Chapter 34 Master of Dreams

I couldn't stop the attack from striking me.

I bolted upright, letting out a small cry of fear.

"Rose?" Vision asked as he came to my side.

I looked at him, breathing quickly. "Those dreams," I whispered. "They're my nightmares."

"One thing at a time, Rose," Vision said in a soothing voice, stroking my hair and kissing my forehead. "How are you feeling?"

"Aside from the dream, better," I said. I became aware of my surroundings now, seeing that I was at the infirmary in the West Coast base. "How did we get back?"

"A portal opened," Vision said. "I carried you through. We're the first ones back."

I nodded, putting a hand to my forehead but feeling the scabs from the cuts. "Vision, please be honest, I can take it," I said as I looked up at him. "How bad do I look?"

"You've seen better days," Vision admitted. "But you can always say jokingly that you ran into a fence."

I just rolled my eyes as I reached for the mirror on the bedside table so that I could see for myself how I looked.

Now that the blood was cleaned off, I realized that the cuts weren't as bad as I thought: they were deep and thin, and not the other way around.

"Bonita and Bobbi are returning," JARVIS announced.

I set the mirror down and got to my feet as Vision and I went to greet them.

"Ok, you have to admit: that was freaking awesome," Bobbi said as she and Bonita walked down the hallway.

"Vision, Rose, how did you two fare?" Bonita said as she saw us, immediately noticing my cuts. "What, pick a fight with a fence and lost?"

"Oh ha, ha," I remarked. "If you guys are already giving me stuff, I wonder what Clint's going to say."

"We had a pretty eventful time, obviously," Vision said as we walked to the lounge.

"What universe?" Bobbi said.

"Movie," I said. "Genre: horror."

"Oh jeez," Bonita said. "What was the horror you guys had to face?"

"Spiders and humans don't mix," I said firmly as we all sat down. "If you want to see the atrocity that it makes, I can show you. But they should never mix at all, no way, no how, end of story."

"Maybe you should wait until the others have arrived," Vision suggested.

"I wonder what the others went through," Bobbi said, amused with my mini-rant about the unnamed Arachnid Men.

"Clint and Rhodey have returned," JARVIS reported.

"We'll go fetch the boys," Bonita said as she and Bobbi got up. "After all, you two got us."

The two left and returned with Clint in the middle of a possibly long rant except he trailed off when he saw my face.

"It's a bit early for Halloween to be trying out that kind of makeup, Sis," he said, chuckled, as he and Rhodey sat down.

"Oh shut it," I scolded. "At least I wasn't scared of the ghosts down the street and screamed like a girl when I saw them."

"Hey, they were spooky!" Clint protested.

"Simon and Tigra have returned," JARVIS interrupted.

"You're getting them," Bobbi said to Rhodey and Clint. "We got you and Rose and Vision got us."

"Fine, let's go Rhodey," Clint said as he got up.

"I just sat down," Rhodey complained as he got to his feet and he and Clint walked out of the room.

"Did you see me out there, Simon!?" Tigra exclaimed as she, Simon, Clint, and Rhodey walked into the room. "They didn't know what was coming!"

"Yea, and they weren't expecting me for that follow-up!" Simon added.

"Ok, now that we're all here," Clint said when everyone was sitting down, "Rose, what fence did you make angry?"

I just raised an eyebrow. "Really?" I replied.

"How about we all just take turns telling the others what happened to them?" Vision suggested.

"Much better, before Rose attempts to choke out her brother," Rhodey said with a chuckle.

Clint and Rhodey had to fend for themselves in the Hunger Games, the book version, Clint portraying Katniss and Rhodey being Primrose. Simon and Tigra were sent to fight Slade with the comic book version of the Teen Titans, Simon taking Cyborg's place and Tigra taking over Beast Boy's role. And Bonita and Bobbi were shadowhunters from the TV show, Bonita as Clarissa and Bobbi being Isabelle.

Then when Vision and I said our part, the others had me show them what we meant when we had described the Arachnid Men.

"Ok, this is why I say humans and spiders should never mix," I said before turning into one of the Arachnid Men, causing the others to jump. I turned back to normal and sat back down next to Vision, the two of us finishing up telling them what happened to us.

"Award for the scariest experience," Tigra said. "I definitely would've hated that."

"Incoming transmission," JARVIS said. "From Antman and Wasp."

We went to the conference room.

"Play it," Clint said when we were all ready.

The screen showed Scott and Hope, Hank behind them.

"Alright, next time you disappear to another dimension and you leave us to clean up, warn us," Hope said. "We got that guy's laser gun from him and he's currently locked up in the Raft."

"We owe you guys one," Clint said. "It wasn't our intention to go dimension-hopping but that's what happened."

"Yea we'll just send a bill your way," Scott said.

"Tony will cover it," Rhodey said. "Probably already paid it off and we just don't know about it."

"Just got a transaction from Stark," Hank said as he looked at a side screen.

"There's Tony for ya'," I said.

"We'll be transporting this laser to you through one-night," Hope said. "We trust you know what to do with it."

"Yea, we do," Vision said.

"Right, then we're done here," Hope said.

We both disconnected.

"Now, how about relaxing?" Bobbi suggested.

"Agreed," we all said.

"Uh Rose," Clint said. "There's a spider on your shoulder."

Without thinking, I start to swat at my shoulders to get the spider off, causing Clint to laugh.

"Only joking, Rosie," Clint said with a smirk, ruffling up my hair.

"I'll put a Great Horned Owl in your room, Hawkeye," I replied, slapping his hand away. "Or better yet, I'll be the Great Horned Owl."

"Ooh, I'm so scared," Clint said.

"Well they are predators for hawks," Vision pointed out. "It would only make sense."

"Whatever," Clint said as he walked to the lounge. "I'm going to be reading comics in the lounge if anyone needs me."

"You're getting him back, Rose?" Rhodey asked me after Clint was out of earshot.

I crossed my arms as I watched my brother go, saying, "Oh yea."

XXX

Several weeks later, I was still getting plagued by the nightmares that happened on an off while we had been resting at home.

It kept me tossing and turning all night, which made it difficult for Vision to sleep, which I felt bad about, especially since we didn't sleep every night. I only ever got an alias: the Master of Dreams.

During the day, I was teaching Vision how to use a knife, since we didn't want to have a repeat of what happened while we were in the movie dimension. At night when we weren't trying to sleep or on patrol, we walked through the base, talking together, like normal.

I had gotten Clint back very quickly for the spider incident, turning into an owl and hiding in his room before he went to bed one night. I told the others what I was going to do so if they heard Clint scream, which knowing him was going to happen, they could ignore it. When Clint came into the room and was falling asleep, I kept making a "hoo" noise, confusing him and causing him to walk around the room to see where the noise was coming from. When he walked by where I was hiding for the third time, I sprang out and flew into his face. His reaction was priceless: he let out a surprised and startled cry and waved his arms around, trying to get me away.

He wasn't amused, but needless to say, I thought it was hysterical.

Everything was calm, but we were preparing for the storm that we knew was coming, the final storm before we went separate ways from West Coast.

One day while we were having a training session, the alarm went off.

We looked at each other and darted to the conference room.

"Well look who it is," Clint remarked as we saw on the screen who the problem was. "If it isn't our beloved parents."

"They got lucky before," I said. "Now it's time to teach them what the real West Coast is all about."

We all ran out and to the location where our parents were.

"Carma and Gregory Barton, we will be giving you one chance and one chance only," Vision said when we got there. "Stop what you're doing and come peacefully or face the consequences."

"Oh but we're just getting started," Gregory replied.

"We still have a lot to do," Carma added.

"Wrong," Clint said. "You got lucky last time. We were split up and you took us by surprise. We're not going to make the same mistake."

"You've messed with the wrong team," Tigra growled.

Gregory sent a piece of charged up metal at us but I countered it with a plasma ball, sending a second one at him and knocking him off his feet.

"Not so easy now that you've got all of us together, is it?" Bobbi remarked as she shot an explosive arrow at Carma, also sending her to her back.

"You haven't met the third person on our team," Gregory replied as he got to his feet and helped Carma up.

"Third person?" Simon questioned.

"What do you mean by that?" added Rhodey.

"Exactly what he said," Carma said. She put a hand to her communicator and said, "Hawkmancer, it's time."

"Hawkmancer?" Clint and I both repeated, giving each other worried glances.

A man suddenly flew down in front of us and blew us all back with a gust of wind. He had a mask covering his face but we could make out Carma's eyes and Gregory's eyebrows.

"We have a brother?" I whispered as we got to our feet.

"He's the man I saw," Clint breathed. "The one right before I passed out."

"He's a good boy, unlike you two," Carma said. "Always listens to his parents, does what's best for the family."

"We were doing that in our own way," Clint retorted. "SHIELD was the best thing for me to help the family."

"Yet you left your sister behind," Gregory put in. "She had to fend for herself on the streets of New York."

"He still did what was best, with my well-being in mind!" I snapped, seeing Clint wince as if he was slapped. "He's a better father to me than you ever will be!"

Instead of replying, Gregory threw a small piece of charged-up metal that hit my shoulder, me biting back my cry of pain.

"Didn't I ever teach you to not talk back to your parents?" Gregory said simply.

I shot him a dark look and tried to shoot a plasma ball at him in retaliation but the man with the alias of Hawkmancer caught it and sent it back at me.

"Rose!" Vision said, kneeling next to me as I fell to my knees.

"I'm fine," I said gruffly, pushing myself to my feet.

"If only you had joined us," Carma said with mock sympathy. "We could've been a family again. Me, your father, Rosalina, Clinton, Alexander."

"We're not about to betray our families," Clint said. "Our real families, who actually support us in what we do, who want us to thrive and succeed, who have our backs through thick and thin. We're protecting the world. You're ruining it. Bonita, Bobbi, go!"

Bonita and Bobbi sprang forward and both attacked Alex, the rest of us ganging up on Gregory and Carma.

Or at least we would've except Alex suddenly ran in front of them and forced us to go flying back with a wave of pure energy.

"Quit hiding behind him!" Rhodey said as we got back to our feet.

"We're not hiding, we're just waiting for the right moment to strike," Carma said. "It's not our fault if the all-mighty Avengers can't fight one boy."

I balled my hands into fists. "Ok, I'm really getting mad," I growled. "I've had just about enough of you guys." I froze time and blasted Alex away from Carma and Gregory with a plasma ball, running at him as I let time move again. "I've got Alex! Focus on your targets!"

Alex tried to move past me as the others started to actually fight Gregory and Carma.

"I never said you could go anywhere," I said as I sent an energy wave at him, similar to what he had thrown at us.

He glared at me, drawing his knife and charging at me.

I sidestepped and grabbed his wrist, kneeing him in the stomach before slamming an elbow into the back of his head, causing him to let go of the knife.

As he stumbled, I kicked him in the chest and sent him falling onto his back.

Right after he hit the ground, he drew his gun and shot at me.

I pulled my cape in front of me and the bullets ricocheted off of it.

I heard footsteps and let go of the cape, bring my arms up just in time to do an X-hand block over my head to keep him from stabbing his knife into me. I brought my arms around in a circle and pinned his arm behind his back, kicking his knees out from under him.

When I thought he was going to give up, he suddenly elbowed me in the stomach, causing me to let him go and take a step back.

He sprung to his feet, doing three quick kicks: once to my stomach, once to my chest, and once in my face, each one causing me to give ground.

While I was dazed, he tripped me and pinned me to the ground, the knife pressed against my skin.

I took him by surprise when I shifted my weight and rolled so that he was on the ground and I was on top of him, jumping to my feet and taking a step away.

He got to his feet and sent a gust of wind at me.

In order to keep from being blown away, I turned into an elephant just long enough for the wind to stop before turning into a tiger and pouncing at him, my claws making contact with his face and ripping his mask away.

I turned back into an android, a plasma ball already formed and ready to release.

Alex put a hand over his face but let it drop, raising his head to look up at me.

I gasped when I saw his whole face, taking a step back as I remembered my nightmare. "You," I whispered. "You're the Master of Dreams."