Fights!
“Grab those ropes tight!” ‘Bob’ shouted. “I need them taut!”
For a second, it didn’t register — but then my eyes snapped in his direction. I could feel my face congeal with horror as I realized that he really was swinging the Old American fire ax at the ancient, writhing cables. The live cables, the ones full of electricity.
I couldn’t intervene. My own hands were filled with spells to push back the other eruptions of plastic, wiry death. It was also too late to scream “STOP!” but I tried anyway, if only to let myself feel better later. ‘Bob’ heard me, but he didn’t even try to hesitate as he buried the ax into the tangle of wires trying to drag Nellas away by the throat. Its metal edge dug deep into the mass, cleaving cables in two…
…and nothing else happened. Well, obviously the cables were cut off from the central mass. But there were no sparks, no St. Elmo’s Fire, no grotesque last Galvanic Gavotte from the legends. Just a spray of cables, and fragments of decaying plastic through the air. Nellas even looked like he was getting more air.
“NEVER MIND!” I screamed again, and immediately changed tactics.