Chaos had ensued in the streets soon enough. Alex, Lynn and Dutch rushed inside a small pharmacy as fast as they could, carrying a few of the wounded soldiers they were searching for. Some of them bled profusely and they were lucky because the xenomorphs could have done much worse hadn't it been for Mercer's interruption.
After running down many blocks with Dutch and Lynn behind him and fighting some xenomorphs to gain experience for future encounters, Alex had gotten to his men's location and extracted them before it was too late.
Alex wasn't much of a people man but the men he carried had trusted him their lives.
Lynn and Dutch were surprised to hear that they knew Mercer beyond the whole corporal Dunn fachade.
The men currently were private Hugh, in charge of communications, liutenant Smee, weapons specialist, private Bill Wilkinson, assigned as the sniper and strategist and sergeant Callum Ittin, charged as the pilot.
Hugh was alright, if only a little burned in the chest area after a xenomorph had spilled acid on him. Kevlar had saved his life but it was quickly decomposed by the powerful alien acid.
Alex had to admit that their acidic blood was a major bitch but it wouldn't get the better of him. Those fucking bugs would get zapped after he had adapted.
This was no different from BloodTox, he just needed time to work it out and get around it.
To Mercer it was improvise, adapt, overcome and finally consume. The xenomorphs would get their due, and learn to not fuck with ZEUS.
Such creatures aroused his interest ever since he picked up the assignment working as Dunn. Cross waa of big help too, giving him some insight from his superiors and what they were plotting. He also provided him with men. Men that didn't fear punching the government in the dick and switch to a better leader when the ones they had were acting like daft cunts. He liked that and he respected it.
After some handy hacking from Dana, the Athena to his ZEUS, Alex and his band of merry men got several steps closer to the epicenter of the new worldwide scheme of biological weapons: Alien tech.
Now Alex had previously fought, brutalized and effectively consumed member of the species know as Yautja or "Predators". They provided valuable info about their dealings with secret organizations and corporations, which involved payments of their technology. Such thing in human hands was meant to be bloody bad. Alex himself was living proof of what they could do wrong.
After some infiltrations and spionage, Alex arranged some business between "Corporal Dunn" and the corporation in charge of acquiring alien weapons for the government.
The corporation showed him pictures and he figured out this was some next level shit.
DARPA, CIA, NSA, and now the Corporation. The bastards saw another weapon and tried to seize it. It took pulling some strings, as well as some spines to get to the bottom of this whole thing.
Danger. A hot sensation of danger was what Alex perceived when he stared at the xenomorphs. He liked it. Disturbing creatures of dangerous habits but also a great opportunity to mess up plans that could start a new Manhattan while also getting a feast out of it.
Humans wouldn't be the only thing afraid of him soon.
But today Alex was fighting to keep his unit alive while still trying to solve the huge puzzle that the corporation had in mind. Even if it meant wiping out the whole xenomorph species.
"How are we with the bullets?" Lynn questioned, wanting to know the survival probablities of the squad.
"Well enough but we ain't killing a whole city worth of those piss ants with what we have." Replied Hugh while putting Smee down on the floor so he could regain his strength and be treated properly.
Smee had gotten his shoulder pierced severely by a xenomorph's tail. It wasn't that bad but Smee and Lynn were disinfecting it to make sure it didn't get worse.
A xenomorph broke a window and tried to get in but as it crawled in, Dutch gripped it's neck firmly, snapped it with his bionic arm, then reached for a powerful bomb he had crafted out of the materials in the pharmacy and shoved it in the creature's jaw before throwing him outside and letting the explosion take out more of their ranks before scaring them away in a burst of flames.
Now that's what Alex called style. He felt the urge to step up the slaughter but realized that feeding wouldn't be easy. The acidic blood ruled out a feast for him. He could try to consume one of the xenomorphs and then take his time to adapt but that would render him vulnerable, meaning that he would rely on others to defend him and he didn't like the ring of that.
So he settled for the safe way. He picked hus rifle and went Commando against the breachers, delivering only precise headshots to avoid wasting ammo.
The pricks were sturdy but that was no issue. Those were big bullets he was firing, at their weak spots none the less. During the heat of battle, Alex wondered how the xeno's managed to see. Was the odd orb placed on top of their faces some sort of ocular organ? Did they eco-locate? He figured out it wouldn't matter, once they occupied their place inside of him, answers would flow. Just had to wait.
"Come on, bring it, you dickheads!" Alex shouted being carried away as he saw most of the xenomorphs wander away or march off, having recognized his threat. "Where's the fun now, huh?"
But Alex got a response once he saw what looked like a more advanced and lethal branch of xenomorph, standing firmly and roaring before rushing at him like a wild Hunter. It was over two meters tall, easily towering over Alex, who cursed his measly body of a scientist, and even Dutch. It was bulky and had a voice that sounded beastly enough to make others sound like whimpers.
Now that was what Alex wanted. He opened his arms in a pose akin to that of the Cristo statue of Brasil before yelling with a fierce intent.
"I've got your medicine right here, boy!"
Lynn didn't think too highly of Mercer's sanity. He was a mental genius, but his state of mind concerned her from past choices. But not even then she expected him to batshit crazy.
The grunt of a xeno slammed against Alex head on, almost tackling him off his feet but not quite.
His feet got buried under the concrete down below, quickly moving back from the impact and leaving a trail of grinded earth in the pharmacy, before shifting his weight and using the creature's own momentum against it by throwing it against a wall, leaving massive dents and cracks.
Before it even regained composture, Alex was already on it, punching and stomping like a savage at inhuman speeds.
The creature soldiered up and shoved it's claws into his torso, trying to push him back but Alex was faster and after the thrusts, he elbowed it's head, kneed it's jaw and wrapped his hands around the neck in a mighty guillotine, then twisting hard and severing all bones in the neck and head, killing it real good.
Before he turned, another xeno hopped behind him, trying to chokehold him and rip off his head. In a quick response, Alex elbowed it's chest with strength to break it's ribcage and internal organs, reached for it's head and nailed it with a fatal knee.
The blinded creature staggered before eating a shotgun shell from Hugh, which splattered some brain matter that Alex watched interested. Maybe he could settle for an active brain as long as it was low on acid.
Before anything else, another xenomorph broke through the walls with zero warning and ran against the squad with his fanged tongue sticking out but he was quickly intercepted by Dutch.
He catched it's tongue with his bionic arm in a brutal squeeze and then with a mighty pull he ripped it out, with some organs attached.
"These ugly motherfuckers." Dutch said as he dropped the chain of gory fragments he had pulled.
Okay, so maybe Schaefer wasn't specialist Cross, but Alex had to agree that he was the next big thing if not in a league of his own. Now those were the methods.
There was no time to celebrate him however, because before they could move further, a series of tails and linbs came down breaking through the ceiling and tried to nail the squad.
Thanksfully, Lynn reacted quickly and shot off a head as soon as it popped up. But that didn't stop more of them from keeping the assault.
Seeing as they began getting closer and more overwhelming and how both Ittin and Smee were being cornered, Alex stepped up and going forwards, unleashed a massive surge of his tendrils and fist whips, which quickly covered most of the structure at an incredibly fast pace.
Lynn watched amused how Mercer's trump card worked, impaling all xenomorph life forms in the area and brutalizing them until they could move no more. She could hear Alex swearing while at it, a little pained from exposure to the acid but driven in his intent regardless. It kept going like that for a while until things calmed down and Alex was sure every damn mutt had died off.
Dutch took quick looks around to make sure they were safe for the time being, and they were. Now they only had to patch up their boys and maybe keep rolling afterwards. Dutch wasn't too sure about wether he should wait longer with the crew or keep going on despite having a few injured men. It was up to Alex and he would have to respect his choice.
It was kinda funny but after his tangle with a predator, Dutch didn't think anything else would surprise him, didn't think there would be anything crazier than what he saw in the past. Then Manhattan happened, he then actually met Mercer in the flesh and now he was witnessing the sum of the government's attempts at creating monstruosities. But he liked the kid. Human or not, he had the guts to face the crooks in charge of the system and win after kicking them where it hurt.
Alex was pretty damn bored to say the least but he was patient. He had to wait for his men to get in better shape.
On the meantime, he talked a little with his allies, mostly about stuff that made Blacklight curious. As the viral organism it was, it's hunger for flesh and DNA was only rivaled by Alex's very own scientific curiosity, passed down to him from Dr. Mercer.
"You think after I'm done here I should try and breed Xenomorphs with Yautja?"
Alex asked Lynn as she and the others sipped from their water bottles.
"That would be fucking disgusting. But yeah, maybe your soldiers would get better from that. But that's the thought process that led the pricks in the corporation to pull this horseshit." Liutenant Kurosawa was very vocal about her thoughts on the whole ordeal. Alex and Dutch got to know her better and learned she was part of a special operations unit in Japan until her crew got shut down. She killed some nasty creatures in her job, ones that wouldn't come to light or be seen anyday.
That fierce look of danger and wild in her eyes reminded Blacklight a little of his sister, except that Lynn's line of work was more in line with what Blackwatch did. She was like a female japanese Cross, something Alex could respect deeply.
"Is there a thing you don't want to produce to bring hell on earth?" Dutch asked out of fun after hearing Alex' whole talk about harvesting and breeding.
"Robots. Yeah, I'd like to build robots but I haven't learned how. Perhaps you could point me towards or give me the details of your friends at Cyberdyne. Heard the nutjobs are working on some next level A.I, shit is probably going to build an army and take over earth." Alex joked, albeit a little serious on the last part. Dutch just chuckled at the thought.
"Can you imagine an army of me running around with sunglasses and guns? They're probably into that." Dutch joked further.
Hugh joined the conversation, though changing the topic a little to ask his friend and superior a question.
"So how's Dana doing?" Alex shrugged a little at this.
"Fine, if only a little worried about me. She wanted to stay under the radar so I tried to let her have it but it didn't work for me. What can I say? Some birds can't be caged or changed. I needed this, and the fuck-ups at the Corporation just gave it to me. The golden opportunity to expand and predate while taking a dump on their plans."
"Have you talked to her recently?" Asked Smee, who was starting to feel better.
"Not lately, no. But maybe she needs time for herself. I'm always watching over her but I also have to avoid dragging her into my mess."
Alex replied sincerely.
"Just get back home alive and with a good story for her and it will be alright." Assured Ittin to make Alex feel better. He knew what it was like to have someone waiting at home. Callum Ittin was a man on his 30's that had seen a lot of crap in the field and was only in action when he deemed it necessary. He was about a head taller than Mercer as he was in base form, though a little shorter than him as Dunn. He had a clean short beard, bald head and somewhat muscular look. He wore a green cap.
"Hopefully. I really hope so. But only time will tell. Heard she's liking her new apartment and job."
Personal talk aside, Smee was urged to bring up a relevant issue about their whole ordeal that they had forgotten to talk about.
"Are we not going to talk about what happened to our plane? You and I both know the Black Crow doesn't malfunction like that, Alex." Said Smee, making his point clear. This called for Dutch and Lynn's attention, since they didn't stop to think about it.
"Of course it doesn't. We got rigged, cheated by those bastards. They didn't need us here, we were just the carriers. Now what actually matters are..."
"The boxes?" Lynn inquired, flexing her neck's tendons as the realization struck her hard.
"Correct." Alex answered with a sly smirk.
"What was in them?" Lynn asked further.
"Don't know, I do care though. They said it was a bomb just in case we didn't make it and the outbreak got out of hand." The walking virus kept explaining. Hugh then spat.
"It's bullshit, all of it, fuck them. Damn fools were planning this whole crap and used us as scapegoats. Must be some crazy ass abomination, a new runner or something, boss."
Right, that could be it, not for sure but if it was that then they were seriously screwed up in the mind. A runner, free roaming to assimilate xeno's and become as strong as Zeus? Bloody hell, Alex actually entertained the thought. Didn't enjoy it though.
"Did you try to search what was inside the damn boxes?" Dutch questioned, now more concerned.
"Tried, yes. But the thing is, it was set to blow up had we searched in, rigged to open only when it reached it's destination. I found it but it was empty. And that's what worries me."
"Shit." The crew heard Dutch muse.
Wasting no more time Alex then jumped to his feet and moved towards the dead aliens on the floor.
Dutch and Lynn wondered for a moment what his plan was but Smee and the others knew all too well.
"Mercer, the hell you think you're doing?" Lynn wondered out loud.
"His schtick, liutenant. What he was made for." Hugh cleared out as he and his teammates prepared for the grim sight they were about to behold.
Black and red tendrils rose from deep within Alex. His body was shifting and preparing for feeding. The sound was plain disturbing, his flesh and skin opening up and sprouting gory extensions from his self, tentacles made to feast on biological organisms and then add them to it's long list of components.
"Consume, adapt, become." He said as he stretched himself in a dreadful manner.
Most humans would have to fight the urge and natural impulse to throw up, their insides shaking and blood boiling as Blacklight seized a life form. That wasn't the case with the squad. Far from it, Mercer's boys were all to familiar with it from past missions. Not only did they stop giving a crap long time ago but they sometimes even encouraged him to go further and get his meal.
Sick heads, Alex worked with sick heads but it takes one to know one. He was glad about that.
Dutch and Lynn didn't flinch either, they were too hardened he guessed. Good, saved all explainations and basic crap about morals. Nobody would weep for a xenomorph anyway, not even their own would.
"Now listen up, these pricks here are toxic to me but I'm doing this for "the greater good", taking one for the team if you'd like. I need it if we're going to fight them off and get to the center of the city." Alex detailed with an inhuman voice and an omnious tone. Sounded like his already grave voice plus some greater echo and effects. Shit, the guy was for real. "The thing is, I will go through a lot of pain and pass out in the process, falling into an evolution state. A fucking viral coccoon or egg. You can leave my heavy ass here to finish it and I'll catch up with you later or you can drag me to avoud wasting time but I'm warning you two, I kinda weigh a shit load. Your call."
"Don't worry, we've got you." Dutch insisted. If there was someone fit for dragging his biomass across the city blocks it was him. Alrighty then.
Alex nodded, before turning back at the corpses and flashing a nightmare grin that would have made even a Yautja cower a bit. As his features and body mutated brutally while dragging the bodies in, Dutch couldn't help it but say the same he told the Jungle Hunter when they fought.
"You are one ugly motherfucker."
Alex chuckled at this as the dead acidic carcasses were split and taken into his biomass.
"You're goddamn right." Alex pointed out with his distorted voice before letting out a shriek. He then crashed down to his knees as his body became black and went numb.
Dutch did catch him though, before he could meet the ground with a thud. He grabbed the viral abomination tight and turned to it's men, staring at them.
"Now what?"
"You heard the man-thing, we keep moving for God sake." Hugh decided as he got up with his brothers in arms. "Just try to keep us alive, big guy."
"Okay, let's get this going then." Lynn affirmed as she drew her combat pistol.
Minutes later, Dutch was carrying Alex on his shoulders, running alongside his companions through the city blocks. Mercer was pretty damn heavy for a guy of his size but if someone could put up with it, it was Dutch. He figured out the weight was a product of the extra biomass he had just taken in. It was like carrying nine men, but Dutch could take it and still sprint like in a military march without losing the pace. Most would have been grossed out from carrying the viral abomination on their shoulders as it's mass shifted and it's tendrils sprouted making wild and sickening noises. Dutch just kept going.
Using a few charges and the custom bombs that they made at the pharmacy, the squad blew up plenty of settlements used by the xenomorphs to stop their spreading. Lynn figured out that at some point after tge evacuation, the aliens would have to run out of hosts for their reproduction system but they were still kind of a shit load and to her, running down the streets with them out was like free roaming in a purge night full of crooks, only that these were much worse.
"Schaefer, at your six!" Ittin warned as a few strayed xeno's began sprinting towards Dutch.
Dutch rapidly spun around and fired his pistol with one hand in a succession of precise shots that nailed the xenomorph drones until they got killed.
Another one popped into their sight, Lynn spotted it right atop of a small building they were passing by. Just as it screeched and jumped into attack it took a headshot from Lynn, fired from Mercer's weapon
since she borrowed it. The alien fell splattered on top of a car afterwards. Lynn remained alert as the group moved forwards.
She had to admit that she really missed the rush from her old job and fighting there was a blast. But she also had to take matters seriously given their whole ordeal. She was a woman of few words but what she expressed was enough for the crew to get her as a whole. Soldier, fighter, crew member.
"We're getting closer to the square, everyone stay focused." Smee made clear to the squad as he eyed their destination.
By now their plan was to make it deep into the city and slaughter as many xenos as humanly possible and once Alex woke up they would let him do his thing. Then the extraction plan, which included calling Simmons and and have him deploy some more bombs, perhaps even contact Cross so he would let his hounds loose and tear the city a new one.
Alex honest to God loved that plan, but he also wanted to stay and play a bit more with the creatures, see what he could get out from it. Some good laughs, some new slaves, fresh space meat and even new powers. All of that passed his mind as he rested on Dutch's strong grip.
While he was at it, Dutch backhanded another xenomorph right in the jaw, splitting it's head apart in a burst of green acidic ooze. Putting his bionic arm to the test again, he seized and ripped apart a light post from the concrete and tossed it javelin style, impaling two xenos that were getting closer to Hugh, who reacted by drawing and firing against the horde that randomly came from the other end of the street after hiding behind a building.
The rest of the squad joined by firing a barrage of automatic fire, which mowed down over a dozen of them, but the other half was more resistant to the gunfire.
They were the same big motherfuckers Alex faced at the pharmacy and they weren't walking but rather rushing at a good pace despite being about fifteen meters away.
Recognizing inmediately the threat they posed, Dutch loosened his grip on Alex and went over a pick-up truck that was left over there. It was the right size and type for what Dutch planned.
"Hang in there for a sec." He said, letting go of the Blacklight's body and dashing towards the truck. He knew the growing mass of tendrils and messed up flesh wouldn't mind. Now digging his fingers, both bone and metallic ones into the metal, Dutch narrowed his eyes at the targets before throwing in his projectile some good nine meters away.
Lynn and the others watched amused how the truck crashed against the incoming aliens and for a moment they looked about to get flattened. They were smashed and while they weren't dead yet, they soon would meet an end because the oil leaking from the vehicle met their acidic blood. Then in a glorious ball of fire, they were blasted away and splattered against the streets.
One of them flinched but then quickly took an electric baton to the the mouth so hard it got through the back of it's head. A little gift from Blackwatch by the hand of Smee. He spat on the corpses and picked up the pace real fast.
Dutch picked up Mercer again. He heard him mumble words like "Dana" and quickly understood the meaning behind that. Apex Predator or not, Alex still had someone to get back to, which sadly got Dutch thinking he was probably more of a human than he was. At least he was all flesh and organic. And sure, he had some family too, including a brother but they weren't too close at the time. Perhaps he would gather the courage to call them up after this was all over. Perhaps.
'Okay, sleeping beauty, let's keep rolling.' He mused as he once again lifted the heavy ass runner and joined the others in the run.
"Nice throw back there." Lynn told him.
"Thanks, I guess."
After a shorter while of running where they were oddly uninterrupted, the squad found it's way into the central area. Alex thought it was a perfect place to settle down a goid hive or start butchering since the fucking space ants were all over the goddamn place. With his new perks and inmunity to their tricks it would have been a festival. Just like Manhattan all over again. But he would have to focus on the inminent danger and the task at hand. Clean the city, play a little sandbox in there and then go after the dotards who thought it was a nice idea to play with these kind of forces having seen the bloody mess that was Manhattan. Right. And of course, call Simmons for the getaway, duh. But that was still way far away, because the whole place was pumping full of Xenomorph life and they were walking around ravaging everything as if patiently waiting for the squad to fall into their bloated nest.
Bloody hell. Dutch should have expected that, it only made sense for the outbreak to start in such a wide area. Dutch had never seen Time Square in person, but this was like it he guessed. Only with a bunch of ugly motherfuckers running wild and wreaking havoc.
"There's too many of them, Dutch." Lynn warned him. She didn't like that crap one bit.
"Yeah, I know." Dutch replied. "I'm thinking now."
"You do realize it, right? That we don't have a fucking contingency for something that big?" Hugh warned him too. Some aliens were beginning to notice them but the squad refrained from shooting up already since it would have taken away their surprise factor. There was a good distance between the aliens and them but with their numbers it was still dangerous.
"You know, you're not being pretty helpful right now. Like I said, I'm thinking." Dutch's grip on Alex intensified. He considered throwing him at the xenos and have him take out the trash but he was still out cold and besides, he wanted to partake in the slaughter too.
"They won't overlook us for too long." Ittin reminded him and Dutch fought to not roll his eyes on that.
"Just give me a fucking minute. Maybe you guys should back down now, I'll get to you later."
"Not happening." Lynn told him, not wanting to leave a man behind."
"You said you could call a pilot, right?" Dutch asked, to which Smee nodded. "Then do it and get to the chopper. Mercer and I will take out these dickwads. He's about to wake up and it's better if you're outside his range."
As in unison, the Blacklight carrier's body started to morph, having finished the adaptation process. Things were about to get crazier, Dutch knew that and he let the others know too. He laid down the messed up mutated body on the ground as it bloated in biomass and it's skin hardened like carbon and then diamond.
Dutch figured out the runner's body reacted positively to the concentrated hive of xenomorphs in the central and it accelerated the process violently in response. It was as if the hivemind of the aliens tried to reach out to him but he opposed it in disgust, it only fueled his wrath.
And how fucking dare they? Trying to talk to the mighty ZEUS as if he was a fucking drone of theirs, that was unforgivable and they would pay dearly after he got in control of his new stage. He was itching to do so, because that's what Blacklight was meant for, it's whole purpose and way of being. Consume, adapt, become. He was looking forwards ripping those bugs a new one and going as far as to stick it to their Queen so they would get the bloody message straight. Then they would get to the experiments, toying with them like his own bizarre puppets and creating new life. The xenomorph would find a new purpose in the universe and that was definitive.
But as much as those thoughts passed the runner's mind and he entertained them, Alex k ew better, knew that he had to keep it together, for the boys, for Dana, for Ragland, Cross and even fucking Heller.
He wouldn't allow himself to devolve into the same shit bag scum hearted sick bitch that was Elizabeth Greene and he wouldn't be an outcast victim of injustice like P.A.R.I.A.H. Not at all.
He was Alexander J. Mercer II, born from the experiments of a bona fide mad scientist sociopath with a troubled and challenged mind but also a lot of time, effort and resources. He was made and released as the ultimate middle finger to the crap sacks in charge of the system. They wanted a weapon? They could fucking have it and fucking have fun with it, with all that it implied. He had to mess up those who called for it but also make a right for their fuck-up's. And he would have a lot of fun doing it, just like he was about to right now.
The tendrils and tentacles rose and bounded together, reforming until there was something that could pass as a face in that virulent body. Now that his face was regenerated, it went from carbon black with no features to a pale face, which was lit by a sassy nightmarish grin with a good deal of sharp teeth. The eyes opened suddenly and flashed between inhuman crimson with bright to a bright and deadly gleeful green.
The torso and limbs pumped with more of them sick sounding tendrils, all of them forming some sort of organic texture that created what were Mercer's clothes.
At some point there, Lynn found herself to be watching something out of a Stephen King novel. But at least she could keep her stomach in check, which was way more than what most people could say when seeing something like that.
Alex rose to his feet getting in position for combat and the xenomorphs perceived the shift in their enviroment's nature. They were like animals feeling a weather change, only that all that power equivalent to that of a lightning storm was found within the Blacklight's body and they recognized the threat. They began screeching and shrieking before assuming wild stances and turning to their agressor.
"Listen to Dutch, it's better if you're in the sidelines this time." Alex spoke with a distorted and clouded voice that was way different from that of any human. Sounded like his vocal chords were just being formed and even then they were an amalgam of hundreds of different voices. Then came the claws and talons, sharper and heavier than before. Dutch suspected it had to do with the alien biomass he had been putting up and digesting. How was that for an upgrade?
Mercer's constructs were now a mix between what they looked like before and a similar texture to the bodies of the xenomorphs. Alex was just itching to pull a spine rip. But something didn't sit to well on him, something he was sensing as if the skies were about to split and the clouds were going to part to reveal something huge. It was like his heightened senses were picking up a beacon of something to come.
Something that big couldn't be too good. It wasn't fucking natural to him nor the xenos. Their attention got turned from him to the sky as they flinched and yelled to the sky. Alex was about to get why though, the meaning behind this whole nonsense.
He tried to take advantage of the odd behavior of the bugs to zoom into attack and squash them, making a sonic boom. But before he could shed the very first fool in their numbers and get lost in a killing spree, his body tingled even harder and warned him against what was to happen.
All of a sudden and as a major fuck you, a ship arrived right atop the area. An alien ship. It was pretty fine and through the nanoseconds of the happening, Alex thought about how cool it would be to hijack it and use it against the dickheads down there.
His train of thoughts was smashed in interruption when a massive blue light popped from the ship, a blinding light to everyone around the area coupled with some clear and nice sci-fi sound effects. This reminded Alex a bit of the movies he would sit down to enjoy with Dana, but he knew damn well this was for real. So he gathered his thoughts and reacted, putting his armor on and bracing himself in mid air to prepare for what looked like an overheated plasma device that was about to engulf a radius of over twenty-one meters. Lucky that his men and allies were far off enough.
Alex watched as the energy waves traveled all across the area at near light speed giving him only enough time to line his arms to shield himself from the light and it's subsequent damage. The whole event was about half a second long actually, but to the Blacklight it was like a whole minute.
Then the damage came and damn, even for Alex it was a bitch to tank. The aliens that stood at his surroundings were all literally vaporized, giving off only small vapor clouds behind as they screamed in pain. Alex felt his mass get scratch and burned massively but his armor could take it and more so now that the xenomorph DNA got decoded inside Blacklight's system.
The squad had to cover their eyes and stand back to hold up against the flash and the shockwave. To most of them it was a big ass explosion but Dutch actually felt something special, like a deja vú. The whole blast was all too similar to one he had to escape right after dooming the Jungle Hunter. The sound, the radius and the way it went boom, Dutch could almost feel like he was back there again. He did worry a bit about Mercer now that he disappeared from his sight, Lynn and the others could relate too.
It took a short while for the blast and smoke cloud to settle, prompting Dutch to walk in closer to see what was happening, to understand and to make sure Alex hadn't gotten wiped out like the aliens. Just like what the ever loving fuck just went down there? It was insane but Dutch felt like he knew for a fact even though he didn't say it out loud.
After walking several city blocks near the ground zero and passing through the smoke, Dutch looked around to see if there was a trace of the living virus.
It didn't take him too long to find him laying down in what looked like his suit of armor that protected him from the blast. It looked like it wss a part of him, all carbon black with some newly added green details and bone spikes coming out of a few parts. It's head was faceless, all black and devoid of any features linking it to Alex Mercer.
The squad soon followed Dutch and helped him get Alex back to his feet.
"You okay?" Lynn asked, really concerned about what happened. She knew the runner was sturdy but she hadn't been sure he could take a full blast of such magnitude. Then again, he had survived the nuke in Manhattan so figures, the fuck wasn't exactly breakable.
"Positive. But damn, that shit burns." Alex pointed iut as his piece of armor melted into tendrils so he could stretch and move more freely.
"You're full of surprises." Lynn said with a chuckle. But as Mercer's boys checked on him they also noticed the ominous big ship floating right above them, suspended about nine meters into the air.
It was in some kind of stealth mode, in fact, it had been almost invisible to all but Alex who had used his enhanced vision to spot it during the blast.
Fully visible and showing itself, the ship began descending slowly to be right in front of the squad. Everyone stayed alert in case this was an attack because they didn't know what to expect but Alex and Dutch already had an idea of what this was about. The xenomorph wasn't the only extraterrestrial species that mankind came across after all, Dutch himself could confirm that. As the ship hovered slowly until it touched the ground, having the entire squad ready to attack, some sort of entrance was opened, spreading down a ramp for the pilots to exit and greet their hosts.
There was a wide surge of light coming from there and at first the squad couldn't see anything, until Alex switched to his thermal vision, revealing the guests in question. There was two of them and they clearly weren't earthly. Then they revealed themselves to the others, removing their cloak devices and before they were even visible to the naked eye, Dutch had already identified them, glaring at them as he did.
"Friends of yours?" Alex asked, turning to Dutch, to which he replied calmly.
"Not my friends, though I've known them well enough." Alex smirked at that.
"Likewise."
Their dreadlocks, biomasks, weapons and large height were all that Alex and the rest needed to identify them. These were the Yautja, predators and hunters from a far away planet, and apparently they came in peace, helping the squad even. Their hands were up and away from their weapons to avoid any sign of conflict.
Many thoughts passed the Blacklight's dark clouded mind as of the meeting but the most important one that he was vocal about and voiced out loud was quite simple.
"You sons of bitches stole my damn kills!"
But what was actually surprising was the smaller Yautja's reply, which came in perfect english albeit distorted.
"I called dibs on them." Yeah, these guys and the runner would get along swimmingly.