Chapter Text
The sun was beginning to set over Umi City. Parents were putting their children to bed, teenagers were beginning to game for 6 hours straight, and bachelors were heading to the taverns to drink until they dropped. And speaking of preparations for the nighttime, Team Umizoomi were just finishing their nightly routines of brushing their teeth and putting their pyjamas on. It had been a long day for them, filled with such activities as:
- Patrolling the streets to make sure that everything was okay
- Helping a kid named Adam find his pencil case before class started
- Getting the Shape Bandit out of a tree
- Playing hide-and-seek
- Having an argument about cheating in hide-and-seek
- Settling an argument about cheating in hide-and-seek (it turned out that Milli had NOT been peeking)
- Watching the clouds go by
- Getting the Shape Bandit out of ANOTHER tree (his justification being “I thought I saw a pentagon up there!”)
- Helping a toy yacht set sail
- Looking round the Dinosaur Museum
- Nearly getting into a fistfight with Doormouse over whether or not they’d paid the entrance fee for the museum (they HAD, by the way)
- Oh yes, and meals
All in all, it had been a big day for our Mighty Math Heroes, and they were tuckered out. Of course, before they went to bed, they said goodnight to each other.
“Goodnight, Milli and Geo!” Bot warmly greeted them, giving them a goodnight hug.
“Goodnight, Bot!” Milli and Geo, one at a time and respectively, greeted Bot, giving him a goodnight hug too. And the three set off for their separate rooms-but before they did, Milli turned to Geo.
“Hey, Geo?” She asked, making her lil’ brother turn his head. “Remember to take your skates off before you go to bed! You know you keep forgetting to!”
“Okay Milli! I’ll take them off right now!” Geo responded, hopping out of his skates right then and there. For Geo it was a weird feeling not wearing his skates and therefore having to use his legs and walking. But if it was necessary, then he would.
“Thanks Geo. Goodnight!” And Milli turned back to her own room. “Goodnight Milli!” Geo replied, before (awkwardly) walking into his own room, placing his skates by his bed (where his Shape Belt also was), turning out the light, and hopping into bed, falling into a deep slumber not long thereafter.
All in all, it was a peaceful sleep. For about six or seven hours.
Needless to say, this is the part of the story where things begin to go wrong.
*thud*
*crash*
*oof*
Milli’s rather lovely dream about a tea party with chocolate milk instead of tea was interrupted by a few strange sounds, coming from outside her bedroom and just down the hall. She brushed them off at first, but when they happened again she knew there was no way she could ignore them this time.
“Uh…huh? What was that?” She sleepily asked herself, hopping out of bed. She knew it wasn’t time to get up yet, as it was still dark. So this wasn’t anything normal. She turned on her room’s light and peered out into the corridor, dark except for the dim light coming from her room. Nothing down there, so whatever the noise was was coming from the next room over.
*thud*
That confirmed it. Milli gulped, for like all small children she was a bit scared of the dark. But then she remembered what Bot had always told her: She was a big girl, and big girls were brave. So she took a deep breath, and began to whisper to herself.
“I’m a big girl…big girls are brave…so I need to be brave!” And brave she would be.
Tying her hair up into pigtails just to be sure (she had essentially graduated from the Shantae School of Using Your Hair As A Lethal Weapon after all) and grabbing a torch, she began to creep down the corridor. All was silent except for the strange noises coming from down the hall. Milli continued to creep, the hairs on the back of her neck standing up.
“Oh, hey Milli-”
“WAH-”
Bot had chosen to open the door to his well-lit room right as Milli was going past it. Milli had instinctively shone the torch in his eyes and lashed out her pigtails, and if Bot hadn’t dodged said pigtails in time, she would’ve grabbed him and sent him flying out the window.
“Woah woah woah! Milli! It’s me, Bot!” Milli took a second to blink a couple times and look at her new companion. Her breathing slowed down. Yes, this was Bot, not some strange eldritch creature of the night. She took another breath. “Oh…sorry Bot. I-I was just a bit scared…”
“It’s okay Milli. I shouldn’t have surprised you like that.” Bot whispered, reaching over and giving Milli a big ol’ hug, making Milli feel better instantly. Milli looked up. “Sorry for being awake at night, Bot, but I heard a noise coming from down the hall!”
“You heard them too?” Bot asked. “I was having a nice dream about fixing the clock tower when they woke me up! I’d just gotten up to investigate. Any idea what it could be?”
Milli shrugged. “Maybe another rat or something?” Bot looked thoughtful. “Hmm…that could be possible, but-hang on. Why is Geo’s bedroom door open?”
Milli turned around to where Bot was gesturing, and realised that Geo’s bedroom door was open. Nobody in this household ever left their bedroom doors open at night, so this was strange. Plus, the lights were off, so either Geo was still sleeping, or…
Milli and Bot crept bravely towards the gaping black maw that was the entrance to Geo’s darkened room. Milli shone the torch round, including at the bed-but something was missing.
Specifically Geo.
“Geo?” Milli asked, stepping into the dark room. Bot turned on the light to make sure that Geo wasn’t just sleeping somewhere else. They checked around for a minute or so, and eventually they had to confirm their fears.
Geo wasn’t there.
“Yoinks-a-doinks!” Bot exclaimed. “If Geo’s not here, then where is he?”
*oof*
*groan*
*poof*
Milli gasped. “Maybe whatever’s down there took Geo!” She didn’t want to consider the possibility that her brother had been kidnapped by some awful monster of the night, but already her Big Sisterly Protectiveness™ was beginning to creep through her veins, and the nerves were showing already. Bot held her hand.
“C’mon Milli.” He whispered. “Let’s go take a look at whatever we’re dealing with here!”
Milli nodded, and the two began to creep further down the corridor, towards the strange noises. Bot was already getting tense, and Milli could feel her pigtails begin to stiffen and snake into a shape more suitable for combat. If anything had hurt her little brother, then she’d…then she would…
Bot turned the living room light on. It wasn’t a rat. It wasn’t the Troublemakers. It wasn’t leaky pipes. It was…
“...Geo?!” The two asked in unison, rubbing their eyes just in case they were seeing things. But no, there was Geo, bold as brass. He was facing away from them, but weirdly enough, he was wearing his Shape Belt and Super Skates despite also wearing his pyjamas. He wasn’t even wearing his helmet! Milli and Bot came rushing over.
“Geo, what are you doing?” Milli asked. “Why are you up at night?” Geo didn’t respond-he just kept slowly and awkwardly skating and bumping into things, as if he didn’t really know what he was doing or where he was going. Mostly because he was skating into a wall and a sofa. And he kept making strange groaning and mumbling noises.
“Geo? Is everything okay?” Bot asked, a bit louder in case they hadn’t been heard. But then Geo turned around, and the two got the shock of their lives.
Geo’s eyes were closed.
In fact, judging from the noises and breathing noises he was making, he seemed to be…sleeping. He was asleep, and now he was facing a different direction, he was rolling around the room in circles!
“Geo?!” Milli asked, not quite sure if she was dreaming or not. “Is he…asleep?
“Actually, yes!” Bot chimed in, using his Belly-Belly-Screen to show some interesting infographics. “Sometimes, people can walk around when they’re sleeping. It’s called “Sleepwalking”. Though since it’s Geo, I guess it’s…sleeprolling?”
“Sleepwalking…?” Milli considered this revelation, a bit disturbed by the fact that her brother was now rolling wobbly circles around them. “You mean he put his Shape Belt and his skates on while he was asleep?” Bot nodded. “Sleepwalkers can do things like that.”
“Well, shouldn’t we wake him up?” Bot shook his head. “No can do Milli. It’s dangerous to wake somebody who’s sleepwalking! We need to get Geo back to bed!”
Milli nodded. “That sounds like a good plan, Bot. Wait-where did Geo go?”
Bot and Milli looked around, but Geo had vanished. Then, as Milli shone her torch at the spot where Geo had been just a moment ago, she saw-or thought she saw-a hint of blue, just vanishing around a corner.
“Look! I think I saw Geo!” She exclaimed. “Follow him!” And the two set off in the darkness, with only Milli’s torch to light the way. As they rounded every corner, they saw more and more of Geo vanishing around every corner, until eventually they saw all of him…heading towards the slide the team used for exiting the Fountain Headquarters whenever they were needed.
“Oh no! I hope he doesn’t-!” But before Bot could finish his sentence, Geo had already reached the slide. With a half-asleep, mumbled “...Geo…”, he did a small hop/faceplant down the slide, and vanished downwards. Milli and Bot stopped dead in their tracks, watching helplessly as Geo descended down the slide.
“Sizzling Circuits! Geo’s just gone down the slide!” Bot exclaimed in a panic. “Then we need to get him back to bed, fast!” Milli exclaimed. Bot nodded. “Agreed. Milli, you go get your clothes on, and I’ll wake up Umi-Car. We’ve got a Mighty Math Hero to save!”