Chapter 11

"Wakey wakey!" Delsin shook my arm.

I opened my eyes, I must have dozed off. I stretched out as much as I could from the passenger seat and left the vehicle. Smouldering skeletal remains of buildings, sirens, alarms and the stench of death – yeah we were definitely back in the heart of Seattle.

"What time is it?" I asked.

"Uhh like 2 in the morning?" Delsin walked ahead going at a pretty fast pace.

"Where are we going?" I asked.

"You'll see," Delsin grinned "Wait -" He paused for a moment and held of his hand, "you hear that?"

We both stopped, I listened intently – I did hear something – chanting I think, I couldn't make out all of the words but from what I could hear it didn't sound too favourable towards conduits.

Delsin shook his head, laughed and sped off in a smoke cloud.

"Wait up!" I called and without even thinking - I was whisked forward and reappeared in a clumsy landing just ahead of Delsin, followed by a very loud bang finale.

Delsin clasped his head, "Ah my ears are ringing!" he winced and thrust one of his ears with his index finger "Dude! you gotta give me some warning next time ahhh" he shook his head "what the hell was that?"

I looked at my hands, I could… how to describe it? I could feel the sound in the air all around me definitely not enough to drain from but – I manipulated it slightly relaxing the waves and I created a low tone that slightly shook the ground beneath us. I looked toward Delsin, his expression was awe and excitement and I immediately ceased my power.

"Have you been holding out on me?" he smirked "is that some sort of sound power?"

"It must have been Morris," I reasoned Delsin drew a blank face, he had no idea who I was talking about "the conduit back in Curdun Cay 2 …. I didn't have this before – it's new, it has to be him."

"Seriously? Then that means ... I have this too?" Delsin raised his hand and closed his eyes – there was a huge bang right above us "hell yeah!" he grinned "this is perfect! Damn protesters keeping me awake with their loud hate speak, let's go give them a taste of their own medicine!" he disintegrated into smoke once more.

"Delsin!"

I used gravity – I had this one under more control. Delsin was stood on the opposite side of the road. The protestors were huddled together, not chanting now - maybe the loud bangs had disturbed them – they definitely hadn't noticed Delsin yet. I had, just in time to see him raise his hand.

I could feel the sound waves beginning to excite a little ahead and I rushed to him raised my hand and quickly countered them. He stopped once he realised I was restraining his power.

"What the hell man?" he frowned and lowered his hand.

"You can't hurt these people!" I said "they're innocent, they're scared … look at what we can do, they're right to be scared."

Delsin shrugged and raised his hand again.

I coated his hand in concrete in an instant. He threw his dark pupils my way and glared at me as if I was a mere annoyance. He sighed and as I'd thought - the concrete was nothing to him, he absorbed it. He lowered his hand. I studied his expression and I could see the same conflict I'd seen earlier with Morris.

"Fine," he sighed "fine, we'll do it your way."

I nodded, I hadn't really thought of what 'my way' would be. Oh well here goes nothing, I approached the angry mob – hopefully I was unknown to them.

"You guys need to leave, it's not safe!" I yelled.

I was met by faces of animosity and uncooperative silence.

"You got somewhere to go?" I asked "it's really not safe – the DUP see you and they'll assume you're all con- bio-terrorists,"

"Fuck the DUP!" a voice came from the back.

The crowd seemed in consensus, "we're not going anywhere near that death trap of a sanctuary and a bioterrorist blew up my home – where do you expect me to go?"

Uh, they had a point I rubbed my temples in annoyance silently pleading them to leave – I could feel Delsin's impatience from here.

"Miles," Delsin called concealed within the shadows across the street.

I appreciated his discretion, I looked to the mob "be right back."

I jogged over to him. Delsin had certainly perked up "man I could hear every word – this sound power is pretty damn awesome – you gotta try the volume feature,"

"Delsin, these people have nowhere to go."

"These people are not our responsibility and you see that sign over there," he pointed.

I looked toward the crowd one of them was idly holding up a long pole skewing a ball wearing a red beanie hat.

"Wait - is that meant to be me?" Delsin shook his head "is that meant to be my head on a spike? Pffft and you want me to help these people?"

"We just need to get them somewhere safe," I paused "that's all I'm asking."

Delsin looked to the ground, he looked like he may comply, then he looked up and over my shoulder "err Miles…."

I turned.

"That's Rowe!" one of them yelled "that's Delsin Rowe!"

Delsin hands flared up in flames.

I gripped him by the shoulders "woah woah waoh!" I yelled in his face "you are not hurting these people!"

Shit! A bullet right in my back – my body reacted with a concrete exoskeleton.

"He's a bioterrorist too!" another yell and several more bullets to the back.

Delsin stepped forward he caught the bullets mid projection using a thick slab of concrete to shelter us.

The firing stopped, Delsin rotated the slab so that the bullets were pointing towards the protestors, all he needed to do was crumble the concrete and send the bullets flying using any array of power he had in his arsenal.

"Delsin stop!" I yelled "Run!" I called to the mob "get out of here!"

The mob did as instructed, Deslin held the wall of bullets for several seconds before letting the slab fall and break onto the road.

I gave a deep sigh of relief.

Delsin flexed his fingers and turned "let's get out of here."

I followed him, we didn't talk for a while – I didn't know what to say but then I spoke up, "thanks."

"What for?"

"Not hurting anyone,"

"I'm not the monster Augustine painted me out to be," he sighed "I wasn't going to do anything to those guys."

I wasn't sure I believed him.

"I just wanted to - ya know - scare them off," he said "problem solved right? – anyway – taa daa!"

"The space needle?" I replied.

"Yep," Delsin grinned.

I looked up – it was so tall I almost lost my balance.

"Race you to the top" he was already gone.

Hah, gravity it is - I propelled through the air as if falling upwards and stopped dead at the observation deck exterior – narrowly beating Delsin, who'd opted for neon.

"Hey no fair!" he yelled "damn gravity!"

The original windows had been replaced by extremely thick glass, Deslin's work no doubt. I watched as he absorbed the glass through his finger tips leaving a hole big enough for us to climb inside.

"After you," he motioned with his hand.

I nodded and carefully navigated my was through and landed on the floor inside.