The Nightmare Man Strikes!

The Nightmare Man Strikes! is the 24th episode of Season 9.

Summary
Greg is kidnapped by the Nightmare Man and he is feeding on his nightmares. Now it's up to Conner, Amaya, Captain Jake, and Kwazii to save him by facing their own fears before they are trapped in their own nightmares!

Plot
The episode starts with Conner sleeping in his bedroom dreaming about a circus full of cats as acrobats, clowns, and his friends doing some funny acts and magic, when a knock on his bedroom door woke him up. He gets up from his bed and opens it to find Amaya and Captain Jake looking anxious and worried, so he asks them what's up. After breathing calm, they both said at the same time "Greg is missing!"

At Greg's house, the trio, along with Kwazii, saw Greg's mother sitting on a chair with her face planted on her hands, crying about her son's disappearance and Greg's father trying to comfort her by patting her back and giving her a glass of water but nothing seemed to work. Kwazii goes to Greg's parents and asks them what happened as his (Greg's) mother explain that this morning, when she was calling her son to come down for breakfast, he didn't come so she decides to go up to his room but when she got upstairs, she finds that Greg's bedroom door was smashed and his bed was empty!

Telling the story then made Greg's mom faint just when her husband caught her just in time before she hit the floor. Captain Jake then suggests that they should go up to Greg's bedroom to find any clues that might lead them to their friend and then rescue him. As they went upstairs, they find a big hole on the door, Greg's terrified pet lizard, and Greg's bed undone. Amaya picks up the splinters scattered all over the floor and fixes her glasses to examine it, then says that the door is made of sycamore wood so the kidnapper must be really strong to bust through and grab Greg last night.

Conner sits down on Greg's bed but then he begins to jump up and sob uncontrollably as Kwazii and Captain Jake helped him calm down. As he stopped crying, Conner tells them that he sat on something invisible and gooey just when Amaya goes to the bed and then starts crying too as she touched it, then jumped too. Kwazii uses his super sight to see some black goo while Amaya wiped the tears off her eyes, then he uses his super smell to sniff at it, only it smelled like copper so it must be blood.

Kwazii thinks that if the kidnapper is bleeding, then Greg must have hurt it. After exiting the bedroom, the gang says goodbye to Greg's parents and rushed off to follow Kwazii who was on the trail of invisible blood thanks to his super sight but then they stopped dead on their tracks as they arrived at the Enchanted Forest. They decide to take a break but as they sat down, Conner felt like crying again as he jumped up and straightened himself while Kwazii uses his super sight again to find another blob of invisible black blood on the rock. Right then, they were back on the track and they continued following the trail.

Again, after going deeper into the forest, the gang grew tired and are out of breath. So they decide to go for a snack break while Conner climbs up on a nearby tree to get a better view but as he was nibbling on his oatmeal cookie, a flock of black ravens swooped down towards him and try to attack him. Conner tried his best to shoo the birds away but his lost his balance and fell off the branch. His friends saw him falling and ran to catch him but before they could, a gigantic figure caught Conner and saves him just in the nick of time before he could hit the ground. After setting him down on the ground to meet his friends, Conner thanks the troll for saving him and introduces himself to him as he introduced his friends to the troll.

The troll then introduces himself as Twig and Captain Jake tells him about finding Greg because he went missing. Listening very carefully, Twig decides to lead them deeper to the forest to get help. As they arrived at the camp, the four friends find a beautiful witch standing and smiling at the troll for bringing new arrivals. The witch introduces herself as Willow then claps her hands.

Instantly, eight children plus another witch emerged from various hiding places around them and began approaching cautiously. Captain Jake turned from the gray witch back to Willow who looked more beautiful than the other witch known as Fury, then rubbed his eyes as he realized Willow was under an enchantment charm. Willow tells him that she and Fury are both witches and gestured towards her friend, who then grinned at the quartets.

Amaya steps in and asks the children what they are all doing in the forest as a little boy comes in front and tells her that they were saved, which left Amaya being curious. Willow answers her question by telling about who the little boy was talking about, the Nightmare Man! A mysterious man that kidnaps children and takes them to his secret lair to give them nightmares and then feed on their fears. Kwazii thinks that the Nightmare Man must have taken Greg to his lair so he asks Willow and Twig if they can take them there to save him. Luckily, their new friends agreed although they are very unsure.

The next morning, Kwazii, Conner, Amaya, and Captain Jake follow Willow and Twig to where the Nightmare Man's lair is; in the middle of the forest. As they arrived, Willow explains to the quartets that they can't help Greg face his fears, he'll have to face it himself as she points to the only way in is through the air vents but Conner asks how they will get in when he notices how small the entrance is and that they all can't fit through there. Kwazii uses his shrinking power to shrink him and his friends so they fit through it and enter into the lair. At the end of the trail, they could see a bright light and hear cries of children as they worked together to open the vent and Kwazii has to use his magic rope to help them climb down.

When they got down, they heard some clicking behind them as they turned and saw a giant beetle crawling towards them. Quickly, Captain Jake and Kwazii use their swords to fight it back but it was too strong, so Kwazii uses water pulse to wash it away. After it was gone, Kwazii uses his clairvoyant powers to search for where Greg was when he finds him nearby and lead the others to his prison bed. As they found his prison bed, Kwazii uses his growing powers to make and his friends grow into their normal size again just to hear some sleeping kids nearby screaming and crying in their sleep as they realized that the Nightmare Man is doing all of this. So they decide to wake Greg up before he reaches him, but it was no use. After the Nightmare Man was done with a five year old girl next to Greg, the Nightmare Man jumps from her nightmare to his and then Greg began screaming and tears rolled out of his eyes just as his eyes popped open but he didn't see his friends as he drifted back to sleep. Then after the Nightmare Man was done with him, he jumped into his next victim's nightmare, and he too screamed and squirmed in his prison bed.

The gang had to try to find a way to save Greg and wake him up, and fast! Coming up with an idea, Conner decides that if they can't wake their friend up while they're awake, then they'll just have to wake him up in their sleep... by traveling in the nightmare world. So they took four prison beds and strapped themselves onto them just in case the Nightmare Man wouldn't be too suspicious about having four prisoners being unstrapped.

Kwazii then raised his paw up to cast a sleep spell and instantly, the four of them drifted off to sleep. As he opened his eyes, Kwazii looks around for his friends if they are asleep yet but they shook their heads just when Conner felt something on his behind and head; he had cat ears and a cat tail! Using his new ears, Conner could hear a tinkling sound coming from a door nearby from up a broken set of stairs. But although they are broken, Captain Jake fixed the stairs by looking down at them since he is now dreaming as he opens the door to find a classroom with shadowy figures and in front of the students was... Greg! And he was holding on to a book and shaking nervously.

As the approached to him, Greg turns to them and demands them to stay away from him for that they are not safe! Conner and Amaya comes up to him but just then, some chairs flew out of the desk and slipped under them and then dragged them to the desk. Kwazii and Captain Jake tried to help Greg out of the classroom but then two more chairs hovered over and slipped underneath them, and they too were pushed into the desks. After being seated, Greg asks his friends how they found him just as Amaya explains him about the invisible black gooey blood trail Kwazii found with his super sight and smell.

Realizing what they were talking about, Greg tells them that it was not blood but terror, his terror, the kind of stuff that the Nightmare Man feeds on, as he scrapped some of the same stuff off his head and flung it across the room, leaving a big splat spot on the wall as Kwazii realized that they were feeling his fear. Nodding his head, Greg explains that he was having a nightmare back at home when he felt something dark and shadowy coming towards him. He tried locking his door but it smashed through and grabbed him out of his bed, which explains why the Nightmare Man had to break in and why he keeps every kid strapped to the old beds in the dormitories so they won't fight back, even in their sleep. But Conner thinks that there is one way to escape this dream; some people say that you don't suffer through their worst nightmares every night. They have to dream about something else like before Amaya and Captain Jake woke him up, he dreamt about tigers on a trapeze. Which means reject the dream and go to the next one.

Finally getting it, Greg makes an excuse to the shadow teacher so he and his friends could get out of his dream. But before they could get to the door, a shadow student jumps out of his desk and blocks the exit, preventing them from escaping. Shrouding Greg, he chanted a poetic tone as more of the shadow students, including the shadow teacher joined in the chant and began to close in around Greg, who was more scared than ever. Right behind them, Kwazii uses his magic vines to keep the shadows way from his friend, but one by one, the shadows kept getting closer to Greg and he tries to tell them to keep away from him but they didn't listen just as Captain Jake uses his mighty captain sword to slice the incoming shadow in half but the top half grew legs and the lower part grew a upper body and ran back to the scared Greg. Amaya and Conner threw toys at the shadows but then they threw them back at them as Kwazii jumps into and summons his ice shield to block the toys.

While they were distracted, dozens and dozens of shadows dragged themselves out from under the desks and lurched towards Greg. He was slowly disappearing beneath them, crying and screaming at the same time. Shouting to Greg, Conner tells him that he needs to stop the nightmare himself, but Greg shakily asks how in a muffled voice as he peeked through an open hole through the shadows and told them that he is always too nervous to recite a poem. At the other side, Captin Jake who was still sword fighting other shadows, tells him that everyone can be nervous sometimes but that doesn't mean they can't face any of their fears. He then tells Greg to be that person and recite a poem, and help them get out of here!

With supreme effort, Greg sat up and uses his dream super gecko muscles to get the shadows off him! Then as Captain Jake told him, he recites a poem that had all the shadows faltered and backing away slowly as Greg rips the book in half then into little pieces and threw them aside while his friends encouraged him to keep going. As he finished reciting his poem, all the shadows screamed and vaporized just when the classroom around them dissolved and was replaced with another dream that looked like Never Land, only it was in ruins! They soon realized that they are now in Captain Jake's nightmare! Then behind them were some of Captain Jake's friends looking angry and offended as they pointed at Captain Jake and told him that it's all his fault! Asking what was going on, he comes up to Izzy but she backs away and snaps at him as Captain Jake once again asks just when a ghostly figure came behind him, Amaya, Conner, Greg, and Kwazii. It was none other than Lord Fathom, the wicked mer-wizard!

Reluctantly, Captain Jake pulls out his mighty captain sword but was shocked to see that it has turned back into his previous Forever Tree wooden sword and when he looked down at his clothes, he discovered that he was no longer wearing his mighty captain clothes and was now back in his old pirate clothes again. Shaking his head, Jake tries to fight Fathom but he dodged his every move, even with his old sword there was no way he could defeat him. Jake tries to call out for his mateys but they just left him behind to take care of the villains on his own. Quickly, Conner and Kwazii helps Jake up on his feet as they encourage him to beat the villains, even though Never Land is now a deserted island and that he is not the captain anymore. Encouraged, Jake scowls at his enemy and tells him that they will pay for destroying his home and making his friends miserable as he imagines himself flying without any of Izzy's pixie dust and flew over to them. Them he uses his old sword to knock the magic emerald off of Fathom's trident, and just like the shadows, he vaporized and melted into the sea and became looking like sea foam. After the last of him was gone, all five of the friends jumped and cheered for Jake who's clothes where returning back to his captain clothes and his old sword became his mighty captain's sword again.

But just as they were celebrating, the ruined Never Land was being replaced with another nightmare that looked like a big cobweb, and Kwazii soon finds himself wrapped in it as Amaya realizes that they must be in Kwazii's nightmare now! Suddenly, a giant black widow spider and dozens more spiders came crawling towards Kwazii, looking at him with hungry eyes. Shakily, he wriggled around fearfully as he tried using his bracelet's magic to rip the webbing off him but soon discovers that he is no longer wearing his bracelet! Screaming, he struggled to rip free from the webbing but it was as hard as steel and it was as if it was stocked together with some magic glue. On the other side of the web, Kwazii could see his friend wrapped in cocoons with the same webbing.

He calls for their help but Captain Jake tells him that he needs to do this on his own just like Greg did as Kwazii tried to think of a way out but he was still scared that the spiders were closing into him. Conner then tells him that not spiders are creepy, crawly, and scary but some of them are just harmless and non-poisonous and Greg tells him to use his imagination. So, Kwazii, without his bracelet's magic, grew into the size of a gorilla and ripped through the webbing freeing him. Then with his mighty big paws, he swat all the spiders and squashed them with his big feet. As all the remaining spiders fled, Kwazii shrank to his normal size and went over to his friends to free them from their web cocoons.

Suddenly, the webbing disappears and Amaya finds herself alone in a dim-lit castle with twelve coffins. As the lights went out, the coffins slowly opened to reveal twelve hungry vampires that are awakening from their sleep when they saw Amaya and stared at her neck hungrily. She fell backward and tried to calm down by telling herself that it's just a dream as she backed away slowly. But she screamed and got up again to run to the doors to try, and open them. But they were locked! Amaya panicked and banged the doors, begging for help to get out as she turned to see that the vampires were getting closer to her.

Outside, Amaya could see the boys telling her that the vampires are not real but just parts of her dream. Amaya knew that they were right and she can't let her friends down now. She had to do this, even if it means getting bitten by one of the vampires and having her blood sucked out of her body. Gathering all her courage, Amaya walks up to the vampires and scowls at them s they backed way slowly. She tells them that even with their fangs and capes, they're just fakes and also tells them that since they turn into bats, there is one thing that bats are afraid of; owls! For that owls are the predator of all bats.

Feeling herself transform, Amaya grew feathers, wings, talons, and a sharp beak and then turned into a giant red owl that swoops towards the vampires, which had them all running and transforming into bats themselves. They then flew off, fearfully. After they left, Amaya's owl broke the door open and her friends burst right in to congratulate her for faving her worst fear but once again, everything around them changed and the vampires' castle was gone.

When it disappeared, Conner finds himself standing on top of a rock in the middle of the ocean and soon realizes that he was now in his own nightmare as high tide came! Water crashed onto the rocks and tried to splash Conner but he dodged the droplets as he shivered and felt cold and afraid just when he heard his friends at the dock calling over to him. Cupping his hand to his ear, he could hear Kwazii telling him that it's not just a dream but his worst nightmare created by the Nightmare Man, for him and unless Conner faces his fear of water, he'll die in both the dream world and the real world and never wake up again. Just then, Conner heard something coming behind him!

When he turned to see what it was, it was a big wave and not just any wave, but a tsunami! Conner tried to get away from it, but he forgot that he was surrounded by water and was stranded on a single rock. He screamed and pleaded for this nightmare to stop as tears fell out of his eyes, just as Captain Jake calls to him that he has to face the big wave even if he might drown or something before the Nightmare Man comes. But Conner refuses to face for that he is still afraid of water just when he looked up in the sky and saw a big storm as gray and black clouds rolled in at an absurd pace.

When they were together, rain fell on Conner, Amaya, Greg, Captain Jake, and Kwazii as it soaked them, and they heard thunder and crashing lightning that sounded kind of like children screaming for help. The Nightmare Man dream was rolling in towards them again. Conner didn't know which was worse, the part where he has to face his fear of water or the cries of children that was hurting his head when he bent down and shook in fear. He covered his cat ears, then started crying, and begging for the Nightmare Man to stop torturing him and his friends, and everyone else.

Looking down, he could see floating blobs of pulsing black goo in the water and on the rocks, and he stared at his own fear. But Conner shook his head and told himself that he can do this and says that it's time to be hero and save his friends and the other children from the Nightmare Man's nightmare world. Taking a deep breath, Conner calmed himself down and gave the big tsunami a brave glare, then he yells at it to say that he is not afraid of it and tells it to come and hit him with all its got.

Conner closed his eyes, clutches his fists tights, and waited for the tsnami to hit him and soak him. But instead of getting wet, Conner felt a warm breeze and smelled something that was like cotton candy and popcorn. Then he heard circus music and laughter instead of crying.

As Conner opened his eyes, he finds himself in a circus ring where he also sees cats acting, doing magic tricks, and doing acrobatics just like in his dream. Around him was an audience of cheering and laughing cats, and his friends all dry and happy now that the nightmare was finally over. Seeing them smile again, Conner took a deep bow but the laughter was then replaced with an unexpecting shriek. At once, all the cats began to grow wings and launch themselves into the air and let out a raven-like caw.

Conner and his friends watched in horror as the winged cats transformed into ravens and flew into a tighter and tighter circle until they could see them colliding together and forming a single shape. As it grew, the figure ripped through the tent and with it's flashy, piercing eyes behind is gray bangs, it scanned the room and stopped to stare at Conner. He stared into the figure to figure out if he'd see it before.

When his cat ears and tail disappeared, Conner let out a gasp! He was sure he had seen this monster before. Could it be the one that had followed him and his friends when he fell from the tree in the forest? Terror overtook him as he suddenly realized it was the Nightmare Man himself!

The Nightmare Man then rose and stared straight into Conner's eyes with an angry expression. However, Conner retorted him that he is not afraid of him as he was trying his best to hide his trembling hands so he wouldn't give himself away. The Nightmare Man threw back his head and laughed as he spun to Conner's friends who were shuddered and were clinging on to each other. Then he turns his attention back to Conner again and hisses at him. Conner responses to him bravely as the Nightmare Man exploded back into a hundred ravens and then they flew around the ruined tent and reformed behind Conner. After reforming, he tells Conner that he feels on his kind; feeds on his fear that he knows exists in him, but Conner spun to face the Nightmare Man. He insists that this is nothing but a bad dream and there is no fear in him.

With a snap of his fingers, the Nightmare Man made the circus tent and everything else disappear. Wind and rain lashed at Conner's face, and he fought to retain his balance. He and the Nightmare Man were suddenly back in the forest, standing on the roof of the black tower, with twisted shards of metal scrapping the sky below. Amaya, Greg, Kwazii, and Captain Jake stood huddled together just a few feet away. As the Nightmare Man peered down at Conner with his yellow eyes, he then turned to his friends and with one swift movement, he shot out a long, black arm, snatched up Amaya, Greg, Kwazii, and Captain Jake, and then threw them over the edge of the tower.

Conner ran toward where his friends had disappeared, but the Nightmare Man blocked his way. Conner spat at him then the Nightmare Man bowed slightly, pleased with the compliment. He then tells Conner if he has no fear. As Conner tries to hide it, it was no use. He begins to wonder if Kwazii's theory was true, his friends would never wake up again. And it would be all his fault! Conner felt a gallon of sadness flooding every cell in his body and felt like wanting to fall to his knees and cry, but he didn't want to satisfy the Nightmare Man.

Then suddenly, Conner heard something- a distant voice, carried up by the wind. Then Conner began to laugh. The Nightmare Man's eyes flashed with anger as he shouted at Conner to stop, but his laughter grew and grew.

While Conner was laughing so hard and wiping tears off his eyes, he realized that he got the giggles and now he couldn't stop. The Nightmare Man bent down in pain. He screamed and ordered Conner to stop as he grinned at him and chuckled. Then Conner winked at the Nightmare Man and leaped off the roof of the tower.

As he was falling, Conner landed in a spiderweb next to Amaya, who was trying to untangle herself from the sticky gossamer that was stretched between two trees a couple of yards above the ground. She hugged Conner as she was glad to see him alive and they both jumped off the web and onto the ground. Suddenly, an orange spider was in front of them but when it begins to change, Kwazii appears and tells them that he was able to turn into a spider without his bracelet's magic so he can make a spider web net to catch him and his friends. After shaking the webbing off, Conner declares that it's time for them to... wake up!

Back in the dormitory, Conner, Amaya, Captain Jake, Kwazii, and even Greg woke up from their sleep after facing their worst fears, but they look around to see all the other kids sleeping and still having the same nightmare. So Kwazii uses his teleporting magic to get him and his friends out of the dormitory and back outside in the Enchanted Forest, where they find Twig the troll waiting for them. They tell them that Willow is back at the camp taking care of Fury.

As they made it back to the camp, Willow and the children were helping to take care of Fury, who was suffering from a tummyache and Conner soon figures out why. He calls for a boy named Kyle and asks him about Fury.

Powers that Kwazii uses

 * Super Sight and Super Smell (to see and smell the invisible goo/blood)
 * Shrinking Powers (to shrink himself and his friends down to mouse size so they can fit through the air vent)
 * Magic Rope (to climb down into the dormitory room)
 * Clairvoyant Powers (to find where Greg's prison bed is)
 * Water Pulse (to wash the beetle away from him and his friends away)
 * Sleep Spell (to put him and his friends under a sleep spell so they can travel in the nightmare world)
 * Magic Vines (to keep the shadow students and teacher away from Greg)
 * Ice Shield (to save Conner and Amaya from the thrown toys)

Trivia
◾ This episode is based on Terror of the Nightwatchman from Scream Street.