A Nightmare That Approaches Closer

It approached...

The ground began to turn to a nasty grey color and break away. Plant life shriveled up and died. A horrible shrieking filled the air. Inky shadows seeped out, crawling forward, getting faster and faster. No matter how fast he ran, it always seemed to be just behind him.

Buildings tumbled down and broke away as the Virus ate them, and dust rained down from the sky in thick waves. The air was ashy and dark, and each breath was harder to take than the last. Laughter echoed down the streets and twisted, all forming a cruel song.

Kyle felt himself crash into something, and his legs gave out as he tumbled down the ruined street, smashing face-first into the ground. He yelled in pain and tried to scramble back to his feet but was unable to get back to his feet. The ground had cracked and broken, and, in his haste to escape the Virus, he had twisted and snapped his ankle.

It approached... The Dead Virus slowed down to match him as he tried to crawl away. It didn't need to hurry anymore. Kyle screamed and flung his arms out, trying to inch away. It was almost like a spider slowly waiting for its prey to tucker out.

It was only for a single second, but Kyle risked a look back behind him. He saw it clear as day within the darkness. Golden lights seeped within the Dead Virus. A tendril stretched out, and Kyle was unable to stop it. His pants legging hissed out and broke away into dust, and the tendril wrapped around his broken ankle. The pain was unlike anything he had ever experienced. Like jagged needles, it tore its way into his flesh, rotting it from the inside out and killing every cell one by one.

Hope's father put up with this every day. The cells popped and died, crumbling to dust and slowly spreading throughout his body. Mr. Lauren had only been given the smallest of doses. This was a fate Kyle would not receive.

He wasn't even able to scream as he was lifted off his feet, and the tendrils stabbed their way into his flesh. His eyes exploded, and his jaw was nearly torn off as they squirmed their way into him; all the while, he was literally turning into dust. It might have been a quick death to others. It was only a few seconds before his body had broken down, but for him, it was slow, starting at the bottom, and time itself seemed to come to a crawl.

The approach of death couldn't have been slower.

He screamed and shook as it all came to an end. His blanket was thrown off of him, and he got himself into a tangled mess on his bed. The door to his room exploded open, and he heard shouting but couldn't make it out. He felt a pair of arms wrap around him, and he slowly stopped shaking as his heart settled down.

"It was just a nightmare! You're okay, Kyle. I'm here for you."

"D- Dad?" Kyle let out a shaking gasp as the world finally fit itself back into place. He was alive. The Dead Virus hadn't gotten him. That had just been a nightmare. One that he seemed to always find his way back to every night he closed his eyes. "Did I wake you?"

He didn't always get to be close to his dad. Even now, he never really got to see too much of the man. His dad was always working. "No." Mr. Brenner shook his head. He was already dressed in his uniform. "I was actually called away. The mayor needs me for extra security. He's heading to some concert. Would you like to come? I hear it's one that's popular with the kids."

"No, thanks..." Kyle slowly rested his head on his arms as he curled into a ball. "I don't feel that good." Hope had asked him to go to the same concert earlier that day, but he couldn't bring himself to get out of bed today.

He heard his father grumble something. "You're sixteen now, soon to be seventeen. This should be the time of your life. Look at your room."

"What's wrong with my room?" It was fairly bland. They lived in a big house. Some would even call it a manor. It was the kind of place his father would hire people to come and clean and tidy up. His room was large but didn't have anything in it other than his bed and a desk for schoolwork. Besides his closet that held his clothing, you'd think it was a guest bedroom. "It's not messy or anything."

"That's the issue," his dad snorted. When I was your age, I had clothes scattered everywhere, half a dozen video games, and posters of Full Monarch everywhere."

"When you were my age, you still had your whole life ahead of you."

Mr. Brenner froze as his son stared down at his bed with hollowed eyes. "You don't need to be scared of him. I'll keep you safe."

"Just like how you kept mom safe?"

The officer turned away from his son. "I've called Metal Ronin. He'll be staying while I'm gone. I'll be back as soon as I've finished up with the mayor."

"Okay."

Kyle watched his father walk towards the door, but the man stopped. "Kyle."

"Yeah?"

"I love you." He closed the door on his son and sighed. Slowly, he made his way downstairs. "Thanks again for coming over on such short notice."

"Don't mention it." Rowan shrugged when he saw the older man. He was seated at the table and played around with a briefcase. "It's literally my job. Super smart hero by day. Bodyguard by night. I pulled the short stick. I still think Wasp Nest would have been better for this position." The hero sighed.

Mr. Brenner nodded his head. "Where's your suit?"

"Oh! In this briefcase." The boy excitedly held it up. "I came up with a cool way of putting it on click! By using folding-"

"I don't care. Just make sure you keep it close in case you need to suit up," the officer said, cutting the hero off. "I'll be gone for a few hours. I'm going to be working as a bodyguard for the mayor. Kyle's up in his room. He just woke up."

"Yeah, I heard." Rowan winced and tapped his fingers on the table. "It isn't the first time I've seen something like that. Money Tree would often wake up screaming after he went to fight the Beast with Myth two years ago. Even now, he has nightmares. The Beast is almost like a wild animal. It doesn't do anything out of hate. It just does what it was programmed to. Lucifer, on the other hand... I can't imagine what your son must have gone through."

Brenner folded his arms and leaned against the cabinet, letting out a heavy sigh. "It was one year ago. I took my family on a vacation. We flew out to Gladiolus city. It's usually one of the safest places on Earth. Max Lightning guards over it and stops crimes before they can even truly begin. They had gone up ahead. I still needed to clear some things up at the border. I was outside of the city when it began... How much do you know about the Murder Games?"

Rowan stopped playing with his briefcase and balled his hand into a fist. "Back in the day, Lucifer was considered a Calamity level threat. After Full Monarch and Nier stopped him, he lost that title and most of his power. The Emperor, the Beast, and Chrysanthemum are the only true Calamity level threats. This is because they threaten the entire planet. Lucifer is dangerous but, at the end of the day, is mostly isolated to one place when he appears. He runs a team called the Immortals. They are a bunch of crazy bastards who all worship the Shadow and think that they got their powers from it. Every year or two, they appear just after the Beast and host the murder games."

"That's right." Brenner nodded and unfolded his arms as he bowed his head. "They turn an entire city into the game zone. Stop people from getting in and out and then select their players. Kyle was caught in the middle of this game last year. Unlike when the Beast comes to a city, the Murder Games don't completely erase it off the map. Still. A lot of people die in the crossfire." His fingers traced the wedding ring he still wore. "When they're over, the survivors aren't even given a chance to catch a break."

"Twelve players are chosen." Rowan cut in. "Six members of the Immortals, and then six citizens. The goal of the Immortals is to kill all six citizens before the heroes stop them. Along the way, they also kill every other person who's in the city at the time that they find. A total slaughter. Because they're immortal and so powerful, the Enforcers tend to give up on trying to save the six citizens and instead focus on saving every other person. When the game is over, and all six citizens are killed, the Immortals simply vanish. They'll eventually return to do it all over again in a new city. There's a catch, though. It isn't random. We discovered that the six citizens they select are always people who were caught in the crossfire of a previous murder game. Since Kyle was in the city at the time of a Murder Game happening, he, along with a few other hundred people, all have a chance of being picked as players the next time the games start. The chances of Kyle actually being picked are slim. The Enforcers saved over ninety percent of the Gladiolus people last year. Kyle's odds are about one in a million. Not really, but you get the point. Despite that, though, Boy Genius still prefers to move potential players around and assign them a bodyguard, just in case."

"It's about the only good thing you heroes have done for my son." The officer grumbled.

"Do you not like heroes?"

"I don't like Supers in general." The officer stood up and made his way over to the door, about to leave. "I'll work with them, though. Good, evil, it doesn't matter. Supers killed my wife, and I'd rather they all die. But. If it means saving my son's life, improving his chances, and keeping him alive, then I'll work with a hero, or I'll work with a villain. Anything to ensure Kyle sees one more year."

"That's kind of a dangerous way of thinking."

"I'm a father. Doing dangerous things for our kids is part of the job."

***

Mr. Brenner stared up at the sky with dull eyes. Even if Oleander was in the middle of the night, out here in the Wastelands, the rules didn't bother making sense. The sun bore down harshly, but it was nothing compared to the burning sensation in his hand.

"What's up with that tower?" He turned his gaze and found himself looking at Whisper. The girl was working on making sure he didn't bleed out while BB stood on guard, ready to keep them both safe with a wind barrier.

"You were in the machine," Brenner said in a hollow tone. "You heard as much as I was told."

"Why did you work with Sunshine?" Whisper asked. "You're a police officer. You work with the Hero Branch and, by proxy, with heroes. Why would you ever think it was a good idea to side with someone who was one of the biggest evils in Oleander?"

"He simply had the best-sounding idea."

"What? Best for what?"

"For taking down Lucifer."

"Seriously?" Whisper snorted a bit. "You think that he'll actually be able to beat Lucifer? The Emperor couldn't kill Lucifer, Full Monarch couldn't kill Lucifer, and now in our time, no hero has been able to kill and stop him for good. What makes you think some random villain can do it? Sure, Wish might be under the mayor's control and a Lord of Life, but that can't be the sole trump card you have, right?"

"If you're trying to get me to talk more, it won't work." The man kept staring up at the sky. He was glad he had seen his son and told him he loved him earlier that night, but he doubted he would ever get the chance again.

Whisper sighed as she worked on his arm. She was tying it down and making sure the bleeding would be at least slowed. It wasn't much; they'd need to get him to Paragon soon. "Why do bad guys always have a do-or-die kind of mindset?"

"Because if they didn't, it would be too easy for us heroes," BB stated.

Mr. Brenner ignored the two girls and looked back at the tower that hung in the distance. Wish was within it, and Mr. Grove had made a break for it. "You all lost the moment you let that man get away."

"Maybe," Whisper hummed. She followed his gaze, but instead of staring at the tower, she stared at the battle going on in front of it. "He'll need to get past that first," she said.

A massive river of lava held the body of the Golden God. The villain's many arms easily tore into the flesh of the giant worm-like monsters that tried to drag him further down. He was slowly rising out of the ground, and a grey beam of energy zapped out of his fingers, aging the worms and breaking them down to dust. As he lifted out of the sinkhole Myth created, the side of his head was beginning to dent and crack as massive shards of ice and a sea of bullets rammed into him.

"I don't mean to alarm you, but it looks like we're not hurting him," Myth said.

"Yeah. I noticed." Ocean Empress snapped her fingers, and a trail of water began to form into the shape of a sea dragon. The beast roared and bit down on one of Golden God's fingers, then froze solid, shattering and breaking the finger away. "We don't need to beat him. We just need to stop him from getting closer to the tower."

"Tell that to him."

Golden God batted away their attempts and began to fly towards the tower once more. A few of his arms pointed back at them and blasted out more orbs of grey light.

"Scatter." Roulette grunted out.

Myth flew into the air, and his body shifted into his Griffin form. He got above Golden God and then rammed himself down towards the face of the robot. Seconds before he reached it, he changed his form again and went back into his Minotaur mode. His fist rammed into the eye of Golden God, breaking past part of it and ripping out some wires. Golden God barely seemed to care, and one of his arms lazily swatted Myth, blasting the bull off of him and sending the man roughly into the ground.

Ocean Empress rode her ice board on a wave, moving herself in front of Golden God. She ran her finger through the air, thinning and compressing her water and firing it out as a wave of blades. Golden God went to block it with his hands, but millions of bullets formed together into chains and began to tie their way around his form, binding him in place and stopping him. Roulette lifted his rifle with one arm and aimed.

"Daughter of Old Dog. Duck." Ocean Empress dropped from the sky just in time. Roulette fired his rifle. The air exploded in a loud crack, and the entire gun crumbled to dust. The bullet rotated so fast through the air it caught the wind itself on fire and blew through Golden God's stomach, ripping its way out of the machine and crashing through the man. One of Golden God's hands grabbed at the car-sized hole, and oil began to spill out. "I only brought one, but it looks like it actually did some damage."

"Damn!" Ocean Empress said with wide eyes. "How is it that I'm the Enforcer in this situation?"

Despite the damage, Golden God was barely slowed. Grey light blasted out of his golden flesh and caused the chains around him to crumble to dust. He was about to fly forward but was stopped again when Myth came crashing down. "I got a form I think you'll love!" Myth yelled.

His form grew in size, getting larger. It wasn't as big as Typhon, his strongest and most destructive form, one in which he had a hard time controlling. This form was a close second, though. His flesh became a nasty grey, and he became so big his entire foot pushed down into Golden God's face, nearly half the size of the machine. His elbow exploded and began to form out into many arms.

The Hecatoncheires! A one-hundred-armed monster!

Myth roared and pulled all one hundred of his arms back. Golden God shook off the damage he took and also pulled his arms back. Monster and machine struck out at the same time, going blow for blow. They weren't the only ones giving it their all during this clash, though.

Metal Ronin and Casey fought, and both men engaged in a battle of swords. Casey had formed his out of solid blood and had a sneer on his lips as he and the hero went back and forth, blood meeting plasma.

"Are you about done yet?!" Metal Ronin yelled back.

"Almost!" Duplicity checked her watch and hummed. "Hold him back for like one more minute or so!"

"I don't know if I even have that time!" He created a shield on his arm and raised it up just in time, blocking a barrage of blood beams. "Damn it! I should have just stayed home and babysat Kyle! Why the hell did I even agree to come? This sucks!"

"It's not so fun when you're fighting someone evenly matched with you, huh?" Casey smirked and jumped away. "It's what you Supers get."

"You're a Super also, you know."

"I wasn't always." Casey's teeth practically dug into his lip. "I wasn't born lucky like you. Neither was Hannah or Kevin. We didn't win the genetic lottery."

"Yet you still became a Super. Sounds pretty lucky to me-"

"You know nothing! It was this or die!" Casey hissed. The young man ran his hand over his bald head and scowled. "Life wasn't fair. I was supposed to go to a college and get a degree in history. Instead, I find out I have cancer. I was practically a walking corpse before Wish discovered me and offered me a second chance. Where were you heroes, huh?! Where was Paragon when I needed her to heal me? You don't get to be pissed that you're fighting me. I'm this way because a villain came to me first!" His back split open, and tendrils of blood poured out. They took shape, turning into the heads of large hounds. The blood beasts howled, and a fountain of red-hot blood launched its way out. "Justified or not, I'm living my life!"

Cracks appeared all along Metal Ronin's shield as he struggled to block the attack. His armor started to scream at him, and he let out a grunt as the metal broke away. The blood never reached him, though. A harsh white light stepped in. Duplicity was bigger now. She looked like an adult, and her skin glowed white hot. Metal Ronin dropped to the ground and let out a sigh of relief when he saw her.

"Thank God! Thought I was a dead man for a second there!"

"I'll take it from here." The woman nodded. Her hand lazily swatted at another beam of blood that Casey launched at her. "Sorry."

"Sorry?"

"Sorry that no hero came for you when you needed them." She vanished, and faster than he could react, he felt a massive pain as her fist suddenly found its way into his stomach. "And I'm sorry that you became a villain. Now I'm going to beat you up."

Metal Ronin let out a grunt as he felt part of his suit break away. It wasn't as good as he had hoped it to be. Speaking of which... He trailed his eyes toward the tower in the distance. "You better not be screwing things up, Hope."

Inside the tower, Paragon shook her head as Destiny stared at her sister and Cinder. Poseidon currently had her weapon rammed through the face of Wish, and Cinder made her way over. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah." She took the girl's hand and gave the shield back. "Thanks for throwing this to me. A second later, and I'd be dead."

"I'm a hero. It's what I do." Paragon nodded and picked her sword back up. "So, I guess this is the part you tell me to run while you and my sister fight Wish, right?"

"Nope."

"Huh?"

Cinder turned to look back at Poseidon. "She told me everything on the way over here. I think I get it for the most part. You and Wish are like a reverse fusion. Wish is trying to kill you to get the last bit of the Lord's power for herself, right? And if we kill her, she'll try to take you over."

"Yeah, so fighting her is meaningless. She can just heal, even better than the others, and even if we do stop her for good, she'll just body hop into me."

Cinder nodded. "Yeah, that's the thing. I think I figured out how to save you, maybe. It's a long shot, though, so do you trust me?"

"Do I have a reason not to?"

Wish's body twitched, and bone-like spikes suddenly fired out of the girl's flesh. Poseidon was faster, though, and threw her arm out, tossing Wish's body off her weapon. Wish smacked into the back of the wall and slumped down a bit, her head putting itself back together. The girl giggled a bit, and her armor grew sharper as muscle and bones fused together.

"No hesitation? I always heard that the Lord of Sea was typically a monster, but still. Most people would at least think twice before striking someone that held the same face as someone they love."

"There are only three people within this world that I love," Poseidon announced. "My mother, my sister, and, of course, the one who has claimed my heart, Kenny! You've harmed two of those three people. I'm going to punish you for your arrogance. That's all there is to it."

"I forgot how scary your sister was," Cinder muttered, shivering.

"Cinder," Poseidon called out.

"Yeah?"

"Are you sure that your plan will work?"

"Like ninety percent?"

"Just so you know, if it fails and my sister dies, then you will also be executed." The hero announced this in a very unheroic-like way.

Cinder gulped but nodded her head. "Just what the hell is this plan that you came up with?" Paragon asked, grabbing onto Cinder's arm. "There's no reason to do it if it'll get both of us killed, you know!"

"It'll be fine," Cinder said, shaking her head. "If I'm wrong and it gets you killed, then I'll deserve to die. As simple as that."

"Why are you and my sister like this?!"

Poseidon twirled her trident around, and water began to bend and twist around her. "Ready yourself, Lord of Life. I'm about to slay you."

"Oh? Do you really think you can?" Wish smirked. The girl tapped the side of her head. "I have all my cells within me. I haven't unleashed them all yet. If you can hit my weak spot, then you may be able to kill me for good. Of course, I won't really stay dead for too long. In fact, I already have my eye on my next body."

Poseidon didn't bother with a response. The gravity around Wish grew stronger, and the Lord of Life suddenly found herself brought to her knees. Her legs expanded and grew in size as she forced her muscles to grow stronger, and twisted bone armor grew from her wrist, allowing her to block the trident that came down on her. The edge of her shoulder opened up and broke away a thin barrel made of bone growing out, which fired out a thin blood bullet directly at Poseidon.

Poseidon lowered her own body's gravity and leaned back as far as she could, the blood bullet flying past her. As it flew through the air, it grew in size and formed into what almost looked like a bug. It circled back toward Poseidon, but as soon as it entered her reach, it was crushed with a wave of intense gravity. The ground beneath Poseidon bubbled up and came to life, but the girl simply smashed her trident into them and flooded the living metal with her water.

Wish used that as her chance to escape and jumped back, tossing her hand out in the direction of Paragon. A bone spike fired out but never reached the blind girl as Cinder threw herself in front of the healer and blocked the attack with her shield.

"You should really focus all your efforts on the pissed-off sister," Cinder called out.

Wish tried to turn back to Poseidon, but her entire upper body was torn clean off as Poseidon swung her weapon and formed a hammer made out of water on the edge of her trident. She blew Wish's torso to bits, but Wish's severed head sprouted a pair of bat wings and flew up. Poseidon tried to fire at it, but Wish's legs kicked out her lower half, still fighting. Poseidon was sent flying back as the pair of legs roughly kicked her in the side.

Poseidon broke her fall by stabbing her weapon into the ground. She clutched at her side and took a shaking breath. "She's tougher than I thought."

"Need my help?" Cinder asked.

"No. Keep taking care of my sister. I got this." The legs of Wish grew out, forming a massive wolf head out of muscles and bones. As for the severed head, it began to repair itself and grow its body back. "And you called me the monster-"

The wolf's head let out a loud roar and charged, breaking the metal floor apart. Its mouth opened wide, but Poseidon didn't even blink. Compared to the Beast, this was nothing. Water formed over her trident, and the gravity grew more intense. She stepped forward and thrust out with her weapon. The entire tower began to shake, and the metal on her trident started to bend and dent.

The bottom of the ocean was filled with so much crushing force that a person would pop from the pressure. As the Lord of the Sea and Depths, she had this power to command—water and weight, a sea of cosmic gravity.

The entire body of the wolf monster was blown to bits as she rammed her way through it as if it wasn't even there. Chunks of it rained down, but they never even had a chance to hit the floor. All around her, everything began to twist and break as so much gravity swirled around, smaller than the size of a flea, yet strong enough to consume and ruin everything that fell into her range, turning it and twisting it into something less than dust. In other words, she had surrounded herself with microscopic black holes.

"You were a fool for telling me where your weakness was," Poseidon called out.

Wish's head had finished forming its body back. The girl had grown larger. Every inch of her flesh was covered in thick bone plating, and her muscles expanded to the max, making her nearly ten feet tall. Living armor strong enough to resist even the crushing depths of the ocean. "Did I make a mistake? We'll see! You'll still need to get my head after all you arrogant bitch!"

Wish used the roof and bounced off of it, exploding down with a massive force. She was still growing in size, muscle, and bones jutting out wildly as she hit down at Poseidon with everything she had. Poseidon met her and rammed her trident up towards Wish's head with everything she had, water and gravity blasting off of her.

At the last second, Wish's head literally twisted on its body and moved out of the way of the trident. Poseidon's strike completely missed, and before the girl could recover, Wish's large arm tore into Poseidon hitting the Lord hard enough to save part of her chest in and send her trident flying high into the air. Poseidon was sent flying back and she smashed back first into a wall black blood gushing out of her mouth.

"Lily!" Paragon screamed in horror.

"It was too obvious you'd go for my head!" Wish giggled.

Poseidon gasped and clutched at her side. Despite the serious wound she took the girl smirked "And... And it was too obvious you'd try and stop me."

"Huh-"

The gravity around her still falling weapon tore it down so fast Wish didn't even have time to react. The trident was outstretched, and it came down on top of Wish with so much weight, it ripped right through the girl's skull and split her in two straight down the middle. Poseidon had used Wish's own attack to set up her killing blow.

"Another thing..." Poseidon collapsed to her knees, breathing heavily. "Do you think I'm an idiot? I stabbed you clean through the head before we even began to battle. You think lying about you having a weak spot will make me let my guard down?" Wish's torn body screamed out in anger as it tried to put itself back together and swing at Poseidon. "That's why I told her to stay on the sidelines. Directly in your blind spot." Poseidon smirked.

The fist came out her in slow motion ready to rip right through her. Wish wasn't fast enough though. Cinder came rocketing forward holding the body of Paragon both girl's letting out a loud yell. Paragon's hand touched Wish's arm and in a bright flash of blinding light everything came to an end. Poseidon stood in the tower now alone breathing heavily.

"Good luck Cinder. I'm leaving the rest to you so don't screw this up."

Wish screamed as she felt herself be destroyed. All at once, she saw nothing. Just a black, inky void. She was dead. Slowly, though, she felt herself crawling toward the one person left who had her cells. The Emperor created Sky with his power as a means of bringing the daughter he lost to the Beast back. She was meant to be his heir and held some of his power. As the Lord of Land and Life that connection in term was now hers. Color hit her as a world built itself before her.

A field of flowers and a strangely colored sky—the dream world. The battle for the body was about to begin. She could feel it—the core—the piece of a soul that rightfully belonged to her—a missing piece to the puzzle. She held her hand out, and everything began to die and wither away to nothingness.

"You can come out now." Wish taunted. "I know you can sense me. Let's get this over with, dear sister. I control more of the shard within us, so you have no power in here."

"That's why she brought me."

Wish felt her eyes widen, and she whipped around, finding Sky and an uninvited guest. "How!"

Cinder folded her arms and gave a sly grin. "I have a power you don't seem to have," Sky explained. She was back in her dress and also had a smile on her lips. "I can bring a guest with me to my dream world—a means of absorbing them if I want. While here, I guess you do have control of this place, but at the end of the day, it is still my world, and I get a say on who comes and goes."

Cinder stepped forward and punched her palm. Fire twirled around her, and she stared the Lord of Life down. "Get ready. I have no need to hold back here. I'm stopping you for good, Wish!"