proLOGUE: The Calm Before the Storm

Heavy breaths, water splashing, and feet slapping on concrete were all that could be heard in that alley in the City of Angels as I, Ellen DeAscentus 17 years old as of last October in 2018, was running as fast as my legs would take me. Behind me, no more than 10 feet away, were the bullies giving chase. I really had not meant to anger them today, but an unfortunate push in the high school lunch line had caused me to knock into the the leader and spilling pudding all down the girl's front. Needless to say, they waited till the end of school to get back at me. It had rained the night before and the cold air stung my lungs as I felt the water splash up around my legs soaking my pant legs.

"Get back here, you little bitch!" their leader, Laurie, yelled. Little was perhaps a little too accurate of a description. I was short and thin. A total bookworm by choice, my lack of athletic prospects except my recently developed running on a regular basis left her at a mere 5 foot 0 inches. As I ran, I knew they were going to catch me eventually if I could not change things. The bookstore! I cut across the street barely managing to dodge a car on my way. Taking a quick moment to look back I could see the bullies slowed to avoid getting hit by the cross traffic. With this opportunity, I ducked into the book store.

"Well then, it's little DeAcentus. Good to see you today," the book store owner commented. He was a strangely tall older Asian gentleman. He was often wearing suits, vests, pocket watches, and I even caught him once donning a pair of pince-nez.

I looked at him and moved to a back room I liked to study in. "Hey Mr. Yamamoto. Got lots of homework and need some space. Talk to you in a bit," I said hastily. Mr. Yamamoto seemed to be taken back by this outburst until he looked back towards the door and saw the group of girls readying to enter. However I had closed the door to the study room at this point. I pressed myself against the far wall and squeezed in between the bookshelves in the corner. Sitting down, I tucked my legs in tightly, kept my head down and hoping to just disappear. Books never hurt me like this. Then I heard the doorknob turn and the door open. My heart leapt up into my throat and I felt the tears begin to well as I curled up tighter.

"Little Ellen, where are you?" Mr. Yamamoto called softly. I looked up to see him looking around the room. I squeezed out of my corner as he looked my way. I moved closer to him then collapsed into his arms crying. "Oh, little Ellen. You are safe now, I have sent them away. Shh," he comforted me. Mr. Yamamoto was one of the few friends I had in this city. Being the owner of this bookstore put a lot of point in his favor, but mostly it was his caring nature that made him the best friend I could ever want. On top of which, he was my dad away from home, since the step-dad did not like me all that much if the bruises on my arms and torso were an indicator. Life in the City of Angels was far too hellish for the name.

After crying for a few minutes, I composed myself. "Thank you," was all I could say to him. I headed for the door. "I should go home. We'll talk later ok?"

He chuckled. "I'll be here," he replied. He always was.

I made my way out of the shop. The fastest way to get home would be to go to the end of the block, to avoid being out for too long. I was only about 10 feet from the store when I was grabbed and dragged in between the buildings.

"Hey bitch!" Laurie greeted me and then punched me in the face. If all three of them did not have at least 4 inches on me, I may have tried to fight back. No, that would just make it worse. The two goons held me in place for their leader. Fist after fist, hit after hit and I was starting to lose consciousness. I guess they realized this because then they threw me at a nearby trashcan. I landed in the cold water and the temperature shock woke me right up. The loud clanging of the trash can caught my attention for some reason and the contents that spilt out looked like old files of some sort. That was when things suddenly changed. It was a force, pulling at the edge of my mind at first. Those old paper files called out to me in a way I had never felt anything before. I don't know why I did it. I reached out to the old files like they were a lifesaver and this puddle I was laying in was an open ocean. The second I laid my fingers against them, my body changed. It was light at first, but I felt myself feeling, nothing. The pain was fading away. The paper in my hand disappearing into my skin.

"Where do you think you are going?" My bully's voice, which once scared me, demanded from behind me. One of her goons picked me up held me in Laurie's direction. What followed was perhaps the weirdest sensation I have ever felt, the sensation of my body, painlessly scattering into sheets of paper when Laurie's fist first made contact with my face, it then slipped completely through the maelstrom of paper and nailed her own friend in the face. My paper flew down the alley they had pulled me into and I reformed a distance away from them sheets of paper slipping back into place as my body rebuilt itself slowly from the head down.

"You really are a freak aren't you?" Laurie accused. "I am going to have my parents call the DUP on you… you Bioterrorist." Laurie ran with her goons in tow. I felt strangely good, powerful. But then the dread sank in suddenly. I was one of them, a conduit. I can't go home. What should I do?

"Ellen, you are a conduit?" I heard a familiar voice ask. Looking up, I saw Mr. Yamamoto at the end of the alleyway.

"I-I-I," I struggled to find the words. I turned and got ready to run but my body had other idea as I fet myself shift awkwardly, like my body was no longer a singular entity but many entities working in unison. When I got my feet solid on the ground I tried to run.

"Wait! Ellen," Mr. Yamamoto called out. I heard something break behind me. Next thing I know, something had me by the ankle mid-stride. Looking down, the sound that escaped my lips from what I saw was almost nonhuman. A hand made of sand gripped my ankle. I fell forward and for a moment, my foot seemed to separate from my body. When I landed, the paper slipped out of the sand and back to where my foot was supposed to be. I looked back up to see Mr. Yamamoto connected to the sand hand, on the far end. At his feet was a broken jar. Was he carrying around sand? What am I thinking? He's a conduit?! "Come with me, Ellen."

The sand returned to him and he seemed to absorb it into his body. How did he control it that well? I walked over to him awkwardly, trying to keep my body from separating again and he walked back into his store. "Be careful around the books, I do not know how volatile your powers are for absorbing your material!" he explained loudly as he dug into the back of his counter.

"Mr. Yamamoto… you are a conduit?" I asked him slowly. Of course he would be taking this well if that were the case.

He popped back up from behind his counter. "Guilty as charged. And please, call me Mike. We're peers now," he said pulling up with him a strange device. It looked like a cellphone but… different.

"This is a palm pilot. I have no particular care for it, but I need you go to the address I write on it. Your powers kinda make writing it down elsewhere impossible for the time. You must not go home, not now at least. The people here will be able to help you, cause I have to warn you, it is going to get worse before it gets better," Mike(?) told me hastily. "You must have questions, we have a little time."

"Mr… Mike," I started, I did not like this at all. "Why did this happen?"

"Well, I am not an expert in conduit-isms, but it seemed that you being near your element in a highly stressful time, jump started your conduit gene," Mike explained. "I do wish mine had made itself known like that."

"How did you get yours?" I asked avoiding referring to him by name.

"Naturally just happened one day, at the beach," he explained. It became painfully clear how the rest of the story goes from there. "Let's just say there is a reason I am still single." He did lightly chuckle after that comment.

"Why do I need to go to this address?"

"Well," Mike remarked slowly, "how much do you know about conduit history?"

I sighed. "Not much to be honest, they don't really teach that in school."

Mike then went back under his counter and pulled from it a picture. It was of a man facing off against a giant red man. "This right here, is one of the most important moments of conduit history. The man here is Cole MacGrath. He was among the members of the first wave of Conduits. They were much rarer back then, but with the threat of the Beast on the horizon… he was one of the greatest single heroes in history. He was considered dead shortly after this picture was taken. To save all of humanity at the cost of conduits around the world, he defeated that beast. Well, years later the government doesn't want us to know his story. They want people to fear us, hate us. Only to have Delsin Rowe show up in Seattle this year to prove to the world why they need the D.U.P. Sigh, look we don't have much more time. Get to this address, you need to not be here when the D.U.P. show up," he said. I took the palm pilot and looked at the address. It was uptown. "We'll see each other again, Ellen. I promise, I won't leave you out there alone."

Everything was happening so fast. "Goodbye, Mr. Yamamoto," I said and I made my way outside. I could not let him see me cry twice in one day. I pulled my scarf up over my chin and pulled my hood up over my short dark hair. As I stepped out onto the crosswalk a piece of paper blew across my path. With no cars in sight, I reached out to it and caught it. I immediately felt it start to join in with my skin. Why did it feel so natural? Was it always like this for conduits?

Making my way through the city, it no longer felt like my home. I was constantly looking over my shoulder, keeping an eye out for anyone who might know me, so I could be ready to run the other way. My old life was over now. It took my nearly an hour to get out of the downtown and as I walked the crowds got thicker, easier to hide myself inside. I pulled back my hood but kept my scarf pulled up over the bottom half of my face, just incase. The people around me seemed to tower over me and my solitude never felt more real than in that moment. It would be another hour before I got to the address provided to me. A place called Cole MacG's Electronics. Why did he send me to an electronics store? I pushed open the door and all that was here was a man with a shaved head.

"Welcome to Cole MacG's," he said not looking up from a magazine in his hands. "How may I help…" he paused when he actually looked at me."...You," he finished.

I cleared my throat, "My name is Ellen, I was told you could help me."

"Well we have all manner of electronics, what can I help you with?" He asked.

"Well… I-I-I," I started to stammer trying to make sure I was in the right place without giving to much away. "I am not here for electronics." He raised his eyebrow at me. "Mr. Yama… Mike sent me." This got a reaction. He simply looked at me and then nodded.

"Head into the back kid, the boss'll be in to see you in a minute." he gestured to the door behind the counter. I walked over to it and he watched me go. The room I entered was an office. A desk with a name plaque that said, "Cole MacGrath." Wait, Cole!? Like who Mr. Yamamoto told me about from before?

The guy from the counter walked in and sat down in chair. "So, you are a conduit then?" he asked. His voice was rough and gravely.

"Y-y-yes. I just found out today actually," I admitted. "You are Cole MacGrath?"

"I see Mike has been talking about me again," Cole commented idly. "Those days were a long time ago. So what is your material?"

"Paper," I told him.

This prompted Cole to take a notepad from his pocket curl it up and toss it at me. The paper landed in my hand and immediately began to meld with me. "So you really are brand new, huh?" He asked out loud. I got the feeling it was rhetorical. "Look, I gotta be honest with you kid, being a conduit nowadays is not easy. You gotta make some hard decisions about your future right now, cause anyone who spends too much time thinking ends up in D.U.P. custody or dead. There is the Conduit Underground. They could teach you to use your powers, but they are a bit militaristic. Strongest are leaders and all of that. You could let the D.U.P. take you, but if even half of the rumors are true, then I highly suggest you don't. Or you take to it like I did, just survive on your own. You'll learn quickly that you have have become physically stronger, faster, and more resilient to damage. Of course you will have me and Mike around, and…" his phone rang. He sighed and went to answer it. I thought about the last option. Could it really be any worse than living at home right now?

"Zeke? What's up?" Cole said into the phone. "Give me a moment to put you on speakerphone."

The phone suddenly started letting off noise. "Alright man, you gotta hear this. You heard about what the D.U.P. has been doing up north right? Seattle on total lockdown, conduits be warned and be damned right? Well the kid Delsin Rowe we've been hearing about? It is worse than we thought. He won. Everyone is more scared of conduits than ever. The news is on its way south, you best be extra careful till I get back, brother."

I could not believe what I was hearing. As it turned out though, Cole and Zeke were both far too right about what happened next. Delsin Rowe of Washington State made an official declaration against the DUP and the world that conduits were here to stay, that they were the thing to fear on this planet. Within weeks of this event, the DUP had set up camp in the City of Angels. They ended up separating the city into four districts which locked me into the Uptown District. Both a blessing and a curse, since the D.U.P Would have looked for me in the residential district thanks to Laurie, but now I am separated from Mr. Yamamoto, the only other person in this city I could trust besides Cole. The Conduit Underground also schismed into four pieces each one fighting the good fight to survive in their districts. It was in a single moment though that put the City of Angels in hell. Delsin Rowe was reported to be on his way to City of Angels with two other conduits in tow. Two conduits who assisted him in setting up a massive break out from Curdun Cay Life became very difficult and I found myself hiding in dumpsters on more than one occasion. I on the other hand had been training my abilities with Cole, who was the only other person in this City I could trust. While I had control over my abilities for the most part, I still could not have much contact with Paper without simply absorbing it still. However, it was better than nothing. Especially cause I was constantly finding out new things about what I could do now. However when Delsin arrived in the City of Angels, everything would change.