* * * Chapter Two: Dreaming * * *
"Hare! Hare, come on, this isn't funny!" Genki shouted. Grabbing the rabbit's shoulders, he tried to shake him awake, without any apparent success.
"I don't like this," Suezo moaned, giving his friends worried looks. Why wasn't Hare waking up?
Suddenly Suezo felt his eye widen in shock. Something seemed to be flickering faintly around Hare's body…an aura? A shadow? As Suezo watched, the strange darkness spread to Genki, gently misting his arms and face. The boy stopped shaking Hare, and yawned. Then he toppled backward, already snoring by the time he hit the ground.
"Genki? Genki!" Holly cried out, shocked. "What happened?"
"You mean you didn't see it?" Suezo asked. When the others just stared at him, the eyeball monster hopped to Genki's side and said, "Never mind. We have to wake him up now!"
* * *
"Where am I?" Genki wondered aloud as he looked around him. Shadows stretched out in all directions around him. The only source of light that he could see was his own shadow, which stretched out before him in a white streak of light. That made a strange sort of sense, he supposed: if shadows were caused by light normally, then why couldn't light be caused by shadows?
Well, that was a question better left to minds untroubled by other problems, and Genki had a major problem at that moment: figuring out just where the heck he was. The last thing he could remember clearly was trying to wake Hare up…could that have something to do with where he was now?
A point of light materialized in front of him, and Genki started to move toward it. He could faintly hear some sort of noises coming from it, and decided that the best way to find out just what had happened was to find their source. As he got closer, the noises became clearer, slowly becoming identifiable. Genki strained to hear everything, and suddenly felt his blood freeze as he recognized one of the voices.
It was Hare. And he was screaming.
Genki started running, pushing himself to move faster and faster. The point of light came closer, and Genki's heart pounded as he saw Hare in its center. And the little rabbit wasn't alone, either. The shadows were alive, and were pulling on him, grabbing his arms and legs, holding him in place. Genki could feel his friend's terror, and he forced himself to move even faster, calling out the rabbit's name.
Hare couldn't seem to hear him, though. The rabbit was struggling to get away from the ethereal hands that held him, and was sobbing from fear. Every time he managed to break the grip of one of the hands, two more took its place.
"Hang on, I'm coming!" Genki called, pumping his legs to get even more speed. He was almost there…
Fire erupted across his chest, and Genki screamed as he stumbled backwards. Blood dripped from a nasty gash across his chest, which was thankfully shallow despite its length. It stretched over his stomach and chest in a thin line, and Genki cried out as he caught sight of it. He was lucky it was so shallow; if it had gone much deeper, he might have been chopped right in half.
"Well, well, well, what have we here? A nasty pest peeking into dreams that don't belong to him?"
I know that voice from somewhere, Genki realized. Scrambling to his feet, he stared up into glowing red eyes.
Glowing red eyes that leered back down at him from a colorful white mask, one that looked like a grotesque distortion of a clown's face.
"You shouldn't intrude on the dreams of others, boy," Joker rasped, raising his scythe as he spoke. "They can all too quickly become your own nightmares…"
The blade slashed down, streaking toward Genki's neck in a blaze of silver light.
* * *
"GENKI!"
Desperate, Suezo bit the boy's arm, jolting him awake. Genki's eyes shot open, and he leapt to his feet with a cry, throwing both arms up to ward off the attack. After a moment, however, he slowly lowered his defense and stared around at the others.
"Huh? What…ouch, my arm," Genki moaned, seeing the shallow teeth marks embedded in his left arm. Suezo sighed in relief.
"Hey, it worked," he said, seeing the dark looks Mocchi and Golem were giving him. Tiger just snorted and shrugged the whole thing off. Holly, meanwhile, had noticed something that horrified her.
"Genki…" she breathed, staring at the boy's chest. Seeing her gaze fixed there, Genki glanced down at it, and nearly passed out with shock.
A long, shallow cut stretched across his stomach and chest, exactly like the wound he had received in the dream. Genki stared down at it with a sort of detached fascination, like it wasn't his chest that was bleeding.
"What happened?" Holly stammered, hastily scrambling to bandage his wounds. Genki looked at her, confused.
"I…was attacked," he said simply. "I think I was in Hare's dr…HARE!" Genki whirled to look over at the rabbit. "Isn't he awake yet?"
Golem gave the boy a helpless look, silently answering the frantic question. Heart pounding, Genki scrambled over to Hare's side and started screaming out, "Hare! Wake up! Come on!"
Hare didn't answer him, he couldn't: he was still asleep. The rabbit moaned softly, stirring, but it didn't look like he was getting up. Genki tried to shake his shoulders again, desperate, but Holly pulled him back.
"Don't!" she warned. "That's how you passed out last time!"
"You don't understand, Holly! Hare has to wake up, right NOW!"
Holly stared at him, confused. "Huh?"
"I think I was in Hare's dream before," Genki hastily attempted to explain. "Something pulled me into it. And he was being attacked there! If I got hurt while I was in his nightmare…"
He trailed off, seeing the horrified look on Holly's face. Suezo, Mocchi and Golem stared at him, wide-eyed, and even Tiger looked a little disturbed by the unspoken possibility. Mocchi bolted over to Hare's side and started screaming his name, over and over again, near tears.
"I don't understand," Holly stammered, stunned. "How could you be hurt in a dream?"
"I don't know, maybe Joker has something to do with it," Genki replied. When the others stared at him again, he explained, "Joker appeared and attacked me. That's how I got this scratch before: he hit me with his weapon when I tried to help Hare."
"A spell," Suezo suddenly said, bleakly. "That explains it." Everyone's attention turned to the eyeball, and he stared back at them, his eye solemn.
"What do you mean?" Holly asked.
"Remember when Tiger ran off, and Hare claimed that he would get killed if he fought alone?" he asked, even though he was certain that everyone remembered that terrible incident. "Well, when I tried to make him settle down, I got all these images from his mind…of Tiger being dead or dying. That's why I suddenly started supporting what he had said."
Tiger stared at the eyeball: this was the first time he had heard about anything like this. He glanced over at the others, and could tell by the expressions on their faces that it was true. His golden eyes narrowed, and he turned his full attention to what was being said.
"And lately," Suezo continued, "it's been happening to me again. After he started complaining about his nightmares, I've been picking up…images from his mind somehow. I don't know how else to explain it…"
His expression became even grimmer, and Holly shivered. She had a feeling that most of the things he had seen were truly the stuff of nightmares. Gently she asked, "Why didn't you tell us before?"
"Are you kidding?" Suezo laughed, bluntly. "I had no idea what was happening. I only knew that what I was seeing was horrible, and I thought that maybe it had something to do with Hare's nightmares. I had no idea how to stop it, and I still don't."
"Well I do," Genki said, getting to his feet. "We have to go back in there and defeat Joker."
"What?" Holly gasped, staring at him. Genki started over to Hare's side, and Holly caught his outstretched arm before he could touch the rabbit again. "What are you doing?" she demanded. "That's how you nearly got killed last time!"
Genki stared up into her face, his clear brown eyes dark with determination. "I know," he replied, "but it's the only way we can help Hare. There's no way we can stop Joker from out here."
"The kid has a point, Holly," Suezo said. "We haven't exactly had much luck getting him to wake up from out here. The spell's just too strong…"
"But…Genki," Holly faltered. Her fingers gently traced along where she had bandaged up the boy's side, and her expression twisted into a mask of concern. "If Joker could do this to you when you were in the dream for just a little bit…"
"Then he can do a whole lot worse to Hare," Genki interrupted. Staring into her eyes, he said, "I have to do this, Holly. We're a team, and I'm not going to abandon any of our team for any reason. I'm going to help him…"
"Genki…" Holly fell silent, then slowly relented, "All right. But please be careful."
"Don't worry, Holly," Genki assured her with a wink. "If you and the others stay awake, then you can wake me up if it looks like I'm in trouble."
"If you're going to fight that Joker creep, then I'm in too," Tiger growled. "I still have a score to settle with that magic-casting coward…"
Genki nodded. "All right."
"Mocchi go too!"
"Sorry Mocchi," Genki told him, "but I don't think that's a good idea." As Mocchi started to protest, he quickly added, "I need you out here to protect Holly and the others. Can you do that for me, Mocchi?"
Mocchi quieted down and slowly nodded. "All right-chi," he answered, near tears.
"Genki…you must be careful," Golem told the boy.
"I will," Genki said, grinning up at the stone giant. "Tiger will be with me, so there's no problem."
"Genki…I'm coming along too."
"Huh?" Everyone else turned to stare at Suezo, and he flushed a bright red. The eyeball monster stared down at the ground, and he stammered, "Well, I think I should…I mean, I'm obviously sensitive to the spell Joker used…so…it doesn't make much sense for me to try and keep awake while you guys go in…I'd rather enter of my own accord than try and stay awake and enter against my will…"
"Suezo…" Holly whispered.
"Well, okay then," Genki said after a moment. "Let's go for it, then!"
Tiger and Suezo glanced at each other and nodded. The three approached Hare, and Genki gently brushed his hand up against the rabbit's cheek. Suezo gulped as he saw the shadow aura rise around Hare's body again, and threw a furtive glance back at Holly.
Golem…Mocchi…please keep Holly safe.
Suezo could only hope that his attempt to mentally tell the two monsters his biggest concern had worked. The shadows reached out with ethereal hands to envelop him, Tiger and Genki, and his sight dimmed and faded into blackness…
* * *
Holly shivered as she watched Genki, Tiger and Suezo drop to the ground, eyes slowly closing. She draped her arms around Mocchi, and the little pink monster cast pleading eyes up at her.
"They'll be okay, right-chi?" he asked.
I hope so, Holly thought to herself. She couldn't trust herself to make a positive reply to Mocchi's question, so she remained silent. Sensing her fear, Golem gently reached down and picked the two up off of the ground. Sighing, they settled down to wait. It was about all they could do, now…
* * *
"So…the boy decided to intrude again?"
Joker's eyes glowed blood red as he felt the three life forces enter his spell. The very idea that these upstarts could enter against his will! …But it mattered little. It only made things a bit more interesting…
"Yes…" Joker hissed as he considered the possibilities this infraction presented to him. The 'little rabbit' was already nearly his; the fact that he had slipped into a coma from the spell signaled to the cloaked monster that his spirit was no longer strong enough to resist his power. All that was left for him was to seal the little rabbit's own will and mind away, and then Joker would be free to take control.
And what better way to make somebody lose their will to live then to force them to watch as their friends slowly perish? Joker thought. The fact that he could make the deaths of these three real made it even more convenient for the baddie. In a way, Genki and his two monster friends were doing him a major favor!
If Joker's face had not been a mask, his grin would have become even wider. His demented laugher echoed around him as he disappeared into the darkness.
* * *
Suezo froze, hearing the terrible laughter rolling around them. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea, he told himself. But there was no turning back now. Taking a deep breath, he glared into the darkness, trying to make out the source of the laughter.
"Can you see Joker, Suezo?" Genki asked. Suezo shook his head, and the boy looked around himself.
"I can't see anything other than you guys," Suezo admitted, glancing down at the beams of light that served as their shadows in this world of darkness. As strange as it was, he couldn't help but feel grateful for its presence. After all, it was the sole source of light that he could see, and was the only thing that enabled him to see the others.
Tiger sniffed the air, attempting to pick up on some sort of scent. The blue-furred wolf growled in frustration. "I can't pick out Joker's stench," he informed the others. "I can't make out anything at all, other than you two."
"That's just great," Suezo moaned. "How do we find Joker or Hare?"
"We just keep looking," Genki told them, skating forward in the darkness. Suezo stared at him, a little stunned by the fact that there didn't seem to be anything holding the boy up.
"Hurry up, Suezo," Tiger growled, moving after Genki. Taking a deep breath, the eyeball hopped forward, somehow surprised when he didn't plummet down into the abyss.
* * *
Joker hovered over the three, laughing to himself. This will be too easy, he thought as he raised his scythe. Dark purple energy pulsed around its blade as he chanted a spell, then he brought it down over the group.
* * *
"What was that?" Suezo gasped, whirling around. He stared into the air, petrified. "Uh, guys…?"
"What?" Genki asked. Seeing the eyeball monster's expression, he glanced up into the darkness above them. "Huh-"
A violet bolt of lightning coursed down from the darkness and exploded right in the center of the trio. Genki hollered as he was thrown backward, and he reached out for Tiger and Suezo, calling their names.
"Genki!" Tiger howled as the energy swirled around them, blocking their view of one another. The sound of Suezo's screaming and Genki's shout was drowned out by the roar of the lightning as it enveloped them, pulling them away.
The last thing they heard was the sound of Joker's mocking laughter, rising above them, then fading away as the purple light vanished, leaving only empty darkness behind.