[ Anne's Dream Realm — Viviane's Fog ]
Tok!
Ti crawls as gunfire deafens.
"DANIEL!"
Spoiler
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Anne's scream breaks through, washing over him like an ocean's wave. Just as well, she spills out of her sweater before he can even breathe, faster than he's never seen before.
He can't think.
In the madness of their chase, his world tips over in a grand flash.
...
Then, everything dims.
'Mom?'
There's only darkness, his thoughts, and a beating heart pumling through his head. He swallows slowly, trying to contain his panic.
But, when was the last ti he heard such terror in soone's voice? For Anne, it's possibly the first. He rembers Amy similarly reaching out when he was on a bike at six, tipping over, and slamming into concrete like the uncoordinated brat he was.
Every kid has that kind of accident once, but Amy... she was frantic when it happened.
So, was that happening again?
...Or, is it worse?
"Da..."
He gasps.
Sothing other than his heart rings.
"D...iel!"
In ti, a muffled cry breaks through, along with a high pitch that threads through his ears. Daniel winces as the darkness slowly recedes around him, gray taking its place.
"Daniel, sweetie, are you alright? Are you alright?!"
Anne's voice shakes him amid the sound of sizzling. He groans first, blinking twice as his vision and hearing adjusts to the damp air. His sli mother focuses through a fog, partially lted as her wavy hair droops against him, pupils shrunk with fear.
His brows furrow.
"M-mom? What...?" He turns his head before his eyes snap wider. In one corner, he sees the blue sedan flipped on its side, steaming, glass shards everywhere amid the cracked road. The nearby traffic lights where they were supposed to turn flicker, sparks flying out within the haze.
Glancing down, he finds the lower half of his sli mother lted, wrapping around him like a cocoon. It doesn't take him long to understand his situation.
"We were... hit?"
"Oh... sweetie..." Anne's gel softens, her eyes relaxing. Without any care for their surroundings, she brushes his hair before squeezing him closer to her chest. "Thank goodness.... Mama was so scared!"
"Mom..."
If Anne wasn't there with him, what would have happened to him?
A cold sweat drips down his neck. 'I would be fine in the real world... right?'
Despite so doubts, he can't downplay Anne's motherly instincts. Whether he would wake up in the cabin or not, she didn't think anything else but his safety. Gritting his teeth, he holds shafully against her breast.
'Shit! Is this all I can do?'
Both here, Nico's spell, and how he was equally taken under by Victor at the clinic—all showed a level of power beyond his depth.
Anyone's depth, for that matter.
Wallowing in helplessness, his pupils shrink as motorcycles fade from afar. Jerking within his slick containnt, he pulls away. "W-wait, where is Moth-"
SPLICK!
"Ugh! H...help... she's..."
A pained groan answers in the distance, marked by a spray of blood. Anne and Daniel focus toward the source where the silhouette of his other sli mother rises from a puddle, plunging a sword-arm through a biker's stomach as she reforms.
Daniel blinks, unable to help compare it to the image of Nimue embedding her sword through rlin.
"Damn you all," Viviane hisses. She pulls back and throws the gang mber down before turning towards their direction. Her naked steps patter hastily through the haze, her form increasing in definition. "Daniel, Anne! Please be...!"
In a short breath, the elder sli's shoulders drop imdiately as she enters visible range, catching the two escaped of the downed car. The urgency etched into her face dissolves. Her mind settling, she pushes through the thick air, collapsing on top of Daniel.
"Urgh!?" the artist holds his breath as both sli mothers squish him to their bare chests.
"Oh, thank god!" Viviane chokes, squeezing another part of his face into her bare chest. "Mommy is sorry, child! The rocket ca too fast! I was able to deflect it, but the blowback..."
The artist grunts, flailing. "Mmmgh! T-this isn't the ti! Those guys are still here!"
"Haha, damn right we are!" a voice booms.
The humvee roars, and with it, the chugging of the bikers on each side as they enter range. Their guns aim readily at the family as the goggle-wearing leader rises from tank, snorting. He passes his smoking RPG to a loader behind him.
"Now, look at this touching scene," he taunts as the n around chuckle. "Gotta say, it's impressive you've managed to hang on this long, but this is the end of the line for you freaks. Nobody gets to pass through our territory so freely. You think we're a charity?"
Daniel's pupils shake, staring between his sli mothers as they keep him close. 'They're not even fazed by the fact Anne is lted all over , plus they can tell our relationship. Are they aware they're in a dream world?'
He'd love to ask if he weren't being threatened and squished by the naked forms of his mothers. Compared to his reservations, his silver-haired sli mother scoffs more easily.
"Shut up... You're all just shitty movie characters from our vague mories," she mutters without looking their way. With her bare back to the gang, her hand slides to Daniel's head, tracing the fibers of his hair along with Anne's digits. "Yet, you dare try to harm my child?"
More sweat drips from Daniel's neck by the steel in the elder sli's voice.
"What was that?" the leader raises, leaning forward while holding a hand to ear. "Hear that, boys? Looks like we made Mommy..."
SHLING!
"...mad?"
The leader's lips stiffen as howls break from his n around. His goggles shine, even in the fog, reflecting the tons of tendrils whipping out of Viviane's back without warning. They puncture his n like the edgy marks they wear, giving way to drops of rifles. Within seconds, at least thirty or more characters utter their last as the tendrils retract, letting their bodies thud and engines idle.
The sll of blood and fus thicken the air.
Daniel's breath staggers as he's holds still; although, it's not that he has much choice. Unsure whether to feel good or bad by the slaughter, he shuffles his gaze as his pale mother kisses his head so easily. It's as if her monstrous flexibility were just a normal part of her motherly affection.
Less affectionate, her eyes then lift, staring daggers at the gang. "At the very least..."
SPLICK!
The artist shakes as Viviane's shoulder bulges. Instead of releasing more tendrils, a clone splits out with gooey strings, one arm swiping itself into a gelatinous blade as she faces the rest of the gang.
"...you're all staying still!" the clone finishes, dashing forward.
The leader takes a step back, clenching his teeth with sweat down his side. He jerks behind to whover is left. "What are you doing?! Fire!"
Wake-up rounds flash within the fog like lightning as the clone wades through, bullets passing through her gelatinous body without stopping her montum. anwhile, the original snaps to Anne. "Take cover behind the car!"
"R-right!"
Keeping her son inside her gooey mass, Anne slides with him behind the tipped-over car while bullets bounce around them and screams fill the air. Viviane trails close, her hand morphing into a gel shield for added protection while her clone goes on the offensive. She senses herself slicing through more n like swiss cheese, her length extending wide.
'To think these guys would give so much trouble. It's so much easier now that they're grouped together,' she thinks.
Swallowing for a mont, Daniel wiggles within Anne. "O-okay, you can let go now. I'm fi—"
"No!" Anne huffs, burying him further into her chest. "You're staying inside Mama until we're through all of this!"
Bloodied cries, slashes, and gunfire continue in the background.
Viviane nods. "Bullets are passing through my clone as we speak, child. Can't say it'll be the sa for you."
" being airbagged by you two doesn't help either!" Daniel counters. "Look, there's no telling how many more n will co. Better if I help...?"
Daniel's words slow, noticing how the screams on the other side has suddenly faded. He furrows his brows.
Viviane smirks at his confusion. "You were saying?"
"Did you..."
"Almost," she cuts, glancing behind. A few more bullets break through the silence before ending with another dying grunt. With that, Viviane hums, smiling. "Now we're clear!"
'I don't know who's more terrifying,' Daniel thinks. He swallows silently. "Um... What about the guy with the RPG?"
"He's alive. As much as I want to kill him, I'm aware he's the only enemy different from the rest. We'll interrogate—"
"AAAAH!"
A desperate cry cuts through, pushed along the revving of an engine. Viviane's silver orbs shrink as one blooded biker breaks to their side, his tires ready to smash toward Anne and Daniel. She pushes forward to protect them, but...
SHLICK!
Her mouth opens silently. Anne moves instead, pressing Daniel close to her with one hand. She looks away with her eyes closed, her other hand instinctively extends out, as if she could stop it all.
She can.
The mohawk finds this the hard way, a gelatinous pike through his chest, lifting him off his bike. While he screams his last, Anne's lower mass stretches out from Daniel coverage to swat away the bike into the nearby sidewalk, sputtering out like the rider.
"You...ugh..."
The biker's final draw of breath pushes Anne to open her eyes. Seeing that she and her baby are unhard, she slowly turns back before gasping. With a corpse stuck to her morphed arm, her body had moved before she could realize. All she could think of was protecting Daniel. Seeing the biker skewered as Viviane had done, the sli mother stares blankly by her actions.
"Oh..." After a few monts, she breaks from her daze and drops the corpse, her arm reforming in a snap. Her eyes follow her once-transford hand, the blood that she had captured fading away. "That was... easy?"
"Mom?" Daniel pushes, muffled. He wasn't able to see Anne's first kill as she kept him covered, but he can feel sothing had changed.
Anne flinches, and lowers her gaze to him with a weak smile. "M-mama is okay! Don't worry, I... I handled it."
Daniel finally understood. "I see..."
Viviane frowns before shutting her eyes. "Damn it all."
Anne follows her sister's frustration. "Viviane..."
"I'm the one with a warring past," she declares. Opening her eyes, she smiles bitterly. "Yet, even in dreams like these, I can't stop it from reaching you guys."
"No, no!" Anne waves, snapping even further out of her stun. Although they lack sensations, she pushes a hand to the elder sli's shoulder, her olive eyes firming. "I know you don't want us to feel like we have to fight. We're a family, though. As his mothers, aren't we supposed to fight for our child in every way possible?"
Daniel stares flatly. "Guys, I appreciate your overwhelming love and protection, but is this really the ti?"
Viviane sighs, straightening. "It can't be helped right now." She motions to her side. "For now, let's see what information we can get from this asshole."
"I'm actually surprised you didn't kill him."
"That will co later."
"Urgh! Let... go of !" a deeper voice growls.
Sure enough, Viviane's clone fades into view, tendrils rising above and wrapping the goggled leader in the air. Turning the corner of the car, she slams him down before them.
"Ugh!"
Viviane extends her arm out, reabsorbing her clone. The wrapping tendrils are left behind, reattached to her hand as she keeps the man grounded.
"Now then, who are you?" she demands.
The man coughs a weak laugh as he's lifted to his knees. "Just my luck."
"Hey, that's my line." Viviane's about to slap the man around, but Daniel stretches out of Anne a little.
"Wait! Is it , or... does he look a little familiar?"
"Does he?" Viviane pauses mid-strike, cocking her head. She looks at him, twisting her lips. "Well, let's have a better look; see if he's as empty-eyed as the rest of the goons."
Pulling off his goggles, the man grunts as his head snaps forward for a bit. A second later, he lifts his head, gritting his teeth.
The slis and Daniel flinch.
Along with his square face and short black hair, the details of his upper face unexpectedly reveal blue eyes. As Daniel studies the man more, he inhales sharply.
"That... that's my high school gym teacher! Mister Gregor?!"
"Ah, you're right!" Anne adds, straightening as she filters through her son's mories.
The man spits out to the ground, snarling. "Who the hell is that? The na's Kader, you fucks!"
"Kader?" Viviane raises her brows, then recalls the na ntioned from Mary's perspective. "Oh, that's even better!"
Her appendages tighten around the man, causing him to squeak as she crouches to his level. Her other hand pulls tightly against his hair. "You wouldn't happen to know the area you left to investigate... you know, the one where you heard so noise earlier in so broken art school?"
Holding a more battered appearance of Daniel's forr gym teacher, Kader's eyes widen as the tendrils encourages him along. His face falls. "How... How the hell do you know about that?"
The elder sli snorts. "Wouldn't you know, seeing how you and your n still ca after us despite witnessing everything I can do?"
"Woman, you're not the craziest shit I've seen..." He glances over to the subrged Daniel and holding Anne. "Uh... well, maybe you are."
Viviane closes her eyes to a smile. "I can do so pretty crazy shit to you, if you'd like."
The man pales. "O-okay, I-I'll talk! I was scouting in the East where—"
"Stop right there," she cuts. "Directions aren't going to help us in this fog, although..." Viviane hums. "Actually, can I even probe you?"
It wasn't an ask, letting her tendrils wiggle their way up to the man's head. Shaking violently as he tries to lean away, it's only a matter of ti before he screams, wiggling like a worm.
"W-what are you doing?! St... stop! Stop!" he begs, his voice adding a pitch.
Viviane doesn't heed, curious enough as she tries to let her sli seep through the Kader's head to learn what he knows. If she can gain information through these dream characters, it would make their journey a lot of easier.
'Huh?'
Except, there's nothing.
"I'm sorry!" Kader cries, pupils wrapped with fear. Unaware of his head being accessed, all of his bravado has completely disappeared. "I... I can bring you to the boss! We can co up with sort of deal... or even, with your powers, I'm sure you could even take over!"
Anne and Daniel cock their head. Seeing the man still conscious makes them wonder if Viviane is hesitating. That's far from the case as Viviane clears her throat, letting her tendrils retreat.
She will have to consider the observation later.
"Your boss, aning Glador, right?" she follows. "Is he the biggest warlord in charge?"
Kader flinches. Seeing how she's giving him a chance, he breathes a little. "We're in charge of the East side, but compared to us, the biggest would be Arturo, who controls far more of this city."
Daniel blinks. "Ooh..."
Viviane turns to him. "Rember anything else from the movies?"
"Well, the na rings a bell. If he's the biggest, he's definitely the main antogonist who would topple the city to find the Temporal device." He squints. "I think... he also left smaller proxy gangs around? Glador might be one of them."
Kader's eyes widen. "W-what? Boss isn't—"
"Anyway," Viviane cuts, returning to him. "We really don't care for you or your boss. Just take us to where you were scouting."
BRRRR!
Another engine echoes in the distance, turning heads.
"Damn it, already?" Viviane clicks her tongue. She switches to Anne and Daniel. "Let's grab his car! We'll take him with us."
Daniel and Anne nod. The forr is about to press his sli mother again to release him, but feels his body lifted instead. Her goo begins to wrap around his legs, reforming as her own.
"Wha...!"
Anne harrumphs. "You're staying inside Mama. That's final."
"But—"
"Daniel! Anne! Viviane! Are you there?!" a distant cry interrupts. The rumblings of the engine with it draw closer.
Everyone stiffens. Anne continues flowing along Daniel like a suit, but she forces both their feet up as they walk out to the road.
Her green orb shimrs. "That's...!"
"Gwak!"
The rumblings of the engine sputters out.
With his head beneath Anne's chin as she covers him, he stares out blankly before sighing. "Yep, that's Mary."
Viviane hauls Kador over before turning to the humvee and many bodies lying around. "Well, that saves us so trouble. Let's see what kind of ss she's made while we were searching for each other."
With bad movie setting, past people filling roles, and the hot pot of mories that might appear like a ghost, "ss" couldn't even begin to describe the effects of their rging.
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