Chapter Text
The moment those cursed keys leave the hands of that young man, electricity crackles through the air. The backpack blinks, looking upward, stepping back. Drizzle descends upon his solemn face. There really was no point in coming all the way up here.
Just then, and not a moment sooner, the electricity coalesces and cracks down below, striking the bearer of the keys. This time, in this iteration, only the soda bottle is holding the keys at the time of the strike.
The resounding thunder is enough to deafen the backpack momentarily. The electricity had coursed through the ground and into them as well, causing their body to collapse. Somehow, they both got lucky. People don't always die to lightning strikes. The computer in his backpack body is surely gone for good, but somehow, the two objects have survived. Guess they'll never defeat Airy. That was the last thought that went through Liam's ringing head before unconsciousness consumed him.
He awoke in a hospital, in a frenzy. His head aches, his body tingles, but he's alive. And he needs to find out if the same is true of his friend.
"N-Nurse!" Liam calls to someone who is standing nearby, in nurse attire. "H-How did I get here? Is Bryce okay? We were up on that tower, and…and he got struck by lightning, and…oh, God, it's all my fault!"
The nurse approaches Liam with a nervous expression. They explain, slowly, carefully, that Liam's friend Bryce is…for the moment…showing signs of survival.
"Oh, jeez, that's a relief. I… I don't know what I'd do with myself if we ended up dead because of me…" Liam sighs heavily. "Where is he? Can I see him? P-please, I need to…"
The nurse makes a face. They explain. Visiting Bryce won't do much good, because he isn't awake yet. The nurse adverts their eyes as they say quite formally, "Bryce will need a lot of time to recover before he's ready to see anyone, if what our data is telling us is true."
"What…what is that supposed to mean?" Liam's voice goes quiet.
The nurse flips through a clipboard. "Lightning is a fascinating thing, really. It's all electricity. Far too much for an object--even a plastic one like Bryce--to handle. I'll go out on a limb and suggest that if he was made of a more flammable material, he wouldn't have survived at all."
Liam's face is growing an increasingly concerned expression. "Okay… and?"
"There is one key component to every object that utilizes electricity, which will suffer the most in an event of overloading."
"..." Liam stares. His heart aches with guilt and worry.
"I'm talking about the nervous system. Unfortunately, to put things simply…" The nurse frowns. "Liam, your friend's brain is fried."