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[color=sandybrown]LOCATION;[/color] DREAMSCAPE/UNREALITY.
[color=sandybrown]INTERACTIONS;[/color] [color=orange]PHOENIX DAWN [/color] - [@ShwiggityShwah] (BRIEFLY)[hr]

"[i][color=sandybrown]No-[/color][/i]"

When his teammate heaved him over his shoulder, he didn't have much space left to complain. It wasn't that he didn't [i]appreciate[/i] that the Dawn was so exuberant and that he loved to act as a personal transportation service but he couldn't help but feel like there had to be a better way. The Dawn was fast and he was efficient, there was never a doubt that they'd get there on time. The Dawn was fast, faster than a car by a long shot but not [i]saner[/i] than a car. 

[i]Normal people took cars[/i], the Sleeper took the Dawn transportation service. He squeezed his eyes shut the whole way and tried not to succumb to motion sickness. There was something incredibly unsettling about being along for a ride that leaped at incredible strength and dexterity to get around. It made him a little sick. It reminded him of middle school and how the bus would go over potholes and the kids would cheer, he [i]wasn't[/i] one of the kids that cheered. 

When they finally hit their destination and the sound of wind wasn't roaring in his ears, he opened his eyes. The battle had already began. Victory had beaten their team to the field and that was fine by him, they could hold their own pretty well. Wraith had left before any of them and already seemed to be handling the damage control. That was good, everyone had their eggs in a basket and he had nothing to worry about. He just had to focus on what he did best. He had to [i]dream[/i].

When the Dawn gave him his orders, he saluted him like a nice little defensive partner. "[color=sandybrown]I already have a strategy at the ready.[/color]"

The Dawn was off on his heroic mission before Silas had even finished his sentence. He watched him go, always a little in awe of how well the man worked. Honestly, the teams in their entirety was a bit awesome. They all knew what they needed to do and they accepted responsibility with arms wide open. He only liked working for New Horizons because he was helping people, it was what he'd wanted to do from the moment that he'd discovered his powers.

He had to stay on the sidelines to use his power, it involved a lot of being still and if something came at him while he was in a trance then he was as good as dead. He carefully moved to a quiet place behind a car, hoping that a hundred and so pounds of steel could conceal him from any of the metallic animals that were terrorizing the city. He settled onto the ground, folding his knees underneath him and reaching out to the conscious mind of the Zookeeper.

It was harder to work into the mind of a person who was awake though, it was like trying to thread a needle. He could [i]do it[/i] if he tried, it was just a complicated task. He had to find that one weak spot that he could infiltrate, a tiny part of the person that was tired or bored. Maybe the Zookeeper hadn't slept so well last night in excitement and anticipation of his crime, maybe he just needed a little push to take a nap and join Silas in his realm. When he found the weak spot, he chipped away at it.

It wasn't easy. The Zookeeper was focused on his task and that was keeping him awake. It took some time and it took [i]all of willpower[/i] but Silas finally got the thread through the needle. The Zookeeper would immediately start to get groggy, the way someone might if they had been about to take a light nap on a couch. It was comfortably warm and the dreams would be immediate and vibrant, a picture of perfection. Dreams always grew more vibrant when Silas was around. The colors in the dreamscape would become very saturated, it was a way of warning the sleeper that something was afoot. Fortunately for him, not many people were good at lucid dreaming.

He chose a dream that made the Zookeeper happy, Silas always went for happy dreams first. It was easier to keep someone in REM if they weren't stressed out immediately. The Zookeeper wanted the usual things that villains did, his fifteen minutes of infamy. He wanted to be on top the food chain, he didn't care what he trampled on his way there. He was very proud of his robotic animals, he had made them himself after all. He was too busy basking in his dream victory to notice the skinny boy that was standing off to the side. 

He didn't have the time to sit here and pinpoint every hair that was out of place on the Zookeeper's head. "[color=sandybrown]I guess it's time.[/color]" 

That was the first time that the Zookeeper noticed him, he looked startled at the appearance of a strange young man in his dream.

"[color=sandybrown]You either call off your mechanical monstrosities or this place is going to get really unpleasant.[/color]"

Of course, this was just a dream to the villain and in a dream, he was always the winner. If some scrawny, twenty something year old kid wanted to threaten his new emperor then he would pay the price. The animals descended towards him, the metal creaking and groaning loudly. He would have been scared, if he wasn't in a dream. Dreams were his realm, they were the only thing that he could control. The raucous cry of the bird overhead was what caught him off guard, [i]he'd forgotten the bird[/i]. He dove down as metal talons scraped into his back, his arm defensively covered his head.

It was hard to balance between two dreams, it was like splitting himself into two but Phoenix Dawn was projecting for him. 
[i]Big, fire breathing tigers.[/i]
Sometimes he loved Phoenix Dawn.

He heard the roar before he saw the beast, evidently the bird had heard it too because it wasn't lifting him up and dropping him through a dream building. He peeked over his shoulder and he could see the animal. It was beautiful, oversized and exotic with glistening amber eyes. It's coat was glossy and it looked nearly golden in the ruddy lighting of the dream, others were materializing to join it. They were quite an impressive army.

He rolled to his feet gracefully, ignoring the searing pain in his back and directed them forward. Soon, the area was filled with the sound of claws scraping through metal and metallic screeching. The sound of flame roaring out from the jaws of the lions and metal warping from the intensity of the heat. The bird was circling overhead in a panic, unsure of which of the tigers to target.

It gave him time to focus on twisting the world around him. Now that the Zookeeper was trapped in REM, he could pretty much do anything that he wanted. He was basically God here. He started with changing the scenery a bit, something more [i]disturbing[/i]. The place aged around them, the buildings crumbling into nothingness and the trash building up around them. It began to reek immediately, the smell of rotting trash was burning into his nose. 

[i]Maggots[/i] that were the size of small dogs were writhing free from the trash piles. They had gaping maws that were full of tiny needle teeth and they were squirming and wriggling to get closer to the man. They were developing as they moved, stretching and evolving tiny little legs until they resembled white, disgusting, oversized centipedes.

They were pouring over the Zookeeper instantly, tiny legs scraping at his flesh and insect mouths biting into his skin. They wouldn't kill him, Silas liked to avoid causing damage that was [i]too permanent[/i] but it certainly wouldn't be pleasant. All the Zookeeper would be feeling was teeth cutting into his flesh and scraping, squirming bodies. Smaller insects were emerging around him, busting out of the ground and burrowing beneath his clothing. These insects mostly consisted of cockroaches and spiders.

The smaller insects would start to descend towards his nostrils and his mouth and ears. It was a little bit cruel but Silas did what he had to do to get people to give in.
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