Doc frowns as he looks over some papers, Biffa had given him a full report about what happened to Mumbo and he had spent the last few weeks trying to figure out how the meteor came up with that complicated of a design. By all expectations, the meteor shouldn't know how to make something that complicated. He walks out into the main room where the meteor is stored and glares at it. It seems to sense his glare and it suddenly glows bright green before going dark once again. His communicator lights up with an alert from the meteor, "If you knew who I was you wouldn't dare glare at me."

"You've caused enough trouble, I will look at you how I want."

At this, he spins on his heel and heads out heading back to his base. As he's arriving an alert pings his communicator. It's saying the meteor has activated. As he reads this he frowns and pulls up the security feeds. It's giving off black ash looking particles along with some bright green ones mixed in. Doc's eyes go wide as he flicks the volume on and a screech not unlike nails on a chalkboard sounds, he quickly switches the sound off, "That can't be good."

Bdubs wakes with a start. Unsure of what time it is he groggily sits up and blinks in the harsh light coming through the window. Stumbling over he snaps the curtains closed and looks over at his communicator. As he flicks it on he drops it, hissing in pain and covering his eyes with his hands.

His eyes well with tears in attempts to stop the burning sensation. Carefully he squints his eyes open and turns the brightness down. Sending a panicked message to the main chat he burrows under a blanket. He sits there for a while with his eyes closed before cautiously opening them.

No pain, yet. Bdubs pulls a face as he realizes he can see just fine. Even though it should be nearly pitch black under the blanket. He can still make out all the different fibers from the blanket. Not daring to move the blankets he stays put hoping that someone would come to help him.

As he reads Bdubs message Doc shoves his papers into a desk and activates his elytra. Within seconds he's at Bdubs main base. He cautiously knocks on the door, when there's no answer he opens it. Looking around he cautiously walks in, he walks into the bedroom, "You in here?"

"Doc?" The slightly slurred voice of Bdubs whispers, "Is that you?"

"It's me, why don't you come out from there?"

"NO!" Bdubs shouts panicked, "I'm staying right here."

Doc looks at him growing nervous, "What happened?" He whispers as he kneels down next to the bed

"I don't know why but everything is way too bright."

"Do you want to borrow my sunglasses?"

There's a moment of silence before he answers, "Yeah."

Bdubs sticks his hand out of the blankets and grabs the pair of glasses. He puts them on then cautiously pokes his head out. Wincing a bit at the light he stands up and looks over at Doc.

Doc's eyes go wide, "Come with me. Now." He orders.

"What, why?" Bdubs stammers as Doc starts walking towards the door.

"Meteor's got you, we need to go somewhere dark so I can get a good look at your eyes."

Bdubs relents and follows Doc outside, the moment he steps into the full harsh afternoon light he winces and shuts his eyes tightly. Doc carefully pulls him along into his escape tunnel.

Once they are in a good way Doc tells Bdubs to open his eyes.

He cautiously opens his eyes and blinks a few times, "That's better."

"Can you take the glasses off?" Doc asks as he walks towards Bdubs.

Nodding he slowly takes the glasses off, "Doc? Are you ok?"

Doc looks shocked, "Bdubs, your eyes look like phantom eyes."

"Oh, that's probably not good," Bdubs mutters as he slides down the wall.

"No," Doc mutters in agreement as he sits down next to him, I'm going to message Xisuma, he might have some blackout glasses that should help."

Bdubs nods and looks around the dimly lit tunnel as he waits for Xisuma and the glasses.

.............

As it turns out Xisuma did not have any blackout glasses, but he and Biffa do know how to make some. It will take them a couple of hours to do this though. So Bdubs stays in the tunnel with Doc for a while.

During the time they spend in the tunnel, Doc conducts a couple of tests to see exactly what had happened to Bdubs' eyes. They look a lot like Xisuma's eyes, just a much more vibrant, piercing poisonous green instead of the much darker forest color. He can see perfectly fine in dimly lit conditions, but if it's pitch black he can't see anything, much like everyone else. His eyes are extremely sensitive to sunlight, but with other light sources, he's more ok with it.

Bdubs stifles a yawn and slums further down on the wall.

"You ok?"

"Just really tired, not really sure why as I woke up like three hours ago."

Doc lets out a low hiss, "It's like three PM."

"Well, that's fantastic," Bdubs grumbles, "Not only have my eyes been messed up, but my sleep schedule."

"Xisuma should get here soon," Doc replies as he pokes at his communicator.

After a few more minutes of waiting, Xisuma runs down the tunnel and stops in front of them, his claws clicking on the ground as he runs. He shakes his head and stands up stumbling a bit as he tries to regain his balance.

He grins from under his helmet, "Here you are Bdubs," He hands Bdubs a small back case with the blackout glasses inside.

"X, are you ok?" Doc asks as he notices the admin looks a bit off. Not in a bad way just kind of melancholy, and distracted.

"I'm fine, just got reminded of something very special from years ago," He says with a small sad smile, "I miss life being simple, not having to worry about stuff like this."

Doc nods in sympathy, "You've had one of the most dramatic transformations... I can't imagine how difficult some things are."

"It's not easy, sometimes I forget about my horns and end up getting stuck in vines," Xisuma, says rubbing the horns before grinning as he remembers something, "I forgot about my tail the other day and smacked it into one of my shops," The offending limb waves before returning to swishing around the ground.

An odd look passes over Bdubs face as he listens once he's finished speaking he growls, "Xisuma? Have you slept?"

Xisuma freezes like a deer in the headlights, his spines quivering nervously, "Um, I may have pulled a few all-nighters."

Bdubs lets out a quiet hiss, "Sleep, tonight."

Doc looks over, "Phantom," He explains as Xisuma takes a small step back, his tail flicking cautiously.

Bdubs stands up, plonks the glasses on his face. Promptly realizes he can't see anything with them when in the tunnel. Slides them up onto the top of his head, and starts walking to the end of the tunnel.

Xisuma and Doc look over at each other and start walking after him. As the tunnel slowly meets the mines Bdubs slows down, clearly nervous about leaving the darkness.

Narrowing his eyes Doc flicks the glasses down so they are covering Bdubs eyes, "You'll be fine."

Bdubs glares at him, "Fine," And stumbles blindly up the staircase to the entrance of the mine.

When they arrive at the surface Etho and Beef are waiting in Docs half house. They had been sending Doc and Bdubs messages wanting an update on the situation. When he failed to answer the pair made the decision to head over to the half-houses to wait for someone to show up and explain.

"Bdubs, what happened?" Etho asks as he pulls him into a hug.

"We think I'm turning into a phantom," He mutters as he slowly slips his glasses down a bit, just enough to show his eyes to them for a moment.

Beef takes a step backward and pulls his arms in close to his chest. His back legs prancing nervously, "That's terrifying."

Etho gasps and leans closer, "Dude that's pretty cool."

At these words, Bdubs grins, "Doc? What do we do now?"

"Do you want to head over to the shopping district?" He asks, trying to think of a dark area without a ton of mobs.

Xisuma nods and walks into the nether heading back to his base, "I'll get some papers about phantoms and get them to you tomorrow."

He looks thoughtful for a moment, "Yeah," The NHO members look over at each other, walk into the nether and start to head over. Beef and Etho heading back to their bases, promising to return tomorrow morning.

.............

As they emerge from the nether portal the sun has started to set over the magnificent box that is Grumbot. As the sun slowly dips below the Horizon, Bdubs is able to take his glasses off and slip them into their case. He blinks a few times getting used to the light and grins when nothing is blinding him.

Doc ushers him into the town hall, as they pass the diamond throne something catches Bdubs eye. He walks closer to the enormous throne and freezes.

Jellie is sitting on the chair fast asleep.

Bdubs lets out a terrified squeak and scrambles over to Doc, "Let's go."

Doc nods understanding, "This way."

As they swiftly walk past Jellie she wakes up and stretches her claws digging into the upholstery. She spots Doc and runs after him not wanting her favorite person pillow to leave.

"Here," Doc says as he unlocks a door heading into the basement, "There are rooms down here, and since there's no natural light your eyes should be fine.

"Thank you, Doc for everything," As he says this he spots Jellie who walks into the room and lays down on the bed.

Doc freezes and stares wide-eyed at the purring cat. She flicks her tail gently and softly purrs. Now both Bdubs and Doc are backing up into the far wall.

She rolls over and meows at them. Both of them jump and Bdubs scrambles onto Doc's back. The two stand in a stare-off with Jellie.

"Doc? I don't like this," Bdubs says, his voice breaking slightly.

"What part of this?" He hisses back.

Tears well in Bdubs green eyes, "All of it. I've never been the biggest fan of cats but I've never been scared of them. I can't go outside without special glasses and the sun hurts."

With a mournful hiss, Doc turns to face Bdubs, "If it makes you feel better, your eyes might be able to adjust so you can see normally."

As Bdubs opens his mouth to answer a crash can be heard from up the stairs.

"Jellie! Where are you?" Scar calls as he carefully hops down the stairs. He's spent a lot of magic working on terraforming the shopping district so the Vex barely has enough energy to get home much less fly. Thankfully Cub was in the area working on the Cinnamon roll shop.

"She's in here," Doc calls out to Scar as a second pair of footsteps make their way down the stairs.

Scar darts into the room and flutters as he tries to get on top of the bed so he can talk without having to look straight up, "Hi Bdubs, Doc. I'll get Jellie out of here."

"Thank you," Bdubs squeaks.

"Scar? Is she down there?" Cub's voice echoes down the hall.

"She sure is," Scar replies as he starts waving her out of the room, "I'll talk to you guys later."

"See ya!" Bdubs yells after the small Vex who hops on to the cat's back and walks her out of the room.

Once Jellie is gone Bdubs drops to the floor and sits down on the bed with a heavy sigh, "What's going to happen?"

"I don't know, but what I can tell you is I'll be here and I won't let you get hurt," Doc mutters as he sits down next to Bdubs.

"Thanks, Doc."

Notes:

I hope y'all have enjoyed reading!

Here is a link to the discord.

https://discord.gg/eNCkSp4