Dana's Safehouse, New York, 1:30pm
"Who are you calling?" Dana asked as she watched her brother pick up the phone and begin punching in a number.
"I've learnt all I can from the drive but there was a phone number for Karen Parker in her file" Alex explained as pressed the last digit and brought the phone up to his head.
"Oh the blond you thought you might have been banging" Dana said as she sat down.
"Are you really my sister or did you get a sex change at birth? I thought girls took offence to language like that?" Alex asked jokingly, earning a glare from Dana.
"Ok the blond girl you thought you where 'making love too' on a regular basis" Dana replied using her fingers to represent quotation marks.
"Condescension is very unattractive in a girl. No wonder you don't have a boyfriend" Alex quipped back quickly ducking as a cup of water narrowly missed his head. "Ok its ringing. You can throw more stuff at me later" Alex replied as he heard the telltale ringing sound through the receiver.
"Hello?"
"Is this Karen Parker?" Alex asked hoping the number wasn't a dead end.
"Yes. Who is this?" She had a velvet feminine voice that sounded eerily familiar.
"Ermmm I don't really know how to begin here" he began, quickly trying to think up something to say.
"Look I don't know who this is but…Wait your voice sounds familiar" the woman on the other end said suspiciously.
"Karen its Alex" he finally blurted out, he couldn't think of anything else to say and at least he would be able to tell by her reaction if she actually knew him.
"Is this some kind of joke?" Karen's voice was cold and accusing.
"Listen I…"
"I don't know what Blackwatch is playing at but you guys already have people posted outside my house if you want to know something just f***ing ask. Go tell your boss to give you something more productive to do with your time instead of impersonating dead people" she snapped before hanging up the phone.
"Shit" Alex said as he placed the phone on the table.
"Dead end?" Dana asked looking at her brother quizzically.
"No, she didn't believe I was me" Alex sighed sitting down opposite Dana.
"You gonna ring her back?"
"I can't. If I do she might mention it to Blackwatch thinking its them and then they'll know that I'm trying to make contact her. That could make getting to her rather tricky" Alex replied.
"Well she did pick up the phone right?"
"Yeah. Why?"
"I might be able to track the number to an address but I'll only be able to do it if the transmission went through" Dana said picking up the phone and walking into the study.
A few minutes later she remerged with a sheet of paper in her hand. "I'm afraid you didn't keep her on the phone long enough for me to get an exact location but I got an approximate location within a 1 mile radius" Dana said rather disappointedly.
"That should be enough. Karen said that Blackwatch where watching her, I'll just look for the building with the armed guards outside" Alex replied as he took the map from her and began walking towards the door. "Discretion is probably the best course of action in the case" he thought as he walked out into the street and hailed a taxi.
"Where to son?" the cab driver asked as Alex climbed into the back seat.
"Can you take me here?" he replied passing the map to the driver.
"Sure. Any particular street?"
"No, if you could just get me to the center of the circle on the map I can make my way from there" Alex replied as he slumped back into the seat.
"Right you are" the man said as he slipped into first gear and pulled out into the road.
"I can't believe this but I actually think I prefer running over rooftops than ridding in a car" Alex thought as he watched the passing traffic out the window. "My way is certainly faster" he murmured as the cab stopped in front of a red light.
"What did you say son?" the cabby asked turning his head slightly.
"Nothing I was just thinking out loud" Alex replied still not looking away from the window.
"So what do you do?" the man asked as the light went green.
"Oh great, now I'm going to have to talk" Alex thought irritatedly. "I'm a scientist" he replied truthfully.
"A scientist huh? You found out how to stop global warming yet?"
"Yeah, don't appoint liars as world leaders" Alex replied letting his head fall backwards.
"Ah a skeptic huh?"
"As a scientist I have to consider all the possibilities even the less conventional ones" Alex continued as he stared at the roof of the cab.
"So you reckon the government keeps a lot of secrets from us?" the man asked as he flipped the indicator and turned down a road.
Alex smiled if only this man knew what he'd been through then he'd know the answer. "You have no idea."
"Well, here we are son" the cab driver said a few minutes later as he pulled over onto the curb a few minutes later.
"Keep the change" Alex said as he handed the man some notes and got out of the cab. "Well looks like I'm going to have my work cut out for me" he thought as he looked at all the buildings lining the street where he was standing.
After looking down two rows of buildings he still hadn't seen anything out of the ordinary. Either he was in the wrong place or Blackwatch did understand the meaning of subtle after all. He was about throw caution to the wind and take to the rooftops when he saw a large apartment complex in front of him. Something about the building was familiar he couldn't tell exactly what it was but it was almost as if he'd seen it before. As he crossed the road and drew closer to the building he began to recognize more things about it. "I've definitely been here before" he thought as he walked up the small flight of stairs leading to the door. As soon as he entered the building his head began to throb as memories flooded back into his mind.
"Alex?" The voice echoed in his head. Turning he saw a woman standing at the entrance of one of the elevators in the hall.
"Karen?"
"Alex you look like hell. You work too much" she replied smiling.
He blinked and she was gone. "Must have been a flash like my dream" he thought as he rubbed his forehead. He walked up to the elevator where he'd seen Karen and stood in front of it. Alex didn't like elevators, he wasn't claustrophobic, it must have just been the feeling of having no control he disliked. Looking around he spied a stairwell a little further down the hall. Pushing the door open he looked up at the huge flight of stairs above him. What made matters worse wasn't the enormous amount of apartments on each floor but also the fact he had no idea which floor she was on.
15 minutes later he'd scoured the first 3 floors with nothing to show for it and was in the process of making his way to the 4th floor. "This would be so much easier if I could see where those Blackwatch b******s are" he mumbled as he ran up the stairs. Then he stopped. "Wait maybe I can" he thought as he remembered what had happened in the sewers. He'd been able to see in the dark because his eyes had tuned themselves to bounce what little light was in the tunnels off the walls to create the illusion of sight. If he could tune his sight to pick out light spectrum's he should be able to tune them to pick out other things, like body heat, at least that was his theory. Staring in front of him he tried to project the image of a human in front of him so his eyes would have something to adjust to. His vision flashed in front of him, the light was so bright he had to close his eyes. He attempted to open them again but was blinded by the same searing light. "Crap I must be using night vision again" he thought as he willed his vision to return to normal. "Honestly Alex what did you think was going to happen? You were just going to think it and suddenly you'd be able to see through walls? For a scientist your pretty f***ing stupid" he growled to himself frustratedly.
Angrily he struck the wall to his right shattering some of the plaster. His vision changed abruptly to a blue haze then flashed back to normal. "What the hell was that?" he thought blinking trying to get the blue haze to reappear again. He knew he'd just done it. Alex remembered that rattlesnakes hunted their prey using heat and that blue haze was exactly what he remembered seeing on nature shows when the program wanted to show people how the animals hunted. Remembering how he'd felt when it had happened he tried to recreate the feeling. He'd been angry that he couldn't find Karen. Focusing he tried to get it to reappear but nothing happened. Then he realized he hadn't been angry that he couldn't find Karen, he'd been frustrated sure but not angry. The thing that had really annoyed him was that he couldn't see the Blackwatch agents, he couldn't see his prey. His vision blurred and was replaced by the blue haze looking up he could see everyone in the building, not clearly of course but as blurs of red and yellow representing their body heat. "So that's how my abilities work" he thought smiling, they didn't simply appear randomly they adapted to their environment to make him more effective at finding what every other animal spent every waking moment looking for. "Food its making me better at finding food, its turning me into a more effective predator" he thought, it all made sense now, the claws, the night vision, the speed, the strength they had all benefited him in searching for and killing his prey. Although he thought he'd gained the claws from killing the hunters he was wrong, he probably already had the ability to make them but it was only when he'd seen the hunters using them the virus had seen how they had been used to make the hunters more effective at catching prey and mimicked them. Shaking his head he snapped back to the task at hand. Staring upwards he looked for anything out of the ordinary. There on the 8th floor. There where two people standing outside the door that led to the stairs and another two were standing outside what must have been the elevator door. "Let the hunt begin" he thought as he ran up the stairs as fast as he could.
New Avengers hide out, New York 1:30pm
"Where have you been?" Carol almost screamed out as Peter walked in the door.
"Carol I…"
"And what's more where do you get off deciding what we should and shouldn't know!" she continued getting to her feet and walking menacingly towards him.
Peter looked puzzled for a moment then he noticed the guilty look on Logan's face. "Listen I couldn't tell you all because if you 'd known all of you would have been distracted and…."
"Still what gives you the right to decide what we should and shouldn't know!" the blond woman said stopping right infront of Peter and looking directly into his eyes. Peters eyes wandered to her lips and briefly he remembered the feeling of them being pressed forcefully against his own.
"Well!" Carol snapped, becoming impatient at his lack of a reply.
"Look webs I understand why you did what you did but we have been doing this a long time and we know how to keep our emotions in check and which priorities to put first" Clint said looking at Peter.
"You think just because you got infected we would stop saving people and save your ass?" Jessica snapped.
"Well that's really reassuring, at least I know who not to turn to when I'm in trouble" Peter replied jokily.
"Hey! I don't really care that your infected and that you lied to us in fact if you died I'd finally get to add blue to my costume without being called a copycat!" Deadpool suddenly piped up "but if you start stealing my thunder as the funny guy in this story I will be mad at you along with the rest!"
"Where did you go anyway?" Wolverine asked ignoring Deadpool.
"Well if you didn't like me keeping the fact that I'm infected from you guys then you're going to hate this" Peter admitted looking away from Carols blue eyes, that looked like a hurricane over the ocean at that point.
"I just got back from H.A.M.M.E.R" Peter said and watched as his words sank in.
"WHAT!" Carol screamed "YOU COULD HAVE BEEN KILLED AND WE WOULD HAVE NOT HEARD ANYTHING ABOUT IT!"
"We'd probably have heard about it on the web" Deadpool said smiling slightly at the pun.
Ms Marvel turned her murderous gaze to Deadpool. "I SWEAR IF YOU MAKE ANOTHER JOKE! JUST ONE I WILL...." Carol growled advancing on him.
"Stop don't fight it's not necessary" Jessica said putting herself between Deadpool and Carol.
"Blasphemy all fights are necessary!" Deadpool piped up indignantly.
"Ok Wilson you aren't helping, me and you are gonna take a walk" Logan said grabbing Deadpool by the arm and pulling him towards the door.
"Oooooo can we go to that Mexican restaurant down the road? Did you know I can order Chimichanga's in 7 different languages?" the mercenary said excitedly as Logan threw him roughly through the doorway.
"Don't bother Logan we need to get this sorted and unfortunately hes a part of it now" Peter sighed.
"Awww does this mean no Mexican food?" Deadpool groaned as he reappeared through the doorway.
"DON'T AVOID THE QUESTION WHY THE F*** WOULD YOU GO TO H.A.M.M.E.R ALONE?" Carol screamed again, she was angry no scratch that she was livid.
"Look we needed them and I thought as I was already…."
"I DON'T GIVE A CRAP WHAT YOU THOUGHT. YOU DON'T JUST GO OFF AND TALK WITH OSBORN AND HIS GANG OF MERRY LUNATICS ON YOUR OWN" Carol continued.
"Merry maniacs would have been funnier."
Carol turned back to look at Deadpool. "What did you just say?" she asked the mercenary in a surprisingly calm tone.
"Dear god Wilson don't say another word" Logan thought as he waited for the inevitable to happen.
"Merry maniacs would have been a funnier line, I mean it rhymes" Deadpool replied cheerfully.
All the other Avengers held their breath they knew what happened when Carol was like this especially when you start answering rhetorical questions. With lightning speed Carol appeared in front of the smirking mercenary and stuck him hard on the head. Deadpools neck broke and his head spun round until he was facing the opposite direction and he slumped to the floor. It was then Carol snapped out of her bloodlust.
"God I didn't kill him did I?" she asked slightly horrified.
"Don't worry about it hun" Deadpool said as he got back to his feet, his head swinging at a sickening angle "It's not the first time a hot blond chick broke my neck and it won't be the last."
"Look as Clint said we know why you did what you did Pete" Cage suddenly said, being the first person brave enough to interrupt Carol. "But you can't decide these kinds of things by yourself. I know you're used to flying solo but that's not how it works here" he finished eyeing Peter sternly.
"You're right I knew I shouldn't have done it but I did it anyway. I'm sorry I worried you guys and I promise it won't happen again" Peter replied earnestly.
Most of the Avengers seemed appeased by this, they knew he'd only gone alone because he wanted to keep them out of harm's way, even Carol looked a bit calmer but she still gave Spider-man looks that would kill if they could.
"Hey guys guess what I am!" Deadpool suddenly piped up breaking the silence. The Avengers turned wearily to look at him. Deadpool was in the process of spinning his head round on his broken neck. "Look I'm an owl" he said as his head span round to face to face them.
"Dear god let's just get to H.A.M.M.E.R. Part of the deal was they have to keep him" Peter sighed watching as Deadpool's head made another 360° turn.
"Every cloud has a silver lining" Logan replied brightening.
Meanwhile at Karen's Apartment
Alex ran through the door, he'd had enough of being stealthy, right now all he wanted to do was vent. The two guards didn't even have time to react before Alex's claws where plunged into their chest. As they fell to the ground the two men at the elevator noticed his arrival.
"Holy shit, is that Zeus?" one of them managed to gasp out as he raised his weapon. On Alex's mental command two tendrils sprang from his arm impaling the two men to the wall before they could fire a shot. Alex watched as the bodies slumped to the floor and through his heat vision observed as their bodies went from red to blue. It didn't take him long to find the right apartment as there was only one that was in use, Blackwatch must have cleared the others out. He pushed open the door and felt the lock brake as he did so. As he entered the hall more visions flooded his head. This flash was of a more intimate nature he could feel her hands on his skin, her breath in his ear.
"Snap out of it" he thought shaking his head to get rid of the memory. He walked into what must have been the living room. Unlike his apartment this one wasn't tidy at all, books lay on the floor, pieces of paper where scattered on the tables and even some empty pizza boxes lay strewn on the floor. "Well it looks like opposites really do attract" he thought looking at the messy room.
Suddenly he felt the barrel of a gun being pressed to the back of his hood. "You picked the wrong day and the wrong person to steal from" came the familiar velvet voice he'd heard on the phone earlier.
Although he knew a bullet through head wouldn't do much except tickle him, he wasn't really in the mood to explain to Karen why her boyfriend had come back from the dead and could suddenly take bullets through the skull and not even flinch. Quickly he spun round grabbing the barrel and wrenched the pistol from her grasp.
"Alex?" she gasped as she finally saw his face. "I thought you were dead! They told me you were dead!" she cried, wrapping her arms around his neck and hugging him. Alex just stood there not quite sure how to react. It was as Karen pulled away to look at him again she noticed the yellow eyes.
"Your infected" she gasped stepping back quickly.
"I know this is a lot to take in but hear me out!" he said, trying to get her to listen.
"What happened to you Alex? When you were outside GENTEK you told me to run and that you had some insurance policy. What did you do?" she continued eyeing him suspiciously.
"Insurance policy?" Alex asked confused, he didn't remember that part in his dream.
"What's going on?" she asked again, fear beginning to show in her face.
For the next few minutes Alex explained what he could about Greene, Blackwatch and H.A.M.M.E.R to her, leaving out the part about him absorbing people.
"So you don't remember anything?" she asked as he finished.
"Bits keep coming back in flashes" He admitted as he slumped back into a chair.
"So what are you going to do next?" she asked sitting down next to him.
"I guess my next move is to try and find Ragland or McMullen. In fact I'd hoped you might know something about them" he said turning to her.
Karen brushed a lock of blond hair out of her eye thoughtfully. "Well Ragland was arrested and taken to a facility for breaching the secrecy contract and McMullen, god only knows where that psycho is" Karen finished.
"You know what the facility is called?" Alex asked, already planning his next move.
"I can do better than that. I've got its location and name" Karen said getting to her feet.
"Ok I can deal with that later right now we need to get you to a safe location. Have you got a place you can stay that Blackwatch wouldn't know about?" He asked, he knew he could take her stay with Dana if he had to but logically it would be safer if they weren't all in the same place. That way if they only found one of their locations it wouldn't be game over.
"Well I have a distant cousin who lived in Queens for a time and as far as I know both he and his aunt have moved to the city but the house is still in the family. I could probably hide out there a while" she replied.
"Go pack some things and we'll go now" Alex said also getting to his feet. Karen nodded and made her way to what must have been her bedroom.
A noise startled Alex it was faint and crackly but definitely a voice. Cautiously he approached the door that led out of the apartment and opened it. Following the sound he found a radio strapped to one of the dead soldiers, the voices coming from it seemed panicked. He put the radio to his ear and listened.
"Send everyone we have if this isn't contained quick we are all f***ed" one of the voices was shouting.
"I've alerted Cross, him and his team are on their way, so are McMullen's new pets" another voice replied.
"Let's pray to god that's enough."
"Shit! Some news team has pulled up in a boat."
"What?"
"Check CNN and you'll see what I mean."
"Shut them down! Shut them down now."
Alex dropped the radio and ran back into the apartment and switched channels until he found CNN. He was greeted by a man dressed in a suit and written at the bottom of the screen as breaking new was 'Ryker's Island Under Siege.'
"What can you tell us about what's going on there Tom?" came the voice of one of the news anchors.
"Well Diane as you know Ryker's Island is a high security prison where the most dangerous of our criminals are kept and it seems some kind of revolt is going on. The last batch of prisoners that where shipped in turned on the guards" the man in suit said pointing to the island from his boat.
Just then Karen walked back into the room and stopped dead when she saw the television.
"Tell me that's not the prison where Ragland is" Alex said turning to her. She nodded. "Did Greene know where he was being held?" Alex said as he began moving towards the door.
"I don't know. It's possible, Ragland and McMullen where the only two who spent any time around her" Karen said following him to the door case in hand.
"Where is Ryker?" Alex asked.
"It's in the middle of the Hudson you can't really miss it" Karen replied.
"Ok you get to your safe-house, I've got to get to Ragland before Greene does" Alex said as he opened the door.
"Wait here's my address in Queens" Karen said handing him a piece of paper.
Alex nodded then ran out of the door and down the stairs as fast as he could. He didn't know why Greene needed Ragland, maybe to help make more BlackLight but whatever the reason it couldn't be good.