INSIDE HEADQUARTERS:

Fear was upset over having to do Dream Duty that night. Sure, every emotion not named Joy was not a fan of Dream Duty, but they all did it without complaining. Fear however absolutely hated Dream Duty the most. From facing nightmares, to predictable and boring scripted dreams.

"Here we again with another session of stupid Dream Duty." Fear grumbled, as he dragged his chair from behind him, while holding his cup of coffee. He was not looking forward to this.

The screen turned on, portraying Riley's dream. What Fear saw was Riley playing hockey. But he did notice that something was off. But he couldn't figure out what exactly it was.

"So, we're playing hockey tonight hm?" Fear muttered, uncaringly. "Let me guess, we're not winning right now." He said, as if he knew right away what Dream Productions was doing.

The camera in Riley's dream then turned to the scoreboard and just as Fear had predicted, Riley's team was losing 3-1, the exact score Riley's team was losing by, before they came back to win the game 5-4.

"Called it!" Fear said rather proudly.

However what Fear (and Dream Productions) didn't know, was that Riley happened to be lucid dreaming that night, and somehow had control of the camera that was supposed to be playing as her. Fear, however, did notice that something was wrong with the dream.

"What is going on down there?" Fear asked inquisitively.

What Fear saw was the camera moving rather unnaturally. Almost as if there was an outside force controlling the camera. He didn't see the portal that Riley would inevitably get pushed into open up.

"Should I…wake Riley up?" Fear asked himself. He knew that Anger and Disgust told him not to wake Riley up early again like last time. But he was getting concerned. Both for Riley, and for Dream Productions, as something seemed to be wrong down there.

Then, all of a sudden, the screen in Headquarters inexplicably went completely black, not surprisingly shocking Fear.

"Wh-what happened? Where's the screen?" Fear said as he began to grow more and more nervous. "D-did I break it? Is Riley okay?" Fear began babbling.

Fear turned around and saw that it wasn't just the screen. The power seemed to be out in Headquarters. He began to panic and was considering waking the others up. He knew the others wouldn't be happy being woken up like this, but he needed them to know.

"Guys! Guys wake up! There's something wrong down here! I could really use some help!" Fear screamed as he ran around. The noise he was making slowly woke everyone else up.

Anger emerged from his room, of course, angry. "What are you doing you purple nerve?" Anger asked, very much angry.

"And why are there no lights on?" Joy asked.

"I-I I don't know. One minute the dream was going on just fine, a-and then the next, everything went black!" Fear stuttered as he was seen cowering under the desk, in of course fear.

"You idiot! Just relax will ya? It's just a simple power outage." Anger said, in a cranky tone. He was not happy at the rude awakening and was even more upset that it was seemingly all for nothing.

"I don't think this is a simple power outage." Sadness said in a thoughtful voice. "This is something different."

"Ugh, the lights are out. This is a nightmare. How are we supposed to see?" Disgust asked, rather annoyed. She shared Anger's displeasure at the situation, but her annoyance was for a different reason.

"Okay Fear, just calmly explain exactly what happened before we all got here." Joy said, in a reassuring voice.

Fear took several deep breaths (much to Anger and Disgust's absolute annoyance) and finally managed to explain what happened.

"Okay, so it was just another boring Dream Duty. The dream was Riley playing in the hockey game we just played in most recently. I noticed that there was something different with the dream. As if it were being messed with. The camera was moving in unnatural ways. Then, out of nowhere, the dream just cut off and everything went black." Fear explained.

The emotions listened to Fear's explanation. Sadness was concerned, Disgust and Anger were annoyed, while Joy was simply confused. Then Sadness had an idea.

"Joy, follow me." Sadness said, as she and Joy, followed by the other emotions, made their way to the library of Mind Manuals, towards the back of Headquarters. Sadness had spent most of her first 11 years back there reading them, because she was never allowed near the console.

"I think I read something like before in one of these manuals." Sadness said, as she started flipping through each one, trying to find where she saw the fact. Then she found it.

"Ah here. Joy, come closer, I need light." Sadness said, as she began to read to the other emotions what the Mind Manual said.

HEADQUARTERS POWER OUTAGE

If the power goes out in Headquarters, as well as everywhere else in Mind World, There are a number of possibilities. The most logical one is that the host is lucid dreaming. If this is the case, then nothing will work in Headquarters, or the rest of Mind World.

Sadness finished reading and looked up to see her peers reactions. Fear was the only one who seemed alarmed at what was going on.

"L-lucid dreaming?! That's dangerous! What if Riley gets hurt? What if she dies? What if WE die?" Fear shrieked as her ran all over Headquarters screaming like crazy.

"Anger, can you calm him down?" Joy asked, as she facepalmed.

Anger smirked, then walked into the middle of the room and simply held up his fist, and right on time, Fear ran into Fear's fist, and he fell down upon colliding impact.

"Ugh. Thank you. He gets super annoying like that." Disgust said, rolling her eyes.

"My pleasure." Anger said with a satisfied smirk.

"Okay listen. We don't even know if Riley is lucid dreaming. Like the manual said, there are a number of possibilities." Joy said.

"Well then how are we supposed to figure out what's going on?" Disgust asked in an annoyed tone. She did not like this situation one bit.

"That's easy, you use the wireless phone over there that doesn't require power to use to contact the other parts of Mind World and see if they're also going through a power outage." Joy said to Disgust.

"Ugh, yeah sure whatever." Disgust said, as she rolled her eyes and walked away to the wireless phone.

Joy then turned to Anger, "You go down to the Personality Islands and make sure that they're all still powered on. I know the Core Memories are still plugged in, but it doesn't hurt to check." Joy said.

"Might be useful, So yeah I can do that. Since there's nothing to do right now." Anger said.

Joy turned to Fear, helping him up. "Fear, I want you to open the circuit box over there and mess with the wires and switches, unless Disgust says the power is out for everyone." Joy said.

"You sure I won't get hurt? And Riley won't get hurt?" Fear asked nervously, as he started shaking where he stood.

Joy simply laughed in her usual cheerful mood. "Yes Fear. Nothing is going to happen to you or to Riley. And we're making sure of that right now aren't we?" Joy asked rather teasingly. Fear stood up and slowly made his way over to the circuit box.

Then Joy turned to Sadness, who as usual looked down. Sadness was used to Joy excluding her from the group. However, ever since their adventure in Mind World, Joy and Sadness had become the best of friends.

"Sadness, While I mess around with the console and see if anything works, I want you to try and recall any one of Riley's memories just to see if at least that is working." Joy said.

Sadness had a small smile on her face. She finally felt needed and felt included. Even though things had gotten better for Sadness since her and Joy's adventure, she still sometimes felt as if there would be a day when she would be excluded again.

"Sure, thing Joy." Sadness said, with a slight hint of happiness in her voice.

"Alright everyone! You know your jobs right now! We have to get started on it right away-"

Joy was in the middle of speaking, when out of nowhere, there was a knock on the door, stopping Joy mid-sentence, as she and the rest of the emotions looked in the direction of the door, wondering who would be showing up at this ungodly hour.

"Now who could that be?" Joy asked as the other emotions gathered together.

The knocking on the door came again, for at least another 3 seconds. The emotions were torn whether or not to open the door.

"Should we open the door?" Sadness asked.

"Of course not!" Fear said almost immediately. "What if it's dangerous?" He said while shaking.

"Relax. Im sure its just a mind worker." Joy said.

"Ugh whatever. Just open the stupid door or don't." Disgust said while crossing her arms.

"If it's a prank, we will get them back!" Anger said proudly.

"I'm going to open the door." Joy said as she turned around.

Joy started walking towards the door. A strange tense feeling came creeping through her. Almost like Fear was controlling her. But she powered through and placed her hand on the doorknob. She turned around to the other emotions, who nodded their heads in approval.

"Do it." Sadness said simply.

Joy turned back and slowly opened the door and saw the most amazing sight she, as well as anyone in Mind World could ever see: their host, 11 year old Riley Andersen herself, barefoot and in her pajamas.