What I am
I am not a monster.
ThatÆs the first thing I want you to understand. I am not one of those slavering beasts that now roam sections of New York City, guarding their hives from intruders with lethal force. Those things follow some alien will that was created by manÆs hubris as they snatch and kill innocent people at will. They are monsters, the things from childrenÆs nightmares. I am different, I look human and my actions are the same actions any human in my position would take. The only thing those things and I have in common is that I may have been shaped by manÆs hubris as well.
My name is Alex Mercer, and the only thing I know for sure about myself, is that I know nothing about myself. I woke up a week ago in some kind of lab here in the heart of the big apple. I stumbled into a confusing world of light and sound, barely cognizant of what was going on around me. I may have been naked or in a medical gown, itÆs kind of hard to say. What I do know is that as I stumbled through the city streets, someone tried to mug me.
ThatÆs when I learned that I wasnÆt quite human anymore.
I remember being pulled into an alley and having a gun waved in my face. I remember breaking the arm that held that gun, right before I grabbed the struggling bastard by his neck and with a flick of my hands, broke it. That is when things got weird.
His limp body just kind of melted into goo. A mass of once living tissue that flowed into me. I canÆt explain it, I donÆt know why it happened or how, but I know it did. I found myself filled with knowledge. I could drive a car, I knew the locations of a few pawn shops and other business that I could buy and steal from. I even knew how to operate the .357 heÆd waved in my face with a decent amount of skill. I knew every thing he knew.
I think I threw up near the garbage dumpster
It took some time to get a handle on myself but I seem to be resilient. Especially as some of this punkÆs more recent knowledge swam to the fore. Some kind of disease had infected the city, leaving monsters and other things terrorizing its streets. The military had been called in, but had only cleared the things out of the up scale sections of the city, seemingly content to just barricade any other outbreaks in the poorer areas of New York.
What caught my eye was the symbol the thug had seen on one of the officerÆs uniform, IÆd seen the same symbol just recently, in the lab I had just fled from. It was about this time that a number of military vehicles poured into the area.
I stripped the punk of his clothes and walked away, fast, putting as much distance between me and them as I could.
ThatÆs how it started; I took refuge in a dinner and used some of the guyÆs stolen cash to get some coffee and a few pastries while I tried to figure out what to do. I mean when you have no past, no one you can call on, and people after you, what the heck would you do? I suppose I couldÆve left the city, just walked out, hopped a bus or train, but something held me back. Someone had screwed with me, someone or a group of people had felt they could just snatch me away from my life and doàsomethingà.to me. They had to pay.
I decided in that little diner that I was going to find the son of a bitch or group of bastards that fucked with my life. I was going to make them tell me what they did to me, why they did it and I was going to make them give me my memories back. If the cooperated IÆd just snap their necks like that snot nosed twit. If they refused to talk, IÆd start cutting pieces of them off until they sang. One way or another, they were going to pay.
So here I am a week later, a good deal more knowledgeable and far more powerful than I was. Seems when I absorb people I donÆt just take their memories, I take their likeness. This has made it childÆs play to walk through the city unmolested, well by humans anyways. The creatures have steadily gotten more uppity.
Case in point, IÆm currently trying to keep the snapping jaws of one of these things away from my face. Jackass here is about twice my size and all of its muscle. I should be dead, but it seems that the more people I absorb the more biomass I have and that gives me some rather useful abilities. I show this bitch one such trick by forming my skin into armor, which blunts the attacks of its racking claws, before heaving it off me.
It lands and rollÆs, coming up on all fours, snarling a challenge. I shift my arms, creating two massive limbs that end in a three fingered claws. I yank a manhole cover off the ground and do an impression of a discus thrower as the thing prepares to pounce.
I prove to be faster.
I let the manhole fly and catch the thing in the chest, mid leap. The beast getÆs sent into a nearby car, flattening its front hood and shattering the front window as it crashes into it. Already IÆm moving, legs pumping heard as they eat up the distance between us. I leaped and slam my feet into its chest before it can recover from the first blow. I slam my claws into its head as it bucks, trying to throw me. I ride the wave as its body spasms several times before going still.
I shake the gore from me as I retake my fully human form and look around, just in time to see a group of soldiers taking up position. YouÆd think theyÆd be grateful that I just ended the life of another gene trash monster. If they are, IÆd say hot lead is a funny way of showing it.
There are a lot of them, and leaping headfirst into a swarm of ready soldiers is not the best of ideas, so I run. I make straight for the nearest building and leap, grabbing the scaffold and springing up it like a crazed chimp as bullets impact all around me. Soon, I make it to the roof, which is a tangle of pipes that I thread myself through as I race for the edge. And leap out into open space.
The reason I am even in this lovely section of town has to do with one of the officers from this outfit that I recently absorbed. Seems this group, who call themselves Black Watch Special Forces, have been rounding up some of the people who are responsible for this intelligent viral contagion thatÆs gotten out and is mutating people, oh and they made me somehow as well. One of their more recent acquisitions is in safe house near Queens, at least until they can extract him. I figure that I can get in, absorbed the prick and get out before that happens so here I am.
The last few times I did this I was able to barge my way in, as the ability to toss a car or leap great distances can prove useful in preventing a quick and effective military response from a small unprepared force. This time things are different.
I land on another roof top and continue running, bounding from roof to roof until IÆm overlooking the building. Seems they removed all the vehicleÆs off the street for a block in each direction, and are making the norms walk around their established perimeter as well. I see overlapping fields of fire and a lot of alert men. In other words I see a kill zone that I donÆt think I could cross. Okay, time for plan B.
Dropping to the ground I change my body, becoming one of the soldiers IÆd killed earlier. Now before you go jumping down my throat for that, look at it from my point of view. These are not nice upstanding Marines like you see advertised on TV. These guys are black ops; theyÆve done stuff thatÆs shady on a good day and down right inhuman on most others. So I kill a few of them here and there, itÆs not like I enjoy it, IÆm just doing it because itÆs the only way for me to survive.
Anyways this chump was on patrol with his squad near the hive when I bagged him. IÆd just finished absorbing him when I got jumped by the beastie and had to kill it before getting run off by the other squads. In case your thinking that I wonÆt be able to play the part, remember I know everything he knows and I made sure that none of his squad mates will contradict my storyà.ever.
I move towards the front line, slowly, hands up showing that theyÆre empty along with a haggardness to my gait. Spot lights shine on my faþade as a voice demands ID. ôPFC Johnson 56712ö I say. ôHas anyone else from my unit returned?ö that last part seems to help convince them of who I am, I see grim shakes of my head and let my shoulders slump.
ôCome on private.ö Another soldier says. ôLetÆs get you in, the Lieutenants gonna want to know what happened out there.ö I nodded solemnly as I they take me to my objective.
A cup of hot Coffee later and IÆm sitting in the Lieutenants office, alone. No guards have been posted, and why should they be? IÆm just a poor soldier whose lost his unit. Thankfully the Commanding officer doesnÆt make me wait long before stepping in to talk with me. I have my hands around his throat before heÆs even sat down. Another flick and heÆs dead, his mind knowledge and body becoming apart of me. I know now where my target is.
I wait awhile and then leave in the form of the Lieutenant, giving orders that the soldier in there is not to be disturbed as I go to, supposedly, relay what heÆs said to command central. I head in that direction and once IÆm sure no one is looking I make a left instead of a right. After heading up a flight of stairs and down a hallway I find myself standing before two guards who snap a salute as I approach. ôAt ease.ö The two men take more a relaxed stance as I stop in front of them. ôIÆm going to have a quick word with out guest, see that weÆre not disturbed.ö A quick round of æYes sireÆ and I step into the room to find myself staring at a weasel of a man. HeÆs pinched of face and lanky of stature, with beady dark eyes and a complexion that suggests heÆs rarely seen the sun. ôMr. Vance.ö I say by way of greeting as I close the door.
He glares at me from behind horn rimmed glasses. ôI already told you that I will only talk to your commanding officer at Central.ö I smile and step a little closer, shedding my disguises and resuming my normal look. I must admit itÆs rather satisfying to see his eyes bulge as they do. ôYoà.ö I cut him off by slipping one taloned finger down his throat.
ôThankfully, I donÆt need you to talk at all.ö Fear enters his eyes just before I plunge my talons down and out his neck. He gurgles once and dies, before his biomass joins mine. With his death I grow stronger, and more knowledgeable. He didnÆt know everything, but what he does know puts me another step closer to the truth of what was done to me.
I pause to digest (heh) the information, considering my next move. Getting out of here wonÆt be a problem, IÆll be long gone by the time they realize anything is wrong. I suppose IÆll have to see where his knowledge takes me, if nothing else it should net me another piece to this puzzle.
So you see now what I am. IÆm not like the beast who kill because itÆs what they were made for. IÆm not like the men of Black Watch who kill and destroy lives because they are ordered to. I kill to learn, to grow and evolve, to find out what was done to me, and take revenge against those who did it. Maybe I have killed a few innocents, but when your life is the prize would you do any different to survive? IÆve killed a number of those creatures and their hives with these abilities as well, sure I did it because it would further my own goals, but I saved innocent lives by doing that. So you see IÆm not like the others, I am different. I am not a monster.
I just play one to get what I want.
Author notes: I recently read about a game called æPrototypeÆ thatÆs being made by Radical entertainment in the latest issue of Game Informer. After reading the article and getting a basic grasp of the story and what they are trying to do, this idea occurred to me. I mostly did this as an exercise in getting into the mindset of a character that I am not used to writing about, so please feel free to lambaste me. ItÆs the only way IÆll learn.
I am not a monster.
ThatÆs the first thing I want you to understand. I am not one of those slavering beasts that now roam sections of New York City, guarding their hives from intruders with lethal force. Those things follow some alien will that was created by manÆs hubris as they snatch and kill innocent people at will. They are monsters, the things from childrenÆs nightmares. I am different, I look human and my actions are the same actions any human in my position would take. The only thing those things and I have in common is that I may have been shaped by manÆs hubris as well.
My name is Alex Mercer, and the only thing I know for sure about myself, is that I know nothing about myself. I woke up a week ago in some kind of lab here in the heart of the big apple. I stumbled into a confusing world of light and sound, barely cognizant of what was going on around me. I may have been naked or in a medical gown, itÆs kind of hard to say. What I do know is that as I stumbled through the city streets, someone tried to mug me.
ThatÆs when I learned that I wasnÆt quite human anymore.
I remember being pulled into an alley and having a gun waved in my face. I remember breaking the arm that held that gun, right before I grabbed the struggling bastard by his neck and with a flick of my hands, broke it. That is when things got weird.
His limp body just kind of melted into goo. A mass of once living tissue that flowed into me. I canÆt explain it, I donÆt know why it happened or how, but I know it did. I found myself filled with knowledge. I could drive a car, I knew the locations of a few pawn shops and other business that I could buy and steal from. I even knew how to operate the .357 heÆd waved in my face with a decent amount of skill. I knew every thing he knew.
I think I threw up near the garbage dumpster
It took some time to get a handle on myself but I seem to be resilient. Especially as some of this punkÆs more recent knowledge swam to the fore. Some kind of disease had infected the city, leaving monsters and other things terrorizing its streets. The military had been called in, but had only cleared the things out of the up scale sections of the city, seemingly content to just barricade any other outbreaks in the poorer areas of New York.
What caught my eye was the symbol the thug had seen on one of the officerÆs uniform, IÆd seen the same symbol just recently, in the lab I had just fled from. It was about this time that a number of military vehicles poured into the area.
I stripped the punk of his clothes and walked away, fast, putting as much distance between me and them as I could.
ThatÆs how it started; I took refuge in a dinner and used some of the guyÆs stolen cash to get some coffee and a few pastries while I tried to figure out what to do. I mean when you have no past, no one you can call on, and people after you, what the heck would you do? I suppose I couldÆve left the city, just walked out, hopped a bus or train, but something held me back. Someone had screwed with me, someone or a group of people had felt they could just snatch me away from my life and doàsomethingà.to me. They had to pay.
I decided in that little diner that I was going to find the son of a bitch or group of bastards that fucked with my life. I was going to make them tell me what they did to me, why they did it and I was going to make them give me my memories back. If the cooperated IÆd just snap their necks like that snot nosed twit. If they refused to talk, IÆd start cutting pieces of them off until they sang. One way or another, they were going to pay.
So here I am a week later, a good deal more knowledgeable and far more powerful than I was. Seems when I absorb people I donÆt just take their memories, I take their likeness. This has made it childÆs play to walk through the city unmolested, well by humans anyways. The creatures have steadily gotten more uppity.
Case in point, IÆm currently trying to keep the snapping jaws of one of these things away from my face. Jackass here is about twice my size and all of its muscle. I should be dead, but it seems that the more people I absorb the more biomass I have and that gives me some rather useful abilities. I show this bitch one such trick by forming my skin into armor, which blunts the attacks of its racking claws, before heaving it off me.
It lands and rollÆs, coming up on all fours, snarling a challenge. I shift my arms, creating two massive limbs that end in a three fingered claws. I yank a manhole cover off the ground and do an impression of a discus thrower as the thing prepares to pounce.
I prove to be faster.
I let the manhole fly and catch the thing in the chest, mid leap. The beast getÆs sent into a nearby car, flattening its front hood and shattering the front window as it crashes into it. Already IÆm moving, legs pumping heard as they eat up the distance between us. I leaped and slam my feet into its chest before it can recover from the first blow. I slam my claws into its head as it bucks, trying to throw me. I ride the wave as its body spasms several times before going still.
I shake the gore from me as I retake my fully human form and look around, just in time to see a group of soldiers taking up position. YouÆd think theyÆd be grateful that I just ended the life of another gene trash monster. If they are, IÆd say hot lead is a funny way of showing it.
There are a lot of them, and leaping headfirst into a swarm of ready soldiers is not the best of ideas, so I run. I make straight for the nearest building and leap, grabbing the scaffold and springing up it like a crazed chimp as bullets impact all around me. Soon, I make it to the roof, which is a tangle of pipes that I thread myself through as I race for the edge. And leap out into open space.
The reason I am even in this lovely section of town has to do with one of the officers from this outfit that I recently absorbed. Seems this group, who call themselves Black Watch Special Forces, have been rounding up some of the people who are responsible for this intelligent viral contagion thatÆs gotten out and is mutating people, oh and they made me somehow as well. One of their more recent acquisitions is in safe house near Queens, at least until they can extract him. I figure that I can get in, absorbed the prick and get out before that happens so here I am.
The last few times I did this I was able to barge my way in, as the ability to toss a car or leap great distances can prove useful in preventing a quick and effective military response from a small unprepared force. This time things are different.
I land on another roof top and continue running, bounding from roof to roof until IÆm overlooking the building. Seems they removed all the vehicleÆs off the street for a block in each direction, and are making the norms walk around their established perimeter as well. I see overlapping fields of fire and a lot of alert men. In other words I see a kill zone that I donÆt think I could cross. Okay, time for plan B.
Dropping to the ground I change my body, becoming one of the soldiers IÆd killed earlier. Now before you go jumping down my throat for that, look at it from my point of view. These are not nice upstanding Marines like you see advertised on TV. These guys are black ops; theyÆve done stuff thatÆs shady on a good day and down right inhuman on most others. So I kill a few of them here and there, itÆs not like I enjoy it, IÆm just doing it because itÆs the only way for me to survive.
Anyways this chump was on patrol with his squad near the hive when I bagged him. IÆd just finished absorbing him when I got jumped by the beastie and had to kill it before getting run off by the other squads. In case your thinking that I wonÆt be able to play the part, remember I know everything he knows and I made sure that none of his squad mates will contradict my storyà.ever.
I move towards the front line, slowly, hands up showing that theyÆre empty along with a haggardness to my gait. Spot lights shine on my faþade as a voice demands ID. ôPFC Johnson 56712ö I say. ôHas anyone else from my unit returned?ö that last part seems to help convince them of who I am, I see grim shakes of my head and let my shoulders slump.
ôCome on private.ö Another soldier says. ôLetÆs get you in, the Lieutenants gonna want to know what happened out there.ö I nodded solemnly as I they take me to my objective.
A cup of hot Coffee later and IÆm sitting in the Lieutenants office, alone. No guards have been posted, and why should they be? IÆm just a poor soldier whose lost his unit. Thankfully the Commanding officer doesnÆt make me wait long before stepping in to talk with me. I have my hands around his throat before heÆs even sat down. Another flick and heÆs dead, his mind knowledge and body becoming apart of me. I know now where my target is.
I wait awhile and then leave in the form of the Lieutenant, giving orders that the soldier in there is not to be disturbed as I go to, supposedly, relay what heÆs said to command central. I head in that direction and once IÆm sure no one is looking I make a left instead of a right. After heading up a flight of stairs and down a hallway I find myself standing before two guards who snap a salute as I approach. ôAt ease.ö The two men take more a relaxed stance as I stop in front of them. ôIÆm going to have a quick word with out guest, see that weÆre not disturbed.ö A quick round of æYes sireÆ and I step into the room to find myself staring at a weasel of a man. HeÆs pinched of face and lanky of stature, with beady dark eyes and a complexion that suggests heÆs rarely seen the sun. ôMr. Vance.ö I say by way of greeting as I close the door.
He glares at me from behind horn rimmed glasses. ôI already told you that I will only talk to your commanding officer at Central.ö I smile and step a little closer, shedding my disguises and resuming my normal look. I must admit itÆs rather satisfying to see his eyes bulge as they do. ôYoà.ö I cut him off by slipping one taloned finger down his throat.
ôThankfully, I donÆt need you to talk at all.ö Fear enters his eyes just before I plunge my talons down and out his neck. He gurgles once and dies, before his biomass joins mine. With his death I grow stronger, and more knowledgeable. He didnÆt know everything, but what he does know puts me another step closer to the truth of what was done to me.
I pause to digest (heh) the information, considering my next move. Getting out of here wonÆt be a problem, IÆll be long gone by the time they realize anything is wrong. I suppose IÆll have to see where his knowledge takes me, if nothing else it should net me another piece to this puzzle.
So you see now what I am. IÆm not like the beast who kill because itÆs what they were made for. IÆm not like the men of Black Watch who kill and destroy lives because they are ordered to. I kill to learn, to grow and evolve, to find out what was done to me, and take revenge against those who did it. Maybe I have killed a few innocents, but when your life is the prize would you do any different to survive? IÆve killed a number of those creatures and their hives with these abilities as well, sure I did it because it would further my own goals, but I saved innocent lives by doing that. So you see IÆm not like the others, I am different. I am not a monster.
I just play one to get what I want.
Author notes: I recently read about a game called æPrototypeÆ thatÆs being made by Radical entertainment in the latest issue of Game Informer. After reading the article and getting a basic grasp of the story and what they are trying to do, this idea occurred to me. I mostly did this as an exercise in getting into the mindset of a character that I am not used to writing about, so please feel free to lambaste me. ItÆs the only way IÆll learn.