I hear a familiar voice call out to me.
“Cole,”
It’s John.
I sit up and look at John.
“John. What’s making you come to me again,”
“Because you just gained a very powerful ability,”
“You know what it is?”
“I can sense it. You can summon a cyclone at will,”
I’m taken aback.
“I can summon tornados?”
“Yes, but it takes a lot of power,”
“It’s not a lightning bolt, but hell is it impressive,”
I ask John a question.
“John, you’re alive, right?”
“Yeah, why do you ask?”
“How’d you survive getting out of Empire City? I mean you’re a conduit, but it’d still be hell trying to get out of there,”
He looks a bit confused.
“It..wasn’t hard,”
I’m surprised.
“Hell, you’re stronger than me. Maybe you should be the one to take out The Beast,”
His eyes widen like a suspicion of his had been confirmed, but doesn’t elaborate.
“..Right. You’ll be waking up soon, Cole,”
My eyes open and I see the bright blue sky.
I rub my eyes.
“Oh, man. That one hit,”
Zeke runs up to me.
“Hey, glad you’re awake. There are idiots down there shootin’ up anythin’ that moves,”
“I’ll take care of them,”
I run and hop off the building into the street.
To my right is a bunch of militia shooting up a park.
“Alright, John said something about a cyclone,”
I train my hands together and gather a large amount of energy.
The energy’s color shifts from light blue to clouded black.
I reach up and swing the energy at the militia.
The ball of energy spins and takes the shape of a disc. Then, the disc expands into a large cyclone crackling with electricity that carries the militia away.
I look at my hands and mutter under my breath.
“No way..”
I hear Zeke yell from the rooftop.
“Damn, man! You’re damn near unstoppable!”
“Hell yeah I am,”
“Come on back up, your friend from the swamp is here and uh, oh, she’s gone, and she’s here again. It’s confusing,”
“I’ll be up there in a second,”
I climb up the building and see Zeke waving away the hazy smoke.
“Cough cough The hell is this stuff anyway..”
Nix appears beside him and starts speaking.
“It’s Napalm. What, can’t stand the smell?”
She grins and teases him.
“Well, not everybody likes the smell of gas,”
Zeke turns to face me.
“Anyway, spyin’ on the Militia has taken years offa my life, but damn is it worth it,”
I step forward.
“You found where they’re keeping Kuo?”
“Bertrand’s got all his veterans protecting an old cane plantation. Word is they got all the serious ‘deviants’ caged up in there,”
Nix speaks up.
“That’s the place with the streetcar out front, yeah?”
Zeke responds.
“That’s the one,”
“I got an idea. We fill the streetcar up with explosives, we get it going real real fast, ram it through the front door and boom!”
Zeke speaks up.
“But, uh, folks left caged up there will be burned alive,”
“C’mon, what’s a better distraction than fire?”
Zeke points at me.
“Lightning. Human lightning at that,”
I speak up.
“If we want precision, then we’ll need a bigger team. I’m strong, but taking all those guys out by myself would be damn near impossible,”
Zeke thinks for a second, then comes up with an idea.
“Bertrand’s got cages full of cops, paradin’ them around. They’ve been fighting the militia for the longest,”
“Okay, you figure we break ‘em out, give ‘em guns?”
Nix starts speaking with annoyance.
“Wait, wait, wait. Free cops? No, no no. If we do that, I’m out,”
“Think about it. Putting ex-cops back on the streets to fight the militia. That could pay off in the long run,”
Nix looks at me.
“C’mon baby. I thought we had something in common,”
I sigh.
“Nix..our end goal is to defeat The Beast. I’d rather that the path I take has the least innocents dead as possible,”
“And how are the cops gonna help with that?”
“They’ll take care of the militia while I can handle The Beast,”
“..Fine, we’ll do it your way, since you’re the Demon,”
Nix disappears in a puff of Napalm.
Zeke walks over, waving the hazy smoke away.
“Seems she’s not a fan. Either way, it’s your call chief,
I’m leaning towards freeing the cops. I already made a good first impression on them so I think it’s not a bad idea.
“Zeke,”
He looks over at me.
I continue.
“We’re gonna free some cops,”
He nods his head.
“Alright brother. Let me get ready for the heist,”
I walk over to the couch, sit down and think. Specifically about John.
Why is he contacting me? How? And the hell does he mean by “when the time comes”?
It seems like I’m missing something.
I stare off at the sky, waiting for Zeke to get ready.
Then suddenly, I get an instantaneous feeling. A deep feeling of dread. I quickly stand up. I already know what this feeling means. The Beast. He’s getting closer with each passing day. I have to get stronger and fast.
Zeke calls out to me.
“Hey brother! You good, man?”
I look over to him and take a deep breath.
“It’s the Beast, he’s on his way here. I got stronger, but nowhere near enough,”
“Hey man, one step at a time. You’ll beat the Beast, I promise,”
“Thanks man,”
I continue.
“So, let’s free some cops,”
Zeke gets his gun, some ammo and we head out.