Disclaimer: I do not own Marvel or inFAMOUS, they are the intellectual property of Marvel, Disney, and Fox, and SuckerPunch.
:Line Break:
New Marais was infamous. Foremost for the lax behavior it had on most ethical conundrums, but also for the drinking and the parties and the…friendly locals.
Then it flooded, but the heart and soul of New Marais stayed dry. There were tears shed and candles lit for those departed. But as always in the town where bourbon flowed like water, while good things were celebrated, bad things made people celebrate even more. When the hurricane blew through and so many died, people found themselves celebrating first the lives of those who had moved on, and then celebrating the fact that they had at least one more day before the reaper knocked on their door.
That attitude had weathered the people of New Marais through many times, both good and bad. It had carried them through hundreds of seasons, year in and year out. It had carried them through everything, but not this latest storm of men and guns and power and death.
That was probably why outside of his fight, everything was so damn quiet.
Flashes of red and a black tar like substance let him know of her approach.
Flash
Flash
FLASH
'There!' he thought, swinging his weapon in a classic batter's arc. Hitting something solid, he thought he heard her cough something. 'Blood? No, I can't think about that.'
She flashed away again before he could follow up. Coughing and choking followed her movements whenever she stopped too long.
"I was so wrong about you."
A choked sob rent from the throat of the woman he had fought beside.
"Stop Fighting!" He shouted, hoping that she would listen, hoping that she would go against all of her tendencies and just for once stop, hoping that she would stay out of his way…hoping in vain. "It's over" he added quietly, knowing that it was pointless. That even if she could hear, she wouldn't listen.
She flashed back in front of him on the roof, launching balls of superheated gas, mini grenades.
He rolled out of the way and jumped, throwing a lightning tether to a tower with his left hand pulling him quickly towards it, and raining down a stream of bolts with his right. She flashed again, but not before she was struck five or six times.
Releasing his tether on the tower, he came back down to the roof, draining an emergency light he landed next to. She flashed in again, trying to get a clear shot on him, but he hit her with a sticky grenade first. She had this look of such surprise on her face as it went off and blew her across the roof top.
He ran over the crest of the roof to see her back on her feet, staggering, but moving. She flashed again, lobbing volley after volley of her tar grenades at him. He dodged the best he could, took some shrapnel to the shoulder but nothing too bad.
Flashing back to the roof crest, she paused, gasping for breath. Looking up at him with her torn, betrayed eyes, she screamed. "I TRUSTED YOU!"
And with that, she charged forward flashing once to close on him. Getting out his weapon, he charged as well. At some point both of them started screaming as they ran. When they met, Nix the witch of the swamp, the lady of fire, threw a flaming punch where his head used to be. And he, Cole McGrath, the Demon, the Electric Man, slid low, scything her legs out from under her with his Amp. She somersaulted in the air as Cole bent his legs and used his forward momentum to rock to his feet. She had turned just enough to see when the Amp came in and hit her.
Her body rag dolled, bouncing a good twenty or thirty feet before rolling to a rest.
Broken gasps came from her as even now she tried to roll over and get to her feet. Walking up beside her, he planted the ends of his Amp on either of her neck.
"Please Nix, just…stop."
A wordless scream tore from her, her back arching as she fought against the Amps embrace. Fire and darkness danced along her fingertips, gathering into a ball.
Closing his eyes, Cole turned his head, and sent 20,000 volts through his Amp. As lighting flashed, he was only grateful she hadn't screamed.
A small metallic ball, no larger than a common soccer ball, rolled from her hand. The RFI kept rolling, until it was at the feet of Cole's best friend.
Zeke Dunbar picked up the Ray Sphere Inhibitor with his left hand, in his right toting his trusty forty-four magnum.
Cole walked over to Zeke, stopping ten feet away when he looked up.
"Half as long…"
Zeke shrugged as a little smile came to his face.
"Twice as bright."
Then he aimed the revolver at Cole and shook his head.
"I gotta try."
Cole gave a nod of his own, arms falling to his sides.
"I know."
Zeke fired, the slug winging Coles' right arm.
Cole charged his arms while Zeke steadied his aim.
The lightning fell before the hammer, and Zeke staggered back from the force of it. He struggled and gasped, but he stayed on his feet, and he kept holding the RFI, and he kept holding his revolver.
Aiming at Cole again Zeke was hit with another bolt, this one sending him to his knees. But Zeke kept struggling. Placing one foot on the ground, Zeke raised his arm, unsteadily, and aimed at Cole again.
Then the final bolt fell, blasting Zeke Dunbar to his back, the sunglasses that his friends had come to know so well tumbled off of his face, sliding down the tile of the roof. And even in death, Zeke Dunbar held onto what he had helped and fought so hard to get.
Standing beside his friends body, Cole squatted down, ducking his head. 'Oh God, what have I done?' said a small voice that Cole had usually listened to. He stood up and glared down at the RFI.
Getting out his Amp, Cole stared down at this false prophet. When he came down here, Wolfe had told him all he needed to do was to stop the Beast, and to do that he would need to use the Ray Sphere Inhibitor in order to weaken the beast to the point where he could beat him. What Wolfe had forgone mentioning, was that it was basically a suicide vest. It would take out the Beast, but it would also take out every single conduit on the planet. Cole, included. That, on top of what John White, the Beast himself, had shown him about the disease, and the billions that would die if nothing was done.
In the end, it was a simple choice.
Either kill of thousands, possibly millions without any proof that those that remain would live long after, or kill millions, possibly billions to ensure the future of humanity.
A simple choice.
Brutal.
Hard.
Remorseless.
But simple.
1/1000 is a lot better of a number than 0. It's just cold hard math. 'Like Kessler taught me' Cole thought bitterly.
He bent down and picked up the RFI with one hand, walking to the center of the roof. Turning back around, he saw he had the attention of both John, and former Agent Lucy Kuo, the only girl aside from Trish he had ever-
He shook his head, clearing errant thoughts.
Placing the RFI down, he stood over it, holding his Amp in two hands as it sat there, humming innocently, oblivious to the world.
This thing was responsible for the deaths of everyone around him. The false hope, the weeks of striving and fighting and clawing for every little bit of power he could gain just to power this thing, and it all turns out to be some false hope.
He had bled, and cried and killed over this.
Time for this to end.
Blue lighting raced along the Amp as he brought it down with a yell.
The RFI lay shattered, and the city lay unnaturally quiet.
"Cole, I can't…" Spoke the magnified voice of the eight-story-tall Beast, John White.
The head of fire, of magma mashed together, ducked its fiery eyes. "I can't do this anymore."
"What?" Cole said breathlessly, "After all this?"
"NO!" interrupted the giant, "I still believe in this plan. I'm so tired. I've had enough killing. I should have died a long time ago.
"John…" growled Cole. 'If he stops, then no one else can develop their powers and be protected from the plague. The world will end if he stops now!'
"But I know you," he continued, ignoring interruption. "If I gave you the power… you would see it through."
Before Cole could respond, the Beast had raised his hands, and lighting gathered around Cole, burning hot against his skin.
'This feels like one of the blast cores times about a thousand!' was Coles last coherent thought as the pain from the Beasts power transfer made him descend into screaming agony.
The world dissolved to white as the Beast triggered a final blast with what remained of his power.
It was fifteen minutes later as Lucy Kuo picked herself up off the remains of the rooftop. The problem she first noted, was that she was alone.
"Cole! John!"
Looking around for her former partner and her…friend, she saw nothing but craters of stone, and a pair of broken glasses.
:Someplace Else:
"You know, Sparkles, most people get water out of a bottle, or electricity from an outlet, but going to the source is almost kind of respectable in an 'Oh-my-god-get-that-hippy-some-clothes' kind of way."
"DAMN YOU SPIDER-MAN!" shouted the Villain of Voltage as he threw bolts of lightning after the wall crawler.
The bolts landed harmlessly on some rather ordinary looking pipes as the arachnid performed acrobatics that would make the Russian judge drool with envy.
"I, mean, what? You were just gonna mosey on over the Big Bertha the nuclear reactor and plop yourself onto the wires? Come on!" Spider-Man said exaggeratedly as he swung around the bolts that Electro threw. "You either have some serious issues, or you need to start hanging around with a higher class of lady. I know you don't get much experience in prison and all, but I would have thought that the periods between would have been HURK"
One of the bolts finally landed, blasting the red and blue dressed man ten or fifteen feet across a steel grate walk-way.
"Do YOU want to know something Spider? DO YOU?" Electro screamed, electrocuting hero on the floor.
"You may have won a fight or two with me. You may win the next one, or maybe even a fight so long from now it hardly merits mentioning. But me? I am always going to win in the end." The villain in the green and yellow spandex monologued as he walked closer to the prostrate hero. "And do you know why that is, insect? Hmm?" He asked, shocking the Spider again. "I can't hear you!"
"Killer tights?" the hero mumbled, in no way helping himself out of dire straights.
Electro didn't bother with electricity for that quip, instead settling on punching the annoying arachnid in the face.
"No, it's because I am POWER! I am lighting made flesh, thunder given form, and you are nothing more than a stunted little man, that can stick to walls, and make jokes about his impending demise. And here we are in the city of New York's' largest power distribution hub. Just THINK, Spiderman! All of the powers running through New York, all of those devices, appliances, necessities, all of them run on the same power! The power that flows from this very plant! And do you know what that is, Spiderman? IT'S ELECTRIC!"
Electro threw his arms up and called his answer to the sky, or at least the industrial lighting of the ceiling. As a result, he didn't notice the Wall Crawler getting to his feet until he had finished an evil laugh, put his arms down, and opened his eyes.
Spider-Man stayed stock still for about a second, his the emotionless silver eyes of his mask peering into the cheap cutouts that Electro stuck his eyes into.
The silence raged until Spiderman leaned a millimeter forward, and spoke a pair of words.
"Boogey-Woogey!"
And with that, Spider-Man delivered a right cross to Electro's jaw that was so strong, it picked him up off the ground and over the railing on the sides of the walkway…
"Oh crap," Spider-Man thought aloud.
And Electro landed right on top of the open, external circuit of the electric generator of New York's largest Nuclear Power Plant.
Electro immediately disregarded the pain in his back as he started feeling the raw power that was beginning to pump through him. He felt it build and build until it had reached the point of ecstasy, and then it continued building. The pleasure turned to pain and the tingling of his mighty power turned to the burning of his flesh as it baked trying to absorb that much energy.
Finally, when he could hold no more, the electricity built in the small of his back and released in a small but powerful detonation, sending the green dressed man ass over teakettle as he flew clear across the room, before slamming to a stop thanks to a very sturdy wall.
'Now's my chance,' Spider-Man thought, jumping off the catwalk and swinging towards the downed villain, 'If he absorbed even a fraction of the city's power and he gets up after that blast, then I am going to be one well-done spider!'
Cole McGrath open his eyes to the familiar sight of grey concrete. Pulling his hands underneath him he started to get to his feet before he felt that something was wrong.
'My power,' Cole thought, 'I feel… empty, drained even.'
Then he noticed that the hands pushing him off the ground were clad in a bright yellow gloves, which were in turn met by a long green sleeve. Neither of which were the white and blue t-shirt, or the masking tape he had just been wearing.
Standing up, he noticed the strangest thing of all.
There was a man in red and blue spandex, crisscrossed all over with what looked like black threading, and large silver eyes on the head. And he was swinging on ropes, like some sort of gymnast.
'This is nuts, but maybe he knows what is going on.'
"Excuse me," Cole started to say, raising his hand.
'Damn! He's back up! I have to finish him now!' Thought Spider-Man, before throwing himself at his perceived enemy.
There were two things that crossed Cole's mind at that second. The first was a blanket accusation of "What the hell?" about all he had just seen.
The second thing was the darkness of unconsciousness caused by Spider-Man's jab.
:Line Break:
Cole woke up with a throbbing headache on an uncomfortable mattress. It wasn't the mattress that got to him. He had slept on more than his fair share of uncomfortable rolls and bed sheets in his time since Empire City had been eviscerated.
What did strike him was the pounding headache.
"Feels like the world's worst hangover after using a Blast Core." Cole grumbled to himself.
Opening, and abruptly closing his eyes at the bright light, Cole tried to take in his surroundings.
'Fold out bed, sink, toilet, window letting in way too much light, and the door…that has some kind of a slit in it.'
Reluctantly sitting up, and swallowing the vomit in his mouth, Cole slowly stood, bracing himself against a cold stone wall.
Waiting for the trembling in his limbs to cease, cole then walked over to the sink, splashing water over his scarred, weathered face.
Grabbing a quick drink from the sink, he stumbled over to the door, grasping for the handle. A handle which he couldn't seem to find. Running his hands over the door, his fingers seem to stick and grate over the rough material. Holding his tired frown and attempting to hold of his quickly re-emerging headache, Cole pounded on the door, and called out.
"Hey!", came Coles voice in what could best be called a gravelly tone. "Is anyone out there?"
Seconds ticked into minutes without any response.
Cole tried again, pounding on the door with the strength only a conduit could possess.
"HEY! Is anyone out there!?"
His voice echoed in the stone chamber for a moment, with McGrath straining his ears for any response.
Heavy footsteps clacked over stone in a measured, even pace. The sound of them stopped in front of the door, and the slot in the door at eye level opened with a loud 'THCK'
"Enjoying your new quarters are you?" Said the man behind the merry eyes staring at him.
'What is this?' Cole thought silently before questioning his 'host'.
"Where am I?" he scratched out, his throat so dry it felt like a consonant would make it bleed.
"You are enjoying the hospitality of the big apples finest till we find somewhere to throw you." The merry eyes turned sour. "Preferably somewhere deep, dark, and where you'll never be able to find another person to hurt ever again."
A face flashed into his mind, all curves and frost, before a headshake brought him back to reality. "What are you talking about?"
A laugh was the response he got. "Come on. I expected better from a killer like you. Playing coy? So last season, and not at all expected from the great Electro."
'Electro? Doesn't he mean Electric Man,' thought the dynamo, suppressing a frown as he remembered his 'nickname'. 'I wouldn't have chosen it myself, but I was less interested in looking cool than I was in keeping everyone alive.' Trish, Nix, Zeke. 'As many as I could.'
Before he could respond a voice spoke up from beyond the door.
"Atkinson, stop speaking with the convict! Back to your patrol."
"Yessir!" The guard said before turning back to Cole.
"I hope you rot, you fucking dirt-bag."
The slot slammed home with finality, and the even clacking of nice shoes walked down the corridor.
'The hell have I gotten myself into?' thought Cole, struggling to remember how he got himself into his present situation of Deep Shit.
'It all happened after I took the Beasts…John's powers. Then there was the explosion, like the Ray sphere all over again. After that, there was that freaky bendy guy in the red leotard. Then there was this asshole, this cell, and a migraine that is making this damn near untenable.'
Grabbing some more water, Cole sat down and tried to calm himself, less he stir up his migraine more.
'No use thinking about how I got here, I gotta find a way outta here.' Glancing at the slot on the door, Cole shook his head. 'No use going that way, that door feels like it's made out of rubber. Go figure. Going out through the wall behind the sink and toilet wouldn't be such a good idea because of the water…and anything else.'
Getting off the bed, Cole turned to the wall behind him.
'Only one way out.'
Electricity gathered in Coles hand, sparks shooting out from his arm and gathering into the form of a softball. The form emitted a mild shrieking as it held, and already Cole could hear the pitter patter of feet from outside his door, and the shouting of his captors, but they were too late.
A small underhanded toss saw the ball of lighting sticking the wall, and cole turned his back, opening his mouth, closing his eyes and covering his ears, so they would be undamaged from the explosion that was to come.
The last thing that went through Cole's mind before the ensuing chaos was a simple 'Let's do this!'
AN
Alright! And so comes the first chapter of what is essentially going to be a dumping ground for all my plot bunnies, one shots, and stupid little side stories.
I know that some of my fans will be less than thrilled that I was working on this rather than their preferred story, but I will say now that I am working on those two, but I have recently moved, and so haven't really had a boatload of time to write recently, so all I could do was write down plot ideas and their bunnies.
And thus this came into being.
I hope you enjoy!