7Delsin caught sight of a vent and threw himself inside it with an excited cry, to reappear on top of the building, soaring through the hot air. His knee slammed onto the rooftop as he landed, and in a second he was on his feet like nothing happened.
"The dupes are right in the park in front of Owl Coffee, you can't miss them!" Eugene said through the earpiece.
"Oh, they're gonna suffer for taking my favorite coffee shop." Delsin groaned.
"You don't even drink coffee." snorted Fetch, barging into the line.
"Hey, you don't know my life." he retorted, and he jumped on the guardrail, glancing down below to the people in the street going on about their daily life.
"Are you kidding me?" she mocked. "You're as readable as a porn magazine."
"I freaking love this comparison, Fetch! I hope you don't mind if I use it later."
"Of course you will."
He stepped forward and let himself fall, the air blowing through his clothes and threatening to snatch his beanie away, and he dematerialized into a cloud of smoke right before he'd hit the ground, forming back in a second to run down the street, slaloming between the pedestrians like a man on a mission.
Well, technically, a Conduit on a mission.
"I see you~" Fetch said in his ear, and he looked up to the trail of pink neon that traced a line between the buildings above his head.
"That's pervy." he let out, amused, still running for dear life.
"Wanna race?"
"Oh, I could take you any day."
"Not with Smoke, you couldn't."
He turned right to a shortcut, let out an audible groan.
The nearest robber jumped as he heard the sounds of Delsin's footsteps and raised his gun to head-level.
"You really should've rescheduled this, guys." the Native said and in a swipe he uncoiled the chain around his wrist and threw it at the man, promptly knocking him off his feet and out at the same time.
Delsin smiled, already forgetting about the Latte Owl, and focused on the robber's buddies who were trying to force open the ATM and were now staring at him pointedly, guns out, masks on.
"It's Delsin Rowe!" one of them said out of fear. Delsin really liked the intimidated tone of his voice.
"Call me Mr. Cool." he said.
He raised his arm and fired at the same time as they did. One bullet hit Delsin's shoulder as he took cover behind a pillar and his smoke shot hit the ATM; the machine instantly started vomiting dollars.
"Make it rain, baby-" he laughed carelessly and his body combusted into smoke, his fast healing already taking care of the gun shot as he dived to the nearest bandit, catching him and throwing him to the ground with a puff of smoke to pin him down.
Another bullet flew near his head and he became ashes again; running through the guy, slamming the chain on his arm, breaking it, making the useless gun fall from the useless hand.
"Go to sleep." he said, hurtling him down too. "Now who else wants his ass spanked?"
His earpiece crackled as the last man appeared in his sight, back turned on him and running for his life on the main road, causing a few angry honks from the cars.
"Where the hell are you, Delsin?" Fetch cried out.
"Ugh, she didn't use the nickname, it's bad." he winced as he took his time to follow the guy, slowly taking aim. "I got caught up by a bank robbery!"
"They have a big-ass chopper!"
"What?"
"The dupes at the Latte Owl? Delsin, are you even listening to what I'm saying?"
Concentrated on his target, he squinted, tongue between his front teeth, pulled out the two pistol fingers and shot once.
The man dropped like a dead weight in the middle of the road in front of a very surprised police car.
"Headshot!" Delsin cried out. "Sorry Fetch, what were you saying?"
She roared. "Get your fucking ass over here!"
"Jeez, why be this bossy, woman…"
He bursted into an empty parking lot and jumped on a car. A powerful deflagration sent him flying and he safely landed on top of the building, away from the police and their questions and their cells that he learnt to profoundly dislike back in his teenage years.
Bursting into smoke yet again he made his way on top of the aerial monorail train and, arms stretched to keep his balance, ran on it, feeling like a kid playing the floor is lava.
"Delsin, we really need you!" said Eugene.
"I don't have the teleportation power yet, guys!" he yelled back, and the vibrations under his shoes let him know that it was time to jump off.
"What the hell were you doing anyway?" Fetch asked, and he heard screams and her neon shots going off in the background.
"Nothing." he lied, but the truth is, he just can't stop himself from talking. "I was just- busy saving the city."
"Bullshit." Fetch said.
"I don't think that's true." Eugene said.
"Oh, come on!" he let out, and finally he began to see the bank G. McCain. "You're supposed to back me up on this, game boy!"
"I'm not letting you pick on me anymore!" the kid said and Delsin couldn't help but feel proud.
"I don't- okay. I had been distracted by a thing, alright? It's not that big of a deal."
"What thing?"
"The scenic view, okay? I got distracted by the scenic view - oh, by the way, I'm here."
"Finally!"
He got on top of the Flower Shop to observe the damage below. The place was literally swarming with dupes vs angels, and the two Conduits hadn't managed to break the Command Center. This was mainly due by the fact that Fetch liked to play the safety card and destroy from above and there was too much trees and not enough visibility for Eugene to turn into a giant Angel.
Guess it was Delsin's role to fight on dry land.
He caught up to Fetch who was sending very pink neon rays to a machine gun that exploded.
"Missed me?" he asked cockily.
"In your dreams." she snorted. "Now do your job."
"Yes ma'am."
He noticed a red vent nearby, dashed in it to be propelled upwards, above their enemies. In half a second the chain was in his closed fist like a brass-knuckled and in another he slammed it first against the ground right in the middle of the dupes' base.
"My angels are covering you!" Eugene told him, and Delsin raised his left thumb into the air, his other hand already swinging the uncoiled chain at a soldier.
He whipped them all away, creating a no man's land around him.
"Damnit, they murdered the sign!" he said then in a moment of calm.
"What?" Fetch exclaimed.
"The Latte Owl blue sign!"
"Oh my god, focus!"
He turned back as a flock of bullets targeted him and he stumbled. In front of his eyes, a pawn screamed, an angel's claws gripping his shoulders and taking him away for a ride, and another fell, taken down by one of Fetch's beams.
"Would you care to focus, for fuck's sake?" she shouted, and he threw his hands up in the air.
"Leave me be!" he cried out, punching his way through the dupes to the Command Center. He climbed it and sent a violent cinder blast at the opening on the top of it, breaking it and letting the glowing heart surface.
He was about to pierce a hole through it with his fist when Eugene screamed with his angel voice.
"Their chopper will meet our path! Friends, look above and out for their vicious tentacles!"
"I have so many questions…" Fetch said, zapping a few pawns with her index.
"Eugene. That was. Very. Kinky." Delsin said, and with each pause he hit the heart until it screamed, and exploded in his hands; he recovered instantly from the blow by draining the smoke.
The sound of the helicopter's propellers came to his ears and he turned his head to the sky, a hand to shield the sun, just as Eugene's godly form appeared above the trees. He faced the chopper, and Delsin thought of a fight between Titans.
"Take them down, mah man!" he laughed and he then promptly threw sulfur at one of their enemies' hideouts, jumping off the Command Center
He threw another one just to make sure all of them were momentarily paralyzed before going to the coffee's terrace and stealing a still hot beverage from a deserted table. He proceeded to joyfully sip it, humming some old rock song between two swallows.
"DELSIN!" bellowed Fetch, and he jumped.
"Uh, right-"
A little bit disappointed, he threw what was left of the drink in a public bin nearby and started to tackle the pawns he had suffocated.
Above their heads, the chopper and Eugene in his angel form were dueling furiously through rockets and beams of material video. Delsin knew the gamer would keep the helicopter busy so it couldn't spray them with bullets, so he just took his time with beating the crap out of the enemies on the ground, Fetch taking care of the ones stabbing him in the back like a girly but pitiless vulture.
"Back-up incoming!" said Eugene as Delsin ducked to avoid getting his face bloodied and sent cinder at the man's ankles, making him trip and knock his head against the bricks of the building.
"Back-up for us?" Fetch asked hopefully.
"Unfortunately it seems not!"
Delsin stood in the middle of the knocked out pawns, panting slightly when the truck came, trespassing a few laws as it parked right in Latte Owl's terrace. Delsin squinted at the bishop that got off it, and in a swift shake of the wrist, unravelled the chain, letting it snake on the pavement.
"Delsin, don't do anything impul- here he goes."
He had already disappeared into smoke, reappearing next to the bishop and slamming the chain where he used to be a second ago. The bishop was now looking at him a few feet away, fragments of concrete flying around him and protecting him better than any armor.
Fetch zapped at him, uselessly, and so Delsin flew again, just to miss again.
"Stop running away!" he cried out, already tired of this game.
"Smoke, make him stand still so I can snipe him!" she decided, and he shook his head.
"You think that's easy?" The bishop vanished again, and Delsin spat. "Stop! I'm not trying to hurt- wait, I am actually, nevermind. Stop moving! Oh, that's it. You asked for it." he let out, clearly raging.
Turning his back on the bishop, he headed towards a red vent and reappeared on top of the Latte Owl, right next to a surprised Fetch.
"What are you d-"
"I need your power." Delsin said matter-of-factly before trying to grab her hand.
She escaped very narrowly and looked at him with suspicion.
"Delsin. Do you have ADHD?"
"What?"
"It's just-" she almost laughed into her hand, "I just noticed, you have all the symptoms-"
He grabbed her naked wrist before she could finish her sentence, instantly tensing up as her power flowed into him against her will, sparks of blinding pink and orange light arching between their arms.
The missile hit him. Delsin hadn't even finished the transfer.
Fetch didn't see the missile coming; in fact she really thought, just like Smoke, that Eugene had it all under control. Eugene had it all under control. Up until he hadn't, that is.
She had heard the bishop bark an order, something along the lines of "NOW" or some shit like that, but she had been too preoccupied at the time by Dell grabbing her wrist and forcing her neons into his smoke.
Cocky bastard.
Head banging painfully, she pushed herself from the ground with her palms. Coughs were snatched from her lungs and she was sure her once pink hair had gone back to brown, or maybe grey, due to the fright she just had.
She arose in a flash of colors, knowing better than just to daydream like there was no battle ingoing. Her ears rang equally as painfully as the cuts on every part of her body and she was sure she had a twisted ankle, but that was nothing her body couldn't heal. She stumbled a bit, having trouble recognizing her surroundings due to the compact smoke in the area, but at least she knew she had been propelled off the roof onto the street. She couldn't even see the neon signs of the shops around; but perhaps that was because the pawns and knights had taken them all down.
A pair of shaky hands caught her shoulder; she shrugged them off with a cry, expecting a pawn or some other D.U.P brave or stupid enough to touch her.
"It's me- Fetch, it's me!" the boy said under his hood; and she relaxed instantly.
"Damn, Eugene? Warn me next time, geez."
"Yeah, sorry- I… I destroyed the chopper, but I couldn't stop it in time…"
"It's fine, I'm fine." she snapped, and she realized how harsh she must seem and hastened to smile, brushing off how horrible she looked. "Look, it's already healing."
Indeed, a pink aura buzzed around her, focusing on the limbs where she was hurt the most.
"Oh, it's… it's great." he said, slowly easing up but still a shaky mess. "Where's Delsin?"
"He was right here…"
They turned around where the low grumbling, like the sound Delsin made when he was draining concrete, was coming from.
Eugene gasped and Fetch threw her arm up. Like the excellent sniper she was, she shot, once, without a beat. The ray hit the bishop in the head. The two Conduits looked at the clean hole in the skull during a few seconds, a few seconds is what it took for the bishop's knees to slowly give in. He fell next to Delsin's inanimate body.
"Is he alive?" Eugene asked once they were at his side, and Fetch took Delsin's face between her hands, rubbing her thumbs over his closed eyes in hope for a reaction.
"He's breathing." she replied. "But he's cold. He's supposed to be warm!"
"Fetch…"
She looked at what Eugene was pointing at, and winced.
Delsin's legs were encased in concrete.
"Fucking asshole." she spat, glancing at the dead bishop. "Got what you deserved."
"Delsin?" Eugene kept saying, he didn't dare touching Delsin for fear of hurting him somehow. "Delsin?"
Fetch snatched this stupid beanie off his head and inspected his skull for a concussion. Seeing no blood, she sighed in relief.
"He's just knocked out. I think he'll manage."
Eugene nodded, a little too erratically. "I'll summon an angel to carry him." The boy got on his feet and threw his hands in the air, blue pixels shooting out of his fingertips. Fetch liked his way of thinking.
"You're right. We better get out of here before our faces end up on the internet. Again." She angrily eyed the heads of nosy citizens already peeking from the windows and the corner of the buildings.
Eugene's angel was shaped in a second and obeyed to its creator's telepathic order, gently taking Delsin's body in its arms. The sight was quite comical and Fetch would have laughed if she wasn't so worried. Eugene then moulded himself a pair of pixelated wings and offered Fetch another angel, but she preferred following them on neon.
The wings fluttered and she was already running up an outer wall's facade when she heard him moan.
"Man, they fucking demolished the Owl…"
Eugene was just as surprised as her, but they both couldn't help but grin. Fetch perched herself on a balcony, in front of the floating angel and Eugene.
"Earth to Delsin." she said with a smile in her voice.
He was rubbing his forehead, cringing in front of the sun and the open sky, and he blinked, seeming lost.
"Are you okay?" Eugene asked shyly.
Delsin waved him off gently, and tried to get off the angel's arms. Of course, he failed, and yelped in pain.
"Damnit-"
"I'll laser that when we're less in the open." Fetch said, and she met Eugene's eyes, indicating him with a nod that they should go. She started to run on the rooftops, the boys following close.
"I feel weird." she heard Delsin say, his voice a groan in the breath of the wind.
"How weird?" she heard Eugene ask at his side.
He seemed to shrug, she didn't see his motions well, the waves of neon licking at her blurring her view.
"I dunno. I don't feel anything."
A/N: not sure about this. I'll update if you guys like it, and if more ideas start to flow.