Maya didn't know what had happened in those few moments of seeing Delsin..
He had formed into a flurry of orange and red particles, like embers...They...They were beautiful...
They fluttered in place for a moment, before they quickly whisked through the stuck-partially-open window. After all, normal people wouldn't break into a paint factory, so no one ever closed it...
The cloud flurried onto one of the metal beams near her and reformed into the male, who lunged at her. Maya rolled off the hammock and ended up making the other Conduit get tangled up in it.
Seizing her opportunity Maya jumped from the banisters, dispersing into ink droplets to destroy any impact the fall would have given her...Before re-forming and running.
Maya panted as she ran through the streets and alleyways of Seattle, bricks and signs blurring together as she just..Tried to get some distance between her and that other Conduit.
She knew he could steal powers, and her's weren't ones to share.
Especially will a Gatsby...Never trust a Gatsby with too much power…
People looked up to that kind of male, or disliked him for a usually valid reason.
With a hum she quickly went into the closest building near her, a printing store. If that guy wanted her powers..Then he'd better be ready for a fight.
Delsin huffed as he flew through the streets of Seattle, glaring a bit. His clothes had now been tie-dyed from the hues that bled into the fabric. Dang it-this was his favorite hoodie!
"Look, Eugene, give me something to work on here." He huffed, all three members of his team were on a conference call with him.
"I-I don't know where she'd go if she knew you were chasing her…"
"She ain't in the lantern district." Fetch informed from her end of it all.
"Well then where is sh-...Eugene...What's her uh...'Element', in the Conduit Spectrum?"
"Ink...Why?"
"I think I found where she'd be." Delsin grinned as he went in front of a Printing Store.
"Wait, Delsin, let me get there and talk to he-"
"Oooh hoho, no. I don't wanna walk in on you two doing something weird, or you two making plans to leave. I've got this." With a smirk Delsin closed the phone, putting the device in his pocket as he landed...And strutted right on into the Shore.
Maya was standing behind the counter, several gallons of ink containers behind her along with paper. She was confident...
"Wow...Well, you're just stocked up for war, aren't ya." Delsin hummed as he walked right on in, smiling at her.
"The Art of War is a messy one." the Ink Conduit huffed as she put her hand to a red container, absorbing the hue without trouble.
"Look...I just wanna shake your hand, and I can go, cool?"
Of course it was never that easy for Delsin, now was it?
Her hand whipped around, a flurry of ink erupting from her fingertips and wrapping around him. Maya felt her other arm go limp as the black appendages constricted the other Condui-
She gasped when he once again turned into smoke, and in turn she turned to ink...Staying still…
Delsin blinked in confusion as he cautiously walked over to the puddle...None of the droplets were moving, all of them still...Maybe she had given u-
The puddle lurched towards his feet, encasing it before ensnaring Delsin's form, and created a little ink cocoon around him. His mouth was kept shut and nose plugged as he was incapable of breathing or talking..He couldn't even warn her.
His hand started to get blistering hot then, searing the liquid and making blob give a hiss as it let him go.
"Alright, you made me do that..!"
Maya reformed slowly, panting as her right arm was shown to be burned, before quickly re-coloring and healing. "Then...I suppose that you have forced my hand, also!"
As her hands started glowing black and white, the cartridges started to shake before imploding. The liquid raced to the red-head, who began to glow colors….Before doubling, and tripling, until there were eleven Maya's in the single room.
"LET THE HUNT BEGIN!" They all yelled, before either running out the door or smashing through the windows...One of them even ran past Delsin and through the back door.
"..Okay, yeah, I need this power." The male chuckled out, before running as he got on his cell, calling the other two Conduits and Reggie. "Hey guys, I kiiinda need some help."
The first Maya that Delsin had found was idly standing at a street corner in front of a coffee stand. He raced towards her, grasping her shoulder.
"Got'cha!"...Only for her to turn and smile, before going limp and forming into ink that didn't reform. "Damn it...A fake."
Fetch had huffed as she ran over a few fences, trying to catch up with a Maya who was standing on a bus' roof.
"DANG IT MAYS! JUST COME BACK!" The girl smiled, wavi-She exploded into ink when a low-hanging branch hit her, splattering over a few cars. "Fake.."
Eugene gasped as he entered their old hide-out, finding a Maya just staring at the screen… "M..Maya?"
He cautiously put a hand on her shoulder. This one, too, deformed and went into a limp ink.
Reggie blinked as he stared at a Maya who was blankly looking at a wall….And threw a rock at he-Yep, fake.
He sighed, getting out his phone. "Yeah, the one I was just after is fake too…"
"I see another one!" Delsin exclaimed, he was actually having a bit of fun with this..
Fetch huffed, all too annoyed it seems..."So do I."
"Dang it Maya.." Eugene just sounded...Well, worried. "I-I see one too.."
The officer blinked as he thought for a moment, before cursing as he face-palmed and started running.
Cautiously, with gun drawn, Reggie entered the trashed Printing Shop. Glancing left, right, left...He went into the back, where the one Conduit had gone to get to the back door.
Yet between the back door and the front working area was a small hallway with three rooms. The first one was empty with just a printer, the second one had a few boxes of paper..
His hands tightened around the gun as he went to the final closed door, gulping. A few beads of sweat arose on the back of his neck as he carefully touched the doorknob.
Okay Reggie, you were trained for situations like this…
Three. Two…
One…
He swung open the door, gun drawn. "FREEZE!"
…
"M..More or less...Chilled…" A weak voice came from the other side of the room. Leaning against the wall was Maya, who looked sickly pale..
To the point where she was literally black and white it seems, thin and grainy like from an old movie reel. The cop carefully went forward and touched her, nodding when she didn't turn into ink..Before getting on his phone.
"Uh...Delsin...I think I found her."
"No way-Seriously…?! Nice! I'll be there in a sec, okay?"
"Got'cha." He sighed, turning off the phone and sitting a bit away from Maya.
Her chest was slowly rising and falling, blinking her eyes tiredly.. "...How did...You know...Where to search?"
"Why would you leave a place where you had the home advantage?" He smiled softly at her.
She smiled weakly, before looking fearful. "Y-You musn't let him take me.."
"Look, Maya...I know my brother seems dangerous, but he's really not that ba-"
"That's not it!" The Ink Conduit cried out, trying to stand..Only to fall as something seemed to snap within her. There goes the bones in her legs…
Reggie ran over and helped her up, frowning. "What the heck happened?"
"I...You can't...Let him...Have this curse.."
"...Curse…?"
"To forget those you love with every burn you take as ink...To not remember who or where you are when you awake near water..To not be able to see into the darkness as you turn your body to liquid…" She frowned, shaking as tears filled her eyes. "Please..Do not let this fate befall upon your brother…"
The police officer frowned and sighed, carefully picking up the frail girl in his arms. "Alright, alright….Where do we need to go?"
"Thank you…J-Just...Back in the main room..."
Reggie nodded as he carried her back into the store portion of everything, and set her down...With a hum as he inched her arm and hand to a wooden table, and shook it slowly to get an ink cartridge onto the floor. She carefully held it, and sighed in relief as her body instinctively started to reform.
Ink bonds started to re-form in her bones and muscles, allowing her to move a bit more freely, even stretch.
"Oh...Oh many thanks to thee, White Knight." She huffed out, rubbing her eyes and face. She was tired now, and defenceless…
To let her ink have enough strength to grasp someone, usually a bit of either her bones or muscle was given. When she was completely ink, her bones were eroded away to add nutrients to the liquid, allowing it strength beyond most average human's…
With so little pigments in her, it would be insane to try and turn liquid at this point. One false move and she would just be a null wet substance…
So long as she was calm and didn't do anything rash, it would all be oka-
"Miss me?"
...That was it, Delsin's voice had made her panic.
In an instant all of the ink cartridges began to get sucked up, all of the pigments and hues being drained as the room was left barren.
"LEAVE. ME. ALONE!" Maya screamed before her outer layer was torn to shreds as the ink increased in size, forming what looked like a technicolor godzilla.
"Well….This would have fit the Lantern District." Delsin mumbled as he grabbed Reggie and booked it out of the printer store.
The beast pushed through the decimated shop front and started slashing at Delsin. Large footsteps looked to crush cars and people, only for them to be completely fine, just a bit more colored from the dyes.
Turning one of the corners, the monster gave a roar when Fetch's laser shot through the arm. "Damn it Del-WHAT DID YOU DO?!"
"NOTHING!" He yelled back, having Reggie grab onto his back as he used the Smoke Powers to get up some buildings.
Eugene quickly flew in with a swarm of Angels, appearing as He Who Dwells as the Angels went around the monster, herding it together.
"HEED MY WORDS MAYA." He Who Dwells belted out, raising his hand. "YOU MUST CEASE THESE ACTIONS AT ONCE!"
…
"...PLEASE?"
…
Slowly the beast shuttered as it started to decrease in size, any excess ink draining out onto the street and sewers until a wobbling Maya was left in the center ring of what looked like rainbow vomit.
"Ooohh…" Maya shuttered, feeling sick. A few moments passed before her knees buckled and threw up, more rainbow added on top of the previous layer. Once her body finally rid itself of all the unnecessary pigments, she fell to her side with a whimper as she looked up at Delsin. "No more tea and cake, Mad Hatter.."
The smoke-using conduit sighed as he came over, reaching out a ha-Reggie's hand stopped his shoulder. "Delsin….Maybe you just...Shouldn't."
"Wha-What the heck Reggie…?!"
"Look...Maybe you shouldn't, alright? You should just...Listen to her, okay?"
"...Fine."
The Ink Conduit shakingly sat up, an arm pressed to her stomach. A bone hadn't formed right, she knew it…She re-liquified before forming to stand, absorbing some of the hues around her. She gave a frightened look to Delsin….And blinked when he held his hands up, in an act of surrender. "...A white flag? To hide the flag of war?"
"No, no...I'm gonna...Listen, just for a bit...Why don't you want me to take your powers."
Maya stared at him, before sighing… "My 'powers' as you call them are a burden. You must be able to have control at all times, even if control is but grains of sands slipping through your fingers. Bones become minerals that feed your strength, yet if divided your bones form how they lay...Your memories and mind become but figments that can easily be-"
"Okay, okay, I get it...It's a whoooole mess of shit that dive-bombs...But look, I need help to take down Augustine..And a girl with your kind of powers would be pretty helpful out there…"
Maya blanked out a bit as she thought of the options. To fight would mean to be able to go against Augustine, free the oppressed, and still be with her companions...To not fight though would allow her to finally be free of the burden of being on the run, and of the burden of the fight..
Slowly she looked over, glancing at the other two conduits as they came over with Reggie beside them.
These people...Had formed together to fight against the Red Queen…
..
With a smile the Blake girl nodded her head, smiling at Delsin. "Off with the Queen's head!"
"...I'm seriously hoping that you mean metaphorically.."
"Oh, but of course Mad Hatter….Unless we have to."
BBB: Okay, sorry there's nothing at the top
Mayhemb: We didn't want the cliffhanger to stop
BBB: So here's a new update
Mayhemb: Since we know you can't wait
BBB: We're going to be accepting ideas for prompts
Mayhemb: Depicting Maya acting with the group in romps
BBB: So we'll leave our PM box and the reviews available
Mayhemb: We'll try to make them Unassailable
BBB: With this we bid you a good day and night
Mayhemb: See you next time in Maya's plight
Both: Bye~!