FTF: Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny
This Week...
inFAMOUS 2 Cole MacGrath Battle Royale!
Conditions:
Good Cole vs Evil Cole vs Festival of Blood Cole. No RFI or Beast Powers.
Scenario:
After setting off the RFI, Good Cole gets Isekai'd to an alternate universe, where he's confronted by his evil timeline counterpart. Evil Cole quickly determines that Good Cole fought the Beast in his timeline and would be liable to try and stop him in this one. As the two engage, however, the RFI's residual energy sends the two into a third timeline, landing them directly in front of Vampire Cole as he's feeding of a civilian. This prompts Good Cole to try and intervene, causing a free for all between them all.
Analysis: Good Cole
Many years in the future, human civilization would meet its grim end at the hands of a monster known only as The Beast. Humanity’s last survivor, a man calling himself Kessler, would use his fantastical powers to travel back in time and prevent the apocalypse. Taking over a secret society called the First Sons, Kessler would use their research to amplify the powers of Conduits, humans with special powers, with an explosive device called the Ray Sphere. Setting the Ray Sphere in the middle of Empire City, one man would survive it’s blast and go one to become the world’s savior. The name of that survivor, of the man who would slay The Beast, is Cole MacGrath.
Even before awakening his extraordinary powers, Cole MacGrath was an impressive young man. A parkour prodigy, Cole has the streets, rooftops, and sewer systems of both Empire City and New Marias memorized like the back of his hand, even capable of outrunning police with his skills. He was an incredibly intelligent man as well, smart enough that his parents can easily pass him off as a teacher. He was a straight-A student during his four years of college prep, only dropping out when one of his professors began tormenting his friend Zeke. But, after the blast, he became something more…
Now gifted with extraordinary electric abilities, Cole became a living battery, capable of absorbing and manipulating electricity to an extraordinary degree. With his newfound powers, he can create a wide variety of bolts, missiles, grenades, and blades out of his electric powers, ranging from homing missiles to sticky grenades. He can also create Arc Restraints, electric chains designed to pin his opponents down.
In regards to his defensive abilities, Cole has a huge moveset to draw from. He can create shields that convert bullets into energy for him to absorb, glide through the air and telekinetically throw heavy objects by manipulating magnetism, regenerate from being riddled with projectiles, can fully heal himself and restore his stamina by absorbing electricity, and even restart his heart to come back from the dead.
This wide variety of powers is only scratching the surface of what Cole can do, which comes as a result of how his powers work. See, Cole can develop new powers in a wide variety of ways, such as by absorbing large quantities of energy, or even just by using his powers in creative ways during a fight. Throw these methods, he has developed and mastered both the above powers as well as the following ones. He can:
Create thunderstorms.
Throw tornados.
Drain electricity from storms.
Absorb ions from killed opponents to enhance his powers.
Amplify his speed immensely via Precision, causing foes who were previously only a blur in his view to move in slow motion.
Give himself unlimited energy and stamina briefly via Karmic Overload.
Heal crippling wounds with his healing pulse, an electric zap that amplifies the body’s natural healing abilities.
Can see visions upon getting new powers, teaching him how to use them.
Can see how a person was killed by touching their corpse, as well as see a path leading to their killer.
And suck the bio-electricity from a person’s body with bio-leech, a technique that requires he grip their face.
Can create electric grappling hooks.
And many, many more.
Of particular note is his Radar Sense, a sixth sense that operates independently of his other senses in an omnidirectional way, allowing him to see electrical sources, people included, as well as outline those with hostile intent towards him in red.
Keep in mind, these are all just his electricity powers. Upon reaching New Marias, Cole was able to use a device to transfer some of Lucy Kuo’s powers into himself, after which he gains additional ice based powers, allowing him to create ice missile, ice grenades, and ice spikes roughly the size of buildings, even using his ice powers to launch him skyward to create distance from his opponent.
Speaking of distance, he’s probably going to need it, as he isn’t a great melee fighter. He’s a skilled user of the Amp, yes, and he can hurt people as strong as he is, but he lacks any kind of martial arts training. Cole is a ranged fighter through and through. Thankfully, Cole has a wide variety of resistances to aide him against anyone who manages to get in close. Cole has repeatedly shrugged off ice and fire attacks, taking no damage when getting ragdolled by The Beast, who is a giant monster made of magma. He has successfully endured Sasha’s mind control, which was powerful enough to take control of all of Empire City even while weakened. He has survived being doused with acids and resisted being ripped apart by The Beast’s Black Holes, which break down and absorb matter on an atomic level. He, like all Conduits, are resistant to most forms of radiation and all forms of disease, including the Plague that would’ve wiped out the human race had it not been stopped. His powers can even ignore the resistances of others, such as where Cole killed Kessler and David Warner, two people who can absorb electricity on contact, with his electric attacks.
Even with all this though, he does have one major weakness: water. Large quantities of water will short circuit is body, killing him in a way he likely can't resurrect from. Even standing in neck deep water for 30 seconds will kill him, being able to withstand being drenched only for brief periods of time. Furthermore, cutting out the electricity in the areas around him will make him nauseous and give him a headache and he can’t touch most electronics or fire arms without making them explode.
Overall, Cole is a remarkably powerful master of electrokinesis and he’s remembered as one of the most powerful Conduits of all time for good reason. Respect the Patron Saint of Empire City.
Analysis: Evil Cole
What does it mean to save mankind?
Ever since Cole MacGrath awakened his amazing and horrifying powers, he has grappled with this question. Once upon a time, Cole was just an ordinary bike courier, of no real note to anyone. But, upon being tasked to deliver the mysterious Ray Sphere to a man named Kessler, this all changed dramatically. Awakening in a crater with incredible new powers, Cole became hated and feared for having supposedly caused the blast that destroyed Empire City. His girlfriend left him in horror and disgust and people on street banded together to attack him in droves. The whole city turned against him, gangsters, terrorists, and friends included, and eventually Cole decided he'd had enough.
If everyone was going to treat him like a demon, Cole would become one.
Notch by notch, Cole tore down Empire City. He eliminated the gangsters and terrorists who threatened him with ruthless efficiency and terrorized the people into submission. Cole got revenge on the mysterious man named Kessler for ruining his life, killing his girlfriend, and turning the whole city against him. It was only then that Kessler revealed the truth. Kessler had meant to turn Cole into a hero. Into someone who could save mankind from a monster known only as tge Beast.
Cole laughed at the idea.
Determined to destroy The Beast so he can gain more power and eliminate a threat, Cole ventured to and conquered New Marias, descimaring the Militia put together to stop him. It was only there that The Beast communicated with him and revealed his true intentions. A plague was decimating humanity and only those with superpowers could survive it. And The Beast wanted Cole to carry on his fight.
Cole accepted his offer and, feeling remorse for the last time in his life, murdered what was left of his friends so that no one could stop him. Cole will always tell himself it was to save humanity. But, one look at his conquest of the planet would show show you, it was only so he could save himself.
This version of Cole MacGrath is the most powerful Conduit in the franchise, second only to the Beast from Kessler's timeline. As such, he has access to a huge variety of horrifying abilities with which he can decimate entire armies.
Cole is one of the most versatile electricity wielders in fiction and he only grows more versatile with time. Thanks to his ability to create new powers when using his powers in specific ways, Cole can continually expand his moveset even mid-combat. He can shoot out a variety of lightning bolts, many of which are designed to arc between targets and hit as many people as possible. He can create grenades and missiles out of kinetic energy, ranging from a hellish barrage of homing missiles to grenades that explode into even more grenades. He can levitate long distances by manipulating magnetism and can do the same as a form of telekinesis. He can even create tornados and lightning storms to toss at the enemy, though he needs to replenish these with ions absorbed from fallen foes. His most dangerous electrical ability, however, is his Ionic Drain.
With this technique, Cole need only pose dramatically to suck the bio-electricity out of anyone near him in a several foot radius, capable of killing hundreds of foes without ever having to touch them.
Cole also possesses advanced napalm powers, gifted to him by Nix, which he can use to boost his flight, summon monsters, entrap targets, or just give his powers a little extra explosive kick.
Cole shares numerous powers with his canonical Good Karma counterpart, including:
Self Resurrection so long as his heart in intact.
Advanced healing, to the point of regenrating from being riddled with projectiles.
Blasts that can deflect missiles.
Speed Amps that increase his speed to the point where people who previously appeared as only a blur to him moved in slow motion.
Radar Sense, an omnidirectional sixth sense which works independently of Cole's other senses, allowing his to detect all sources of electricity nearby, including people. It also allows him to see skeletons, determine if someone is ill, and detect who has hostile intent towards him.
Can create weapons out of electricity.
Can create shields that convert bullets into energy.
Can see the last moments of freshly killed people by touching their corpse, which creates an echo of the killer that Cole can then follow in order to locate them.
Based on the above, it's clear to see that Cole MacGrath is a one man apocalypse, even before accounting for how strong he actually physically is. Even before being granted the Beast's powers, Cole's could equally match and surpass him. This is impressive when considering the Beast created a 1.8 gigaton storm just by waking up and effortlessly obliterated a city not long afterwards.
Source:
In terms of speed, Cole could, without amps, dodge a beam of radiation from the RFI, putting his reactions and movement times at nearly 50% the speed of light.
Source:
Speaking of the RFI, it is one of Cole's only remaining weaknesses. Given that it nullifies his powers, it is capable of bypassing both his regeneration and resurrection, and a full blast from the thing would kill him and every other Conduit on Earth. With this in mind, however, Cole could take more punishment from the RFI than The Beast could and may potentially develop a resistance to it with enough exposure given his powers. However, this remains hypothetical, as Cole destroyed the RFI.
Cole MacGrath is the man who, in the span of months, became powerful enough to conquer the Earth. Beware the Demon of Empire City and fear the Beast of New Marias.
Analysis: Vampire Cole
You've seen Cole be the hero and you've seen Cole play the villain. Now, what happens when he isn't even human at all?
In this non-canon what if story (made up on the spot by Zeke as he tries to seduce a woman at a bar), a heroic version of Cole MacGrath investigates the catacombs beneath the New Marias church, hoping to find people who have gone missing. Whilst down there, he gets ambushed by vampires and dragged before the corpse of the notorious Bloody Mary. Her emancipated body is reinvigorated as she feeds upon his blood, turning Cole into her thrall as she bites into his neck.
This newly vampirized Cole now has one goal, to slay Bloody Mary before the sun comes up, or be turned into her slave forever.
This Cole has all the electrical powers that his other two counterparts have, though he notably lacks any specific fire or ice abilities. Instead, he has a new suite of vampire powers. Namely, Cole can transform into a swarm of bats to fly around the city at his leisure, giving him complete control in the skies. Furthermore, it also provides a direct upgrade to his senses, giving him another sixth sense that can see through vampiric illusions. In fact, he can even use it to detect shapeshifted vampires hidden in a crowd and see invisible objects. His vampiric senses are so good, that he can track vampires all the way from the other end of the city by scent alone.
Having said that, these abilities exhaust his stamina in such a way that he cannot replenish their use just by reabsorbing electricity. Rather, in order to fuel his vampire powers, he needs to drink a person's blood. Unfortunately for Cole's moral compass, there is no non lethal way to do this. He will be driven to drink every drop of blood in a person's body every time he tries no matter what. His vampiric instincts are simply too strong.
That kinda leads into this version of Cole's biggest weakness. Thanks to being Bloody Mary's thrall, he's susceptible to her influence despite his normally high levels of mental resistance. As such, he would need something special to bring her down.
Enter Cole's new melee weapon, The Barbed Cross. Made by a legendary vampire hunter and blessed by God himself, this legendary weapon is flat out untouchable for full vampires. Luckily, Cole isn't one yet, meaning he can use it to flat out vaporize most vampires in a single hit with ease. On fact, it's his only way of killing some vampires. Just a single drop of blood is enough to regenerate vampires from being nothing but bare skeletons and Cole can presumably do much the same, assuming he isn't killed by a holy weapon or the sun.
Alas, Cole only has these powers for a single night. Upon defeating Bloody Mary, Cole is back to his usual heroic self, blue lightning and all.
