Alex was gliding over New York Zero's Red Zone. Under him were countless of infected, some Brawlers and Juggernauts and one or two Blackwatch teams. Flyers were moving in the sky above and beside him. They recognized their master and didn't try to attack him.
The shapeshifter landed on the roof of a former apartment skyscraper. Instead of taking a spring to keep on moving, he stopped. He had to think, and even though he could do it on the move, it was easier to do on land. Mercer went to the piece of building holding the door that once lead to the inside but was now blocked. He let himself lean on the wall of it, arms crossed.
That Heller was surely taking his sweet time. How long had it been, since he had infected him? Alex made a quick count. If he was not mistaken, it had been more than two weeks. He was way slower than expected. Could it be that he had had developed some brain and was thinking before acting? Mercer laughed at the idea. That Berserk, thinking before acting? As if.
The Walker really hoped James would get his way to the Zone. Sadly, he could hardly get to move outside of the Red Zone. His face was way too known for that. And with all these upgrades on the Virus detectors, he could not hack them anymore. He would be detected in no time. That would only end up being a waste of time and energy.
Since the time he had infected him, he really had Heller under the skin. When he infected people to turn them into Evolved, he had to apply a very specific process on them. He needed to remove a bit of DNA from his victims and then put it back into place after it was modified. That was swift so they didn't feel it, and Alex had this way the possibility to scan it during the process and make sure his Evolved soldiers were to be loyal, or at least of use.
Even though it had not been James' case, Alex had kept him alive still. He was not to be loyal, that was for sure. Mercer would have been able to tell it without even scanning the guy. He was not to be of much use either. He was way too stubborn. The reason he kept him alive was because he felt he could have fun with him. That black man remembered him of how he was at first, just a bit after he had Woken up.
All of a sudden, Alex got his head back up from his thinking stance. He had just felt an unusual movement in the Virus' shape. It had obviously come from an Evolved shapeshifting. He knew it could not be one of his men in the Blackwatch. None of them was in the Red Zone today. They would have told him. And even without being told about it, he could feel each and all of them and tell which one it was. This time, it was an unknown signature. It had to be Heller. Alex smiled. At long last…
The man was heading directly to an underground Nest. That was where Mercer would find him.
The Walker stretched fast and began to run toward the edge of the roof he was on. He jumped right before reaching it and began to glide. He was faster than James and could get to the Nest before him. That would allow him to get there before the rebellious Evolved and prepare a bit of fun…
After some landings to get new impulses, Alex finally set foot in an alley near to the Nest he had been heading to. He could feel Heller was near. That guy had gained some bit of speed since the last time he had seen him. Good. Maybe he had some potential, in the end… That would be even funnier.
Mercer shifted his appearance to the one of a Blackwatch soldier. He got out of the alley and approached the troops guarding the Nest's opening.
"I am Sergeant Major Wail. I came on the order of Colonel Rooks to check on the
operations."
The soldier, obviously of no higher grade than Private First Class, stood at attention and saluted.
"Of course, Sir! Please follow me, Sir!"
The Private showed him the way. Alex rolled his eyes under his helmet. That was so boring. These guys were all way too easy to fool. They would not be able to tell an infected was in front of them even if it had three heads, tentacles wiggling on the back and was growling a thousand decibels of sound.
Once at the hole used as an entrance to the Nest, Mercer jumped in. He landed on concrete. As in any Nest of New York Zero, there were traces of the Infection to be seen everywhere, on the floor, the walls and even the roof. The Walker walked his way slowly along the empty and still corridor. He could hear gunshots a bit further. The soldiers were probably getting rid of some basic infected guys.
The corridor led him to an open room. There was even more infection to be seen there. On the opposite side of the room, Mercer saw a small unit of Blackwatch soldiers fighting against human-shaped Infected. Behind them were scientists taking samples from Infected spores. The latters seemed extremely stressed and would often give glances at the fight going on.
Alex had little time before Heller would burst in. He could feel him getting closer and closer. It was easy to follow his trace now, which meant he had his powers on. That was good for Mercer; it meant it would take James a bit more time to break in than it would have taken him if he had chosen to play it low profile. The Walker jumped off the pedestal of the entrance to get to the main floor. All scientists jumped at the sound and stopped working to stare at him. He ignored the tremendous urge to kill them all right away that ran through his body and walked to the group. He looked around and asked:
"Who's the scientist in charge of this operation?"
One of them, looking just like the other ones, took a step forward and saluted.
"It's me, Sir.
Name and rank.
Corporal Woodcut, Sir.
Follow me."
Alex turned around and began to walk to a more discreet place to bring the scientist to. The lead chemist waved a move at the others, signifying them to keep on the work. They gladly obeyed right away. None of them wanted to stay in there for longer than necessary. They had had luck until then and knew that, the longer they were in the Red Zone, the more chances they would get to see that tremendous chance run out.
Mercer led the man following him between two blocks, blocking the line of sight of both the soldiers and the scientists. He stopped and turned around. He smiled for himself. Really, these guys were so stupid. He was getting more and more amazed by their idiocy every minute.
The scientist stopped in front of him, waiting for his superior to talk first. He never saw it happen, though. Out of a sudden, Alex shredded his throat open, cutting through flesh, blood vessels, bones and vocal cords all at once with a freshly morphed claw. The man tried to call for help, or at least trigger the alert, but neither air nor sound came out of his mauled throat. His eyes rolled back a last time in pain as his hand reached for the hole now taking place between his trunk and his head. He began falling like a rag doll to the floor.
Mercer caught and consumed his victim before it touched the ground, and checked the man's memory. The scientist didn't know of anybody of interest for Heller. Well, that was too bad. Things would have to be more improvised, then. The Walker took his newly acquired form and returned to the group of scientists. They still were working, undisturbed by his actions. None of them had heard anything of the tiny disturbance. When they saw they chef getting back alone, they looked at him interrogatively but it was their superior and they didn't ask anything. Alex got back to the work his consumed alter ego had left unfinished without a comment.
Alex was all set to look on what was about to happen. All he had left to do was to wait for his Evolved to get inside.
He didn't have to wait long. Soon, he saw the man he was waiting for enter the main room on the corner of his eye. Heller already had his claws out and a predator stance. Alex smiled from under his blue scientist form. Things were about to get interesting. When James jumped off the pedestal of the entrance, one of the Blackwatch soldiers gave a glance to the sound and saw Heller. He began to shout and move a lot to tell his fellows to look behind. They had a bigger threat coming up to them. Most turned around to fight Heller while a tiny number of them still kept their attention on the basic Infected.
They Blackwatch troops focusing on James began to shoot at will on the guy. The black man didn't even bother to protect himself. The bullets kept on bouncing off him, as if he had been made of steel and Kevlar. He ran directly to the group of scientists Alex had blended into. The Evolved jumped a bit before smashing into the group of blue-suited men and caught a guy right beside Mercer with his Whipfist. He landed between the soldiers still trying to focus on the basic Infected and the petrified scientists. He consumed the man right away and let out a wave of energy that knocked out all people around. Alex followed the movement not to get detected.
Heller ran to the Blackwatch soldiers. The latters had completely forgotten about the basic Infected and were shooting as many bullets as they could on James. But no matter the number of shots, the Evolved's skin stayed unscratched. Instead, a lot of the ammo sank into the flesh and bones of the scientists. Getting more and more wounded, they began to shout out their pain. Alex made a tremendous effort not to get overwhelmed by the joy all these agony cries were stirring up in him. The black Virused was working on the Blackwatch soldiers and about to finish getting rid of them.
The Walker knew it was time to get reinforcements in. He stealthily called Brawlers to aid. Three answered his call rapidly, breaking through the wall closest to the riotous Evolved and attacking it right away. One of them was a Spiked Brawler while the two others were Hunter type ones.
The Spiked was the first to reach the Evolved, a few inches in front of its Hunter peers. It made a tremendously big jump to catch Heller in its claws and tear it to pieces. But it was doomed to not reach its target. A second before it landed, James let his Shields out, making the creature smash on them full speed. Then, on the same movement, while spikes were automatically getting out of the bucklers, he moved them away from his body, making the Spiked get pitched away and bump into the Hunters, making them all fall to the floor as a whole.
As soon as his move with his Shields was finished, Heller melted them away and ran to the moving pile of flesh that were the Brawlers, morphing on the way. Not stopping, he shot lots of Tendrils with both hands to his three adversaries, catching them in a web of sticky rigid flesh. He kept on running until he was inches away from his foes, then he stretched his right arm, that became a Whipfist in half a second, and planted its tip into the Spiked Brawler's flesh, bringing himself closer as he retracted the length of his whip. The wounded specimen let out a cry out, more of rage than real pain, and tried to push the Evolved away. But before it could shove Heller off, the Evolved smacked it head first on the floor.
That last movement freed the Hunters from their fleshy cage. They let out a growl of victory and attacked head on a James turning his back to them. Still, this neither worked, and a very slight moment before their claws reached his back, Heller moved aside, making the Spiked Brawler an easy prey. It was torn to pieces before its brothers in arms realized they were not attacking the right piece of meat.
Once they understood their blunder, both Hunters stopped moving frenetically their claws throughout their kin's flesh and stared at it blankly for a second, before raising their heads to look around with an enraged roar. But Heller was already on the move and above the two creatures, Hammerfists out. He dove to the ground and landed right between his two foes, making spikes dig out from the floor along with a tremendous shockwave propelling the targets of the attack away and crash into the walls. One of the two slid down to the ground and stayed sprayed out on the floor, its spine broken by the humongous impact. The other one got back on its paws, wounded but still on the move.
It charged James as a bull while letting out a desperate battle cry. Heller didn't move an inch to avoid it, holding his ground. He waited until they were about to smash each onto the other before blocking it with his shields, spiking it away. It staggered, bleeding out to its imminent death. The Evolved stepped closer and climbed the Hunter to cut its throat before consuming it.
Alex smiled. He could have called Juggernauts in as reinforcement, but he didn't. He already knew how it would end up. It had taken the Black thirty seconds chrono to get rid of three Brawlers, including a Spiked one. That was quite impressive in its way. That newborn was picking up surprisingly fast. He was not even sure if himself as a newborn had been faster at learning than that guy was. Mercer was now sure of it: he had made the right decision. That guy really was fun to watch. Although, on the other hand, the Walker felt like it would be even funnier to step in.
He clapped his hands slowly to applaud. Startled, the still on his nerves Evolved looked around but no matter, he couldn't see anybody. Then, Mercer walked a bit further the Black's way and Heller finally saw him around the corner. The Evolved's reaction was immediate, as he changed his hands into claws and took a menacing stance, ready to fight again. The Walker saw it and began to shake. At first, when James saw the person in front of him bow to their knees and shake uncontrollably, he unstressed a bit, somewhat confused. But slowly, the sound of a hardly kept in laugh was heard coming from the shaking form, before Mercer let it all out, making it resonate along the walls. It lasted for some time before Alex calmed down a bit.
"My goodness, you're so fun to watch. You should try looking at yourself in a mirror. You're hilarious."
Even his voice tone was filled with laughter. Heller stayed on his guards, quite unsure of what to do in front of such a glib attitude. He felt like he knew the man, but couldn't tell from where.
"Who are you?"
Mercer gave himself a tiny strike on the side of the head, as if James had remembered him something he had had forgotten to do. He stretched out his arms on the side and bowed, letting the Virus give him his usual appearance slowly, beginning from his feet towards his head. When the line of transformation reached his waist, he got up following the movement. By the time he was back straight, his face was finishing retrieving its former appearance. Alex smiled ironically to Heller, quite content of his little acting.
"What about now?"
James wrinkled his nose in anger.
"Mercer…"
The Walker giggled.
"That's right. Who could it have been else? Were you expecting somebody in particular? Maybe… one of my Evolved?"
Mercer giggled again and shook his head.
"No, no. I way prefer working on you myself. It'd be a waste to entrust you to somebody…"
He looked at an invisible watch on his left wrist.
"Sadly, though, I have to go now. I hope to see you again soon!"
On that, Alex jumped over Heller in a second and ran to the exit before James could do anything. The Evolved only had the time to yell a 'Wait here!' while turning around before he saw his nemesis turn the corner leading to the exit of the hive at full speed. Without a second hesitation, he got into tailing the Walker outside. He ran to the exit as fast he could and exited in a jump.
Outside, he saw Mercer running away, and every standing Blackwatch shooting on the fleeing man. Heller did not hesitate once again and accelerated to follow his Father. He ran to the rooftops nearest him and, once there, he let out a sonar wave to locate the Walker. But the wave did not react to any presence and no recoil was sent back. James slowed down, then stopped, puzzled. He looked around, but didn't see the tiniest crowd movement that could indicate a plausible direction where his nemesis could have fled toward.
Then, all of a sudden, he felt a blow hitting his back and fell on the floor. He heard his attacker giggle silently. Immediately, he recognized Mercer's voice. He tried to get back on his feet, but found himself stuck the way he was, sprawled out on the road's concrete.
"Hm. Don't even think about it. I just hit a very important nerve you need to walk. It should get back in a few moments, but right now, you're as helpless as a human infant.
Bastard! You can't even fight fair!"
The Walker laughed out loud. Around the two Virus' holders, the people were looking at them while passing by, curious of the discussion.
"Why would I, when I have so much I can do? Wouldn't it be cutting in halves the fun?
How can you enjoy killing civilians…"
A playful smile found itself a way on Alex's face. Even though Heller could not see it, he heard it in his enemy's answer.
"Who said I was talking about that? Hmmm… Wait a second. I'll get us two on the rooftops. Let me show you…"
On these words, he grabbed Heller's hoodie and in two hasty jumps, made his way to the roof of the nearest building. It was in a pretty good shape considering it was in the Red Zone, and even the prominence leading inside of it was almost untouched. An enormous grin across his face, Alex walked to it and stomped his prey on it, sticking it to the wall with many layers of tendrils in the same movement.
When he hit the wall, James growled a bit and closed his eyes involuntarily. By the time he opened them again, Mercer's face was so close to his he could feel his nemesis' breathing sweeping across his skin, and hear it very clearly whispering in his ears like a faint wind. The smile he had on was even happier than any last one he had had since the beginning of the two enemies.
"My goodness, that was pretty interesting of a sound. Would you care to redo it?
You damned perverted thing, what do you hold me prisoner for? Kill me, and be done with it.
What for, you ask? Because you're fun to torment, is all. You react so earnestly, it would be a shame not to have fun with it, no?"
As he said that, Mercer thrust one of his newly-transformed claws in Heller's belly, piercing the skin and the liver. He let a wicked joy transpire in his expression as the Evolved groaned in pain and glared at him.
"My, my, that moan was even more delightful than the last. Could it be your sounds get lovelier along with the pain rising? Hmm… Shall I verify that assumption? What do you think?"
Heller clenched his jaws together but didn't answer. His limbs were still numb, but he could feel the sensations were getting back somehow, thanks to the new pain. He moved his fingers a bit, testing both the tendrils and how his fingers reacted to stimuli. Feeling almost nothing while he moved them, James decided to hold on a bit longer to make sure he would be able to fight correctly enough when he would escape. However, even if the movement was really faint, Mercer still saw it. At this sight, the Walker grinned impishly and licked his lips.
"You're recovering pretty fast, are you not? That must be pretty useful when you're fighting Blackwatch. But right now, it won't be of real much use. I know exactly how to distract you from the idea of escaping…"
Getting his head closer to Heller's, he stopped centimeters away from the Evolved's face, and moved sideways to aim for the ear. He bit it hard, making blood poor out from the wound, or at least what is considered as blood in an Infected's body.
"See? That takes your mind away from thought, no? And there is even better stuff to come."
He got his head back and let out a shark smile, before attacking again. This time he went for the lips and pressed his on his Black peer's ones. Eyes wide open, he stared amused at James' widened eyes. He tried to slide his tongue in the Evolved's mouth, but the lips blocking his way would not open. So, he stabbed the man again, this time in the shoulder, making him open his mouth in a silent howl of pain. Unhesitantly, he attacked fast and made his way in Heller's mouth, wrapping his tongue around the other man's mouth apparel. After some time of this little game, he withdrew and backed up a bit.
James seemed even angrier than he had been before. There was a hole in the Evolved's shirt at the shoulder level, but no traces anymore of any wound. That did nothing to lessen the Walker's happy mood and, on the quite contrary, it even amused him more to see his toy could regenerate and look brand new in no time. He let out yet another smile.
"What do you think? Was that good enough?
It was as bad as tasting shit.
Aw, how mean. All my girlfriends said the contrary. I can't believe they would have all lied to me. Oh wait, maybe there's a way I can prove you I'm better than that with my mouth…"
Not understanding, but yet kind of spooked off by the happiness in the Walker's voice, Heller decides it would be about time he'd escape. But before he could make the slightest move, Alex reinforced the tendrils holding his victim to the wall and dropped to a knee. Right away, light came upon James' mind. He began to kick and struggle, but feeling it would happen, Mercer had used even more solid tendrils than before, making them nearly unbreakable.
"Don't. You. DARE!"
Alex chuckled.
"Oh but of course I will dare. Now shh, I need concentration…"
Mercer held a hand high and lauched tendrils on the Evolved's mouth to shut him up.
"Much better."
He opened Heller's pants and licked the underwear there. He felt James shiver at the touch and got pleased by that reaction. He reached out in the underpants and took out the man's cock. He ran his tongue all over its length then took it in his mouth. He then begun an up-and-down motion, making the member and its possessor become both aroused. Rapidly, he began to feel twitching in his mouth, as pleasure was building up in the member. He could hear James' breath transform into a fast panting, as he was unable to hold himself back from feeling pleasure from the action.
"S… Ah… Stop it…"
There was so much lust in his voice that it gave away that somehow, even if he really DID want the Walker to stop, he would have been unable to force his attacker to do so, even if he had had been free to move how he wished. Alex stopped for a moment and stared at the Evolved, keeping the motion on with his hands.
"Hm? I thought I had muzzled you. You're one sneaky rat, are you not?"
He giggled.
"Well, it's not that too bad, I guess. This way, I will be able to hear the sounds you'll make when you come."
And on that, he got back at licking and sucking the man's cock, going even faster as he moved forward and backward, forcing moans and whimpers from Heller as he came always closer to coming. But once, twice, then thrice, Mercer stopped right before his victim would come. Only on the fourth time did he let James reach ecstasy. He drunk up all the sperm then got up on a still breathing heavily Heller.
"See? I told you I was good with my mouth. So… Shall we extend the fun a bit more?"
At that moment, James, who had been recovering his senses, twitched half a second before spikes came out of his whole body, dozens at once. Mercer almost leapt back too late, but barely made it out of range and took a few steps back to make sure he would not be taken by surprise by any other attacks.
"Well, it seems you have had your fill. I shall take my leave. I hope we will meet again."
On these words, he turned around and ran to the edge of the roof. There, he jumped and began to glide away. This time, Heller didn't pursue him, well aware that he could be ambushed again and have the same scenario happen again to him. And even if he had gone past that possibility, he was way too tired now by his first pursuit, the use of a Critical Mass attack and… and the blowjob. So, he let his attacker run away, deciding to put aside his hunt of the Walker for the day, and find somewhere and some people to get his strength back.