The Adventures of the "Four Muskytears"

🍁 Black Hole Sprite [3/4]🍁

Stick's POV:

I flung myself aside, inches away from being splashed with the volatile piranha solution and having my flesh being melted into caramel.

Closing my eyes and pressing my hands up against my helmet visor, I did my best to drown out the agonized screams of those around me.

69 was shouting at Jester, his uncannily human-like voice laced with sheer panic.

Jester was screaming bloody murder, but he didn't sound like he was in pain.

Polar, however, was not squealing like normal... But roaring.

The familiar scent of burning flesh went up my nose, nauseating as the air in my helmet threatened to choke me if I dared to breathe again.

Attempting to roll away from the scene, I quickly pulled myself toward the table, propping myself up against one leg as I tried to regain my senses.

"I feel like someone just poured straight-up lava on my face..." Jester groaned, clearly in pain.

"It's okay, I'm trying to stop the bleeding, it's okay..." Polar's quiet voice came from beside me, still on edge but remaining calm.

"Both of you stop, the two of you are literally bleeding out and I have no clue on how to help you." 69 choked out, his mechanical engines whirring softly as he knelt down in the grass.

He genuinely sounded like he was going to cry.

I opened my eyes and prepared myself for what I was about to see.

Shattered glass shards were sprinkled across Jester's mask, some of them in his chestnut brown hair, and some embedded in his pale skin.

Polar, who was crouched beside him, was clutching her underbelly with one paw, gritting her teeth as she tried to pry the shards out of Jester's face with her teeth.

69 supported Jester with his free hand, the other one sweeping the leaking, broken beaker aside.

Lesson learned: Don't let the intrusive thoughts win.

"Stick, get the gauze or something..." Jester grunted, stifling a wince of pain as Polar tugged at a glass shard.

"While you're at it, I'm staunching the blood flow." Polar said firmly, pressing her paw pad against the wound. "However, this might need a bit of pressure..."

A few minutes and a roll of surgical gauze later, we got the majority of Jester's skin patched up.

69, who was still locked into a state of panic, quietly dragged an unconscious Jester back inside the house.

Polar stood beside me, supporting herself on her hind paws while fidgeting with a small test tube.

"What are you doing?" I asked, trying to relieve the awkward tension in the air.

The cub swiveled her head to face me, peering at me with her beady little eyes. "I'm trying to make something... I'm doing a thing."

Tinkering with the glass instruments scattered around the table, she eventually handed me a small vial that felt cool to the touch. "Drink."

I examined it for a moment, skeptical about the contents inside the container. "You sure this isn't piranha solution or are you trying to be nice?"

"Both," Polar blankly replied.

I sat there in silence, watching her pad away until she disappeared inside the house.

Peering inside the vial, I assumed what she said was true.

As the idiot I was, I broke one of the most important rules when it comes to dealing with lab equipment.

Never drink your chemicals.

☁️⭐️☁️⭐️☁️⭐️☁️⭐️☁️⭐️☁️⭐️☁️⭐️☁️⭐️

One second, I was awake, and the next, knocked out.

Whatever Polar had placed in there, it was powerful enough to put me to sleep.

I couldn't move, no matter how hard I tried.

My limbs were rendered useless as I made feeble attempts to get up from my sitting position, but they were in vain.

I tried to speak, but my lips were sealed shut.

It took me a couple tries to open my eyes, but apparently the cub had somehow shut down whatever nerves there were for my mobility.

Paralysis, great.

I calmed myself down for a moment, trying to take in my surroundings without my sight.

Soft, warm fabric wrapped around my body, so I assumed I was probably in some sort of bed.

Cold, gentle air flowed into the vents on the sides of my motorcycle helmet, so I was probably next to a sort of air conditioning unit.

The faint aroma of pine wafted into my nose, which gave me the last clue on what I needed to know on where I was.

I was in my bedroom.

"Thaw," A quiet, barely audible voice came from beside me.

"What?" I was startled to hear my own voice, sending a sharp jolt down my spine.

"Great, you can move!" I opened my eyes, the first thing I saw being the tiny form of Polar looming over me.

"Oh, hey there." I chuckled, sitting up on the bed. "Why'd you try to put me to sleep?"

The tiny cub sat on my chest, melting into a lump of white fur. "To give you a nap. You seemed very tired."

As innocent-sounding she was, I couldn't help but feel a sense of distrust when I searched her eyes.

I tried to provoke her, attempting to make her say something while staring into the depths of those tiny, lightless beads of hers.

Like how light is absorbed by darkness, the miniature black holes sucked the answers away.

"Is that ROMANCE I see?" Jester barged into the room, kicking down the door.

Polar tumbled off of me, landing on the floor with a soft thud. "No, we're having a chat. A completely friendly chat. No... No uh, what's the word? No weird stuff. Yeah."

"I don't really care," The masked man approached me, leaning over to the point where his drama mask barely brushed my helmet visor. "Guess what time it is."

I planted my hands on his chest and shoved him back, irritated with how close he was. "Personal space, idiot."

Jester stumbled back, shocked by how forceful I was, and nearly tripped over the small cub on the floor. "You didn't have to-!"

At that instant, a mechanical hand reached out from the doorway, snagging him by the hood of his jacket and swiftly pulling him out of my room.

A moment of stunned silence passed before 69's robotic voice came in a hushed whisper. "Come downstairs... I promise you'll be fine."

"MMF!" Jester's muffled yell sounded from the hallway outside. "MMFFFF!"

Some sort of heavy object -or person- slammed into the side of the wall, and everything went silent.

69 leaned over, peering at me through the doorway. "Uhh... S'mores, anyone?"

That was all he had to say to convince me to go outside.