by Gareth Otton
A sense of helplessness washed through Tad like he hadn’t felt since Swansea, and the fingers on his left hand twitched. He might have been more helpless when he was locked in the dreamcatcher on Brad’s ranch, but he didn’t have thousands of lives waiting for him to act then.
“I don’t know what to do,” he admitted, struggling to see a way through this. His mind just wouldn’t piece together the clues he needed to end this nightmare.
He could call in Rodney and double his strength, but what would that help when there were hundreds of the creatures and he could only affect them in small groups. Even if he could use all his strength and affect them on mass, he couldn’t think of a way to do that without hurting the people who were caught in this madness.
No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t think of a way out, and that lack of success was swamping his mind and sending him down dark thought spirals that might have continued until a familiar but unexpected voice called his name.
“Tad,” Tony shouted as he stepped through a frightened woman, doing nothing to help her terrified state. “There you are.”
“What are you doing here?” Tad demanded, even as he turned his attention back to the birds, hoping for a flash of insight that might help.
“As soon as I heard what was happening, I decided to bring some help.”
At the mention of help Tad gave Tony his full attention, wondering who Tony might be talking about. At first he didn’t understand as he didn’t recognise any of the people who were circling around him, some looking determined, others looking frightened, but all of them waiting on him. Unlike the rest of the people in the crowd, they weren’t panicking and running around, no matter how terrified they might be. But Tad got his biggest clue about their identity when a large circle of open space appeared around the edges of the group, as the frightened crowd didn’t want to get too close. It only took a second to confirm his suspicion with his dreamwalker senses before he looked back at Tony.
“You brought ghosts?”
“As many as I could get from the Phoenix,” Tony agreed, grinning fiercely.
“We’re all here to help,” one woman said.
“Just give us something to do,” added another.
“Tony... I can’t merge with—”
“There are other ways ghosts can help,” Rodney interrupted, reminding Tad of how he had protected him just a moment before. “This is good news, as those blades won’t hurt a ghost. These guys can help with crowd control and keeping people safe while you figure out a way to deal with those.”
He pointed up at the sky where the pigeons were gathering yet again, ready to do their deadly attack once more.
“Deal with them, right,” Tad muttered. “Anyone got any ideas on how I do that. At the moment there’s too many of them and there’s only one of me.”
“There’s Trevors and his people out here, we saw a few of them,” Tony said. “Maybe they can help.”
“They’re too spread out,” Rodney disagreed. “There’s no way to get to them all in this chaos.”
“Then it’s the same problem as the dragons, right,” Tony said. “They’re all over the place and we can’t get to them, so bring them all to you.” Something of Tad’s panic must have been leaking out through his gaze as Tony looked at him funny and said, “Tad, you’ve dealt with bigger stuff than this.”
“But all these people,” Tad complained.
“Leave them to us,” Tony said, his voice steady. “We’ll work with Trevors’ people and keep everyone safe. You just handle the nightmare. Come on, you can do this.”
“I know but—”
“What would you need to end them all at once?” Rodney interrupted.
“What? I don’t—”
“What would you need?” Rodney interrupted again, his voice like the crisp bark of a drill sergeant. The direct question forced Tad’s mind to search for an answer. He pushed aside the doubt that had been fighting him and forced the gears in his mind to start turning again.
Like the dragons, Tony had said, and Tad started thinking about what he did back then. A wind wouldn’t work because these things would just get up and fly off again as soon as he stopped the wind... not to mention he didn’t have a hundred giant fans and a stadium handy.
He felt the panic take hold again, but he forced himself to think.
Forget how you’re going to get rid of them when you get them to you, just concentrate on bringing them to you first.
The thought sparked other thoughts and ideas in Tad’s head, and when he met Rodney’s eye, he knew what he had to do.
“I need an open path and as much space as you can get me between those birds and me where people won’t get hurt when they come flying at me.”
“Got it,” Rodney barked. Spinning to the ghosts, he started issuing orders. “You, you and you. Head through the crowd that way, turn people around and concentrate on driving people in that direction. If you see any of the Dream Team on your way, get them to help.”
He repeated his directions to another three ghosts while pointing in a different direction, then again to three more. Finally there were only Tony, two other ghosts and Rodney himself left.
“You three, stick close. We’re clearing a path, then keeping the space around Tad as free as possible. That means you’re catching any stragglers that the others miss and you’re stopping anyone coming this way. Remember, everyone, you are ghosts. These people are almost as afraid of you as they are of these flying things. If you need to, use that to get these people moving. Act like sheep dog with sheep and nip at their heels to get them running. You all got that?”
One by one the ghosts nodded, then Rodney sent them on their way before turning to Tad.
“You going to need me for strength?”
“No, I’ll help with that,” Tony interrupted. “You stay out here and direct the ghosts. You’re better at that than me.”
Rodney nodded, not wasting time with false modesty and falling into the role he had chosen for himself, starting to move people away. Tad had a moment to look at the ghost and remember why he was here, that he wanted to help people, and for a second was a little overwhelmed by the single minded focus Rodney could have at following a goal. Memories that weren’t his own flashed through his mind, but Tad pushed them aside as he didn’t have time for that right now. Instead he channelled Rodney’s focus using his Proxy abilities to calm his own mind, and then he mentally called out for Tony, who collapsed into mist for Tad to breathe in.
There were the usual benefits of merging, but Tad ignored them as he felt a surprising sensation from the ghost. As Tony’s memories merged with his own, Tad was overcome with a fierce determination that he had never felt from the ghost before. The usually flighty presence was completely focused, and it took only a second to realise that Tony was thinking of the ghosts he brought with him and his reasons for doing so.
The image of the twins jumped to the front of Tad’s mind, child ghosts forced to move on before their time because of a world that was not ready to accept them. Other faces came to mind and for a second Tad was overwhelmed with Tony’s passion to see justice for these ghosts. He wanted to punish those responsible, but realised that it would only make things worse, so he had turned his attention to making things better for the ghosts. He surmised that people seeing ghosts helping during dangerous situations rather than causing them, that he might just be able to change people’s perceptions. Tad had never felt anything so strongly from Tony before and wanted to analyse these thoughts more, but he had a job to do.
He returned his attention to the situation at hand and concentrated on getting those birds to come to him. Tad looked over to a nearby gift shop on the other side of the street, then changed the channel.
He appeared just outside the shop and looked in through the window. At first he couldn’t see what he was looking for, but then he spotted the rotating stand near the tills and again he changed the channel, this time appearing inside the cramped store.
He looked for the largest magnet he could find, which was about the size of a drinks coaster with a photo of Cardiff castle on the front. Then, not prepared to waste even a second, he changed the channel and appeared in the same spot he had vacated just a moment earlier, once more in front of the castle’s main entrance.
He may have only been gone for seconds, but the ghosts had not been idle. The gap around where he was standing had grown so large that if he erected another shield, he wouldn’t be able to save anyone. More than this, Rodney was doing his best to open up a corridor of empty space in front of him. Tad had to hope it would be enough.
Sucking in a deep breath and preparing himself for the mental strain that was going to come from this, Tad focused his attention on the sky.
It might have been his imagination, but it looked like the flock of birds had doubled in size, like there were more nightmares being created even now. He didn’t have time to dwell on that though, he instead had to focus on the fact that it looked like they were getting ready to dive again and he didn’t have long to act.
Once more he went for a familiar trick, though this time he was pushing what he thought he could achieve. He was tempted to call Rodney to get him to help, but he decided against that. Out of the corner of his eye he could see Rodney directing other ghosts about their job, shouting at frightened people to get them to move, and bringing order to the chaos. That was far more important than a bit of help.
So Tad focused once more on the surrounding air, and hoped he had enough strength to do what needed to be done. For the second time in just a few minutes, he waved his arms to stir up the wind.
Reaching for that door in his mind, he pushed on it harder than normal, calling over a flood of Dream. The disturbed air around his hand flared into a gale that howled as it rushed away from him. This didn’t go towards the crowd, but into the sky as Tad pointed at the outermost edges of the birds.
At first it looked like nothing happened, and Tad worried they might be too far away for him to have any influence. But slowly those birds on the outside of the group started to show the effects of flying against a strong breeze and they did what Tad hoped, they moved towards the centre of the flock.
Once the first bird moved, another soon followed, then another, then another. The effect doubled with every passing second until there was a cluster of birds grouped extremely close together. However, they had also adopted their disc shapes and were dropping out of the sky, falling out of the range of Tad’s wind. But it didn’t matter now because Tad had them where he wanted them; in a direct line with the path that Rodney and the ghosts had opened.
Letting go of Dream, he fished out the fridge magnet he had retrieved from the shop and started building a new image in his mind. Dropping the magnet on the floor in front of him, he took a step back to clear the path, and then focused all of his attention on that magnet, or more precisely, its connection with the metal birds.
I should have looked for a stronger magnet, he thought to himself, but knew it was already too late for second thoughts. Still recovering from using so much Dream to power up the wind, Tad threw himself at the door in his mind again, and this time pushed twice as hard.
Dream flooded into the image he built that focused on two things; increasing the friction between the magnet and the floor to hold it in place, and to increase the strength of that magnet by as many times as possible. Unlike the wind, this time his efforts were instantly noticed.
Those falling discs of metal changed direction. They were still falling, but now all of them were headed right for Tad. It was like a giant pack of predators had caught sight of their prey and were acting together to bring that prey down. As terrifying as that sight was, Tad continued to focus on the magnet on the floor and keeping his power flowing into it.
Out of the corner of his eye he noticed the ghosts were still hard at work getting people out of the way, but they were running out of time. The discs were descending faster than ever and they were following a straight line along the path that Rodney was helping to clear. Anything caught in the way of those discs would be killed instantly. Even with all their work though, Tad saw the odd straggler, as these people weren’t cattle and they refused to be herded. Growler did his best to deter those who weren’t listening to the ghosts, but even he wasn’t enough right now.
A part of Tad faltered at the sight of these people, wanting to call off what he was doing and wait for them to get to safety. But he also knew that he didn’t have the strength to do this a second time, and he needed to act now. He had to trust Rodney, Growler, the ghosts and Trevors’ men to get people to safety before the discs were upon them.
As the metal came closer, the pull of the magnet only intensified on them and sped them up. Soon there were hundreds of metal discs screaming through the air on a collision course with the ground in front of Tad. It was at this point that Tony asked an excellent question.
Do you have a plan for when they get here?
A moment later he accessed Tad’s memory and his next question was asked much quicker and with more panic.
But what do you plan to do to keep yourself from getting hit by tons of falling metal?
Understanding rushed through Tad and he realised he had missed a vital step in his plan; his own escape. It was too late to worry about that though, as already the first of the discs were coming in close. It was well below the height of an average man and where it whistled on by, there were hundreds more close on its tail, a flock of silver missiles heading right for the magnet at his feet.
The pressure in Tad’s head was growing unbearable as the magnet wasn’t a strong one, and it was taking everything he could muster to intensify its strength and keep the birds coming. However, a quick glance up was all he needed to know that he had done enough. Even if the effect of the magnet vanished, those discs were going far too fast to change direction.
He breathed a sigh of relief as he let his grip on Dream go and struggled to clear his head for the final part of his plan. Distantly he heard pained screams as the discs took yet more victims, people who weren’t smart enough to listen to the ghosts, but Tad ignored them. His entire world was the oncoming wave of metal, the first part of which was beginning the transformation back into a pigeon with wings spread wide to slow itself down.
It wasn’t enough.
It collided with the tarmac of the road with such force that the screeching sound of metal striking stone was intensified to ear shattering proportions. Tad wasn’t listening though as he was focused on the sparks that it made as it collided with the surface. Using the last of his strength, he took one of those sparks and poured all the Dream energy he could into turning that spark into a bolt of lightning carrying with it the power of Dream.
Moving at the speed of light, the impossibly bright streak of lightning consumed the first bird, overloading its core and banishing the nightmare before jumping to the next and doing the same. In the space of an eye-blink the lightning forked and forked again as it jumped from one metal conductor to the next, rushing through the entire wave of nightmares and killing them in an instant.
It wasn’t every day that Tad stood next to the source of a bolt of lightning as impressive as this one, and therefore he wasn’t ready for what came next. The lightning was so hot it super-heated the surrounding air, forcing the molecules to expand violently. Just like it does when lightning strikes in nature, that expanding air created a peal of thunder. However, unlike in nature, this thunder originated mere feet from where Tad was half standing and half swaying after having spent all his energy creating the lightning in the first place. It turned out that this same sound that burst his ear drums also saved his life.
The sound hit like a shock-wave, hurling him from his feet and flinging him backwards, away fr
om the tons of razor sharp shards of metal that hadn’t yet had chance to turn back into the pigeons they had been created from.
Tad hit the floor twenty feet away from where he left it, groaning and in agony. He wasn’t out of the woods yet though, as the blast had only given him a slight reprieve from the shards of incoming metal.
Inside his head both Thomas and Tony were screaming at him to move, to reach for Dream, to do anything to save himself, but Tad was done in. Not only had he used up all his energy on the birds, but he was still reeling from the aftermath of the thunder. His insides felt like liquid, his body was one massive bruise, and his ears were nothing but agony. Even if he wanted to help himself, with the loss of his ears came the loss of his equilibrium and the world wouldn’t stay still for him.
He was in so much pain that he barely even noticed the impact of another body colliding with his own, but he felt the moment the real world vanished and Dream replaced it.
The ghosts in his head finally stopped screaming at him and he could already feel them getting to work on healing the damage he had taken, starting with his ears. Thanks to having two ghosts inside him, he was being healed at a rate about a hundred times faster than human normal, so it wasn’t long before his world stopped spinning and he got his balance back as the fog in his head cleared, though he still couldn’t hear anything.
He blinked a few times, but here in Dream it wasn’t his eyes that fed him the answers he needed, it was his sense for Dream. He was in his round room, and bizarrely, Trevors was with him. For some reason, bringing that man of all people here felt invasive, but Tad pushed past that as he tried to work out what happened. Had he dreamwalked them here? He didn’t think he had enough strength for anything like that.
“What happened?” he asked, the words not audible to him thanks to his hearing loss, but the meaning of them coming to his mind in much the same way that Dream made up for his lack of vision.