Heart of the Storm (Part 12)
Title: Heart of the Storm
Authors: lizynob and lorafantastory
Pairings: Oscar/Block as the Anna/Hans dynamic
Characters: Oscar Schlumper, Wayne Schlumper, Dr. Block, Dr. Tease, minor mentions of Party Mania characters
Word Count: 47,002
Warnings: Descriptions of anxiety, some bullying, angst, references to death
Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5, Chapter 6, Chapter 7, Chapter 8, Chapter 9, Chapter 10, Chapter 11, Chapter 13, Chapter 14, Chapter 15, Epilogue, Bonus Content
It’s Agony To Wait
Neutro slammed sideways into the ground in front of Wayne, making him stagger backwards as a series of metallic clangs echoed off the machine’s chest plate.
“Are you kidding me?!” Block hollered in frustration. “Those shots were perfect!”
She had been aiming at him too? But Neutro had toppled over in the way of her darts. He risked a look at Neutro’s base to see what had caused it to fall -
- and saw Oscar sprawled lifeless on the ground.
Wayne shrieked. He could deny Block’s words when she was shouting at him, but there was no denying what he could see with his own eyes.
All of a sudden he was running for his brother, utterly ignoring the women after him. The lightning reached out to grab the metal around him as he passed. Neutro’s metal exoskeleton dismantled itself from the top down as he raced along the robot’s length, the pieces following him in a massive cloud. Not that he was paying the metal any mind, much less actively trying it control it. The pieces simply fused and warped themselves at his wordless, instinctive bidding. He had to get to Oscar, had to protect Oscar from everything-
He hit the grass beside the still form and the metal slammed down around him, burying itself into the ground. Frantic lightning sealed the plates together above, encasing the two of them in a solid dome lit only by a stray fog light. Tiny clangs impacted the metal from outside, but Wayne was far beyond hearing them. He ripped the goggles off his face and pulled his brother into his arms. “Oscar, no, no, no, please no.”
Oscar lay limp, motionless. Unbreathing.
Cold, all-consuming terror and hysteria gripped Wayne and all at once he was no longer Insano. He was Wayne Schlumper again and it was that night, and he was a frightened eight-year old child cradling his unmoving five-year old brother in his lap and pleading one single prayer. Don’t be dead, Oscar. Don’t be dead, I’m so sorry, please don’t be dead…
But Oscar was dead this time. Or would be very soon. Several precious seconds slipped by before Wayne’s mind kicked into gear on the highest speed possible, vehemently rejecting such a reality. Oscar couldn’t die.
He had no time at all to think and hardly any time left to act. He just started doing, pulling back the lapels of Oscar’s coat and then tearing his black shirt open, paying no heed at all to the buttons that flew off in the process. Quickly he laid Oscar back down flat and pressed his hands against his chest. He closed his eyes for just moment as he concentrated. He could feel the electrical signals trying and failing to create a steady rhythm. Weak, arrhythmic flutters that felt all wrong and would soon cease entirely.
He would not let Oscar die.
Wayne pressed a jolt of electricity against Oscar, trying to correct the broken rhythm. He was no medical doctor, and he wasn’t entirely sure if he knew what he was doing or not, but it wasn’t the time to stop and contemplate. He was acting instinctively, operating on every and any bit of knowledge his brain possessed about electricity and the human body. And, more so than even that, he was acting on what he could feel under his fingertips.
For a moment there was no electrical activity at all, then a faint restart of still-quivering flutters.
It wasn’t enough.
Wayne shifted his hands, following the internal map of electric pulses until his palms were in better placement. Then he forced another influx of voltage. Oscar’s body twitched slightly in reaction and Wayne didn’t dare breathe as he felt the signals short again.
Then a beat.
Not a quiver or flutter or feeble contraction. A full beat.
A heartbeat.
Another, and another, and another, and finally a weak, shuddering draw of breath. A shallow inhale, a shallow exhale. Oscar’s chest moved up and down once more while the steady beats under Wayne’s hands kept going.
Wayne stared, trying to be sure that what just happened was real. Oscar was breathing again. Oscar’s heart was beating again. He could feel it beating. A realization came to Wayne and began to push him out of shock and numbness. He could feel Oscar’s heartbeat. Not the simple physical thumping of the heart muscle the way it could be felt with the touch of a hand or heard with the aid of a stethoscope. He could feel that yes, but he could feel beyond it, could feel right down into the electric charges being passed along at the cellular level. He could feel the positive to negative switches, could feel the chain reactions working down Oscar’s heart and back up again, each atrium and ventricle functioning in coordinated rhythm, pumping blood through steady electrical pulses. As the profoundness of all of that began to dawn on Wayne and the intimacy of the sensation took up more of his focus, tears welled up in his eyes.
He could feel Oscar’s heartbeat. He could feel it.
Wayne’s shoulders began to shake as he disintegrated into sobs, slipping out of the hyper-focus that had come from dealing with the stakes of life and death and crumbling from the sheer emotional relief.
He pulled Oscar back into his arms, holding him as securely as he could while still being as gentle as possible.
“I’m sorry, Oscar. I’m sorry. I’m s-so s-sorry,” he choked out, barely able to speak through all the tears and his hitching breaths. “I do n-need you, I really do. I love you. I don’t want you to leave me, please. Oscar, I’m s-so sorry.” He knew he wasn’t making any sense probably, but he didn’t care. He had to say it. He had almost lost his chance forever, and now a lifetime’s worth of unspoken words were all rushing out.
“I love you, Oscar. I’ve always n-needed you. I’m sorry. I’m sorry for e-everything. I’m sorry for h-hurting you. I’m sorry for leaving y-you. I sh-should have b-been there for y-you. I’m s-sorry for everything. For when we w-were kids, a-and for wh-what happened at the K-Keller twins’ p-party and f-for n-never t-telling you, and for ruining your l-life by b-being so foolish, and for almost…a-almost…”
Words were beyond Wayne by that point. His sobs would not be hindered by them anymore and he wept freely. His arms wrapped around his brother’s frame, holding him tight. He had all but forgotten what the touch of human warmth felt like.
Wayne pulled his brother even closer to him and pressed his lips against Oscar’s forehead.
I love you, Oscar. I love you so much. I won’t ever let you go again. I promise. You’re my brother and I’m going to protect you. I love you. I love you…
He stayed there for ages, cradling his little brother and feeling the rhythmic beat pulse through him. From somewhere far away he could hear a decidedly un-rhythmic banging, and it dragged him slowly out of his sobs. Muffled voices came at him through the metal wall and scattered details began to come together in a way that made sense. Block and Tease had known that Oscar had been injured. They’d claimed he was already dead when clearly that was not the case. They had come after Wayne instead of attempting to get Oscar help.
They had left Oscar to die.
Fury the likes of which he hadn’t known he was capable of feeling flared up in him and hot sparks snapped against the underside of the protective dome. He was back in control of the lightning once more and how dare they??
A quick movement of his fingers brought a thin metal plate to slide under the length of Oscar’s body and he bent it easily into a shape that fit comfortably in his arms. His brother’s weight was nothing to him as he stood, lifting the metal as though it were paper.
The metal dome exploded around him, pieces hurling outward from the force of the electricity. White-hot bolts erupted from behind him, lighting up the clearing like daylight and whipping his hair and coat in every direction.
Block and Tease had fallen several feet backwards from where they’d been attempting to get into the dome and Wayne sent a hail of small debris to strike at their arms before they could react, knocking the guns out of their reach. Their eyes changed from triumphant to terrified within the space of barely a second as they took in the fury and lightning that twisted his face.
“I will fucking end you!” he shrieked, the electricity grabbing any and all slabs of nearby metal and hurling them at the scientists.
The two screamed and ran, stumbling over each other in a race to not get impaled by the metal. Every piece of debris he could get his metaphorical electrical fingers on, he sent streaking after them until they had disappeared from sight into the trees in the distance. He would have liked to follow and rip them apart piece by piece, but there was someone far more important he had to take care of: someone worth ten times more to Wayne than either of them.
He didn’t look back as stalked down the side of the hill, diverting only enough attention from his task to listen and make sure he wasn’t being followed. It was only a minute or two before he came across his car sitting abandoned in the woods, the keys strewn haphazardly next to the passenger door. He settled Oscar securely across the back seat and jammed the key into the ignition with far more force than was necessary.
The lightning dissipated around him as he drove, though the static lingered for quite a while longer. Everything that had been churning around in his mind and heart collapsed in on itself, imploding down to a single concentrated point and leaving only one unwavering goal.
Get Oscar home.
It was as though his entire world had narrowed to a single tunnel with nothing save that task at the end. There was no emotion, no critical thought. Everything else faded away into a cold stillness around him until his focus was solely on the location of his brother.
By the time he pulled into their driveway, the electricity was silent. He observed that fact with the same numb detachment as he observed everything else, climbing out and sliding Oscar gently back into his arms. His brother didn’t stir as Wayne carried him up the front steps, or even when he was set down at last on the bed in his own room.
Task completed. He’s home.
The numb, all-consuming focus that had become Wayne’s universe never shifted, simply replacing the goal with a new one.
His clothes are ruined. Get them off.
The goggles were gently removed and set on the desk in the room. Wayne then eased Oscar out of the singed coat and scraped-up pants as carefully as he could before searching out a clean set of pajamas from the dresser to replace them with. Removing the black shirt beneath the coat, though, caused him to freeze.
The dark beginnings of a burn snaked across Oscar’s chest. It centered just over his heart, radiating outward down his torso and up over his left shoulder in dozens of tiny branches. In the franticness and dim lighting up on the ravine, he’d missed it before.
Wayne stared at it. That was his fault. He had done that to his brother, he had…
Sparks began to dance across his hands and Wayne forced himself back into the numb autopilot. Origin didn’t matter.
Treat the burn.
He retrieved the first aid kit from the lab and set to work giving the burn a rudimentary dressing, making sure to clean the other small scrapes that had most likely come from wandering around in the woods.
There were scrapes on his own skin, he noticed dimly. Debris was rough and metal unforgiving, and after he’d treated Oscar to the best of his ability he took a moment to clean himself up as well. His clothes were shredded. The formal shirt and pants were full of so many burn holes that they were nearly unrecognizable, the lightning having held no regard for the fabric.
His coat hung in tatters from his shoulders. He slid the remains of it off and held it for a long moment, running his fingers over the metal letters. Insano.
Slowly, he let it slip from his hands into the wastebasket.
Without a word, he stripped the rest of his ruined clothes off and replaced them with a clean set from his room. Once he had dressed Oscar into pajamas of his own and settled him comfortably under the covers, there was nothing for Wayne to do but wait.
And so he waited.
Authors: lizynob and lorafantastory
Pairings: Oscar/Block as the Anna/Hans dynamic
Characters: Oscar Schlumper, Wayne Schlumper, Dr. Block, Dr. Tease, minor mentions of Party Mania characters
Word Count: 47,002
Warnings: Descriptions of anxiety, some bullying, angst, references to death
Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5, Chapter 6, Chapter 7, Chapter 8, Chapter 9, Chapter 10, Chapter 11, Chapter 13, Chapter 14, Chapter 15, Epilogue, Bonus Content
It’s Agony To Wait
Neutro slammed sideways into the ground in front of Wayne, making him stagger backwards as a series of metallic clangs echoed off the machine’s chest plate.
“Are you kidding me?!” Block hollered in frustration. “Those shots were perfect!”
She had been aiming at him too? But Neutro had toppled over in the way of her darts. He risked a look at Neutro’s base to see what had caused it to fall -
- and saw Oscar sprawled lifeless on the ground.
Wayne shrieked. He could deny Block’s words when she was shouting at him, but there was no denying what he could see with his own eyes.
All of a sudden he was running for his brother, utterly ignoring the women after him. The lightning reached out to grab the metal around him as he passed. Neutro’s metal exoskeleton dismantled itself from the top down as he raced along the robot’s length, the pieces following him in a massive cloud. Not that he was paying the metal any mind, much less actively trying it control it. The pieces simply fused and warped themselves at his wordless, instinctive bidding. He had to get to Oscar, had to protect Oscar from everything-
He hit the grass beside the still form and the metal slammed down around him, burying itself into the ground. Frantic lightning sealed the plates together above, encasing the two of them in a solid dome lit only by a stray fog light. Tiny clangs impacted the metal from outside, but Wayne was far beyond hearing them. He ripped the goggles off his face and pulled his brother into his arms. “Oscar, no, no, no, please no.”
Oscar lay limp, motionless. Unbreathing.
Cold, all-consuming terror and hysteria gripped Wayne and all at once he was no longer Insano. He was Wayne Schlumper again and it was that night, and he was a frightened eight-year old child cradling his unmoving five-year old brother in his lap and pleading one single prayer. Don’t be dead, Oscar. Don’t be dead, I’m so sorry, please don’t be dead…
But Oscar was dead this time. Or would be very soon. Several precious seconds slipped by before Wayne’s mind kicked into gear on the highest speed possible, vehemently rejecting such a reality. Oscar couldn’t die.
He had no time at all to think and hardly any time left to act. He just started doing, pulling back the lapels of Oscar’s coat and then tearing his black shirt open, paying no heed at all to the buttons that flew off in the process. Quickly he laid Oscar back down flat and pressed his hands against his chest. He closed his eyes for just moment as he concentrated. He could feel the electrical signals trying and failing to create a steady rhythm. Weak, arrhythmic flutters that felt all wrong and would soon cease entirely.
He would not let Oscar die.
Wayne pressed a jolt of electricity against Oscar, trying to correct the broken rhythm. He was no medical doctor, and he wasn’t entirely sure if he knew what he was doing or not, but it wasn’t the time to stop and contemplate. He was acting instinctively, operating on every and any bit of knowledge his brain possessed about electricity and the human body. And, more so than even that, he was acting on what he could feel under his fingertips.
For a moment there was no electrical activity at all, then a faint restart of still-quivering flutters.
It wasn’t enough.
Wayne shifted his hands, following the internal map of electric pulses until his palms were in better placement. Then he forced another influx of voltage. Oscar’s body twitched slightly in reaction and Wayne didn’t dare breathe as he felt the signals short again.
Then a beat.
Not a quiver or flutter or feeble contraction. A full beat.
A heartbeat.
Another, and another, and another, and finally a weak, shuddering draw of breath. A shallow inhale, a shallow exhale. Oscar’s chest moved up and down once more while the steady beats under Wayne’s hands kept going.
Wayne stared, trying to be sure that what just happened was real. Oscar was breathing again. Oscar’s heart was beating again. He could feel it beating. A realization came to Wayne and began to push him out of shock and numbness. He could feel Oscar’s heartbeat. Not the simple physical thumping of the heart muscle the way it could be felt with the touch of a hand or heard with the aid of a stethoscope. He could feel that yes, but he could feel beyond it, could feel right down into the electric charges being passed along at the cellular level. He could feel the positive to negative switches, could feel the chain reactions working down Oscar’s heart and back up again, each atrium and ventricle functioning in coordinated rhythm, pumping blood through steady electrical pulses. As the profoundness of all of that began to dawn on Wayne and the intimacy of the sensation took up more of his focus, tears welled up in his eyes.
He could feel Oscar’s heartbeat. He could feel it.
Wayne’s shoulders began to shake as he disintegrated into sobs, slipping out of the hyper-focus that had come from dealing with the stakes of life and death and crumbling from the sheer emotional relief.
He pulled Oscar back into his arms, holding him as securely as he could while still being as gentle as possible.
“I’m sorry, Oscar. I’m sorry. I’m s-so s-sorry,” he choked out, barely able to speak through all the tears and his hitching breaths. “I do n-need you, I really do. I love you. I don’t want you to leave me, please. Oscar, I’m s-so sorry.” He knew he wasn’t making any sense probably, but he didn’t care. He had to say it. He had almost lost his chance forever, and now a lifetime’s worth of unspoken words were all rushing out.
“I love you, Oscar. I’ve always n-needed you. I’m sorry. I’m sorry for e-everything. I’m sorry for h-hurting you. I’m sorry for leaving y-you. I sh-should have b-been there for y-you. I’m s-sorry for everything. For when we w-were kids, a-and for wh-what happened at the K-Keller twins’ p-party and f-for n-never t-telling you, and for ruining your l-life by b-being so foolish, and for almost…a-almost…”
Words were beyond Wayne by that point. His sobs would not be hindered by them anymore and he wept freely. His arms wrapped around his brother’s frame, holding him tight. He had all but forgotten what the touch of human warmth felt like.
Wayne pulled his brother even closer to him and pressed his lips against Oscar’s forehead.
I love you, Oscar. I love you so much. I won’t ever let you go again. I promise. You’re my brother and I’m going to protect you. I love you. I love you…
He stayed there for ages, cradling his little brother and feeling the rhythmic beat pulse through him. From somewhere far away he could hear a decidedly un-rhythmic banging, and it dragged him slowly out of his sobs. Muffled voices came at him through the metal wall and scattered details began to come together in a way that made sense. Block and Tease had known that Oscar had been injured. They’d claimed he was already dead when clearly that was not the case. They had come after Wayne instead of attempting to get Oscar help.
They had left Oscar to die.
Fury the likes of which he hadn’t known he was capable of feeling flared up in him and hot sparks snapped against the underside of the protective dome. He was back in control of the lightning once more and how dare they??
A quick movement of his fingers brought a thin metal plate to slide under the length of Oscar’s body and he bent it easily into a shape that fit comfortably in his arms. His brother’s weight was nothing to him as he stood, lifting the metal as though it were paper.
The metal dome exploded around him, pieces hurling outward from the force of the electricity. White-hot bolts erupted from behind him, lighting up the clearing like daylight and whipping his hair and coat in every direction.
Block and Tease had fallen several feet backwards from where they’d been attempting to get into the dome and Wayne sent a hail of small debris to strike at their arms before they could react, knocking the guns out of their reach. Their eyes changed from triumphant to terrified within the space of barely a second as they took in the fury and lightning that twisted his face.
“I will fucking end you!” he shrieked, the electricity grabbing any and all slabs of nearby metal and hurling them at the scientists.
The two screamed and ran, stumbling over each other in a race to not get impaled by the metal. Every piece of debris he could get his metaphorical electrical fingers on, he sent streaking after them until they had disappeared from sight into the trees in the distance. He would have liked to follow and rip them apart piece by piece, but there was someone far more important he had to take care of: someone worth ten times more to Wayne than either of them.
He didn’t look back as stalked down the side of the hill, diverting only enough attention from his task to listen and make sure he wasn’t being followed. It was only a minute or two before he came across his car sitting abandoned in the woods, the keys strewn haphazardly next to the passenger door. He settled Oscar securely across the back seat and jammed the key into the ignition with far more force than was necessary.
The lightning dissipated around him as he drove, though the static lingered for quite a while longer. Everything that had been churning around in his mind and heart collapsed in on itself, imploding down to a single concentrated point and leaving only one unwavering goal.
Get Oscar home.
It was as though his entire world had narrowed to a single tunnel with nothing save that task at the end. There was no emotion, no critical thought. Everything else faded away into a cold stillness around him until his focus was solely on the location of his brother.
By the time he pulled into their driveway, the electricity was silent. He observed that fact with the same numb detachment as he observed everything else, climbing out and sliding Oscar gently back into his arms. His brother didn’t stir as Wayne carried him up the front steps, or even when he was set down at last on the bed in his own room.
Task completed. He’s home.
The numb, all-consuming focus that had become Wayne’s universe never shifted, simply replacing the goal with a new one.
His clothes are ruined. Get them off.
The goggles were gently removed and set on the desk in the room. Wayne then eased Oscar out of the singed coat and scraped-up pants as carefully as he could before searching out a clean set of pajamas from the dresser to replace them with. Removing the black shirt beneath the coat, though, caused him to freeze.
The dark beginnings of a burn snaked across Oscar’s chest. It centered just over his heart, radiating outward down his torso and up over his left shoulder in dozens of tiny branches. In the franticness and dim lighting up on the ravine, he’d missed it before.
Wayne stared at it. That was his fault. He had done that to his brother, he had…
Sparks began to dance across his hands and Wayne forced himself back into the numb autopilot. Origin didn’t matter.
Treat the burn.
He retrieved the first aid kit from the lab and set to work giving the burn a rudimentary dressing, making sure to clean the other small scrapes that had most likely come from wandering around in the woods.
There were scrapes on his own skin, he noticed dimly. Debris was rough and metal unforgiving, and after he’d treated Oscar to the best of his ability he took a moment to clean himself up as well. His clothes were shredded. The formal shirt and pants were full of so many burn holes that they were nearly unrecognizable, the lightning having held no regard for the fabric.
His coat hung in tatters from his shoulders. He slid the remains of it off and held it for a long moment, running his fingers over the metal letters. Insano.
Slowly, he let it slip from his hands into the wastebasket.
Without a word, he stripped the rest of his ruined clothes off and replaced them with a clean set from his room. Once he had dressed Oscar into pajamas of his own and settled him comfortably under the covers, there was nothing for Wayne to do but wait.
And so he waited.