Track 08: Rewards

We waste no time and pop some of our strongest abilities. Neon goes in already armed with twin axes. Running around the pool, dashing around the creature looking for purchase. Firewall’s shield was already glowing pink, and the claws were coming in, trying to batter her around, but she just kept taking it. She didn’t give an inch, even though there was a lot of strain on her face. I cast Shot on my chakrams, making sure to aim at the left eyestalk. I push as much energy and power into them as I can manage. It sails away from me, eating up the distance and just when I think it’s about to connect, one claw comes into intercept it. For a moment, I think all is lost until it slices deep into its lower claw.

King Crab lets out a deep and guttural howl. Dream crystals loosen from the ceiling and rain down. When they hit the ground, they explode with miny novas of purple, pink, red and yellow debris. Where it lands, the ground warps, some places turning into swirling pits like a bore hole or some places looking like the opposite, a mound spinning up out of nowhere. Some places liquefy and others turn to goo.

Dream reacts unpredictably with the area around its explosion. Be careful, Runners!

“Yeah, I don’t want whatever that was-” Neon waves at the whole thing. “to happen to me.”

I’m adding… getting twisted to the concerningly lengthening list of fears. I’ve added tentacles of darkness, serpent scientists, zombie brick-shit-houses, and now… getting twisted, I don’t want to end up being Uzumaki’d. It’s a shit way to go. “Let’s avoid that guys!” I call, “Don’t bunch up and keep one eye on the ceiling.”

Not enjoying our commentary, he sent down another volley of crystals toward the earth. I look up and see it hanging over my head like a hurtling sword down towards me. Getting ready to clench my stomach and teleport, when Warchilde leaps over my head, cutting the shard in half. Multicolored dust flies in every direction and swallows Warchilde in the debris cloud. I know intrinsically that he’s a construct I can re-summon, but I don’t want him to get hurt. He’s got child in his name. Anytime I try to bring up if he has any kind of reluctance, he mentions it is how the Warchildren measure themselves against other beings on their home planet.

He wants to fight. He must fight. War is all he knows, and there’s a literal timer over his head in our world. He has to return to a world that made him this way. I need to show him a better way a better life. I wonder if there’s a way to keep him here permanently, saving him from what I have to assume is a war-torn world.

Because my dumbass is in my head and not paying attention, I get clipped by the enormous claw. It shatters the Guard effect, spinning me hard into one of the bigger dream crystals. The wind gets knocked out of me and I black out for a minute. -7. The sound of cracking comes from behind me. I look up, watching a fissure crawl up my back and spiderweb out, only to reach the top.

“Scatter!” I shout, teleporting away. “Here’s a big one!” Teleporting for the first time feels like being ripped away from the world around you. My stomach tenseness and I feel the earth move under me as I’m being pitched through space. It’s disorienting af, but it’s so freeing. For less than a second, I was weightless. And just like before, my thoughts slipped away from what’s right in front of me.

Teleport

Ability Type: Movement/ Space

Dream Cost: 2

Level 1: Teleport once up to 30ft

Requirements: None/ Genesis

The explosion rocks the building. Neon stumbles and rolls almost completely, wiping out, but gets back to their feet. Gabrielle’s stance shatters and is buffeted by the fallout, breaking her focus on intent. She picks herself and dusts herself off. I know it will take her a moment to spin up her abilities. We just need to give her the time. Little guy got the worst of it cause he was so close to me. I watch as 3 out of 4 of his cheverons break and shatter. His form flickers for a bit as he dusts himself off. He only has one left and vapor seems to come off him in waves.

That same vapor in the air is around all of us. Each of our eyes is lit up, reflecting the color of powers. Not that it’s new at all for Neon. I realize my Dream bar is filling up and I get a second wind for all dream vapor from the destroyed crystals.

“Well, that really rung my bell.”

“You’re not the only one.” Neon says.

I scan the area and when I my eyes come upon the King Crab and I vomit a little in my mouth. The carapace half-twisted apart leads to a hemorrhaging, pulsating corpse. Instead of the red with crystals poking out, one side is blackened by the damage from it, ripping out both claw and limb in one whole joint place. I feel sympathetic pain in my own joints.

“Is…Is that it?” Neon says

No, be on guard! Kohl warns.

Bursting forth a rain of viscera rains down on us. Ugh, I feel like I’ll never be clean again.

“Ugh, This Boss kinda sucks.” Gabrielle says. “First, I’ve got alien gunk in my hair, snake acid, then we walk under sewers, which didn’t smell much better. But crab viscera and pool scum are just gonna get caked in my hair.”

“And mine too.” I say.

“You-” Neon starts

“I know, I know! I need a twist up.” I say. “First thing I’m gonna do after this!” I wave at the evolved Crab King.

Crab King Lv 2

Leviathan King Lv 4

The Leviathan roars its blue shell now hardening and fusing to a vibrant blood red. From vicious red to fleshy pink, the colors travel down his body. The distended legs are now more like tentacles than their previous crustacean legs. The Leviathan spins, a flurry of kicks sent out like a whirlpool kicking water and crystal bits up.

I jump and rolling over. It clips my leg, taking another few points off me. -2 Tiny shards rake my face and the water stings my eyes. I kip up out of the roll, landing on my feet and sending CDs one of after another, aiming for some of the exposed joints.

“We’re going right to left! We’ll take each limb one by one.” I say. Maybe it’s cause I’ve played games like this against enemies like this but, I think if we keep at this we can win. Everyone besides Firewall has decent attack. Neon can do some heavy damage if they can keep up the pressure and are honestly the only one who can do it in melee without getting caught.

“Firewall! Lay down intent, keep his eyes and those tentacles on you!” Without words, her shield shines her favorite color. If she can’t keep up the pressure… No, I can’t think like that. She’s barely taken any damage, and she’s a fucking badass. I have to trust her.

I’ve got overwatch. If there’s any change in boss behavior, I’ll let you all know in time.

“Neon, get in there and let loose. You’ve got the speed, the reflexes, and the mind to keep up with anything Ol’ Levi’s got to throw at us.”

“You got it boss!” Neon nods and gets into the mode, already zipping around, taking the lead.

“Little guy!”

“Lukaelin.” He spits out.

“Lukaelin.” Without looking up, I felt a throb next to my heart. I knew he was listening. “Get in,’ where you fit in.” I could feel him hold his breath. “Don’t go dying on me, kiddo!” The release I feel in his chest almost breaks my heart. I don’t want to make him feel like this ever again. I look at the timer still over his head and he still has 4 hours left.

“We got this. Let’s make it surgical. We’ve got to get to bed.”

Neon got in there, windmilling damage, cutting deep into tentacles, spraying neon colors and translucent blood everywhere. Never in the same place for more than half a second. Leviathan King couldn’t protect any of its tentacles from them. They were on the hunt.

From just the start of this journey with her, Firewall’s ability to tank has been pretty awesome. First, with Aquilan who’s level I have no idea about, to Leviathan who’s twice our level. There’s no one I’d rather have at the front or on my back. Every time a tentacle landed on her shield, she unbalanced it or took a stab at it. While she’s not powerful, she’s every bit the powerhouse.

If I thought Lu was dynamic before, he’s doing even more now. He moves like a truck hitting hard and getting out of there. He only holds his ground to feint an attack and counter. Dark Blade allowing him to hit even a fast-moving target like the lashing tentacles. Catching them in full motion blunted every hit that was coming for Gabrielle.

I played some of the best ass kicking music I know, Seven Street’s song Koi. A hype Kpop/hip hop track with just the get up and go. We really found the tempo. Something about playing the music got the team together and as long as my Beats were breaking things up, adding my compositions to the music. Maybe this is what I am. Maybe this is what it means to be The Composer. The battlefield is mine is to control.

Once each tentacle is severed, a crystal in its crown glow. And as the fifth one is severed, they all glow a haunting blue.

Something big is coming!

The sound of a foghorn interrupts our song just as it climaxes. The body seizes just enough for a swell upward, leaping back into the pool. A tidal wave of previously stagnant pool water surges over the edge to wipe us out.

Neon races along the wall and I have no idea what they’re up to, but I got to make sure we’re alright. Firewall beings to reinforce her shield. I run up behind her; I touch either parts of her shield and sing it bigger and broader, adding my sound forms to it. I change the shape, making it into a wedge. And to my surprise, the pink energy of her Guard begins to cover it. Digging deep, adding my Dream energy to song construct. Crushing the dream dice, adding its strength to our defense. The physical integrity increases, becoming more solid.

I can feel our energies mixing black, gold, and her pink. A vision of the person she wants to be appears in my mind and it’s epic. I’m in awe of being this close, knowing we probably haven’t had a proper shower in months, covered in grime, and stank to hell and back… But she looks so beautiful to me. In her eyes, I can see the colors of my power reflected shimmering over honey-colored irises. I’m sure I look just as captivating with pink threading through mine.

This power. The power of DreamRunners is so connected to the ideal of ourselves, that and our personal dreams. Who one wants to be is so tied into what we can do that it feels like that realization is happening in real time. It’s how I gained the Leadership skill. How I managed to understand my enchanting ability. How I became someone that my crew would follow into battle. We worked together and got this far, doing our best to be the people we want to be. We became our own heroes, and feeling this power course through our veins makes me believe we’re more powerful than we know.

“Lukaelin, get behind me!” In a matter of seconds, just as the water is about to crash into us, I feel the little guy wrap his arms around my waist. When I look back at him and see, he shut his eyes in pure fear. I can feel a subtle shake from his arms that cling to me.

This is gonna be rough!

From out of nowhere, I feel tiny cat paws run up my body and rest around my neck. I don’t know where Kohl came from, but knowing he’s here with us, safe, takes another weight off my shoulder as the Tidal Wave attack connects. The waves rush past us; the wedge splits the water around and behind us. It's almost beautiful watching the water slide around our construct and then I remember what's likely in it. We actually remain relatively dry, except the water pooling at our feet.

As it all clears, I see a tornado of water, with Neon running around, keeping it going. My jaw drops as we all stare dumbfounded at Neon is churning all that mess into some kind of attack. When it seems like it’s getting to be too much, like it’s gonna break down, they launch it towards The Levithan King. Thousands of gallons of water are sent right back at pseudopod.

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The collision was epic. I didn’t even know this was a possibility. The tornado slams hard into the Boss, knocking it over and a large Stunned status appears over its body. It takes precious seconds for me to snap out of my awe but, Firewall and Lukaelin tear off. It’s time for us to go all out.

As I see the hit complete, I’m so happy I almost cheer and then I look over the status screen of the party and my mouth drops open. Neon’s health has tanked. Their legs are heavy in the red and blinking on my HUD. They collapse on the floor. Firewall and I run to pick them up. I pull the last of my Nanos out and shove it in their bruised and bloody legs.

“What happened?”

“I thought I could pull a move like a speedster.” They say, coughing up water. “It worked!”

Yeah but, you got injured. Kohl says, panic filtering in over his mental voice. Don’t ever do something crazy like that again.”

“Oh, I will. I just gotta make sure I put a lot more points into Durability first.” Neon smiles and I just want to punch them in the arm. That might take off their last health point, though.

“You’re gonna give me a heart attack. Or worse, give Kohl one. Imagine his little paws up in the air.”

The shock on Neon’s face is priceless. “No, no, I don’t want to be a pet killer in the movie. I’d be painted the villain for life!”

Unfortunately, the stun doesn’t last long but, the hurting we put on it does. All ten tentacles severed while Neon’s Nano was doing its thing. All it can do is try to hit us with these weak, unbalanced claw attacks, now that it is so top heavy. When lasers start coming from the crown on its head, they were easily deflected by Gabrielle. I even smashed a claw open, creating a hammer when it got too close. Neon used the opening to cut off one of its eyestalks. That triggered another crystal fall, which we were ready for. Lukaelin kicked one into its open maw, twisting that into a tangle of flesh. A big Disrupted appears over its head along with Bleeding, which switches quickly to Hemorrhaging. Chunky blood vomits out of his open mouth.

“Pop those cooldowns! Nothing left on the floor, people!” I shout.

Neon’s built up speed by running around the room, building up light. They still aren’t in top condition, their status showing orange in the top of my vision. They still go for it, though, carving up the area for their final attack. Meanwhile, Firewall readies her shield for Lukaelin to jump off of. This tosses him high into the air and rocketing him toward the sea monster. Firewall then throws her spear like a javelin before Lukaelin lands his attack. The spear lands deep into the shell of the Levithan and a bit of blood trickles out. Only burbles answer this attack. Lukaelin coming down at a ninety-degree angle on the shell, splitting it down to the wear the where landed. This created the perfect target for Neon’s Kinetic Fighting and Energy Weapon. When it hit the newly exposed flesh, fireworks peeled off in every direction. The Levithan is wide open and probably would die without any interference, but I need this to be over.

I create a Beat twice as dense as the one I’ve been working on until now, focusing all the power I have left into it. This became larger and thicker now about the size of a vinyl. I ready Shot and Echo and as it makes its way towards the Levithan King; it picks up speed and power. Pitch black energy creates rings like Saturn resolving into grooves. The center’s energy turns gold and now feels more real and a greater concentration of the energy I can produce. As the Vinyl hit, there wasn’t the explosion of energy that Neon’s attack was. Instead, it was a massive vibration that shook off every last bit of shell and as Echo activates the Beat was already in my hand and ready. I barely had to flick it, but it nearly lept from my hand. Sailing straight into the hole the first had made. This enters its brain and rattles around in whatever it calls a skull. The sea beast finally falls, and a prompt appears on my HUD.

Congratulations! You have bested the King of the Deep, The Leviathan King!

10 xp

For being the first to complete a dungeon in Electric City, you receive a Flashback Token.

Which is redeemable now for an item of antiquity from the past of The Minority.

You also gain the title, King Killer. Which will show on your profile and your avatar when you receive it.

I am speechless. When I pull my status, a new category now exists called Titles. Under that is an entry called King Killer and next to it is an icon of the crown both The Crab King and Leviathan King wore. I focus on it and bring it up and, just like that, a holographic crown appears in my hand. The crystalline points sized down to fit my head and as I hold it, some part of me wants to wear the image of the crown on my head but some better angel dismisses it and goes away. Making eye contact with the others, I think they notice the weight of the crown. All of them look at theirs with trepidation.

“Something’s weird about these, right?”

“Yeah, I feel like there’s some weird feeling in the air.” Firewall said. “I wish I could quantify this phenomenon. It feels like putting this on is some kind of challenge.”

“Aquilan…” I say.

“How is she still bothering us?” Neon says frustratingly.

It seems she’s overlain her power over the entire region. Choosing to take certain levels of status would alert her. Even metaphysically. I think there’s a chance that we have to be careful which awards we choose to use from The Minority. All that being said, we have Flashback Tokens to redeem. Get close to the biggest of the crystals.

“You sure about that, cat man?” Neon says poking the crystal next to them. “These things are hella dangerous.”

Yes, right now they’re filled with Dream energy. With the dungeon cleared, we are free to use the Dream energy. Gather round, I’m gonna do my thing.

We get as close as we’re willing to. Kohl starts pacing like a lion back and forth, looking for its next meal. It’s times like this. I wonder what really happened to him. He says he was a human and he for sure has the kind of intelligence that if I’m not looking at him feels human. Honestly, he feels way smarter than me. But it’s times like this I feel like he’s fighting for himself in there against some kind of new alien intelligence. Part of me wants to know about it all from pure curiosity. But the more I think on it. Having anymore weird shit go on in my head or my body feels like it would break me. I have a freaking organ somewhere along my respiratory system and it allows me to “Sing” two songs at once. If someone also downloaded the secrets of the universe in my head, I don’t know that I’d cope very well. I wonder how he’s doing.

Kohl stops, freezing in place like they found something. Looking up his the stars of his starlight cat’s eyes exploding out of his face making a canopy of stars. The change from the blaring LED lights to the night dome is such an obvious change that Neon and Gabrielle look up from their conversation and look overhead.

Neon flits out of sight, probably to see the outside of the dome, and comes back in the blink of an eye. The look on their face is of quiet wonder. I don’t know how they can do it I think I’m all out of wonder. Our world just keeps getting more and more wonderful and I think I’ve taken in as much as I’m going to. I say this until the world around me holds its breath. And as it exhales, a star falls to the earth in front of me, leaving a bundle of clothes.

I reach out to grab it and the first thing I notice is the softness of the woven fabric. It feels like softer than silk and almost seamless like the highest count Egyptian Cotton. It’s beautiful with golden chevrons dancing in the weave. A notification appears in my HUD.

Congratulations! You have received a Flashback!

You have received a Raiment!

Raiments, Armors, or Accessories give you access to the Loadout System.

The Loadout system allows you to organize outfits and armaments and allows you to put them on in the blink of an eye.

You have gained the Robes of the Truthseeker!

Light Magical Raiment

-1 Damage Resistance

+1 to Dream Energy

The Robes of the Truthseeker have been added to your Loadout.

I am no longer holding the robes and just as my thoughts brush them. I am enveloped in them. The black and gold robes fit neatly in place. Constructed like a hoodie and poncho, had a luxurious love child. The underside was all hoodie with the front pocket, able for me to place my hands in. While the outer part completely obscures my hands, making it really easy to hide the spells I’m casting. It makes me wonder what kind of people were the Truthseekers are?

Looking around, I see the things the others got. Firewall holds a steel rod in her hand. I can feel the magic radiating off of it. As she looks over it, I can see she’s already looking at ways to take it apart and put it together.

“Is that a wand or scepter? Are you going in a more magic direction?” I ask.

“No,” her expression going from pensive wonder to unabashed glee. “It’s an omni tool.”

“Like those that were in the news… a few months ago. I saw them in one of those tech mags.” I say, realizing it hadn’t been a few weeks ago because of the time skip without my consent.

“Yes, but this one is, like, a hundred years more powerful.” She says, waving it around in front of my face. “It uses dream energy instead of intelligent metals. Which not only makes it way less energy intense but, it also means it can change into nearly anything I can think up. This includes weapons.” As she says that from the rod’s front end, a spear tip appears, then shifts to a mace, and shifts from a screwdriver to a wrench.

“Holy shit! That’s fucking amazing.” I say, getting pulled into the excitement of it.

“Yeah, and the best part is I think I can figure out how it works. I think I can bring whatever this technology is to our world. I can really revolutionize the world. We figured out the psylinks which the Minority created. We can produce them and that led to our crude use of nanotech, AI, and dozens of medical improvements like cybernetics and peripherals. This could be the next big leap. I believe we can move forward just as far if I had a group of people working on this and claiming other flashbacks we could really change the world.”

I realize that what she’s saying really could change things for the people. We just have to get them out from under Dominance control. Fight and win against people like Aquilan. We need find to survivors and soon. We need to start rebuilding.

Neon’s gift was a little different from ours. They wore an earring in their right ear that took on the colors of their hair and eyes. The look on their face was hard to read. They looked a bit solemn. As if it was something sad.

“What is it?” I ask cautiously.

“It’s a called the Coral Conscious. Gives me knowledge when I want. Not very powerful but it can in certainly help us out in a pinch.”

“If you want, I can look at it.” I say. “I can break down magical obj-“

“No!” Neon cuts me off. “No, it’s okay.”

The way their body language changes puts me on guard. I don’t understand why they react this way.

“No worries, Neon. We won’t take your loot.” Firewall smiles, putting a hand on their shoulder.

Don’t worry Gabrielle, Mix, that is something for them to hear from their ancestors. It’s not a powerful weapon, but it was something for them. I think it’s special. They don’t talk much about everything before this. Giving them time to open up is probably for the best in this situation. Kohl says.

Anyway, I need to speak with everyone. We all look over and gather round. There’s one last thing I have to tell you. There are other allies all over the world who are fighting the good fight, such as us. I have been messaged by one of the DreamCrafters of the Cyborg Paramores and they sent me an incarnation of their Leaderboard app. It will allow the other DreamCrafters and me to keep track of our DreamRunners and the progress they’ve made. That is to say, this is mostly for bragging rights.

“I do like to brag.” Neon

The Leaderboard is a great way to promote competition and I think it would be a lovely way for us to build relationships with the other factions that exist in the world. So if you like I’d like to sign us up for the Leaderboard. Would you all be interested?

“I’m down.” I say. “I’d like to see how we stack up against the others.”

“I agree as well.” Gabrielle says. “I know this isn’t a game, but some kind of healthy competition to really take the fight to them. That means a lot. Plus, we know for sure we’re not alone, so making connections with others close by might mean we can find others to fill the party.”

“More friends is a good thing!” Neon says.

“Sign us up, boss.” I say.

Alright, done. Only thing left is to name our faction. What would you like to be called?

We pondered a moment, shouting out ideas back and forth, when it comes to me.

“Rebellion.” I say “If they’re gonna be The Dominance, I want us to be the Rebellion. I want to overthrow them and everything they stand for. We’re gonna get off them off this planet and then hit them where they live. The Dominance will not prosper while we yet live. We will tear down the centers of their power and crumble their reputation with our every move forward. They will know no peace while Rebellion lifts up their voices. ”

“I think you’re right that names sounds great for us.” Gabrielle pats me on the back.

“I agree. It lets them know we ain’t gonna take some shit.” Neon says punching the air.

That’s clinches it. Rebellion is now registered as you all. And I’ve taken the opportunity to spend add a super cut of your fights that I’ve seen and your speech. That’s gonna get a few people fired up.

“You’re telling me that everything I.. I said has gone out to all the other DreamRunners out there.”

Yes, I think it was an excellent speech to not only introduce who we are, but to tell the world why we’re fighting. In this life, reputation matters. Ours will have to be powerful if we’re going to do what you say you want us to do.

“Okay… Okay, so we get powerful enough to back that up. We bring the fight to them and really show what we’re made of.” I slowly understanding just what we did. We called a shot. We put it out into the universe and to the people in it that we’ll be the ones to really take the fight to them. Rebellion sounds like we’ll be working our asses off in the near future.

Kohl transferred the app to each of us and when I opened it up, the slick UI and personalized setup had a lot of interesting categories. There were total Dominance killed, and that was, of course, headed by the Cyborg Paramores below that is The Resistance. The Resistance, Kohl told me, were the ones on the front lines fighting before The Dominance took over in full. We were pretty low in this, which was obvious because, a far as I know, we haven’t killed that many or any really powerful ones. We were a bit higher on The Plague Killer and Dungeon Diver list. When you get local. Something interesting happens.

Rebellion was at the top of the leader of the Dungeon Delvers list because we were the first. The bugs list we were actually pretty low. The Queen had kind of outstripped us by a mile. There was also a group named The Angels who not only were on the Plague Killer list but also on the Most People Protected list. I wonder if that means they have a group of survivors with them. They could be useful. On the list of Most Rival Combatants defeated, The Dragon stood tall. He beat out us and everyone else on the list. Even The Underground was featured for Rescues.

I look up at the rest of the party and Lukaelin. He’d kind of gone off on his own and I didn’t realize I hadn’t seen him until just now. Which was weird but, I wasn’t gonna give him crap out taking the time to look around. I mean, he’s never been to our world before. I can’t be surprised if he wants to take his time to explore a little. I guess I’m not too worried if he gets hurt but, I’m pretty sure he can handle himself if he were to run up on any more crabs. Kohl did say they’ll come back in about 24 hours, but you can’t be too careful.

“Alright Rebellion, I want to us to get in contact with these people.” I say, sharing my screen and pointing out The Queen, Dragon, and The Angels. “These seem to be the most powerful people in Electric City and if we can’t get them to join us, I want to create in roads to building a relationship with them. We’re gonna need friends.” Everyone nods, even Lukaelin. “Alright everyone, let’s get upstairs and get some rest. We’ve done more than enough for 24 hours. We need a break.”