Author's Note: First of all!!!! While I was writing this short chapter, I realized that I got the viruses mixed up *bricks self* So, basically, the virus that was made by scientists and made specifically to be a weapon that can target specific nationalities, was REDLIGHT, not BLACKLIGHT. BLACKLIGHT, on the other hand, was the virus that GENTEK tried to make a cure to every disease with, including cancer. And for the sake of this series, I'm gonna have McMullen be involved with the REDLIGHT project in Hope, Idaho. I mean, he had Elizabeth in his freaking building, he had to be involved with the project. Also, in my profile, there are question and info corners for each of my series. So I shall post the one for Mutagenesis here: Mutagenesis 1) Who's your favorite character so far, despite there's only a few? 2) For those who have seen the cutscene in the game when Alex finds Karen again after a side mission, I'm going to mention her fate later on :D :evil laugh: I want people to give me ideas of what happened to Karen so I can make it up ) JUST consumption isn't an option. So message me your answers/opinions/suggestions. Thank you very much~
CHAPTER 4: McMullen
2:00 p.m.
I was aware that I was lying down sideways on something soft, and my eyes were closed. I shifted my head, groaning, consciousness slowly returning to my relaxed body. My eyes fluttered open and I found myself staring at my digital alarm clock, its red numbers blaring. 2 o'clock...I thought to myself. I blinked, confused, and I looked down my body to find myself lying in my bed. I must have fallen asleep...Not feeling like getting up, I rolled over to face the ceiling and I laid there in silence, listening to the sound of cars and people outside our apartment. After a few minutes, I sighed and slowly rose to a sitting position. Dazed and sleepy-eyed, I glanced around my room, taking in everything as I tried to wake up all of my senses. I lazily turned to sit on the edge of my bed and let my feet rest on the floor, before I stood up. I yawned and rubbed my right eye with my right hand as I walked to my door. I opened the door and walked into the hallway, then I walked to the bathroom next to my room.
I turned the light on as I walked into the restroom. It looked like a normal apartment bathroom. A shower in the back, a separate room for the toilet, and the sink with a mirror hanging in front of it. I approached the sink and turned on the faucet. After I let the cold water run for a few seconds, I cupped my two hands and placed them under the faucet, pooling the gushing cold water within my hands. I bent forward, leaning over the sink with half-lidded eyes and I lifted my hands to splash my face with the water. I rubbed my hands against my face for a minute and lowered them, turning off the faucet in the process. I sighed in relaxation as droplets of the cold water ran down my face. I grabbed a nearby hand towel and dried off my face and hands. After I put down the towel, I placed my hands on the rim of the sink and used them to support my weight as I leaned forward with my legs behind me. I exhaled as I stared at the floor in a daze. I feel so tired...am I stressed? I thought to myself.
I looked up to see my reflection in the mirror.
"And I look like shit..." I muttered. My blue-green eyes were narrowed with light bags underneath them, and my short brown hair looked like it was attacked by a tornado. My clothes were ruffled and wrinkly from sleeping in them and my face looked somewhat sickly.
"Yeah, you do." I looked to the door to see Cáel leaning against its frame, his eyes looking me over. "Had a nice sleep?" I glared lightly at him before sighing and turning back to the mirror, with my hand ruffling my hair.
"You can say that..."
"Hey." I looked at my younger brother as he walked up to me, concern in his blue eyes. "You okay? You don't look too good." I grinned weakly, and I nodded.
"Yeah, I'm fine. I guess I just thought about too much..." Cáel stared at me as I stared at my reflection in the mirror.
"Was it Alex Mercer?" I gave no response and I leaned back to stand up straight, my arms loosely falling back down to my sides. I walked out of the bathroom silently, leaving Cáel in there alone, and I headed down the hall to the kitchen counter.
I sat down in the couch in front of the TV and propped my feet up on the table. I turned on the TV with the remote before I heard Cáel walk in and sit beside me. He leaned forward, his arms resting on his legs and I don't need to look to know he's watching me. After a few minutes of silence, he turned to face the TV. Another few minutes passed as we watched the news reports of mutant sightings when Cáel broke the silence in a soft voice.
"...You know, it's not a bad thing to think about Mercer. I admit that I get mad everytime you do, but I'm not stopping you..." I said nothing and he went on. "So, were you thinking about him?" I stared at the TV impassively and said in a monotone voice,
"Yeah..." Cáel glanced at me.
"What about him?" I sighed.
"Just...what he's doing right now." Cáel leaned a bit toward me, placing his right arm beside him, clutching the edge of the couch lightly.
"What do you think he's doing?" I narrowed my eyes as I stared at the TV screen in thought before muttering,
"I think he's out after McMullen and the rest of GENTEK." Cáel leaned back to usual position and asked,
"Then, would he go after Dad?" I glanced at him with one eye closed.
"Nah. They're friends, remember? If anything, he would only go to Dad for help..." We sat there in silence for about half an hour until Cáel stood up and walked into the hallway, and I assumed he was heading for his room, leaving me alone in the living room.
Before I knew it, many hours had passed and it was close to dinnertime. I glanced surprisedly at the clock and blinked before standing up with a grunt.
"Guess I better make dinner..." I muttered. I stretched my arms out above my head as I walked into the kitchen and moved to the pantry door. I walked into the small room and glanced at all of the shelves of boxed foods and cans we had. I spotted a box of dried angel hair spaghetti, and I curiously grabbed it to look at it closely. I raised an eyebrow.
"Hm..." I turned the box to look at the back before shrugging. "Spaghetti it is, then." I walked out of the pantry with the angel hair box held in my right hand. As I reached the kitchen counter, I placed the box on its surface before looking in the bottom drawer for a pot.
After setting a pot on the stove in front of me, I grabbed the angel hair box and read the back. "Pour 3 cups of water into the pot..." I leaned my head back a bit with a raised eyebrow after reading the first instruction. This was my first time cooking spaghetti but I've seen chefs doing it on TV so I had a little experience. "Well, okay..." I pulled out a measuring water cup and placed it in the sink. I turned on the faucet with the water set to hot and waited for the cup to fill. Once it was up to three cups I turned off the water and carefully carried the cup to the stove before pouring the water into the pot.
I turned on the stove to midway and watched as blue/orange flames ignited beneath the pot. I watched the flames as they flickered every now and then before giving a sigh and opening the angel hair box. I ripped open the cardboard top and looked inside the box to examine the stiff noodles before carelessly dumping them into the pot. I turned to the counter behind me and pulled a long wooden spoon out of a drawer. I turned back to the stove and began stirring the noodles with the spoon.
I gave a yawn as I stopped stirring after several minutes to start cooking the meat sauce. I dumped the tiny clumps of meat into the pot, before I opened a can of tomato sauce and poured it into the pot as well. I hesitantly stirred the pot's contents, thinking, I hope I'm doing this right...
After about fifteen minutes, I noticed that the water the noodles were in was boiling. I glanced uneasily at the sauce pot, and I stopped mixing its contents as I took hold of the spoon resting against the inside rim of the pot holding the noodles. I started to mix the noodles. I sighed as I continued stirring the angel hair, staring up at the ceiling, hoping this dinner won't end up terrible.
I'm sitting on the couch, watching the TV, with a bowl of my spaghetti in one hand, and with my fork in the other. I heard the sound of footsteps and I turned my head to see Cáel standing at the hall's entryway. His eyes met with the bowl in my hands, and he raised an eyebrow, but I cut him off before he could even ask, turning back to the TV screen.
"Food's up on the counter." I heard him walk over to said destination, not missing the clattering noise as he took a bowl and fork from one of the kitchen cupboards. There was a slick sound from behind me, and I assumed he was gathering some of the spaghetti to place in his bowl. A few minutes later, Cáel sat down beside me on the couch, with a bowl of spaghetti in his hand as well. After a few minutes of eating and watching the T.V in silence, I heard Cáel ask,
"Hey, you remember that project Dad said he was working on?" I finished chewing my food before I look at him with an arched eyebrow.
"You mean the repellant? Yeah, why?" Cáel fiddled with his fork as he queried,
"What do you think it's for?" I quirked an eyebrow.
"Uh, to repel the infected mutants?" Cáel glared at me and he growled,
"That's not what I meant. Think about it." I blinked at him and he narrowed his eyes. "Why is McMullen suddenly so intent on repelling the infected?" I shrugged as I turned back to the screen.
"To save his own ass?" I suggested dully.
"That might be true, but there's got to be something else..." I rolled my eyes at my little brother.
"How about giving his company a good image?" I placed my bowl and fork on the table, and turned to Cáel, counting off my fingers as I explained, "GENTEK made the virus, virus gets out, GENTEK invents repellant to keep the infected away, then they'll magically get rid of the virus, and in the end everyone will think they're heroes." Cáel frowned as he held his chin in his hand.
"What about Mercer? How does he fit into all of this?" I shrugged.
"They'll capture him, reveal him to the public as a 'terrorist,' and it will give them an even better image. After that. they'll probably strap him to an examination table and dissect the shit out of him."
"That must be it, then." I blinked at Cáel, as he lowered his hand and looked up at me. "The repellant. They'll use it on Mercer. McMullen doesn't care about what will happen to Manhattan. Hell, he doesn't even care about what will happen to the entire world." I watched as he continued slowly, "All he wants, is Mercer. The virus inside of him, BLACKLIGHT, McMullen wants it back and under containment." My eyes widened as it all dawned on me.
"He wants to test it more. He must think that Alex is the best outcome of the BLACKLIGHT project, despite the fact that the plan backfired and the virus was released in the city."
"Why would he want to keep working on it, though?" I narrowed my eyes.
"He spent a lot of money on this project. There's no way he's gonna give up now after seeing what the virus did to Alex. He's gotten so far, and I doubt he'll want to stop the project now." Cáel took another bite of his food, and I picked up my bowl again, as he says,
"But what is he after? He knows that the outcome of BLACKLIGHT isn't what he wanted..."
"He wanted the cure for cancer," I finished before taking a bite of my spaghetti. "But BLACKLIGHT can obviously do much more, and McMullen knows that now." Cáel's eyes widened, and I nodded, saying, "There's no doubt about it. He wants to make more creatures like Alex."
"Fuck," Cáel cursed under his breath. "If he catches Alex, he can build an entire armada of things like him...Wouldn't Blackwatch kill Mercer before McMullen has the chance to get a sample of BLACKLIGHT from him?" I shook my head.
"With the right amount of money and secret info, he can easily get them to stand down without a word...The military could be in on it, too, for all we know. After all, Alex is the only human bio-weapon that has a mind of its own. Make more like him, and have control over their thoughts, you got yourself an entire army of human bio-weapons at your disposal."
"You think McMullen is doing it to sell the research and army to the militia?" I shrugged.
"With all the money he spent on BLACKLIGHT, there's no doubt he'd sell the research. In fact, he can sell it to anyone he wants if the military doesn't catch him. Iraq, Afghanistan, Russia...anywhere." Cáel's eyes glanced left and right on the ground, searching his mind, before he looked up at me.
"If he does...there'll be a world war." I nodded, and I stood to my feet, my bowl in my hands.
"That's right..." I walked over to the kitchen, and placed my dish into the sink, before cleaning it. After that was done, I opened the dish washer and gently positioned my bowl and fork inside of it. I stood straight and stretched my arm up, yawning as I strained out, "I'm going to do some more research on McMullen. Maybe I can find out more about him." I lowered my arms and look at my little brother. "See if he attempted any other bio-weapons in the past." I began to walk to the hall. "When you're done, clean the kitchen for me, okay?"
"Sure thing," Cáel said with a nod. I walked down the hallway, and entered my room, before closing my door behind me.
I sighed as I leaned back against my door, before I glanced at my window, which still had the blinds over it. I sauntered over to the window, and I sluggishly pulled open the blinds, groaning as the light from outside hit my eyes. I blinked as my eyesight adjusted to the brightness of my room, and I shook my head. I turned and walked over to my desk, seating myself before my computer once I reached it. As I opened my internet browser, I briefly checked my email. I sneer. Nothing but spam...I deleted all of the irrelevant emails, and I tensed when my speakers started playing the sound a phone ringing. I lowered my volume a bit, before I realized that it was an incoming voice chat. I read the name of the person attempting to chat with me, and I scowled.
Incoming voice chat from: The Specialist. I paused, before I glanced back at my door. The sound of rushing water and clanking dishes was all I needed to know that Cáel was busy. I hastily took my wireless headset in my hands and adjust it on my head, fixing the mic so it wasn't too close to my mouth. I turned on the headset, and I clicked Answer Voice Chat. That same robotic voice said into my ears,
"I'm surprised that you answered..."
Another Note: Sooo? How was it? I know it's short, but I'm trying my best to update all of my stories. I'm starting to wonder which one's more popular...Mutagenesis or Fable of an Eagle? *shrug* Anyways, please review! =)