"You want us to do what?"
"Trust me Fetch, this guy's okay," Delsin assured her.
"How do you know?"
"Because he helped me. I trust him, and you should too Eugene," Delsin explained.
"Are you crazy D? He's a dupe trooper!" Fetch exclaimed.
"I know, but he isn't like the others," Delsin explained.
"What if he's lying to you Delsin?" Eugene asked.
"Ungh! Why won't you listen to me?" Delsin shouted.
"You weren't in Curdun Cay D! You don't know what they did to us in there!" Fetch snapped. Delsin stepped away from them and began pacing. He looked around at his setting. It was an old abandoned community center building with several neon signs scattered on both the stage and in the back behind shipping boxes. He stared at his two friends, sitting on small crates on the stage. He looked up to see a broken skylight that selfishly let in the sunlight.
"Guys please, I'm not asking you to trust him, I'm asking you to trust me in trusting him," Delsin explained.
"Sorry D, that isn't gonna' happen," Fetch told him.
"The Fetch I know wasn't the kind to walk away from a challenge," spoke a man behind Delsin. The three of them looked for the voice's owner. In an unlit part of the chamber, a man walked out wearing black and yellow armor and no helmet, Sam. Delsin, surprised to see him here, found the need to introduce Sam to the others.
"Fetch, Eugene, this is—"
"Sam?" Fetch muttered, "Is that you?"
"How are you Fetch?" Sam asked as she continued to walk towards him, as if in a trance. A few seconds later, Fetch was only feet away from his face. Instantly, she rushed in and hugged him. Sam hugged her back. He looked back up to see Eugene who looked just as stupefied.
"Come on, get over here," Sam said with a smile. Eugene rushed over and hugged him as well.
"I thought you got caught," Fetch whispered.
"You kidding? I'm too sly for that," Sam said, winking at Delsin. Suddenly, he was broken out of his trance as well.
"Wait, I'm so lost right now," Delsin commented. Fetch and Eugene broke away from Sam and gave him room to talk.
"I was assigned to take these two to Curdun Cay. I did everything I could to prolong their tests and I tried to get them out," Sam explained.
"Actually, I was just wondering why you were creeping in the shadows like a stalker," Delsin told him while scratching the back of his neck. Sam sighed and held his head down.
"Is he always like this?" Sam asked Fetch.
"No, sometimes he's a jerk," Fetch replied.
Delsin rolled his eyes.
"So… you guys in?" Delsin asked. Fetch and Eugene looked at each other for a moment before one of them spoke.
"If it's with Sam, I'm in," Fetch told Delsin.
"Count me in too," Eugene said.
"Thank you. If we want to rescue them, we better do it as quickly as possible," Sam explained.
"Alright Sly, we'll leave when you're ready," Delsin said enthusiastically.
"Actually, there's something I need to pick up before we leave if you guys have anything you need to do," Sam replied.
"What, like go to the bathroom?" Delsin said mockingly. Sam placed his head in his hands and sighed in response.
"Just meet me in the market over at the lantern district," Sam ordered.
"We'll be there, don't worry," Fetch assured him. Sam smiled as he walked out of the door.
"Sly?" Fetch questioned.
"What? It's his nickname," Delsin explained.
"Guess it's better than bannerman," she replieded just before bolting out of the room.
"That was just plain mean," he told himself, responding to Fetch's comment. Delsin, then, looked over at Eugene who was standing off on his own. "You were awfully quiet." Eugene seemed surprised at hearing Delsin's comment.
"I was just thinking," Eugene responded.
"About what?" Delsin asked.
"As soon as I was locked up, I wanted to leave. I wanted to go home, and for a while I kept telling myself, 'someone's gonna' save me, I'm gonna' get out of here'. But after the third year, I began losing hope," Eugene explained, "What if we tell them that we're gonna' help them, then we can't? What will we do then?" Delsin put his hand on Eugene's shoulder.
"You know, you can't worry about what might happen. All you have to worry about is right now," Delsin told him.
"But I'm worried what I'll do now and what that'll bring later," Eugene responded.
"Well… then you should… think… happy thoughts?" Delsin said, losing his argument.
"Happy thoughts? Really?" Eugene said.
"I'm out of ideas so yeah," Delsin told Eugene as he zoomed out of the building in a purplish-blue flash. Eugene sighed and looked around him. Next, he held out his hand and a baby-blue light cloaked it. Seconds later, a creature materialized from the ground up. It was dressed in a knight's fashion, held a large sword with the blade pointed down, and bore two large, feathered wings.
"I'm heading out, and I don't know when I'll be back. Seal up the dominion and hide my machinations," Eugene ordered.
"As you wish my lord, may the ancients grant you good fortune," the angel replied. Afterwards, the angel took off into the sky. Several minutes later, the three conduits had arrived at the market and were waiting for Sam.
"Come on! Where is he?" Fetch moaned while scanning the area.
"Chill Fetch, more than likely Sly's gonna' walk up to us in a disguise or walk down along the side of a building on a cable or something sneaky like that," Delsin told her. No sooner had he said that, then the loud honking of a car horn erupted from across the street. The three of them looked toward the honking car and saw Sam in the driver's seat of a black minivan with another man sitting in the passenger side seat.
"Sliding down a building? Really?" Fetch scolded while walking towards the car with Eugene following her. Delsin took a long look at the car, with the others a few feet ahead of him.
"You've got to be kidding," he said to himself while starting to walk in that direction. The three of them got into the car and stared at the stranger in the passenger seat.
"Guys, this here is Bentley Sampson," Sam said while gesturing towards the passenger seat, "He's my partner and helped me get you two out."
"You don't look like a dupe trooper," Fetch observed.
"That's because I'm not. I'm a D.U.P. engineer. I worked on the conduit scanning stations that you've seen around Seattle," Bentley explained.
"You mean all the ones I destroyed?" Delsin asked mockingly.
"Yes. However, none of us would have suspected that you and only you could drain its energy, like you did with the core relays and drones," Bentley commented.
"I don't know what powered those things, but it sure helped," Delsin said looking at his hand while smoke snaked through his fingers.
"It's a unique chemical mixture that catalyzed through the addition of gamma radiation and ultraviolet light, but we simply call it ray field energy," Bentley told him.
"Sounds deadly," Delsin added.
"That's why it's so unique, under any other circumstances, any mixture involving gamma radiation or ultraviolet light would be fatal when coming into contact with us directly or even through oxygen," he explained, "However it's proven to be an extremely reliable source of energy to power our equipment."
"Are you guys done yet? We're nearing the M.C.C. now," Sam said, sounding annoyed.
"Fine I'll shut up," Bentley said while turning his attention to the road in front of them.
"What's an M.C.C. Sly?" Delsin asked.
"Oh it's only the largest and most expensive vehicle you've been blowing up," Sam snapped.
"Oh! A mobile command center, why didn't you just say that?" Delsin replied.
"Do you have an off-switch D?" Fetch asked Delsin.
"If I do, I haven't found it," Delsin answered.
"Alright guys we're here," Sam said, sounding pleased. They had arrived near the edge of town where a mobile command center was hooked up to a D.U.P. four by four truck. However, the bridge was still in the water.
"How do you expect to get this to the other side?" Delsin asked.
"Well, I was hoping Eugene could make some angels to carry it across," Sam explained, looking over at Eugene. He held his head up in response to his name.
"Whadaya say Teen Angel? Think you can help the bus cross the street?" Delsin asked Eugene.
"Of course I can," Eugene answered with a hint of offense in his voice. He clenched his fists as tight as he could and they became pixelated, similar to television censorship. He raised his fists up to his chest and several angels materialized from the ground up one by one. They were armored knights wielding large swords and massive wings.
"That never gets old," Delsin said in awe.
"I ask you to carry this chariot across the raging river below," Eugene ordered.
"As you command," the angel closest to Eugene said. The angels gathered around the M.C.C. as Sam disconnected it from the truck. Bentley went inside and braced himself for the crash that was sure to happen. Roughly a dozen angels gathered around the large vehicle and grabbed onto all sorts of corners, equipment, and vents, and lifted it into the air. The angels carefully maneuvered it over the water and into a tunnel on solid ground, in under a minute. Eugene clenched his fist and waved it in front, causing half of the angels to deteriorate. The other half traveled back to carry back the truck.
As the truck was carried over, the conduits made their way across the wreckage. Delsin snaked through the rubble in a cloud of smoke, Fetch transformed into a blurred purple silhouette that zoomed over the water, Eugene disappeared and reappeared inside the tunnel, and Sam launched off of a small concrete tower into the tunnel.
As soon as everyone was across, the mobile command center was hitched to the truck, and Bentley came out, relieved.
"You alright?" Sam asked Bentley, noticing his friend's condition.
"Yeah I'm fine, and thankfully so is everything else," Bentley told him.
"Ah good. Should I drive while you talk to them?" Sam asked.
"Sounds like a plan," Bentley agreed. Sam leaned in closer.
"And remember, don't mention—"
"Ah hem!" Bentley interrupted as the three conduits sneaked up behind them.
"Alright, we ready to go?" Sam asked, changing the topic.
"I suppose so," Delsin said with a hint of suspicion in his voice. Sam hopped into the driver's side of the truck while the others went inside the mobile command center.
"Welcome to your home away from home," Bentley mocked. Looking around, the conduits saw four bunks tucked away at the end, miscellaneous computer consoles and filing cabinets, along the sides, a coffee machine, and a small table surrounded by chairs.
"Wow, so this is what a suped-up RV looks like from the inside," Delsin said, looking around. A look of disbelief materialized on Bentley's face.
"What? I've always destroyed these things, I never went in," Delsin defended. Suddenly, the four of them felt a jolt of motion, signaling that they were moving. Bentley grabbed a rolled up piece of paper and motioned the others to take a seat around the table. When they were all seated, Bentley rolled out the piece of paper in front of them. On it, were blueprints for a large compounded area. Fetch and Eugene both knew what it was in an instant.
"Is that Curdun Cay?" Delsin asked. Fetch nodded her head slightly.
"Yes, this is where we housed the conduits," Bentley answered.
"Try 'imprisoned'," Fetch snapped.
"You're right, sorry," Bentley said, feeling slightly embarrassed, "Anyway, here's the plan."
