Why are they crying? Why are they not talking to me? What is... what is happening?

Javi Garcia's mind... reeled, as he walked down the wooden stairs of the house he shared with his sister, and their father.

He remembered walking down like this years ago, to a similar scene of his sister and their father huddled up in front of the fireplace, the fire looking warm, almost cozy, simmering, making a small cackling noise... but they were crying. They were upset.

He had asked what had happened, back then, he had only been seven years old, and dad had turned his head, his eyes swollen red, as he beckoned Javi to come to him, and then grasped him in the same bear hug as he had Izzy, and Javi didn't know why they were crying, but seeing the people he loved and cared about the most weeping, he also felt tears slide down his cheeks.

"Where's... where's mom?" he had asked through his sobs, and Izzy's wails got worse.

Mom had died of a stroke.

Javi felt goosebumps return, as he recalled, but something was... strange, right now. He felt like he had goosebumps, but seeing his skin, it was smooth, no hair standing up, perfectly... untouched. He ignored it as some sort of issue acting up with his depression.

"Izzy?" he called out to her, but she didn't reply. Dad didn't even turn his head, Javi wondered maybe they hadn't heard him, "Dad?" he repeated, a little louder.

There was still no reply.

He closed his eyes, maybe they had decided to give him the 'silent treatment' or something. He wondered if he should be annoyed with them, but then decided against it, instead going closer to them and touching Izzy's shoulder, but she seemed to not feel it at all.

He was still confused. Were they really ignoring him that bad?

"Fine" he groaned, "I'll go away"

He hoped to elicit a reaction from either of them, but nothing happened. He rolled his eyes, maybe they were punking him? Trying to psych him out. What was the worst thing that could've happened? There was no way anyone could've died, there were only the three of them here, no one else. Maybe Izzy had lost a championship game? Dad lost his job?

He'd deal with them later. Right now he saw the time, he was already late for his job. He sprinted out without thinking more about his dad and sister, knowing they'd come to notice his absence, and she'll find him. Perhaps if he came back in an hour or so, they'd pay more attention to him.

And if the Sporix attacked, they'd have to come together to fight anyway.

He thought he should teleport to the command centre, check back on Solon and Zayto before going to work, if he was already an hour late, what difference would ten more minutes make?

Then he noticed his communicator wasn't there on his wrist. He tried to summon his morpher, but nothing. Even his key was not in his pockets.

Something felt... wrong. Oh so, so terribly wrong.

He decided he better walk to BuzzBlast or the base. That was probably his best option right now, considering dad would have the keys to the jeep, and that he wasn't gonna talk to him anyway.

En route, he found it strange that he was almost... floating, his steps felt light even though his mind felt heavy. No one gave him a second glance, as if they saw through him, as if they didn't even see, know he was there. He had to walk in zigs and zags to avoid bumping into people who, even though looking straight ahead, refused to acknowledge his presence.

It was as if the entire town had decided to give him the silent treatment, to ignore him, as if he never existed.

A fleeting thought passed his mind, what if it was a sporix attack which had made everyone forget him? What if he was... invisible?

But then his conscious mind dispersed the thought with an almost Ollie-like notion, feeling like if he had been hit by an attack, he'd remember it.

Come to think of it, he didn't remember a lot from yesterday...

He had been with Amelia, by sunset, they had been walking through the woods, talking.

Well, not exactly talking.

The conversation had come to an abrupt halt, when they saw a spark lighting the woods up. She looked into his brown eyes, he stared back into hers, time seemed like it'd stop. Javi reminisced the moment with an almost nostalgic affection, as the mist felt like it was settling, and they had leaned in closer to each other, closer and closer, till they were less than an inch apart. He loved the feeling of her warm breath on his lips, tickling that small stubble that had taken the place simply because he didn't shave for two days because the water in November was cold.

That smile on her face still lingered in his memory.

And then their communicators had beeped, apparently the sparkles in the sky were something to do with a fire breathing sporix, and they had to run to their friends' aid.

Javi didn't remember what happened in that fight... he remembered it breathing fire, Zayto trying to shield them, and he had also launched in, Amelia was screaming, so was Izzy, Ollie fell on the floor, demorphed, and the last thing that he remembered was his own suit receding...

And then he had blacked out. Only to wake up in his bedroom in the morning. Not warm, not cold, no wounds, no signs of damage... just perfectly fine.

Except that nobody was reacting to him.

Maybe Izzy was mad at him for charging at the sporix like that. Javi frowned, that wasn't really like Izzy, and coming to think of it, Izzy was a strong girl, she rarely ever cried, and to realise that she seemed so broken.

Something had gone really wrong.

BuzzBlast seemed almost normal, though, Javi was glad to notice, everyone was cheerful, smiling, going about their day, doing all the things they usually did. But even here, not one person saw him, waved to him, said hi to him, as they usually did.

He did wave to Gerard, the camera guy, but he didn't see, or he saw and ignored. Something was so, so wrong here too...

Something was wrong with him.

Finally, he saw a familiar face, and felt relief sweep over him. But it was short lived, very, very short lived, because he realised Amelia sat on her desk, eyes closed, head down, as if she was sick, or having a terrible headache.

"Hey!" he grinned, reaching close to her, if anyone could make him feel better, it was either his music, or Amelia. Amelia and her cheery demeanour, and her ever hopeful eyes searching pages of local news tabloids, anyplace, anywhere, for a ghost story, something paranormal, anything. And seeing her gushing about it, like an innocent sweet summer child, in her small bubble of paranormal, (That Ollie liked to burst, and Javi hated him for it) it always made him feel nice.

And Nice was just about the best thing he wanted to feel right now.

But something felt wrong...

Especially when she didn't reply to his greeting. Just looked up, as if a cold wind had touched her.

The expression he saw in her face, was one he hadn't expected... at all.

She looked surprised.

But then the moment passed, and he saw a pensiveness, an expression he had seen in dad and Izzy this morning, an expression as if she had just seen the light of day disappear into the mist, and then she suddenly shook her head, as if to disperse the wind, and put her head down on the desk again. No smile when she saw him, no reply when he spoke to her, not even an acknowledgement.

Something was wrong with her, with dad, Izzy, BuzzBlast, EVERYONE.

Everything was wrong.

Or maybe he himself was all that was wrong.

He sat on the desk in front of her, not giving up on her that early, and besides, he was at work, he had nothing else to do, until Jane gave him another story.

He watched her movements, she didn't move for a long time, as if fast asleep, however he knew she wasn't, she shook uncontrollably at times as if crying, he felt worried, a lot, panicky even, but she didn't reply once when he asked her about it, would just look up, look around, look at him, but stare past him as if he was transparent... as if he didn't exist.

Then he suddenly saw her pull out her phone, and he knew it was very inappropriate to look into someone else's phone, it was a breach of their privacy, but he couldn't resist... maybe it could explain the peculiar behaviour... something... anything.

Anything at all.

He circled around her, to peek into what she was looking, and if she minded him doing that, she didn't show it.

What he saw made no sense to him whatsoever... it was maddening.

Because she was looking at a photo of him.

It was a selfie from a week back, him and her, him with his mouth full of marshmallows, her with a hot cocoa moustache, both laughing their head off at BuzzBlast, both...

Happy.

Then she slid to the next picture, same day, when Ollie had been scolding them about playing with food like that, and then Izzy had dumped a barrel's worth of syrup on his hair, just to 'tell him' how much fun it was.

Ollie has shook his head in disapproval... before spraying whipped cream into Izzy's hair.

And then the next hundred pictures in Amelia's gallery were of the food fight that had followed.

But for some reason, Javi noticed with an ache growing inside him by the second, that she was zooming every picture, at his face, to just sit there and... look at him.

Whyyy

And then, then he noticed something stranger. He watched Amelia's reflection in the phone, while he couldn't see his own.

But he did watch Amelia's eyes go wide with, as if with recognition, her lips parted, and in a stunned, whisper, he heard her utter one word... just one.

Her tone was one of surprise, an almost whisper, filled with... was it mixed emotions? He saw happiness, excitement twinkling in his eyes for a second, which was then replaced by awe, shock, and finally...

Fear.

Amelia looked pale, as if she had just seen a ghost, her voice a husky whisper, more questioning, than a mere observation, as Javi would've thought it would be... and it was only one word.

"Javi?"

~TBC