Chapter 10

"Reports of a large scale fight between two Conduits, in downtown Philadelphia have been coming in recently. Reports say that a man covered completely in metal was seen flying through the air on a metal platform of sorts, dragging another man behind him. The two men caused extensive amounts of damage to the city in their brutal fight against each other." The news reporter was explaining the events that transacted between me and Dashawn yesterday. The video that was uploaded by the kid I saw had gone viral, and everyone was talking about me as some kind of "hero." The mother that I saved from the bus went to the local news station and told them about how I saved her and her kid's lives, including everyone else on the bus. It's a good thing she wasn't there when I shot that racist prick or her words might have been a little different.

"You hear that princess? I'm a hero." I said to Jess when I heard the news of my new title. She told me not to let it get to my head and how at the end of the day I was still just Aiden. I told her that I wouldn't, but if I'm being honest, it was nice to know that people were praising me for my actions.

Now, I was sitting on the couch, watching the recording of my fight once again. Specifically, the part where my future/alternate self pulled a deus ex machina and saved my life at the last second. In the video it looks like I just appeared on my feet suddenly, but to me, there was an entire conversation that happened in the space of literally no time. Alt Aiden, said that eventually I would learn how to move through the multiverse, and that there were so many different versions of me, tall ones, short ones, metal ones, there were so many variations of me. My question is, do we all have the ability to travel through the multiverse? And if so how? I understand how I can do it, I control time and space so I can exist outside of my timeline. But, if one of the me's who controls something like metal can do it as well, then that doesn't add up. I had to figure out how to do it and ask him.

"Hey handsome." I heard Jessica say. She had just gotten home from her friends house. She didn't have many friends since she wasn't an overly social person, but the ones she did have were very close, like sisters in a way. They hadn't seen each other since school ended so they decided to meet up at one of their houses and catch up.

"How's it shakin beautiful?" I replied, taking my eyes off the screen for a second to give her a quick smile before resuming my analysis of the fight. She put her purse down on the coffee table and made her way into the kitchen to get some water.

"I'm doing great, I'm so happy I got to see the girls. Oh my god, guess what?" She said, I could tell it was something juicy because whenever she had some juicy information, she would make big gestures with her hands and talk like the Wayans Brothers in "White Chicks."

"Oh shit gurl, what had happened now?" I said mimicking a ratchet black girl which earned me a little giggle.

"You're so dumb." She said with a smile. "But, no. Cassidy is fucking pregnant, and the dad is Louis."

I took my eyes away from my phone and looked at her with wide eyes. "You're shittin' me? That fuckin loser bagged her? Damn Cass, I thought you were better than that.." I paused the video, I wanted more on this story.

"I know right. He's cute and all, but everybody knows he's a pig." She said, laying down on the couch with her legs across my lap. "So apparently, they had started talking in May. She hadn't planned on giving him anything until she was sure they were serious, but one thing lead to another and before she knew it, she was waking up in his bed." I was listening intently to her playback of the events. "Louis really surprised me though. He said that he would provide for his child and he wouldn't let her do this alone. He's a lot more mature than I expected him to be."

"Yea, he definitely seems like a candidate for the 'Deadbeat Dad' award. Well, as long as he's prepared for the responsibility, I guess we can't judge him." I said, going back to my video.

"What are you watching?" She asked, switching her position so that she was leaning against my shoulder, trying to get a better look at the object of my attention.

"Well, Ms. Nosey, I'm lookin' over my fight with the metal guy. I'm studying my movements and trying to see what I need to improve on. I was caught off guard a few times there so I need to make sure I can't defend against anyone else I come across with powers like his." Right now I was going over the part where he was throwing cars at me and I was dodging out of the way. I did a front handspring off the hood of a car onto the roof of another, then backflipped onto the ground in time to corkscrew over another one. He threw one at me sideways and I dove through the passenger seat window and out the other side. I continued to defy physics while dodging cars. Every movement I made was perfectly executed, to the point where it almost seemed rehearsed. I grinned in pride at seeing how it looked from the outside.

"Woah!" I heard Jessica say beside me. "How'd you do all that?" She grabbed the phone from me and rewound it back to the start of the acrobatic display.

"I can do this thing where I sped up my perception of the world and everything becomes more clear. When I do that I have a better understanding of the space around me and I can move more fluidly. I never realized how cool it looked until now." I said beaming with pride.

"How come you don't just stay like that all the time? It would make these fights go way faster."

"I hadn't ever thought of that to be honest, but now I know I can't because when I was inside that bus and I saved those people I tried to put two powers to use at the same time and it put way too much strain on my body. It felt like I was carryin' the weight of a thousand suns. Granted, I was also tryna hold quite a few people outside of time with me so they could escape the bus and that in and of itself was taxing to my body. So, I don't think I should try that again until I get a little stronger."

"It's a shame how you went through all that pain to save those people and that guy just killed them all anyway. Why didn't they run when you told them to? They didn't honestly think they could take him did they?" She asked.

"Unfortunately, they did. I tried to warn them but they wouldn't listen. I tried to muster up some power to stop him, but I was almost completely drained. If I used anymore power I would have went into that time coma thing I told you about and been at the complete mercy of that asshole. I don't think he would have been able to kill me though, because I would have been in a bubble of sorts that would freeze anything that came in contact with it."

I actually lied a little right there. I could have saved them, I had enough power left to open a portal and throw them through it with some gravity, but something told me to just let them deal with the consequences of their actions. That I had already done what I could to save them once and now it was up to them whether they lived or died. I couldn't tell her that though, because she would have gone all preachy on me again.

She gave a nod and went to lay back down on the couch before she popped back up and said, "Wait a second, if you didn't have any power left, how'd you get back up and keep fighting?"

I gave a wide grin, knowing that this would blow her mind. I grabbed my phone out of her hands and played the video up to the part where Dashawn was about to kill me. I paused it there and said, "You're gonna love this. You see how one second I'm laying there about to accept my death and the next second, I'm standing up? Well, in that time I had entire conversation with an alternate future version of myself." Her eyes widened in astonishment and her jaw slacked. "He told me that there are countless universes, and in each one there's another version of me whose life played out differently in some way. In some of them I have powers, in some I don't, in some I can control time and in some I can control other things. He even told me that every single one of us has the unique power to enhance each other's abilities through contact. I don't fully understand it all and I couldn't ask too many questions because he came and went pretty fast, but I do know that I should have the ability to travel through the multiverse, I just have to figure it out."

"That's so awesome. I wish he was here, I have so many questions. Like, am I in those universes too? Are we always together? Do I have powers?! The possibilities are literally endless." She had a twinkle in her eyes that only came up when she found something new to learn. She was all about new discoveries in science.

"You and me both princess." I said. We both leaned back on the couch and started watching whatever was on the tv at the time.

We sat there for awhile until I got bored and decided to get some target practice in. I called up Marcus and he told me that the boss of the FKD has started putting guys all around the city to keep an eye out for me. He said they can be found all over the place, on rooftops, in alleyways, driving through the streets, I just had to keep an eye out. I thanked him for his help and hung up the phone. I told Jess where I was going and she wished me luck.

I decided to scout around town the old fashioned way. Parkour. I jumped through a portal into an alleyway downtown first and then started climbing the building next to me. It was only 5 stories high, probably a small business or something. I felt like an assassin from Assassin's Creed. I was jumping to ledges and shimmying across pipes. With the enhanced strength being a Conduit grants me this was a cake walk.

I reached the top and took of running. I vaulted over railings, flipped over air conditioning units, and did a whole bunch of other pointless acrobatics. I stopped at the edge of a roof and pulled out my sniper rifle to scan the area. I saw a group of thugs patrolling the roof of an apartment complex. I figured I would try some stealth out on these guys. I teleported to the side of the building the were stationed at. I climbed up to edge of the roof and peeked over. I saw one thug looking over the edge of the roof to my front left, another one was doing the same thing on my right, and two more were sitting on chairs listening to music from a small portable speaker, and having a heated conversation on who the best rapper was.

I put a portal above the guy on my left and reached through it grabbing him by the collar and yanking him through with the help of gravity. I slammed his head into the wall hard enough to crack the bricks. I wasn't sure if he was dead but it didn't exactly matter because I dropped him to the ground where he landed with a sickening thud. I vaulted up onto the roof and crouched down. I snuck my way over to the guy on my right who was walking over to another part of the roof to peer over the edge. When I got up to him I whipped him around and threw a hard punch into his jaw that knocked him out cold. He was already incapacitated but I wasn't done. I threw his unconscious form to the ground, grabbed his leg and swung him over my head with the help of gravity then back down hard. I heard something crack and then I did it again to the other side, I was almost sure he was dead, or at the very least crippled for the rest of his life. Feeling satisfied I stepped over his body and made my way over to the remaining to sitting on the chairs.

"Hey guys!" I shouted getting their attention. I dashed forward as the one on the right turned to grab his gun. I threw a left hook across his jaw that knocked him out of his chair. The one on the left tried to throw a punch at me but I dropped low and swept his foot out from under him. The first one grabbed me from behind, trapping my arms under his. The second came at me with a pocket knife ready to slice me open. I opened a portal under my feet and me and the guy holding me fell through a couple feet in the air. I landed on top of him, knocking the air out of his lungs. I rolled onto my feet in time for the first guy to get a lucky hit on me, stabbing me in the back right under my left shoulder blade. I grunted in pain and then whipped around backhanding him in the face and sending him sprawling face first on the ground. I pulled the knife out of my back and walked over to him. I grabbed him by the back of his collar and pulled him to his feet, I grinned wickedly and sliced him across the chest with his own blade. The sound of his screams were like music to my ears. I stabbed him repeatedly in the abdomen and then let him fall back onto the ground contempt with letting him bleed out slowly on the ground.

I heard a gunshot and felt a bullet slam into my back. I whipped around to face my assailant. There were five more thugs on the roof now, including the one that I knocked the wind out of, apparently having been alerted by the screams of their friend. They raised their guns and fired a hail of bullets at me. I used my focus skill to easily dodge the bullets making my way to them with fire in my eyes. When I got to the first one in the middle I stabbed my brand new knife through his eye socket. I used gravity to lift him in the air and slam him into the guy to his left. I pulled the knife out of his face and threw it at another thug, impaling him in the chest. I dashed forward and grabbed the knife out of his chest and then sliced his throat, watching as he helplessly tried to stop the bleeding with his hands. Another thug fired a burst of led at me while I was admiring my kill. I put a shield up to block the incoming projectiles then shot a blast of gravity at him that froze him in the air. I dashed towards him and threw a heavy punch right into his chest that shattered every single one of his ribs. When gravity took hold on him again he flopped to the ground and did not move again. I was just about to finish off the last few when a giant ball of fire came out of nowhere impacting the ground in front of me. I was sent flying backwards and off the roof. I was too dazed to do anything as I fell off the thirty story tall apartment complex and through the roof of a car where I blacked out.

Explosions. Screams. Fire. That's all that I could see or hear when I regained consciousness. There was a guy blanketed in fire shooting at anything that moved. I couldn't tell if he was fighting the gang members, the police, or just killing for the hell of it, but I do know that he managed to hit me and that wasn't something I was gonna let slide.

I jumped through a portal back onto the roof I was and sent a shot from my sniper rifle at him, I was pretty sure it melted on contact with his skin, but it still got his attention. "Watch where you're shooting those things fuckstick, I don't appreciate being knocked unconscious." I shot more rounds at him and then finished it off with a blast of compacted matter. He threw a fireball at me then flew forward at blazing speed. He tried to punch me but I put a shield in front of me. I do not want to get hit by him. I jumped through a portal onto another roof, I had to keep as much distance between us as possible. I bombarded him with blasts of matter from afar. He threw a few fireballs at me to try to distract but I put a few portals in their path to deflect them away.

"You need to mind your business kid, this has nothing to do with you. Stay out of it!" Fireboy shouted sending a stream of fire at me to emphasize his point.

"If you learned how to aim we wouldn't be having this problem." I shouted back shooting more blasts at him while dodging his fire.

"You were in the way. I'm only worried about the FKD nobody else. They need to pay." He shouted, then shot a huge blast of fire at me that blew me off the roof I was on. I used a portal to put me back on an opposite roof.

I sped up my perception to give me time to think. Me and this guy had the same end goal, destroying the FKD, maybe if I can get through to him I can convince him to work with me and not try to light me on fire like a charcoal briquette. I let my perception go back to normal and decided to try my plan out.

"Hey man. Just hold out for a lil bit. Me and you have the same goal, I'm trying to stop FKD too. How bout we stop fighting and work together? Two heads are better than one right?" I could see him weighing his options. After a few moments he shook his head.

"No, you'll just slow me down. Walk away now or I'll kill you where you stand." He said back, and I could tell he was gonna be hard to persuade.

"Alright fine. You don't think I'm strong enough huh? So how bout we fight right here, if I win you help me out. If I lose you can kill me or let me live your choice." This guy seemed pretty tough, but he was also kind of predictable. He acted out of anger it seemed if I could make him mad enough he might just slip up.

"Ok, fine you got a deal. I hope you're ready to die." And with that he flew forward crazy fast and tackled me to the ground. Surprisingly he wasn't all that hot. It was like having the heat up a little too high in the summer to be honest. But anyway, after he tackled me to the ground, he picked me up by the collar and threw me across the roof. I slammed into the wall and got hit by a fireball in the chest. Now that was hot. My jacket got set on fire, forcing me to hastily pull it off.

"Aww man, I loved that jacket." I said dejectedly. "You're lucky I have more in my inventory." I pulled out both my (Desert Eagles) and started shooting at him. He grunted in pain and dashed a few feet to the side. It actually looked really cool the way he turned into fire and reappeared. I did a cartwheel flip and teleported into the air and continued shooting upside down. I landed on an I.P (invisible platform) switched to my two Uzis and kept running around the air shooting and making platforms in front of me.

"Stop it!" He shouted and literally exploded. A circle of fire burst from him and knocked me off my platform. I put my Uzis back into my inventory before I landed. He had gone back to his regular form and was walking toward me. He was a white guy, about 6 feet tall, swept back brunette hair and some stubble. He looked kinda like the default character from this game I used to play called "Saint's Row 4." He threw his hand forward and shot a steady stream of fire at me. I put up a shield to protect me but the heat was unbearable. I started sweating immediately. He got up next to me and started trying to punch his way through my shield. His fists were burning with an intense heat.

"You.

BAM.

Will.

BAM.

Never.

BAM.

Beat me!" Each word was accentuated by another powerful fist. His fire was getting hotter and hotter every passing moment. I threw a blast of gravity at him that tossed him away.

"You're pretty hot buddy. Ha, get it?" I said tiredly. That onslaught took a lot outta me. I pulled out my shotgun and started blasting away at him. "But I still got a shotgun at winning." I quipped. I was trying to piss him off with some shitty jokes. I could tell it was working when he shouted "Shut the fuck up ya corny bastard!" and threw a cluster of fireballs at me. I put up a shield expecting them to hit me head on, but they landed around me and then exploded sending me barreling through the sky. I used gravity to flip me right side up, pulled out my grenade launcher and shot at his feet. He tried to dash out of the way but I controlled the grenade's direction and made it land where he dashed to. It knocked him off his feet and I used a portal to bring him in front of me then kicked him with a foot as heavy as a truck. He slammed back into the ground and I teleported back in front of him with my sniper rifle pointed at his head.

"So you ready to listen to reason?" I asked winded. I guess he wasn't because he dashed out of the way and back onto his feet beside me. He punched me in the face with a burning fist and grabbed the rifle out of my hands, melting the barrel. I threw a punch back at him and hit him in the jaw. He countered with a right hook that I ducked under then sent an uppercut aimed for his jaw. He dodged backwards and did a backflip kicking me in the jaw. I fell to ground and rolled backwards onto my feet. I ran back at him and jumped into the air with a little gravity to keep me up longer and threw three quick kicks which he blocked with his arms. I landed back on the ground, dropped low and swept his feet from under him. He fell to the ground and did a kip-up onto his feet. He threw a haymaker that hit me in the jaw and then gave me a body shot. We traded blows for a few minutes only managing to hit each other a few times. He dodged another one of my jabs then grabbed my arm and flipped onto it trapping me in an arm bar on the ground.

"Just give up and I won't break your arm." He said. I could tell he was getting tired. We had been fighting for at least 30 minutes, and we both had taken some bumps. One thing I learned about fast healing is it don't mean shit if you're constantly getting hit.

"I ain't ever gonna quit amigo. Not until FKD pays for what they did to her!" I lowered the gravity around us so I could lift him up in the air and then increased it heavily to slam him back down. He let out a pained squeak almost like a whimper but he didn't let go. I did this three more times each time increasing the gravity more. On the third hit he slammed into the ground, cracking the roof. He just laid there completely winded trying to get back the breath that had been forced out of him. I dropped to my knees next to him utterly spent.

"Look buddy boy." I said taking deep breaths. "We're both pretty strong. I'm tellin' ya if we work together the FKD well be in for a helluva shit show. So how bout it man? Partners?" I said getting back to my feet and putting my hand out to help him onto his feet. He looked between my hand and my face for a few moments before he grabbed my hand and I pulled him to his feet.

"Ok so, now that we got the violence out of the way. How about you tell me what put The FKD on your shit list."

He walked over to the edge of the roof and sat down dangling his feet over the side. I did the same thing and just sat patiently waiting for him to start. After a few minutes he said, "I was one of the first people captured by the D.U.P. and put into Curdun Cay. They put me through so much pain. But the only thing keeping me sane was the thought of my girl waiting for me on the outside. I was only 16 at the time but I was sure I had found my soulmate. When Delsin beat Augustine and opened up Curdun Cay the first thing on my mind was to go and see Sarah, the only girl I loved. When I got to her house she opened the door, saw me, and broke into tears. She hugged me close and buried her head into my chest. When we got inside, we talked for hours about everything that happened over the past seven years. We talked about how she felt when I got taken, about the people at school, about how she tried to move on thinking she would never see me again, but none of those guys, or that one girl, could make her as happy as I did. I told her what it was like in Curdun Cay, I told her about how all I ever thought about was seeing her again, and then I showed her how my powers had grown. The following day I got reacquainted with her parents. They were a little skeptical of me at first since I was a Conduit, but they knew that I would never hurt them or their daughter and everything was fine for awhile."

"So happily ever after right? Please tell me it is." I said, knowing full well it wouldn't be.

"I wish it was. But no, two years later I was working as a construction worker. It was hard labor but being a Conduit made things easier. Especially since the world was mostly fine with Conduits after everything that Delsin did, so that meant I could use my powers on the job. But anyway, I was working late one day. I came home to see my front door kicked open. I ran inside and searched all over for Sarah but I couldn't find her. I called the police and a search was put out immediately. 3 months went by with no trace. Finally I get a knock on the door and some police officers tell me to come with them. We drove down to the morgue and they take me to one of the back rooms. I had already come to terms with the fact that Sarah might be dead long before they took me there, but nothing could have prepared me for what I saw on the operating table."

"Fuckin hell, man. It was that bad?" This guy kinda had it worst than me. My mom was killed sure, but he got locked up for seven years and when he finally got out he got to see his girl that was still waiting for him. After only two years he lost her again. I don't know what I'd do if I lost Jess. No wonder he was so angry.

"Yea... it was. They pulled back the sheet and I had to fight the urge to vomit. Her face was completely unrecognizable. It was swollen to hell, and some chunks were even missing. Her arms looked broken and one of her ribs were poking out of her chest. She was missing a few toes and fingers. The only real way I could tell it was her was the tattoo of my name on her right shoulder. Hell they even cut off her hair. The coroner turned her over and carved into her back was a giant FKD with the words Property of The Boss tattooed on her ass." He just sat there for awhile looking into the horizon. His face was completely blank. "That was one year ago and I've been building up my powers to pay those bastards back for her death. I started this fight a few months ago. I had been hearing about another Conduit that was giving them hell. I assume that was you?" He asked, not even looking at me.

"Yea. They killed my mom back in June. I've been fighting since July. Although I have to say, you're story kinda trumps mine as far as tragedy goes." I said. My mom didn't die a peaceful death but it was relatively quick compared to Cassidy's.

"My name's Ashton by the way, but everybody calls me Ash because of the whole fire thing." He said dryly.

"Aiden, nice to meet ya." I said enthusiastically, holding my hand out for him to shake, which he did.

"Well Aiden, it looks like we're working together now. Do me a favor and don't make me regret this. I won't let you get in my way. And when we get to their leader he's mine understand?" He said trying to intimidate me.

"First thing you should know about me, is that you can't scare me. I just don't care enough to feel fear. Second, as long as you learn how to aim and not hit so many people we should get along just fine. Honestly, I don't really care too much about collateral but I just don't want another anti- conduit task force popping up trying to lock us all up. And if you ever hit me with a fuckin fireball, accidentally or otherwise, I will end you. Understood?" I said getting in his face. We stared each other down and after a few moments he said, "Fine I'll try to be precise, but I can't make any promises."

"That's all I'm asking." I said with a smile. "Now let's go get some grub I'm starving." I took a jacket out of my inventory space and put it on then we jumped off the roof, using our respective powers to get to the nearest fast food joint.