#89: Fearless
Nighttime, Zee's House...
"Muffins are done!" I said, holding a tray of muffins and walking into the living room.
Zee invited me and the girls over for a sleepover. Felt a little weird for me to be here, but she insisted. That gave me an opportunity to try out this new muffin recipe.
While I was in the kitchen I overheard the girls talking. It was something about Kara and nightmares.
I sat down and put the tray next to me and said, "I heard you girls, and you're right, nightmares suck. At least I think they do."
They all looked at me as they all grabbed a muffin. "Why do you say that?" Diana asked.
"I don't think you'll believe me tell you this, but I've never had a nightmare before, nor have I ever been scared."
"What?!" They all stopped eating to ask me that.
"I know. I don't think I've ever been scared in my life. *while counting with his fingers* In my life I've stood up to bullies, rode crazy and wild rides, drank and ate crazy stuff, jumped from high heights, without anything to protect me from the fall by the way, faced off crazy animals, and punched more danger in the face than I can count.
And that's before and after I got my powers, you can ask anyone I know. I mean, look at this."
I used my powers on the T.V. and it showed a video I made when I was young.
It showed an eight-year-old me in an old wheelchair at the top of a cliff with a blonde boy behind me holding it.
"I'm Aaron Palmer and this is, the Mute Challenge."
The boy said, "Okay, Aaron, I'm gonna push you down this cliff, and you can't make any noise, no matter how much pain you're in." I nodded with a smirk.
"Aaron, don't tell me he dared you to do this." "No, Jess, this was my idea." "What?!" they all asked. "Yeah, I was a weird kid."
"Three, two, SCREW THIS COUNTDOWN!" He pushed me down the cliff and the entire time, I didn't make a single sound. I fell at the bottom I didn't move...for a few seconds, then the camera zoomed in on me getting up, jumping in excitement, and mouthing, 'That was great! I wanna go again!' The video then went off.
"Yep, I was a weird kid." "No kidding!" Kara said, "How were you still alive?!" "I'unno. I stopped asking myself that a while ago when I...Huh, can't remember. All I know that it was when I was around seven. It was either when I went bungee jumping and forgot to strap myself in, or the air conditioner that fell on me."
It was one of those times...Wait, why's everyone looking at me like that?
This part's a little long.
#90: Sleep deep
It was later at night and everyone's asleep in the living room.
Well, kinda.
We see a neon green glow coming from the other side of the room, and out of nowhere, a spark of energy hit Kara in the face and stung her.
"*gets*Hey! What the- Whoa." She shook awake the rest of the girls, and they all saw what she saw.
Aaron was still asleep but every part of his body's now glitching and sparking.
Aaron moved his arm a blast of his energy shot out of it almost hit Diana. He stretched out his leg and a blast from it hit the couch, leaving marks.
Babs went over and tried to get him to wake up, but she got shocked instead. Then everyone in the room tried shouting to get Aaron to wake up, but that didn't work either.
"Don't think...you can...get away with..."
Aaron started talking in his sleep, getting everyone's attention.
"You're in my dream dude...I've got...*stretches*nothing to lose here..."
Babs said, "Something's gotta be bothering Aaron in his dream- AH!*dodges blast*" "You sure it's not just his first nightmare." "*ducks*It can't be Kara. Aaron's never been scared in his life." said Karen, "Even if it was a nightmare, he could just change the dream, remember?"
"She's right." Diana said, "Aaron must be in trouble. We must travel into his dream in order to help him." "Didn't Aaron say that we weren't allowed to do that anymore? He hid the dream screen in his new hideout."
Jess was right. Aaron didn't even say where it was. Darn him for thinking ahead.
"Not to worry everyone." Zee said, "I know a spell that can get us in there without using the dream screen. I'll need you all to lay down first." They did and Zee then casted the spell.
"Og otni ruo s'dneirf maerd."
Everyone's eyes closed ad their spirits, entered Aaron's dream.
In Aaron's dream world...
The girls all appeared in Aaron's dream in their hero attire. They looked around and it looked like they were in a place at night, with green grass that goes on for miles.
No sign of Dream Tech anywhere.
"Come back here, freak!"
They looked to see Dream Tech chasing some kind of...thing. They can't tell what it is because it's too dark to tell what it is.
"Stay still!" He kept blasting energy at it, but it evaded every shot. It then disappeared in the darkness.
"Come on, Glitch King, everyone's scared of something."
"Try me all you want, dude. Even I don't know what I'm scared of!"
*Beep, beep, beep*
Dream Tech turned around to see a time bomb. He rolled his eyes, and snapped his fingers and it disappeared.
"Dude, you tried rats, tornados, demons, then you strand me in the middle of nowhere, then you try a time bomb. Try aiming higher."
He then noticed the girls being here.
He sighed then said going up to them, "I thought I told you girls not to enter my dreams anymore."
Karen said, "We thought you were in trouble. You were glitching and sparking in your sleep." "(whisper tone)And damaging my house." "We were worried."
"Well, that doesn't make sense, I never did that before. (to himself)I'm always finding something new about myself. (to the girls)Anyway, I think it's because of this dude I've been chasing. You girls wouldn't happen to see a little gremlin looking dude named Fuseli, have you?"
"...Who?" they all asked.
"He's this creep that feeds on fear and insecurities. He can travel into people's dreams and turn them into nightmares using some kind of magic. Fortunately for me, I don't know what I'm afraid of."
Fuseli then made stuff to try to get Aaron scared. Only for them to disappear after Aaron explains how.
"Zombies?" "I'm a mutual friends with one through Hope." "Endless nothingness?" "I came out of a blackhole after one Earth minute, which is almost the same as SIX DAYS mind you, and came out with just a headache. That times forever is nothing!" "What about waking up the next day with your powers gone?" "I'll still be me, dude. My mom asked me the same question when I became Techno in the first place. You're just repeating her."
"How abou-" "Nope." "Mayb-" "Tried that." "Not ev-" "Try if you want dude. I'll still be fearless."
You could hear a loud rage yell from somewhere.
"YOU ARE AFRAID OF SOMETHING. I WILL FIND OUT WHAT IT IS. I JUST NEED TO DIG DEEPER..."
"Well, you girls know what that means."
You guys probably don't. So basically he's gonna try to go into Aaron's head and find something that he's afraid of. And in order to do that-
"Aaron, how fast can you get us to your Dreams Deep?" "Don't have to ask, Diana."
Dream Tech blast jumped high in the air, and slammed his fist down to the ground, making a huge tunnel to Dreams Deep. The girls then one by one went down the hole.
When they reached the bottom they started walking while looking around for Fuseli. It wasn't easy because of all the outlines of Aaron and things that reminded you of him.
"The more were walk in this place the more it weirds me out. Let's just find this guy and get out of here." Kara said, when she saw an Aaron outline was doing the Floss next to two Aaron outlines playing catch.
Suddenly, the entire place shifted forward, making everyone fall.
"The boy was annoying enough. The last thing I need is you getting in my way!"
Multiple tendrils came out of nowhere and tied them all up and hung them up high. Fuseli suddenly sowed up in front of them. He made all the tendrils tighten their grip making them all either wince or yelp with pain.
"That should keep you busy. Now, where's that door?"
He started walking away. What he didn't notice is the Aaron outlines stopping what they're doing and looking at Fuseli as he left.
After a while of walking, he bumped into something, like there was a wall there. He then tried going around it but there was now wall all around him, like he was in a circular room.
Suddenly, Aaron outlines appeared on the walls and started pacing around Fuseli.
The room then started shrinking.
"W-What's going on here?"
"If you think that that you can enter my dreams, mess with my friends, and try to get into my head..."
The Aaron outlines then looked dead at Fuseli as Aaron's face formed in front of him.
"...then you better think again."
All the green outlines in Aaron's Dreams Deep suddenly turned blood red as sparks of energy zapped Fuseli. After three more, he started running to who knows where.
Only, to bump into the Super Hero Girls, who got free a minute and a half ago.
In the real world...
We see Aaron asleep and no longer sparking or glitching.
However, somehow, we can hear cries of pain and agony coming from Aaron's head.
A couple of seconds later, we see Aaron and the girls wake up, and somehow in Kara's hold, Fuseli.
"Guess I owe you girls one." Aaron said. "Sure, how about fixing the mess you made?" "What me- Oh."
He put his hand on the floor and pixelation went to work, fixing all the damage Aaron caused to Zee's penthouse. "There we go."
"I don't get it..." They all turned to Fuseli. "How can you not be afraid of anything?! Everyone's afraid of somethin- Gah!"
Kara had enough and tightened her grip on him. "What should we do with him?" "I got a couple of ideas." Aaron said.
"GAAAAH! NOOOOO! LET ME GO!" "Nah, you're watching the whole series, dude. On replay."
In an unknown location, we see Techno and the girls, the Glitch King grinning at Fuseli, who was tied up, and strapped to a chair, with eyes forced open. What did Techno force him to watch?
Here's some clues: It's an old children show that has at least one hundred seventy-eight episodes total, and the opening song's super annoying, yet easy to get stuck in your head. They even made a movie from it.
Shoutout to anyone who knows what it is.
"Aaron, I love you, but sometimes you worry me." "I know, K. I know."
#91: Taking the Case...y
Some days later...
Sometimes, I wish Metropolis could catch a break.
Don't get me wrong, the stuff that happens keep me in action and not bored, but stuff like this happens way too often.
What's on the agenda today?
Well, I was doing a stealth training challenge, trying to stay quiet to save holographic people, when suddenly, my focus was broken due to something flying past over me in the air.
It looked like a mix of all my friends in one. Which was weird, so I decided to follow it, or her, or them? I don't know.
I followed it/her/them/ all the way to the boardwalk where it was chasing, wait, is that Zee?
My normal vision says a girl I know in school: Casey Krinsky. My Techno Vision however says that's Zee, which makes no sense.
I sped into save her and when the woman saw me, she grinned and started going for me.
I carried Zee on my back and sped out of there. During dodging and missing the attacks she gave out, I asked Zee to tell me everything.
To sum it up, Casey has some kind of power that she used to take Zee's identity and her magic. With their looks swapped, she took Zee's place and the others, not knowing that that wasn't Zee, brought her to the hideout, where Casey used her power to take the girls' powers as well. She then merged all their lookes with her own now called herself Mega Casey Krinsky.
Lazy name if you ask me.
The others still had their looks, they were just powerless now.
That brings us to now, where I'm still trying not to get Zee killed.
"How are you holding up back there Zee?" "Fine!"
Up ahead, I saw that I was running out of boardwalk.
"I'm gonna try something risky, bear with me!" "Okay, what is- Aah!"
I suddenly phased through the boardwalk, shot a wire back up at it, and swung us around and back up through and onto the boardwalk, behind Casey.
I glitched us invisible as Casey looked around to try to find us. After she left, I hid us in a nearby store and glitched us visible.
"Thanks Aaron." "No problem, Zee. Now let's see what I do about this Casey case."
I was about to head out, when-
"Wait! What if she stole your powers?! She'd be unstoppable!" "Zee, the powers don't make the person. I've stopped superpowered freaks in MegaCity without using my powers, blindfolded, and sometimes with my hands tied behind my back. This'll be nothing. Now if you excuse me, I have a girl with the Imposter Syndrome I gotta deal with. But first,"
I glitched Zee back to her old self. "Thank you, Aaron." "You're welcome, Zee."
Then, I left.
"*whistles*Yo, Case! Looking for me?!"
"There you are!"
I backflipped over Casey, who tried to dive at me.
She turned to me and said, "You sure that you can beat me Techno? Or should I say, Aaron?"
Not even gonna ask how.
"So you know who I am, big whoop, Casey. Surrender now and you might get out of this unharmed." "Wait, huh?" "What, you think I'd be scared if you knew who I was under the mask? You probably thought you could use it as leverage? I don't care if you know."
It's not like she could tell anyone anyway.
"What was your first idea? Get me to go out with you?" She just screamed with rage and chased after me.
Yeah, about that, I was kind and friendly to her for a while at school and sometime later for a project, we were assigned as partners and we went to my place to. I must've been too kind and friendly because a bit later, she confessed that she liked me. Only problem was that I said that I only saw her as a friend and that Karen and I was already dating.
She ran out of my house crying. That left me to finish by myself.
After that day, she didn't stop. She kept 'coincidently' running into me at school, my store, my house, and other places where I hang out and ask me to give her a chance or beg me to date her.
After saying 'no' to her for the forty-ninth time, she tried things like bribery, stalking, and telling Karen that I cheated on her.
One time, she literally handcuffed me to her. Man, am I glad to know how to pick locks like those.
I lost it one day and yelled at her saying that she had to stop this and that I only saw her saw a friend.
She must not have given up on me yet because of her reaction to what just happened.
As I kept running, I was still thinking.
How on earth can I fix everything this time?
Wait, maybe I could...Okay, I've got another risky idea. Trust me on this one.
I pretended to trip and fall on the floor. I turned to Casey, who smiled and went to me. She then used her powers to try to take my powers.
Nice, she took the bait.
As she kept taking my energy, I allowed access to my pixelation. She started taking that too and that's where she made a mistake.
"Wait, what's happening?!"
And, he's done it again.
My plan was to get Casey to take my pixelation while I'm using it. If you haven't been reading this fanfic enough, you'll know that my pixelation can fix any messes that've been made. If Casey managed to take my pixelation powers while they're active, it'll fix her look and give back the powers she stole.
Look, she's starting to look like herself again.
"Hey! What're you doing?!" "I'm not doing anything. You're the one taking my powers."
A second later, she looked like herself again. She tried using her powers to try to take mine again, but nothing happened.
"Wha- Why can't I-!?"
Did I forgot to mention that my glitches will also cut off her powers? I think I did.
When she saw my smirk, she said, "You...You took..." "Yep*pop*." I said, the rest of the team showing up next to me.
"Why'd you do it, Casey?" I asked, "Why'd you do that to Zee? Why'd you take my friends powers away? Why'd you want to change yourself in the first place?"
"..." She was looking to the ground, her hair covering her eyes.
"WHY DO YOU CARE?!" She suddenly burst out, "No one's ever cared about me! You and Zee were the only one's who did! *starts crying* You two, two of the most popular people in school, were the only one's who treated me like real friends...Everyone else didn't care for who I was*sniff*...Even I'm starting to get sick of who I am..."
Zee and I looked at each other, then turned back to Casey and went up to her.
"Look, Casey," Zee started, "We did care about you at first, we all did, but you messed everything up when you tried to change who you are."
"Yeah," I continued, "sure the choice to change is up to you, but you didn't have to change just to please others or make yourself happy. You just had to accept yourself. No one and nothing's really perfect, I mean, have you seen the city we live in?"
We both put a hand on her shoulders and I continued, "How about we start over, Case? Friends?"
She suddenly pushed our hands off and burst out. "Oh, forget it! I'll get two you for this! Soon the whole school, the whole city, will know who you all really are! Your crime fighting days are over. Over!" She then ran off.
"We are so sorry, Zee." Diana said. "It's okay. You know who I am now. And so will everyone else, I suppose."
"I wouldn't be to sure about that." I said, making everyone confused.
#92: Case closed...Or is it?
The next day at school...
"Wait, you did what?" Jess asked as the seven of them were chatting in the hallway.
"I used my powers while she was trying to take mine, and now anytime she tries to tell anyone who we are without our consent, she'll get zapped."
"I thought that only worked for your identity." Babs said.
"It's because she absorbed some of my power. Because of my power that's in her, she can't tell anyone who we are."
The girls sighed in relief, only for Karen to say, "Wait, won't it be a bad thing that she's got your power?" "Not at all. This happened before with someone that hated me and everything ended alright.
Little did they know, the girl that they were all talking about was around the corner, really mad about what he's hearing.
After they all left, she said to herself, "That's why I've been getting shocked?! Seriously?! *yells* What was I thinking?!"
"People will think your crazy if you keep talking to yourself."
"AAH!" She was suddenly startled by- Wait, huh? Is that Techno? He's completely neon green and glowing, glitching, and sparking.
"Wha-?!" She looked at the other end of the hallway, where Aaron was carrying Karen on his back to class. She looked back to 'Techno' then to Aaron, the back to 'Techno'.
"How?!" "I'm not real, dummy." it/he said, "I'm just something your mind created when you took in Tech's powers. Why are you shocked anyway? Ain't this what you wanted anyway? *smirks* Me, stuck deep inside you?"
DUDE! Rated T! C'mon!
"*blushes*Don't say that!" "Ha, I just said it to see your reaction." "Why are you in my head anyway?!" "I'm here to set things straight. You absorbed Aaron's powers and yours are gone, remember?"
Yeah, Tech also got rid of the powers she had before this all happened.
"Yeah?" "Well, I'm here because his powers are still in you."
She blinked in surprise and looked at her hand, which was sparking with Tech's energy, but it was shocking pink instead of neon green.
"I won't be able to leave until you can right a wrong with them." "Wait what?"
*RIIIIIINNNG!*
"You'll see." 'Techno' then disappeared. That left Casey with questions as she went to class.
I know you guys have might questions right now after this.
You can ask me them anytime, remember?
See you guys later!