Rewind

Fever

Chapter 2

The first thing Blaze noticed as he tried to escape the realms of unconsciousness was the soft bed underneath him and the blanket that covered up to his chin.

The second thing he noticed was how his skin felt like it was on fire and yet he felt cold as well. His body felt heavy and his joints and muscles ached- almost as if like that time when he had a full-on spar with Halilintar for the entire day and ended up sore the following day—but the effects were ten times worse this time.

Blaze wanted to wake up but his consciousness would come and go and he just can't seem to get out of this weird haziness he felt.

It's like his body had decided to completely shut down and refused to follow any of his orders to wake up.

"I can't believe those idiots just let him sleep in!" Came a familiar voice just as he heard the soft hiss of automatic doors opening— just like the ones back in their TAPOPS headquarters.

But he couldn't be back... Blaze remembered that he...

"Blaze, you better wake up. Now!" Came the annoyed voice.

Blaze tried but he couldn't—and besides, wasn't he in the middle of a battle a while ago? Whoever this guy was should really cut him some slack. It's bad enough that he felt like crap.

"Seriously? It's almost lunch time! Wake up already!"

He felt a hand pull the blankets off him—making the cold worse and everything felt wrong for some reason—

"Blaze-" A cold hand suddenly held his shoulder before freezing. He then felt another touch on his forehead and a gasp, "Wha— you're burning up!"

Of course he was, he had fire powers.

"Hey B- Api... can you wake up? Come on, bro." The annoyed tone had completely disappeared and was replaced with soft concern.

And huh. It's been a while since someone called him that. He and his brothers had all decided to change their names when they all achieved their second tier form but they still called each other by their original names when they weren't in a mission or training.

But... this couldn't be his brother... he remembered...

...red soulless eyes and sinister grins...

The voice cussed softly when he finally realized that he couldn't wake Blaze up.

There was the familiar sound of a power watch beeping softly and the mysterious yet familiar person suddenly spoke up, sounding panicked and more worried than before.

"Gempa, you have to come here now. Something's wrong with Blaze. He's running a high fever and for some reason I can't get him to wake up."

Gempa...?

"Gempa..." Came Thorn's scared voice as they all looked at their brother warily, "Are... are you okay?"

Gempa smiled, eyes no longer golden and warm and hair now strands of silver.

He looked wrong. He looked jaded. He looked ominous.

"I've never been better."

—no, no, no—that can't be—he couldn't be here- he would turn him to Reverse too! His brothers— they turned Reverse—they—he needed to wake up now—he still needed to save them!

"Yeah, I think we need Ice to help cool him down. He's burning up really bad—I'll go look for a thermometer."

With great difficulty, Api managed to break free from the grasp of unconsciousness and forced his eyes open. Eyes tearing up as the heaviness, the cold and the aches seemed to worsen now that he was more awake. He felt awful but he had to push through.