Chapter Text
“He isn’t dead!”
He isn’t dead.
not dead
Well he sure wasn’t fine right now.
Izzie just saw her brother get stabbed by a fudging Terror Spear.
They all gathered around Mateo. Izzie kneeling and holding her brother’s hand, she turned it over and felt his pulse.
Alive.
“At least for now.”
Izzie mostly tuned him out, looking at Mateo’s face. It was like that first day. He looked dead. Cooper talked.
“For now? Right- the device. We can still use it, right? It’ll get rid of the…” He gestured to the amorphous spear of darkness lodged in his friend’s chest. He was panicking. And crying.
“The Terror Spear, yes. But we can’t until we *remove* it.”
Zoey flinched just thinking about it.
“I’m guessing we can’t just yank it out?” Logan asked, he was pale. Looked like he might throw up, he’d deal with this later. He had to man up.
Agent Strict joined them, adjusting her glasses “Quite. Only Mateo can- if we tried to do it ourselves we’d be stuck in there with him.” She explained.
Oz continued “Right now Mateo is… sleeping. He is stuck in a nightmare pocket dimension. The one we were all stuck in.” He nodded to Zoey, she didn’t react, just looking at Mateo. Oh those poor kids… “We have to hope he can… face it on his own.”
Izzie looked up. “He doesn’t have to-” She got up and circled around, she grimaced when she saw the spear had also gone through the backpack- she opened it, careful not to touch the spear, she smiled when she found what she wanted “Z-blob! Last time he was in both places too- are you with Mateo, Z-blob?” She picked him up, nuzzling him before he could answer.
She let him in her palms as everyone was now looking at him. He wobbled his little slime head, yes.
“He’s not alone!” She hugged the blob and let out a relieved sob.
Agent Strict adjusted her glasses and exchanged looks with Oz. Truly that boy kept surprising them.
Everyone seemed relieved. Both that it meant that Mateo was in fact asleep and that he was not alone.
–Terror Dimension–
Mateo was… in trouble. Yeah, that was how he was going to describe it.
The moment the Terror Stone… changed. He remembered pretty much everything.
So suddenly that he didn’t have time to think about how turning your back to a… clearly very bad evil thing would be a bad idea.
He just wanted to reassure Izzie.
And he got stabbed- speared? Impaled for it.
Then he was somewhere that reminded him of the nightmare realm. Dark and gloomy. Uneasy.
Evil.
He’d spawned in a valley, the ground cracked and on either side of him spikes of dark rock spewed from it. He heard wind and looked behind him to see… a spear. Looked like his giant pencil actually now that he was looking at it.
He felt his hourglass on his hip and dream crafted his pen just in time to block the spear. The force of it pushed him into the moving rocks, scraping his back and arm.
“Ah!” That hurt-
There wasn’t a lot of time required to realize he couldn’t wake up- and that he probably shouldn’t let that thing touch him.
He grabbed the ledge of the rock and let it bring him up, pushing the spear away. The two growing mountains form a very deep and slim canyon.
He looked up, this wasn’t enough space for him to fight, he looked down and saw the spear fly towards him.
Z-blob jiggled and Mateo crafted him into his bigger form, with a shield. He was so big it was easy to block the blow.
“Up!” He called out to his friend. Z-Blob nodded and they both climbed upwards, Z-blob blocking and blows coming from below.
They reached the top and he was very disappointed that the top of both mountains were made of sharp jagged spikes that would be difficult to navigate.
Some were pretty tall- so he jumped from the edge of the canyon onto one of the giant ones, it was on an angle and surprisingly smooth, threatening to make him slip.
Z-blob jumped after him, his sticky self having no problem grabbing onto the smooth surface. “Okay- what now.” Z-blob shrugged at him before suddenly covering Mateo with his giant shield.
The impact made a crack and Mateo gulped.
And he was running. Jumping from spike to spike as they avoided and blocked the spear.
He ran for as much as he could. And that gave him some time to reflect on the events of the past two weeks. Crazy what being in mortal danger could make him think.
First of
This sucked. His body felt terrible, his mind was foggy and how could he not notice all the stuff happening around him?!
And the terror stone making him not able to enter the dream world? That came back full force- Him not being worried about it should have raised flags! Red ones!
He was so dismissive of everything! At least everything that the stone apparently did.
Which was ‘Nothing’
Oh and he could think about that now without it frying his brain. Probably because he was dead. Or dying.
Well Z-blob was with him and he did dream craft so maybe he was just having the worst nightmare ever.
Except he knew nightmares were real and so yeah he was still in mortal danger either way.
Ergo: this sucked
Z-blob stopped him from leaping off again to avoid the spear. It stopped going in straight lines and was now circling both of them, pointing end towards them. Mateo kept his eyes on it.
“Guess we can’t run from it forever- Any ideas, Z-blob?”
Z-blob braced his shield and took out a sword, pointing it to the spear.
“Alright- let's see what we can do.”
He had dream sand- Maybe he could trap it and then break it. How do you even defeat a spear?
It did look like his pencil.
He started to dream craft and the spear took that moment to attack, Z-blob didn’t block it and he looked towards Mateo to warn him. Mateo finished his dreamcraft, a giant pencil sharpener and had the spear land in it-
He turned the sharpener as fast as he could, Z-blob helped and Mateo laughed in victory when some of it did chip off.
It was working!
The spear eventually backed off, it was shorter now. “Ah-Ha!” Mateo exclaimed.
Then the chips that had fallen around them started to float up a shift. Turning into mini spears “You have to be kidding me-” He breathed out before Z-blob grabbed him and jumped out of the way of an assault of tiny murder pencils.
He looked at the big one- could a pencil spear look smug? It felt like it.
–Waking world–
“Is there anything we can do from this side?” Zoey asked, “Anything at all? What if he doesn’t even know what he has to do?”
They’d moved Mateo inside, carefully to not touch the spear while Izzie kept asking Z-Blob questions about how he was doing. They all watched Mateo’s body get paler as time went on.
Cooper paced in the room, Agent Strict writing on a laptop, Oz stroking his beard nervously, Izzie beside Mateo, holding his hand. Logan sat on a pile of books, feet tapping the floor.
He lost his colors so much it was like he was fading from reality.
Now It felt that if they’d touch him their hands would just… pass through.
Oz sighed and shook his head “No- We cannot affect the nightmare world he’s in from the outside- and touching the spear will only get us stuck with him…” He looked to Izzie. “How is he faring?”
“Is he winning?” Izzi, queen of charades and 21 questions, had been able to figure out Mateo was fighting the spear, they had been running for a little but then had to go on the offensive, Z-blob doing his best to assist Mateo.
Z-blob shook his head.
Izzie paled
“Guys- he’s losing. We have to help him!” She panicked
“But we can’t do anything!” Cooper paced in front of Mateo, he swore he could see his face flinch in pain in moments.
Logan stood up from his spot and walked to Oz “If we touch the spear, we’re sent to the same place he’s at- right?”
Oz nodded “Yes-” As soon as he said that, Logan walked to Mateo and raised his hand “Logan what are you-” He tried to stop him-
“I’m going to help him!” And he grabbed the spear. Immediately falling to his knees and getting paler by the seconds.
–Terror Dimension–
Logan blinked and he was in a valley of spikes. He looked around. “MATEO!” He called out, he couldn’t see him- where was he?!
He poofed blue and zoomed around until he heard a crack and had to avoid a giant piece of debris from above. He ducked and saw Mateo and Z-blob and the spear. “EY!”
Mateo looked at him- confused. Logan could see he was holding his arm. He was injured. “HEY DON’T DIE NOW- “ His little blue body zoomed up towards the duo as he saw now they were also attacked by tiny versions of the spear. “What the- did it have babies?!”
Mateo ran to him as he smashed one of the babies into the ground with his giant pencil- it cracked the spike they were on, making the floor rumble for a moment. The big spear circled them.
“How are you here?!” Mateo snapped as Z-blob blocked some more tiny ones.
“Couldn’t let you get killed- I invested way too much soup into you to just watch you die.” He explained, Logan didn’t see the smirk on Mateo’s face at the joke- he jumped and kicked a mini pencil with his blue foot, breaking it in half.
Then the baby spear made a loud crack before evaporating. The floor under them rumbled and this time it didn’t stop, the whole spike collapsing under them- “Woah-” they stumbled and started sliding down, except Z-blob because he was slime.
“Watch out!” Mateo shout.
The big spear took the opportunity and rushed to them, aiming directly for Mateo. Logan poofed to his big self and jumped up, sliding down on his feet instead of his back. He slid in front of Mateo and grabbed the spear with his bare hands, spinning and sending it flying far far away-
Ah! He’d told Cooper he’d wrestle a nightmare one day.
They reached the floor. Mateo crushing into Logan “Logan!” The artist got to his feet- checking Logan’s hand. They were fine.
Mateo expected them to turn black- they didn’t. Probably meant the cut on his arm hadn’t doomed him then-
Logan shoved him off, dodging a couple baby pencils as Z-blob’s shield arm stretched down, shielding them best he could while they talked.
“Look Spotty- We’re both dying right now. You have a giant stupid Terror Spear in your chest and you’re the only one that can remove it.”
Mateo blinked, breathing in. “How am I supposed to do that????” He pressed the spot on his chest he remembered the spear being- it wasn’t there.
“I don’t know!” Logan loudly said, and looked around, he’d throw the spear far but it was fast. Z-blob took care of the minis. “Come on-” He started running, leading Mateo and Z-blob through the spikes. It was hard, Z-blob could’t fit and was following them from above, jumping from spike to spike.
They needed to find an open spot- Too many turns, they couldn’t see where the spears could be coming from. Even up.
They skidded to a halt when three minis ended in front of them.
He had an idea. “Watch for rubble!” Logan pulled Mateo behind him and grabbed one in each hand, dodging the last one- snapping them in half before throwing the pieces to the sides and he, as expected, heard cracks.
“Here it comes-” He pushed Mateo back just as he hit the third mini with his giant pencil- he saw what Logan was doing and continued the hit to send it flying to another spike.
The spikes around them shattered and fell to the ground, breaking into tons of tiny shards. They were both really glad they had shoes. It wasn’t much but it was enough space for Z-blob to join them on the floor.
He shook rubble from his hair and put his feet up. “Okay- we gotta find a way to get the spear out from here.”
“I think that’s going to be a bit challenging since- you know. I’m not currently being stabbed!” Mateo got back to back with Logan, keeping his guard and pencil up.
There was a moment of silence. “Your arm okay?” Logan asked
“Yeah- just a scratch. The big one did it and I thought it would infect me like a night terror but it didn’t.”
“Finally, good news!” Logan nudged him with his elbow.
Mateo snorted “Can believe I’m actually finding you funny now-” He saw some dark points getting towards them. “Z-blob, incoming!”
Z-blob spun into action and swiped at the mini spears, it only scattered them.
“Hey- I was always funny!” Logan poofed blue and zoomed to kick one of the mini spears, again sending it flying to another spike, cracking it.
Mateo used his pen like a baseball bat and sent another into the same spike.
It was enough and collapsed on itself, making them more space and revealing a much bigger dot flying towards them “Mama’s back!” Logan warned, getting his arms ready to catch it again-
Mateo watched him “Not gonna work- that thing learns, It’s going to dodge.” He started dream crafting, standing in front of Logan. Z-blob smashed the remaining minis into the spikes, some crumbled.
They had a decent area to work with now.
Logan watched all the rubble lift up towards Mateo as he crafted a thick wall in front of them. The Terror Spear indeed dodged, Mateo turned the wall and used it like a giant bug slapper and smashed the Spear into a nearby spike- multiple spikes as the wall kept going for a few layers.
“And now that won’t work again- gotta be creative.” Mateo explained “Think like a dream, right?”
Logan smirked, oh he had so many ideas on how to take that thing down-
–Waking world–
“Kids- No! No! I will not let you join Logan on this suicide mission!” Oz was now holding back Cooper and Zoey, Agent Strict holding Izzie from touching the spear as well.
“But Logan is helping him! Z-blob said so!” Izzie struggled, Z-blob smushing himself into Agent Strict’s face in an effort to help Izzie “We can help them!”
Agent Stricts grabbed Z-blob with one hand, holding him out of reach. Her glasses fell down the bridge of her nose and she couldn’t fix it as her other arm was busy with Izzie.
“You have to let us do something!” Zoey growled.
Oz was mainly keeping her away, Cooper had backed off, still wanting to go but not willing to fight an old man to get there- yet.
“No! If you go in there all of your lives will be in danger!” Oz stubbornly said.
“Our lives are already in danger! Every time we fight the nightmare king. How is this any different!?”
“Because this is the waking world, Zoey! There are no second chances! If you fail there, you won’t wake up. You’ll die!” Oz explained desperately.
Cooper spoke up “So you just want us to watch our friends die?” His voice cracked “It’s our choice if we go- we know the risks!”
Oz was going to get sued for child endangerment one day-
“You’re kids! This *isn’t* your choice.” Strict chimed in. “The reason why this is happening in the first place is because you all made Mateo aware of the situation.”
Zoey huffed as she saw some blood drip from Mateo’s nose- Logan didn’t look too good either. They clearly needed help. Cooper noticed too as he paled at the sight, covering his mouth.
“And we only did that because no one told us what was happening!” Zoey grabbed Oz’s sleeve and twisted it, then grabbed his upper arm and fell backward while pushing on his torso, sending him flying behind them. “I’m going!”
She ran to the spear and grabbed it.
Oz only had time to get up as he watched Zoey fall to her knees in front of him. Colors draining from her face. He saw Cooper reaching for it as well but he held him back “No!”
“Let us help him!” He wrestled with Oz- now he was willing to fight an old man. He had to save his friends!
Izzie also doubled in effort, Strict having a hard time holding her back.
“The more people touch it- the faster it drains their energy! They have less time now!” Oz tried to explain- but the two kids just kept struggling.
–Terror Dimension–
Zoey found the boys quickly and understood the situation. Having her there they had more ways to deal with the Terror Spear- Mateo had run out of sand so he only had Z-blob now.
“Things are getting bad-” She explained as she sent miniature versions of themselves to ride the spear like a rocket, leading it away from them, but it quickly shook it off- “Mateo’s bleeding and I think Logan isn’t that far behind- and me too probably. Did you figure out how to get the spear out of your chest?”
Mateo shook his head “No. I’m asleep! and I don’t have a spear in my chest right now! There’s nothing!” He tapped his chest to prove there wasn’t an invisible spear in there.
“Can you dream craft it there???” Logan asked
“No! Logan I’m not going to stab myself- Actually.” He thought about it, he looked at the spear.
“Mateo- what are you thinking, talk to us.” Zoey braced herself to send the spear away again- but she didn’t like the look on Mateo’s face right now.
“Yeah- I was joking about dream crafting it-” Mateo shushed Logan
He took a step forward, looking at the spear “What if we’re not stalling it but it’s stalling us?”
“What do you mean-”
“Means I’m going to let it stab me- so I can remove it. That would be the only way to accomplish that, right?”
Silence, Logan raised a hand “That’s-”
“Too late I’m doing it. Z-blob!”
Z-blob, being the ride or die friend that he is, grabbed Logan and Zoey before they could stop him. He took a step forward, unafraid.
It took only a couple seconds before the spear reached him.
And stabbed him. From the front this time- almost the whole way through. Which was so much worse to watch it happen at that angle- his friends screamed at him, this was the second time this happened today damnit!
In the waking world, Mateo’s body jerked and coughed up blood.
That hurt
a lot
Mateo grabbed the spear with both his hands and held it there. He kneeled down- oh his head was dizzy. He pulled and his hands slipped- he couldn’t get it out “A little help here!” He called out.
“Mateo you idiot!” He heard Logan from his left.
“I second that!” Zoey on his right
He smiled through a bloody mouth “It’s what makes me lovable.”
Logan and Zoey were already by his side, one warm hand each on his shoulder and the other around the spear, they pulled- it moved.
Just a little bit.
As they held the spear, he saw their finger tips darken.
They all noticed it. It started to spread.
Logan laughed nervously “Sorry about the milk thing.”
Mateo looked at him, dumbfounded “Really? Now????”
“Look if we’re going to die right now I’d rather just let it all out-”
Zoey snapped “We’re not going to die! Just keep pulling!” The spear moved, again. slowly. The darkness took over their hands “... I want to be friends-”
“Now look who’s making confessions-” Logan smiled through the pain- because oh yeah, he was in pain now. They all were. Felt like that thing siphoned their life blood.
“And you’re already our friend, Zoey-” Mateo added. Z-blob behind them, giving them support.
“Pff-” She stiffly talked through her teeth “okay, then as a friend- Logan has a crush on you.”
“I what?!”
“He what!?”
“I’ve been stalking you since the whole thing started- pretty sure he has a crush on you.”
She gave Logan a look and she snorted at his face “Wanted to let it all out right?”
Mateo and Logan looked at eachother.
Logan’s mouth stayed open for a moment. “This is not the time for me to have a deep emotional moment!” He said “Less talking, more pulling!”
“Agreed!” Mateo said.
“Mateo!” Mateo turned his head to see Izzie and Cooper run towards them. “Guys! You almost got it!”
“It’s working! It’s almost out from the outside!” Cooper said as they both grabbed the spear and pulled as well.
Mateo smiled, “What took you so long?”
“I bit Agent Strict- OH this is hard!” Izzie braced her feet on the ground and used her whole weight to pull.
“Punk- ugh.” Mateo’s lightheadedness came back, making him silent.”oooh-” he had to keep pulling-
Had to.
Had-
All of the kids were flung away from the spear as the last of it was torn from Mateo’s chest.
They all groaned on the floor as Dr.Oz was ready with the device and blasted the Terror spear before it could even try to move-
It was a spectacle of light and sparks and then it was over. The spear grew- no became stone. Twitching on the floor as it became ridgid.
The kids all slowly sat up, Logan helping Mateo out because he just got impaled. They all watched it happen.
Izzie was the first to speak up. “... is it over?” she croaked out, sounding like Mateo had the morning after the first encounter.
“Yes Izzie-” Agent Strict walked up, “It’s over” poking the petrified terror spear with the tip of her shoe- it didn’t react.
Silence, except the exhausted breath of everyone in the room.
Then
“I’m goin’ to frow up-” Mateo barely got out before grabbing the first thing he could, a helmet of some kind, and puked in it some green substance that looked a lot like Z-blob.
Said slime was still on Izzie’s shoulder but he hopped off, bumping Mateo’s knee in comfort.
“Ew-” Logan rubbed circles on Mateo’s back. “Let it out, Spotty-” He caught Zoey’s eyes, smirking at him- he huffed and blushed “He’s puking! This is what you do with people that puke!” He justified himself as Mateo emptied his stomach.
“Right…” She leaned on her hands, flipping her hair back as she looked away.
More puke.
“I might need that helmet soon-” Cooper layed back down fully on the ground, looking a bit green and breathing heavily.
“Oh dear-” Oz put the device down and went around to grab everyone some puke bags just in case. And some tissues for Mateo- poor boy still had a bleeding nose.
Cooper used the bag to breathe into it, calming himself down.
Izzie looked around at all of them- and at their hands. Remembering the darkness that had started to cover them. But they looked normal.
But they all looked terrible too- just in general. Pale, sick looking. They regained their colors quickly enough, so fast she could notice it. But they all still looked better than Mateo.
The youngest on the team rolled over to her brother, looking at him closer. He looked like death. Nose bleeding, skin pale, chapped lips, sunken eyes, still actively puking.
She really just wanted to jump and hug him- but that might be a bad idea right now.
He didn’t have a giant hole in his chest so that was nice. His shirt was ripped though… and his backpack too… which is very scary to think about. The spear had been real. It was all real. He really did get impaled…
She wondered how she was going to explain this to dad- maybe say that she caught whatever Mateo had? Or that she’d risked eating the spoiled cafeteria meatloaf and that was the result?
Mmmmm meatloaf.
“...” Agent Strict took out a phone and sent a message before looking around the room “I’ll have more agents get this out of your office-”
Zoey frowned “Wow wow wow- No you’re not. If it isn’t dangerous anymore we’re keeping it.”
“What-” She was interrupted by the kids.
“Yeah! Trophy!” Izzie agreed
Cooper nodded, standing up now that he was calm “Or we get to blow it up!”
“Maybe Mateo should decide what we do with it-” Logan proposed as he still rubbed circles on Mateo’s back.
The rest of the group looked at the boy, still holding onto the helmet despite being given a bag. He wasn’t puking anymore at least.
Mateo peeped up, blinking one eye at a time “uh???” Some drool dripped from his mouth, he looked around and then at the petrified spear, processing what was just said “I dunno- I just wanna burrito right now-”
Zoey snorted “You sure your stomach can handle that?”
Ooooh food “We can tots get you a burrito broseph!” Izzie smiled. “A million of em’!”
The kids gathered around Mateo, making plans to go eat.
Meanwhile, Oz nervously cleared his throat, walking to Agent Strict “Perhaps they could keep it?”
“...” Agent Strict sighed “... fine.” Her phone rang, she looked at it. “That’s… the boss. The Terror Stone has caused much destruction I’m sure, I’ll be busy all month to cover it up. Your team is already on thin ice, Oswalt, lay low in the waking *and* dreaming world for a few days, would you?”
Oz nervously rubbed the back of his neck “I can tell you we will try…” He looked at the kids as she walked out of the building to answer the phone.
Mateo felt good enough to stand on his own, but Izzie and Cooper both had his arms over their shoulders to hold him up as they got ready to leave for lunch. Zoey and Logan were having a silent conversation just staring at each other and Z-blob stayed on top of Mateo’s head.
He smiled at them all… they were such bright kids with even brighter futures…
He walked to them. “May I join this burrito run? My treat!”
Zoey raised an skeptical eyebrow “Why-”
“Free food!” Izzie pumped her fist and started walking with Mateo and Cooper. Doing a bad job at holding her brother up as she jumped with every step, Cooper doing most of the lifting. “Free food! Free food! Free food!” She sang.
Zoey hummed and the rest closely followed behind them. Zoey still gives Oz a slight side eye.
She didn’t like being lied to.
Meanwhile Logan was having a silent crisis in his head thinking about what Zoey said. Wondering whether or not it was true-
They all made it to Mrs. Castillo’s food truck in one piece. Oz paid for their food- Izzie having ordered extra extra extra extra pickles for the occasion.
Cooper’s phone chimed a reminder for homework but he just ignored it for today.
Zoey and Oz talked about honesty. Oz promised he wouldn’t hide things from them anymore.
Mateo gave pieces of his burrito to Z-blob as he reflected on the last two weeks.
Damn he needed therapy.