Alright, here you all go for the next chapter of "Heroes of Empire City". I will say that I have a writers block right after Cole saves Trish when Alden threw the bus on top of the hospital. But I'll try to continue playing the game to get more ideas. Just remember to review as it gives me motivation to continue this.
"Luna" Normal speaking
POV changes or yelling
Used for quotes
Thoughts
Secondary thought speaker (Sasha or any other telepath)
**Luna's narration**
* Exiting the Sewers upon reconnecting the substation *
"Ugh!" I grunt as we all exit the sewer tunnels. This sewer run was tougher than the others in terms of navigation. There was more climbing on pipes than there was walking it seems, but the new power was worth it. Silver and I are now able to grind on electrical wires like we're on skateboards. Cole already got that power from the previous substation and now he's able to focus his vision and his lightning in a way to strike at Reapers from a distance.
"Now you can be a lazy sniper and sit on your rear all day," I joked when he showed us what he could do. It's now night time and we're all covered in tar from another water plague. Cole seems a little unnerved when we reach him on his roof. Upon asking him what happened, he just says it's nothing; that he's just a little weak from the tar. I'm still concerned about what happened with me once I finished my last tanker, still not telling my sister and anyone else.
*(Flashback: One hour ago. Luna is on a roof messing around with a keg of tar attached to a water feeder.)*
I finish disconnecting the last tar-tank from the main water supply on the roof. Reapers were trying to contaminate the roof-top water supplies with that black tar to make everyone sick again. My face and hair are covered in black tar; giving me another date with a sponge bath once I get back home. As I look around I notice this one woman in a white trench-coat teleport up to my roof like a Reaper Conduit. She has glowing blue-green eyes and parts of her right arm have been replaced by what I guess are biomechanical components.
"She's going to be pretty pissed about that," The woman comments with dark annoyance.
"Who the Sam hell are you?" I ask, not really caring as I've got tar in my throat and all over my face again.
"Just a concerned individual; now hold still."
** She leaps towards me, her icy fingers digging into my scalp. For a second there was nothing, and then she started to show me things... horrible things… beyond description. In that split second I understood; she was showing me the future. Death and destruction on an unbelievable scale; making the atomic bomb look like a simple hand grenade. Then she released me and I knew that she was responsible for all this. She looks at me with a smirk on her face. This woman has opened Pandora's Box, and it wasn't going to close any time soon and that damn Ray Sphere was somehow involved. And then she was gone…**
*(Flashback end)*
Zeke calls us and says that he's got some grub for us, bringing me out of my day-dream. The three of us have a friendly race back to the roof, my mind on the food and off of the crazy lady from the future. When we get back, Zeke tells us that he's been investigating Moya.
"She's working for some group called 'DARPA'. Now DARPA is the mother-load of black ops crap. This is the secret Pentagon group that don't answer to anybody. If she's with those clowns, you'd better watch your back brother," he says with a nod to us girls.
"Yeah yeah, and Santa Claus killed JFK. Now where's that grub?" Cole asks, the comment making us all laugh.
"Men are not prisoners to fate, but only prisoners to their own minds" ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt
EMPIRE CITY. DAY: 16
"I know what a lot of you are saying; you're saying that those girls were the ones who rescued the people in the train. But you're wrong! You know who saved the people on that train? A bunch of concerned citizens who said we weren't going to take this crap anymore! They are the real heroes. The terrorists had nothing to do with it! Voice of Survival: Out!" I shake my head at the propaganda, wishing I had something to take out my annoyance of tonight's VoS episode.
Moya calls us later and informs us that she knows where the Reaper hideout is located. Cole also fills us in that the leader of the Reaper is a woman named 'Sasha'. Apparently she was working with the First Sons and the Ray Sphere, but for some reason left the organization. Her headquarters is in Jefferson Tunnel, a tunnel connecting the Neon District to the Warren, the slums of Empire City. When we reach the tunnel, we find a crane has lowered a large section of plywood over the entrance. The only way to raise said blockage is with the crane itself. I volunteer to go with Cole and Silver covering me from long range. Actually, it's more like I walk into the control room. That is due to Cole and Silver taking out every single Reaper in the area.
Show offs. I think to myself as I head over to the crane. That's when I hear another voice in my head.
"Sweet delicious Laura. Coming home at last. I've been waiting for you, longing for you…" Sasha telepathically speaks to me, in a seductive tone.
"Just shut up… Crazy bitch," I say aloud, really crept out at her seducing. When the plywood is removed the three of us now decide to go into the Reapers lair.
"If we were aiming to go in like the Black Ops people, we failed at it." Silver comments as she begins chucking napalms left and right. I turn to the sound a roaring pyromaniac, rushing at me with two sticks of TNT. Cole saves our hide's by blasting him with a few lightning bolts from his hand. Then Sasha decides to give me another 'love message'.
"I can feel the lover inside you… just waiting to be coaxed out. We're going to have such fun." I shiver violently at the thought of being with Miss Psycho-Lady. That will give me nightmares for a while. My thoughts are interrupted as Silver tackles me to the ground. Three blue energy waves shred the ground where I was standing, tearing up the asphalt and sending cars flying in different directions.
"Thanks," I say before Shadow-Dashing over to the three white-coated Conduits, fists covered in electricity. I strike at one in the back, another in the gut and the third gets round-house kicked into the head. After we restrain the conscious Reapers, we open up a metal gate in order to continue onward.
"Hey Moya," I call the DARPA agent on my cell. "I think we found where they're making the Reapers. I see a bunch of people, locked in these cages. The black tar is getting sprayed all over them." This pump-type device sprays the tar like a gas, infecting the people trapped like they're forced to breathe in this stuff.
"Free them and then deal with Sasha," Moya replies. I draw my sword and begin hacking at a few of the locks, desperate to free the trapped people before they can be turned. One cage falls apart and the woman trapped inside gives me a bone-crushing hug of thanks. I manage to pry her off and she rushes off to the exit; ready to be reunited with the people of the Neon. Several others thank us as we free them: some giving us hugs, others shake our hands, and some promise that they'll spread the word about us. When the last cage is smashed, the three of us continue onward.
"You think I don't see her, the way you parade her around like a common jezebel? I see everything now Kessler! All of it…" Sasha's telepathic voice screams into our minds. Who's Kessler? The part of my brain that isn't being assaulted questions. But Sasha continues her ranting.
"Oh you're a tricky bastard, thinking you're smarter than everyone else? You're going to pay… oh god yes! I will enjoy my time with the twins. Oh YES!" I kid you not, the way she said it would be enough to give us nightmares for the next few years. We all come to a stop as we see part of the tunnel turn into a pit, a single city bus partially hanging over the edge. All of us shrug and Thunder Drop down onto a piece of concrete. I realize that the floor is two feet under the surface of the liquid tar. A black gate opens up and we see this pale women sitting on a throne. She wears a dark red cloak and has four tubes connected to her waist area. Her legs are a dark red color like the Reaper costumes; the coloring ending at the thighs.
"Darling what took you so long? Was there traffic? I told you not to take the bridge; it's always backed up at night," Sasha coos in this seductive tone as she gets out of her throne and into the goop. Her legs seem to meld with the liquid as her throne stores itself in the ceiling. "Get dressed, we have dinner plans tonight."
"You've got to be kidding me," I say as she vanishes into the tar. When I take my first step into the stuff, my vision blurs and a headache assaults me. Four large support pillars are spaced in the middle-area of the room and a few chunks of concrete offer safety from the mind-assaulting agent.
"Stop trying to confuse me!" Sasha growls as she suddenly appears before me. Her head leans in to give me some sort of kiss, or she tries to while my hand pushes her face backwards. As we struggle I see these tentacle things come from her mouth, looking like some sort of four-petal-suction tongue. The 'tongue' moves closer to me, intending to get into my mouth.
"Get off me you bitch!" I cry out, shoving her face away. She lets out a wordless screech before submerging into the tar. I use this time to get back onto a concrete slab as large illusion-Reapers suddenly appear in front of me. Lightning shoots from my hands, dispelling the images where they are. When Sasha appears to the surface, Cole blasts bolts of electricity at her as I rush towards the crazy woman.
"Hold still…" I reach around her back to grab at one of the tubes on her body. Her hand grabs my wrist and tries to force it away. "Mmm… How about we do this after dinner love…" Sasha coos to me as I grab at the tube and start pulling. "It's much more romantic… especially in… ARGH!" She's interrupted as I tear the first tube off her waist. The Reaper Queen lets out another screech as tar leaks from the open hole before plunging into the tar.
I SO did not want to hear that last word. I'm going to need some mind soap and a memory wipe after this… I think to myself, shivering at what she was suggesting. The red-robed-lady appears farther away from us; summoning these orange orbs of tar along with more ghost-Reapers. I kick at one as it spawns in front of my, striking at others with electrical punches and bolts. One of the tar orbs hits me and knocks me into the mind-changing sludge.
"They're expecting us at four. I laid out your tuxedo, and… I made soup from the neighbors' bones. You want a taste?" Sasha says in her crazy and seductive tone. Cole wades in the tar while Silver and I hammer Sasha with lightning and grenades. The bike-courier gets an armful of robe and grapples with the…
"Crazy bitch." Cole steals the words from my head as he grabs at another tube at her waist. Both of them struggle a bit until Cole yanks the tube out of her body. Black tar sprays out of her side as the hole is exposed. Sasha screeches again before vanishing into the tar. More illusion-Reapers appear and start shooting at us. I made the mistake in thinking that they can't hurt me and end up feeling bullets pound my skin. My skin didn't break, but it felt real.
"Why Kessler? Why do you love her? I'll killer her! I swear it! I'll wear her skin like a robe!" Sasha screams as she conjures more illusions and more tar-orb-bombs. I cover her in a globe of shadows, planning to distract the woman so I can move in for close-combat. My gamble proves to be a win when I grab at her third tube and start to pull. "Selene and Caia, why? You have so much love, yet don't share with me! I'll drink from your skulls while I dance on your corpses! I swear to you! I'll do it all!"
"Shut the hell up!" I retort as the third tube is ripped off. Sasha lets out a third screech of pain or anger before plunging back into her tar-bath. More Reaper illusions appear and she somehow summons four Reaper Conduits to her aid.
"AH HAHAHA!" Princess-pain-in-my-rear laughs as she slips into my personal space, going for another creepy-tongue-in-mouth kiss. I struggle to push her back, but her creepy face seems to get closer and closer even as I lean back. Instead of going for a kiss, she just leans to my ear: "You don't know. Of course you don't, but you'll find out soon enough. Oh how you'll weep. But I won't let you go Selene. I'll be there for you, always and forever." And then, she licks my ear. Creped out and totally disgusted, I escape her grapple and get around her.
"Will you ever SHUT UP?" I growl at her in annoyance as one hand reaches for the final tubing. "Every time you open your mouth it reminds me of how much I HATE you!" Sasha then grabs my shoulder and brings our faces closer. She laughs as I struggle in her grip.
"Oooh, you're feisty. That's one of the things I adore in you, love. We'll be great together, and when… AAAAGGHH!" Sasha screams out as Silver leaps onto her back and yanks at the tube with all her might.
"Drop dead! Why won't you just stay down?" Silver growls at Sasha as the final tube is yanked out with the help of Cole, who puts himself between me and Sasha. Sasha flies back and crouches in the ground; defeated without her mind-altering tar.
"You'll never control it Luna. Look at me; look at what it's done. It controls you. It will control you next Cole."
** Sasha was a piece of crap before the blast, but looking at her now makes me wonder; is this what our powers will do to us? A warped body and a twisted mind, is that all there is in my future? Or Cole's? Silver's? Either way, she knows about John and the First Sons and their damned Ray Sphere. If we're going to find a way out of this city, it starts with her talking. If only it were that simple. They came in fast, smoke everywhere. Sasha got pulled out, whoever they were, they were pros, trained for this kind of thing. There was no time to think, water was pouring in fast and with no way back out, we headed forward. Into the slums of the Warren. **
Alright there we go.
Now that the crazy beech is done for we can finally get on to the next part of this city. Facing [censored]. But first; mind soap.
Second: Click the review button BELOW \/