Chapter 6 - The Several Strangers (II)
Dahlia felt impossibly light as she was surrounded by a clouding darkness that felt like she was helpless in arguing its appearance. She was falling through this pitch black smoky darkness but it didn't touch her body. Rather it was aligned, co-existing with her uniqueness compared to the swallowing void she finds herself in.
As it kept hurling her through the space she could feel two hands clamp down on her shoulders and grip them tightly and a face pushed through the smoke. It was a dark face, darker than the darkness around her and the lips of the face pulled itself up to her ear as it whispers into them.
Show me something that's worth my attention.
Dahlia snapped awake, she was initially panicked, waking up in a place she didn't recognise at first before she realised that she was on the Deadbolt. That yesterday was real and what she just saw was a dream… wait does that make sense?
Didn't Alice say that we are in the Plane of Dreams? Then what happens when you dream within dreams?
Dahlia thought through this paradox a while before deciding to ask Alice about it later. She gets washed in the bathroom, following Alice's instructions on how to use the facilities. She dresses in her suit dress and decides to tie her hair back in a straight ponytail that dangles off her head.
She exits her room and turns to see down the marble hall, Tsumi leaving through one of the other doors as well.
"Ah Dahlia.", he walks up to her, a slight mess in his hair, "How did you sleep?"
"I slept fine, Mr Hato. Please tell me, what would happen when you sleep in the Plane of Dreams?" she inquired.
"Ah, you're wondering if you dream? Well you don't, instead your brain enters a stasis." he answered.
He explained that dreaming doesn't exist in the Plane of Dreams, Dahlia asked herself what it was she saw then.
If that wasn't a dream then, what was it? A vision? A message?
Tsumi studied Dahlia's face, "From the looks you have evidence to the contrary."
"I do, yes." she affirmed with a nod.
"Sometimes you can get nightmares."
"Nightmares? Aren't those still dreams?"
"No, there is a Plane of Dreams and there is a separate Plane of Nightmares. At least that's what Alice has told me, she knows the most about the Plane of Dreams I think of anyone." he surmised whilst scratching the back of his head.
"Thank you. Do you know where Ms. Karnac is?"
"Probably in her lab, going up there now. Want to come with me?" he suggested.
"Yes, if you wouldn't mind."
The two headed to the atrium where it is empty besides the bar from before. As Dahlia continues to follow Tsumi, they remain on the second floor and enter a door facing the stairs going down. It's a large door that seems to not actually be made of the burgundy dreamweave but instead cold metal.
The man knocked on the door harshly, "Alice! Me and Dahlia are here!"
A few moments stretch on before the door twists and opens with a heavy thud vertically, allowing the two inside. Stepping in the room was a big chamber with a high roof. The walls, floor and ceiling were all covered in a black metal that reminded Dahlia of the darkness. There were three levels to this room. The top level which they were on, a sub level that was exposed and smaller in the centre of the room and another sub level smaller than that, making the layout of the room similar to that of a hexagonal cone pointing down.
In the middle of the inverted cone was a tall obelisk of black metal, not the same as the walls though. It had strange carvings all across it and was wrapped in red, blue and yellow chains. The pillar stretched down the cone to the bottom floor where the chains followed. Across from the space in the floor where the obelisk was, Dahlia could see several different machines and glass containers with strange lifeforms inside as well as shelves with various different objects; No two that were the same as the other, same for the tomes upon tomes that were stacked and scattered around the floor.
There were floodlights pointed at the obelisk as well as small coloured lights from different machinery and tubes going into the glass containers giving the impression to Dahlia of an alchemist's lab. Across from Dahlia to the other side of the room, behind the obelisk was a desk where Alice and Rika were working on a small stone. Tsumi continued to walk up as Alice looked up to greet them.
"Hello Tsumi, hello Dahlia. Are you ready for the meeting and the injection?" she queried.
Tsumi grabs two chairs from around the room and drags them to the desk, "Yep, Dahlia are you ready to have this done?"
Dahlia could see the small rock that Rika was focused on. It was a
"Hooh, there we are. Ready for you Dahlia!", Rika took the rock and placed it into a small metal object that seemed to be similar to a syringe but was more in a pistol form.
Dahlia spoke warily, "I am still unsure but if it is safe then I'll allow it."
"Great!", Rika climbs over the desk and immediately grabs Dahlia's head and angles it so that the left side of her skull is facing Rika. She then rests the pistol to the side of her head before she assures Dahlia that it will sting.
"3.. 2.. 1… There!"
The small sound of the click undermined the sudden piercing pain in the side of her head. As if she suddenly had a headache focused in the space above her ear. As soon as the pain arrives though it quickly dissipates, leading her to feel more at ease.
She feels nothing else; at least for now. "Is that it?"
"Yep!", Rika puts down the pistol and gets off the desk and stands up. "If that's all then I'll be on my way back to my stuff!"
Alice looks to Rika, "Yes that will be all Rika, see you later."
Rika runs out of the lab, the door opening where Lemon had walked in, followed by a stump. She saunters in and moves towards the desk and speaks, "Not late am I?"
"Nope just on time.", Alice replies as Lemon sits on the stump and it moves right up to the desk.
As the three were now at the desk, Alice clapped her hands together as she picked up a glass square and set it down in front of them.
"Now that we are all here, let's get to the mission at hand!" she declared with veal.
"Excuse me.", Dahlia said flustered, "I thought I would need more training before my mission?"
Alice smiled subtly, "That's the best part. This mission also doubles as your training!"
"Oh boy.", Tsumi uttered, "You're not really going to have her go through with what I said last night are you?"
"Last night?", Dahlia asks.
"Our objective..", Alice says, "..is to prevent the invading faceless from gaining access to a means to open a gate between Orange Earth and World 42, A.K.A. Polaris!"
"A faceless?" Dahlia pondered.
"Yes! A shapeshifter belonging to the Orange Earth. We detected them touching down there and Tsumi found out where their target is."
As Alice was about to continue, Tsumi interrupted and asked Alice, "Can you explain to Dahlia first on the Three Hives?"
"Of course!" Saltu, Alice summoned a white board and grabbed some stray markers and began to draw three dots. One orange, one green and one purple before drawing several dozen black dots scattered around the board.
"So! The Three Hives. Starting back a few hundred thousand years ago, three hive minds were born into existence.", Tsumi explained to Dahlia that a hive mind is a single mind in control of several other lifeforms.
"These hive minds were called the Orange Earth, the Purple Sea and the Green Sky. They are all sworn enemies who have been feuding since their primordial birth!"
Dahlia draws lines between the orange, purple and green dot to the other black dots. "After conquering their own world they started to jump to others through people's dreams and after that began building their mind across said worlds, from tribal civilisations to advanced super planets, very few were a match for a complete Three Hives invasion."
Alice continued, "These three hives each have a different form of control and different ways to get it."
"The Green Sky is a collection of sentient mana that has the power to corrupt and manipulate others under their power. Most of their hosts normally die but those who live are practically strong enough to conquer armies. They like to funnel their mana through the Plane of Dreams in the hopes that someone abuses it and as such open a hole big enough for them to breach their dreams and enter their world."
"The Purple Sea is a living virus that desires to destroy and rot all life in the universe and turn it into a permanent state of decay. They don't kill anything, only decay it to the point of a constant state of rot. Their guys aren't that smart but are very strong and durable not to mention they can rot anything. Flesh, steel, wood, cloth, minds and even ideals. They cross worlds by sending the instructions on how to create their virus in the form of dreams across the universe to replicate themselves."
"Finally the Orange Earth is an organic machine that produces flesh endlessly where even a cell is sentient and thinking. They want to spread their biomass across the universe to unite it as one huge body according to its programming. They make monsters do their bidding and cross worlds by sending brain waves through the Plane of Dreams to control someone remotely and transform them into a faceless creature, usually to crack open a gateway between them and the main body."
Dahlia stared at Alice nodding and was intently listening but it was obvious she had a lot of questions, mostly to restate what she had said so she could understand it. Tsumi summarises it promptly:
He summarised Alice's words, "Ones made of evil magic, ones made of disease and one is a bunch of living skin. "
Dahlia takes this all in and begins to ask Alice a question, "So what does a faceless do?"
Alice perks up, "A faceless is a very proficient shapeshifter capable of mimicking people down to the genetic level. They will try to find a way to open a gate between one of their worlds and the world that the faceless is on."
"So how does it open a gate?"
As Alice was about to speak Tsumi is the one to answer, "It depends, they can't do it themselves so they search the world they are on to find a way. Sometimes it's a portal made by science, others it's a magic teleportation, most of the time it's an artefact."
"Yes Tsumi! The faceless will likely try to find a way to open a gate using the resources at hand! And with Tsumi's intel, there is only one place in World 42 where it's possible."
"The Polaris International Academy."
Lemon immediately groaned out, "We are not doing the nuclear family guise again are we?"
"Seems we're going that route.", Tsumi said.
Dahlia looks back and forth between Tsumi and Lemon before turning to Alice, "What is a 'nuclear family guise'?"
Tsumi says, "A nuclear family guise is what we do when we are infiltrating a world discreetly for a while. Some of us, usually me, Samuel, Lemon and Rika go down to play the part of a normal family while we get our mission done."
"Wait did you say Academy?", Lemon asks, "Why do we need three of us if it's got dorms and stuff like that? Shouldn't it just be Dahlia?"
"The academy is on an island.", Tsumi says, "The academy also has a city and has the family given citizenship to it. Also I imagine we don't want Dahlia to have her first mission be a solo act."
Dahlia feels excited, not only is she going to a familiar environment but it will be a chance to use her power without persecution, she hopes, "I am very familiar with academies, I was attending an academy in the capital of my kingdom."
"Yours isn't like this..", Tsumi states, "Your academy is magic based, this one and this world doesn't have magic."
"How do you mean?", Dahlia asks, unsure what he meant.
Alice jumps back in, "Why this world is filled with a mutative gene that allows a small minority of the world to be able to use… superpowers!"
As Alice explains the world and the genes that cause the super powered people, Dahlia makes a realisation.
"If these 'genes' are the cause of the 'superpowers' then wouldn't the Orange Earth be able to mimic that?"
"Precisely.", Tsumi says, "Meaning it'll be even harder to find them because they'll blend in like a grasshopper in a meadow."
"How long will this mission take?", Lemon complained.
"A month, maybe two.", Alice replies.
Lemon rested her hand on her head as she dreaded the prospect of having to keep up an act for a whole month, "Why can't Rika play the mother?"
"The island the academy is on x-rays all of their new citizens, they will notice something's off with Rika.", Alice says.
"Yes and also Dahlia blends in better with her power than trying to fake one with Rika."
Lemon leaned off the stump, realising that her way out is gone and now accepting that her next month or two are going to be tiring. Alice resumes and begins to explain to them details about the academy, their identities while there and tells Dahlia what can be used to identify a faceless.
"A faceless is seemingly impossible to distinguish from a normal creature but there are flaws! Firstly they have a higher body temperature than a normal creature they mimic. They are also immune to most poisons and diseases. Finally they can't procreate due to their limited biomass."
Alice wrapped up the meeting, Lemon leaving the second she was dismissed. Before Tsumi could leave though Alice stopped him, "Can you bring Dahlia to the training hall?"
"Sure." he replied.
The two then left Alice in the lab, the doors sealing behind them. Tsumi then showed Dahlia how to get to the training hall from the atrium and there, the tall red winged man was currently running on a treadmill at a jog. He notices the two enter, clocks it and then continues his jog.
The room was large and contained a variety of different work out equipment from weights to rowing machines to treadmills. Most of the equipment appeared to be of different brands and types and were completely mismatched in their style. A room sat to the side where changing rooms were.
Dahlia looks to Tsumi and asks him, "What are we here for Mr. Tsumi?".
"Well I imagine Alice wants you to get some work in to build up your stamina, Gregortz!", he shouted across the room to Gregortz who slowed down and looked over to them again.
"Can you show Dahlia the facilities here, you know it more than me."
Gregortz slowed down on the treadmill and removed what seemed to be two buds from his ears. The two approached him and when they finally arrived, the man gruffed. "No."
"Oh come on, big guy. It won't take long." Tsumi pleaded.
Gregortz groaned and jumped off the treadmill while it was still running, "Only a tour."
"No issue here. I'll see you later Dahlia, I'll be in the atrium if you need me.", Tsumi left, leaving Dahlia to the red man.
As Gregortz pointed out the machines and explained them in three words or less he made the whole tour as fast and efficient as possible. Once done he jumped back into the still moving treadmill and brought it back to his usual speed.
After Dahlia was left to her devices, she changed via the side room into a blue tracksuit. She was still unsure of the machinery but she didn't want to ask as she felt she was already annoying Gregortz enough. She went to one of the exercise bikes and observed it. She wasn't sure what this device could be and firstly tried to climb on.
While she does recognise it as a bicycle she had never ridden one or seen one like this. After she was on, she followed what her knowledge served and proceeded to try and bike but the pedals were stuck.
She proceeded to try again and again only to just barely push through a slight turn of the pedal. Gregortz got frustrated with each attempt before he switched off the treadmill and marched his way over to Dahlia who was desperately trying to get even an inch more of the wheel turning.
"This needs to be turned on before it works." he huffed lowly.
Dahlia hadn't noticed he moved until he spoke causing her to jump as she looked up at the towering man.
"Ah- Well…", she was nervous, this man looked like a demon in everything but horns. He didn't even sweat yet he radiated heat. She followed his advice and looked at what he could mean but still couldn't figure the bike out.
When her obvious confusion was realised, Gregortz reached up and switched on the workout bicycle by a button on the handlebar. Quickly Dahlia moved the pedals and after getting used to the movements for a moment thanks Gregortz.
"Thank you, Mr… Gregortz."
"Hmmph.", Gregortz stepped back. He returned to his treadmill but stopped when he looked at Dahlia one more time. The girl found the seat uncomfortable and constantly shifted in place before Gregortz spoke once more.
"Your seat is too tall."
"It.. is?" she nervously yelped.
Gregortz grabbed a nob under her seat and adjusted the height of the seat. As the lock was released she felt the seat fall under her but was being held up by Gregortz. He slowly adjusted the seat so that her legs were close enough to not struggle for the pedals but not close enough to not need to stretch for them.
Soon Dahlia was riding the bike more comfortably and began to pedal properly. Gregortz took a step back and looked her over before he got annoyed again and left the training hall. For a few minutes Dahlia was on her own, afraid that she may have upset him; she was always told that demons are monstrous creatures and that they are the ultimate enemy against humanity.
Please don't come back…
She continued to pedal and became more and more nervous, she almost jumped when she heard the door open again and the heavy footsteps of the red man coming back. Dahlia pedaled harder and began to sweat as she could hear him coming right towards her.
Right behind her she was about to turn to beg for her life before he had shown her a small rod wrapped in a green paper like material and a bottle of water in the same material.
"Here. It's obvious you haven't eaten yet." he offered the two items.
Once he put them on a bench near her he moved back to his treadmill and started it up and began to run.
Dahlia was exasperated, "Did.. what?"
She looked at the bottle and rod and she got off the bike and picked them up. The rod was a solid bar made of grains that had the word protein visible on it. Dahlia took a bite; she could feel herself getting energy and the water too had something in it that made it fresher than even the spring water she would only taste when her family would be hosting the duke's family.
Dahlia looked back to Gregortz who was focused on his running. Dahlia finished the bar and went back to work on the bike. Whilst she worked out, she wondered more about Gregortz.
Maybe he isn't as he appears… Wait, is he even a demon?
As Dahlia watched the red man she noticed under his arms, beneath the arm pits were three scars. Holes that have healed over. In fact it's the only mark on his skin that she can see on his body.
Maybe he isn't as bad as he looks.