Slowly pressing the switch, waiting in awe, little vibrations can be felt on his thumb until it suddenly clicks down in place…

[“Wait for it….”]

[“Come on…”]

[“waaaait for it…”]

[“Nothing is happening”]

[“Yeah, no. Nothing. Was something supposed to happen?”]

[“I don’t know, you are the smart one”]

[“We*”]

Walking over to the machine, looking around all sides, corners, edges, nothing can be found to look like it activated.

[“no. no…. No NO NONONONONONONO”]

[“I want to breath”]

[“I want to hear!”]

[“I WANT MY FAMILY BACK!”]

Breaking down into a silent crying mess on the ground, he rolls around randomly throwing small mana balls in frustration, falling asleep tired from his fit next to the machine.

Waking up some time later, Jimmy cleans his face off with a spare shirt, and just stands in front of the machine. Slowly pulling up the switch off the ground, maybe just maybe, it only needed to recharge over time.

Feeling the clunk of the switch over and over in his hand, it is clear the machine will just not work. Pulling up a mana ball in each hand, Jimmy throws both at the machine in pure rage at the loss of hope for anything to be solved.

The mana balls, hit quickly, and make a bigger explosion than expecting- blasting Jimmy several feet back on the ground.

[“OWwwww, were they always this explosive?”]

Walking over the remains of the machine, he kicks around the remnants. So far, only bits of metal and wire are strewn anywhere, along with what looks like just your average weight from the gym.

[“Why in the world would a piece of science equipment just have a weight in side of it?”]

[“Where’s all the circuit boards, processors, and whatnot?”]

Throwing the large pieces of metal to the side, sweeping through the rubble, some clear speckles shine under the debris. Sweeping away some metal, a small colored piece of glass shard looking object sits in the middle.

Picking it up, he can feel a strange pull from it, he can feel some mana pull from his hand and circulate the small gem like glass. Lifting it high to the sky, it begins to glow the same purple as itself. Staring for a while, a noticeable amount of mana could be felt to have been pulled from Jimmy, as the shard glows brighter purple.

[“so… interesting”]

[“Could this be, all that powered the machine”]

[“Could this tiny thing, be all that caused this incident?!”]

[“How? It is so tiny, but holding it- it’s pulling in more mana overall than my body holds”]

Looking closer, several indents with some metal fused to it can be spotted.

[“This is probably where it was connected to the machine…”]

Glowing even brighter, the amount of mana being taken exponentially increases- feeling like the life is being forced out of him, Jimmy tosses the shared aside, collapsing onto the ground tired.

Crawling over to the shard, pulling out a single finger towards the shard, the moment his skin touches the point on the shard- mana can be felt being sucked through intensely.

[“Fire hot, lick the stove next time why don’t you”]

[“Calm down smarty pants- I just wanted to see whether it pulled in mana from being close or touching”]

[“oh, OH. Yes. We do have a couple small sandwich bags we took from some houses on our way here”]

Pulling out a sandwich bag from his cargo shorts, Jimmy picks up the shard with the edge of his shirt and packs it away into the bag to investigate later.

[“What are we going to do now?”]

[“what, are we going to do?”]

[“All we have is food, a weird magic sucking shard, and no way to get my life back”]

[“Yup. We have, nothing. All we want is my family”]

Some tears swell up as Jimmy stands back up slowly, and takes one last look at the scientist standing near where the machine once was but now lays in pieces.

Written right on the jacket, in bright red, reads ‘Sean McDanyolds’, ‘Lead Scientist’, ‘MagNola Corp.’. A white flower with red insides sits next to the name, assumably is a magnolia flower considering the name.

[“MagNola… They clearly have something to do with this, but what?”]

[“OOoooOOOoo, maybe they are the bad guys”]

A smile smirks across his face.

[“Enough with the superpowers stuff, not everyone can just be the bad guy”]

[“But look how sinister that flower looks. Might as well be *mbr*ll* c*rp.”]

[“Maybe. But look at other companies, anything much different?”]

[“Shh. Let me live in my fantasies”]

[“Well, there’s nothing else here. Let’s wallow in our sadness back in town”]

[“Sure. It has been, very depressing this past day, weeks, months”]

Back in town, Jimmy walks around saddened, depressed, distraught. His family is virtually light years away and never coming back.

‘Old Fox Den’

Breaking into the bar, people stand frozen all around- looks like the news of their potential doom led them to a drunken binge.

One guy is asleep at the front of the bar, hugging onto his half-finished beer glass and several empties all around.

A group of men are playing are painful looking game darts. A dart already flying down range, one in the way is upside down on his head on a bar stool- a face of shock as the dart fits not but a few inches from his precious jewels.

To be a bit kind, he Return to Life’s the dart- but it continues flying. Scared to have done something wrong, hiding behind his hands- Jimmy waits to hear that sound of pain, forgetting for several seconds that there is not even sound.

Looking down on the ground, the dart lays harmless.

[“Oh yeah… Frozen, invulnerable…”]

[“Sit down and grab a drink- free rounds on the house!”]

[“Have you even tried alcohol before?”]

[“We have not, but we have seen in the movies that it cures depression.”]

Sitting down at a group’s table, a woman is already placing down a drink from a platter of several many other drinks- all of which Jimmy doesn’t even know what names they have, let alone what flavor it may be.

Grabbing a small shot glass full of a dark brown liquid, he gives it a quick smell…

[“Fff, has there been no smell this entire time?”]

[“No. The fresh air has never smelt better”]

[“uhg, right. Anyways, lets give this a try. Who is going to know, stop us, or even care…“]

Slowly bringing it up to his lips, he sips just a small amount – coughing immediately at the strong taste swelling in his throat.

[“So, that’s why they just chug the whole shot at once”]

[“Be a man, it is your time to grow up.”]

With a single motion, Jimmy swallows what was left, skipping his tongue entirely and going right down. After a couple seconds pass, he starts to feel something new for the first time in ages.

His body begins to feel, truly warm. Emanating in his just his stomach so far, Jimmy lets out a tear as he finally gets something back for the first time since.

Grabbing several more shots, Jimmy continues swallowing shots one after the other, enjoying the feeling of his whole body feeling warm. Not even realizing, his shirt continues getting wetter as his finishes off the platter.

[“M-MOooOreeee”]

[“Ohnn it!”]

In an attempt to get up, he trips on his own legs. Trying to stand back up, Jimmy wobbles as the frozen people begin to move in his eyes.

[“Haha, look at that- they are moving again”]

[“mmMaybe if we have a couple Mmmore, the world will mMMmmoooooove again”]

[“Double Down! We get to stay wwwwwaaaaarm tooooooo”]

Grabbing more drinks, Jimmy keeps going one by one through everyone’s drinks- till the moment he throws up, passing out in the bar.

Waking up in a pain, Jimmy quickly perks up grabbing his stomach, and quickly runs to the corner to spill the rest of what would not come out before.

[“uuuuuuuuuhhghhhhghgggggg”]

[“Our head, it hurts”]

[“And. It feels so cold”]

Grabbing his shoulders and shivering a little

[“Look. It may have hurt, and still hurts, but let’s drink a little more- it felt so nice to be warm again”]

[“come one man, I haven’t even gotten the ability to just stand back up yet”]

[“No. You come on. I can’t stand this cold! I’m taking over!”]

Quickly standing up at attention, jimmy wobbles over in a semi-haze to the unopened beer on the counter.

[“I have not tried one of these yet.”]

Forcing the cap off, eventually flicking it off with the collar of the guy who probably ordered it just before, he takes in a huge quick drink- his tongue immediately sticks out with disgust.

[“Blehh, gah. These are not that good. No, no no. But, I do feel it, YES”]

[“Right?”]

Eating some breakfast, Jimmy continues his normal routine, living in the bar, but passing out every night to the next best drink while having smaller ones throughout the day to stay warm.