Ch. 15: Story so far...

KimLuster on Sept. 22, 2016

Ch.1: Kimber Lee Luster is experiencing vivid lucid dreams, which are a welcome respite from the real world, where she has untreatable brain cancer. She was part of a Synprovision corp. scientific team involved in technologically-induced ‘dream experiments’, and she believes these experiments not only caused her recurring lucid dreams, but also her cancer. Nevertheless, she agrees to a ‘therapeutic’ dream in a placebo-like attempt to halt her cancer. She goes on a dream adventure, and encounters a dream version of her uncle Eli, who molested her as a child. She fights and nearly kills him, but stops herself. There still seems to be some success as she wakes, she has put on some weight, grown some hair, and just seems healthier overall.

Ch. 2: Kimber Lee begins to have certain side-effects, such as an inability to fall asleep at all, along with characteristics that normally only occurred in her dreams, such as her senses amplifying to superhuman levels. She theorizes that her cancer was actually caused by her mind, amplified by the power of the lucid dreams, all due to the repressed memories of molestation at the hands of her uncle Eli. Mental cancer caused real cancer. She decides to undergo dream therapy once more with the intent on finding the ‘dream’ Eli, the symbol that represents her physical cancer, ‘finishing the job’, and healing herself for good.

Ch. 3: The dream therapy session start bizarrely, with Kimber Lee seeing inside her own body and encountering an alien presence, a small glowing ball of energy, within her. The dream then shifts and she finds herself in a morgue, naked, on an autopsy table. Using her superhuman dream abilities, she evades the doctors and guards, escapes the Synprovision building and goes looking for Dream Eli. Unable to find him, she destroys his apartment, scuffles with the police, and is shot. Everything goes dark…

Ch. 4: In the dream, Kimber Lee undergoes ‘dream surgery’ to remove the bullet. She again sees inside her own body, and encounters the glowing entity again. It heals her body, ejecting the bullet. The dream shifts once more and Kimber Lee finds herself held captive by Jack Caleb (head of Synprovision Corp.). He tries to convince she’s not dreaming at all, that somehow she has made her dreams real; that she actually had a death and resurrection and now has superhuman abilities for real, but she continues to believe she’s dreaming. During their conversation, she gives Jack a small kiss and seems to pass the entity, virus-like, to him. Panicking, she moves to get away, but during the escape attempt, she encounters her Uncle Eli, held captive by Jack’s men.

Ch. 5: Kimber Lee tries to kill ‘dream’ Eli, but is interrupted by guards. During the melee, Eli is killed by a stray bullet. Since she didn’t kill him directly, she feels she failed in her dream goal. Jack Caleb then tells her that, with her kiss, he now has an internal entity like her; has the same abilities as her, and and that she isn’t dreaming – this is real. Then, Eli Hoff comes back to life, zombie-like! Apparently, by slapping his corpse in frustration, she’d inadvertently passed the entity to him as well, bringing him back to life. Terrified, she tries to flee, is terribly wounded, but still gets away. She pleads for the entity to heal her injury – and it does. Gathering herself, she begins to consider that this might all real after all, and if she is really a super-powered being. Her musings are interrupted when she encounters a wolf in a trap, on the verge of death.

Ch. 6: Experimenting, Kimber Lee uses her power to resurrect/heal and free the wolf. She then beats up the wolf-trappers, steals their clothes and vehicle and makes her way back to civilization. Reasoning that if she isn’t dreaming, her family has suffered greatly. She cleans up, buys some new clothes, and goes to make things right with them. Before she can meet them, a strange lady intervenes and tries to convince her she still is dreaming. Dismissing the lady, she shot in the head by a sniper, but within seconds she shrugs off this ‘fatal’ wound and takes out the sniper. Jack Caleb tries to convince her to surrender, issuing veiled threats against her family. To protect her family, Kimber Lee makes her way to the ranch home of an old friend, Socorro Saavedra. Socorro and Kimber Lee are no longer on good terms, as Kimber Lee’s husband, Emilio Viarez, used to be Socorro’s lover. Nevertheless, Socorro and her family agree to let Kimber Lee go into hiding at their ranch.

Ch. 7: At the ranch, Kimber Lee experiences relative peace for a while. She secretly experiments with and hones her abilities, and eventually she and Socorro make amends with each other. Socorro, in what she believes to a be a gesture of good will and friendship, arranges for Kimber Lee’s husband and children to secretly be brought to the ranch to reunite with her. Kimber Lee feels betrayed at first (thinking this dangerous) but then is elated to be back with her family. It seems she finally has a measure of peace.

Ch. 8: Kimber Lee reconnects with her family and makes up for lost time. After a love-making session with Emilio, she casually uses her super-senses to peer inside his body, and discovers what appears to be an implanted tracking device. Sure enough, heavily armed soldiers and helicopters descend on the ranch. Kimber Lee tries to fight them off and nearly succeeds, but one soldier severely injures her with armor-piercing rounds. She collapses to the floor, seemingly on the verge of death.

Ch. 9: Kimber Lee begs the entity to save her family and friends, whatever the cost, and the entity responds, by fully possessing her body. The entity, through Kimber Lee, heals Socorro, who’d been injured during the battle. Still controlling Kimber Lee, the entity surrenders to the soldiers to prevent further injury or death, and they are all taken to a secret base in the desert. Scientists and military personnel discuss what’s going on with Kimber Lee, how her dreams could have caused this, and what sort of threat she may be. They conclude that whatever is triggering this in her, and others, is not unlike a virus and they dub it ‘the Godstrain’. Possessed Kimber Lee, eavesdropping, hears them discussing a being called ‘Subject One’ and she offers to work with them if they will take her to this being. They agree to this and Kimber Lee is taken to a deep underground vault where a gigantic monstrous humanoid is being held captive. The entity possessing Kimber lee seems fascinated by him and moves to touch him, but the real Kimber Lee, repulsed by the idea of touching this monstrosity, fights back and takes control of her body. She realizes the mutated giant is actually Eli, her uncle.

Ch. 10: It’s revealed that not only did Eli come back from death, but he also transformed into a huge imposing colossus. The scientists’ theory is that this is how Kimber Lee (as a child) saw Eli, and so not only is Kimber Lee herself being transformed, but others as well, based on her subconscious impressions of them. This, the scientists say, is what the Godstrain does, and it’s why it was so imperative they captured Kimber Lee, to keep her away from others. Meanwhile, Jack Caleb keeps the fact that he is also ‘infected’ by the Godstrain secret from everyone, and blackmails Kimber Lee into helping him maintain it. Nevertheless, he allows her to see her family, also held captive. The family reunion is a strained one, as Kimber Lee’s husband and children, her parents, and the Saavedras have all suffered from their incarceration. Before more can be said, however, a giant explosion diverts everyone’s attention. Somehow, Monstrous Eli created a large blast and breaks free from his vault.

Ch. 11: Easily three stories tall, Eli tears into the soldiers, causing heavy damage and loss of life. Their weapons injure him somewhat but not nearly enough. Even as he fights the soldiers, Eli directs most of his assault towards trying to capture Kimber Lee herself. She tries to fight him, but is overmatched. She takes shelter with her family, but realizes, with Eli still after her, her presence near her family puts them in greater danger, so she leaves to face him once more. She heroically fights back at Eli and seems to have some success, but he finally catches her in his giant grasp. His strength is overwhelming and she is unable to break free, seemingly helpless to his next move.

Ch. 12: The soldiers use this moment of distraction to renew their attack, enabling Kimber Lee to break free. She flees the base, with Eli in pursuit. She manages to evade him, but he purposefully injures a family to stop her from running. Facing him again, Kimber Lee gives it her all, but is captured once more by Eli. To her confusion, Eli tries to communicate with her. Then, the Godstrain entity within her tries to leave her and enter Eli fully, but she stops it. Furious, Eli beats and tortures her to near death before he is driven away by airstrikes. Unable to handle the trauma, Kimber Lee forces herself to believe that it all is a dream, and she passes into a coma. When she awakens, her body is skeletal thin and her hair is gone, as if she’d had cancer all along and everything else was a dream. She refuses to believe the scientists and officials who say otherwise and reenters the coma, and another dream, this one a pleasant and flower-filled. Sensing a complete loss of self, she fights hard to return to reality, and she awakens again, still seemingly wracked with cancer. At that moment, Colonel Hauser and a group of soldiers arrive with a mysterious hooded woman, who utters ominous words to Kimber Lee, suggesting there's no difference between dreams and reality.

Ch. 13: The mystery woman turns out to be Socorro, who is now an empowered being like Kimber Lee. She and Colonel Hauser convince Kimber Lee she needs to reach deep into own her mind, confront the Godstrain, and master it. With nothing else to lose, she agrees. Entering an induced dream, her ‘dream world’ takes on a bizarre Greek Myth quality, with erotic overtones! After the initial shock, she spies a nearby mountain with a gold cylinder of light at the top and concludes that is the likely place she will encounter the Godstrain. She fights through a pack of wolves and nearly suffers a deadly fall, but is rescued by Socorro, who seems to be sharing the dream with her. After a bit of discussion, Socorro challenges Kimber Lee to a staff-duel, claiming that the Victor will be the wielder of the Godstrain. Socorro presents a mighty challenge, but Kimber Lee is ultimately victorious. Her confidence growing, Kimber Lee begins the climb up the mountain.

Ch. 14: Halfway up the mountain, Kimber Lee encounters Eli, also sharing the dream with her. He’s smaller in the dream, but still appears as a huge barbarian. She must fight him as well, as he believes defeating her will grant him the Godstrain’s full power. It’s another difficult struggle, but she manages to defeat him and continue to the top of the mountain. There, she sees a Stonehenge-like structure with the glowing Godstrain-manifestation floating inside it. Jack Caleb, also sharing the dream with her, is there. They challenge each other to a game of wits, with the victor to be the one that can finally approach the Godstrain. Kimber Lee wins, and the Godstrain manifests to her, in various spectacular forms, and dialogues with her as it gives her a tour of the universe. Finally, it asks her to willingly bond with it, for the good of everything, but she distrusts it greatly and refuses. It then attacks her, trying to force her to give in to it, but she manages to suppress it in a battle of wills. She has won – but at what cost?!!