L2 Keep Calm And Help The Man Selected
Karma Rank: (Still) Bright Runaway
Achievement: "MEDIIIIIIIIIC!"
The young conduit, even though she was told she could run, stayed to help the man stuck on the ground. As Nicky was dealing with the civilian's leg, the battle between the conduits and soldiers got more intense.
"Go to hell you scrap of twisted metal!" a male soldier yelled at Craig.
"You first, asshole!" Craig yelled back before using his wire to grip a piece of the pavement. He then swung it like a chain mace right at the soldier's face.
The soldier fell down to the ground, but another soldier jumped in to attack Craig as well. Alvin wasn't having any better luck, as he was being attacked by two soldiers who kept blocking his attacks.
"Sticks and stones may break bones, but you're not going to be breaking our stones any time soon." A female soldier said to Alvin.
"Well try this one on for size!" Alvin shouted back at the soldier. He then turned himself into a cluster of small twigs and sawdust, surprising the 'Dupe' as he went around her. He then returned to his humanoid form, and charged into her back. She went flying with a dozen splinters lining her spine.
As the other two conduits were having fun, Michael got to tango with the commander. He had to dodge and block humongous cluster after cluster of concrete shards the soldier was throwing his way. "Bring it on rock head!" Michael shouted at him.
Nicky, after some hard thinking, remembers the skeleton model. She takes a look at the bones again, and attempts to put the puzzle back together. Even with the crazy battle she was next to, Nicky eventually became almost oblivious to the danger she was in. Helping the man almost felt like a puzzle game, which was simple fun for her.
"Can you put it together? Or do you need my help, Nichole?" she remembered her father telling her before.
"No, I can do it Daddy." was her response.
With that memory in mind, she pictured the bones in the man's leg as the puzzle pieces she tried to put together. Nicky focused very hard on the bones, while at the same time almost forgetting that she was fixing a human being, and not a picture.
"Hey, I don't wanna rush ya or nothin skeleton kid, but WE'RE RIGHT NEXT TO A GOD DAMN BATTLE!" the man yelled at Nicky.
The conduit didn't pay attention to him as she got a tight grip on the bones. With the memory of the puzzle on her mind, she used that thought to quickly push the bones right back into place. As that happened, Nicky yelled, "YES!".
At the same time, the man screamed, "FUUUUUUUUUHHH…", and quickly followed it with, "...hhhront door side!".
"What?" Nicky asked with a confused look.
"I don't know, but thanks kid."
"Do you need help to get up?"
"No kid, but thank you."
As Nicky moved back to give the man space to get up, a huge cluster of concrete flew towards towards her. Before she could say anything else to the civilian, she flew through an alleyway.
"NICKY?!" Michael shouted as he started running towards her. As he tried to get to Nicky, a soldier ran up to Michael, and punched him in the face. Michael had almost forgotten he had to deal with the D.U.P soldiers first.
With Michael and the others fighting the 'Dupes', then the civilian running off with a limp, Nicky was by herself. Close to passing out, barely seeing anything around her, she looked up at the sky. Nicky saw a slight bit of sunlight from a hole in the clouds above. Nicky enjoyed the sight of the light before some lower clouds quickly covered the light. The only thing about these lower clouds was that they seemed very close.
Nicky tried to look around a little, but all she saw was mist. She couldn't tell if someone did this, or if she had gotten dizzy. With what remained of her strength, Nicky tried sending off another pulse. She saw someone limply running with a dark red nervous system surrounded by a blue aura. It was likely the man she had just helped out. Along with that, Nicky saw the other conduits fighting the soldiers, then another individual. As she was just about to pass out, Nicky noticed that this one had a yellow nervous system, but with a purple aura. The conduit saw the person's aura come closer, before she finally passed out.
She didn't wake up for quite a while. Even for a conduit, young Nicky was still very weak. Having started off life with puzzles and books rather than a bat and cleats, she was not in good physical shape either. Over time though, she may get stronger, but now Nicky has other things worry about. For when she did wake up, Nicky found her surroundings to be a bit uncomfortable. It was dark, wet, and a man was getting the crap beat out of him.
"Please, I… I don't know where they are…" the man said with blood in his mouth.
The sight of a D.U.P soldier hanging with his helmet off, and face covered in blood was more than enough to make Nicky quickly move backwards in fear. Along with that, she got to witness a man covered in green and brown keep punching him. He appeared to be around Michael's age, but massive in muscle tone. Though this scene was the first thing to catch her sight, they weren't the only people there.
"Hi kid." a female voice said from her right.
"Ahh, who…?" Nicky muttered in response to the woman who greeted her.
"Hold on a sec' kid." the woman said as she turned her attention to the muscular green man. "Hey, enough. That's all we're going to get out of him. Now take him to the room."
"Sure thing, Becca." the brute responded before grabbing the rope that held the soldier's hands above his head.
As he did so, the rope started to tear apart, with green mold growing on the spot. Eventually the rope gave way, and the soldier was taken away. Nicky was scared of what was happening. She almost got up and ran, but that thought was brushed off to the side as the woman walked up to Nicky.
She smiled as she said, "You've got some interesting capabilities, especially for a conduit as young as you are."
"What do you mean?" the confused child asked.
"I mean like what you did for that old man. Many conduits can heal people, but not in the way you did. You fixed his dislocated knee."
"Yes, I did. But it also hurt him a lot too."
"Even if it did hurt him, I saw him run real fast for someone who just got his leg broken. That is a very unique trait kid, along with the fact that you're looking smaller than when we brought you here."
"Smaller?"
"Yes, but that's besides the point. I want to know, other than being a skeleton and fixing broken legs, what can you do?"
"Well,... I don't know. I don't know you either."
"True, but I'm not some stranger. I can help you with your powers."
"Maybe, but someone else was going to…"
"If you're referring to the handsome one that was out there, I doubt he's got skill to survive for long. The D.U.P are rushing in, and all hell is going to break loose." the woman said with a serious voice.
"How do I know you can do better? You sound like a stocker."
The woman gave Nicky a sour look, and told her, "Sometimes I like to know what I'm dealing with. Besides, it's kinda hard to not draw attention when you use your powers. Why do think the D.U.P are here to begin with?"
Nicky paused for a second, and looked at a brick wall before looking back at the woman to say, "You brought them in?".
"I lured them in. Unlike most conduits, I don't fear the D.U.P."
"Why would you want to do that?"
"To lure in their leader, that is, once I deal with the rest of her little 'rock heads'."
"You want their leader?"
"That's basically what I just said, kid. I have big plans myself, like I'm sure your friend does."
"Not any like yours. Why are you telling me your plans?"
"Oh, I've only told you the tip of the iceberg. Besides kid, if you run off, who are you going to tell? The D.U.P?"
"You seem a bit… scary."
"Yeah, well, that's what this torn hoody on me is for. Either that, or the scar on my face. But I'm not trying to be mean to you at all, little girl. In fact, I want you to hang around actually."
As she said that, two others started walking towards the woman to stand behind her. One was the green and brown man who was beating the soldier. The other, a teenage boy who was slightly taller than the woman, and had rope wrapped around his left shoulder and right side. The teen said, "It's gonna be fun around us. Trust me, I didn't think so at first either." in a slight Mexican accent.
"You sound like a cholo." Nicky randomly threw out there.
"Well, that is how I lean, like a cholo. How you even know about that stuff?"
"The song."
"I already like this kid."
"Well enough about the music,..." the brute interrupted. "...we have bigger things to talk about."
"Calm yourself, 'shit-for-brains'. You can't lose your patience." the scarred woman told him.
"Lose my patience? He's still out, and they might do the same to him as they did to…!"
"That won't happen. I made you a promise, but you HAVE to keep up your end as well."
"Fine. Let's get this over with though. I could use a bite to eat from an irritating old man I knew."
"We'll see Wong in a bit." the woman told him before focusing back on Nicky. "He is right though, we do have a little business we need out of the way."
"Well, I guess I'll hang around with you for a little bit."
"Good, I'm glad you made the right choice. Especially when your friends are probably half way across the city." She then turned to the roped teen and told him, "Now why don't you make sure the other kids feel at home. Me and Rich gotta go, but you can handle those two on your own, right?"
"Shoot. A cool, little youngster with big balls and a foo with no balls. It'll be Easy."
"Good. Just make sure you don't screw this up, Eric." the woman said right before she turned around to Rich. The two conduits then ran off the side of the small building they were on.
Noticing that, Nicky took a second to check her surroundings. They were on the roof of a small building, which was built to connect with a taller structure. There were two doors as well, one looking very industrial, the very heavy duty. The conduits who made this roof their home had crates and supplies lying everywhere. This aspect reminded her of why she didn't like other kids at her house. "Hmm…?" she muttered.
"Like what you see kid?" the roped teen asked her.
"It looks like it needs some cleaning."
"Yeah, probably. Don't be looking at this Mexican though, 'cause I am not cleaning shit."
"Ok. It's not bad though. I like how it is above the ground."
"Yeah, it is a good feature of this little home of ours."
Remembering what the woman had said to the teen, Nicky asked him, "Who were you talking about?"
"What, kid?"
"You said something about a 'foo with no balls'. Who were talking about?"
"Oh,... we was talking about the almost useless, and pessimistic puto over there." the teen said as he pointed towards a pair of crates next to each other.
Another teen popped out from behind them, knowing that he was being talked about. He wore a black snow jacket, and grey cargo pants. The teen also had darker skin than the rest of the group did, and very messy dark hair. He didn't look like he was in mint condition, but he still had better attire than the one she was talking. Torn tank top and Dickie shorts on him.
"Now you decide to pop your black ass out when we're talking about ya."
"For the hundredth time, I'm not black. I'm Portuguese." the pessimistic teen told him.
"Whatever. Oh yeah,..." the roped teen said before he turned to Nicky to continue with, "...forgot to say who I is. Name is Sebastian, and if you can't tell by the rope, I can control string and rope."
"Really? That does sound kind of nice." Nicky responded.
The other teen walked over to join in on the conversation. He awkwardly said, "Hi there, name is Felix.", before he shook one of her hands.
"Always anxious to meet new people, huh Felix?" Sebastian told the awkward teen. "About the only time you ever have any balls."
Felix ignored Sebastian's trash talk, and instead paid attention to the skeleton body of Nicky. He moved back a few steps to sit down on a busted cooler, and asked, "How did you end up this way? Are you able to transform?".
"I don't really know. There was a man who did something to me, and..." Nicky paused, remembering everything that had happened only days ago.
"What happened? Did he hurt you?"
Sebastian noticed the sudden change in the skeleton kid's posture, and asked, "Did the puto try to touch in a nasty way?!".
With that question, she started remembering more. Nicky remembered the reason she was there in the first place, and when that woman said, "Quite struggling. I always get what I want. You gotta understand that.". The thought of those words brought back some fear, and with that, a river of tears.
Sebastian then stepped back, with Felix asking, "Are you ok?".
The memories started to play with Nicky's head. She thought of every horrible thing that happened, along how her powers made her want to kill. The pressure built up inside, making her more tearful.
"Need some time. Cool. I'll leave you be, I can understand the drama with that shit." Sebastian said as he turned around to walk away.
Without a single thought on what she was doing, Nicky got up to run over the edge of the building. When she did so, the conduit child jumped off the building a few feet into the air,... right before a rope grabbed her ankle, and made her head slam against the building she jumped from. It knocked the young girl out cold.
After hearing the loud sound of the child's skull hitting the building, Felix asked Sebastian, "What are thinking?! You made her head get smashed?!".
With the rope grabbing Nicky in his hand, he yelled back, "What the hell are YOU doing?! You just sat there as she jumped off?! Now help me out, fool?!"
Felix got up to help guide Nicky's skeletal body back on to the building. When she was back on there, they set her on an old sleeping bag. Surprisingly, there wasn't a single scratch on her.
Sebastian looked at Felix and said, "Best hope she doesn't figure out about this screw up of yours."
"Screw up of mine, I actually helped her earlier."
"A mist cloud ain't shit, so I don't wanna hear it from your ass right now!" With that said, Sebastian turned around to go lean by the door.
Felix walked back to the cooler to sit down, and looked at the young conduit. He felt kind of bad for her. "She must have been suffering from serious trauma." he thought to himself.
With all that, the night cooled on top of the building where these conduits stayed. No sign of the other conduits Nicky was around, but at least she wasn't alone. Only question is, what kind of people are these new faces? Hopefully this will not be answered to Nicky in a traumatizing way.
Hey everyone, CAJ is back with another small chapter. It will take a little while, but [Part 2] will come, and we'll see a mixture of OCs and familiar cats from the world of inFamous. I still find it funny that you all are a bunch of goody goodies, but at the same time I understand with the fact dat I made my main character a ten year old girl. Anyway, see y'all nihs around. CAJ IS OUT!