Chapter Fifteen: The Only Thing We Have To Fear, Is that Jerk Who Invades Your Dreams.
I dreamt I was a moron. - Squall Leonheart "Final Fantasy VIII"
Dreaming wasn't something Ivy did often. And when she did she didn't like it. Her dreams were either disappointing or terrifying. For years after her Mother had died Ivy dreamed that she was still alive. When she woke up her Mother was still dead. That was disappointing. When war broke out, she dreamed of peace, but I the waking world the war still raged. Another disappointment. When the war was over she'd dream of battle, of the terror and the fear.
Tonight though, it seemed, there would be no dreaming. A late night prison breakout seemed to assure that.
Grundy, Copperhead, Luminous, Volcana, Firefly, and Aresia had escaped during a prison riot and now it was up to the League to catch them.
Volcana and Firefly were holed up in a warehouse. Volcana had blown up several police cars, sending officers diving for cover, and was about to kill a SWAT officer with a fireball when the League arrived. Green Lantern got the officer out of the way. Volcana sent a stream of fire at G.L and the Lantern responded with an energy beam. Volcana and G.L used there respective attacks against each other. That attacks were of equal strength and cancel each other out in the middle.
"I've got your back!" Firefly said to Volcana.
"Good, now I can really concentrate." Volcana responded. Her body to glowed with a fiery aura and her attack began to overwhelm G.L. Harpy lobbed a fireball at her, knocking her down and cutting off her attack. The villainess turned her attention toward Harpy. Volcana sent and huge fireball at Harpy and Harpy batted it out of the way with and intensely hot flame that she had concentrated to her fist.
"Please. Do you really think you can beat me with that? It's like putting a firecracker up against a cannon!" Harpy taunted, laughing. Volcana became enraged and fired a steady stream at Harpy. Harpy responded in kind.
"Of course if I'm a cannon, that would make Tara a nuke." she thought to herself as she slowly began overwhelming Volcana. Suddenly, Firefly, having had Batman ride him like a rodeo bull and redirect his jetpack, crashed into Volcana. Green Lantern trapped them in a dome.
"You think this can hold me?" Volcana taunted.
"Knock yourself out." G.L responded. Volcana and Firefly began trying to burn through the airtight dome. They soon began growing weaker due to the lack of oxygen.
"What's happening?" Volcana asked as she lost consciousness.
"You burned up all of your air. That's what happened. Idiot." Harpy answered.
G.L, Batman, and Harpy took Firefly and Volcana back to prison. Firefly's flamethrower was confiscated and he was led away to a cell. Volcana was place inside of a glass bubble. Her only source of oxygen was a facemask.
"You know I kind of empathize with her. On one hand, I understand the need to make money and blow things up. On the other hand, there are legal ways to do both simultaneously." Harpy stated.
Batman yawned.
"Pretty routine stuff for you, huh?" the warden asked.
"Sorry. Third night in a row with no sleep." The Dark Night replied.
"Maybe you should" the warden began, but was cut of by a radio call. "Warden Dee's gone."
"What are you talking about? He's catatonic, how can he be gone!" The warden exclaimed.
"You'd better come to the infirmary."
On the way to the infirmary, the warden explained that John Dee had been found unconscious in a machine designed to give the user ESP. He had apparently turned the machine up to high during the riot and had been put into a catatonic state.
"Kind of a dangerous thing to have in a prison, isn't it?" G.L asked.
"Where else are you going to find volunteers?" the warden responded.
The four turned a corner and found several unconscious inmates. They went into the infirmary and found several more inmates, all catatonic and muttering incoherently. So was the guard. The warden called some guards to help deal with the situation.
Batman inspected a nearby laundry chute, which was large enough to fit a man. I don't know about you, but that seems like a pretty stupid thing to have in a prison.
"It's probably to late by now, but you should have someone check the laundry room." Batman told the warden.
"But, what happened to everyone? Some kind of poison?" the warden said.
Superman called on the com-link.
"We've got the other four pinned down in the old west side refinery." he said.
"We'll be right there." G.L responded.
"I'm staying." Batman stated.
"What for? You don't know that Dee did this." Lantern said.
"I don't know that he didn't." Batman responded.
"Look, whatever he is, he sure isn't in the same league as Grundy and the others. He's a nobody." G.L argued.
"So were we. At one time or another we all started out as unknowns, so have all the villains we've faced. There was once a time where the Joker's wasn't one of the world's most feared madmen." Harpy replied.
"Point taken." G.L conceded.
"What do you know about John Dee?" Batman asked the warden.
"I'll get is file for you." the warden said.
"I might be able to help." a guard said.
Batman stayed at the prison to talk to the guard while G.L and Harpy left to apprehend the rest of the escapees.
Harpy cornered Aresia in a dead-end hallway. She launched a fire ball at the bond, but Aresia blocked with her bracelets. Harpy kept Aresia on the defensive. She got close to Aresia. Aresia lashed out. Harpy dodged the hit then kicked her in the stomach and followed up by slamming her head into the wall, knocking the blond out.
Soon the League had rounded up the rest of the escapees and saw them of to prison.
"So who's left?" Flash asked.
"No one. There were only six, remember?" J'onn responded.
"Oh yeah. Just testing." Flash said.
"Let's call it a night." said Superman.
Ivy was in bed in her apartment. As she fell asleep she was unaware of the threat to her life. But how could she know that John Dee had gained the ability to enter the dreams of others and trap then in a delusional state? He had already done it to his estranged wife.
Ivy was walking around the edge of a koi pond in one of Spero's many gardens. The day seemed perfect. Bright and peaceful. Flowers bloomed cheerfully. Fish swarm lazily in the pond.
An explosion in the nearby town shattered the peaceful atmosphere. The shockwave sent Ivy sprawling on her hands and knees. She looked at the pond. The water was turning red. Her eyes traveled to the center of the pond. She caught sight of a black wing, pale skin and dark hair.
"Violet!"
Ivy ran into the water where her sister was floating face down. She turned her over. There was a hole in her chest and her face was partially burned. Slowly, purple eyes opened.
"What?"
Wings that Ivy was sure had been black were now white.
"Mother?"
Dahlia slowly extended her arm toward Ivy. Her hand settled around her daughter's throat and she began to choke Ivy. Ivy fought her mother off, got out of the pond, and flew toward the burning city.
It was a war zone. The sound of gunfire filled the air. Grenades went off, planes dropped bombs, and tanks moved through the streets. Ivy landed on top of a mostly intact building and surveyed the area.
"Horrible, isn't it?" a voice said from behind her. Ivy spun around and saw a skull faced man wearing a hooded blue cape.
"The cost of war. The pain and suffering. The people you love leaving you and all you can do is watch." he said.
"This is a nightmare isn't it? The same one I've been having for awhile." Ivy stated.
"True. But this time you're never going to wake up."
Batman found Ivy in her apartment. Unable to wake her, he took her to the Javelin so that she could be taken to the Watchtower, along with Superman and Green Lantern.
Up in the Watchtower, J'onn put G.L, Superman, and Harpy in sick bay, along with Hawkgirl and Flash who had been found sleeping by the monitors.
Batman had stayed on earth in order to track down Dee. J'onn had been monitoring the news, it was reported that John Dee's wife had died. Batman hadn't found Dee yet, so J'onn decided to go into his friends' minds in order to wake them before they ended up like Dee's wife.
Everyone was dead. Spero was burning and everyone was dead. Rubble and bodies filled the streets. The fighting was over because everyone was dead. Ivy was waking through the rubble, trying to find someone, but to no avail. Then something draped itself around her shoulder.
"All alone? Poor baby." Dahlia crooned. Her nails dug painfully into Ivy's arm. "It's just what a monster like you deserves." Ivy shoved Dahlia off.
"Shut up!"
"Oww!" Dahlia whined. Clutching were here heart would be if it weren't for the gaping hole in her chest. "Only a monster would attack her own mother."
"Shut up! Shut up!" Ivy shouted, clutching her head and backing away. She stumbled on some rubble and tripped backwards so that she ended up sitting on the ground.
Dahlia crawled forward. "My poor baby, all alone. You should just give up and end it." Dahlia was now on top of Ivy with her hands around her daughter's throat. "Or I could end it for you." The hands tightened. This time, Ivy didn't fight Dahlia off.
Suddenly there was a bright and Dahlia was ripped away from Ivy.
"This will not be the fate of your people. You will not end up alone. We will always be here for you." J'onn stated.
Dahlia let out a hawk like shriek of anger, before disappearing.
The blue cloaked skeleton reappeared. "No! I was so close!"
"Get out of my head!" Ivy shouted, sending a wall of fire at him. He repelled the attacked.
A burning hot aura grew around Ivy. "This is my mind, and I order you to GET OUT!" At the last to words Ivy sent a stream of white hot flame at the intruder. He disappeared. Ivy woke up.
She opened her eyes and found herself in sick bay. Superman, Flash, and Green Lantern were waking up in nearby beds, J'onn was coming out of a trance, and Hawkgirl was sleeping.
"What happened?" Ivy asked.
"Batman must have found John Dee and stopped him. Hawkgirl will be waking up soon." J'onn stated.
Ivy blinked. "Great. Where's my mask?"
Batman came up to the Watchtower and promptly fell asleep after making sure everyone was alright. Hawkgirl woke up a little while later.
Ivy was in Spero, having hand delivered her report on John Dee to Tara, but really it was just an excuse to visit her mother's grave. She spent a good deal of time sitting and glaring at the headstone before Rose, Ivy's second oldest sister, showed up. Rose had blue eyes and strawberry blond hair that leaned more toward strawberry and looked rather pink. She was wearing a white dress and sandals.
She sat down next to Ivy. "It wasn't her fault." Rose said.
"She was stupid." Ivy stated bitterly.
"She was in love." Rose replied
"With a sociopath." Ivy said.
Rose hugged Ivy. "It wasn't your fault either." she whispered.
"I couldn't make it stop. I couldn't control it." Ivy was crying now.
"It was his fault. Not yours, and not hers." Rose said.
They stayed like that until the sun started to set.
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