Hey you all! Its Alito again! And graduation is here for me! YAAAY! Anyway, I'm about to leave soon, but I thought I'd give you another chapter before I go to officially graduate from high school, ceremony and all. So then, this one continues from where we left off of in chapter one.
So here's chapter 2!
Disclaimer; I own NOTHING
Chapter two: Return of the second carnivore, a new danger.
Minaka stood over the entire city on the roof of his towering clock tower, as the wind blissfully blew into his face and his hair. Though he seemed confident in allowing Mercer to come to his tower, he was still skeptical that it wouldn't be enough to stop him. Minaka knew full well what Mercer was capable of, and was obviously prepared with a ton of military just in case something went wrong.
"Looks like someone's getting nervous." Takami said, walking to his side, cigarette in hand. "Maybe it was wrong to revive him."
"Heh, nonsense." Minaka proclaimed, "Bringing him back was the only reason I had set this extra plan in motion! Don't you see yet, Takami? I will soon have proper control of a god of beings, so there is NO way I'm going to skip out on it simply from rebelling the hand that fed him!"
"You seem almost certain that Alex Mercer will bow down to you." Takami figured, "But first, you'd have to get him onto his knees first."
"Oh, he'll fall to his knees, alright."
The sudden deep voice from nowhere startled both of them as they both turned to see an unfamiliar face appear before them. Though Takami had no idea who this new person was, Minaka knew exactly who had arrived before them and grinned his evil, cocky grin. "So you've made it, I see! Excellent! Now my plans are slowly starting to roll together."
"Yeah, whatever. Just as long as one of those plans rollin' involves Mercer's head rollin'."
XXX
Yashima still couldn't believe it right away. Her old abusive master was…consumed by this hooded older man who was obviously more dangerous than her old Ashikabi, and had his own form of abilities. Even as they walked through the city and she walked behind him, Yashima could still feel darkness about him and every step he took. But even so, she still felt a strange connection to this Alex Mercer that she didn't feel with Junichi. Maybe it was because of some of his powers seeping into her, and changing her clothes black, or maybe it was something more.
"Hey."
The sudden call of Alex startled her a bit. "Y-Yes, Mercer-sama?"
"You haven't said anything since I turned your old Ashikabi into a morning breakfast…or afternoon lunch…" He then looked over his shoulder and asked, "What time is it?"
"I don't know. I don't have a watch…" Yashima said meekly. "But last time I checked it was about 2:15 p.m."
"Oh. And the date?"
"It's the fifth of August."
"August, huh?' Alex Mercer mumbled, "Yeah…it's been about a month." Alex may not have said anything to Yashima right away, but it had most definitely been a month since his very own creation had turned against him, killed him, and consuming him. Thinking about it now, Alex was still curious as to why he's alive now even though he himself was consumed. And the only one with answers to that question seemed to be Minaka. And that's just where he was heading as continued to walk with Yashima behind him.
"Um…Mercer-sama?" Yashima asked.
"What?" He answered impatiently.
"W-Where exactly are we going?" Yashima asked.
Alex simply pointed to the towering clock tower that over-looked the rest of the city as if an all Seeing Eye. Yashima gasped in shock at what Mercer was planning to do right away! "Y-You're going to the MBI's president's tower?"
"Correction; I'm going to the MBI's president's tower and take his head as my prize." Alex explained. "And as my Sekirei, you're gonna help me do that. Not that I really need help, but I guess a good mascot would serve a good motivator."
"B-But you can't just walk to MBI tower and think you can get Minaka that easily!" Yashima warned him fearfully, "I mean he's got tanks, helicopters, and military men guarding him! There's no way you can fight off an entire army…of…people…um, why are you looking at me like that?"
Yashima was referring to the almost mocking, cocked eyebrow smirk Alex was giving her. It was as if he was going to laugh at her or she had said something that made him think she was dumb. "You really don't know who I am, do you?" Alex said, "You silly girl."
"Please, Mercer-sama!" Yashima begged, "I-I just…I don't want to see you get hurt…"
"Then don't follow me if you don't want to see me hurt others to death." Alex said coldly as he walked on with her just standing there. "It'll only take me five minutes tops. And besides, I'm the strongest thing in this city. Who's gonna get in my way?"
Mercer continued to walk forward into the city, but was suddenly stopped by the distant sound of rumbling that was approaching him. He at first wondered what such a sound was as Yashima ran closer to him with a worried expression on her face.
"W-What is that?" Yashima asked with worry.
"Good question." Alex wondered himself. It seemed the rumbling was coming from the left of the city and sounded as if it was elevated to the top of one of the stainless glass buildings. Suddenly, the two could have sworn they were hearing faint shrieking of a battle cry by a deep voice coming closer and closer to their position. By the sound of it, the shriek was ferocious and anger filled.
"Oh shit…" Alex said in annoyance, which confused Yashima.
"What's wrong?" Yashima asked.
"How did that idiot even find me here?" Alex sighed as he simply stood there, looking up into the skies for any sign of him. The faint battle cry grew closer and closer with each passing few seconds. "You should stand back." Alex suggested as he pushed Yashima back a bit, and she herself took a safer distance from the middle of the street.
The scream of rage got closer and closer until it sounded as if he was already locked on to their position and was sitting somewhere close.
"Here he comes…" Alex said, crossing his arms in patience.
"Who?" Yashima asked from behind a car.
Alex simply looked over his shoulder to her with dark eyes and said, "My rival carnivore."
Yashima was about to ask what he meant by that, but her words were quickly halted within her mouth as she looked up at the side of one of the buildings; she could see that it was being shattered to pieces as something was carving through the windows while descending before the ground. The battle cry obviously came from this strange object that was descending dangerously quickly to the ground. Once close enough, Yashima could actually see that it wasn't something but instead someone!
Finally, that someone landed right to the ground with a shattering landing that made the ground rumble under her and Mercer, however, unlike Yashima who fell on her butt due to the vibration of the ground, Alex still stood idly by with his arms crossed, not moving a muscle and had a rather annoyed expression on his face.
Once the smoke finally cleared, walking from within the small crater was a towering older man whose arm returned back to normal from the giant blade that it was before. This older man looked at least in his late 30s compared to her Master, Alex who looked in his late 20s. This man had buzz cut black hair, his skin tone was brown, an obvious tone of African American decent, and his eyes were a dark brown with a small scar on his eyebrow. His attire was a black hooded sweatshirt with red interior under a black long collared leather jacket. He also wore black fingerless gloves, a dark brown utility belt, dark blue cargo pants and black combat boots.
His expression was kept in a very angered and furious scowl towards Yashima's new master as he slowly walked over to him and stopped a few steps away from him.
"Alex Mercer…"The black man said bitterly, "Never thought I'd see yo punk ass again."
"James Heller…" Alex said with a smug grin on his face, "I see you've been working on your anger issues. How's Maya these days?"
"Oh she's fine, now that you're out of New York with your fucked up beliefs." James said, "And yeah, my angers been better after seein' you ripped into pieces a month ago."
"Well by the looks of it Heller, you failed to finish the job." Alex said smugly with his arms out wide, "And now here I am again. Guess you're not at the top of the food chain anymore."
"I could care less about that shit." The brown-skinned man said angrily as he pointed at Mercer, "all I care about is rippin' yo ass a new one, and this time, you ain't ever comin' back!"
Alex could only drop his arms and sigh irritably at how much his rage-oholic enemy hadn't changed a bit. "I don't have time for this, Heller. I got business to take care of in that tower behind you. So if you don't mind, please be so kind as to get the FUCK out of my way."
"No deal, Mercer." James smirked as he crossed his arms, "Ya see, after your little stunt in NYZ, I was called by the owner of that tower over there to come here and personally fuck you up myself…" He then spread his arms, and suddenly from strange black ooze, they turned into the same form of long sharp claws as Alex's but they were a more magma color mixed with the same black ooze-turned-armor as Alex's claws. "…and that's just what I'm gonna do."
Yashima gasped in shock at how this sudden new man came from nowhere and made his arms into claws and a giant blade just as Mercer can! She started to believe that these two are more connected then she originally thought.
Alex couldn't believe how much sighing he was doing today. Just standing there hearing Heller's voice again was starting to annoy him greatly. Plus he really didn't feel like getting into a fight with him and waste energy on getting to Minaka. He really hated doing so, but now wasn't the time.
"Shit…Looks like I don't have a choice." Alex said as he looked over his shoulder and called, "Yashima! Get over here!"
Yashima could obviously hear the anger in his tone and ran to Mercer from the safety of afar and stood a few inches behind him with no hesitation. Heller cocked an eyebrow in confusion as to who this young woman was, and why she was with Mercer.
"Y-Yes, Mercer-sama?" Yashima said timidly.
Mercer simply placed his hand on top of her head and rubbed her head gently as he stilled looked towards Heller, "I'm gonna need you to slam that massive hammer of yours down in front of us. After that, let me handle the rest."
"B-But my hammer was destroyed, remember?" Yashima reminded him.
"Then, make a new one." Alex instructed her, as he removed his hand from her head. "Concentrate on the weapon."
Yashima was unsure if such a method would work, but she nodded to her Ashikabi's instruction and closed her eyes to concentrate better. She didn't know right away what she was suppose to be feeling, but soon, she started to feel it perfectly. It was an almost euphoric feeling again as it coursed through her body and was even making her feel a sensation that she didn't think she'd feel out of nowhere. Suddenly, she visualized the item she wanted and from her arms came a black ooze-like substance that swarmed around her arms and formed itself into a long rod-like object within her hands. Soon the top of the rod became a large black substance of the ooze until both the rod and head materialized into a giant hammer within her hands! The rod itself was a cold steel long rod and the giant hammer head was a large black metal mass that formed a rectangle form. "I-I did it…!" She panted.
"What…? The hell'd you do to that girl, Mercer?-!" James exclaimed.
"Nothin' that concerns you." Alex said, "Just something that concerns Ashikabi is all."
"Ashi-what?" James questioned.
"Yashima, now!" Alex ordered.
"Yes, Mercer-sama!" Yashima proclaimed as she brought her giant hammer into the air and slammed it right into the ground! The impact itself created a giant shockwave of power that made the very ground crumble massively as debris from the ground and widows from buildings shattered all about! James was unable to advance as he covered his face from the destruction of the ground in front of him!
Once the smoke cleared and the vibration had ended, James looked back at the scene, only to find that the two had escaped from the area in the distraction of the hammer's strike.
"Damnit…!" James yelled at the top of his lungs, "FUCKIN' DAMN YOU, MERCER!-!"
XXX
From the ledge of another building that over looked the carnage that just took place within the city, a certain woman happened to stumble upon a most strange sight even though she didn't mean to. She wondered what was that all about as she actually sat there and watched the entire events unfold. She then saw that the man named James Heller had ran off with great speed and leaped from building to building back to MBI tower.
"Well that was interesting." She said as she downed a large bottle of sake right out of the bottle. She sighed in satisfaction from her intake of booze and had a slick smile on her soft lips, "It seems this game is starting to get more and more interesting. Try to make it fun for us Sekirei will you, Alex Mercer?"
XXX
Alex had carried Yashima under his arm as he jumped rooftop to rooftop through the city. He decided to decrease his speed and simply jog onto one last roof before slowly stopping in his tracks. "Alright. This is far enough." Alex figured. He roughly dropped Yashima and let her fall to the ground with no hesitation.
"Ow…You didn't have to drop me like that…" Yashima said meekly as she slowly stood back up again.
"Oh, suck it up." Alex said, "I know you've taken worse than that. You are a Sekirei after all."
I guess…" She replied. It was true that she has taken worse; both from her battles with other Sekirei and her former Ashikabi as well. Just thinking about those brutal times was too much for her to want to remember, so she tried to change the subject. "Anyway, who was that guy before? He seemed to have the same claws that you do."
"That walking shit stain was James Heller." Alex said bitterly walking to the edge of the rooftop and over-looking the city. "He was a mistake…a mistake I made. He's got the same powers as me, and has gotten in my way constantly. Now he's working for the only man who's got answers and is getting in my way AGAIN." Yashima jumped a bit at the sudden rise of his voice. He seemed to have calmed down from the breath he took and his foot relaxing on the ledge with his arm lying on top of his knee. "He doesn't understand that things are different now for me. I got it; my plan was a horrible one that was only driven by selfish dreams, and me thinking like a snot-nosed brat who can't have his way."
"…Like Chuunibyou."
Alex slowly turned his head back at the light brown haired Sekirei as if she was speaking gibberish and just had to say; "What?"
"Chuunibyou." Yashima explained, "It's when you have the forethought of a middle schooler and think that you're different then everyone else on a more unnatural level. Like pretending to be a character from a show."
Alex thought she was crazy, but upon really thinking about it, he did agree with one thing on her explanation; "I don't know about that example…but the first bit…That's not too far from what I was and my goals before." He got off the ledge and walked back to Yashima. "In fact, I think that word suits me just right in a way." He stopped as he stood before Yashima, "Now then, let's talk about a few things."
"Like what?" Yashima asked.
"Simple." Alex said with his arms crossed, "Let's talk about this "Sekirei plan" that your old Ashikabi had in his memories."
"The Sekirei plan?" Yashima repeated. She thought hard in trying to remember something about the plan in general and then explained; "Well from what I remember, the Sekirei plan is what the MBI CEO had come up with. It's the way the game is played and the rules of the game. So far, the stage we're on now is level 2. Level 1 was the release of Sekirei into Tokyo and finding partners, or Ashikabi, to become partners with."
"So what's level 2?" Mercer asked.
"Level 2 is when the last 10% of Sekirei are still unwinged, and now we have to find them to wing them as well." Yashima said, "But there's a problem…more Ashikabi and Sekirei will also be searching for other Sekirei, so it would be most difficult to find any."
"So this "Sekirei plan", it's all about winning, right?" Alex deduced as he paced back and forth.
"Generally speaking; yes." Yashima nodded.
"And once the remaining Sekirei have been winged, another stage will start, right?"
"Yes."
Mercer considered the whole situation he was now in. If he could gather some more Sekirei to join him, he could be ever so close to getting to Minaka. And judging by how strong Yashima was, he was sure that there were even stronger ones out there. He could gather a group of Sekirei to fight Heller, while he goes after Minaka. Sure they might die at the hands of Heller, but Alex didn't generally care. All he cared about was killing Minaka and destroying the evil of this world. And after Minaka's dead and his Sekirei don't survive against Heller then he'd gladly kill Heller as revenge for his fallen comrades.
"Alright. I think I got a good grasp of what's going on." Mercer stopped pacing and turned to Yashima with a sinister grin on his face, "We just need get the rest of the Sekirei unwinged and soon the next stage will begin, correct?"
"Y-Yes." Yashima said with worry as she had to see that sinister grin on his face, "B-But how will we find the rest of the Sekirei?"
Alex turned to look over the horizon of the city and walked back to the edge. He put on knee on the ledge as he looked over the city from above at the citizens walking by without a possible thought as to what was happening all around them. It was almost like cows that have no forethought as to what will happen to them soon. Alex looked from one person to the next, trying to apparently search for something important from one of the citizens.
Finally, he seemed to have found what he was searching for as he leaped from the tall building and landed smack-dab in the middle of the road with a heavy landing that pushed moving cars off the road and into the air, resulting in a minor crash to the ground. The people stood in fear and horror as they saw this sudden explosion occur. When the smoke was clear, they could clearly see that the person in the wreckage was the result of the explosion and seemed to be standing perfectly upward with no difficulty.
Alex looked around for his target, and soon enough, found him trying to actually run away from him. It made no difference the one called "ZEUS" since he loved a good chase. But even so the chase didn't last long as Mercer simply ran at top speed, knocking the crowd of people out of his way in the process. As he ran, he finally grabbed the poor soul by the collar and heard his shrieking of terror. It was music to Mercer's ears almost. He then ran into an alley way to leap from the ground and run up the side of the building as if he were running on a street. When he finally reached the rooftop, he jumped from one to the next, until he reached the one he left Yashima on.
"Miss me?" Alex smirked while still holding his panicked captive.
"U-Um, Mercer-sama, what are you doing with that man?-!" Yashima questioned fearfully.
"Simple; I'm gonna consume him and take his memories." Alex said nonchalantly.
"W-What?-! But he's not even a Sekirei or an Ashikabi!" Yashima insisted.
"But he's got what I need in terms of a way to find more Sekirei for this "plan" you speak of." Alex noted. Besides, I'm not gonna kill all the humans." He then wore a sadistic grin across his face, "Just the ones who are important my goal. So bottoms up!"
Alex finally slammed his clenched fist into the poor civilian's stomach and blood spewed heavily from his back! Yashima covered her mouth in horror at the sight of such a gruesome death. It wasn't enough to make her sick or anything since she's seen worse in these Sekirei battles, but even so the gore was horrifying.
Finally the body was surrounded by black ooze as it fused with Alex just as Juichi did. And just like any important info carrying person he consumed, Alex began to have a horrid headache as he saw exactly what that guy was thinking in random vivid images along with dialog as well. He could see the images of a beautiful woman in a too short for public dress and her breast practically poking out of that short dress. But she was also downing a bottle of sake as well as her ebony long hair flew in the wind.
"Man, that's one hot babe right there." Said a male voice.
"Ah, yeah, I see her." Said the voice of the person Alex consumed. "She's got curves in all the right places."
"But it looks like she's a heavy drinker from the bottle of alcohol she's been drinking from this whole time."
"Who cares, she's definitely my kind of girl. Wonder where she's going?"
"From what I heard, she stays somewhere in the North district of Tokyo. A friend of mine said she's staying in an inn called Izumo."
"Sweet! We gotta—hey, what the hell is that?-!"
The man was referring to Mercer's earlier arrival and suddenly the headache ceased as he was now standing on his own two feet again. "I got one."
"You know where an unwinged Sekirei is?" Yashima asked.
"I don't know. But she certainly looks the part." Alex said as he walked to the North side of the building's rooftop with Yashima close behind, "Let's go see if she plays it as well."
XXX
"MINAKA!-!"
The echoing sound of James Heller's anger echoed throughout half the entire city as Minaka instantly jumped with a chilled spin at such a ferocious set of lungs he had. Minaka turned to see James walking to him, carrying a tense scowl towards the white haired CEO.
"H-Heller! What a surprise to see you here so soon!" Minaka said with trembling but still kept his cocky grin, "Would you like some tea or some—Whoa!" Minaka's words failed as he was hoisted up by the collar and forced to stare into Heller's anger-filled eyes!
"Just what the hell kinda game you playin' here, huh?" James said threateningly.
"W-What're you referring to?" Minaka quivered.
"I'm referrin' to your word." Heller said as his voice rose. "You said that Mercer was the only one who was here, killin' and consumin' people for whatever reason. You didn't say that he had n accomplice!"
"An accomplice?" Minaka questioned.
"Yeah, some girl with a giant hammer who's got the same powers as Mercer!" James argued, "And now he's sayin' that he's some Ashi-whatever!"
"An Ashikabi?-!" Minaka exclaimed in shock as he pulled himself from James's grasp and ran to the edge of the rooftop to look down over the city. This was certainly not part of his plan to find that he actually became an Ashikabi, AND has his own Sekirei as well. This could be bad if he decides to raise an army of Sekirei to go against him…but suddenly…Minaka grinned a twisted grin and even began to chuckle, before full on laughing hysterically!
"Yes! This is perfect!" Minaka said excitedly, "Now the game has gotten even more interesting! Alex Mercer planning to destroy this tower with his own army of Sekirei at his disposal! How exhilarating!"
"You one creepy ass dude, Y'know that?" Heller commented.
"Sticks and stones my dear Heller." Minaka said, "For now, the real fun will begin…for all of us!"
"What do you mean?" Heller questioned with suspicion.
"All in due time, Heller." Minaka answered, "For now, you got some work of your own to do."
"And that is?"
"Obviously Mercer's going to be sending an army of Sekirei at me…" Minaka then turned with a sadistic grin on his face, "…So by logic, you should fight fire with fire!"
XXX
"And in our top story today, police are baffled at the sight of a large cater suddenly appearing within the middle of the road. Witnesses report that the result of this destruction was from a man dressed in a hood and leather jacket. They also report that this man had suddenly taken off running with incredible speed, and grabbed a civilian as he ran off. Police have tried to be asked anymore on this subject, but all has been hidden from the general public. Later news will be covered as soon— "
The television was quickly shut off as the man who was watching it couldn't be bothered with anymore trivial news. He simply sat in his chair and looked out the large window to see the city from above. He had heard what he was interested in the most, and that was this hooded man who seemingly fell from the sky and slammed into the ground, but was able to survive. Then this hooded man goes and kidnaps a civilian and that civilian is never seen again. This was quite an interesting story to believe as it would only indicate that he wasn't human.
"A Sekirei, perhaps?" This posh gentleman in a white suit figured, "No. He doesn't seem like one."
A knock appeared on the door as the gentleman brushed back his brown hair and said, "Enter."
The door opened and before him was a young beautiful woman with grey short hair, and glasses. She wore a long purple dress with a black belt tied around her waist and seemed to have a red dot on her forehead as a sign of possible Indian religious belief.
"Number 22, Kochou, here." Kochou said rather dryly. "I have news to offer you, Higa-san."
"Yes, what is it?" Higa said as he stood from his seat.
"It appears we have discovered the name of this strange man who seemed to have fallen from the sky into the middle of the city from the data we've been given from our agent in MBI." Kochou explained with a clipboard in her hand to read off of, "His name is Alexander J. Mercer. He was a scientist working for the company Gentek in America, until he escaped after discovering their plans. Upon being cornered by Gentek's personal army, Blackwatch, Alex Mercer released a vial of highly dangerous biomass within Penn station in New York City. He was shot and killed, but the biomass was released and infected everyone within the station. Some lived, some died, but those who lived were turned into soulless monsters."
"And Mercer? What of him?" Higa asked as he looked out the window at the city.
"It's unknown as to how he was able to survive. But it could be believed that the biomass entered his body and brought him back to life." Kochou explained, "Now he cares this biomass as a personal weapon with qualities that are still left unknown."
"I see." Higa said with interest, "And what was this biomass?"
"From what our agent had sent us, it is an energy source of biological material from a living organism. It seems to be powered by other organisms."
"So then, that explains what happened to that poor soul who was taken by him." Higa deducted as he turned to Kochou with a small smirk, "Get me that agent on the phone."
XXX
Upon entering the hallway of other workers of MBI tower, he had decided to dress as one of the workers in a black suit and white tie. Suddenly his cell phone vibrated within his pocket, forcing him to step into a small dissection room with no one else present. He took out his cell phone and answered it. "Higa."
"I wanted to congratulate you on a job well done. We've gotten a good dose of info on Alex Mercer and we plan to use this info for future references." Higa said from the phone.
"Got it. My mission will be completed soon. However there is one thing I gotta ask before I end transmission?"
"Yes, Robert Cross-san?"
"Tell me. Where can I find a so called "Sekirei"?" Cross questioned.