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~Zivalene

inFAMOUS: Legacy of the Beast
Chapter 10

"Very often a change of self is needed more than a change of scene."
~Arthur Christopher Benson

Torin burst into the entrance of a sports bar, desperate to get out of the pouring rain and heavy winds. His police uniform had been completely soaked through, dripping water onto the black and red rug at the door. He shivered from the chill left from the storm, bringing dropping temperatures with it. It had blown in faster than he had anticipated, but he was happy to have found a living city to take refuge in.

He had parted ways with Cole and his troupe nearly two hours ago and in that time the sun had been lost behind the thunderheads and retired into the night. Madisonville was only about ten miles west of Mandeville but he felt that he had walked so much farther.

Hardly anyone inside seemed to notice his noisy entrance as they were too busy enjoying their alcoholic drinks, eight television screens and three pool tables. The cheers and commentary from the various sports channels drowned out most of the chatter and yelling.

He ran his shoes over the mat and made his way to the bar.

He quietly took a seat at the far end of the counter, leaving a single stool between himself and a clearly intoxicated gentleman. This man spoke loudly to his friend beside him, either about a dispute he had with his wife earlier in the day or something his dog had pissed on in the house; the details were garbled by drunken vocabulary.

"Hello," came running an under-dressed female bartender, nearly out of breath. "Welcome to the Riverside Bar. Would you like anything to drink tonight, sir?"

"Just a Coors, thank you," replied the officer with contrasting lack of energy.

"Hey!" The man beside him slammed his glass on the counter. "Where's my friggin' refill, toots?"

"I'll have it right out for you, sir," she said with a huff, taking his glass and rushing to the other side of the counter.

Torin lowered his eyes to the counter, keeping himself from glaring at the drunk. Somehow, he suspected that Eddy would not have been addressed so rudely at his own workplace.

Back in New Marais, it had been a full-time job keeping the partiers and drunkards under control. One Mardi Gras he had racked up seven arrests for disturbing the peace and another three for public indecency in a single night. He had only achieved two hours of sleep that night before getting back in his patrol car to start again the next day.

But those were the days he would never pass up. He had taken his job seriously with ample pride. There were never enough cops to handle all the booze in the city on any given day, much less all the murders, thefts and rapes happening behind closed doors. Had he managed to pull any of these criminals off the street, he knew his hard work had paid off.

His eyes drifted to the flat screen above him to the left. It was the only television without a sports channel showing and instead was replaced with the national news. His jaw dropped to seeing a helicopter's point of view of New Marais. The tagline below read "New Marais in ruins; Monster left with no opposition".

The woman returned and set a chilled bottle of Coors in front of him laced with salted ice crystals. He stopped her just before she continued down the line and asked for her to turn up the volume of the television.

She did so and paused seeing what had caught his interest so intently. Her eyes darted to the patch on his shoulder. A patron called for her farther down the counter and she said quickly, "I'm sorry for your loss."

Torin attempted to drown out the noise of the bar around him and focus of the voice of the reporter, requiring him to read the black and white captions at the bottom of the screen as they lagged behind the audio.

"...these images taken only a short while ago after New Marais fell to the monster that has ravaged the east coast. Cole MacGrath, the man with electric superpowers, fled to New Marais after failing to defeat the creature in Empire City. In the aftermath, there is no sign of either MacGrath or the creature, leading many to believe that he too fell victim to the explosion that wiped out the entire city. Now the question stands that if MacGrath truly is dead, is there any hope of ending the monster's rampage across the nation?"

The officer almost wanted to scream at the top of his lungs that Cole was indeed alive, that he was the one responsible for the destruction of New Marais and subsequently any city from this day forward. But he bit his tongue not wanting to bring too much attention to himself or be questioned for his knowledge.

The rowdy drunk beside him banged his fist against the table and booed loudly in protest to the Falcons scoring a touchdown against the New Marais Saints. Although Torin would have loved to think about a football game involving his home team instead of the crisis at hand, he asked for the man to respectfully quiet down.

"Oh, sorry," blurbed the man rudely. "Didn't mean to interrupt your depressing news story."

Torin was astounded by his lack of sympathy towards the subject. The event had happened hardly thirty miles away and he barely seemed to care.

Then again, that was probably why the bar was so busy that night. The people were aware that death was just a hop and a skip away from them, so why not enjoy one last drink? Not that they knew the danger was already on its way north, leaving them safe to die by their own devices.

He turned back to the television, paying no further attention to the man.

"Congress held an emergency session today in light of New Marais' destruction. In an unheard of unanimous vote, the Senate passed a bill to begin funding a new branch of national defense against the threat dubbed the Department of Unified Protection. No explicit details have been released to the public yet as to how this department will operate, however the group has been described as an "anti-Conduit defense force".

Torin felt his mouth go dry and took a large swig of his beer. He knew that Conduits were not popular, but he didn't think the government would go so far as to create a task force designed to counter Conduits. Once this news story spread, he'd have to be extremely careful not to allude anyone to his true nature.

"Joining me now is NSA Director Crawford, successor to the previous Director Houston who passed away a few days ago. He has offered to speak on the subject."

Over the phone, the Director returned the greeting, taking a moment to pay respect to the man who had filled his position before him.

"Now, Director, what is it you can tell us about this Department of Unified Protection? What about it is so compelling to Congress that made them vote clear across the board to fund this group?"

"Well, Todd, there's not much that I am at liberty to disclose at this early stage in time. What I can tell you is that this organization is imperative to the survival of the human race."

"But what can the Department do that the military cannot? Clearly the government has an ace in the hole planned to counteract this threat."

"The military has already lost thousands of loyal American soldiers to this monster—the Beast, if you don't mind me using a consistent term. I, myself, have lost two of my best agents. Raw gunfire isn't stopping this thing, not even a nuclear warhead slowed it down for very long. What the D.U.P. is meant to do is take unconventional measures to defend our people."

"And what 'unconventional measures' would those be, Director?"

"I cannot answer that at this time."

Torin took another nervous glug of his drink, disappointed that it didn't seem to have the same numbing effect on him now than it did the night before.

"Then is there anything you can say about the people who survive the monst—excuse me—the Beast's attacks and appear to gain superpowers out of it, the Conduits?"

"The only thing I can confidently say is that these people are menaces to society. For all we know, these could be the precursor to an unstoppable army against humanity. Already the military have executed nearly a hundred of these terrorists in what remains of Empire City and the east coast alone. Who's to say how many more of them have slipped through the cracks. I implore any good samaritan who comes in contact with a Conduit to report them immediately to the proper authorities and, if possible within reason, to attempt a citizen's arrest."

"But not all Conduits are inherently evil, right? Take a look at Cole MacGrath, who made the ultimate sacrifice just today trying to protect this country."

"If you'll recall, Todd, Cole MacGrath was the one who started all of this. It was his fault that Empire City was destroyed. The Beast originated from Empire City. It could very well be that he had something to do with its sudden appearance, and now his actions are costing all of us dearly."

Torin's hand suddenly burned as the glass bottle shattered in his hands. The sound and pain had startled him. He hadn't even noticed his grip tighten on the bottle. He had been completely absorbed by anxiety watching the news that he was virtually unaware how he was coping with it.

Blood dribbled from a deep cut in his palm. Glass shards and beer covered the counter.

"Aww," mocked the drunk beside him. "Looks like someone's having a bad day. Why don't you go home and sleep it off. ...Oh wait, you can't."

He and his intoxicated buddy erupted into a fit of laughter.

Torin felt a rage come over him. The man's inconsiderate attitude infuriated him. He tried to contain his temper by clenching his injured fist to numb the pain.

Then his heart stopped. The spilled drink conformed to his hand, filling in the deep slice in his palm and almost instantaneously seemed to erase the wound.

There came a clamor from those who had been attracted by the breaking of the bottle. He glanced around to find stunned gazes and drooping jaws. Even the bartender who had served him pressed herself against the shelf of liquor and glasses in fear.

"Did you see that?" asked the friend three seats over. "He's some kinda magician."

Torin rose from his seat and quickly made his way to the exit, trying not to make eye contact with the people whose eyes followed him across the room.

"He ain't no magician…" said the man he had come to abhor during his stay. "He's one of those Conduits!"

The officer heard sloppy footfalls behind him. His survival instinct kicked in, expecting that his life was in danger.

He spun around seeing the man's arm raised above his head. Torin reached out and grabbed his raised wrist, finding a long pocketknife grasped in his hand.

Without thinking, he spun the man around and wrapped his arm around his neck. He squeezed at the man's wrist, forcing him to drop the knife.

The man scratched at the officer's arm locked around his neck, losing oxygen with each passing second. Unable to pull free the drunk desperately reached down and behind himself, running his fingers across Torin's belt searching for his service gun.

Torin pressed the man closer to himself. His captive struggled against him, feet slipping against the floor and free hand flailing to find a weapon.

Finally his hand fell limp and he fought no longer.

Breathing heavily, the Conduit released him, watching him slump to the ground. At first all he felt was victory, justifying that the man had come at him with a weapon with the intent to kill then attempted to take his own gun from him.

When he reached down to make sure his gun was still attached to his belt, he went cold. He had forgotten that he had lost his pistol in the harbor at New Marais.

He looked down to the limp man, searching for a sign that he was still breathing. But the drunk's chest was still, not even taking slow unconscious breaths.

Torin felt a hundred eyes fall upon him like a sheep circled by a pack of wolves. Shouts and yells erupted, some panicked and others angry, looking to take down the terrorist.

The bartender woman had taken up a phone and already had the authorities on the line. "There's a Conduit at the bar! He's killed someone!"

At that point, Torin ran for the door and out into the wind and rain. His fear suspended any puddles he splashed through in the air, as if he had turned off gravity to the water around him.

He had no idea where he was running. All he knew was he was trying to put as much distance between himself and the bar as possible.

He ran until his lungs burned with cold air and his legs felt like they were about to fall off, finding himself in a back alley connecting several businesses together.

He stopped beside a large commercial dumpster, and pressed himself against the back wall. He hung his head, heaving breaths that sent the water on his lips splattering against the cement.

His head swiveled as he sensed motion coming from the right corner of his eye. He frowned in disappointment, seeing that it had only been more puddles rising and dancing in response to his powers.

Enraged and angry at himself for being unable to control his powers for even ten minutes in public, he threw a blind punch to relieve himself of stress. His fist met the metal of the dumpster and drove a dent into its blue-painted surface. He had hardly felt the smallest bit of pain from the impact. The amount of ease it took to cause such damage disturbed him.

Torin pressed his back against the wet wall and slid to the ground, barely noticing his pants soaking in the puddle at his feet.

He hated himself for being a Conduit. Now he was branded as a traitor by humanity. They had his face and crime on camera. People had seen him. He wouldn't last long now whether it be the police coming to detain him, the military hoping to add one more terrorist death to their head count or whatever the government had planned for this new Department of Unified Protection.

He had never felt more lost and alone. He had no idea where to go from here. There was nowhere safe to hide. His attempt at a normal life lasted an astounding two hours.

Wrapping his arms around his knees, he sat and waited. He didn't know what he was waiting for, but he figured he'd know when it happened.

Whatever it was, he wouldn't fight it. He had already wasted his one chance to do things right.

"...crews have spent the past few hours scouring the city for survivors. Thus far they have been unable to find any signs of life. Cole MacGrath was also in New Marais when the city was destroyed. However, their search has also come up inconclusive on whether or not MacGrath perished in the explosion. Most of what's left of the country is prepared to assume the worst— "

Kuo switched off the radio in the truck, letting out a tired yawn and rubbed her eyes. She looked beside her, finding Julia dozed off in her seat.

She glanced down at the clock on the radio that spelled out 11:23 in blocky teal numbers. They were running late by just a little over an hour only because Rush had insisted on stopping for pizza in Florence. Though she had tried to argue against it, she couldn't deny that meals had to be fit into the schedule somewhere.

"Hang in there, Kuo," Cole looked in from the rear window. "We're almost there."

Just ahead, the clouds were lit with a dim tinge of orange. In the distance, buildings towered above the trees and thousands of windows lit up the sky line.

"You should let me take the next shift driving," said Rush to Kuo. "All that sitting isn't good for you."

"We'll see," she said in reply.

As the quiet road merged into the highway leading into Jackson, Rush looked over to Cole who kept his eyes on the horizon. "How're we gonna do this, Boss? New Marais, take two? Smash some cars, blow stuff up?"

"No," the other replied. "The government doesn't know about us yet. They're keeping an eye out for the Beast, not a truck full of Conduits. I want to keep it that way. We take it nice and quiet, in and out."

"Blast the place before anyone knows we were there."

"Exactly."

Kuo looked in the rear view mirror towards him. "A long as everyone thinks you're dead, you might as well use it to your advantage. No sign of the Beast or Cole MacGrath, and yet cities keep disappearing. It'll send every intelligence and defense agency into confusion."

Rush glanced to Cole. "Can you tell how many Conduits are there? That's how you found us, right?"

"The only thing I can sense now is just a bunch of electricity; a stable city and people everywhere."

He took a glance around the road, feeling his body energize to the presence of electricity. All day he had felt tired and thirsty, eyes hazy with a slight headache. Here he felt awake and alive.

He took a deep breath, enjoying the pleasant feeling. In only a few minutes it would be gone and the weakness would return until they passed through another helpless town.

Cole and Rush twitched at the sound of an oncoming siren. They ducked into the bed of the truck, fearing the possibility of a police officer recognizing 'the electric man'.

Past the cover of trees came rushing an ambulance, speeding past them with blinding white and red lights. The Conduits heaved a sigh of relief.

However, Cole had an eerie feeling lingering in his brain. Whatever it was, it was pointing him in the direction of the ambulance.

"...I think there's a Conduit in that ambulance," he muttered.

"Are you sure?" Asked Kuo, keeping her eyes on the blurry lights.

"No," he said honestly, admitting he still felt very unaccustomed to the sensations of his new powers. "But it wasn't electricity I felt."

"Then I'll head for the hospital."

Kuo followed the ambulance for as far as she could without exceeding the legal speed limit too many times to avoid the attention of the local authorities. Once she lost sight of it, she adhered to the blue hospital markers on the side of the roads, eventually leading them to the Baptist Medical Clinic near the center of town.

By the time they arrived, the ambulance had already been emptied at the emergency room entrance and the patient rushed inside.

With the truck parked in a nearby alley, Cole looked to Rush with a thought running through his mind.

"What?" asked Rush once he saw his gazed fixed on him.

"You think you could go in and find whoever they brought in?"

"I hope you have a more elaborate plan than that. I'd have no way to know who I'm looking for."

"I think I have a fix for that..."

Cole extended his hand, causing Rush to lean back in question.

"You trust me, right?" asked Cole.

"Depends," answered the other, moving his eyes between the man's face and hand. "What are you going to do?"

"You'll see. Just hold still."

Rush didn't move as Cole placed two fingers upon his forehead. Unsure of what was about to be done to him, he clamped his eyes shut.

"It won't hurt, but you'll feel a little dizzy."

With a quick burst of benign embers, Rush felt the sensation he had warned him of. Groaning, he held himself up by the side of the bed. When he opened his eyes, his heart nearly jumped from his chest.

"Holy crap..." he shuddered as he stared at the animated skeleton wrapped in Cole's transparent skin and clothes.

Kuo looked on anxiously, watching Rush's expression melt into a haunted horror.

"See that yellow spot?" asked Cole.

"Yeah…" said Rush slowly with question, observing the golden glow that seemed to emanate inside his chest and snake through the rest of his body.

"That's the Conduit gene. All you have to do is go in there and look for the one that has it."

"Sure." Rush covered his eyes with one hand. "But is there an easy way to turn off the X-ray vision? It's pretty creepy looking at 'Bone MacGrath'."

Uncovering his eyes, he found his sight to be returned to normal and let out a sigh of relief.

"You'll get used to it." Cole placed a hand on his shoulder.

Rush nodded with an exhale of breath. "Might as well start practicing now."

He hopped out of the truck and began to jog across the street toward the building.

"Be careful, Rush," Cole called after him.

Kuo watched him leave and then looked behind her to check to see if Julia was still fast asleep in the passenger seat. Confirming this to be true she approached him and whispered harshly, "You gave him another power?"

"It's not like I much of a choice. We can't be seen, and I'm not sending Julia to trespass on hospital property."

"So you'd send Eddy instead?"

"He's nobody to them. And if something goes wrong, he'll be able to get out no problem."

"...But to give him one of your powers? How did you even know you could do that, much less avoid giving him something a bit more difficult to explain, like transforming?"

"John gave it to me when I ran into him in New Marais. I could give it to you, too."

"No," Kuo threw up her hand and took a step back. "No, I'm fine the way I am."

Cole gave a short laugh. Kuo was never comfortable with change. Just getting used to having powers had taken a while, and that wasn't even touching on the matter of accepting them. Now that they had crossed the line, she had accepted that the human life she once missed was no longer possible to return to.

But that didn't mean that she was any more comfortable with the idea of her powers escalating to a higher level.

They waited for almost ten minutes, listening to the distant cries of sirens and car engines rumbling through the street.

Rush finally came running back through the alley with a slight pant. "You were right, Boss. The dude they brought in is a Conduit, but..."

He stopped, seeming to have lost track of his words.

"But what?" asked Kuo.

Rush looked to Cole instead of her and questioned, "Should I be seeing a bunch of red inside someone too?"

Cole felt an invisible hand squeeze his heart inside his chest. "He has the Plague?"

"If that's what all that red on his organs is, yeah. They were pounding on his chest and using the paddles on him."

"Did they get him stable?"

"Eventually. But the heart monitor sounded pretty slow."

"He won't last much longer, Cole." Kuo began to move toward the opposite side of the truck. "You have to do it now."

She woke the sleeping girl and coerced her out of the vehicle, grabbing the map from the center column once she tiredly plopped outside.

"What about the truck?" asked Rush. "Won't it, y'know, blow up?"

"We can find another one."

The four Conduits followed the dark path behind the buildings, making distance between themselves and the potential bomb that was the truck.

Once they found a safe and secluded spot, Cole requested for the others to stand back. This blast would have to be exponentially bigger than the one in Mandeville, thus there would be more outward force to endure.

Then he closed his eyes and searched for the hidden power tucked deep inside himself, calling for it to surface at his bidding.

But this time it wasn't so readily accessible. It was buried deep inside the darkness; so far that he had almost forgotten where to draw it from.

Yet when he took command of it, it slipped through his fingers as easily as a handful of water.

He opened his eyes and clenched his brows in question.

The Conduits looked on just as curiously, waiting for the red aura to return.

Cole tried again, this time only being able to produce a single small ember from each of his hands. It wasn't nearly enough power to achieve the blast radius he wanted.

Above him a lamp flickered on and off attached to the emergency exit of a building. He raised his arm and manipulated the electricity to come rushing to fill his internal reserves.

"What's wrong?" asked Kuo with a hint of insecurity.

"Nothing," answered Cole. "Just need a little more juice is all." He couldn't keep the doubt from lingering in his voice as he spoke.

Again, he tried to summon the power, finding the flames to flicker just as faintly as they had before.

Cole's stomach filled with stones. His mind raced trying to find the reason for his lack of energy. It had worked before. He had more than enough electricity running through him to keep him going for days. So what had changed?

Then he remembered that the pressure he had carried with him since getting his new powers had released completely in the last blast. He no longer felt the pain built up in his chest.

That had been the key to his power. And nothing but a small fraction of it remained.

His eyes darted to Kuo's, his heart pounding in fear. "I can't set off the blast."