Conscious, Conscientious

Wei still didn’t remove his hands from his pockets, suspended in the air at the back of the Chamber.

If anything, he appeared more bored than before.

“Incoming,” Hiroko warned.

Kotono waved her arm immediately, sending a mist of red in front of the five fighters. A million sparks ignited against it. Her energy brightening, she kept the translucent wall in place.

“Nice, Kotono!” Deon shouted. “Little particles or something, huh? So that’s how he trapped us back in the courtyard!”

Hiroko read that attack?! I didn’t even see anything! Lammy marveled. Right…she’s a Predictor…her powers must be starting to pick up on his patterns!

While the last few bursts crackled, Hiroko neared Phillip and whispered into his ear. The Illusionist nodded once.

At first, Lammy almost couldn’t stop himself from jumping forward to join, or trying to imagine anything remotely helpful. But with the amount of cohesion unfolding between them already, it was clear:

They had something very specific, very precise, in store for Wei.

Finally, their enemy stirred. He abruptly removed his hands from his pockets and crossed them instead. Life had returned to him.

“Okay. Alright, I’m a little intrigued,” he said, a smile spreading. “All five of your potentials stacked up against mine? I’m interested in how this plays out. What did you think up for me?”

Without a word spoken between them, the group shifted: Deon and Kotono stepped forward, Skrili and Hiroko lined up behind them, and at the back remained Phillip.

“Retribution,” Phillip muttered.

Deon imagined a plank before his feet and hopped onto it. He ascended high in perfect synchronization with Kotono, both of them nearly reaching the ceiling at opposite walls.

Skrili and Hiroko crouched low into identical stances, ready to pounce forward.

Then came a chorus of low whispers.

Lammy’s eyes widened: just as the group’s swift motions were unfolding, a dark, foggy presence began fading into existence between all of them. Its gloominess was somehow signature—quickly, Lammy knew where to look for its source:

Phillip concentrated on his four allies as he summoned his new illusion.

The fog, in several shades from black to gray, stretched out four separate, wavy limbs. Lammy couldn’t help but grimace as they each reached for Deon, Skrili, Kotono, and Hiroko. The gray enveloped them, whispering all the while.

Lammy assumed the transformation was complete, until another billow of fog puffed forward. From it morphed a giant, pale face.

Immediately, Lammy understood exactly what Phillip thought of Wei—and all of Proscious. He could now see what Pang’s kidnapping had done to his mind.

The eyes were nothing more than voids: round, pitch-black holes, their wrinkles of smoke underneath heavy and sleepless. With this ghoul’s dominating stare on Wei, it formed a crooked frown of either sorrow, or quiet, insatiable blood thirst.

Either way, it was clear: those empty eyes longed to see Wei in pieces.

But while this being was haunting, Lammy couldn’t pinpoint its function.

What is this?

Phillip clearly wasn’t trying to hide the others in the fog—Lammy could still distinctly see each of them within it. Was he causing Wei to see something else?

Their floating adversary didn’t give off any new confusion or concern.

“Freaky,” Wei noted. “But that’s your big idea?”

Another countless sparks flickered before the group, meeting the same end against Kotono’s energy wall—again, her powers prevented another of Wei’s sneak-attacks.

Lammy brought his hand to his chin in contemplation.

For someone supposedly so powerful, he’s dishing out pretty minor attacks…he observed.

He glanced around again at the machine-tainted Chamber.

Is he trying to avoid destroying all that stuff?

He felt Zayza grab his arm and pull him closer behind Phillip, their only line of defense before whatever was about to unfold.

In that moment, the fighting quintet’s pursuit initiated: the being’s long, foggy legs began stepping forward. Right along with them, Skrili and Hiroko dashed. They remained within the ends of the clouds as if part of the limbs, themselves.

And above, keeping within the arms, Deon and Kotono advanced forward just the same.

As the ghostly face drew closer, Wei raised a single eyebrow.

Are their movements controlling Phillip’s monster? Lammy struggled to decipher. No…that wouldn’t make sense…not with their power types.

Then…what IS this??

The body of fog drifted past the central platform of the Chamber where Aoi stood. She watched unmoving as it passed her by, and didn’t turn to follow its charge.

They closed in on Wei.

Subtly, Hiroko waved a hand behind her back at Phillip.

In response the monster’s the left arm—Kotono’s, shifted down as if in protection, and Kotono flew with it. Her red energy sparked again and she flicked another mist of light forward. Again, Wei’s invisible particles flickered and failed against it. The beast powered ahead.

Zayza rattled Lammy’s shoulder. “Look!” she whispered.

She pointed up to practically the ceiling: just as Kotono’s energy fought off the particles, Deon’s fog limb suddenly reached high above. He matched its position atop his flying plank.

Then, the fog swung down violently towards Wei, and Deon with it—but only for a moment. He stopped in place, and following the rapid trail of fog, a human-sized squirrel flashed into existence.

Fangs sharp and spread wide, it plowed into Wei’s head full-force—but once its teeth made impact, they cracked and the squirrel vanished, leaving Wei unscathed.

But it wasn’t over: the left leg, Hiroko, had begun lifting up. Pouncing into the air, she pointed a perfect kick at Wei from below.

Oddly, Lammy noticed the beast’s right arm had continued swinging down past Wei, now close to Hiroko. Quickly, he realized that was intentional:

One of Deon’s planks of wood appeared into existence at the arm’s end. Instead of finishing her kick, Hiroko repositioned and pushed off the plank back towards the floor.

A diversion! Lammy’s mind raced.

The true attack came from the left arm: Kotono glistened gold. Barely any distance from Wei, she unleashed a blinding beam of energy from her hands.

Lammy and Zayza ducked behind Phillip as the blast deafened them. Smoke shot out from the back corner of the Chamber.

Finally, deeming it safe—at least, within the realms of the circumstances—Lammy and Zayza peered out from behind Phillip’s back.

Deon, Kotono, Skrili, and Hiroko were close to them again: they’d regrouped back to their initial position. Still, the fog enveloped them all.

At the back corner, Wei appeared from the lingering smoke. He was pressed up against the wall, which now featured a series of cracks spanning to the floor and ceiling.

A few bricks tumbled to the floor. While they did, Wei cracked his neck. His smile still present, and his black eyes still inquisitive, he walked calmly back into the air to the same spot he’d started in.

“Aw, come on! What is this guy?!” Deon steamed.

“No—this is good,” Hiroko uttered. “That was way more than Kotono and I had been able to pull off by ourselves.”

She caught Phillip’s eye, and the two nodded.

Once more, Phillip’s glum creation launched forward.

This time, Lammy kept an even more analytical eye on the four consciousnesses as they moved within the foggy limbs. Unless he was overthinking it, their motions were less than an instant behind the fog.

Finally, he caught on.

He couldn’t help but smile in appreciation.

“I was right: you’re not following them with your illusion,” he uttered to Phillip. “You’re the one directing them.”

“Wait…really?” wondered Zayza.

“Precisely,” came Phillip’s low reply.

Hiroko shot back another hand signal, this one slightly different.

Phillip’s monster curled its two arms in. On cue, Deon imagined two tall walls: one before himself and Skrili beneath him, and one behind. They followed his movements.

Simultaneously, Kotono’s energy spread out into a shield around herself and Hiroko.

Both barriers arrived just in time: a flurry of blades appeared all around and began raining straight at them.

“Phillip’s staying back to get a view of the entire fight, and deciding what the best offensive should be,” Lammy explained to Zayza. “Then he’s using the fog to guide all of their movements and call those attacks. And with Hiroko’s Predictor powers, she can warn him if she thinks Wei is up to something. It’s amazing…they’re a five-person consciousness team!”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” muttered Phillip. “We’re one single fighter.”

The unit continued pushing forward despite Wei’s ongoing counteroffensive.

“Hiroko and Skrili are the feet,” Phillip elaborated, “Kotono and Deon are the fists…and I am the brain.”

Pieces of Deon’s walls began shattering from the onslaught. Blades pouring in, Skrili broke into a series of dodges while Deon tried reinforcing their defense.

But the fog increased its speed, so the four fighters rushed faster.

Defending with an attack…Lammy recognized.

Phillip released a shallow sigh.

This time, his creation’s ghostly face stirred like a breeze in the dead of night. Its mouth opened wide, and tiny white pupils appeared in its eyes.

It jerked close to Wei abruptly. With a wince, he started covering his ears.

But while the face appeared to be screaming in some fashion, Lammy heard nothing new.

A quick realization found Wei and he caught himself. He lowered his hands, though his wince remained.

It’s only in his head, and he knows it, Lammy identified. Phillip must be making him hear something.

With this distraction, the rest of the team successfully closed in for the kill. Deon’s walls vanished and Kotono’s energy returned to her.

A kick came first: the fog’s long left leg rose high.

But Lammy furrowed his eyebrows: again, his expectations were subverted.

Instead of Hiroko jumping up within the left leg to attack, Skrili left the fog behind and moved in for a strike. Running up towards the wall, jumping, and then using the momentum to pounce off of it, she mirrored the left leg’s trajectory.

Seemingly disoriented from the silent scream—or at the very least, highly perturbed by it—Wei grit his teeth and turned to block.

But he turned towards the empty left leg.

Skrili’s kick met his side flawlessly. Wei barely moved from the impact, however, and as he turned back he summoned an unseen force that swatted Skrili out of the air.

Phillip directed Deon’s fog arm downward as if to catch her. But his instruction wasn’t necessary: Deon had already aimed with wide eyes and desperately imagined a pillow on the floor. Skrili rolled into it and raced back to her feet.

So that’s the other function of this technique…Lammy analyzed quickly. Phillip can use the fog to make Wei see a different attack than what’s actually happening!

He instinctually reached for his pocket, until remembering his fighting strategy notebook was still far away in Tailpiece.

Even as Skrili’s safe landing was occurring, the rest of the offensive was still underway: before Wei could make another move, a blistering golden light demanded his attention from the left.

Kotono aimed a scorching energy beam from within her fog limb, off in the corner.

Stretching out his hand, Wei conjured an energy equally ferocious: a multicolored orb of infinite colors.

The Chamber grew warm.

“Kotono!” Zayza gasped.

Despite the overwhelming glow, Lammy couldn’t look away. Both beams blasted forward and met in the center with an otherworldly zap. Kotono and Wei both held their places in the air as their attacks fought for dominance.

“Payback!” came Deon’s shout.

A series of squeals, equal in determination, backed up his proclamation: the right fog arm punched forward from the center, and within it soared several ravenous squirrel monsters.

Locked in his faceoff with Kotono, Wei couldn’t withdraw to defend himself—even if he’d seen it coming.

It turned out Kotono was just another diversion.

The true attack slammed into Wei’s stomach with each squirrel’s arrow-fast headbutt. Perhaps due to channeling his powers at Kotono, this time, the squirrels rocked him backwards. But it wasn’t until the final, much larger squirrel clumsily billowed into him that he let out a grunt and shot backwards.

He crashed into the already-cracked wall in nearly the same place. As his energy beam disappeared, Kotono’s raged forward and barely passed him by, exploding against the opposite corner of the Chamber. Lammy could hear bricks tumbling beyond the smoke.

Wei grasped the wall he’d just been lodged into.

But it wasn’t over.

“OH!” Lammy couldn’t help but exclaim.

Within all the commotion, the fog’s left arm had repositioned to its most unnatural form yet: reaching through the monster’s own face from behind.

Kotono was within it, already in position before Deon’s attack had even ended. Screaming, she soared straight through the empty void of the mouth, her golden hand stretched all the way back and ready to fire.

From Wei’s angle, Lammy knew it must have been a terrible sight.

Kotono hurled her blast from almost point-blank distance.

Zayza grasped Lammy and they both dove to the floor as the whole Chamber quaked. Hot wind surged past them, and they didn’t dare move again until it stopped.

The pale ceiling lights blinked once, then twice, and finally died altogether.

Lammy finally climbed to his knees after there were no further sounds besides a few toppling bricks. The Chamber had gone dim and shadowy, but somehow Lammy could still see clearly.

Under a natural light that cast long, tired shadows on everything in the room, the sacred space no longer felt lifeless. In fact, its bricks carried a hint of vibrancy behind the wires—likely a small taste of the beauty the Dreamers intended.

Lammy quickly found the source of this natural illumination when he looked back to the fight.

Much of the far wall was completely gone. The Great Window had narrowly survived the blasts, but everything just to the right of it was reduced to a gaping hole. Smoke lingered, rising from the blackened edges. Lammy could even see the outer wall past the Chamber had faced an identical end. Beyond it, the late sun’s rays poured in, along with the hushed whispers from the shore.

The damage even spread further: Lammy turned to find much of the right wall missing just the same, and above that area, the ceiling was slowly raining bricks.

Thankfully, no other section showed signs of deterioration. For now, they were safe from total collapse.

“Kotono…everyone…excellent,” Zayza muttered.

But Lammy knew her friends couldn’t hear: the four fighters had disappeared beyond the new opening, likely to continue their pursuit.

“Well…we were due for renovation, anyway…” came Layla’s justification from the corner.

Lammy hid a quick chuckle. Though they couldn’t see the other fighters anymore, his heart filled: it was really happening. They were saving Layla.

Their days of running, hiding, and fighting were almost over. This nightmare was about to end. And somehow, even when tangled up in a darkness he never would have fathomed before, one consistency remained intact across realities:

Deon had his back.

“They can really do it…” he practically whispered, as if saying it too loud would undo everything.

“Don’t let your guard down,” Phillip warned.

He’d held his position, standing before them with his eyes unyieldingly on the other end of the Chamber. He stretched his fingers before curling them into fists.

At first Lammy wondered why Phillip hadn’t advanced forward to join the others—if he couldn’t see them, their technique couldn’t function. But he played it out in his head: if Phillip left, Lammy would become the only line of the defense left for Zayza.

He’s protecting us.

Zayza stood and helped Lammy to his feet. Their eager gazes fell back to the opening where the sun shined through.

Even up on the central platform, Aoi turned to observe.

All any of them could do was wait.

~

“Nice.”

Deon waved off the lingering smoke around his face. Lowering towards the rubble, he hovered atop his plank closer to where Skrili stood just outside the Chamber, her fight stance ready.

Their stares didn’t avert from their enemy, even to blink.

“Nice,” Wei said again. “You guys are fun.”

He sat up laboriously from the sand, his head just before the start of the wide shoreline. Deon almost couldn’t see his face with the glare from the sun against the calm waves behind him.

Its beauty painted Wei like a dark smear on a painting—a shadow without a reason.

“Well you wanted to be able to test your limits,” Hiroko shot.

Across from Deon, she and Kotono inched closer, their feet reaching the start of the beach. Deon and Skrili matched their motion, cornering Wei against the ocean.

“So this is what you get,” the champion finished.

Kotono nodded, golden energy igniting around her body.

Wei paused to glance at each one of them. Deon tensed when his black eyes lingered on him, but then they returned to Hiroko.

“Surround yourself with incredible power potentials, talk big, and everyone thinks you’re the leader…” Wei scoffed lowly. “That’s not how it should—”

“Who cares? Your ideals won’t matter if you’re dead,” she interrupted.

Wei shrugged, dusting off the now tattered front of his shirt. “I don’t know…now that we’re out here, I don’t need to hold back…”

“We’re not near our friends. Neither do we,” Hiroko threatened. “You want it? Let’s do it.”

Out of the corner of his eye, Deon caught Skrili lowering her stance even more. He prepared his mind for as many attacks as he could: it was time to end this.

Again, Wei’s eyes lingered. But after a moment, his smile increased.

He’s not giving up, Deon knew.

“Wait, actually—you’re right,” said Wei with a comfortable sigh.

Huh??

“I really wanted to see where this would go, but now it’s a little too dicey,” he decided. “I was just curious. But it’s best I just get on with what I’m here for instead—thanks for talking me out of that.”

The four fighters flinched when Wei hopped to his feet with a huff. He brought his hand beside his mouth.

“Hey! Just go ahead with it!” he shouted past them. “Forget Dreamwake—we need to run it now! One-hundred percent infusion and whatnot!”

Deon felt his blood go icy.

“Wait…what?”

Skrili grabbed his arm. “We need to move. NOW.”

They turned and darted towards the Chamber walls.

“LAYLA!!”

Kotono’s scream travelled as she immediately overtook them, leaving golden traces as she zipped through the air and back inside. Hiroko trailed close behind, her sprint exceeding Skrili’s speed.

Behind them, Wei let out a single laugh.

Deon cursed.

~

Lammy turned in confusion: all of the sudden, a low, steady rumble began throughout the Chamber.

“What is…”

“No! It’s happening!” Zayza screamed. “Layla!”

Motion in the farthest, darkest corner caught Lammy’s attention: three people in white coats had emerged behind a series of complex contraptions. They were pressing buttons, pulling levers, and uttering to each other.

They’re trying it before Dreamwake! he realized.

Within her invisible confine, Layla went pale. She tried backing away from the increasing buzzes of the wires pointed towards her head, and her eyes darted all around—until they found Lammy and Zayza.

Lammy’s eyes brightened.

“We’re coming!!” he promised.

His vision blurred around everything but the small Queen, whose cheeks were wetting with tears. But she didn’t scream or sob. Instead, it seemed she accepted the fate that already befell much of her family, as if it was inevitable all along.

NO! Lammy refused.

By Zayza’s shoulder brushing against his, he could tell she was racing forward right beside him.

Then a force he couldn’t see made him remember how futile his efforts were.

He imagined countless objects—anything he could think of—and once they reached the barrier around Layla, they shot back and disappeared. He understood what would follow next.

The same force yanked him and Zayza off their feet and tossed them back towards the opposite wall. They crashed and rolled to a stop.

The rumbling heightened. It shook the floor.

“MY LITTLE SISTER!!” Zayza sobbed.

A golden flash demanded Lammy’s attention: through the opening in the destroyed Chamber wall, Kotono bolted in like a shooting star. Hiroko hopped in and broke into a sprint, falling behind, while Deon and Skrili trailed after her.

“Layla! W—watch out, okay?!”

Kotono hardly gave her the chance after her warning: she paused in the air to aim, and a golden blast of energy shot from her palms towards the Queen.

It lingered around Layla like lightning flashes, revealing the barrier’s shape, before erupting. A shatter filled the air.

Kotono managed to destroy it.

But the hums intensified to droning roars. Heat waved around the wires surrounding Layla before she could dive forward.

Kotono threw herself at the young Queen, her desperate hands reaching.

“I—I’ve got you, sweetie!”

But she didn’t make it.

“Don’t, Kotono!!”

Just before the stunned Layla, Hiroko emerged as a blur and rammed her lover to the ground.

White light awoke at the ends of the wires.

Remaining on foot, in her next motion, Hiroko pounced at Layla. She grabbed her around the waist and lunged her away like she was weightless.

Then the wires came to life.

Pure white beams surged from them in perfectly straight lines, and every single one of them now pointed at Hiroko instead of Layla.

The light encased her body without a sound.

For several seconds, she became like a star.

And when the rumbling finally ceased, and the star burned with one final flash, Hiroko was gone.