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It was dark outside now. Porter hadn't even been in the electric shed for particularly long, but the setting sun had turned into a bright moon in what felt like seconds.
The moon was bright tonight. Brighter than he thinks he's ever seen it. The moonlight shined a direct path across the yard, pointing towards the freight shed.
His priority was in there.
Porter cursed under his breath. He never should of gone to the electric shed in the first place! He said he'd be quick, but he still was not quick enough.
Now he would have to deal with whatever was wrong with Hydra, and then probably have to spend more time calming down Slick, who sounded so fucking scared over the radio.
He hated it. He hated this. He would rather he went through all the fucking shit they've been through instead of them.
Slick had been through some straight shit. Her first yard was not the nicest, so he had been told. There was a train, who apparently looked after her. She called him Dad a lot. But, Porter wasn't entirely sold he cared about her. She had arrived at this yard with a black eye after all. She didn't talk about her previous yard. He had managed to gain various bits of information throughout the years, but all he knew was the freight weren't treated well, at all. Porter thought that the way some of the coaches speak to them now was bad, Slick had heard shit that he couldn't even imagine. The fact that she was the only female freight in the yard certainly wouldn't of helped either.
Porter swore if he ever encountered any of those trains, he'd give them a piece of his mind.
And... Hydra... poor fucking Hydra.
Hydra was even more secretive than Slick was. Momma had mentioned that the lab wasn't very kind to Hydra.
Porter didn't know that meant treating them like a fucking guinea pig.
Hydra hadn't told him everything, and Porter didn't think they ever would. They didn't need too. The horrors that they had already chosen to share was enough.
Porter didn't even want to think about it right now. It made him nauseous. How they could put someone so innocent.. so trusting... so naive... through that much torture? Hydra's creators were truly another form of evil to him.
He shook his head, staring at the gravel crunching bellow his wheels. He didn't need to focus on the past right now. He needed to protect his siblings from what was happening here and now.
He picked up the pace as he was drawn away from his train of thought. His brain suddenly remembering the severity of the situation.
He didn't know what was wrong with Hydra, and that was a fucking worry.
Porter eventually reached the shutter of the freight shed and violently flung it open, revealing the sight he was so worried to see.
Hydra was folded over, sat on the couch, head between knees. Slick was sat right beside them, rubbing their back. He could see her whispering something into their ear, he hoped is was positive.
Slick's head shot up at hearing the rattle of the shutter.
Starlight... she looked terrified.
Slick looked like she had been crying. Her cheeks flushed, and beads of sweat had collected on her forehead. He wanted to wrap her in a hug and assure her it was all alright. But Hydra was time sensitive. He knew she could wait five minutes, Hydra could not.
Porter skated over, immediately kneeling down to get as close to Hydra as possible.
"Hey mate. I'm here. Tell me what's wrong, if you can... please." Porter begged, hoping that the hydrogen tanker still had enough energy within them to answer.
"Hurts... everything... pressure... something..." Hydra managed to say, between heavy, panicked breaths.
"OK... it's the pressure? Can you tell me what to dae to fix that Hy?"
Hydra managed to readjust themselves to directly reveal the panel on their back, that sat right a bottom of their neck. Trying to signal to Porter what the correct course of action would be.
"It's OK.. it's OK... there's a panel there aye? Should I open it?" He asked with desperation.
Hydra gave no response. Porter took that as a yes.
He flipped it open, revealing two small switches. One red, one blue.
"What one Hy?"
...
No response.
...
"Hy?"
No response.
Porter figured flipping the red switch was probably a bad idea. He knew Hydra had a permanent shut down switch, although he didn't think it should be that easy to access.
There were no indicators on either of the switches. This felt like the hardest game of would you rather. Are you going to kill your younger sibling or are you going to save them?
He felt like his heart was in his throat. He really didn't want to make the decision at all. But he didn't know what would happen if he chose not to flip either switch.
Porter flipped the blue switch.
...
...
...
Hydra slumped over as their whole body went limp.
"WHAT THE FUCK PORTER??" Slick screamed.
She had remained silent until this point, trying to let Porter work his big brother magic, but it had clearly all gotten a bit too much.
"They'll be fine Slick... dinnae need to panic.. " Porter said calmly, unsure whether he was saying it to Slick or himself.
"What the fuck do you think I've been doing?"
"I know... I'm sorry ùilleag..."
"You fucking should be." She snapped
Porter sighed. He understood exactly where her aggression was coming from. He certainly didn't appreciate the tone she was using with him, but he knew all too well why she was speaking that way.
Porter moved his hand towards Hydra's back, gradually starting to rub small, continuous circles on their back. He had no idea if they could ever hear them bickering, he didn't even know if Hydra was conscious, but he heard them breathing, and that's all the reassurance he needed.
He saw Slick fidgeting with her hands, picking at her skin at the edge of her fingernails. It was an absolutely horrible habit that both her and Hydra shared. As hard as Porter had tried to help curve the unwanted pattern, he'd never truly been successful. Lumber used to do it too, Momma made him stop by straight up tieing his hand behind his back. Something told him that wouldn't work with Slick and Hydra.
Porter reached over and grabbed one of her hands, holding it tightly in his grasp.
"Don't do that." He uttered firmly.
She huffed, pulling her hand away and crossing her arms.
His eyes lingered on Hydra. He could feel their chest rise and fall, but they were still showing no signs of regaining any sense of awareness.
Porter sighed, he was growing more and more anxious by the second. Was it worth trying to see if he could get in contact with Momma? Would she even know what to do? He groaned in frustration, resting his head on Hydra's limp shoulder.
"Maybe this wouldn't of happened if you just came home." Slick stated bluntly.
He turned to face Slick. Her arms were crossed, her eyebrow furrowed and a scowl was plastered onto her face.
Porter knew she was right. He shouldn't of gone today. He saw the message on his radio and knew it was a bad idea. He promised Hydra he would help him. And yet, he went against it. He forgot his priorities.
"You're right... I should'nae have gone. I'm sorry."
Slick looked taken a-back. He assumed by the look on her face that she was looking for an argument. Clearly wanting to shout and scream and blame someone for the current situation.
She was quiet, pondering what her response was going to be. Porter was mentally preparing himself for her to kick off, start shouting screaming and hitting. Admittedly, she hadn't done that in a while, but it was always a risk with Slick.
"T-Th-Thank you for saying that." She choked out.
"I knew I should'nae of gone, but I just wanted a break, from everythin', but that dinnae really go to plan."
"Sorry... I was panicked and-"
"It's not your fault, Electra was pissing me off anyways."
"Really?" Slick said with curiosity, her eyes lighting up with the idea of new yard gossip. "What did they do?"
"You don't... really want to know Slick." Porter said, trying his best to take her away from the sensitive subject.
"Please? I really wanna know." She begged, trying to look as sad as possible so maybe he would take pity on her and just tell her.
Porter's hand moved to the back of his neck, rubbing it sheepishly.
"They.. wanted me tae move into the electric shed."
"WHAT! OH FUCK NO!" Slick shouted, slamming her hands onto the couch out of anger.
"Dinnae worry, I said no, but they were being really weird about me declining their offer."
"That fucking freak.."
"Don't call them that." Porter said, with a small amount of bite.
Porter started to wonder how the fuck they were going to talk to Electra. He supposed that was the next step in the process, having to try and seek out an apology.
He wasn't sure if they were going to apologise... did he even want to get back with them if they did? They had really fucking offended him, but he did think that maybe they didn't actually realise the idea would cause him that much discomfort...
Hydra started stir. Porter heard a couple of fans start to whirl back to life within their body. He held his breath. Anxiously awaiting if his quick fix had been successful, or if he was going to find more dodgy repairs on repairs on his schedule.
"Hydra... mate... you ok?"
"Mhm," Hydra slurred. They started to rise, sitting up straight, before realising that was too hard and lying back to rest their weight on the back of the couch.
Porter noticed their eyes still looked a little droopy. He didn't think they were entirely awake yet, but at least they were responding.
"You feelin' any better?"
They paused, a confused look came onto their face, as they tried to figure out what their current state of mind was.
"To an extent, yes."
"That's good to hear, so what I did worked then?"
"Yes... yes it did.... that's my reset switch, it knocks me out and let's my body try and fix itself."
Hydra paused.
"I probably should have told you all it was there."
"Aye.. you should've.. but we know it's there now don't we?"
Hydra nodded, but still looked fairly shaken up.
Porter placed his hand on their knee and squeezed.
"Dinnae worry about it mate.. we know about it now, and you're all fine now aren't you?"
Hydra nodded again, the worried look starting to fall of their face due to Porter's reassurance.
"I feel like shit always goes wrong whenever you're not home." Slick chimed in, the first time she'd spoken in a while.
Porter laughed, standing up to sit in-between his siblings.
"Sometimes I think this shed would fall apart if it wasn't for you." Hydra said, shuffling closer to Porter so they could rest their head on his shoulder.
"Would'nae surprise me if it did." Porter responded.
"Which is why you're not leaving us... anytime soon... right?" Slick asked hesitantly.
"No... not right now... there will probably come a day.. but not right now."
"Good."
Porter laughed.
"Do you love your big strong brother so so much that you can't even fathom the idea of him leaving?" Porter teased, reaching over to pinch her cheek.
Slick swatted him away, but was giggling in the process.
"I just... enjoy your company... I like you being close by, you know? Don't know what I'd do if you moved out."
"Well, like I said, no plans to leave yous soon."
"I like you being here too." Hydra said.
"Glad to hear it."
There was silence for a couple of minutes, a very rare occurrence in the freight shed.
"Can we just sit here for a while?" Slick asked.
"Absolutely."
Eventually, the two of them fell asleep. It didn't surprise him. Hydra had a whole system reboot, which must of costed them a whole lot of energy, and Slick had spent all that time panicking over them. He didn't mind them falling asleep on him, he actually took great pride in the fact that they both felt safe enough to just doze off anywhere as long as Porter was with them.
His radio buzzed in his pocket.
He tried to maneuver around Slick to reach and pull it out.
Electra
I apologise for earlier. I've reflected and I now realise I was in the wrong. I'd like to speak to you in person, properly. At your shed. If you don't mind.
Porter sighed. He supposed he would have to hear them out, and in person was probably better than over radio.
Porter
Fine. My shed works. 2pm?
Electra
That will do.
Porter
I hope your apology is sincere as fuck.
Electra
It will be, do not fret.
Porter released the breath he didn't even know he was holding.
He would figure it out. He always did. He supposed it was why his siblings always came to him.
Maybe there would come a day that Porter wasn't the glue holding the shed together. That the shed didn't need his protection.
But, protecting the shed was his current priority, and he didn't mind that.