Few Months Later:
Alex Mercer found himself staring at a poster of himself at a grocery shop. He was not himself but wearing one of the many faces he uses to stealth himself into the populace. The prototype was confounded to what this meant.
It has been silent for sometime and in a way has been creepy to hear nothing coming for them. Lucy and Alex have been ever so vigilant... But it seemed like Craven and his secretary where the only ones who followed them.
They did not want to believe it and a paranoid sense in both kept them believing otherwise... But...
He guessed that maybe those two were part of a secret agency and had been on a secret operation to capture them both... So perhaps now whatever branch of government or Gentek or Blackwatch group had to hunt them the same way they do criminals to hide the fact something like him existed...
He sighed as he looked at the poster and saw that supposedly he was a convicted felon who had escaped his death sentence. Considered arm and dangerous and blah blah blah-
Mercer shook his fake hair as he was 'dressed' in a business man attire with glasses and brownish hair to then walk off to the path he always took nowadays. He found it a bit restrictive as this life was nothing like he had before he ever met Lucy... But... It wasn't something he so needed anymore.
He ran, jumped, and glided across the globe because he was lost. He had no purpose. So doing anything really filled his quota of the days he was to spend as a eternal being. It was not only boring, the thought that he had to roam the earth for millennia was absolutely horrifying to him. That's why he was like that not so long ago.
But now... Working for some shitty boss on some human office was not even tiring really. It was worth it because he had Lucy by his side.
He smiled big, knowing he had changed.
'Maybe... This was what father meant. When a man settles down not for him... But for his family.' Alex reasoned in his head as he felt a little dumb to be so chummy and dumb with the idea he had someone that loved him back in a close relationship.
The prototype stopped by a crosswalk and looked down to see something he didn't take the time of his day to notice. A lot of families were around him. He walked beside them and took in the positive environment he had given up for himself for ages.
It was nostalgic to see children holding their parents' hands, playing around them, and being whole. He felt a little lonely himself as literally there was no one who was walking alone. Just him. He rubbed his arm and kept walking to already go to where Lucy was surely awaiting for him.
Then he thought why did he always seem so impatient-? Never has he been like that...
'Except well... When I first became a mess of flesh and always wanted to be near Dana. She was one of the few people that stayed by me.' He recalled how he missed his sister even now... But he felt a lot better knowing someone was by his side and would be for a long time.
He smiled a little awkwardly but avoided any gazes as he felt so alive in a sense of relaxation and freedom he had never taken in. This is something he will never take for granted. Time seemed to have changed for his benefit.
The world was alright again for Alex, as nothing seemed to know who he was and he could walk down with a safety that nothing would blow up under his feet.
He passed by the crowd and headed home at a slow human pace, failing to realize that just maybe he should have paid more attention.
On a food stand, a hotdog seller tapped his ear as he had served a customer and whispered a code
"Red-Six. Virus spotted. Over" he said as he got covered by more people and shadowed himself in the work while keeping a close ear on the orders.
"Roger. Red-Glacier Spec Ops. Unit Six spotted Project Zeus by Street [Redacted] and [Redacted]. Progress to step 2 and close in. Follow with caution and avoid detection. Overseer of mission: Dr. Sabrina Galloway. Orders are to recover the corpses. Over and out."
Many voices answered with a 'roger' as behind the man selling hotdogs two invisible but fragmenting objects moved to reveal for a brief millisecond that they were camouflaged soldiers, distorting sunlight and vanished to follow after the prototype.
This was not the only bad news, as more figures began to move on the same direction of the other two, casual bumping into the people that fell or felt hit by something they could not see. They were left in confusion as the overlapping sunlight revealed that close to a hundred figures headed to that direction.
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Up to their apartment, Alex now stood at the door and he sighed to take in the smell. Yep... Lucy did learn a few things while being in human contact. She was a fast learner.
She had learned how to work manual labors (Flower shop, store), how to cook (Restaurants), and how to balance even money (Accountant) with his help as he forged fake papers that proved she had that experience. Of course the hard part was teaching those skills to Lucy but her amazing skill to take in and perform those tasks made it a lot easier than Alex ever believed was possible.
He knocked on the door and shouted the phrase password today
"Honey, mail is here!" He yelled
"Any coupons-?" Lucy loudly called as she opened the door to receive Alex who entered and saw Lucy with her hair in a ponytail wearing a cooking apron. She had jean shorts and a red shirt under the apron as she was cooking like never before. Alex made a weird grin as Lucy looked like a young and stylish new housewife. He entered and closed the door to detransform as Lucy leaned to him for a quick peck kiss that he savored as long as it lasted.
"How was work Alex?" She asked as he had returned to normal without his hood. It was strange yet a change he can get accustomed to easily.
"Short waging. But alright. Saw nor heard nothing. How about you, Lucy?" He asked as she smiled in a wholesome way.
"Well now working as a librarian and helping children to read has become... Nice." She said while remembering how being a helping hand there was not only something she never planned to do but also the last thing she ever thought that would be pleasing for her in any manner. Being around kids and their naive innocent souls in a way purified her. She could correct and story tell them all day... It didn't feel like a job at all. Alex sat on the circular wooden table in the kitchen as she went to check the oven she had running. She made something.
She especially loved the kindergarten kids. At first she hated it as they sense something off with her that caused them to become shy and quiet or they would cry, so she awkwardly backed away from them and observed their mannerisms. It was nice to see how kids interacted with each other and Lucy learned of a world she never got the chance to be a part of but the more they came, the more was she motivated to get along with them.
"How are the little ones you constantly avoid? Any shocking or new twist aside from them probably knowing you might have hacked humans a bit too much-?"
Alex got hit with a cookie dead center on the head as a tendril arose from his forehead and caught it to then throw it to his mouth. With formed taste buds, he hummed in delish "Uummm! I see someone wants to share a happy thought!" He exclaimed and Lucy took a seat on the circular table where they ate and talked regularly.
"Eto... Well... Yes." She fiddled her fingers and looked away from his eyes to collect her thoughts. She breathe in and whispered it out to say what she wanted to say with detail "The kids talked to me! Well those who could anyway. But no one was afraid. You see... I decided to approach them today. They were doing an arts and crafts today. So no reading... And I saw that many of the children entered so enthusiastic to build a flower just like the example drawn on a wipe board stand. Poor kids were handed books and literally the teacher left. I bet she did that to stump them. They however really wanted to do it even when I saw that the steps were too complicated! I got a little mad at that because well... When I was a little girl I also wanted to do corny stuff like that... It looked cool... And my anger accidentally caused a pen to bend on a cup near my desk..." Lucy said as Alex was alert to that
"Lucy...!"
"No one saw me, Alex." She said with clarification and also noted that the library she worked in had next to no cameras and instead hired workers to patrol the book stands and classes that entered.
"Okay. I trust you. Then the kids...?" Alex said as he gave her back the attention
"And I stepped in... You know all instructor like asking what they were doing and the kids gladly told me that they wanted to make a flower. I offered my help and many of them got around me... Which startled me a bit. However I slowly enjoyed the company and the children grew fond of me as they watched every step of the flower craft done with a fee modifications of mine- then I got it! It wasn't a perfect carbon copy for sure but the kids thanked me, some shaking my hands or inviting me to make more with them. Joyful and talkative to me as an instructor that made me disconnect from what I am and what they were. A diclonius and humans working together on a silly school project... Hehe... I had... Fun" she said as she pointed to the kitchen cabinet near the sink to show Alex the finished project. A bouquet of crafted paper mache flowers.
"Uuuawwwwh" Alex clasped his hands together and cooed her actions as Lucy smiled sweetly. He was dramatic but it worked to keep her moving on the story.
"They gave me that and wished me a good day. It was normal to them but to me it was so confusing I was left thinking for some time. Never did I expect me to be treated by humans who did not know me like that. I felt grateful. Hiding my horns or wearing stuff to hide who I was never relieved me like that. But working as a teacher thanks to your hacking and covering up skills to allow me to help people... Has. Thanks a lot Alex. For convincing me to try this 'useless' thing I feared to attempt." She said with a serene stare to her hands then to him as Alex had a crooked grin
"See? See? Didn't I tell you that interaction was better than the isolation you planned for the rest of our lives-? I know it won't always be like what you enjoyed today and we will meet the nasty sort in due time as always... But... Being connected to the social world gives a certain kind of enjoyment that not even my viral genes can. Which is existence. The trace of humanity in us that can be shared and we can appreciate as we know solitude." Alex said as Lucy took in those words with a fresh understanding. It also made her happy that he said 'us' and 'we'. She unfurled a vector and pat him in the head.
Lucy gleamed as she took a cookie and bit in with a deep look to something obviously taking the space withing her thoughts. It was so strange to want to be with humans and even more so to actually forget the rage. It was a hard process for the diclonius to ponder and wondered deeply who taught Alex this..? It was hard... But he kept trying and held back to kill those that bothered or in turn tried to kill him. It was amazing the patience and control he had. She hoped one day she herself could do the same. It was tiring to be a mass weapon of genocide and hold such a deep hate she has validated as righteous for so long. Could she do it-? That question zoomed by many times in watching Alex's perfect self-restrain.
It would be so easy to lose control. On a confrontation with annoying humans, an accident, and even simple hate that sometimes emerged from within that made her lose control. This would be a life time struggle.
Even now in trying her best to not even hate anyone she has met so far, she saw that it would be one hard journey.
Lucy then noticed Alex staring at her as she cleared her throat to not make him worry. Before she could say anything along the lines that she was fine or it was something else, Alex caught her in the lie
"Lucy, are you again doubting yourself-?" He asked as she was tongue tied for a second
"No I-!?" She quickly tried to answer until he grasped her left hand over hers across the table.
"Lucy please." He hummed and the diclonius could only look surprised as she knew he was too smart to fool.
Alex rubbed the bridge of his nose and sighed "I know this is hard. Especially since I am basically asking you to put all that hate away and forget about it. How can you? After all they have done to you I clearly understand. However do to that understanding I hope that you believe in me for you to not follow the same steps as me. That road leads to nothing, much like Revenge and greed." He said as Lucy softened her look and deep down knew the answer. Time. Only through time could he learn this. Who else-? Alex is alone in this world. But not anymore.
"I will keep trying. We will keep trying and get what we want. A peaceful living. I will keep trying until I get it right to be with you." Lucy said as she held his hand with both hands and Alex scratched his head with his free hand
"Uhum!" He nodded with a blush as she cursed his stupid body for making such a human thing. He could tell she saw it as she grinned cutely at that. The prototype felt blessed but shamed in knowing that Lucy could see right through him.
Yet, he could not have asked better. If anyone could read him, he wanted her to be the one. After all that would help him accomplish the little dream to stay with each other-
Before Alex ever realized, Lucy was kindly looking at the short hair and the gentle face Alex had with love, appreciating that she had a role model that can help her do what she failed to do with Kouta-san. In a way, he was a will that even Kouta would approve and beg her to follow. She had a beautiful stare at what she loved until she saw something she never wished to see upon him. It was surreal seeing a morbid thing yet Lucy could believe it more than the peace they have had the luck to enjoy together. A red lazer pointer was scaling down his scalp and down to his right eye. Ever so slowly it shifted to then stay in one place as Alex blinked at the red light he saw in his right eye. Holding his hand still, she tugged him to the right of her and got him out of the way to hear that a bullet had broken through a window and shattered a part of the floor near the entrance of the kitchen. Alex prepared himself immediately to catch her as she jumped to avoid more gunshots and got both off the building by carrying Lucy in his arms and out a window they went.
Things got serious as under the building on levels 1 and 2 shook or clattered to pieces as something inside blew up. Charges had been placed all around and the two observed the devastation the explosions caused then the fall of the buildings that made a colossal disaster upon the once peaceful and silent neighborhood.
"What the hell-!!?" Alex barely said as he glided in the air and Lucy choose to be in his back
"They found us" Lucy said as she straddled herself to his back and some tendrils arose to grab on to her legs and back as she summoned six vectors. She looked around to see that infantry of Blackwatch were running amok down there and killing any person who saw the explosion. Grenade and Rocket launchers fired upon the civilians as smoke screens filled everything below. Then Alex swerver hard to dodge sniper fire from many points.
Lucy did not even breath to form the six vectors around the two of them and flew away while covering themselves from the fire of what seemed to be highly expert snipers. Alex went full armored the moment they landed in a crash as Lucy dismounted him and formed ten vectors all around to form a short perimeter for the two of them
"I'm armored. You can stop protecting Lucy." He said with confidence as two bullets bounced off him. However he noticed something awfully wrong with the residue of the shots that flung off his armor.
"These are not bullets-!" Lucy warned, which the prototype took a look to see his armored skin was fuming. No. It was melting!
"What in the hell is this-?" Alex said as he shed off that affected piece of viral armor to see a white with red strains substance was actually eating the armor, decomposing it to be mere residue of bulletproof and explosion proof skin.
"Fire!"
The two of them acted quickly as Alex formed his whipfist and saw rockets come their way. He cut each one with the overextended limb and roared to see that the explosions covered their vision and burned his whipfist with a dangerous chemical
"White phosphorus-!? Are they crazy-!?" Alex shouted as he saw that the fire did not end and began to spread. Those rockets were made with that dangerous chemical that would spread fire everywhere!
Lucy growled and made the vectors slam to the ground to pick up giant slabs of concrete and cover the two of them from the falling fire of the rockets. She fully covered the top of them with that fire as then she broke it apart by making the center of the colliding boulders to explode with a high detonation capacity to propagate destruction.
The debris became unstoppable meteors that destroyed nearby buildings to collapse as some carried the chemically enhanced fire to spread even more so, now becoming a danger for both them and the forces they were fighting.
"HRRRGAAAAAAAAAAHHH-!!!" Lucy screamed as she had it with these assholes that keep coming. She wished, prayed, and even dreamed this day might never come. But like always, it just couldn't happen.
Armored Alex covered Lucy's back as heavy fire shots almost struck her but Alex ran across meters to tackle the humvee that had a machine gun at the top. He grabbed the gun to break it then used his claws to dash through and cleave the four personnel inside as he dodged a tank shell that exploded the rest of the humvee. Alex soared high but soon saw two red dots going up and down that aimed for his head and the other his heart. Alex dodged with a swirl as the momentum he did on the jump still carried him over to the top to realize the buildings where in good close proximity.
He kept spinning and changed his claws to the whipfist that slowly grew to then extend over for a wide range that destroyed the tops of the buildings that were side to side, making the snipers fall as Alex went to swing by one and slammed into that sniper to tackle and absorb him in midair.
They began to shoot him but Lucy was throwing cars and boulders at them as well as now trying to tap into that power she had used on their last battle. But she did not fill it come as she caught a tank shell with a vector and slammed it towards some soldiers hidden inside a store.
Lucy then vector jumped by using two to avoid gunfire from a heavy artillery gun on top of a tank that barged in through a corner of the still standing buildings. She blocked other types of gunfire and dealt with those firing at her by shooting her vectors to decapitate with enough force to break into the concrete floor. It was havoc as war had settled in so fast it was unbelievable.
The Diclonius then felt Alex's hands over hers ears, massaging her briefly with soft hands. She guessed Alex might have unarmored his palms before touching her then felt the liquid substance take form over her ears.
"Here they come!" Alex warned as suddenly an array of bombings came their way. Lucy nodded as sound was slightly numbed to her and she felt like being underwater in hearing the abstract echoes of the carpet bombings by jets up top. Alex immediately made his shield and covered himself and Lucy as she did the same like before with using slabs of massive concrete chunks to be over them and some vectors coiled around the two.
It was super loud and anything alive in a 20 meter radius near the two was either dead or burning. Nothing aside the explosions could be heard as Alex was clearly roaring in rage as the concrete blew apart and he took the full brunt of the explosions that kept coming over and over. Lucy helped in protecting the both of them yet she too had trouble as the yield explosions were tremendous and not normal by any means.
She screamed to but her voice was null too. It was scary as finally everything stopped shaking and the explosions' echo stopped to the thud and falling sound of objects. Alex and Lucy stood back to back and looked all over to see that most building still standing were far away from them.
It was nightmarish to see nothing but dust and flames. This place looked like hell.
Soon enough the tracks of tanks could be heard coming to them and the whirring of helicopter blades edged closer.
Lucy and Alex both realized they were surrounded by Blackwatch. They kept their eyes wide open to see soldiers coming in too by foot and other armored vehicles. Soon enough battalions on each side of them in a perfect circle of doom.
Soon red dots and other sights of different colors joined the fray to aim at the two monsters they surely wanted to possess. The Prototype and Diclonius made the fiercest faces to glare and watch over the opposing force that seemed to be very well funded to go through with this destruction in a matter of seconds. Then Lucy felt a weaponry she hoped never to feel upon her or Alex.
A strong and knockback sound pushed both of them off their feet as Alex grabbed her waist and she veered off two rockets aimed to hit them with a twin reverse vector slap as they spun counterclockwise but soon Alex made his whipfist to aim to the ground and encrust his blade to anchor pull them to it again which worked as soon enough alarms and drills sounded off in the distance.
"Cover up." Alex said as Lucy nodded
"Of course we would cover this. It is imperative that no word of project Zeus and Athena get out to the naive public. We need you to be under our wraps. Silent. Secured. And under our command."
A voice said over a megaphone. The person stood up an armored vehicle from a coming near to the battlefield to show a black uniform quite revolutionary with the Blackwatch insignia. Now Alex observed that the soldiers themselves had been under the shade of the darkness and smokescreens plus his disinterest in them did not let him focus on the fact they were wearing something quite knew. They wore a black with navy blue uniforms, armored with a spike like shoulder guard on their right and a round one for their left as a radio was strapped to the left top shoulder near the neck. The three eyes of their masks that no longer used the big visible filters and instead had none to show. The lights they had on their persons glowed blue and even the visor eyes did the same.
All of the soldiers present here had that attire. Alex still in his armored form felt... Defenseless. He stepped forward on the shattered ground they were in and Lucy did the same to stay with him.
The man leading this group showed himself and Alex saw who he was for he had no mask.
A small yet strong build asian man had no gas mask at all to show his olive colored face, black hair, and black like eyes that somehow made Alex's skin itchy to even see. The man had a glock 19 strapped to his left thigh and wore the same new Blackwatch uniform.
He cleared his throat and lifted the megaphone he wielded in his right hand to his face again "Hello. I am here in the absence of the great Colonel Braham. I am Sergeant Havoc. That is my codename as such you and the lady have. The reason we are here is simple: We want to take you Project Zeus back for our experiments and continue the weaponizing of the virus as well as learn of the new evolutionary step from Project Athena, a marvel that we can do together." He said and he might as well spat at Lucy as she literally send a boulder his way as she screamed at him
"YOU WILL NEVER TAKE US BASTARD-!!!" She yelled with a savage maw of hatred as Havoc just stayed there even if his men left the armored vehicle but he did not even flinch as he stood over the hoodless automobile and put both his feet on the small ledge over the armored windshield. He casually cracked his knuckles even with the black metal guard gloves he wore and many could hear the nasty crack.
Alex widened his eyes to see the soldier break through the rock with a abominable force that shattered it into pebbles, a rock the size of a small bus, blew into nothing as Alex got in front of Lucy and made his shield in quick succession to stab the ground and hold his ground.
Lucy did not see why he did that until she heard the crash and screech of flesh and metal on Alex's shield. Then she saw blood emerge and pieces of viral flesh flew off as Alex peeled his teeth in pain and anger.
"ALEX-!!!" She yelled and pulled him away to safety in two of her vectors and she shot eight straight to whatever pierced through Alex's shield. She was in disbelief to see that man Havoc had his entire red arm transformed into a whipfist and worse off had broken off to make three limbs from the same arm. What was weird was that it wasn't super strong as she tore right through them and punched with eight vectors at Havoc.
"GHHRAAAAAAAAAAHHHH-!!!" Lucy screamed with loathing presence and made her horns evolve to look like menacing devil horns with red roots near the base of each bone protrusion. Her eyes made the vectors change into the explosive and seeable versions mid air as Havoc opened his eyes with shock. The vectors hit and the collision unleashed hell.
The massive mushroom cloud explosion that rocked the air broke peace and knocked away everything near the initial explosion to cover the sky in a red and grey burst of color. Lucy was about to be hit by a car yet she maintained her eyes on Havoc who seemed to explode into pieces then disappear with a incoming wall of flames and destroyed debris.
Alex pulled Lucy into his embrace before the explosion and covered her with armored viral flesh he did on the fly and jumped back with all the force he had to bury himself with her into the ground.
Light disappeared and Lucy was protected by Alex who left her in a encased flesh guard as he took off up in the outside even as the explosion aftermath kept going in the blaring fire atmosphere. Now that city truly looked like an atomic bomb defaced everything. The phosphorus fueled fire now seemed to engulf everything into a sea of fire thanks to the circling torrent Lucy had caused.
Nothing was left in sight to stand or support the blistering heat where Alex looked. Until he looked to his right.
He did not expect to see he wasn't the only one who could survive the harsh burning air and the unbearable flames that polluted the ground with ashes and hellish light.
Sergeant Havoc was there, standing with fire all over him and burns everywhere through his skeleton like body with parts of flesh barely hanging on. His armor was a little tarnished and burnt but otherwise held sturdy even with flames on it. He flapped his arms and released a good air pressure that shook him off clean. His flesh kept mending even when he spoke.
"Project Zeus. You're blood proves to be the best thing I have fought for. And now..." He said as he showed his skeletal hand and revealed how veins formed over it and sealed tight like plastic driven over his hand and tightened up to show his healed body part near to what it was before. He passed the same hand over his body and everything was fixed even his face the moment he made a circle over his body with his arm. It looked like a magician's trick.
"It will be worth it to fight again... This time to have you and your little girlfriend in beakers for us to uncover the mysteries that lie in you, failures." Havoc said as he then used biomass and Alex gulped to see that aside from the tough black like coating his arms obtained and tore through the remaining bits of his sleeves up to the shoulders, spikes protruded and were oozing that white stuff that acted like acid upon him.
Alex charged and cleaved his now blade arm through him as he successfully impaled Havoc but the man laughed even when the prototype had him gutted through like a fish.
"Yahahahaha-! You know that it is hard to kill you and I absolutely respect that from you. Then why would you think less of me when I hold you to such a high regard-!?" He said as Alex dodged by twirling away from this prototype then he planned to double hit him with with a double palm strike until vectors soared out the ground to knock him away with explosive results.
Havoc was knockbacked but he easily spun to counter the momentum of the punch and saw Lucy emanated from the ground like a god as the vectors broke through and levitated everything around her. The vectors hurled and made way for her to levitate over Havoc who had his eyes on her.
"Biomass clothes-no. Its armor. It looks like a track suit but I know better. Nice touch with the bone boots." Havoc sarcastically congratulated Alex as he observed Lucy had been refitted for this war.
Lucy was wearing a black colored tracksuit that seemed to had metallic plates all over it yet it wasn't bulky or anything. It had short sleeves and leggings as her arms and legs were exposed but Havoc could sense those vector things were the second fit of armor that would be tougher to break. Her long hair spread like crazy and made her godkin. She looked like the flame goddess, Amaterasu. Her boots however were white with a bone texture except for the soles that were black and inner parts of the boots.
Alex was no stylist but he did one hell of a job. Now the two look so tactical and cool.
"Too bad... That is the last thing she will ever wear. And the last thing you will ever do for her, Zeus." Havoc said as his eyes shined yellow with red veins temporarily coming across them as if something was alive inside him. Something abominable, titanic, and voraciously hungry.