Hello everyone, Lazersword88 here. I'll skip the usual introduction so I can get straight into the story. This chapter will be very action heavy and will also resolve many of the plot elements up to this point. Make sure to leave a review of what you think. Additionally, be sure to check my new poll for what story I'll do after I've completed my current two stories sometime in the near future.
Cooper's Warehouse
Alistar parked the old rickety bus for the third time this evening and set out to find anything left in the now vacated and decimated warehouse. However the ring of Alistar's phone halted his progress. Seeing an unfamiliar number, he decided to answer given all the craziness the night had contained up to this point.
"Hello?" Alistar answered.
"Big brother… I'm sorry…" Akane's voice whimpered before an audible smack could be heard over the line.
"How dare you hit her!" Alistar roared. "I'll hunt you down you prick!"
"That's not how you should speak to the man in control of whether she lives or dies" a familiar voice said sternly over the line.
"You?!" Alistar muttered in shocked surprise. "You're supposed to be with us! Why the hell are you holding her hostage".
"You better get more cooperative, because my trigger finger is feeling so itchy right now" the familiar voice taunted. "You're going to do something for me or your precious little sister will die because of your actions…"
Inside the Warehouse
Saya Korugashi took a deep breath and readied himself for the task that was before him. Behind the large wood door that seemed so out of place in this warehouse setting sat the man responsible for all of the city's troubles over the last day. Saya had mixed feelings about Cooper in all honesty. Saya felt as though he had learned many unique skills and more about himself while under the ever watchful guise of Group 781's leader. But still he could not deny the fact that Cooper had allowed corruption to tarnish his once praiseworthy morals. Saya still had questions though. What did Cooper actually plan on achieving through all of this though? He had successfully used both his ties to Group 781 and the gangs he had once been a member of to capture test subjects for a city wide illegal virus genetics experiment, yet Saya couldn't see where he would stand to gain from all this. If he was trying to sell it for money he would only need a limited test group, not the entire teenage population of the city. Something larger is definitely in the background here. That raises an even more puzzling question. How does Cooper know so much about genetics? Sure, reports say he has some guy known as the Scientist helping him, but one man isn't enough to ensure successful testing.
Saya decides to leave those thoughts for another time and focus on the task at hand. Since he only may have one shot at this, he needed to make it count.
Saya burst into the office chamber, alerting a detachment of guards inside the room. The guards attempted to draw their side arms to silence the threat, but were largely to slow on the draw and fell to the cold tile floor in pools of their own blood. However, two of the guards were able to elude Saya's fire and fire rounds back at the teen. Saya dived off to the side as he continued to fire his rifle, picking off the final guards. Cooper stood up from his desk and drew two pistols, starting to fire them. Saya rolled onto his chest and held down the trigger, only to hear the ominous pattering of a dry fire. Before Saya could load another clip into his gun, one of Cooper's bullets struck Saya's gun and knocked it away from him.
Saya rushed the former police chief from about 20 feet away, bobbing and weaving as he tried to avoid Cooper's sustained fire. As he drew close to Cooper a bullet struck Saya in the shoulder, causing him to wince in pain and limp for a step before continuing his pursuit of his adversary. Cooper continued to fire a hail of bullets until he heard an awful grinding sound from one of his handguns jamming.
"Piece of crap" Cooper mumble as he tossed his weapon away before reaching for a new magazine for is still active pistol.
However before he had a chance to reach his magazine, Saya was right on top of him. Striking Cooper in the face with a decisive right hand, Saya sent his opponent skidding across the blood stained cheap carpet and Cooper's gun skidding into a corner.
Saya bent down and grasped his knees, his breathing labored. His vision began to fade as his hand ran over the warm blooding running out of his shoulder. Cooper was slow to his feet, but managed to stand tall again at his full stature.
"You were always a mistake, weren't you…" Cooper mumbled as he began to slowly walk towards Saya. "You should have never been on my team. Now you won't even die easily for me".
As he walked, Cooper hit a button on his prosthetic arm and a blade protruded from the top of the arm above the wrist, crackling with electricity.
Realizing he was in trouble, Saya sprinted and dived for the gun that he had knocked into the corner when he knocked down Cooper. Obtaining it after a few seconds of bumbling around with it, Saya started firing rounds at his advancing target. None of his rounds found their target though and after 3 shots fired he heard clicking, making his heart drop.
In one final attempt, Saya rushed at his foe. Throwing a massive punch, Saya misses his target. Cooper quickly sweeps Saya's legs out from under him, sending him violently tumbling to the ground.
"Now stay dead, you useless traitor" Cooper said in a stern low voice.
Cooper plunges an end of his bladed instrument in Saya's stomach as the later howls in pain as he feels the combined trauma of the blade and the electric pulses running through him. Raising Saya of the ground and grasping his free hand around his neck, Cooper smiled in grotesque delight at the sight of his dying victim.
"Not today pal!" a new voice said entering the room.
The new figure lifted his scoped rifle up and lined up his sight. Cooper released Saya from his choke in an attempt to grab a knife and throw it at the newcomer. Almost instantaneously knife and bullet found their target. All that could be heard for a few moments was the bullet's brass casing clanking softly against the floor and blood dripping onto the carpet.
Cooper's body hit the floor, its head splattered in pieces painting the back wall of the room a dark red. Saya's body was dragged down with it. Aito collapsed to the ground, breathing heavily. He slowly grasped the knife buried in the side of his chest and pulled it out, screaming in pain the whole time before howling in agony at its permanent removal.
Wrapping his wound, Aito hustled his way over to Saya to check on his status. Saya still had a pulse, but suddenly started shaking.
"He's losing so much blood that he is having a stroke!" Aito cried as he attempted to wrap Saya's wounds by tearing of pieces of his own clothing.
Saya eventually stabilized again for the time being, but was still unconscious. "We have to get out of here pronto…" Aito muttered, picking up his friend and walking to the door, feeling weak himself.
Aito came out of the room and on to the metal rafters walkways that hung above the warehouse's floor. Looking about and not seeing any henchman Aito steps out from the doorway, only to be kicked violently from behind.
"I must thank you!" a voice said, chuckling. "You've tied up some loose ends for me".
"Who are you…" Aito said, using his rifle as a prop to get to his feet.
"You can call me Laz for now, but soon I'll be the ruler of this city" Laz said with an evil smile. "You see, I was Cooper's first agent for the police group and his first test subject, so I know how useful what's been found here can be. With this technology I could control everything. The only problem is the other people who know the secrets of this research, like Cooper or your sleepy friend".
"Back away from me you freak" Aito howled, raising his rifle at the man who walked slowly towards him and the still unconscious Saya.
"You can't stop me, so why even try?" Laz said smirking.
Aito fired a round, which struck Laz square in the chest. Even though the shot found it's mark, it only pushed back Laz a few feet before he got back up and continued to walk towards Aito.
"What are you?!" Aito ask forcefully, firing more shots that hit and went through Laz.
Eventually Aito ran out of shots. Laz kicked Aito in the chest right where the knife had hit him prior. Then he grabbed Aito by the throat and held him over a vat of chemicals on the floor below used in the virus research.
"It's too bad you were just another disposable pawn in the chess game of life" Laz mused.
Out of nowhere, Saya grabbed Laz and slammed him into the ground with an uncanny amount of force given his injuries. Aito tumbled out of Laz's grasp, his rifle landing next to him.
Laz quickly got to his feet and Saya was quick to grab him. Aito returned to his feet slowly as Saya struggled to keep hold of Laz.
"Take the shot Aito!" Saya howled, looking to his best friend.
"Are you insane?" Aito pleaded. "If I take the shot I'll hit you too!"
"Just do it!" Saya barked back.
"No, I can't" Aito said, tears coming to his eyes.
"Listen, I'm probably going to bleed out from my injuries anyway" Saya said with an unusual calm to his friend of so many years. "This is the only chance you're going to get. I can't keep this psycho pinned for much longer. If you care about your life, do it. Otherwise he's going to kill you too and there's nothing I can do about it".
Aito nodded his head, terror stricken across his face. His hands trembled as he lifted his rifle and aimed it at his best friend as Saya continued his valiant struggle.
"One more thing old friend" Saya said. "I want you to find a girl named Kimino and take care of her for me. I'm the reason her mother died and it doesn't look like I'm going to be able to watch out for her anymore. Promise me you'll keep her safe".
"I promise…" Aito said, stuttering.
Aito took the shot, which ripped through Saya's chest and caused both Saya and Laz to stumble backward. Saya in his final moments used his forward momentum to push both himself and Laz over the railing. As the pair feel and his vision faded to black, Saya unpinned a grenade he had strapped around his belt.
The pair plunged into the acidic waste with a mighty splash. Laz immediately struggled to get out of the substance that was burning his skin while Saya was unmoving. Saya's grenade then exploded, blowing apart Laz's body and Saya's as well as the vat sprang leaks.
Aito, feel to his knees and started to sob. He felt as though what he had done to his best friend would always haunt him…
Outside of the City Orphanage
Phil and Lane stared down a woman with long blue hair and a sword who stood before them.
"Do you think she's friendly?" Lane whispered to her boyfriend.
"It's hard to say" Phil replied. "I think the better question is whether or not she speaks English. She doesn't look like she's from around here".
Suddenly a small girl who looked to be in her young teens came running out from behind the blue haired woman and ran over to Phil and Lane.
"Phil you're back!" the young girl yelled, smiling.
"It's good to see that you guys are safe" Phil said. "Do you know anything about that girl over there?"
"Don't get any ideas…" Lane hissed with a slightly perturbed look on her face.
"Geez Lane, why are you being all protective" Phil said with a slight laugh. "I'm trying to figure out if she's going to kill us or not, not if I want to date her!"
"Yea, sure" Lane pouted.
"That girl just showed up here a while ago" the small girl said. "She's been keeping us safe from the bad people, but no one has tried to talk to her yet".
"Good to know…" Phil said, observing the corpses lying about on the pavement outside the orphanage entrance. "I think its best we approach with caution Lane".
Lane and Phil slowly walked up to the girl, who drew her blade upon seeing the sabers that Phil and Lane carried.
"Easy, we don't want any trouble" Phil pleaded. "Do you speak English?"
The girl shook her head no. The small girl who had just talked to Phil and Lane ran up to the girl and signaled as best she could to the stranger that Phil and Lane were ok. The girl walked towards the duo and bowed before running off into the streets, possibly to where she had been staying.
"Well I'm certainly glad she defended the orphanage, whoever she was" Lane said with a small smile.
"Yeah, we'll have to help her out should we ever cross paths again" Phil said. "Now, let's get back to the important business".
"You never did tell me why we are here and not at the warehouse helping our friends" Lane said. "What's so important here?"
"I have reason to believe that Cooper's plot is a front for something much bigger" Phil explained.
"What could possibly be larger than the mass kidnapping, experimentation and execution of hundreds of innocent people?" Lane asked confusedly.
"That really is the question, isn't it…" Phil mumbled. "Ok, so let me start by telling you what we do know. A few years ago back when I was in 781, I found financial records for the city police. The interesting part was of the budget that was given to run police function, 5 million dollars per year was allocated to a Project Clear'".
"Couldn't Project Clear have just been a loophole for the higher ups to embezzle money?" Lane asked.
"That's what I thought at first too" Phil stated. "But then we broke into the basement of the police base the night we rescued Maris. Remember I was able to grab some notes from that lab before we torched the place?"
"Yea that ones that you keep in the lockbox at your apartment" Lane said. "What exactly did they say?"
"I'm no chemical or bioengineer, but from I can garner the experiments involved some sort of human engineered parasitic organism that mimics the bodies DNA structure" Phil said.
"Aren't parasites supposed to hurt you" Lane asked. "Was this some sort of weapon project?"
"There are many conceivable ways that this research could be used if it were to be used successfully, both ethical and unethical" Phil said with a frown. "It could be used to repair cells, beat back cancer or other neurological diseases, or fight common illnesses without the need for repeat injections of vaccines. However, with experimentation and testing, one could do terrible things with such a powerful tool. Genetic mutations that the body wouldn't reject would be possible if one were to sacrifice enough test subjects".
"So that's what Cooper was trying to do?" Lane asked. "That proves that whoever we're dealing with at least has a prototype of this stuff, doesn't it…"
"Exactly" Phil said. "That's not even the scary part though. Theoretically, this technology may perfect other sciences with questionable ethics".
"What makes you think that?" Lane asked, worry evident in her face.
"The notes I pulled from the lab label Maris as Clear Zero" Phil said, regret in his eyes.
"Wait, what?!" Lane asked, shocked.
"That is most likely an indication that either Maris was the first success of Project Clear or that she was the first test subject overall" Phil replied. "I'm not quite sure which one is the truth. However the fact that Maris was the first subject can only mean one of three things. Either Maris had a life threatening illness, has hidden abilities we all don't know about or…"
"…Maris is a clone…" Lane muttered upon realization. "That can't be true! We've both know Maris for a long time. How can she be artificial?"
"It's easy to jump to those thoughts out of sheer emotional backlash but just consider this" Phil began. "There was an extended time in Maris' life where she was unconscious or incapable of knowing if she was alive, which was during the time Cooper and his allies were testing on her. She also doesn't have a vivid memory of her past before the incident".
"Couldn't you attribute that to amnesia?" Lane rebutted.
"Possibly, but we still can't rule out the possibility" Phil said seriously. "That brings us to why we are here. You remember a few months ago when Saya and I raided one of Cooper's remote compounds?"
"Yea, that's when you were reunited with that Yasuga girl right?" Lane said with a annoyed smirk. "The one who's always crushing on you, right?"
"We nabbed the hard drive of one of Cooper's computers before he was able to delete its memory" Phil said.
"But why here?" Lane asked. "Couldn't we go to a proper computer lab? And why leave the team behind if this is the really threat?"
"Alistar and I have been working on a secret computer server room hidden here for a while covertly" Phil said. "The two of us, and now you, are the only ones on the team who know it is here. As for the team… a few moments ago Yasuga confirmed what I had been suspecting for a while. We have a mole on the team. Whoever it is, they are close enough to influence major decisions and relay information to our enemies. How do you think Cooper always knows where to send his lackeys to find us in this big city? It couldn't have been just from intuition every time".
"Do we have any idea who the mole is?" Lane asked, yawning slightly.
"No, but until we do I think it's best to keep every else out of this" Phil said. "You're the person I trust the most out of all of us. Besides, I thought you'd like the alone time" Phil added with a sly smirk.
"Oh, you can be such a flirt sometimes" Lane said hugging Phil. "That's one of the many things I love about you".
"Come on, we can hug all you want later" Phil said with a grin. "We need to settle this, for everyone's sake".
Suddenly, Phil's phone rang and Phil answered it.
"There's been a security breach at the West Hospital" Shiori said in her emotionless tone. "Want me to take care of it?"
"It would be great if you could" Phil said enthusiastically. "Call me when you're done".
Phil hung up and Lane looked at him funny.
"Why are you sending her in there alone?" Lane asked. "Shouldn't you just call the police?"
"I don't trust anyone in the police right now" Phil said, deep in thought. "Shiori has a reason to side with us, since we helped save her brother. Let's get going".
Phil ran up a set of stairs with Lane not far behind. Phil pulled a key from his pocket and unlocked on of the doors. Stepping inside the plain looking room with Lane, Phil reached under the bed and flipped a switch, causing a bookcase in the back of the room to slide away to the right.
Phil reactively drew his two fencing sabers and Lane, surprised by Phil's sudden action, followed suit.
"What's going on?" lane whispered as Phil crept closer to the now exposed door.
"The lights shouldn't be on in this room" Phil whispered back. "Someone else is in here. Let me go first, and then you follow when I give you a signal".
Phil opened the door slowly as he recognizes Alistar sitting in the computer chair, his back to Phil.
"Hey Alistar, what are you doing here…" Phil began.
"I'm sorry, but I have to do this" Alistar crowed.
Quickly spinning his chair around, Alistar aimed his high caliber revolver straight for Phil's chest…
West Hospital
Shiori walked into the hospital, her white blue tinged hair trailing behind her.
"Can I help you sweaty?" a nurse at the front desk asked.
"Which room was the break-in in?" Shiori asked, still emotionless.
"Now honey, it's too dangerous for you to go up there, so let the police handle it…"
"Talk" Shiori muttered, drawing her knife and holding it against the nurse's chest.
After the nurse spilled, Shiori proceeded up to the given floor. Knocking on the door, a large beer bellied man revealed himself. The man drooled at the sight of Shiori and attempted to grab her by the shoulders. "Let's play a really fun game little girl" the drooling thug said, perverted desire in his eyes. "You want some candy?"
"No, I want your life" Shiori said without caring much as she jabbed the knife she was hiding behind her giant book into the man's eye before twisting the dagger deeper and deeper.
After howling for a bit, the big man collapsed. The only problem was he fell right on top of Shiori. The barely 100 pound girl was crushed by the big man's weight as a second man in the room took notice and pointed a pistol at her. Shiori didn't even blink at the thought of her impending death, not thinking life was worth living anyways.
However, with one solid crack of a shiny metal pole the second crook was downed by a familiar face.
"You alright?" Rexan asked, prying the large corpse of Shiori with some effort.
"I guess…" Shiori muttered in a barely audible tone. "I need to make a call…"
Back in the Orphanage's Secret computer room…
"No you don't!" Lane yelled out as she lunged out at Alistar with her blade, an epee rapier.
The sword met his gun, causing him to drop it and the gun to discharge and strike a random wall. Phil backed away from Alistar and drew his two fencing blades.
"Why the hell are you doing this?" Phil yelled. "Didn't you want to protect your sister and friends?"
"You're one to talk, you monster!" Alistar barked. "I won't let you take her from me!"
"Wait, what are you talking about?" Lane said, ready to strike at any moment.
"I know it was you, you traitor!" Alistar yelled.
"Traitor?" Phil laughed. "You're the one betraying us!"
"Oh really?" Alistar asked. "You shouldn't plead for innocence when you've already admitted guilt!"
"What the hell is he guilty of?" Lane asked forcefully.
"This little wanker is holding my sister hostage and slapped her too!" Alistar barked.
"That isn't possible" Lane said. "I've been with him all night and he hasn't been anywhere near the hospital".
"So you're in on it too… or your boy toy pulled one over on you" Alistar smirked.
"First you threaten my boyfriend… and now you insult me!" Lane yelled. "You're as good as dead!" Lane said, charging the boy haired teen.
Lane charged straight at Alistar and lunged with her epee (a variety of fencing sword as elaborated above). Alistar was slow to sidestep because of all the gear he carried, but was able to block the strike with a quick raise of his machete. Backing away from the girl he raised his crossbow, loaded a bolt onto the table and fired. Phil sprang into action and deflected the bolt with a quick draw and swing of the giant two handed sword he had recovered after defeating Stanley. Lane holstered her saber and drew the bow she had taken from Lex before losing an arrow directly at Alistar while staying behind Phil. Alistar raised his crossbow instinctually and blocked the deadly arrow, but his crossbow was lodged from his grip.
"Fine, sword on sword it is" Alistar said, dropping his bulky rifle and remaining gear in favor of his machete.
"Listen Alistar, you don't have to do this" Phil pleaded. "We can work this out if we just talk about it".
"As much as you would like it to Phil, talking can never resolve every argument" Alistar grumbled. "Especially after you have wronged me and my family. Because of our old friendship I'll make your death quick".
"Don't make me do this Alistar" Phil said. "Does working together for years mean anything to you?"
"I agree with Alistar for once" Lane said, steeping in front of Phil. "The time for talk is over!"
Lane charges at Alistar and lunges from a few feet away. Alistar instinctively swings at Lane's blade to swat it away, but Lane's blade is already withdrawn. Lane quickly sidesteps around Alistar and lunge reposts at the slow to catch up foe. Alistar again swats at Lane's epee and connects this time, knocking the lightweight blade away from his opponent. Alistar crudely slashes his blade at the defenseless Lane who gracefully dodges the attacks with her highly honed footwork. As Lane works her way back to her blade, Alistar's aggression only intensifies. As she is almost to her blade, Lane takes a bad step and her balance is momentarily thrown off. Seizing this moment, Alistar swings at Lane with a decisive slash.
However Phil steps in and parries the blade away with his first saber before lunging to stab Alistar in the chest. Alistar leans back to try to avoid the stab, but falls down and crawls away quickly with his machete. Meanwhile Lane does a graceful back cartwheel and picks up her blade again.\
Alistar stands in the opposite side of the room from the other two, his breathing heavy. "Come on Phil, are you really going to let the lady do all the work?" Alistar taunted.
"I was trying to give you a chance to come to your senses" Phil said.
"I think it's a little too late for that, wouldn't you agree" Alistar said as Lane and Phil advanced towards him again.
"Back off Lane, he's mine" Phil said with his boundless drive apparent on his features.
"Do you really think that's a good idea?" Lane asked worriedly, but her worry was soon lifted when she saw Phil's face. He was clearly angry, but there was a calm about him showing that he was in control.
"His problem is with me, so I think it's best we settle it just the two of us" Phil said with a slight smile to Lane. "Besides, there's no honor in it if we don't give him a fighting chance.
"It's always been about you and your honor hasn't it?" Alistar said, chuckling slightly. "Look around you! Your honor is a delusion! Honor doesn't right any wrongs. Hundreds of innocent teens are dead because of Cooper and his experiments! Did he give them a fighting chance? Honor means nothing to these criminals and the only way you can achieve anything is to get your hands dirty! When are you going to learn that?"
"I did everything I could to help those captives" Phil said solemnly. "I'm not perfect, I know that. I realize that people died because of the choices I made tonight and I'm sorry I let them down. But this city needs someone to be honest and take ownership of all this, and I'm willing to be the person. Two wrongs don't make a right Alistar".
"But two wrongs do make things better" Alistar. "Let's end this. Just know in the back of your mind that when I kill you, Lane is next."
Phil charged at Alistar and lunged with his right handed saber. Alistar dodged to the right and stabbed at Phil, who parried his blade with the blade he just lunged with before jumping into the air and spinning to slice at Alistar with his left handed blade. Alistar ducked under the blade and slashed at Phil's legs, but Phil sprang to the right just enough to avoid the slash. As Alistar followed through, Phil stepped back in and lunge reposted towards Alistar's chest again. Alistar instinctively blocked the strike. However after seeing that desperate block for the second time, Phil cut across with the blade in his left hand and stabbed into Alistar's blade. This caused painful vibrations to course through Alistar's hand. As Alistar's grip loosened on his blade, Phil came back around with his right hand saber and struck Alistar's blade. The blade left Alistar's grip and skid across the floor away from him.
In desperation Alistar threw a wild hook, but Phil read it and ducted under before delivering a bone jarring kick to Alistar's ribs. As Alistar recoiled back against the wall, Phil rushes forward and delivered a hard knee to the same part of his chest. Before he could collapse down to the ground, Phil cracked Alistar in the face with an elbow which caused Alistar to lay flat on his back. With one blade to his neck, another against his chest and foot pressed against his weakened ribs, Phil had Alistar pinned.
"Give in" Phil said with a serious glare.
"Just do it, kill me" Alistar said.
"No… I know you're my friend deep down and this is just a misunderstanding" Phil said with hope.
"Knowing what happened here I know that if you let me live we will continue to fight in the future too" Alistar said. "You're going to have to get your hands dirty and be responsible for the death of someone who matters to you eventually, and I'm about to give you incentive to do it. You can dance in the flames all you want Phil, but you're eventually going to burn".
From a hidden pocket, Alistar pulled a fragmentation grenade and had his finger resting dangerously close to the pin.
"What the hell are you doing?!" Phil blurted out.
"You better listen to me very carefully" Alistar whispered as Lane looked on in fear. "If you try to take this grenade from me, I'll pull the pin. If you tell her to run, I'll pull the pin and kill all of us. The only way you two make it out of this room both alive is if you kill me in cold blood".
"Why the hell are you doing this?!" Phil yelled out. "Don't you want to live to be with your sister?"
"About that…" Alistar murmured. "I want you to promise her you'll never tell her how I died. I know you've already done horrible things to her, but never spoil her last hope that I'm coming…"
"What the hell are you talking about?!" Phil yelled. "I already told you I'm not the one responsible for whatever is happening to her".
"Well I don't believe you" Alistar said, looking away. "I'm going to count to five and in that time you're going to have to decide what is more important to you, your honor or the girl you care about…"
"Alistar, listen to yourself…" Phil tried to say.
"5…4…" Alistar said.
"Don't make me do this…" Phil said, his eyes tearing a bit as he lifted his saber to strike down his friend.
"3…2…1…" Alistar counted.
All of a sudden, Lane's phone started to ring. An uneasy silence flooded the room and cut through the tension like a knife. Lane's hands shock as she brought the phone up to her face.
"Hel…lo…" Lane murmured.
"This is Shiori, I took care of the situation at the hospital" Shiori said over the line. "Is something wrong?"
"No, everything is… fine" Lane struggled to save. "Who was being held hostage?"
"One second…" Shiori said as a rustling could be heard over the line. "It's a girl named Akane Blackwood".
"Did you say Akane?" Lane asked back.
"Put it on speaker dammit!" Alistar said, his finger still on the grenade's pin and tears rolling down his face.
"Could you put her one the phone please?" Lane asked.
"Ok…" Shiori said vacantly as more rustling could be heard in the background.
"Hi big sister Lane!" a soft, innocent voice said over the line. "Do you know where my big brother is?"
"He's right here with us" Lane said. "Do you want to talk to him?"
"Yes!" the young girl said enthusiastically.
Lane walked over to Alistar and held the phone to his head since he was still pinned by Phil.
"Akane… is that you?" Alistar stammered, still tearing up.
"Yes it's me!" Akane said. "Are you ok big brother? You sound really sad…"
"I'm fine little sis" Alistar said. "Did anyone hurt you?"
"No, I'm ok" Akane said. "I just got a few bruises, that's all".
"Listen to me very carefully, ok?" Alistar said. "I want you to stay with the girl who helped you, ok?"
"Ok" the girl happily replied. "I'm feeling sleepy big brother…"
"Ok, you go to sleep now…" Alistar said, his tears dripping on the floor.
"By big brother" the girl said before hanging up.
"She…she's… she's ok…" Alistar barely managed to say before breaking down into sobbing and dropping the grenade onto the floor. Alistar cried into Phil's chest and Phil patted him on the back as Lane joined the embrace. Finding out about whatever was going on could wait...
Inside a seemingly abandoned building near the shopping district…
Maris and Casper stared at the room around them in dumbstruck awe.
"Why… is this some kind of trick?" Maris asked. "Are you seeing this Casper?"
"Unfortunately" Casper said with a fierce scowl.
The room was dimly let by the dull green glow of about a dozen hollow hard glass tubes. Each tube was filled with the green glowing liquid along with a body inside with an assortment of wires and tubes sticking out of them. These wires ran into a machine, which pumped some things in and other liquids out. Some of the bodies in the tubes looked to be nothing more than babies, others were grotesquely deformed looking and a few looked no different than any other human.
"Here, I think I found something that might help us get answers" Casper said.
Casper pointed it at a lockbox and without any second thought pulled out his handgun to shoot the lock off. After a few bullets and a little effort, the box was open.
"Are you sure you want to know this?" Casper warned, skimming the information contained within.
Maris gave Casper a silent nod and Casper began to read. "Whatever this is, it is called Project Clear" Casper read. "The program started out as a private study during the pre-cold war era into whether an artificially made parasite could cure some at the time incurable diseases" Casper began. "At the advent of the cold war, the United States' military sought to use the technology as a weapon to give important Russian leaders crippling illness but the plan fell through. The technology went dormant again until the scientific breakthroughs of cloning began. In the early running the precursor to project clear was a more ethical, albeit more costly alternative to stem cell cloning since it did not require the sacrifice of unborn life. However, the cloning process had an interesting side effect which led N.A.T.O. to ban the technology and the governments of the world to censor almost all information on the testing processes and results. The parasite worked upon injection by latching on to the heart of the first host and taking enough samples of the host's DNA to be effective in cloning, all while being non-fatal to the first host. After a sufficient sample is gathered, the parasite is removed from its host through a small blood drawing. After that, the clone is grown with the sample the parasite collects. After the clone is fully grown, the parasite latches on to the new host's heart and helps to severely decrease the effects of accelerated aging experienced by most clones. However, the side effect that got it banned was that the clone would remember the memories of the person it was a clone of due to brain cells being amongst the data taken".
"What's the danger in that?" Maris asked. "That sounds like a good thing".
"But think of how powerful someone could be if they abused this technology" Casper stated. "If you could grow a clone of an important political and religious leader that had their memories but then implant your ideals, you could change the course of history".
"Does it say who invented these advances?" Maris asked bluntly.
"Umm let's see… oh my God!" Casper exclaimed.
"Who was it?!" Maris implored.
"You're not going to believe this but according to these records, the sole credited inventor of the clone aspect of this technology was… Helen Angelo" Casper said.
"Phil's mother!" Maris yelled. "No one has ever known much about her before now! That still doesn't explain how Cooper got ahold of this technology or how I'm involved with any of this".
"Ahahahaha!" an unknown voice said from the shadowy corner of the room. "Now this is just priceless!"
"Who's there!?" Maris and Casper said in unison, now facing the source of the voice.
"To think that the original subject would wander in here out of the blue and I would be the one to welcome her just gets my blood boiling!" the still indistinguishable figure said in sadistic delight.
"Original subject?" Maris asked confusedly.
"Why yes my dear!" the figure said. "You were the first test subject of our grand little program".
"Our program?" Maris asked. "So you must be a clone too?"
"Honestly darling all I know is that I took part in the program" the figure continued. "I don't know if I'm the original or the clone and frankly I don't care".
"How can I be a clone when I've never seen anyone like myself?" Maris asked. "And why is it that I don't have any memories?"
"That's because you were never meant to live" the figure droned in a now dark tone.
"Of course she was meant to live!" Casper howled.
"Let me tell you a true tale of an untold romance" the figure said, giggling a bit at the end. "This Helen Angelo you speak of was unsatisfied with her marriage. The once charming man who stood by her side had turned into an abusive, alcoholic wreck of a man. But Helen wasn't that innocent either. She started a relationship with a man who she knew quite well and had saved her life countless times from political assassins. The man's name was Harold Cooper".
"There's no way that's true!" Maris yelled. "Why should I believe you?"
"Because you're the product of that relationship" the shadowy figure continued. "The night that Helen had her first born child Phil was also the night Martin Angelo found out about Helen's relationship with Cooper. After Martin committed suicide, Helen faked her own death for reasons unknown and changed her name to Scarlet so that she could be with Cooper. However when their first child together died in infancy, Cooper stole the research Helen had done and no one knows what happened to her after. Isn't that just delightful!"
"You're sick!" Casper shouted. "You think something like that is funny?!"
"You, my dear Maris, were the first product of Project Clear" the figure rambled in a sickening glee. "The reason you have no memories is because you never were alive long to begin with. You know, I was never the same person after I learned this truth…"
"Who the hell are you anyway?" Maris asked.
"The last person you ever see darling!" the voice shrieked.
The figure stepped out of the shadowy corner of the room and fired a single shot from a small pistol.
"Maris!" Casper yelled out, running to the girl and drawing his own gun to fire back.
Maris stood paralyzed at the figure in front of her, her red eyes shaking as tears began to fall. Standing before her was an almost mirror image of Phil Angelo. The teen had the same facial structure as Phil but had a buzz cut, a large blade scar across the area around his left eye and a wide frightening smile that lacked the warmth and comfort of the real Phil's smile. His skin was of a tanner complexion, but not as tan as Phil's due to decreased exposure to sunlight. Rather than Phil's fencing gear and day to day clothes, this figure appeared combat ready. The figure wore a Kevlar vest and had multiple bandoliers and pouches to carry equipment. Everything about this figure was combat ready.
Maris' eyes moved from her assailant to the blood oozing out of her newly acquired bullet wound. Feeling dizzy, she collapsed to the ground and could only watch as Casper made a desperate assault.
Casper fired off two shots at the figure who ducked under the shots while unsheathing a vicious looking long knife and throwing it straight for Casper. It struck Casper in the upper right chest and pierced all the way through. Casper soon realizes that he was now pinned to the wall and tried to pull the blade out of his body.
The figure walked up to the struggling Maris and picked her off the ground by the neck. "You asked who I was, so I might as well oblige before you bleed out" the figure said. "I'm Clear 2, or Humanoid Operative Responsible for Undercover Suppression. Person I prefer to go by Horus. You were just too much of a nuisance to let live and my boss gave me orders to eliminate you".
"Are you just another one of Cooper's grunts?" Maris said weakly as Casper continued to struggle.
"One of Cooper's grunts?!" Horus said with a wicked smile. "Not even close! This just goes to show me how far from the truth you and your bunch really are. Guess what? We pulled one over on you! You guys thought that Cooper was a real threat? Well guess what? He was just a decoy. Think about it for a second, why would we want to draw you all out here? And here's a hint, it's not to tell bad jokes".
"Wait… You're trying to draw out every person who is connected to Police Group 781!" Maris yelled.
"Exactly!" Horus said, invading the dying Maris' personal space. "You guys are the only ones from achieving our ends. And you guys have already done most of the work for us. You dropped Sophia off a roof, so she's most likely dead. I found out a few minutes ago that Saya and Laz took each other out for good. Bradley, Lex, Ander, Denise and Stanley are all too dead to have a change of heart. Rikio's been beaten half to death so I'm sure sending someone to kill him won't be too hard. You're bleeding to death. Yasuga hadn't been with the group for long enough for it to be probable that she would know vital information. And then I personally exploited Alistar's obsessive need to protect his sister and sent him on a collision course with Phil. All I need to do is kill whoever comes out alive from their fight and then my boss will reward me quite handsomely".
"What the hell are you trying to do…?" Maris said, feeling weaker by the second.
"Hang in there Maris!" Casper said desperately.
"Isn't it obvious" Horus said, sniffing Maris' black hair and exhaling with delight. "Once everyone who knows any clues about our project are snuffed out, we'll be free to create clones of anyone we please and implant them with our ideas. Once they are ready, we can kill or use the real version of the person and have the version we create as a puppet. Imagine the kind of world power that could grant someone!"
"Why… you?" Maris barely managed to mutter. "You… should have… his memories…"
"I was created when Phil was in the hospital after saving his now current girlfriend Lane" Horus began while taking his hand and sticking it in the bullet hole, causing Maris to wince and shake in agony. "It wasn't known if Phil was going to survive the surgery to close his knife wound and Cooper still had hopes of trying to recruit Phil back into 781, so just in case Phil did die Cooper asked for Phil to be cloned and my boss agreed. However despite the odds Phil did survive the surgery and at the same time the cloning process was successful. Modern philosophy has always wondered what would happen if two people with the same memories were able to exist simultaneously. I guess I am the answer to that. Phil and I aren't connected subconsciously, but rather our personalities evolved in different directions based on our individual experiences from that point forward. Phil went on to find love, solace in his friends and competition in athletics while he desperately searched for answers concerning our dealings. Meanwhile I stayed true to the calling Cooper had originally intended me for. However, I soon realized that everyone around me died horribly no matter what I did and that if I truly were to have the power to save those I lost, they would not be worth saving anymore because of their inferiority. In my life, cruelty has been the teacher and you in your last moments will know what pains me".
Maris' red eyes finally came to a close and her limbs hung limp. "Maris!" Casper said, finally freeing himself before violently falling to the ground.
"Ah… Casper Tapely" Horus said with a wicked grin. "My memory of nearly killing you is one of the last memories that Phil and I share chronologically. How about I go all the way this time?"
"How could you kill her you bastard!" Casper yelled.
"Oh, you're about to find out first hand" Horus said, licking Maris' blood of his hand.
However, Horus' phone rang. "Yo, boss!" Horus said. "…awe do I have to? I was just about to have some fun… Ok, fine I'll take care of them".
Hanging up his phone, Horus turned to face Casper. "I'll have to kill you another time, so stay alive for me!"
"Where do you think you're going" Casper said, grabbing Horus' knife and thrusting at the man's head.
Horus grabbed Casper's arm and with a quick snap he bent Casper's arm the wrong way and broke it. Then he took the knife out of Casper's hand and slashed his leg with it. Finally he grabbed Casper by the throat and held the knife to his face.
"That's going to cost you an eye" Horus hissed.
The knife slowly scraped down Casper's face forming a long scar before Horus violently plunged the knife into Casper's eye as he yelled in pain. Horus then dropped Casper to the floor and walked out of the room, polishing his bloodstained knife before returning it to its holster.
Casper slowly crawled to Maris, who showed no signs of life. "Maris… you're ok… right?" Casper said, as blood tricked down his face and he felt dizzier with every motion of his body. "Wake up dammit" he said shaking her. "We're going to make it! Please don't go!"
Casper grabbed Maris' limp body and struggled to crawl with her on his back. "Don't you die on me…" Casper muttered as if she could hear him. "If we survived this… I was going to admit how I felt… about us. Just please don't go!"
Casper struggled through the entrance of the building and on to the cold rooftop. Much to his surprise, the building exploded into a huge fireball. Illuminated by the bright explosion was a man in a white unbuttoned lab coat who was holding a grenade launcher. Casper reached out to the man, who seemed to notice Casper. "Please… help her!" Casper said. "Don't worry about me, help her!"
The man walked up to Casper and Casper stared into his bright brown eyes. "Yes, I will help her" he said in an almost uncaring voice. "She is still of use to me…"
To be concluded…
Will Alistar be ok? Is anyone from the police group actually safe? Will Phil and Lane confront Horus? What does the man in the lab coat want Sophia and Maris for? Will Casper survive? What vital information may Yasuga and Sora be carrying? Will the girls get to Phil in time to relay it or will something horrible befall him along the way? Laz can't really be dead, can he? Will Cooper still have significance after his death or was his plan a cover for Project Clear all along? What sort of long term psychological effects will Saya's death have on Aito? What horrible event sent Horus down such a different path then Phil? Will the city ever be the same after this? Who is the mole who is close to Phil? Will Phil be able to find out the truth and stop it before it is too late? Whatever did happen to Helen Angelo? Did she event more than just project clear? Why did she abandon Phil? Will Phil find out the truth about his mother? Will there be emotional backlash if he does? Will everyone important to Phil, especially Lane, survive the night? Who can be trusted? Is the lab coated man the ever so hinted at scientist? If so, is he a friend or a foe? What became of the other people, such as Jelani and Nina, who are still missing? How will Phil and his friends react to Maris and Saya's deaths? Is there really any way to help Maris, or is Casper just being used? Why are there so many damn questions even though I just answered a lot of the reader's burning questions? And how the heck am I going to sum this up in one last chapter for this arc?
Oh jeez guys, this one took a lot of work. I would love it if this chapter got 15 to 20 reviews. It'd really make me feel great with the amount of work I've put in. It's back to school for me and I'm busy after changing my major and with my sports so I really don't have as much time to write anymore. But I promise I'll keep working on this story and Dead Delinquents until they are both done. After I'm done these two though I've decided that I'm a one story at a time author at best, given all the stuff the eats away at my time.
Anyways, please review everybody! I love it when reviewers try to answer the questions I put at the end of chapters. I think it's cool seeing where people think my story might go. Also please vote in my story poll. That way you can have a voice in what I write next.
Until next time everybody. Lazersword88, overworked with intermediate microeconomic theory!