore of course."

"He's right kid. We're not going to hurt you or Steven or his friends or the girl you're protecting." Bismuth gently said as she knelt down on one knee to the two siblings. "So believe me when I say we've grown our whole..." Bismuth stopped for a moment to find the right word to say before it then came to her. "Antagonistic" way of life."

"She's right, never again will we succumb to such dangerous ways of life." Peridot declared. "We're holy guardians, not wrathful gods."

Lincoln and Lucy looked at each other for a bit as they thought about it for a bit.

Lincoln sighed before he spoke.

"Alright, I'll trust you two for now, but if you're helping us stop that dream ghost. If I am sounding like an unreasonable jerk, I'm sorry, but considering the circumstances, we need to be careful about we come into contact with. So I suggest you prove it with your actions." Lincoln said.

"Of course." Bismuth said as she got up from her one knee position.

"Understood." Peridot nodded.

Lucy then spoke. "So will I cause I can sense both of you having tragedy in your minds."

That response was warranted a step back from Lucy by the two gems.

"And you've already met Ed." Lincoln said, waving his arm over to Ed's direction.

"Hi Lucy. Please to meet you." Ed said as he hopped over and shook Lucy's hand vigorously.

"Nice to meet you too, Ed." Lucy said as the movie lover let go of her still shaking arm, which she stopped the shaking by grabbing it with her other arm.

Hilda got off Lion and approached the two as Lincoln.

"Hi, I'm Hilda." The adventurer said as she shook Lucy's hand, who shook the blue haired girl's in response. "I'm guessing you're one of Lincoln's sisters that he told us about."

"I am." Lucy said. "It's nice to see that my brother has met someone as beautiful as you, Hilda. I can see your friendship being a strong one." She stated with a small yet a bit of smug smirk on her face.

Hearing that caused the adventurer to blush for two reasons. Because the goth called her beautiful and what she knew what Lincoln's sister was implying.

Upon realizing what Lucy was implying caused Lincoln to blush as well. It was almost every time he was even with a girl.

It was like the situation with Ronnie Anne all over again, only this time it was just one sister and not all ten of them.

And if he was to be honest, he'd rather deal with one sister than all of them breathing down his neck when comes to his relationships with women of any kind, be it platonic and romantic.

"Oh, um. T-Thank you, Lucy. That's rather nice of you." The British accented adventurer said with a stutter.

Acting quickly, Lincoln gesture for Lucy to speak with him in private.

"Can you all excuse us for a moment?" Lincoln said as he gently pulled Lucy into the kitchen.

Once they were in the kitchen, Lincoln spoke.

"Lucy, I know what you're doing and I want you to drop it. Right. Now." Lincoln said quietly but sternly as the blush on his face receded a bit. "It's bad enough that you're the only one insinuating that she's girlfriend but you just met her." He said with gritted teeth before he breathed a bit to calm his nerves. "Don't you think that you should wait a little while before you or the others try to ship me and her together?"

"What?" Lucy said with a shrug of her shoulders. "I think she's cute. She's seems perfect for you. Why, you don't want to date? Is she not good enough for you?" The goth questioned, not letting go of her smirk.

"It's not like that, it's just that we barely know her." Lincoln said, thinking over his words carefully. "I want to be just friends with her and I want to take it slow. Whether we want to date each other, then that's up to us and not you or the rest of our sisters. This is reality Luce, not a fantasy you want o bring to life."

Lucy looked down before muttering. "You're right, I'm sorry brother. I just want to be happy with someone you love and not someone who's a wolf in sheep's clothing." Lucy said, a bit ashamed of herself.

Lincoln, noticing his sister was a bit down on herself, sighed a bit before he spoke. "Listen Lucy, I understand that you and our sisters want what's best for me, in any situation. But I want to figure this whole romance thing out for myself. Not to sound mean, but you and the rest of our sisters mostly scare away most of the girls who were just friends with me with your over-protectiveness and overall craziness as well as embarrass me in the process, unintentionally of course. I'm not an angel myself, but it happens so much and so often that most of Royal Woods can't stand us at times... depending on what we do."

"True." Lucy simply said. "Okay, I'll drop it... for now."

After the two siblings came out of the kitchen, Annie then spoke up.

"Okay, now that you two are back. I am going to call Danny." She said, taking out her phone from inside her jean skirt's pocket before she then began to dial Fenton Works' number.

"Danny?!" The two siblings asked in confusion as they wondered how they somehow managed to get Amity Park's local hero on the phone line.

"Yeah, you know, Danny Phantom." Pony said, making the group look at him. "He's the half ghost from Amity Park. He's fought Nocturne before so he has experience dealing with him, we called him before Steven came to get us. He's gathering up some friends of his as well."

"Awesome." Hilda said, excited that they're getting help from someone who's dealt with Nocturne before. "Let's hope that Danny and his friends can help us out."

"Yeah, let's hope he's not a hack." Annie said as he finished dialing the number.

The phone began to ring for about six seconds before someone on the other line answered.

"Hello?" A groggy voice asked.

"Danny, it's Annie." The red haired girl said. "Listen, I've got the rest of my team assembled, even got some additions to it as well. How's it going on your end?"

"Well, the more help, the better." Danny said before letting out a yawn. "Sorry for yawning, but I've got the rest of my friends and family now. I'm going to get the last member on my end right so it'll take some time."

"Have you figured out where Nocturne is getting the dream energy from." Annie said. "And more importantly, where he could be?"

"Tucker is looking into that now. That is also taking a bit of time." Danny said as he let out a sigh. "Until we find out where Nocturne actually is, the only advice I can give you is check your town's mattress stores and pillow factories, cause that is where we beat him the first time."

"Well I guess if they're the only potential places where he can be, then we're going to check them out." Annie said "See you soon Danny."

"Likewise, Annie." Danny said. "Good luck to you and your team. I'll be sure to let you guys know when Tuck finds something."

Annie then hung up before turning to her new friends.

"What'd he say." Lucy asked.

"He's having a friend of his name Tucker trying to find out where Nocturne is." Annie replied. "So far he hasn't found anything but he's still trying."

"So what are we supposed to do until then?" Pony asked. "We can't just do nothing! Nocturne will be unstoppable by the time Tucker gets that info and gets it to us."

"I'm with you, Pony." Ed said. "Our towns needs us!"

"Calm down, you two." Annie said, getting their attention. "Danny told me that we need to check out the pillow factories and mattress stores cause that's where he was beaten the first time when he and his friends faced him."

"Makes sense." Steven said. "Considering that he is a dream ghost."

"Then I guess that's our game plan." Bismuth declared as she looked to Lincoln and Lucy. "Lincoln, Lucy, since we're in your town. We'll start with yours."

"Alright, but we need to be careful just in case those sleepwalking ghosts are out there." Lincoln said as he dug into his bag and pulled out a "ARRGH" blaster before he tossed it to Annie, who caught it.

"A ray gun?" Annie said.

"Well, it's merchandise from my favorite ghost busting TV show called "ARRGH"to be honest but hey, at least we won't be completely defenseless." Lincoln said.

"Merchandise." Annie deadpanned. "Really, Lincoln."

"Well, do you have any weapons on you Bramely?" Lucy asked, being a bit of a snark as she handed a blaster to Peridot.

"Fair point." Pony said.

"Well, it's better than nothing." Annie said, deciding to drop it.

Once the two supplied the rest of their team (sans Bismuth and Steven because they already have weapons for them to use). The team was at last ready to face the potential dangers of what was to come once they step outside the Loud House.

"Alright, everyone ready?" Lincoln asked.

"All ready for us, Lincoln." Hilda said as she held up a blaster as Annie got onto Pony's back, her blaster at the ready and a look of determination on their faces.

"We are ready to bust some ghosts!" Ed said as he too held up his blaster as Steven and Bismuth held up their shield and hammer hand respectively.

"Goes against my principal, but to save our home I'll do what it takes." Steven said, voicing his reluctance of having to fight.

Lion growled quietly.

"We're ready to too, brother." Lucy said, holding up her blaster as well.

"Just say the word." Hilda said as she held up her blaster. "We're all ready."

Taking a moment, Lincoln then said:

"Alright, everyone. Let's go save the world!"

Now that the team has been assembled, can they find Nocturne and save Royal Woods and essentially the world from his dreamy grip?!

To be continued...