By the time the search parties had been organised and appropriate personnel properly relegated, winter was settling in for the long haul; the devastated wastelands of the big apple were blanketed in a thick, sombre coat of snow that mingled with the choking ash and the charred scaffolding of tanks and infected to create a gruesome, macabre effigy of what was once New York.
Even with the eminent re-conquest of the big apple the nights had been getting any safer: the choking, ashen rain and scads of infected carrion introduced an alarming rate of lethal disease and respiratory infection, and with the redlight virus dying off faster than originally projected some of the less than savoury characters that survived or fled the outbreak had slithered, unnoticed, back into this 'unclaimed' territory: a city-wide maze of lifeless, ruined streets sporadically patrolled by a ravaged military and the occasional superhero force had bred a veritable hive for criminal scum, a true nightmare for the unfortunates that'd been scraping by on mouldy rations and snow, lucky (or unlucky) enough to have remained and survived this far.
After a consternated takeover, within the window the military created when they seemingly withdrew for the most part from their city bases to lick their wounds, the established criminal clicks collaboratively sealed gawkish quarantines around the most remote and destitute communities, then they procured a rowdy collection of thugs to organise protection rackets. Without money or food to offer however, most of its victims ended up conscripted as labour, meat or shot dead to conserve resources, their piling corpses staining the hard frost on the pavement
These bodies were then stripped of clothes and valuables and either posed as a warning outside the camps or left where they fell if time was an issue.
Blackwatch had once again forbidden S.H.I.E.L.D. from doing anything about it: said that most of their suspected Mercers hid amongst these people, as abhorrent in his eyes as it was even Stark had to admit it was the perfect place for a hunter to lay low: a plentiful supply of accidents and executions to mask its own kills and a veritable sea of people to hide in, if they tried to clean it up they'd stretch their resources thin trying to contain the subsequent chaos.
Mercer would have no trouble slipping out of their grasp.
Thus, to ensure his capture, with a minimum of civilian endangerment, (an addendum insisted on by himself and the other available avengers) the plan was simple: each individual superhero had been assigned to separate teams each carrying a sample of a cancer based pathogen designed to incapacitate and nullify Mercer's powers.
The search teams were to scour the most likely nooks and crannies across the criminal controlled and unclaimed parts of the city using technology designed by Blackwatch to find any and all traces of the virus, specifically ones containing the markers that set the Mercer strain apart from the standard redlight virus; at a loss for data regarding what apparently constituted as 'viable' however, Stark had discreetly worked to link the live readings of the scanner accompanying him into his helmet's display and as a result had been able to zero in on the most auspicious signal first.
Once Alex Mercer had been found and drawn out all available superheroes would rendezvous on the location of whosoever sent out the signal as soon as possible and engage the target until the bio weapon could be introduced; the fantastic four were out in full force, escorted by a platoon of military helicopters, their job would be to work in conjunction with the others to drive Mercer away from any bridges and corner him against the bay should he get an opportunity to try and escape.
Fury knew and had admitted to them in private that the actual fight was not the only thing they should be worried about: Cross had been concernedly specific about taking Mercer into Blackwatch custody when they finally managed to incapacitate him, there was an agreement made that S.H.I.E.L.D. would only contain him for a temporary duration before he'd be moved out to some top secret facility.
Naturally Fury had expressed his reservations about the implications of being kept in the dark on this again vociferously, and, surprisingly, his superiors apparently felt the same way because they actually listened to him and together had decided on several ways to delay Alex's transfer once he was captured.
They had quite a few questions for… it.
Iron man had been burdened with arguably the most precarious job: with the speed and manoeuvrability of his armour far outstripping that of any blackwatch chopper he had been posthumously assigned the status of a 'solo operative', he felt his 'heart' hammering beneath his armoured chasse as a bar symbolising the detection of viral tissue rose to the rate he'd been inexplicitly told to worry about; it was just his luck to be the first one to actually find the murderous, super powered, mutant virus monster.
Nonetheless he swallowed his fear, let out the silent signal to the others and began his descent.
Far below him, in a secluded neighbourhood huddled one of the tamer camps this side of what was once Times Square, buzzing and shifting like a swarm of insects.
The crowd looked as though they'd been recently herded here and forced to bunch up outside an apartment building, the only structure lit for miles, its windows and doors emitted a lonely glow onto the wretched mass of homeless men and women.
What exactly was going in here? Why would Mercer be here?
He'd made enough last minute adjustments and contingency supplements to his armour to make a college examinee blush. In an effort to combat Alex Mercer's unique and soil-yourself-scary powers of biomass absorption the mark IV's joints had been doubly reinforced and coated with a blackwatch chemical weapon called bloodtox, which had supposedly acted as a deterrent to all strains of redlight, including Alex Mercer during the original pandemic.
He was as prepared for this fight as he possibly could be considering the poor Intel and strenuous circumstances but that didn't mean he wasn't worried; Steve had vehemently insisted on assignment to the team closest to his search route, which Stark was very grateful for, he'd never admit that of course, but right then he would've given anything to have his husband standing there by his side when he carefully lowered himself onto the street, stirring up wispy clouds around his boots from the emancipated asphalt.
His scanner, a small autonomous little unit, suspended under a rudimentary propeller began to beep frantically and Stark watched as his HUD pointed him to the only man amongst them who seemed completely unperturbed by the commotion as he rose over the hunched backs and shoulders of the surrounding humans like a lion rises over the grass.
He parted the crowd like reeds and quietly advanced on stark at an agonisingly slow pace. His shadowed expression looked no different than when it had been glaring at him on the screen in the secret conference room several days ago: hooded, emotionless, dead-eyes set firmly ahead.
Everyone in the crowd suddenly fell silent as Alex Mercer dropped all his pretences and stalked towards Tony Stark who watched as they looked to him with fear and reverence; Alex's eyes locked on Iron man even as Iron man's targeting systems locked on him and when he suddenly stopped and made no further moves Stark resorted to doing what he did best.
"So uh, you come here often, buddy?"
Alex was silent.
"Right to the point then, I like that..." iron man would've shifted nervously if he weren't in his armour, Alex Mercer seemed to exude 'unsettling' without even trying to "yeah uh... look, that whole city-wide zombie pandemic thing you stirred up kind of rubbed a few people the wrong way, so no offense or anything but I'm sort of here to take you in"
Alex, again, said nothing.
"Now I know it's a little sudden, I'm sure you had very important plans and I completely respect that but this is pretty important too, so if you could just surrender immediately and come quietly without a fuss that'd be great" despite the nigh-on palpable unease Stark had managed to leisurely slip into a well exercised condescending stance and tone, he was used to baiting dangerous people like this.
Alex continued to remain unnaturally still.
Iron Man suddenly let himself grow serious. "My team is on its way here y'know, I don't care how tough they say you are but I know for a fact that you can't stand up to the entire Avengers team, so why don't you save us both a heap of time and trouble and just give up now?"
Alex robotically shifted his feet apart and took on a basic combat stance, finally he spoke, with a cold, level voice that complimented the patches of ash and what might have been blood pocked across his jacket.
"Then I guess I'll just have to kill you quickly"
A/N (1. I emphatically apologize for taking so long to update for what little it's worth and 2. the full fight between Mercer and Stark shall take place in the next chapter so no more stupid cliff-hangers like this until the battle's run its course.)