Conduit, Not Monster

I can still remember the day that it happened. My campaign in Iraq was interrupted by my request to come back home. Normally, when a soldier comes back, he would be greeting his family at their doorstep. How I wished that it could’ve been that way. But, it wasn’t. I came back to a plague-infested Manhattan with a new assignment: get rid of the infected in the Red Zone, the worst part of the plague-stricken city. My psych report said I had post traumatic stress disorder and a homicidal obsession with a man named Alex Mercer. What kind of man would I be if I didn’t want revenge against the killer of my family? And since he was the cause of all this, it was only fitting that I “self-assigned” myself to be his killer. When he accidentally found me, I thought I was so close to avenging my family. But, I was dead wrong. I must have stabbed him fifty times, but his wounds would heal as soon as my blade exited his flesh. Mercer then grabbed me and pinned me to the wall. He used his powers to inject me with “The Mercer Virus” and turned me into a monster like him. He said that he wanted to eradicate the Virus, but I knew not to trust him even after he claimed that the deaths of my wife, Colette, and my daughter, Amaya, weren’t his fault.

I found out that Amaya was still alive and that Mercer planned to use her to be “the mother of the New World”. I fought him, beat him a bloody pulp, and consumed him. In doing so, I was granted enough power to eradicate the Virus off the face of Manhattan. I thought that it would be all over, but I wasn’t able to cure myself. Ever since that fateful day, I had to live with the same curse that Mercer had. To this day, I can’t explain how I can do what I can with these powers even though I know how to control them. It had been three years since I beat Mercer. Even after I purged the Virus, there were still a few outbreaks across the state of New York. But, these were different from the Mercer Virus. Instead, it was called “The Ray Field Plague” and it started in Empire City. I was appointed as Blackwatch’s ally in the fight against the Plague since I had saved Manhattan. I turned it down because these bastards needed to take care of things back home, and I told them that I would take care of it. It was off to Empire City.

We were all standing on the rooftops in the same spot that we were after I purged the Virus. I said goodbye to Maya and told Dana to take care of her while I was gone. As I was walking away, Maya caught me into a hug and refused to let go.

“Why do you have to go away again, Daddy?”

“I’m sorry baby girl. But, I’m getting pulled into a new assignment. I won’t be far away and I’ll be sure to keep in touch with you. I’ll come back and we can go away just like you always wanted to.” I pulled her out of the hug and gave her an assuring smile. She nodded her head with tears in her eyes and Dana put her hand on Maya’s shoulder. I looked at Dana and I could tell that she would be worried about me.

“Just please, for the love of God, be careful.”

“Don’t worry. I will”, I assured her. And with that, my chopper flew down and I jumped in. I waved goodbye to Maya and Dana and hoped that I would be back soon so I could keep them safe. I was asleep when we arrived in the outskirts of the city. The helicopter just dropped me off and left. Almost immediately, I was confronted by some guys with rifles in their hands.

"Who the hell are you and how did you get here?" one of them asked me.

I asked them, "Do you have anyone sick with the Plague?"

Just then, a little girl walked up to us while she was coughing up blood. Right when she got to me, she collapsed and fell into my arms. I immediately went to work. I put my hand on her forehead and started to suck the Plague out of her. A few seconds later, she opened her eyes and turned into a little ball of energy. She was jumping around while clapping and squealing at the top of her lungs.

She ran up to me, gave me a hug, and said in a tiny, innocent voice, "Thank you mister!"

And with that she ran off, probably to go tell her family that a cure had arrived. The first thought in my mind was to find whoever was responsible for this Plague and make them pay. I looked back at the guys with the rifles and they were freaking out.

One of them said, "So he’s not the only one."

“Who do you mean?” I asked.

Another guy said in reply, “The guy that caused all this. Cole McGrath. We call him ‘The Demon of Empire City’.

Cole McGrath. Now I knew who I was looking for. As soon as this realization came, I took off into the air and started searching for him. 'I'm gonna find you and I'm going to kill you, you bastard', I thought to myself.

Only a few minutes later, I was about to give up. I even absorbed some of those thugs that call themselves "Reapers", but none of them knew where McGrath was. I was just walking down a ruined street when I suddenly sensed something behind me. It was coming towards me at an incredible speed, so my first response was to pull my shield up and wait for it. Suddenly, I was hit with a tremendous force, one that none of the monsters in Manhattan could compare to. I knocked it back and saw something that surprised me. Instead of it being a monster, it was a girl!

She spoke in a menacing voice filled with southern drawl. "Well, shoot. Ah'm surprised you could stop mah kick with that lil thing. But, Ah wouldn't count yourself lucky just yet."

As I was wondering what the southern girl meant, I was hit by another force from behind. But, this time I was being picked up off the ground as if I was flying. Before I could even react, something set loose a barrage of fast blows all around my body. It then knocked me back towards the ground with a punch to my gut. Then, that same southern girl jumped up towards me. She then let loose a powerful kick in the same spot in my gut and sent me hurling towards the ground. The impact left a huge crater, but I brushed it off as if it was nothing. My wounds instantly healed up and I gave the southern girl a smirk.

"Is that the best you got?" I asked proudly. The southern girl just stared at me with her jaw hanging down. I saw that she was wearing an orange and brown flannel shirt, daisy-dukes, and dark brown cowboy boots. She was also wearing a brown Stetson hat that completed her Southern look. Then, a second figure appeared beside her and it looked pretty surprised too. As I took a closer look, the second figure was another girl. She had a sky blue tanktop on with running pants to match, and tennis shoes. But, her two features that stood out the most were her rainbow colored hair and her wings.

"What the hell do you want?" I asked impatiently.

The rainbow girl spoke up first, "Well, I thought you looked pretty awesome while you were walking so we wanted to see if I was right."

The southern girl just put her face in her hand and shook her head. "You'll have ta excuse me and Rainbow Dash. We're always lookin fer a challenge these days. You never know who you might run into. Ah'm Applejack by the way."

"I don't have time for this. I've got to find Cole McGrath and make him pay for unleashing this Plague!"

Suddenly, the "Rainbow Dash" girl appeared right beside me and said, "We can take you to him. We spotted him a little while ago with two other people. But we didn't try to fight him because he looked too strong. But if you're looking to kill him, then we can help you."

"How did you get those powers in the first place?" I asked.

"We don't know," Applejack answered. "All we remember is that we ran into some guy, then there was some kinda explosion, and we woke up in the hospital at the same time. Since we found that we both had powers, we decided to team up. We been fighting Reapers ever since, and then ran into you."

'I could use people like them with their abilities', I thought to myself. Without a moments hesitation, I accepted the invitation and let them come along. Now that I had some help, I would be to take down McGrath easier now. I guess even these days, you can find people willing to help you.

As we were walking along, Applejack nudged me in the side and impatiently said, "You know when somebody gives you their name, you should give yers right?"

Without even looking at her I told her, "Sgt. James Heller." I was too focused on my objective to even think about giving my name. As I pictured myself ripping off Cole McGrath's head, I did something that I hadn't done in a long time. I actually smiled. I'm coming for you McGrath, and I'm bringing a couple of friends with me.