Mutated Ectoplasm

4. Molecules Rearranged

Holding it together was a lot more difficult of a task when you were almost slipping through the floor. Karkat had to figure it out the hard way as he attempted to make it through the rest of his classes.

Aradia and Sollux had to keep him focused on any tasks within their shared classes, along with avoiding everyone that was outside of the issue. Last thing they needed was for him to go viral after doing a vanishing act in the hallway. It hadn't been easy, but they pulled through well enough to at least get on the bus.

Other than Sollux making a brief stop at his house, making it back to Karkat's was fairly easy.

"You think your dad will be in the lab?" Aradia said as they marched up the steps, keeping an eye out for any nosy neighbors. Karkat simply shrugged, currently attempting to his focus on staying solid.

"If he is, you think maybe we should tell him about this? He might have an idea on what's going on." Sollux was planning to continue that line of thought, but Karkat turned around quickly to send him a glare. "What? I'm just saying, he probably knows more about this stuff then we think he does. He made the damn portal!"

Karkat shook his head vigorously. "Hell no! I can't tell him about this. I mean, I can't just go down there and say 'Hey Dad, you know that portal you created? Well, not only do you have proof of an alternate dimension, but I might be dead!'" Vantas groaned. "He worked on that stupid portal for years, going down there and telling him it killed me would drive him insane!"

"Hey, it was a suggestion." The other boy adjusted his glasses, sighing deeply. "We're just out of our depth here, so maybe having someone that knows about it would be a good idea. You agree with me on this, right Aradia?"

Aradia couldn't really look him in the eyes on that one. "Maybe."

"Maybe?!"

"Look," She stopped and looked her friend in the eye. "Karkat has a point. We don't know what's happening him or what the portal did, so maybe we should wait until we know a little bit better." She crossed her arms, giving out an authoritative presence. "Plus, if Karkat doesn't want to say anything, that's on him."

Sollux groaned in frustration, but slowly nodded. "Fine. But if something bad happens, we tell him."

"Agreed." Karkat moved up the steps of his house, reaching the door. Noticing a note on the outside, he ripped it off and looked it over. "It looks like he isn't even home, so we got the lab to ourselves."

"Guess he is putting posters up all-around town." Aradia said, following her friends inside after Karkat unlocked the door and they moved into the house.

The red-eyed boy couldn't help but shiver as they walked down the steps to the basement, feeling apprehensive about this. He didn't necessarily want to step into the lab if he could help it, but it was stocked with some medical equipment that they could use.

For what, he didn't necessarily know, but he felt better knowing it was there.

Thankfully, it didn't look like Spades was messing with anything volatile before he left to do his advertising, so they were free to do whatever it was they wanted. Aradia was already heading over the medical kit while Sollux moved to an unoccupied table and opened up whatever was in the box he picked up earlier.

Moving to a metal chair and plopping down, Karkat sighed. "So, we just run a medical checkup on me and see if I'm doing alright. Other than that, I don't know what the hell we should do."

"I think there might be a few ecto-detectors in here. Maybe you got some ectoplasm stuck in your system and we can flush it out." Sollux provided, still messing with the contents of his box. "Who knows, maybe this'll all get better before we know it."