Associate with men of good quality if you esteem your own reputation; for it is better to be alone than in bad company.
-George Washington
[Part 2: Migration]
After some time from the destruction of New Marais, the army of new, more destructive conduits took over the entire East Coast. Any and every human being in their path was reduced to less than ashes. Even with so many lives taken to awaken more conduits, and increase their own abilities, it was never enough. They looked to the rest of the U.S. for more. They traveled along the Northern part of the country, heading into Michigan. Nothing in their path was able to stop them.
Destruction arose in Detroit, people everywhere either ran in fear or went guns blazing on the conduits to protect loved ones. A young boy watched as his father ran straight towards the fight with shotgun in hand. The father told his son to run away, but the boy just stood still. Then a woman appeared, covered in ice spikes. She grabbed a hold of the man's head, freezing him solid before shattering him to pieces. The little boy screamed out for his father, but now he was alone. The woman walked up to the little boy, getting ready to kill him too.
As she got close to him, another woman grabbed the father's shotgun, and fired at the ice woman. That woman then grabbed the boy and started running. The running suddenly came to a holt as a huge quake made her trip, and drop the boy. She got onto her hands and knees only to look up and find a horrible sight. The young woman saw the giant creature that destroyed everything on the East Coast. She saw the conduit creature everyone feared. As the powerful monster came closer, she sat up and wrapped her arms around the little boy who started crying. The creature reached out his hand to create a vortex, and absorb them. All the woman could hear at this point was a loud, deathly roar as she closed her eyes.
A woman then woke up from a horrible dream. She was wearing a tank top and sweats as she got up out of bed. The woman was caught off guard when her roommate walked in wearing about the same getup as her.
"Aw, good. You're awake. I got us a couple of macchiatos." the roommate said.
"Ah, thanks. So are we being sent out today?" the woman asked as she took the drink.
"From what I hear, the transports full of bio-terrorists crashed."
"What?"
"Yeah."
"The transport with the crook and the killer too."
"Well, Augustine recaptured Hank. The others escaped, and have taken root in Seattle."
"Oh god. There's so many people at risk."
"At least we finally get to see some action. Let's get ready Connie."
The two continued talking for a bit, getting themselves ready for the day. They put on D.U.P. armor, and grabbed their fire arms. The two soldiers got into an APC transport, in which they would be taken to a new base. Inside, they were seated with a commander, two other D.U.P. soldiers, and two individuals in unique D.U.P armor. One was a man of African descent, wearing a grey tank top and heavy D.U.P. leggings. Sitting next to him was a young Hispanic woman, wearing a very sleek D.U.P. armor suit along with a shark tooth necklace.
"What's up with these two, Commander Aron?" the roommate asked.
"Huh? Oh, you mean the only two deviants without helmets on this transport? They're a little pet project of Augustine's. A pair of willing bio-terrorist subjects who are going to be put to work." the Commander said.
"Ok."
"Hmm. So how are you two doing?" Connie asked the two conduits.
The man just pretended he heard nothing as he sat back with his arms crossed, and eyelids shut. The young woman simply stared at Connie before looking at her hands that she held together over her knees.
"No need for interactions with bio-terrorists that aren't attacking you, lieutenant. Keep to yourself for the rest of this trip. At least these pieces of work know to." the Commander told Connie.
Constance kept to herself for the rest of the trip, with the one young conduit taking random glances at her. After a long ride, they finally made it to Seattle. One area area of the city, filled with conduit detectors, would become the base of operations for Connie's squad, along with a few other groups. Though they were dealing with bio-terrorist threats within the city, some of the time they spent there was merely put towards guard duty.
"This sucks." the roommate said to Connie.
"What?" Connie asked her.
"I was expecting to see some action. Instead, we're parading around, waiting until somethin' happens."
"You're not the only one disappointed here."
"You were hoping for action too, huh?"
"I was hoping to help in aiding and protecting civilians. Then we get to see smoke bombs get thrown at people."
As they passed by a small restaurant, they could hear a radio station playing on the speakers surrounding it.
"Sweet home, Alabama."
"Kriss Kross will make ya… JUMP! JUMP!"
"Wake me up! Wake me up inside."
"We'll play… anything." a man said on the radio.
After hearing the radio play, a huge explosion occurred on the rooftop of a building nearby Constance. She and her partner felt some of the shock from it, and looked towards the roof it came from. They couldn't see much from their street view other than a big cloud of orange and grey smoke. Along with that, they could hear some of their comrades getting attacked, even witnessing one fall off the side of the building. The two soldiers jumped from the street and onto the rooftop to aid in fending off the attacker. When they got onto the roof, they found themselves a few yards away from a young man, wearing a thin jacket, jeans and a beanie.
"Stand down, bio-terrorist!" Connie's partner told the young man.
The young man then looked at the two soldiers before firing a huge blast of orange and grey smoke at them. Afterwards, the two female soldiers fell down to the ground, rolled over and got back up on their feet.
"This the action you were looking for?" Constance asked her partner.
"Shut up! Let's get this son of a bitch!" she responded with.
The two forced conduits then kept going back into the heated battle. Eventually the D.U.P. soldiers had to fall back and wait for backup. This new bio-terrorist was more of a threat than most found on the West Coast. This battle between the troops and this individual could be seen by many civilians, and felt by others.
Two years since "Olympia Hostile Takeover"
The battle between bio-terrorists and the D.U.P. in Olympia was long over. Now the people of the city are forced to obey the new ruling class, the conduits, without question. Though it looked grim for the conduits at times, they still found enjoyment with what they had.
On the rooftop of a building nearby trees, three individuals could be seen. Two seventeen year old boys were sat on lawn chairs, one in a wife beater and baggy jeans with the other wearing a heavy snow jacket atop grey cargo pants. Then a little girl about in her preteens, sat criss cross by a crate with a boom box on top playing hip-hop.
"This song reminds me of the night we first met you, Nicky." the boy in a wife beater said.
"What?" the little girl asked.
"Don't remember? Talkin' about how I lean, back when Felix brought you to us."
"Sebastian, think we can change the station sometime soon to see if we can hear the news?" the other boy asked.
"Sure, but hold on Felix. I wanna listen to the rest of this song. Then you can hear the crappy weather reports." Sebastian told him.
A random breeze went through the air, bringing in a strange feeling for Nicole.
"Hmm." Nicky muttered.
"What? You sense something, Nicky?" Sebastian asked her.
The girl looked at Sebastian, and nodded her head as she said, "Yes. A strong conduit... probably.".
"We should go tell Rebecca and Michael. The more people on our side, the better." Felix said.
"I hope they're not arguing again." Nicky said.
"If they are, oh well. I think they might want to hear this. Plus, they listen to you more than anyone." Sebastian told Nicky.
"Well, you're not wrong. Though it's funny how they have gone in and out of being in a relationship."
"It kinda reminds of relationships my brother had. God, I miss that asshole. Enough 'bout my shitty life, let's go."
The three conduits got up and ran to the edge of the building. Sebastian jumped off and used his rope like bullwhips to swing along the light poles, and throw himself onto another rooftop. Felix got onto the edge as he caused a pressurized combustion of steam from his hands, launching him into the air and onto another building. Nicky, following after the two, used her osteokenesis on her leg bones to leap far enough into the air to land on the building Felix got onto. They all ran across the rooftops of Olympia, using a few new skills they learned to get around faster.
On the way back to the rest of the group, Nicky heard a noise from down below. The sound of screaming around one of the alleyways. Nicky stopped moving and looked down below. Felix and Sebastian noticed this, and ran back towards her.
"What now, Nicky?" Sebastian asked.
"Look down there." Nicky told the others.
As the two boys looked downward, they saw a trio of men trying to mug a young couple at knifepoint. The three conduits looked at one another, and decided that they would take down each of them separately. Sebastian went to one end of the building side, threw a rope towards one of the muggers. The rope wrapped around his waist, and was pulled back to make him lift into the air before falling on his face and chest.
"What the…? Ah crap." One of the muggers said after seeing one get taken down.
Felix shot a small sphere of pressurized steam at another mugger's face. On contact, the
sphere burst open, both burning and pushing the mugger. After that, the mugger ended up unconscious from his head hitting the ground so hard.
"Oh god. God damn it." the last mugger said.
Felix then jumped down from the rooftop into the alleyway. As the mugger saw him, he tried to run away. Before he could make more than a few steps, Felix used his powers to cause a pipe to burst open, making steam hit him. With all that steam hitting him, he absorbed it and threw a huge cloud of mist to instantly block any vision within the alleyway. With fog throwing off his vision, the mugger ran not knowing where he was going. A few yards later, and he hit a bump. A rather big and bony bump.
As the mugger fell backwards, he saw the silhouette of a huge skeleton with sharp, curved bones on majority of the joints. He moved backwards in fear, feeling like he saw a ghost. The skeleton moved towards him, but to his surprise, he only saw a young girl standing about four foot eight walk out of the fog. He rubbed his eyes to see if the fog distorted his vision. When he opened them back up, the little girl was right in front of him. She gave him a stern look as she raised her hand near her face, and snapped her fingers. Not a second afterwards, loud popping noises could be heard from the man's body.
"OWWWWWWWW!" He screamed out.
He turned his head to look at both of his shoulders. The mugger found that his arms were popped out of their sockets. After noticing what she did to him, the man looked back at the little girl to see she had covered her left arm in bones. She pulled it back, then thrusted her fist into his face. The force threw his head back towards the pavement, knocking him out. With all three of the muggers taken down, Nicky, along with Sebastian and Felix, walked over to the young couple that got cornered.
"Oh thanks a lot for that. You guys were amazing." the young woman of the pair said.
"Yeah, I don't know what we would've done." the young man accompanying the woman said.
Nicky stopped a few feet from them, and thrusted her right palm towards the couple. The pair was then pushed back against the wall.
"Maybe if you two idiots were not out past curfew, this would not have happened." Nicky told them with an irritated tone.
"We're sorry." they said to Nicky.
"Sorry isn't good enough. Not get out of here and back to whatever rock you sleep under."
After she said that, Nicky let go of her osteopathic grip of the young couple. When the two had their footing together, they ran as fast as they could. With them gone, Nicky looked straight at Sebastian and told him, "Tie up the morons here, please.".
"Yeah, sure thing." Sebastian said as he jumped down from the building.
He grabbed the muggers together, beginning to tie them up with some of his rope. Felix walked up to Nicky, and tapped her arm with his hand to get her attention. She turned to look at Felix and asked him, "What is it?".
"You feeling alright today?" Felix asked Nicky.
"As alright as I can be."
"I'm just curious, because… I heard you… talking in your sleep."
Nicky backed up a step before saying, "Have you no shame. What were you doing around me while I was sleeping?".
"Nothing really. I… woke up in the middle of the night from a crappy dream. I walked out of my tent to get some water. Th-then I heard wrestling from your tent. I thought you were in trouble."
"Are you sure you weren't the trouble?"
"No. I was hearing you talking to a woman… or something. A scary one I think, too."
"Oh,... that." Nicky said with a soft tone.
"Was it that woman from before…"
"Quite bringing her up!" Nicky interrupted.
"Well,... who was it? Or is it too much to say?" Felix asked trying to be considerate.
"She,... she… was someone else. I don't want to talk about it."
"Ok, ok. I got it."
"What are you two doing? I gotta do all the bull crap while you two just stand around." Sebastian said walking back from tying up the muggers.
"Sorry, I have Felix here distracting me." Nicky said.
"Hey come on. I was just trying to help her." Felix said.
"Whatever. Let's get a move on so that we can tell them what Nicky picked up." Sebastian told them.
"Sounds good." Nicky responded.
The three conduits then looked back at the muggers, and left them to be someone else's playthings. This wasn't the way that they all wanted to live, but it was the path they were stuck on.
After a few minutes of building hopping and street running, the trio found themselves on the main rooftop hangout. They saw a man sleeping on a couch, with a young boy watching TV sitting next to him. Along with that sight, there was a man and a woman talking with one another, and drinking beer. There was also a pair of women talking, one redhead and the other a blonde. The trio walked up to the drinking pair to get in and talk.
"How is this crap supposed to help our situation?" the man with a beer said to the woman.
"How can it not? If we spread out further than Olympia, we can get more people to join, and take over this god forsaken state." the woman said in response.
"You are crazy. You want to go down towards Vancouver, severe ties to Oregon, and kill countless innocents to do so."
"Yes."
"This kind of stuff is the reason I can't handle a relationship with you. You're so friggin' crazy, and all you want to do is show dominance."
"Um… hey?" Nicky said to the two.
"We gotta tell ya something." Sebastian told them.
The man and woman looked at the three conduits, ending their conversations and putting down the beer.
"Are you still fighting Michael, Rebecca?" Nicky asked the woman.
"Being a smart ass again? We're just talking more about expansion." Rebecca told Nicky.
"What kind of expansion?" Sebastian asked before he chuckled a little.
"Quiet, jackass." Michael told Sebastian.
"Anyway, what we were talking about is heading down south, and finding more fellow conduits. That way, we can take over areas like Vancouver." Rebecca said.
"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Nicky asked.
"I wouldn't bring it up if I didn't."
"It's not the brightest idea you've had. We're already been struggling to keep our hold of this city." Michael told Rebecca.
As the two adults start arguing again, the boy who was watching TV had gotten up, and woke up the man sleeping on the couch. As the man woke up, the boy pointed to the group who was talking. He nodded his head at the boy and got up to walk towards the group.
"What's going on now?" the man asked Michael and Rebecca.
"Nothing Rick,... but another cheap comic book idea by this woman." Michael responded.
"Ha. That adds emphasis to the nickname I gave her." the boy said.
"Bruce, this isn't the time for jokes." Rick told the boy.
"But she seriously earns the name 'Airhead' since…" Bruce said.
"Shut up you little shit, before I…" Rebecca told Bruce.
"Rebecca. Calm down. Not on the kid, ok." Michael told Rebecca as he set his hand on her shoulder to hold her back.
Rebecca smacked his hand off of her, and told him, "You're the reason I'm in this mood.".
"You did mess up there, 'Bonehead'." Bruce told Michael.
Rick then smacked the back of his head before telling Bruce, "What did I say about the jokes?".
"Ouch. Well, anyway, now that we're all together, we should gather by the TV." Bruce said.
"Bruce, we're not watching another Sci-fi film so you can attempt to wrap your arm around the back of my neck…" Nicky said before Bruce interrupted.
"NO! I mean, what I was hoping is for everyone to see the report."
"Report?" Michael questioned.
"Is it something serious this time?" Rebecca asked.
"It's going to repeat on the channel nine news. It's about the situation at Seattle." Bruce told them.
"Nicky also had something to say. Why don't you hear her first." Sebastian said to everyone.
"Really? What is it this time? Another military patrol for us to have fun with?" Rebecca asked Nicky.
Everyone looked towards the young gal, anticipating what she had to say. The women who were talking to each other noticed everyone else gathering, and joined in on the action. As Nicky was about ready to share her info, a rather dark circle formed near the edge of the roof. It grew from one foot wide to about seven feet wide in a few seconds, allowing for a group of individuals to pass through.
There was a boy, in his late teens, wearing a black hoodie, jeans, and steel toes. He also wore a scarf to cover his mouth and neck. Following him, a young teen in a torn trench coat over a red shirt, with black pants above her boots. She moved her tangled hair, revealing a scar on her left eye, going down her cheek. After them, four others came through, like a tall teen with a flaming punk look, along with white hair in a bun. The rest held both automatic weapons and a punk look as well. Two of them had riot gear, one just had a torn t-shirt and jeans. Most of this crew had a serious look on their face as they peered at Rebecca's group.
"Oh, great. It's you fags again. What do you 'wasps' want, now?" Rick told the group.
"Jackass. Calm down around kids, will ya?" Michael told the decay conduit.
"It's something serious, 'shit head'. Something's coming this way." the scarfed boy said to Rick in a strangely calm voice.
Nicky bumped the tall decay conduit with her elbow, and walked towards the other group. She asked the scarfed boy, "What do you mean 'something's coming'? Is it a powerful conduit? The D.U.P. maybe?".
"No."
"Then what is it?! What have you found since it can't wait for Nicky?!" Rebecca told the group of teens.
"There's a signal that were received through a radio on one of the soldiers we took down. It looks like they're sending in a huge group of attack helicopters." the scarfed teen said.
"What?"
"Nice. Do you think we have this too, Rebecca?" Michael asked her.
"Shut up! Everyone pack your shit, and let's the hell out of dodge!" Rebecca told her crew.
"How the hell are we gonna just pack up and leave because of this little asshole's word? What if he isn't…?" Rick stopped as he started to hear the sound of a propeller in the air.
Everyone then heard the sound of a missile firing off.
"NICKY! LOOK OUT!" Bruce said as he ran to grab her and pull her back.
As both the kid's fell flat on the roof, most of everyone ran from the missile and off the building. Michael and Rick however, ran towards Nicky and Bruce. The armored conduit formed a shield of bone over the two children and himself, while the decay conduit went to the side of him to make a cloud of acidic gases in front. As the missile hit, a small explosion came of it, only knocking back Rick a few feet.
Michael then pulled back and deformed his shield before asking, "You two ok?".
"Yes. Also, thanks for the save Bruce." Nicky said.
Bruce shook a little in fear before muttering, "Yeah, it was no…"
"Come on, let's go kid's. Nicky, on my back. Now." Michael interrupted with.
Nicky got up quick as Michael turned around for her to hop on. As he covered himself in bone armor, the little bone kid jumped onto his back, wrapping her arms around his neck. Rick grabbed his little brother Bruce, and set him on his back as well.
The helicopter that fired off the missile came over head, with one man inside using a megaphone to tell the conduits, "Stand down, bio-terrorists! Surrender, and we promise you a safe trip to Curden Cay Station. Failure to comply…".
Before the man could finish his sentence, a cloud of steam formed around the helicopter. With that happening, both Michael and Rick ran off the edge of the building, and onto the sidewalk. Nicky was able to hold on, but the impact made Bruce slip and lose his grip. He dropped his behind onto the pavement.
"You ok, Bruce?" the Decay Conduit asked.
"My ass hurts." Bruce said in a pained voice.
"You'll be alright."
Rick then grabbed his brother and threw him over his shoulder, and began following the rest of the group.
"Here comes more!" Sebastian told everyone.
Three more attack helicopters were following their trail, firing down upon the conduits. They all ran for their lives, trying to escape the onslaught. Some of them tried to use their abilities against the helicopters, whether it was firing projectiles or other unique capabilities. Two of which were the girls talking on the roof. The blonde girl fired off a colorful stream of lasers with the sound of a musical beat coming from it. As for the redhead she was talking to, clusters of nails came from her hands. Even with a mixture of the two, on top of steam explosions, ropes, gravity waves and other powers used against them, the helicopters were still hot on their tails.
Nicky noticed that all the group was doing was delaying the inevitable. They had to do something to stop the helicopters for good. She took a look at the decay conduit, and shouted, "Hey Rick!".
"What?!" he shouted back.
"Hold out your hand! I have something for ya!"
The green giant gave her an irritated look before putting his empty hand towards her. She grabbed his hand, barely hanging on to Michael with her other arm. The preteen then pumped energy into Rick's arm. As he gathered the energy, nearly tripping multiple times as they were running, he felt a rush go through him.
"Come on 'Steamer', do something." Bruce muttered to Felix in a pained voice.
As the "Steamer" threw an explosive sphere at one of the helicopters, Rick threw a sphere of his own. As the first sphere detonated, it caused the other sphere to go off. The steam sphere blinded and tossed one of the helicopters onto a building to the side. The sphere that the decay conduit threw made a cloud of acidic mist take form, one that began to eat away at another helicopter's windshield and propellers. Rebecca then shot a sonic burst of air from her hands, breaking apart the windshield into the pilot's face.
"Keep running and shooting what you can!" Rebecca yelled at the others.
The other two helicopters kept following the group of "deviants" for another minute or two. Then a group of individuals in white cloaks could be seen running along the buildings. These individuals started to move with lightning speed in random gusts. With their quick movement, they caught up to the helicopters and used assault rifles to open fire.
"What the…?" Rebecca questioned at this new sight.
The group kept running down the path that they were set on, with some of them taking random glances at the people in cloaks attacking the helicopters.
"Oh god." the scarfed boy muttered in fear.
"Everyone needs to really haul ass, now!" Michael shouted.
The big boned conduit started running even faster, and grabbed a hold of Rebecca, and held her in his arms.
"While I do like the princess treatment, I didn't ask to be swept off my feet…"
"Shut it right now, Rebecca!"
The conduits kept on running, hoping that now they could evade the danger.
After some time, the crew managed to get towards Grass Lake. One of the few areas they planned out for escape routes. Being conduits, none of them seemed very exhausted from the trip, but everyone was on edge.
"That's just great. Two years of living there, and it's gone like that." Sebastian said.
"Things are crap right now, but we shouldn't let this get to us." Michael told him.
"Let it get to us? The military just came in. Not 'Dupes', military came in and nearly killed Bruce and Nicky!" Rick told Michael.
"It's far worse than just military we have to worry about now." the scarfed teen said to the group.
"What? Are you gonna pull something here?" Rick asked in an aggressive tone.
"Back off of Riley for a second Rick." Sebastian said. He then walked up to the scarfed teen and asked, "So what else we got to deal with?".
"Those people in cloaks... they are not anything like you guys have faced so far." Riley said.
"Are they like D.U.P. at all? I noticed they all have the same powers." Nicky asked.
"No, Nicky. They make the D.U.P. look like saints." Michael said.
"You know about them too? Were you part of their group before?" Riley asked Michael.
"No, but I did witness how drastically everything changed in Empire after that big blue explosion."
"You lived in Empire City during the quarantine, then?"
"Yes, that's how I know about the Reapers. I hoped that they died out when the second explosion hit the city. Obviously, someone brought them back. And if they're here…"
"Something else is probably following."
"Great. You 'East Coast' assholes are bringing your problems to the 'West Coast'." Rebecca said to put in her two cents.
Sebastian looked at Michael and Riley, and then walked towards Nicky. He told her, "Maybe you're sensing that something.".
"Huh? What are you talking about? You knew this was going to happen?"
"Of course not. No one could see this before hand. But what is she sensing?" Rick said.
Nicky moved to stand in the middle of Michael and Rebecca. She told the bunch of conduits, "I detected a conduit. It may be a strong one as well.".
"Wait. So if the Reapers are being followed by something, does that mean that there's a conduit like 'The Demon of Empire City' not too far from here?" Bruce asked the group.
"Knowing those bastards, yes. And there's no telling who it is. But I doubt that Cole would be around here. He always sends someone else to do his dirty work nowadays." Riley said.
Michael looked towards Riley with a stern expression on his face, and said, "You seem pretty confident with your knowledge of the 'real bio-terrorist'."
"Yeah, so."
"Well… time that we get a move on." Michael stated to the group.
"But we just got here." the redhead said with a worried tone. "Can't we just sit down for a while."
"Would you quiet?! I swear, you're more unstable than I am." Rebecca told her.
"Hey, back off of Emily. She was just making a suggestion." Sebastian said to Rebecca as he stood next to the redhead.
Emily looked at him, feeling a mixture of worry and appreciation. Rebecca, on the other hand, looked at Sebastian with agitation staining her face.
"Back off yourself. No one was talking to you." Rebecca told him. She then looked at Michael to say, "And you. Quit trying to control everything. Or have you forgotten why I'm in charge?".
"Well we need someone to be able to take control. Obviously you're not doing a very good job." Riley told her.
"Oh, and you would do better? Before we accepted you here, half your 'Wisp' crew was wiped out by D.U.P. soldiers. You lead people to their death."
"You bring death to everyone who doesn't follow along with you and your crazy ideas. You're even trying to make a killer out of a little girl."
After Riley said that, Rebecca got pissed, and tried to go for a swing at his face. He blocked with one arm, and attempted to use his other arm to punch the air head in her chest. Sadly, he didn't see that her other hand was open. A sonic burst of air came from Rebecca's palm, sending the scarfed boy back against a tree. The impact knocked him out.
"You bitch!" said the teen in a trench coat as she readied her powers.
Rebecca noticed, and was pumped full of adrenaline. Ready to fight. "Go 'head. Try me." Rebecca told her.
As the teen formed two spheres of red and black fire, she felt a sharp pain in her legs. The girl fell over, screaming as the flames disappeared from her hands. Following that, Rebecca also felt the same pain. Both females had their legs dislocated at the knees. Nicky then walked over with a strange, orange glow on her eyes that slowly dissipated. Most of the group backed out of her, mostly out of fear.
"Are you two ready to focus, or should I break more? Hmm? Rebecca? Raven?" Nicky asked them.
"Woah. Easy there…" Sebastian said.
"Wow. That was awesome! 'Ms. Skelekinesis' strikes again. Bu-yah!" Bruce said estatically.
"Calm down, kids. Let's not let this get out of control. But yeah, are you all ready to listen?" Michael said.
Everyone nodded, even Rick, Rebecca and Raven. As for Riley, he just regained his consciousness, and noticed his friend Raven in pain. Seeing Nicky standing up near her, he figured that the little bone girl attacked Raven. He became furious and walked up to Nicky. But before he muttered anything, he saw Rebecca in the same condition.
"Oh, I see." Riley said.
"What? Are looking for another fight?" Rick asked him.
When the rotten conduit and the scarfed boy looked at each other, Nicky transformed. She became a big skeleton, having spikes come off of her joints. This bone giant was a force to be reckoned with.
"Woah. She certainly has a bone to pick with you two." Sebastian said.
The blonde woman in the crowd of conduits then used her powers to make a punchline, rimshot drum sound. Doing so caused Bruce to start laughing.
"Come on, kid. Even by my standards, that wasn't very funny." Sebastian told Bruce.
"Would everyone shut up and listen!" Nicky told everyone, clenching boney knuckles so hard that they made popping noises.
"Easy Nicky. But everyone pay attention! This is a shitty situation. Not only did the military come and take our home, but even some of the demon boy's toy soldiers. Now is the last time for us to turn on one another! We need to push each other forward, not backward." Michael told the group.
He then nodded towards Nicky. She nodded back, and shoved the rotting conduit and scarfed teen out of her way. Then the big skeleton held out her palms, which filled with orange energy. Rebecca and Raven reached their hands out, absorbed the energy, and healed very quickly.
Michael continued on with, "We've survived this long, and none of us have seen Curdan Cay. I know we'll make it if we push forward. Is everyone on board? Or should we just kill each other and make the D.U.P's job easier?".
A mixture of responses came from everyone.
"Screw the dupes!"
"We stand united!"
"Push forward!"
"Good. We're all on the same boat." Michael said.
Nicky descended back to her human form before walking towards Michael. She nearly passed out, tripping into his arms as he crouched. He patted her on the back, and told her, " Good job, kiddo.". Then he let Nicky stand on her own before standing back up. "We leave in an hour. No exceptions."
Michael walked off to take watch by some trees, along with Rick and Riley. Rebecca became rather irritated with the situation, and stormed off to get away from everyone. The rest of the group went along their business. Either gathering supplies, or talking about the situation. Bruce, Sebastian and Felix walked over towards the little bone girl to talk with her.
Both Felix and Sebastian sat down on the ground, with Bruce going right up to Nicky to tell her, "You were amazing. Ms. Skelekinesis, the ultimate conduit.".
"Thanks, Bruce. Now could give me a couple feet of space." Nicky told him.
"Yeah. Sure. Sure." Bruce said as he backed up to sit down.
Nicky took a seat on the ground as well, sitting across from Sebastian.
"You did good, Nicky. But you do have to keep control of yourself." Sebastian said to Nicky.
"What?"
"Already sounding like a punk ass teenager. Great. Well I'm talking about how you're handling everything. Half the time, I'm wondering if I am seeing Nicky or something else when you use your powers."
"The power gets a little overwhelming, I guess."
"Yeah, we could see that when you almost passed out on Michael a second ago." Felix said. "Does any of this have to do with your dreams."
Nicky looked at Felix with a very irritated look, and told him, "Back off.".
"Dreams? I didn't realize you were having nightmares." Bruce said.
"Everyone has their shtick. I get good dreams. She gets bad dreams. Then you get wet dreams." Sebastian told the boy.
"Huh. Well I guess… Wait. Hey!"
"Well, getting back to business. Nicky, we should talk about your situation."
Nicky gave Sebastian a dirty look, before standing.
"I understand if you don't wanna talk now. It has been crappy. But understand, we're here for you." Sebastian told her before getting up and walking away.
The other boys also walked away to give Nicky some space. As he walked to check some of his supplies, Emily took a look or two at Sebastian, thinking of how he stood up for her.
"Hey. You mind helping out with this." the conduit told her as she handed her a bag.
"Huh? Oh yeah, sure." Emily responded as she grabbed the bag.
"Sheesh, emo Emily. You're not getting even more numb-skulled on me, are ya?"
"A blonde like you would know about being 'numb-skulled'. Wouldn't ya, Maria?"
"Oh, you'll pay for that one. For now, quit staring at Sebastian and help. Alright."
With that line out there, she gave Maria an irritated look before getting back to helping with the bags.
After the proposed hour, the group headed out towards the freeway. It became a foggy morning, providing sufficient cover. Michael, with Nicky piggybacking, took the lead. With the sheer size of the crew, everyone had to move fast.
As Michael hopped onto the highway, he noticed that it was rather vacant. No cars heading East or West, so it was the perfect opportunity to follow the road, and find a safe route leading North.
Michael turned towards the others who were in the trees, and said, "Hey Felix, get over…".
Before the sentence could be finished, an RV nearly ran him and Nicky over. The person driving the vehicle barely swerved around the conduits. Afterwards, the driver parked on the side of the highway. The driver came out, and walked towards the bone deviants. A man in a brown jacket above blue jeans. He had a thick, black beard as well.
"What the hell are you doing in the middle of the freeway?! I could've killed you and your daughter!" he shouted at Michael.
"Sorry, there. We'll just be on our way." Michael told him.
"Alright. I'll be on mine, too. Just be sure your way is off the road."
As the man went back to his RV, he appeared to be shoved up against his vehicle by some invisible force. As he started to squirm, the one restraining him revealed herself.
"Rebecca! What the hell are you doing?!" Michael yelled.
"I'm scoring us a ride." Rebecca said as she held the man by his neck against the RV.
The man then formed a bunch of coins on his arm, before slamming his fist into Rebecca's face. Afterwards, Riley came up to use his powers. He manipulated the gravity around the man, almost forcing him to the ground. With barely any strength in him, he shot out a single coin that fired very fast. Riley barely dodged the coin, but lost focus on his target, who launched a manhole cover sized coin. This hit Riley in the face, knocking him out, and making his scarf come off.
[Comic Scene]
Today has probably been the worst day for our group. We've lost our home, half our supplies, and for some of us, our dignity. This man seems a bit suspicious, having powers and driving down a highway of which D.U.P. have blocked entry where he came from. I tried to sense if there was anything inside of his vehicle, and found that something living was inside. Knowing he's hiding something, I'm not sure if this man can be trusted. But is this suspicion really worth getting into something we don't know anything about.
[End of Comic Scene]
L2 Respectful Courtesy:
Try to calm the situation.
R2 Forceful Entry:
Escalate the inevitable.
Author's Note
Hey everybody, CJ here with another long awaited chapter for the story of the little kid, Nicky. For those who are curious, I will be accepting OC's for a while still, but I am not taking any more gang leaders. Lone wolf or gang member is the only way to go. Another thing too, I could use some more Reaper gang members. I barely have one sent in. Thank you all for your patience, and I'm glad you like this story of mine. Remember to give some feedback, (and tell me how much of a piece of crap this chapter is). Along with that, tell me what Nicky should do next. So far, she's more positive with a bit of attitude. Still room for me to make her an awesome vigilante, a horrible monster, or some strange combo. Peace, er'body!