Thanks a lot to Dimension Distorter favoriting, following and for helping me out, you've really cleared up some uncertainties on my behalf and have helped a lot with some mistakes on source material. And also to Jak Sandrow, DannyPhantom619 & InsomniacAggronGamer (who changed his name to WanderLustAggron) for leaving reviews. As always, please fav/follow and leave some points for improvement. If any of you readers haven't left a review, please do so that I know what's good and what's bad.
Thx & PEACE!
Oreo.
"Thank God, you're awake." I opened my eyes and painful light flooded in. I squeezed them shut and this time opened them slowly. I was back in my room at The House. Fetch was sitting on the dresser; her hair was dyed fluorescent blue with a few pink and purple highlights. Her eyes were red and she had streaks of mascara running down her face. Tears were pooling in her eyes. "D woke up just ten minutes ago. He told me what happened with Eugene," Eugene. Oh God. I remembered the pool of blood around his head. His vacant eyes. "I didn't know anything was wrong. I came looking for you guys when you didn't come back and I found Delsin and you knocked out. Eugene... I was too late. Maybe if I'd come earlier, I could've stopped that maniac. I.." Her voice cracked.
"Fetch, you couldn't have done a thing." I tried sitting up from my bed but pain exploded in my chest where the lightning bolt had hit me, so I lay back down, "this guy... Kessler," I named him, "he was so powerful. Me and Delsin didn't stand a chance."
"But we're gonna hunt him down,"
I turned my head to see Delsin standing in the doorway. He was leaning against the doorframe and clutching his side, he was hurt too, "And then we're gonna kill him." His face was like a statue, expressionless. But the rage in his eyes was hard to miss. With a determined look specifically in my direction, he turned around and limped down the hallway. I tried to get up again, Fetch offered to help but I shook my head. Ignoring the fiery pain, I staggered after Delsin with Fetch in tow, fresh tears smudging her make-up.
An hour later, the two of us are training in the massive backyard. We're quickly finding out my limits, I can jump up to the height of a small skyscraper but it's easier to take it in two or three smaller jumps. With a bit of imagination, I can create some cool ice-constructs like a giant hand and rockets that instantly freeze on impact. Beams of Cryoenergy take a lot more energy than ice constructs but are a lot more efficient. I don't have as much energy as Delsin or Fetch, but they both assure me that I'll get better with practice. I start off practicing some shooting. I can create ice-shards really quickly and they travel far and fast. But Delsin claims that they're too dangerous (well, I already figured that out) and that I should try creating blunt projectiles. It's a bit slower to do that but after an hour of shooting at targets painted on the walls, I get used to it.
Then we start 'sparring'. Delsin pushes me as hard as he can; I immediately take on the defensive as he pounds me with Concrete. Apparently he had lost Video when Eugene died and that made him even more bitter. I just about have the time to create some thin constructs that block his attacks but each assault broke my defenses and I was forced to create more. Within a few minutes, I was drained dry. I put my hands up - signalling that I need a break but Delsin didn't stop. He Boulder-Dashed straight at me and smashed me to the ground. I saw stars.
"Out there, that... murderer won't give you a break," He spat viciously, "so I won't either." He raised his fist and gathered concrete around it. I just managed to roll away and sprang to my feet before he could attack again. I couldn't spot any sources of water nearby so I called some from the distant ocean (I found out that I didn't need to see it to absorb it). The energy would take a while to get to me, however, so I ran straight towards Delsin. He wasn't expecting that. And he didn't know that I had been taking MMA lessons since I was four years old... So he wasn't expecting what came next either. I dodged around his slow, Concrete-powered punch and got him in a headlock. When he tried to use Concrete to escape, I shifted my body-weight and pulled my arm upwards. Delsin fell to the ground with a startled gasp. The cryoenergy was getting closer.
How much longer? I asked.
Seconds.
Delsin got up and shot three Concrete bullets at me. I dodged the first two but the last one hit me hard in the shoulder. I heard a sound like wood cracking and I couldn't feel my arm. Shit. Delsin began to gather Concrete around his hands. I could see the cryoenergy speeding towards me in the distance. The shards of concrete formed gauntlets around his hands and he ran towards me. A bolt of blue light exploded between us.
Took long enough.
Be grateful. The cryoenergy had finally arrived, both healing my dislocated shoulder and recharging me. Delsin, on the other hand, was almost out of energy. Seeing that I had been fully recharged, he decided to use up the rest of his energy trying to beat me. He shot more concrete bullets at me, with one hand, which I easily blocked by creating an ice-shield, although it chipped away at the sides. With his other hand he created a giant boulder. When my shield finally broke under the barrage of bullets, he launched the boulder at me. I punched the ground and shards of ice shot out, slowing the boulder... but not stopping it. I raised my hands and glowing blue energy radiated from my palms. The shards rose from the ground and joined together to create an enormous hand. Using my hastily-crafted construct, I caught the boulder just before it hit me. The impact created cracks in the ice, and for a second I was afraid that it might give way, but I quickly repaired the cracks and - with a grunt of effort - threw the boulder back at Delsin. He raised his arms over his face in a meek defense. It would have flattened him. But I caught it again, less than a second before it hit him. With a squeeze of both hands, I crushed the concrete into a fine powder and let it fall onto Delsin. Then I melted the giant hand and drenched him.
"Nice work-out." I smiled innocently.
"Yeah." Delsin almost smirked. Almost.
I look at the clock on the wall. 7:00 PM. My gaze returns to the half-drunk glass of homemade lemonade in my hands. How do I tell Fetch that it tastes disgusting in a polite way (you know, so she doesn't fry my brains)? Delsin's already pulled the old Spill-It-Into-The-Potted-Plant trick and complimented the blue-haired Conduit on how delicious it was... making it even harder to tell her. Instead of drinking the rest, I freeze the liquid and melt it again and again, waiting for Fetch to leave the living room so that I can copy Delsin's tactics. I heard the door open behind me and turned to see that very same Delsin. I smiled but he returned it with a grim look. He then turned to Fetch.
"Celia's up to her tricks again. The police phoned me as soon as they found they recognised the marks on the body." Celia Penderghast. I remembered her from the Paper Trail DLC from inFAMOUS. Unfortunately, I hadn't actually played it... I was planning to until I got sucked into the very same world. Oh well. "I'm gonna go see if I can get her."
"I'll come with you." Fetch said. Delsin gave her a look that said: 'Oh no, you're not'
"Ash, come on," He beckoned me to come with him. I got up and was about to put my jacket on when Fetch stopped me.
"I'm completely fine, Del-"
"You know that you're not," Delsin gave her that look again. When she was about to reply, he interrupted again; "Look, Fetch, I'm not having this argument with you now. Stay at the House." He turned around and opened the door. "You comin', Ash?"
"Sure." I put my jacket on and followed Delsin. "Bye, Abi." I smiled at Fetch and she couldn't help smiling back. I left the frozen lemonade on the coffee table.
The sky was getting dark but the bright white paper strips kinda stood out. Delsin was using his Lightspeed to get around and I was having a bit of trouble keeping up but just about managed.
"Where are we even going!?" I shouted over the howling wind.
"The murder-scene... The police have cordoned the place off, but we'll be allowed in. There might be some clues to find Celia."
That's when we heard the sound of rustling paper behind us and Delsin's head whipped around to see a swarm of paper strips flying above us.
"Someone mention my name?" A female voice asked from the papers. It took me a second to realise that it was Celia Penderghast - the white rabbit - and then we chased those strips all over the city. They moved so fast that the fact that we were even able to keep up the chase made me think that she wanted us to follow her. It didn't take long for me to get out of breath and also almost out of energy just by all the jumping around. The paper strips stopped at the base of a tall building and materialized into a girl wearing a blue leather trenchcoat and a paper mask shaped like a rabbit's face with dove's wings mounted behind her head. The trenchcoat was new, it looked identical to Augustine's which made me wonder if it was the exact same. The wings were also new, probably something to represent the DUP. Celia ran towards the building and disappeared up a vent, just like Delsin could, and appeared on the roof a second later.
"That's new." Delsin commented as he followed her up the - wait a second... wasn't Delsin using Neon? How did he switch without absorbing Smoke? I'd ask him later. I spotted a fountain a few meters away and absorbed the water before taking a less direct route to the top. I ice-launched myself to the neighbouring building and rebounded off the wall, landing on the roof to see Delsin and Celia locked in combat. Paper is a lot stronger than it sounds; Delsin shot five consecutive smoke rockets at Celia but she intercepted each one with sharpened strips of paper and one exploded too close to him, throwing him backwards. He almost fell off the building but Celia caught him by wrapping him up in paper (like a mummy!). The Paper-powered Conduit hadn't noticed that I was even there and I took as much advantage as I could. I gathered as much cryoenergy in both hands as I could. Hopefully, I'd be able to freeze her and free Delsin in one shot. I decided to free Delsin first so I threw an ice-shard at the paper and it cut open around his arm. Celia turned around, startled... What, she didn't expect the guy who was chasing her with Delsin to be a problem? Delsin pulled his arm free and shot a Phosphor beam at Celia - somehow switching back to Neon - that blasted her backwards and stuck her to the ground with harmless lasers. Celia struggled against her bonds but stopped when I added my own icy restraints. Delsin was still having a bit of trouble with the paper so I helped him out of it when I heard a scarily familiar voice.
"I told you to wait for me, Celia." Delsin got up and we both whirled around to see a woman floating in the air. She was wearing a black trenchcoat that trailed half a meter below her feet. Her hair was deep blue and flowed down to her waist and her eyes glowed ice-white. He face was almost white, apart from the sparkling blue makeup that matched her eyes. In her hands was what looked like blue and white flames. Cryoenergy. Holy shit! Lucy Kuo.
Alright guys, tell me what you thought about that chapter. I was meant to introduce Kuo later on in the fic but, halfway through writing this chapter, I decided to put her in the end of this one. Originally, I didn't plan on having Kuo in this fic at all, but there's this one guest who always comments on fanfics saying something like "Bring back Lucyy. LUCY KUO!" so this is mainly to satisfy that guy. Sorry I took a while to publish this chapter, I'm actually writing another fic for The Inheritance Cycle and I want to pay more attention to that. Check it out if you want. I'm hoping to make updates more regular from now on probably every week or two. Bye for now... mwahaha!
Oreo.