A/N: I went back through the previous chapters and found out that a lot of the images I posted were gone, so I posted them again. If you went through and didn't see them before then you can go back and look at them now. It's mostly in the second chapter, but I figured I say that now.
Also, I'll leave the poll up so that people can keep voting if they want to, I'll delete it once the mission comes to an end and go from there.
— — — — —
Time skip — Currant time: 6:38 AM — the day Delsin arrives in Seattle
Ding! Make a good first impression on Nero!
1x Random Advantage Silver ticket acquired.
'Was that guy really joking about being insane?' I wondered, watching both the screen in front of me and the DUP who were posted at the checkpoint coming into the city. 'He didn't seem like a bad guy…then again, neither did John Wayne Gacy.' I wondered why anyone would name their kid after the insane emperor while trying to remember the details of the man.
Though I had [High Specs], it doesn't mean my memories are perfect, just that the times I focus on remembering are. Only coming back with the outline of the man, his clothes, and him having white hair. He did look kinda old if I really think back on the moment, though I shook my head and turned my focus back to the checkpoint below me. The one that Delsin and his brother will come through, one that is not currently destroyed or will ever be destroyed.
We did our best to keep the DUP from having any reason to be in Seattle beyond a token presence, but they still managed to worm their way here. They had to give up a lot of the heavy hitting troops they had because, and I quote, 'The current presence of conduits does not warrant any large-scale occupation of Seattle at this time.' So they had to get creative.
There are still checkpoints, just that they're at the entrances of the city and at the bridges. They also got permission to have those generators and drones with the glowing crystals set up all over the city for 'communication' and 'passive scanning'.
They did however, get a hold of that island in the river between the two parts of Seattle and set their command base up there.
'It's almost set up like multiple raid missions if I had to relate it to anything.' I mused, remembering the layout of the island. Going from the 'lowest level' to the 'highest level', I listed them.
The Shadow Grid is the first, mostly because they just gave powers to criminals and walked away. The Wire Field next since it's still just a 'training field'. Next is The Power Grid, only out ranking the last two because of how important it is to production. All of these surround The Fire Wall, the wall of plants manned by artificial plant conduits. The wall itself protects The Core, a center where scientists, experiments, and the main subject of research is kept.
If I'm being honest, I think that island is why the mission has a 7 day time limit and not a 3 day time limit. I mean, the game only lasts a canonical three days. So putting two and two together isn't that hard, and with me here, everything will go by faster.
I've managed to get most of the people in the city on our side, it wasn't that hard, just hacking the news station and playing the experiments that they conduct at Curdun Cay was enough to get most of the public on our side. The DUP came under fire from the public rather quickly after that, adding on Eugene and Fetch's stories was enough to garner more sympathy, but the final nail in the coffin for the DUP's public support?
It was actually our retelling of Hank's story, just imagine it—A father who fell on hard times, unable to get a job, his wife having passed early after birth, unable to support his daughter, turning to crime just so she'd be happy. He just happened to be a conduit, making him public enemy number one without question, but now? He was someone that people could sympathize with, especially parents, and every time he committed a crime he never permanently hurt anyone he stole from. Not even the DUP
The final cherry on top of this hole that the DUP dug themselves was us telling everyone that Augustine was training the 'promising' convicts for some kind of 'operation'. Those being 'myself', Fetch, Eugene, and Celia.
Yeah, I told them about 'myself' and Celia. How she was the first prisoner in Curdun Cay, how she was broken down as a person to be built back up as Augustine's perfect tool, and how she tried to do the same to me.
That was why Celia left Seattle, because her cover was blown…or it could have been because I styled on her every time I wrapped her up. I mean, you can only be sat on so many times before you just stop trying.
It probably didn't help that I spanked her every time I got the chance, the last time we fought being the most prevalent.
— Flash back —
We were on top of a hotel rooftop, Celia on one side slightly floating off the ground, paper flying around her hands. I was on the other side, facing away from her and looking at the city around us. One hand in my pocket, the other shading my eyes against the sunset.
"How many more times are we going to do this Celia?" I asked, my hand dropping as I turned to her. She stiffened, readying for anything I would do.
"Am I gonna have to spank you aga–" I was cut off and had to duck, a compressed paper dagger flying past my head with enough force that I would have been seriously injured if I had been a second too late. The feeling of fresh sea air on my hair made me reach up, my hand came back to find a few strands of hair in my fingers.
"Hey, I paid for that beanie!" I shouted as if I hadn't taken all the money used on it from criminals. She stood there, hand still outstretched before it clenched.
"Would you take this seriously!" She shouted, which was a surprise. I hadn't heard her speak except in my memories. Even then it was only single words, a short sentence at most, and they were always in a quiet monotone.
"Nah," I grinned, "I've been serious for too long, I think I'd like to be free for a bit!" I finish, spinning on the spot and swan diving off the edge of the roof. I heard paper fluttering behind me before it was cut off by the crackle of electricity as I entered the currents of the power line below.
Taking her on a merry chase through downtown Seattle for a bit before popping out at a run down building. One that I had found full of Akuran's in the middle of trying to make a deal with people from the DUP in exchange for guns.
Coming to a stop in the same spot as where the deal was taking place, I turned to wait for Celia to show up. Idly forming my wires across the room to give myself more places to pop out from and surprise her. Turning in place as I did I spotted a chair, and a smile spread across my face.
Moving everything into place and facing away from where Celia would enter, I waited. While I waited I twirled and spun my wires into two items, a sword and a trench coat. The trench coat was easy, just some weaves there a few spins here, a little nudging with my powers to keep it all in place and it was done.
The sword was a different matter, I tried to just compress and structure the wires into a sword, but it just crumbled apart. Lacking the stability to fully form into a solid structure, even when I pumped a massive amount of energy into compressing the wires together. Searching the area for something that could act as a base for the sword, I found a section of pipe right above me.
Sending a wire out and giving tug, it came down into my hands. Checking it over and deeming it acceptable, I started working. Sending wires into the pipe itself to ensure the final shape was at least close, I wrapped the pipe in wires before starting to squeeze. The metal groaned, folding under the pressure I exerted through the compression of the wires.
The pipe finally reached an acceptable shape. I cut the wires along the intended edge, bringing the tips of the wires to a sharp point and placing them outwards, causing the wires to make a lined pattern along the entire sword.
It was a katana, a bit too straight for what I intended, but it'll do. Hearing the sound of paper being whipped up outside, I got into place and waited for my chance to have my fun. Wrapping the sword in wires to act as a sheath and placing it point down next to me.
"That's it, no more running! You're coming back with me!" She shouted, sounding like she wanted to strangle me. But her steps paused a few seconds after she finished speaking, a noise she tried not to make conveying confusion. Taking my chance I stood, beginning my little act.
"If you want me to do that," I said, turning to partially face her and show off my makeshift sword, "then you'll have to take me." I let my smirk show on my face, but before I could finish the quote I was interrupted.
"What are you doing?! Is this a game to you?!?!" Celia yelled, her composure completely gone now, seeming ready to just start throwing condensed paper at me any second. I didn't care though and just slumped, letting out a sigh before forming a small stick of twisted wire and placing it in my mouth.
"You wouldn't get it…" I murmured, shooting electricity from between my fingers and making the stick of wires tip glow red hot. "Ack! Fuckin thing's hot!" I hissed, throwing the stick of wire away as it burned my lips slightly. That seemed to be the breaking point for Celia, as she launched herself at me, her paper forming into a set of paper samurai armor and a katana like my own. I grinned and drew my sword as well, running to meet her.
*Clash! Clang! Screech!*
Our blades clashed, sparks flying from mine and paper bits from hers. Coming together for a blade look, I spoke straight into her mask, continuing my little game of pretend.
"You really seem 'MOTIVATED', it's just a shame you don't have enough 'POWER' to see this through!" I said, deepening my voice to sound like the person I was imitating. Celia let out a growl that turned into a scream before breaking the lock and raising her hand to send a blast of paper in the most blunt way possible.
Stepping in and reversing my grip on the sword I caught her wrist between my own and the sword's grip, redirecting her palm back towards herself and slapping the back of her hand with a palm strike. Her paper erupted, blasting herself backwards and into several wires I had set up. Reaching my hand out and clenching it into a fist–
*Crackle– SNAP!*
I sent lightning through them and into Celia, sending her flying back towards me like a tennis ball off a wall. Grabbing the wire trench coat by the base and whipped it out, sending wires to the side and pulling myself out of her path. At the same time I held my sword up and made wires fall from it before wrapping together to resemble a cape of a matador.
"Olé" I shouted as she passed, holding the cape in front of her before yanking it back. The cape barely grazed her scorched paper armor before sliding off. She skipped off the ground a few times, sometimes hitting the wires I set up until she finally managed to get her feet under her and come to a stop.
Her armor was in tatters and actively falling off. Taking my chance and reaching out, I grabbed a wire close by and shot through it, popping out behind her before rearing my hand back—like a pro baseball player getting ready to hit a homerun shot and–
*KERSMACK!!!*
I slapped her right across the ass. It was firm from all the training she went through yet still had enough fat there to jiggle. How could I see it jiggle you ask? Because her skirt might as well not be there with how little there was!
(Celia Image)
She jumped high enough to almost touch the ceiling, grabbing her back side before falling to the ground and staying there. She was on her knees and leaned forward, her forehead touching the ground and her feet kicked the ground as she let out a pained squeal.
I couldn't blame her, that was the hardest slap I've given her yet. Though the bar for that wasn't very high since I didn't really try the last few times I spanked her.
"That was for destroying the beanie I so lovingly picked out," I 'scolded', walking towards her before wrapping wires around her waist and wrists pulling her up, putting her in the perfect spot for more 'corrections' of her 'bad habits' without her being able to wriggle out of it.
*Smack!*
"That's for trying to take my head off!"
*Smack!!!*
"That's for not playing along with my act!"
*SMACK!!!*
"And that's because I felt like it!" I finished, shaking my hand as I walked around her shaking legs to her front. Her mask had fallen off at some point but her hair had fallen forward, covering her face fully. I didn't push her hair to the side or try to raise her face, I just let out a contented sigh before speaking to her.
"Well, it's been fun Celia, but I gotta bounce." I spoke, looking out one of the building's windows to see a screen with the time on it, showing it to be around ten minutes before I had to meet up with Fetch and Eugene to help with a gang raid. Looking back and patting her on the head, I walked past before speaking to her again.
"If you want to come around again and just talk, you can…just try not to come around at night. I think Fetch is going to jump Eugene here soon, but I could be wrong." I offered, adding a slight warning at the end, giving a two fingered salute over my shoulder and letting myself fall out of a broken wall.
[3rd pov]
Celia, still hanging from the ceiling, continued to shutter even after Issac had left. Still not noticing that only her wrists were wrapped, allowing her powers to still be used, yet she stayed there and shook. A few moments later–
*Splash!*
"So…strong…" She murmured, a fluid of unknown origin sounding out in the empty room. She stayed like that for a few moments longer before flexing her hands and freezing. Her mind froze, her breathing stopped, even her heart felt like it stopped beating.
She dispersed into paper and fled, running as fast as she could without watching where she was going, until finding herself in the forest. She had run across the city, across the bridge, through the tunnel, and deep into the forest. Finding herself lost, alone with her thoughts now, and her thoughts were chaotic.
"WHAT IS HAPPENING!?!?" She screamed, blasting a tree into pieces to try and stop the sensation pooling in her stomach and beginning to move lower.
(A/N: I know this might be a bit of a stretch, but I only saw two options for her to stop and leave the city. This was the second, the first was to just kill her. I played through her mission and looked through her wiki and she only respects strength, to an insane degree. I was only able to have these two options because of how Issac came into the Infamous world. If he just dropped in he'd either have to kill her or keep her captive if he didn't want to kill her.)
— Flashback End —
Shaking my head at the memory of the last time I saw her, I placed more of my focus on the bridge. Looking for the truck that Reggie should be driving, since the bridge and the road outside the tunnel wasn't destroyed they should be able to get through to the check point.
Also, since none of us made a scene on our way here, the road block right before the tunnel was taken down before it could really be put up and moved to where the checkpoint is now. Further being taken down as everything we did pulled public trust away from the DUP.
Even if they could suspend every law they need and bypass every procedure required, they still have to answer to the people that give them funding. Because they didn't like finding out things that they were never told, since we didn't show everything to the public, we sent the more sensitive material to people that actively fund the DUP.
It wasn't a surprise that most of them weren't willingly doing so, only lacking the leverage to act against Augustine. Though one of the guys we passed the info through didn't think it would do much in the long run, the other was all too happy to take the info and do what he could. He kept using analogies too, I wouldn't comment on it usually but they were really weird.
'I think his name was Zack, or something…he sounded familiar too.' I thought, trying to think of why I thought I knew him, only getting a flash of fish stickers and something about 'conduit juice' and a 'firework sandwich'. Shaking my head at the thoughts, I continued my watch. Feeling a twinge in my wire, I twitched a finger and changed the result of the scanning unit to a normal result.
I'd been here for about three hours connected to the scanning units from the shadows changing results. Did you know that the scanning units can't actually tell if someone's a dormant conduit, just that if someone has conduit powers or not?
I didn't, not until I got here. It'll also go off if they want it too, that's why those things are so big, so it can have a decent camera and computer in it to scan and verify a person's identity.
The scanning units take five seconds to scan a person, that's how long it takes for the computer to search through their archive and find if the person could be a problem for the DUP. That's why they're held in those cages and not taken off immediately, because they can't do anything and the DUP can just suspend every law to keep them there for as long as they want.
I just sent my wires into each of the units and changed their results. It was rather easy, since no one here seems to know how to organize anything and just thinks they can put stuff anywhere. None of the soldiers thought it was weird that there was an extra wire amongst them. Sighing, I resigned myself to staying here for a few more hours. Then, for some reason, my ears twitched at the sound of one of the stations being used.
"Processing…" The automated voice droned, the sound becoming a source of annoyance after hearing it so often. Then my wires twitched again, but this time I couldn't stop the process. My hold on the systems being pushed through like a bartering ram through wet cardboard.
"WARNING. PRIME CONDUIT DETECTED. LETHAL FORCE IS AUTHORIZED." It said, red lights flashing and alarms blaring above where the person was standing. My head snapped down to see who could force the system to bulldoze through my control just to send out that alert. Finding a familiar red beanie and denim coat over a white jacket came into view.
"Best two out of three?" He asked, looking around and trying to play it all off as a joke. The soldiers around him didn't seem to think it was funny. They raised their guns and readied to fire.
His brother seemed to war with himself for a moment before coming to a decision and bolted forward, slamming into one of the soldiers before yelling to his brother, "Delsin! RUN!"
He had balls, I'll give him that, and a lot of love for his brother.
Delsin, hearing that, seemed to steel himself before raising his hand and responding, "To hell with that!" Smoke and embers condensed in his hand before running along a chain around his wrist, it unspooled as he leapt at the soldier currently wrestling with his brother.
I had been moving since this whole thing started, getting closer to the event to find an opportune moment to intervene, Delsin seeming to forget about the soldier right in front of him seemed to be a good enough time to do that. Dropping down onto a light poll above the soldier, I raised my hand and controlled the wires in the light poll to shoot out at the soldier.
*Thwip–Slam!*
The wires shot out, grabbing the gun's barrel first and pulling it away from Delsin and everyone behind him, then grabbing the man's arms before finally wrapping around his neck and yanking him upwards. The man's head slammed against the light poll, knocking him out immediately before the wires around his hands were yanked upwards and trapping him.
Delsin didn't even notice the soldier disappearing from his spot, nor did he hear him letting out a yelp, or even hear his head hitting the top of the light poll. He just kept shooting at the soldiers closest to or focused on his brother…and I can't really be mad at that, hell, I even respect it. But I still noted it down as something to work on in his training.
Though neither of the brothers noticed me, the soldiers did and started raising their guns towards me. Sighing at my failed entrance, I raised my hands like a music conductor and waved, pulling wires out of light polls and grabbing the civilians before pulling them out of the way. Next I sent wires out of the vehicles and yanked the soldiers towards the cars by their feet.
Dragging their legs under the vehicles and trapping their legs in place. Once their legs were trapped I let the civilians down, then used those same wires to grab the soldiers guns and pull them away, completely disarming them before making the wires wrap them up completely.
The whole thing only took ten seconds to complete. After Issac finally let go and put his trust in me I could start doing stuff like this like it was nothing, if it was before then I'd need to actually try, I might have even gotten a nosebleed from just trying to do what I just did. Then I was interrupted by someone shouting up at me.
"Holy shit! I want that!" Delsin exclaimed, pointing like a kid who saw a toy he wanted in a shop window. For some reason, I had the urge to sigh. Reggie seemed to want to as well, though he kept it in and held his gun in my direction, though not pointing it.
"Will you take this seriously Delsin, we don't know what he wants or what he'll do," Reggie whisper-shouted, trying to make his brother see reason. Delsin was about to reply but I interjected.
"'He' can hear you." I smirked, though they couldn't see it because of the half gasmask on my face. Reggie jumped slightly, probably thinking I was far enough for his words not to be heard.
"'He' also has a name, but I think that'll have to wait until we meet again." I said and turned to several incoming DUP armored vehicles. "If you can get through this without killing anyone or being killed, I'll come find you again."
The last thing I heard before leaving was Delsin's indignant voice shouting, "Oh come on!"
'Sorry dude, who told you to be so popular.' I chuckled while knowing the only reason that many came was because I showed up.
[Chapter 15 End]
A/N: So, what do you think? I don't think it's the best I could have done, but if I kept trying to make it better I'd just lose the plot of what I was trying to get too.
I think this mission will end in two, maybe three chapters, unless you guys want me to time skip this stuff and just give a recap of what happened up to the final confrontation. I was thinking about doing that since I can't really find a way for it to be interesting beyond 'Hell yeah! Fighting!' you know? [1]
Also, what do you think of the new cover? It took me a few days to get it how I wanted, it's still not exactly how I want it but it's the best one I got.
Anyways, that's enough out of me, if I keep typing I'll end up doing a Tom Holland.
And if you've read this far and are still reading, then I hope you have an incredible rest of your day/night.
[1] If you want to vote on that then just comment a 1 if you want the chapters or a 2 if you want a recap.