March 26th, First Year
Thick snow crunched under her boots as she dodged to the side of an incoming Hydro Pump. The blast of water shot true and despite her effort to dodge the blast, it had cleaved through a nearby tree, sending the fir toppling into an icy stream nearby. A caterwaul boomed throughout the clearing and Jaku only had a mere second to unsheathe her saber as the large weasel came bounding toward her. Her ears would be ringing for the next day or two, she was sure of it.
"Ursaring, use Body Slam!" Komuro was already shifting forward, his Ursaring tackling the alpha Floatzel to the ground. It wasn't an even match by far. With a hiss, the alpha Floatzel picked the Ursaring up by its neck as though it were a cub and flung it at a cluster of trees. Rocks shattered and the trees toppled under the pressure. The alpha Floatzel's burning scarlet eyes seethed as it turned to glare at them but not for long as a flurry of stars descended upon the alpha's back.
"Mothim, Giga Drain, Go!" Mikiro- an adjoining Galaxy Team scout who'd been chosen to tag along for the mission- had directed his pokémon to dart around the alpha with practiced skill, avoiding its sharp claws as it looked for a place to latch onto.
Jaku gave Peanut the order to distract the Floatzel and after confusing the beast by dancing between its feet, Mikiro's Mothim latched onto the back of the alpha's head, obscuring its eyes with its large wings as it began to siphon energy from the beast. The alpha shrieked in annoyance and threw itself into the dirt back-first, crushing Mikiro's Mothim in the process with a sickening crunch.
A cold jitter laced through Jaku's fingers. That did not sound good. "Peanut, Play Rough!" Peanut immediately ceased dancing around the Floatzel and leaped onto its exposed belly, viciously tearing at the much larger beast. It dodged an incoming Slash and with a throaty snarl that made the hairs of the back of Jaku's arms stand up as it reared and sank its claws into the Floatzel's eyes.
Komuro's Ursaring joined in on the vicious beatdown, holding down the Floatzel's legs so that it could freely tear at the beast's belly. It seized one of the alpha's arms in its jaws and snapped it with a loud crack.
"That's enough!" Warden Mai cried. Both her and Egel who had been standing off to the side looked horrified.
The alpha Floatzel gave a hearty lurch and struggled to turn over again, blood oozing from its face and belly into the snow and dirt. It weakly kicked away Komuro's Ursaring and grasped at its face to try and find Peanut who still had its claws embedded into the lesser lord's snout. The beast stumbled forward, teeth bared, before it suddenly collapsed onto its belly with a whine. The bloody red glow of its eyes had all but withered away. Warden Mai ran forward then, protecting the alpha with her outstretched body.
"What in distortion are you doing?" Komuro demanded, recalling his Ursaring back to his side. "It's dangerous! Get away from that thing before it kills you!"
"It's a Lesser Lord!" Mai retorted. "It's protecting its territory. Look! See! It's no longer frenzied!" As if proving her point, the large Floatzel huffed but remained lying in the dirt.
Jaku begrudgingly sheathed her saber and recalled Peanut back to its pokéball. "Well, what did you expect?" she grumbled. "That thing attacked us first. Nearly took off my leg. And look what it did to Mikiro's Mothim. Yet you want to sit here and excuse its behavior?" She watched as the alpha Floatzel crawled away despite Warden Mai's protests, slipping under the ice of the river with an exhausted whine. "Well, that's that. That was a major waste of time. How's everybody faring?"
"Ursaring and I are fine. I've got potions," Komuro called. "Mikiro, how's your Mothim?"
The younger scout had already been crouched in the snow, one arm under the tattered wings of his partner pokémon. Haru, another one of the Galaxy Scouts, rushed forward and called out his Ponyta who easily lifted up the battered bug-type pokémon. One of its wings looked close to falling off.
"She fainted," Mikiro rasped. He stood shakily, eyes darting behind the group to stare at the looming forested hills. "Do you- do you guys think there will be more of them? More of the alphas?"
"Not on the path we're taking." Warden Mai was still staring at the trail of blood leading to the river. She paused. "Not apart from Lesser Lord Kricketune."
"What's this I hear about a 'lesser lord'?" Komuro's hands were balled up into tight fists, stomping forward until he was nearly nose-to-nose with the Diamond Clan warden. "When we agreed to this outing, there was no word about tackling these alpha pokémon. I want to go back home in one piece- not several!"
Warden Mai didn't speak, her eyes darting to Jaku before she closed her eyes. When she opened them, the panicked look had completely disappeared. "…The lesser lord being frenzied was something I did not anticipate. That was just as much a surprise to me as it was to you."
"How many lesser lords are there?" Haru questioned.
"Several. They are scattered throughout each region and assist each lord or lady with taking care of the territory and maintaining its upkeep. Some live in areas the noble cannot go to. They are always alpha pokémon. We're not sure why that is the case but it would be best to avoid them all together if possible."
"Then the alpha Rapidash on the Horseshoe Plains? That's a lesser lord too?" Jaku piped up.
Warden Mai nodded. "Correct. But we digress. We need to get a move on before sundown. And you two- Jaku. Haru. If we run into Lesser Lord Kricketune, I ask that you engage it sparingly or not at all. If we accidentally kill or grievously wound one, we risk the gamut of disrupting the environment." At Mikiro's scathing look, Warden Mai continued undaunted. "I'm aware that it might not seem pertinent now, but any damage we cause to the lesser lords will reflect back on the environment and on the same scale, the pokémon. Just… keep that in mind."
Jaku narrowed her eyes and followed after her group, biting her tongue in anger. Warden Mai hadn't reacted at all when the Floatzel had come bearing down on them out of nowhere. She hadn't even attempted to help with the Munchlax that she called her partner. A bit dim to ask your security guards to not be wary of aggressive man-eating pokémon when they're being savagely attacked by one.
The group slowly moved forward into the hills. The moment Warden Mai had walked out of earshot, Mikiro had scoffed and had snarled something under his breath to Komuro and Haru, palming his Mothim's scuffed pokéball. He caught Jaku's questioning glance and pointedly turned away, his lips turned downward in a pointed scowl.
They kept moving, the hills growing steeper and steeper as thick, snow-speckled plains turned into forested hills. It didn't help that the snow was piling up in the undergrowth. But the further they moved, the more and more Jaku noticed that almost everybody had started acting strangely. Haru and his Ponyta kept stumbling, their feet catching on nonexistent roots or tripping over nothing. Mikiro kept trying to use the trees as leverage, his hands always a foot or two off. Even Komuro and his Ursaring were acting strangely; for every noise that shook the trees, they would always look in a completely different direction, eyes glancing in every which way before either Warden Mai or herself would get them back on track again.
Am I doing that too? Jaku wasn't the best at hiking and while a throbbing headache had been building in her skull since they had crossed the bridge connecting the Horseshoe Plains and Deertrack Heights, Warden Mai and Egel had been acting perfectly fine. Maybe it's a Galaxy Team sort of thing? She ignored the way her headache suddenly worsened along with the twist of nausea in her belly and kept up the pace. She then glanced toward Egel and paused. "Oi! Egel, what are you doing?"
Her fellow ranger had stopped completely in his tracks and had taken staring up at the sky, his expression vacant. Jaku moved to snap him out of it, drawing back when she realized that the man was completely stiff. His jaw had been set straight, his gritted teeth visible behind his pulled-back lips. His eyes, wide and hollow, stared up at the darkened sky.
"What's going on over here?" Warden Mai backtracked, an annoyed glint in her eyes as she tried to get Egel's attention.
"Hey, Warden Mai? I think we need to take a break," Jaku suggested gently. She figured that it may have been leftover stress from the battle with the lesser lord. Jaku opened her mouth to say more before making the mistake of following where Egel had been looking. Oh. "A distortion," she had whispered.
Hidden by the thick needles of the fir trees and curtains of descending snowfall were networks of faint space-time cracks and just like the last time Jaku had seen one forming, she felt inexplicably drawn to it like a Mothim to a flame. As a matter of fact, the entire party had been standing right beneath the brightest, most fractured part of the net. Jaku hadn't gotten the chance to see the distortion form when she had ventured out into the Horseshoe Plains with Rei and Volo, but as the fissures began to widen and hiss and the wind began to pick up, the same familiar warmth enveloped her and soaked itself into her bones. The last thing she heard was a shout from Warden Mai before the light of the fissures consumed everything.
A scorching wind blasted through the undergrowth and the trees shuddered, groaning as they were effortlessly torn from their roots revealing the cracked, ancient layered earth beneath. The pale sunlight had been erased and replaced with a calming shade of indigo light that made the budding trees and low shrubs glow as if illuminated by the gentle light of dawn. Loud, raucous caws echoed through the whistling wind before it eventually settled down, bringing down curtains of dust and sand and gravel. Where the forest once stood had become a myriad of speckled desert lands reminiscent of a location Jaku felt she had been before but couldn't quite remember.
"It's so nice in here," Jaku mumbled softly, not hesitating to stride forward down the same mountain trail she'd been on days before. The sound of water rushing through a narrow gulley far below just barely obscured what other noises existed. She found herself marveling at her surroundings, ignoring the feeble pinpricks of suspicion of fear in her core as she passed the same waterfall she'd once taken shelter behind. Rocks clattered as she edged over a steep cliff and slid down, flinching when her feet sunk into deep, warm sand. "That wasn't a very good idea. Now I'm gonna have sand and pebbles in my shoes all day."
A tiny thought clawed at the back of her head; one that begged for her to stop and consider what reality had become and how she too had become so easily placated into following a trail that most likely didn't exist. Another tiny thought lost its footing as what little perception Jaku had about her actual surroundings vanished. She was completely oblivious to the fact that wild pokémon were coming into existence around her, hidden in the shadows of the false dunes and rocky outcrops.
Warden's Mai's voice thundered overhead before quieting into a rumble, one that settled sweetly into the atmosphere like fading birdsong. Two male voices- neither of which Jaku could distinguish properly- mumbled incoherent tones, their own voices mixing with that of the wind howling through hollow stones. Whatever they had been saying interrupted Jaku's peace and quiet. She turned to figure out where they were coming from and instead came face-to-face with a large and fluffy, pink-and-white pokémon.
A pair of luminous ice-blue eyes stared curiously back at her from a small rocky ledge some few paces away. It raised its head once Jaku made eye contact with it. Then, the creature began to approach softly, its footsteps leaving small imprints in the sand as it hopped down from its ledge and moved to rub up against her leg. The pokémon purred, a tangle of colorful tendrils gently trailing along Jaku's legs.
A new intrusive thought wormed its way forward in a tone that was not her own. A friend. Jaku crouched down and found herself extending a hand to the pokémon. This isn't a terrible idea. Not at all. It's just a pokémon after all. I don't need to be wary or afraid. What could a pokémon possibly do to me? And all pokémon are my friends, right? "Hello there, little guy." She blinked as the fluffy pokémon nudged her hand with its wet nose, a pair of colorful tendrils wrapping around her wrist and arm. Another pair of tendrils floated around her waist and torso, the beautiful colors drawing her attention from the way that the tendrils were steadily tightening around her.
"Aren't you pretty?" Jaku cooed, running a hand over the pokémon's silky coat. It had let her pet its ears and face, even going as far as rolling onto its back and exposing its belly. Jaku watched as four more of the pink-and-white pokémon emerged, surrounding her in a web of colorful ribbon feelers as they vied for her attention and affection. Her headache had mysteriously disappeared and so too had the smaller twangs of suspicion and fear. "Where'd you all even come from? You're all so adorable!" Jaku then chuckled, forced to lean back as one of the creatures rose up onto its hind legs to snuggle into her chest. "Don't make me catch you. I'll do it, I swear."
"Jaku! Get away from those things!"
The group of pink-and-white pokémon whirled around to glare at the approaching party as they appeared over the lip of the ridge, their pelts bristling as they curled their lips to hiss revealing sharp, tiny fangs. They pulled back their ribbon feelers, waving them about angrily as the group came closer and closer. They only grew more and more agitated as Komuro called for his Ursaring, forming a tight semi-circle around Jaku.
"It's okay!" Jaku called absently, distracted by the colorful flashing ribbons. "They're friendly!"
"Friendly?!" Mikiro spat. He half-fell down the slope, nearly slamming into the bottom before he righted himself. He attempted to take a step forward, the lead pokémon spitting to drive him back. "Jaku, get back over here before those things strangle you to death!"
"Huh? Strangle me? What on earth are you talking about?" Jaku took a step forward, scanning her exposed arms for any bruising or marks. What she saw instead were small parallel tension marks as though something tight had been left around her arms and wrists for too long. "Huh. When did this happen?" She moved to pass the fluffy pokémon, smiling apologetically when the last one- a blue-and-white variant- attempted to block her path with a loud whine of distress. "Sorry, little baby. I gotta go now."
Once she was back in arm's reach, Warden Mai who had descended last ripped her away and stood protectively in front of her, the warden's eyes not leaving the pack of pokémon as they tried to approach once more. "I don't know what they were doing but whatever it was, we need to get out of this distortion immediately. We can talk later. Now, we must go."
No matter how far the group walked, the distortion never seemed to wane. Jaku was debatedly enjoying herself, tagging along at the tail end of the group to pick up pretty-looking rocks and flowers whenever she could. The further they traveled, the more sand and dust was tossed into the air which obscured their vision well beyond where they would be able to see the bay. Jaku couldn't tell; all she could ever see were oceans of rocks and sand and prickly cacti. After much debate, Warden Mai finally let the group take a break in a clearing not far from the path.
"Is this actually a distortion?" Haru asked timidly, sitting oddly on a thorn bush. He took a quick glance, peering down into where the mountains broke into a flat valley. "I've never seen one so large, especially when we've been walking for well over an hour. They never last longer than a few minutes, tops. At least, that's what I've heard from the other scouts."
Egel grimaced. "Should we go in another direction? It almost feels like we're walking in circles at this point." The older man had taken to reclining against a rock wall, carefully tending to his damaged, bandaged arm.
"No," Warden Mai retorted. "We need to get more info on Lord Wyrdeer. That's our first priority and we've barely made any leeway in accomplishing that task. I would prefer to do so after figuring out how to exit this distortion but it would seem that that may or may not be possible."
Mikiro balked. "What about our personal safety? I don't know about you all but strange pokémon coming out of the aether isn't exactly safe to survey in. Not to mention the fact that cotton-head-" he gestured at Egel "- nearly had a seizure a while ago and strangle-bait-" he gestured toward Jaku "- was almost kidnapped by those things!"
"You mean those pink-and-white pokémon? They were friendly!" Jaku protested. "I mean sure, I have bruises now, but they weren't trying to kill me! The bruises don't even hurt! And that's some talk coming from the guy that's sitting in a thorn bush. I'm surprised you don't have thorns up your ass."
Mikiro blinked, his lips twisting into a frown. "I'm not… I'm not sitting on a thorn bush, Jaku." His expression turned from angry to worried. "Are you sure you didn't hit your head or something? Maybe those creatures caused some sort of brain damage or-"
"Yeah, I'm definitely sure," Jaku interrupted the scout. "You're sitting in a thorn bush- you're practically enshrouded by them. Recline any further and you'll roll right into that flowering cactus right behind you."
"What the hell is a cactus?"
"Turn around and find out."
"Hold on, hold on," Warden Mai spoke up. She turned to Jaku."Mikiro isn't sitting in a thorn bush."
"Yes he is!" Jaku argued, her face beginning to grow warmer. "I don't know how you aren't feeling them Mikiro, but you're sitting directly on the damn stem!"
"I'm sitting in a clump of moss, you idiot!" Mikiro retorted. "There are no thorn bushes here! And what's a cactus? There's nothing but a regular pine tree behind me." And as if to prove his point, Mikiro reclined, arms behind his head, against the twisting cactus right behind him. The thorns embedded themselves into his skin, pinpricks of blood dripping from the wounds.
Jaku winced. "You're sick."
"...Jaku, where are we right now?" Warden Mai calmly asked her.
Jaku paused, immediately pushing away her spat with Mikiro. "To be honest, I have no idea. I've been here before, I know that," she commented, staring out over the dusty rocks. "All I see are rocks. Rocks, rocks, and more rocks. A little sand and gravel here and there. Lots of trees and bushes. And cacti. Don't forget the cacti. We've been walking through these mountains for well over an hour. Why?"
Mai blinked. She took a long, deep breath and faced away, slowly lowering onto her knees and directly onto a sharp, angled rock. "Jaku. Do you remember what we're supposed to be doing and where that task should be taking place?"
In return, Jaku snorted, huddling against her knees. "Warden Mai. With all due respect, I'm not losing my mind out here. "I'm only telling you what I see. I know what we're supposed to be doing: we're supposed to be hunting down Lord Wyrdeer and we should be in Deertrack Heights. Only problem with that is that we're currently in the middle of a distortion. Distortions distort; it's in the name." She then turned toward Mikiro, annoyance clear in her gaze. "To me, it looks like you're sitting directly on top of a thorn bush. I didn't know that, apparently, everybody else can still see the forest."
"Is that right? Is anybody else seeing anything differently?" Mai asked aloud.
Egel raised his good arm. "I thought we were suddenly walking through the mirelands. I was wondering why everybody was sitting in a puddle." He glanced down toward the mountain valley, curiosity glinting in his eyes. "To me, it looks like we're about to proceed into a mangrove thicket. There's mud and hanging vines and cattails everywhere. I'm guessing that we're all seeing different things due to the effect that distortions have? It would make sense."
"Nothing about this makes sense," Komuro growled. "I can still see the forest. Nothing has changed for me. Haru! Mikiro! What about you guys?"
"I thought we were on the beach," Haru mumbled sheepishly. "It feels like we've been walking along some rocky coast for some time now. Oh god. I thought I was picking up seashells." He reached into his pocket, revealing a handful of plain, gray stones. "These aren't seashells, are they?"
"Nah, those are rocks," Jaku told him.
"Really? Those look like cattail heads," Egel piped up.
"No, we're definitely still in the woods. And Haru? You're holding a bunch of wet, closed pine cones." Mikiro grumbled. "Warden Mai. What about you? What do you see?"
"The forest," Mai asserted. "It's clear we're all visualizing different places. I'll have to make a note of this strange phenomenon to submit for records. It might come in handy for future endeavors. In any case, we need to keep moving. Those of us who can see the forest must pair up with somebody who can't. I'll decide the pairings. Egel, you're with me. Jaku, you partner up with Komuro. Haru, you're with Mikiro. Let's move out."
As they departed from the mountains and into the sweeping valley, Komuro turned to glare at her, quieting his voice as he carefully grabbed hold of her tunic sleeve. "Those things were draining you. You looked nearly as pale as the snow when we finally figured out where you'd wandered off to. Maybe we should keep hold of one another so we don't lose track of who's where."
"Hold on. I wandered off? I thought you guys were the ones who had disappeared," Jaku replied incredulously. In a lower voice, she continued. "This isn't the first time I've been in a distortion. It was like this last time too. Hey, do me a favor?"
"Not if it's stupid."
"Nah, I wanna test something," Jaku chuckled. She stared ahead, watching Mai and Egel's backs fade into the rocks. "See, the distortion may be fucking with my ability to perceive things but I haven't tripped or fallen over anything yet. I think it only impairs my hearing and depth perception. Or maybe something else."
At her side, Komuro nodded. "Should we do a small test then? Tell you what. We'll do a perception test. I'm going to let go of your sleeve and you're going to keep walking. I want you to stop walking when you can no longer hear me following you."
"Sounds easy enough," Jaku agreed. "Alright. On the count of three. One. Two. Three."
Komuro let go. A hot breeze took his place. She could still hear his footsteps on the gravel. She could still hear his slightly labored breathing and rustling rucksack. After a few moments, Jaku heard nothing but the wind through the mountains and the low cries of the circling scavenger birds. She came to a sudden halt and nearly toppled over as Komuro slammed into her back, sending the two tumbling to the ground.
"Will both of you quiet down?!" Warden Mai hissed. She briefly let go of Egel to stand disapprovingly in front of the two younger scouts. "What are you two doing back here?"
"Testing perception," Komuro answered shakily.
"You good?" Jaku chuckled. She turned to look for him, frowning when she still couldn't see him. "Are you still there, Komuro? I can hear you but I can't see you. Neat party trick, but seriously. Where'd you go?"
Almost as soon as she had mentioned his name, Komuro had once again appeared in her peripheral vision, his eyes narrowed as he grabbed at her sleeve. "Yeah, this is bad. Really bad. Warden Mai. We may have to call it quits until after this distortion goes away."
"And why might that be?"
Put on the spot, Komuro blinked. "Well, Jaku and I wanted to see how badly the distortion messed with her perception of things so we did a following test. I let go of her sleeve and told her to stop walking when she could no longer hear nor see me. She lasted five seconds; all I did was take my hand off of her sleeve. I didn't alter my distance from her or anything. Egel. Haru. Are either of you guys experiencing issues seeing or hearing things?"
After a long silence, Mikiro turned and roughly butted Haru with his elbow, startling the poor scout into nearly falling onto his face.
"What? What's going on? Mikiro? When did you come back?" Haru muttered anxiously.
Jaku's heart sank like a stone. They couldn't get anything done if they were stuck chasing each other through hallucinations. "Yeah, I second that," she spoke up tiredly. "I'm still as lucid as ever but what good am I if my object permanence and perception is weaker than a toddler's? I say we should wait until the conditions are safer."
"So do I," Komuro stated. "There's only three of us who can see things clearly and that in itself is objective. We can't actually tell who's telling the truth or not and if we continue, we risk getting seriously injured or worse- killed. This is a fool's errand."
Egel turned to scowl at the scout, having grabbed onto Mai's wrist. "Watch your tone. While I appreciate that you're bringing vital information to our attention and considering the safety of the group, you must still defer respect to Warden Mai as this is her domain and it is her noble that we are searching for." The elder Diamond Clan scout shut his eyes, pinching the bridge of his nose between his fingers. "I must say, Mai- I have to agree with the rookies here. If I'm not at my best, I'm as good as a Murkrow with a broken wing. We should turn back. We've already gathered some important information that'll give us more of an advantage if we were to try it again.
Mai thought for a moment. "Mikiro, Haru. You two haven't yet spoken. What do you think?"
Haru's answer came faster than lightning. "I want out of this. I'm not ready. I feel like we're walking into some kind of elaborate trap. I've seen the pictures; the ones of the pokémon who died near the base of Deertrack Heights." The teenager then went rigid, his eyes rounding with evident fear. "Oh god. What if we're next?"
"We're not," Mikiro voiced. His own answer was slower, albeit with much more vigor. "I want to keep going. We're supposed to quell both lords around the same time. I doubt the other group will appreciate it if we call it quits because we're noticing a few odd things here and there." He then sniffed. "No offense, but if you're experiencing hallucinations then you probably shouldn't even be up here. You guys can head back to camp and send up three more scouts to take your place."
"That would take too long," Komuro disagreed. "We should be putting our safety first. You're running four against one right now, Mikiro. And even if Warden Mai were to take a side, we'd still have the majority vote. I'm sure the camp will understand our concerns and we'll have a better idea of how to approach the situation once we have enough time to think about it."
Around them, the distortion wavered once more. The network of cracks widened to the point that their surroundings had become bathed in a blinding white light. The birdsong had vanished. The warm breeze had fallen still. The rocky earth trembled beneath Jaku's feet as she clambered for purchase on a sloping rock, catching hold of Haru as he tumbled across the clearing into her and Komuro's arms.
A terrible low shriek rang out in the air and hung for more than a few moments, its vibrations stirred in Jaku's bones. She carefully lowered a gasping Haru to the ground, pausing as the ground trembles worsened. She paused. "That's not a quake," she rasped. "That is not a quake."
"Footsteps," Warden Mai all but whispered. "It's too late to turn back. Lord Wyrdeer must be up ahead." She moved forward and immediately, Jaku lost track of her and Egel in the swirling dust. Komuro cursed under his breath, growling as he glared at something Jaku couldn't see. "Wait here," he ordered. "Stay with Haru. I'm gonna try to change Warden Mai's mind."
Jaku froze. "No, wait!" The moment Komuro had taken his hand off of her sleeve, he had become lost to her, nothing but a fading voice in a noiseless void. She turned instead to Haru who was losing his focus, his eyes shut tight as he muttered assurances weakly to himself. "Hey, hey. Stay with me here, Haru. We're gonna be okay. Just stay with me." Alone amongst noiseless mountains, Jaku moved Haru so that he was laying against a dip in the rocks, her form covering his. All she could do was wait for Komuro to return.
The shriek echoed again loud enough that Jaku was forced to cover her ears and scramble to her knees and elbows for purchase. The ground trembled step-by-step, a horrible scent similar to rotting flesh filling the air as the dust settled and the unbearable light grew even brighter. Jaku could only detect the creature's ragged breathing, sighting its split hooves as it ambled toward them. Wet droplets landed in the dust. Gravel crunched underfoot. The headache from before had returned with a vengeance, Jaku hissing in pain as she turned away from the source to cradle her head between her hands. Where is everybody else? Where's Komuro?
A horrible groan split the silence, a sudden jab in her ribs forcing Jaku's eyes open. Haru had his mouth open wide, his eyes sightless and shiny with terror as he gazed upon whatever was directly behind her. He crumpled into the narrow dip like a toppled Stantler, his arms and legs held stiff at odd angles as he began to shake. The muscles along his face and jaw rippled and flexed as he convulsed, his neck bending to a sickening angle as one of his legs rose and bent in sporadic cycles. Blood dripped from his nose and eyes. His mouth gaped open, no noise escaping as his convulsions worsened. A seizure; Haru was having a seizure.