//------------------------------//
// Chapter 14- One Step Forward, Two steps back 
// Story: inFAMOUS: Second Storm 
// by FrostTheWolf 
//------------------------------//


Chapter 14- One step forward, two steps back




DUP Facility- San Diego,

        Inside the walls of a facility that Augustine was using, the concrete conduit began to work with one of the newfound conduits the DUP picked up a couple of days ago that went by the name of Trixie. Most of the doctors on the force thought that she had been suffering from hallucinations or heat stroke due to the warm summer weather that had been beating over the west coast these past few days, but Brook believed that it would be a key in order to have the stubborn conduit open up to her. The young teenaged girl seemed to have energy based powers that she could manipulate to her will and also, if her assumption was correct, that these hallucinations of hers were actually visions of other people… or other conduits she could see. She had assumed this based on one of them being of that Delsin Rowe kid that lived in Seattle.

        “Okay, Trixie. Are you ready to try this again?” She asked in a calm voice. Augustine knew from experience that if you try to speak to a conduit like you were their friend, they were more willing to open up. Augustine used the same strategy with Abigail “Fetch” Walker when she became a resident of the illustrious Curdan Cay facility Trixie reminded her of the Neon Girl in a way. Almost similar powers, but Trixie was able to do different things based on the reflections of her different emotions.

        Her joy and self pride allowed for her to easily counter incoming attacks like it was nothing. Anger allowed for her to strengthen her standard abilities. Fear had her focus on tactical skills to get herself back in the fight. Disgust had her try to keep certain opponents as far away from her as possible by using anything that gives distance between the conduit and their opponent. Augustine didn’t want Sadness to affect a conduit because that to her would be akin to showing weakness or even letting your guard down. Giving your opponent an easy opportunity to turn the tide in their favor. 

        Augustine’s next move in this exercise was to use her concrete abilities as a defensive strategy to see how Trixie’s problem solving skills worked. She believed that the energy conduit could be useful in the field. But the only way that she could tell how if she gave her a test to see if her assumptions were right. Two shots flew from Trixie's hands, creating holes in the bottom of her defense. But what surprised the concrete queen the most was when she moved her hands to pull the stones straight up from the ground like if you were pulling weeds.

        Telekinesis.

        Using her powers, Trixie broke the boulder down into multiple pieces and sent them flying like bullets; causing Augustine to use a floating barrier of Concrete as a protective and mobile shield to deflect the incoming projectiles. After this though, Trixie stopped and fell to one knee, putting a hand on her forehead. Over the past few sessions, the Energy Conduit has had a sequence of visions occur every time she learned a new power. In this case, her Telekinesis. Other recorded observations from her past few sessions included people that she had seen before, and what Augustine thought could be other conduits in the general area. Some included a Rainbow Haired girl with storm powers and a man that could control currents of wind. Each one of these were recorded in a series of journal logs that she kept in her personal notebook.

        “I-it happened again,” Trixie spoke, “Trixie had… another vision.”

        “Oh?” Augustine replied, sounding surprised despite the fact that she really wasn’t. “You did? What did you see?”

        “I-it was different from before. Trixie saw the same pon-er people that she had seen before. But this time, Trixie could see a house underneath a tall bridge. One with tile like roofing and a cyan clay like exterior.” The girl told her. At the time, Augustine couldn’t piece everything together. So, she pressed on.

        “Where was it?”

        “A-at a stadium nearby some marketplace.”

        Now Augustine had a few more clues. The stadium Trixie was referring to was Qualcomm Stadium. Former home of the once know San Diego Chargers that decided to pack up their bags and head to Los Angeles in 2017. She must be talking about one of the homes in the housing complex over there. 

        “Brooke,” came the familiar voice of Robert Breaker as he came in with a tablet in hand. “I think you need to see this. A few of our security cameras picked up an individual that resembled one of the conduits Trixie mentioned the other day.”

        This caught their attention. “Which one?”

        “The blue haired boy. However, with Comic Con being so close and everyone going to San Diego to dress up this year, who knows which one could possibly be the real deal at this rate.” Robert made an excellent point. Many individuals can look like a suspect at first glance. However, technology could be messed around with and hacked to where someone could be seeing one thing while something else was happening.

        “How many possible sightings do we have?”

        “Three. I had to narrow it down from the original number since a lot of people wore the jacket the same conduit wore, but didn’t match the description. How should we proceed?”

        Augustine sighed, having it to where each one of them would check out a single location and report back within the hour. However, one other person who was watching the three of them, had already pieced together the puzzle that was Trixie’s vision. From above, the head of the DUP soon picked up his radio and sent a message on all open channels for every member that was out in the field. “I need a team of Pawns, a few bishops, and some knights at the Costco shopping complex in Mission Valley. I got ourselves a lead to where a group of fugitive Bioterrorists are hiding.”

        “Roger that, Ma’am. We’re moving now.”



Seattle, Washington (Some time later)

        Spike and everyone else in Zeke’s plane had just touched down roughly. Contact with the Plane and the pavement was all but smooth as the rocky landing had almost everypony on board tumbling around like tumbleweeds in a desert. Especially with Spike landing flat on his face.

        “Oww…… Did somepony get the license plate number on that carriage-?”

        “You still all in one piece?” Zeke asked as he shut off the controls on the plane and got out of his seat, helping up both Spike and Rarity.

        “F-for the most part yeah.” Doughy stuttered. But something told him that they would be having company really soon. “Hey guys, I’m getting that weird feeling again.”

        “Wait… You mean the feeling from earlier?”

        “Yeah, the feeling of conduits.”

        Zeke straightened himself and his clothes as he cast a glance out the window. “There are a few people outside, something here attracted an audience. Let’s err on the side of caution for right now until we find out exactly what we’re dealing with.” The three Equestrian conduits agreed as they slowly opened the door. Each one of them discreetly vacated the plane one at a time as they looked at the people that stood there. After three minutes, one of the individuals disappeared into snow only to reform a minute later; Spike was the first to notice something. One of the girls that was there… Looked exactly like…

        “Twilight?”

        The girl turned around, her eyes widening at the sound of his voice. “S-spike? Spike, is that you?”

        “Oh dear goddess!! Twilight!!”

        The two of them soon embraced one another in an emotional reunion, happy to be able to see each other again. Rarity soon joined in as well, relieved to see that one of her friends was okay as well. Doughy, even though saddened by his own predicament, felt happy for them and so did Zeke. But as the teen turned around, the Snow conduit that was on the roof now landed right next to them. Doughy’s first reaction was to channel his ink powers and point his outstretched hand at him.

        “Whoa! Easy there, man. I didn’t mean to startle you like that.”

        “Who are you, kid?” Zeke asked, gesturing for Doughy to calm down and ease his trigger fingers. The other conduit did the same as he placed his hands in his pockets.

        “Names Shawn. Shawn Kingston. You must be Zeke, am I right?”

        Now, Zeke’s eyes widened. “Holy cow, your Stacey’s son.” The statement was overheard by Rarity and Spike, who were just as surprised to see the boy that Zeke was talking about standing there in the flesh. Shortly after though, the brief reunion was interrupted by some of the conduits looking at them.

        “Um…… I’m sorry if I sound abrupt, but we gotta move. DUP is en route to this place right now.” Eugene told them. “Radio channels picked up the noise frequency that was shot out from Shawn and Vinyl’s clash.”

        “Great. The paparazzi are coming… and not the good kind.”

        “Is there ever one?” Shawn responded to Vinyl’s question, which in return, got a smirk from her. Delsin though, turned to notice him.

        “Well damn… it’s been a long time since I’ve last seen you here, man. If only Reggie were here right now.”

        “I actually stopped by Betty’s the day before and that’s when she broke the news,” Shawn told Delsin. “But we can chat later. Does anyone have an idea on how we're going to get out of here?”

        “Twilight can teleport.”

        “Well, that answered my question.” Shawn said. “Damn it, brain. Why weren’t you able to remember that? She does it through the entire FREAKING series.” In a few seconds, everyone was covered in a bright Violet light and warped into the hideout location that the Magic conduit and her friends called home. Despite the looks of the place being “abandoned”, it still had the luxuries that made this place look quite… comfortable. Couch. TV. Computers. Fridge… Yeah, he could definitely get used to a place like this. All that, but the passed out Zeke Dunbar that was on the floor.

        “Welcome back guys-.” came the reply of a hooded teen that was shocked by the amount of people in the room. “Umm… I wasn’t expecting guests.”

        “Oh, hello.” Shawn greeted politely as some of the other conduits that got pulled in by Twilight’s teleportation act were still trying to come to their senses. “Who are you?”

        “Eugene?” Shawn heard Twilight as she got up from the floor. “Oh good, you’re here.”

        “Twilight, what just happened and why are there a bunch of people here? I mean, I know that Vinyl, Delsin and Fetch would be with you, but-?”

        “Easy there Eugene,” Delsin sighed, hopping back up on his feet. “Twilight just teleported all of us from where we felt Vinyl earlier. Apparently, she was fighting Shawn here for…… Okay, why exactly were you two fighting?”

        The DJ soon was up on her feet, walking over to the couch that was next to Shawn and plopped herself on top of it. “Well, Shawn found me earlier by that one lounge place called the Crocodile and told me that he could help us, so I decided to see if he could prove himself by trying to catch up with me and best me in a fight. Just when we were about to do the tie breaking match though, some… aircraft or whatever it’s called here lands on the runway, forcing us to call off the match.”

        “Well, you did want to do the fight there in the first place.”

        “It was to stay out of sight from the freaking DUP!! Where else can we let loose without soldiers on our flanks?”

        “You… make an excellent point.” Shawn complimented.

        “Thank you. Thank you very much!” Vinyl joked around, impersonating a musician she heard earlier in the week called Elvis Presley. “Now, is there anything else we need to get to as of right now before we do the rest of the introductions for everypony?”

        “Yeah, just what did Shawn exactly mean by ‘help’?” Fetch asked.

        “Could it be the strange voice we heard him talking to over the phone?” Twilight asked

        “Wait, you guys tapped into my phone!?”

        “You were suspicious! We were just trying to see if you were one of those shady characters that go around the streets.” Eugene tried to explain to him.

        “For your information, I only have two other phone numbers in here besides my parents-.”

        “Was one of them Celestia?”

        The question had all of the Equestrian conduits look immediately at Twilight. “I heard you talking to a woman over the phone and you called her Celestia… Is it really her?” The Snow Conduit elected to pull out his phone and excuse himself for a minute to another room. Everyone waited with bated breath for their newest acquaintance to return. But soon, when he came back, Twilight’s eyes widened and so did the woman next to him, who was worried about her students safety for a long time.

        “P-princess!!”

        “My dearest student… I was so worried about you…” Celestia told her. It wasn’t long though before the emotional reunion was broken up by Delsin.

        “Um…… Can someone please explain to me who she is and what exactly is going on?”

        Shawn nodded. “Did Twilight and Vinyl tell you where they were from and all that?”

        “Yeah, when we first found them.”

        “Well, this here is Princess Celestia. Twilight’s teacher and Diarch of the Sun back in her own world. Here though, she is a Solar conduit and can drain the energy from Solar Panels and use it as heat based attacks. Not only that, but she can teleport as well.” Shawn explained before taking a moment to catch his breath. “So in other words, treat her with respect.”

        “Noted.”

        It took a few moments for everyone to introduce themselves and for them to wait for Zeke to wake up from passing out on the floor. A lot of people were surprised to find out that Eugene actually worked for Zeke at a tech store called Cole McG’s Electronics in Georgetown during the first few weeks that he was free. Once all of this was covered though, Shawn had to interject before Celestia could mention the others that were back in San Diego. There was something he needed to mention.

        “Sorry if I have to be the bearer of bad news, but we got a problem that’s worse than the DUP as of right now.” He explained, taking out the two paper doves that he found already. Delsin’s eyes widened a little at the sight of that. “Matter of fact, two problems. I believe Delsin is already aware of this situation, but we got a paper conduit on the loose named Celia. AKA, “The White Rabbit”. But it’s not her that concerns me. It’s the other conduit whose with her.”

        That last statement caught Delsin by surprise. He did not expect anyone to actually have the guts to team up with the Paper girl. “Who?”

        “On the first clue, she mentions a conduit who she called “The Glass Queen”. One that I believe Celestia and the other Equestrians are quite familiar with.” Twilight and the others looked at Shawn in confusion, puzzled by what he meant. But what he said next caused all of them to look at him in shock and horror.

        “Chrysalis.”

        “Oh no…” Celestia gasped. “Not her.”

        “Yep. Had a personal encounter with her as well. She still can change her appearance, but can conjure objects from glass and also use molten glass as well. She’s a real problem and she can be anywhere right now.”

        “Hold on a second,” Delsin interjected. “Who or what is this ‘Chrysalis’ that you’re talking about?”

        “Back home, she’s the queen of the changelings. A species of Bug-ponies that can disguise themselves as anypony else they want and unless you know a spell to detect them, they can be anyone and anywhere.” Twilight explained. “If Chrysalis can still transform and has new powers as well, then she is definitely going to be a real problem.”

        “Not to mention that she’s with Celia,” Shawn added on. “Seems like her newest obsession is me. Referring to me as Yukianesa.”

        “Seriously? She refers to you as Snow Woman?” Eugene said, looking at a Laptop. 

        “I thought it meant Ice Sword?” 

        “That’s Hyoken according to Google Translate. My best guess is that she tried to refer to you as Fubuki or Snowstorm”

        “Well, either it's one or the other and I don’t know a damn thing about Japanese, so let's skip that and redirect our focus.” The Snow conduit sighed. “What we do know is that we got the DUP to deal with both here and back home, two other Conduits and also Augustine. Not to mention the fact that were still a few people short.”

        “Wait… Darling, what do you mean by a ‘few people short’?” Rarity asked.

        “I found out that twelve of you were brought here against your will and that does not include Celestia or her sister Luna, who is back at my house. Five of you are with me. Those being Twilight, Rarity, Spike, Doughy and Vinyl. One of them, Chrysalis, is trying to kill us. Three others; Rainbow Dash, Soarin, and Lyra are back at my place in San Diego… Adding those up, That’s nine people and we still don’t know about the other three.”

        “You… bring up a good point.”

        “Maybe we should find a safe place for everypony to stay low?” Doughy suggested. “It probably might not be long until the DUP figure out where we're hiding out. Especially if one of the three conduits that remain is somehow working with the enemy unintentionally.”

        “How does someone work for them unintentionally?” Spike asked. 

        “Depending on what you’re told, ones words can trick you to think you’re doing the right thing when you actually aren’t.” Celestia told the youngling. “Remember the incident with the Alicorn Amulet and the pony you knew as Trixie?”

        Twilight remembered that for sure. Especially with all the trouble she caused and the fact that the mare had no control over herself. She had to give an explanation to Delsin and the others to catch up with them on what was going on and what they were talking about. But during this conversation, Shawn got an unexpected phone call.

        One that seemed to be from his father.

        “Excuse me for a second. I need to take this.” the teen told the others as he answered the call. “Hello?”

        “Oh good, someone picked up… I’m delighted.”

        That voice… was not his father. Definitely not from the sounds of his tone. “Who the hell is this?”

        “My name is Roman. I’m pleased to make your acquaintance.” The one on the other end of the line continued to speak. “Is this the son of Chief Nicholas Kingston?”

        “What do you want? Where is my father?” Shawn demanded as he stepped outside the room, slamming the door behind him. 

        “You son, are in no position to be asking for such demands. Especially since we arrested both your parents for hiding wanted fugitives and are right now sitting in the back of a DUP cruiser. Now, I wonder what should I do to them……”

        “DON’T hurt them!!”

        “Oh you are in no position to be making demands, kid. The ball is in my court now and I’m going to be having a good time trying to extract the information I want out of them… Unless, of course… You want to take their place instead.” The sound of electricity crackling and groans of pain can be heard on the other end of the phone. “Which of course, brings me to this. If you’re willing to turn yourself in, I’ll let them go. You got two days to make a decision kid, and you better not cross me.”

        The phone call ended and Shawn just stood there. Shocked. Everything he did was falling apart at the seams. He couldn’t believe it. He just couldn’t. It got to the point that when Celestia tried to ask him what was wrong, he ran off in a dash of snow. 

        “Something’s wrong…” Celestia said as she got back. “Shawn’s not thinking straight. He just ran off on his own.”

        “What? Why?”

        “I’m not sure… Maybe it had to do with the call that he just received?” Celestia said. 



San Diego, California

        When Augustine, Trixie and Breaker had heard of the what Roman had done and the arrests that he made, all three of them were shocked for their own reasons. One, they were arrested without a warrant or approval from a judge to enter the location. And Two, from what Trixie saw, most of the ones captured were actually individuals she knew and did not want to see them in this state.

        During this though, Breaker did uncover something for Augustine. Research on the “Snow Angel” in Seattle had uncovered an Identity. Shawn Kingston, the son of two of the adults that were arrested, who turned out to be his parents. Researching the family history also showed that he was the Nephew of Lucy Kuo, the Ice Conduit during the days of the New Marais catastrophe seven years ago.

        “Breaker…… Get me a number. I have a call to make.”



        As he looked from upon the Space Needle, Shawn’s mind was clouded with many emotions. Anger, hate, shame, guilt. The feeling of helplessness that came with not being able to protect his family or friends back home. The Snow conduit felt like he failed at the only task that he had given himself to do.

        That was… until his phone ringed again. Not even bothering to look at the caller ID, since it said unknown, he answered. “Hello?”

        “You are Shawn Kingston, am I right?” The caller on the other end asked. This time though, the voice sounded… Feminine. 

        “Yes. Who is this?”

        “My name is Brooke Augustine… And I can help you.”

        Shawn stopped for a minute. The former head of the DUP? She’s out!? Oh god, Janus was right. “Why should I trust you? Wouldn’t the DUP be tracking this call?”

        “They can’t track calls made from a phone booth.” she said, sighing a little. “Listen, I don’t have a lot of time, but I want to help you. If it wasn’t for me, the conduits that your parents were protecting would be going through pain that even I can’t describe. I have a plan to get them to someplace safe, but I need your help.”

        “Give me one good reason to consider even listening to you. It was because of you that the DUP exist and because of you that every conduit’s life is one way or another a living hell and you killed the man who saved my life-.”

        “I wanted to protect conduits from getting hurt by other people. People will go to extreme lengths to destroy anything they don’t understand and I did not want our kind to be one of those things. Roman is using his authority as the new head of the DUP to do whatever he wants and he doesn’t care who he hurts and I will gladly give up everything I’ve accomplished with the DUP in order to be able to help some conduits stay safe. I see too much of my old self inside him. Now, are you going to listen to me or not?”

        Shawn thought it through for a moment. Three months in federal prison could really change someone. Then again, this someone was Augustine. Could he really trust her? After everything she was known for over the last seven years. “Tell me your plan. I want to hear it first before I make a choice.”

        “First, we follow by what Roman said to you earlier. You turn yourself in so your parents can go free. During this though, two of the conduits I have been working with will be able to take your friends to someplace safe while the other DUP officers are distracted.”

        “Can I trust them?”

        “Of course. She actually knows the individual's Roman seized and feels sorry for them. Her name is Trixie and she’s an energy conduit.”

        Shawn paused for a minute before speaking again. “So you’re aware of the Equestrian Conduits that were sent here?”

        “I don’t know the full story, but when we had her go through a lie detector test, the polygraph said that she was telling the truth and something tells me that you might know more.”

        “What about the other one? You said you were working with two conduits.” The Snow Angel stated, being very focused on the details given.

        “You mean Breaker? He’s a metal conduit that can bend it to his will. I trust him and knowing me, I don’t trust many people.” She had a point. Augustine was known to be very precise when it came to the people she employed under her wing. But that was when she was in power. Now though, things were different. 

        “You remember Trixie right? And her saying that there were more like her? Brought here against their will?”

        “Yeah, what does that have to do with this-?”

        “I know a number of how many there are. I’m convinced, but let me tell you something Ms. Augustine,” Shawn spoke, an edge in his tone as he looked towards the direction of the airport. “If we are going to do this, then we do it my way. My parents are now caught in the crossfire and I want to make sure that them and my friends get out of there alive. If you are wanting to do this, come to the Tacoma International Airport in Seattle. I will be waiting, but only for Three hours. If you’re late, then I’ll be rescuing them on my own.”

        He hung up the call. With a sigh, he dashed off of the tower, turning into a wisp of snow. However, he was unaware of the other conduit that was following him. The one who wanted to end Augustine for showing herself as weak to her.

        The White Rabbit.

End Chapter 14