A/N: First of all, my premise for there still being humans alive is that there is roughly 7 billion people on the planet, it is highly improbable that Cole and the Plague could wipe out the entire non-Conduit population. Second, for those of you who have not yet figured it out, Rissikburg is based off of Johannesburg and Conduit City is based off of LA. Finally, please review, and review kindly, they make me happy.

2: First Sin

Conduit City was divided into 3 parts: Downtown, Bellawood, and the Outskirts. Downtown covered the majority of the city and the beachfront, while Bellawood was full of old studios, movie theaters, hotels, and various other tourist traps. The Outskirts, on the other hand, were the slums of Conduit City. Located further inland than the rest of the city, the Outskirts were a ruin, filled with gangs, rebels, and outcasts. Cole would occasionally make trips to the Outskirts to suppress any uprisings that may spark. Because of its dangerous environment, Cole has forbidden me to go there. The one time I disobeyed him was the first time I met Burke.

Burke was another Blast orphan like me and Sunny (Ryan was a street urchin before). While some orphans were lucky enough to be adopted like me, and others found homes in Downtown or Bellawood, Burke was one of the ones that fell in with the gangs, most notably, the Blood Gold. Led by a powerful Conduit from Kenya named Banga, the Blood Gold are the de facto leaders of the Outskirts. Burke had quickly risen to the rank of Enforcer and soon he was extorting the weaker Conduits in the Outskirts, mostly orphans too young to join a gang or who refused to.

This is how we first crossed paths: 2 years ago, not long after we settled Conduit City, Ryan convinced me and Sunny to go on a little excursion to the Outskirts for some "fun". During our wanderings, we saw Burke set fire to a warehouse (he's a pyrokinetic by the way). Sunny, upon seeing this display of destruction, had the brilliant idea of lecturing Burke on the importance of not destroying potential resources. This annoyed Burke a great deal and he threw Sunny through a wall. Needless to say, this angered me and Ryan. We attacked Burke but our fight didn't go very far because Cole had followed us to the Outskirts and broke up the fight. Cole was, overall, very pissed about me disobeying him and punished me severely. That day, I swore I would never go back to the Outskirts.

If I only knew…


Eli:

I leaned back in the recliner inside Ryan's hideout in Downtown. Located in the ruins of an old rooftop penthouse, Ryan's "crib" as he liked to call it, was sparsely luxurious. After discovering Ryan's spying, Cole had fried Ryan's cell phone to a crisp. Not that it made much of a difference to Ryan; he had over a dozen other phones he had lifted from various electronics stores across the city.

Ryan was currently in the kitchen getting 2 root beers from the fridge. Sunny was sitting across from me on the couch, nursing a thermos of tea and a haunted, angry look on her face. It had been 2 days since our encounter with Burke and we hadn't seen heads or tails of her since that day until she appeared on Ryan's patio, looking stricken and saying she had something important to tell us. Ryan returned with the root beer and tossed me a can while he sat down on the coffee table.

"What is it you wanted to tell us?" Ryan asked no humor in his voice. He could tell that this was very serious.

Sunny took a swig of her tea. She only drank tea when she was greatly upset, a comfort drink, she had called it. "Burke and his goons made a raid on my building. They… They took Helen."

I bolted upright and Ryan stood, calling Burke a "forker".

"This has to stop." I said "Tell Kuo about this, she won't stand for the Blood Gold abusing girls."

Sunny looked at me with hard eyes, "No, they'd see her coming from a mile away. I, on the other hand, can get to them without being discovered, but I can't do it alone."

Ryan looked at Sunny in surprise, "You want our help?"

"You're the only people I trust with this," Sunny replied.

"Well, I'm in." I said firmly.

"Me too. Where'd they take her?" Ryan asked.

"That hotel on 3rd street," Sunny said "Remember, we need to be subtle."


I blasted open the door to the hotel room Burke had taken Helen to. "That wasn't subtle," Sunny said disapprovingly.

I ignored her as Ryan and I stepped into the room. It was empty except for an 11 year old girl hiding in the corner. Both of Helen's eyes were blackened and her chestnut hair was a mess. Sunny ran to Helen and comforted her while Ryan went to search the bathroom and I went to the closet. A purple lightning bolt at the ready, I slowly opened the closet.

Before I could react, Burke erupted out of the closet, and grabbed me. Fire roared from his feet and propelled us through a window on the opposite wall. Burke released me and I fell 3 stories to the street below, landing with a hard thud. Burke used his rockets to lower himself to the ground a few yards from me as I got to my feet.

Burke smirked at me and cracked his knuckles, "I've been waiting a long time for this MacGrath."

Blood red flames erupted in my hands and I charged. Burke fired fireballs at me while I unleashed my own blast of fire. The flames collided in an explosion and I followed through with several bolts of purple lightning. He rolled out of the way and fired a large blast of fire which I ducked under. A sun grenade appeared in the palm of my hand and I lobbed it at Burke. He ducked under the grenade and rushed forward, his entire arm lighting up in flames. He swung at my head with his flaming fist and I ducked, throwing a punch at his gut. He absorbed my blow and landed a devastating uppercut to my jaw, sending me to the ground. I rolled out of the war of his follow through punch at my head and jumped to my feet, aiming a kick at Burke's stomach.

Burke caught my kick and yanked me toward him, punching the side of my head and sending me to the ground once more. Lightning flashed across my arms as I rose to my feet and I threw several lightning fast jabs at Burke. Burke dodged my jabs and I saw a flash of silver before Burke drove a knife between my ribs. Pain surged through me and I launched a desperate shockwave at Burke, sending him flying back. The pain gave way to anger and my vision clouded red. This ass had caused nothing but trouble for me for years and now he had just stabbed me? Well, I won't take it anymore.

I fired lightning bolt after lightning bolt at the stunned Burke and then I rushed forward and grabbed his head. I pumped thousands of volts into that bastard's skull and then I released him, letting his spazzing body fall to the ground. He jerked and twitched for several seconds before he laid still, his mouth hanging open and his eyes wide in shock.

My vision cleared and I noticed that several people had been drawn to our fight. I looked down at my chest and saw that the knife had been torn free by the shockwave, leaving a long, jagged cut in my side that bled fiercely, soaking my brown shirt in blood. I glanced up and saw that Sunny and Ryan were watching from the shattered window. Sunny had a look of shock on her face and Ryan was smiling and giving me a thumbs-up.

A man broke free of the crowed that had gathered and ran to Burke's still unmoving form. He knelt down and checked Burke's pulse then looked at me in horror. "You killed him."

Everything stopped. The realization that, for the first time in my life, I had killed someone, felt like a blow to the gut. Up at the window, Sunny let out a gasp and Ryan's smile faded. I looked around at the crowd's accusing faces I thought, what will Cole think? At the thought of facing Cole I did the only thing I could...

I ran.


It was well past midnight when I finally stopped running. My stab wound was still bleeding, covering my entire front in blood. I stumbled my way into a side alley. I guessed I was somewhere near the edge of Bellawood but right now I didn't really care. My side was numb and I felt light-headed, I had lost a lot of blood. My legs turned to jelly and I collapsed, landing on my bad side. My vision blurred and o could barely make out the 3 shapes moving toward me.

"We found a live one." The first shape said in a gruff voice.

"Should we put it out of its misery?" another voice asked this one cold and female.

"Why bother?" a third, smooth, voice said "He's almost dead anyways."

"Wait," Gruff said, "I think I recognize him." I felt large hands roll me on my back and I heard a sharp intake of breath.

"Its MacGrath's kid." Smooth said.

I heard the sound of a gun being cocked, "Do you want me to kill him?" Cold asked.

"No," Gruff said as I faded into unconsciousness, "I have a better idea."