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Chapter 14
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“Attention, my loyal populous!”
That was Zippy’s voice. A couple of my Dreamers turned to look at the massive projection lighting up the side of a ruined building. Diero, still spinning the screaming metal bar, paid no heed as he continued carving through the heads of the Dreamers unfortunate enough to draw near.
“I have a new directive for you: In the case of my being cut off, due to having to deal with some Troublesome Idiots down here, I have a command to issue.” The flat figure made an inhaling motion. “DREAM: TEAR 'EM UP!”
“Now have fun with your little cleanup!” Zippy smiled, disappearing away as the Dreamers bellowed yellow flames and all the officers cheered. “King Zippy! Zippy our rightful King!”
While the officers praised Zippy, our rightful King, the Dreamers, who were emboldened by the dream, rushed forward with mouths aglow, biting into several of my Ghid Dreamers and taking large chunks out of them. Well, as you can imagine, I was slightly annoyed by this, and began swallowing them whole into my many maws, which I imagine must have been fun for Renner to deal with on the other side. In spite of this however, my numbers were thinning rapidly, and the little imp’s supply of the nasty things seemed inexhaustible.
“You need to reach your master.” I calmly informed Diero, who was beginning to be overwhelmed before a dozen Ghid hands smashed into his oppressors. “He will need your assistance.”
“Look, lemme be clear.” Diero hissed back. “I don’t trust you, my boss doesn’t trust you, the whole world doesn’t trust you, and I’m pretty sure you don’t trust you either.” He lobbed a piece of rubble, which belted a number of Dreamers as it flew. “So why in the world would I ever-”
“Call it a hunch,” I replied, even as the Dreamer I was speaking through got an eye bitten off by one of my unsavory opponents. “but I suspect your master will be needing backup in there.”
“Why?” Diero raised an eyebrow at me, and then let his jaw drop as I unhinged my jaw yet again to gulp down another opponent. “Okay right, point made. Here.” He handed me the metal bar, who quickly realized what was about to happen.
“Oh, no no no. You are NOT about to swallow me whole. Not the one to trust, not happening, this is not how I die, PUT ME DOWN DO YOU UNDERSTAND?! I AM NOT YOUR LUNCH- NO NO NO NO AAAAUUUGGHGHHH” he wailed as I stuffed him down my gullet. Somewhere inside that other world, I knew, Renner would appreciate a weapon to fight the Dreamers with, especially one so… Willing as that one was.
Although mostly it was to get rid of the screams I had to endure from him up until then.
In spite of my new technique, however, the Dreamers under Zippy’s control were making short work of my many hosts, quickly thinning the number down to under a hundred of them. Evidently Diero was much more experienced at the whole being a Dreamer thing than I was.
“Y’know what I wish I had right now?” Diero growled, as he sent his heel into another Dreamer, flinging it back atop a pair of its associates. “A gun. All these bullets on me are completely worthless without something to- Hey…” With a wily grin, he cracked open one of the special bullets containing Eilrach’s form, which quickly zipped into the closest free Dreamer and looked around.
“Yeah no.”
“What?” Diero’s jaw dropped as I tried to hold back another pair of Dreamers so he could have a moment. “Y’know I kind of thought you’d be ecstatic about another opportunity to rule the world, and… Stuff. Wasn’t that your whole shtick?”
“I’ve had some time to dwell on that.” Eilrach replied, looking into the horizon solemnly as Diero focused on a rapidly approaching object of considerable size. “Now, I realize the futility in such an endeavor, and the true value of life isn’t about the time spent destroying all who stand in your way in a merciless reign of destruction and terror to stamp out the last shreds of hope in the universe, but it’s about-”
Eilrach looked up at the large, battered convertible Diero had caught, which was towering over him in the deadsperado’s strained clutches. “Oh. You wouldn’t mind if I…?”
“Mind if you whaeaahhgh” Diero replied, recoiling his head back as a Dreamer bit through Eilrach’s stony neck. The greenish gas which escaped quickly flowed into the brandished automobile, and the engine roared in Diero’s grip.
The bone-headed bungler’s bumpy grin grew exaggerated as his brows lowered in malicious delight. Reeling about, he used the automobile as a club to send the closest Dreamers flying over the debris, Eilrach taking the opportunity to grind a tire on the face of one of his opponents. Slamming the car down, the lights flickered on, and Diero vaulted into the driver’s seat.
“Let’s book it!” He howled, motioning for me to get in.
I must admit, the assistance was greatly appreciated, as most if not all of the Dreamers had abandoned any hope of taking down Diero and were all dogpiling me, carving through my well-tailored bodies like flames through paper. With only one body in any reasonable condition, I let the last few tattered ones drop and bolted with all my impressive speed towards the car, hopping in the back just as Eilrach released the brake, sending it rocketing forwards over the rubble and out of the crater.
“Where did this vehicle come from?” I politely inquired. “Last I had checked, free parking wasn’t available around my tower.”
“Well,” Diero scratched his bony chin, leaning against the door of the car. “I’d say that, when one car gets sent flying through the air with such specific aim, it’s quite possible that another one- well, what do you know.” He shrugged casually, suddenly gripping the seat as Eilrach quickly turned to avoid a large van which crumpled into a deformed sheet of metal as it impacted the ground. Up in the distance, a looming colossus slowly made itself visible out of the shroud of darkness, and I had a hunch it was formed, yet again, out of however many Dreamers Zippy could scrape together, although this one seemed considerably larger than the one last dealt with.
And with Eilrach far less combative than previously, loosing him on the pile wouldn’t work nearly as well as a solution to the problem. I had buckled myself in, reaching out briefly to my other hosts to see which of them survived the conflict, while my mind tried to come up with a surefire plan to eradicate this monster. The police were suspiciously absent, and the ones that were around were running and hiding in whatever they could, leaving only the Dreamers to chase after-
Dad.
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presumably he and Monopoly have made peace and conducted a successful treaty to which all party members agree 
magic 
bones 
