Okay so Chapter 5 of "Heroes of Empire City". Hope you guys like it because some of my teachers did. As always, the more reviews I get the quicker I'll update. (And if you guys have any ideas for side missions, I'll see what I can do about typing them up.)
"Luna" Normal speaking
POV changes or yelling
Used for quotes
Thoughts
Secondary thought speaker (Sasha or any other telepath)
**Luna's narration**
"Think like a man of action, act like a man of thought." ~ Henri Louis Bergson
"… and it drains neuro electrical energy." Silver concludes the tale as we all end up on Zeke's roof.
"Now it all makes sense… government secrets, the conspiracy theories; all leading to this 'Ray Sphere'," Zeke says blowing out a breath.
"Calm down, you're gonna hurt yourself," Cole chuckles at his friend.
"You should bring that back, give everyone powers," Zeke exclaims.
"I could use a sidekick," Cole comments.
"Zeke Jedediah Dunbar is his own man," Zeke replies.
"Jedediah? That's your middle name?" I ask with a raised eyebrow.
"Yes it is, after my grandfather," Zeke informs us. "Strong man for a man his size, not sure where Zeke comes from…"
"You need to take a nap, and a bath. We got things to do," Silver interrupts, stretching her arms. As if on cue Agent Moya calls us on our cells: "I've got a few leads for you, so in order to maximize our resources you three will have to split up. The locations will be sent to your GPS." I head back to Archer Square, Cole gets sent to a rooftop not too far from Zeke's roof and Silver gets sent to help out a medical bay.
"Alright Moya, what now?" I ask as soon as I'm at Archer's.
"One of my electricians, Brandon, failed to check in last night. He's pretty important so I need him found. He was last seen in the alley across from your location," Moya replies. I walk across the street and over to the alley. Immediately I spot a woman lying dead on the ground, behind a trailer and crates. She must have been dead for a while based on the pool of blood and the smell.
"A woman?" Moya questions when I say that Brandon's not here. "That doesn't make any sense." I kneel down to try and get a better look at the body when images start to flash in front of my eyes. I see Brandon, a black guy with a yellow electrician's jacket over a white shirt, being handled by the Reapers. "Where are you taking him? Where are you going? BRANDON!" The woman screams before a Reaper raises his gun to her head.
"Whoa! The Reapers took your boy Moya. This is his dead wife, Lynnae," I report, holding my head, trying to get stars out of my eyes. Looking up from the ground, I continue my report. "I can see the echo of someone running away." I can only describe it as a ghost, only it moves in a way reminding me of a pre-recorded hologram.
"Follow it. It could lead us to Brandon. If you need back-up, Silver's in the area," Moya replies. That sets off something in my head and a growl rises in my throat; our 'Luna' and 'Silver' nicknames/friend-names are names that only we're allowed to give out. The fact that Moya knows them isn't pleasant and puts her on the 'un-friendly' list.
"Let's get something straight alright Moya," I tell her. "Our names are Laura and Selvena to you. Only we are allowed to give those names out. You don't have any right to call us those names… yet." Then I work on running after Brandon's echo before Moya can reply. Brandon, from what the echo tells me, was led through a few alleyways and across some streets, looking afraid of someone/thing near him based on his hands being close to his head. As I round another corner, I find two Reapers wearing white coats with full-body skeletons on them.
This can't be good. I think as I see blue energy crackling up around them. Morgan's evasive training comes back to me like an instinct and I roll to one side, barely dodging the twin lightning waves that the Reapers launch. Both white-hoods draw guns and move towards me. I draw my sword with my right hand and electricity sparks in my left. I move at them, closing the distance between us. My sword moves in a left-to-right slash to knock the guns away. Suddenly the Reapers vanish; gone in the blink of an eye. A gunshot clips my arm from the side. One of the white-Reapers shoots at me while my ears pick up the sound of his partner charging up another energy wave.
"Moya, I might need that back-up," I call into my cell as I duck behind a dumpster.
"Selvena's on her way." I roll again to avoid another wave while I shoot a few lightning bolts of my own. One of them flashes in front of me and delivers a kick to my stomach. I'm knocked to the ground, with a Reaper pointing his gun at my head. It seems to smile at me, even though the face is hidden under the hood. A flash of a lightning bolt makes the Reaper look away; long enough for me to grab his neck and send an electrified punch into his face. Silver appears with a thunder drop, slamming down onto the other Reaper-ghost-conduit.
"Thanks, Silver," I say as I sheathe my sword, checking that both of them are incapacitated. "This way, follow me." Brandon's green energy leads us into an above-ground substation, crawling with Reapers. As soon as we step foot into the substation, I hear the sound of three or four Reapers gathering energy. Then the electrical pillar-waves are released.
"To the side! To the side!" I yell as the lightning comes towards us. The minute I leap sideways, several gunshots go off; aimed at the two of us. None of the bullets hit me, thank goodness, but a few manage to make holes in the station generators. When I turn back to my foes, three of them rush up with shotguns in hand. A shockwave flies from my hands and knocks them back before their shotguns can blow my head off. With that done I leap into the shadows and wrap myself in the dark cloak. One boom-stick looks around for me, spitting up some dark spittle. Like a ninja in the darkness, I sneak up behind him and deliver a sharp rap to his skull. Silver back flips towards me and away from another electrical blast. My sword lashes out and successfully blocks a kick from a conduit.
"Fool me once, shame on me. Fool me twice, shame on you," I growl as I trip him before kicking him in the ribs. He lets out a groan of pain before falling to the ground.
"About six to four; my favor," Silver says as we head to the substation's controls, walking past the injured Reapers around the battle area.
"Cole should be there soon, ten seconds." Moya reports. Two seconds; we see a short, stout, Reaper. Four seconds; we spot the two rods in his hand. Five seconds; he pushes them together with a roar. Six through ten seconds involve the substation blowing up and knocking us back a few feet.
"What just happened?" Moya asks. "The entire Neon went dark."
"One of those idiots blew up the substation. Brain feels like it's in a vice." I complain when Cole lands beside us, also feeling the effects of the substation giving out. Our bodies must be reacting to the absence of electrical energy. I theorize while following Brandon's ghost, the trail stopping at a man-hole.
"Outta the city, into the sewers. What a drag." I complain before climbing down the ladder. The electricity in our body coils around our arms like snakes, providing us with light to see. Silver instead conjures up flame orbs to provide a bit more light in the darkness.
"You'll need to find the downed transformer and re-establish the connection. After that, you'll need to recharge the distribution center." Moya informs us upon our arrival in the sewer. The transformer isn't far from where we are, which makes the trip short. I whistle upon laying eyes on the large generator, wondering how the heck we'll do this. Six tesla coils look like they need to be linked together, if each of us grabs two of them.
"This is gonna sting." I mutter while standing on Cole's shoulders to get to the top coils. When the last coil is connected, electricity flows into us and out to the other coil. Suddenly I'm having a vision. One second I'm charging electricity in my hands and healing a civilian with a simple spark and another I'm creating a globe of darkness around an area to escape from Reapers. A third I find myself restraining a Reaper with his own shadow, black tendrils locking his arms and legs to the ground. Then I fall to the ground, spontaneously filled with the knowledge on how to use these powers.
"Now you have to recharge the distribution center, that'll reset the connection." Moya instructs us. We continue down the sewer pathway when we spot an injured man by a closed gate. Cole charges electricity into his hand and blasts the man with a spark. We're all surprised when we witness his injuries close up and disappear.
"Hey Janet open up, these three are okay," the man calls out, the gate opening up for us. With the gate opened and the distribution center on the other side, it's a cake-walk to charge up.
"There are a few more substations off the grid. I'll mark them on your GPs as soon as I find the next one," Moya informs us when we exit the sewer.
* In the next Sewer *
Zeke calls us as we're pipe-walking over a pool of sludge water a few minutes into another sewer exploration.
"Hey… uh… Trish stopped by. She didn't say anything, just picked up her things and left. When I brought you up Cole, she nearly blew a fuse."
"She thinks I killed her sister," Cole replies, his voice echoing in the tunnel.
"We know you'd never do anything like that Cole. Trish will come around, you'll see," Silver speaks to the bike-courier as we drop down to the transformer. Megawatts of electricity flow through our bodies as the next station is reconnected. I see myself making a hand sign before my body disappears in a shadowy blur. I then reappear a short distance forward. The image blurs and focuses and I see myself doing that again, popping up in a zigzagging pattern towards a Reaper conduit before zapping him in the face. Then the vision ends.
"Oh yeah, this is good." Cole says with a grin on his face. A sphere of electrical energy forms in his hand. He chucks the sphere into the water and it bursts like a grenade. Silver materializes her own sphere of fire and tosses it at a nearby grate, burning up the cobwebs stuck to the metal. Shock grenades and Napalm grenades while I get to zip around like a Reaper conduit; not that I'm complaining or anything. Then it's back onto the pipes before we're blocked by Reaper-manned turrets.
"You guys couldn't hit the broad side of a barn!" I taunt before ducking behind a concrete block as bullets hammer the ground I was just standing on. Cole throws a few shock grenades, exploding close to the Reapers without actually hurting them. In the flashes of light, I spot four cylindrical tanks behind the Reapers.
"Silver, propane tanks, behind them." I yell to her while blasting lightning bolts at them. Silver nods to me and chucks two napalms at the tanks. All four tanks explode in a brilliant fireball when the napalm blows. The sudden light blinds us for a few moments as our eyes adjust back to the shallower light of our arms. We shimmy along a few more pipes before spotting a metal walkway leading further into the sewer. On the other side of the bridge is the distribution center, ready to be powered up. As soon as we drop on the walkway, a loud roar echoes in the tunnel. A stout Reaper appears from behind the electrical generator, two lit rods in his hand. It doesn't take a genius to guess what will happen when he rushes at us, roaring all the way. Cole reacts by sending a static wave towards the pyromaniac. The Reaper goes flying into the water, where Silver kills him with a bolt in the water. Then three more pyros roar at us, determined like kamikaze bombers. I blast a few bolts at the Reapers and they blow up like the bombs they carry.
"Ah… my favorite part: zapping random gauges without any caution what-so-ever." I joke while we charge up the distributor.
Yes I know that the sewer runs were bad, but I haven't had time to revise the story. Besides, do the sewer runs really play a big roll in the story? Here are the new powers for the twins:
Luna: Healing shock,
shadow binding (Like arc restrain only it uses the captives own shadow instead of electricity.)
globe of darkness (throws a small orb of shadows and it explodes in a large area; to provide cover for movement)
Shadow Dash (Just like Reaper Conduit only she gets more worn out the greater the distance)
Silver: Healing Flames (Healing shock)
Arc Restrain
Fire Scalpels (Minor Giga-watt blades only with fire.)
Napalm Grenades (You guys can guess)
1/8/2012 - I'm finally finished with the 30 pages for school and I've had the pages revised and rewritten. So I'll be updating chapters 1 -4 and posting chapter 5