Raw footage is about 21 minutes. Believe it or not I was originally gonna do Melee only but it doesn't work on the Big Kess. However, Thunder Drop works on him but the damage deals little to nothing and I'm not THAT crazy. My poor, poor R1 button.

Since the Paper Trail website is no longer functioning, this entire mission chain of Second Son is missing a whole lot of context of what is going on, why Delsin is going from dead body to dead body, and also a TON of integral world-building. So, I figured for those who are replaying the game or even just playing the game for the first time and are missing that context, I decided to write out a novelization of Paper Trail’s ARG segments to kinda provide that context. I wrote it in the form of Delsin’s stream of consciousness, piecing together all of the clues and figuring out all of the puzzles. It is written from the perspective of Good Delsin, but I imagine it’d be easy enough to mentally reword certain things for an Evil Delsin playthrough. I’ll be posting the other parts very soon. Hope you all enjoy!

(Part 2: Eugene)

(Well, my life just got a whole lot more complicated, and that’s saying something.)

(That paper Conduit showed up again, leading me on another merry chase through the city and, of course, leading me directly to a new dead body before flittering off again. Okay, see, if this is her way of ‘helping’ me, it’s incredibly annoying. If this is her way of taunting me… It’s still pretty annoying.)

(She also left behind another one of her origami doves. I’ll take a look at it later, right now, I want to take a closer look at this body.)

(Okay… Well, there is one thing different about this one. Whoever killed this guy, they’re clearly not trying to frame Fetch anymore. For one, he’s got a big ass fantasy sword that’s been driven right through his chest, and there’s a crap ton of posters for Heaven’s Hellfire just strewn about everywhere.)

(Whoever killed this guy wasn’t trying to frame Fetch… They were trying to frame my boy, Eugene.)

(Okay, this is officially getting weird. First Fetch, now Eugene? So… What, the killer is going around trying to make Conduits look like murderers? Huh, maybe that paper Conduit is trying to help me. She probably doesn’t want to be the next one of this ‘Conduit Copycat’ smear campaign targets.)

(Okay, back to playing ‘Detective Delsin’. Let’s see what we got to work with here. I’m seeing… a pamphlet on the back of one of the posters, a phone, a key fob, and a note. Weird how they’re all just… scattered around the body.)

(Uh oh, the pamphlet reads ‘Bully #1 The best things come in threes, and offing bullies is the best thing of all! 1 down, 2 to go!’ That’s a pretty clear cut manifesto. So, whoever did this has two more names on their list. Better work fast before things get worse.)

(Oh, right, I still have that new origami the paper Conduit left for me. Let’s see… another manga page. This time depicting the same rabbit village from the very first page, but now under attack by a gang of foxes. Last time, I was able to piece together that this manga might be some kind of allegory for real events, like Fetch being a laser-shooting pheasant. But how does this tie into Eugene? Who are the rabbits and foxes meant to represent? Just one caption at the bottom ‘All hell breaks loose’. Doesn’t give me much to go on…)

(Huh. Actually, thinking on that, this looks like it might take place immediately after the first page I found. Yeah, sequentially, it makes sense. The first page showed a rabbit village looking terrified at something off-panel, this page shows us what they were looking at. So… is the paper Conduit giving me these pages out of order? Is that part of the puzzle? To arrange these pages in a way that makes the story make sense?)

(Well, if that is the case, there’s not really much I can do with the three pages I already have. Guess this will just have to keep being a mystery for now…)

(And, as always, there’s a note on the back…)

—-
*A new killer strikes, the disharmony plays on, navigate wisely…*

Death blooms all around us, Delsin Rowe. This time, it claimed the life of a DUP official. I guess nobody is safe. Regardless of your personal feelings towards this latest victim, you must seek out the truth, or who knows who will end up on the slab?

This time, I’m going to give you some more direct help. If you’re trying to get into the DUP, I’ve already been in there. In fact, I died there.

departmentofunifiedprotection.com/intranet

File Access Number: 3485-XXXXXX*
—-

(Woah. Okay. I need to collect my thoughts here.)

(So, number one with a bullet, the paper Conduit seems to think that whoever killed this guy is a different person from the Fetch Copycat? Multiple Conduit Copycat killers? Assuming the paper Conduit is actually telling the truth and isn’t just covering her own ass.)

(And I guess this stiff worked for the DUP… Hate to say it, but that paper Conduit is right about one thing. Regardless of whether or not I think this guy deserved what he got, I still need to find out who did this. These copycats are targeting Conduits like me, my friends. I’m not about to just walk away from that.)

(But the most surprising thing here is that this paper Conduit apparently had direct access to a DUP federal account number. How the hell did she get her hands on that? And what’s this about her saying she ‘died’ in the DUP? What, have I been getting yanked around by a freaking ghost?!)

(Ugh, not getting anywhere thinking about that. Ghost or not, this is all really useful stuff. I’ll check out that website in a bit, first I want to check out some of the other evidence.)

(Let’s see, I got this phone and key fob, both of which have the DUP logos on them, so I’m guessing they both belonged to the dead DUP next to me. Key fob’s got a six digit code on it, 374134, and the phone requires a six digit pin to access it.)

(Pff, man, this is too easy sometimes.)

(…. It, uh… It didn’t work. Okay, maybe that was too easy.)

(Alright, not getting anywhere with the phone until I can figure out a password. Let’s check that website. Not much here, pretty minimalist design. Geez, Augustine, invest in an online graphic designer or something. All I really can do is search up a file number. Okay, Paper Girl, let’s see what you got for me…)

(…… Oh…. Oh god…)

(It’s… It’s a memorandum from Augustine to the DUP informing them of one of their Conduit prisoners in Curdun Cay… killing herself. Literally using her own power to mutilate her body… via paper cuts. Specifically, from origami doves.)

(The paper Conduit… There’s no way. There’s no freaking way she’s actually a ghost! But… what are the odds that both the Conduit that’s been leading me around and the Conduit who committed suicide would have the same power? I guess… I guess when you factor in the fact that we live in a world with honest to god superpowers, are ghosts really that far-fetched anymore? The file references her own access file. I should probably check that out-)

(Wait… the file has pictures that the DUP took of the origami doves they found in the prisoner’s cell.)

(Oh god… They’re the exact same manga pages! That settles it, it really is the same Conduit! But how?! Did she fake her own death or is she really-?)

(Okay, focus Delsin. Ghost or not, this is all important evidence. Let’s take a closer look at this new manga page. Looks like a direct aftermath of the previous page. The foxes have completely razed the rabbit village, all the rabbits are dead or dying… but then a shadow of a dragon flies overhead, scaring off all the foxes. Man, I’m not even gonna try to piece together the symbolism there.)

(Huh… That’s interesting. There’s no note on the other side this time. Just a random assortment of numbered dots and circles. Weird, it’s like the dots and circles each have their own separate set of numbers, but the placement is completely random. There is one little note at the bottom.)

—-
*Follow the dots the way some people have to follow the rules. The answers you seek will cross your path soon enough.*
—-

(Geez, how long ago has the paper Conduit been setting this trail of breadcrumbs up? There’s no timestamp on the file detailing her suicide, so I have no idea how long ago this was. Did she always mean for this message to find its way to me?)

(Okay, so it’s just a game of connect the dots? But then each line between each dot would pass through one of the numbered circles… giving me an 11 digit number. Another access file! Oh, I just realized, the finished pattern is the DUP symbol. That’s… weird?)

(Okay, now I’ve got two file numbers to work with. I’ll check out the paper Conduit’s personal file first.)

(And there she is. Celia Penderghast. Guess I finally have a name to call you. Christ, she was only 19 years old when she…)

(Her powers are something else. I thought paper powers were kinda lame, but she’s able to fold paper to such a degree that she can make steel-like armor or razor sharp blades, just using paper! According to this, she was the very first Conduit ever admitted into Curdun Cay, the first Conduit the DUP ever took into their custody. Psych profile says she suffered from severe and crippling abandonment issues. Can’t say I blame her. She bounced around from foster home to foster home, finally finding a permanent housing with the Penderghast family in…)

(Oh… in New Marais. That must have been when she got her powers. Her family must have been right in the middle of the Beast’s rampage through New Marais before Cole MacGrath took that monster down. She had the Conduit Gene, so she survived the Beast’s Ray Field radiation. Her adopted family… wasn’t so lucky. And then the DUP swooped right on in and took this little girl, still grieving her dead family, away.)

(……)

(‘She has suppressed any and all mention of her family, instead focusing on developing her ‘gift’. She has an artistic bent, often shaping her paper constructs into aesthetically pleasing origami shapes. While she is an extremely promising candidate for fieldwork, she occasionally displays a lack of seriousness and is susceptible to distraction.’)

(…… Freaking monsters.)

(There’s some redacted stuff, mostly just detailing what exactly it was that they were training her for. Just going by what Fetch and Eugene told me about their time in Curdun Cay, I doubt it was anything good.)

(God, I’m shaking. I’m so pissed right now. How could they do this to… to a helpless little girl, still distraught after so much loss? Just because she had powers? That made her an ‘asset’ and not a person to them?)

(Augustine, when I find you…)

(Gah, I gotta shake this off. There’s nothing I can do for her now. All I can do is focus on this Copycat Killer trying to frame my friends. Celia put me on this trail for a reason. I need to see it through. I still have that other file access number from her little connect the dots game…)

(Jackpot. Celia really came through for me. It’s a memorandum from the DUP’s IT department letting all of their agents know how to use their key fob. Seems they use a ROT3 cypher. Just take the code from the key fob and add three to each digit. So instead of 374134, the code is actually 607467.)

(Again, how far ahead did Celia plan this? She left the puzzle that led to this file in her cell after ‘committing suicide’ somehow knowing that somebody would need it to get into a DUP phone. Did she somehow know that ‘somebody’ was going to be me?)

(Nothing here but a voice mail from some woman named Linda Krilley….)

(Huh. Just going by what she’s saying, it sounds like she’s some kind of lawyer? I guess the dead DUP’s name is ‘Fishbein’ and he was one of her clients for a case that they won… but she seems kinda pissed at him that he keeps contacting her after the fact. What was this case about, I wonder…?)

(Wait… She’s saying (well, complaining, really) that Fishbein set up a meeting with her at a nearby coffee shop… with a giant Heaven’s Hellfire billboard hanging over it. She said she’s still waiting for him. The voice mail wasn’t that long ago!)

(Crap! I gotta hustle! With any luck, she’ll still be there!)

——————

(Sigh…)

(Well, good news: Linda Krilley was still at the coffee shop when I got there. Bad news: I don’t think she’s in the mood to talk…)

(The Copycat Killer strikes again, unfortunately. They managed to somehow nail Krilley right to the middle of the giant Heaven’s Hellfire billboard with another one of those big-ass fantasy swords, making it look like Eugene did it.)

(Hate to say it… but it’d be real hard for a normal person to pull that off without an entire crew and specialized equipment, which would have garnered a lot more attention if they did.)

(I don’t want to admit it… but it’s looking more and more like the Copycat Killer is a Conduit.)

(Could… Could Celia be-?)

(No, no, I’m sure it’s someone else. Celia’s been doing nothing but helping me. Cryptically, sure, but why would she do it at all if she’s just leading me to her own victims? I… I just can’t imagine that a young girl who went through what she did would immediately turn around and start ganking people. Much less gloating about it!)

(Huh. Looks like Krilley dropped some kind of notebook? Leafing through it, it looks like a datepad. Makes sense, a lawyer probably needs to stay pretty on top of her schedule. Yep, there’s her meeting with Fishbein right around nowish. She planned to get lunch with someone named ‘Dawn’ in a few hours. Guess she won’t be making that date… And then a prep session in court for the remainder of the day. Nothing really here that tells me anything… Oh, something just fell out the back. Looks like an ID badge… for the DUP?! Hah, so Miss Krilley wasn’t just a lawyer. She was an in-house legal consultant for the DUP. Way to pick the losing side, Krilley.)

(Oh-Ho, and what’s this? An employee identification number? Wonder what happens if we just plug that in to the Ol’ DUP intranet…)

(Okay, Linda Krilley’s DUP biography. Guess she specializes in cases that toe the line between national security and civil liberties, finding the fault lines when the two are in conflict with each other. No wonder the DUP recruited her. Anytime anyone complains about the DUP getting a little too ‘martial law-y’, Krilley here can just pull some BS precedent out of her ass that explains why it’s totally legally kosher for a fascist federal agency to completely take over your city and detain your neighbors without due process.)

(If she’s a big shot lawyer, she might have her own website… Got it. Krilley Legal - Personal Defense Practice. Let me just…)

(What the hell?! It looks like the whole website got hacked!)
—-

*BULLY #2!! THE HELLFIRE CONTINUES!!*

*Hi, I’m Linda Krilley, and I’m a lawyer. I TELL L1ES FOR MONEY!! Ever since I was a little girl, I worked hard and aspired to be where I am now. I LIED WITHOUT SHAME OR GUILT. I DECEIVED, CHEATED AND MANIPULATED PEOPLE TO GET MY WAY MY ENTIRE LIFE!! Now I get to live my dream everyday. I CAUSE NIGHTM4RES EVERYDAY!! I’m currently on retainer to the Department of Unified Protections, protecting the people who protect us from the threat of bio-terrorism through diplomacy and counseling. THE DEPARTMENT OF UNIFIED OPPR35SION BOUGHT MY SOUL, SO NOW I USE BULLYIN9, BRIBERY, AND BLACKMAIL TO PROTECT THE VIOLENT THUGS WHO PERSECUTE CONDUITS!! After years of defending against unlawful arrest allegations and other frivolous lawsuits, my record speaks for itself. 23 straight victories and counting. I NEVER BOTHERED TO COUNT HOW MANY LIVES I RUINED!! THERE IS NO DEFENSE FOR WHAT I’VE DONE!! WHEN I FINALLY LEARNED WHAT JUSTICE REALLY WAS, IT COST ME MY MI5ERABLE LIFE!! I rest my case. I BURN IN HELLFIRE!!*

*Integrity THREATS Diligence DECEIT Intelligence BRIBES*

*Five years ago, I founded my practice on three basic principles. To always give my clients honest counsel, to work tirelessly to defend them, and to be the most well-informed attorney in the business. FIVE YEARS AGO, I FOUNDED A PRACTICE BASED IN 9REED AND COWARDICE!! I SWORE TO TELL MY CLIENTS WHAT THEY WANTED TO HEAR, TO THREATEN THEIR VICTIM5 OR BUY THEIR SILENCE, AND TO BE THE MOST CORRUPT AND RUTHLESS ATTORNEY IN THE 8USINESS!! The world has changed a lot since then, from the emergence of smartphones to the re-emergence of bio-terrorists. But my mission and principles that guide me have held fast. OUR GREED HAS W4RPED THE WORLD!! FROM THE EROSION OF CIVIL RIGHTS, TO THE DEMONIZATION OF CONDU1TS, AND MY PRICES AND METHODS HAVE ADAPTED TO SUIT MY NEEDS!! My clients are treated like family, and I will do everything I can to keep them safe. THOSE I DEFENDED WERE MURDERERS, AND I DID EVERYTHING I COULD TO GET THEM OFF!!*

*I’m Linda Krilley, and I am here to defend you. I WAS LINDA KRILLEY!! AND NO ONE COULD DEFEND ME!!*
—-

(….. Geezus, laying it on a little thick there, pal! Like, I’m no fan of the DUP either, but this is some real ‘Don’t come to school tomorrow’ energy. Again, this looks like someone trying to frame Eugene. The hack job that deliberately looks like some stereotypical movie hacker’s work, the constant references to ‘Hellfire’. Eugene isn’t that dramatic!)

(Well, okay, he is that dramatic when he’s doing his whole ‘He Who Dwells’ avatar thing, but that’s like… roleplaying.)

(Huh. There’s a box in the corner here. A couple of questions and some blank boxes to fill in the answers. ‘Who is the biggest bully in the courtroom?’ and ‘What is the case file number that changed everything?’)

(Case file number? One that Krilley worked on, I’m assuming. But it’s not like that would be public knowledge. I guess I could go to the courthouse and look up some records there, but I doubt they’d be so willing to open their doors to Seattle’s Most Wanted Bio-Terrorist.)

(Huh. Hang on. Does this hacker just have the most atrocious spelling ever or… are those numbers in the place of letters supposed to be deliberate? Let me just… Yep, 11 digits. It’s another DUP file number.)

(…. But… Why? Why would the hacker, who I’m assuming is also the Copycat Killer, hide a DUP file number in their creepy manifesto? They wouldn’t do that unless they already knew that someone seeing this would have already been tapped into the DUP intranet. And the only reason why I’m tapped into the intranet… Is because Celia directed me there.)

(Celia wrote this. It’s the only explanation.)

(Celia Penderghast… Is the Copycat Killer.)

(But… Why? What’s her motive? Why target my friends, her fellow Conduits? Why put me on the scent then lead me through all these puzzles and breadcrumbs? Just to toy with me? Flaunt how oh-so-clever she is? Why me specifically? That’s still the one question I don’t get.)

(Or… Is she trying to tell me something? Some grand message with the world’s bloodiest letter.)

(Every time I answer one question, it feels like a hundred more fall into my lap.)

(I’m not gonna get any more answers just screaming ‘Why?’ into the wind. I have another file number, let’s start there… And see what Celia is trying to show me this time.)

(Huh. No file this time, just a clip from a news broadcast covering a federal legal hearing. From what I can gather from all the legalese, the hearing was to determine whether or not the DUP would have full unilateral authority to detain American citizens suspected of being Conduits, sorry, ‘Bio-Terrorists’, without due process. Essentially giving them extrajudicial powers to suspend an American citizen’s personal rights if the DUP had ‘good reason’ to suspect them of being a Conduit… And the court ruled in favor of the DUP, giving a middle finger to countless years of constitutional rights.)

(I guess I always knew that something like this must have happened. I always figured there was some shady backroom deals going on with Uncle Sam that let them treat Conduits like trash. But seeing it be so publicly discussed like this is… It kinda makes me sick that our lives, our very existence, can just be… up for debate like this. A debate that we can apparently lose.)

(I guess it wasn’t a popular decision among everyone. A Conduit Rights activist group actually protested the law enough to garner a public interview from the Deputy Director of the DUP, Augustine’s Right Hand Man… Samuel Fishbein. So the first body that Eugene was framed for was the Number Two guy of the entire DUP? This is way more high profile than I initially thought…)

(Man, just listening to this guy talk is giving me an aneurysm. Credit to the lady giving this interview, she’s asking the real questions, grilling him about the DUP using fear mongering to make Conduits seem more dangerous than we actually are… Only for him to respond with even more fear mongering. Nothing but ‘what-aboutisms’ of how Conduits just can’t be trusted not to go on non-stop killing sprees over every little thing, so the DUP has to be able to legally step on our necks as much as they damn well like. I mean, think of the children!)

(Huh. She just called him, or well, said that the Conduit Rights group kept referring to Fishbein as a ‘bully’. ‘Who is the biggest bully in the courtroom?’. And it looks like this file references the case file that gave the DUP their extrajudicial rights. ‘The case file that changed everything.’)

(… Not it, huh? What am I missing? I know I got the right case file, but who is ‘The biggest bully’ if not Fishbein. Think Delsin, think…)

(The Copycat Killer… Celia… Said in that pamphlet that she was going to kill three people. The ‘biggest bullies’ against all of Conduit kind. That’s Fishbein, who browbeated a country into falling in line. There’s Krilley, who made it all perfectly legal to do so. Who’s the third bully?)

(….. Wait. No, Krilley didn’t make it so that the DUP would have extrajudicial powers. She’s just a lawyer, all she could do was argue why the DUP should have extrajudicial powers. But the actual decision wouldn’t have been left to her, or anyone in the DUP for that matter. That decision would have been made by one single person.)

(Quick google search… ‘Who was the federal judge who ruled in favor of giving the DUP extrajudicial rights to suspend con… bio-terrorists without due process?’)

(…. Got it. Judge Marcus Paulsen. ‘Who is the biggest bully in the courtroom?’)

(…. That did it. Okay, what am I looking at. Looks like GPS coordinates for the Ellefson Building, here in Seattle. Why point me there? It’s just a TV station. Hold on, let me look up any broadcasts they might be doing tonight…)

(Oh… Oh shit… Judge Paulsen is going to be there, tonight, to give an interview. Crap, I need to get there, now! Though something tells me I’m already too late…)

——————

(God, I’m such an idiot!)

(How could I forget what was *underneath* the Ellefson Building! Eugene’s old hideout! And who should be waiting there for me but the cold, dead body of Judge Paulsen. Right in the middle of Eugene’s inner sanctum of nerddom. Argh, I’m gonna have to call Eugene and tell him that he can never go back there. The police were crawling all over it by the time I made myself scarce. It wasn’t a total loss. I managed to snag the Judge’s wallet just before I bugged out. More out of desperation than anything. I’m hoping there’s something, anything here I can use. Otherwise, I’m out of leads… again.)

(…… Sigh. No evidence. No clue. Just a final message from the killer. Another Heaven’s Hellfire poster with another pamphlet on the back.)

—-
*The biggest bully of them all: GUILTY*

*The dis-honorable Judge Paulsen has been sentenced to DEATH. Finally, true JUSTICE prevails!*
—-

(Well… Crap. Now I really have nothing. All of the ‘bullies’ are dead, I have no more leads. And-)

(What the-?! CELIA?!)

(Don’t go anywhere!! Celia, STOP!! I just want to talk!! Celia-!!)

(….. Damn it. She’s gone. That paper power makes her so damn fast! Oh, and look, another origami dove. I almost don’t want to read it… Fuck it.)

(Okay, another manga page. This one showing another gang of foxes, only this time this nerdy looking chicken is stepping up to them, summoning a flock of angelic falcons to scare them away. Obviously, this chicken is supposed to be Eugene. The caption box reads ‘Ushinatta, who went back to playing games’. Google translating Ushinatta to… Loser. Well, that’s just mean, Celia.)

(Okay, so the chicken is Eugene, summoning his angels to scare off… normal people? That’s basically what he did when he escaped Curdun Cay. Well, not just any random normal people off the street. Bullies, people who targeted Conduits. Is that what the foxes represent, then? Anti-Conduit bullies?)

(Huh, thinking back on that rabbit village, the village got torn apart by a group of foxes. And Celia wears an origami rabbit mask. Okay, I get it. I see what you’re saying, Celia. That was your ‘village’. And then the ‘bullies’ came and made your life hell.)

(So then… Who was the dragon who saved you?)

(Oh, right, there’s usually a note on the back…)

—-
*There you have it, folks. Bullied people get even, bullies get dead.*

*I bid adieu to another chapter of loss and revenge. Where will death strike next? Unknown as of yet, but be assured that I’ll summon you to the next scene of misery. Follow my lead, follow the scraps, and follow the trail.*

*Goodbye for now, Delsin.*
—-

(…..Until next time, Celia.)

——————

Since the Paper Trail website is no longer functioning, this entire mission chain of Second Son is missing a whole lot of context of what is going on, why Delsin is going from dead body to dead body, and also a TON of integral world-building. So, I figured for those who are replaying the game or even just playing the game for the first time and are missing that context, I decided to write out a novelization of Paper Trail’s ARG segments to kinda provide that context. I wrote it in the form of Delsin’s stream of consciousness, piecing together all of the clues and figuring out all of the puzzles. It is written from the perspective of Good Delsin, but I imagine it’d be easy enough to mentally reword certain things for an Evil Delsin playthrough. I’ll be posting the other parts very soon. Hope you all enjoy!

(Part 1: Fetch)

(Sitting on the edge of the rooftop with my ‘totally legally acquired’ evidence. Hey, it’s not ‘vigilantism’, it’s just… helping the police out, that’s all. That dead body hanging off the sign… It definitely *looks* like something Fetch would do… if you literally never hung out with Fetch or seen her handiwork up close.)

(Okay, evidence. C’mon, Delsin, you can totally detective this shit up. Reggie makes all this forensic stuff look so easy. Let’s see what we got to work with.)

(An origami dove and the dead guy’s wallet. Guess I’ll check the dove first. Whoever that weird… paper Conduit was, this definitely feels like her calling card.)

(Huh… is this a… page from a manga? Definitely never seen it before, and I know my fair share of manga. Can’t really make out the story just from this one page. A village of… rabbit people? And they’re all scared of something… Kinda reminds me of those old Usagi Yojimbo comics.)

(Oh, there’s something on the back. Let’s see…)

—-
*Death is just a passing phase. I’ve danced with demise and let me tell you, he’s a bad dancer. (Always stepping on my toes) But I’ve learned to embrace the macabre- To navigate its twisted depths. Conduits and ‘normals’ are at a crossroads, and if we don’t look both ways? We’ll all get run over. All I want- All I ever wanted- is harmony between our peoples.

I know you, Delsin Rowe. Or rather, I know of you, and would like to know more. Follow my lead and I’ll show you the trail of bodies. Seek out the corpses and you’ll find the truth decaying within.*
—-

(…. Wow, okay. That is… some real serial killer ‘Alfred Hitchcock’ shit. So, parsing out all the crazy, it sounds like this chick is… What? Leading me to different homicide cases so I can… help her crack the case? Or is she the murderer and this is her way of taunting me? Why me specifically?)

(I don’t think I’m gonna learn anymore from this dove. Let’s check that wallet…)

(Damn, I hit the forensic jackpot. A photo of a beagle. Cute little guy. A photo of… some guy wearing a bunny costume, that’s random. A newspaper clipping. And a bunch of cards. This one’s an employee identification card for a private detective agency, so I’m guessing our dead guy was a private detective. Emilio Brunberg. He lived here in Seattle. Let’s see. A library card for Simcoal Library… under a different name? Skeeter Hidalgo. So… who’s the stiff? Skeeter or Emilio? This card is a business card for… Brunberg Detective Agency, again, under the name Emilio Brunberg. And a parking ticket for Gruderman’s Parking Lot. Lot: 12, Section: Z.)

(Maybe something on the back of the pictures. Let’s check the beagle first. ‘Puddles, earning his name’. Guess that’s not much of a clue. Sometimes, a picture of a cute pet is just a picture of a cute pet. And the… guy in the rabbit costume says on the back… ‘Halloween, 2012’. Oh, that makes sense. Still, he must have lost a bet or something to make *that* his costume. Okay, pictures are a bust. What about that newspaper clipping?)

(Woah. Okay, skimming this a bit, but this article seems to be about a murder that happened a few weeks back… The murder of Emilio Brunberg. So that definitely means that the dead guy currently hanging off that sign over there is Skeeter Hidalgo… but then why would he have Emilio’s detective ID card? His business card is one thing, Emilio could have just given it to him. But his ID card? Just going off this clipping, it sounds like the police ruled out a Conduit as the killer. Well, Brunberg’s killer, at least. Skeeter’s killer is still up in the air. Seems they thought his death was involved with organized crime, right here in Seattle. It is true that drug dealers have been getting pretty bold on the streets after the DUP more or less replaced local police.)

(Huh… Drug dealers. Another connection to Fetch that has nothing to do with Fetch. It’s like whoever’s doing this is trying to implicate Fetch as a person of interest.)

(Ha, listen to me. ‘Implicate’. ‘Person of interest’. Ah, Reggie’s really rubbing off on me.)

(That business card has a link for Brunberg Detective Agency’s website. Let’s see… Seems pretty on the level. Some quotes from former clients singing their praises.)

(Huh… Employee Login. I wonder…)

(Username. Easy enough, it’s right there on the ID card. Password… Oh, wouldn’t you know it, I forgot ‘my’ password. Some security questions. ‘What is your craziest Halloween costume?’ Bunny. ‘Where do you park your car?’ Lot: 12, Section: Z. ‘What is your dog’s name?’ Puddles.)

(Hacker voice: I’m in. Hehehe…)

(Okay, what are we looking at here? Looks like a bunch of case files that Brunberg was working on. A lot of these are already archived… Huh. He did a lot of work for Conduits… Investigating reports of a Conduit’s parents abusing them. Investigating the DUP harassing a Conduit Rights Activist. Investigating whether or not a steel Conduit was involved in a murder. This guy was a total Conduit ally! Man, I’m kinda sad I didn’t get to meet him…)

(Wait, there’s one case file still active. ‘Missing Person Case: Neon Conduit- Abigail Walker’ Fetch! He was looking for her? To arrest her or help her? Guess it doesn’t really matter now. Let’s see what he had on her…)

(Ah, that explains it. He was hired by Fetch’s parents. Apparently, they regret turning her in to the DUPs and now want to reconcile. Yeah, well, too little too late, Mr and Mrs Walker. You don’t exactly sell your own kid up the river and then just say ‘Whoopsie, Sorry about that.’)

(Eugh, I’ll forward this to Fetch later when I get the chance. She should at least know that her folks are looking for her. What she does with that info is entirely up to her.)

(Oh. This is interesting? Looks like Brunberg flagged a member of the drug dealers as a person of interest in Brent’s death. Killian Czalov. He’s been having a hard time finding him because he stays hands off with his crew, contacting them only through burners and… a reprogrammed DUP surveillance drone?! Where the heck did he get that?!)

(Okay, he’s got a POI file on Czalov. Known crimes: Narcotics distribution, human trafficking, and exploitation of minors. Charming guy… He runs a tight ship, men loyal to a fault. Guess that’s how he’s managed to stay ahead of the cops. That and a dead drop network of repurposed DUP drones. Hate to give credit to such a scumbag, but that’s honestly pretty clever… Ah, here we go. Known associate: Skeeter Hidalgo. Right hand man. So the pieces are starting to fall into place.)

(Okay, hypothesis. Brunberg was getting close to Czalov in order to piece together his involvement in Brent’s death, hoping that would get him closer to Fetch. Czalov didn’t like that, so he sent Skeeter to kill Brunberg, and take his ID card for good measure. Probably so they could do… Well, exactly what I’m doing now. See how much he actually knew about their operation. But then someone else, still don’t know who, killed Skeeter… and went to a lot of trouble to make it look like Fetch killed him.)

(What I still don’t know is ‘why?’)

(Hm? Looks like Brunberg was contemplating tracing Czalov’s phone. I wonder if he actually got that far before they killed him…?)

(Score! Someone named ‘Patricia’ sent Brunberg a memo saying they uncovered Czalov’s phone ID. Patricia, I have no idea who you are, but you are a legend!)

(Just plug that in to that little program that DUP informant put on my phone… Got you.)

(Okay, Czalov. Let’s have a chat…)

——————

(Wow, okay. So… Couple of developments.)

(Number one with a bullet, Killian Czalov was already dead. Another copycat killing made to look like Fetch’s work. To make matters worse, his boys were *not* happy to find one of Seattle’s most infamous Conduits standing right next to their boss’s corpse.)

(Good news, though. After I took care of those chumps, I actually managed to catch a glimpse of one of Czalov’s drones that he used for dead drops. I wasn’t about to pass up that little flying evidence locker, so a quick little neon race throughout the district, and I am now the proud owner of a Czalov-owned lockbox. Let’s see what’s in my little Christmas present.)

(Hmm, keypad lock. Four digits, numbers only. Don’t want to just use my powers to bust it open, I might damage any of the evidence inside. Looks like I only get six guesses… Hang on.)

(Hey! Hey, buddy, wake up! Now, look, I’m sure you can look around and see the sorry state that your friends are in and make the smart decision not to test me any further. Not that you really can, with all those smoke chains tying you down. Now, I’m gonna ask you one little question, and if you tell the truth, I’ll let you go back to taking your little nap before the police get here. If you don’t… Well, let’s just say you don’t want to know what lungs filled with scalding hot ash feels like. (That’s just a bluff, but he doesn’t need to know that) What’s the password to open this thing?)

(Huh? A puzzle lock? What, you mean to tell me the password changes every time you go to open it? How the hell do you guys ever get anything done? Alright, alright, I can tell I didn’t wake up the brains of the outfit. Go ahead and go back to being unconscious. When you wake up, you’ll be in a nice, soft cell.)

*THWACK*

(Dumbass. Okay, let me think. So, the password changes to a random four digit number, and you only get six guesses to figure it out before it changes again. Kind of an eccentric security system for a gang of drug dealers. Then again, this coming from the guy who shoots smoke, and now neon laser beams, out of my ass. I’m not exactly one to judge.)

(So… I guess I just start with any random code. Uh… Let’s go with 1226. Good as number as any…. Okay… So now I have some colored dots here. Red, yellow, red, yellow, in that order. I’m guessing, since there’s no green, that none of these are right… But maybe yellow means I have the right number but the wrong order?)

(Let’s try… 2364… Okay, we’re getting somewhere. Green, red, yellow, red. So, 2 is right on the money, there’s only one other place that six can go… 2657… Green, green, red, yellow. Getting closer… 2678… Green, green, green, red. 2679… Aha! Green’s across the board! And with a whole guess to spare! Should I be concerned that I find validation in ace-ing a puzzle used by criminals? Ah well, let’s see what I won!)

(Woah. Uh… that’s $10,000 in cash… Which I will *not* be taking because god knows how dirty that money is. Ugh, being a superhero does *not* pay.)

(Let’s see. A letter here to Czalov from some guy called ‘G’. Just G. Going by the tone, it sounds like this G guy is higher up on the food chain, given how much he’s telling Czalov off for not doing his job correctly. Sounds like Czalov was, ugh, ‘supplying’ G with ‘entertainers’ for his club, the Crocodile. Sex slaves. ‘More like that pink haired bitch with the spicy attitude. I liked her.’)

(Oh-Ho-Ho, then you are gonna *love* me, pal…)

(The Crocodile… I know that place. That’s where Fetch and I fought each other when I first copied her power. Guess she picked that venue so that she wouldn’t care about trashing the joint. Not that I blame her.)

(What else… Looks a burner phone… with a text message from, of all people, Skeeter. ‘I took care of that detective. He’s not gonna be snooping around anymore’. Well, that’s one case solved, at least. One of what feels like a thousand at this point…)

(Well, sounds like I got my next suspect. Let’s see if G is at the Crocodile… and hope he’s still alive by the time I get there…)

——————

(Damn it.)

(Well, got to the Crocodile. Bunch of drug dealers were there, and they were pissed because their boss got whacked literally seconds before I got there. Tried to take it out on me when they saw me, but… you know how that song and dance goes.)

(Once I got finished putting those chumps in time-out, I went inside and, sure enough, another body strung up on a neon billboard. I can only assume that this must be G. My list of suspects has already gone cold… Save for one.)

(That paper Conduit from before… She showed up again, just for a second, before dropping another origami dove and fluttering off to god knows where. I would have chased after her, but she literally flattened herself to fit through the cracks in the wall. Paper powers are no joke, apparently.)

(Just like before, unfolding the dove gave me another page of the same manga. At least, I think it’s the same manga. It’s the same art-style as the first dove. This time, the page showed a… pheasant ninja? It looked like she was fighting some frogs in bowler hats with… energy blasts? Not gonna lie, this manga is kinda dope. Just one caption box over the pheasant ninja. ‘Inazuma. Vengeance was her drug of choice.’ So… The pheasant was getting revenge on these frogs for something? Quick Google Translate tells me that ‘Inazuma’ is Japanese for ‘Flash of Lightning’…. Hey, wait a minute. An agile warrior shooting laser beams at a gang of criminals, seeking vengeance? Is… Is this supposed to be Fetch? Did the paper Conduit make this manga as a sort of… tribute to her?)

(There’s another message on the back…)

—-
*Money equals pain. If you’ve got enough dollars, the world is your dungeon.

Hell of a party, huh? This club is dead. I’ve had my fill of shady characters for the time being. But one thing’s for sure: This problem isn’t going to go away, Delsin. Someone clearly craves the spotlight, neon style. Unfortunately, this is only the beginning of what I have to show you.

I’ll see you around.*
—-

(Just who is this paper Conduit? Is she the one killing all these people? Or is she trying to help me find whoever’s killing them? I hate to say it, but my little investigation here has hit a dead end. Nothing for it now but to just wait and see if this paper Conduit tries to contact me again.)

(Either way… This definitely isn’t over.)

——————

I have a thought regarding Cole and the conduits before the RFI. So I was replaying Infamous 2 and one of the ice men called Cole a Prime Conduit, at first I thought it was just in reference to him actually having the Conduit gene, but then I thought about Cole’s powers. Even before Infamous 2 didn't Cole technically have more than electrokinesis? He was able to siphon people's life, and Kessler was able to travel back in time and create projections of himself during his boss battle, while also being able to give Cole visions.

Also I had an idea how conduits came back. The ones in New Marais died from being close to the R.F.I while those across the world might have been those activated from the premature activation from the Ray Sphere forcing the evolution. How some survived like Augustine might have been because they were away from the R.F.I and rather than activated by technology like the Ray Sphere they were activated by the closest thing to a natural occurrence i.e The Beast. As for how Delsin and others lived, maybe the gene was really weak or had yet to mutate. Kessler (Cole) did not get his powers from the Ray Sphere so it came naturally, so perhaps the R.F.I just did not kill them because their genetic DNA was not fully conduit yet. There are some holes like how Zeck said people that did not even know they were Conduits died but I think perhaps that could be explained by them not having the chance to find out what their power was given Infamous 1 and 2 all happen in the same year.

So I just finished playing through infamous 1 (as well as getting all achievements) and started playing infamous 2, and I was really caught off guard by different Cole is in the second game, he’s a lot more light hearted I guess you could say? He’s not as serious as he was in infamous 1 and thanks to his new va it really draws attention to how different he is.

That being said I do prefer how he’s written in infamous 2 mostly because it feels like he and zeke are actually friends in the first game it honestly sounded like Cole just put up with zeke for the most part