Corrupted Devourers hulk across the ruined city, Spikers and Ravagers functioning as foot soldiers while Gasbags moved across the ruins, exploding the soon they find something that was still standing- Trying to chase any Runner out from their hideout, if any. Hive lords could be seen in the background- And the telltale blue glow on their bodies indicating that a Blast Shard or Blast Core have been used in their construction as a power source, allowing them to synthesize Biomass and pop out Spikers, Ravagers and Gasbags apparently out of nowhere.
So long in Joseph Bertrand III's conquest of the western United States, little resistance have been met- the Yellow Zone was primarily Conduit Positive, with Type II Runners only appearing sparingly as the population naturally awakens. And the resistance encountered by the Corrupted so far was minimal. Mostly new Runners thought they could save the world by themselves against the Corrupted as the Invasion look REALLY like the other two video games about Superpowered "Humans" fighting a hive-minded biological faction of The Virus. And the large concentration of Conduit-Positive individuals within the Yellow Zone gave The Corrupted an nearly unending supply of new recruits to converted into more of the higher-level Corrupted.
Except that this situation is about to change. Right. Now.
Saints Row 4: Viral Transformation vs The VirusA Spiker patrols the outer edges of what used to be the Empire City, looking for more victims to bring back to the Hive Lords and convert to more Corrupted, and for more hiding Runners to catch and kill.
And the Spiker's routine ends right now.
Captain "Fluorine" Sparklez: "First Stop- Empire City. Preliminary satellite reading suggest that the Corrupted have already set up a hideout somewhere within the Empire City. No. Wait. There is already a Hive inside Empire City right now."
Alex "Zeus" Mercer: "And it looked like that The Corrupted still can't understand the fact that Mooks are little more than convenient health packs for the Big D**n Heroes. I see a Spiker here. Easy Biomass for me."
Delsin Rowe: "And you should remember that we are strongest when working together right, Zeus?"
Delsin and Zeus each held onto one of the Spiker's limbs- Delsin formed a giant arm Blade out of Biomass, while Zeus summoned his Clawed hand. With a synchronized slash, the Spiker was effortlessly cut in two halves, black fluids spills out from inside of the Corrupted. Delsin absorbed one half of the Spiker, while Zeus absorbed the other half.
Abigail. F. Shepard: "Don't leave me behind- leave some for me as well!"
Shepard didn't get the Biomass of this particular Spiker, but she do wind up absorbing some of the black "Blood" left behind by the carnage- Which she quickly fashioned into two wrist-mounted daggers so she have a mean for defending herself in a close-combat situation.
Captain "Fluorine" Sparkles and the Majestic Tewlve: "And don't forget about us, either! Helium, Magnesium, Carbon, Flight Form!"
A large structure that looks like a carriage of sort emerged around Delsin's team- frame and support structures formed from magnesium metal that emerged from Magnesium's hands, then transparent panels of Diamond filled into the gap. A large balloon/gas bladder, composed of what seems to be a single, continuous sheet of Graphene formed on the top of the Carriage, which soon filled up with helium gas as Helium entered her business position. The structure lifts off the ground, and as the passengers of the Flight Form is lifted up higher and higher into the air, the entirety of what used to be the Empire City is now in the view of Delsin's team and the Majestic Twelve.
Wings made of what appeared to be Carbon Fiber emerged from the sides of the Flight Form, and as they started their synchronized flapping, the large, helium-filled structure gained airspeed and moved, and the team soon arrived onto the top of the highest still-standing skyscraper within Empire City. The large structure dissolved into nothingness as the Majestic Twelve canceled their Flight Form, and from the advantage point of the top of the Skyscraper, Delsin's team and the Majestic Twelve could see that, multiple large, organic, structures, resembling Zerg hive buildings from StarCraft, have emerged in multiple places in the Empire City. And one is just below their feet as they looked down.
Captain "Fluorine" Sparklez: "Find your elements and recharge right now- It will be a tough fight once we come down there."
-Now Playing: DM DOKURO: Heaven's Hell-Sent Gift-
Hydrogen recharged her element on the concrete lining the top of the building- It turned out that there were Hydroxyl groups from the Water that was used when the Concrete is first poured- which contain hydrogen. Helium left the top of the building- before returning with a few leftover cylinders of balloon gas- the only major source of it in most city environments. Lithium obtained a full recharge using the crumbled concrete fragments left from Hydrogen's draining of the Water content of the Concrete, so did Sodium and Magnesium. Beryllium did not get any recharge- what he did manage to get comes from the Magnetrons of all the microwaves left inside the residential areas of the skyscraper. Boron also left the building, and came back with hands and face full of powdered laundry detergent. Carbon wend down the building and tore apart a few Spikers and Gasbags- After all, Biomass is mostly carbon. Nitrogen and Oxygen, sister and brother, did nothing as they constitutes 78 and 21 percent of normal air- no recharge was necessary. CaptainSparklez himself absorbed a few wisps of Fluorine from what seems to be Fluoroapatite that was left in the composition of most form of Cement, topping himself off as only a small amount of it was used as fuel when the team Fast-Traveled to Empire City. Neon did nothing, and Abigail "Trace" Walker siphoned off some of the ionized plasma that comes off her head as William "Inert" Ramsay extracted her element from the air.
-Now Playing: DM DOKURO: Pest of the Cosmos-
As the team topped off their reserves, Delsin Rowe and Captain "Fluorine" Sparklez discussed how they should attack the Hive just beneath their point of hideout.
Delsin Rowe: "We can't do this separately- from Communication signals intercepted by Steve 'Pariah' Nivens, it looks like that there were multiple attempts where a Runner have attempted to attack hives like this one. None of them succeeded- the Biomass of any one of the Hives are simply too big to be completely destroyed with the energy reserves of even the strongest of all Type II Conduits. And anyone who have attempted to destroy one of these Hives without cooperation was likely completely destroyed-literally dissipated into thin air after their energy was completely drained, or worse off, captured alive and probably sent to one of the labs Joseph Bertrand III have set up to be used as lab rats."
Alex "Zeus" Mercer: "No wonder why the Corrupted was able to produce specific Immunity traits for any one of our elements so quickly. So if we want to be successful in such an attack, we would have to surprise them by constantly varying our attacks using elements as diverse as possible. CaptainSparklez, did you have an idea how we could achieve this with limited numbers?"
Captain "Fluorine" Sparklez: "We have only united and brought here 19 Individuals so far, 20 if we count on Falcon who could fast travel here when necessary- and two of them are non-unique in the sense of the element they wield for their powers. This means 17, at maximum 19 unique Primary Elements if Falcon could arrive quickly and Shepard finds an unique element in the surrounding environment. Unless we combine our powers together- For example, Carbon and Oxygen makes white-hot burning cinder when ignited and produce freezing-cold dry ice when simply combined. For the 17 basic elements we currently have... we have 131071 different unique combinations that we could use on the Corrupted and their Hive at present- which increase exponentially as we amass more and more team members and therefore, more and more Primary Elements for out team to use."
Steve "Pariah" Nivens: "And for this particular Hive... It looks like that the Biomass on top of it was specifically reinforced to prevent a normal aerial slam attack from being effective for Biomass-based Individuals. However, a stab with a Diamond blade, or burning it with a high-temperature chemical reaction could easily break through the reinforced barrier."
"Once penetrated, simple sharp puncturing attack of heat-based attack won't do much to the Hive's internal Biomass simply due to it's sheer mass. And here is where Poison and Corrosion attacks will be extremely effective- a stream of Fluorine gas or Hydrogen Fluoride, or a soluble salt of Beryllium injected into it's veins, would diffuse quickly across the semi-fluid insides of the Hive, and cause massive necrotic damage to it's structure."
"And after the Hive have been severely weakened and drained by the poison, you, Alex 'Zeus' Mercer and Delsin Rowe, or anyone who can recharge on Biomass or a Component thereof, go and penetrate into the heart of the Hive's structure from the wound made by the first two rows of attack, and use your absorption ability to as much as you could manage- Suck the Hive dry from the inside out. We may have to devise other strategies for attacking the other two Hives inside Empire City, but if we manage to pull this off on the first hit Bertrand won't be able to know what have hit him- and without samples to analyze the Corrupted could not develop resistance toward new elemental attacks, or combinations thereof."
"So let's do it."
Abigail F. Shepard put her hands onto the concrete handrails of the Skyscraper's roof- and a major pert of that roof, alongside with the handrails, was soon gone- absorbed into Shepard's "Element Reserves". Carbon docked himself to the front of Shepard, two massive blades constructed out of Diamond appeared above his arms while Shepard filled the space behind the blades with a large amount of Concrete- almost the entirety of the mass she just absorbed from the roof, creating a massive slab that surrounds their bodies. Shepard soon fall off the top of the skyscraper with Carbon functioning as the leading edge of the massive Guillotine they have constructed around themselves. As Shepard and Carbon accelerated toward the ground from the nearly 150-meter high building, the speed of Carbon's diamond blades reaching 54 meters per second, and the chitinous shell the Hive have developed was effortlessly cut through by the hardest material on earth as Shepard and Carbon struck it on the top.
Trailing Shepard's guillotine blade was CaptainSparklez himself, alongside with Hydrogen and Beryllium. Releasing fluorine gas midair and reacting it with Henry "Proton" Cavendish's hydrogen gas flow, CaptainSparklez accelerated down the hole left from Shepard and Carbon's strike at a pace even faster than gravity, reaching almost 150 meters per second as a mesh of beryllium sponge formed in front of the three, saturated with liquid fluorine and ready to ignite as soon as they penetrated into the hole made by Shepard and Carbon. A massive flash of white light sprays out of the Hive's wounds accompanied with a shower of sparks, Infested Pustules burst open from the massive explosion with burning bits of beryllium and vapors of hydrogen fluoride coming from every opening on the Hive. Eldritch fluids spilled out as the Hive's motion seemingly stopped.
As the Hive shivered and trembled from it's insides being corroded away by the highly toxic and corrosive combustion product of Beryllium in Fluorine, Delsin Rowe and Alex "Zeus" Mercer arrived from their jump down the skyscraper, and punched straight into the nearly pulped tissues of the Hive. Carbon and Hydrogen atoms ripped from the Hive's Insides by Laurent "Universal" Lavoisier and Henry "Proton" Cavendish, while the rest absorbed and consumed by Delsin Rowe, Abigail F. Shepard and Alex "Zeus" Mercer. Nitrogen and Oxygen gas, left behind from the absorption process, bloats the exterior of the Hive, while the internal structure of the Hive shriveled and collapsed as it's Biomass disintegrates and flows into the Type II Conduits that have invaded it's inside.
The skin, being what's left of the Hive, expands under extreme pressure until it can no longer hold the bulging gasses generated from it's Consumption from within, flames and steam shot out of the wounds and orifices on the skin as the left-over Biomass burns in the oxygen-rich internal environment, until the entire thing tore open like a popped balloon- a large fireball erupts from where used to be one of the three Corrupted Hives in the Empire City, and bits of what used to be the Hive's biomass splat everywhere, and the strike team that have executed the attack flawlessly, jumped out from the fireball, comic book style, and landed onto the Corrupted-filled streets.
Trailing behind Delsin, Fluorine, Zeus and Shepard's strike team, Magnesium, Sodium, Neon, Trace, Pariah, Richard, Tenebris, Oxygen, Lithium, Nitrogen and Boron each slammed against the biggest horde of Corrupted they could find, and broken limbs of Ravagers, shredded fragments of Spikers and skin pieces of pre-detonated Gasbags soon started to fly together with showers of burning metal, balls of green flames and clouds of ionized plasma. Also, don't forget to add in hard light and tangible darkness, solid data and stretchy, glowing gas as the more "Normal" members of Delsin and Majestic Twelve's team have also participated in the attack.
Joseph "Luminous" Black: "Hey Sodium, do you wonder what will happen if you drain all the electrolytes from a living animal, for example, that Corrupted Devourer?"
Luminous and Volatile docked to each other, facing side by side toward a large Devourer that was going toward their general direction- And a stream of whitish, liquefied metals- a Deep Eutectic Alloy of sodium and magnesium, is ripped out from the Devourer and entered the duo's bodies. Without two of the most critical ions inside it's body fluids, the Devourer first fell to the ground and start to tremble at it's bioelectric processes are disrupted beyond recovery, then blisters appeared on the pale purplish-gray skin of the Corrupted monster, before the entire thing just melted down and exploded into a large pool of corrosive fluids- While Sodium Chloride is Table Salt and Magnesium Sulphate are bath salts, Pure Chlorine is a War Gas and pure Sulfate (technically sulfur peroxide (SO2)O2 ) is Piranha Solution anhydrous. Neither plays nice against biological tissue, which explained the subsequent total dissolution of the Devourer as it's content of sodium and magnesium ions are drained.
Humphry "Volatile" Davy: "That was unexpected- And I think we just pulled a vampire on these biological organisms." The optical emissions of Luminous and Volatile seemed to Redshift a little as the yellowish-green goop that used to be the Devourer starts to drain into the sewers on the side of the road.
Delsin: "We had more work to do- there were two other Hives out their in Empire City."
Sparks flies just as flames roars, tendrils jets out with hard light and tangible darkness, Delsin's Team cooperated with the Majestic Twelve, and the Empire City was soon cleared of the Corrupted presence and threat.
And Delsin and The Majestic Twelve's success against the Corrupted in Empire City was not unheard of by the other Type II Conduits in the other parts of the United States, especially the Red Zone. After realizing that the larger forms of the Corrupted, especially the Hives, can only be defeated via the combination of different elemental attacks and the resulting chemical reactions, one after one, major Corrupted presence in the Yellow Zone was eradicated. The massive burst of elemental energy coming from the battles caused the Conduit-Positives within the Yellow Zone to awaken- And city by city, what used to be reserves of the Corrupted turned against them as the virus within them are no longer subvertible by the forces of Joseph Bertrand III and the Corrupted in general.
The tides have been turned- And as more and more of the Corrupted sent out from the Blue Zone was eradicated by the factorially increasing amounts and variations of Type II powers and elements from New Conduitkind awakening their brethren in the Yellow Zone and uniting across the United States, not even the Blue Zone was safe from the march of the rest of the United States against the Bertrand Government.
Excerpt from a propaganda billboard in Washington D.C. Blue ZoneConduitism: A disease that subverts the divine plan of Nature
Do you heard about Vampires? Or Werewolves? Or Zombies? Well, they are all the manifestations of Conduitism- A contagious disease that deviates the human body from the perfect plan of Nature.
REPORT potential Conduits!
Early symptoms of Conduitism:
Individuals affected with early stages of Conduitism generally display an increase in sensory acuity- Including the ability of distinguishing subtle differences in the wavelength of light, and a likewise increase in the ability to perceive moving things. A sensory acuity test is available below- Check your neighbors for abnormality once per day, and report anyone with a score higher than 110.
Medium-stage symptoms of Conduitism:
As the infection progresses, Individuals that are affected with Conduitism can become physically tougher and more resistant toward damage, and their physical strength may increase as more and more of their biological tissue is mutated and converted into supernatural materials. A needle test is to be conducted every 3 days on every individual- Anyone caught with skin strength exceeding 30MPa, or with skin that can not be penetrated with a #15 lancet over 1N of applied force should be immediately detained as being potential Conduits/Bioterrorists.
In it's late stages, Conduitism completely corrupts the individual, take away his/her genome and soul in exchange for otherworldly powers that furthers the disease and corruption- All suspected Conduits, or individuals with Supernatural abilities, should be arrested and detained immediately upon detection- While other diseases corrupts the body, Conduitism corrupts the very being of the soul, replacing the affected individual with a mockery of the original composed of necromantically animated supernatural elements that specific Conduit is affiliated with. Depriving the victim chance for Afterlife and turn what's left of the victim against our perfect society. Active Conduits are NOT the persons they used to be before they are infected- Bullets and earthly weapons does not work against Conduits, so a direct report to the Department of Natural Protection is the only way one could be neutralized!
Mass Effect- OriginsMar 1st 2021
Toronto and Mexico City Outbreaks happened- sending more then 10000 runners across the Globe, jump-starting the transmission process of Type II Conduits toward the other parts of the world.
Mar 15th 2021
The last of the Corrupted outside of the Blue Zone was eradicated as the number of active Type II Conduits reached over 256 million in total. Runners of certain elements cross the Panamas canal using some variants of Fast Travel- Transforming into their elements (should the element being volatile) in order to move above the water-filled canal rather than through it.
Apr 4th 2021
Type II Runners cross the Bering Strait from Alaska to Siberia, spreading the Conduit Virus to Asia as certain small towns of Slavs are converted (albeit at a relatively short rate). Rumors about the emergence of Individuals that could manipulate ice, but this is yet to be confirmed since it have been confirmed that all Type II Conduits reacted violently with water, and Ice being the solid state of it should not appear as their element of power.
Apr 9th 2021
The presence of Individuals that can manipulate cold things, or Cryokinetics, have been confirmed by a Canadian American Ex-CNN reporter Sarah "Flyby" Connor in her latest visit to Siberia. It was later found out that the element of Cryokinetics was not Ice or Solid Water, but cold temperatures itself- They gain energy from objects that are colder then themselves and are capable of lowering the temperatures of other objects by expending such energy. Despite also being resistant to cold temperatures, Cryokinetics ironically need a source of heat to continuously "Recharge" from cold things as their own temperature is lowered as they "absorb" coldness and will need to be warmed up before more of it can be used as energy.
Jun 2nd 2021
Xin "Seared" Lung, one of the first Created Individuals in Eurasia, developed the ability to control hot things- The exact opposite of Cryokinesis. Again, the first Pyrokinetics were thought of as being able to control the substance of fire... Until more thorough analysis revealed that they, again, manipulate High Temperatures itself- Absorbing energy from things hotter than themselves, and can use it to raise the temperature of other objects. Pyrokinetics are known to be immune to high temperatures- From fire, lava, to the sun itself.
Aug 18th 2021
Conduit Virus reached India. As one of the major population centers in the world, whatever resistance their governmental forces could put out was quickly overwhelmed as the converted population insisted that their newly found powers over the elements was a blessing from their deities- Deities that are not part of the state-approved religion. Propaganda against them did nothing, and military weapons did little in stopping something that constantly regenerates themselves as long as they are on the ground/in the air/near a building, and could take in tank shells without even staggering as long as they have enough energy (which can be replanished quickly and easily).
Aug 25th 2021
Ray Field Manipulator technology reached another breakthrough in Seattle- By reusing part of the code involved in the Conjugation process to compress and store elemental energy in a location outside of the Type II Conduit himself/herself, a form of external storage for elements are now possible- Allowing Type II Conduits that have unlocked this mutation to carry thousands of tons of elements in a trail of "wagons" behind them. Or to create remote-controlled or VI-driven, animated manifestations of one's element that can perform tasks independent to the Individual himself/herself.
Dec 16th 2021
Conduit Virus reach nearly the entire world- All population centers, except for secluded locations like some islands, the poles or the Blue Zone in Eastern United States, have been caught in at least one Outbreak and converted to one of the super-powered viral entities that roams the land. And as the rest of the world's population recovered from the Rampancy and finished experimenting on their new-found powers, the obsolete orders of the old world have been shattered and swept under the rubble piles of the past, while new orders have emerged from the Ashes. Of CALAMITY.