A/N: This is a sequel to my first inFAMOUS story, Blue Amps, Crimson Volts. It has nothing to do with inFAMOUS 2, as it's based on inFAMOUS 1 alone. And although it is a sequel, it contains almost no material from the first one, so you can actually read this one as a standalone if you really wanted to.

Threat to Society

Summary: Sixteen year old Toby Andrews lives in the newly restored Empire City with his mother, and he lives an ordinary life. But the sudden return of the father he never knew and a freak accident that results in electrical powers, Toby must stand on his own two feet and prove that super humans are no threat to society. Sequel to Blue Amps, Crimson Volts.

Chapter 1: Tales of Heroes

21 years ago...

A massive blast tore though the Historic District of Empire City. Thousands were killed all in a matter of seconds. Shortly afterwards, a man named Cole MacGrath woke up in the middle of the crater. He never stopped to think about what had happened. He simply fled for the Neon with his friend Zeke.

Cole wound up in the hospital with severe burns. In Empire City, a plague struck, causing the government of the United States to put up the Quarantine around the city. Nobody was to leave, and nobody was to enter. The remaining citizens of Empire City were left to suffer in the aftermath of the event they called the Blast.

However, Cole MacGrath, the man who had woken up in the middle of the crater, was having his own dramatic developments. He woke up one morning with electricity sparking from his hands. He didn't know what was happening, but over the next few days, he learned how to control this new and mysterious power. Once that was settled, Cole MacGrath focused on using his power for the good of the city.

Within the span of a few weeks, Cole MacGrath became Empire City's big hero.

16 years ago...

The Quarantine had been dropped five years after the Blast in Empire City. Government aid finally entered the city, causing the hero Cole MacGrath to stop using his power. As the government aided cleanup in the city, Cole merely played the role of an ordinary citizen, hiding his powers from government forces.

However, two weeks after the quarantine was dropped, Cole MacGrath was forced to reveal his powers in front of the government forces when a large group of Dust Men attempted to attack the citizens. The forces attempted to take down the Dust Men, but they had been failing miserably. Cole had to step in, or let the gang break through their only line of defence and start killing citizens.

Unfortunately, as soon as the battle was over, the government attempted to capture him. For the moment, Cole MacGrath escaped, but he seemed to know the government would never let his existence slide. Fearing for his life, Cole prepared to leave Empire City forever.

"Cole!" Nita cried. "Cole, where are you going?"

"I have to get out of the city, Nita. I'm sorry."

Nita shook her head. "No!" She cried. "After all of this you're just going to leave?"

"Nita...I..." Cole bit his lip. "I'm afraid, Nita."

Nita frowned. "Why? Why are you afraid, Cole?"

"The government knows about my power." Cole stated. "I'm afraid of what they're going to do with me."

Nita nodded slowly. "All right. Just...Please stay safe."

"That's why I'm leaving Nita."

Nita wiped several tears off her face and stepped towards Cole, pulling him into a hug. Cole hugged her back. Five years ago when she had met him, Cole never would've done that, still in irrevocable love with his deceased girlfriend Trish. But in that span of five years, something had grown between them. She loved him, and he grew to love her.

"I love you." She whispered.

"You too."

Then Cole MacGrath was gone.

Present day...

"Toby!"

I opened my eyes slowly, wishing I could go back to sleep. But I knew mom wouldn't hear of it.

"Toby! Up you get! You're going to be late for school!"

I rolled out of bed, shoving the covers aside. I ran my hand through my messy dark brown hair and headed downstairs just to humour mom. I wanted to sleep in, but mom always insisted that I get to school on time, every morning. Yeah I mean, I got it, but what's the big deal with me getting there two minutes before the bell anyway? If it meant I got to sleep in for another ten minutes, so be it. I would take the extra ten minutes of sleep.

I walked into the kitchen, glancing up at my mom who was watching the puny television mounted on the counter. The news was jabbering on about it being 'Cole MacGrath Day', this year being the 16th anniversary of the day the quarantine was dropped. That made no sense, considering Cole had first appeared 21 years ago after this event called 'the Blast', but I assumed they chose this day because nobody could come to an agreement on which day Cole MacGrath really appeared. Besides, what better day to celebrate your hero than the day the government stepped in to take over for your beloved hero? Mom told me tonnes of stories about Cole too. Apparently he could control electricity. Yeah, and pigs were flying as we speak. I didn't believe a damn word of that, but everyone old enough to remember the Blast loved this Cole MacGrath dude. I'll believe that he was a hero, but I highly doubt the electrical power thing, regardless of how many people claim he had them. I'll believe it when I see it, you know?

Mom sighed. "Toby, you keep staring at the television with this evil look in your eyes."

I glanced at mom. She was frowning at me. She was right. I'd been glaring at the television for the last five minutes. But hey, I had a reason why.

"Everyone's going on about this Cole MacGrath guy every freaking year." I stated, stabbing my breakfast with my fork. "If he's such a big hero, where the hell is he?"

Mom was stone faced. "He left the city sixteen years ago." She stated.

I scoffed. "Well why did he do that? If I were the hero, I would've stuck around."

Mom's jaw clenched, as if she was upset that I was talking about her big hero this way.

"I'm sure he had his reasons." Mom stated, turning away from me. Wow. I guess I really made her mad that time, huh?

I finished my breakfast quickly, sensing I might've been in for a lecture. Seriously, those were the vibes rolling off mom right now. The odd thing was, she was very quick to lecture me on everything else, but whenever I questioned this Cole MacGrath person, she never sat me down and gave me a long talk. In fact, sometimes I saw pain in her eyes.

"Thanks for breakfast mom." I stated, washing my dishes up in the sink.

"You're welcome." Mom said stiffly.

I took that as my cue to leave, so I skedaddled from the room, got dressed, brushed my shaggy hair, and basically got ready for school. I stuffed my feet into my shoes and headed out the door. I missed my skateboard. I couldn't do it in the winter, so I was at a loss, especially since I was a bit upset at mom's reaction to me this morning. The grinding sound of the wheels on the tarmac always made me feel more at ease. I loved skateboarding. In the non-snowy months, I would put long hours in on the weekends at the skate park. I had gained the nickname Terminator Toby there because I was so fearless. I tried stunts that nobody else had the guts to try. Yes, I wiped out a lot, but it never hurt for more than about ten seconds, and by the time I had gone home, and seriously, this is the weirdest part, all of the evidence was gone. Seriously. I had face planted really badly once, skinning my palms and scraping my cheek across the concrete. Half an hour later, it was as if the fall hadn't happened. Yet another thing that earned me the title of Terminator Toby. Nothing stopped me, and if I got injured, the injuries just vanished into thin air.

"YO! Toby!"

I turned to see my self-proclaimed brother, and all around best buddy Mike running towards me. I stopped and waited for him to catch up.

"The whole worlds' gone bonkers again, huh?" Mike asked. "From the moment I was up, my parents have been jabbering away about this Cole MacGrath guy."

"Yeah." I agreed. "My mom gave me the evil eye just because I doubted him."

"What did you say?"

"I just asked if he's such a big hero, then where the hell is he, you know?"

Mike nodded. "Yeah I hear you man."

I glanced at store windows and brick walls that were plastered with images of Cole MacGrath. Some of them depicted him holding a lightning bolt like Zeus, and others just looked like comic book images. He was like a legend here. My generation, the people born after the event that was Cole MacGrath, were almost doubting he even existed. If our parents and grandparents weren't constantly insisting that he really saved the city, he would've vanished, becoming mere legend. It was weird though, because I had a feeling that was exactly what would happen. Once the last living memory of this Cole MacGrath guy died, it would slowly descend into urban legend, and then myth before perpetually disappearing as if he never existed.

When we arrived at school, I knew we were in for one hell of a day. My homeroom teacher, Mr. Patrick, pretty much declared himself a Cole MacGrath fan by taping pale blue tissue paper all around his wrists like it was electricity and shaving his head bald. He was the first person I noticed when Mike and I walked in the front of the school. The other teachers were laughing and saying how much they loved it.

"Wow." Mike stated once we were out of earshot. "Mr. Patrick really went all out huh?"

I merely shrugged, opening my locker and putting my coat inside.

...

Our science teacher had an entire lesson on electricity planned just for today. Every time he got the chance, he started jabbering on and on about Cole MacGrath and how he had somehow 'harnessed electrical energy and channelled it into his body, enabling him to do things normal humans couldn't'. Basically he turned electricity, something I had been really looking forward to learning about, into something I absolutely loathed. I was sick of hearing about Cole MacGrath. And frankly, so were my classmates. As soon as the teacher let us go do our work, the whispers broke out. One of the first things I heard was the word 'sick' and 'Cole MacGrath' in one sentence. All of us being stoic sixteen year olds, yeah. We all agreed. We were all sick of hearing about Cole MacGrath.

"I told my parents I was getting sick of it, and they yelled at me!" One girl whispered.

"I know." Another girl replied. "I mean, if this guy did exist and if he did have electrical powers, where are the pictures, and where are the videos? Why isn't he still here?"

"No idea." The first girl answered. "When I asked, my parents just said he mysteriously disappeared."

Hm...My mom had said he left the city. That would certainly explain why he 'disappeared' from the face of the earth. But I was still constantly curious. My mom never gave me any straight up answers. It's like when I asked her about my dad. I grew up without a dad. When I was younger, I would ask what happened to him, and she would always tell me she didn't know. As I grew up, I insulted him, saying he abandoned the family and she was horrified. She sat me down in a chair, and gave me a lecture, saying my father was a great man, and he deserved more respect from me. Then she told me to go to my room, and I was grounded for the rest of the night.

Still to this day, I had never been able to make sense of any of it. My father was gone, my mom not having the slightest clue what happened to him, but insisting he was great for not being there as I grew up. I asked mom to show me pictures of him once, and she said she didn't have any. She gave no reason, no nothing, just she didn't have any. She never even told me his name, changing the subject whenever I asked.

...

Last period of class was English. Damn, that was also bad. The teacher read to us from my mother's book. Yeah my mom has a book. It's called What Happened inside Empire City's Quarantine. And literally, the title summed it up. It was in fact, everything that happened inside the quarantine, starting from the event she called 'the Blast' and ending with the disappearance of the cities hero Cole MacGrath. It was the parts about Cole the teacher read. She even added a few things my mother left out, such as delving further into Cole's electric powers. Mom never really mentioned them in the book. I know, because I've read it. I had to do a project on the Quarantine last semester.

"Toby," Mike whispered from my left.

I looked towards him. "Yeah?" I whispered.

"I'm thinking about driving up to the ski hills this weekend. You in?"

"Heck yeah!" I grinned. If there was anything I loved more than skateboarding, it was snowboarding. Since Mike had gotten his drivers' licence over the summer, we'd been planning a trip up to the ski hills this winter.

Mike grinned. "This Saturday, okay?"

I nodded. "I'll let my mom know."