We are getting closer and closer to the action of the story, I promise. ;)

Thanks to Azkadellio and bade for reviewing, and 50ShadesofGerardGay for beta-ing.


CHAPTER 12

"What a peculiar name," Robbie commented, "I wonder how they came up with that."

"It's a combination of two words," Cat said as if the answer was obvious.

He cocked an eyebrow. "Do you want to tell me which two—"

"Hey," André interrupted, tapping the left arrow button on the keyboard repeatedly. "There's pages here of information on Terratume and what the scientists have discovered ever since 1972."

"Tell us!" Robbie demanded.

"Maybe we should invite Trina, Tori, and Beck over first," André suggested, "I mean, they don't know half of what we already learned. It would be useful." Cat nodded quickly but Robbie didn't look so thrilled. "Why don't you go and get them for us, Rob?"

"Me?" The Dimensioner recoiled in surprise.

"Of course you," André replied, forcing a smile down. "You'd clearly be the fastest. Time is wasting as we speak, you know. Jade could pop up at any moment and declare world domination or something."

Robbie's cheeks flamed red and the tip of his nose and ears tinged pink. It seemed like he had actually needed to consider André's offer before he took a deep breath and disappeared in a cloud of green. André signed in relief and spun his chair around to face Cat, who had plopped herself down on the floor and fiddled with the split ends of her red hair.

"Hey Cat," André called out, waving down at her to get her attention.

"Huh?" Her head snapped up and she uncrossed her legs, trying to stand. "What is it?"

"I was wondering…" André suddenly felt a lump in his throat. He coughed into his fist as Cat gazed up at him with big, dark brown eyes. The transmitter he had made for her hung delicately around her slender neck and nestled in the base of her throat. Her red hair fanned out against her shoulders and made her seem like she was enraptured in a glowing halo. André decided that he had never seen anyone so innocent and adorable.

Cat blinked as she patiently waited for him to say something. His jaw went slack and his mouth hung open, eyes connecting with hers.

"AreyoubusythisSunday?" The words came out in a horrible, jumbled rush. Cat giggled, clasping her hands in her lap again. She could feel how embarrassed and nervous he was right now, just by listening to his voice and looking at the expression on his face.

"Can you talk slower, please?"

"Sorry." André felt the heat bloom across his features and creep down the back of his neck. He rubbed his hands together in front of him and forced himself to keep eye contact with the redhead. "Do you want to have dinner with me this weekend?" He talked painfully slow, almost like he was speaking to a child.

"Where do you plan on taking me?" Cat smiled.

"Is that a yes?"

She grinned bigger, exposing her glinting teeth and the one dimple in her left cheek appeared. She nodded and offered him her hand from the floor. André took it, confused, and she pulled herself up, now standing just slightly above him as he was still sitting.

"Thank you," she mumbled.

André had no idea what she was talking about but took comfort in their entwined hands. She started to lean down as he tilted his head up, but suddenly there was a boom and they broke apart. Tori, Trina, Robbie, and Beck stood in the middle of the room, their arms linked.

"So I heard you found something about that substance," Trina said noisily, stalking towards the computer. "What was it called again? Terra-tomb?"

"Terratume," André corrected her with a smile.

"What an interesting name," Trina said.

"It's two words combined," Cat chimed in helpfully.

"Which—"

"What exactly did Robbie tell you guys?" André asked the four newcomers.

"The name of the substance and the only other recorded event when it came in contact with humans and calibers," Beck informed him, standing by the table where the Terratume was cowering in its glass.

"All right, that's good. I haven't had the chance to check out these other files yet. So now we can all together." André gestured for everyone to come closer. "Here I go.

"The origin of the Terratume has not been fully confirmed, but so far it has been traced to a planet far outside the Milky Way. The planet's environment is thought to be dark and damp, after studying various aspects of the Terratume's behavior. The Terratume has demonstrated itself to be a violent, power-hungry species, which may indicate the reason for its switch from a small child to a full-grown caliber.

"The natural form of the Terratume looks like a puddle of white goo. The size will vary depending on its maturity and age. The Terratume has exceptional shape-shifting abilities, able to form around any object of its choosing. Even delicate human hairs can be encased individually by the Terratume, although it should be noted that while it appears normal, the properties of the hair, such as its reaction to wind, may not be the same.

"Scientists think that the color of the Terratume helps its camouflaging skills. By being white, it allows the Terratume to shift into any other shade it desires by absorbing various degrees of light. This is tremendously useful while disguising itself as human or any other living object, as it becomes almost impossible for someone to realize its presence just by looking.

"The Terratume are remarkably strong and hostile parasites. After creating a bond with its host, the Terratume will take in any and all talents that comes with the victim. In the case of calibers, their power will then be under the Terratume's control. In the 1972 Newell incident, Newell had absolutely no restraint of his actions and everything he did during the time span of being infected and his death was all supposedly the Terratume's doing. This makes it extremely difficult to determine a direct weakness with the Terratume without hurting the victim.

"Severing the bond with its host is the currently the most practical, but it is unfortunately unknown as to how this would work, as the bond is physical with the brain stems and cells and a process has not been developed yet to carry out this theory. The only way to destroy a Terratume alien is to kill the victim while the bond is still intact. The reason behind this is not supported with a lot of evidence, but researchers are leaning towards the idea that the Terratume by themselves are not able to exist very well with Earth's climate. This is in addition to the idea that whatever happens to the victim will happen to the Terratume."

"That was…" Beck breathed, his eyes growing wide.

"Quite a lot to take in," Robbie continued for him.

"You know what this means though?" Tori turned to her friends hesitantly and made eye contact with each of them.

"The only way to stop Terratume is to kill Jade," Trina answered.

The gang experienced a brief silence following Trina's words. No one moved or knew what to say. They all knew what the cold truth was but refused to agree or disagree with Trina. Finally, Beck took a step forward and glared at Trina with a murderous gaze.

"How dare you—" he began.

"Chill, man," André intervened, standing up and inching way in between the two. "We won't try out anything on Jade until we have a full plan ready to go behind it. Okay, Beck?"

He snorted and his eyebrows twisted.

Trina didn't say anything but lowered her head and awkwardly sat down on the floor. Tori and Cat joined her while Robbie moved to stand next to André.

"I think we have almost all of the information we can get on Terratume. All we need to do now is come up with a reasonable plot to get Jade back," André stated, rubbing his hands against his thigh. "From what we've learned so far, it's the physical bond with Terratume that's causing Jade to act the way she did. But I don't know how we're going to break it without…" Beck stared at him with ice-cold eyes. "…erm, hurting the victim," André finished in a much softer tone.

"There has to be a way," Beck pleaded. "We need to come up with something else. I don't want to have to do that." He swallowed and refused to look at any of them.

"Do you think it's even still possible for us to run tests on her?" Robbie wondered. "We have absolutely no idea where she is and I'm sure when we manage to find her, she'll probably go all psycho on us before we can even say our own names."

"This is such nonsense," Tori commented. "Everything has to have a weakness of some sort."

"Yes, there is one," Trina had to remind them. "Kill the host."

"We are not doing anything to Jade yet," Beck roared, pushing his way closer to the Vega sisters. "Just because she didn't agree to marry me doesn't mean I stopped caring about her." He turned to the others. "And if any of you so much as hint towards her death one more time, I will be the cause of yours in the following seconds."

"Hold on, that's it!" André nearly jumped out of his seat. "Remember when we sent Jade back to the apartment to get the cake? That must've been when Terratume got a hold of her. It was the perfect opportunity. She was alone and when she came back, she seemed like a whole different person."

"And she had that little seizure thing before answering your question, Beck," Trina recalled, nodding her head.

"What are you talking about?" Robbie asked.

"How can you not remember?" Tori snapped her fingers in his face. "It was before she said anything, she started making these weird expressions and her body had a bunch of spasms.

"Do you think that it was the real Jade underneath, trying to fight for control of Terratume? What if she wanted to say yes, but Terratume became too much for her and forced her to say no?" Beck's eyes lit up like candles.

"I can't believe none of you figured that out before," Cat mumbled quietly from her place next to Tori, shaking her head slightly.

"You knew about this the entire time?" They gaped at her in awe.

"Of course." Cat nodded then noticed the odd looks they were giving her. "What? I thought you all knew too."

"No…" André squinted at her awkwardly and there was another silence. "Okay, so I guess this is where everything stands. I'm going to need everyone to pitch in and start coming up with ideas on how we can first track Jade, then figure out how we'll separate her from Terratume. I'll give us a few days for that, but no more than a week. We have to work quickly. We don't know where Terratume is and what it's planning to do in Jade's body. Not hearing anything from them should be our motivation."

"This sounds like a lot of work," Trina started to complain.

"It's important though," Tori pointed out. "Jade was our leader and friend, and she still is. We don't know what Terratume will be able to accomplish in her body, but we need to find her before something horrible happens. They're pretty much immune to any physical threat and if Terratume is as power-hungry and vicious as the files say, then we have to act fast. What if the police get to them first? How do you think they'll be treated by them and other normal humans?"

"All right, all right, I get it," Trina waved her sister off. "Jade means a lot to you guys and naturally, we're the only ones who can save her because anyone else who tries will probably just screw up more. This totally has never happened before," she added sarcastically.

"This is serious," Cat said in a quiet voice. "If we don't save Jade, then Orlando will be doomed as well."


Thanks for reading. I will see you all soon!