Nickel often forgot that part of his circulatory system was a self-recharging battery, and that his entire frame acted as a conduit for the battery's energy. Sure, not remembering that you had powers was strange, but then again electrokinesis was both offensive in nature and a niche utility power. In a domestic setting, its use was always going to be sparse.
The cat was, however, very thankful that he had them, especially during a power outage with a communicator low on battery. He was sitting on the couch, charging the device from his hand, looking as bored as a schoolchild on a Monday.
Presently, he felt something strange on his head being rubbed back and forth. "Lily, what are you doing?"
"I'm making static," she replied, shortly before the object was removed from the top of his head; she giggled at what she saw. "Look, your fur is sticking to the balloon!"
"I can't see on top of my head, Lily," Nickel replied, face sprouting a mirthful smile. "You should do it on my arm, then we can both see it."
"Oh, right!" The girl bounded around to sit beside him, Nickel having to move the flickering light source so it didn't set alight anything Lily had.
She began to rub the balloon she had mentioned - Nickel recognised it from a small pack that they'd bought a while back - on his free arm, making the fur there stand on end.
"See? It's so cool!"
Nickel grinned cheekily and, pretending to be a magician, did the same thing to her arm with his hand - only he didn't heed to rub his hand on her fur on account of his powers. They were also great for entertaining his little friend, he'd give them that.
"Wow," Lily said. "You didn't even need to - how did you do that?"
"There's a reason it's called static electricity, you know." Nickel could see the understanding wash over Lily's face. "Yeah."
"But how does it work?"
Nickel thought about the correct words to use so that she would understand, but he couldn't think of anything fast enough. "I'd give you an explanation, but you probably won't understand."
She puffed up her cheeks, clearly not happy with his assessment of her knowledge. All she succeeded in doing was making herself look more adorable. "I would too, mister Nickel!" she argued.
"I don't think so."
"I know I would."
Nickel laughed. "You'll get to understand it when you're a little older."
"You're just scared I'm right," Lily rebutted. Nickel chuckled again.
Just then, a bolt of lightning struck, followed by a crack and a very loud roll of thunder. Nickel jumped, the crack certainly not something he'd expected.
"What was that, mister Nickel?"
"I think the lightning might've hit a tree or something." The vermilion feline stepped toward the door. "I'll look out and see."
He opened the door and saw that a tree had indeed been struck, but it didn't seem to have any kind of major damage other than a scorch mark. Nickel thought that odd. It was probably more likely that the tree would fall after a hit like that - he didn't know the statistics on that.
"Um, mister Nickel?" He closed the door again and turned around, noticing Lily handling his communicator, a copy of which he'd received when he'd returned to HQ. He approached and took it from her; she'd turned it on, and the reason for her calling him over was because he had well over two dozen missed messages. There was also a group call happening, which he joined.
"Hi," he said simply, after the chatter had died down.
"Nickel!" virtually everyone shouted. "Where were you?" Knuckles asked gruffly.
"At home, where I should be," Nickel answered drolly. "My communicator was nearly dead, so I was charging it. I amn't dead."
"You were charging it in a blackout?" Charmy questioned.
"That's a shocking question." Everyone except the bee groaned.
"Did you have to make that joke?" Espio grumbled, to which Nickel simply answered "Yes.".
"Well anyway, could you come on over to the HQ? We're holding a meeting there," Knuckles spoke again.
"In the rain?" Nickel looked back to the door. "You sure?"
"Hey, you and me both, buddy," Sonic chimed in. "But even I'm here, so you got no excuse."
"Completely ignoring the fact that I can't run at the speed of sound," Nickel muttered under his breath so that no one would hear him. He turned his gaze now toward Lily, who immediately said, "I'll be okay, mister Nickel." He sighed through his nose.
"Gimme two seconds."
.
A very wet, very unhappy Nickel trudged through the terrible conditions to the Resistance HQ. It hadn't taken long, he didn't live that far from it, but with the day being wetter than a swimmer in the Olympics it certainly felt much more dreary.
All of a sudden there was another flash, right next to him. He stopped as pain shot through him, but it wasn't bad at all. If he were to be honest, he was still more concerned with the continuous rain than with the fact that he'd been struck by lightning quite literally.
"Maybe if I wasn't on the ground things might have been different," Nickel said to himself. "I think being grounded might have just saved my skin. Not sure." He didn't dwell on that much longer, opting instead to continue walking and to focus on whatever meeting the Resistance was having.
"The walk over wasn't that bad, was it?" Knuckles asked once Nickel had entered the meeting room through the semi-automatic door.
Nickel was still drying himself off with some absorbent fabric, trying to get every last droplet out of his fur. He'd also had to take off his hoodie - that was drying on a radiator outside the meeting room. "It was that bad," he replied. "I'm an electric cat. How would you feel if that was you?"
"Stop complaining, kid," Shadow uttered.
"And I got struck by lightning, so there's that."
That seemed to get everyone to pay attention. "You got what?!" Vector shouted.
"Struck by lightning," Nickel repeated.
"How'd that happen?" Sonic queried.
"Knuckles, you said there was a meeting?" Nickel asked, effectively deflecting the focus away from that particular topic. "What's it about?"
"Don't think you're getting away from that so easy," Knuckles replied. "We're gonna talk about that after the meeting is over."
Nickel shrugged. Fine by him. "Sure thing, pal."
