Hello, my fellow fanfic readers 'n' writers! The next chapter is here for you. There isn't a lot for me to address beforehand, so all I can say is I hope you're liking the tale so far, and that you continue to enjoy it.

The disclaimer can be found in the first official chapter - second chapter in all.

After receiving his new garb - his hoodie, shoes, and even his TENS gloves had been given a material upgrade - Nickel was taken by Silver back to their own dimension. They reappeared just outside the cave where all the craziness had happened.

"I don't know about you, but I don't want to go back in there right now," Nickel voiced.

"I don't blame you, Nickel," Silver agreed. "We could keep looking for those prisoners - or do you want to go alone from here? Or do you want to head back?"

"We've come all the way here, I don't feel like sending you back or going back myself, not now. We'll keep going together. Maybe you can help me get used to this," Nickel said, brushing off real imaginary sparks from his arm.

"Okay! It should be easy!" Silver said enthusiastically.

"I doubt, but alright."

.

"Okay, now that you have an idea of the range of your power," Silver spoke to a very deadpan Nickel who had a tall electric spike growing from his ears, "you should be able to stop yourself from overexerting."

"I'm wearing a dunce cap, amn't I."

"No! No, not... exactly..." Nickel certainly didn't buy that. He picked up the spike from off his head and looked at it, and his face somehow turned even more deadpan.

"Really?"

"It looks like a wizard hat!"

"I would put it on you if I could, then you'd know how I feel."

"Well - at the very least you know that that's your range," Silver said, trying to steer the conversation away from that topic. "What about - do you think you can fire lasers?"

"Lasers are light, and not anything else. That's where the L in the word comes from."

"That's not what I mean!"

"I know what you mean. You wanna know if I can shoot lightning." Nickel looked back at the lightning "dunce cap", and let the current flow back into him. "I dunno. We'll see now, I guess."

He raised a hand and imagined a tiny bolt flying out of his hand; hearing a shout of pain, he lowered his hand and tried not to laugh at the black scorch mark that stood out on Silver's otherwise pristinely grey fur. "Sorry."

.

"What about making shapes with the lightning?"

"Why? I don't think I'm likely to be teaching kids their shapes at any point."

Silver held in a laugh. "No, like making weapons or something. Oh! Like the whip your wispon had!"

Nickel's ears pricked up. "I like the sound of that. But how would I do that?" He thought about holding a whip in his hand, feeling unsurprised when in his hand wasn't a whip, but rather something close to a lance.

"Maybe you have to shape it yourself? This isn't something that happens with psychokinesis," Silver remarked.

"Lucky, aren't we?" Nickel muttered, before trying to bend the lightning in his hand to form something that resembled a tendril. That didn't work.

The two kept at it, until they found that Nickel had to stretch out the electricity with his left hand as he produced it from his right hand, which held the weapon's "handle" (it was probably easier to visualise than to verbalise). Just as he finished forming a long whip, and finished feeling proud of his progressing abilities, he and Silver had a tiny sparring match. Being the more experienced of the two, Silver was on top more often, but Nickel felt he'd done a decent job at not taking a beating. Never mind that he was able to take down battle mechs much bigger than himself.

.

"Do you think you generate it, or do you have to recharge?"

That gave Nickel pause. It was a good question, one that he hadn't thought of. "I don't know, actually. How'm I supposed to find out?"

"I think, maybe if you tried channeling it into something for a while, you can see if you can just keep going or if you need to use something to recharge."

"Don't you recharge by yourself, though?" Nickel asked.

"Oh yeah. I guess that's another possibility too! Try!"

"On what shall I try it, dear Silver?"

Silver quickly scanned the vicinity. "How about that tree? Try to cover it."

Nickel did as he was told, but he did end up running out of electricity before the tree could be coated fully. He withdrew his hands - and noticed that they'd stopped vibrating entirely. His TENS gloves had, along with their material change, been modified to have weaker power levels than it'd had before, but the current he generated still allowed them to work as intended, sometimes slightly more. But now, with his energy exhausted, they'd stopped entirely - even without being switched off.

Thankfully, in the time that it took to formulate those thoughts, the familiar feel of the vibrations returned, along with the (still slightly) unfamiliar sparking energy running through him. He thought about electrifying his hands once again, and sure enough, the sparks fell from his exposed fingertips.

"So it's just like mine then!" Silver voiced.

"I guess so."

.

.

.

The duo did eventually find a prison, filled to bursting with innocent people. Interestingly, Nickel noted, the majority seemed to be males, with only a few females dotted around.

"I'll take the right side," Nickel offered. Silver agreed, and the two split up.

Scarcely had the claret cat entered into the line of sight of a particular prison cell when they started shouting at him to free them. Nickel sighed through his nose.

The cruelty of the Doctor, conscious or not, was demonstrated by the fact that there was only one girl among the rowdy males, a fellow feline, xanthic in colour, no older than six. "Poor girl," he muttered, and set about opening the door.

There was nothing around the cage that looked like it could be of use, no matter how hard Nickel looked. It didn't help that he continued to be shouted at by a particularly rude prisoner.

"Hurry up! You incompetent or what?!" Nickel ignored him, but took in his face so that he could deliver retribution.

"Where are you where are you where are you where are you - there you are." He was referring to the opening he needed: the lock. It was electrical. Did he just so happen to possess the ability to short-circuit it? Perhaps.

Nickel put his plan into motion, and quick work was made of the lock by him pouring current into it. It sparked before going up in smoke, and the door slid open. The POWs rejoiced and stormed out, Nickel discreetly shocking the rudest of them with an electric hand.

The cat noticed that the young girl was still in the cell. She was wearing a short blue denim jumper, pink shoes, and white gloves with a blue bow on each. She was crying in what he presumed to be fear as well as sadness. Nickel didn't count himself particularly good with children, but he had to help that girl.

A slightly random thought came to Nickel as he entered the cell: despite being in a jail, the prisoners all had on perfectly clean and immaculately pressed clothes. At least the Doctor saw to that - he thought, at least.

The girl jumped when his hand touched her shoulder, looking up in terror before cowering away into the corner. "I'm scared..." she cried, and Nickel's heart went out to her. He cautiously approached her, and she tried to shrink even further into that corner.

"Hey, don't worry. I'm here to help you," he said softly.

He sat next to her, and after a few moments she stopped shying away from him. "You're," she sniffed, "gonna h-help me?"

"Of course. Please don't be afraid." He tried to think up something quickly. "If you want, you can stay with me for a while, until we find your parents."

The girl started sobbing a little harder. Nickel immediately put two and two together. "Oh, I get it." He consoled her in the best way he knew how - he wrapped his arms around her and let her let out her tears into his chest.

The pair stayed like that for a while, until the sobbing subsided. She even gave him a smile after they separated. "Thank you, mister. What's your name?"

"I'm Nickel. What's yours?"

"Lily."

"Well, it's a pleasure to meet you, Lily," Nickel said, the British side of his accent becoming much more prominent. "Shall I escort you to your freedom, or do you wish to stay with me as I set the other captives free as well?"

She giggled, and Nickel felt like a weight had been lifted off the room. "I wanna stay with you, mister Nickel," she said. "You're nice."

He was sure that that was a big contrast to what she'd experienced for six months, but he didn't say anything. Instead, he held out his massive (in comparison) hand for her to hold, which she did - briefly, before pulling away. Nickel looked at her in confusion. "Is something wrong?"

"Your fur is so long, mister Nickel," Lily said, apparently trying to use his name as much as she could.

"Yeah. It grows pretty fast."

"Can I touch it? Please, mister Nickel?"

Nickel was actually very used to people asking him to touch his fur, especially girls, and he didn't have it in him to say no to them. "Okay."

He stooped down low to the ground so she could reach his head, letting her play with the fur there. She seemed rather enamoured by it, because she didn't stop, even after what felt like fifty strokes. Eventually, though, she caught herself and apologised for it, using his name again. Nickel said it was okay. He was used to it, after all.

After joining hands again, the two walked out and Nickel led Lily to the next cage. "Watch this," he said quietly. "Oh - you might wanna stand outta the way."

.

With a final surge of electric power, the last lock was disabled. Nickel sighed, partly in relief, partly in exhaustion. Lily had accompanied him around the entire facility, trotting alongside him and eventually clambering up to ride on his back when she got tired, where she still was when he finished. He'd had to switch which arm was holding her up on numerous occasions when the one that was doing the job got sore, and needless to say that had tired him quite considerably.

Silver shot Nickel a questioning look when they met up after they were done, obviously wanting to know about the little girl resting her head on Nickel's.

"She was in one of the cells," Nickel whispered. "She didn't immediately run out and I went to see what was wrong. I offered for her to stay with me, and she did while I opened all the doors on my side - seems like the trip was a little too much for her." Nickel left out what exactly was wrong, and thankfully for him Silver didn't say anything about it.

"Are you going to take care of her?"

Nickel shrugged, which was conveyed more in his facial movements than in his shoulders. "Someone has to. Also, she trusts me, I think. I did directly save her, after all."

"We both saved her," Silver protested.

"Hence, "directly". Exact words, my friend. I'm the one who opened her cell door, therefore..."

"I guess you're right, but are you sure you want to?"

"Yeah. Why?"

"Nothing, nothing! I just thought, you know, with your powers it might be a little dangerous."

"It'll be alright. She'll be alright. I think I've been getting a better handle on my new, uh, state of - um - possession of elemental abilities."

"Why do you do that? Say things in a super complicated way?"

"Why not? It's fun. Besides, you understood me, didn't you? So it doesn't matter there."

"Whatever you say, Nickel."

'Til next time, see ya later!