"So what happens to Extroyer?" Shock asked Berto.
"He'll be put in the Stasis chamber, like what we did with the Ultimate Elementor." Berto explained, glancing over at his friend. "I should probably be helping."
"I can look after Jessie until you get back." Shock offered and Berto thanked the Ultralink. Leaving the room he went looking for Forge, promising to get back as soon as possible. Unfortunately retrieving the villain and putting him where he couldn't harm anyone proved a little more time-consuming then the scientist first thought. By the time he returned three hours had already passed. Feeling guilty he hurried towards to the Medical Bay, worried about Jessie until he walked in and found her still sleeping.
"Thank goodness." Berto said, only for Shock to fly over to him.
"She's been talking in her sleep but I can't make out what exactly." He told Berto who stood next to Jessie. Kneeling he could hear her muttering something.
"Hmmm…leave me alone. Someone…help me" Jessie mumbled. With a shrug Berto stood.
"She's dreaming. Wonder what it's about?" Berto told Shock, who hovered beside his friend. Just then Jessie started whimpering. "Jessie?" Before anyone had time to react her eyes shot open and she gasped.
"Calm down, it's us." Berto said as I coughed, shaken up by my nightmare. Handing him the glass, Shock watched on as I went to take a mouthful. Seeing my hands shaking, Berto held the cup steady for me while I drank from it. When I was finished I gently pushed the cup away and Shock took it, setting it down on the table. "You had a nightmare." Berto told me as I rubbed my eyes. "What was it about?"
"The day my Turbo powers almost went critical." I told them, pulling my arms around myself.
"But I showed up and saved you." Shock said and when I looked up at them both, they could see the fear in my eyes.
"In my dream…no one saved me and my powers..." I swallowed then, my head down. Both Berto and Shock exchanged a look of sympathy for me and that's when I felt two sets of arms envelop me. Looking up I realized that both Shock and Berto were doing their best to comfort me. Even though I was shaken up I still whispered 'thank you' to them. Eventually my eyes started to close and I drifted off to sleep again.
Sometime later I woke to find myself almost buried under several blankets. Still feeling ill I lay there for a while, my head burning up from my fever. For a while I dozed and when I woke next I was feeling better. That's when I heard several voices approaching and as I lay there, Max and Berto walked in.
"How is she now?" Max asked, only to realize I was awake. "Hey sleepyhead. How you feeling?" He said as I managed to sit up.
"Better, now that you mention it. Though my nose itches." I said. Before I could stop myself I sneezed. "Sorry Berto." I added as Berto wiped the front of his lab coat.
"It's okay. The goop monster's worse anyhow." He said and I giggled. "Looks like you've caught a cold."
"Keep your distance from me, okay?" Max said and both Berto and I gave him a frown. "I'm kidding." He added, holding his hands up in front of himself. Rolling my eyes I felt another sneeze coming on so I looked towards the floor so no one was within range. For a few seconds I couldn't stop sneezing and even when I did, I sighed.
"Man everything keeps happening to me. First being thrown into the water and now I have a cold." I grumbled.
"I know the feeling." Berto replied, holding up his bandaged hand and I gave him a faint smile. "No more bad dreams?" He asked and I nodded.
"Did you have a nightmare before?" Max asked and I wasn't really sure if I wanted to tell him. "It's okay. I promise I won't tell anyone." Sighing I explained exactly what had woken me up hours ago. "That is pretty scary. Still it was only a dream."
"Thankfully. It was probably brought on by your fever." Berto said and I gave a nod. "How's your head?"
"I don't feel dizzy anymore. Maybe my fever's gone." I answered and Berto placed his right hand on my forehead for a moment.
"It's gone down a lot since you woke up. Still not gone though." He told us, removing his hand. "Though you do look a lot better now than a couple of hours ago."
"That's a relief. Oh and thank you both for coming to my rescue. I probably shouldn't have tried to take down Extroyer on my own. That was a huge mistake." I told them and they nodded. "Next time I'll make sure I don't rush off like that."
"I hope so. Anyway I'd better get home. I've got school tomorrow." Max said and I groaned.
"I forgot. I'd better..." I started to say before Berto placed a hand on my shoulder to stop me in my tracks.
"Uh uh. You're sick, remember? You're staying here until you're over your cold." He said and I raised an eyebrow in protest, until I saw the worry on his face and I stayed where I was.
"Okay. Can you bring me my homework?" I asked Max who nodded. Once he was gone I asked where Steel and Shock had disappeared to.
"Those two were working on something a couple of hours ago. I'm not sure what though. Besides Shock will be back before you need to link up again." Berto explained as I rubbed at my nose.
"My nose is driving me crazy." I complained and Berto laughed, earning a glare from me. Sitting down beside me he patted my head. Normally I hated people doing that but for once I didn't mind, maybe because it was Berto. Before I knew it I started to doze off again and I felt a hand on my shoulder, preventing me from falling forward.
"Hey you okay?" He asked me as I blinked up at him in confusion. After a moment I figured out what he had just asked and I shook my head. The second I lay down I dozed off, completely obvious to my blocked nose. The next thing I knew, Shock was hovering in front of me.
"Did I wake you?" He asked me as I sat up, sending several of my blankets to the floor.
"No I'm awake. Where did you go?" I asked him as I pulled my remaining blanket around me.
"I was helping Steel with another new mode." He answered. "How are you now?" I didn't have time to answer when I sneezed without warning and I cringed as Shock shook himself. "Um sorry about that."
"No its fine. I'm pretty sure robots can't catch human colds anyway." He said and I grinned.
"Where is everyone today?" I asked him, climbing down. When Shock eyed me for a moment, I asked what was wrong.
"Are you sure you're up to walking? Not long ago you had a fever." He said and I rolled my eyes at him.
"I'm a lot better. Well except for the stuffy nose anyway." I replied and after a moment Shock shrugged.
"Alright but I'm going with you." He said and I nodded. "Where were you headed anyway?"
"To find Berto. I haven't seen him in hours and I'm bored." I told him as we left the Medical Bay. By the time I reached his lab I found him hunched over his keyboard. Not wanting to disturb him, I stood patiently just inside the doorway. As I waited, I felt another sneeze coming on and so I clamped a hand over my nose. When nothing happened I took my hand away from my face, only for another sneeze that came without warning. Brushing at my face I saw Berto turn around with a grin on his face.
"Well good morning. How are you feeling?" He asked me as I joined him in front of his computer.
"Other than the fact I can't stop sneezing, I'm pretty good." I replied as I pulled my blanket around me. "What are you working on?"
"I'm putting the last touches on two Turbo modes. The one Steel and Shock were working on plus another one." Berto explained. "I was going to tell you as soon as you were better but now seems like a good time." Turning back to the computer for a few moments he typed something and, as I watched on, a Turbo mode appeared onscreen. For what I could tell it looked like my Base mode but it had something attached to both arms. Noticing the curious look on my face, he smiled.
"I call it Shock mode, named after your Ultralink." He told me and as I looked at Shock, a smiley face appeared on the Ultralink's face. "By using your Turbo energy, you can charge the cartridges attached to both wrists." He explained as I looked on. "Then you can fire that energy as an electrical charge."
"Now that's very cool. I can't wait to try it out." I replied. "When I'm better of course." I added as he and Shock stared at me.
"I highly doubt that you'll be doing any training now anyway. Want to see the second mode?" Berto said and I nodded. Pressing another button on his keyboard a second Turbo mode appeared. The moment it showed up I noticed that this mode had flippers. "As you can probably already tell this mode works in water. I call it Scuba mode." He told me as I watched on.
"That would have been pretty helpful the other day." I said and Berto laughed until he saw the fear in my eyes. "Hey you okay?"
"I just had a vision of yesterday and...I'm okay." I replied. Obviously not convinced I was fine Berto put his arm around my shoulder.
"You're safe and now you won't have to worry about going for an unintended swim." He said and I managed a laugh, though not a very convincing one. "Anyway you should be resting." He pointed out and I frowned at him. "What's with that face?" He asked.
"I'm bored out of my mind." I commented and he grinned. Without a word he took his arm away from my shoulder and went to retrieve something from under his desk. As I watched he retrieved our skateboards. As he handed me my silver and green board, I couldn't help but smile. Less than a minute later we were racing around N-Tek with Shock in hot pursuit.
"Will you two slow down?" I heard Forge call out as we shot past his office. Having too much fun I didn't even notice my stuffy nose or the fact I was confined to N-Tek until I was well again. The fun didn't last though when alarms sounded in the vicinity and we had to return to the Com Room. Skateboarding there in moments, Berto and I rejoined Shock as we attempted to work out what the problem was.
"I wonder what's going on." I said to Berto as we joined Forge, Kat and Jefferson inside. "Is it another villain?"
"That's what we're trying to work out." Forge said as he frowned at me. "By the way why aren't you in the Medical Bay?" Upset at him I was about ready to leave when Berto placed a hand on my shoulder.
"I'm looking after her." He said and Forge rolled his eyes for a moment. When the Commander turned his attention back to the computer, I looked up at Berto.
"Thanks." I said and he smiled back at me, giving my shoulder a quick squeeze before he walked over and joined the rest of the group.
"So far all we know is that it isn't Miles Dredd or Jason Naught." Kat told us and I frowned.
"What about Toxzon?" I suggested and Forge nodded. Bringing up a map of the city and surrounding canyon they soon found something. From what I could tell it was some sort of orange toxic waste, coming from the warehouses where I fought against Toxzon.
"There's a strong possibility that this is his work. I want a full scale search of Copper Canyon. Let's see what he's up to." Forge said. As Kat and Jefferson left, possibly towards the hanger, Forge turned to me.
"As for you," he said looking right at me "I want you to stay here and keep out of trouble." Surprised at that last comment I didn't have time for a comeback. Then when I did think one up, he was already gone.
"Why did he look at me when he said that?" I grumbled with arms crossed against my chest.
"Don't look so upset. You're kind of stuck here for the time being." Shock said as I rubbed my eyes.
"He's right you know. You need to get over your cold before you can…" Berto began until I glared at both of them.
"In case you two forgot, that's the guy who almost...look just forget it." I muttered, turning my back on the both of them and before they could stop me I walked back to the Medical Bay. Sitting on the couch I rubbed at my sore nose and eyes. Once Berto and Shock showed up they found me looking pretty miserable.
"I get that you want to take on Toxzon, I do but it's...will you look at me?" Berto said. When I did look up he saw the expression on my face and rubbed his face. "You and those puppy dog eyes."
"Hey I can't help it. I'm sick and I keep getting my rear end kicked in every battle I fight." I answered. "Not doing so good at this superhero thing."
"Just for the record you make a great superhero…and I think we've had this conversation already. Anyway you took on the Ultimate Elementor to save me and that is pretty impressive. Again, we've probably had this discussion. Look what I'm trying to say is don't give up on yourself okay?" Berto said and I looked back at him for a moment before I nodded.
"Yeah okay. I guess I'm feeling a little sorry for myself. On second thought maybe a lot." I told him and Shock.
"You haven't been yourself lately." Shock said and I had to agree. "Besides being sick I mean."
"I know everyone's being saying this but you really should just take it easier. " Berto said as I yawned.
"Okay but only because you asked so nicely." I replied as I began to feel sleepy again. Lying down on the couch I heard Berto ask me something that I didn't quite catch as I fell asleep.