Hello and welcome back!

It's been a long time and I'm sorry.

A lot of stuff happened. Short version: in the past two years I lost two people (family and friends) and currently my grandpa is in the hospital and it doesn't look too good. There's also a lot going on with the family bc of that. There are nights/days where I sleep like 2 hours bc my brain just won't let me sleep. I put a lot of time in writing a DnD campaign for friends - we played before and the usual DM wanted to play himself and I wanted to give it a try. Due to recent developments we haven't met since October and I feel like I put my time in something that isn't needed anymore.

Which is why I'm putting my time back into things I enjoy, like writing stories, and more importantly into things I know others enjoy too.

Knowing people read what I write and leave comments makes me happy. That's why I want to focus on that more.

So again, big sorry from me for making you wait for so long. I know what it's like to look forward to knew chapters of stories you read.

I try to not let that happen again - and have my best friend remind me every once in a while. :)

And now, without further ado, finally a new chapter. Hope you enjoy it.

"So", Reggie and his brother sat in a small diner, enjoying a peaceful moment together, along with some very late breakfast given that Delsin had been out with Yana. The food was nothing like what Betty would make for them. She tended to make way more than they could eat but it was too good to say 'No' to it. The food from the diner tasted good and it kind of was the first real meal they had since they had come to Seattle. Well, of course they had eaten other things since they arrived but that usually meant take away. Sitting here was nice and Reggie had enough time to inform Delsin about what he had found out. "There seems to be a lot going on near Pioneer Square, there were several reports of dead bodies and.. strange messages that were left behind. Yana was talking about that, wasn't she? Something like 'remains of powers'. Seems it's a bit more than that."

"Is there anything known about the victims?"

Shaking his head, Reggie answered. "No. Nothing out of the ordinary. According to the D.U.P. that is", with that he leaned back on his chair and paused for a longer moment. "If I'm honest.. I feel like Yana was right about this. That this is a hunt."

Delsin was visibly surprised. "How come?"

"Well, I've been to the S.P.D. to ask about those murders. I didn't get any information about them though because the police isn't allowed to say anything about it - order by your friends. But one officer actually talked to me. Told me they're not even investigating those murders. Which is more than just a bit strange if those are actual murders to begin with. So I'm thinking they might not be allowed to", he took a sip from his, now, lukewarm coffee. "They're the first at the scenes but shortly afterwards the D.U.P. arrives and from there on no one is allowed near the bodies or the scenes."

"Not even the police?"

"Not even the police."

"So what now? Am I just supposed to walk around the city and hope to be at the right place when something happens? I mean.. I don't have problems with fighting against the D.U.P. to get closer to any of these scenes but I might not catch the Conduit", Delsin doubted Fetch would stay close after killing someone. So far it seemed the D.U.P. had no clue where she was which meant she was carefully not to leave traces. At least none that would take the D.U.P. right to where she was at.

"I know, but maybe you can get some clues since we don't really know anything. I want to know who these people are and why they were killed. I feel like there's quite a lot to do to 'earn' the wrath of a Bio-Terrorist and be hunted down like this."

"Conduit."

"Sorry", Reggie gave his brother an apologetic look. It would take a little more time until he would use that word since he wasn't used to it. The only reason for him to learn it was the fact that Delsin himself was a Conduit now. So far neither of them had had contact to one. Living far from big cities kind of kept them safe in their own little bubble of comfort. Delsin more than Reggie since he had been away from home a lot more because of his job.

"Just try to remember it. I don't mind if you call me Bio-Terrorist though it's.. not a nice feeling. Others might not take it as well as me though."

Others.

Like Fetch who was, given what Reggie knew so far, probably not as forgiving as Delsin was.

"I'll try my best, promise. But I'm not like you, it.. what happened to you is hard for me to accept. You're my little brother and you got into enough trouble before. This whole situation isn't helping", Delsin simply nodded at his brothers statement. Reggie couldn't tell if Delsin could understand his worries or not. While the younger adapted to his newly acquired powers faster than at first assumed – Reggie remembered the first reaction Delsin had shown towards him after he got his powers. The first shock, the fear. All Delsin wanted was to turn back time and now it seemed like he had forgotten all that.

He liked his powers.

No, he loved them. And no matter what would happen in the next days, weeks or months, he wouldn't want things to be 'normal' again.

"Listen Delsin, I know you might not want to hear about anything I tell you."

"Especially not when you play your big brother card and try to tell me what to do. I get that you're worried about me, I really do. But I'm fine. I'd say 'Don't worry' to you but I know it wouldn't make you feel better at all since this whole situation is a bit.. complicated", oh how Delsin was playing this down. A bit complicated? Every D.U.P. in the city was after him, Augustine was after him. The people of Seattle were torn between being happy because of Delsin's help and being scared of him. Hell, he was surprised no one had called the D.U.P. helpline or whatever exactly it was called. The number was practically on every second poster throughout Seattle.

And right now he wasn't really playing hide and seek.

He was in a diner. There were a lot of people around, there was a small TV behind the counter warning about Bio-Terrorists every few minutes – why was no one paying attention?

Out of fear maybe?

Thinking back to Betty he sadly remembered what happened to his friends, his family, because they protected him by not saying anything to Augustine. Not like they knew anything. Up until that point no one had any idea that Delsin or anyone of the Akomish could be a Conduit and even after the events at the fish cannery no one seemed to mind. Which put them in the situation they were now.

They hadn't been afraid.

So maybe being afraid was a clever thing.

Stay away from the D.U.P. and don't anger a Conduit. Also don't hide a Conduit or help them in any kind of way.

Not calling the D.U.P. seemed a bit like helping though. So maybe the only reason for no one to call for help was to keep the D.U.P. away. To pretend everything was normal.

"What's going on on your mind?"

Turning his attention back to his brother rather than the people around, Delsin shook his head. "Just wondering why no one calls my new friends."

"You want them to come here?"

"No. I just feel like the people are slowly accepting me. Conduits", he shrugged. "I told you I met Yana earlier right? I met a friend of hers as well. Just like now, we we're sitting in a place with lots of people around but besides giving me strange looks they did nothing. She even told me her friend was happy to find out his way home is now faster because of one missing checkpoint. One checkpoint Reggie. He was happy about that and I feel good about that. Being able to help others and being accepted by them."

"Can't say I'm not happy about that too", Reggie smiled. He was still on guard though. Keeping an eye out for anything that indicated someone would run away screaming and call for help. But it didn't happen. Nothing happened during the time the brothers spent at the diner.

Aside from a sudden ringing, signaling an incoming message on Reggie's phone. Looking at his phone a smile made it to the man's lips. "I guess there's no need to walk around waiting for something to happen anymore", Reggie pulled out some money for the food and put it on the table before standing up and heading outside. Delsin followed him closely behind. Reggie had already called the number who had sent him the message back and began talking to someone. Delsin identified that person as a police officer after hearing a couple of words from his brother. The call wasn't too long and when Reggie finished he turned to look at Delsin. "We got a new address; 5th corner Briar - but please promise me to stay back and be careful."

"Of course Reg", and with that said Delsin was already making his way up to the roof of the building.

"No problem little brother."

Shaking his head a bit he stood on the street. Same as when Delsin went to climb up the Space Needle, Reggie stayed back. It was better this way though it was hard for him to just watch without doing anything. Not that there was something he could do besides offering his brother information. He couldn't fight the same way Delsin did after all. Feeding him information had to be enough and that was what he had to do now as well. He definitely needed a quiet place from where he would be able to talk to Delsin via phone. Preferably a place where he had access to a police computer and their database.

~ooo~

The way to the address Reggie had given to Delsin wasn't too far away. Not for a Conduit who could make his way over the rooftops and through vents anyway and so he reached his destination after a short amount of time.

There were several police cars standing on the street. The officers themselves didn't seem to be interested in Delsin that much, instead they focused on getting information on what had happened to their superiors. Or what they thought had happened. Even here, a few feet away from the actual crime scene, Delsin could see trails of pink light all over the place. Be it the street, houses or cars. It was basically everywhere. It was the very same light Delsin and Reggie had seen on their way to Seattle, when they reached the checkpoint in front of the tunnel leading to the city.

Yes, this definitely was the doing of a Conduit.

And if all the information he had gotten until now where true, this was Fetch's doing.

"Reg, can you hear me?"

"Loud and clear."

"I've arrived at the crime scene. There are a lot of police officers but no D.U.P. as far as I can see."

"That's good. It'll give you time to check out the surroundings and see what you can find. Just one thing: please don't kill any officers."

"Understood. My phasers are set to 'stun'. No need to worry", he reassured his brother. "I guess I understand the news now. This pink light is everywhere. You know, the same back at the tunnel."

"Right track huh?"

"Yeah.. indeed", he had followed the light until he stumbled upon a sight in an alleyway that was rather disconcerting to him. A body, upside down, impaled to the wall of a house with pink light acting as pegs. The same light had been used to paint skull and bones above the body. Though instead of the bones like one would know them from pirate flags, it were two syringes. Delsin's view fell to something on the right. "'A promise kept'."

"I'm sorry?"

"That's written on the wall with the.. light."

"Okay.. okay..", Reggie let out a sigh. "Listen, send me pictures of the area: the body, the wounds, anything that could be interesting. I'm at a police station close to the diner we've been earlier and can check their database. Maybe we're able to find out something about the victims."

"No problem", and with that Delsin began to take pictures and send them to Reggie who went to check the face of the victim by letting the picture run through the former mentioned database. Much to his disappointment he didn't find anything useful at first. As he went to dig deeper he noticed some commotion behind him.

"Looks like something is happening here."

"New body."

"How?"

"I can hear the sirens, D.U.P.."

On Reggie's side all Delsin could hear was typing on the keyboard, muffled voices in the background, then Reggie talked again. "Yeah.. they closed off the area and are chasing the Conduit. Apparently they had visual contact. I told the police to stay away just in case."

"Good. I'll take a look at it." And with that Delsin was on his way again.

The next crime scene wasn't far away from the previous, just a few streets. Maybe five minutes by foot. The Conduit was fast, Delsin had to acknowledge that with some envy. He could see more light. And the D.U.P. who made sure no one came too close to the body.

"They won't hesitate to shoot. Especially not when they see you."

"I know, don't worry. I'll make sure to stay safe."

Don't worry. Easier said than done when there was nothing you could do. Not only because Reggie wasn't with his brother to help but also if he were, he wouldn't have a chance against the D.U.P. since he had no powers to defend himself with. And given by what he had learned the D.U.P. didn't bow before the police.

Delsin, unaware of Reggie and his thoughts, took his time to ponder about his chances: keep calm and try to take down as many D.U.P.'s as possible without anyone noticing or go in and wreck havoc. He could see four soldiers on the ground. One with heavy armor and a Gatling gun just like at the first command center he took down. He really hated those guys. The others wouldn't be a problem to fight off, but they noticed him sooner than he wished because he was a bit too careless. And so Delsin found himself in a middle of a wild shooting.

"There he is! Catch the Bio-Terrorist!"

"Argh! It's called Conduit you idiot", was all Delsin said as he punched one of the soldiers to the ground. "Learn your lesson."

Well, that made three more. First and foremost he needed to take care of the heavy armed one as he could become a real problem. So he kept firing at him. He knew, from the last time, that the guy would hide in something like a concrete cocoon once he took a fair amount of damage. Maybe it helped the soldiers to regenerate some health. Whatever it did or did not, once hidden behind the concrete would be the perfect moment to overwhelm the soldier as that 'cocoon' had one big flaw: it wouldn't protect the person hiding in it completely. Meaning that Delsin could pull him out if he would make it behind the man in time.

While Delsin focused on the big guy one of the other soldiers had called for backup.

Having no other choice but to take cover Delsin began to take out some of the new arrived soldiers without putting himself in the line of fire. It was far too dangerous at this point and Delsin wasn't crazy enough to risk his life. Staying behind cover was his best option. One by one Delsin managed to take down the D.U.P.'s until, though he had hoped to take care of the guy sooner, only the heavy armed soldier was standing. The good thing was that Delsin could give him his full attention. He fired everything he had at the man until, after what felt like an eternity, what Delsin had hoped to happen did happen:

the soldier took cover inside his little concrete cocoon and Delsin could pull him out of it. With a little help of his smoke powers he pinned him to the ground so he couldn't move any longer.

After that was finally done Delsin began to look around. Just like at the last location a body was impaled with that strange light. This time on a fountain in a small side alley. However the Conduit seemed to have been interrupted because the wall only held the words 'A Promi-'. There had been no time for the rest. The D.U.P. had been fast and instead of picking a fight the Conduit apparently had decided to bail.

"You know about people who like to name their art or their style? This.. would definitely be 'nouveau.. sick'", he began walking towards the body, his eyes taking in everything he could as he took his phone in his hands. "Let me guess: you need pictures of the face and the wounds."

"If it's not too much to ask for."

Armed with his phone Delsin went to take several pictures. First the face of the man which he send to Reggie right away. Looking at the dead man, how he hung there on display, made Delsin feel uneasy. He had never seen anything like that before. In a movie maybe, but not in reality. It looked like an execution. And a warning. A warning Delsin couldn't place because what did a man impaled by light mean?

"Wounds are on the way in a moment too."

"No need", came Reggie's answer. "I got a match on the face. The guy's a drug dealer, his rap sheet is a mile long. Take a look around to check if his stash is somewhere around. Might help us with the Conduit and it could give us a clue why they picked this guy."

Drug dealer?

A Conduit was killing a drug dealer?

Without thinking about it any further Delsin decided to take on his brother's advice to look around for more clues. Though he didn't believe to find anything around here. But, well, who knew. Maybe there was something around to find. Because his brother was a cop he had like an extra sense for crimes and clues. Delsin actually believed that he would find something based on his brother's intuition. That was exactly what happened. Delsin spotted a box and a gym bag which didn't seem to fit in the location. Kneeling down to inspect both items closer his fingers grabbed the zipper of the bag right as a ray of light came towards Delsin. Or rather the bag, which was pulverized on the spot.

"Holy…!"

Delsin jumped back, shocked about the 'assault', and hid behind the exterior wall of a house to take cover as a second attack followed. His brown eyes spotted a silhouette standing on a billboard not that far away. Just like he was able to see the person he was more than sure the person could see him as well, hence the attacks.

"'Holy' what? Delsin what is going on?", Reggie was worried. Delsin hadn't said anything more after that and Reggie heard something hitting something else resulting in a small explosion. Or something similar to that.

"Found the Conduit. I'm going after them."

"Be careful."

Delsin rolled his eyes."That's a really great advice. Don't you think I know that? I'm the one getting shot right now after all."

He took a deep breath. Contrary to the other Conduit he didn't have any ranged attacks which could reach this far. He had to get closer and given the fact the person was super good with their aim.. that wasn't going to be an easy task. Delsin began to run. Using an air vent to get to the rooftop of a nearby building before jumping to the next rooftop, getting closer and closer to the Conduit who barely missed Delsin with those laser beams. Part of that was clearly thanks to the fact Delsin reacted fast enough.

"Woah! Would you stop that please?!", was all Delsin shouted when he landed on the roof of the building which connected to the one with the billboard. The unknown Conduit began running immediately, trying to get away before Delsin could reach them. "Just wait a second! I'm one of you.. I mean, one of us." That didn't seem to interest the Conduit at all. They jumped from roof to roof until landing on the street and running off from there until they were gone from Delsin's sight. He had tried to follow but to no avail. He slowed down staring after the light traces the Conduit had left. "Nice meeting you", he muttered under his breath while watching the light disappear slowly but steady.

There he was, in the middle of the street without ever having the chance to catch up with the Conduit in order to talk or see them.

"Did you get them?"

"No, they got away", he couldn't deny that he was kind of unhappy about that. "And fast on top of that, like Conduit fast. I don't know what that was, but I want it!", oh man, if only Delsin could run around that fast.

"Don't be too greedy."

The younger one made a face. Greedy.. he just had control over smoke. Reggie made it sound like he already had twenty extra powers or something. That's when he remembered something. "Hey, you know, there was this billboard to Conduit stood on. It was flickering with every shot."

"The energy source maybe? You should go back and look around."

"What am I? Your errand boy?"

"Hey, I can't just run and fly or whatever over rooftops and by the way: you are the one who wants new powers. That is your chance - even if I don't feel comfortable with that."

"No problem Reg", Delsin was already on his way back to the sign. "It's just.. man.. you should've seen how fast the Conduit was. I mean Fetch. 99% sure it is her. Everything seems to fit with the messages at the crime scenes and what Yana said."

"It looks like Fetch seems to be fond about not being caught by anyone."

Delsin smiled to himself. "Well, I'm definitely catching her."

~ooo~

When that guy suddenly got close to her all Fetch thought about was to run.

No matter who he was, he had snooped around the bodies, saw the drugs. This was her concern. It was bad enough the D.U.P. meddled with it, with her, and that they made the whole city come after her. No one of them saw what she was doing. She was branded as a monster which she wasn't. Those people, the ones she had killed, those were the monsters the people in Seattle had to be saved from.

She would proof it eventually.

There was just one problem or rather one more problem on top of those she already had:

the guy who had followed her.

She had seen him doing those smoke sprints. That was something she had only known from Hank. She had never seen anyone else running around with smoke powers and Hank had been caught by Augustine again. So when there was someone else with the same powers that couldn't mean anything good. She needed to be extra careful from now on to not run into him again.

The last thing she needed was going back to Curdun Cay - not before she finished her mission.