InFamous: Second world

by Yoni


Meeting strangers

"Uhh… my head…" I moaned. I was lying on the ground and winched profusely as each muscle in my body throbbed with pain. I tried to reach with my hand to rub the sore spot, but as I did, instead of feeling the soft texture of my skin, I felt something hard, cold, and smooth. Something very akin to…

"Glass?"

I opened my sore eyes and steadied myself on my knees as my body protested with every move I made. I focused my sight on my hand and took a closer look.

It looked like it was crudely made out of glass shards. I was surprised, to say the least, but not shocked as you might expect. Like I said earlier, I was a suspected conduit, and the months of physical and mental torture by the D.U.P was a proof of that.

Finally, I decided to look around me, I was in some type of port, overlooking a grand city. It reminded me a bit of Manhattan, but at the same time, it wasn't. For example, I saw a giant statue that highly resembled the 'Statue of Liberty', but the woman in this 'Statue of Liberty' had something equine about her, like fur. And from a distance I could see another building that looked astoundingly like Chrysler building, only with a hoof imprint onto it.

At this point I was willing to believe in anything. I mean, conduits? People with super-powers? How weird does an alternate universe can be compared to the things I saw. Or at least, I thought that was an alternate universe. Kinda like the 'Planet of the Apes' only with humanoid horses.

There was a weird crunching sound emanating from my hand and as I looked back down, I saw the glass had somehow morphed back into my flesh and blood hand. I took it as a sign and decided that it was high time to start walking. Maybe one of the locals could help me find a way back home.

It took me a while but I managed to find my way out of the port. And what I saw caused my jaw to hit the floor.

Furry humans, everywhere I looked.

Now remember what I said earlier about how weird could this be compared to conduits? Yeah, it didn't help with the initial shock.

It was an entire world filled with human-like horses. I could tell they were half horses by their head structure. It was slightly equine in nature but not overly so.

Oh, and not only that but they appeared to be living in an almost exact copy of Manhattan.

"Excuse me, out of my way mutt! I'm very busy!" A human/horse/thing hollered as he shoved me aside and disappeared behind a corner.

I was surprised that he wasn't as shocked as I was, considering I couldn't see any other humans around here. But I did noticed something very odd. I saw not only ponies but also other creatures walking the streets. I also saw humanoid versions of gryphons, two legged dogs, and even the odd zebra here and there.

Maybe that's the reason why these ponies don't seem to care about me. Besides the odd glances I received, no one really approached me. Did inter-species relations really exists here?

Well, that's a relief. Being sent into a totally different world can be tough, at least I don't have to deal with public appearance. I chose a random direction and started walking.

Each street I crossed was like walking through a Manhattan itself. They even had Times Square! Shops were everywhere and everything seemed so much nicer and colorful than the real Manhattan, not that I have anything against Manhattan, but if you saw what I saw, you would understand. Its official now, I love this world.

I was so busy admiring the spitting image of Manhattan that I wasn't paying attention to the road ahead of me and thus, bumped into someone.

We both fell backwards. I fell on my bum while she fell on a big leathery case she had on her back.

"Oh I'm sorry, please let me help you." Immediately, I offered a hand. She eyed my hand for a while, and then looked at my face, suddenly I felt very self-conscious.

"Who… who are you?" asked the grey furred woman, she had a sophisticated tone to her speech and wore a pink blazer with a white dress underneath and black high heels.

I tried to give her a reassuring smile while trying to keep my excitement from bursting. I cannot believe I just talked to a talking furry. "My name is Devon MacGrath. Please forgive me for bumping into you like this."

The woman looked a bit more relaxed as she took my offer. I grabbed her furry hand and lifted her up with ease. I then helped her with her enormous case which weighted a ton. "God this thing is heavy, what's inside it anyway?"

The woman giggled and extended her hand. I gave her the case and she lifted it with ease. "A cello," the mare answered. "But it's not really that heavy, the case is what makes it so hard to lift. Oh, and my name is Octavia Melody, a pleasure to make your acquaintance."

"Please, the pleasure is all mine, after all, it's a once in a lifetime experience for me," I replied.

Octavia quirked and eyebrow, "You mean to tell me that this is your first time in Manehattan?" She inquired.

"Wait, wait, wait. Hold the phone. Did you just call this city 'Manehattan'?" oh dear god, this is so rich! Manehattan! This city is actually called Manehattan.

"Yeah… I did. Did I stutter?" Octavia blinked a few times in confusion.

"Oh no, no, no. I was just… surprised, that's all." I started to laugh nervously while rubbing the back of my head.

"I see… well, I must say Mr. MacGrath that your appearance is quite… exotic, if I may say so myself."

"Yeah, I would imagined that would be the case. Too bad I couldn't bring my violin to here as well. God, I love that violin," I said sadly. My violin was more than just an instrument, it was a part of me. I always played when I felt a bit under the weather, and it always cheered me the way it would cry with me. The violin has such a beautiful cry.

"Oh, so you're a musician. And a violinist nonetheless," the mare said, suddenly looking far more interested in me than mere moments ago.

"Well, it's more of a really profitable hobby. I never played on concerts or anything of that magnitude. Maybe a bar once, but I mostly just play for myself. My real profession is a glass artist, you see," I replied, coating my words with a bit of pride because hey, why not.

"A glass artist, you say. You wouldn't perhaps have a card on you, would you? I've wanted to decorate my house for a while now but I never found anything fitting, and now that I think about it, glass just might be what I need." The woman looked at me expectedly. Unfortunately, I had no cards.

"Sorry, I never had the chance to grab my cards when I… arrived. In fact, I'm kinda lost right now."

Octavia gave me another once over before speaking up again, "Well Mr. MacGrath, seeing as you're new to the city, and I would simply hate seeing someone as nice as you getting mugged, what do you say about accompanying both myself and my friend to lunch. I'm sure she's going to like you, she likes things that are… out of the ordinary, no offence of course," she quickly mentioned.

I smiled once again and nodded. "That would be very kind of you Miss Melody, I'm sure it will be an amazing learning opportunity for the both of us."

"Then it's settled, come on now Mr. MacGrath."

"Wait, right now!"

"Why of course, it's three in the afternoon and I promised my friend to meet her at the restaurant in three and a half. That means we must go now," she replied urgently, still somehow remaining composed.

"Umm, okay sure, it's not like I have anything better to do," I said as I was dragged by Octavia. "So, where are we going?"

"To a small restaurant a few blocks from here. It would take us about twenty minutes if the traffic is slow, which is good because I always like to get a little earlier," Octavia replied.


As expected, we arrived at the restaurant ten minutes earlier. The restaurant wasn't too big. It had a front porch to those who want to enjoy the weather and a large glass window that peered into the restaurant itself. Octavia and I decided to sit outside, seeing as how lovely this day was. During the extra time, Octavia and I chatted a bit about ourselves. She told me about her times in the orchestra and a few funny stories from an event called 'The Grand Galloping Gala', and I told her about my interest in glass art and my violin.

"Wow… so your violin was really made out of glass?" Octavia asked, her look of utter amazement brought a smile to my face.

"Yeah, I made it myself. The parts I mean. I then gave them to a friend of mine in the instrument building industry and he made me an electric glass violin," I said as I drifted in a sea of nostalgia.

Suddenly, a brash voice cut through the air and reached our ears. "Hey Octy! What's up!"

I turned my head and saw a white furred woman –I think I'll simply call them mares- with a crazy looking blue hair. She had purple glasses, a white undershirt and denim shorts. Overall, she was just the type of mare I would probably see in a club.

I could hear Octavia sigh and turned my head again. She was smiling while shaking her head from side to side. "Hey Vinyl…"

The mare known as Vinyl took the sit between Octavia and myself and stared at me intently. "Who's the cute guy?"

I felt myself blush at Vinyl's comment and tried to hide it by covering my face with the menu.

"Ohhhh look, I made him blush…" Vinyl cooed, further aiding my burning cheeks.

"Vinyl! This is very uncouth of you. This nice stallion right here is Devon MacGrath. Devon, this is my friend Vinyl Scratch.

"Sup…" Vinyl gave me a cheeky smile which I returned with my own nervous one.

"Uhh, hey… so you're Octavia's friend right?"

Octavia chuckled before answering, "I know it doesn't look like it but we're really are friends. We met a few years ago when I was just walking back to my place after a big night. A few stallions tried to steal my cello to sell it since it was so expensive. Luckily, Vinyl was close by and saw the entire fiasco. Without a second thought she jumped at the stallions and beat them all single handedly." Octavia finished her story by looking proudly at Vinyl.

"Jeez Octy, you're making it sound more heroic than it actually was…"

"I don't know, for me it sounds pretty damn nice of you, Vinyl. You sound a lot like my little brother, god bless him."

"Really," Vinyl said, "What's his name?"

"Cole. He's… not with us anymore," my face fell a bit as memories of Cole flooded my mind. He was lazy as a teen, but the blast changed him. He became a hero, a symbol of hope, and he died so that others may live. I suddenly felt something touch my shoulder and saw Vinyl looking at me sadly. I couldn't see her eyes behind her freaky shades but I knew she regretted mentioning him.

"I'm sorry dude, didn't mean to bring back bad memories."

"It's okay," I said as I wiped away a stray tear, "He died a hero, I could not be more proud of him."

"He sounds like a good person," said Octavia.

"He was," I agreed. In an instant, my frown turned into a grin once again. "But I'm sure that he wouldn't want his big brother to mourn him, and I sure as hell don't want to drag you into this emotional mess, so… what do you want for lunch."

Before any of them could voice their opinion, a shrill cry of pain came from somewhere along the street. Everyone in the vicinity turned his head to the source of the noise.

I turned just as a group of masked stallions emerged from a back ally. Their muzzles were covered by red bandannas with a scratchy white X's painted on them, and their eyes had black goggles over them. All of them had horns protruding their foreheads and their hands glowed with energy.

Then, all of a sudden, they started shooting!

I just about managed to flip the table to its side and pulled Vinyl and Octavia behind it. Unfortunately, I was too slow and a bolt of energy hit me square in the shoulder.

I ducked under the table and grasped my shoulder. "Fuuuuuuuck!"

"Devon, are you alright, dude?!" cried Vinyl, she quickly rushed to my side.

"Absolutely… peachy, Vinyl!" I hissed, though my comment was swallowed by the numerous shouts and screams for help.

"Here, let me see…" Octavia gently removed my hand from my shoulder and examined the wound. The only problem was; there was no wound!

"What! I don't understand. I saw you get hit, your shoulder should be smoldering right now!"

"Wow Miss Melody, you sure know how to make a guy feel safe," I snickered.

"Uhh, guys, sorry to interrupt you little love session but there's a gang shooting right next to us!" barked Vinyl.

"Who are those guys, anyway?" I asked.

Octavia peered over the table and quickly ducked behind it when another bolt struck the ground near her. "They are a gang called 'The white X'. A group of unicorns that committed every possible crime, from drug dealing to selling weapons and illegal magical artifacts. They terrorize this city in broad daylight and disappear when the guards come to stop them. Oh, I can't believe this is happening to me…"

I felt bad for Octavia, she started crying and panicking. Vinyl held her in her arms and I felt so useless. But then I remembered something.

I'm a freaking conduit.

I turned my gaze to my hands and felt the same power the flowed through me when I just woke up. Within seconds, my hands morphed into glass again.

Finally taking the initiative, I rose from the table and aimed at the nearest gang member. I felt a tug of power and a blunt shard of glass shot from my hand. It soared through the air and hit the gang member straight in the stomach. Unfortunately, the hit only dazed him a little, and when he recovered, he focused fire on me. I thought quickly and felt another tug of power, this time, raising a wall of thick glass from the ground. It was a fan-shaped glass that left the middle only slightly exposed, giving me a small slit to fire my own projectiles.

After a few more shots I felt weakened and I couldn't raise or shoot anymore glass. I had to think fast. I looked around me, trying to figure how to refuel my power. Luckily for me, I saw exactly what I needed.

Glass.

The window of the restaurant had shattered when the white X's started shooting everywhere like an eight year old on Call of Duty. I made a mad dash towards the broken shards and stretched my hands. The broken glass hovered for a moment before being absorbed into my body. I stared directly into the middle of the street, where a cluster of gang members was shooting innocent people.

I felt an even more powerful tug of power and released a fast glowing projectile of glass. It shattered right in the middle of the gang, sending glass shrapnel all over the place. The commotion ceased almost immediately as every gang member was either knocked out, or dead.

"Devon!" I heard Vinyl cry. I turned around to make sure she wasn't hurt, but as I turned, all I saw was a look of fear and shock on her face.

"Vinyl, what's wrong?" I asked, truly baffled as to why this sudden change of attitude. I was about to take a step when I felt something grab me from behind and constrict my hand movements.

"Stop right there!" ordered a gruff voice. I turned my head to the side and saw six stallions clad in golden armor, each holding a gun their hands and aimed their weapons at me. Another stallion behind me bound my hands and prevented me from using my powers. I tried to resist, but he proved too powerful.

"You are under arrest, take him!" a stallion in the head of the group said. I looked at him dead in the eyes with a frightened look.

"Wait, that's not fair. I just saved everyone!"

"Shut your mouth!" he bellowed. "You are under arrest, bio-terrorist!"

What!


Devon's glass powers were actually a rejected power for InFamous: Second Son, here's the concept art-