AN: I don't own shit
Chapter 5: "Monster"
Blackwatch HQ, Red Crown Command
In the helicopter field, blackwatch were firing on infected trying banging against the fence, killing any that got over.
Randall was there with Cross.
The General grabs a stumbling Blackwatch soldier, "What's the situation?", he demands of the soldier.
"Colonel Taggart has ordered a general retreat!", he replies to Randall
"I GAVE NO SUCH COMMAND! GET ME A RA...", Randall yells but is cut off by Cross grabbing his stump.
"Get onboard, sir!", Cross orders the General to board the copter.
Randall looks to him and grabs Cross, "I'm moving Blackwatch Command to the Reagan and taking her out to sea. Find Taggart! Bring him to me!", he heads to the helicopter, "I can only give you four hours! Then, It is out of my hands!", He hopon into the copter.
"Sir!", Cross salutes before it takes off.
Cross turns to the hoard at the fence and prepares his weapons for combat. Another one jumped over the fence and was killed by Cross' wrist mounted grenade launcher.
Elsewhere in Manhattan
"What can you remember of your time with Gentek, with Blackwatch. Anything you can share", Jason asked her while they were on the Regalia Building, Alex's old home.
"I'm afraid not. My mind is jumbled. Could be from being consumed or because of Mother being in control", she replied, having a hard time not looking at the ground.
Jason sighs, "So, the only way to truly know what's going on , to get answers, is Randall and McMullen", thinking for a moment, "Alright, you need to work on the cure and vaccine, and I know a place you can work without worry".
Later
Jason had left Elizabeth with Ragland and the passed out Dana. Having to explain what happened was a pain, but Ragland excepted the responsibility, hoping to atone for his own hand in all this.
Elizabeth explained that viruses and such would randomly appear in her genetics but if she had time and focused on it, che can intentionally create things. Then all she had to due was run around to spread her cure and vaccine, releasing as a gas that you don't even need to breath in to take effect, similar to Bloodtox only less gruesome for the duo and the non-mutated.
While she worked, Jason decided to explore the city for Web Targets. Lt Armand Helden talked about tank driving and driving over whatever, or whoever, got in his way. Cptn Daniel McCaskill was about Jason's consuming ability and acquire skills and memory from it, and how bad that was for Blackwatch. Dr Patricia Martin was her overhearing about a viral producer that was evolving.
Jason had also discovered something while fighting some infected and destroying some Hives, which could no longer be formed after this since Elizabeth Greene wasn't controlling them anymore. He noticed that the appearance of his powers has changed.
His Claws went from their pure spiky black with grey blades to tentacled with a reddish glow, the claws themselves looking even more like blades. (James Heller Claws Level 1)
His Hammerfists also had the red glow, with the hands looking a little pit like molten rock. (James Heller Level 1)
Musclemass looked mostly the same but with veins that glowed the same red all over them.
Whipfist was also red with a tentacle like appearance and the tip looked like a misshaped trident. (James Heller Whipfist Level 1)
His Blade also had the red glow with the blade itself was slightly rounder and had soe serrations to it. (James Heller Blade Level 1)
His shield also changed to a more molten rock appearance but it left less gaps, he could also use it on either one arm or both. (James Heller Level 1)
His armor mostly looked the same but also had the glowing effect throughout it now (A more accurate James Heller Armor, the previous was an all lack version).
His groundspikes and devastators also had the red glow to them but were otherwise the same.
Jason figured that the new red glow to his powers came from consuming Mother Greene, with her Red Light Virus.
After all of that, Jason rushed to a different Contact location in the Upper West Side, near a military base. He grabs the cellphone at the 2nd Contact location.
Jason listens to the Contact, "McMullen has gone to ground. You've come too close too many times. But you have an advantage Blackwatch doesn't know about: you're growing immunity to Bloodtox. I think the key to McMullen is this: attack the Bloodtox facility head-on, and let them think they have you. When they think they're in control, they'll bring you to McMullen."
"How do you know all this?", Jason asked, 'especially about the immunity', But the call was already ended, causing Jason to again toss the cell phone away.
'The Bloodtox Facility. I need to know more about what I'm up against', Jason thought as he head to said facility. He arrives on a rooftop west of the facility to survey the area, which was covered in more Bloodtox than the last time he was here.
'D-Codes (the super soldiers), armor, gun emplacements. Ok, destroy the filtration units and the whole thing comes down', Jason plans to destroy the 8 filters and assumes a military form to infiltrate the facility, being careful as D-Codes are also like living viral detectors.
Once he found each Filter, he quickly took his armored form with his Blade. he destroyed three filters and a blower while killing some of the super soldiers before it was starting to be to much. So he used his Whipfist to board a flying assault helicopter, killing the pilot and copilot as he hijacked it.
He dealt with the other helicopters and stayed high in the air as he bombarded the area with many missiles. He was eventually shot down by the anti-air artillery but he had destroyed all the blowers, allowing him to attack filters less impeded.
Once he dealt with the last filter, he took his true form as he is surrounded by solders. Seeing the main tanks, he ran for them. Soon after, a solder with a missile launcher shot at the tank and it explodes, covering Jason in Bloodtox.
Jason soon laid on the ground, seemingly incapacitated while a supersoldier scanned his form.
"He's neutralized.", the supersoldier states to the others, "You know the drill. i want this in a storage unit ten minutes ago. Bring in the Bird -- we're moving this to the Director, NOW!", and the others moved to follow the orders.
Later, Dr McMullen's Lab
Jason laid out on a morgue slab while McMullen worked in a overviewing room next to it. McMullen looked back to the camera feed to see Jason's body gone. He pulls out a handgun and turns to his left to see Jason standing before him.
"Hi, boss man", Jason states. McMullen aims the gun at him, even as he falls from his chair in fear. "That is a foolish thing to do", Jason comments at his floundering on the floor.
"Wha--wha..." McMullen stammers but is cut off.
"You know who I am and what I can do", bring his face close to McMullen's, "So talk!"
"Mercer was always so smart", McMullen calms down, "He was ready to give up all our secrets."
"So you targeted him and infected me in the crossfire?", Jason inquires, stalking back and forth in a display of intimidation.
"No. No.", he denied, "Are you insane?", before talking about Alex, "But he always was a lateral thinker: plans within plans."
Jason then remembers more of Penn Station. About Alex Mercer running around with a vial sample of the virus. Jason was shot down, mistaken for Mercer due to wearing the same jacket, and laid there as Alex was cornered. Seeing no other options, Mercer threw the vial on the ground just before Jason's dying form before Alex himself is shot dead.
"Alex Mercer died.", McMullen states, "He died threatening to release the most deadly virus in the history on the people of New York. you died with him in Penn Station. But the virus found its way into your bloodstream. And here you are, filling in the blanks.", McMullen smiles.
"We were trying to figure it out -- He just wanted to bring it all down", Jason doubted him due to dana and some of the memories he's seen, but McMullen continues, "But this isn't hat you came for, is it? You want to know what happened at Hope, Idaho. You want... the truth. I know... the secret."
Suddenly, McMullen brings his gun to his head and pulled the trigger before Jason could stop him.
"Dammit!", Jason says as he looks at the corpse of McMullen. ow he'll never know if he was lying or not. He should have just consumed him.
With nothing else here for him, Jason just left the building.
In the City
Jason decided to hunt for more Web Targets before anything else right now.
Theodore Anderson showed a recording of when Alex Mercer first ran with the sample and called McMullen, about where the sample came from.
Anthony Savoie Phd, showed a question if the entire purpose of Hope was to breed something new, with info on fourteen aborted attempts of the Hope children, with PARIAH being the only survivor.
Calum Kirkland talked about Alex Mercer entering the station with the intention to release the virus, along with not knowing the exact number of those infected in Penn Station.
After this, Jason headed for one of the piers closest to the USS Reagan in south SoHo. It was sort of used as a lookout point for the new Blackwatch base and the 3rd Contact Location.
Jason goes to grab the cellphone from under the payphone at the end of the pier. However...
"I thought it was time we talked", Captain Robert Cross says from behind Jason. Jason turns to him, prepared to unleash his Claws.
"You don't want to do that", Cross dissuades with his hand raised.
He uses his other hand to pull out a cellphone and presses the call button. This caused the cellphone at the payphone to ring, revealing that Cross was the Contact.
"I've done your job for you", Jason realized, "I've broken the back of the infection.
"In a few hours this place will be glass", Cross shares with him.
"Even Randall can't be crazy enough to nuke Manhattan", Jason tries to dismiss, but part of him doubted his own words.
"You're wrong", Cross states, "He was at Hope in '79. He'll do whatever it takes to stop the infection. If you help me stop him, you get your secret."
"There's no way for me to get to that ship without being blown out of the sky", Jason notes.
"I have a way", Cross informs him, "Randall wants a Colonel named Taggart. He's sent me to find him. He's our key to get you onto the Reagan", he then hands Jason a map, "Taggart's massing a large force of helicopters at these location. If we don't move now, he'll muscle his way out of Manhattan in a fleet of helicopters. And Randall might not be able to stop him himself. You take out the helicopters. I'll try and pin down Taggart's location. And don't let any of them get out of the city. Taggart could be on any one of them."
"Sounds like a plan.", Jason says, 'But why does it seem like I'm getting the short end of this deal?'
Cross leaves and Jason is alone once more, 'If Taggart has access to helicopters, he can get out anytime he wants. I can fix that', he thinks as he heads north to Greenwich.
'Taggart's air crafts', Jason notes as he arrives to some copters beginning to take off. Jason drop kicks the nearest one and it explodes. He then goes to the other one and does the same thing.
One is in the air and leaving but Jason gives chase, summons Whipfist and destroys the copter before it could leave Greenwich.
'Done here', he thinks to himself before heading for the second staging area near Madison Square Garden.
Once there, there was six copters. 'Everyone dies', Jason used his Whipfist to attack from a distance so they wouldn't be able to leave the area. He focused on the ones that were closer to taking off, but was soon done here as they were taking out by one shot from his charged whip attack.
Jason then heads to the 3rd staging area, near the piers in Midtown West.
'No aircraft, no personnel, no survivors', Jason resolves before attacking the 3rd point. The five helicopters tried to leave all at once, but Jason was faster and destroyed them before they even left the area.
'Alright, all three points cleared', Jason remarks, 'probably should have hijacked a helicopter of my own to finish faster.'
Day 16 of Infection: 60% Total Population Infected
'uh, the percentage of infected went down', Jason notes while looking at the PDA he acquired from one of the soldiers and kept, 'Green hasn't finish her work yet, so it lowered either due to Hive destruction or just a lot of infected being killed. Either way, it won't stop Randall'.
Jason had found and consumed Dr Bryant Ho. Ho's memories talked about Pariah being unique, appears male with no signs carrying of the virus, but they weren't certain what it is.
Jason soon headed to a building acting as Cross' lookout point, near the 3rd Contact location in SoHo.
He lands on the building with a small antenna tower on the roof to meet with Cross.
Cross then begins explaining, "Taggart's air power is crippled. He's going to make a run for it on the ground. The rogue Blackwatch units are massing at one of his bases and setting up roadblocks to allow him to get to the Brooklyn Bridge. He'll try and push through there", Jason begins pacing, "We need to hit him NOW, before the defenses are complete. Force him out of his hole. When he makes a run for it, you consume him. Keep up the pressure and he'll keep running. But don't let him escape. If he makes it out of Manhattan, our ticket onto the Reagan is gone."
"He doesn't have a chance", Jason promises.
They seperate, with Jason heading for Taggart's base, stationed in Little Italy.
'I need to attack the base, force Taggart out into the open for me', Jason thinks as he approaches the military base. He takes note of all of the sensors, 'There's no way I can just stealth this. Brute force it is'.
Deciding to have some fun with it, he takes on military appearance and calls in an artillery strike. It greatly damages the base and exposes him, but the base was still standing. He then takes on his Armor form and summons his Blade.
He takes out some soldiers before unleashing a Tendril Barrage Devastator but it had minimal effect on the base. Jason then rushes a nearby tank and forcefully hijacks it. The base is destroyed and taggart escapes, but inside of a Thermobaric Tank.
'I need the bastard in one piece to consume him', Jason remarks as he gives chase on foot. Gliding from rooftop to rooftop to keep Taggart in sight.
Taggart soon stops as he is covered by three other tanks to protect him
"Dig in! Like it's going to make a difference!", Jason calls out to Taggart. He had to stay somewhat close so Taggart couldn't fire the Thermobaric cannon at him.
He came done from the roof he was on with his Blade and utterly destroyed the tank farthest from Taggart. He then closed in on him while attacking the ones closest to himself on the way.
Taggart then started heading north.
"Nothing will protect you from me!", Jason yells at Taggart, "Not Men! Not Weapons! Not ARMOR!", giving chase as others soldiers and super soldiers attacked him while he evaded them, not losing Taggart.
Taggart stops at another tank roadblock of his, "Nothing can protect from me!", Jason yells and systematically destroys these four tanks as well.
Taggart then drives the T-tank away from the area towards the south for the Brooklyn Bridge.
"KEEP RUNNING YOU BASTARD!", Jason hoarsely yells as he continues the chase, ignoring everything else in his way.
Taggart once again stops at another roadblock, this one just before the turn onto the bridge.
"Not even your best men can stop me!", Jason yells has he begins dismantling the five tanks protecting Taggart.
Taggart has no other choice but to rush his tank to the bridge.
"TAGGART!!!", Jason rages, "YOU SUICIDAL MORON!!!", has he gives chase to finally consume the bastard.
He then flips onto the tank and rips open the hatch into the cockpit while others fired on the tank so it won't break quarantine.
Jason has entered the tank and begins to brutally consume Taggart. Colonel Ian Taggarts memories should that he argued with Randall, saying they should fight at a distance but Randall wanted done up close.
'And then there was one...', Jason thinks to himself as General Randall was all that was left of the top dogs, if you didn't include Cross.
Day 18 of Infection: ?? Total Population Infected
Jason had just finished some work in Times Square and was meeting Cross at the lookout they had.
When he had met up, Jason began explaining his side of the story and what he knew to Cross, withholding some things like the fact that Elizabeth Greene was still alive of course.
"We have less than an hour", Cross states after Jason had finished, his voiced was modulated by the helmet he currently wore, "What's next?"
"The last person responsible for all of this dies tonight", Jason responds with certainty.
"If we make it out of here. Do you think you're ready?", Cross asks him.
Jason looks at him, "I'm more than ready. I was born for this".
Cross takes off the helmet and calls into his radio, "Citadel Command this is Captain Cross. Mission Accomplished. I have Colonel Taggart in custody. Ready for extraction.
USS Reagan - Citadel Command, Offshore
Cross and a cuffed Taggart descend into the carrier as a lone Randall approaches them.
"Report", Randall orders.
Cross responds, "Taggart's order lead directly to the collapse of the central Blue Zone".
This caused Randall to immediately grab his handgun and shoot Taggart in the head before Cross even finished his sentence.
"Welcome Home", Randall says to Cross as he remains silent, "Operation Red Light is over.", and the dup walk away from the body
Bay One, USS Reagan
Sitting before Cross and Randal was the nuke planned for Manhattan's destruction.
"What about our men?", Cross asked the General, "The ones on the ground in Manhattan...?"
"You didn't think I was that naive, did you?", the one armed General asks before aiming his gun at Cross' head, "When you have a festering wound, you cauterize it.", he as unaware of Jason behind him, "We'll be saving millions of American lives.", he then turns to see Jason, who then swiftly lifts him up by his neck.
"I won't let you erase New York like yu erased Hope", Jason tells him.
"Let?...", Randall choked out. The timer on the nukes showed just under 6 minutes, "We're six minutes out. And only I know the code".
Jason drops im to the ground, "you were at Hope, Idaho. You took something from Elizabeth Greene. I know what Blackwatch has done. Because everyone i've killed -- consumed-- they're in me. They are me."
"That's how you...", Randall goes to say but Jason just kills and consumes him, not wanting to hear anymore of his shit.
General Peter Randall's memories talking about stopping this before. That hope, Idaho was just a sacrificial lamb, necessary cruelty. Greene giving birth to Pariah. Him ordering that the two were now military assets. His hand getting infected and him having to chop it off with a cleaver.
"You bastard", Jason states at the memories, "you could have stopped all of this... you let it happen."
Just then, Cross grabs him by the throat, surprising Jason with his strength.
"When the weapon detonates, and they think the infection is cleansed, they won't be looking for me. And when I consume you, I'll be able to withstand...even this". He then throws Jason away and begins to transform, revealing that he has been the Supreme Hunter, having consumed Cross some time ago to assume his form and memories.
"You got to be shitting me", Jason states as the platform they're one raises to the surface of the Raegan.
The Supreme Hunter then unleashes his own Tendril Barrage Devastator, killing the nearby Blackwatch soldiers, but Jason was unharmed.
Jason then transforms into his Armor and summons his Blade. he goes for an Air Slice but the S-Hunter blocked it. Using his Critical Mass, Jason unleashed a Critical Pain Devastator on it.
Jason then used a fallen Missile Launcher to fire on the creature but it unleashed another Tendril Barrage, this time hitting Jason.
Once he recovered, Jason finished use of the missile launcher and then switch to his Claws. using his Claws, Jason used a fully charged Groudspike attack, leaving the Supreme Hunter stunned.
Jason climbs onto its back and begins stabbing his claws repeatedly into the back of its neck before it eventually grabs him b his leg and throws him off.
It then did another Tendril Barrage, but Jason dodged it this time. Even as multiple tendrils chased after him.
Blackwatch have then started evacuating the Reagan due to get to a safe distance from the nuke, reminding Jason of it. Some of the more brave soldiers decided to stay and fight him and the Supreme Hunter.
"Two minutes remaining", the military warn. Soon after, Jason had to dodge some fighter jets shooting at him and the S-Hunter. He dodged, however the Supreme Hunter was to big to do the same.
Jason kept it's distance and unleashed a series of groundspikes at it since his things like his AIr Slice and Hammertoss was just being blocked while it couldn't block the Groundspikes.
It was the final countdown and Jason was doing quick sweeps with his Blade and Claws till finally cutting it to pieces, beyond it's regeneration.
"Grow that back", Jason snarked before heading to deal with the bomb.
With no time to lose, Jason changed back to normal and chained the nuke to a helicopter and began to fly it as fast as possible to as far away as he could. Once he reached an adequate spot, he drops the nuke into the water and begins flying away in an attempt to save himself.
He got maybe a few hundred feet away before the bomb went off and he was consumed in the blast.
Later
A splatter of flesh and juices had landed on a garbage barge that a crow then attempted to feast on. The bird flew back to Manhattan, before it began to screech as it broke down into a viral puddle. Soon, a human's flesh and bones began to grow from the splatter, till Jason stood in its place, as if he was never caught in the blast.
'Alec Mercer. This city suffered for his mistakes, for what he did at Penn Station. Were Blackwatch and Gentek any better for there testings? Am I for unleashing Mother? When I close my eyes I see memories of dead men, screaming as I take their lives. Moments I'll relive forever, no matter if I think it was justified. Was I becoming something less than human? Or something more?', Jason thought while staring over the water to the city off the island.
Chapter End
AN: For the appearance of his powers, I just prefer James Heller's more, using consuming Greene to justify it. They're at the first level looks for now but they'll evolve to the final level next chapter.
Elizabeth, Ragland, and Dana didn't really appear this chapter, mostly because they were gone by this point in the game. Greene was dead and the other two were just ignored for the rest of it. Next chapter will be original with them interacting more.
Also next chapter is when the aid for New york arrives, with the League and others in tow. So Jason may see his old friends again. Although, will they be happy to see him considering what happened?