Newsboy Legion: Cinema of Dreams

Newsboy Legion: Cinema of Dreams is a Newsboy Legion story inspired by Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth.

## Cast

### Main cast

* Sergio Applepicker
* Jorge Giordano
* Marta Goodday
* Dani
* Laura Canciella
* Alvaro Acevedo
* Carlos Moreno
* Shawn Applepicker
* Luisianna Lucetti
* Ian Whitewings
* Silvia Nardina
* Alba Crystalia
* Ace-13
* Maika Sasaki
* Ferdinand "Fer" Davies

### Supporting cast

* Onirica - A demi-goddess titled as the Protector of Dreams. She created this realm where dreams are projected like movies. However, the nightmares have locked her up in one of the theatres.
* Mochi - A creature ressembling a big fluffy dog that acts as the theatre's projectionist.
* Rem and Somno - Two small child-like creatures that assist Onirica. Rem is in charge of the concession stand, where the party can buy items and equipment and Somno manages the Box Office, where the group can accept Screening Requests which may grant them new items and special Unison attacks.
* Kathelyn - Supposedly, she is the audience of the dream theatre where the group is locked into.
* Ljós - The true form of Kathelyn. A fairy from another world that was being trained to be the newest Protector of Dreams.

### Movie characters

* The Hero (Movie #1)
* The Princess (Movie #2)
* The Prince (Movie #2)
* The Sorceress (Movie #2)
* The Agent (Movie #3)
* The AI (Movie #3)
* Cognitive Kathelyn (Movie #4)

## Plot

After another day of adventuring, Sergio goes to bed, but he soon finds himself in a strange vortex. He then finds himself in a strange location similar to a movie theater. The moment he gets up and sees the rest of his group is also there, a strange voice greets them. Said voice comes from the demi-goddess of dreams, Onirica, alongside her two assistants, Rem and Somno, and a girl around the group's age. Onirica explains to them that they are in the dream world, where dreams are projected like movies but, recently, the movies' plots have been altered by nightmares and they must be fixed. To make matters worse, the source of these nightmares has also locked up the exit, meaning that they are trapped in the girl's theatre until they fix the dream movies.

### First movie - The Hero of... Justice?

In the first movie, the group finds themselves in a present day city. Whenever trouble shows up, the city relies on a superhero to save the day. However, the nightmares have altered this hero and now the city lives in a dystopia where the hero's word is the law and the citizens are forced to support the hero's ideals of justice, no matter how bizarre they get.

The Newsboy Legion decides to investigate the city but are soon ambushed by the hero, who is nigh invincible, forcing the group to retreat. Soon, they discover that a statue located in the center of the city is the source of the hero's superpowers. After an elaborate operation involving the removal of the statue, the hero weakens and is open to be attacked by the group. However, when they are trying to make him realize that he's abusing his status to impose his own idea of justice, the nightmare that altered the hero makes him go berserk and transform into a larger and more muscular version of himself. Despite this sudden boost of power, the hero is defeated.

Even though the citizens try to encourage and support him, the hero admits his defeat and announces that he will not force his ideals of justice anymore and that he will behave like a superhero really would. Thus, the movie is restored to normal.

When the group returns to the theatre, they are greeted by a fluffy dog-like creature. Onirica states that the dog is the theatre's projectionist. Suddenly, Maika notices that it's holding a key on its mouth. The key actually fits in one of the locks that block the way out of the theatre, making the group realize that fixing the movies will reward them the keys needed to open the locks and leave.

### Second movie - My Beloved

In the second movie, the group finds themselves in a fairtytale-esque castle, where a princess is being attacked by monsters. After rescuing the princess, she explains to them that she is looking for her fiancé, who was captured by an evil sorceress. The group considers that the sorceress was a creation of the nightmare and they believe that making the princess reunite with her fiancé will fix the movie.

However, the sorceress had been aware of this and sends even more monsters to ambush the heroes, as well as massive sentient suits of armor that patrol the hallways of the castle.

Eventually, at the top of the castle, the group meets the princess' fiancé. However, the sorceress intervenes and possesses him to attack the party. The group is first hesitant on fighting back, since they may hurt the prince. Soon, they notice that they have to attack the sorceress, who is hiding behind. After the sorceress is defeated, the couple reunites and can get married at last, fixing the movie.

After returning to the theatre, Marta and Laura discuss the concept of love and how they view it to Rem and Somno, Onirica's assitants. Just then, Mochi arrives with another key, confirming that the movie had been fixed.

### Third movie - Agent of the Future

The third movie takes place in a futuristic city, where the group meets an agent on his way to stop a robot uprising, probably caused by the nightmares.

On the way to the facility where the robots are being created, the group partakes in several tasks with the aid of the agent, who seems to know them like the back of his hand despite claiming that he never tried them before.

Eventually, the group reaches the core of the facility, where an AI corrupted by nightmares is creating the rogue robots. It is here where the group discovers that the agent was also a robot, but was thrown away because he acted on his own will and ignored the AI's orders.

The Newsboy Legion fights the AI, but it starts modifying itself to read their moves and change its strengths and weaknesses. Suddenly, the robot agent overloads the AI to weaken it, but as a result, he loses his remaining power and shuts down. Once the AI is defeated, Fer recharges the robot agent, who thanks them for ending the robot uprising.

Meanwhile, at the theatre, Kathelyn is confronted by a clone of herself wearing strange clothes and fairy wings. We don't see what happens next as, by the time the Newsboy Legion arrives, Onirica tells them that Kathelyn has gone to the fourth movie. At the same time, Mochi arrives with the third key, confirming that the movie has been restored.

### Fourth movie - The Dreamscraper

The fourth movie takes place in a large tower in the skies that the group must climb. The tower, however, is full of nightmare monsters, although they don't have any form here.

At the very top of the tower, Kathelyn is waiting with her Cognitive self next to her. Kathelyn reassures the group by telling them that she was never kidnapped, but instead followed her other self by her own will, as if she knew what she had to do here. Suddenly, a large nightmare monster attacks the two Kathelyns, saying something about the Protector of Dreams. The Newsboy Legion fights it, but just when it looked it was defeated, it goes back up and traps the party in nightmares. Kathelyn wants to help them, which is then when her Cognitive self reveals the reason why she asked her to come to this place. The two Kathelyns become one and Kathelyn now has the fairy-like appearence of her Cognitive self. She casts a powerful light that frees the heroes from their nightmare prison and supports them while they finish off the monster.

After the fight, everyone is amazed by Kathelyn's new look, but she states that was not her real name. Instead, her name is Ljós and she was going to be the next Protector of Dreams, but the source of the nightmares took away her powers and sealed her in a theatre alongside Onirica and her assistants. The reason why the Newsboy Legion appeared in the theatre was because she reached out for help and their heroic hearts answered the call even in their sleep. Ljós' Cognitive self appears one last time to congratulate her real self on finally unlocking her true self and she becomes the last key.

### Nightmare cinema

After finding all the keys and unlocking the exit, the group comes outside of the theatre and find themselves in a distorted area full of movie theatres like the one they were just into. Onirica tells the group that the nightmares have leaked outside of the movies and are affecting the entire realm. Carlos suggests to get inside each theatre and fix the movies. However, his idea is rejected as that would be a very long process. Instead, Onirica tells the group about the existence of a Master Projector, as she believes that the nightmares are using that to corrupt every dream movie. Ljós then realizes that they could use the movies that they fixed from her theatre and use them to fix the Master Projector and therefore eliminate the nightmares.

From this point, Ljós joins the party as a main member. She especializes in Luxomancy and healing spells, but her strongest point is her passive ability which can cure any status ailment from the whole party.

The group arrives at the Master Projector with Ljós holding her fixed movies. However, the corrupted Master Projector sends out clones of the bosses they fought in each movie. After each projection is defeated, Ljós puts her movies into the Master Projector, hoping that they might be enough to fix it.

Suddenly, the group is attacked by a creature, ressembling a middle-aged man in fancy clothing, who claims to be the source of the nightmares, becoming sentient after being locked up for so long. The Source of the Nightmares tries to make the group give up, as just one girl's movies will not be enough to fix all the damage he has done. In fact, as they speak, there are nameless people being forced to watch the corrupted movies from their own theatres. However, Sergio and the rest of the group's determination causes Ljós' movies to remove the corruption from the Master Projector, which also fixes the entire realm and gives it a pleasing golden-colored sky. The Source of the Nightmares becomes enraged and assumes its real form into a giant monster.

The group begins to fight the Source of the Nightmares but, eventually, it begins to use the power of the nightmares to incapacitate everyone, leaving Kathelyn alone and begging to group to get back up. Suddenly, Onirica, with the help of Rem, Somno and Mochi, steps forth and uses her powers at the fullest to make everyone in the dream realm, including the characters in Ljós' movies to cheer on the group.

Onirica's plan becomes succesful and the group gets back up and fully powered up. Sergio unlocks a final Unison attack featuring him and Ljós: Ljós creates a large golden star with the help of everyone's wishes for Sergio to ride on at high speed. As he flies forward, the Kingdom Crystals manifest around him to make him transform into Super Sergio and fires a super-powered Charged Shot. This Unison attack delivers the final blow to the Source of Nightmares, which fades into nothingness.

With the Source of the Nightmares destroyed, the dream realm is restored to normal and the group is given the choice to leave back to the real world or, as Onirica says, wake up. The group feels a bit uneasy to say goodbye because they fear they may forget everything that happened. Onirica reassures the group by saying that if their determination is strong enough, there might be something that will trigger these memories. For good measure, the group thinks of a phrase that would help trigger said memory, eventually deciding on "It's good to see you.". Ljós also hands Sergio one of the flowers that adorns her hair as a parting gift. After that, the group says goodbye to everyone and leave through the theatre's exit door.

After the group leaves the dream realm, Onirica tells Ljós that she has one last task for her, but the credits roll before she can tell her what is it.

Sergio then wakes up on his bed with the morning sun shining outside. The moment he gets up, he notices that he's holding the flower that Ljós gave him, although he vaguely remembers who gave it to her. After that, the Newsboy Legion is hanging out together as usual. Sergio tells everyone about a dream he had, although he doesn't it remember fully, just vague details, and even shows the flower he had when he woke up. Much to his surprise, the rest of his friends had that dream as well. Suddenly, a human figure walks up to the group and says "It's good to see you". Upon hearing it, the flower that Sergio was holding emits a faint glow and everyone sees a girl that greatly ressembles Kathelyn, who looks at the group with a bright smile on her face.

## Unison Attacks

A feature introduced here is the Unison Attacks, special moves performed by some of the Newsboy Legion members. These are triggered at random, but mostly when an All-Out Attack fails to defeat all enemies on-screen. The Unison Attacks are as follows:

* Meganigiri Charge! (Carlos and Marta)
* Rocket Punch Ride (Shawn, Silvia and Ace-13)
* Black n White Cross Slash (Shawn and Ian)