InFamous: The Unusual Conduits

by Blackdrag-rose

Empire: Prison Break

Since time was of the essence, as the Dust Men were already shooting at the innocent people of the Warren and any cops that happened to be getting in their way, Cole let himself be pulled into the air by one of the sisters as they flew towards the building that Moya had sent them the coordinates to. At the same time Adagio and Sonata, the two that weren't carrying him, focused on blasting any Dust Men that happened to be on the rooftops that they were flying over, as they always turned up and fired at them first, clearing the way so that Aria could get Cole to their destination. While all that happened the four of them also heard the sounds of gunfire in several different areas of the Warren, meaning that this must have been Alden's plan the entire time, force the cops to chase him and then surrender, but once the majority of the officers were after him his forces attacked the remaining officers and the innocent people that were around them. It was just like what happened when the four of them helped Trish get her bus to the hospital, Alden was trying to send a message to them that they should stay out of his business... and here he was likely saying that, despite their arrival, he still owned the Warren and that there was no one that could stop him, be it the cops or people like him, who had powers of their own.

With that though in mind the sisters brought Cole over to the building in question and dropped him off, before landing behind him, but that was when they found an armored bus, more deadly looking than the one Trish used, slowly driving down the street with several slots that the Dust Men were firing out of... and the people were screaming, as they had no idea what was going on and were likely hoping that someone would come and save them.

"Damn it, those maniacs have outfitted city buses with automatic weapons," Cole commented, speaking to the sisters for a moment, just in case they didn't understand what they were seeing, but based on the looks they were giving him it was clear that they understood what he was saying, "and, to make things worse, it appears that they're firing at everything, or anyone, in sight."

"We need to take control of this situation before the military catches wind of it." Moya stated, causing the group to glance at their phones for a moment, as they had, in the heat of chasing Alden through Tent City, forgotten that she could hear every word that was said near them, which was why the sisters had insisted on everyone leaving their phones in a different room when they revealed that they were from a different world to the others, "If they think the Dust Men might use those weapons to break through the quarantine, they will take immediate action."

"What, do they just sit around the office all day, daydreaming about blowing stuff up?" Adagio asked, because right now she wasn't about to trust this world's military to do anything, as from the sounds of it they were more than ready to level the entire city if the quarantine was broken, killing thousands of people, if not more than that.

"The four of you know what to do." Moya replied, not even bothering to answer Adagio's question on what the leaders of the military were doing at the moment, but at the same time the sisters knew that those same leaders were likely trying to find some excuse to level Empire City and be done with the whole mess, even if it killed so many people in the process.

"Well, according to our maps, there are four of these buses out there." Cole said, looking at his phone for a moment, as he was surprised that there was an even number of targets for them to take out, almost as if Alden had noticed their number and was using this to distract them in some manner, but then he shook his head and felt that he might be giving the old man too much credit for what was going on, "I guess our plan of attack is simple this time around."

"Yeah, divide and conquer." Aria stated, to which she surrounded herself in her flaming aura and took off, heading towards one of the other buses that was further away from the one that was likely going to be Cole's target, before both Adagio and Sonata followed after her, though they separated and heading towards the two other buses that the Dust Men were using.

Cole couldn't help but chuckle for a few seconds, because he knew that if it had been him tackling this sort of situation, all on his own anyway, he would have ended up with a large number of innocent people dead, or at least severely injured from what was going on. With Adagio, Aria, and Sonata helping him out, and their flying abilities making it easier for them to traverse the districts that they were in, he would be able to decrease the amount of hurt civilians that would have been hurt today, which was going to make them, and Trish was well, very happy. Once he thought about Trish, and how she would feel if so many wounded showed up at the hospital, Cole got underway and used one of the power lines to cross over the street and get on top of a new building, where he still had a good view of the armored bus as it turned down the exact same street he was following. Cole smiled as he jumped over to a smaller building and ran over to the edge, where he threw himself into the air and used his Static Thrusters to lower himself onto the top of the bus, right where the generator was located, and loosed several powerful bolts into it... eventually causing the bus to stall as it's weapons turned off, before a small interior explosion blew several parts of the plating off and the bus went silent.

Once the deed was done Cole jumped off the bus and stared at it for a few moments, daring any of the Dust Men that had been inside it to come out, but when they didn't he simply climbed up the building that was behind him and wondered what the sisters were doing to their targets.

"Hey guys," Zeke said, surprising Cole for a moment, as he wasn't expecting Zeke to suddenly call one of them, or all of them as his words suggested, to which he moved over to part of the building and waited for Zeke to continue, even though they could both hear the sounds of the sisters tackling the Dust Men in their areas, "I just wanted to call and let the four of you know that I'm over at the prison, helping out the cops."

"You're joking, right?" Cole asked, because he knew Zeke's history better than the sisters did and he knew that Zeke couldn't stand to be near cops, even though they were the only thing protecting the people of the districts that they had taken from the gang that owned them, "I thought you hated cops!"

"It's like you said earlier, things are changing... and we know things that others don't." Zeke replied, his tone indicating that he remembered what the sisters had told them and the fact that he knew they couldn't talk about it without informing Moya of two entirely different worlds, especially the place that the sisters came from, "Besides, any lawman that's stayed in this hell-hole is the real deal, and you got to respect that. Anyway, I'll catch you guys later."

Aria disconnected the call the moment Zeke said that he had to go, as she was flying above the bus that she had chosen as her target, who happened to be circling the building that they had sent the information the drones had on them over to Moya. From the looks of things they weren't aware of the fact that she was flying above them, studying what they were doing for a few seconds, before she gathered her power and flew down towards the left side of the bus, surprising the Dust Men inside it while she slipped in a special surprise. That was followed by her flying away from the armored bus as her Firebomb grenade went off, knocking the Dust Men around the interior while blowing several holes in the plating of the bus, which also appeared to cripple it at the same time, revealing that they were more designed to battle someone like Cole and not people like her, and maybe her sisters as well. Still, despite the fact that the bus was taken out, she spent a few moments pulling out the dazed Dust Men and took their weapons over to a trash can, knowing that some of the cops would come by and arrest them as well.

"Guys, there's a number of gunshot victims coming to the hospital." Trish commented, indicating that she had found a moment to get a small break so she could contact all four of them, as they were the only ones that would tell her exactly what was going on, "What's going on out there?"

"Well, the Dust Men are going crazy because their leader's been captured," Aria stated, to which she looked around the area and spotted another small group of Dust Men on a nearby roof, one that she would take out soon enough, "it appears that they think something will happen if they shoot up the place. Don't worry, we're doing everything in our power to stop them from putting more people in the hospital."

"I have the supplies necessary to deal with the cases that are coming in at the moment," Trish said, revealing that a fair number of people had been hurt since the Dust Men started this venture of theirs, before she sighed, indicating that she needed to get back to work, "but please, stop them before they put more people in danger."

"We will Trish." Cole promised, as it only seemed fair for him to make the promise to Trish, and none of the sisters sounded upset over it, though before he could say anything else Trish hung up and went back to work, but this time he nodded his head and knew that she would have done that, to which he turned his own attention to seeing if Adagio or Sonata needed assistance with their buses.

Adagio, being the bravest of the three sisters, flew towards the powered down section of the Warren and found her target driving along side the part of the road where the water was even more accessible, to which she smiled as she held a hand out towards the water. The harbor responded and the water gathered around her, where she formed a series of Ice Lances that floated around her, each of them waiting to be used in some manner, before she targeted the armored bus and started hurling her lances at the war machine. Since each lance was hardened ice, and the tip was the sharpest point of all, all she had to do was throw a lance and watch as it pierced the bus, stalling it almost immediately, to which she responded by throwing the remainder of them into the structure of the bus, where she smiled as the Ice Lances tore through the bus and prevented it from moving, while striking several important locations that would prevent it from moving in the future. The Dust Men that were controlling the bus and it's weapons, however, found themselves knocked out thanks to her attacks, to which Adagio kept the smile on her face as she moved back towards the area that Cole was waiting in, as she had good news to tell him, even if he would know the news by looking at his phone.

When she arrived at the place Cole was standing in she found that not only was Aria back, but so was Sonata, which made her wonder what their sister had done to her target to get done so quickly, and something told her that she was going to find out in the next few moments.

"So, what did you do to your bus?" Cole asked, because he had the feeling he knew what Adagio and Aria had done, so it was a simple matter to ask Sonata the same question and see what sort of answer she gave, even though it was clear that she had taken the bus out.

"Well, it was driving next to the canal, so I just pushed it into the water and let it sink." Sonata replied, surprising the others for a moment, as they had been expecting her to use her wind to carve up the bus or something, like what she did with the drone earlier, but then they chuckled as Cole raised a hand.

"Hey Moya, we've taken care of the armored buses." Cole said, letting their handler know that everything was good on their end, especially since they had no idea what they were supposed to be doing next, even though he could guess what Moya wanted them to do after this.

"My extraction team is prepped and ready to go, but the military is dragging its feet with the clearances." Moya told them, revealing that, despite the fact that she had told them she would be ready to take Alden, she wasn't actually ready since the military wasn't cooperating with her, "I need the four of you to head over to the prison and secure Alden until my team gets there. It won't be long before the Dust Men try to break him out."

The group didn't bother speaking their minds on the subject, as all four of them were sure that this was one of Alden's plans and that they had fallen for it, but instead of wasting time Aria grabbed onto Cole and followed after her sisters as they took off once more. This time around they flew towards the prison, where a large number of cops were gathering and preparing themselves, as they all knew what was about to happen, exactly like Moya had told the four of them about, and the sisters landed outside the prison, near the terminal that Robert worked on to get the bridge lowered. When they arrived at their destination Moya told them that she was sending her extraction team out, ignoring all the clearances she would have needed to go through since they didn't have time for that, and informed them that it was their job to keep Alden in chains, as her team was at least twenty miles away. Sonata took a moment to inquire why she didn't just have one of them claim Alden from the cops and fly him to the extraction team, but Moya, apparently, wasn't going to have any of that and insisted that they do things her way... but at the same time Cole suspected that she was playing a long term game and that they weren't aware of what the agent was really doing, though he focused on the task at hand.

From there the four of them entered the prison through the main gate, climbed other the booth that people usually had to walk up to and visit when they came here, and moved over a wall to enter a large courtyard that appeared to be the perfect place for a battle to happen, if a wall fell down anyway... and, much to their interest, there was a walkway with some electricity dancing around it that reminded them of what Trish had done to her bus, with Zeke standing in the safety of the hallway that was beneath the walkway.

"Hey guys, the boys in blue need to move some lops to a more secure part of the prison." Zeke said, his tone revealing that he knew that things could get ugly at any moment and that he was going to speak as quickly as possible, surprising them by the fact that he was actually taking this seriously, "They need the four of you to assist the other cops in holding off the trash-baggers while they make the transfer."

"What the hell is a lop?" Aria asked, speaking what was on all their minds now, because she was sure that Cole, who had never worked with cops before, had no idea what the word meant and neither she or her sisters had ever heard that word during their stay in the world they had been sent to before this one.

"It's a prisoner... a shank-holder." Zeke explained, though based on the looks on all their faces he could tell that they were surprised that there was another term for 'prisoner' inside the prison, one that Zeke had figured out without having to be locked up in the process, "C'mon, get with the lingo! Oh, and Cole, I rigged the walkway that's above me to be crackling with juice, like Trish did to her bus earlier. Figured that we might as well take every advantage we can get for when the battle between us and the trash-baggers starts."

"Thanks Zeke." Cole said, as he was sure that this was going to be useful during the battle to come, though as he said that he climbed up to the walkway and positioned himself on top of where Zeke and the cops were standing, while at the same time the sisters flew into the air and stayed there as they waited to see what happened next.

Fortunately they didn't have to wait too long to figure out what was going to happen next, as not a few moments later small flaming boulders flew over the wall and descended into the area they would be fighting over, though as the mass came towards them the sisters realized that it was just a flaming hunk of junk, even as they knocked it out of the air. Aria, made sure to drain the flames from the pieces of trash and gathered them around her in small spheres that almost looked like they were made from glass, though she intended on using them the moment their foes showed themselves. The skills the four of them used the most often for the next couple of minutes, against the flaming balls of junk and the added flaming cars that were added after some time, were their Shockwave techniques, as it allowed them to stay in one spot and focus their fire, without having to get in the way of what someone else was doing and came in handy when something got thrown at Cole, who threw it back at the thing that sent it his way. For a time it appeared that all the Dust Men were going to do was have their metallic golems hurl flaming balls of junk and cars at them, though when Zeke said that the prisoners had been moved, however, part of the wall that was on the other side of the area they were in collapsed and the Dust Men started pouring into the area and began firing at the cops.

That action prompted the sisters to abandon the air, as it appeared that the Dust Men weren't interested in throwing things anymore, and landed around the courtyard that they were supposed to be guarding, where they started blasting the Dust Men that were pouring into the area, leaving Cole to remain on his electric walkway and continue firing at those that the sisters either ignored or missed. As all of this happened, and a second part of the wall collapsed and let more enemies pour into the courtyard, Cole called out for Zeke to head to Alden's cell and make sure that the person the Dust Men came for didn't leave with his followers, since Moya's team was on their way here. Zeke clearly hated not being on the front line, since he was trying to be helpful, but he nodded his head and headed into the prison, leaving Cole and the sisters to engage the Dust Men while the cops continued to fire at them, making sure that none of them gained enough ground to threaten their defensive perimeter, even though they activated the turrets to help them out. That was until a well placed rocket from one of the RPG carrying Dust Men struck the walkway and destroyed the entire thing, making Cole fight with the others, but at the same time he preferred to get his hands dirty... which was why he ran to where Adagio and her sisters were fighting at the moment, before slamming his fist into a Dust Man and knocked a second one backwards with a blast of electricity.

Something that the Dust Men seemed to have forgotten about was that the side of the prison that they attacked happened to be near the canal, which Adagio used to their advantage as she called upon the water and froze several of the Dust Men where they were standing, making sure to stay away from Aria's flames at the same time. Of course that changed when a golem smashed through part of the already ruined wall and opened it up even further as it marched into the area they were defending, though that was when Cole and the sisters attacked the golem together, repeating the movements they had used against the first one when they were chasing Alden's echo. Zeke, of course, called and mentioned that Alden was currently strapped to something that was putting electricity through his body, knocking him out in the process so he couldn't do anything until Moya's team came to get him, which only made Cole worry what the extraction team was doing, especially since they wouldn't be able to hold the ground forever. They even learned that the whole idea about passing electricity through Alden's body was Warden Harms' idea, which was great since it meant that Alden couldn't do anything to defend himself now... allowing the four of them to turn their attention to the battle as the golem fell down in defeat, to which they turned towards the Dust Men and continued the fight.

A few seconds after the golem went down, however, Cole felt the power leave him as the actual power to the prison was disconnected, to which Zeke informed them that the Dust Men must have sent someone to the roof to kill the power and that they needed to act fast before Alden woke up. As such Sonata offered to take Cole up to the prison's roof, as Adagio and Aria's abilities to manipulate the water and the fire around them seemed to be keeping the battle in a stalemate between the Dust Men and the cops, though they also didn't need her to be down here at the moment. Cole, already knowing what would happen if Alden was set free, nodded his head and soon the two of them were flying up towards the roof of the prison, though along the way he fired several blasts at the Dust Men that had climbed the walls of the prison and flanked them, because if even one of them remained they cut shut off the generators again and they'd have to do this all over again. It didn't take Sonata long to get Cole up to the generator and let him blast it a few times, to get the power back up and running, though as that happened they heard that more Dust Men were invading the ruined courtyard and that both Adagio and Aria were backing up as well... to which Sonata flew them back down to the ground level, all while thinking that they overlooked something about this entire situation.

What was odd about what happened next was the fact that the Dust Men, who already had a hole in the perimeter of the prison, smashed down the gate that the group had brought some of the imprisoned Dust Men to when a cop asked them to do so. From that point on the Dust Men invaded not just the new opening they had created, but the old one as well, leaving Adagio and Aria to fire at the enemies that were coming through the first gaping wall they made while Cole and Sonata defended the second area that they were invading. There were more Dust Men than what they were expecting, because for every transient they took down two more took his or her place, indicating that Alden had planned the attack on the prison well in advance to gather the army that was attacking them and outfit them with their makeshift armor and their weapons, as well as create a number of golems and crab throwing conduits to use against them, keeping all four of them busy for the next couple of minutes. Even with the four miniature power areas that Zeke had set up in the second area, in case the Dust Men attacked that area instead of the first one, didn't do much in the grand scheme of things, as the Dust Men continued their attack... so much so that when a loud explosion was heard Cole didn't bother to notice what had happened, not until the power suddenly died once more and he was left with no choice but to plan his attacks without expanding too much energy in the process.

"Cole!" a voice said, to which Cole, who was currently hiding behind one of the small structures in the area he and Sonata were guarding, glanced over at the wall and found Zeke rushing over to him, where he slammed against the structure and huffed for a moment, "Man, I didn't think I'd be able to get to you in time."

"Zeke, what are you doing out here?" Cole asked, because Zeke was the only one, apparently, that knew how to read the machine that Alden was strapped to, meaning that if he was out here, and not watching the machine, there was the possibility that their target could get free without them being able to stop him, "You should be inside the prison, making sure Alden doesn't get free!"

"Well, we might have a problem with that," Zeke said, to which he gestured up to the top of the prison again, where Cole moaned, because if that meant what he thought it meant, and her seriously hoped it didn't, then they were in for a world of pain, "it seems there was a second group of trash-baggers making their way up to the generator when you guys restored power to it, but this time they blew the damn thing up. The only way we're going to be able to keep that machine powered up, and keep Alden from escaping, is if you come with me and use your power to blast it, until Moya's unit arrives... if it's even comi..."

Before Zeke could finish his statement there was a second explosion that cut off several of the officers that were inside the prison, more specifically the ones that were supposed to be guarding Alden, though that was followed by the entire prison shaking for a moment before several massive cracks appeared in it as the metal was pulled apart a little. That seemed to be a sign of some kind, as the Dust Men that had seen it started to pull back and soon the prison was silent, save for the sounds of the cops breathing hard after survived an attack on the prison and the sisters calming down, but at the same time Cole couldn't stand still and not know what happened. He and Zeke rushed to the opening that Zeke had come out of, which would take them to Alden's cell, but they quickly discovered a hole in one of the walls and a large number of bricks scattered around the place, accompanied by dust and some smoke, indicating that the Dust Men had tricked them the entire time. As Cole headed towards Alden's cell he heard from the other cops that the various Dust Men that they had captured, before they managed to find and capture the leader of the gang, were gone as well... confirming Adagio, Aria, and Sonata's suspicions that the Alden had been playing with them the entire time and that this had to have been him making a statement.

Cole's worst fears came to life as he reached Alden's cell, which had a group of cops, who had a number of bullet holes in their bodies, resting around the opening, indicating that the Dust Men had permanently cut the power, blew open a hole near where Alden would be taken, killed his guards, and then sprung him as he made his signal... all according to whatever plan he had made. Now he was out there again, no doubt heading back to Tent City so he and his army could celebrate their victory over not only the cops, but over the four powerful beings that were protecting Empire City, showing that they weren't what everyone thought they were... but at the same time it filled him with the desire to take Alden out and shatter his plans, and there was no way he was going to blame this on Zeke, because his best friend would have been killed if he hadn't come looking for him. Alden and the Dust Men were going to pay for their actions tonight, and for everything else they had done since they took over the Warren, and he was sure that the sisters would be more than willing to help him take their target down at long last.

Comments

[Midnight Moon]

Congratulations, Dust Men, you just bought yourself a few more hours of operation time, at best, at the cost of increasing the pain you're all about to go through.