Firstly, yes, this is a TMOHS/inFamous fusion. For all of the people who have little experience with inFamous, keep it that way. Anything you need to know is explained. Most of the first chapter and maybe some of the following will stick a little close to the inFamous storyline, but that will change, and hopefully develop into a fresh fic.
Why I made an inFamous fusion, well, just a random idea. I was actually working on a future fic with Kyon in the Yakuza, not as a boss or anything, just a small time enforcer. Well, this should still be a good read.
Chapter I- I, Bomber
I stopped my bike as I came into the square. The directions to where I was supposed to deliver the package were a little vague, and I looked around the buildings that towered around me as though it'd give me some sort of clue.
I cycled into the square's centre, and as I did so, someone rang me. Probably Haruhi, demanding I take a break from my "boring" weekend job of being a bike courier and join them and investigate some perfectly mundane thing, like going through those sewers last weekend.
That may have just been the worst expedition yet, but since Koizumi had had his Organisation prepare me with a quick crash course in urban exploring, I managed to save myself from falling fifty feet and getting swept away by a fast current. Haruhi hadn't seemed entirely bothered by it, almost disappointed, as though falling down there would've worked as bait for mutant turtles or something.
The phone call wasn't from anyone I recognised.
"Hello?" I asked, almost cautiously.
"This is your client," said an old yet strong voice. "Open the package."
I don't know why, but something in that voice made me obey. I switched off my phone and placed it in my shirt pocket before I got off my bike and took up the package. It was something in a box, and when I opened it, I found a strange object, a metal sphere the size of a basketball. I raised it, and in my hands, it began to open.
The last thing I knew was a bright blue light in my eyes and then an explosion ringing my ears.
"Activation plus six minutes, pulse is forty-five, respiration ten… looking good, Kyon."
Those words came to me as though in a dream. I stirred from the blackness, and awoke to hear sirens and screams, and to feel that ever familiar pain.
Except I was hurt more than I'd ever been before.
"What the hell happened?"
I managed to climb to my feet, despite one of my legs bloodied and battered. And it wasn't just my leg- I'd broken my left arm before, but this time it was horribly out of place, and I couldn't help but wonder if I'd ever use it again. But the greatest pain was from the burns across my skin, electrical I'd guess, but obviously, my mind wasn't in the best way to diagnose myself.
Although the ground beneath me hadn't been touched, the rest of the square had been turned into a crater. Fires were still burning, and I coughed from the thick smoke filling the air.
"There's someone alive down there!" An amplified voice rang out as I looked up to see a helicopter, covering my eyes from the searchlight. "Hey, can you hear me? If you can walk, head for the bridge!"
Are they kidding me? You've got a helicopter! Drop a rope ladder or something- actually, judging by the fact I'm limping and got an arm broken, that probably doesn't sound like a good idea.
The helicopter flew off, but turned the searchlight onto a nearby parking lot. "Hey, you there! Get out of there, the whole place is coming down!"
Come on Kyon, move, move- I limped down from the only bit of ground that was still raised. Fires burned all around me, and there were electrical bursts from wires and cars happening so frequently I could've sworn it was as though they reacted to me. As I got to the end of the crater, I managed to climb through a bus thrown there by the explosion and get out, emerging by the parking lot.
My phone rang, and with trembling fingers, I managed to respond to the call, placing it on loudspeaker. I didn't even question how my phone was still working.
"Kyon? Where are you!" It was Koizumi, and he sounded- panicked?
"Koizumi, what's going on?" I managed to say. Talking was a lot harder with this burn right across my neck, making my voice sound oddly deeper. "I think there was an explosion- I'm by a crater."
"That was at the very centre of the blast!" Koizumi said, shocked. "How on earth did you survive?"
Why do you expect me to know? I'm barely holding together as it is! And what the hell was it anyway? Had Haruhi finally lost it?
"I don't even know if this has anything to do with her," said Koizumi. "The official story is that it's terrorists but- look, now is not the time. I'll try and meet you by the bridge; I'll get some of the Organisation's paramedics for you!"
The call ended, and I entered the parking lot. How I was supposed to get to the bridge from here, I had no idea.
The ground floor was cut off from me, and I was forced to climb to the first floor via some rubble and wrecked cars. As I stumbled along, I saw a mass of sparking wires visible as a great chunk was torn out of the wall. I watched, finding myself entranced by the crackling electricity, but as I passed it, the electricity leapt forth at me.
I screamed, as the electricity passed through my body, sure this was it for me.
But as quickly as it had come, it was gone. I should've been dead, but being electrocuted had done nothing to me, not even made my hair stand on end. If anything, I felt better for it, my head was clearer, and the pain in my body was subsiding.
I walked across, and found that the end of the first floor had collapsed, forming a makeshift ramp to the road before the bridge. Police cars were scattered across the ruined road, as well as plenty of people, some heading towards the bridge, some too injured to walk.
"If you're able to walk, please evacuate across the bridge…" It was the helicopter, flying over again. "Please remain calm, emergency personnel are en route."
I could see Koizumi waving at me from the other side of the bridge. Strangely enough, I thought I could make out Nagato with him as well, but my vision was too blurred to make out any details.
And then just as I passed several police cars- electricity shot forth from the cars and lampposts, electrocuting me again. Then somehow, it released itself in a torrent.
Lightning came down from the dark skies, destroying the police cars around me, but somehow, I was being spared- and then the lightning bolts started hitting the bridge.
"Kyon!" Koizumi shouted, and somehow his voice carried over the thunder and screams. "Run!"
Somehow there was feeling in my legs again as I managed to run across the bridge. It had been horribly damaged by the explosion. Parts of it had been torn away completely, too much of it had been slanted and great cracks in it made me wonder if it'd just all come down beneath me.
The lightning bolts weren't doing anything to help it, and as it flung the destroyed cars around and as I ran past the wreckage and bodies- I was stunned as nothing had killed me yet.
I finally made it to the other side of the bridge, and collapsed, just vaguely aware of Koizumi and- it was her- Nagato running to me.
What happened over the next two weeks is hard to put into words, but I'll try.
I spent several days sliding in and out of unconsciousness, and in my state, I could somehow hear the voices of the dying, those crushed by the falling debris, and those burned alive in fires. I was kept in a private ward in a hospital, no doubt paid for by Koizumi's esper friends.
My dad was severely injured as a result of the blast, and he had to be taken outside the city to a specialist hospital. My mother was forced to go there with him, mostly for the sake of signing off the papers, taking my little sister there, but she was unable to move me. Just in time too, because it got them to safety.
Only four days after the blast, a plague broke out. Followed by riots, theft, rapes, murders; you name it, civilisation committing suicide. The government locked down the town, in an attempt to contain this biological hazard, trapping us in this cage with the psychos crawling out of the woodwork.
The police were all but gone off the streets, either dead or too scared to fight against the gangs who run the show now.
As things on the outside went bad, inside, inside me- things were changing.
The blast had changed me. For the better? I can't say. But I'd received my own radioactive spider bite.
I could wield electricity.
It was scary as hell at first, with none of my friends offering much explanation. Asahina gave me the usual "classified information", Nagato not being able to find any information from the Data Integration Thought Entity, that or it was refusing to tell her, Koizumi talking about other factions of espers and stuff that went over my head, but I suspect it might've just been rubbish he was making up to try and placate me.
But in time, I'm learning to control this power. Master it.
I just hope it isn't too late.
Electricity crackled around the fingers of my right hand. I watched it grow in power, the crackling grow louder, and I could almost hear it speak to me, begging me to let it leap free.
"Now Kyon!"
I discharged it, firing bolts of lightning at the numerous dummies arranged on the rooftop. Each of them were lucky if they survived a few hits.
"That's so cool!" Haruhi said, gushing over my powers, and not for the first time. She grabbed my hand- I'd already stopped charging electricity in it- and caressed it.
Okay, it's nice to see this…fangirl side of you, Haruhi, but this is getting too weird for even me.
Since the school had closed, Haruhi had insisted the entire building was now property of the SOS Brigade. Very considerate of her when you think about the many people now homeless from the blast.
Instead of the clubroom, we spent most our time up on the roof. We'd moved some stuff up here- and by we, I mean me, my strength had been boosted by the electricity powers somehow and Haruhi had said it was thus unfair to make anyone else do it.
There had been a lot of dry weather lately- good for me too, considering that water was starting to have bad consequences for me and anyone around me- so there was no real problem with staying on the rooftop. Still, at night, I slept over at Nagato's place. I'd tried sleeping at Koizumi's house, but after meeting his parents (or some other espers who were playing the role of his parents, although I thought that unlikely), I decided to stay away after that one night.
Why? Well, I could see exactly where Koizumi got it all from. Both had their own versions of irritating smiles that never seem to go away. Both were just full of random information they saw fit to impart on me. And both enjoyed invading my personal space and I sometimes got the weird vibe that they were hitting on me.
I had to lock the door to the guest bedroom that night just to make sure I didn't get molested in my sleep.
I didn't like to go see my house too often, it tended to remind me just how much I missed my family. I nailed some boards over the windows to stop any rioters breaking them or throwing in Molotov cocktails as I'd seen some do, and I occasionally checked up on the place to see that it was still standing.
As for the school, I'd managed to convince Koizumi and Yuki to help me fortify the place a little. We'd got the gates up, kept the doors locked, barricaded a lot of the ones we weren't using- the dummies I was frying right now we used to give the illusion that a lot more people were camped out in here.
I lay back on one of the sofas I'd brought up, while Haruhi lounged in the head teacher's massive armchair. She grabbed the remote for the TV that'd I also brought up, and tried to switch it on. She growled as nothing happened.
"Another power cut? Kyon!"
At least I'm good for something.
I walked over to the TV, and pulled out the plug from the extension cord that led back to the mains in the building. I plugged it into one of the huge batteries we had sitting around, and since that was dead as well, charged that up as well.
The first thing that came up on the screen was that pirate broadcaster who'd kept hacking into the television signal whenever he had anything to say. Calling himself the "Voice of Survival", his crackpot conspiracy theories had completely suckered in Haruhi.
Haruhi watched his ranting intently, while I tried to close my eyes and get some rest.
"I'm starving," said Haruhi after the Voice of Survival had finished. "Kyon, go and look in the cafeteria for some more food."
"We already finished it," I said. "There wasn't that much there, remember?"
Haruhi smacked her fist into her palm. "I've got it! The perfect idea for getting us some more rations!"
Can't you just go home and see if your parents have got any food? In fact, aren't they worried as to why you're wondering around with the state of the town being as it is? Haruhi- oh, she's already running off.
"I already told you lady, we charge your battery, and you give us some food," Haruhi said to the woman.
We were outside a supermarket that had already been looted. There were quite a lot of people about, some scavenging, but like Haruhi, quite a few were trading goods with others. So capitalism hasn't died completely.
"How do you expect to do that?" said the woman.
"Kyon here can do it," said Haruhi.
The woman shook her head. "I don't have time for this nonsense, kids."
"Go on Kyon, show her what you can do!"
Look, this is a bad idea Haruhi. Let's just get out of here.
"Hey, we gotta eat, don't we? Do you want us to starve? Kyon, I can't believe you! You'd let me starve? You're unbelievable!"
Oh for- fine. I'll do it.
The battery was a big one. Maybe it was a car battery, but I don't really know, I'm not that much of an expert when it comes to looking under the bonnet of a car.
I stepped forwards, and the woman shook her head again. "Here I was thinking just your friend was the crazy one."
"Yeah," I said, raising my right hand. "Stand back."
I discharged electricity from my hand, and the woman screamed, jumping back as she covered her face. I hit the battery enough times till I could feel it was charged, and nodded to Haruhi once I was done.
"Haha, see that! Now we held up our end of the bargain, where's that food?"
"Get away from me!" The woman screamed. "Both of you!"
Haruhi didn't seem pleased by that. "What? We did what you asked us! You owe us, you ungrateful b-!"
"I told you, get away from me now!"
"You're skating on thin ice here lady! You're gonna give us the food or Kyon here is gonna fry you till-"
Okay, now that was definitely going too far. I grabbed Haruhi and pulled her away, and started dragging her back to the school. Hopefully one of the others had showed up and they'd have food.
"Kyon! As your Chief I demand you let me go! That witch got what she wanted and now she's trying to screw us over!"
"Just drop it, Haruhi," I said.
She stamped on my foot, causing me to let her go, but fortunately didn't go chasing after the woman. I think that might've been due to the thugs who'd rushed into the area, and were now going after the people.
"Let's get out of here."
She didn't argue with me on that.
Back on the roof, we were surprised to find that none of the others had still shown up yet. I have to admit, I was getting pretty worried at this point. I took out my phone and called Koizumi, as Haruhi was messing around downstairs inside the school. Occasionally I joined her, jousting on bikes with brooms down corridors was pretty fun.
"I'm terribly sorry, Kyon," said Koizumi, once I'd asked him where he was. "The three of us were having a short discussion and got somewhat carried away. Then I had to go report to my superiors who have been very paranoid since the blast."
Paranoid? I think it's more like you're the only one who's not taking this seriously enough.
"Perhaps," he said, and I could feel his smile over the phone. "I'll try and be over as soon as possible. I've heard that there'll be a food drop over in Shashu Square, so perhaps we'll see each other there. Oh, and hold on for a second, Nagato would like to speak to you."
He passed the phone over, and I soon heard Nagato's monotone voice through the speaker. "Kyon. Are you well?"
I'm doing fine.
"I have completed an evaluation on your abilities. Would you like me to inform you of your diagnosis?"
What's there to diagnose? I shoot electricity out of my hands. Still, go ahead. I've got time.
"The electricity running through your body stimulates your muscle tissue and immune system, considerably accelerating your body's natural ability to heal damage, as well as your resistance to diseases. Your already increased healing capabilities can be boosted while absorbing electricity. Your muscles can now absorb huge amounts of physical trauma; you are likely to be able to survive bullets or falling from extreme heights. Your strength, agility, durability and reflexes have all been enhanced. You can discharge electricity at will at a chosen target, absorb electricity from any sources, and sense ambient electricity, even from the recently dead."
Huh. Bit more than I thought.
"You have yet to reach your peak level," Nagato continued. "It has been difficult to calculate, but it appears you will only gain more powers as time goes on."
What? How does that work?
"I will repeat: it has been difficult to calculate," said Nagato. "What has given you your powers does not appear to be related to Haruhi. As such, your own data has been altered and appears to be considerably difficult to manipulate. I do not know why your powers are growing."
…am I not human anymore?
"You are still human," Nagato confirmed. "But yet you are something else. It may add evidence to a theory- that although Haruhi Suzumiya wished for aliens, espers, time travellers and possibly sliders, there have been other supernatural beings in existence that have existed long before her."
What am I then? A wizard or something?
"I do not know. I will inform you when I have the correct data. Goodbye, Kyon."
"Alright. Later, Nagato."
I switched off as Haruhi came up to the roof. "Kyon, I've been thinking. We haven't reinforced the roof enough. I'm thinking barbed wire, chain fences- whoa!"
A plane flew just above, and it had been flying so low I was worried it was going to hit us. I supposed that had to be the food drop plane Koizumi had mentioned.
Haruhi had switched on the TV again, and there was some kids' show on, but then we were suddenly interrupted by the Voice of Survival again.
"The government have finally sent us some food, two weeks after the blast! They promise us more supplies and that there'll be enough to go around, but they're not the ones living in this mess! Face it people, this is just a damn PR stunt, and we're alone!" The man shouted at us. "I suggest you get over to Shashu Square and grab what you can before one of the gangs show up. Voice of Survival out."
"Well, I told you a couple of days ago they'd drop food," I said.
"Didn't you hear him?" Haruhi said; pointing at the TV as the kids' show came back on. "It's just an attempt for the government to look good for the media."
Yeah, something tells me that won't stop you from helping yourself.
"Of course not, I'm starving. Let's go. Race you downstairs!"
I recalled something Nagato had said. I might've had more reluctance, but I knew Nagato wasn't the sort to joke about what she had said.
"Sorry Haruhi, but I'm taking a shortcut."
I broke into a run and jumped off the roof.
"Kyon!"
I fell through the air, watching the ground come closer- I didn't feel scared. I could feel it- and I knew in that moment, Nagato was right; I was going to survive this.
I landed on my feet, knees bent in a crouch, my hands nearly on the ground. I looked up to where Haruhi was looking down on me, with not a scratch.
It was amazing, and briefly I wondered what else was in store for me. At first I could barely power a light bulb, now I was frying the junk up on the roof and jumping off buildings.
A few moments later she'd sprinted down so fast that she may as well have jumped down herself. "That was amazing, Kyon!" She almost shouted at me. "Jumping off roofs- aw, I wish I could do that, running down all those flights of stairs sucks."
I couldn't help myself, and broke into a grin. A part of me wished for the days of before, normal me, and I'd already asked Nagato if she could change the world back. She'd replied in the negative, on the grounds that she could not interfere in an incident not related to Haruhi and besides, the Data Integration Thought Entity was very interested in the new data it was receiving.
But a part of me did, deep down, enjoy this taste of power. I suppose I felt like I was in a dream, and that any minute I'd wake up, think "electricity powers? Cool" and go back to my normal life.
This is getting to be a long dream, though.
Haruhi and I headed over to the square. By the time we go there though, the problem wasn't that the food had been taken; it was that the stupid pilot had dropped it over that massive structure/ sculpture thing in the centre of the square that looked ridiculous to everyone but was apparently art. The crates hung there, and I couldn't help but think it was probably a bad idea to stand beneath them.
"Ah," said Haruhi. "Well Kyon, you know what to do."
What- why the hell do I have to do it?
Haruhi smiled. "As you just showed me, you have no problems surviving a fall like that. Now climb up there and get those crates down."
With that logic, I found myself climbing up the side of the structure.
I'm not sure what it was supposed to be, one big pointed…thing jutting out of the ground with some great metal rail twisting around it. Well, the rail made it easier to climb at least, and once I made it up that, I came to the top of the structure.
The crates were all tied together and stuck between the structure and the rail. All I had to do was force it down. Well, I could jump on it.
Then as I stretched out my hands, something happened.
"Get back!" I shouted at the people down on the ground, realising that now would not be a good time to wait under the crates.
A surge of something was building up in me, I could feel it. And I raised my hands, and fired it off, creating a great shockwave that destroyed the rail that twisted around the structure and knocked the crates free.
Huh, Nagato never mentioned that. I'll have to tell her that she was right in that whole "powers are growing" thing.
But it was then, as I looked down, my attention was grabbed by gunshots.
That would be the first time I encountered the Karite Family.
They were just a bunch of dumb Yakuza wannabes before the blast, dealing soft drugs and shaking down places that couldn't defend themselves for protection money, themselves way too scared to get anywhere near the police.
Now? They owned this part of the town, and everyone knew it, as they strutted around in their stiff suits and skull masks, wearing their family badges on their lapels like medals.
I could only see four of them, heading towards the crates. Three had pistols. One had an assault rifle.
"You are likely to be able to survive bullets or falling from extreme heights." Nagato's voice echoed in my head. She'd been right already about the heights bit.
Four of them. I can survive bullets. I can shoot lightning. I can launch shockwaves. I can take four of them, right?
One of them looked over to Haruhi for a second too long and took a step towards her. I reacted.
I jumped down. Once again, my body reacted as I felt a new power in my body. My hands reached out, gathering electrons in the air, and the Karite thugs looked up when they heard the crackling of electricity. A couple of them fired at me, but nothing hit me, nor did I even hear the bullets whistle past my head as I focused entirely on the growing power in my hands.
I hit the ground full force, and the electricity unleashed itself in a massive wave of energy that sent the thugs flying. The wave even reached the crates, smashing one open.
The thugs looked to be out cold, but then I saw more men in skull masks entering the square. Great.
"Go on Kyon!" Haruhi cheered me on. She's enjoying this way too much.
Electricity spreads from my shoulders, along my arms to my fingertips. I can feel it, that power, and I know there's no going back to my old life.
I've never thought of being jealous of my friends for their powers or abilities. Any vague fantasies that I had were usually dismissed as being too troublesome in the end. But with these, nothing feels wrong or out of place. They come to me so naturally now it's like I was meant to have them.
I know who I am.
I close the distance between me and the Karite thugs. None of these ones have guns.
I take them all out with a single shockwave that sends them back into the road. Save one, who managed to take advantage of the time I took, and he reached me with a baseball bat.
The bat practically bounces off my face. I don't bruise and I barely even stagger away. "Absorb huge amounts of physical trauma" then? If I can survive great falls and bullets, a baseball bat is like prodding me with a feather duster.
I hit him in the chin, and my fist still discharges electricity as it meets him. Increased strength plus electricity equals one hit K.O.
The reinforcements dealt with, I turned around. I felt so…so drained.
I could barely think straight with this sudden headache I had coming on, and almost subconsciously, I walked over to the lamppost, and reached out towards it. Electricity jumped free, charging me, invigorating me.
"Kyon! There's another one!"
I turned around, as the bullet hit me in the chest, punching right through me.
Even if I can survive it, that taught me something important. It hurts to be shot. I fell back onto the lamppost, but managed to regain enough control to launch a lightning bolt at the one Karite thug left.
He went down as soon as the bolt collided with his head.
I reached out with my hands again, recharging, and then, I could feel my body heal itself, it was working so fast. Flesh knit together, bones were remade, and new skin formed over the wound, till the only clue that there had ever been a wound was the two round holes in my jacket, one in the front, one in the back.
People had started gathering around the crates, and Haruhi walked over to me sullenly. "Have you seen the crap they expect us to eat? Cans of dried prunes?"
Prunes are dried already, Haruhi, they're-
My head went up as I saw the screen crackle to life up on one of the larger buildings nearby. Damn Voice of Survival again. Three times in a day? New record.
"People, I just managed to get some information you are not going to believe," said he, and the camera changed to a photo of-
"Look at that Kyon, you're up on the big screen! What's that you're holding?"
My breath caught. It was me in the square two weeks ago, that strange basketball shaped device in my hands, the glowing blue light at its centre caught as well.
"This was a photo taken by security cameras before the place got turned into a crater," said the Voice of Survival. "You see what he's holding? Don't be fooled because he's just a kid. That's the bomb that blew up the city, and you're looking at the terrorist who did it. If your family are starving, if you've lost loved ones, you know who's responsible. We need to get the word out on this guy, because we are going to make him pay."
Ever been called a terrorist?
There was a rumble of noise around me as people began to recognise me. Even Haruhi was giving me strange looks. And then a certain phrase appeared in my head.
Dead man walking.
AN: Some of you may think the two week period after the blast was skipped over quickly, yeah, that was because I'm still writing this chapter close to the game and that was what happened there as well. Obviously, I'm taking some liberties, the town they live in is bigger, it has a river or whatever to warrant bridges, you know.
As for the Karite Family, well, I didn't want to just reuse the Reapers from inFamous, so I'm changing stuff where I can. I am trying to take this away from being just one story being repeated with elements from another story, but there are bits I just have to keep.
Next chapter will have the bonus of showing what the time travellers, espers, and the DITE are thinking on this situation.
