Infamous Wars

Prologue

The orange sky was partially obscured by the massive cloud of dust wrought by the amount of destruction the Beast was visiting upon New Marais. Two figures stood upon a roof facing the creature, their attacks weakening it but not killing it entirely.

"He's gotta pay!" shouted one, her black hair sleek with her oily powers. The other one, a man by the name of Cole MacGrath, called out to her as she jumped into the air.

"Nix! Don't do it!" Cole could only watch in horror as Nix flew up into the Beast's face: seconds later, a massive explosion rocked the area, tearing off half of the Beast's face. The very ground shook beneath the concussive fore, and everywhere dust and debris flew off rooftops like a bomb had gone off. Cole fell backwards, his back slamming into the concrete as the howling wind rushed past his ears. He lay there for a few seconds, dazed as the shockwave dissipated.

"Nix," Cole muttered, picking himself up off the rooftop. She was dead: she had truly cared for the world, despite her appearance and actions. For all of her tough exterior and loner attitude, she had truly been a citizen of the city first, and then a Conduit. He looked over to the RFI, the possible saving grace of humanity: it was not yet full charged.

Cole looked back at the Beast, its features slowly reforming. He couldn't see Kuo, his ally-turned-adversary: she had likely fallen off the building during the struggle. He could still feel the fear in her voice when she fled after his decision to save the world. Had he done the right thing?

Quickly walking over to the RFI before his thoughts clouded his judgment, Cole removed the device from its charging socket and placed it in his backpack. The last place to charge was the church, and the Beast was getting back up.

Cole leaped from rooftop to rooftop, giving himself some extra speed with his static thrusters. Reaching the final building, he leaped off into the open air and shot out his lightning hook, pulling forward.

As he landed in a cloud of dust, he saw several Militia and rebels shooting rockets at the Beast behind him. One Militia looked up from his machine gun turret and saw him.

"Hey, it's Cole," he shouted. "Go get him Electric Man!" Several more Militia and rebels as well pumped their fists into the air and cheered.

Cole couldn't help but feel relieved he wasn't being shot at: he'd been fighting these guys since he arrived in New Marais. With them and Bertrand's swamp monsters and his army of forced Ice-Conduits, Cole felt he had finally been granted a break by fate.

Cole reached the church and started to climb. Leaping from ledge to ledge, he eventually found the last generator to charge the RFI. Within a minute, he released it from the generator: fully charged.

"Zeke," he said over his phone. "It's ready."

"Great," his friend said, letting out a series of coughs. "Activate it."

Cole was about to press the button, but he looked up and saw the Beast approaching. "No," he muttered, putting it back in his backpack. "Not yet: not yet."

He leaped off the building and landed just as the Beast crossed the gates entering the church grounds.

"This is where it ends!" Cole shouted as he rushed the Beast. He fired rockets and chucked grenades at the Beast like crazy, his energy never depleting. The Beast began to falter, his form showing more and more wear and tear.

Cole raised his arms and summoned a Ionic Storm, the numerous bolts of lightning arcing all across the form of the Beast. A blast of energy from the Beast send him flying backwards, landing on a park bench as the Beast fell over, supporting himself with his hands.

"Cole!" he heard a voice shout. He leaped up to see Kuo limping over, he face contorted with grief.

"I'm sorry Cole," she said, falling into his arms. "You were right: you were always right. Hell, even Nix was right. I'm so sorry: I was afraid."

He gently pried her off him. "I am too," he said, gently. She quickly gave him a kiss on the cheek, and then fell back, barely catching herself on the bench.

Cole looked up at the Beast, the man formerly known as John White; his face filled with hatred and disgust. This person- no, this thing was the entire reason why he was what he had become: a god among mortals. This was why Kessler went back and changed time; this was why Trish died and his best friend had betrayed him.

"Do it!" Kuo shouted, leaning over on the park bench, her face contorted into a visage of regret, anger and pain. Cole surged his energy into the Ray Field Inhibitor, powering it up. He unleashed pulse after pulse of electricity, increasing the amount each time. Just as it neared total power, the Beast looked at Cole, its glowing red eyes burning with pain and hatred.

"I will save what is left of humanity!" its deep voice roared as several chunks near the shoulders fell from his frame. "I will not let you stop me!"

Raising its hand, the Beast shot forth its own power at Cole. The damage from Cole's attacks sent a small shard of John White into Cole's shoulder, but Cole ignored it as he felt himself absorb its energies. Then something happened that nobody could have predicted: the RFI diverted the Beast's power into itself, acting as a sort of energy magnet. This wasn't supposed to happen; but it was.

Suddenly, Cole found the RFI was more than charged: it was overflowing with energy, some of it his, some of it from the Beast. The ground started to shake and loose objects were tumbling about. Just then, as a massive beam shot forth into the sky, Cole felt his mind falter and his weak body soar up through the air, rapidly gaining speed. Finally losing consciousness, Cole felt Conduits around the world die; but then he felt nothing.

Unknown to Cole, his excess energies had opened something of a rift in space. His body, rapidly leaving the atmosphere like a rocket, soared into this vacuum. Seconds after he entered it, it closed as the world below was freed from the plague.

On the surface, in the spot where he had launched from, his Amp was embedded in the concrete, sparking every now and then. The Beast's body started to disintegrate, leaving only the body of John White: Kuo's body was nowhere to be seen. A woman fell out of the sky into a fountain, the life in her body gone before she fell. The RFI lay next to the Amp, completely burnt out: its job was finished.

Zeke felt the plague leave his body almost instantly. He walked over and picked up the RFI and turned to the gathering crowd.

"Let us never forget what he did," Zeke said, his voice carrying far over the crowd. "He gave his life so that millions would live: help me honor his memory."

The crowd seemed to understand and began to clear away the dust and debris from around the Amp. Over the next few days, a banner with Cole's visage had graced the church and news of his heroic deeds had spread throughout the country and then the world.

People everywhere who had grown to mistrust and hate the man blamed for the destruction of Empire City flocked to the cities devastated by the Beast to help rebuild what Cole gave his life to save. The news media from around the world began converging on every person who had ever known or claimed to have met Cole, trying to build a picture of his life. The terrorist, the 'Demon of Empire City', had become the patron saint of New Marais and the hero of the world.

Zeke watched as the final stones were laid into place around the Amp, which had ceased to spark within three days. He had been contacted the other day by a publisher who wanted to write a book about Cole's life: Zeke was going to make sure they got everything right. "I'm going to miss you, brother," he muttered, his voice cracking slightly as he held back the tears.

Placing his sunglasses back on his face, he thrust his hands into his pockets and turned away. With a slight breeze from the ocean moving his hair, he walked away from the Cole Macgrath Memorial. Unseen by Zeke, the Amp gave one last flicker of light and a small spark fell from the end.