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“Huh. Well, that looks cursed!” Sweet announced to nobody in particular. They held a hand over their lens, squinting at sky warping as neon green lines criss-crossed themselves over it. Sitting cross-legged on their DJ booth, they drifted it closer for a better look. The honks and chatter of the streets below shifted from the usual city white noise to something… different. Panicked.
Humming in thought, they decided that maybe getting closer to the apocalypse happening in the sky would lead them to Icarus-ing themself. Looking down, they realized the city was blacking out. Every light began to go out. It began in the outskirts, converging inwards to Queen’s castle. Just hearing the chaos begin to unfold below made them shudder.
If both up and down were a bad idea, going to the side was the best option. So they got comfortable for a ride and set a course for the outskirts of Cyber City, the Cyber Field. Somewhere nice and far away from the chaos. It’d go back to normal eventually. Queen knew how to fix things, after all - it was likely just a hiccup in the system. It’d be back up in a few minutes. Surely.
Even if they’d never witnessed a power outage of that scale before. Things would go back to normal.
The sky did, after about a minute. The grid across the sky straightened to its usual blanket. The lights, however… were slower to return. Only out of a window or two, for the people who had an emergency generator. The longer they waited, the more they realized the lights wouldn't be coming on for a long while.
The lines over the sky faded the closer Sweet flew to the fields. That was fine by them; perhaps avoiding the mayhem was for the best. They could find a nice flat spot to set up their equipment; maybe playing a song or dancing with the residents would calm the immediate area down a bit. Who didn’t like dancing?
Within half an hour or so, they descended onto a nice open area. Their stand landed with a heavy thump near a cliff wall. Hopping off, they looked around. They wandered some distance away from their stand in search of company.
They spotted a few of the local pink cat-rabbit-ish monsters. They couldn’t recall their names, but they were everywhere around the fields.
“Hey, you both!” They waved, catching their attention. What were they doing, cowering in a pothole in the ground? Did the outage startle them? From the few they met, they were generally pretty cowardly. Why was the ground so cracked?
“Shh! They’ll h-hear!” One whimpered, pressing themself flat to the ground. The other was downright paralyzed in fear, staring up at the sky. “Th-the wires!”
“The… wires?” They recalled that, yes, some plugs dangled from the sky. But not many! Why did Queen even install-
One of said plugs shot down from the sky and slammed one of the rabbit things in the face. The monster didn’t even get a chance to scream - they just went limp, body dragged into the air by the plug. Their friend leapt away, nearly leaping off the edge of the area in an attempt to put distance between themself and… that.
Even Sweet found themself unable to move, stunning by whatever the hell was happening in front of them. The rabbit thing twitched and shuddered, and then began to warp. The cracking- oh, the sound of bones and cartilage and metal twisting and stretching and changing. The monster grew, limbs elondating, ears stiffening into something hard and horn-like. Their chest expanded as they inhaled, and the plug fitted itself around their face in something more like a mask as all manner of colors striped the inside. Blue and yellow bloomed on their fur like a fungus.
It took them a few seconds too long to properly process the thing standing there. Well, not quite standing, since the wire held them up so their toes barely touched the ground. Their rope-like fingers twitched and the thing looked at them-
Sweet’s legs moved before their mind did, and before they knew it they turned on their heel and ran. Even when the other monster’s scream was cut off by a sick, wet thunk. The now two wire abominations screamed.
The worst part was the silence. After the initial cry, they didn’t make a sound, but they felt their presence not far away. As long as they didn’t look behind them, they’d be fine. They just had to make it back to their set and get it in the air-
One of the wire monsters screamed again, and something electric grazed their back, sending a bolt of pain throughout their shoulder. Against their will, Sweet cried out, finally wheeling around. Fine! If there was no running, they’d battle.
They raised their hand and brought it down fast, sending a wave of electricity through the ground, towards the one closest.
They rolled their shoulders and head, making the worst crackle ever, and shook it off.
“Oh. That’s not good,” they whispered, beginning to back away. The first remained transfixed, though began to raise one hand. A webbing of energy spread between their long fingers. Where did the other one-
White hot pain lashed across the back of their knees, sending them down hard. Wheezing to catch the breath stolen from them, they rolled onto their back just in time to get a whip-like bullet to the chest. Shakily, they raised their arms over their face, blocking the next assault. Not the best defense, but they could take a couple of hits, even if they were tough…
The wire thing hissed a static-heavy snarl and raised an arm to strike. Taking their chance, Sweet rolled onto their knees and bolted right past it. At such a close distance, their static-charged fur stung.
“S-stop- Listen, how about I help?” They tried, daring to look over their shoulder. Both approached rapidly, strung up like hanging corpses. One lashed out a line of bullets, which they swerved to dodge. The attack hit the ground inches from their feet, sending up sparks and leaving a thin crack etched into the ground. “No? Okay!”
Adrenaline managed to put some distance between them and a horrible day, and for a moment they thought they could actually make it without more damage. Then they stumbled, tripping over the shoelaces they so often delayed tying. Worst case scenario, they fell in the middle of the road, but even then, getting hit would just send them back to safety. But now, being hunted down, it was a really bad time to-
Despite windmilling their arms to regain balance, they fell face-first onto the hard ground. Trying to scramble to their feet as fast as possible just led to falling again.
A burning hot hand wrapped around the back of their neck and yanked them into the air like scruffing a kitten. “Hey…” they tried sounding as friendly as possible, even as they stared death in the face. Not-face. Something about these limp, will-less creatures trying to murder them left them feeling physically sick. “Don’t do anything irrational now, okay?”
All it took was one rush of electricity to the neck, sending a bolt of far too much energy at once throughout their wiring, and Sweet fell limp as their processors overloaded and fried. Everything felt soft and warm all of the sudden. Their voice failed when instinct drove them to scream.
The second thing buzzed at them, reached out, and produced a bright chain of bullets. Not again, they thought, but even thinking made their head spin.
One moment, they were held in the air. The next, they were on the ground, with a streak of blistering pain on their arm. A strangled gasp escaped them, and they were back trying to find their footing. That wasn’t easy, as everything felt so alight and overloaded and they wanted to scream but their throat was too tight with fear to do so. A heavy hand struck the back of their head, not at all helping their orientation, but driving them to move even faster.
Finally, they spotted their DJ stand and scrambled onto it. Upon touching it, it began to rise off the ground. For barely a second they dared to believe they were safe.
Then they turned, just in time to get slammed into the cliffside behind them. Dazed, they looked up to see the creatures climbing over their stand to get to them. They sent sparks through the machinery, which let out a sad noise. They doubted that’d be working anytime soon.
“Please,” they whispered, in a last attempt to get through to any thought still in there. “Stop. Don’t do this.”
The duo buzzed at them. One lunged for them, only to cackle when they flinched. The noise grated their very being.
One lifted a hand, ever so slowly, as if to watch them curl in on themself and shudder. Maybe it’d hurt less if they didn’t look. So they closed their eye, tensed, and waited for the blow to come.
They cried out when the first hit came, hitting hard enough to make their consciousness go spotty. They had to leave them alone sometime, right? They surely didn’t intend to… to kill them, right? Even if their HP was getting concerningly low to the point of nearly downing them. Everyone knew a downed person was defenseless. They wouldn't hurt a defenseless person, would they? As the buzzing, crackling static grew louder as the wire things cajoled them, they curled up tighter, bracing for another impact.
Nothing happened.
Instead, the monsters each shrieked. They heard a loud, heavy thump. The air became thick with battle energy and the sound of attacks exchanging filled it. A new voice yelled out, “Go on! Go! Leave!”
The swell in the air died down. A distinct whirring grew fainter, until it faded out of hearing range. Sweet dared to open their eye and look up.
“Hi,” the newcomer said. He stuck out his hand. “Name’s Cap’n. Are you okay?”
Getting just a little bit of whiplash, they shook their head. No, absolutely not, after that. They managed to clasp Capn’s hand and pull themself up. “Thank you,” they barely forced out. Everything was sore. They didn’t know their inner circuitry could feel sore, but it was.
“Oh, yikes.”
“Huh?” They followed Cap’n’s gaze to their arm. The sleeve of their shirt was burned off, showing the rubber of their arm “skin” rubbed off. “I’m starting to feel that, now.” Battles rarely drew blood. It was the intent to maim that made bullets really hurt.
“You need a healer. And your, uh, thing over there needs a mechanic.” He looked over his shoulder at the DJ stand, which was smoking. Not good.
“I’ll fix it later,” they mumbled. “What- What was that?”
“The wires started doing that a couple hours before the outage. Somethin’ happened. I was makin’ sure the locals were alright when I heard those two buzzing up a storm.” Cap’n took them by the wrist. “Come on. There’s a town nearby. What’s your name?”
“Sweet.”
“Sweet, like candy, or suite, like the room? Or the music thing?”
“Sweet, like candy.” Talking about something other than getting beaten within an inch of blacking out was relieving. Cap’n nodded and turned a corner. The cliffs were everywhere now, bordering the narrow path they walked on. “I… sorry, I can’t think too well.”
“Did’ja get concussed?”
“Honestly…? Probably.” They did really feel like sleeping. Wasn't that a bad sign? Their steps became sluggish compared to Cap’n’s. “...can we take a break?” Now that the adrenaline faded, they were really feeling the toll the beating took on them.
“Dude, the town is right there. Look at it.” He tugged on their wrist, forcing them to focus. “Help isn't too far away. You can rest after a healer looks at ‘cha.”
“Mmmm… alright.” Indeed, a cozy cluster of small, squat buildings was ahead, surrounded on all sides but one by sheer cliffs. “What d’ you think Queen’s gonna do about all this?”
“I… I think she had something to do with it, actually.”
“Huh.” They paused, and would’ve stopped and made a fuss about it if they didn’t feel like a puppet with its strings cut. So they resumed walking. “What?”
“She’s… I don’t know. This is a big thing, y’know? Like, really big? Super big. And I think something either happened to her or she did it. I dunno why. I dunno why she does anything.” He sighed heavily and shrugged. “Here’s the hospital. It’s a bit small. Fits the size of the residents. But you should be more than fine.”
“Hey!”
“Kidding!”
“Like you’re too tall, either.”
“Okay, you know what? Fair. I deserved that.” He laughed, and Sweet tried to join without their head pounding too much. They hadn’t had a battle in so long, let alone a battle against a genuinely dangerous foe, let alone against two dangerous foes. Man, they were really rusty. If those things didn’t go away soon, they’d have to practice.
“O-oh! Hi,” one of the fluffy cat-rabbit monsters shuffled up to them. “Oh dear. What happened to you?”
“Uh…”
“Werewire attack,” Cap’n clarified. Werewire , huh?
“That’s- that’s the fourth one today… Alright. There’s a healer free. Y-you look like one of the lucky ones.”
“What happens to the unlucky ones?”
The monster looked haunted, so they hurried to soothe them. “Never mind. You don’t gotta say.”
“O-okay. Follow me.” They held out a paw, which they took. They looked back at Cap’n.
“I’ll wait for you outside, promise,” he said.
Sweet nodded. “Sounds like a plan,” they murmured, and waved goodbye to him as the monster led them away.