Conscious, Conscientious

~~~

Minutes before…

Deon tried, and failed, to slow his rapid descent towards the ground. Skrili plummeted not far beside him.

They'd been ripped from Loozooloozeux so swiftly, he didn't even fully process this new sinking phenomenon until he heard Lammy's screaming voice fade behind the other side of the mountain.

"...Well?!" Skrili inquired over the wind.

"On it! GIANT–"

In his uncontrolled spin, Deon caught a glimpse of the fast-approaching ground.

It was already covered in a seemingly endless cushion.

"...Oh. Pillow."

The bed features he half-heartedly summoned appeared just above the cushion lake nonetheless, and the team bounced into them first. Then the surviving momentum sent them rolling lazily down onto the feathery surface.

Deon observed the fabric. It matched the kind from Tailpiece that he'd mimicked for his own creations.

"Man…Lammy's gotten scary good at imagining," Deon noted as he and Skrili climbed to their feet. "Did he get stronger than me? Now that would be embarrassing …"

While he laughed, Skrili didn't appear amused at all–and it was deeper than her default stoic expression.

"...What's going on with you?" she muttered.

For some reason, her question made Deon's heart skip. Her voice was tender, but fragile.

Deon chuckled. "What?"

"Look around, Deon. Think about what we're doing right now," Skrili pressed. "You're acting…off. Not like yourself."

Hiroko.

Wei's smirk.

Deon blinked hard. He smiled again.

"What are you talking about, Skrili? I always kid around."

"But at a time like this?" Skrili denied. Her eyes cut through him as she struggled across the cushions to step closer. "I know it's hard…but right now, we need you to feel."

She hesitated. Her eyes dampened.

"Deon…Hiroko is–"

They stumbled against each other as suddenly, the pillowy surface faded beneath their feet. Standing each other back up, they found themselves atop the Dream World's rocky black terrain.

Lammy dismissed it, Deon figured. If something had happened to him in the fall, it would have vanished much earlier. Taking that relief into account, he imagined two floating planks before himself and Skrili.

"Welp, we'd better keep moving!" he decided. "Can't let Zayza have all the fun!"

As he hopped onto his plank, he could feel that Skrili's probing eyes didn't leave him. Even as she followed, her concern remained.

Deon flew them forward along the base of the mountain they'd fallen from.

The chorus of moans continued on from the shadows high up in the sky. Deon didn't dare look back up.

He refused to see that again.

But he couldn't ignore the even more prevalent phenomenon coming from their desired destination. The flashes and deep rumblings continued just before the purple horizon, evidence of Zayza and Wei's ongoing battle. Deon and Skrili watched as an entire mountain crumbled from the blasts.

Our team special…that should be enough to turn the tables on him, Deon tried telling himself. Zayza's insanely strong. If she can hold on until we get there, we'll finally outmatch him.

Yeah…no need for anything crazy. No one else has to get hurt.

…NO one else.

Hiroko.

He blinked again. For a moment, his face had gone warm. He shook it off.

"Deon…" came Skrili’s outreaching voice. "I…I know what it's like to lose control and go too far before I could stop myself. That doesn't have to be the outcome. I think I can help you control it…"

What is she going on about now?

"You have to stop bottling it up. That's not how Deon does things," she insisted. "Let's use everything we have against him. Let's make Hiroko proud of–"

Her voice vanished with a deep thud. Skrili's body shot backwards in an instant, leaving her plank unattended.

Deon's insides twisted.

"SKRILI!!!"

He halted his flight. His teammate plunged through the air at an unnatural speed, disappearing from view in the distance.

Deon dismissed the planks and touched down onto the ground. Skrili was gone–but how could the impact have launched her so impossibly far?

"SKRILI!!"

"And here I thought I missed my chance to get around to this," someone commented to his side.

Deon spun to where the impact must have come from.

Wei.

He stood in the air steps away, with the same exact grin he'd worn in the Dreamer Chamber.

What?!

Deon's eyes immediately darted to the horizon, where clearly, the battle had only intensified. Flashes of infinite color intermingled with Zayza's green sparks.

Fumbling several steps back, Deon returned his focus.

"How are you here?!" he demanded.

"I might not be. Or maybe I am…I don't even know," Wei said casually. "You have an unusually powerful circle of friends, you know that? Especially the princess and Ms. Inoue. Honestly, I feel blessed to be a part of this."

An explosion from the distant duel shook the ground.

"The princess managed to find it: the highest point of my abilities so far," he revealed. "Because of her, for the first time in years, I needed to see if I could push myself farther…to see if I had anything more to offer, or if I finally reached my ceiling."

His smile grew like a boy's with a sinister secret.

"And I hadn't," he finished. "Forced to step things up, my powers managed to imagine another me…and even I am unsure which is the copy, and which is the original."

Deon backed away farther.

No way…there's no way I can take him alone…this guy is impossible…

"So now, what better opportunity to kill two birds with one stone?" Wei beamed. "I can finally study your strange powers…and discover my new limits."

There was no escape. Deon turned one last time to where Skrili had been launched away. She was still nowhere in sight.

His eyes burned low. But he squinted and held it back in.

I can't…

"Well, Deon? I just took out your girlfriend. Get angry," Wei encouraged. "Show me that natural blend of consciousness abilities."

The pressure increased. Deon pressed his hand against his head.

No…if Skrili is still in range of me, she'll get hurt…I can't control it enough…

Eyes aching, Deon shook his head decidedly and took on a fighting stance.

He imagined a squad of squirrel monsters and made them charge. But when Wei rolled his eyes, he knew that wouldn't even come close to cutting it: they all burst into nothing one-by-one, as soon as Wei's eyes fell on them.

Desperate, Deon imagined the next move up: Medium Twitchy. The even larger squirrel appeared right behind Wei with its fangs already out.

But Wei turned swiftly, hand raised out. As he spun the same invisible force ripped Medium Twitchy into non-existence.

Particle imagining…Deon recalled. If he can still imagine, does that mean he's not the copy?! Then I have to think–

Wei's face suddenly appeared before his. A fist slammed into his gut and launched him up into the air.

Somehow, the force sent him much higher than seemed logical: he found himself almost spinning into the sky. Then the crackling burst of countless invisible explosions stung him all over, and bashed him back towards the earth.

Wincing, Deon gathered himself just in time to imagine a pillow on the ground. He bounced against it, but then crashed hard onto the uneven rocks.

That hit sent me way too high…that shouldn't make sense, Deon realized. It was the same as the way Skrili had vanished over the distant hills.

So the physics of fighting in the Dream World are different, then, he derived.

Grasping his shoulder through his now torn tunic, Deon struggled back to his feet.

He was both grateful and irritated that Wei allowed him the opportunity to recover. The monster of a man stood in the air paces away, shaking his head like an unsatisfied teacher.

"Come on…" he groaned. "Let's put it this way: if you let me get past you, I'll make sure the girl is dead."

"She's tougher than you think!" Deon shot.

"Eh."

Wei darted forward. If Deon blinked, he would've been too slow.

"STOP!!"

He couldn't restrain his heart this time. The orange flooded his vision.

A wall formed in Wei's path, and he crashed into it. Deon felt the attack pour from his mind even though he hadn't yet thought of it.

His heightened abilities were surfacing.

The wall burst to pieces, and Wei tried advancing forward.

This time, Deon’s mind summoned a billowing gust of wind. It slammed into Wei and resisted his pursuit.

"Stay away from her!!" Deon roared.

But as Wei slowed to a standstill in the air, his mouth opened wide into a hearty laugh.

"YES! YES! SHOW ME MORE!!"

Deon felt a chill.

"Don't you want to be strong enough to beat me?! This is how!!"

"SHUT UP!"

The gust strengthened until it finally swept Wei backwards. He managed to land on his feet and skidded to an eventual stop.

Deon noticed the heat had risen around him in that instant.

No…don't give in…

He pushed at his mind. His eyes dimmed again.

Wei pointed a finger, his face glowing with liveliness. "Hey…no, don't do that. You're suppressing it, aren't you?" he acknowledged. "Don't. Your anger is the source of your potential."

He stood tall and spread his arms to the sides.

"Between the hundreds of procedures…injections…experimental tests…my tenacity is the source of mine," he shared. "And look where it's led me: to the top. Don't you want to find out if you can be like me? Will you become unbeatable? Your rage has the answer."

Lammy would bury this guy in notes for talking so freaking much…Deon grumbled to himself.

No…that wasn't why he found this man so unspeakably irritating. And it was thanks to Lammy's carefully-scribbled critiques back home that he was able to comprehend it:

Wei was him.

The overconfidence to a point of offering advice…the poking and egging on just to fish out a more exciting fight, regardless of potential consequences…

As he glared at Wei, he saw nothing but himself from months ago, back in Tailpiece.

Is he what happens to me, Deon wondered, in another world where I never met people like Skrili or Pang…?

Is Wei…what I would have become?

The Proscious leader's grin didn't waver. He began taking slow steps closer.

"You know you need it," he stressed. "I'll really do it: I'll finish off the Power Rebound girl. And then the rest of you will belong to Proscious. You gonna try to stop that, or what?"

Deon's heart rammed against his chest. He fought to slow his breathing and resist the glow in his eyes.

He held his ground.

Some other way…he repeated. I have to keep control…

Wei came to a stop. "Nothing, huh?" he noted. "Then I guess her death will be just like your buddy Hiroko Hamasaki's: pointless. Preventable."

Hiroko.

Hiroko is…

He tried to block it out. It wasn't real.

But for a split moment, his vision was replaced with her icy eyes behind their campfire last night. He saw her wink.

Deon's world went hot. And this time, there was no stopping it.

Hiroko is gone.

Wei's eyes widened in excitement at the orange spectacle. "Just a fair reminder: again, all you had to do was join Proscious. Their deaths are your fault."

Now Skrili is next…or she's gone already…

Thunder roared–but it didn't come from the battle on the horizon. It rumbled just above them.

Blistering, orange wind burst out endlessly around Deon's body. The shine in his eyes spread as a hue surrounding him.

"Let that sink in," Wei continued.

"I'm not stupid. It's your fault," Deon growled. "All of this is your fault."

His resistance was gone; all inhibitions had fled the incoming storm within Deon's mind.

"It's your turn to die."

Wei eased up. "There it is."

As Deon roared, his scorching gusts ripped forward. Giant Twitchy formed in the center of the storm, its earth-shaking paws charging straight for Wei.

The onslaught met an equal resistance: sparks popped in a wall of miniature explosions, halting the attack in place. Giant Twitchy struggled to shield itself from the particle energy.

Deon felt a cold burst of wind in response to his own: Wei was fending it off with his own imagining.

"COME ON!!" Deon bellowed.

Giant Twitchy roared and attempted one more shove forward, but the swipe of its claws fell short of Wei.

Then, the infinitely-colored orbs appeared. Spheres of energy rained from Wei's body and pounded against both Giant Twitchy and Deon's wind.

The screeching squirrel beast began tumbling backwards. Some of the orbs zipped beyond it and exploded only steps around Deon.

"It looks like I've learned what I needed," Wei analyzed. "Your natural blend of types is fascinating; Proscious will have plenty to study. And now I know my new power ceiling totally eclipses it. This was a good use of time."

Covering his head from the downpour of energy spheres, Deon cursed.

Rage was his only strategy. Without conscious consent, his mind conjured a flurry of knives.

They endlessly darted forward from all angles–but even as they continued, they all crumbled to either Wei's own attacks, or his particle shield.

"Thanks for finally indulging me," Wei said, "but this fight is–"

He stopped himself short when a purple ray breached his invisible defense.

Not just breached–it completely shattered through.

And faster than he could react, a blur of a foot swooped in and perfectly met his head.

Deon's heart leaped.

This time, Wei's voice was the one left to linger as he spiraled backwards and slammed into the base of a mountain. The structure crumbled to pieces around the impact.

In Wei's place, illuminated within a vibrant purple, Skrili floated.

She's using her Concussion power up! Deon recognized. The pain from that hit must have triggered it!

Skrili turned to Deon, her hair blowing in the wind from a blend of her energy and Deon's ongoing gusts.

"As I was trying to say," she restarted, "let's make Hiroko proud."

But Deon's utter relief was short-lived, replaced by a new terror:

He couldn't dismiss his raging mind's attack–and Skrili was now squarely in-range.

"No, Skrili! Watch out!!"

She refused to move, arms crossing. "No. You can control it."

"I can't!"

"You're already trying. Look at me."

Deon fought to focus through his hazy vision. The knives had been continually firing this whole time–but as many of them reached Skrili, they simply vanished into nothing. Giant Twitchy stood still, and it seemed even the hot wind wasn't burning her.

I'm…protecting her from myself?? he marveled.

Skrili touched her shoulder and observed a blotch of red. "I caught one hit when I flew in," she said, "but it seems like once you noticed me, your attacks couldn't hurt me anymore. You can control this."

Their shining eyes remained fixated on each other. Thunder growled from above.

She risked her life to trust me, Deon thought.

"Skrili understands the risk, but she's committed. That's the last hurdle you have to get over."

Hiroko's words returned to him.

"She wants to help you."

"You can differentiate that I'm not your enemy," Skrili told him. She turned to face the destroyed mountain. "And that he is."

Wei's silhouette rose gradually, hauntingly, from the debris. He watched them from the sky.

"Proscious killed Hiroko, Deon, and they'll do more," Skrili said. Her eyes locked onto him again. "Your power isn't a curse; it's a gift for times just like this. I know you're as pissed as I am…so let it out."

The world seemed to slow as Deon allowed her words to sink in.

Finally, he embraced the still-mounting rage. He let the thoughts of his fallen friend flood in.

"Anger has a purpose. It can be just. Sometimes, it’s exactly the right thing to feel."

"At a time like this, don’t run from it."

Even now, I'm learning from you, Deon reminisced. Thank you, Hiroko.

This one's for you.

He dismissed all remaining resistance in his mind. A vivid image of Hiroko's sacrifice re-emerged in his memory, and he refused to bury it.

Everything she'd done to help them get this far…

Everything Proscious had done to hurt Lammy and his friends…

Wei's careless smirk.

The orange wind gusted from Deon many times harder. Even still, its effects bypassed Skrili.

His breath seethed through pressed teeth. His body shook.

The orange light in his eyes didn't blind him anymore. This time, it enhanced his vision. Hot tears blotched his cheeks.

"SKRILI!!" he roared. "LET'S END THIS!!!"

A plank formed under his feet, and he launched full-speed towards Wei, wind cutting at his hair. Skrili burst into flight just before him.

A subtle streak of tears mixed into the purple light that trailed behind her.

Floating in place as if to welcome their offensive, Wei raised a single hand.

An orb of multicolored light, nearing the size of the mountain he'd crashed into, appeared all at once.

Deon ignored its blistering heat. He didn't care how strong Wei was anymore.

And when he noticed Skrili refuse to cease her pursuit, it heightened his resolve further.

You don't scare me anymore, Wei, he wanted to shout. Besides, you didn't even challenge me at my strongest.

My strongest is with her.

Wei flicked his hand forward, and the orb began billowing their way.

But Deon could feel it–his imagining capabilities were practically limitless. And this time, he chose the rage coursing through him.

Now he had full control over every move.

Upon his summoning, a Giant Twitchy reappeared–this time even larger. Its size overshadowed the sun-like orb approaching them.

The squirrel giant dove forward, arms spread wide… .

…and caught Wei's attack.

Twitchy's paws slid backwards through the earth, leaving long craters. But it came to a stop and hugged the orb in place. Sparks flickered all around it–likely Wei's attempt at shaking it loose–but Twitchy remained steadfast.

Deon and Skrili zipped underneath the squirrel beast's legs. Once they passed through, Twitchy shifted its weight and managed to toss the orb off into the air.

That proved to be the right command: they heard the energy detonate behind them, its magnificent flash jolting Zayza's realm into daylight for a split moment.

The duo powered forward. Now nothing stood in their path.

It was their turn.

Deon knew he could never normally pull off his next series of creations. But as anger fueled his imagining power, adrenaline fueled his precision.

All at once, his padlike springs took form as a symmetrical crowd surrounding Wei–but unlike previous iterations, they numbered more than fifty.

It was their Team Special–but in a form far enhanced.

Deon barely analyzed the pads' positions: he knew they were precise. And Skrili's trust was equal as she curved upward and flew straight towards the starting pad of their ultimate attack.

In all their time preparing to defeat Skip in their training, they never knew they were preparing for this moment.

Skrili shot from the first spring faster than an arrow. She appeared more like purple lightning as she darted from pad to pad, increasing in speed with each bounce.

She's making herself move even faster with her Concussion energy! Deon observed.

Following his designed path, Skrili surrounded Wei as a one-person swarm. Though he tried, he simply couldn't follow her rapid movement or her constantly-altering trajectory.

The offensive began.

Deon imagined rocks matching the size of his League-friendly leather ball attack. He placed them in the necessary firing positions.

But when Skrili retrieved and redirected the first one at Wei, it broke against an invisible field around him.

Something stronger.

Thinking fast, Deon transformed the rocks into mini-Twitchys–a technique he'd spent many more hours refining.

Skrili's next throw came less than an instant later. This time it was enough speed and power: Deon's creation slammed into Wei's gut.

He's not invincible! Deon finally believed.

The rampaging strikes continued on, and despite Wei's efforts to predict and dodge, Skrili didn't miss a single time. The squirrel monsters pounded against him in an incessant downpour.

But if they wanted to finish this before he found a chance to deflect or pull away, Deon knew they'd need even more speedy strikes. It would put Skrili in further danger, but with Wei strictly on the defense, there was no better opportunity.

"SHIFT!" he called.

Deon redirected the angles of the pads. They all curved further in.

Skrili was ready: the Twitchys vanished around her, and instead, her own flyby kicks became the source of damage. Wei flopped and twisted as her fury unfolded against him.

Several cycles in, Deon narrowed his stare.

Now.

Deon shifted the pads' angle to shoot Skrili away. In the same thought, he reimagined Giant Twitchy just before Wei, casting a deep shadow. The beast grabbed him, and with all the strength Deon could enforce, hurled him straight into the ground.

But given Wei's particle shield ability, they had to be thorough. He placed one final spring high up above the indentation where his enemy crashed.

Skrili shot through the air towards the pad. Bouncing against it full-force, she rained down at Wei with her foot aimed straight.

Her finishing kick met his chest, and the realm around them fell silent as she stood above him.

Wei didn't move.

Deon dismissed all but his hovering plank of wood. The distant rumblings over the horizon returned to his ears as he hurried over to Skrili.

His heart sank when he saw Wei smile from the cracked ground.

"Watch out!" he warned his teammate.

Skrili sharpened. But even still, Wei didn't move.

When Deon reached them and touched onto the ground, Wei simply let out a single, choked laugh.

Then, just like an Imaginer's creation, he faded away.

Skrili's eyes shot wide. She began searching around.

"What?!"

Deon frowned. "So that was the copy, then," he accepted grimly. "Wei said he figured out how to imagine a duplicate of himself…he's inhuman."

Skrili's focus turned to the flashing horizon. Her energy remained flowing.

"Then he can probably do it again," she acknowledged. "We have to get to Zayza now."

Deon nodded. Her energy intermingled with his orange-tinted vision, creating an amber tint to all he saw.

"How much time do you have left like that?" he checked.

"Not much," she said. "But…maybe enough."

She floated into the air, her intense gaze on Deon.

"I can hold Concussion a little longer, you have your power up, and Zayza is using Nightmare. This is the best, and probably last chance we'll get to beat him."

Deon's fury coursed through him, blending with resolve. He conjured another plank and ascended to join her.

A deafening series of blasts illuminated their next destination.

"Let's go."