Chapter 7: Exploring the Mystic Forest
Meanwhile, Claris and the girls walked out of the portal and looks at the new place they saw.
"Woah, what do you think this place is?" Dana asks.
"It looks greener!" Sylvia said.
Dana looks around the mysterious moonlit forest. "There's trees, leaves, and stoplights!"
Sylvia saw a truck moving. "And the trucks can move!"
"Yeah, and also the Nightopians!"
"What else can go wrong?"
"Well, since there's no Nightmarens around here, let's climb up the-"
Suddenly, the Nightmarens swooped in and took her Ideyas, causing her fly up into the air and falls onto the ground again..
"HEY! Oh, not again!" Claris moaned, getting herself back up.
"Don't worry, Claris. We'll get your Ideyas back." Sylvia said, dusting Claris' shoulders.
"Yeah, but I think we're gonna need some help!" Dana said.
"Did someone say, help?" A voice asked.
The girls turned and saw NiGHTS in the Ideya palace again.
"NiGHTS!" The girl yelled.
They ran up to NiGHTS as they bowed at them in happiness.
"It's good to see you again!" NiGHTS greeted.
"Where'd have you been? We couldn't find you after we defeated Gillwing!" Sylvia said.
"Well, I was at Splash Garden, helping out the blue-haired boy and his friends getting the Ideyas back and defeating Puffy."
Claris raised her eyebrows. "The blue-haired boy? Wait, you mean I go to school with… Elliot Edwards?"
NiGHTS nodded their head, "Exactly! They're having their own adventure right now."
Dana gasped and whispered. "That means our friends are with him!"
Sylvia whispered back. "Yeah, we're gonna see them soon!"
"Y'know, it kinda reminds me of a time when me and my friends are having a field trip to the museum to learn about our city's 100 years." Claris explained.
"You have?"
"Yes, you see, it all started when I was on my way to the museum…"
Two days ago when Sylvia and friends appeared in Twin Seeds, Claris had met up with her friend at the museum's entrance.
"Claris! Glad you can make it!" Emma said.
"Hi Emma! Hi Layla!" Claris said, waving her hand.
"You're excited for our field trip?" Layla asked her.
"Yes I am, can you believe Twin Seeds is a hundred-years-old?"
"Yeah, and we're so excited to have a festival of Twin Seeds!"
"On Saturday!"
"I'll meet you girls at the entrance!"
"Okay, but you better hurry if you don't wanna miss anything!"
Claris climbed up the steps and went to the doorway. But as she was waiting for her friends, she noticed that she saw Elliot standing at the doorway until his friends grabbed him and started to pull him inside the museum.
"Hey Claris! Whatcha looking at?" Layla asks.
"Nothing, I just saw a boy with blue hair, staring at me." Claris told her friends.
"You mean Elliot from school?" Emma questioned.
"Yeah, the one I go to school with."
"Is that so?"
"Yes."
"Come on, let's go inside and start the tour."
The girls went inside the museum building and catches up with the students.
During the tour, Claris listened to the story of the city's 100 years when she saw Elliot again with his group.
At lunchtime, Claris walked over to the table with her friends.
"Hey Claris, glad you can join us during lunchtime." Layla said.
"Thanks, guys." Claris said.
"What do you got?" Emma asks.
"I got myself a leftover fish to keep me healthy."
"Really? A dead fish… for lunch?" Layla asks.
"Yeah, it's to keep my body good."
Just then, Claris looked over to Elliot who is staring at her, then another student who blocks him.
"You okay?" Emma asks.
"Oh, nothing." Claris replies, then sighs and starts eating her fish.
"…and that's when I saw him." Claris finished her story.
"That sounds mysterious!" Sylvia said.
"You can say that again!" Dana replied.
"So NiGHTS, can you tell us where we are, exactly?" Claris questioned to NiGHTS.
"You're in the Mystic Forest!" NiGHTS said.
"The Mystic Forest?" The girls asks.
"That's right, this place is created from Claris' inner spirit of inquiry."
"My inner spirit of inquiry?" Claris asks.
"Yep!"
"Oh, inquiry!"
"This forest was filled with many magical elements and secrets waiting to be discovered."
"Elements? You mean like Earth, Water, Fire and Air?" Dana asks.
"That's not what they've meant, Dana." Sylvia said to her friend.
"Oh, but I highly doubt that!"
NiGHTS reached out to Claris and the girls.
"Ready to get your Ideyas back and defeat the Nightmaren?" NiGHTS asks her.
Claris nodded her head in agreement. "I'm always ready, when you are!"
Claris placed her hand onto NiGHTS' hand, then dualize into NiGHTS.
"Don't worry, we'll be on our side and hit them with our piñata bats!" Sylvia said.
"At least there's no Alarm Egg around," said Dana.
"Okay girls, are we're ready?"
"Yeah!" The girls cheered.
"Then let's go!"
NiGHTS zoomed out of the dome and the girls prepare for attack.
"Hiya!" Sylvia screamed, swinging her bat to the Kircle.
"Take this, you creature!" Dana yelled, hitting the Party with her bat.
"See ya!" Sylvia yelled, swinging Crewie & Pole away.
NiGHTS and Claris had collected enough chips and flew over to the capsule, destroying it and retrieve the white Ideya.
"One down, three to go!" Claris said.
Dana swing her bat at the Krickle and the Crewie. "Score!"
Sylvia jump and slammed the Party on its head. "Who's the girl now?"
Just then, Dana noticed that the Kircle was heading to Sylvia! Dana ran, jumped and smacked the Kircle away.
"Dana!" Sylvia said.
"I saw that you're gonna get hurt by that creature, so I had to save your life!" Dana said.
"Oh, that's good!"
NiGHTS flew over to the second capsule when they collected 20 blue chips and gets the yellow Ideya back.
"The Yellow Ideya! We got it!" Claris said.
"Two more left!" NiGHTS said.
NiGHTS noticed the Kircles and Parties heading straight to them, he paraloops around them and causing them to disappear.
"Make a change!"
NiGHTS gathered 20 blue chips and flew over to the third capsule, destroying it and gets the third Ideya.
"The Green Ideya! We need one more Ideya to go, come on!" Claris said.
As they collected enough blue chips and flys over to the final dome, a bunch of Nightmarens appeared and blocks them.
"Oh man!" Claris said.
"Hey girls, I need a little help here!" NiGHTS called out to Sylvia & Dana.
"Don't worry, NiGHTS! We'll be right there!" Sylvia called back.
"Yeah, we'll find something to get them out of their way!" Dana said.
Sylvia and Dana looked at each other and decided to have a conversation.
"Dana, how can we get those Nightmarens out of their way?" Sylvia asked her.
"We can't swing them away with our bats." Dana questioned.
Sylvia rubbed her chin. "There has to be a way!"
Dana noticed that she saw a lost car sitting on the edge of the hill. "Why don't we use that car?"
Sylvia looked at the broken car. "A car? Are you sure that is a good idea?"
Dana nodded. "Yep. Let's get in the car!"
The girls walked over to the car and hops inside, Dana sat in the driver's seat while Sylvia sits beside her.
"Okay Dana, start the car!" Sylvia ordered.
"But I don't know how to drive!" Dana exclaimed.
"Oh, you rode the bumper cars before, remember?"
"Oh yeah, from the carnival we got on!"
"Yeah! Turn the key and start up the car!"
"Okay!"
Dana turned the key, making the engine to start up, pressed her foot onto the gas pedal and starts driving towards the Nightmarens.
NiGHTS looks at the Nightmarens getting closer to them.
"What are we going to do?" Claris asked NiGHTS.
Just then, they heard a beeping sound.
"You hear something?" Claris asks.
They looked to the right and saw a broken car heading towards them.
The car began to sped-up, drives off the ramp, flies up into the air and hits the Nightmarens.
NiGHTS couldn't believe their eyes. "Well, that was fast, but whose car is this?"
They heard a honk as they looked down to see the girls from the car's window, waving at them.
"Actually, it was us!" Sylvia called out.
NiGHTS then looked concerned. "But how did you, when was a point of it-"
"It was my idea!" Dana said.
"You said that you need a little help, so we found the lost car and drove into the Nightmarens."
"Well, that was a great way to fight them away. Now let's get the final Ideya!"
They flew inside the capsule and destroys it, retrieving the final Ideya.
"We got the blue Ideya! We got all four Ideyas!" Dana cheered.
"Now let's stop that Nightmaren!" Sylvia said.
A rapid glow surrounds them and sends them upward into the dark abyss.
They find themselves in the aquatic tank in the aquarium, Sylvia and Dana looked down and realized that they're mermaids.
"Dana, look! We're mermaids!" Sylvia said, happily.
"I believe what you meant is… merfolks!" Dana replies.
"Oh yeah, I guess you're right."
"So what kind of place is this?"
"This is Gulpo's tank." NiGHTS told them.
"Gulpo? Who's that?" Claris asks.
"Gulpo is one Wizeman's henchmen and lives right here in this tank."
"This is just like a field trip to the aquarium."
"So where's Gulpo?"
"He should be here right about… now!"
They look at the giant blue piranha fish who roared and said, "Gulpo!"
"That's Gulpo?" Dana asks.
"Yes," NiGHTS said.
"I don't remember seeing that fish from the aquarium!" Claris said.
"It's because you had leftover fish for lunch, remember?" Sylvia said.
"Oh yeah, two days ago."
"GULPO!" The piranha screamed.
NiGHTS and the girls covered their ears as it roars.
"What are we gonna do now?" Sylvia asks.
Luckily, NiGHTS noticed the red fishes pointing straight at the blue piranhas.
"Girls, I have an idea. I'm gonna touch the red fish and I'll drill-dash into Gulpo and he will flipped upside down. Got it?"
The girls nodded in agreement. "Don't worry, NiGHTS. We'll help too!"
"Yeah, now let's take flight!"
NiGHTS flew over to the red fish and touches it, then drill-dash at Gulpo, making him upside down.
"Woah! Mother of Cracker Barrel!" Gulpo screamed.
The girls gasped. "The piranha can talk too?!"
"Yes he is!" NiGHTS called out.
"Since you drill-dashed me, I'm gonna let out my dark engery orbs!"
Gulpo let out his dark energy orbs and places inside of the red fishes.
"He has energy orbs?" Dana asks.
"Yes. Be careful, it might stung you!" NiGHTS told the girls.
"Mind if we join in?" Sylvia asks.
"Sure! C'mon!"
Sylvia swam over to red fish. "I'll go first!"
She touches it and she drill-dash into the piranha, making him upside down.
"Watch it!" Gulpo shouted.
"I'm next!" Dana said.
Dana touches the fish and drill-dash into the blue piranha with her mermaid tail.
"WOAH!" Gulpo yelled, turning him upside down.
"We'll go next!" Claris said to her friends.
NiGHTS drill-dashed towards the red fish and spins towards the Gulpo.
"Hey!" Gulpo screamed.
"Now for the paraloop!"
They paralooped around the blue piranha and sends him flying around.
"WOOOAH!" The piranha screamed.
Sylvia was about to touch the red fish, but gets stung by the dark energy orbs.
"Yow!" Sylvia screamed, but realized that she didn't wake up. "Huh? What happened?"
"Didn't you wake up?" Dana asks.
"I had no idea," Sylvia said, adjusting her glasses.
Dana pinched herself, but she didn't woke up. "That's weird!"
"Yeah, but let's keep fighting!"
"And look out for the dark energy orbs!"
Sylvia then touches the red without the energy orb and spins-attack him with her mermaid tail.
"What's your problem, mermaid!" Gulpo yelled at her.
"My turn!" Dana said, she then touched the red fish and charged at the piranha.
"You idiot!" The piranha called out.
"Now it's time for our final attack! Ready girls?" NiGHTS said to the girls.
"Yes we are!" They both said.
"Then let's… DRILL-DASH!"
NiGHTS and the girls touches the red fishes and attacks Gulpo.
"Ah, can't get up!" Gulpo groaned.
"Now for the paraloop!" NiGHTS said, he flys around, making a circle and the piranha began to shrank.
"I'll get you next time, NiGHTS… and friends!" Gulpo yelled, then vanished.
"Come on, let's go back to the Mystic Forest!" Claris said.
Then a rapid-glow surrounds them and they vanished into midair.
The girls had find themselves back in the Mystic Forest and they looked down at their legs.
"We're kids again," Dana said, sighing.
"Yeah, but that was fun!" Sylvia said.
The girls then saw Claris standing behind the Ideya palace.
"Looks like I'm me again," said Claris.
"Yeah, but NiGHTS disappeared!"
"They're gone to help our friends and the boy with blue hair."
All of a sudden, King Pian appeared in front of the girls.
"It's King Pian!" Sylvia said.
"Hey there, how's it going?" Dana questioned.
"It was great, but I wanna thank you for saving the Mystic Forest!" King Pian said.
"It was nothing, sir."
"We defeated the piranha named Gulpo!"
"And NiGHTS has gone out to help our friends and the blue-haired boy."
Claris looked concerned. "Yeah, I guess they are."
"But your work's not done yet! Head over to the final Nightopia! See you guys later!" King Pian said.
"Bye!" They said, then the king disappeared.
"You hear that? We're going to the final Nightopia." Sylvia whispered.
"Yeah, that'll way, we can save Nightopia!" Dana whispered back The girls noticed that Claris was feeling down.
"You okay, Claris?" Sylvia asks in worry.
"Yeah, I was just thinking about Elliot."
"Elliot?" Dana asks.
"Yeah, every time I saw him in class and the cafeteria at school, he noticed me."
"We didn't saw him through the window during music lessons," Dana said.
"But I saw him and he fell over."
"That's gotta hurt."
"But what are you gonna do?"
"I'm gonna take some time alone, thinking about him.
Claris then walks away as the girls looked at each other concerned.
"Did you really thinks Claris saw Elliot?" Sylvia whispered.
"Yeah, but we almost saw him!" Dana whispered.
"He and his friends must be right here in Nightopia!"
"Uh-huh, I wonder what they're doing now?"
"I think so."
The girls then looked at Claris, sitting on a stone while thinking about the blue-haired boy.