• • •Cole Haver• • •
I used to be somebody that you would pass by almost every day and never question. I was a bike courier. I would deliver unknown packages, no questions asked. All of this changed in a single second. I went to get a package like normal, but I kept having this strange feeling, almost like somebody was watching me, but I every time I looked around me I never saw anybody even looking at me. I just kept ignoring the feeling, why shouldn't I, I'd been having the feeling ever since my parents died two years ago in a car crash.
I got to the place where I was going to pick up the package. I started to look around for the package, but I couldn't find it. I was about to give up looking for the package when I heard a voice coming from a darker side alley.
"Your name Cole?" it said in a hushed voice.
"Yah, and who are you?" I asked, trying to get any sort of glimpse of this guy.
"Shush, try not to talk to loud. Normally I would just leave the package for a courier to pick up, but I wanted to make sure this particular package got into your hands." He held out a tightly and carefully wrapped package. I could see his hand was severely scared and burned. Man, this guy must have been through a lot.
I knew I wasn't supposed to ask any questions to start with, but it was so tempting. "Why? What is it about this particular package that makes it so important that you decided to come and give it to me personally?" He went quiet for several minutes; the only sound I could hear was the sound of traffic on the streets. That was about the point I thought I had made him angry. I seriously debated running away, just by seeing the guy's hand made me know that I didn't want to piss him off.
"Just get the package to the middle of the city. I'll give you more directions once you get there," the man said, and then he just disappeared. I just stood there, somewhat debating, somewhat wondering. I wondered who this man was, and what it was about the package that made him want to come personally give it to me. I also debated whether or not to take the package to the middle of the city or not.
"The guy just disappeared right in front of me, if I don't deliver this package, it probably wouldn't be that hard for him to hunt me down. Plus, with what I can tell he has survived, if he found me he could easily kill me," I whispered to myself.
I delivered the package to the middle of the city. I waited for about a quarter of an hour for the man to show up, but he never did. As I started to walk away my phone started to ring. I picked it up and I heard the man's voice. "Open the package," he said, and then he just hung up.
I debated just leaving the package and walking away, but if the man knew I was at the center of the city he probably was still watching me. So I decided to just open the package and get this over with. I opened the package which was my first mistake. The item looked like some sort of electrical sphere. My second mistake was taking the electrical sphere out of the package. The moment I had the electrical sphere out of the packaging and started to admire it the electrical sphere exploded, and then everything went black.
• • •
I woke up in a crater, the only stable ground there was, was the ground directly under me. I looked at myself to see how badly hurt I was, but surprisingly I only had minor burns. I looked up in the sky and saw a chopper looking for any survivors. Luckily they saw me.
"If you can walk then we need you to get up and head for the West Bridge," they told me over the loud speakers.
I started to get up when my friend Philippe called. "Hey man, where are you?" he asked in a panicked voice.
"What happened, it looks like some sort of explosion."
"No duh it was an explosion. People keep saying it was some sort of terrorist attack that caused this."
"Listen Phil, I need you to meet me at the West Bridge."
"Will do," and then he hung up.
Now that he knew where to meet me, it was only a matter of getting there. I started to run into a problem when I realized most of the ground around me was too hot to get close to. I started looking for any part of the crater that was remotely cooled down. There was only one path out, and even it was blocked by cars. "Now how am I going to get out," I thought to myself. "I guess I should try jumping from car to car to get out of this crater." I tried getting across by jumping from car to car, I just barely made it.
Now that I had got out of the crater I realized how enormous the blast must have been. From the looks of it the blast must have been big enough to destroy about four to six blocks. I didn't have time to ponder what caused the blast; I needed to get to the West Bridge, and fast. I headed off in the direction of the closest building, the further away I was from the molten ground, the safer I would be.
Once I started walking around the building I noticed all of the broken wires. Once I took a closer look it didn't appear as though the wires were close enough to hurt me. As soon as I walked by them electricity flew from the wires and coursed through my body. I looked at myself, expecting to be hurt worse that when I woke up in the crater, but, I wasn't hurt more, on the contrary, it seemed like the electricity had rejuvenated me. "How am I still alive?" I thought to myself. I kept on walking a little bit faster. "The sooner I get out of this place, the better," I thought to myself.
I finally started to be able to see the West Bridge when it happened again, except, in reverse. Electricity flew out of my body into a car, making it explode. "I need to find out what's going on, and why it keeps happening," I told myself. At this point I was starting to try and get to the West Bridge as fast as I could; I didn't care about the electricity flying around at this point. Right as I was about to climb down to the road leading onto the West Bridge electricity flew from almost everything that was around me. I tried to just keep moving, but my body wouldn't move. As soon as I could move again I kept going to the West Bridge. Once I got on the road I knew I was finally there, Philippe was even waving me over, but something didn't seem right. There was this strange feeling in my gut, it felt just like when the electricity was coursing through my body.
"Not again," I said.
Large bolts of lightning started raining from the sky; they were about as thick as a minivan was tall. I didn't know if my body would just absorb the large bolts of electricity the same way it absorbed the smaller bolts, but I didn't want to find out. For a moment, though, my body wouldn't respond, I just kind of froze there, and then, I started to make a break for it, trying desperately trying to get over to Philippe without being struck by lightning. I got lucky most of the time, with lightning raining all around me; I never knew where it was going to strike next. Finally, I made it to Philippe, but as I did I felt, I don't know, drained all of a sudden. The world seemed to be getting darker with every breath. Then I passed out.
"Attention, breaking news the mayor of New York city has gone on a rampage with his new found powers", said The news reporter.
Cole watched the horrid mayor trample innocent people into the ground. Cole currently in the town next to New York running for his life afraid of what might come if he had stayed. Cole's powers make him a prime target for the mayor. "Attention the mayor has then all powerful figures hostage, there seems to be no hope for New York" Exclaimed the news reporter. Cole only could think about one place to go, his grandfather's house. There was only one problem; his grandfather lived in New York. Cole decided he needed to live at midnight to not be seen by the mayor. Cole set off on time he was just on the outskirts of New York with the empire state building in sight when, the mayor slipped around the adjacent structure then sat precariously on top of the building. The grotesque looking being was about 40 feet tall and 10 feet wide.
"Carlos go to the west side of the city and make sure no one gets in or else" Boomed the mayor.
"Joe I'm tired we have been out all night and no one would dare come into this city now that you're controlling it" Exclaimed Carlos.
"Carlos you make another absurd comment like that it will be the end of you so DO WHAT I SAY" screamed the Mayor.
"Ok" sighed Carlos.
Carlos then moved away with the mayor to the other side of the city making an opening just big enough for Cole to slip in without being noticed. Cole arrived at his grandfather's apartment about an hour later. Luckily the building was still intact even after half of it was stepped on by Joe, the Mayor. He could see his grandfather's room with the open window the only problem was the rest of the building was gone. Cole saw half a stair case that he quickly scaled then jumped on to the top of a nearby fridge. There was a towel rack adjacent that Cole jumped and then swung from to land on the top of the original stair case. From there he made it up to his grandfather's room. Once he entered his grandfather's house the mayor's footsteps could be heard! Cole quickly shut the door and turned off his grandpa's light lamp. The footsteps came closer and closer until they seemed to be on top of the building then slowly slithered away. Cole began to search the place for his grandfather only to find that he was still calmly sleeping in his bed. Cole subtly awoke him trying not to scare him, and making sure he won't scream.
"What are you doing Cole it's two in the morning," Alden asked.
"The mayor is evil," replied Cole.
"What are you talking about boy, have you been drinking," Alden retorted.
"The mayor has turned into a giant and has destroyed New York," Cole explained.
"I knew this day would come, we need to leave now, Cole, you are not safe here." Cole's grandfather got out of bed and got dressed quickly and then led Cole out the fire escape. Cole walked slowly trying to comprehend what his grandfather was doing and how knew this would happen. Alden Cole's grandfather knew an underground route to get in out of the city. Alden had a remote house in the out skirts of New York not yet taken over. Cole and his grandfather quickly snuck into the house making sure they are not seen. Once safely inside Alden began to explain things.
"You have a special gift, you do not only have a special power but you have the strongest, you are the only one who can stop Joe," explained Alden.
"Why am I the one who has to stop the mayor," asked Cole.
"It is your destiny Cole, you are the only one left of your siblings," replied Alden.
"I don't want to go on this journey, I have too much to live for," yelled Cole.
"Very well then, you can watch your city burn and say I could have stopped that," retorted Alden. Cole stormed out of the house in anger and made his way to the hotel he was just at.
When Cole arrived at the hotel he turned back on the news to find that Alden's apartment he was just at was destroyed and no survivors were found. Cole, now discouraged, decided to head to bed. During the night he had nightmares about the beast destroying everything he knows and loves. When Cole woke in the morning he turned on the news to see that the mayor was expanding his army and getting ready to take another town.
Cole wondered what he should he listen to his grandfather or just run away from it all. He thought about this throughout the rest of the day were many things happened such as the government failed to stop the mayor from taking Albany and more and people are joining the mayor.
I woke up to Philippe shaking me.
"Get up buddy. That strange old guy is back here again."
"You mean the one that keeps saying he's my grandfather?"
"Yah, that one, he says he needs to talk to you. He won't tell me what for."
"Okay, I'll go talk to him." I rolled off the sofa, trying to make myself wake up. It had been a while since I had a good night's sleep, or even a nap. I calmly walked down the stairs anticipating what my grandfather was going to tell me this time. I got halfway down the steps and got that weird feeling that something was watching me again. I started to turn around to see if Philippe was watching me, but the feeling had already passed.
I finished going down the stairs to see Alden. I was about to ask him what it was he wanted, but I could tell there was something seriously wrong. There was this look in his eyes, a look I had never seen him have before.
"Cole, 'It's' coming for me. I have what 'It' wants desperately."
"What is he talking about," I thought to myself. "Ok, just calm down explain what it is your talking about," I told him.
All he did was stand there and study me. "'It' hasn't seen you, has it?" I just stood there wondering what it was he was talking about. When I didn't answer he got even more nervous. "'It' hasn't seen you, has it," he repeated.
"Please, you have to explain what it is that you're talking about." At this point I was starting to get a little worried.
"I don't know what the thing that's been watching me is, so I just call it 'It'," he said, trying to calm down. "I think that it's some sort of spy."
"A spy for who?"
"The mayor, all of this, everything that has been happening around you recently, it isn't a coincidence, the mayor is behind it," he said this with a dead serious look on his face. I couldn't believe he kept trying to get me to try and defeat the mayor. But, this time, I almost believed him. He never seemed so nervous before.
"Really, you want me to try and fight the mayor, still?! I thought I told you before, the answer is no." As I said this I knew that I my still fight the mayor, but, only if he attacked some close to me, like Philippe. But, Alden just stood there with a sad and disappointed look on his face. "And what do you mean 'I have what he desperately wants'?"
By the time I had asked him that, he had opened the door, but, he never moved, at least I never saw him move. "Do you understand now?" At that moment all I could do was stand there and stare at Alden, not only had the door opened with nobody touching it, Alden had opened it.
"How…?" It was all I was capable of saying. I felt like I was about to fall down when I started to feel a chair being pressed against my legs.
"You have some things to sort out, when you're ready to talk, I'll be in New York." Then he just walked out the door. I heard the door shut, and then I heard another door open.
"Phil, how much of the conversation did you hear?"
"Pretty much all of it, sorry for eavesdropping, you have every right to get angry at me for it."
"No, I'm not mad at all, I'm not sure I could get mad at you even if I tried, I'm exhausted."
"Ok buddy, you should try to get some sleep, you've had a hard time recently."
• • •Carlos• • •
"Carlos."
"Yes master?"
"Follow the man they call Cole Haver."
"Yes my master"
"Oh, and, don't disappoint me."
• • •Cole Haver• • •
I woke to a loud boom. I still was tired, and I was about to get mad, but then I looked at the calendar; I had slept for two days straight. I looked around for the source of the noise, and found Philippe watching the news. "What you watching?"
Philippe swung around. "Oh, you're awake. Come here, you need to see this."
I plopped myself down on the sofa and started to watch the news. At first I didn't know what Philippe wanted me to see, but then I realized what it was. There were images of the mayor along with images of destroyed parts of New York, which was nothing unusual, but this time it also showed another image. It was a picture of Alden. "Breaking news," the reporter exclaimed, "The mayor has recently destroyed another section of the city, but now we think he may have an accomplice, Alden McGrath. If anybody sees Alden, do not, I repeat, do not; engage in any sort of conversation or fight. Alden is to be considered extremely dangerous."
Philippe jumped up, "Did you hear that? Alden is working with the mayor of New York. I knew that he was crazy, but I didn't know he was that crazy."
All I could do was sit there and stare at the TV. Alden joining the mayor of Ney York City, that's ridiculous, Alden would never do that. "Why would he try to get me to kill the mayor only to join the mayor," I whispered to myself.
"What did you say?"
"What, oh, I was just wondering something, why would Alden keep trying to get me to kill the mayor of New York City, only to join him?"
"You know, now that you say that, that does seem like a good point."
I looked over at Philippe, "The way I see it, there are only two explanations. One, Alden is being framed by the mayor to try and get people to bring Alden to the cops, or, two, Alden has been captured by the mayor already and the mayor wants people to think Alden is still out there."
Both of us just sat there, thinking about what we should do now. Philippe was the first one to speak up, "We need to go to New York City and try to solve this."
"Wait, Phil, are you serious?!"
"Dead serious man, if we don't go to New York City, this probably will never end, after the mayor has destroyed enough of the city, he'll probably move on to another city, and after a while, he'll get here. We need to stop him while he's in New York City."
"Okay, I understand what you mean, but how are we going to get there? I mean, I can't get in a car, and we don't have a truck that I could stand in the back of, and I don't want us to have to steal a truck."
"I've got some buddies that owe me some favors."
"Well then, Phil, I think we're going to New York City."
A couple of days later we were on our way to New York City. Philippe was driving a truck he barrowed off one of his "associates" while I was crouched in the back of the truck. While we were on our way there, Phil started talking to me. "Just wondering, what do you think is really going on?"
"What do you mean?"
"When we were back in Charleston, you and me were talking about what probably was going on."
"Oh, I want to believe that Alden is still out there trying to stay away from the mayor, but, I think that the mayor already has captured Alden, and is just trying to cause a panic."
Phil thought about what I had just said for a while, and then decided that it was best not to say anything. We kept driving for a couple more hours without any problems, except for a few incidents with some drivers who got road rage. "Cole, we should probably pull over for a while. We need to refuel the truck, and honestly, I could use something to eat."
"Okay Phil, you can pull over and refuel the truck, then I'll stay here while you get some food."
Phil pulled over at the next gas station we saw. He got out and waited at the truck till we had enough gas, and then he went to go find him some food to eat. I got down from the back of the truck and started to stretch my legs, when I noticed something strange; there was still smoke coming out of the truck even though it was parked. I stared at the smoke for a couple seconds when I noticed something "different" about it; it was a blackish purple smoke.
I started to walk towards the smoke when it stopped. I started to wonder what kind of smoke that was, or if it even was smoke, and then I got a somewhat crazy idea. "If you're a person, you can come out; I'm not going to hurt you." Just when I thought that it wasn't a person at all, it started to appear again. "It's ok to come out, you know. I'm not going to hurt you, your one of the few 'special people' that are still free."
For a moment it just stayed there slightly wavering, as though it wasn't sure whether to come out and talk, or run away, but then I heard something, barely a whisper. "He won't be happy about this."
For a few moments I was excited, and then my excitement turned to confusion. "Wait, who's 'he', and why won't he be happy?"
"You've heard too much already, not to mention he already wants you dead." He was about to go before I asked him something that made him stop in his tracks, or whatever it is he stopped in.
"Were you the thing that was following my grandfather, Alden Haver?"
He said one word, "Yes," then just disappeared.
"Cole, what are you talking to?" I spun around to find Philippe looking at me with a confused look.
"I think the mayor has been spying on us."
"Wait, did you just say the mayor has been spying on us?!"
"Yah Phil, I did. What I was talking to apparently was one of the mayor's spies. To anybody who wasn't paying close attention it would appear to be a bunch of smoke."
"Well, at least we know a couple of things."
"And what would those things be, Phil?"
"Well, we know that the mayor really is watching us, and we know that we should be more cautious of who the people around us are."
"Phil, we should probably keep going," I said trying to change the subject, luckily, Phil understood and didn't question it. Phil gave me a look of understanding, and then he got in the truck. I just stood there thinking about the spy and what he said.
I started to look up, "Cole, are you coming?"
"Yah, Phil, I was thinking about what the spy said to me."
"Okay."
I started to climb up in the back of the truck when I looked up at the roof of a building, and saw a man just standing there staring at me. Then, just as soon as I saw him, he turned into a column of smoke and disappeared. I just kept climbing into the truck, not bothering to tell Philippe about the man.
I leaned up towards the front of the truck and tapped Philippe on the side of the head, our sign that we were ready to go. Philippe started to drive away when I saw the man again, except this time he was following us disguised as a trail of smoke. This time I had to tell Philippe about the man.
"Hey, Phil."
"Yah, Cole, what is it?"
"You know the person that I was talking to, well; he's following us right now."
"Wait, he's following us right now?! Where is he?"
"Look to your right, do you see the purple-blackish column of smoke that keeps staying at a constant distance from us?"
"Yah, I see it, and honestly, I think you should try to talk to it again."
"What, why?! It's not like he's going to talk to us, he even told me that I had heard too much already."
"Cole, he told you some things, and from what you've told me, he sounded like he didn't like the mayor anyway. Maybe he could even tell you if the mayor had your grandfather or not, and if he did, where he was keeping your grandfather."
"Do you really think that he would tell me anything? Even if he does hate the mayor with all his heart, he is still bound to the mayor as a slave."
"So what, we just need him to realize that we will protect him from the mayor if he helps us."
"Fine, Phil, I'll go talk to him, I can't give you any guarantees that he'll give us any answers. Just pull over the next chance you get, preferably a decently secluded area."
"Will do Cole."
We kept driving for about another fifteen minutes before we found a place to pull over. I got out and started to walk to a secluded area when Philippe started to get out of the truck.
"Phil, what are you doing?"
"I'm coming with you; I need to at least talk to him."
"No, Philippe, I need you to stay here. He's seen me before, plus, I can relate to his powers."
"Fine, I'll stay with the truck, but, if you do get him to trust us, I want to talk to him."
"Deal," I said, knowing that the chances of him trusting us were very slim. Philippe headed back to the truck, I could tell that he wasn't happy about being told to stay at the truck. I stood by the secluded area and stared at the spy. Once he realized that I wasn't going anywhere he decided to come to me.
"I can tell that you want to talk to me," the smoke whispered to me.
"Will you please just show yourself, I saw you once already, so I don't think it matters if I see you again." The smoke stayed there for about half a minute, I could tell he was debating what to do. He finally decided to show his human body, at first I didn't know what to say. His body was completely scarred and burned. Now I wasn't just questioning why this guy was following us, I was questioning what it was that the mayor had done to this guy. I started to stare at the guy, knowing I probably shouldn't.
"Now you see why I didn't want to show myself," he said without a single change in his expression. I wasn't sure what to say, I wasn't sure if I could have said anything, I was speechless.
"What…" It was all I managed to get out. I kept looking at him, wondering why I thought that I had met this man before. I kept thinking about it and finally thought about where I thought I had seen him before. I realized this was the man that gave me the electrical bomb, as soon as I thought that, I knew that I was wrong, I killed that man.
I was almost as though he could tell what I was thinking, because as soon as he saw the look on my face, he started talking. "You're not crazy you know. You did almost kill me, but I still managed to stay alive. I managed to turn into a cloud of gas; it drained me of every other power I was able to use before. After I had turned into a cloud of smoke I needed to rebuild myself, as a cloud of smoke."
"You know how to rebuild yourself?!"
"Yes, now if you want to know how I'm still alive, you need to not interrupt. Now, where was I? Oh yes, when you try to rebuild yourself as a cloud of smoke you have to stay warm, without getting close enough to a fire that you end up catching yourself on fire. It's not as easy as you think it is, when I say warm I mean about 150° warm. It wasn't until about two years ago that I was fully restored and able to become human again, and then the mayor found me. Ironic, don't you think? The moment I finally recover from nearly being killed, and then the mayor of New York City finds me, realizes what I was, and enslaved me. He tortured me until I gave him the information he wanted."
"What information did he want?"
"He wanted to know every power I knew how to use, when I told him that I could only turn into a cloud of smoke, he got mad, claiming that I could use at least two different powers. When I continued to tell him that I could only use one power he left me there in some sort of holding cell. It contained me like nothing I had ever seen before, I couldn't get out no matter what I did, I even tried to turn into a cloud of smoke and slip through any crack in the cell, but somehow the mayor had found a way to stop me from turning into a cloud of smoke."
"Why did you allow yourself to become his servant? I mean, if you hated your life that bad and you didn't have anything left to live for, why didn't you choose to kill yourself?"
"I would have, but I did have something to live for. If I had never found it, I probably would have killed myself." He looked away; I could tell that he didn't want to explain what it was that he was talking about, and I wasn't going to question him since I wasn't even able to kill him the first time.
"I'm going to stop the mayor, Carlos, and when I do, you'll be free. As long as you don't become corrupted I'll leave you alone for the most part. I'll try to save the thing you hold dear, is there any way I could find it?"
"Yes, there is a way to find it, just tell everybody there that Carlos sent you. The thing will find you."
"I'm sure they'll be fine, the mayor wouldn't kill them if they were the only thing that was keeping you from killing yourself."
"Thanks, I know you don't want to do this, especially after, you know, how I tried to kill you."
"It's okay, I was going to kill the mayor anyway, I think he has my grandfather, Alden Haver."
"Old man, able to move things with his mind?"
"Yeah, does the mayor really have him Carlos?"
"Yes, he does. The mayor is holding him in the same cell that they held me in, if I were you, I would hurry, it was hard for me to survive being tortured, the old man probably won't."
I gave him a nod, and ran back to the truck. "Phil, we gotta go. The mayor does have Alden and is most likely torturing him at this very moment. If we don't hurry, the mayor might end up killing Alden when he's trying to interrogate him."
"I don't know what you're talking about, but I'll still go. But, you have to tell me what's going on while we're driving."
"Whatever, deal, just get going, we don't have the time to wait."
• • •Carlos Flashback• • •
I looked around; I was a prisoner, trapped in some sort of confinement cell. I tried to turn into a cloud of smoke again, trying to find some way to get out of the cell. It was no use; somehow the mayor had found a way to stop people from using their powers. I tried to use any power that I could before, but it was no use. Not even the power I had stolen from Cole Haver would work.
I started to observe the cells around me, I figured that if I was trapped down here, I needed to find out who I could and couldn't trust. I started to talk to the other people who were trapped down here with me, they all told the same story, they had been minding their own business when either the mayor or some of his men came along and captured them.
Four days later
The mayor continued to interrogate me, along with almost everybody else who was trapped with me. I still hadn't had any success with turning into a cloud of smoke. I had started to squat near the back of the cell most of the time I was trapped. "Well, Carlos looks like the mayor got angry that you aren't talking. He decided that every day you decide not to talk, another innocent person gets killed."
I snapped my head up at the last statement, there was two armed guards, between them laid a woman. I could tell they had beaten her; she was bleeding and had the most terrified look in her eyes.
"Well, what will it be, will you talk, or does the lady here get a bullet in the head?"
I looked at her, she just looked at me with a terrified expression on her face, and then, she gave me the slightest shake of the head. "Don't tell them anything," she whispered to me.
"Shut up, don't say another word. Are you really going to let her die?"
I got up slowly and walked over to the barred part of the cell. I gestured for one of the guards to come closer. Luckily, one of them did, but not before handing his gun to the other guard. He came close enough for me to whisper something to him, but not close enough that I could reach him. I spit in his face, he jumped back in shock, and in anger.
"How dare you?! Give me my gun back," he screamed, obviously outraged. He grabbed his gun from the other guard, but instead of aiming it at the girl, he aimed it at me. For a moment he hesitated, obviously he had been given orders not to kill me, but instead of going through with shooting me he turned quickly to the girl.
"You've chosen, she dies." I don't know what took control of me, but the moment he said those words, I felt an energy flowing through me, an overwhelming feeling, a feeling of revenge. I don't know how, but suddenly I was running straight at the edge of the guards, lightning filling my hands. I busted out of the cell in one swift movement, the guards got less than two seconds to react before I ripped their throats out.
The girl just sat there, I could tell she was in shock, I could tell that she had lost a lot of blood. I didn't have time for this; I reached down to pick her up. She realized what I was trying to do and attempted to stop me. "What are you doing? We don't have time for this," I whispered to her.
"No, leave me. You're the one they need, not me. I'm nothing to them. Besides, I would just slow you down any way."
"I'm not going to leave you behind; I don't care if it means that he captures me." She nodded her head, realizing that I was going to take her with me no matter what she said. I helped her over to the entrance of the dungeon of cells without any difficulties. Once we got to the stairs, it became tricky to continue getting her up them. We finally got out of the dungeon and into a large chamber.
"So, you risked your life to safe a human. Somebody so beat up and weak that they can barely walk. I can only wonder why."
• • •Cole Haver• • •
Cole climbed in to the truck hoping to be able to follow Carlos without being seen. Carlos was his only hopes in finding the secret base were they had his grandfather. Once in the inner most part of the city there was a visible pit with light emitting from it. This had to be it Cole thought to himself as he drove closer to the hole. There was a sketchy stair case leading down into the pit. The middle of the pit was full of lava. The stair case creaked and splintered everywhere but held until he made in to the ground then it suddenly collapsed. Cole quickly moves to the corner to make sure he wouldn't be seen. He saw a bus sized hole that led into what seemed to lead to the rest of the cave. Cole quietly crept into the next part hoping nothing was in there. To his luck there wasn't anything in their however.
After 10 minutes of sneaking around the mayors base Cole finally found what seemed like the dungeon where his grandpa is being held. He quietly signaled to Felipe however Carlos subtly walked into the room hindering the process. In the dungeon stood 3 guards not including Carlos. 2 Seemed to be twins and the third was made of water. Carlos soon left the room after checking that everything was normal, now it was time for Cole to strike. "Felipe get over here" whispered Cole. Felipe silently moved next to Cole without alarming any of the guards however they were almost in broad daylight. "Felipe I am going to need you to be a distraction and pretend to be an escaping hostage, Ok" explained Cole "Ok" Felipe replied. Felipe promptly walked out to the center of the room and pretended to fall on the ground making a loud thud. It attracted the guard's attention they sent the water guy to get him and the 2 twins stayed watch.
Felipe ran down a long corridor to the north, that's when Cole struck he electrocuted the first twin with his power, and the second the same. Both of the men were knocked out on the ground however were not dead. The people inside the dungeon cell seemed to be powerless; the cell had an electric lock that Cole zapped releasing the innocent citizens. At the very end of the dungeon room was another door being guarded by one giant being. The being did not seem human or observant because he did not notice the other people being attacked or the citizens being freed. The creature was at least 7 feet tall and as wide as the metal door behind him. The creature was very muscular to the point that it couldn't raise its arms over its head. Cole walked into clear view of the being and the attempted to zap it with lightening, however he missed and the being began to charge him. The momentum of the creature was so great it shook the whole base. Each step it took knocked Cole off his balance, and leaving dents in the hard rock floor. However Cole charged his electric power and shocked the beast knocking it to the ground.
Cole strolled to the metal door hoping this was where his grandfather was. He tried to open the massive door however it was way too heavy. Behind Cole was the beast but it was standing up and getting ready to charge. Cole quickly thought of a way to t open the door. Cole starred down the beast taunting it until couldn't hold back any longer. The best came at him with more force this time not stopping Cole quickly stepped out of the way and let the beast run straight in to the giant door swinging it open, and also knocking out the beast. In the room were his grandfather and many other hostages with powers some were made of wind some of fire however they were all different. His grandfather was in the back talking to a fire breather, Cole quickly ran to him making sure he was ok. Everyone soon dispersed into the lair trying to find the exit however they were stopped by the mayor himself. They were in a giant room almost 30 feet tall and there the mayor stood right in the center.
All the hostages except for Cole and his grandfather ran leaving the three standing in the room. "Get ready to be pummeled" yelled the mayor, The mayor made the first move by trying to stomp on Cole however Alden saved him by throwing a rock at the giants foot Cole launched a lightning bolt straight for the mayors face, however it as deflected by a Hench man that fell from the Ceiling. Alden Using his telekinetic powers picked up the Hench man and threw him at the giant. It hit Joe the mayor straight in the face knocking him on to his heels giving Cole time to launch another lightning bolt at his face. This time connecting right on Joe's nose throwing him on to the ground, Alden pinned him with another giant rock hindering the mayor's motion. The Mayor would have none of this he easily threw the rock to the wall and stomped the ground pinning both Alden and Cole to the wall with falling rocks. The mayor decided to use a new power he had stolen from another hostage and shot 2 laser beams both at Cole, There seemed to be no hope now for Cole. "Goodbye" Cole said remorsefully to his grandfather, His grandfather using all his might picked up the rocks laying on Cole giving him enough time to escape. Cole then ran up to the mayor zapping him in the feet the running up his legs the n jumping to his chest. Cole charged up all his might then unleashed it on to the mayor's heart putting him into shock, and stopping his heart. The mayor fell with a huge thud cracking all the ground around him.
• • •Cole Haver• • •
I looked down at the mayor's body, he was a monster, somebody who deserved no mercy, but, I still felt a loss. I mean, really, he was one of the few people like me, he was special, but he hadn't liked what his special power was. If he had been given a chance, he could have been a good person, but he had chosen the wrong path. He had chosen to try and take other people's powers from them.
I felt as though this man still deserved a proper burial. He tried to do what he thought was right for other people; he just decided to do it without their consent. "You know Cole, the people down there should be freed."
I looked at him, wondering how he was going to do that. "How are we going to get those people out of there? It was nearly impossible for you to get out of there the first time."
"Cole, I have an idea. It was nearly impossible for me to get out from the inside. If we tried freeing the prisoners from the outside there probably won't be anything stopping us from using our powers."
"That makes sense; they wanted people inside the cells to not use their powers. They didn't think people would be on the outside of the cells. You go see if you can use any of your powers down there, I'm going to go find Philippe. If you can use any of your powers down there come and wait for me in this room."
"Okay. If you happen to find her, please, bring her back here." He looked the most scared I had ever seen him. I could tell he was worried that she was either not here, or dead. I was determined to help him.
"It's going to be okay Carlos; we're going to find her. The mayor wouldn't have killed her if he knew that she was the only thing keeping you from killing yourself." I knew he had heard me, even if he didn't show it. I turned to go find Philippe, it wasn't as though he was that hard to find though. I found him by the weapons stash.
"Phil," he jumped back, startled, "what are you doing in here?"
"Oh, Cole, it's just you. I was taking inventory of how many weapons were here."
"Why do you need to do that? We already defeated the mayor, sending all of his followers into a state of confusion. They won't be coming back here for a while."
"I know they won't be coming back, but that doesn't mean that all of them have left. I heard some movement up a couple of floors, and I also think I saw one of the soldiers. It was hard to tell since I only got a glimpse of them, but the moment they saw me they immediately hid from me, now tell me Cole, why would anybody do that."
"Let's go check it out, if it is one of the soldiers, he's all yours, if not I'll take them down by the main chamber."
"No, I'll go alone, besides, you should go look for the thingy that the mayor was keeping everybody's powers in, maybe there's a way to give everybody their powers back." Philippe didn't give me time to respond; he grabbed a gun and headed for the stairs.
I started to look around the armory; most of it was filled with guns and riot shields, nothing unusual, but there was something odd about the room itself, it was extremely messy, almost as though somebody, or something, had ransacked the place. I looked around; trying to find out what had ransacked the room when I heard two gunshots.
I rushed out of the armory, hoping that Philippe was alright, knowing that it was my fault if he was hurt, I let him go alone. But then, I heard something that made me relax, even if it was only a little bit.
"Stay down," I heard Philippe yell at somebody. "Hey, Cole, get up here, quickly, I think we have a way to find Alden and Carlos's friend." I ran up the stairs as fast as I could, I needed to see why Philippe wanted me. As soon as I saw them, I stopped, I was impressed, Philippe had found a soldier still in the same building as us, surprised him, dodged being shot at, successfully shot the soldier in the shoulder, and was holding him at gunpoint.
"Now I'm really impressed Phil, you actually managed to dodge a bullet from a trained soldier and shot him in the soldier, that's not an easy thing to do. Now, why do you think he knows where Alden or Carlos's friend are?"
"When I found him he already had blood on his hands, he wasn't injured until I shot him, and there isn't a single dead body in sight. To me it looks like he was torturing somebody, most likely Alden or Carlos's friend."
"Phil, you go get Carlos, tell him to come here." Philippe started to look disappointed that he didn't get to stay with the hostage. "Phil, you can still try to interrogate him, but me jolting him with electricity won't kill him, continuously getting shot will."
"Okay, I'll go get Carlos."
• • •Carlos• • •
I got back to the main chamber and started to wait for Cole when Philippe ran over to me. "Carlos, we may know where they're keeping her. We need your help though; the guy doesn't want to cooperate. If you can get him to talk, then we can find her."
"Deal, take me to him." Philippe showed me the way. Once we got to the prisoner, Cole turned around and pointed at me.
"Have you seen this man before?" When the man looked at me I could tell that he recognized me, there was a look of recognition in his eyes. The man looked back at Cole and nodded. "Then you know that he managed to break out of one of the cells down in that dungeon, and that once he escaped he ripped the throats out of two soldiers that were about to kill an innocent woman?"
Now the man was terrified to death, he knew that if he told us where they were keeping my friend and Alden we would only keep him alive long enough to find out if they were actually there. On the other hand, if he didn't tell us what we want to know then I would rip out his throat.
He pointed down the hallway at a solid iron door, "The combination is 9-6-1-4," he whispered. Cole looked back at me, but I was already headed towards the door, I entered the combination, the door opened to reveal my friend strapped to a table, she was bleeding, she obviously had been tortured. I also saw a metal and glass object over to the side, it was glowing a bluish color.
She was trying to calm myself. I looked back at Cole and yelled, "They're here." As soon as she heard my voice she turned and looked at me. I looked her in the eyes and saw the fear and pain she felt.
"Carlos," she whispered, "is that really you?" I understood that she couldn't believe it was me. She was kept up in this room for who knows how long, and tortured. She had absolutely no communication with anybody besides Alden and the soldiers.
I went over to the table and unstrapped her; she just lay there staring at me. I help her up, then thought how I didn't even know her name. It was as though she knew that I had something on my mind because she looked at me and said, "What is it?"
"Nothing, I was just thinking about how I don't even know your name."
"My name is Nicole."
I helped Nicole to her feet and started towards the door when I heard Nicole start to say something, "Wait, don't go. Whenever the mayor drained somebody of their powers, he would always store them in that metal thing over there. He always was so careful with it, once he said that if it got broken everybody's powers that were in it would be returned to them."
"So all I have to do to restore everybody's powers is break that little bluish metal thing down there."
"Yes." I looked down at the metal sphere, it looked so harmless, but it contained so much power. The only way to keep it from getting into the wrong hands is to destroy it. I helped Nicole back to the table and set her down. I walked over to the sphere and stomped on it. The glass shattered, releasing a tremendous amount of energy, it had enough force to throw me off of my feet.
Once I had regained my balance I got up and looked over at Nicole. At first I wasn't sure what to think. She was surrounded by a blue cocoon of energy. As soon as the energy dispersed I wondered if Nicole actually did have powers.
"Nicole, did you have powers before the mayor drained you of them?"
"Yes, I was a healer. I never had any problem with the mayor, but then one of his soldiers came to my house and captured me. They tortured me for several days before they found my power, then they drained my power from me. A couple of days later they brought me before you as a hostage. Now that you broke the sphere my powers have been returned."
I heard a gunshot; I rushed out of the room and saw Philippe on the ground, he had been shot in the chest. I looked up and watched Cole throw the soldier off of a ledge, when he looked back at me; I knew that something had gone horribly wrong.
• • •Cole Haver• • •
The mayor was dead however Philippe was barely hanging on to life.
"How did you stop the soldier to start with," asked Cole.
"It was easy, I shot first," Philippe whispered softly.
"I'm not going to let you die" Cole exclaimed. "What should I do Alden, he's dying, the soldier shot him in the chest, he's barely breathing," screamed Cole.
"Use your power Cole you are the only one that can save him," exclaimed Alden.
Cole then began to charge up his power; He had only half his power charged when he remembered if he used too much power he could stop Philippe's heart. He abruptly stopped and rubbed his hands together to find that when he did that a new type of electricity appeared and it was pink, Cole slowly zapped Philippe with the pink electricity. The first time he began to have bigger breaths the after three more times the holes in his chest began to heal very quickly as well as he got his pulse back. Cole had now discovered how to use this new found power of his as well as the reward. Cole now had the ability to heal things however it took lots of his energy and if not used responsible could mess up the balance in the world and cause over population.
Cole helped up Philippe and they walked out of the lair together hoping no soldiers were still around. Fortunately there weren't any and Philippe gained enough energy to walk on his own. On their way back to Cole's hotel they looked at all the devastation the mayor had caused as well as all the things already being built. I guess the world had gotten around quickly the mayor had been stopped and that New York was safe again. All the people that helped the mayor were soon put in jail, or, in some rare cases, killed, and the city was rebuilt in 3 years. Cole had become a city hero as well as his grandfather and friend Philippe. The new mayor had been chosen and was verified that he had no powers so he could not take over like the old one.
Philippe was nursed back to full health, against his wishes. One day I came back from rebuilding the city to visit him. He gazed out of the window like he had something on his mind. "Philippe, what are you thinking about?"
Philippe looked over at me and said something that I had been wondering about myself, "Where will we go after New York City is rebuilt?"
"Well, Philippe, if it's okay with you, I was thinking we could settle down somewhere in New York City."
"That sounds nice, oh, another thing I was wondering… when are they going to let me out of this place?"
I chuckled to myself, "I see what I can do to get you out of here sooner."
5 YEARS LATER
"Do you remember when the mayor tried to take over the city" Cole asked
"How could I not after all I nearly died if it wasn't for you" Philippe replied
"Yeah that was a real close one" Cole said
"You're telling me, during that whole time I could see a bright light in one direction and a dark hole in another," Philippe exclaimed.
Cole and Philippe then got off the phone and continued with their new daily lives, Cole as a Police officer and Philippe as a teacher. Most everybody by then had forgotten about the endeavor with the mayor however Cole and Philippe would never forget about the time were they almost died and defeated the Mayor. From then on they were known as the saviors of New York and a statue was built of the in the middle of Times Square!