Aberrant: Dead Rising - [DR End] The End 3 [Fin]

[Ira Sagebrush]

((Voice-over by Cassandra, imagine a montage to go with it ))

It started with the radio broadcasts. Everyone heard them, the promise of a cure, a vaccine. It didn't matter that the zombie population had been more or less wiped out and was under control. The message fed on the fear of years past and kindled it, recreating the nightmare of those days shortly after Zombigeddon.

Soon people were heading to where they were bidden, California...Alcatraz. There they were met with open arms to a colony that had managed to keep itself secreted away, a remnant of a government think tank that became something else. It was led by a one, Julian Van Mar. He welcomed the pilgrims that so desperately sought only what he could offer, hope for the future. A promise of a 'normal' life. A chance to have children. You see, the Z had done that, only the 'enhanced' were having children and that had caused resentment, a underlying fear of extinction.

They started as a trickle at first, only a few volunteers, but soon they were arriving every day, more and more wanting a guarantee of not rising again. Within days of these 'volunteers' returning to their colonies, their villages, their refuge...the supers started dying. To their benefit, it wasn't a slow agonizing death. They just fell over dead. Violet was the first. She was 'performing' for her followers and just collapsed mid-stroke.

Soon others followed, and it became faster and more abrupt. This new ailment had no preference, and it began to affect supers in areas without people who had been vaccinated. It took adults and children alike. In a matter of two weeks after inoculations started, 50% of the enhanced population and their children were dead, leaving a gaping hole in the way of life that had allowed the survival of the human species.

Too soon, it took my daughter, and before the shock could even set in, I too fell, and with me, the Voice's warning...

To say my Knight did not take it well would be an understatement. Soon, he gathered those that had been similarly struck, or desired to see an end to these dire machinations.

"Alright guys," Ira started, his temper hot, "We know where it is, we know who's responsible. Now how do we wipe that rock off the face of the goddamn planet?"

[z-Jules WhiteElk]

Jules was quiet for a moment. "Well, with what we have here, I suggest sending in Ms. Giant first, followed by the rest of us. Seems like the best way in is to send the big cannon and then follow that in." She glanced wryly at Sara. "No offensive on being the 'big one'."

Pausing she glanced at everyone else and said, "If someone has something more complex they'd wanna do, just speak up."

[Karren Gaunt]

"None taken," answers Sarah, having sat down on the ground to prevent people from cramping their necks looking up at her through the planning session, six-foot long sword leaning against the wall next to her, "I would like to have a little bit more intell on the island, so that I don't get dropped into an anti-tank minefield or sniped full of syringes filled with whatever these monsters are killing us with unforwarned. If my years working with this idiot have taught me anything, it's that against a foe that can think, sow confusion first and *then* hit them if you can afford it."

The 'idiot' in question, one Daniel Hawkins, was the target of an indicative wave of the megamorph's arm.

[Krysti-Lynn Magnussen]

Kristin paced aggressively, a hand stroking the half of the great-axe swung over her thickly muscled shoulder. The axe was a piece of art: stylishly designed with fluid curves, molded grip that fit her hand perfectly, crafted of a gleaming, polished osmium-iridium alloy, the dense metal granting the weapon a surprising weight that anyone without enhanced strength wouldn't be able to use with any real skill. It had been a gift from her husband - made with his own limited gifts over a period of months.

She hadn't handled it years. Not until her husband Ian had passed away, along with her first daughter, Pandora, that he had accepted as his, and their own two sons. Their remaining daughter was being looked after by her cousin Ashley and her husband and family while she picked up the axe again, to seek vengeance.

Ian had cooled the rage that used to burn inside her, tamped down the hate she had felt for any man, all men. With his death, the rage and pain flared to life once more. She wanted blood to flow and she wanted the men from Alcatraz to pay, though she'd settle for them to simply die.

Curvaceous and heavily muscled, and with a rare, enhanced beauty, Kristin looked something like an amazonian lumberjack, feminine and dressed in hiking boots, jeans, and a flannel shirt, despite barely being half Sarah's height. She radiated inhuman strength and invulnerable solidity and furious anger.

"Then let's not giving time to think," Kristin countered fiercely. "Strike them now, and strike them hard before they know we're coming and before they can react."

[Stargaizer]

The over 200ft long brown dragon landed gently for its size, and everyone present could hear his deep, melodic, even voice in their head. I agree with Jules.

A truly impressive sight followed as the 200+ feet of dragon shrunk/imploded into a sight much more familiar these days then when they had first met. The human/dragon hybrid who stylized himself Draygo walked into the circle.

"I apologize for my tardiness," he rumbled. "But I do agree that we should send the big guns in first. Draconis can bathe the outside in fire from the sky, then Sarah can open the way for the rest of you. Or, if you prefer, he could airlift Sarah in as a distraction while he came back and ferried everyone else across. I know a nice rail car that would be big enough for all of you, plus the metal sides would offer some cover and protection."

Draygo looked around the group as he fully integrated himself into the circle. His gaze settled on Sarah as he spoke. "Draconis could scorch the courtyard with his fire. Any traps should either be set off by the heat or become hot enough for him to see with his heat vision. Plus, a blast of fire at the windows around the yard should force back any that would shoot from the windows." After he finished he broke gaze with Sarah and looked for either acknowledgment or dismissal from the rest of the group.

[Dan Hawkins]

"And of course you still move in like a Battletank on the field, heedless of any intricacies of my plans, So I've learned to work around it."

He snorted derisively at his off and on partner. "We do have a number of other options anyway. Several of us are easily strong enough to take a nuke into the sky and drop it, after I modify it to detonate on impact."

"There are plenty of them left in the world, in addition to hundreds of other nastier things we could drop on them. The better path in my opinion is to kill everyone there and reverse engineer whatever they're doing to kill us and create a true vaccine. If we can."

"Or we can take our chances and blow it all off the map. I advise the second path, but I can make the first happen."

"In theory they have electricity there, and I can simply appear there through it and steal and destroy their data before or during any attack."

[Karren Gaunt]

"This 'battletank' has taken the beatings required of your plans when they falter more times than she can remember," countered Sarah quickly, rolling her eyes at the former Marine, "But, yes, some idea what's killing us off would be nice. You loot their computers, the rest of us wipe them out after Draconis gets them pinned down, and with that much extra effort, we have a hope to not continue dropping dead where we stand."

She scowled, looking concerned as well as angry, "The sheer number of my enclave's trading partners who fell into chaos and violence with the death of their Supers... These people are monsters, real monsters, intentional effect or no."

[Ira Sagebrush]

"Dan, don't be stupid. The fallout from a nuke dropped in Cali would dump all over the U.S., not to mention it will hardly sate my needed revenge. I say we get Puff here to take us there, and we scout the place out, figure out what we're dealing with." Ira said, directing with his hands. "If we just hop over there with the confidence the last few years have given us, we could very well end up like those we are trying to avenge, or make it worse for those that yet still live."

"I wouldn't wish my pain on anyone, not anyone..." Ira trailed off.

[Dan Hawkins]

"Just another option Ira. Besides, there's enough biological stuff hidden that a nuke would be welcome to it. The government made some truly nasty things the last thirty years."

He shook his head. "The last thing I want is to end up dead. That's why I like the idea of stealing their data and finding out just what the hell they're doing."

[Ira Sagebrush]

As the group attempted to decide their plan of action, the unseen force that they were railing against struck like it had already done before and they all fell over mid-thought, dead.

It would take a mere two weeks before every last person who could possibly refer to themselves as a 'super' was dead...well, except one. He referred to himself as Negatron because he thought it was, 'cool'. Those around him agreed it was a cool name more out of fear than anything. He had the power to stop hearts and short out brains with a thought. The young man had also had the ability to turn off other's abilities and had engineered it into a virus that could survive being airborne.

Negatron's territory would quickly expand to cover most of the North American continent within months, and within a year, his power was solidified.

Much to everyone's fear, he grew bored, having nothing else immediately in his scope to keep him occupied and he began to experiment on people, his twisted imagination creating beasts and beauties alike.

It would take two years, but the moment came as he stood in the reinvigorated White's House's Rose Garden, staring at himself in a body-length mirror being held by one of his myriad of servants, that there was one extent of his powers that he had never tried, and he missed the bliss he got from the use of that particular ability.

He stood up straight and tugged at the imaginary lapels of his tuxedo shirt before giving himself an intent look in the mirror as he attempted to turn off his own powers.

Edgar 'Negatron' English was dead before the thorns of the 'Martha Stewart' cane rose's thorns pierced his flesh.