As a new day dawned for the earnest and good-natured folks of Celestial Meadow, a little girl merrily skipped along the sidewalk on her way to the youth center. Her heart was filled with hope and happiness and anticipation for the future, little realizing that she was about to fall prey to a wicked scheme!

“Why hello there, little one,” said a friendly looking elderly man in a spotless white uniform as he waved at her from behind a newly constructed outdoor seafood stand entitled the clam slam. “Would you care for some freshly caught oysters?” he asked her.

Looking around, she saw other children her age sitting nearby, all merrily sucking away at fresh shells.

“Oysters? For real?” said the excited little girl. “Oh, I would love to! But that’s rich people’s food! I haven’t got any money.”

“Don’t lament in despair, you incomplete mammal,” said the old man with a jovial laugh. “You can have all the delicious morning oysters you can inhale!”

“What? For free?” asked the disbelieving minor.

“Not quite!” said the old man with an evil grin. “It’ll only cost you…your precious dream energy!”

Before the child could react, the old man placed his hand against her forehead. As she stood there helplessly, purple waves of energy were drawn from her body and absorbed into the old man. When he was finished, he handed her a bucket of clams and paid her no further heed.

Listlessly, she walked away with her bucket and took a seat on the curb with the rest of her peers while mindlessly shucking open some fresh clams and swallowing their contents in one go.

“Yummy…” she said robotically.

“Hahaha!” laughed the vile Queen Oblivia as she observed the deeds of her minion from her throne room in Dimension U. “Our plan is working perfectly! Soon, the dream energy of all the children of Celestial Meadow will be mine to command!”

“All hail the Zabok Empire!” shouted one of her servants.

“No, all hail Queen Oblivia!” shouted another as the throne room erupted into a wicked cacophony of cheering and cackling.

__

Meanwhile, at the Celestial Meadow Youth center, Titania, who was Everly’s elemental earth servant as well as an ordinary teenager with a can-do attitude, was teaching a friendly martial arts class to a group of excited youngsters.

“ETS-AYAH! ETS-AYAH!” she shouted after performing a perfect rising reverse dragon body blow. After the children repeated her movements, she bowed to them and clapped her hands energetically. “Good job, everyone! And remember, now that I’ve shown you the correct way to punch someone, don’t ever punch anyone! A real martial artist knows that violence never solves anything!”

“Yes, Sensei!” the children said as they bowed respectfully and dispersed.

As Titania was putting away her nunchakus and helping to prepare the room for an evening hot yoga class, her older sister and afterschool tutor, Eris came walking in, carrying a stack of papers which she promptly spilled all over the floor after accidentally walking into a wall.

“Oh. No,” she said in a lifeless monotone as the papers went flying.

“Ha! Eris, you’re so clumsy, you clumsy-head! Why aren’t you wearing your glasses?” laughed Titania.

“I’m like trying out a new look. I don’t want Tyler to think I’m like a nerd or anything,” said Eris, unconvincingly.

“Gosh, Eris, you’re great the way you are! And if Tyler were a real friend, he wouldn’t want you to change at all!” said Titania.

“Like, wow, little sis. And I thought I was supposed to be the smart one,” muttered Eris. “I guess I’ve really learned a valuable lesson.”

“It’s not easy being kids like us,” nodded Titania. “Especially, kids like us, if you get my meaning.”

"Suuure," said Eris.

Suddenly, their matching wristbands began chirping a similar beat that quickly drew their attention.

“Speaking of which, it looks like we’ll need to beam out to the battle bridge!” said Titania.

“Yeeeeah,” sighed Eris. “Let’s go to the battle bridge.”

Standing side by side, the sisters held up their hands and each pressed a button on their wristbands that quickly teleported them far away from the youth center to a hidden alien castle far from the eyes of ordinary people.

“Jeepers and widgets!” chimed an excitable looking robot cat whose lips didn’t quite sync with the words he spoke. “I’m glad you’re here, kids, something terrible has happened!”

“Indeed,” said a giant robot head levitating above the center of the room.

“Hey, Cosmic Commander!” said Titania. “And hey to you as well, Meow-pha Five. What’s going on?”

“Are you fucking kidding me?” Eris swore quietly to herself.

“Bad news, Sunflower Force,” said Cosmic Commander somberly. “It appears that Queen Oblivia has begun a dreadful new undertaking! She’s targeting the children of Celestial Meadow and draining away their vital dream energy! If this wicked plan isn’t stopped immediately, she’ll be that much closer to reviving the Zabok Empire!”

“Oh, no! Not the Zabok Empire!” gasped Titania. “If they ever return, the entire earth will be in ultimate peril!”

“Can we help her? I really want to help her,” said Eris.

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

“Haha ha! You’re always cracking great jokes,” said Meow-pha five.

“Your unique sense of humor is always appreciated, Eris, but for now, it’s time to trans-forma-size!” announced Cosmic Commander.

“All right!” said Titania eagerly. She then grabbed her transformation token and said,” The appeal of a squirrel! The power of a dragon! SUNFLOWER RED!”

A beam of scintillating red surrounded her body. When it dispersed, Titania was covered in a red costume of a shiny, unknown material, with a hard plastic helmet that masked her features.

“Your turn, sis!” she said to Eris while giving her a thumbs up.

“Ah. Right,” Eris said as she searched through her purse. “Oh, no. I think I’ve somehow lost my transformation token. I’m so sorry. Looks like I’ll have to sit this one out, everyone—”

“Don’t worry, Eris!” said Meow-pha five. “We can just transform you manually and then locate the token later. You won’t have to miss out on today’s action!”

“Thank you SO much,” Eris said between tightly clenched teeth. “I look forward to repaying you for this one day, cat. One day soon...”

“Anytime, Eris! We’re a team!” said Meow-pha Five cheerfully as he pressed a button on his console.

__

“Aaaand that’s the last one!” said the old man happily as he drained the dream energy from his final victim. “And with this, we’re finished! Now, I need no longer wear the worthless appearance of a human!”

And with that said, he threw off his disguise, revealing a monstrous CLAM monster with eyes that gleamed with maleficent intent! “Coo-coo-coo! Queen Oblivia will be so pleased with me! Now to return to Dimension U to receive my reward!”

“Hold it right there, you unfriendly fiend!” said the commanding voice of Sunflower Red as she leapt to the street from atop a nearby building to confront him. “Whatever sinister scheme Queen Oblivia has concocted, I’ll never let you succeed!”

“Yeah. We’re definitely going to stop it, you…you bad guy,” said Sunflower Black with noticeably less enthusiasm as she followed her partner down. “For the kids. Probably.”

“Coo-coo-coo!” laughed the wicked creature. “I was starting to think that you goody-good good for nothings would never show up! Are you perhaps wondering where all their dream energy went, you witless warrior wimps? Well, wonder no longer! I’ve absorbed every last drop of it!”

“What? You bastard! Just who are you?” demanded the outraged Sunflower Red.

“Yeah. Tell us your story or whatever,” said the less invested Sunflower Black.

“Coo-coo-coo! Telling you my name is like casting pearls before swine! But I’ll do it anyway! I’m Calamity Clam!” said Calamity Clam. “Now excuse me! I need to make a special delivery of dream energy to Queen Oblivia!”

“Jesus Christ,” said Sunflower Black.

“You’ll do no such thing, you selfish shellfish!” shouted Sunflower Red, while unbeknownst to her, Sunflower Black shook her head in pained despair at the quality of their dialogue.

“Coo-coo-coo! You’re too late, Sunflower Red!” crowed the victorious monster. “Now that I’ve successfully stolen the dream energy of all these miserable earth children, the resurrection of the Zabok Empire will soon begin!”

“Wah!” cried one of the children. “I don’t want to be an astronaut or a baseball player anymore! I want to live off the government dole and contribute nothing to society!”

“Me too! Life holds no meaning!” said a bitter little girl. “Let’s steal some syringes and find something fun to inject! If we die, it’s our parent’s fault!”

“Screw all that, I’m taking a header off an overpass. I hope I land on a church bus, and it gets put on social media,” said one particularly unhappy looking child.

“Oh, no! The children have lost hope!” said the shocked Sunflower Red.

“Yep. Sure looks like it,” shrugged Sunflower Black.

“I won’t allow you to get away with this, you dastardly mollusk!” said Sunflower Red as she shook an angry, impassioned fist. “Return those dreams to the children they belong to or else!”

“Coo-coo-coo! The Sunflower Force can go to hell!” taunted Calamity Clam. “I’ll never return my spoils!”

“Then you leave us no choice!” shouted Sunflower Red as she assumed a dynamic pose. “I’m the blazing soldier of justice and friendship! Defending the innocent with my fiery will! Sunflower Red!”

She then waited patiently as her teammate stared blankly at her.

“Do I have to do this?” asked Sunflower Black quietly.

“Yes!” shouted Sunflower Red.

“I really don’t want to,” Sunflower Black said with noticeable hesitation.

“Eris, you have to announce your intentions, it’s an important part of how we do things,” said Sunflower Red.

“This is embarrassing,” Sunflower Black complained.

“It’s not embarrassing, it’s awesome!” insisted Sunflower Red. “This is how we as partners get in sync with each other as we prepare to dispense heroic justice to this vile villain of the week. You can’t skip this part!”

“All right, all right,” mumbled Sunflower Black. Then she reluctantly took a deep breath to steady herself before striking a similar pose to her sister’s. “Striking back at evil with cool composure. I’m the sentinel of the shadows, and the defender of the dark, Sunflower Black!”

“And together,” began Sunflower Red.

“We are,” followed Sunflower Black.

“THE GUARDIANS OF FREEDOM! SUNFLOWER FORCE!” they shouted in unison.

“See! Didn’t that feel good?” asked Sunflower Red a few seconds later.

“It…was kind of fun,” admitted Sunflower Black.

“Coo-coo-coo! If you insist on getting in my way, then I’ll gladly raise some SHELL!” said Calamity Clam. “Pidgie Squad! Assemble and destroy these fools!”

“Oh, no! It’s the pidgies!” lamented Sunflower Red.

“Okay, now you’ve really lost me,” said Sunflower Black. “What is a pidgie?”

Moments after asking that, a flock of pigeons came flying in to surround the Sunflower Force. Then, in a sudden puff of smoke, the birds vanished from sight, only to be replaced by large, feathered monsters with the bodies of men clad in tight black spandex, but with the heads of pigeons!

“Fly, my pretties fly! And make them die, my pretties, DIE! Coo-coo-coo!” laughed Calamity Clam.

“Use your blaster beam, Sis!” suggested Sunflower Red. “It’s like a gun but it only hurts monsters!”

“Wow. What an amazingly convenient way to sell gun shaped merchandise to small children,” said Sunflower Black sarcastically.

“Huh?” asked Sunflower Red.

“Nothing,” said Sunflower Black.

As they ran in to engage their foes, suddenly, the theme song began!

Evil is on the rise!

Freedom is what they despise!

Injustice is on their side!

Against them you must now ride!

Sunflower Force!

Sunflower Force!

The greatest team of all,

of course!

Zabok must never return!

BRAAAAVE SUNFLOWERS!

“I really don’t see how this could possibly become any more humiliating,” Eris said miserably to herself as that awful song blared unceasingly in her ears. “If I have to put up with this for much longer, I’ll start praying for death.”

“Eris? Titania?” said a very familiar voice.

Turning to her side, Eris’ jaw dropped. But fortunately, she was wearing this stupid helmet so her expression couldn’t be seen.

Across the street from the battle, Everly stood there on the empty sidewalk alongside some shabbily dressed human who was laughing his head off at the sight of them.

“Girls, what the hell are you doing?” asked Everly. Her expression was very confused.

Now, Eris really wanted to die. “This isn’t what you think!” she said desperately after pulling off her helmet. “I’m just playing along with it!”

“Oh, my god, I’ve had dreams that weren’t as good as this!” chortled the stranger who stood beside Everly. “The level of detail! Fucking aces ahead!”

“Shut up, Max,” said Everly as she elbowed the man. “But seriously, Eris, what’s going on with all of…this?”

“Oh, Everly, it’s stupid. It’s all so very, very stupid!” Eris said as she embraced her and placed her head on the other woman’s shoulder. “So, so, stupid,” she repeated with closed eyes.

“Really? Because I think this is fucking amazing!” said the stranger who was apparently named Max. “Hey, do you have any giant robots? Call out your giant robots! Squash that guy flat before he gets embiggened!”

Suddenly, a surge of purple energy enveloped Calamity Clam and caused him to swell in size until he’d grown as tall as a skyscraper.

“Ah, too late,” said Max.