NeoNazo356: To answer some Reviews or other Comments I've gotten since the previous update...

Darklink1011: I am honestly curious about why foxcry does not ask about the cloak or shield. unless they already know about Athena making the stuff.

NeoNazo356: To answer your question, yes, they already know about Athena being the one to make the Predator Cloak and Kinetic Aspis. Prior to approaching him in Chapter 12: The Suit's Tailor, FoxCry (using their connection to FOXHOUND) had FOXHOUND personnel run reconnaissance and compiled dossiers on all of his associates up to that point to see who in the future could prove to be potential Allies, or Liabilities for the person holding onto an incredibly expensive piece of R&D Tech. Athena has no "avenue" with which to communicate with FoxCry other than indirectly doing so through Virgil (which she has not yet attempted ala "don't rock the boat"), and while FoxCry can communicate to her, they have yet to approach her about a working partnership. However, the marvels she's been able to produce on a shoestring budget with a sub-par lab, would certainly make her eligible.

Blaze1992: Well i's very interesting though will admit some parts disappointed me while others left me under-whelmed. I also very surprised you didn't try combining the Blacklight virus with the nano suit turning it into some kind of techno DC based symbiote.
Now I have a very important question now while I get why Batman kept any of the league from going near the zones what i don't get is why they didn't question the Nazi's after virus was finished? Cause wouldn't WW lasso or Martian Manhunters mind reading powers allow both the courts/government to get a clear cut idea on who did they duty and who abused their duty?
Also even if they stayed away wouldn't the tower sensors or the league themselves been able to see what's really going on in the zones?

NeoNazo356: The first thing you have to realize about the Nanosuit Virgil is using is that it is NOT the one from the games, but that it is explicitly a Prototype. The "Protosuit" is CryNet's first-ever foray into making Ceph technology usable to Humans in suit-format, so while what it can do is amazing, it's still limited in regards to what it can do in comparison to the Nanosuits from the games, which are mass-produced units created after preliminary testing of their own Prototype is done. Also, there's the fact that Virgil has no idea what the Protosuit is capable of, and even then, he wouldn't use the "Mercer Virus" in experimentation because if anything went wrong he'd be turned into a flesh-eating virus. Simply put, experimenting with something he does not understand, with something that absolutely terrifies him, is not a smart idea. Especially without any sort of expert to help him out.
Onto your second line of inquiry... Gentek was founded by Dr. Raymond Mullen on November 1, 1976, which means in 2009 it's been around for about 33 years. Being around for that long and working in such an important field, it isn't too surprising that Gentek would acquire a great deal of political acumen, and corporations IRL spend a great deal of money to lobby for favors. Not to mention! The viral bioweapon testings known as Carnival I and Carnival II were conducted using military families of various nationalities, which in turn resulted in the Hope Idaho Outbreak. The fact that Gentek was able to acquire these families, military families no less, and use them as human guinea pigs, hints that the US Government actually condoned these experiments in an attempt to create a Bioweapon that would ensure "American Supremacy". Comic books are no strangers to entire governments doing shady stuff under-the-radar. Just look at comic book projects like Project: Rebirth, the Weapon X Program, the Sentinel Program, Project Cadmus, Task Force X, and so-on, and you'll get where I'm coming from about governments being willing to "break a few eggs". Long story short, the government allowed Gentek to do what they did (to an extent), and because the Justice League is compliant with UN Charter, they can't go-against something that has government sanction, the same reason that Batman knows about Task Force X (aka Suicide Squad) but can't really do anything to stop it.
Following this is, would the Lasso of Truth or Martian Mindreading be admissible in a court of law? Polygraph tests aren't admissible everywhere because some states recognize them being bullshit. While Wonder Woman or Martian Manhunter could do those things, from the POV of a Jury, "What's to stop them from lying about what they learned?" It isn't like any of THEM can use the Lasso, nor can THEY mind-read to corroborate Martina Manhunter's testimony.
As for the thing about Tower Sensors, like I said above, the League has their hands tied. The reason Batman created The Team in 2010 is because he needed/wanted a work-around for the UN Charter that says where they can and can't operate. Also, while Batman could in-theory send The Team into Manhattan, it'd essentially be a Suicide Mission because they wouldn't be allowed to leave since the water is the only thing stopping the Blacklight Virus from spreading, and if they get Infected, or worse, Mercer gets to even one of them... Yeah, shit will go bad real fast.

Guest (1): So does Virgil become agent washington in this story or will he just be a snake.

NeoNazo356: Snake was a codename used by the special forces units FOX and FOXHOUND, to distinguish several of their agents. It was named after the animal of the same name due to the reptile's stealthy nature. In the Book of Genesis, the snake is the first spy, making it a fitting codename for the Snakes on their solo sneaking missions. Because of what Virgil is being brought up to do, his codename (as far as FOXHOUND Special Forces, CryNet Systems, and FoxCry are concerned) is "Night Snake", making him the most-recent in a long line of many other "Snakes", following after the likes of Naked Snake, Punisher "Venom" Snake, Solid (later Old) Snake, Liquid Snake, Solidus Snake, and Raiden's temporary codename of just Snake.
As for the "Special Agent Washington" designation, his initial use of that was simply to screw with Artemis' head, as was evidenced by her later actions in Chapter 20: Vertigo the Tumor where her internet traffic all but confirmed Artemis Crock's identity as "Arrow-Girl". Whether he becomes this story's expy of Washington from Red vs Blue... You'll just have to keep reading and see.

Guest (2): Very good chapter and I have a question about his arsenal. In the crysis games, prophet was able to customize the guns on the fly. Will virtual be able to do the same, or will he be limited to that set of attachments permission also I do believe that he would be good with the Grendel rifle from the crisis games just put a scope and a rifling attachment on it and it's Basically a sniper rifle and I can switch between three round burst and single fireTo allow him to take out enemies that would need a couple extra bullets but these are just my suggestions

NeoNazo356: In the Crysis games, swapping out Weapon Mods/Attachments in the field is a Game Mechanic. IRL, making those kinds of adjustments to a weapon would take several minutes with a set of tools, maybe a work bench in the best of conditions, so suffice it to say, those kinds of adjustments would be made before a mission, as the situation dictates.
As for things like "three round burst", that is what's called a "Firing Mode". IRL, you'll see toggles for Single-Shot (1), Semi-Automatic aka "Burst-Fire" (3), or Fully-Automatic (A). Firing Modes aren't available on all weapons, and for those they are installed on they aren't exactly removable. Instead firing modes are a feature. Assault Rifles are contextually given single-shot, burst-fire, and full-automatic capabilities because an assault rifle can make use of all three fire modes. Things like Shotguns and Sniper Rifles on the other hand experience massive kickback, so installing things like burst-fire and full-auto would be counterintuitive, hence weapons like that normally only have single-shot modes. Some shotguns have a Full Auto firing mode, but that's only in some cases, not all.

P.S.
Something I feel I should point out is that the reason the previous Arc all began with the "Vertigo:" prefix, followed by suffixes like "The Tumor", "The Triage", "The Preparation", and "The Excision" was because in the original draft of Chapter 23, Virgil was going to make some speech about Vertigo being "a malignant tumor" that had to be "excised" in a very Arrow-esque "you have failed this city" kinda way. However, in the end I decided to nix it because it wasn't within his character to Monologue "like a hammy Saturday morning cartoon villain". He had a few words to say, but Vertigo wasn't worth more than what was said. If anything, Virgil wanted Vertigo to know that he'd fucked up, and that he wasn't going to get off Scott Free, but he wasn't going to drone on psychoerotically about it.

Also, I'd like to take the time to thank Supreme King of all Kings for your continued feedback and critiquing of my work; It does much more for the creative process than one-note pandering. Don't get me wrong, I like when my work is complimented, but I also like being told where I've made mistakes because by-myself I might've missed those, and with that critiquing I can rectify or refine ideas in the story. The best stories, in my opinion, are the ones that have ideas bounced back and forth to iron out all the kinks, cover up any glaring plot holes or simply make ideas better.

Anyhow, onto the show.

*PHANTOM PAINS*

Manhattan, Roosevelt Island
22:46 EST

Cue Crysis 2 Soundtrack – New York Aftermath

New York City, now referred to as "New York Zero", in its entirety was varying levels of hell.

The Green Zone, formerly known as Staten Island, while relatively free of the fear of infection caused by the viral outbreak, was still a prison where those held had no hope of escape. The Yellow Zone, formerly known as Brooklyn, was dominated by an oppressive military presence that weighed down on every man, woman, and child, most of which were being used as human guinea pigs by amoral scientists with no oversight. The Red Zone, formerly known as Manhattan Island, was nightmarish and completely uninhabitable; no more needed to be said.

The only thing that prevented the "Mercer Virus" from spreading to every corner of the world, was the fact that it couldn't commute across large bodies of water. So for the time being, as long as quarantine protocols were followed and no-one got in or out, it was contained.

However, these were not the only islands affected by what Mercer had done at Penn Station. And on the anniversary of when he'd last struck no less!

Roosevelt Island, home to Crynet's C.E.L.L. facility known only as The Prism, had also been completely sealed off from the outside world; in fact, it had become even more isolationist since the Second Outbreak.

In order to render the chances of the "Mercer Virus" contaminating The Prism to absolute zero, since it'd be impossible to decontaminate the island once the virus had taken root, no one was allowed onto the island. Whenever anyone attempted to force their way in seeking refuge from the other Zones, they were given a solitary verbal warning to turn back, and in the cases that the aggressors refused, they were incinerated by laser fire; as was the right of an island facility complying with quarantine protocols in the wake of an act of unmitigated bioterrorism.

The Prism itself had already been a self-sustaining facility prior to the outbreak, or rather it was capable of being self-sustaining. At least to an extent.

Once the Second Outbreak occurred and supplies stopped coming in through conventional channels, all the staff that wished to remain on the island to carry out their work had to tighten their belts a bit. In the instances where they had to bring in supplies, to capitalize on the virus' inability to commute across large bodies of water, The Prism made use of a pre-existing underwater entrance to bring in supplies via submarine. If the virus couldn't even cross bodies of water, there was actually no risk of contamination if underwater shipping lanes were used between The Prism and the outside world.

This of course was how Freelancer Agent Carolina made her way onto the island.

In order to speak to the director of Project Freelancer, she essentially had to be treated as cargo, wedged between vital supplies on an uncomfortable hours-long journey from The Prism's FOB at the western edge of the Atlantic Ocean to The Prism itself. Since the "Mercer Virus" wasn't airborne, as long as the submarine remained submerged for the entire journey, quarantine measures were actually quite minimal, hence Carolina was able to visit The Director after only a brief pass through the decontamination chamber.

After making her way topside from the underground lagoon The Prism had been using to receive much-needed supplies from the outside world, Carolina turned her gaze toward the Manhattan skyline. An ominous blood-colored haze hung above the Manhattan cityscape like a halo, sinewy tendrils clinging to the buildings and making it look like the vision of a completely alien world. Tiny flecks of black could be seen swirling around in the sky like buzzards, and if she had a sniper scope and turned it to ground level, she'd probably be gifted with a sight reminiscent of a horror movie of the biopunk subgenre.

Thinking back on things as she saw what Manhattan looked like now, the red-head realized she didn't give Virgil nearly enough credit. The hellscape that Manhattan had become… he'd spent weeks in it, right in the thick of it. Even trained soldiers would have a difficult time of it, so if anything, Virgil had a will to live that was equal -to if not surpassing that of a trained soldier.

However, even though the woman was giving credit where credit was due, she still had some choice words for The Director, and no revelations, recent or otherwise, were going to abate her fury.

Entering into The Prism's main and most-impressive structure, Carolina's status as the top Freelancer of the titularly-named project allowed her through most of the security checkpoints with minimal hassle. Making her way to the top floor, Carolina took notice of the tension in the air, so-thick one could attempt cutting it with a knife only to snag. Personnel carried about same as usual, but there was a sense of urgency in the air, as well as fear.

Given what was happening right across the river, almost everyone was carrying some form of weapon on their personage; whether it was to defend themselves in case of an attack or make their own deaths as-painless as possible, only they themselves knew. This meant that The Prism had to loosen certain restrictions regarding firearms, since if an attack did happen, to not have one would mean to forfeit your own life, or to forfeit something even more precious.

'I suppose it's only natural that everyone's so wound up,' she hummed as she walked past a couple of scientists, the grown men jumping at every shadow and noise. A perfectly understandable reaction given the horrors Mercer's dispersal of the "Mercer Virus" had sired.

Passing everyone by, eventually, Carolina arrived at her destination; the personal office of Jacob Hargreave, co-founder of Hargreave & Rasch Biomedical, founder of CryNet Systems, and creator of the Nanosuit.

The office itself was quite enormous, grand in its architecture. The floor, pillars, and walls hewn from marble, and running down the middle of the office was a long red carpet. Large trophy cases either standing or dominating the left wall spoke of a long and storied life, as well as a great deal of money spent on historical artifacts. Tribal masks from African nations, relics from every major conflict in American history, weapons and armor from every major known culture, geological samples from across the globe, and lining the back wall were portraits of legendary soldiers and brilliant scientists the world over. Dominating the right wall of the room on the first and second level were enormous bookshelves, stocked with tomes old and new from every country covering every subject imaginable. Suffice it to say, the fiscal if not historical value of everything in this room alone was astronomical, rivaling the collections of people like Bruce Wayne or Lex Luthor.

Carolina's feet passing over the red carpeting that bisected the room, she approached the head of the office, the wall in front of her displaying an atlas of the world on restored yellow paper, and situated behind a large mahogany desk was the very man she went through so many hoops to see.

Jacob Hargreave.

"Agent Carolina. So glad to see you made it to the island without any trouble," the man said looking up from his work. "To what do I owe the pleasure of this visit?"

"Time is a valuable commodity to the both of us, so I'll just get straight to the point," Carolina said gathering herself before narrowing her eyes. "Why the hell are you letting some kid run around in my suit!" she asked furiously, the air growing heavy as waves of anger rolled off of the woman, so heavy to the point that most grown men would be completely floored by the pressure she was putting out. "You said my compatibility with the Nanosuit was projected to have a rating of eighty-five percent! The highest humanly possible! And yet, instead of resetting its DNA locks and letting it be tested by your strongest military asset, i.e. me, you hand it over to some… some child!" she said furiously, all the emotions she'd bottled up after learning she'd been passed over as the Nanosuit's test pilot gushing to the surface. "The most-expensive piece of military hardware ever conceived, and what does he do with it? Fucking around in the woods, stopping bank robberies, and fighting two-bit drug dealers! We-I could be using the Nanosuit to fight military dictators, rogue metahumans, terrorist cells across the globe, and yet you utterly refuse to transfer ownership of the most-powerful military weapon ever devised to the person who is literally most-qualified to use it!" she raged. "I've kept quiet about this, but no more. I demand an explanation!"

"Agent Carolina…" Hargreave said turning away from his monitor, facing the woman fully as he effortlessly stormed the waves of anger rolling off of her. "While the dedication you've shown toward the Nanosuit's development is much-appreciated, I'm afraid I must rectify a miscommunication between us," he said leveling her with a firm stare, the woman standing straight and at attention out of habit more than anything else. "It is true that your biological compatibility rating of eighty-five percent with the Prototype Nanosuit's synthetic tissue fibers and nanomachines is the highest humanly possible, that particular tidbit of information is now out out-of-date."

"What are you talking about?" Carolina demanded.

"Tell me," Hargreave said tapping a few buttons on his keyboard before a holographic monitor appeared before her. "What do you see?"

" . . . It's the kid's dossier and biometrics," she said once she saw a common thread among all the different pages being displayed. "Neural pathway activity, testosterone levels, cell count, fingerprints, overall physical health, mental aptitude evaluations and so-on. It's all stuff I've seen before, and I don't see how it has any bearing on the discussion at hand."

"Well then, maybe this, will open your eyes," Hargreave said calling up another data file, one that caused the woman's eyes to go wide after reading it.

"Nanosuit Compatibility Rating:… Ninety-seven percent?!" the woman said, agape, as the number twelve higher than her own stared her right in the face. "This is bullshit! You told me yourself that a compatibility rating any higher than my own, was physically impossible for an ordinary human!"

"Well now, whoever said that boy was ordinary?" the old man asked knowingly.

"What- Of course he's ordinary!" she argued after a pause. "The kid might be a fast learner, but he's still your run-of-the-mill human! No military background, no genetic propensity for fighting! The fact that his compatibility rating with the Nanosuit is higher than mine is contradictory!"

"Ms. Church…" Hargreave said flatly, the woman feeling a chill run up her spine as the man coldly addressed her by her surname. "Whether that boy knows it or not, he's been a part of this war since the day he was born," he said flicking a number of files into her field of vision, a large portion of which was redacted with digital black marker. "You may not know of his lineage, but I assure you, it is far from as ordinary as you claim it to be."

"Then what is his lineage? Where does he come from?" Carolina asked with squinted eyes as she tried to piece together what wasn't redacted with digital black highlighter.

"That's on a need-to-know basis, and right now, you don't need to know," the man said coldly. "What I will tell you, is that the war to come… It's no war ordinary humans can win. The future I've seen grows closer with every passing second. Death is an inconvenience, and without the advancements that boy's flesh will bring about, we are all dead men walking," he said in a grave, ominous tone.

"War? What war? What on earth is coming?" Carolina demanded.

"Carolina…" the man said more-casually. "If you knew what I knew, you wouldn't be able to sleep soundly at night. I provide the best for those in my employ because I expect the best in turn, and if you start losing sleep over this, then everything I'd invested into you would have been for nothing," he said interlacing his fingers together. "You say the boy isn't up to your standards? Then change that. Break him down, build him up, make him meet his each and every limit and surpass them. Because whether you know it or not, the world is changing, and it might not all be for the better."

"Is this because of recent surges in Metahuman activity? Because of the growing alien presence on our planet? Is that the war to come?" Carolina asked.

"If only you knew…" the man said tiredly.

"Well, I don't know, which is why it's so hard to wrap my head around all this!" Carolina shouted before reigning herself in.

" . . . Tell you what," Hargreave said as he began typing on his computer. "If I guarantee that the first mass-produced Nanosuit based on research data gleaned from the Prototype is delivered unto your own personage upon the project's conclusion, will that allow you to drop the issue?"

" . . . I guess that's the best deal I'm ever going to be able to get out of you," Carolina huffed, fully realizing the man was not going to change Nanosuit beta testers.

"Well, it's not like you ever really needed the Nanosuit to begin with. As I recall from your mission history, you've always been quite capable on your own merit," Hargreave hummed.

"Doesn't change the fact I still lost to that cape-wearing nutcase," Carolina pouted.

"That "cape-wearing nutcase" as you call him has been training for longer than you've been alive," Hargreave replied. "You might be able to close the gap on him, but the fact of the matter is that the depth of his experience will always eclipse yours. At least unless extenuating circumstances allow you the opportunity to surpass him."

"I suppose…" Carolina sighed. "Thank you… for entertaining my inquiries."

"Well, it's not like there's a whole lot to do around here. With the virus propagating the way it is, it's not like we can just hop into town, see a show, grab a drink, or have a nice candlelit dinner."

" . . . Isn't there anything we can do to stop this?" Carolina asked gesturing to a live feed of the city. "We already lost two Freelancers to that hellhole, and I'm not really comfortable knowing we're sitting back and doing nothing."

"With the way the virus spreads, the risk of contamination is simply too great if we were to bring samples here, and if the virus were to hit the mainland, it'd be game over for everyone," Hargreave replied. "Don't worry, after the previous breach in conduct was… remedied, we've planted bugs of our own in Gentek's systems. The moment they create a countermeasure to keep the virus under control, we'll begin development of our own antiviral variant. A permanent cure instead of a temporary treatment."

" . . . How can Gentek get away with this? Making a viral bioweapon, letting it get out of control, only to take the credit when someone else stops it?"

"Pockets. Deep, deep pockets," Hargreave sighed as he rubbed the center of his forehead. "Whether he knows is or not, Virgil exfiltrating Dana Mercer into the Yellow Zone has gone a great way in bolstering the resistance movement standing against Gentek and Blackwatch. It may not be much now, but that one act will have long-lasting consequences for the groups holding the three Zones in their grip. They won't be able to hide from their crimes forever. I'll make sure of it, with every resource at mine and Rasch's disposal."

"Right. So that the Earth doesn't destroy itself before this war you're being really fucking cryptic about," Carolina sighed. " . . . I don't have anything else to say, and I'd like to get as far away from Manhattan as physically possible, so…"

"Yes, yes, you're dismissed. Make sure you don't skimp on the decontamination protocols. Viral Armageddon and all that," Hargreave said as he waved the woman out.

The red-head turning on her heel and leaving, within the minute, Hargreave was completely and utterly alone in his office. Cracking his neck, the man once again delved into a long-neglected set of files. Files he'd assumed he'd never have use for again.

"To think… that the echo of that unspoken demon of the battlefield… would reverberate this far into the future," the man hummed. "Virgil, my boy, whether you know it or not, you've managed to make my golden years very… interesting," he said ominously, the corner of his mouth twitching up slightly before his body evaporated into motes of light, and completely disappeared into the seams of the wall at his back.

*PHANTOM PAINS*

Well that at the end was fucking cryptic.