"So you just couldn't help yourself being pent up in that mess, huh?"

"The monster inside was clawing for a way out."

This woman laughed a bit sarcastically for my tastes. She kept her cool, which ironically was the same type of vibe that she just happened to give off. It bugged me to no end. No amount of training could hold back femininity.

"So, Ms. Kuo, what do you want with me?"

"It's not what I want with you, MacGrath. My employer is seeking you out. Claims that you're part of a bigger picture or something of the sort." She sat down on a park bench, holding in her small hands an iced tea. I received contact with her shortly after our bounty at the square and she's already speaking some type of crazy. An agent at that, you would think that the kind and caring government wouldn't send one of their own on a warzone mission like this.

"Baby, more than you know." I shook my head.

"Okay. Firstly, Mr. MacGrath, I would appreciate that you didn't call me 'baby' or any kind of cute nicknames or pet names that you guys decide to call women here in the dog pound. Secondly, I know my fair share of details involving this case." In a bag she was carrying, she pulled out a file that was chock full of my life. "You are twenty-seven years old, currently jobless due to the recent situation that has befallen this city but you were a bike messenger before, had a girlfriend in Trish Dailey before she left you after accusing you for her sister's death, you have a friend in Zeke Dunbar, you had to defeat three very capable beings of mass power including one that was your own self from the future to give you a warning about a creature known as the Beast."

"I'm impressed. How did you obtain all of this?"

"There was an agent working in the field who was feeding us information back at the agency. You knew him; John White. He was a personal friend of mine and we assumed that he was KIA due to his lack of responses."

I gulped heavily. No need to tell her what she already knew about his death. "This is all very fun, but you're leaving out the tiny detail of-"

"That you can shoot lightning out of your ass? No need to tell me, static boy."

"Why does everyone keep on saying that I can shoot lightning out of my ass? I haven't even tried it yet!" I sat back in disbelief.

She raised an eyebrow. "'Yet?'"

"You can't expect me not to try it." I leaned back forward in pure attention. "Mind telling me what this bigger picture is or who this employer of yours is? I would like to know what I'm getting into before I begin trusting a potential nutcase."

In response she handed me another file out of her bag of riches and mysteries. I opened it up to find pictures of this monster that my future self spoke of. It was flabbergasting to say the least, having a good look at the horrible creation I was supposed to be able to take on. In the corner there was another single picture of a man held by a paperclip. On it was a signature of the man that read Dr. Sebastian Wolfe.

"So this…Wolfe guy…he's the client of question?" I cocked an eyebrow her way.

"Indeed. He's a genius in his own right as he was one of the leading scientists who developed Ray-Sphere technology that you know all too well of." Agent Kuo sighed at this next part, probably as she was reluctant to ask after seeing my personality in the flesh. "We need you to come on down to New Marais for a few days—maximum a few weeks. Wolfe was hoping that you'd go, so how about it?"

Leaving Empire City, huh? Not that I mind the constant mediocre thugs that I have to shoot down every now and then or that we have to still get most of our food from helicopters, but I felt like that I was going insane. I, the horrible rash on Empire City's backside was saying that I wanted to relocate somewhere nicer.

Kuo grew impatient. "MacGrath, I need an answer; preferably before we turn into fossils."

"Not even a thinking man can please you, huh?" I closed the file and tapped it against the cement to straighten up the papers inside. "Alright, I'm in. When and how do we leave?"

"There's a ferry leaving from the docks tomorrow around 7:00 P.M., which will give you more than enough time to pack up your things and say whatever goodbyes you have to. I'll be staying in a hotel up the street from here if you need me for anything. Don't try to contact me by phone because," she took out her cell phone, threw it on the pavement and smashed it under the heel of her shoe. "This is off the records."

Like a true government agent. "Alright, I'll see you tomorrow then." Kuo began to walk away until a question just popped into my head. "Hey Kuo!"

She turned around to face me. "What is it MacGrath?"

"What's it like down there? It's been a while since I've been down south and I just was wondering if things have gone to hell same as up here."

She took in a deep breath, obviously depressed that I had asked that. "The world that you see around here now? It's the same everywhere else. You can go to the central north, the west, the south or just stay right here and it's all gone to the eternal fires of hell. Whatever happened around here when that Ray-Sphere went off has affected the rest of the nation. There are slowly rising militant groups spawning and taking rise over individual cities with the urge to take over surrounding areas to gain recruits or to destroy what's in their paths. With the government too busy trying to focus its efforts overseas and the war at home here in Empire City, these criminal organizations have gone on towards the way of outright tyranny. To prevent me from going any further into my explanation, I'll give you the short and straight-up answer MacGrath: things aren't so much sunshine and rainbows anymore as much as it is radiation and explosions."

I let out a huff of air. "I feared for the worst. Thanks for telling me honestly instead of me being shocked of the whole affair."

"You're welcome. Don't get soft on me, MacGrath. We may need that hard and tough outside of yours to get into New Marais." Kuo turned to walk away and stopped mid-step and turned around with a smile on her lips. "'Shocked?' Really?"

I stood up and put my hands in my pockets. "I like making my puns here and there."

"Save the bullshit for when I have some rest. I'm running on about five hours of sleep and being awake for thirty straight. I'll see you tomorrow." As not to get distracted again, she hastily walked towards the hotel she stayed at and that was the last time I saw her that day as she rounded the corner.

The next morning was as dull as ever. Sully and Nate were talking up on the rooftop about their plans to make it out of here. I hadn't told them about what Kuo told me wanting to escape; by the time I got back, they had all chosen a room (except for Zeke, who insisted on staying awake on the couch until I got back) to go to sleep in.

"No, no, no!" Sully waved his arms around the air. "Has that time in the pen made you go bonkers, kid?"

"I'm telling you Sully; there are just two patrol ships to try and get by when it reaches nightfall and we got Cole on our side!"

"Yes, that's all fine and dandy that we have Sparky over here to help us out but you're missing the point! Those ships hold at least twenty-five men a piece with fully automatic assault weaponry along with steel fence that's connected to a lightning rod to absorb all electric based attacks. That just about makes him, unless he's got some other power, practically useless." Sully leaned back in his chair and sipped on some warm coffee.

"Ouch, old timer." I sat down at the table and covered up my heart sarcastically.

Nate looked over a pad of paper that he had written his escape plans on and just threw it off the ledge of the building in frustration. "There just has to be a way out of here!"

Zeke appeared at that moment, scratching himself. "You guys are still planning on getting out of here? Forget about it and just kick back and enjoy yourselves! There are no worries here and nothing to stop you from doing what you want, so what are you complaining about?"

"Well Zeke, I'm glad that we're on the subject of escape plans because," I put on a wisecracking smile. "I have one."

Sully looked at me with a whimsical chuckle. "You? I'm sorry Sparky, but we're professional thieves and you have a better idea to get out of here than us? We work on ways to get out of situations in our sleep!"

"It's called 'connections,' asshole, and I just happen to have them. Y'know that woman I met with last night?"

"Yeah. What about her? We figured she was some dressed-up Asian hooker trying to get her way into the demon's electric-filled pants." Nate seemed amused with himself.

"Turns out she's a federal agent—more to the point, probably was one. I have this suspicion that she isn't supposed to be helping me like this. Anyway, she's giving me a one-way ticket out of here to New Marais. I could convince her to let you guys go along with me."

Zeke perked up at the idea. "Hell yeah! New Marais baby!"

"Wait, hold on a sec!" Nate put his hand up with an unsure look on his face. "She's a federal agent, Cole. You don't know if this is just some type of ploy to get you back into the government's custody!"

"She gave me too much information for it to be a false claim. There was information regarding the Ray-Sphere, the Beast, the-"

"Alright Sparky, slow down there. I don't know much about all this mumbo-jumbo, but what I do know is that even schemes like this one that look small on the outside are a lot more elaborate inside the operations."

"Well at this point what other option do we have but to trust her? Worst case scenario they give me the death penalty and you guys will escape prison again."

"You're willing to die just on a gamble?!" Nate said quite exasperated.

"I'm willing to die if it'll get us the hell out of here!" I slammed my fist down on the table; putting a crack in it and having Sully's coffee spill over off the side.

It was dead silent. There were a few birds in the sky that I was tempted to strike down with a bolt since they were squawking so much and the occasional gunfire out in the distance at a location that sounded near a checkpoint on the bridge. It was probably another poor soul trying to escape the asylum of Empire City.

"Alright, we'll go." Nate finally gave in. "What time do we leave and how?"

I continued to explain the entirety of the deal to the three men sitting at the table, from Dr. Wolfe to how the Ray-Sphere explosion affected the entire nation and possibly the world.

"We're leaving today, so you better get packed quickly." I told the three of them, who just sat there. "Well what are you waiting for? Let's go, go, go!"

The ignorant buffoons finally received the hint and made their way down the ladders to their respective rooms. I sat there by myself and drummed my fingers on the table, kind of hesitating with making a decision that I really should've made a long time ago. I stood up and stretched to loosen my muscles. I went to the edge of building and let the wind cool me down with a nice breeze.

I then jumped off the edge.

Trapex here with, after a long time coming, another chapter of Cellmates! I apologize for the lateness of what I promised the chapter for but a writer's block had kicked in. This is going to be the only chapter for quite a while as I'm going to be writing other things along the way. Here's something you should know though: I am NOT going to continue my work on Joint Efforts for the time being. I'm just going to mark it as complete and walk away from it as I don't see anywhere that I could actually head with the books. I may decide to start it back up, but the probability as of now is very low. Anyway, I hope you enjoy what I've written here and look forward to my future works!