Utterly Mad

The entire facility simply shut down, save for the spinning shaft, and the air filled instantly with the smell of ozone and burning wire. A monitor blew and the cyclone in the chamber filled with flying glass, threatening to flay the rooms occupants until it had been ground out of existence by contact with the walls. George and L stumbled to the ground, throwing themselves haphazardly down to keep from being shredded while Catnip sprinted to the other side of the egg shaped room with one of the workers in tow. She'd need his help to pry the hatch and pull fuses.

"Overload! It's overloading!" She shouted. It was one of the first lessons she'd learned when working with automotive electronics. If there was too much stress on the system, a powerful motor would burn out everything it was connected to. The facility couldn't take it. Catnip knew that was absurd, it should be unlikely. The facility was built to take it's power from the tower itself. A doubt set in, but Catnip knew it had been there the whole time.

A short while later, George tapped away at one of the intact monitors and squinted at the screen while L dabbed at the blood welling up from a cut in his forehead. "I think it's stabilized, but Ms. Walker, I don't think it's going to be able to power the dish." He said, settling a bit on his feet. "The dish isn't routed into the tower itself to prevent a burn out, at least that's how it looks."

"So we'll have to climb the tower and restart it manually." Catnip said, connecting the dots.

"Nip," L said fearfully, "How are you going to do that? You heard him, the dish isn't routed to the tower."

"She's right." George put in, taking the small towel from L now that the blood flow had stopped, "The surge knocked out the security too. We could just-"

"NO!" Catnip shouted, more serious than she'd ever been before. "We can't do that. It's an option, but we can't do that. If we leave now, the tower will never restart. That thing trapped here with us will just leave. It'll get out into Pricetown and spread. Besides, I think I know who it is." L's eyes widened and she leaned in closer.

"You do?! Who Nip?"

"I've been thinking about it, and this short proves it I think." Catnip explained. She had an image in her head of Tobin plummeting to the ground, and the figure falling with him. They hit, but the other is made of sturdier stuff than the cyborg and simply rolls away and scuttles off into the dark. Despite appearances at the time, it had left a clue. The facility should have been able to take the power provided, even suffer a few blowouts in some areas, but such a wide spread blackout should not have been in the cards. Unless someone had tampered with the wiring. Catnip held up, in the palm of her hand, a tiny charm in the shape of a mouse.

"It came off her bracelet when Tenny landed on it after she fell off the tower with Tobin." Catnip said, "And it either got caught in her clothes or kicked or somehow ended up getting thrown into that hole up there. I found it when the rotor started and shook it off the debris shield."

"Catnip, if you'll pardon my language, that's bullshit." George said angrily. "How could you even... insinuate..."

"Because Tenny was the only one working on wiring, and she did it mostly alone. Think about it George. Moving around all alone, disliking humming and high pitched sounds."

"No. I refuse. Ms. Partridge has an atavism related to the loss of her husband to shriekers!" George insisted hotly. Catnip didn't understand. Not Georges refusal and not his anger. The evidence was there, enough of it anyway, and she just didn't get it.

"Refuse all you want," L said bitterly, "But she's right. Even if she didn't kill Tobin and the others, she's still the only one who could mess with the electrical systems in this place besides Catnip, and Catnip didn't leave anybodies sight once."

"You're just saying that because you hate her..." George pushed. L sneered unpleasantly, she wanted to shout at the man but instead crushed that desire back and tried reason.

"I don't hate her." L hissed, "I can empathize with her, but what she's done isn't an excuse."

"How could you possibly-"

"My husband is dead!" L shouted at him, exploding instnatly, "My children are dead! I want everyday to see them again, but I can't! If I hate Tenny, then it's only for what she's doing here. Sabotage! This tower is the best way to keep the mycus away from Pricetown and she's trying to keep it from being fixed. I... I can still hear them sometimes..." L's eyes had gone wide again, wide and haunted. Remembering what it had been like to sit in the cellar eating a handful of dogfood and being forced to listen as a monster used her childs voice to try and coax her out where it could get to her. The Mycus was tricky and evil. No vile tactic too low for the fungal invaders to use. What L was seeing now was such a thing happening again here in Pricetown. The Mycus horror spreading throughout the town and forcing people to starve while they listened to their former friends and family pounding on their doors or windows, making dark promises and dire threats. Begging to be let in. "We have to restart the tower... C-Catnip, what do we do?"