"Dying
is a very dull, dreary affair, and my advice to you is to have nothing to do
with it."
--Somerset Maugham
Azzandra: Soo….What kind of person are you? Are you trying to tell me you don't approve of Dahk? Dahk isn't exactly a villain.
Flamingo1: Oh don't worry. She gets hers.
Asteria: Cool. Thanks a bunch.
HoneyBug17: She fell into a sewer? I suppose anything's possible.
Laureate: She would, but she's staying with Spike.
Rogue77: She's gonna put a whole new meaning to the word butt-kicking.
hnh: Indeed it is.
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He swept through the dream world he had created, searching for his latest victim.
She had been brave. Such a brave girl. He smiled. It really was a pity.
How long had he played this game? He couldn't tell. But every time it got more…delicious.
Ah yes. Delicious. Watching them run in fear from his…no, their, monsters. They were their monsters. He was just helping him get over their fears.
It was not his fault that none of them survived. He did what was best for his… patients.
He stepped down in the hall, in the disguise he always wore, the one that gave him so much power. The one that struck fear in the heart of those who had too much…
"What's up, Doc?"
He whirled around to look at the speaker. It was her. And somehow she had snuck up on him.
She looked different.
"So, Doc, has it gotten bad yet?" She stepped closer, with glittering green eyes. "Gonna pull the plug on me?"
He could see it now. She was a darker version of the girl, the hit-and-run. He suddenly felt uneasy.
She wasn't playing by the rules.
"It will be soon," he hissed back at her. She slowly grinned, looking wolfish.
"Not as soon as yours will be, Doc."
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Xavier got into the limo with Danny's parents. They were off to check Danny's condition. One of the parents had tried to be there every night, but the Doctor refused, saying that it might be detrimental to Danny's health in her weakened condition. The Professor had to agree. It was as if some affliction was causing her to waste away.
"Can you do anything to help her?"
Professor Xavier jerked his mind back to the present and answered Danny's mother carefully.
"Only if her mind is resurfacing can I help her. I read the boy's intentions, and he isn't trying to lie. Which means Danny must have had some link to him before she woke up. Perhaps now that the link is gone her mind is starting to come back. From where ever it had been."
"Are you saying she wasn't there? Where was she?"
"She…was in her mind, but it was impossible to reach her. I hope she has begun to come out of that shell."
The woman sighed and leaned against her husband.
"I just want my baby back."
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I laughed as he jumped forward again, trying to hit me. So what? If he hit me, it would only make me angrier. An accomplishment, yes, but not recommended.
I hauled back and slammed my fist into his face. The world began to flicker just as it did when Danny was with Andy. I could feel myself. My true self, as if there was a lifeline back to my body.
I sneered at him and kicked him hard in the shin. Apparently dream injuries hurt him as well. I bent down and hissed into his ear.
"You made a mistake when you tried to hurt Danny. I saw you. I knew. And when I'm through with you I'm going to make them wish they never injected us."
I ripped off his hood.
"Ah, so it was the doctor in the hospital with the nightmares," I giggled. "Oh, Doc Garen, you really shouldn't have made us angry."
I felt the tug back to the normal world. A look of triumph passed his face.
"You can beat me here but you won't be able to in the real world."
I was about to remark on this when the landscape blurred and a sense of falling replaced it.
"WWWHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" It was fun!
\Strange\ Danny's sleepy voice permeated my thoughts.
"Hey, I'm just having a little fun! You never have fun!"
\I don't like to fall\
"Scaredy-cat! Hey, aren't you supposed to be sleeping?"
\Are we waking up?\
"Yeah. But we have to beat the Kervorkian Garen before we go after the people that injected us."
\We can't kill him.\
"You're no fun. But okay. We'll just escape. Good for you?"
\…….\
"Dan? Oh…Sleep tight!"
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It was so blurry at first. My eyes couldn't focus. My body felt tired from underuse.
It cleared swiftly, and there I was. The hospital bed was uncomfortable. I got up fast.
The dizzy spell almost caused me to fall off the bed, but I managed to beat it to the punch by leaning over and falling out of bed myself.
"Ooops…."
I got up and brushed my self down…and caught sight of myself in the mirror.
Danny will only show up on a mirror if she chooses to speak with me. But she was asleep. So all I saw was myself.
Thin. So horribly thin. My ribs could be seen when I lifted my shirt. I was in the same clothes we were wearing in the phantom world. My eyes were sunken deep into my face, and my skin had a pale look to it. Gray. My arms had no muscle, nor did my legs, there was only enough to hold me up, all the rest had wasted away. I looked like I hadn't eaten in a hundred years.
Well, I did want to lose weight.
I stepped out into the hall. It felt odd, not having Dan's hair. But that was okay. I always preferred short hair. I might even get it cut again. I heard boyish haircuts are in.
A sudden clattering of footsteps caught my attention.
"Hey Doc. What took you so long?"
He straitened up and took out a syringe. I gave him an innocent look, but inwardly I was seething.
"You're very sick Danny. You need to take your medicine."
"My….medicine? Oh, Doc, you got it all wrong."
"Why do you say that, Danny?" He inched closer, as if I didn't see him and didn't know what he was trying to do.
"Well, Doc, for one thing, I'm not…ain't? I never know which to choose. Not sounds better. I'm not Danny."
"And who are you?" He asked. He was getting ready to lunge at me now.
"I'm Dahk." I swiftly stepped aside as he lunged at me. He grabbed my arm. I kicked him in the ribs. He groaned but didn't let go of my arms. So I brought my head back and slammed it point blank into the back of his head.
"ARGHHH!"
"Doc, you gotta hard head." I rubbed my forehead. He let go of my arm to rub the back of his head. I scampered a little way down the hall.
"Hey Doc Garen! Guess what I learned!"
He looked up at me. I spread my arms out and cupped my hands and allowed the Power to come.
The Power. It felt like molasses. Before the injection, it had rushed like a river of life through my body. Even if Danny couldn't use it. Now it moved slowly, like it had turned to sludge. And it hurt. A stinging twinge was all Danny felt, but mine was quite a bit worse. I bit my lip so I wouldn't cry out.
But it was just as powerful, even more powerful, than before. It filled my hands, green gray power, changing constantly between liquid and mist, never solid. What did it need to be solid?
It was the Power. And the Power is never solid.
I let it drop to the floor, slipping out of my hands like….Gak….That slimy stuff. Only the Power wasn't slimy. At least not to me. But it moved that way.
It slipped in through the miniscule cracks, and into the ground below. I just let the Power flow until I felt a twinge of weariness. Then I stopped and grinned at the good doctor.
"Like my little trick? It doesn't look like much now, but you should see what happens next."
He looked at the floor nervously. Too much time living in his own dream world. He must think that the walls would change into a monster and eat him.
As if I was capable of something so refined. His confidence returned. He stalked towards me.
I took this time to realize that there were a couple of other people in the hall as well. Two nurses were huddled against a wall and an elderly lady was peeking out of her room. I waved at her and she quickly slammed the door shut.
"See Danny? You're frightening people. Just come back to sleep." He murmured in a soothing tone.
"Duh, like, Okay Doc. I'll go back to sleep where you can fill Danny's dreams with creepy monsters and gee golly wow are we gonna have some fun." I sneered, rolling my eyes.
"You're talking nonsense Danny, I—What's that?"
Clicking noises, chirping noises. Fluttering noises.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
Screaming noises.
They poured in through every open window around us, which happened to be a lot.
Bugs. Lots of bugs.
Winged bugs. Grasshoppers, Hornets, Bees, Flying beetles the size of quarters. Crawly bugs. Silverfish, cockroaches, centipedes. Bugs that habitually creep out people. Spiders, mantises, dragonflies.
Doctor Garen swiftly began swatting at bugs that got too close. He caught one, a big green dragonfly, and gasped in disgust.
My bugs are one hundred percent dead. A lot of them were barely husks. But this was the perfect place to acquire them, as the hospital set out smoke raid bombs to kill bugs. It left them totally intact. The perfect little soldiers.
A couple big grasshoppers landed on my shoulders. One was only half there, but I didn't mind. I was more interested in the very interesting sound that reached my ears.
Stereo chirping. Locusts. I didn't even realize they came so far into the city. But there was an entire horde of them waiting for me outside.
Who was I to refuse?
"See ya Doc. See you soon. Hehehehee."
I walked out of the hospital, the bugs that followed me following my every mental command. And why not? I had just placed a tiny spark of Power in them. They had not thoughts, no life. As of right now they were puppets.
The locust swirled around me as I stepped outside. The winged bugs joined them. The crawlies followed me.
Truly, it was now my greatest protection. I had no physical strength, and my own power had been stressed to the point of breaking. With the Power in continuous flux because of the changes it was going through because of the injection, there was no garuantee on how long this little protection would last.
I needed a hideout. And what better than the one building abandoned for summer?
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Looks like trouble is abroad!
What happens now? Secret. :)
Iris will take the reviews today! You all remember her, don't you?