Elissa reached laboratory seven without wasting a second, she rushed through the halls barreling past ACAs and doctors alike.
Marcus was barely aware of his surroundings.
He couldn't quite comprehend the swift changes in his perceptions and sensations.
Everything felt so overwhelming yet peaceful at the same time as if he was riding a roller coaster while listening to classical music.
Elissa burst into Dr. Fletcher's office with a shout, "Anna, something is wrong with Marcus!"
Dr. Fletcher quickly looked up from her computer with wide eyes, her expression one of surprise,
"Elissa, what happened?" She asked urgently as she stood from her desk.
Elissa gently placed Marcus on Dr. Fletcher's desk. they both watched as he barely hovered above the desk.
Elissa kept her hand on Marcus's stomach to keep him from floating any higher, her expression was one of concern and worry.
"he just started flying, I think it has something to do with Luna's core."
Dr. Fletcher's expression grew from concern to curiosity, "That's it?" She asked as she leaned over Marcus' face.
Marcus had a wide grin and his pupils were dilated.
He was completely lost in a land of make-believe and pure imagination.
"Hey, pretty lady," Marcus said with a chuckle as he puckered his lips, attempting to kiss Dr. Fletcher.
Dr Fletcher let off a rare smile as she looked back up to Elissa.
"I believe he's suffering from Ether shock, I'm surprised you couldn't tell."
Elissa raised an eyebrow, "Ether shock?" She asked in disbelief, "That can't be right…."
Elissa looked down at Marcus who was still attempting to kiss Dr. Fletcher, only to be restrained by her hand.
Ether shock happens when someone is exposed to a large dose of Etherial energy, it's rare amongst the casual population, but extremely common for ACOs after they receive their implants.
The symptoms are usually mild and include sharper sensitivity and senses, a relaxed state of mind, and dormant ethereal powers surfacing.
Elissa chuckled as she watched Marcus grasping for Dr. Fletcher. "He really is suffering from Ether shock isn't he?"
Meanwhile, while Elissa and Dr. Fletcher were chatting about Marcus's diagnosis, Kenji had arrived at Marcus's home and was preparing to grab Luna.
He had studied the perimeter of Marcus's home with six micro drones. The outside of the house held no obstructions for Kenji's entrance, however, both Marcus's sister and his mother were inside the home, and they seemed to be conversing in the kitchen while preparing a dinner of sorts.
Luna on the other hand was on the second floor inside of Marcus's room, she seemed to be sitting on his bed reading a rather thick book of sorts.
Kenji sighed and disembarked from his motorcycle, he needed to be careful with this situation. It was preferable for him not to be seen by Marcus's family, especially considering he needed to get into Marcus's room.
But he couldn't just carelessly scale the side of Marcus's house and just knock on his window, as it would possibly draw the attention of both Marcus's sister and mother.
With a frustrated groan, Kenji decided the best move would be to get the women out of the house, and then grab Luna during that time.
But as Kenji finally made his way in front of Marcus's home, he was left with one question; how the hell was he supposed to do that?
After a brief moment of pondering, Kenji decided that the easiest solution would be to just convince them to leave the house by pretending to be a concerned neighbor, possibly warning them about a thief or the like.
With a simple plan in mind, Kenji approached the front door with a feigned expression of concern.
Reaching the door he began to knock on it in a hasty manner, "Hello." Kenji's voice was shaken slightly, "is there anyone home?"
There was a brief silence before the sound of cautious footsteps began to approach the door, "who is it?" A voice said deeply, Kenji could immediately tell it was one of the women pretending to be a man.
"My name is Haruto, I live about a block over, I came to tell you I saw someone suspicious."
"Suspicious?" The deep voice asked skeptically, "What were they doing?"
"They looked to be tinkering with your cars, at first I thought they lived here, but when I drove by, the person got spooked and disappeared."
There was a brief pause, where Kenji could hear faint whispering from beyond the door, after a moment the door gently creaked open revealing Marcus's sister Denise, dressed in a long T-shirt and holding a long kitchen knife.
Kenji hesitantly took a step back as he raised his hands, "Woah ma'am, I didn't mean any harm."
Denise looked down at the knife, then back at Kenji, "Well Mr. Haruto I don't know that for sure, but thanks for telling us about the stranger, we'll check it out in the morning."
Kenji nodded with a feigned smile, but he was secretly cursing himself. His plan didn't account for this woman to be so suspicious of him, and if something didn't change he'd never get these people out of the house.
As Denise began to close the door Kenji began to rack his brain for a quick idea, until suddenly it hit him, "Wait…" Kenji whispered before Denise completely closed the door, "he's in your car ma'am, the black SUV." Kenji said with a gestured nod towards the vehicle in the driveway.
Denise stopped right in her tracks as she froze in fear, "he's what?" She asked in frightened disbelief.
Kenji nodded hesitantly, "I didn't know how to tell you without alerting him, but he's still in the car."
Denise's face turned from skepticism to quick alarm, she swiftly turned from the door towards her mother who was standing behind her with a bat, "Mom call the police now!"
Kenji realized that he wasn't going to get these women out of the house with simple talk, they were smart enough to realize the dangers of trusting him.
Yet Kenji didn't have time to praise their common sense, if talking wasn't going to work, then he'd have to resort to controlled violence.
With Denise distracted for that brief moment, Kenji immediately got to work, he quickly grabbed the doorknob and yanked it open, pulling it away from Denise.
Denise quickly turned around her expression one of confusion and fear, "Mom–"Before she could say anything more Kenji's hand went directly for the pressure point on her neck, and in swift fashion Denise collapsed into Kenji's arms.
Marcus's mother watched Kenji with fear in her eyes, she shakily raised the bat towards Kenji and took a step back, "What are you doing?!" She asked in a panicked tone.
Kenji gently dropped Denise to the floor, "I'm sorry ma'am, but time is of the essence." He then stepped over Denise and sprinted towards her mother.
She quickly swung the bat in a downward arc, Kenji quickly dogged the swing as he grabbed the base of the bat. He swiftly disarmed her, and then with his free hand he attacked her pressure points and she dropped to the floor like a puppet without its strings.
Kenji sighed heavily as he dropped the bat onto the floor, "dammit." He said silently as he turned to look out the front door.
He studied the neighborhood for anyone standing outside or looking out of their window, but everything was as peaceful as it was when Kenji first arrived.
With a reassuring nod, Kenji closed the door behind himself and turned back towards the woman on the floor.
He knew he couldn't leave them like this, so he decided to put them on the living room couch.
He carefully lifted Denise and her mother one at a time. He arranged them in such a way that if they were to wake up suddenly, they'd think they had fallen asleep watching television, and just for an added precaution, he left the television playing a series of cheesy horror movies.
Once satisfied he turned his attention back to his main objective; Luna.
He quickly yet silently scaled the stairs, finally reaching Marcus's room he quickly reached for the doorknob and twisted it, only to be greeted by a locked door.
"Great." Kenji hissed, "of course, the door would be locked."
As Kenji silently cursed his luck, he could hear deep laughter from within the room, "Kenji you are quite the officer, lying your way into the house, knocking out two innocent people, and then attempting to kidnap a young girl, not very intelligent if you ask me."
Kenji immediately felt his skin crawl upon hearing Luna's voice, but he quickly pushed those feelings to the side, "Look anomaly, Marcus is in trouble, and I was told to come get you, we need to leave now."
The anomaly chuckled once more and after a brief moment the door gently creaked open, revealing Luna in all her silver glory floating in front of him.
"Well, let's go then." She said with a grin.
With Luna in tow, Kenji quickly began his journey towards the laboratory.
Meanwhile, Marcus was sitting in the same hospital bed from his last visit to laboratory seven, Elissa was sitting beside him, talking to him about the first time she went through Ether's sickness.
"Yeah, with me it was a whole lot more embarrassing," Elissa said with a reminiscent laugh. "It was right after my entrance exam when I got my Ether implant."
Marcus looked at Elissa with a giddy grin, he couldn't stop chuckling to himself, as his entire body felt strange and loose, yet he tried his best to pay attention to Elissa, "Oh yeah?" He asked with a chuckle.
Elissa nodded as she crossed her legs. "Yep, I was talking with Kenji when it happened, as you know he's my senior by one year, anyway we were talking about my entrance exam scores when all of a sudden my sense of smell became intense."
Marcus chuckled to himself, he attempted to cover his mouth with his hands, but he couldn't stop laughing.
Elissa smiled as she looked down at Marcus, his contagious laughter bringing her warm joy. "I could smell the food being cooked from the cafeteria a few rooms over, the cheap cologne Kenji was wearing, I could smell everything. I remember Kenji's growing concern, and leaning closer to check on me when all of sudden–"
Before Elissa could finish her story, the door to Marcus's room hissed open.
Both Elissa and Marcus turned their heads toward the doorway, where Kenji and Luna were standing side by side.
Kenji had an expression of frustration mixed with relief, while Luna had an expression of amusement.
"Kenji." Elissa spoke as she stood up from her chair, "You look frustrated."
Kenji sighed heavily as he looked up at Elissa, "we need to talk." He said while glancing at Marcus, he then looked at Elissa, "Outside of this room if you don't mind."
Elissa nodded, "Yeah of course."
Once Elissa was outside the room, Kenji began to rub his temples in frustration, "Dr. Fletcher told me Marcus was suffering from Ether shock."
Elissa nodded, "Yeah that's right."
Kenji sighed once more, "it's obvious now that I had the chance to think about it, but that's not what I wanted to talk to you about right now."
Elissa raised an eyebrow as she crossed her arms, "oh? What happened?"
Kenji looked down at Luna, who was staring at the one-way window leading into Marcus's room.
"I uhm, I fought Marcus's sister and mother, and I uhm, I knocked both of them out," Kenji said regrettably.
Elissa's eyes widened, "you… did you fight them? Like attacked them?"
Kenji nodded, "Sort off, it was more like I put both of them to sleep than actually fighting them per se, but yes in the technical sense I did fight them."
Elissa breathed a sigh of relief, "That's not as bad as I was expecting, but that isn't like you Kenji, you're usually more reserved when it comes to civilians, you couldn't think of any other way?"
Kenji sighed as he crossed his arms, "Yeah, I thought of a few other ways but, I just got sloppy if I'm being honest, ever since that…" Kenji paused as he glanced at Luna once more.
Luna remained unmoving as she continued to watch Marcus.
Kenji huffed as he turned his attention back towards Elissa, "Ever since that incident with Marcus, I've been distracted, stupid choice after stupid choice, it's like I'm losing my edge."
Elissa placed a hand on Kenji's shoulder, then smiled gently, "Hey, don't beat yourself up about it, we all make mistakes, the best thing to do is move past them, if anyone is to blame it's me, I'm the one who dragged Marcus into this mess in the first place."
Kenji shook his head softly, "That doesn't matter, it was me who allowed him to get caught up with Luna, if I had just been a little faster, I could've prevented all of this."
Luna who was rather quiet up until this point, finally spoke, "You officers certainly hold yourselves in quite the high regard, yet you break over the simplest of failures, sometimes I wonder how I was brought to desperation by the likes of you."
Kenji glared at Luna with a murderous gaze, "Why you–"
"Settle down Kenji." Dr. Fletcher said calmly as she approached them from down the hallway, "I've got Marcus's readings, he's in stable condition and he'll make a full recovery, in the meantime however, I suggest you two make your way back to your safe house."
Both Elissa and Kenji gave Dr. Fletcher concerned looks, "I think I'd rather stay with Marcus." Kenji said as gestured towards the room door.
Dr. Fletcher shook her head, "Neither of you can do anything else for the boy, I'll keep an eye on him, once his discharged I'll send him right back to you for his continued training."
"About Marcus's training, I think we should have him apply for next year's entrance exam, he only had three months to begin with, and his been in the laboratory for a good portion of that time, I don't think it's fair for him to compete this year." Kenji's voice was laced with concern and sympathy.
Dr. Fletcher shook her head, "No, he will compete this year, so ramp up your training if you must."
Elissa stepped into the conversation, "But Anna, we only have around a month left to train him, and now with Luna's core beginning to cycle Ether inside his body, he'll have to learn to control that as well."
Dr. Fletcher grinned, "I have something in mind for that."