If you are like me, in that you are a human being, you will likely have experienced a bad dream. A winning terror in the great history of bad dreams is a dream that every person experiences at least once in their life and attempts to repress afterwards. That dream is the dream of being naked in a place where you are not supposed to be.

Most people experience it at school, nude in front of all their peers. In the real world, if you find yourself truly naked at your place of education, you can usually take a dip in the Lost and Found to cover up; but in the dream, you would never get there.

Many experience the dream at a store, shoe-and-sockless feet slapping against cold tiles in the search for something, anything, to cover you up, but you can't reach the shelves. Maybe you are too small, or maybe the further you run, the further the shelves get from you. In reality, you could steal clothing off a rack at an ordinary outlet store. At a grocery store, you could strip a head of lettuce and clothe yourself in the leaves. But, never in a dream.

I often experience my rendition of this dreadful while running from intimidating adversaries. On the kinder nights of these nightmares, I am sometimes allowed my trusty hat, which I may choose to hold against my humiliating receding hairline, or lower to an area I am even more squeamish about.

In whatever locale that you experience this dream, however, there will always be features of it that remain the same; vulnerability, fear, cold sweats, and futility—no matter how hard you try to fix your birthday suit situation, you will never make progress.

Tobias, despite being clothed, experienced all the same emotions and side effects of the Naked Dream™ as he backed against the rusting fence. Alone and clumsy on his prosthetic leg, unarmed, he recognized that if he were attacked, he would not be able to fight for long. There by the fence, in the open, in the light, he was vulnerable, like a sitting duck.

Viola Mae was gone, and he feared for her, and for if he was next. The cry that he had heard had not been her voice, which was the only comfort he could conjure. Perhaps she was invisible somewhere in the bushes opposite the fence. Perhaps the rustling of the leaves was not just from the dry breeze, but from her careful slinking. Or, someone else's.

"I am not armed," he offered to the nothing that surrounded him. He dropped his bag to the pavement and raised his hands. The cold sweat iced his brow and soaked through his sleeves.

His vision came in and out of focus, like the Lost and Found bin or the lettuce leaves that would always remain frustratingly out of reach. No matter how hard he focused, the possible futures would not cooperate. The futility was overwhelming, the migraine strengthening.

The one thing that he could make out was that he would not go unconscious anytime soon. Very few small screens at the edge of his vision depicted solid black. A handful flashed white, then continued in a blur of poorly lit cement and hazy movement. Then more began to flash white as the gears in his head began to turn, and in the pits of his situation, he envisioned a way out. He took a deep breath as the white crowded over his eyes and he thrust himself into it, backwards, until it was his present. He cried out and staggered forward, dropping to his knees. The wounds and burns of his back pulsed relentlessly, enraged by the rough contact with the unforgiving fence.

Tobias woozily swayed there, palms against the cement. He exhaled, inhaled; blood burbled from his shrapnel wounds. Exhaled, inhaled; the raw flesh along his spine pulsed. With each heavy pant, the fog in his mind cleared a little more, a little more. The clouds in his vision receded, clearing like a spring day after a morning shower. He stood with a last steadying breath, his knees nearly buckling before he could catch himself. He dragged the peg into place and straightened out, suddenly pulsing with energy.

"Come out, Dizzy," he said dryly, his visions clearer than ever, as if stimulated, rather than merely awoken. It felt... good. It felt exceptionally good. Three black-clad, masked figures appeared in his near future, and he saw that none of them would attack, so long as he remained calm. The visions accelerated, going further into the future quicker than he had ever managed before, revealing each stranger as they unmasked. Teenagers; one just barely. He grinned, almost laughing, and spread his arms fearlessly, even amiably. "Come out, friends."

Names, too. He could hear them faintly in the back of his mind, like vague afterthoughts. Almost closer to feelings, felt in the same way that you might detect almond in the warm glazed croissant that you sampled at a new café. Tobias laughed at himself, running his fingers through his hair in amazement. This was new. This was exciting.

"Dizzy, Milk Chocolate, and Hiccup. Right?" He stepped back against the fence to pick up his bag, slinging it over his shoulder. Then he gestured to a place in the bushes, where he knew that they would soon appear. "I know where you are. I know what you look like. I know what you are called. Don't be shy. On my end, we may well have already met." Peering down through his sliding spectacles, he smiled.

For a few long moments, he remained alone, marveling at the heights of his senses. His back throbbed, but the stressed wounds felt less like a barrage of bullets and more like a massage. Good pain. The kind of pain that promises a better future. A stronger future.

A small person stepped from the leaves, clutching two small cards in her gloved hands. She had the pear shape of a prepubescent child, without definition. "How do you know our names?" she asked quietly. "You can't hear visions."

"No," Tobias gasped, eyes widening with amusement and interest. The girl's mask wrinkled with confusion. He pointed to the items in her hands. "Are those trading cards?" He stepped closer and she stepped back. "May I see?"

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"Doctor." A second girl stepped out of the bushes, tall and skinny and dressed in heavy boots. He recognized the spiky white fluff poking from the top of her mask; an item made from a pair of Team Defiance costume goggles with mesh glued over the lenses and a gray handkerchief that covered her mouth and nose. "I am Dizzy, this is Milk Chocolate. We—"

"You're fans!" Tobias exclaimed, disbelieving. He looked between the Chance and Spectre trading cards, flabbergasted, then at Dizzy's goggles and the patches on her black denim jacket. There were the symbols of other heroes, too, but his own mark caught his eye in an instant. "I don't believe it." He shook his head and gave the cards back, then frowned at each of the girls in disapproval. "What have you kids done with Viola Mae?"

His eyes raised to the bush a few moments before Hiccup limped out, clutching a wound on her leg. She pulled off her ski mask and sat on the ground, panting. Tobias pursed his lips and kneeled. He reached towards Dizzy.

"Give me the mask."

"If we get seen, we—"

"You'll get grounded," Tobias snapped. "That's all. You're kids. Give me the mask."

Dizzy reluctantly exposed her pale face and red eyes and passed the homemade cover-up down. Tobias tore the handkerchief off the goggles and used it to tie a tourniquet over the knife wound. Hiccup whimpered. He grabbed her by the shoulder and looked her sternly in the eyes.

"What did you do to Viola Mae? To Spectre?"

The girl disappeared before his eyes, but his hand still held her. Invisible. She wailed.

He frowned and looked back to where he had last seen his friend and found her there in a peaceful sleep. Though he had predicted it, it still came as a surprise. His visions were confusing. Clear and better than ever, but utterly confusing, because of the situation itself.

He recoiled from the girl, Hiccup, as her abilities clarified in his near future. A leech. He picked up his bag and stood back. Beside her, Dizzy helped Milk Chocolate take off her gloves, exposing milk chocolate hands that would attempt to catch him and send him to sleep. Sandman. He took another step back, keeping his eyes on the eldest girl, with the x-ray vision. Pervert. These names were all cruel terms, but when trapped in a dark alley by a run-down school in the middle of nowhere, after being promised safety, Tobias felt betrayed, foolish, and beside himself with disappointment. He started to walk towards Viola Mae.

"Wait, Doctor!" Dizzy cried, hushed. "We want to help you."

The leech reappeared with a shudder and burst into an uncontrollable fit of gasping hiccups. Her eyes widened and she pointed at him. "He's going to try to wake her! He's going to try to wake her!"

He stopped and turned back. She had his powers, now, and it made him weary. He grimaced and peered down his nose at the three kids. "Why shouldn't I? She is a friend."

"She works for HQ!" Dizzy hissed. She bent to pick up her goggles, fixing them back in place. "We haven't hurt her. Just put her to sleep. She'll wake up feeling well-rested and will have had good dreams, mark my words. It is better that she doesn't see my team and I, or where we're going."

Tobias dragged his hand down his face, shaking his head. He took a few steps towards them with a wagging finger, then moaned, throwing both hands in the air, and turned back around. "Madness!"

Dizzy rolled a skateboard out of the bushes and gave both of her teammates a smug look. Tobias gasped and waved his hands, stepping further away, towards Viola Mae. He hesitated, gaze flicking to the skateboard. It would be rolled at him full force, but it didn't have to reach her.

"Look, leave me out of it," he protested, pausing. "Whatever this is, I don't want to be involved."

"You called me."

Tobias let out an anguished cry, unable to voice the humiliating "I was drunk." His jaw clenched without a word. The smallest girl, Milk Chocolate, started towards him, and he started backwards. With a glance over his shoulder to his friend, he stopped. He raised his fists instead.

"Come any closer, and I'll put your lights out."

Milk Chocolate froze and looked uncertainly to her companions for guidance.

"The Doctor has morals," Dizzy said, rolling her eyes. "He won't hit a sweet young lady like you, Milk."

Tobias growled and widened his stance. "Try me."

Milk Chocolate whimpered and looked back again.

Hiccup giggled. She tapped her temples. "It's really unlikely—hiccup—that he will he hurt you. He won't. Go on, Milk."

They were right. Perhaps his bluff could have worked if it weren't for the leech, but wishing for easier circumstances rarely brings the bolt from the blue. Tobias was at a loss for what to do. Though his powers whirred full force, there were no ideal outcomes to aim for.

Here was a peg-legged man with a growing power inside of him, containing it to keep Viola Mae safe, containing it to keep three misguided miscreants unharmed, and containing it to keep himself from doing terrible wrongs. Any action that he could take would result in an outcome he did not want.

He could attempt to run away, but his peg would fail him, and a nimble child would be upon him in an instant. He could attempt to wake Viola Mae, but without a smelling salt or other device, it would be futile in the limited time between his kneeling beside her and Milk Chocolate's hands wrapping around his face.

He could escape with Viola Mae in the situation where he beat up three little girls, but that was very far from a pleasant idea, and Tobias had no intention of acting on it.

He huffed air through his teeth and narrowed his eyes at their leader. "I'll go with you, if you leave Viola Mae alone."

"As soon as we're down the street, your girlfriend will wake up and be just fine. We're not the bad guys." She ruffled her hair and put her foot on the skateboard.

"You want me to lie on that?" Tobias asked, puzzled. "Why?"

"That would be helpful." She shrugged. "Just so's we can move you when you're sleeping."

"I'd rather be..." He stepped uncomfortably away from Milk Chocolate's reaching hand. He nearly put up his shield, but recognized that the action would only buy time, not a new possible outcome. "I'd rather be awake, if you don't mind."

Dizzy helped Hiccup to stand. "Sorry, Doc. You can't know how to get to our headquarters until we're all friends, yeah?"

"We're friends," Tobias insisted.

"Nah." Dizzy rolled the skateboard back, then thrust it like a rocket towards his feet. "Now, Milk!"

Two small hands slithered under his shirt and pulsed against his belly. Suddenly, he began to feel woozy and unbalanced. The skateboard plunged into his peg and sent him staggering backwards, and the small girl pushed him the rest of the way over. He cried out as his back landed against the coarse texture of the board and tried to throw the girl off. She retreated from his stomach to touch his face instead, now in her reach, and with one heavy exhale and happy thoughts, Tobias let out a groggy purr and his eyes rolled back.