4
Rit 6
"The Sleep-Walker"
Alice Wired-for-Sound meets the Sleepwalker and the Toy. Robotman makes a guest appearance and Rita remembers her dream.
That night, while Rita slept, a waif-like figure appeared in Rita's living-room. She appeared out of nowhere in the exact instant when a dark cloud momentarily blocked the light from the full-moon that was falling through the open blinds into Rita's apartment. The girl was young – perhaps eighteen or nineteen years old. She was dressed in a black vest and blue and white-striped pyjama bottoms and had long, uncombed and untidy dark-hair. She looked as if she had just risen from her bed and, still half-asleep, was wondering whether she should get a drink of water from the kitchen, but had had second thoughts and would probably go back to sleep without the need for any refreshment.
She yawned and scratched her back before heading away from the living-room window towards the kitchen. She paused again at the kitchen-sink and allowed her chin to fall onto her chest as she seemed to fall asleep while continuing to stand. As she stood there, a quiet crackle of electricity announced that Alice Wired-for-Sound was also about to make an appearance.
Alice appeared, floating in the air and stepped towards the ground as if she were descending a small flight of invisible steps. Her attention was focussed on the pyjama-girl. Her tendrils undulated in readiness of striking forward towards the strange sleepy girl.
It was the sleeping girl however, who spoke first. "Hallo. And who are you?" she said without raising her head.
"I should ask you the same," Alice replied as her tendrils reached out towards the sleep-walking girl but stopped short of actually touching her. Alice was dressed in Rita's old green Doom Patrol uniform but she had discarded the associated brown leather boots and belt.
"My name is Holly." She [Holly McKenzie] replied with an accompanying sigh as she raised her chin up off her chest. Her eyes though, were still firmly shut. "What is your name?" she added wearily.
"I am called Alice Wired-for-Sound."
"What are you doing here, Alice?"
"I'm watching over my friend, Rita. What are you doing here, Holly?"
"I think I'm sleep-walking," Holly replied. "Have you ever been a sleep-walker, Alice?"
Alice replied that she hadn't.
Holly's head dropped again before she asked: "Are you in the Doom Patrol, Alice?"
Alice replied that she was.
"Oh, that's good." Holly then raised both her hands as if she were knocking away a persistent and annoying fly. Even though she did not make contact with Alice, the resulting 'blow' knocked Alice's immaterial form clean through the walls of the apartment.
Satisfied that the source of her irritation was gone, Holly yawned and reached out for a glass beaker that was on the draining board. Moments later however, after she had filled the beaker and was taking her first sip of water, Alice re-appeared in the room.
"That wasn't nice," Alice said
"Oh, you are persistent," Holly replied.
"Yes, I am and I will not allow you to do any harm to my friend, Rita."
"Ah, Rita… I'm looking forward to meeting Rita." Holly replaced the glass beaker back on the draining board and made a sudden pushing motion towards Alice but without making actual contact with her. Once again however, Alice was thrown backwards through the walls by the force of the psychic blow.
Alice bounced back immediately from Holly's attack but on returning to Rita's kitchen she was surprised to find that Holly had gone. Alice immediately went to the bathroom where she knew that Rita was sleeping and there she found Holly standing next to the bath.
"She does not dream," Holly announced to Alice, indicating the plastic form of Rita lying in the tub. "Some people say that they do not dream when in fact they do but they just can't remember their dreams when they wake. Rita though, does not dream."
Alice struck a determined stance. "I will not let you harm her," she said.
Holly sighed and slowly faded from view. Before she was entirely gone from view though, one of Alice's tendrils reached Holly's image. The connection was made and Alice was able to follow Holly wherever she went.
Alice felt herself being pulled by her connection to Holly. She was dragged through space into some other-dimensional plane of existence that did not seem to have any solidity to it. Alice's view was restricted by a swirling black cloud that was so dense that she could not see Holly at all though she knew that they were still connected by Alice's tendril.
Holly spoke to confirm that she was close-by: "This is Rita's mind, her thoughts while she sleeps. This lack of substance represents her lack of dreams."
Alice could see that Holly seemed to be awake and was much more lucid than she had appeared when sleep-walking.
"Are you saying that we are inside Rita's head?" Alice asked.
"Yes … and no," Holly replied. "We are inside the universe that Rita's mind has created but whether that universe actually exists within Rita's head is a different question and impossible to answer. That is something for the greatest minds in the universe to consider."
"Then we could ask Niles!" Alice said enthusiastically. She then felt the pull on the end of her tendril suddenly ease off as Holly moved towards her.
"Maybe, not," Holly replied as she swam into view and took hold of Alice's arm. "Ready yourself Alice, for I am about to open up Rita's mind to the Dimension of Dreams. Behold!"
Alice gasped as there was an explosion of light and colour all around her. Images from Rita's past – Larry, the Negative Man, Cliff Steele, Niles Caulder, Beast Boy, Steve Dayton, Madame Rouge, The Brain, Garguax; huge robots wading through the sea; giant orange-skinned arms reaching down out of the sky. They all rushed past and out of view. Finally, all that was left was the view from a beach of a small off-shore island and the sea lapping gently against the sandy shore.
"These are some of her memories," Holly said.
Holly and Alice now stood side-by-side on the beach. Alice could feel the sand grains beneath her feet and smell the salt on the breeze that blew off the sea. She could even feel the heat of the sun on her skin. "This seems so real and yet …"
"Oh, it is real," Holly answered. "You now exist in this universe. If you were to die here, you would be dead."
"But I feel different too. My thoughts are clearer here," Alice added.
Holly looked at Alice. "I can see that here you have a capacity for dreaming. But I wonder if previously you were like Rita and unable to dream?"
"I know that I used to dream before I became Alice Wired-for-Sound but since then ... I cannot say!"
"Someone else is coming." Holly indicated a figure approaching along the beach.
"Is it Rita?" Alice asked.
Holly did not reply but watched until the figure was quite close. It was not Rita but it was a young woman. She was dark haired and dressed in a tight-fitting yellow leotard that had been ripped and torn in several places. The words 'play with me' had been hand-written in felt pen onto her chest.
"I am ready," the girl in yellow announced on reaching Alice and Holly.
In the next instant, the yellow-clad girl was gone and in her place was Rita, dressed in her red and white costume. "Help me," Rita said to Alice and Holly. "There's something buried here in the sand."
Rita then began to dig with her hands into the dry sand at her feet. Alice and Holly watched but they did not help. "What are you digging for, Rita?" Alice asked. "It's here, I'm sure of it!" Rita replied.
"What is?" Holly asked.
Rita did not answer for she had indeed found something buried just beneath the surface of the sand. She continued to burrow down with even more determination until the watching girls could see what she had uncovered - a tarnished brass-coloured metal tube. As Rita quickly uncovered more of the tube, it soon became apparent that the tube was jointed and was in fact, an arm, a metal arm. Rita pulled it free from the sand and held it aloft like a trophy.
"I knew it was here," Rita said.
"What is it, Rita?" Holly asked.
"It's Cliff, of course," Rita replied. "Now that I have all of him, I can build him again."
"I've missed Cliff. It'll be nice to see him again," Alice said.
The girl in the yellow-leotard reappeared and stood next to Rita. She joined Rita crouching in the hole and they both pulled out the remainder of Cliff's broken robotic body.
"He's complete," the yellow-clad girl said.
When the robot body of Cliff Steel was dragged out of the sand, the detached arm was held in the empty shoulder socket and it automatically locked itself into position.
"Now bring him back to life," Rita urged the yellow-clad girl.
"You can do that?" Holly asked.
"Oh, yes." The girl in the yellow leotard placed her hand on the robot's chest and the body jerked stiffly and sat upright. It then rose to its feet.
"I don't think that is Cliff Steele," Alice observed.
"Yes it is," the yellow-clad woman snapped back.
"Who are you?" Holly demanded taking Alice's side.
"Who am I? I'm the Toy. And this is Robotman." The sky suddenly clouded over as an impending thunderstorm massed in the sky above them.
Rita seemed to be taking the side of the Toy. "Who are you?" she demanded of Holly.
"I'm Holly, the Sleep-walker."
"She is my friend, Rita," Alice added.
"I don't know you," Rita said turning on Alice.
Alice's tendrils suddenly struck out towards Rita and the Toy but Robotman, under Toy's command, stepped in front of the Toy, intercepting Alice's probe. He then grabbed hold of the probing tendril and tugged Alice towards him. Such was the force of his movement that Alice's hold on Rita was broken before she could really make contact. At the same time, Rita was advancing menacingly towards Holly but the pyjama-clad girl was able to use her psychic blow to knock Rita backwards off her feet. It immediately started to rain very heavily and Rita expanded her size to confront Holly once again. She reached out and although she was buffeted by Holly's power, she was able to capture her and hold her fast.
Meanwhile, under Toy's orders, Robotman continued to hold Alice firmly in his arms and even though she struggled she was unable to free herself from his grip.
However, now that Rita had become a veritable giant, she was in range of Alice's tendrils and Alice made contact and was able to use her power to calm Rita's rage. "We are your friends, Rita. Do not fight us, love us!"
Rita immediately released Holly and shrank to her normal size. Holly was then able to reach out, firstly, against the Toy and blast her backwards and then at Robotman, causing him to release Alice from his grip. Alice then floated out of his reach and touched the Toy with her tendril causing her too to love and not to fight. With the Toy incapacitated, Robotman collapsed forward onto the sand and quickly sank out of sight until there was no trace of him visible above the surface of the beach.
"It was not really Robotman," Holly explained to Alice, "merely a construct of Rita's dream."
The Toy and Rita then walked towards each other and merged into one form until only Rita remained. Once the merger was complete, Rita then faded from view leaving Alice and Holly alone on the beach.
"Rita is rousing from her sleep," Holly observed. "You must leave Rita's dream before she is fully awake."
Holly made a motion with her hand and Alice found herself floating in the air above Rita's bath. Several of her tendrils reached down and were firmly connected to Rita who was now fully awake.
"Alice! What are you doing?" Rita demanded.
"You were asleep. I was asleep," Alice replied breaking the connection between them.
Rita rose to stand in the bath. "You were in my dream," she said stepping out. "And some other people … And Cliff!"
Alice floated backwards so that her immaterial self was half hidden from Rita's view by the bathroom door. "You remember then?"
"Yes. I remember."
"You were dreaming."
Rita became contemplative: "Yes, I dreamed."
[End]