Chapter Text
Orange watched as Chosen got up from his wheelchair. He was unsteady, but managed to stand without help.
Orange glanced around. He never thought they’d ever set foot in the research and development part of Rocket Corp. again, and yet…
It had been Chosen’s idea. “I can… stand for a bit. I’d like to try using my powers on those targets.”
Orange hadn’t a clue what he was talking about, but Moonstone had stopped and gawked. “You…? Cho-Cho, are you sure?”
He had nodded. “I didn’t hate those kinds of tests. They helped me learn to control my powers better, actually.”
Moonstone had distracted Hazard while Orange had snuck Chosen out of his room, and the three had headed to the testing chambers.
A man with neat dark blue hair walked into the room, lab coat flowing behind him. Orange made a face, but quickly hid it as his sharp eyes darted towards him. “F-F-six-thousand-six-hundred.”
Orange tried to not flinch upon hearing the so-called name he’d been given during his captivity at Rocket Corp. “I have a name,” he growled.
“Apologies,” Nile said, sounding not at all apologetic. “Force of habit… Orange.”
“He’s as friendly as ever, huh?” Moonstone murmured.
“Subject Zero is-”
“Chosen,” Moonstone growled.
The man looked Moonstone dead in the eyes. “Subject Zero is in position. We may start now.”
There was a brief pause. “Use his name, and maybe I’ll activate the first target.”
“You’re being ridiculous.”
“Doctor Nile, you will use his name when speaking about him and when addressing him.” Moonstone leaned towards him. “Just because you have a medical doctorate and I don’t doesn’t mean you boss me around. We’re coworkers. I’m not your subordinate.”
“Fine. Chosen is in position. We may start now.”
“Thank you.”
“You guys know I heard all that, right?” They all looked out the window to see Chosen staring in their direction.
“Start it already…” Nile already looked bored as he sifted through the pages on his clipboard.
Moonstone sighed. “Let me make some adjustments, alright? Let’s start off with one, and just try to hit it with your fire, alright?”
“Mhmm…” Orange couldn’t help but have doubts that Chosen was ready to work on using his powers, but he was determined, and there was no stopping Chosen when he was determined.
The target appeared midair. He watched as Chosen began to focus.
After a few minutes of nothing happening, he heard Nile sigh. “It’s obviously-” He cut off at Moonstone’s glare. “He’s obviously not taking this seriously. This is a waste of time.”
“You’re free to leave.” Orange took out an apple and began munching on it. “Hey, Moonstone, do you know about the connection between doctors and apples?”
Moonstone stared at him in confusion, and he kept munching on the apple. A look of realization and understanding suddenly crossed her face, and the two turned to look at Nile, who was busy looking through the papers on the clipboard. Nile glanced up, and then raised his head. “What?”
The two exchanged knowing smirks and turned to watch Chosen. His hands were on his knees, and he was panting, but he looked as if he were trying to hold back laughter. Moonstone raised her hand towards him. Orange happily gave her a high-five.
He saw a small flame escape Chosen’s palm. Orange let out a whoop of excitement as Chosen finally was able to strike the target. He threw his hands in the air in victory, but began to get unbalanced and quickly stopped to catch himself.
“Hiya!” Orange spun around to see a small child in a blue dress staring up at him with big round grey eyes. He remembered this child, and how, while he’d been imprisoned, she had run up to the bars of his cell and cheerfully asked who he was and what his favorite animal was. She pointed at him. “I know you!”
Orange smiled. “Caution!” He knelt down. “How’s it been?”
“I found a shiny rock the other day!”
“Really?”
“It’s purple and blue and really sparkly.”
“Interesting!”
“What doing?”
“Oh, we’re watching Chosen practice using his powers.”
“He’s not hurting, right?”
Orange didn’t know what to say, but Moonstone knelt down in front of the child. “I can promise that we’re not forcing him to do this. He specifically asked to-”
Orange heard a scream of pain. He stood and spun around to see Chosen collapse to the ground. Orange ran for the door, bursting into the testing room and beelining it for Chosen’s fallen form. “Chosen!” He slid next to him. He could hear his pants of pain. “What happened?!”
He was trembling. “It… f-feels like I…” He gasped in air, “tore stitches…” He struggled to his knees. “Mngh…”
“Alright, let’s stop for now…”
“N-No, I… I can…” He reached forward, trying to summon his fire, but Orange saw his eyes droop and him begin to slump to the side. Orange reached out and caught him.
“Cho-Cho?” Moonstone placed a hand on his shoulder. “How are you feeling?”
“Mnnn… everything’s fuzzy ‘n bright… arm feels tingly…” Orange felt him slump against him. “‘S… really hard… t’ talk… ‘n hear…” His eyes winced shut. “Mngh… why’s… th’ lights flashing?”
“Cho-Cho, they’re not…”
“Feel weird,” he mumbled. “Li’…” The rest of his sentence was so slurred that Orange couldn’t make out what he was trying to say.
“Cho-Cho?” Chosen had stopped talking.
Orange began to feel a sense of dread. Why wasn’t he responding?
“Cau? Could you go get us some blankets from the other room? Nile, get a stretcher, please.” Orange watched the two run off. Moonstone’s expression was unreadable and her mouth was drawn in a thin line. “Orange, can you lay him down on his side?” Orange slowly did so. He could see Chosen’s eyes darting around, how unfocused they looked. Moonstone took out a timer and turned it on, setting it to the side, before taking out a penlight and shining it near Chosen’s eyes.
“Wh… What’s going on?” he whimpered. “Why is he…?”
“I can’t say for certain, but he might be having a seizure.” Orange felt the blood drain from his face. “I know it’s scary, but I need you to stay with him while I grab a few things, okay?” He nodded, heart in his throat. “I’ll be right back.”
The wait for her return felt like it stretched into eternity. Caution returned with the blankets right before Moonstone returned with oxygen and a few other supplies.
Moonstone set up a bit of a bed with the blankets, keeping a folded one under Chosen’s head, before placing the oxygen on his face.
Fear began to light up his features, and Chosen began to stiffen and twitch. “Wh- What’s…?”
“He’ll be alright; I know this looks scary, but he’ll be alright, Orange.” He could hear Chosen force the air from his lungs, and he stopped breathing. Orange waited for him to breathe, but…
He wouldn’t. He just laid there, twitching, like his muscles were tensing and trying to tense further, eyes fluttering. He felt Caution bury her face into his side, and he held her tight.
Then Chosen started to shake and whimper and moan - he sounded so scared, like he was in pain. Moonstone placed a hand on his back, keeping him on his side, but other than that she made no move to try and stop the thrashing or anything. Orange wished it would stop - why wasn’t it stopping? Why was it taking so long to stop? Would it stop? He wasn’t sure it would.
The shaking slowly lessened until it finally stopped and he went still. Orange could see his breath condensing on the plastic of the mask on his face, hear his raspy breaths, see his chest heaving. Moonstone took out her penlight and checked his eyes again. “Alright, I think the seizure’s over. Cho-Cho?”
“Sorry; took a while to find one.” Nile knelt down. “How is…?”
“He’s postictal right now. Four minutes, fifty two seconds.” Chosen groggily raised his head up, gaze unfocused and confused. “Cho-Cho? Don’t get up. Can you hear me?” If he did, he wasn’t reacting. He kept looking around with a dazed stare, still trying to get up, but easily being kept lying down by Moonstone.
“Let’s get Subj- Chosen on the stretcher.”
“Cho-Cho, we’re going to pick you up, okay? One, two, three.”
As the two placed him on the stretcher, Caution piped up, “Why he not talking?”
“You know how after you play in the park for a really long time you feel tired?” Caution nodded. “Well, after a seizure - which is like a little electrical storm in your mind - your body needs time to rest and recover. He’ll likely be a bit confused and sleepy, but this is normal. He’ll recover.” Orange picked Caution up and walked after them. “When we get to the room, I’m checking his blood sugar levels and I’m scheduling him for a CT scan. If that doesn’t give us anything I’ll order an MRI. Do we have a neurology specialist on site?“
“I, um… I’ll go check.”
“Good. I’m going to order some blood tests; if that damn virus is back I swear…” Moonstone shook her head. “EEG; lumbar puncture. If there’s a cause to this seizure, we need to find out what it is.”
“Mmm?” Chosen’s eyes looked slightly more alert.
“It’s alright, Cho-Cho, you’re safe.” He closed his eyes, curling into the blanket on top of him, and let out what Orange could only assume to be a sigh. There was an air of exhaustion about him, one Orange had only seen after his brush with death.
Why am I surprised? It looked exhausting… He reached over and brushed his hair out of his face.
A cleared throat made him look up as the group stopped. Hazard was leaning against the wall where the elevators were, looking not at all impressed. Caution squirmed a bit, and Orange set her down.
“Daddy!” She ran over to Hazard.
“Heya, Bug!” He happily picked her up, but returned to his unamused stare when he looked back at them. “Ya really distracted me so they could have some hijinks, didn’t ya?”
Moonstone shrugged. “Guilty as charged.”
“Ya know it’s my hide Vic’ll be afta if The Dark Lord tries ta kidnap him again on my watch and I’m not there, right?”
“Right…”
Moonstone pressed the elevator button. “So… what happened?”
“We… don’t know. He had a seizure while he was practicing using his powers.”
The ride up was a quiet one. The quiet was starting to pull Orange’s eyelids down, and he let out a yawn.
As they exited the elevator, Hazard pulled out his phone. “Gonna call Alan; let him know what happened.” His phone began to ring. “Huh? Oh… huh… Wonder why he’s…” Orange followed Moonstone into Chosen’s room.
“I’m telling you, this is a great plan!”
“Red, you’re going to attract animals doing this…”
“Um, what are you two talking about?” Yellow and Red looked over.
“Red wants to put out honey and cream below where the window is, where those weird plants are growing.”
Orange blinked a few times, attempting to process the information with his rapidly increasing tiredness. “Why?” he hesitantly asked.
“For the fairy!” Red cheerfully replied. Orange stared at the youngest member of their crew, slowly blinking, still not quite processing what he was hearing.
It finally clicked in his tired mind. “And… this accomplishes… what exactly?”
“To apologize for whatever we did to upset her!” Red spoke as if it was simply common sense. “Fairies like cream and honey!”
Orange sighed . “O… kay… knock yourselves out, I guess?” He flopped onto the couch. Mnph… tired… He curled up on the couch. Should probably just… His thoughts melted away as he was embraced by warm slumber.