Chapter 4

Arthur stepped off the bus and took a deep breath filling his lungs with the cold morning air. He walked along the sidewalk as tourists and residents slowly began fill the streets of Moscow. Large buildings surrounded him on all sides, their architecture giving him the feeling of walking through a museum. He could see the red wall in the distance that stood between him and the Kremlin, the great cathedral featuring multiple small domes and narrow windows as well as the skyscrapers that filled the distant skyline. He couldn't deny that he was fascinated by the city, it's architecture right down to the metro stations made him feel as though he was walking through an art museum.

He had always wanted to travel and see the world. Perhaps this second life could be an opportunity to do what he didn't have the chance to. Unfortunately he was a wanted man being pursued, any thoughts of tourism would have to wait until he could guarantee his survival. Arthur had just spent nearly fifteen hours on a bus to get here. An opportunity he took to get some undisturbed sleep and think about his next course of action. He had browsed through the blueprints available to him in the hopes of finding something useful that would be easy to find materials for.

Arthur walked through the crowd with his bag over his shoulder pretending to be a tourist as his eyes scanned the surroundings for threats. He joined a group of tourists as they boarded a bus that was part of a tour guide and sat down in the back. Arthur looked out the window as the bus made its way through the city. Arthur watched the US Embassy pass by through the window as they began to drove towards the outskirts. He listened as the tour guide introduced several abandoned buildings on the edge of the city while he made a mental note of the various locations. After a while the bus stopped and the passengers all began filing out of the vehicle before scattering to different corners of the shopping center in front of them.

Once he was sure that no one was paying attention to him, Arthur slipped away from the crowd and started to make his way towards the outskirts and the abandoned buildings he saw earlier. He took extra care to avoid any surveillance along the way as he carefully made his way through the city. After half an hour Arthur found himself looking at a large rundown three story apartment building outside of the city limits. He slowly walked around the perimeter of the building, carefully scouting all possible entrances and exits and memorizing the layout of the surrounding trees and foliage before finally entering the building.

Arthur slowly made his way to the top floor and towards the northern side of the building. He pushed a loosely hanging door out of the way as he stepped into a rundown apartment. Arthur set down his bag near the northernmost window and peaked outside. He had spotted this location earlier from outside, this side of the building was heavily obscured by trees and foliage. He pulled out the paracord from his bag and tied it to a nearby radiator before letting it hang out the window to tumble down and blend in with the overgrown vines. Arthur then grabbed one of the uniforms from his bag and rolled it up before laying it out on the ground. He then cleared out some of the debris before opening up one of his rations and tossing the empty packaging on the ground. Once Arthur was done he picked up his bag and took a step out of the apartment to look at the room that now appeared to have someone living in it.

Satisfied he turned around and began making his way back down the building to the second floor where he carefully made his way to the apartment directly beneath the last without disturbing any of the trash and rubble. He walked over to the window and pulled the free hanging paracord inside before setting his bag down beneath the window. Arthur brushed away some of the dirt and dust before sitting down against the wall to start eating the ration he had previously opened. After finishing his food and hiding his trash among the other rubbish Arthur pulled out the four vials of terrazine.

'Hmm. Terrazine is normally a gas, guessed they must have found a way to condense it. Well, here goes.' Arthur thought to himself while twirling one of the vials between his fingers. He looked at the purple substance swirling around in the vial before removing the stopper. Immediately a coppery, blood-like smell assaulted his senses as he grimaced before drinking the entire vial. In just a few seconds he could feel as the substance seemed to evaporate as it reached his throat before traveling down his chest and settling in his heart.

[Terrazine: 2]

'Huh, tasted better than it smells at least. I don't feel all that different though. Maybe I have to actually unlock something for there to be a change.' Arthur pondered as he began searching through the options available. Every ability from every race in the Starcraft universe was listed in front of him, it even included special training like those of the Ghosts. Although there were a couple of abilities that seemed to be locked off requiring specific requirements and even a few that were obscured.

[????????: Requires ??????, 250 Terrazine.]

[????????: Requires ??????, 500 Terrazine.]

[????????: Requires ??????, 750 Terrazine.]

[????????: Requires ??????, 1000 Terrazine.]

Four options under evolution stood out to him, both in terms of requirement and cost. All other abilities clearly stated what he needed to do to acquire them but these four abilities told him nothing. Not to mention the high cost compared to the other abilities and evolutions that only required between one to twenty units of Terrazine at most.

'What kind of evolution would have such an extreme requirement? Forget it, survival first. I can figure that out later.' Arthur asked himself before shaking his head and refocusing on the current situation. He looked at the other three vials as he searched through the various options available to him.

'If these vials are anything like the last one then I have eight units of terrazine to use.' Arthur quickly narrowed down the abilities by cost before doing so again based on usefulness.

[Basic Ghost Training: Requires Psionic Potential, 5 terrazine. You receive the full training of a standard Ghost operative.]

[Resilient Hide: 2 terrazine. Your skin becomes tougher and more resistant to damage.]

[Enhanced Vision: 1 terrazine. Your vision is improved allowing you to maintain ocular clarity in suboptimal conditions.]

Although Arthur would have liked to choose some of the other abilities, for now these were the ones that were both helpful and affordable. The Ghosts were psionically gifted individuals who were taken and trained from birth to be elite operatives that were trained to use their Psionic abilities to augment their natural strength, speed and endurance so they could serve as commandos and assassins. Their skill set would give Arthur the extra tools he would need to make it through this. The other abilities were simply the cheapest and most helpful options left. Resilient hide to improve his survivability by at least a small degree and the enhanced vision that when combined with the Ghost training should give him an edge over any pursuers.

With his decision made Arthur downed the remaining three vials before selecting the choices in his mind. He felt the terrazine gather in his heart like last time before suddenly a burning sensation spread from his heart across his skin and towards his eyes. He shut his eyes from the pain while his skin felt as though he was dunked in a pool of boiling water. The pain in his eyes receded after a minute allowing him to open his eyes and watch as his skin, which had turned dark blue, slowly returned to its normal lightly tanned color. With the pain in his body now subsiding Arthur tried to reach for his bag only for a sudden freezing sensation to wash over his mind. The cold faded just as fast as it had appeared and when it was gone Arthur felt as though he had remembered something he forgot.

[Arthur Warden, 23.

Human

Purity of Form: 3.1%

Purity of Essence: 3%

Status: Healthy

Energy: 100%

Terrazine: 0

*Abilities

-Minor Telepathy, 6%: Detect surface thoughts and mentally communicate with those within 10 meters.

-Minor Telekinesis, 11%: Move objects weighing up to 50lbs within 11 meters.

-Psionic Physical Enhancement, 0%: Use energy to improve physical strength, speed and endurance by 100%.

-Browse

*Evolutions

-Void Born: You suffer no ill effects from exposure to the Void, Void energy or Terrazine.

-Resilient Hide: Your skin becomes tougher and more resistant to damage.

-Enhanced Vision: Your vision is improved allowing you to maintain ocular clarity in suboptimal conditions.

-Browse

*Skillsets

-Ghost Operative: As a Ghost you are skilled in Stealth, Tracking, CQC, Advanced Marksmanship and Assassination.

*Blueprints]

Arthur slowly pushed himself onto his feet as he walked into the dilapidated bathroom and stood over the sink. He looked into the broken mirror and stared at his reflection. His skin was flawless, even the scar that was left behind from before he inhabited the body was now gone. His eyes seemed to briefly glow with a violet hue as he focused causing the dark bathroom to appear as though someone had turned on the lights. He could even see a fly crawling on the wall through the reflection of the mirror. He walked out of the bathroom and picked up a brick in his hand as he clenched his fist as he focused his psionic energy. The brick cracked and crumbled in his grasp as though he was crushing a handful of chips.

'That's not bad. The process will take some getting used to though. Now I just need to find more terrazine. Maybe I can find someone that's seen or heard of one of those meteors.' Arthur grabbed the knife and glock from the bag and tucked them away behind his back underneath the jacket. Once they were secured he picked up the bag and walked over to the kitchen where he yanked the refrigerator out of place. He tore off the coils and ripped out the drip pan at the bottom before tucking the bag in the small space. Once he was done he pushed the fridge back into place before leaving the apartment building, tossing the loose parts into a different room on the first floor as he left. He made a lap around the building while stopping at the northern side of the building to use his telekinesis to ensure the concealment of the paracord before finally beginning his walk back into the city limits.