Oh, it's on!

So I was out patrolling again earlier today. Upon returning to the base, I discovered something that pissed me right the fuck off.

We'd been attack while I was out. Maria, Terrence, and Horizon were there, mostly unharmed, save for a few scratches. Ciel, on the other hand...

Oceana had seriously messed her up. She was battered and bruised and totally unconscious.

Terrence explained to me what had happened. Him, Ciel and Horizon had been holding down the fort when Oceana had assaulted them with a huge group of Oathbreaker. Maria didn't show up until a few minutes before I returned.

"How'd you guys make it through that?" I asked.

Terrence nodded in the direction of an open doorway. I looked up to see Hooded Guy standing there, with a great deal of blood dripping from his left arm. Julia was with him, looking quite upset. She stormed up to me and smacked me right across the face.

"This is your fault!" she snapped. "You got him involved-"

Hooded Guy seemed to flash step right up to her and grabbed her hand.

"I got involved by my own free will," he said.

"You saved them?" I asked.

"I tried to," he replied. I managed to force them to retreat, but I failed to help her..."

He weakly gestured to Ciel.

"You did good," I told him. "Things would've gotten a lot worse without you."

"I could've helped, if I had made it in time," Maria said. "I'm sorry."

"Don't beat yourself up," Terrence said.

"Yeah," I said. "I was late too. How do you think I feel?"

Ciel stirred. Her eyes fluttered a bit., but remained closed.

"Ow...," She muttered.

I went to her side.

"How bad is it?" I asked her.

"Hurts like a bitch," she said. "I'll live I guess."

"Where do you keep the good shit?" I asked her.

"Bottom fuckin' drawer...," She mumbled.

I already knew that. But the fact that she still knew meant that she hadn't taken too much damage in that scuffle.

"My leg hurts...," she said, before passing out again.

I glanced at her right leg. There were a shit ton of deep gashes that Terrence hadn't fully finished gauzing up, and one of my old belts was lashed to her upper thigh as a tourniquet. Those sons of bitches...

I stood up, and looked out the window. The sun was so close to setting. Every one else was discussing what to do next, bu I ignored them, paying close attention to the sun.

It finally set completely, and as it did I raised my hand quickly, smacking myself in the bottom of my jaw.

Now, if you saw the post Terrence made about my training regimen, you'll know that I spend a great deal of my free time swinging a lopsided barbell around. And doing that has allowed me to build up quite a bit of upper body strength, which is why I can successfully off a guy with a well executed rabbit punch.

So, by basically uppercutting myself, I quickly lost consciousness. The last thing I remember before passing out was Hooded Guy catching me as I fell backwards.

I awoke in the dreamworld, overlooking a vast valley.

"Daniel!" I cried out, as loud as I could.

He appeared by my side, wearing a solemn expression.

"Have you found him?" I asked.

"I have," he said. "Are you sure you want to know?"

"He hurt Ciel," I said. "I want him dead. Deader than dead. I want to watch the fear in his eyes as I cut his ass down."

Daniel snapped his fingers, and the scene changed.

"I know this place," I said.

"That's why I was hesitant to show you," he said.

"I'm fine," I said. "I can deal with the memories. Anger beats out grief any day."

"I know," Daniel said. "This man hurt your friend. And I know you well enough to know the amount of hell your going to unleash upon him for that."

"You're god damn right," I said.

I woke up shortly after. Maria had been shaking my shoulder the whole time.

"Why the hell did you do that!?" She demanded.

"Had to talk to someone," I said.

I then told them where Oceana was hiding out.

"Are... are you sure?" Terrence said. "I'm not sure if I can handle going back there..."

"Don't worry," I told him. "You've got some time to prepare yourself for it. You're going to have to later, but first I want you to take Ciel somewhere safe, get her good shit from the bottom fuckin' drawer, and treat her wounds properly."

"How long?" He asked.

"A couple days," I said.

"Okay," Terrence said nervously. "I think I can get myself ready in that time."

"Good," I said. "Maria, I need you to stake out the place 'til I get back."

"Get back?" she asked. "Where are you going?"

"I got to take care of something first," I said. "It won't take long."

I looked at Hooded Guy.

"You've done so much for me," I said. "But do you think you can help Maria with the Stakeout?"

For the first time, he tilted his head in a way that fully revealed his eyes from beneath his hood. The pupils were dilated to the point of erasing his irises, the same as Julia's were back at the coffee shop.

"If there's two things I can handle it's combat and recon," he said, smiling. "I'm in."

"But your arm...," Julia protested.

"I'll have a snack first," he said. "Heal up. I'll be fine. What about you?"

She sighed.

"I'll help," She said reluctantly. "Someone needs to keep you out of trouble..."

"Thank you," I said.

So, then I wrote up this post, and I'm about to leave town to take care of... something...

If you see another post from me, it means we survived what I have planned. Later.

Yet another dream

Saw crazy dream Daniel again last night. Had a nice chat.

"So," I said upon seeing him. "Oceana's a Towerborn."

"So he is," Daniel replied.

"How'd you know?" I asked.

"Horizon," he said, as if that explained anything.

"Exsqueeze me?" I asked.

"I've seen her memories too," he said.

"So you've been inside her head?" I asked.

"Yup," he said.

"Are you sure you're not the Grotesque?" I asked.

"Like, 95 percent sure," he said.

"That's comforting," I said. "So, any chance you know where Oceana's hiding out?"

He shrugged.

"I might be able to find out," he said. "Not sure though. Could take a while. Could be entirely impossible."

"You mean getting in his head, right?" I asked.

"Yeah," he said. "You and Horizon are still human, but I've never tried entering a Towerborn's subconscious. The Newborn might be able to block me out."

"So how does that work exactly?" I asked.

"It's complicated," he said. "The best way I can describe it is that I can use people's relationships to form a bridge between their minds. I could cross into Horizon's subconscious because of how much time you two have been spending together."

"And you can get to Oceana's mind through her?" I asked.

"We'll see," he said. "May have to pull some dream gymnastics to make it work."

"Okay," I said.

We stood in silence for a minute.

"Have you ever been in Ciel's mind?" I asked out of curiosity.

"Try to avoid her's," he said. "She is a mean bitch."

"At least you don't have to work with her," I said. "So do you mind if I ask more about how you look into other worlds?"

"I guess," he said. "What do you wanna know?"

"Like, can you connect with anyone's alternate self?" I asked.

"Only if I'm in their head," he said.

"So you're limited to the two of us right now?" I asked.

"Yep," he said.

"Think I could see a bit more?" I asked.

"We got some time before sunrise," he said. "And I do know a good scene you might like."

"Alright," I said.

Suddenly, we were both standing at the edge of a cliff in some kind of surreal nightmare world. In the distance, there was a heated battle taking place between me and... I'm not sure what it was...

It was huge, towering over me. It's head was bigger than my body. It didn't have a face other than it's glowing red eyes, that were constantly flashing with crimson lighting. IT had long black hair and giant bat-like wings. and four arms coated in armor.

And the version of me fighting it had giant, black and red wings, glowing red eyes, and a jagged purple scythe. I was flying around, dodging the giant monster's attacks and trying to slash at its eyes.

"What am I looking at exactly?" I asked.

"That thing killed a bunch of your friends, so you went berserk on its ass," Daniel said.

"Why am I flying?" I asked.

"Something about you gaining Fear powers," Daniel said. "There's a lot of context you're missing. Incredibly convoluted. It'd make a nice video game though."

"Oh, yeah," I said sarcastically. "I'm sure loads of people would get a kick out of that."

The other me continued weaving between the monster's arms, and managed to blind one of its eyes.

"How am I even staying airborne?" I asked. "Those wings don't look aerodynamic at all."

"I dunno," Daniel said. "Magic?"

"And look at what I'm weilding!" I said. "That looks even more impractical than my actual scythe! And my actual scythe is an actual scythe!"

"Pfft," Daniel said. "You should see the blue one."

"What's up with the blue one?" I asked.

"I honestly don't even think that one qualifies as a scythe," he said.

The other me took out the other eye. The monster continued to attack me with its arms.

"So what is that thing exactly?" I asked.

"Powerful," Daniel replied. "Makes the Archangel look like a wuss.

"I refuse to accept that as fact," I said.

"Well, this is only a part of the entity," he said. "I have trouble pronouncing its name."

The other me got in a powerful strike to the monster's head, causing it to shrink in upon itself and vanish, being replaced by a floating, glowing crest, resembling an hourglass overlapping a circle. , and emitting a fierce red light. The other me absorbed some of that light into his body, and raised his scythe into the air, channeling power through it. A bunch of diamond shaped symbols flashed briefly in front of him, for a split second, before he shouted "IT'S OVER!" at the top of his lungs and slashed with his scythe. A second after the scythe cut through the crest, the space the blade had just passed through exploded, and the crest shattered.

"Okay," I admitted. "That looked pretty cool."

The vision ended then.

"I don't have much time," Daniel said. "Sun comes up soon. But once it goes down again, I'll see what I can do about tracking down Oceana."

"Thanks," I said. "Let me know how that goes."

"Sure thing," Daniel said.

And that's about it. I'll keep you all up to date on if we can find Oceana.

Not quite what I was expecting...

Well, I'm over the atrophy now. So that's good. It meant that I could go back to patrolling.

Most of our patrolling goes no where. But this morning was an exception...

I was out with Horizon earlier, and who should we see but Oceana himself. He seemed to be wrapping u some business out in the open with some Oathbreakers.

He spotted us shortly after we spotted him. He bid farewell to his Oathbreaker friends and headed down an alleyway. The Oathbreakers just wandered off.

Horizon made a move toward the alley, but I stopped her briefly.

"Hold up," I said. "You know this is probably a trap, right?"

"I don't care!" she snapped. "I have to go after him!"

"Yeah, same her," I said. "I'd just like to point out that you're completely unarmed. Maybe let the dude with the giant scythe go first?"

"I don't need your protection," she said.

"If you say so," I said. "Ladies first..."

We both went into the alley. Oceana stood a short distance from us with his back turned.

"Brother!" Horizon shouted.

He ignored her, and addressed me instead.

"Good to see you awake, Justin," he said.

"Yeah," I replied bitterly. "Thanks for putting me under, by the way."

"The Oathbreakers only meant to knock you out," he said. "It was the Grotesque that trapped you that way."

"Whatever," I said, drawing my scythe. "Let's settle this already."

Before I could make a move, Horizon stepped in front of me.

"Look at me, damn it!" she snapped.

Oceana looked over his shoulder at her indifferently.

"Stop this!" she demanded. "Come home. Please."

"You know I can't," he said. "I'm not your brother. Not anymore."

"Don't give me that bullshit!" she snapped.

She approached him angrily.

"I know you're still there!" she said, reaching for him.

He turned sharply and smacked her hand away angrily.

"Don't touch me!" he hissed.

She made an attempt to slap him in the face, but he was faster. Before her hand could make contact, he struck her hard enough to send her crashing into the wall, where she slumped down, wounded, but still conscious from the look of it.

"Dude!" I said. "Not cool!"

I charged at him, swinging my scythe, and we began fighting.

"It doesn't have to be this way," Oceana said. "All I want is that watch!"

"You'll have o pry it from my corpse!" I snarled.

A few seconds later, Oceana was caught off guard when a can thrown by Horizon hit him in the head. It couldn't have hurt him, but it distracted him just long enough. I swung my scythe upward, aiming to finish him off. He stepped back enough to avoid getting hit, but my scythe's blade caught his shirt from bellow, tearing through it and exposing his torso to me. We both froze, as I saw what he was hiding beneath it.

Technology. Wires. Flash drives. Microchips. Fragmented motherboards.

All embedded in his flesh.

But the thing that really caught my eye was the Sony PSP, stuck in his chest like some kind f twisted Arc Reactor. A single image flickered on it's cracked screen. The image of a grinning skull, made of solid steel.

"You," I gasped silently. "You're a..."

Towerborn.

I couldn't quite get the word out at the time, out of fear. But that's what he was. A being created by one of the Fears, the Manufactured Newborn. A being whose purpose was to absorb both technology and flesh in order to add to the mass of the twisted amalgamation of living tissue and steel that makes up the Newborn's body.

His eyes narrowed as he glared angrily at me.

"I had hoped to let you live," he told me. "But you've just eliminated that option for me."

Before I could react, several wires shot out of his right sleeve and entangled around me. He lifted me into the air and slammed me against one wall, then the other, then the first one again. He held me there, his cords wrapping around my throat, squeezing the life out of me.

"Stop!" Horizon shouted at him, but he had gone back to ignoring her.

"You said I could pry the watch from your corpse," he said. "Well, I think I'll accept your invitation now."

My vision was started to fade, when a familiar voice pierced the atmosphere.

"BURN!"

I fell to the ground, and the wires holding me fell limp. It took me a moment to process what was going on. Then I realized that the hooded guy was standing between me and Oceana, holding a short, Japanese blade in his right hand, with a reverse grip. The wires that were restraining me had been cut through, and the ends of them were glowing red and smoking.

The two of them stared each other down for a moment, but it didn't last. What came next was a blur of motion and violence, as the hooded guy charged at Oceana, effortlessly dodging through the wires and assaulting Oceana. They fought for a while, with the hooded guy staying close enough to Oceana that the wires couldn't do much against him.

Oceana managed to break away from the fight just long enough to open a rift into what I'm assuming was the Newborn's domain, and dart through, closing it up behind him.

There were a few seconds of silence before hooded guy spoke.

"You should call Terrence," he said. "Tell him to pack what he can and head to your hangout."

"What?" I asked. "Why?"

"You know Oceana's secret now," he said. "He can't afford to let you live. Your hangout is the only safe place for you right now."

So yeah, we're all hiding out now. Maybe spilling the fact that Oceana's a Towerborn to the internet will backfire, but fuck it. Seems like a smart move to me. He want's to keep it a secret? Too bad. IT's out there now. What's he going to do about it?

It's troubling, though. I've always thought Towerborn were mentally dead. Just mindless zombie's steered by the Newborn's will. This is the first I've ever heard of a Towerborn had had a mind of it's own.

And now that I'm typing all this out, something's occurred to me.

Remember a few posts ago, when I was recounting my crazy coma dreams, and Daniel showed me an alternate universe where Daniel was a proxy with a burn scar and I had a badass scythe made out of nunchucks and a sword? Well, in that memory, it was briefly mentioned that the Plague Doctor and the Manufactured Newborn were in cahoots, and had turned the world into a dystopia.

Something similar is happening here.

The Newborn and Doctor are teaming up in this universe too.

That's what Daniel was trying to show me.