[DISCOVERY]

Alex Mercer stood on a rooftop and looked out over Time Square. It had been three days since the nuke had been detonated off of Manhattan island. Three days since he had fought the Supreme Hunter.

Three days since he had killed General Randal.

The result could be seen below. A group of marines and Blackwatch soldiers were being forced back by a tide of infected civilians. Among the throng, the occasional hunter stood out against crowds.

It was a microcosm of the whole bloody city. With the failure of the nuclear device to destroy Manhattan, Blackwatch had been forced to move back into the city to try and contain the infection once more. It had been a fight all the way, with the first problem being reclaiming posts they had abandoned in the withdrawal. Hundreds had died in the initial landfall operation alone.

Add to that a power struggle among the Blackwatch higher-ups in the wake of Randal's death and it was amazing that they had done as well as they had.

Alex sighed. Standing here watching a hopeless struggle served no real purpose. He had planned to be on the other side of central park destroying a hive by now. Instead he had paused to watch this bloody spectacle. He turned to leave.

The thump of a heavy form hitting the roof was the only warning he received. He spun about in time see the hunter launch itself at him. It's hands struck his chest and the momentum carried them both off the rooftop, to plummet to the Square below.

They struck the ground with enough force to drive them both a foot through the concrete. Alex immediately put his feet against the hunter's chest and, bracing his back against the ground, kicked upwards with all his massive strength.

The hunter soared upwards for about ten feet before crashing down in the middle of the crowd of infected, crushing several in the process. Alex rose to his feet, his hands sharpening and elongating into claws, ready for the hunter's counter attack.

He did not have to wait long.

The hunter bulled it's way through the throng of infected and leapt at him once again. Alex sidestepped and slashed at it, raking claws along it's back. The hunter bellowed in pain, then choked as he caught it around the throat and smashed it face first into the pavement. He grasped it about the back of the head and drove it's head down again and again. As it's struggles weakened he turned his right hand into a blade and drove it through the creature's back. It shuddered and then it's body seemed to become fluid as the Alex absorbed it into himself. As the last of it's form joined with his own, Alex straightened.

The he had fallen into the middle of a lull in the fighting. Behind him stood the lines of the infected and in front of him the millitary. Even as he watched, one of the Blackwatch soldiers put his hand to his radio and began to speak. In the strange silence Alex heard every word.

"RC, I need a strike team in Time Square. I have eyes on Zeus."

"Say again soldier. Did you say Zeus?"

"Affirmative dispatch. Mercer is alive."

Alex swore. Three days carefully dodging the millitary wasted.

As if his cursing were a trigger, the infected surged forward. At the same time the soldiers raised their weapons and fired.

Alex ducked down, bringing his left arm up and forming a shield. Then as he crouched behind it he turned his right arm into the serated tentacle of the whipfist. He then swung it out behind him, into the lines of the oncoming infected.

Ten. Twenty. Thirty were sliced in half and fell, only to trip those behind them. Now it was just a matter of waiting for...there! The gunfire slowed and finally peetered out, and the moment it did he burst forward. The shield made battering through the assembled soldiers a simple matter. He cleared Time Square just as the helicopters arrived and immediately gave pursuit. Dodging bullets and missiles as best he could, Alex sprinted down the street, reabsorbing the shield as he went. After running three full blocks he leapt to the side of a building and ran to the top, before continueing to sprint along the rooftops. Behind him the top of the building was torn apart by a missile impacting.

Alex dived, rolled and as another missile was launched towards him, caught hold of a nearby antenna pole. Using the pole to spin himself around he moved out of the missile's path and launched himself at the helicopter. As he came within range he turned his arm into the blade once more and savagely cut the rotor from the helicopter itself.

As the helicopter fell towards the street, the rotor blade spun off and crashed into the side of a building, shattering most of the windows. As the the helicopter struck the street and exploded, Alex used the confusion to glide into a nearby alley. A marine stood at one end, but a single thrust of his blade-arm took care of that. Alex dragged the body behind a dumpster before shifting his form. Sean Walker was a GENTEK doctor whom Alex had absorbed that morning. This form would make an adequate disguise for now. All he could do for the moment was wait for the rest of the strike team to give up and search elsewhere.

There was a buzz from the marine's radio and then a voice spoke.

"All units, I have eyes on Zeus in Central Park. Need immediate assistance."

Alex shook himself. What the hell? He was nowhere near Central Park. So what had the soldier seen?

He had to find out for himself. Crouching, he took the marine's radio and secreted it within his coat. He then stepped out of the alley and took off on foot towards the park.

He was halfway there when the radio crackled again. "All units be advised. Target is moving south-west out of the park."

Whatever it was was heading straight for him. He had to get a better view. He quickly climbed a nearby building and looked about. Nearby a swarm of three helicopters and a half-dozen UAVs were speeding along a street. Alex quickly began sprinting in that direction.

He reached the street in question about a block ahead of the strike forces and looked down. Now he saw why they had thought this thing was him. It's body was covered in hard bony plates. Forming armour very similar to his own. It sprinted down the street at a speed no human could match.

Alex watched as it passed his position and then began to keep pace with it. Every now and then the thing would leap into the air for no apparent reason before coming down to the street with a heavy thump. Alex was perplexed for a time as to why it would do this. Then realisation hit and he almost laughed. Whatever the thing was, it was still learning to use it's abilities and had not yet figured out that the armour it wore prevented it from gliding.

Alex was debating whether to leave this new creature to Blackwatch or to step in himself when a helicopter came down in front of it, cutting off escape. The creature slowed and finally stopped. Alex watched as Blackwatch soldiers decended on ropes into the street.

Then something entirely unexpected happened. The creature spoke, talking to the soldiers.

The voice croaked as it struggled over the first few words and seemed to jump back and forth between a deep male baritone and a high female soprano, as well as hitting all the tones in between. None the less, the word were unmistakeably English.

"We hurt. You hurt us. Leave. Leave us be."

Alex was stunned. With the exception of Greene and the Supreme Hunter, he had never heard any infected talk coherently. He should take capture the thing and take it to Ragland for study. It could very well solve the problem of the infection.

This all ran through his mind, but it wasn't what made decided his course of action for him. Whatever the thing was, it was in pain and scared. Who knew what it would do if pushed further.

Alex turned and carefully tore an air conditoner from it's mountings. He looked back at the scene in the street in time to see the soldiers begin to move closer.

He would have to act fast.

Taking careful aim, he hurled the air conditioner at one of the nearby helicopters, then turned before it had even found it's mark, leaping into the air and shifting his arm into a blade. He swung downwards and sheared through a second helicopter as the first one was hit by the air conditioner. Alex landed and rolled out of the way of the falling helicopter as it crashed onto the street. He came out of his roll and slashed through one of the learby soldiers, shearing through a lamp post in the process. As the post fell he caught it one handed and hurled it spear-like at the third helicopter. The pole punched through the cockpit and through the pilot himself. The helicopter spun out of control and crashed into the street, killing two of the eight remaining soldiers on the street.

Alex turned towards the last helicopter...just in time to catch a rocket in the middle of his chest. The blast threw him backwards into a wall and he fell to the pavement. Groaning in pain, he looked up just in time to see a soldier step up behind the creature and hit it smartly on the back of the head with his rifle. The creature dropped to it's hands and knees and the soldier brought his rifle to bear.

In his position close to the ground, Alex saw what the soldiers missed. The creatures fingers became fluid and seemed to bleed together. Then suddenly it rose to it's feet and buried it's left hand in the belly of the man who had struck it. As the hand drew back, Alex saw that what had been hands were now broad, leaf shaped blades. The creature turned and slashed another soldier across the throat as the rest began to open fire. As the bullets struck the black, chitonous armour, the creature leaped and bore two soldiers to the ground, a blade in each man's chest. It then spun and stabbed with both hands into another soldier's belly before ripping the blades in oposite directions and spilling his entrails.

The creature straightened and looked about before stumbling backwards from a shotgun blast from the final soldier. The man fired a second, third and fourth time as the creature moved towards him, reeling under each shot. As he went for a fifth, a bladed hand swung down and split his skull. As the man died the creature stumbled away, the blades once more becoming hands. Dozens of holes marked the bone armour plates and it's left leg trailed behind it as it dragged itself towards a nearby alley.

Seening all friendly forces within range of the target were dead, the pilot of the fianl helicopter took aim at the wounded creature. His finger eased towards the missile launch button.

He never managed to fire. Before the button could be pressed Alex's arm, in the tentacle of the whipfist shot out and pulled a machine-gun from one of the fallen soldiers to him. He took aim at the cockpit and opened fire. Bullets tore through the glass and into the pilot. The final helicopter spun out of control and crashed into a building. The street was silent except for the crackle of flames.

Alex pulled himself to his feet. In the time he had sat there most of his wounds had already closed. Now he walked to the alley where the creature had disappeared.

He found the thing behind a trash-can, arms curled around it's knees. The armour was already beginning to disolve, revealing a body covered in fine cilia like red strands. These too began to smooth out into pink skin, marked here and there by red patches where bullet wounds had been.

By the time the change was done it was clear that the creature was a woman. Dark brown hair hung to just below her ears and large green blood-shot eyes sat in eye-sockets surrounded by dark rings. She was naked, what little modesty she had kept only by the positioning of her arms and legs.

She looked up at him with a what looked suspiciously like hope in her eyes, then spoke.

"You fought them. You are like us. Please. We are scared. Please. Help us."