Chapter Twelve: Mechna-Fear

Well, we're almost there, NiGHTS said cautiously. I don't see anything different… do you?

I looked around, scanning the skyline for anything amiss. The Grand Tower still stood as prominently as ever, and as we flew past a few buildings, I noted that the garden at its foot seemed no different than before. However, as I passed the tower itself, I noted a gathering cloud of dust above some of the buildings on the other side, as though something was burning below. It looked quite ominous.

You think that might be the problem?

Seems likely enough, NiGHTS. Let's get in a little closer.

I banked hard to the side, looking towards the ground. It certainly looked like something was going on. The buildings here looked battered, gutted, smashed apart. The streets were piled with rubble, the street was cratered and splintered, and it looked like someone had dropped a couple dozen high-explosive bombs on the place. The buildings smoked profusely, no flames to fuel them visible through the dense clouds of sulfurous fumes. I sighed. Why was everything here constantly being destroyed?

Nightopia reflects the soul of the Visitor, NiGHTS reminded me. Perhaps there is something to be learned from this.

I considered her words for a moment. Yes, I suppose it was a fitting metaphor for me; I could not honestly say that self-preservation was always one of my major goals, rather, on some occasions quite to the contrary…

A large, armored claw thrust upwards into the air, slashing at the space I had only moments before been occupying. I pulled into a tight evasive spiral just as a massive blast of energy rocketed up into me. There was a burning sensation, and then a sudden icy feeling, and the all-too-familiar pull of gravity. As I began to plummet downwards I heard NiGHTS yelp from somewhere behind me, surprised at our sudden departure.

I had spent way too much time free-falling to keep up the gimmick of hitting the ground and dying. Instead, I maneuvered myself in the air and imagined myself pulling a Mace Windu-style ten-point Jedi drop, where through use of the Force (and some Jedi Master Awesomeness) I would miraculously escape harm. It was just dumb enough to work; I landed harmlessly on my feet, buckling slightly but not injuring any part of my person.

The giant spider-Fright that was looming in front of me, however, would have sent Master Yoda running for cover. It was very similar to the one I had faced previously, very similar, except a little larger, better armored and, through whatever means, suspended in midair from its legs, which it had plowed into the half-destroyed buildings all around it. The creature let loose a fearsome hiss, its little armored head pivoting towards me, a ball of energy forming around its single red eye.

I leapt sideways just as it discharged its laser, blowing a big chunk of material out of one of the buildings I was standing near. Chunks of concrete and iron flew everywhere; a few pieces struck me, stinging as they clattered to the ground at my feet.

The creature growled, staring me down with its menacing eye, and lifted one of its heavy feet from the ground, moving it forwards. It then pulled its legs out of the building it was on and hurled them into the next building over, shifting its weight as it did so. There was a shower of pulverized masonry as it transferred from one building to another, placing its last remaining leg on the ground. It pivoted around in place, angled towards the street below, and searched around, looking for its diminutive victim.

I had already ducked out of sight behind a building, subtly watching from the structure's edge. As the creature extended several smaller tentacles—arm-tentacles, with heavy metal claws attached to them—from the dark spots around its head, I waited in uneasy silence, trying to anticipate its next move. It could move, it could fire lasers, or it could attack with its legs and arms. I could run, or try to find something to fight with.

I looked around, searching for some manner of armament. I observed that the creature had been making quick progress, since it seemed the entire block was battered halfway apart in the same uniform manner. I was reminded of a World War II video game I had played once, where I traded shots with the Nazis in a ruined city. All this place was missing were the smoldering wrecks of panzers and automobiles in the streets and the abandoned weapons. Although the bodies discreetly vanished after a few seconds, they always left their rifles or whatnot lying around for you to pick up when you ran out of ammo for yours…

The ominous sound of buckling structures from behind me was as good a reminder as any that I was far from safe here. I darted away from the side of the building; as though awaiting my absence, an iron claw the size of my entire body smashed clear through the wall, sending bits of concrete flying. The claw rattled from side to side, smashing itself a larger hole, and extended outwards, blindly feeling around for its victim. The claw turned towards me as though having spotted me, and hovered forwards menacingly.

I ducked sideways, trying to lose it, but either it had concealed eyes or could heatseek because the claw was in no way deterred. Not diverting my eyes from it—somehow I knew it would lunge if I looked away—I followed the wall behind me, stumbling through scattered bits of debris as I made my fruitless effort to escape. The claw only drifted closer, moving ever so slightly faster, its hard surface glittering in the flickering light of spark-spitting streetlights.

My hand lost track of the wall; judging by the beveled edge, part of the building had been blown away. I dared not look to check. I blindly felt around for something to guide me, but there was nothing but thin air; I just might walk into something, eyes fixed forwards.

The Fright had put up with enough cat-and-mouse. Its claw spread open, revealing a handful of sharp serrated spines. The claw thrust forwards, threatening to engulf me with its razor embrace.

I leapt to the side, and the claw sped right past me, its long black wire connection streaming by. The claw cornered sharply and began to twist back upon itself, intending for a second pass. I tried to evade it again, but it compensated for my movement, and succeeded in ramming me. It was like being tackled in a football game; I was thrown rudely off my feet, slamming to the ground and skidding a few feet backwards. The claw rose up and came down, intending to tear me to pieces with its spiked jaws. I reached desperately backwards, seizing whatever my hand could find, to deter it—

Only as the stick grenade cartwheeled into the air did I realize exactly what I had just thrown. I cringed; I was within ten feet of the thing, well within its lethal radius—what a great way to blow off a hand! By whatever chance the grenade was unprimed and sturdy enough to resist shock, bouncing off with a metallic clatter, and achieving the desired result of causing the claw to flinch. I twisted around, glancing towards the rubble near my head; I grinned the moment I saw the reassuring shape of an old MP-40 right by my head, clip fitted securely in place. Not caring if I looked like a Nazi using it, I seized the gun and prayed it was still loaded, just as the claw came at me—

The MP-40 made a distinctive PATPATPATPATPAT as I fired it, cocking lever shunting back and forth, the whole weapon bouncing and buckling in my uneven grip. It wasn't loud at all, but it made enough noise to sound real, and kicked hard enough to make me believe it. The nine-millimeter rounds skidded in and around the claw, enough of them making contact to put the point across. The claw recoiled and clamped shut, absorbing a few more rounds with its armored carapace, and then thrust out forwards, attempting to crush me. I rolled over sideways and fired again, hitting it once or twice in the rear. The claw began to thrash around like Crazy Hand in Super Smash Brothers, flailing around wildly on the ground. I got whacked once on the shoulder but managed to get away. I flipped open the MP-40's folding stock and fitted it to my shoulder, firing into the writhing claw. This time I was a little more accurate, and just barely so—as the claw flipped backwards, smashing one final time against a nearby wall while flaking armor like a hot pastry, I ran out of ammunition. I was afraid that it was going to come back at me, but it was in its death throes, and fell to pieces before me, crumbling to a sizzling cloud of darkmatter.

I fiddled with the gun for a moment, trying to figure out how to release the cartridge. I snapped back the bolt, tugging at the clip, and after rattling the weapon around a little allowed the bolt to snap back forwards, finally ejecting the empty clip. I dumped it on the ground and searched for one to replace it. I found a second clip, and fit it into place, snapping back the bolt to chamber a round. I also recovered the grenade I had fumbled previously; I stuck it into one of my pockets, made sure that it wouldn't topple out, and contemplated tucking it under my hoodie; deciding that would only impede my retrieval of it, I just let it stick out, hoping that no Fright would be clever enough to notice.

There was a menacing sound of bending metal from behind me. I looked over, perplexed, and suddenly drew back from the wall, leveling my weapon near the top of the building. Just as I had expected, the spider-Fright burst through the structure, sending a cascade of rubble down from above. I ducked through a crack in a wall, listening as several tons of concrete, metal, and glass hailed down a few feet away. As soon as the collapse stopped, I came back out, MP-40 at the ready.

I was not surprising anyone. A giant foot crashed down right on top of me, smashing me pancake-flat beneath its—

The fact that I was still thinking was testimony to Silver Crescent's quick thinking as he pushed me to safety and slashed at the Fright's foot with his sword, cutting into the sticky green pad that rested beneath the armor. The spider-Fright roared, recoiling its foot; Silver Crescent swung his sword out to the side, pulling out one of his pistols as he faced it down.

I took aim and fired, pelting the creature's armored head with hot lead. I was not trying to break the armor (the pistol rounds chambered by the MP-40 were far from adequate for such purposes), but rather just to get lucky enough to hit its weak spot. Luck was something I had just enough of; I managed to land a round on its menacing eye, just as it began charging a superlaser.

The classic weakpoint held true; the Fright nearly lost its clutch on the building as it thrashed wrathfully, smashing all of the buildings around it to chunks, which crashed down to the street below. Silver Crescent darted sideways and grabbed me by the shoulders, wrenching me in against him; as massive blocks of building collapsed upon us, the admiral's Black Shield flared, repelling the tremendous force of the debris and knocking the giant pieces apart, deflecting the debris harmlessly. A few seconds later, the ground at our feet was the only clear earth around. I pulled away from Silver Crescent, and he from I, as the creature retaliated in its half-blind state.

We had the Fright on the ropes, I could tell, and so could Silver Crescent. He took aim with his trusty Creylon and fired (I could hardly hear the report over the rush of my heart), sending a single .45-caliber round right through the eyeslot into the creature's head. It buckled backwards, shrieking loudly; I pelted its body with ammunition, and the creature jerked around as the shots hit its unarmored stomach. It suddenly slacked and fell backwards, tearing down the last building as it fell. The Fright hit the ground with a crash and collapsed inwards, crumbling into nothing, its malevolent existence finally ended.

Silver Crescent sheathed his sword and pistol, turning towards me. "Are you all right, Narrator?" he asked.

I bobbed my head. "I'm fine," I said, shouldering my MP-40. "Hell, I feel great right now. Not every day one gets to exterminate a critter fifty times your own size!"

The admiral smiled dryly, giving me an approving look. "You're learning how to use your powers, I see. Nice shooting."

I shrugged. "MP-40s fire fast, that's the only reason I hit anything. Besides, this is my last clip, and I don't think I have too many shots left…" I eyed the weapon's metal clip suspiciously, trying to estimate how many shots I had fired.

"You have six left," Silver Crescent observed, following my gaze. "Do try to keep track of your rounds, too many a good soldier has been lost because he went dry when he didn't expect to."

I nodded, lowering the weapon. "I'll do my best with that."

The admiral looked around, as though recalling some matter of greater importance. "Well, I suppose that would be what Mayaren was speaking about—although, with all honesty, I do not believe that is all of them, since I still feel a very pronounced presence around here somewhere…"

With a glitter of stardust NiGHTS appeared from behind me, gliding in an arc across my field of view. "Heya! Where'd you go? We got hit with that laser and then you completely disappeared and just now you reappeared…"

"He took a quick side excursion to Nightmare," Silver Crescent informed her. "It took me a few moments to find him myself… fortunately, it seems, his Creator powers cannot be negated so easily."

"Nightmare?" I asked, resting my weapon against my shoulder. "Oh, wait, lemme guess, that's the Dark One's abode, huh?"

Silver Crescent looked around at the rubble, frowning. "Well, sort of. It's when he warps part of your Nightopia into his abode, I believe… do you think you could pick up some of this mess or what?"

"I can try." I looked around, imagining what the city had looked like previously. It wasn't quite as easy as that!

"Try it with your eyes closed," Silver Crescent offered.

I shrugged and closed my eyes. I pictured the street corner, lights brightly glowing, moon twinkling in the skies above. I reopened my eyes… the scene came to being all around me.

NiGHTS seemed to bristle with glee. "Hey, check it out!" she exclaimed.

I wondered what she was so happy about, and then my eyes caught on a mysterious gold glitter, coming up from the middle of the corner. "Hey, what's the glowing thing?"

"It's your Hope Ideya!" NiGHTS trilled merrily. She pushed me in the direction of the glow; I stumbled a few paces, and then walked over to the middle of the street.

The glow broadened; it was all around me, encircling me like a great globe. I spread my hands, closing my eyes. Life seemed to pour into me as I absorbed the aura; I felt like I had just recovered something that I had misplaced, something wonderful. By the time I opened my eyes, I felt different, in a good way.

I looked all around me. I had not noticed how very dark it was, how very dark. I looked around, searching for the reason. The lamps were lit, but it was still quite dark. I looked up, and in the blink of an eye I knew exactly what was missing. I outstretched one hand to the heavens; like the lights in a theater, the skies above lit up bluish-white with stars, a billion tiny diamonds glowing in the dome of the sky.

Silver Crescent smiled in the light. "I was wondering when you'd notice."

NiGHTS laughed joyfully and swept forwards, twirling in a circle around me. I didn't feel like she was in the least wrong in doing so; I joined in her bubbling emotion, laughing along with her. It felt good to just be around someone who was always unceasingly happy…

-*-The First Dream-*-