⭐️Chapter 5: Search
Darkness.
...
That's it?
...
Nothing?
...
No monsters?
"This just in, more bodies found..."
Rider woke up slowly. It was 8 AM, he had left the TV on.
The nightmares.
They had ceased.
He shot awake.
FINALLY!
SLEEP!
He got ready like he normally did, excited and yet nervous to tell the team.
He looked at the TV.
Oh.
Right...
-----
Today, Emperor and Prince were slightly late, but only because of Emperor's new "system" he made to protect Prince. The team noticed Rider.
"Whoah, what happened today?"
"I GOT SLEEP!" Rider said in a 'ohmygod finally I've done it after many failures' tone.
"Really?! No nightmares?" Goggles stood up out of his seat.
"None!" Rider was happy, one of the rare sights in the team.
"I wonder if it has to do with the bodies..." Nana mumbled.
"You...saw the news too?" Rider turned to her.
"Yeah, it's not looking good..." she replied.
"Has the hospital diagnosed it as anything?" Gloves asked.
"No, not even the hospitals know what it is, however they know that it's not death-causing, only very weakening." Hachi said, having watched the entire thing.
"Well, at least that's something good" Prince said, wanting to lighten the mood.
"But we still don't know what it is!" Gloves threw his hands up in the air.
Emperor meanwhile, was simply watching and listening to the conversation, having nothing to say at the time.
"We could check any security cameras to see if anyone was caught when it happened?" Prince suggested.
"Well yeah, but we'd need some pretty big permissions..." Rider said. He wasn't gonna risk it. Emperor maybe could, because of his status, but to be honest, all of them would need to be involved. Besides, security camera footage was bad quality, they'd never see a shadowling with it...
"I'm going to look myself." Flip spoke.
All heads turned to her.
"I'm going to go on a night search, if anyone wants to join me they can." She continued.
"Are...are you sure?" Hachi asked, concerned.
"Yup. I'm determined to get to the bottom of this." Flip nodded.
"Well, I'd like to go, but I have to protect Prince" Emperor stated.
"I can't go for...obvious reasons" Prince added.
"I NEED...MY GLORIOUS SLEEP...IT HAS RETURNED TO ME!!" Rider exclaimed.
"Me and Goggs'd go, but uh...we're scaredy cats." Gloves sighed.
He WAS the trait of bravery, but that didn't mean he was scare-proof, he still had some fears in him. He didn't like admitting it though.
"And Nana and I are watching over the body reports..." Hachi said.
"Fair enough. I'm sure I'll find something..."
The group decided to Turf. More training, more strategies. All around them in the Lobby, they heard murmurs and whispers of the news they had spread.
"Should I go to sleep earlier?"
"I kinda wanna check it out myself..."
"Sounds scary!"
"Hope those cephalos are doing alright..."
Everyone exchanged glances.
At least everyone was on guard, getting the memo.
This didn't seem to affect anyone in turf though, as everyone seemed pretty focused. But as they were waiting for the next round, more talk of the shadowlings returned.
"It's good to know everyone is concerned." Hachi said, looking around.
"Yeah but uh. You think it could be too much of an issue?" Gloves asked.
"What do you mean?" Hachi turned to face Gloves.
"Well, like, maybe it gets out of hand and people start becoming paranoid about it?" Gloves added.
"Oh." Hachi's shoulders drooped some. He hadn't thought of that.
Gloves made that weird click noise with his mouth.
"Yeah....." he sighed, squinting at Hachi.
"Well, if that becomes the case, we can always journey to this forest ourselves to ease concerns." Hachi said, thinking.
"Right"
"C'mon you two, the next one is starting!" Goggles said, already waiting for them up ahead.
"Oh! Right! Sorry!" Gloves ran over, Hachi followed.
The two ran to catch up.
The only interesting thing that seemingly happened was one match where one Inkling forgot where they were going and fell out of bounds because they thought they saw a suspicious looking figure and panicked. This only happened once in the match however, and did not affect their performance in the team by much. They had informed the group later and the group had thanked them.
Upon later inspection, it turned out to just be a person moving some things around. They apologized for their actions to the group and moved elsewhere.
Eventually, they were done for the day, after winning several matches. Few losses, but hey nobody's perfect.
"Alright Prince, back we go."
Prince sighed.
"Right, brother..."
The two headed back early.
"Alright, stay safe everyone, I'm going to go prepare my things." And with that, Flip left as well.
"I MUST GET PROPER SLEEP" Rider almost ran off, despite the dynamo bag on his shoulders.
Well, I guess eventually you get used to the weight...
This left the Octos, Gloves, and Goggles.
Gloves cleared his throat.
"Well uh."
He waited.
"Plan's goin' good?"
-----
Prince was locked in his room, but studied the way the locks were set up.
He would escape this.
He would prove himself.
The metal wasn't anything special, he could bust out with regular supplies.
If he had any, anyway.
He looked out the window.
He swore, if something major happened that specifically needed him, and the group actually wound up needing him, he would rub in his brother's face for who knows how long.
-----
That night...
Flip was walking throughout the square.
Suddenly, she heard a noise. She turned, shining her flashlight.
It was a male inkling. Just a regular one, seemed like a normal civilian. He walked under a lamppost to rest, and Flip turned her flashlight off, hiding in a nearby corner in case something happened.
Just then, she noticed something. Some sort of weird, dark purple smoke on the ground?
It slithered over like a snake, headed straight for the inkling. Flip wasn't sure if she should yell at it or not.
Squit, she'd forgotten her phone...
Snap.
The shadow shot up, ensnaring the inkling.
Flip watched, horrified, as it seemingly began to...possess him?
His tentacles turned black, and his body shifted around some. The same purple-and-black eye look appeared. The possessed inkling wiggled around some limbs, testing to make sure they worked...
And then the shadow slid out of them, and the inkling dropped to the ground, unconscious.
Oh.
So that's what that was.