A/N: A rewrite of the first InFamous story. (Kinda felt bad for Cole in the game, his girlfriend hating him and everything. And then she dies and he's alone.) Much of this story is already written but I am not overly happy with it, so it is in the process of being polished. It's actually over 50,000 words so if you want something long to read, it's coming lol.

Anyhow, I hope it's not as bad as I think it is lol. I'm really not the best writer, but I try.

Mature rating for blood, violence, cursing, sex (in later chapters), etc. Fair warning.

/

Cole MacGrath knew he was dying. He had to be. There was no way he could survive this kind of pain. Every part of him burned like it was on fire. Maybe he was in hell, that had to be it... He could feel that he was lying on his stomach, though how he had gotten like this he couldn't remember...

Heart rate 55, respiration 10, temperature 99.1... looking good, Cole.

He opened his eyes, and his first thought was that he really was in hell. There were blazing fires everywhere, ruined buildings, and smoke. Pillars of black smoke obscured the sky. Buildings that had once stood tall and shining lay in crumbling ruins. Worst of all were the bodies. Dozens of corpses were strewn about, some horribly burned, some ripped apart, some... were still moving. Cole grunted, squinted through the smoke and hoisted himself up on one elbow. There was a woman still alive out there, he had to get to her... They had to get out of here. He started crawling towards her.

The woman turned, and Cole gasped, sucking in a horrible burning breath of smoke and ash. Coughing, he watched in horror as the woman bent her head to look at the piece of metal that had impaled her though the stomach all the way out her back. He could just make out the red splashes of blood on her hands. The woman sank to her knees and tilted her head back, arms falling limply by her sides. Cole tried to get up but his legs gave out beneath him, and he only ended up sprawled on the ground once again. The wind started to blow against him, sending dust flying into his face. He blinked through the debris. Then his mind went numb as the woman began to disappear.

He thought he must be seeing things, the woman was dissolving in the wind, simply breaking apart. Despite her wound, she tried to stand again, giving a desperate wail of despair as her legs began to vanish. As she began to fall she was finally gone, leaving nothing behind but a shimmer of silver dust and the bloody piece of metal that had been inside her. Cole blinked and even the blood stained instrument of death had gone, leaving him wondering if she'd really been there at all.

The man tried to stand though his legs still felt like jelly. His mind was still numb, this all was so surreal. He didn't know what to do or where to go. He could hear people screaming in the distance. A helicopter hovered overhead, its spotlight lighting up different pieces of the horror surrounding him. He took an awkward step forward, his mind still uncertain of its objective.

He had just decided on the direction he wanted to go when he noticed several downed power lines sparking on the ground. Cole started to back up when he felt a giant tug in his chest, and instead of backing up, his feet stumbled involuntarily forward. He was mere feet from the downed lines when bolt of pure white lightning arched out of the exposed ends and struck Cole squarely in the chest.

/

Cole was unconscious, his mind was trapped in darkness. The voices of those dying around him were echoing in his mind, an endless litany of death, replaying over and over. He struggled to wake up, needing to escape. Every scream of terror was a knife in his chest. But the death march continued, hopeless souls crying their grief straight into his head. Occasionally the darkness would clear, and he'd see the woman, the woman who'd dissolved into dust in front of him. Blood would be gushing from her abdomen, and she'd scream and cry until she finally faded into nothing as Cole tried to get to her. Then the darkness would return, the dead howling their never ending agony.

Suddenly there was a blinding white light just ahead. Something possessed him to want throw himself into it, to dissolve into nothingness in that burning whiteness. Anything would be better than continuously listening to the voices of the dying, or seeing that poor girl bleeding to death while he watched. Gathering up the last of his strength, he submersed himself in that white fire. But what he didn't realize that it wasn't light or fire, it was lightning. Pure, unhindered electricity poured through his limbs, pushed its way down his throat, crawled under his skin, and rooted itself in his heart.

Cole's hazel eyes snapped open. He sat bolt upright. He was in the hospital, dressed in a simple gown and laying in a gurney. Trish was sleeping in a chair next to him. He looked down at his hands.

I was just hallucinating after being blown up. I wasn't electrocuted. I definitely wasn't hearing people dying in my mind. That was a dream. A very sick dream...

He certainly felt sick. As much as he wanted to believe it was a dream, it had felt so real, those voices... and that woman, more of a girl really. She had seemed so young... just a few years younger than him maybe. But it couldn't have been real... he had to hold onto that.

He reached out to wake Trish when sparks began flashing between his fingers. Cole leaped out of bed, cursing. Trish must have really been out, because his long stream of cuss words didn't even make her twitch in her sleep.

Fuck, fuck, fuck... What the hell is going on?

Cole staggered into the bathroom and fumbled for the light switch. Harsh fluorescent light filled the room. Cole stared into the mirror at his reflection. It seemed normal enough... Hazel eyes looked back at him from his chiseled face. His short light brown hair and goatee looked just like he remembered. The only thing that was different was a deep ragged cut stretching from the outer corner of his right eye down his cheek. He could tell it was deep because it had been stitched up.

He ripped off the hospital gown, so far past caring about modesty. His entire body was covered in scratches and burns in different stages of healing. His left leg was completely wrapped in bandages. He saw with some relief that his junk had escaped unscathed. That just left the question of what the hell happened and why was he electrocuting himself. As he reached out to flip the lights off again a bolt of lightning sped from his fingertips, and the light bulb shattered. Cursing once again, he shook the bits of glass from his shoulders.

He dragged the hospital gown back on and went back to where Trish was sitting. He noticed with another flood of relief that she had brought him fresh clothes. He quickly pulled them on, very much needing that small piece of normalcy. His mind was racing, he didn't know what to think. This much he knew... something terrible had happened in the city. He'd woken up in the middle of it. He'd seen the death and destruction. But that didn't explain the electricity, why he was zapping things...

"Cole? Are you all right?"

Trish had finally woken up, and she was looking at him with concern.

"Trish, what's going on?"

"Cole, what are you doing out of bed? You should be sleeping," Trish said sternly.

"Trish, I feel fine, I need to know what happened," Cole replied urgently. It was a lie, he definitely was not fine, but he had more pressing things on his mind. Trish hung her head sadly.

"There was an explosion, Cole," she said softly. "Half the historic section of town was wiped out... we found you in the middle of it. It's a miracle you were still alive."

Cole spun in a circle, his hands on his head. Half the historic section of town, gone, just like that. No, there was more to it than that...

"That can't be all... what else?" Cole said somewhat angrily.

"It's... it's bad out there, Cole," Trish said hesitantly. "After the explosion, people started getting sick, the news channels were calling it a plague, so the government... they locked us in here. We're in quarantine."

"What?!" Cole said, running to the window and ripping the curtains to the side. He didn't know what he expected to see. People panicking in the streets? More bodies? Smoke and fire? In fact, he did see smoke, what remained of the destroyed section of the historic section of town was still smoking. The bridges out of town had been raised. So they really were trapped in here. He looked down. People were milling around aimlessly in the streets. They didn't look sick...

"What kind of sickness?" Cole asked, his voice quiet.

"People start vomiting black fluid, and they get very weak and disoriented... and then go absolutely crazy. They start attacking other people," Trish said uncomfortably. He knew she would hate the fact that she couldn't help.

"What?" Cole said, alarmed. "How long have I been out?"

"Nearly two weeks, Cole," Trish said.

"Why are were here then!?" Cole practically shouted. "We need to get somewhere safe."

"Cole, hang on," Trish began, but Cole wasn't having any of it. He grabbed Trish's wrist and began marching her from the room. However, just as they reached the door, the power flickered and went out. For being so hesitant to leave a second ago, Trish was suddenly possessed with a desire to leave and fast.

"Cole, we've gotta go!" she hissed, bolting ahead of him and throwing the door open, dragging Cole down the hall.

"Why, the powers gone out, that's all," Cole huffed irritably as she nearly wrenched his arm from its socket.

"Yeah, remember when I said it was bad out there?" Trish snapped, ducking behind a stack of boxes. "Some people have been raiding buildings, and it was only a matter of time before they came here."

"But what about the patients on... life support and stuff? Don't you have an emergency backup generator?" Cole said uneasily, thinking about his dreams where hundreds of people died in his head. He didn't want more dead people in his head. Trish glared at him as if he'd said something insensitive.

"Cole, that generator was broken days ago. Those patients are already dead," Trish said, dragging her hands through her short brown hair so that it stuck out on one side.

"Sorry, I didn't know," Cole said, suddenly aware of why Trish was so upset. The deaths of all those patients on life support would have deeply disturbed her.

The two of them inched along the darkened hall, Trish out in front. Cole's hands began sparking at random; he was unable to control it. He hid his hands in his jacket pockets. How he was going to keep this a secret from Trish for very long he had no idea. He only knew he didn't want to see the look on her face when she found out.

"We're almost to the lobby," Trish said, turning to face Cole. Cole tried to arrange his features into an innocent expression. "Once we're out, just run. These bandits have guns, and they'll kill anybody who gets in their way."

"Isn't there anybody else here?" Cole said, looking at the ceiling to the floors above them. "Shouldn't we be warning them or something?" His hands twitched in his pockets. Electric sparks tickled his fingers. There was an amazing amount of tension in his muscles. He felt like a time bomb waiting to go off. Cole grit his teeth trying to hold the feeling in. He knew Trish must be upset by all the deaths of people in the city, but why was she being so uncaring all of a sudden?

"I'll explain later," Trish said, her tone of voice making it clear that she was done talking about this. "We really need to go."

The two of the rounded the corner into the lobby. The double sliding glass doors where the ambulances would pull up were straight ahead. The only problem was the group of armed men blocking the way out. Cole came to an abrupt halt and threw out out his arms, blocking Trish from view.

There were about five guys. Three of them had guns. The pressure inside Cole was building rapidly. The man in front leered at Cole, displaying his yellow uneven teeth.

"This place is ours now," the man said, gesturing around the lobby with his gun. "You two better leave if you know what's good for you."

Cole reached back and grasped Trish's hand, pulling her towards the doors. He didn't trust himself to speak. He felt like he might puke voltage.

"This place isn't yours!" Trish projected loudly from behind him.

"Trish!" Cole hissed, not looking back at her. He hadn't taken his eyes off their weapons. Cole had been in a few fights before and he was no push over, but he didn't fancy his chances against five guys with guns. His arms convulsed involuntarily as he continued to try and hold in this feeling rising in his chest. He was sure that if he had to fight he was going to pass out or explode or both. "Be quiet, let's just go!"

"You got something to say to us?" the lead guy said, his eyes narrowing.

"No," Cole said through gritted teeth. His right eye twitched, making Cole aware of the stitches down the side of his face. One of the other guys in the group sniggered.

"Look at him, doesn't look like he'll even make it out," he said, laughing unkindly at Cole's convulsions. "What's the matter, pretty boy? Scared?"

"Cole?" Trish's worried voice echoed in his head, but Cole hardly noticed. He was too busy wondering why everything was turning blue. Holding this inside was proving to be way too hard... Cole sank to his knees.

"Cole?" Trish said again, and Cole felt a hand on his shoulder. The hand was very quickly withdrawn with a squeal of pain.

"Did you see that?" came from one of the men.

"Lightning just came off of him..." another guy said.

Cole frowned and looked around at Trish from his kneeling position. She was backing away from him, looking horrified. Cole blinked slowly. Everything was tinged blue now, people were outlined in glowing halos. He glanced at his hands. They were sparking again. Shit.

"He's a freak!" the lead guy shouted. "Kill him!"

Cole saw the guy raising his gun as if in slow motion. With absolutely no plan in his head, Cole lifted his hand, stretching it out towards the threat in front of him. The pressure in his chest was mounting rapidly. There was no way he could stop this... A bolt of pure blue lightning flew from his palm, striking the man in front of him directly in the face. The man fell forward, his head hitting the hard floor with a sickening crack.

"Shoot him! Put him down!"

There was a scream. Trish was howling behind him over the man's words. The other two guys with guns lifted their weapons and fired. Cole felt the bullets hit his leg and arm like he was in a dream; he barely felt their impact. He raised his other hand. Power soared from his fingers, hitting each bandit in the room. They all collapsed, hitting the floor with muffled thuds. The lobby was filled with the sounds of groaning men. The sound stopped shortly after. Cole wasn't sure if they were dead or not. The blue light in Cole's eyes faded, and his vision returned to normal.

Cole lowered his shaking arms. Blood was oozing from the bullet wounds in his arm and leg. He felt his breathing slowing down. Now that the rush of power had gone, he knew he was dying. He would bleed out right here in the lobby. It seemed like such a strange way to die, when he was sure he should have died in that explosion... Trish was still looking at him as if she couldn't believe what she was seeing. Yeah, he definitely should have died then.

Cole clenched his hand over the bullet hole in his arm. Instantly, his blood started spurting between his fingers, staining his clothing crimson. He could still feel the power swirling in his chest, though the pressure had gone. It was a long shot, but maybe... He reached inside himself, to the energy that had just killed five men. He wasn't going to die like this.

Electricity pulsed through his blood. Cole doubled up in pain, curling up on his side in the red puddle that was spreading underneath him. He sensed that Trish had knelt down by his side. Power pulsed through him again and the pain faded away. He heard Trish say his name. His breathing was coming more evenly now.

"Cole?" Trish said hesitantly. Cole glanced up at her from his position on the floor. She was still staring at him as if he were some mutant freak, which he supposed he was now. Cole lifted himself up from his puddle of blood. Looking down at his gunshot wounds, he saw with some shock that they were completely healed. Not even a mark remained.

"Cole... what was that?" Trish said, her voice shaking.

"I... I don't know," Cole said, pushing himself into a sitting position, smearing his blood all over the tile in the process. "I swear I don't know, Trish. I just woke up this way. I didn't know I could do any of that!" He could hear the pleading note in his voice, begging her not to hate him.

Cole couldn't place the look on her face. Was it disgust? Fear? Worry?

"I don't know what to tell you, Cole," Trish said eventually. She reached out cautiously and put her hand on his shoulder. "I'm glad you're okay."

Cole bit his lip. It didn't sound like she was glad. She sounded like she didn't know what to think. Her eyes were still wide and staring.

"Cole?" Trish said, reaching out to touch his face. "You were dead."

"What?" Cole said, his stomach clenching painfully. Dead... there were too many thoughts of death lately. Too much death in general. "No... no I didn't die. Whatever that was, it healed me."

"No, I mean during the explosion, when we found you... you were dead," Trish whispered, her fingers trembling on his cheeks. "You had no pulse, you weren't breathing..."

"But I was! I mean, I woke up..." Cole left his sentence go unfinished. That was when he had seen the girl die... He didn't want to think about it.

Trish was shaking her head.

"You were gone," she said slowly. "I was taking you to the morgue when I noticed there was a pulse in your neck..."

Cole shuddered, glad that he hadn't woken up in the morgue. Then he noticed the tears in Trish's eyes.

"You don't know how hard it was... first Amy, then you..."

"What do you mean?" Cole asked.

"Amy died in the explosion," Trish said so faintly he barely heard her. "And then I thought you were dead too..."

"I'm sorry," Cole said. The instant he said it he felt hollow and insincere. It was a programmed response, but still... as her boyfriend, Cole felt like he should had done more, offered more. Trish gazed into his eyes for a moment and then turned away from him. Cole's heart sank.