//------------------------------//
// New Marais: Chasing Bertrand 
// Story: InFamous: The Unusual Conduits 
// by Blackdrag-rose 
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Adagio, Aria, and Sonata spent the next couple of hours helping the Rebels move their supplies, both weapons and medical supplies, into Fort Phillipe and the surrounding area, as Laroche and his soldiers insisted on making sure that the area around their new base was well secured and well stocked for any further attacks. At the same time, however, the three of them heard some of the Rebels talk about their 'Ragnarok' attack, the combination of their elemental powers into a single mass that they unleashed on their enemies, and many of them were scared of them, as their combination attack had been more than any of them were expecting and they didn't know what to make of it. Adagio had to admit that she never thought about the damage their attack could have done, as she knew they had been targeting the soldiers and nothing else, but even then they were still surprised by some of the damage that they had done to the structures around the fort, even if none of those damages had actually jeopardized the safety of the fort. Her sisters were also surprised by the damage, meaning that all three of them had underestimated the boosters they had gained from Cole activating the Blast Cores, even if they gained only a fraction of the power that Cole gained, which only made them wonder what sort of power they could get when he activated the remaining Blast Cores they were looking for.

While they assisted the Rebels in their efforts Trish tended to Cole, making sure that nothing bad had happened to him in his fall to the ground, while Zeke stayed near them as he kept tabs on whatever the Militia was talking about on their radios and Kuo ran off to find Bertrand, something that Nix seemed pissed about since she had chased after the wrong vehicle after seeing the damaged helicopter that Cole had blasted out of the air.

The three of them knew that Bertrand was their enemy at the moment, as was his Militia, but none of them wanted to leave Cole behind, which was why they were more than willing to let Nix and Kuo, who were both more than capable of chasing their target on their own, follow the wounded helicopter and see where Bertrand was hiding. That was what they were expecting, but, as it turned out, Nix was having fun pushing Kuo's buttons and was constantly annoying her, causing the two of them to stop every now and then and argue over whatever they happened to be talking about at that given moment, meaning that Bertrand was getting away and Nix seemed to be more caring about annoying Kuo than her true target at the moment. Fortunately there was some time between every instance where Nix bothered their friend, showing that she had no love for the 'Ice Bitch' as Nix liked to call Kuo, who didn't have a nickname of any kind for their fellow Conduit, and she preferred not to call her by 'Swamp Witch', since that was the Militia's term for her, and she tried to ignore Nix whenever that happened... even though ignoring Nix was hard at times, something that the sisters knew from their previous experiences with her.

As it turned out, however, Cole only had to rest for about four hours and shake off the effects of the latest Blast Core, though when he started to get up Trish informed them of what was going on and the Dazzlings were the first ones to arrive in the room that the Rebels had given them to house Cole in until he was better.

"Hey Cole, how are you feeling?" Adagio asked, as she knew that the answer would have been 'okay' or 'great' if he had activated the Blast Core in the normal manner, but after seeing the pain that Kuo had been in, and the pain that Cole himself had felt in the process of using the now damaged Transfer Device, they knew that he might need a few more minutes to recover before he was back to normal.

"Better." Cole replied, to which he stretched his arms for a moment, as they were a little stiff from how he had been resting on the bed that Trish had put him on, but for the most part he was ready to get going and figure out where Bertrand's helicopter had crashed, "Where's Kuo and Nix?"

"Chasing after the helicopter." Aria answered, as that was what Zeke had said they were doing a couple of minutes ago, when they last asked him what the two polar opposite Conduits were doing, before she focused on the task at hand once more, "From what we can tell the vehicle went down pretty hard and now Bertrand is on the run... if you're up to chasing after him once more."

"Yeah, I'm ready to go once more," Cole said, as he knew that he should rest some more, but with Bertrand running around still he also knew that he should focus his efforts into helping the others capture their target and dismantle his Militia so they could resume the search for the Blast Cores without any obstacles, before another thought came to mind as he thought about their friends, "Did Kuo get anything from the Transfer Device?"

"No, it appears that if anyone got any additional powers it might be you," Sonata stated, as the three of them could tell that their friend was stronger than he had been earlier, even if he couldn't tell that he was stronger at the moment, before the three of them turned towards the doorway, "But we're positive that you might have gained something in the process, and, as such, we has the Rebels clear out an area outside the fort for you to test whatever new abilities you might have gained from activating the Transfer Device... and, after seeing what we did earlier, some of the Rebels are a little worried about you gaining new powers, just in case you get something like we used to clear out the Militia."

Cole nodded and followed the Dazzlings outside the fort, where they gathered around the area that Nix would have attacked, as she whispered to them what her plan had been when she was toying with Kuo, before he stepped forward and focused his power once more. What he did was take a few deep breaths, to show that he was thinking about something and calming himself down in the process, before he pulled his hands to his right side and gathered the power that he had used to create the Ionic Vortex, which froze the area in front of him while also creating sharp looking icicles at the same time. After that he discovered he had a few new attacks to go with the 'Ionic Freeze'; a 'Shatter Blast' that appeared to be twice as powerful as his normal blasts, a 'Frost Shield' that acted like his old Polarity Wall ability, an Ice Grenade of his own, and an 'Ice Launch', as he could freeze the ground beneath his feet to launch himself into the air with a pillar of ice left behind. As he practiced these moves he had to feel sorry for Kuo, as he had intended for them to share powers and make the team even stronger than they had been before that point in time, not even counting the power that rested inside Adagio, Aria, and Sonata, but, as luck would have it, Kuo got the short end of the stick once more and, from the looks of things, that blast took out the Transfer Device entirely... and, without Wolfe around to help them, as he was sure that the man had built the device, there was no way to repair it and put it to work for the rest of the team.

At the same time he honestly didn't know if the Transfer Device would have even worked for Adagio and her sisters, since their abilities were more magical in origin and not based on what had awoken his power, or the powers that Nix and Kuo had, before he sighed and turned towards his friends, who appeared to be ready to get underway.

Adagio, Aria, and Sonata watched as Cole managed to keep a good pace with them from that point forward, as his new launch ability allowed him to get some decent air as he followed after the three of them, though they did pause every now and then when he had to stop the Militia from terrorizing the public of New Marais, giving him a chance to truly test his new powers out. As such none of them did anything as Cole's new blast and grenade worked wonders on the smaller groups that were in his way, while something like the Ionic Freeze was more than enough to take out large clusters of enemies that were converging from multiple sides. That only made them wonder if the Militia didn't care about their leader in the slightest, since he had gone down with that helicopter after Cole's powerful attack had struck it, but at the very least they were using the opportunity presented to them to, as they also believed that it was worth the time and effort to erase the presence of the Militia and restore the cops back to where they had been working before Bertrand's goons came in and forced them out, or establish a Rebel foothold if there happened to be no cops around and plenty of Rebels in the area they were in.

Even with them stopping every now and then, to see what the Militia was doing at any given moment, the four of them were still able to make their way back over to the first area of New Marais they had explored and found their way over to the bridge that Bertrand's helicopter crashed in front of... before Cole advanced towards it so he could see if their target was anywhere nearby, as he was itching to bring an end to this madness and put him away for his crimes.

"Oh, there's no way he's walking away from this one." Cole commented, seeing all the damage that had been caused from his attack, as he guessed that the attack he had fired had been supercharged from the Transfer Device, before he climbed into the vehicle, "Hey old man, are you in... here? Where the hell is he?"

That was immediately followed by some sort of swamp creature letting out a furious roar, one that caught their attention since it was the same one that they had heard when Nix was showing them the Blast site that Bertrand had created when he used his Ray Sphere, before they turned towards the source of the noise.

"What the hell?" Adagio asked, as she, her sisters, and Cole turned around and found part of the street behind them was on fire, which hadn't been on fire when they first entered the area, and immediately moved to investigate whatever happened to be going on at the moment.

The ground shook twice as they approached the smoke that was in front of them, but after a few moments of doing that they watched as the cloud of smoke was removed and they could see whatever was causing the disturbance, which turned out to be a massive monster that slammed it's arms into the ground and roared at them. The Dazzlings, having spent a good portion of their lives as Sirens and had to deal with creatures like Discord, weren't scared of the Behemoth that was standing in front of them, but, at the same time, they agreed with Cole's decision to move away from the civilians so they didn't get hurt in the process. What they discovered, as the Behemoth chased them, was that it had several glowing purple weak points that it occasionally revealed to them over the course of it's attacks, which were points that the four of them targeted the moment they were shown them, as they knew that, to defeat this sort of armored creature, destroying those points were crucial to this encounter. Of course, while all this was going on, the Militia finally decided to get in on the action and started firing at the Behemoth, their bullets appearing to do absolutely nothing to the monster that they were fighting, while, at the same time, a number of swamp monsters emerged from the nearby water to defend what appeared to be their leader, meaning that they had to go down as well, which Cole and the others did as they continued their assault on their main target.

Suffice it to say that the Dazzlings knew that the Behemoth wasn't a natural creation, as all the weaknesses told them that it had to have been made by someone over the years, maybe even Bertrand himself for his own plans, and eventually they dealt enough damage to knock it backwards, where it was consumed by the same vortex that arrived when one of the Devourers were taken out, to which they watched what happened next. What happened next, however, shocked them for a few seconds as the Behemoth shrunk in size and mass before their very eyes, where they found it taking the form of Bertrand, who was frightened as he glanced at the four of them through the mist that was surrounding his disappearing monstrous form, and they were the only ones close enough to see what was going on. A few seconds after discovering that they now knew his secret, and getting a grip on himself, Bertrand ran for his life and disappeared, but it was clear that he was heading for a boat that was near where the helicopter was located, where they watched as he headed off towards the next part of New Marais that they would likely be exploring in the near future.

"So, Bertrand is the Behemoth from the swamp," Adagio commented, as Nix was going to want to know that piece of information, as she was the only one that would care about something like this to begin with, but, at the same time, she knew that they needed to figure out how to restore power to the other zone, "Who would have thought that such a thing was even possible?"

"I don't know, but his secret is ours now." Cole said, as this was going to be great once he and the Dazzlings met up with Kuo and Nix again, because he was sure that they could use this information against their opponent and maybe even put the hurt on him in some manner, "Though he's headed into Flood Town... and it currently has no power."

"Well, that's something that can be fixed in a few minutes." Zeke stated, his voice coming over their phones, indicating that he must have been watching the area of the helicopter for some time from his safe location, and that he already had a plan in mind, "Don't worry Cole, I'll get the transformers ready for you."

Since it was going to take Zeke some time to ready the transformers, meaning that they had time to kill, Adagio and her sisters moved around the ruined parts of New Marais that the Behemoth had marched through, using their individual powers to put out fires and tend to the wounded civilians, allowing Cole to imprison the Militia anyway, because he was willing to leave them alone until one of them fired at him, causing it to go downhill from there. The Dazzlings would have left the Militia alone, since they had been helping them against the Behemoth, but the moment they attacked Cole was when their original plans fell apart and they simply let Cole knock them to the ground and lock them there, so that the cops or the Rebels could take care of them later on. Fortunately it didn't take them long to deal with all of the instances that were happening around them, from when the Behemoth was running amok or the Militia that weren't involved in the attack that were harassing the civilians, and eventually Zeke gave them a little message, a text as they were called, that the transformer was ready for Cole to use now.

When the four of them reached the transformer, however, they got called by the last person that they expected to hear from, especially so soon after the assault on Fort Phillipe, but, at the same time, they were slightly curious as to why Laroche wanted to talk with them.

"Hey, I heard that you and those girls of yours are fixing to turn the power back on in Flood Town." Laroche said, though there was something about how he referred to them as Cole's 'girls' that made the Dazzlings frown for a moment, as they didn't like whatever he might be implying.

"Look, we're well aware that you and your Rebels might need help every now and then," Cole replied, as he was of the same mind that the Dazzlings were thinking about, as he didn't like Laroche's word choice either, but he was going to roll with it and hope that this call would be over soon, "but we're after Bertrand."

"Two birds with one stone, huh?" Laroche inquired, though this time around his tone was one that the four of them liked, as he sounded happy about the fact that they were still chasing Bertrand, while also informing them that he wasn't going to keep them long after hearing that piece of information, "I'm liking how today is shaping up."

Cole shook his head as he walked up to the transformer that was in front of them and stood beside it, just as the Dazzlings floated in the air around it so they could track it to where the next one was located, and then he loosed the missile that would allow him to restore power to their target. What they found interesting was that the transformer that they were going after first was on the side of the bridge that was on their side of the island, as part of the bridge was raised at the moment and that was the part by Flood Town, and the missile struck the device without delay. As Cole made his way to where they were floating, and activated the transformer that lowered the other half of the bridge into place, Laroche decided to speak with them for a moment, saying that the people of Flood Town had things rough since the levies, as they lost everything that they had, including the fact that he lost his wife. The most interesting part about what he said was that the people of Flood Town suffered from the flood, then suffered at the hand of the Militia, and now they were suffering at the hands of the ice guys that had escaped when they rescued Kuo, not that Laroche knew that they had accidentally released them earlier.

As they made their way into Flood Town they finally came into contact with the ice guys once more, as two of them ran up to the area they were in and demanded that the four of them leave, as Flood Town was 'theirs', only was total war to break out between them and the attackers. Zeke had something interesting to tell them, as these guys used to be mercenaries from South Africa, a group known as Vermaak 88 from what he had uncovered, and that they had gone insane from the torment that they suffered from what Bertrand had done to them. Since they were enemies, as none of them wanted to stand down and let the four of them do what they came to do, Adagio and her sisters attacked instantly, as Cole had to pick and choose who to attack since he was without any sources to restore his power supply, but Adagio smiled as one of their enemies tried to use some of his ice abilities against them and she, on the other hand, grabbed onto the attack with her own power and converted it back into water, which she used to pin down the soldier's comrades in the form of icicles.

Suffice it to say that the soldiers of Vermaak 88 were surprised to see someone like Adagio among the group's number, though that only made it easier for her sisters to take them out and open the way into Flood Town, where they had to carefully make their way through the air, while carrying Cole, as there were a large number of enemies on the ground and it would take forever to fight their way through them all. Fortunately it didn't take them long to find the transformer in question, as it wasn't too far from where the entrance of Flood Town was located, but what really shifted things in their favor was when Cole activated the transformer the enemy soldiers sometimes walked into the water as they tried to fire at them, making them perfect targets for Cole. Adagio, Aria, and Sonata focused on the enemies that didn't touch the water around them, knocking them around while defending themselves from time to time, but for the most part it appeared that the basic enemies weren't all that strong in comparison to their own power and were easily taken down, meaning that they had to keep an eye out for the truly terrible enemies... and soon enough energy rippled out of the transformer and knocked out the enemies that were around them, just like the last ones did when they activated them, but before they could move they received another call.

"How's it feel being this wrong, Cole baby?" Nix asked, though her tone revealed that she knew that Cole had used the Transfer Device with Kuo instead of her, and that she had been tricked into leaving the area so she couldn't have a chance to use it, which clearly annoyed her.

"Nix... is this about the Transfer Device?" Cole inquired, as he couldn't believe that Nix thought that he was her property and that he should bend to her will every time she wanted something, even though he and the Dazzlings had told her that he already had a girlfriend.

"Everyone screws up from time to time." Nix stated, confirming that Cole had hit the nail on the head, that this was about being cheated out of offering her powers to Cole and taking some of his, as she apparently thought was her right since she believed that she was the first Conduit he had encountered in New Marais, "The bigger the man, the lower he may fall. Maybe it's a one time thing... or maybe, you're just a fool."

"Nix, I would refrain from calling us fools." Sonata replied, though this was one of those times that Adagio and Aria were surprised, as Sonata was glaring off into the distance while she spoke, as if she was looking for Nix so she could focus on her at the same time, "While we have been called much worse over the years, much worse than fools, our actions were for the benefit of the team and for the benefit of New Marais."

"Yeah, well, don't screw up again man." Nix said, though before anyone could say anything else she cut off the line and let them to their own devices, to which the four of them sighed once more, as it appeared that Nix was developing a crush on Cole, despite the fact that he was currently taken at the moment.

Once Nix had been taken care of, and they were sure that there weren't any additional enemies in the immediate area, Cole fired another missile into the air and two of the Dazzlings followed after it, allowing Adagio to grab onto Cole the moment the others reported that the transformer had been struck and take to the air. Of course when they arrived at their destination the soldiers of Vermaak 88 attacked them, to prevent the transformer coming online, and they repeated what they had done against the last group that they had battled, where the Dazzlings used their powers against the soldiers while Cole focused on using the water to their advantage to shock enemies into submission. A few moments later the transformer was back online and Cole loosed another missile to locate the next one in the sequence, where the four of them headed out for the next transformer and started to defend it, only this time around they were on a wooden tower and not near the water, meaning that Cole could fight more while still having to pick and choose his targets. The fortunate thing was that the Vermaak 88 soldiers that came at them weren't all that great in terms of strategy, as they kept their distance and tried to take them down from afar, but that allowed the four of them to defend the transformer until it flared and the power was restored to Flood Town at long last.

As they settled down, and Cole got some power back in his body, Zeke informed them that Laroche was setting up a medical station inside Flood Town, claiming to have a cure for the plague that was ravaging New Marais, to which the group decided to head over there to see what was going on... and, at the same time, no doubt defend the area from attackers, as something told them that Laroche and his Rebels were going to be attacked soon enough.