Zombie Adventure Ep.# 7[Open][NR]

Alec, Amaranth and the survivors were all surrounded by individuals clutching automatic weapons. Alec guessed that Vigilante was somewhere behind them in the crowd. It would be pretty easy to take all of these guys, but there was no guarantee that someone innocent wasn't going to get shot, and Alec wanted to see who was behind all of this. Whoever was in charge had to have quite a bit of power and know-how to have organized military trained soldiers, and to have kept this area clear of walkers.

They were being lead down the street to where there was a large wall of cars. A bus that had been modified with armor plating was being used as a "door" of sorts. None of the soldiers had said anything yet, but they kept staring with hardened and mean expressions. Alot of the survivors looked scared and terrified, but Alec had seen it all before. He kept his calm expression while looking back at them from under his hood, and if he knew Amaranth, she wouldn't be intimidated by them either.

"Open up!" said one of the soldiers up front once they all arrived at the wall of cars, which was lined with more soldiers with guns. An engine could be heard starting, and the bus moved forward, revealing a small town of sorts. Families; men, women and children could be seen moving about, coming and going from a small community of homes left untouched by the outbreak. This seemed to be the last of the civilization of Pacific City that managed to escape the catastrophe.

Past the stares of their many innocent residents, they were all lead to what seemed to be a detention area, where there were many others locked in makeshift cages devised of fences and razor wire. Several people with special white suits on complete with oxygen tanks and bubble helmets - possibly to protect them from the virus - holding special scanning devices came and began to scan everyone, to see if they were infected. Every scan, Alec's, Amaranth's and Vigilante's of course, came back negative. This let Alec know that those bitten or scratched back at the house had been successfully treated with Dez's cure.

"Alright ladies and gentlemen, my name is Mr Bart. As of now, you all do what I say, when I say. Those that don't follow orders will get shot," said an individual up front wearing a green military jacket, sporting a military haircut and black glasses. He was big and muscular, but this didn't figure much to he, Amaranth or Vigilante. "Those who resist or try to escape will get shot. Those who try to be a hero will - you guessed it folks - get shot. Now... A group of this size and none of you are infected... This means that someone formidable must be leading you. Who's in charge here?"

No one said anything at first. Alec didn't exactly want to give himself away yet. He figured he'd be found out sooner or later, what with the ring floating above his and Amaranth's heads. "I say again, who is in charge of this group? Step forward and identify yourself now." Still, silence and no movement. "...Alright, do you all really want to play it this way? Because I can play too."

"Does it really matter?" said one of the female survivors who still had a face full of tears, meaning she lost someone close to her back at the house. "We're just trying to get out of this nightmare, and you and your military goons are taking us against our will. We're all still alive and those monsters are roaming around out there! What's wrong with you people!? We haven't done anything wrong--"

Bart drew a pistol and went to aim it at her. Alec immediately went into action. With the pistol fully aimed he fired, producing screams from the crowd... but the bullet hit nothing. No one save for Amaranth or Vigilante would have been able to see what happened. The bullet fired from the gun was sliced in half, and another slash went straight through the gun. Alec was seen standing next to Bart sheathing the Kane Katana. With the sword fully back into it's housing, Bart's gun fell apart in his hands. People in the survivor crowd began patting themselves down to see if they were hit, which they weren't.

Bart looked from his pistol sliced in half to Alec. "Hmm. I think we have a winner, folks," he said as many of the goons surrounded Alec pointing their guns at him. Good. Their attention was on him and not the innocents. "With moves like that, it's obvious that you must be the one leading these people. But you're no ordinary joe... who are you?"

"Like she said, does it really matter?... I'm somebody trying to survive this nightmare. Shouldn't we all be working together? You're alive, we're alive. Those things out there would come in here and eat us all--"

One of the soldiers interrupted Alec when he hit him in the back of the head with the butt of his rifle, which produced no results except Alec turning to give him a grim expression. "Ahh, I do believe we have ourselves a bonafide tough guy! I'm impressed!" Bart said as another soldier attempted to take Alec's dufflebag off, but with it being extremely heavy, this was of course impossible. "What's in the bag, tough guy?"

"My dirty laundry."

"Ohhh, he has jokes too, you're definitely cut from a different crop..." Bart and several others then took notice of the floating rings above his and Amaranth's heads. "Hmm... well, if you can't be persuaded to talk, then perhaps this little girl--" Yet again, as Bart began to move toward Amaranth, faster than anyone would be able to see, Alec scooped up his grand daughter with his left arm. The soldiers struggled to keep up with him, and some began to look worried and skeptical, even with their automatic weapons.

"Fuck with my family and you're all dead... I was willing to play nice with you boys, but I don't know what you're all up to out here, and I don't care to know. I'm going to take these people out of this nightmare to something better, whether you like it or not. You can let us leave peacefully, or you can die, right now. The choice is yours..."

Bart and several that were fiercely loyal to him laughed, but others believed Alec's words, especially with him moving so fast and deflecting a bullet with nothing but a sword. "You're something else, kid. A shame to put down such a talented individual," Bart said, taking a rifle from one of his guys. As he and several others took aim at Alec, and Alec bent his knees to go into action again, there was another voice from nearby.

"Stand down."

Amaranth’s face, though mostly hidden by the hood of her red cape, remained emotionless. She wasn’t afraid of these guys; her speed alone would keep her from being shot and even if one of them did get off a shot her cape was bullet proof. But, there were innocent people with them who didn’t have the skill or power that herself, her grandfather, and Vigilante had, and with that in mind she kept herself peaceful just like her grandfather did.

She followed along without worry: it wasn’t the first time she had found herself in a sticky situation after all – her and Mitsukai had been in more dangerous situations than this. Guns just didn’t scare or bother Amaranth, even in a city like Pacific where her powers were stunted at best, if not voided all together.

Her curiosity peaked as they were led towards what looked like a bus that was being used as a door to block entrance to something beyond it. She knew that those with the guns must have had some decent training if they had been able to keep the people who were revealed as the bus moved safe for this long. Through the opening she continued without incident; hands hidden beneath her red cape and resting peacefully at her sides: she wouldn’t make a go for her weapons just yet and risk starting something that didn’t need to be started.

Amaranth wasn’t surprised to find that none of them of had been infected: she knew her mom wouldn’t have given them a faulty cure, especially with the risk of her own family becoming infected so high. When they were brought before Mr. Bart the first sign of emotion crossed Amaranth’s face: a single right eyebrow raising as her curiosity became known. This was the man who had been leading these people? And from the sounds of things it sounded like they didn’t have a choice but to be here? Well, that just wasn’t going to work…

Amaranth followed her grandfather and everyone else’ example when it was asked who the leader of their large group was. However, when Mr. Bart was about to fire at one of their innocent female survivors Amaranth had been about to move, to use her cape much like a shield to keep the female safe, only to see her grandfather slice the bullet in half before she even had a chance and then to do the same with the gun that Mr. Bart was holding.

When her grandfather was questioned and then hit on the back of the head with the butt of the gun from one of the soldiers Amaranth’s hands clenched into fists beneath her cape and her eyebrows lowered as a very pissed off expression crossed across her face – it didn’t matter if her grandfather just shrugged it off or not, she didn’t like standing by and watching someone puts hands on her family.

When her grandfather scooped her up and spoke his next set of words she half expected a fight to begin to start up; at least until she heard someone say stand down. Her silver colored gaze shifted over towards the direction the voice had come from, curious to see who exactly was speaking… This day was getting interesting, and fast…

The freeway was blocked. The convoy had to get off of here with Alec and Amaranth. They drove down the exit, and all of a sudden, things started to look...normal, not like a horror movie set. Big V soon found out why.

It looked like the most major of the survivors of PC were holed up here. These guys, whom he was unable to warn Alec about in time, looked like they were trained and hardened. Down the way there was a settlement filled with live people. It was surrounded by walls of cars and built up materials, but from the looks of things, they wouldn't hold up very long against a horde. Most of these guys were armed, but that wouldn't mean much in the face of a million hungry biters.

Some guy named Bart started talking, asking who was in charge, but no one answered. When he pulled a gun, V himself positioned himself to go into action, but he was beat to the punch by Alec. Again, Stretch and Jasmine were glued to the screen when he went into action, slicing the bullet and his gun faster than anyone would be able to see. V, like Amaranth, frowned when the goon hit Alec, even though it didn't look like it hurt him. V suddenly wanted to break that guy's arm. When it looked like a rumble was getting to seem unavoidable, someone said "stand down." So, before he'd go into action and begin to send bodies flying, V stayed where he was, waiting for the next episode of this zombie drama.

Another man approached the scene. He had an eye patch over his left eye and a cigar in his mouth. A trail of smoke followed him as he approached from afar, along with a nerd-looking individual wearing a lab jacket with a tablet, and an attractive female who was wearing a shirt unbuttoned enough to show off cleavage, and shorts that went all the way up to her behind, revealing long toned legs. The man was about as tall as Alec was, dressed like a mercenary, with a kevlar vest, Khaki pants and boots.

The men surrounding them lowered their guns. Alec put Amaranth back down again, rubbing the top of her hooded head as the man and his two followers approached. He looked through the crowd of survivors and gave Vigilante a strange stare before coming before Alec. After stepping around him once, the man pulled Alec's hood off to reveal his sarcastic looking face, his joint still hanging lit from his lips. Some of the men recognized him with surprised and feared looks, saying his name. The man before him said it with them.

"Alec Kane," he said, flicking ashes from his cigar. "Boss of the infamous Edge City. Well isn't it a true surprise to find someone the likes of you, here, of all places." The nerd looked at Alec with a terrified expression, which meant he had to know who he was too, whereas the female gave Alec the eye, looking toward him with an assertive expression.

"Robert Randall. Lead scientist of the Pacific City Science Committee, and the man primarily responsible for this catastrophe. Something told me you'd be the one in charge here."

"Recognize me, do you?"

"I should. I was there the day my dad did that to your eye."

Randall's look turned somewhat rageful and angry, thinking back to the day in question. "...Darkman, he calls himself," he said, taking a big drag of the cigar. "Would he happen to be here too, by chance?"

"I don't think so."

"That's a shame then..."

"He warned you something like this would happen. I did too. Now millions of people are dead or walking around out there as one of those things, and you've had to resort to hiding out here, are you satisfied?"

"...Just one small sacrifice to be made in order to secure my ascension to godhood, much like you, and that father of yours." This statement sparked off rage and remarks filled with curse words from some of the survivors, who were quickly hushed by Randall's guard.

"So... that's what this is all about then, huh. Jealous of us. As if it weren't bad enough that you made your own copycat Edge City, your own copycat Dead Zone, now you want to rise above your human limits and be on the same level me and my dad are on, eh?... I'm thinking you were successful somewhat, I saw one of your...'Smart Zombies' when I was downtown. But something tells me there's more to it than that, right?"

"Ha ha. Project #2. I take it you saw that girl... Michonne, was it?... But yes, Mr Kane, you'd be right. Michonne and the rest of the experiments in the Downtown lab were only the beginning. Show him, Phelps." Phelps was the nerd. He showed Alec, Amaranth and Vigilante the tablet and explained about their virus. It was supposed to turn a human into a super human, to allow them feats such as those Alec and Amaranth had been displaying in their time here, but there were of course problems. Most of the time, the subjects they injected it into (animals, insects, ect, ect.) turned into an infectious, brainless, flesh eating zombie. The first human test subject transformed into a hideous creature and, after killing a handful of scientists, had to be destroyed. The female Michonne among many others were the first successful subjects able to handle the virus, but there was more that they could do to re-engineer the virus, a world of possibilities, as described by Phelps.

But of course, there was an accident that released the virus and created this catastrophe, and the smartest and brightest of minds were relocated here, while everyone else were used as decoys so that they could escape here to continue the research. According to Phelps, who was Randall's top guy in this whole thing, they were close to achieving something 'revolutionary;' something that made Michonne and the rest of the Smart Zombies look weak and useless in comparison. Alec knew he couldn't let any of this get out into the rest of the known world. He knew as he stared at Phelps' tablet that he had to either come to an understanding with Randall and his people, or kill them all. At the same time he'd also have to get as many innocents out of here that he could...

Amaranth couldn’t help but grin as her grandfather rubbed the top of her head: she hadn’t liked seeing him get struck like that but the fact that he shrugged it off as he had kept her from opening her scythe and starting a bloodbath the likes of which would make the zombies look harmless in comparison. Instead, she kept herself calm and quiet as the individual who had told the others to stand down appeared with another male and a female in tow. She took in their appearances and used such to begin to judge their strengths and weaknesses.

As her grandfather and the lead scientists began to speak a frown quickly formed on Amaranth’s face: what was being said was… horrible. Millions of people had been used as decoys so their sorry asses could escape, and many had either died or been infected. The tone of voice she was picking up spoke of how little they cared: the man before them wanted to become a god, wanted to become very much like herself and her grandfather and everyone else who was like them, and he apparently had been willing to go to any lengths to secure such a thing even if it meant sacrificing people for the cause.

Amaranth’s hands clenched into fists and it took all of her inner strength not to respond to such a thing: she wanted to harm this man, not just cut him up like a Christmas dinner, but use her Spook-Fu on him and pound him into a bloody pulp with her bare hands – to hit him over and over again, one punch or kick for every harmless, innocent, victim he had harmed.

Before Amaranth could verbally respond and likely call the man a slew of curse words that would have her grounded for the rest of her un-naturally long life, something caught her attention: a young female – who looked just like a smaller version of Michonne – was dangling upside down from a crane nearby. Focusing her senses she picked up on the smell of rotting flesh and the groans of the undead. At first it took her a moment to realize what was going on, but as comprehension dawned her rage boiled over. “WHY THE HELL DO YOU HAVE THAT LITTLE GIRL DANGLING OVER A PIT OF ZOMBIES?!” Annnnd cue the Kane family rage: Amaranth couldn’t help herself as her hands began to shake – had they been anywhere else but here the weather would have begun to change around her into the nastiest storm imaginable.

Revenge: a dish best served cold. Given that Michonne was room temperature she figured that counted for something. The woman had lost track of her little partner in all of this, Drake, and therefore had started to work alone – or rather, with the horde of nearly twenty zombies that were following mindlessly after her, completely under her control. She was a smart zombie, and such a ‘position’ put her above the normal infected population, allowing her to move among them without bother, or otherwise get them to follow her and do basic tasks.

The group, with Michonne at the front, was moving right towards this little peaceful settlement with the intent of causing all sorts of hell. She had spent a long time going through many video feeds, finding random survivors that she questioned, as well as just using a lot of dumb luck and guess work, but had finally found where her sister – and the scientists – were located. She hadn’t wasted time in gathering up her small army and heading straight there.

As she neared the voice of a female, a shout that was filled with so much anger it was surprising, reached her ears “WHY THE HELL DO YOU HAVE THAT LITTLE GIRL DANGLING OVER A PIT OF ZOMBIES?!” Anger boiled through Michonne even before she could see the aforementioned little girl: it had to be her sister and likely the reason why she was dangling like that was because the scientists had expected her to show up and planned on using her as bait – or a way to keep Michonne from slaughtering them all.

With her anger and fuel now causing her to move faster she crossed the last of the distance that separated herself from those she sought. Any guards who came towards them ether being cut down by herself as she made quick work with her sword, or torn to pieces by the horde of zombies that seemed to be responding to her anger: yet, even still, those who didn’t attempt to harm, stop, or get in Michonne’s way were left unharmed and untouched by both herself and her zombie army – which proved that Michonne wasn’t here to take innocent lives, but instead was here to reclaim her sister… and kill anyone who got in her way.

“Set my sister free, or die.”, was all that Michonne bit out, loud enough for all to hear… As Michonne waited for the scientists responses she took notice of a few individuals who looked familiar and a girl with a red cape and found herself wondering exactly why they were here in the settlement, too: surely they weren't on the scientists side? Not if that girl was the one who had shouted...

So this was something out of a video game.

The guy with the eye patch looked at Big V all weird like before he went over to Alec. He was the guy behind all of this craziness, and wanted to be a super man. So he sacrificed people's lives and destroyed this whole city for just that. With the way he was talking, he didn't even care about the horrible things he'd done. Vigilante found himself wanting to kick this guy in his face and break his jaw.

Before he could take any action or anything though, Amaranth yelled what she yelled. After he saw the little girl being dangled over the pit of zombies, there were soon the sounds of someone being ripped apart along with those of the undead. V caught sight of the Smart Zombie from downtown again. The girl being dangled over the pit was her sister, apparently. As some of the eye patch dude's guards were being torn up and eaten, V was pretty sure the shit was about to hit the fan.

"Matt, your new super mode parts are on the way to you! they should get there in about 5 minutes! Try and hold out till then!" said Stretch.

"Right on time..."

Amaranth started yelling. Alec cursed himself, for his bad temper had been passed on to Dez, and then to Amaranth. He could still remember the category 5 hurricane near Sunset back in all of that mess with Flynn and Demi. If all of their powers were still active here, he was sure Amaranth's fury would have whipped up thunderstorms and tornadoes. Alec himself moved eyes that were still crimson Sharingan over toward an area where there was a crane, a small child dangling from a chain, and the pit of walkers below her. Although he didn't show the same reaction that Amaranth did, the sight of such caused a twinge of anger to begin deep within, along with the rest of everything Phelps was explaining to them.

Randall looked like he was about to answer, until there were screams and the sounds of flesh being ripped to bone, along with several gunshots. Alec looked in that direction next, to see the smart walker from downtown again. "Why?" he asked again, smiling, flicking ashes from the cigar, even with Michonne's threat. "That's why. Bait... and she fell for it." The remainder of the guard spread out and pointed most of their weapons toward Michonne. Some of them began to head shot the walkers that came in with her. Randall produced a small remote control from his pocket, showing it toward Michonne.

"It's good to see you again, #2... You've taken to your new abilities quite well. Full control of the lower drones... So actually, I have a demand of my own. Our new project is nearly complete, but in order to finish it we will need another sample of your blood. We will have it, one way or another. The easiest way would be to just give it to us. The hard way," he said pressing a button, causing the crane to begin lowering the girl down toward the pit. "...That would involve your sister being reduced to a red stain and bones, and you along with her." Alec had decided he'd seen enough death. He just wanted all of this madness and chaos to end.

"This doesn't have to go down like this. If you seriously want to be a super human, I can arrange it. All you have to do is call all of this off. There's too many innocent people mixed up in all of this shit. My daughter back home, she made a cure to this virus, and it works. I'm willing to help you out despite all of the evil shit you've done since all this began. The majority of your society here, we can save them. We can fix this city, start over. Whoever doesn't want to stay here, they can come to Edge and start over. You know just like I know that if a horde comes through here, you're all dead. Those walls won't keep them out for long... I don't like playing god, but if you really want to be more than you are, I can arrange this. All I ask is that you call all of this shit off now. Nobody else has to die..."

People began to look worried when Alec spoke of the walls not being enough to keep out a horde. Randall almost seemed that he was considering Alec's offer. In the end he just frowned evily and called Alec a liar. So, without changing his expression any, Alec came to the conclusion that this would end violently. He gave a glance toward Vigilante as he patted Amaranth atop her head, nodding his head to him. He hoped that they both got the message, which was bascially, 'things are about to get violent.'

A roundhouse kick was launched from Alec that smashed into the left side of Randall's face, knocking the remote from his hands and him into the air. Alec grabbed the control quickly and moved off, pushing Amaranth in the opposite direction. All-out mayhem began at that point. Survivors began fighting the guards, and gunshots began to fill the air. Alec stopped the chain from lowering Michonne's sister into the zombie pit and tossed the control in Michonne's direction. Several of the guards started shooting at Alec, but the bullets were deflected and dodged.

Randall, having landed from the kick and wiping blood from a side of his mouth, grabbed up Phelps in the chaos. "Give it to me, it's time," he said, looking at Alec handling his guard with a look of envy and rage.

"But-but it's not ready, we still need some of #2's blood---" Phelps started to say.

"Give it to me NOW! It will have to do! Maybe I won't get to have revenge against Darkman but his son and that child there will have to be enough!"

"But sir, this could have disastrous results on your body! It will create irreversible side-effects---" Phelps started to say again, before Randall pulled his pistol and shot Phelps in the gut. After a groan, the scientist went down. Randall reached into Phelps' lab coat and pulled from it a syringe, filled with an orange substance that looked to be glowing. He injected it into the jugular vein of his neck. He started to laugh while his body suddenly started expanding. His body swelled so much that he burst out of his clothes. His skin turned a black color, and the grotesque sounds of bones, flesh and internal organs being rearranged was loud to whoever was around. Randall became something that wasn't Randall anymore, and everyone, even the remaining guards - who'd abandoned following Randall's orders at the sight of him shooting Phelps and transforming - turned to look at him.

"Amaranth, Vigilante... Get as many survivors as you can and get to the RV's. Get out of here... leave this guy to me. I'll buy you all time and be right behind you when i'm done here. Get back on the Super Freeway and keep going toward The Bridge, it'll take you right to it. Don't argue with me, go now."

This thing now stood about 8 feet tall and had boulder-looking muscles. It no longer resembled Robert Randall in any way, he was something else now. Taking a ninja-like pose, Alec clutched the handle to the Kane Katana, wondering how, or even if he'd be able to take this thing down.

Amaranth looked over towards Michonne and her small zombie army she had with her. As the older female spoke up it became clear who the child was: her sister, an apparent hostage that the scientists were using as bait to get Michonne to show up. Listening to the leaders of this whole mess speak only caused disgust to boil alongside of Amaranth's rage: to use a small child for such means with no regard of what might happen to her was unforgivable.

However, before Amaranth could think of anything to say to the man all hell was beginning to break lose. The leader pulled out a remote, something that likely was able to control Michonne, as guards started to fire at the zombies with her - headshots aimed to take down the army before they could do any more damage. In all of the mayhem and chaos Amaranth began to notice one thing: these zombies that Michonne was clearly controlling didn't harm those who were innocent, instead they targeted only the guards or those who got in Michonne's way - that spoke volumes on the sort of person Michonne was even after all of this.

When her grandfather struck and got the remote from the man and tossed it to Michonne Amaranth found herself being pushed off in the opposite direction. Behind her she could hear a commotion - a brief argument that ended in the death of the lead scientists. Following that was a series of disgusting sounds that caused Amaranth to look back even as her grandfather began to shout instructions for her and Vigilante to get everyone to the bridge, to safety. The leader of all of this was beginning to change after injecting himself with a glowing liqued: Amaranth didn't want to know what he was about to turn into.

So, instead she focused her attention on the little girl still dangling over the zombies. Using the boots that Devon had sent her she launched herself into the air and straight to the crane while unfolding her scythe. With a quick movement she sliced through the chain, freed the girl, and grabbed her before she could drop. She landed on the other side of the pit with the girl in her arms, putting her down. "Everyone follow us, we need to get you out of here!." With that she waved her arm, ushering the attention of those around on herself as she began to lead the way towards the RV's - knowing that hell was likely breaking lose behind them and they would need to get all of the people away, quickly. "Find room where you can! Squeeze in. We won't have to stay like this for long, just long enough to get to the bridge and out of here!" Amaranth called out as she took position on top of the first RV. The RV's filled up quickly enough, people squeezing in and making room so that everyone could fit. Those who couldn't climbed on top of the RV's, or otherwise held on to the ladders and sides so that they weren't left behind.

When everyone was in the RV's she banged on the roof of the one she was on as a signal for them to get going. The RV took off and she glanced backwards, hoping to see her grandfather catching up with them soon enough...

Michonne watched as the man behind all of this pulled out a remote: a frown forming quickly on her face. She had known they had had backup plans installed encase one of the projects had gotten out of their control, but Michonne had thought she had secured all of those methods of control already - which was the only reason she had shown up here so openly. As the zombies around her were cut down she barely noticed or cared - there was truly nothing that could be done to save them, even if there was a cure like Alec had spoken of it wouldn't help them, they were too far gone and rotted and dead for anything to be helpful for them. So, death truly was likely the best method out for them. No, instead her focus was torn between the remote the guy behind all of this held and her sister who was still dangling over a pit of walking death.

Michonne was surprised when Alec suddenly got his hands on the remote and instead of keeping it for himself - something that most people would have likely done in the current situation - it tossed it to her. She caught it with a shocked look on her face but didn't dawdle. She rushed over to where Amaranth and her sister stood after Amaranth saved her and knelt down in front of her sister while Amaranth began to shout instructions to the people around. "Listen to me, go with that girl with the red cape. You'll be safe with her, I know it. I need to stay back here and make sure no one gets hurt, alright?" Her sister, looking like she wanted to cry, nodded and hugged her briefly before running off to join in with the people on the first RV, the one that Amaranth positioned herself on top of.

Michonne therefore turned her attention to the area as a whole. The leader behind this mess had injected himself with something which Michonne figured was likely the same thing she herself had been injected with - albiet a higher strengthed dose to turn him into something even more powerful. But, that wasn't what bothered her. No, what her attention was more focused on was the zombies that had begun to show up, drawn to the area by the commotion. Michonne pushed out the 'web'of her control, encomposing the zombies and forcing them to stand by while the RV's were finished being loaded up. She forced them to remain idle while the RV's began to drive away, and remained behind to ensure that her control was kept over them so they didn't attack Alec during whatever it was he was about to do.

Meanwhile, she kept herself out of the way, not wanting to interfere outside of keeping the zombies away, all while hoping this ended quickly enough and that Alec was alive when it was all over and done with.

Something flew in from above, right as the shit hit the fan. the leader wasn't listening to the offer Alec made him. He eventually shot the nerd guy with him, and then injected himself with something. This whole situation stared to seem more and more like a video game when the man Randall started growing and changing.

A small rocket boosted capsule landed and opened to reveal a mechanical upgrade for the suit. Vigilante quickly made his way over and allowed the upgrade to attach itself to the suit, seeing new readings and functions appear on the helmet readout.

"Dude, this is gonna make you super fast and super strong," said Stretch. "But it's a double-edged sword, so when you turn it off, it's probably gonna make you really tired afterwards, so try not to use it too much, alright? Also, try not to use it too long either; even you can get injured if you over-do it, alright?"

"Got it, thanks a bunch bro," was Vigilante's response. He was prepared to put this new upgrade into use and help Alec take this guy out, but then he was told to evacuate with the survivors. V was suddenly disappointed since this looked to be the final epic battle after the strange adventure in this city, but it seemed Alec wanted to handle this himself. V was prepared to protest, but Alec told them not to argue. Amaranth immediately went and began getting people away from here, so Vigilante decided against protesting.

Whatever happened between them and Alec's father Darkman went way back before him, so this was none of his business. So, along with Amaranth, V started shuffling people toward the RVs. When everyone was in and on all of them, V sat on the back of the last one, still somewhat disappointed that he wasn't able to test his new upgrade, hoping Alec finished this guy quickly and caught up to them.

Amaranth and Vigilante both did as they were told. The Smart Zombie must have done something to cause the walkers to stop moving, which allowed all of the remaining survivors to escape, meaning there was only him, Randall, and the smart zombie. This was perfect.

Despite Randall's now large size, he was now almost as fast as Alec. if it weren't for the Sharingan's predictive abilities, Alec probably would have been hit by the right hand that came speeding in his direction, but the ocular abilities warned him just in time for a last second dodge. Rapid blows came in the direction of the fallen angel, all of which were dodged. Am imhuman growl sound came from Randall's throat as it attempted to thrash Alec. When Alec counter attacked with the Katana, he could see that the slashes did little to no damage, and furthermore, the wounds almost immediately closed back up.

Alec just grinned at this revelation. Even after he nearly cut Randall's head off, Randall simply grabbed his head and situated it back atop his neck to allow it to fuse back to his body. Alec knew that if sword attacks weren't doing any major damage to this thing, gun attacks wouldn't fair any better. Physical attacks seemed to only further piss Randall off. A succession of punches and kicks smashed into his face and mid-section with the force that would probably kill an ordinary human, yet Randall just shrugged them off as if they were mere love taps.

After so long of attacking and dodging, Alec began to eventually tire. Randall began to realize this, and smiled with a mouthful of razor teeth. When Randall swung at Alec, his attacks began to graze him, as Alec was barely able to dodge out of the way anymore. When it looked like Alec was about to be hit, however, is when Randall began to undergo a strange reaction. His body began to emit a smoke-like steam. He began to scream loudly as if he were in pain. Slowly, his body began to shrink as more grotesque sounds came from within. His legs and arms looked like they were melting away into a fluid, and soon his entire body looked like a blob. Alec had a chance to catch his breath while he watched Randall became a pile of ooze and foul smelling fluids; the only part of his body remaining intact being his head. Alec figured that the unfinished formula ran its course, and now Randall was suffering the consequences of injecting himself with the unfinished product. Alec simply stared at what remained of the man with no words. It was an ending fitting for him. Alec sheathed his sword and pulled his hood back on, giving a glance over toward Michonne.

"...There's room for you in Edge, if you want it. I don't expect you to stay here, in this graveyard... So long as you can keep that zombie side of yourself in line, you're welcome..."

With this said, Alec turned and began running, headed for the bridge, and out of this nightmare...

After Amaranth was situated on top of the RV she glanced back several times, both noticing that Vigilante had taken up a spot on the back of the last one, aher ind that her grandfather hadn't caught up to them quite yet. Still, she continued to press forward as instructed. It was quite easy due to whatever she assumed Michonne was doing that kept all of the zombies just standing there instead of ripping into everyone like butter, and she hoped to see the female follow them too. This was no place for someone to live, and Michonne had seemed to show a level of intelligence that Amaranth figured meant she could live among humans and everyone else the same as vampires and other creatures who fed on humans or flesh did.

As they neared the bridge Amaranth's worry grew a bit and she glanced backwards one more time, noticing at that point that her grandfather was indeed catching up with them. A grin spread across her face and she turned her attention forward, keeping watch for anything that might attempt to jump out and have a go - though it seemed like all of the danger was behind them.

With her mood in higher spirits she began to think of what would happen when they got home. Amaranth knew she had left technically without permission of either of her parents, and even though she was fifteen years old, she should have at least said something to them, so she was sure that was one thing she was going to have to deal with. How worried were they? Would they be waiting at the tower for her when she got back? Or perhaps on the island to give her a stern lecture and ground her till she was a hundred? Another thing was an idea that had formed in her mind, expansions to her island: ways to increase the populations of animals by having her island contain all terrain and weather types, which would help fight against some of the testing and stuff the scientists like the ones lying dead behind them had done: it would also increase vacationers as she could appeal to more types of people - an area for those who wanted to vacation in such areas and the animals or those who preferred 'roughing it'. So, with those two thoughts in mind she made plans to speak with Niala as soon as they got back in Edge City before heading home...

A small bump in the road indicated them making it to the bridge itself, with nothing but making it to Edge in the near future.

Michonne had watched the fight take place without interfering. She kept her focus souly on the zombies to keep them from attempting to attack Alec at the same time as the man who had injected himself with the virus. What the leader had turned into was the sort of thing that could give anyone nightmares, and her worry had grown, brow furrowing and a frown forming on her face, as she noticed that the damage that Alec was inflicting wasn't lasting.

However, not before long it seemed that the leader had in fact sealed his own fate; the injection caused him to suddenly begin to break down in a most horrifying way. Soon he was reduced to what to her resembled a nasty glob of ooze and puss, and then Alec was speaking to her. She shifted her attention on him and couldn't help but ponder his words: she was allowed to come to Edge and stay too, if she could control her zombie nature. Such a thing wasn't necessarily hard; yes she craved meat like the zombies but she kept that to raw animal meats, not gnawing on humans.

So, she gave a nod to him and allowed him to take off first before following, keeping her control on the nearest zombies to keep them away from Alec and to keep them from giving chase. When the RV's and the bridge came into view Michonne couldn't help but grin: this nightmare was over and a new adventure was likely about to begin. The best part was all of those who had tested or experimented on her were dead. The only dark spot in her thoughts was her wonderings of what ever happened to Drake, as she hadn't seen him since the day she rescued him by the scientist's building, the day she had caught him loading up on supplies and weapons...

On The bridge, V started to worry. Did Alec get pummeled by that big ugly guy? What was he supposed to say to Jr if he went back without him? he seriously started to worry as the convoy of RVs began to drive across the bridge and out of this nightmare.

But then he could see someone running toward them from a distance. When he started to get closer V could see he was Alec. He let out the breath he was holding and lie on his back, finally beginning to relax. So it seemed even normal things couldn't stop that guy. V wished he could have seen how he took that monster man out, or even have helped him do it.

He laughed some. With nothing else to worry about, he waited until they were back home, glad that this horror movie was finally over with.

Alec quickly caught up to the convoy of RVs and jumped onto the last one with Vigilante. Looking ahead, he could see Amaranth looking back at him, so he waved ahead to her to let her know he was fine. As the convoy crossed the bridge, Alec's halo suddenly flared back to life, beginning to glow brightly above his head. He knew it would be the same with Amaranth, signaling that he was out of Pacific City's barrier and he was now able to use all of his powers again. But for some strange reason, he didn't want to.

Should he run into his father somewhere in Edge, Alec planned to have a discussion with him. With another interesting adventure in the books, Alec patted Vigilante's head several times with a grin, wanting to get home to ensure everyone that he was ok.

\Exit\