Static Sparks (Good Karma)

"The thing in the package was called a Ray Sphere. It drains the neuro-electric energy in the area and concentrates it into an individual," Twilight explained.

Cole stared at her, "I thought that you were out of it during her explanation."

"Oh, I heard her, it just didn't register yet because of the shock," she said.

Zeke gasped, "I knew it! Every word of what I've been saying is true. A secret organization is working for the government to work on the Ray Sphere. Now it all makes sense."

Cole said, "If you don't calm down you're going to hurt yourself."

"That Ray Sphere must dish out powers to whoever uses it. You need bring that thing back here," Zeke said.

"Yeah, I could use a side-kick," Cole said.

"No way in hell. Zeke Jedediah Dunbar is his own man," he declared.

"Your middle name is Jedediah?" Cole asked.

"Yes it is, after my grandfather. For a man his size he was strong. I don't really know where Zeke comes from, but I'm pretty sure-" Cole interrupted him.

"You need to take a bath, and get some rest. Me and Twilight have some things we need to take care of," he told Zeke.

"You stay and get some rest too Spike," seeing him about to protest she cut him off. "No, it's late. You should get some rest."

He was still about to protest, but they fell short when he yawned. "Fine," he relented begrudgingly.

She held out her hand, "Let's go Cole." She unfurled her wings and prepared to take off.

"Hang on. How come you didn't fly or teleport past the underside of the bridge?" Zeke asked.

"I didn't fly because of how dangerous it was, plus it was a confined space. Wings are very sensitive, even if I healed the wound, I might not be able to fly for a while. I didn't teleport because I didn't know what the lay out of the bridge was and I could of teleported us into something. I didn't teleport to the road because I didn't know if anyone was there. It also would have tired me out to teleport so far," she explained. "I'm going to fly now because we are in an open area."

After hearing her explanation Cole hesitated, but took her hand.

As she took off, Moya called them, "I've got some leads for you guys. I've uploaded the coordinates to your phone. When you're in position, call me." She hung up.

"Not that I'm ungrateful, but I could of gotten there fine myself. Is there a reason for this?" Cole asked.

"Not really. Just thought I'd show you the city from the air and what it's like to fly without a machine under you," she said.

After a moment, Twilight staggered. Cole looked up at her, "Are you OK?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. That was weird though. I had a sort of vision. I saw you using more powerful versions of your powers," she told him. She looked down and saw two Reapers on a roof. "Let's try something out. I want you to hit one with your shockwave. Then I'm going to try something."

"Sure, alright," he said, somewhat worried about her change of tone. They headed down to where the Reapers were and silently landed behind them. They snuck up on them and Cole fired a shockwave at one. The Reaper was sent flying and slammed into the ground, before he could get up Cole hit him with a bolt. "Now what?" he asked, looking back at Twilight.

As she put up a shield up to keep the other Reaper away from them, she held one hand to his chest and the other to his head. She focused her magic into her hands and siphoned it into Cole. As she did some electricity sparked from her hands and went to him.

He felt warmth course through him as her magic went in to his body. He saw a flash of him using the shockwave, but this time with a different effect.

She lowered the shield to let Cole try out the change she made.

He aimed at the other Reaper and shot a shockwave at him. When it hit the Reaper instead of just being sent flying he floated slowly through the air as if the gravity for him was turned off. After a minute or two the effects wore off and he fell. Before they could get up Twilight shot him with a beam.

Cole looked at her, "What did you do?"

"I'm not entirely sure. I think that's how I'm connected to you. I can enhance your powers, but I don't think I can do a bunch at once. I can do a few, but after that I'll have to wait a while. I'm not sure how long I'll have to wait. It will probably vary depending on the power and how strong the enhancement is," Twilight explained.

"Well, that will be helpful," he said. "What else can you do at the moment?"

"I can enhance your lightning bolt to where it will recharge you a little with every successful hit. Your electric drain, so you can absorb electricity faster. Increase the amount of electricity you can store in your fist to increase the damage you deal. Same with your blades. And last I can increase the blast radius of your thunder drop," she listed off. "I think I could enhance one more at the moment."

Cole thought about it, "How about the lightning bolt upgrade? It sounds like it would be helpful in a bind."

Twilight repeated the process she did before. After she was done, they headed toward one of the locations that Moya had indicated.

When they reached the location. Cole called Moya, "OK, we're here. What do you want us to do?"

"I'm getting some strange interference from the rooftop not far from you two. You need to find out what its purpose and origin is. I'm not entirely sure what you're looking for, but it's probably some kind of transmitter. Let me know when you find it," she instructed.

Twilight looked at him, "So, you want to fly, teleport, or just climb up there?"

"How about we save flying for long distance and teleporting for when you have a clear idea of where we are going or in case of an emergency. We'll climb this since it's right here," Cole told her.

Twilight nodded and they set off to climb the designated building. After jumping and climbing from airduct to airduct, they reached the roof. Once there, they saw satellite dish with some device attached to it.

Cole contacted Moya, "We found the source. There's a satellite dish with what looks like a portable audio device attached to it."

"See if you can use your phone to listen to it," she told him.

Cole walked up to the device and took the audio file from the it and put it into his phone. When he played it all they heard was some weird static. "Sounds like nothing, but garbage to me," he said.

"That's because it's an encrypted message, but I can't break it. See if you can't find another one near you," she instructed them.

"Hang on I have an idea," he said to them. He closed his eyes and focused. He felt every source of electricity around him, but he also felt something else. He could feel the electricity from it, but it felt different. He pointed in the direction it was coming from, "There's one that way. It feels kind of far though."

Twilight looked at him, "You can tell where they are?"

Cole said, "It's faint, but I can feel the direction it's in."

She unfurled her wings, "So, since it's far do you want to fly over there?"

He nodded and took her hand. She took off towards the direction Cole had indicated. Every once in a while he would check to see if they were headed in the right direction. When they got close, Twilight descended to a roof. When they landed they saw another satellite with the same device attached to it. Cole took the file and placed it into his phone. They heard the same strange static as before.

Cole contacted Moya again, "Did you hear it? It's the same thing as before."

"Look for more of those files. I'm running them through a decryption device. I've almost deciphered it, but I don't have enough data."

He concentrated again and felt another pulse. "That way," he told Twilight.

They took off toward the last dead drop. When they got near it, they noticed Reapers patrolling the rooftop.

He looked down at them. None of the Reapers were near the edge. He looked back up at her, "Hey Twilight, I want you to fly up to a good height and drop me on top of those Reapers."

She looked down at him nervously, "Are you sure?" She knew he could survive the fall and would even walk away from it without injury, but it still worried her to just drop him. Especially dropping him in between crazy people with guns ready to shoot anyone.

He smiled at her, "Yes, I'm sure. Don't worry I'll be fine."

She nodded hesitantly and flew high above the Reapers. When they were a good height above the them, she dropped Cole. As he fell he gathered as much electricity in his hands as he could. When he reached the ground he brought his fists down and sent the Reapers flying in several different directions. He took out three of the five Reapers. He dove behind the air vents as the remaining Reapers fired at him. When they stopped firing at him, he crawled to the edge of the vent and looked around the corner to see why. He saw them aiming there guns to the sky and shooting at something. He felt panic and anger course through himself as he realized that they were aiming at Twilight. He jumped out from behind the vents and charged at them. He gathered as much electricity as he could manage into his gigawatt blades and drove the blades into the Reapers backs. They flew off of the roof they were on and landed on the one below them.

He stood there breathing heavily as Twilight descended next to him, "Are you okay, Cole?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. Are you? They didn't hit you?" he asked.

She shook her head, "I didn't give them an easy target. I weaved back and forth to throw off their aim. Come on let's get this last one."

As they walked to the dish, Cole wondered about what just happened. 'What the hell was that? I was so pissed that they tried to hurt Twilight and scared that they might succeed.' He put it to the back of his mind as they reached the satellite dish. He retrieved the last file and contacted Moya, "That's the last file."

"I'm uploading a decryption algorithm to your phone. You should be able to listen to the messages then," Moya told them.

A second later they heard a man's voice, "I couldn't keep Kessler from setting the Ray Sphere off. It took out five or six square blocks. The damn thing killed who knows how many. I found the Ray Sphere in the blast crater, next to some kids. I don't know if they were alive or dead, but I didn't have time to check. I'm going to find somewhere to lay low. If there is anyone listening to things, before Kessler finds me, I need extraction immediately."

"You get anything from that?" Cole asked.

"I can't believe it. That was John. He must have been using dead drops to communicate to his handlers. There are probably more of them scattered across Empire City. The two of you should look for them; they might tell us where he took the Ray Sphere," Moya instructed.

"We find John and the Ray Sphere, and we're out of here, right?" he asked.

"I know what the deal is, Cole," she said, somewhat annoyed.

"Just checking," he said.

"Should I fly us over to the next location?" Twilight asked.

Cole shook his head, "Let's head there on foot. No offense, but I don't want to get reliant on your different ways to get around. If I get used to them, it could make me -us- weak. You could lose that muscle you gained."

She nodded, "Right. Let's go."

When they reached their destination, Cole contacted Moya.

"An EMT in the area you're in just called me. His makeshift clinic has been overrun by Reapers and he needs your help," she relayed.

"I can't solve all of the problems in the world, Moya," Cole said. Twilight looked at him, surprised.

"Maybe not, but he might return the favor if you help him," Moya said, ending the call.

"You weren't going to leave him to those guys, were you?" Twilight asked.

Cole looked at her slightly shocked that she would ask. He shook his head, "Of course not. I'm not going to leave someone to them. He's just a bystander and I'm not going to break my promise to you. It's just that, like I said, we can't help everyone. There's a limit to how much we can do."

"Okay, I see what you mean. It just kind of sounded like you weren't going to help him." She hung her head and said, "I'm sorry for doubting you would help."

He smiled at her, "It's fine. I probably should have been more clear." They stood there for a minute and then headed to where the emergency worker was.

When they reached him, he was frantic and angry, "My clinic down the street keeps being attacked by Reapers. Would you please take care of them?"

"Of course we will," Twilight told him.

As she turned to head to the clinic, the man looked at her somewhat skeptically. Cole noticed this and assured him, "Don't worry she's stronger than she looks."

As they strode toward the clinic three Reapers charged at them. Twilight ran at them, magic glowing in her hands. The Reapers stopped and aimed their guns at her. Just before they were able to shoot, a bright light blinded them. As their eyes tried to adjust from the sudden flash, the left most Reaper was knocked back with a blast of magic. The right one was frozen where he stood. The last Reaper was hit a by magic filled kick to his back. The kick sent him flying and landed several feet away. As the Reaper tried to get up he felt electricity course through him as Cole brought his fist down on his head.

He walked up to her, "Nice one."

She grinned, "Thanks."

They split as the last two Reapers on the clinic opened fire on them. Twilight kept their attention on her as she fired bolts of magic randomly at them from behind a car. As she kept them busy Cole climbed onto the building as quietly as he could. When he was on the roof he snuck up behind the Reapers. He put his hands on the back of the Reapers heads and sent electricity through them electrocuting the gunners.

As they met up in front of the clinic the EMT ran to them. "Thank you. Both of you. I'll be able to continue helping people now," he said.

"There's more people out there who need help. Keep a look out for anyone," Moya said.

As the call ended, they started to walk. Twilight asked, "What should we do now?"

"Let's head back and get some rest. We've been running around all night and it's morning. We should also let Spike know that your okay," Cole said.

"Right. Let's head back and rest," she agreed.

They headed back to where they had started to call home. Looking forward to some time to relax.