The darkness was cold. And weirdly wet. Not like standing in rain, but more like sitting in dew-covered grass for too long. Wasn't pleasant, though, because wherever it touched, his skin was burning. Burning through his flesh, his tissues, his bones. Blacklight-infused cells struggling to keep it back, trying to repair damage done faster than it could heal.

He wondered why he should keep on fighting back. Everything burnt and he was just so tired. But...there was something- he shouldn't give up? There was something to do. Somebody waited for him?

Oh- go-dding me- There were sounds?...voices?

Voices could be understood, right?

Don- The voices grew faint again.

F- -king get up!

The burning suddenly ignited into a full-blown inferno, flames licking at every last nerve ending. His entire body jerked upright, claws ready to defend himself-
He was crushed into the ground the next second, limbs restrained with steel-like organic bands and a singular massive talon on his chest to prevent him from moving.

Stay still

He dropped limp, the Voice too overpowering to do anything, really, but the restraints didn't come off anyways.

What do you remember?

Remember? Remember was...He didn't even know what 'remember' meant.

...Wonderful. Just let me...okay that could hurt a bit.

There was a flash, and memories slammed into him with the force of a freight train. And if he believed that the burning had been bad before, now it was definitely worse. All-consuming flames ripped through his body, his brain, and left realization in their wake. He recognized himself, recognized the man bent over him, recognized what had happened before.

"I died", Heller muttered surprised, slumping against the cold ground.

"You did", Mercer confirmed, his tendrils finally loosing their hold on his limbs as he lifted the paw he used to restrain him earlier.

"I just fucking died." The Evolved stared at the Runner in shock. "I got taken down. By normal-ass firearms."

Mercer's lips twitched. "Not one of your proudest moments."

Heller exhaled, wincing at the pain racing through his body at that simple motion. His body hurt. Mercer was still kneeling besides him with a phone in his hand. "Dana? Yes. I got to him. Was damn near close- Yeah. I'll tell him." He glanced at the Evolved. "Dana says you're a piece of shit that will get himself killed permanently one day."

Heller grimaced, though it was originally supposed to be a smirk. "Yeah, I miss her too. Maya's been asking for you to come by for Christmas."

"We've been busy", Mercer commented, then turned back to his conversation. Heller tuned them out, focusing instead on the feeling of his body beginning to pull itself together. He knew how it was when his flesh grew back. This was different. He didn't feel his own bones knitting back together, or his cells working overtime to fix holes where holes weren't supposed to be- instead, it was just a body-wide pins-and-needles feeling.

He grunted, and painfully lifted his head, eyes narrowing as he tried to focus. His head hurt from the effort, but he managed to get a clear picture-

That wasn't his skin. That was black and red and gray, and still visibly tentacles that were slotted together into thick layers across his body, running down his limbs and chest. Replacing his limbs and chest.

"Mercer. What did you do?" His voice was hoarse, with an edge of hysteria.

"Mhm?" The Runner glanced at him briefly before shoving his phone unceremoniously into his chest cavity. "Oh. Right. Well. I build you a new body."

Heller glared at him. "You did what?"

Mercer had the gall to shrug. "Well, more like...sixty percent of a body."

Heller growled. Mercer just cocked his eyebrow. "Seriously? I don't question why you didn't notice the lime damage, but you should have noticed the acid burns, because I did, and I wasn't even in the Hivemind when it happened."

Heller blinked in confusion, anger gone. "Lime?" Almost immediately, his head snapped to the side, where dirt was dug up. Beneath a thin layer of earth were white stains- and a half-decayed hand that poked upwards. "Fuck"

"Whoever shot up your ass, dumped your carcass into a lime pit afterwards", Mercer confirmed. "Three things- lime, lime-induced decay, and acid- had done a number on your system. I had to reconstruct your extremities, parts of your face and your entire abdominal region, including your lungs and digestive tract."

Heller let out a drawn-out groan. "Fuck" Now he understood why the Runner had done this- usually he could heal from nearly all injuries, as long as he had enough proteins and fats he could ingest in order to fuel it. But in this case, he hadn't been able to consume anything- and even if he hadn't been functionally dead, he couldn't have ingested anything anyways.

So Mercer had not only dragged his remains out of there, he had also constructed the missing portions of his body from his own biomass and fixed them to his frame to allow his system to assimilate them and use directly. It would take a few hours for his body to go back to looking normal, but he would be good to go as soon as he had feeling back in his limbs, and not down for the next few days.

He dropped his head back against the ground. "...Thank you."

Mercer sighed. "To say the truth, I was glad I managed to get to you when I did, a few hours more and I wouldn't have been able to revive you." He huffed out. "I distinctly remember that you hated it when I resurrected you into a completely new body the last time ."

Yeah. That had been...not nice. Heller still had nightmares, and memories that weren't his from the poor idiot Mercer had used as raw material to put him back together.

He huffed out. "Thanks for not adding another existential crisis on top of those I already have."

Mercer only snorted, and reached out of Heller's sight to get something. It was a black bag. He dropped it on his chest. "If you can move again, there's a small creek one and a half clicks into South-Western direction. Rinse yourself off."

Heller peeked into the bag, noticing the contents. A smirk tugged at his lips. "You took the time to get this? Aw, so you do care."

Mercer's gaze was more than withering. "When I drop everything and storm off without telling Dana where I'm going, just to race all the way here to resurrect your stupid ass, then I don't want you dying on me of hypothermia of all things."

"Yeah. That would be embarrassing to croak from cold after surviving getting shot up."

"You didn't survive", Mercer corrected him.

He waved it off. "Details." Mercer snorted, and knelt down to start digging. Heller didn't ask, just focused on his legs to will them to move. One minute later, they finally obeyed so he could scramble to his feet. He grabbed the bag, and headed into the direction the Runner indicated. The small creek was icy, and more mud than clear water, but it would do for now.

Once Heller had the lime and most of the dirt off and the few clothes from the bag on, he already felt better.

He also felt irritation growing inside his stomach, knowing it was partially his own for getting ambushed like that, and partially Mercer's from whatever he was doing. He wasn't all too surprised to find him kneeling at the edge of the now unearthed lime pit, glaring darkly at the dozens of decayed bodies in there. When he stopped next to him, however, his breath caught in his throat- all of the bodies had ruptured chests.

"You know what this is about, do you?" Mercer murmured. He didn't wait for a confirmation, just cocked his head. "Figured that this Deja-Vu had to come from somewhere. What do you know?"

Heller snorted and crossed his arms. Didn't question why he didn't know. None of the others had known, not Greene and not the Supreme Hunter. The Hivemind only transferred the infected's constant I-am-here-chatter and their panicked screams when they met their demise. Heller figured that trying to experience whatever every single infected was doing was damn near impossible anyways.

Direct contact took conscious effort.

Though, apparently, some ideas and feelings did slip through the virus's mental barrier that was designed to protect the Runner from going insane.

"What do you know so far?" Heller probed.

Mercer furrowed his brows. "I know that you fought something that fucked your system up. Something that has a whole lotta acid and that has something to do with ruptured rib cages." He shrugged. "Latter is an assumption on my side, by the way. Judging by how your breathing pattern changed and your blood flow increased when seeing the bodies."

"Got that one right" The Evolved exhaled. "So, basically, the body I got called in for was apparently host to a parasite that killed him once it hatched. I follow the trail, meet the adult critter in the sewer, and realize that it maybe isn't the best idea to tangle with an animal that got acid for blood. Anyways, I crawl out of the sewer, meet up with a bunch of assholes in uniforms, and get shot." He scowled, gesturing to the lime pit. "Now you dig me out of a hole full of bodies that have the same injuries as the one I was investigating, which means that there are a whole lot more acid-spewing monsters below Asheville." He ran his palm down his face. "Fuck"

Mercer cocked his head. "What kind of animal are we dealing with here?"

Heller flipped his palms upside-down. "There are two, actually. First one is some kind of spider with a long tail. From its body shape and the evidence we uncovered at the body I'd say it is supposed to latch into its victim's face, using its legs to hold on and its tail to strangle them so they don't fight back. Then it shoves a tube down their throat and lays an egg or something. A parasite hatches from this egg and will, after a few hours, emerge through its host's chest, killing them in the process. This animal is likely snake-like, but it moults and grows."

"The thing you fought." Mercer hummed. "Weaponry?"

"Claws that go through my scales. Teeth, though it didn't bite, so I can't tell how strong the bite force is. A bladed tail. Entire thing is armored with an exoskeleton, though it has bones, too. I killed it by breaking its neck."

"You mentioned acid?"

"Blood in the spider thing and the adult is acidic. Probably in the negative O-Ph levels, 'cause it ate through solid steel with ease. I bet the snake form has it too."

"Mhm. Good defensive system. Makes it hard to get close to kill them. I'm going out on a limb and guess that they are immune to it themselves?"

"Yeah. Also acts as booby trap. The thing I killed ruptured and exploded on me. Guess I damaged it too badly." He furrowed his brows. "I would say it was smart, too. The second I ripped off its tail blade it started flicking its blood into my direction with purpose. Could be they are clever enough to figure our how to use an injury to their advantage."

"What about the Spider? It crawls off and looks for a new host?"

"No. That one dies after implanting the egg."

Mercer frowned. "The spider thing dies after implanting the parasite into a host. The Parasite grows into an attack animal. The attack animal then...what? Becomes another spider thing?" He glanced at the bodies in the ground. "No. That wouldn't be feasible. What if the attack animal somehow makes more spider things?"

"That would be very, very bad", Heller commented darkly. "So we gotta stop whoever made those things."

"'Made'?"

"Pretty sure we got another Bertrand on our hands."

Mercer furrowed his brows. "Okay." He fell silent again for some time, before he suddenly moved and gestured to the bodies. "What about those?"

Heller crossed his arms. "Call it in, of course. If it makes the news, then the guys that shot me will panic and start making mistakes." Either by hastily trying to escape, destroy evidence, or by not reacting at all. "Then we'll know who they are."

Mercer nodded. "Thought so too. But you should also ask around, see whether any of your Marines know something, so we can figure out who they are before they manage to go to ground." He bared his teeth. "Soon you got that, I'll do the rest."

"Ain't gonna stop you. Just find out who that asshole was that shot me in the head, I'd like to pay it back to them."

"You'll get your chance. But keep the Hivemind open this time. I want to know what the Hell's going on."

"Deal"

As it was, Heller found they were several miles outside of Asheville. Mercer offered to stay near the lime pit and call for the official responders while he was to go back to HQ to start digging.
The way straight across the city and towards the compound was easy once his body settled down. And maybe it was just his imagination, but apparently pure Blacklight Biomass was a whole lot better in the whole motion department than Blacklight-infused cells. He didn't even feel the strain moving caused in his muscles, or his lungs, and he was now about eighty percent sure he didn't have either of those when Mercer found and healed him.

With a snort, he hit the jutty outside of his place and slid open the window to get inside and try to regroup. He needed to find out what happened after he got taken down. He figured that whoever did him in took away his camera and phone, so he would need a new one.

Also a different set of clothes to cover up the black patches of not-quite-flesh and to stop looking like a drug dealer (Mercer apparently thought his trainweck of clothing was hot shit and everybody was supposed to dress like him).
Halfway inside, he heard a startled gasp, and snapped his head around. Frosty and Duke stood in the room that had been assigned to him, and were apparently in the process of tidying up his stuff.

Heller frowned. Cocked his head. Slowly lifted his hand and pointed at his bag. "Mind telling me what you are doing?"

Duke jumped. Frosty blinked. "Uh...Sarge? That you?"

"The one and only."

"You are supposed to be dead."

Heller inclined his head into the other direction. "So? What makes you think that?"

"Uhm. When we lost contact with you we began getting worried", Harrison began.

"And then we found a hole in the sewers, and blood, and blood in an alley and we thought-" Duke trailed off with a grimace and a wave of his hand.

"I'm pretty tough to kill" Heller pointed out.

Liar. Mercer cut in from inside his head. You were dead.

"Mercer, so not in the mood"

Just saying.

"Please tell me you didn't call Hetty."

"N-no" Duke stammered. Heller rounded up on him. "That didn't sound very convincing, Duke."

"We told Major McCain", Harrison threw in. "He said we should wait another few hours or until your body turns up-"

Police just got here. And...yep. They're scrambling to call for reinforcements.

Heller sighed. "You probably wouldn't have found my body within the next few hours. I was dumped out in the forest. As we're speaking, the police has found the place and will be investigating."

Frosty's eyes narrowed. "Sarge- Do you mean there are more bodies?"

He nodded grimly. "Lots of them. Chris wasn't the first and I got the bad feeling he'll be far from the last."

"Fuck"

"Yeah. But I got reinforcements, and we'll stop this shit. Now." He finished climbing into his room. "Give me my bag. I got to dress appropriately and make a few calls. Then we need to go to the doc."

One call to Hetty (to tell her that if McCain were to call about his supposed demise she could report that he was doing fine), and to Maya (to ensure she was doing okay) later, he crossed the compound into the direction of the medical wing.

Doctor Moore nearly fell off her chair when he marched inside, but he just held up a hand as he breezed past her, pointing out "The rumors about my death are exaggerated" before he headed down the stairs while ignoring her voice at his back. The sting of bleach bit into his nose the further he descended, so he wasn't too surprised to find the entire room empty.

The stainless steel examination table in the middle had been removed, all lockers were open and devoid of bodies. All papers, chemicals, tools and computers gone. Doctor Moore, who had trailed after them bit out several curses as she pushed to the front, looking desperately for anything that might have been left.

There was nothing. Everything was gone.

"Oh, what the Hell?" Harrison bit out.

"I kind of expected that", Heller grumbled darkly. Doctor Moore instantly rounded up on him. "You did what?"

The Evolved sighed, waving his palm vaguely through the air. "Yesterday- that was yesterday, yes?" He waited for a confirmative noise, and continued. "So yesterday when I walk out of here, I go back to where you found the body, and I follow the track of the parasite that killed Chris. I actually found it, only it had already moulted into an adult and guess what? It got acid blood too and like the idiot I am I stay too close when I kill it." He ignored the hisses and grimaces, and continued. "So instead of sitting down and wait until I'm doing better, I decide the carcass could still be worth some information, and crawl my way out of the sewers, only to run into some guys with guns. Next thing I know I wake up next to a lime pit full of bodies." He scoffed. "Ain't too much of a stretch to assume that these same guys figured out from the stuff I had on me where I came from to remove all evidence."

"The only keys are with me, or in-" Doctor Moore cut herself off, swearing. "If I don't have the keys, then they are in the main building, along with a copy."

"And when you went home last night, they simply got in and took everything", Heller finished.

"God damnit", Frosty growled. "Who were 'they', anyways?"

"Beats me. I just saw uniforms and guns."

Duke made a noise. "Marine Uniforms?"

Heller furrowed his brows as he dug through his memories. They had suffered somewhat, but Mercer's quick fix managed to save some of them. "No camouflage, far as I remember. But dark gray and olive green. Didn't see any symbols, but there was an orange patch on each of these asshole's shoulders."

"Like these guys at WY?" Harrison questioned.

"WY?"

"Weyland-Yutani. Big complex east of the city. They develop tech for military and space, far as I know. That's why they are around, have us test their stuff, actually."

"Okay, and these guys?"

"Seen them a few times hanging around the complex", Duke pointed out. "When we went to pick up materials, or something. Didn't look like the security staff do."

"Customers, maybe. Like the Marines?"

"Yeah, we thought that too, but they've been there every time we were there, so they either custom a lot, or they actually stay around." He shrugged. "Guys got dark gray uniforms with green tact vests and orange patches on the sleeves, so yeah. Jumped at me when you mentioned it."

Heller's eyes narrowed. "Got that?"

Yup. But you know how Cross is. 'Don't eat people for shits and giggles'. I'll need more evidence than that if I want to avoid him coming down on my ass. Then, a little defensive I promised Dana to not jump every guy just because they look suspicious.

He snorted amused. "I'll see what I can do."

"Sarge? You uhm, kinda spaced out?" Duke's voice called him back. The Evolved shook his head. "Just thinking about paying this WY complex a little visit."

Frosty made a noise, and crossed his arms. "And what if they shoot you again?"

"Since I didn't fight an acid-spewing monster this time, I doubt they can do much to actually hurt me."

"Acid-Spewing monster?" Doctor Moore cut in, sounding vaguely disturbed. "The parasite grew larger?"

"And it is far from the only one" Heller's voice was completely devoid of any humor. "The police has found a drop-off point for dozens of bodies, all mutilated like Chris. We're looking at a large pack of these parasites-"

"Shit", the doctor swore. "And adults make new ones- We have to call this in."

"We have to. But the problem is- whoever's responsible will just duck out of sight then." He clenched his fists. "We have to find out who they are before we call in the heavy guns and give them the chance to hide."

She's right, though.

"Yeah"

A scoff. You don't understand. She's right. Heller flinched when Blacklight took control for one short moment, forcing images into his brain. He blinked. "You in the police station?"

It's amazing how little scrutiny one gets if just wearing the uniform. Also, they are very bad at securing their systems. Just take a good look.

He saw it. Missing reports piling up over the last few months. Easily ten times the amount of people when compared to the entire last year, in addition to a massive influx of 'Lost Pet' reports. "Ah. Shit", He grimaced briefly, turning to the others. "We still don't know where these things or their handler are hiding. We contact anybody with big guns before we figure out where these things come from, we'll cause a panic and whoever's responsible is going to go to ground."

"This isn't right, to not tell anybody", Doctor Moore seethed.

"I know", the Evolved heaved a sigh. "But we're blind at the moment. We need more information before we can do anything, or else we'll create more chaos." He turned towards the exit. "Frosty, please inform Major McCain. If things get ugly, I'd rather know we have some competent people on it. Give me a couple of hours, then you can call our side of the story in."

Then he was outside, kicking off the floor to get to the closest roof and disappear before any of the others could catch up to him and stop him.

Is this still investigation, or is this personal?

"Both. I'm investigating a lead." The moment he took down one of those parasites, these assholes turned up, and he ended up in a pit full of bodies that hinted at even more of these things. "In my book, looking at these guys is a valid course of action."

Fair enough. I'll meet you there.

Heller hit a roof and stopped, eyes narrowing. Below was a elementary school, but there were no children outside. The playground was deserted, though he could still smell them. They were inside- and apparently scared, if the armed guards nearby was anything to go by.

He remembered the police reports that included several missing kids. No wonder the parents were scared shitless. He'd also remembered that these incidents had only increased in number for the last few months.
Picking up the pace ever since. Wasn't too hard to figure that whoever made those things kept on doing so, needing more victims. And those bastards that shot him were somehow connected to this whole mess.

He needed to know who they were, if only to get that report right he was going to send to Hetty.

He stopped several moments later, eyes narrowing at the sight of the massive complex that rose in front of him. The towering facade was steel and concrete Brutalism, with the company logo painted in the middle. From the location of the windows he figured it apparently consisted mostly of two-story factory floor, and a series of offices or possibly labs situated in the layer above those. He would bet money that the pair of windows in the upper front just over the company logo was the CEO's office.

"CEO's office, what do you think?"

Heller snorted. "Same. Doubt these guys are going to be there, though. Foot soldiers never get to walk into the fancy places."

Mercer cocked his head, eying the entrance. "And they likely won't stick around at the main entrance." He hummed. "Your buddy said he'd seen them during pick-up, right?"

"Yeah. So they'll likely hang out in the back. Got it." He didn't wait for his companion to follow, just ducked out of sight and circled the complex at a distance until he spotted the loading bay along the eastern wall. There were only a few men around, some wearing what looked like worker's uniforms, and several in dark gray and orange, security from the looks of it. And some were waltzing around on their own, dressed in dark gray and olive.

Heller's eyes narrowed when memories flashed through his brain. Memories of being injured and in pain, and being shot down. He scoffed. "Oh yeah. Those are the guys." He glanced at the Runner. "You recognize them?"

Mercer squinted briefly. "Nope. Never seen any of them. Was to-" He cut himself off, and Heller followed his line of sight immediately. A man just walked into sight, gesturing at the uniformed assholes. He was older than most of the men here, with a shock of white hair, thick brows and a hooked nose. He resembled the late General Randall a little bit, though he still had both arms and was in a better physical condition.

Or, at least it seemed that way. He was moving just a little bit stiff, enough to tell that he was in pain, but he didn't let anybody else see it.

Mercer breathed out. "That one I know. Vassili Rykov. General Vassili Rykov."

"Russia?"

"Yep. Old war-horse, too. Served in the army back when they were still the Soviets. Honorably discharged due to a spinal injury about twenty years ago. Popped up once or twice on Blackwatch's radar as potential leader, but Randall shot that idea down every time- word was he was afraid he'd lose his position to Rykov."

"Really?"

The younger nodded. "Rykov's just as ruthless, just as cruel- but he's also fiercly loyal to his men. He wouldn't throw them into the meat grinder like Randall's done, so Randall was afraid Rykov would usurp his position."

"And his guys?"

"They are called zheleznyye medevi in their official founding documents."

Heller blinked. "'Iron Bears'?"

Mercer nodded. "Blackwatch had some files on them. They were mostly made up of Rykov's most loyal soldiers, though he's been gathering followers from other places too. They are mercenaries nowadays, though Blackwatch thinks they are in on some illegal stuff too, mostly dealing of Cold-War-weaponry that's disappeared, but the overall consensus was that they are far more active on the Black Market than just looted weapon stashes."

"So, assholes?"

"Very dangerous assholes. Dangerous enough that Blackwatch considered paying them exorbitant amounts of money just to have them as their Wisemen team. Randall shot that one down too."

Heller hummed. "What are they doing here then?"

"Best guess? They're working with WY to get their hands on whatever they are cooking up."

"And in return? WY already has security."

"That is the thousand-dollar-question, isn't it?" Mercer cocked his head, eyes still glued to the guys down there. "Though, given that the Bears are known to deal in the Black Market, shot you and dumped you in a pit full of bodies and removed all evidence on this parasite, I'd say they're doing something highly illegal."

Heller nodded. "Yeah, that makes them fair game. Go for it- just, figure out who that dumbass is who got my camera. I want it-" He cut himself off, eyes narrowing. "Gotta ask for a rain check on that one."

Mercer's head instantly swiveled into the direction he was staring at, his expression quickly mirroring his own. "That one of these things?"

"Yeah" Heller's fists clenched. "I'm going after it."

Name Drop of Weyland-Yutani! And if you know the Alien Lore, then you know who the bad guys are here.

Also addressing at least one comment I've seen: So far I will upload every week on Sunday. I still got one chapter finished and one nearly finished (hope I get it done today), so I have two more weeks buffer. After that, well, we'll see. I'll keep you updated on that front.