You might have new abilities, but they’re still limited. Fighting a bunch of Shadows is just going to tire you and Melcar out and Melcar needs all of his energy to cast the portal spell.

“Let’s barricade the house.” You say.
“Alright, but I have to look for that spell first, so you’ll be doing most of the barricading. Hopefully it doesn’t take me too long.”
“Oh, well maybe I can get Stinky to help me.”
“Good idea, I would imagine he’ll be able to at least be useful in that aspect. Make sure you stay focused and block out any of those Shadow tricks or anything the Nightmare Tyrant might try to do to your mind.”

You take Melcar’s advice and go talk to Stinky. He’s still in a state of panic, and gibbering about the Shadows trying to get in.

“Hey, help me barricade the house.”
“But what good will that do? Trapping ourselves in won’t help! They’ll get in eventually!”
“Look, we’ve got a plan so that the Shadows won’t bother you ever again, but I need you to pull it off and that involves you helping me barricade the house! You’re braver than you think Stinky, look at me, I didn’t think I could fight the Shadows either and I did.”
“Yeah, but I don’t have any powers like you do and Chargrum always said that I was too…”
“Chargrum isn’t around anymore to abuse you, so his opinion doesn’t matter, in fact it never did. You’re better off not thinking about anything he might’ve said about you. You can do this. Now’s the time to prove yourself.”

Your inspiring words make Stinky feel more confident in himself, probably for the first time in his life. He immediately thanks you, and begins to help you barricade the house. You spend a whole day doing this mainly because Melcar has a really hard time finding anything in his disorganized lab. You mainly focus on the task at hand as does Stinky, but your thoughts briefly wander about your home. If…no WHEN you get back home, you don’t know how you’re going to explain your disappearance to your Mom. You can’t dwell on such things too much though, you need to keep yourself alert.

Eventually Melcar comes back up from his lab.

“Found it. Now I’m going to go back down into the basement and begin the spell because it’ll be the safest place I’ll be able to cast it. I hope your barricades are strong enough to hold because I won’t be able to fight Shadows AND cast this spell. If the Shadows do manage to break in, well its going to be up to you to fight them off.”
“And me…” Stinky pipes up.
“…well, this is a surprise. Okay, the both of you then, here Stinky you’ll need something magical to fight them.” Melcar hands Stinky a wand of some sort. “Make the shots count, because I forget how many charges it has left in it. Okay I would suggest you two guard the basement doorway and when I tell you the portal is open that will be your cue to make haste into it, because again, I don’t know how long I can keep it open. You guys ready?”

You and Stinky nod.

“Okay, I’m going to dispel the barrier.”

Melcar makes a few chanting noises and the barrier goes down where upon you hear the Shadows howling in excitement and start trying to bash their way in. You all retreat back to the basement, where you and Stinky prepare yourselves for an attack and Melcar begins to cast the Portal Spell.

All seems to be going smoothly, but then you hear the inevitable break in, and the first Shadows attempt to recapture you. Fortunately you’re in a good position to fight them. They can’t overwhelm or sneak up on you. After striking a few down, a smaller Shadow appears and sounds painfully familiar…

“YOU did this to me! Now I’ll do what I wanted to do in the first place! Throw you to the Nightmare Tyrant!” Chargrum hisses in his new Shadow form.

You take a swing at Chargrum, but you miss and end up falling off balance causing you to fall down the steps! You’re hurt, and very dizzy, but you can see Stinky trying to fight off Chargrum. He discharges a bolt from the wand, but once again Chargrum proves to be very nimble in his new form and knocks it out of his hand and him to the floor.

“Outta the way Stinky! When ya get turned into one of us, I’ll make sure to really punish you, for you traitor!”

Chargrum races down the stairs towards you, just as you see Stinky getting swarmed by other Shadows at the top of the stairs. You roll out the way of Chargrum’s clutches and pick your sword back up.

“Better put down those Shadows quickly! I’m not near done yet!” Melcar shouts from his own position after seeing you engaged in combat with Chargrum.

You strike down a couple more Shadows, but Chargrum continues to prove to be faster. He manages to knock you down again and jumps on top of you as your sword is separated from you.

“The Nightmare Tyrant wants to relay a message to you!” he hisses and you feel the sinister voice of Tyrant entering your mind again.

“You’ve lost! You cannot defeat me, I am everywhere. You WILL submit and become my servant!”

The Nightmare Tyrant is attempting to break your will and fill you with terror again, but it’s not going to work this time, you can feel that victory is almost near and the Tyrant probably feels it too. He knows that if you get away back to your own world that he’ll never be able to try to get you ever again. You won’t be beaten after coming this far, all you need is a distraction to help you get your sword back and Chargrum off of you…

And with that thought in mind, Stinky comes from out of nowhere and zaps Chargrum point blank in the back with his wand. He screeches horribly as he disappears before your eyes.

“Should’ve watched your back around a traitor like me, Chargrum.” Stinky smirks as you scramble to retrieve your sword.

You strike down a few more Shadows, and try to hold them back at the bottom of the stairway. Stinky’s wand has run out of charges, but the better news is that Melcar has completed the portal spell! A large blue portal opens up. Now you can hear the Nightmare Tyrant very clearly.

“NO! GET THE BOY! NOW!” he roars.

“It’s open! Get in quick! I don’t know how long it will hold!” Melcar shouts.

“Go! We’ll be alright! We can hold them off!” Stinky adds.
“I can’t leave you without a weapon!” you shout and hand Stinky the sword, at which point he hands you the used up wand.
“It’s not much, but think of it as a souvenir! Thanks for your help!” he shouts as fights off more Shadows coming down the stairs.

You run towards the portal and give Melcar a look before jumping in.

“Stinky’s right, we’ll be fine, though I’m sure my wife will yell at me for destroying half the house! Get in!”

You’re sort of worried about Stinky and Melcar, but you realize you have to go now. The Nightmare Tyrant bellows again to his minions about not letting you escape as you run for the portal and entering it.

You are enveloped by blackness followed by swirling colored lights. It’s all so strange and overwhelming to you that you pass out.

“Hey! I told you breakfast is ready, are you going to sleep all day?” you hear your Mom call from downstairs as you awaken in surprise.

You quickly look around your room and nothing looks out of place. Your Mom hasn’t seemed to notice that you were gone; in fact it doesn’t look like you even left.

Was it all a dream?

You shake your head trying to decide if it was, then you notice a small rod on the floor next to the toys you set up yesterday. It’s the used up wand and oddly it’s right next to a couple of figures, one holding a sword and another with his hands positioned to cast a spell. They strangely have a tired, but yet relieved look on their faces.

It wasn’t a dream. It was real. Created by the power of your own imagination. You decide you’ll keep this information to yourself though, since nobody would ever believe it!

You had an interesting adventure, but you’re glad to be home you think as you go downstairs to eat.