Chapter #26

In the morning, Alex and Zeno left the safe house with the car. Zeno had no way to fly or glide like Alex just yet and Alex didn't want to leave a trail leading to Dana's location.

The road trip was silent, neither of them were in the mood to talk. They were too busy thinking about what comes next.

Alex had some fighting experience due to consuming that sergeant and major but he never fought himself.

Even then none of his memories was about using claws and shit. Alex really regretted not consuming a predator like a tiger or a lion.

Meanwhile Zeno was too happy and excited to start a conversation, he was reminiscing the night before.

Last night was great, he finally got his nanosuit even if it just got absorbed by him and he slept with his girlfriend.

Once they reached the barricade around NY they stashed the car to some other safe house before they snuck inside the city.

Blackwatch has yet to deploy viral detectors, so Alex just disguised himself as a soldier while Zeno used his invisibility to sneak in.

Once inside they immediately made a beeline for the Red Zone to start hunting and getting stronger.

Alex quickly started consuming the infected left and right, the Red zone was a free for all type of place with minimal military presence. They could go all out for a while until the army notices them.

Zeno too can do something similar to consuming with his nanosuit but that will only help him recover faster, so he just focused on getting samples from the infected before Alex ate them.

'I should be able to turn my hands into claws and such in theory.' Zeno thought as he commanded the nanobots in his body to make him a blade similar type to the one he used in his previous life.

The blade was pitch black with a golden handle made of his scales, Zeno quickly took it out of his body before he continued to kill the infected.

'As I thought, I am much better with the sword.' Zeno nodded inwardly after noticing the difference in speed.

While he has yet to reach his one VS army memories, the fighting prowess of his previous life has already been ingrained in his body.

Alex stared at the blade Zeno produced with a deadpan expression, he had been transforming his arms into different weapons depending on his needs.

'Why didn't I think of that!?' Alex exclaimed before calming down. 'I am used to fighting like this, it's not like I know how to use a sword.' He thought to himself.

The duo soon sensed the army and Blackwatch approaching and quickly fled to find a new farming spot.

They were not afraid of the army but Dana had an idea about fixing their public opinion while she put dirt on Blackwatch.

They can't be painted as the good guys if they kill innocent soldiers.

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"How are we supposed to learn offline intel if we don't consume the soldiers?" Alex asked.

They had just ran away from pursuit, and they were sitting at the roof of a tall building. There was even a conveniently placed gargoyle statue for dramatic effect.

"Well, I got what you just need." Zeno grinned while throwing a vial of blood at him.

This wasn't a video game, Alex can consume any genetic material he could get his hands on but he needs to consume the brain if he wants to get the memories.

Alex quickly consumed it, only to open his eyes in shock because of the memories he received.

Yes, Zeno had indeed cracked how to pick out memories with DNA in a similar way to Animus. It was all thanks to his Isu DNA.

It was still inferior to the real thing thus, he could only get the memories of one person instead of their whole ancestry.

"Well, this is going to make life so much easier." Alex commented.

Zeno's procedure removes the extra bits by using his supercomputer, which is now inhabited by the system to filter the useless stuff.

This means Alex no longer had to watch himself doing all the killing though his victims' eyes.

'This will make things more humane for Dana.' Zeno thought.

"Let's go we have military bases to hit." Zeno says as his body transforms into that of a soldier.

"I can only retain the last disguise I had while you can stockpile them. That suit is getting better and better in my eyes." Alex commented.

Alex was clearly jealous, he had to go through a bunch of hoops just to keep his humanity yet Zeno made it look too easy...

________

Zeno's new invention allowed the duo to sneak in and out of military bases without even being suspected.

This allowed them to quickly gather intel and follow the web of intrigue. Until they found the man they were searching for.

This scientist had definite proof that Cross has indeed merged with the Giant and he could also answer why Cross has not made a move yet and many more questions they were curious about.

The duo could indeed figure this out on their own but their time was better spent on farming levels.

According to the scientist's report. Cross indeed had gained access to the Hive Mind but he was having difficulties controlling the Giant.

The big guy was sentient enough to resist him and protect Elizabeth. Still the infected under Cross' control keep on attacking Blackwatch while sparing the civilians.

"If he has this much control, it would be impossible for him to not notice us and attack you through the Hive Mind." Zeno thought out loud.

He was fishing and boy did he catch a big one because he noticed Alex subtly blushing.

"It might have to do with Elizabeth..." Alex commented.

"Hmm?" Zeno raised an eyebrow.

"She has been shielding me... I don't know whether it's her self preservation instincts or something else. She knows we can help her." Alex says.

"I thought she wanted to infect the whole world?" Zeno said.

"She said she has been trapped in her own body for years, she wants to die." Alex said.

Zeno looked at Alex with a gentle smile that reeked of 'I don't believe your bullshit.' and reached with his hand.

Alex knew what Zeno was asking, he didn't get offended and obediently gave some of his blood to have his memories checked.

'I would have done the same.' Alex was pleased with his friend's paranoia.

Zeno had his suit filter out the unneeded memories, his relationship with Alex would crumble if he went through all of it.

In the remaining memories Zeno didn't find any evidence of tampering or any evidence of Alex being controlled.

Zeno even found out that Elizabeth knew about him, somehow and knew that he could come up with a cure that would work on her.

'Damn, she really wants to die.' Zeno finally could be sure of it. 'No wonder she wasn't the final boss.'

Zeno checked the progress of the cure and saw that it was almost completed.

"Well, I guess we need to add mercy killing to the list of things to do." Zeno said, prompting a grunt from Alex.

"We are... but I am still too weak to take that Giant head on. I need more biomass." Alex said.

It was just an excuse since Alex knew Zeno could handle the Giant easily. He just wanted to farm more.

Zeno nodded before they took off to the next farming spot. Unknowingly they had cleared most of the city, increasing their popularity.

________

In the meantime, Dana was wreaking havoc on the new and budding social media. She got everything under her hands.

Facebook, YouTube, LiveLeak all the social media one had available in 2008. She was publishing one damning evidence one right after another.

Blackwatch was too slow to delete all of them, they couldn't handle the attack.

The only reason Dana wasn't going any faster was because the internet couldn't take any more strain.

She released all the information regarding the virus and how the Blackwatch tried killing them before branding them as terrorists and to the sadistic troops inside the organization.

Slowly but surely the public view towards them was getting better.

'We might be leaving this world but I am not going while being remembered as a bioterrorist!' Dana thought to herself.

Once again Dana's ego was impenetrable as ever, not even the whole Blackwatch was able to handle her.