The Nightmare
"I hate you, I hate all of you!" Carol called out, throwing her energy weapon at Vicky. She dodged it easily, but that wasn't the problem here.
She looked at her mother, at the mutated, naked, flesh. The sheer hate on her face.
She knew it wasn't really Carol, that this was some kind of strange double created by whatever that thing had been, but still.
Her mother was dead, killed in Eidolon's blast, still engulfed by the cloning monster's flesh, and this pale mimic in front of her was the only thing that remained.
She felt tears in her eyes, looking at the hateful face of her fake mother. It wasn't even that different from the original, from the way her mother sometimes looked at Amy, if she thought no-one was watching.
Vicky landed. Then, kicking off with her legs, she launched herself forward in a straight dive. Her mother, or rather, her mother's clone, materialized another energy weapon, but Vicky didn't care. She grabbed a garbage bin, throwing it at her opponent, and it smashed into her body at an incredible speed.
She heard the sound of broken bones, of flesh being torn in places where it shouldn't be torn, and she knew she fucked up. Thinking quickly, she flew towards her phone, using the old rotary dial to put in her sister's number.
Three rings later, she heard the sound of her sister on the line. "Hello, this is Panacea, I don't do requests, because my sister told me I should take it easy."
"Amy, you have to help me, Gallant's hurt!" Victoria yelled at her, crying as she was standing over Gallant's hospital bed.
"I'm sorry Vicky, but I'm dating Jack Slash now. It's like mother always said, I'm secretly a supervillain," her sister replied.
"No Amy, mother's wrong. I know you. You have a good heart, You've always had one. Please, just come back home? You can't keep sneaking off to the hospital all night."
"But Vicky, don't you remember? He is coming, and he is angry."
"What the hell are you talking about?" Vicky asked, looking around to see where her sister was talking from. The room was empty though, the only remotely interesting thing the slow oozing of the walls.
"You stopped his plans once sister, but you can't do so again. You're in his realm now. He's far stronger than anything you could ever face. Even the soulless endbringers are nothing compared to him."
"What the hell are you even talking about?" she asked.
"We're nothing Vicky. We're just children, playing with toys we inherited from our parents. We're not like him. He is coming, he will take what he needs, and then he will exact his revenge."
"Who's revenge!?"Victoria yelled out as she saw whoever it was that Amy was referring to appear.
The wall of flesh in front of her split open, and a dark and shadowy figure entered the room. And it wasn't that he was wearing a hooded cloak, or that he was somehow surrounded by shadows. It was that he was darkness and shadows personified, his every movement thrumming with power.
"Hello Glory Girl," the personified nightmare said.
It was dark, evil, vile. In its hand it held an iron chain, connected to the wall behind him, which had turned into charred flesh, covered in organs and smelling faintly of pork.
It looked like Genoscythe had, before the massive remnants of his body had started rotting. His body somehow turned into the architecture of this place. The nightmarish before her then, was probably the warlock they'd fought, somehow having escaped the birdcage. Which was troubling, because if one person could do it, then more people could.
"Kravos," Victoria replied.
"Do you know why I'm here?" he asked.
"You wanted to get your face smashed in?" she replied.
Kravos smiled at her, showing perfectly white, sharp, predatory teeth. The smile extended, far past where his mouth should have ended, and a large snake-like tongue extended from between his teeth.
"I like your spunk," he hissed. "I think I'll take it for myself."
Victoria looked around, trying to see if she could find something she could use. A way to escape, a weapon to use in the fight, something to call for help.
She was in her old room now. Or at least something that looked like it. It was bigger than it should be, and the walls were made of twisting, charred flesh. Posters on the walls had been replaced by bleeding eyeballs the size of her head, and the windows… she didn't look at the windows. Her bed had been replaced by something out of a fake torture dungeon, and her desk oozed with yellow pus.
A Shaker effect. That's all it was. A shaker effect created by whatever remained of Genoscythe's spirit. This wasn't anything new, and it would be just like dealing with someone like labyrinth Sure, she couldn't stagger the encounter and escape, but she could still take down the nightmare's creator.
She rose, pumping up her power to the maximum. Fists extended in front of her, clad in the reinforced fabric of her costume. Her tiara blazed with light. She was Glory, she was grace, she would punch him in the face.
She soared forwards, fist extended in front of her, her feet no longer touching the Shaker effect. Kravos just laughed, his open mouth covering half his shadowy face. She'd give him something to smile about.
They'd taken this guy out before, and she could do so again. He was nothing but a parasite, feeding on someone else's power because he was too weak to amount to anything on his own.
As her fist made contact with the man's face, she realized she'd made a massive mistake. Instead of smashing apart the shadowy face, Kravos's mouth opened up further, engulfing her arm before biting down.
She screamed, her world filled with blinding pain as she fell to the ground, desperately clutching at the stump that remained of her limb.
"Didn't expect that, did you? Foolish girl," Kravos said, laughing, multiple tongues licking the blood from his lips. "Here's a fun fact for you. That connection of yours? It's almost entirely physical. Something of the physical world. The only reason you even have powers in your dreams is because you believe you do."
Victoria looked at him, wondering why her forcefield hadn't kicked in. She tried to rise, lifting up from the ground with her flight, but it didn't work. Even her aura, normally a constant reassurance in the back of her head, was gone.
"What… what did you do to me?" she asked.
"Nothing much, at least not yet," he answered, slowly floating forwards. Had he taken her flight? Could you even do that?
"Tell me girl, do you know what thaumaturgy is?" the man asked, holding out a hand and making a gesture like he called something forth.
A scythe exactly like those Genoscythe created spawned from the ground right beneath her, impaling her straight through her stomach. She saw it sticking out of her stomach, covered in ectoplasmic ichor. She screamed, louder than she'd ever screamed before.
Kravos stepped forward, a quick flick of his many tongues passing past her throat, giving her a tracheotomy, and silencing her screams.
"As I was saying, it's all about thaumaturgy," the man said, walking around her in a quick circle.
"You see, in my previous attempts, I tried to take over the entire power, make it my own entirely. My attempt failed, and I tried to bite off more than I could chew, if you'll accept my little pun," the man said, monologuing as she slowly bled to death.
"The thing is, the entire endeavor was foolish, based upon a perspective that understood the arcane side of things, but failed to appreciate the parahuman half of the equation."
The man stood behind her, holding her head in a clawed hand, and she swore she could feel his fingers in her head.
"You see, these new faerie, they don't care about the soul, or the essence. They want DNA, and a dimensional signature. All I have to do-" His hand squished her head between his fingers, entering into it, and coming out with a small, glowing organ dangling between his fingers. The Corona Pollentia? Or some sort of spiritual representation of it? She felt her mind tearing itself apart, like some sort of reverse trigger event, the pain coursing its way through her mind, like it was removing everything her power had added. She wanted to cry, to scream, to fight, but she couldn't. She was too weak, too pathetic, too powerless.
"-is take that connection, and make it my own." the man continued, bringing the glowing organ to his mouth, and swallowing it down.
She could almost see him change. A forcefield appearing around his skin, his legs raising off the floor, and her fear increasing even more, panic racing through her mind.
"And sure, it won't be quite as useful as my little pet here," he said, gesturing to the world around him. The shaker effect, Genoscythe's power.
"But it'll be a lot easier to control, won't it?" he continued. "Now, let's have us a little beat-down, shall we?" he said, grabbing hold of her hair with a hand, and pulling her off of the scythe, hanging her in front of him in mid-air.
Why wasn't she dead yet, she wondered. Shouldn't she have bled out yet? Was this all just a nightmare that would be over the moment she woke up?
The man's fist impacted her face, and she felt herself being thrown through the air, her bounces along the floor punctuated by a lance of pain in her entire being.
She tried to stand, getting up to one knee, holding her remaining hand in front of her, but she knew she couldn't beat him. This guy, as strong as he had already been, now had somehow taken her powers from her. Even if she managed to get a hit in, her forcefield would take care of him.
A small voice in the back of her head reminded her of the irony. Of the way she'd beaten down so many people in just this manner before calling her sister to help her out, but the small voice was drowned out by the pain as Kravos's knee smashed her jaw apart.
She fell to the ground, ready for the end as she felt something wet rub across her skin. Her blood? Did she even have blood in this dream realm? Would she die in real life if she died here?
She felt more than heard Kravos's footsteps come near, ready to deliver a finishing blow. She closed her eyes, ready to accept the end when something coursed through her body, setting it on fire.
Her eyes opened, her arm regrowed, and as the man's leg lazily kicked at her head, she dodged with lightning speed, getting back to her legs.
"Oh, you still have some willpower left in you?" the man asked. "Well, that only means this will be more fun for me."
Willpower? Was that what it was? No. At least not in the traditional sense. This most certainly wasn't her willpower keeping her alive, regrowing her spirit body. This was…
It was Amy, once again saving the victims of her power, flooding her body with adrenaline and other hormones, giving her another shot.
But… even if she'd been healed up, she was still powerless, unable to defeat the man before her. The only thing Amy had bought her was slightly more time before her death.
Except… She couldn't beat this guy, but someone else, or rather, something else, might. From observing Taylor, she knew the basics of what she had to do, and if she was already in the spirit-world, then this wouldn't be very difficult, would it now?
Using her regrown vocal chords, she spoke up.
"Azorthragal, Azorthragal, Azorthragal."
"What did you say?" Kravos asked, but Victoria just smiled. She felt something inside her, filling the gap left by the loss of her powers, and by Kravos's impromptu dinner. It seeped in along the cracks, patching her back up together with molten black glass. She felt its power course through her, her body heating up with power, and stepped forward.
"Interesting, I didn't know I could do this," a dark voice said in the back of her head.
"Me neither," she thought back at him, stepping forwards with determination, her feet leaving a trail of molten glass on the ground.
"Interesting," Kravos said with that unnerving tone of his. "But I happen to know that your power is stronger than that demon."
"Try me," Victoria replied, slowly walking towards him, ready for the impact.
Kravos flew forward, fist extending, too trusting in her powers. His punch hit her right in the face, smashing through the skin and bone, but somehow not killing her.
Then, as his shield was down from the impact of the punch, molten glass started pouring into the new cracks in her spirit. Kravos pulled his hand back, but it was too late, the ridiculously hot and corrosive glass stuck to his hand, beneath the forcefield.
Victoria stepped forward, smashing her body into Kravos's with all her might, seeping with the molten glass of the demon.
"You may have my powers, but you have no idea how to use them, do you?" she whispered in his ear.
Kravos dashed back, pushing himself away from her, but it was already too late. His skin was smoking, and she could smell something that reminded her of burned shadows, his hand slowly being reduced to bones.
"You'll pay for this!" the man cried out, flying away through an exit suddenly appearing in the environment, and as he did so, the flesh and organs slowly transformed back into a strange version of her room. The bed once again a bed, the windows once again windows.
Victoria collapsed in exhaustion, and immediately woke up, smashing her head into that of a crying Amy by accident.
"Amy, are you alright?" she asked, instinctively trying to float up out of her bed, ready to embrace her little sister.
Her power however, was gone, replaced by what felt like molten glass in the pit of her stomach.
Judas's massive tongue rubbed over her body, slathering her in dog spit, and she gave his massive head a quick hug. He looked at her, his eyes inspecting every part of his body like he was scared of something.
"Relax buddy, it's still me," she said, and his tail started wagging like crazy again.
"Vicky, you're safe," Amy said, lying on the ground, one hand held to a red spot on her forehead.
"Yeah, I'm safe," Vicky responded, not entirely sure if that was right or not.
"Azorthragal, you there?" she thought, sending the words bouncing around in her head.
"I believe I am," it responded.
"Guess my power's really gone then…" she thought, the intensity of it hitting her. Kravos, the warlock that had been sent to the birdcage, had escaped, and gotten some sort of Trump power that allowed him to steal your abilities in your dreams.
"That does seem to be the case," it said. "I can see the scars in your spirit where it happened."
"Any idea if I can get them back?" she asked. She wasn't sure if she could trust this demon, but, weren't they unable to tell a lie? Anyway, it couldn't exactly hurt to ask, could it?
"Perhaps," he replied. "But if it is possible, I know exactly who to ask. His name is Nicodemeus. He's been around for a while, and I know just how to convince him to help you."
Vicky sighed in relief. There was a way to get her powers back. This would all be temporary.
She sat up, looking at her sister. The girl was tired and sweating in panic, so she gave her a hug, giving her little sis a hiding place to put her tears.
"It's alright Amy, I chased him off, whatever it was," she told her.
Things weren't alright, and she'd have to inform Myrddin before going back to sleep, if she even could, but lil' Ames didn't need to worry about that.
"I… I thought you would stay in it, that I'd lost you," Amy replied. "There was something in your head, keeping you asleep. I wanted to do something but…"
"But you don't do brains. I know Ames, it's alright," she replied, rubbing her hand, the one that Kravos had bitten off just a few minutes ago, across Amy's back.
"I can't lose you too," Amy whispered, her head hidden away in Vicky's chest, hugging against her just a tad too tightly.
"You won't Amy, I'll stay with you. We're a team," she replied, trying to comfort her little sister.
"Also, do I smell nachos?"