Cody

"You're job isn't done yet." The voice was so familiar, like I had heard it before. It whispered in my mind, in the back of my head, but still it was loud and clear. "Cody, you need to stay strong. Come back to them."

And then I came back, gasping as I did as if I came back to life.

I almost had deja vu when I found myself once again, waking up in a cave with only a lantern as light, but now it looked different.

Though the room itself was large and open, I was stuck in a cave made of stone and a classic barred door, locked. There was one cage like thing next to mine, separated by jagged stones acting as bars. Between the cracks, I could clearly see who was on the other side: KrakenKid.

KrakenKid was slumped against the wall, much like I was but bore bruises all around his neck and wasn't moving in the slightest.

I might have kept my gaze on him if I didn't notice what else was in the room, or rather, who else.

Everyone else who was missing, all in a line at the opposite wall.

The first I noticed was Sam, lying down with her sister by her side, motionless and if their chests weren't rising and falling rhythmically, I might have been more concerned. Tanith was nearby, a little more sitting up and against the wall, but her hands were in her lap and holding something shiny. CannibalCrab was next to her, curled up in a ball and Blooper was on the very end of it. Pikalus was at the start of it, sitting up and thought it looked like he should have been awake, his eyes were closed. I couldn't help but feel relieved that he was no longer Hulk.

Looking at them now, something struck me as strange. All were in an almost comatose state and lined up in the same place. Weird thing was, none of them were caged, but Kraken and I were. If they were all put here, why were Kraken and I separated from them?

I thought about what to do before turning to my right, where the kraken slept. I reached out to shake him gently. "Psst! Kraken! Wake up!" I whisper shouted to him, but got no response. I tried raising my voice and shaking harder, but only got the same results.

A thought came to mind. Definitely not something I wanted to do, but it might work. I took a shaky breath as I reached inside and placed my palm on his chest. Then, I let out the smallest of sparks from the Nexus, and his body jerked in reaction to it. KrakenKid's eyes flew open and sat up quickly, making me withdraw my hand back to my side.

KrakenKid stared ahead before shaking his head and starting to scan the area. His eyes stopped on me and he groaned. "You again. How many times am I going to wake up to see you there because it's getting annoying."

I opened and closed my mouth a couple times before coming up with what to say. "Hopefully never again but- uh..." I glanced at the people lined up against the wall. "I got good news and bad news. Which do you want to hear first?"

He hummed to himself. "Hmmmm... Good news! I could use some good news right now."

I took in a short breath. "Good news, I found everyone and they're alive." His eyes brightened but I held up a finger. "However, bad news, they're not moving at all and we're stuck in cages. They're over there." I nodded in the direction of them.

KrakenKid followed where I showed him and rush towards his cell door and peered out of it. "Whoa... You weren't kidding, they're all here. What are they doing? Group slumber party?"

I was going to answer, but an all too familiar voice spoke for me. "Yes, we were but you weren't invited." Our heads snapped in the direction of where it came from and found ourselves face to face with Pikalus.

Professor's eyes were wide open and gave a devious smile. He stood up slowly and stared at the two of us and tsked. "I should have guessed it though. You two are always so persistent." There was something about his voice that didn't feel like Professor was talking, not to mention his eyes were a electric blue, not like Professor's green ones.

I exchanged a perplexed look with KrakenKid. "You're... You're not Professor, are you?" I asked carefully, unsure of what could set him off.

He let out a dark laugh, shaking his head as he did. "Awww, what gave it away? Was it the eyes? Was I not "Professor Pikalus" enough? I was hoping to have a little fun!" 'Professor' whined playfully.

I couldn't help but narrow my eyes. Now I definitely knew this wasn't him. "You think I can't tell my best friend from some random person? How low of a standard do you have of me?"

His eyes glazed over me, and then the kraken carefully. He might have been playing with us now, but something told me he knew how big of a threat we could be when we were free. "Not sure yet. This is my first time meeting you in person, King Cody, I'm still getting a feel for who you are."

I stared him down, trying to figure out who this was. "In person?"

"Of course." He smirked. "I've been watching you for quite some time."

Suddenly, the feelings I was getting made sense. He was the one watching me all that time. "Ha!" A laugh from my right, getting both of our attention. KrakenKid rolled his eyes and sat back. "You've just been watching this whole time and your only move was all this? Please, Blooper could do better with no arms and blindfolded any day of the week."

Professor's face twisted and I could have sworn he growled. "Kraken!" I hissed but he didn't seem to notice, or just didn't listen.

"I mean really!" He scoffed. "All this and for what? You're more bark than you are bite, aren't you? What even are you, a shapeshifter?"

"Kranky!" I said louder, actually getting a side look. "Cut it out!" I spared a glance at Pikalus, whose blue eyes were starting to burn with anger.

"Why? I mean, just look at the guy, penguin!" KrakenKid gestured both of his arms in his direction. "What even is he? Is he such a wuss to hide behind Professor's face? Even I showed my face to you within a couple days of you being here! He's a fraud!"

He snapped.

Pulling out a sword from his pocket, he bolted towards KrakenKid, struck his arm through the bars and threw the sword at him. It happened so fast that KrakenKid only had enough time to slightly move away so it wouldn't be fatal, but not enough so it wouldn't hit him. It struck his bandaged arm and he cried out in pain when it did.

"WHOA!" I yelled at him as he took a couple steps back, eyes wide. "What is wrong with you?"

The thing wearing Professor's face just laughed. "Cody, you of all people should know how tempting it is to want to stick a sword in that guy."

Why does everyone remind me of that? I thought silently. Why can't anyone bring up how I accidentally destroyed the corruption turbine? That would be a lot more bearable.

"Professor" sauntered away and towards the line of unresponsive Atlanteans and Tide Changers, allowing me to check on the kraken. "Are you-" KrakenKid cut me off with a shaky nod. His uninjured tentacle gripped the wound in order to keep it from bleeding anymore than it had to. Still, red liquid dripped from his grip, escaping it slowly. His yellow eyes were clearly averted from it, doing his best not to look at it.

I was planning on scolding him for his stunt but the words caught in my throat when I saw it.

A long blue wisp was flowing out of Professor's mouth and once it was done, Professor flopped to the floor, out cold. I didn't get to examine the wisp before it drifted to the ground and forced itself into Tanith's mouth. Once it was inside, nothing happened.

Then her eyes flew open and she stood up as fast as she could, still holding something shiny in one of her hands. The hybrid grinned, just as twisted as Pikalus did before and my heart sank. Her eyes might have been blue before, but now they glowed. I could see KrakenKid's gasp softly to himself.

"Maybe," Tanith spoke in her own voice but it didn't feel like her. "You'll be a little more comfortable with this friendly face." She smiled, which normally would have been calming but it just sent me on edge.

KrakenKid began to speak things that I couldn't bring myself to. "What are you?"

"Tanith" snickered to herself. "Why KrakenKid, don't you see? I'm your friendly neighborhood hybrid! We talked." Suddenly, they smirked and held up what was in their hand. It was none other than her phone. "Don't you remember?"

KrakenKid scanned her for a while, but then smiled like he won. "I was right then! It wasn't really Tanith texting us!"

The hybrid blinked and frowned just a tad. "You saw through it? I thought I nailed it! I got the "How do I do things from modern times" thing, the "Friendly outward projection" heck, I even got the "What does that saying mean" thing! How'd you catch me?"

KrakenKid sat up and leaned towards the cell door. "KK." That's all he said but it was all he needed to say at the same time. "Tanith" groaned swishing her tail back and forth in disappointment.

"The nickname! That should have been the easiest part, arg!" She sighed and leaned against the wall. "And here I was thinking that I surely got you two... I even had the right body! Magic and-" Her hand was held up but only small, orange sparks came from it. Her eyebrows knitted together and concentrated harder, but only got a lot more sparks. "Right, her magic doesn't agree with me, unlike that Professor of yours. Getting him to go Hulk was a "Piece of cake," as you call it."

Her hand waved dismissively over the matter. I finally broke away from my "Deer in headlights" mood and asked again. "But what even are you? A ghost? Can ghosts posses people?"

"Tanith" rolled her eyes, coming forward until she was in the middle of the room. "Oh, no, no, no. That's something I'm keeping to myself, but I will say that I'm not a ghost. No, you see, what I can do is something you'll figure out for yourself. It's my secret weapon or..." A shadow flickered in the electric blue eyes and they gained a look on their face that I couldn't decipher. "My ace in the hole?"

She laughed and just for a while, I could have sworn it echoed and there was a second voice laughing with her, but she stopped before I could confirm it. "Why were we separated from everyone else?" KrakenKid spoke up, cradling his arm close to his chest.

"So many questions with you two, sheesh." They groaned, their once creepy-cheerful self turning annoyed in seconds. "Why don't I tell you the secrets of the universe while I'm at it?" They threw their arms in the air. KrakenKid and I held out gaze on them before they finally gave in. "You two were harder to control than these ones."

The glowing gaze turned to me first. "Your powers went berserk and started to destroy the cave I put you in. That cave you woke up in was a lot smaller and circular shaped once. And you," Their attention snapped to the kraken. They looked him up and down, almost unsure of what he was. "You were just weird. For some reason, my body just didn't like yours at all and I couldn't be in it. I suspect it's your kraken biology. Originally I thought your son would be the same but he was just fine." They drifted from KrakenKid, to the sleeping form of Blooper and back again. "Something tells me he's not 100% pure kraken, is he?"

I looked to KrakenKid but he fell silent. There was something I saw in his eyes that I'd seen before on myself, but only when anyone brought up my brother. Whoever she was, Blooper's mother must've been important to him, and she must've been lost.

"Tanith's" tongue clicked. "That's what I thought. Well! I got things to do so excuse me."

As soon as they're back was turned, I whipped around to the Tide Changer. "Okay, why would you piss this guy off in the first place! What were you thinking, do you even have a brain?"

KrakenKid scooted towards the bars on my side and whispered. "I know, I did it on purpose so they would overreact. I wanted to see what they could do, and look what we saw! That wispy thing can posses people!"

I was dumbfounded. He did what? "You angered them so they would show off what they could do?" KrakenKid nodded smugly. "That's..." I trailed off, raising an eyebrow. "Actually pretty smart... Huh, maybe you do have a brain... You still got stabbed." I pointed out.

He shrugged. "Our healer is right over-" He never finished his sentence as Tanith's body flopped on the ground again, phone dropping with her. It was just like when they switched bodies, but no matter where I looked, the blue wisp was nowhere to be found. "... Uh... Did you see..?" I slowly shook my head. He sighed. "Just my luck. We have- one, two... Six! Six people he could be in and no clues. It's like the worst shell game in the world."

"Shell... Game?" I questioned.

"You know, three cups and a ball? They switch around the cups and you have to find the ball?" I let out an 'Oh' sound, nodding along. "Yeah, I didn't know it was called that either. Anyways, we're gonna bust out of here."

I scanned everything, but ended up more confused than before. Other than some rocks as bars and a tough cell door, I didn't see any opening out of our makeshift cages. "... How?"

KrakenKid's gaze turned bored. "Your Nexus voodoo? Bust the doors open! Zap the lock! Overload it! Come on, you have arguably the most powerful weapon INSIDE OF YOU! Use it, ya smelly penguin!"

I could feel myself go pale and stiffen up. Ever since it sent me into a coma after nearly killing me, I was trying to avoid using any of the Nexus' power at all. After all, I could barely stop it from consuming my body before, what if it happened again? In fact, when I did use it, it was in small doses, like giving KrakenKid a little shock to wake him up. Getting the lock to open would need a lot more energy than waking someone. "Uh- Y-you see-" I stuttered for words, only getting a skeptical kraken in return.

"There are some days where I wonder why you of all people, are my rival. Could I do better?" He didn't finish his own comment. "Not the point, why aren't you zapping anything?"

I lowered my voice to a hush. "I can't use anything more than a static shock! In Nexus terms that is. Last time I did anything more, I went into a coma."

KrakenKid stared blankly. "You were in a coma?" He suddenly clapped his tentacles together. "That explains so much! Tanith was acting weird for like a week and I was getting so many emotions from her and- Aaaa! Why does no one tell me this?"

I didn't say much and looked away. "The point is, I can't do it. Not again."

KrakenKid took in a long breath and released it slowly. "Oh boy... Do I really have to..?" I spared a glance at KrakenKid, who was slowly rubbing his eyes. "Whatever gods help the krakens, please give me strength for this." He mumbled before looking up with a badly forced smile. I could already tell he was uncomfortable.

"It's okay buddy," His "smile" twitched. "I be-... Bel-..." He seemed to have a tough time swallowing something, most likely his pride. "I believe in you. You can do it." KrakenKid's voice strained and choked the words out. Confusion only further sank deeper inside of me.

"... Are you trying to encourage me?"

"Is it working?" He shot back, hope lingering in his tone.

I kept hesitating on what to say. "Not really." I admitted. "It seems too fake."

"I'm trying my best here!" He protested. "It's not easy, you know! If you want me to be honest, here it is: I really hate you! You're this annoying, arrogant, little smelly penguin who couldn't lead Atlantis better than me even with all the help in the world, but guess what!" He stuck his arm through the bar and slapped me in the face.

"Ow!" I yelped.

KrakenKid didn't seem to care about my pain. "You're also pretty strong, that's why I chose you to be my greatest enemy!" He then snatched my shoulder and pulled me so close that my head hit the bars. I barely even had time to voice my pain before he cut in. "Now this person or whatever they are just kidnapped my son, stabbed me with a sword and choked me nearly to death, 2 outta those 3 are things that you have done, meaning I really hate them right now, maybe more than you. I'm not going to be caged for much longer because A: I'm kinda claustrophobic and I've been distracted until now and now it feels like the world is closing in on me and two!" He shoved me even closer to the bars and brought his face close to mine. "I'm not going to lose to this guy! So zap open those doors or else!"

He finally released me by pushing me back and I fell on my back. I found myself speechless until I thought about something. "You said A and two." I pointed out.

"DO YOU WANT ME TO HURT YOU, PENGUIN?"

"Point taken." I replied and got up. Closing my eyes, I reached out to the Nexus, and it came. I could feel power brimming to my skin, threatening to spill out again and overflow this whole room with its power, but I shoved it back.

No! I told it. Not this time!

More power... It tried to argue. More strength. Release us! RELEASE US!

The Nexus magic flooded my systems, but I had enough. I tightened my hand into a fist and fought back. I am in control of you, not the other way around! You will answer TO ME! With one final push, the Nexus was forced into a more manageable state. I braced myself for more of a fight, but it never came. The power conceded, I was the puppet master now.

When my eyes opened, yellow ones that were staring at me before now flinched away. "Your eyes!" KrakenKid shriked.

Something told me they weren't their normal color, but I dismissed it. My eye color didn't matter right now. I faced the lock, held up my hand and command the power to shock it. It obeyed immediately, releasing from my palm and in an instant, it struck the door, causing it to swing open slightly.

I gaped for a moment before it turned into a smile and scrambled to get out. "Nice man!" KrakenKid grinned. "Now get me out of here!"

I repeated the same act I did before, getting the same result. KrakenKid climbed out and stretched. "Ah, it feels good to be out! It's too short to stand properly in there. Really cramped."

I nodded in agreement and turned my attention to the six people lined up either Against or right next to the wall. Professor and Tanith were now has their faces on the ground. Nobody moved a muscle.

Out of the corner of my eye, KrakenKid scooped something off the ground. I turned to question him and froze at the sight of a large and sharp rock in his hand. "Uh-"

"I know this looks bad." He admitted. "But we don't know where that guy went and I'm not going down without a fight."

I soon found myself picking up something similar. It wasn't too bad of an idea. "Right... Where did he go?"

"We don't know if it's a guy." KrakenKid pointed out.

"Sue me, I'm assuming! That's not the problem here, no matter what gender he- they are, they're dangerous. Now, which one of them is he in?"

KrakenKid and I both found ourselves staring all of them down, but having no idea what to say. "Probably not Tanith or Pikalus." I decided in the end. "They don't seem like the person to go into the same person twice just to trick us."

"Unless that's exactly what they want us to think!" KrakenKid clapped his "Hands" together in exclamation. "Or they're really not and they're just double crossing us! Or they're triple crossing us! OR-"

"I get it!" I snapped at him. "It could be anyone... All we need to do is prepare ourselves to fight whoever he takes control of!" I glanced at him, "You can handle that, right?"

His eyes rolled and he waved it off. "Psshhh, of course I can! I could take all of them any day of the week!"

"Could you, father?" A childish voice interrupted us both. KrakenKid gaped at something behind me, turning a pale purple.

"... You dirty little-"

"Careful!" It warned, giggling. I whipped around and felt all hope drain out of me. Whoever this was sure knew how to play dirty. Baby Blooper stood behind us, eyes a bright blue and had a smile that betrayed all innocence. "Don't want to say anything bad in front of your son, would you?"

"YOU'RE NOT MY SON!" KrakenKid screamed, his voice breaking. His eyes narrowed but I could still see how much pain was in them. He panted, finding himself at a lost for breath and gathered himself. "You're not him. Not really."

"Blooper" rolled his eyes. "I suppose you are right, but," He held out his arms, exposing his body. "I do have his body. It's close enough."

KrakenKid disagreed heavily but I noticed him almost biting his tongue to keep his mouth shut. He didn't say a thing.

I kept my eyes trained on Blooper's now blue ones. I tried to read them, but couldn't seem to get anything but interest out of them. They were waiting for us to do something.

I felt like I was a toy of theirs. Nothing more than an experiment for them to prod and prod at as they please. A mixture of fear and rage boiled inside of me until I raised my weapon and got ready to lunge at him.

But KrakenKid was faster.

His good arm wrapped around my waist and immobilized my unarmed arm while the other brought his sharp stone up to my neck until it lightly brushed against my feathers. I tensed up, but found that he didn't make a move to end me. Instead, he looked to "Blooper" expectantly.

"Let's make a deal." He called to him. "Get out of my son, and I'll put me and the penguin back where were we before."

Is he nuts? I wanted to scream at him but I decided against it. Instead, I quickly brought up my other arm, trying to stab him with the rock. I might have gotten away with it if he didn't push his weapon closer to my neck, so much so that I could now feel a small pain from it. I froze in mid-swing, but held on, unsure of what course of action to take.

"Drop It penguin, or this rock goes in your neck!" He shouted, then, in a hushed voice, said something else. "I know what I'm doing, trust me. Drop it."

I had no other choices or better ideas, so begrudgingly, I let it slip from my hand and drop to the floor with a thud. The electric blue eyes rounded with curiosity, raising an eyebrow. "Huh... It's unlike you to take orders from him." They noted. I could feel KrakenKid's heart accelerate but it began to calm when they shrugged. "I guess in your position, you don't have much of a choice, huh?"

"Stop playing games." The yellow eyes narrowed. "Get out of my son, and leave him alone, and I'll take myself and the penguin back to our cells to stay there." Then, even though he barely moved his lips, he whispered to me. "When I give the signal, zap him as hard as you can." And didn't wait for an answer.

"Blooper" paused for a long moment, carefully looking at KrakenKid, and then me. "Fine." He said at last. "But if you escape, I won't hold back on your son."

Blooper's mouth opened and a blue wisp exited quickly. As soon as he was fully out, Blooper's body collapsed and I found myself free. "NOW PENGUIN!" Taking that as his "Signal", I quickly called the Nexus to aid me and shot out a bolt of energy. The wisp didn't have enough time to get out of the way and took it almost head on. It shuttered violently, and as it did, everyone that once was asleep suddenly gasped simultaneously. The wisp slammed against the wall three times, but the third time, it phased through it.

I got low and kept the energy sparking through me, KrakenKid did the same and kept his rock close to him, looking for when he'd attack next.

But he never did. Soon, KrakenKid and I relaxed. He was gone. I turned to the once sleeping group, all now blinking and totally bewildered. Selena and Sam were both using each other as support at the same time, strangely balancing themselves out. Tanith and Professor lifted their heads up and rolled onto their back slowly before sitting up and using the wall to keep them that way. CannibalCrab just took deep breaths and started scanning the room. Blooper immediately tried to get up and nearly fell if his father wasn't there to catch him.

"You guys all right?" I asked everyone, even though three were supposed to be my enemies. One by one, I got nods. Some were a little more sure than normal.

CannibalCrab was the first to say anything. "Okay, what just happened?"

I thought to myself for a while. "Well, everyone got kidnapped by... Something and KrakenKid and I saved you."

Tanith instantly shot her head up and grinned. "You two worked together and didn't kill each other? Aww, you and KK have come a long way!"

I blinked. She sounded just like the texts that the controlled version of her but used nicknames. They really did nail it her personality.

KrakenKid laughed. "Oh believe me, I wanted to strangle him multiple times. Lemme tell you a story."

KrakenKid began to explain everything we knew as Tanith noticed our wounds and started to work her magic. Getting stuck in the caves, how we got out and learned everything, the texts and Pikalus' attack and finally, how we came face to face with whatever was possessing people. "And that's that." He finished proudly. "Too bad we never found out what gender we should call 'em."

"It was a guy." Almost all of them said at the same time. KrakenKid and I were taken aback. They all agreed on the same thing.

"How do you know?" I asked wearily. I couldn't help but wonder if they were still under his control.

"Not sure." Sam was the one to answer. "But I could just tell it was, plus he kinda acted like one too."

All of them nodded along, but then I had another question. "Wait... How do you guys know how he was acting?"

Tanith cleared her throat, catching m attention. "It's hard to explain, but when he posses us, we can hear what he's saying and feel what he's feeling. It's like we're doing it but have no control over it. Then, when he left, we go back to being nothing and have even less control. Strange really, I've never really come across anything like this before." Tanith mused.

I fell silent for a while but finally had to ask something. "Did any of you get a name?" They all shook their heads. "Well what are we supposed to call him then? Wispy blue guy who posses people?"

There was a long silence, but then Tanith spoke up. "Ace."

"Ace?" Blooper echoed. "Why Ace of all things? Why not insult him? Call him stupidface so it's stuck and everyone calls him that every time they talk about him."

Everyone seemed to share a collective laugh, but Tanith lightly shook her head. "That's kinda harsh, and I know he did terrible things so far but he needs a proper name. Besides," She locked on to me and KrakenKid. "You heard him, he's an ace in the hole. Let's call him Ace."

The seven others exchanged glances, but no one disagreed. "Ace it is." Professor nodded. "Speaking of Ace, where did that little devil run off to? I have a bone to pick with him."

I began to scan the whole cavern, but found nothing. Ace was nowhere to be found. "He's gone, but I doubt it'll be the last we see of him." Tension filled the air so much that it was overflowing, but I quickly broke it. "Let's go home."

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I'M BACK AND TESTS ARE OVER

I'M FREEE!!!! SUMMERRR IS  HERERERERE

HERE'S A CHAPTER! WOW!

i'm so fried right now...

I really tried to edit and stuff but in my exhausted state of "I used all brain energy on tests", it's not going to be of much use so my deepest apologies if you find a mistake or something makes no sense. I'll try to fix it later.

Alright, I'm going to try to talk about everything I can remember right now but I'm really fried so I might miss somethings.

A while back I believe @Iceshard1011 was asking about stuff and stuff and she managed to get me to say, "Hey, there's still one character I haven't introduced yet that needs to be introduced." because I was really excited about it and just had to say something. Well, here he is: ACE!

You're definitely going to be seeing more of him.

What exactly he is (Hint, not a wisp that was just the best I could describe it) was hinted here and there but I'm not sure if you can figure it out with just in information I gave in this chapter. I've give more hints later and reveal it when it's ready, but for now, he's a mysteryyyyyy, ooooooooo!

And what color are Pikalus' eyes? I just said green for the sake of I wanted to.

Other things, Yes, KrakenKid is fine. Not a death dream, just a "Wow I almost died" dream. Before anyone says it, no, everyone is themselves and no one is being possessed at the moment.

"But Atlantis! I don't understand, why did Ace do all this?" Don't worry, it'll make sense soon enough ;)

Also, that part where KrakenKid gives words of encouragement to Cody wasn't originally part of the plan but it worked in so well and I loved it that now it's a thing. Ta da

That should be everything I can think of! I hope you liked this chapter, I really tried to get it out today! Be sure to comment what you thought and/or theories of what's coming, and goodBYE!

--JustAnAtlantisWriter