#with everything that's happened i've just wanted to dream away with the kruegers and i'm so sorry i've been so neglectful in that way

[theomnicode]

Aight so, I've not posted this fanfic thingy all the way back from May because I don't often post unfinished WIP stuff that I've just type on discord but I'm feeling it might suddenly become relevant...

--

Saigenos in a nightmare

- soundscape -

Saitama stares blearily ahead as he rolls down his futon. Whole day of busting monsters would make anybody tired and even someone as strong as Saitama needed his sleep.

"Man I'm tired", he stretches his mouth open with a mighty yawn and throws away his hero clothes, switching to his pyjamas, "whole day of busting monsters, I am so ready to sleep."

Genos rolls down another futon next to his sensei and nods his head. "We definitely deserve our rest sensei, today was quite a busy day. I will wash our clothes in the morning." Silence greets him and he turns around and sees Saitama is already seemingly fast asleep and breathing evenly, completely tuckered out and awkwardly sprawled on his futon, hugging his pillow.

Genos huffs in amusement and settles down to sleep, muttering "good night sensei" and getting back half-asleep mumble of good night wish. Genos shuts his eyes and lets sleep mode take him into the realm of dreams.

Neither notices the ominous shadowy figure outside their window, cast in moonlight.

- soundscape -

-*-

Saitama's dream looks… very weird. Vibrant purple and black colours surround him, pulsing pustules with veins covering them and the entire view feels unsettling on a deeply subconscious level. Saitama realises he is dreaming and remembers something called lucid dreaming where the person becomes aware of their dream state. He had a lucid dream a bit ago against the ground moles- whatever were they called again- and ponders if he could actually have some fun fighting against somebody strong in his dream state. Yet his instincts are on high alerted state, so he remains cautious and looks around, attempting to pinpoint any potential threats.

He catches movement in his peripheral vision and immediately accosts the blurry shadow figure.

"Oi, are you here to conquer the surface as well, sewer dude? Bring it!" He shouts and claps his fist into his palm. The blurry figure suddenly sharpens in appearance and Saitama can make out it's actual features: molding, cancerous and pustule filled face, sharp and long knives in place of it's fingers and weirdly enough, brimmed hat.

"Wait, aren't you from that old american film? The uhm… "A night mark on Elmo" -something?" Saitama points excitedly.

"It's "A Nightmare on Elm street"", the figure scoffs, "and I am called Akumu, your worst ephialtes."

Saitama picks his ear. "The what now?"

The purple and crueler looking Freddy Krueger lookalike sighs. "It does not matter. I'm not here to wax philosophy, I am here to make a proposition."

"Couldn't you have waited till morning? I wanted to sleep at least 10 hours, I'm beat. Although this lucid dream is kinda cool…" Saitama makes a show of looking around awed, but the uneasy feeling in his gut does not fade away.

- soundscape -

Akumu does not look amused and clenches his fist, stretching his knife-fingers menacingly. "Don't play dumb with me, Saitama." Hearing his name coming out of the monster's mouth so casually makes chill creep down on his spine and he straightens his posture, narrowing his gaze.

"So what do you want? Spill the beans."

The monster's jaw breaks into a wide, cruel grin. "I want you to become a monster and join our cause, bring havoc into this world. With your strenght, we can bring the world to it's knees."

Saitama stares. "In your dreams."

"Heheheh…" the being laughs, unperturbed by Saitama's response. "Funny, that we are in fact, in my dreams. I control everything that happens in the dreamscape. Everything. For I am the Hypnos of Nightmares, everyone who dreams will bow down to my will." He raises his knife hand and points at Saitama. "You included. Your subconscious is my plaything now. And I can dig out your deepest, darkest secrets, hopes and fears. You will join us, one way or another."

Saitama grits his teeth. So much for peaceful slumber.

-*-

- soundscape -

Genos did not recall a time when his dreams used to be this… vivid. Psychedelic even. He frowns as he looks at the violet zone he's standing on, the unnatural formation of abscesses making him feel on edge. He remembers turning in and activating sleep mode like he normally does, and yet his internal status readouts indicate he is not resting. Red ERROR message flashes in his status monitoring screen. Something is very off and he intends to find out what.

'Lucid dreaming? Possibly, but inconclusive, my scanners would confirm a resting state of my body in that case', his logical mind started to tick down potential causes. 'A monster attack is also unlikely, my proximity sensors would've sensed an intruder and a monster would have tried to take advantage of our sleeping states and strike. However, Sensei would have woken up and eliminated the threat instantly, if that was the case.' His golden irises scan the environment fruitlessly, not detecting any anomalies. 'My status informs me my physical body is also unharmed. I wonder what is going on…'

A sudden alert from his sensors makes him instantly turn and ready his stance, pointing his incineration cannon at the source; a blurry figure materialises roughly twenty meters away from him. A memory strikes him as he takes in the humanoid form with grotesque face, dirty sweater and a knife-glove.

"Why do you look like the fictional mass murderer from a classic American horror film that me and sensei watched few weeks ago? What is your intent? Answer me or I will eliminate you", he demands from the mysterious character.

The uncanny humanoid huffs in amusement. "Heh, straight to the point as always, Genos." Then the monster's visage turns into an ugly sneer. "Or should I call you Gennosuke? Or maybe even that dear nickname Gen your mother used to call you by?"

If Genos still had an organic heart, it would have leaped to his throat and he barely suppresses a flinch, black schlera widening. "How do you know--"

"Your real name?" The monster interrupts him, finger-knives scratching against each other in sinister fashion. "I know everything, my dear Genos. You may call me Akumu, the governor of dreamscape and your worst nightmare. Why don't you amuse me for a little while?" He taunts and waves Genos towards.

Genos' expression turns into controlled anger. He refused to show anymore how much this monster's knowledge has shaken him. "I will squeeze the answers out of you then."

"You can try."

Bright, white-hot plasma erupts from Genos' mechanical palm. "Incinerate!"

Large explosions and gouts of flame burst from the spot where the figure was last seen standing and Genos sprints into action.

- soundscape - Monster theme

- soundscape - Genos theme

His motion sensors catch the monster's blurred movement jumping out of the explosion he had caused and Genos chases swiftly with a thruster propelled punch and when that move gets expectedly blocked, he uses that momentum to extend his leg into a spinning kick at the monster's head. He's unprepared for the figure completely vanishing from his vision, untrackable.

'That fast!? No, that was not speed, that was--' he barely manages to correct his landing when sharp knives thrust at his side and he deflects with his own retractable arm-blade, swinging upwards, metal grinding on metal loudly as he pushes his opponent away and rears his other hand into a punch, high voltage escaping his closed fist. Again, the figure disappears before his strike connects and he immediately probes the area for any organisms.

'This monster can teleport at will, so he could appear from anywhere. I need to be cautious.'

His quick reflexes save him as he ducks a swipe aimed at the back of his neck, intent on decapitating him. He answers with a rocket booster powered heel kick into the being's stomach and hearing a satisfying grunt of pain, powers up both of his arm cannons to lift from the ground into another spinning kick. He clicks his tongue in annoyance when he hits empty air. But this time he is ready for it, the cybernetic engine inside his chest already energized.

Genos' eyes suffuse into golden light. 'Accelerate'

His form disappears into supersonic speed with a loud boom, kicking up soft mould in his wake.

Less than a blink later, his metallic form clears into existence behind Akumu, who had attempted to flank and stab him in his previous position. He allows a small smirk grace his lips at the confused sound his opponent makes when he realised he had missed the target.

"I have analysed your attack pattern. You lose."

"Machine Gun Blow!"

Genos' fists seem to phase into multiple copies at the extreme velocity of his vicious punches, each hit compacting forcefully into the unguarded back of his enemy and sending him flying.

'I got him now', Genos thinks victoriously and with grim determination to finish it, crouches and claps his arms together to fuse them, opening metal plates into several large cannons glowing with heat, ready to fire.

"Incinerate!" He shouts as he shoots a massive, spiraling beam of plasma directly at his foe, encompassing them in it's deadly ray. A solid hit that should have evaporated the monster entirely and he observes the spectacle of ruined and burning landscape, unfusing his sizzling arm cannons and puffing excessive steam out of his mouth.

- soundscape -

A clapping sound on his left makes him gasp in disbelief and turn on his heel to face the gnarly monster. He appears entirely unhurt, even the brimmed brown hat he's wearing appears untouched. How-

"Bravo Genos, bravo. You sure like to put on a show eh?" Akumu comments derisively. Genos stares at him furiously and the clapping abruptly stops. He almost does not hear the following, soft whisper the Nightmare incarnation makes under his breath.

"My turn."

Genos' legs suddenly give out under him, severed from knees down.

'What?'

He grunts in surprised pain and falls on his side as Akumu teleports in front him, a pair of robotic shins in his hands. "Now what were you saying about me losing hm?" He tosses Genos' broken legs away like rags. "I don't think you scrutinized our conversations carefully enough, my dear Gennosuke. Forget something important when you fought me?" He jeers with a cruel tone.

Genos wracks his brain for anything significant he had missed, nervous at this new development. "You call yourself Akumu, the governor of dreamscape and self-proclaimed worst nightmare of mine." He delivers flatly and pulls his arm closer to support his upper-body weight.

"Good, now tell me what does that entail? Go on, use that remaining brain of yours", Akumu continues mockingly, tapping his head with a finger.

"…The governor of dreamscape…wait, you mean--"

This entire time, they had been inside a dream!? Everything felt so real. Too real. Even the brittle texture of the soil under his arms registered in his sensors, the energy output, pushback and heat of his Spiral Incineration Cannon felt too tangible. Genos had considered the possibility and discarded it, but now…if this monster implied it had full control over his dream…

The monster's face stretches into a wide smirk. "Welcome to your worst nightmare. Are you not entertained?"

Genos acutely wishes he hadn't gone to sleep at all.

--

Now my long thoughts about this and why I'm posting it now lol.

"Couldn't you have waited till morning? I wanted to sleep at least 10 hours, I'm beat. Although this lucid dream is kinda cool…" Saitama makes a show of looking around awed, but the uneasy feeling in his gut does not fade away.

Literally Saitama in chapter 172.

Akumu does not look amused and clenches his fist, stretching his knife-fingers menacingly. "Don't play dumb with me, Saitama."

Literally Fubuki to Saitama in 176.

"So what do you want? Spill the beans."

Chapter 172 cover.

"Good, now tell me what does that entail? Go on, use that remaining brain of yours", Akumu continues mockingly, tapping his head with a finger.

I swear to god Genos getting literally halved in two with one side of the brain remaining hadn't even crossed my mind. Or maybe it had, subconsciously. But damn if this is not a prophetic level taunt. I wrote this originally in 11th of May 2022.

Now my random discord thoughts about this from discord.

yap edgy teen genos oh my god I hadnt even realised THEY SOUND PHONETICALLY VERY SIMILAR TOO abjdsladfs<;f I think my subconscious is more brilliant than I am I had only thought about the alphabetic letters in it omggg

gennosuke 元之丞 元 means "origin."　之 means "this. dictates."　丞 means "to assist."

Akumu actually means nightmare in japanese and bunch of the monsters have japanese sounding names too "What does ephialtes mean in modern Greek? Name. After the betrayal of Ephialtes, the name "Ephialtes" received a lasting stigma; it came to mean "nightmare" in the Greek language and to symbolize the archetypal traitor in Greek culture." lol I didnt even see the symbolism, it fits even better now because he wants to make saitama essentially betray everyone for personal gain for monsters and for saitama's personal interests hm I did not really make the villain speech as I wanted cuz I wanted to express that he controls dreams so he can do whatever and that it also translates into real world but I also wanted him to laugh when saitama quips "in your dreams" because it would be funny to a villain who's specialty is dream control

do I want him to go all out and the monster just overwhelming him, or do I want him to have difficulty even using his moves because it's a dreamscape and there's this funny thing about dreams where person often feels resistance to like, moving around and so your body can feel like it's not obeying your commands inside dreams even if you want it to or do I just want the monster to subvert his control like genos can't do anything because the monster is all powerful inside a dream

genos has to struggle, because the point is that if he loses, he would die inside his dream and become brain-dead for going into coma and what the monster wants is either saitama's overwhelming desire to help genos would aid the monster in using his power to turn saitama into a monster because the monster wills it or if that does not happen, genos would lose and die and saitama's anger would also turn him into a monster and the reason this could even happen would be because it's a dreamscape so the monster can manipulate what happens inside uuhm hold on lemme think more..

but also, I want to make it so saitama feels powerless to help genos, because he's isolated from genos inside his own dream and the monster can just showcase him what is happening inside genos dream (actually hold on my original plan was that there is a forcefield that keeps him at bay but there is no fucking way saitama could just.. go into genos dream and help him) (I am confusing my own narrative here uuh) it would work better if saitama cant just punch his way into genos dream but it would also give him no real way to help genos I had also thought that if saitama exits his own dream, he would leave genos behind to die inside his dream, so he cant just bust out willy nilly the conclusive moment would've been that despite the monster being in control of dreams, that saitama's overwhelming willpower would overturn the dream in his favour so he could go and defeat the monster inside genos dream and then they could exit actually would it make sense that the monster just connected their dreams anyways, I wanted to make it so the monster has control, so saitama cannot just punch it to non-existence and even if he did, he would doom genos into coma because genos could not get out on his own and saitama's dream would end if he defeated the monster on his side of dream maybe the monsters's physical form is actually really weak, so the very moment they both wake up, saitama could def just punch the creep but the real question is: do I write that they can like, use their powers but it's just not working at all or do I write it so that they feel super nerfed inside their dreams and that's why they can't touch this monster

I think I actually got it, they do not have to defeat the monster inside their heads, it is enough that saitama gets to genos via their connected dreams because he has enough willpower to force them to awaken despite the monster influence meanwhile, genos does not have this unbending willpower and he would be stuck if he was left alone (muokattu) people awaken from bad dreams, but it's the monster who keeps them inside their dream against their will is it too lame way to conclude?

also I kinda worry what would be the implication of… saitama busting out the dream barrier between his and genos dream to get to him I know there are some documentations bout dream world irl about shared dreaming aren't they? where people dream about the same thing or appear in other people's dreams randomly actually hold up what does genos even wear to sleep because that would be his dream appearance saitama would have his pyjamas maybe I can make saitama try to take down the monster, but it's just not working well for him and at first he feels kind of thrilled because he's having fun time fighting like against the subterraneans, but then the monster reveals how he would force saitama turn into a monster and does that villain explanation trope about what would happen to poor genos if he just defeated him here or left and it would also reveal the connected dream and saitama realises that genos is dreaming too and he's also losing and whatever thrill he had turns into dread but also the problem is that… if they dont have enough power to defeat this monster singularily because the monster controls the dreams and therefore, all the actions they can do against him, then how could they defeat them even if they tag teamed since the point is that the monster is undefeatable inside their dreams

hm, maybe they could TRY to tag team first but then figure out that the monster is still in control and perhaps even exerting it's control over them more because it's getting desperate it's plan to turn saitama into a monster is not working becuse saitama can now protect genos from him so idk, maybe saitama gets this genious idea and he actually slaps genos awake and then himself

but honestly, I've already built this monster into being something that can look at person's subconscious and knows everything, so it knows what that person hopes and fears and their memories, so it knows what is important to saitama and tries to use that knowledge against him

and I want to convey saitama feeling like he's being cornered via this intimate knowledge of his self, that he does not have choice because he cannot one punch this monster out of existence in his dream and unless he allows the monster to turn him also into a monster and recruit him, he would lose genos if he does not comply and if he allows the monster to kill genos, the monster would use his emotional state to turn him into a monster anyway convey that it's a lose/lose situation for saitama

also I had just though about the baku idea and it would be funny that when they wake up and see the baku and saitama is like "…what are you?" and then genos in typical genos fashion, goes into explanation about mythological creatures and then saitama cuts him off and is like "yea yea but why does it look like a (whatsitcalled)" and then baku starts to whimper and grovel because it's actually a small cowardly monster who just tried to appeal cool and useful to the monster association and who had watched too many horror movies and saitama is not amused and yeets him into the pavement below because he doesn't want to clean up monster guts from his apartment at 4am but it would also just kind of make slight of the entire dream that happened and im not sure I want that

--

So...dream monster Freddy Krueger that uses subconscious against them. :D