–
Chapter 12
–
“DIERO ROCK NOW!!” Renner screamed for the third time, which only made Diero look for a rock even faster and less precisely than before. His search ended when one of the Ghid Dreamers present handed him a stone off the ground.
“Uhh, okay.” Diero handed it to the ever-ascending Renner, who scribbled furiously on it and tossed it back down to his deadsperado. “You really think you can just feign innocence here, Ghid? After everything you’ve done?”
“I’ve been watching.” I said through a different Dreamer. “You’ve got to make it to that hole in the sky before he does. Get moving; I’ll cover you.” All one thousand of the stony Dreamer Ghids moved into a large series of circles around the spot where Renner had started floating upwards from, and although my quickened intellect had made the decision based on relevant and prevalent information readily accessible in that moment, the slower mental processes of the laminated loser and his belligerent bonehead eventually figured out why.
Out of the darkness glowed a number of yellow lights, all of which corresponded to the eyes of Dreamers, which lumbered out of the dark looking for an opportunity to interfere with Renner’s ascent. Diero reached for a gun he didn’t have, frowning in discontent at the fact, and starting slightly at the massive hand which gripped his shoulder as I stepped forward, the Dreamer I possessed holding a heavy metal bar in the opposite hand.
“HELP. ME.” It whispered.
“You have the right to remain silent!” A voice sounded. “By order of our rightful king, his excellence Lord Zippy, you are hereby ordered to lay down your arms and ammunition and surrender immediately! Failure to do so swiftly and promptly will result in-”
“Zippy’s on this now?” Diero hissed, after having thrown the largest piece of debris he could find at the officer. “Boss, you couldn’t levitate any faster, could you?”
“I’m trying, honestly.” Renner exhaled, having prepared to shout again and finding himself just too tired to do that. “Ghid, I’m going to kill you at least a thousand more times if you try anything while I’m absent. You understand?”
“Loud and clear.” I answered through at least three different bodies. It was hard to tell for certain, even for me, since I was also so preoccupied hurling whoever I could get my many hands on into the furthest buildings I could manage. A slew of officers had appeared over the edge of the crater of debris from the once splendid tower of mine, and were all opening fire, equally split between a few of myself, Diero, and the ascending Renner, all of which remained completely unharmed.
“Please, oh please, do me a huge favor.” The metal bar I held continued rambling in protest. “You want to use me as a weapon? I suppose I have no choice. But please oh please don’t use me to stab anyone through the stomaAAAAAaAaaAUAugaghAaaAAaghaghgAhuuUGgghHH WHY OH GOSH WHY DID YOU DO THAT”
I had handed him over to Diero, who immediately used the bar as a way to fulfill the command of “DREAM: WHIRLING IRON!!” Renner had said, albeit far quieter than he would have otherwise. Now cloaked in blue flame, the bar had been used as a spear and skewered through the face of an oncoming Dreamer with incredible efficiency.
It was in vain that the sentient crooked bar continued bellowing out his protest at nearly everything that occurred; Diero’s resolve was that of a lion, and one with a stupid hat at that. Goodness, I missed making fun of these two.
“You were in a realm of infinite possibility.” I commented calmly as I gave a fine, upstanding officer of the law a serious concussion. “You had the power to rewrite the universe at your fingertips. Why, then, did you not think of a way to move faster than a lead balloon?”
“My priorities were a little less scattered, thank you!” Renner frowned at the me that had spoken most recently, now only some fifty-odd meters in the air. “I was trying not to die from everything you threw at me, and I already had a mode of transportation at the time, although that appeared to- it’s those two!”
Renner pointed a finger at an approaching group of officers among the horde. Officers Pakari and Bird were present, the former nestled in the grip of one of the larger, heavier units of which Bird was a part, visibly unresponsive, while the latter had to be restrained by four of them. Upon seeing the battle taking place, the latter wrestled himself free from his captors’ grip and launched into the fray, swatting aside numerous Dreamers while cradling Pakari in his arm.
Looking up at Renner, I had decided enough was enough, and after assembling a large number of my Dreamers together I assembled a scrambling tower of my host bodies which barely reached the slowly ascending simpleton, shoving him upwards as fiercely as I could. He was caught off-guard by the maneuver, but it did help to increase his speed, placing him at the entrance tear in no time.
Good. I looked away as the Dreamer tower disassembled and practically fell on the overwhelming amount of opponents. There’s no way he got there before that polished peabrain did.
–
Renner stepped in, the cold of the snow stinging his heel as his eyes took in the calming sight of a slow breeze, sweeping snow across the flat plain. Tiny flowers poked up through the fiield of white crystals, yellow petals turned away and to the tiny sun in the distance, nestled on the horizon.
Wait a minute. Renner blinked twice, his memory correcting some details. The tear had been in the middle of the air almost at random, he had last peen on an almost snowless peak, and there were no flowers. The beginning of a distance chuckle put him into battle stance, his dream-powered armor flowing into new, previously impossible shapes.
“You’re the subject of this story, the one now in control of this place.” The voice whispered, a blizzard whipping through at high speed. All the flowers turned to face him, yellow petals nestled around a blue center. The silhouette of a figure began marching out of the storm, the sun where his head should be.
The sun turned blue.
“Well, now I am too.”
–