A/N: I will be fudging the timeline for Dying Light a little, because I just could NOT justify a reason why it would take 7 years and have Blackwatch NOT kill Mercer, deal or no deal. Dying Light will be taking place in late 2012.
xxxxxxx
Inside the cockpit, he took aim. He pointed the nose of the helicopter down a bit… then fired. The missiles hit square and true, exploding magnificently into the Hive. A shiver ran through his body every time the missiles landed. A sense of euphoria - not from his own love for it, but from the love of the crowds in his head. They whistled and cheered with each blast, some screamed and others cried. He paid them no mind.
Eventually, the Hive toppled over and crashed into itself, marking the rubble as the final one in Manhattan. Three Hunters fled from it, mindless animals without their master. They were quickly shot to pieces by the surrounding soldiers.
He let out a quick sigh, part relief and some part regret. Now he would have little excuse for wanton destruction. But, the last bits of the Infection were finally being snuffed out, quickly and efficiently as were wont for Blackwatch.
The radio attached to the dash of the helicopter came to life without him touching it. "Red Crown to ZEUS. Report to the Chelsea base immediately, over."
So much for his good mood.
"...Mercer to Red Crown," he bit out, almost crushing the radio as he held it to his mouth. "I'll be there in 10. Over."
With a scowl, he turned the helicopter around. It may have been faster to run there himself, but there was no way he'd give those assholes the satisfaction of seeing him skip over to them on foot. Better to do it with their own stolen equipment.
Walking into the base without a disguise, though by now he's done it more times without than with, still made his skin prickle. The soldiers and Blackwatch troopers stared at him with naked disgust as he stalked past, hood down. By the time he made it to the main entrance, the temporary commander was already there waiting for him.
"ZEUS," the commander greeted with a glower. "Was it necessary to crash the helicopter into one of our buildings?"
He almost cracked a smirk. Instead, he just shrugged a single shoulder. The commander pinched the bridge of his nose and gave an exasperated sigh.
"If you keep fucking around like that, we'll see how long the deal lasts," the commander said tiredly, though not without a healthy measure of vitriol. He jabbed a thumb behind him to point at the door. "In you go."
Mercer's response was to politely shove him aside and storm through the opened door. The commander gave an undignified squawk and shouted curses and threats after him, but he ignored it.
Ever since he agreed to the deal with Blackwatch, he had to get express permission to enter bases, regardless of how many times he visited prior. Even if he left and came back within a few minutes, he still had to radio in permission. It was standard procedure for everyone of course, though it irked him with the inefficiency. If he could just consume the commander, he could go in and out whenever he so pleased, but he doubted Blackwatch would be too happy about that.
The interior was familiar. Rather, it was exactly the same as the rest of the bases he frequented. Blackwatch, and the rest of the U.S. military, weren't very imaginative when it came to base layouts either. He beelined directly to the standing sergeant major of the base. He didn't know the man's name, and never asked. They switched out the higher-ups too often for him to care to. The man wasn't Blackwatch at least, but he worked closely with them.
He stood before the captain and purposefully didn't salute. They stared at each other with equally stony expressions. Eventually, the sergeant gave up the match.
"ZEUS," the sergeant grunted. "Heard you cleared out the last Hive. That's your end of the bargain almost done. Don't know why the hell the Captain would call on a terrorist abomination to do military work, but if it works, then it does."
As much as it pained him to, Alex ignored the jabs. They were getting far too comfortable in their assumed safety, these days. In a neutral tone, he asked, "What's left?"
"Just clear the city of the rest of the Infected," the sergeant said dismissively. He produced a small device from his pocket and tossed it to Alex. He caught it and gave it a look over - a disposable cell phone. "Captain will call you if he needs you for anything. Otherwise, fuck off."
"The hell did you call me over here for, then?" Alex grumbled, but pocketed the phone regardless. At least he didn't have to reach under a pay phone this time.
The sergeant just shooed him away. They were really getting far too comfortable with their idea of safety. As he left the way he came from, the silence of the base turned to mass muttered comments from the soldiers. 'Creepy bastard' was a favorite among the marines, he noticed. 'Fucking germ-bag' was for the Blackwatch troopers.
He left the base, and slammed the door as loudly as he could without ripping it off the wall. Maybe he should have, give the jarheads something to clean up. Something to do other than stand around with their thumbs up their asses.
…The thought wasn't his own, but from the murmuring collective of commanders and what not swimming in his head.
Without warning, he dropped into a dead sprint, causing all the troops around him to shout in surprise. Most couldn't help but point their guns at him, but he was long gone by the time they could've pulled the trigger.
He readied a jump, the tendrils in his legs swirling and squirming. With a single bound, he made it nearly to the top of a skyscraper. He landed a bit too close to a window, and it shattered from the sheer force of his slam. He ignored the glass shards that sprinkled over him and sprinted vertically to the top. With a graceful leap, he perched at the very tip of the building.
He didn't exactly carry a map with him, but he could recognize much of the city's layout from the bird's eye view. Their new apartment - rather, Dana's - was somewhere in the southwest part of the city, within the Blue Zone. They've been living there for the past 4 years since Alex was strong-armed into an agreement, but he would hesitate to say that he lived in it.
It was originally projected that the cleanup would take only a year after the Infection ended. Of course, it was the military that said that, and the military did what it does best. Periods of inaction led to the infection spreading further than it had any right to.
For the first year, they refused to let Alex have any of the fun, though he would always find his way into the battlefield regardless. In the end, they just let him do what he wanted to, so long as the leash was tight enough.
Blackwatch had very little to do with the cleanup. After the nuclear incident, they mostly pulled out of the city, leaving only handfuls of troops to keep tabs. Even the Captain left, though he kept a close eye on the going-ons. He was, after all, the one that directed Blackwatch and the marines to lay off him. Alex wouldn't be caught dead saying it aloud, but in a sense, he was grateful.
It was nice to see a blue sky.
xxxxxxx
He shoved the window open and hopped through, only to be face-to-face with his sister.
"There's a door, you know," she scolded, and pointed to the door on the other side of the room.
He grunted in response, and closed the window behind him. It rattled loudly in protest, but thankfully didn't break. He would never hear the end of it if it did.
"How did it go?" she asked. Ever since she woke up from the coma, she was a lot more talkative, even considering Mercer's existing memories. She made up for his lack thereof plenty.
He shrugged. "Went fine. Hive's gone, and Cross probably wants a chat sooner or later."
He passed by her, making certain to keep a small barrier of space between them. He made it to the couch and gingerly sat down. It creaked and threatened to buckle beneath him, but held steady. He learned pretty quickly that he had to be careful around delicate furniture with his level of density, especially those for sitting. As soon as he took his seat though, he started tapping his feet restlessly.
"God, you're like a hyperactive kid," she said, though her soft smile betrayed her tone. She went to sit next to him, which made him shift uncomfortably. He scooted slightly away to keep up the wall. She let him.
"Can't help it," he muttered. The foot tapping evolved into leg bouncing. "I'm not made for sitting around."
"I know, I know," she placated. Her expression brightened as if she just remembered something. She stood up and retrieved her brown leather bag, the one she always took with her for outside trips. She rooted through it for a moment, then pulled out a newspaper. "I found something interesting while you were out, by the way. You might want to take a look."
She shoved the newspaper in his face - and yep, it was about what he expected. A large picture of him on the front page, with the headlines declaring him some sort of terrorist or alien or monster. He pushed the paper down a bit, careful not to come into contact with her fingers.
"How is this interesting?" he asked bluntly. It was nothing new, after all. Whenever he bothered to read a newspaper, he would inevitably be there in one way or another.
"The part below your headline is what I'm referring to," she said, and pointed to a section that he skipped. In smaller fonts, it spoke of some kind of drug addled apocalypse occurring in the middle east. It didn't specify the country, being a sensationalist article, but Dana seemed to believe it. He scowled slightly, and looked to her in thinly veiled confusion.
"They're calling it a junkie apocalypse, but I think they're covering something up," she whispered, her eyes almost twinkling. They got that way when she found a new mystery to uncover, he discovered. "I didn't really have that much time to look into it yet, but don't the symptoms sound familiar? Thousands of people just screaming, running around aimlessly, and getting violent out of nowhere?"
His scowl deepened. His grip on the sofa tightened to a point where he heard tearing of fabric, and his fingers dug into the cottony material inside. "Redlight," he deduced curtly.
"Could be," she said. She then shook her head, as if disagreeing with her own assessment. "Most likely. But what would it be doing all the way out in the middle east? Neither Gentek nor Blackwatch operate in those countries, and I don't think Redlight can pop up naturally like that."
"Someone brought it over, then," he tried. She nodded thoughtfully. She scanned the newspaper again, as if trying to pluck out new information hidden somewhere on the page.
"There's not really many websites talking about it online, and those that did deleted the posts shortly after," she said, not looking up from the paper. "They're most likely being silenced. I couldn't find anything in the Blackwatch records either, but I only spent a couple hours browsing around. I'll look into it more next time you go out."
Alex grunted noncommittally. It wasn't that he was ignoring his sister, more that he just didn't have anything to say. She wore a patient smile like she always did speaking to him. At least, always in recent years. It hadn't been very patient at the start, moreso filled with another, far more familiar emotion instead.
A new infection, this time out of the country. It wasn't unheard of for the military - and military-esque organizations - to test on people outside of the States, but still, the thought of someone testing the Redlight virus again left him incredulous. And unfathomably enraged, though he kept that under wraps so long as he was still in the apartment. The furniture was bought with Dana's money, not his.
"I'll ask Cross about it," Alex growled, tentacles thrashing about just below his skin. He doubted that Cross would be privy to that information, though. Dana shot him a slightly nervous look. Right. She didn't like it when he growled or did other 'creepy as fuck' things. He forced himself to still his writhing tendrils.
"No need," she said, holding her hands up in a calm-down gesture. "Well, you can do what you want. I don't think the Captain would know about it, though. Seems a little above his grade in secrets, but you never know."
He gave a stilted nod, and the conversation lapsed into silence. They sat next to each other, though he was very aware of the space between the two. No matter how much he tried to tamp it down, no matter how much he consumed, there was always the urge to consume more. It wasn't like the tiny gap would save her from him - she could be miles away, and it wouldn't save her - but at least it wasn't direct contact.
Still he sat, though with the amount of energy coursing through him, and instincts screaming to get up and go hunt, he wouldn't sit for long. Both of his legs bounced now, in no particular rhythm other than the rhythm of his thoughts. Dana was reading the newspaper, flipping page after page, most likely searching for any further nuggets of information. She peeked from time to time over at his displays of restlessness without comment, but after a few minutes, she spoke up.
"Alex, can't you sit still for five minutes?" she asked, somewhat exasperated. Before he could interject, she continued. "I know, I know. And I get it, you can't control it, but it's really distracting." She thought for a moment. "We could go on a walk, get some groceries. Hell knows we need it. I'm almost out of coffee, and the only store that stocks the good kind is all the way in Lower East Side."
A two-minute jog, then. He couldn't understand the appeal of walking. "I don't think you can keep up."
"If we're going together, then we're walking. You have to get used to human life at some point," she said. He knew better by now than to protest against her word, so he simply nodded instead.
xxxxxxx
By four days' time, he fell into a neat schedule. Well, neat for him. From early morning to midday, he would spend as much time in the apartment as possible. It usually ended up with him pacing restlessly around the cramped space until Dana would yell at him to find something to do that involved being anywhere else. She would send him on errands. Pick up this or that, find this clue or that. By noon, he would return from whatever it was she sent him out to do, and she would be far more welcoming seeing him back after a break.
However, unlike humans, he never ran out of energy. He would still be restless, and it didn't take long for the pacing to restart. He would leave the apartment - through the window, much to her displeasure - and start his daily hunt for the remainder of Redlight. It wouldn't end until every last infected was either killed or absorbed, and though he was an unparalleled master at mass murder, he was still just one being versus several hundred thousands. He estimated only about 10% of the infected population remained, but that was still a substantial amount. He wasn't complaining though - plenty of biomass for him to eagerly consume guilt-free. He didn't want to think about what he would do after the infected ran out.
Dana, on the other hand, would spend her day sniffing through the new mystery, though wasn't making much tangible progress. The story so far that she pieced together was that during the Athletic Games of Harran, Turkey, many people started acting strangely and hyper aggressively. Loved ones attacked each other, beating them to death at times. At others, they would just bite down and try to eat the other. Talk about a classic zombie movie.
She frowned at the sight of the article. "Alex," she called. He stopped his pacing and looked over. He readied himself for a mild scolding, but relaxed when it was clear her expression wasn't directed at him. She was pointing at something on the screen of her computer. "This is weird. Was Redlight spread through physical contact? Fluids?"
He shook his head, and read some of the article over her shoulder, careful not to get too close. The article detailed a brutal and bloody attack on the main highway of the city. It sounded similar to how his own attacks were described, but he kept that part to himself. "It was mostly spread through the air, but if you got it on you in any other way, you would also be infected."
She hemmed and hawed for a brief few seconds. "Everything I'm seeing about the virus in Harran indicates that it's spread through bodily fluids. That seems uncharacteristic of Redlight, don't you think?"
"It could just be a new variant," he stated, though he doubted his own words. Redlight was efficient, full stop. Limiting itself to a single vector was counterintuitive, especially such an unreliable one as breaking the skin to infect, while also somehow having to keep the host alive. Parts of himself felt contempt for such inefficiency.
"Maybe," she said, her tone just as doubtful as his thoughts. Her voice lowered, as if she was going to tell him a secret. "Or, it could be an old variant that was set loose."
He raised a brow. "How'd you end up with that?"
"I'm just throwing things out there," she said, waving off his dubious expression. He flinched back when her hand came a little too close to him. "I'd be really surprised if it was natural. I'm sticking with my theory that it's lab grown, I just have to find some leads on whose lab it was grown in."
"Gentek," he said simply. Who else would it be?
"Unless I find some evidence to back that up, it's in the air."
He shrugged, though a bit put off. Nearly all of his problems came in some way from Gentek, so it would only make sense that they were behind other fuckups in the world too. He was capable of waiting for an answer, though.
xxxxxxx
By the week's end, Dana was engrossed in the story. It was amazing how quickly the virus spread through Harran without a Runner at the helm, or so she theorized. If there was a Runner, the virus was acting too uncontrolled and uncoordinated to really seem like it. Now, main news agencies were reporting on it, so the information was no longer kept under wraps. It made searching quite a bit easier, but more difficult at the same time to sift through speculation versus the truth.
Apparently, the Global Relief Effort started sending in aid, among multiple other, lesser-known organizations. The U.S. government was keeping its hands clean of the matter, at least on the surface. They wanted nothing to do with an epidemic outside of their borders. It seemed like Blackwatch had the same idea - none of the files on their servers indicated any plans to deal with it, other than the general 'kill all infected, human or not.' A travel advisory was issued, though it was far too late for that to matter since all flights in and out of Harran stopped pretty much immediately at the word of Turkey's Ministry of Defence.
Something about it nagged her. Well, in truth, the whole thing nagged at her. Where was Patient Zero? What led to the outbreak? How did the Ministry build such an enormous quarantine so quickly and with little to no warning? How did the GRE get the operation set up and running so quickly? It would be admirable if it all didn't seem way too convenient. It wasn't her first experience with secret government bullshit. Getting governments to make a decision was like prying nails if there wasn't something in it for them, so obviously, there was a lot of 'something' in it for them.
Unfortunately, all she could do was speculate. When it came to investigating Gentek, it was considerably easier since she had an in on it with Alex. In fact, he was the one who asked her to look into it in the first place, though she imagined that his motivations for it changed after the whole Blacklight incident.
He really has changed a lot since then. To the point where he was unrecognizable. She would've mistaken him for a stranger if he didn't wear his face. He was always vague about what happened in 2008, though she had no doubts that it was due to Blacklight. In the past, he was obsessed with it. He would only speak to her if it had to do with Gentek or Blacklight, and would just end the call if she tried to talk about anything else.
But after that day when he barged into her apartment, something was off. It wasn't the Alex that would only stop working if he was forced to, that would work through many sleepless and hungry nights just to progress in his research. It was the Alex that would look at her when he spoke to her, but with eyes that betrayed his confusion and complete lack of familiarity.
And she didn't know how to feel about that. She was almost giddy at first - her brother came to visit her- but it was quickly overshadowed by his menace and clipped words. There was a routine for a bit, too. She would spend time finding people for him, and he would barge in to ask about it, then leave. His… confessions were…
Well, she still didn't want to think about the things he admitted to. All that mattered in the end was that he was still her brother, and nothing could change that, not even a superpowered virus.
xxxxxxx
In the midst of one of his hunts for the day, the disposable phone that pressed uncomfortably against him finally rang. He almost missed his whipfist swing in surprise, and it ended up goring straight through the infected into the building behind it. The phone continued to ring as he reeled it back, leaving hefty webbed cracks and a sporting new hole in the concrete. He willed his tendrils to reform into his hand, and they squirmed into place.
On the 5th ring, he picked up.
"Took your time answering," snapped the voice on the other end. Captain Cross.
"I was busy," Alex deigned as a response. Cross should be happy that he picked up at all. He readied a jump, the swirling tendrils crawling over his legs, and leapt to the top of the nearest building untouched by Redlight. At least if he got interrupted here, it would be due to a stray Hunter instead of a horde of annoyances.
He could practically see Cross's irritated expression before continuing. "The daily reports of your actions paint a pretty clear picture. You've thinned out a lot of the infected. If you keep up the rate, Manhattan will be clear in a couple months."
Alex nodded, even though Cross couldn't see the gesture. "Sounds about right. So, what's with the phone your sarge gave me?"
"I'll just get straight to the point," he said brusquely. "Have you heard of the GRE?"
"The Global Relief Effort?" Alex mused. He almost let out a ghost of a chuckle. "What, looking to invite me to do charity work? Not really the type for that, if you haven't noticed."
There was the sound of an exasperated exhale on the other end, but Cross continued. "Not quite. They were partnered with Gentek for a few years back in the 70's."
Immediately, there was a tone shift akin to a bucket of ice water dropped onto the conversation. Alex narrowed his eyes at the mention, the glare he always had somehow becoming more pronounced. He let Cross carry on.
"Details are foggy, but they split in the early 90's. They tried to keep the partnership under wraps as much as possible, but nothing gets by Blackwatch." Alex couldn't help a small growl, but Cross ignored it. "As far as we're aware, they didn't take or keep any data, but we can't take chances."
His grip on the phone tightened. He loosened it a bit when he heard the telltale groan of plastic about to snap. "So, what do you want me for? Blackwatch is good enough at spying and killing as it is, you don't need my help with that."
"Leave the investigating to us," Cross said. If he was frustrated with Alex's attitude, it didn't color his voice. "Your job is in the city of Harran. In Turkey."
Alex alerted at the sound of the name. It was the very same one that held Dana's current fixation, the pseudo-Redlight.
"Where the epidemic is?" he interjected, disgust seeping into his tone. A sense of restlessness spurred him to begin pacing around the roof of the building.
There was silence for a few seconds on the line as Cross processed what he said. "...Yes. I'm surprised you know. Been keeping up with the news?"
Alex shrugged, then realized Cross couldn't see the gesture. "Dana turns it on sometimes."
"Right, anyways," he muttered. He raised his voice. "Right now, there's an outbreak in Harran. It looks like Redlight - Infected everywhere, attacking people in the streets. Only thing missing is the red shit all over the buildings. GRE is in the city at the same time, sending aid to the people trapped in the quarantine."
"Doesn't sound like a coincidence," Alex spat.
"You'd be right about that," Cross agreed, a bit surprised. At himself for agreeing with the virus about something, or with his cooperative attitude, Alex didn't know. "Your job is to cut the head off Redlight, or whatever it is, in Harran. The quarantine in place is holding them in for now, but the city is mostly landlocked. Only a matter of time 'til it escapes."
Alex thought for a long moment, and the silence dragged on until he spoke up again.
"You're going to send me to Harran to clear it out?"
"Why the hell else would I be telling you about this?" Cross said, frustration finally clear. Though, Alex wasn't sure if it was directed at him. "Wasn't my idea, and I don't think it's the best one either. But deal's a deal."
"So long as I work under Blackwatch…" he began.
"Then Dana Mercer stays safe," Cross finished for him. "And Blackwatch wants you over there, so you'd better do what we tell you. I don't want to hear about any dead troopers, are we clear?"
"Yes, sir," Alex droned mockingly.
"And don't attack any GRE operatives either, or political figures," he continued. He seemed to think for a moment. "Hell, just don't attack any humans at all. We don't need an international incident. You got that?"
Alex almost rolled his eyes. He wasn't that much of a loose cannon anymore. He kept his human kill count to a minimum. He wasn't picking the fights, just finishing them. "Sure."
"That doesn't inspire me with confidence, Mercer."
The line was silent for a few moments until Cross spoke up one last time.
"Well, as fun as it was to speak," Cross said, exaggerating his tone slightly. "That's your job. Cut the head off the Runner and you'll be home free, for good. We'll have pickup arranged in a day. Just wait by the Palace. If we don't see you there, you know what happens."
Alex crushed the phone.