Night of the (barely) Living Dead Open to any who could be in the UK

Zell laughed. He liked this guy, well as much as one can like an unknown entity. The 'man' didn't make promises, which spoke volumes about what kind of personality he had. The man was also apparently well prepared. Unfortunately for him, Zell was prepared for everything. Zell punched in a command to the alien tech attached to his arm, and in seconds, Nanites so small the eye could not see were exiting him and flooding into every gun, disarming their self-destruct.

    "Hey, a note on the side...don't mention somethign like that face up. Drag it on as long as you can. You just told me that and I was able to neutralize them. It would have worked on anyone else though. You get respect and credit for trying though." Zell said, a bit pleased with this person's attempt. Zell was a Hero, but he didn't mind making threats to get people to shut up and listen. It just seems like this particular time Zell ended up on top.

   The nanites returned with the information that no such technology was present in the british weaponry, only technology that could be detonated. This was not the same thing, and Zell knew that this alien knew it too. Zell tapped the Alien on the shoulder and tried to grab his attention again.

   "Detonation is not the same as biolink detonation...Nice bluff, VERY nice." Zell added. He kept walking with the figure. "Ancestor Dragon, you have a name?" He inquired. He really didnt wish to be kept in the dark as how to address this man. Zell waited for an answer and looked to the others. "Ancestor Dragon, Meta-human hunter...no I don't hunt for sport. It's strictly a legal title, it just means I'm human who can dance with meta humans. I'm not after anyone here. What do I call you all?" Zell then asked the remainder of the group.

Kyle frowned under his helmet at the British soldier’s display, dropping their weapons at the word of a stranger, who merely claimed that he had explosives hidden in their guns, or some such nonsense. Soldiers would strip down, and put their guns back together in basic training, so they should’ve had, at the very least, a basic understanding of how their guns were made. Even if there was some kind of explosive device, surely someone would have asked what a seemingly useless piece of a rifle was for. Either these ‘soldiers’ weren’t really soldiers, or the standard for the armed forces had fallen heavily since the last time Kyle had been a member.

Dismissing this thought for the moment, Kyle followed the man apparently named ‘Ancestor Dragon’, and the man in the hazmat suit who still had not yet introduced himself, though Kyle kept to the back, near the young man with the black suit. He hadn’t exactly gotten a good impression of the two of them. Kyle studied the man next to him for a moment from beneath his helmet before deciding to start a conversation with him. The man looked rather young, judging by his face, though you could never really tell with metahumans, and Kyle was pretty sure this man was a metahuman, considering his display when getting down from the rooftops. “Judging from your suit, I’d say you look like a vigilante of some kind… Who are you? How’d you get involved in this mess?”

Xero continued walking, assuming the others would as well. He had assumed correctly; the one who had threatened him walked up beside him and grabbed his shoulder. Xero stiffened slightly at that, but he didn’t think the other man had noticed; and if he did he gave no indication of it. He introduced himself as “Ancient Dragon”, and odd name, and asked for Xero’s. Xero turned his head slightly at this, and offered a small smile. He kept walking though, and didn’t answer the question, nor acknowledge the small conversation the man had attempted to strike up. He was here to cure a plague, not make friends. Afterwards might be a different story, but for now this was all business.

Xero heard the local and his follower talking behind them, and he figured the First Marshall was taking the rear. That suited him just fine; though he didn’t exactly trust the man, he didn't think he was the type to shoot a man in the back either. At least he hoped he wasn’t. That might have put a damper on their already strenuous relationship. They kept walking past several buildings, until the average person would have begun to think Xero was crazy. However, after about three quarters of a mile away from where they had started, their destination began to become clear. They were headed for the West Tower, the tallest building in Liverpool. While it might have made the trip quicker and easier to use on of the various other skyscrapers they had passed, or even one of the cathedrals, Xero had two reasons for the West Tower. For one, it was the tallest building in the city and would give a complete view of any threats. The second reason was that he owned it. After the company who originally owned it went bankrupt, he bought it for a mere seventeen million dollars.

They strode up to the tower, which had been vacant for two years, and walked inside. After taking the elevator (the power was still payed for) up to the 40th floor, Xero stopped and turned around to the men. “There are several things I will explain once we get inside of this room, however you should know this. Anything said inside this room must be kept inside of this room, at least until the plague is over. If you must, tell those who are involved with taking down this threat, but I can’t stress how important it is to keep the public in the dark on certain matters. Oh, and another matter. The walls are 14 inches of steel, and are completely soundproofed. No wireless electronics will work either, as the floor is one giant EMP emitter. If any of these things offends you, you are free to leave.” He looked at each one of the men. When no one said a word, he turned and opened the door to the room, beckoning for them to do so as well.

Once inside of the room he took a seat at the only item in the room; a large table meant to seat twenty-six. He watched the others do so as well. He looked each of the men in the eye (with the exclusion of the one wearing the exo-suit), and removed the top of his hazmat suit. “Good heavens, it was getting warm in there. It was merely for appearances anyways. My name is Xavier Xero III, and I am the head of Xero Enterprises. Now gentlemen, I believe we have some business to discuss.”

Smoke had followed the group into the West Tower, on the way there, one of the four men struck up a conversation with him, asking him if he was a vigilante and how he got himself into this mess, he looked back to the army members before answering "Yeah I guess you could say I am, although I'm sure these guys will change that" he pointed behind him to the army men, "And I suppose I got myself into this mess, got a news report on my phone, decided to check it out and hoped it would be fairly simple... it appears I was wrong." Everyone still seemed very casual about the fact he could be infected with this disease, but maybe it was because they were all smart enough to be able to come up with a cure and rid him of the disease with no worries, at least that is what he was hoping.

There was quite an awkward silence in the elevator on their way up, the only way it could have been more awkward was if the elevator was playing faint music in the background, the whole situation made Smoke smile, he was close to bursting out with laughter but managed to hide it inside without causing any embarrassment. The man in the hazmat suit soon broke the silence however as he began to explain what everyone was about to walk into. The walls were made of steel and soundproof? So no one could here you scream... Smoke began to get slightly worried, what had he got himself into?

He walked into the room and saw a large table with many available seats, the man in the hazmat suit took one so Smoke deemed it acceptable, he walked over to a chair and sat down, he then pulled the one out next to him slightly and put his feet up on it, getting as comfortable as he could be. The man in the hazmat suit took off his mask, revealing himself to be a human. Apparently his name was Xavier Xero, "Very X-ey" he thought, apparently everyone had business to discuss, but Smoke was just going to stay quiet for the time being.

Zell smiled as he walked into the EMP room thing. His A.V.A.T.A.R was alien technology from a different time, he was pretty sure a EMP wouldn't hurt it too much. His suite was also built to hsave a EMP resistant computer, so unless this was some sort of incredibly strong EMP then he would be able to move in the suit just fine. Zell didn't sit, he just looked around. Inside his exo suit, where no one could hear out of he began looking through data files on what his gene-tech scientists have found so far. There was a good amount for progress thus far, at this rate they would have the cure finilized and ready for deployment within twenty-four hours. Zell was slightly amused, t then began to wonder something. He needed people to think thgat Zell Atterrius was in charge of this operation, which he was, but he didn't need people thinking he was Ancestor Dragon...which he was.
     "One moment, Mr.Atterrius will be here personally." Zell said through the voice modifier. Within a matter of seconds Niall in the mobile platform walked through the elevator. The Mobile platform looked like a slightly more muscular surfer boy looking version of the seventeen year old Zell, the only difference was the thick Irish accent that Niall had. Niall took the role of Zell on willingly, certain that he would be able to sell it.
     "Well well well, this is a cozy little conference room. So, Ancestor, can you give me an update before they start?" Niall asked, the heavy Irish accent almost made it sound as if he had been picked up off the street in the neighboring region. He looked the part close enough though.
     "The locals and I have already ahd a run in. I suggest you speak with parliment they seem to not take this seriously. The locals have all been given preventatove gear and antibiotics. The scientists are within the 24 hour mark, we'll have a cure developed and deployed by this time tomorrow. Unless Mr.Xero here has any information pertaining to the virus, which he seems confident in." Zell said, as if he were actually a bodyguard giving a whole quick summery.
     "Well then, Mr.Xero, I thank you for your willingness to discuss business, however I would as you do so with me and not my freind here. After all I am the one who actually owns the business." Niall said as he pointed to a seat. "May I?" he asked.

Kyle kept silent as he listened to the man in the hazmat suit speak about the variety of defenses the seemingly vacant tower had. The man he had spoken too did not introduce himself, nor did he ask any questions back, so Kyle assumed he did not wish to talk. He cursed mentally. It had been a while since he had tried to make Smalltalk. None of the defenses really affected him; his armor was designed to quickly shut down during the event of an EMP, and had a number of fuses and capacitors within to keep the EMP from damaging any vital parts. It would be a simple matter to turn it back on. As for his limbs, and augmented organs, only the control center for them, which was located near the base of his spine, needed to be hardened against EMPs, which it had been.

He watched silently in the back near the vigilante as Xero introduced himself, and though he was a bit shocked at the sudden entrance of the supposed “Zell”, he did not show it from beneath his helmet. As they talked, Kyle started to think that he had no reason to be here. This wasn’t a problem that muscle could solve, and that was all Kyle had to offer. He sighed as he planned to leave the city as soon as he could. There was nothing he could do here, and there was not point risking himself any more than he had already. Kyle resolved to wait this conversation out, before leaving with all due haste.

Xero stared at the feet of the one who had followed him, even after the elusive Mr. Atterrius had walked in. Didn’t this child see that he was putting his filthy footprints on, and most likely staining, the $5,400 dollar chair? The chair itself did not cost that much, but the circuitry inside of it was wondrous indeed. Yet it was still nothing compared to the chair Xero was sitting in. With the access code, and Xero’s DNA, one could control all of Xero Enterprises from this chair.

Xero thought all of those things and more while Zell Atterrius entered the room. Xero’s first thought was that this was not what he expected him to look like. His second one was of annoyance. The urgent business Atterrius was attending to, the one so urgent he couldn’t receive Xero’s call, was coming to Liverpool? That was both oddly coincidental and infuriating at the same time.

He looked from the First Marshall and the newly arrived Atterrius, debating on who to address first. He looked at the First Marshall, who hadn’t said a word up until that point. “I want you to tell your government that if they back off, they’ll have the cure within the hour. You may go now,” The First Marshall started to protest, until Xero put his hand on the table in front of him. “Sequence Three, chair number fourteen,”. The chair electrocuted the First Marshall, not enough to cause permanent  damage, but enough to launch him rapidly up out of his seat. “Now, if you don’t leave I can do it again, but this time with enough amps to leave you in a wheelchair for the rest of your life,”. The First Marshall glared at him, but he left.

As soon as he had exited the room, Xero turned to Atterrius. "I possess the cure, as do all humans, terrible athletes and seafood restaurants,” Everyone in the room, with the exclusion of Xero, looked confused at this. “The human immune system is the cure. It possesses the ability to defeat the disease. However, the average person’s immune system is too weak for this particular strain. As such, all that is required is to give everyone a booster shot of Zinc, and a small dose of testosterone, and they’re all good to go,”. Xero stood up. “Now, i believe it is time we get to work,”

To his amusement, the army man was shocked out of seat and left embarrassingly. Xero then went on to say something that did not make sense, but he quickly cleared it up into terms that Smoke could understand, Smoke was not a scientist and he did not understand all of this scientific mumbo jumbo, he came to knock some teeth in if could get his hands on the person that did all this, but now he probably had the virus himself and the whole situation was changed.

When Xero said that the solution was fairly simple, Smoke breathed a sigh of relief, he was glad someone knew what was going on and Smoke would need to get his hand on the cure as soon as possible, who knew when he would just cough and fall over dead, he could be gone at any second, this gave Smoke a slightly different outlook on life, at any point during your life, you could just die, so it is best to live it to the fullest, and Smoke believed he still had a lot more to live for.

All Smoke needed was 2 shots, one of which was steroids, he was not sure how steroids would really help him in this situation, he felt like he was already as fit as he could be without the drug, he did not necessarily want to get any buffer, if he did it would just look unnatural. Smoke rose his hand to see if it was ok for him to ask a question, Xero then nodded at him as if he asked him to go on, Smoke gingerly lowered his hand and said "Everybody with the disease needs two shots, who knows how many people have this disease, its probably a large amount, how to we administer this cure to all of those people in time? I don't think putting people into a line where they could die any second sounds safe, think of the riot's", Liverpool's population was already lower than what it was, but it did not mean it was ok to have them fight amongst themselves for the cure, there must be an easier way.

Zell crossed his arms, unamused by this cure. There had to be something more to it. A plague like this one couldnt be cured...perhpas it wasn't a cure in the sense of what Zell had been thinking. The epidemic would still exist, but the human immunosystems would be ablt to fend them off. Zell was not pleased with this, but he would not speak out in risk of giving away his identity. Zell was happy about the advice to save lifes, but he hated the idea of this bacteria/parasite living with the chance to be altered and utilized as a bio-weapon.
   "Would you please take your feet from the table, that's mildly distracting." Niall asked the man in the Tronesque suit. Niall was polite about it and smiled, which normally was enough for most people. Niall returned is attentions to Xero. "So why bring us here if you have the cure already? Why did you call me up for this. You're obviously a compitent man. You haqve an angle, now I suggest you tell me or as far as I'm concerned the buisness is concluded." Niall said with a smile. He was taking the business man thing a little too far now. Zell turned to the man in the mask.
    "This is a joke." He whispered below Xero's hearing, hopefully at least. even if Xero heard him though, it made sense for the current turn of events to make everyonbe around him irritable. The man had the cure but waited for Gene-Tech and these three to show up before anything was going to happen. Thisw was going to escalate quickly if answers weren't given

Kyle grit his teeth as the Marshall left the room. Kyle had been a soldier himself, so it wasn’t too hard to put himself in his place. The city was wracked by sickness that no one could cure, and a couple of random people waltz around like they own place, claiming that they know the cure, then, they kicked the Marshall out, effectively leaving him in the dark. Kyle had to close his eyes, and take a deep breath. He relaxed his clenched fists, his hands had tensed without his realizing. This “Xero” character just grinded on him.

Sighing, Kyle opened his eyes, before speaking. “Well then,” Kyle said to Xero and Zell, his voice as even as he could manage. “You all seem to have this handled. I’m sure you’re all much more qualified to handle this than I am. I think I’ll be taking my leave now.” Kyle turned around, making to leave. Quite honestly, he wasn’t actually sure these people here could handle it. Xero spouted something that sounded like a bullshit cure, the vigilante wanted to make sure he wouldn’t die like the rest of them, and Zell obviously had issues Xero’s supposed cure, and Ancestor Dragon and his friend both seemed be working with Mr. Atterrius. Still, Kyle couldn’t do anything about it. It would be best to make himself scarce. Still, he was pretty much safe in his Assault Armor. A little investigation couldn’t hurt, surely. Just a look around, to see what maybe caused the plague, that’s all. After that, he’d be gone.

Xero smiled at their reactions to his cure. It appeared he couldn’t get away with, to use the plebeian term, bullshitting them. Oh well, at least he had tried. He did have the cure, and it wouldn’t require any contact with the person getting infected, so it would not take as long as it would to give everyone a shot of the cure. He looked at the table in front of him, and placed his palm in the same place as before. “Access sequence L-13,” he said.

A warm female voice emitted from the table. “Enter authorization code,”

Xero was about to speak the code, when he remembered he wasn’t alone. “Override authorization code,” Instead of giving the code, his hand was covered in a thin layer of armonolin, which was the the signal to override the code. The floor gave off a slight humming noise, and the woman’s voice returned.

“EMP system deactivated. Electronical devices are now able to be used freely,”

Xero turned and walked over to the wall farthest from the door. The wall appeared to be seamless, until Xero, with his hand once again imbued with armonolin, tapped it in two seemingly random places, three times each. A tiny section of the wall shifted, revealing a keyhole. Xero removed a ring from the index finger of his left hand. With a slightly discernible effort, the ring split into two. On the inside of one half of the ring was a small key. Xero placed it into the hole, and instead of turning the key, simply pushed it all the way through. The microscopic engravings were read by a scanner on the inside of the keyhole, and a section of the wall, about two yards square, opened.

Inside were several objects, but right now he was only concerned with two of them. He removed two small vials, each with a green chlorophyll like substance. He carefully picked them up, retrieving the key from inside the drawer as he did so. He carried them over to Atterrius, and gave them to him. “These are extracts from an extremely rare plant I, found, outside of Machu Picchu There was originally only one of these plants, but through cloning and genetic modification, I now possess around three dozen specimens,”

He looked Atterrius in the eye. “This plant cannot be given to the government. I need you to tell the public whatever you can. Make up a story about the rest of the cure being lost. But for reasons I cannot tell you right now, humans cannot, I repeat cannot, obtain this plant. Nor will they need to. Those vials are enough, if administered in the air, to treat all of the UK. All you need to do is add about a milliliter of sugar to each of the vials,”

Xero returned to his seat. He looked up at the ceiling. “You asked me why I didn’t deliver this cure right away. I knew some people may die as a result, but this was a test. I needed to know if humans were capable of handling this kind of disease. I did not create it, but I used it to my advantage. It appears humans are not capable of protecting their own,”

Smoke had removed his feet from the chair to the side of him but he still wanted to stay stretched out, one problem with being his height was that he needed room to stretch out, so he simply moved around and stretched out away from the table. He was listening to what everyone was saying and was trying his best to understand it all, Xero then fiddled around with his table and spoke to it, causing the EMP systems to go down, Smoke pulled out his phone and noticed the bars begin rising on his signal, a news report soon came to his phone, updating him on what was going on with the disease, he looked back up to see Xero tapping onto a wall, Smoke could hear something strange though, he could tell that it was hollow behind it and his theory was correct when two panels shifted, revealing several unique items, Xero picked two of them up and walked over to Atterrius, they appeared to be two vials containing the same thing, some kind of green liquid, a rare plant extract apparently that needs some sugar and to be put into the air to cure this strange disease, music to Smoke's ears, at least there was finally a cure for him.

Xero sat down and said that he did not use the cure immediately because he wanted to see if humans could withstand the disease. Smoke stood up quickly from his chair causing it to move back slightly "This is an entire race you are talking about here, you can't just decide to let people die because you want to test them. During this conversation, people are still dying, how about we shut up and get this cure out there before we lose more people" Smoke doesn't usually blow up like that, but he was a human, and Xero was toying with human lives and he did not appreciate that, "Hell... We better get this cure out before I drop dead"

"This is not okay. Not at all. I can appreciate the whole 'testing thing' but you can't do what normal people do? Kidnap prisoners and pay off guards in prisons to experiment on Death-row criminals?" Niall, a.k.a Zell, asked with a bit of a scoff. He looked at Ancestor Dragon who just shrugged.
         "With all due respect sir, we need to focu on the fact that we now have the cure in our poession. We should begin vaccinations and booster shots immediately. He replied, correcting his A.I in the platform for the temporary lapse in character. Niall caught on immediately.
         "No. Dragon, you were my father's bodyguard, you were there when he handled all manners of things....what would he do?" Niall asked. Zell, the real one, smiled inside his exosuit, where none could see. That was a good recovery, turning Ancestor Dragon into a parental figure and a trusted advisor. It was flawless too. Zell played along.
         "Zell...your father would take the cure. You can't save anyone if you make a scene...but you can save everyone if you chew your pride." Niall sighed, still playing the part. He turned back to Xero.
          "Fine. Have it your way." Niall said reluctantly.
          "I understand the disappointment. We need to do what has to be done Zell...hey-!" Ancestor Dragon said. He grabbed Nialls arm as he turned to walk away. "Your father would be proud of you." Niall gulped and nodded, alking away almost in tears. the REAL Zell froze up inside the exo suit. Niall was good at acting, but he's not THAT good. Great, another issure for another time. Ancestor Dragon walked up and looked to Xero. He went to take the cure. "S.T.A.R.K, distribute this sparingly. Start with the men, then the children and women." He commanded. It seemed cold and amoral, but the Men could lift the dibilitated women and children and bring them here. Children next because they were not a resistant as the adults, then the women, simply because they were the last on the list.

Kyle stopped in his tracks as he heard Xero talk about his “real cure”. This man, Kyle thought to himself, was a complete and utter asshole. Kyle restrained himself from hitting the man, and continued to leave, pushing the buttons on the elevator a bit harder than he had to. Today, in general, wasn’t a good day for him. Pretty much the entirety of it was wasted; his contact had gone missing, he may have caught some super-plague that killed in hours, and the last hour had been spent in the company of an egotistical bastard. At least it was all over now, Kyle thought to himself.

As he stepped back outside, he noted that his armor, and possibly himself, were probably contaminated by the plague. No need to take any risks. He’d stay in the city until whatever cure Xero had conjured up had been dropped, and then he’d get the hell out of dodge. So, Kyle quickly, and quietly, disappeared into the city.

Xero watched the one he had originally thought of as a local exit the room. It appeared he may have been slightly angered. Well, that was a gross understatement, but still. Actually, with the exception of Ancestor Dragon, it seemed he had angered everyone in the room to some degree. Well, that was there problem, not his. If people chose to let feelings cloud their judgement, then they were not rational beings, another one of humanities imperfections.

Xero realized he had another item that might be of some value to Atterrius. Scratch that, he had several items that would be valuable to anyone. But there was another that he was going to give too Atterrius. He quickly stood up and walked back towards the still open compartment from the wall, and removed another item. He handled this one with a lot more caution that the vials; if he dropped it the entire building would be gone in seconds. It was crystallized armonolin, in it's purest form It was roughly the size of a football.*

Xero carefully carried the armonolin to Atterrius, but at the last moment gave it to Ancestor Dragon instead. He trusted this man more, and trust was extremely important at the moment. If the armonolin wasn't handled with care, there would be no one left alive in that room, and no more cure for the plague. It was large, blue and oddly shaped. It appeared to be insignificant, a trivial "knick-knack", yet it held more power than most nuclear plants. He took a small white card, blank on both sides, about the size of a business card, from his left breast pocket. He quickly wrote something down on it, and handed it to Atterrius. He bade everyone in the room goodbye, and told them they were free to leave whenever they wanted. With that he left the room. As soon as his foot left the doorway the drawer from within the wall shut.

On the card was the following message: Dear Mr. Atterrius, I would like to formally apologize for not telling you this verbally, but I have somewhere to be and I can write faster than I can talk. Therefore, let me summarize the importance of the item I just gave to Ancestor Dragon. It is crystallized armonolin, a form of energy not found naturally on Earth. It is extremely abundant on a planet known as Elrenia, and as far as I know there are two sources of it on Earth. Armonolin is extremely volatile, and even more so when crystallized. If you choose to study it, please do so with extreme caution. It expands exponentially when crystallized, so you cannot, I repeat cannot  allow it to be reverted to it's natural form too fast. I suggest placing it under a UV light and in a container around filled with saltwater. As it slowly reverts back to it's fluid form, it will fill into the salt, which you can then study. You may find data which is useful, you may not. I have one request however. Any data you find, I would like to receive a copy of.
Sincerely, X.X



*American football, not soccer ball.

Kyle was out of the room in a flash, he clearly didn't want any part of Xero's plans and he was out of the door as soon as that plan was brought to light. Another piece of equipment was taken from the secret cabinet, this thing was larger than both of the vial's combined, it just looked like a blue ball. Xero then wrote something out on a small card and handed it to Atterrius, the man he was also giving the ball to, Smoke didn't understand why he couldn't have just said what he wanted to say, but Xero exited the room quickly afterwards as if he had somewhere better to be, this pandemic should be everyone's top priority and everyone seemed to not be taking it seriously, this was the lives of innocent people at risk and his own life aswell and Smoke did not appreciate how everyone was so nonchalant about the whole thing.

Smoke watched as Atterrius studied the ball, Smoke had only one reason to remain in this city and that was to cure the disease that he had picked up, otherwise he would have headed home as soon as he could. This whole en devour was a complete waste of time, his skills were not even needed and he caught a killing disease while he was at it, definitely not his best day. Smoke couldn't force Atterrius to get the cure out there, but he knew he would do it as soon as he could, Smoke guessed that he will just have to stick around the city until he is cured, he was certain there would be some people that he could help while he waited. Smoke exited through the elevator after it had returned from its journey, Smoke just wanted to get home and relax but he had no other choice but to stay.