Torpedo

Lore ideas based off of Caloprymnus’s and encryptidd’s suggestions of an explosion and nuclear/lightning effects.

Working at The Source is safe, said no one ever. Working at the Source was fun, said no one ever. Torpedo didn't think it would be this boring, however, and his eyes had glazed over at the same time he started getting muscle cramps. He'd never made stormdad proud at this rate.
He decided to take a walk, maybe it would clear out his head.
He wasn't overly fond of the others on duty, but he couldn't really complain. They worked hard, harder than Torpedo did, but they were also muh messier. Torpedo didn't know how they did the same thing day after day without losing their mind.
He saw some leftovers from Yuma and Vindicator’s latest experiments and sighed, sweeping them into a bag. The incinerator was just on the other side of the base, the perfect excuse to take a quick ten minute walk.
Red scales glittered in the sunlight as Torpedo walked between buildings, looking out into the desert before he sighed. Just another monotonous day.

“How's it going?” Starfall asked him with a small smile on his face.
Torpedo grinned back, Starfall was working next to the incinerator and was a breath of fresh air.
“Pretty good,” he answered, stuffing the bag into the chimney before walking over to the control panel.
“What's that you've got there?” Starfall asked, walking over to help Torpedo set up the incinerator correctly.
“Just some experiment that Vindicator left out for a week, you know how it is,” Torpedo said.
Starfull double checked the controls before he powered up the incinerator. “At least you didn't make the mistake of waiting for this one to mold before tossing it,” he said dryly.
“No,” Torpedo said with a laugh. “I'll see you at the end of our shifts! Did you still want to go hiking this evening?”
“Yes,” Starfall said, “You know I've been dying to get away from all this light pollution,” he added with a smile.
Torpedo shot him another smile before he slipped out of the room, heading back to his workstation.
He didn't make it four steps out of the room before he heard a strange crackle, and he didn't remember anything else.

.

“Torpedo, wake up!”
“Torpedo!”
“Is he still alive?”
“He should be. Hand over the salve, he needs more.”
“Torpedo, I'm so sorry, I had no idea what happened.”
He woke up groggy, and all his limbs felt heavy. He heard Vindicator and Starfall arguing, but gods he just wanted to go back to sleep.
He opened his eyes, but everything was blurry, like an unfocused lense. His back and arms were sore and he groaned, and immediately he felt talons on him, propping him up.
“What happened?” He asked.
“There was an explosion,” Starfall said, “Something inside the incinerator broke.”
Torpedo looked at his friend and his eyes widened in shock. “You're scales- Starfall, you're green, and black, and, ugh,” he said, closing his eyes when he felt a massive headache forming.
“Yeah, we all changed, you too,” Starfall said, resting a hand on Torpedo.
“What happened? I just checked up on the incinerator the other day, it was operating perfectly,” Vindicator said.
“I don't know, something went off when we threw your experiment in it,” Starfall said, applying more salve on Torpedo's electrical and fire burns. They weren't expensive, but Starfall knew they would be sore for days.
“You put our nuclear power experiments in the incinerator?” Vindicator asked, raising his voice in outrage. “I worked hard on that!”
“That was nuclear?” Torpedo asked, opening his eyes and staring at Vindicator in shock.
“Why did you make a bomb?” Starfall asked, anger in his voice.
“It’s not a bomb, it's an alternative power source we were considering using,” Vindicator said factually. “We made significant progress before it was all destroyed.”
“So that's what made the incinerator explode?” Starfall said, pointedly glaring at Torpedo.
“How was I supposed to know it would explode?” Torpedo asked, standing up and wincing when he did.
“It's fine,” Starfall said, the anger evaporating out of him. “Let's just start to clean up. We’ve got a lot to do.”