Chapter 1: A Plan Comes Together
Thanatos viewed his target from the top of one of the many towers in the Red Zone of New York City. The barren and depressing skyline that not even a year ago had been the bustling city of New York was now covered in a red haze. The once busy streets were now covered in fermenting blood and dead bodies, many of which were still moving. The once shiny and magnificent skyscrapers were a mere shadow of their former selves. The lucky ones were dirty and dilapidated. The unlucky ones were covered in a mass growth of biomass that threatened to bring down the entire structure. The whole city reeked of death and destruction as mutilated bodies roamed the streets, searching for their next meal. To Thanatos, the only evidence that New York was anything like what it used to be was in the attempts to save it, such as the convoy that was moving through the streets below him. The convoy he was now targeting.
Had any of the marine escorts looked up, they would’ve seen the Evolved codenamed Thanatos in all his glory. With no reason to be disguised he had shifted into his base form as a fair skinned teenager wearing dark blue tennis shoes, black jeans, and a red shirt. He sported a head of black, rough hair that had probably seen better days before the infection. This was the image he had become known as in the databases of Blacknet and was the image that they had learned to fear, to his great enjoyment.
Observing the convoy, Thanatos counted two tanks with several dozen marines marching alongside in column formation, shooting anything that moved with extreme precision. In the middle was an army truck that was carrying a refrigerator-sized cylindrical tank. He knew what it contained: an experimental whitelight shipment, but that wasn’t his mission. He wanted to kill every single one of them -- as an Evolved he would be able to do so with relative ease -- but that wasn’t his mission either. Right now he was only going to do some damage and let them call for reinforcements. Lucky them.
It would take a lot more self-control than he usually had to not kill all of them, but it was all part of the plan, a plan that was finally coming together after months of staying fearfully obedient to Mercer. At least, that was what he had been told.
Thanatos remained patient while the convoy passed through the street below him, difficult as it was. He was waiting for the perfect position where the rear tank would be directly below him and the forward tank would be reloading its main gun, maximizing the time it would take to turn around. If he wanted to completely destroy them he would go for the tank in the front or simply destroy both very quickly, but, if they were to call for reinforcements, they would do so from the safety of a tank.
By now the rear tank was exactly where he wanted it. Then the roar of the main gun of the forward tank rang out and another group of Blacklight zombies was blasted apart.
Now!
Shifting incredible amounts of condensed biomass into his arms so that they resembled large clubs, Thanatos built up pressure in his now significantly lighter legs and jumped. Looking down he spotted his target before locking on and shifting more biomass into his already immensely heavy arms. Shooting straight down he made contact with mesh-reinforced composite armor, before penetrating straight through and crushing it under his momentum.
At first nothing happened in the pile of scrap metal that had been a dangerous and powerful war machine only seconds before. Suddenly, the Evolved jumped out of the wreckage, going significantly higher than any human could, before landing next to it. The soldiers were too stunned to do anything for a second, processing the fact that, not only had they just lost one of their vehicles, but the person responsible had done it by himself without explosives and appeared to be disproportionately unharmed. They had been warned that they might encounter enemies like this going into the Red Zone, yet they were ill prepared to actually encounter one. And now, having seen a glimpse of their power, they were dazed and overwhelmed.
Thanatos looked around after jumping out of the wrecked tank, now sporting normal arms as opposed to the aptly named Hammerfists. The first thing he noticed was that the soldiers were all just staring at him, dumbfounded and unmoving. Clearly they were green, as he knew from experience that more seasoned soldiers who had been to the Red Zone before would’ve attacked him by now.
Suddenly a shot rang out, going through Thanatos’s torso; he barely flinched. “What are you waiting for?! Shoot him!” an officer shouted, holding up a smoldering rifle.
This seemed to have the desired effect, as every soldier, who had been in a perpetual state of shock, suddenly raised their guns and opened fire. Thanatos, realizing his moment of peace was over, jumped to avoid the oncoming hail of bullets.
In the air he shifted his right hand into the extendable, elongated appendage known as the Whipfist. Upon landing he threw his arm in a sweep, allowing it to extend and use the sharp edges to bisect a dozen marines in one swing.
While bullets and bodies were still flying, he retracted and threw his arm again, this time straight at one of the soldiers. The unfortunate GI barely had time to acknowledge the claw coming for him, much less react to it, before it dug into his chest. Thanatos retracted his arm with the soldier attached to the other end like a fish on a hook. In a split second he was within arms’ reach and staring directly into the cold, blue eyes of the Evolved.
Thanatos saw the fear in the eyes of what was to become his latest victim and relished in it. Shifting his free arm into grotesque and extremely sharp claws, he gave the soldier a light toss in the air before cleaving down, slicing his body clean in half. His method of execution was so fast that the soldier was still alive, able to feel all the pain. Tendrils extending from Thanatos’s back caught the mutilated body mid-air before absorbing the remains into his own biomass, the soldier screaming all the way.
Before he could be assaulted by the painful wave of memory intake that accompanied consumption, he blocked it. All Blacklights knew this trick, where one would consciously keep their victim’s memory from directly merging with their own. It was normally done for unimportant victims, such as regular foot soldiers, and prevented them from being immobilized from the pain that a memory intake caused. This was especially important in battle.
Thanatos realized he now had to acknowledge the other tank, which had turned its gun around and now had him in its sights. He jumped to the side just in time to avoid a 120mm shell.
When are their reinforcements going to get here? he thought, annoyed.
“When is the strike team going to get here!?” shouted one of the remaining soldiers, who apparently shared his opinion. “We aren’t equipped to fight a fucking Evolved!”
His cursing was suddenly silenced by Thanatos, who beheaded him with his claws.
“Shit! Get a fucking strike team here now! He’s slicing us to pieces!” another soldier frantically shouted into his com link.
Just then, the sound of whirring helicopter blades could be heard over the gunshots. On the horizon, three silhouettes were visible in the background of the red sky, and they were getting closer.
Finally! thought Thanatos before jumping to the roof of a nearby building.
Using the rudimentary mental link he shared with all Blacklight beings, Thanatos summoned four of the grotesquely mutated and overly muscular creatures known as brawlers to his location. These monstrosities had been known to destroy tanks by themselves and massacre entire refugee camps in the Yellow Zone. They had even been known to destroy whole convoys when in packs, convoys like this one. Within seconds they appeared at his side.
“Kill the rest of them, but not too quickly. This little skirmish needs to last,” he instructed callously. They immediately jumped to the street below to fulfill their orders.
“Fuck! Brawler pack! Fall back to the truck and defend it at all costs!” came the orders from the tank officer. Clearly he thought that Thanatos was after his precious cargo, which was exactly what he was supposed to think.
Noticing that the strike team was almost there, Thanatos dug into the mental link again, this time summoning a flock of Blacklight flyers. Blacklight flyers were as large as a vulture and flew around the Red Zone like crows until they were summoned by Mercer or one of his Evolved. These tough birds could take down a helicopter with little difficulty.
“Red Crown this is strike team five leader. We have entered the sector where a convoy has issued a distress call and are now heading to -- WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT!?” he shouted as something hit the helicopter from the outside, sending it spinning out of control. Before the pilot could stop the spinning, another object hit it from above, damaging the rotor and putting it in an unstable descent.
The helicopter no longer had the ability to stay in the air, much less regain control. But whatever kept hitting them now aimed for the nose, hitting it full force. When it struck, the battered gunship flew back thirty feet before continuing to fall like a rock. When it crashed in the street, its armament exploded, turning what was left of a 65-million-dollar war machine into a burning fireball. There was no way anyone survived, and the other two saw the whole thing.
Seeing their lead gunship get knocked around like a soccer ball had the others giving second thoughts on their objective, but their orders were to relieve the distressed convoy, and orders are orders. Now, however, they had to deal with these flying opponents who posed a direct threat to their own well being.
Thanatos smiled as he saw the two remaining strike team helicopters break off their attack run to engage their new aerial opponents. The plan was working perfectly, and now this part of it was done. Taking the form of a recently deceased Blackwatch officer he began heading towards the base where his brother, Hypnos, was waiting for him.
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Hypnos sighed as he surfed Blacknet from a computer within the base. He was about to begin in earnest the plan that they had concocted weeks prior and now it seemed a little anti-climactic. On that note he wasn’t supposed to be looking through Blacknet right now, but he needed to show what he had found to his brother.
Presumably, Thanatos would arrive bearing news that he had successfully baited local Blackwatch forces who were now thoroughly engaged against the infected hordes. The knowledge that there was a skirmish raging not even two miles away would make it harder for any soldiers in the base to actually detect if anything was awry within, as they would now be acting on protocol for outside threats.
Humans are so easily distracted.
Until then, he was looking themselves up on Blacknet. He had already completed what he needed to on the server but doing anything else, or even nothing at all, would raise suspicion. Everything Blackwatch and Gentek had on him and his brother was situated here and it was interesting to find out what they actually knew. Considering the fact that Thanatos could be recognized in his base form, unlike most of Mercer’s Evolved, he figured he had been labeled as a pretty big threat, as he had just confirmed.
He was still reading through the various files and reports that he had found via searching “codename Thanatos” when he felt the telepathic link with Thanatos being opened. This was similar to the fabled “twin telepathy” that twins are rumored to have. At least, they figured it was as they hadn’t had anything like this before and what existed now had only made itself known after their infection. It was also unique from their connection with Mercer’s other Evolved and the regular infected which could be sensed but not communicated through.
Opening his end, Hypnos heard his brother’s thoughts. "Hey Hypnos, the convoy and subsequent reinforcements are busy, what now?"
Receiving telepathic messages had always felt weird, and Thanatos had concurred. It was the voice of his twin brother just appearing in his head. A lot like schizophrenia, he had figured, except that he knew exactly where it was coming from and it was only telling him to kill something most of the time.
"Meet me by the computer,” he responded nonchalantly, still looking over the files he had open. He neglected to tell him which computer, but he doubted he would need to.
Any onlooker would see a scientist in a blue hazmat suit looking over files on one of the secure Blacknet servers, nothing out of the ordinary. Such was the advantage of shapeshifting and communicating via telepathic link.
“You're sure that they'll be occupied for long enough?” Hypnos voiced after a short pause. “If we're discovered then everything we've been working towards for months goes down the drain. We cannot afford to get caught or even hint at suspicion."
"You say that like you don't trust me," responded Thanatos with mock hurt.
"I think we can both agree that you tend to be a loose cannon when fighting, or maybe a wild animal. Whatever I compare you to, you’re not exactly graceful."
“I take that as a compliment. On the topic of compliments, you look very nice in your blue hazmat suit.”
“How did you…” Hypnos began, before cutting off the link and turning around to see a Blackwatch officer a few feet behind him. A quick viral pulse confirmed that this was, in fact, his brother in the form of one of the many Blackwatch soldiers he had consumed.
"How did you get here so fast?" asked a surprised Hypnos, now talking. They may have been in the middle of a base but he wasn’t worried about being heard.
“You say fast, I say boring as fuck! All I was doing was running down the street, not killing anyone, not crushing cars, nothing. The zombies didn’t attack me because I’m a Blacklight and the marines didn’t attack me because I’m an officer. Not one bullet was fired when they saw me, not even anyone telling them to shoot! I’m not used to this… peace. Is this what you deal with every day?” asked Thanatos, looking around in incredulous disgust.
Hypnos sighed, completely forgetting about his unanswered question. “Yes, and it’s what you’re going to have to live with for some time starting today, assuming you can that is.”
Thanatos stopped wandering and focused back on his brother. “So why did you want me to meet you here? I thought the plan involved Orion, not hacking Blacknet, again.”
“Yeah,” he deadpanned. “Well you know how I’ve been telling you to cut down on your attacks recently?”
“Yes, though I have never seen a reason to.”
“Well here’s one.” Hypnos turned around and punched a few buttons on the keyboard. “I looked at your Blacknet profile and, well, they have a lot more details on you than they should. Hell, they shouldn’t have this many details on any Blacklight.”
Hypnos stepped aside to allow his brother to look at the file open on the monitor. On it was a file labeled as “Subject 14” with a disturbingly accurate description of the Blacklight in question:
______________________________________________________________________________
Subject 14
Codename: Thanatos
Real name: unknown
Gender: male
Age: 16-18 years (estimation based on appearance)
Height: 1.72 meters
Known abilities: Claws, Whipfist, Hammerfists, enhanced strength, enhanced agility
Base form appearance:
-navy blue tennis shoes
-black jeans
-red shirt
-black hair, rough
-blue eyes
Subject 14 is a known Evolved Blacklight. He has been known to attack Blackwatch convoys and facilities throughout the NYZ in his speculated base form (see above) more than other known Evolved. When attacking a base he has often been observed in the accompaniment of another Evolved, who has been filed as Subject 15: codename Hypnos (see Subject 15: Hypnos). The relationship between Subjects 14 and 15 is unknown. Because of the danger he poses, it is recommended that all recruits get debriefed on Thanatos as well as Subject 1: codename Zeus (see Subject 1: Zeus).
______________________________________________________________________________
“This is a pretty thorough description, even you have to admit that. The only thing they don’t have is the identities of the people you’ve consumed! And given your lack of subtlety, that info is on its way.”
Despite what he had just seen, Thanatos was unfazed. “That’s good! It means that I’m getting my name and image out there for them to fear. I doubt you can say anything similar. Besides, they don’t have what I don’t want them to have,” he said, motioning at the single ‘unknown’ in the list of details.
“You’re missing the point! If they fear you then they’re going to do everything in their power to track you down. Please tell me that you can hold off on your attacks until we can end this. If you can’t, then everything we’ve been working towards all this time will be for nothing! She will never be avenged!”
Thanatos broke his brash composure for a split second at her being mentioned, but quickly salvaged it. “What do I have to do.” he said, now completely serious.
“Well you should look like this.”
Hypnos clicked on the link for Hypnos and another file opened. This one, however, had substantially less information.
______________________________________________________________________________
Subject 15
Codename: Hypnos
Real name: unknown
Gender: male (speculated)
Age: unknown
Height: unknown
Known abilities: enhanced strength, enhanced agility
Base form appearance:
-unconfirmed
Subject 15 is a known Blacklight Evolved. Very little is known about Subject 15. It is hypothesized to be male as he has never been seen in any female forms. He is believed to work with another known Evolved, Subject 14: codename Thanatos, (see Subject 14: Thanatos) in attacking Blackwatch facilities throughout the NYZ. Subject 15 is believed to infiltrate Blackwatch facilities before destroying them with the help of Subject 14 after extracting information as files and personnel from subsequently destroyed facilities have gone missing. The danger posed by Subject 15 is relative to, but not necessarily directly associated with, the danger posed by Subject 14. He is considered a minor threat.
______________________________________________________________________________
“Showoff. Well, you certainly cover your tracks well,” said Thanatos, looking back at him. Now more humble in his tone.
“One of us had to.”
Suddenly, Hypnos heard footsteps approaching from behind him. They seemed lightweight with no clanking of armor or equipment so it probably wasn’t a soldier, and Thanatos’s lack of reaction spoke volumes. Turning around, he confirmed that it was just another scientists in a hazmat suit.
“Hey, you done with the computer? I need to use it,” said the newcomer. He wasn’t very confident and would probably look for another one if he got a negative response, despite every other computer being occupied. Of course, the scientist using this one was having a conversation with an officer while every other was being carefully scanned by their users so if any computer was open it was this one. And Hypnos was done.
“Sure,” said the blue scientist as he stepped away to grant him access.
“Thanks,” he said as he approached the now open monitor. “Hey, you forgot to-” but as he notice the open file on the monitor, his tone changed completely.
“You’re looking up Hypnos?” By the excited way he had said it, and the way he seemed to light up at the mention of the name, Hypnos figured he had just found an admirer, or, at least, someone who had taken an interest in him.
“Yes, I was just checking if we had anything new on him as there was a reported sighting of his accomplice not too far from here,” said Hypnos, turning around to address him.
“Yeah, well, as usual, we have nothing. He’s a fucking ghost! Never in his base form, never using shape-shifted weapons, never showing up until it’s time to destroy us, and never giving anything away.”
Hypnos turned to his brother who was still standing behind him in his Blackwatch officer form, giving him what amounted to an amused smirk, which, of course, he couldn’t see as he still had a mask on. Kudos all the same.
“Well, you seem to like this guy, what do you think about him?” asked Hypnos, interested to find out what his ‘fan’ thought of him.
“Oh, I am fascinated by this guy’s work. I really shouldn’t be saying that because he’s an Evolved but I can’t help but be intrigued by the mystery he presents! I would love to meet him if he wasn’t a Blacklight.” The blue scientist gave a small chuckle while the officer just continued looking between them stoically.
He continued, lost in his own monologue. “He’s so unique! Not acting like any other Evolved we know of, who attack periodically with their blades and take a disguise shortly after to get away. He always attacks disguised and stays in that disguise for the entire time we have eyes on him. As a result, he has never been seen using biomass weaponry and, therefore, has never been confirmed to be in his base form. So why would he hide his base form so carefully?”
The blue scientist answered his question with another inquiry: “Well what’s your hypothesis?”
He might be wasting time, but, like most people, he had never met anyone who had taken such an eager interest in him. This was a rare treat. Besides, Thanatos would undoubtedly have done the same thing in this position, and his stiff, unmoving stature only reinforced that notion.
“Well,” he began, “I believe that Hypnos is related familialy to Thanatos.” Both Hypnos and Thanatos shook. “I can’t affirm this without confirming their base forms, but the other Evolved we know of are loners; they rarely work with others. Hypnos, on the other hand, has only ever been seen working with Thanatos. They have to be related somehow. And if we consider Thanatos’s age, how well they fight together, and the lack of female Evolved, I would say they’re brothers. So, in this case he would be hiding his base form in order to hide the fact that he’s related to Thanatos.”
Hypnos was stunned. Even after going far out of his way to cover his tracks for months, there was still at least one man who knew, rather speculated, more about him than he should. He would definitely need to kill him, but he would worry about that later.
“Well. That’s an interesting theory, but I should probably get going,” said Hypnos. If he was showing any irritation or an eagerness to end the conversation, the other scientist didn’t seem to notice.
“Thanks for listening, most of my colleagues don’t take to my theories too well,” he admitted, still cheerful.
“It’s nice to speculate with each other every now and then,” the blue scientist said reaching out to shake his hand. “Thank you Doctor... ”
“Sullivan. And it was a pleasure Doctor…”
“Grant, and the pleasure’s all mine,” he replied, shaking his hand.
“And won’t you introduce me to your Blackwatch friend here?” he said, reaching to greet the officer standing in the background.
Before Hypnos could say anything his brother spoke up, “I don’t like meeting more Gentek geeks than I have to doctor.”
Rather blunt and kind of mean but it gets the job done, thought Hypnos to himself.
“Oh,” he said, dejected, lowering his hand. He turning to Dr. Grant again “Well I don’t think he wants me to keep you any longer so I’ll let you get back to your work. “
“Have a nice day,” said Hypnos as Sullivan turned back to the computer and logged him out.
As he finished, Hypnos felt his brother opening the link. Inwardly sighing, he obliged.
“What the hell was that!? Do you do make friends at all the bases you infiltrate!?” came the angry thoughts of his brother.
“Okay, first of all that was just a friendly conversation, but that usually doesn’t happen. And I don’t make friends unless I need to, it distracts me from the mission and it’s a pretty big damper when we kill them later. But don’t act like you wouldn’t have done the same fucking thing in my position Mr. Look at Me and Fear My Base Form!
“Let’s just go, we’re already behind schedule.”
Hypnos cut off the link and started walking toward the other side of the building. Thanatos quickly caught up with him.
“Where are we going?” asked Thanatos when he caught up.
“Orion.”
“Ah, Orion. Blacklight knock off super soldier program and, correct me if I’m wrong, the core of our operation, right? Well then where is it? And what exactly were you planning on doing with it? You haven’t exactly been vocal about what you were going to do and neither of us like hanging around one target for too long.”
“Follow me, I’ll explain on the way.”
Hypnos felt the link open again.
“Just talk, no one’s listening. The guards are on alert to external threats and Gentek scientists are always too busy to pay attention to a co-worker’s small talk. Besides, I like spoken conversation, it makes me feel normal.”
Hypnos walked past his brother who turned to follow him. He could tell that Thanatos was probably giving him an odd look under the mask as neither of them typically took a risk like discussing their plans out loud, especially in the middle of a Blackwatch base. But using the link also meant their attention was more focused on their own thoughts rather than what was right in front of them. It was a phenomenon comparable to daydreaming. And then there was the fact that Hypnos simply liked talking, a fact he would never admit. Besides, if he didn’t open his end of the telepathic link it was useless. His brother’s end closed.
The base had, at one point, been a warehouse, so most of it was open space. As expected, they received little more than glances from scientists and salutes from Blackwatch soldiers as they walked toward the far side of the facility through the open atrium, shoulder to shoulder.
“We’re going to use Orion DX-1120 in the exact same way Blackwatch was going to use it, only in our favor; to build our own personal army of loyal Blacklights.”
“And how the hell are we supposed to do that?” scoffed Thanatos.
“Simple, the reason why you and I were hanging around this base for three weeks. I’ve synthesized a virus that will combine with the weakened Blacklight strain present in Orion and create a whole new one. It’ll still turn the soldiers who take it into super soldiers, as it was originally meant to do, but this new strain will attack the brain as well and implant the subconscious desire to follow our orders. All we have to do is wait for them to give it to some volunteers ready to die to save New York and viola, our own personal army of super soldiers who are more than a match for Mercer’s Evolved.
“Oh, and don’t worry about detection. My virus is too similar to the Orion strain for them to detect it, presumably. But if we don’t infect all Orion containers they’ll probably notice the subtle difference and throw away the tainted stuff, so it’s important that we get all of them.”
“So why didn’t you fill me in on this before?” asked Thanatos. “If we were going to start our little undertaking today then it would’ve been nice to have some notice before hand.”
“I did tell you we were starting; when I told you to attack a convoy. You just never bothered to ask for more details,” said Hypnos, more matter-of-factly than anything.
“All you told me was that the plan was ‘coming together’ and that I should ‘distract Blackwatch and meet you here’, and considering the what I’ve done in past incursions, I figured this was just something to tie me over until we started. But now you’re telling me that that was the first step of the plan? Why didn’t you tell me that from the start?”
Hypnos sighed. “Because I thought you would object to having to wait for the incubation and having to control your… aggressiveness the entire time.”
Thanatos was silent for a moment, but eventually said, “Let me worry about controlling myself, but if this works neither one of us will have to worry about that.”
Hypnos released a breath he didn’t know he was holding, this was the best-case scenario. “Do you expect anything less from your twin brother? Mercer may be breathing down our necks but we can still pursue our own agenda, successfully too.”
Hypnos noticed they were now close to their destination: a wide metal staircase that ran up the wall to what would be the second floor, if there were two floors. At the top was a reinforced steel door with a hand scanner flanked by two Blackwatch soldiers.
Hypnos activated his end of their mental link and started ‘talking’ when he felt Thanatos.
“Take a scientist’s form, it’ll look less suspicious if I go in with a colleague rather than an escort.”
Performing a quick 360 to make sure no one was looking, Thanatos crouched down as if to tie his shoe and recalled a scientist he had consumed a few weeks ago. When he stood up a he was wearing a yellow hazmat suit and had a different mask obscuring his face.
The suits and masks were normally only worn in the field but neither of them had ever seen a scientist besides Koenig wearing anything besides a hazmat suit, even with Hypnos’s extended infiltration missions. Probably a precaution against the dangers of an airborne virus.
Now in forms that matched perfectly with any Gentek scientist, they approached the staircase and the guarded door it led up to.
“Let me do the talking,” Hypnos transmitted as they climbed the steps before disconnecting to focus.
“Hold up,” ordered one of the soldiers as they approached, holding up his hand.
“What seems to be the problem soldier?” asked the disguised Hypnos. “We’re here to check on the progress of project Orion. We’ll be in and out, just a few routine volume checks.”
“Sorry, but our orders are to keep absolutely anyone from entering until the external threat from a known Evolved has been neutralized. That includes you two.” the soldier said, effectively ordering, like he was addressing a civilian. There was no negotiation in his response, but Hypnos wasn’t about to give up, one way or another.
“We’re here to do our job just as you’re doing yours. How about you prevent anyone else from entering while we’re in there, keep any actual intruders at bay. If we don’t keep track of Orion’s progress and something goes wrong you’ll have something a lot worse than an Evolved to worry about. Besides, if there was any Blacklight in here the viral detector would go off, and it’s just as dormant as yesterday.”
Hypnos sounded annoyed, like a scientist whose work was being interrupted. In his experience, Blackwatch and Gentek personnel didn’t really get along, especially if orders conflicted with research. This made his dialogue all the more believable. Of course, that would only matter if these guards yielded and could later confirm that two “scientists” entered on their watch.
“Our orders extend to all you Gentek nerds as well! Now beat it, or I’ll arrest you two for interfering with Blackwatch operations and watch as they feed you to infected test subjects!”
Clearly he wasn’t in any mood to be lenient on his orders or even talk to anyone right now. That left Hypnos and his brother with their only other option. He looked behind himself, sweeping his entire visual radius of the base to make absolutely certain that no one was looking. Confirming it, he turned back to the volatile guard.
“Fine, fine, we’ll lea- WHAT THE HELL IS THAT!” he cried, cowering from the door.
Confused, both guards looked towards the center of the door where the scientist was recoiling from. As soon as their eyes were off him, Hypnos formed his index fingers into small, pocket knife-sized blades and lunged at the distracted soldiers. In one swift motion he sliced their throats, easily cutting through the layers of cloth and armor they had on and straight through the windpipe, precisely where a cut was needed for a silent, instant kill. They died immediately. Before their bodies succumbed to gravity, however, Hypnos released tendrils from his back and grabbed both bodies which he quickly consumed and combined with his own biomass.
The action of distracting them, slitting their throats, and consuming took mere seconds. Had anyone looked, unless they saw the scientist consuming the guards, it would appear as though they had simply left their posts after a heated exchange with some Gentek scientists. Hypnos’s perfected stealth kill hadn’t even left a blood stain on the ground. The only evidence that two soldiers had been there at all were their M4s. Picking them up, the blue scientist motioned for his yellow counterpart to follow him.
“Come on,” he said, “Orion is in here.” Holding the guns of his deceased victims in one hand, Hypnos put the other into the hand scanner.
“Access granted, Doctor Grant,” it chimed before the smooth, metallic door slid open to reveal a dark room.
“Well apparently Blackwatch still hasn’t discovered that hand scanners are useless against shapeshifters,” Hypnos remarked before entering, his brother following him in.
The inside of this room was dark, and it became pitch black when the door closed behind them. Suddenly lights flickered to reveal a room about the size of a gas station with half-a-dozen cylindrical tanks carefully spaced through the middle, all of which were about the size of a refrigerator.
Hypnos put down the guns before looking down at his arm and pulling back the sleeve of his suit as if he was checking his watch, though he wasn’t wearing one. “And cameras set to playback in 3, 2, 1… we’re good.” At that moment the cameras in all four corners of the room suddenly stopped moving and the lights on them began flashing red.
Immediately Thanatos shifted back into his base form.
“My god, finally!” he exclaimed as the officer faded away to reveal the same teenager who had attacked a convoy not an hour earlier. “I hate taking other forms, I don’t know why you don’t,” he said, turning to face his brother who was still disguised next to him.
“I do what I need to,” Hypnos said cooly. “And as it happens, this getup is no longer necessary.”
With that, Hypnos willed his form into the one he was infected in. In less than a second, a fair skinned teenager was standing there wearing black tennis shoes, olive cargo pants, and navy blue hoodie with the hood at his shoulders. His face sported the same rough, black hair and piercing blue eyes as his twin brother and now they were at almost perfect eye level, though Hypnos, as the younger, was unnoticably shorter.
“Ah, doing this in the raw?”
“I need to if we want to infect all these containers before the cameras go off loop.”
“We? How am I going to infect these? You’re the one with the virus.”
Hypnos smiled and shifted biomass from his head into his left hand, tendrils writhing across his body. When it was done he shifted his other hand into Claws before slicing through his wrist, severing the hand he had just concentrated biomass into. He grimaced but otherwise made no noise as he rapidly reformed his other hand to normal and caught his detached one mid-fall. As the nub on his left arm began to writhe with tendrils and rebuild itself, he presented the amputated extremity to his brother.
“Think of this as a gift, one that will destroy Mercer when it’s time comes.”
Thanatos took his brother’s severed and now very heavy hand carefully in his own. Staring at it, he narrowed his eyes before wrapping both of his hands around it and squeezing. An audible “crunch” could be heard as tendrils writhed around his balled hands and began to disperse across his body. When they got to his head he shut his eyes and clutched his hair as a migraine took hold.
When the pain began to subside he opened his eyes. He was now looking right into the sharp but warm eyes of his brother, a look he was presumably emulating.
“You good?” asked Hypnos, arms folded, more of a statement than a question. There was some empathy in his tone, not really concern though.
“Yeah, it’s just a biodata transfer.”
No matter how many biodata transfers they made, they never got over the pain of a sudden influx of information that accompanied it. It was a feeling not unlike the agonizing wave of memories experienced after consuming someone. Still, like consuming, it was an extremely efficient way of transmitting the data stored in their respective biomass and they had transferred gigabytes worth of data through it.
Hypnos stood silently and studied his brother as he dealt with the subsiding effects of the transfer.
“Do you know what I just gave you?”
“Yeah, your new virus.”
“Alright, it didn’t mess with your memory. Feeling any other negative effects? Drowsy, tingly, weakness, your biomass fighting itself?”
“What? What the hell are you talking about!? Can this kill me!” he yelled, glaring at Hypnos. The migraine seemed to have magically disappeared at this point.
“Probably not,” he replied calmly. “It’s weaker than Blacklight. But any minute now you're going to start killing off the foreign entity so let’s get started.”
Hypnos walked over to the closest container. There was a touchscreen keypad on the side where he tapped a few icons before a small hatch opened just below it. Inside was a thick, murky red mist that, despite the hatch being open, remained within the confines of the tank.
Hypnos knelt down and looked through the open hatch. Satisfied that it was Orion and not something that could hurt him, he stretched out his right arm, rolling up his sleeve before inserting it into the tank. Once he was up to his shoulder, he opened every single pore on his arm and began releasing trillions of copies of his virus.
“You’re sure that’s safe?” asked Thanatos.
“Orion DX-1120 is a weakened strain of Blacklight, a lot like what I’m currently tainting it with. We could bathe in this stuff and not have any ill effects.”
“But you’ve accounted for variables, right? The new strain isn’t going to blow up in our faces or anything? It’s hard to take revenge when you’re dead.”
“I designed and tested it myself, dozens of times, you don’t need to worry.”
Feeling like he had released enough of his virus into the tank, Hypnos retracted his arm, closing his pores as he did. Orion didn’t look any different.
He felt lighter.
“Oh yeah, by the way,” he said, turning to the other Evolved while rolling his sleeve back down. “The more you release the more biomass it takes. Keep that in mind.”
“Well how much should I…” he trailed off looking behind Hypnos where the hatch was still open. “What the hell is that!?”
Surprised, Hypnos turned back around. What he saw baffled him too.
The Orion substance, which had been nothing more than a hazy red soup earlier, was now glowing a brilliant white. Before either Evolved could react, the light grew even more intense and began to encompass the entire room, forcing them to close their eyes.
“WHAT THE FUUU-AHHHHHHHH!” Hypnos screamed as the light enveloped him.
Hypnos felt his biomass burning off, and it HURT. He still weighed at least a ton but now he felt like someone had doused him in boiling oil while shooting him with a flame thrower before running him over with a tank. If he could be knocked out out from pain, he probably would be. He was deeply loathing that part of himself at this point. If Thanatos was experiencing something similar, he couldn’t tell over his own anguished cries.
He tried to move, but the torment he was suffering immobilized his motor functions. The burning sensation continued and was only getting worse. He wondered if it was possible to die from physical pain alone, certainly no human could survive this.
He felt lighter and lighter every second.
When he was certain he would die from pain, the burning suddenly stopped. But he still felt like he was being crushed and he dare not open his eyes in fear of them being burned by the intense light.
Suddenly he felt a new sensation, like something was pulling him in. It took a second for his senses to come back online, but he realized that he was being pulled in the direction of the light source! He no longer felt the floor beneath his feet, he no longer felt anything at all, but he knew that he was being dragged toward whatever had put him through that hell, and he wanted no part of it.
No matter his wishes, he was still being pulled in.
