Sweet Dreams are Made of Fear. (Rated R. We are messed up.)

[Morgan Evans]

Morgan lay in her bed in a peaceful slumber.

She was dreaming of being a little girl, long flowing blonde hair in a pigtail, her feet kicking up higher and higher into the air as she swung. The landscape wasn't pretty, a barren playground in a sepia landscape, rubbish littered all over the place but it was her birthday. She was ten and Connor had fixed the swing.

Her hair was tied with a red ribbon, Connor had found it and given it too her, she had worn it in her hair every day and she had been so proud of it. It had been the first gift she had ever been given.

She could feel his hands in the small of her back, pushing her, she looked over her shoulder into his beautiful blue eyes and laughed, laughed with a carefree abandon as he grinned at her like Alice's Cheshire cat. It was too loud, it caught the attention of the Monsters..

Suddenly they were all over them, dragging them apart as Morgan screamed. Connor kicking out and fighting back, their hands reaching for each other, arms tightening around her waist and dragging her away into the shadows amongst the piles of junk. Grabbing at her, hurting her and the screaming...

In the real world Morgan thrashed out, her mind trying to emerge from the dream turned nightmare. Her body was tangled in the blankets and she struggled to get free, held down again as she was pulled back down into the nightmare. Her survival instinct kicked in and her power flared wildly, feeding on her fear it spread in waves throughout the Dormitory.

Small feet in black polished shoes kicked wildly, she was no longer screaming but she couldn't stop crying, couldn't breath and over it all, over the laughter and sick wet sounds she could hear Connor screaming her name...

((This thread is entirely open and with the effects of both Morgan's power and Ayami's amplification of emotion there should be no reason that anyone misses out. So have fun with it!))

[Ayami Morita]

The waves floated through Sydney Hall, all the way across to room 227.

Ayami was having a nightmare.


There was a party going on. Of that much she was certain--people were laughing, glasses were clinking, some music was playing in the background. Ayami lay, face down, on some sort of table, unable to move...

Until she was jerked into a sitting position, to great applause. Bear, and Ryan, and John, and Calvin, and scores of other people she knew were sitting on the couch eagerly looking down at her, gigantic to her sight. Glancing down, she was surprised to find she was wearing full motley, spackled with red, green, and blue diamonds, with bells on her joints and cap. Rising from her arms and legs were strings, hooked up far above her head to a wooden crossbar.


"Are we ready for us to start?" a familiar, frightening voice boomed from up above. Ayami struggled, but was unable to move at all, as the cheers eminated from the couch. Nimbly, the strings started jerking her from side to side, walking her along the table, before the music started up again.

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Ayami was forced to shake her bells in time with the music, swaying from side to side as ever so slowly, she was forced to strip down, to the howls and wolf whistles of the audience. At last, she was left in nothing but her cap, as she was dangled over the couch, where the onlookers pointed and laughed, grabbing her arms and legs and wriggling them, poking her, and flicking her repeatedly, like a tiny pinata. But one by one, they got bored, and walked away.

"Are you coming, Teri?" one called back.

"Just a moment, we need to put away our toys..."

Ayami was carried over to a large glass terrarium, and was unceremoneously dropped over the side, landing on the ground with a sickening thump, her head rotated to look out the glass. The gigantic, grinning face of Teri was staring in at her, as she reached over the top and started pouring in crickets, and earthworms, and locusts. They poured down into the terrarium as Teri shut the lid. They crawled over and around Ayami's immobile, naked body, perching on her before flitting off only to be replaced. Ayami tried to scream, but couldn't open her mouth, or even shut her eyes or shudder as they creeped and slimed over her prone form, befouling every inch. The world grew dark as they covered her from head to toe, the last thing Ayami able to hear is the laughter and applause as Teri takes a bow and the locusts begin to sufficate Ayami...

Ayami jerked to conciousness with a scream, as waves of terror and fear spread out of her, taking Morgan's terror and redoubling it back down the hallway.

"That's it...enough is enough," she muttered, throwing herself out of bed, putting on a robe, and rushing out into the halls...

[Sara Stanton]

As the waves of nightmares eminate from Ayami and Morgan and spread through the dorms Sara starts tossing and turning in her sleep, the looming shilouette of a gigantic building taking shape in her dreams.

She's back at the vampire mansion right in the middle of things falling apart. Literally this time as there's a constant down-pour of rubble and furniture falling out of thin air constantly. Small fires all smoldering all around, illuminating the scenery around Sara. In the distance her team-mates are struggling against a horde of vampires and each other, but this time she's not feeling the desperate determination she did during the actual mission. She feels anger and a grim kind of purpose to wipe out whatever is standing in her way. No sensibility or desire to try and make sense of the situation.

Drawing from the substance of the building she grows as the walls behind her start to collaps from being robbed of their foundations. Letting go of all restraint she spreads through the remains of the mansion, the walls twisting and turning, sharp stalgmites shooting from the ground, indiscriminantly impaling vampires and her team-mates alike as she hovers over the scene on a stone pillar, the building crumbling down into a crater of shifting stone, grinding and skewering anyone caught inside the expanding vortex.

The earth itself starts shaking around the almost insignificant seeming form of Sara rising out of the center of the crater, cracks and fissures appearing all around the landscape, littered with the remains of her friends and enemies alike. With a shattering crunch the whole crater suddenly sags and falls apart, Sara tumbling down into the black pit it crumbles into. Falling among mangled bodies into the darkness she catches sight of Will among them, almost crushed and torn beyond recognition, looking at her with an expression of absolute terror set in his dead eyes.
With a wailing scream she jolts up in her bed, tears streaming down her face.

[Will Stanton]

Will was having a nightmare.

He was walking down a dark and spooky corridor, peering into a dimly lit room far ahead. A sick, repeated, wet sloshing sound could be heard from up ahead, as he walked forward, brushing away spiderwebs as he went. He came across one of Nina's probes skittering towards him as he walked; he deftly brushed it away with his foot as he entered what appeared to be large parlor. The source of the squelching sound soon became clear, as Nina was there, hunched over...something, the probes skittering around.

"God, you're late. I've already started; get over here," she mumbled. Will smoothed out his white frock as he moved to the other side. Morphing his arms into fine blades, he began to aid Nina in a vivisection. He slowly peeled the skin off of muscle and bone of the legs, ignoring the screams of agony and pleading from the general head-region. Unwrapping the skin like a series of bandages, he snips some off and sets it aside, and goes to work separating the muscles from bone, severing tendons as the voice howls in pain and blood splatters all over his apron. He takes apart the foot, bit by bit, meticulously cleaning each bone and placing it in it's own separate baggie as Nina excuses herself to run some samples on the large quantity of blood she's drawn out of the pleading patient.

Will moved on to the other leg, and then up the body, separating what was once a human being into a series of flesh, bones, muscles, and organs. He cracks the ribcage with ease, and cuts out the heart as the voices plead, beg, anything, just stop, stop, stop it now. He regards the organs, unfazed, making sure to carefully label each one and place it in it's own bag, finally moving up to the head.

Sara lay there, looking up into his eyes and he picked up her head. "Please, Will, no, you can't...for the love of God, stop, please, you're killing me..."

Will cocked his head to the side, shrugged, and formed two large blades out of two fingers, plunging them into Sara's eyes in order to pull them out again, snapping them out as she screams and screams and screams...

Will shot up, screaming, in a cold sweat.

[Jayda Nightridge]

Jayda opened her eyes to find the bright lights of a trucks headlights bearing down on them, a blaring air horn bellowing through the night, a sudden crash sent her legs through her chest, her father was screaming in unrestrained pain and then there was silence.
She could feel her lungs filling with blood, their little car by the side of the road a burning wreck, the pain was excruciating as she both burnt and drowned in her own blood, she couldn't breathe. Every time she exhaled the blood bubbled out of her mouth and nose, she had one hand that was strangely free and she reached it out to touch her fathers face. As she stroked her finger tips down his cheek she dimly realised that it was no longer attached to his body and it rolled across the bench seat they shared. She couldn't even scream and the pain when the blonde haired man pulled her free was as if she was being torn limb from limb...

She was walking through an empty lot, car bodies littered the area and the sound of a train whistle drew nearer and nearer. Tears streamed down her face and she was covered in bruises and burns, her recent round with her stepmother had involved the woman taking a cheese grater to her tattoo in order to remove it. The pain was excruciating, especially when the woman continually poured drain cleaner over the wound to cleanse away her taint. Jayda's leg was broken at the thigh and she pulled herself forward with the aid of a makeshift crutch, the rumble of the train growing closer... "Daddy.." The impact with the train shattered every bone in her body, her face collapsed in, her teeth smashed through her lips and her limbs were torn off by the wheels of the train...

Tied to her bed, this time they'd taken razors to the tattoo's, sliced the skin off like they were peeling an orange. Steel wool covered in bleach had scrubbed every inch of her flesh until she was raw and bleeding, she was blindfolded but it had slipped and she could see them now standing over her. They had crucifixes and holy water, barrels of it blessed by their guru.. water boarding they called it on television and when she refused to scream, had crawled so far inside her own head that she was probably never going to come out they took one of those metal crosses and branded her, beaten her to the last moment of her life, taken it and violated her in ways and with objects that horror movies dared not mention, all in the name of their God..

She'd fallen asleep, supposed to be watching Rhi while the girl slept, now her eyes opened up to find a stranger standing over her. He'd somehow found them in amongst the boxes at the back of the derelict building, two seemingly innocent girls. Jayda had risen to her feet to protect Rhi when she took a syringe full of air to her back, she'd managed to grab Rhi and port the girl away before the air bubble reached her heart...

Con kissed her, softly and sweetly, then he was singing.. some old song her father used to play as he hacked her up with his axe, she could feel the excruciating pain as he severed her limbs but this time she didn't cry out or worry, the pain was a familiar friend and she embraced it as a lover, it lifted her up until she felt complete....

Jayda uncurled, she was naked and now found herself standing in the world post-apocalypse. Everything and everyone she had ever known was gone, every shred of everything organic and all that was left was the empty cement shell of a city. She climbed the remains of a staircase up to the top of a building that was nothing but a hollow shell and she stood for a moment, naked against the skyline before swan diving off of the top... She uncurled, she was naked and standing in a cement city, post-apocalypse....

Jayda sat upright, her heart racing in her chest, her hand going straight to the knife she kept under her pillow. After a few moments she lay back down, her mind filled with thoughts of being alone forever as she finally drifted off to sleep...

[Byrna Cooper]

Bear was tossing and turning...

A lone female figure was standing atop a rock-bare mountain peak, covered in a ragged, filmy black tarring of clothes. She slowly stirred a seething cauldron, a pungent smoke emanating.

Below her, in the valley below, people were playing, working, going about their day, unaware of the figure above.

Finishing the stirring, she reached into the cauldron, removing a wrigging ball of darkness. Lightning quick, she wound up and released, throwing the sphere at a vampire skulking in an alleyway. THe vampire disintegrated, throwing black entrails in every direction coating the alley in chunky blackness.

Reaching in again, she drew out a rainbow colored ball, the different hues swirling and flowing. Again, she drew back and released, the ball hurtling towards a certain rainbow haired Japanese girl walking across campus.

Her rainbow head collapsed like a ripe cantaloupe, bits of brain and bone dripping to the walkway as the tiny figure collapsed in a heap.

A feathered ball was launched towards a winged, flying male figure, sending him plummeting into a lake of fire.

A scarred, scaly ball took out a bipedal, onyx dragon, severing his torso from his legs.

She let go at several, dozens, hundreds of unknowing people below...

And then the dark figure reared back, revealing bloody, empty eye sockets. and she laughed, and laughed, and laughed...

And then, Bear awoke with a start. Screaming, she ran to the bathroom and retched in the toilet.

[Juma Ngomo]

Juma is having a nightmare.

A dark from prowls the night-time streets and alleys of London. It flickers from form to form, sometimes skulking on four legs, sometimes on two, sometimes taking flight, all in pursuit of a frightened quarry.

As the prey scrambles along, blood drips onto the pavement from scratches and gouges already inflicted by the predator. The stalker follows the trail when sight is momentarily lost but inexorably draws closer to the target. Taunting calls echo through the air, seemingly coming from all directions, and the prey starts to become lost in fear and panic.

The quarry finally makes a fatal mistake, tumbling down the embankment of the Thames and ending up in a heap at the water's edge. Shadow-swift, the hunter pounces, pinning it's target in place. A break in the clouds above reveals the full moon, shining down on the face of a young mutant, obviously terrified.

"Why me?" he asks, struggling in vain. Juma snarls out a reply, "You have something I want." And then, with almost delicate deliberation, Juma begins to feed.

[Calvin Strong]

Where am I? Why can't I move? Where... what's happening to me?

He couldn't move. He assumed he was laying somewhere... but he couldnt' get up. He couldn't move at all. He couldn't SEE anything. What... what happened? Had he lost function in his bionics?

A cold fear washed over him... but it didn't feel cold. In fact, it was easy to push it aside. That seemed wrong... it shouldn't be so easy, should it?

"Good news, Calvin! We've done it!"

What? They'd done what!? Could he see again? Could he move again? Had they fixed him?

"Of course we've fixed you. We've finally integrated you fully with the institute's computer systems. We're going to bring you online right now."

Suddenly, Cal could see... from several angles. Angles that could move independently of each other.

Cameras.

The cameras all swiveled quickly in panic, finally focusing on a man he recognized as a technician from the lab he'd been experimented on at. Oh my... what the hell is he doing here?! What's happened to me!?

"You've been upgraded, Calvin. We've finally freed you from your body. You won't have to rely on inefficent computer-to-biological interfaces anymore"

Another camera came to life... and Cal saw his body. Sensor inputs told him that it was...

Dead?!

"Not dead, Calvin. You've been upgraded. You've transcended!"

Time seemed to lose meaning to him, as he was brought in and out of the computer's memory. He saw people come by to see his body, and finally saw it taken apart, the bionics recycled for other uses, his biological body incinerated. His mind was a part of the computer system now, set to problem solving, security issues... whatever people needed him to do. As time went on, he grew less and less passionate about his condition... and when his friends finally started dying of old age, he almost didn't notice. Decades passed, he was used more frequently at first... and then less and less frequently, until one day, a new face entered the room with all the cameras, where he'd first come online in the system.

"This system is being decomissioned," he told another technician that followed behind a moment later. "It's too inefficient... not worth recoding. That whole bank over there... jsut shut it down, we'll wipe the drives later, if any are worth salvaging."

Calvin's eyes turned back on as he thrashed about on his bed, finally coming up into a sitting position. Oh my god... oh my god...

[Trinity Cleaver]

The girl in the mirror was the epitome of the English Rose. Ice blue eyes that were somehow warm despite their colour, blond hair rolled perfectly into a bun, skin the colour of ivory lightly dusted by rosy apples on her cheeks and a perfectly pink pout that turned up into a delightful smile. Her height and willowy figure made her perfect for modeling and she had turned down several offers, she had long known where her future lay.

She picked up a picture frame and smiled at the picture within. An elderly man of the church and his homely wife, surrounded by her three burly brothers, rugby players all of them. Abraham as black as Heathcliffe, Caleb with his Swedish looks and Elijah ginger and freckled, their arms wrapped around each others shoulders goofy grins on their faces. She set it aside and slipped her feet into the black sensible shoes, smoothed her hands down over the long pale blue skirt that perfectly complimented her eyes and after a moment ran her now shaking hands down the length of her habit.

Picking up the rosary she headed out to evening mass, Sister Mary Dolores.

[Winston Sharpe]

Winston hadn't been able to sleep, he'd twisted, turned, swapped ends of the bed but couldn't find the comforting embrace of deaths llittle sibling. In a foetal postition, his teeth chattering his fingernails back till they hurt, Winston began to feel a familiar feeling envelop him from the inside, Morgan? Winston began to tremble violently and buried himself under his blanket.

It was pitch black beneath the blanket. Winston could slowly feel the bed dissapear from under him, his perception of space shifted so he was huddled upright, clutching his knees into his chest. The surrounding darkness glared at him with a sense of immense power, such that Winston felt like an ant before a god. Winston sank slightly into the floor, which he found to have a jello like quality, but he was too terrified to move and instead allowed himself to slowly dissapear.

It was harder to move in this new darkness, harder to breathe, harder to think, Winston couldn't even wimper lest his mouth fill with the substance and choke him. His eyes hurt, but they still instantly turned to the figure as it appeared before him, releasing itself from the darkness, Morgan?

Hey there Win...welcome back, yet again.

Winston couldn't open his mouth to reply and instead closed his eyes and tried his hardest to force his thought speak through to her, Morgan! Where has the lake gone? The mountains? What is this place?

Morgan smiled and thought back as she began to circle him, Why Win, I told you before, remember. We're in you, it was all made by you as much as by me, we're still at the lake, having walked a full circle around Win, not at all being hampered by the darknesses substance, she stopped before him, bending over so her face was an inch from his, we're just beneath the surface.

I...I don't get it?

Of course not, you're stupid. You are stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, STUPID! Morgan practically sung the word over and over, her voice echoing with that of countless others, sounding like a chorus of spite and hate that burst within Winstons head.

...no I'm not he thought back meekly, his ears had started to bleed and he was trying desperatly to fight back tears.

Really? Morgans smile widened as she stood back up, Let's go see where you've fucked up. The darkness opened itself to Winston, a million thoughts, a million images, a million voices, a million memories and a million regrets surged into him and he screamed. He wailed and screamed and cried and the dark poured into his open mouth and tore him apart.

Winston rolled off his bed, covered in sweat and shivering. He wrapped the blanket tighter around himself and stared with eyes wide with terror at Calvin.

[Simon Kipling]

Simon gave Chloe a peck on the cheek and straightened his tie as he walked out the front door of their modest rural home. His fairly-new model Audi made good time along the picturesque winding roads through the lovely English hamlets toward the city. He spent his day in his expansive corner office with gigantic old oak table talking with clients and looking over submitted blueprints with an approving nod. He had lunch at an expensive restaurant with the executives of the business whom he delighted with his stories and jokes. He drove home and was greeted by Chloe's beautiful face and a wonderful home-cooked supper and the smiling face of their son, spending the night with her embracing him closely and warmly.

Simon leaned in to give Chloe a kiss but was scolded, saying he'd be late to work. He rushed out the front door of their suburban home, getting splashed by a passing car as he waited for the bus. The ride was stuffy and cramped. He spent the day in a dismal cramped cubicle, his eyes strained and hands sore from revising blueprints. He ate lunch from a vending machine and his coworkers avoided him at the water cooler. He missed the bus home and had to wait for a later one. His TV dinner was cold and left on the kitchen table, their three children were screaming and fighting with each other. Chloe slept on the opposite side of the bed with her back to him.

Simon was pulled out of his kennel by the leash around his neck. The scientist clipped the other end of his leash to a treadmill and forced him to run on all fours until he stumbled and fell. He spent what felt like days crammed into a tiny cage amongst numerous other cages, forced to solve simple colour, shape and symbol puzzles. He drank from a filthy water bottle that never seemed to get washed or changed, most of his food pellets knocked onto the floor by one of the monkeys in a neighbouring cage. The other scientists snickered and whispered to each other about him as they took their notes. He was placed on a giant wheel with electrodes plastered all over his body and forced to run until he felt like his heart would explode, his body shocked with electricity every time he slowed down. He was shoved back into his kennel and taken back to his cage. Chloe glared to him and straightened her labcoat before turning off the fluorescent lights, leaving him alone in the middle a room filled with screaming winged monkeys.

Simon sat upright in his bed, his body covered in sweat and gasping for air.

[John Hino]

John smiled at Ayami across a table as their waiter delivered their dinners. For a moment his view was blocked. When he could see again... she was gone.

Ayami?

He ran down a street.

AYAMI!

He ran into her dorm. A brown-haired Caucasian woman and a half-Japanese girl were there.

Mom? Sis? What are you...

Their necks are bleeding.

"You failed us."
"You failed her."
"You can't save anyone you love."

"I... I can... I have to..."

"They'll all die. One by one."

The part to reveal his father hanging by noose.

"One by one," his father moaned.

A darkened figure held up Ayami's severed head.

"One... by... one..." it said, teeth gleaming in a predatory grin before leaping at him.

John woke startled.

Just a dream... just a dream...

[Victoria Valentine]

It was a bright, sunny day. Victoria could tell that before she opened her eyes. She sighed, opened her eyes, meaning to head over and close the curtains.

Strangely, she found herself on a fluffy couch, in a brightly colored room. There were playful puppies running all over the place, rolling and playing with each other. Smiling people danced around to happy pop music playing from... SOMEWHERE, she couldn't really tell where. Girls wearing cat ears were running around, talking about "kawaii" this and eating pocky.

She hurried over to a bar, finding not a trace of alcohol, but lots of over-sugary, non-caffeinated drinks.

Looking around, she found that there was one thing this happy, bright place was lacking.

A door.

Oh my god, I'm in hell...

[Kevin Gravis]

Kevin found himself tied to a chair in a dark room, blinded by a single overhead lamp.

"Who are you."

"Kevin Gravis."

He is slapped.

"Wrong! Who are you?"

"A future chef and member of the X-Teams."

He is slapped again.

"Perhaps you aren't hearing me boy... Who. Are. You."

"I DON'T KNOW!"