Chapter 2: Freedom And Sacrifice

“Wake, Wake.” Chuckled Dr. Stinley, my head instantly shot up, I was out of the glass box, and onto a metal wall where I was chained. I looked down too see eighty four needles coming out of my body, I don’t know how I knew that number, but somehow I did. I still wasn’t sure where I was so I shouted at Stinley.
“Shit! Where t-the f-fu-fuck am I?!” I was shocked at the extent my teeth were chattering, life in a robotic suit makes you forget how cold really effects us. I was also surprised at how vulnerable I sounded, like a little boy watching his father attack his mother, nothing at all like I had planned on sounding.
“Well good morning Mr. Rotting Corpse, and how was you week of sleep?” I suddenly remembered the explosion, and what Jacobs said.
“Week? Jacobs said a few hours!” I didn’t like the idea that I had been killed and left to rot, I felt very unclean.
“Of course, and then I would find you, tell the police get some body bags, hello city morgue, goodbye Gracie, and now you’re here” chuckled Dr. Stinley, I was quickly growing to hate his voice.
“I should still be dead, I was for a week!” Things just DON’T work like this, once your dead you have a day at the most, not weeks.
“And that’s why we are both stan…I am standing here and you are hanging around eh?” he laughed, like everything about this situation was so fucking funny. I wanted answer’s and I wanted them now.
“Explain.” I said simply.
“Might as well, we need to fix you up a bit more, I was supposed to wake you up after the surgery, but I bore easily,” He laughed as some more needles came out, I have no idea how many, ten…fifteen? Either way, I felt them go in, and it felt like a lot more then just ten, or any number with double digits. “It’s quite simple really, first we killed you, unfortunately your heart got injured, sorry about that by the way, anyways after we collected your body, we gave you a shot of Resuroplin, a drug where depending on the dose, can bring your body and soul from the dead…tell me, are you a religious man?” I didn’t know how to answer, I used to be…but that was a long time ago…before any of this…
“No.” I simply answered. Lights seemed to be fading and at the same time increasing, suddenly I felt nothing…it was weird, absolutely nothing at all…not even my own heart beat. Dr. Stinley smiled soon after the feeling had gone.
“Tell me…how do you feel?” he smirked and glanced over to me.
“I can’t FEEL anything.” I stated knowing full well that he knew.
“And that doesn’t scare you?” he questioned.
“I’m dead… why should I feel anything at all.” Honestly I was terrified, but I had no energy to feel the fear. Suddenly I could feel Dr. Stinley’s excitement go down.
“Hades angel…” he whispered under his breath.
“I’m sorry?” I replied not know what he was talking about.
“You’re the angel that Hades did not feel had come by it’s time. You are his reject.” He silently went back to his work. I had nothing to say, I just looked at the continuous needles entering through my skin, wish I felt something, not even pain, but pressure, just to let me know that this wasn’t a dream, the pain I had felt only moments before had become nothing more then a distant memory. Although I despised pain…I needed it… finally I heard him chime up in a very calm controlled voice.
“Done.” He spoke solemnly, I lowered my head and closed my eyes, completely drained of life.
“Good, you’ve done what you wanted, you can bring people back to life, you can create zombies, now let me go.” I knew he wouldn’t no matter how many times I reason with him. Suddenly he smirked, and started laughing
“You will feel this, I am only wondering…will you survive it?” he snarled. I cringed at his words. Suddenly I felt it, it started with a heat in my muscle tissue, then in my spine. It worked it’s way through my body and the temperature kept rising. Then my body went into a tensing process, every muscle in my body tensed up and the pain went wild. Then my body went through spasms. I couldn’t handle it, tear ran down my face, but when I opened my eyes and looked down I realized I wasn’t crying, it was blood. It poured from my eye sockets and I could feel my fingers ripping apart. I tried screaming but my mouth seemed closed up, I looked around, the sick bastard put up a mirror so I could see myself, somehow the skin around my face warped it’s way to close up my mouth, the skin had completely enclosed it. My whole body shook, I couldn’t look at the mirror any more. I closed my eyes. I tried blacking out, anything. How could, only a few minutes ago, I begging only a few minutes ago to feel anything including pain to know I was alive, and now, I felt so much pain, only a few minutes later, and I prayed and beckoned for death to find me. My vision seemed to be screaming, it was like I was a wild animal with so much adrenalin going through his system every heart beat seemed to be warping my vision, zooming in and zooming out, colour rich rooms one minute, drained to grey the next. Then, nothing, all I saw was black, I saw a skeleton walk towards me, he held out his hand, and pointed to me. He did not speak… I tried running towards him. I couldn’t, soon I looked besides me. It was a white screen. With a control panel in the center… there I was, I pulled the switch. Then everything went green and faded to black. I looked back at the skeleton, it walked away, and everything faded to black one more time. Suddenly I heard beeping. It was slow… but growing louder and more rapid. I opened my eyes. There were a bunch of doctors.
“He’s back Dr.” said one of them as they all moved away. I was paralyzed to the floor. I looked around, and there was Stinley.
“Congratulations, you just passed out.”
“Please let me go.” I spoke the words to the best of my capability, but they came out dry.
“Nope, too much work to do,” he leaned over a microphone and spoke into it.
“Enhancements are complete, we just need to install the control.” I couldn’t make out what I can only assume Jacobs said, but Stinley replied sourly, “Yes sir…” he turned to me, while holding a needle with some sort of pink liquid in the holding part of the syringe.
“How’s work been so far Mikey boy.” This informed me of one thing, he knew my background, shit. He could get Jorm involved in this…But Vanessa had to be safe.
“Fired.” I attempted to say, although it came out ‘Fured’.
“Oh yes, Fired? Well… that’s pretty funny.” He started to giggle, which then turned into laughing manically. I didn’t ask, I figured I might need to save my strength.
“We went in search of your information, we figured, FBI headquarters, sounds good enough, but… no one there exactly wanted to just give us your information, but listen to me rambling on when I should just tell you the facts.” He must have be rabling off track, because I started to regain feeling in my body, almost at once, but I controlled myself, getting ready to make one fatal attack.
“We burned it down Mikey… the building with all it’s little, vulnerable puppets…” he started to laugh then changed his voice to sound like a common announcer you would hear on a PDA, “Attention can all employee’s come to the conference room for a in-depth debate on pay.” He laughed again. I had all feeling back. But I waited, becoming more aware of my surroundings.
“And how’s Vanessa?” he asked while barley turning his head to my direction. I didn’t answer, I suppose it helped to my defenseless act, but it was just so I wouldn’t show anger in my voice or completely lose it and waste my one chance on him.
“Well…you wouldn’t know.” Once again I controlled myself…but it was becoming increasingly harder.
“Well…she’s fine… at the moment… but,” he walked over to me, crouched down, grabbed my hand and had me feel my neck. There was a cord…
“Feel that? If that cord is removed then not only will there be deadly toxins released into your system, but also in the holding cell where dear ol’ Vanessa lays, now, with your enhancements I suppose you could make it to her, but she will almost defiantly become a vegetable.” He started to laugh, I looked around. I saw a case of Resuroplin, I could make it… I saw the map a smaller screen showing the blue prints to the building…I could make it. I jumped up and ran at Stinley, he turned around getting ready to laugh, but I was too close, I simply punched him in the face, his head flew off… I couldn’t believe it… it was impossible… no one can…should do this! I couldn’t think about that right now. I grabbed three bottles of Resuroplin and I started running down the halls…no guards…nothing…I ran, almost forgetting how to get to the room Vanessa was in, I noticed how fast I was running, and how easily it was to quickly change to a sharp left or right turn. I found the room in a matter of seconds. I ran in saw the cell she was in, I didn’t stop, I hit the metal straight on, it bent and broke. I grabbed inside and tore the metal apart. I grabbed Vanessa and tossed her on the ground…not intentionally. But as terrible as it was to admit, she scared me. He face was wrinkled, he eyes bulging out… there was no doubt it was Vanessa… I could see the birthmark on her neck that looked like a hicky that I would joke with her about. My eyes filled with tears.
“Fuck! No, Vanessa…” I grabbed her and held her tight. I heard her arm snap. I looked, I had ripped off her arm, I heard the dry cry of pain that emitted through her mouth.
“I tried! I tried to get to you! I’m So sorry! Shit!” I looked at her, it took this entire time for a tear drop to form in her eye, yet I had many to spare. I looked at a table on the other side of the room. There was a gun on it. I started to cry harder. I got up and walked over to the gun. I bent over Vanessa, still crying.
“I’m sorry.” I muttered. I looked at her, by the noises she was emitting, plus the movements of her dehydrated lips, I could tell exactly what she was saying.
“Kill me.” I closed my eyes, my arm fell to the ground.
“I’m so sorry.” I raised the gun and held it to her fore head. I clenched my teeth and pulled the trigger, and I could swear I felt her go past me. She was on her way to a better place…but I couldn’t feel happy, I did this…I could have let them kill me… she might have had a chance. I opened my eyes to the sound of an all too familiar voice.
“The drug wouldn’t have worked.” I looked at a wall…tinted glass… I saw Jacobs.
“What…Did you do to me!?” I yelled.
“I enhanced you. You are stronger, faster then a car, but slower then a bullet, you are immune to impact…as in you can jump off a skyscraper back in the clean days and you wouldn’t die, and you have enhanced awareness. And of course with these qualities, you can’t fly but you sure as hell can jump far.” I barley remember what he said, I was too full of rage to concentrate. Instead of speaking with him I just ran through the glass, I nailed him to the floor. I looked into his eyes, this was the real Jacobs. He laughed at me.
“You don’t think I can break my own invention?” He through me up, I landed on the roof of the building, it turned out that I was already on the top floor…explains the lack of security… but I couldn’t think about that now. I through a punch, Jacobs just ducked and tackled me a good five meters. He pulled out his gun and shot, things did not go into slow motion but I could instinctively tell where they were going. I moved out of the way.
“Impressive, your bullet proof.” I ran at him full speed and he just somehow disappeared.
“I’m behind you.” He yelled as he pushed me off the building. I fell but quickly through my hand into the building, and made my way back up. I looked around, I didn’t see him… it was at this time when I realized, I was outside… I wasn’t in a suite… but the poison of the oxygen didn’t effect me… I looked down… that’s why, this building was over ninety five stories tall…the poison couldn’t live up here. As I came to this realization I saw Jacobs somehow appear out of the corner of my eye, I through my arm out and grabbed him around the neck, I through my arm around so he was dangling, barely able to have his toes on the ledge of the building.
“I would say tell Vanessa I say hi…but you aren’t going to the same place she is.” Jacobs grabbed my wrist… I suddenly realized the mistake I had made, I let my animal instinct take advantage of me.
“I-wouldn’t-be-so-sure.” He spoke, struggling for breaths as he moved the weight of his body to his back and kicked my leg, forcing both of us flying down the building, I continued to beat on him, There was no way I was going to die, letting him not feel the pain he had caused me, and although given the time frame I had to work in made it impossible, I sure as hell was going to try. I looked, falling is an odd thing. The ground is something your not scared of at first, but as it come speeding at you, your opinion changes. Then without any last words we hit the ground, causing a six foot deep hole in the ground, Jacobs skin disintegrated, and that’s when I realized two things… one, I wouldn’t die from impact, and two, I would from the poison in the ground leveled air. I crawled out of the hole as quick as possible, and I hopped on the nearest POV and drove off, there was a satellite phone attached to it, instantly I thought, Jorm.
“Hello?” I heard his voice, it was trembling.
“Jorm! Thank god! It’s me!” I yelled at him.
“It’s who?” he asked still I could hear the terror in his voice, but it was mixed with confusion..
“Michael! It’s Michael Scorn!” I didn’t hear the terror anymore,
“Who the fuck is this.” He stated calmly, he sounded very strict.
“It’s Michael!” I replied again, the reality of what had just happened was coming back to me now, my voice started to crack.
“This isn’t funny you bastard, now who, the fuck, is this!” he was screaming.
“On our last mission together I said R 3 meant be quiet!” I knew he wouldn’t let anyone find the recordings of a mission, he deleted them immediately after. I knew he knew it was me cause I heard him start to cry.
“Michael… what the fuck… you’re dead.” I felt my skin peeling, I was happy to see a street I knew, I was close to Jorm’s house.
“I don’t have long to explain, I will explain everything when I get there, I need you to get that prototype suit out, and get ready to fix some 3rd degree skin burns from the poison air.”
“Ok… but why.” I found it hard to breath by this point.
“Just do it Jorm!” I hung up. I turned a few more corners, I looked at my hand, it was bleeding. I was having to much contact with the poison. I saw Jorm’s house, the garage was open, I drove inside the doors immediately closed, I waited for the sign to say pure, but I passed out.

I woke up several hours later to see Jorm on a chair sitting, waiting to see any movement by me. I got up and felt my head… metal on metal… I was wearing the suit.
“What the fuck happened to you Mike.” I could tell it was hard for him to say… I must have looked like hell.
“Vanessa’s dead Jorm… she was poisoned and turned into a vegetable…I shot her to save her from the pain… I’ve been experimented on…” I laid down and looked at the ceiling. “Jacobs is dead…” Jorm didn’t talk for along time.
“You were dead for a week… Michael…how…” his voice seemed destroyed.
“My identity is gone.” I told Jorm trying to get off the topic.
“I know… I have the records to create a new identity…what do you want your name to be?”
“Michael Mortar.” Jorm took a moment.
“And I assume, you remember why we built the suit.” He asked calmly. “I know this isn’t the greatest time…”
“I thought about it.” I replied “My biology has changed…but I’m only half alive.”
“So… you have a name.” I turned on the suits primary function, to change into a special suite that no one could identify.
“Bios Half.” I said,
“…Ok…can you tell me anything from your experience.” Jorm asked, clearly he understood this wasn’t the time to talk about names.
“A lot… but I’m really tired.” I told him.
“Yeah… I’m sure you’re the living dead right now.” I felt a little light in my chest go, I felt the happiness that came with Jorm’s jokes…but now wasn’t the time. That night… I dreamt of Vanessa, but for the first time that name was joined by the word vengeance. I will find a way to stop what it is I’ve tried to stop in the past. But this time, with an alias completely different from Michael Mortar. Bios Half.