Tak. Tak. Tak. Tak.

The sound of furious typing echoed throughout the atrium of the center of the Tortuga, just as it had been for several hours now. The source of the sound in question was Chris, who had been working on typing up documents full of information on every species the team had encountered that month, from noisy T-Devils to high flying Draco Lizards. It had been hard going, and still was; even though Chris had been typing almost non-stop all day, he had barely reached the halfway point of where he wanted to be. So now, around midday, here he was, working away like a hamster running on a wheel. His eyes darted back and forth across the massive screen on the wall as each new collumn of text appeared.

"Slow down there CK, or you'll be paying for a new computer before too long."

Chris jumped a little, leaning back in his chair when he was snapped out of his concentration by a voice just over his shoulder. "Aw come on Aviva, you work this computer a lot harder than I do." He pointed out with a gesture at a nearby case full to bursting with creature power disks. "And besides, it's for a good cause! Once I have all of this data typed out and cataloged, it will be easy to not only keep up with the animals we've seen, but all of our named animal friends as well." As if to prove his point, Chris wheeled the chair close to the desk again and punched the enter key, causing a whole list of animals to appear on the screen.

Impressed, Aviva rested one hand on her hip and draped the other over the back of Chris's chair, "Wow, I suppose I stand corrected! Martin's going to love this." A small smile graced the features of the younger Kratt brother's face as he again pushed back from the desk so he could look over at Aviva, "I hope so. This way he'll be able to keep up with as many of our animal friends as he wants, whenever he wants!" He hadn't even thought of that until Aviva brought it up- now he was even more excited to get the job done, if only to surprise Martin with it.

"Speaking of Martin, where is he?" Chris turned completely around, placing his palms on his knees before meeting Aviva's gaze. She shrugged however, glancing at the door out of the corner of her eye, "You know I'm not sure. I haven't seen him all day, have you?" Chris shook his head, frowning a little. "Well we both decided last night we were going to take a short break from adventuring to get some technical work done, so I'm sure he's off doing /something/ productive…" There was a pause, and both Aviva and Chris shook their heads, blurting in unison, "Naahhh."

Chris doubted his older brother would be able to sit still that long, so he wouldn't be surprised if he was outside messing around right now. He let out a good natured chuckle before grabbing the edge of the desk, pulling himself back close to it for the third time, "Anyway, I better get back to work if I want to get this done before nightfall." Nodding, Aviva turned to walk off to give Chris his space, but before she did she paused, "Hold on- Chris you know this computer runs off of data compiled onto CD's right? This is where I make the power suits- it's a one shot deal, there's not really any way you can save your work-" But he waved her off, "Don't worry about it, as long as I don't turn it off everything will be safe right? And the sun is nice and bright today, we've literally got endless energy for me to work off of."

"Aalright, if you say so CK. I'll leave you to your work then." Aviva chuckled before skating off, most likely to get to work on a project of her own. Chris barely seemed to notice, because immediately he had gone right back to typing, filling the atrium with the non-stop tapping sound once more.

Tak tak tak tak tak.

—

—

Meanwhile, just below where Chris was working, the Kratt brother in question was sitting on the floor Indian style, holding a cylinder between both hands. He opened the top and upturned it, shaking it until all of its contents spilled out onto the floor before him- creature power disks of dozens of different species.

Martin smiled a little to himself as he put the canister aside, spreading the disks out so he could see them better, "Alright let's see what we have here…" What was he up to? One would surely wonder this if they came down to the 'barracks' of sorts where the crew slept, this room in particular belonging to Martin and Chris. He glanced over all of the power disks and ran his fingers through his hair thoughtfully, bringing his hand down to touch his chin. "I can't get enough of using Peregrine Falcon powers…. or…maybe I can go for a swim as a Bass?" Martin whispered as he used a thumb to push the disks apart. Choices choices.

In truth, Martin was quite literally bored out of his mind. Chris had been up since early this morning (and so had he), but since he immediately went to work on his documents, Martin hadn't seen hide nor hair out of him since. It was a bit disappointing, not having his brother around to do things with at the moment, but he knew he was busy and respected that. That's why he had turned to the power disks for something to do.

Aviva wouldn't be opposed to him testing out a few creature powers, surely!

Definitely not.

With a pleased grin Martin shifted his weight forwards a little, resting his chin in his palms before resting his elbows on his knees. "Man this is a tough one…maybe- ..noo….or what about….nah I use that one too much…." But then, his eyes caught on a particular disk that had been hidden under the one marked with Bat powers. Raising an eyebrow, Martin reached out and picked it up, bringing it forwards so he could see the creature powers this disk held inside.

A large head, small ears, telltale horns….

"Rhino powers!" Martin exclaimed. "I've never even used this power before, have I?…." He still was positive Elephant powers were better than Rhino powers, but that didn't sway him from wanting to test them out any less. Just the thought of having a massive horn with the strength to knock over a truck was exciting in itself. It was too good to pass up!

Martin held the Rhino disk in one hand as he carefully pulled the rest of the pile on the floor back over to him, sliding them back into the canister for now. Then he picked it up and placed it on the shelf before grabbing his power suit vest from the bed, slipping it on. "Alright then, Rhino powers it is! Though…" He trailed off a little, looking over his shoulder, "I probably should go outside before I activate…." If he wanted to go outside he would have to go back up to the atrium, and then he would be bothering Chris, right?…

Plus, their bedroom was surprisingly big, so he was pretty sure he wouldn't knock anything down, so long as he was careful. That was better than distracting Chris, he decided. So with a short nod he picked the disk back up and walked over to the desk near their bunk bed, shuffling his fingers through the drawer. It took him a moment to find what he was looking for, but it wasn't long before he extracted it with a pleased laugh. "Good thing Aviva has been collecting all sorts of DNA lately," He mused as he lifted out a small vial that contained a few coarse Rhino hairs. Lucky for Martin, the scientist had run out of room in her own desks and drawers, so until she could get some more a few samples were staying in other drawers scattered around the Tortuga.

With a gentle shake, the hairs fell out of the vial into Martin's palm, resting on the DNA sensing pads on his gloves long enough to be detected before he put the hair back, and then put the vial back into its proper place. "You know what, I bet Chris is going to be impressed when he sees how well I can use these Rhino powers," said Martin as he slipped the disk into the suit, "I'll surprise him, that's what I'll do! Activate!"

As soon as Martin touched the button at the center of his chest, a bright blue began rapidly spreading from the center out, quickly changing his appearance. Massive gloves covered his hands, and big powerful feet appeared, with a large rhino-shaped helmet materializing over his head at the same time. The final touch was a visor that fell in front of his eyes, seconds before the glow traveled up a massive horn on the top of the head before it faded altogether, completing his transformation.

He flexed his fingers and then balled them into fists, grinning, "Wo-hoah, check me out! I'm one of the strongest animals on the Savannah, next to the Elephant of course," Martin added in an undertone before turning around, pounding his fists together. "Now… let's see what this suit can do!"

Scuffing his foot against the ground, mimicking what a Rhino preparing to charge might do, he exhaled loudly through his nose before feigning a charge forwards, throwing his head downwards. Then he jerked it up, pretending he was trying to spear and then flip something that didn't exist a short afterimage appearing from the glowing horn in midair for a split second. Pleased at how light the suit seemed, Martin turned around quickly and thrust his horn out a second time, balling his fists at his sides. "Wish I had something to practice this horn action on, this suit is so cool!"

Careful what you wish for Martin.

He was really getting into the suit's powers now, turning on a dime as he thrust his horn into imaginary obstacles, and stomped his feet as he moved about the floor. Of course, he had forgotten how easily the suits could take on a life of their own, in the form of animal instinct. Martin didn't even realize that he had become more forceful with the thrusts of his horn, and he was almost running back and forth across the room at this point, nearly skewering one of the bedposts.

And then-

CRRRACK

He felt his entire body come to a frighteningly jarring halt all of a sudden, and the sound of splitting metal was deafening. There was a loud crackle of what sounded like electricity immediately following- it all happened so fast Martin barely had time to look up, his eyes traveling down his horn until he spotted where he had run right into the wall, tearing a nasty hole through it.

How could THAT get any worse? Oh wait, why was there electricity again-?

Martin jumped violently and covered his head with his hands when a transformer that he had severed blew, causing a loud hiss to issue from the hole in the wall before he was finally able to pull himself free. He staggered and nearly fell backwards, and as soon as he had detached from the wall, the lights flickered ominously-

And with one loud hum that signaled power loss, the lights went out. Not just in the bedroom where Martin was standing wide eyed, but all over the Tortuga. Uh oh.

"Alright, I've just about got this information on beavers typed in…" Chris had muttered to himself mere minutes before, glancing at his watch. "Eight hours of work, and over a dozen species completed! Just a few more entries and I'll have this entire month logged and ready to g-" He trailed off when the lights above- including the screen- began to flicker. Then, without warning, everything shut down, plunging Chris into sudden darkness.

For a beat, he just sat there in stunned silence, staring with shock at the now completely black computer screen. Then he lifted visibly shaking hands, dropping them down helplessly onto the keyboard. "No…" He breathed before quickly sitting up, tapping a few of the keys, "No! No no, oh NO!" Then Chris looked back up at the unresponsive computer screen, his stomach dropping with horror. "Come on! No, no way!" But there was no bringing back the power- hours and hours of work….lost.

Chris didn't know when he had stood up, but he was standing now, his hands suspended before him with disbelief as he stared blankly at the computer, before collapsing into his chair, wheeling it back slightly with the force of his sitting. He lifted one of those shaking hands and cupped it over the side of his face, slowly turning his head to stare down into his lap, hardly believing what just happened.

He barely registered Aviva's voice as it came from the room adjacent to the atrium, followed by Koki, "Ay Dios Mio! What happened?" "Who turned out the lights?!" Chris didn't answer, but he could hear their footsteps as they entered the atrium, able to see due to the sunlight spilling in through the roof. "Chris! Chris are you still in here?" Aviva asked, squinting, just barely able to make out his hunched form in the chair near the main computer.

"Aviva-" Chris's voice came weakly, and Aviva knew exactly why. She carefully made her way over to his side, and cautiously extended a hand, resting it on her shoulder once she found it in the darkness, "Oh Chris… lo siento mucho….I'm so sorry…" She whispered sadly, but he couldn't really find his voice to answer, the loss of all of his work really hitting him hard. Aviva glanced over at Koki with a grimace before tightening her grip a little on Chris's shoulder, letting go after a moment, "D..Don't worry- we…we'll figure out what happened to the power- …maybe if you let me get into the computer's system, I can somehow figure out how to recover your data, ok Chris….?"

Again, no response, but she hadn't been expecting one. Poor Chris sat without a word, still watching the unresponsive computer with pure disbelief. He didn't even notice that Aviva had quickly ran her fingers through the top Chris's hair in what she hoped was a reassuring motion before turning back to Koki, "Come on, let's find Jimmy- maybe we can find out what killed the power."

Chris couldn't help but hear Koki whisper to Aviva before they left the room, as distraught as he was, "Yeah, what do you think it was? …It might have just been me, but right before the power went I heard a nasty sounding crash from down below…"

Chris's eyes widened, and he sat up, all of his upset feelings fading for a split second. A crash from below?

Martin!

—

—

As soon as he had torn a hole right through the wall, Martin wasted no time deactivating, placing the disk on the desk for now because he couldn't see to put it away properly. "O-oh no….oh man-" He whispered, quickly jerking his power suit off and tossing it on the bed before stepping back. What had he done?!

He looked up as the sound of rapid footsteps above could be heard as someone moved from one part of the Tortuga to the other, and from the sound of it, they had gone into the atrium. Biting his lip, Martin headed quickly for the door, having to really force his way through since- without power- it wasn't automated. It took some doing, but Martin was finally able to get through, just in time to hear Aviva and Koki pass by. Yikes- Aviva was going to be furious with him…

Instead of confronting her like he should have, he ducked down in the hallway leading to the atrium and waited for them to pass before sneaking out, glad at least that the hatch to the roof was open, giving him enough sunlight to see by. He frowned and waited a moment for his eyes to adjust, holding one hand against the wall just in-case, "Hello? …Is anyone in here?"

Chris stood up from where he had been sitting, alerted by his brother's familiar voice. "Martin? Bro what happened, are you alright?" Martin sighed shakily, and the two met halfway, sillouheted by the light pouring in through the ceiling. "Ye-eah Chris, I'm ok. Are you?" No, no he wasn't ok at all. But he offered Martin a halfhearted smile anyway, "I'm not hurt, if that's what you mean…." Martin seemed to be relieved, letting out a soft chuckle. "Oh good! You won't believe what just happened to me, right before the power went out-"

"U-uhh….I hate to cut you off, but….but can it wait Martin? …I'm…" Chris faltered, rubbing the back of his neck weakly, "I'm dealing with a bit of a problem…" Martin's smile faded slightly at that, "A problem…? …Why what happened…?" Oh Martin, you don't want to ask that, and frankly, your younger brother really doesn't want to have to explain what just happened to him. To say the least, he felt horrific to have worked so long and hard on all of those documents, just to have all of it disappear. And Martin's surprise….that went with it.

During Chris's preemptive pause, Martin let his smile grow back onto his face, hoping his explanation of what had happened would cheer him up a bit, no matter what had happened to make him so disheartened, "Well you see I was- ..I was down in our room just now, and I was actually testing out the Rhino suit for myself for the first time!" Blinking slowly, Chris looked back up at Martin, lowering his hand from where he had been running it weakly down the side of his face. "….Rhino suit….?" Martin nodded and jerked a thumb over his shoulder, towards the hallway he had just exited from, "Yeah I- …I didn't want to come upstairs to bother you so I was just testing it out inside, I didn't think I was going to hurt anything but I…" He glanced off to the side sheepishly, swaying a little, "I maay have accidently- …gouged a hole into the wall….aand…I guess you could say I'm responsible for this whole blackout!" He laughed.

The whole time Martin was explaining this however, Chris's expression slowly melted from one of sadness, to complete horror. He couldn't believe what he had just heard. Normally Martin's laughter was infectious, and caused him to break down and join in no matter how aggravated he was- but this time, it caused him to twitch. "Ma….Martin you…..you're the one who…..blew the power out?" Chris leaned back a little when Martin nodded, still smiling, "Yeaaaahh, but it was just an accident! The instincts of the Rhino overpowered me!" He narrowed his gaze, and then playfully punched Chris in the arm. "But don't worry, I bet Aviva will be able to fi-"

"YOUblew the power!" Suddenly cut off by Chris's unexpected outburst, Martin looked back over at his brother, who was glaring daggers at him. "You-….You were using the RHINO SUIT….Inside!? What were you thinking?" Ok woah, what was happening here?…. Martin lifted his hands a little in defense, his smile quickly fading slightly, "W-woah there Chris, I- ….I was going to take it outside but I-….I didn't want to bother y-"

Again, Martin was interrupted by Chris, who threw one hand in a wild gesture back towards the computer, his voice rising an octave with disbelief, "I was working on hundreds of creature species documents, and have been for HOURS Martin! Hours! A-…And every last bit of it is gone!" Quickly, any humor that had been in Martin's expression before disappeared, his chest tightening with shock when he realized what he'd done, "O….oh…..oh Chris I-…..I'm so sorry…."

He reached out to place his hand gently on Chris's shoulder, but without warning he jerked back, never taking his eyes off of Martin. "Why couldn't you have gone outside, any one of us would have! You know as well as I do you can do some real damage with the suits, and now look what happened!" As Chris said this, Martin's mouth opened slightly, he having a hard time taking in this burst of unusual anger from his younger sibling, "…C-Chris I- ….I said I was sorry! I…I didn't know you w-were…..were working on something I- ….."

But Chris was inconsolable as he took another step back from Martin. The more Martin spoke, the angrier at him he seemed to get, "Yeah, w-well sorry isn't going to bring all of my hard work back!" He was on the verge of yelling now, his fists balled tightly at his sides. Every time he spoke the sunlight above flashed off of his eyes, making him look even angrier in this dim light. Martin was stunned.

"….Sorry might not…bring the work back Chris but- .." Martin shook his head a little, "What's gotten into you?"

Those simple words seemed to drive Chris into nothing short of a blind fury, causing him to stomp forwards and get right up into Martin's face, "What's gotten into ME!? YOU have that's what! You don't understand how hard I worked to get all of that typed up! It's ALL. GONE. MARTIN. A-and…and it wouldn't be if you didn't kill the power!"

Ok, now Martin was getting angry too. Chris's chest was puffed out into his like an angry puffer fish, but Martin was taller so he was able to glare down at Chris no matter how close he ventured, "Look, I said I was sorry! Isn't that enough?!"

"No!" Chris's voice rose another octave, his voice breaking as he really started screaming this time, "NO! It's NOT enough! You ruined everything! You- …" Without Chris even realizing it, he just kept on going, not really caring what he said at this point, "You RUIN everything!" And with that last sentence, as if to enunciate it, Chris shoved Martin back as hard as he could with both hands, and it caught him offguard enough to where he stumbled and staggered backwards in the darkness.

Chris watched Martin fade into the darkness of the atrium as he fell from the range of the sunlight, trembling now with rage. Poor Martin couldn't stop himself until fell back and hit the wall from the force of his brother's push, knocking into a nearby shelf so forcefully that a few beakers and vials cascaded from it, shattering onto the floor. Both brothers breathing heavily, Martin looked back up at Chris sharply, his eyes wide with shock at what he'd just done to him. Chris- for the moment- seemed impervious to the pitiful look on Martin's face, because he was grinding his teeth together with barely bridled fury.

Then, Martin felt a horrible stinging creeping up the side of his arm, causing him to reach a hand over to touch the spot. He ran a shaking hand from his elbow to where his wrist met his palm, and then brought it up to his eyes. There was just enough light for him to see that one of the bottles had sliced a gash into his forearm, and once he realized he'd been cut he could feel hot blood running down his skin.

Not sure if Chris could see or not, Martin took a few shaky breaths, reaching over to press his hand around the cut again. He went to open his mouth to say something, but Chris seemed to be advancing on him again, throwing his hands into the air a second time, "Just-…j-just get OUT of here Martin! I don't want to even- ..I-…JUST-"

"GET, OUUT!"

Martin drew back against the shelf, tightening his grip over his arm before panicking and darting from Chris's field of view, almost afraid he would be struck again. All of his own anger had faded when Chris pushed him- and now he just wanted to escape from the Tortuga.

Chris's angry cry still echoed throughout the atrium, and seemed to follow him as he barreled over to the nearest hatch, skidding into the hallway, nearly colliding with the wall in his haste to run. And Chris watched him go, his brown eyes glaring as his brother ran, unable to see the blood he was trying to stem with fumbling fingers.

Unable to see the tears that had begun to well in Martin's eyes as he stumbled outside, his breath choking in his throat as he ran. Not only to get out of the Tortuga-

But to get away from Chris.