New York City

(I am Greenlighting posting!)

He could hear voices, but he still couldn't see. There were doctors, talking. Saying words he couldn't quite understand.

He was on some table. It was made of metal. He was in a big daze. But then he could make out some words. ".....listen okay, i don't know how or why, but he is reacting to it...." "But that's impossible, this has never happened before" "I know, which is why we can use this to get out of the city. He is already infected and he died. We use him to get out of New York, before Blackwatch or someone else decides to nuke the whole city" "That is....you know, that might work actually".

Matthew was still waking up, he felt horrible.

Then again, he did just sleep on a metal table. In a morgue. Without a pillow. The doctors were still talking in the next office, but he could barely hear the sound of a phone hanging up. They must have just called them. So Blackwatch is likely to come within 5 minuets, considering.

Matthew just walked towards the sink, and getting some cold water on his face to wake up up. it worked, more or less.......

Thats when he could hear a helicopter landing on the roof and another one outside, as well as another one outside. He panicked, and suddenly, his hands became claws.

And, unlike anyone else who experienced this, he noted "Cool"

Then he panicked some more....

If he had ever made a list of things he had hated, guard duty would rank in the top five of things that Jacob West hated. It wasn't so much that he disliked standing around. Unlike most of the soldiers around him, even before ha had been changed, he didn't mind standing around doing nothing. No, the reason Jacob hated guard duty wasn't so much for what he had to do, as to who he had to do it for. If he ever made a list of things he hated most, right above guard duty, you would find two groups: Gentek and Blackwatch.

Unfortunately, he was on his way to perform guard duty and he was working for Gentek and Blackwatch. So it's pretty easy to understand why he was in a bad mood. At least... if you knew him.

"So, Jake," said one of the random soldiers who were sitting beside him. He never really bothered to learn their names. However, sitting beside someone in a chopper was enough to some to make them believe they were friends or something. "Think we're going to see any action, guarding this... what are we guarding again?"

"Listen," Jacob said, more than a little irritated. "I don't know. I'm not paid to know. You aren't either, if you know what's good for you." Which, in reality, was nothing more than a lie. He knew exactly what they were guarding. Athena had made sure of it. And Jacob did indeed know whether or not they were going to see action. The short answer was yes. The slightly longer answer was: yes, he'd make sure of it.

"Geez," griped the soldier, turning away, "what died and crawled into his cheerios?"

"Can it, Wisniewski!" Barked the commanding officer. "West is right. The details of this mission are way above your pay grade. The eggheads discovered something that need to be guarded so that Mercer doesn't get his hands on it. It's your job to guard it. That is all you need to know."

Jacob snorted. These Blackwatch goons were little more than idiots. Time and again, Mercer or one of his evolved showed up and wrecked entire bases worth of men and equipment. Did they really think that three choppers were going to do jack against them?

Suddenly, a voice rang out in his ear. "30 seconds to arrival."

The captain started barking orders. "Wisniewski, Connors, rendezvous with Chopper Two and secure the perimeter. Johnson, Guzman, you join Chopper Three on the roof and watch the skies. According to the latest info, Mercer can fly. West, new guy, you guys are with me while we retrieve the package."

Jacob jumped out of the chopper and followed after the captain and the other man. The captain he wasn't too worried about. He was just a regular soldier. It was the other that had him concerned. Standing a good eight feet tall, it was obvious he was either from "project D-code" or the newer project "Orion". Either way, he was a super soldier... that made this mission all the harder. Better hope this morgue wasn't a tight, enclosed space. Otherwise, this just might get dirty.

*CRUNCH*

Her claws ripped through an Infected's chest, growing tendrils across its limbs and drawing the monstrosity into her body. Poor thing, looked like a businessman. Probably had a comfy desk job, didn't have a worry in the world aside from the virus itself. Too bad she'd never know; normal Infected don't have any memories to access, they're all just drones.

Alex Jameson's claws merged together, reaching up her forearm and creating a giant blade before turning into a regular arm. A fairly tight black sleeve grew on top of the arm, a glove on the hand. That completed the look of a totally-black bodysuit with a mask-hood combination covering most of her face. Her usual clothes, at least since she'd grown an affectation to ninja and the like. She liked blending in with dark spaces, too. The outfit was actually pretty accepted, too, since people in the Green Zone were paranoid about catching the virus as it is. Seemed useful for whenever Gentek was suspicious about her; she'd hide until they forgot. Or, if they were persistent, she could just consume them. Whichever worked best.

"Squad Three, get your asses in your choppers and out to the morgue," she heard over the earpiece she got from her mother to keep track of the people at work. It was like a walkie-talkie, able to connect to multiple channels for different communications. She played with the frequencies available on it for a few minutes when she was given it before finding and memorizing Blackwatch's channel. Obviously, something was valuable enough to send multiple choppers after it, and Jay, like any intelligent teenager/Infected/Evolved, wanted a piece of the action. Using the aforementioned blending, Jay quickly made her way across the shadows of buildings to reach the morgue, which was surrounded by Blackwatch flunkies. Hiding behind one across the parking lot, she peeked out and looked around.

"All clear up here." One in the air, watching for anything coming from above. One shut off around the side of the building, since everyone in it was surrounding the morgue's walls. One more on the roof, probably infiltration team.

"Hey, did you see that?" Jay ducked back into the shadow of a building nearby, feeling like she was found.

"It's your imagination, dumbass. Infected don't sneak, and Mercer sure as all hell isn't subtle." Only two flunkies at the front door, and two more at the corners. Getting in shouldn't be too difficult.

He looked around. He needed to escape. Blackwatch was right outside. He could....hear their heartbeats. He looked around. That door was the only way out. He knew what he had to do.

And, the claws help.

He felt something fester in his brain sort of.

But that wasn't the point.

He looked at the door. He was determined to survive, that's for sure. But then he remembered his brother. He needed to find him. And get him to safety. Three Blackwatch troops busted in, and then he launched himself at them, spiraling through them all and ripping through them with his claws. His first kill. But, his brother was in danger. And Blackwatch had shot him.

So it didn't really affect him. And he was still sort of amazed by the claws. Thats when he saw 10 more Blackwatch heading his way. Well, he felt them. Thats when he saw a Blackwatch Soldier still on the ground, not quite dead yet. He started to look for his radio, but his hand started to do something weird, and then he just...consumed the Blackwatch Soldier. And became him. Not to mention his memories.

The other Blackwatch Soldiers came in, and one asked "What the hell happened here soldier?!"

"He gained full awareness and escaped sir. He slashed through these two, knocked me across the room, and then ran out the way you came in".

"Well fuck. Powerful like Mercer?"

"Afraid so sir"

"Dammit..." the commander said, then adding "I need a huge military presence at the hospital! He hasn't left yet, we have guards at every exit!!!"

As soon as he walked out of the room, another soldier thought to be dead began coughing. Matthew Ran, as the soldier told the men he became that soldier somehow, and every guard and trooper was put onto alert. There were these 2 guards by an exit, and he just leaped and spinned right through them, shreading them to bits. Thats when 2 more helicopters came out from behind a building.

THis is not Matthew's day.

Jacob ran into the surgical theater for the autopsies just as the other evolved left. Well, there went that plan.

"West!" Barked the commander, spinning to face him. "Go after him."

"I'm afraid I can't do that, cap'n" Replied Jacob, sliding up slowly so that he was right next to the commander.

"What do you..." was all the captain got out before he found himself impaled on Jacob's hand.

The next few seconds were chaos. The super soldier leaped at Jacob but Jacob wasn't there. Leaping above the big guy, he rebounded off the ceiling and landed feet first through one of the soldiers, absentmindedly sending a tendril to absorb the biomass as he quickly shifted to claws and slashed through two other soldiers. Side-flipping left to dodge a burst of gunfire, he grabbed a nearby scientist and used him to absorb a second round of bullets, before throwing him into the crowd of soldiers with guns. Spinning around, he shifted the claws into large shields to block a heavy hit from the super soldier. Pushing forward with his shield, he smashed it into the giant's face, dazing him for a second. That second was all that was needed to shift back his hands, grab a nearby table, and throw it at the soldiers who getting up from where the scientist had knocked them over. This time, they didn't get up.

Shifting his right hand into the large blade that was almost a trademark of the evolved, he turned back to face the super soldier who was recovering from having a one-hundred pound, steel-like chunk of biomass smashed into his head remarkably quickly.

"So, superman. Just you and me, huh? Tell me, you D-code or Orion?"

The super soldier reached down and ripped a piece of another of the operating tables off, turning it into a makeshift club. "I don't need to tell you anything, infected scum."

"That's right, you don't. I'll find it all out when I consume you. But my way's more fun, eh?" Curse these personality swings. It was hard enough to get the other evolved to take him seriously when he was constantly smashing through walls for no reason, crying about how evil he was, or (like in this case) wisecracking like some marvel comics superhero.

The fight was once again joined as the super soldier jumped at him again, bludgeoning him through a wall and into another room with the bar of steel. Jacob rebounded off the wall and dashed forward, dodging a punch that was so telegraphed it was almost impossible to not see coming. Swinging his sword arm forward, he was surprised to see that the super soldier blocked it with the broken piece of table, though the piece did fall into two pieces. Leaping back, he watched as the super soldier charged forward. Dashing forward to meet him head on, Jacob jumped at the last possible moment, flipping over the startled super soldier to land lightly facing his now completely open back. Swinging hard, he brought his sword arm down to score a moderately deep blow to the super soldier's back. The super soldier spun around to punch him, but Jacob had already leaped back again, and was now standing back in the operating room that the fight had started in.

Signalling with his free hand, Jacob smirked. "Is that all you got, princess?"

With a scream of inarticulate rage, the super soldier charged forward. Almost faster than the eye could follow, Jacob dismissed the blade and re-transformed his claws. Though they wouldn't be enough to cut through the heavy armor the super soldier was wearing, the were more than enough to cut through the exposed flesh and blood that the big gash at the back of the armor presented. Flipping over the charging, over-muscled idiot, he struck. Once, twice, thrice... the super soldier collapsed as his legs could no longer support him.

To his credit, the super soldier tried to push himself off the ground, though he wasn't given the chance. Reaching down to grab him by the back of the neck, Jacob raised him in the air and stabbed him full of tendrils, quickly and efficiently consuming him.

Turning back to the captain, who was still laying on the ground, unable to get up, Jacob walked slowly up to him and smirked.

"Why, West?" The captain managed to croak out.

"You're human, I'm infected. We try to kill each other," Jacob said, smiling down at his fallen enemy, "it's nothing personal. Just business. Speaking of which..." Jacob reached down and consumed the captain, shuddering as the few small bruises he had gotten from his fight (that hadn't been healed when he consumed the super soldier) healed up.

Smiling at the carnage, and subconsciously noticing that the "playful" personality was slowly making way for the "bloodthirsty" one, Jacob kicked the door strait off the hinges and walked outside to follow that other evolved and see what had happened there.

Jay fired out her hand, the digits sharpening into her claws. Each little edged appendage latched itself onto one of the guard's heads. (You know, the one who thought he saw something, Yuri Wisniewski?) Clenching down, tendrils came from Jay's fluid-like arm and sucked the life out of the guard, who was trying to shoot anywhere he could in an attempt to escape. And he was gone, armor and all. With the guy right next to him panicking and firing at the claws, they swung straight through his waist, the tentacles latching onto the halved body and eating it up before returning to Jay.

WHO THE HELL ARE YOU!?

And this is why I hate consuming. Instead of dissolving immediately, everything sentient she consumed remained conscious inside of her for a short time, sometimes up to an hour if they were really opinionated. They couldn't communicate verbally, just mentally. And she hated it; she couldn't block thoughts.

You're a fucking freak, you know that?

And now you're part of a freak. Enjoy. And the two Blackwatch soldiers were gone, forever lost, or at least until Jay felt like turning into them. And she did. Let's go, Geoff Connors. Quickly enough, Jay turned into the same soldier who believed Infected lacked subtlety. She didn't know the target already escaped, but she did hear the helicopters coming in. She burst into one room of the morgue, searching around before finding a Blackwatch flunky taking down a super soldier with a bigger pair of claws than Jay's. Best to ignore it for now; strong enough to take down a D-Code means strong enough to hurt Jay, and definitely not a flunky. Leaving the building the way she came, Jay took up Connors' post to try (and fail) her hand at getting some info out of the soldiers she just devoured.

"This is Ballista Four One and Four Two, got a lock on the target." The pilots were active.

"Then FIRE, IDIOTS." Jay almost cringed at their commanding officer's tone, quietly letting out a faint sweet scent that was designed to attract Hunters, undetectable to the mindless infected and humans, while leaving most of the Evolved that smell it unaffected. With the choppers blowing it around, a pair of Brawlers quickly joined her place outside the morgue.

That's always fun, she thought, even though she didn't use it much. She didn't really know how it worked, she just knew it made 'em come at her beck and call. Snapping her (well, Connors') fingers, the scent changed and the Brawlers ran after the helicopters, taking down Four Two with a single jump.

"BRAWLE--" *CRACK* One down. They self-destructed in the air, tendrils blasting out, piercing the second chopper and attaching to a few buildings around. They kept the chopper suspended until it exploded, pilot and all. Soon enough, one more Brawler Hunter took their place at Jay's side. This one had a scar across its face alongside its other deformities, Jay almost calling it her personal pet. Instead of self-destructing like others when dismissed, this one returned to its lair. Stroking its deformed head like it was a dog, Fluffy the Terrible was tough, reliable, and a big softie to its master.

Fluffy and Jay looked at each other for a moment before the latter nodded, the Brawler hopping to the top of the morgue to watch Matthew from a distance. "Follow it and don't get caught," she beckoned, wanting to keep tabs on what was probably going to be a fun time waster.

Matthew saw the helicopters get destroyed by the brawlers. He saw everything. However, he could feel the presence of other infected. 5 other infected. He looked directly at the two closest, Jay and her Hunter, and then at the most powerful, who has yet to identify himself......but he was strong.....

And then, the helicopter that had landed on the hospital was up and armed. But it began running back to base. Matthew sighed in relief. Then he realized, he wasn't wearing a shirt or shoes, which he could have easily done by now seeing as he learned how to consume and such. He finally did such things, which took less then a second. He then ran....

.....straight into Alex Mercer.

Now, unlike almost everyone else, he wasn't afraid of Alex Mercer. Also, he sort of insane, but no one needs to know that....

So, they had a stare off. Someone should give Matthew a medal for lasting this long with Mercer and not saying a word.

"So, your the one taking up all the chatter....."

"And your the one spreading the virus......"

"Allegedly...."

"And your not the cause of my infection, you were surprised to see me......"

That's when the helicopter came into view again. Matthew looked away for a moment, and Alex Mercer was gone. His entire presence was gone.

He ran as the helicopters fired missiles at him. Another helicopter came up right in front of him. That's when his claws became a whip. He was momentarily shocked, but then used it to pull himself onto the aircraft, cutting off the rocket launcher, and firing it at the other one.

He looked around. This is the green zone. He needs to get back to the red zone and get his brother. Mod course, last time he was in the red zone was 3 weeks ago when he got shot. Part of the coverup involved moving the body to the green zone.

But the green zone wasn't 100% green. A Brawler came up, stopping right in front of Matthew. Then it....sort of bowed. Matthew touched the head of the Brawler. That's when he heard a name in his head.

"Elizabeth Greene"

(Herro?!?!)