Cole MacGrath

"The Beast is coming...and I will be ready."

- Cole's line in inFamous 2

Cole Macgrath is the main protagonist of inFamous,inFamous 2,and inFamous:Festival of Blood. He can be a hero or a villain depending on the player's actions (with the exception of Festival of Blood). When he is a hero he uses his powers selflessly for others.

He is voiced by Jason Cottle in inFamous,and Eric Ladin in the rest of the games he appears in.

Personality
In his Good karma state, Cole is selfless, caring about other and how his powers will benefit the citizens of Empire City and New Marais. He shows concern for those around him, and tries not to destroy things around him.

However, at first, he was quite reluctant to do what was right for everyone, especially due to events where the Voice of Survival framed him and made Empire City citizens despise him. Even when citizens eventually praise him for saving trapped citizen inside a hijacked train from Reapers, he though that citizen was hypocrites out of their previous hatred toward him (albeit accept their credit anyway and felt relieved and treated like a hero). Not only that, Cole tends to pondering regarding how he settle situation around him, especially if the consequence of his actions either made other people around him suffer, or led himself suffered instead for sake of their own safety.

As he commit more good deeds, however, Cole realized that using his power selflessly for others was a right thing to do, as shown where he confessed it to Kessler before the final battle. He eventually became a heroic figure who driven by a strong sense of morals at end of inFamous and in whole events of inFamous 2(good karma path), something that Kessler failed to be. Lastly, he also determined not to give up over his decisions to fight the Beast no matter what it's cost are, which droven since antagonized by Kessler, whom in reality, tries to train him all this time.

inFamous
Cole was a bike courier in Empire City living a average life. One day, he was instructed to deliver a

package somewhere in the Historic District. When he opend it, the Ray Sphere inside exploded killing hundreds of people.

He woke up in the center of the wreckage and passed out on the bridge as he attempted to get out of it. Cole was nursed back to help by his girlfriend, Trish, and his best friend, Zeke. He discovers he has electric powers as he awakes.

From here, it is up to the player to decide weather to use his powers for good or evil.

Throughout the game, Cole decides that he should use his powers to help others. Examples include letting the citizens take droped off food,choosing a poster that potrays him saving Empire City, and other various good deeds. But he also facing many obstacle to do so, as his reputation is not good in public eye due to his footage at Ground Zero and accused as terrorist by "Voice of Survival". In order to clean his name, he had to work for Moya to do so, starts from dealing with reapers and interrogates Sasha(whom knows about Ray Sphere) as well as finding John White, a man who infiltrate First Sons whom related to Ray Sphere.

Not just his reputation, Cole also haunted by mysterious leader of First Sons, Kessler, whom during their first encounter, shows him post-apocalypse vision in the future. His problem not just end there, as Cole eventually betrayed by Zeke while found another Ray Sphere as they still tracking up John, which made matter worse as they also tries to capture Alden. This betrayal occurred when he and Zeke able to track Alden and successfully retrieved damaged Ray Sphere. There, Zeke chooses to betray Cole by create an alliance with recently arrived Kessler as he wanted a superpowers like Cole himself.

Cole is finally able to track down John, but learns that John is neither from the FBI nor Moya's husband, but instead an undercover NSA agent who assisted in the creation of the Ray Sphere. John explains that the Ray Sphere consumes the bio-energy from those around it and transfers that power to the person holding it, granting them super abilities at the cost of thousands of lives. John urges Cole to help him find and destroy it. Alden goes on a killing spree while heading into the Historic District. After a long battle, Alden is defeated and jumps off the bridge. During the battle, Alden destroyed huge sections of the bridge. Cut off from the Warren, Cole goes ahead into the Historic District. As they search for the Ray Sphere, Cole discovers that Kessler has kidnapped Trish along with six other doctors, and forces Cole to choose between saving her or the other doctors.

For sake of greater good, Cole chooses to save doctors first. But he also had to pay a high price, as Trish immediately sent by Kessler to fall to her death. However, Cole was able to revive Trish for a brief of time, whom proud of Cole and profess her love before her final breath.

During the "The Ray Sphere", Cole an John starts to make their move, as they heard that Ray Sphere eventually moved somewhere else. While tracking it, John and Cole destroys airships, knowing that it has been armed with mind-controlling gas that created from Sasha's tar. Cole and John eventually found the Ray Sphere after a brief skirmish, where he decides to destroy the Ray Sphere. Fueling himself with rage over events that rooted from other Ray Sphere that bestows his power, he destroy it with Lightning Storm.

However, this causes Ray Sphere to malfunction and explodes, seemingly killed John while Cole managed to escaped from blast radius. Afterwards, many citizens that hearing news about his action praises him for it despite John's loss and significantly, Cole became more heroic. Kessler is dissapointed in him however, stating that he wouldn't have done the same thing. He then sends message to challenge Cole a fight in Ground Zero, which Cole accept.

During the fight, both Cole and Kessler are matched, where at a point, Kessler corners Cole. As they fight, Zeke appears and tries to intervene to redeemed himself over his betrayal, but is tossed aside by Kessler. Cole eventually mortally wounds Kessler by send him flying by his electrified punch and lightning storms. Kessler, however, uses his last actions to implant his memories into Cole's mind, revealing that Kessler is a version of Cole from the future of an alternate timeline. In that timeline, Cole (as Kessler) and Trish were happily wed with children, but soon the appearance of an entity known as "The Beast" plunged their world into chaos. Kessler and Trish fled with their children rather than fight, but after years of running, The Beast eventually caught up to them and killed his family. Kessler realized the only way to stop the Beast would be to use his powers to go back in time and prepare his past self, Cole, for battle against it as it was too late to fight back in Kessler's time. Kessler seized control of the First Sons from Alden, manipulating then shunning Sasha's advances due to his past love for Trish, and ordered the construction of the Ray Sphere much earlier than in his timeline. Kessler was also the anonymous customer that directed Cole to use it. Kessler used Trish's death as a means of making sure Cole could choose the impossible in the battle with The Beast. After Kessler dies from the battle, Cole declares his hatred for Kessler, and says "When the time comes, I will be ready."

After dealing with Kessler, he finally understands why Kessler did what he did. It was done to make him stronger, better and able to make impossible decisions. Cole realises that there would be no way to escape his powers, that this was his life now and the powers would be his burden until the day he died. Cole then sets out to prepare for the Beast.

But there's another thing to worry about: What will both Zeke and Moya do now, when they made their next move?

Events between inFamous and inFamous 2
""They helped him create the Ray Sphere, make all of this possible. Without them, Trish's still alive .... which is why they're going to die""

- Cole regarding First Sons for their horrible deeds, which includes Trish' demise

Right after the death of Kessler, Cole revisited Trish's grave, still grieving over her loss. Warden Harms visited Cole as he mourned, as he tried to raise his spirits and made an effort to relate to Cole's situation. After that, Cole scoured the city, searching for the remaining members of the First Sons. After Cole disposed of several soldiers at a secluded alley, he was contacted by Warden Harms, who was under attack by several of the First Sons. Making his way to the area, Cole deflected a grenade launched by a soldier, then proceeded to dispose of them.

After Cole brushed off the enemies, and received a pat on the shoulder from Zeke, Cole made efforts to make sure that those were the last of them, and went on to patrol the area. Later that night at Eagle Point Penitentiary, Cole told Zeke what happened as the latter told him how sorry he was. He told Zeke that he was Kessler, why he returned to the past, and how he killed Trish just to make sure Cole would be ready for the monster, the Beast, seen in Kessler's vision. He then told Zeke why he bares so much hatred for Zeke, remarking that every time he looks at Zeke, he sees the image of Kessler laughing at him (possibly as consequence of Zeke's previous betrayal), which makes Cole want to strangle Zeke. After this, Cole left the area, leaving behind a puzzled Zeke.

The next day, Cole was asked for help by Zeke, who needed a van's batteries recharged. After doing so, Cole asks Zeke if he believed what he said about Kessler, to which Zeke replied he did. Cole then confesses his troubled mentality, being haunted by Kessler, believing that he's destroyed his former life and it will never be rebuilt. At this moment, Zeke stepped in and told Cole of his time with Kessler, stating that he was kept in a cell, and that he'd get a visit from Kessler every now and then. In his last visit, Kessler said goodbye and thanked Zeke for being a good friend all these years, which only now made sense when Cole clarified that he and Kessler were one and the same.

After Cole confided with Zeke, a missile flew by and dropped near their vicinity, making them stumble over. As the two got up, they see a whole Military aerial armada coming to the city. Cole figured immediately that it was Moya, keeping her promise about destroying the city should Cole disobey. Telling Zeke to get the Warden, the three got up and about to deal with the troops. Attacked by several choppers and soldiers, Cole managed to deal with all of these while keeping the other two safe. Cole thought that Moya would send in more troops over, which led the Warden to believe that they need to formulate a proper plan, suggesting that they head inside the Penitentiary. Cole, while inside the facility as several personnel block the paths, was contacted by Moya, whom gave him a proper warning; to surrender to them, or else the consequences will be dire. Cole told her off, and simply said that she should ready her men for him. Moya gave him until the next morning to decide.

Cole is in the police station wondering if he should give himself to Moya or not, at the same time David attacks the station and kills some policemen and nearly kills Zeke until Cole comes to the rescue. Moya is informed of what is happening and redeploys the soldiers to stop David from killing Cole. David, who believes Cole to be Kessler, starts beating him without mercy. Moya wanted to use two of who's in the stasis to be in the field to stop David, but the doctor tells her that is impossible and they are not ready. Moya responsed to that by saying she wasn't asking, but the doctor tells her if they are out of the stasis they will die before they take one step. Moya tells him if Cole dies it will be his ass. In the field, as the soldiers are being killed by David, Cole tries to take the fight to another place. At first the plan works but David quickly catches up with Cole and slams him into a building. Moya contacts Cole and tells him to get out of the building before it is bombed. Cole manges to get out, but David is caught in the explosion and buried under the wreckage. Cole returns to police station and tells them he can't stay because the "thing" was after him and he needs Zeke's apartment keys because he needs a place to sleep.

Zeke argues with Cole. Cole tells him he was saved by Moya but he can still can hear it (David) down there scraping around, trying to escape and if it wants to kill him so bad then it can kill him alone so that no one else will get hurt. In the Steel Harbor Moya tells the General about David and tells him that he was blasted with the Ray Sphere over thirty times but there was a significant flaw that didn't reveal itself until it was too late. The flaw is revealed to be that David consumes neuroelectricity and without it he will die, but he can store enough for a few weeks. The doctor asks them what if David escaped the city or killed Cole, as without Cole they can't replicate the effect of the Ray Sphere.

Moya tells them that one of David powers is to "smell" people on the genetic level and he is after Cole because he wants revenge for what Kessler did to him. The general reveals that they already know Kessler and Cole are the same person but asks if David knows that. Moya answers with more or less, for David they are the same person and he will not stop until Cole is dead. They Decide to get Cole as far away from Empire City as possible and since every attempt to capture him failed, they will change their method and will "attack his heart" to capture him. He later seen Trish' photos along with the other one that he took from Kessler, still mourning over her loss.

Moya eventually locates Cole, who is sleeping in Zeke's apartment. Cole has a dream involving Kessler showing him where he buried his wife and daughters. Kessler then tells him that The Beast is coming, and that it's ravenous, unstoppable.

Kessler tells Cole that the road ahead is full of graves, and if he is going to do what needs to be done, he must ignore all the graves regardless of whose bones they hold. Cole wakes up, not sure how much he can stomach, with the Military watching him. Zeke and Warden Harms are moving through the Jefferson tunnel, the warden asks Zeke what happened between them.

Zeke tells the warden what happened and that he is not sure if Cole will ever forgive him. The warden tells Zeke before Cole forgive him he must forgive himself first. In the Neon District, David rises from the wreckage' still determined to kill Kessler/Cole before he "returns home to his wife and daughter as he promised". While Cole is in Zeke's apartment, a group of soldiers prepare to enter the apartment and throw a gas bomb. When Cole is exposed to the gas he starts to suffer hallucinations about Trish blaming him for her death. Sasha contacts him telepathically and tells him what he sees is not real and Moya is using her gift to confuse him. Sasha then tells him to get out of the apartment. He does so by jumping from the window, but the hallucinations don't go away. Zeke and the warden are outside the building the moment Cole jumped, as well as the soldiers who ignore the two and capture Cole. David watches as the soldiers fly away with Cole.

As Cole being dragged and unconscious, Sasha telephatically said to Cole that she will won against Moya despite being beaten once. Just as Cole fully awakened, Moya told him that the had to talk.

At Steel Harbor, Moya tries to persuade Cole to work for the Military. When she sees that he will not do it willingly, she shows him a device and tells him that when they put it at the base of his skull he will do whatever they say, whether he wants to or not.

At the Warren, Zeke, the Warden, and a group of policemen make their move to save Cole, while back at the Neon District in the sewers the reporter interview the survivors. Back at the Steel Harbor, David arrives and can sense that Cole is there alone, cornered, and this time he can't escape him, At the same time Sasha frees herself, kills some guards and makes her way to Cole just in time to save him, while David is outside killing some soldiers. Zeke's group were seen by the soldiers, who started to shoot at them. David kills most of the soldiers before Moya is informed about Cole's escape. While he is making holes in the ship walls to escape, Moya tells the doctor to open all the stasis containers, but the doctor tells her they are still not ready. At same time, David catches Cole's smell. Cole jumps out of the ship and Moya argues with the doctor before holding him at gun point and telling him she wasn't asking. Sasha is shown killing some soldiers. Cole meets Zeke and the Warden outside. David sees Cole and heads straight for him. Cole tries to run but David catches up with him.

The reporters come out from the sewers in time to see Cole at the mercy of David. Moya tells the ones who come out of stasis to make sure Cole is not to be harmed, and everyone else is expendable. Meanwhile David is beating Cole, blaming him for the death of his wife and daughter. He says can still hear the voice of his wife on the phone, crying, begging, desperate to find him and it the last time he heard her voice; it's his last memory of her and it's all that he thinks about. Before he can kill Cole, he is stopped by 3 Military Conduits. Cole mocks David by telling him he thinks "David pissed off the wrong people."

During the fight, Moya is ambushed by Sasha, while Zeke helps Cole standing. Just as he did, he was horrified by David's monstrous appearance. The battle ensues anyway, which Cole emerged victorious. Unfortunately, tha battle causes the ship to sink. Cole was escaped with his friends though he was forced to left Moya to die as she is in a situation that gives Cole disadvantages to save her.

Two days later, Cole is having contact with Kuo, whom said that they need to talk as she was working alongside the late John.

inFAMOUS 2
Following Kessler's dead wish, Cole fight with the Beast at the begining of the game. It advents earlier than both Cole and Kessler predicted, much to Cole's horror. Unfortunately, the battle also drains him most of his powers, and he heads to New Marais to find more Blast Cores and gain new powers. He also received a weapon called rod from Zeke, whom he created while waiting for Cole to awaken from his injuries.

Cole continues his Good actions that he did in Empire City, such as helping the citizens, siding with Kuo in missions, helping the police,gaining Blast Shards from disabling bombs, and saving citizens that were captured by the militia. His actions, like in Empire City, also not goes smoothly, as during the struggle, Wolfe, scientist that created RFI and Blast Shard, was killed and Kuo was captured. Cole and Zeke meet two new allies: Laroche, leader of an anti-militia resistance group, and Nix, a Conduit who dwells in the swamp. Together they locate Kuo trapped in a facility where she has been infused with ice-based abilities. Cole frees her but inadvertently unleashes an army of mercenaries whom also imbued with ice-powers.

After restoring power at Ascension Parish, Cole was told by Zeke that a woman had been taken captive by the Militia and taken somewhere nearby the swamps. When he went there, he encountered and set free the woman for sacrifice to the Corrupted, Sara. She told Cole to follow her so he can meet up with his uncle Laroche, who was the leader of the Rebels in New Marais. After making their way through the park, Cole met with Laroche, whom indirectly admitted to her niece that she knew of the Militia's sacrifice offerings. As Laroche and Sara were about to argue, the former catches sight of Cole, whom he knew best as the "Demon of Empire City". Cole offered to him that they work together to take down the Militia, though as he did, a Devourer appeared. After dealing with the Devourer, Laroche contacted Cole and said that he's interested in an alliance, though he still has his doubts.

Later that evening, Cole was told by Zeke that Kuo was up and about, and was gonna give something to him. Meeting with Kuo at St. Charles Cemetery, Cole found her with a new look to better suit her new Conduit abilities. Though Kuo's abilities were still unstable, Cole told her that he can help, and started with working together to dispose the Militia around the cemetery. After that, Kuo sent Cole an image found in Wolfe's labs, which may lead to another Blast Core. After a thorough search, an encounter with a Hive Lord, and seeing the victims of the Ray Field Plague, Cole was finally able to find the Blast Core. After Kuo bid goodbye to her "coach" and left, Cole left as well, and headed for Zeke's place.

After gaining another power by activating the core, Nix asked for Cole's presence by the swamp pier, where she had something to show him. Procuring a boat, Cole and Nix saw several Militia posted at the swamp, with several of the Corrupted at the area, combating them. After making their way through the ruckus, dealing with the enemies that came their way, Nix was able to deliver Cole to the area. There, Nix showed the sight where her powers originated, a crater caused by a Blast similar to Empire City's, and explained everything about it. After learning that Bertrand perpetrated the event, Cole and Nix returned to the city, with Cole swearing to her that Bertrand will pay.

Cole and his allies then proceed their good deeds by helping resistance, where he found them secured a power transfer device. With this device, he chooses to gain Kuo's cryokinesis power. Just as he gained a new power, he caught Bertrand from afar, whom about to fide a chopper. Cole immediately stops him by unleashed a lightning to his chopper, only to found a giant monster at it's crash site. He proceed to fight it, only to found that the monster was Bertrand's monster form.

Later, he and Zeke found that the Beast moves again, and proceed to New Marais. He and Zeke tries to killed it with a nuclear missile that he found in Bertrand's lair. However, it was a futile effort, as the Beast reconstruct itself, seemingly immortal. A blast occurs, sent them flying.

Later, Cole was captured by Bertrand and his men, whom tries to kill him. Just as Cole tries to contact Kuo for help, Zeke comes to rescue him, states that he did this for apologizing for his betrayal back in Empire City. Both then reconciles and start their move.

Unexpectedly, during performing another good deeds when he found that Bertrand had commit both evil and good deed records at the same time, he reunites with John, whom supposedly dead. However, John now is not the same person, as Cole was shocked that he and The Beast are same entity. John left, but not before revealed that only those with conduit gene shall survive his destruction.

He then resume his business with Bertrand, where he questions his morality. He even taunt Bertrand for gave him moniker as "Demon of Empire City". Cole even bfought up Bertrand's former desire to be a superhero like himself, but ended up turned into an abomination. Cole then challenged this statement, that people kill others, not abilities. Bertrand agreed, before running off the building, falling, and turning into the Behemoth once again. Through the aid of the Rebels and Zeke, Bertrand was eventually lured into a trap. Weakened by multiple gas tank explosions, Bertrand continued to attack, though, eventually he began to stagger thanks to the combined might of Cole, Kuo, Nix and fell to the ground, dying as the Behemoth. Nix spat on Bertrand's corpse, which was subsequently cleared away by the Rebels.

In the final mission, he sides wih Kuo and Zeke to save humanity though he found out that although RFI can kill the beast once and for all, it will caused Conduit that caught in it's blast killed as well. Cole and Nix try and activate charge the RFI as the Beast approaches. He defeates the Beast and uses the RFI to kill it, and most existing or potential conduits, including himself. Thousands died but the rest of humanity was saved and cured of the plague. The citizens of New Marais recognised is selfless act and built a statue in honor of him, where his weapon, the Amp still lays. Zeke put his coffin on a boat and let it drift away. His coffin was then struck by lightning that was in the shape of a question mark.

PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale
Good Cole appears as a playable character in PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale along with his Evil counterpart,with his own story featuring him looking for conduits to help in his fight with the Beast.His rival is Raiden from the Metal Gear series.

inFamous: Second Son
Seven years after Cole's presumed death, some Conduits, which turned out survived due to beng outside the blast, now dubbed as "Bioterrorists" continued to roam the earth. A new agency called the Department of Unified Protection (primary antagonists) ensured that he was remembered as a notorious felon instead hero. This was done to help further their cause of ridding the world of "Bioterrorists", despite that Cole chose to sacrifice himself and other conduits to save humanity. To make matter worse, their overall goals and dreams are not only same with Joseph Bertrand III's, but also more active and more aggressive than he did. However, they later defeated and their evil deeds exposed by new protagonist that "succeed" Cole as hero of the series: Delsin Rowe.

Trivia

 * His sling bag has an easter egg of the Sly Cooper logo on it.
 * Due to his demise at the end of inFamous 2, the game creator decided to create a new protagonist, Delsin, which made him his "successor".
 * Cole's storyline as hero whom uses his powers for good is considered canon, as is said by developers.
 * In addition, Cole was portrayed with blue lightning instead red in comics.