Utterly Mad

"We stick with our original plan and climb." Catnip said, "Well no. You and these guys climb. George and I can stay down here to keep the towers power output stable and prepare it to lock with the dish. We need the dish going at the same speed as the main rotor down here so they can lock together on the move. I need you to take the generator we have up to the top of the tower and hook it into the main breaker box. You might have to do some prying and unplugging and fuse swapping though, but I know you can do it. Just make sure the tower isn't still connected to the facility up there before you connect it all up or your fry yourself, okay?"

"Okay!" L said with a new determination. While she and the three workers gathered up the generator and tools they'd need, Catnip turned to George and they got to talking again. He still didn't believe, but that wasn't important. It was the look of suspicion he gave her that was. He leaned against the rail that ran around the edge of the walkway and watched L and the others go.

"So." He said, "What happens now? You show your true form and attack me now that we are alone?"

Catnip tensed and hissed back, "I could say the same for you. Remember, I fixed the tower and started it going..."

"And blew out the power." George asserted.

"Even if I had done it, it also took out the security wall. People are probably leaving already." Catnip pushed.

"Which was probably the plan." He pushed back. Catnip threw up her hands, quite sure now that she was growing to deeply dislike the man. Catnip had never been treated so much like an untrustworthy villain before.

"Whatever. If that's the plan, then why are you still here? You could probably leave too, but you aren't. So why are you still here then?" She asked. George cocked his head at her. He didn't think Tenny was in on it, but he wasn't really certain Catnip was either. He wanted to believe that it was all some massive mistake they were making and that neither Tenny nor Catnip was a doppleganger. The stress of the last few days was now plain to see, he couldn't hide it and keep calm at the same time. Instead, he simply asked a question.

"What if one of us is the doppleganger?"

"Even if we were, I don't think either of us is in any condition to do anything about it." She said, feeling very tired.

"So I'll ask again," George insisted, "what happens now?"

"Why don't we just... Wait awhile and see?"

---

L looked out over the vista that was the great American desert with a renewed enthusiasm. The sun was just clearing the horizon in the west and shining it's crisp winter light across the vast pine forests and desert scrubland of Arizona. The climb up the tower was worth it if only for this view, but she had a job at hand and the view served simply to gild a risky endeavor. Closer at hand, she could see the security barrier. Sure enough, the guns were down, but the pylons providing the barrier were still up and going strong. People pushed against it in panicky little groups, trying to find something they could grab onto and jump over or just trying to force their way through. It just made them look more like harried mice than before.

"Excellent!" She shouted, going back to the task at hand. The climb had been tough on them all, and once everything was in it's place, she'd given the workers leave to go and join those down below. They had offered to stay, not really meaning the offer but giving it none the less. Too eager to be off. L told them she'd be fine, that they could stay if they wanted, and readied her tools.

The first panel had been simple enough, with the lock cut and the switches revealed, she could start chewing some wires, metaphorically speaking. First, she pulled the fuses one by one, taking each out in turn and examining them like Catnip had showed her. Each one had a little filament inside, and if the glass or plastic was burnt or damaged, it could be thrown away and replaced. She wasn't going to do that though. Instead the fuses, good and bad, were yanked out and dropped into a bag which disconnected uneeded systems from the facility. Then the panel was closed up and L moved onto the next until she came to the main switch. Just a single small breaker and a series of lights. L stared at it for what seemed like minutes, before checking the rest of the box over. The one breakers importance had hit her hard for a moment. The whole thing hinged on this switch. Above one of the lights was a faded sticker that read "main power" and that one was black, but the other two were not. Two more LED bulbs, red and green. Currently, the red one was on. This one's label, a more durable raised metal sticker, read "do not activate if light is red! Personnel failing to follow this instruction will be marked for immediate termination and prosecution!!" L knew what to do. The dish above, it's pinkish metal glinting pleasingly in the morning sun and casting it's strange shadow over Pricetown, had to start spinning. All L had to do was unhook this box from the facility, a task she accomplished with a pair of bolt cutters and a wire stripper, and hook the generator up. When the light turned green, meaning the dish had reached synchronicity with the drive shaft below, all she had to do was flip the breaker and engage the link. Easy.

She gave one more appreciative look out over the desert before turning the generator on. There was a moment where her reverie at the sight turned to confusion at the smell and sound that came out of the generator as it turned over, in the moment before the it suddenly exploded.