Seventeenth Jump (Prototype) Part 1

Only Heros Can Kill Monsters

            We were sadly split up at the start of the jump. Another drop-in scenario where I woke up with no idea where I was for the most part till I had ran through my head for memories and actually saw what was going on. The Prototype universe… Not exactly where I wanted to be at any given time, but at least it was one of the many universes that I knew something about.

            It took some time, but once everyone was gathered up, we worked on getting out of the city before the quarantine hit and, honestly, it wasn’t too difficult to do as we got out within the first week. It was… heartwarming to see that everyone was with me. Granted, their reasons were a mix of insults, forgiveness, and Bang’s exact words were “You just need an example to set yourself on the path of love and justice!”, so… Eh. Still, I welcomed their company and, after having to explain that I was now dating Yankaka and all of that was over… Which didn’t take long as Bang expected it and everyone else seemed fine after a week or two, we went about finding somewhere safe to set up shop for a while.

            After going through the mental checklist of what I had from the jump, however, I did realize one little issue… There would be something coming this way eventually. I don’t remember when the being actually infected me, but it apparently had and was waiting to find and finish consuming me… That or simply kill me because I was the only threat on this planet for it at this point.

            As we had setup shop in Chicago, we were fairly safe as we were a decent distance from New York. I sadly didn’t know exactly how long it might take for a now super-powered, Ains-level intelligent monstrosity to find us.

            While I hated it, I still had to eat raw biomass… While everyone in the group did know that I was infected, I kept everything turned off… I couldn’t turn off the origin, however, so I had to venture out into the closest forest in search of deer, coyotes, and other beasts to get the biomass required to continue existing at this point and, after enough time, I decided to return to New York… Needed to take Alex Mercer and that one woman whose name I can’t remember. Otherwise, the virus was going to continue to spread, destroy, and evolve.

            As I had my own abilities, I was thinking not at a disadvantage. It took a while to find Alex Mercer, but once I found him, I tracked and followed him for a few months till he found that one woman and, right when he finished consuming her (Just as he did at the end of the first game.), I lit him up like a Christmas tree with warp fire till there wasn’t even any blood left. Simple. The virus couldn’t direct itself, so the hive should fall apart, given time.

            What surprised me was the fact that I didn’t run into the Supreme Hunter. Would have thought that it was going to attack me during my time in the city, but it never did… Considering I could fly, the quarantine couldn’t stop me from leaving once my business was done, so I did instead of trying my luck.

            Well, I should have expected what I found. Everything from New York to Chicago was in ruins. People were outright missing, trees and concrete were torn up, and buildings were in shambles, if they were even present at times… Not to even try and describe what happened to anything they could even attack whatever passed through. I followed along the path as fast as my legs could physically take me. The good news was that I still had the magical aspects and, probably, the cybernetic enhancements compared to the creature, but if what the stuff I was given from the jump was true… This damn thing wasn’t going to die that easily.

            When I got back to Chicago, I was greeted with a mix of gunfire, explosions, sirens, and the yelling of both civilians and military personal. It was obvious that the creature wasn’t actually trying, otherwise there wouldn’t even be a city. “Probably trying to draw me in... I hope that my companions are staying out of it.” I commented with a slightly worried huff before continuing on into the city. Being mindful of myself, I moved as quickly as I could, flashing miles at a time in search of that sentient, viral monster.

            As the usual stories go, it found me before I ever found it. This came to my knowledge with an arm to the face. The monster close lined me, sending my head back as my feet went out from underneath me. My momentum carried me forward, sadly, causing me to skip along the concrete like a stone across water through a few buildings till I eventually came to a stop in a tank that was now twisted and torn metal, the head of one of the crew members sticking out from the wreckage to greet me. “… Ow.”

            With a huff, I climbed out of the wreckage and, just as my feet were about to touch the ground, I found my vision obscured by concrete dust and a large, white-red fist that was soon followed by another, and another, and another. Thing was, I could actually feel my face starting to cave in as these earth-shattering blows connected, each one harder than the last before I could see this grey, carapace-like substance grew around his entire arm before it came down like a hammer.

            Thinking quickly, I used my psionic ability to bring me up and fold inward, barely avoiding the strike that sent jagged obelisks of rebar and stone up into the air. I brought my legs around and snapped them out into the side of my opponents head, send him flying through the obstructions a good ten feet away. While one half of my face was slowly repairing itself, blood pouring out from that side as I floated out of the crater and set myself back down on the ground. “Ah, the-… Thrrre…” I held up one of my fingers to tell the creature, as it pulled itself up out of the stonework, to give me a moment. My free hand reached up to snap my jaw back into place. “Ack… Ah, there you are.”

            The creature was hulking, standing at what I personally thought as over seven feet tall and easily five foot wide with a surprisingly humanoid shape. It appeared similar to a white and red Carnage, only much more massive with broader shoulders and thick limbs. “There you are.” It stated, those bleach-white eyes narrowing while its fang-filled jaw never moved. It didn’t appear to possess lips, constantly baring six inch long fangs that were as thick as large kitchen knives. “Others fled… Will you flee?”

            “No, cause I am a hero-“ I was cut off short, my body dropping into a crouch to avoid a wild strike from the beast, those carapace-sheathed arms flailing over me. I brought myself up, slamming my fist straight into its vulnerable gut, only to be stopped. My forearm was embedded into its gut, the creature preventing me from moving as one of those carapace fists slowly morphed into blades, curved and sharp, reaching out as long as my forearm. “No hero. Denying monster.” It stated before that clawed hand took hold of my torso and physically tore me away itself… Leaving my arm behind in the process. “I know your memories. You deny. You’re no hero!”
            It slammed me into the ground a few times, my ribs cracking and the concrete below raising up with every crushing movement before it simply tossed me aside. It all happened so fast that I barely had time to react, my missing arm causing me quite a bit of pain… What was with me and losing limbs?! “I’m a monster to you. You deny you’re a monster and it takes a hero to kill a monster. That's how stories go.” The creature stated as I slowly climbed up to my feet.

            “Fucking shit… Why do you even care!?” I directed my working arm toward the beast, sending a blinding flash of heat, flames arcing from my eyes as it simply formed a shield to deflect the blast of heat. Flesh melted on contact, smoke and steam filling the air as the monster advanced upon me. It’s free arm took on the classic, elongated cleaver that was iconic to the series. “Worthless. A hero kills a monster… A monster kills a monster. You kill only things monsters kill.”

            From what I could tell, the creature was simply playing with me. We were still in the same area, so I know it was just chatting… Playing with something it probably considered prey at this point. My arm was slowly reforming, but I had lost sight of the first one that I had just lost. I planted my feet and burst forth, the monster’s shield caving underneath the force of my repeated blows before I simply grabbed the edge of his shield and vaulted over. Meat and sinew snapped and wrenched grotesquely under the force of my kick, the creature’s lower jaw twisting before finally snapping free.

            It’s upper fangs dug and tore into my leg, metal and blood flying as it brought that big cleaver around in a wide swing. Twisting my body sharply, I narrowly avoided the blade as it glided across my chest, the nearly monomolecular weapon cutting clothing and all as it went across. With a burst of flight, I flipped back, my hand grabbing at its jaw, completely ignoring the fact that they were impaling my palm as my feet planted themselves and, with a quick push and pull, I leaped away from the monster in a shower of blood, the top half of its head held between my fingers.

            As my other arm had yet to heal fully, I lowered my hand down, planted my foot on the torn portion of the creature’s skull, and ripped my hand free of it’s teeth. The main body never stopped moving, the head visibly reforming in a few seconds as it turned to face me. Our movements, while normal to the both of us, were barely even flashes of color to anyone who happened to be looking, sometimes it wasn’t anything more to a focused observer than sudden bursts of splattered blood and crunching sounds before their brain registered anything happened once we paused our movements.

            My arm had almost recovered by the time the creature spoke, glaring at me once again. “You can’t keep up. You will die.” Just before it finished recovering, the creature moved toward me at full speed, it’s shield melting away to form another cleaver. While I was trying to figure out how the being could form metal, I wasn’t entirely worried about that at this moment. I reached into the black void of my inventory and drew my flail, the chain straightening into a proper haft through telekinetic manipulations so that I could parry each of the blows that the creature sent my way. As I only had one hand currently, I was being slowly driven back and knocked around with each parry.

            This went on for a full minute, sparks flying with every parried blow, my body bending and twisting to avoid any secondary strikes he sent my way, even once I had my other hand once more to brace each blow, the creature’s hulking frame kept forcing me back. Even if we were moving faster than any person could help up with the blows, I forced us to a slow crawl, trying to not lose what ground I had in the process. Every few swings from the beast was returned with a single strike in return, the properties of the flail allowing my blows to shatter bone, metal, and sunder flesh, but the being continued to regenerate faster than I could even damage it. Fire would work, but I couldn’t concentrate long enough to produce anything.

            Wait… I still had Ghost Rider and other flame abilities. Hmm…