Author's Note: I own nothing.
29 Beginning
Jen was having a nightmare. It was one she'd had before, and she found it odd that because of that it was more comforting than the others she'd had recently. But still the feeling of Malware ripping her apart was not a pleasant one and she was almost happy to start awake at a loud crash ripping through the silence of the night. She rolled out of bed crashing to the floor her dagger, which lived under her pillow while she slept, in her hand. But blinking she found that there was no threat, or at least the threat had managed to incapacitate herself.
Albeda was laying on her floor, her feet tangled in a discarded pair of jeans. Her whole head was covered in something. Jen had no idea what it was but it was slimy and several different neon colors. Give the human-galvan's twitching and frightened moans it couldn't be anything good. There was a knock on her door. She slipped her dagger under her pillow as her mother stuck her head into the room and raised an eyebrow.
"Everything ok? What happened?" Jen shook her head.
"Not entirely sure. Can you call Gwen please? I need to call this in." Her mother nodded, frowning at the figure in the fetal position on the floor. Jen picked up her communicator from the bedside table and flicked it on.
"Plumber base, this is Jen Ten." She only had to wait a beat before someone answered.
"Hey Jen, it's late why are you calling in?"
"Hey Pierce. Um, I need prisoner transport, and possibly a medical team at my house asap please."
"What happened?" Jen shook her head.
"Um. I'm not entirely sure but I've got Albeda of the Galvan on my floor, I think she's unconscious, she's got a thing on her head. I have no idea what it is." Her door crashed open, Kevin and Gwen in the doorway both slightly disheveled. Gwen was wearing Kevin's regular black t shirt while he wore only his pants and undershirt. "I'm gonna call you back Pierce but send the transport please."
"You got it." They clicked off the call as Gwen and Kevin noticed the figure on Jen's floor. Jen was holding back laughter as she looked over her teammates.
"What's happening?" Gwen asked looking down at the human-Galvan on the floor.
"Not sure woke up to this." Jen said pointing at the figure on the floor. "Any idea what that is?" She asked pointing at the thing still covering Albeda's face.
"Cassiopeian dream eater. Nasty little buggers. They trap you in a nightmare and feed off the chemicals your brain puts out when you're afraid." Kevin said poking the whimpering girl in the shoulder.
"Get it off me!" She muttered.
"Can we pull it off?" Jen asked.
"Not unless we wanna pull her face off with it. A Galvan doctor might be able to though." Jen nodded.
"Transport's already on the way. Think she meant it for me?" Gwen nodded.
"Can't believe that she'd have brought it for any other reason, she just didn't expect your room to be as messy as it is." Jen laughed.
"I didn't expect you to show up in Kevin's shirt with a bunch of hickies but the unexpected can be fun sometimes." Both of them went bright red. "So were you two in the middle of something, cause if so sorry for interrupting." Both girls broke into giggles as someone nocked on the door. Kevin backed out of the room and came back with a team. They picked up the prone Albeda and nodded to them taking her back to the Base. Jen flopped back onto her bed sighing loudly.
"Can I just get one night of actual sleep?" Gwen shook her head.
"Probably not, we're gonna head out. Try to get some sleep Jen." Jen nodded into her pillow.
"You two behave. Don't do anything I wouldn't do." Kevin laughed.
"You spent three days with Charmcaster. I'm pretty sure that the list of things you wouldn't do is short as hell." Kevin said laughing. Gwen punched him in the shoulder. He laughed again as they made their way out of the room.
Jen managed to sleep in quite a bit for once in her life. She did feel quite a bit nervous, but the day passed by quite easily. Kevin kept working on his car, still determined to make it a submersible. Gwen was finishing up her last class, and they were all planning on going to the pier that night. But of course, their plan was snatched out from under them by an ambush by the Esoterica. They managed to get them taken care of all but one, whom they interrogated. The Esoterica were moving on the seal. Jen stepped outside and pulled out her phone. She dialed up George, stepping far away from Gwen.
"George. It's time. I'm going to see if I can't find out what the Esoterica are going after, you need to mobilize your troops."
"Very well. Contact me as soon as you know anything." Jen nodded.
"Stay safe, expect ambushes, we already got ambushed once."
"Stay well my friend." Jen nodded and hung up the phone. Kevin and Gwen stepped out of the garage.
"Alright, lets head out. We'll head to the Flame Keeper's Circle headquarters, see if we can't find out where they're going." The two of them nodded and sprinted into Kevin's car.