**** One Day Later ****

Dash Parr sat in the principal's office, arms crossed; jaw jutted forward and lower lip puffy and bleeding. His mother, Helen Parr, sat in the chair next to him with a disapproving look on her face.

"…and so we decided that he is going to get two days of suspension. Now, Dash, would you like to tell us why you fought back?"

"Well what was I supposed to do? Sit there and let him punch me?" Dash retorted. His mother shot him a disapproving look. Dash pretty much tuned out the rest of their conversation.

"So then, do you understand?"

Dash nodded, and his mother led him out of the principal's office for fourth time that month.

"Dash, I thought you said you were going to fix this."

Fix what? He was fine.

"Fix what?"

His mother sighed.

"Getting into fights, this was the fourth time this month."

He glanced up at his mother; he knew that he was the cause of most of her problems, but it was like he was fueled by anger. Every time someone made him mad, he just lost control. He mumbled an apology and was quiet for the rest of the car ride.

….

That was Dash explained in about three seconds. As soon as that kid punched him, he swung back amazingly fast. Only Alice knew why, Dash was a super and so was she. But Dash was different, he was angry all the time. He was this ticking time bomb that could be set off with one wrong word, or a misplaced step. He was her best friend, so she had an obligation to help him with his issues but she wasn't so sure she could. Everyone in town knew the story of how Dash and his family's super selves kicked Syndrome's butt, but no one knew how much that had affected him. He was launched into a professional crime fighting career at age ten. Things had started to calm down after their fight with the Underminer, almost three years ago when they were in fifth grade. But there was something about what he had seen yesterday that had scared him; she had never seen her friend look so terrified. He was always so cocky looking and tough. It had shaken her a little to see him look so weak and scared.

….

You know when you were a little kid and there was always something that scared you, and when you got older you grew out of it. Well Dash never really grew out of his fear, and it wasn't stupid like the monster under the bed or in the closet, it was this huge fear of losing the one important thing in his life: his family. The night when he pushed the blinds back he had seen them, all of them in their backyard, dead. That sent a huge wave of fear over him, he was paralyzed with it and then he looked back and they were gone. Obviously his family was still very alive, but that image was still burned into his mind and it freaked him out. He thought that he was hallucinating but he still couldn't stop thinking about it. It really scared him and he didn't scare easily. He ran a hand through his blonde hair and tried to think this through. His phone scared him out of his thoughts.

"What?"

"It's Ali. You ok?"

"Yeah I'm perfectly fine."

"Sure, that's why you flipped out today."

"He hit me first!"

"Dash, you sound like a two year old…"

"Whatever. Why'd you call me?"

"Make sure you were ok…what'd you see out the window that scared you?"

"Nothing"

"Yeah that's why you screamed…"

"I didn't scream!"

"Oh yeah you did, like a little girl."

"How do you know? You were asleep."

"Your scream woke me up."

"I didn't scream! I just dropped the popcorn."

"Na-uh, you were all like 'WHAT THE HELL?!' and your voice cracked at the end."

Dash rolled his eyes

"Bye Ali"

"Hold on, did you get suspended."

"Maybe"

"Really? You hit him once!"

"Relax it's only two days."

"Just don't be an idiot. Promise?"

"Fine, bye Ali."

"Bye"

He hung up the phone. He dropped his head into his hands and rubbed his forehead. Dash looked up and ran his hands through his blonde hair. A knock at his door forced him out of his thoughts, again.

"Wha-" the thing that stood in his doorway seemed to suck the breath right out of him. A huge lump of fear made its way from his chest and into his throat.

"Aw can the brave Dash, no longer speak? The poor thing."

"Who, wha-what ar-" the last word went up in a sort of muffled squeak as he clawed at his throat, trying to breathe.

"Let's see what scares you…" the thing said. It was all in black and a sort of cloak was draped around its shoulders. The voice was distorted, like you hear on those crime shows when the criminal wants to make a call without his voice being recognized. The person put his hand over Dash's eyes, removed it, and looked at it, palm up.

"Aw isn't that sweet, his greatest fear is losing what means the most to him…his family."

"No!" Dash squeaked, still struggling to breathe. Black spots were dancing in his vision and he felt light headed.

"Come on Dash, I'm not really going to kill you family, well not yet anyway. You see I create illusions of your greatest nightmare, and then a little later, I make them come true…"

"Not today ugly!" another voice said. The person in black spun around, releasing Dash but was quickly thrown to the ground. A girl, about five three, stood where the person once stood. She had short brownish blonde hair and deep dark brown eyes.

"Ali?" Dash choked.

"You just can't be left alone, can you?"

"What are you doing here?"

"To tell you the truth, I don't really know. I just had this bad feeling, and here we are." She said with an all too cheerful smile, even for Ali.

"Who are you?"

"Dash, it's me, Ali."

"No it's not! Who are you?"

"Alright, alright, I guess the game is over."

Suddenly 'Ali' went under a horrifying transformation. Her skin bubbled and seemed to melt like acid, until they were a different person. The fake Ali was actually a woman not much taller than five four with long blonde hair that cascaded down her back. She had green eyes with what seemed like red flecks. She had a pout on her face and she wore dark skinny jeans with a *UMASS t-shirt.

The hooded figure pulled its hood back. She was another scarily beautiful woman, but in contrast to her sidekick's lighter hair she had dark black curls with violet eyes. She was dressed in all black and shockingly pale skin.

"Please excuse Petra; you can't really trust shape shifters, now can you?"

"Who are you?" Dash asked in a more demanding voice now that he could breathe.

"I guess we owe some explanation. I am your worst nightmare and this is Petra, she's simply here to make your nightmares come true."

Petra smiled and waved. The woman in black knelt down next to Dash, and pulled a syringe out of her pocket and pushed Dash's hoodie sleeve up, reveling the bare skin underneath.

"Now this will only sting, but the nightmares to follow will certainly hurt much, much more."

Dash really wanted to pull away, he truly did, but it was like he was frozen. Like all he could do was look into this woman's eyes and nod. He grimaced when she pushed the needle under his skin. She pressed down on the back of the syringe and pulled it out. She wiped the small dot of blood from his arm and put a band-aid over it. At least she still had a little good in her. She waved her hand and everything became distorted, like he was in a fun house.

"I do hope you enjoy my little invention, I made it just for you." And with that she was gone. She just vanished into thin air.

….

Nothing had really sat well with Alice once she got off the phone with Dash. Something was wrong and she was going to find out. She stepped out of her room, pulled on her coat, and walked out the door. That was the plus to having two parents who worked until six. Dash lived a few houses down from her, so her walk was fairly short. She walked up the front steps and knocked…no answer. She knocked again, earning the same results. Alice frowned, this wasn't like Dash; something was definitely up. She looked around to make sure no one was watching, and with a wave of her hand lifted the rock in the front yard; no key. She made a motion like pushing down on something and lowered the rock. Alice could move things with motions, but those motions were linked with her mind. She knew she could trust Dash because he was a super to, but if anyone else found out she'd be Alice Pirch: super freak. She, again, made sure no one was watching, and inched the garage door up a few feet; just enough to squeeze through. Once inside the garage, she flicked her hand up and turned on the lights, she then made her way inside the garage, found the house door, and went inside.

….

Dash couldn't find them. It was like they were gone, like their existence had been erased. He felt queasy, and fear gripped him again; this wave of fear was more horrible than the last. He heard footsteps in the hallway, he turned to find Violet.

"I thought you were gone!" he yelled. Vi turned to look at him then a look of terror crossed her face as she was shot, dead. Dash couldn't do anything, but gape. He was trying to convince himself this was an illusion, but apparently he wasn't doing a good job. He heard more footsteps, this time they were running, and this time, they were Ali.

"Ali, please tell me you're real."

"Why wouldn't I be real?"

Dash pointed to Violet, who was lying limp on the ground.

"Do you see that?"

"See what?"

Dash grabbed her hand and put it on the limp Violet's shoulder and her hand passed right through the illusion of his sister. He dropped his head into his hands.

"Oh thank God." He mumbled into his hands.

"What's going on?" Ali said.

Dash related the story of the dark woman, Petra, and the syringe. Terror still gripped him and suddenly reality hit and dropped onto the couch, tears streaming down his face.

"Dash?"

He pulled Ali into a hug.

….

Dash pulled Ali into a hug and she, confusedly, hugged him back. He did the most un- Dash thing in the world and sobbed into her shoulder. She closed her eyes and dropped her head onto his shoulder. That dark woman may have been gone, but his was far from over.

….

*UMASS = University of Massachusetts (in case any of you were wondering)

Thanks for reading and, sorry it took so long to update!

~Skippy =)