To Sleep, Per Chance to Dream
Part One
"Behold!" Dr. Mindbender announced as he, Cobra Commander, Destro, the Baroness and Serpentor entered his lab. "My latest invention to use in our plans to overthrow GI Joe!" Cobra Commander walked around the huge machine, scrutinizing it carefully.
"This machine looks familiar." He commented.
"That's because it IS familiar." said the Baroness. "I've seen it before, and he has even used it before."
"Yes, indeed I have. It's the Somnulator. I have re-built it and it is ready once again to reak havoc on GI Joe." Dr. Mindbender told them.
"Dr. Mindbender, I seem to recall the last time you used the Somnulator on the Joes, you ended up destroying it, resulting in a dismal failure." Serpentor remarked, his eyes narrowing.
"Yes, doctor," Destro added, "Why re-use an invention that failed previously, and miserably?"
"I'm glad you asked. It failed because of one GI Joe who would not succumb to the effects of the Somnulator. This time, that's all going to change. I re-programmed it, so instead of the GI Joes having nightmares, they will no longer be able to have dreams. None at all." Dr. Mindbender explained.
"This is all very fascinating Dr. Mindbender, but how, may I ask, will that help us?" Cobra Commander asked.
"For once, I agree with him." Serpentor added.
"When a person cannot dream, the mind compensates by creating auditory, visual and tactile hallucinations while they're awake. It also causes them to lose focus and concentration. Eventually, they go insane. A person cannot survive without being able to dream." Dr. Mindbender said.
"But I don't want this to takes weeks or months, Mindbender, I want results! I want them now!" Serpentor snapped.
"You must have patience, my emperor. Ever heard of the phrase, 'Good things come to those who wait'?"
"Waiting is not conducive in my plans for world domination!"
"But there is more, emperor. I plan to leave one GI Joe, keep him being able to dream, except he'll have nothing but nightmares." Dr. Mindbender added
"Who?" The Baroness asked. Dr. Mindbender tapped a few buttons on the panel and a picture appeared on the screen.
"This is Psyche-Out. He is the GI Joe's leading Psychological Warfare expert. He's also their, therapist."
"He's a shrink?" Cobra Commander's jaw nearly hit the floor. "Now why didn't I think to hire one?"
"Maybe that is because you are in constant denial about nothing being wrong with you." Destro replied sarcastically.
"One day Destro, you will pay for your attitude." Cobra Commander sneered.
"Continuing on." Dr. Mindbender interrupted. "Without him to turn to, the Joes will be helpless as he will be driven mad by the onslaught of nightmares. There is much in his background I can use to have the Somnulator generate nightmares about. And who can Psyche-Out turn to? He'll have no one!"
"I like it." Serpentor said with a devilish grin.
"I'm glad you approve, emperor."
"Dr. Mindbender, you better pray that your invention works this time. Am I clear? I want GI Joe done away with, once and for all! This, I command!"
A week later, General Hawk was in his office catching up on paperwork while there was still time to do so. He rubbed his eyes. It wasn't that he was tired. In fact, he slept soundly, not bothered by anything. Not even a dream. Then again, try as he might, General Hawk couldn't for the life of him remember even having a dream. He shrugged and got back to his paperwork. But General Hawk was finding it difficult to concentrate. He looked down, and the pen that he was holding suddenly changed shape, turning into a small snake! The little snake looked at him, hissed, and reared its head back, getting ready to bite him. "UGH!" General Hawk yelped, tossing the snake across the room. Blinking, he saw that when it hit the floor, it was a pen again. That was when there was a knock on the door.
"Come in." General Hawk sighed.
"Pen ran out of ink?" Duke quipped as he picked the pen up when he entered the office.
"Uh, yeah. Sure." General Hawk replied. He hesitated before taking the pen from him. "I was just, tossing it into the trash."
"Hawk, the trash can is by your desk." Duke pointed out.
"Oh yeah. How silly of me." General Hawk replied with a slight laugh.
"Are you okay?" Duke asked.
"I'm fine Duke, why do you ask?"
"Just asking, that's all."
"Well, I have been finding it difficult to concentrate lately. Perhaps it's the monotony of doing this paperwork." General Hawk replied.
"Yeah, it has been quiet lately." Duke commented.
"Too quiet, I say. It's never good when it's this quiet. It usually means Cobra is planning something big."
"Yeah, sometimes. But, I like to take advantage of the downtime whenever possible. Speaking of which, some of us are organizing a volleyball game, guys against girls. Care to join us?" Duke asked.
"Sure. But, in a minute. There's someone I need to see first." General Hawk replied.
"See you there." Duke said as he left the office. General Hawk gathered up the paperwork and shoved it into his desk. He didn't want anyone to know that he was going to pay a visit to Doc, so he could tell Doc about the strange hallucination he had earlier.
While they were playing volleyball, and getting their asses whupped by the ladies, Leatherneck and Wetsuit were out on the range doing what they loved best: Target shooting, and one-upping each other. "Oh come on Gyrene! You can do better than that can't ya?" Wetsuit taunted.
"Just you wait frogman, I got a few tricks up my sleeve!" Leatherneck retorted. The kind of targets they were shooting were ones that moved on wheels, and as they advanced towards Leatherneck and Wetsuit, they didn't look like targets anymore. Well, not to Leatherneck. "Hey, uh what's going on?" He asked as one of the targets appeared to change shape.
"What are you blathering about? You're making me lose my focus!" Wetsuit snapped.
"I mean it sealboy! That target is, it is, I-I don't know what it is!" Leatherneck stammered, his eyes growing wide with fear as the target shifted and morphed as it came towards him. It grew bigger, developed arms and legs, and the arms had hands with gnarly, clawed fingers. "Holy shit!" Leatherneck shouted. "It's a monster!" He continued to shoot frantically at the target, now a fifteen foot monster. It opened its gaping mouth, revealing two sets of sharp piercing fangs. "Oh no! It's gonna eat me!" Leatherneck kept shooting at it until his gun ran out of bullets. "Wetsuit! Help! I'm out of ammo!" Even though he continued shooting, the gun just made clicking sounds.
"Snap out of it Leatherneck!" Wetsuit shouted, shaking him. Slowly, Leatherneck lowered the rifle, and in front of him was a bullet-riddled target.
"Huh? What's going on?"
"You, hit your head or something?" Wetsuit asked, confused by Leatherneck's odd behaviour.
"Er, uh, no you idiot!" Leatherneck growled, back to his old self. "What are you talking about? I'm perfectly fine!"
"You kinda went off the rails on a crazy train earlier there for a minute."
"I did not!"
"Look at the targets, jarhead! You shot 'em all to hell, yelling something about them being a monster!" Wetsuit said.
"Maybe that's 'cos I'm the better shot!" Leatherneck yelled as he threw the rifle to the ground and got up. He started walking back towards headquarters.
"Where you going?" Wetsuit asked.
"To get more bullets!"
But that wasn't true. He didn't want Wetsuit to know that he was afraid that the targets will turn into monsters again, or something else like that. What's wrong with me? Leatherneck thought, I stopped being afraid of monsters a long time ago. He tried to put what happened behind him, but things were only beginning, and they were about to get worse.
Psyche-Out was confused when he saw that he was back at his former high school in San Francisco. As he passed by a mirror, he noticed that he looked younger to, about fourteen years old. Judging by the "Welcome Back!" banners that hung in the halls, it was the beginning of the school year. For Psyche-Out, it was grade nine, his freshman year.
"Hey!" Someone shouted. "There's one we missed!"
"Oh no." Psyche-Out groaned when he saw a group of older students, and one was pointing at him. He knew immediately what they were going to do. There was a tradition at high school where the students in the higher grades would 'initiate' those in grade nine with some form of hazing. Psyche-Out had managed to evade anyone older that day, but not for long. He bolted, running down the hallway.
"Get him!" The group of older students gave chase. Psyche-Out kept running, but soon the older kids caught up to him and surrounded him like a pack of wolves.
"Thought you could get away huh?" One taunted as they grabbed him by his arms. Another one took his legs and they picked him up.
"Hey! Put me down!" Psyche-Out protested.
"Not yet." Seeing a trash can nearby, one of the group grabbed it. "Put the frosh in here."
"What? That's not where I meant!" Psyche-Out tried to wriggle free, but the two older boys holding him shoved him butt first into the trash can. They laughed and high-fived each other. "Okay, alright. You got me. You had your fun.
"Oh but we're just getting started." One of the older boys who had grabbed him said. Psyche-Out cringed, wondering what that meant.
"Come on, this isn't funny."
"Now sing, frosh!" Another guy ordered him. Psyche-Out winced, as he was not much of a singer. But he figured if he did what they said, they'd pull him out of the trash can and leave him alone.
"Ninety-nine bottles of beer on the wall-"
"Not that one! The ABC's!" Psyche-Out rolled his eyes.
"Uh-uh. No way!"
"Sing it, frosh!" Hesitating, Psyche-Out drew in a deep breath.
"A, B, C, D..." He began softly
"Louder, frosh!"
"With feeling!"
"E, F, G, H, I, J, K..."Psyche-Out sang louder. A crowd gathered around, watching the scene unfold, laughing and pointing as Psyche-Out kept singing...
That was when his eyes flashed open and Psyche-Out sat bolt upright in his bed. Weird dream, he thought, breathing heavily. Although it had only been a dream, that didn't make it any less disturbing. An event like that had happened in Psyche-Out's life, and he thought he had all but forgotten about it. He wiped the sweat from his forehead and rolled over, trying to go back to sleep. But for some reason, Psyche-Out was finding it difficult to fall asleep. While the dream had not been frightening, it was disturbing enough that it left Psyche-Out restless for the duration of the night.
A few days later, General Hawk got his wish for a break in the monotony as there was a Cobra attack that day. During the fight, Recondo and Outback were leading a group of GI Joes through the jungle while forces on both sides were distracted by the fighting.
As Recondo led the group through a small swamp, he didn't see that a tree root was protruding from the ground under the briny water. "Whoa!" Recondo yelped as he fell with a splash. Outback helped him up.
"You alright?"
"Just a little soaked, along with my pride." Recondo replied with a chuckle as he put his hat back on. Looking at the tree root, he saw it start to move. "What the-?" Recondo jumped back as it slowly rose up from out of the swamp.
"What's wrong Recondo?" Outback asked. Recondo didn't reply. Instead he looked on in horror as the tree root began to change shape and colour. It got larger, and sprouted claws and teeth. "It's a swamp monster!" Recondo cried as a loud roar pierced the air. Of course, it was all in his mind. But that didn't stop Recondo from firing his rifle at it.
"Recondo! Get a hold of yourself!" Outback shook him.
"Don't you see it?" Recondo asked, his eyes ablaze with fear. "Oh god it's gonna eat me!" He yelled as he saw the monster get ready to strike. Recondo took off in the direction they had been coming from. Outback had no clue what Recondo was on about.
"Recondo! Where are you going?" He shouted after him. But Recondo ignored him and continued to run. "General Hawk, come in!" Outback called on his radio.
"Hawk here, what's happening Outback?"
"Sir, we just lost Recondo!"
"What do you mean you lost Recondo?"
"I mean he just, took off! He was babbling about some swamp monster, but we didn't see anything like that!" Outback replied.
"Where is he headed?" General Hawk asked.
"In your direction. Looked pretty freaked out if I may add."
"I'll catch him. You just continue on. Looks like you're in command of your team now."
"Yes sir."
"General Hawk, out."
Outback went to re-join the team that he was now in charge of. All of them looked confused, and Outback had to admit, so did he.
"Something strange is going on." He commented.
To Be Continued...