The Legacy of Cole MacGrath

Chapter 7: Mind Games

I reach the valve with unexpectedly no backlash from reapers. I brace myself and turn the valve, it blasts me in the face again.

“Ugh — son of a…”

I try to wipe my face but it doesn’t help.

“I feel your broken heart, Cole. So much emotion, bottled up with nowhere to go. Why do you love her? She's beneath you. You deserve better,”

“...just... shut up…”

I try to ignore her and head for the third valve.

“You're all alone, you know. No one cares about you. Not the girl, not the fat man on the roof. Not the woman under the bridge. Only I love you. I've always loved you, Cole. Always and forever,”

“For God's sake... get out!”

I shake my head, and that seems to get her out but I feel weaker.

After a little bit more walking, I reach the third valve.

I grip the valve and turn it with all my might and get blasted in the face with more sludge.

I yell out as the intoxicating, viscous liquid sends me on another trip.

“Ahh..!”

“You won't be able to shut me out forever. Eventually, a crack will appear, and that crack will spread and grow larger, and then the wall comes down. It's only a matter of time,”

Moya starts to talk and her voice is muffled.

“Now that the valves are off, you need to figure out how those maniacs are getting that tar into the system. The only primary water line around there runs under Memorial Park — head into the tunnel and look for it,”

The woman in my head starts talking again.

“You don't know love. Not true love. But I will teach you. And then the bastard will see what he lost,”

Both Moya and the woman in my head stopped talking, so I start to head towards Memorial Park. 

Once I reach the tunnel under Memorial Park, I look inside and I see it crawling with reapers, I run inside and start tearing away at them. 

After a bit, I reached the end of the tunnel.

“There's a truck attached to the pipe down here,”

Moya responds.

“That's probably the source of the plague. Destroy it,”

I lift my hands up and start to blast the truck, it catches on fire and not soon after explodes.

“What the hell is this stuff?”

“Some kind of mind-control agent. It appears to be organic, but I don't know how they're producing it,”

“Ugh. Yeah, well, sure did a number on me. I'm heading back to Zeke's — my head is killing me,”

It was a long walk back but once I got back to the roof, I went to bed.

I wake up some hours later, drink the rest of a beer, and eat a granola bar. Since I haven’t been told what to do yet by Moya, I head out and start to slowly clear out the reapers from the Neon. Bit by bit making it a slightly safer place.

Moya starts talking a few hours later.

“I've flagged the position of the next substation in your GPS, Cole,”

“Shouldn't I be hunting for John and the Ray Sphere?”

“You need to look at the big picture: Every time you restore electricity to a section of the city, your powers grow. It’s a valuable use of your time while I hunt for leads,”

“You’re right,”

While I make my way to the sewers I take out reapers I see along the way.

When I get to the sewers I hop down.

“Hey, Moya, I'm down in the sewer. Should have the power back on in no time,”

“Roger,”

The transformer was right in front of me as I dropped in the sewer, I put my hands on both sides and let the current flow through me and make a circuit.

I start to see another vision.

I see myself on a rooftop jumping onto an induction wire running from one building to another and start to skate across it at a quickly increasing speed.

When I come to there’s an induction wire in front of me. Just then, my receiver gets a call and I answer.

“Dude,”

“Hey, Zeke,”

“You been payin' attention to that TV jacker? Used to think he was pretty righteous, but now he spends half his time trashin' you. Makes me think it’s time you pay him a little visit,”

“Believe me, I'd love to. No idea where he's hiding, though,”

“Probably holed up in the old TV station over in the Historic District. You find him, you give him a taste of the good stuff. He's gotta learn not to run his mouth all the time,”

After that he hangs up. Not long after, I find the substation and charge it up. I climb up the ladder and exit the sewer, the power to this part of the Neon District is restored.

“Good work, Cole. When you're ready, I've got a couple of things I'd like you to look into. One of them might lead us to John,”

“Really?”

“Yes, Head north of the Neon train station,”

“Into the powered down area?”

“Yeah, a train stopped when the power went out,”

“Okay. I’m heading’ there now,”