Originally Posted by
WakingNomad
December 31, 2009
Damn Templars
I am on the Moon, in the Biodome. I see Raven talking to a woman by the koi pond, sitting on a bench. A fucking remote viewer? I grit my teeth. The woman looks up at me nervously. She teleports a ways away. "Serena? Shit, I'm sorry. Come back."
"I told you already, that's not Serena," Raven says. I shoot at my astral tentacles like antennae, and probe her mind. You don't appear hostile. Aw, you're a slave. You poor thing. I send her pink and gold love energy. The woman floats down to the ground, and walks hesitantly toward us.
"I'm not like them, really I'm not," I say. She eyes me suspiciously. I look into her eyes serenely. Her eyes look like two galaxies. We exchange our lives in an instant. We are so much alike. They use us like cattle. They recruit us as children. They search for adept dreamers, with inherent potential, then they train us in astral. They do horrible things... horrible unspeakable things... they rape our minds... they make us think we are crazy. You know what I am talking about, sir. My life is shit. I am locked up right now, under house arrest in waking life. I didn't even do anything. I have an electronic collar on my ankle. I hate my life.
"You're not even a Moon Imp."
"No, I am a spy. A spy working for you guys. I trust you. I see you have good hearts. I am a double agent. Fuck them," she says grimly, and a tear rolls down her cheek. I give her a hug. "We're so much alike," I whisper.
"I know, Nomad," she says. I start crying, also. I hold her tighter. Her energy feels akin to Raven's, like she's my sister.
"What's your name?" I ask.
"My name is _____, but please don't post this in your dream journal. Yeah, they read it. This is not a joke. Everything is real. I am real."
"What do you mean? Don't post our conversation?"
"No, just not my name. I want to know, I want everyone to know what these bastards are doing... They torture children, those sick fucks. They tortured my little dog, in front of me, to force me to join them.... I was just a kid, Nate."
I feel sick to my stomach. I feel the rage parasite growing strong in me. I summon my witchblade. I focus on a dark black transparent gem. I reach in my brain, and pull the parasite out, and smash it into the black gem, and the gem absorbs it. I sigh. MoSh appears. He is wearing his witchblade armor. He has a great serpent emblazoned on his chest. It's a blend of Japanese and European knight armor. A pale green metal in the shape of fern leaves comes out of his helmet. He draws The Runesword, The Sword of Ages, I crafted him. The witchblade forms over the bottom part of the sword. He flicks it, and it changes into a katana. He flicks it again, and it changes into a claymore. "Hmm... Good," he says. "Let's find those fuckers' base, and fuck shit up."
"I know just what to do," I say. "Follow me."
We teleport to the City of Nowhere, inside one of the Dream Temples. "Ah, I see," says Raven. She summons Malkus. He looks disoriented. "You can helps us, Malkus, fight Templars in our dimension." He nods slowly. Raven, MoSh, Malkus and I lie on our backs. Our astral bodies float up out of dream bodies, and the dream diverges.
Astral Dream
Malkus gives us each a strange magical device. He is dressed like an Assassin. He looks at me, and smiles shyly. We are in a concrete room with a steel table in the center, like an interrogation room. We strap the devices around our foreheads. We see energy lines back to earth. We follow them, and appear in a military base. There is an officer giving a briefing to remote viewers. He is talking about their special program of finding recruits through the ether. He is talking about another program dovetailing with this one, finding recruits simultaneously using the internet, and datamining sites relating to the paranormal, and dreaming, especially focusing on people on these sites denying they have any psi abilities, yet teaching others. He says, "These are our targets." He says to focus on females because they have energy that is missing from the remote viewing program.
The psychic warriors break up into smaller groups of three or so people, and go into different rooms.
I follow on group by myself. One remote viewer lies down on a slightly inclined bed. There is soft music playing, like binaural beats. The bed vibrates slightly. I see the remote viewer's astral body float up, out of his body. He looks at me, startled. He says, "Target acquired."
"Hey, you stop fucking with us, asshole. Or, we are going to fuck you guys up!"
"What are you talking about?"
I morph into a white jaguar, and roar at him. His astral body wavers and quakes. He screams and covers his ears. His physical body screams, and his astral body jumps right back in.
"The target, he's right here! A demon ghost!"
"Hey, snap out of it soldier! There is no such thing as that bullshit you're babbling about."
"The target, one of the targets, is in this room, right now."
"Really?" I see another remote viewer scanning the room. I let him see me, and meet his gaze. I penetrate into his mind with laser vision. "Gah! Stop it!" He clutches at his face, and I stop, and chuckle grimly. He hits a button on the console. A strange alarm sounds. A melodic voice says, "intruder alert, scan present facility." The alarm sounds like soft music.
The remote viewer on the bed begins to float up again. I wrap him up in astral plastic wrap. He can't leave his body. His astral body struggles. He opens his astral eyes and looks at me, terrified.
"Give your master, a message, slave," I growl in his ear. "Send us any more dark energy bombs like a little bitch, he's asking for a fucking war. I will eat half your brain, and just leave enough for you to feel pain. I slowly open my mouth, and let him see my canines. I lightly bite down on his forehead." He shivers and quakes. His astral body pees his pants.
"NOW STOP!" I roar like a thousand lions, and the astral bodies of the remote viewer team shake.
I summon The Beast, and trumpet like an elephant. African Elephants with glowing red eyes stampede right through the astral bodies of the remote viewer, ripping them in half with their tusks. The remote viewers squirm and quiver. "What the fuck?" they mumble, disoriented.
I rip the plastic wrap off the remote viewer's astral body, with my claws, and pick him up by the throat.
"This is me being nice," I say grimly, and bite his head off, then spit it out on the floor. His astral body jumps back in his physical body, and he yelps like a puppy. I summon a portal. I see the other remote viewer scanning me again. I roar at him, and breathe fire in his face. He lets out a little scream. I knock over a pitcher of water, and it falls to the floor. I step in the puddle, and leave a foot print of my paw. Both the remote viewers say, "Holy shit!"
"Don't fuck with the Moon People, you goddamned Templars. I have been fighting you for thousands of years, and I will fight you again. All you have to do is ask, you bastards," and I step through.
I am back in the Dream Temple, and I rejoin my dream body.
Dream Body Dream
My astral body floats up and away. I open my dream eyes. I see everyone else's astral body float away. "Hey, guys, wake up," I say. The stir and open their eyes. "Let's go find these fuckers' Moon Base."
"Right," Raven says. "But quietly. We need to use stealth, Nomad."
"Right!" I say. I cloak myself, and we follow a tracer to the Templar moon base. It looks like a concrete castle, almost like a prison. There is a radar antenna spinning around at the top of it. It's beam hits me. An alarm goes off, and bright red lights flash. "Intruder alert, Intruder alert."
"Dammit, Nomad, you did that on purpose didn't you?" Raven says.
"No! Well, maybe. Did I?"
"No time for that, time to kick some ass!"
Templars on white horses come galloping out of the fortress. I blow a spiral goat's horn around my neck, and summon an army of Moon Orcs, riding wolves. I summon my Witchblade in my left hand, and my Moonblade in the other. My witchblade sings in anticipation. "Give me blood, young one!" she says. My Moonblade glows hot blue-white. I transform into a giant crazed warrior. I unfurl bat wings, and my canines grow like fangs. I grow four more arms, one pair above, and one pair below. A mouth appears on my chest, with rows and rows of yellow shark teeth. My eyes glow red. Antlers of pure flame grow out of my head. Smoke pours out of my nostrils. My witchblade forms obsidian armor over my body. Spikes appear all over it. Another pair of bull horns grow out of my head, then goat horns, then rams horns. An elephant trunk grows out of my chin, and a snake grows out of my tail. Long red translucent spikes come out of my spine, and my eyes burn with a smouldering orange flame. Mercury flows over my flesh, creating a grid. Wolverine claws shoot out of one pair of paws.
"I am CHIMERA SUPREME!" I roar, with the sound of a thousand lions protecting their pride, my voice sounds like stampeding elephants. Horses rear, and buck their riders. I shoot astral tentacles out of my two other paws. I grab ten Templars with them.
"DON'T FUCK WITH THE MOON PEOPLE!" I roar.
Don't fuck with the Moon People
Raven, MoSh, and Malkus are crazed giant chimeras also. Raven looks like me, but, her colors are black and red. MoSh is a snake beast with man arms, angel wings, and four legs like a horse. He also has a snake tail. Malkus is a white eagle, with a bloody cross on his chest. He has arms like a man also, and a white lion's body. His tail is like a whip. He has a crown spinning around his head. I see that we all have crowns spinning around our head.
"WE RECLAIM OUR SACRED LAND! NOW YOU MUST PAY FOR YOUR TRANSGESSIONS, TRESPASSERS!" we roar in unison. Most of the Templars get bucked off their steeds. They fire at us. Our witchblade armor reflects it back at them. I use my energy shield to trap them between it and my witchblade armor. Spikes shoot out of my armor, impaling them. They throw caltrops at our feet, and run away.
"I know that trick, assholes," I say. I use my energy boots to stomp their caltrops into the ground. We rip their buildings open, reach in, and bite their heads off. Astral tentacles are now flowing all around me, whipping and ripping Templars in half, and tossing them into a myriad of portals Selene creates. The Tick runs through punching them in the jaw and laughing. Arthur picks Templars up and drops them into portals on the ground.
The battle is chaotic. Many allies appear. The Moon Orcs throw spears into the Templars, and slice them in half with battle axes. Some of them change their steeds into cyborg wolf-cycles. The Moon Imps appear, and change into gargoyles. "You have betrayed us for too many centuries, brothers!" they say in unison, clanging swords on shields, and roar into battle. Templars swarm over me. My microbots swarm over them, and they fall off. The microbots tear into their flesh like army ants, and the templars writhe and scream in pain.
Loaf appears in the sky, and floats down. He is a giant red centaur with a devil head, and bull horns. "Evil is cool!" he grins. He picks up Templars and bites their heads off, laughing as he does it.
"Time for a J-Bomb!" he says. Loaf creates a yellow energy orb in his hands, and smashes it down. Templars swarm over him, and I send my microbots to swarm over those Templars. I see Templars have divided themselves, and swarming over all of us. I multiply my microbots, and swarm them over all the Templars.
Lonewolf flies down, a great wolf with batwings, and goat horns, with saber teeth. Four ravens ride upon his back. A red gem on his forehead glows, and the ravens fly into battle changing into four dark knights with raven wings, riding strange black werebeasts. Lonewolf lunges at the Templar leader, pounces upon him, ripping his throat out.
"J-Bomb go Boom!" Loaf chuckles, and sets off a nuclear explosion. All the Templars turn into glowing skeletons, then dust, but to me, it feels like a wave of hot energy. All the allies are untouched. Loaf collapses to the ground, changing back into his physical self. I walk over to him, changing back into my white desert nomad gear.
"Hey, Josh, you okay buddy?"
He massages his feet. "Damn, my feet hurt like a bitch," he says. I take some green healing herbs out of my pocket, and mix it with water, then smear it on his feet. "Oo, cooling sensation! Thanks, Nomad," he smiles. I give him a glass of water.
"Hear, drink, young Dream Warrior," I say. He takes a drink.
"What just happened?" he says. How did I get here.
"Oh, well... you were you Shadow Self. You need to conciously merge with your dark side, then everything will become clear."
"What do you mean? Is this a dream?"
"Of course, man!" I laugh.
Loaf does a nose pinch RC, then looks at his hands. Chocolate drips off his fingertips. "What the hell? Where did this come from?" he says.
"You made it, man!" I laugh again. He licks his finger. "Oh good. Shit. Nomad, do you think I will remember this dream?"
"I hope so... I have really good dream recall, I guess, compared to others, but I still only had one dream logged where I can remember the whole thing... anyway, here, these are for you."
I give him a pair of large armored boots. He pulls them on.
"And so soft inside!" he says.
"Gel inserts!" I laugh. Loaf stands up. Jets shoot out the bottom. He says, "Wheeee!"
"Just make sure you put them on every night before you go to sleep."
"How the hell do I do that?" he says.
"Oh, you know, meditation, visualization."
"Oh, that makes sense."
"Or, you can have them on permanently, if you want them fused to your dream body," I say.
"Um, okay. Sure. How do I do that?" I pull two straps across the boots. The boots grow on to him like tree roots.
"Uh whoah! Kinda scary!"
"You can take them off whenever you want, by pressing this release button, here," I say.
Loaf practices pressing the button, then pulling the straps on.
"You made these?"
"Yup."
"Where?"
"In my lab. On Asteroid Q10."
"Cool show me!" he says.
"Oh, maybe tomorrow or something. My dream energy is waning. Time for me to go into dreamless sleep pretty soon."
"Oh, okay. Shit I think I am waking up anyway."
"Well, try and write this dream down, man, whatever you can remember!"
"Okay," he says, and disappears.
Batman appears. "Well, you just ruined our stealth operation, Nomad," he scolds.
Green Arrow appears, taking off a Templar costume. "I was right about to collect the last bit of information," he sighs.
Superman appears. "Sometimes you just have to kick ass, and take names, Bruce."
"Oh, shut up, Mr. I-love-Order-faries-and-butterflies!" Batman says. Superman uses laser vision to cut the tip off of one of Batman's costume ears.
"Hey!" Batman says, and tosses a batarang at Superman's chest. The Batarang bounces off, but cuts Superman's costume. The Batarang sticks in a rock. Superman laugh. Altair, Bakura, and Vegeta appear. Vegeta glares at me, and Altair and Bakura shake their heads disapprovingly. The Tick stands next to Superman, and slaps him on the chest.
"I like this guy! Ow!" he says, grabbing his hand.
"Well, that was weird!" Raven says.
"The Templars are going to rebuild their fortress in a more secret location. They already have a network of undeground bunkers. Let us take it from here, unless you are serious about learning stealth, Nomad," Batman says.
"I am more of a samurai than a ninja. I think my special hatred against these people makes it hard for me to be stealth."
"Alright, Cool As Ice," Vegeta taunts. "Git!"
The others begin cleaning up the mess with vortexes. I teleport to the Glen of Healing, and lay down in the stream. I drink the water as it bathes me. Everything fades to black.