Absolute DC Part 6: Bring Me A Dream

Doctor Raymond Palmer, surgery specialist, armchair physicist, and public-identity superhero known as The Atom (not to be confused with fellow hero Captain Atom), had been suffering from nightmares for a long time. All the nightmares have to do with a monstrous figure telling him “The Sister Is Missing; From The Middle Of Decay And Rot”. So now, sick of having to deal with them, Raymond went to see psychiatrist and somnologist Dr. John Deiter. Dr. Deiter’s examination into Raymond’s dreams, sleeping habits, day-to-day routine (including Raymond’s heroics as The Atom), and past led to the doctor diagnosing him with PTSD. This most likely has to do with Raymond’s ex-wife Jean having a miscarriage and then snapping and killing a family friend to steal their child to raise as her own, and Raymond was having trouble reconciling with that all these years later. However, Dr. Deiter may have to go further in his studies of Raymond’s psyche to better understand. He introduced Dr. Palmer to a device of his own design and testing: The Materiopticon, which would allow Dr. Deiter to translate the subject’s synaptic and REM signals during sleep and dreaming into video and audio for him to study. Raymond agreed to having the Materiopticon used on him and, that night, he went to sleep while hooked up to it. But the truth behind the device is far more sinister…

With Raymond’s unconscious mind under the influence of the Materiopticon, Dr. John Deiter strapped on his VR helm and gloves to enter Raymond’s dream, subtly influencing Raymond’s mind through his dreams. Slowly but surely, as the night progressed, Raymond was beginning to think that his unborn child was killed and Jean was framed from murdering another woman. And that only Dr. Deiter had the power to help Raymond battle this conspiracy against his life… but only if The Atom did him some favors in exchange-

Suddenly, the dark figure who haunted Raymond’s dreams attacked Deiter in Raymond’s latest one. The demonic-looking humanoid in the gilded gas mask manifested to defend Dr. Palmer’s dream avatar from Deiter, launching a bolt of energy at Deiter’s avatar to injure him in the real world. In the dream world, Dr. Deiter’s face burnt off to become a skull-like shape of charred flesh. The figure claims that “Doctor Destiny” had been tampering with the minds of others to coerce them into serving his twisted machinations, and the mental control eventually drove them to suicide. And he cannot let that happen to Raymond, as well. Dr. Destiny and the figure did battle upon this plain of existence, with metaphysical powers exclusive to the realm of dreams. Raymond, realizing his nightmare figure was trying to help him, manifested his shrinking powers as The Atom to help the figure beat Dr. Destiny. Raymond awoke as he claimed victory and tore himself from the Materiopticon. Deiter tried to escape, but Raymond clocked him over the head with a coffee cup left on the command console. Raymond was about to call his allies in The Justice League to help him investigate Dr. Destiny and his device, but then the figure appeared in our world to extend cloth manifested from his straight jacket to trap Deiter.

Raymond demanded an explanation, and the figure granted it. He is a cosmic being from the “other side”, and his sister had been missing for several human years. The longer she is gone, the more likely a grave crisis shalt befall mortalkind. Only Raymond Palmer, as The Atom, has the power to stop this disaster by finding and freeing his sister. Raymond agreed to help the figure find his sister, on the grounds they meet on “less-horrifying terms”. The figure agreed and was about to vanish, but Raymond asked what to call him.

The figure vanished and all we can hear is the name “Sandman.”