It had a been couple weeks since an incident. Marvin was all healed from his encounter with Anti and Jackie was feeling like himself again. But the atmosphere in the nest was tense. Nobody wanted to bring up the situation with Anti, it hurt too much. Plus they had no ideas on how to find him and bring him home.
Though that didn’t stop Henrik from wanting to tinker and see if he could use what white suit equipment they had. Maybe there was some way to make something useful. The boys were smarter than the white suits realized and more resourceful.
So Henrik sent Jackie on a mission to see if he could find more abandoned parts in some wrecks back in Reaper territory. Jackie wasn’t one to refuse a task like this, but Chase was worried. Last time Jackie went to reaper territory...well he was scared for his little brother.
Jackie obviously refused to Chase’s suggestion at first. Reaper territory was far to dangerous for a prey fish. But Chase is hard to argue with when he’s set on something. Plus Chase convinced Jackie that it would be faster to search in a group. Jackie couldn’t argue.
The ocean didn’t seem as bright today. It must have been a muggy day on the surface. Maybe it’ll rain, Chase thought with a small smile on his face. He often liked to peek out of the water to feel rain on his face. It was always nice for a change of pace.
The two brothers approached a wreck far on the outskirts of Reaper terrority. It seemed like one they hadn’t explored. Both of the boys looked at each other with mixed expressions. This could spell either adventure or disaster. Either was a certain possibility, knowing their luck.
But off they swam to explore. They squeezed through the cracks in the broken hull and into what looked like a laboratory. If only Schneep was here, he liked this kind of stuff.
The boys swam through cautiously past strange glass bottles, broken and discarded. Past huge monitors cracked in half, wires exposed. Past what looked like a glass cabinet filled with various equipment and vials.
Chase paused in front of cabinet, peering inside. “Think Henrik would need anything from here?” He asked Jackie, who was digging through large piles of broken metal.
“Just get whatever you can bro, Schneep’s not picky.”
Chase looked at him, struggling to dig through the mess, his tail flailing in the air. He held back a quiet laugh before turning his attention back to the cabinet. He carefully pried it open, feeling the strain of time keeping it stuck. As he looked through the cabinet he carefully moved away a bunch of vials and bottles so he could see to the back, looking for any kind of machinery they could use. Chase was searching so intently, he hadn’t realized a big collection of sickly green vials we’re making their way to the edge of the shelves. Until…. Wham!
A bump from Chase sent the vials over the edge, hitting him on the neck and back, shattering into broken pieces. He exclaimed loudly, feeling the broken glass cut into his neck and the cloud of sickly green fluid settling on his skin. The liquid stung like crazy and he blinked painful tears out of his eyes.
Jackie immediately sprung over towards Chase. “Dude, you okay?! What happened?”
“Nothing,” Chase assured, quickly rubbing his neck, “I just knocked over a few vials or something.”
“I think you got cut man…”
“We’ll take care of that once we get back to Henrik.” Chase said bluntly. Jackie blinked, unconvinced for a second. But he eventually shrugged and started gathering what he felt was useful into one of their bags. Chase carefully felt the cuts on his neck, wondering why the hell they hurt so much.
After about a half hour of careful searching, the boys took their brimming bags of goodies back to the cave. But Chase wasn’t feeling so hot. Well, he was actually feeling really hot. And shivery. His vision was fading in and out but he didn’t think too much of it. He probably just needed some sleep or something.
Jamie was curled up half asleep next to a concentrated Schneep looking through old PDA files. He looked up as he heard the rustling of their bags.
“Ah good! You are back,” He said with a soft smile, “We got a little worried.”
“No sweat, doc. Me and Chase can handle anything!” Jackie beamed, throwing his fist out to Chase for a fist bump. Chase tiredly grinned, knocking his fist against Jackie’s. He suddenly felt a wave of nausea overcome him and sagged slightly. Henrik immediately took notice and swam up to meet Chase, startling Jamie awake as his head fell towards the sand.
“Are you hurt, Chase?” He asked curiously. Chase shook his head slightly.
“No… well, yeah, i got cut by some glass at the wreck and I’ve… i dunno I feel kinda strange. But I could just be tired.”
“Let me see in the light,” Henrik commanded, dragging Chase to the spot where the sky shone into the cave. He pointed for Chase to sit on the ground and Chase tiredly obeyed. He just wanted to sleep.
Henrik swam behind Chase and carefully observed the cuts. His eyes widened slightly and a slight tremor came through his voice.
“Chase… what was in that glass…?”
“Is something wrong?” Jackie asked, swimming back over, leaving the pile of metal discarded in the corner. Henrik moved over to show the reaper a clear view of Chase’s neck. The wound wasn’t deep but from the cut a series of crack like veins had started to form, like Chase’s skin was breaking apart. And some of the veins were glowing a sickly green.
“What is that?!”Jackie exclaimed in horror, and Jamie swam over to see it too. The little one put a hand over his mouth in surprise.
“What? What is it?” Chase snapped, too tired to deal with this. “It’s just a cut isn’t it?”
“Chase whatever cut you back there… i think i might have been dangerous….” Henrik started slowly. Chase was trying to listen, really. But his vision was swimming more and more, and his head was killing him. He leaned his head down, eyes barely able to keep open.
“Can’t we just worry about this later…?” He yawned. Henrik quickly swam to the front of him and shook Chase’ shoulders.
“Chase, Chase! You cannot sleep! This is bad… maybe we can see if the PDAs have something! There has got to be something to fix this!” Schneep was sounding panicked, but Chase was fading. He was so hot, he just wanted to sleep.
“Woah, what’s going on in here?” A new voice asked from above. Marvin swam down from the skylight of the cave, carrying his own bag of treasures.
Jackie called up, “Chase is sick or something!”
Marvin laughed slightly, dumping his bag with the others. “Huh that’s weird, he seemed just fine this morning! Is it like the time that-“
Jackie, Henrik and Jamie all turned when Marvin cut off. He was just still, staring at the cut on Chase’s neck with a strange expression, eyes slowly widening. Then his eyes filled with bright pink, and he seemed to grow a second pair.
“M-Marvin….?” Henrik asked, shakily.
Marvin opened his mouth to reply but all that came out was robotic sounding gibberish.
“▀▖┗▛▄▖▜▚┣ ▜▚┗┣┗┫┓┏┓ ▛▄▖”
The boys suppressed a shudder, and Jackie moved closer to Chase on instinct. He didn’t like the look on Marvin’s face.
Everything happened so fast.
Suddenly Marvin was rushing towards Chase, knocking Jackie and Jamie away. Schneep was closest to Chase and he curled around him protectively as Marvin approached. Marvin dug bright blue claws into the Stalker’s shoulders before shoving him away. Henrik cried in pain and hit the cave wall with a dull thud.
Chase, hardly aware of the situation, looked up just in time to see Marvin’s terrifying alien eyes boring into him. Chase gave a cry of shock at the sight as Marvin’s claws dug deep into his arms. Chase screamed, trying to pull away, digging his tail into the sand below. But, Marvin held firm, stronger than he usually was. Then suddenly, Chase was falling backwards, feeling the pull of a current dragging him away. He was blown back, twisting and turning through a whirlpool of purple and blue. He caught one more glimpse through the chaos at Marvin staring at him blankly before the warp gate closed. Leaving Chase bleeding and disoriented and sick, in a field of darkness far away from home.
(To be continued….Only cuz this is getting long sorry;;;)
(Also before ya’ll get mad at me let’s just assume this is after Juri’s Chase crisis? Or before?? ITS SEPERATE OKAY!! I had the idea to hurt Chase first >:C)
