chAPTER 2

The other me looked just as surprised to see me as I was to see him. A few tense moments passed, and we stared at each other. Suddenly, his expression hardened, and he moved quickly, throwing a lightning rocket at me with a speed I hadn't ever witnessed before. I barely rolled out of the way before it exploded behind me.

Bringing my Amp from it's sling, I turned back to my doppelgänger as he was upon me, throwing a punch to my midsection. As it landed, white sparks scattered around the point of impact, which began hurting like hell. As I doubled over, the other me swung his foot in a roundhouse kick to the side of my head. Thinking quickly, I ducked down lower, avoiding the blow before swinging upward with the Amp. The attack caught him off guard, and he ended up flying backward and onto the ground.

As he hit the ground, however, he used his momentum to roll and get back on his feet quickly. He then glared at me. "Where the hell did you come from?" he demanded.

I glared back. "I should be asking you that," I replied.

He shook his head. "I don't have time for this," he muttered. Then he started running toward me. A few feet from me, he jumped into the air and clenched his fist, ready to land on me with another attack.

Dropping the Amp for a moment, I focused energy into my hands and let out a punch blast that knocked him back onto the ground. Again, he quickly got up and came at me again. This time I was the one to take to the air, using the ice powers I got when I used the transfer device with Kuo. Once in the air, I let out another blast and followed up with a rocket. He dodged the blast, but got caught in the impact radius of the rocket. I landed on the ground and stormed over to him, stepping on his chest as I sent a surge of energy through him that pinned his wrists and ankles to the ground.

As he struggled, I held out my arm, electricity sparking and threatening to leap out at him. "Why are you here?" I demanded.

He glared at me. "It wasn't by choice," he replied, still trying to break free.

I frowned and lowered my hand. However he got here, he couldn't have been here to hurt anyone. In Empire City, right after Trish died, I was so angry I turned against everyone. I let cops die, I executed gang members, I even took their life energy. The angrier I got, the more evil I seemed to look. My lightning was even blood-red. This other me... he looked much like I did now. No pale skin, no veins sticking out, no red lightning. He must have attacked me because he saw me as some kind of threat. "I'm not an enemy," I said calmly, trying to reason with him.

He seemed to understand, at least a little. "Sorry," he said quietly, though he was still glaring at me. "I couldn't be sure." With a little more energy, he broke free of his bindings and stood up, though less hostile than before.

I shook my head, still very confused. "What the hell is going on?" I asked.

The other me sighed. "It's a long story," he replied solemnly. He looked at me, as though he were sizing me up. "Tell you what: help me deal with this thing and I'll tell you everything you want to know."

I opened my mouth to ask what he was referring to, but my question was answered quickly by a loud thud. We both turned to see the Beast standing at the edge of the square, his eyes on both of us. "John?" I asked, perplexed.

My doppelgänger shook his head. "That's not John," he replied grimly, before teleporting away. I stared at the spot he used to be at for a moment. He was already more powerful than me. Had his powers developed differently than mine? Or was he from the future, like Kessler?

Regardless, he'd most likely need help against the Beast. I picked up the Amp and replaced it in its sling before throwing a bolt of lightning at the top of a building near the Beast. As it caught, I found myself going off the ground and toward it, the tether acting as a pulley system.

Before I made it ten yards, however, a force seemed to grab me and pull me back. Caught between this new force and the lightning tether, I had to let go or be pulled apart by the opposing forces. As I let go, I found myself going higher into the air. I turned around and saw the Beast, another Beast, looking me dead in the eyes. "MacGrath," I heard John say telepathically. "What are you doing?"

"Let go of me, John!" I yelled out. "I don't have time to deal with you right now."

"Deal with me?" John asked menacingly. He suddenly held out his hand, a singularity field pulling me toward it. Using my static thrusters, I tried flying away, but could only manage to stay in place.

As the singularity subsided, I turned around and fired a few rockets, hoping to keep John busy long enough to turn around and help the other me deal with the... other Beast.

It made sense, kind of. Wherever this other version of me came from, there had to be a Beast there, too. But how did he get here? When Kessler came back to my time, he didn't bring the Beast with him. However he got here, he had to be stopped, too. One Beast was bad enough.

John wasn't so easily shaken, however, and I found myself being pulled back from the other Beast and thrown across Ascension Parish. I tried using my static thrusters to glide safely to the ground, but the force of John's throw made the glide unsteady and I landed hard on the ground. It wasn't anything that would badly injure me, but it did hurt like hell. As I stood up, I saw an explosive white flash and the familiar crackle of thunder as an ionic storm came down and hit the John square on the head. He was down, for now, but where was the other one? He'd seemed to had disappeared.

I threw another lightning tether, trying to quickly cover the distance back to the fight. As I came closer, more white and red flashes were visible on the street. Suddenly I heard as scream and the red flash seemed to sustain for a moment. Then, just as suddenly as the scream appeared, it ended.

I ran toward the source of the disturbance, only to find John once again blocking my path. Snarling in frustration, I began throwing more rockets at him before my energy began running low. As John brought a hand toward me, as though to flatten me on the rooftop, I jumped into the alley below and did a quick scan of the environment, trying to find a source of electricity I could draw from. A fuse box sat on the nearby wall, and I held my hand out to drain the energy from it. Before half of the box's energy was in me, John's hand was back, destroying the wall of the building I'd just jumped off of.

I ran onto the street to avoid the debris, but now I was face-to-ankle with John. I looked up just in time to see another singularity being formed, and I ran as fast as I could to avoid it. Then, before John could attack me again, an explosion came from his back, and another large red arm came trough his chest.

As John fell to his knees, I saw the other Beast standing triumphantly behind him. Then it turned its gaze to me. As I turned tail to run, my phone beeped. "Cole!" I heard Zeke yell. "We've got a helicopter. Come on, man! We've gotta go!"

"I'm on my way," I replied, a touch frantically as I tried to outrun the Beast. Before it could give chase, though, John suddenly stood and crashed his elbow into the other Beast's face.

I spotted the helicopter hovering over the bridge leading to Flood Town. I threw a lightning tether to a nearby roof and ran the rest of the way to the bridge. I jumped to the helicopter and grabbed on to the landing bar, hanging there as the helicopter began to take off.

As we moved away from New Marais, I saw one of the Beasts. It seemed to be standing over the other one. I couldn't tell for sure, but I had a bad feeling that it was the Beast from the other me's world. If that version of me was so powerful... I shuddered to think of what this Beast must be like.

"Get inside, MacGrath," a new voice barked.

"Uh," I replied, confused. "That's not a good idea."

"We've already taken steps to compensate for your powers. You won't blow us up."

Despite my concern, I decided to take this guy for his word. Sure as hell beat hanging on to a bar for god knew how long. I climbed into the cabin and saw Nix, Zeke, and Kuo already inside. When I noticed a lack of exploding, I sat down next to Zeke and held on to a sling designed to keep people from falling. I then saw the pilot. "Who are you?" I asked.

"I'm none of your goddamn business," he replied.

I frowned. So that was how it would be, huh? "How about you tell us where we're going?" I pressed. "Or is that none of my goddamn business, either?"

The pilot glared at me for a moment, but then returned his gaze to the front. "Washington D.C.," he finally replied. "Time for you to earn the freedom you've so recklessly enjoyed."

My frown deepened. Earn my freedom? What the hell did that mean? Whatever the case, it probably wasn't the best idea to piss this guy off. Not with a huge body of water below me, anyway.

There was another explosion behind us, in New Marais. I didn't need to turn around to know what happened. The Beast just used his powers. Conduits were activated. Innocent humans were killed.

New Marais was destroyed.

Author's Note: Thank you to all who've read the introduction. I'm trying to write this like it was an actual inFAMOUS game, with decisions, power upgrading, etc. This probably will have to be considered non-canon, as it won't tie in to Second Son at all.

Also, to any who are following N7, I apologize, but it is currently on hiatus until I can get the chapter I'm working on finished. I know where I want it to go, but I'm not entirely sure how to get it there.

Anyways, please don't forget to review. I'd like to know how I'm doing so I can be more prepared with any necessary changes. Thanks, and I hope you enjoy the rest of inFAMOUS 3!