Hey, everybody! This is my first stories in this fandom, so go easy on me, okay? And I'm sorry for any miss spelt words and grammatical error 'cause I'm an Indonesian. Anyway, I own nothing but the stories plot and my OCs. BTW, this story was actually one of my school task in English subject, but I planned to publish it anyway. Read it and give me some reviews okay? And no damn Flame.
I Guess I Really Owe You a Lot . . .
It's just another cold night in New York City – now New York Zero, NYZ - , and Manhattan. Standing on top of the GENTEK building was a man in his middle 20, around six feet tall, with pale white skin, wearing a long sleeves white shirt, covered with a grey hoodie and a black leather jacket. His blue eyes gazed at the cloudy dark skies.
' . . . Better get moving now,' he thought before he shifted his sight to the streets, which were at least 60 floors below where he stand.
All of sudden, he jumped from the rooftop of the skyscraper and landed in the middle of the road, broke the asphalt, and created a huge shockwave that blew some abandoned cars on the street. He looked around and saw no one was there. Then, he walked calmly to the nearest junction and looked at the sign before it. The sign says, "71st St. – East Harlem". Above the sign was a digital clock that showed, "22.14 – 4/24/2012".
The man shifted his sight to the front of him, and then, he ran. He was running so fast that people wouldn't notice what it was, outrun even a sports car driven by a drunken lunatic maniacally, jumped and dodged every vehicles and obstacles that blocked his way to his destination: the Times Square.
Half of his way, he heard a loud roar came from his right. He decided to take a stop and look for anything that made the roar.
Another roar can be heard. And this time even louder than the first one. He looked around, trying to find its source. The man leapt to the nearest – and highest – building and start to wall ran it. He reached the roof in no time. He looked around again, and he found the source of those roars. It was an animal, with size of a tank, a slight pinkish – brown muscular body without any fur, five steel claws on each hand, and four on each foot. Despite didn't had any eyes or ears, it definitely had a nose and two mouths; a normal one and another on top of its head. Each of it filled with a row of giant fangs. A leader hunter cornered a young woman around her early 20 with, strangely, a familiar set of blue eyes for him.
'A leader hunter? I thought the BLACKLIGHT infected had killed them all. How the hell this one can survive, huh? Moreover, why that woman is looked familiar?' he thought.
The hunter roared again and lifted its right hand, ready to slice the frightened woman. Without a second thought, he jumped and did an elbow slam aimed to the hunter's neck. Unfortunately, the hunter noticed and managed to counter it with its fist, knocked him to the side and hit the brick wall hard.
'So, it noticed my attack and counter it in the last second . . . Interesting. It looks like this hunter's survived not just by a pure luck. It adapted a lot to overcome the BLACKLIGHT advantageous,' the man thought again. He stood up and leapt to the front of the woman. His eyes never let the hunter out of his sight. 'I wonder what else this one can do . . .'
Tendril – like tentacles appeared from the man's body and reformed his body from head to toe into bulky metallic armor and also reformed his right hand into a giant razor blade. Sensed a real danger from its opponent, the hunter growled and back off into defensive stance.
The man gazed at the hunter suspiciously. 'I was right. This one is smart enough to sense danger right away and took a precaution than just rely on his instinct and go on rampage. Things gonna be harder than I thought,' he thought.
He took a breath before charged to the hunter with his blade ready. When he was closed enough, he swiftly swung his blade to the hunter DAAANK! The blade hit the hunter; only, it's not the hunter's body, but a giant metallic shield that looked really hard. The hunter roared and knocked back the man with its right fist and ready to tear him with its left hand.
Cornered, he reformed his blade to a hammerfist and sent a punch to the hunter face, only to get blocked by its shield again. The same time his fist hit the hunter's shield, its claws hit him. He knocked to the side and hit the wall hard. Thanks to his armor, the hunter didn't put even a scratch on him.
The man had a surprised look on his face. He had witnessed one of the most unbelievable things: A stupid, mindless leader hunter was actually grew some intelligence (not quite a smart one, but enough to survive the massacre that is going on) and moreover, it developed an ability to manipulate its biomass into weapons for its own advantage! That's an ability only a special BLACKLIGHT infected could achieve (any humans that somehow their DNA is matched with the virus genetic strain), and this thing was infected with the REDLIGHT!
But then, the surprised look was replaced by an evil expression on his face. 'A challenge . . . Finally,' he thought with a wide smirk. It's been a long time since he got a worthy opponent to fight. The last one was a black guy, an ex-marine named Sergeant James Heller, whom was his experiment – his prototype. He found this Heller a long time ago, dying on the streets with a fatal wound on his chest. He's been watching him for a few weeks, observed his combat skill, his boldness, how he fought and killed a hundreds of infected all by himself in a suicide mission before he received a fatal blow that sent him dying, and the most important things: his hatred and thirst for revenge. It took him a few minutes before decided that he would be a perfect lab – rat for his experiment to increase his own power. He approached the dying soldier and injected him with the virus.
A few months passed on, and Heller was coming for him to get his revenge on him, Alex Mercer – AKA Zeus, who killed his family. Too bad for him, even though his body and abilities are far more superior to his, Alex is far more experienced in combat. He had countless experiences from fighting a common infected to one supreme hunter and even PARIAH, the virus most exotic 'art'. By consuming many enemies that are on the same level as him, he gained their power and their experience when they fought him. He knew his own weak points and trained a lot to fix it. And since his 'sister' Dana had died a few weeks before he infected Heller, he consumed Doctor Ragland to cover his 'secrets'. He was simply invincible, an – literally – immortal being. He had powers and experience, enough to wipe out the entire military forces in Manhattan on his own. He silenced everyone who knew about him. He had no allies and he trusted no one. And the last, things to be feared the most from him: his hatred towards everyone (with exception for a few people) and his thirst for powers and bloods.
Poor Heller didn't stand a chance when he fought Alex. When he fought Alex really hard to kill him, the said man just dodged his attacks lazily with his moves. Heller was getting more frustrated as every time he tried to attack, his 'weapons' didn't hit a thing. When he prepared to release a devastator attack in a pathetic attempt to kill him, Alex stabbed his neck with his blade and consumed him. He didn't regret a thing when he decided to infect Heller. His powers and knowledge are his now.
Alex reformed his right hand into a blade again. Only, this one's more looked like a giant combat knife than his original version which is a giant razor blade. His left hand was also reformed into a strange arm that glowed red and orange. Then, he reformed his armor into a lighter version of it and had a biomass shield attached on his back.
"This time, you'll die . . ." Alex said in a whisper to the hunter. "Your power is mine." with that, he charged to the hunter.
The hunter didn't had a time to protect itself with shield, so it dodged his attack by jumped him and ran to the woman. Alex realized it and turned back. Right before the hunter's claws hit her, the hunter was trapped by some tendrils that came from Alex left hand.
The hunter roared and tried to free it from the tendrils, but it was no use. When Alex stood in front of its face, it roared in fear. The hunter roars were never affected Alex. He held no expression, no regret, and no mercy on his face as he raised his blade and cut off the hunter's head and consumed it.
The hunter corpse was absorbed by Alex tendrils. When it was completely absorbed, those tendrils pulled away to Alex body. Alex then looked at the woman he just saved. She looked paled after what she saw.
"You're alright?" Alex said in flat tone. The woman didn't dare to look at him. She was completely scared of him and he didn't blame her. He had saved a few people before and they all got the same reaction with her.
"Y–you k–ki–killed . . . it," she whispered.
" . . . Yeah. I killed it."
"H-how can you . . . y-you're not a . . . human," she stuttered. Alex raised his eyebrows when he heard it.
"What, you never heard about Alex Mercer?" he asked.
"O-of course I have! He's wanted for released a biological weapon in Penn Station and caused this whole hell outbreak! Words on streets said that he's not a human at all, since he could shape shifted his body into weapons and defeat an entire squad of Marines and those guys in black with tanks and gunships all by his own. That's not even the whole of it! He even could kill those zombies, even the largest one effortless – "she stopped as the realization struck her head.
"You?" she whispered.
"Yeah, that's me. I am Alex Mercer," Alex said with a lazy tone.
"B-but . . . how? They said you were dead! You were caught in that nuclear blast!" she shrieked.
"Oh yeah? Then how could it be that I was here, very much alive, killed a leader hunter and saved you?" he asked, pretended to be stupid. The woman was speechless. Alex chuckled a bit when he saw the woman expression. She looked quite dumb, really.
"Oh, by the way, what's your name?" he asked her.
"Oh, umm . . . It's Jean. Jean Cody," she said.
'Cody . . .' that name clicked something in his head. "Do you related to Specialist Fabian somehow?" he asked.
Jean looked surprised. "Yes, how do you know that? He's my older brother," she answered.
Alex expression turned sad. "I know him. He's my only friend after all this years. He helped me a lot from inside Blackwatch," he muttered.
"Do you know where he is now? I haven't seen him for five years! I beg you, please!" Jean begged Alex for info. She tried to search for her brother for two years now. There is nothing that can stop her to find her beloved brother.
Alex looked a bit nervous. He knew this question had to come in the end. He took a breath and told her, "I'm sorry, Jean. Fabian has died a year ago. Blackwatch had found his treason and therefore, he was executed in place."
There was a silenced. Jean tried to absorb the information she just received. Her brother, her dear brother who had always been there for her, died. Tears started to fell from her eyes.
"Oh my god . . . Fabian," she cried and hugged him in sadness. After two years tried to find her brother, she finally got news that he had died.
Alex was a bit surprised when Jean hugged him. He's a borderline sociopath so he's not that good when it comes to interacting with people. Somehow, the cold blooded mass murderer felt sorry for her. He was also felt the same way she did when he found out that he died. He was only very good at hiding his feelings. Didn't know what else to do, he hesitantly hugged her back to comfort the red haired woman.
Then, Alex remembered the promise he made to Fabian. A few weeks before he was executed, he met Alex in some random bar in the Yellow Zone territory. After giving all the information Alex need, he asked her to take care of a certain 'redhead'. When he heard this, he was confused. Who is this redhead he talked about? Fabian refused to tell him and begged for him to promise to look after this 'redhead' and take care of her after he's gone, which he nodded to.
Suddenly, Alex cupped Jean's face and lifted it so he could see her face. She's not crying anymore, but she was blushed madly at his sudden behavior.
"Look Jean. I'm sorry about what happen to your brother, but I already promised him to look after you and take care of you after he's gone. So from now on, you'll be with me. I'm not going to leave you and if ever anyone, or anything, tried to hurt you, they'll be facing my wrath. Even though I'm not a human and a monster on top of that, I'm not going to pull my promise. I'll protect you with my life and I'll be always there for you," Alex stated.
Jean's face was blushed even redder now, after she heard his words. Instead of said a word or two, she buried her face in his chest. Alex only smirked at her behavior.
'I guess I really owe you a lot after all . . . you cunning wolf,' Alex thought. Now, he was wondered if things could really get better now.
