inFAMOUS – 3:

Warrior of the People

Prologue

Cole and Lucy stood there for a moment, too stunned to say anything. Joan, or Kayce, as she claimed her name was, glowered at them in disgust. Her jacket was white with black trim, black jeans, white shoes with black on them, a white wristband, and a black messenger bag. The black fire on her arms slowly crawled around her neck, and then went back to her arms. Her eyes were totally black, with only the reflections of the candles showing them any light. Her hair was raven-black, and longer than Joan's.

"Kessler?" Cole repeated.

She nodded. "Yes. I'm going to kill you to let my father rest in peace."

Lucy gritted her teeth. "What have you done with Joan?"

Kayce cast a glance at the figure on the altar; Joan. "I'm letting her rest. When she awakens, I'll kill her. I want to see the look in her eyes as she's killed by the person she could have—should have—been."

"I'm not gonna let you do that!" Cole spat.

Kayce laughed at him. "Oh, I'd love to see you try, hero-boy. You know that you couldn't hurt Joan, even if you wanted to. So what makes you think that you can hurt me? I'm the same person, but with a few key differences."

"And those would be…?" Lucy asked.

"I'm better."

Kayce tossed a fireball at the two, which they managed to dodge without a problem. Cole ducked behind a pew and readied his lightning, the blue bouncing off of the walls. He looked to Lucy, who nodded, and they both came out of cover, ready to fire their powers.

But she wasn't there.

"What…?" Cole muttered.

He heard a strange giggle behind him. "Oh, Cole. You're nothing like Kessler at all, are you?"

Cole whipped around and fired a bolt of lightning, but hit nothing. Laughter erupted throughout the cathedral, surrounding the two Conduits.

"Where is she?" Lucy hissed, as the candles started to go out.

"Yes. Where is she? Above you? Below you?" They heard another round of laughter. "Beside you?"

Lucy jumped at the voice, which had come to her immediate right. She grabbed the arm of Kayce and started to freeze her arm.

But Kayce didn't even flinch. "Nice reaction," she commented as her arm maxed-out its fire. "But not good enough."

Lucy released Kayce quickly, grasping her arm as if it was burning. Cole fired a bolt at Kayce, but she'd disappeared again.

"How's she doing that?" Cole murmured.

"She must have powers similar to Nix," Lucy told him, rubbing her arm. "We know that if a Conduit takes a certain path, lets say 'evil' instead of 'good', they get powers that are different than what they'd get if they'd followed the 'good' path."

"Very intuitive, Kuo," Kayce said, sitting on the pew and startling the two other Conduits. "I can see why the NSA were upset to let you go."

Cole reached for Kayce, the lightning bristling from his fingertips, but she evaporated in a cloud of smoke, reappearing on a statue of an angel.

"You two are like ants," she mused, smiling maniacally. "When a leaf falls on the path, you don't know what to do." She smiled and evaporated again, appearing behind Cole and Lucy. "And I'm gonna crush you like ants."

Cole grabbed Kayce's throat and squeezed, his lightning curling around her body. "You…! You bitch!"

She stuck her tongue out and evaporated. "I think I've decided something," she said, appearing beside the altar. "I'll let her go. When we see each other again…" She smiled and wrapped a hand around Joan's throat. "I'll kill her. And as I kill her, I'll watch the look on your face. And you'll know the pain you caused me as you killed my father." She released Joan and looked at Cole. "And then I'll kill your girlfriend, the bitch who chose her life over the life of humanity. Or maybe I'll just let her become one of my allies, since it's soeasy for her to betray the people she thought she was on the same side of. And then, Cole, I'll kill you. And I'll enjoy watching you suffer as New Marias, and soon, the world, will crumble around my feet, and all the people will blame you, MacGrath." She appeared in front of Cole. "Because you didn't kill Joan MacGrath when you had the chance."

She disappeared before Cole could even move, her laughter ringing through the cathedral. Cole took a step back, Kayce's words sinking in.

"Cole…?" Lucy probably didn't know what to say.

Cole gritted his teeth. "Let's get Joan outta here."

She nodded solemnly, and squeezed Cole's shoulder in reassurance. Something he'd need for a long time, she had no doubt of.