Here he was. In the same old dream.

Kieran looked around him, and wondered through the wonderfully colored dream. It nerved him, however. He knew of the despair his dreams kept bringing, and the worst part was that it hadn't happened yet.

Multiple people with bland faces strolled through the town, increasing in numbers in a flash. Of course they were blissfully unaware of what was going to happen; they were only in a dream. They would die out every time and come back in the next dream as if nothing happened. They were mere placeholders which filled up the dream.
But then it happened.|

The town begun to start shaking, the ground crumbling and cars being flown in all directions. The townspeople hurried back to their homes – Kieran knew it would not help them, but they didn't know any better.

A rock emerged from a large crack in the center of the city, where Kieran stood. Using the wind he swiftly flew out of the way as the rock continued to grow at an exponential height of fifty stories. And on the top of this rock was a teenager who looked similar to Kieran. He had raven black hair, bleached skin and eyes as red as blood.

Kieran then flew up to the top of the rocks, to confront the teen he knew as being none other than his own brother, Axel.

"Hello again." Axel greeted coldly, "Hope you don't mind me invading…again."

Kieran simply crossed his arms, "I do mind, actually."

Axel scoffed, "Oh please. This'll end like every dream does – with you defeated."

"Oh, shut up!" Kieran exclaimed, weakly, "Now get out of my dream!"

The green-eyed teen sent a blast of ice in his brother's direction almost upon ending his sentence. Of course, this had no effect on Axel, who countered with a blast of fire.
Kieran groaned as he held back the fire with an ice shield, still maintaining its strength, "Not this time…" he flew back down to the city, boosting himself using the wind to hide behind a car.

But Axel smirked and sent a blast of wind in his direction, which caused the car to be projected away only to blow up shortly afterwards.

"Drat…" Kieran cursed to himself.

Axel descended from the sky and approached his brother's face, "Oh, my dear brother…it appears you've failed again."

Kieran grunted as Axel formed a dagger from ice and placed it so that it barely touched the skin, but Axel still smirked, saying. "I will find you and those Nickbrats in real life, you know. I want you dead, and I still stop at nothing to find you."

Kieran gasped as he felt the dagger go through his body.

"ARGH!" Kieran screamed as he woke up. He was Sandy's house, where he lived with her as a roommate. He looked around the room and saw nothing out of the ordinary. He was at least save for now. However, he could feel something cold on his torso, which turned out to be ice.

He could hear someone coming his way from outside the room. He trembled in fear slightly as he raised the position of the duvet on him. He saw the doorknob turn slightly and the door slowly opened.

"Kieran, yer OK?" he heard Sandy's voice ask him as she came into the room, relieving him.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Kieran gave a weak smile, but it was clear he was still shaking.

Sandy took a seat on his bed and gave him an understanding look, "It was the same dream, right?"

Kieran gave a quick, repetitive nod.

"I see." Sandy sighed, "I think yer gonna hafta talk to Neutron about your problems."

"Aren't the others trying to hunt Axel down, though?"

Sandy shook her head, "It ain't that simple. We stopped the search cuz we've noticed he keeps moving between our worlds. We can't catch 'im as well as we want to."

Kieran gave her a look of comprehension, "I see. Well, I'll go talk about it to the guys tomorrow."

That morning, a very sleep-deprived Kieran made his way to Jimmy's lab in Retroville, and saw him working on a new invention, with Timmy, Danny and SpongeBob sitting around him, looking fairly bored.

"Hey." Kieran whispered to Danny, "What's nerdy-boy doin' now?"

"Beats me." Danny responded.

"He's not telling us anything." Timmy added.

"Ah! Kieran!" Jimmy said as he put down his screwdriver and faced the teen, "So glad you could make it!"

"Well, yes. I'm part of the Nicktoons – I don't see why I wouldn't be." Kieran replied nonchalantly, "So…I take it Sandy's told you?"

"I did, actually." SpongeBob informed.

"I'm aware of the problem with your dreams and Axel being able to infiltrate them, so I've been up all night making this Neutronic Dream Transporter."

"Ooh..." Kieran sighed wondrously as he gazed admiringly at the contraption, which had a rather appealing visual.

"What does it do?" SpongeBob asked.

"Well we connect that dream helmet to the person asleep and then the rest of us would stand on this pressure plate and make our way into their dreams." Jimmy explained,

"I've also realized that if we are going to stop Axel from going through our universes causing havoc, we are going to have to defeat him in Kieran's dream and get the information on his location directly."

"Wait," Kieran interjected, "If you're putting that thing my head, does that mean I can't come with you?"

"Unfortunately, yes." Jimmy confirmed, "My Transporter doesn't take along the person dreaming. Plus, it keeps you from any harm."

"But what about you guys?"

"Oh, we'll be fine!" Danny assured, "Can't be that bad!"

"Yeah!" SpongeBob added, "We've been in worse situations! Trust us!"

"Well, OK, I guess." Kieran shrugged, "It's your plan. So when am I putting this thing on?"

"Not 'til tonight." Jimmy replied, "We have to be prepared and it also doesn't mess up your sleeping schedule."

"Cool." Kieran said, "So…anything else on the agenda today?"

"Not really." Timmy responded.

"We can't find the Syndicate anywhere." SpongeBob explained, "But that means they aren't taking over the world yet, so less work for us!"

"But that's what concerns me," Jimmy murmured, "It's as if they've erased themselves completely from the perimeter." He was then interrupted by the sound of an alarm coming from the computer. Jimmy ran over to it and had a look at the situation at hand, "Pukin' Pluto, they're robbing the Amity Park bank!"

"Is Axel there?" Kieran asked, with hope.

Jimmy looked over the footage in front of him and only saw four figures, which he knew to be the Syndicate, "Sorry, but no." Kieran sighed in response.

"Well, we better go stop them!" SpongeBob declared, as they got out their recallers and pressed a button to take them to Amity Park.

Kieran was about to leave until he was stopped by Jimmy, "Kieran, maybe it's best you stay behind." He suggested.

"What?! Why?!" the teen exclaimed in confusion, "I'm a Nicktoon! I have to help!"

"Yes, but you look too tired. Perhaps you should just relax. Just don't sleep, OK?"

Kieran sighed, "Fine. I'll stay."

"Thank you." Jimmy then left through the portal he had activated, "Should be back soon!"

"Yeah…" Kieran quietly said to himself.

The Nicktoons had been gone for quite a while, and Kieran was starting to get rather bored ever so quickly. He had gone in and out of every room of the lab, looking at the same old experiments again and again, already well acquainted with them from his many visits to Jimmy's lab.

But then, he heard glass shatter in the direction of the main entrance to the lab. Kieran ran quickly over to see a figure, who was facing away from the teen, making it harder to identify.

"Well, now…" the voice began, "Hello, Kieran."

Kieran could only recognize the voice as belonging to his brother Axel, and with this in mind he used the wind to latch himself onto him, "Axel! I got you now!"

Axel strained and grunted as he attempted to get Kieran off of him, "Get...off me!"

"Not a chance!"

"Fine," Axel suddenly shot at a fireball, which caused no injury to Kieran, but pushed him back, landing on a table leg close by.

"Ugh…" Kieran huffed, "We've been looking for you everywhere…where've you been hiding all this time?"

"I've also been looking around. It's stupid really – where else other than the smart brat's lair would you be?"

Kieran looked over at his brother in confusion, "What do you mean?"

"Do you actually think there's any commotion down at Amity Park?" Axel grinned, "That's nothing more than a diversion I set up using some friends of my own, who I doubt need an introduction."

"What do you even need the diversion for?" Kieran asked, "I have nothing of value you could take from me."

"HA!" Axel snickered as he constrained Kieran to the floor, "You stupid idiot! You live! That alone is my incentive!"

"Well, perhaps you better prepare to let your guard down." Kieran smirked.

"Oh? And why's that?" Axel asked, before he was suddenly smacked in his right side, causing him to fly away from Kieran and land on the marble floor.

"That's why." SpongeBob, the one responsible for the chop, responded as the other Nicktoons came to Kieran's aid.

"A little early, aren't we?" Axel asked coldly.

"We're Nicktoons!" Timmy simply responded, "We get the job done quickly!"

"Especially when there was absolutely nothing there." Danny complained, causing Axel to smirk.

"What are you doing here, Axel?" Jimmy asked, "Infiltrating my lab, nearly destroying equipment…I should arrest you for such deeds!"

"Yeah…" the Wicked Weatherman said, nonchalantly, "But the truth is…you can't! Have fun, losers!" With that, he flew out of the lab.

"You better run!" Danny yelled after him.

"Just you wait!"

"Ha!" Kieran snorted at the exclaim, "In your dreams!"

But then Axel retorted with, "Don't sound so cocky with that!"