[MacsChick]

I figured I'd better post this next part before tomorrow, as I will not have time to write. I have to get my taxes done and visit my parents (wonderful real life has intruded upon my sanctuary yet again). The next part will probably be posted sometime on Sunday or Monday for some of you folks.

Enjoy!

Second Strike Part Five
Rated: PG

Mayhem unleashed itself on the darkened streets below, fear, tension, and frustration mounting. Within minutes, anger, impatience, and small disputes would escalate into violent riots and looting. As if to prevent the impending destruction, another bolt of electricity shot from MacGyver’s body, the force of it propelling him backward, causing him to crash to the floor where he twitched and shuddered into spasms, once again feeling the tremendous pressure and the urgent need to release it. Pete and Dr. Brock reacted quickly, ducking. Once again, the office was aglow with the energy, and its path was erratic, leaving Dr. Brock and Pete with the uneasy and uncertain feeling that they would somehow be unable to manage escaping its deadly force a second time. The lights in the office returned almost as abruptly as they had been shorted out, and soon power to the entire city was restored, the luminous skyline resurrected. On the streets, the stunned populace began wandering aimlessly, as if awakening from a troubled sleep, stumbling back to their now functioning vehicles and staring at each other in muted incomprehension, struggling to understand what had just happened. Pete and Dr. Brock stood again when they felt it was safe and witnessed the slow return to normalcy with relief.

“MacGyver, did you do that on purpose to stop what could have been a catastrophic disaster?” Pete asked.

“I don’t know, Pete. I seem to have…little control…”

Hearing the weakness in his voice, Pete and Dr. Brock turned to him, finding him still crumpled to the floor, smaller bolts of electricity surrounding him. He closed his eyes and lost consciousness. Pete began to run over to him, forgetting that he was still charged with dangerous amounts of electricity. Dr. Brock grabbed his arm to stop him.

“Remember, he’s still carrying high levels of electricity in his body,” she said.

“But…he’s unconscious! I have to make sure he’s all right!”

“He’s breathing, Pete. Don’t worry. We’ll get him examined, although it won’t be easy. Let’s just try to settle down and get a handle on this situation as best as we can. MacGyver will be fine. We’ll do all we can to help him and try to solve this, I promise.”

Pete looked at the exhausted, electrified form of his friend in sympathy and nodded, knowing the Foundation would do all it could to investigate MacGyver’s bizarre condition and hopefully find a way to bring him back to his normal state as well. All he could do now was wait, and he knew it would take a long time.

***

“Officials at the local power plant are frantically scrambling to find the cause of the massive blackout that paralyzed the city earlier this evening,” a reporter said on the news. While waiting to hear the latest about MacGyver, he watched the reports come in on TV so fast that they seemed to overlap, unable to keep up with the pace or excitement of the event. “So far, they have found nothing conclusive which would explain such an unusual and dramatic loss of power. All they can comment at the present moment is that the city was rather fortunate to not sustain a longer outage period. While the blackout only lasted twenty minutes, it seemed interminable for those suffering from its effects on the streets, confusion and chaos reigning. Yet somehow, we managed to avert what could have been a more devastating event, the power now restored, order returning to the streets.”

The coverage switched to interviews of people on the street.

“What do you think caused the blackout?” The beat reporter asked.

“It was that Phoenix Foundation,” one man with a scraggly beard said. “They’re this big, fancy government organization. Who knows what they’re doing inside that building? Maybe they have aliens. How else do you explain the cars not running? I’ve heard those aliens use electromagnetic energy to put a halt to everything. I did see some flashing lights in that building before this whole thing happened, too. It had to be them, and their aliens.”

Despite the drama of the past few hours, Pete couldn’t help but chuckle at the man’s comments. There was always one kook that ended up in the footage somehow. This time, however, the man didn’t realize how close he was to being correct, his notions not at all far-fetched for a change. Dr. Brock entered the room in a bluster, staring at Pete with concern in her piercing green eyes.

“MacGyver’s fine, as well as he can be for someone undergoing something we can’t explain or fully control,” she said. “The Phoenix medical team tried to monitor his vital signs, but he shorted out all the equipment. They managed to obtain blood and other fluid samples, but they had to wear special suits and rubber gloves to get anywhere near him safely.”

“Have they found anything in the samples?” Pete asked.

Dr. Brock shook her head. “All negative,” she said. “There is no trace of any foreign substances in his body. Everything appears normal.”

“But it’s not.”

“No, not at all. I agree.”

Pete turned off the television. “Where is he now? Where are they keeping him?” He asked.

“The only place he can be kept under the circumstances,” Dr. Brock said, sadness in her voice. “He’s in the sub-level basement research lab, where our scientists are conducting experiments on how to harness electricity and use it for other purposes—weapons, defense shields. He’s in a room surrounded by rubber insulation, and conductive metal—a large Faraday cage that protects researchers while they’re performing their experiments.”

“Before MacGyver got struck by lightning, he mentioned a Faraday cage. He said his jeep could have acted as one during the storm. What is it exactly?”

“In the most basic terms, it’s an enclosure constructed out of conducting material that keeps out external electrical fields,” Dr. Brock said.

Pete struggled to interpret her technical jargon that reminded him of MacGyver. “So in other words, it keeps out electricity?” He asked.

“Yes, especially dangerous electricity.”

“And MacGyver…is that dangerous electricity.”

“I’m afraid so.”

“Come on, let’s go. I want to see him.”

***

“Our scientists studying electricity have concluded that there is enough voltage running through MacGyver’s body to have caused the blackout and to have restored the power,” Dr. Brock said as they took the elevator that sent them to the greatest depths of The Phoenix Foundation. “Fortunately, buried this far beneath the earth and surrounded by the Faraday cage, I believe we can attempt to contain his incredible, destructive energy so that we won’t have to experience another emergency on the surface.”

The thick, heavy elevator doors slid open, and they began walking down the dimly lit hallways towards the electrical laboratory.

“I still don’t understand how Mac could remain unharmed, surrounded by that much electricity,” Pete said. “Don’t get me wrong…I’m glad he is okay for the most part, relieved in fact, but it just doesn’t make any sense. Everything that’s been happening to him violates all known properties and laws of electricity as we know it.”

“I know,” Dr. Brock said. “It’s almost as if MacGyver and the electricity share some kind of symbiotic relationship.”

“I’m sorry, but I have to say I disagree,” Pete said. “How can being surrounded by an electrical field benefit MacGyver in any way? It’s behaving more as if it’s trying to dominate his body, leaving him with little choice in the matter.”

They reached the Faraday cage where other scientists had gathered, monitoring MacGyver’s energy output, their computers and devices safe inside the conductive material. On the other side behind a panel of glass sat MacGyver. Intermittent bolts of electricity raced up and down his body.

“That glass is shatter proof,” Dr. Brock said. “Heat resistant, it is over five inches thick.”

Under other circumstances, Pete might have been impressed by all the safeguards and measures taken to work safely with electricity, but the source of potentially lethal electricity they were protecting themselves against was his friend. He hated seeing him quarantined that way, isolated from any human contact or reassurance, treated more like a threat and a curiosity than a person. His sudden gift had rapidly become a curse, separating him from everyone. The bolts of electricity surrounding his body imprisoned him, acting as ropes and bars, keeping him untouchable and at the moment unable to be rescued, even if he used the cleverest part of his active imagination. As if aware of his unwanted uniqueness, MacGyver had a forlorn, pensive expression on his face, and when his pleading, liquid dark eyes met Pete’s, it was almost too much for him to bear. He looked so lonely and helpless.

“Is there any way I can talk to him?” Pete asked.

“Of course,” Dr. Brock said. “The research team managed to create a communications network that would remain insulated yet capable of transmitting messages. Go ahead and speak in the microphone. He will hear you.”

Pete sighed. He leaned over the microphone. “Mac, can you hear me?” He asked into it, his voice remaining strong despite the sympathy he felt for his friend.

MacGyver raised his head and looked at Pete again, managing a small smile. “Pete,” he said. “It’s good to hear you.”

“Are you all right?”

MacGyver shrugged glumly and looked around his barren room, cutting him off from everyone. “I’m not hurt, if that’s what you mean…” he said, his voice trailing away. “I’m just…a little shocked here.”

His feeble joke did enough to allow both men to relax a moment despite the seriousness of the situation.

“Well, don’t worry, Mac. We’ll figure this out, and get you back to normal.”

MacGyver nodded, although he knew it wasn’t promising. He would remain a laboratory specimen, prodded and studied for days or even years, unsure how long the electricity around him would last. He didn’t know how much longer he could endure living that way, forbidden to touch anyone lest he should kill them. His brief moment of pleasure and enjoyment over his abilities had dwindled, leaving him with the familiar feelings of fear he had when he first began noticing his transformation into the odd creature he now was…a freak, breaking nature’s laws. He was powerful, but that power came at a cost. What good was having it when it removed him from his friends and everything he knew, sealing him inside the sterile environment of the lab? If he could harm others and cause such an impact as the blackout, he wasn’t sure he wanted it, but there was nothing he could do. He stared at the tiny, glowing bolts that webbed between his fingers. Before, he used to believe that his position placed his friends in danger. Now, all it would require would be one small touch from those fingers, one simple and natural gesture of human intimacy that others took for granted—he couldn’t bear the thought of it, of how quickly he could take a life with his body. If he had burned Pete more severely, he would never have been able to forgive himself. He didn’t want to be the focus of so much attention anymore. All he wanted now was to go home, for his disturbing nightmare to end.

“Is there anything we can do for him?” Pete asked.

Dr. Brock shrugged. “We’re making progress, however it is slow, I’m afraid,” she said.

Pete nodded, understanding that unraveling the mystery would take some time, time he was worried his friend didn’t have.

“Hang in there, okay? Hang in there, Mac,” he said in the microphone, hoping to provide some form of comfort, no matter how small.

MacGyver appreciated Pete’s presence, but if he was ever going to live a normal life again, he knew he was to defeat the overwhelming power surrounding him somehow. As fun and interesting as it had been to experience something so out of the usual realm of human existence, he had grown weary of it, longing to return to the life he knew before. He began to battle internally with the forces surrounding him and usurping his life, struggling to regain some control.

An alarm sounded inside the lab, shrieking wildly.

“What’s happening?” Pete asked.

Dr. Brock looked over the shoulder of one of the other scientists, her eyes widening when she saw the readings on the computer.

“I don’t believe this,” she said. “The glass is losing its integrity, and the voltage surrounding MacGyver is increasing!”

A blinding series of flashes emitted from behind the glass, MacGyver’s body once again seizing. The light and heat intensified until it swallowed him, seeming to dissolve him into nothing but pure energy, his physical body no longer existing. The brightness of the light was too much for anyone in the lab to look at anymore, equaling or surpassing the radiation that glowed from the sun. Even with goggles on, everyone in the lab had to hide behind the consoles to avoid it, blurs of light already dancing and streaking in front of their eyes like comets. If any of them had watched MacGyver’s metamorphosis any longer, they would have been permanently blinded or their eyes would have been badly damaged. Pete and Dr. Brock shut their eyes, waiting and listening as the controls in the lab exploded despite the Faraday cage, the whining of electricity so loud it almost shattered eardrums. It felt as if they were in the middle of an atomic blast.

Slowly, the energy decreased, and the flashes stopped. When it seemed safe again, everyone gradually returned to standing, examining their melted equipment in awe. Some of the computers survived, and were still functioning after their screens blinked briefly. Pete looked through the glass partition. MacGyver hadn’t evaporated or become raw energy as he had suspected. His body was still intact, but he lay motionless on the floor.

“Is…is it safe to…”

“Voltage readings have dropped significantly,” one of the scientists said, watching one of the working computers. “In fact, they are virtually nonexistent.”

“It’s as if MacGyver has won the fight against the electricity, expelling it from his body,” Dr. Brock said. “Although we can’t say how long this will last. Anything could happen now.”

“I have to see him,” Pete said. “I have to see if he’s all right, now that it’s safe.”

“It may not be safe for long,” Dr. Brock said. “That was a higher level of electrical discharge than last time, so it may take a little longer for the energy to build up in his body again. There could only be small window where it will be safe to be near him.”

“Then I want to take advantage of that window,” Pete said.

“We don’t know how long it will last!”

“I’ll take my chances, Doctor! Look at him! He could be dying! He needs medical attention now!” Pete shouted, his voice becoming a deep, bellowing roar, revealing his concern and indignation over how helpless he felt.

“Listen Pete, I know you care about MacGyver, and I will have the medical team standing by with the proper protective clothing,” Dr. Brock said, “but you can’t just rush in there…”

“The hell I can’t! I’m not waiting!”

Pete opened the thick, heavy door to the Faraday cage, entering the room where MacGyver was, still on the floor. As he approached him, cautious yet desperate to touch him after such a long period of forced separation, unable to help him through his ordeal, he noticed that there were no bolts of electricity around his body as there had been before. He looked fully human again, weak and vulnerable. Preparing himself for the possibility that he might get shocked or burned again but deciding it was an acceptable risk to tend to his friend, Pete touched him, feeling nothing but the normal warmth of human body temperature. He felt for his pulse, finding it unstable but present.

“MacGyver, can you hear me?” He asked, lifting him and shaking him gently. “I think it’s over. I think you successfully pushed the electricity out of your body somehow, and I don’t think it’s going to come back. I could be wrong, but I have a feeling you’re going to recover now.”

Moaning, MacGyver slowly opened his eyes to slits. “Pete?” He asked, sounding lost.

“I’m right here.”

MacGyver’s eyes fluttered, rolling backward. He collapsed, his body growing heavy in Pete’s arms. He may have won the initial fight against the electricity that had taken possession of his body, but now he was losing.

“Oh, no! Not now!” Pete said, feeling his pulse and finding it absent. He looked up at the others on the other side of the glass. “Get the medical team in here now!” He shouted.

To be continued…

[MacGyverGod]

Good story.