Colin's posts

"All right, cool." Ash responded.

"Catch ya later then, cuz." he said with a smile, before excusing himself and heading off.

---

"GAH!" Ilias exclaimed as she made her... statement. He literally jumped slightly, which caused his balance to go off-kilter, which in turn caused him to fall off to the side in a bit of a heap, all of the snakes concealed within his hair now out and at attention, hissing and spitting.

However, they, alongside Ilias himself, calmed down almost immediately when they saw who had done it.

"...Kiah?" he muttered, fumbling into a sitting position, and then using the table to get himself to his feet.

Ash was silent for a moment, before shaking his head.

"Naw." he said.

"Nothing like THAT, anyway." he told her.

"Had some very similar experiences, but... nothing akin to a total separation while still being technically connected." he went on, shrugging slightly and putting the jar away, back into the bag.

"They like it dark. It should calm down now." he said.

"Anyway, just wanted to stop by before I take the little guy home." he told her.

"You're gonna be okay, though?" he asked.

"I'll tell Aunt Rocky and them how you're doing after I deposit the wayward insect back home."

Ash nodded in response.

"Yup." he said.

"Takin' this thing back to the Outback." he told her.

"Normally it stays away from cities and such, and out in the wild, what it does isn't so bad, but... yeah, it was under just the optimal conditions to amplify its abilities and such." he went on.

"Must have gotten here on a parcel or whatever. Guess it laid low enough to be skimmed over." he shrugged.

"But yeah, I felt your soul reattach to your body." he then told her.

"Y'gonna be okay?" he asked.

Ash smirked.

"Here in the medical wing? Yeah." he answered. "Here at the Unit? No." he confirmed.

"I'm actually here because of what put you here in the medical wing in the first place." he then informed her. Before she could ask, he placed his hand into the small shoulder bag he had, and pulled out a special glass jar that had a special rubber on the inside bottom of it, and on the inside of the cap. Inside the jar she saw little hard-shelled beetle that was sparking slightly.

"This thing." he told his cousin.

"Little bugger managed to get into the wiring here and was scared out of its mind. Activated its self-defense mechanism and ended up running its special current throughout everything, separating people's souls from their bodies."

"Ah, well, that's..." Nate muttered, before thinking about it.

"Actually, I'm not the best person to explain it." he said. "The best ones to do that are in the lab." he admitted, before there was a light knock on the door.

"Mind if I explain it?" Kiah's cousin asked, sticking his head in. "I felt that happen, and I heard it all from Agent Sharp." he went on. "I wanted to stop by and see how Kiah was doing before I left, and it seems like I arrived at just the right time." he added.

"Of course." Nate responded, before looking back at Kiah.

"But before I go, how are you doing?" he asked.

"Aside from the headache." he clarified. "Any other issues of note?"

Cain wrapped his arm around her shoulders, and smirked.

"Go ahead and sleep." he told her. "After you wake up, we'll get something to eat." he said further, as she started to get comfortable against him.

---

Not a few seconds after she cried out in pain, Nate came stepping into the room.

"Relax, Dr. Remmington." he said. "I know you're in pain, it's understandable." he continued, before extending a cup of water and a pair of what looked to be gel capsules filled with a yellow fluid.

"Take these." he told her. "Within 40 seconds, they'll take the edge off to the point of being tolerable." he explained.

He was then silent, and said nothing more.

He was sure that all he'd said already hadn't helped her.

"...doing better than me." Cain responded. "I'M fully dead, yet functioning, but was I ever really alive in the first place?" he asked.

"I'm a mess." he said.

"But I'm me." he shrugged.

"Anyway, sleep if you're tired." he told her.

"Hell, collapse right here if y'want." he said further.

"Not like I'LL complain to having you sleeping next to me, or in my lap, or whatever." he chuckled.

Cain just sighed and made his way over, sitting down beside her on the couch.

"Probably." he said.

"Good amount from me. And your Dad. Possibly your Mom. Any other friends or whatever." he went on.

"Buuuuut that's what happens when you go dead and unreachable for months on end." he then reasoned in an almost-flippant tone.

"Anyway, you made an actual android, huh?" he asked.

"Gotta admit, that's impressive, even for you."

Cain paused for a moment when Aedan made her clarification.

"...I, ah.. I see." he said to her. "Sorry, my brain is... a little fried from working on overtime for so long, and... well, suffice to say 'stress' is a word that would probably show up a lot." he admitted. "But anyway, moving on." he quickly continued,

"Firstly, that is... definitely interesting." he said. "Definitely something new." he muttered. "Secondly, I'm doing much better than a little bit ago, and... well, when I see Dad next, I'll let him know you're all right, and the situation is handled." he told her. "Odds are he'll stop by here." he said further.

"Or you can call his cell. Whichever." he went on. "Odds are if you pester him enough with a barrage of cell calls, he'll answer, and he can calm down as well." he reasoned.

"Anyway, I'll let you get on that, and... hopefully see you soon." be told her. "Whenever you can leave the Unit." he added, before they ended their conversation and he hung up.

He then turned and looked at Lunet.

"All right." he said.

"Chloe, huh?" he asked, crossing his arms over his chest. "That why you were nonexistent for so long?"

"One sec, Mom." Cain said, before looking over towards Lunet.

"We're fine." he told her. "I'll explain everything when I'm off the phone." he said, before going back to the phone.

"Sorry about that, Lunet's here." he told her. "Yeah, she's back. She just set a new record for being engrossed in a project, and hopefully it's a record that she doesn't intent to beat anytime soon." he went on, in a slightly pointed tone.

"But all that matters right now is that she's fine, and you're back to being whole again." he told her. "I'm so relieved to hear that." he went on, but that paused for a moment.

"Also... Chloe? SomeTHING?" he asked further.

"What kind of phrasing is THAT? Who's Chloe?" he asked her.

Cain and Lunet had just finished with their 'pool bath', and had come in to dry off, when the phone rang. When Cain answered it, Lunet could see the immense relief in his tone.

"Mom!?" he exclaimed.

"Oh, thank goodness." he said.

"Yeah... yeah, Dad and I WERE freaking out." he confirmed.

"...Dad probably still is." he then realised.

"Odds are he's desperately trying to gather the books that we loaned to Lunet a while back to try and get the problem at the Unit solved." he informed her, before pausing for a moment.

"But... guess it's already solved." he finished.

"Yeah, sure." Ilias responded.

"Here." he told her, lightly tossing it at her after he'd dug it out of his pocket.

"...man, this is fascinating." he then muttered, going back to the microscope.

"I never would have guessed that Helena's venom was what we were missing." he went on.

"Chloe is... something else."

Ilias rolled his eyes.

"It was risky and foolish." he said.

"But yes, it DID put us in the right direction." he told her.

"...so thank you." he sighed.

"How are you feeling, anyway?" he asked.

"...oh, and you should... probably let Azazel and Cain know you're back to being... uh... whole, again." he added.

"Yeah, your test worked." Ilias said.

"Freaked the ever-living hell out of me when I came back to it, too." he muttered.

"And yes, we know what happened." he then confirmed.

"Chloe told me." he said.

"Seems this entire thing was caused by an insect from Australia." he informed her.

"The Coleoptera Elecanima, or... well... 'Soulless Spark Beetle'." he said further. "Seems it managed to get into the wiring here and... well... yeah." he sighed.