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// Interlude: Moya's Folly 
// Story: InFamous: The Unusual Conduits 
// by Blackdrag-rose 
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"So it's over," Zeke commented, to which he put his gun away and stared down at the corpse of Kessler, the person that had been behind the Blast and the quarantine of Empire City, though there was a slight smile on his face, because he knew that the man had gotten his just desserts for his actions, before he turned towards the group.

"Yeah, Kessler's dead." Cole said, barely keeping his anger and hatred in check at the moment, because Kessler was a person that he absolutely hated with every fiber of his being, though he also despised the fact that his own future self had come back and tried to ruin his life to turn him into the perfect savior, "Now we just have to dismantle the rest of the Reapers, Dust Men, and the First Sons, and then the people of Empire City will be safe at long last."

"Don't forget about Moya," Adagio added, remembering what had happened the moment they broke the agreement with the FBI agent, who had tried to level part of the island and get it ready for a ground invasion, which was likely coming their way at that very moment, "though, if we're being honest, I don't think she'll be around much longer. Based on the fact that she tried to pave the way for a ground invasion, with those bombers that she sent at us earlier, I'm positive that she's on her way to Empire City with an army to try it again, and she's likely aiming at us."

"If it's anything like her last attempt, we'll smash it as well," Aria said, because she was eager to see what sort of plan Moya had in mind for when she came to Empire City again, as she had to agree with her sisters and knew that the FBI agent was coming towards them, "If she attacks from the air, like the last time, we'll take to the skies and tear any of her bombers apart before they get close to the island. If she tries to come by using a ship, however, she'll find that she might not be able to reach the island at all, especially when we take our powers into consideration."

"You know, that raises a new question," Zeke commented, staring at the Dazzlings for a moment, taking in their new forms and the strangeness of their translucent wings and their tails that had gone from ponytails and became fish tails of some kind, "What's up with those wings and tails? And, while I'm at it, what's up with those sound based skills that you used against Kessler earlier?"

"Remember what we said earlier, about our true selves?" Adagio inquired in kind, as she knew that Zeke knew that they were Sirens, as Cole and Trish knew that from their discussion, though when Zeke nodded his head she was happy to continue speaking as she, Aria, and Sonata took in their additions, "Back when we were battling the Rainbooms we were able to take a form similar to what we have now, the pony ears, the pony tails, and the translucent wings, and, as a bonus, we were able to channel our powers through our old pendants to summon a projection of our true selves. My best guess is that accessing the power inside our new pendants has allowed us to become even closer to what our true Sirens forms looked like, which explains the fish tails at the same time. And those sound based powers are what come naturally to us, even more so before our defeat, and it's good to have them back once more, though the temptation to use them for evil had been there for a moment, I won't lie about that, but the desire to use our voices for the safety of the people rang true in our minds... we've pretty much been restored to the height of our original power, before we were defeated and sent to the other place that we were eventually defeated in.

At the same time, however, when I use my power now I feel like there's more room for us to grow and enhance our powers, like we haven't reached the limits of our potential yet... like we can still grow even stronger than we currently are at this very moment."

"Oh good, I wasn't the only one feeling that way," Sonata said, speaking for the first time since they defeated Kessler, though at the same time Aria nodded her head as well, showing that all three of them were feeling the same thing at the moment, "Did we honestly need to use our full power against Kessler? It actually felt like we were too much for him to handle on his own."

"I'm glad that you three were able to force him into a corner like that," Cole spoke up, as he was sure that, if they hadn't been tempted to use their full power because of what Kessler had said, they would have beaten him in time anyway, but at least this way the battle was over, "though now we should focus on our last foe, before we figure out how to get the three of you to revert back to your previous forms."

"About your other foe," Zeke said, causing the four of them to turn towards him, though while all of them were angry over the fact that he had betrayed them at the top of Alden's tower, by taking the Ray Sphere and giving it to Kessler, they were slightly happy that he had come to assist them, despite the fact that he didn't need to help them out, "When Kessler brought me to his base of operations, or what I assumed was his base of operations, I saw a few monitors that showed the exact position of everything that's around Empire City. I saw the bombers coming at one point, only for you to take them all out apparently, and, if I didn't read what was on the screen wrong, it appears that there's a boat coming towards us... one that might be larger than anything we had before the Blast happened."

"Can you show us where his base was located?" Sonata asked, though as Zeke looked at her, as while he was a little surprised by her sudden question, because she had been silent since Kessler's defeat, he nodded his head and indicated that he could take them to the building in question, "Well then, just take us there and we'll do the rest... I'm sure that the rest of the First Sons might not be as strong willed as Kessler was, meaning we might be able to 'convince' them to share their information with us."

Cole grinned for a moment, his earlier anger and annoyance fading away, because he knew that, with the return of their pendants the Dazzlings were much stronger than they had been earlier and their songs could control the minds of those around them, those that they were targeting anyway. Sonata was suggesting that they do the same thing to the First Sons, use their powers to try and control their enemies so they could see the consoles that Zeke was talking about, but while he had no idea if such a thing would work he knew that the Dazzlings would want to try their luck out, especially since Moya was coming to kill more innocent people. As such Zeke took them over to a vehicle that he had used to get here, one of the trucks that the First Sons had used to transport the Ray Sphere and their soldiers, before they all climbed into the back while he took the driver's seat and got underway. As they started to head away from the crater, however, Aria had them stop before she flew out of the back area, where the others watched as she set fire to Kessler's body, to erase his existence and to make sure no one came and collected his body for any strange and sick experiments... though once that was done she returned to the truck and they continued driving through the Historic District.

Fortunately it didn't take Zeke long to get them to the area that he had been held in, before Kessler sent a good portion of his soldiers to attack the group, though when they arrived Cole and Zeke stood back as the Dazzlings, still in their transformed state, climbed out and walked towards the seemingly abandoned building. From there Cole and Zeke watched as the soldiers of the First Sons noticed that they had enemies coming and pointed their guns at them, though before they were able to start firing at them the Dazzlings started to sing once more, where Cole noticed Zeke sway a little as the sisters walked towards their targets. What was more interesting, than the fact that Zeke might have a weaker mind than most people, was that the First Sons, who happened to be mentalists from what they had discovered when they first started this adventure, were falling under the voices of the Dazzlings and soon their minds were under their control, to which they stopped singing and beckoned for Cole and Zeke to come to them.

"So... you turned them into zombies?" Zeke inquired, though he was fortunate that the sisters hadn't directed their power towards him, as the feeling that came with hearing them singing had been more than enough for him to experience at the moment, especially with what happened to the soldiers in front of them.

"No, they'll be back in control of their bodies when we release them," Adagio replied, knowing how easily she and her sisters could take control of the soldiers and keep them that way, but at the same time she didn't want to abuse the return of their true power, to which she waved a hand and the soldiers beckoned for them to follow them into the building, "but for the moment this is the best way to get to those computers that you were talking about, without they smashing all of their information and leaving us with nothing to follow. We'll figure out where Moya's ship is located, and if she has any other forces coming towards the island, and then, when we leave the building, we'll make sure that they regain control of their bodies when we leave the area."

Cole nodded his understanding as they walked into the building, where he noticed that the soldiers definitely seemed like zombies or something, but at the same time he trusted the Dazzlings, because when they used their voices on the people of Empire City they had been freed in a timely manner. A few moments later the soldiers came to a stop in the very area that Zeke had talked about a few minutes ago, where the soldiers tapped on the controls and showed them that there was definitely a large boat on it's way to the city, though that was before they revealed that there was a marker on it that had Moya's name on it. Cole wasn't surprised that Kessler was keeping taps on Moya, meaning that he either planned for her to be the one chosen to have Cole stay inside the city, and the Dazzlings since they had been there at the same time he encountered the FBI agent, but at the same time this was good news for them, since that meant that they could figure out where their foe was coming from and give them some time to prepare for her arrival.

"According to this, if I'm reading it right, it appears that Moya should arrive by the time night arrives," Aria said, staring at the screen that was in front of them, where it showed that their foe was definitely coming towards the city, though it appeared that Kessler had figured out that she had some weapons and soldiers on the ship, "but, thanks to our powers, I don't think she'll get that far... especially when Adagio can freeze the entire area around her large ship before she can get close to the city."

"Well then, let's give her a welcoming that she'll never forget." Adagio replied, to which Zeke quickly copied the information from the screen and transferred it to their phones, so that they could know where the ship was coming from, before they left the building.

As they climbed into the truck, and Zeke got them underway, the Dazzlings turned back towards the soldiers and released them from their control, where they watched as the First Sons seemed to be confused for a few moments before they realized that something had happened to them... but since the truck was long gone, however, it was too late for them to do anything, to which the group focused on Moya and her forces.





Moya stood at the head of the ship she had commanded to prepare for an attack on Empire City, as Cole and those girls weren't listening to her anymore and the bombers she had sent to level part of the city had been taken out all of a sudden, no doubt because Kessler wanted no one to interfere with what he was doing. She had convinced the general that was in charge of the operation, the one involving Empire City, to approve her venture into the city, along with all the weapons and soldiers that were aboard the ship, including a mutated Conduit that Kessler had created, who she wanted to send after Cole and the girls. In addition to David Warner, the Conduit in question, her soldiers had found Alden Tate and had captured him the moment they found him, though at this point he had been experimented on and killed, and they found Sasha adrift on a boat, no doubt sent away from the city by Kessler, and right now she was draining the rest of her power so she could turn part of the city against Cole and the girls. The soldiers would be dealing with the people, hopefully to draw Cole into the trap that they were planning, though at the same time she grinned, as she had something in mind that would allow them to control Cole... once they put the device inside his body, which would happen once she got her hands on him anyway.

That was her plan, attack the city and draw Cole out of hiding, something that the general was hesitant to agree with but went along with it when she explained that this had a hundred percent chance of succeeding, though at the same time they had to attack at night, to get ready for the assault... but, as night came upon them and the captain got underway once more, something unexpected happened.

"General, I have some bad news," one of the soldiers said, to which both Moya and the General turned towards the man for a moment, as they were both ready for the assault and any bad news was going to put them behind schedule, as it was only a matter of time until their targets noticed what was happening, "the entire ship is surrounded by ice."

"Ice? At this time of the year?" the General asked, to which he laughed for a moment as he followed after the soldier, because he was going to enjoy punish the soldier for what was going on, since he knew that the man had to be pulling his leg at at the moment, "I'll be the judge of that."

Moya followed after them and walked over to the edge of the ship, though as they looked over the side they found that the water that had been around them, at least in the immediate area of the ship, had definitely been frozen over rather suddenly. She was surprised, because a few minutes ago there hadn't been any ice in the water at all, but now it appeared that something was keeping them stalled, because she could tell that the captain was trying to move them forward and the ship was going nowhere, meaning that the ice had to go deep. She wasn't the only one that was surprised, as the General was surprised as well, though as she turned to order the soldiers to do something, as there had to be something they could do to free themselves, she stopped in her tracks, as standing in the middle of the deck, near where she had been moments ago, was none other than Cole. Despite the fact that the soldiers were pointing their guns at him, waiting for her or the General's orders to fire at the intruder, she was interested in how he could have gotten out here, as the ship was still a good distance from Empire City and shouldn't have been able to get here... not with his weakness to water, which was why she had camped out here for as long as she had gone, but at least this made things much simpler for all of them.

"Cole MacGrath, this is an unexpected surprise." Moya said, where she stepped forward so she could see the Conduit that she had been after since the first time they had encountered each other, while at the same time noticing that none of the girls were present at the moment, "I see that you have come to turn yourself in... too bad that you doing this won't stop us from completing our mission."

"Oh, I'm not here to turn myself in," Cole replied, where he glanced at all of the soldiers that were around him, many of which had their weapons pointed at him, while at the same time knowing something that they didn't know, "I came to tell you that, for your actions against the innocent people of Empire City, you are going to be punished by the very people that you want to kill."

"You think that you can win against the army that's surrounding you?" Moya asked, as that was the funniest thing that she had heard all day, as she had to laugh for a moment, before she grew serious and stared at Cole, "You should have run when you had the chance, because now we'll take you in and turn you into a weapon for the government... and then, once we're done with our investigations, we'll be able to recreate the Ray Sphere and it's effects."

"Actually, it doesn't matter what you have planned," Cole stated, though this time around he frowned, because the thought of more explosions, similar to the one he and the Dazzlings had been caught in, was a terrible thought that he didn't want to come to pass, "because the Dazzlings and I are going to stop you before you even get to Empire City."

Moya opened her mouth to say something, especially since she wanted to how why Cole thought that he was in control of the situation, but before she could say anything the ship rocked as an explosion tore apart part of the ship, to which she rushed towards the side and found that they were now taking on water through a large hole in the side of the ship, one that hadn't been there moments ago.

"You know, it's rather easy to damage a ship of this size when we can carve a hole through the metal sides and set fire to whatever is on the other side of the exterior," Adagio said, to which she and her sisters floated down until they were near Cole, while at the same time the soldiers stared at them with shock, before of their transformed bodies, and anger, as Moya was pissed at them based on the face she was giving them, "What's wrong Moya? Didn't we tell you that you were no longer in control of the situation, that Empire City and it's people were under the protection of the Dazzlings? You should have known that, after we tore your bombers out of the sky, this wasn't a game that you could win, though it appears that you haven't told anyone about our conversation... shame on you."

"Anyone who wishes to stop following the insane orders of Moya, which includes rushing to your death, please step forward," Aria said, looking at the soldiers that were around them, knowing that many of them were here because they had been ordered to do so, but many of them were still innocent in their eyes and deserved a chance to live a new life with the people they condemned, "we'll take you to the island and set up a place where you can help us save the very people that you are being sent to kill. Think about all the lives that your 'boss' is ordering you to end..."

"Enough of this foolishness." Moya snapped, to which the General and the soldiers turned towards her for a moment, as they were all interested in seeing what she did next, especially after the display of power that the Conduits in front of them had already put on for them, "You attacked us first, which means that whatever comes next will be on your heads... and besides, word of the 'Demon and Sirens of Empire City' is spreading like wildfire, and soon you'll find that everyone will blame you for the Blast and that you'll regret not taking my..."

Moya was cut off as Adagio, growing tired of her barking, manipulated the moisture in the air and formed an Ice Spear that went right through her left shoulder, while at the same time pinning her to the nearby container that was behind her while the soldiers prepared themselves. Since it appeared that the time for discussion was over Sonata grabbed onto Cole, as they had planned, and pulled him away from the ship, while at the same time her sisters took to the skies as well and started avoiding the bullets that were coming after them, showing that all of the military wanted them dead. Of course Sonata used her power over the wind to cut several more gashes into the exterior of the ship, separating the metal in the process, which opened the way for either Cole or Aria to ignite something, causing the military vessel to stagger as more explosions rocked it. Adagio, holding back for the moment, waited for a good number of holes to be opened in the exterior before she commanded the water once more, to which the water surged into the holes and started flooding the interior of the ship, causing it to start sinking in the harbor once she removed the ice that had been keeping it still... and, as they watched the ship go down, she caught a glimpse of Moya being dragged inside the ship by a few angry soldiers, no doubt because it was her fault that they were all going to die.

Together the four of them landed on the nearby pier and stared out at the sinking ship, watching as the soldiers fought and killed each other to try and escape, but in the end none of them were actually able to leave the ship, though the Dazzlings would have saved some of them if they called for help. In the end Moya had gotten what she deserved, and now it was time for them to clean up the city as they planned out how they were going to tackle the Beast, as they knew it was coming and that they needed to be ready for it's arrival. In the future the Beast had arrived in Empire City, as Kessler had seen it on the television when it first arrived, and for some reason the man from the future believed that, even with the change to history, that it would still come here, though he had no idea when it's arrival was going to happen. The four of them, including Zeke and Trish, needed to be ready for anything and everything, as it was only a matter of time until the Beast arrived and started it's rampage of destruction... and this time around Cole would be ready to face it, with the Dazzlings at his side, because they weren't going to let the future be repeated.

Together the four of them would destroy the Beast when it arrived and save the world in the process, then, once that had happened, the Dazzlings would try and figure out how they were going to go home... but for now they were focused on taking out the Beast and fight at Cole's side, though even as they walked back towards the city, and reverted back to their original anthro forms as their wings and fish tails disappeared, they had the feeling that something was coming and that they would be ready to meet it whenever it arrived.