Moonhawk 2 - The Blackcrow

Chapter 53 - The Power Cut

The Space Station Wildwhirl stood like a great fortress of metal, technology, hopes and dreams, vigil against a star-lit backdrop of space. The citizens that called this place home felt largely safe within its walls, with nothing malicious or mischievous ever getting a claw in. What nobody anticipated was when the Blackcrow returned from their mission to ally with planet Umbrus, a mysterious force had been lurking within the reactor of the Blackcrow.

All the time Captain Pitch and Commander Saros had been discussing matters concerning their deep past, back at the forbidden library, a mysterious jolt of black energy was crawling about the circuits of the Blackcrow. It sensed something new was plugged into it, and investigated immediately. Upon discovering the link attached between the ship and the unknown power source, the mysterious glitch moved to jump towards the new influx of power. While it had gotten its fill draining the Blackcrow's reactor of excess magic, the entity was now curious about what may lie beyond this enclosed ship.

"Hmm..." It sparked as it jumped through to the main power lines of the Wildwhirl. "This is new... Wonder what this place is?"

As it jumped and fizzled about, slithering through power lines and passing by sockets, it looked as if it was a fish happily swimming through a stream. Soon, the glitch felt something unfamiliar and went to investigate. Outside of its electrical river, it spotted several beans walking past. None of them were in possession of mana in their systems: how odd.

But the glitch's attention was soon drawn away from that when he found exactly where the electrical wires all led to, like a capital city in the center of a road network, all the wires and cables all linked up to something that Python was very much curious about. But to get a proper look at it, he utilized a nearby socket to emerge right at the room that contained the mysterious wellspring of energy.

What Python caught sight of was the reactor core that supplied the whole space station with energy, and the glitch was mesmerized by the glow the machinery caused. This was the very heart of the space station... and Python couldn't help himself but want to reach out. He was in need of an energy boost, ever since he came here, he felt his batteries were running dry, so to speak. So, the glitch reached out a claw over to the complex core.

"Oooh! It tingles!" Python chuckled as he felt the energy rush through him.

When retracting his claw, he felt the rush of energy recede, which made him feel even more exhausted. Before the glitch bean could react, he heard the mechanical door to the reactor room open. Python heard footsteps echo throughout the room, even above the low hum of the heart of the space station doing its allotted job. He kept still and ducked out of the way of initial sight, hoping to go unnoticed. As he did so, an engineer was looking around and keeping a visor on the readings.

"Reactor condition: Stable. Core temperature: Stable. Fuel rod status: Stable too. Cooling fluid levels: Stable too." She announced aloud talking to herself, wearily as she looked through the readings on the main monitor. "Well, I have zero idea why my boss asked me to do this. Besides, this thing only ever goes wrong 1 in a trillion times. Sorry boss, but when I upload this report, I'm gonna pour myself into bed."

Overhearing this, Python nearly and ominously chuckled so loud at the bean's complaining he nearly gave it away. But the weary periwinkle bean did hear the strange sound, yet she took no action: she probably thought she had hallucinated it and finished up the report to send it to her boss.

"Alright, I'm outta here." She said as she shut the monitor off and wandered back out of the room, the mechanical door closing behind her as she wandered right out of there. "This bean's now hitting the sack... I'm sleepy."

Within a minute, silence returned, and Python felt the coast was clear. The glitch bean raised his head to look around and see if anyone else was there, but he saw nobody. He was totally alone in the reactor room. Perfect opportunity in his mind to do a little bit of mischief.