Disclaimer: I don't own the To Aru series or Prototype. All characters and concepts that aren't mine belong to their respective owners.
An arm.
A grotesque arm formed of coiling tendrils of blood red and black.
A grotesque, vaguely human-like arm with steel gray swords for fingers and spike-like protrusions erupting from the shoulder.
That was all that remained of the man with the potential to bring the end of the world.
No, he wasn't a man.
Officially, he was an it. A genderless, amorphous, viral organism that had taken the form of a man.
Yet at the same time, it was a man.
It was a man who was capable of protecting the lives of those he cared about, and was also capable of ending the lives of thousands more at a whim.
It was a man who saved the world through its capacity for destruction, then tried to destroy the very thing he saved after he realized how decrepit it was under its shining exterior.
It was a hero.
It was a monster.
But which nature will win out in the end?
Academy City. It was exactly what its name implies: a metropolis that consisted almost entirely of educational and research facilities. It was at least twenty years ahead of the rest of the world in terms of technology.
Here the impossible was made possible.
Even the supernatural was not outside of the reach of this city's influence, as countless hours of effort by both researchers, teachers, and students have made it possible to attain actual superpowers.
From the outside, the city was embodiment of humanity's achievements in science, a shining utopia that served to make the word "impossible" an impossibility.
Then again, even the brightest and purest forms of light cast shadows upon everything they touch. Hidden in the forgotten and shadiest parts of this brilliant land are laboratories for all sorts of off the grid experiments. Child exploitation and murder are plentiful amongst this supposed holy ground of learning, and this particular one was no exception.
Unfortunately, neither of those were on the agenda today.
Instead, they were dealing with something far more dangerous and volatile.
"So this is all that's left of the infamous ZEUS?"
"That's what the Americans said."
"I can't believe they handed their most powerful biological weapon to us so easily."
"Well, not easily. The Board of Directors shelled out billions of yen for it, but there is also the fact that it is highly volatile. It tries to rebuild itself if it is remotely near organic matter, and we can't have that now can we? "
"So the thing is expensive and dangerous... meh, nothing new around here."
"I wouldn't be so sure, at it's peak it's combat ability was on par with a lower-ranked Level 5. It's not hard to see why the Americans had to use everything they had to put it down."
"A Level 5, huh?"
"Yeah, to think that all of them are teenagers."
"Well, at least it's those seven rather than those whack job Kiharas."
The two academics shuddered. The Kiharas were the most prolific and infamous researchers in the history of Academy City. All of them had an extreme, some might say unnatural aptitude for mathematics, research, and the sciences. In fact, their aptitude in these areas is so extreme that they seek results without question, as their many unfortunate test subjects can attest to.
Or perhaps not, as the majority of them don't exist anymore.
No bodies and no records remain.
The only trace of their existence was whatever data was wrought from their demise.
"Why hasn't the sample arrived yet? It was supposed to be in his lab four minutes and twenty-three seconds ago!" interrupted a voice seething with irritation.
The color drained out of the pair's faces as they turned to see the face of a woman that appeared to be in her mid twenties with glamorous proportions to match. Her flowing chestnut hair was kept in a braid that rested on her left shoulder. She wore a dun blouse under a standard-issue lab coat while steel-rimmed glasses framed her green eyes. Her teeth were gritted in annoyance, her amber eyes glowering at the pair of loitering buffoons.
"M-Miss K-Kihara! Y-You see there was a delay in the shipping and-"
"Making excuses now are you?" she snorted as she gradually stepped closer, "You're only digging yourself deeper, you know?"
Both of them went stiff, every fiber of their being screaming to run away, ready to beg for mercy under her steely and unwavering gaze.
"Then again..." her horrifying grimace turned into a psychotic smirk, "I do need a few lab rats for his newest strain... Yes... you will do."
"N-No, please!" his cries fell on deaf ears as the Kihara swiftly removed a syringe from her lab coat before plunging it into the man's neck in a single motion, the sickly dun solution entering the external carotid artery.
The victim clawed at the point of entry, trying desperately to remove the substance before it could spread, but it was already too late. He soon found himself unable to breathe properly, only hacking and coughing as swelling bulges and pus-filled lesions appeared on his neck that soon spread to the man's face. Less than ten minutes later, the poor sap was laying motionless on the floor, rendered utterly unrecognizable by layer upon layer of cysts and scar tissue.
The Kihara had been taking notes with the same smile on her face the whole time, "Hmm...I guess I could call this a success in terms of lethality..."
Her smirk returned to a frown, "But it's not contagious enough. It also kills a bit too quickly for his liking... I'll have to slow the rate of cell division if I'm going to make a batch suitable for interrogation."
She turned to the other one, whose feet had been glued in place by horror at the frightening ordeal, "Oh, are you volunteering as well?"
He shook his head vehemently, praying that she wouldn't repeat her experiment with him.
"Then get his sample into the lab immediately!" she barked, returning to her professional persona.
He complied without hesitation, thanking his good fortune as he hurried the sample to the Kihara's lab as quickly as he could.
She then walked over to a nearby wall console and pushed a button, "I need a MIMOSA wipe here in sector B-7 stat. This experiment was a bit messy."
With that nuisance out of the way Kihara Kenbi, the Kihara's premier biochemist and pathologist, was free to ponder all of the delightful experiments she would be able to conduct now that she had the most potent of all retroviruses in her hands.
It wasn't just a virus though, the Mercer strain was also an extremely powerful mutational agent, able to rewrite the DNA and RNA sequences of any creature in its grasp.
She was practically salivating as she began walking to her office to finish the paperwork, eagerly anticipating the potential results.
A certain person eyes snapped open to the sound of an alarm blaring, red light washing over him as he heard the muffled sounds of gunfire in the distance.
"Where the hell am I?" he thought aloud as he pulled himself off the glass-covered floor, which soon led him to realize one thing.
Everything ACHED!
His head felt like it was filled with lead. His arms felt incredibly numb despite the pain, as if they'd been smashed a few hundred times with a meat tenderizer.
He couldn't even walk correctly, tripping over his own feet like some kind of toddler, landing face first onto a glass covered concrete floor.
"Ow..." he muttered as he sat up and checked himself for cuts. Miraculously (or so it seemed at the time), he didn't have a single gash on him.
"At least I don't have any external injuries..." he said to no one in particular, "Now, how did I get here?"
The room completely lacked windows, with the only lighting being from the flashing red alarm and a few lamps that would not seem out of place in an interrogation room. If one were to replace the only door with a set of iron bar the place would just be an extremely large prison cell with various computers (or at least, machines that resembled computers) for furniture.
"Okay think, what's the last thing you can remember?" he told himself.
…
"Can't remember how I got here... fine... what about my occupation?"
"I'm a student. Maybe. I don't know." he raked his trembling fingers through is hair, "God damn it it's all a haze! Oh come on, at least let me remember my name."
…
"Blanks. Lovely."
He began rapidly feeling through his pockets, hoping to find something with his name on it. Unfortunately, all he found was a flip phone without a single contact saved on the drive.
"That's just great."
He sighed, "I feel like one of those cliché amnesiacs you'd see in a video game, but at the same time I'm getting the weirdest sense of deja vu."
He soon found himself laughing at the thought, "Who am I kidding? What are the odds of this happening twice?"
His attempts to make light of his situation came to an abrupt end when he heard a voice from the other side of the wall, "The intruder went in here! Bust the door down!"
About three seconds later a half dozen men were pointing assault rifles at him, "Identify yourself!"
"What the hell do I say in this kind of situation?" he thought as he tried to come up with an answer.
"L-Look... I'm sort of having an identity crisis here and I-"
Unfortunately for him, they didn't seem to care, "Fire."
"Ah, crap." were the last two words he said before he felt a sharp pain erupted all over his body as bullets pierced every nook and cranny. Eyes, heart, arms, legs... they were all neatly pierced by the hail of lead. It would not be unrealistic to think was shot twice in multiple places. For all intents and purposes, this person should be dead.
Is this where this poor sap's story ends?
...
If only it did.
As unbelievable as it sounds, he was not only standing, but alive and fully conscious. In fact, you could even say that he was surprised at how little pain he was in after the bullets had passed through him.
The boy's body was rapidly stitching itself back together. Every missing fiber of his being was quickly replaced, the pain quickly subsiding as his injuries vanished without a trace. Even his clothes were perfectly repaired.
"W-What the hell?" the soldiers staggered backward at the sight of this.
Oddly enough, this was the calmest he'd felt all day, "Weird... it's like it never happened... but I'm getting the strangest feeling that this was some kind of a daily occurrence for me."
Naturally, this led him to arrive at two conclusions about himself.
1. He was batshit insane.
2. He wasn't human in the slightest.
The sub-human's thoughts were interrupted when they leveled their rifles at his chest once more.
He couldn't really understand why. They tried it once already, it didn't work, so why bother? Were they stubborn or just stupid?
Whatever it was, there's was no way in hell he was going to let them fire again!
He broke into a run, hoping to get to them before they could pull the trigger again. He couldn't say he was sure what he'd do against six armed men, but hell, anything was better than eating lead!
The next thing he knew he was right on top of them, not that he was going to complain about it. Every second counted, and who knew if his newfound regeneration power had limits or not. He then tried to punch one of them in hopes of knocking him out before the rest figured out what was going on (not that he knew).
As it turned out, his plan had actually worked out pretty fact, it worked a little too well.
When his fist connected, it didn't merely break the soldier's nose and knock him out. The sucker's face practically caved in on itself before the boy heard a loud snap... followed by the sickening thud of a human head hitting the floor and rolling to a stop.
His gaze drifted towards his blood-soaked fist, plastered with the gray matter of the unfortunate victim, "Whoa..."
"S-Shoot him! He's a monster!" the others sputtered as they opened fire.
The image of a hooded man flashed in his vision, "They call me a killer, a monster, a terrorist. I am all these things."
The monster instinctively held his arms in front of him to lessen the potential damage. It was probably pointless, but what would you do in a situation like this?
He could only wait for the pain to come.
He waited...
and waited...
and waited...
It took a took a few moments for him to realize that the bullets weren't going to arrive.
When he opened his eyes the boy saw that the entirety of his left arm was covered in some sort of black, web-like material that extended from his shoulder all the way down to the back of his hand.
It... sort of resembled a shield. Wherever it came from, it seemed to have stopped the bullets from hitting him, but it didn't explain why they stopped shooting. He found out why when he lowered the shield.
The bullets had ricocheted off the shield and hit all five of the soldiers in the vitals.
Their bodies were slumped against the door frame they had entered through. Blood ran from their heads to their toes, their clothes turning crimson as the liquid permeated them.
But judging by the fact that they were still breathing, the soldiers weren't quite dead.
Yet.
"Who are you? What is this place?" he asked the group as he saw the shield retracted and returned to wherever it came from, but they were too busy gargling their own blood to respond.
"Damn it... You just had to go and shoot yourselves..." he raked his fingers through his hair, "What am I going to do now?"
The monster's answer came in the form of yet another sudden burst of pain. At first he thought that one of the men had tried to shoot him again in a last ditch attempt to finish things, but that notion was quickly cut short when he saw the five pairs of twisted, bulbous tendrils shooting from his torso, aimed directly his incapacitated foes.
The tentacles entangled each of them, dragging the poor souls directly towards, then into the strange creature clothes and all. They had dissolved into a black mass before being absorbed completely, leaving absolutely no trace they were there at all except for their weapons and whatever blood was already spilled.
The monster found himself clutching his head in agony as a massive influx of information entered his mind. Every waking moment of their lives flashed before his eyes. Every sensation, every thought, every subconscious feeling from birth till death was all unnaturally compressed into a single excruciating moment.
After what felt like an eternity had passed, the monster managed to snap back to reality.
"What... the hell... was that?!" he heard himself growl between ragged breaths.
The hooded man appeared again, "Now I hunt. I kill. I consume. I become."
"I... consumed them? As in eat? Devour?" he flexed his fingers as he contemplated the deed, noticing that all of the pains and aches had vanished.
"Well, at least I don't feel like utter crap anymore. But that doesn't tell me what's going on-" he stopped short as the required information rushed to the front of his psyche.
"This is... a lab under the 10th District of Academy City. Headed by Kihara Kenbi, a specialist in pathogens are genetic mutations, experiments are carried out on..."
"Agh!" he recoiled as images of figures being mutilated and mutated beyond recognition surged into his mind, "T-This is what people do in this place?!"
"Wait, but how do I know all of this? I didn't a few moments-" then it hit him, "These memories... these aren't mine. They belong to them... those soldiers..."
A deafening explosion that rocked the place prevented him from mulling over his discovery, "Damn it! What now?"
Two different scores of gunfire erupted outside the room, converting the clandestine lab into a chaotic warzone in an instant.
"Just when I thought things couldn't get worse." he muttered as he reached for one of the fallen rifles, "A gun would help I guess..."
He picked up the bulky assault rifle only to be surprised by how light it felt. The memories of the soldiers identified it as a modified Belgian FN F2000 Bullpup Rifle, model name "Toy Soldier". Constructed with laminated plastic instead of metal, it was designed to be light enough and portable enough to fit in a suitcase. The rifle was capable of single shots, semi-automatic, and even fully automatic fire if necessary, making it an all-purpose and flexible weapon from the get go.
Academy City's best engineers had improved upon its design, allowing it to track infrared rays to increase the probability of a solid hit when used in conjunction with its electronic controls. The stock had a special rubber casing designed to reduce recoil while carbon dioxide was ejected to bring the annoying side effect to a minimum. The 5.56×45mm rounds weren't particularly known for their penetration power, but they packed just enough punch to get the job done.
As he primed the weapon he heard a number of smaller explosions akin to firecrackers from above as the lights blew out, "What are they doing out there?"
His surroundings turned pitch black as the last of the light faded from sight, "So I'm lost, blind, and trapped right outside of a firefight. Whatever I did to get into this mess, I sure as hell regret it now."
He squinted, trying to make use of the light from the muzzle flashes to get a glimpse of what was happening in the corridor when he was met with yet another surprise.
All of the darkness was tinged blue as dozens of human-shaped silhouettes appeared in his vision, all of them armed with all sorts of firearms. Half of the silhouettes clearly belonged to the same faction as those other soldiers, their features obscured by what appeared to be a gas mask equipped with goggles. The others had smaller figures and seemed to be clad in nothing but civilian wear, in spite of this they were putting up a surprisingly good fight as the stalemate continued.
"So I have infrared vision too?" despite his disorientation and lingering fears he couldn't help but give off a bemused smirk, "I wonder... what else can I do?"
One of the two warring sides did not appear to have this capability. The monster watched as the smaller figures hit the ground, their silhouettes vanishing one by one as their part of the gun orchestra continued to decrescendo.
"That's one threat eliminated... so I suppose I can focus on gunning down the rest!" With their attention occupied by the foes in front of them, the monster was free to take pot shots with impunity.
Six shots left the four hundred millimeter barrel in a heartbeat, leaving six bodies on the floor, "One shot, one kill. That's the way it should be."
This immediately threw the soldiers into disarray, "Who did that? They shouldn't have night vision goggles!"
"Lieutenant, there's an unknown figure standing in the doorway leading to the sample of ZEUS!" one shouted.
The monster felt himself freeze at the mention of the name, "ZEUS?"
"Mercer isn't a 'HE'! It's an IT!" yelled the gruff, rugged voice of an old man in military gear.
"Mercer? I-Is that my name?" he found himself saying as he returned to reality just in time to see all heads turned in his direction.
They didn't bother asking questions this time, peppering him with all sorts of rounds that were of a much higher caliber than what he faced previously, tearing his limbs to pieces and his torso to shreds.
But just as before the torn pieces slowly coalesced, slowly but surely returning to their original configurations. Tendrils sprouted that replaced the arms and legs, his blood defying practically gravity to return to its source, the holes in his torso vanishing without a trace.
"That kinda hurt, you know? Even more than the last time." he finally remarked as the process completed, "But it gets old after the first go at it."
Mercer hopped to his feet, "Now with that issue settled... how about I skip to the part where I pay you back in kind?"
He didn't wait for a response, simply aiming the rifle dead on with one hand and letting the gun's electronic sensors do the work for him. They dropped without a fuss in spite of the armor they wore. A bullet to the brain, a bullet to the heart, a bullet to the brain... every shot was equally effective at taking the life of its target.
He pulled the trigger again and again without pause, the motion only ceasing after every single one of the remaining twenty four rounds had left the barrel. The monster threw a quick glance at the weapon before tossing it aside.
Once again, there was only a single survivor amongst the soldiers, the same young soldier that had revealed him in the first place. Unlike the others, the soldier's first instinct upon seeing the monster's nature was to run.
It didn't do him any good, as Mercer effortlessly closed the distance in a few paces, snagging the man by the neck and lifting him into the air.
"D-Don't kill me, please!" he cried as he struggled in the creature's grasp.
The monster clicked his tongue, "Hey, you were the one who shot first. It's only fair for me to return the favor, right?"
Mercer's grip intensified a thousand fold in an instant, liquifying the soldier's neck before the rest of the body followed. He assimilated the sludge into his body just as he did minutes ago, but this time with none of the painful memory flashes of his previous attempt.
"I guess it's easier after the first time. Either that or this guy has nothing useful to show me..."
Mercer turned around to face the other group, "So... you guys are called Skill-Out right? Can any of you tell me what's going on here?" he asked nonchalantly, as if he were asking about the weather rather than
They could only stare blankly in his general direction. The teenage mercenaries couldn't see much in the darkness of course, but what they heard as well as what little they did see from the muzzle flashes had most of them them quaking in their boots if not shitting themselves from the sight.
"Guess I'm going to have to find out myself." the monster sighed as he turned to find his way out himself, "Some help you were. Alright, see ya."
He stopped at the sound of raised rifles and other equipment, "Do you really want to waste your bullets that badly?"
"D-Don't screw with us!" sputtered a voice in the crowd, "You killed all of those guys in a heartbeat! What's stopping you from doing the same to us?!"
"Hold on." ordered a much deeper, authoritative voice, "Let's not be hasty."
The source of the voice was a hulking man who towered over his teenage peers. Easily exceeding six feet tall, the man had the muscles to match his height, forcing the significantly shorter monster to look up slightly to make eye contact.
"My name is Komaba Ritoku. These boys are under my command. May I ask who you are, Ability User?"
"What's an Ability-" Mercer asked upon hearing the unfamiliar term, only to stop and shake his head as the context of the phrase came to him, "Oh, you mean that."
It took a brief moment for the creature to come up with a proper answer to the gorilla man's question, "I was wondering the same thing to be honest. I can't remember anything before waking up in that room and getting shot at."
"Is that so?" replied Ritoku, motioning towards the corridor Mercer had come from, "We happen to looking for an arm that was contained in a reinforced glass case in that room. Would you happen to know anything about that?"
"I hate to break it to you, but there wasn't anything in the room aside from a bunch of computers and broken glass when I woke up. Well... there are a few bloodstains and discarded weapons now, but that's about it."
It was the Skill-Out leader's turn to pause, mulling over the information he was just given as well as its validity, "Very well. If our target has been removed then we have no reason to remain here."
He withdrew a radio transceiver from his belt, "Someone has taken the target. All teams, retreat immediately."
"Just like that? You're more trusting than you look." remarked the monster, "I could probably slaughter the lot of you without even trying."
"You lack any of the telltale signs that give away a liar. Even if you did, it's as you say. Our weapons are all but useless against your ability, so I'd like to offer an alternative."
The monster cocked his head to the side slightly, "I'm listening."
"Help us escape this facility." the man said flatly.
"Huh? I certainly didn't expect that." Mercer thought to himself, "What's in it for me?"
"This facility is lined with state of the art security measures, including various forms of laser weaponry and traps designed to scramble the minds of the victims. I can guarantee the highest probability of escape if you join us for the time being."
"When you put it like that..." Mercer walked past the group with his eyes closed, thinking deeply about this whole situation. He knew what most of these measures were from the soldiers he had... consumed, but there was safety in numbers. Even if they turned out to be useless, he'd still have a supply of guns lying around for use.
"Alright, I'll take you up on your offer." he finally replied as he glanced back at the group, "But let's get something straight, I've had enough of being shot at tonight."
Unbeknownst to him, the irises of his eyes began glowing an iridescent red, "If any of you get the notion that shooting me is a good idea, I'm killing you all on the spot."
The entire group froze at the last phrase, nodding quickly to avoid the monster's wrath.
"If we're in agreement. Let's go. i want out of here ASAP."
"Boss, are you sure we can trust an Ability User?" a blond with extremely unkempt blond hair whispered to Ritoku as the creature walked away.
"Hamazura, I don't think we have a choice."
"Ability User, huh?" Mercer mused as he glanced at his blood-stained hands, "Could I be human after all?"
The thought was quickly dismissed as the reality of the situation dawned on him once more, "No way. After all, who would ask for powers like these?"
If only he knew.
Here I end it off on a cliffhanger.
Why?
Well, this is a test run more than anything. This is my first time attempting a total reboot and this is mostly uncharted territory for me, so I'd like to get your opinion on this before I follow through.
As you can probably tell, it's extremely dark compared to my previous works, with uncensored gore, splatter, and all the good bits that many of my critics said I left out. As much as I hate them for flaming me, they had a point. The Prototype series is not known for black and white morality. Everyone important has committed some kind of act that can be liable for prison time. For this reason, I've decided to go for the gray area here this time in the spirit of the series (many of the villains in the Index and Railgun series aren't much better).
If you haven't noticed, Mercer isn't Sieg this time. For lack of a better term, I'm going to refer to him as Alex 3.0 (whereas the human Alex is 1.0 and the virus seen in the games is 2.0). Alex 3.0 is going to be somewhere in between Sieg and 2.0 at the end of Prototype 2.
3.0 has a dulled sense of morality as a consequence of being the virus (closer to 2.0), meaning that he's more than likely to kill you if you manage to annoy him. However, compared to 2.0, 3.0 more apathetic than sadistic (he was more bewildered than pleased after killing all of those soldiers). As a result, he's not as prone to slaughtering others on a whim than 1.0 or 2.0, but he can and will do it if he feels its proper. That said, like 2.0 (at least at the start) he's not an inherently bad person, the circumstances just pushed him into becoming the mass-murdering, army annihilating beast that he is now infamous for (closer to Sieg). He's also going to get flashes of his past from time to time, but I hope to use them to shape his character into something new rather than rehash old tropes.
I know what a number of you are going to ask.
If all of this is closer to the original material, why did you play with Sieg in the first place?
Here's my answer:
I'm a sucker for the adorable characters who act dorky while wielding incredible power. Why? Because I'm a dork myself in my private moments. They're easier for me to relate to and associate myself with. That's all there is to it. Sieg was also primarily based on the similarly named character from the manga I was reading at the time (which sadly got axed with an absolutely terrifying climax and rushed conclusion). With that over... well I suppose my interest in the name fell though the cracks.
This is my first story... and admittedly not a very good one at that. I wanted to keep it fun but I fell into cliche after cliche as time went on. So this is the darker take on the story that quite a few of you have been asking for. That said, I hope to keep some of the spirit of the original series (namely the humor). To be honest, I didn't think anyone would really laugh at my jokes (my siblings and classmates tell me I have no sense of humor), so to find that so many of you enjoyed it that much really says a lot to me.
Sorry to make you all wait so long only to read an incomplete chapter. I'm quite honestly embarrassed at how little I've been able to write recently. The Muses have not been kind to me, not to mention the fact that I'm caught up in college trips, college applications, and summer homework. It's a pretty lame excuse, (especially with my cousin churning out a chapter of something every two weeks), but unfortunately this is the best I can do at the moment.
I regret to say this (and repeat this same line for the umpteenth time) but I'm sorry for the inconvenience my inability to write regularly may have caused you.
Please leave a review and let me know what you think. If you have any questions, concerns, or comments that would not be appropriate in a review, feel free to send me a PM. Summer has been pretty dull for me as a whole, so anything would be a nice change of pace.
I must thank you all again from the bottom of my heart for reading and I hope to see you again at the next chapter.