Spike’s assumption was correct since they saw lights coming from the structure and grublins moving about. Gilda was shocked, “I can’t believe they built a base down here.”
The Purple Dragon assured, “I can’t believe it either, but we have to get inside that base and find the Bowslinger. Everyone above is counting on us.”
Gilda understood, “The more time we take down here, the more damage that the diversionary force takes up there.”
Trail Blazer nodded, “Well let’s get in there!” Spike added, “Without raising the alarm…”
Sonic Boom understood what he meant, “The grublins are currently focused on the distraction team above. If they raise the alarm down here…” Ember finished, “They would know that they were tricked.”
Spike motioned the group to follow him to a piece of rock that stuck out from the walls of the chasm. They landed as they touched the stable cliff that had a path leading to the base. Spike followed up Ember’s statement,
“That’s why we need to take care of any grublins we encounter, but we need to do it as discreet as possible so they don’t raise the alarm.”
Sonic Boom spoke, “My babies can be discreet in taking down some of the guards.”
Gilda stated, “But we still need to find the Bowslinger. We need to take him down so that these things can crumble under confusion.”
Spike replied as his eyes glowed for a bit, “I can use my senses to follow his current trail and find him. But we also have the demolition team to worry about.”
Gilda realized, “Right, we have to deal with the demolition team so they don’t blow the city while the battle above is going on.”
Ember asked, “And if the alarm is raised?” Sonic Boom answered, “They will most certainly get to the surface to blow the city even quicker!”
Gilda looked at Spike, “Spike, you’ll have to go into the base on your own, find those bomb grublins and signal one of us to take them out.”
Spike nodded, “Bomb creeps first, then the Bowslinger.”
Gilda nodded, “Certainly. Let’s go give these dweebs a what for.”
Spike knew what she meant as he looked at the others, “Stay close to me, stay out of sight and wait for my signal.” The two griffins, the dragoness and the fire unicorn nodded in acknowledgement as Spike told Sonic Boom,
“Retract the barrier, Sonic Boom. We won’t need it anymore.” The mother griffin retracted the barrier as she noticed, “Wait, there’s no high winds here.”
Gilda asked, “Strange, how come there’s no high winds?” Spike stated, “It could be that the base has some sore of field to prevent winds from blowing the grublins off. Since we’re inside that field, we won’t have to worry about the wind.”
Trail Blazer was amused, “Saves us the trouble since the barrier would give us away.” With that being said, they split up as they kept track of Spike as he went towards the base.
In the Nightmare Realm, the four dragons have accepted the Sleep Dragon’s help and reached the Dream Sheep’s dominion. It was all well and good if not for the enemies that were in the way. As the Sleep Dragon took a little nap after carrying the four dragons, Blackout spoke to his friends,
“Princess Luna told us that the Dream Sheep has two large Nightmare Generators made to send his nightmares into the waking world. If we have any chance of stopping his never-ending nightmare, those generators must be destroyed!”
Spotlight added, “But when we destroy them, we would also alert the Dream Sheep to our presence.”
Blades stated, “I think he already knew that we were here when Bucktooth and Sheldon freed the first two Sages of Waking.”
Echo nodded, “We just to destroy the generators and get to his castle. And see the look on his face when we destroy those generators.”
Blackout mentioned, “We also need to watch out for the last of the Nightmare Gang - Russel Purplestache. He’s a deadly Nightmare Brawl and Chain and will do everything he can to stop us from reaching the Dream Sheep.”
“Har - Hargh, Blackout. So yer friends want to play ‘Pirate’ eh? Well I’ll play ‘Pirate’in me own way!” said a pirate voice as the four dragons looked up to see the Nightmare Brawl and Chain that they were talking about.
Blackout yelled, “Russel Purplestache!” The Nightmare Pirate pointed a hook at the black dragon, “The Dream Sheep’s got a nice bounty on yer head...and I aim to collect it!”
Spotlight stood beside Blackout, “You’re in for a big disappointment.”
Russel told his minions, “Go get ‘em me hardies! Take them down, spare the black one if ye can or take the white one!”
Russel’s forces attempted to strike at the four dragons but Blackout slammed his claws onto the ground as a shock wave blew the minions away while Blades used his wing strike to take down those pirates.
After the pirates were dealt with, Russel pointed his hook at the four, “Ye may have beaten me forces...but there are no stairs leading up to my level!” He motioned to the empty space beneath him. “I’ll be waiting for ya when ye catch up. Catch a barnacle while yer at it!” He laughed as he ran off.
Blades knew one thing, “He had a point, Blackout. I don’t see any stairs in sight.”
Blackout smiled as he said, “That’s because they are not in existence yet.” He grabbed a nearby lantern in his mouth as he dangled it towards the cliff and soon enough, the stairs appeared when the light from the lantern shined on it. The black dragon stated although muffled with the lantern in his mouth,
“And viola, the stairs are there!” Echo whistled and said, “It does make sense since we’re in the Nightmare Realm.”
Spotlight spoke, “In a realm where dreams and nightmares exist, some walkways are invisible, so the lantern is the only way of finding these paths.”
Blackout added, “For a limited amount of time before it disappears.” The four dragons hopped up the stairs before the lantern disappeared. Blades spotted another lantern, “I got this one!”
He went for the lantern and grabbed it in his mouth as several nightmare forces arrived. Blackout, Spotlight and Echo defeated the enemies as they followed Blades across the bridge and jumped a gap to find a group of turtle bombers as the armored dragon dropped the lantern and did a ground pound on the immediate area, knocking out the turtle bombers in the process. Blades looked to see the shattered lantern,
“Well, we can always find another one.”
Blackout nodded, “That’s why the lanterns are scattered all over the place.” He spotted a pedestal, “Wait, a Nightmare Page!”
The four dragons went to the pedestal as Blackout took the page and read, “Originally a Captain in the Nightmare Navy, Russel left the service when he accidentally cut the pants off of an Admiral while trying to shake his hand.”
Echo asked, “Why have hooks for hands anyway?”
Spotlight added, “If he knew that those hooks would give him problems, he would’ve replaced them.”
Blackout shook his head, “That guy just never thinks things through.”
Blades knew one thing, “That Admiral was embarrassed and furious at Russel for that.”
They sent the scroll to Luna as they continued on their way, using the lanterns to reveal hidden bridges and reach the first Nightmare Generator.
The Dream Sheep was watching their incursion in his dominion as he saw the Sleep Dragon helping them out. The sight of seeing his brain-dead minion helping out the Skylanders instead of taking care of them infuriated the Dream Sheep as he yelled,
“BLAST IT! My dim-witted dragon has gone against what I said! When I get my hooves on him, I’ll rip his scales off and mount them on my wall!”
Soon enough, an alarm rang as the image of the outer generator faded, a sign to show that it was destroyed. The Dream Sheep saw the image of Blackout and his friends cheering as they destroyed the generator and used the Sleep Dragon to get to the next area. The Dream Sheep, angry at this, radioed his minions and said,
“Attention all minions! It has come to my attention that some of you are not doing a very good job. So I ask all of you and the elite units, STOP THOSE SKYLANDERS AT ONCE!! BEWARE OF THE BLACK DRAGON! If his eyes start glowing red, don’t attack him!”
Several teams of the sheep’s minions have assembled to protect the inner generator from the dragons. What also concerned the Dream Sheep was the King of Dreams that Blackout is searching for. He thought,
“I just hope Blackout doesn’t figure out where the king is.”
The Dream Sheep also thought back to the Palace of Waking after he left…”When I left the palace, I thought I’d heard...singing and judging by the voice...it was Spotlight’s voice. Despite being a thorn in my side, she has a nice voice.” He realized, “And she used her voice to calm Blackout when he was the Red Eyes…”
The Dream Sheep thought about it and knew that if Plan A fails, he would have to go to Plan B and by the looks of it, the Skylanders were already mowing down his troops even the most elite units. He shook his head,
“What do I pay them for? All I ask is that my incompetent minions stop those Skylanders!” He sighed, “But even if they do reach the entrance to my castle, they would need the last Sage in order to reach me...but that Luna mare is an exception since she can explore dreams if she wanted to.”
Soon enough, another alarm went off as the image of the Inner Nightmare Generator faded. The Dream Sheep didn’t need to see what happened since he already knew that Blackout and his friends have destroyed the second generator. At this moment, the only protection that he could rely on is the barrier that only the Sages can break and since the Skylanders only have two, they need the last to break his barrier. It seemed like a couple of minutes have passed until the Sleep Dragon entered the sheep’s lair just when he was reading the bio on Russel Purplestache,
“Cut the pants off of an Admiral that he tried to shake hands with because of his hooks...has a fascination with miniature pirate ships in bottles...originally had a green mustache at birth, but turned purple due to his obsession with blackberry pie.”
The Dream Sheep turned on the intercom to the third prison when he noticed the Sleep Dragon’s presence,
“The next time I tell you to take care of the Skylanders, I want you to actually TAKE CARE OF THEM!”
The Sleep Dragon replied, “What? I did! I took very good care of them. You should have seen it.”
The sheep was severely irritated on the stupidity of his minions, “Arrgh! Clearly, I am surrounded by incompetents. But no matter, I STILL have ONE of those stupid Sages left. And without him, the Skylanders are OUT of luck! Especially Blackout!”
He spoke to the recently arrived Russel Purplestache and said, “That being said, this prison is getting filthy! And that’s where you come in my portly pirate villain!” He stated, “I order you to clean this prison - starting with those filthy sea-slugs that cover the walls!”
He instructed the pirate, “Use your hookshot on targets to move crates or rafts around. You must also use it to pull a sea-slug towards you. Once you pull a sea-slug towards you, you need to smash it!”
He made it clear, “You got that!” The pirate nodded through the monitor, “Good! Now go clean this mess up - AND WHATEVER YOU DO - do NOT go near the prisoner. You get me?”
He took the pirate’s silence as a yes as he turned to face his incompetent, dim-witted dragon as he said,
“You know, I could pretty much tell you to take a hike if you weren’t so vital to me right now. I told you to take care of those Skylanders and you disobeyed me!”
The Sleep Dragon replied, “But I was following your orders, I WAS taking care of them…”
“And that is what we are grateful for.”,said a familiar voice as Princess Luna appeared again.
The Sleep Dragon’s eyes widened, “Pr...Princess Luna...Wanderer of Dreams...here...and…” The Sleep Dragon fainted due to Luna’s presence as the Dream Sheep scoffed,
“Why is it that every time you or your sister appear, everyone near you faints at the drop of a hat!?”
Luna replied, “It’s because they respect us, respect the Skylanders as their protectors. While they fear you when they go to sleep.”
The Dream Sheep stated, “Well Malefor taught me one thing, better to be feared than respected.”
Luna shook her head, “You follow the teachings of a dragon bent on destroying us in order to get his own way. He believes that the true nature of the Purple Dragon is to destroy the world. My nephew does not believe anything that he says.”
The Dream Sheep asked, “Nephew?” Luna nodded, “My sister’s son, a Purple Dragon that faced Malefor and won.”
The sheep shrugged, “That’s all well and good, but would your nephew stop my nightmares from spreading into Skylands?”
Luna shook her head, “He’s busy right now, but Blackout can stop your Nightmare Curse.” She vanished as the Dream Sheep realized, “Right, there’s still Blackout and with the Red Eyes Black Dragon...I wouldn’t stand a chance.” Then he realized, “If Spotlight isn’t around that is…”
He began to bounce enthusiastically, “When I initiate Plan B, I would be taking Blackout with me, separating him from Spotlight and having him lose control of the Red Eyes!”
The Sleep Dragon woke up and asked, “What happened?”
The Dream Sheep said, “I just got a new idea!” The Dream Sheep was about to explain until the alarm went off as the sheep activated the camera to see in shock that Russel had freed the last Sage! He yelled,
“What? No! I said hook the Sea-Slugs not the prisoner’s cage! It must be all those barnacles in his ears.”
Russel yelled, “Wrong, It’s because Princess Luna gave me a job that means well and saw my potential. The joke’s on you, Dream Sheep!”
The Dream Sheep growled, “Grrr! Well that tears it! Blackout, Spotlight, Luna, you’ve all forced my hoof! PREPARE FOR - THE FINAL BATTLE!!”
Russel knew that the sheep is really angry as the Sage said, “Now we can put an end to the Dream Sheep’s Nightmarish Plan!”
The Nightmare Pirate nodded, “Follow me back to the entrance to his castle, your fellow sages and Blackout’s friends are waiting.” They soon left the prison.
At the entrance to the Dream Sheep’s Lair, Blackout, Spotlight, Blades and Echo were ready to confront the Dream Sheep since the Sleep Dragon returned to them after a little talk with the sheep. The four dragons looked at the three Sages that the redeemed villains rescued as the center sage spoke,
“Way to go! You found him! Now we can start our ritual that will break through the Dream Sheep’s defenses. Stand Back!”
The dragons stood back as the Sages of Waking generated enough of their magic to open the door to the Dream Sheep’s Lair. Once the ritual is complete, the Sage in the middle spoke,
“It is done. Hurry, Blackout. You and your friends need to get in there! I don’t know how long our magic will hold.”
Blackout smiled, “Thank you, Sages of Waking.”
The Sage reminded, “The Dream Sheep must be defeated in order for the Sleep Curse to be lifted for good. We are all counting on you four!”
Blackout nodded as he quickly glanced at his friends as they nodded. He looked at the open door as all four charged. Blackout yelled,
“WE’RE COMING FOR YOU, DREAM SHEEP!” They entered the door with the Sleep Dragon following behind.
Soon enough, they entered the battle arena that had an inactive portal, several spots on the floor and standing in the center of this arena - was the Dream Sheep. The Sleep Dragon approached his irritated master and gladly said,
“Here ya go, your evil wooly-ness; Blackout and his friends, safe and sound. Hehe. I took good care of them, just like you asked me to.”
The Dream Sheep yelled, “WHAT?! No, you stupid sauropod! When I said “take care of them” I meant “TAKE CARE OF THEM!!!” He decided, “Aaarrrggh! You know what? It doesn’t matter. And you know why?”
Blackout asked, “Because Evil Dictators like you never win?”
The Sheep looked at the black dragon, “Because despite my dragon’s incompetent bungling, he still managed to deliver you and your friends to your ultimate doom!”
Spotlight asked, “Even with your plan in ruins, you really want to fight us again?”
The Dream Sheep nodded, “Because one, I’m an evil dictator of dreams and two, Blackout ruined my first plan all those years ago leaving me trapped in the book!”
Spotlight’s eyes briefly flashed blue before returning to white, “So it’s a battle then.”
Blackout’s eyes flashed red before returning to white, “Bring it on!”
The Dream Sheep turned to the Sleep Dragon, “Now, get over there at once. I want to take care of the Skylanders myself.”
The Sleep Dragon cheered, YAY! “Take care of them!” They’ll be ever so happy.”
The Dream Sheep yelled, “NO! Not “Take care of them,” I mean… GHA! NEVER MIND!”
The Sleep Dragon went over to the sheep as the evil sheep hopped onto the dragon’s back as he laughed. He ordered the dragon,
“Come on, SLAM THEM!” The Sleep Dragon performed a tail slam as the four small dragons scattered around the arena.
The Dream Sheep shouted, “There’s no escape! SQUASH THE SKYLANDERS!” The Sleep Dragon performed the shockwave attack, but t didn’t hit the four dragons as they dodged it. The Dream Sheep pointed at Blades as he said to the Sleep Dragon,
“Come on! PUSH THE ARMORED DRAGON BACK!”
Blades caught wind of this as the Sleep Dragon flapped his wings forward causing the gusts to almost push him over the edge of the arena, if Blades didn’t counter it with a cyclone swirl which absorbed the gusts from the wings. It caused him to slam into the barrier that protects the Dream Sheep and the Sleep Dragon, shattering it in the process. The Dream Sheep yelled,
“NOO!! That barrier was supposed to protect me! How is it possible?!”
Blades smiled, “Anything is possible.” He looked to a certain water dragoness, “Hit it Echo!”
Echo sang a lullaby which put the Sleep Dragon to...well...sleep while the Dream Sheep fell off his bumbling lizard. The Dream Sheep was now vulnerable to Blackout’s Wing Whips and Spotlight’s Eye Beams and Golden Rings.
The Dream Sheep couldn’t dodge fast enough because the duo moved faster than him as they attacked him at any chance they got before Echo’s Lullaby wears off. The Dream Sheep’s cries for the Sleep Dragon to wake up didn’t work, even offering him bacon didn’t work because of the lullaby. Sometime after a few more strikes, Echo’s lullaby wore off as the Sleep Dragon got up and the Dream Sheep got onto the large dragon.
He ordered the Sleep Dragon, “SLAM THEM RIGHT ON THE HEAD!” The Sleep Dragon did a tail slam as the smaller dragons scattered while avoiding the pillars of fire that came out from the grates on the floor. The Dream Sheep looked at Echo and ordered the Sleep Dragon,
“POWER SLAM THAT LOUD DRAGON!” The Sleep Dragon twirled his tail before bringing it down on where Echo was standing, but she avoided it as the sleep ball got stuck. The Dream Sheep yelled at his pet to get the sleep ball out until it was knocked off by Blades and flung it at the Sleep Dragon, knocking him out and flinging the Dream Sheep off of the dragon. Now vulnerable to Echo’s sound bubbles and Blades wing strikes while Spotlight shot a golden ring at the sheep with Blackout performing a Shadow Strike which has him teleport to the sheep attack and teleport out.
The Dream Sheep was hit multiple times by this attack until the Sleep Dragon woke up and the sheep got back on the larger dragon. He yelled, “Minions - FORWARD!!”
He summoned his minions to try and stop the four dragons, but they already had a trick up their sleeve. Blackout shouted,
“Russel, we need your help!” Russel Purplestache appeared in a flash of light and began swinging his hooks at any enemies in his path. The dragons took down the rest as Russel yelled,
“Break Time for me!” He returned to Luna as the Dream Sheep yelled, “SQUASH THEM! SQUASH EVERYTHING IN SIGHT!!”
The Sleep Dragon did the shockwave move, but had the same results as last time. He ordered the Sleep Dragon to do a tail slam and the four dragons scattered as the tail hit where they were standing.
Blackout spoke, “Looks like we’re doing great at dodging these attacks of yours!”
Spotlight added, “We’ll have you defeated in no time!”
Blades spoke as he dodged a shockwave, “And caught as well!”
Echo stated, “Your nightmares will never silence us!”
The Dream Sheep growled, “It’s not over yet, troublesome fools!” He told the larger dragon, “SPIN THAT TAIL!”
The Sleep Dragon did a tail spin attack which the four smaller dragons timed perfectly as they dodged the attack. The Dream Sheep yelled,
“You may have dodged that attack, but lets see how well you can dodge A STORM OF FIREBALLS!!”
The Sleep Dragon sat down and shot fireballs from his mouth as they rained down upon the four dragons. But Blackout was in a good position to attack the Sleep Dragon’s tail and chipped the sleep ball off of him. As the Sleep Dragon was licking his tail, the black dragon thew the sleep ball at him, knocking him out and throwing the Dream Sheep off of his back and landing right next to Blackout. The black dragon looked at the sheep as he said,
“Oh, nice of you to drop in.” The Dream Sheep said, “This is my dominion, Blackout!”
Blackout grinned, “But it doesn’t mean that I can still hurt you.” His eyes turned red as he opened his mouth, channeling an ability of the Red-Eyes Black Dragon as he mentally yelled,
“RED EYES INFERNO FIRE BLAST!” Blackout unleashed his fire blast at the Dream Sheep which knocked the dictator of dreams close to the edge which also awoken the Sleep Dragon. He asked,
“What? What’s that smell? Is it bacon?”
Blackout’s eyes returned to normal as the three dragons joined him as they saw the Dream Sheep struggling to get up. The sheep glared at Blackout,
“You... YOU RUINED EVERYTHING! My glorious plans for bringing the ultimate Nightmare to Skylands...ALL IN RUINS! BECAUSE OF YOU!!”
Blackout stated, “You lost, Dream Sheep. I suggest that you surrender and tell us where the King of Dreams is.”
The sheep chuckled, “Surrender? You think I would just surrender to the likes of you so easily?” What you didn’t realize, Blackout was that this was only Plan A!”
Before the four dragons could understand what he meant, a portal opened up as the Dream Sheep limped his way to the Sleep Dragon, “And now, it’s time to go to Plan B!” The Sleep Dragon took off with the Dream Sheep on his back as the sheep said, “But if I’m leaving this place, I’M TAKING YOU WITH ME!!”
The Sleep Dragon grabbed Blackout as the black dragon yelped in shock as he and the Dream Sheep fled into the portal as Spotlight yelled, “BLACKOUT!!”
The Light Dragoness jumped into the portal, chasing after them.
Inside the space between portals, Spotlight chased the Dream Sheep in order to get Blackout back. Using her wings to gain speed in order to catch up, Spotlight relentlessly pursued the sheep through this space until she managed to get close to the Sleep Dragon when the Dream Sheep noticed her,
“You again? You can never be away from Blackout can you?” Spotlight yelled, “Blackout’s not going anywhere with you! I will get him back!”
The sheep sighed, “We’ll see about that!” He told the larger dragon, “Hey, pea-brain! Swing that tail so we can throw Spotlight off of our path!”
The Sleep Dragon swung his tail mid-flight in order to shake the smaller dragoness off of them. But when it comes to Blackout in danger, Spotlight was incredibly agile in flight as she evaded the Sleep Dragon’s tail and flew between his hind legs as she moved underneath the large dragon.
The Dream Sheep noticed this as he yelled, “She’s underneath us! SHAKE HER OFF!”
The Sleep Dragon was doing his best to try and shake Spotlight out from under him, but she timed herself with his movements and remained under the larger dragon until she reached the forepaws of the larger dragon where Blackout was being held as he struggled to get himself free until he noticed Spotlight,
“Spotlight, you shouldn’t have come for me…” The dragoness stated, “Don’t give me that, Blackout. We’ve been through this thousands of times. No matter where you go, I go as well.”
Blackout saw that sparkling notion in the dragoness’ eyes which only occurs when they make eye contact. He understood why she came for him as he said, “Okay, but help me out of his grip.”
Spotlight tried many times to pull Blackout free while trying to keep herself close to him. This was certainly frustrating to Spotlight to the point that her eyes began to glow blue as she opened her mouth as rows of small sharp teeth became visible in her mouth. Spotlight clamped her mouth on the claw that held Blackout as the Sleep Dragon felt a sting of pain in his claw as he released his grip on Blackout to retract his right forepaw. Blackout flew from the Sleep Dragons claw and into the arms of Spotlight as they heard the Dream Sheep yell,
“YOU IMBECILE! YOU DROPPED HIM!”
The Sleep Dragon apologized, “I’m sorry, the white dragoness bit me!”
As the Dream Sheep got some distance between Spotlight and Blackout, the two dragons had no doubt that they were going wherever the Dream Sheep was going. But right now they were in a momentary embrace as Spotlight said,
“I’m not losing you again, Blackout.”
Blackout replied as their muzzles touched, “We are together through and through, Spotlight. In and out of battle.”
Spotlight wrapped her wings around Blackout embracing him some more while Blackout’s wings kept them moving to their destination. Blackout told Spotlight,
“What matters now is that we are pursuing the Dream Sheep and we will finish this.”
Spotlight released herself from Blackout as she said, “Together.”
As the light showing the exit point appeared, the two dragons knew that wherever the Dream Sheep has gone, he won’t get far with Spotlight and Blackout pursuing him.