Part V – Eye of the Storm
When you see the monster, it's already too late. When you meet the monster, you will find no monster. When you empathize the monster, you find yourself against the world. When you realize you are the product of the monster, you can have no room for good. When you become the monster, you will look at yourself, and wonder if this world is truly a lost cause.
"This is the most dangerous mission we have ever been given, even more deadly than the fit Mercer and Peterson threw in Washington."
The plane dipped a little, carried by the air flow. There was only a steel wall from the deadly drop and the freezing winds outside. Bags lined the metal, sticking from their insides were guns, magazines, launchers, radio.
"Not all of us will come back from this."
The rusty hack of the engines seemed to confirm this. The speaking man was standing on a crate, still despite the rocking movements. His voice carried above the unearthly silence that fought to overpower the cabin.
"I only ask one thing of you: remember your duties. No matter how the enemies appear, we cannot let fear destroy us. We will hold the last line, because there is nothing else to stop these monsters."
A fist to the air, followed by many.
"Hoorah!"
A shout, followed by many.
"Charlie Company, move out!"
"Let's go!"
The plane opened. Forms, like dots, leaped to the air, high above the ground. The clouds were beautiful mountains, reflecting the glaring sun like crystalline giants. Below was the rift of the worlds, on one side the forever blue of the ocean, the other the grey and green of land. Buildings were jagged pikes waiting to impale the falling. The trees were a carpet of green, silent guardians of the old world.
One by one each body fell, spread like eagles. The black suits cut the air like blades. The humans inside breathed with anticipation. Quick breaths, still form. The clouds parted to reveal a battlefield.
The fake fell, too, though did not attempt to slow. Taking the form of a piercing shell, it launched at the ground, an obsidian rock, towards the many flames that burned along the streets. Light seemed to bend around its quick passage.
"Holy shit!"
"What the fuck is that?!"
I never slowed, racing at the thickest knot of the evolved. They had a split second to look up before I squished two with enough force to dig into the ground, throwing up chunks of rock around us in a wall. The fighting had taken a pause, where everyone stared in a mixture of confusion and horror. I took the moment to restructure my mass, then burst from the ground in a flurry of blades.
Bullets ripped through me, the soldiers firing on instinct. I ignored the majority of the damage, only defending myself from the prototype. He yelled as he smashed a chunk from a building, then as he kicked a car at a tank. The tank mistook me for the offender and prepare to fire, and was subsequently caved into as I landed heavily on its turret.
The ground gave tremors. People fell, evolved stumbled, the prototype paused in his strike, alert. I roared as my fist pounded through his chest and then, using his body as a board, kicked off into the air. What was Mercer's problem?!
The prototype was surprised when I disengaged, then screamed as the biobomb exploded in a violent surge of tendrils that blasted holes through brick walls and metal armor. Within a second everything had been blown away from the block, with the exception of the prototype, who unsteadily climbed to his feet. I let him live, taking to the skies, searching.
Another tremor rocked the city.
Clouds of red reared up in the distant Long Island. The mist grew and grew, until within their forms was lightning and storm. Something moved under the blanket of shadows, taller than the buildings. The tremors grew in power. What looked like the kraken seemed to dance under the smoke. I approached slowly, watchful.
There, on the building ahead. I caught a glimpse of it.
Mother.
She stood within her mouth of jagged teeth, each as large as a person, each wickedly sharp. Her arms were raised to the sky, creating the beast. In the clouds, the mist thickened, the red spread.
She must have heard my approach, because as soon as I began a dive at her, she glanced back, revealing only a porcelain face and a pupil-less red eye before disappearing into the mouth, which closed over her, like a monster at sea that seemingly swallowed her whole. Cautious, I landed nearby, careful not to fall, and peered down the giant hole made by whatever Mother's newest creation was. It cut through the entire building, leaving behind sparks of broken machines and chunks of concrete that fell into the gaping maw. Even below the building, there was only an emptiness. I shivered, and decided it was best to not pursue Mother.
The monster in the smoke moved, shaking the earth with each step. The mist seemed to move with it, like a rain cloud of red filth. I took off again, intent on stopping it, and knowing that if I didn't, this whole city would be leveled soon. Mercer and … whatever the thing Mother was wouldn't win here.
Half-bewildered, half-shivering, I almost missed the mass of the fighting. It was utter chaos. Evolved killed soldiers, infected, other evolved, with swords, guns, rocket launchers. I had to do a double take, wondering if my mind had finally lost it. It hadn't, which was a good thing, though on the other hand, it meant more trouble. Besides the Order, there was another group of evolved running around, causing even more chaos in the already messy fighting. Looked like the Loyalists were finally coming into the open.
A particular fight caught my eye.
A prototype, not Order, stabbed his blade into the neck of an evolved and flung the poor man high into the air, then danced past a spraying machine gun and decapitated the gunner. He looked up into the sky. Anthony Carson saluted me before whirling around with blinding speed and bashing in the head of another evolved.
I stopped on a building. Like a gargoyle, I perched on the roof, staring down at the turmoil below.
Apparently the military was having enough of their losses. Helicopters and bomber jets swept in like a tide of death, covering the ground in a blanket of fire. Carson turned to receive a full round of bullets in his chest. He fell back, warding off three closing soldiers, who fired in short, controlled bursts from their rifles. I stood up, ready to intervene.
Splat!
Carson's right shoulder exploded in a shower of blood. He stumbled, then his cheek shattered as something ripped through it, disintegrated to a few bare strands that connected his eye to his jaw. He landed heavily on his back, staring at the masked officer who swept his sword left and right as he advanced, holding a heavy pistol. He held up a hand, but the officer didn't stop, already aiming his pistol again.
Bam!
With his eyes closed, Carson awaited death, but instead found it had not come to claim its due yet. Under the dark sun, I clutched my chest where the bullet hit, the massive projectile exploding in my middle, now a blank hole, twisting as it burned. The officer was shocked, his eyes widening under his mask. He stood, absolutely still. The pain was too much. The large dose of bloodtox was beginning to take effect, preventing the injury from healing.
"What–?"
Vinson was removing his mask, the sword already tucked into its scabbard, mouth gaping. The three soldiers were circled around their captain in a ring, shooting down the flood of walkers. Carson was on his feet once more, no longer armed.
"Poison."
Before the word even left my mouth, Carson's arm ripped into my back, from where the bullet emerged. I felt him remove the bloodtox, trapping the chemical in his own arm. I jerked when he pulled his arm out again, shedding a lump of biomass in the process, which landed in a splatter against the ground. In only a second, the bloodtox ate through the outer layer of the mass, reducing it to a red stain on the ground.
"What–?" Vinson still stood. His eyes jumped between the two of us, as though a trapped animal, his pistol dropping from his hand. He did not receive a response from me.
"You two be nice to each other. I want a talk with both of you when I get back."
I didn't let either speak before jumping up again, though the hurt made me stumble just a little, so I hit the side of a building instead. Without break, I scrambled up, rather clumsily, and was gone as quick as possible. Though I didn't miss the bewildered look Vinson shot Carson, who shrugged and tossed the pistol to the other man.
Mercer's pets lined every street, filled every canny, swarmed in clouds, gathered in armies. The military was falling apart under the advance of the titan, with every step crushing entire streets, with each swipe crumbling entire blocks.
Too many flyers zipped by every direction, most of which died as I swung three large whips in circles in the air. However, when a larger bird dove down, I had to burst forward in the air as my whips bounced off its hide. It screeched, such an inhuman voice I wondered where the person before had gone. Two red eyes glared at me, two razor wings diced the air. I grunted when one of the feathers grazed my back.
I couldn't outrun it; the bird was more agile and faster in the air, and had tougher skin, too. However, it lacked strength, which I used to bash it away. Screeching that painful sound, it came again, only to be whacked away. Now angry, it tried to bite me, but I dipped under, and opened its stomach up with a blade as it flew overhead. It fell down, tumbling through the air.
I did not see where it landed, as I felt something else watching. Looking back, there was the New York sky line, though nothing out of ordinary, except the massive fights that swept through the city. The feeling persisted.
So absorbed in the strange sensation, the lash caught me by surprise, literally. Something below gave a tug and I found myself falling through the air, wind whistling through my ears. On the street was an oddity if I ever saw one. From an extraordinarily large mouth, ringed in sharp teeth, extended out tentacles that reached into the sky. It opened its maw wide as the tentacle dragged me in by the foot. I cut it away just before the teeth could close on me.
Roar! Uh oh.
The entire creature began to rise from the ground, resembling something of an oversized earthworm. I threw my whip at a building, thanked fate when it stuck, and dragged myself out of the way as the teeth snapped where I was only a second before. Panicking, I scrambled up, narrowly avoiding another tentacle that smashed the concrete where it landed. The beast did not follow me, but sank back into the ground, leaving behind a dark tunnel in the dirt.
I sat on the roof for a few seconds, wondering if this world had really lost its mind. Perhaps it already had.
The feeling was back. When I looked up again, this time I found a man, standing tall and proud, like a soldier. Red tubes dug through his skin like living creatures. A armor of spikes lined his shoulder. Alex Mercer smiled down on me, a sinister flash of teeth. Then he was gone, leaving behind nothing of his presence.
The blanket of blood was closing in on the city. Behind, it laid waste to all sign of civilization. Snakes' heads still twisted and churned within the middle, as though in an intimate dance. Tank shells flew into the clouds, but their explosions were muffled to mere flashes of light that was the lightning to the storm. Occasionally, there were roars, monstrous roars, that was the thunder.
I flew in at a high altitude, watching for more giant birds. It was fortunate that the helicopters existed to distract them, allowing me to pass through relatively unscathed.
Until I entered the mist.
From the outside, there was only a blurred form, but on the inside, there was no sight at all. Normal vision range extended to about twenty feet. Infected spectrum revealed the rain to be made of Blacklight, which didn't help as I narrowed missed a swinging thing, which cut through the air so quickly I was almost sucked backwards. Thermo vision was how I saw, though I regretted every second I spent in there.
The monster was so massive that it covered every direction with its swinging tentacles that were as wide as houses and as long as trains. Pores were lined along them, from within unleashing torrents of red mist. I expertly evaded the moving pieces that carried enough force to flatten me into a pancake. The blurry tower was just ahead.
I was in for a shock as I entered the center of the mist.
A gigantic, glowing red eye stared at me while I dodged its attacks. The tentacles were clumped enough that a slight mistake would essentially squish me. When I struck one with my sword, it was barely pierced, the tough armor strong enough to deflect most of the serrated blade. The monster noticed my presence. It roared. My auditory systems broke.
The snakes bit at me with teeth that grew from their heads. Suddenly the air around was filled with sharp spikes. I hooked myself to a tentacle and was dragged away, the momentum almost detaching my arm. The titan didn't notice, still searching for me in the red mist. It roared again, angry. A ring of smaller eyes grew out around the large one, scrutinizing every inch of the veil.
I was on a whirlwind. The snake danced back and forth, in and out. Briefly I caught a view of the outside world. The city was too close. Then it disappeared, and I was dragged through the inside, barely missing another tentacle.
Something exploded against the outer layers of tentacles, curtsy of the military. The explosion was hot, hot enough to be felt from inside the storm cloud, and bright, brighter than the sun or the giant eye. The monster seemed to almost stagger a step, roaring in anger. From glimpses of outside, it was getting more aggressive, swiping down planes like flies. Another missile flew.
It was a lucky shot. The warhead zipped past the wave of dancing snakes like a dart. The eye saw it too. Immediately a wall of tentacles lined themselves up like a barrier against the missile. I detached myself from where I hung on and embraced myself in a shield. And prayed.
The bomb was more destructive than anything I had seen before. The pure heat that raced in every direction was enough to blister thick armor and fry flesh. It was as though someone put a miniature sun inside the cloud. Immediately the red mist in the center dissipated, melted away by the heat, then the wave hit me, and I was launched backwards. My shields melted down quicker than I would have liked and my insides burned. It was even more uncomfortable than bloodtox, as though I was sitting in an oven, waiting to be cooked.
Then the world blanked out for a bit.
I slammed into something with my back, which moved and tossed me back into the middle. The eye was still there, warped and damaged, though nonetheless furious. It roared once more. An entire flight of jets curved dangerously to dodge the speeding attacks.
I flew at the eye.
One of the smaller eyes saw me first, and, from its vicinity, erupted a jungle of toothed tendrils. They latched on painfully, digging through flesh. But they could not stop me. My sword decapitated most of them in one swing, then all but one in another. The last I used to drag myself forward, steadily towards the center of the beast. It took a large step forward, almost throwing me off.
Another building fell. Another bright missile exploded. Another jet crashed into the storm.
Then I was there, sawing off the last tentacle as I latched onto the skin of the titan, which didn't even see to notice my presence. Each of its movements made earthquakes and groans in the air. Each of its steps shook the world. Each of its eyes bled as I stabbed them through. Each sticky tendrils twitched as I seared through them.
The giant eye stare at me as I approached. More entrenchments tried to trap my footing, but they melted away as I cut through them like paper. The monster shook itself, along the earth in its movements, but my feet dug into its thick hide. A tentacle the size of the Statue of Liberty tried to crush me, but I simply rolled away, letting it miss. The monster roared again. I heard the desperation within its voice, and gave it no mercy.
The sword grew in length and size, until it was as tall as me. The titan finally blinked. I did not.
I dived into its large eye, making it howl in pain and rearing like a horse. Another thermobarbic missile detonated against it, melting the flesh to produce a terrible odor. Napalm loaded with bloodtox fell from the skies in the searing rain of the storm, hot and blistering. I ignored them all, digging deeper and deeper, until the creature's insides surrounded me. A tentacle as wide as a garbage truck poised over me threateningly. I tensed. It struck.
But before it could make contact, I pushed all my biomass to its extreme limits. Skin bubbled as snakes burst out in an explosive devastator, each spike impaling through the beast. Another terrible roar shook the city. The large tentacle pushed itself into the hole I made of the creature's eye, intent on squishing me. As the lanced reached their full length, still attached to me, I retracted them, a hook on each end pulling the shredded flesh into the epicenter. The monster wailed then, as a chunk of its center was turned into Swiss cheese.
It began to fall, slowly at first, then gathering speed. The massive tentacles tumbled into the earth, smashing anything under their weight. The storm cloud was lifting, clearing the skies again. The storm was gone, dead.
Yet it wasn't. On some small level, the titan was still alive, just barely hanging onto life, onto revenge. I slashed my way through the porous meat, barely pulsing with power anymore. I felt it, the life, in the center, just a bit farther away. An endoskeleton gave no resistance as I shattered it to access the heart of the beast. An explosion shook the dead monster, the military giving it one, last parting gift.
I was here. Ahead was a chamber, lined with hardened veins and wavy tentacles. I cut them down like weeds. Attached to the middle, by tight strings of nerves, was the core. It glowed brightly still, like a furnace, a welcoming hearth after its masters' leave. When I grabbed it, it was warm, hot even. When I ripped it from its body, it seemed to die a little. When I absorbed it, the titan gave one last shudder, and then lay still, still as ever, a tombstone of Mercer's malice.
"You are certainly a brave one, and powerful, too," the woman said, lightly stepped towards me above the rubble. She was certainly ordinary, jacket, jean skirt, pants. Her faint blue eyes stared at me, unafraid. "And noble," she gestured to the destroyed city, "if you hadn't intervened, more lives would have been lost."
"What's it to you?"
"So aggressive." She waved my offending question off as though a fly, turning to gaze at the Long Island beach. "Must you answer every appraisal with suspicion?"
I narrowed my eyes. "People lie."
"People lie," she agreed, "but only those who are powerless otherwise. I have no reason to lie."
She put one foot on a jagged rock, like a conqueror, surveying the destruction. Against the sunlight, her form seemed to shift, unless my eyes blurred from the brightness. The dead titan was behind, a massive snake head resting just thirty yards away. She paid it no attention.
"Who are you?"
At this, she turned and smiled, warmly. "My name is Dana Mercer."
She waited, and I stood, dumbfolded, wondering whether that was supposed to be of significance to me. Realization hit me like an arc of electricity, burning my cheeks and shocking me to the core. "As in Alex Mercer?"
"Yes."
"So– So, you're his–?"
"Sister."
"But– What–?" For once, I was at a loss for words. She did not answer, only look at me with a strange curiosity.
How was this possible, that Alex Mercer had a sister? How was she so human? How was he to destroy her world? Question swam through my head like a flock of fishing birds, constantly diving into the water only to resurface and multiply. Something dark lurked just beneath the water, but I could not see it. From it spewed more birds.
I knew something was wrong the way she held her smile, like a mother to her child. I knew this with absolute certainty, the way the sunlight seemed to bend around her like a halo, the way she conquered the world, the way she held out an unwavering hand to my blade in friendship and comfort.
"Who are you?"
Her smile was no longer beautiful, dark, corrupting, decayed. Red glints lined the dark depth of her eyes. Something moved in the back of her throat, a shadow. Her hand became more skeletal.
"So cautious. I like that. Maybe that's what my brother saw in you."
"You are not Dana Mercer."
She turned to face me, now taller than me by half a foot, holding that sinister smile. "I have no reason to lie."
"But that isn't the truth."
She paused in her step. Her smile widened. "Clever girl. But in every way, Alex Mercer is my brother."
"Just not by blood."
She threw her head back and laughed, the sound hollow, empty, dead, yet still amused. "Blood is weak. Why would we keep this failing line between us, when we are so much more than that? Why would we stay human, when we are already gods?"
I stilled, as the clouds overhead darkened, as the light itself seemed to be eaten by her very presence, as she siphoned the energy of life from the air. "Mother."
Her smile widened, showing no longer human teeth, but jagged, like an animal's, but still crystalline, deadly, beautiful. Her eyes glowed red, boring into mine. Her youthful face turned wild, wild as a cougar, just as graceful. "Welcome to hell, my child."
I struck. She easily deflected the lightning attack, whacking away the arrowhead. I stepped forward, but she dashed away, so quickly she left a trail of curious orange in the air. I stopped, alarmed. Nothing could move that fast, not even Alex Mercer, as far as I could tell.
"Do you think just because you are capable of poisoning my brother you can beat us?" she taunted, "We are the first, and the most powerful. Do not think you can go anywhere you want, challenge whom you want, and live to tell the tale," she warned, point a finger at me.
I took the chance to dive forward, while she was distracted. She did not react, much to my surprise. However, just as I was about to reach her, something erupted from the ground in an explosion of dirt and rocks. I felt gates snap shut above my head, the sun disappeared. I hit a wall of slimy flesh as whatever prison I was in shook and retreated back into the ground.
A/N
On second thought, I was able to finish this chapter before I started my vacation. How fortunate.
Thank you all for the great reviews! I have read them all thoroughly and considered ideas in them with care.
I have just figured out how to do horizontal lines... How silly of me. (But I am too lazy to go back and do all the previous chapters, too, because I don't have their documents uploaded anymore.)
Timer:
This story is expected to be completed by December 31st, 2014.