Chapter 6: Drug Bust
As soon as Evelyn made up her mind, the three of them headed outside to go and talk. They climbed up to the nearest roof and settled down on the edge, overlooking the night streets of Seattle. She rather liked the city at night and it made her feel a little more at ease for the looming conversation ahead of them. With her decision, it meant she was going to work with Delsin to try and get to Augustine. Both of them needed to get there.
"I'm Fetch, by the way," the pink-haired woman spoke, crossing her legs and peering at her. "Evelyn, right?"
"Yeah...uh nice to meet you," she said, nodding slightly and settling on the edge of the building.
"Likewise. So um...you two have been clearing up the D.U.P.?"
"Uh...more him, really."
Delsin got comfortable next to them and nodded, pulling his legs up to lean against them. "Yeah. We're trying to get to Augustine. She's taken something from us... Only way to do that is clear the streets of the D.U.P.s and work our way up."
"And you want me to help?" Fetch clarified, raising an eyebrow.
"It'd be pretty nice if you did," she commented.
"Look I'm really glad that you didn't have your buddy back there take me in but...if you're going to Augustine, I can't help you."
Her stomach sank. The more people they had to help get to that dreadful woman, the better off they were. Delsin seemed a bit surprised by this as well, probably because he couldn't believe that someone didn't want to take down Augustine for all that she'd done to people like them.
"Hey, my brother thinks I'm being responsible for you... I can only keep him from arresting you if you at least...you know, help us out a bit." He shrugged, adjusting his beanie.
A thick silence hung in the air as the pink-haired woman took in his words and looked down at her lap, her chest heaving in a sigh. "Alright. I'll help you get around. But when you get up to Augustine, I'm bailing."
That was at least acceptable. Not ideal, but acceptable. Hopefully with their combined work it would make the task easier. She was a rather rusty and under trained with her abilities, so working their way up would probably help her to increase her ability to fight and take on these larger tasks. Delsin seemed under trained as well, but he had more experience than her so she would have to learn from him.
"Alright. That's fair," Evelyn agreed.
"Good. But I still need you to do something for me. Tonight," Fetch interceded, folding her arms.
"And that would be...?" Delsin raised an eyebrow.
"I need you to help me break up a drug trade. It's a big one, a really big one. And I'd need all the help I can get. Would you do that for me?"
Delsin scratched his nose and shot a glance over at her before nodding. "Yeah. Yeah we got you."
"Thank you. It's supposed to go down soon. I gotta head back to my crib and get something, so why don't you two go ahead and head to the harbor? I'll meet you there soon and you can call me if you get held up." She pulled out her phone to exchange numbers, of which Evelyn couldn't do because she didn't have one.
Once the numbers had been exchanged, Fetch hurried off, just leaving her and Delsin once more.
"Alright, better head over. You wanna lead? Everything's still a bit new," he said with a shrug.
"Sure. But we should stick to the roofs. D.U.P.s aren't as active at night but they still wander around."
She leaned over the edge of the building to get a brief look before leaping over the edge and dashing in a swirl of white to the next roof. As they went from roof to roof, he remained close behind, occasionally whooping with adrenaline. He was so different about his abilities than anyone she ever met was. She was always believing that she was cursed and it always seemed like the bioterr - uh, conduits - on the news seemed to hate who they were. Never did she really consider her abilities something to be desired.
She decided it wasn't exactly the best time to get lost in thought so she shut those thoughts out and focused on where they were going and soon, they reached the harbor. It seemed unusually busy today, so she decided the best thing to do was to reside on a rooftop across the street and scope the place out while they waited for Fetch.
A few minutes passed without any sign of her, so she took a seat with her back against one of the decorative outcroppings.
"So you know I never learned exactly what your powers were," Delsin broke the silence, sitting across from her.
She pursed her lips, figuring she might as well try and trust him if they were going to be doing this all together. "I manipulate sound waves. Concentrate them enough to fly, to use them as a weapon..."
"That sounds...kinda awesome? There's sound everywhere, it's like you don't even need to recharge."
"It's...not all it's cracked up to be. You can't...stop the noise. Ever."
"Yeah but doesn't everyone have to deal with that?"
"No. Everything to me is...amplified. I can hear things from blocks away," she explained.
"Oh...how do you cope?"
She sighed lightly, looking up at the stars for a moment and shrugging. "You just get used to it. Learn to block it out."
A small silence settled between the two and she looked over at him. He was seemingly thinking, trying to figure out what to say, maybe. He was always the talkative guy since she had met him. But to her surprise, he actually decided to stay silent and didn't say anything. Alright, well it wasn't that bad. Silence was always soothing to her anyway, even if she could still hear the echos of voices blocks away.
However, the silence was cut short when his phone rang, which she suspected was Fetch. He put it on speaker and scooted closer to her so they could both hear, though she didn't really need it.
"Hey look, guys the trade is going down now. I got caught up so I'm not gonna be there right away and I need you guys to find the boat houses with the drugs and mark em," she explained, seeming out of breath.
"What did you get caught up with?" Delsin asked, a tinge of annoyance in his voice.
"I had to get the time out of this no good, drug scum. Now hurry, these things go down fast. I'll cover you when I get there."
Evelyn took a glance down at the dock, a twinge of nervous energy leaking into her bloodstream. This was going to be her first time being on the offensive with her powers.
"Alright, got it. See you soon," Delsin said, hanging up. "Come on, let's get down there."
She nodded slowly, waiting for him to go first before charging after him. Landing on the ground quietly, she sprinted forward, heart beginning to hammer in her chest as they approached the dock. Everything seemed alright and it was actually really beautiful out tonight, but as they got further onto the dock, they were spotted. Gunshots began to fire and she ducked behind a little shack, wincing as the bullets flew their way.
"Shit! What do we do?" she exclaimed, shooting a frantic look at Delsin.
"We fight! If we split up, it'll be faster to find the stashes. You head further in and I'll handle it here!" he decided, pressing his back against the wall of the shack.
"No!" she blurted, unable to hide the fear in her voice. "I don't...I don't really know what to do yet! I need to stick with you."
"Aghh! Alright fine! Just fire at the bad guys and keep a look out for the stashes!"
Even though she was still fearful, she felt better that she was going to stay with him. Now she just had to muster up the courage to move out of cover and start fighting back. He was doing so with no trouble, still charged up with the powers he stole from Fetch. His phone rang again and he ducked back into cover to answer and put it on speaker.
"I'm on the roof, I got ya covered!" Fetch shouted. "It's a big trade so there should be more than one stash! Probably three."
"Gotcha. You're not gonna come down and help?" he hissed, holding his shoulder as a bullet grazed it.
"I'm better up here."
Evelyn blew out a deep breath and listened carefully. The footsteps of one goon were heading closer, on her side too. Fetch and Delsin were still arguing over the phone and she couldn't rely on him. She had to do this herself.
She inhaled, soaking up all the noise that was being caused by her two fellow conduits and formed a ball of sound waves in her hands. When she was ready, she tossed it right to the side and it landed right at the feet of the dealer. As soon as it landed, it exploded in a flurry of shrieks and shouts, causing him to fall unconscious to the ground. Part of her was so relieved. She'd actually done it. But then there were more. More they both had to take care of before they could search through the first couple boat houses.
The sound was all around her. It would be easy to harness, she just had to bring up the courage to move from her spot and fire back. Delsin was doing it with ease and cockiness. Why couldn't she?
With this thought in mind, she sucked up enough sound to fire a quick shot when she poked her head out of cover. She missed her mark, but given this was the second time she actually helped tonight, she found it increasingly easier to continue and shot a few more before she actually hit her mark.
"Atta girl!" Delsin shouted with a small smirk.
She rolled her eyes but couldn't help but feel a little accomplished. This was her first...well fight. And she was actually not hiding the entire time. She was helping.
The confidence spurred her on and the two of them continued to shoot back with Fetch's help until they were all unconscious.
"Let's go ahead and check the houses," he breathed, not wasting a second to go ahead and jump from the dock to the deck of the boat house.
She followed suit, shaking her hands out and searching for anything that might seem typical of a drug deal. As she rounded the back, she noticed a large stack of coolers. That seemed a bit sketchy. So she opened up one of them and sure enough, a large stash of drugs was packed away inside.
"Delsin! Found one!" she shouted, which caused him to come running to take a look.
He nodded upon seeing the drugs and then gestured for her to follow up to the deck. "Got one, Fetch. I'll mark it for you."
"You're just looking for any excuse to tag, aren't you?" the pink-haired woman snorted, causing Evelyn to laugh.
Pulling out his spray cans, he started to spray. "You just don't know art when you see it."
"Never said it wasn't art," she pointed out. "She just said you were obsessed with it."
"I just happen to think it brighten things up a little. Would you rather see a plain wall, or a piece of art?"
"Everyone's perception of art is different," she added, causing him to scowl.
"Stop being logical and loosen up."
She rolled her eyes and crossed her arms over her chest, watching him work. It didn't take him very long to spray a little dog with a target in his mouth. Good enough, she'd be able to see that.
"You'll be looking for two more. I can see a bunch more of the dealers on the other side of the dock," Fetch said, interrupting them.
With that, the two of them were headed over to the other side of the dock. She was right, it seemed incredibly infested with dealers. She ducked down behind a pile of boxes and peered over, trying to think of a strategy.
"So I think if we use stealth to go around and-"
She never even got to finish because Delsin was barging right to the center of the fight, shooting at the first guy he saw. Her stomach twisted and she shook her head, sighing lightly and deciding to hang back and shoot when he came under too much fire. This time it was a little more tricky since there were more goons and she could barely move from cover to shoot. At one point, one of them even grabbed her from behind and she had to wrestle her way out of his grip and hold him down with a burst of sound waves.
The attack sent her reeling and her anxiety came back in full swing, making her want to run. The urge was strong, but she resisted, simply sinking down to the ground in cover and trying to steady her breaths. She heard Delsin yelling somewhere further away and knew he was calling her out.
Okay...okay you can do this, Ev...
She jumped up again, eyes honing in on the nearest dealer. Her aim was shaky, but she managed to get him after a few tries. It was a continues duck and shoot motion, but again, they were able to get through all of them. A look down the rest of the dock revealed that there didn't appear to be anymore and she let out a sigh of relief.
Their smoke friend had already appeared to find another stash just a dock away and was about to tag the wall when he paused. She heard a screaming coming from inside.
"Wait!" she shouted as he jumped down to open up the door.
As soon as he did, a woman scantily dressed came running out of the building, seemingly terrified. At least she was now safe.
"You go ahead and look for the last one, there aren't any more around so you should be alright," Delsin assured, tossing her something.
She barely caught it, but did nonetheless. It was one of his spray cans to use to mark the boat house. Okay well... Giving him a nod, she twirled the can in her hand and then headed further down the dock. There were only a few other houses left to check.
The largest one was clear and the one after that was as well, but she got to the last one and lo and behold, there was a drug stash. So she climbed up to the deck and stood across from the wall, trying to decide what to spray there. She could just do a nice big "X", but she knew Delsin would complain about it. The can he gave her was red, so she had to do something with red.
Never had she really tried to be artistic, so she didn't know if she really was, but for some reason, a thought came to mind and she just went with it. She shook the can and then started to spray, taking a minute to get adjusted to the paint flow. Moving quickly, she drew two birds as best as she could, though she was unable to do much with just one color. When she was finished, she took a step back.
"What's that supposed to be?"
Delsin came up beside her and she handed him the can, crossing her arms.
"Two birds. You know, kill two birds with one stone. Or...you know, one laser blast," she explained, shrugging.
He hummed in appreciation of the clever idea. "Not bad, not bad. You know, you should start tagging. You've got some artistic abilities."
He bumped his shoulder with hers, throwing her off balance because she wasn't expecting it. Steadying herself, she shrugged.
"Ahh I dunno. Not really the tagging type. Plus it's illegal," she pointed out.
"Well...we're technically roaming the streets illegally."
Yeah, that was true. But still, that was just to stay alive. Maybe she could more appreciate tagging if it wasn't on random street buildings.
"Alright, let's get back to Fetch. She's probably waiting for us to get out of the way," she murmured.
"Yes, she is!"
Oops, she was still on the phone. She couldn't help but smile just a little and she leaped down from the deck of the boat house, starting to make her way across the dock with Delsin trailing behind. They got to the main dock with no problems, but as they got near Fetch's location, another group of dealers confronted them. She swore and took cover just as a bullet nearly skimmed her arm. Were these guys ever going to give up?
This time, the amount of dealers was considerably less and Delsin's aim was improving so they were able to take them out pretty quickly. She noticed she was getting progressively better as well, though she still remained in cover most of the time as opposed to him, who got himself right in the middle of the scuffle.
Still, she was feeling better about this whole thing, though she knew as soon as she would have to start fighting the D.U.P. that it would be a whole different story. For now, she was just going to think about this fight, which ended abruptly when Fetch shot down the last guy. The whole dock was littered with unconscious drug dealers at this point. It would have been comical had they not been the cause.
"Meet me on the roof across from the dock! We can finish this," Fetch instructed, a small glow coming from up high to show where she was.
The two of them headed to the light, ignoring the civilians giving them weird looks. She got herself to the top with her sound waves while Delsin ran up the wall with neon. The pink-haired woman was waiting for them, seemingly excited to destroy these houses.
"Stand back a little." She gave them a slight smirk and then readied herself before shooting a powerful pink laser at the first boat house.
It exploded in a burst of color, almost like their very own firework show. Each house lit up the same way, but with different color fire igniting each on the first impact. She had to admit, the woman's powers were rather beautiful.
"Now we just gotta wait for the truck. Should be here soon," she said, wiping her hands on her pants and settling down.
"I think I'm gonna take a nap. Gotta get my beauty sleep," Delsin murmured, flashing them a grin as he laid back on the roof.
Fetch rolled her eyes. "Just be ready to get moving."
He gave her a thumbs up and then went silent. Evelyn decided to settle down as well, relieved for a bit more time to relax. She was surprised to hear Delsin's snoring moments later and she shook her head lightly, not knowing how he could fall asleep so quickly.
"So how exactly did you meet D?" Fetch spoke up after a moment, keeping her voice slightly low.
She decided to scoot a bit closer to the other woman so they could talk a bit more freely. "Ah well... I bumped into him a few days ago. I think he was trying to be all smooth... I kept telling him to get back. My um...my friend was taken by the D.U.P. a few days prior and I had to keep my head low, you know? My face isn't exactly secret around here. But he kept following me and I got confronted by the D.U.P. I eventually got away but, he wasn't letting me go. His brother confronted both of us, let me stay with them for a day, but... I think his interests aren't in my best interest."
The pink-haired woman nodded slowly. "So, I guess you're trying to get your friend back...?"
"Yeah. He's been my best friend for a while now. Understood me when no one else would. It was my fault he got taken away and...well I gotta get him back. I didn't really want to get anyone's help... Didn't expect it. But I kinda figured out that I'm not so good at this stuff and...yeah."
She took a minute to look at the sky, seemingly thinking over something before she nodded. "Yeah I've been trying to do the solo thing... But uh... I'm realizing that it's kinda nice to have some help."
Their likeness revealed itself in that moment and she felt connected to her. She knew there were others out there like she was, but she never really sought them out. Her only friend had been Elijah and she thought he was all she needed. But now that she was meeting others, even if not by her choice, she was finding it wasn't such a bad thing. Her reclusive self had been holding her back.
"You know, I think you and I... We'll be good friends," Fetch commented. "And your style is good enough for me to associate myself with you."
Evelyn couldn't help but laugh at that. "Ah well your style is good too. Did the pink hair come before or after?"
"After. But you know, as a teenager I always-"
A loud screeching of tires interrupted them and she leaned over the edge to see what it was. A truck.
"It's them. D, wake up!" Fetch exclaimed, reaching over and whacking him lightly on the leg.
He startled awake mid-snore and sat up, fixing his beanie that had slipped slightly, almost revealing some of his hair. She got to her feet and watched for a moment before the truck started to move.
"Follow me and stay out of sight," Fetch murmured, turning on her heel and jumping to the next roof in a blur of pink.
Delsin still seemed somewhat sleepy and Evelyn patted him on the shoulder before following after the woman. It was much easier to stay out of sight with the rooftops and she didn't cause bursts of pink light every time she flew so she wasn't all that worried about being spotted.
They got a few blocks away before the truck stopped in an alley and a group of dealers waited on the ground for it to be unloaded. Fetch seemed to be itching to get involved and started firing as soon as the driver got out of the truck. She remained slightly hesitant again, though she tried to remember that she had been fine at the dock and this was less people. Even sleepy Delsin was joining in and she steeled herself and decided to maybe take a page out of her new friend's book and work as a sniper of sorts.
It was a good idea she had because she caught many of them off guard. The men had only seen the other two and she was able to whip up a few sound grenades - a new acquired ability of hers thanks to Delsin's core relay - and take a good amount out. A few times, she got snagged with bullets, but healed quickly. All ten of them were unconscious within minutes and she slid off the roof, landing roughly next to the truck.
A loud banging from the truck came from her right and she looked up, taking a moment to listen to the cries of help coming from inside. She quickly rounded the back as the other two came forward.
"Someone's in there," she said, causing Delsin to roll up the door.
A small group of prostitutes were huddled together in the back with the stash of drugs behind them.
"Alright ladies. C'mon, let's go. Yes the bad men are gone," Delsin said, moving aside to let them get out. Go. Live. Love... Just not professionally."
She watched as the women ran off and Fetch called out to them.
"If you want to get clean, now's the time! There won't be any more drugs on the street! Don't screw it up! And...they're gone."
Evelyn stretched lightly and turned to lean against the truck as the pink-haired woman slid down from the roof and took a seat next to Delsin.
"You think a couple of low-life bio-terrorists will ever get thanked for saving people?" he asked, staring into space as he pondered his own question.
It was a good one. All her life she'd been looked at as a freak. She never really thought it would change but...
"Yeah... I think you might have saved me," Fetch murmured, smiling bashfully at him and then coming to her side to nudge her. "And her, though she won't admit it."
Evelyn rolled her eyes and shook her head, though didn't deny the fact. She didn't think he saved her, per se...
He raised an eyebrow and stood, seemingly curious. "Oh really? So what, you're going to give up on your whole ritualistic murdering of drug dealers? It's like half your charm."
"Oh yeah? So what's the other half?"
"Actually that was it. Your...just the one...charm."
"Classy," she commented while Fetch leaned toward him.
"Don't worry, I'm not giving up on my passions. Just...finding new ones," she breathed, then balling her hand into a fist and striking him in the gut. "Like boxing."
Delsin groaned, clutching his stomach. "Was that your whole attempt at like a tender moment? Help me out, Ev, she needs to work on that, doesn't she?"
She put her hands up in surrender, not wanting to get in the middle and took a step back.
"Pft. Passive as always. You know, you're too much of a people pleaser. The rebel kind, ya know? And Fetch...you're just a sentimental psycho-path."
The other woman rolled her eyes and gestured for them to come over. "Come on, just help me with these."
Evelyn hopped on board and knelt down to collect a duffel bag.
"You know, I think you like me. Both of you," Delsin mused, eliciting a laugh from Fetch's lips.
Maybe. Maybe that wasn't such a far-fetched statement.