The beginning

Ryan was happy for it to be over. He felt this warm, tingling feeling in his fingers as he felt the blood pool around his hands from where he lay on the floor. He had a bullet lodged in his chest and could see flashes of gunfire all over the room. The roar of gunfire was a steady reverberating sound in his ears. As the bullet casings hit the floor the metallic taste of blood rose in his throat. He closed his eyes and whispered, "I hope you use your time wisely." Ryan saw only darkness around him. "This can't be right he thought to himself." "I thought that heaven would look different." Ryan tried to move but he felt something restraining him. he opened his eyes and the light blinded him as though he had just woken up from a deep sleep.

"ughh," he moaned. He heard a man yell then a loud thud. When his vision finally cleared, he looked around. Ryan was in a spherical room. The room had metal plates all along its interior surface. There was a large vault-like door on the opposite side of the room. The enclosure had a walkway in the center connecting the door to his current position. It had a grated floor and railings on both sides for protection. Ryan was being suspended in mid-air by a machine that was mounted on the ceiling. The machine had wires and tubes that were attached to the back of his body. There was a man on the floor who was reaching frantically for a red button near the door. The man had a weird-looking jumpsuit on and a gas mask with a glowing red visor in the front. Two tubes on the sides of the mask came down around his shoulders and were connected to an oxygen tank on his back. He hit the button and yelled to the person on the other side.

"The subject has woken up. Get all the security force you can and send them to the containment room."

"What happened; what did you do to me?" Ryan shouted. He started to resist the leather restraints that bound his arms and legs. When he pulled at the shackles, a humming sound could be heard from his arm and he felt this surge of strength in his arm. The strap burst apart and the force of the pull was so great it ended up ripping out a big chunk of the ceiling as well. He continued to undo the leather straps around his arms and legs, ripping out large chunks of the ceiling in the process with only his strength alone. As he tore the tubes and wires out of his back the skin would slowly close where the attachment previously was. The last remaining tube was the one in the back of his skull. When he pulled it from his head a mechanical voice sounded in his head.

"HUD view and AI activated." At this moment Ryan's entire vision took on this blue hue. When he looked at an object it would be outlined in white. Then a description would appear next to the object. The voice said, "AI protocol uploading now." A white loading bar appeared in his view. When the bar got to around 90% the voice said, "to continue, chip activation is needed." Ryan agreed to activate the chip, but he was a bit unsure if it was the right thing to do. As he thought "yes", the progress bar jumped to 100%. When the loading finished a female voice spoke, "Hello, Ryan I am your new AI. Any questions for me before we embark on your journey together?"

"Yes," thought Ryan.

"First I would like to know what I should call you"

"You can call me whatever you like best," said the AI

"Ok, I think I am going to call you Aerial because that was the name of the girl I saved before I died," said Ryan.

"I love it," remarked Aerial. "Is there anything else you would like to ask me,"

"I would also like to know what a chip is and what it does,"

"Oh yes, the chip how could I have forgotten,"

"yes, the humans implanted a chip in your brain stem that allows your body to subconsciously accumulate the gas that the parasites produce. The modifications they added to your body can store this gas and use it to do something they call elemental fission."

"Wait, what are parasites?"

"The parasites invaded earth about 70 years ago. They were a disease that humans couldn't find a cure for. The disease mutated and began to affect the patient's mental state. They then learned how to use and tamper with the subject's motor and nervous systems. They also found a way to control language and memory until eventually that person is sent into an unconscious trance completely commanded by the parasite.

"You were forced to be the humans' experimental guinea pig to see if you could be their new weapon, their savior." A newspaper article appeared in his view. It had an article on it that said "a weapon was being developed to fight off the greatest threat of our time". Ryan's name and a picture of him were under the caption.

"They modified your body and put you in virtual training where you learned to kill and fight in real situations. But it seems that because you gave that girl Aerial her life instead of taking it, you shorted out the machine, and it allowed you to return to consciousness."

"Oh one final question how do I do this elemental fission thing," asked Ryan.

"I will upload all the information on elemental fission into your HUD, "said the AI. A loading bar appeared. When the bar finished loading, Ryan was aware of a pressure within him. He took that pressure and forced it out to his skin. He felt this heat trickle down his spine and suddenly he erupted into flame. From the second his HUD turned on, Ryan spent 1 hour in his mind space, but to everyone else, it was 3 minutes which allowed a spec ops team to surround him. When Ryan finally came back to his senses, the entire room was on fire. Outside the door, there was a spec ops team of 13 people with automatic rifles pointed at his flaming figure. They all were wearing tactical gear and a gas mask like the one the man had been wearing when Ryan woke up. Most of them were petrified at what just happened. The squad had been 40 guys. They had been waiting for him to move for around 1 minute before they started to close in. When the team got within 3 feet of Ryan he exploded into flame destroying the room and killing more than half the squad. The spec ops team could see Ryan smiling through the flames before he laughed hysterically and then started to walk toward the team. As Ryan was walking towards the petrified spec ops team he shot jet streams of liquid fire at them as though he had flamethrowers attached to his hands. One by one he took out the team burning through their defenses like dry wood in a drought. As he stepped into the hallway and the chamber behind him collapsed into a burning heap, Ryan could only think to himself, "This is going to be so fun."

Ryan was walking slowly through the corridors of the facility. He was trying to find his way to the communication room. He had kept one of the spec ops team alive to interrogate him. He learned that all the cameras were in the communication room so he decided to head towards it with the directions that the soldier told him. He turned the corner and saw the communication room on the other side of the hall. He strolled down the hall with his head lifted high and a smile on his face. "Ahh, now it's time to find out where everyone is," sighed Ryan.

(Meanwhile) commander Connie Breach was searching the facility with the 50 soldiers in her group. Connie 24 years old and was just under 5 feet 9 inches tall. She had wavy blond hair that went to her chest and sky blue eyes with little flecks of green in them. The general had split the facility's force into 4 squads A, B, C, and D. each team had 50 men each. Connie was the leader of squad C.

"Clear," called lieutenant John as he looked around the corner in front of them. Three other "clears" came from the rooms on the team's right and left.

"Ok let's go. We've got to find the test subject" commanded Connie. The team rounded the corner and the second they got to the middle of the hallway, someone's laugh echoed all around them.

"You think those weapons will stop me, haha how pitiful."

"Group up" shouted Connie. At this moment Ryan fell from the vents behind the group. He looked up at the squad. Ryan was made completely out of water. He had two little balls of fire in his head to act as eyes

"Hi Connie," cooed Ryan.

"How do you know my name," called Connie.

"Oh, I know all your names" responded Ryan.

(Ryan had downloaded all the information on the facility from the coms room and is also hooked up to all the security cameras in the building,)

"You all think your so high and mighty, that you have all the power. That as long as you don't lose anything you'll be ok. I'm sorry to break it to you, but just because you don't lose anything doesn't mean you can sacrifice everyone else and say it's for the greater good." Yelled Ryan. After he said that, he started to melt into a puddle. The puddle separated into several groups and then they started to grow and take on a humanoid form. The humanoids were exact copies of Ryan but made of water. They said in unison,

"it is time for you to find out what it's like to have that power stripped from you." Six of the figures started to walk towards the squad while one stayed behind to watch. When the figures got close they produced blades of ice and started to cut down the team like a hot knife cutting through butter.

All the humanoids were attacking ten soldiers at once. The soldiers would fire at the humanoid, but the bullets would go right through him. When the team realized guns don't hurt them they tried to use knives to hit the humanoid but the humanoid would throw stakes of ice at them. When one of the squad members would get through the barrage, the beast would cut him in half with a blade comprised of solid ice. The only person who was able to stand up to Ryan's clones was Connie. She was similar to Ryan because she also had a special ability. She is able to make barriers of energy. She was fighting two of them at the same time. The only person left in the corridor was Connie everyone else was dead. She was very tired from fighting two of the clones for so long so she couldn't stop the other 4 humanoids from jumping on her. She quickly created a shield around herself. The six clones merged created a thick coat of water around Connie's shield compressing it down. The remaining figure walked toward Connie as she struggled to keep from being squished. The figure knelt down in front of Connie.

"It upsets, me that you have already forgotten my voice, your most talented pupil," said Ryan as he turned from the water form back into his human form. Connie lowered her shield and Ryan sucked in the water around her shield. Connie was dumbfounded, she was breathing hard as she whispered to herself,

"Ryan??!?!!"

(to be continued)

(1 and a half years earlier) "Again, swish, slash, swoosh, chop. Good again, slash, chop, swoosh, swish." Ryan was in site 43. The facility was a huge site underneath Arizona. Ryan was in the training room while being instructed by Connie. The drill Ryan was doing is extremely hard. A machine would shoot 20 pound balls of solid cement and Ryan had to use a sword and cut each ball of cement cleanly in half.

"Ryan."

"Yes, Connie" replied Ryan.

"I submitted your recommendation form and have received your new mission."

"Really, what is it," asked Ryan still cutting rocks without looking

"You have been assigned to infiltrate and extract a team of researchers. You have 2 weeks to complete it."

"Just remember don't take any unnecessary risks. (one week later) Her knees hit the floor. Connie could not believe what she had just read. The paper said Ryan Yeager of company C has been killed in action. The paper explained that as they were escaping Ryan was on top of the truck they escaped in fighting a parasite that jumped on the car as they escaped. Ryan got shot and fell off the car. Moments later the truck exploded and we lost the whole team. There was a picture of a car that had flipped over. The car had flames pouring out the windows and hood. The only reason they knew what happened is they used the satellites to capture an image of the car. (the entire mission was a lie)

"Why, Ryan I told you not to take risks. You were the only person I could call a friend and not my student," thought Connie.