#other green plants that came in mind mostly focused on success and luck but i feel like you're more than jsut a good omen to me. | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

takerfoxx · 7 years

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So, I had hoped to have a new Subconscious preview up last week on my birthday, but unfortunately the one I had planned ended up being really frustrating to write and, to be honest, kind of boring. So I scrapped all twenty pages of it at the last minute and threw this together instead. Enjoy!

We've all been there, in our dreams. There's something important to you: a valuable treasure, a prized memento, or just some odd object that the dream has arbitrarily decided that you must protect and you do so without questioning. Or there's someone: a parent, a child, a lover, a friend, someone that means the world to you and you are driven to defend with everything within you.

But no matter how hard you fight, no matter how carefully you watch over them, you fail, and they disappear. You turn away for one second, and they're gone. And no matter how hard you search you cannot find them again, and you awake feeling the weight of your failure.

It isn't your fault though. That's just the way dreams are. And many would say that you are experiencing a metaphorical manifestation of…something or another, such as feelings of inadequacy or lack of ability to provide for your loved ones. Maybe in some cases that is true, but the truth is that most of the time, that thing or person that you valued so highly did not vanish at all. Rather, they had had been stolen.

The Marauders had been plying their trade for a long, long time, and they had a lot to answer for.

It really was the perfect crime: sneak into the mind of some sleeping mark, creep around until something of valuable is found, and then take it. Authentic dreams were highly prized in the world of Nod, but the four Thrones jealously guarded any access to the Unconscious, which limited how many were available. Fortunately, the Marauders paid little heed to such things, and were more than happy to saturate the black market with the fruits of their expeditions. And so their way of life continued, as they lived in their tunnels, emerging only to steal fresh dreams to exchange for food and clothing and trinkets. Meanwhile, the four Thrones had been content to look the other way. After all, it wasn't as if the Marauders were doing any real harm, and it wasn't like they could be reached anyway. Let the shadow children have their fun.

Then one day, in one unimportant man's dream, all of that changed.

The cityscape was dreary and grey, devoid of color and life. Rain came down in a constant patter from the featureless black sky, shrouding the street in fog. The endless apartment buildings were high, rectangular, and adorned with nothing save for rows upon rows of light windows, staring out at the dismal metropolis. Steam hissed off the humming white florescent lights that hung over storefronts, on billboards, and on street corners, all of them advertising jumbled gibberish. There were no trees, no plants, no animals, nothing to bring life to the world of concrete, metal, and water.

The streets themselves were empty. No pedestrians wandered the sidewalks, no cars passed under the blinking traffic lights (white on top, white in the middle, white on the bottom), nothing moving whatsoever. Nothing moved at all save for a single, solitary grey pickup truck that moved slowly in the rain, slowly passing by address, street sign after street sign. On the top of the truck was a glowing plastic cartopper that, with some imagination, might have read, "Momma Mia's Pizzeria!" But then, it also might have read, "Mozziexr Deiaxooouz." And perhaps even, "Dominuplings." The letters shifted constantly whenever focused upon.

The lonely pizza delivery man seemed to be having trouble finding his destination. He continuously circled the blocks, slowing to read addresses that made no numerical sense, always certain that the place he was heading had to be just around the corner. If nothing else, one had to admire his dogged persistence, though he had to be growing frustrated. Still, rain or sleet, the pizza had to come through, so he continued on, praying that he would find where he was going before the pizzas grew too cold.

Then, just as he rounded a corner, something new appeared. A squared hatch appeared in the sidewalk just behind him. It slid open, and a group of children climbed out into the rain.

There were seven of them, the oldest, a dark-haired teenaged boy with a wiry frame and thick glasses, looking to be fifteen while the youngest, a nervous looking blonde girl wearing a pink hoodie, was probably still in the first or second grade. The others were everywhere in between: a curly-haired black boy of eleven; a tall and stocky Hispanic boy of nine; a slim redheaded and freckled white girl of thirteen; and a pair of Japanese siblings, one boy with hair dyed green and one girl with hair dyed orange, of nine and eleven respectively. Save for the small girl's hoodie, none of them were dressed for the weather, and the first thing they did upon emerging was to look up into the sky and groan.

"Aw man, are you kidding me with this?" said Carl, the black boy, as they retreated beneath the awning of some kind of café. "It's pissing all over the place!"

"Man, we should just ditch this one, try to find another dream that isn't going to soak us through," agreed Leslie, the redhead. She looked over to Daniel, the "older" boy with glasses.

Sighing, Daniel took off his glasses and wiped them with a napkin from a nearby table. For some reason every time he went along on a raid the others always looked to him for leadership, despite him actually being the youngest member of whatever party he happened to join at the time. Well, second youngest in this case. Regardless, he was getting used to it, but it was still annoying. "Last time I was on one of these things and we tried that, we ended up in a haunted graveyard. Look, let's just look around a bit, see if these stores have anything. If it's crap, we'll bail." Then he glanced down to the small girl in the hoodie. "Hey, you all right?"

One of the most tempting reasons to join the Marauders was the eternal life and youth that came with it. Daniel might have been younger than most of the others, but he was still a good five years older than he looked. Hideo and Kyouko, the Japanese siblings, were actually well past sixty, if one were to count from their dates of birth to the present. Which wasn't to say that they were elderly people with young bodies. Marauders were frozen in time. Age had no real meaning to them, with one day meaning no more or less than the next. In upland, the world of Nod, time passed, people grew old and died, countries rose and fell, and the Marauders stayed the same.

It wasn't quite the case with little Anya though. Unlike the others, she really was seven years old, having only joined the Marauders a few months ago. She hadn't spoken much of her life in upland, but Daniel had managed to glean enough to know that it hadn't been pretty. At the very least she had been homeless, like so many Marauders were. In fact, the majority of their population started out that way. They were the unwanted children of Nod, the orphaned and the abandoned, the abused and the neglected, all of them having found their way down into the network of tunnels and lairs known as the Warrens to trade in their miserable and hopeless lives above for the freedom and acceptance the Marauders offered. Others had simply been the rebellious types, or had found their mundane lives at home to be boring. Many had just thought that being a kid forever sounded like a swell deal and had run away from home. It made no difference. The only qualifications to join the Marauders was being under the age limit, of which Anya most certainly was.

At any rate, new Marauders showed up all the time, but for whatever reason Anya had taken a shine to Daniel, and stayed close to him at all times. She had even taken to crawling into his bed at night. It had been a little weird at first, but he was getting used to it. And it felt nice to have someone actually look up to him without expecting him to be some kind of great leader. He almost didn't want to go on this raid, seeing how most Marauders stayed safe in the Warrens with their chosen clan at least a year or two before they started venturing out into dreams. But Anya had insisted, her curiosity overruling her fear, so he came along. Just their luck that her first foray into the Unconscious would be such a depressing one.

Anya peered out from under her jacket's hood at the black-and-white world around them. "It's wet," she said.

"Yup, and not in the fun way," Kyouko giggled.

"Shut up," Daniel said absently. "Carl, what's the numbers?"

Squinting, Carl peered down into the large, calculator-like instrument he held. "Uh, okay. I'm getting mostly Sahk and Kanon. Nightmare's sort of bouncing back and forth between 8 and 11%, while Desio is holding at an even 19%."

Dream levels were very important. Kanon dreams were those of the mundane variety, in which dreamers relived aspects of their day-to-day lives. Desio dreams were concerned with some kind of ambition, whether it be in terms of success, acquiring a coveted item, sexual, or literally anything else, and were thus the preferred kind for raiding. Sahk dreams were of the nonsensical variety, random places and memories jammed together in a manner that made sense only to themselves.

Nightmares were self-explanatory.

The readings that Carl reported meant that the dreamer was enacting repetitive, mundane activity in a weird world. That made sense. No doubt the dreamer's frustration accounted for the Nightmare levels going up and down. It wasn't preferable, but at least it wasn't a Nightmare. "Okay, we'll try that mall across the street," Daniel said, nodding to the wide picture windows lit with bright white light. "Carl, keep an eye on those readings. Holler if this guy decides to quit."

The gang bolted across the street, the rain soaking clothes and plastering hair to any uncovered head. The sliding doors failed to slide when they approached, but that wasn't a problem. Hideo and Kyouko slid on metal-knuckled gloves and made short work of the windows.

Inside was more of the same. It was a mall sure enough, with two stories of stores all lined up in rows. But everything was done in sterile whites, like a laboratory. White walls, white stores selling white products, a white carousel, and a white fountain that was as dry as the outside was wet.

That was disappointing. Lively, colorful artifacts stolen from dreams fetched better prices. But that didn't mean there was nothing to find. Stores were always worth investigating. If they got lucky, maybe they could find a jewelry store. Jewelry was always in demand, regardless of its color.

"This guy's life must be incredibly boring," observed Isaac, the Hispanic boy, as he surveyed their bleak surroundings.

"That or he's colorblind," Leslie said as she peered curiously into a store that sold nothing but lamps that looked to be made from white plastic. "Doesn't look like there's much worth taking here."

"Probably," Daniel said. "But we'll give it a quick sweep. Five minutes. See if we can't find a jewelry store." He glanced down to Anya, who was staring bug-eyed out at their pasty surroundings. "You okay?" he asked her.

Anya bit her lower lip. Then she looked up to him and offered a small smile.

"Don't worry," he said as he took her hand. "We'll stick together." That was one of the most important rules about dream raiding. Though dreams themselves weren't usually all that dangerous, one never knew when they might suddenly warp and change, separating the party. They were notoriously unstable. Some remained more-or-less consistent throughout their entire duration while others were in a constant state of flux, which meant that putting even one wall between one's self and the rest of the party could mean being suddenly snatched away. And unfortunately, Daniel had long learned that this was also the one rule that was the most forgotten. Marauders were nothing but curious, and more than once an entire raid had been stalled because someone had gone wandering off.

Fortunately, it seemed like this was a wheel dream, which trapped the dreamer in a perpetual loop of repetition. So long as he kept circulating the blocks they should be okay. Still, there was no point in taking chances. One never knew when a dream might morph into a Nightmare.

The seven of them passed quickly between the rows of stores, peeking in briefly before moving onto the next. Nothing they saw interested them. The furniture looked real enough, but it was too large to move. The books were probably all blank and would serve as little more than curiosities. The restaurants they ignored outright. Dream food never tasted right, if it tasted like anything at all.

"This is pointless," Isaac groused. "All the good stuff is probably up there." He nodded up, at the mall's second floor.

"If it is, then we'll just ditch this one and find some other dream," Daniel told him. If there was one rule of safety that all Marauders adhered to, it was to always stay on the ground floor whenever possible. So long as they were on the ground, they could always open a tunnel to the Warrens and escape. Any higher and they took their own lives into their hands.

"Maybe we should. I don't like this place," Isaac said with a shiver.

Carl frowned at the dream reader. "Nightmare levels are staying low."

"I don't care. Something's not right."

Hideo said something in Japanese.

"Yeah, dude. I have no idea what you just said," Daniel said. His sister spoke pretty good English, so she was the one that did the talking for them.

Scowling, Hideo looked back the way they came and pointed. He repeated what he had just said.

They looked. Then Daniel blinked. Save for Anya, who was still holding onto his hand, only the boys were around. "Hey, where'd the girls go?"

…

"This is so cool," Leslie said as she and Kyouko walked through the aisles. The two of them had found a clothing shop, which was a lucky find. Clothing in the Warrens was usually brought in secondhand from upland, so finding anything good was often left up to chance. And clothes found in dreams were, like everything that was raided, a crapshoot. As such, Marauder outfits tended to be a little slapped together, as Leslie's stonewashed jeans, black band shirt for a band that she had never even heard of, avocado blazer, and brown beanie with bear's ears attested to. Kyouko's outfit was little better, being a green-and-red plaid skirt, black stockings, a white shirt, studded bracelets and anklets, and a jeans vest. Not that either of them minded. But it was nice to find something new every once in a while, especially when one didn't have to pay for it.

Even better, the store they had discovered was downright fabulous. Fuzzy fur coats, rhinestone-studded hats, boas, glittering purses, shiny knee-high boots, designer shirts, and so on. For a people who favored eclectic fashion, it was a treasure trove.

"Hey, look at this," Kyouko said. She had put on a glittering trilby, thrown a black-spotted white boa around her neck, and slipped on a pair of elbow-length black gloves. Then, with one hand on her hip, she started strutting down the aisle like a model down the catwalk. Leslie laughed and whistled.

Leslie picked out a wide-brimmed black hat with a large white silk flower and tried it on. Then she pulled on a zebra-striped fur coat long enough to reach her ankles.

"Oooh, that looks good on you," Kyouko said appreciatively.

"You think so?" There were several full-length mirrors nearby, but Leslie ignored those, instead pulling a round makeup mirror out of her back pocket. Dream mirrors were unreliable at best.

"Of course!" Kyouko draped her arms around Leslie's shoulders and grinned into the mirror as Leslie held it out as far as her arm would allow. "You look hot!"

"Really?" The hat did look pretty cute, Leslie admitted. And the coat wasn't bad, in a Cruella di Ville sort of way. "Do you…Do you think it's something Daniel might like?"

Kyouko burst out laughing. "Daniel? Really?"

Leslie gave a sort of awkward shrug. "Well, I mean, he is cute, and…"

"I guess?" Kyouko shrugged. "But isn't he with that Anya girl?"

Leslie made a face. "Ew, no! She's like seven! I mean actually seven!"

"Is she?" Kyouko shrugged. "I do not know, I do not know them that good."

"Yeah, she's really new."

"Huh." Kyouko shrugged again. "Well, maybe?" She peered quizzically at Leslie, her head tilted to one side. "You really like him?"

Leslie blushed a bit. Then she smiled and nodded.

Giggling, Kyouko poked her with her elbow. "Then tell him!"

"I don't know," Leslie said as she fidgeted with a strand of fur.

"Oh, come on! You never know…" Then Kyouko's eyes lit up and she pointed to something behind Leslie. "Oooh, jackpot!"

It was a jewelry counter, with glittering black and white stones set into black and white metals. The two girls hurried over, and Kyouko smashed the display case with her metal knuckles.

"Oh, this is gooooood," Leslie breathed as she picked up a chain-link necklace set with a huge white stone. That alone was worth at least three full raids by itself. She and Kyouko immediately started pawing through necklaces, rings, bracelets, and pendants, filling their pockets with the loot.

Then, from far off, they heard Daniel call, "Leslie! Kyouko! Where'd you go?"

The two girls looked at each other and cringed. "Whoops," Kyouko said with a sheepish smile.

Leslie turned around and called back, "Over here! Come on, I found jewelry!"

"You found?" Kyouko mocked.

"Fine. We found jewelry!"

Kyouko gave her a look.

Sighing, Leslie rolled her eyes and called out, "All right, Kyouko found-"

Then she stopped and frowned. Her ears had just detected a very strange sound, like a high-pitched whine, one that was increasing in volume. "Hey, do you hear-"

Then there was a flash of yellow light, and she heard nothing at all.

…

Daniel, Carl, Anya, Hideo, and Isaac all froze in their tracks. "Hey, what was that?" Daniel said, his face twisting up in confusion. They had been heading over to where they had heard Leslie calling to them, and then there had been the strangest sound, like the hum of something charging up.

Before anyone could answer, a shrill, feminine shriek of terror sounded out. It was unmistakably Kyouko's.

Everyone froze for a moment, looking at each other with expressions of horror. Then they took off running toward the scream, Hideo quickly taking the lead.

He needn't have worried. Kyouko came rushing around the other way, appearing from around a corner so suddenly that the siblings practically collided.

"Kyouko, what happened?" Daniel demanded. "Where's Leslie?"

Kyouko was crying, tears streaming down her face as she clung tightly to Hideo. The pair babbled frantically at each other in Japanese.

Isaac had no patience. "Hey!" he snapped, clapping his hands in front of Kyouko's face. "Speak English! What happened to Leslie?"

Kyouko let out a choking sob. "G-Gone," she forced out.

"Gone?" Daniel pushed Isaac aside to get into Kyouko's face. "Whad'd'ya mean, gone?"

"I mean she is gone!" Kyouko wailed. "We found some jewelry, and we started grabbing it up, when there was this…this flash, and she was gone!" She started screaming. "There was nothing but dust, nothing but dust!"

There was a deathly pause in which it felt like the whole world was holding its breath. Then, without warning, Isaac bolted up the way Kyouko had fled.

"Isaac, wait!" Daniel called after him. He rushed around the corner. "You're just going to get yourself killed!"

Isaac didn't listen. He had been friends with Leslie for a very long time, Daniel knew. But if he didn't stop, he was going to join her.

"Isaac!" Daniel called again, his teeth gritting with frustration. Isaac just kept running, calling out Leslie's name.

Then, as he passed in front of one of the stores, Daniel heard that charging hum again. He briefly saw something like a golden beam of light, barely perceptible against their white surroundings, shooting right out the store and into Isaac.

What happened next was both horrible and quick. The sudden light made Daniel cringe back and shield his eyes, but in the half-second it took to do that, he saw Isaac standing in place, the beam piercing into his belly. Then it was as if his skin and clothes evaporated, as the moment there was nothing standing there save for a blackened skeleton.

Then the skeleton fell to pieces, turning to dust as it collapsed.

Kyouko screamed again, and this time Anya joined her. Daniel might have done so as well, but it was really hard to tell with all the blood pounding in his ears.

Then out of the store strode a monster. It was shaped like a tall man, but was covered with some sort of skintight black armor enforced with steel around the forearms, the shoulders, the waist, and the shins and feet. Its head was encased in some kind of black helmet, one with nothing but a blank, mirrored visor for eyes.

It peered down at the smear of dust that had been Isaac for a moment. Daniel's mouth went dry.

Then the monster looked up, turning its empty face toward the group.

Daniel snapped out of his trance. "Run!" he yelled, and the five of them did just that, fleeing before the black-clad monster that had murdered their friends.

…

They ran. And ran. And ran.

They ran and ran and ran as if the hounds of Hell were biting at their heels. They ran with a speed born of terror and grief. The white stores blurred together and seemed to have no end, the mall seemingly endless. It didn't matter. They weren't thinking of escaping the mall. They were fleeing the image of Isaac disintegrating before their eyes, as if distance alone could cancel it out. At one point, Daniel had to remember to pick up Anya and carry her on his back lest she be left behind.

Above all else, Marauders fear two things: death and imprisonment. Their dread of their lives ending was that of a child's, something that their eternal existences did nothing to blunt. And taking away their freedom was an unspeakable sin. The Marauder War had been started for that very reason, after all. As such, death was something that wasn't even joked about. And to watch one of their own perish triggered a deep, primal reaction, one of overpowering panic.

Once they had rounded the twelfth corner, they finally collapsed against the wall, crying and panting. Kyouko immediately went to her knees, slapping her palms against the ground to summon a portal into the Warrens while Hideo agitatedly paced back and forth. Anya curled up into a small ball against the wall and started mewling. Carl seemed to be in a state of shock. His mouth was hanging open, his eyes were practically popping right out of their sockets, and his hands were shaking as they clutched the dream reader.

As for Daniel, his hands were shaking as well. He licked his lips, trying to moisten them, but his tongue had gone dry as well.

What in the hell was that thing? Daniel had seen raw Nightmares before, had once been chased out of a dream by shrieking wraiths, but he had never, ever encountered anything remotely like that.

Then his trembling hands curled, and he straightened up. Turning, he focused his eyes on Carl, who was still fumbling with the dream reader.

Then his right fist lashed out, knocking Carl to the floor.

Everyone reacted immediately, with Hideo rushing over to grab Daniel and try to hold him back while Anya gasped. Carl gaped like a hooked fish tossed onto a dock. "Wha-What the hell, man?" he sputtered. "What the-"

"You were supposed to warn us!" Daniel shouted down at him as he shoved Hideo off. "You were supposed to warn us if the dream changed! Why didn't you say anything, huh? Why didn't you say anything?"

"The dream didn't change!" Carl snapped back. He straightened up and shoved the dream reader into Daniel's face.

Daniel rolled his eyes. "Oh sure, and that black monster was just part of the scenery!"

"I'm serious! I don't know what that thing was, but it ain't no Nightmare!" Carl jabbed a finger at the readout of the dream's current levels. Sure enough, level of Nightmaric energies remained low.

That made Daniel's brow furrow. "Then what-"

"No."

Everyone turned to Kyouko, who was still pressing her palms against the ground. "No," she said again, lifting her hands up to slap them back down over and over. "No, no, no, no!" She looked up, terror written all over her face. "The portal, it won't open!"

Daniel felt his blood run cold. He dropped down as well, pressing his hands to the floor. Sure enough, no portal opened in response.

"What's going on?" Anya said. "Daniel, what's happening?"

"I don't know. It's like…" Then Daniel looked up at Carl, who was frowning down at the dream reader.

"Guys," Carl said slowly. "The dream's changing."

Daniel let out a bitter, mocking laugh. "Oh, it's changing? It's changing? Wow, Carl. I never would've guessed!"

"I don't mean that," Carl snapped back. "Kanon levels are going down, Sahk is shooting up!"

Daniel swallowed. Sahk wasn't nearly as bad as Nightmare, but it still wasn't good, since it meant that things were about to get weird. "We're not on the ground floor anymore," he said.

"No," Carl said, his voice shaking. "No, we're not."

A heavy silence fell over the group as everyone digested this. Then Daniel looked around. Sure enough, their surrounding were changing, the white walls darkening to brown, and the smooth, white floor developing cracks.

We're trapped, he thought. Trapped with that monster. If this had been a normal dream, they would be free to seek out a workable exit at their leisure. But with a nameless, faceless force actively hunting them, then…

Hideo was next. While they debated and tried to open a portal, he continued to pace back and forth, muttering to himself. Unfortunately, during one of his treks, his path carried him too far past the corner.

The next thing everyone knew, there was another flash of light, and then Hideo was gone. Kyouko, however, found herself covered with her brother's ash.

Still sitting on her knees, she stared at the grey soot that now covered her hands and screamed. She screamed and screamed as she clawed at her hair and back, trying to get it off of her.

"Run!" Daniel yelled again as he seized her by the wrist and yanked her up. The four remaining Marauders again fled through the mall, which was rapidly changing to something else entirely. Everywhere color was erupting, with leafy branches growing out of the stores while the linoleum floor morphed into wooden slats. Overhead, the roof was opening up into a canopy of leaves and branches. Within seconds they were no longer in a sterile white mall, but were instead running across a wooden bridge that stretched through the treetops of some kind of forest city at night. Doors and windows were set in the trunks, cable dishes rose above the leaves, while things like potted plants and children's toys lay on the side of the bridge, as if it were an everyday neighborhood sidewalk.

Daniel peered over the side of the bridge. Down below was an asphalt street that wound through the forest floor. When the pickup truck with the pizza delivery sign passed by underneath he almost laughed. It was the dreamer, still futilely trying to find the customer's address and blissfully unaware of the carnage happening just out of sight.

"Down," he said to the others. "There's the ground. We can-"

Suddenly Anya's fingers tightened around his arm while Kyouko drew back with a gasp and Carl muttered a curse. The black-and-silver monster was there, standing at the end of the bridge, staring at them.

Daniel felt his blood run cold. He had no idea if this was the same monster that had killed Leslie, Isaac, and Hideo or if there were several of them hunting the Marauders, nor did he care. He just knew that they were probably about to die.

Without making a sound, the monster started to advance on the group, the wooden slats creaking under the weight of its steps. It lifted its right arm, its fingers squeezed into a tight fist.

Carl, who was in the lead, held up his hands. "Wait," he pleaded. "Don't. P-Please."

For a moment, it looked like it was working. The monster hesitated, its raised fist wavering a little. It looked around, as if uncertain.

But the moment passed. The monster refocused on Carl, its fist suddenly glowing bright yellow, and a beam shot out. Carl's dream reader clattered to the bridge as the smell of ash and cooked meat filled Daniel's nostrils.

This time, he couldn't tell which one of them screamed. It might have been him. He was just seized with the sudden desire to get away.

Wrapping his arms around the girls' waists, Daniel bolted for the side of the bridge and threw himself over, taking Kyouko and Anya with him.

Now, like all Marauders, Daniel knew a thing or two about how to take long jumps and falls. Parkour was one of the first skills one learned when dream raiding. But he had never been taught how to take a sharp drop while holding onto two very terrified clanmates when he himself was likewise scared of his mind.

The forest floor rushed up to reach them. He landed on his feet, one in the dirt and the other right onto the hard asphalt of the road. This proved to be a very bad thing, as his legs gave way out from under him and he fell forward with a cry of pain, Kyouko and Anya rolling away into the underbrush.

Groaning, Daniel rolled over and grabbed at his leg, which was now bent at a very horrific angle. His shin had snapped in two.

Gotta…gotta open a portal, he thought numbly, trying to force the thoughts through the veil of agony. Gotta get into the Warrens. Warn the others.

He lifted his hand to slam onto the ground. Then he heard the choking gasp.

Looking up, he found himself staring at what looked to be a the heavy boots of a suit of armor made from shining steel, the knees of which would have reached past his bellybutton could he stand. He looked up further. The metal-encased legs went up and up, leading to a humanoid torso that managed to be both sleek and bulky, conveying both immense strength and incredible speed. A pair of powerful looking arms hung from wide shoulders, ones whose forearms were inside steel gauntlets with blades jutting from every joint. And on top of those shoulders sat a curious looking long, wedge-shaped head. A black screen stretched horizontally across the long side, from which maliciously glowed two scarlet eyes.

It was a robot, Daniel realized. A goddamned nine-foot robot was standing right in front of him and glowering down at the wounded Marauder with murder in its eyes.

And one of its metal hands was wrapped around Kyouko's throat.

The robot held the girl high in the air. She choked and gasped, grasping at the steel fingers that squeezed her neck, trying in vain to pull them apart. Her legs frantically kicked at its body, each blow clanging loudly while doing absolutely no damage. The robot glowered down at Daniel for a moment longer before turning its attention to her.

Then its fingers started to glow yellow.

"NO!" Daniel cried, but it was pointless. Kyouko had joined her brother.

As the ash tumbled to pine needle covered ground, the robot then looked back down at Daniel and Anya, who was sitting with her hands clutching her side next to him, staring up at the monstrous thing with tears streaming down her face.

Then, just when Daniel was convinced that it couldn't get any worse, it did. The robot spoke.

"And what's this?" it said through some unseen mouth, its mechanical voice deep and sinister. "A pair of rats, trying to run for their holes?"

Daniel tried to rise up, but his leg flared up and he collapsed with a cry. Then, gritting his teeth, he forced himself up onto his elbows so that he could at least look the thing in the eye.

"Who are you?" he said, he voice thick with pain and fear. "What are you? Why are you doing this?"

"Why? That is obvious. It is because you are vermin." The robot let out a rasping chuckle, the sound of which made the hair stand up on the back of Daniel's neck. "And we? Well." It held up its right hand, the ash from Kyouko's body still smearing the fingers. Those fingers closed into a fist, just as the black-and-silver monster had done before it killed Carl. "We are the pest control."

It swung its fist around to point at Daniel, and he realized that he was about to die. There was no getting away from this. He wasn't going to make it.

But maybe he could at least ensure that someone else did.

"You really ought to have seen this coming," the robot continued, its tone almost casual. "Too long your kind has been stealing from the minds of gods and robbing cradles." Its metal fist pointed right at Daniel's head. "Well, today that ends."

Again the fist started to glow yellow as the air filled with that charging hum, but before the beam could shoot out Daniel twisted around and slammed the palm of his hand into the dirt. Right in front of Anya.

This time it worked. A portal opened right beneath the girl and she fell in, finally reaching the safety of the Warrens. For one brief shining moment, Daniel felt a surge of relief, powerful enough to wash away the fear that seized his heart. Anya was going to be safe. She had made it.

Then there was light.

And then there was nothing.

…

"Look, I'm not saying that they can't beat Jacob Draco if they combine their clans," Jack Ketcher said as he half-walked, half-crawled his way through the Warren tunnels. He took a big bite of the long stick of Laffy Taffy in his hands and chewed noisily. "I'm jush shayin' dat dey wont."

"Why not?" Bear demanded. Like usual, the fat kid was dressed like Elvis, if Elvis so happened to be a cowboy. "The two of them together, they'll outnumber the Silver Dragons two to one."

"No they won't," Jack retorted as they rounded yet another turn. "But it don't matter. No way in hell those two will ever stop fighting long enough-"

Then something quite unexpected happened. Directly over them a portal opened, and someone fell in. That in itself wasn't all that unusual. Marauders came and went all the time, and you just had to learn to quickly get out of the way to avoid having someone jump onto your head. No, what was weird was that she didn't drop into the tunnels, she fell in, arms and legs flailing as a hail of dirt and leaves fell in around her.

The girl landed right on top of Jack and Bear, bowling them over. "What the-" Jack sputtered as the three of them scrambled to untangle themselves from each other. "What was-"

Then on instinct he looked up. On the other side of the portal, he saw an arm outstretched, palm down as if it had been the one to open the way. The arm was there for only a second before a sharp whining made him wince.

Then the arm exploded into a cloud of dust. It fell into the portal and hit him right in the face. Jack blinked several times, his stinging eyes tearing. When his vision cleared, he caught a glimpse of what seemed to be a metal giant, standing above them just outside the portal, looking down at them with glowing red eyes.

For the first time in a very long while, Jack felt genuine fear.

The giant tilted its head to one side. Then it lifted its right hand. Jack's body went stiff, convinced that it was about to kill them all.

Instead, the giant waved at the three of them in an almost friendly manner. Then it laughed, a horrible, hoarse sound that echoed down through the tunnel.

Then the portal closed shut and they were safe. The metal giant's laughter echoed for a few more seconds though.

The three Marauders remained frozen in place, none of them daring to move. Then Jack slowly became aware of the dry taste of ash on his tongue, ash that had come from a living person.

"Bleh!" he coughed. He started spitting while Bear frantically tried to wipe the grey smear off his face.

"Wha…Who…What was that?" Bear demanded as he yanked off his white cowboy hat and shook it off.

As for the girl, she looked completely beside herself. "Gone, gone, gone," she whimpered as she curled up into a ball on the floor of the tunnel. "Gone, gone, gone, gone…"

"Who's gone?" Bear said. "What was that thing?"

Suddenly the girl started wailing. "They GONE!" she shrieked. "All of them! It killed them all! They're gone!"

Jack and Bear looked at each other, the dead guy's ash still all over their faces. Then Jack inhaled deeply through his nose and reached up to run a hand down his face.

"We need to tell the clanmasters," he said.

…

The dead Marauder's dream reader in his hand, Agent Arlington of the Unconscious Security Special Police dropped down from the bridge to the forest below. There, Lord General Scoron was standing next to the road, his arms folded as his mechanical gaze focused on where the last Marauder girl had disappeared.

"Agent," Scoron said, his voice sending chills down Arlington's back as always. "Report."

Doing his best not to look at the two piles of ash by the road, Arlington saluted and said, "Almost a clean sweep, Lord General. Looks like it was a standard raiding party. Seven members, and we got them all." He glanced down to where the Marauder portal had closed. "Save for…um…"

His tongue faltered, as he had realized that pointing out the Lord General's failure to eliminate the final Marauder was probably not in his best interests. Fortunately, Scoron did not seem at all offended. "Very good," he said, giving the private a brief nod. He gestured down toward where the portal had been. "And don't worry. That one was let go deliberately. She will spread the word of what happened here, and soon the clans will realize that they have reason to worry."

"It's about time," remarked Agent Naitos. The Desio man strode down the road toward the pair. Reaching up, he tapped the side of his neck. His helmet retracted, sliding away from his face, revealing closely cropped electric-blue hair, a scarred face, a knife's-edge smile, and the coldest eyes Arlington had ever seen. "We should've done something like this a long time ago."

Scoron chuckled in a manner that conveyed agreement. Of course he would. He had been created specifically for this purpose, after all. "Well, better late than never." Then he turned his head to peer questioningly at Arlington. "Though perhaps you disagree, Agent?"

Arlington was staring down at the dream reader in his hand. Despite all the preparation he had done for this mission, he couldn't shake the memory of the Marauder boy's terrified face, pleading with Arlington for his life before he killed him.

"Arlington," Scoron said.

Arlington's head snapped up. "Sir?"

The Lord General's lack of a face made him difficult to read, but something in the way he was staring down at Agent Arlington conveyed disapproval. "They are not children, Agent," he said. "They merely appear to be. Remember that."

Though Arlington knew that it was in his best interests not to contradict the nine foot indestructible killer robot that could fire him or crush his neck, depending on his mood, he still found himself say, "They screamed like children."

Naitos let out a dry laugh. "Died like them too," he said, his scarred smile twisting up even further.

Maybe it was because it was their first outing, but fortunately Scoron looked to be in a tolerant mood. "Yes," he said. "Just as the wild coyote looks, sounds, and dies in the same manner as you family's loyal dog. They even share an ancestor. But one you love, care for, and protect. The other you exterminate before it does harm." He reached over and tapped Arlington in the shoulder with one pointed, metal finger. "Remember this, Agent. Ours is a grim business. But it is necessary."

Arlington saluted, raising his clenched fist in the air. "Yes, Lord General."

Scoron lightly tapped Arlington's fist with his own in acknowledgement. Then he looked up. Around them the forest was starting to fade. "The dream is ending," he observed. "We best be on our way."

He started down the road, the two agents of the USSP falling into step behind him. "Ready yourselves, gentlemen," Scoron said as he gestured. A ten-foot doorway opened in the air before him to take them from the Unconscious back to headquarters. "This war is only just beginning."

#subconscious

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