We were sitting on the couch when we saw the video on the news. It went viral instantly. It's all anyone saw for weeks. From the moment we saw it, we were preparing for war. Zeke knew all too well what it was like to fight against idealistic, idiotic armies like this one. I mean, hell, Zeke got the name New Militia from what he dealt with in New Marais. It's just a bunch of moronic bigots running around causing trouble and using the group as cover to do whatever the hell they want. This group was violent. They went from house to house in a few neighborhoods and straight up murdered every known Conduit they could get their hands on. It was ugly. I was ready to go too. I felt caged up at our apartment (yeah, Zeke let us stay with him. We had no money and we actually got to be pretty good friends.). I needed to get out there and do some damage to the bad guys for a change. I hadn't used my powers for anything but construction purposes in the whole time since the DUP fell, and I kept thinking back to Curdan Cay and our training. I don't think Monica felt the same way. She was always the timid one, but I think the idea of fighting never really appealed to her, which was wierd to me considering how much raw power she had. The incident with the implosion day one comes to mind.
Zeke got his band of badass pro-Conduit guys back together. All one hundred and sixty-two of them. He told us we needed to find our friends. We had made an incredible team, fending off all of Zeke's troops at the Station for as long as we did, and we were going to need that kind of power in the fighting to come. We had no idea where they were. Neither of us had heard from Lauren since she left, and we'd never heard from Carl to begin with, but Zeke was adamant that we needed to track them down; however, I wasn't starting anything until I was back to my old level of skill. Monica wanted to avoid fighting but realized that it wasn't really something that could be avoided. I wanted her to be able to protect herself and all, so we practiced together. We came up with some pretty awesome ways to combine our powers. We used a bunch of them in the war, but I don't want to spoil the awe.
A month passed and we were at our prime again. Prime Conduits at their prime. Zeke was arming people. This was the real deal. He was contracted by the military. The military. The government was on the side of the Conduits in a war. It was a turning point for the world, even if all they did was give Zeke guns and armor and a pretty good budget to spend. It showed that threats against Conduits were a no no. It was a good sign.
We exited our training room (we had a base of operations set up with the aforementioned budget) and Zeke was there waiting for us.
He stopped us, "Alright you two. I have some good news and some bad news. Which do you wanna hear first?"
"Uh... bad," I said. Rather have the good after to soften the blow.
"Yeah, bad," Monica agreed with me.
Zeke paused for a second, "Well, too bad. Here's the good news. We found your friend Carl!"
That was good news. Carl was a cool person, even if he didn't talk, and his healing was definitely going to be needed.
"Alright, what's the bad news then?" I said.
Zeke raised his eyebrows and quietly mumbled, "Well... he's been captured by the NMs."
"What?!" We blurted out simultaneously.
"Yeah. He's down in Texas. The NMs are dug in pretty well down there. You gotta go get him out."
At this point in conversations, the point where it picks up and gets serious, Monica usually backs out and lets me talk. She wasn't a talker.
"Where is he? Do you know exactly? And how well dug in are we talking here?" I asked.
I realized that I was following Zeke to our "Situation Room" with Monica following behind me while he was talking.
"Well, no we don't know exactly where he is, but we have a pretty good idea. I mean, we've narrowed it down to Houston."
"It's a start. We can work with that."
"Yeah, but the work isn't gonna be easy. You asked how well dug in they were? Well... let's just say the DUP looks weak in comparison. These guys have tanks. I don't know how they got 'em, but they do. They have auto-turrets with multiple barrels, guns, crazy manpower, I've seen a few military grade helicopters, rockets, mortars, missles, chemical weapons, and more. They have the city on complete lockdown. There's a wall around the whole place with like two hundred dudes up top patrolling at any given time. The only way in or out is through the front gate, but they only let very select people in. They have checkpoints there to check for Conduits, and since you probably want to avoid being executed on the spot, the only way for you to get in would be through the air, but they have air to ground missles and helicopters patrolling the skies and snipers and everything."
I didn't say anything for a while. I was trying to find some way to respond to that but ended up just sighing and saying, "Well, crap." Monica didn't say it, but I could see the "Oh boy" in her face. This wasn't going to be easy.
"Yeah," Zeke said.
"Well... are we going to have any backup at all?"
"I would provide some yeah, but I need to start fighting the guys in Virginia. They've settled in just as well there. Most of us don't have powers, and the ones that do are nowhere near as powerful as you two. I can't spare anyone."
Crap. "Alright, makes sense."
"So all that's left is for you to choose which way you want to go in. Either way is dangerous, and getting in undetected isn't really a possi-"
"I can do it!" yelled a scrawny looking teenage guy, interrupting Zeke.
"Uh... who's this Zeke?" I asked.
"I'm Tony. Tony Incognito."
"Incognito?" Monica asked with an eyebrow raised.
"Well... I never knew my family, so I never had a last name. They call me that because I can turn invisible. I can control light and make it bend around me so people can't see me, look!" and he just disappeared for five or so seconds before appearing behind me. I jumped.
"See?! I can sneak in and deactivate some of their defenses so y'all can get in easier!"
We all firmly said, "No," at the same time. We didn't want this kid getting himself hurt.
"Why not?! You need to get in there, and I wanna help."
"Kid, this is serious stuff. I get that you wanna help and all, but I don't want you getting hurt, okay? None of us do. We can do this on our own. Besides, Zeke probably needs you more," I told him to try and get him to go away.
"Well, no offense to Zeke, but you're Conduits like me. I wanna work with you guys. I mean, I saw you when we broke you outta Curdan Cay. It was crazy! I want to work with that power. I look up to you two! And your friends! I just wanna help." He trailed off.
Zeke and Monica both raised an eyebrow at me, and I could tell they meant to let him come along, but the dicision had to be mononymous.
I sighed a very sustained sigh, "Look, Tony, if you really want to come with us. If you really want to help, then I'm not gonna say no," he started celebrating, but I cut him off, "but! I'm not gonna lie. This is dangerous. I've lost a good number of people since I got these powers. I've killed. This is no game."
Monica seemed to tense up when I said that last part. I noticed that and made a point to talk to her about it later, but right now dealing with our new tag-along was a priority.
"I know, I know. I've seen it too," He said quietly. "I just want to help."
I looked him dead in the eye for a good five seconds.
"Alright then. Welcome to the team." And we shook on it.
New recruit number one. There would be a few more before we saved Carl, but not until later.
"Well, if you guys are all ready," Zeke began. "We gotta get moving. Drew, Monica, whatsyourname, be careful out there. See ya' on the other side!"
And with that he strapped the holster for his gun on his hip and jogged off to his personal chopper. Government funding is awesome. We had one too, but it was only made to accomodate a pilot, and two passengers, so it was kind of cramped in there. It also had no weapons or anything. It was just a way to get from point A to point B fast. Point A was our base in Seattle; point B was Houston, Texas. We crossed the border through Oklahoma.
It was about four o'clock when we first caught a glimpse of Houston's skyline on the horizon. It was about six o'clock, the break of dawn, when we were shot down.