Loomian Legacy Veils of Shadow

Golden Opportunity

Lucas woke up struggling for breath. His wheezes and gasps for air loudly echoed off the walls. He felt cold, but not within. The cold seemed to be projected from a corner, more specifically the corner to his top-right, directly above his pillow. The cold made it even harder to breathe.

Ripping the blankets off him and letting them fall to the floor. He slammed the door open, waking everyone in the rental. A second slam rang out as he slammed the bathroom door open. The loud bangs rang out throughout the rental. Lucas didn't care that his struggle woke everyone.

He threw himself down in front of the toilet and vomited a disgusting mix of bile, saliva, water, and his dinner. He barely registered the presence of his friends standing above him, worry written all over their faces. It wasn't until Lucas threw everything up that could he finally breathe again, and even then it was a struggle. After a few long seconds of gasping for air, Lucas could finally breathe properly.

Lucas flushed the toilet and stood up. He pushed past his friends and sister and rinsed his mouth in the sink for a full minute. Only after that, did Lucas become lucid of the world around him.

"Are you okay?" Lucy asked with concern as she dragged her brother to the kitchen, followed by the others. "Yeah, I'm fine." Lucas tried to no avail. Lucy had Lucas sit down on one of the chairs as she got some medicine out. "Thane." She commanded as she poured the medicine. "Right," Thane said as he shoved the earbud in.

After a few moments of Via's analysis, Thane removed the device from his ear. "There's nothing wrong with him." He declared. "Maybe it's something you ate?" He suggested. Lucas nodded. "Maybe." He agreed as he swallowed the medicine in one gulp, his face twisting into disgust right after. "How do you guys feel?" He asked. A chorus of fine responded. Lucas nodded again and waved his hand. "Go back to bed guys, I'm gonna stay here for a while."

After a few moments, everyone obliged and left Lucas alone. He just sat there in the kitchen for ten minutes, trying to build up the courage to go back to his room again. After chugging ice-cold water and using the restroom, did he finally feel relaxed enough to go back in. If anything happened, Thane and Jake shared the room with him and would jump right into action.

Lucas climbed back into bed cautiously and tried to fall asleep, only to find that he couldn't. After rolling around and trying multiple positions for hours, Lucas finally gave up. He pulled up his watch and connected his headphones to the device. For the rest of the night, Lucas watched cooking videos. However, it didn't get lost on him the sheer cold that came from the corner of his bed. He did his best to ignore it, but he knew that the lack of sleep would catch up to him.

What he didn't know, however, was that the cause of all his problems was floating in the corner, watching him. Metronette wasn't finished with Lucas yet, but for now, the Loomian was satisfied.

In the late morning, it was clear that Lucas had barely slept. He swayed from side to side on his feet, looking like he was going to topple over. His eyes were glazed over and his mouth hung slightly open. Drool was pooling underneath his tongue and threatened to spill out onto his chin. He was supposed to train today instead of playing referee like he always did, but the world through his dry eyes was like a blur.

It wasn't until Thane rushed in to push Lucas out of the way of a wayward energy attack from Starla did Jake put his foot down. "Go back to the rental, Lucas," Jake ordered sternly, but with a voice laced with concern. Lucas tried to protest but Jake cut him off. "Did you go back to sleep after you threw up?" Lucas mumbled a weak "no" as he rubbed his eyes.

Jake rubbed the bridge of his nose in exasperation while everyone else stared at him. He was sure Thane was having Via run a scan on him or something at that very moment. "Go get some rest. Training isn't going to do you or your team any good if you're dead on your feet." Lucas nodded as a long yawn hit him. "Yeah, yeah. I, I'm going to go back and get some sleep." Jake nodded as he turned to Lucy. "Take him back to the house." Lucas shook his head and waved them off dismissively. "I have Kabunga. You guys keep training, I can get back on my own."