prOLOGUE
There's no such thing as a small change.
A few months ago, I was just like you: ordinary, unremarkable, just a regular guy trying to live life the best that I could. But in the blink of an eye, all of that changed.
An explosion ripped through six blocks of Empire City. Thousands of people lost their lives. I was almost one of them. Almost. For four days, I laid in a hospital bed, clinging to life with my bare fingertips. When I finally woke up, I was... different.
Empire City was placed under quarantine in order to contain a plague that struck shortly after the Blast. It didn't work. All it did was cage the animals that the US government didn't want to mess with. It was all up to me to sort things out. Find out how and why I got these powers.
Eventually, I got my answers to both.
I met a plethora of people, some good, some bad. Only one could be described as a bit of both: Kessler. I hated the man as soon as I laid eyes on him. Then he laid his hands on me, showing me visions of what I thought were the future, but turned out to be his past. MY past.
Kessler was me, from an alternate timeline. A time when a Beast ravaged the earth, killing everyone in its path. Kessler failed to stop it, failed to act, and lost everything that mattered to him. So he came back. Back to my time, to find me and turn me into the thing he couldn't be: the one to bring down the Beast.
To accomplish this, he committed monstrosities. He set up the Blast. He arranged the quarantine, the gang wars. He turned my best friend against me. And he killed the woman I loved.
And yet, even after all that, it wasn't enough. When the Beast did arrive, I met it head-on. I fought it with every ounce of strength I had. But it shrugged off my attacks like they were pinpricks. It destroyed Empire City while I was forced to flee to New Marais.
While in the city, I did everything I could to prepare for my second round with the Beast. I made new friends, I fought new enemies, and I did everything I could to advance my powers. When the Beast finally arrived in New Marais, I doubled my efforts, hoping to stop it before its rampage got any worse.
But things are never as easy as they seem. The Beast is actually a friend of mine from Empire City. He's doing something about the plague, curing Conduits with his powers, but killing any nearby who wasn't a Conduit. He wants me to help him. To usher in a new era of civilization, and save as many as possible to see it.
Either way, whatever I decide, I will be ready.