1-Unexpected Changes in Location

Daedalus stood atop a several story building located in the center of some bustling Pennsylvania city. The greater Evolved couldn't be bothered to remember its name. He was perched on the stone lip of the building that surrounded the roof to prevent people from falling off.

Spread out in front of him were hundreds, thousands, of innocent, carefree individuals going about their daily business. Cars trundled down the streets, people walked on the sidewalk, employees worked in cubicles, and life continued. No one knew it was about to be cut short.

Shapeless, writhing tendrils covered his body and the man was gone, blue jeans, black shirt, white hoodie, and black shoes vanishing to be replaced by a small black rat. It ran to the edge of the building and over the edge, following the natural pathways created by the brickwork, quickly making its way to the ground, past five stories of workers. Reaching the ground level, it ran down the streets and disappeared into a drain, heading into the sewers.

The rat continued through the pipes, the smell of waste and rot ever present throughout the subterranean tunnels, making the being regret its advanced nose. Before long, after navigating the tunnels at a speed no rat had the right to, it arrived in a large, central chamber that was almost entirely devoid of sewage. The rat proceeded to vanish into a mass of tendrils before reforming into the man from before.

As his viral eyes adjusted to the near-black levels of darkness, he became aware of the sound of countless small movements, shuffling and twitching. Then, he could see and his eyes took in what lay in front of him without surprise. Several hundred twisted monstrosities were in front of him, milling about aimlessly. There were three types, all gruesome and grotesque.

The first and most prevalent type were massive, standing easily at six feet, often more. They were horribly over-muscled, looking as if each weighed a ton or more. Each was armored with dense white bone plates erupting straight from the skin of the beasts. They shambled on four legs, each ending in massive hunks of black flesh, but strangely no claws. Red veins snaked across their bodies endlessly, no real beginning or end. These were the Berserkers.

The next group, while nowhere near as large, looking possibly even more terrifying. They were clearly once human, but not so any more. They moved on two legs, twitching sporadically. Four arms sat attached to these beasts' sides, each ending in a clawed hand with massive, foot long claws that gleamed silver. Red flesh pulsed eerily in the darkness. They were called Maniacs and were the source of the twitching movements Daedalus heard.

The final were the most strange, not standing or walking but rather hanging, attached to the ceiling by clawed legs. Looking like large, black dogs, their bladed wings belied their true nature. Short, spiky fur offered a meager defense against bullets, but strong offense with a good charge able to impale a man in a hundred places. Glowing orange eyes stared at the man from the darkness above, revealing the sheer number of the Warpers.

Daedalus nodded approvingly. He agreed with Mercer's wisdom of switching from numbers to fear tactics. Even if Daedalus did hate the man with ever fiber of his own being.

A shadow shifted in the back, the darkness too thick for his eyes to penetrate. He wasn't worried, though. He knew what it was. It was a Reinforcer and would be out in the sunlight soon enough.

His attention was drawn to one of the Maniacs. It was no longer twitching or wandering and seemed to be walking with a purpose. A feral grin adorned its face, razor sharp teeth bared.

Inwardly sighing, Daedalus prepared to speak to the man who had essentially enslaved him.

The Maniac stopped and a voice emitted from it. The voice was two-toned, with the beast's torn vocal cords and scratchy voice overlapping Daedalus's master's dark, charismatic voice.

"I assume the siege is soon to begin?"

The greater Evolved nodded. "Yes sir, I was actually preparing to begin now. The civilians are unaware of my presence and Blackwatch patrols are minimal. They are likely focused on fighting you on the front line.

The Maniac nodded. "Good work. Infectors Jake and Kyle will arrive in two days. I expect the city to have fallen by then."

"Easily done." He assured.

The Maniac nodded again before the grin faded and it went back to twitching and shambled away. The meeting was over and the creature's mind restored.

After the problems caused by a betrayal, Mercer had instilled within all of his creations and servants a sort of 'Hive Mind.' While it wasn't a direct mental connection, it allowed him to take control of anyone exposed to it from anywhere else in the world. Mercer used it to enforce loyalty, even from his more reluctant underlings.

See, Alex Mercer's army of Evolved was separated into two main categories. The first was comprised of the psychopaths who enjoyed killing, enjoyed the feeling of flesh splitting between their claws as the innocent screamed in fear and agony. They followed Mercer's beck and call, causing no problems, and tore apart whoever was in the direction he pointed them.

The second half, the half Daedalus belonged too, were the ones who served Mercer because they were forced to. Their loyalty lied in their fear of death or worse, not enjoyment of evil things. With the addition of the Hive Mind, Mercer was able to bring this half of his army under his complete control. After all, why would a slave to rebel when the master is able to control his very mind?

Pulling himself away from his internal thoughts, Daedalus gave a single command. "Begin."

A great roar echoed through the sewers, out the grates, and into the streets of the city. The entire city ground to a halt, some in fear, others in confusion. One particular children's park was just as silent, fear stopping the playing kids in their tracks. Parents became aware of great thuds emanating from the ground and growing louder.

A massive explosion shook the park as dust and dirt filled the air, obscuring the center of the park. Children screamed in fear but no one saw anything. Parents grabbed their kids and began to make their way out of the park while other, more curious individuals moved to the edge of the dust and tried to peer in.

The dust fell to reveal a massive hole in the ground, extending at an angle underground. The sewers were visible for several dozen feet until darkness took hold and it was impossible to see. One man stepped to the edge of the hole and stared inside. Darkness met his eyes until, rather suddenly, countless pairs of glowing orange eyes appeared. With a startled shout, the man fell back from the edge, stood up, and ran away.

"Fuck that, I'm out! There's something in there!" He shouted.

While his words came close to sparking a panic, most believed him to be imagining things or simply joking. After all, there was unlikely to be anything inside a newly-formed sinkhole. Some were still nervous, though, and edged away from the pit.

With a terrifying screech, black shapes erupted from the darkness and took to the air. The people began to truly panic and ran from the shapes that were far too large to be bats. They took to the air and spread out like a dark cloud, darting to and fro. A menacing roar came from the pit and out came large white things. They charged out, beelining straight for the fleeing humans.

The Berserkers reached the crowd only to begin swinging wildly, shattering bones and pulping people through sheer force of their blows. Men, women, and children were killed, none spared in the face of sheer, bestial brutality.

The crowd was soon gone or dead and none saw as out of the darkness came the Maniacs, clawing up the sides of the pit. Taking great pleasure in the smell of blood and screams of despair, they began laughing, horrible, guttural laughs echoing from their mouths. They charged down the street, tracking the scent of man. Only a few remained, gathering bodies of the dead and piling them together.

All this Daedalus took in as he leaped out of the pit, covered in his viral armor, landing on the edge and staring at the carnage of the park. With a frown, he tore his gaze away from a young girl who had been flattened by the sheer weight of a Berserker, her organs squeezed out of her mouth. As he turned away, a Maniac slung the corpse over its shoulder and dropped it into a pile of other dead.

Daedalus heard the sounds of the pit walls crumbling as the last monster climbed out, its weight alone collapsing the earth. When he turned around, he was greeted to the sight of the Reinforcer pulling its last leg out of the hole.

The monster was eight feet tall, taller then the Berserkers. It was fifteen feet long, shown by the fact that the beast had to collapse the hole further just to get out. With six legs, it walked with a tripod gait, just as ants and beetles did. It was plated in black, chitinous armor that was rated against high-caliber bullets by Mercer himself. Its head was structured similar to an insects, two large mandibles in front of its mouth. Two straight, white horns made of bone created a means of offense for the beast, not counting sheer strength.

Triumphant at escaping the pit, the nightmare released a great foghorn of a bellow that drowned the sounds of screaming and, sparsely, gunshots. The Reinforcer lumbered to a group of bodies, three men, a woman, and the child from earlier. It opened its mouth wide, as if to eat the bodies, only for a sickening squelching sound to be heard as a red liquid sloshed out and landed on the pile. Without another thought, the beast walked away to the next pile, its steps shaking the streets.

With mild perturbed interest, Daedalus watched as the liquid settled into the bodies before they began twitching. Undergoing rapid mutation, they changed drastically before getting up. Four newly-made Maniacs sprinted away, laughter able to strike fear in any man. The fifth, the girl, shuffled slowly away.

The child had been too underdeveloped to allow rapid and extreme mutation, so it was simply reanimated. Still crushed, the Shambler did as its name suggests and shambled after the Maniacs, its damaged body doing it no favors.

Curiosity sated, Daedalus turned away and continued down the street, heading for the nearest source of gunfire. With two days to pacify the city, the Evolved wanted to be done as soon as possible. He felt no desire to torture others, unlike his comrades in Mercer's inner circle.

As he slowly meandered his way to the firefight, he appraised the effectiveness of his forces. Daedalus had not encountered any civilians. More specifically, those that were still living. Piles of corpses lined the streets due to the Maniacs, ready for the Reinforcer to propagate more of their species. The stench of blood and gore was incredibly clear, especially to one with a nose such as his.

Daedalus came around a corner and could suddenly see the source of the gunfire from up ahead. It was the pocket of Blackwatch forces that were stationed here. One was in every city near the infection that had yet to be infected themselves.

The group consisted of a number of soldiers, easily over three dozen, two APCs and a tank, the type of which Daedalus didn't care about. With a sigh, the Evolved joined the fight.

After Mercer killed Heller, he realized the weakness Evolved had against other Evolved. After installing a way for him to overpower any others, Alex Mercer set out making the Evolved more powerful. After fixing that, he then made them even more powerful against Blackwatch, making them almost immune to their weaponry. Suffice to say, it caught the private organization off-guard when their previously-effective weapons suddenly turned useless.

These upgrades were what made it possible to simply stroll up behind an APC and punch it, compromising the armor and allowing Daedalus to start tearing armor plates off. By the time the crew realized what was happening, he was inside the vehicle and killing them. After consuming the bodies and exiting the vehicles, he noticed that several Berserkers were attacking the other APC and destroying it easily.

Daedalus prepared to fight the tank that had just taken notice of the Berserkers when he heard a massive roar. He looked past the tank to see the Reinforcer charging with its horns leveled. The tank crew didn't have time to react before the nightmare hit, its horns tearing a hole through the armor plating, shredding the insides and killing the crew. Daedalus watched as the monster continued on, taking the tank and crushing a large number of the Blackwatch soldiers.

An explosion signaled the detonation of the final armored vehicle before the Berserkers turned on the remaining soldiers and massacred them without trouble. Looking over, Daedalus saw the Reinforcer brace its front right leg against the tank and pull its horns out, then approaching the soldiers to infect them. They would serve as good troops. Their armor, while useless against Redlight or Blacklight, would be effective against the humans.

Daedalus watched in silence as the old and new infected ran off, ready to continue the conquest of the city, bringing down the city and allowing Mercer's control to spread ever-farther. Naturally, most will die before the city is taken, yet will be replaced by even more. When the block was clear, Daedalus began walking toward the center of town. Before he got more than twenty feet, he heard a rustle of movements milliseconds before a massive impact hit his side.

The Evolved was thrown away and into a building, shattering the wall and nearly collapsing the entire thing. He lied still for a moment before getting up easily.

What was that? The Orion programs have been destroyed and there are no other greater infected in the city.

When he took in the sight of what attacked him, his eyes widened. It was a human, not infected, but a human. He had white hair, red and yellow eyes, and a brown suit. He had a satisfied smile as he looked at Daedalus and floated a foot off the ground. The Evolved couldn't help but speak up. "Who the hell are you?"

The thing laughed. "Just call me Disarray. You'll do quite nicely, though."

Disarray snapped his fingers and Daedalus felt all of his energy drain as he collapsed to his knees. The once-human was in disbelief, this shouldn't be possible. He can't feel tired. No matter what he thought, it didn't stop him from passing out, his consciousness fading out.

"Quite nicely, indeed."

Daedalus awoke with a sudden snap, not the gradual awakening of a normal living being. Then again, as a virus, he wasn't normal or living. He sat up, aware of a crumbling stone fortress being his new location. He stood up fully and began pondering both Disarray and his new location.

Before he could get far, he heard shouting. "Discord said its in the castle! This way!"

Several voices responded to the original feminine one, blending together into a cacophony of noise. Sighing, Daedalus shifted his arm into a blade and faced the door, ready to burst into motion and slaughter whatever was there. His surprise was great when, instead of a human coming through the door, a group of horses did instead.

Granted, horses were a rather generic term. They seemed more like ponies of different colors and types. He saw two unicorns, two pegasi, two normal, and two winged unicorns, all female. Not caring for their colors, he darted forward and swung his blade. All he knew was that he greatly desired their abilities, whatever they may be.

The one he chose, a white winged unicorn, was saved only by her speed, and she still was harmed. A blade originally aimed for her throat instead cut the tip of her horn off. She hit the ground with a cry and kicked away, his blade cleaving the ground where she had been. He was hit by another force, this one knocking him into the air. He suddenly stopped, suspended there by a blue aura.

He looked around and spotted the other winged unicorn shout something. His attention, however, was focused on gaining the power of the blue aura shimmering around her horn. He formed a tendril from his chest and shot it forward, but it was caught. He growled at her and then noticed a glow coming from the others.

A rainbow beam descending upon him was all he saw before his vision faded once more.

Celestia walked over to her sister and stared at the being, focusing on its blade. She frowned as she saw the tip of her horn missing. She sighed. Magic may be painful to use now, but she could still use it. The solar mare watched her sister struggle to lift the statue for a moment before approaching her.

"Leave it be, Luna. The Elements clearly don't want it moved."

The blue mare huffed. "You speak truth. It clearly wasn't immune to magic, yet now we can't move it. I'm simply glad Discord managed to sense its arrival. It also surprises me he warned us. This seems like it would be plenty chaotic."

"Remember, Lulu, Discord is reformed. Not only that, but I believe this would be a chaos even he doesn't like. It attacked us without warning or even speaking." Celestia returned.

Luna conceded her point. "I'll set some guards here to watch it."

Her eyes drifted to her sister's horn, specifically the missing tip, and allowed her concern and worry to show for a moment. "Focus simply on healing, dear Tia. I don't want you to hurt more than necessary."

Celestia smiled warmly. "I love you, too."