| “ | Conduits aren't monsters. No, see powers don't kill people. Oh no, it's the person behind the powers that kill people.
— Cole (inFAMOUS 2)
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The main character of the Playstation 3 exclusive inFAMOUS franchise, Cole MacGrath is a powerful Conduit, a race of dormant superhumans hidden amongst the normal population that are revealed by various, often deadly means. Cole's superpowers allow him to control, absorb and fire off bursts of electricity, with explosive and destructive effects. While he is able to use his powers in a variety of deadly techniques, his powers have also impaired him greatly- leaving him unable to touch firearms or drive vehicles without blowing them up, and being unable to touch water without electricuting himself. He also seems to have highly improved durability and a healing factor as a result of his powers. In each game of the inFAMOUS series, the player is prompted to choose either Good or Evil karmic decisions, but the events of the second game assume that the Good Karma path was choosen unless otherwise prompted, thus making it the "canon" version, which is depicted here.
History[]
inFAMOUS[]
| “ | With time, I'm learning to control it ... master it. Just hope it's not too late
— Cole on his powers.
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Cole discovers his powers.
Cole MacGrath was once just a simple Bike Courier, having dropped out of college alongside his best friend, Zeke Dunbar. Everything changed for him when he was asked to deliver a package through one of Empire City's biggest districts, the Historic District. The strange package, later revealed to be a device called the Ray Sphere, detonated in the middle of the city, causing massive numbers of deaths and an EMP-like burst. The damage was devestating, but despite being at the epicenter of the explosion, Cole was still alive. Mistaking the damage for the act of Terrorists, Cole ran for the bridge into the Neon District, where he met with Zeke and his girlfriend, Trish Dailey. As he passed through the bridge, his body began to absorb electricity from nearby objects, much to his confusion, before bursts of lightning began to rain from the sky around him. Dazed and scared, Cole continued to run for Trish and Zeke, before passing out.
As he recovered in the hospital, under the careful supervision of his friends, Empire City was becoming worse and worse. Put under a strict government quarentine due to a spreading plague, crime began to rise and gangs took over the streets, pushing out most of the cops. The terrified people had little to no help from the government, which took an apathetic view on the situation. However, when he woke up, Cole found that the blast had changed him- giving him electrical superpowers. He spent a couple weeks training with Zeke, to gain some control over his powers, and went back on the streets with a simple goal- to clean the streets, and find a way to keep his friends safe in the new Empire City.
He wouldn't wait long before being thrown into the thick of things, when he and Zeke saw the "Voice of Survival" jack the cable to warn everyone that the government was dropping food supplies in the middle of a nearby park. The Voice warned that if people didn't get there fast, they would miss the drop off when the local gang of the Neon, the Reapers, arrived to take it all for themselves. Hearing this, Cole rushed forward to collect food for Zeke, Trish and himself, but when he arrived there, the food was trapped atop a massive statue. Being the only one who could potentially survive the fall, Cole climbed the artwork and dropped the food into the crowd below, allowing the citizens to collect food for themselves before fighting off the Reapers to protect them. He would have been hailed a hero for this, but suddenly the Voice of Survival jacked the cable again with another update- this time on the identity of the "terrorist" who caused the bombing that left the city in it's current state. He showed an image of Cole on every TV in the city, warning people that his was the face of the enemy. The crowd recognized Cole and began to swarm. Trish, who's younger sister, Amy, died in the explosion, was heartbroken and walked away without saying anything. Even Zeke was starting to give Cole nervous looks. Thinking quickly, Cole and Zeke agreed to meet up by the bridge out to get past the quarentine.
Cole attacked the gaurds in front of the bridge, and he and Zeke procedded to lead a riot through the gun turrets and defenses to escape the city. As they approached the end, a wall opened up, filled to the brim with gun turrets. They opened fire into the crowd, killing most of the rioters, while Zeke and Cole were split up and only barely escaped with their lives. Underneath the bridge, Cole was approached by Moya, an FBI agent that knew about Cole from live footage at Ground Zero. She made him a simple offer- she was looking for her husband, John White, who had gone missing while investigating the Ray Sphere and an organization called the First Sons, and if Cole could find him for her, she would use her contacts to ensure that Cole, Zeke and Trish could leave the city, and she would even help clear his name. Cole didn't feel he had much of a choice, and accepted her offer, while Zeke was deeply angered by the prospect- warning Cole not to trust her or any other "fed".
The "Electric Man" began to restore power to the Neon District, gaining new powers with each substation he recharged, before being contacted by Moya. The Reapers were pumping some kind of tar into the Neon's water supplies, forcing Cole and Trish to work together to stop the spread. Trish wasn't happy to see her ex, and only accepted his help reluctantly. He had to carefully overload the tar-filled water towers, causing him to get most of the tar splashed across his face. Trish agreed to get him some solvent to get it off, but along the way he began to see hallucenations of Reapers and the voice of an unknow woman taunting him. Cole recovered from the problems with Trish's help, and continued to take out all of the water valves that had been infected, eventually confronting a mobile tar truck, before heading back to Zeke's rooftop to call it a night.
The next day, after powering up another substation, Moya called him to tell him that Reapers had a train of prisoners and that John may be on it. Cole wasted no time in reaching the train, fighting through waves of Reapers and their barricades, using his body as a conductor to move the train forward from the front car. After clearing out the gang, he pulled up the train and broke open the locks, allowing people to pour out and be reunited with their family. While John White was no where to be seen, the people began to praise Cole as a hero, and treated him like he was family. At first he was disguted at their hypocracy, but he had to admit: it was nice to be treated like a hero for once. Cole continued to help Trish stop the Reaper's plans to pump tar into the water, but along the way he encountered a mysterious man in a long white coat and hood. The figure rushed at Cole, digging his fingers into the hero's head- filling his mind with images of death and destruction on an untold scale. All at once, the man was gone, and Cole knew that whoever it was, he was responsible for everything he had seen, and that the Ray Sphere was somehow involved.
Cole fighting Sasha.
After this meeting, Moya sent Cole another message, revealing that the leader of the Reapers was another Conduit- a woman named Sasha. Knowing that Sasha was once a member of the First Sons, and that she may have information on the Ray Sphere and John's whereabouts, Cole went after her- fighting his way through the Reaper Compound. The further Cole got into the fortress of the Reapers, the worse his hallucenations got, and Sasha's voice continued to both taunt and flirt with him. Cornering her, Cole prepared to fight Sasha, who's tar-based powers made her difficult to hit. She began to dissapear into the tar filled floor, summoning massive hallucenated Reapers and began to speak of a man named Kessler, who had somehow wronged her deeply, and Cole reminded her of him. Sasha was quickly defeated by Cole, however- but before he could interrogate her, the wall exploded, and a professional hit squad poured in, securing Sasha and dragging her away. The tunnel collapsed around him, and Cole had no choice but to continue on through to Empire City's slums- The Warren.
Arriving in the Warren proved to be the easy part for Cole, when he was ambushed by a patrol of the local gang, The Dust-Men. While he was able to overcome them, he realized that they were a much more dangerous and fanatical group than The Reapers were. As he worked to return power to the slums and to take control from the "Trash Baggers", as the locals had come to call the Dust-Men, Moya was hard at work learning who was in charge of the gang. It wasn't long before she had a name, shortly after Cole made contact with Trish once again and helped in transporting a bus of supplies and patients from the Neon so she could restart The Warren's hospital, Moya contacted Cole to inform him that the Dust-Men were lead by an old man named Alden Tate. She tried to explain that Alden was originally groomed to be the heir of The First Sons, a paranormal militaristic group obssessed with unlocking the latant powers of humanity- up until the point when Kessler arrived and stole the group from Alden's father, killing him personally while leaving Tate to a life of poverty in homelessness in the slums. Moya tried to tell him this, but Cole was too mystified by the sight of the elderly Tate appear on the hospital roof, lifting it high into the air with his mind, and tossing it and Trish to the top. The Trash-Men attacked in an instant, and Cole flew into a rage, tearing through each of the gang members before reacing the roof top to rescue Trish.
Refusing to simply sit down while Alden and his gang terrorized the Warren, Cole coordinated with the Police Force, who were back on the street in part inspired by his own heroic actions in The Neon District, to launch an all-out assault on the massive tower of trash that Tate had constructed with slave labor. Fighting his way through the Dust-Men, Cole confronted a conduit member of the gang, who gathered the nearby rubble and trash as a suit of armor to create a golem. Cole was able to kill the Conduit, but during the fight the Police had already taken Alden captive, and were transporting him to the local prison, Eagle Point Penitentiary so Moya and her men could extract him. Knowing that the Dust-Men weren't likely to stand by as their leader was taken in chains, Cole and Zeke both fell back to the Penitentiary to aid in the defense. Zeke quickly befriended the cops, and they set up electrical grids to give Cole infinite electricity to generate, while they guarded Alden within, keeping him out with a heavy sedative. While the fighting seemed to be going well, Zeke abandoned the cops near the end of the battle to help Cole fight Tate's men. This created an opening that allowed Alden to wake up, and quickly butcher the cops with his mind, escaping with the rest of the Dust-Men.
Enraged that he had been defeated by Alden and the Dust-Men, and even more angry that his best friend was responsible for so many deaths, Cole decided to dedicate himself fully to his work in restoring the city's power, when he recieved an eventful phone call from Moya's husband, John. John warned Cole that Alden was keeping the Ray Sphere at the top of his tower, and told him that he and someone that Cole trusted needed to climb the tower to grab the sphere and help him destroy it before a tragedy like in the Historic District could be weaponized and used by anyone anytime. Deciding it was better than just being someone's instrument and giving it to Moya or killing thousands to use it again, Cole agreed. When he asked John what the agent wanted Cole to tell his wife, John responded that he never knew anyone named Moya, and has never been married, warning him that he was being played. Calling up a reluctant and somewhat bitter Zeke, Cole and his best friend made their way to the top of the Junk Tower, where Alden was helpless as Cole fought off his Conduits and troops and as Zeke recovered the Sphere. Just as he did, however, Kessler appeared- intending to take the Ray Sphere himself. Finding himself trapped between Kessler and Alden, Zeke paniced and gave into his selfish desire to become a super human, and activated the Ray Sphere- an act that would condemn hundreds to death. When the blast cleared, one thing was clear- Zeke was not changed by the blast in the slighest, and all three of the other men at the blast zone were still standing there, unharmed. While Cole could only stand in horror, Kessler was able to take advantage of the event by telling Zeke if he came with the white-coated leader of the First Sons, he would help Zeke get his powers. As Kessler and Zeke flew off to the First Sons base in the Historic District, Alden went on a rampage- having lost his home to Kessler as a child, and now this, was simply too much for him.
With Alden tearing apart the city on the way to the Historic District, the Dust-Men unleashed an assault of armored buses coated in gun turrets, slaughtering innocent civilians. Coordinating with Trish, Cole was able to stop the Dust-Men busses before chasing after Alden, whom he cornered on the bridge into the district. The old man transformed himself into a massive version of the golems his conduits used, and unleashed a massive onslaught against Cole. Despite his best efforts, Cole was able to overwhelm the Golem-Alden, but he hesitated to put down the beaten old man. Using this hesitation, Cole was unable to stop him as Alden leapt from the bridge- either to his death, or as Cole suspected, escape- as a conduit could easily survive such a fall. Looking behind him to see the bridge between the Historic District and the Warren destroyed by their fight, Cole saw there was no choice but to head straight into the hive of his enemies. Right into the domain of Kessler and his First Sons.
| “ | Yeah, this is the finish line. Just wish I wasn't crossing it alone.
— Cole
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Seeing that Cole was essentially trapped behind enemy lines, John alerted Cole to the prescence of a bridge that, when lowered, would allow Cole to fall back to the Warren in case of emergency. Once there, Kessler contacted Cole, warning him that he needed to adapt to survive...or die, and then unleashed a horde of robots, First Sons soldiers and Conduits on Cole. After fighting them off, Kessler warned Cole that he civillians trapped to bombs, and that Cole needed to rescue them- all while he lectured MacGrath about the value of human life, what his action meant and their repercussions. Managing to save everyone, Cole was then forced to make an impossible decision- Kessler had kidnapped Trish, and six doctors, placing them on bombs on opposing roofs. He told Cole that there was only enough to time to save one group, and that he had to choose between the love of his life, or six doctors who could be capable of immeasurable acts of good and help. Conflicted deeply, Cole knew that he had to do what was right, and forced himself to save the doctors. He then immediatly tried to revive Trish with his powers, but he could only bring her back long enough for her to tearfully tell him how proud she was of how he was using his powers to help everyone and that she loved him, before she slipt back into death.
Cole mourns at Trish's grave.
Filled with grief, Cole burried Trish in the memorial graveyard alongside the rest of the blasts victims, including her sister Amy. The only thing that could pull him out of his grief was his desire to make Kessler pay for what he did, and he continued to work with John on the promise that he could make that happen. In a bid to turn the people of Empire City on Cole, Kessler unleashed ballooons filled with Sasha's mind-warping tar, which was being poured across the whole city. Cole was able to stop the tar from spreading by destroying all four of the balloons before the effects could become permanant. While Zeke tried to call, him, at a loss for words over what happened to Cole and Trish, MacGrath simply ignored the man who was once his best friend- telling him that the next time he sa him, things would get ugly.
Deciding it was time to go on the offense, John and Cole moved in on the Ray Sphere, being held in the Examiner Building. Clearing the surrounding rooftops of anti-air weapons and First Sons, Cole cleared the skies to allow John to move in on the building with a noxious chemical compound delivered via chopper. While the helicopter was able to poison the building, before John and Cole could storm it, the Ray Sphere was loaded up onto a truck and escaped. The two pusued it, eventually tracking it to the docks where they were able to stop the First Sons feeble remaining resistance. Cole unleashed everything he had on the Sphere, with the intent to destory it, creating a ripping blast that tore John apart within it, killing him and destroying the sphere once and for all. With the docks gone and the Sphere out of his reach, Kessler called Cole- challenging him to a final battle at ground zero.
Cole's final battle with Kessler.
Kessler unleashed incredibly powerful attacks, including massive storms of lightning and clone creations, but Cole was able to hold his ground. During the battle, Zeke quickly made a reappearance trying to stop Kessler with his revolver. Firing a couple shots in an attempt to protect his "brother", Zeke was ultimatly unable to change the course of the battle much before being swatted far away by Kessler. As MacGrath finally took down Kessler, the older conduit sunk to the ground, whispering that he was sorry and thate would always love Trish, and before Cole could respond he leapt again- digging his fingers into Cole's head, showing him images of the past. A powerful conduit, The Beast, had come in Kessler's timeline, and while he had the power to stop it, Kessler instead tried to flee with his family. In the end, The Beast was too powerful and only grew stronger as the entire planet was wiped out by it's attack. His whole family dead, Kessler used his most dangerous and new ability to travel back in time into another universe to try and set things right- holding on to only one memento as he set decades of work into motion: a single picture of his wedding night to Trish, with Zeke as his best man. Everything became clear to Cole at once, and while he was disgusted by the thought, he realized that he and Kessler were the same person- that Kessler had dowe everything to make him stronger, so that when The Beast arrived in this timeline, Cole would have no emotional attachments to hold him back. Walking away from the blast zone, Cole made a vow- not to make the same mistakes that Kessler did, and that when the time arrived he would be ready to fight the Beast.
As he reflected over the events of the 21 days that followed the blast, Cole had only this to say: "I thought this would be the end. That once Kessler and the Ray Sphere were gone, my life would go back to normal. But now I understand that this is my life. There's no going back. That the gift of these powers would be my burden til the day I die. The people around here... love me. How long will that last? It's going to happen the first time they expect me to be there for them and I'm not. I don't even know who to trust. Moya's still running around, planning God knows what. Zeke... I don't know what to think... I've never been more alone..."
inFAMOUS 2[]
| “ | I don't know if you've ever let someone down, got your ass kicked or straight up failed. But those are the moments that define us. They push you further than you've ever thought possible, and force you to make choices. No matter what the cost.
— Cole on the way to New Marais
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Cole fights The Beast in Empire City.
Not too long after the events of inFAMOUS, Cole is contacted by Agent Lucy Kuo, a member of the same organization as John White. Kuo claimed that she could amp up Cole's powers even more with the help of Doctor Sebastian Wolfe, one of the minds behind the creation of the Ray Sphere. Hesitant to leave Empire City, Cole ultimately decided that the time was worth checking out, knowing that he needed to be stronger to defeat The Beast. Cole, along with Zeke, prepared a boat to New Marais, but right before they could set sail, The Beast arrived in Empire City, attacking the local population. Springing to his people's defense, Cole fought with the monster, and despite being able to blast half of its face off with his powers, the Beast continued to heal and keep coming, and drained Cole's powers, leaving him weaker than ever before. Defeated and nearly helpless, Cole struggled on to the boat headed south the New Marais, as his city was destroyed by an atomic blast from the Beast's powers.
Vowing to stop the Beast at any cost, Cole pushed on with new found determination, finding himself in conflict with the New Marais Militia, a group of anti-conduit "hicks" that had taken total control over New Marais, turning it into a militant state. After meeting with Wolfe, Cole obtained the Ray Field Inhibitor, or RFI, a device designed to remove the power of Conduits, though it needed additional blast cores to power it up. Wolfe also revealed that these Cores would gift Cole new powers as they amped up his powers as a result of their usage, giving him the one he had on-hand. The Core gave Cole a new power, but also left him out cold, and during this time the Militia attacked Wolfe's lab and kidnapped him. Cole, Zeke and Kuo were determined to get him back to power the RFI and defeat the Beast, and infiltrated a local Militia rally. At the rally, Cole met the leader of the Militia, Joseph Bertrand III, and was attacked by a horde of mutant beasts. Cole defeated these monsters and chased after Bertrand's limo, but before he could capture and interrogate their leader, a Militia Helicopter attacked, firing rockets and machine gun fire with abandon. Cole brought the chopper down, but Bertrand was able to escape. Eventually, Cole and Kuo were able to track down Wolfe by following a high-ranking Militia lieutenant. Rescuing the doctor, the three began a get away in the back of a truck, with Cole using his powers to fend off waves of enemies and machine gun positions. Refusing to allow Wolfe to escape alive however, Bertrand personally rammed a massive truck into the front of Kuo's vehicle, trashing it. Wolfe died immediately on impact, while Kuo was captured.
Cole rescuing Kuo from the Militia fort.
Desperate and lost without any way of powering the RFI and with Kuo captured, Cole became increasingly frustrated, but Zeke was on the job. Willing to do anything to get his best friend back, Dunbar had infiltrated the Militia and was performing his own searching operations- eventually discovering a rumor of a woman hiding in the abandoned moonshine shacks in the swamps, killing Militia patrols there. Hoping it to be Kuo, Cole began to seek out his friend in the swamp, but instead meeting Nix. The fire conduit was local to the Swamps of New Marais and deeply hated the Militia, and she was in possession of a Blast Core. Relishing the opportunity to work with the legendary "Demon of Empire City", Cole teamed up with Nix to destroy a Militia rally in a flaming blaze in exchange for the Core. After Cole returned to Zeke's rooftop to use the Core, Zeke revealed that his contacts in the Militia had payed off- he learned that Kuo was being held in a fort occupied by heavy Militia forces. Cole was going to need help in his current condition, and decided to rescue squads of the New Marais Police Department, who were captives of the Militia. With the aid of a small police army and Nix, Cole defeated the Militia forces and found Kuo locked in a containment center, strapped to a torturous machine Bertrand had used to experiment on her. Freeing her resulted in a group of mercenary conduits with ice-themed powers to awaken within the rest of the facility, and with the building broken open, they quickly dispersed into the city, destroying the Militia as they passed.
Repowering the Ascension's Parish district, Cole was alerted to the Militia's sacrificing of seemingly random women to the "swamp monsters", the mutants that attacked them earlier, and recommending he save the latest victim. The victim turned out to be the niece of Roscoe Laroche, the leader of the local anti-militia resistance movement. Laroche was hesitant to work alongside the supposed "Demon", but when Cole went out of his way to protect his niece from the monsters and used his powers to heal numerous rebel soldiers, Laroche came around and decided that, while he may not like it, MacGrath could help them as much as they could help him. That night, Cole met with Kuo at the local cemetary where she revealed that Bertrand's experiments awakened her Conduit genes, and that she had control over the element of ice. While she had difficulty controling her powers at first, Cole decided that he would help her learn to control her new powers, and while they practiced on some nearby Militia squads, they were able to find a Blast Core that had been stashed there. When he awoke a few hours later, he met up with Nix, who wanted to take him into the swamp again. Fighting hordes of swamp monsters and militia troops as they made their way up-river in a boat, Cole was hit with a familiar sense of pain and loss as they pulled up on a crater exactly like the one the Ray Sphere had left in Empire City. Nix revealed that Bertrand had activated a sphere in the swamps, using the innocent and simple people living their to power up the blast- killing almost all of them, including Nix's parents, leaving both Bertrand and Nix with their powers. Angered by Bertrand's apparent hypocrisy and his blatant disregard for human life, Cole swore he would make the Militia's leader pay as they returned to the city.
After a brief rest, Zeke was able to learn that the device that had been used on Kuo, a device which had somehow forced her Conduit abilities into the legions of additional hosts that Cole had accidentally released, was being held in the locked down Militia base, Fort Philippe. Having built up an army behind him, between the cops, the resistance and his conduit allies- Kuo and Nix, Cole was able to launch a full-out assault on the base. As he destroyed heavy machine gun turrets and spread terror through the Militia ranks, Kuo and militia hauled out the Transfer Device to prepare it for a bonfire. Despite Kuo's hate of the machine, Cole had to acknowledge that Nix's suggestion of using it to help amp up Cole's powers with one of their own was a sound one- he had come to New Marais only to become strong enough to stop The Beast, after all. Kuo was disgusted by this idea, but claimed that if anyone should be put back in the machine, it should be her. Despite Nix and Kuo's disagreement on the subject, Cole chose Kuo, and the two entered the machine- giving Cole a small arsenal of ice-based abilities. After the transfer, Cole was barely able to stay conscious, but could make out Bertrand's helicopter in the distance, escaping the fort. As he passed out, Cole unleashed a bolt that took out the chopper from afar.
Cole faces down The Behemoth.
When he awoke, he followed to wear he shot the Helicopter down, where he was attacked by The Behemoth, a massive swamp monster that was rampaging through the city. With help from the nearby Resistance members, Cole was able to defeat the monster. As it fell, it began to transform, back into a more regular form- while only Cole could see it, The Behemoth had returned to the form of Joseph Bertrand. Horrified that Cole had discovered his secret, Bertrand retreated to Flood Town. While he restored power to the district, Zeke made contact with his best friend to tell him that he and Laroche had set up a make-shift hospital in the district- when the Ray Sphere had been detonated in Empire City, it created a new type of plague that was infecting non-conduits. While it had gone unnoticed in Empire due to the general state of chaos and death in the city during the Quarantine, The Beast's appearance had caused it to spread out and it was becoming a world-wide problem. The Resistance was claiming they had a cure for this plague, and were accepting dying victims- though it was an admitted lie, with Laroche only doing it to give the people as much peace and comfort as he could before they passed. Unfortunately, the Swamp Monsters were attacking en masse, and Cole was needed on hand, using a special weapon designed by Zeke called the Dunbar Beam, to defend the innocent people from the creatures. After holding off the hordes, the Ice Conduits, revealed to be members of a South African mercenary group called Vermaak 88, arrived on the scene- demanding the Laroche hand over the Blast Core in his possession. While Cole and Zeke were mad that the leader of the resistance had kept the Core a secret from them thus far, they still fought off the Ice Conduits. Finally, Laroche promised to give Cole the Core if they hunted down a series of important wells in the district. The wells had been damaged by the Vermaak and was creating a harmful smoke that was hurting the people of the district in a problem certain to escalate. Cole hunted down each of the wells and capped the flames, but at the last well, Cole found a Militia base. Spying it out, MacGrath watched as Bertrand himself was on-site, and was using his powers to corrupt an innocent citizen into one of the Swamp Monsters. Realizing that not only was Bertrand's conduit power able to turn him into a massive swamp monster, but that he was also the source of them, Cole returned to the train-car base Zeke had set up with Nix and Kuo with his new Blast Core.
Waking up with a new determination to expose Bertrand and power the RFI to cure the plague, Cole set about taking photographs of the Militia's leader, proving him to be both a Conduit and the source of the Swamp Monsters. Despite angering Nix by ignoring her idea of allowing Bertrand to create the creatures so they could tame them and raise an army, Cole was able to send the photos to Kuo, who used a tower to broadcast the images all over the city. Once again cornered and out-played, Bertrand was forced to retreat. The reveal was a huge blow- the majority of the people turned against the Militia and began to openly rebel against them, while the Militia itself began to fall apart- with only a fraction of its original members staying behind and refusing to listen to the evidence out of loyalty for their leader. Knowing that the Beast was nearing New Marais, Zeke took advantage of the weakened security of the Militia post-collapse to steal a nuclear missile, kept by Bertrand as a back-up of some kind. Despite both the Militia and Vermaak 88 trying to stop them, Cole and Zeke were able to fire the weapon of mass destruction directly at The Beast as it made it's way through the water. The blast threw the two backwards and turned the sky red, but it also caused The Beast to vanish. Recovering, Cole and Zeke began to limp back to the truck, but a destructive vortex of energy appeared near the docks, tearing apart the nearby cranes as The Beast reforms itself. The two barely survived the blast of the vortex as The Beast returned, undamaged by the nuclear assault, and disappearing into the Gas Works. While Cole attempted to restore power to the Gas Works, he was trapped in a Militia trap at the last transformer. Bertrand personally arrived, attempting to get Cole to team up with him so they could stop The Beast together, but Cole refused as he knew Bertrand would betray him in the end either way. Disappointed, the Militia's leader ordered his men open fire on the cage Cole was trapped in, planning to kill him. Only the timely intervention of a revolver-wielding Zeke, who freed him. Cole hesitate for a moment, realizing that he had been treating his best friend like garbage since Empire City and that he had been blaming Zeke for what happened to Trish, and he tried to apologize, but Zeke threw it off, telling him that he doesn't call Cole his brother because he "likes the way it sounds".
Zeke tells Cole that the reason he was in the area to begin with was that his "friends" in the Militia revealed that a Blast Core was being stored in one of their nearby warehouses, of which there were three. MacGrath searched all of the warehouses, fighting both the defending Militia and the members of Vermaak 88 who were seeking the same Core. In the final warehouse, Cole discovered both the Blast Core, and a briefcase filled with a copy of Bertrand and the Militia's plans. The plans revealed that Bertrand's transformation of the Vermaak 88 into ice conduits and his own creation of Swamp Monsters was the first step in his plans to begin boxing and selling "people of mass destruction" to anyone with the money to buy one, planning to kick start a Conduit Arms Race. Cole began to ponder what his motivations for such a plan would be, because he donated all of his money and had no desire for wealth, and that it was clear he wasn't attempting to "buy his way into heaven", MacGrath believed that Bertrand was planning something biblical in scale and that whatever it was, the man believed that he was ultimately doing the right thing. After he gained his new powers from the Blast Core, Cole went to shut down the boats that were planning to ship out these Forced Conduits, where he found Vermaak 88 doing the same. Cole was interrupted when a flash of energy appeared and John White formed in front of his old friend. John revealed that when he was wiped out by the Ray Sphere in Empire City, he was transformed and gained powers- but was forced to pull himself back together molecule by molecule. John became The Beast, and the effort put into bringing himself back together left him confused and angry, causing him to lash out at everything around him- destroying Empire City and harming Cole in the process. John told Cole he wanted to show him something, and upgraded Cole's Radar Pulse to allow him to detect people infected with the Ray Sphere's plague. He revealed that the government had no way to counter it because of its super-natural nature, and that millions of people were dying. A side-effect of this plague, however, is that it revealed Conduits more easily than before, and when Cole arrives at the plague zone, John claims that all the people there were already as good as dead, with one exception- a woman carrying the Conduit gene. Sacrificing the rest of the victims, John used his powers to activate her gene, much to Cole's horror. As the woman flew away, thanking Cole, John claimed that humanity was finished, and asked his old friend to help him save as many people as they could, before disappearing.
Cole confronts Bertrand for the final time.
Shortly afterwards, Zeke called Cole to tell him that Bertrand was planning to escape the district again, but this time Zeke had sabotaged his helicopter, allowing MacGrath the chance to confront him at last. Cole jumped at the opportunity to finally face off with the leader of the Milita and demanded to know what Bertrand's game was. As the two argued about the nature of Conduits and Bertrand's reasoning for his actions, Bertrand revealed that he intended to use the Conduits as mercenaries so the world could see that they were, by nature, an abomination in the face of God, and so that they could be wiped out according to His divine plan. Cole was disgusted by this, and forced Bertrand to activate his Behemoth transformation, where the Resistance attacked him. Cole used his powers to make Bertrand give chase, destroying a large part of the industrial zone where Bertrand made most of the money that equipped the Militia, before finally reaching a point where he, Kuo, Nix, Zeke, Laroche and the resistance could engage in a final stand-off. After a long and grueling battle, Cole was able to overpower and kill the monster. Cole pointed out with disgust that Bertrand finally got his wish- as he died a monster, he would no longer be a conduit.
With Bertrand finally dead and the Militia out of the picture once and for all, Zeke made a call to tell Cole that the final Blast Core had been obtained by Vermaak 88. When he met up with Zeke, he discovered that his best friend was infected with the plague as well. Cole used the power of the storm as it rained to supercharge his powers, draining the lightning from the sky to amp his powers and slaughter legions of the ice conduits, before forcing their leader to retreat with the Core. Refusing to come this far just to lose, Cole gave chase, and was able to recover the Core and kill the leader of the mercenaries, including the majority of their remaining numbers. While Cole was fighting the Vermaak, John attempted to gain Cole's help once again, contacting him through telepathy. Cole refused to hear him out, and later heard of his work in the swamp- destroying numerous monsters in a blast similar to the one in the Plague Ward earlier. Cole activated the final Blast Core, knowing that the end game was upon them.
Cole prepares for one last use of his powers.
A final meeting was called, with Cole, Kuo, Nix and Zeke all meeting back on Zeke's rooftop. Cole explained who The Beast was and what he wanted, and when Cole attempted to power up the RFI, the three conduits suddenly began to suffer intense, crippling pain. Zeke quickly used Cole's Amp weapon to knock the RFI out of his hands and allow them to recover. While they expressed disbelief that Wolfe intended to allow Cole to die because of the RFI, it was clear that those would be the results of using the device- it was more than just a power nulifier, it was a genocidal weapon designed to kill all Conduits, including The Beast. The team was split down the middle on how to handle the issue- Kuo claimed that siding with John would be the only way they could survive, and that they could work together to save as many people as possible, while Nix demanded The Beast's death because he was a destructive monster who had destroyed her tamed monsters and Zeke pointed out that if Cole sided with John, he and millions of innocent people would be dead, while activating the RFI could cure them of the plague. Cole knew he couldn't chose to save thousands of Conduits at the cost of billions of humans, and asked Zeke if he could repair the RFI so he could end The Beast. Furious, Kuo flew off, while Nix and the Resistance began to set up stations around the city to allow Cole to charge the device to its fullest. Cole gave his best friend a final good-bye, before leaving to join Laroche and Nix to travel across the bay to the first substation. The rebels used explosives to attempt to distract The Beast as Cole charged at the first station, but convoy was destroyed, with Laroche sacrificing himself to see The Beast stopped. Cole and Nix fell back to the second Substation, but discovered The Beast was able to track their location by sensing the location of the RFI. Fending off both John and Kuo, Cole was able to stun The Beast as he charged, but Nix knew it wouldn't be enough. In order to buy him more time, Nix threw herself in a burning charge forward, sacrificing herself to cripple and weaken John. Crushed by the death of two of his friends in such a short period of time, Cole made his way to the final substation, where the remnants of the Militia's forces appeared to slow down John, rooting for Cole to finish off the monstrous conduit. Fully charging up the device and further amplifying his powers in the process, Cole chose to attack The Beast directly and violently beat John into submission.
The Patron Saint of New Marais.
As he prepared to activate the RFI, Kuo appeared and told him to follow through with it. As he held her in his arms, she admitted that Cole had been right all along, and that she only tried to stop him because she scared of dying. Forgiving her, Cole used all of his power in a single electric charge to activate the RFI, and when he released it, he and every other Conduit on the planet, fell dead. While thousands died, the plague was suddenly wiped out as well, and humanity was able to survive. Zeke was crushed to lose his best friend, and as the people of New Marais celebrated, he feared that Cole MacGrath would have his sacrifice forgotten. To the contrary, the people of the city showed the fallen Cole a deep respect and love- he was renowned, not as the "Demon of Empire City", but as the Patron Saint of New Marais, and a memorial to him was built in front of the Saint Ignatius Church. Finally, Cole's body was placed on a boat, where Zeke could give his best friend a private final good-bye as his body was taken home.
As the ship sailed across the horizon, a single lightning bolt shaped like a question mark struck the ship.
Non-Canon History[]
inFAMOUS: Fesitval of Blood[]
Cole as a Vampire.
During the events of inFAMOUS 2, Zeke attempted to pick up a woman in New Marais bar, claiming to be Cole MacGrath's best friend and claiming that the Conduit hero and all of New Marais would've been destroyed if not for his heroic actions. The woman doesn't believe Zeke, but humors him enough to allow him to tell his story:
Zeke explains the holiday, Pyre Night- a night of celebration in New Marais where the citizens dress up as monsters of the night and go raising hell and generally celebrating all things dark and twisted, similar to Halloween but with a more adult spin. During the festivities, Cole MacGrath hears cries for help in the Cathedral at Saint Ignatius Church, causing him to search the catacombs, where the woman he heard outside attacks him, knocking him out. A group of vampires drag him to the carcass of another dead vampire and slice open his throat, allowing his blood to drip into her mouth. The dead vampire, reinvigorated by the Conduit's blood, awakens and bites Cole's neck, restoring her powers, slowly rejuvenating her into the appearance of a much younger red-headed woman. Cole fades into unconsciousness as he hears the vampires surrounding the ceremony begin to chant their reawakened leader's name: Bloody Mary.
While Cole struggles to regain his composure despite having been turned into a vampire, Bloody Mary reveals that by sunrise he will have become her slave, just like the rest of the Vampires, and that she is too powerful for him to stop. Cole attempts to attack her, but she stops his motions and sicks her minions on him as she leaves to terrorize New Marais. Seeing that the Amp has disappeared from his backpack, Cole takes the cross from a nearby coffin as a makeshift stake and kills the Vampires before giving chase. He exits the catacombs outside of Fort Philippe, where a party goer approaches Cole for directions. Unable to control his instincts, Cole lunges forward and drains the woman of her blood, leaving her dead. Cole discovers that the blood allows him to tap into more Vampire powers, and he can now transform his body into a swarm of bats to soar across distances at incredible speeds. Cole desperately phones Zeke to tell him what happened, and while his best friend assumes it's some kind of Pyre Night joke at first, making cracks about Twilight, when Zeke realizes his friend has really transformed into a vampire, and the two begin to try and learn how to stop Bloody Mary before sunrise. Returning to the St. Ignatius Cathedral, Cole is informed about more of the backstory behind Pyre Night, and that Father Ignatius himself was the one who killed Mary originally. It is said that the weapon Ignatius used, the holy Barbed Cross, which had been blessed by the most powerful religious figures and ceremonies Ignatius could meet with or use, and was supposedly buried with him. When Cole reaches the cemetery, he finds that two of Bloody Mary's vampires, more powerful giant and ancient warriors called Firstborn, had reached the site first and had stolen the Barbed Cross. Using a special Vampire Vision based on his Radar Pulse, Cole is able to track the monsters, even in their human disguises. Cole tracks the Firstborn with the Barbed Cross' box to the Catacombs, where he kills the monster only to discover the box is empty. While he plans to return to the surface, he finds tanks filled with White Phosphorus which Bloody Mary was planning to use to burn down the entire city in revenge for New Marais burning her so many years ago. At Mary's crypt, Cole began to learn more about her past- as she lay on her deathbed, she was transformed into a vampire by a mysterious stalker who was captivated by her beauty. Like all vampires, she was loyal to the man who turned her after the first 24 hours, but her original husband, Father Ignatius himself, hunted down and murdered the stalker. Unfortunately for Ignatius, he was unaware that killing the original vampire would only free their thralls if the deed was done in less than 24 hours, and Bloody Mary raged at the loss of the man who turned her.
Back on the surface, Zeke warns Cole that a Firstborn nearby has the Cross, and despite Bloody Mary attempting to stop him, claiming that he should be "kissing the hem of her dress" in appreciation for the gift of vampirism, Cole is able to kill the Firstborn, combining his Amp with the legendary Barbed Cross. With this new ultimate weapon against the Vampire hordes, Cole seeks out Bloody Mary to defeat her once and for all, while Zeke descends into the catacombs to deal with the White Phosphorus. Cole and Mary's fight was long and brutal, and stretched out across the whole city, before Cole is able to summon an Ionic Storm to blast her into the Catacombs. With only ten minutes left before sunrise, Zeke began to arm a group of the bombs he had recovered to stop the vampires once and for all, and while Bloody Mary and her minions tried to stop them, Cole used his conduit and vampire powers, as well as the Barbed Cross to destroy them by the dozens. As the sun began to rise Zeke saw Bloody Mary attempt to escape while Cole burned, causing Zeke to detonate the bombs early, killing Bloody Mary and her minions, and destroying their bodies, ending Cole's vampire curse and preventing the monsters from ever returning.
With his story told, the woman seemed to be impressed by Zeke, but before he could make a move, Cole himself appeared in the bar, asking Dunbar to help him to recover the Amp, which he had dropped in a pool. The woman is clearly more taken by the infamous super hero and volunteers to help, following him out of the bar. As Zeke returns to his drink, the woman thanks him for the "very educational" story, before flashing her Vampire fangs at him...
Street Fighter X Tekken[]
Cole in Street Fighter X Tekken.
| “ | When you learn how to fight, call me.
— Cole's victory taunt
|
” |
Cole MacGrath appears in the fighting cross-over game Street Fighter X Tekken as a Playstation 3 and Playstation Vita exclusive guest playable character. Cole's physical appearance is based on his inFAMOUS 2 design, but with significant changes to reflect the Street Fighter and Tekken art styles. Cole utilizes a number of his techniques from both inFAMOUS games- his basic combos are inspired by the default unarmed hand-to-hand combo from the original game, topped off with his classic head butt, and he can use inFAMOUS 2's Amp weapon to strike at foes. He can use his Polarity Shield as an offensive weapon, stopping an attack and shocking a foe, while other powers like his lightning grenades and bolts serve him in combat. He utilizes the Kinetic Pulse as a throw, allowing him to lift up an opponent within the radius of the attack. His most powerful technique is the Ionic Vortex, which can change the course of a match if used right.
In reference to the Karma System of the inFAMOUS franchise, when Cole activates Pandora, sacrificing his partner in order to greatly boost his damage output as a last ditch comeback attack, he doesn't glow the same purple as the other characters- he glows the same red as an Evil Karma Cole.
Playstation All-Stars Battle Royale[]
Cole as he appears in-game.
| “ | Bike messenger turned Super Hero...
— All Stars character biography
|
” |
Cole MacGrath was confirmed as a playable member of the roster in the crossover fighting game Playstation All-Stars Battle Royale at the San Diego Comic-Con. Based on the "Good Karma" path for inFAMOUS 2, Cole is show wearing the sequel's white-colored hero clothing and wielding the Amp, Zeke's devastating melee weapon. In Cole's level one super move, he uses the Kinetic Pulse to pick up an enemy and throw them across the stage. The level 2 super unleashes an Ionic Freeze that stretches across the environment and takes out any foe that touches the ice. Finally, for his level 3, Cole leaps off the stage and activates an Ionic Vortex, moving it from outside of the battlefield to run over and instant-kill any enemy that walks into it. He has also demonstrated other powers from the game as part of his normal combos, including the Polarity Wall and the Shock Grenades from the first game.
Cole's in-game rivalry is with Raiden, of Metal Gear fame. In his story mode, Cole travels to Polygon Man's gathering of warriors to see if any of the various super powered Playstation characters will ally with him and help him stop the Beast and restore order. His encounter with Raiden near the end of the tournament takes a decidedly hostile tone, due in large part to Raiden's aggressive isolationism and desire to fight those he deems a threat. The two fight, but Cole is able to overcome him, before moving on to fight and defeat Polygon Man, harnessing the power of Playstation for himself. Raiden was chosen for Cole's rival because they share a lightning-powered hero motif. It is claimed in Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots that Raiden is "Lightning- the rain transformed" and he demonstrates the ability to manipulate nearby electric currents, while the subtitle of his own spin-off game, Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, was "Lightning Bolt Action".
Cole's Unlockable alternate costume is the Courier's Jacket, giving him his appearance from the original inFAMOUS, although the actual design is much closer to the inFAMOUS 2 DLC costume representing a jacket based heavily on the original. Cole's Pre-Order DLC costume transforms him into Kessler, although the length of the coat is severely cut down to fit the character model easier.
Evil Cole
| “ | Just getting warmed up!
— Evil Cole MacGrath
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” |
Cole is unique in that he appears on the roster a second time as Evil Cole MacGrath. Originally leaked along with a large portion of the other playable characters in the game, Evil Cole was quietly announced on the Playstation Blog. Despite being the same character, Cole isn't a "clone character", and has completely unique assets- new animations, attacks, supers, costumes, arcade mode, rivalry and ending. Evil Cole uses various Bad Karma upgraded versions of certain techniques- like the bolt variation that shoots two balls of electricity combined by a line of lightning that homes in on enemies, and cluster grenades. He also utilizes fire based special attacks received from Nix in inFAMOUS 2. His level 1 Super uses the Kinetic Pulse, like his good karma counterpart, while the Level 2 activates the Ionic Drain, which sucks the life out of nearby enemies, killing them and dropping AP orbs for Cole to gather, and his Level 3 has him transform into The Beast-empowered version of Cole and devastate his enemies.
Evil Cole enters the Battle Royale after hearing about the large number of powerful characters from across the multiverse being drawn to it. Believing these people, like Kratos and Sweet Tooth, to be Conduits, Evil Cole sets out to defeat them all to become stronger. His in-game rival is Fat Princess- though Evil Cole is not directly hostile towards her when they first meet. Instead, Evil Cole almost seems to treat her as a joke, until the Princess demands that Evil Cole "surrender" his cake to her- the concept of being demanded to surrender angering him enough to threaten violence. The situation escalates, and Evil Cole fights and defeats Fat Princess, before moving on to fight Polygon Man himself. Fat Princess was selected as Evil Cole's rival because they both represent the sin of Avarice: Cole has an insatiable greed for power and control, while Fat Princess has an insatiable greed for filling her face with food. Similarly, both are also rulers: Evil Cole rules over the cities he takes over as an iron-fisted dictator, while Fat Princess is the born heir to her Monarchy.
Evil Cole's unlockable costume transforms him into the DLC Reaper Outfit from inFAMOUS 2, making him resemble a Reaper Conduit from the first game. His Pre-Order DLC costume gives him his Uncharted 2: Among Thieves multiplayer skin, complete with electricity coursing over the arms and a black jacket with places for firearms to be holstered.
Appearances[]
- inFAMOUS (2009)
- LittleBigPlanet (2008) (DLC)
- Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (2009) (DLC)
- LittleBigPlanet 2 (2011) (DLC)
- inFAMOUS 2 (2011)
- inFAMOUS: Festival of Blood (2011)
- DC Universe: Online (2011)
- Street Fighter X Tekken (2012) (PS3 and Vita exclusive)
- Playstation All-Stars Battle Royale (2012)
- LittleBigPlanet: Karting (2012)
- LittleBigPlanet: PS Vita (2012)
- Playstation All-Stars Island (2013)
- inFAMOUS: Second Son (2014) (Mentioned Only)
- LittleBigPlanet 3 (2011) (DLC)
