inFAMOUS: Winter Solstice

Chapter 1

It's sometime around six... maybe six-thirty. I'm not really paying attention to the time. All I know is that the sun is going down, setting on a New Marais fashioned Christmas Eve. No snow. No cold. Not even the slightest bit chilly.

And even on Christmas Eve I'm here hanging at the bar in Smut Triangle, calling on the bartender for the next round of beer.

The only thing New Marais does right for Christmas is deck out the city in Christmas lights. There's a huge tree in the park across the street, covered top to bottom in thousands of lights. In fact, every tree in New Marais had been wrapped in strings of colored lights, giving every street its own holiday spirit. The balconies of the French Quarter had wreaths running across them with giant bells hung out over the road.

What the place lacked in cold weather, it made up for with the kind of determination for celebrations that only happened in New Marais.

And with the festivities came holiday season crime.

Sounds like a pretty bad thing, right? Yeah, maybe when there's no superhero or something to stop 'em—when you ain't got my buddy Cole MacGrath.

In a weird chain of events, Cole ended up getting electrical superpowers from this thing called a "Ray Sphere". He's a Conduit—one in a million. There's this gene he's got that lets him have superpowers. Not to mention he's damn near bulletproof, can jump off a building without breaking anything, and he's strong as an ox. Saw him lift up a couple of lamp posts once, like nothing. And even before Cole got zapped by the Ray Sphere, he had been run over by a truck and got up the next day without hardly any bruises.

But Cole ain't perfect. 'Cause of the electricity in his body, he can short out in water like a light bulb. Crime pretty much gets a free day if it rains. And he can't just zap someone any time he feels like it; he's only got so much electricity he can carry, like a battery. No electricity means no powers. So if the lights ever go out in your house and it ain't storming, it's for a good cause.

And me.... Well, I'm just a normal guy. Sitting on the couch all day, watching chick-flicks, reading chick magazines, drinking beer.

But that's not the highlight of my day. I'm Cole's sidekick; his wingman. His brother-in-arms, more like it. If he needs something found, I'm his man. If he needs a generator turned on so he can recharge, I'm there for him. Seems like every five seconds someone is shutting off the power to get the jump on him. He needs me just as much as I need him.

Hell, one time he even needed me to save his electric ass. That's right, I saved his life. Stick Cole in a metal cage and all his electricity would be conducted to the floor. Good thing I came along when I did to bust him out.

But I don't care one bit that he gets to have all the fun. I used to. But I made the mistake of trying to be the hero. It wasn't until then that I realized that I'm better off as the wingman.

...Hey, it ain't all bad! Being Cole's friend helps me get the ladies. I'm like a chick-magnet ever since he got his powers!

And speaking of chicks...here comes one now.

She's covered up in this thick coat all buttoned up, more for the fashion than trying to stay warm. I mean, it is eighty degrees outside. She's got thin brown hair and some blue-colored eyeshadow. Did I mention those two-inch heels? Damn.

Not really my type. I've been turned down by women dressed for the runway more times than a drunk passes out on the side of the road in this city on any given day. Trust me, that's a lot.

I turn back to my beer and look up at the TV that's showing two football teams play out in the light snow somewhere up north.

Heh...snow. That's probably the one thing New Marais has never seen. The natives here would probably go bananas, run around tryin' to cover themselves up in three layers of clothes. Either that or none of the kids wouldn't know how to make snowballs or a snowman or even snow angels. What kind of childhood do these kids have without chuckin' at least one snowball or getting their tongue stuck on a frozen pole?