It was still raining.
"Which doesn't surprise me," Yiska mutters to himself, as he steps out of the Spinner into the cold Angelus night air. Ever since I came to this Island, I don't think I've ever been dry, he muses, as his eyes adjust to the darkened and neon-lit street, I think I've even forgotten what that means. He closes the hatch and give the hull of the vehicle a couple of thumps to let Lt. Hemelshot know that he was clear. With a jet-engine whine the turbos of the spinner warm up and blast off down the street towards Rho sector, where the last hope for the citizens of Angelus lies. Well, thinks Yiska, one of the last hopes anyway.
The rain soaks into the man's hair.
Yiska creates a psychokinetic force field above him to act as an umbrella with nothing more than a flippant thought, and mentally wills himself into the air rising on a column of telekinetic force. Like a falcon, Yiska thinks to himself, Rising to meet the dawn after a long restless night. And as he lifts himself into the air he looks unconsciously out across the ocean towards the running lights of three freighters that would soon dock with Angelus. I must hurry, he thinks as he urges himself onward.
The rain pours down and around him, but he is left dry.
Phi Sector is Yiska's destination, which has recently been so lovingly endowed with the term "Psi" Sector. This sector is home to many other psychics, telepaths, telekinetics, and the various other forms of genetic weapons known as ESPers, one of which bears the address on the envelope that he carries in his pocket. Well, not really home. More like, "assisted relocation" or "designated living areas" or perhaps "reservations" and, as Yiska approached the center of the sector the thought that enters his mind is, "concentration camps."
The rain drenches and soaks the crowds of people in the streets.
"Gu-zer-oth, Gu-zer-oth," chants the crowds beneath Yiska as he starts to descend. A line has been drawn in the street beneath him. A telekinetic field holds back a crowd of hundreds of bloodthirsty people. Under its protection, the field houses several dozen ESPers, and Yiska lands safely in the center of them. A young girl with green-dyed hair approaches Yiska and introduces herself.
"Finally come to join us?" She asks, with her head cocked slightly to the side, green hair spilling out over the leather jacket. "We saw you on the news earlier—know that you'll always have a home here with-"
"Ah, just a moment miss, my time is limited." Yiska interrupts with a polite nod, "I've come here for just two things, first, I've been charged with the delivery of this letter, would you-" The girl's eyes widen as she sees the envelope and the address stamped upon it.
The rain spits upon the envelope.
"This is, ah, actually for me." The girl takes the letter and reads it over, "I, ah, didn't know that you knew my sister."
"We have a mutual acquaintance; I've never actually had the pleasure of knowing her. But there are more pressing matters at the moment. As you know, XSWAT has been disbanded and their forces dismantled. We cannot protect the public anymore. Do you know what they are chanting out there?" Yiska motions towards the crowds throwing bricks and beer bottles at the force field.
"Gujerosh?" the girl replies, mimicking the crowd's slurring chant, "I thought it was a new kind of slang term or something."
"I wish it was, it's actually the name of an ancient demon that now seeks to regain hold upon this world and is being born anew right now in Omega Sector."
"Are you crazy? Omega sector was the site of a nuclear bomb or some such rot."
"You know better than to ask me that. The time for deception has passed. Lies and trick mirrors can no longer protect the people of this city. Know the truth, and it shall set you free." Yiska' eyes burn with fervor as he holds out his hand to the girl, "Let me show you the truth."
Through the pouring rain, the girl steps forward.
The girl takes his hand, and like an extreme slideshow the events of the past few years flicker by and the girl is left gasping for breath, coughing and sputtering curses, "everyone must know." She turns her attention to those standing around, "everyone, gather close, there is something- a multitude of things—you must know."
As Yiska joins hands with the dozen or so ESPers that aren't maintaining the force field, and his mind is immediately poured out into the, for lack of a better word, hive mind of Angelus. Being connected with thousands of other ESPers across the massive floating city (and perhaps a few beyond its borders) was almost overwhelming.
Show them what you showed me, the girl behooves Yiska. And he does and as before he censors out some of the more horrific experiences. The hive mind senses this, and asks him why he is withholding information. Yiska explains that this information is horrific and extremely graphic—that he's trying to protect the hive mind from being scarred. The mind explains to him that as a whole, they are stronger.
So, Yiska lets them have it. It takes a while for the hive mind to recover from the assault of information and sensory experiences, but when they do, they pledge their services in defense of this city. I'm not that great of a technical commander, Yiska hedges around their questions, I'm going to put you in contact with someone who is though. Currently, our rendezvous point is here, in Rho Sector. Oh, and one last thing—a dream. And Yiska shows them the Esper Institute from the alternate timeline.
We want this. The hive mind demands.
Then fight for it. Yiska responds—This is our tomorrow, our future, the future of this world—a better place. Free from hate and prejudice of all kinds.
The rain has drenched into Yiska's clothes and has soaked him to the bone.
Rain, thinks Yiska as he gazes skyward, Rain, water from the sky, a gift from God. It makes plants grow, fish breath it, we drink it. Necessary to all walks of life, and falls on the rich and poor equally without prejudice or regards to good man or the bad man.
And tonight, the rain christens this city with a new tomorrow.