"Land there," I told the pilot as I pointed to a town in the middle of the woods. As we descended, people backed away to stay a safe distance, but they stayed outside to watch. When we got low enough, I opened the door and jumped down, the chopper getting back up and away. I stood up from my landing to see every staring straight at me. Wasn't surprising, it's not every day a guy just hops out of a helicopter into your town, let alone…
"Oh my god…IT'S THE BEAST!"
Yeah…that's right. I'm Cole MacGrath, the Beast. As I looked around I could see people already starting to run. That one little scream was enough, they'd heard the news, knew what I was going to do to them. Sad for them, they couldn't run far enough. I started charging my powers, and I could feel it.
There was a conduit here. One more person I could save from the plague. One more person that would survive this Armageddon, this end to humanity that I was speeding along.
I kept charging more and more. If I didn't catch enough people in the blast, it wouldn't work, and this wasn't a big town. All of them would have to go. When I was finally sure I had enough power, I let it go.
"Just another day."
The explosion was big, every bit as huge as the blast from the ray sphere all that time ago in Empire City. The buildings were flattened, not nearly as strong as the skyscrapers back in the city. My eyes wandered the area, seeing all the destruction and bodies. Not a single tree still stood in the crater I'd made. I shook my head at what I'd done. Was all of this really right?
I could feel the air drop a couple degrees, meaning Kuo…Lucy…was coming up behind me from wherever the helicopter had landed. I couldn't bring myself to turn around even as she was just a few feet away.
"So…" she began solemnly, neither of us could be happy with what we do. "How many this time?"
I closed my eyes and started to concentrate. I'd hoped that I had missed someone, that there were more conduits in the area than I had previously felt, that I hadn't sent all these people to their graves early just for a single person.
I had.
"Just one." I pointed to a kid lying near some other bodies, probably his family. One more person that has to trudge through this world on his own now.
The temperature dropped again. "Damn." I heard a couple foot steps before I could feel her hand on my back. Cold, but I knew she was trying to comfort me. I looked back and met her eyes with my own. "We're doing the right thing, Cole. All of these people weren't going to live through the plague. Without you, nobody would."
"Yeah," I said, trying to convince myself of what she said. The kid I'd pointed to had started to get up. He looked about sixteen or so, from what I could see.
"Mom. Mom, c'mon, wake up. Dad…Reggie…" I watched as he tried to bring his family back up, uselessly. This is what I did now, destroyed lives so a few could survive. The boy let out a few cries, before looking around and then focusing straight at me. He knew, I was the one that did this. He got to his feet and ran at me as hard as he could.
Kuo stepped forward and a sheet of ice appeared right in front of him. He slipped, falling down and skidding to a stop by her feet.
"Lucy, stop," I said, causing her to look back at me.
"But Cole…"
"It's alright." And it was. I'd been here before, in this situation. It wasn't hard to figure out, I killed his family, and now he wanted revenge. I'd have probably done the same, and lots of other have too.
But I'm the Beast now, I can't die. They can hit me all they want, and I'll just get back up, as I've already had to find out the hard way. May as well let them get it all out, wear themselves down. Then I could explain to them what was going on, why what I did had to happen. Maybe I could even help them figure out what their powers were.
The boy reached out and grabbed Kuo's leg. She launched herself away and out of his grip with her ice. As the kid got up, the ground under him started freezing. It looked like coming into contact with Lucy jogged his powers, he was an ice-user, just like she was.
But…something was off. Ever since John gave me his powers in New Marais, I could see the conduit gene in people, and their powers. When someone uses their powers, they come from within the person, from their core. But this kid…the ice was coursing through him, but wasn't coming from him.
As I tried to figure it out, he tackled me to the ground as hard as he could. I just laid there, ready to take the beating while I thought about his power. With one of his arms he propped himself up on me while he starting hitting as hard as he could with his free fist. As he did so, I noticed a weird pull coming from his still arm, and then his fist began to glow hot, rather than cold.
And then it hit me.
I blasted him off of me, but it was too late. As he got back up, I could see his anger building, and the power surging through and around him. It was the power of the Beast, my power. I paled at the realization that this kid's power…was to absorb the powers of conduits he came in contact with. And he'd been holding onto me, the Beast, the most powerful conduit in existence.
I could only manage one word.
"Shit."
Ha, kinda short, but I'm not the best at this. I have to give credit to JackSolomon of GameFAQs, his post about Delsin in a evil ending universe essentially being the whole idea behind this oneshot.
Also, here's the usual blah blah of I don't own anything inFamous and whatever.
Cya.