Beyond the mist...

"Welcome, Daydream Sprites!" Aibrean called out to her own crowd, trying to calm it and get everyone's attention. While they didn't have a set leader yet she'd become somewhat of a surrogate, told by the Prince and Princess that they would make an appearance later when the forces were a little more organized. She'd begrudgingly agreed, mostly out of loyalty alone; she would much rather be out looking for the book that was stolen. "We will now begin construction on our Daydream Fortress! In order to win this war we're going to need a good defense and a sturdy base of operations. Please, go out and find the best materials you can to help us build it! I promise you'll be well rewarded!" she coughed a little at the end of her speech, having tried her best to sound serious as she could for her small size and accomplishing it...for a few sentences. Thankfully her followers were more than happy to go out and do what she asked no matter how she asked it--the promise of a reward didn't hurt either!

In the furthest reaches of Darkwood Hollow the imps had, too, begun to gather. They all circled around Robin as he stood proudly on a rotting stump, clawed hands extended outwards to catch the attention of his wild followers. The smile on his face seemed permenantly stuck there, the imp beaming from ear to ear. He was beyond excited and couldn't be happier that people actually trusted him with this! After all his mistakes in the past he still had a chance at redemption!

"Hey, Nightmare Imps!" he called out, everyone falling quiet (or as quiet as imps could be) and turning to look at him expectantly. He put his hands on his hips and smirked haughtily. "We need a place to call headquarters before we get this show on the road, don't we? Well, it's not gunna build itself!" he laughed at that, a few imps already groaning at what he was implying. "That's right! We're gunna build the best Nightmare HQ that Mistica's ever seen! Go out there and get the craziest," he paused, leaning in to punctuate each word as he looked at a different imp in the crowd. "most twisted, nightmarish, scary materials you can find! I'm pretty sure you'll know 'em when you see 'em."

The imps rushed out into the world to find said materials, but Robin turned the other way and had no intentions of helping them gather it. A thoughtful look crossed his face as he glanced down at a crudely drawn map in his hands, the young imp apparently heading off on an adventure all his own. They could handle it; besides, he had much more important things to worry about...

Let the Restock Wars Begin!

"Ahem, attention Misticans! Please join the Sprites in our attempt to stop the chaos that the imps are planning and help us save Mistica! I promise that we'll have lots of fun while doing it, too..." she trailed off, her eyes roaming over the crowd and imagining all those watching from home. Some of the color drained away from her face at the thought and she swallowed hard before continuing. 

"But we can't allow them to just continue causing trouble for everyone without consequences, so we'll win in style again--"

"No way!" a familiar voice cut in, the fiery-haired imp leaping up to stand on the stage beside her and casually push his way in to take over the podium, having to lean down a fair bit in order to properly speak into the microphone with a mischievous grin. "We're gunna win it this year! And we don't have any 'dastardly plans', by the way, just an awesome prank war! So join the imps if you want to have some real fun instead of being so serious~" he smiled, spotting Officer Coppa in the crowd as he moved through to try and detain the young imp while he had the chance. Robin's eyes widened and he bolted off the stage, a few of his followers already scattering out from the crowd to follow him, all of them laughing wildly. Aibrean just shook her head, standing on tiptoe to reach the microphone again.

“Crisis averted, but now to begin looking into what this book says.” Robin’s eyes lit up as he plopped down against a tree and prepared to open the curious book when another imp ran up, followed by another exact copy of him. Oh wait, those were the twins. He had nearly forgotten that they'd been among the first to join his crusade.

“So...many of us are wondering who our next target is. That Coppa person is beginning to get suspicious and no matter what we do or how careful we are, everyone is nearly catching us.” The older twin said.

“Yeah, and we’re pretty sure they already know it’s us, too. So do we stick to the shadows or reveal ourselves?” The other twin remarked with a hopeful grin. Robin tapped his chin as he thought. It was fun to stay anonymous, but he remembered back all those years to the beginning of the wars they used to have with the sprites. Well, calling it ‘war’ that first year wasn’t too accurate. It had been fun. Which was why he gathered up the imps he knew would listen to his idea and came here.

“Say, you know what we need?” The two leaned in closer, looking quite interested in the mischievous smile plastered on their leader’s face.

“We need a base, a headquarters. So how about we make one?” The whoops and hollers of excitement he elicited from the two were pleasing as they raced off to tell the others the news. Well now, there was only one more thing to do...

Beyond the trees lay a group of concerned villagers and Officer Coppa once more giving his speech about reporting anything suspicious. Robin had heard it plenty of times, even to the point where he mimicked him just out of view. He held up his hand where a Nightmare Fairy glowed ominously.

“You ready for a bullseye?” Robin whispered excitedly, looking up at Coppa. Whether the fairy understood or not, it remained in his hand, eyes fixated on the target. Three, two--No, move out of the way person!--There, an opening! He tossed the fairy with perfect accuracy, the pal slamming into the side of the officer's face. The imp hopped up on a tree branch in full view to take responsibility for his action.

“YOU!” Coppa bellowed, struggling to get the fairy off his face.

However, it was rather strange; the first few pages told of the beginnings of the daydreams and nightmares. It spoke of a time where Misticans never stared off into nowhere and daydreamed, nor had terrorizing dreams that woke them up in the middle of the night. Yet, past the preface of the book, the pages were blank.

“This is a nightmare…it doesn’t look as if the pages were tampered with, almost as if there were no words printed on them to begin with?” The small sprite furrowed her eyebrows, flipping through the rest of the book. There had to be a mistake. Surely there must be some secret in uncovering what the book once held. The library had been completely silent today, only one person having entered, so even the librarians were in the back and were nowhere to be seen. Behind her, the door to the building opened, setting off a little bell.

She listened carefully, but there were no footsteps suggesting someone had actually come in, even as the door closed. A shiver went down her spine and she glanced behind her; no, nothing there. The lights were bright, warding off all shadows she could see despite how late in the night it was. A rustle brought her attention back to where the book was.

Correction: where the book had been. 

Aibrean let out a loud “HEY!” and turned to chase whoever was scampering off with the book, catching sight of a figure which darted out of the building and into the trees nearby. Oh no! She lost it!

"Strange crimes and events are happening around Mistica, and while we are aware of them we currently have no leads on who this criminal or organization is. The crimes have so far been minor, such as leaving threatening notes and defacing public and private property, but we may have reason to believe they are now devolving and have the potential to become dangerous. If you have any information you are encouraged to contact the Mistica P.D.--"

"Minor crimes?" an indignant voice rose up out of the crowd, cutting off Coppa mid-sentence. The officer flinched in surprise and looked down into the group that had gathered for the announcement, a figure dressed in the finest clothing making his way up the stairs of the podium to address them himself. The crowd gasped in horror, a few raising their hands to stifle a laugh.

It was Lance, though he didn't quite seem like himself...

"You call this a minor crime?!" he asked, the cheran barely able to keep his normal aloof image together as he gestured to his hair, hand shaking faintly in anger. "This uncultured swine had the audacity to ruin my public image! How will anyone take Flashy Fashion seriously now that its owner is neither flashy nor fashionable? They could have very well ruined me...who knows how long this will take to get out? If you ask me it's more than obvious who's responsible for this..." he huffed, crossing his arms over his chest and glaring at nothing in particular. Officer Coppa raised his hands up and did his best to get the crowd under control again, addressing them more firmly.

"I can assure you that we are taking this anonymous threat very seriously, but we have no intention of making false accusations. Please alert the authorities as soon as possible if you see anything strange. Thank you." The crowd wasn't willing to argue with the officer any further, but they left with grumbles and whispers about what was happening and who they thought was responsible.