Hey guys Limit-Breaker13 here with a rewrite/expansion for chapter 2 of inFAMOUS: A Shadow's Soul. I say rewrite because I'll be re writing it somewhat while expanding the chapter to not only make it a lot longer, but to make it not as rushed. Also I'll be changing the title of the chapter. Anyways Let's
Have an Encore!
inFAMOUS: A Shadow's Soul
(Rewrite/Expansion of) Chapter 2: Activation complete (The Powers Arc)
Dominick's P.O.V.
I just stood there, watching as my BEST FRIEND, got run over by a truck. I was horrified at what his body looked like after that, but what it looked like, was NOTHING compared hearing all of his bones coming back together and repairing themselves. However, even the horrifying sounds of his body reforming were nothing compared to the SIGHT of his brains becoming un-mashed. [What's happening to Anthony?] I wondered silently. Then I noticed it, I noticed the shadows being drawn into him, I noticed the blackish glow that was emanating from his body. Then I noticed him open his eyes. Both relief and fear washed over me, relief because my best friend was alive, fear because of what he was. My best friend was a conduit, and I never even knew, I never knew that my friend, my BEST FRIEND, was in league with bio-terrorists like The Beast and the Demon of Empire City. I backed away a bit as he shakily got to his hands and then his knees, then just as shakily he got on his feet. I couldn't breathe as he looked at me his eyes pure white but glowing black at the same time. Then he said something, something that didn't make any sense at all, he said.
"Why me world, why me?" [Why is he saying that, it's as if he didn't know he was a conduit.] I wondered about this for a second before I saw Anthony pass out and I remembered something I had been taught on the last day of school before I came to visit Anthony and his family.
"Not all conduits are bio-terrorists, especially those that don't know there a conduit yet" my teacher had said, at the time I thought he was pulling our legs, I mean how could someone with powers not know if they had them? Right? I thought about this and I looked at the passed out and limp figure of my friend, or what I thought was my friend, on the ground.
[No, he's still my friend, after all] I smirked at this next thought [There's no way he would have super powers and not have told me, I mean were best friends right?] I then realized people would be calling the police, so I grabbed Anthony and ran, I ran back to central park and hid ourselves in one of the denser parts of the park. (The parts with a lot of trees and bushes) I even hid him in one of the bushes while I waited for him to wake up. I just hope were not found.
Anthony's P.O.V.
I awake in a dream, I call out
"Hello? Is anyone there?" I'm surrounded by Darkness and can see absolutely nothing. I can't remember anything. Suddenly a bright light shines and I'm watching my death on replay. I almost puke watching it the first time through, I do the second time. "Is someone, anyone there?" I call out after I finish puking. Then I had the feeling of being watched and it was coming from behind me so I quickly turned around. "Who are you?!" I yelled at, it. It wasn't really a him or her, more like a moving ball of darkness with lines moving around it in a spherical fashion, the lines looked like they could cut through steel.
"I am the darkness that breathes light, I am the shadows inside the sun, I am the bringer of the end and the creator of the beginning. I am one step below my king, I am the conduit god of shadows, or more powerfully, darkness."
"Okay, now that that's out of the way, what are you doing here, and more importantly, where is here?"
"We are inside your mind, you are currently dreaming, also, I wouldn't speak so rudely to someone who could destroy you with a thought." I look at what I now believe is a him like he was bat shit crazy, which at the time, I thought he was.
"Yeah right, besides how can you kill someone who's already dead?"
"Foolish child, your death may be on replay before us, but you survived your death, because I wanted you too" Now I think [He has GOT to be crazy]
"Look even if I wanted to believe you made me survive, and even if I didn't think you were crazy, WHICH I DO!" "Where's the evidence to prove your claims?
"Right here" it said as some of the shadows or maybe it was the darkness flew out of the sphere and flowed into me, suddenly I remembered my death, and getting up after words.
"Now do you see child, I gave you life, defy me, and I'll take it away again."
"I don't think that's how it works."
"Then what do you think happened child?" it asked sounding genuinely curious.
"I think, you gave me power when I was born, I think that power was shadows. I think that I had to be born with a certain gene or something in order to receive these powers, and I THINK, that my death activated my powers, which brought me back to life by healing my body at an uncontrollable rate."
"You are smarter than the rest, but you have been wrong about one thing, but it's not something recently said"
"What's that?"
"You aren't a conduit like you thought, you're more than that, far more".
"What does that mean?"
"You'll find that out on your own, go now leave this place, and become as powerful as you can. You'll need to in order to face what's coming".
"Do you mean the beast?!" I asked as I was faded away from my mindscape, then I woke up. I woke up inside a bush and saw Dominick waiting on the outside of it. [Did he hide me here?] I wonder as I get up and walk out of the bush towards him. He looks at me and smiles for a second before saying
"So, you're a conduit, how about that" I rolled my eyes and put my hood back on, my head ached like I had just gotten hit by a truck, probably because that's exactly what happened.
"Yeah, how about that." I say looking at the shadows being drawn into me.
"Where should we go, Do you know anyone who could help us? I thought about it for a while, then I remembered my ex-girlfriend Emily, she loved talking about conduits as well as researching them, and although were still friends, she's the last person I wanna talk to right now. However she might be the only one who can help us.
"I think it's time me and Emily come to terms on our relationship" Dominick nodded and got up
"Good idea man, she should be able to help"
"I just hope she doesn't act entirely like her usual self".
"Come on she likes conduits, give her a break." I rolled my eyes and said
"Whatever let's get going" suddenly I tripped as an image popped up in my vision, it said. –Activation 25%- Dom caught me as I fell.
"You okay dude?
"Yeah I'll be fine" I decided not to tell him what I had just seen, or about The God of Shadows/Darkness that I had met in my mind, I didn't need him worrying more. Or thinking I was insane for that matter. We continue off to Emily's and when we get to the road there's no more shade, only sunlight, I'm hesitant at first to enter the light. However Dominick reminds me that time is of the essence. So I do, and I don't feel anything, I had expected to feel weaker or something. However I didn't feel different at all. So we continued on to Emily's me with my hood on and Dom with his face down pretending to look at his phone, after all, the last thing we need right now is to be recognized and get the cops called on us, or worse, the NSA. Even with our efforts though I heard someone calling the police and looked to the side to see them pointing at me and Dominick. So we ran like hell to Emily's. She was waiting for us when we got there.
"Get in here you two." She said as she ushered us in the house and downstairs to her parent's nuclear bunker. I look around at the bunker as she locks us all in and Dom says
"HOLY CRAP, HOW DID YOUR FAMILY AFFORD A NUCLEAR BUNKER!?"
"Um we're rich" Dominick just looked at me
"Why in the world would did you break up with her again" I rolled my eyes and reminded him
"It was a mutual break up"
"Could you two stop talking about that" Emily said. I got a good look at her for the first time in a while, Blonde hair, Blue eyes, a red tank top and a pair of black jeans, those and her red and green sunglasses that she always has on her forehead. (The Glasses part is green and the part that holds the glasses is red)
"It's been a while since I've been down here, even longer since I was down here with you" I say gesturing and looking at Emily. Then I noticed a picture that I gave her for our 1 year anniversary. "Didn't think you still had that" I moved towards the picture, it's of me and her on our first date, we were sharing a chocolate milkshake.
"Those were good times weren't they" I said out loud
"Yeah" Then her eyes widened and she quickly unlocked the door and led us to her backyard where there were some training dummies set up, Dom must have left them over here when she was dead set on learning martial arts, which lasted a total of three weeks before she became obsessed with conduits, that was a year ago. "I have no clue why I led you down into the bunker, I meant to bring you out here so you can test out your powers" She may be a genius on all things conduit, actually she may be a genius on everything, but she can get pretty scatter-brained.
"How am I supposed to test out my powers on some dummies?" I asked, she rolled her eyes.
"I told you when we were dating, all conduits that the government has public information on, and even those that they don't have public info for"
"Hacking again?" I asked
"So what? Anyways, their first power was always the ability to shoot their conductive element from their hands."
"So you're saying that should be my first power too?"
"Yes, but it is possible because of the extreme way your powers were activated that it will be something else."
"Wait a second, how did you know Anthony was a conduit?" Dominick asked
"It's all over the news, Local Boy is a Conduit, Boy's friend takes him and runs after boy's collapse, those were the headlines on the morning paper" Emily answered "Now, Anthony, I want you to focus the energy from your body, which seems to be constantly absorbing shadows, and focus it into an orb shape just above your hand, then push the energy out of your hand and shoot the dummy, ok"
"I'll try Em" I closed my eyes and imagined the enormous amount of energy flowing through my body going into my hand and above it imagining it forming an orb of shadows, I then opened my eyes to see. Absolutely nothing had changed.
"I don't think it worked Em" I say looking at her
"Well no shit Sherlock" she said smiling as she tried to push me. Emphasis on tried. As soon as her hand made contact with my body, that part of my body turned into shadows as her hands fell through me, she quickly stepped back and the part of my body turned back to normal, I quickly felt my skin and found it was solid enough. "Looks like we found your first power"
"Yep" I said looking at the part of my body she had just phased through. Suddenly I fall down and my vision blurs into an image that says –Activation 50%- As I get up I hear something akin to helicopter blades, in fact that's exactly what it sounded like. I looked behind me to see a helicopter with the words NSA on it fast approaching. "Emily"
"Yeah?" she said also looking at the copter
"Take Dom and get into your bunker, I'll do my best to deal with these guys"
"But dude." Dominick said
"GO!" I yelled.
"Come on Dom" said Em as she took Dominick into the bunker. I quickly hid waiting for the Helicopter, when it got to the backyard a tall bulky man jumped out from about 25feet in the air and landed inside the ground. He then popped back up to the surface.
[He must be a conduit with ground powers] I think.
"So, hide and seek eh?" He said, he then closed his eyes for just a second before opening them again. "Found you" he said as he looked at where I was hiding. Without thinking I ran as fast as I could at him, which was pretty damn fast as I noticed at some point my speed became enhanced.
[Maybe my strength did too] I think as I swing at the guy sending him flying back about 10 feet he landed on his back, but was quickly on his feet again.
"So you've got enhanced speed and strength as your first powers?" Suddenly I was surrounded by pillars of solid rock on both sides as well as behind me. "This should be enough to knock you out" he said as he shot a sphere of earth at me.
"Crap" I say just before it passes through me and explodes after hitting the barrier behind me after that I say "Is what I would say if that could've hit me, what you just saw, that was my first power, the speed and strength just happened when you got here"
"What the?" then he smiles "You might be a bit of a challenge to knock out and take back to base" Then I see through Ems backdoor, some people were going down the stairs, most likely trying to grab Emily and Dominick.
"Looks like I gotta wrap this up in about 10-15 minutes, that'll be about the time your friends come close to cracking the lock down there"
"I hope it's that way, so I can have a little fun before we head back to base"
"Alright then, let's go!" I yell as I run at him and try to punch him in the face but he quickly sinks into the earth and comes up behind me to kick me in the back of the head, but I thought he would try something like that so I turn around and grab his leg. Then I start spinning around and throw him 20feet away. But of course he sinks back into the ground but this time he comes up under me and uppercuts me sending me flying into the air. Then as I'm falling to the ground dazed I notice him preparing to punch me away from him when I fall low enough, when he tries to punch me it fazes through my chest and I uppercut him. I then jump in the air after him and kick him to the ground.
"Looks like it's only the attacks that you don't notice can hit or damage you." He says
"Seems that way" I say smiling when suddenly an explosion hit me in the back. "Gahh, what the?" I say looking behind me then I get hit by one in the front knocking me backwards. I look back at the guy I'm fighting. "How're you doing that?"
"Easily, I've had a while to practice with my powers, and I've found I can shoot at someone from anywhere that has dirt, sand, or certain types of rocks. At least anywhere I can feel the earth."
"Wait you can sense where certain types of ground are?"
"Well, yeah, can't you sense wherever you're conductive element is?" I shake my head no.
"I just seem to be constantly absorbing it, I can't tell where it is though." Suddenly I get grabbed from behind, I look and see it a duplicate of the guy I'm fighting except it's made out of some very hard packed dirt, and without any leverage I can't break free.
"I've got you now"
"And here I thought you were a man of Honor, who fought their opponents without any tricks."
"Oh, I am, against those who can only barely stand against me" he said. Suddenly I went limp and another image popped into my vision. –Activation 75%- Then just as suddenly I opened my eyes again and suddenly I could feel all the shadows around me, then before I knew how or why I was let go. I looked behind me to see a very sharp line of shadows had gone through the eyes of the duplicate man. I focused on it going away, that didn't work so I imagined it turning intangible like a regular shadow and flowing back into me. That worked so I looked back at my opponent who was baffled that I had manifested a new power so quickly.
"You powers only activated yesterday, right?"
"Yeah, so what?"
"You shouldn't have a second power yet, you shouldn't even have the enhanced strength and speed!"
"Well, I'm glad I do" I said smiling, then I felt the movement of the duplicates shadows and turned around to see its eyes were reforming, so I punched it in the face destroying its head. I look back at the man I'm fighting to see him about to launch a spear of rock at me. I know I could let it faze through me, but I want to try out this new power. So I concentrate on a sharp line of shadow floating just above my arm, I then move my arm around to see it stays just above my right arm. "That's useful" I said as the spear was thrown at an amazing speed, I didn't even have a chance to slice at it before it fazed through me. In fact it moved so fast that the resulting gust of wind knocked me over and caused me to hit my head on the back of the spear which had hit the ground. Then I felt an amazing amount of power enter my body, after that I saw the final image. –Activation 100%-. I got up rubbing the back of my head while looking at the ground, suddenly I felt a fast moving shadow going across the yard, so I looked up and saw it was moving slower than the last one, still fast but not fast enough. I sliced it in half with my arm's shadow line. I then ran towards my opponent to see him sink into the ground. Then I felt something under me and jumped back just in time to see the guy pop up, although he was very surprised when I ran at him from behind and sliced part of his back, but instead of blood I got some dirt in my face. Just like I had expected, after all, if I was made of solid shadows and my conductive element is shadows, then he must be made of his conductive element. He then tried to back hand me but I sliced off his arm then I kicked him forward. So he tried to blast me in the face. I just concentrated on a shield of solid shadow appearing in front of me just as he fired. The resulting explosion pushed me back a bit. Then I had a slot of the shield at around eye level turn intangible and flow back into me, now I was carrying a shield of shadows akin to that of a solitary confinement door. As I looked through the sot for my eyes I saw the man had put his hand back on and was running at me, he then struck my shield but was surprised to find his fist bounced back. This just riled him up more, imagine being in his shoes, you've been a conduit for a while and have been trained by the government in order to take down rouge or new conduits before they hurt someone, and here he is trying to take down a new conduit, a TEENAGER no less, and he's getting his ass beat. I would get angry in that situation too.
"I'll take you down, I WILL" he yelled and charged me again this time he tried to hulk smash my shield but I maneuvered under him and cut off both hands then I flipped over him and cut off his legs hearing a yell of pain escape his mouth before he fell onto his back. Then so he didn't put himself back together, I kicked him in the face to knock him out. Then I walked into Emily's house and on my way down the stairs to the bunker I imagined my shadow line and shadow shield turning into hands that formed around my actual hands, this would increase my striking power and unarmed defense as if they were stats in a video-game. When I got down there the three guys who came down here to get my friends were busy with the electronic lock, so I just tapped one on the shoulder and when he looked at me I waved at him, I then smiled pulled my fist back and started the beat down on the three poor soldiers. I then knocked on the door to the bunker saying.
"This is Private Anthony reporting for duty" and saluting my friends as they opened the door. They actually gave me hugs which was nice, but then Em got a call on her cell, it was her parents who happen to be genetic scientists and were currently on a trip to New Marais. They were calling Emily to tell her to take us, as they had found out about the incident, and get to New Marais quickly because of something terrible.
-The Beast is 100 miles from New York City-
? P.O.V.
"What would you say his activation level was soldier?"
"Activation Compete ma'am, Activation complete".
Hey guys, That was the revised, and expanded version of chapter 2, now as you probably already know this has taken the place of the old chapter 2 and I for one think it is so much better the chapter itself including authors notes is 3,891 words long. Anyway I hope you enjoyed the chapter, now stay strong and remember to always beak your limits! See ya'!