Now we finally get to see if Hermes is okay or not I:}

...

Hermes's POV

I wake with a jerk and sharply sit up. I'm gasping for breath, my face and body are sweaty, and I feel like I just had a nightmare, though I don't remember having one.

I take in my surroundings. I'm in a bed in the hospital bay, with an IV drip attached to my arm. I stare at it in confusion before I see Apollo coming towards me, looking rather tired. "Ah, you're awake."

"What happened?" I ask wearily.

"We were hoping you could tell us," Apollo replies sombrely. "We found you with no pulse out on the field. You weren't breathing. Quinn tried CPR twice and then I had to resort to using a defibrillator. Even when your heart restarted, it was weak. I gave you countless injections to try and strengthen your circulation. Your mom and dad didn't leave your side the whole time."

"Where are they now?" I ask.

"Perry was called on a mission and Priya had to go home to look after the infant twins after Parker and Hazel were called on another mission."

I let out a deep sigh and lie back down in the bed.

"How long was I out?"

"All in all, about twenty hours." Apollo grabs a pen and notebook and sits down on the chair next to my bed. "If you can remember, I need you to tell me what happened to you."

I think carefully. "It-it started when Madeline was being nasty to me in the corridor outside."

I see Apollo write that down. I feel a twinge of guilt; I hadn't intended to name Madeline as my tormentor.

"I was upset and I started running away. I passed Mom and stopped to speak to her. Before I could, I suddenly got a horrible pain in my head and stomach. I felt like I was about to have a seizure or something. I-I didn't want anyone to see me like that so I ran out into the field." I shudder at the memory. "It was awful. Absolutely horrible. It felt like my blood was on fire. There was pain everywhere, from my head to my body to my limbs. I felt like I was going to die."

I close my eyes and listen to the scribbling sound of Apollo's pencil on the paper. "Any idea what caused this pain?"

I shake my head. "None. It happened so suddenly."

"I see..." Apollo writes something else down. "Well, until we can find out what's wrong, I advise you stay hooked to the IV drip."

"Can you at least put it on wheels so I can walk around?" I plead.

"For the next day or so, you need to recover in bed," says Apollo. "I've done some tests and I'm just about to get the results. I think the pain might have been something to do with the chip inside you." He gives a smile. "Now, you need to rest. After all, you were dead for at least half an hour."

That is incredibly scary. That thought alone is enough to shut me up for the next hour, until Quinn comes to visit me.

"How are you feeling?" she asks quietly.

"Like hell," I answer truthfully. "But honestly, I'm just glad to be alive."

Quinn nods like she expected that. "Teddy was the one who found you," she tells me. "I happened to be out on the field with my boyfriend and I heard him yelling for help. I have never seen Teddy so scared and panicked. He was on the verge of hysteria. He just didn't know what to do. I tried CPR on you while Teddy ran to get Apollo. It was the scariest thing I've ever experienced: watching Apollo try to revive you. I can't tell you how lightheaded we all felt when you started breathing again."

I pause, thinking about Teddy. He told me that he was claustrophobic but after hearing what Quinn just said, I'm not convinced that that is his biggest fear. I think now that his biggest fear is not being able to help someone in trouble. His skills lie in the field, and not always can those skills save a life. Mostly they can, but because he's not medically trained, I guess he felt incredibly helpless and panicked. That's how Anke often feels when she wants to help but isn't physically able to.

Speaking of my girlfriend...

"Where's Anke?" I ask my sister.

Quinn shrugs. "I don't know. Nobody's seen her in a while."

Before I can feel properly worried about Anke, Apollo comes over to me, holding a couple of diagrams. "I was right," he says. "It is to do with your chip."

Quinn sits down on the chair next to my bed as Apollo holds up the first diagram, which doesn't really mean anything to me. "Your DNA's been forcefully changed by your bionic chip, so your DNA is currently not natural. In platypuses, apparently, the DNA is violently disagreeing with being changed by the chip."

"But then why did it wait until Hermes is five years old to start giving him pain?" asks Quinn. She looks at me. "You said the chip was implanted when you were one?"

I nod.

"I don't know," Apollo replies. "Perhaps it's because young animals' bodies begin their equivalent of puberty at age four, and this continually changes things throughout the puberty period. Maybe a natural change is being hindered or prevented from happening because of the changed DNA. Anyway, I think that's what's causing your pain."

"Wait...earlier you said "in platypuses"," I point out. "How do you know it's just in platypuses?"

"Because Lateysha, Noah, and Adrian have not come down with these symptoms," replies Apollo.

"So Anke must be being affected too!" I sit anxiously up again. "We have to find her! Where was she last seen?"

"She's not at your house or anywhere in the offices or gyms," Apollo says. "And nobody can recall having seen her in the last twenty hours."

I swing my legs over the side of the bed and stand up, to immediate protests from Apollo. I hold up my paw, stopping him. "Please, just get me a mobile drip."

...

Perry's POV

I have just come back from my mission. An former LOVEMUFFIN scientist had activated an -inator and I have just returned from wrecking it. I know that MM only put me on this mission to take my mind off my sick son.

So when I get back and see Hermes walking around attached to a mobile IV drip, I have to look twice.

"Hermes?"

"Hi Dad," says Hermes, looking very worried. "Have you seen Anke?"

I shake my head. "Is everything okay?"

"I think the thing that happened to me has also happened to Anke," says Hermes anxiously. "We have to find her before it's too late."

I nod. "Okay, I'll help you find her. I think Luke, Sam, Piper, Teddy, Hazel, and Parker are in mission prep. They've all just returned from recent missions so while I begin the search, you go and enlist their help."

Hermes nods and heads off towards mission prep.

I start thinking about where Anke could be. The last time I saw her was yesterday morning when she told me that Hermes was going to ask permission to see their friend in Steele Bay. I have no idea where she could have gone after that.

I go around the office and speak to everyone I come across about Anke. Nobody has seen her. Logically speaking then, if Anke is in OWCA, she must be in a place where people do not usually go. That eliminates reception, the hospital bay, and the offices. If she had collapsed or something in one of the bathrooms, then someone would have found her by now.

Unless...

There's one girls' bathroom on the fourth floor that nobody goes in because they ridiculously think it's haunted. If Anke was trying to hide from people, I'm confident that that is where she would go.

On my way up there, I bump into Artemis on her way down.

"Perry, is everything okay?"

I know she knows the answer already. She's perceptive; that's her job. "We think what happened to Hermes has also happened to Anke. I think she's in the girls' bathroom on the fourth floor."

"I'll come with you, then."

With Artemis following, I rush up to the bathroom on the fourth floor and push open the door, ignoring the odd looks I get from the agents on that floor.

Artemis's POV

I hurry into the bathroom and find the light pink platypus lying face down on the cold tiles.

I bend down next to her. "Anke? Anke, can you hear me?" I feel for a pulse. There's nothing, and she's not breathing. I gently gather her in my arms, trying not to panic, and leave the bathroom.

Perry falls into step as I hurry towards the stairs. "It's the exact same thing as Hermes," I say as I walk quickly. "Only this time her heart has been stopped for over twenty hours. I don't know if we'll be able to revive her."

...

Dun DUN DUUUUN!