Cole runs out of the house as he stands in the grass, coughing and holding his throat. A screen in the shade of trees flicks on, white with a small eye with long lashes. Cole's face fills with dread and fear as he snaps, his pickaxe appearing in his hand.
The eye on the screen opens as Cole starts being attacked with a virus attempting to block his vision with dark green squares. Wires move in the grass like snakes. He stabs into a wire with his pickaxe as it sparks, another wire tries to wrap the pickaxe's handle and runs up it towards his hands, another screen cuts on with a simple smile. Cole yanks the pickaxe away from the wire and swipes at more wires. There's a faint breeze from his left as 2 more wires try to reach his legs from the right. Cole coughs more as he struggles to stay standing. His swipes at the wires are getting weaker. He snags a wire but the other wraps his leg. Suddenly a large fan of spinning blades swings at him from his left with great force, connected to something like a tail. Cole easily dodges the fan as he cuts the wire off with his pickaxe. A hidden wire in the grass tries to wrap his right arm. The screen drifts closer revealing a large 20 foot tall being with 3 stacked screens and decorative gold ordinimates like that of royalty. Wires form what looks like a ribcage leading into thick red wires for its throat that seem to be moving a liquid to the screens. Cole's arm is wrapped by a wire as he groans and cuts the wire off with his pickaxe. The fan connected to it’s tail raises above Cole as two wires try to grab his legs
Cole's legs are wrapped as he tries to cut them off with his pickaxe "fuck, fuck, fuck"
The fan drops as Cole cuts both wires off. Cole drops down on the grass and rolls out of the way of the fan just in time. The fan smashes into the ground tearing up some dirt from the force. Cole rolls onto some wires that wrap around his neck. His eyes widen as he drops his pickaxe and unsheathes his combat knife to cut the wires. Another wraps his leg as he only gets a few off his neck. Cole keeps cutting at the ones on his neck as his eyes flicker purple then back to hazel. Just as he gets the wires off his neck, the wire on his leg stabs into his skin and begins emitting randomized signals while draining cole of power. Cole locks up as his eyes flash random colors. More wires wrap his arms and legs to drain power faster. As Cole runs out of power his eyes slowly dim before going blank. After he goes limp, the randomized signals stop and the third screen on the being cuts on, a solid red screen. The wires then give only enough power for Cole to stand on his own. Cole's eyes flicker back on to a softly flashing red as he struggles to stand as his head hangs. The wires wrap his pickaxe and pull it up back to his hand as he weakly grips the handle. The wires loosen only enough that he can move freely.
Cole receives a prompt "Can you get them?"
Cole barely mutters as he lifts his head slightly "Get who?"
There’s another prompt "Can you kill them?"
Cole barely mutters "Kill who?"
Another prompt says "Anyone. for it you get power"
Cole scoffs as his voice distorts "I don't need your fucking pathetic contract" He starts draining power from the wires as the being’s red screen flickers. Cole's eyes stop flashing red as they switch to glowing pink as he keeps draining power.
Cole speaks more loudly "How do you like the taste of your own medicine?"
The screen with the mouth flicks to this face :/ as the wires switch to randomized signals. Cole locks up as his eyes flash random colors and he stops draining power from the being. The being tries to drain the power again and only leaves enough for him to stand as the signals stop.
Cole's power drains as his legs shake slightly. His eyes swap back to softly flashing red as he barely mutters "God damn it"
The screens move as if laughing.
Cole barely lifts his head to look at it as he mutters "What's your opinion on high voltage?" As soon as Cole is done speaking, using what little power he has left he sends 60hz high frequency voltage through the wires.
Theres a humming as the screens on the being flicker various colors and the wires on coles leg and arms tighten a bit painfully. There's a click sound like that of something closing off as the red wires on its neck stiffen like that of a garden hose before bursting, spraying red blood, and the screens shutting off as it falls over. the wires suddenly go limp. Cole collapses as he breathes heavily and struggles to maintain consciousness as his eyes go blank to conserve power. Eventually Cole runs out of battery as he goes completely limp and stops breathing. Later Luna walks around the side of the house and sees Cole knocked out.
"Fuck." Luna heads over to him and touches his shoulder as they both disappear. Luna and Cole appear in the living room as she hooks Cole up to the USB-C charger using a usb port on his back. Luna snaps as a first aid kit from the bathroom appears in her hands. She uses it to treat any wounds he got from the fight.
Luna looks over and notices his eyes are still blank "uhhhh okay, that's not good" Luna searches Cole's jacket and finds a device that looks like a power bank with various cables coming out of it. It looks months if not years old. There's one button and a green and red light with no labels anywhere on it. She takes a deep breath and just presses the button. The green light flickers on as Cole's eyes softly glow green.
"Ah there we go."
A white crocodile nonferal walks into the room. He tilts his head some at seeing Cole on the floor "Is he good?"
"Hey Isaac, other than his battery being completely drained again, He's alright, just needs some rest. Not sure how it happened exactly, but I have a strong hunch that the TV screen thing attacked again."
"The what???" Isaac gets up and walks over to where Cole is now sounding worried.
"A few nights ago, some creature with various tv screens and wires attacked Sparrow, Spider, Cole, and I. It managed to drain both Sparrow and Cole's battery power and attacked them with viruses."
"Is it dead???" Isaac is concerned.
Luna shrugs. "It melted into blood then disappeared. I didn't see any trace of the creature today, so I'm guessing the same thing happened."
"If anything like that shows up again fucking slap me in the face and point me to where." Isaac sounds serious.
Luna nods with probably the most serious look she's ever given someone. "I understand Isaac."
Isaac sits near Cole and waits for him to wake up. Eventually Cole's eyes swap back to hazel brown as he jolts awake and breathes heavily.
Luna looks over at Cole again "Oh hey, welcome back to the realm of actually having battery life."
Cole looks around "Holy shit how long was I out?"
Isaac sits up "ARE YOU OK???"
Luna responds "Okay, I found you in the front yard about 5pm after Lock told me over the group chat that 'mr grumpy pants needs help', then I brought you inside. It's currently 8pm."
Cole sighs "Isaac, I'm fine.....oh I've....I've been out for a while"
Luna nods "You were totally out of battery power, to the point where I had to use your jumpstart."
"Oh! shit that still works?!" Cole looks genuinely surprised
"Thank the Gods it does! Granted, it's only two years old, so it's not that big of a shock to me."
"True, true i've only really used it once” Cole's movements are slightly jittery as he nods.
Isaac squints at Cole watching the movement
Luna asks Cole "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine, just....getting used to the amount of energy I have, it's nothing to worry about"
Cole waves his hand dismissively
Isaac sounds more worried "If you feel you may have a heart attack at any moment, just go limp and ask for help"
Luna nods.
"Wha, I'm not that fuckin old christ"
"Only 292 years old. Still young as hell." Luna smiles.
"just....be careful" Isaac sighs
Cole smiles and nods at Luna "Isaac I'll be fine I'm not gonna die randomly"
Luna chuckles. "I don't think I can handle any more deaths today. So please, just take care of yourself Cole. Anyway, do you remember fighting anything earlier?”
"..about that" Cole twiddles his thumbs
"um. What's wrong?"
"it was the wire thing again, but, but here me out just wait before you get mad"
Isaac is now staring at Cole.
"I know how to summon it now and I'm not dead" Cole leans back slightly as if anticipating a slap
Luna notices "What…Also if you think I'm gonna strike you, you're insane."
"Justreflex" Cole quickly mutters then clears his throat "So uhm I'm not saying how to summon it just for safety reasons"
"I wouldn't want to summon it, but I would like to know why the fuck can you do that???"
"...don't worry about it" Cole mutters
"Didn't it drain your battery power to the point where it died? Why the fuck would you want to summon it? Like it was dead dead."
Luna looks over at Isaac who is still staring "Isaac, you good?"
"Well again for safety I'm not saying how I did it" Cole taps isaac on the shoulder as he speaks
Isaac doesnt blink but says quickly "Im aware, I'm just intently examining your words"
"I don't want to know how. I just want to know why." Luna continues “And yes, I fucking will worry about it."
"why would you wanna worry about it?"
"Cuz if you tell me to not worry about something, it'll stick in my god damn mind. Call it my mystery solving brain. So thanks, now I'm very fucking worried about it."
Cole sighs "One word, Sparrow's room"
"That's two words. But the answer is... a potion of some kind? Her room is basically a really fancy and apparently smelly as hell apothecary."
"you get the idea"
"No, I don't get the idea. All of this happened because of a potion?"
Cole looks over at Isaac "And why are you examining my words?"
Isaac says quickly "Making double sure you're ok"
"yeah it did, and i'm fine Isaac just a little jittery" Cole puts the power bank device back in his jacket as he blinks a couple times
"So out of curiosity, why did you mute Max earlier? I tried to find out what was going on, but his messages were all blocked."
"uhmmmmmm did i do that i didn't do that, moving onnnnn" Cole speaks quickly as he looks to the floor
"...too late. Max already told me."
"god damn it, fucking rat" Cole grumbles
"And why did you mute him?" isaac squints suspiciously at cole
Luna stares at Cole aswell.
"it's a dumb reason and i'm not saying it" Cole crosses his arms
Luna shrugs and returns to her laptop to take notes on everything. Isaac stares more offensively at Cole.
"isaac, i'm not saying it you can stare all you want" Cole turns his head away from isaac as he looks at the ceiling.
"Just doesn't make any sense. Were you worried Max would've stopped you?" Luna comments
"We want an answer now genesone." Isaac sounds serious for once
"Please Cole." Luna adds "Like okay this is what I'm understanding so far: you drank one of Sparrow's potions, but knowing her, they're probably not labeled or like effects are unknown. Which caused... wire thingy to appear I guess?"
"......." Cole moves his head away from isaac slightly "i don't like it when you’re serious"
Luna sighs "look, if you wanna talk to him about this privately, I can go to my funny room. I don't need to know. but I really do think it's important for you two to have a talk."
Cole slowly looks over at isaac. Isaac is glaring at him still. Cole looks a little scared as he hangs his head and mutters quietly "I thought i could do it by myself without a issue"
Isaac clenches his hands into fists
Luna looks at Cole "...Which explains why when I offered to help you, you denied it."
"i was fine when you asked!" Cole is watching isaac's fists closely as he braces for a punch slightly. But Isaac doesnt move as he keeps his mouth shut and stares. Cole stares at isaac's fists
"Just... saying that we, as [the kiss], are a team. If one of our allies gets attacked, we all do. It's okay to accept help. At the same time, I understand wanting to prove yourself against something that strikes weaknesses like that." Luna explains
"Uhuh" Cole seems more worried about isaac's fists
She just watches silently while typing notes. Isaac suddenly stands up and walks to the kitchen as he mutters "Don't follow me."
Cole looks worried and scared as he doesn't move an inch
A bit later Isaac returns and his hands are no longer in fists. He speaks in a calm tone now "Cole can I ask you a favor?"
Cole nods a little fearfully as he speaks quietly "yeah?"
"Don't risk yourself like that again please. we care about you"
Luna nods in agreement.
Cole nods and still speaks quietly as he looks at the floor "Alright, won't happen again"
Isaac sighs as he walks up to Cole and holds his arms out, offering a hug. Cole looks up slightly as he stands slowly and hugs isaac, he's shaking a little. Isaac gives him a tight hug. Cole doesn't return the tight hug, the shaking slightly picks up. Isaac stops the hug but still holds him by the shoulders as he pushes him off enough that he can look him up and down "Cole? You ok?"
Cole doesn't say anything and is looking at the floor, struggling to control his breathing and still shaking slightly
Isaac completely lets go "Ok, ok, you need a minute understood" he takes a few steps back.
Cole briskly walks to the kitchen
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