Cole carefully told Zeke the details of what happened after they opened the final gate and ran into the barricade that had killed a number of innocent civilians, and about their meeting with Moya, though at the same time he made sure to do so when they weren't near any of the other civilians. Fortunately the other people who were trapped in the Neon District were preoccupied by either the events at the bridge or the Reapers that were still terrorizing them, so he didn't have to worry about spilling the beans in front of someone that shouldn't know what he knew. At the same time Adagio, Aria, and Sonata walked near them, keeping their eyes on how the people were reacting to Cole's presence, though they were amazed that people hated him and yet seemed to tolerate their presence, which was strange when they considered that they were friends with him and should have been treated the same way. Adagio, however, was more than happy that none of them were being chased by anyone, as that allowed them to return to Zeke's apartment building, get something to eat, and retire to the roof to explain the situation to Zeke.
Since it had been in the afternoon when they tried to escape the quarantine, and failed, telling Zeke everything took some time and the sun eventually went down as the moon appeared in the sky, indicting that it was nearly nighttime, but they were able to give him the whole picture.
"...and it drains neuro-electric energy." Cole finished, describing what the Ray Sphere did, even though he was still shocked by the existence of a device that could grant powers to anyone, which didn't sound good when he thought about the Blast that happened earlier.
"I knew it!" Zeke declared, his tone indicating that he was happy about something, while at the same time Adagio and her sisters stared at him for a moment, as they remembered what he had been saying since they first woke up, "All the stuff I've been saying, every world of it is true. The government's in cahoots with a secret organization, the Ray Sphere... damn, it all makes sense now."
"Calm down." Cole said, knowing exactly how worked up his friend could get over this sort of thing, though while he wished there was an answer that didn't confirm some of Zeke's crazy theories he was stuck with the answer he had given, where he wondered if Moya would be upset with him or not, "You'll end up hurting yourself in your excitement."
"That Ray Sphere must dish out powers to whoever's controlling it." Zeke commented, his tone indicating that he either didn't hear Cole, or he did and just didn't care at the moment, while at the same time he glanced down at his hands for a moment, as if he was imagining the device in his hands, "You gotta bring it back here!"
"And do what with it?" Aria inquired, as she didn't see the point of them taking the Ray Sphere for themselves, as they had no idea how it worked and, if they were right about it being at the center of the Blast that they found Cole in, activating it again was too dangerous, even for them, "Turn you into Cole's side-kick?"
"Ah, hell with that." Zeke replied, to which he leaned back on his couch and stared at the four powerful beings that were his friends, though secretly he was still imagining what it would be like to have powers like them, "Zeke Jedediah Dunbar is his own man."
"Your middle name is Jedediah?" Cole asked, as this was the first time that his best friend had ever revealed what his middle name was, but he had always thought it was something other than what he had been told, while at the same time he could tell the sisters didn't know what to think about Zeke's middle name.
"Yes it is, after my grandfather." Zeke said, a hint of family pride, or something akin to it, in his voice, though at the same time Adagio and her sisters raised their eyebrows, but they remained silent as they listened, "Strong man for a man of his size. Uh, I don't know where Zeke comes from, but I'm certain..."
"Zeke, I'd love to listen to you talk some more, but the girls and I have some things we need to do," Cole stated, which the sisters realized was his attempt to get them away from Zeke, so they could contact Moya, or vise versa, and learn what they needed to do first in the search for the Ray Sphere, "besides, after what happened today, you need to take both a bath and a nap. We'll be back later."
Zeke actually didn't seem upset that Cole and the sisters didn't want to stick around and learn how he got his name, to the best of his knowledge anyway, and quickly realized that he had a small harbor smell coming from his clothing, to which he mumbled about it affecting his chances with the ladies and headed down into the building, leaving the four of them alone for the moment. Sure enough a few seconds later Cole's phone rang, though he had turned the ringer volume down so he, and anyone in the immediate area around him, could hear it, to which he accepted the call the instant the sisters had gathered around him.
"I've already got a couple of leads for you," Moya spoke up, revealing who it was, not that mentioning 'leads' had told them who it was the moment they heard someone talking, but none of them spoke up and listened to what she wanted to tell them, "the coordinates have been uploaded into your phone. Give me a call when you're in position."
The instant the call was disconnected Cole pulled his phone out of it's holder and looked at the GPS that he had installed into it, to help him with his courier job, and discovered that two of Moya's tasks were actually pretty close by, while the third one seemed a little further away. In fact the closest one was on a nearby building, one that he could see from where he was standing, and he could tell that the sisters were interested in what he was thinking about, though oddly enough they were being silent as they waited for him to tell them something.
"Moya sent us three objectives we can do," Cole said, to which he slipped his phone back into the pouch that it stayed in all the time, before turning to face the sisters for a moment, "If it were up to me, and if I was alone, I would take the closest objective first and see what sort of task I would have to do, before moving towards the next closest one and repeating until I was done. What are your thoughts on the matter?"
Adagio, Aria, and Sonata looked at each other for a few seconds, as they had no idea how far all of these objectives were and had no idea what Moya wanted, but since they were in unfamiliar territory they all silently agreed on one thing, to which they turned back towards Cole.
"If you feel that we should take on the closest objective first, then we'll follow your lead." Adagio said, though while she generally hated passing leadership to either of her sisters, as both made mistakes at times, she trusted that Cole knew what he was doing, save for the powers he commanded, and that they'd get done with Moya's tasks in no time.
Cole could tell that Adagio wasn't used to surrendering her leadership to anyone, save for her sisters if the look in her face told him anything, but instead of saying anything he beckoned for them to follow before he jumped out of the opening that was opposite of the one they used when they were heading to Archer Square. The instant they were on the ground he lead them to the building that the coordinates were attached to and latched onto the exterior of the building and started climbing up to the roof. Sure enough he heard the sound of his friends following after him, as they were starting to climb up the other climbable perches that were available, though it wasn't long before the four of them reached the top of the building and approached the point that Moya had given them... to which Cole tapped his phone and reestablished the connection to their handler.
"All right, we're in position." Cole said, knowing that all Moya had to do was look at his coordinates and figure out which objective she had to give them first, while at the same time he kept his eyes open for Reapers, "Now what?"
"I'm picking up some weird interference from a rooftop not far from your location." Moya told them, to which the sisters looked around for something that was out of the ordinary, while at the same time Cole stared straight ahead at a building with a circular structure on the roof, "I need you to find out it's origin and purpose."
"So what are we looking for?" Adagio inquired, knowing that as long as Cole kept the phone on Moya could hear her and her sisters as well, especially when they stood near Cole.
"Not really sure," Moya replied, which made the sisters really look at everything on the rooftops around the one that they were standing on at that very moment, "probably a transmitter of some type. Call me when you find it."
Cole nodded and disconnected the call for a moment, to which he jumped over to the roof that was across from where he and the sisters were standing, which was lower than the one Moya sent them to, before moving out of the way as his friends followed after him. From there he spotted some exterior vents that could be used to climb up to the top of the structure, though to get up there they had to first climb up the windows that were in front of them before they could even reach the vents, which in turn allowed them to get to the roof of the structure. Thanks to the path that he had discovered it actually didn't take them long to reach the top of the structure, where the four of them spotted a satellite dish, which Zeke had showed the sisters a few times before setting his up, resting nearby.
"Found it." Cole said, to which they approached the satellite dish as he connected to Moya again, while at the same time he noticed something interesting about the dish, something that their handler would want to know about, "Looks like there's a portable drive attached to this satellite dish."
"See if you can listen to it with your phone." Moya instructed, to which the group looked at each other for a moment, clearly surprised by the suggestion, though there wasn't much they could do and Cole decided that he might as well play along with her ideas.
Cole grabbed the object that was attached to the satellite dish and inserted it into the bottom of his phone, which would normally allow him to listen to something when he did such a thing, but all that came out of his phone was a bunch of static that didn't actually say anything.
"Sounds like a bunch of garbage." Adagio commented, as while she and her sisters might be used to the more modern phones that many people used in the world they had been in before this one, they all knew that there had to be a reason behind why someone left something like this in such a state.
"It's an encrypted message, but I can't break it." Moya said, though as she said that the group heard her typing something into a computer on her end, though what that something was they had no idea, "Look around the area and see if you can't find another one."
Adagio had to resist the urge to chuckle as Moya said that, as it was by sheer dumb luck that they had found the first one and there was no telling where someone had hid all of these satellite dishes, meaning that it would take them some time to even find a second one. Cole, on the other hand, focused his mind for a moment and seemed to have a better understanding of the area, reminding her and her sisters that he had the power to sense where electrical power sources were and could find things without someone telling him where they were. As such it appeared that he was using this knowledge, in addition to how they found the first satellite, before he jumped off the building they were on and landed on a roof below them, before climbing on a grind rail and started to move across it. Adagio then chuckled at that, because it appeared that their friend was in the process of developing a new power or something, to which she and her sisters jumped down to the roof Cole had landed on and followed after him.
The sisters followed Cole as he climbed up a building and paused for a moment, before turning and looking at the building that was on the corner of the other side of the street, where some Reapers were standing around and happened to be shooting at the civilians that were around them. Upon seeing them, however, Sonata growled and jumped off the roof, though the moment she hit the ground she charged at the Reaper infested building and started attacking them, where she either punched and kicked them until they surrendered, or she blasted them off the areas they were standing on. Adagio and Aria followed after her, as there were more Reapers than what they expected, and soon the three of them were engaged in a small brawl with the Reapers that patrolled this area of the Neon District, though that created an opening that allowed Cole to climb the building that the Reapers had been standing on... and, more importantly, secure the portable device that happened to be attached to the satellite that was on the building's roof.
With that claimed he climbed back down to where the sisters were and helped them knock out the rest of the Reapers before he even attempted to use the device again, though when he inserted it into his phone they got the same result as the first time... where Moya claimed that she was running a decryption program that would allow them to hear the messages, and she then claimed she needed one more sample to complete the program.
Cole was, one more, able to sense the pull of yet another satellite dish, how he really wasn't able to say to the sisters, and they followed him across the street, right into a Reaper infested area that looked like a power station, though luck was on their side as their enemies were on the nearby roofs. What they discovered was that some of the Reapers that were looking down at them were carrying riot shields, no doubt stolen from the police when the quarantine started, but Adagio found that if they timed their blasts right they could knock one of them backwards. Fortunately the Reapers were more interested in taking her and her sisters out first, why she had no idea, though since that appeared to be the case they did their best to dodge the incoming bullets as they fired a few blasts back at them in return. Cole, on the other hand, used the opening that was revealed to him and climbed up the building while the Reapers were distracted, before using his shockwave power to knock the remaining Reapers off the roof and flung them into the air... though he waited for a few seconds, so the sisters could climb up to him, before he collected the third device from the satellite.
With the device collected Cole told Moya about their progress, who revealed that she had perfected the decryption algorithm that she had been working on and installed it directly into Cole's phone, how the sisters didn't even want to know, before being told that his phone could now play the messages... to which he tested it out on the one that Cole was holding at that very moment.
I... I couldn’t stop Kessler from detonating the Ray Sphere. a voice said, which was male by the tone, though at the same time the group could easily determine that something was up, as he sounded upset and angry over what had happened earlier, Damn thing took out five or six square blocks, killed God knows how many. Found the Ray Sphere in the blast crater, next to some kid. I dunno if he was dead or not, I didn’t have time to check. I’m going to try and hold up somewhere. If anyone is even listening to these things, I need immediate extraction. Please. You need to get me out of here before Kessler finds me!
When the message was over Cole inquired if Moya knew what that was all about, where he and the sisters learned that the speaker had been John, the person they were looking for, and that he must have used these 'dead drops' to communicate with his handlers. She then informed them that they should keep an eye out for more of them while they were wandering the city, as they might actually point them in the direction of John and the infamous Ray Sphere, which caused the Blast two weeks ago. Once the call was disconnected, after they received a little reminder about the deal, Cole pulled out the other two messages and listened to them in the order they had been recovered, where the group discovered that both of them contained information regarding John's first meeting with the First Sons... though since they didn't learn anything Cole switched to his GPS and headed out for the other two points on the map that Moya had sent them earlier.
What he discovered was that, after completing the first mission, he had a very short text from Moya about the remaining two objectives she had sent him, as in she gave him a short description about them, making him wonder if they were supposed to decide this as a group.
"Well, things are getting interesting," Cole said, turning to look at the sisters for a moment, who had been staring at him the entire time he was looking at his phone, but they knew it was important for him to do so, "Of the two remaining objectives we can either go render assistance to an EMT, or we can speak with one of Moya's contacts inside the Neon District. Do any of you have a preference for what we do next?"
"Speaking with Moya's contact might help us out in the long run," Aria commented, as she knew that it was best to help their FBI 'friend' out first, now that they knew what the other two objectives were, but at the same time she knew something was up with the first one, "but, if we're rendering assistance to an EMT, whatever that is, we might get some assistance in the future."
"It means emergency medical technician," Cole replied, knowing that the sisters likely forgot what the letters stood for and didn't hold it against them, not when they were dealing with the same thing that happened to him, "but I see the point you were trying to make; if we help out this doctor we might be able to get some medical assistance from him, in the off chance that we get hurt."
"Exactly." Aria said, as she happy that Cole understood what she had been getting at, even if she and her sisters weren't planning on getting hurt at all while they helped him take out the Reapers and find the Ray Sphere, but she knew that it was better to have some aid then none at all.
Cole nodded his head and lead the way towards the second set of coordinates, though this time around they actually ran into two small groups of Reapers and had to fight their way through them before they were allowed to move closer to the building they were heading towards. While they ran through the city Adagio found it amusing that Moya's tasks seemed to start on the roofs of the buildings that were around the city, but she was thankful for any vantage points they could get while they were on the move, since their enemies knew the city better than they did. Still, she was thankful to have Cole be their guide, because she knew that she and her sisters would get lost in this district rather easily, since they would need a map to understand where they were going... even if she hated not being the leader of the group anymore, as it was because of her that they survived for so long, until they lost their powers anyway.
Thanks to Cole they managed to reach the target area, and ascended to the roof of the building in question, in no time, though when they arrived Cole told Moya they were in position, where they learned that the nearby makeshift clinic that the EMT had set up was overrun and he needed their help... and, to make sure Cole did it, she even listed the same facts that Aria gave, as if she came up with them first.
For them to actually start this particular mission they had to jump back down to the ground level and run through some alleys so they could reach the area that the emergency worker that had reached out to Moya, though it was rather easy to find him once they reached the road that was near the harbor. From there it was a simple matter to walk up to him and learn that the Reapers kept attacking the clinic he had down the street, where he asked them if they could take care of them for him. As such the four of them headed down the street and started firing at the Reapers that were in front of them, though while Cole and Aria focused on those that were on the ground level Adagio and Sonata focused on the Reapers that were firing at them from the roof of the clinic. Just for some added flare Aria also punched several of the Reapers in the face while they were fighting, letting them know that she and the others were in charge, before all of their foes were incapacitated and the clinic had been secured... much to the happiness of the EMT that had called Moya to get him some assistance, who also said he'd patch them up if necessary, and even gave them a container of bandages to help them out, if they were far from him or any other clinics.
Once that was done Cole lead the sisters back through the city, weaving this way and that way, as they hunted down the last objective that Moya had given them, for now anyway, before they reached the area that the coordinates were attached to, where they stared up at the familiar statue Cole had climbed up earlier for a few seconds... before they all sighed as Cole connected them to Moya and asked what they were doing this time around.
"One of my contacts, an electrician by the name of Brandon Carey, didn't check in last night." Moya informed them, though at the same time Adagio, Aria, and Sonata didn't like the sound of that, especially when there was a gang of criminals running around the Neon District, "He's pretty important, so you'll need to find him. He was last seen in the alley across the street from your location."
Cole spotted the alley in question and told Moya that they would check into it, to which the four of them headed over to the alley and walked over to the large shipping container that was resting in front of them, though as they walked around it they spotted a woman laying on the ground... and she happened to be dead, based on what Aria was feeling when she pressed her fingers against the woman's neck.
"Your boy's not here Moya," Cole said, though he, Adagio, and Sonata were already looking for any clues as to what might have happened here, as the blood under the woman indicated a struggle had happened, "just a dead woman."
"A woman? That doesn't make any sense." Moya replied, though even as she said that Adagio wondered if this was a girlfriend or something, for Brandon anyway, and wondered if the Reapers were to blame.
Cole, however, seemed to be focused on something else and knelt on the other side of the woman, opposite of Aria, though before he did anything he had her back away for a moment, as he didn't want her to get hurt when he attempted something, to which she nodded and backed up a little. He then rested his right hand towards the woman's head and focused for a few seconds, where a flood of images, the last moments of the woman's life, came rushing towards him and forced him to watch what happened. He could see things from her perspective, that the Reapers came while she and Brandon were here, tore him from her, and then, when he was some distance away, one of them shot her and left her to die in this very spot.
"...whoa..." Cole moaned, as that was an impressive ability he had no idea that he possessed to begin with, but it certainly made things easier to understand, even if he could do without the rush of emotions he had felt.
"Cole?! What just happened?" Sonata asked, beating Moya to the punch, since Cole had never disconnected from their handler, but she was more worried about their friend than John's wife was at the moment.
"I... I just had a vision." Cole explained, to which he lowered his hands and beckoned to the woman that they were standing around, knowing that Moya couldn't see his movements at all, while at the same time spotting a green echo of sorts near them, "The Reapers, they kidnapped Brandon. This is his wife, Lynnae. And I can see the echo of someone running away."
"Follow it." Moya commanded, appearing to be more interesting in Brandon than Lynnae, though Cole and the sisters looked down at Lynnae for a few seconds before they got moving, "We need to find out what happened."
Cole nodded and focused on the echo that only he could see before he moved around the corner, to which the sisters followed after him while he chased the echo through a different alley, across the main street that went up to Archer Square, and through a second alley. At the end of the second alley, however, the group found a white robed Reaper patrolling the area, one that crouched low to the ground for a few seconds before making a motion in their direction, which caused some sort of shockwave that traveled in a straight line and forced the four of them to separate before they were struck. Before they could fire back, however, the White Reaper seemed to vanish for a moment, causing them to look around in concern, before he appeared nearby and started firing at them with the gun that he carried, scoring a hit when he struck Adagio's left shoulder and drew blood. Adagio growled in pain for a moment as she lifted her right hand up and loosed a trio of blasts that barreled into the White Reaper and knocked him backwards, giving Cole, Aria, and Sonata enough time to get close and knock him out before he could do anything else... though once that was done they ran back over to her and pulled that part of her shirt down, so they could bind it with some bandages the medic from earlier had given them.
"Adagio, are you okay?" Aria asked, though while she knew that she and Adagio argued at times, which was quite often before they lost their powers and came here, she was still concerned for her sister.
"Oh course I'm not okay, that bastard just shot me!" Adagio snapped, though at the same time she moaned as Cole tightened the bandage around her shoulder, as the contact between the bandage and the bullet hole was painful, but she also knew that it would be some time before the wound healed.
"Well, he won't be going anywhere anytime soon," Cole said, staring at the White Reaper for a moment, who was laying on the ground where he, Aria, and Sonata left him, before he turned his attention back to Adagio, "Do you think you can take coming with us, or should one of us escort you back t..."
"Just because I got shot doesn't mean I need to sit out for a while," Adagio said, though as she said that she carefully got back into a standing position and faced Cole, knowing that he meant well by what he had said, but she was more interested in stopping the Reapers now, "Come on, let's go find Brandon and save him from the Reapers... and stop whatever plan they're trying to set in motion."
Cole nodded and picked up the location of the echo they had been following, to which they resumed following it and ran into a few small groups of Reapers that were blocking their way, but after what happened with the White Reaper a few moments ago Adagio was in no mood to play around. As such she lead the charge against the Reapers, blasting them while her sisters and Cole either stayed beside her or charged ahead and beat their foes into submission, before allowing Cole to take the lead as he resumed following the echo. Zeke, oddly enough, contacted them at some point during their adventure and said that helping out the 'Feds' was a bad idea, since he had actually seen one on a nearby roof eating a fresh apple, which was an uncommon sight in the Neon District at the moment. Cole told him not to worry about the situation, since this was the only way any of them were getting out of here, before they reached the destination that the echo happened to be taking them to... the power station that they had passed by when they were looking for the third dead drop, though they raised their guard when they realized that there weren't any Reapers around.
Of course that didn't prepare them for what was waiting for them, as when they followed the echo to the end of the line they found a Reaper, who had strapped a fair amount of explosives to himself, standing in front of the substation that powered the Neon District... before the Reaper detonated his payload, knocking all of them backwards for a moment and effectively killing power to the entire district at the same time.
"What the hell happened?" Moya snapped, while at the same time the sisters moaned as they picked themselves up off the floor and helped Cole onto his feet, who was suffering at the moment, "The entire Neon District just went dark!"
"That's because one of those maniacs just blew up a whole substation." Cole replied, his voice sounding strained at the moment, confirming the fears that Adagio, Aria, and Sonata had felt when they noticed that Cole seemed to be shaking as they picked him up, "...man, my brain feels like it's in a vise..."
"Your body must be reacting to the absence of electricity." Moya commented, echoing a thought that the sisters had been thinking about the moment the guy killed himself and took out the power around them, "You're going to have to man up and find Carey. If we don't restore the power, the Reapers will be unstoppable."
Adagio and her sisters helped Cole out to the street that was near their location and let him pull in whatever power remained inside the streetlights that were around them, restoring a good fraction of his power in the process, enough that he could see the echo again and resumed following it. Fortunately they reached the end of the line a few seconds later, as they approached a manhole cover that went underground, though while Cole smiled at this development, as he knew what rested at the end of certain areas, there was something else that came to mind.
"The Reapers are bound to make a move against us if we head down there," Cole said, to which he glanced around the area that they were in, as while there weren't any Reapers in the area at the moment he was positive that more would be coming soon enough, "Two of us should go down and find Carey, while the other two remain up here, defending our escape route and prevent our enemies from flanking us."
"Well, since your the only one that can see the echo, I say you should be one to go down there," Adagio stated, though at the same time she gently moved her shoulder and did her best to ignore the pain, because being shot by a bullet hurt more than she thought it did, "and, since I'm sure there might be some areas down there that require climbing, I'll gladly sit the first venture out, on account of my injury."
"Oh, can I go down there with him?" Sonata asked, because she was curious what was down beneath them, under the streets that they walked on, while at the same time looking at her sisters.
"Sure. I'll stay with Adagio and watch for Reapers." Aria said, though while her tone was neutral her face showed worry for their sister, as this was the first time that one of them had been shot and she was concerned, even if it was only a minor area and not her chest.
Cole nodded and pulled up the manhole cover, where he let Sonata enter the passage and started the descent towards the level that was below them, though once she was far enough he followed after her and let the cover close as he headed into the sewers, while Adagio and Aria stood guard around the exit. A few moments later he and Sonata reached the end of the ladder and dropped down onto the platform that was below them, though off in the distance she noticed some bolts of electricity.
"All right, we've tracked the echo to the sewers." Cole said, informing Moya as to where they were, even though she knew that two of his friends had stayed on the surface to make sure that the Reapers didn't come in after them.
"The Reapers must have needed Carey's help in shutting down the underground linear transformer." Moya stated, as if she was figuring something out, while at the same time Sonata tilted her head for a second, as she was confused for a moment while also saying nothing about what had been said, "Find the transformer and figure out a way to get it back online. If they killed the conduit, you'll have to re-establish it."
"That must be what we're looking for." Sonata commented, staring at the electronic device that was in front of them, one that happened to have two areas that weren't connected and had a gap that was large enough for a single person to stand between the two.
Cole nodded and the two of them jumped over to the platform that was to their left, which was a little higher up than the one they had been on, before crossing over to some circular structures that allowed them to reach the square platform that the conduit was resting on. Sonata, seeing all the electricity coming from the conduit, stayed near the edge of the platform and watched as Cole jumped up and grasped the two halves of the conduit, where the electricity surged from one side and connected to the other one. Once that was done Cole jumped to the ground and closed his eyes for a moment, his hands twitching for a few seconds, though before Sonata could do anything his eyes snapped back open and he stared down at himself with a smile on his face.
"I... I don't believe it," Cole said, though as he walked over to Sonata he stared at the conduit for a moment, as he knew exactly what had happened the moment he bridged the connection, "When I re-established the conduit I felt a surge of energy and unlocked a few new powers; the power to electrically restrain our foes against the ground, the ability to heal others by passing a surge of electricity through their bodies, and the power to drain the energy from someone's body."
"Two of those sound useful... and the other sounds wrong." Sonata replied, as that was her honest opinion on the matter, especially when the last one sounded like stealing the life force of whoever he was using the power on, before she noticed something off to their right, "And, from the looks of it, you'll have a chance to practice your new powers."
Sure enough there happened to be an injured person laying outside a gate, one that didn't seem to have a lever on their side, to which Cole and Sonata jumped over to him and Cole, focusing his new power, pressed his hands against the man's body and sent a surge into him. That, surprisingly, healed the man of his wounds and the hole that had been caused by a bullet, who got up in surprise and eagerly told someone on the other side that Cole and Sonata were friendlies, which caused the other person to lower the gate. The instant that happened the duo moved forward and used the ruined walkway to reach the area where some wounded people were resting, though as they did so Moya instructed them that they needed to restart the distribution substation by charging it, which should power part of the Neon District. As they continued forward Cole found an opportunity to heal several of the injured people that the Reapers had hurt, restrain some of the wounded Reapers to the floor, and even sapped the energy from one of them to understand his powers.
Of course when he did the third power Sonata saw a faint red glow appear in her friend's aura for a moment, though as he moved towards the other foe at the end of the line, who was wounded, she saw the moments of the third power and stopped him before he could do so... to which she shook her head, causing him to sigh as he understood what she was referring to, to which he restrained the Reaper before they moved forward.
As it turned out Adagio's suggestion that there might be some areas where they had to lift themselves turned out to be right, as they had to pull themselves along a pair of pipes to reach the next doorway, though as they did so Zeke decided to call them. According to what he said Trish came by and collected some of her things, though she could barely talk to him and, when Zeke brought up Cole, she blew a gasket before leaving the apartment building, indicating that the relationship between her and Cole was gone. Cole, of course, was still devastated by the loss of the connection that he and Trish had, but since they were busy at the moment he told Zeke that they would talk again later as he and Sonata found an area that some Reapers were defending. Since it was clear that the Reapers didn't want the Neon District to have any power, why they had no idea, the duo opened fire on their foes and made sure to take them out in a timely manner, as they had no idea if Adagio and Aria were under attack.
Fortunately it didn't take them long to find the area that Brandon was located in, though they had to fight their way through a few more Reapers, restrained them to the ground in the process, while also healing any civilians that were along the path they were following... before they jumped onto the platform that was near Brandon and walked up to the gate that he was on the other side of, where the duo noticed that he was frightened for someone's safety.
"What are you doing here?" Brandon demanded, where he seemed terrified about something, but Sonata had the feeling that she knew what that something was, especially after what she and the others had seen earlier, "Did they see you?"
"Brandon, we need to turn on the substation." Cole said, though he wondered what they were going to do, as they didn't have all of the pieces to the puzzle and knew that only Brandon could provide them with everything.
"Are you out of your damned mind? The Reapers will kill my wife!" Brandon stated, though at the same time he raised the crowbar that he was holding, indicating that if either of them tried anything he would be ready for a fight, "I've jammed this thing up tight... no one is getting in until I know my wife is safe."
"Unfortunately, that's not a possibility anymore," Sonata said, though she was sad when she heard why Brandon was doing what he was doing, especially since she, personally, would do a number of things for her sisters, as long as they stopped doing evil deeds anyway, "The Reapers... they killed Lynnae. We found her body earlier and found that they had shot her shortly after they abducted you."
"I... I..." Brandon started to say, though as he thought about what Sonata had said, and reflected on what happened the last time he say Lynnae, he broke down and started crying, though at the same time he tapped something and the gate started to come down, "I knew I shouldn't have trusted... I'm sorry Lynnae..."
There nothing the duo could do to help him, since neither of them had any experience in consoling someone that was in this position, but with the gate down they walked forward and headed through the entrance that was in front of them, where they made their way over to the substation. Since Cole was the only one that could recharge things with his powers he opened fire on the substation and loosed a few bolts at it, where the substation turned back on and he smiled, indicating that they were on the right path. Once that was done they left Brandon, who was mourning his wife's passing and promised that he would come to the surface later, and retraced their path back towards the tunnel they used to get down into the sewer. While they were doing that Moya informed them that power had been restored to North Beach, one of the sections of the Neon District, and that she would hunt down the three remaining substations, as well as update their GPS as she did so... to which the duo returned to the surface and left the sewers behind.
Sure enough they found Adagio and Aria standing guard nearby, with some defeated Reapers laying around the area, confirming that their idea to defend their rear had been a good idea, though as he looked around Cole gathered some electricity in his hands for what he was going to do.
"So, what happened down there?" Adagio asked, before she beckoned to all of the powered up lights and signs that rested around them, which had been dark when the duo went down into the sewers, "You know, besides turning on the power for this area."
"I got some new powers, and we found Brandon." Cole explained, though at the same time he raised his hands as his mind focused on the healing aspect that he had picked up a few minutes ago, "One of those powers allows me to heal the wounded that we've been seeing... and I was wondering if you'd like me to see if I can heal your shoulder."
Adagio seemed surprised that he had acquired such a power, and was backed by Sonata nodding her head to confirm what he was saying, before she sighed and nodded her head, to which she braced herself as Cole passed a surge of power through her body. A few seconds ticked by before he pulled back, to which Adagio moved her arm for a moment and found that the pain had disappeared, to which she carefully removed the bloody bandage that was wrapped around her shoulder and found that the wound was gone, as if it never existed to begin with. She was surprised by this development, as when they considered Cole's powers this wasn't something they thought about, but at the same time she smiled as she understood what they could do with his healing ability.
"Well, it seems that we can start reversing the damage the Reapers caused immediately," Adagio said, though at the same time she, her sisters, and Cole smiled as they turned back towards the Neon District, because now the Reapers had another reason to fear them.
One thing Adagio was sure of was that if Cole was able to get powers, from turning a substation on, she and her sisters would be able to develop and improve their own powers, and maybe get some sort of elemental power while they were assisting Cole in clearing the streets... all she knew that time would tell, and they were all eager to get back at the Reapers for what they were doing to the unfortunate civilians of the Neon District.