Cole smirks at the results of his new electrical bolt.

"Well, I'm glad you're making progress, Cole, because I'm not. I lost the trail on Wolfe and the clocks ticking." There's a strain to Kuo's voice. "Once the militia get what they want out of him, he's as good as dead."

Zeke cuts in. "We ain't gonna take down the Beast without that guy, he's the whole reason we're here!"

"Calm down," Kuo responds in a stressed but hushed tone. "If we can get Bertrand to talk, he'll know where Wolfe is."

"Who?"

"Joseph Bertrand: the leader of the militia. He's an elusive guy most of the time, but tonight he's giving a speech in front of St. Ignatius."

"Don't think we got a choice," Zeke says. "We need to grab that fella after his speech and find out where he's hiding Wolfe."

"Okay, time to meet Mr. Bertrand."

Cole receives the coordinates for the speech and makes his way over, slipping through alleyways and scaling buildings.

Finally, he crouched down on the corner of a nearby roof.

"Zeke, I'm in position for the rally, but I'm going to stay out of sight until Bertrand takes the stage. I'll meet you inside."

Two Hours Later

"My friends, tonight we face the greatest threat that this fair city has ever seen. Another freak, deviant, devil walks among us... Cole McGrath, the Electric Man, is here in New Marais."

The crowd boo'd as Cole sneaks his way through it.
"What'd I miss," he asks to Zeke once he's settled beside his friend.

"Basically, Bertrand's been telling everyone that uh... you're the devil."

"Oh," Cole deadpans, "nice."

"He also mentioned your little... rock-bender friend. Apparently, he knows as much as we do."

"So... barely anything?"
"Yep."

Cole sighs and turns back to Bertrand's speech.

"Our forefathers died in defense of this city. When history called upon them to stand against the enemy, did they cower?"

"No!" Bertrand pulls out a sword. "They fought!!"

Zeke shakes his head and huffs. "Let's get the hell outta here," he says, "figure something else out."

"Woah, woah, woah," Cole stops him by grabbing his shoulder. "We gotta do this now, man. Otherwise, he's going to kill Wolfe."

Cole's face morphs with seriousness.
"You don't have to stay, Zeke."

Zeke's gaze hardens.
"I ain't going nowhere."

"My men, these fine young men," Bertrand continues, "are the guardians of this city. And they are all that stand between you and the freaks!"

"Up there!" Someone from the crowd shouts. "Freaks!"

Everyone turned at the call.
Some screamed.
Some froze.
Most fled.

At the corner of the building stood a monster of sorts. Arms ran big and thinned to sharp points. Spikes of all kinds littered the back of the creature, and tentacles came from his putrid mouth.

It was big, scary, and disgusting.

"Zeke, get to safety," Cole shouted to his friend and made his way towards the corrupted looking creatures. "Devil's coming through!"

He pulled out the Amp and began swinging, taking down the swamp creatures as fast as he could.

"It's the Brookstone Bender!"

Cole paused mid-swing and looked towards the source of the call. Mistakingly, he allowed enough time for the creature he was fighting to knock him off his feet.

"Argh!"
Cole landed with a thud and worked to slash the creature away.

"You alright, man," Zeke asked in concern, voice coming through the phone.
"Yeah. Just thought I heard someone yell for our rock-bending friend."

"Brother, you sure as hell weren't hearing things, but never mind that, Bertrand's heading for his limo, you can still catch him!"

He uses his thrusters to easily jump over all of the stairs, but as soon as he reaches the limo, it takes off at speeds he can't.

"I can't keep up with him on foot," he pants and jumps onto the nearest cable wire, finding more and more to his advantage.

The closer he gets to the limo, the more people spot him, and soon rockets are hitting too close for comfort.

"Come on...!" Cole pushes himself harder and takes a running leap for the car.

As he lands on the car, it swerves but he keeps his balance and looks through the skylight at Bertrand.
"About time you and I had a chat," he says, crouching to stay steady on the moving car.

"I got nothing to say to you," Bertrand replied, glaring up at Cole. "...freak."

Lighting up his right hand threateningly, he sneers at the older man. "Cut the crap. You're going to take me to Wolfe. Now!"

Bertrand takes a long puff from his cigar before chuckling. "Oh-ho...wait, wait...if I were you, I'd be more worried about my head."

In a moment of confusion, Cole looked up and behind him, just in time for Bertrand's helicopter to knock him off the car.
He is thrown across the road and lands roughly, vision blurring from the painful impact.

A sense of panic washes over him, and without thinking, he picks himself off the ground and books it down the street.
His reflexes prove him right when an explosion makes his ears ring and a burnt car is flown over his head.

"You gotta take down that chopper, man!" Zeke shouts and Cole groans at the volume of his voice. He ducks into the closest alleyway.
"I'll take care of it."

The bullets from the helicopter stopped when Cole disappeared from sight.
He waited long enough for it to turn back around before pulsing a car above him, readying a strong attack.

Suddenly, a large boulder flew through the sky and smashed into the helicopter, taking it down in one move.

"Holy shit..." Zeke awes through the phone. Cole can hear him wince as the chopper goes down and takes an electrical tower with it.

"Zeke, you seeing this," Cole asks in shock, letting the pulsed car fall to his right.

"I think everyone in New Marais saw that! Damn, Kuo, you never told us this town was overrun by a pack of inbred shirtless crocodile freaks and flying boulders."

"Pretty cool, right," Cole added, watching the people surround the destroyed helicopter.

"Oh, completely," Zeke agrees and Cole can hear the amusement in his voice. "And it gets even better, man! I think I might've stumbled onto a lead to Wolfe. Overheard some folks talking about a strange device they found down on Gaffney Street."

"Speaking of leads," Kuo says, connecting to the call. "I found some information on this groundbreaking phenomenon."

"Was that a pun, Kuo," Cole asks with a rising smirk.

She ignores him.
"From what I could find, this whole... rock business has been going on for a few months. The people of New Marais call it the Brookstone Bender, though I'm not sure where the Brookstone part came from."

"What about the 'Bender' part?" Zeke asks, common sense flying over his head.

" Bender... as in bending the earth to your will...?"

Zeke follows up with silence and Kuo sighs.
"Whatever it is, it's helping us. Random militia are found deep in the ground, or kicked out by rocks. It's strange, to say the least, but... It doesn't seem to side with Bertrand."

"So, that's a good sign."

"Very," she adds. "I'll look more into it. For now, Cole, head over to Gaffney street, find out what Zeke is talking about."

"Got it."