(I don't own Bittersweet Candy Bowl or the story that inspired this storyline, the Silver Sentinel also belongs to Blade100, and that character is just an alternate version of Mike, but unlike the version Blade100 uses, the events of December happened on this Earth. I don't own anyone except Longcoat. One more thing, I know its been a while since I last updated this Fic so I hope there won't be any hard feelings…I spent a lot of time on this, I hope you enjoy it.)

Lucy's House: 9:12 AM

Lucy was lost in her own fear for hours, she lay upon her bed in costume and comatose.

Longcoat and Daisy were standing over her, Clover was there too, licking her hand.

"She hasn't woken up" Daisy sorrowfully said.

Longcoat was grim for once "No. No she hasn't.
"But she must, because if she doesn't this whole city is dead…"

9 HOURS AGO

Longcoat burst into Lucy's house with his apprentice slung over his arm. While her family was out that night the human would have brought her there anyways.

Daisy closely followed him, worried immensely for her friend.

Clover was there to stand guard over the basement door and ran right to them after smelling something bad was going on.
Placing his twitching sidekick on the table, the super-vigilante began to study her.

"Wh-what's wrong with her?" Daisy nervously asked, finally speaking up after discovering Lucy's body.

Longcoat sighed "Lucy seems to have inhaled some kind of toxin. From the looks of it, I believe it's something similar to or is a fear toxin. Which was originally pioneered by Dr. Johnathan "Scarecrow" Crane, and since he never even met Lucy I doubt he did this.
"As far as I can tell this thing seems to be putting her in some kind of…fear based coma."
Daisy began to cry as her friend lay on the table "Don't worry though" Longcoat reassured her "This doesn't look permanent, I might be able to rig up an antidote. As far as I can tell this looks like she only had a minor exposure to whatever poison she ingested. In fact it almost seems like this was intended to simply put her out of the way for a short while."
Something occurred to him "Turn the TV on."
Daisy was a bit confused at this "What?"
"Turn it on quick, if they did this and purposely kept her alive. They'll have something that'll definitely make the news. Turn the TV to the newschannels."
"Oh" Daisy said, finally realizing what he meant. Getting up she turned on the TV but noticed something weird.
"Longcoat…there aren't any channels. Just this...weird symbol."

Longcoat looked up from his protégé and saw that where any kind of television program should have been, there was what seemed to be a large question mark crossed with a biohazard symbol and a skull and crossbones.
"This can't be good."
As if in answer to his question, the screen changed to show a smirking Augustus, wearing both his top hat and monocle.

"Oh God!" Daisy yelled out in horror "But-but he's-"

"I told Lucy she shouldn't have assumed he was dead."
"Good evening, you wretched denizens of Roseville. For those who are not familiar with me, permit me to introduce myself, my name is Augustus Roman but you knew me better as the Cryptic.
"I have hijacked every television in this city to enlighten you all to the important fact you all must know."
He adjusted his monocle before continuing "You are all dead.

"For the past few months I have been creating superpowered criminals and releasing them into the streets, the purpose of this was to create bodyguards for my true plan.
"High up in the city lies a machine that will generate a complete orb around the city, you cannot break it, nor can you teleport through it."
The camera panned out to reveal that Alejandro, Katie, Carter and Carson were right behind him and they looked disturbingly pleased at this next rant.

"You cannot escape nor hope on any rescue, for as the dome rises now everyone here will play by my rules."
Exchanging a worried look between each other, Longcoat and Daisy rushed outside and watched in horror as an orangish forceshield began to cover the skies.

Hearing something else from Augustus as he bragged on the television, the two ran back in.

" –ith the gangs of this city following me now. Or at least agreeing to take advantage of this, anarchy shall be the rule of these streets.

"Now, this is not a sadistic plot. Well not entirely anyways, for there is a way to save yourselves. Which is to stay out of it."
Augustus pulled out a picture he'd taken of the Ice Queen swinging through the air "For this is the person I intended this for. I have chosen her to play my little game of death and she's off to a bad start.
"She won't be able to really do anything for awhile though, not after what I gave her so my boys'll be able to enjoy themselves for a bit.

"Anyways, I'm bored now. Good luck trying to survive, because you'll need it...no seriously you will."

Back to present time

Longcoat's fist clenched tightly after remembering what he saw earlier. Augustus would pay for this, with his furry tail getting lit on fire by Hell itself.

Daisy'd been working hard all night, saving who she could when she could. Claiming the house as a base of operations there were several strangers milling about downstairs, despite this however Lucy's brother Jordan (who Longcoat let in on about this, largely so he could use him as a guard), Lily, Yashy, Blur, and David (David was unaware that Lucy was the Ice Queen still seemed pretty sad over her current state.)
Longcoat hadn't left her side for a second, he'd been through Hell like this before and he knew that as powerful as he was, only she could end this.

It was her fight…and she wouldn't wake up.

As it turned out the fear venom wasn't intended to be permanent, but the only real way for it to end was for Lucy herself to come out.

And it had been hours, the streets were (as Augustus had promised) ruled by anarchy and chaos. Supercriminals were going on violent rampages and the police were useless against them, already being busy dealing with the gangs.

Even the Silver Sentinel and Golden Guardian failed, somehow Augustus had beaten and captured them. The Bronze Titan armor was also smashed up when Commissioner Duncan attempted (and failed) to beat Alejandro and instead got captured.

Augustus set up shop in the Swan Hotel, at the penthouse where Longcoat believed the force field generator was hidden too.

Daisy herself had attacked Katie while she was trying to flay some of her fellow cheerleaders alive and barely survived the fight (though she did save her schoolmates.)
As Longcoat stood brooding over his beaten sidekick with Daisy and Clover watching her too. Jordan walked in and stared intently as his sister.
"I'm gonna kill that bastard" he growled "She didn't deserve this."
"I won't argue that" Longcoat added "But no one ever knows what someone deserves, still though you're right. Lucy's lead a hard life."
"Then she shouldn't have been involved in this at all" he growled again "Why the Hell did you use my sister for this?"
Longcoat stood his ground, Lucy's brother was pretty angry when he learned Lucy'd been injured but he got even angrier when he realized Longcoat had gotten her in this business.

"I saved her life and made her strong remember? This whole thing's a kind of therapy. It helped me with my insecurities and I still got trouble with them."

Longcoat looked glumly towards her as Lucy's brother muttered "But all those criminals came out because of her, can you justify that?"
"Augustus was already on his way to becoming this, even without Lucy he would've been the same."
Before Lucy's brother began to argue Longcoat continued "This whole thing isn't just my fault. Lucy and her friends are in some kind of…emotional standoff. All of them cause trouble for each other and in a way they're all responsible for their own problems.
"The drama probably took a wrong turn when Mike broke her heart, but I think this all really started when Daisy broke Augustus' heart long before this."
Daisy's fur paled and she looked up towards Longcoat as he continued "And that's the point, Augustus seems to target Lucy because she's like him. Both of them had their hearts broken and took radical ways in dealing with this."
Longcoat took off his mask at last, while his appearance was so alien they could all see the look of worry on his face, the sweat in his hair and how he was upset at all this.

"It's been several hours before all this Hell started, we're out of time, and Lucy's still out of it. I don't know if you realize it but only Lucy can truly put a stop to this."
He pulled something out from behind his back, Daisy and Jordan were a bit perplexed by this.

What he'd pulled out was a small black briefcase "This is what's commonly known as an Inception machine, it allows people to enter minds and manipulate dreams. This may be the only way to get Lucy out of it forcibly.
"I'll only do this as a last resort in case what I'm about to do doesn't work."

Longcoat walked right over to Lucy's head and kneeled down to her ear and began to whisper something…

Lucy's room, time…who knows

Lucy's eyes slowly rose open as she woke up from her sleep…which confused her immensely since she last remembered getting bushwhacked by a group of supercriminals she'd fought before.

Something was off. She couldn't hear anything, not even the wind itself.

Quietly getting out of bed, Lucy looked around the room…something was definitely wrong, she couldn't even see her pets (and they usually slept nearby her.)
"Hello?" She spoke hoping for an answer, but received none. "Hello?" she asked again in a slightly louder voice.

Lucy's heart skipped a beat when she heard the front door open; walking to her door she went towards the sound in hopes of seeing somebody.
As she moved forward she felt a sense of unease, something was seriously not right here. Even when there was a distinct lack of feline and avian presence that she should have heard, not to mention that their walls and carpet were too clean to be real.

As she drew closer, Lucy saw somebody sitting in a chair with his back to her…somebody who looked familiar.

"Mike?" She lowly asked, wondering what was going on here.

Mike slowly got up, and just stood for a few seconds but then slowly turned around in a garish manner. Lucy took one look at him and was instantly horrified.

His eyes…were gone, with blood oozing right out of his skull, his fur withered and old, and maggots littered in his skin.
Lucy was frozen with fear, she'd seen some horrifying things…but this was on a whole new level, just plain wrong.

'Mike' looked at her like a man might look at an unpleasant piece of gun stuck to his shoe "You…bitch" he spat "I hate you, I hate you! Why the fuck were you even born!" the demonic cat roared.

Lucy let out a blood curdling scream as the nightmare before her hurled more verbal abuse.

Lucy was so frightened of the demonic Mike that she did something she'd never done for a long time when danger showed up.

She ran, she ran straight towards the exit out of pure, primal terror at what she'd seen.

The backdoor was near, perfectly in sight and just within Lucy's grasp. But just as it seemed her escape from the demonic Mike was in sight, a new problem faced her.

For standing in her way, all sly and sleazy, was a monstrous giant that looked exactly like Augustus.

Sneering over her, the wretch being hissed "Can't you accept the Truth? You are so worthless!"
Lucy tensed up and prepared for the fight she thought would start, but as large as Augustus was he proved he wasn't slow by swiftly grabbing her up in his massive hand.

The white furred female struggled against the strength of Augustus' gloved hand in vain, terror building in her heart as the hand slowly rose to his mouth.

Just as it seemed she was about to slip out, the hand tossed her inside his gargantuan maw.
Yet as she was flung into the mouth Lucy could feel no teeth, nor the sensation of a throat compressing around her…just the feeling of falling in a black abyss.

Time seemed to go on forever as she tumbled through darkness, Lucy could have fallen forever…but alas, Augustus' torments weren't so merciful.
Lucy hit what looked like just more darkness but felt more like solid ground, and no sooner did she get on her feet when a spotlight shined on her.

Lucy couldn't see past the hovering spotlight, but could clearly hear something running in the darkness.

Without warning however, something jumped on her back and threw her to the ground. Being as strong as she was, Lucy easily shook her weight off…but saw something shocking when she did.

On the floor laid a maddened looking Daisy, her flesh was covered in tumor and she had a large chunk of flesh gone from her head.

"You lousy bitch!" Howled the demonic rendition of her friend "Are you ever anything other than a whining little skank?!"
Lucy backed away in fright and bumped into someone else.

She span around and stood face to face with a zombified Paulo that hissed through a half rotted mouth "You ugly whore, why did I ever love you?"

Lucy stepped backwards and tripped over the fallen Daisy, her mind whirled at the speed of a tornado unsure of whether or not she was in a dream.

A fist flew into her head from an unseen enemy, as she fell over Lucy saw Abbey with a horrifically scarred face.

"Bully" snarled the cat, spit flying out through the hideous mug "That's all you are Lucy, and by God I'll make you pay for it."
Lucy'd had enough of this, despite the grim oblivion she was living in at this horrid hour she punched Abbey with enough force to knock out a couple teeth.

Turning speedily, Lucy attempted to run off…only to run into a chilling sight that shocked her even more than the terrifying visions she'd already encountered.
Towering over her stood Longcoat himself, his comical and normally maniac self was replaced by a dark, foreboding sense of pure menace.

Lucy was speechless, but Longcoat didn't wait for any kind of response at all, he just leaping forward he just punched her in the jaw right away.
"I tried to hide my disappointment and put a smiling face on as long as I could" her mentor snarled with rage cold enough to freeze fire "But I've lost my patience" he continued "I can't keep hoping for you to snap out of your madness in vain! You have failed me, Lucy. I wanted a heroine but instead I got a monster!"

Lucy's fear was crippling, holding her in place as Longcoat pulled off his mask, revealing a frightening black blob of Hellish shadows.

"Mike was right" he snarled "You really are a parasite."
Lucy tried to quickly rise, but as swift as her reflexes were, she couldn't stop Longcoat from grabbing her.

Her demonic mentor's grip was tight enough to replace handcuffs, and Lucy could not seem to find a way out. Not as the other demonic personas surrounded her.
"See for yourself" the nightmare growled, flinging her out into the darkness.

Lucy tumbled down through space again, terrified of the fall and fearful of the crash she could have sworn would come.

Lucy felt a different sensation instead, feeling like she was just falling without stopping. And as she fell, pictures slowly began to form.

She could see snow, not wet and sticky snow, but soft snow that most children dream of sledding in.
Snow was lightly falling from the air, Lucy remembered something else though, this weather seemed very familiar to her.

As she looked forward she saw someone very familiar to her, a figure responsible for a lot of grief, but also some good times.
She saw Mike as a child, rolling up a large snowball to make it even bigger than it was before.
What surprised Lucy though, was seeing herself in this image. She was not the woman she'd grown into but instead she was a young child.

Lucy remembered this; long ago, back when she and Mike were both friends, they often loved to play in the snow.

Lucy stared on at this entranced, reminded of her distant youth and before she turned into the (figurative) Ice Queen she still was now.

She saw Mike struggling with the snowball he'd made, in hindsight, he shouldn't have made it twice his size.

Mike's attempts to push it up annoyed younger Lucy, rolling her eyes like the snarky cat she is now, she walked right up to her friend, pushed him away, and helped him by rolling it with the force of a car smashing into a deer.

Mike watched as she began rolling another lump of snow into something vaguely resembling a ball. Within minutes, the white haired cat constructed a snowman's body.

She turned to her friend and asked him to head with her as they looked for a hat or some sticks they could use to decorate their snowman.
Lucy remembered what would happen, the two would have engaged in a wacky search for sticks, coal and a hat (which they got from somebody who preferred to not part with it.)
She always remembered this as a treasured memory, one of the best days she'd had with Mike before that fatal December.

But this was different, Lucy realized that there was something she didn't remember of this important memory.

The children were getting scared, as if scared of some horrifying monster that wanted to gobble them up.

Whether or not feline fricassee was on the menu, there was indeed a monster watching them.

Lucy gazed on in shock and horror as a shadowy being stalked the children, with some malicious intent on its mind.
As the pair of kittens trudged along in the snow with the intentions of finding a hat to place upon the wintery effigy's head, the shadow of the unknown monster slowly followed them.

Gradually, the sky itself grew darker and darker. As if to reflect a situation that went from a nice memory to a horror story in the making.

The children were gradually starting to get scared, fear acting like some kind of deadly toxin that made them more and more paralyzed as they moved along (which it is.)
And when the tension grew too much, the monster struck. But Lucy couldn't believe her eyes.

The monster that was stalking these innocents, and tampering with her own memories…was the Ice Queen.

Perched upon a snow covered oak tree, Lucy could see what she could only describe as an evil clone of herself, in a black version of her Ice Queen outfit.

Lucy couldn't speak, but if she could, this proud beauty would have broken and begged this monster to leave them alone.
Lucy's mouth began to try and form out a desperate plea for mercy when a familiar voice spoke.
"Hey kiddo, it's me, Alex."
Longcoat was speaking to her, she knew it. Yet he was nowhere to be seen, was this a hallucination or-

No. No this wasn't a trick of her half deranged mind. This actually was her mentor, somehow his voice was plunging through her mind.

She was looking on at her memory as the demonic Ice Queen attacked the children relentlessly. Beating them with cruel violence and total dark hearted evil.

Longcoat's voice rang through the darkness again. "I can't understand what you're going on in your head. But listen to me.

"Things are bad. Augustus has the entire town at his mercy, people are dying all over the place, your enemies are running rampant and most your friends and family are in mortal danger."
Lucy's fear started to leak away, the sight of the demon Ice Queen stopped bothering her.

"You have to stop him, me, Daisy and even Clover can handle the thugs but we can't handle them and the supervillains at the same time. This isn't my battle, it's yours." Her mentor continued.

"If you're scared, if you're nervous, just remember…I'm scared too. I'm scared for your sake, but I need you up. The city is in danger, innocents are dying, Augustus is laughing at their misery and you are the only person who can stop him."

Lucy's blood began to boil but not in anger, the coat clad crusader had sent the message of hot blooded determination on an arrow straight to her heart.

Her teeth began to grit up, even as the representations of her fears showed up to further mutilate her poor memory.

"You may think you're a violent fiend at times, but you aren't, while overly brutal I know you have a good heart. Your friends are worried for you and your brother is too. Rise up Lucy, rise up and stop all this Hell.

"Now whatever's going on in there is nothing, you can leave whenever you want. All you need is to choose to leave but please do it soon, the city needs you, and so do I."

And then Longcoat's voice left, but Lucy could feel whatever force holding her starting to weaken and bend. And within seconds, it broke.

The Ice Queen lunged right into the memory and roared like a fierce lioness on the hunt, throwing a rage fueled punch to "deformed Mike's" face.

The Mike broke into a thousand tiny piece and the other figments of her mind took notice. Getting up from the ground, they rushed at Lucy with a collective look of murder.

But the white furred wondercat wasn't taking any shit from them, whipping out an uzi she quickly gunned them all down. Her newfound strength and courage granting her the power to take down her primal fears for good.
The Demon Ice Queen managed to avoid the bullets and charged straight at Lucy.

"No" Lucy growled, staring her darkened foe down "You can't hurt me now, not ever again. Because I am no longer…
"AFRAID!" She roared, the figment was blown into shards by the mere force of her voice.

At the death of the Demon, everything went black and slowly a light began to appear above Lucy.

Realizing she was free to go, Lucy concentrated on her body…and began to rise towards the light.

Lucy's room: Present time.
Longcoat stood back up and put his mask back on. "Alright, let's leave the room. She'll need a bit of time to herself now."

Slowly Longcoat, Daisy, Jordan and even Clover left the room, leaving the comatose kitty the only person in the room.

As the procession walked away from the room they saw David and the pets (Yashy, Blur, and Lily agreed to keep Lucy's identity a secret from the others) waiting in the hall. When David noticed they were out he looked towards them with a look of worry "Is the Ice Queen gonna be alright?"
David was one of the Ice Queen's largest fans, partially because of her attractiveness and largely because of how she could kick ass.

Longcoat closed the door before turning to him "She hasn't awaken yet but yes, she's alright."
The dog's head hung low as he lay down in his depressed state.
"Don't worry dude, whatever's happening. We're going to stop it, and I assure you. The Ice-"

Longcoat stopped, for at that moment his very sensitive hearing picked something up.

Someone in Lucy's room stood up.
Like a flash of light he sprang to the door and opened it up, seeing that to his relief…Lucy stood tall, with her mask being pulled over her face.
"Longcoat..." she began "What's going on? Where's Augustus? And how far am I going to have to go in order to smash his face?"

Longcoat grew a smirk under his mask; the night was pretty dark and dreary.

But now the dawn had come.

(As this chapter closes out, I'd like to credit my very good friend and beta reader Italian Schizoid Boy for giving me the idea and suggestions for the nightmare sequence, and also for his help with this tale in general.)