The Seekers: Comic Book Fanfiction from Iron Rod Studio & Avengers 2000

#11 - Lord of Nightmares

What has come before... Jennifer Kale has been thrown in the Nightmare dimension after closing another portal. The remaining Seekers have returned to their base with Bruce Banner and Wayne Martin.

Jennifer slowly rose to her feet. The creature known as Nightmare had vanished, as quickly as he had appeared. She looked around her, feeling a knife poised over her head that she could not see. Stop standing here, and just get out Jen.

The landscape around her convulsed before she could act on the thought, throwing her from her feet again. She gasped as her injured arm hit hard. She sucked in a breath and blinked away the tears of pain. What she saw next brought forth another gasp, this time of surprise.

It took her a moment to get her bearings. She was standing on a huge table. One made for a giant. The tea cups towered above her. The plates were large enough to form ice rinks, and the aroma of food was strong enough to leave her drooling. Her stomach grumbled making her aware it had been a very long time since she had last eaten, and that had only been a bag of chips.

"Hey! Dipstick! I don't have time for this!" she yelled.

"Tut tut!" boomed a thunderous voice in response.

She looked up in time to see a figure in an oversize top hat, with the price sticker in place, placing a tea cup over her. Then darkness fell and she had to duck to avoid the bottom of the cup smacking her on the head. "The Mad Hatter? He stuck me in Alice in freakin' Wonderland?" she screamed. "This is supposed to be a nightmare? Give me a break."

With that she unleashed a spell that sent a bolt of force smashing into the side of her makeshift prison. The cup wobbled precariously and Jen ducked out of it before it could topple. She was expecting to see the table, and the Mad Hatter, but instead she was in a forest glade. The trees were closely spaced, and the light was filtered out by the canopy, leaving a perpetual gloom on the forest floor.

"I've had enough of this nonsense," she said through gritted teeth. The pain in her arm nagged at her, but she started the incantation to open a portal back to the Seekers building.

The sound of something crashing through the undergrowth behind her made her turn but she doggedly continued the spell. The creature that stepped out of the forest broke her concentration. The rabbit was man-sized. He was completely white and wore a white vest. A pocket watch

was clutched in one hand and black umbrella was in the other.

"You have to be kidding..."

"You're late! You're late! For a very important date! No time to stop, no time to lose, you're late, you're late, you're late!!!"

He jumped on the last word and as he came down a few feet from her he swung his umbrella. Jen ducked in time, but the return swing caught her in the stomach and sent the wind rushing from her. She staggered backwards trying to suck in enough air, so she could send something nasty the way of the rabbit. Her heel stuck a root and she tipped over and came down hard on her rear. The slope was enough to send her rolling and she let out a scream as her arm was banged time after time. It was silenced as she hit the water at the bottom of the hill.

Splashing frantically she got her head above the surface and pulled in a huge lungful of air. Her feet found the bottom and she stood, the water cascading off her, and leaving her t-shirt pasted to her curves.

"Ooh la la," came a voice from the lone tree on the bank.

Jen looked at it, but initially could not see anyone. It had been a long time since she had read Alice, but she could not remember anything about a talking tree. That was when she spotted the large red mouth,

with bright white teeth floating above the largest branch.

Slowly, the figure of Nightmare coalesced around the smile. He was lying, stretched out, on the branch.

"It's been so long since someone actually came here to visit. I'd like to make it a stay you won't forget."

"Listen you sick freak. I don't have time for this. Find some one else to terrorize. I'm not interested, and you keep this up and I'm going to..."

"Now, now, now," he cut in over her tirade. "I know you have somewhere else to be, but after all, you did visit, and it wouldn't be nice to leave without paying your host some respect would it?"

"Respect," she shrieked. "I'll show you some freakin' respect. Respect this!"

She sent a blast of ebon energy at the Lord of the Dimension. To her utter amazement it dissipated some ten feet from him.

The grin remained in place, but the tone was much less friendly. "You don't get it do you? I'm not just some little demon you can push around. I'm the Lord of the Nightmare Dimension. You're in my home. Do you really think you can do anything to hurt me here?"

He jumped down from the branch and stalked towards her. To her

credit, Jen remained where she was, waist deep in the stream.

"This isn't your precious little Earth, where you have the upper hand. You might be able to beat gimps like Fannin down there, but you're way over your pretty little head up here."

"Fannin," Jen interrupted him. "What do you know about Fannin?"

"Lots, but that's for another time. Where was I? Oh, yes, I was about to give you a demonstration of what you are dealing with."

With that, he expanded. In an eye-blink he was more than thirty feet tall. At the same time Jen noticed the stream changing and she looked down to find herself trapped from the waist down in a glittering ebony material.

Nightmare raised one massive foot and placed it over her head. "I could squash you like a bug right now. But I'm not going to. Where would be the fun in that?"

He squatted down on the ground in front of her, so that his face was no more than five feet from her. Jen gasped, and tried to hold her breath as his fetid breath washed over her.

"First we're going to have some fun. No, actually, to be honest, first I'm going to have some fun. Then, maybe, in a couple of hundred years, I'll

let you die."

He faded away, with the Cheshire cat grin being the last to go, leaving Jen standing in a stream once more.

Next: The Seekers try to work out where Jen went, while discovering the danger they have invited into their midst.

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