My great thanks to HighFlyingWings, who kindly chose to use some of his free time to be my beta reader!
Welcome to the SpaceBattling Online Message Boards
You are currently logged in as, Strange_Eons (Veteran Member) (Confirmed Cosmic God) (Confirmed Prankster God) (The Guy In The Know) (Confirmed Lovecraftian Abomination) (Confirmed Master Chef)
You are viewing:
Threads you have replied to
AND Threads that have new replies
OR private message conversations with new replies
Thread OP is displayed
Twenty posts per page
Last ten messages in private message history
Threads and private messages are ordered by user custom preference.
Topic: Monsters exist! Manhattan at war!
In: Boards ► News ► Recent
Strange_Eons (Veteran Member) (Confirmed Cosmic God) (Confirmed Prankster God) (The Guy In The Know) (Confirmed Lovecraftian Abomination) (Confirmed Master Chef)
Posted on 12th October, 2008:
Well ladies and gentlemen, it is done!
Victory now belongs to the forces of humanity!
Behold, the death of Elizabeth Greene, brought to you by Aeon Muradasilova and Alex Mercer!
Here: [Link] [Link] [Link]
No, you're not dreaming. Yes, it really happened.
After two weeks of terror like no other, after two weeks of war like nothing else in human history, mankind stands victorious. The outbreak has been contained, its leader is dead.
In other words: Time to party like the world has been saved, because it literally just happened!
► Melodious (Occult Enthusiast)
Replied on 12th October, 2008:
I saw it on TV! Hell, I'm pretty sure most of the planet has seen it happen live!
We won! We freaking won! Gods, Eldritch or otherwise, we won!
Woohoo!
GG Humanity!
► BlueHelix (Raccoon City Survivor)
Replied on 12th October, 2008:
Aha! I knew it! 2 for 2, you glorious ISIS bastards!
Take that, you monsters! You think humanity fears you? Well fuck that, because we've got guys that even monsters fear on our side!
Now excuse me while I go get drunk like I haven't been in 10 years!
►buryitnow
Replied On 12th October, 2008:
Holy shit we won.
We fucking won.
I mean yeah, after Operation Revolving Door, it certainly seemed like we were going to win, but fucking hell, we actually did it!
I don't even fucking know what to say, I just…
Holy shit, we just survived the Apocalypse!
►disgae96
Replied On 12th October, 2008:
*Screams in relief and joy*
►Lurker9001
Replied On 12th October, 2008:
We won! We actually won!
Humanity literally fought actual monsters and won!
I just… Fucking hell, those madlads at Manhattan deserves all the drinks. ALL of them.
And especially those two who just killed Greene. Those glorious bastards won't have to worry about paying for their drinks for the rest of their lives.
And considering that one is a sentiant virus and the other is the fucking leader of ISIS, that's saying something, because I can't imagine those two going anywhere for a LONG time.
I dare say even Death himself wouldn't dare come for those two, he'd probably be worried that THEY would kill HIM instead…
►Bagrat (Veteran Member) (Police Officer)
Replied On 12th October, 2008:
Well, celebrations are already going wild everywhere, but for once I dare say even we in the police can't argue that everyone earned to party like never before, because we just won the freaking Apocalypse.
And yeah, credit goes to every madlad at Manhattan who made that victory possible, because holy shit this whole mess is going to be forever remembered by all of humanity.
I can already imagine the sheer sighs of utter relief going on in every government and military in the world, as those heroes (because they frankly earned that title) currently in Manhattan successfully contained this mess only in the city itself.
I'm not even sure what kind of medals and rewards they'll get for saving the damn world, but it's going to be something to behold. I can't imagine the UN won't get involved.
Beyond that, I just… Fuck. We just saw what could have been the end of humanity be dealt with with nothing short of masterful skill, and that's going to have some serious consequences.
For one? ISIS has officially become the savior of America, perhaps the entire world, no questions asked. I can't imagine that Insight Corp. isn't going to be publically rewarded for their part in all of this, and one thing's for sure: Everyone is going to consider Insight Corp. as the greatest company to ever exist. I mean yeah, it already kinda was, especially considering all they've done for the world, the fact that they've unlocked the secrets of longer lifespan alone has changed the world forever, but this…
I'm going to be drinking in the names of heroes tonight, that's for sure.
Not to say the Marines at Manhattan don't deserve just as much respect, mind you. Far from it. I don't think we've got enough medals to properly reward our soldiers, but I can't imagine the government isn't going to try- if only for the fantastic PR they'll get out of it.
Either way, this was the most stressful two weeks in human history, and the entire world will forever be changed by it. We've seen heroes, we've seen monsters, we've seen wonders thought of only in fantasy and horrors fits only for, well, horror movies, and yet here we are, alive and ready to move forward to a brighter tomorrow.
I don't know what the future will hold after this… But I'm hopeful.
With people like ISIS and Insight Corp. helping the world, I think humanity has a bright future ahead of it.
And after the last two weeks… Acknowledging that fact is one of the most beautiful things in existence.
Humanity cannot only survive, but thrive. Prosper beyond anything we ever imagined possible in the past.
And we're all here for it, seeing the world change for the better with our own eyes.
I'm so very glad to be alive to see all of this.
► Melodious (Occult Enthusiast)
Replied on 12th October, 2008:
Bagrat, I know exactly what you mean. The world has changed in ways that we never thought possible… But that isn't a bad thing.
Humans now live longer, better, and happier than ever. The economy is booming thanks to all the new tech from Insight Corps, the politicians look half-way respectable nowadays (a miracle in its own right!), and we're being told that colonizing the very stars themselves is something that all of us will live to see in our (expanded) lifetime.
Despite everything… It really feels like the world is going to be okay. No, that it will be better than okay.
The future is bright. Not even the worst of monsters from Mankind's nightmares can threaten that fact.
And I eagerly look forward to seeing what else Humanity can achieve in the years to come.
Who knows, maybe we'll meet the gods themselves, right Strange_Eons?
Strange_Eons (Veteran Member) (Confirmed Cosmic God) (Confirmed Prankster God) (The Guy In The Know) (Confirmed Lovecraftian Abomination) (Confirmed Master Chef)
Melodious, what can I say, Humanity lives in strange times.
You might even say Strange Eons!
►Bagrat (Veteran Member) (Police Officer)
Replied On 12th October, 2008:
Strange_Eons Ha!
End of Page. 759, 760, 761 ... 788, 789, 790
(Showing Page 760 of 790)
Strange_Eons (Veteran Member) (Confirmed Cosmic God) (Confirmed Prankster God) (The Guy In The Know) (Confirmed Lovecraftian Abomination) (Confirmed Master Chef)
Posted on 13th October, 2008:
Sooo… You guys remember how you all thought that beyond mopping up the remnants of Greene's forces, the Battle of Manhattan was over?
Yeah, about that…
[Link] [Link] [Link] [Link] [Link] [Link]
For those of you wondering: Yes, that is indeed the Marines going to war against Blackwatch's forces.
Turns out, Blackwatch was behind the whole mess in Manhattan. Not fully willingly, but they certainly were the ones to cause it.
The Marines actually posted all the evidence linking Blackwatch with Greene and the outbreak.
[Link] [Link] [Link]
Check it out, just keep in mind, it's gruesome stuff.
Turns out, Blackwatch is guilty of horrific crimes, and now? Now they are going to pay for them.
And the Marines are not willing to take "no" for an answer.
No ISIS soldiers got involved yet, it seems they are focusing on wiping out the remaining monsters rather than picking up a fight against US soldiers.
Though for how long that remains true considering the evidence against them, that remains to be seen…
►Bagrat (Veteran Member) (Police Officer)
Replied On 13th October, 2008:
Holy shit… This is, I don't even have the words…
The pictures attached to the files are horrific. Gruesome stuff indeed…
That's the kind of shit I expected from goddamn nazies, not the US!
Fuck, no wonder the Marines are going crazy against those murderous bastards!
And they shot Alex Mercer when the guy tried to warn the world?! That's what caused him to turn?!
Goddamn, the guy has to be carrying a grudge a mile long for this, I know I would!
I just… I remember 10 years ago when the revelations of just how corrupt our government was revealed, but this is no better…
Fuck, this country really was rotten to the core back in the day, though it seems like Blackwatch and Gentek's leadership lied to the government in order to keep up their horrific activities in secret once the corrupt politicians were gone…
Fucking maniacs, the lot of them!
I just… I'm sorry, but the sheer horrors of those documents…
►Lurker9001
Replied On 13th October, 2008:
Okay yeah, this is… I have no words.
I also remember what happened 10 years ago, and this brings back memories. Horrible memories of knowing just how evil the people ruling your country really are… or were, in this case.
Shit, was what happened 10 years ago not enough to clean out our government of this filth? Apparently not!
Well hopefully this time we'll clean everything up properly, because this is horrifying.
► Melodious (Occult Enthusiast)
Replied on 13th October, 2008:
Well there goes my good mood.
Here we were, free to party and rejoice over the fact that humanity is saved, only to discover that everything that has gone wrong lately was because of fucking madmen like those at Blackwatch fucking everybody over!
And damn, Alex Mercer tried to warn the world and got shot for it! This is some outright conspiracy bullshit!
The only thing I can say about this is Fuck Blackwatch, and I hope that the Marines get you murderous scumbags to the last!
buryitnow
Replied On 13th October, 2008:
And here we thought the mess at Manhattan was over, but no!
No, it just went into a whole new level of crazy!
Conspiracies! Secret evil armies! Horrific secret experiments on innocents!
Hell, I actually kind of sympathize with Greene now, because seriously, this is some fucked up shit that caused her to go crazy!
No wonder she went off the deep end and decided to fucking exterminate humanity after everything Blackwatch put her through!
I'm sorry, but I really hope the Marines get to kill every Blackwatch soldier. They are evil, just pure evil, and need to die or be sent into prison for the rest of their lives or something.
► BlueHelix (Raccoon City Survivor)
Replied on 13th October, 2008:
This is like Umbrella and Raccoon City all over again, except with full government support this time!
And here I thought I saw everything… But no, Humanity can in fact sink lower!
I hope that the current government acts fast, because ISIS deserves the right to wipe out Blackwatch to the last.
Shit like this can't be tolerated. They need to die, and whatever survivors there are after this mess should be put on trial for their crimes.
Fucking hell, no wonder ISIS always had problems with Blackwatch. That's because the latter were evil monsters all along!
Honestly, we should have known. Of course anyone that ISIS distrusts are actually evil monsters, that really should have been obvious!
Well, lesson fucking learned. If ISIS distrusts anyone, that's probably because they are secretly evil to the core.
-
Sherry Muradasilova calmly walked towards the meeting spot where she will meet with the team that will help handle the incoming events.
It wouldn't be long, now. The Family's assets and all who worked for Simmons were more active than ever, and Sherry knew of the recent additional deployment of Blackwatch troops.
Soon, very soon, they were going to make their move.
A move of desperation, even if she knew that neither Simmons nor General Randall would ever acknowledge it as such.
For a second, her vision shifted, and she stood elsewhere, at a different time.
Where she was raised as a ward of the Family, years spent in labs, dreaming of going out into the world and making a difference, like Claire and Leon-
And then reality snapped back, and she was Sherry Muradasilova once again.
Despite the vision, she had not stopped walking, not even the slightest hitch to show for what happened.
It was not the first time this happened, nor would it be the last.
Her eyes were "open", as her adoptive mother would say.
She saw things beyond anything that even the Hunters of the Dream could imagine.
Had been taken on trips across space and time by her new parents which made her see for herself sights that the people of Earth could never dream of seeing.
She saw the Big Bang, and witnessed the universe die in ice.
She had walked the afterlife, talked to the greatest legends of humanity, witnessed the birth and end of countless worlds, civilizations, and species.
She had seen herself across the near-infinite possibilities of the multiverse, living a quadrillion lives, some as a hero, some as a villain, and others where she had lived a peaceful, simple life.
She had even asked, and was granted the sight of her new father's true humanoid form, his divine avatar for when he would one day walk amongst gods as their equal… or their greater, considering his power.
She couldn't remember it all, even her perfect memory failing her in the face of the truest essence of divinity that existed in her multiverse, even her eyes not capable of fully understanding the true form of her dad… Not even more than a mere sliver of his true self.
Still, she had seen enough to change her forever, learned enough to know secrets that could destroy the sanity of any lesser person.
She smiled slightly as she felt the flow of power around her, around all of the universe and multiverse beyond it.
Smiled as she felt the familiar warmth of her dad, present in the wind outside the building, the water in the clouds, the earth forming this world, and the cosmic winds across the void of space.
People spoke of faith, of belief in gods. She had no need for faith nor belief.
No matter where she went, her father was here. A constant presence, across all of time and space and beyond.
Watching, guiding, helping.
Embracing her, every atom in the air serving as his arms as he held her lovingly, letting her know that he would always be here for her.
The blood in her veins sang in agreement, unnatural warmth filling her body as her mother's love followed her, washing away doubts and fears and leaving only the surety of knowing that she was, and always would be cherished.
It was truly the opposite of what she was once used to, going from the detached ways her birth parents cared about her to… this.
She remembered so many nights spent alone at her house, her parents working late into the night. She remembered countless excuses to avoid passing time together, citing this or that experiment to be done which prevented the Birkins from spending time with her.
Once, she had been alone, forced to grow up quickly, to mature quickly in the face of uncaring parents more interested in their work than her.
Thankfully, her birth mother had changed and was much happier nowadays, no longer obsessing over her work and learning at last how to truly live.
Even so, Sherry would never forget the first time she actually felt the love from Aeon and Oedon, felt their emotions, the way they cared about her beyond anything anyone had ever done towards her.
The religions of Earth spoke a great deal about the wrath of the gods, but she had experienced their love, and the sheer strength of it had stunned her silent, before she had been left crying over truly, genuinely knowing how much she mattered in the eyes of her new parents.
It remains, and always will remain, one of her greatest memories, that day where she experienced for herself how strong the love of her parents truly went.
She doubted even Claire and the others truly understood how powerful the love of two Outer Gods was. They were not humans. They pretended, played the part, did it with masterful skill… But they were inhuman. Completely so.
To feel their love is to be embraced by the warmth of every sun in the universe at the same time. To feel their wrath is to be crushed by an entire universe glaring at you.
Galaxies uncountable would burn if someone was to harm her in a way that earned them the wrath of her parents. The multiverse would shudder and crack under the rage of beings that made up the very fabric of reality.
Claire, Jill, Rebecca, and the others had never truly interacted with the full weight of Aeon. They see his mortal self, stand awed at his power, basked in his love, but they were still only humans. She… She was made more.
She knew better than anyone beyond Lucy that what they showed on Earth was nothing. Lucy herself had once told her that she existed across entire multiverses at the same time… and barely scratched a fraction of the power that her parents could call upon at will.
And Sherry knew that she herself could be more. If she embraced the part of her that was Eldritch, that was Divine, she could become… so much more.
Her parents would welcome her desire to shed more of her humanity without hesitation. Her father might be more hesitant, but as long as she was certain of her decision, he would help her grow far beyond even her current self.
Sometimes, when she went to sleep, she dreamed of such a life. A life where every blink had her witnessing new civilizations rise over the old ones, where species lived and died in the course of heartbeats, where planets and stars sang to her as she traveled the void of space as one who truly belonged in the cosmos.
She dreamed of countless alien skies welcoming her, of uncountable stars standing as markers of her journey towards eternity, all of them singing the song of the Cosmos in harmony with her.
Where the only constants would be the familiar warmth of the presence of her mom and dad, delighting with her over every new wonder she would discover, giving her company as she crossed the void of space across galaxies, and singing to her whenever she would go to sleep amongst a sea of stars and dream of strange eons to come.
Perhaps one day, far in the future, she would embrace those dreams and make them reality. Embrace the cosmos as her true home, the stars as her neighbors, and leave behind the worries and concerns of those unable to answer the call of the cosmos, remaining bound on planets with all the chaos of life they contained.
She knew that her mom would enjoy that, at least, but that was to be expected. For all of her adopted mother's newfound humanity ever since Aeon came into her life, she was still an Eldritch God at heart.
To her, to Dream of the Stars would always be the most natural course of action.
Part of why she got along so well with Aeon. At the end of the day, there was none who dreamed of the stars more than him, for all that he was comfortable staying on the dirt of a planet.
But then again, her father had always considered the Cosmos and its wonders a gift that should be accessible to all, so she wasn't surprised he would be willing to spend so much time and effort elevating humanity into a space-faring species.
And nothing quite showed that as well as all the work he had put into her world. So many new technologies, so many discoveries, so much work done over years to help Mankind spread across the stars…
Soon to bear fruit at last. It won't take more than a decade or two until people actually go to Mars. Soon enough, Man would walk the red planet… and then go beyond even that.
But first, the future of Humanity must be secured, and she was here to do just that.
She opened a door, and looked with interest at the group on the other side, who stared back at her with curiosity, some wariness, or with false bored looks on their faces.
"Wolfpack." she said calmly in greeting.
"Sherry Muradasilova. Usually, we have to meet your old man… though I suppose he's a bit busy right now."
Lupo, leader of the Wolfpack, stared at her with a slight look of curiosity on her face, but Sherry could tell that she was mentally trying to decide how much of a threat she was.
To be fair, the others did as well, some more obviously so than others.
Sherry smiled.
"I'm afraid so. Though I'm sure you already heard about Greene's death by now."
"I dare say that the whole world knows about it, considering the whole thing was on TV." dryly remarked Beltway with a grunt.
"Indeed. Do give our congratulations to your father when you next talk to him, will you? None of us were exactly eager to fight the end of the world if Greene won the battle of Manhattan." said Lupo, and Sherry could feel the relief from them all at the fact that the situation was contained after all.
Lupo's relief was greater than the others, since she had children of her own to worry about.
"I'll make sure to remember. Unfortunately, while Greene is dead, this situation is far from over. And that's why we're all here today."
"You're asking us to go to Manhattan? Because let me tell you, that's going to cost you. That's a sort of hell I have no intention of stepping into. Raccoon City was bad enough!" growled Vector.
Lupo sent him a glare, but visibly agreed from what Sherry could feel. Even with Greene dead and her hordes broken, the memories of Raccoon City weren't so easily forgotten, and willingly walking into an even more dangerous death trap of a city was obviously not something they were eager to do.
"Thankfully, that won't be required. Your mission would actually be elsewhere, helping me protect a very important VIP that is about to be assassinated by the Family's agents if we don't act." she calmly replied.
A subtle tension left Wolfpack, and Lupo even cracked a grin.
"Well, that's good to hear. So, who is our lucky VIP worthy of getting the help of not only you, the daughter of the leader of ISIS, but Wolfpack as well?"
"Him." Sherry answered, taking out her phone and showing a picture.
Wolfpack stiffened, shock clear in both body language and on their faces for those without face-covering helmets.
"Wait, that's-"
"The President of the USA, yes." Sherry confirmed bluntly.
They stared at her and the picture in silence for a good ten seconds.
"Well God damn. Never thought we'd get to save the life of the freaking US President." Vector cracked his neck. "Never a boring job when ISIS is involved, that's for sure."
-
"So, did they agree to help?"
"They did. Wolfpack and Sherry will work together to handle the upcoming assassination attempt."
Ada Wong nodded, frowning at a message she had gotten from someone she trusted from the Organization.
To her utter lack of surprise, the news was not good. In fact, it was the exact opposite.
"Damn you Aeon, you played me like a fool." she grumbled.
"What are you grumbling about?"
She looked up towards Leon, currently looking at her curiously from within the room at the hotel they were currently staying in, before she let out a sigh.
"The Organization is dead. Gone. Shattered utterly."
Leon stared in shock, and she scowled, glaring at nothing in particular so much as the situation as a whole.
"You remember my little encounter with Aeon in Manhattan?"
"Yes?"
"Well, turns out his warning was listened to… by half of the Organization's leaders. The others still wanted to go to Manhattan and get samples anyway."
She sighed. "Things escalated into a shouting match, accusations of cowardice, incompetence, and even treason were thrown around, and eventually someone had enough and pulled the trigger."
She shook her head in disgust.
"It was a bloodbath. With the Organization split into two, both sides fought viciously, with traitors and spies on both sides only adding more to the chaos. For some time now, everybody was killing everyone else. Hidden bases blew up or were wiped out to the last man, labs were ransacked, equipment stolen or destroyed, propaganda was frequently used to destroy the public support of the leaders of the Organization while assassination attempts happened every day… As I said. It was a damn bloodbath, with both sides using everything they could against each other."
She glanced down at her phone, scowling.
"And now, the victor has been found: no one."
She looked back up at Leon.
"Someone leaked a whole lot of data to various criminal organizations, who saw a chance for profit and jumped at the chance. The split of the Organization ended because both sides were butchered to the last by those criminal groups trying to pick up anything of value that they still possessed. And then, just to finish everything neatly… The authorities were given all the info they needed to break those groups as well. In short? The Organization is gone. Everyone is either dead or awaiting trial, and all the remaining equipment, data, etc. that the Organization possessed got seized by the authorities of the various countries where the Organization operated from."
Ada shook her head. "Less than two weeks. It took less than two weeks to destroy the Organization, a group I spent years of my life with, and all of that as a result of the leader of ISIS talking to me for five minutes. I'm not sure whether to be more impressed or terrified."
Leon looked at her, surprised at the news visible on his face… before the exact same expression that always appears whenever Aeon gets mentioned appeared on his face.
Understanding, as if what she had told him made complete sense in hindsight, as if Aeon Muradasilova being able to do the impossible was the most natural thing in the world.
Ada was no fool. Leon knew something about what exactly was going on with the Muradasilova family. Whatever it was, it was good enough that Leon was never surprised by any achievement coming from them, no matter how impossible something should have been.
The whole outbreak at Manhattan had him stressed, especially when it looked like they were about to lose the place to Elizabeth Greene… And yet, even then Leon was certain that ISIS would win.
And when they did, he nodded, as if it suddenly all made sense, while the rest of the world stared in shock at the sudden reversal of the situation following Operation Revolving Door.
Ada, not for the first time, considered asking… But choose not to. It was probably something that Aeon had told Leon in order to buy his loyalty, and whatever it was seemed to have worked perfectly.
Something that important was obviously very sensitive info, and she really didn't want to see what would happen if she found things out without Aeon's approval.
Especially now that the Organization was gone, and ISIS essentially stood as the dominant force in the world, with no true equal.
And even more so after she had seen Aeon fight during the outbreak. She was one of the best spies in the world, but if that man went after her with the intent to kill, she was a dead woman walking, whether she liked it or not.
Ada shook her head. She had chosen to throw her lot with Leon, and so far she wasn't regretting it. Quite the opposite, in fact.
So instead, she went back to work. For some reason, Aeon didn't want Simmons to be revealed as a mastermind in the coming mess and instead wanted everything blamed on General Randall, even as they investigated quite a few of Simmons' allies and subordinates.
It made no sense to her, but she suspected that Aeon had some kind of long-term plan that would benefit from having Simmons remain alive for a while longer.
What those plans were neither she nor Leon had any ideas, but by now they both trusted the man to know what he was doing.
So the priority was to destroy Simmons' power base, if not completely, while utterly destroying everything involved with Blackwatch.
A task admittedly made much easier thanks to Aeon's daughter Sherry helping them. That girl had changed since she became a Muradasilova, in ways that made Ada's instincts scream at her that she was incredibly dangerous, and the way she was somehow able to find info about people of interest with utter ease without leaving any trace of her work was both impressive and disturbing.
Again, it appeared more and more as if being friends with the Muradasilova family was a far wiser choice…
She glanced at Leon, a slight smile spreading across her lips.
And there were certainly some very good benefits to standing on the side of the angels.
-
15th October, 2008.
President Desmond Graham blinked and looked up from his computer screen when the door to his office at the White House suddenly opened up without a word from his guards.
The mess at Manhattan had taken on a whole new level of headaches for him when his own Marines turned against Blackwatch, as understandable as it may have been.
Sure, those lying bastards deserved to pay for their crimes, but outright fighting them like this, on top of all the data released over the past crimes of the USA involving Blackwatch, certainly gave the US a massive black mark when it came to international diplomacy.
And the less said about local politics, the better.
The very impressive amount of protests going around the country were rather hard to miss, after all.
And don't get him started on China! The Russians were bad enough, but China was growing bolder the more time passed and the stronger their country got, and he knew that they still kept their eyes on the South China Sea.
A weaker USA meant a bolder China, and the recent political mess had made the Chinese… thoughtful.
He'd already had to send additional forces the military bases around the South China Sea, just to make it clear that no, the events at Manhattan didn't mean that they could just try anything without having the US intervene.
And if anything, the death of Greene had not convinced them to back down. Desmond almost suspected that the Chinese would have done something if the battle of Manhattan was lost, with the logic that a distracted US was a weak US.
As it was, things might have calmed down… but the Blackwatch revelations had brought an entirely different kind of weakness in the US, because now the entire country was focused on their crimes rather than anything else.
Point was, the Chinese smelt opportunities, and dissuading them of it was a careful balance between actual escalation and bluff.
Even so, surely people wouldn't enter his damn office to bring some kind of news without even announcing themselves-
Wait.
He blinked.
"Sherry?" he exclaimed in surprise, seeing the daughter of the leader of ISIS who had befriended his own daughter following that mess in Spain just… casually entered his office without a shred of shame or hesitation.
Sure, she was a family friend (and possibly more, if some of the looks that his daughter gave her sometimes was anything to go by), but still!
She smiled, even as the two guards in his office shifted to frown at her, hands going for their las-pistols.
He raised a hand to stop them, frowning in confusion.
"Sorry, but I'm afraid I needed to talk to you quickly, and your guards weren't very friendly." she declared cheerfully, even as something about this whole situation still made him uneasy.
"What do you mean? What's going on, Sherry?" he asked, by now forgetting all about his work.
The leaders of Insight Corp. and his own family had a rather mutually beneficial understanding, and he wasn't foolish enough to not know a good part of why he got two terms as president was because Insight Corps helping the economy immensely had made him popular and because the corporation's leaders backed his campaign.
But for them to so boldly come into his office at the White House was certainly new.
Sherry looked at him for a few seconds… then glanced at the two guards.
"Why don't you ask them?" she replied, her expression turning… disturbingly friendly.
Too friendly to be anything but mocking.
And her eyes…
He opened his mouth to ask what the hell was going on-
*KA-BOOM!*
*PZZZT! PZZZT! PZZT!*
And then the world went mad.
The White House shook in an explosion, lasgun fire echoed in his ears, the screams of the dying filled the air, and his own eyes bulged when his two guards took out their las-pistols, one aiming at Sherry… and the other turning his gun towards him with a cold look on his face what the hell-
*PZZT! Crack! PZZT!*
Desmond flinched in shock when Sherry suddenly moved, a las-pistol in her hand and shooting the first guard in the head while a las-bolt went through the windows at his back and into the head of the second guard.
"What the-"
"We need to move. Now."
Sherry didn't even spare a look at the two dead men with most of their heads now completely gone, simply walking up to him, taking him by the arm, shooting the window behind him and then jumping down, uncaring of the distance between his office and the ground, her legs bending down only slightly when they hit the ground while she was carrying him, and then they both were running towards the street standing before the White House, Desmond desperately trying to understand what in the hell was going on.
It all went so fast he had acted on instincts, but after a few seconds of just following along he opened his mouth to ask one of the countless question on his mind-
"Get down!"
A hand pressed him down into the dirt a second before-
*KA-BOOOOOOM!*
*WOOOSH!*
Desmond grimaced, feeling the heat as the White House exploded into a massive ball of fire behind him, and the pressure from the shockwave of the explosion.
He turned, watching in shock the crater where a good chunk of the White House once stood.
Sherry said something, but his ringing ears did not allow him to hear, and a moment later she just pulled him to his feet and they began running like hell.
A few seconds later, his eyes widened again as he saw explosions going on further ahead in the street they were running towards, the signs of smoke growing in the distance along with the flash of lasguns firing.
Sherry put a hand on his shoulder, his hearing clearing just as she turned to look at him with a frown.
"We're going to wait until the heli we put on stand-by for extraction comes here. We have a car, but the streets are obviously a no-go."
"Sherry, what-"
"General Randall is pulling a coup." she explained tersely, even as they kept going, the White House burning in the background, and he could swear that lasgun fire still went off in the parts not on fire. "And he's trying to put the blame on ISIS and Insight Corp."
"What?!" he exclaimed.
"He's trying to make it look like ISIS has decided that, after both Raccoon City and now Manhattan, the US government couldn't be trusted, and that someone sane should be in place. Then he and his people would kill the assassins, 'tragically' after your death, and use the ensuing chaos to put someone sympathetic in charge, while establishing martial law. Combine that with an assault on Insight Corp.'s HQ in order to find 'proof' of Insight Corps. and ISIS criminal, treasonous activities, ones already fabricated in advance of course, and he's trying to take the country over."
Desmond blinked in shock. "That-"
"Doesn't matter if it works or not at this point, the fact is that as we speak you've got a lot of people trying to kill a lot more people. It's not just here either, they are targeting everyone they think is affiliated with ISIS or Insight Corp. to both weaken us all and find proof, real or created, to give to the public to explain all of this. In both the military and the civilian sectors, too."
"But… That had to be prepared-"
"For a long time, yes. Blackwatch had been preparing to take down Insight Corp. for over ten years, and even more once Umbrella was gone, and they could focus on us."
They reached the street, and Desmond saw fire and smoke everywhere, the sounds of explosions, lasgun fire, and screams of terror and pain echoed in the air around the city.
His eyes widened when a group of armed people saw him and Sherry and immediately raised their weapons, only for a volley of las-fire to kill them.
"What?"
"We've got help!" explained Sherry as they ran into a building on the other side of the street. "I've got a team at the top of the building meant to give us cover fire and keep anyone not friendly away from us!"
"ISIS soldiers?" questioned Desmond.
She grinned as she led him to the stairs. "No! Though we do call on them sometimes as allied troops to handle delicate matters!"
Desmond thought about asking if they were trustworthy then, but frankly, things were going so fast he wasn't sure of who was even trustworthy at this point.
"We aren't going to take the elevator?" he exclaimed.
"Too much risk of the building losing power in the fighting! We could get stuck in there!"
He grimaced as more explosions sounded outside. That was a fair point.
"How the hell is he even able to do something like this? Aren't most of his forces in Manhattan? And how the hell did he turn my own guards?"
"The man had time to gather allies. What forces he has at Manhattan are far from the only resources at his disposal. Also, the man is a general. You don't get to be where he is without charisma, and he can even appear genuinely patriotic. Point is, don't underestimate him."
Desmond scowled. "You said that this isn't just here at the White House that this is happening. Where else?" he paused. "Please tell me that the Pentagon-"
"- is on fire. Some of the high-ranking generals are either on the side of ISIS or simply couldn't be turned, so it's a mess over there as well."
"Goddamnit." he cursed.
They finally reached the top of the building, Desmond panting for breath as he did before freezing.
"Wolfpack?!" he exclaimed in shock.
"I did say they weren't ISIS." remarked Sherry.
He pursed his lips. Technically, they had been given freedom after Raccoon City thanks to their help in betraying Umbrella, but still…
"Don't worry. Our job is to get you out of here alive." declared Lupo, the leader of the team.
"That, and saving the life of the US president will look damn good on our CVs." joked Beltway.
Desmond took a deep breath. Things were going very fast…
But if they were here to help, so be it.
He nodded at them. "I'll make sure to give you a bonus on top of everything else you're paid once things calm down." he promised. They were mercs after all, what better way to further guarantee their loyalty?
They grinned at him. "Well, it's a shame you won't be president again, because that's the kind of thinking that would have us vote for you with a smile. As it is, we'll gladly accept!" cheerfully declared Vector.
Desmond nodded at them, then glanced around.
His expression promptly darkened, seeing all the fires, smoke, and screams indicating still further bloodshed.
The White House was very much looking like a wreck, and it was going to take months, if not years, to fix the place.
And all around him the signs of battle made it clear that this battle was far from over.
And if the Pentagon was a mess as well, where else had fighting happened?
He stiffened as a thought hit him, and glanced immediately at Sherry.
"My family-"
"Safe. We sent troops to get them to safety, just in case."
He released a breath of relief.
"Thank you."
Sherry opened her mouth, then paused.
"Incoming aircraft!" she shouted.
Everybody ducked down, looking upwards, only for their eyes to widen when ISIS aircraft flew overhead towards a trio of US ones , the whole thing quickly devolving into dogfighting in the air.
"Where's our evac?" questioned Lupo.
"If these are here right now, then probably a minute or two from here." replied Sherry.
"Good. I don't fancy our chances if they simply try to blow us all out." growled Lupo.
"Don't worry, we'll get out soon." promised Sherry.
Desmond scowled.
Yes, they would.
And then he'd organize the military as best he could to deal with this.
The United States of America would not fall to any tyrant on his watch, dammit!
And especially not when he was the damned President of the country!
-
David Webb, proud soldier of Blackwatch, was having one of the worst days of his life.
At first, when the order came down from high to go attack Insight Corp.'s HQ, he'd been excited. Insight Corp. had been a blight on the world for far too long, tolerated only because of how powerful and occasionally useful they were, but finally, finally the time had come!
America would be freed from its corporate would-be overlords!
Of course, those cheerful thoughts lasted until they arrived at the HQ… and everything went to hell.
Oh, they knew the HQ was no doubt protected by ISIS soldiers, but what Command had obviously not expected was just how well-defended the damn place actually was!
The whole place turned out to be a fortress , with turrets, sniper teams, and worse coming out seemingly everywhere to fire down on the Blackwatch teams sent to take over the HQ.
Automated plasma cannons came out of the buildings and ground to fire at Blackwatch teams, armored support, and even air support.
What should have been an overwhelming assault turned into an horrific slog where the screams of the dying echoed in the air along with explosions and gunfire.
Of course, they were Blackwatch, so they still kept on attacking. They had brought in a number of mercenary teams, supposedly from an ally, and had used them to take in the incoming fire and reveal traps along the way.
And good Lord, there were many, many traps it was fucking ridiculous!
Still, though grit, blood, and sweat they kept going until they had reached the main building.
Naturally, if the outside was bad, the inside was worse.
The entrance alone had over a dozen turrets come out of the ground, ceiling, and walls to shoot at them.
But even that was still acceptable. No, things really went crazy once they went deeper in.
Because then, things went… weird. Wrong. Unnatural.
Corridors turned unnaturally long, requiring minutes to cross.
Twists and turns that brought them backwards, even when all logic dictated that was not possible.
Radio communications were cut off utterly, and without any hopes of bringing them back up.
The rooms they passed were empty of life, and sometimes resembled each other so well they were seriously wondering if they weren't repeating.
They tried to clear the building of anyone living there… only to find not one person in it.
And yet, the sounds of combat still echoed from outside.
Eventually they decided to go underground, where the majority of the actual HQ supposedly resided…
And things went even worse.
Soldiers began disappearing. The dying screams of other teams sometimes could be heard, only for them to never find those teams when they ran towards them…
Or worse, they succeeded.
Some of the teams looked to have been killed by normal weapons, but others seemed as if they had been crushed under a great weight instantly, others had seemingly been bled dry in moments, great puddles of blood surrounding deathly pale soldiers with expressions of horrors on their faces…
And that was for those with visible causes of death!
Others seemingly tore themselves apart in a crazed orgy of blood, their expressions that of raving madmen and women… Others seemingly shot themselves, their faces stuck in expressions of pure terror… Others still seemingly died for no reason at all, their expressions focused as if they had simply walked down a corridor one moment, alert for threats… and then fell down on the ground dead.
But even that was still not as crazy as some of the things they had come across.
Doors that opened to different places across the world, one that had almost killed his entire team that opened to the damn Moon, another he was pretty sure had been in the middle of an ocean considering just how much water went out of it…
And that wasn't all.
Sometimes, whispers could be heard just at the edge of their hearing, muttering things that they couldn't understand and yet couldn't help but want to listen, and when you did understand them…
Well. One guy on his team had stopped, and began muttering to himself like a madman.
That was bad enough, but then the walls began bleeding, and grew eyes, tentacles, and-
Well.
They quickly shot the guy and ran like hell.
And they sure as hell didn't look back, even when something grabbed one of the women in the team and dragged her into the walls screaming all the way.
Now, there was only him and two others, all of them staring wildly around them as they walked on the ceiling.
Yes, the ceiling. One moment they were on the ground, then they were walking on the ceiling.
All things considered, at this point that was actually almost relaxing in comparaison.
"We're all gonna die, we're all gonna die, we're all gonna die…" muttered the one surviving woman of the team.
The other survivor was simply praying to God for salvation non-stop, and was gripping his lasgun like it was a crucifix in the face of evil.
David just stayed silent. After all, making noise might attract the attention of whatever sort of demons lived in this place, and if those two idiots wanted to die first, then he was just fine with that.
He'd just run like hell while leaving them to die-
And then they all froze in place, terror griping their heart when they heard people coming.
The normally simple sound of people walking towards them suddenly turned incredibly sinister in this damned place, and for a long moment they just stayed silent, barely daring to breathe.
And then two women came into view, and he and his fellow Blackwatch soldiers gulped in terror.
Oedon Muradasilova and Lucy Miller calmly stood before them, staring at them like they were particularly amusing insects caught in a spider web.
The fact that the doctor stared at them with glowing blood red eyes, and the latter with eyes glowing with a constantly shifting array of colors made it very, very clear that these two were not human at all.
Not after everything David had seen today.
"You're the last ones, you know." Calmly said the CEO of Insight Corp., the demon in human skin smiling slightly at them. "All the others are already dead. I'm afraid that you never truly stood a chance, but Aeon gave us his approval on cutting loose for once, so you were even more screwed than you would have normally been."
"You… you demons!" accused the one previously praying to himself, before he began loudly doing so while pointing his lasgun at the two in front of him.
The effect was rather undercut by both how terrified he was, and how both women only smiled in growing amusement at him.
"I'm afraid that you are mistaken." calmly said Lucy Miller. "First, the God of the Bible does not exist in this universe, so he cannot hear your prayers."
"And secondly, we are not demons, but gods. Or Eldritch Goddesses, in my case." declared the woman with glowing blood-red eyes, sounding amused.
The three Blackwatch soldiers quivered in fear, staring wide eyed at the self-proclaimed deities.
Considering everything they had seen so far, none of them were capable or willing to doubt their words on the matter.
"Now then, I'm afraid that we can't allow anyone to live after this, so… Don't worry, dying won't hurt for long. Your time in the afterlife won't be pleasant, though. But then again, you chose your own path, so… Farewell. The world will be a better place without you."
The being pretending to be a human CEO raised a hand, David and the male soldiers instinctively pressing the trigger of their guns, only for the lasers to slow down and stay frozen in the air mid-way to the being staring at them with glowing multi-colored eyes.
Then he met her gaze just as she finished raising her hand… and then closed it into a fist.
For a second that seemingly lasted eternity, he felt the weight of the Earth under his feet, felt the weight of gravity of the entire planet, felt the burning fury of the sun in the sky, the stars surrounding it, the galaxy and universe pressing down upon him, the flow of Time and Space themselves crashing down upon him-
And then David Webb died, unable to even scream.
His suffering, however, had only begun…
-
Oedon looked at the three bloody puddles that had once been three Blackwatch soldiers.
The gravity crush that Lucy used had been messy, and while Lucy had protected herself from all the blood flying, Oedon saw no need for it.
With a thought, the blood upon her gathered into a small ball of blood floating above one of her fingers, before she put it into her mouth, drinking the blood like it was wine, tasting the echoes of memories and lives contained within.
She hummed, then shook her head.
As she expected, little of value to be found. And the blood of mortals was so very tasteless compared to those having the Old Blood within them…
Ah well. There were other realities, and she would explore them and their wonders in due time with her dear Aeon.
She could afford to wait, for what was a few years to one who had seen the beginning and end of universes?
"We should return this place to normal. We had our fun, but now we should get back to work." she calmly pointed out.
Lucy sighed but nodded, a pulse of power returning everything to what was "natural" under the laws of physics.
"Back to paperwork and idiots trying to either get money from me or stare down at my tits. Joy…" Lucy muttered dryly, but nonetheless began walking back towards her office.
Oedon hummed. "And I have experiments to go back to. Also, do remember to return your eyes back to normal. Those colors are not normal in humans."
There was a sheepish "Oh, right." from Lucy as her eyes turned back to a more normal blue, while Oedon calmly walked through the corpses and blood, the blood almost trying to hug her legs as she passed through before falling back down, not a drop remaining on her boots.
Oedon, a bit disappointed at the lack of flavor in mortal blood, decided to summon a small glass of Elizabeth Greene's blood and drank deeply from it, licking her lips as she felt the Redlight virus try to infect her… before being consumed entirely by her divinity.
"Hmm. Points for being exotic, though a bit too bitter for my tastes. Bonus points for all the madness contained within it though, I suppose."
She smiled slightly, green eyes twinkling. "Dear Aeon really drove her up the wall when he played her for a fool. How amusing."
Not that she expected any less. Really, creating a plague of beasts right before her beloved's eyes? That poor dear was doomed from the start.
Ah well. At least her blood was mildly better than those of regular humans.
Sadly, she wouldn't be able to compare things with Aeon, since he let Alex Mercer consume Greene. Unlike her, he wouldn't bother bending reality just to have a drink.
He was a God of the Hunt after all, he wouldn't touch someone else's prey.
No matter. There would be others, far better prey to Hunt in the future.
She was quite interested in seeing for herself that world her beloved was so eager to go to next. Any world capable of having a man her dear Aeon hoped would give him a challenge would be worth keeping an eye on, after all…
-
Breaking News! The protests around the country ended in a shocking fashion today as everyone witnessed in shock what seemed to be nothing short of an attempted coup against the United States government by Blackwatch forces, who attacked the White House itself in force! The legendary seat of power of the most powerful nation in the world was left burning, wrecked and exploded by fierce combat as loyalist and rebel forces alike battled it out within the building itself, though recordings shows that the President was warned just in time to prevent the worst to come to pass by none others than Sherry Muradasilova, who successfully extracted the President just as the attempted coup was being made. Unfortunately, many in the President's government are yet to be confirmed alive, and several are indeed confirmed dead as a result of the recent fighting. What this means for the future of the country is unclear, as the fighting has if anything grown in strength in the last hour-
-The Pentagon is quite literally on fire, as loyalist forces are currently fighting it out within the crumbling building itself, and images show quite clearly generals forced to fight for their lives side-by-side with regular soldiers, las-pistols out and firing into a seemingly never-ending masses of traitors made up of various parts of the US military backed up by teams of mercenaries. The chain of command is in chaos, as reliable communications are spotty at best, though we did confirm the survival and death of certain high-ranking members of the military, and the confirmation of several having turned traitors-
-The rebel forces did not simply attack the seat of government, but also the seat of Insight Corp itself, the HQ of which was under a full-blown assault earlier today by over a thousand soldiers. Thankfully, ISIS forces present on the site on top of extremely heavy defenses revealed during the battle proved sufficient to break the tides of traitors, though many are left rather stunned by the images of both Lucy Miller, CEO of the company, and Oedon Muradasilova, wife of the leader of ISIS and the woman in charge of the R&D department, leading the charge weapon in hand in the final push against the invading enemy forces, each of them proving shockingly adept in their use, proving that the leader of ISIS is not the only one who holds proper American spirit in the face of evil! The CEO of the company then made a recording right there in the middle of the still-burning battlefield, calling out Blackwatch for the attempted coup, declaring that they have been trying to falsely incriminate Insight Corp. in order to give credence to a military take-over of the country! She further went on to promise all available help to the elected government of the country, promising that Insight Corp. will do its absolute best in supporting the President of the nation in this civil war for the future of the USA and of Democracy itself-
-At least two dozen Senators confirmed dead from various assassinations, with more suspected, while the Senate building itself remain a barely standing wreck from the vicious fighting that took place in its halls, though all of those who can still send messages urge the population to rise against this attempt at usurping the rightful government of the country, and images and videos circulate around the internet of Senators defending their very homes with Insight Corps made weaponry against squads of the forces of Blackwatch or affiliated mercenaries-
-still unknown number of military bases having fallen to Blackwatch control, though the casualties of this civil war already reach the thousands, and will without a doubt rise even higher before its conclusion. A number of military ships have officially gone AWOL, and the USS Ronald Reagan based in Manhattan is without a doubt lost to Blackwatch, since they had long since claimed it as their HQ. Words of support comes from the International Community, though actual military support will have to wait until proper communications can be established between President Desmond Graham and the rest of the world-
-
18th October, 2008.
South Manhattan.
"We have less than an hour. What's next?"
"The last person responsible for all of this dies tonight." replied Alex Mercer, staring down at the still vicious fighting going on between Blackwatch soldiers, Marines, and more recently ISIS soldiers from the top of a building.
"If we make it out of here. You think you're ready?"
"I was made for this." he bluntly replied to the man standing next to him.
He glanced at and stared at Captain Cross, who stared back for a few seconds, before nodding once.
"Citadel Command, this is Captain Cross. Mission accomplished. I have Colonel Taggart in custody. Ready for extraction." the man declared through his radio.
Alex Mercer smiled. Soon, soon all of this would finally be over.
There was only General Randall left to deal with. Tracking down Taggart had been annoying, but nothing too complicated. Especially with how much Blackwatch forces were being cut to shreds out there since they went for the insane plan of an attempted coup against the US government.
Still…
He carefully glanced at Cross.
Aeon had told him to be wary of the guy, pointing out that Cross had been one of the most loyal soldiers of Randall… Until now.
So what changed?
Alex held back a frown. He had learned to trust his instincts, and after thinking about it, something about all of this seemed… too convenient.
He wasn't sure if Cross was actually still loyal to Randall or something else was at work here, but he didn't like it. It stinks of a trap.
No choice but to spring it and see what happens, though.
He looked in the distance, at the sight of the Reagan. One way or another… He was going to find out soon.
Time to end this.
-
A.N: Alright! Here is the next chapter in which we continue the events of Prototype.
First, the world reacting to the revelations about Blackwatch! To nobody's surprise, no one is happy about learning just what kind of horrific truth existed behind the outbreak's origins.
And then we finally get some Sherry POV! I hope that you all enjoyed seeing a bit more of what being the daughter of two Outer Gods is like. Needless to say, it has consequences…
Also, a bit of Wolfpack! Not much, but hey, we'll see more of them in the future. Along with a certain Human Unit Never Killed! I'm thinking of actually maybe having an entire chapter or two about Mr. Death, soon enough, once it'll be time to remove the last Wesker still kicking around…
Also, more Ada! Who is both frustrated at learning how quickly Aeon obliterated the Organization, and how easy it was, and very, very happy that she got out in time to side with the winning team. Turns out, an organization that uses secrecy as its defense really doesn't work well against an omniscient god tired of their bullshit…
Then Sherry casually saving the life of the US President, followed by a part I decided would be pretty cool: Oedon and Lucy cutting loose, from the POV of some Blackwatch soldier who is way out of his depths dealing with two annoyed Goddesses.
And finally, one last scene to set up the final chapter of the Manhattan Outbreak/Prototype events!
We're finally here! It was a wild ride, but the fall of Blackwatch is finally about to come. One last battle, to put down an old enemy and make an inhuman monster a human hero, and we can return to more RE content! The end of this jump is, slowly, but surely, coming into sight…
Still, with all that being said, I hope you all enjoyed this update! Next time, Alex Mercer seeks to end this war! But not everything is as it seems, and true victory can only be found in heroism…