After Cole, Adagio, Aria, and Sonata freed Kuo from where Bertrand had kept her locked up like some science experiment or something, and Zeke had assisted them in their escape with the exhausted Kuo, they called Trish and told her the news that they had rescued their friend. Of course since it appeared that Kuo might have unlocked some sort of Conduit ability, maybe the ice powers that the strange group of soldiers they had freed were using, Trish had them bring Kuo to a building that she was allowed to work in and used the equipment there to make sure that their friend was well taken care of. While she was doing that, and Zeke stood near her to make sure that the Militia didn't follow them after he trashed the truck he drove four blocks from where they were hiding, leaving Cole and the sisters to stand up on the roof and observe the city as they waited for any news on Kuo's condition. They were also looking for Militia soldiers, as they were sure that some of them had been called out to prowl the streets for any deviants that might have escaped the attack on the plantation earlier, though even as that happened Zeke's Militia communicator, which didn't have GPS so their enemies couldn't track him, said something about someone beating up more of their men... though the laughter on the other end sounded like Nix was still having fun and wouldn't be calming down anytime soon, which worried all of them a little.
What none of them were expecting was for it to take Trish eight whole hours to finally make any progress with Kuo, not that they could blame her since Kuo had refused to tell them anything of what Bertrand had done to her, even though they could guess on their own, and remained silent the entire time she was in Trish's care... until Cole finally got a call that brought all four of them back together on the roof, so they could hear what was going on at the moment.
"Three sleeping pills later, and some other things, and she's finally out." Zeke said, revealing that it had taken Trish quite some time to get Kuo to go to sleep, as she was clearly exhausted from her ordeal and Trish knew that she needed some sleep, especially if the others were right and she was in the middle of developing her own Conduit powers, "When are the four of you going to get some sleep?"
"Not anytime soon, that's for sure." Cole replied, as he knew that the four of them could go for a decent amount of time before they needed to retire for the night, another perk that came with being a Conduit he supposed, though at the same time he knew that Trish might not approve of what he was doing, "Right now we need to get the power back on in Ascension Parish. I, personally, keep imagining Bertrand holed up over there, laughing at what he did to Kuo."
"Don't worry Cole, we'll make him pay for what he's done to Kuo," Adagio said, because both she and her sisters understood his anger at the moment, as Kuo was the reason they had been able to get out of Empire City when the Beast arrived and weren't killed when the creature attacked them, and they owed her for that, "Zeke, do you have any idea where we can start the process of getting the power up and running again?"
"Yeah, there's a transformer near the canal," Zeke answered, though at the same time the group knew that he was in the process of sending the location of their target to them at the same time, meaning that once the conversation was over they would be moving out to restore the power to the next area of New Marais, "shouldn't be too hard for you guys to fix, since Cole's the one with electrical superpowers."
The Dazzlings glanced over at Cole for a moment, who nodded as he disconnected the call and jumped on the nearby grindwire to get moving, before they took to the skies and followed after him, as he was more familiar with New Marais and would be able to lead them to their destination, even though they could use the GPS to find their way. At the same time the three of them looked out for any additional enemies that were in the immediate area, but, oddly enough, both the Militia and the swamp monsters seemed to be inactive at the moment, and they knew that it wasn't because Nix had been beating the stuffing out of the Militia since the events at the plantation. Adagio guessed that the fact that their enemies weren't out and about, at least in the areas they checked anyway, meant that they might, just might, be able to power up Ascension Parish without being attacked, but, since she and her sisters remembered what happened back in Empire City, there was a good chance that they were going to be attacked regardless.
Despite the fact that it was nighttime now, and that it was slightly harder for some people to navigate the city, Cole was able to make his way to the transformer that Zeke had sent them the coordinates to, where the Dazzlings landed near him as they observed the piece of machinery that was glowing at the moment, no doubt because Cole was near.
"Okay Zeke, I'm pretty sure that we found it." Cole spoke up, as he had tapped his phone and knew that Zeke had been patiently waiting for them to tell him something, even though they literally only got off the phone with him a few minutes ago, after he told them where this transformer was located.
"Alright, now somehow the Militia managed to isolate that transformer from the rest in Ascension Parish," Zeke said, though at the same time a new location appeared on their GPS, where the sisters found that the point he had given them was close to where they were standing, which appeared to be in a more rundown area when the sisters flew into the air to get a good idea of where the point was located, "Maybe you can bridge this one to the other one somehow?"
"It's worth a try." Sonata spoke up, though as they glanced down at Cole he nodded to them, to which she and her sisters flew over to where the other transformer was located and lowered themselves down to the tops of several of the buildings that were around what was going to become Cole's target.
As the three of them stood around the transformer they faced the area that Cole was standing in and watched as some sort of missile like projectile, which appeared to be made out of pure electricity from the looks of it, that erupted from where their friend was standing and raced through the air as it turned towards where they were standing. The three of them watched as it moved around in the air for a few seconds, indicating that Cole must have had some sort of control over the bolt in question, before it angled itself down towards the transformer that was their target and slammed right into the device, giving some power to it. It was in that moment, when Cole informed Zeke that he was successful, that Zeke told them that they would need to defend the transformer for a few minutes, as it would take it some time to get it's voltage back up and running again, and that the Militia were sure to come running once they realized what they were trying to do. As such Cole started moving from the first transformer and quickly made his way to where the Dazzlings were standing, though as that happened Zeke demonstrated his education, as he said something about 'resetting the condenser' and then called Cole a dummy, since he had taken shop classes while Cole had gone to college prep.
The Dazzlings would have tuned out the conversation, as it wasn't interesting to listen to, though Cole dropped down into the area that the transformer was located in and the instant he approached the machine it activated, but that was followed by Zeke warning them that the Militia was on their way to where they were standing. As such the four of them turned towards the various openings that were around the area that the transformer was located in and started firing at the Militia soldiers that started to enter the immediate area, showing that there were some enemies that had been relaxing in the area around them, and that they were eager to stop them from turning on the transformer. The Militia seemed to think that they could stand up to the four of them, but clearly these guys weren't prepared for the power that Cole and the Dazzlings possessed, as many of them fell to the ground in defeat within a matter of seconds, though at the same time their grenade attacks blew their enemies away from each other and knocked many of them out... and the surge of power that erupted from the transformer, when it finally reached full power, took out the rest of the enemies that the four of them hadn't beaten by that point.
Once that was done Cole nodded as the Dazzlings took to the skies and he rested a hand on the second transformer, where he loosed another electrical missile into the air and the three of them followed after it, as they were interested in seeing where it went so they could protect the transformer that he was seeking out. As Cole moved out of the area that the second transformer was located in, after reaching his target, he inquired as to how Kuo was doing, where Trish replied that what was happening to their friend, as her skin was colder than a normal person's, reminded her of what happened to Cole when the Blast happened. The Dazzlings knew that Kuo was developing powers, and even Cole agreed with them since they knew that Kuo had the Conduit gene that apparently allowed this sort of thing to happen in normal people, and that she was going to need some training when she finally came to, once they figured out what sort of power she had unlocked from her ordeal. Fortunately it didn't take them long to gather around the third transformer, as Sonata flew out to where Cole was running, grabbed him, and carried him over to the transformer, where they opened fire on the soldiers that were already converging on their location... and, just like the last time, the four of them kept watch over the four points their enemies could come from and continued to take down their enemies before too many of them gathered in one area and overwhelmed them with their numbers.
When they finished the third transformer Cole loosed the missile once more and slammed it into the fourth and final transformer, where Aria was standing so she knew where it was located, allowing Adagio and Sonata to carry Cole over to where it was located and they started firing at the mass of enemies that were already converging on where the final transformer happened to be located. This time around their foes came from one direction at first, from the south of where they were standing at the moment, where the transformer was located, before they started pouring in from the east a few moments later, causing them to separate their firepower accordingly. From there the four of them soon found themselves dividing their attention between all four directions, as the Militia really wanted to take them out and keep this part of New Marais without power, which honestly didn't make sense when they thought about it, and soon the transformer loosed the same power surge that knocked out the other enemies, allowing them to take a moment to relax and figure out what they were going to do next in their campaign to stop Bertrand and find the Blast Cores.
While they were doing that Zeke called them once more, to which they accepted it rather quickly, as they were interested in seeing what he had to say about Kuo and her condition, since that was what they had been talking about for the majority of the time they had been doing this, so they stood near a building and let Zeke speak.
"Those Militia goose steppers just kidnapped some girl from the slums." Zeke said, though at the same time Cole and the sisters knew that there was an ulterior motive behind him saying this, as they remembered what he had asked them back in Empire City and that hadn't worked out for him in the long run, since the lady he had been attempting to get with friend-zoned him the next morning, "I mean, broad daylight and everything. You guys should go find her and save her. You guys would really look like heroes, and maybe get some more converts for your fan club."
The group glanced at each other for a moment as the call ended, as they couldn't believe that this was something that Zeke wanted them to focus on, but after a few seconds of thinking about it they determined that the more people that knew that they weren't the terrorists that Moya made them out to be. Once they decided that they would look into the incident that they had been informed about Cole made his way to one of the grindwires and started grinding his way to the part of New Marais that Zeke was sending them to, while at the same time Adagio, Aria, and Sonata remained in the air and kept their eyes out for any additional enemies that might try and take them out along the way. As it turned out there were a few Militia soldiers, the dumb ones they noticed, that thought that it would be a good idea to attack the four of them, to which Sonata lashed out with her wind based abilities and knocked the attackers backwards, while using her grenade type attack to really damage some of them and make them stop their actions. A few seconds later, when she was sure that the soldiers had been taken care of, Sonata nodded her head and continued flying, where she caught up with her sisters as they followed Cole to where Zeke was sending them, only they notice that they were getting closer to the part of New Marais that was the swamp.
When they finally arrived at their destination the four of them dropped down to the street level and immediately started looking for clues that would assist them in figuring out what happened to the lady that Zeke had heard about earlier, while at the same time noticing that none of the people around them seemed to care about them.
"Help! Somebody, help me!" a voice called out, one that was definitely a lady's voice when they listened to it, to which the four of them turned their attention from the part of New Marais that they had been staring at and glanced out at the swamp that was near them, where the voice was coming from, "Oh my god! Somebody help!"
"Let's rescue her and get out of here," Aria commented, to which the others nodded their heads for a moment before they headed into the swamp, sticking to the dry ground and avoiding the water, though Adagio did manipulate the moisture into a blade formed from pure ice to make sure that she was ready for anything.
As the four of them headed in the direction that the lady's voice was coming from they found themselves assaulted by several of the swamp monsters that they had seen earlier, the ones that just had spikes for arms, which were the easiest targets to take care of and the group found that they had been correct in their thoughts. Cole and Adagio focused on beating their enemies with their melee weapons, especially since Adagio had a ready source of water to form new weapons in case one broke on one of their enemies, leaving Aria and Sonata to blast the swamp monsters that were further away from where they were standing. What surprised them was that it was rather easy to find the location of the lady in question, who thought they were 'Uncle Laroche', before asking them to get her down after hearing them beat up another pair of enemies that had jumped out of the water, to which Cole did as she asked and blasted the ropes that were holding her in the air, allowing her to fall into the waiting arms of Sonata, who carefully set her on the pier that they were standing on. That, in turn, was immediately followed by the lady stating that they needed to find her uncle, because he was like the four of them, in the sense that he wasn't afraid to fight the Militia, to which Cole beckoned for her to lead the way, since she had an idea where he might be, before he and the Dazzlings followed after her.
Zeke was definitely right about one thing, they were going to need help in taking out Bertrand, because while they were four of the strongest Conduits to walk the Earth at the moment, not counting any that Kessler and his organization might have created, they needed assistance in taking care of things, as they couldn't be everywhere at once.
What was interesting was that as they followed the lady through the swamp area that they had been in, where it looked like she was going to be sacrificed to something at some point in time, the swamp monsters came at them in full force, to stop them from taking the lady out of the area. As such the four of them retaliated in kind, using their powers to blast their targets and beat the stuffing out of them, leaving a trail of twisted bodies behind them as they eventually left the swamp and headed back into street area, though what they found out was that the people that were near them seemed to be terrified of what they were doing, as if they were angering something that was nearby. At the same time they were being screamed at by the Militia of all people, as they claimed that the lady was a sacrifice and that her death would have saved lives, while also calling the four of them idiots at the same time, prompting Aria to set the soldier that called them idiots on fire, causing him to run around and scream his head off in the process. After that point they were taken down an alley way, where a swamp monster and some sort of small rolling insect tried to attack them, which they took out in a few seconds and continued on their way through the alley they were walking through, though at the same time the lady refused to answer Cole's question of why the creatures cared about her so much.
Not a few seconds later they came across some wounded Rebels, soldiers that worked with 'Uncle Laroche' and fought against the Militia, to which Cole sighed and used his Pulse Heal, which had been upgraded to heal a wider area in a single instant without him knowing, to heal all of the soldiers before they moved on once more... where they headed toward a small park of sorts that had a lion's statue in the center of it, which was where they spotted a man wearing a green jacket standing nearby, with a pistol in one of his holsters.
"Uncle Laroche!" the lady said, as she had seen the worried look on her uncle's face and immediately ran over to where her uncle was standing, while at the same time Cole, Adagio, Aria, and Sonata stood nearby as they looked out for enemies, since this was an exposed area that could easily be attacked at any moment.
"Sara!" the man, Laroche, replied, to which he opened his arms and embraced the lady that the four of them had saved, though at the same time he seemed to ignore them for a few moments as he was reunited with his missing family member that he had been worried about.
"It was horrible!" Sara exclaimed, showing that she was worried for her life when the Militia had kidnapped her from where she had been walking and tied her up to where the group had found her, before she focused on her uncle, "They tried to feed me to it!"
"I understand why the Militia is making these sacrifices, but... but not with my kin!" Laroche said, though at the same time Cole and the Dazzlings stared at him for a moment, as none of them were too happy that the man had willingly known about something that was going on and didn't even try to stop it from happening.
"What? You KNEW ABOUT THIS?!" Sara nearly shouted, as the moment her mind registered what her uncle had said she was immediately annoyed and angered at the same time, because this wasn't a matter that she could laugh over and couldn't even begin to understand why her uncle didn't tell anyone about this.
"Alright, you understand... when your older..." Laroche started to say, showing that he had more to say than what he managed to get out of his mouth, though that was before he noticed that Sara hadn't returned to him alone, as there were four strangers standing nearby, "Sara... who you brung with you?"
"My name's Cole MacGrath," Cole replied, gesturing to himself for a moment, just so the man could know that he was referring to himself, before beckoning to the sisters, where he noticed that he seemed to understand who they were once he heard his name, "and these are my friends Adagio Dazzle, Aria Blaze, and Sonata Dusk."
"The Demon and Sirens of Empire City." Laroche stated, showing that he knew who the four of them were now, but where the last few people who had said the name had tried to insight fear, in the case of Bertrand, or had said the name in a sense of awe, like Nix when they met her, the group sensed that Laroche was observing them to make his own decision on whether or not they could be trusted.
"Look, we don't want any trouble," Adagio said, knowing that the easiest way out of this situation would have been the way that the way she and her sisters had taken while they were evil, seize control and force him to follow their orders until they were done with him, which was why she was simply talking and not using her power, "In fact we want the same thing that you want; driving Bertrand and the Militia out of New Marais."
It was in that moment that a monster roar could be heard down one of the streets near them, where the four of them turned and found a rather large creature, one that was even larger than the Ravager that they had faced earlier, staring at them, though this one looked like a tank of sorts and seemed to be ready for battle. Laroche and Sara started to retreat from the area, trying to pull the four of them away since this wasn't something that they could beat, to which Cole simply told the man that this was something that they were good at, as dealing with things that others couldn't take care of was something that they could do. Cole then started the battle by firing a few shots at the creature, the Devourer as Sonata decided to call it, and they found that the electricity seemed to bounce off the armored plating that happened to be the creature's scales, but then it opened it's mouth and latched onto Cole with it's tongue. What happened next was that Adagio, Aria, and Sonata opened fire on the Devourer's exposed mouth, as there had been plating around it's mouth and had moved out of the way when it opened it's lips, allowing them to deal massive damage in the next couple of seconds and caused it to let go of Cole so it could close it's mouth.
Since it's mouth was it's only weakness the group decided to use that to their advantage, as Cole, Aria, and Sonata rapidly moved around the area in front of the Devourer and forced it to pick one of them, where Adagio's sisters would move out of the way as they were targeted, which would allow the tongue to hit something else and freeze when Adagio manipulated the moisture around it. Adagio also used some of the other moisture in the air to form sharp spikes that went through the unarmored sections of the beast's body, where the elbows and knees were located, forcing the creature to howl in pain and further open it's mouth so the others could open fire and deal even more intense damage to their enemy. Fortunately it seemed that fighting four people like them wasn't something that the Devourer had been evolved, or created since they had no idea if it was natural or not, to deal with, because the third time they pulled off letting three of them fire into the creature's mouth caused it to wobble for a few seconds and collapse on the ground in a heap, definitely dead from the looks of it, and then it dissolved as a green mist surrounded it... but even as they stood there, staring at where the creature had collapsed, the people cheered for them killing the creature, meaning that they might actually have a chance to get rid of Moya's name for them and create a new future in the process.
Laroche called and his tone while he was talking spoke volumes that he still didn't trust them, but was willing to accept their help since they had saved some of his wounded soldiers and his niece at the same time... but after that happened Zeke called and said that Kuo wanted to see them and that she had a surprise for them, to which they immediately headed out for the coordinates so they could see how she was feeling and what they could do to help her, before focusing on whatever surprise she had for them.