I watched as the night passed, once I was done with what I could learn of AL, in this room. Pacing in the room making sure that no one was coming up the stairs or entering the building was easy as I simply remained in the AL state and moved between all such points.
Yet, I could feel something out there, in Manhattan. Tendrils trying to dig into my mind, only to be rejected. It was confusing as if something had been meant to happen but hadn't for an unforeseen event. In either case the sensation was currently not affecting my form or mind in any perceptible manner and as such it was only something to investigate later.
The more pressing matter was just how Blackwatch managed to get the entire island quarantined in a matter of hours. They were not listed on the internet which I had checked using Dana's laptop, implying they were a black ops group.
However, their actions indicated more of a rogue nature than a group following the orders of the government. Which this only furthered the impression of, as there was as far as I could tell no reason to implement such measures on Manhattan. There was no outbreak of any disease so far reported. Then again it could be related to Pen Station and the biological outbreak that had occurred therein.
In that case though, I would have expected them to make mention of the reason behind the lockdown. Yet, the only thing I could discover was that the government of New York State had placed Manhattan on immediate lockdown, at the suggestion of the CDC and the US military, but no direct mention of Pen Station. Further compounding the strangeness of the whole situation was the absolute lockdown on information regarding Alex Mercer, everything beyond my name was currently redacted on every single website I could find with only my occupation as Bio Terrorist and nationality of Germany, both of which were so obviously false that the entire internet was currently melting down over them.
Regardless of Blackwatch's debatable public relation skill, it was more interesting to see in real time what was occurring at Gentek. Over the last five hours the internet had been scrubbed of all references to the company and everything that even mentioned them was redacted or redirected. In fact, they had gone so far as to present a much different version of Gentek on the internet in place of the real company.
Reading between the lines of the old and new that I had access to, it seemed ever more likely that Blackwatch had gone rogue or had been designed for a different task. Files were mislabeled or otherwise disjointed from the timeline, history was completely absent. Everything was buried under several layers of obfuscation that Dana's records presented quite clearly.
With a sigh, I sat back in the chair and accepted the fact that the only way to get more information would be to infiltrate Gentek Headquarters and hope that the computers haven't been wiped yet. With the new computer Dana had me build it should have enough power to allow her to hack through any form of defense if she has an entry way. Perhaps even some deleted files could be recovered, in the process, yet I felt like I was missing something.
No matter, the plan was fairly simple. WIth m speed I would enter and place a tap into the Gentek building to allow Dana to access their network from here, where she would then hack them and take all of the files possible. I would then go through the files and see what shakes lose.
Turning inward to let time pass, I felt something in my body shift and change, I knew that I had changed in some unknown way. Flashes of concepts raced through my mind as I saw DNA split and reassembled, mutations controlled and directed, impossible feats achieve via evolution. More images flashed through, genes forming and changing in moments to external pressures, natural selection racing forward billions of iterations in moments. The chain of images burned itself into my mind as they faded from my thoughts yet remained in the back of my mind. Looking down at my fingers I could feel that something was different, more complete, more efficient yet whatever it was was currently unknown to me.
As I returned to full awareness I found Dana standing in front of me, "I see you are finally, fucking awake. Nothing I fucking did affected you at all. What the hell happened to you?" She cried as she fell onto the table, overcome with emotion.
Blinking as I tried to formulate a response, "I informed you of my theories last night, but I am not certain of my conclusions. However, I currently do have a plan. I plan to infiltrate Gentek headquarters and insert a device to allow you to connect to their servers. Along with that I will further investigate Manhattan and attempt to find the bodies from Pen Station. For today as money is an issue, if the computer needs any work before you can use it to start hacking Blackwatch. I am ready to assist."
Looking up with red eyes, Dana nodded jerkily, "The computer is mostly complete, it only needs a bit of setting up that I can do. I can do that while you do your thing, and brother please be safe. I don't think I could do this by myself." She managed to croak out as I began to leave the room. Closing the door behind me, I waited for a few minutes and before I left I ran my hand down the side of the door.
As I looked at the door, I found the area I had touched covered in a black slightly pulsating mass. Blacklight something whispered in my mind as I looked at the strange mass blocking the door, and I knew that only I could open this door now as the mass wasn't only on the surface but throughout the door and the walls.
Leaving the building, feeling confident in Dana's safety I slip into the AL state and return to the place where it all started. The morgue where I first awoke less than a day ago. The repair crews had yet to arrive as the damage to the floor and walls were easily seen. As I walked through the hallways I could see more evidence of my inability at that point in time, if someone had tried to attack I am not certain if I could have escaped. No matter, the morgue might be where I began but it was not the starting pointing of it all.
That was in the Gentek building located not far from where I stood and the source of that strange tingling in the back of my head. I could feel something drawing me in, similar to what felt like a gravitational pull of sorts. Yet, for all my curiosity, I am not willing to risk myself so easily and looking around at the ruin morgue once more I left. Flashing out and through the streets of the city.
My first stop was not the Gentek building but something much more pressing, Pen Station itself. The moment where everything occurred. The reason that I was what I am. Everything traced back to Pen Station in some way and perhaps there I could find answers to my questions.
As I simply passed through the seemingly frozen guards of the station, I found the interior caked in Blacklight biomass, yet it was all dead and inert. I knew that that this biomass was simply left over remnants from the event, from the same part of me that knew more than I did. As I walked forward into the Blacklight of Pen Station, I felt an itch in my mind as PAIN tore through me once more. Memories once more returned with pain, as the memories of this place returned all at once.
As I recovered from the pain of the returning memories, a new form of pain shoot through me as I realized that this was my work. I had in fact been the one behind Pen Station and by the strictest of definitions was in fact a bio terrorist. I had wanted the world to fear and curse my name as Blacklight purged earth of all life, leaving it as nothing more than a monument to my twisted pride. As I looked around, it was quite clear that there were no bodies to find, for they had all been converted into the dead matter covering the walls and that would include my body. Yet, I lived and yet I did not, for it was quite clear now. I was no longer human, my mind might be but my body is and always was Blacklight.
Flashing out of the scene of the worst crime ever committed in human history, for only by the slimmest of margins did Alexander fail in his goal. Blacklight could have very easily wiped the world clean of life, my memories of creating and perfecting the weapon were explicit in just how deadly it was. The single broken vial could have and should have sparked an never ending expansion of Blacklight that would have turned all biological material on earth into itself.
Nothing would have stopped it after the first hour, that much was clear. Once Blacklight started to spread and infect people it would have simply chained forever, one person would infect thousands, thousands millions and millions billions. The only chance that Alexander would have failed would have required the entire eastern seaboard purged with the usage of nukes. The Atlantic Ocean would have required underwater nukes detonated within the first week to ensure no contamination. Only by my existence was the world spared the fate that had been carefully engineered for it.
Now, I turned to stare at the Gentek building, it was time to deal with that problem. Moving at full speed it only took a few moments to reach the building. Only something was very wrong here, there was a weight to the air. The world felt heavy as if something that had been sleeping had began to awaken. The tendrils in the back of my mind suddenly tried to dive into my thoughts, only for them to be crushed and discarded at a thought from me.
The sound of breaking glass and steel pulls my eyes up as a humanoid figure falls to the ground, shattering the pavement beneath her weight. Before the creature could react I slammed a fist into her stomach, throwing her back against the building, shattering steel and glass once more.
WIth a growl, it threw itself towards me and I reacted, it was simply far too slow. Faster than it should be by far, but not enough to match my speed, I grabbed its wrist only for it to rip its hand off to escape. I landed another punch for it to only do the same amount of damage, which was negligible. My inertial damping field was working against me here, time reasserted itself as did space as I dropped from AL to match the creature on its terms.
The soldiers surrounding the building were firing weapons with wild abandon, bullets simply pining off of both of our skins."Child, join us. Bring order." The thing spoke with a multitude of voices, digging into my mind as it did so, attempting to force me to obey.
"Never, I am Alex J. Mercer, brother of Dana Mercer. I will NEVER join with you. I will see you broken and destroyed before the world ends. Creature of the past, and of ruin I am of the future and Evolution waits for no one. I am the one to inherit the title of Apex, you will be broken before me. I am Blacklight and I reject your broken cause Red Light now and for ever. Pariah your last hope shall fall before me, just as you shall." A voice not mine thundered from within, as something spoke for me, in a flash I knew that it was the hidden subconsciousness of Blacklight itself that added the last words. I knew in my core that I would NEVER join with this creature, no matter what happened. The course was set and chosen.
As we stared at each for a moment, the creature snarled and lunged forward once more. Slamming into me with equal strength, and battle begun between us. Fists flew through the air breaking the sound barrier as we fought, cars shattered as we used them as projectiles. Evenly matched almost to perfection. Yet, neither of us could win and we both knew it and she was the one to break away first. Slipping away as I dealt with protecting another family from our fight. Yet, it was over and the creature free to enact its plan.
Flashing into the server rooms I took the fractions of a second to insert the computer connection device for Dana, before leaving to return. "So, when were you going to tell me that you are apparently the fucking hulk now?" Dana growled as I entered the room to see a video of the fight on the screen she was looking at. Wincing at her glare, I huddled in on myself, "Not sure what that is, and didn't know what I could do." With a sigh she just shook her head as she turned back to the screen.
"Well good news, everyone is officially completely confused about you. Its a conspiracy theory goldmine right now. Although, it seems the most common are that you are aliens fighting over who gets to conquer Earth." Wincing a bit more at that as it was unfortunately close to what the whole fight actually was, "Bad news on the other hand, is that literally everyone in the world knows that the US has a possible super soldier and an insane one."
Ugh, why did this day have to be so bad and now she is glaring at me again.
What to do now. Around 12pm at the moment. Choose up to 2 actions.
[] try to hunt down the creature
[] attempt to make contact with the DoD
[] attempt to make contact with Blackwatch
[] as cover is broken just commandeer a lab to do some much needed research
[] write in
AN: Red Light decided to not sit around as Alex wasn't playing his part. So it has dropped you and has gone its own way, Canon is officially dead
