Alright, before I start I wanna say thanks to Bluehood103 for unintentionally giving me an extra sub-plot. :D thx a lot!
"You know, I didn't need you to save me," I said to the golden angel, not happy of being man-handled (or angel-handled), "I would've just landed on the other side and jumped back."
"YOU DARE BE UNGRATEFUL TO HE WHO DWELLS!?" It bellowed, no doubt trying to intimidate me.
"I'm not being ungrateful," I replied, keeping my cool, after all I knew that it was just a computer nerd underneath, "I'm just sayin' that there was no need for you to do that." 'He Who Dwells' glowed blue and Video energy swirled around him like a tornado. A few seconds later, the energy disappeared and revealed a hooded kid with a few zits on his pale face. He was wearing a red t-shirt that had two H's (which stood for Heaven's Hellfire) and had a pair of thick glasses resting on his nose.
"Well," His voice couldn't have been more different to the giant angel's, but there was still something familiar about it, you could tell that it was actually his voice but altered, "I saved you some time at least." He raised his hand, "Eugene Sims." I shook it.
"Ashton..." I quickly searched my brain for a suitable surname; I couldn't say 'McKinney' because I had already changed my first name, "MacGrath." God, I'm so stupid. 'MacGrath'. Really? "But Ash is fine. Wait a second, where's Delsin?" I asked looking around for the Conduit. Right on cue, a cloud of smoke swirled out of a vent on the roof and Delsin appeared in front of us. You could tell, just by looking at Eugene that he was thinking of replying with some smart-ass answer to my question.
"Alright, that's enough time for you two to bond," Delsin smirked, "We've got a job to do, the Akurans have got hold of some of Ol' Augustine's gear." He turned to me, "You can help too."
"Good idea, except I don't see how I'm gonna stop gun-toting baddies by jumping on them... That's all I can do"
"There's another two Core-Relays nearby but the Akurans have got them." Delsin said.
"So we can get you some new powers" Eugene added, "and destroy the equipment that the Akurans stole." I considered this for a second and nodded my head.
"Killing two birds with one stone." I said.
"Exactly," Delsin replied. He walked to the roof and was about to jump off when he saw a satellite dish. He extended his arm towards it making blue Video energy drain off the screen and charge up Delsin, "Follow me!" He said jumping off the building. He grew a pair of glowing angelic wings and flew off. Eugene grew similar wings but his were bigger and he had four instead of two. I struggled to keep up with the duo, the Video Travel power seemed to be a lot more efficient, quick and manoeuvrable than Smoke and definitely far better than my Ice. I remembered that Delsin could only use Video Surge for a few seconds but he seemed to be keeping up his flight as long as he wanted. Makes you wonder why he bothers with Smoke and Neon.
I was out of breath from all the jumping by the time Delsin and Eugene stopped at another roof. They had hardly even broken a sweat. Huh, must be nice being able to grow wings.
"The Akurans are in that alleyway, but there's a lot of them," Delsin pointed just below the building, "Let's take 'em by surprise. Eugene summon some angels and block off that side," He pointed to the right, "Ash, you come with me, we'll take out the ones that Eugene misses and get the two Core-Relays. And remember, No Killing." Delsin looked at me pointedly, "You're new to this so you might not know. If you kill even one of those guys, you can forget about my help." He turned away, "You guys ready to kick some ass?" Without even waiting for an answer, he jumped down into the alley and immediately started firing a torrent of Video energy into the crowd of about two hundred. Eugene transformed into He Who Dwells and flew down with a small army of angels and I joined Delsin. It turned out that I could do more than just jumping on them. I focused my power into the palm of my hand and pointed it at one Akuran. Nothing shot out of my hand but frost gathered on the guy's gun and when he tried to fire it, nothing happened. I must have frozen the gunpowder or something.
"Having fun?" Delsin asked, raising his arms and summoning a dozen blue swords. When he bought his hands down, the swords pinned four of the Akurans to the ground by their clothes.
"Not really." I replied.
"Well then, you need a little something new..." He created a hand out of Video energy and grabbed the Relay to his right. The hand cracked the machine open and he threw it towards me. I just managed to duck out of the way, "Sorry!" He yelled. I don't think sorry really cuts it, considering he almost took my head off but there's no point complaining. I walked up the glowing machine while Delsin and Eugene kept the enemies off me with complete ease; they probably weren't even trying. This time I heard the voices before I even touched it.
We can make your power grow! Maybe I'm going mental, but I don't really give a shit.
Make it grow!
"Yeah, sure, do whatever." I replied. Again the blue sparks flew towards my body and that temporary surge of power washed over me. I fell to the ground, not even noticing in the first place that they had made me levitate again. I had a good feeling about what I could do now. "Let's see what I got!" I shouted to both of them. I raised both hands skyward and the white energy glowed brighter than it ever had. Now it could pass as Cryo-energy. A circle of light appeared on the ground around me and a giant pillar of ice grew beneath me. Within a few seconds I was standing on a huge column of ice. The Akurans completely forgot about Delsin and Eugene and focused on me. Even the other two Conduits seemed in awe for a moment. Then the thugs started to shoot at me. Most of their bullets missed, simply because I was too high up but soon some started to hit home. I expected an explosion of searing pain, but it didn't seem to hurt that much, it felt more like a violent punch than an actual deadly bullet. And they only made me angry.
I pointed my hand toward the group of Akurans and focused the same Cryo-energy towards them. This time the energy came off my hands in a bright beam and froze everything it came across, including the Akurans. I noticed that Delsin and Eugene had stopped fighting and were sitting casually on the edge of the building we had jumped off, as if watching a T.V show.
All the more for me I thought. I had frozen a dozen of the gang members when I decided to jump down from the pillar. On the way down I gathered more Cryo energy in both my hands and smashed it down on the ground. A wave of white light erupted across the concrete and froze more of them. Looking up, I saw that there were only ten more Akurans to go. I also saw that the next Core-Relay was only about ten yards away. I knew I wouldn't be able to absorb it if the Akurans kept shooting at me but I really wanted to knock these guys out with something new (because the newly found freezing-the-baddies power just wasn't new enough). So I concentrated more energy on the ground in front of me. A line of glowing white appeared on the ground and, when I raised my hands, a wall of ice grew between me and the Akurans. Good luck getting past that. Now for the Relay.
Want more already? The voices asked, with a hint of amusement. That is if glowing blue sparks generated by Ray Sphere energy can in any way feel amused and also assuming that it isn't all in my head.
Why not? I thought. The Relay seemed to have heard because the sparks made their way towards me. Well, at least I could communicate with them by thinking. That made me feel a lot less mad (!) Another power surge and I'm ready to go. I looked up at Delsin and saw that he was smirking, as usual. Why is that guy so... smirky all the time? This time I was less sure about what I could do, but expected that it would come instinctually like the last time. I summoned the Cryo energy in my hands again. This time I felt like there was more I could do with it.
So I experimented.
Instead of trying to do anything directly to the Akurans, I focused on the wall of ice separating us and the ice-column behind me. I felt a pulling sensation on both hands and when I lifted my hands and closed my eyes in concentration. Something started to crack.
"Holy..." I heard someone say. Delsin.
"Shit." Eugene finished. I opened my eyes and saw that the column and wall were hanging in the air like puppets. And I was the puppet master. I contemplated throwing the two giant constructs at the remaining Akurans but I knew that that would kill them instantly. So I settled for a slightly less violent approach. It didn't take much energy or time to break the ice into smaller chunks, each roughly the size of a tennis ball. And when they did, the Akurans knew that they weren't going to win. A couple were clever enough to run but the rest started shooting at me again. So I threw the ice at them. I didn't lessen my control over the ice though; even though they were a lot smaller, they could still kill them. Instead I decreased the speed of the ice so that they'd just knock the Akurans out - a bit like pulling your punches when you don't want to hurt someone. Well that was the Akurans taken care of and another two Core-Relays absorbed, but other than the Relays themselves, where was the equipment that Delsin had mentioned? Speaking of Delsin, our favourite winged Conduit flew down from the roof.
"Damn dude, that was some display of power, was that telekinesis?" He asked, amazingly his smirk had been replaced by a look of... was that admiration?
"No... I think it only works on ice," I answered.
"Man... Even I wasn't that powerful after only three Relays."
"Thanks!" I replied, starting to feel a little big-headed, "But didn't you say that the Akurans had got ahold of some of Augustine's gear? Were you talking about the Core..." Delsin interrupted me.
"Dude, Dude, Eugene's gone to scout out where the others are," He put his hands on my shoulders, the way you do to a little brother when you're trying to explain something to him (or you're politely asking him to take a hike), "These guys weren't the only Akurans in town, you know," the smirk returning to his face, "and they definitely weren't the ones with the best firepower"
Jumping again, yay! And that wasn't even sarcasm, I genuinely enjoy launching myself into the air and travelling at roughly 50 mph. Delsin had switched back to smoke so that it would be easier for me to keep up because his Video Surge was way too fast and I almost lost him once. We stopped close to the edge of the ocean, where Eugene was waiting for us.
"Alright, Eugene," Delsin started talking before he had even fully materialized back into his solid form, "fill me in."
"There's three floors in the building," Eugene quickly straightened his glasses and carried on, "The first floor has a few Akurans left to guard it but there's no one waiting outside. The second floor has a lot of Augustine's equipment so of course more thugs; they've got a few of those shackles that stop us from using our powers, no doubt for the innocent Conduits that they kidnap and beat the shit out of." He scowled, "The third floor has a lot more Akurans but there's not any of Augustine's stuff except for another Core-Relay which I think they're using to track down Conduits. The roof, has the same amount of Akurans as the second floor but there's also a lot more of them on nearby roofs; altogether more than the entire building. I can't figure out why there's so many Akurans on the roof, there's no equipment or anything up there." He scowled again, this time more directed at himself.
"Okay Eugene, don't beat yourself up about it," Delsin gave his trademark (and possibly copyrighted) smirk, "we'll find out when we get there anyway."
"Well, I for one am itching for a chance to absorb another Core Relay." I added, "So what are we waiting for?"
Delsin smirked.