InFamous: The Unusual Conduits

by Blackdrag-rose

Empire: Kessler's Shocking Truth

As Cole led the way back to the site of the Blast, where they had all woken up, battered and beaten by the energy of the Ray Sphere being unleashed, they found that they weren't harassed by the remaining members of the First Sons, as if they knew that their leader was going to do battle with the four of them in their place. Cole wanted to kill Kessler for so many things, because he was the man responsible for the creation of the Ray Sphere, the destruction and death that was caused by the Ray Sphere detonating, for the quarantine being placed on Empire City the moment after the Blast happened, Zeke's betrayal, and Trish's near death experience. And, if all of that wasn't enough for someone to want Kessler's dead, there was also the fact that he was the one that was responsible for the utter destruction of the entire world and the total annihilation of everyone that lived on Earth, which they had seen thanks to the visions that he had shown them. In Cole's mind he found it funny that Kessler was trying to teach them that the needs of the people were greater than the desires of a single person, mostly because he was preparing to destroy the entire world at some point in time... and, if he was reading the situation correctly, he and the Dazzlings were the only ones that could stop him at the moment, which was why he was playing this game with them in the first place.

The Dazzlings, however, knew that something had to be up, because it wasn't like Kessler to suddenly call them out and have them do battle with each other, though at the same time they couldn't disagree that this was the perfect opportunity to eliminate him, because if they walked away from this challenge he'd just go on killing again. While they walked, and focused their minds on what they were going to do next, the three of them glanced towards the sky and made sure that there weren't any additional planes in the air, because they didn't want Moya seeing that they weren't there to defend the skies and take a chance to attack the city once more. Of course if they knew Moya as well as they thought they did, and that was a big guess on their parts, she was likely coming towards the city on a boat that had clearance to dock here, since it would be from the military, but since that same military had just tried to wipe out the city and it's people they weren't going to be friendly towards it when it arrived. As they thought about saving the people of this city, like they had when they freed them from Kessler's mind control game, all three of them found that their gemstones flashed with a blue shine for a moment, once more enforcing their new thoughts... before they turned their attention to the situation in front of them and followed Cole towards the area the Blast had happened in.

When they rounded a corner, and came to a stop at the top of a hill that was partly a ruined building, they started out at the open area and zeroed in on where Cole had been when the Blast happened, as that was where Kessler, in all his sinister glory, happened to be standing, patiently waiting for the four of them to arrive so he could do battle with them.

"There he is," Cole commented, taking a moment to survey the area around Kessler, because he fully expected some sort of trick to be activated the moment the four of them were out in the open, while at the same time the Dazzlings stared at Kessler while he spoke, "the man that will destroy the entire world if he's not stopped."

"You know, that's something that still bugs me," Adagio said, as something about this entire situation, and what Kessler had shown them in that vision earlier, didn't make sense and she wasn't about to blindly walk into the area without seeing what the others thought, "If Kessler is the one that will destroy the world, like we've been led to believe, then why go through all the effort to create a device that will empower someone with the power to stop him, when there's the potential that he'll be defeated by his new enemy?"

"Maybe he set this all up and is broadcasting the fight all over the planet?" Aria offered, because all three of them agreed that something was up with the situation, and even Cole knew that something was wrong, but at the same time they had no idea what that something was, "It might be that he created this situation to show the world what the First Sons are capable of and that, by defeating the greatest champions that the world has to offer, he'll install a level of fear in everyone that will allow his future to become a reality that much faster. That's my opinion anyway."

"It's not bad, I'll give you that." Cole said, to which he turned towards Sonata, as she was being the most quiet of all of them, but he suspected that she was currently thinking about the situation as well and that she might have an idea on what's going on, "And how about you, Sonata? What's your opinion on the matter?"

"You know, as bad as Kessler is, I have the strangest feeling that he's not responsible for the end of the world," Sonata replied, though at the same time she knew what was coming next, as she raised her hands to stop them from saying anything until she finished her thought, but as she did so she noticed that her sisters, who usually interrupted her, were curious and actually wanted to hear her opinion, "Remember when he was showing us those visions earlier, about all the death and destruction that would be caused at some point in time? All we ended up seeing was the effects of what was going to happen if something wasn't stopped, but if Kessler really is behind all of that, and had set up an elaborate game like this before those visions had come to pass, he would have shown us that it was him that had caused the destruction of the future. Bare with me for a moment... what if Kessler's not responsible for the destruction he showed us? What if there's something else that's coming, something even worse than Kessler, that ends up destroying the world, unless someone stops it first? What if... what if he's actually creating the heroes that can defend the world from the true threat that only he knew about?"

Adagio and Aria glanced at each other, surprised that Sonata, of all people, was still coming up with ideas like that, and yet, when they thought about it, neither of them could fault her for thinking that way, as Kessler never showed them who was actually responsible for the events they had witnessed. Even Cole was surprised by Sonata's take on what was going on, as he never stopped to consider that maybe Kessler wasn't the true villain, but either way he knew that the man needed to be taken out before something else happened, that much they all agreed on. Once the talking was done, and they spotted Kessler turning his head towards where they were standing, the four of them continued to walk towards the center of the crater that was in front of them, where all of them kept their guards up, just in case their opponent had a trick or two ready for them. As the four of them walked Kessler finally turned towards them, but he said nothing as they draw closer and closer to the center of the crater, even waiting for them to climb up to the place that Cole had been when the Blast occurred... where they came to a stop and stared at the man that was responsible for everything that's happened to Empire City in the last three weeks.

"And here we all are, back where it all started." Kessler said, waving a hand at the area around them, reminding the four of them of what happened when the Ray Sphere was activated, before facing them with his full attention, "I was so worried that you weren't going to live through the blast, Cole, but you fine... more than fine, actually."

"Wait a minute... you were there!" Cole stated, staring at Kessler for a moment, because now he was remembering something from when the Blast happened, as when he first heard the man's voice he thought it sounded familiar, but now he understood what was going on, "On the day the Blast happened I heard your voice for a moment... you were checking on me, to be sure I survived!"

"I have always been there, Cole," Kessler replied, though the way he said the statement made the sisters wonder what he meant, because so far there was a reason he did everything and they had to wonder what reason he was aiming for with the tone of his voice, "every step of your life!"

Instead of addressing the Dazzlings at all, like they thought he would since they were such a pain to his operation, Kessler teleported away from where they were standing and appeared in the lower area of the crater, where he went on the offensive by launching orange colored electricity balls into the air, causing the four of them to scatter as the attack came their way. What was interesting was that the cluster of balls Kessler had thrown were basically mines, as they hit the ground and remained where they landed, only to detonate if something or someone touched them, though they paid the mines no mind as they charged at Kessler, who raised his fist for a moment and then slammed it into the ground. That resulted in the ground beneath their feet, and hooves, violently shaking for a few moments, though he appeared to be using that as a distraction so he could get really close to one of them and use a Shockwave ability, almost like Cole's Shockwave ability, to knock them onto their backs. It was made clear that Kessler wasn't messing around, as he was going on the offensive immediately, though at the same time Cole and the Dazzlings got up and returned fire, forcing him backwards so they could better understand the situation before he gained the upper hand.

What happened next was that Kessler brought his hands close together and loosed a powerful blast at Adagio, clearly showing that he was going to try and take out the Dazzlings before focusing on Cole, who was clearly his true target at the moment, but Adagio was more than ready as she snapped her fingers and a thick ice wall appeared in front of her. Of course when the electric blast struck the ice wall it shattered it into a thousand pieces, but Adagio moved out of the way before she got hit, though Kessler did the same thing twice more, throwing two more blasts and both Aria and Sonata, who used their own powers to dodge the attacks before they were hit. At the same time Kessler started speaking to Cole, as he had nothing to say to the Dazzlings, where he started mentioning certain things that he shouldn't have known about Cole's life, like the fact that Cole's mother apparently lied to everyone she knew and said that Cole was a teacher, instead of a bike messenger. Unfortunately the group discovered that Kessler was also relentless in his attacks, he he alternated from the explosives mines, to the powerful blasts, to the shockwaves, and the earth shaking... before he forcefully yanked Cole out of where he was standing and grabbed onto his head, shocking him for a few seconds before the Dazzlings blasted him in the back and forced him to drop their friend.

As Kessler turned towards them, and gathered his power so he could deal with them accordingly, the Dazzlings went on the offensive immediately, to which Aria found the gas lines that were disconnected from the rest of the Historic District, as she didn't want to burn the entire district down, and set them on fire, giving her a source of flames that she could easily empower herself with. From there she started forming Firebombs and scattered them around Kessler's feet, forcing him to warp his way through a gauntlet of fiery explosions, several of which she were sure had hit their mark, as one of them knocked Kessler into the side of the crater before he continued moving. Aria grinned as Kessler started to attack her back, as she flew through the air and avoided them to the best of her abilities, though in return she made sure to give him some pain as well, as she started firing Fireballs down at her target, who had trouble avoiding them since she was hurling them through the air towards him. She had a few more surprises for Kessler, as when she twisted her hands towards the flames around them she broke some of the embers off and caused them to take the form of large fiery cats that were designed to explode if they were hit or reached their target... and, along with her Ember Cats, she also loosed both a Fire Breath, which charred the area around Kessler, and used some more of the fire to create a fiery version of Adagio's Ice Dragon, which was purely designed to explode when it was wrapped around it's target.

Sonata was up next, as Aria pretty much forced Kessler into the area of the crater that she wanted to fight in, though what she did was actually get up close and personal with their foe, as she dropped down in front of hm and kicked him in the chest, letting him know just how bad it was for someone to be kicked by hooves, before she went on the offensive for real. Kessler found that, when he tried to warp away from Sonata, she quickly crossed the distance without giving him time to actually form any sort of defense, as she flew towards him the moment he reappeared and started battling him again, using her fists and hooves for the first new moments. When she grew tired of doing that she jumped into the air and flew around the area, where she used her power to create some of her Gale Blast grenades, the force of which knocked Kessler around like he was a rag doll or something, but at the same time that gave her a few seconds to gather some more of her power into a greater wind based attack, one that Cole hadn't seen yet. When Kessler finally hit the ground, and moaned for a moment, Sonata leveled her hand with him and released what she called her 'Air Cannon', which was a powerful enough to crush Kessler into the ground and flatten the area around him, though she was pretty sure that she saw some blood come out of his mouth in the process.

Once Kessler decided to get away from Sonata, as he was beginning to see that facing all three of them, including Cole, who was watching him at the moment, was a terrible idea, though at the same time he found a wall of ice in front of him, to which he stopped and looked over at Adagio, who was floating in the air near him. Despite how easily he had knocked Cole to the floor, which was only due to his experience, he knew that Cole was what many would call the 'Prime Conduit', the strongest one of them all, and yet, even as he thought about that statement, he was beginning to see that it was the girls he should have been worried about the entire time. In his mind Adagio, the leader of the sisters, was by far the most dangerous of them, because her power was over the water itself and she could pull as much moisture out of the air as she needed to fight someone, or summon the water from a nearby stream, canal, or even the harbor to do her bidding, which usually involved freezing and destroying her opponents before they had time to react. Just thinking about that made him jump backwards, avoiding the Water Dragon that had been aimed at him, though that was apparently what Adagio wanted since there were four more of them coming from behind him... though as he was covered in water, and knew that it was going to freeze over, he purposely readied a mine in his hand and found himself frozen in ice.

A few moments later the mine exploded and tore the ice apart, though while the electricity healed him a little he still hit the ground and jumped to his feet, where he was actually feeling tired already, which made sense considering that he had no knowledge on the girls that he was fighting... and, to top it all off, he was even shot a few times by a bullet, coming from Zeke of all people, and by some Megawatt Hammers that were directed at his back, damaging him instead of healing the wounds he had been given.

"Please, you think I'm scared of you?!" Kessler demanded, to which he raised his hand and wiped the blood from his mouth, before he stood up and stared at the four Conduits that were in front of him, mentally noting that the sisters were standing near each other with some space between them, because despite everything that had happened so far he was confident that he could still salvage this situation, "The four of you are weak... and this entire operation was a waste of both time and energy. So I'll simply end all of you and start over..."

"Seriously? Do you honestly think that you're winning this battle?" Adagio asked, as she couldn't believe what she was hearing, because while she knew that Kessler was a powerful Conduit, potentially one that would have been at Cole's level of power and would have put up more of a fight if it was one on one, he wasn't strong enough to face all three of the Dazzlings at the same time, before she sighed and tapped her new pendant, "Very well then, if you are so eager to die, then we shall fulfill your desire... and save the planet that you are trying to destroy."

Cole, Zeke, and Kessler watched as the three sisters closed their eyes for a moment, seemingly opening themselves to an attack from their foe, though that was followed by their auras, a brilliant blue color that matched their new pendants, enveloped them for a few seconds. The three of them watched as the Dazzlings were swallowed by their auras, which transformed into three pillars of blue energy, though at the same time Cole noticed that the air seemed to vibrate a little in response to the power that was being unlocked inside all three of them, the same power that they had lost when they were banished from their home world and lost again when their original pendants had been broken. That was followed by a flash of light that made the three of them shift their gazes for a moment, indicating that something was happening, even as the ground shook under the intensity of their power, something that Cole assumed the other districts of Empire City had to be feeling... and, if he knew Moya as well as he thought he did, the military had to have felt this as well and were likely preparing to come in and investigate the disturbance the Dazzlings were causing.

When the pillars of energy faded, and both the ground stopped shaking and the air stopped vibrating, Cole stared at the figures of the Dazzlings as they floated in the air, thinking that it was just them expanding their power or something, but when the smoke cleared he found that it was something entirely different. The Dazzlings were definitely floating there, with the last bits of their energy peeling off of them, but as Cole stood there he found that they had changed since their auras had transformed into pillars of energy, as they now had a pair of translucent wings, like the fins of a fish, behind their bodies. The next thing Cole noticed was that all three of their eyes had changed as well, because while each of them still had their original eye color their sclera had turned blue, like their new pendants, and there seemed to be strands of blue energy emitting from their eyes. The most drastic change was when he looked at their tails, because before they had been covered in their energy they had pony style tails, though now, after they had awoken their inner power, those tails had been transformed into some odd fish style tails that were covered in scales, which were covered in scales that were darker than their actual skin color.

He and Zeke knew that the Dazzlings had some sort of magical power, based on what they had told them back in the hospital a few days ago, but at the same time Cole was surprised by the sheer pressure that was coming from all three of them, as they appeared to be stronger than what they had been moments.

"Wh... What is this?!" Kessler asked, surprised by what he was seeing, as this wasn't what he was expecting when he started the battle with Cole and the girls that were following him, though at the same time he could tell that they were stronger than they had been moments ago.

"This, Kessler, is our true power." Aria commented, though at the same time she was extremely pleased with what the three of them had done, because it appeared that following the path of good, and turning over a new leaf like they had done, had given them the greatest gift they could have asked for.

"Summoned to defend the people of this city from you and your plans," Sonata said, feeling the wind all around her as she looked at the wings that were on their backs, as well as the fact that their tails had transformed as well, but she also kept herself at the ready for when it was time to attack.

"Kessler, your arrogance will be your downfall," Adagio stated, though as she spoke she prepared herself for the final part of their battle, something that her sisters mimicked once they saw what she was doing, while at the same time Cole did the same thing, "Now then, it's time we bring this fight to a close!"

As Cole got ready for the battle to resume the Dazzlings moved through the air at faster speeds than what they had been using earlier, though as Kessler focused on one of them, Sonata as it turned out, Adagio appeared above him and loosed a surge of Ice Spears down at her target, where Kessler found one of them going through his right leg. Sonata grinned as she used the opening that had been presented to her and unleashed a surge of wind based slash attacks at her target, where a number of cuts appeared on Kessler's body as his clothes and body were heavily wounded in the process, much to Zeke's amazement as Cole readied himself. A few seconds later Kessler snapped the Ice Spear that was in his leg and aimed at Sonata once again, where he released a powerful blast of electricity at her, though Adagio messed with him again by using the moisture to create an Ice Wall in front of her sister, letting her escape before the wall exploded from the impact. As the ice shards floated in the air Adagio grinned as she transformed them into another set of Ice Spears, where she sent them back down at Kessler and several of them actually pierced his body again, though as Kessler staggered for a moment Aria struck next... by calling all the fire in the area to her and transforming all of it into a storm of Fireballs that further wounded Kessler and set him on fire at the same time.

When Kessler emerged from the flames, and his body was more wounded than he had been moments ago, the Dazzlings smiled as they floated down to a more personal level and formed a triangle around Kessler, where they started to use their vocal ability, the same one they used against the Rainbooms until Sunset Shimmer stepped in, and caused their target to stagger as he fought against their power... where they forced him into the middle of the crater, with the power of their Siren abilities, while at the same time Cole moved towards them.

"Enough!" Kessler shouted, waving his hands and loosing some blasts that made the sisters move, but at the same time they had done what they wanted to do, before he stared at them all and started gathering his power, as he intended to wipe them out before he died of blood loss, "I will not be made a fool of!"

"It's too late for that." Cole said, to which Kessler turned towards him as he grabbed onto his head, shocking him and returning the favor from earlier, before pulling his hands back and, while Kessler was stunned, delivered a powerful uppercut that knocked him into the air, before he prepared himself as the Dazzlings moved out of the way, so they didn't get caught in what happened next, "DIE!"

That was followed by Cole pulling the most powerful Lightning Storm from the sky and slammed it into Kessler, who was knocked into the ground in front of him and was forced to take the entirety of the attack in the process, before Cole finally stopped channeling the power and dropped down to where Kessler was laying... though as he did that the Dazzlings landed behind him and followed him towards Kessler's broken.

"Trish... I'm sorry..." Kessler coughed out, spitting out what would have been an alarming amount of blood for someone like him, though none of the group was surprised based on the damage he had taken, but they were surprised by what their foe was saying, "please... forgive me..."

In the following moment Kessler, using what was likely the last bit of his energy, rushed forward and grabbed onto Cole once more, while at the same time the Dazzlings grabbed onto him at the same time, before he delved into his memories once more and showed them the same vision he had shown them earlier, only with some changes. The four of them didn't see Kessler destroying the world, like he had shown them back when they first started this adventure, rather they saw a terrible Beast that was intent on extinguishing all life on the planet, exactly like what they had seen in the first set of visions. The scene shifted to Kessler, when he first unlocked his powers and was standing with his family, a wife and two sweet looking girls, as the Beast tore another city apart, but instead of fighting the creature, and potentially saving the planet, Kessler made the selfish decision and fled with his family, allowing the people they left behind to die at the hands of what had been his nemesis. Kessler spent years running as the beast slowly killed off everyone around him, where he and his family watched the world fall apart around them, until it was too late for him to do anything to save anyone, as even his family had been killed in the process.

From there he used his newest and most dangerous power, one that allowed him to take a one way trip back in time with the intent to rewrite history, where he seized control of the First Sons, tossing Alden out like a piece of trash, and purposely accelerated the creation of the Ray Sphere. At the same time he had his new organization spend decades plotting the Blast that Cole and the Dazzlings had been caught in, organizing the quarantine to keep everyone trapped inside Empire City, and figuring out where Cole had been living at the time. Yet there was only one thing that drove Kessler forward in his mad quest to create the savior that would stop the Beast, one thing that would ensure the safety of the world, and that was a picture of his wedding day... when he married Trish, with Zeke as his best man. Both Cole and the Dazzlings were surprised and shocked by that information, unable to accept that Cole and Kessler were the same person from two different timelines, but from the memories they were shown the Dazzlings could tell that it was true, as hard as the truth was to swallow. Yet, as Kessler's plan to mold Cole into the savior he failed to be was revealed to them, there was one stray thought of Trish, alive and well, and Cole still doing what needed to be done for the world... and, oddly enough, he was pleased that she had survived his attempt to kill her, as Cole deserved her based on what he had done so far.

A moment later the four of them were pulled back to reality as Kessler finally let go of Cole, where he staggered backward for a moment and collapsed on the ground behind him, though this time around the group was sure that he was dead, based on the fact that his body had stopped moving... though all four of them walked away from Kessler's body with a mix of emotions, but there was one thing that they knew for sure, and that was that a Beast was coming to destroy this world.

Comments

[Ze1a7in]

Y'know, this moment had to have been such a huge plot twist to those playing through the game the first time.

Also, I can't help but feel that if Cole and the Dazzlings had decided to go the evil route, that with Adagio's control over water she would gain a power not unlike Bloodbending.

[Silent_Knight]

Once Kessler decided to get away from Sonata, as he was beginning to see that facing all three of them, including Cole, who was watching him at the moment, was a terrible idea, though at the same time he found a wall of ice in front of him, to which he stopped and looked over at Adagio, who was floating in the air near him.

It was at this moment kessler knew... He fucked up

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA i can see his "oh shit" face right now