Threat

He sat on the platform edge, smiling to himself as he let time do the work. All it would take was at least a couple of days, if not a week, and half of the city would be rotting with the REDLIGHT Virus. As told by many, he was the perfect incarnation of BLACKLIGHT but that doesn't mean he couldn't enter GENTEK and steal that waiting vial of REDLIGHT, either.

No, steal was the wrong word. Take back. It originated from his mother; it carried sentimental value.

And since the virus had banished four months ago and ZEUS didn't fulfil his wish, he was going to have to start all over again by himself. Besides, what's the point of being a virus if you can't infect anything?

But deep down, he knew ZEUS was fighting his way out of Alex Mercer's body. He could hear him, in the far corners of the Hivemind that were fragmented beyond recognition. Fighting for resistance and possession but Alex was intellectual and finally knew how to control the parasite inside. With all that biomass he consumed, he was almost indestructible.

Almost.

It was a normal day for Oscar Three-One, who was assigned to an aerial patrol that led through Times Square into Gramercy which meant shooting anything undead that...wasn't dead and ensuring the safety of his comrades and innocent civilians. You'd think as a BLACKWATCH soldier he had seen everything, since the second Outbreak took his left arm and replaced it with a better prosthetic that could do more than function as an arm. But when he witnessed an aerial friendly get taken down by an ash blonde cyborg who literally leapt out of the GENTEK building and two other figures soar past him, he knew this was no normal day. "Red Crown, this is Oscar Three-Niner. I've got a clean visual on SIRYN...wait...is that...Alex fucking Mercer?! Holy shit! Red Crown, target has teamed up with Mercer and Raiden!"

"Oscar Three-One, this is Red Crown. Your mission has been changed: the elimination of ZEUS and SNAKE has been authorised, but the capture of SIRYN is first priority, over."

"Hell yeah...gonna bag me a Conduit! I'm in pursuit...over." With the partnership with a PMC named Desperado Enforcement, and the amazing tech that came with it, Oscar Three-One was excited and determined to complete his mission with his new Hammerhead. It required him to do the normalcy of a pilot in calm, regulated situations, but had an attack mode for a situation like this. Targeting systems: active. Weapon systems: online and ready. Already the gunship was letting bullets fly, rounds embedding themselves in the concrete behind the Conduit, who looked over her shoulder for a moment before...disappearing? Three-One's jaw couldn't close as he watched her vanish into thin air. ZEUS suddenly stopped running and left his line of sight, but the Hammerhead was one step ahead and switched its target to SNAKE who blurred down the street. The threat of unpredictably being knocked over by a car, or a tank, was very unlikely as he was swift on his feet and maneuvered through traffic with ease; more like traffic fled for their lives and hurriedly drove away from the commotion.

A barrage of rockets were let loose on its moving target and Three-One let out a premature yell of triumph when blasts of lightning deceived the projectiles, the explosions temporarily blinding him. But a moment was all she needed.

Even though One-Three switched his view to infrared, a black sword was stabbed through the windshield and yanked out just as fast, a squeal he didn't know existed finding its way up his throat as his immediate instinct was to leap out of his chair. From the curves on the shuddering display, he knew exactly who it was. "Now now, don't be shy," she cooed, driving the blade in once more at a different spot of the glass. He wasn't sure how she knew, it was one-way, but now her auburn eyes were on him and his visor was on her. The Conduit tilted her head and vanished again, a cloud of fiery ash surrounding her once she popped into the cockpit of the gunship. "Raiden was right," she smirked. "It was manned. Now, to deal with you...okay, not fully cybernetic but idiot enough to wear BLACKWATCH on your skin."

They stumbled in their place as the Hammerhead took a violent turn, the Conduit more balanced than One-Three. "My mission is to―"

"Si si, I know what your mission is. Alex has really good hearing, if I may add. And Raiden's had his fair share of Hammerheads. You do know that your mission will simply end in failure, considering there's only one person to take care of."

"Not if I take you in first." Three-One grew balls of steel and whipped out his combat knife, although his confidence dropped when he realised he was up against a dual-wielder of longer blades, lifting his free hand for defence. She hummed in disappointment and sheathed her own sword, her eyes stuck on his visor as she watched him step forward cautiously.

The Conduit glanced off her shoulder and that's when he made his move and lunged for her, but she was fast and caught his wielding arm with her opposite and elbowed him in the chest. A charge of electricity rocketed through him and his jaw locked tight as his nerves went haywire, his prosthetic arm that held the knife twitching uncontrollably and she met his chest before performing a fast one-arm shoulder throw. His world flipped and his back smacked onto the floor of the cockpit, the girl several steps after him as the blade was now in her possession and ran it through his still jittering arm. Of course he didn't feel it when it went through but the phantom pain reduced him to screams that pierced through his helmet.

A second later and his reality became numb, dark, empty...

Val straightened herself up and smiled to herself, "Huh, I still got it." She jogged towards the front of the cockpit and teleported mid-jump when she reached the pilot seat, landing next to Alex who kept his eyes on her while Raiden took on the Hammerhead alone. "Quoi?" she asked defensively. "Can I help you?"

"I didn't know you did judo."

She dropped her guard, "Oh. Well, I also have a red belt in taekwondo and hapkido."

"Huh. Nice to know that pocket size is a combatant."

"Pocket size, that's funny considering Raiden's taller than you."

"But I'm taller than you, which makes you pocket sized."

"Wow. Didn't know there were rules for heights. Sorry, I'm French and you're a dickhead."

Alex chuckled, "Definitely a nice change of pace."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"I hear another chopper. Wanna go get it?"

"It's better than standing next to you. Ç'est où?"

"It's several blocks behind us. And after you. You're popular today, it'd be a shame to keep your fans waiting." Val widened her eyes and spun on her toes, baring her teeth when she realised that Alex wasn't lying and that there was a chopper flying straight towards them. She shot him a dirty look before taking off in the opposite direction, crimson electricity dancing at her legs to provide her that extra boost. She ducked at the sound of bullets whizzing past her ears and didn't dare look behind her, but saw that she was reaching a three-way junction, an idea coming to mind.

Val let out a quick exhale and kept her pace, the building getting closer and closer and the chopper easily closing the gap until she leapt against the brick wall. Grunting at the drastic change of gravity, red static rippled with every step as she sprinted up the side of the building. Alex, who was watching her from a distance, stretched his lips to an impressed smirk but had to divert his eyes to marvel at Raiden's skill with his blade with the Hammerhead hacked to chunky, wiry pieces that exploded moments after. Val made sure she was above the rotary blades before she moved into a crouch and fired off, performing an open backflip over the entire aircraft. Raiden, who quickly recovered from his skirmish, stepped forward as he tracked her, and parted his lips in wonderment when one of her blades flew into her open hand and landed on the adjacent building, the chopper ascending to match her altitude.

"SIRYN," the pilot called out, spinning the chopper around to stare at the girl staring intensely back at him. "It would be wise to stand down and hand yourself in quietly. Failure to do so will end in your demise."

She sighed and moved onto one knee with her vacant hand flat on the ground, her eyes closed to find her centre; what the pilot didn't know was she was charging electricity underneath her palm and soles, it was humming and surging and ready to explode. It felt natural, after months of being trapped in her own body and now her power was cackling. Singing to her. It was a violent melody, one that ended with that chopper out of the air. Her eyes shot open.

Val launched into the air with an audible crack of lightning scorching the ground where she once was and gripped her sword with both hands, letting out a struggled cry as she drove it through the nose and sliced through the pilot in the process. If it was her or the pilot she wasn't sure because just as she was about to find purchase against a neighbouring building, the explosion slammed her into the building instead and air was knocked out of her lungs. Too much charge. Too much pressure. Too much.

The former child soldier inhaled sharply as and hearing metal grind on metal, he burst into his adapted sprint and leapt over the cars in his way with fleeing pedestrians gawking at the sight of an actual state-of-the-art cyborg. His eyes stayed focused on the falling frame but he contemplated his surroundings, an abandoned car with a truck behind it. Utilising its position, he changed course and headed for the car, quickly hopping on the roof of the vehicle before scaling the truck in one constant move and looked at the building next to him.

Val was close to meeting the road and Raiden was wasting time on the truck, so he jumped and landed on the side of the building, darting along it at top speed with Alex marvelling at his determination. When there was no more brick left, he rocketed and used the irreparable aircraft as a springboard, aerial flipping and shaping his body to catch Val in a way in which he wouldn't hurt her. He groaned as he smacked into another wall, digging his nails to slow down their descent and spotted an APC headed for him, but something blurred past him and he blinked. Alex had smashed through the window and bullet-dove straight onto the APC, the military vehicle whining under the pressure and sunk into the concrete with only the dented roof to be seen. "How did he...?"

He landed at the same time as Alex and gazed at him with a sceptical eye. "Surprised?"

"You think?"

"Welcome to Manhattan, we do hope you enjoy your stay. "

"Hmph." He glared at a barely conscious Val, assessing her few but serious injuries, before turning away from the demon and felt a slender hand clamp on his shoulder.

"And where do you think you're going?" Alex asked, his lips stretching into a maniacal smile. "Aren't we supposed to be working together? You don't think of betraying me, do you?"

"I'm going to find somewhere safe for Val. Adapted or not, she's not exactly ready to take on these guys yet. Either she was too worked up to react fast enough or maybe she's just a normal Prime Conduit."

"Find somewhere safe, huh? And where's that?"

Raiden hesitated. "I...I'll find a place. I highly doubt people are gonna stay in a Red Zone once they find out what's happening."

"I've got a place that'll bring the least attention, but it'll be kinda hard to explain to Dana."

"Your wife?"

Alex's face drained, "No. God no. She'd kill you if she heard that. No, she's my sister."

"Okay then, Alex. Lead the way."