Echoes of Joy (The Dream)

“Okay, you can open your eyes now Kenny.”

Kenny of Earth-PRIME reluctantly goes along with the suggestion after nearly being blinded by the light that engulfed him moments prior, slowly opening his eyes to find himself deep inside the ship of the Council.

Whoa, not that deep. Anyway.

He and Randall make their way down a corridor behind the rest of the group, eventually finding themselves at the bridge. The remainder of the Council greets them, as the Kennys sans Earth-PRIME take their respective seats at the table. The one with the monocle is front and center on the proceedings, his voice bellowing from the loudspeakers set up around the perimeter.

“Now that the fate of Earth-15’s Kenny is known to you, it is time for one final confrontation to prepare you for what’s to come.”

“What does that even mean?” asks our fine fellow Kenny, but before he can get a response he is shoved by a pair of Randall guards toward a doorway. The Entertainer is taken alongside his friend, the door slamming shut behind the Masters as they try to navigate through the dark.

Before they can get too far, however, the duo hear a grow that starts off faint and gets ever so louder as its source seems to get closer. Suddenly, a light begins to flash from up above, eventually staying steady as the outline of a rope ladder can be seen… along with the source of the growling: half a skeleton, like something out of a Spirit Halloween, but with a distinct set of hair that Kenny picks up on immediately as the figure crawls toward the Masters.

“Oh my god, it’s…” his voice trails off as he just stares at the oddity in front of him. “...it’s me.”

“No god, here,” replies the skeleton with a raspy voice, reaching out one arm as if to grab his counterpart or simply seeking help. “Just misery. Misery, misery, misery… that’s what you’ve chosen.”

“That’s definitely you,” remarks Randall, as the pair start to back away from the figure. They quickly make their way toward the rope ladder as the skeleton tries to inch ever closer. Randall is the first to begin climbing, with Kenny’s attention between the ascension, making sure his friend doesn’t slip, and trying to make sense of what he’s just witnessed.

He is soon distracted by a yelp coming from Randall, who slips and falls to the floor. Freeman drops down beside his comrade, just as the skeleton nearly gets his hands on them.

“Help me… help… you.”

The pair rush back up the ladder, afraid of what truly confronting this situation would mean for them as they begin to make their ascent proper. That climb lasts for what feels like an eternity (but probably about ten to twenty minutes, climbing ain’t easy on ropes) as the light grows exponentially every so often, eventually revealing that the pair have reached the top.

Randall is the first to climb over the ledge, rolling on the floor above to clear a landing zone for an exhausted Kenny… who rolls to his back, letting out a heavy sigh of relief before noticing a trio of Kennys staring down at him. One of them chuckles at the sight.

“Close enough,” he says with a high-pitched squeak. “We’ll see you on the bridge.”

“The best way to make your dreams come true is to wake up.” - Paul Valery

“And what exactly did we accomplish, here?”

Kenny’s exhaustion has been replaced with frustration as he stands alongside Randall, staring down the Council seated at their table.

“You needed to see for yourself,” replies the monocled Freeman from afar. “To truly understand the scope of what you were burdened with, when Aeon Khronos recruited you for his interference with the Multiverse.”

Kenny rolls his eyes with a sigh.

“Brother, I don’t think you needed to drag me all the way up here for that,” he states flatly. “I’ve been at my wit’s end with this whole thing for months. I’m trying to get myself set up for success, and y’all keep pulling me back in to fail. You talked about echoes of sorrow, but I need to start reverberating echoes of joy in my life. Enough is enough, and it’s time for a change.”

“Oh, you know ol’ K.O. Freeman?” asks the squeaky Kenny.

“What?” asks Earth-PRIME Kenny in reply, drawing nothing more than a blank stare in return. “Anyway, I’ve reached the end of this journey. They say that suffering builds character… and if that’s true then dammit, I’m as mentally and emotionally tough as they come. I will deal with the Bobby Neptune problem, and then that’s it. Just like you bastards made me climb up outta that hole, I gotta lift myself up and try and earn my rightful title shot on Night Two.”

“Our title shot,” adds Randall with a nod. “It’s about time we get back in the hunt for those PRIME Tag Titles, right Kenny?”

The room is suddenly filled with silence, lasting far too long for The Entertainer’s liking as he nudges his pal.

“Right, Kenny?”

“Uh, yeah,” Kenny says reluctantly. “Our title shot, for sure. Anyway, how long do we have to be stuck h--”

Kenny is cut off by the floor next to him breaking apart, with one sturdy figure of a man jumping through the hole that remains. Not just any man, however; this is a moral compass always set due north, an unshakeable mountain on many levels. His peculiarly heroic blue costume gives the identity away immediately, especially with the yellow cape and large lighting bolt embroidered on the front.

“Holy shit, it’s The Bolt!” Randall exclaims, as if meeting his hero for the very first time.

“Language, mister,” replies The Bolt, wagging his finger at Schwartz before motioning toward the hole. “Seems you two are in need of saving.”

“I mean, we were just having a conversation but…” Kenny trails off once again, this time watching Randall jump into the arms of the superhero. “Okay yeah, we outta here. Deuces, Kennys!”

He holds up a peace sign before jumping on Bolt’s back, before the trio take a step through the hole. The monocled Freeman lets out a heavy sigh of his own as he shakes his head.

“Can we get a Randall to fix this damned hole in the hull!?”

Moments later, we find our heroes landing upon the ground. Kenny and Randall immediately look around, trying to confirm what Earth they’re on.

“You’re safe and sound, fellas,” says The Bolt, and something in his voice draws the Masters’ attention right away.

“Hey, wait a minute,” Randall says, as if coming across some grand revelation. “You sound just like…”

But as he turns around, The Bolt is gone. Kenny just shrugs his shoulders.

“I have no clue where he went. Now, let’s figure out how to get back on the road.”

“The road to Culture Shock?” asks The Entertainer.

“That is correct,” Kenny replies with a nod. “The best kind of correct.”

The duo start walking in any old direction, hoping for the best until a pair of blinding headlights approaches from the front. One honk of the horn later, and the car comes into better view… revealing Kent Ramsey in his Chevy Camero.

“Oh good,” he says with a sense of relief. “I’ve been looking for you for days. Your pals from the Red Army said ya disappeared at Arena Mexico and we gotta get ya over to the stadium!”

The Masters nod in agreement, quickly getting into the vehicle as Kent pulls away. We get a glimpse of a yellow cape sticking out slightly through the trunk, but not enough time to process that as the Camaro drives off into the night.