H.A.M.M.E.R HQ, New York, Friday 10am
Cross lay on the bed in the suite Osborn had given him. He didn't like it, he could tell simply by looking round that the whole place was bugged. Since he arrived he noticed 10 microphones and 7 hidden cameras. As annoyed as he was with this arrangement something else troubled him more.
"How are you still alive Mercer?" he thought to himself through clenched teeth.
He remembered the first time he'd met Dr. Alex Mercer he was the most unorthodox scientist he'd ever seen. He had a short temper and a very dangerous personality as soon as Cross saw him he knew he was a definitely capable of killing. He remembered the day the order came from above that Mercer had become expendable. Taggart had assigned Cross to take care of Mercer, but somehow that son of a bitch knew he was coming and he'd already left the lab with a sample of his own version of Blacklight that was later dubbed Zeus. Taggart went berserk when he heard that Mercer had escaped with virus.
Mercer! That insane bastard walked into a crowded subway station and unleashed project Zeus in the presence of hundreds of people. "I guess he thought that if he was gonna die he may as well spite us" Cross thought turning over in the bed.
At that concentration the virus should have ripped him apart. They still had a cleanup crew at the station as the strain that Mercer had created was a lot more virulent and a lot harder to kill than the previous versions. "Urg enough! Forget about Mercer! he'll be taken care of soon. You've got a job to do get up and do some reconnaissance around H.A.M.M.E.R."
Cross got out of bed and to his feet then pulled on some jeans and a white t-shirt, he then walked out the door and down the corridor. The Captain stopped at a large steel door. It was abnormally big and reinforced unlike the others. He was just about to reach for knob when a women's voice startled him.
"I wouldn't go in there if I were you!"
Cross turned to see Moonstone leaning against her rooms door frame. She had obviously just taken shower as she was wearing a white bathrobe and water dripped down her face. Cross's eyes lingered on her a bit longer than he would care to admit before turning back to the door again.
"That leads to H.A.M.M.E.R's main labs Osborn is pretty protective of it" Karla finished smirking slightly, his stare had evidently not gone unnoticed.
"Is there any chance you could get me in?" he said while subconsciously scolding himself for his moment of weakness.
"I think that can be arranged" she said sliding up to him and pressing her lips to his.
"Well this is one Dark Avenger that won't need much deceiving" he thought as Moonstone pulled him into her bedroom.
Dark Alley somewhere in New York, Friday 10am
The soldier approached the figure slumped against the wall. Carefully he lifted the hood covering the man's face using the muzzle of his rifle. To his shock the man's eyes were wide open. He stepped back quickly cocking his rifle in the process. He aimed it at the man's head. Nothing, the man didn't move. The soldier re-approached the inanimate figure, his eyes where frozen as if he was dead but he was definitely alive. The Blackwatch soldier could see rise and fall of his chest as he breathed.
"He must be in some kind of coma" the soldier muttered. He quickly glanced at the photo he'd been given of Alex Mercer. "Its him!" The soldier smiled to himself "I'll probably get promoted for bringing him in alone."
He looked at the picture again then trained his rifle at the man's head and let out two silenced shots. The body against the wall slumped into a lifeless position and the soldier turned away smiling to himself as he picked up his radio.
"Target has been.." the Blackwatch agent was cut off by a crushing pain in his chest. He looked down too see a bloody fist sticking out of his ribcage. The man crumpled to the floor. The last thing he saw was a pair of yellow eyes glaring at him and the two bullet holes in Mercer's head closing up.
Alex stared at his hand, blood dripped from it onto the cracked pavement below. The pain in his chest was still present but seemed to have calmed. "Jesus" he thought in shock at what he'd done, bending down observing the wound he'd inflicted. Too his horror black and red tendrils began sprouting from his skin snaking their way down and latching onto the body of the dead soldier they penetrated the corpses skin and began pulling the body towards him. It melted into his skin much in the same way as two droplets of rainwater merge when placed near each other.
Alex dropped to his knees as images began to flash in front of his eyes. He heard voices, voices of people he didn't know.
"The target is Alex Mercer, we do not know what he is capable of so he is to be considered a priority 1 threat, shoot to kill!" the voice barked. "Are we clear soldier?"
The man who was speaking suddenly flashed into view. He was dressed in a military uniform. With all the medals that hung from his jacked Alex guessed he must be a reasonably high ranking officer.
"Yes Colonel Taggart" a voice replied. To Alex's surprised he recognized it, it was the same voice of the man he'd just killed.
"What's going on?" he thought. "Am I reading this guy's mind? No!" he quickly dismissed that. "He's dead. I can't tell what he's thinking, memories perhaps?"
The images and noises began to fade until he was back in the alley again, nothing but a pool of blood remained of the soldiers body. Alex stood up the pain in his chest was gone. Not only that he felt good no not just good incredible.
"SOLDIER!"
The voice snapped Alex out of his daze. He turned to see a man dressed similarly to the soldier he just killed only the jacket under his Kevlar was grey and not black.
"Report soldier!" the man in grey continued staring at him.
"What the hell?" Alex thought to himself then he looked down at his hands and too his shock he realized he was dressed just like the soldier he'd killed.
"Report soldier!" the man said again rather more irritably this time.
Alex looked up at him again and he saw the man was carrying a heavily modified automatic weapon complete with grenade launcher. The soldier in grey stopped in-front of him and jabbed the barrel of the weapon into Alex's chest.
"What's your problem soldier? Respond when a superior officer asks you a question" he barked looking Alex in the eyes for a moment the soldier could have swore he saw a flash of yellow through the visor of the gas-mask.
Then without warning the Alex's uniform began to change it retreated into the his skin only to be replaced by his black leather jacket, jeans and grey hoodie.
"Holy shit!" the soldier gasped stumbling back and lifting his rifle at the same time. Instinct took over, Alex grabbed the gun throwing it from the man's grasp and quickly punched him in the chest. He felt the bones break under his fist as the man crumpled to the floor. Alex bent over looking at the lifeless body. "I wonder if?" he thought edging himself closer to the corpse.
Just as he thought the tendrils sprung from his skin pulling the body towards him. Again images began flashing in his mind, he saw the man's life as he trained to become part of Blackwatch every women he'd ever kissed everything he'd ever done embedded into his own mind.
"We'll need an insurance policy" a voice began, he recognized it, it was the man he'd heard the last soldier refer to as Taggart.
"What do you mean?" this voice was from an unknown.
"If Mercer survived there's a high chance he'll come after us and after the exposure to project Zeus I doubt he'll be sane."
"You think he'll be like Cross?" the other voice questioned.
"That's the worst case scenario, hopefully the virus will kill him but as I said we need a bargaining chip in-case Mercer has become something like Captain Cross. Sargent Matthews!" Taggart said thoughtfully.
Suddenly Alex could see him, he was looking straight at him. Although he still couldn't make out the man he'd been speaking with earlier. The memory obviously wasn't very good.
"I want you to apprehend Dr Mercers sister Dana Mercer she currently resides here" Taggart continued handing him a map. "After you have her continue searching for project Zeus."
Then he was back in the alley again. "If the soldiers came searching for me that means they have Dana! my sister?" He strained to think but as hard as he tried he couldn't remember what she looked like or anything about her.
"They did this to me!" Alex growled through gritted teeth "And they'll pay!"
He closed his eyes and visualized the map Taggart had handed the Sargent and saw the a circle of red ink round a block of flats.
"I doubt she'll be alone and this Taggart guy didn't mention anything about moving her once they'd found her. Looks like they are going to be in for a surprise" he muttered smiling to himself as his cloths and skin morphed from his normal attire into Sargent Matthews uniform.