Dyllan ripped his Justice out from the crack it had embedded itself in, letting out a loud, sharp shout as he did so. A kiai, his Judo teacher had called it – a breathing technique that focused the user and startled the opponent. Of course, it took more than a shout to startle anyone who’d been properly trained in martial arts, so Dyllan sometimes wondered if his teacher had just made that part up after some of the students refused because it “made them look silly.”
Putting memories aside, severing the connection between Dyllan’s bat and the energy vines had worked just like he’d hoped. The vines faded away, but the damage they’d done remained.
And there had been a lot of damage – enough to get him thinking. A pissed off Nightmare stirring up all the hate-goo inside a mindscape, dog ears made from Will to Live, and a dreamwalker that could channel multiple abilities through the same piece of themselves… this whole situation was reminding him of something. No… of someone. Finnegan. And hadn’t Finnegan had a third ability?
A bullet the size of a man’s fist whizzed past Dyllan’s head, followed by a proper lead hailstorm. Most missed, but one nicked Dyllan’s right arm, and another hit his left leg. His injuries weren’t debilitating, but he was still leaking burning red Will to Live. The same color as his new forcefield, as well as the energy vines and the fires they’d caused. No time to dwell on that now, though. Dyllan felt a new force welling up within him. The same force that he’d felt after Andie tried – and failed – to clearly explain how she’d done “that thing where she ran on fire.”
Back then, Dyllan had let the force bubble up and flow through him, let it guide his words and movements. It was how he summoned his shield for the first time. Now, as he let himself relax, a new set of words and movements came to him. “Right the wrongs -” Dyllan shifted his stance and pulled back his Trait, doing his best to imitate the movements Andie used whenever she was up to bat. “- my Justice!”
A note from the author:
Dyllan’s Nightmare is about to learn the difference between a dreamwalker and a fledgling dreamwalker… the hard way.