This battle came to my mind after I finished reading Stephen King's fabulous novel Doctor Sleep. As a sequel to the Shining, the novel centered on the life of Dan Torrance ( the little boy in the Shining)'s life after the Shining and specified Dan's unique psychic power known as the Shining, which was used by Dan to fight and eliminate a tribe of powerful ancient demons preying over children around America. Now, Dan has yet another similar demon to defeat:Freddy Krueger, the nightmare master of Elm Street. Will Dan continue his victory, or will he become another victim of the infamous springwood slasher ? We shall see......
Dan Torrance[]
| “ | FEAR stands for face everything and recover.
— Old AA saying taken from the texts of Doctor Sleep which perfectly describes Dan's life route after the Overlook disaster
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When Dan was very young, his father was hired as the winter caretaker of Hotel Overlook, which was a large resort hotel located in the Rockies, and took Dan and his mother to stay with him at the hotel during winter . Prior to their stay at the hotel , Dan discovered his psychic power and foresaw the evil spirits haunting around the hotel and his father's mental breakdown. At the hotel, Dan befriended with the hotel chef Dick , who had the same psychic power known as Shining.
As time went by, Dan became troubled by the evil spirits and ghost haunting around the hotel, and Jack was persuaded by the ghosts to kill Dan and his mother. With the help of Dick, they escaped the cursed place, while Jack's emotion went back and sacrificed himself to save Dan by blowing himself up with the hotel.
However, things didn't end here. A few years later, ghosts of Overlook Hotel went back to haunt Dan, even though the hotel had been burned to grounds and Dan had moved far away from Colorado. In order to deal with the ghost, Dick returned to Dan and mentored him to develop and fulfill the potential of his Shining skills , with which Dan successfully tackled the evil spirits.
Decades later , Dan became an alcoho-aholic like his dad due to his troublesome childhood memories and failures in life and career. But one day Dan found out a little girl with immerse Shining power called Abra, who was haunted by the True Knot--a tribe of ancient human-turned Demons that traveled around America in groups and relied on murdering children with the Shining and consuming their souls to survive. In an attempt to break himself free from his childhood experience and regain confidence at the lowest point of his life, Dan decided to help the girl and fight against the demons. By using his shining power and intelligence, Dan succeeded in defeating and eliminating the entire demon tribe and regained hope in life.
- Dream Manipulation:Dan is capable of warpening environments and creating and moving objects out of nowhere in his dream as well as enter,infiltrate and take control of other people's dreams in spiritual form, allowing Dan to battle demons that tried to infiltrate his mind while he was asleep. With the environment under his control, Dan can also ignore physical laws , teleport from one place to another and launch out accurate attacks in his dreams . All damage done by Dan's attack in dreams are magical and sprititual, which suggests they can match with Freddy's attacks and harm Freddy. Another notable thing is that Dan can wake himself up immediately if he wants.
- Traps : One of Dan's most iconic ways of attack in dreams is his mental traps. The traps can come in many ways and do harm to demons, spirits that attempt to mess around in his dreams. Some of those traps are somewhat sentiment and can set off automatically. No one except Danny is capable of activating or recognizing the traps before setting off. One example of the trap is that in the novel, Dan mentored Abra to creat a "dream bomb" in a drawer where Abra kept her memories in her dreams. When the demon named Rose came to look into the drawers, the bomb went off and caused great pain to Rose, disabling her from moving for a long period of time.
- The Shining: Dan's unique mental skill, allowing him to read the minds and target the location of other people/spirits. This skill can also creat psychic attacks which works kind of like zoom punches. For example, in his final confrontation with Rose, Danny managed use his shining attack to make a huge air impact on Rose and pushed her off the platform, breaking her back. Aside from attacks, this skill is always used to implement false ideas into the minds of his opponents and creat illusions. Even Dan himself admitted that this part of his shining skills was what he enjoyed most and did best in . It's notable that this technique works specially well with opponents with magical skills or superhuman senses such as the demons and other people with shining. In the novel, Dan frequently used this skill to make his opponents think he was staying at some certain place and unaware of their approaches while in fact Dan might be sneaking towards them and preparing attacks.
- Firearms: Though being an amateur shooter, Dan armed himself with a few firearms to battle the true knot. He rent a pair of Glock 22 pistols from a road Saint cyclist, and borrowed a six-round-cylinder hunting rifle from his friend Bill Watson.
- The Shining: Dan's unique mental skill, allowing him to read the minds and target the location of other people/spirits. This skill can also creat psychic attacks which works kind of like zoom punches. For example, in his final confrontation with Rose, Danny managed use his shining attack to make a huge air impact on Rose and pushed her off the platform, breaking her back. Aside from attacks, this skill is always used to implement false ideas into the minds of his opponents and creat illusions. Even Dan himself admitted that this part of his shining skills was what he enjoyed most and did best in . It's notable that this technique works specially well with opponents with magical skills or superhuman senses such as the demons and other people with shining. In the novel, Dan frequently used this skill to make his opponents think he was staying at some certain place and unaware of their approaches while in fact Dan might be sneaking towards them and preparing attacks.
- The Mental Box: Dan's most dangerous weapon. To keep himself safe from the ghosts of Overlook, Dan learned this psychic skills from Dick. This skill is especially used to target ghosts and demons. By creating giant lockers in his mind, Dan can lock approaching ghosts inside those boxes . In this way, the ghosts will be trapped inside the box forever. However, strong spirits can attempt to resist Dan's strong efforts and even break free from the box.
- Ghost prisoners: Two dangerous spirits are kept inside Dan's previous mental boxes. One of them was Concetta, Abra's grandmother's angry ghost. This ghost sides with Dan and has the strong mental power to wipe out an entire van to True Knot members in seconds. But once released from the box, this ghost can only exist for minutes before vanishing without a trace, which suggests this ghost can be dodged or tricked. The second ghost is Horace Dervent, the previous owner of Hotel Overlook and one of the masterminds behind Jack Torrance's mental breakdown. This ghost is extremely homicidal , strong and durable, murdering whoever he encounters with primitive strangling methods. He is immune to physical attacks and can resist long period of magical attacks before being destroyed. However, Dan can't control him, so releasing him is usually Dan's last option.
- Communicating with the dead : Dan can see ghosts of people died of agony or extreme pain and communicate with these ghosts. In the novel he got the important information of Rose's danger by communicating with the dead ghost of a girl he met years before who committed suicide, and was instructed to protect Abra by the ghost of Dick, who died of Cancer. This power might be useful considering the battle will be set around the Elm Street.
- Successfully eliminated an entire tribe of human-turned demons, many of which are also powerful dream manipulators and mind readers.
- Keen Intelligence and creativity : Dan is a master planner and some what of a trickster, considering he planned several ambushes and tricked Rose the head demon into negotiating with him. He also used his Shining in several creative ways to read the minds of others around and plant false thoughts into the demons' minds.
- Stealth: Thanks to his shining power that can distract or mislead his opponents.
- Previous limited knowledges of dealing with demons, ghosts and vengeful spirits.
- Determination : Dan is a pretty strong-willed fella, which can assure his shining power and mental attacks to work well.
- Weakness:Dan's still a human.
Dan must either lock Freddy up in his mental box or temporarily destroy Freddy's ghost.
Freddy Krueger[]
| “ | There's an Elm Street in every city !
— Freddy Krueger
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powers
- Clawed gloves : Yeah just a pair of sharpened gloves...Nothing special here.
- Dream Manipulation : Freddy's most notable skill. He is capable of manipulating things in dreams, which includes summoning objects out of no where, warpening buildings and objects in dreams, setting up his own dream simulations and hurting people in dreams. When one is killed or wounded in dream, he'll receive the same amount of damage in real life as well.
- Hell fire : Freddy can summon up flames around himin both dream and real life. Those flames are suopposed to be from hell. This power only worlds in dreams.
- Body stretching: Freddy can stretch his body in ridiculous ways. For example, he can attack opponents at a distance by stretching his arm towards the opponent. It works same with his legs and fingers. But he can only do this in dream world and the stretch also has limits ( assumed 4 meters).
- Superhuman physicality : Freddy has superhuman strength and can easily throw his opponents across the air or lift up a car. But this only happens in dream world.
- Shapeshifting: In both dream world and real world, Freddy can transform into other objects or people in order to escape or deceive others.
- Melting: In dream world Freddy can melt himself into liquids or air to escape from cracks, holes or walls.
- Teleportaion: In both dream world and real world can Freddy teleport himself into nearby spots.
Freddy must kill Dan.
Battle[]
- Simulation : After the events of the novel, Dan learned about an evil spirit haunting around on elm street and decided to track it down and tackle it. So he went to Springwood and began investigating Freddy, unaware of his full capabilities. Freddy is also unaware of Dan and the power of shining, while still attempting to continue his murders, which will certainly draws Dan and brings Dan into his attention.
Prelude : The phantom in crimson[]
Helen Rivington Hospice, Frazier, New Hampshire
"Are you ready, Mrs. Thompson ?" Asked Dan as he pressed his hands on the dying woman, tightly but gently, making sure Mrs. Thompson's road to heaven would be smooth and easy. As the gleam of life slowly descended in the woman's eyes, Dan felt a blow of air flashed across his face.
In the town of Frazier, it had been a wide-spread rumor that Dan Torrance of the Rivington Hospice had a special talent of guarding people through the last moments of their lives by utilizing some secret psychological comforting methods (which, as claimed by some other employers at the hospice, was supernatural psychic skills and as you can imagine, those claims were right), earning Dan the nickname 'Doctor Sleep', which he gladly accepted.
Back to the ward, where Dan could feel Mrs. Thompson's soul slowly rising up, silently transmitting into some other world which he could not and didn't want to understand. As the procedure went on, the memories of Mrs. Thompson began to flash by Dan's mind. He could see Mrs. Thompson reading Grim fairy tales to her grandson when she was still capable of walking around with the help of a cane, as well as Mrs. Thompson having Thanksgiving dinner with her entire family, when solid food was still available for her stomach, then Mrs. Thompson attending her daughter's graduation party and Mrs. Thompson travelling around Europe, from France to West Germany, back the time when communism and Soviet Union still mattered . He could also see Mrs. Thompson dancing with Mr. Thompson at her prom, where they probably fell in love, and Mrs. Thompson playing tennis with her friend, on the court behind Springwood Senior High. Finally, clips from Mrs. Thompson's early days popped up, and of course, the woman in front of him was addressed as Kate or honey instead of Mrs. Thompson back then. Dan saw Mrs. Thompson's younger self playing in the fields, running wildly across the street, with her innocent eyes staring around with sheer curiosity towards the dangerous world surrounding her. She had long curly hair, and lived with her parents on a house located on some Elm Street, as the road sign suggested.
As the memory clips faded , slowly disappearing from Dan's mind, Dan took a gasp, thinking that he had just finished his job here. "Goodbye Mrs. Thompson, I've done the best I can, please rest in peace." Whispered Dan as he loosened his hands. Mrs. Thompson now sank into silence with her eyes closed tight and her hands resting peacefully on her stomach.
Just as Dan made his exit, something totally out of expectation happened. Mrs. Thompson's stoned body suddenly rose up, letting out a blood-curdling scream. Dan, with his mind once again filled with memory clips, experienced headaches immediately and slipped down on the floor, slamming the door shut. In this clip, Mrs. Thompson was in a garage, decorated with steam punk style items, and she was running with her hair flying backward, constantly looking back as if somebody was chasing her. Dan's brain began to shake exquisitely as the clip was played. Slowly he found himself settling inside the garage with Mrs. Thompson's younger self. The air of the garage was thick, misty, mixed with smells of something dirty burning, and most important of all, the air was red, just like blood, and just like....
Just like that of the room 217 at Hotel Overlook. Dan thought to himself, "But the Overlook is gone, and gone forever."
Dan gazed around the garage, trying to figure out the situation. Bad memories sometimes could disturb the normal procedure of death, but the Shining could always compensate and ease down those memories, but this memory was different, because it couldn't be easily wiped away by the Shining, and Mrs. Thompson must have been hiding this memory so deep that it didn't pop up at the first place.
To his shock and horror, something bizarre was spotted at the end of the garage corridor (just like the corridor at the Overlook Hotel, Dan thought to himself again) , where the gas steaming out of the pipes had colored the air in crimson, stood the silhouette of a man. 'No, not a man,' thought Dan as he fixed his eyes on the spot, 'It's more like a grotesque phantom in the crimson mist, with long, sharp spikes stunning out of its hands. As the air scattered away, a decrepit sweater was revealed on the man's body, and Dan could take a glance at the man's face, which was still lurking in the gas, and decorated with a malicious grin. "Run, little birds...run as you can." Said the phantom in a rather playful tune, which made Dan shiver. As the phantom began to stretch its claws, the memory clip started to fade again. "You can run, but you'll never escape ! " Shouted the phantom as its shadow pumped up into the air, making an attempt to grab at Mrs. Thompson before vanishing. As Dan found himself slowly being transported back to the ward, a few other clips flashed past : Some of them featured Mrs. Thompson reading news from Springwood Herald. Before Dan was completely dragged back, he managed to capture the title of one of those papers :
MYSTERIOUS HEART ATTACK STRUCK AGAIN ! JUNIOR HIGH STUDENT DIED OF HEART FAILURE WHILE ASLEEP
"AARRRRRR ! Away from me !" Mrs. Thompson let out a final shout and fell down, wiping out the memories. Dan crawled to her bed with headaches still haunting his mind. " Mrs. Thompson, what was that ?" He shook her body, this time gaining no responses. Seconds later The door behind him burst open, with two other elders stepping in.
"Anything alright ?" Asked one of them.
"Alright...Alright..." Murmured Dan,"Mrs. Thompson had a heart attack and...."
"You look pale, pal, go downstairs and take a cup of water, we'll handle the rest."
Usually Dan wouldn't allow others to handle his job, but this time it was different--he was tired and puzzled, and in dire need of a cup.
"Who or what was that thing ?" Thought Dan as he grabbed up his cup, with his hands still shaking badly. That night, after Mrs. Thompson was sent to the local morgue, Dan lied on his bed, trying to sleep, but he just couldn't.
The phantom in crimson, with those sharpened claws, laughing and shouting. With that kind of nightmarish image in mind, it's just too hard for Dan to sleep soundly.
Part I : Ode to Uncle Krueger[]
TB CONTINUED