My apologies for this taking so, so very long to post. Life happened, nothing tragic but all the same I've been distracted by other things and other story ideas for quite a while. Further apologies for not even notifying anyone that there would be such a massive delay. And yet more apologies for some bad news regarding this story; I won't, beyond this chapter, be continuing it. At least not anytime soon. This chapter isn't even technically finished, for which I again apologize.

Looking back at the rest of PC, I feel I'm doing a disservice to the story itself and the characters I was attempting to improve beyond their hollow and one dimensional counterparts from P2. Simply; I feel that in doing little more than rewriting P2 with an attempt at justifying it's story problems is ultimately not what I should be doing. I do have a general outline of sorts for what I think may be a better story all in all and will endeavor to make progress on it, hopefully it will be worth the time and hopefully I have not completely destroyed any desire readers may have to invest time in reading my writing.

For the time being: The "Final" chapter of this story before it goes into hibernation.

Chapter Seven

Yellow Zone / Grand Street-Grove Street Intersection

James thrust his right arm forward, suspending the second APC between two buildings with his tendrils and hoping it was the one transporting his targets. The first had only held soldiers who had immediately opened fire when he pried it open. Just as he leapt up onto the temporarily helpless and immobile vehicle, a missile slammed into his back and sent him tumbling over the top of the armored transport.

James hit the ground in front of the armored transport and rolled to his feet, left arm lashing out at a nearby truck. A quick spin and release of the tendrils wrapped around the vehicle sent it flying at the Gunship that had attacked him. The pilot, panicking, began flying back to avoid the airborne Chevy.

It didn't work.

The flying truck crashed into the cockpit of the aircraft, crushing the pilot and gunner and knocking the chopper from the sky.

When Omega arrived, he wasn't surprised to see James bypassing his intended targets in order to rip apart a single grenade launcher wielding Suicide Division trooper. While Heller continued to escalate the battle, Omega covertly began assisting civilians who were fleeing the area.

Well...as covertly as a man easily past seven feet tall can do anything.

Bringing down a second gunship freed James up to return his attention to the heavily damaged APC. He wasn't amused to find that it had in fact been transporting the scientists he was after and that they had fled the vehicle and were now scattering in several different directions.

It took James all of ten seconds to close in on one of the fleeing scientists, tackling the panicked man and nearly ripping him in half before consuming him. From the man's memories, he learned of several research projects that other teams were working on. This particular team was, until today, working under Anton Koenig on Project Orion, some kind of super soldier program.

He also learned exactly what Doctor Ted Bellamy looked like and which direction he had run moments earlier.

When he caught up with the man, there was another scientist with him, female. The woman had fallen and Bellamy was helping her back to her feet. The female scientist fell back to the ground when James grabbed Bellamy from behind before slamming the man to the ground, nearly reducing his head to pulp with a trio of punches before consuming him.

"Anton, this is insane! Orion was shut down for a reason! I know you've reduced the effect the process has on the mental stability of the subjects but they're still...damaged. The fact that you're using Rooks' troops as test subjects is just one more problem and most of them are psychotic to begin with!" Bellamy said to Koenig over the phone.

"That's exactly why we're using them, Ted. If they get out of hand, we can put them down and no one will object. They're dead on paper already after all. I understand your concerns. I really do. But, I'm very close! WE are very close to perfecting the process!"

"Even if you're right and we can make it work without the psychological defects occurring, why? They're not even as strong as the Delta Prototypes, and even then, why are we still working on any of the super soldier programs? That is, in part, what caused all of this to begin with! It's supposed to be our job to eliminate the bioweapons our predecessors created, not build on their mistakes! I didn't request this assignment to play frankenstein and make more monsters Anton!"

"You worry too much, Ted. You're right, about them not being as strong I mean, but a compatibility of less than seventy-two percent is needed for an Orion. If you recall, of the two hundred original D-Code subjects only those with-"

"Higher than eighty percent compatibility survived, yes! That's not the point! We should be finding a cure for the virus! A real, permanent cure! We know what happens when you try to use it! Mercer was a genius, decades ahead of the rest of us, and even he couldn't control it! Look what happened to him!"

"...Exactly."

"Wait...what?"

"It's nothing, Ted. You're being transferred tomorrow so we're being relocated, just in case. I can't tell you which base to contact me at after today. You'll have to go through Red Crown if there's anything you want to discuss. Goodbye, Ted."

Besides the conversation, things that stuck out to James were Bellamy's suspicion and distrust of Koenig, the nature of Project Orion, and a clear image of the man who was currently third on his list and right behind Rooks, who was second only to Mercer himself.

A scuffling noise drew the mutated soldier's attention to the woman who was quickly shuffling backwards, trying to escape and get back to her feet at the same time without taking her eyes off of James.

He quickly lunged forward, grabbing the woman by the neck and lifting her off the ground. He scowled at the desperately pleading scientist as he pulled back his fist. "Shouldn't have joined up with Blackwatch, bitch."

James found his fist stop just as he began to throw the lethal punch, a large hand closing around his wrist and twisting his arm. He released the scientist in surprise as he shifted his now free left hand to claws and turned to face the masked giant of a man.

"You!"

Omega twisted his upper body and flicked his arm, releasing James and tossing the man a short distance down the street.

"Nice to see you too, Jimmy," Omega said, a mild and friendly tone to his voice. He turned to the scientist and nodded in the opposite direction from where Heller now stood. "Get out of here, and I'd appreciate it if you didn't mention me if anyone asks."

As the woman fled, James glared at Omega and shouted in protest.

"What the fuck are you doing! Letting her go like that! She's-"

"-a scientist. You already ate her team leader. There's almost no chance she knew something he didn't. Killing her would have been pointless, but you know that." The distant hum of whirling helicopter blades made Omega tilt his head towards the sky. "There's another Strike Team headed this way, and this area's already taken a beating because of you. Get out of here James. There's plenty of more productive things you could be doing."

"I don't take orders from-!" James began to shout, but was cut off when his vision blurred slightly and he felt compelled to be somewhere else.

Omega raised an eyebrow beneath his mask as James leapt away with a half-conscious expression on his face. "Really getting into the micro-managing, aren't you Alex?" he commented to no one in particular.

The super soldier quickly left the area himself after having a chuckle at his employer's expense.

Yellow Zone / 77 Hudson Street, Luxury Apartments: West Tower Roof

James was just short of raging when he finally regained full control of himself just after reaching the top of the tower. The fact that he only regained control because his 'boss' had relinquished it didn't help his mood. Being forced to watch the world rush by while your body rushes off to some unknown destination against your own will is rather unpleasant.

If I'd left it up to you, you would have started a fight with Omega and that wouldn't help anyone. Now look south. There's a Lair in the basement of the building sharing a block with Colgate Center Park. If it's left alone, it could become a fully developed Hive by tomorrow at the earliest and if that happens, Blackwatch may choose to sterilize the zone. Don't let that happen.

At most, you have three days before it reaches that point. Deal with it as soon as possible.

The hum of the Hive vanished before James could even organize his thoughts enough to say anything to Alex.

"Bastard! Can't just-fucking...I'm gonna kill him! Show him who's the meat puppet after...Fuck!" James stopped trying to speak and took a deep breath to calm himself down. Soon, he found himself examining the lair, his thoughts focused on the task, and the inevitable blood bath, at hand. "Alright, first thing's gotta be that Lair. 'Nother one of those fucking flower things. Should be easier this time. Don't see any of the bloodtox shit. Guess the fuckers haven't got it set up yet."

After choosing an appropriate disguise, James made his way toward the walled off block and carefully began navigating his way toward the Lair entrance, in this case, a large mouth-like mass over the door into the building's basement. He joined up with a security team that was being sent in on the way and marched with them to within twenty feet of the door.

From the mass of fleshy material around the door, hundreds of tendrils of red-ish orange biomatter were stretching out over the walls, floor, and ceiling. As they approached, the mass convulsed and they could see the tendrils rapidly grow, covering several more feet in a matter of moments.

"Now that's just fucking gross," one of the men in the group said. James hadn't bothered to get their names: he didn't intend to let any of them live long enough for it to matter once they were inside.

"You ain't kidding! Think my roommate a few years back watched some Chinese cartoon or some shit with things like this. Fucking messed up is what it is," another man muttered.

"Let's just see what's so bad they need another fucking security team down here for, alright?" the Lieutenant snapped, drawing the team's focus back to the task they'd been assigned.

James saw it before any of the others. The mechanism meant to pry the opening apart for them to enter was broken. His enhanced hearing alerted him to muffled screams and gunfire coming from the basement below them.

"Look's like the Infected weren't too happy with the company," Heller muttered once the state of the 'door' had been noticed by the rest of the team.

Before anyone could respond, the 'mouth' snapped open and a Brawler crashed into the hall, killing three men in the process and knocking most of the remaining soldiers to the ground.

"Fi-" the Lieutenant began to shout, only to be silenced by a blind swipe from the Brawler as it turned around. His body fell to the floor as the remains of his head splattered against the wall.

Even before the order had been cut short, the surviving members of the security team had opened fire on the Brawler. The creature roared and charged the short distance between it and its attackers. James jumped sideways and ran three steps along the wall to avoid the infected monster and landed on his feet just as it barreled through the firing line.

It only took James a quick glance to count all but two of the men dead, and that pair was unlikely to live long enough for the Brawler to even notice them judging by their wounds.

The creature spun around, growling at James before charging again. Rather than try to dodge again, the confines of the hallway making it difficult to really make use of his agility or speed, James set his feet and held his ground. Just before the Brawler reached him, he shifted his arms to claws and brought both hands up to catch the monster in the shoulders, its own momentum impaling it on the long blades.

James viciously ripped his claws free before the Brawler could recover from its pain and swing its own clawed hands at him. The damage he had done seemed to make it difficult for the Brawler to even stand much less attack with its severely injured arms. Rather than beat it to death, which admittedly wouldn't have taken long, James used his tendrils to retrieve a pair of grenades and shoved both into the open wounds his claws had left when they were ripped free.

Only a second after the 'door' to the Lair closed behind him, did James smirk at hearing a satisfying explosion.

Predictably, the scene he found in the basement wasn't that different from the one that had greeted him in the first Lair. Flesh covered the walls, floor, and ceiling. Bodies littered the chamber while the remains of the security and research teams huddled behind a makeshift barricade in the corner. The Brawler he had just killed had clearly gone straight through the original barricade and field lab.

"You! Where's the rest of our fucking reinforcements?" one man shouted from the cluster of survivors.

James dismissively batted aside a Walker and abandoned his disguise, shifting his claws back onto his arms as he did so. "You mean that pile of meat upstairs? Yeah, they're not going to be able to join the party."

"Fuck! Shoo-" The order was drowned out by the burst of gunfire from all the surviving Suicide Troops.

James dove to his left before dashing straight at the conveniently packed group of targets. A quick leap brought him into the midst of the survivors with barely any bullets striking him before an abrupt rotation sliced most of the humans to pieces. Those who avoided the spin were only scientists and James didn't feel they were a threat and doubted any of them had information worth acquiring and would die soon enough anyway, so he left them alone and turned his attention to the horde of Walkers shambling towards him.

With two steps forward and a casual flick of his wrist James dismembered five of the Infected. Three more swipes left nearly twenty Walkers as nothing more than piles of blood and gore on the ground around James' feet. A thought from the former marine shifted his claws away, replacing them with tendrils.

James threw his left arm out, aiming for the smaller group of Walkers that remained in the room. The tendrils that snaked out from his arm quickly latched onto the infected, smaller tendrils branching out to link all seven bodies into a single mass. James twisted around, sweeping the captured Walkers towards their fellow Infected. The mass of bodies collided like a wrecking ball.

"Hafta remember that one. Bet that'd fuck up Mercer's day," James chuckled to himself. "Okay then, bet the fucking flower's through that mouth...thing."

Releasing the remains of the Walkers, he grabbed a fallen Javelin launcher and took aim at the wall of flesh separating the chamber he was standing in from the next chamber. The rocket blasted the valve-like door open and James quickly rushed through.

What he found was not a chamber identical to the one where he had fought the heart of a Lair for the first time. Instead, he found himself in another room much like the first. This chamber only held a handful of Walkers, but the walls were covered in the fleshy pods he knew were used to convert humans more quickly into Walkers or to breed Brawlers.

"Fuck! Should'a known it wouldn't be the same," James muttered to himself, loading a spare Javelin into the launcher. The missile eliminated two of the pods and a handful of Walkers but still left the room full of potential threats.

James hurled the launcher as hard as he could across the chamber. It killed nearly a dozen Walkers before slamming into the wall where it left a noticeable dent. He doubted the weapon would ever be useable again.

Before he could make another move, three of the pods split open. One only disgorged a small group of Walkers, which James was thankful for, but the other two spawned Brawlers. The two beasts roared and leapt across the chamber.

"Bring it you ugly fuckers!" James roared back, hands flashing to claws as he leapt up to meet them in mid-air.

He collided with one of the creatures and its weight and momentum stopped him outright before both of them crashed to the ground. At the moment they had met in the air, James had driven his claws into the mutant's chest. Now, pinned under it, he began thrashing around wildly with the aim being to mince the monster's organs.

The Brawler that had James pinned roared and leapt away. The second Brawler moved in immediately and kept James from recovering his balance. A swift backhand from the deformed Infected sent him tumbling across the room, he dimly noted the first Brawler off to the side was eating the upper body of a Walker.

"Now I'm pissed!" James shouted as he rolled to a stop, planting his feet before charging back at the Brawlers.

Neither infected seemed intimidated by James' anger. The pair roared back and charged again, this time James jumped just before another head on collision could occur and flipped over in midair, landing behind the infected and slashing his claws down across the muscle tissue exposed through the torn skin on the first Brawlers back. The creature roared, this time in pain, and spun wildly in an attempt to strike it's attacker but instead raked it's claws across the face of it's twin.

The second Brawler quickly retaliated, slashing across the barely healed wounds on the first's chest. The in fighting only lasted long enough for James to grin slightly before the eyes of both Infected flared a brighter than usual orange and their attention returned to him.

Leaping away to avoid the claws that were once again aimed at him, James noticed an increasingly familiar buzzing in the back of his mind. "Mercer?!"

No, he's busy back on Manhattan. The Lair's starting to spread faster, the building's already starting to look a little like a Hive. Do you need help?

James snarled while ducking under a swing from one Brawler, using his own claws to catch the offending limb and tear it free from the Infected. "Do I look like I need help?"

Right now all I can see in there is what you see.

"Thought this hive-brain bullshit worked with all the infected!" James snapped while leaping up onto the critically wounded Brawlers back.

You're talking out loud again. And no, it's not that easy. I don't have a link to their Hive so I can't see through their eyes.

What are you doing? Alex presence cut into the conversation.

"Mercer!"

Concentrate on your mission, Heller. Alex's 'tone' made it an order. This isn't helping, he's killed one Lair already and this one isn't any older than that one, this is an unnecessary risk.

You're in Manhattan, I'm right outside. I can see what's happening-

So can I.

...right. Then don't you think it would be best to help him?

"Maybe you should both shut the fuck up and get out of my fucking head!" James barked as he tore the second Brawler's head from it's shoulders and consumed it's insides.

He doesn't need or want help. Leave the area now, Blackwatch can't detect you but that doesn't mean they can't find you. Finish your work so we can end all of this and move on.

But-

The buzzing cut off and both voices vanished.

James made quick work of the remaining Brawler and quickly tore his way through the fleshy wall and into what appeared to be the final chamber. Fixed to the wall opposite his point of entry was a familiar flower-like pod of chitin armor. The armored shell split as the numerous growths on the walls began spitting out vaguely human infected that didn't appear to have ever actually been human.

The Heart roared, killing a dozen or so Walkers between it and James while another pair of pods split open and sent forth yet another Brawler duo.

"Bout sick of this fucking shit," James grumbled to himself as he shifted his arms to tendrils again. Swinging his arms out to his right and left, he sent two masses of tendrils out to shred the Walkers as the Brawlers charged towards him. A quick flip put him behind the pair, tendrils lashing out from his arms and ensnaring one of the deformed creatures.

"Takin' you for a ride fucker!" James snarled as his feet hit the ground. He twisted his upper body and hauled the captured Brawler into the air, flipping it over himself and slamming it to the ground. Before it's 'brother' could properly orient itself to charge again James twisted once more and swung his prisoner like a wrecking ball right into the other, retracting his tendrils and sending both careening into the far wall.

Before the Brawlers could recover, and before he could move to attack them again, James was painfully reminded of the real threat present in the lair. Five large spikes tore through his flesh, one puncturing a lung and another rupturing a kidney, before the Heart began to draw him back towards it with it's tendrils.

"Fuck!" James shouted as he struggled to dislodge the spikes embedded in his body. "No you fucking don't!"

With only ten feet between himself and the Heart's mouth James managed to slash two of the tendrils with his claws, severing them and loosening the Heart's grip on him slightly. It was enough for him to dig his claws into the ground to prevent himself from being reeled in any further. After only five seconds of failing to pull him any further the Heart gave up and retracted it's tendrils.

"Fucking-" James was cut short when the less injured of the Brawlers blindside tackled him from the left. With a grunt of effort and a powerful kick James threw the Brawler off and rolled to his feet, leaping after it and digging his claws into it's back.

As he was doing his best not to be thrown from the creatures back, James felt a sharp pain in his side as one of the Heart's tendrils tore through his jacket. The other tendrils missed him completely and all five buried themselves in the Brawler and began drawing both it and James back towards the flower-like mouth.

James disentangled himself from the tendrils and rolled over the Brawlers head and clear of the danger zone just seconds before the Heart's mouth and armored shell slammed shut. The Brawlers legs were severed by the closing mouth and fell to the ground while the rest of it's body was chewed up and swallowed by the wall mounted abomination.

Before he could properly react to that rather unpleasant scene, James was alerted to an imminent attack from the second Brawler by it's roar just as it closed in on him. Claws ready and facing the approaching threat not three feet from him James was unprepared when he was blown off his feet. He and the Brawler were both struck by the attack and sent tumbling across the chamber again.

"Forgot it could do that, fucking flower...thing," James muttered as he got back to his feet. He grinned at the Brawler lying not far from him, it was still stunned from the Heart's roar and their resulting collision with the wall. "Heh. Guess you don't recover fast as me, huh freak?"

James lashed out, ensnaring the Brawler with his tendrils again and swinging it around to collide with the wall once again. Another spin in reverse and another collision was all it took to leave the Brawler dazed and vulnerable, it didn't even fight back as it's insides were consumed.

Now James was keeping his eyes on the Heart and had plenty of warning to dodge it's tendrils when it attacked again. Avoiding the tendrils long enough to recover an assault rifle from under a Walker corpse was easy and firing into the Heart's open mouth was even simpler. Of course the rifle bullets had little effect on the creature, even striking the soft flesh inside it's mouth.

The rifle was discarded with a barely repressed sigh of relief when James nearly tripped over a grenade launcher. It was getting harder to avoid the Heart's attacks, it had started throwing chunks of concrete and other such debris at him and dodging the effect of it's roars was a bit beyond his capabilities.

As with the first Heart it was near impossible to tell what it was going to do each time this one opened it's mouth, so James waited until he saw tendrils before firing a grenade. A roar from the first Heart had alternately detonated rockets and grenades or actually forced them back at him so he wasn't willing to fire until he was sure he wouldn't be eating his own explosives seconds later.

"Come on asshole! I'm right here! Can't see me?" James shouted as he dodged another attack from the Heart's tendrils, firing his last grenade as he did so. "Hah! Guess you should have asked for eyes to go along with that mouth!"

Following another roar from the Heart, which planted a no longer smug James firmly in the far wall of the chamber, the remaining pods on the walls and ceiling split open and poured out more of the Walker-like humanoids. James spotted a Javelin still clutched in the hands of a dead soldier as the room was filling with Infected.

Prying himself free of the wall and consuming two of the zombie-like beings nearest to him, James leapt toward the weapon most likely to help him end the Heart's life, assuming it was still loaded and that there were spare missiles nearby. While the new zombies were much quicker to rush him then Walkers and didn't trip over themselves every other step they weren't much stronger than their more disfigured cousins so they weren't really an obstacle.

Claws cleaving through numerous bodies following his pounce, James grabbed the missile launcher and rolled forward to his feet. Shifting his arms back to normal he sighed in relief feeling the weight of the missile in the tube and quickly leapt to safety as the Heart's tendrils whipped through the area.

Before it could withdraw it's thrashing tendrils and close it's mouth James fired the Javelin, aiming straight for the center of the mass. The armored shell snapped shut too late to stop the missile and the detonation along with the pain it caused forced the Heart to open it's mouth again, roaring in pain and possibly rage.

James rolled with the force of the roar to avoid too much injury and reloaded the launcher, glancing about in the hopes of finding another missile or loaded launcher somewhere in the chamber. All he found was a pair of grenade launchers, one of which had not been fired at all and the other only missing one shot.

Making his way to the smaller weapons and firing his last missile at the first opportunity, James discarded the missile launcher just as another roar of pain escaped the Heart. He was able to grab both grenade launchers before the shockwave of the roar sent him tumbling across the room along with most of the Walker-like creatures.

Forcing his way out of the heap of bodies, James dashed away from the lesser Infected and took a grenade launcher in each hand. As soon as he saw tendrils when the Heart moved to attack again he fired both weapons. Certainly not as powerful as a javelin but the grenades did their job and soon enough he was wearing the monster down, as evidenced by the toxic cloud that began to fill the chamber.

"Fucking shit still burns," James muttered to himself, discarding one of the two grenade launchers and firing his last shot. The final grenade didn't quite make it and detonated against the Heart's shell.

*Humble Bow*

I hope that you do not regret reading this and it's preceding chapters and that you will be willing to generously read future updates of another story at such a time as I find myself able to post them.

Re: Prototype

A petition site was brought to my attention not long ago which currently has a petition for the creation of Prototype 3 requesting 1000 signatures. While I don't know if it will help, it certainly cannot hurt the franchises chances of being continued. As I believe the series deserves another chance and I see plenty of fans of it here and elsewhere I would like to beg that you at least consider signing the petition yourselves for even the slimmest chance of bringing back a series with a great deal of potential.

If you are interested in providing a signature: Google Search Creation of Prototype 3 Petition. The first result should be the correct page.