Disclaimer: Except for Nightmare: I own no one. Part three of Brotherhood Nightmare: Nightmare starts to torture the boys: But who is really going to end up in pain?
That Was Then, This is Nuts
"So what exactly are you?" Lance asked. "Some kind of Freddy Kruger wannabe?"
"For the last time," Nightmare groaned. "I will explain my powers in full. I can manipulate dreams and have some limited telepathic ability. I can also recover any erased or repressed memories and vice versa. However, for some reason these powers of mine interfere with my ability to sleep. Hence I invented a chamber that not only allows me to rest, but to go into the mind of more than one person at a time. I do this by creating a sort of dream limbo where my every whim can become reality. For example…" He created a giant dragon with huge red scales and giant teeth. It blew fire at the bound Brotherhood, nearly scorching them. "Of course in my reality you can feel pain or pleasure…"
At this the dragon turned into a mound of feathers that started to tickle the boys. "Or," Nightmare smiled. "Anything I desire." With a snap of his fingers the feathers reformed into a small cup of coffee. Nightmare took a sip of it. "Ahhhhh. Cappuchino."
"But why do you want to hurt us?" Todd whined. "We never did anything to you!"
"Because I like tormenting others," Nightmare smiled with a wicked gleam in his eye. "And I will become the master of the world sooner or later, but first I have to get rid of any competition! So after I'm done with you I can move on to the real targets. You're just a warm up for the real thing."
"You know you seem pretty good at this psycho stuff so you really don't need to practice," Pietro gulped.
"Uh yeah," Todd nodded. "Why don't you move on to the big leagues? We don't mind!"
"Hmmm," Nightmare purred. "Who shall I start with?" He looked at Fred. "Well definitely not you! Ahhh, how about you little one?" He glared at Todd.
"Uh that's okay, I can wait," Todd squirmed under his gaze.
"I sense some repressed memories," Nightmare smiled. "Let's take a look shall we?" With a wave of his hand he created a door. He grabbed Todd and yanked him through it, leaving the others alone.
"We gotta do something!" Pietro struggled at his bonds. "That maniac makes Magneto look like a Boy Scout!"
"Poor Toad!" Fred said. "What's he doing to him?"
A bloodcurdling scream came from behind the door. Suddenly Nightmare ran back through the door screaming dragging Todd. He tossed Todd aside and started hammering the door shut. He placed a huge 'Do not open' sign on it and then made the door disappear.
"Gee I'd forgotten all about that day," Todd said.
"That…" Nightmare gasped. "Was…the most…horrible…I can't even deal with that! Okay note to self: Don't go in the Frog's mind ever again! Okay I'll deal with all of you in a minute. Just let me get myself together for a moment. And I thought I had a twisted mind!"
"Don't be such a baby," Todd snapped. "Even that wasn't exactly the worst day of my life. Didn't even make the top ten!"
"Oh shut up you little…" Nightmare snarled. "Wait…You just gave me an idea!"
"Can I have it back?" Todd asked weakly.
"I think it's time we played a little game," Nightmare smiled. "How about a little hide and seek! You try to hide and I seek the demons inside of you! Ha!" With a wave he created a portal and flung the Brotherhood inside it. They screamed as flashing lights surrounded them. They seemed to fall for hours, and then they finally landed with a loud whump!
"Somebody call my travel agent," Todd groaned. "I need to get a refund for this trip!"
"This is not my day!" Pietro got up.
"Lance what are we gonna do?" Todd whined.
"I don't know," Lance grabbed him by the shirt. "Why do I always have to…? Huh? Toad did you get bigger or something?"
"Hey I musta had a growth spurt yo!" Todd squeaked, looking Lance in the eye.
"You didn't grow Toad," Pietro yelped. "Lance shrunk! Yikes! We all shrunk!"
They looked at each other. They had all reverted to small children, no older than six or seven. "Hey! We're kids!" Fred yelped. "Oh man! This stinks!"
"I really don't like the look of this!" Lance grumbled.
"Hey what's that over there?" Pietro pointed out. There was a small house at the edge of the darkness.
"Looks like a house of some sort," Lance said. "Let's check it out!"
"Hey it's a gingerbread house!" Todd squeaked.
"Lunchtime!" Fred started gnawing on the door. Before anyone could speak he chewed a huge hole right through it. "All right! I ate our way in!"
"Blob," Lance said casually. "The door was open." He opened the door.
"Uh yeah," Fred scratched his head. "I knew that!"
"Hey this is just like that story!" Todd piped up. "You know with the kids and the candy house in the woods."
"Yeah and it also had a witch in it!" Lance gulped. Just then a huge figure loomed over them. "Uh oh!"
"Surprise boys!" There stood Mystique standing before them.
"Mystique?!" Pietro yelped. "What's she doing here?"
"Hey she must have got trapped too!" Todd squealed. "Boss Lady! You've come to save us!" He leapt on top of Mystique and knocked her down. He grabbed her in a big hug around the neck and started kissing her.
"AGGGHHH!" Mystique changed into Nightmare. "GET OFF OF ME!"
"Huh?" Todd blinked as Nightmare stood up.
"Well so much for using that to scare you!" Nightmare snarled holding Todd by the scruff of his neck.
"Hey put him down you meanie!" Fred grabbed Nightmare's leg.
"Yeah! Quit picking on us!" Pietro grabbed his other leg.
"Attack!" Lance tackled Nightmare sending him sprawling to the floor again.
"GET OFF OF ME YOU LITTLE BRATS!" Nightmare screamed. He used his abilities to toss all of them off of him. "Okay, obviously I can't handle all of you at the same time! So…" With a wave of his hand all four boys were tossed through the walls of the gingerbread house in separate directions. He delighted in their screams as they disappeared in the surrounding mists. "Separately they will be much more manageable. I'll use their own memories to keep them busy and then one by one…" He laughed.
Lance felt like he was falling forever. He waved his arms and legs wildly as he tried to stop himself but to no avail. Finally he landed on the hard ground with a whump.
"Where am I?" Lance shook his head. It looked like a cellar basement. A very familiar cellar basement. "Oh no…" Lance whimpered. "Not here!"
"You worthless little coward!"
Lance saw an outlined figure. He didn't need to see his face to realize this was the foster parent from hell. "No," The frightened boy whimpered. "No you're not real. You died a long time ago. This isn't real!"
"Does this sound real enough to you boy?" The figure cracked a long belt. "Take off your clothes!"
"NO!" Lance screamed shaking. "Get away from me!" He backed up and tried to run away but he was trapped.
"You stupid little piece of garbage," The figure hissed, stalking him. "I'll teach you to try to stand up to me!"
"Go away!" Lance shook violently, fighting back tears.
"I own you boy!" The figure cornered Lance. "I control you! You don't even breathe without my permission! I'm gonna beat some sense into you once and for all! To keep you down in your place where you belong!"
The figure loomed over Lance. Lance braced himself for the blow. The figure raised the belt over his head, ready to administer a cruel blow.
And was promptly run over by a team of football players.
"What!" The figure changed shape back into Nightmare. "All right! Who's the wise guy?"
"Freddy! Freddy! He's our man!" A team of cheerleaders ran over him. "If he can't do it no one can!"
"What is going on here?" Nightmare groaned. "This is supposed to be a place of torment and pain, not a pep rally!"
"Freddy! Freddy!" A team of football players chanted as they carried Fred who was back in his normal size across a football field.
"Freddy!" Lance called out. "How did you do this? How did you get back to normal size?"
"Oh hey Lance!" Fred waved to him. "I dunno. I was alone and bored so I pretended I was a big football star and before I knew it I was!"
"Oh for crying out loud!" Nightmare made a motion. The football players and the cheerleaders disappeared. Fred fell on his butt with a loud whump. "Okay no more Mister Nice Maniac! Let's go with this!"
Suddenly mirrors surrounded them. "Let's see how you manage to handle this!" Nightmare laughed.
"Oh mirrors!" Fred huffed. "Real scary! Big deal. You tried this before with me, remember? How lame can you get?"
That was when the figures in the mirror breathed a shot of fire. They barely missed getting singed. "Okay that's new," Fred looked around nervously. "Duck!"
He grabbed Lance and rolled away from a fire blast at the last second. "Don't worry Little Buddy!" Fred shouted as they dodged the fire surrounding them. "I got ya!"
"This is so humiliating!" Lance groaned as Fred easily carried his small body.
"Well that ought to keep them busy for a while," Nightmare smirked. "Now for the others…"
Todd hopped through the strange woods. Even though he seemed to have lost the use of his tongue, he could still hop, although not as far. "I hate being little!" Todd whined, shivering in the cold air. Absently he blew a lock of his wild long hair out of his face as he surveyed where he was. "Where is everybody?" Todd whined. "I don't wanna be alone. I don't wanna! This place looks like it came out of Dracula!"
Then he thought he heard something in the bushes. Cautiously Todd hopped over to investigate. It sounded like someone sobbing. Nervously he pulled back the bushes. His eyes widened at the discovery. "Pietro?"
Pietro was curled up into a ball. He was also still in his child body. "Hey Pietro it's okay," Todd put his hand on his shoulder. "What happened?"
"Wanda…" Pietro was crying. "I gotta find Wanda before the bad people do."
"Who's Wanda?" Todd asked.
"My…" Pietro began to explain when suddenly a huge shadow loomed over them.
"There they are!" an angry villager snarled. "Kill the demons!"
"This is not good," Todd gulped. "Run!"
"Toad I can't run very fast!" Pietro yelped, trying to keep up with Todd. "I don't remember how to any more! Don't leave me!"
"Hang on!" Todd let Pietro cling onto his back. Without thinking he leapt into the trees, easily navigating from branch to branch.
"How are you doing this?" Pietro looked at the ground. "I thought our powers were gone?"
"Well I always had strong legs and could leap a little," Todd told him. "Oh man! That angry mob is gaining on us! What did you do to make them so angry at you yo?"
"Nothing," Pietro spat out. "I did nothing! They think I'm a demon because of how I look!"
"I can certainly relate to that! Hang on!" Todd leapt out of the trees and skidded right to the edge of a cliff. He managed to keep from falling off just in time. "Oh boy. Did not see that coming!"
"We're trapped!" Pietro yelped, as the angry mob grew closer.
"And it's a long, long way down!" Todd gulped looking over the precipice.
"You're dead demons!" The leader of the mob screamed. "There's no way out!"
"Run for it!"
"What?" The leader of the mob looked over his shoulder just in time to see a dragon like figure scorch him and the rest of the mob. Fred had ducked just in time to avoid the blast.
"You idiot!" The mob leader reformed into Nightmare and grabbed the creature by the neck. "NOT ME! THEM! YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO ROAST THEM! DO I HAVE TO DO EVERYTHING AROUND HERE?" He made the creature vanish with a wave of his hand.
"Freddy?" Todd looked at the two friends who joined them. "How did you get back to normal?"
"If you can call Freddy normal," Lance smirked. At this Fred unceremoniously dropped him. "Hey!"
"Dunno I just did!" Freddy shrugged. "But we're together again! Isn't it great?" He gave them a group hug.
"AGGGHH!" Pietro yelped. "Well yes and no…" He pointed to Nightmare who was glaring at them.
"Blob I don't suppose you can make another team of football players run him over again can you?" Lance asked.
"What?" Todd asked, an idea forming in his mind. "Wait a minute…"
"Okay if you all want to die together fine!" Nightmare pulled out a long sword.
"How about not?" Todd concentrated and shot out his tongue, grabbing the sword away from him.
"What?" Nightmare screamed, unable to believe this turn of events.
"All right!" Todd exclaimed as he grabbed the sword. Unfortunately the slime from his tongue made it to slippery to hold and it fell out of his hands right off the cliff. "Oops." He blanched as he watched it fall.
"You stupid little frog!" Nightmare grabbed Todd by the neck. "Did you really think you could defeat me? Pathetic! I will kill all of you one by one. When you die here, your bodies will die as well! And that suits me just fine!"
Nightmare tossed Todd off the cliff. "No!" Pietro shouted out.
"He was the first to go," Nightmare smirked. "Who's next?"
"You monster!" Lance cried, tears running down his cheeks.
"What are you gonna do about it little boy?" Nightmare mocked.
"Hey go dunk your head in cement yo!"
"What?" Nightmare whirled around just in time to get a mouthful of slime in the face. To his shock Todd had flown up from the chasm. He was back to his regular size and had wings that resembled a dragon's.
"Toad!" Lance whooped with joy. "You're okay!"
"But that's impossible!" Nightmare screamed in rage. "How did you do that?"
"Well I just thought of having wings and I got 'em!" Todd smiled.
"How does that work!" Nightmare yelped. "I'm the only one who can manipulate dreams!"
"Well yeah, but we're in our own minds too right?" Todd said. "And it's a dream right? So if we think of it, we can do it too!"
"That's impossible!" Nightmare snarled. "It doesn't work like that!"
"Yeah it does!" Todd shot back. "Sometimes if I think real hard before I go to sleep I can dream the dream I want! Anybody can do that! Try it guys!"
"Really?" Little Lance looked up.
"Yeah!" Fred said. "He's right! I changed the dream and I wasn't even trying!"
"Let me try!" Little Pietro nodded and closed his eyes. He concentrated hard. A glowing light surrounded him.
"No stop!" Nightmare commanded. Too late. Pietro grew back to normal before him.
"Yeah it worked!" Pietro yelled. "Hey who'd have thunk that Toad would come up with the solution!"
"Well you don't watch all the Nightmare on Elm Street movies twelve times without learning something!" Todd told him. "Lance your turn!"
"I…" Lance looked around him. "I don't know if I can!"
"Hey if I could do it, you can do it!" Todd cried out.
"You?" Nightmare glared at him. "You can't do anything. You're a reject! A freak who's only good for destroying things! No wonder your parents didn't want you!"
"No!" Lance whispered. "That's not true…"
"Don't listen to him Lance!" Pietro shouted. "He's just trying to psyche you out!"
"You think they wanted you because they gave you this dirty rag?" Nightmare conjured up Lance's woobie. "Ha! It's a stupid piece of junk!" He tore it to bits with his clawed hands. "What do you think about that?"
Lance stared at him. His eyes grew cold. "No one…" He said dangerously. "No one…MESSES WITH MY WOOBIE!"
A flashing light surrounded Lance and soon he was back to full size. "Okay," Lance glared at Nightmare. "You wanna fight? Let's do this! It's payback time!"
