InFamous: The Unusual Conduits

by Blackdrag-rose

Empire: Fixing the Bridge

Much to Adagio, Aria, and Sonata's surprise, getting to Valentine Park was easy, as it just so happened to be right down the street from where they helped Cole take out the Armored Conduit and avenged Dwight's death, which Zeke was then going to use to try and get lucky with Dwight's sister. Personally all three of them were annoyed at Zeke for playing that way, to try something like that on a grieving sister, and while they hoped that he got whatever he was looking for they also hoped that he wouldn't try it again, otherwise Aria was bound to kick him in a place he'd prefer not to be kicked in. Cole, of course, also found Zeke's actions to be a little creepy and downright weird, and that was coming from the guy that was supposed to be his best friend, but at the moment there wasn't much they could do about Zeke and all of them agreed that he should grow up a little before someone seriously hurt him. Once the four of them were done talking about Zeke, or silently agreeing on how weird his actions had been, they moved towards the building that overlooked Valentine Park, where they stopped once they noticed what was going on down there.

From what they could see there were two Dust Men patrolling the area, their guns at the ready, and it appeared that they were holding some people hostage at the moment, to which Cole groaned, as he had the feeling that one of them was none other than the person that Trish sent them to find; Roger Miller.

"This doesn't look good." Cole said, though while the sisters nodded their heads in agreement, as the Dust Men looked ready for a fight, he raised his hand and tapped his phone a few times, to which he mentally sighed in relief as Trish accepted his call for once, "Hey Trish, I think we've found Roger. He must have done something to piss off these Dust Men, because they're all over him and some other guy."

"There's a rumor going around that the transients are kidnapping engineers and mechanics," Trish replied, though this was news to Cole and the sisters, as this was literally the first time they had even heard of such a thing happening, which only made them wonder what the Dust Men would want with them, if the rumor was true, "and that they use them as slave labor. The worst part is that they publicly execute anyone who refuses to work."

"And that just gives us another reason to take these guys down." Adagio commented, as it was like the Reapers all over again, only this time the Dust Men were actually killing the people that they kidnapped, instead of transforming them into additional soldiers like Sasha was, though that only made her wonder how in the world Trish knew about this when she and the others didn't know about it.

"If the Dust Men have Roger, then the four of you will have to take them down at the same time," Trish said, almost as if she was completely ignoring what Adagio had said, though this time around Adagio didn't seem upset, as her sisters and Cole had nodded their agreement when she made her comment, "if you don't they'll kill him and whoever else they've brought to the park."

"Don't worry, we'll handle it." Aria stated, though at the same time Cole nodded and cut the call off for the moment, as he knew that it was time to get serious and that he couldn't afford to waste time, especially since the Dust Men might decide to kill Roger and the other engineer any second now.

Cole focused his mind and raised his hand as he prepared to use his Precision ability, where he noticed that he would have a few good seconds after the first blast, which he planned on using to strike one of the Dust Men in the head, before he would have to fire the second blast, otherwise Roger would be dead. As he thought about which target he wanted to take out first, however, he noticed that Adagio was standing to his right and that she was also holding her right hand towards the Dust Men, where she seemed to be carefully channeling the water from the nearby channel in a manner that their enemies couldn't see. Cole watched her for a few seconds, where the bits of water gathered into small clusters and froze over as they became the familiar ice crystals she tended to use, only these ones appeared to be needle shaped and appeared to be deadly looking, or at least powerful enough to knock someone out. He then carefully traced where she was looking and found that she was aiming for the Dust Man that was walking near Roger, to which he nodded his head and turned towards the one that was patrolling the area around the park, where he prepared himself as well.

The two of them waited for a few seconds, waiting for the moment when their targets paused to take a small break from walking, before they loosed a single blast a piece, to which a Precision bolt from Cole raced through the air and struck his target in the side of the head, knocking him to the ground... while at the same time the cluster of needle like ice crystals struck the other Dust Man and did the same thing that Cole had done, taking out the second target before either of them knew what had hit them.

"Okay, that just happened." Cole said, as he was surprised to find that one of the sisters had another power that they didn't bother to tell him about, to which he turned towards them for a moment, "Before we do anything else, and help Roger out, there's something I want to know... are there are other powers that you three have that I don't know about?"

"Well, there's my precision type attack, the 'Jetstream'," Sonata replied, though at the same time she tilted her head for a moment, as if she was thinking about what she, Adagio, and Aria had been practicing lately, "and, now that I think about it, I think that's all we've come up with so far."

Cole didn't know if she was being truthful or if she was hiding what she knew for a surprise further down the line, but instead of saying anything about that he made a motion that indicated that it was time to move on, which was followed by him jumping down into Valentine Park, where he and the sisters, once they landed behind him, approached Roger.

"You're that special group, aren't you?" the man asked, though at the same time he accepted Sonata's hand the moment she offered it, to which she helped him onto his feet while Aria helped the other engineer up, who promptly thanked them before fleeing the scene, "The ones with powers?"

"Yeah, that's us." Cole said, though at this point he was used to people acting like this, especially the ones that had never met him and the sisters before, but as Aria returned to him he decided that it was time to get to the real question before they did anything else, "Hey, this might sound a little strange, but are you Roger Miller? Trish Dailey sent us to ask for your help in fixing the Stone Canal Drawbridge."

"Trish? She's stuck in the quarantine too?" the man inquired, though the way he was talking revealed that he was Roger Miller, meaning that they had found the right guy, to which Cole started walking towards the bridge as the sisters escorted Roger while keeping their eyes open for Dust Men.

"I'm afraid so." Cole replied, because he was worried that something might happen to Trish while she was in Empire City, especially with all the sick people she was tending to and the fact that both the Reapers and the Dust Men had a thing for attacking doctors lately.

"Hell. I used to go camping with them, you know." Roger commented, referring to when he and Trish, and Amy as well as the sisters thought about it, were all kids and were growing up in the same area, "Kind of fell out of touch when her old man got transferred upstate. What about Amy? She make it out?"

"Uh... yeah, she did." Cole said, though the sisters could tell that he hesitated when he spoke, which made sense considering that Amy was a touchy subject for him, especially since Trish was constantly blaming him for what happened to her when the Blast occurred.

"Good, good." Roger stated, a smile appearing on his face as he followed Cole and the sisters down the street, while at the same time the group kept their eyes open for enemies, as they knew that the Dust Men weren't going to just let them take Roger like this, "I'd hate to see both of those girls stuck in here."

As the group rounded the corner, and headed left so they could get to the control panel that went to the side of the bridge that they were near, Cole turned around as some scrap crabs surged towards them and loosed a Shockwave at them, lifting them into the air and shattering them when they hit the ground again. From there the five of them headed up the street until they came to a stop at the control panel, so while Roger approached the controls Cole and the sisters stood guard as they waited for their enemies to reveal themselves in an effort to stop them from connecting the two islands. Cole wasn't sure if the Dust Men wanted to keep themselves isolated from the Reapers, which would fall apart soon enough, or if there was another reason behind why they didn't want the bridge reconnected, but at the same time he and the sisters were going to make sure the islands were connected so Trish could do what she needed to do and save whatever lives she could.

"Man, this is screwed up nine ways from Sunday." Roger commented, looking at the information that the control panel was giving him, as the various dials and readings were telling him so much at the moment, before he glanced at Cole for a few seconds, "Watch my back, because this is going to take awhile."

The moment Roger said that Cole turned to the right for a moment and immediately noticed some Dust Men making their way towards the bridge, though while he and Adagio turned towards those enemies he had Aria and Sonata watch the opposite side of the street, in case more enemies came from behind them. Sure enough, like Cole thought, a group of Dust Men started moving up the street that the group had used to get to the bridge, to which the two sisters started firing at them while Cole and Adagio focused on their enemies. What Cole found interesting was that the enemies that were coming from his direction were mostly carrying guns and shields with them, while at the same time it sounded like the majority of the enemies that were coming from the other direction were suicide bombers. The four of them didn't try anything funny this time around, as they stuck to simply blasting their enemies and didn't resort to throwing grenades at them, as there weren't enough enemies to actually justify using those attacks, but even without the grenades the group was more than able to take out the Dust Men that were charging at them.

It wasn't long before the Dust Men that were trying to stop Roger from fixing the bridge were taken care of and the group stood there for a moment, as they were curious as to what else they would have to fight before the bridge was ready to be used by the public.

"There we go." Roger said, to which the group turned and watched as the bridge started to lower so it could connect to the other island, but then it decided to stop partway down and caused the group to sigh, as they should have seen something like this coming, "You've got to be kidding me! The hydraulics on the other side aren't engaging."

"Can you fix them from here?" Aria asked, as she and her sisters knew next to nothing about this sort of thing, but at the same time she kept an eye out for any additional enemies that might be coming towards them while they were talking with each other.

"No, it has to be done on the other side of the bridge... and, fortunately for us, I know someone that might be able to help us in that regard." Roger replied, to which he pulled out the phone that had been in his pocket and tapped it a few times, indicating that he was calling the person in question, where a smile appeared when the call connected, "Lou, it's Roger. The number four hydraulic on the south side of SC isn't engaging, and I need your help in getting it online. Where are you?"

"Memorial Park, near the bridge." a voice, Lou, said, where the group noticed that Roger was using the speaker function of his phone so they could hear whatever was being said on the other end, in case he needed them to go help the person he was talking to, "But unless you're carrying a gun, I'm not going nowhere... Reapers all swarming all over the place right now."

"Well, I'm sending something that's much better than a gun." Roger replied, to which he glanced at the group for a moment, indicating that he was referring to them, which they had figured out on their own, before turning back to the control panel in front of him, "I'll see you in a bit."

"Two of us should go head Lou and the other two should stay here," Adagio immediately said, where she glanced over at Cole, who nodded his head in agreement, indicating that he was thinking the same thing that she was thinking, "We have no way of knowing if more Dust Men might show up while we're gone, so two of us should stick around and protect Roger in case they do decide to make an appearance."

"Sonata and I will stay here." Aria stated, surprising Adagio for a moment, as she would have expected one of her sisters to want to head back to the Neon District for a few minutes, "Now get going... there's no telling how long the Reapers will wait before they start firing at the civilians in the park."

Adagio chuckled as she turned on her aura once more, though before Cole could say anything she grabbed onto his back and took to the skies, where she turned towards the direction that Memorial Park was in and started flying towards their destination. Cole was, of course, surprised by the fact that Adagio was going to carry him towards the park, especially since he could easily take the train rails and get there at the same time, but he didn't complain as he experienced what it was like to actually fly for a moment. His experience was shattered when the two of them neared the park and spotted the Reapers in question, to which Adagio set them down where they would have a good vantage point so they could use their Precision attacks to take out the pair of Reapers that were guarding Lou. The two of them stood side by side for a few seconds, their minds focused on what they were preparing to do, before they both loosed their attacks and struck their targets with ease... to which they dropped down to the ground and approached a surprised Lou, as he was staring at the downed enemies that had been circling him.

"Are you alright?" Cole asked, though at the same time he stepped behind Lou and undid the sloppy bindings that the Reapers had set up around his hands, but while he did that he wondered how long it would really take for the Reapers to fall apart, especially since Sasha wasn't leading them anymore.

"Holy crap, that was insane!" Lou replied, though while it appeared that he was shocked by what had happened, even though they had saved his skin, he still found that he was amazed by what he had seen, before he turned towards the duo for a few seconds, "Did Roger send the two of you?"

"Yeah, he did." Cole answered, to which he waved his hand and beckoned for them to get moving, where he started making his way towards the nearby set of stairs that would allow them to reach the street Adagio had flown over earlier, while at the same time Adagio helped escort Lou from the park, "Let's get out of here before more Reapers show up."

"Speaking of which, why were the Reapers so interested in you?" Adagio asked, because she knew that they couldn't be trying to convert him into another loyal soldier, which make her wonder what the remaining Reapers really wanted with Lou.

"They heard that the transients are looking for engineers to work on their tower," Lou explained, to which Cole and Adagio glanced at each other for a moment, as this was the first time they had heard of the Dust Men having something like a tower, while also making them wonder where they had built it, "so they were going to trade me to the transients. I guess they figured that they'd get some sort of reward or something. All I know is that working on that thing is a death sentence... the transients work you till you drop and then they pop you in the head."

Adagio listened to Lou's explanation on what the Dust Men were doing and wondered where the tower had to be located, as she honestly didn't recall seeing one while they were in the Warren, but then again she guessed that she, her sisters, and Cole had been too focused on helping Zeke and fighting the Dust Men to notice a tower. Despite the fact that they didn't know the Dust Men had a tower, making them feel like morons for not having noticed it at all so far, both Cole and Adagio made sure that Lou reached the control panel without harm coming to him. Lou, just like Roger, asked them to defend him while he worked on figuring out what was wrong with the hydraulic that Roger had talked about, though the first group of Reapers foolishly stood on the train tracks above them, as a train came around the corner and plowed into them, knocking them all out in the process and letting the duo focus on the other enemies that would be coming towards this side of the bridge.

After the first group of Reapers failed to do anything to the duo, or even get to Lou like they wanted, another group of Reapers emerged from the part of the street on their right, to which Cole and Adagio loosed some blasts at them and made it impossible for their enemies to get close to them. After the second group fell a third and a fourth group, all smaller than the previous two, revealed themselves and continued the fight, where they discovered that they weren't ready to deal with both Cole and Adagio firing at them, as the duo was more than enough to deal with them. While they dealt with the Reapers they heard the sounds of Aria and Sonata firing from their side of the bridge, blasting the Dust Men that were trying to get at Roger, so the duo remained on their guard as they protected Lou from any other enemies that might want a piece of him. What was humorous about the situation was that when the Dust Men decided to attack Roger again, and suffered defeat when Aria and Sonata fired at them, the Reapers sent out another group to try and take out Lou and the duo that was guarding him... but, in the end, Cole and Adagio guarded Lou and beat the Reapers before they could even hurt Lou.

"Dammit, everything checks out, but the power grid is under-voltage." Lou said, his voice indicating that he was annoyed about the situation, while at the same time he seemed to be ignoring the duo for a moment, "There's not enough juice to fire the hydraulics."

"Lou, you might want to stand back." Adagio commented, causing the engineer to glance over at her for a moment, to which she beckoned to him and he decided to see what she was referring to, where he walked over to her and left the control panel alone for a moment.

Cole, seeing that Lou was now out of the way, raised his hand and started blasting the control panel that the man had been standing in front of, though he only fired a few bolts and sure enough the console indicated that it was powered up and ready for the operation to begin.

"Look, I'd love to stay and chat, but I've got to find someplace safe to hide." Lou stated, to which he turned around and started to walk away from the duo, though at the same time he waved his hand at them as he began his search to find a place he could hide in until the Reapers were gone, "See you two around."

Since it appeared that charging the Neon District side of the bridge wasn't enough to connect the two islands together once more, like they originally thought it would, Cole and Adagio headed back into the Warren, this time by running since Cole wanted to run over the bridge. When they returned to where Aria and Sonata were standing, however, they found that the duo had taken out each and every Dust Men that wanted to kill Roger for refusing to work on their tower, though once they arrived Cole had Roger standing back before he loosed a few bolts into the control panel. That was shortly followed by the sound of the bridge moving again, to which the four of them stood there with a smile on all of their faces as the bridge came to life once more.

"And to think, if I had taken early retirement I would have missed all of this." Roger commented, though he chuckled for a few seconds, as if he found something about his own statement to be amusing, but neither Cole or the sisters were going to stop him from being happy, "I need to have my head examined."

"Hey Roger," Cole said, causing the man to turn his attention to him once more, though at the same time he was also smiling at the fact that with the bridge restored Trish would be able to help the wounded of the Neon District and the Warren soon enough, "thanks for helping us fix the bridge... and for finding someone that could fix the problems on the other side as well."

"No sweat." Roger replied, revealing that he was more than happy to lend a hand at this point, especially when four people with powers came and asked him to help them with something, before he started to walk away from the control panel he had been working on, "Tell Trish I said hello."

"I will." Cole said, to which he and the sisters watched as Roger departed from the area, no doubt returning home or finding someplace safe like Lou did, before they turned and watched as the bridge connected the Neon District to the Warren once more, and, as it turned out, there were already civilians ready to move between the two islands.

Cole let out a sigh of relief as he, Adagio, Aria, and Sonata watched as the people had a chunk of what life had been like before the Blast had happened return to them, as they seemed happier than they had been an hour ago, though that made them all smile as they stood by the control panel. Some of the people waved at them, some of them pointed, and many of them clapped once they understood who had gone out of their way to connect the two islands once more, though the four of them simply smiled and waved at them in return. Cole was thankful that the people didn't want to bother them all that much, as he had something else he needed to do and the sisters knew exactly what he was thinking, because he tapped his phone and called Trish, as he had to tell her the good news.

Hi, you've reached Trish Dailey's voicemail. the recording said, telling Cole that Trish was likely busy at the moment and had put her phone on vibrate until she wasn't needed, though he knew that he really should have seen something like this coming, Please leave a message.

"Trish, I just wanted to let you know that the drawbridge is down." Cole said, to which he mentally sighed for a moment, as he had been hoping to talk with Trish for a few minutes before he and the sisters did something else, "I'll give you a call later and see how things are going."

Adagio glanced at her sisters for a moment, as they all knew that Trish was either ignoring Cole's calls or she was actually busy with something, but at the same time she wondered if it was possible that they could convince Trish to stop being stubborn and actually accept that Cole wasn't responsible for the Blast. Cole wasn't even aware of what had been inside the package he was delivering before he stopped and talked with someone, likely Kessler when she thought about it, and knew that he was surprised when he found the Ray Sphere inside the box, before it detonated and gave him the powers he now had. She still wasn't sure if the Ray Sphere had done anything to her, Aria, or Sonata, since they weren't from this world to begin with, but the fact remained that the massive explosion that came from the Ray Sphere had allowed them to regain some measure of power. Her thoughts were interrupted as she noticed Cole tapping his phone again, indicating that he was calling someone else, to which she decided to remain still and listen to whatever he was going to discuss with the new caller.

"Hey Zeke, you still up on the roof?" Cole asked, though the moment the sisters heard him say Zeke's name it reminded them that the way to the apartment building was now open, and that they could finally get a little rest after fighting Sasha and dealing with the Dust Men.

"You know it brother." Zeke replied, indicating that he was hanging around his building still, while at the same time causing Cole and the sisters to start walking across the bridge, like normal people, "I'm trying to hook up with Dwight's sister... are you and the sisters coming by for a little siesta?"

"Yeah. We'll see you in a few minutes." Cole answered, as his body, despite being a Conduit, needed some rest every now and then and it had been quite a while since any of them had gotten any sleep, though when Zeke said nothing he hung up as they continued walking towards their destination.

It didn't take them too long to reach the apartment building, especially since Cole used the train rail to cut down the distance he had to run, prompting the sisters to fly after him so they could keep up, but once they reached the building it was a simple matter to climb the exterior and reach the roof. When they arrived at the roof Zeke informed them that he thought the super-hero thing they had going on was great, though that was because he was the only one that was taking the time to reap the rewards of what Cole and the sisters were doing. Cole, of course, stated that being a hero wasn't a walk in the park, especially since he, Adagio, Aria, and Sonata had to make some tough choices when they were dealing with whatever gang was their enemy at the moment, while sometimes also getting themselves hurt so the people around them would stay safe. Zeke, however, was too caught up in his own fantasy world and declared that he only stayed here a few extra minutes so he could witness their arrival, because Dwight's sister was apparently waiting for him and he was ready to have some fun... to which the four of them watched Zeke head down the stairs and disappear, so he could finally date someone he's hand his eyes on for a long time.

Cole and the sisters, however, just sighed as they got something to eat for dinner, from the provisions that Moya's agents had apparently snuck in for them to eat since none of them could survive on consuming electricity, in Cole's case, or relying on their power, in the case of Adagio and her sisters... though once they had their fill they headed to their beds so they could rest, as something told them that they were going to need all the energy they could muster when the next day of the quarantine started.