So... that monthly update thing sure went out the window fast. I meant to get the chapter out before Christmas, but procrastinated until I was visiting family back home... and had left my laptop at home, meaning I couldn't type or post. And then this sat dormant for over a month, until my birthday.
Man, am I bad at keeping to a writing schedule... so, I'll try and make this chapter a bit longer. Especially since things are starting to pick up.
Elijah once more chowed down on Olaf's, watching the waves in the bay lap at the shoreline. If Conduit powers didn't help people stay in at least decent shape, he'd probably be more worried about his weight, what with all the burgers he was putting away in his stress. Still, he'd been cutting back a bit more recently, if only to protect his wallet.
"See something interestin' out there, E?"
"Not in the slightest." He snarked back, taking another bite and not bothering to look over at Fetch and Eugene as they sat down on either side of him. "I don't suppose you're here to tell me about a bank robbery or something?"
"Nah, nothing that special." Fetch laughed, nudging his shoulder and almost making him drop the food as Eugene spoke up.
"That said... I do think I found something. Over the last few days, my Angels spotted some boats coming to and from the harbor area; no gang marks or anything, just regular sailboats and the like. Thing is, I was able to check out the records for the harbor... and there's nothing. No records for mooring, casting off, or anything of the sort."
Elijah just raised an eyebrow. "And... you think it's drug-related?"
"If it was drug related, our contacts would have heard about it by now." The Video Conduit shook his head. "Plus, there's been nothing reported in terms of gang violence; drug shipments often lead to conflict between the gangs while they fight for control. Either destroy the competition, or steal their product and sell it yourself. Yet... there's nothing. More than that, it seems like all the gangs in the city, from the small-time ones to even gangs like the Akurans, have just... vanished. Not a trace in sight."
"Normally, that'd be a good thing... but we haven't had enough conflict with them for them to decide to back out." Elijah mused through another mouthful of food. "Plus, the Akurans still see us as freaks needing a shot to the head - no way would they just up and leave when they think they could still push us out, no matter how small of a chance."
Fetch frowned, but nodded - the Akurans were bastards at the best of times, racist drug-pushers with more bullets than brains. Yet, they had power and influence, even in this city. So, why did it seem like they'd given it all up?
Their musing was cut off by the sound of an explosion going off in the Lantern District; far enough away to not knock them over, but certainly close enough to shock them. Already, they could hear the sirens starting up, and Eugene wasted no time in forming a pair of Angels and instructing them to scout ahead. The two hardlight constructs shot into the air to do their master's bidding as Fetch and Elijah both burst into their respecting elements, Elijah swarming his way towards the Lantern District as a cloud of smoke and fire while Fetch leapt from building to building, leaving neon streaks and silhouettes in her wake.
They landed in the marketplace of the Lantern District - or at least, what used to be the marketplace. Apparently the explosion was strong enough to leave a crater in the street and destroy a majority of the stands around it. There were screams, crying, coming from all directions, people who were injured or mourning someone else.
No words needed to be said between the Conduits, even as Eugene dropped from above, having been carried by a third Angel. Already his first two were helping dig survivors out of debris and a collapsed building nearby; Fetch headed to the opposite side of the street and began doing the same. Elijah checked out the area closest around the blast zone, checking out several of the smashed-up stalls and finding a person or two in them... unfortunately, it was hard to tell, given they weren't in one piece, and were stone-cold dead.
Elijah grit his teeth; whoever had done this, and for whatever reason, would pay for this. He kept this message, this mantra, in mind as he shifted from looking in the wreckage to looking for more survivors, using his Flare Dash to travel of spot to spot and to access several hard-to-reach locations, such as inside another collapsed building. He carried the person trapped inside out through the roof; blasting his way out would only cause the remainder of the building to fall down on top of them.
They had saved almost a dozen people by the time emergency services arrived, fire trucks pulling in to help douse some of the small fires that had started up while police began blockading the area, keeping the inquisitive public out as the paramedics began both tending to the wounded and helping to search for more.
It would take several hours, and several interviews with police about what they'd seen and what had gone down, before the Conduits could get back out onto the streets.
Elijah slammed his fist into a brick wall; pain radiated up his hand from the blow, but the scrapes were already healing with faint traces of smoke and fire as he turned to his two allies. "Something tells me there's more to this than just a bombing for no reason." He stated, gritting his teeth as he fought to control his temper, having no outlet at the moment.
Fetch nodded in agreement. "Someone had an objective here, and someone set all of this up... but for what? Killing a rival gang boss or something?"
"I doubt it." Eugene shook his head. "All the gangs went to ground before this; someone would have heard something if one of them was making a move."
"So, what do we do now?" Elijah stated, sticking his fists into his jacket pockets as he reigned in his temper some more. As cathartic as it would be to smash down the brick wall he'd punched with his firepower, it would also be quite expensive to fix, and wouldn't bring him any closer to the culprit in all this. "Just... wait around for more bombings?"
"I'll see if I can find something on my cameras." Eugene declared, starting to walk to the street. "One of them was bound to catch something before the blast, and all my cameras are linked back to the database I set up - even if they're destroyed, the recordings will remain. No SD cards needed."
Right; Elijah had almost forgotten how Eugene had repurposed the leftover cameras from DUP control of Seattle for his own purposes. They were kept to strictly public locations, like main streets and the like to help avoid people complaining about privacy laws (no, you don't have a 'reasonable right to privacy' when you're out in public, lady), but the market was considered public enough to be monitored.
Unfortunately, the mood soured when Eugene checked the database.
"What the-?" He clicked a few icons and typed in some commands, only for error after error to pop up on his screen. "This isn't good..."
"Something wrong, Angel-boy?" Fetch asked, sitting up off the couch she'd plopped down onto moments ago.
"Someone hacked my database, all the footage was deleted!" Eugene stated, his voice starting to rise with panic. "But, how? And when? I can't even check the records of the cameras in here because those were wiped too!" A moment later, the screen began to glitch out before more and more errors were thrown up and the screen finally went black, smoke rising from several important-looking devices as Eugene yelped in shock.
"Some sort of virus, maybe?" Elijah suggested, stepping up behind the hoodie-wearing Conduit.
"M-maybe, but a virus like this would need an entry point, something to give it access to all the data to delete, steal, ransom, whatever!" Eugene explained, standing from his chair and starting to check his computer setup, taking inventory of what had been broken and what was still salveagable. "It would need a malicious link like in spam emails, or..." He paused, then reached down and plucked a piece of hardware from one of the ports on the back of his computer. "...it could be inserted in by USB."
"You're saying that little thing crashed your computer?" Fetch asked, leaning in to inspect it; it was a small device, only an inch long and matte-black, the only shiny metal on it coming from the USB connector.
"More than crashed it, this thing completely bricked my system." Eugene groused. "I'm gonna need to build a new one from scratch and see if I can recover any data... someone knew about my system here, and knew how to get through its security, otherwise the virus would have failed." He glanced between the two of them. "Whoever did this, is also likely in charge of that bombing out there - it might have been a distraction just for this. Brick the monitoring systems, and we're forced back to patrolling with no tech support. It would make it a lot easier to sneak around, at least..."
"Someone bombed a marketplace... as a distraction for us?" Elijah rumbled, flames starting to lick at the sides of his hands and up his arms as he glared down at the USB in Eugene's hand.
"It would make sense, unless there's more to it - we're missing a lot of information here." Eugene sighed, tossing the little device onto the table.
"Then let's get out there and start getting info - I want to know who did this and why." The phosphorus conduit grunted, spinning on his heel and marching back to the stairs before Flare Dashing out of the basement.
There we go - as stated before, things are heating up. And with the cameras down, a lot of their eyes and ears are gone... question is, who did it and why?
You might find out next chapter, if things go well! :P