I feel ridiculous. It's not like she can say anything back to me. I mean, what the hell am I supposed to say? Sorry for not saving your life when it really mattered. Yeah, that would really get me some brownie points.

"Trish," I began, sitting in front of her tombstone. "I'm going to be leaving soon. I just felt like it was…an obligation of mine to come here and, uh, talk to you before I left." I scratched the back of my head. People crowding on the sidewalks started to stare at me, murmuring about whether the electric man had finally let too much of the juice go to his brain. The ignorance of the populace was something, but if it kept them at peace and blissful, then I couldn't really complain about it. They aren't bothering me and I sure as heck ain't gonna bother them.

I took in deep breath as I went on with the one-man circus sideshow. "Anyway…where was I? Oh, that's right." I rummaged through my satchel for the flowers I had picked up along the way. They were some type of irises. I never caught the name, but I knew what they looked like as Trish constantly stopped to sniff them whenever they were in-stock at greenhouses or flower shops. I've just come to the conclusion that they were her favorite.

"These, uh….these are for you." I set the bouquet down in front of the scorched slab engraved with her birth date, death and name. "I wish I would've paid more attention to what you called them. It probably would've made finding them a hell of a lot easier." I chuckled at my own misfortune.

I felt a tear come to my eye. Dear lord, not now! Not now! I don't need the public to see their hero or villain break down in front of them!

I managed to suppress them and smiled down at my love's grave. "I'm sorry for not doing more. I'm sorry for not listening to you whenever I had the chance to. I'm sorry for not being there by your side whenever you were crying. I'm sorry that I didn't rejoice at the same time when you were happy. I'm sorry I wasn't there to celebrate with every accomplishment that we shared together." I swiped at my eyes again. "I'm sorry for everything Trish. If you were still here, I would…" I gulped down a heavy feeling in my throat. "I would tell you how much I love you. I wouldn't care if anybody saw how I showed by affection and I sure as hell would ask you to marry me in a second. If I could see you one last time then I would do all those things that I couldn't ever have done for you when I was stupid and juvenile. I just needed to tell you these things before I left—possibly forever. If it is the last time that I ever get to see you then…" I kissed my fingers and then pressed them up against Trish's stone. "I'll miss you. I'll love you for however long I live, and I'll love you when I die."

Drawing my hand back, I felt a warm sensation take me over. Maybe it was that coffee that was finally taking over or maybe it was an actual emotional state. Whatever it was, it felt weird at first. It was a long time since I actually felt truly alive. That prison break has nothing on what I feel right now.

"Hey! Hey look him! He isn't any superman! He's just a wimp!"

I heard the naïve words being shouted out to the crowd of people. I got up from the browning grass around me and waved off any loose blades that had gotten onto my clothes. I ignored the man at first and started stretching my arms across my body. Parkour always drained me during first few decades as a regular human being, but thanks to the wonderful world of being a Conduit, I didn't really have to worry about that now. The Ray Sphere had also significantly increased my stamina in the process, so there is one thing to be thankful for.

"Just look at him!" Jesus, is he still going on? "You saw him, didn't you?! He cried over some worthless person that didn't matter! Does this show how bad we're in it to rely on someone so weak?!"

'Worthless?' I felt the electric dance up and down my right arm. I don't want to hurt a civilian, but nobody calls my woman worthless. No one calls my friends anything.

"Hey you!" I shouted out towards the man. The group of people who had gathered jumped back a little bit at my yelling. "Listen, I don't have anything bad against you. This woman who I'm visiting happened to be my fiancé before the blast. I'm willing to let bygones be bygones if you just apologize for calling her worthless."

"Why should I apologize? I've done nothing wrong!" Why do I even try compromising with them anymore? "It's not my fault that you decided to develop feelings for one of your whores! She can rot in Hell along with you! Maybe she'll think twice about being your fuck-buddy!"

Now I never have harmed an innocent person during my time with these powers that made me a force to be reckoned with. I never really intended on ever doing it and up to this point I promised myself I wouldn't. In my eyes, this man had crossed the line from innocent civilian to a loudmouth thug that needed to be taught a lesson.

I felt the power surge up my arm and then I did it: I fired a large bolt his direction. The ball of electricity hit him right in the back, knocking him on his stomach and causing him to go into spasms. By the looks of things he was still alive.

Good.

"You like being the big man?!" I bellowed at him as I walked over to him. "Well, do ya?!" As I approached him, I kicked him as hard as I could in the side. My audience around me gasped in horror at the sight. I leaned down and picked him up with one arm, holding him high above my head by his shirt. "ANSWER ME!" I pulsated a short burst of electric through his body and shook him.

He was doing his best to catch his breath. "Y…Y…Yes I do!" The man was whimpering like a little puppy. I didn't care; he went too damn far.

I slammed him back into the ground and flipped him back over on his stomach. I bent down beside him and began whispering to him. "Tell me: was it worth being the voice of truth?" I grabbed him by his head and lifted it up off the pavement.

"N….No…" The man, who was now a bloody mess, honestly said to me. I went along with my tough guy front and picked him back up off the ground, to which he begged me to put him down. He promised me everything he possibly could: money, benevolence, and a deepened apology for calling Trish something so undeserved.

"It's too GODDAMN LATE FOR THAT!" I screamed as I threw him across the street and into the side of a building. I could hear his bones shatter as he yelped out in pain.

"Are you in misery?" I asked him rhetorically. I raised my voice a second time "TELL ME!"

After a short period of time, he slowly nodded his head. I snickered at him. "Then perhaps I should do the honorable thing and put you out of it." I started charging up electricity in my hand. It felt so good! I haven't gotten to unleash this power in quite a while. Eventually the electric was a nice and bright ball in my hand. The perfect grenade was complete.

I tossed the grenade at him and then turned to walk away. I wanted to make a statement; one that said 'Don't fuck with me.' I heard the man yell out frantically for someone to help him; to have mercy on him. I frowned as I felt the shockwave from the grenade rush throughout the air. It may've been wrong of me, but I didn't care. I wanted that fucker to burn in the eternal depths of Hell and have his body decay there long after the flames have burnt out.

I decided I had spent enough time in the area as I heard the ringing of sirens heading this direction. I ran to the side of a building and began making my way up its pipes.

"Christ, Cole! What the hell happened over there?" Zeke asked me with urgency as I hovered onto the rooftop. "We heard some big-ass explosion coming from near Trish's gravesite."

I didn't bother answering my fatter friend as he would go off on some tangent if I really told him the truth. So instead, I just grunted heavily. He knew that if I didn't tell him straight-up what had happened, then it was very likely something that I didn't want to talk about.

"That's it then? You're not going to tell us, kid?" Sully raised his arms in disbelief.

Zeke hurriedly made his way to the older man. "Uh, look here Magnum P.I." He put his hand on the shoulder of the man that was covered with Hawaiian décor. "I know you're both new here, so I'll just explain something to you." He clasped his hands together. "When Cole is on his, uh, man period, as it may be demonstrated by exhibit A," he jokingly pointed at me, "then you really don't want to mess with him. There was something that pissed him off, obviously, and I don't know if he wants to talk about it per say."

"Well if something pissed him off, shouldn't we do something about it?" Nathan asked.

"Taken care of." I stated bluntly. With all the stress that was on my back I really wish that I had that cigar in Sully's mouth right now. "What's important right now is that we get to that ship; it'll be going out in just a little while."

The three of them just looked at me suspiciously. I sighed heavily. "Well c'mon! Get your shit together!" I barked at them, electric spiraling around my body.

Sully wasted no time making his way down the metal fire escape. He was already old and I'm guessing he didn't want to die earlier than he had to. Nathan, on the other hand, lingered a little longer. He didn't know whether this was just my normal moodiness or if I was legitimately pissed off. He was wise to choose the latter as he followed his older friend down the escape. I could hear them mumbling, but I couldn't get any distinct words out of the heap of muddled gibberish.

"Why are you acting like this?" Zeke asked. "Why?"

"Why, Zeke? Why? These powers weren't a gift if you haven't figured that out yet! I'm constantly being shot at and was automatically put on everyone's shit-list after they found out that I was the one responsible for the blast that killed this city! My powers aren't something that can be described as a little tea party that we can all get along nicely with! These Conduits and what they've done and, more to a point, what I've done are all a cancer to society! If this technology had never been developed; if I was actually smart enough to check the contents of the package before I picked it up…then maybe this would be different. There would be no person at the center of the blast, sucking all the energy from the lives around him or her. Sure, the radius of the blast would've still been the same and there would still be lives lost, but we—you, me, Trish and Amy—we could've made it out! We would've been the wiser of any of the people in this godforsaken city and snuck out before any of the major authorities would've noticed anything!" I realized then that I was just a mere few inches away from the face of my pudgy friend. I scorned him. "Maybe you should've picked up the package. You obviously wanted powers for yourself anyway."

That sure got him going. "Now look here, Cole. That was a mistake on my part and I acknowledge that, but the past is the past. The important thing is that we—well, more you—defeated Kessler. Now there's just one more threat in the world and then hopefully that'll be it."

I was just about to go berserk. "The past doesn't stay in the past, Zeke! It comes back and bites you in the ass! You put yourself before the betterment of the entire world!" I turned my back on him. "And don't just say that it's one more threat. There will always be two more to spawn after one is brought down, and you know I'll have to get to stopping it. If not me, then who? There's no single or united military that can bring down the Beast before that creature of the damned eviscerates them to tiny piles of pure nothingness."

"Cole, you don't even know if that thing can even cause that kind of destruction. Who knows? Maybe you've powered up enough where you can just fire a shot his way and get a one-hit K.O."

"I doubt it'll be that simple, Zeke. Even a man as strong as Kessler couldn't take him down."

"Yeah, but you beat him to a pulp!"

"Are you kidding me?! I barely came out of that fight alive! Don't go making a long yarn out of a piece of string." I scoffed.

"You're a lot more impressive than you think you are, Cole."

"I'd rather undermine myself and become stronger than get cocky and fragile." I spat at the ground. "Now go get your shit together. We have a long trip ahead of us."

With a heavy heart, Zeke slowly turned back towards the fire escape and made his way down. He probably thought that he had slashed and burned our relationship to a point of no return and, quite frankly, I'd have to agree with him. No matter what the case is our friendship will never go back to its original status of 'Best Buds for Life.' Maybe we'll go back to being good friends, but I won't ever be able to trust him the same way as I did when we were growing up together and spending time with each other before the blast.

"MacGrath." I turned my head to the side to see a woman standing before me.

I sighed. "What is it, Kuo?"

"I came to escort you. I was just told to make sure that the deal stays solid."

"I'm guessing this is your accomplice asking you of this, huh?" I turned to face her.

She nodded. "Yes, it was of Dr. Wolfe's request. To be completely honest I wouldn't have taken a step within ten blocks of here if he hadn't asked."

I chuckled. "Afraid that the pack of wild dogs would come and tear you apart?"

"You could only wish, MacGrath." She took a drink of the coffee in her palms. "So it's you plus three, correct?"

"If I'm not too pissed at them within the next hour, then yeah." Then it donned on me. "Wait…how did you find out?"

"I'm part of a government agency hell-bent on protecting the people of the United States from terrorist organizations and acts of terrorism. Do you really think I couldn't acquire a few simple radios and wire tap your building? I need to be keeping my eyes or ears on you twenty-four hours a day and I intend on doing so."

"I could've just as easily drained the system dry." I told her matter-of-factly.

"If you were smart enough to actually consider checking." She sucked away the rest of the coffee as if she was a vampire sucking blood. She threw it off the ledge of the building; not seeing a trash can nearby.

"Careful. You wouldn't want to get charged with loitering, now would you?" I said sarcastically.

"Very funny, MacGrath." Kuo folded her arms. "Go tell your gang to hurry it up. The boat isn't going to wait at the harbor forever."

It just doesn't end. Even when I'm past my life as a delivery boy, I still have to give out the occasional message for someone of higher power. I could easily shock and kill her right now, but that wouldn't solve anything and then there'd be no way we could get out of this wasteland. I gave her a thumbs up, and then proceeded down the steps and knocked on every other window to see which one they were in. I got a woman screaming on one of them, which was pretty hilarious. They were still going at it; might as well. It's the end of days, so you better just fuck the day away.

I can't wait to spend the rest of my time in the ground with my beloved.

Trapex here with (finally) another chapter of Cellmates! Nothin' much to say other than please review and leave your thoughts! I'll begin on chapter 7 soon!