Near Life Experience
Cole was halfway into the fridge when Kuo came out from her bedroom. «Good morning.» He called to her, while checking the end date for a pack of eggs. «You're up early.» Kuo yawned back. That was one way to look at it. From Cole's view, it was more like he never slept in the first place. He didn't get comfortable long enough on Kuo's sofa to fall asleep.
Kuo took a quick moment in the bathroom to freshen up and getting dressed, before join Cole at the kitchen table. «What's on today's menu?» She asked, looking over the table. «Not much. I think even Jamie Oliver would be hard pressed to make something exciting from what you had in the fridge.» Cole said, helping himself with some scrambled eggs. «I was thinking more like, what are you going to do today?» Kuo explained.
Sitting opposite across the table, Cole thought it over. There was the usual visit to Zeke at the hospital to see how he was doing, then some patrolling to keep the public peace and trying to figure out what to do next. That last part was the real trick. «Pretty much the usual.» He said. Kuo nodded, poking a piece of bacon around on her plate. «Still going to look for that woman?» She asked. That was true. He still hadn't found anything related to the woman that could fly. I better check out if my efforts from yesterday has bore fruit, Cole thought to himself.
After breakfast, the two went their separate ways. Kuo would try to get through to her contacts in the NSA before checking in with the police to see if she could help them with anything. Cole headed to the hospital to check out on Zeke and while he was at it, he asked if they had heard anything about the woman he'd asked after the day before. Sadly, they had not, but promised to let him know if they did.
Zeke was getting worse, Cole could tell. For starters, he was just put into the hospital to get some rest. No more wild adventures along with the electric man. Then they started with various painkillers and other drugs that bought a little time, but did little to heal. And now, now Zeke is strapped to all sorts of devices, monitors and what have you not. Guess this is it, huh? The idea just slowly floated to the surface of Cole's mind as he stood in the middle of the hospital room.
Cole took his usual seat and just sat there, watching out the window that was across the room. A nurse came in and checked some of the gizmos before quietly leaving again, but Cole took hardly any notice of it. He could be hit in the head with a baseball bat and he'd hardly blink. «It's not fair, is it Zeke?» Cole finally said in a hushed voice. «I guess I can relate to how you felt back in Empire City. It's not fair that just one of us...» He stopped, lowering his head. «... is going to have a near life experience.»
It was depressive, it robbed him of spirits and the will to keep up the fight, but Cole couldn't go without visiting Zeke at least once a day. The phone started ringing and it turned out to be one of the field medics out at the Gas Works, or what was left of it after Bertrand tore down most of it during his last rampage. It turned out that the flying woman had turned herself in and was waiting for Cole at the medic station. Cole thanked him and arranged with Kuo to meet her there.
They met up with the medic, who explained that before noon a woman came flying down from the skies, with a bag of medicine. She told the medic that she'd gotten the medicine from a camp several miles out of town and that it was Cole's actions in New Marais that inspired her to make an effort. «So she flew with the medical supplies for several miles in one go?» Kuo asked, amazed by the feat. «No ma'am.» The medic told her. «She had to take several breaks along the way. She's just not used to carrying such a heavy load. But she made the trip out in one go though, no problem.»
Kuo stuck around for more questions with the medic, while Cole headed inside the medic station. It was the same as always; sick and injured, young and old, covering along the walls and in the corners. Some sleeping, kids crying, parents shushing and comfortingly rocking them back and forth in their arms. Back in Empire City Cole could do something for these people, but here and now? Not so much. His healing powers were great for physical injuries – broken bones and what not, but inefficient against the plague.
That didn't stop people form looking up at him with hope, prays and pleads in their eyes. It felt like dragging several iron balls chained to his feet when Cole had to walk by them; their pleas unanswered and their hopes diminished. «You the one that brought the supplies?» He asked a woman that stood bent over a crate of medical supplies, sorting out different types of pills and needles. She turned around and was visibly taken aback by standing face to face with Cole. «Uh... yeah, that's me. I heard from the doctor that you were looking for me.» She said, sounding almost fearful.
They had a lot to talk over, but doing it in front of this type of crowd, any type of crowd for that matter, was not ideal. «Yeah, that's right. I'd like to have a word with you, outside. Okay?» Cole asked in a friendly manner. The woman nodded and followed Cole outside. Seeing the two coming out, the doctor excused himself from Kuo and headed inside to help the injured. «So... am I in some kind of trouble or anything?» The woman asked nervously. Cole and Kuo exchange looks for a small second before assuring the woman they just wanted a quick chat.
«You did the right thing, coming back and with medicine as well.» Kuo praised the woman. She seemed rather shy about it, but accepted Kuo's praise without putting herself down. «What's your name?» Cole asked. «Me? I'm Sonya, Sonya Croft.» She replied. Turned out that Sonya was an elementary school teacher, teaching in religion and history. Some of the kids at her school had found a blast shard in the school yard, and after some debate the teachers decided to confiscate it. It was entrusted to Sonya for safe keeping.
The prolonged exposure to the radiation emitted by the blast shard gave her the plague faster than any other at the school. «We wanted to hand it over to you, but we had troubles getting in touch with you or anyone close to you.» She explained. Once she was submitted to a storage turned into a makeshift hospital, her symptoms became less aggressive and progressed at a slower phase. «What about the blast shard?» Cole asked, worried that it might still be at the school, acting like a magnet for trouble. «After the... incident at the storage, I went back to the school and learned that it had been stolen by someone.» Sonya admitted sadly.
Cole thought for a moment. Several times he'd seen people walk around with blast shards. They'd picked them up, figuring they might get a finders fee by handing it over to the militia or something along those lines. Another, and scarier option, was that it could have been the blast shard bomber that stole. In search for more raw materials for his bombs, it would be easy to steal something from a school. «Did they get the guy that did it? Recover the blast shard?» Kuo asked, also sounding concerned – probably thinking along the same lines as Cole.
Sonya told them they reported it to the police, but at the time they had their hands full with just about everything else. A petty theft from an elementary school were no one got hurt fell pretty low on their list of priories. «I think we better give that case a higher priority.» Cole said. Kuo was about to object, and with good reason. Theft wasn't something they should spend time on, not with a million other issues on their ever growing list. «That is a blast shards, they're emitting radiation which is the cause of the plague. To stop more people for getting sick, we must reduce the radiation to an absolute minimum.» Cole said firmly.
His argument was sound and while Kuo didn't press the issue, she said that if Cole went blast shard hunting, she'd help solve other problems. Cole had no problems with that, and asked Sonya to come with him to have a closer look at her school. It might just be a petty theft and in all honesty, there were bigger issues than a single blast shard on the loose. The way Cole saw it, this was the best chance to coach Sonya into a decent Conduit and prevent her from turning into a loose cannon like Nix, Alden, Sasha or Bertrand.
After a quick chat with the principal of the school, Cole and Sonya had a look around. Parallel to this, Cole asked Sonya a few questions and gave her a few early pointers of what it meant to be a Conduit. She seemed to take it rather well, though she was hardly superhero material and considering her power so far was just flight, she'd not become a superhero unless her powers grew. «So how about this.» Cole started, taking a gamble. «If you could get more powers, would you?» He asked her directly, making sure she had to answer.
Sonya thought it over for a few minutes. «I'm not sure. These things comes with a price tag, don't they?» She replied. Good answer, considering that Cole had not mentioned that she got her powers from John, killing everyone else in the storage. Maybe she'd already connected those dots? «That's true.» Cole confirmed. «So, the follow up question would then be, how much would you be willing to pay to get more power?» Again Sonya thought it over for a few moments. She was a school teacher, good with kids and as far as Cole could tell, a pretty normal person.
«I'm honestly content with what I have now. With practice I can get better, maybe a little faster, but I don't feel any need to be able to dodge bullets or breathe fire.» She finally replied sincerely. That was a load of his chest, but Cole knew that these things might change. One thing is to talk calmly about it, another thing is to be put in a situation where you're damned if you do something or damned if you don't do anything. Like what happened with Cole and Trish. What would Sonya choose in such a situation? Would her powers, however humble and simple now, ever put her in such a situation? Cole hoped not.
Sonya appeared to be a people person, very good with people and had some great social skills. «Sonya, I'd like to ask a favor of you.» Cole said as the two of them walked out the school gate. «Sure, if I can help I'd like to.» She responded. «I pretty much cleared much of New Marais of blast shards, but I've seen people in the streets carrying them around. I'd like you to fly around the city and if you spot one, ask the person if they'd give it to you.» Cole told her, hoping for the best. «Right, because they're the cause of the plague.» Sonya added understandingly. Cole also stressed that it was important that she didn't touch the blast shard directly, since that would make her absorb it and consequently grow stronger.
Much to his relief, Sonya agreed to do this for Cole and hand any shards she found over to the city bank where they'd lock them inside the main vault, to reduce the radiation. It was a risk giving Sonya that kind of task and information. She could be tempted to absorb the shards and grow stronger, allowing her to fly faster and longer. While that in itself might not be much, it could spell disaster. The ability to fly at supersonic speed half around the globe would be handy for any criminal. Robbing a bank is one thing, getting away and spending the loot is another. He'd just have to keep an extra eye on her in the start, then take it from there.
Taking a lunch break, Cole was sitting on one of the verandas in Ville Cochon, helping himself with a hot dog when Kuo rang on his phone. «Cole, good news. I got through to someone that can help us out with supplies to the city.» Kuo sounded thrilled and excited at the other end. «Ha! Hahahaha! Great work Kuo! Ah man, that's great news. So who is it? When do we meet?» Cole could finally start to see hints of a silver lining around the cloud that had hung over his head the past few days. «Ah... uhm... let's see here. She's on her way now and wanted to meet first thing in the morning. Moya Jones. Her name is Moya Jones.» Cole froze stiff. «Wha...?»