Chapter four: Another Mystery
"What is going on here?!" Pidge gasped, upon noticing her panicked friends. "Shiro? Lance, what's happening to them?!?!" The Green Paladin searched Allura and Keith's faces; only finding more questions and confusion. Keith turned to face her squarely.
"Where have you been?" He asked her. "We called for everyone and you didn't show up. We were about to go looking for you."
"I was sleeping; like everyone else should've been." Pidge responded dryly. "What is going on with them?"
"We don't know." Allura sighed, dropping her gaze unfortunately. But she managed a slight smile when she looked up again. "But we sure are glad you're here now. Maybe you can help us figure it out." Pidge stared at her curiously for a moment inwardly running ideas through her mind.
"When did this all start?" She asked finally.
"Not sure." Keith replied, thoughtfully wracking his brain. "I would say this morning.. but- I wouldn't know for sure."
"Could this be something that has only just now started to affect them?" Pidge asked, bracing her elbows on the crate she was leaning on; fingers interlocked in front of her face.
"Possibly. But- what could have caused this?" Allura wondered.
"Who was the first to start acting strange?" Pidge returned, holding her position.
"Shiro. Definitely." Keith decided. "I found him in the cockpit of the Black lion, but he was.. acting... different. He was disoriented, saying something about Zarkon being there, but I didn't see anything. I eventually convinced him to finally go back to sleep. Then I woke up this morning and he was like this." Keith motioned to Shiro, who stood leaning against the back wall of the cargo hold on his right side. His head rested on the wall as well, and his hand to his head; the panic he felt holding on still.
"Ok so Shiro was the first." Pidge went on. "Now we need to ask ourselves... what could've caused this sudden change in his demeanor? And how does it connect to everyone else's strange new behaviors?"
"Wait, didn't Shiro start to act a bit strangely after we landed on that broken planet?" Allura recalled. "He seemed a bit on edge when she exited the cave where we found that little creature."
"I believe you're right!" Coran gasped, in realization; inserting himself into the conversation.
"That blast?" Keith thought aloud. He turned to Shiro, and noticed something intriguing. Slowly approaching Shiro, he could see this anomaly better. The tips of Shiro's white floof were ever so slightly pigmented, though the darkness obscured the full extent of it. Keith reached up, with his left arm, to get a better look at the colored hair. Shiro, somehow catching this, reached up to grasp Keith's forearm.
"-Shiro.. it's ok. I'm not gonna hurt you." Keith told him tenderly. Shiro relaxed only slightly and let his hand slip down to Keith's elbow; and Keith noticed the purplish handprint that was left behind.
"Pidge." Keith addressed the Green Paladin, tilting his head back toward her; without breaking his gaze. "Do you have any idea what this is?" The Green Paladin strode up slowly to gaze over his shoulder at what he was talking about. She leaned forward to brace her hands to her knees for a lower elevation; giving her a better view of the handprint on Keith's white armor.
"I'll need a sample that I can analyze for a possible search, but without the Castle's database it'll be tricky." Pidge informed him. She looked up at him. "So it might take a while."
"Then we'll just have to get started." Keith decided simply.
"Start with Shiro." Pidge determined. "Likely he was the first one to be infected. And everyone activate your helmet masks; in case it can be spread atmospherically." Keith lowered his elevation, as his visor went down over his face, hoping to gain Shiro's glance.
"What exactly do we do?" Keith asked, glancing over his shoulder at her again. Pidge thought a moment.
"Well, since he's already touched you, we could use the substance from the hand print on your arm as the sample." The Green Paladin noted. Keith then turned to Allura, Krolia and Coran.
"Allura, keep an eye on the others. We're gonna need some time." He told her.
"Affirmative." The Princess nodded.
"Right, we got this covered. You go on, and do your thing, number five!" Coran agreed waving them off, with his usual confident swagger about him.
"Great!" Keith said. "Pidge, let's go!" The Green Paladin draped a small cloth over Keith's forearm; wrapping it up in it and set his hand on it, to hold it in place.
"So we don't mess up the sample." She told him, reading his mind. Keith shrugged as Pidge took off, then followed suit.
After they'd left, Allura turned her attention to their four panicked and distressed friends.
"Let's try to calm them down, maybe we can get through to them somehow." Allura suggested, openly thinking out loud. "Hm?" A little chatter and a soft touch on her shoulder turned her attention to it. "Oh, hello little friend." The Princess told the little chipmunk creature, scratching it's head with her pointer finger. The creature gave a little sneeze, and scurried around to her other shoulder leaping at Coran. Whipping it's tail up, a green cloud burst in his face.
"Coran!!" Allura cried in horror. Coran coughed and spluttered covering his face with his hands, as the creature caught his clothes and climbed up his shirt to his shoulder. Krolia held her blaster up; waiting for the right moment to shoot when it leapt from Coran's shoulder, as he began to fall. Krolia shot and missed and the creature landed on her hands; nipping her fingers, causing her drop the gun. It climbed further up onto her hands, and released the cloud from its tail once again. Krolia covered her mouth in response to the puff of green, coughing as she fell back as well.
"No!!" Allura exclaimed.
~~~
Pidge took a small round pad, and rubbed it over the purplish hand print on the white surface of Keith's armor. Sticking it in a science disk, she slid it under her microscope.
"It looks like some kind of spore? Or virus?" She glanced over at Keith. "It's hard to tell, but whatever this stuff is, it acts as a neurotoxin that's seems to be causing unwanted hallucinations of their worst fears. Shiro must be experiencing things from his time as a Galra prisoner; which is, likely, his worst fear;.. being imprisoned again and being experimented on."
"Which is why he's been acting so strangely." Keith implied. "He's practically paralyzed by fear."
"Exactly. And I think that's what's happening to the rest of our friends." Pidge finished.
"So why did it turn Shiro's hair purple?" Keith wondered curiously.
"I think the chemical compounds within the substance has a color-changing property, that is affected by what it comes into contact with; which is why it turned Shiro's hair and your suit purple when Shiro touched you."
"So what do we do now?" Keith asked.
"Keith! Pidge! What's your status!!" Allura's voice cracked through the com; her distress unhindered by the roughness of the transmission.
"We think we may have something, why?" Keith responded.
"Well, I think I know why everyone's been acting so strangely! And now it's happening to Coran and Krolia!" The Princess gasped. Keith perked up as soon as he heard this.
"Mom?"
XXXX
"What's going on?!" Keith demanded, bursting back into the Black lion.
"Keith, watch out!" The Red Paladin was pushed aside as the Princess held up her particle shield to block the creature leaping at them. Allura grabbed Pidge and Keith by the arm, and dragged them into the cockpit; closing the door behind them just in time.
"What was that all about?!" Pidge questioned breathlessly.
"That was our answer." Allura responded simply. "I think that that creature we found has been causing the strange behaviors we've been noticing in our friends."
"How do you know?" Keith asked.
"I just watched it spray both Coran and Krolia, and both of them started acting strangely afterwards." The Princess returned firmly.
"So all this time that thing has been doing this?" Pidge asked, looking away when she thought she'd seen something.
"I think so." The Princess sighed again. "Which means we must get rid of it and figure out how to cure the rest of the team." The brief silence was shattered by Pidge's panicked yell, or was it a scream? It was hard to tell by her type of voice. Keith and Allura looked up to see the Green Paladin retreating out the cockpit door.
"Pidge?" They cried in unison.
Hey everybody!!! So excited right now, because we're starting to get to the good part of this story! Hope you enjoy!! Thx!!!
