//------------------------------// // flash back // Story: Infamous: New Beginnings // by Art Inspired //------------------------------// Flash backs Cole decided to see if his tether bolt still worked. As he pointed his hoof to a nearby building, he shot out the line of lightning to the top and reeled himself in. As he jumped on, Nix yelled “Oh, yea! That’s what I’m talking about!” Cole sparked his hand feeling like he barely wasted any energy. Nix yelled to him to get his attention once more. “Hey! I’m gonna throw you a barrel and you try your hand… Uh, hoof at shocking it! Think you can handle that?” Cole looked down at the red pony and told her to proceed. A few barrels flew up and Cole electrocuted each one. As they fell down to the streets with a crash, a crowd came and wondered what was happening. Then Nix yelled “Alright, were gonna see if you still got that ability to control and throw objects.” She blasted a carriage used for transportation up to the building. Cole brought his hoofs up and focused on the huge object. It floated in midair with lightning surrounding it. Nix stomped her hooves in the ground as a symbol of applause. “Good, good! Now, bring it down slowly while catching this barrel.” Cole set it down and caught the object just before it hit his head. Nix yelled to Cole saying “Yea, baby, yea! Now plant a grenade on it and make some fireworks. I filled it up with some of my highly flammable goop. Soon as that grenade pops, we’ll have a nice explosion in the sky.” Cole threw a grenade onto the barrel and threw it up into the air. As it exploded, fireworks filled the night air, and all the civilians watched. After that, Nix yelled for Cole to jump down. “Come on, demon! You got nothing to worry about! Gravity can’t hurt you!” Cole smiled as he leaped to the ground. The impact didn’t hurt even though he fell three stories down, but he’s had harder falls. As he landed he did a barrel roll and planted his hoofed firmly into the ground. The stallion looked at Nix while smirking and said “I still got it!” As the two left the scene, ponies surrounded the area still marveling in the show he just put on. “Uh, Nix… You think it’s a good idea to show off so early?” Cole asked. Nix chuckled and said “look, if we’re going to be here for a while, their gonna have to get use to our abilities.” Cole shrugged and agreed. As they looked for this conduit, they reminisced in the old days. “Remember when Bertrand turned into that giant parasite?” Cole asked as they turned a corner headed east. Nix rolled her eyes while saying “Don’t remind me. That thing was the ugliest thing I ever saw. It took the entire town to take that bitch down!” The two reached the edge of town to find nothing. With them being a little frustrated, Cole said “Where is this guy? You’d think we would have…” Suddenly, the ground felt like it was vibrating. In the distance, Cole could see what looked like a yellow light approaching the city. Nix looked at Cole with a smile and said “Come on, demon! Let’s go greet this guest!” The two headed off towards the light with haste. As they approached the thing, Cole received a flood of memories of when he was at Empire City. The man who almost killed Trish; Alden, was there; but now, he was way more powerful than the last time they met! Cole had battled Alden before and won. His giant machine was his source of power. Just before he finished Alden off, Alden jumped into the river never to be seen by Cole again, except for now. The giant robotic shielding Alden controlled was way bigger than last they fought. Inside the mouth was Alden, being shielded by a technological force field. Nix looked at Cole and asked what this was. Cole said “it’s Alden! He was the one who almost got a juice boost from the Ray Sphere, but Zeke and I stopped him in the nick of time.” Alden spoke with a scratchy and tempered voice “Cole… McGrath! It’s been to long! Now that I have you where I want you, I plan on making sure that I don’t fail this time!” The thing’s arm raised and fired one hell of a laser beam at Cole and nix. Cole shot thunder at it forcing it back while electrocuting the mechanism, and nix fired flaming sludge balls as the head. Soon, the laser was pushed back into the arm blowing it into bits. Cole brought down one big lightning storm onto the mechanism igniting the sludge that was all over the thing’s head. It fell to pieces and spat the pony out. As Alden landed at the hooves of Cole, he looked up to see Cole’s pissed off face. Alden looked like he did in Empire City, only in pony form. His old wrinkled were clearly visible all over his body and his one bad right eye looked just as gruesome. Cole picked the pony up and slammed him on one of the bar poles while saying “No river for you jump into this time, huh? You’re coming with me! If you try to escape, I won’t hesitate to strike!” Cole shocked Alden's hands with bolt cuffs to secure him and lead Alden to the town’s train station. Nix was ordered to stay behind to keep look out for other conduits that may reveal themselves. As the two left the train station in Canterlot, Cole yawned from exhaustion. It wasn’t really early enough for Princess Celestia to be up, so he would have to turn Alden in to Luna. As he reached the throne room, still keeping an eye on Alden, he saw Luna looking over some papers. Luna took Alden to a cage and secured him as to prevent him from escaping, then showed Cole to his quarters. As they walked down to the room all the way at the end, he said “Huh, my own room… It’s gonna feel good sleeping in my own bed rather than a couch outside.” ________________________________________________________________________________ Alright, I need to update the karmic links for this chapter. Just hold tight. This may take a while.