"Alright, you're up first kid." The girl with pink hair said as she waved me through the door.
I uneasily gazed at her while I moved along the massive set of doors and barricades that made up the walls of Curdun Cay. I heard about the girl, Fetch, I think, and how Augustine trained her before she went rogue. After all that, she went to killing drug dealers, taking shit from rioters, but kept low... for a while.
I stared out into the sky of the world outside, remembering how I ended up in that prison for so long. I was just another average person, with hopes, dreams, fears, the usual. I was barely a kid when the first Bio-Terrorists showed up out of nowhere. Everyone was so afraid of them, but I barely thought about it. I tried to follow my dad's footsteps, becoming a mechanic, so I didn't hear much about those types of events underneath a most of my life. Granted, the business was still relatively small, but I always found solace in either working with my dad, or practicing some music. It wasn't until the D.U.P. showed up one day after hearing a report, and arrested one of my dad's workers. I went to talk to that lady, Augustine, but when I touched her skin, I blacked out.
By the time I woke up, I was in a massive cell block, alone, strapped down to a chair and cuffed. She came in, and told me about how I started to glow after touching her. I cried, screamed, begged to be released, but she just tried to keep calm, even motherly, at times. After a few days, I heard what she had to say, and found out that, apparently, I had the same powers over concrete, but I got them by absorbing the power from her. I barely understood what that meant, but it was enough to still make me afraid. She told me that I didn't have anywhere near enough experience to match one of her agents, but that my powers were focused enough that I'd need to be trained by her, just like Eugene and Fetch.
Despite that, she still put me through the tests. They were horrifying, unbearable, inhuman, anything that fits. It was all terrible, no matter what. Even the personal training was its own Hell. I barely made it out alive the first few practice runs, and it only got harder from there. Augustine told me that it was for my own good, and that soon, I'd be proving how important we all are.
That was, until Delsin Rowe tore down the communication hub from the Seattle Space Needle. After that, everything went to literal shit. He started out with good intentions, some of the guards said, that he wanted to just talk to Augustine. But when he started to go after mobile bases and incinerated every soldier and cop in his path, everything became even more complicated. The tests were accelerated, some prisoners went into critical condition, some got out, and the ones that went rogue ended up being worse off than they were when they were captured. Delsin had turned them into monsters. He made them Bio-Terrorists.
I still wanted to be a Conduit.
"So who's this kid?" A voice spoke.
I blinked a few times, before settling my vision on the two that were waiting by the entrance of the main gate. The first one I recognized instantly, Eugene. I nearly gasped when I saw how... different, he was. He wore some kind of sweater with the hood down and one of the sleeves torn off. On his exposed arm was an image of a devil of some kind, flaying some guy with a gun. And the look behind his glasses... the intent to kill... I felt more afraid of him than his actual Demons.
I turned my head and saw him. Delsin Rowe. He stood there with a red beanie, dark vest, and a red shirt underneath. The look he gave me, the way he stared me down, I felt powerless. I felt scared. More afraid than anything else I've ever known, even when Augustine had me train with her upper soldiers, learning how to make Concrete Vortexes. That smile he had... I think Satan would shiver in fear of that malicious look.
He clapped his hands together as he approached me.
"Well, who do we have here?" He asked to no one in particular.
"Trevor Miles." Eugene read from a tablet. "Apparently, Augustine's had him in a little pet project, similar to what Fetch and I went through. She's kept him on close watch, and apparently, was going to use him, and one other, as a last resort against us."
Delsin nodded as he held out his arms in the air.
"So you're like some kind of prize to the dead bitch, huh?"
I froze in place and stared at him.
"Y-yes?"
"Well then," He held out his hand to me, "welcome to freedom."
I looked down at his offering and tried to speak.
"But... wha-what about the people? In Seattle? Are they, okay with this?" I asked nervously.
Delsin laughed a bit before he placed his hands to his sides.
"Buddy, listen. The, "normals"," He quoted with his fingers, "have no choice in this. You're free as a bird, and if any of them give you trouble, just take 'em down a notch with that good-old Conduit attitude."
I nearly took a step back before I heard another person come up behind me. Before I could turn, however, Delsin came up to me and patted my shoulder, to which I instantly started to back away from, but he kept me in place.
"Come on, enjoy your life. Freedom for all of us! We've got a whole city to take, man!" He reached out with his hand once more. "So let's see what you've got!" His hand shot out and grabbed mine before I could react.
In that instant, I saw everything that was Delsin Rowe. I saw the power he had, the power we shared. I saw everything he had ever seen. I saw his childhood with his brother, Reggie, the Akomish, Hank's powers, Hank's death, Fetch and her powers, Eugene, Augustine, the thousands of DUPs that he murdered, the hundreds of civilians casually obliterated, destruction, violence... Bio-Terrorism.
I collapsed to the ground, feeling every fiber of my being burning and crawling, like I was made of ants, and started hacking violently. I heard Delsin stand up as he began to talk.
"You... you can't have... you... you absorbed all the Relays when Augustine... you're.... you're like me..."
I remember now, the rushed experiments on me after he arrived. I was told to try and do what he did with the Core Relays, and I managed to actually absorb them. I took in all 20 of the ones they tested me with. I had used that power to enhance my Concrete abilities. I had used them to make Augustine proud. I was going to use them to make Delsin sorry for crossing her.
"You were... you were planning, on taking me down..." He realized. "You think you can take me down?"
As I began to wheeze, my lungs felt like they were being ripped apart, and I looked down to find my exposed arms glowing a multitude of colors and effects, from Concrete, to Smoke, and two more that I thought I recognized. I heard someone scream from behind me, shouts that seemed to fade away as I hit the surface of the floor. In front of me, was another Conduit. The one that Augustine spent time training for the second deployment, just like me. The only difference now, however, was that his eyes were lifeless, and his body was smoking.
I looked up to find Delsin, standing there with a purple glow around his hands as he stared at me with a glare that would have killed me on the spot. He said something I couldn't hear before raising his hands at me, sending the purple energy towards me as my vision started to fade. All around me, space began to shift, my weight coming and going while everything went from burning, to freezing, to everywhere between and beyond. Everything became the same hue of purple, before fading to black, and enveloping me.
\\\//////
[Change of perspective: 3rd]
\\\//////
"And so that's basically the gist of it, Rarity." Finished Coco Pommel.
She waited as the woman next to her processed the story she had told, and held her breath.
"Well, I must say, I wish your brother the best of luck, Coco." The fashionista replied.
"Thank you."
"So, what do you think you're going to do until Manehatten lifts from this dreadful situation? I suggest you stay with me until this all blows over, honestly."
Coco gave a sigh of defeat before nodding.
"Thank you so much, Rarity."
The woman dressed in white leaned over and gave her friend a hug.
"Oh, think nothing of it, darling."
A set of footsteps drew their attention to their left, where Spike came up with a coffee in each hand.
"Hey, sorry I took so long," He said with a slight panting in his breath, "you wouldn't believe the lines at Sugarcube Corner. Had to take a walk around the back of the district to get to the coffee shop."
Rarity smiled before Spike extended the cups towards the two women on the bench.
"So, what's happening?" He asked.
"Well, it turns out Coco may need to stay here a bit longer."
"Damn. Manehatten's getting that bad?" He asked while putting his hands in his pockets.
Coco could only nod slowly, straining to hold back tears.
Before they could progress their conversation, however, a sudden burst of wind and sound brought their attention to a large purple mass above the pond. It slowly grew outwards, pulsating what looked like pixels from a T.V. or a video, some weird lights, and began to smoke quite a bit. As seconds seemed to turn into hours, a whining sound began to emit from the orb, and a strange energy began to cause the ground to shake. Finally, the orb collapsed inwards in a massive flash, but not before spitting out something that looked vaguely like a person, right into the ground. The birdbath by the area of impact toppled over to the side, and dirt began to fly into the air.
After the anomaly, Spike, Rarity, and Coco all ran towards the crater, where a small streak of burning dirt met their vision. Inside the center, however, was a man. Though he could barely be called that, as his facial features looked as though he were no more than 18. His body, however, had drawn more attention, since he looked as though he was half-way between starving and muscular, as his ribs poked out from underneath well-toned muscles from underneath a burned white shirt. Thankfully, his black pants were intact, only being burned by the ankles. He was covered in burns and bruises, making the three want to help him immediately. They stayed back, however, as he began to stir and cough up Equestrian soil.
\\\//////
[Perspective Change: 1st, Trevor]
\\\//////
I coughed up what tasted like dirt, and found that it was indeed dirt that made its way into my mouth. Every fiber of my being burned and ached, feeling as though I had been dragged through a literal Hell. I tried to open my eyes, and found myself in a crater of some sorts, barely able to hack out my own lungs. I rolled over to my left and looked around for anything that might help.
A birdbath.
Thank God.
I reached out with my left hand, and began to concentrate on absorbing it.
\\\//////
[Perspective Change: 3rd]
\\\//////
The three watched with fascination as the man reached out with a yellow glow around his arm, and pointed towards a broken bird bath. At first, they were confused why he was pointing towards it, until it began to unravel itself into shards and flew straight into his skin. Coco jumped back in surprise, making an appropriate sound for the situation, but was calm enough to watch on. The mysterious man stood up, and around his skin, the shards of concrete began to meld with his exposed torso under the yellow glow, mending his burns and fading his bruises. He gave a sigh of relief before cracking his neck and wrists.
\\\//////
[Perspective Change: 1st, Trevor]
\\\//////
"Christ almighty, that's the stuff." I sighed out with a smile.
I checked myself for any remnants of the Curdun Cay prisoner uniform, and was thankful to find none of it intact. All burned away. That's when I remembered being attacked by Delsin. I thought it was the end of my life. Thankfully, the Conduit power he absorbed was just some kind of portal-opener or something. I looked up from the crater and saw-
...
...
... aw, fuck.
Standing right in front of me were three people, two women, one man. The man had a purple jacket with jeans, and had green, spiky hair, like he was watching some kind of animated show and thought it'd be a good idea to look like that. The woman in the middle was wearing a peach-colored dress shirt with a blue skirt. On her head was a red... thing, I don't know fashion, sitting on hair that was a series of light blues. The third one was wearing a purple skirt, a white blouse, had purple, curly hair, and a horn in the middle of her fore... he... h... horn... horn... Horn.
SHE HAS A HORN!
"What the Hell..." Was all I could manage, staring at the appendage.
The three looked to each other with worrisome faces before I realized that they had seen me use my Conduit powers. I looked down at my hands, which were still healing with the shards of concrete, and began to panic.
"Dude," The guy in purple spoke to me, "are you alright?"
I looked up at them with surprise, unsure of what was happening. Instead of trying to reply, however, I felt myself begin to fade back into unconsciousness. The world went black as I met emptiness once more.
\\\//////
[Perspective Change: 3rd]
\\\//////
Spike jumped down into the crater and picked up the stoney-man, holding him up by putting one of his arms around his shoulder. Rarity moved up to help him out with a tug of magic, but found no grip along his skin. They managed to get him out of the crater after some effort, as Spike began to speak again.
"We gotta get him to Twilight. If anyone can help, it's her."
"Spike, deary, we have to take him to a hospital. He just came out of some kind of portal, and you saw that strange magic. Look at his skin!" She gestured towards his chest, where shards of concrete were still present, pulsing every few seconds.
"But Twilight may be able to find out what that was that he did. I mean, what if it's something the doctors can't solve, hmm? And we have no idea what he'd do if he wakes up in a hospital, with sick people and babies everywhere. It'll be way safer if we just bring him to Twilight."
Rarity gave a grunt, but complied anyways. She tried to help lift the concrete man, but found herself unable to try and hold up his arm. Coco watched as they began to carry the strange new man, and found herself looking back at the wreckage of his entrance. She held out her hand and tried to sense for anything magical, but found it rather void. After looking at the site for a few more seconds, she ran towards her friends, and helped them carry the man to the Library.
Twilight examined the large collection of floating books that she kept within her magic, scanning each one for a certain writing. She had received a letter from the Princess about a non-magical distortion nearby, and she wanted to ensure that she could properly analyze it. Though she knew every book fifty times over, she had to be 100% sure that she didn't posses a book on the topic at hand. The alicorn gave a sigh as she finished going through the last of her book collection, unable to find the notes on portals.
Her focus changed, however, when Spike came through the front door, carrying someone who was covered in dust.
"Twi!" He called to her. "Could use some help here!"
Twilight rushed over to his side and tried to pick up the thin man with her magic, but found it hard to try and get a grip on him. After some strain, however, she managed to lift him off of Spike and began to levitate him to the couch.
"Okay, who is this and why did you bring him here!?" She asked.
Rarity came in through the door, panting lightly while her blouse seemed a bit moist near her armpits. She flipped her hair before walking over to Twilight.
"We... saw him, exit a portal... by the park, and thought you should see... what he did."
A familiar woman with light blue hair came in after her and looked towards the couch as Twilight looked between her friends and the stranger.
"Well, what did he do?"
Spike walked over to Twilight and began to babble.
"You shoulda- he did the- burm-" He gestured with his arms, "and then the-frokk! Andandand, h-he!"
Rarity put a hand on the Dragon's mouth to silence him.
"What Spike means to say, is that he pointed to a birdbath and absorbed the stones."
Twilight looked between the two before cracking a slight smile, then slowly grew to a chuckle.
"You... you guys are worse than Dash!" She exclaimed. "He doesn't have a horn, so how can he do magic?"
"Well, that's why we brought him here. He just," She made the same gestures that Spike made earlier, "and then just fainted out of nowhere."
Twilight looked back to the man on the couch, and widened her eyes as she saw his skin start to glow yellow as the dust on his chest turned into a flesh-like color before melding with his skin. She raised a finger to him and slowly approached.
"What..."
Immediately, she began to magically scan him, trying to find some kind of source for the small display. When she scanned him, however, she couldn't find any trace of ambient magic. She stopped scanning and looked back to the others.
"He doesn't have any magic." She stated.
Rarity backed up as Spike took a slightly defensive stance.
"Does that mean he's a Blank?" He asked with a slight growl.
Coco widened her eyes as she listened to this familiar scenario play out once more. Twilight shook her head as she spoke again.
"No... no, if he was a Blank, he wouldn't be able to do... whatever that was."
Before they could let the news sink in, however, the man began to stir and mutter, somehow still not awake.
\\\//////
Trevor watched as the world burned by him, coated in different stories of life, powers, Curdun Cay, and the three others that had been trained like him. The first was the girl, fetch. He watched as she was revealed to the D.U.P. by her own parents, before her brother took her to the city to escape. They got involved with the wrong crowds, and eventually, it all ended when Fetch killed her brother. The visions switched to Eugene, tortured until he could control his Video powers, summoning training holograms for the soldiers and special agents, before he finally got out of that prison, and wreaked havoc on the Akura with Delsin. Then came Hank. He started using his powers with a life of crime. Eventually he got caught by the D.U.P. After he got brought in, however, he began to talk the staff into being more open with him, snaking his way into their trust before he could escape on that armored transport. And before he was killed before he could reach his daughter. He tried to take in all of the memories at once, feeling every cell in his body overload with their collective powers, trying to fight for a dominant trait while ripping him apart.
He remembered this feeling from training, before Delsin killed Augustine. He needed to remember his first power. He needed to focus on a grip of stone.
\\\//////
The glow returned to Trevor's body as small stones began to pulsate around his skin, startling the other people in the room before a crunching sound began to sound from his form. All of the stones sunk back into his form before he gasped loudly and began to violently cough, his body struggling to organize the powers he held. Trevor rolled off the furniture as he gripped at his chest, the burning still present in his chest.
After a minute of trying to steady his breathing, the Conduit finally managed to find a calm. He slowly raised himself from the floor and looked around. He was in a library, that much was obvious by the amount of books that practically made up the walls. The only thing unique was that it looked like it was all inside of a tree, with wooden floors and walls that curved in natural angles. In the large room were four others. There were the two woman and the one man from before, but now there was another woman with purple hair that had a pink streak in it. What set her apart, however, was the fact that she had a horn, and wings!
Trevor looked between them and slowly started to back away, remembering that they had seen him using his powers. Before he could try to think, however, a purple glow came from the four one's horn as she spoke.
"Okay, just calm down," She spoke in a calm tone, "we don't want to hurt you."
The Conduit looked swiftly between them all before he started to concentrate on his Concrete power, coating his arms with the hardened substance.
"How do I know you don't have a DUP squad waiting for me right outside? Or some kind of specialist teams? Waiting to capture me?"
The one with a horn and wings gave him a questioning look.
"What's a DUP? And why would we try to capture you?"
Trevor blinked with a shocked expression, but kept his defense up.
"The people that track down Conduits, like me."
"And what is a Conduit?"
Trevor stepped back a bit, raising his hands and balling them into Concrete Fists.
"How do you not know what a Conduit is!? Empire City!? Seattle!? The whole, "Bio-Terrorist" shit!?"
"Look, just... calm, down, okay? I don't think we've ever heard of "Empire City," but did you mean Seaddle? I don't think there's anything going on there."
Trevor began to lower his fists as he asked another question.
"Where am I? What country is this?"
"You're in Ponyville, Equestria."
Trevor stood still as the glow around his hands began to dim. He blinked several times while looking between the abnormal humans as he processed his situation.
"Oh my God..." he exhaled before placing his hands on his head.
The one with wings and a horn slowly approached him before talking.
"Are you okay?" she asked.
"I'm... I'm in another world," he stated.
"I think we may be jumping to conclusions here," she spoke, "so let's just... not use our magic, and-"
"Magic?" Trevor interrupted. "There's no such thing as magic."
The man with green hair scoffed and waved towards Trevor.
"Really? No magic? Then how are you doing that."
Trevor held his hands out and looked at the power fluctuating around his arms.
"I told you, I'm a Conduit. If you knew what that was, then I wouldn't think I was in another world."
The girl between them raised her hands to both of them.
"Just calm down, everyone, okay? Let's just try and act civil here."
The man opposite Trevor gave a sigh as he visibly relaxed, prompting Trevor to relax his power slightly. When the glow faded, the girl smiled and walked towards Trevor. Despite his gaze, she stood before him and offered a hand.
"My name is Twilight Sparkle."
The woman with purple hair waved a bit.
"I'm Rarity."
The man shrugged.
"Spike."
To which the woman in white elbowed him in the gut.
Trevor looked between them all and then back down to the hand that was offered to him and raised his own to greet it.
"Trevor. Trevor Miles."
He then gripped Twilight's hand and gave it a firm shake, a faint glow somewhat present after contact. Trevor felt as though there was something to absorb from her, almost like a Conduit gene, but found nothing to copy. After a few seconds, they let go as Trevor began to talk again.
"Thank you for finding me, I guess."
Spike shrugged as Rarity spoke up.
"It was the least we could do. But how did you actually get here?"
Trevor sighed as he placed his hands on his head.
"In my world, there's two kinds of humans: normal, and Conduits. There was one, Delsin Rowe, he took on an organization that tried to keep all of us, the Conduits, in one place. After absorbing several powers, he took on the boss, Augustine, and when he won, he threw her off a skyscraper before coming to Curdun Cay, where she kept all of us. He tried to absorb my powers, but... it turns out that I could absorb his powers, too. So he thought I would try something and absorbed another Conduit's powers, and used them to send me here."
Twilight finished writing a note that she held in a purple glow, causing Trevor to back away in surprise.
"What the Hell!?" he shouted
Twilight froze and looked between the magically held sheet of paper and Trevor.
"It's just magic. Do you really not have magic where you're from?"
"No, we don't."
"Interesting."
Trevor backed up and looked at the lot of them once more before speaking.
"Anyways, thanks for uh... helping, but I think I should go now."
"Hold on," Spike started, "and where do you think you're going?"
"I don't know. Whole new world, weird... magic," he said while waving a hand towards Twilight, "and stuff. I might just try and find a job somewhere? What would you expect me to do?"
"Um, I don't think you'd be able to fit in easily," a new voice said.
The Conduit turned towards the source of the voice to find the other woman that he had seen when he first woke up.
"Why?"
She began to rub her left arm with her right hand as she looked away from him.
"Well... you don't have a magical signature... so they might think you're... a Blank."
"Alright, what's a Blank?" he asked.
"A Blank... they're like sleeper agents, waiting to absorb other people's magic. If you try to get a license for anything, or just an ID, you'd be brought in and..." she drifted off.
Trevor blinked a few times before giving off a dry chuckle.
"Great. So I'm basically in the exact same situation I'd be in if I stayed in my old world!" he exclaimed.
The woman shifted a bit before talking again.
"Well... you could, um, try to sneak out on a train? I mean, your best chance for fitting in would... probably be Manehatten."
The other three gasped as Trevor looked to them.
"What? What's wrong with..." he slowly turned back to the one with blue hair, "'Manehatten'?"
She nodded slowly as Trevor began to lower his arms.
"Moving on, what's wrong with that place?"
The others began to exchange looks as Twilight spoke.
"There's... been terrorist attacks... by Blanks, all over the city. The Equestrian Guard's placed the entire city under Martial Law. Getting in is easy, what with all the relief efforts being directed there, but to get out, you'd need to pass through several magic scanners. And since you don't have one, they'd think you're a Blank, and..."
Trevor looked between the few others in the room, thinking about what options he had.
"I guess... that's a chance I'll have to take."
He turned to the woman who had suggested Manehatten, and spoke.
"What's your name?" he asked.
She stood still for a few seconds before answering.
"C-Coco Pommell," she answered with a slight smile.
"Hold on," Twilight interrupted, "you're not serious about going, are you?"
Trevor turned back to her.
"What's wrong now?"
"Well, there's terrorist attacks, for one, you could be mistaken for one of them, for another, not to mention that I just realized that you're an alien from another world, and we have no idea what could be harmful to you, what you intend to do, nor do we have any sort of clue as to what sort of way that you should even be introduced into Equestrian society," she rambled.
"I think my best bet right now would be to try and blend in, actually. You're looking at this like I'm some kind of actual alien, but I'm not. I'm just some guy that happened to fall from the sky. I mean, hardly something that needs to be brought up with anyone or anything. I'd rather try and make some use out of my time right now, anyways. Besides, I almost got killed a few minutes ago. I don't think I'd be trying anything to put myself in a similar position."
Twilight raised a finger to argue, but found no words to form as she sighed in defeat. As she did, Rarity clapped her hands to gain attention.
"Well, if you're going to be leaving for anywhere, I think you'd want some better attire for the big city, hmm?"
Trevor looked down to his torn slacks and cracked a smile.
"Sure. Thank you."
"Then follow me," she said before turning to the door.
The Conduit took a look back at Coco and motioned for her to follow before walking towards the door.
