'And so, while we have all done admirably, if we can keep our effort on for just a little longer, Empire City may well become better then it ever was.' Cole finished, hoping that the expansive crowd before him didn't notice his constant glancing to the palm cards he had placed on the makeshift stand.

Either way, the crowd applauded and cheered all the same.

Cole forced a grin. He still felt uncomfortable in front of a crowd; he gave a half-hearted wave as he exited the stand. As soon as he turned a corner out of the crowd's sight, he began running full pelt.

As such, he was rather surprised when he looked back and noticed someone had managed to keep up rather well, although still a fair distance of a couple of dozen meters. The street was empty, most had been at the conference and would still be heading to their cars.

The man smiled and waved. Even from a distance the smile was clearly fake, just like Cole's own had been.

'Is there a problem, citizen?' He disliked using the word, but he felt like leaving in a hurry, and perhaps if he 'showed him his place', the guy would leave without wanting an autograph or something.

'I just wanted to have a few words with you.'

Cole frowned. The man sounded calm, very different from most of the people he had been around, who were relieved and mainly more optimistic. Shrugging, he decided for kicks to let out an electric echo.

A good thing too, it came back to show the man indeed wasn't normal, perhaps not even human.

Electricity began dancing around Cole's arms. 'Who are you?' He growled, pointing his right arm at the man.

Before Cole's very eyes, the man changed as tendrils covered the body, dissipating inside the skin to reveal a different person. The outfit was roughly the same colour of black and grey, but thicker and now had a hood.

'My name is Alex Mercer, and I'm wondering if you might be Pariah.' Well, the 'thing' was certainly blunt.

'No idea what you're talking about.'

Alex Mercer sighed. 'Very well then, come with me peacefully or I shall have to use force.' He got into a primal stance

Cole grimaced. If the man was talking like that, he probably was an extremely powerful conduit. Since everyone knew him, he doubted he was unanticipated.

Once again tendrils covered Alex, this time when it ended only one arm was affected, turning black and demonic-looking with sharp claws.

Alex made a grabbing motion, as if Cole was right next to him.

Cole quickly found out why, the arm extended towards him rapidly. Cole narrowly managed to roll out of the way.

The arm retracted just as quickly, but Cole managed to shoot out a burst of electricity.

Quicker still was the shield that formed in front of Mercer. Despite the block, the shield seemed to still have a degree of conductivity, as Mercer still felt a jolt of pain.

But it was easy enough to ignore, the pain of thousands he had consumed still wracked his body, even as a memory. And yet the pain triggered something, a reflex, or perhaps it stimulated a survival instinct. The shield vanished to be replaced by Mercer being covered head to toe in some sort of insect-like armour, and his right arm into a blade.

The next jolt of electricity didn't even penetrate the surface. Mercer charged forward.

A small part of Mercer's mind was telling him that the blade wasn't the way to go if he wanted the person alive. Unfortunately Mercer had always been democratic, and the majority of him demanded he stop this man one way or another. If the guy was Pariah, it didn't matter too much either way he supposed. If he wasn't, then the man in front of him didn't matter at all…

Cole brought his arm forward in what appeared to be a futile defence. But a blue glow surrounded Cole's arm in the nick of time and a blade made of what seemed to be solid electricity met the blow, not yielding.

Electricity covered the apparently conductive blade, but stopped short of getting into the armour. Still, it was all a part of Mercer, and he felt the pain.

Quickly bringing the blade back, he struck again, the electric blade flickered off before coming back on to intercept the blow. Once again electricity flowed.

Giving a grunt, Mercer jumped.

Cole looked up to see the armour vanish to be replaced with that seemed to be skin and clothes, and then the man flew. Hurriedly, Cole fired a few more bursts of electricity. Three out of five hit, but to little effect as Mercer kept moving.

It looked as if he was going to crash into a tall apartment block, but instead he hit the block and started running in a vertical direction, bricks falling from the impact. Within seconds he had reached the top, out of Cole's sight.

What was he planning to do there? Cole hadn't seen any attacks from the creature that could cover distance.

It was then he noticed a chunk of building falling from the sky, Cole fired a shockwave and the chunk fell to the earth and laid there right at Cole's feet. Close one.

But that was just a distraction; Mercer was already on his way down, like a bullet. He smashed the earth several meters away from Cole, but the shockwave was enough to knock him back like a rag doll.

Cole got up quickly, a fist headed towards him ignoring Mercer's body being far behind. He brought his arm forward and a barrier appeared, the fist struck and Cole gave a small sigh of relief as the kinetic energy from the punch was transferred into his system as healing electricity.

Another charge towards Cole, but this time Mercer had no blade. He had learned his lesson on conductivity it seemed.

Knowing a normal blast would be useless, he fired an electricity orb that hit Mercer like a rocket, knocking him off his feet.

Cole grimaced, but he fired several more even while his opposition was on the ground. Each struck with an impact that cracked the pavement; he drained almost every watt as he fired still more.

And yet, after that Mercer still got up; shaken, but very much alive.

'damn it.' Cole murmured. He had pretty much bled himself dry with that attack.

'You're one real pain in the ass.' Mercer grunted, although how he spoke with that seemingly airtight armour was anyone's guess. But even as he spoke, the arm extended and struck.

Once again, the barrier came up. But Mercer followed his arm, dashing closer then jumping up, blade ready to cleave.

A normal human wouldn't have had the reflexes, even Cole usually didn't. But time seemed to slow down, everything became clear. Cole pointed his arm at Mercer's head.

And fired.

The precision electric blast using the little energy he had absorbed from the previous punch drilled right into Mercer's armour, right into the softer interior.

Mercer dropped, blade and armour deactivated, and screamed as his insides sizzled like sausages in a barbeque.

Quickly Cole ran to a nearby streetlight draining electricity with one hand while aiming with the other.

But Mercer was already moving, but he was moving away. That thing was running. Already he had turned a corner and vanished from sight.

Cole made a mental note to scan anyone that came near him. Meanwhile, his thoughts drifted to what that thing was. Catching up to it was impossible, he could probably trace its echo, but odds were it would leave. And besides, people who had watched in awe were starting to close in, probably wanting to ask questions.

He should probably get away fast, find a place to stay, and make sure that creature didn't appear again.


'No, he doesn't expect anything yet. You were right; no-one he has consumed would lead him to suspect me.'

Wade breathed a sigh of relief as he spoke into the telephone. 'But you never know if he will find out! If he knows I'm still working for Blackwatch, I'm dead.'

He paused, from his expression of distaste you could tell he disliked the answer he was getting. 'Yes, I am almost certain he is Pariah now. Although how the hell he ended up here I have no idea. This whole thing stinks to be honest. What if a high-up in Blackwatch wanted this to happen? That's the problem with a need-to-know basis. When they die, the secret gets lost when we need to know!'

Another pause, then Wade whispered 'Look, he could be back at any moment. I'll tell him what I need to, and I expect the transportation to be ready to leave as soon as they finish.' He shook as if there had been a winter breeze. 'Let's just get this over with, ok?'

He put the phone back in its holder. A minute or so later Alex Mercer arrived. 'Very punctual', Wade thought wirily, although he tried his best to appear polite. 'Welcome back, although I see you lack company.' He eyed the slowly healing burns all over Mercer's body. 'It didn't go well?'

'My abilities aren't exactly made for capturing.' Mercer grunted.

Well, how was it then? I assume you engaged in combat.'

'He wasn't as powerful as I suspected.'

Wade's eyes widened. 'Really? And yet those wounds…'

'Like I said, capturing isn't easy for me.' The wounds had sealed completely. 'I think a devastator would have wiped him out, he doesn't seem to be anything like me.'

'Why should he? You were a forced survivor with all the nasty abilities that entailed considering what you were up against. He is the next stage, a new dawn of humanity' Wade chuckled. 'Or so Blackwatch hoped. Speaking of that, I've managed to hack further into Blackwatch files.'

'Have you now.' Mercer eyed the computer screen. 'What's new?'

'There was more to the Pariah project. It seems while he was indeed the next evolution, it wasn't quite what they expected. You know the theory of evolution? This is sort of like a far more rapid version. Pariah's cells were very adaptive depending on the environment it seems. The major thing his cells ended up reacting to were the electricity in numerous devices around the place in which he was kept under guard. But that wasn't all. The degrees of his abilities were based on how they were required. So they worked on his mind. Implanting memories, trying to make him feel like he was under constant attack. All to keep his abilities at their peak. They wanted him to be all-powerful.'

He sighed, taking a sip of water before continuing.. 'But somehow he escaped. They're not quite sure how it happened. One of the guards was suspicious of the kid, always had him at gunpoint. He was found later, the gun seemed to have exploded. It's quite possible that due to the sudden loss of the numerous drugs they were pumping in his system caused the memory loss, while his unique genetics protected himself from any other side-effects.'

'So, is he harmless? Will he infect others, or begin to develop abilities?' Alex asked, pacing to both sides of Wade, occasionally peering at the computer screen.

'He will most likely develop, considering he knows he has abilities now and has the need to improve them. Hardly harmless if he survived you.' Wade gave a quick chuckle. 'As for infecting others, it appears not. In that aspect he seems to be similar to you… Well, not who you are pretending to be though. He certainly infected people…'

'So, you think he is Pariah?' Wade winced at Mercer's cold tone, dangerously close; he nearly had his last laugh.

'I am certain. I found the DNA of Pariah in here and ran it with Cole's that I found in a hospital database. It has changed, but I noticed key elements that are similar to Pariah.'

Mercer sat on the floor. 'So, what does that leave me to do?' He murmured, staring at his hands. 'Pariah isn't a threat, hell it's a hero. I suppose there is still Blackwatch.'

He got up. 'I have to warn him.' He said abruptly.

I doubt he will trust you after what happened.'

'I can't let him be caught off guard and captured. Blackwatch could still use him. And if you found him, who knows? Perhaps they will put the pieces together as well.'

'Perhaps' Wade conceded. 'You best go warn him. Doubt you'll be getting him to come with you to a safer area.'

But Mercer was already gone, much to Wade's relief. He grabbed a suitcase he had hidden behind the computer monitor and rushed away briskly, exiting the room.

Meanwhile, he took his mobile phone out and dialled a number. 'Mercer is going to warn Pariah. Sadly we have little use for him anymore, you were right; these uncontrolled conditions too early have stunted his abilities. Send in the Super Soldiers, We will have to start afresh…'


So yeah, another chapter. Hope you like it!

Might get some complaints though... I might add more to the fight scene later as well, or perhaps save that for the next one.

Anyway, have a nice day!