//------------------------------//
// Empire: Secrets Revealed 
// Story: InFamous: The Unusual Conduits 
// by Blackdrag-rose 
//------------------------------//

The hours following the assault on the prison were terrible, as Cole, Zeke, Adagio, Aria, and Sonata retreated to the hospital that Trish was working in, though they remained in an area where there weren't any patients and they told no one that they were there to begin with. All of them put their phones in another room as well, as none of them, not even Zeke, wanted to talk with Moya, who was going to freak out when she learned from her extraction team that they were too late to pick up Alden, who was long gone at this point. The sting of their defeat was hard to forget, because that night they could hear the sounds of the Dust Men partying and cheering about their victory, meaning that whatever plan Alden had put into motion had succeeded and they were also celebrating their leader's genius at manipulating events to his benefit. The sisters were also annoyed with themselves, as they had manipulated events to their benefit in the past and had seen this coming, but then shrugged off their feelings like it was nothing... they had figured out that Alden was planning something, as events didn't make sense considering that Alden pretty much gave up to the cops, and yet none of the sisters bothered to try and change things.

No one tried to take the blame for what had happened, because all of them had done their best to stop the Dust Men from freeing their master and they still failed because they had underestimated their opponent, though that didn't change the fact that they remained silent throughout the night and let the Dust Men have their victory... because soon they would be the one's laughing, once they figured out how to take out Alden and destroy whatever he was planning.

Eventually they got up from where they were sitting and separated into two groups that went to different areas of the hospital, as Cole and Zeke headed to one room to talk before they went to sleep, while at the same time Adagio, Aria, and Sonata went to a different room and focused on what they were feeling. All three of them were annoyed with themselves for not trying to stop Alden's plan, frustrated at Moya for the lack of being able to send in her team quicker than what she said she would, and angry at Alden for the unnecessary amount of death and destruction he caused with all of the tasks he sent his followers to do. So many people had died since they came to the Warren, be they the innocent people being terrorized, the cops that were supposed to protect them, or the Dust Men that were terrorizing everyone, and that was pissing the three of them off more than they were willing to admit. They hadn't felt this way in a really long time, not since the Battle of the Bands at the very least, but this time around they were more concerned with the loss of life that was happening around them and the fact that Alden was celebrating his victory, even though it caused that very thing.

"We have to stop whatever Alden is planning next, before he completes his preparations." Adagio finally said, as she decided that they had taken enough time being silent, but she also understood that she and her sisters were really annoyed and angry at what happened, especially since they had been played like that.

"So long as he remains free, finding John and the Ray Sphere is going to be impossible." Aria added, remembering what Moya had asked of them, though even as that thought came back to mind she had to wonder if the lady was lying to them in some manner, which wouldn't be too hard to imagine since she clearly wanted the Ray Sphere more than she wanted John back, "That also means that the Dust Men will be united against our efforts for the foreseeable future, now that their leader's plan has made a mockery of both the cops and the four of us... and this time around we don't have a magical portal to use to get away from the consequences of what's happened."

"I get what you're saying, Aria, but even if we could leave it just wouldn't be right to leave Cole alone to fight Alden, the Dust Men, and Kessler," Sonata stated, to which both Adagio and Aria glanced at their sister for a moment, knowing that she wanted to protect as many civilians as she could and that what happened at the prison had annoyed her more than it annoyed the two of them, "Sure, he might be able to tackle them on his own, but we proved that the four of us are much stronger when we work like a team... and sometimes, even teams have to lose every once and a while, only for them to come back even stronger than before. We cannot allow one defeat to push us back and make us falter, because we might fall back into the depths we had been in before we came here and discovered the light."

Despite how crappy she was feeling, about letting Alden go free and losing all those cops in the process, Adagio smiled as she thought about Sonata's words, because she knew that, if the three of them could rise from being beaten by the Rainbooms, then they could certainly do so again. Sure, they may have been tricked by Alden, who had gotten what he wanted by reducing the prison to it's current state, but at the same time they knew that he couldn't run forever, not when there wasn't a way off the island without the military blowing the entirety of Empire City to pieces. The three of them had been growing alongside Cole, unlocking new powers either at the same time as him or further down the line, which meant that Alden should fear them if they figured out where he was hiding, because the next time they crossed paths with him would be the last time they saw each other. The three of them were determined to stop Alden, since he was planning something big, and they went to sleep knowing that sooner or later the three of them, including Cole, would put a stop to the crippled man's plans.





Once the morning of the nineteenth day of the quarantine started, and the group had their breakfast in silence, Cole climbed to the top of the sign where they had first spotted Alden and stood there for a moment, watching the sun rise as Adagio, Aria, and Sonata stood behind him, waiting for him to ready himself for their next mission... to which the moment was ruined as their phones went off, where they found that Moya was trying to reach them again.

"Cole, where the hell have you and the sisters been?" Moya asked, her initial tone revealing that she was already angry with them, though whether or not the extraction team had told her the news wasn't important, as she was bound to ask them what happened anyway, "I've been trying to reach the four of you since last night."

"Well, we were guarding the prison and fighting the Dust Men last night," Cole replied, as right now he still wasn't in the mood to talk with Moya, not after what happened at the prison, but he knew that this needed to happen, otherwise she wouldn't stop harassing them, "unfortunately the transients managed to flank us, busted Alden out of his cell, and killed every cop on their way out while their leader started to break the prison in half."

"This is unacceptable!" Moya snapped, her tone becoming even more angry than it had been moments ago, meaning that she was pissed over losing Alden, since that meant he was still a threat to their real mission, finding the Ray Sphere and John, "The four of you had explicit orders to keep Alden there until my extraction team arrived. What the hell happened at the prison?"

"We were tricked from the very beginning," Adagio explained, knowing exactly what had happened, since she and her sisters had thought about it after Alden had been captured and before he managed to escape, "All those Dust Men we captured since arriving in the Warren were all part of Alden's plan to make the cops look like fools, and unfortunately he scored even more by tricking us as well. Alden had his soldiers ready to spring into action the moment he was 'captured', distracting a good number of cops in the process, and then attacked the prison with his army, while a force snuck up to the generator and blew it up, effectively allowing the Dust Men that opened his cell to free him. No one is to blame for what happened at the prison... Alden just bested us, it's as simple as that."

"I have half a mind to suggest that you're lying to me to cover up for that fat man who thinks he's a hero," Moya said, to which Cole glared at the phone for a moment, as he was annoyed that Moya would even suggest that it was his fault that Alden escaped, "but, regardless of whose really at fault for Alden escaping, the four of you should cut him loose... he's bound to become a liability that you don't need and might screw again in the future."

"Look, with Alden back on the streets, there's only one thing we can do at the moment," Cole stated, wanting to get away from Moya blaming Zeke for everything that was going wrong, because apparently she hated him more than she was angry with the four of them, "we're going to hit the next substation, get me a new power in the process, and take out some of the Dust Men while we figure out how we're going to topple Alden and wreck his plans."

Moya said nothing as Cole dropped the call and headed out, to which he and the sisters jumped off the part of the roof that they had been standing on and began the walk towards the powered down section of the Warren, as they wanted to keep to the ground until it was time to climb once more. None of them wanted to give the Dust Men a flying target just yet, even though the sisters would be more than willing to blow them all up in the process, though for now this was the best way to make some ground while the Dust Men were still hungover from their party the night before. While they made their way towards the section of the Warren that they needed to head into, however, Trish called Cole and asked why Zeke was so upset and why he kept muttering things about the prison. Cole decided that it was time to tell her what happened, revealing that they had been tricked from the very beginning by their enemy and that Zeke would have died if he stayed inside with the cops, instead of coming outside to come get him to keep Alden in stasis. He also said that his friend definitely wasn't at fault for what happened, since there was no way any of them could have stopped Alden's plan in the first place... but at the same time he and the sisters were going to stop Alden with all their might, even if they had to climb his stupid tower and bring it down.

Eventually the four of them reached the powered down section of the Warren and the sisters started engaging the Dust Men that were in their way, where Adagio and Aria focused on channeling their powers and knocked out the Dust Men that were in their way... where they also opened the manhole and let both Sonata and Cole drop down into the art of the sewers that they were above, before engaging the other Dust Men that were converging on them.

"There's that familiar smell that I got used to," Cole commented, just as he dropped down into the area that was below them and moved out of the way, as sonata landed beside him and stared at the path they would be heading through this time around.

Sonata shook her head, as she didn't think that she, personally, would get used to the smell that came with the sewers, before both she and Cole started moving forward, where Cole stuck to using the pipes to get across the area in front of them while Sonata used her flight ability to float though the air as she followed him. It wasn't hard for them to find the circuit that Cole needed to reestablish, and there weren't any enemies in the immediate vicinity of where they were traveling, so he approached it while Sonata landed nearby. Sonata watched as he bridged the two halves of the circuit together, passing a good amount of electricity through his body and awakening a new ability for him to use in the future, though she smiled as Cole jumped to the floor and stretched for a moment, but the smile on his face told her that he must have succeeded in his mission.

"Oh hell yes." Cole commented, to which he raised his right hand for a moment and a barrier, in what almost looked like an oval, appeared in front of him and appeared to be attached to him thanks to the electricity that was connecting it to him, before he glanced at Sonata, "It's some sort of shield that allows me to prevent myself from taking damage."

"Lucky," Sonata said, as that sounded like an awesome ability to have, because at the same time she was sure that it wasn't something that she and her sisters would be able to create on their own, before moving out of the way as she followed Cole into the depths of the sewer area once more.

As they moved deeper into the sewer Cole used his new shield technique to stop the bullets from hitting him, as there were some Dust Men further ahead of them, but as he did that Sonata used the wind to knock their foes into the water, allowing Cole to blast the water and knock them out in the process as they continued towards their destination. The next area contained someone that was manning a turret and a rocket launcher, though Cole grinned as he brought up his shield and negated the bullets that were coming his way, allowing Sonata to focus on several enemies that needed to be taken out before they could move. She did take out the rocket launcher first, mostly so they didn't have to worry about that guy first, before focusing on the other enemies, though once she had cleared out a few of them Cole lowered the shield and started blasting the other Dust Men, knocking them backwards or into the water, where they were shocked into submission, before he took out the turret guy as well. Sonata smiled as she surveyed what had happened, as Cole's shield ability was already coming in handy, and it did so again in the next area when there were two turrets to taken out, but that didn't stop them from making their way forward.

The majority of the Dust Men down here definitely weren't ready for someone like Cole or Sonata to appear and attack them, even though they put up a valiant effort on their part, but despite that fact the pair were able to make it to their destination and Cole powered up the generator... before Sonata latched onto him and carried him back to the entrance, where they climbed up and found Adagio and Aria finishing off some Dust Men that had been attacking them. When the two groups rejoined each other, however, Cole's phone went off, to which he sighed and decided to take the call, since it might be Moya telling them more information on what they were doing next, or chewing them out for letting Alden escape them.

"Cole, my name is John White." the caller said, to which all four of them stopped what they were doing, as this was the very person that they were looking for, which made them wonder if this was a trick or if this was their lucky day, "I need to talk with you and those girls that have been following you around."

"John? Where are you?" Cole asked, because this was great news, as this might just mean that they were one step closer to getting out of the city, even if he was starting to think that such a thing wasn't the best idea in the world at the moment, not with Kessler running around.

"Meet me on the roof of the Adams Building," John replied, though his tone suggested that it had better be the four of them, otherwise he was likely going to disappear before they got any answers, which meant that they needed to play by his rules for now.

Not even a moment after John stopped talking he hung up on them, revealing that he didn't want to stay on the line for too long, otherwise someone was bound to track him down and that was the last thing they needed, especially since the First Sons were likely looking for him as well... though at the same time Cole decided to give Moya the news, if she hadn't heard it already from the connection she had to their phones.

"Hey Moya, are you sitting down?" Cole asked, knowing that this could potentially be a bad thing for them to do, but since she was their handler, and had asked them to find John, he felt that she should at least know they were making progress in finding the Ray Sphere, "John just called us."

"What? All I heard was static." Moya replied, her tone suggesting that she would have done something to get around the static to talk with them, but that also showed that John wasn't taking any risks at the moment, "What did he tell the four of you?"

"Not too much, just that he wanted to meet with the four of us." Adagio said, giving Cole a moment to remember where their destination was located, that way they didn't have to spend too much time scouring the Warren looking for a single person, especially the person that might know where the Ray Sphere was located, "We're heading out now, so don't expect us to contact you again until after we've had a chance to talk with him."

What Aria meant was that they were going to do things the easy way this time around, where Adagio grabbed onto Cole before both she and her sisters took off, to which they headed over to where the Adams Building was located, which happened to be near the bridge that connected to the Neon District. As they flew over to their destination the four of them kept their eyes open for anything and everything that might endanger the meeting with John, mostly since he had to have been undercover for a long time and was likely a little paranoid about things, but it was better than him being scared away and leaving them in the dust again. When they neared the building Adagio carefully set Cole down on the roof before landing beside him, where Aria and Sonata looked around for a few moments to make sure that there wasn't anything that would ruin this... though once they decided that the coast was clear, and that there were no enemies or FBI in the area, they landed around Cole as well, before nodding that the area was clear for the moment.

Cole nodded his head and tapped his phone a few times, to let John know that they were in the area he wanted them to be in and that they would be waiting for him to arrive, though before he could complete that action a helicopter flew in and started pointing it's searchlight at an area near them.

"John White, we're here to extract you." the pilot stated, indicating that he had explicit orders to track John down and take him in, though whether or not this was Moya's doing or the First Sons the group didn't know, but it was ruining something they told no one about, "Please maintain your current position."

"You idiots brought a chopper?!" John exclaimed over the phone, his tone indicating that he was mad at them for betraying his trust, while at the same time revealing that he wasn't likely to believe anything they told him at all, which would make things much more difficult for them, "I told the four of you to come alone."

"You've got it wrong John, we don't know who they are." Cole stated, hoping to at least earn back whatever trust the man had towards them and show him that they had followed his orders, as he was the only one that could help them in the situation that they were in, "They aren't with us!"

It was in that moment that John disconnected the call and ran off, as the helicopter started to follow him, to which Cole dialed Moya and asked why she had sent a chopper to their location, where they discovered that it wasn't the military that had sent one, but the First Sons masquerading as the military. Once they understood the danger that John was in the sisters took off and started following the chopper, though this time around it was Aria's turn to carry Cole over the city as they hung back and followed their target. John, as the four of them agreed, must have had a car or something, as he was moving fast through the city, going around parts of the Warren that they had visited at some point in the last day or two, while at the same time the four of them hung back and kept the helicopter in sight, since they didn't want the gunner, if there was one, to turn and fire at one of them while they were flying. The odd thing about what was happening before their eyes was that John was ducking and weaving in a manner that was taking them back to the sewer they had just been in, or at least the sisters found it odd that they were returning to that area, so soon after leaving it... but that only made the four of them be on guard for whatever was waiting for them, since there was no telling what would happen once both John and the helicopter came to a stop.

By the time John came to a stop they found the man standing near the edge of the sidewalk that had the harbor in front of it, though they were only a few steps away from where the manhole they opened earlier was located, to which the four of them landed and approached John as the helicopter came to a stop as well.

"Stand down, John!" the pilot ordered, revealing that they were getting fed up with what John was doing, which also included holding a gun that was pointed right at the cockpit of the helicopter, despite the fact that it might not do a lot of damage in the process, "This operation's been terminated."

"No one's taking me in!" John stated, to which started firing at the helicopter, to drive it away so he could flee before something else happened, or at least that was what Cole, Adagio, Aria, and Sonata were thinking at the moment, since he ran away the moment the helicopter revealed itself.

That was followed by a flaming ball of junk flying through the air and collided with the helicopter, killing everyone aboard it while the flaming wreckage landed in the harbor, though at the same time the group turned towards their right and found a golem walking towards them. Unfortunately the creature stopped a few moments later and picked up something, the gas container from the destroyed helicopter that went flying, that would easily destroy it's right arm, but at the same time Sonata pointed out that there were people scattered all around the construct, meaning if they ignited the gas container it would likely either severely harm those innocent people or outright kill them. For most people it would have been a hard decision, kill the innocent people or let the golem throw the gas container at them, but for the four of them they stood their ground and waited, indicating that the people would remain unharmed from this battle, causing the golem to hurl it at them. Of course Adagio surprised them by flicking her hand towards the harbor and called the water to action once more, where she used it to encase the gas container and then froze all the water around it, where the explosion was caught in the area between them and the golem, before the four of them engaged the creature as the civilians fled for their lives once more.

Since it was purely just the four of them fighting a single golem, as there were no Dust Men to aid it this time around, the group was able to do some serious damage to the creature while Cole incorporated his new shield technique into the fight, making it easier for them to fight... until the golem fell to the floor in defeat, only for them to discover that John had run off the moment the battle started, meaning that it would be some time before they found him again.

"We have two minutes, forty-five seconds before they can triangulate my position, and I plan on being gone before then." John said, his voice coming from their phones once more, though this time around the group decided to see what he had to say, since he still had information to give them, "So keep your mouth shut and listen. I know that none of you are with the agency... too undisciplined, too cocky. But I also know that the lot of you want the same thing I do... the Ray Sphere... and you're going to help me get it."

"So you do know where it's at." Adagio stated, as that had been their assumption since Moya told them to search for John in the first place, though this confirmed that the man knew where the blasted device was located, potentially in enemy hands considering what John had just said.

"One of my UAVs spotted it at the top of Alden's tower." John replied, informing the group that it hadn't been the drones of the First Sons that they had shot down and destroyed earlier, rather it had been ones that John had sent out to learn where the Ray Sphere was located, "Either help up there together and retrieve it, or do so with someone that all four of you trust. One minute, fifty-two seconds."

"And what do you want us to tell Moya?" Cole inquired, because so far John had made no mention of her and that was really starting to annoy him, because either they had a fight and weren't acknowledging the other's existence, or Moya had lied to them from the very beginning.

"Who the hell's Moya?" John asked in return, his tone revealing that he was not playing games at the moment and now thought that they were wasting precious time that they didn't have, which was actually making them annoyed with him at the same time.

"Well, according to her, she's your wife." Aria answered, though at the same time she was ready to punch something, because John's tone was enough to make the sisters realize that Moya had tricked them from the beginning, that she wasn't attached to John and was using them to get what she wanted.

"The four of you are getting played." John said, his tone indicating that he would not budge on what he said, meaning that they had to take his word for it, whether or not it was the actual truth on the matter, "I've never been married and I don't know anyone named Moya. One minute, nineteen seconds."

"I hope you aren't screwing with us right now." Cole said, as right now all of them were still sore over their defeat at the prison, and finding out that someone had tricked them from the very beginning, and had likely lied to them, was really going to piss all of them off, "She said that she's an FBI agent, just like you."

"FBI agent? Yeah, that would be the day, I hate those bastards." John informed them, revealing that Moya must have actually lied to them, which meant that they couldn't trust the fact that she said that she could get them out of the quarantine or clear Cole's name, "You won't see me, but I'll know when you have the Ray Sphere. Once its in your possession, we'll figure out how we're going to destroy the damn thing."

Cole and the sisters remained silent for a few seconds, letting John drop the call and disappear once more, continuing to run from whoever he was running from, while they thought about what they were doing now, as originally they had come to find John, grab the Ray Sphere, and get out of here. Now, however, they could either abide by the established deal they had with Moya, accepting that she was saying the truth and that John was lying, and potentially screwing themselves over in the process, or they could take their chances and go with the plan that John had in mind, the destruction of the Ray Sphere, so it didn't do what it did to Empire City to the other cities across the world. In the end Cole pulled out his phone and tapped in Zeke's number, because while he knew that the four of them could take out the Dust Men, easily based on what happened at the prison, there was someone that deserved to be here with them.

"Hey Zeke, you there?" Cole asked, knowing that Zeke would want to hear this, especially since there was the very real possibility that his friend might have been right about Moya not being who she said she was, or at the very least there was the chance that her promises weren't to be trusted.

"Yeah man, I'm here." Zeke replied, though his tone revealed that he was still a little depressed over all the death he had seen back at the prison, which made sense considering what had happened, before the group heard the sounds of him opening a door and closing it, "What's up?"

"Unfortunately, we can't tell you that over the phone," Cole said, as he knew that Moya was likely listening to them at the very moment, so he wanted to give her almost no information in case she tried to assault the tower on her own, "just head over to the tower that the Dust Men have been building and we'll fill you in when we meet up."

"Alright, I'll head over there pronto." Zeke stated, to which they heard the sound of him hanging up before he headed outside the hospital, meaning that he was likely on his way over to where the entrance of the tower was located and that they had best get moving as well.

Cole, Adagio, Aria, and Sonata stared at the tower that was looming over their heads at the moment, because if the Dust Men did have the Ray Sphere, like John seemed to think they did, then that meant they would have to take out Alden to get at it... and, despite the potential danger that thought posed, they were all eager to take him down and show him that his plans meant nothing, and then they could begin figuring out how to take Kessler out once Alden was done for.