Because I feel really generous today I shall leave you with two chapters ^^
muahahahahaha
There could be some mistakes in this part though....
My friend didn't look through this one yet. Well she will probalby just read it later and tell me of all the mistakes I made xD
Anyways, enjoy the chapter everyone ^^
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The world was taken aback by the "New Hampshire massacre" as it was later called. Many countries intensified their esper laws by a tenfold. A new wave of esper hate movements evolved and fights broke out.
All in all six hundred thousand unrelated human casualties. Multiple thousand members of the military dead. And that was only a roughly estimated number since almost every single corpse had been dissolved.
A good portion of the state uninhabitable. Highly deadly bacteria still polluted the air making it almost impossible to survive in the stronger infected areas. Even hazmat suits did not protect them against the aggressive organisms. The only ones that could survive where highly powerful espers or fully suited members of the anti esper squadrons. Equipped with full body armor of the same material as their artificial limbs and self providing air tanks they were able to withstand the constant biological attacks.
Interestingly enough the information had gotten through to the military that the raiders had been at the place of origin of the contamination. To resolve the crisis and to find out more about the cause of the massacre the hunt on them was officially authorized.
As for the military members of the duo that had reacted the fastest:
Victor Polinsk is currently assumed to be killed in action. As one of the higher ranking information officers many wondered why he had even taken such a dangerous mission in the first place. His death may have been mourned by his family but the military officials quickly but him to the other thousand other files of deceased personnel.
His newly appointed partner Alexandra Mercer was also listed as kia. At least until squadron A3 under the command of Captain Ithild -as the most experienced squadron still alive in that area- searched the probable original position of the spreading virus weeks after the entire outbreak. What they found was what seemed like a corpse. Missing every single limb and most of its skin it looked nothing like a human being. As such it should not have been a big thing to find a corpse in a place where thousands had died.
The only thing that surprised the experienced squad was that it had been still intact. Everything around that area had almost been turned into a wasteland with only bacteria as living organisms in it.
The skin of the person had been destroyed beyond recognition. As such identification in that direction would be futile. Still, they took the torso with them for further inspection.
On the way out of the infected zones one of the soldiers -an low level esper with the power to send [not read] brainwaves and thoughts- noticed something.
The corpse moved. It was still alive. It was a miracle.
Screams had filled the helicopter of the squadron after this find. They had all assumed the person to be dead. After measuring the pulse it was clear as day, someone had survived the attack.
Placed under direct watch of Captain Ithild the patient was moved into a special military hospital. Multiple surgeries and tests were carried out, just to be greeted by the sight of perfectly working and healthy organs.
The only thing bothering the different doctors where dangerous brainwaves they had detected.
Parts were active that should not be active. Parts that should only work for a small amount of time where sending nonstop.
The only thing they could do was heal the skin and outer organs so the patient could wake up quickly.
After multiple weeks of healing they decided to lessen the medicine to a standard from which the patient would regain consciousness.
Captain Ithild, two members of her squad and another two doctors supervised the procedure.
Since her ears, eyes and parts of her throat had been destroyed beyond repair they had used artificial parts to make sure that the communication would work fluently.
And then, the patient screamed.
It's dark.
It hurts.
I can't see, why can I not see?
Please help me.
Can anyone hear me?
It hurts. Everything hurts.
Zoe? Are you here? I need you.
Please help me.
Darkness
Something is different.
Something is coming.
Something is inside of my bloodstream.
My body feels numb.
Thank you. I would cry if I could.
Is that you Zoe?
Darkness
My eyes feel weird.... My EYES.
My ears hurt... they hurt.
What is happening to me?
What is happening Zoe? What are you doing to me?
Darkness
The numbness is going away.
It is starting to hurt again.
Please do not make the pain come back.
Please, please, please, ple-AAAAAAAAAAAARG
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
MAKE IT STOOOOP
Light blinds me as I shout my pain into the room.
Screaming for what seems like an eternity and struggling around in what seems to be a bed I slowly start to calm down.
My legs and arms are totally gone, my entire head is free of hair. From what I can feel my skin seems to have grown back. Then I can hear a female voice speaking.
"Put out the lights will you? I doubt that she is used to anything but darkness right now."
Quickly after the whiteness in my eyes disappears and I calm myself. Everything is still hurting but I can start to ignore it.
My eyes instantly focus around inside of the room. It feels weird as everything is happening too fast for me.
I slowly lift up my head to look around. It seems that I have been strapped to a bed with multiple leathern strips. Even the smallest movement exhausts me and my head falls back onto a cushion.
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
I could only see five people standing around me looking at me with high expectations written in their faces.
Somebody steps close to my side. It is the woman that had spoken the order.
"We are still not sure if you can hear us. But if you can please show us somehow. We need to be able to communicate with you."
I open my mouth but only a croak comes out and my entire throat starts burning.
Another voice starts talking.
"Please bear with the pain. Your throat has taken considerable damage and needs to adjust to your voice. And to your way of speaking. Try to talk more please."
I do as I'm told repeating different verses of movie quotes.
Five minutes of pain and stupid quotes later my suffering suddenly ends.
What remains is a voice almost identical to my old one.
Everything becomes clear. What happened, what we had done.
"Good, it seems that your implant is working correctly. You will have a sore throat for quite some time but it should soon heal fully."
ha. As if. I had recovered enough to make use of my power and I had found scaring results. Most of my body was a wreck. Though everything was functioning normally it was absolutely different to my old one. The more I had reproduced my own DNA the more mistakes and changes had happened.
This was not important right now though.
"Good, now that you can talk, could you please tell us your name?"
They put me in an upright position so I could have a better view of the room around me. As such I recognized the person in front of me.
"You know me Captain Ithild. I am Alexandra Mercer. Viktor got himself killed and I should probably too be dead by now."
After hearing that Ithild inhales deeply.
"You're her." she starts laughing "I don't even fathom what you've been through. But it's goot that it's you, then I do not have to explain anything to you. We need your help on what happened there. What exactly happened at that rest stop?"
I'm too tired to think of a convincing lie so I just tell them the version of the truth I know, leaving out the part of me and Viktor being part of the Raiders.
It took a lot out of me and we had to stop multiple times half way through but in the end they understood everything.
The doctors had left so I was only talking with Ithild while her pawns where listening.
"So basically what you're telling us is that
She starts laughing again.
"How the flying fuck are you even alive? This is not something like a gun wound you recovered from. This is highly destructive bacteria we're talking about. haaa. Anyways, as you are now you won't be doing anything hard anymore. Is there anything you want right now? You have been through enough. For now I won't change your file so nobody asks you too many questions."
There is only one thing I need right now but something entirely else I want.
"I want revenge." is the only thing I decide on saying.
"Hmm, not what I expected. But you won't be able to hurt a fly in that condition."
That's what you think. Give me two days and my limbs will be back better than before.
"And revenge on whom?
I don't really care about them. But I have a better idea.
"If the Raiders had not fought with them this wouldn't have happened."
Blame them find them wreck them. A sinister smile covers my features.
"We are currently in charge of finding them... I could pull some favors if you want me to so you get transferred into my squadron. To be honest I told you I wanted you from the beginning."
A sigh escapes her.
"But do not take this lightly. We can cover the problems of your limbs as they would have been removed anyways. But it will get extremely painful."
My entire body still feels like it's on fire. I don't care about pain.
"Pain will not be a problem."
A skeptical face answers me.
"You should not force yourself to do something. We don't kno-"
I interrupt her.
"Do it. I don't care what it takes. You know I can help you achieve more."
"I will see what I can do. You should rest for now, I will be back in a few days. Until then please do not do anything stupid."
With that she turns around and leaves me alone strapped to the bed.
hahaha..haa.aa
Shit.
I concentrate on merging my existing tissue with the artificial organs I had been provided with. I refrained from doing too much to recover my old form since I was still in a hospital and probably under huge monitoring.
But I knew this would be hard to act without limbs... Luckily they had implanted various machines to... well, let me follow the call of nature without actually needing to stand up. Though someone cleaned me once in a while...
Easily one of the most humiliating moments in my life. Spending my time with nothing else but watching movies and talking to doctors about my condition time passed by quite quickly.
Only one thing sadly remained. My whole body was still in pain. The people monitoring my brain told me some parts of my brain where "stuck". Meaning they did not know if the constant pain would end anytime soon.
Even I with my powers could not easily fix this. I was too afraid to mess with my own brain for something -in contrast to other things- unimportant as pain.
As such I simply bared with it. It cost me my normal sleep but I was sure that I could manage... at least for now.
I refused to take painkillers. I could not need pills with a relaxing effect in my life right now. I just did not want them.
It had taken Ithild four days. Four long tiring days for me. At I guessed noon of the fourth day she came into my room again.
"Have you calmed down?" was the first thing she asked me.
"Of course I have."
"And have you thought about your decision?"
She seemed a bit uncomfortable but I was sure. This was the easiest way of getting back into contact with the Raiders while still having a good explanation for what had happened to me.
"Yes. Do it. I do not care about the pain, only about the gain."
yes I watched to many weird movies during the last few days.
"I got permission to turn you into one of us. But I trust that you will follow our orders. Is that clear?"
"Of course" I answer without delay.
"Very well, I'll tell the docs what to do. You will be out for the whole procedure, just so you know. I will explain the details after we're done. Good luck Alexandra. I will see you after this is done."
I nod to her and she leaves the room.
Shortly after multiple people in lab coats come into my room. Most of them simply study me and then back away. The last one of them, a woman with short brown hair puts something on my mouth and gas fills my lungs.
As such my mind quickly falls into oblivion.
Let's see what happens with us shall we Zoe?
Darkness.