L2: Interrogation
Karma Rank Changed to: Little Angel
Achievement: "You can't handle the truth!"
Nicky looked towards the two arguing with each other, then right at Rick.
"Put him down." Nicky told him.
"With pleasure." Rick said with a smile.
"What? No! I mean down on the ground." Nicky said.
"You kidding me, Nicky? He stabbed you. Held a knife at my brother. You want to let him loose?" Rick asked
"I want you drop him. He must know something. Especially if these 'Reapers' are with him." Nicole told the huge, gassy conduit.
"See. Lil' Nicky knows what to do here. I'm sorry about yo friends, but you gotta calm…" Sebastian tried to tell Riley.
The teenager then threw his palms against the rope conduit's chest, and shouted, "You gotta back up!".
Riley ran towards the wound ripping conduit, getting ready to use his powers on him. Nicky noticed this, and just as quickly put an end to it. She took a moment to focus on the teenager's arms, and snapped a few bones out of place around the wrist. Riley quickly felt pain from the child's action, and began to grind his teeth a little.
"Stay out of my way,... little girl…" Riley told her.
"No. Stay out of mine, little boy." the bone girl said before turning back to the flesh cutter.
Rick had dropped him on the ground, allowing him to try and regain his breath. His neck was surrounded by a green sludge that smelt like rotting flesh. To avoid the sensation of the smell, Nicky covered her nose with her shirt.
"You need to start talking." Nicky said to the cut throat.
"And… what if… I… don't… tell…" the man said as he gasped for air between his words.
Michael, Rick, Emily, and even Felix all stood around the psycho. Each of them was ready to beat the man to a pulp.
"Then we'll show you how we did it back in the Neon." Michael told him.
"Hah. There's nothing you circus freaks can say to change my tone." the murderous conduit told the bone conduit.
"How's Marie doing?" Nicole asked the man.
The man looked at her with a confused look before asking, "Who's Marie? There's a lot of Marie's out there.".
Nicky got closer to him and whispered, "The florist fiancee of yours could be in danger.".
"What?" he said.
Nicky backed up a few steps, and nodded her head.
"The hell? How did you…" the man said as he felt baffled by the child's knowledge.
Rick grabbed him by the collar of his shirt, and asked, "You going to speak up now, you son of a bitch." with strain in his tone.
"Let me have a piece of him!" Riley yelled.
"Enough of this, man. We all know how much your friends meant to you, but you can't let your anger control your actions. You gotta think…" Sebastian told him.
"Put him down, Rick. We need him to speak." Michael said.
Rick looked at the bone conduit, and threw the man he held up onto the ground. His back bounced off the pavement, with the remaining force rolling him onto his belly. The once smiling, psychotic man now appeared to have a slight bit of worry on his face as he pushed himself onto his hands and knees.
"Come on. Let's hear it, asshole!" Emily said.
"Sebastian." Michael called out.
"Yeah, boss." the young man responded.
"You and Emily grab Riley. See if anyone's alright over there." Michael told the rope conduit.
He and Emily both nodded at Michael before grabbing a hold of Riley and forcing him away from the scene. Afterwards, the big bone conduit looked towards the little conduit girl.
"Thanks for your help, Nicole." Michael said to her.
"Yeah." Nicky said with a nod.
"If you don't mind, I think you should go over there with Maria and Bruce." he told the child.
"You're asking me to sit on the side lines?" the bone girl asked.
"No. I'm wanting you to watch over Bruce. See if there's anything you can do to help him." Michael said.
"Whatever you say?" Nicky muttered as she walked away towards the sick child.
With the child gone, Mike and Rick began their interrogation. The two large conduits grabbed him by the shoulders, and threw his back against the ground.
"Now tell us. Why are you out here?" Michael questioned the psychopath.
Michael and Rick now had the psycho in their hands. They got answers to a few of their questions, but the man started to answer questions with questions. As the two large conduits were thrown off, Sebastian tried to keep things under control with Riley.
"Get the hell away from me!" Riley told Sebastian.
"We need to stay focused, my friend." the rope conduit said.
"I am focused. Focused on that prick. But the hell with it. I'll go kill the other bitch instead." the teenager said.
Riley quickly turned around to face the girl who killed his friends. As he started to walk towards her, Emily stepped in his way.
"Let me go before I hit your cry baby ass." he said to the nail conduit.
"Just stop. You can't do this." Emily told him as she tried hold her tears.
"Look. You're already about to cry again." Riley said.
"Enough of this shit!" Sebastian said while walking towards the teenager.
He slapped the side of Riley's head with enough force to throw him to the ground. Instead of completely dropping to the pavement, the "Wisp" boy used his powers to somehow lift himself back to his feet.
"You need to wake the hell up. If you really care about your friends, then come help us get Logan and Raven." Sebastian said.
"I need to do this." Riley said.
"No. You want to. But you shouldn't. You need to help your friends. Their lives have depended on you, and abandoning them is not the way to go." Sebastian responded to the teenager as he got in his face.
"You don't know…" Riley said in a softer tone.
"Don't know what!? What it's like to lose someone you love? Someone who counts on you?!" Sebastian told Riley.
Riley backed up as he felt the saliva that sprayed from the rope conduit's mouth.
"You're not the only one who's had hardships. When I was twelve, I saw my brother get shot to death by the D.U.P. shit-for-brains. After that, I found myself with Rebecca's gang, found an old friend only to watch him die too." he told Riley.
The teenager looked at him with a bit of worry on his face, unsure of how to respond to Sebastian. He turned to Rebecca to see her in tears as she looked at Sebastian. Riley then looked back at the now furious young man, trying to mutter out some words.
"What do you want me…?"
"I want you to knock off this attitude, and help your damn friends." Sebastian told him.
"Okay." Riley said.
The three conduits then walked over to the other teenagers who appeared to still be alive. While they had their hands full, Nicole walked towards Maria who had a sick Bruce lying on her lap. She sat in front of them with her legs criss-cross, and hands on her knees. The child hoped she could get rid of the stress of the moment here.
"How are you holding up there, kid?" Maria asked Nicky.
"Okay I guess. How is he?" the bone girl asked.
"I'm alright. But I think I crapped my pants." Bruce said as he started coughing again.
"Well at least you'll live." Nicole told him as she chuckled a little.
"What about the 'Wisps'? Are they okay?" the boy asked.
"Well…" Nicky muttered in a depressed tone.
"What?" Bruce asked her.
"Let's calm down the questions for now. You need some rest so you can get better." Maria said as she rubbed his forehead.
"Can I at least ask where Rebecca went?" Bruce asked the musical conduit.
Both her and Nicky looked at the last spot that they had their former leader. All they saw were ropes that Sebastian used to tie her up. Nicole got to her feet in a hurry, and looked around to see if she could find the wind conduit. There was no luck for the young conduit.
As the child continued to worry, Michael and Rick were squeezing more intel on where the psycho conduit came from.
"Working with those Reaper bastards is pretty low." Michael said to the man.
"Now tell us the name of your client. The one who sent you after us." Rick said.
The psycho looked up a little, and saw something. He began to laugh maniacally. Noticing where his eyes were wondering, the two turned around slowly. They saw another tall woman in a white jacket. Only this one had a blade on her back, along with strange devices on her hands and forearms.
Before anyone could mutter anything, she said, "Her name is Jen. But I didn't send him after you. You're not what I was looking for.".
She then flashed to position herself behind Michael and Rick. The individual then swung her arms backward as if trying to stab something behind her. Just as quickly as she moved, she sent electricity through their spines, paralyzing them. Both Rick and Michael dropped to the ground, unable to stop this individual. She ran towards the other two white coats, and lifted them up by the back of their necks. She sent electricity through the two, giving them a boost of energy, rather than paralysis like Mike and Rick.
"Grab the other two." she told them.
As this new individual set the two on their feet, they split off in different directions. The smaller one towards the psycho, the tall one over to the blood conduit, leaving the new one to go towards Nicole. As the little conduit noticed this, she tried to change her form so that the woman couldn't grab her.
"Not now, child. I want you to sleep now." the voice in the child's head told.
With those words, little Nicky passed out onto the ground. Maria tried to intervene, firing various, colorful projectiles at the new individual. The woman stopped for a moment to allow the musical conduit's attack strike. Right before it could make contact with her body, she formed a barrier in front of herself. The projectiles only hit the shield, but did almost nothing to the woman behind. She then flashed to Maria, and slapped her out of the way. As that force knocked the young woman down, Nicky was picked up.
"Leave her alone!" Bruce said before throwing a piece of rubber at the woman.
The woman threw Nicky over her shoulder, and looked at the little boy that threw something at her. She grabbed out a knife, and put a tight grip on the handle. Flashing straight at the boy, she expected to stab the small human. To her surprise, the woman instead stabbed Maria.
"What the...?" the woman said silently.
Even with that slight surprise, she kept her main motive in mind, and kicked Maria off her knife to land on Bruce. The quickly flashed away from the scene. Sebastian, Emily and Riley tried to grab a hold of the flashing conduit that went straight for the psycho. He simply dodged every attempt at subduing him, and grabbed the one he was after. The third of these fast moving individuals ran to the blood conduit, and threw her over their shoulder.
The trio started to flee the scene with their cargo when yet another slight obstacle popped up.
"Drop her, you stupid buncha' bitches!" Rebecca shouted at them.
The "air bending" conduit shot at the one holding Nicky with small bit of force that was both invisible, and silent. She sensed this, dodging it and letting the one behind her take the heat. The flashy individual holding the blood conduit dropped her cargo after that strike. To get away with at least most of her henchmen, "Jen" grabbed a hold of the quick moving person with her free hand. She began to zoom out of the scene with Nicky in hand, and the other white coated henchman deciding to follow suit.
"YOU MOTHER… God damn it!" Rebecca shouted as she watched them disappear.
Michael and Rick were just able to get up after being stunned. Both them, and the rest of the group gathered together near Bruce and Maria. Rick tended to his brother, and thanked Maria for taking the knife for him. Michael looked at Rebecca, and walked straight towards her.
"Is this the part where you lecture me again? Or are you going to tie my ass up?" Rebecca asked the bone conduit.
Michael gave her a stern look as he said, "You screwed up, Rebecca. So don't expect me to be…".
With the attention being on the bone and air conduit, no one paid attention when Riley ran straight for the bloody assassin. Sebastian was the first to notice, but couldn't stop the teen as he kicked the blood conduit in the jaw before she got onto her feet.
"Take that! Waste of space, bitch!" he said as he continued to strike the young individual.
"Get off her!" Sebastian yelled after tossing a lasso around the angry teenager.
The rope conduit pulled him away from the new individual. Throwing him off to the side, Sebastian decided to go up to the conduit.
"Are you alright?" he asked her.
The girl jumped up and attempted to slice Sebastian's throat. The young man whipped around her, and threw a noose on the young woman. Michael ran up to the blood conduit and punched her in the gut. She dropped to the ground, with Sebastian's rope tightening around her neck.
"You shouldn't try to mess with us. Especially now that you're alone." Rebecca said.
"Nicky. They took Nicky." Bruce said to his brother.
"I know." Rick told him.
"Don't worry. We'll get your girlfriend back." Maria said.
"Girlfriend? We're just…" Bruce said before he started coughing some more.
"You just focus on getting better." Maria told him as she rubbed his cheek.
"Thanks again for protecting him. I owe you one." Rick said to Maria.
"Well, I can think of a few things. But right now, we got a kidnapped Nicky to deal with." the woman said.
Maria looked at Rebecca who was now in the blood conduit's face. She grabbed her bottom jaw by the sides, and swung her head around.
"You don't want to piss me off right now. Why don't you hurry up and tell us where your people are hiding out?!" Rebecca said as she let go of the girl's face.
"Screw off." the girl responded.
"You little bitch." Rebecca said before slapping the girl upside the head.
Michael grabbed Rebecca and moved off to the side, appearing even more irritated.
"What the hell are you…?" Rebecca asked him.
"Stay out of the way." Michael said as he got ready to talk with this new conduit.
"This isn't that old 'good cop bad cop' thing is it? Because that never works on me." the bloody assassin said.
"No. Matter of fact, I might be the worse cop." Michael told her.
The bone man lifted his hand, formed a fist, and made bony spikes protrude from his entire arm.
"You wouldn't hit a little girl in the face, would you?" the blood conduit said with a smile.
Michael punched the girl, knocking her down to the ground. The spikes tore her face apart. She dropped the smile, feeling rather angry.
"I'll beat anyone to death that wants to hurt a kid like you pricks." Michael said.
"You're hitting a kid, dumbass. And my methods were messed up?" Rebecca stated.
"No. Just not screwed up enough. And just as I could tell Nicky was a child, I can say this one is older than she looks." Michael told her.
"Looks can be deceiving. Kind of like how your group looks tough, but me and the others were close to cutting you all down." the blood conduit said.
"I get the picture." Michael said.
"I don't think you do. For right now, I look like I'm the one in peril." the bloody assassin said as she turned her eyes into a bunch of trees.
Michael quickly turned to look in the direction her eyes pointed to, only to see nothing. With that single second of the bone conduit's ignorance taking his attention, the blood conduit formed blades all over her arms and neck. The sharp formations cut through the rope conduit's restraints, allowing her to quickly turn and kick Sebastian several feet away. Michael and Rick noticed this, attempting to subdue her again. This time though, the blood conduit had a different method to dealing with them. She held her palms towards them. After a moment of focus on her targets, the two large conduits appeared to be choking. The blood conduit then clenched her hands into tight fists, and swung them down by her sides. This motion appeared to have forced both the bone conduit and the decay conduit to go face first into the pavement.
Rebecca became furious, letting out an onslaught of sonic blasts strong enough to crack the concrete. The blood conduit swiftly dodged the angry woman's barrage, and got close to swing the side of her hand to the back of Rebecca's neck. Striking right in between some bones, the blow caused the "air bender" to fall unconscious.
"Got you, asshole!" Riley yelled at the blood conduit.
The teenager ran to strike her, tossing a wave of air caused by his powers at the one that bled out his companions. Transforming into herself into blood, the deadly conduit managed to slip past his power.
Noticing the conflict, Maria hid Bruce under some of the wreckage of the RV.
"Stay here until I come back." she told the young boy.
"And if you don't?" Bruce questioned.
"Run like hell. And stay safe, buddy." the musical conduit told him as she rubbed the side of his head.
Maria then looked at Emily, who was running towards the blood conduit. She followed suit, and fired colorful blasts that sounded like the striking of piano keys on contact. Most of them missed, but one struck the ground below her. The impact sent the bloody assassin a few feet into the air. Before she could get any other ideas, Riley used his powers to force the blood conduit down to the ground. The pressure kept her against the road, allowing Emily the opportunity to nail the blood conduit's jacket down. With the threat being restrained on her back, Sebastian got back up to access the situation.
"What the hell…? Shit. You guys actually caught her ass." he said as he got close to Riley.
"Now can I kill her?" the teenager asked.
"You know what the deal is. Gotta use her for information." Sebastian told him.
With them finally keeping the blood conduit down, the group would now be able to get information out of her. Though they needed that intel faster than they knew, as their young kidnapped companion was now in an entirely different situation.
Nicole was rather dizzy as she woke up, most of everything appearing blurry while opening her eyes. When she was finally able to see what was in front her, she recognized a woman sitting in an armchair facing her. The child freaked out, and began moving back away from the woman.
"Good to see that you're finally awake. Now do you mind coming towards me so that we can speak?" the woman asked her.
"I don't… no… Stop it! Stay out of my head!" Nicole shouted at her.
"Don't make me have to get up. It won't be very pleasant for you."
"I said go away!"
As she said that, the woman in the armchair got up onto her bare feet. It was now that she realized she was not dreaming or hallucinating. The child was in the same room as another familiar face.
"I told you to come here. Now!" the woman said as she made a puddle of black tar form at her feet.
The liquid began to move across the floor towards Nicky, forming a few tendrils that grabbed the kid by her waist and under arms. In a vain attempt, she used her powers to break some limbs in the woman. The woman smiled, appearing to not have the slightest sense of pain.
"Young Nicole, that power is not going to work on me." the woman said.
"What?" Nicole muttered to herself.
"Just because you can play with the big dogs in your neighborhood, doesn't mean that you can play with wolfs." the woman told Nicky as she used her powers to bring the bone girl close.
"I don't want to hear your voi…"
"Would you prefer Elizabeth's voice?" the strange female asked.
"Don't even say her name! Why are you always in my head?!" the child shouted as she started lashing out.
"You think I'm only in your head?" the woman said as she turned her head towards a door.
That door was opened by the tall woman that grabbed a hold of Nicole. As this tall individual moved into the room with the child and strange woman, she was followed by the man that stabbed her. A look of worry spread over the small conduit's face as she noticed those two, along with the man who was in their custody.
"I'll do what you say. Just at least let me see her…" the other man said before recognizing Nicole.
It took her a second, but Nicky recognized the beard and brown coat on him.
"No. You too?" the man said before turning to the woman in the red hoodie. "Is this something you sick bastards like to do? Kidnap kids?"
"Only if it suits us. Personally, I prefer to just kill random children." the woman told him.
After saying that, she nodded to the tall woman next to the men. That woman nodded back, and punched the man next to her, knocking him to the ground.
"If you want things to go your way, you have to do what I say. Choosing not to obey could lead to some serious consequences." the woman in the red hoodie told him as she sat back.
The tendrils grabbing Nicole dropped her and dissipated. New one formed behind the woman, and held up someone else of about Nicky's size. It took all of a second for the bearded man to feel horror sweep over him as he recognized who was in her grip.
"Louise?" the man said in a soft tone.
"There's something special about the two children here. Though they're both young, I feel like I could make some good use of them." the woman said.
"What did you do to h…?!" the bearded man said before a bright lasso of electricity rang around his neck.
The line of electromagnetic energy led to the tight grip from the woman in the white hoodie. She then swung the man onto his back, and stomped on his chest.
"Who are you?" Nicole said in a disturbed voice.
As the young bone child turned towards the woman, she noticed her walking towards where she stood.
"I've been called many names, kid. Homeless people called me 'Tar Lady'. D.U.P. soldiers refer to me as 'Black Sludge'. But since I take a liking to you kid…", she paused before pulling back the hood of her red jacket to reveal her pale, vein covered face and bald head. "... my name is Sasha."
The sight of this woman made Nicole's jaw drop. Not only was the woman from her visions in front of her, but she was far worse than she could imagine. The child was now in a tight situation yet again. The man whose offer she refused now had new problems. All the child could hope for is this woman did not plan on committing horrific actions. Whether it be on her, the man or even his child.
"Now come here. Both of you. I want to discuss things with you." Sasha told them.
Sorry for the late ass chapter, everyone. Been a hell of a friggin' year, this one. Long story short, too much catering on top of moving. And moving past my excuses, I hope you found this chapter halfway decent. If not, make sure to criticize me in the reviews. Anyhow, PEACE!