Chapter 2: Decisions

Evelyn bent her head down and looked down at the cup of coffee in her hands. Its warmth radiated through her palms and she sighed gently, peering over the hood of her hoodie as she took another sweeping glance through the place. Ever since yesterday, she was on edge. They would be looking for her and she had to keep on the down low or else they'd capture her too. Now that she made the decision to try and go after Elijah, she couldn't afford to get captured. She'd have to try and keep away from the D.U.P.s as much as possible and keep her head down. More posters of her face had been plastered everywhere, which made it a bit difficult to go places without being recognized.

Mostly, she tried to stay away from public places, but she still needed to eat. She used the money that she and Elijah stole yesterday, but she only bought what she really needed. The rest would be for him when she got him back. Well, once she figured out how. She wasn't even sure where to begin. Maybe by getting into a D.U.P. station and trying to figure out what they had on their computers about the facility they took her best friend too. Only problem was, she was horrible with computers and it was likely that she would have to hack into one to get what she needed.

Bringing the coffee to her lips, she savored the flavor as it slid down her throat and warmed her chest. Her eyes flickered up as someone entered the coffee shop. It was a young man, probably around her age. He seemed slightly suspicious by the way he looked around as he wandered toward the counter. His head was covered with a red beanie and he wore jeans and a jean jacket with a graphic design on the back... Of two eagles? Were those the same she had seen on the flag hanging from the Space Needle yesterday?

He must've felt her gaze on him because his eyes jumped over to her suddenly. She lowered her head a little more and averted her gaze, pressing her lips together and trying to look as normal as possible. It seemed to do the trick until a body plopped in the seat across from her and she nearly groaned.

From beneath her hood, she peered at him as he looked at her with a weird look on his face, as if he was contemplating something.

"You look like you could use someone to talk to," he decided, biting into his crescent and taking a sip of his drink. "Lucky for you, I've got my hands free. Er..."

He set down the crescent and coffee. before continuing. "Well, free now."

She said nothing, not quite sure of what to even say anyway. He definitely seemed like the confident type and she wasn't. Besides, he basically invited himself to sit across from her without even asking. Maybe he'd just leave if she didn't say anything, but still...her mind flashed back to the eagles on his jacket and it made her wonder if he was the one going around and tagging things. Or maybe he'd just gotten the jacket made after he saw the flag too? Seemed unlikely, but that was always a possibility as well.

"Hello...? Are you um...deaf? I dunno how to sign, uh..." He looked up to the ceiling in thought and then tried to do some motion with his hand.

She rolled her eyes and sat back a little, still not tilting her head up so he couldn't see her face that much. "I can hear you."

"Oh! Well good. Didn't want to talk to a pretty lady without her understanding my intentions," he flirted, grinning broadly.

Oh. So he was one of those types. She stayed quiet, taking a sip of her coffee. Almost gone and starting to get a little cool. She could leave soon and try to continue on her mission.

"Ah, so you're one of the playing hard to get types? I personally love a challenge. Haven't lost one yet," he bragged, leaning back in his seat and studying her.

"Look, mister-"

"Delsin. Delsin Rowe." He held out his hand, which she ignored.

"Fine, Delsin. I'm not really in the mood for this? I have somewhere to be and I really have to go," she decided, sliding out of the booth and standing, crumpling the empty cup of coffee in her hand and shouldering her backpack.

Before she gave him the chance to speak, she exited the coffee shop, starting down the street with her head bowed low to keep her face concealed. Cameras were always everywhere, which was why she preferred to scale the rooftops, but she couldn't easily do that without revealing her abilities.

She only made it half-way down the street before she was pulled to an abrupt stop with a hand encompassing her forearm. The abrupt stop made her spin and lose her balance and the hood slipped from her head as she turned to face her confronter. She should have known it was the Delsin guy.

"At least tell me your name?" he asked with a wink, not realizing exactly what he had done.

Evelyn spotted a security camera just over his shoulder and a bunch of curses tumbled from her lips. Prying his hand from her arm, she shoved the hoodie back over her head.

"You should go. Now." She licked her lips and turned, starting a quick pace down the street and toward the nearest alley.

He didn't seem to take the hint because she could hear his footsteps pounding behind her, but she ignored him. Her strides lengthened and she could hear the faint sirens of the D.U.P. heading their way. It would have been nice if they didn't plaster her face everywhere so she could move about freely, but they were determined to catch her. It would make her approach of getting to Elijah much harder. If there was a way she could disable the security cameras and maybe somehow block out the facial recognition, it would make her goal a lot easier. Maybe that was where she could start...

She stopped suddenly at the end of the alley, causing Delsin to ram into her and knock her over. With a grimace she, hit the pavement, right at the feet of a D.U.P. as he jumped out of his vehicle. Her heart hammered in her chest and she quickly scrambled out from under the man, diving for cover as the gunshots started.

"What the hell, man?" Delsin shouted.

No doubt he'd be dead within seconds for interfering. But when she poked her head out from behind her cover, she noticed that he wasn't. And he was actually fighting back. With smoke and ash spiraling from his fingertips. He was a bio-terrorist too?

Her thoughts were cut short as a bullet nearly skimmed the side of her face and she was grabbed from another side.

"I got her!" the D.U.P. holding her shouted, which only fed her abilities.

Channeling the sound waves coming from his shouting, she thrust out her hand toward him, projecting the echos of his own voice back into his face. The force of her attack sent him reeling back and luckily he let go of her so she didn't go flying with him. With him out of the way, she took cover once again, glancing back to the other side of the street where Delsin was also fighting, though his attention has seemed to be locked on her for a moment after she got rid of her own goon. She almost shouted at him to watch out as another D.U.P. aimed at him, but she paused and remained silent, weighing her options.

No matter what, she needed to get away from these D.U.P.s. Whether that meant slipping away quietly while this stranger fought off most of them or fighting back until they were all unconscious was still to be determined. Her instinct was to run now while she could because she knew she couldn't fight them all off. Her abilities were strong, but she never unlocked their full potential. She had always been too afraid because she didn't want to hurt anyone. At this point, she didn't think she'd be able to fight back even if she wanted to.

So that was why she made the decision to run.

While all the chaos was still going on around them, she stood and bolted. Delsin shouted at her, but she didn't stay to listen. Not like she could hear him very well anyway. Her heart was ramming against her ribcage and the extreme volume of sound was echoing through her mind much more rapidly than she could control. She could even hear conversations from blocks away, but the most prevalent were the gunshots and sirens. It was all too much.

A lone D.U.P. had followed her, but she blasted him away with another burst of soundwaves from her hands. It temporarily relieved some of the strain of echos in her mind and brought her back into focus long enough to see that this Delsin guy was following her - by slipping into smoke and swirling through vents back and forth from building to building.

Was she ever going to get rid of him?

Evelyn skidded to a stop just as that smoke cloud appeared in front of her. She took a moment to look behind her for the presence of D.U.P.s, but there were none. Straining to listen, she ignored him in front of her going on about something. She couldn't hear any more gunshots, but the sirens were still going. More distant than usual, probably just the D.U.P. vehicle still stuck back where they were before.

"Hello? Are you even listening?"

She snapped her head back to Delsin, who'd moved a little bit closer in an attempt to try and get her attention.

"You should go," she muttered, turning and pushing her palms down to make herself hover over the ground with a barrier of sound.

Without another word, she pushed herself up to the roof of the building next to her. She landed a bit sloppily, but then quickly moved toward the edge facing the street so she could get a better look of everything around her. Not surprisingly, she heard footsteps again an she nearly rolled her eyes.

"You know it would be nice if you gave me a chance to actually talk to you," Delsin said sassily, crouching down beside her.

"I don't want to. I already told you, you should go," she responded, continuing to scan the streets.

She ducked slightly when she saw a few police cars and D.U.P. vehicles driving down the street, most likely to where they were last.

"Hey, you're the only other conduit I've met, I'm not letting you go that easy," he shot back.

Standing, she turned to face him, taking a few steps back. "Conduit? You mean bio-terrorist?"

"No. That's what they call us. We're not terrorists. We're different, better."

"We're not better. You think this is a gift, but it's not. It's a curse. Just wait and see." She shook her head, retreating backwards further.

"You're believing their lies. They tell that to everyone, but it's not true. We're special," he countered, stepping toward her.

Who was this guy? Did he know nothing about any of this? She'd never officially met any of the other bio-terrorists in the city, but she knew they were smarter than this guy. He was cocky and just by looking him up and down, his attire showed he was more of the hipster-rebel type.

"Like what you see?" he quipped, smirking.

She was caught off guard, which caused her to blush lightly, but she rolled her eyes. "Who are you?"

"Delsin. I already told you. Who are you?"

His stubbornness and unwillingness to leave her alone was frustrating her and she found herself striding toward the edge of the building and leaping to the next, eager to put more distance between the two of them.

"Will you stop that?!" he shouted after her, causing her to quicken her pace.

Why can't he just go? Doesn't he get it? She couldn't understand how he could still want to pursue her after she told him countless times to leave and basically dumped a whole truck of D.U.P.s on him. She didn't want another presence with her. All she wanted was to curl up into herself and try to figure out how she was even going to muster up the courage to get her best friend back.

A hand wrapped around her shoulder and that was the last straw.

With a swift turn, she shoved him backwards and sent a wave of pulsating sound flying at his chest. In the blink of an eye, he'd shifted to smoke and appeared a few feet to the left, successfully dodging the attack. This only frustrated her more and she sent another one flying toward him and then bolted for the second time that day. She just needed to get somewhere safe - somewhere where the noise was drowned out so that she could think.

As he gained on her by swooping forward in bursts of smoke and ash, she turned up the heat of her own and used the soundwaves to propel her faster. Apparently, it wasn't fast enough because as she flew over the gap to the next building, she was pulled to an abrupt stop with a tug on her ankle. Instinctively, she latched onto the nearest thing, which just so happened to be the smoke stack.

She didn't want to let go and give up, but as soon as her skin made contact with the metal, her flesh began to burn and she couldn't stop the cry of pain that escaped her lips. Her reflexes acted on her own accord and she let go, which made her fall a few feet to the roof below, with Delsin still holding onto her ankle. She aimed a hard kick at his hand.

"I just want to talk!" he spluttered, letting go when his thumb bent backwards.

Not listening to him, she used her freedom to leap off the side of the building and levitate herself with the sound waves to the next one over. She thought that she had the upper hand, but he tackled her in mid-air and sent them both plummeting to the alley below. Now not only were her hands throbbing painfully, but the air was thrown violently from her lungs as she landed on her back.

Delsin used her shock to his advantage and grabbed her wrists, placing them above her head and straddling her hips to keep her from squirming as he pinned her to the ground. He leaned over her, panting and seeming relieved that he finally got her to sit still.

"I know a lot of girls like to play hard to get but sheesh...," he murmured. "Can't give a guy a break?"

"Get off me," she breathed, wheezing slightly from the lack of air in her lungs.

"No can do. Well at least not until you tell me who you are and why the D.U.P.s are so interested in you."

"I'm a bio-terrorist. Of course they're interested in me."

"It takes a lot of talent for someone to have their face so quickly recognized on camera. And it's conduit. We're not bio-terrorists. I already told you."

"Delsin?"

Her eyes snapped up when another voice entered the picture. She should have heard him coming, but she had been so focused on the man pinning her down that she couldn't even focus on the everyday noises around her.

This new man looked very similar to Delsin, but older and more uptight. The one thing she noticed right away was the patch on the shoulder of his jacket that indicated he was a cop. Red flags went off in her brain and she knew she had to get out of this. He could arrest her and she'd end up right where she didn't want to be.

"You can't just tackle a lady like that. What are you even trying to do?!"

"Calm down, Reggie, she's like me," Delsin replied with a roll of his eyes.

"Seriously? We came here to fix you, not run off and make friends with criminals! You know I have to turn her in now, right?"

Those words ignited a spark in her. She had to get out of here and fast. So she did the first thing that came to mind: knee him where the sun doesn't shine.

Her attack shocked and hurt him enough to make him loosen his grip and that was all she needed. As soon as he let go, she jumped to her feet and started for the wall of the building they originally fell from. She only made it to the edge before a gun cocked behind her and she froze in place, breath heavy as it left her lips.

"Stop! Put your hands up, now!"

"Reggie-"

"Put your hands up and turn around!"

Evelyn's mind raced. She had no idea how many bullets this guy had in his gun. Her faster healing would likely be able to keep her from dying immediately if she got shot anywhere vital, but headshots would put her down for good. Could she die before she got captured? Probably not. She was terrified of death and her cowardice would be her downfall. It had already caused the downfall of her best friend. Sooner rather than later, it would cause her own downfall as well. Given the situation, it probably came way faster than she intended it to.

"You have until the count of three!" Reggie boomed.

"Dude, will you hold on for a second?" Delsin tried.

"One!"

Her heart started to pound faster as the thought of dying flashed through her mind.

"Two!"

"Reggie, no!"

The noises were too overwhelming. Everything echoed inside of her brain, hindering her thought process. Even people laughing from several blocks down at the pier stood out clearly to her as if they were right next to her. Delsin and Reggie's arguing was the loudest of them all - deafening and crushing to her mind. She had to make a decision and fast.

"Three!"

A/N: Here's chapter 2! Thank you guys so much for your support on the first chapter! Hopefully this chapter is a bit more exciting, as it introduces Delsin and Evelyn to each other. I'm really excited to keep publishing chapters and I hope you enjoyed this one! :)