Sunshine was really getting tired of passing out in weird, dangerous spots, and then waking up in unknown places. If the authors of the Guiness Book of World Records weren't dead, they would have to include her in their book of weirdos. Who else could say they’ve passed out three separate times in one week?

  This time, she woke in a white room that reeked of over-cleaning, like someone had scrubbed it five times before she even opened her eyes. It reminded her of that hospital room she first met Jerome in, but without the nice posters and bad drawings done by other kids that distracted you from the fact that the world had turned into hell.

  Just empty and soulless like a cage.

  At least this cage had a nice big bed someone had placed her in. But who was that someone? Kofi? Garlic? Salty?

  Definitely not Salty.

  Sunshine blinked, and then slapped her cheeks before realizing the room wasn’t totally empty.

  Curled up in a ball in the corner was Sunflower. Sunshine couldn’t tell if she was sleeping or dead as she didn’t make a single sound. No snoring, coughing, or even that little fart you do when you think no one in the room will be able to smell it.

  Maybe I should go check up on her was a thought that never would’ve been in her head until now. But if she stayed here out of a sense of worry for her, then it was only right for her to return the favor.

  “Hey, you!” Sunshine shouted, crawling out of her blanket like a crab coming out of its shell. “Wake up!”

  Sunflower exploded out of the corner, as if a bomb went off in the room. Her quivering body made Sunshine regret her actions. It took a minute for her “sister” to calm down enough to realize who she was sharing the room with.

  “Can you please… not shout like that?” she pleaded, rubbing her ears with a tired expression. “It’s not good for me.”

  “Oh, uh, sure. Sorry.” Sunshine hesitated in asking her next question, but decided to bite the bullet. “Do you not like loud noises? I know some people that have, like, trauma from the bombs-”

  “It has nothing to do with the bombs. Just leave it,” Sunflower said, retreating back to her corner.

  She’d be lying if there weren't other things that worried her more. “Where’s Dad? And where are we? And where are the others?”

  “Chill out with the loaded questions. I think both of us fell unconscious after our little scuffle. And then I remember waking up in this room before you did and this redhead in a lab coat was watching over you. She didn’t tell me who she was, but she did tell me Jerome was in ‘stable’ condition — whatever that means — and that you’d be fine too.”

  A twinge of relief washed over Sunshine. “And the others? Like Kofi and the Resource Adventurers?”

  Sunflower raised an eyebrow. “Who?”

  “The people that were wi-”

  “Asked?” The teen chuckled, but what was funny about that? All she did was interrupt her. “Never mind the question. I genuinely don’t care. Anyways, she told us to wait here until someone comes back, so let me sleep so I can forget how shitty this week was for me.”

  Sunshine frowned. “Hey, you can’t sleep now. We don’t have time to wait. Dad needs me—us by his side.” It was still hard getting used to using “us” in conversations like these.

  “Don’t think I didn’t hear that ‘me’. And even if I was on board, we don’t know anything about this place. We’d either run into a trap or get lost.”

  “And what if staying here is the trap? You said the redhead didn't tell you her name, right? That’s suspicious. You really trust whoever that was with Dad’s well-being?”

  Sunflower sighed. “I don’t know if you realized it yet, but this room has no doors.”

  Sunshine’s eyes bulged, darting to every side of the white space. There weren’t any doors or openings to leave from. Maybe whoever painted the room had the bright idea of painting it the same color as everything else here, but there were no doorknobs either.

  “How the heck did that woman leave if there were no doors?” she wondered, rubbing her chin.

  “Maybe she never left the room in the first place. Probably hiding in here somewhere,” Sunflower said sarcastically, grinning.

  Ignoring her sarcasm, that actually sounded like a plausible scenario. She jumped out of her bed — to Sunflower’s confusion — and looked at the only possible hiding spot in the room: the bed.

  Sunflower leaned her head forward like a curious cat. “Are you taking what I said literally?”

  “Yeah.”

  The bed was as big and long as a car, and Sunshine lifted it up with ease, wood cracking beneath her fingertips. As the blue blanket and pillows hit the smooth cold floor, the sight of the woman laying on the floor left her paralyzed.

  And then happiness bloomed.

  “Angela!?” Sunshine exclaimed, dropping the furniture and jumping on the surprised doctor. “What are you doing here!? I missed you so much!”

  Angela laughed, wrapping her arms around the girl. “I missed you too, kiddo! Wow, your hair has gotten way longer since last time. And have you gotten taller? Oh, and-” She paused. “Gosh, you have a really strong hug on you. It’s like you were never injured in the first place.”

  “Oh, s-sorry,” Sunshine stuttered, letting the doctor go and sitting on her abdomen. “And what do you mean ‘near injured’? I’m still-”

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  She stopped. Even when she ignored the pain, it was still lingering inside of her, waiting for the perfect moment to come back with a bang. But this time, Sunshine wasn’t making the effort to ignore it.

  The pain wasn’t there anymore. And so was the wound after checking underneath her dirty tank top.

  Sunshine smiled. “You healed me, didn’t you?”

  Angela readjusted her orange glasses. “Nope. That was all you. But don’t you have another question you want to ask me?”

  “Yeah, where’s my dad?” Sunshine asked immediately.

  The doctor stood up, bringing the girl into her arms like she was a baby. “Ok, ok, I’ll take you to him.” Her head turned to Sunflower, whose body had resumed trembling. “I assume your friend would like to see Jerome too?”

  Her “sister” didn’t respond for a long while, prompting Angela to say something. “Sunflower, right?” The teen flinched, though her eyes stayed shut as she hugged her own body. “Just take a deep breath, ok? Can you do that for me?”

  Sunflower nodded, and then inhaled and exhaled deeply.

  “No one’s gonna hurt you here, sweetie. You’re safe here.”

  It amazed Sunshine how someone who wasn’t a mother could have such a soft, motherly voice on deck, like a UNO player with a +2 in their hand. That calm demeanor worked perfectly too as Sunflower was up and ready to go thirty seconds later.

  Sunshine grimaced at what she was about to say. “Sorry. Are you… ok?”

  The teen copied her expression. “I told you to chill out with the loud noises, you dick. Can’t you hear?”

  “I was excited to see my friend. There’s nothing wrong with that.”

  “Guys, that’s enough.” Angela placed her hand on Sunflower’s head. “Sunshine apologized, so let’s put that behind us and focus on what really matters.”

  Sunshine nodded while her “sister” crossed her arms.

  “I wanna see him now,” they said at the same time.

  Angela smiled softly. “Good response. Now, hold onto me tightly, Sunflower.”

  “Why?”

  The doctor’s arm coiled around Sunflower’s torso. She brought them both to the middle of the room and tapped her foot on the floor twice.

  Just then, everything shattered like glass, including the floor. Gravity sent them down into the darkness below, and yet Sunshine and Sunflower didn't scream. Shock was written all over their faces, sure, though they weren’t that scared.

  She didn’t know about her “sister”, but Sunshine had bigger things to worry about — things that ripped the fear right out of her. Not to mention, there was a light at the end of the dark hole.

  Angela landed with no trouble, her fingers digging into Sunshine’s tummy. Her nails weren't long, yet it still felt like her skin was about to be pierced through. The doctor must’ve sensed how strong her grip was ‘cause she asked them if they were alright and after nodding, the trio started their walk down the long hallway.

  The area shared the same smell the white room had, however, its contents blew that room out of the water. Every turn gifted her eyes with something she’s never seen before.

  A giant snake with the head of an eyeball that slithered across the glass, leaving a trail of green slime, a tiger with even more muscles than Jerome bench pressing a weight with human-like hands, a pair of Radions scribbling on a chalkboard. And in each of those rooms were scientists recording their movements like their lives depended on it.

  According to Angela, they had been dropped off at this underground laboratory/research department by Kofi and the Resource Adventurers, and Sunshine hadn’t woken up until the next day.

  That meant Sunshine didn’t need to worry about turning into a Radion anymore. The toilet — if there was one here — definitely needed to worry about what she was gonna excrete later. Her rumbling stomach wasn’t a good sign.

  When it came to why Angela decided to not stick around after what happened in Boomsbarrow, apparently she had obligations to fulfill over here. Weird considering Jerome said something similar, but he was obviously lying.

  It looked like he wasn’t, after all.

  Minutes of more talking about the mundane passed — what they’ve done the past few weeks, what they’ve eaten, etc — and they reached a door.

  The trio were like ants standing in front of it, as though the door’s only use was to accommodate literal giants. Angela took out a white card from her long orange necklace and slapped it onto the red glowing square next to the door.

  The card vibrated. Then the door opened like one of those automatic doors, revealing another hallway with doors to various rooms inside.

  Passing the rooms labeled “Cafeteria” and “DO NOT ENTER”, the walk finally ended at a door next to a trash can.

  Was it a safety hazard to stuff that Radion heads into one trash can?

  The smell of smoke was strong, and the perfume obviously used to try and hide it didn’t make for a good mix.

  “Dr. Banana,” Angela called out, knocking on the door. “I’ve got some visitors you’ll be happy to meet.”

  “So Dad’s gonna be in here, right?” Sunshine asked, twiddling her thumbs.

  “I would hope he is,” Sunflower said. “Or else that long walk just to see someone with ‘Banana’ in their last name would’ve been a waste of time.”

  “Making discoveries is never a waste of time. I’m sure Sunshine would agree.” She knocked one more time. “Dr. Banana, I know you’re in there. I can smell a failed experiment inside.”

  With each knock, Sunshine’s patience thinned. A few seconds later, Angela’s frustrated sigh snapped it completely. She moved to kick the door down, but instead of going down, the door shot forward. It ricocheted off a series of strange contraptions before finally landing on a giant banana.

  But it wasn’t just a banana. Bananas couldn’t yell in pain or peel a door off their back before standing up on human legs. And most importantly, bananas couldn’t talk.

  “Why? Why would any of you kick down a door that’s purposely locked!?” he shouted, his hands shaking like he was about to strangle the air. He sounded like he was constantly done with everyone’s shit. “The entire point of a locked door is to wait for the person inside to open it!”

  Maybe this was another weirdo wearing a weird mask like Jesus… except Sunshine didn’t remember Jesus’s horse-head lips ever flapping the way this doctor’s banana skin did whenever he spoke.

  Angela placed her hands on her hips. “What were you even doing in here? I was knocking on that door for a while.”

  “The only thing you should be worried about is covering the cost of that door. What I do in here is my business, which again, is why we have locked doors. I would cuss, but you brought a little girl to my place of research. And a green… w-what even is that? Some kind of alien?”

  Sunflower leaned on the door frame. “Why are we talking to a talking banana? Where's Jerome?”

  Sunshine was already in the middle of answering that question after setting aside the absurdity of the man… banana man in front of her.

  To her delight, Jerome was there, running on a treadmill. Once she realized that didn’t make any sense, her dad’s erratic movements and his metal boots connected to a wall with wires caught her attention.

  “Hey, what are you doing with my dad?” Sunshine asked, approaching the treadmill.

  Dr. Banana turned to her, shoving his hands into his lab coat’s pockets. “Dad? Oh, I see now. You must be Sunshine Hunter. I’ve heard a lot about you, you little troublemaker.” He looked at Jerome. “As for your old man, this is the only way I can keep him… ‘alive’. Definitely not just using him to test out an old invention.”

  “Dr. Bananaaaa, we talked about this,” said Angela, shaking her head. “No using the unconscious for your experiments. Y’know, fun fact, ladies, the first time I met the doctor was when I woke up in his undresser-”

  “Oh, I get it!” Sunshine cut in. “Running keeps his body active the same way energy would. Assuming you already went the energy route.”

  “Uuuuh, yeah, totally.” He coughed, but Sunshine could hear him say “Nerd” through the cough.

  She raised an eyebrow at him. “Hey, you’re being sarcastic. I can tell by how you were talking.”

  “Frickin’ Sherlock Holmes over here.”

  There was a pause, and it was long enough for Dr. Banana to take out a pack of cigars from his jean pocket, stick one in one of the many holes beneath the yellow skin, and light it.

  Sunshine bit her lip, furrowing her brows. “Did you even try to help him? I’ve read that Type Two Radions could be revived with energy, but when I tried it on Dad, it didn’t work. So when I woke up here, I thought that maybe someone here either had more energy than I could find or a new and better idea. Now I come to find out that coming here might've been a huge waste of time.”

  Dr. Banana blew smoke at her face, causing Sunshine to cover her nose. Jerome always had a superstition about breathing in the smoke of smokers and she inherited it. “You’ve been here less than an hour and that’s your conclusion of this place? That energy stuff would only be relevant if this was a headless Type Two. And this guy’s got a head.”

  Angela placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder. “Look, I know you said before you didn’t want to talk about what specifically happened to Jerome, but if you don’t tell us, then we won’t know how to fix him.”

  Sunshine exchanged a glance with Sunflower. And then her “sister’s” glance turned into a glare. She knew the truth needed to be said, but the thought of Angela seeing her in a different light was too scary to think about.

  So she half-lied. “Someone attacked Dad with their Radius Ability. But I don’t know what he specifically did to him.” She really wasn’t lying about that last part, but judging by Sunflower’s scoff, that explanation didn’t go over well.

  “Well, that wasn’t helpful,” Dr. Banana said dryly. “This is me thinking outside the box, Angela, but we could use Bibby’s power on him.”

  “Bibby was the Ageling I adopted back in Boomsbarrow, remember?” Angela asked Sunshine. After the girl nodded, her friend continued. “What did Jerome used to call him? Spider Baby? Anyways, we could reverse Jerome’s time, but it's only temporary. And would it even make him conscious again?”

  While the Spider Baby’s ability was temporary, Jerome might’ve had a way to make it permanent.

  “He could absorb Bibby,” Sunshine said.

  “W-What?” Angela said, eyes bulging.

  “Oh, not absorb all of Bibby! Just his power. Dad did it before with this one guy and… now that I think about it, it was a lot more gruesome than you’d like it to be.”

  The redhead’s face turned pale. “Gruesome? As in… Jerome killed someone to do it?”

  “He wasn’t the one to do it,” Sunflower answered. “Jerome just absorbed the dead guy’s head and was able to use his powers right after.”

  “So it does involve killing? He’s just not doing it himself,” Angela said with a concerned tone.

  “Maybe he could do it without carrying someone’s head inside his body. Like the way he absorbs other Type Twos,” the teen theorized. “Like their energy, or aura, or some shit. I don’t know.”

  “That… could actually work,” Dr. Banana said. “Find a way to extract and liquify Bibby’s power, and then feed it to your old man.”

  The idea was cool on paper, but since the Spider Baby’s power reversed the individual time of anything that entered its mouth, a problem spawned: how would it specifically affect Jerome.

  For a human, Bibby would just de-age them. However, Jerome couldn't exactly age biologically, so they hoped the de-aging effect had a chronological effect as well.

  Angela did say she saw the ability work on the Type Two’s hand in the cave near Boomsbarrow, but turning him fully human could possibly weaken his energy absorption or remove it altogether.

  There needed to be a midpoint. A time where he wasn't fully human, but not a full on Radion too.

  And Sunshine remembered the perfect moment where that happened.