Chapter 17: Blackout

"And she's willing to actually be a team, provided we cooperate afterwards?"

"It's looking that way, yeah…"

Luke and Brodie had relayed to Nova what the both of them had discussed with Deborah. She paced a bit in front of the bench she had perched on.

"If she wanted to keep you from booting her out. Looks like she got what she wanted." Nova sighed. "Did she at least speak about what she wanted your help with?"

"No. She didn't."

Nova let out a second sigh and pensively looked towards the Base. "I wouldn't trust her to not try to work things into her favor, but for now I suppose we can trust her enough not to be a thorn in the butt." She looked at Luke, the worry creasing her features. "I do trust you enough to let me or Brodie know if she's doing something shady. Or illegal, probably best not to get wrapped up in anything shadier then Spyke's business. 'k?"

Luke nodded.

Deborah had certainly put her on edge. But it would be a matter to solve later.

"Alright, I guess we can hang out, maybe spend some cash aaand- are you ok?"

She had to swoop down and grab him as Luke's deep blue eyes rolled to the back of his head and his weight hurdled him toward the ground.

"Whoa!" She pulled Luke back onto the bench, his body flopping onto her lap. Did the heat get to him? She put her palm to his head and took note of his condition. By now a few heads went.

Brodie was less than calm, "Is he ok? Did he faint?" he hissed.

"Yeah, I don't think it was heat stroke at least." She beckoned him closer with a gesture. "Go get some water for him please. I'll stay here and keep him company."

"Right."

She positioned him so that he was lying on his back. She noticed a dribble of blood had poured from his nose and felt around in her pocket until she wrapped her fingers around a napkin she had. She went to dab his nose clean as she heard footsteps approaching her.

"Got something for him." She grabbed the bottle from Brodie to wrap in another napkin. He looked around nervously, seeing some people attracted to the commotion to varying extent. He always told them the same thing: everything was fine and the situation was under their control.

As she placed the dampened serviette onto Luke's head, she noticed the boy's eyes creak open. Nova wiped at his nose again as a fresh trickle of blood had gushed from his nasal passage. His hot, raspy breaths brushed her arm, and looked to her, befuddled.

"Nnn…wha…"

Brodie autonomously responded, gently pushing him back onto Nova, "'ey man, just relax."

Luke looked around lethargically. He seemed to have recovered, even if he didn't seem to know what was going on. What worried her was the action of him curling into her, mewling pitifully.

"I think we need to take him to the hospital-"

She reeled back as he desperately grabbed her shirt with the hand not tending to what looked like a mounting headache, letting out a pained whimper.

"I'm don't want to go, please…" Nova had nearly cringed upon hearing him so distressed, he sounded like he had enemy ink in an open wound.

Cooing soothingly, she rubbed his back, "Ok, ok we'll take you home as long as you can keep walking."

"K…"

The reaction he had was a bit too intense; she had to wonder why he wanted to go home over proper medical care. She would have to ask him about the outburst later.

"Alright buddy, gonna need your phone…" she reached over towards his pockets and rummaged around, only to pull out some lint.

"At home." Luke mumbled.

Oh. That's great.

Both Brodie and Nova exchanged a worried glance.

"I don't like this, man."

"We'll cause a scene if we try to force him." Nova reasoned. "He doesn't want to go, so just help me carry him to his apartment."

Without any further protest, the two helped him up and began to escort him home.

Slipping into a side alley, the two led their friend home. After a while of awkward silence, Brodie make conversation.

"What d'you think she's up to? Deborah I mean." Judging by his tone, he'd been waiting to ask this for a while.

"Why're you asking me again? I pretty much said all I pretty much can about it."

Nova could make out a faint bit of color gracing his cheeks, "Oh, well- uh you're usually pretty insightful about these things, and I-I thought, maybe, you'd have some kind of clue is all."

"While I'm flattered you have that much faith in my sleuthing abilities, I have nothing to really go on. She hasn't exactly been hospitable. It honestly sounds like she's not going to share her plans if it's not advantageous enough for her to do so."

"I mean, I guess. She doesn't seem like the type really plans that far ahead. If she was, she wouldn't have antagonized literally the entire team, minus the obvious..."

"True, and now we're only a couple of days away from deadline."

"Yeah…at least Splatfest is coming into town soon."

Was it really that time? "Really?"

Confusion contorted on Brodie's face before he understood. "Oh right, you and Luke just moved in from the suburbs, so you probably didn't hear the Squid Sisters announce it on Inkopolis News. Yeah, there's a fest going on in about 3 days from now. There's a terminal in the plaza if you haven't seen it yet."

"I didn't really notice! I can't believe I didn't realize that a fest was happening!" she shifted her weight into a more comfortable position, almost forgetting she and Brodie were hauling their plus one. She eyed Luke's teetering form as they passed through idle streets.

"Is that why they're trying to do a personal turf war match on Friday?" She pondered. "So we settle things before the fest?"

"Maybe…"

"That's kinda considerate for a team with a reputation like that."

"I guess, though I suppose the fact that they aren't making some grand speech like they own the joint might be considered a good sign."

"Yeah…"

"They're still kinda creepy. 'pecially their boss. What's her name again?"

"That girl, Aeolia?"

"Yeah her!" He adjusted Luke's seemingly dead weight to make sure he wasn't sliding away from him. "She's always glaring at us. Have you noticed?"

"Not really…" In truth she did to some extent, but not only was she not trying to pay attention to it, but it wasn't really in her nature to find the terror in those actions.

Even if they were slowly beginning to have an ominous feeling to them.

"She has the look of someone you wouldn't wanna piss off. You think we did something to piss her off?"

Uneasy silence hung in the air after that, as if no one could or wanted to answer.

Based on the buildings nearby, Nova knew Luke's apartment was just down the street. The two sped their pace a bit, eager to drop him off.

"Almost home Luke." She received an acknowledgement in the form of a quiet moan and sympathetically gave him an awkward hug.

The trio walked through the lobby and rode the elevator to their destination.

Nova assessed Luke's state at this point seeing as they had time to wait around. It was honestly miraculous he was able to remotely stand; his eyes were practically rolled into the back of his head and his head lolled to the side like a broken ball-jointed mannequin. She swore he was beginning to drool as well.

"Is he ok?" In response, Luke slurred a, "Ye-huh…" affirming that, yes, he was still awake even if it was just barely.

As they came to the target apartment Brodie went to knock at the door. Since he let go of Luke, Nova had a bit of difficult time keeping him standing, she slowly lowered him to the floor as they waited for a response.

After a few minutes, Brodie let out a sigh. "No answer."

Nova looked at him with a slightly distressed look, "Well we can't leave him here like this! Go back to the lobby and ask the desk clerk if he can get into contact with the owner of the apartment."

With no more then a groan. He went to the elevator, leaving the two on their own.

Nova held him close-by, assessing him closely, while rubbing his back. He shuddered under her touch, taking shaky rapid breathes as he kept his eyes covered. Cold sweat forming a layer on his skin. She couldn't help but feel bad for him and wasn't sure what she could do to ease his pain. For now, she did her best to comfort her enerved friend.

She turned her attention to the elevator, lighting up as she recognized the light blue tentacles of Luke's sister.

"Been filled in on the way, let's get him in." Felicia was quick to unlock the door. Once she got it open, she ushered the other two in. Nova made note of the cozy abode as they were guided to their friend's room at the end of the hallway.

She signaled Nova to give her brother to her and cradled him between her arms. Secured by his sister they continued into the bedroom.

Nova looked around, it was…quite bare. Aside from the bed and a nightstand, the latter which also had nothing on it, save for a dusty lamp, this room looked practically untouched.

Luke's sister gently placed him onto the bed and tucked him in. After a gentle tousling of his tentacles she ushered the two friends out of the room.

"Thanks for bringing him home. I'll keep an eye on him." She told them quietly, a much different tone then her initial meeting with her.

"Just lookin' after a teammate." Brodie gave her a polite smile.

"Well, if you want you can stay around for a bit, keep me a bit of company."

"Sure!" Nova beamed. It couldn't hurt to stay for a bit and keep an eye on Luke while he recovered.

"Sweet! Ya'll can crash the couch while I go get some snacks."

The both of them went into the living room, getting comfortable as Brodie watched Felicia grab a bag of chips from one of the upper cupboards.

"You think it'll be alright to stop practice with how the Touchy Twosome have been breathin' down our necks?"

Nova gave him a reassuring look, "Well, as far as they're going to know, we're watching out for Luke. Which we are."'

When he gave her a slow, confused blink, she clarified. "Well it isn't really rational of her to get mad at that, especially if Cass was informed." She shot him a look to emphasize the latter part of her sentence.

"Oh, ok."

Felicia came in with a large bowl of chips and flipped on tv. As she surfed the channels, she asked, "You have any movies you're into?"

"Comedy."

"Documentary."

The two younger Inklings looked at each other, sharing what could only be called an awkward glance.

"Um…"

"We can watch the comedy if you want."

"No, its fine. I'll let you pick a documentary."

"We can watch the comedy, really."

"I inis-"

"OKAY." Felicia intersected, her smile strained to keep it's form. "How about a fictional documentary? That oughta be fun right?"

The two of the looked at each other in contemplation before nodding their consent.

Felicia went into the "On-Demand Channel," and search through it until a title popped into view.

"All right, Leviathans of the Deep: A Fanciful Dive it is."

As the movie started, Felicia dipped out of the living room to check on her brother. It didn't take long before she zoomed by and reached for a humongous bag of potato chips.

"So, how're you guys adjusting to Inkopolis?" she prodded. Nova noticed her brow trying to stay un-creased, however the tense musculature betrayed concern

"It's been great." Nova assured. Despite answering with a mild pluck, "The turf scene's amazing, and I've been downtown in Inkopolis before, but WOW I never realized the sheer magnitude of it all. You go into one store and then into the next, and into the next, suddenly you have 6 shopping bags of stuff you probably don't need but was begging to come off that shelf."

Brodie watched the tv, glassy-eyed. "Yeah, maybe you should slow that down before you break the bank…"

Felicia, amused by the two, sunk comfortably into the couch.

"Well I'm glad that you've settled nicely. I remember feeling a bit lost before me and a bunch of friends toured the city together."

Nova leaned closer, suddenly interested, "Do you have a turf war team?"

"Yeah. We started one once we got familiar with the city a bit more. My pen-pal suggested it when I told her I'd move here with her when I was old enough.

Brodie broke eye-contact with the tv to offer an impressed glance, "Wow, that was pretty lucky."

"Yeah, not everyone has their own team off the bat."

Felicia's eyes trailed off her guests and her cheeks flushed with light blue hues. "Well… we didn't initially, but she knew some guys and now we're one of the best teams out there. Not THE best, that title belongs to Death's Tide for now, but we're getting there."

Nova leaned back and chewed at the excess skin of her lip as she wondered if she should indulge her, "Hey, so this might be a weird thing to ask right now, but do ya have any tips?"

Brodie looked like he wanted to ask where this was going.

"Tips about…?"

"Well…I'll suppose I can ask once the movie's over. I have a lot of questions."

/ \

The movie was almost at it's end. Nova had to admit, for a documentary, it surprisingly managed to hold onto her interest more then she expected. Even if the parts that were interesting were just when they had animated depictions on all kinds of marine monstrosities that were conjured from every iteration of leviathan of the deep in history they could fit into a 60 minute program.

Felicia had ducked out of the room again to check on Luke, this time she took her time coming out and Nova's curiosity nearly took her off the sofa before Felicia had strided back in, pushing her tentacles out of her face. "

Alright, you wanted to ask me something?"

Nova looked to Brodie thoughtfully; she had an idea of what she wanted to ask about, but she wasn't sure where to start. "Before I bombard you with questions. Can you tell us a bit more about your brother?"

"I'm assuming he hasn't really done much in the way of introductions himself?" A nod answered her question. "Seriously? Well, I'm not surprised. Assuming you haven't caught on: My brother is a rather withdrawn individual. He never went out much, and to be honest I wouldn't be surprised if you all are his first actual friends."

Nova cocked her head and intrigue and seeing Brodie lean in, made her feel like she wasn't the only one with questions.

Nova spoke first, "When I met him it was at Seagrass Station. There are plenty of kids there and you're telling me he made friends with no one?"

"Unless I'm mistaken."

"What about school?" Brodie rubbed at his chin with his forefingers, "I feel like he would have made friends at some point."

"Sorry to burst your bubble but we're home schooled. My mom's pretty sweet, but she wasn't exactly comfortable letting us go off on our own."

"So, she just never let you guys out of the house?"

"I never said that." She sighed, "She let us go out and play with the neighborhood kids, but never let us go to school. When it came to what we needed, I'm pretty sure she tried to make do." Felicia stared blankly at the monitor. Nova could only guess by the laxness in her posture and the calm in her voice, "I even made lots of friends before I left. But Luke…Luke was never like that."

Brodie chimed in, "What d'you mean exactly?"

"He constantly clung to mom and never really made friends. He would always hang out with me, no one else."

The older inkling could only sigh in semi-fondness, "He was clingy and constantly on my back. Well, until I accidently ditched him."

The younger Inklings both had a less-than-enthused mien.

"How d'you just… "accidentally" ditch someone?" Brodie asked.

"It's a long story, funny but long. So we'll skip that. To clarify he mostly just hung out with me and barely spoke to anyone who wasn't me, at least not without coaxing him to do it."

Nova believed she got the full picture of her teammate's social life.

"So has he passed out like this before?"

"Not that I know of. You asking makes me want to find out though. How about I figure it out and let you know what I find out?"

"I think that's good," Nova added. "Keep us posted."

Nova noticed the sun setting through the sheer curtains. She got up with a stretch and yawned, "It's getting pretty late. I got to get home to eat."

Brodie nodded in turn, getting up after her.

"Alright, I'll walk you guys out then." The older Inkling walking behind them. "I'll give you my number to keep you updated.

Nova, looking back, gave a thankful smile and traded numbers with her.

As the two began the walk to the train station, Brodie looked to Nova, yet another question on his mind.

"So," Brodie began uneasily. "What do we do in the meantime?"

Despite the rhetorical vibe his question had taken to, Nova gave him this answer: "We gotta keep going. No ifs, ands, or buts about it."

"But-"

"If Luke isn't feeling good, we need to be there for him, Brodie. We have to know what's going on. He doesn't have a lot of friends and this might be a good chance to give him the chance to have friends, true friends that can help him!" She took a deep breath.

Brodie was cautious with his next words, "Well…are you sure he wants the-uh, the friends?"

She snapped her eyes towards him, making him jump, "What do you mean?"

"I mean, he doesn't seem like he wants to sometimes. I just wonder… if you're imposing a bit too much on him."

She scoffed, "It's not that I wanna- ok maybe I do a bit- but it has to be so lonely to be on your own like that. I don't want him to keep living like that if he doesn't even know what it feels like to actually have friends in your corner."

"You really care about him huh?"

"Of course I do! He's a good person, he just needs to spend more time with us!"

"Well… just don't go overboard with it. We should at least respect his space."

"That's fine."

As the city's bustle carried on, she noticed that Brodie was anxiously fidgeting with his arms and looking around restlessly.

Finally, he settled on the sky, "The moon's really beautiful tonight, isn't it?"

She followed his gaze to the full moon, a crow's silhouette swooping overhead before perching on the roof of one of the nearby apartment buildings. It was huge and yellow tonight. "It is. Should be the perfect night for a bit of stargazing."

As the two chatted the night away walking towards the train station, a watcher patiently perched on apartment roofs. Purple tentacles framed dark cheeks as perching on the edge of a nearby building. Striking amber eyes focused on the twirling a black-purple feather in her hand. As the moon silhouetted her contemplative form, she spoke in a quiet, intrigued monotone as she played with the now slowly disintegrating feather.

"Interesting. Maybe I'll have to talk with Lilith about this."

/ \

Luke had the most agonizing headache when he woke up. He fluttered his eyes open, and it took a while before his eyes adjusted from absolute darkness. He barely wanted to leave the bed as his attempt to sit up was thwarted by a vengeful bout of malaise, and he almost immediately folded as a reflex. This position was the only thing that kept the poor Inkling's guts from rising out of his stomach to his mouth and he wasn't all that eager to clean these bedsheets that readily if he couldn't keep the bile from flooding out of him.

Luke realized he nearly forgot Nova and Brodie helped him home.

He'd have to do something for them later.

Luke willed himself to sit up. The pain and nausea persisted, but so long as he didn't attempt to get out of bed, he could tolerate the miserable churning.

Instead of having hair that could raise when excited, Inklings had their tentacles bubble with energy. This is what Luke experienced as he took in the state of his room: It was as bare as usual, and yet he couldn't help a tingle of unease that tickled his spine.

He wasn't normally afraid of the dark.

But there was definitely something in the room with him.

His eyes kept darting around for something, anything, but it seemed like he was looking for a vapor. He gave up after a few moments, attempting to ignore the shifting shadows.

Taking a quivering breath of the still air, Luke oh-so-gently twisted his body till he laid on his stomach, his head and arms crushing the warm pillow beneath it. While it didn't stop his body from protesting, he was at least able to deprive his mind of some of the hallucinations. No killer or creature. He could just sleep for the night.

Except he couldn't. For some reason sleep wasn't coming to him and he nasally huffed in annoyance.

He was stuck here with nothing but the skittering shadows for the lack of comfort. Groaning, he accepted he just had to endure the discomfort he was placed into.

Just as he settled in for a miserable night, his door squeaked open.

"Hey, you awake?" Came Felicia's voice. It was unusually…quiet, polite, somber? Luke had known his sister; the girl was the brazen sort; when she lived at home she was pack leader of her crew. Hearing the concern was off-putting at best and disturbing at most. "What happened?"

"You were pretty much out. Somehow your friends were able to walk you to the door and I took it from there."

"Oh…"

Awkward silence while Luke processed his sister's words.

"Can I sit with you for a sec?"

Normally he'd balk at the notion. But right now he needed to have another, corporeal being in the room.

"Alright."

She planted herself gently onto the bed.

"You didn't seem to have a fever or heat stroke when I checked up on you. How were you before this?"

Luke was looking at her squinting in pain. Her image seemed to blur a bit before he was able to refocus his vision on her, he chalked this up to whatever headache this was screwing with his eyesight.

"I felt fine, until I wasn't."

She scowled and gave him a disapproving look, he figured he wasn't helping much "What's wrong exactly?"

"Feel sick," he groaned. "Head hurts."

"Maybe you just have a migraine, Luke. I know the hospital isn't really much of an option for us, but maybe I should take you just in case."

Luke felt his tentacles prickle anxiously again, "Mom said no! It's a bad idea,,,"

"Dunno why honestly. It would be easier to treat you if we did go."

He shook his head, "Mom probably has her reasons."

"Yeah well, it's not a justifiable reason if you end up worse off."

She had a point. He mulled over his options and relaxed in the blankets, "Well…if I really need to, I'll let you take me if it get worse."

"I'll hold you to that."

Luke had expected her to leave, and for a moment, it looked like she was about to. When she seemed to not leave, Luke could only sigh in relief. If she stayed with him till he drifted off, that would be great.

"I don't think I've seen you smile in forever."

"Hmm?"

Felicia giggled and gestured to her mouth, motioning with her forefingers with her own smiling mouth. "I don't think you've given me a genuine smile since you've been here."

He felt his cheeks heat up and looked out the window. "Well, you're not being annoying right now so I guess I'm happy."

She chuckled at him, before going silent.

"Splatfest is almost here, y'know."

He gave a sideways glance toward her, curious on why she brought it up.

"We could go to the venue early. Get to see the Splatfest really kick off before the main event. It'd be beautiful."

"Ok…"

Sitting in dimness of Luke's room, the two siblings sat together, and for the first time in what seemed like forever, Felicia had quietly pulled him into a gentle hug. Although he stiffened at the sudden gesture, he didn't pull away from her affection.

"You know, when mom and dad told me you were coming, I was kind of worried. You and I haven't spoken in person for about a year and I wasn't sure what we'd be doing together when you got here."

Luke perched his weary head comfortably onto her shoulder, listening.

"You were never really one to break out of your shell, and I kind of expected you to tail me all over the place or just laze around here." She affectionately buried her fingers into his sweat-slicked tentacles. "But then you brought your friend off that train, and it made me realize you changed-well-that you were changing. I think seeing that really made it sink in that you're growing up."

He hummed thoughtfully. He was kind of surprised to hear that. When they were younger, she seemed to do everything she could to get them into trouble whether it'd be climbing the fences into Mrs. Yaling's pool to mock turf wars ravaging every corner of the house until the living room was coated in an assortment of blues. She always did whatever she wanted and it almost always ended in a scolding.

He had to try extra hard to remember her pulling him off of fences he got caught on or whenever she tried to wait for him to catch up. It was those small things he had called back to the forefront of his memory that made him realize she was looking out for him, even if it wasn't always her priority.

Felicia held her brother until he closed his eyes, finally having all of the tension in his body melt off him.

Once she recognized he was dead weight, she gently slid his weary head onto his pillow and quietly slipped away.

Luke's dreams were probably the most vivid they had ever been this night.

He was back in the verdure of that grand, ancient forest he was always dreaming of. His paralyzed form sailing downstream in the clear waters of the brook. He was able to flick his head upward to see that the giant tree that was climbing over him almost every night was welcoming him with outstretched branches.

Partially out of compulsion and partially out of curiosity, the young inkling stretched his arm towards the branches. To his surprise, he was able to move his arms.

Further to his surprise, was what he was witnessing.

Plant life had affixed itself to him-no-it was definitely merging with his arm. He could see the entwining foliage had burrowed itself underneath several layers of skin, some of which was visible on the surface layer.

Despite him being in a lucid dream, he could hear his hearts begin to throb against his chest. As his limb began to turn green and sprout, a scream was blocked by something deep within his throat. Every attempt was thwarted by the blockage slithering from his throat until he coughed out leaves. As he squeezed his eyes shut and hacked out the foreign debris he realized his environment had changed. The light and greenery that had surrounded him was replaced by a dark, cloud-sullen sky. He lifted himself, a surprise as he did so, and scrutinized where he was now.

His environment had shifted from the overgrowth he had grown mostly accustomed to when he was asleep to an empty beach. A large, full moon was glowering harshly against the pale sand.

Breathing heavily, he placed his hand on his chest, trying to take in deep breaths to still his hearts.

He stumbled through the sand on uncertain legs, wandering down the length of the beach's expanse. There was nothing save for the sounds of waves crashing on the shoreline and the sifting of sand against his footfalls.

"Where am I?"

"I don't know, where are you?"

Luke spun around, only to be inches away from a smoky apparition that was in his face. He felt his body turn rigid and held his breath in his throat as it twisted and churned until it resembled an Inkling.

Aeolia.

"Wha-"

"Better yet," It said with an unnerving baritone. "What are you doing here?"

Luke could barely react to the question before his shoulders were grappled and he was sent into the sand. He was met with a malice-tinged snarl inching towards his face.

"Maybe it doesn't matter, we kill you over and over 'till we find out what you are to us."

Luke could barely let out another cry before a terrible ripping pain left him without voice.

Hello! Been busy adulting and fretting on the details of this story (and procrastination) Story is due for a major makeover but as I've been told I should at least finish this first before I consider it so that's what I'm gonna do.

Staaaaay Fresh everyone!