Thanks for the reviews and for reading guys! Here is part 2. Hope you like it. I was never the best at endings.
Disclaimer- I dont own Hot Wheels Battle Force 5.
Sherman rounded everyone up in the living room while Zoom went to bed.
"What's the matter Sherm?" Vert asked, sensing his serious mood.
"I think I'm starting to remember what happened. Kind of." He said, meeting Agura's concerned eyes.
"Does this have something to do with the dream you and Agura both had?" Vert asked. He remembered their conversation in the morning and started to feel dread in his belly.
At this point, Stanford chipped in with a pout "What is everyone talking about? What dream? Why am I out of the loop?!" he huffed. Spinner nodded in agreement.
Sherman rolled his eyes. "Last night I had a nightmare, and so did Agura. Only I don't think they were nightmares. I think they were memories. We were all being really horrible to Zoom. I mean, like, Agura was hitting him across the face type horrible..." Sherman said, glancing and Agura who had gone very pale and ashamed.
"I think we caused Zoom's injuries for some reason. He pretty much confirmed it. I just don't understand why!" Sherman muttered.
Vert put his hands on his head. "It would explain why he doesn't want us touching him..." he said, remembering his own little 'flashback' out in the car park. "I think we will have to ask him to explain again when he gets up. He will have to tell us now" he said, hoping against hope that somehow they were wrong.
"Let's ask Sage one more time" Spinner said, unable to wait any longer.
They nodded and headed to Sage's office once again.
When they entered, Sage was typing furiously on her system.
"Something wrong Sage?" Vert asked.
Sage spun around quickly with a jump. "I was just about to call you in here. There is something within out walls. Something I cannot explain. I was checking our recent camera archives and found a shape hovering around. I feel as if it is a threat. There is a heaviness about this place ever since it arrived. I need to investigate further. Until then, I suggest we stay together as a group at all times."
She pulled up some files and showed them some security footage of their front door. It was them returning from Zeke's a few days ago. After everyone entered, a dark mass soon followed, slinking in unnoticed.
She glanced around the group. "Where is Zoom?"
Vert's belly dropped. He quickly left for Zoom's room at a concerned jog. He pushed through the door and saw a big black mass on top of Zoom. What looked vaguely like a mouth was gaping open, breathing Zoom's scent in. A large wet tongue slipped out and trailed up Zoom's cheek. As soon as it touched, Zoom's squirming and writhing frame went completely rigid.
Vert grabbed a shoe from the ground and threw it at the mass. It reared back in shock and then disappeared before him.
Vert ran over to Zoom, shaking his shoulders to wake him up.
Zoom groaned as his bruised eyes fluttered open, revealing his lingering terror.
"Vert, please! You're all sick, you need to stop!" he moaned, trying to pull away.
"Shhh Zoom! You're awake now, it's okay!" he tried to soothe.
Suddenly, for no apparent reason, Zoom's bedroom door slammed closed making them both jump.
The dark mass was blocking their entrance, disappearing before their very eyes.
XXXXX
Pounding could be heard on the other side of Zoom's door as the rest of the team tried to enter.
Vert tried the handle but it wouldn't budge.
"Vert? What's going on?" Zoom gasped, climbing out of bed on shaky legs.
Vert spun around to meet Zoom. "There is some entity in the building. Sage thinks it means us harm" he quickly explained, looking for something to jimmy the door open.
"Why are we trapped?" He said, padding on bare feet over to Vert. Before he could reach him, the black mass suddenly appeared behind Vert, engulfing him entirely.
"Vert!" Zoom yelled, urging himself forward to help. He was so wobbly.
He reached out a trembling hand to find Vert's but was thrown back by some unseen force.
Zoom fell to the floor, skidding back a few feet.
The pounding on the door intensified and suddenly Vert started screaming.
"Stop!" Zoom yelled at the blackness swirling around Vert. He looked around desperately, trying to find something to help. There were some throwing knives on his wall but he didn't want to risk hurting Vert. He saw a vase with some old flowers Agura had given the team a few weeks ago by his window.
He scrambled off the floor and retrieved the vase.
Vert's screaming then stopped. He was eerily quiet.
Zoom didn't wait any longer. He threw the vase's contents at the smoke, hoping something would happen.
It did
The blackness screeched and started swirling around the room, ruffling paper and making the window blinds smack against the wall. It looked as though Vert was absorbing the dark cloud.
As soon as this happened, Vert started screaming again, so Zoom ran to him, trying to catch him as he started falling towards the floor.
Zoom grunted under Vert's weight, falling with him and softening his landing.
He squeezed out from beneath him, lifting Vert's head into his lap.
Vert appeared to be unconscious.
Zoom tried tapping his cheek, calling his name softly.
He glanced around the room, looking for the 'entity' that Vert mentioned earlier.
Vert's eyes suddenly popped open.
Zoom's relieved sigh got caught in his throat when he saw that Vert's usually blue eyes had turned black.
"Vert?" he asked softly, unsure.
Vert blinked up at him with a blank look on his face.
He sat up suddenly, causing Zoom to have to dodge out of the way, rather than smack faces with him and earn himself another broken nose.
He got to his feet once again, unnerved that Vert still hadn't said anything.
"Are you alright? We have to get out of here" Zoom said, attempting to walk to his door.
Vert blocked his way, shoving him in the shoulders.
"Well well well. If it isn't little Zoom, all alone and defenceless" Vert suddenly said in a dreadfully familiar tone.
Zoom gulped, shaking his head in disbelief.
Was Vert sick again? He couldn't remember the team having black eyes when they were sick last time...
Zoom decided it must have something to do with the darkness that was in the room earlier.
He was suddenly aware that the pounding on his door had stopped and realised that he really was all alone right now, with Vert not acting himself.
"Aren't you going to say anything? You're so pathetic!" Vert taunted as Zoom backed behind his bed, shaking and at a loss of what to do.
The banging was back on his door now, and it made him jump.
He could faintly hear the team yelling that they were coming and to hold on. He didn't think he could wait much longer.
Zoom glanced at his knives again, thinking that if worst came to worst, he could use them to defend himself.
Unfortunately, Vert saw his eye movement and followed them to the wall next to them.
"What's this?"
Zoom closed his eyes briefly in disappointment as Vert reached for the knives inspecting them closely.
To Zoom's horror, Vert used one of the knives to cut a trail across his own hand.
"Vert! Stop! What are you doing?!" Zoom said, starting forward to stop the leader from hurting himself.
Vert grinned manically and threw one knife at Zoom's head.
It missed by a hairs width as Zoom threw himself to the side, colliding with the wall.
"This is fun Zoom!" Vert crowed happily and threw another knife.
This time it grazed Zoom's side, slicing easily through his thin shirt material and hitting skin.
Zoom grunted in pain. Before he had time to inspect the damage, he had to roll to the other side to miss another knife.
"You're a quick little thing" Vert said in annoyance as he missed again.
Finally Zoom's door opened, having been barged from the other side by the team.
"Guys, get out of the way!" Zoom said.
"Vert what are you doing?!" Agura screeched, at the same time as Zoom.
Vert grinned. He turned to face the team and threw a knife into the small crowd standing there.
They all yelled and dove for cover.
While Vert was distracted, Zoom dashed for the door.
Vert recovered quickly though and snatched the back of Zooms collar, halting him quickly.
He pulled Zoom back flush with his body and held the last throwing knife to Zoom's throat.
"Nobody move!" Vert bellowed.
The team had gotten up and were standing stock still. Zoom glanced around and couldn't see sage anywhere. He hoped she was working on how to fix this.
"Vert why are you doing this?" Agura pleaded quietly.
Zoom huffed and craned his neck back as the knife pressed against his skin, leaving a small cut.
"It isn't Vert. It can't be! Look at his eyes" Zoom announced angrily. Why was it that he was always the helpless one?
"That's right." Vert said, ruffling Zoom's dark hair. "I'm not the one you call Vert."
"Then who are you?" Stanford asked carefully.
"That doesn't matter. All that matters is that I have found a rich feeding ground to last me a lifetime." The Thing said, smelling the air.
Stanford's nose wrinkled in disgust. "What? You mean us? How dare you-"
Stanford was cut off by The Thing. " The emotions that you group of beings have projected are the tastiest I have ever known... Especially this one." It said, glancing down at Zoom.
"I have never been able to possess a being before. Until I started feeding off of you things" It said, leaning down to lick the side of Zooms face again.
Zoom made a disgusted noise and jerked his head away. Unfortunately that meant having the knife cut into his neck a little deeper, sending rivulets of blood running down his neck.
"Zoom, stop moving!" Sherman hissed.
"So what? You're just gonna eat us? As if we are gonna let that happen bucko!" Spinner said, puffing out his chest in defiance.
The Thing chuckled deeply, invigorated by his latest taste of his victim. It had to control itself to stop.
"You will stay in this place with me until I have fed on every last drop of negativity here, and then I will kill you. But not before I make you relive every bad thing that has ever happened to any one of you!" It explained in a creepily calm voice, taking the knife away from Zoom's neck and trailing it lazily down Zoom's arm, leaving a line of blood in its wake.
Zoom winced, but decided now was his only chance to possibly get away. He spun on the spot, and punched Vert as hard as he could in the jaw.
Any normal person would have gone down, but apparently with the entity within him, Vert was stronger than normal.
His head snapped to the side but nothing more occurred.
Vert's hand shot out and held Zoom around the neck, Vert's blood on his hand, mixing with the blood on Zoom's throat.
Zoom's hands shot up to scratch at Vert's but he was too strong.
"Do they know how they tortured you Zoom?" It said, not even looking at Zoom but at the team.
They were all pale and frozen to the spot.
"How they made you feel like nothing? They hated you! And do you know what I think? I think that deep down, they really do hate you!" It now hissed, it's attention back on Zoom.
Zoom's vision was blurring and out of the corner of his eye's he could see the team rush forward to try and help, only to be flung back like he had been when he initially tried to help Vert.
"You are going to die alone and no one will care" It whispered in his ear. The Thing then bit down on Zoom's ear hard, and with his free hand, plunged the knife into Zoom's thigh causing Zoom to scream all the breath that he had left in his lungs.
He couldn't draw breath, his chest burned and black spots were appearing in his line of vision.
Zoom was dropped to the floor without any warning then, gasping for air.
He could feel rain drops on his face and body. But that didn't make sense.
The roaring in his ears was battling with the sudden onslaught of screaming in the room.
Someone was pulling him up, and dragging him somewhere, but he was so tired.
The further he was dragged, the more aware he seemed to become.
He was in the hallway, and Stanford had him around the arms, dragging him backwards.
It seemed like the emergency sprinklers had been turned on. Everything was drenched.
He could see Agura and Sherman barricading his bedroom door closed with bits of furniture.
Then they were in Sage's infirmary. It seemed to be the only room without sprinklers on the roof.
He was hoisted up onto a bed and then Sage was in front of him looking worried as usual lately.
"You're okay now Zoom" she soothed, pressing a padding of white gauze on his ear and another over the hole in his leg.
"What's going on?" Zoom asked with a raspy voice.
"I activated the sprinklers. There was residue of the entity on the walls and I was working as fast as I could to find out what is lethal to it. After a few hours the water should draw it from Vert's body and kill it" She said, working on mopping up the blood from around Zoom's leg.
Zoom's breath hitched in pain.
Sage grimaced. "Zoom, you are losing a lot of blood. I need to stitch you up. Keep that gauze over your ear" she instructed, pulling out more medical supplies.
"You are one smart Sentient Sage!" Spinner said, making Zoom jump. He hadn't noticed Spinner and Stanford were in the room with them. His realised he mustn't be quite with it.
Sherman and Agura then swept in, looking concerned and dripping wet.
"He was fighting to get out for a while, but he eventually stopped" Agura said, rubbing her face.
Sherman started handing out towels to everyone.
"I can't believe he bit off Zoom's ear!" Spinner crowed, trying not to laugh and failing miserably.
Zoom grimaced and was about to tell him off when Sherman interrupted.
"Do you think you can just give it a rest for five minutes Spinner? Do you even remember what went down five minutes ago?!"
Sage was injecting something into Zoom's leg at this point, and everything got fuzzier.
Spinner sobered up somewhat, shrugging one shoulder guiltily.
He patted Zoom on the back in apology. "You know how I get buddy. I don't mean any harm. You know everything he said in there wasn't true right?" he said, gazing into Zoom's eyes.
Zoom hesitated trying to make sense of what Spin was saying. He eventually nodded, his head flopping back onto the bed.
"I have given him some pain medication while I fix his leg. I think it might be best if you all guard Zoom's bedroom door. There are some umbrellas over there" she nodded distractedly to the corner of the room.
Agura nodded in agreement. "Let's give Sage some room then guys." She ordered. Agura was the last to leave the room, turning back briefly to look at Zoom, "I think when we get Vert out, it will be about time you told us what happened those weeks ago, Zoom" She said gently.
Zoom nodded again, looking at his hands in his lap.
Sage got to work on Zoom's leg, talking quietly.
"I think I will be able to fix your ear easily Zoom" She said, and explained some futuristic looking gadget.
"It can replicate the area it is pointed at to some extent. Your ear should look almost the same when it is finished"
Once she was done with his leg, she got to work on Zoom's ear. At least an hour later she was wrapping the bandage around his head, then put some butterfly stitches on his neck and side and wrapped him up in bandages.
"Good as new" She said, half joking.
"What am I going to say to them" Zoom rasped out for the first time in the hour. The pain medication was wearing off and Zoom was beginning to think straight.
"Just tell them the truth this time Zoom" She said soothingly. "You will feel so much better when you have."
She checked her computer monitors and announced that Vert should be back to normal by now. She shut off the water and they left the room together, Zoom limping heavily.
As they approached, the rest of the team, who had been sitting in the hallway stood up and at a nod from Sage, began moving the barricades away.
They pushed the door open gently and peeked in.
Vert was lying on the floor, unconscious. They lifted him back to the infirmary and left sage to take a look. She assured them it was nothing serious. She also announced that there were no more traces of the entity.
Within the hour, Vert woke up, claiming to remember everything.
At Vert's insistence they all sat around the kitchen table to discuss what had happened.
Zoom was nervous. He knew he would have to tell them deep down, but he thought maybe he would be able to avoid it somehow.
"Are you sure you're alright Vert?" Zoom asked, peering at Vert's once again blue eyes. He had a large bruise from where Zoom had punched him on his jaw.
"Am I okay?!" Vert exclaimed, sitting up straight in his chair in surprise. "I think the question is: are YOU okay?"
"I alright" he sighed.
"So, Zoom. Are you going to explain why we keep having flashbacks of us being" Sherman paused for a moment, searching for the right word, "... horrible to you?"
Zoom nodded and took a deep breath. Sage met his eyes from across the table and nodded encouragingly.
"When you all contracted the virus, it changed your behaviour. You were all having mood swings. Uh, whenever anyone came into contact with me, it would just get worse."
"That's why you're so jumpy when anyone touches you!" Stanford exclaimed.
Zoom nodded sadly.
"It got to the point where you became paranoid that I was trying to betray you. So you all tried to get rid of me for good" Zoom trailed off and there was silence.
"Did I really hit you in the face repeatedly?" Agura asked quietly.
"Yeah"
"Was it us that destroyed the Chopper?" Spinner asked.
Zoom nodded again.
"So we broke your arm and ribs and basically told you we hated you?" Vert asked, looking like he wished he never knew.
Zoom met his eyes. "Yes" He confirmed.
Zoom could see it in all the team mate's eyes. They felt terrible. They would never forgive themselves.
"Look guys, I know you weren't yourselves. It's okay, really. I've fixed the chopper and I'm all healed up... well you know" he said sheepishly as they all glanced at his battered frame.
"I don't want you to feel guilty. And Sage found the cure before any lasting damage could have been done"
Vert interrupts at this point. "Zoom, I think there has been some emotional lasting damage. How will you ever trust us again?" he looked sick. "Especially after what just happened with that entity thing!"
Sage looked around the room. They were all quite miserable looking. "I think" she said slowly, "that time will eventually heal the mental wounds Zoom now has. This is just one of those situations that need time" she surmised.
Zoom nodded, agreeing.
"Honestly everyone, it's not a huge deal. The last thing I want is to be treated differently. Or you pitying me or tip toeing around my feelings. It's exactly why I didn't want to tell you to begin with. So please don't prove me right. I think that now you all know what went down, it's going to be okay. Just give me time. I promise" he said, trying desperately to cheer them up.
"I should have told you right from the start. It's just taken me a while to get there." He finished, looking slightly relieved. He rubbed his sore throat distractedly after his mini speech.
The room was silent a little more as his team mates attempted to process his words.
Not really seeing any way they could try and fix what happened, they were forced to accept it.
"Alright Zoom. We will try and move on from this. But you need to know that you are part of our team. And without you, we wouldn't be complete. You have to believe us. We love you" Vert said, looking embarrassed.
Zoom blushed and looked at his feet.
Agura tipped his chin up so he would meet her eyes.
"We are really sorry for how we behaved Zoom. I know!" She went on, when Zoom opened his mouth to interrupt. "I know we couldn't control it. But it needs to be said. We would never ever do those things to you in our normal state of mind. So we are sorry that you had to go through it by yourself"
She then gave him a big hug. The rest of the team joined them in a big group cuddle.
"Alright, alright. That's enough guys" Zoom laughed. They all separated, and Spinner announced that they were all going to grab some pizza.
"I think Grace missed you last time" Vert said, nudging Zoom in the side.
"I don't think so!" Stanford piped up.
Everyone laughed and chattered as they made their way outside.
Zoom figured that Sage was right. He did feel a lot better now the rest of the team knew. He would have to take her advice more often.
Epilogue
Three months later.
The team's memories had started filtering back ever since the entity had fed from them.
Many of the team awoke screaming in terror at what they had done, or get wobbly when they had a flash back while awake.
Agura had dropped a plate when she remembered that they had hunted him down from the frozen planet.
When the details were clear in everyone's mind, they would often seek out the scout to have private conversations with him. Just to reassure themselves that he didn't hate them and to make sure in turn that he knew that he was loved.
Zoom didn't particularly like re-living the memories with his team, but he could see that talking about it was helping them move on.
He supposed he was getting better as well. He was flinching less and the memory/dreams weren't happening every few night like they had been after the attack.
Zoom stood in his room in front of his mirror, inspecting his ear. It did look pretty normal as Sage had promised; just a slight dip at the very tip. And his leg wasn't aching nearly as much anymore.
After some research, Sage had discovered that the entity had passed through a small storm shock which hadn't registered on her sensors due to its small size.
Zoom gulped at the thought of ever having to travel to the place that Thing had come from. The thought of a world full of those things, feeding off of other living creatures was too fresh for the Scout to think about.
Sage's voice was suddenly heard over the speaker system.
"Storm Shock in 10 minutes. Suite up guys"
Zoom took a deep breath.
"Zoom?" Zoom's head snapped to the door behind him where Vert was watching worriedly. "You ready?"
Zoom mentally shook himself, the familiar thrill of riding a Storm Shock starting to register within him.
"Yeah. I'm good" he replied, walking out with Vert.
For now, he would try not to worry about it.
The End.