Harvels vision dimmed and brightened with each jolt. He could see everything. He didn't want to. They were in a storm drain. He could tell by the excess of moisture and lack of fecal matter.
"And who... are you?" He asked the man clinging to his coat. The words came out lazily, as if producing them were a chore in an of itself.
"Uh, Lemmy, Lemmy Meadows-Griegs. Harvel I presume?" The young man replied, holding his free hand out for a shake. Harvel limply shook his hand.
Harvel tried to concentrate. His brain was still a cosmic soup of senses. He reached up and scratched the side of his neck. Something tore.
"Oh, that's gross..." Harvel commented, pulling his hand away. A green and orange substance oozed between his fingers. Ignoring his better judgement, and the fact that he probably didn't need to, he held the substance up to his nose. To his relief it only smelled faintly of mildew.
As he slumped there limp over the shoulder of his brother, Harvel wondered why this wasn't all a bit more disturbing. Maybe the constant torrent of senses had overloaded his brain into neutrality. Maybe he'd given up after having woken up for the second time in a place he was unfamiliar with. He couldn't be sure.
All he could be sure of was that they were somewhere under North Umbrian Lane, near 332nd street. He didn't know how he knew this. It was like he could smell where they were. Or taste it.
In fact he wasn't sure or unsure of anything. It was like there were a thousand minds all fighting to tell him what he thought. The loudest one seemed to be his own, but there were definitely others.
Voices screaming thoughts as if they were standing a few meters away. Others strong yet restrained, as if they were whispering next to his ear. Some came from below him though they were nearly drowned out by the pressure of those above.
"Are you alright? Are you going to be sick again?" Lemmy asked, ready to back away at any moment. Harvel contemplated this. He... probably wasn't going to yak again. Before he could answer a voice intruded on his mind.
'I hope he's not going to do that thing again. With the goo and the orange stuff.' He heard, noticing a shiver run down Lemmy's arm. Harvel tried to give him a reassuring smile.
"I don't think you have to worry. Though I can't guarantee there won't be any goo." Harvel said, sticking and unsticking the fingers on his free hand. Harvel felt his weight shift.
"Harvel, you're awake?" Yiddek asked holding his brother in front of him by the armpits, his shoes hovering above the flowing water and chunks of ice.
"So it would seem... Yiddek, it occurs to me that there is something very off about my physiology. I can see by the way you're looking at me that you've been thinking the same thing." Harvel said as naturally as he could. Yiddek cocked his head to the side a bit.
"Harvel, your eyes are closed." Yiddek responded, pulling his brother in closer to inspect his neck.
"Are they? I hadn't noticed." Harvel said, flicking his eyelids open. He didn't actually notice any difference.
"Harvel your speech is off. You're not cursing, or angry. I thought you would be... madder at me. Aldon told me you were absolutely livid with me earlier." Yiddek said, setting Harvel down on a dry section of concrete.
Harvel had been absolutely ready to rip his brothers head off earlier, that he couldn't deny, but he'd had time to think about it. Well, to be honest he'd had very little time to think about it, he'd just had more thoughts about it than usually would have filled that time. Yiddek was right, but it wasn't just his speech.
His brain was working at a pace it never had before. Where every one thought should have been there were another fifteen crammed in. If he looked at how he, Harvel, normally would have reacted, his brother was entirely in the right to not tell him what was wrong. He would have thrown a fit, and his brother probably didn't have as many answers as he would have assumed.
"It would have made things worse if you'd told me. I would have lost it when you told me you didn't know much else." Harvel said assuredly. Yiddek looked surprised.
"Well, yes, but I didn't think you'd see it quite the same way. I didn't have nearly enough information to tell you what was going on, I still don't to be honest." Yidded explained, a hint of relief showing through.
He was relieved, right? His brother didn't despise him, in fact he agreed with him. This was good, objectively. But there was something distinctly un-Harvel like about his brother at the moment. Something that immediately turned his relief into a sense of uneasy dread.
Yiddek began inspecting the laceration on the side of Harvels neck. It wasn't a cut. It was like the skin had ripped. The skin around it was thin, more akin to latex than a humans outer dermal layer. He gently pulled his claw across a patch of skin about two inches away from the initial tear.
The skin held on at first, but as he pulled his finger away the skin came with it. It separated from the muscle in web-like strands as he tried to free his hand from it. Panicking Yiddek pulled some gauze out of his emergency kit and held it against Harvels neck.
"Harvel we need to get you to the Dome. I need to find a way to treat this! I thought it was healing you at first but I don't think that's quite how this works." Yiddek began, "I think it's-"
"Replacing my flesh. Yeah..." Harvel interjected, staring down at his hand, his two broken fingers seeming even longer than they had at the restaurant. It wasn't stopping with just replacing damaged cells anymore.
Yiddek stood back and watched his brother in horror. This wasn't the same man he'd grown up with. There wasn't anger, or fear, or surprise in his brothers expression, just blank interest. Cold, calculating curiosity that he'd never seen in the years when they had been close.
"Lads, we need to keep moving. Those Harkova fools will get wise soon enough. Lemmy? How close are we to your garage?" Aldon chimed in, nudging Yiddek in the ribs.
"Well, the shops at 341st and Bickel, so-" Lemmy began.
"Two hundred meters North then East another forty two meters. There should be a manhole that takes us out right behind the shop." Harvel finished, his eyes closed in concentration. It was like he could feel the city unfurling in every direction like a great tapestry. Each street and building lighting up like nerve endings.
"Yeah, he's... he's right. That should get us to the alley behind it." Lemmy agreed, checking his gps a second time to make sure. He stared at Harvel. What had Asha gotten him knee deep in this time?
"Fine, let's keep moving then. I want this over as soon as possible." Parker commented, pushing past them and down the storm drain. Harvel watched as she trudged farther into the distance with mild curiosity.
"It must've been something I did." Harvel said to himself, turning to look at Aldon. He hadn't heard her say a word since he'd woken up, but he had felt her staring when she thought he wasn't looking. The only problem being that whether he wanted to or not he was always looking.
"Yeah, it was. And once we get to that garage, you're paying me for that damned AV Mr. Griegs. After that we're done here." Aldon stated, shooting disdainful glances at both Harvel and Lemmy.
"What did you do?" Harvel asked, sliding a glance Lemmy's way. There was definitely something personal there.
"Well, uh, I had a button. When the Harkova mercenaries showed up I sort of panicked and well, I pressed it." Lemmy explained, timidly wringing his hands.
"And he set my fucking AV on fire." Aldon interjected as he walked further down the tunnel after his niece. Harvel looked back at Lemmy.
"And I set his AV on fire." Lemmy confirmed dejectedly.