I wake up a few hours later and decide to go for a walk.
On my walk people were praising me.
“We’re so glad you’re here. Don’t know what we’d do without you,”
It’s only been a few hours since I freed those citizens from the train station, since I’ve been called a hero by them. Seems the word is spreading quicker than I thought.
Suddenly, Moya talks to me.
“Cole, head over down the block now,”
“What’s up?”
I start to jog down the block.
“The reaper situation isn’t done,”
I turn the corner and see a similar situation to Smith Fountain.
“What the hell?”
I look around and people still vomiting that black sludge.
“There are still people getting sick? I thought I handled it,”
In my peripheral, I see someone running towards me.
It’s Trish.
“Trish I—”
She cuts me off.
“This is like the fountain all over again. Why aren't you stopping this?”
“I blew up a whole tanker full of this stuff under the park. Thought that would do it,”
“Well, it's coming from somewhere — these people aren't getting sick on their own, Cole,”
She scowls at me then turns away. My heart tightens as she walks away.
Moya starts talking.
“The only remaining source of water in that area is from the water towers on the rooftops, see what’s going on up there,”
“Alright, I’m on it,”
I start to scale a nearby building.
I look onto the roof and it’s crawling with reapers.
“Reapers are up here, and there's a weird metal keg attached to the water tower,”
“That must be how they're polluting the water. Destroy it,”
I take down the reapers and climb the water tower and inspect the keg.
I push the air infront of me and cause a shockwave to destroy the keg but the stuff blasts all over my face.
“Hack...this crap, it's messing with my powers…”
Moya responds.
“The effects will wear off eventually. Besides, if that stuff gets into the water, a lot of people will get sick. They're not as strong as you,”
She continues.
“There are still 2 more kegs, so destroy them, and you can wait out the effects after,”
Luckily, the water towers are on neighboring buildings, But I damn near fall off because of this sludge numbing my senses. When I get to the next building, I start to climb the ladder.
Before I can finish climbing the ladder I get kicked in the jaw by a reaper conduit, which makes me fall and hit my back on the roof.
I get up caressing my jaw.
“You got a damn good leg,”
Since the last time I fought one of these guys, I’ve had ideas of how I could beat them. One of them is a new power that I came up with.
I straighten my hands and let the electricity flow through them. The electricity straightens and hardens, creating electrical swords from my hands.
The reaper conduit dashes at me but I thought as much. By the time it reaches me I slashed it with my electrical blades, transferring all of the electricity in them into it, which causes the reaper conduit to fall to the ground lifeless.
I climb the water tower and destroy the keg. This time I cover my face so I’m not affected as much.
I go to the next building, climb the water tower and destroy the keg. I climb down the ladder, and start wiping my face when I hear a voice.
“She's going to be pretty pissed about this,”
I look up and see a familiar looking man in a trench coat with a mechanical right hand.
“Who the hell are you?”
I study his face. He sounds familiar.
“Just a concerned citizen. Now hold still!”
He leaped towards me, his icy fingers digging into my head. For a moment, there was nothing, and then he started to show me things... horrible things, beyond description. And in that split second, I understood... he was showing me the future. Death and destruction on an unimaginable scale.
As he released me, I knew that he was responsible for all of it, that he had opened Pandora's Box, and it wasn't ever gonna close... and that damn Ray Sphere was somehow involved. By the time that I recover, he was already gone…
I just stood there, dumbfounded at what I had just seen.
I snap out of my daze when Zeke calls.
“Get on back here, brotha. Got some beverages chillin' for ya,”
“Thanks..I’ll be right there,”
I was still trying to comprehend what happened.
That man was able to show me the future, so he must have the same powers as me from the blast. But how did he manage to lay low for this long without attracting attention.
I shake my head and decide to head to Zeke’s place for now.
--5 hours later--
I’m sitting on the couch watching some bad shows with Zeke.
“Hey brother, I forgot to tell you,”
“What’s that?”
“People around the Neon have been hangin’ posters with your face on ‘em. They love you man!”
“I’m just doing what I can. No one needs to throw me a parade,”
“Still man. You’re doing great out there,”
Moya starts talking.
“Got some intel. The leader of the reapers is a woman named Sasha. Until a few months ago, she was a high-ranking member of the First Sons. She also seems to be where the reapers plague is coming from,”
I stand up from the couch.
“So you think she knows where John is?”
“There's no way of knowing. But even if she doesn't, you have to take her out. It's the only way we'll be able to get a handle on the plague. I'll let you know when I've locked down her location. In the meantime, you can turn on another substation,”
Zeke starts to talk.
“Back to the streets, superhero,”
I fistbump Zeke.
“Guess so. I’ll be back as soon as I can,”
“Hell, better be. Gets lonely here nowadays,”
After he says that I hop off the roof and head towards the sewers.
YOU ARE READING
The Legacy of Cole MacGrath
ActionOn another typical day in Empire City, a bike courier, Cole MacGrath, is delivering a package that would change his life permanently.
