(Short Story *)&Kawa-kun!

A long time ago, at least in the lifetime of a fox, there was a family of six: two parents and four kits. They lived in a city which would be considered futuristic in their world, and even in ours. Like our way of life, this city was powered by the motion of electrons, commonly called 'electricity'; however, unlike us, the most common way to 'generate' electricity was by the bare hands of citizens capable of doing so. Electricity was an element controlled by humans and animals alike, and they lived together in harmony within said city.

Now before that gets confusing, animals in their world come in two varieties: those able to communicate with humans and those unable to do so. Generally, the ability to communicate with humans, as well as sentience, is inherited, and it is unknown how it originated. As one can imagine, the ability to communicate with humans is a big boon; animals without such abilities fill a similar role as we'd expect from most animals in our world.

This city's government, to which I'll refer as "City Government," was extremely interested in finding a way to bring control of electricity to all of its citizens for its own gains, so they funded teams of scientists to research how it "worked." The parents of the family of foxes were among those scientists, with a specific task of augmenting the abilities of those already able to control electricity. While the purpose of such experiments was kept secret, it seemed as though the City Government wanted the results for military experiments. The parents, despite not wanting their research used in this way, had agreed to help regardless.

In order to track developing electrical abilities, these two foxes monitored their children carefully, with several series of both passive and active experiments on their kits. Each bit of change in their abilities was tracked, and even electromagnetic field measurements and brain scans were performed throughout their growth. The resulting data proved extremely useful to their colleagues, and it seemed harmless to their kits' development.

Despite all of the data gathered, the City Government wanted to see an example of a subject with augmented control over electricity. They threatened to cut off funding for the fox parents if they didn't provide such an example. Pressured, they acquiesced and began preparations based on their research.

On that fateful day, they led their kits into a dimly-lit room with six apparatuses, one for each of them. After strapping them in and assuring them that this would be safe, they left the room for the control center for the experiment: a room behind a heavily-shielded glass window, below which was the primary console to control the various variables necessary to perform the experiment. The fox parents were extremely uneasy, as they knew there was no safety for their kits despite having assured them of it.

After the necessary adjustments were made, the fox father pulled the lever to start the augmentation. As the experiment apparatuses and associated equipment warmed up, electricity started to arc between them. A few moments later, screams of pain and terror emitted from the room as the arcs multiplied and began jumping across every surface of the room. Smoke began to fill the room as equipment overloaded and overheated, which lead to the power in the whole building shutting down. The mother quickly shut the system down.

With the smell of burned fur and flesh in the air, their parents cautiously emerged from the control center. Being able to control electricity themselves, they each created a small arc light between their ears to aid in their sight.

As they had feared, the room was lifeless. Their lights illuminated blood trickling down from the apparatuses, pooling around each of their bases. Speechless, they stood frozen.

A spark, then another, then another jumped from one apparatus, and they ran over to it. A glow emitted from the kit's body as it began to rise, which intensified until even the farthest corner of the room was filled with light. This kit, the runt of the litter, opened his eyes to reveal eyes unlike any of those the parents had seen before. He shook with intensifying spasms until his body shot off light a lightning bolt toward the ceiling. He bounced from wall to wall in this manner.

Just then, the City Government's Special Force came in to asses the issue. The squad that arrived was primarily composed of foxes in heavy armor, each of whom was quite capable of electricity control. They tried to stun the "lightning bolt" as it bounced, but failed.

One of them, who was marked as a "Drainer" and carried a special net launcher, stepped up and fired a conductive net toward the kit. After being snagged, he fell and the Drainer strained under the large amounts of electricity being generated, but the kit did eventually succumb and passed out. Unlike his siblings who had perished in the experiment, he still showed signs of life.